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)

Wow, is it ever turning out to be a busy social media summer here in Austin. One thing’s for sure — you’ll know where to find us if you want to connect with the Every Dot Connects team. Here’s what we’re up to in July:

July 3 ~ Social Networking Blood Drive

Mike and Connie will be joining the Austin Twitter/Tech community to save lives by donating blood on Thursday, July 3, at the Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas. Connie had the idea to do a blood drive in association with the Frozen Pea Fund, and Michelle Greer and David Neff stepped up to help organize the Austin event.

The idea is to gather with some friends from your favorite social network — Twitter, Plurk, Ning, Facebook, for example — at your local blood donation center and give a few pints for a good cause. It’s especially timely this Thursday, which is the day before a major summer holiday, when the blood banks need extra inventory.

Choose a sign-up time for the Austin blood drive here. And if you organize a drive in another location, please let us know here.

July 16-17 ~ SEM for SMB Conference

Connie will be speaking at Search Engine Marketing for Small and Midsize Businesses. The conference will cover both business and technical topics and give attendees hands-on training with tools, processes and skills needed to deliver more return from online marketing and advertising. In addition, attendees will be able to sign up for one-on-one sessions with speakers, so you can get personalized attention for your specific needs.

Every Dot Connects is happy to provide an additional $50 off of the registration fee of $195, making it $145 for two-day, meals included. Please use smc2008 as the discount code during the payment process. Please register today, the early-bird discount ends on July 1.

July 17 ~ Social Media Club Austin

Andy Meadows of Live Oak 360 is speaking at our next meeting on July 17. Thanks to the generosity of Joshua Baer and Datran Media, we’ll again be meeting at their conference room. Pizza and networking at 6:00 p.m.; program begins at 6:30 p.m.

July 18 ~ Every Dot Connects workshop in Austin

We’re happy to welcome Jennifer Navarrete as a speaker for our summer workshop series lineup. She’ll join Sheila Scarborough for a three-hour, hands-on workshop on Web 2.0 tools, followed by an informal lunch where the conversation will continue. The workshop will be from 9:00 a.m. to noon on Friday, July 18, at the Hilton Garden Inn in northwest Austin.

Watch this space for more information and a link to online registration later this week. Or, drop our admin Erin a note and ask to be placed on the mailing list.

Update:  The 18 July 2008 workshop info/registration page is now live.  Click here to Learn Three Web 2.0 Tools in Three Hours.

July 19 ~ BlogHer in Second Life

Can’t make it to San Francisco for the annual BlogHer conference? Stay at home and join the virtual conference, sponsored by CNN iReport.com, which features livestreaming of keynotes from BlogHer to Second Life. By the way, men are welcome to attend. Check out the schedule and register here. It’s free! A full house is expected, so register soon.

Connie will be speaking on an exclusive Second Life-only panel on Saturday afternoon called Using Second Life for Good. The BlogHer in Second Life office will be open beginning on Monday, July 15, so you can familiarize yourself with Second Life and get assistance mastering the basics of attending in-world events. Or just chill out on some cozy floor pillows while drinking some virtual lemonade and thinking of all that gas money you’re saving.

July 25 ~ Every Dot Connects workshop in San Antonio

Sheila and Jennifer will repeat the three-hour workshop in San Antonio. August and September dates will be announced soon, as well as a new all-day seminar on starting a blog.

Please let your friends know about these workshops. They are especially good for people just dipping their toes into social networking, and are designed to provide a no-fear environment for learning the basics. We are also available for onsite training at your business. Contact us for a quote on a customized training session.

A few months ago I did some serious pruning on my Google Reader, which was choked by an overgrowth of blog feeds. I’d been trying to stay around 200-250, but somehow the number kept climbing toward 300. One day I decided I had officially hit Information Overload. I was either spending so much time reading that I had no time to write, or I was feeling guilty for clicking on “mark all as read.”

Choices were difficult, but I managed to cut back to 50 RSS feeds. It meant I missed reading some people whose writing I really liked, but it became much more manageable and enjoyable.

Now I’m trying another tactic: cutting RSS feeds even further, yet increasing the number of blogs I read. Here’s how I’m accomplishing that.

1. Twitter links. Many of the bloggers I regularly read are on Twitter, so I have unsubscribed from their feed. Whenever they tweet a link to their blog, I click to open it in a new tab. At some point during the day, I’ll skim through the posts and close out the tabs. I try to comment on several blogs every day.

2. Instapaper. When I come across what looks like a good read but I don’t have time for it at the moment, I click on Read Later in my browser toolbar. This handy bookmarklet creates a personalized newspaper with the links I’ve saved. When “later” rolls around, I can browse through the links and Skip, Edit or Delete them. By the way, Instapaper was developed for the iPhone, so it’s a great mobile tool as well as Web app.

3. Social Media Today. Because social media is my primary business, many of the feeds previously in my reader were from people writing in the field. Most of those same bloggers, however, are published at Social Media Today. I pulled their Vortex widget into my home page for Netvibes, which has replaced my Google Reader. With one click I can check the latest posts from scores of bloggers.

4. Marketing Profs Daily Fix. Many of the top voices in marketing are featured here, so I have unsubscribed from their individual blogs in favor of reading them at the Daily Fix. Of course, when I read an article by one of my favorite marketing bloggers, I often click through to their blog to browse around and see what catches my eye.

5. Alltop.com is Guy Kawasaki’s latest venture. I was flattered to be included both in the section for Social Media and the Twitterati, but I did not think I would have much use for the site myself. Recently, though, I’ve been using it to find new voices in areas outside my primary interest of social media. Want to find information on personal finance or small business, for example? Alltop.com is a good starting point.

So what’s left in my feed reader? Mostly fun stuff, like I Can Has Cheezburger and Crazy Aunt Purl, “the true-life diary of a thirty-something, newly divorced, displaced Southern obsessive-compulsive knitter who has four cats. (Because nothing is sexier than a divorced woman with four cats.)” Laurie Perry’s ramblings have turned into one of my all-time favorite blogs.

The item I check most frequently in my feed reader is what I call my “me-monitor.” It’s where I subscribe to feeds based on search results for my name and our blog name.

So far I am actually reading more posts, by more authors, and I have given up worrying whether I’ve missed something important. If it’s truly important, I’ll come across it some place besides my feed reader.

I’m still a candidate for social networking rehab, but at least I’ve broken my RSS addiction. How about you?

In this interview Connie Reece speaks with Gene Smith, creator of the Tweeterboard, a tool for “conversation analytics” on Twitter. Gene goes on the record about the Tweeterboard algorithm; his intent to measure engagement, not popularity; and how he recommends people use the data provided.

• the number of Twitter users tracked as of today is 3,883
• Tweeterboard continues to add about 10 users per day
• the algorithm used is the same as the one used for Google Page Rank
• Halo 3 was the inspiration for the Box Score spread
• Chris Brogan is #1 on the Tweeterboard today

About Gene Smith
Gene is a consultant specializing in information architecture strategy, social classification like tagging and folksonomies, emergent information architecture and interaction design. He is a principal at nForm User Experience and is also author of Tagging: People-Powered Metadata for the Social Web.

NOTE: RSS readers may need to click through to Blog Talk Radio to listen to the audio file.

Thanks to Twitter friends who suggested questions: @adelemcalear, @chelpixie, @conniecrosby and @digitalmaverick.

[from Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing Blog]

Diva Marketing Talks is a live, internet radio show. 30-minutes. 2-guests. 1-topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you understand how to participate in the “new” conversation without getting blown-up. Miss today’s show? You can pick it up as a podcast.

Today’s Diva Marketing Talks focuses on how micro blogging is creeping into social media marketing. Can 140 characters of text messaging really impact your marketing strategy? B.L. Ochman and Connie Reece tell about their experiences on Twitter and how a few little tweets turned into pea soup. With B.L. and Connie as guests at the mic this is sure to be an exciting conversation you won’t want to miss!

Topic for January 22, 2008: The Impact of Less Is More: Micro Blogging

Time: 6:30p - 7p Eastern/ 5:30p - 6p Central/ 4:30p -5p Mountain/ 3:30p - 4p Pacific

Call-in Guest Number: 718.508.9924

Read Tips from the Diva Bag about microblogging.

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.

People who do not invest time in social networking often wonder about the quality of online friendships. They doubt the depth or strength of connections made with people you’ve never met face to face. My thoughts match those of Shel Israel: “My virtual friends are all real.” (I’m paraphrasing something you said in an interview, Shel. Hope I got close to your actual words.)

For you Doubting Thomases, here’s a story to demonstrate the depth and breadth–and the power–of online community.

A friend I’ve never met in person is scared. Very scared. Susan Reynolds is having a mastectomy tomorrow. She found the lump on December 5, went to the doctor the next day, and was immediately sent to a diagnostic radiologist. Big words, big fear: Invasive Lobular Carcinoma.

You can read about Susan’s journey through the cancer experience in her new blog, Boobs on Ice. The story I want to share is how a community of so-called invisible friends rallied around Susan to support, comfort and cheer her up–and somewhere along the way turned it into a fight–and a fund–against cancer.

It started on Twitter, where Susan is the self-proclaimed nana; she’s also a power networker with hundreds of followers. When she posted a new avatar–a photo of a package of frozen peas tucked inside her camisole to relieve the pain from multiple biopsies–she joked about putting her boob on ice. Her friends continued the joke.

Then a few days later, Cathleen Rittereiser (@cathleenritt) tweeted that we should all donate the cost of a package of frozen peas to a fund for cancer research. Before you could say “bring back that beat,” Susan’s friends picked up on the idea, and what started as an off-the-cuff remark has become a full-fledged fund-raising campaign named, in honor of Susan, the Frozen Pea Fund.

The site will officially launch tomorrow–that’s when we’ll have the “click to donate” button ready. Money raised will go to Making Strides, the breast cancer campaign of the American Cancer Society.

In the interest of full disclosure, my company is doing a social media campaign for a new ACS initiative that will launch early next year. When David Neff, Director of Online Communications for the corporate office, located here in Austin, first emailed to ask us to do some pro bono work for the Society, my reaction was to sigh and wonder how I could gracefully decline. David has been part of our local Social Media Club since the very beginning, and it would be hard to turn him down. But I was frazzled from a year of starting a new business and juggling client work with personal responsibilities. How could I possibly squeeze one more item onto my already overflowing to-do list?

Before I could decline, however, Susan got her diagnosis. And everything changed.

Now I had a personal stake in this battle against cancer. While I still haven’t met Susan in person, we’ve e-mailed and talked on the phone–and were about to launch a cooperative venture that is now on hold until she recovers from surgery.

The photos you see to the left are what we are calling pea-vatars. I can’t even remember how it started–probably it was Ann Miller (@annohio) who first posted a package of peas as her avatar on Twitter. Before you know it, dozens of people had added peas to their photos and the Frozen Pea Friday Flickr group was born.

Within the first 24 hours, I noted at least 40 people sporting pea-vatars, and that was only among the 600+ people I follow on Twitter. Much to my delight, Robert Scoble picked up the peas theme and tied it into the world economic forum at Davos. And even Loic Lemeur, founder of Seesmic, is sporting a pea-vatar on Twitter. (Bless you, one and all!)

So many people are working behind the scenes to help launch the Frozen Pea Fund that I’ll probably miss naming someone here, but I at least have to acknowledge Michelle Wolverton (@chelpixie), who is building the WordPress site, and Ryan Karpeles (@ryankarpeles), who designed the FPF logo. Cathleen came up with the tagline: We will not appease cancer. And Laura Fitton (@pistachio) is cooking up something with a new Twitter account: @peaple.

In the days to come, Susan’s family will be by her bedside, caring for her and assisting her recovery. But an entire socialmediasphere will be rallying around her cause, lifting her spirits and doing our small part to help find a cure. Join us, won’t you?

A new new media friend, Connie Bensen, tagged me on a meme started by one of my favorite bloggers, Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang.

Jeremiah posed the original question: Do you respect media snackers? And he defined them as “folks who consume small bits of information, data or entertainment when, where, and how they want. If you want to be part of their lives you’ve got to respect them.”

Here’s my response, in the form of … a media snack.

(Note: RSS readers may need to click through to the blog to listen to the audio file.)

As mentioned in the audio, I am tagging the following bloggers: Jim Long and Geoff Livingston from Washington, D.C.; Lee Hopkins and John Johnston from “down under” in Australia; and two of the younger generation of PR practitioners, Paull Young and Kait Swanson.

Watch for their responses. And here’s your chance to answer the question — in the comments. Are you a consumer of media snacks? Do you cater to media snackers on your blog or podcast?

UPDATE 10-27-07 I am tagging Drew McLellan after the fact. I’m behind on feed reading (even with my RSS diet) and just discovered his recent post about providing a steady stream of snack-sized messages.

Building Connections and Networking Online
Leader - Connie Reece, Austin, TX - Every Dot Connects

Session Notes

Here is a PDF file of my notes from the session I facilitated at BlogOrlando this past weekend. Thank you to all who attended and participated — I enjoyed the dialogue.

I can’t say enough great things about Josh Hallett and the team of volunteers and sponsors who put together this truly outstanding event. It was a privilege to be tapped to lead one of the sessions.

If you have any questions about the session notes, please leave a comment and I’ll answer in the comments or create a new post to address them.

PDF: BlogOrlando Session Notes-Connie Reece

Announcing the Grand Prize winner of the MakeConnieLaugh in 140 Characters or Less Contest will be the last off-topic post; we’ll resume regular blogging tomorrow. On second thought, is it really off-topic when your blog is about social networking and making connections through conversation?

The winning entry for the Grand Prize not only made me laugh, it had a special significance for me — one the writer could not possibly have known about, and one that directly pertained to the reason I was feeling blue and needed cheering up in the first place. The synchronicity really does not surprise me, though, for Jon Swanson, author of Levite Chronicles, is a man who listens with his heart.

Here’s his winning entry, and remember that it appears here in reverse chronological order.

When I dreamed up this contest, I had just been through a rough week. Then on Saturday morning, I found this post in my RSS reader. The last time I’d had a chance to sit down for a chat with John Moore, we talked about his mom’s battle with ALS. In addition to reading his blog, I’d been following John’s marvelous video scrapbook, narrated by his mom, Glenna, until she lost the ability to speak. Just take a look at this sample, where John’s dad, Al, tells about his love for Glenna.

I knew all too well what the Moore family was going through, having lost my father to a neurodegenerative disease in December 2000. He managed to maintain his sense of humor until the end, but the suffering took a huge toll on our family. As time passes, you forget the suffering and remember all the laughter. But for a few moments on Saturday morning, it all came back when I found out about Glenna Moore.

Thanks to my Twitter pals, the painful memories soon faded as person after person endeavored to make me laugh. And here’s why Jon’s Burma-Shave for the Information Highway tweets bowled me over.

My father loved to load the family in the car and take us places. Back in those days (remember, I’m older than the average Internet maven), the occasional series of weathered Burma-Shave signs still dotted the back roads of the Hill Country. Dad would slow down so my sister and I could read them out loud.

That would distract us momentarily, but like every small child on a road trip, we would soon be asking how much longer it would be before we reached our destination. “Daddy, are we there yet?”

Daddy would always reply, “Not much farther. It’s just over that next hill.”

Those words came back to me on that final, unbearably long night when we kept a bedside vigil at Hospice Austin’s Christopher House. Dad’s breathing became so labored that each breath would raise him chest-first off the bed. The nurses increased the dose of morphine to ease his pain.

At one point, when this lifelong Daddy’s Girl didn’t think she could take it any longer, I kissed his cheek and whispered, “Not much farther, Daddy. It’s just over that next hill.”

Mercifully, a couple of hours later my father slipped from this life to the next. I like to think that if there are two-lane roads in heaven, Daddy has “the pedal to the metal” on a battleship-sized Cadillac Fleetwood or Chrysler Imperial (his cars of choice), slowing down only long enough to read the angelic equivalent of Burma-Shave signs.

With more love and laughter and appreciation than you can imagine, Jon, I’m sending an autographed hardcover copy of The Age of Conversation your way.