Thoughts from Mike Templeton

I was recently watching a video from Loic LeMeur and caught a great conversation he had with Seth Godin discussing why he (Seth) isn’t on Twitter,

“Be a meaningful specific, not a wandering generality.”

If you can’t be the best, don’t do it

Seth explains that he is the best in the world at writing a marketing blog (for now) and the best at being himself. If he were to start using Twitter, he knows that he wouldn’t be the best at using it, as others are much better (like Chris Brogan, he says). Seth would rather stick to what he knows and what he is good at, rather than doing everything mediocre.

Catch the full-video interview on YouTube, where Seth describes why people need a tribe (and eventually why he isn’t on Twitter):

Should I quit everything I’m not the best at?

Seth Godin seems to have taken his example about Twitter to the extreme, but I can relate to his point about doing the things the best or not at all.

When I first started my marketing and web strategy consultancy, I had no idea what the scope of my services looked like. I figured I would do anything and everything related to marketing that  a client wanted to pay me for.

However, after spending time building websites, setting up blogs, designing logos and writing marketing campaigns, I soon found that certain items seemed to be taking more time than I wanted, and that I didn’t really enjoy some aspects of what I was doing. As a result, I had to sit down and truly define the scope of services I would offer. I decided that I would not be a graphic designer for clients and that my main focus would be on planning, strategy and education, not necessarily on executing everything.

This small exercise helped me understand what I was best at doing, and most of all, helped me understand what I was best at providing to clients. If I wasn’t going to be able to provide them the best graphic design service, why bother doing a mediocre job? It would be in my client’s best interest to find the best graphic designer available for the job and to steer them in that direction.

Examine your skills and figure out which are your best

If you’re not a good blogger, find someone else to blog. If you can’t manage projects, find a good project manager. If designing user interfaces is not your forte, find a UI designer who rocks at it.

In the end, identifying your own strengths and outsourcing the rest will save you time and make you (and your clients) happier.

What do you do the best? What should you be offloading to someone else?

A few weeks ago I upgraded from a first gen iPhone to the new 3G (my wife now happily owns the first gen). Many will tell me this was a mistake, as a new iPhone is rumored to be appearing on the horizon, but this will do everything I need it to do, plus its faster than computing on AT&T’s EDGE network all the time.

Using Google Apps For Your Domain

If you’ve got your own business email or simply wanted a more customized address, you’ve probably realized by now that Gmail-powered-email is the best way to go.

Using Google Apps For Your Domain allows you to run the Gmail application with your own domain (instead of gmail.com) and create a nearly limitless number of accounts for free, all while taking advantage of the powerful graphical interface and feature set millions already enjoy through Gmail.

Using and Syncing Google Calendar

In addition to Gmail, other Google Apps include Google Calendar, which makes keeping track of appointments and meetings a cinch. Up until recently, syncing all of this information to your iPhone was somewhat of a pain. Email has always been easy through the Gmail account setup on the iPhone, but the calendar was near impossible.

Nueva Sync

The standard option was to use an app called Nueva Sync, which would synchronize your calendar details over the air to your iPhone using a Microsoft Exchange account.

The Nueva Sync process requires you to set up an account with Neuva Sync, then tie it to your Google Calendar, then finally into the iPhone. The Digital Frontier blog has a great Nueva Sync walkthrough on setting this up.

Google Sync

The newest option (and probably more preferred now), is to sync your calendar directly to your iPhone using the new syncing feature finally made available by Google. The walkthrough for syncing your Google Calendar with your iPhone makes it easy to understand. It uses a Microsoft Exchange account, just like Nueva Sync, but there are no additional account sign-ups needed, plus its a feature provided by Google, so your chances of things going awry are certainly minimized.

One thing I did notice is that if you have multiple calendars within your Google Apps Calendar account, this process will only sync your default calendar. To get the rest of your calendars to appear, there are a few more steps required to be completed on your iPhone. Johnyy Chadda outlines these steps:

Go to m.google.com and choose “Sign in with your Google Apps” link. When you have signed in, there will be a sync icon presented, which will take you to your calendar sync settings. From there you can add multiple calendars, which will then automatically be synced to your phone.

After you move through those final steps on your iPhone, everything will sync up like magic. Using the new Google sync ability enables you to keep your iPhone’s native calendar app constantly up to date with your latest appointments. Meetings added online are sent directly to your iPhone and the same happens in reverse for entries made on your iPhone.

Enjoy your newly synced device and the ultimate in connectedness it now offers. You’ll never be without your schedule again.

At the beginning of March I started a new job, leaving my role as Online Marketing Strategist at TMG and taking on my new position as the Director of Social Media and Web Strategies with the Iowa Hospital Association.

The Iowa Hospital Association is a voluntary membership organization representing hospital and health system interests to business, government and consumer audiences.

From Marketing to Government Relations

My position lives in the government relations department (another idea about where social media can live in an organization?), but was created  in order to facilitate participation in social media by our organization as a whole. The gov relations designation is simply because that’s where all of our other outbound communications are housed. I’ll be working closely with both our Director of Communications and Director of Grassroots Advocacy.

Making the Rules As We Go

Like any other position, I’ve got a job description outlining specific details and guidelines as to what my role entails, but a large portion of it will be determined ongoing as I learn more about our industry and the opportunities that exist for us as an organization.

The most exciting part of my job is that each day I get to prove how and why social media is an important part of business, not just for consumer-oriented companies, but for any business in existence. I’m also learning a lot about how other associations are using social media to benefit their members; check out the Association Social Media wiki for great examples.

Learning About Healthcare

In my two previous positions I operated first in construction and then in credit unions. Hospitals and healthcare are an entirely different world, but it’s a challenge I’m willing to take.

Also, if you’ve been reading my tweets on Sunday night, you’ve probably noticed a flurry of them tagged with #hcsm between 8-9pm. Those tweets are all related to the “social media in healthcare” Twitter chats that take place every Sunday. Discussions are led by a moderator who asks questions of the group, then everyone jumps in with their responses. Each week our group continues to grow and tonight we were even a trending topic on Twitter (amidst both the Country Music Awards and Wrestlemania).

Taking the Next Step

It’s hard to believe this is my third full-time job since graduating from Iowa State just two years ago, but I’m very excited about where I’m at and the opportunities that have been presented to me. I’m looking forward to growing my experience, honing my skills and meeting new people. Keep an eye out for big things to come.

If you’re not on Twitter you probably haven’t heard of an internationally organized event taking place tomorrow night simultaneously in 175+ cities across the globe. The event is called Twestival and is being organized to bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

charity: water is a non-profit that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. The organization has been operating since 2006, but a global community of passionate microbloggers has propelled this group to gather worldwide recognition for its efforts.

In September 2008, a group of Twitterers based in London UK decided to organise an event where the local Twitter community could socialize offline; meet the faces behind the avatars, enjoy some entertainment, have a few drinks and tie this in with a food drive and fundraising effort for a local homeless charity.

The bulk of the event was organized in under two weeks, via Twitter and utilized the talents and financial support of the local Twittersphere to make this happen.

Around the world similar stories started appearing of local Twitter communities coming together and taking action for a great cause. Twestival was born out of the idea that if cities were able to collaborate on an international scale, but working from a local level, it could have a spectacular impact.

Seeing how these tight-knit local communities could gather together and tackle seemingly impossible feats in a short amount of time, charity:water saw the Twitter community as an opportunity to help raise awareness to the global crisis they seek to remedy.

People Will Rally Behind a Good Idea

First the idea was born, then volunteers started pouring in. Tony Scott set up Twestival.com and enabled each participating city to set up their own page. Amiando came on board to help event organizers with online RSVP tracking. Mashable partnered to promote the event worldwide. Tipjoy built widgets and organized a channel to raise donations.

The sheer number of people involved in this event and the heart and passion going into all of the planning, organizing and promotion have my jaw dropped on the floor. Many times in today’s society we are plagued with thoughts of how terrible most people are and the newsrooms of the world continue to pummel us with bad news, but the truth is that good-natured people with good intentions DO exist in the world. Twestival is being organized by those people.

Join Us Tomorrow Night and Support Twestival’s Cause

If you’d like to become part of this monumental fundraising event, stop by http://desmoines.twestival.com (or whichever city you are from) for more information. It’s not too late to donate a few bucks and help those in need.

I’ll be at Mars Cafe, 2318 University Ave tomorrow night (Thursday, February 12) and hope to see you there.

If you’re still not convinced, I’ll leave you with a video from the folks at Lava Row about why you should get involved:

Last night was a unique #dmtweetup event because it was centered around ugly Christmas sweaters and those in need. The event, hosted at Impromptu Studio (@ImpromptuStudio) and sponsored by Olde Maine (@OldeMain) and the Technology Association of Iowa (@TechnologyIowa), was an informal social hour with the goal of donating clothes and household items to a local shelter and providing an outlet for networking for many of the people who have recently lost their jobs in the Des Moines area.

The bulk of those in attendance are all users on Twitter, which makes these types of events even more fun because you get to connect face-to-face with people you normally just talk to online in 140-character bursts. I was able to meet several new people who I’d not yet been introduced to and I made several new connections that I think will lead to great opportunities in the future.

To some people it may seem awfully strange that members of a common website could come together in person and support causes and our community the way #dmtweetup does, but our group is very unique in the way that we operate. Through the common ground and transparency of Twitter, users are able to learn about and be introduced to people they may have never met otherwise. Also, because we have that commonality in Twitter, it gives us all a sense of camaraderie and we go out of our way to support each other. People answer each others questions, pass along job leads, donate to good causes and show their support in any way they can.

It was great to see so many people (and new faces) at last night’s event as it really showed the organic networking power of good people here in Des Moines and a few strings of messages on the web.

Thanks to Dan Welk (@clickphotodm) of Click Photography, Metromix captured a number of photos from last night’s event, including this one of Robby Glazebrook and myself.

ABC5, the first local news station on Twitter (@ABC5_WOI), put together a great video story on the event.