Archive for October, 2008

What can you learn about (so-&-so) in one week?

Posted by Ms. Herr in blogging, marketing & advertising, social networks on October 31, 2008

It occasionally happens that Twitter doesn’t register tweets sent via text message until several hours later, or sometimes not at all. I’m not a fan of these type of glitches, but hey… ish happens. This evening, I had a two-tweet thought, but the first one didn’t post posted out of sequence. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise as now I can elaborate on my inspiration.

tweet 1: try turnin on SMS notifies for one person you follow for one week. you’ll get a great feel for who they are.

tweet 2: on for me right now: @jaybaer. really impressed by how he embraces new users & laudes lauds his contemporaries, community, & commenters.


For those who don’t know him, Jason Baer is, among many things, founder of Convince and Convert. He is a deep thinker who shares his insights and perspectives on social media and other digital marketing techniques. We’ve been loosely connected as mutual followers on Twitter for some time, but had never conversed on or offline. Until last week.

I met Jay on the final evening of the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer. I immediately turned SMS notifications on. A few hours later, Jay nearly took me out of a poker game on the first hand. Still I left notifications on. And I haven’t been disappointed.

Over 7 days and 75 tweets, I’ve seen Jay warmly greet new Twitter users, congratulate and well wish first-time bloggers, whole-heartedly promote blogs and articles he finds compelling, and graciously engage with his community both on Twitter and through his blog. I enjoyed seeing that it’s not all biz. He is engaged in his family’s lives, and he has included family into his professional life with Hottie and the Fatso. Jay talked recently about out-caring the competition, and he does.

It’s been a rewarding experience watching Jay’s character unfold via his tweets. So much so, it makes me wonder what I will learn about someone else by following all of their tweets.

Why don’t you try it? Turn on notifications for one person you follow for one week. Then come back and tell us what you’ve learned.

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ordering more biz cards today…

Posted by Ms. Herr in marketing & advertising, the biz side on October 28, 2008

I’m really good at procrastinaaa… just-in-time processes. With PodCamp AZ right around the corner, and being newly self-employed on the hunt for projects/contracts/employment, I’m madly trying to get various things updated/printed/launched. Last week I managed to get minicards printed for merciless flirt. My first thought was to use Moo, but they have a 10 business day turnaround that didn’t fit my schedule. I did however, find MyMiniCards. I think the service has some definite limitations that were frustrating (file dimension requirements, cropping feature, back side text and layout), but they are competitively priced and have a quick 2-3 day turnaround. And I’m happy enough with the merciless flirt cards that I’m going to try to place another order for Ms. Herr when online. If I place the order today, they should arrive Friday. I don’t know if it’s the best solution, but not too shabby if you’re in a pinch.

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update: a map of sorts

Posted by Ms. Herr in blogging, self-portraiture on October 28, 2008

Back in January, I conceived a plan to document and visualize how I spent my time. The project has been tabled for many months, but I’ve recently begun to devote time to it once again.

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still quite pleased with myself: coming out a merciless flirt

Posted by Ms. Herr in blogging, self-portraiture on October 24, 2008

I’ve always, quite proudly, claimed my flirtatiousness. I like boys. I like to spar with them. Verbally. And non-verbally. In not so innocently provocative ways. One-line affairs hold little interest for me. It’s the ebb and flow of playful banter that I find so engaging.

As the heat of flirtation often escalates, so did confession, into reputation, and now to an actual manifested web presence.

Introducing mercilessflirt.com, a collection of thoughts and media about flirtation. Quotes, video, stories, rumors, how tos … it’ll all be there. Nothing is off limits, even politics (see Exhibit A and Exhibit B).

A handful of you may have heard enough about it to consider it old news, but I’m still quite pleased with my accomplishment. Here’s why:

Two weekends ago, I began an effort to turn an idea into reality. I set up a tumblelog, designed the logo and supporting graphics, customized front-end code, established multi-channel presence (primary domain, Twitter, and YouTube), activated email, and set up Google Analytics for traffic measurement.

I started on a Friday afternoon. I launched that following Monday morning. I did it all myself.

This might seem like no big deal, but I don’t bill myself as a designer, or a developer. So a sub-three-day start-to-finish for my first microsite feels pretty damn significant.

BTW, merciless flirt hit the front page of Google search results for title sans quotes and .com in less than 10 days. Might take a bit longer to hit the front page for flirt. :)

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popped my shirt.woot! cherry

Posted by Ms. Herr in window shopping on October 23, 2008

I’ve been a fan of shirt.woot! for awhile now. To be honest, I was first drawn in by the copy on the parent what is woot? page. If you haven’t read it, do. It’s a riot. Funny and chalk-full of personality. I think that copy alone made me want to buy something from them. However, since I don’t have much of a tech gadget fetish, I didn’t have much reason to actually buy anything. Then I discovered shirt.woot! They’ve got some really great (and not so great) designs. And when I like one, I really like it. Still, I’ve never bought. Until today.

The Madness of Miss Stereo
The Madness of Miss Stereo

So why is today different? I’ve had a few ideas that have been incubatin’ brain crack for a really long time. One of these ideas involves cutom modified fashion. And now that merciless flirt off the ground, there’s little to prevent me from makin’ moves on some of these other ideas…

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kids say the darndest things…

Posted by Ms. Herr in blogging, randomness on October 23, 2008

I was doing a little bit of research for merciless flirt and came across a blog called Ferocious Flirting: Making Marriage Wonderful. Combing through the archives for fun stuff, I came across a post on how kids think about love. Unfortunately I can’t link directly to the post, so here are some of my favorites. If you find one especially funny, tweet it. If you have others, add it in the comments.

Surefire ways to make a person fall in love with you:

  • “Tell them that you own a whole bunch of candy stores.” – Del, age 6
  • “Shake your hips and hope for the best.” – Camille, age 9
  • “One way is to take the girl out to eat. Make sure it’s something she likes to eat. French fries usually works for me.” – Bart, age 9

Title of love ballads you can sing to your beloved:

  • “‘How Do I Love Thee When You’re Always Picking Your Nose?’” – Arnold, age 10
  • “‘Hey, Baby, I Don’t like Girls but I’m Willing to Forget You Are One!’” – Will, age 7
  • “‘Honey, I Got Your Curly Hair and Your Nintendo on My Mind.’” – Sharon, age 9

What most people are thinking when they say “I love you”:

  • “The person is thinking: Yeah, I really do love him. But I hope he showers at least once a day.” – Michelle, age 9

How a person learns to kiss:

  • “You can have a big rehearsal with your Barbie and Ken dolls.” – Julia, age 7

When is it OK to kiss someone?

  • “It’s never okay to kiss a boy. They always slobber all over you … That’s why I stopped doing it.” – Tammy, age 10
  • “If it’s your mother, you can kiss her any time. But if it’s a new person, you have to ask permission.” – Roger, age 6

original post by Matthew O. Smith on 2.12.2008

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building on the small wins

Posted by Ms. Herr in blogging, social networks on October 21, 2008

Yesterday I had a small win; I set a new mark for the highest number of visits to my blog, and this time it was [mostly] all me. To be clear, I’m only talking about 89 hits, which is minuscule compared to the blog gods and probably still fractional compared to the blog demigoddess’ handmaidens who at least get all the good gossip. But it’s big for me, because:

  1. I post less than once a week on average. Isn’t one key to traffic providing regular, and somewhat frequent content?
  2. It doubled my good days. Remember, I’m not an blog goddess.
  3. And it was a result of my own efforts.

For comparison, my previous high mark was back in June when Warren Whitlock, co-author of the Twitter Handbook, addressed the importance of selecting the right avatar and linked back to me. I’d bet the Twitter Handbook blog has high readership, so when the link generated over 85% of my 81 hits on a single day, I was ecstatic.

What makes yesterday different, is that yesterday’s traffic flowed from Twitter mostly, but also 43 Things, Gangplank hacknight, and even merciless flirt. This means the traffic was coming from my peoples, and not someone else’s.

So this begs the question, how do you measure your blogging success? Let’s temporarily exclude comments (and assume you occassionaly look at your stats) to focus on traffic. Do you care about incoming traffic? What about outbound traffic as readers explore links you provide? Is it cooler to be drive traffic by your little ol’ self, or by gaining the attention of someone bigger (for the moment at least) than you?

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What did I do this weekend? ummm…

Posted by Ms. Herr in Phoenix events, events, the biz side on October 20, 2008

This one time… at Phoenix Startup Weekend… a whole group of guys and a lone girl (that’s me), came together to create a new company called Reserve Chute. The basic concept is a personal data backup app that enables users to grab their data from online sources like GMail, Delicious, yada, yada, and save them locally on their own machices. Think about how much stuff you have online, stuff you’ve used to manage your projects, build your online reputation, and communicate with all the really cool people in the world. Thank about what you happen if any one of the services or apps went offline, temporarily or permanantly. Poof. Gone. Bye bye. Wouldn’t it be nice to know you had a money… errr, data jar… in your backyard just in case Web 2.0 becomes web two point OH NO!

The code ninjas (that’s not me) hacked some elegant sweetness for last night’s demo. We should have a working JumpBox prototype in a couple of days (see Sean’s comment below about timing), but the site is live and you can sign up for beta.

Do it. Do it. NOW!!!

Shout out to all the peeps involved in this project: Sean Tierney • Brent Spore • Justin Crossman • Sunny Thaper • Jose Diaz • Curtis Miller • Brian Roy • Byron Bowerman • Remi Taylor • Patrick Harter • Jim Barrows

And major thanks to Adam Nollmeyer (Acme Photography) and Chris Lee for the pics.

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Phoenix Startup Weekend

Posted by Ms. Herr in events on October 17, 2008

The anticipation has been brewin’ since I walked in the front door of Gangplank’s headquarters almost three hours ago. I did manage to get some things done, revenue-generating things at that. But no more as people trickle in the door, conversation springs up around me, and a game of foosball in the corner draws spectators. It’s a Friday night. The weekend is upon us. You would think people would be headed out, not in. But not this time. Not here. And why…?

It’s Phoenix Startup Weekend!

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The Halloween Before PodCamp AZ 2.0…

Posted by Ms. Herr in events on October 8, 2008

last edited 10.23.2008

Given that Halloween is the eve of PodCamp AZ 2.0, for those of (probably) out-of-towners who are party hardy or want to enjoy the spectacles that metro Phoenix has to offer on the night of costumed revelry, here’s a rundown of goings on.

Halloween on Mill Avenue
Mill Ave is the landmark street in Tempe and was recently named one of the coolest streets in America. With more than a dozen bars along five blocks, there will be plenty goin’ down. On Halloween, Mill is by far the best place to see and been seen in all your costumed glory on Halloween. Even if you’re not dressed for the occasion, it’s a nothing short of a visual spectacle.

Monsters Ball
Downtown’s vanguard gallery, the Alwun House is the site of the Monter Ball. This 21+ affair with live entertainment and full bar is the closing party for their Monster’s Menagerie art exhibit which opened October 10th. Costumes are optional, but highly encouraged.

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