I'm writing this blog post knowing that many people who need to see it won't actually see it, but here it is anyway...

Tonight my Twitter account got hacked and promptly suspended by Twitter. Apparently one of the Twitter widgets I had embedded in this blog affected the entire site and caused it to be flagged as a potentially malicious site by Google. As such, MicroExplosion.com has been flagged and brings up a lot of ominous warnings if you try to pull it up. If you're viewing this site in Microsoft Explorer you may or may not have gotten a notification when you pulled this site up. If you tried to pull this site up in Firefox, you probably got a big warning sign. Yeah, I got that one too.

We (meaning Nathan and the Anthology Creative team ) think we isolated and removed the issue. In time Google should lift the current warnings on the site and it will no longer be flagged as it is currently. It could take weeks or months for that to happen, so I'll get an alternative site up and going more than likely.

If you follow me on Twitter, don't expect much from me there for a while. I have contacted Twitter to have my account reinstated. I have no idea how long that may take.

More to come in the days ahead. The good news is I don't have swine flu.
-Bill

A few weeks ago Phil Davis (aka Philo) asked me what I thought about connecting his Twitter account to his Facebook status. I told him he shouldn't do it and should handle each one separately because it would likely confuse people in Facebook to see conversations in Twitter. I also told him it was a lazy way to look like you're active in Facebook.

I didn't think much about it for a few days and then the conversation came back to mind. I realized I didn't have a great reason for responding to Phil like I had and should try connecting my own Twitter account to my Facebook profile and see what happens. What I discovered really surprised me.

The first thing I saw was that it actually facilitated a higher level of good conversations within Facebook. I wasn't terribly active in updating my Facebook status prior to connecting Twitter to it. Once I did I really started to have some meaningful conversations within Facebook because of my Tweets. I didn't expect that to happen.

The second thing I noticed was that I became a lot more selective about what I would Tweet. I was constantly mindful that I was simultaneously broadcasting to both Twitter and Facebook, so I found myself choosing not to Tweet at times because things wouldn't make sense in Facebook that might on Twitter. I also started responding to people a lot more in direct messages rather than a simple "@" response. It was like I had another level of accountability for my Tweets and that was a good thing. It made me question whether something was really worth saying or not, so it was good to give a extra moment to pause and ask myself if I was really going to add any value by saying whatever it was I was going to say.

Finally, it generated business. This was the biggest shocker for me. I forget sometimes that there are still a lot more people using Facebook than Twitter, so by feeding my Tweets to Facebook it gave my Facebook friends a broader sense of what I do which, in turn, has generated several conversations about how I might be able to help their businesses. Generating business leads by connecting Twitter to Facebook was the last thing that I expected to happen, yet it did.

So this is my public apology to Phil for the poor recommendation a month ago. I have since told him the error of my ways and he was greatly delighted. It was also a good reminder for me to make sure I test my assumptions because until I know for sure, they're just assumptions...and we all know what happens when you ASS-U-ME.

Connecting Twitter and Facebook
If you want to connect your Twitter status to Facebook there area couple of options for you:

1. The Twitter application on Facebook will automattically update all status with your Tweets.
2. The selective twitter status application on Facebook that lets you push only the Tweets you end with the #fb hashtag. I don't use this one, but it seems to be the best of both worlds.

I'm always fascinated by what people can do on a bike, skateboard, inline skates, etc. This guy does some things with a bike I've never seen before, and frankly wouldn't have thought were possible. He's nuts...in a very cool way.

If you've never seen someone use a bike like a pogo stick, you gotta see this guy. If you've never seen anyone jump off a bridge with a bike, you gotta see this guy. If you've never seen anyone jump an entire flight of stairs on a bike, you gotta see this guy. I guess what I'm saying is, you gotta see this guy.

One easy way to increase traffic and awareness of your blog is to include the web address (URL) in your email signature. According to a December, 2008 study by The Radicati Group, the average corporate employee sends 38 emails each day. That's over 800 outbound emails a month per employee. Whether you're self employed and have zero employees or you lead a team of 50 and each person makes the addition to their signatures, this is a great way to increase awareness of your blog regularly.

Most professionals have a common email signature and will usually link to their company website. If your company or department (or boss) has a blog, go ahead and add it to your email signature.

Here's mine:

Bill Seaver
MicroExplosion Media

Phone: 615-473-0396
Twitter: http://twitter.com/billseaver
Blog: http://MicroExplosion.com
Podcast: http://TheNewMediology.com

Be sure to do these two things on your email signature:

1. Make it clear that the link is for a blog...meaning say: Blog - http://MicroExplosion.com rather than putting the address without the descriptive "blog" text. This will be especially important if you're promoting different URLs in the signature and people won't necessarily know what they all are.
2. Always add the http://. It's not enough to just give it the "www.your_website.com" because many email services won't automatically hyperlink the URL without the http://. You want people to see the link and click it. Without the http:// you may be forcing them to copy and paste the URL in their web browser, and most people probably won't take those extra steps.

Adding the blog URL to your email signature may seem so easy or obvious that it's not worth mentioning, but if you're not doing it, you're potentially missing hundreds or thousands of people visiting your blog every month.

If you liked Star Wars you'll like this. If you liked MacGyver you'll love this video of the MacGyver show opening for Star Wars.

Byron sent me a link yesterday to the very recent launch of the SeaWorld San Antonio blog. SeaWorld San Antonio is diving jumping into social media as a major marketing push. I am very excited to see any company get behind social media and from everything I can see, they have their full staff on board (which is very important) and they are in it for the long haul (which is equally important).

After watching the video on their second blog post, however, I have a bit of concern about how well their blog and other social media efforts are going to work for them. My concern is not about a lack of enthusiasm or participation. It appears that's all there, and the communication director should be commended for that. In fact, in many organizations that's the hardest thing to get.

My concern, then, is more strategic in nature for SeaWorld San Antonio. What bothers me about the video is that the interviews with the SeaWorld staff seem to have, in my view, an underlying faulty assumption that people care about what they do.

It's Not You, It's Me (except in social media)
If you're a Seinfeld fan you've inevitably seen the "it's not you, it's me" scene. As funny as it is, it's exactly the opposite in social media. In social media, particularly in corporate blogging, podcasting, video, etc., it's not about you and your company. Not all the time anyway. It's about giving the right people something they deem valuable.

I just think companies assume people are more interested in them than they really are and don't feel like they have to earn the attention they desire. Social media works when you earn and retain attention, and that is best done by not making it about you (all the time) and adding value to the people you want to reach.

It's entirely possible SeaWorld San Antonio is all over this and I just had a skewed perspective when I read the post and watched the video, but I suspect this is a bit of a strategic shift they'll need to make to really succeed with their social media strategy. I recommend they, and any company, remember these three things:

• Social media tools like blogs and video are primarily for content. Conversation is secondary.
• Social networking tools like Facebook are primarily for conversation. Content is secondary.
• When you are creating content, use the Old McDonald approach. That will ensure you add value to the people you want to reach.

I hope SeaWorld San Antonio does well. If they do, they'll become another great example of what social media has done for companies. Every company just has to remember that it's not about them primarily. It's about you.

...Robyn Rainwater. Robyn was selected from a random drawing and is the winner of the New Horizons training giveaway.

On the original post I asked participants to include why they would want to win the training. On Robyn's comment she said, "I am really excited about the possibility to win some awesome training! I want to fast track some of my learning particularly in internet and web skills. As a working designer, it is hard to keep up and learn new things."

Congrats Robyn. I'll send you the information to claim the prize.

You have probably seen or heard of the classic scene from The Godfather where they say, "It's not personal. It's business." Businesses love this line because it keeps them distant and guilt-free. It lets them think of consumers as nameless, faceless masses that just need to be enticed with the right offer. This used to work pretty well. Used to.

Today it's all personal. In fact, it's always been personal to the consumer, only now it's more obvious that it's all personal, all the time. The businesses that get this win. The businesses that don't lose.

If you need proof, just do a Google search on AOL's customer service. You'll find videos and blog posts from consumers talking about how difficult it is cancel their subscriptions. They took AOL's business approach to service termination very personally.

Or ask the executives at Motrin about baby carrying moms. Last November, Motrin offended a segment of highly connected moms, the moms took to Twitter, YouTube, and their blogs and shut the Motrin site down in less than 48 hours. It was personal, not business.

Consumers today live in a new culture. It's a hyper-personal, conversational, always-on, highly aware, information in my pocket, find the people like me, start a revolution kind of a culture. That may not sound like business, but it is.

Consumers are smarter than ever about the brands and products they love and hate. Consumers seem fickle, and sometimes they are, but most often they're passionate, aware, connected, and willing to talk about everything they love and everything they hate. They speak the new language of smart, informed consumers. It's the language of smart.

The good news is you don't have to be perfect. You do, however, have to be personal.

If your business doesn't speak the language of smart, who's still listening to you?

You have to like it when some guys decide they're going to record people all over the world singing various songs and then pull the individuals parts into a well produced, finished product. You can't help but appreciate the effort from everyone involved in Playing for Change and the individual talents of all the performers in this classic song, Stand By Me.

This is a first for the MicroExplosion blog. The good folks down at New Horizons Computer Learning Center here in Nashville want to give one of you a free training session on the software and/or skills of your choice, just for being a MicroExplosion reader.

The training sessions available at New Horizons range from learning desktop applications like Microsoft Office programs and business skills to technical training and certifications.

Now, this isn't just some iPod giveaway kind of contest here. Some of these sessions last a week and cost as much as $2,500. There's some serious training opportunity available here that will be free to the winner.

Here's how to play...

To put your name in the hat for the drawing leave a comment below.

To get your name added into the hat again, tell us why you want to win.

To get your name in the hat many, many more times, have friends leave comments and mention that he/she heard about the giveaway from you. Both you and your friend are then entered to win and you get another "name in the hat" for every mention you get.

Be sure to use a valid email address in the comments so New Horizons knows how to contact the winner.

The deadline for the contest is noon (CST), on Monday, April 13. The winner will be announced next Tuesday, April 14.

I should note that anyone can play but this will be most applicable for Nashville area residents. If you live out of state and are looking for a potential excuse to come to Nashville for some free training, then jump right in!

In the latest episode of The New Mediology, Nathan and I had the chance to interview Tom Cheredar. Tom's a freelance journalist here in Nashville who also has a great understanding of the social news world. In the podcast he explains that social news is very different from traditional news and that marketers or PR pros (or anyone else for that matter) must understand them well before they hope to benefit from them.

You can listen to the full interview online or download it in iTunes.

I like when companies recognize that advertising should provide value to people. The folks behind Loewe audio got it right with this commercial. Well done.

I know this is an understatement, but I'm going to say it anyway. Twitter is growing like crazy. In the last year Twitter has grown over 1300%. It's jumped from a million users to over seven million users in a year. No wonder we see the fail whale so much. Those are some serious stats!

As Twitter's grown at this ridiculous rate, it's been interesting to observe the way new people are using it. Here are a few types of Twitter users I've identified that you probably want to avoid, or at least make sure you're not one. Feel free to add more in the comments.

Name: Awesomists
Location: You wish you were here.
Bio: My life is awesome.
What are you doing? Sipping a skinny mocha latte and watching whales from my celebrity friend's yacht.

Name: Unoriginals
Location: Where you were yesterday.
Bio: My tweets are your tweets. I don't have anything interesting to say myself.
What are you doing? RT the latest thing to come across my feed reader in the last five minutes.

Name: Hypsters
Location: Who cares. You just need to buy what I'm selling.
Bio: Buy my stuff. Hire me. Make six figures in 12 hours. I'm going to make you famous.
What are you doing? The same thing I tweeted an hour ago...links to my blog about my secrets to business success.

Name: Philosophacators
Location: I'm too busy thinking to notice where I am.
Bio: I'm pretty smart...and deep...and sensitive...and don't forget smart too.
What are you doing? Never milk a cow with only one udder.

Name: Minutiaists
Location: Latitude and longitude of my exact location at this very moment.
Bio: My day, all day, everyday, 140 characters at a time.
What are you doing? Woke up at 6:42. Did number 1. Got a shower. Water took longer to warm up than usual. Shampoo, no conditioner. Same towel as yesterday.