We know where you are… and we’re glad you’re here

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Steve Mays

Pal George flew into San Antonio for a meeting today (yes, his arms are tired). Shortly after checking into his hotel –and before posting a single tweet– he received the following email:

> From: Twitter
> Date: March 3, 2009 4:44:23 PM CST
> To: [George’s email address]
> Subject: Visit San Antonio is now following you on Twitter!
>
> Hi, georgekopp (georgekopp).
> Visit San Antonio (VisitSanAntonio) is now following your updates on Twitter.
> Check out Visit San Antonio’s profile here:
> http://twitter.com/VisitSanAntonio
> You may follow Visit San Antonio as well by clicking on the “follow” button.
> Best,
> Twitter

Others will figure this out before I do, but it would seem that the VisitSanAntonio (CVB?) folks were able to access the hotel’s dB of guests as they register. Then search Twitter and start following any successful hits.

Anyone see another way this could be accomplished? Not sure I’d be okay with the hotel sharing even the fact of my registration. Reminds me of something similar that happened to Barb and me on a visit to Las Vegas.

UPDATE: The mystery has been solved.

Hi Steve,

I hope that your friend George was pleasantly surprised with our follow today. When he mentioned that he was “heading to San Antonio today. Waiting in the airport,” I thought he might have a few questions about what San Antonio has to offer.

As a part of SACVB’s efforts to engage individuals who are considering or on their way to San Antonio, I monitor Twitter daily. Through this monitoring, I have been able to help travelers find great margaritas on the River Walk, recommend which historic sites to see on a quick trip through town, and help one visitor find where a not-so-popular soccer game was going to be shown on TV.

We’ve really enjoyed the interaction that Twitter has allowed us to have with our visitors.

Hope you consider visiting us soon. You too can find out about all of San Antonio’s great sites by contacting me @VisitSanAntonio.

Have a great night,
Taylor @ SACVB

Why didn’t it occur to me that someone with the San Antonio CVB was monitoring the Twitterverse for references following? It was just coincidence he checked his Twitter feed when he hit town and got the message.

This is a great example of how to use Twitter and and the blogosphere. Taylor found my post and commented. Wonder how many other CVB’s are this clued in?

Tony Messenger (aka @tonymess)

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Steve Mays

I’m one of a few hundred (but growing fast) “followers” of Tony Mesenger’s Twitter feed. Tony’s a reporter and columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and covers the Missouri Legislature and state government. He clearly gets Twitter and blogging and makes great use of both.

Tony joined me at the Coffee Zone for an el grande mocha latte doodah where I got him to put down his cell phone for half an hour to talk about his life as a Twitter junkie.

AUDIO: Listen/Download interview MP3

Before going to work for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Tony was a metro columnist and city editor for the Columbia Daily Tribune and the editorial page editor at the Springfield News-Leader.

UPDATE: Thanks to Will Sullivan (Interactive Director or Nerd-in-Chief) for pointing us to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Twitterama page.

You’re in my Rolodex

Posted on February 21, 2009 by Steve Mays

One of the reporters in one of our newsrooms has a Rolodex that goes back 30+ years. The cards are worn from handling and yellowed by the years. I have no idea if he also maintains some kind of computer file as well. Doubtful.

A well-maintained Rolodex was once the most valuable thing on a reporter’s (or salesman’s) desk and the one thing to take with you when the time came.

It’s from a time when the telephone was the sole means of instant communication but not yet smart enough to remember more than a half-dozen numbers (“I’ve got you on speed dial”).

I wonder how many fewer calls are made in our email world. Has Outlook become the new Rolodex? Or has our mobile phones absorbed that function? Losing your phone is only a big deal because it might mean losing all of the numbers of friends and contacts.

Which brings us to social networks.

Will being able to communicate with you –by calling or emailing– become less valuable than having you “friend” me on Facebook or “follow” me on Twitter. The difference is me seeking your attention versus you deciding to give me your attention.

Let’s say you’re a salesman for a paper products company. Let’s call you Stanley. You have the phone number and email addresses of your 20 largest customers. With a little time and patience, you can get them on the phone; get a reply to an email; and even get an appointment.

But suppose those customers elected to follow your Twitter feed because that’s where you posted links to information that they found valuable enough to give their attention. I submit it is a different –more valuable– kind of attention than you get when you punch through with a call or email.

One last example. I can call or email the senior management of our company. Most of them are in the same building, so I can walk down the hall and usually get some face time. But a couple of them read my blog and –in time– will follow my Twitter feed. And the only reason they would invest even a minute or two from incredibly busy days, is they perceive some value (information or entertainment).

Being in someone’s network is far more valuable than being on their call-back list. Or in their Roladex.

“Democratization of information”

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Steve Mays

Last month I –like many others– made note of Janis Krums being among the first to report (on his Twitter feed) that an airliner had crash landed in the Hudson River. Will Leitch was in the SF offices of Twitter, working on an article for New York Magazine, as the story was breaking.

“In the midst of chaos—a plane just crashed right in front of him!—Krums’s first instinct was to take a picture and load it to the web. There was nothing capitalistic or altruistic about it. Something amazing happened, and without thinking, he sent it out to the world. And let’s say he hadn’t. Let’s say he took this incredible photo—a photo any journalist would send to the Pulitzer board—and decided to sell it, said he was hanging onto it for the highest bidder. He would have been vilified by bloggers and Twitterers alike. His is a culture of sharing information. This is the culture Twitter is counting on. Whatever your thoughts on its ability to exist outside the collapsing economy or its inability (so far) to put a price tag on its services, that’s a real thing. That’s the instinct Stone was talking about. If the nation has tens of millions of people like Krums, that’s a phenomenon. That’s what Twitter is waiting for.”

I’ve given up trying to explain the phenomenon that Twitter has become but can’t help take note of the examples that pop up almost every day.

@angelawilson does freelance work for us and works from her home. Today she had The Price is Right on (“just for background”) and one of the ladies picked to be a contestant was part of a group of women wearing shirts with their Twitter names on the front (mine is @smaysdotcom). Host Drew Cary had to explain to the studio and viewing audience what Twitter was. I hope that shows up on YouTube because I’d really like to see it.

And then this afternoon I learned (from the Twitter feed of St. Louis Post-Dispatch Reporter Tony Messenger) that some kind of big “nuke hearing” was getting ready to start in the Senate. And that there was so much interest the hearing room was so packed they had to set up closed circuit TV monitors in a room on the third floor.

I followed Tony’s Twitter feed for a bit, where I learned that one of the senators (Jolie Justus) on the committee holding the hearing, was also using Twitter to let her “followers” know what was going on. You can check out her “tweets” (you should pardon the expression) at http://twitter.com/joliejustus. Where she assured us she’d tell us more about the four hour hearing tomorrow on her blog, Fresh Meat ~~(she’s a freshman senator?)~~.

What does all of this mean? I’m not sure I know. Does it mean something? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it does. As Twitter co-founder Ev Williams says in the NY mag piece:

“It’s another step toward the democratization of information. I’ve come to really believe that if you make it easier for people to share information, more good things happen.”

Me too.

UPDATE: Sen. Justus started her blog as a Freshman Senator two years ago. [Thanks, JW]

All right everybody, take off your shoes and place them in the containers

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Steve Mays

Missouri’s new governor held a press conference today and reporters who showed up were told they had to leave their cell phones at a reception desk. St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Tony Messenger was one of the reporters:

“Members of the Capitol press corps revolted and demanded reasons. “Security reasons” was the response given by Nixon spokesman Scott Holste, who said it was Nixon’s policy and the governor wouldn’t budge.

At that point, reporters started talking about walking out of the news conference before it began (and I took out my cell phone and Twittered the news). Holste went back to the governor’s private offices, and came back with the verdict. Reporters didn’t have to give up their cell phones.

Asked after the news conference about the policy, Nixon communications director Jack Cardetti said he didn’t believe the cell phone policy had anything to do with security.

“The governor believes when meetings are taking place in the oval office .. that everybody should be focused on the task at hand,” Cardetti said, noting that staff and others who are invited to meetings in the governor’s office follow the same policy. But Cardetti said the policy would not apply to the press, many of whom use their cell phones for reporting purposes.

During the news conference, reporters also noticed a new tiny camera above one of the doors. The camera feeds to a screen on a secretary’s desk that allows her to know when meetings have begun or are finished in the office, Cardetti said. He showed curious reporters the screen that captures the feed. The meetings are not recorded, he said.”

As Colonel Klink would say, “Veeeeeery interesting.”

How about, put your cell phones on vibrate or turn them off? And a wee little camera above one of the doors. Curiouser and curiouser.

One of the comments on Messengers’ blog post asks:

“If there is now a camera that is recording or broadcasting all meetings in the Governors office, should not this be covered under the Sunshine Law and allow the feed to be streaming video on the internet so that we, as taxpayers, can see what is happening in the meetings of our governmental officials?”

But back to the cell phones –and I admit to being both slow and naive– why wouldn’t the governor want reporters to have cell phones during press conferences, assuming one doesn’t buy the “let’s stay focused” explanation?

UPDATE: Missourinet reporter Steve Walsh was at the press conference and snapped a photo of the gov’s tiny camera.