Three people I really enjoy. @AmyOscar, @ikepigott and @asouthernyankee. If you read the post, you'll see why

Amplify’d from www.v3im.com

The Angel, The Brain and The Hot Mess Posted by Shelly Kramer on November 21, 2010 · http://www.v3im.com/?p=2133">View Comments   Share You know what happens. You’re working, kind of. Or at least you should be. Then you pop over to TweetDeck to see what’s going on with your pals on Twitter or hop over to Facebook, just for a jiffer. Then you see an interesting link (or 27) and pretty soon, it’s over. I blame social media. You’re pulled into the interwebs and all hopes of getting anything accomplished (work, that is) are dashed. Too bad somebody already wrote the book on it, because I’m a professional Internet lurker + Time Waster. But I refuse to believe that’s all bad. For instance, one day, I saw a random tweet complimenting a writer on a beautiful post. I was intrigued, popped on over to check it out, and before you an say “lickety-split” I’m sucked into what may well have been the most beautiful piece of writing I’ve ever seen. And, in no time, I’ve come to be great friends with Amy Oscar, the writer of that piece (and many more), read her stuff if you know what’s good for you. She’s an angel. You’ll see what I mean. I few months ago, through random Facebook interaction, I discovered Ike Pigott, who might just be the smartest guy I know. It was actually his amazing post on the dangers of Friending Strangers on Facebook that hooked me and, naturally, I’ve been stalking him ever since. He has a way of writing that not only speaks to my heart, but engages my brain in ways that send cool neurons firing all over the place. Kind of like what happens when you eat chocolate, only with less calories. Jason Falls called him “The thinking man’s PR wizard” and that’s pretty apt. I’d like to amend that to read “The thinking person’s writer” – maybe Jason won’t mind that so much. Damn, but it makes me wish I could do that. Write like Ike, that is. Today, when I was supposed to be working on the book that Wiley is paying me to write, well, you guessed it. I got sucked into Twitter. Again. This time I discovered the Hot Mess, that inspired the title of this post, Gordon McCleary, and all because of a random Tweet that said his blog was hilarious. Well, I’m bored. I need some hilarity. In fact, I consider it medicinal. So, off I went. Gordon doesn’t know me (yet) but he had me at not only the fact that he’s a Yankee living in the south, but that he is, apparently, inspired to write by getting out and experiencing people, places and things. I’m like that. And I’m also a transplanted Yankee, which is a whole ‘nother story. I’m constantly ridiculed by my family and friends (for a variety of reasons), but many related to how I discover my blog content. Everywhere I go, I’m inspired by something new. I feel as if I’m literally tripping over great content. Ideas come a mile a minute and, as a result, I’m often (annoyingly) engaged in the process of snapping pictures, taking notes and getting all crazy documenting things so that I can write about them later. Gordon apparently suffers from the same syndrome. Somehow, I knew I would like him – from the moment I saw the word “hilarious.” So he had me early on. And then I dove into his post called Yankee Musings – A Hot Mess about his trip to the Winn Dixie, jamming to James Brown and multitasking – all of which ultimately lead the cashier to call him a “hot mess.” Clearly, he is. And clearly, since the only words that can ever be accurately described to describe MY life are “hot mess,” we are kindred spirits. My work here is done. Consider yourselves introduced to three amazing people. Find them, read their stuff, engage your heart, your brain and your sense of humor. Then send me some cupcakes to say thank you. Read more at www.v3im.com

Great Ad Age read about Eventbrite and how they determined the value of a tweet for them.

Amplify’d from adage.com

Study: Facebook Sharing Trumps Twitter, LinkedIn, E-mail What's a Tweet Worth? To Ticketing Startup Eventbrite, Exactly 43 Cents Posted by Irina Slutsky on 10.14.10 @ 11:05 AM Irina Slutsky What's a tweet worth? For San Francisco-based ticket sales startup Eventbrite, that's about 43 cents. There's a lot of research floating around on the value of a social connection, but Eventbrite, an online ticket-sales startup, released a report showing just how valuable social sharing can be when it comes to selling tickets to events. Some findings: A link shared on Twitter nets the company 43 cents in additional ticket revenue. An event shared on e-mail through its "e-mail friends" feature turns into into $2.34 in ticket sales for the company, LinkedIn equals 90 cents. But what's the most valuable share of all? Turns out it's Facebook. Eventbrite nets an additional $2.52 in sales when a user shares that they plan to attend an event on their wall. "We wanted to measure the transactional value of a share," said Julia Hartz, company co-founder, adding that in 2010 Eventbrite sold $200 million in tickets, double the amount in 2009. Eighty employees hunched over computers in a loft area created a comforting keyboard clack as inside a glass walled conference room marketing director Tamara Mendelsohn explained that while "social commerce" is not a new behavior, it is a new channel for e-commerce. "The social network drives real measurable transactions," Ms. Mendelsohn said. Eventbrite has processed closed to 9 million tickets this year. "Processed" and not "sold" because in addition to events that sell tickets, the company allows organizers to create, promote and offer tickets to free events at no charge. Eventbrite charges the organizers 2.5% of a ticket's price as well as 99 cents per ticket sold. Eventbrite says its average event nets $60 in ticket sales. Earlier this month the company raised $20 million in venture funding from returning investors Sequoia Capital, as well as DAG Ventures and Tanaya Capital. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Irina Slutsky has been in the Bay Area tech scene since 2004. She worked as an old-school newspaper reporter in Florida and New Jersey. She was born in Kazakhstan, like Borat. Read more at adage.com

And it's true. This original article was written by my friend, Mark Schaefer, and published on his blog, {grow}. It's a great read. Read on, then if you've not yet subscribed to Mark's blog, do it (see link at the bottom) and follow him on twitter @markwschaefer. He's bombdiggety.

Amplify’d from thesocialcustomer.com

Study Shows Twitter Users Are Powerful Consumers Tags: Community Experience ManagementCommunity PlatformsCustomer Experience ManagementCustomer ServiceSocial CRMTwitter October 19, 2010 by Brian Rice 0 A new study finds consumers active on Twitter are three times more likely to impact a brand’s online reputation through syndicated Tweets, blog posts, articles and product reviews than the average consumer. The ExactTarget survey of more than 1,500 consumers concludes that Twitter has become the gathering place for content creators whose influence spills over into every other corner of the internet. Key findings of the research include: Twitter users are the most influential online consumers — 72 percent publish blog posts at least monthly, 70 percent comment on blogs, 61 percent write at least one product review monthly and 61 percent comment on news sites. Daily Twitter users are 6 times more likely to publish articles, five times more likely to post blogs, seven times more likely to post to Wikis and three times more likely to post product reviews at least monthly compared to non-Twitter users. 23 percent of online consumers read Twitter updates at least monthly. 11 percent of online consumers read Twitter updates, but do not have a Twitter account themselves. 20 percent of consumers indicate they have followed a brand in order to interact with the company — more than become email subscribers or Facebook fans for the sake of interaction. Men are more than twice as likely as women to follow brands on Twitter to interact with the company (29 percent compared to 13 percent). Nine out of the 10 most common motivations for consumers to follow a brand on Twitter involve consumers seeking information from a company. Intuitively, these finding make sense to me.  But here is an even more interesting fact to consider. I intentionally surround myself with an audience of professional marketing professionals, educators, writers and business executives. I don’t have too many from the Justin Bieber crowd in my Twitter stream. While these statistics are powerful, they may be even more powerful if the sample was taken from MY tribe … or yours.  Certainly something to think about isn’t it? Author: Mark Schaefer is a marketing consultant, author and college educator who blogs at {grow}. You can also follow him on Twitter: @markwschaefer. Read more at thesocialcustomer.com