I have been a follower of the sponsored conversations and sponsored tweets and the sponsored anything for a while now and I intend to keep on top of it because it does have somewhat of a effect on my business model although indirect. TechCrunch talks about banning sponsored status updates from their application.  This will take on quite a white hat look in many of the purists’ eyes, but in my eyes if seems to be a horse of a different color.  As a social media consultant I always talk about the metrics and ROI of using some of these tools, and the business model given today’s idea of return does not have much spark as it relates to sponsored status updates on Facebook. 

For the most part, sponsored conversations or updates or tweets or whatever the case is mostly about reach.  Part of that reach and probably what is most important to advertisers and brands is the amount of eyeballs.  Let’s face it, they are not banging my door down to put up banner ads here as I am not getting the reach they require, and that is exactly why Facebook’s idea of banning the practice of sponsored updates is sort of a moot point.

With the limits they have on "friends" there will never be the huge amount of eyeballs that brands and media buyers are looking for in a property.  My Facebook page will only ever have 5000 friends at the most.  That is not what they want.  They are looking for the biggest bang for their buck.  I do understand and argue that its not about the number of followers it is about the number of conversions, or how or who you influence, but that thinking has not reached the heads of the people that are signing the checks.  I think if I were to ask Ted Murphy the best way to sell the sponsored conversations it would be about your number of page views over the number of cool people you know. 

I think this has to do with a preemptive strike and more about what they have for plans down the road.  I do think however that with the addition of FriendFeed now in their crown jewels, it may also be a tell of what they have in store for a plan to for future looks of their new acquired service. As the FTC becomes involved and we see more and more of a crackdown these types of maneuvers will be quickly reversed or adopted but I applaud Facebook for taking a stand in this part of the controversy.

UPDATE:  I forgot to mention something I thought I should get into this post.  With the banning of sponsored conversations this also make it difficult to cross pollinate all of your networks with a sponsored post which in turn keeps the walled garden feel to Facebook which I think also helps their business plan.  Keeping third party applications from sending out a mass tweet/update/status message to all of your "friends" at once makes it also difficult.

Tags: Facebook, TechCrunch, Sponsored Status, Sponsored Conversations, Sponsored Tweets, ROI, Marketing, Social Media Advertising

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I was just reading this morning on Techmeme the various sites that are discussing the closing down of the URL shortener service Tr.im.  I then came across a post written by Robert Scoble called, "Twitter’s platform shortcomings."  I have written a number of posts about Twitter here and we are seeing the company mature and grow before our eyes like a child.  Sometimes a child makes poor choices and sometimes they make us proud, but when I read things like the Twitter "blessing" and I have to cringe a little.  Blessing exerts some connotation of power, and with power comes great responsibility as we all know.  We see companies like Facebook with this same type of power and the same feeling of the hair standing on the back of my neck continues. I must echo Robert’s sentiment here when he states:

OK, most of you probably never have used tr.im to shorten your URLs so they fit into Twitter. But I did. I liked the URL better than bit.ly, which is the service that Twitter has “blessed.” Oh, how I hate Twitter’s “blessing.”

Pete Cashmore, of Mashable has another quote in his post that gives me the feeling all over again:

“…we just can’t justify further development since Twitter has all but annointed bit.ly the market winner.”

That from the Tr.im closing statement.  That is far too much power for one company, but I know that is part of doing business.  Google carries the same type of power and I have heard the likes of Michael Gray talk about the wielding of their power and how they can arbitrarily damn some sites and rise others to the heights of heaven.  I use that metaphor because that is nearly godlike in its functionality.  Google wants to be for good but not for evil and I suppose your definition of good and evil depend quite a bit on the way the ball bounces for you or against you.  In this case it seems that the ball has bounced against the folks at Tr.im.

We see applications come and go and in this particular instance it has implications that might hurt people in one camp over another.  To pick and choose who wins, who loses and how the game is played is far too much power in my opinion to give to companies.  The FTC is dabbling in the game with blogging and "sponsored conversations" and I would assume that some constituents will be contacting their authorities for some regulation of companies that have the power to bless.

Photo via polishamericancenter.org

Tags: Twitter, Techememe, Robert Scoble, Corporate Responsibility, Google

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Dennis Howlett writes today about the lawsuit involving Sam Sethi and Mike Arrington and Interserve, Inc., als known in our wrold as TechCrunch.  As a disclosure I remember this riff vividly as my friend and partner Tris Hussey was involved in this problem and other friends, Marc Orchant and Oliver Starr were also part of the BlogNation.com which is peripherally part of the overall story.  I am not a huge fan of what took place in that business deal and I see what happened as unfortunate to my friends.

I won’t get into the merits of the case, nor will I try to discuss the legal issues as I had plenty of the legal world after working there for 22 years.  I do want to comment on the somewhat short sightedness I see on behalf of Mike Arrington and TechCrunch as it relates to the lawsuit.  I know that Mike Arrington is giving this lawsuit less than a nuisance value and sees no merit to the claims and perhaps wants it to carry it on for more page views (which of course I am adding to albeit a small amount). I’m afraid that this is just the beginning of something that will give Mr. Sethi more fuel for his feud and make this debacle continue.

Mike has stated that he will not participate in the litigation and that they will ignore it, not planning to subject himself to the litigation process in the UK.  I think that is not a bad strategy from a legal standpoint as it carries with it somewhat of a "no harm, no foul" consequence.  California Law does not really give much weight to the UK and its judgment, be it a default judgment or otherwise. I should note that a default judgment might have  less weight than a judgment on the merits, but I digress.  From a business standpoint, I think this might be a bad move.

According to Mike his legal costs could exceed £500,000, to win the case which the experts indicated should not have been a problem.  The court would then have awarded Mike his legal costs, but that is like squeezing blood from a turnip as I assume Sethi is not in a position to pay that type of money, given what I know of the Blog Nation debacle.  The part here that is troublesome is giving life or a breath or two of life to Sam Sethi and his continued efforts to gain the upper hand and make him appear to be in a better position in his case against Mike Arrington and TechCrunch.

In addition, now Arrington must watch how he works around having this judgment against him in the UK.  I am assuming at some point it may be necessary for him to do business there or to collect from advertisers there or to get money from the UK.  I am assuming that any funds due to him or his company from that jurisdiction can be attached or to some effect, garnished to satisfy the judgment.  He has already canceled to speak at an event he told the organizers he would be a part of and who knows how many other ventures he must cancel or at least not appear for in the UK.  I am not sure the limitation on satisfying judgments in the UK, but I can assure you that Sethi will be waiting at the opportunity to get his shot in to collect if only a dollar of the judgment.  The time to put this to bed is now.  The time to finish it is here.  If not, this could drag on for some time.  As I stated above, that could be what we are looking for from someone that wants to sensationalize it.

If you are a person that is owed money as a result of the Blog Nation debacle, it might provide fruitful to see if you can attach your own judgment to funds related to the Sethi’s judgment.  Who knows it might work.  It is by far more than you will get if you are waiting for an old paycheck to clear.

Photo above via CrunchNotes*

*I wanted to point out the labeled photo on CrunchNotes is "sethiissuchadick.jpg"   Classic.

Tags: Mike Arrington, TechCrunch, Sam Sethi, Tris Hussey, Oliver Starr, Marc Orchant, Libel

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I am not sure that anyone in the tech world has written about Twitter more than the popular news site TechCrunch.  You may have a hard time picking out the single most popular Twitter post since after 38 pages of search results on the subject I lost count of the number of articles.  The most popular recently was the scandal involving ill-gotten documents from the folks at Twitter which Tech Crunch promptly published. But more on that in a minute.

Twitter launched today their Twitter 101 pages and of note was their "Key Resources" page which is contained under the domain related to http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/.  I quickly glanced at the people that were listed on the page, and noticed right away that TechCrunch had been snubbed.  Not a single time was TechCrunch mentioned.  You would think with 38 pages of info on the company and some of the best Twitter evangelists on the planet, they could have worked a link back to TechCrunch somewhere.  Some of the best Twitter information contained anywhere is contained on the TechCrunch site.

Now this could just be a matter of numbers or it could be that they could not find a good snapshot overview of their service or it could be some other political reason that Twitter was quick to leave TechCrunch off the list as I mentioned above and wrote about in the TechCrunch and the Twitter Documents post.

This is not going to be too unlike the "Suggested Users" list and I am sure there will be plenty of folks that will be screaming about why they were not one of the featured resources that are listed.  Congrats to Chris Brogan for getting on this page with his 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business.  Okay, their might only be 10 in there but 50 was a good number.

Sorry TechCrunch I can assure you that the folks at Twitter are not going to cut you much slack from here forward, but keep up the good reporting and evangelizing!

[Hat Tip to Laughing Squid Links for beginning the inspiration for this post through the photo above.]

Tags: TechCrunch, Twitter, Twitter For Business, Twitter Business 101, Chris Brogan

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I used to have an office in Downtown Denver at a place called The Hive, a co-working community office not unlike others we see across the country like Independents Hall and Citizen Agency.  It allowed me to have a place to call my office and yet it didn’t bankrupt my budget.  I do reccomentd this situation to others if you have the opportunity.

I now work in a virtual office out of my home.  I actually have a dedicated office and it has not one but two desks and computer equipment and printers and a dead fax machine and not unlike many offices.  The only thing is the noise that surrounds me is beeps and clicks, blips and many other application noises.  Yes, even the chirp of the Tweetdeck that everyone wonders about while I am on the phone.

This is my virtual Cube Farm.  I used to work in corporate America for about 17 years and at a private law firm for 5 years before that, and I understand what that is like.  I was not the greatest fan of cubicles and white button down shirts.  Even after the adoption of "business casual" I still did not fit in completely.  I guess it comes from my younger years working outside and loving fresh air an sunshine.  The scene from Joe Versus the Volcano best described me as the light fixtures sucking out my soul.

I love working virtually from the comfort of my own home.  I am much more productive.  My commute is very green friendly and my uniform, well, let’s just described it as somewhere south of Business Casual.

I still have the whack a mole type conversations that I used to see happening the cube farm atmosphere, but they are preceded by a whistle or a beep or a bing as it were.  I talk and chat virtually with my co-workers all day long.  If you can hold on a second I need to quickly have a meeting with my financial advisor and counselor (yes, my three year old fills this role for me).

Mr. Waturi: "And what’s this lamp for? Isn’t there enough light in here for you?"

Joe: "The florescents affect me. They make me feel blotchy and puffy. I thought this this light would…"

Mr. Waturi: "Get rid of the light. This is not your bedroom, Joe. This is an office. Maybe if you start treating this like a job instead of some kind of a welfare hospital, you’ll shape up!"

Photo via MShades

Tags: Virtual Office, Community Office, Cubicle Farm, Corporate Working, HR

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It used to be that in order to be seen as an influencer or to be really taken seriously in your niche or genre, you had to be on someone’s blogroll.  Being added to a blogroll gave you some credibility and it also helped you get read by others in your group.  You got to be one of the cool kids if you were recognized on a blogroll.  The goal was to get listed on a blog roll by someone with lots of readers as well.  It also helped you get read by others, or it helped your voice get heard. Being on a blogroll was the gold standard.

Now with the likes of Twitter we get more of a situation of more noise less signal.  It is difficult to be heard. 25 Million people all hoping their 140 characters get in front of someone to read.  You may have the best ever 140 characters in the history of the world, but to broadcast it to Twitter is to cast it into the sea of information hoping to find a home. I liken it to casting an SOS note in a bottle into the ocean and hoping someone finds it.  Chances are it may never get read by the person that matters.  Twitter can be the same way.  It seems that many online marketing types believe this a great way now to broadcast their message.  They think a message in a bottle is a good way to broadcast.  Cast a net big enough and sooner or later someone may hear what you have to say.  This is not the best case scenario unless you get on someone’s list or in a group.  Instead of blogrolls, we now can put our Twitter friends or followers into groups.  I use the popular application Tweetdeck, and I have many groups of my followers distilled into readable tweets.  I have my social media colleagues and I have technology people and parenting bloggers and no, even though I joke about it quite a bit I do not have a "Hottie" Twitter group. This is how I track what is being sent via Twitter by those I want to listen to and want to hear. I want to hear all 250 Million people out there but I have yet to figure that out sans some special paid for application.

This is how I read most of the important stuff on Twitter.  I go through a specific group and see what they are talking about and what they have to say.  It may be an hour after the fact when I re-tweet something or I comment or take notice, and the reason is, I don’t have time to scan the river of noise going by at 10,000 people a minute. In the instance I am talking about you get added to my group if you provide me good thoughts or value. I don’t want to miss your tweet.  The only thing is, my groups are not public.  I need to find something that allows me to show you my groups.  I need a public app that shows my Twitter groups, my blogroll of twitter friends. I need to develop this as a widget for blogs or web sites.  You can get on my group in in my Twoops (URL taken I checked)?  Anyone? 

Photo via Mykl Roventine

Tags: Twitter, Blogrolls, Web Apps, River of News, Noise vs. Signal

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I have been following along with the hacked or leak of confidential documents from Twitter that have somehow been sent to Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch.  I am really fascinated, not by the documents or what my possibly be in them, but how the story is being played by the folks at TechCrunch.  Mr. Arrington is in the cat bird seat and knows all too well that this is the case.  He is enjoying every waking moment of it.  The boastful nature of this story is what I am watching. 

I can see that the documents themselves are only in the hands on one news breaker and that is TechCrunch.  They were not sent to anyone at ReadWriteWeb, Mashable or CenterNetworks, or any of the many other tech news companies out there.  If they were, they would all be playing chicken with the documents to get the most press coverage possible.  I am acutely aware and so is Mike Arrington that he holds the keys to that kingdom at the moment.  He alone has the magic. I will be watching to see how many posts come out before the first leaked document, and what that document will reveal, if anything.  I would say there is not much sex to it or he would have long since posted the information for fear of being scooped.  This part also makes me wonder how it is known that he won’t be scooped on the story unless of course, he himself knows that the information is only in his possession which causes some questions. How does he know this?  Has he talked with the hacker that provided the info?  It’s all very much like a "deep throat" thing.

Mike is going to play this orchestrated tune to the very last.  For now, I am going to just watch it as it happens like a Broadway show.

UPDATE:  The stories are now being produced one at a time.  I am predicting that they are now watching to see what is reproduced and watching like a hawk as to whether they get attribution on each and every post. Anyone else want me to pass the popcorn?

Tags: TechCrunch, Mike Arrington, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, Technology, Twitter

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I am wondering how this will play out but I just had an opportunity to read through a TechCrunch article by Robin Wauters where it was uncovered that Twitter, Inc. may begin reaching out to people that are using Tweet in their applications or in their businesses and asking that they refrain from the practice.  This seems to me to be a day late and a billion dollars short.  I can’t understand how they are just now thinking of trademarking in as little time as May of 2009 the word Tweet.  What other words have they asked be trademarked?  What law firm sold them on this idea?  Surely if you began to get some steam as you did back in as early as 2007 you would have thought that some of these names associated with your brand would have been at that more valuable?  To begin this process now seems like an oops to me.  I actually like the email sent as it seems to give the impression that they have no weight behind the statement:

Hi,

Twitter, Inc is uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet (our trademark) and the similarity in your UI and our own. How can we go about having you change your UI to better differentiate your offering from our own?

They feel "uncomfortable?"  Perhaps if they really thought this was a battle worth winning they would actually be more than just "uncomfortable."  I fully expect after the update to the blog post added after the fact wherein Twitter provides a response, that we will get yet another update that says something to the effect that, "We realize this seems crazy but we forgot to actually think of this before."  The next thing you know they will be printing up business cards and hiring a receptionist. 

This all seems to be the way this company is operating behind the scenes.  They fell into a great thing without realizing its potential or what it would turn into.  They then found that it was cool and might be worth some money to someone, then they found out that they should have some idea as to how to make money with it, and now they are realizing that they should be protecting it from everyone.  I just shake my head at the way this company is shaping up.  It must just be one comedy show after another behind he scenes there.  The great thing is, it is still loved by millions.

Tags: Twitter, Trademark, Technology, Legal Issues, Business, Social Media Tools

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I have been traveling quite a bit lately and that has caused me to get seriously behind on a large amount of work that I need to accomplish.  I have finally caught up with my email inbox which usually hovers around 60 unread messages at any given time, which usually equates to the amount of Twitter bios I need to read to approve or discard.  I began digging into the RSS feed readers (yes plural) that I have disregarded that have been so overwhelmed that many of the search feeds I have for the likes of “business blogging” and “social media consulting” are defaulting to the most it will store.  In other words, I have much work and little time to get it done.  I know I play this off with the idea that I am also the stay at home dad of 4 kids at the ages of 9, 8, 4, and 3, and that has some merit but for the most part I have times when they are sleeping or are not in the picture that I spend catching up but I still think I can be more efficient. I know I need to explain the title of this post.  One of the things I need to catch up on that I have not been doing much of lately is finding what my mentors and friends and colleagues are talking about.  One of the people I admire and one that I think has his finger on the pulse of my industry is Robert Scoble.  I don’t intend for this to be a “Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah” about Robert, so let me explain using him as my example.

Robert is a busy person.  I thought that I was busy and had my hands in a lot of things and doing a lot of work, but for the most part I am not much different than your ordinary overworked and underpaid entrepreneur.  I have been to conferences and walked into that blogger lounge at 1:00 a.m. and have seen Robert’s wife Maryam begging to leave but he is still uploading the latest video and editing the last blog post before he turns in.  That is dedication and it is what inspires me most of the time when I am feeling overworked.  It makes me buck up and get things done more often.  Put to simple terms working hard makes you successful.  I know Gary Vaynerchuk preaches that from his own pulpit.  Working hard does actually payoff, but I must say I have worked hard for other people and all it did was make them more successful so I limit that to we entrepreneurs that want to get on top of the heap.  Sure I have been rewarded when working for others, but for the most part my hard work for them is just that, for them. I swear there is a point in here somewhere.

I just spent part of the morning reading blogs.  I have read all of the folks I love to read in my business, Chris Brogan, David Armano, Beth Harte, Amber Naslund, and yes the list goes on and on.  Many of them are also very much like Robert Scoble, and I could have used most of them as my title, but for me, Robert has been a blogger that has been cutting the trail for most of us in this business.  He is consistently good at what he does with his blog.  Let me give you some of the reasons he is good and why I often use him as an example to people when they want to know about how to be a good blogger.

• Consistency -  Even when he is inconsistent he is consistent.  He puts things up to read during slow news days and up when things are going crazy.  Sure he does not have a blog post every single day but posts when he wants and has something to say, which in itself is very consistent.
• Opinionated – He gives us his opinion.  He may be adding to the echo chamber of sorts but he always gets into his posts why he feels it is important.  Telling us why Twitter is cool is one thing but why YOU think it is cool and how YOU are using it or making it part of your life is another.
• Academic – He is a smart guy.  I have made fun of him in the past about being a “camera salesman” and I mean that more in jest than anything, but he is very smart about business.  He has seen the emergence of some very cool technologies that have gone on to be big players and he seems to know what works and has great insights into what businesses can do with their product or service.  I can see why he has VC friends.  They want to know what he thinks is cool.
• Human – He shows his human side.  I know when he is angry or when he is fed up or when he is happy about something.  I can see his humanness come through in his blog posts.  Not many people allow that or even begin to know how to impart that in their blog posts.
• Integrity – In a world full of “sponsored conversations” and sell-outs to the little tidbits of advertising dollars, he stays true to what he does, good blogging.  This has offered far more rewards than a $500 gift card or a free T-shirt.  This has also allowed his access to some of the brightest minds and has opened doors for him that others will never have offered to them.  He keeps his eyes on the big prize.
• Passionate – You can hear it in the way he talks about things.  His job, his wife and sons, and his friends.  I have this passion when I am a Daddy blogger and it helped me become a better blogger.  I have that passion but it does not always come out in my writing here.  Some days I write a post because I think Google might forget about me.  That is the wrong reason to put up a post.

As I indicated before, there are many many bloggers out there that have this very same resume and are doing it just as well in these areas or better.  I merely wanted to single Robert out as I had his RSS feeds on my list today and I began to feel very small in this big pond after reading and then looking back on my own blog and seeing how I have not been doing things well at all.  I have had some great posts and flashes of greatness in the past, but for the most part I can take what I have been taught by those doing it well and try to keep up with them.  I am not sure that is possible but I can hope to some day be like that. It took me back to a time when Robert called me out about my job as a blogger and I think maybe I need to go back to being better.  I am going to see if I can get into that swing and set out some goals for myself to add to the signal and not the noise.  For the moment I will leave you with that as I run into the next room to see if I can figure out what the kids just shattered on the kitchen floor.  Is summer over yet?  Thanks Robert, and when are you going to start that Daddy blog?

Photo via Wikipedia

Tags: Blogging, Robert Scoble, Scobleizer, Business Blogs, Social Media, Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Amber Naslund, David Armano, Beth Harte, Blog Posts, How To Blog

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Captain Tim asked, "Are you with our group?"

"I am," I said as I looked at my phone to catch my last emails before I got aboard the raft we would be taking to Lanai. 

"How much does a boat like this cost?" Not that this was relevant to taking a snorkeling tour in Hawaii, which created a strange look from Captain Tim.  I was truly interested in the business of snorkeling and other things here while I visit.  I have been asking a number of questions related to the business aspects of tourism and excursions and other parts of the Hawaiian experience.

"$80,000 approximately", was the response from our Captain.

"Wow, not bad for a couple of long balloons and an outboard motor," I said in jest to let him know that I thought that was pretty high.

I then began to wonder how tourism sets the price for what we do here on Hawaii. I wondered how much I Captain made in tips and was paid as a result of the job that he did here. We are here but a short time and he has to live here year round.  I heard him make cracks about the $8 per gallon charge for milk, and hearing about the free drinks and giveaway pupu (appetizers) at the bar in town and thought, here is a man that is truly scratching out a living doing what he is passionate about.

He took us out across the channel to our destination which was called "The Aquarium". Once I jumped into the crystal clear water I knew exactly why it was called that.  I could see everything, and the coral structure and the brilliant fish colors were awesome.  We swam and looked at puffer fish and many other varieties and then as I got out of the boat and said "WOW", I was handed a cool passion orange juice and was also given some breakfast.  This is the life of the Captain, seeing the look on the face of those as I they exit the water after seeing Hawaii from underwater, and handing them some fresh fruit and breakfast.  I would say that is a good salary there, but it doesn’t pay all the bills.  I reflected that in my tip as I headed off and away from this Captain for what will probably be forever.  Thanks Captain Tim and enjoy your job as only you can!

For more information on Ocean Rafting you can visit their site.

Photo via: Island Star Excursions

Tags: Hawaii Ocean Rafting, Snorkeling, Hawaii, HawaiiHTA, Hawaii Tourism

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We kept driving up, up and up some more.  As we finally reached the summit where the lodge was located we were at our destination.  Then we headed to the trail head where we went down, down, down and more down until we saw the most breathtaking drop off and steep canyon walls you can have without a helicopter ride. 

"Stay away from the edge," I heard a few times as I thought to myself that seemed obvious.  Obvious until I kept wanting to see the bottom, but we were so high that might have been tough.   The views were difficult to get focused in a camera as the depth perception was a tough thing to capture.

The dirt was a dark brown and reddish color where we get the idea of the "Original Dirt Shirt" color from in the shops where you can buy t-shirts, and it was ash and gravel mix.  The best part was getting to eat a flower as I walked on the trail and see some of the vegetation.  But by far the coup de grace was of course the waterfalls.  Our guide was pleasant and had lots of information and in fact I wanted to go on other tours that they offer like Kayaking on the Ocean and some of the other hiking things but that is probably for another trip.  You can see the lodge where we were and get a chance to see the "Hawaiian Emus" that watched us eat lunch.  Yes, Hawaiian Emus, that is for my hiking companion Melissa.

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We hopped into the back of an army person ell carrier and like soldiers heading off to battle we had our gear, harnesses and helmets.  The wet weather was welcome because it kept us cool and hydrated as the anticipation sucked the water from our system making us swallow hard.  This would normally be the description from a military blogger, but this describes the scene as we headed off to our zipline adventure.

I wasn’t really nervous about being dangled over the jungle until they told us a few of the details.  The highest line was 250 feet above the ground and the longest line was more than 3 football fields at 941 feet.  They had what they referred to as the "bunny line" taking it from the idea of a bunny slope in a ski area, and then the next 6 lines were for the professional zipliner.

One of my fellow travelers and I both knew we were in trouble when we thought it would be cool to do a video of us zipping through the jungle on our lines, and they indicated that if we dropped our flip cameras they would be gone forever.  Yes that is a long time.  I was hoping at this point that we would not drop ourselves and be gone forever.  The thing is this adventure is probably more safe than any other excursion I was doing while here in Hawaii. 

After our safety discussion we put our helmets on and went into battle.  Not the battle you would normally associate with war, but we had to battle the thrill and excitement of dealing with a rush of adrenaline and fun that went with this excursion.  I highly recommend this type of adventure to those of you that love the thrill of letting go and giving up control of nature.  Gravity works to your advantage sometimes and you can gather in the beauty and feel a rush all at the same time.  Thanks to the folks at Kauai Backcountry Tours for making our time there safe and enjoyable.

I gave the a little advice while I was there.  They need to be able to upload video or photos to family and friends back home.  So they need that router to be installed for Internet access.  I’m kidding of course, but to be able to have a sign waving behind the last guide that says thank you and come again might be a great way to have people upload that picture to Flickr!

80% of the movie Tropic Thunder was filmed on this property!

Photos: (My feet 250 feet above the jungle and @ChefMark)

Tags: HawaiiHTA, Hawaii, Kauai, BackCountry Tours

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I stood on the bow of the catamaran and the wind and salt cleansed my face of stress and renewed my belief that you can truly feel the tension leaving your body. I was quiet except for the sea and the beauty before me.   I cannot begin to describe the surroundings and the feeling, so I will let you come and experience it yourself.

Raiders of the Lost Ark, King Kong, South Pacific, Six Days Seven Nights, and Jurassic Park, this is but a small list of the movies that have been filmed here in the beauty of Kauai.  I stood in my spot looking up to the cliffs and then waterfalls and the foam being formed by the waves crashing against the rocks and could see why the big screen wants this awe to be portrayed. I wanted to describe one more thing.  The water.

I had a hard time figuring out what color the water was here.  I had the opinion of others, a Navy Commander, a man from New Mexico and my other fellow travelers. They all said soe sort of blue, but I had to have a name of it. It was dark, but bright and had with it an awesomeness.  I could not think of the blue that I saw, then the Captain said a word.  A Hawaiian  word that triggered a response in my head.  It has nothing to d with color and in fact means "ginger" in the local language but if I had to put a crayon in  a box and put acolor on its side that emulates that color or blue, I had found he description–Awapuhi Blue.  With due respect to the local people and to Paul Mitchell, I had come up with a description and a catchy nam for my blue. Whenver i describe this blue, my own mind will drift to that colora dn then I will forever have it etched in my database.  Thank you Hawaii and to the land island of Kauai for this memory.

Tags: HawaiiHTA, Hawaii, Travel, Kauai, So Much More Hawaii

Sphere It

I was talking to one of my bloggers recently about getting back to my roots and getting back to what made me the blogger I am today. I talked about rediscovering the talents that I developed long ago when I was a Daddy blogger talking about the little things in life that as I discovered recently are actually the big things. He said something remarkable that immediately caused me to think of this post, he said “It’s like going home.”

I have had that in my mind and can’t get the thought out of my head. I like the sound of “going home.” The thought of going home has many emotions and memories, even smells and other senses and thoughts of better days. I think of all of the times I actually went home when it brought with it the safety of youth and the feeling of protection and notion of being where I belonged.

What does this have to do with social media consulting or anything business related? I believe we all need to sometimes take a moment to stop and go home. We need to get an idea of what brought us to where we are and what started us on the journey to begin with and to see if we are still on that path. Many times we have changed paths without ever knowing and we need to refocus our efforts to get back on the proper path.

For me, getting back to what the true nature of blogging is and was for me is essential to being able to teach and mentor others. It allows me to explain to companies needing my services with the passion I first had for blogging and how it changed my life and the can change their company. As a business owner can you remember where your home is? Perhaps you are working for a company and can think of the time when you first decided that you believed in your company and its message or mission. If not perhaps a short trip back home is in order.

[photo courtesy of sanjoyg]

Sphere It