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I had the most incredible connection this morning with a friend that I met on a social networking site. The only reason we were sitting together was because of our contact on the site. He talked about his background and his family and things. And I talked about my work with social media, my family and other things. About an hour into our conversation, he knew that our time was about up and pulled out his portfolio to show me what he does. As he was showing me this, I was thinking that he just blew it. Don’t you think he should have saved the pitch for another time?

In the afternoon, I was sitting at a local restaurant. I wasn’t sure what to eat. (I hate that when you’re on a business lunch!) I was in the mood for a turkey burger but there wasn’t one on the menu. I decided to get a chicken dish. When the dish came to the table, the chicken label was still on the chicken. Obviously, it was never taken off and baked with the label on the chicken. I sent it back.

The owner of the restaurant hurried quickly to my table. “I am so sorry,” he said. “I’m embarrassed and I told the chef he needs to be more careful - a lot more careful! Don’t worry, I am picking up the tab.”

When the check came, my friend picked up the tab. “I was planning to pick up the tab today anyway,” she said.

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It’s amazing how someone like Bernard Madoff stole all that money from people and non-profit organizations without federal regulators seeing what was going on. Isn’t this stuff regulated?

Yesterday, he received 150 years in jail. The guy is 71 years old. What is 150 years? Death in prison? According to the Wall Street Journal, Madoff can get out of jail for good behavior after 127 years. The articles continues by saying that the Bureau of Prisons has not decided where Madoff will go — to a high or low security prison. (If he serves in a low security prison, that would be a crime in itself.)

While he was sentenced, no one from his family stood by him. After sentencing, his wife spoke to the media saying “I feel betrayed and confused, The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years.” (Hmmm…. Where did she think all that money came from?)

The victims had an opportunity to address him, but still what good did that do if they lost all their money?

My parents were a victim of a ponzi scheme about 10 years ago. It was the most horrific time! They lost everything! The financial advisor is now serving a prison sentence and will probably be out of jail soon. My parents had to sell their home and many of their assets to get by.

Since that happened to my parents, I know how devastating it is. My heart goes out to the victims. It is horrible to trust someone and then have that trust betrayed! I also feel bad for all those financial advisors out there. You have a lot of work to do now. It’s bad “eggs” like Madoff to spoil a profession!

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Every year around this time, Lido Beach hosts a free concert and fireworks. When the fireworks started, my son and his cousin, Jeffrey decided to walk over to Lido Blvd to get a good view.

When they got to the middle school, the heard someone say, “get the dog, get the dog….” So they ran after a stray dog trapped him and took him back to my house. As they were walking back to the house, they called the number on the dog’s collar.

No one answered, so they brought the dog home.

Meanwhile, I had a house full of people for my daughter’s graduation party.

When I turned around, I saw my son with a dog wearing a bright vest and at first, I thought it was a guide dog but it was a life vest. “What is this and where did you find him?” I asked.

“It’s a girl Mom,” said my son. “And we called it’s owners but they aren’t home. Hopefully they will call us…”

“Why is the dog wearing a life vest?” I asked.

“I bet the dog was on a boat,” my sister-in-law, Rebecca said.

The boys called the number on the tag multiple times. We noticed that the dog was from East Williston.

“Do you want to take the dog home with you?” I asked Rebecca, knowing that she lives very close.

“If that’s what I need to do,” she said.

Everyone was paying the dog so much attention, we nearly forgot about the party. The good news, the owner called us and wasn’t too far away. Apparently, his boat was docked at Point Lookout and when the dog heard the fireworks, she jumped overboard into the ocean, swam to shore and ran eight miles from Pt Lookout to the middle school.

“This is my first dog,” the owner said to me. “She’s still young, only three and I think of her like my child.” Then he turned and looked at the two boys, ” It means so much to me that you boys took such good care of Tawny” and he handed them a token reward. “I will never forget what you have done for me.”

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When I see people who are happy in their jobs, it makes me feel good. The other day, my postal worker walked into our office smiling and singing. “I love coming to your office,” she said to Jillian Beroza, HJMT’s Art Director. Jillian then offered her some Dunkin’ Donuts that we had bought for our Social Media 101 Seminar.

When security guards, bus drivers, waiters, airline pilots and even car rental specialists love their jobs, you know it. And when they don’t, they have a terrible attitude.

I really think that the people at HJMT love their job. I know I do. It feels good to work with people who love what they do. There is so much energy and excitement! When you spend most of your life at a job, you really should love it, especially since there is limited time everywhere else….

Let me know your thoughts…

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Yesterday, I took the day off from work to run around with my daughter to get ready for her High School Prom. She had a manicure/pedicure, got her hair done and by the time it was all over, it was time to go to Pre-prom at her friend’s house.

Pre-prom was nuts! Parents were like the paparazzi. There were 18 kids altogether for the Hummer limo, 9 couples. Every where these kids turned, parents were following them taking photos. (I know I took at least 100 photos with two cameras in my hands.) It was certainly a site to see.

My son tried to get into every photo. Why? Because he’s a “little brother” and he likes to do those things. Half of the photos I took, you will see his little head appear. (It’s like Waldo in the game “Where’s Waldo?”)

When the hummer limo came, it got worse. All the parents and grandparents ran to the front of the house to take photos. We practically stopped traffic! My son jumped in the limo and for a little while I actually thought he was going to go with the older kids to the prom. But he didn’t.

My mother in law looked at me as my daughter got into the limo and she said, “this reminds me of when you had your prom and everyone was at my house getting into the limo!”

In a small way, it was like having the prom a second time around…

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I’m not a big country western fan. I like to listen to Madonna, Green Day, The Ramone’s, Coldplay and the list goes on and on…. I love to listen to music in my car, at work and when I’m relaxing at home.

After a long day at work about a month or so ago, my husband announced that he bought Kenny Chesney tickets for Jones Beach.

“Why? Who is he?” was my response.

Well, last night, we attended the Kenny Chesney concert and you know what? It wasn’t half bad. It was actually pretty good! I can’t tell you what songs he sang, because I have no idea. But I can tell you that the crowd loved him! Every seat was taken and everyone stood and danced.

Since we were with my parents (my mom is confined to a scooter), the staff at Jones Beach bumped us up to the first row. I never had such good seats in my life. I kept thinking — if it was only someone I loved… In any event, it was a good concert and I’m glad I went…

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The other night I had a conversation with my husband about the Internet and Social Media. He was comparing the social media revolution today with the revolution that happened in the 1960’s when the Beatles invaded America.

“My parents never accepted the Beatles and the hippy generation,” he said to me. “I used to look at them and say they missed the boat. They were old fashioned and lived in the past.”

It’s interesting to note that a lot of people want their privacy and don’t want to be bothered with social media. But thinking that way is missing the boat, especially if you have a business to promote. Today people are open and transparent. And I don’t think things are going to change fast…
What do you think? Are you missing the boat or are you on board with social media?

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“You can observe a lot by just watching.” — Yogi Berra

With apologies to Yogi, you can also learn a lot by listening too. Especially on Twitter.

A lot of people have the mistaken notion that Twitter is just another way to broadcast your message far and wide. In theory, it sounds like a great tool for getting a public relations message out.

True, it can get your message out, but it is not very efficient as a pure broadcast medium. “Tweets” roll down the page of Twitter awfully fast and the chances of your single message gaining traction that way are limited.

The true genius of Twitter is in creating relationships and engaging in conversations. When others find what you have to say interesting, your thoughts and ideas cut through the noise on Twitter very quickly.

But relationships and conversations require listening. It is not enough to simply send out press releases on Twitter, you must also read other peopleís messages and respond to them.

But there is an even more important, and unexpected, point of listening on Twitter. You can learn a lot.

For example: Twitter has become my primary research tool (even supplanting Digg.com and Google Alerts) for a book and numerous blog articles Iím writing, and also for the speaking engagements I prepare.

I simply set up various keyword searches on Tweetdeck.com and I am fed a daily stream of information on the topics I have an interest in.

If you are an executive for a corporation, or are a publicity agent for such an organization, you should immediately stop reading this article and set up a keyword search for your company name and for your major products. This will enable you to learn what others are saying about you in real time.

Imagine being able to respond to negative PR quickly before it spreads. Also imagine being able to take advantage of a new trend before your competitors even know what hit them.

Another important way to listen on Twitter is to ask questions and solicit feedback. Again, you will get instant responses to your tweets. Nothing I know can give you information faster than Twitter.

Or you can use Twitter to get help brainstorming. Got a problem? Need ideas and solutions? Just send out a tweet asking for help. So many people out there will willingly take time to help you. Your fellow Twitter users are an untapped resource that your competitors are probably not using.

Of course the power to get this kind of feedback grows with the more followers you gather, which is fueled by having interesting things to say, so it really is a two-way street.

The beauty of Twitter is that it is not a one-way tool to dump sales pitches on the web. Those who succeed on Twitter, those who get it, know that it is a two-way conversation. They will engage the ìtwitterverseî as a learning tool as much, if not more, than they send out their messages.

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Charles Brown is a social media / rainmaking / personal branding coach located in Fort Worth, Texas. He is working on a book on personal branding that he expects to finish by fall 2009 (hopefully). His Twitter username is @charbrown. Check out his blog at: http://webmarketingcoach.blogspot.comî>http://webmarketing-coach.com

You can Follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/charbrown and visit his blog: webmarketing-coach.com where he writes about social networking, personal branding, thought leadership, viral marketing, rainmaking for professionals and lots of other cool stuff.

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The Iranian election showed one of the real uses of social media. Iranians had the opportunity to communicate with each other and the world. Nothing was censored. We all got to see first hand accounts of the election, the protests and people actually getting killed over the whole thing!

Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, Iran with the help of European technology companies, will be censoring all social media. They developed advanced firewalls to monitor and censor everything in social media, especially as it relates to Iran. There are an estimated 23 million users of social media in Iran.

Iran can now track all online communication through a single location called the Telecommunication Infrastructure Co., part of the government’s telecom monopoly. And, this isn’t just an Iranian issue. In China, every PC is installed with web filtering software. That’s not all, countries like Germany and England are also looking at similar technologies for their countries to monitor the web. They have already block certain sites. It could easily happen here.

Sound like Big Brother watching you? It is and it’s scary. Tell me your thoughts…

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You may have had a BBQ at the house or maybe you were one of those lucky ones to get a reservation at Peter Luger’s Steakhouse. But it seemed to me, that most of you were food shopping at Waldbaums, Stop and Shop or maybe even Wegman’s.

Many of you were also in the bagel shop. I know because I tried to buy bagels this morning and the line was out the door. I was also food shopping this morning and waited on line for nearly an hour!

Like Mother’s Day, today is another one of those Hallmark holidays. It’s a day to spend with your dad and/or your husband and to tell them how much you appreciate all the little things that they do for you.

As we were eating our bagels this morning, the sink facet broke. I wouldn’t even know the first thing about how to fix it and Brian, my husband, was “johnny on the spot” with his wrench and pliers. Since it’s not working, we’ll need to hire a plumber.

Later, we’ll be going to a steakhouse for dinner. Right now, we’re just relaxing enjoying the day. I hope you have a wonderful Father’s Day… And a special Father’s Day wish to all the Father’s to be including Darren Galvani and Arthur Meyerovich!

Hey, let me know what you did today?

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