I am an award winning Word of Mouth marketer!

Over the holidays my friend Pete Cashmore (yes ladies, we are friends and he is just as handsome in real life) wrote a post about how there was currently 15,740 "Social Media Experts" on Twitter.

That is a ridiculous number and one so big that it would almost be impossible to differentiate yourself within. This kinda makes me feel a little sad for all these experts because it takes a lot of hard work to be an expert at something and to have so many others with the same expertise you could almost make an argument that there is no expertise in actually becoming a Social Media Expert.....and that is kind of the point.

Social media is just a set of tools and a mindset that can be learned quite quickly with very little guidance. Pick up Mitch Joel's, or Chris Brogan/Julien Smith's books and you will have the foundation to start experimenting. If you are looking for help ask questions before you hire people and since there are so many of these experts out there be selective and remember you are the client with (hopefully) clear objectives beyond "We need a Facebook Fan Page" and always remember the wise observation I dropped on a group of folks recently while speaking on a Social Media Panel for Media Bistro and that was "all it takes it takes to become a SME is Get some business cards"

You may be saying to yourself that I am writing this because I am pissing on the ground and marking my territory but in truth I have never been a Social Media Expert nor do I want to be because the designation is far too limiting for what I do.

I am an award winning Word of Mouth marketer who happens to understand Social Media and uses it as a way to create interesting and talk able experiences.

In the new year I hope everyone aspires to be something more than just one of 15,740 all doing the same thing and brand themselves by actual skill because a shift is coming where people will have to start proving their expertise and not just talking about it.

Happy New Year everyone....even the Social Media Experts.

SaulColt.com - Smartest Man in the World - Year in Review!

One a year bloggers and such are allowed to recycle old posts and call it a "Year in Review" post. In these posts people add a slew of links to previously written stuff that they think will be of some benefit to their readers just in case they missed it the first time around.

I was hesitant to do this because I tend to zig when others zag but have decided to conform this one time because I went back and read some of my old posts and realized that there is some real gold in there. (you get to decide if I am joking after you read some of the posts)

So without further rambling I now present you the 6 most read post of 2009 as well as some other hidden gems that I liked writing and think you may enjoy as well!

Top 6 posts from 2009

1- I am not quitting, I am just planning my comeback.
2- The definitive "How To" guide to use Twitter on the iPhone.
3- When it comes to Marketing or your Personal Brand what is your "right page last panel"? (one of my favorites)
4- Would your company bail a customer out of jail?
5- Facebook, now with 100% more creepy!
6- Forget the Newspaper Industry, I want to save Playboy!

...and a few others I liked from last year:

1- Social Media Talkers vs: Social Media Doers
2- I don't want to be thought of as a Marketer anymore.
3- The Porn Industry is Recession proof... Be like the Porn Industry! (two blog posts in one)
4- Will ideas be the Currency during a Recession?
5- What are you passionate about...and are you any good at it?

Hope you enjoy these posts and please feel free to comment if you are moved to as I would love to know what you guys think!

Small Business takes Passion.

I have a good friend who goes on and on about the SodaPopStop in Los Angeles. he swears by the place and even had at Coke in glass bottles (from Mexico) at his wedding directly from this shop. I haven't had a chance to visit personally but did find this video interesting because there is a little history on soda as well as some real small business lessons in here.

Hope you enjoy!



Thanks to Chow.com for shooting and originally posting this.

I wish you could see Twitter the way I see Twitter.

Twitter is a listening tool. Twitter is a sales channel. Twitter is a customer service platform. Twitter is a PR channel. Twitter is cocktail party. Twitter is Twitter. Twitter is a great place to meet chicks.

Get people started talking about Twitter and you will hear all these things because they are all right...and all wrong.

Twitter in reality is a lump of Play Doh.

I spent some time yesterday with Liz Strauss (pictured) and our conversation (and her insights) sparked this idea because she reminded me that no two people share the exact same twitter experience.

What Twitter is to you is dictated by who you follow and what content you are exposed to. If you only follow family members or people in the Ben Affleck fan club then your view of Twitter will be as if it is the most niche conversation site in the world.

Now if you go the other way and follow thousands of folks with no specific common link or are just following people because they follow you or because they are shiny you are going to find yourself in a situation where you are sitting in a room with people talking at you from every direction.

These are two very different extreme scenarios but it gives you an idea on why like Play Doh, you get to dictate what Twitter looks like to you and if anyone jumps into your stream who "ain't your cup of tea" you just can just block them and go back to shaping your experience to what makes you happiest.

...and speaking of Twitter. I just passed 10,000 tweets and to commemorate the historical moment I made a little video.

10,000th Tweet message. from saulcolt on Vimeo.

Video of Gary Vaynerchuk from DemoCamp Toronto with Saul Colt (thats me!)

I am pretty luck that I am exposed to and have the opportunity to participate in a lot of cool things. A few weeks back I was lucky enough to interview Gary Vaynerchuk as part of Democamp Toronto 24 (#DC24). In the interview we touch on some interesting ideas around Social Media, Customer Service, Customer Expectation and of course Wine.

Thanks to David Crow, Jay Goldman, Leila Boujnane for letting me do this as well as Satoshi Takano for filming this and letting me re-post it here.

Gary Vaynerchuk in Toronto @DemoCamp 24 from Satoshi Takano on Vimeo.

Take a look at let me know what you think.

Abraham Lincoln, JKF and Lady Gaga walk into a bar...

People who know me, know I can be a little impulsive. I get my mind set on something and I tend to dive into whatever "that" is and try to wrap my head around till I feel as if I can hold my own in any conversation around whatever the topic is.

I know this is kinda weird but in some ways it best describes me and how my mind works.

The current thing I have been burning brain calories on is "news"....and when I say I have been thinking of news I mean how news works and not just how many ladies are becoming instant millionaires thanks in part to the media and Tiger Woods.

When I do obsess over these topics I usually find some silly fact in my head that may be true or not and begin my journey. So in the case of news I have always been fascinated by the fact that when Abraham Lincoln was killed it took almost a month for the news to reach most of the population.

Jumping forward but staying with the theme of Presidential tragedies, On November 22, 1963, a nation huddled around a single news source to learn from Walter Cronkite that at 1pm CST - 2pm EST President Kennedy passed away. At the time this was as close to real time news as possible.

Now, thanks to Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods we are learning that news is instantaneous and people are growning accustomed to receiving it right away. No longer is there a single trusted source or even a handful of trusted sources. Citizen journalism can be as accurate (and faster) as major news outlets and don't even get me started on the how TMZ has changed what a "Breaking Story" actually means.

An interesting example (at least I think so) is recently Lady Gaga preformed a concert in Toronto and had restricted media from this performance (she might be doing this for the whole tour but I only know about the Toronto show for sure) and while there was no formal media there was still more chatter then any show would receive a year or so ago because people were posting twitter reviews of each individual song as well as almost real time You Tube clips from the show. Now I realize that Lady Gaga is not hard core news but the fact that people not able to attend the show could still experience the show in close to real time is a powerful shift in the way news will be delivered in the not so distant future.

"Search Engines will become the Police Scanners of the news room" - Richard Budman

My friend Richard said this to me and it got me thinking that with all this content being added to the internet it is possible to (still using the Lady Gaga example here) review an event pretty authoritatively without actually attending but by using the tools that are currently available.

This is an exciting time and it will be interesting to see what people do with it.