Happy Birthday to Blog
I will take this occasion to wish my blog, and me, a happy birthday. It is now 4 years old. I am somewhat older. Recent milestones of my blog include the migration to WordPress in the spring and my 1000th post a couple weeks ago. Lots of things going on other places, so check out my other sites at the right and my social profiles for a fuller picture of what’s going on. Cheers.
Business Blogging Best Practices
There has been lots of talk lately that micro-blogging, using sites like Twitter, has taken the place of blogging and blogs are just no longer relevant. Not only is there still a place for blogs, but it is a perfect way for companies to begin to understanding social media and begin to engage with their customers and prospects. We recently wrote about the four-year old Boeing blog, which by many measures is a successful blog, so this seems like a perfect time to list some best practices for business blogging. Even though this site is geared towards business to business companies, these best practices are for anyone planning, or even currently writing, a company blog.
Continue Reading at SocialMediaB2B.com.
Digital Papercuts Has Moved
This post is primarily for my subscribers who view this blog in their feedreader. I have changed my blogging software to WordPress and that brings many changes. I would be happy to share my experiences with the blog move, and may do so in a future post.
You may see some duplicate content and old content in the feed, but that will clear up soon as I get everything up and running. The duplicate content results from pointing the same feed at a new site. Duplicate content is a small price to pay to keep my posts flowing toward your reader. Some of the older content may be posts that I published on other sites, and have now re-posted here for completeness.
And finally, I have changed the feed to summary mode rather than the full posts, so you can come to my site and give me some feedback on the new look. It is a work in progress that still needs some more tweaks, but I wanted to share ideas, videos and photos and couldn’t wait any longer. After a little while I may change the feed back to showing full posts. Please let me know your thoughts on that below.
Another Kid Blogger
When your dad is a famous rock star and you have spent your life as a drummer in a kid band that plays at Lollapalooza, traveling to cool places and interested in politics, music and technology, what else can you do but start a blog. Spencer Tweedy, son of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, has been blogging since 2007. While I have not delved in too deeply yet, this appears to be a pretty accomplished blog, even forgetting the fact that he is only 13.
Some Kids Just Get It
Every so often I am surprised by the things that come out of my kids’ mouths. Not in the way you might expect, although that happens too, but sometimes they express things that show they were not only listening to me, but that they really get it too.
Peter was telling me that he finished his work early in class and his teacher gave him two extra projects. He was excited by these projects. He’s that kind of kid. I asked him if he told his teacher about the Sports Blog he started over winter break. His teacher is very impressed with his writing and we discussed blogging in his parent-teacher conference. When both your parents have been blogging for years, it is not a stretch to suggest that a 5th grader begin blogging.
Anyway, I told him to ask his teacher if he could work on his blog during class time if he has finished his work. He could either write his posts on paper and type them when he gets home, or if he has the opportunity to work on one of the computers in the room, he could just blog. I said that he could write, I’m blogging from class.
And he reminded me how happy I was that his first blog post did not fall into the usual pattern of Hey, welcome to my blog, but jumped right into a real post. He asked me why would he want to take a step backwards and say he’s blogging from class? He should just be writing about sports. The kid gets it.
Sports from the POV of a 10 Year Old
It must be genetic because Peter finally went and started a sports blog. It’s called Peter’s Sports Blog. It is interesting to see what things have his attention. I will be reading it regularly, and you might want to also.
He has started searching my flickr photos for pictures of himself, including the one on his profile.
This Was the Week That Was
N&O Photo by Robert Willett
Last week I was interviewed by the News & Observer, and the article appeared this week on Monday morning in the print edition and on the web. I was on the front page of both. This generated a lot of Twitter activity (which appears below), and I was featured two times on 30 Threads (here and here), a local blog aggregation site.
I had a conversation with my friend Ryan who wanted to post my quote from the article, but was concerned about the News & Observer copyright. Other friends joked about the wonky caption in the paper (and online) that said I was “linked up and copiously spread across the internet.” I spent the first part of the week pretending I was a famous and acting like a rockstar.
The story was also picked up by the Charlotte Observer and the Corpus Christi Caller Times. Finally, the best was on Wednesday when the article was translated into Spanish and appeared on a Mexican computer website. By the end of the week, my fame was fleeting and it was back to normal.
Twitter Chatter from the Week
Conventions of Twitter:
The first thing is the @username of the person speaking
If the first thing after their @username is @anotherusername, they are speaking to that person
RT or Retweet means to re-post something that someone else posted (and giving the credit for the original post)
I am @dgtlpapercuts, so these tweets (Twitter posts) from Monday December 15 and Tuesday December 16 are either by me (@dgtlpapercuts first), to me (@dgtlpapercuts after the person speaking) or about me (@dgtlpapercuts somewhere in the Tweet). They listed with the oldest tweets first, and follow in chronological order.
@GinnySkal: @newsobserver Your lead story on newsobserver.com contains a 404 error, I want to read it b/c the pic looks like @dgtlpapercuts
@dgtlpapercuts: @GinnySkal The picture is me, but @newsobserver is an auto feed, so they may not answer
@jreesnc: I see @dgtlpapercuts on today’s front page of the N&O http://idek.net/zm
@GinnySkal: @dgtlpapercuts I thought it looked like you! Now I really want to read the story.
@dgtlpapercuts: My thoughts and photo are part of today’s Raleigh N&O lead story on the Future of the Internet http://idek.net/zm
@30THREADS: Awesome, one of my favorite local bloggers (@dgtlpapercuts) is featured in @newsobserver. The caption is so funny http://snurl.com/89180
@dgtlpapercuts: RT: @30THREADS: Awesome, one of my favorite local bloggers is featured in @newsobserver. The caption is so funny http://snurl.com/89180
@KE4ZNR: @dgtlpapercuts Good write up bro! Good to see positive attention towards Social Media!
@waynesutton: Retweet: @30THREADS: Awesome, one of my favorite local bloggers is featured in @newsobserver. http://snurl.com/89180 (expand) @dgtlpapercuts
@theRab: retweeting @30THREADS: Awesome, one of my favorite local bloggers (@dgtlpapercuts) is featured in @newsobserver. The caption is so funny
@theRab: @dgtlpapercuts in the year 2020! The future is now me thinks. @newsobserver story: http://snurl.com/89180
@ayse: @dgtlpapercuts That caption is hilarious! Congrats on the nice article.
@dgtlpapercuts: That’s to all for the comments on my appearance in today’s N&O http://idek.net/zm I am linked up and copiously spread across the Internet.
@theRab: @dgtlpapercuts are you from the future? sent back to copiously spread the message of social linking….
@dgtlpapercuts: My star power has overcome my typing ability today. Last tweet was “Thanks to all…”
@dgtlpapercuts: @theRab I am from the future where we have solved all the world’s energy needs with lava lamps.
@underoak: @benmarvin Yes, great comments today. My fave at @dgtlpapercuts story in N&O: “I was promised a flying car. Where is it?” (Can’t find now).
@isabisa: @ginnyskal it IS @dgtlpapercuts!
@theRab: @dgtlpapercuts i was going to reblog your awesome N&O quote but ended up with http://icanhaz.com/jeffcohenwisdom maybe you can retweet it?
@theRab: @dgtlpapercuts there’s a post secret like opporunity there
@dgtlpapercuts: @jtobin You want me to follow Kathy on Twitter (which I did). Facebook wants me to become her friend. What’s up with this?
@GinnySkal: @dgtlpapercuts It’s probably because you’re famous now. Everyone wants to be your friend.
@dgtlpapercuts: @GinnySkal Fame is fleeting. This morning: lead story on N&O web http://idek.net/zl Now hard to find a link: http://www.newsobserver.com/
@jtobin: @dgtlpapercuts Facebook must have read today’s News & Observer. Congrats. Great placement!
@dgtlpapercuts: @jtobin Thanks. Fun to be a Hyper-Local Rock Star for the Day among friends. Tomorrow we’ll all be watching shoe throwing Iraqis again.
@glowbird: Just posted to @30Threads a link to the N&O article about 2009 internet predictions (featuring @dgtlpapercuts!) http://is.gd/bY0r
New Year’s Drop Blog
Each year I write a post about what drops on New Year’s around the country. I gathered those posts on a new blog called NewYearsDrop.com, and will add more to it this year. Check it out and let me know what you think.
I Made the Front Page
Last week’s interview with the News and Observer was included in an article that appeared on the front page of the print edition and the lead story on the web. I thought the article did a great job summarizing what I said, and has a quote that has become my mantra. The photo only appears small on the site, so until I get a digital copy of it, just go to the site to see it.
Here’s my part of the article
Jeff Cohen of Durham, an account executive with Chapel Hill marketing firm Koroberi, may already be living the 2020 life.
He’s on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Flickr. He carries a Blackberry and documents his family life on the Internet, down to the minutiae of sneaker shopping and photos of his Thanksgiving plate. Last week, he and his kids ordered a Domino’s pizza and tracked its status online — from prep to oven to box to “delivery expert.” Then he blogged about it.
He thinks he benefits from sharing his life with the world.
“People will feel a stronger connection to you in a business environment if you put yourself out there personally.”
Here’s a link to the complete article on the News and Observer website
Me Blogging and Twittering
