Super Quick Startup Advice

Here is the first in a series of super quick [possibly tweetable] Business Startup Advice.

"Building a category through PR and awareness is very expensive but telling your own story isn't."

I hope you find them helpful.

Would it kill you to wish me a Happy Birthday?

Yesterday was my Birthday and everyone forgot....and when I say everyone I don't mean my family, or friends. They remembered and are awesome. The "everyone" I am talking about are the companies and brands I interact with on a daily or even a weekly basis.

I preach about "the little things" a lot because I know customer care is a differentiator and sending someone an email (even automated) on their Birthday goes a long way to making them loyal and happy to spread the word about whatever you are up to.

Think about all the companies that have your Birthday in their Database.

• Credit Card Companies
• Banks
• Car Dealerships
• Social Media Sites
• Message Boards
• Loyalty Programs

The list goes on and on. So if you are in possession of your clients B-Day's consider doing something small with that info because it is more valuable then you think.

Oh...and just to be fair I did get one and only birthday greetings from a brand and feel they deserve a shout out! Jinxworld.com (a comic book message board by Brian Bendis) Go check them out!

I want to be the Amazing Randi of Social Media...or why am I offering you my hard earned money.

Most people who follow technology and business probably know about the $1,000,000 (that's one millions dollars) prize Netfilx awarded a team of folks for developing a better movie recommendation algorithm but did you know that there is another 1,000,000 prize out there waiting to be claimed?

Since 1964 James Randi has had a cash prize for anyone who can prove the existence of paranormal activity. The reward started as $10,000 and over time has now grown to over $1,000,000 and while it has been challenged a few time it has never been awarded.

These two things, plus a conversation I had over dinner with a very well known social media author and practitioner got me thinking that we need a similar challenge in the Social Media space....why you ask?

Well, It is my belief that there hasn't been a new idea in Social Media in a few years and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing because essentially we are still in the very beginning of all of this it should be a slight concern since things that don't change and evolve tend to die off and become irrelevant.

So in an effort to kick start a movement that takes Social Media beyond the "Listen and Engage" stage I am putting up a cash prize of my own.

Send me your thoughts and ideas and lets figure out the next great discovery together...and if being a part of something cool isn't enough then do it for the money (as shown below...yes that is the whole prize for now)

Aaron Patzer from Mint.com explains how to start up a Startup!

I try very hard not to write about things that others had written about because I try to come at things from my own angle and through my own filter but after reading this post from Techcrunch titled "Everything You Wanted To Know About Startup Building But Were Afraid To Ask" I knew I was going to break my little rule....well kinda. I am not going to re-write their post or even comment on it but I am posting the video of Aaron Patzer (CEO of Mint.com) explaining what it takes to start a Startup...because it is amazing.

So if this interests you I suggest you check it out and feel free to leave a comment!

Mint CEO Aaron Patzer on Startups from Techcrunch on Vimeo.

The definitive "How To" guide to use Twitter on the iPhone.

Chris Brogan recently wrote a blog post called "How I manage Facebook" and it immediately gave me the idea to write the post that you're reading now but I admit I hesitated for a few weeks because I kinda see this as a "trade secret" as to how I am able to manage and react to conversations on twitter in an almost real time fashion even when I am away from a computer...but I noticed something interesting today while I was speaking at a conference for people reasonably new to twitter that changed my mind. You see as I was explaining how to use twitter I could see a few of the prettier females in the room were really impressed.

So in an effort to impress pretty people everywhere I now present you The DEFINITIVE "how to" guide to use Twitter on the iPhone.

*disclaimer* there are many ways to do what I am about to explain so in all honestly I am using the word "definitive" the same way coffee shops say "world's best coffee" but this is a great system and it works for me plenty well.

Next to this is a screen shot of my phone and you will notice that I have three separate iPhone Twitter Clients.

The the three are Summizer, Twitterific and Echofon (formerly Twitterfon). I use all three as they all offer me a quick way to accomplish different tasks quickly and easily.

My main twitter app is Echofon/Twitterfon.

This app pretty much works like they all do and the only reason I use it over others is because I find it easy to use. As you can see from the screen shot, it shows me 200 updates at a time from my friends list and also separates all my DM's and @replies (mentions) so I can find this stuff quickly and with a single touch. It also lets me add/remove and even block people with just a few clicks and this is the app I use when I am just reading twitter and seeing what is going on in my main stream.

The second App in my tool box is Summizer.

Summizer isn't a feed type app in the way Echofon is because Summizer is search tool with the ability to save searches. With Summizer I have set up close to 50 keywords and people I care most about and I use this as my catch up tool as well as my focused "quick glance" tool. Basically when I am on the subway or using one of those rooms with the stick figure gender character on the door I will fire up summizer and find out what is going on with my closest friends or see if people are talking about the company I work for or other companies I respect and monitor unofficially and without permission...and I also rely on it to keep me informed at a moments notice if I need to respond to anything falling in my set up searches.

Now it should be said that I could easily set up all sorts of searched in Echofon and basically accomplish the same results and purpose that I use Summizer for but I find it simpler to keep them separate so I can be more focused and responsive this way.

The last app I use to complete my DEFINITIVE (please see disclaimer above) how to is Twitterific. I used to use this app as my exclusive Twitter client and was happy with it but switched to Echofon one day because I just tried it and liked it (and I understand Tweetie is pretty amazing as well) but I still come back to Twitterific when I get an inspiration to tweet something quickly. You see as much as I love Echofon I find it can take half a minute to a minute to load up and Twitterific loads up crazy quick and lets me share with the world very fast the pearls of wisdom I share because I know people rely on me for my witty quips, observations and self promotion.

So just to review...this by no means replaces the ease and reliability of a desktop application like Tweetdeck or Seesmic Desktop but this does give you a head start in creating a mobile command center in the palm of your hand and while I claim this to be the best way to manage your twitter accounts on the go I will also say that this is just my opinion and I haven't gone looking for a more polished way because this one works crazy well for me but if you have a different opinion I would love to hear all about it in the comments section of the blog or just go talk about it on twitter, because chances are I will hear about it from one if not all of my installed apps!