Margie Clayman

As you wind down a project, you find that any little oomph that can lift you up and over the finish line is much like a lovely breeze on a burning hot day. It is thus entirely in the realm of happy serendipity that I had the experience I did yesterday.

See, for about 5 months now, I’ve been blogging about engagement online. A lot of people think engagement is an over-stressed segment of the online world because it technically doesn’t lead to you making money. I got some crap (for lack of a better word) when folks found out I’d be spending so much time on this “overdone” topic. But yesterday, I got the ultimate validation that while online engagement on its own may not have a business value, it is priceless.

[Read more…] about Definitive Proof that Engagement is Valuable

If you’ve been visiting here at my blog for awhile, you know that I’ve been working on Mark Twain’s autobiography all summer. Well, working on reading it, not writing it. If you are new here, now you know. Ehem. Anyway, over the last few cycles of the moon, good ole Mark has given me a lot of ideas about modern engagement online, as strange as that may seem. Since we’re winding down the engagement series now, I thought it would be apropos to share all of the wisdom Mr. Twain has shown me about interacting with other folks.

[Read more…] about Twenty Tidbits of Twain Wisdom About Social Media Engagement

I was a pretty late addition to the Harry Potter bandwagon, I must admit. When I was in grad school a friend convinced me to buy the first book, and I did. I sat down to read it and all I could think was, “Hmm, well that reminds me of that movie. That comes from that book. Oh, she stole that from this story.” I know, a very snobby way to look at things, but that’s what the ivory tower does to ya, right?

Thanks to TBS and their penchant for showing every single Harry Potter movie over and over again, I’ve gotten a bit more interested in the series. I watched the first part of the finale over the weekend and am planning on going to the theater to see the finale of the finale.

I’ve written about Harry Potter a bit (though of the epic film series of the oughts I tend to lean towards Lord of the Rings), but as I think about the series, there really are a lot of lessons one can take away about engagement. Here are some that I came up with.

[Read more…] about 20 Engagement Lessons from Harry Potter

Are you a fan of Arrested Development? I sure am. If you aren’t familiar, Arrested Development lasted 3 seasons on Fox. It is about a super rich family that’s totally dysfunctional and becomes even more dysfunctional when the dad is arrested by the SEC for illegal doings at the family-owned company. There are a lot of delicious moments in the series that could really be used to illustrate things about the world of social media, but I’m just going to talk about one today.

The two oldest brothers, GOB (stands for George Oscar Bluth, played by Will Arnett) and Michael (played by the still cute Justin Bateman) had had a huge argument. Michael came to realize he needed his brother’s help with something. He runs into GOB and says, “Oh, I’m so sorry about our argument. You’re a really great brother and you deserve more respect.” Michael then pauses for about 5 seconds. Then he says, “I need a favor.”

GOB responds, “Well, that was subtle.”

This interaction, unfortunately, captures almost precisely (minus the “brother” stuff) some experiences I’ve had online lately.

[Read more…] about Well that was subtle

A lot of people are saying that whether or not Google Plus opens up in a strong way for business use, the fact that they can interact with people on Google Plus is going to help their business. In part, I can see that. Statistically speaking, the more people you meet, the better chance you have at meeting people you like or people who would buy from you.

But (because as Pee Wee Herman once said, we all have big buts), just talking to people and sharing kitty videos is not going to help *most* businesses. It will help you as a person, perhaps, or if you run a brand that is all about engaging online, you’ll be golden. If you’re an accountant, you may not be so lucky.

This is not a new conversation. People are equating followers on Twitter with business prospects. The logic goes that the more people you engage with the better chance you have of finding your buyers. Same for Facebook fans and blog subscribers. Again, for some folks, this may be 100% true. For a lot of people, it won’t be true at all.

Did I just douse you with icy cold water?

[Read more…] about It’s the People, Not the Platform

As I was frothing and foaming about how frustrating Google Plus was, I was thinking how nice it would be if I could bring that sense of community I enjoy so much on Twitter over to the new platform. Then it hit me…I could!

Over the last week, many people, along with me, have been working to build an extension of the Tweetdiner community over on Google Plus. There are a lot of advantages to this. First, out of the millions of people joining the network now, it’s nice to see people whom you know are (for the most part…hahah) credible and trustworthy. It’s also nice to know that you can easily converse with these folks because, well, you’ve done it  before!

As of now, here is how it is working. I have created a TweetDinerPLUS circle. If you find me over there, just say, “Please let me into the diner” so I know you’re not a bot, and I will include you and then announce that you’re in – that way the other folks in the circle will see your name. Once in, you can create your own Tweetdiner circle and start adding all of the people you see. I’ll do  roll-call tomorrow listing everyone I have so that everyone can be on the same page.

It’s not as smooth as groups on Facebook or hashtags on Twitter, but I think for now, sharing the same people in similarly named circles is as good as we can get.

The Chat

David McGraw has already begun mastering the art of running chats on Google Plus, and after some requests from the TweetdinerPLUS crowd, we’re going to try to do a chat next Thursday (7/28) at 9 PM EST.

I’m going to keep the topic pretty simple – what do you think of Google Plus so far? The complexity of trying out the chat should be enough to keep our minds engaged, right?

Here’s how I’m *thinking* the chat will work.

I will post a question to the #tweetdinerPLUS circle (noting it as such) at 9, 9:15, 9:30, and 9:45. Each question will be a new thread so that conversations can continue on the previous threads. Hopefully David will be there to offer me moral support in case I lose control 🙂

Our main chats will continue on Twitter on Saturday nights at 9 PM EST. We are wrapping up some conversation about Twitter tonight, and next week we’ll be kicking off a few weeks of Facebook conversation with Tommy Walker.

I hope to see you all here, there, and everywhere. If you have any questions or concerns, hey, let me know. As my man Lincoln said, “We are all green alike.”