Next week 2,000 marketers at SAP will convene to learn and share marketing innovations. The Marketing Community Kickoff Meeting will feature:

• Seth Godin
• Ze Frank
• Dennis Howlett
• Zoli Erdos
• Ross Mayfield
• David Armano
• David Meerman Scott
• Laura “Pistachio” Fitton

www.Unisfair.com’s virtual environment will 2,000 SAP marketers for the Marketing Community Kickoff

I’m ecstatic to be in such good company, sharing my ideas about how to communicate and present more effectively. Blogging, answering questions and digging in to share ideas with the other bloggers and interact with the SAP community has already been fun and inspiring.

How SAP is running the event is exciting too. All internal blogging and discussions are on Clearspace collaborative software, and attendees will “meet” in the Unisfair virtual environment, from wherever in the world they work. I love how the event both models and teaches new ways of communication, collaboration and marketing. Can’t wait to see how it goes.

Not only is this Wired infographic on the blog post ecosystem interesting to follow, I love how the information’s rendered and presented. On the downside the UI navigation was a little buggy, but on the upside it’s a cool approach to analyzing and displaying a slightly complex story.

The Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits — to You

The graphic follows a theoretical blog reaction to a Budweiser Super Bowl commercial through a posse of bots, pings, scrapers, et al on its way to readers of various shapes. (And the readers really are a pretty funny shape!)

(Via Boing Boing)

These are wonderful pointers and I really (sincerely) liked them. Overwhelmingly good and useful article by Skellie at DailyBlogTips, and I’m glad I saw it in Chris Brogan’s tweets this evening.

But. I took issue with part of #9: “You don’t want to spend more time reading other people’s content than you do creating your own.” Huh? Seriously?

If your only object is to blog more, sure, write more than you read. But that’s such a narrow and self-limiting view. I’d roundly discourage that in a client. Studying, reading, listening… that’s how we learn and how good ideas get better. I get my best ideas when I’m reading - books, feeds, great links from my friends, etc. I’d much rather post less and go deeper. Cultivate and think and converse until I have something I must write, that I’m really inspired about, that builds on ideas I’ve heard and stuff I’ve learned.

Beware frittering time away in a feed reader, yes. Use tools like friends’ shared items, www.aiderss.com, ranking and social bookmarking sites to find the best content and curtail “wasted time” reading, sure.

But I’m dead against more writing than reading time. If anything, I’d advise spending 5-10 times more time taking information in than spitting it out. More time listening, less time talking. Across any & all social media: blog, socnet, etc. To me this turns the quality conversation way up.

(… If I’m going to be so unkind as to poo on one of the ideas, I’d like to offer something productive. Switching to an offline/online tool (with bookmarklet!) for creating blog posts has made a huge difference in my blogging productivity. I currently use MarsEdit but have heard raves about others too.)

Handout: I compiled this from the contributions of all of the other panelists and wrote explanations except where noted. So, credit for what’s included goes to them and criticism for poor explanations goes to me.

Our panel wanted to get everyone on the same page at tonight’s PRSA Beyond Blogging Seminar, so we collaborated to list some of the fundamentals of social media. In the comments, please tell us: How did we do?

COMPANIES/SITES
Blogger Blogger is probably the most accessible (but arguably least sophisticated) blogging platform. you can set up a free blog in moments, and share YOUR ideas and expertise with the world. Other platforms include TypePad, WordPress and Moveable Type.

Brightcove higher end (higher resolution, back-end for corp. sites, etc.) online video hosting

Digg one of the most commonly mentioned social bookmarking sites

Google Reader “An inbox for blogs you read” looks like an email inbox, alerts you when your RSS subscriptions post new content. one of many RSS readers: Newsgator, Bloglines, etc.

Facebook a little more freewheeling & controversial but can have powerful business uses

LinkedIn Strictly Business social networking, a little static, like a Rolodex. answer questions, recommend peers

continue

Some changes are coming to the Great Presentations Mean Business blog… First, if you are subscribed on the RSS feed and haven’t seen updates in a month or so, please click here to resubscribe via FeedBurner.

Sorry for the trouble, but when we moved off wordpress.com, we realized most of you were subscribed via the wordpress.com feed, instead of the FeedBurner one. (Which is http://feeds.feedburner.com/pistachioconsulting, for your convenience, if the link above does not work.)

The name of the blog is going to change (SEND US YOUR IDEAS!), because the focus of the blog is expanding. My brain these days is wrapped up in a broadened definition of communications. Some call it web 2.0 or social media, to me it’s just the web as it evolves and where we can all go with it. Look for more about social media in the enterprise, communicating across many platforms, collaborating effectively and of course lots about presenting effectively. The unifying theme remains: achieve more by presenting your ideas effectively. The difference is: presenting, collaborating and sharing ideas via many different media. And yeah, I’m gonna blog about Twitter. Probably a lot. For VERY good reasons.

I’m very excited about these changes, which have been a long time coming. The shifting focus is a big part of the reason for my slowdown in blogging. The other big reason is, if you do not already follow me on Twitter, that I have jumped into microblogging (heh, coming pretty close to Lifecasting, as some have said) with both feet. That influence is also going to make this blog a lot more personal.

Hope you will also check out the new “lab” at www.Brainsieve.com. Speaking of things in transition, that is going to be an exciting place as it evolves into my vision of a highly collaborative “best of” filtering tool to excerpt and surface only the most interesting of the streams of the digital media I produce. At the moment, it looks an awful lot like a blog. But if you spend some time playing there, and have suggestions for me on how to get to the vision, please rock my world by telling me!

Post-move, we’re still adding widgets and working out technical details, so please excuse our appearance in the process.

One last thing. With 1064 & growing followers on Twitter, my “following-back” has fallen COMPLETELY off the wagon. Won’t you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE engage me in conversation using @ replies anytime, even if I don’t currently follow you back? There are 311 UNREAD Twitter follow messages in my gmail plus many more read, but not looked at yet. Every voice matters to me, I just haven’t figured out how to listen effectively yet. Even if I follow you, PLEASE “@” me when you want to engage.

That’s all for now folks. Happy Solstice, and may the increasing light outdoors from here on, increase all manner of light in your life.

With love, Pistachio.

UPDATE: I wrote this in August 2007, so I’m really happy to see it catching on (through Twitter, natch) again recently. Please also check out Twitter is my Village, Twitter Makes us More ____ and these interviews/media.

Let me come clean about my Twitter adoption “arc:”

The wise student hears of the Twitter & practices it diligently. The average student hears of the Twitter & gives it thought now & again. The foolish student hears of the Twitter and laughs aloud. If there were no laughter, the Twitter would not be what it is. -Lao Tzu (well, sorta)

I was foolish. If you think Twitter’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever seen, I hear you.

But I evolved.

I recently tweeted what Twitter is to me:

water cooler, colleagues, sanity check, ideas, advice, good tips, friends, company, connections, inspiration. oh ya & network.

I poo-poohed Twitter in March, grudgingly tried it on May 17, and 4 days later met my first real world Twitter friends (aka, drank the Kool Aid.)

I began to see how creative/productive Twitterers can inspire. I used it to surround myself with role models. I started getting to know people, and to enjoy the company, humor, conversation and great links. Just by way of writing, reading and responding to each other’s tweets, unbelieveably valuable networking contacts have become familiar workday presences. I’ve met and hired 3 subcontractors for my business, met numerous potential collaborators and even found extraordinary new business leads. I’ve been to numerous networking and social events (lifesavers for a WAHM in a new city!). Interesting, creative, challenging, thoughtful and very deeply caring people have come into my life. New ones seem to appear every week. Twitter has served up answers, opinions and inspiration. It’s saved my sanity and yesterday, my dishwasher.

Hugh McLeod’s mentioned both flippantly (April) and seriously (June) that Twitter has slowed his blogging. I’d blame summer for my recent slowdown, but maybe it’s Twitter. But as a wise ninja pointed out, Twitter also improves blogging by absorbing your off-theme tidbits, good links, quotes, questions and other scraps of ideas. It ain’t called microblogging for nothing. But it’s true my blog posts are more detailed and thought out now, the quick cool stuff goes on Twitter.

Because it’s a business and personal tool for me, I Twitter about a LOT of different things. Great finds from my feed reader, impulsive ideas, replies both sassy and heartfelt. I tweet pointers to new blog posts when they go up. Twitter’s kept me company and has let me blow off steam, comfort a friend, and get exposed to completely opposite thinking from my own. On Twitter, we share and promote each others’ ideas and media. We celebrate birthdays, promotions, graduations and anniversaries. We look out for someone traveling or near the site of a disaster. We introduce and we randomly discover each other. Some I follow are just plain entertaining. Others I look up to and hope to meet.

We also combine the power of our collective news/intellectual interests. I get the “best of” ideas that various Twitter friends read or create, any given day. This magnifies the depth and breadth of information I consume. Imagine if your “water cooler” at work were also a wire service/editorial desk? Yeah. Something like that.

Sure, Twitter contains a huge % of “what I had for breakfast.” But the elegance is this: Everyone starts out with nobody listening to them and nobody to listen to. How and who you add determines what Twitter will become for you. Nobody can tweet at you without permission. You add people. People add you. You see interesting exchanges and add new people. Read the Twitterstream of anyone who adds you to decide whether you want to hear what they have to say. Meet someone at an event and you can connect on Twitter to get to know each other’s thoughts a little, over time.

If you used your TV or radio to listen to EVERYONE on your block broadcast their every random sound or video, you’d dismiss radio and TV as useless. If you look at everyone on Twitter at once and complain about futility, you’re missing the chance to find interesting connections and dig in slowly. Before you dismiss Twitter, find some bright, engaging, thoughtful tweeters* and follow them for a little while.

So there it is. I’m an addict. I’m a poster child for Twitter, and I couldn’t be happier about it. If you don’t”get” twitter yet, that’s ok. I’ve been there too.

* I’d have to write a whole separate post to shout out my Twitter favorites and what each one brings to the table. So please, post your suggested “Twitterers to follow” in the comments.

UPDATE: Annotated pic from today’s Tweeter-Q

UPDATES 08/28/2007: Chris Brogan on Twitter: Twitter as a Lab, Deeper Twitter; Dave Davison on Twitter ROA; Guy Kawasaki joins Twitter.

Normally don’t “play memes” here at Great Presentations Mean Business, but this one’s important to me. I’m grateful Liz Strauss threw my name in with others in this very big hat to fill, and I’d like to salute a number of my own blogging women heroes. Liz’ followup post captures something I agree with about the “M-List” objection to the “W-List” idea:

I celebrate the women bloggers on the list. By giving to them, I take nothing from the men I esteem. I only wish I had taken the time to celebrate the men too.

As a child I knew, sometimes my parents celebrated one of their children without mentioned the other two. Yet each of one of us was always their favorite.

One lesson that I have always had trouble with is that when I’m not included it’s rarely about me. (And when I am, that’s usually not about me either.)

So with that caveat to the many adored male bloggers I read, here’re my W-List additions:

• ::Horse Pig Cow by Tara Hunt
• A Little Pregnant by Julie
• Bag and Baggage by Denise Howell
• Creating Passionate Users by Kathy Sierra
• Jezebel by team Jezebel
• Internet Geek Girl by Stephanie Agresta
• Lifehacker by Gina Trapani & team
• Media Influencer by Adriana Lukas
• Sweet|Salty by Kate Inglis
• Toddler Planet by WhyMommy
• Work It, Mom! by Nataly Kogan & team
• Anne Zelenka at Web Worker Daily
• Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing

Here is the list from Karin H.’s post:

• 45 Things by Anita Bruzzese
• Ask Dr. Kirk
• The Artsy Asylum by Susan Reynolds
• Back in Skinny Jeans by Stephanie Quilao
• BlogWrite for CEOs Debbie Weil
• Biz Growth News by Krishna De
• Brain Based Biz by Dr. Robyn McMaster
• Brain Based Business by Dr. Ellen Weber
• Brand Sizzle Anne Simons
• Branding & Marketing Chris Brown
• Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk
• Build a Solo Practice, LLC by Susan Cartier Liebel
• Christine Kane by Christine Kane
• CK’s Blog CK (Christina Kerley)
• Communication Overtones Kami Huyse
• Conscious Business by Anne Libby
• Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni
• Corporate PR Elizabeth Albrycht
• Customers Rock! Becky Carroll
• CustServ by Meikah David
• Creative Curio by Lauren Marie
• Debbie Millman by Debbie Millman
• Deborah Schultz by Deborah Schultz
• Designers Who Blog by Cat Morley
• Design Your Writing Life by Lisa Gates
• Diva Marketing Blog Toby Bloomberg
• Do It Myself Blog by Glenda Watson Hyatt
• Dooce by Heather B. Armstrong
• Email Marketing Best Practices Tamara Gielen
• Enter the Laughter by Marti Lawrence
• Escape Blog by Melissa Petri
• Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim
• eSoup by Sharon Sarmiento
• Essential Keystrokes by Char
• Every Dot Connects by Connie Reece
• Fish Creek House by GP
• Flooring The Consumer CB Whittemore
• Forrester’s Marketing Blog Shar, Charlene, Chloe, Christine Elana, Laura and Lisa
• Franke James by Franke James
• Get Fresh Minds by Katie Konrath
• Great Presentations Mean Business by Laura Athavale Fitton
• Graphic Design Blog by Tara
• Hey Marci by Marci Alboher
• Get Shouty by Katie Chatfield
• ifelse by Phu Ly
• Inspiration Bit by Vivien
• Inspired Business Growth by Wendy Piersall
• J.T. O’Donnell Career Insights by J.T. O’Donnell
• Joyful, Jubilant Learning by Rosa Say
• Kinetic Ideas Wendy Maynard
• Learned on Women by Andrea Learned
• Lindsay Pollak by Lindsay Polla
• Liz Strauss at Successful Blog by Liz Strauss
• Lorelle on WordPress by Lorelle VanFossen
• Making Life Work for You by April Groves
• Manage to Change by Ann Michael
• Management Craft by Lisa Haneberg
• Marketing Roadmaps Susan Getgood
• Moda di Magno by Lori Magno
• Modite by Rebecca Thorman
• Narrative Assets by Karen Hegman
• Presto Vivace Blog Alice Marshall
• Productivity Goal by Carolyn Manning
• Small Biz Survival by Becky McCray
• Small Failures by Jessie Jane
  
• Spare Change Nedra Kline Weinreich
• SwissMiss by Tina Roth Eisenberg
• Talk It Up Heidi Miller
• Tech Kitten by Trisha Miller
• The Copywriting Maven Roberta Rosenberg
• The Blog Angel by Claire Raikes
• The Brand Dame by Lyn Chamberlin
• The Engaging Brand by Anna Farmery
• The Floozy Blog by Kate Coote
• The Heavy Chef Project with Nicola Perk
• The Kiss Business Too by Karin H.
• The Origin of Brands Laura Ries
• The Parody by Sasha Manuel
• The Podcast Sisters by Krishna De, Anna Farmery and Heather Gorringe
• Think Positive by Kirsten Harrell
• Water Cooler Wisdom by Alexandra Levit
• Wealth Strategy Secrets by Nicola Cairncross
• What’s Next Blog B L Ochman
• That’s What She Said by Julie Elgar
• Ypulse by Anastasia Goodstein

Pardon the (sort of) detour here, but Chris Brogan threw down this weekend with a compelling idea (actually, several). Pose a question to his network, and by extension our collective networks, and pull the 100 best answers into an e-book on the topic. Although launched on a Saturday morning, as of early afternoon Monday the project already had 58 comments.

I’m blogging about all this for two reasons. One, to play along. I think it’s a great idea and would love for some of you to jump in here or there with your comments.

Two is because a lot of the things that make video great can also make presenting great. In particular, using specific media for their highest and best uses. (Text outlines do not necessarily need to be visuals, complex descriptions can often be shorthanded by a good diagram, etc.). In fact, a lot of my answers to my own question (actually I had thrown the answers around in an earlier “compversation” and Chris asked me to come up with a question or two to drive them) were written with presentations in mind.

My question/s were:

Why does some video content grab viewers by the throat, compel them to watch
and then suck their mouse towards the bookmark/email/blog about link?

How do we get us some of that mojo for our productions?

I like the Summer of Projects meme — one part crowd-sourcing, one part activating your network and an immeasurable mix of collective wisdom, fun and social media (aka 2.0 style) collaboration.

Oh, and no, I haven’t posted my answers yet. (Sorry Chris!) Hoping to get them cleaned up for posting tonight. Will post here and in Chris’ comments.

Hmm, funny “coincidence” that MySpace stomped PhotoBucket last month when “technical difficulties” precluded photobucket contents from appearing on MySpace pages. And now, having quite clearly made their point, guess who’s buying Photobucket according to Valleywag…

Not much to do with presentations, but inre the Social Web, this is important and worth thinking about. Of course, your MySpace page is a presentation in and of itself…

Lotsa bloggers been declaring “email bankruptcy” lately, deleting wholesale their inbox contents and publicly announcing that anyone with an important, recent email should just send it again.

Cool idea.

But it’s my blog bookmarks folder that’s outta hand. Call this is horrible, lazy blogging, but I’m doing it anyway. I’m declaring Blog Link Bankruptcy. Below is my current backlog of presentations links to blog about. Someday I will explain the more important ones, but I need this clean break for the moment… Call it trying to be less of a perfectionist.

On Presenting Well:
• Presentation Zen: The “Lessig Method” of presentation
• Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Physical Exhaustion
• Create Your Communications Experience: Five Key Principles to Great Communicating
• Power Presentations: Blaming the Pen Again
• cazh1: on Business, Information, and Technology: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Powerpoint
• Presentation Zen: Is it finally time to ditch PowerPoint?
• Presentation Zen: Is it broken?
• Presentation Zen: PowerPoint: sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying
• This one appears again under social web below, but the principles in her “proverb” are critical to great presentations!!!
• The Guardian Posts “best ever” speeches list (as mentioned on Tom Peters’ blog)VC/Startups/Entrepreneurs/Pitching:
• Who Has Time For This?: Startup Stuff For Entrepreneurs
• Boing Boing: HOWTO make a VC pitch in PowerPoint
• VentureBlog: Presenting Your Company
• VentureBlog: The Dos and Don’ts of Presenting at DEMO
• Ask the Wizard: Pitching Your Company
• Allen Morgan’s Pitching Tips for Entrepreneurs
• Feld Thoughts - The Torturous World of Powerpoint
• VC Adventure: Putting together a good venture presentation
• How to Change the World: The Entrepreneur’s New Year’s Resolution: “I Will Fix My Pitch”
• Who Has Time For This?: Practicing the Art of Pitchcraft
• Presentations that DO NOT Mean Business
• Are We Wasting $250 Million per Day Due to Bad PowerPoint?
• Seth’s Blog: Worst powerpoint slide ever used by a CEOSweller/Cognitive Load Theory:
• (People have been talking about the professor from New South Wales who is said to have recently dissed PowerPoint. He’s got some cool research, and I am working through some primary sources to interpret ideas to share with you here, stay tuned.)load.pdf (application/pdf Object)The Social Web: (”2.0?” I don’t like the term. The evolution of the web is neither discrete nor staged. I really see all this as “the web as it was meant to be/as it is becoming/as it will become”)
• YouTube - Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us Freaking brilliant must-watch video
• Micro Persuasion: Irrational Exuberance 2.0
• Blogging Starter Checklist on Squidoo
• Blogging essential for a good career