Through this blog I’ll be sharing my thoughts on movies, music and literature…and perhaps some other similar topics. I may provide a review, or perhaps just a quick mention of something I’d like to pass along. I’ll do my best to provide links to the things I blog about so you can get more information, and when I can I’ll embed a song or a clip as well. I hope you’ll offer your opinions too, since I get most of my best recommendations from my friends who also like movies, music and books. And of course, whether you agree or disagree with me, I hope you’ll feel free to tell me what’s on your mind.

The big hook is that beginning this weekend I will be watching and reviewing in order, all of AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies! If you are a film fan you might find this interesting.

So, I invite you over to take a look and please consider bookmarking the site or even better signing up for the e-mail subscription. And if you have friends who share my passion for movies, music and literature by all means send them a link!

In five days, my campaign drove 30 clicks and 5 leads via contact form for $19.39. By comparison, a Match membership costs $34.99 per month (with no guarantee of traffic or leads).

Five qualified leads from women who live near him and who have similar interests. The women who clicked on the ad were taken to a custom landing page where Matt did his best to prove he wasn’t a complete nut and at the same time provided more detail about what he was looking for in a date. You might think this is creepy, but frankly how is it any more creepy than randomly “winking” at women on Match.com? By testing various keywords he was able to target his ads to women who fit his profile. Why sit back and wait for a date when you can actively seek one?

When you read through Matt’s explanation on his blog it makes sense. I can’t relate since I haven’t been “out there” in 20 years, but I know from talking with my single friends that dating is a bitch and online dating is a lot of work. Matt used his experience in marketing to market Matt, a product at least you can say he believed in.

What do you think of this approach from a marketing perspective? I don’t want to know if you’d date Matt, just whether or not you think he might have stumbled into a whole new business concept. I gotta tell you…I think it’s brilliant.

I think my reluctance to use LinkedIn can be traced all the way back to its earliest days when the interface and user experience were just dreadful. We’re talking heroically bad. I also used to think it was weird to peer into someone’s address book. But of course that was before Facebook existed and “creeping” only applied to undergarments gone wild.

I went about 6 years without using LinkedIn. Long enough that when I decided it was time  to raise the bar on my own social media best practices, I couldn’t even remember the email address that my account was registered under. It actually took someone on the phone to get it straightened out. It’s worth pointing out that the customer service was in fact excellent.

Well, today I received a lovely email from Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s co-founder and Chairman.  Apparently they just signed up their 100 millionth member and he “personally” wanted to thank me for being an “innovator” who “led the way.” Yes, Mom, your son is officially LinedkIn dude # 33,688. To be honest, I feel like I owe Reid an “I’m sorry” as much as a “you’re welcome.” SO, I am making a resolution to wrap my cyber arms around his whole 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon business networking thing.

Even though I know there are at least 33,687 other people out there who received the same email, I still felt valued.  It’s incredible how easy and effective it is to show a customer that you care. It’s just as important as doing good work.

When’s the last time you told your clients that you appreciated them?

Twestival is a tweet-up event in Phoenix that is part of a global charity event, organized, managed and run solely by local volunteers. This social media event is a fundraiser to help raise money for a local charity in the Valley. This year, through social media voting and suggestions, Twestival Phoenix 2011 has chosen Child Crisis Center based in Mesa as its beneficiary. The event features a silent auction and raffle drawing with dozens of cool and amazing prizes from local businesses and organizations. The goal is to collect $18,000 for Child Crisis Center.

Twestival will be at The Clayton on the Park in Scottsdale. Not only will you help a good cause, meet others, but you can sample some bites from some of the premiere restaurants in the Valley, like Chef Payton Curry , Petite Maison, Big Earl’s BBQ, Iruna, Wildflower Bread Co., and 24 Carrots Cafe. FnB and Beckett’s Table are donating meals for the silent auction.

Regular admission starts at $20 and students can get in for $10. For more information, follow them on Twitter, check out their Facebook page or go here.

Interestingly enough, our CIO and our VP of organizational development are both in favor of opening up social sites — in fact nobody really even knows why they are blocked. It’s not official policy to block these sites…it’s just always been that way. Yes, the compliance department is afraid of social networking, but they’re afraid of everything. It has been said, though never proven to me at least, that certain department managers want social sites blocked because they don’t want their employees goofing off. Again, a red herring. Basically, nobody at my company knows why social sites are blocked and nobody really has the power to change it. Crazy, huh? Have I mentioned that I work in IT? My department is responsible for doing the actual blocking, using some fancy tool called Bluecoat. But we don’t set the policy, so we can’t open up sites without some other approval. Again, from whom is a mystery.

What got me thinking about this tonight was a post I saw on Facebook from Shel Holtz, the guru of employee communications and social media (according to me). Shel is a huge advocate for opening up access to social media sites for employees and even has a blog dedicated to the cause called StopBlocking.org. Shel has a great new “Storify” story where he has linked all sorts of great articles and posts about this topic. It is going to take me some time to get through it all, but there are some great resources there for folks like me looking to nudge their organization along the path of social freedom. And then I need to figure out what Storify is and if I should be using it! Dang it’s hard to keep up with all these cool social tools.

Anyway, I really can’t think of any good reasons to keep employees off social media sites. I’ve always been an advocate for technology and will continue to fight the good fight. See you on the barricades!

The event is tomorrow and you may buy your tickets at the door, but it will cost ya! $225!

• When: February 11th, 2011
• Time: 9 am – 4 pm (doors open at
• Where: The MadCap Theaters in Tempe - 730 S. Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281 (Map)
• Parking: Discounted parking available
• Agenda: Check the topics and speakers here

The keynote will be by Jay Baer of Convince & Convert, and Amber Naslund of Radian6. They will talk about their new book, The Now Revolution. All attendees will receive a free copy of the book!

Several speakers from other states will be presenting as well. They include:

• Kamran Qamar the president of mobile development company.
• Patrick Seaman (Mr. Broadcast.com himself!)
• Christian Briggs (chairman of BMC capital)

Check out the line up of speakers, here.

In case you’ve been to a SMAZ event before, do note that there will be new topics this year covering mobile, location, search, and e-commerce.

Register today!

February 11′s event will introduce new topics like mobile, location, video, search, branding and e-commerce, all with social ties. Arizona’s own (well, former resident) Jay Baer of Convince and Convert and VP of Radian6 Amber Naslund will be flying in to discuss their new book The NOW Revolution (look for a special giveaway on this blog soon), along with e-commerce and social startup cinsay, and the president of L.A. based mobile development company Pyntail.

It’s great that Von Graf has expanded the speaker base, both topic and location wise, to include more than AZ faces.

Von Graf is currently working on a co-working space in Tempe, technology incubator LaunchSpot and mobile game Hexxa, which is set to be released this year at SXSW. These accomplishments all take a slight backseat to his number one priority, Alex, his two-month-old son.

“Social Media is becoming more mainstream, far more people are using it and marketers have finally started looking at the data to make their decisions. We as businesses now realize that there’s a cost associated and are able to measure success though more mature tools,” Von Graf said. “Businesses are able to make small and intelligent changes using known strategies and improve their businesses both from a sales perspective but also from a customer engagement experience. We are social creatures by nature and social media consists of the tools we now use to engage in these conversations and helping our advocates converse as well.”

Valley PR Blog readers get a special discount and a special link. Type in SMAZ4VPRB to get 30% off your ticket(s).

What if this is not the last career move you’ll ever make? It’s not all that easy to be optimistic about today’s Bureau of Labor  announcement that 200 metropolitan areas have reported over-the-year increases in non-farm payroll employment as of December 2010, with only 156 reporting decreases. Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale have shown an increase in +28,800 jobs.

Job searching in a world of blogs and social networks has been a topic I get asked about a lot, considering the fact that resumes are not exactly passe. Or are they?

So this networking event, hosted by the Southwest Job Network (SJN) on how prepare for long-term career management, is very relevant.

• The Speaker: Jason Alba, author of  “I’m on LinkedIn – Now What?”
• When:  Wednesday 9th February, 2011
• Where: Gateway Community College. 108 N. 40 Street, Phoenix, AZ 85034
• Cost: Free.  SJN exists on donations; the suggested amount is $5 (tax deductible)
• Registration and more details: at this link

To attend, please register.

Topics for small businesses include how to manage multiple locations, making your passion pay, and quick and dirty marketing plans. Each are designed to give busy small business owners help they can implement immediately.

The event is free to all.

“At conference, in boardrooms – it’s always “scale”, “revenue”, “biz”. Let’s talk wisdom, passion, justice, perseverance, humanity, meaning.” — Umair Haque, thinker, blogger, advisor to revolutionaries. (source)

Industries thrive on quantitative measurements. Whether it’s growth rate, subscriber base or gross profit, there’s no question that more is always good.

The PR industry is no different, as I see long client lists, flashy cars and clothes that show off wealth and walls displaying awards from groups that most people have never heard of. Not that I’m judging these actions, as they obviously provide a direct benefit to potential customers and your bottom line, but I can’t help but think that there might be a better way to gauge success.

Our personal lives are seldom judged with the same criteria. Few people judge their happiness by the size of their friend network. Most don’t enter last year’s neighborly Christmas basket in award ceremonies, nor do they usually expect every interaction to have an ROI.

Those things don’t seem to matter as much. Unless you’re friending to increase social status, which is a profession in itself, most of us don’t care how many previous friends that person has, what their personal mission statement is or what they bring to the table when it’s time to negotiate a relationship with a new friend.

I’m not suggesting everyone pull a Jerry Maguire and shed their client list, downgrade their home and trade in that BMW for a Honda Accord, but doesn’t it seem weird that business is run by humans to benefit humans, yet itself is so inhuman?

Great networkers are certainly aware of this, as collecting contacts just doesn’t work unless you’re always competing on price. They know the value of a great relationship, but how to you communicate that value to your bottom line? Is it a measure of the person’s connectedness? Their attitude? How you feel when you’re around them? Is there a way to qualitatively measure this?

In a time when anonymity and unfamiliarity tend to breed vitriol, I can’t help but think we’d all be a little better off if we all valued our emotion in our professional lives as much as we do our personal ones.

How do you keep score?