I’m going to go ahead and draw a line in the sand. 

I love Facebook. I’ve been posting there since April 16, 2007. And I believe Facebook should be insanely profitable, but Facebook is not the internet, nor should it be. Chris Smith suggests this in a long status update on Facebook. “The Facebook I see today is now the Internet,” he writes. He posted it on Facebook to highlight his contention. And, with all due respect to Chris, I couldn’t disagree more. And I’m writing my response here, because I believe THIS is the Internet.

If people follow his advice to consider making Facebook their hub, I believe they will be abandoning what the internet was built to be and should be. I was going to write about this at length myself, but John Battelle beat me to it and, quite frankly, he is way more qualified than I’m ever going to be to write with the degree of critical thinking this topic deserves. My reaction to Chris’ post is strong, because I believe that what he’s suggesting here is abandoning the core values of the Internet.

What Are The values? Battelle list them as these:

• No Gatekeepers
• An Ethos Of The Commons
• No Preset Rules Of How Data Is Used
• Neutrality
• Interoperability

John writes, “I find it hard to argue with any of the points above as core values of how the Internet should work… But if you look at this list of values, and ask if Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and the thousands of app makers align with them, I am afraid the answer is mostly no. And that’s the bigger issue I’m pointing to: We’re slowly but surely creating an Internet that is abandoning its original values for…well, for something else that as yet is not well defined.”

Not all change is good.

Chris asks at the end of his status update, “Was it really so bad? Could it actually be better for us all that this can be done here in it’s entirety?” It depends on your internet worldview. In my worldview, the answer is decidedly, “no.” I have no desire for Facebook to be the Internet. Absolutely none. What will it take to insure the Internet continues to be a commons?

“It requires that we, as the co-creators of value through interactions, data, and sharing, take responsibility for ensuring that the Internet continues to be a commons, ” Battelle writes.  ”I expect this will be less difficult than it sounds. It won’t take a political movement or a wholesale migration from Facebook to more open services. Instead, I believe in the open market of ideas, of companies and products and services which identify the problems I’ve outlined above, and begin to address them through innovative new approaches that solve for them. I believe in the Internet. Always have, and always will.”

To THAT, I say amen. And I strongly encourage you to read the following posts by Battelle in their entirety:

It’s Not Whether Google’s Threatened. It’s Asking Ourselves: What Commons Do We Wish For? - “If we lose the web, well, we lose more than funny cat videos and occasionally brilliant blog posts. We lose a commons, an ecosystem, a “tangled bank” where serendipity, dirt, and iterative trial and error drive open innovation.”

We Need An Identity Re-Aggregator That We Control – “The downsides of not owning your own words, on your own platform, are not limited simply to money. Over time, the words and opinions one leaves all over the web form a web of identity – your identity – and controlling that identity feels, to me, a human right. But unless you are a sophisticated netizen, you’re never going to spend the time and effort required to gather all your utterances in one place, in a fashion that best reflects who you are in the world.”

Put Your Taproot Into The Independent Web – “Facebook knows that independence is critical to the future of the Internet, and has created tools to insure it’s a major player there. My advice: use those tools inside your own presence on the web. But put your taproot into soil that you control, soil that is shared by the millions of other independent voices on the web. That insures you’ll be part of a free and open ecosystem where serendipity and opportunity can create wonderful new possibilities.

Set The Data Free, And Value Will Follow – “f the true value of the economy we are building is to be unlocked, that value has to flow unchecked from one party to another. Were this to be true, differentiation of services would migrate to a higher level of the stack, so to speak. Services would be considered valuable for what they did with data given to them by consumers, rather than by their ability to lock consumer’s data into their proprietary platform. New models would emerge to reward those services for adding that value, and those models would be both more robust, and far larger than the “one ring to rule them all” model currently at play.”

- – - -

Creative Commons photo via Flickr by Steve Rhode

I love early adopters. They’re like the American settlers who came West looking for gold. They ignore the warnings of friends and bravely forge into new territory with the hope of making a better life, all the while risking attack by unfriendly natives.

Some find empty streams. Some find gold in those streams. Actually, the vast majority find empty streams and very few find gold. But the few who find gold send word back to friends and family and soon throngs of new settlers are making their way to the new land to find their own fortune. They work hard, but in the wrong streams. They spend their time panning for fools gold.  But they too send word back to their friends and family abou how exciting the search for gold is. They talk about how beautiful the country is and point to stories of others who found a nugget.

Last night I found myself thinking about this as I listened on Facebook to real estate agents tell their stories about Pinterest. The brave settlers were telling their friends that there was gold in that stream and they were sharing mining stories and showing off nuggets. Experienced minors can tell the difference between pyrite and gold. The excited settler is often fooled.

The Pinterest Stream And Fools Gold

One of the nuggets shared was from Pinterest, a social curation site that’s been around for a little more than a year. A few real estate agents were talking about it’s potential benefit in marketing and the illustration to the right was shared as an example.

Again, I love early adopters and I really do appreciate this effort. I have no desire to disparage. Someone has to be a settler and brave the arrows, but this is fools gold, in my opinion. Set aside the fact that it ignores the requirement to identify yourself as a Realtor in marketing a home  (at the time of this writing there is no indication on the page or in the profile) and that it doesn’t link out to a place where someone who might find it could learn more about the home, or that it has no useful descriptions. All of that is secondary to the most common mistake real estate agents make when they begin trying to market in new social network. They don’t stop to understand the new territory first and begin mining in the wrong place. A simple read of the Pinterest etiquette will allow anyone to quickly find this:

Avoid Self Promotion
Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.

My advice here is going to be the same advice I give people in any new social network… go have some fun first. Be social. Get to know the community, the lay of the land. The rest will sort itself out. The first thing that happens when the real estate community “discovers” a new social media site is they focus on the media, not the social. This is a mistake. It leads to mining in the wrong streams.

The Pinterest Stream And Real Gold

Later in the conversation, Janet White shared this advice, “The coolest thing is as a buyers tool for visually capturing style,” Janet wrote. “Get your buyers building their dream home boards. Check out the plethora of architectural photography from across the globe – many will love this idea you can easily share as ‘oh, this is a cool tool…’ We know they are already searching online so help them organize a virtual style folder.”

The difference between the first example and the example Janet describes above, is that one of them focuses on adding value and being social and one of them doesn’t. It’s that simple. I see the second idea as being in keeping with the spirit of the Pinterest community, honoring the sites clearly posted etiquette and fully in line with its terms of service. That’s the right stream to be mining in.

I’ve stopped trying to predict what site will or won’t be the next gold mine. I don’t care whether it’s Pinterest or new sites that work off the same basic curation concept, like Bundlr(1). What I do care about, however, is this: If you’re going to spend your time on these sites, do it in a way that honors both the spirit of the community and the community guidelines. It’s the only way to insure you get the most out of the site. If I were pinning for gold, that’s the stream I’d pin in.

- – - -

(1) This is a referral link. If you click on it and sign up, I get one month of something I can’t imagine ever buying for free. But, its the only way I’m ever going to try their collaboration option, so hopefully one of you will and I’ll give it a try for a month.

Your values are your true brand. I believe this without reservation. There is real power in clearly identifying and articulating your core mission and values, and making them a prominent behavior driver, both in your business and in your personal life. Two stories caught my eye this past week and they each take a different approach to placing emphasis on the importance of values and culture.

“People gravitate toward honesty.”

I might say it differently, but I agree generally. I think more specifically, people who value honesty, gravitate toward honesty. Thankfully, there are more people who value honesty than dishonesty. It’s how we’re wired. Too few companies, however, fully tap into this truth.

“The mission of our business, then and now, is encouraging consumers to consider their purchases carefully,” DoDo Case CEO, Craig Dalton wrote in Risky Ideas Turn Into Smart Businesses When Your Values Are Clear. ”Our message had to ring clear: We preserve the art of bookbinding, create jobs in San Francisco, and make a product that people feel emotionally connected to. We are able to breathe freely, and act with total transparency simply because we have nothing to hide. As it turns out, people gravitate toward honesty, even (and maybe especially) if you are doing things ‘wrong’ on paper.”

“It’s not intangible or fluffy.”

Values are what stand behind corporate culture, and according to Shawn Parr, culture eats strategy for lunch. “Culture, like brand, is misunderstood and often discounted as a touchy-feely component of business that belongs to HR,” Shawn writes . “It’s not intangible or fluffy, it’s not a vibe or the office décor. It’s one of the most important drivers that has to be set or adjusted to push long-term, sustainable success. ” I couldn’t agree more.

Values are only intangible when companies relegate them to a poster in their lobby. Values are only fluffy when they fail to be given teeth to act as the filters for how decisions get made, for how a business moves itself forward. When stated values take a back seat to profits, when short-term gains and expediency unseat the values that connect a business to both its customers and its employees, they’re meaningless, if not harmful.

Better to never state your values than to proclaim values you never intend to live. When there is a clear disconnect between stated values and real values, the values our behavior communicates, companies create a dissonance that can become a cancer, internally and externally. But clearly stated values that are given real life inside an organization, top to bottom… that’s powerful stuff.

- – - -

Creative Commons photo via Flickr By quinn.anya

“Social Media is a watering hole. You shouldn’t be surprised when the predators arrive.”

My good friend, Steven Lee Stinnett, said this to me a few years ago. I wasn’t surprised at the time, and I loved the analogy. Today I’m surprised when the predators AREN’T around. I think the watering hole metaphor still applies, but has morphed from an image of an oasis on the Serengeti to that of a modern-day caricature of the watering hole, otherwise known as a pickup bar.

This modern watering hole is noisy and crowded. Everyone is trying to look their best, doing everything in their power to attract attention. Some people are looking for relationships, and some are just looking to get laid. With the latter, there’s lots of conversation taking place, but conversation is not really the goal. It’s simply a means to an end. It’s a necessary evil. And all would be fine, if everyone just stayed sober. They don’t.

At this new watering hole we’re getting drunk on pokes, likes, retweets, fans, and followers. We’re drunk on the attention. It feels good. Who doesn’t like a good buzz? Who doesn’t want to feel wanted, needed or loved? The problem is, its not all real. And if we’re not drinking in moderation, it has the ability to impair our judgment and decrease our ability to distinguish between the people who are interested in a relationship and the people who are just trying to get us into bed with them, just trying to make a buck off of us.

Waking Up With A Stranger In Our Bed – Loss Of Trust

“I think the thing that I’ve noticed overall,” Laura Monroe shared with me, “is that with all the pandering people do over one another… for their own agendas, I’m left with a feeling that is the opposite of what social media should be. If EVERYONE gets behind something just to get their name shared, retweeted whatever… it all sounds the same, over and over. I lose trust in that.”

Or as Heather Elias put it, it’s becoming hard for some groups to “differentiate between people who have real wisdom to share and people who simply want to prey on them.” And it’s not the watering hole’s fault. It’s our fault. The drunker we all get at the watering hole, the harder it is to tell who the predators are.

If you’ve just arrived at this new watering hole, enjoy. It’s a great place. I really love it. Sometimes too much. Trust me, I’ve been drunk on social media attention my fair share. I’m learning along with everyone else. Perhaps it’s time for some of us regulars to stop drinking the spiked kool-aid, go grab a large cup of coffee with a close friend, and come back sober.

I didn’t write a single word while I was in Kenya.

I snapped over 3000 photos and videos. I updated Twitter and Facebook and Path in the morning or the evening when I had access. But I did not sit down to write like this at all during my 21 days outside of the United States. I started to a couple of days, and could never get past the first sentence. Because I was trying to write it here. And here felt very far away, someplace else.

Raw and exposed are two words I’d use to describe my emotions while in Kenya. My surroundings, both the people and the place, provided the perfect vehicle for allowing my heart to overtake my mind. So I ran with it. Many times during a day I would find myself simply staring at my children as they played with their Kenyan sisters, or looking out the window of the car as we sped by area after poverty stricken area looking at the faces of people who seemed every bit as happy as the faces I see out the window of my car in Santa Clarita or Huntington Beach, CA. In fact, in many ways, they seemed happier, or at least more connected.

Life in the now.

What I noticed, more than anything, was how much conversation was taking place. Nobody was buried in their smart phone, furiously posting a status update about where they were or what they were doing. They were just there. They were just doing it. Nobody was trying to spark a pseudo-conversation with people they couldn’t see or touch in the moment. They were talking to the people around them. They were talking to the people WITH them.

One night I allowed myself to come back to this world fully and engage with Facebook and Twitter for a few hours. I had figured out a way to get unlimited data on our Safaricom card and set up a wireless network from my laptop so we could use our iPhones. The next morning my wife asked me about something and I had no idea what she was talking about. She snapped. She said something to the effect of, “when you are on your iPhone you simply get lost in it. You don’t really hear a word anyone else is saying.” She had apparently had a conversation with me the night before, and while I was responding, I wasn’t really there. I had no recollection of the conversation. At all.

Disconnecting from the people closest to me.

She was right and I knew it. In that moment, it was painfully apparent. Kenya had allowed me to be with the people closest to me and away from the constant connection long enough to realize that, all too often, I turn to my iPhone and disconnect from the people around me, the people closest to me, physically and emotionally. I justified it by allowing myself to believe that engaging with my online world was, in those moments, just as important. It’s not. It’s not more important than really connecting with the people who share the same room with me, the same car with me, the same restaurant table with me.

We’re drunk on social media. 

I missed my own product launch (RealSatisfied.com) at Inman Connect. I had no access to the twitter stream while in London. AT&T decided to shut off my digital access. So I surfed the #ICNY hashtag stream on Twitter when I got home. I was delighted to find that Phil and David, my Australian buddies at RealSatisfied.com, had introduced phone stacking to some of my social media drunk friends. They took everyone’s cell phones at dinner and told them that the first person to touch their phone was buying dinner. Imagine that, a dinner at a technology focused conference in New York City where nobody at the table is on their cell phone. Where people are simply focused on having conversations with the people actually at their table.

It would feel like Kenya.

I came home to a full week of activity, including a speaking engagement at CRS Sell-A-Bration. After the conference, I disengaged from Facebook and Twitter. That was last Friday. It’s been a week since I’ve updated my public Twitter or Facebook stream. I don’t think anyone has noticed. It’s noisy in both places, lots of people are vying for attention. And I have no desire to broadcast this post on either one of them. I’ve unchecked the “Publish to Twitter” box on this post. I realize that will mean fewer people will ever know this post is here. I don’t care.

I’m giving myself some distance to gain a bit of perspective. I’ll be back to the public streams of both Facebook and Twitter. I’m just not sure when.

—-

Phone stacking photo via Flickr by Roo Reynolds

“Can I help you?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’d like to buy this Gateway netbook” If you know me, that’s not a sentence I thought would ever come out of my mouth. But that’s the whole point of this story. I wasn’t buying it for me, I was buying it for Mary, the first of the girls at St. Monica’s Children’s Home in Kenya to go to college. It is being provided for her by Drew Meyers. Drew is off on new adventures and starting a new company, ESM Exec Designs. And he’s building it with a social conscience. For every custom site he builds, he is donating one laptop to an individual or non-profit organization somewhere in the developing world. Mothers Fighting For Others, and Mary, are the first to benefit from his generosity.

“Do you like this computer,” the salesman asked? “No, but I’ve been to three stores to find a netbook and this is the only one I can find,” I replied. “I’m not picky right now.”

He began to tell me why it was probably not going to be something I wanted. He rattled off issues with it’s speed and processor power, and something about screen size. If I had not been in a hurry, I might have let him finish. But I was only five hours from leaving for Kenya, so I stopped him short. “Listen, I’m leaving for Kenya in five hours and this is for a young Kenyan girl who is going off to college. We received a $300 donation specifically for this. She’s the first girl from our children’s home there to graduate and be accepted to college.”

He paused for a second and said, “Well, that certainly does change your perspective on things, doesn’t it?”

Yes it does. I’m thankful for this 10-inch Gateway LT2805u mini netbook right now. And thankful for Drew. I am quite certain Mary will be too.

I need to look at things from a different perspective more often.

“I’ve found two more daughters.”

Those are the words I was greeted with when my wife, Rocky, returned from what we thought was going to be her “once in a lifetime” volunteer trip to Kenya with Global Volunteer Network in October of 2007. She had fallen in love with the girls at St. Monica’s Children’s Home and two of them, Winnie and Joyce,  had captured her heart in such a way that she felt compelled to make them an official part of our family.

If you’ve ever met my wife, you know this… she is a force to be reckoned with. The first words out of my mouth were, “you know I’ll do whatever you think is best for this family.” I could argue, just for the sake of arguing, but in the end, I know that she would only fight for what she felt was best for everyone involved. It’s just who she is.

We already had 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls. The youngest two, both girls, are adopted from Guatemala. So, I followed my initial comment with these words, “If you really think we have the time and energy to bring two more girls into our family, I’d like you to at least consider the possibility of using that time and energy to help more than just two. Why don’t you think about helping all of them.”

That conversation changed our lives. That “once in a lifetime” trip to Kenya turned a blog created to give moms a place to have a voice for social good,  into a charity by the same name, Mothers Fighting For Others. And it turned a desire to adopt 2 more girls into a actions that have changed the lives of 35 orphaned Kenyan girls forever.

What we didn’t know.

You see, what we didn’t know at the time we made that decision was that image of the home put forth by the priest who ran the old St. Monica’s, was a carefully crafted facade. These beautiful girls, who had already been through too much pain, were being taken advantage of in ways that became clearer and clearer as Rocky and other volunteers began to make more trips back to Kenya. When the truth was fully revealed, action had to be taken. Finally, in April of 2010, the girls were moved, as a family, into the house they now call home, and MFFO, in conjunction with our friend, Perpetua Gatome, and her Kenyan NGO, Sister’s Arise Project, took over the care and education of the girls.

I leave for my first trip to Kenya today. 

I hesitate to call this a “once in a lifetime” journey. I know what happened the last time I did that.  This will be Rocky’s 10th trip in four years. And our 6 children, ages 6 to 17, will be joining us on this amazing adventure. The kids and I are finally going to meet our Kenyan family. For the last four years we have known them only through letters, photos and videos.

Our kids call the girls at St. Monica’s their “Kenyan Sisters.” The girls in Kenya call me Dad. And while I have marveled at the courage my wife and others had in fighting to put the girls into a safe home, and have cried many times listening to their story and watching their videos, I’ve been missing that final piece of the connection that will allow me to truly call them my Kenyan daughters. I will have that soon. 

I can’t wait to meet them face-to-face. I can’t wait to laugh with them and cry with them. I can’t wait to watch my 6 children play with their 35 Kenyan sisters. I know it will complete a picture that, for me, has been more than four years in the making.

I’m ready. Let’s go.

One thousand eight hundred fifty one. (1851)

That’s exactly how many people had interactions with me on Twitter this past year. How do I know this? On December 3, 2010 at 2:03 PM PST, I set up RowFeeder to capture every mention of @respres. The first mention it captured was from Rachel Rusnak, who tweeted, “@respres is on TV! Pretty much made my day.. #twitter #facebook  http://plixi.com/p/60366358”

Row Feeder has captured every single mention since that one (13,286  as I write this) and all of the data associated with those tweets and saved them dynamically into a Google spreadsheet. I didn’t know what I was going do with that data until this morning, when it occurred to me, that if behavior is the truest form of communication, and it is, then looking at this data from that perspective might be an interesting exercise. Who were the top 25 people I had the most interaction with on Twitter this past year? Is that, in some way, an snapshot of who on Twitter might be influencing me and who I might be influencing? I think it is.

Of course, this snapshot is not a complete picture.

For example, Brad Nix is not on the list below. We had 38 interactions on Twitter from 12/3/2010 to 12/3/2011. We exchanged exactly 140 emails in that same time period and uncounted texts, phone calls and direct messages. By sheer character count, our interactions off of Twitter dwarf our interactions on Twitter. Steve Zehngut is also not on the list below. We had only had 24 interactions on Twitter this past year, and he is my business partner. So no, this is not a complete picture, but it was enlightening to dig deeper into this data.

Before I get to the list, here’s a deeper look at the numbers. Those 1851 people created 11,751 “mentions,” with a total reach of 6,444,020 people. Fifty four percent (54%) or 1001 of the 1851 people had only a single interaction with me during the year. 212 people had more than 10 interactions. I find it interesting, but certainly not surprising, that this latter number begins to look more like Dunbar’s Number. Multiple mentions (interactions) is an indication of the strength of both sides of the attention equation and illustrates just how much real bandwidth is available for extended conversations, and how many concerted attempts at conversation are actually taking place.

My Twitter Top 25 (By Number Of Mentions)

It’s an interesting list for me, because every single one of these people is associated with the real estate industry. (Edit: Except for one) Interesting, but not surprising. It’s interesting, to me, because in my “outside of Twitter” world, I spend more time interacting with people who are not in the real estate industry than with those who are. The vast majority of our clients at Zeek Interactive are not real estate related.  I think it’s proof of what I tell people all the time, I simply like the real estate industry and the vast, vast majority of the  people I meet in it. Now on to the list.

1. Matthew Shadboldt – @corcoran_group – 517:  Official Twitter account for Corcoran’s Director of Interactive Product & Marketing. Winner of Inman News’ 2011 Social Media Innovator of the Year Award

2. Gahlord Dewald – @gahlord – 455:  Data || Creativity || Strategy || Make Things

It wasn’t a surprise that these Matthew and Gahlord ended up at the top. If you were to have asked me randomly, who are the two people you’ve had the most interesting conversations with on Twitter in 2011, their names would have quickly come out of my mouth. By far, as you can see from the chart to the right, I have engaged with them more than any others. The conversations have been deeper and more sustained than any other conversations in the Twitter space. And I’ve enjoyed every single one. And them. 

3. Peter Brewer - @thatpeterbrewer – 330: Social Media Geek – Father – Friend – Hubby to a Special Lady. Has been known to enjoy a beer and a prawn (or 2)… (Views are my own and often erratic)

It’s no secret, Peter and I have become somewhat “close.” And we love to give each other crap. Lately it’s been about deleting my Klout profile, but if it weren’t that it would be something else. Twitter just seems like the perfect place for our bromance. Though we are a Pacific Ocean apart, he is one of my closest friends.

4. Ines Hegedus-Garcia- @ines – 257: Architect • Realtor • Mojitos • Miamisms • not necessarily in that order.

I simply adore her and I’ve known her as long as anyone in this online space. She forces me to think. She’s intelligent, creative, opinionated, and high maintenance. Thankfully, that last one I don’t have to deal with much.

5. Michael McClure – @proffessionalone – 228: Believer, CEO of VerifiedAgent.com, 50 Most Influential in Real Estate, Inman NEXT Blogger & Speaker, MSU Spartan, 2nd City, CPA, Enemy of Status Quo

I would call Michael a relentless networker. He appears to always be in “reach out” mode, and almost always positive. In fact, I’d love to see what his interaction numbers on Twitter looked like over this past year. I’m sure it would make for interesting analysis. 

6. Laura Monroe- @lauramonroe – 164: CEO of Creative Agent Solutions.com, real estate techie, marketing, & social media virtual assistant. Momtrepreneur. Blue jeans. Wine lover.

Genuinely engaging. Those are the words I use to describe Laura. She engages fully. And having had the chance to witness how she works as a virtual assistant and budding wordpress geek, that engagement extends well beyond the 140 character world of Twitter. She knows her stuff.

7. Maura Neill – @mauraneill – 148: lover of Atlanta * musical theatre geek * dark chocolate aficionada * karaoke queen * lover of dark beer * grammar nerd * shoe addict * REALTOR®

I’m not sure anyone’s Twitter description has fit them more than Maura’s. If you’re going to Atlanta and you don’t ask her for her opinion on where you should go eat, drink or have a good time, you’re missing out. Period. End of story. Oh, and she’s wicked smart.

8. Chris Smith – @chris_smth – 144: Chief Evangelist Inman News. Writer. Observer. Believer that innovation is rewarded but execution is worshiped. Least influential person in my home.

Chris is an up and comer in the social media space. He may have a future here. I only recently have had a chance to spend some time with him face-to-face and he’s every bit as energetic in person as his online persona indicates. And the fact he looks like Astro Boy is just a bonus.

9. Teri Conrad – @tericonrad – 140: Communications, Brand and Promotion Strategist/ Consultant / Speaker / Community Builder/ Wine lover/ Wife/ Mom/ Collecting the most amazing relationships

10. Debra Trappen – @debra11 – 130: Sassy redhead who luvs 2 engage, elevate & empower my world. Laser-focused on bringing #swagga back 2 Real Estate as I lead training/engagement @cbbainseal.

When I think of Teri Conrad, I think of Debra Trappen, and vice versa. Perhaps I shouldn’t but in my mind they are joined at the hip. In fact, I was surprised that their mention numbers weren’t exactly the same. I find them both to share a common set of values and a shared vision about how social media should work to build and strengthen brand. They are two people I’d like to lock myself in a room with with. With a whiteboard, of course. 

11. Marc Davison – @1000wattmarc – 114: Founding Partner at 1000watt. We help real estate companies find the one thing that makes them different and show them how to built upon it.

I simply have a profound level of respect for Marc. He may come off as a bit gruff at time, and quite frankly he is, but get him alone for a few hours and you’ll see a man who is passionate about his work, his music and his family. I’m proud to call him a friend.

12. Jeremy Blanton – @jb140 – 112: Founder of 210 Consulting, Father of 2, Dog Lover, & Professional Army Golfer.

I gave Jeremy his Twitter handle. For that reason alone, I’d be surprised if he weren’t on this list.

13. Derek Overbey – @doverbey – 112: Senior Manager of Social Media at VerticalResponse (Roost) / Co-Founder of 100 Interviews / Social Media Muskrat / Husband of @jaoverbey

Derek makes me smile. That may sound trite, but it’s true. He’s the kind of guy I want to go have a beer with, after we sit all day talking about life and work and family. And he’s great with kids. I know, I’ve seen him in action with mine.

14. Lara Scott – @larascott – 108: Information designer. Lover of great user experience. Marketing & content in Australian real estate. Child wrangler. Living by WYSIWYG.

Lara is the second Aussi on my list. She has simply become a good friend over the past 7 months. She’d bright, engaging, and fun to take a walk along Bondi Beach with. 

15. Teresa Boardman – @tboard – 103: Realtor with Saint Paul Home Realty, blogger, writer, photographer,and I am here

According to Teresa, she sees her role in my life as that of “person who makes sure Jeff doesn’t get a big head.” She seems to think my wife is not doing a good enough job of making sure I stay grounded. I can always count on T to make sure I don’t get out of line.

16. Inna Hardison – @innahamedia – 102: Own a full-service marketing firm. We do design, web, printing, wp, sm. We do kick ass work. Other than that – liberal, sarcastic, smart. 2kids+2pups=happy.

Inna is the only person on this list that I’ve NOT met face-to-face, and of all the people I interact with in the social media space, she is the person I most want to sit in the same room with this coming year. She’s passionate, intelligent and ruthlessly honest. I like her. 

17. Bill Lublin – @billlublin – 100: Realtor, Speaker, Educator, Tech Freak, New Media Marketing Mayven, Traveler, Movie Fan, Raconteur, and arbiter of Comedy

Bill is one of only a handful of people my children always refer to by their first and last name. Mr. Bill Lublin. Bill is a friend to me and my family. That should tell you something. 

18. Rob Hahn – @robhahn – 94: blogger, marketer, strategist, social media fella, fashion consultant, lawyer, tinker, tailor, spy

This one surprised me a bit. I had no idea we had this many interactions. I guess I like a good debate more than I thought I did. If you know Rob, you know that’s a compliment. 

19. Ardell Dellaloggia – @ardelld – 94: Seattle Real Estate & Eastside Real Estate

I love this woman. We have had our share of debates in blog comments, but always with an air of mutual respect. She doesn’t suffer fools gladly, so the fact that she suffers me at all makes me feel better about myself and brings a smile to my face. 

20. Dave Cole – @heydavecole – 94: Founder of @DashterWP - #SJSU alum & USC football fan. Love WordPress. Kayaker, scifi geek, raised in Marin County, now reside in OC. http://heydavecole.com

Bright. Really, really bright.  I am one of Dave’s partners at Dahster, and I don’t enter into partnerships with anyone lightly. We are separated by a generation, but we tend to think in paths carved by the similar ideas. I respect his thinking and enjoy his company. And I’m very much looking forward to our 2012 together. (edit: and the only one on the list NOT directly associated with the real estate industry)

21. Todd Carpenter – @tcar – 93: Check it: I work for NAR and these are my personal opinions. See my link for details. Follow @realtors for real estate stuff.

Todd has greatly influenced my thinking about the need to focus on fewer, deeper relationships. He’s a creative thinker with a unique perspective on the world. Put me in a room with Todd and give us a whiteboard and I think we might be able to do a fair bit of damage. 

22. Brian Copeland – @nashvillebrian – 75: Lover of all things Nashville, Board member at Hands On Nashville, Friend to puppies and kitties and REALTOR w/ Village R.E.S. (615) 369-3278 Tennessee #298334

Love. This. Man. He’s simply become one of my closest friends over the past two years. His direct communication style can throw people off, but his heart is huge and always in the right place. He’s a pro. He attacks everything he does with a spirit of stewardship. Love. This. Man.

23. Dan Green- @mortgagereports – 74: Loan officer. When I was young, my parents moved around a lot, but I always found them.

Wicked smart, with a ridiculously sharp sense of humor. Creative in his approach to his business. Writes his own code for the products he creates. Blogs every single day. He impresses me. 

24. Jim Marks – @jimmarks – 72: http://virtualresults.net Develops Internet Strategies combining Websites that Work w/ Traffic Solutions to make SMBs Successful. Living Large in Laguna Beach

Sitting by Jim’s pool one day I realized that our two lives could not be more different. As a result, we sometimes don’t see eye to eye on things, but we always seem to be able to find a common ground for conversation. And he probably hates this list, simply because he’s on it. 

25. Chris Drayer – @fpo – 70: I sail, canoe, hike & own Finch Mktg, where Real Estate Takes Flight. Marketing Dir for FloorPlanOnline & Real Satisfied CMO. Tech junkie.

Once I decided to work with David King and Phil Kells to bring RealSatisfied.com to the United States, Chris was the first and only person I called to help with marketing. I simply trust him. And I’ve come to learn that he is one of the hardest workers around. I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings, Chris. 

So. that’s my list. I checked it twice. You can decide for yourself who’s naughty or nice. I’m outta here… Santa Claus is coming to town.

Do you know who you spend the most time talking to on Twitter?

Last month I deleted my Klout account.

The deletion of my account was a protest of sorts. My goal was not to get others to delete their Klout profile, but to make a statement about behavior. I believed then and I still believe that Klout has negatively “changed the way some people behave on Twitter and in other social networks.” The volume of conversation about personal Klout scores was and is too high. My goal was to do something dramatic to try and reduce that volume. Others have made less dramatic pleas. Today, Chris Brogan included this as his number one suggestion for “things you might do less or not at all” in your attempt to get more Twitter followers: “1. Never once mention (or think about, or worry about) your Klout score.” I couldn’t agree more.

Unfortunately, for one Twitter “broadcaster” at least, my move may have had the opposite effect. Peter Brewer‘s Klout mentions have actually increased dramatically since my post, and I fear it’s only going to get worse. I truly care about this man, so it’s painful for me to watch. I’m sure he doesn’t see it this way, he probably thinks he’s having a bit of fun at my expense, but the fact of the matter is that the deletion of my Klout profile has become a distraction for Peter. It is the only post-deletion regret I have.

@respres Do you not see what you have done man!! RT “@TBoard: @thatpeterbrewer I need my Klout score back without it I am nothing”

— Peter Brewer (@thatpeterbrewer) December 22, 2011

The man has lost it. It was bad enough when his tourette-like outbursts were directed at me, but he has even resorted to calling innocent bystanders vicious names, like “pupplylover.”

@TBoard #puppylover cc @respres

— Peter Brewer (@thatpeterbrewer) December 22, 2011

This is not the kind of behavior I was hoping to influence. Here are just a few examples of the Klout bender Peter has been on.

Hey @respres My @Klout score is 64. I improved it by 3 points over the past30 days! YOU DID’NT!:)) klout.com/user/thatpeter…. ))

— Peter Brewer (@thatpeterbrewer) December 12, 2011

@respres When I get a free pair of socks and a can of coke from my impressive Klout score you’ll be squirming with even more envy! #klout

— Peter Brewer (@thatpeterbrewer) December 12, 2011

I googled the word ‘Envy’ and this was the result: “@respres: @thatpeterbrewer no really, you’re like my @klout hero.”. (Thanks Jeff!)

— Peter Brewer (@thatpeterbrewer) December 12, 2011

Peter, I love you like a brother. I hope that one day you can see that I’m doing fine without my Klout score. I hope  you’ll be able to move on and accept the fact that there are people in this world who don’t need a Klout score to prove their online worth. And even if you can’t, know this, my friend… I’m always here for you. I know that together we can get you through this rough patch.

Curation is a form of storytelling. Curation tools need to support this truth. 

Collecting content without qualitative human judgement is aggregation, not curation. The best automation tools alone will never replace the ability of a human being to provide meaningful context. And the best curation, the curation I subscribe to via email, takes context to the next level. It tells a story. This post is being written, primarily to serve as an example of what I’m calling “social curation.” The act of curating a conversation, like the one that took place this morning at #tschat, should be a storytelling act.

Elliot Harmon – @elliotharmon
RT @linkedcontent: @herdpress Curation does not tell the story, you must, and use the curated content for context or support #tschat

I certainly think Elliot is right on point. Curation, in and of itself, is not telling a story. I often follow links to pages on Paper.li or Scoop.it and find a myriad of excerpts with no connective story. The examples provided below are fairly typical. There is an collection of stories with excerpts, but the story telling side of the curation process is left to short header remarks and sidebar quotes. Is that enough?

Kelly Hungerford – @KDHungerford
@suzboop Hi! Following up from #tschat. Here’s an example for you. http://t.co/N7P6MmR6 http://t.co/JZWIjHG5

This leaves me with questions. The question I often end up asking myself is this, “where do I want to send people when I’m curating content?” And, “can I effectively tell the story there the way I want to tell the story?” I believe I only have so many opportunities to engage someone in the social space, where do I want to send them when I finally do?

There is a concept in fundraising called “donor fatigue.” It’s a real a phenomenon in which people stop giving to a charity or charities, even if they have given to those charities in the past. In a very real sense, I believe supporters in ANY online community, charity or otherwise,  experience a form of donor fatigue when it comes to clicking on links shared by the people they follow. The quality of the link, and in this case, the quality of the storytelling, becomes a key factor in whether they will continue to click on your links. Are they being sent to an experience that looks and feels like every other experience, or are they being sent to a unique experience that tells your story unlike any other?

Buffy Bye – @buffyb
RT @TechSoup: posting transcript writing a recap, curating all yr great tweets! Will post on our teams wiki:http://t.co/p5Q9iMTw #tschat

Like me, @techsoup is curating the #tschat stream on curation. (It’s very meta.  I’ve simply chosen a different curation tool to tell a different story. Still, every act of curation is a storytelling exercise, whether you use a tool hosted on a third-party site, like Pinterest or Storify, or whether you choose to use tools that allow you to self-host your curation. In the end, the story is what matters. It’s what has always mattered. Have I told a story, or have I simply collected a bunch of links?

Robin Campbell – @Robncampbell
Filtering and curating content well requires a mix of automation tools and human curation. There’s no 1 tool yet #tschat

“Curating content well requires a mix of automation tools and human curation.” This is a fact. There is no one tool that gets it all right and there will likely never be one tool that provides all of the different styles of curation necessary. But the questions we need to be asking about any tool all center around that story. Can I tell a story, or am I just collecting excerpts and links and gathering them all in one place? Do the tools bring the value of the human filter front and center? In the end, what we’re really looking for are the stories that only humans can tell.

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Photo credit: Flickr creative commons license via cambodia4kids.org and Beth Kanter.