The Latest Social Networking Addiction: Pinterest

For some, the gateway drug was their first tweet.  For others it was the constant poking on Facebook that nagged at them until one day they realized they had become become addicted to Social Networking.  For the afflicted, every desktop, laptop and smartphone screams out at them to "use me..."  Temptation is everywhere.  Even Twitter co-founder Biz Stone recently warned against becoming addicted to his own baby, Twitter.

So Many Followers, So Little Time

Since I launched Social Networking Rehab back in August of 2007 there has been no shortage of shiny new social networking services to fuel the pangs of the addicted.  While Twitter and Facebook may remain the cocaine and heroin of the socially addictive services, just as on the dark corners of cities everywhere there is always the threat of a new, more powerful drug making its way to the streets.  It seems the latest digital drug to feed the needs of social junkies is Pinterest.  In my humble opinion it is too soon to tell if all the interest in Pinterest is well founded, or if they are riding a wave of aggressive Facebook connecting and the early adopters' seeming obsession with whatever is perceived to be "the latest" shiny new object.

Anything Further For Fodder?

Not one to let the hype go unnoticed, Pinterest seemed like a ripe subject for me to tackle for a (long overdue) new post over at www.SocialNetworkingRehab.com, where the INVITATIONS staff will happily take the necessary steps (12 or more) to help folks overcome their uncontrollable passion for pinning.  Whether you are a true pinhead or not, I thought you might enjoy this (ahem) "news" story, re-posted here with permission.  :-)   Are you addicted to Pinterest?

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Acupuncturist Takes Pinterest Too Far

(Pittsburgh, Pinsylvania) February 20, 2012.  A 47 year-old Pinsylvania man has been arrested for aggravated assault after pinning 134 photographs to the body of an unsuspecting, but very patient, patient of the Always Accurate Acupuncture Center.  The suspect, Ivan Toopoke, is a licensed acupuncturist known for pointedly practicing his profession with piercing perfection prior to this point.  This is the first time he has been stuck with charges of needling a customer the wrong way.  

The patient, who's name has been withheld thanks to the privacy settings on her Facebook account, is a regular customer of the AAAC.  She dozed off during what was to be a routine session of stress relief sticking, only to awaken on pins and needles.  According to one witness, an apprentice acupuncturist, "I walked into the exam room with a cushion full of freshly sterililized needles, and there she was, covered head to toe with pictures of kitchen appliances, shoes, pasta dishes and Ikea Furniture, pinned to her as if she was a human pin-board.  It was shocking."

The witness's reference to human pin-board was on point, as it turns out.  Investigators who confiscated Mr. Toopoke's office computer found evidence of an obsession with the popular on-line pin-board,Pinterest.  Toopoke had set up more than 750 "boards" and had personally pinned or repinned more than 150,000 images since signing up for the sticky social network six days ago.  According to Detective Dick Richardson, "it appears that Mr. Toopoke was addicted to this Pinterest thing to the point where he could no longer distinguish between digital pins and real pins.  In his mind, his brutally abusive acupuncturing of this patient was merely a means of sharing the things he loves."

When asked about the source of the 134 images pinned to the victim, Detective Richardson noted that CSI's involved in the case had photographed for evidence a large refrigerator in the Acupuncture Office that was suspiciously devoid of any cut out pictures on it, despite the presence of a large number of small magnets.  The acupuncturist Toopoke may face jail time as well as revocation of both his acupuncturist license and his Pinterest account.  He has been sent to the prominent Social Networking Rehab facility,INVITATIONS, for observation.  The victim is expected to fully recover, and has asked if she could keep several of the photos of shoes and furniture for future reference.

A spokesperson for Pinterest was not available for comment on the incident.

Social Media Is NOT An Industry

I've been making a concerted effort to leave more comments on the blogs I read, and recently I commented on a post called "The Future of Social Media: Hope Or Hype?" at Jason Falls' great Social Media Explorer blog. My comment touched on some discussions I recently had at a breakfast with Jeff Pulver, where we were discussing different real world applications of "Social Media."

HYPE, HYPNOTISM OR HYPERBOLE?

Social Media is fun and addicting, so it is no surprise that the active participants love to talk about it, examine it, analyze it and obsess over it. Hell, here I am writing about it. Guilty as charged! But what is Social Media? As I wrote in my response to Jason:

Hi Jason. Great post. I think the reason this Hype question even exists is that "Social Media" is really NOT a standalone industry or sector, even though many folks are trying to position it as such. IMHO Social Media is not an industry.

Well, if it is not an "industry" what is it? I continued:

Social Media really refers to a set of technology driven tools and services that simply allow us to do what we have always been doing -- interacting and engaging with friends, family, associates and customers -- but with Social Media we can do it in a much more efficient, easy, cost-effective and far reaching way. Faxes were better than snail mail, and email is better than faxes, but they all enable us to communicate and exchange messages with others. Social media is like that on steroids, making it almost ridiculously simple to engage with an almost unlimited number of folks, removing all barriers of time, cost and place. Social Media provides the ability to listen and engage faster and better than ever before, and EVERY industry can use the tools and services... not to be a part of Social Media, but to leverage Social Media as a part of what they are already doing, to do it better!

Clearly, I believe there are tremendous personal and professional benefits to using Social Media, but the key is not as much being "active in Social Media" but rather, how can you make Social Media become a part of your activities.

What's your take? Is Social Media an Industry? Please add your thoughts to the comments, and if you like reading this blog, please subscribe by email or RSS.

Photo Credit: Paul Hill - Fotolia.com

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Twitter: A Shoe-In!

On a recent trip to San Francisco I had the chance to get down to the sole of Twitter. I was sitting in the hotel lobby, debating dinner plans, when I flipped open my trusty laptop to check my email and take a quick dip in the Twitter stream. In a bit of Twitter synchronicity, I happened upon a Tweet announcing a "Zappos Twitter Party" from 6-9pm at an address on Mission Street. I follow @Zappos and had recently been reading about how the Zappos CEO was becoming more and more active on Twitter. I was intrigued. It was not quite 7pm, and Mission Street was just a short cab ride away. No brainer!

When in Rome, Do as the Romans...
When in San Francisco, Do as the Geeks!

So, I hauled Sass over to Mission Street and joined the Zappos crew and many other fine Twittizens for drinks courtesy of Zappos. In a low tech variation on Jeff Pulver's "Real-Time Social Tagging" theme, everyone had their Twitter name written on their right hand, and for free drinks, the word "Zappos" written on their left hand. I had a chance to record a few words with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (@Zappos) and several others in attendance.



Additional short videos from the party are HERE and HERE.

If the shoe fits... Tweet it!


Shoe Photo Credit: Donald Bartkowiak - Fotolia.com

Six Sassy Bits About Twitter

I am a big fan of Twitter. Some may even say I am addicted to Twitter. Certainly, Twitter was a strong influence and inspiration behind the launch of the INVITATIONS Social Networking Rehab Facility. In the past several months, as Twitter has continued to gain traction, the number of folks following me has more than doubled. With that in mind, I thought I would take a few moments here to re-visit some of the things I have written about Twitter over the past 12 months. So, if you are new to this blog, or new to Twitter, here are six blog posts that will hopefully inform and entertain any new Twittizen:

TWITTER MADE A MONKEY OF ME (April 2007)

Well, perhaps I allowed Twitter to let me make a monkey of myself... And, as you will soon learn, this is not the first time I have been a monkey! It all started when I signed up for Twitter and began following and befriending folks I knew, including podcasters I admire and have communicated with...such as the proverbial prince of podcasting, the Podfather himself, Adam Curry (adamcurry in Twitterspeak). There was no reason for me to suspect that the "Twit" adamcurry was not the "real" Adam Curry... (READ MORE...)

TWITTER MADE A COMIC STRIP OF ME (April 2007)

Well, I must say, I am all a-twitter. The infamous "Comic Strip Blogger," A/K/A "CSB" caught wind of my "TWITTER Made A Monkey of Me!" post and turned me into a Comic Strip! (In case you are wondering, I am the monkey on the LEFT!)

TWITTER IS THE NEW "DISCOVERY CHANNEL" (April 2007)

I have mentioned how Twitter Made a Monkey of Me and Twitter Made a Comic Strip of Me but the real thing Twitter has done for me is to become my primary "discovery channel." It may be R.I.P. for my RSS reader! Why scour scores of subscriptions when I can have the latest and greatest pushed to me live and on the fly? Twitter has become my best way to discover. Discover cool websites....discover blogs, podcasts, even breaking news... It has been an amazing and inspiring resource... (READ MORE...)

I LOVE LUCY (and TWITTER) (September 2007)

Yes, Twitter is like an episode of I LOVE LUCY...
(to find out how, read on...)

GONE FISHIN' (IN THE TWITTER STREAM!) (January 2008)

I remember fishing with my Grandfather. City boys we, our idea of fishing was standing on the pier with a Popeil's Pocket Fisherman, using store bought frozen shrimp as bait. We had more than our share of stories about "the one that got away"... but we also had many successful hauls of the hook. The pier was always there, and anytime we wanted we could grab the rod, toss a line in and see what we might be able to reel in. So what does "goin' fishin'" have to do with Twitter? Because, dropping by the Twitter stream is a lot like tossing a baited line in the water, never quite sure what, if anything, you may catch... (READ MORE...)

TWITTER INTELLIGENCE (IS NOT AN OXYMORON) (February 2008)

The phrase "Military Intelligence" is often jokingly referred to as an oxymoron. (I used to think "oxymoron" was some sort of bleach product I should be using to get the stains out of my laundry -- now, with "oxymoron!") Regardless of your position on Military Intelligence, I would like to take a moment to examine what I will call "Twitter Intelligence," and how I use Twitter to be less of a Moron. (READ MORE...)

So there you have it. Six Sassy Bits About Twitter... What have you written about Twitter over the past 12 months? Please share your opinions and links to YOUR favorite bits about Twitter in the comments below. And if you are not doing so already, please follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sass.

Social Media: I Can See Clearly How Blurry It Is!

It's all getting blurry... In the world of social media, our network(s) become our friends and our friends become our network(s). The business of social networking becomes the socializing of our business. It is increasingly difficult to separate who we are from what we do or whom we work for. After all, if you embrace the transparency that makes the web work so much better, it is nearly impossible to lead a double life online. We are who we are, and all of our Blog posts, Twitter Tweets, Facebook Updates, Utterz utters, Seesmic and YouTube Videos, Flickr photos and the entirety of our daily digital droppings shapes our persona in the eyes of "the community." The lines between personal and professional are dotted and not solid. This is not a bad thing. After all, we spend the majority of our adult lives working and our life's work experience invariably helps shape who we are and how we behave.

A SEPARATE PIECE?

It was not too long ago that I tried to keep my personal online presence separate from my professional online presence. While I did not hide the fact that I work at Myxer, when I did Myxer stuff online I felt I should keep it separate from this personal blog, and vice versa. Little by little, as I found my social network expanding I increasingly encountered people that, aside from being "social" with, I could actually be doing business with. I realized that there were potential partners in them thar social networking woods! So slowly but surely, I have eased a little more of my work life into my social networking and without question my social networking life has eased its way into my business. This has been encouraging, fun and productive on both sides of the fence as I continue to explore ways to appropriately use social media to expand my business, and at the same time leverage my business to expand my social network.

WORK'S A BEACH!

Most recently, I have been having a lot of fun creating short videos as part of my social networking. Whether posting them on Facebook, Utterz, Seesmic, YouTube, or my Social Networking Rehab parody blog, I have been finding video to be a great way to satisfy some of my creative urges. Along the same lines, the other day I took a short video on the beach with my Treo smartphone, and turned it into a silly "recruitment" video for Myxer, since we are actively hiring. On a whim, I posted the video on YouTube and sent the link out on my Twitter stream. Within minutes, in addition to some encouraging comments, I actually received resumes sent to the "HR" email address at the end of the video. A social media video, posted to the Twitter stream, proved to actually be an effective tool to attract potential employees. The lines may be blurred but the results are clear: Social Media and business can and do work together!

How have you incorporated your social media life into your business (or your business into your social media life)?

Send "Work's A Beach" To Your Phone. Click the button >

Video by Sass. Photo Credit: GJS - Fotolia.com

You're So Vain (You Probably Think This Blog Is About You)

Variety may be the spice of life, but VANITY is the spice that seasons the blogosphere. Face it, you can't spell B L O G G E R without E G O! It takes a certain amount of self-love, self-confidence and self-centeredness to put your words out there for the world to see. Frankly, few of us would be doing it if we didn't have enough of an ego to believe our words, thoughts, creativity, opinions and observations were worthy of note by others. We want to be noticed, recognized (literally and figuratively) and we want to be heard.

Thanks to technology advances an individual's ability to create and distribute their own content has been democratized. It is the proverbial power of the pen and press on steroids. Whereas man has always been able to create with a scroll and ink or a canvas and paint, the audience was limited. Today, with the same ease we can create something that can literally have infinite global reach. Someone in Australia can read this right now, as simply as someone in the house next door (of course the person in the house next door is probably stealing my Wi-Fi signal. My Mate in Australia is a "legitimate" reader!)

THIS TIME ITS PERSONAL

We have entered the age of Personal Brands, where being master of your domain (name) is as important as your wardrobe and hygiene choices. Parents are choosing child names based on the availability of theirkid.com (and I used to think "GoDADDY" was an odd name for a Domain Registrar... Bob Parsons is a genius!) Contrary to popular belief, we are NOT what we eat. We ARE what shows up when we Google our names! Lifestreaming, Liveblogging, JustinTV, just in time to make an inordinate amount of content available using cool, free and easy tools.

Micro-blogging is making Macro changes to the what, where, why, when and how we communicate and share our opinions and our lives. In social media, everyone is like your first college roommate... a stranger whose life is suddenly exposed to you bit by bit as you spend more time together, sharing more and more tidbits of both the mundane and the meaningful. Over time, the bits (and in our case, bytes) of information shape your perception of the person and make them "real" and before long that stranger is no longer strange, and in fact, has become a friend. Is that any different than what happens on Twitter and Facebook? By the time you go to an event or a "Tweet Up" and meet someone you have been following or have befriended for a while, you are already virtual roommates and well on your way to becoming true friends.

TREES FALLING IN THE WOODS

Now that we have such a powerful and simple ability to reach an audience (and an audience is someone who is listening to YOU, whether it is one person or one thousand). If you write in a blog, Tweet something, or Utter something, or post a video on Seesmic or YouTube or Write on a Wall on Facebook and SOMEONE responds, then you have succeeded and your ego will have been stroked. But is Social Media like trees falling in the woods? If you post something on your blog and the comment meter remains on "0" does that mean nobody can hear it? How does that make you feel? Do you gauge your Twitter tweets by how many @yourname responses you get? Do you feel disappointed or even slighted if you craft a clever 140 character mini-manifesto and see it drift away with the current of the Twitter stream without making a single @you ripple? Honestly... I do! Thanks to our egos I think we all crave feedback. Perhaps even a negative comment is more satisfying than silence. Perhaps it is our ego driven nature that has unconsciously built the infrastructure of Social Media and on-line "community" around channels of linking, commenting, tracking, sharing and re-posting. What do you think?

So, now that we are "roommates," please feel free to stroke my ego by commenting on this blog post and sharing and linking to your heart's delight! And yes, this blog IS about you!

Photo Credit: Albo - Fotolia.com

I Love Lucy! (and Twitter)

Yes, Twitter is like an episode of I LOVE LUCY...
(to find out how, read on...)

If you read through the posts on this blog you will see that I am an avid user and fan of Twitter. As a loyal Twittizen, Twitter has been fun, it has been a resource, it has been a discovery channel, it has been a meeting place, a community, a respite, a river of information and entertainment, a view into the future, past and present, and just plain cool. It truly has been a benefit to me both personally and professionally. I have met new friends and and established legitimate business leads. It has been a platform for business mashups like my TwitTones, (shameless plug: follow @myxertones for a FREE daily Indy Music ringtone delivered in a Tweet) and it has been an outlet for creativity and (hopefully) humor, such as my experiment with poking fun at my Social Networking "Hobby" as an addiction. It is truly amazing how impactful, interesting and inspiring random bursts of 140 characters can be.

So, what about I LOVE LUCY???

Yesterday @newmediajim asked how we would describe Twitter. He called it

"...sort of like if LinkedIn were having a cocktail party. "

I thought about how I would describe Twitter, and realized it is like an episode of I LOVE LUCY -- Specifically the episode where Lucy is working in the candy factory, and the chocolates are rolling by her, faster and faster... so I responded to NewMediaJim:

"Twitter is like the chocolate conveyor belt in I LOVE LUCY. Lots of great treats flying by..you pluck the ones that look sweet!"

And it is! If you have a great group of diverse folks you follow, as I believe I do, you have access to a constant stream of community consciousness you can tap into any time... from your PC, from your phone, from your connected PDA of choice. Like Lucy's conveyor belt, the Twitter machine is constantly full, and moving fast. You can scramble to catch them all (as Lucy does in the beginning of the skit), or you can slow down, observe what is going by, and pick and choose the tastiest of morsels from the Twitter train of thought. Chew, Chew (Choo Choo!)

Lucy or not, I am having a Ball with Twitter!


Photo Credit:Elena Elisseeva - Fotolia.com

Facebook Is Viral Viagra

The infamous blue pill may get things going in the bedroom, but if you want to get things going in Cyberspace it seems all you need is to get some Facetime on Facebook!

I am an avid Twitterer and a good Twitizen, but I don't get too many @sass or D sass messages. I have had a personal blog since 2004, but I rarely get even 1 comment on my posts, despite toiling over every witty and pithy sentence (at least in my mind they are witty and pithy). Yet I put a video on my Facebook profile and lo and behold, I am suddenly "viral." Granted, I put some work into the video production and I "tagged" Chris Brogan, which gave me a jump start with his active following. And now Jeff Pulver was kind enough to link to my video from his well read blog. That said, as I watch the comments grow and add many new found Facebook Friends, I can see just how well the "virality" (that's viral vitality) is built into the Facebook platform... and it really does work. When someone comments on my video it appears in their profile and news feed for all of their friends to be exposed to. If one of their friends then comments, it goes out to their circle... and on and on and on.

In many respects, this is the power of a "closed system" as opposed to the "open" Internet at large. For a "regular guy with a regular blog" like me, posting on this blog is like putting a message in a bottle, tossing it out to sea, and hoping it will drift to shore where someone may notice it and respond. Posting on Facebook is like going around your neighborhood and sticking a flyer in everyone's mailbox. The flyer in the mailbox is much more likely to be read than the message in the bottle!

Thankfully, I am not yet in need of a "virility" boost from the little blue pill, but I will happily enjoy the "virality" boost I have gotten from Facebook!

UPDATE:
(For those of you not in my neighborhood on Facebook, here is the aforementioned video)

Non-Anonymous (Say THAT 10 Times Fast!)

The times they are a changing... at least for me. I have come to realize the value of being "non-anonymous" and it has been somewhat of an awakening for me. I am learning to embrace transparency, and so far I think that's a good thing. As someone who has frequented the Internet since long before the World Wide Web (I got my first Compuserve Account in 1982, along with my Commodore 64) I was sort of weened in the ways of anonymity. Going "online" meant going online with a "screenname" (a "handle" to put it in CB Radio Terms) so that no one knew who you really were. This was especially useful when using a 300 Baud Modem to log onto a strange bulletinboard with a long distance call to San Francisco in the middle of the night (a bulletin board you found in the classified ads in the back of BYTE Magazine...) This pseudo self was very effective for flaming people on the boards with stupid and inane comments, a practice that was practically an art form in the day. Years later, upon getting divorced and finding myself suddenly single, I embraced the world of online dating... once again protected by the Scarlett Letter: In this case the "A" was for "Anonymity." I could flirt and chat and charm, all under the guise of an anonymous profile. In the business world, running several Public Companies, I further honed my skills for secrecy, with fear of "selective disclosure" training me to keep things close to the vest (even though I hadn't actually worn a vest since my Bar Mitzvah!)

Even this blog, loosely launched in 2004, was first published under my anonymous dating screenname and had no public connection to the real me. Of course that has all changed. Now you can get my contact info, my detailed bio on LinkedIN, my Twitter updates, my professional info, pictures of me and mine, and a wealth of peeks at my person that surely must border on TMI -- too much information.

Why the change?

Two words. Social Networking. To truly leverage the power of today's amazing tools of communication and connection, you cannot be nameless. You cannot make a mark if nobody can recognize your mark. With so many touchpoints and vectors, so many avenues to access -- each overlapping and interlacing in so many ways -- every blogpost, comment, update, email, IM and text message you post, leave or send, has a residual value that will only inure to your benefit if it can be attributed to YOU. If you are going to flitter on Twitter, pounce on Pownce, write Haiku on Jaiku, make facetime on Facebook, have a fling on Ning, take up space on MySpace and just be a part of the Community... then you must stand up, open up, take off the the Kimono and take CREDIT for your words, thoughts, opinions and actions. Will you make mistakes? Sure. Will you say something stupid, or overly obvious, or ten minutes after everyone else in the world has already said the same thing? Sure. But that's ok, because you will be in the game, and to be in the game that's part of the game. And in time you will gain both confidence and credibility, and the value of your connections will far surpass the fear of being non-anonymous!