newMedia Advisers...Social Media Consultants

Seems the Ventures always start the same way... minding someone else's business I was discussing how to structure a joint venture/partnership with a client and at the end of our conversation, that had gone rather well, he cleared his throat and said, "after we do this deal I want to ask a favor of you. I have an online presence (or is it a personality?) going back a couple of years but it is fragmented and ineffective and I'd like to create a cohesive, easy to find and understand online Brand of One as you say. Will you help me?" He went to ask if I had the time to work with him as a Senior Adviser and of course the answer was "sure"...He's a Great Guy with a Heart of Gold. (it's really possible to run a big organization and tell the truth and be compassionate). Every venture has a humanitarian thread or two in it's basic fabric...  "when you are back out on the Coast come by and we'll walk through it and then off you go"... never thought of doing this, but I started counting the Blogs (Mine are listed over there on the right side with all the Affiliates) and profiles and so forth... I'm a regular Gman... Google and Goss..

Hardly an online personality. I do have 20,000 followers on Twitter (would Love to have you Follow Me and I auto follow back btw)  and have a purpose to it all. Been suspended a few times as I sorted out what you can and are discouraged from doing on what I believe will be the most powerful personal and professional medium when integrated with Wave (still have a couple of invites for the asking: pegoss@gmail.com ...with a "why you" please) for the foreseeable future.... and then there is my partner Richierich who has a few thousand devout followers as well.. We have done some promos and driven some traffic to various sites and causes and at this point we've tried a few of the get rich quick scams (STOP IT!!!) and all the "get thousands of followers" jive programs ... somewhere in this blog is the story about how we got here, but suffice to say for a lot less than my client was willing to pay me we can help an individual out with the personal technology and ways to go about creating a presence on-line for individuals and Execs... and We are a nice mix.. and then there is Facebook where I have some friends and family but have not done a lot of networking... OK for "sharing".

Richie is 30 and a Mac (Genius actually) and I'm a soon to be 60 ex-corp exec and former Mac and now a PC... and then there is Ali who, though less visible, has a wonderful business sense (Commercial Real Estate on the Monterey Peninsula) and one of the world's biggest hearts  as well as more service commitments in the areas of Ecology and Social Services than anyone I know (Mother Teressa in a Business Suit)... So we get what it means to be relevant and responsible and can help guide anyone through the maze that at first seems confusing.. Let's make some sense of it... Next thing is the one man  Your Board of Directors... and I think I'm doing that again... gratis! Love to Help... Safe Travels!... a Sort of Social Media Mentor..hmmm. Feel free to call or write.

A Fad? What Fad? Social Media is Now ...and the Future

I think that it was in 2003 sometime when I realized just how great that "social media" thing was... even though I really had no idea that's what it was going to be called. I just thought that it was a really good way to see what all of those people from high school were doing. This was way before Myspace and Facebook.. back then I was on Friendster.  I could feel that this way of interacting with people was going to be how it was done in the future. e-Mail was OK. Just OK... for the business guys. This was way before the revolution in mobile devices that has swept the world. The concept of instant interaction with the rest of the world was not even on my scope back then. I was just interested in what everybody else was doing with their lives.

I do understand how people could think of social media as a fad. Something that was going to fade away just like 8tracks, audio cassettes, laser discs, and car phones. I think that people think that way because they are scared of it or really just don't understand it. They fail to see the power that social media can wield. When it comes down to it, how they can make money with it.  For me, it all comes down to straight shootin'. Honest advertising... and how it can help the little guy. How it effects small, local businesses that have always had to go out of their way and spend a bunch of money to get widespread exposure. They have had to take out ad space in a local newspaper or mailer to get it out to their neighbors that they have a really great new pumpkin spice yogurt flavor. (which is awesome by the way. @myofrozenyogurt) They can now use Twitter and Facebook as real weapons for their business. The other side of the coin is that for people like myself who are fiercely loyal to businesses that I love... we can spread their messages with a simple retweet.. or by sharing their link to our friends. It helps everybody in the long run because local business is the key to everything in my mind. When local businesses are doing good then I am feeling good.

So yes, maybe Twitter and Facebook may come and go, but this way of interacting with the world is here to stay. And how about the proliferation of Blogs in their various forms . It's not a fad. It's more like a revolution. ...And here seems to be the proof!..btw.. you can follow us on twitter: The Monk, Richierich, Ali.

Twitter-click to follow me

Off we go to this place that I thought was a waste of time.. it can be. Less than two weeks ago I had 3 (maybe 5 people) I followed and I had weighed in on election day about the choice I'd made live in the stream (very cool) and really never gave Twitter much thought. Our site (cumulusmedical.com) was up and  there was no great migration (ya know?) and I started to wonder, "what do ya do?". Nice site Geoff built. Took Months.. it's nice... we had hired a marketing consulting firm (check's in the mail) who told us that we should get going and build a following on Twitter and Facebook...the prospect of generating much activity on FB was slim..but on Twitter?...that might be another story.. first came the get rich quick scams... bought one... learned to use SocialOomph and Bit.ly. Opened a Clickbank account and became a spammer... got quickly embarrassed by a lovely follower who wrote this: "send me one 'increase your followers by 10,000 tomorrow' message in any form and you're blocked"... I love that girl today I do. the culture corrects itself it seems if you pay attention. It is a friendly ,supportive place. I quickly followed 2000 (by hand)  power users to see what they were doing.. some returned the follow (I found them at: Twitter.grader.com and wefollow). I loaded twitterberry onto the Bold and have Uber and Tiny Twitter on the Blackberry as well... have facebook for BB there but it's a more limited environment so far... friends you know....so I went from 0 to 1200+ followers in a week and a half as a nobody and using SocialOomph to post about the things that meant (still do actually) something to me...I'm in the stream.  Ultimately I settled on using Tweetadder to control my searching for following and add those who share our commitment to a mindful existence. Those who care about Health Care reform. the Oceans. Wildlife. Vegetarianism. Meditation. Peace. Love.  Yoga. Our Children. Truth and Justice... I hope you'll join me.. it's a good place to be...@pgoss.