Today was the second Social Media Breakfast in the Twin Cities. We had a great turnout for the small space that I had booked. I won’t make that mistake again, even though it worked out ok. Albert Maruggi commented awhile ago on how much talent and interest there is here in the Minneapolis & St. Paul area in social media. I have to agree as our meetups keep backing up that interest with really great, dedicated, intelligent people who want to get involved for so many great reasons.
The group here in the northland has a mix of great perspectives and intentions – I honestly am honored to be able to spend time discussing new ideas and opportunities with this group and encourage anyone interested to check out the social media site for our meetups. We’ll be hosting more meetups and I’m planning on keeping it interesting and helping the group in whatever direction it wants to go.
UPDATE: Connie Bensen had a nice recap & comments on the video feed that we set up for this event. You can visit her post here.
So I just found out that Hugh MacLeod of GapingVoiddeleted his Twitter account today. There is bound to be talk far and wide on how this is a sign that Twitter’s popularity is waning. I’m going to disagree with those assessments, but I do know one thing – Hugh says that he “found it too easy”. I’d agree with that – it’s too easy to just Twitter the day away.
I can relate. There are days when I think I’ve wasted too many hours, too many creative ideas on Twitter. I’ve even tried staying off Twitter for a week back in December. I finally think I’m finding the right mix of Twitter attention for myself. However, I can easily understand why anyone would simply leave Twitter if they believed it was interfering with their work.
Hugh, we’ll miss you on Twitter, but I’ll be following up at www.gapingvoid.com!
Today I was curious about business cards. I asked my Twitter friends just how simple (or minimal) in design or information they felt they could go with their business cards.
Of course most businesses include their corporate or brand logo and color scheme on the business card. Information on the business card has grown from the traditional company name, tagline, person’s name, title, and phone number.
Now you’ll find people’s business, mobile and sometimes home phone numbers. You’ll sometimes find more than one fax number. Most often there are more than one email address. Add to that the corporate web address and the space has gotten quite cramped.
For us social media types, you now start adding things like a Twitter address, or your LinkedIn, or Facebook URL. Some people may feel that their FriendFeed, Plaxo, or Xing URLs are of use to people requesting their business card.
With all these things taking up the limited space on a business card and you can see why full color bleed to the edge, and use of both sides are features offered by professional printing services. Seems like too much information to me.
Here were some answers from my Twitter friends to the question “How simple are you willing to go on your biz cards?” (Clicking on the the links below will take you to the individual “tweets” on Twitter.)
As you can see, we had a pretty good conversation on business cards with a number of great viewpoints and ideas. Wondering about that card of Brian Shaler’s that Ryan Kuder mentioned? Check it out here.
What am I thinking of doing on an upcoming version of my business card? I guess this is a first rough draft.
Those of us in the social media sphere have the luxury of expecting people to know how to find us. Google is our friend!
For the rest of the business world, however, the expectation that their time is valuable. That they shouldn’t have to go searching for the information that a “proper” business card should provide. My belief is that there is more information about me that I want a person to find by searching than I can add to my business card.
What’s your take on the topic of business cards? How simple or complex are you comfortable with?
I’d like to let my fellow SMBer’s in Minneapolis & St. Paul know about the next SMB-TC event! It’ll be held at the Caribou Coffee in Roseville, just off Snelling Ave. They’ve got a dedicated conference room that may be more conducive to being able to talk with everyone, working WiFi, and great coffee.
Although the room is smaller as it holds ~12 people or so, I think it may let us have better ability to talk without having to play musical chairs. I’m interested in all feedback on this one as I’m going to try to find a similar, larger venue for the May event when we may have some folks from out-state MN join us! So if you can’t make this one, I hope to have the details for the May event all figured out in the next week or so.
@MAC_Arms Pay taxes when you make your money, pay taxes when you spend your money, pay taxes when you successfully invest your money, pay taxes when you save enough taxed money to afford a house, pay taxes to live in your house, pay taxes when you sell the house that you paid taxes on to
Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
Sen. @berniemoreno says voter ID and proof of citizenship are simply common sense.
“We’re talking about a very low threshold — identify who you are and prove you’re a U.S. citizen when you register to vote. I think we’re getting closer to
Today was the second Social Media Breakfast in the Twin Cities. We had a great turnout for the small space that I had booked. I won’t make that mistake again, even though it worked out ok. Albert Maruggi commented awhile ago on how much talent and interest there is here in the Minneapolis & St. Paul area in social media. I have to agree as our meetups keep backing up that interest with really great, dedicated, intelligent people who want to get involved for so many great reasons.
