We get this question a lot at Every Dot Connects — “What the heck is Twitter, and how can something that sounds so goofy possibly do anything useful?”

Today, many people in Austin, Texas saw firsthand what Twitter can do with a few dedicated people and a great idea.

It was the inaugural Austin Blood Drive Tweetup, perfectly timed for July 3rd, just before an Independence Day weekend when accidents tend to happen, the need for blood is high and supplies run low.

It was launched using a variety of online tools; particularly with this Tweetup announcement post on co-organizer Michelle Greer’s blog, but also with other blog posts, lots of tweets (Twitter messages, even ones from Australia,) emails and a Facebook page.

Here’s the amazing part….

The push started on June 29th, a Sunday  –  a mere three days for people to find out about it,  to perhaps get some time off from work during a four-day workweek, to decide to participate and for many, to face possible needle fears.

The result?

100 people signed up online for a donation timeslot to come in and give blood; the Blood Center averages around 40 a day.

The professionals who run the Blood Center said they’d never seen so many first-time donors.

As I filled out paperwork today to donate, my screener said, “Are you with that Twitter group? There are a LOT of y’all - that’s great!”

Never underestimate the power of a good idea, combined with enthusiastic, tech-savvy individuals and the exponential connections of social media tools like Twitter.

(Some blood drive photos are already up on Flickr)

“Insight from hundreds of customer relationships has informed our knowledge of what it takes to reinvent historic business structures. We co-create solutions with our customers — partnering with them every step of the way to help them perform and compete better in the global market.”

Steve Papermaster, Chairman and CEO of nGenera

These observations were made by Steve Papermaster as he announced the new name for the company previously known as BSG Alliance. The name change to nGenera Corporation spotlights the company’s mission to transform companies into Next Generation Enterprises. nGenera also released its nGen Platform for business innovation, and the first three end-to-end offerings delivered on the platform: nGen Talent, nGen Customer and nGen Leadership.

Late last year Papermaster teamed up with the New Paradigm, a business innovation group led by international thought leader Don Tapscott. The union of the two companies was designed to accelerate the development of their Business Innovation Platform; provide New Paradigm with an appropriate venue to deliver their considerable content; provide Global 2000 enterprises with an immediate and actionable set of business plans, processes and collaborative tools; and help companies transform legacy operations into flexible, next generation enterprises. The recent BusinessWeek Special Report highlights their work.

Our involvement with nGenera, which coincided with the New Paradigm announcement, stems from their belief that social media and online communications are an integral part of this new world of business. Traditional PR is still around, but it is forever changed. nGenera takes seriously the need to have a real social media presence as a part of its communications strategy as they work with their customers moving forward.

The profound business changes brought about by the combination of globalization, the talent crunch and Web 2.0 technologies are reshaping the economy at an astonishing pace. Companies must begin to operate and create customer value in entirely new ways. The nGen Platform offers an answer to this new business reality. It provides Global 2000 companies with a game-changing combination of software-as-a-service, talent and knowledge — packaged into category solutions and delivered using web services — to address fast-traction areas of transformation.

To communicate effectively with its customers, itself, and the world, nGenera is adopting social media in all of its collaborative and co-creative forms. We are honored to be a part of their story.

– Connie and Mike

The Chamber’s policy of featuring members at their events is reasonable, even laudable. While it does not excuse the lack of diversity, I certainly have no quibble with their policy. I do have quibbles about the content that will be presented, or at least the way it is described in promotional materials for “Today’s New Marketing Tools.” One of the panelists, a flyer says, “specializes in using new media and viral tactics which leave an indelible impression on a target audience.” Another “advises clients on how they can exploit digital and social media …”

You get the drift. I can’t help thinking it sounds like tacking some new buzzwords over traditional marketing methods.

Of course, my opinion is colored by my immersion in the world of social media. My business partner, Mike Chapman, and I do social media consulting, and I serve as the executive director of the international Social Media Club. I also just agreed to be a contributing author to the 2008 edition of The Age of Conversation, subtitled “Why Don’t People Get It?”

Yes, I am blatantly self-promoting here. That was, after all, the gist of comments to my “Five White Men” post: women are not as likely as men to promote their own work. Advice taken. The comments, by the way, are well worth reading, and I appreciate those who took the time to add their thoughts to mine.

My original post spurred others to write about the topic further. In Everydotconnects Post Ispires Michelle’s First Official Rant, Michelle Greer said:

We’ve never seen a female U.S. President. Great Britain elected Prime Minister in Margaret Thatcher. Indira Gandhi served as Prime Minister of India. Finland, a country with the highest number of scientists per capita in the world, elected Conan O’Brien look-alike Tarja Halonen as president. Although the Catholics in Argentina will not see a female priest, they did elect Cristina Fernandez de Kirschner, who is following in the footsteps of her husband and former president Nestor. Pakistan, a primarily Muslim nation, elected Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister in 1988 and she was leading another election until she was assassinated last December. This is supposedly the freest place on Earth for women, and yet, a Muslim nation elected a female for a leader 20 years before we even get a viable candidate for President.

One of the men who contributed to the discussion, accessibility consultant and web designer Pat Ramsey, wrote in Gender, Social Media, Why It Matters, OK…I’ll Dive In:

It’s an uncomfortable subject for many. It cuts down to a deeply personal level in us, a group already made up of uncomfortable, fidgety socially awkward nerds, geeks and dweebs. Uncomfortable though it may be, we’ve got to look at this.

Brenda Thompson and I will be attending the Chamber event on April 30. I look forward to learning a thing or two from four white men who are very successful in their respective fields. Seriously. It just won’t be about exploiting social media, because I know just how unsuccessful attempts to manipulate the conversation (buzzword alert) can be.

I also intend to follow up on the tongue-in-cheek recommendation of Jackie Huba, who left this comment on my original post: “Maybe we should do a women-only panel on social media for the Social Media Club. And maybe at the last minute we’ll invite a man to be on the panel.”

Stay tuned for that news, which will be posted on Austin Social Media Club as soon as I can get with Jackie to determine a date. If you want to talk about “Today’s New Marketing Tools,” you couldn’t ask for a better presenter than Jackie.

And in the meantime, if you’re in Austin, plan on attending SMC’s April 17 event featuring Jon Lebkowsky, an authority on social media, online community, technoculture, Web strategy, and Internet trends. Jon helped pioneer both the theories and the software behind many of today’s new marketing tools and technologies.

You might say he is One White Guy Who Really Understands Social Media.

An interesting discussion got started on Twitter over the weekend and has migrated to blogs to continue the conversation. It started when Laura Fitton mentioned how happy she was to be able to do her grocery shopping while in her pajamas. She uses Peapod to order groceries online and have them delivered.

Merlene complained: “I’m jealous.. I’m *just* at the edge of suburbia and the online grocery shops won’t deliver this far. Asking for 11 yrs now.”

I added that I had used Peapod years ago and wished they had not discontinued service in our area. That led to speculation that perhaps they had launched too early. Merlene responded: “Exactly. A lot of companies (not just grocery) who tried to sell online 10 yrs ago not doing it now because of early losses. I’m in a city of +500k and within an hour there are over 5 million ppl. Huge market. But I can haz grocery online? NO!”

Anna Lenardsen jumped in to say, “My brother is trying to launch a similar (peapodian) type venture on a local level in Michigan,” and asked for suggestions.

As usual, the Twitter community was quick to respond. Following is a sample (in reverse chronological order, with apologies to those I may have missed outside my twitstream):

BarbaraKB @conniereece “tweet specials” Now, that sound intriguing. I don’t do coupons. No time for clipping & remembering. Ugh. Just give me the deal

shawnz @conniereece It could be created single sheet 8.5×11 and put on flyers all over neighborhoods, businesses, etc. Pick one up anywhere. Fax it

shawnz @conniereece This ALL OUT OF pad is what I’m talking about: http://snurl.com/1xs7v Use something like this for an ad.

shawnz @conniereece Have you seen those grocery store staple lists? Where you just check things off you need? That should be his ad. Just fax in.

kdpaine @conniereece I’d offer a discount as a member benefit to local church groups, quilters, professional associations etc

hardaway @oemperor. Repeat experience establishes trust. It’s about performance.

hardaway @oemperor. Absolutely. But grocery staff turns over. I’d like a vegetarian produce picker.

oemperor @hardaway if bashas.com were more like dating service, with ability to select personal shopper based on profile/prefs, would you like this?

hardaway @conniereece. You know what I mean. Sometimes I get ugly produce and meat. Or they forget something. But it is great service

oemperor @shawnz delivered to you automatically, on request only, or both?

hardaway @conniereece. Worst thing about grocery delivery: depends on the produce piclker or butcher picker.

jeremymiddleton @conniereece I think if you go to smallsmallbizpod Alex Bellinger posted a site of a guy in the UK doing the same thing

mourningcloak @conniereece what kind of online grocery is this? a pickup service, delivery service, both, or mail-order type of service?

oemperor @alenardson create hashtag for local online market eg igrocery in arlington va could use hashtag #igrocery22206

conniereece @alenardson You can use 3rd party Twitter clients to search by zip code/location - think it’s Twittervision? Somebody help me out w/ name.

hardaway @oemperor @conniereece. My grocery delivery: Bashas.com, “groceries on the go.” Saves my last list, gives me the specials.

oemperor @conniereece hmm…modeling online grocery on dating service, in terms of establishing TRUST between shopper and shoppee

oemperor @conniereece or if you want metrics based matching between personal shoppers and customers, steal a page from eharmony

alenardson Re: twitter for local marketing: is there a way to tap into local tweeters?

oemperor @conniereece have each personal shopper, and each customer, complete survey “8 things most important to me in shopping”

conniereece @oemperor Excellent idea of offering oppty to meet shoppers - hold “class” at grocery store when they begin using service.

oemperor @conniereece perhaps trust factor via personal online relationships. “i am avail to shop 4 u weekday aft. i pick newest bags of frozen peas”

oemperor @conniereece perhaps if you can meet the shoppers so that you can trust them to do what you do

conniereece @oemperor @alangutierrez Yes, but w/ perishables online grocer can tout services of thr “experts” & build trust factor by delivering quality

jeremymiddleton @conniereece @alendarson think that, that is a good idea, you could post things like whats fresh in season etc, just arrived new line!

agershenbaum @conniereece visit gigya.com and gydget.com

oemperor @conniereece i suspect @alangutierrez may be right. you lose control if someone else touches and picks out your food. esp for perishables

Merlene @conniereece offer a monthly or weekly discount coupon for subscribers to e-flyer, twitter, etc.

conniereece Question: @alendardson brother starting online grocery delivery service. Suggestions for using social media in their marketing? I’ll compile

conniereece @oemperor Discussion w/ @merlene @paulswansen seems to indicate too early to market, too tradtl in mktg approach. Your thoughts?

alenardson @merlene what else besides twitter? to reach a broader public. Not a particularly progressive community.

oemperor what shuttered the earlier online grocery efforts? lack of customer interest? no cost effective delivery? spoiled fruit?

Merlene @alenardson and sprinkle some tips, links to recipes, etc. to create flow of useful content to tweets/blog/etc.

Merlene @alenardson twitter profile for business. Daily tweets of specials, etc. with link to site. Easy opt in advert for those who want it.

Following our 140-characters-at-a-time marketing conversation, Ontario Emperor developed his ideas into a blog post saying that online grocery services should be like online dating services.

Marketer extraordinaire Andy Sernovitz (@sernovitz on Twitter) emailed some additional tips:

• Peapod does very well here in chicago, and I used freshdirect in nyc.
• Peapod is great about hiring for personality. Drivers are friendly, chatty, helpful. Plus they know the merch, always making product reccos, bring the occasional gift. You welcome them into your home instead of fearing wierd delivery guy.
• Another trick to try - unique foods that you can only get from the service. Famous cheesecakes, salt lick, some special cheese company, rare beers, cult classic comfort foods (mallomar).
• How about gift boxes - sick kid box, breaking up with boyfriend box

Andy gave one last tip that is always worth noting: “Remember - free advice is worth what you pay.”

I wish that Twitter pals CK, DrewMcLellan, Mack Collier, BL Ochman and Toby Bloomberg had been online because I would love to hear their suggestions. Perhaps their interest will be piqued and they will offer advice in the comments here or blog about it themselves.

Thanks for the question, Anna, and I hope these tidbits are helpful to your brother’s new venture.

On February 9, 2007, an idea was born–and you’re reading it. The idea came out of conversation around a table at Starbucks with Mike Chapman and Kelley Burrus, two professional colleagues who were fast becoming personal friends. I was venting about the PR firm that had brought us together but not let us use our talents–especially when it came to social media.

In between sips of a latte, I went on and on about the power of social media for making connections between people and ideas and causes and … and … and …

After a while Mike scribbled something on a piece of paper, tore it out of his legal pad, and pushed it across the table. “You need a name,” he said, “and here it is–in three words.” Every Dot Connects.

Three days later I had a logo and an exit strategy. And here we are–not quite a year after that memorable conversation at Starbucks–debuting in Mack Collier’s Top 25 Marketing Blogs list at #23. (Please excuse me while I remind myself to take a deep breath.)

Over the holidays it has been fun to get to know Mack better on Twitter (mackcollier). He is a social media consultant and author of The Viral Garden, a blog focusing on marketing and social media. Mack is also a frequent contributor to the marketing blog Daily Fix, and one of the contributing authors to the Age of Conversation project.

What a year it’s been! During 2007 Mike Chapman and I became business partners. Kelley Burrus and Brenda Thomspon remain our head cheerleaders, go-to resources, and occasional contributors to the blog. While not yet listed as part of the Every Dot Connects team, Sheila Scarborough and Kara Soluri will be frequent contributors in 2008. Our goal is to continue to create value for readers and to continue connecting people, causes and ideas.

Thanks, Mack; thanks, Team; and most of all, thanks to all who read and contribute comments here.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a delightful hour on the phone with Anna Farmery, a business coach, speaker and blogger from the U.K., who interviewed me for her podcast. We got so carried away, she had to split the interview into two parts, each about 25 minutes long.

Anna writes The Engaging Brand, a Top 25 Marketing Blog and #93 on the Ad Age Power 150.

Here are the links to the podcast, hosted on the Blubrry network, along with the show descriptions:

Conversational Marketing: Part 1
Connie talks about how she built a distinctive personal brand and also what is conversational marketing and how we start to think about measuring the effectiveness.

Conversational Marketing: Part 2
Connie talks us through how people are using conversational marketing to engage with consumers and employees, tells us her thoughts on the echo chamber and provides tips on how to write with a conversational style.

I’d love to hear your thoughts — please leave a comment here or on Blubrry or The Engaging Brand blog.

Connie Reece talks about personal branding and her new hair color.

Note: RSS readers may need to click through to the web site to view.

My much-neglected humor blog is Blogabillies. I haven’t posted lately, but browse through the archives and you’ll find some fun stuff from Belle (me) and T-Bone (Terry Taylor).

The executive director of the Paramount and State Theatres here in Austin has started a new blog, and I think it’s destined to be a smashing success (disclosure: the Austin Theatre Alliance is one of my clients).

Ken Stein is a popular, well-known guy. His curtain speeches are a hit with crowds ranging from the tweens and 20-somethings seeing Altar Boyz to the older crowds for classic musicals like Carousel (I’ll be there this weekend).

As a blogger, Ken is conversational and funny, just like he is in person. His stories about what the Kodo Drummers wrote on the wall backstage at the Paramount, Kathy Griffin’s response to Dan Rather’s famous “Courage” sign-off, and Patrick Cassidy’s insistence that he’s NOT gay (like anyone cares) are fun to read. Ken’s having fun, and posting often, and I predict that he’ll draw readers from around the world to “Offstage with Ken Stein.” Check it out.

Just a few minutes ago, at 4:00 P.M. Central Time, Dell’s online sales department made marketing history by offering its U.S. customers three new computers with Linux technology installed. I’m fascinated with this story for a couple of reasons.

Number one, my friend Whurley has made a Linux convert out of me. I do most of my work now on a Sony Vaio laptop running the Ubuntu 7.0.4 OS, the same operating system the new Dell machines will feature.

What is most intriguing to me is that this product has gone from idea to market in three short months — at the request of Dell customers. Back in February Dell launched a site called IdeaStorm, inviting customers to “jump into the eye of the storm.”

Customers quickly made their opinions known: Linux-based machines were the number one request. Dell listened to their customers, carried on a conversation with them, and they responded with the new offering.

To hear directly from some of the Dell employees who made the Linux offering happen, watch this short video featuring Lionel Menchaca, Dell’s Digital Media Manager. I’ve had the privilege of meeting Lionel through Social Media Club Austin. He’s the person who dived head-first into the blogosphere to tackle Dell’s customer service problems and start polishing the company’s tarnished image. Lionel is backed up by a number of other bloggers, and the most important thing is that the top management trusted the Direct2Dell team and actually turned them loose to freely interact with customers.

My hat’s off to the people at Dell for understanding the power of conversation. Remarkable things are happening because of it, and I hope the sales of their new Linux-based computers skyrocket.

How are you using the power of conversation as part of your marketing plan?

Today’s post was triggered by this sage advice from Drew McLellan, whom I look forward to meeting next week at SOBCon07. Drew has been telling clients who complain that they’re not closing enough sales to toss their canned sales pitch and start listening to their customers.

That reminded me of something my dad, who was a gifted salesman, taught me. I never once heard my dad use what could be called a sales pitch. Instead, he just talked to people. Struck up conversations.

“The secret to sales,” he once told me, “is to find out what the customer wants and figure out how to help them get it.”

It dawns on me that my late father knew all about conversational marketing, and I can’t help but think he would be proud to know that I am, internetically speaking, following in his footsteps in this digital Age of Conversation. I’ll also be participating as Austin’s local host-speaker in a new series of regional social media workshops, called Starting the Conversation.

My story of inheriting the “early adopter gene” from my father is here, and I also wrote a tribute to him here.

The “little man” logo above was Dad’s trademark for more than 30 years. It was drawn circa 1958 by local artist and advertising agency owner Windy Winn, who became an institution in Austin’s graphic arts community.

Thanks for the advice — and the memories — Drew. And thanks for my conversational heritage, Dad.