Happy New Decade! (We are all tired of hearing “New Year” at this point.)

WHERE I’VE BEEN

Things have been very busy over at THINK, in addition to co-founding and organizing the inaugural WordCamp Atlanta with Brandon Sheats, one of my perpetual partners-in-crime, and moving to a very cute new apartment in the Poncey-Highlands neighborhood of Atlanta. I also didn’t seem to be able to stay away and, as of a couple months ago, have rejoined the Atlanta Rollergirls, flat-track roller derby league.

While I’m catching up on things, here is a quick run-down of my upcoming speaking engagements.

UPCOMING SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
January 9
WordCamp Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)
Making Your Blog Your Business: Scale & Monetization

January 11
Social Fresh Nashville (Nashville, TN)
Social Media in the Music Industry (10:30am)
Corporate Blogging (5:30pm)

January 29
SoCon 2010 (Kennesaw, GA)
Blog Monetization (not yet titled)

February 8
Social Fresh Tampa (Tampa, FL)
(panel to be announced)

March 12-17
SXSW Interactive (Austin, TX)
The State of Music Blogs in 2010

March 29
Social Fresh Portland (Portland, OR)
(panel to be announced)

If you’re looking for a speaker for your upcoming event or conference, I’d love to be a part of it. Feel free to contact me about availability.

DIGITALUTIONS FOR A NEW DECADE

Phew! Now that most of the catching up is taken care of, here are my “digitalutions” for the new decade. My digitalutions are my digital resolutions (see what I did there?) that I am going to try my best to keep up with over the new few years or so. Each of the resolutions are influenced, if not powered by, my digital presence and interactions. My resolutions usually trend around a 60% long-term achievement rate which I am pleased with — let’s hope the same is possible for these longer term goals.

1. 1. BLOG DAILY
   It doesn’t have to be on the same blog every day but contribute at least one thought-out post per day. Between TessaHorehled.com, Drive A Faster Car, Tumblr and a small handful of other niche ones I’ve collected, I should never fall short of subject content.
2. 2. TAKE ENOUGH BREAKS AND SLEEP REGULARLY
   Nothing good comes from a lack of proper downtime.  I often sacrifice sleep because I tend to get very project-oriented in the middle of the night when there isn’t half as much incoming email, text messages, tweets, phone calls and other communication. Take two steps back from the computer, phone and every other potential gadget.
3. 3. SPEAK MORE
   I enjoy speaking and attending conferences/events very much because it offers a terribly unique environment for learning, networking and socializing. They’re almost little microcosms of the social web reflecting very similar offline (and mobile) behavior and roles.  Public speaking is something I have done a fair bit but a skill I would like to spend more time sharpening.
4. 4. SPEND MORE TIME ON DRIVE A FASTER CAR
   I have very big long-term plans for Drive A Faster Car and a detailed plan for how it will all be executed.  Unfortunately, I tend to stay pretty busy and DaFC is usually the first to suffer when things get stressful.  I need to determine the best way to tackle this massive but deserving project effectively without sacrificing my other activities.

What are your digitalutions for the year or decade? Any bad habits?

This afternoon I stumbled across this brilliant marketing campaign from Sony-BMG promoting Bob Dylan’s “ultimate” collection which was released a few years back.

Upon visiting DylanMessaging.com, fans are able to insert their own messages into the “Subterranean Homesick Blues” video and send it to friends.

There is also a coordinating Facebook application that replicates the functions seen on the microsite and features additional content such as the Mark Ronson remix.

This is an fantastic example of how you might be able to repurpose content you already have catalogued in new and engaging ways. Repurposing old content is a resourceful marketing approach for companies with limited assets and capabilities. Have an idea under the belt that once resonated well with a large audience? Find a new way to extend the idea that doesn’t “beat a dead horse” and provides relevant value for users on platforms where they are already engaged.

Today I have an exciting announcement — I have accepted a full-time position with the Atlanta-based “interactive idea agency” THINK Interactive as Senior Strategist, Social Media. I have been working in-house at the agency over the past month to see whether this would be a good fit for both myself and THINK and am very much looking forward to seeing what our future together develops into with this new step.

Since 1994, THINK has focused on helping companies and brands increase the value of their digital investments. The shop’s services entail digital strategy, digital experience design and delivery, digital marketing media and campaigns, and digital channel measurement.

My role as a Senior Strategist is focused on Social Media and encompasses activities such as social research and strategy, management of social research tools and thought leadership in the interactive and social community. Along with client initiatives, I will also be leading internal education at THINK — broadening our overall understanding of the evolving social media landscape, trends and best practices, as well as sharpening up THINK’s social presence.

It was over 500 days from being laid off during Super Deluxe’s merger with [adult swim] before I was able to find a company and position that could motivate and excite me as much as my role at SDXE. THINK has casted this opportunity for me and I am eager to become a part of their growing team.

Jessica Michault, the online style editor of the International Herald Tribune, sat down with France24 earlier today discussing the new media and social media efforts seen from designers, bloggers and consumers during the Spring 2010 shows.

Tonight is the September meeting of the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AIMA). I have been invited to attend and live-tweet the event, “Big Brands Discuss Social Media Initiatives,” being held at Georgia Tech’s Global Learning Center. The event is presented by AiMA and sponsored by BLiNQ Media and Google.

DESCRIPTION:
Social media has gone beyond fad status to credible marketing strategy. However, few organizations know how to create “working” tactics. Comcast does. AT&T does. The Red Cross does. On September 30, you’ll hear how Comcast uses Twitter as a customer service strategy, how AT&T creates authentic conversations with the youth market, and how the Red Cross produces enterprise results on a limited budget.

SPEAKERS:
Comcast – Frank Eliason, Senior Director in National Customer Operations @comcastcares
AT&T – Mimi Chan, Director of Wireless Youth Marketing
Red Cross – Wendy Harman, Social Media Manager @wharman
Moderated by BLiNQ Media’s Dave Williams, CEO and Co-Founder @blinqmedia

I’m looking forward to seeing Frank again whom I met last year at BlogWorld as well as meeting the rest of the speakers. If you aren’t familiar with Comcast’s experience with social media, do yourself a favor and Google it. They are a fantastic example of a company that has learned to go where their customers live online and better brand sentiment in the process.

The event is sold out and no walk-ups will be admitted.

To follow the discussion, you can follow my tweets at @tessa.

I’ve been up to a great deal which I will update you all on soon!

One of the most exciting of these activities is an upcoming series of free classes I will be teaching in Atlanta called Hands On Small Business, sponsored by Kirtsy and Microsoft Office Live.

Here is the schedule of Atlanta classes and links to register:

All of the classes will be held at:
ATDC Headquarters at Georgia Tech
Tech Square, 75 5th Street NW, Suite 202 Atlanta, GA 30308
(404) 894-3575

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5TH, 6:00PM-8:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7TH, 6:00PM-8:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8TH, 7:00PM-9:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST, 2:00PM-4:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH, 2:00PM-4:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

Learn more about Hands On Small Business after the jump!

More about Hands On Small Business:

Women across the country are coming together this October and November for the Hands On Small Business (#HOSB) series — all brought to you by the Politics, World and Business section of Kirtsy and the very good people of Microsoft Office Live.

All 100 individual events will happen between October 5 and November 20, in 20 cities across the United States and Canada.

The practical, hands-on sessions will offer direct advice, instruction, and application tips for free online and social media solutions to help small businesses and entrepreneurs.

“The ‘hands-on’ sessions started as things often do, with neighbors and friends asking each other for help and advice on something new,” said Gabrielle Blair, one of the founders of Kirtsy. “Women often get together to compare notes. And there are a lot of us who want to talk right now about how social media and online applications can simplify our lives and enhance our small business pursuits.”

After hosting 10 Hands-On Social Media sessions with Microsoft Office Live in June, Kirtsy received a fleet of requests to host more of these informal, intimate gatherings across the US and Canada. At the events, attendees cover popular platforms and get hands-on direction setting up accounts and applying them to their lives.

The Fall Kirtsy “Hands on Social Business” sessions will be held in the following cities: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Charlotte, Boston, Denver, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Washington DC, Columbus, Seattle, Portland, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Miami and Toronto.

Each session is free and open to the public.

I searched for myself (@tessa) on TweetDeck in a column adjacent to my “Mentions” tab and noticed that the list of tweets generated by the search was inconsistent between columns. The search tab only showed tweets that mentioned @tessa (lowercase “t”) and not the tweets that mentioned @Tessa (uppercase “t”).

Beware for those of you monitoring yourself or brands! Be sure to compensate by using all possible case combinations.

This afternoon I clicked on a link from R.E.M.’s Twitter and it brought me to an article on The Huffington Post about some music exclusives, including R.E.M. (alas why I clicked on the link).

Now there comes a time in every blogger’s life where you have to make a few decisions. Have I outgrown my current format? Is the theme or design I am currently using appropriate for how I am blogging?

Anyone who has heard me rant about things to watch out for as a blogger knows I constantly pick at The Huffington Post. While they consistently have great content, the user experience is completely bogged down by ads and poor formatting.

Here’s the example I ran into this afternoon:

This screenshot shows the article I clicked on from Twitter. I could only screenshot the title, byline, social icons and tags because there is such a plethora of tags! This isn’t tag stuffing as they all relate to the blog content and aren’t repetitive. It should however be looked at in regards to other options for displaying these tags. Tagging is fantastic for indexing, searching for similar content and a quick look of the subject of the piece but this is incredibly clunky.

The large number of tags on this post caused this block of content to take up an entire fold pushing the actual article down to the third fold on the page. The blog post promised exactly what it promised in the title and tags but spans well over 20 folds. Back to formatting — this is a blog, not a newspaper. We can only view so much of the page at once. Consider breaking this article into multiple articles? That would cut down on the length of the post and the tags in the byline, making it much easier to digest and read. Even if the pieces of the larger whole are related you can link to them within the content or in an included list for readers to navigate in between. This is also a better option in regards to your search engine optimization.

Last night was the inaugural IgniteATL!

About Ignite

Started by Brady Forrest, Technology Evangelist for O’Reilly Media, and Bre Pettis of Etsy.com, formerly of MAKE Magazine, Ignite was inspired by Pecha Kucha Nights, where speakers are given 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds, giving each speaker 6 minutes and 40 seconds of fame. The first Ignite took place in Seattle in 2006, and since then the event has become an international phenomenon, with gatherings in Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France; New York, New York; and many other locations.

Ignite has two parts: the Ignite contest, where people make things, and Ignite talks, where presenters get 20 slides and five minutes to make their point. You can opt to only have talks, but the contest is fun and can serve as a great warm-up for the talks.

I helped organize the event with Colin Ake, Michael Mealling and Brandy Nagel and had almost 500 people RSVP for this kickoff event! The crowd gathered at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Midtown excited and curious of what the evening had in store.

We saw presentations about everything from beer to liquid nitrogen and transportation to artificial intelligence! Huge thanks to all of our sponsors, especially MailChimp who enabled our great afterparty at Octane Coffee. An official wrap-up of the event will be over on the IgniteATL site soon with links to the presentations, photos, and video coverage of each.

In addition to my help coordinating the event, I also contributed a presentation on “How To Identify A New Media Douchebag (And Save Yourself From Becoming One).” I don’t have video of it yet but below are the slides with commentary — some of which I got to during the presentation, some of which I didn’t (numbered in coordination with slides)! I definitely need to practice with the 15 second time restraint before my next Ignite presentation.

2. You really think you know more than everyone else? Nothing left to learn? Does your intellectual discipline manifest as a divine incarnation? On whose authority?
3. Yeah… because you attract spam bots with the amount of trending topics you partake in and social media lingo you drop. It’s about quality, not quantity. Forget the numbers and pay attention to the value.
4. My Twitter team twold me to twost a twerrific tweetup! He twit. He twat. He twot.
5. Yes! We saw that post you made on Facebook. And FriendFeed. And Twitter. And Digg. And Tumblr. And…
6. Always armed with Flip cam, iPhone, Blackberry/Android/Palm Pre, MacBookPro, digital SLR, USB modem, etc. Always flashes socially and will eagerly discuss with anyone. So where’s the content again?
7. It doesn’t always fit. Just because you have seen it done, know the tools and have read all the critics and evangelists, doesn’t mean you know how to apply those to a company.
8. There’s a big difference between SEO copy, SEM copy, tweets, Facebook status updates, blog content, mailing list content, and so forth. Stop and rethink while considering the format, audience and function before your next communication effort.
9. The 250 is a term “describing the small, cliquey group of self-appointed Web 2.0 insiders who seem to spend their days blogging and Twittering about each other” giving off the appearance that they feel they are “the only people who matter.”
10. Don’t model yourself after this idea and create your own cliques. There’s much less room for fresh ideas, innovation and growth when you’re in bubble.
11. Read or don’t read. Learn. Form your own opinion. Relate it to your own efforts. Don’t imitate.
12. Who would you rather have a drink with? Who would you be able to learn more from? I’d choose the Snakeoil Salesman — at least he has his own stories.
14. These sheep hide easily and many don’t even realize that they are sheep. Look for those with past experience, who work hands-on with fit metrics designed to drive results, and have developed their own roadmaps and processes.
15. Don’t try to impress — try to help. If you are being hired, that is what your client is looking for.
16. Metrics are unique to every project and effort within. What do they mean in relation to these? Does it affect your next steps? Should it?
17. This is where the magic and progress occurs.
18. Not all social networks are created equal. The type of messaging that may be appropriate for one platform, doesn’t necessarily fit on another. Observe and learn the differences.
19. The social web is developing rapidly and because of this, there is always something to learn. Be open to listening to others and evaluating their points before dismissing.

One of the biggest conferences of every year (and my personal favorite) is SXSW, held every March in Austin, TX. The entire conference comprises of Music, Interactive and Film tracks over a two week period. Last year, I attended both Music and Interactive which was a great experience though quite exhausting!

This year, I am pitching to speak on a panel with a friend I made through a mutual contact at SXSW 2008, Greg Swan, Editor of Minneapolis music blog PerfectPorridge.com. The topic of our panel is “The State Of Music Blogs In 2010.”

Panel Description:
Just how important are music blogs to the industry today, is that prominence growing or fading, and how will new technologies and strategies impact the marketing mix in the coming year? Join prominent music bloggers, record label and PR firm executives to discuss the state of the industry, what’s around the corner and how musicians and record labels can develop relationships with these blogging influencers.

Questions We Will Discuss/Answer:

1. Journalist or super fan: what does it mean to be a music blogger these days?
2. How will the new FTC regulations on freebies to bloggers impact today’s marketing practices?
3. How important are aggregation sites to a band or record label’s marketing strategy and bottom line?
4. If video killed the radio star and blogs killed the music mags, what will kill the music blogs?
5. While the RIAA is suing fans for illegally downloading music, bands and indie labels are begging blogs to give away their albums for free. What’s the future of profitability in selling music versus giving it away?
6. What new technologies (e.g., mobile phone, embeddable players, interactive video) are being used by bands to reach fans directly and what’s next?
7. Will microblogging and lifestreaming of musicians directly interacting with fans affect traditional marketing strategies?
8. How do burgeoning and established social networks help and hinder artists?
9. What’s the worst pitch you’ve ever received and why?
10. What’s the guaranteed strategy to position a band for ultimate blogosphere buzz?

Please vote for our panel on the SXSW Panel Picker! Today is the last day for you to do so. The Panel Picker partially determines which panels are chosen for the conference. SXSW should begin to announce the chosen panels in October.

For those of you who enjoyed my IgniteATL presentation last night on “How To Identify A New Media Douchebag (And Save Yourself From Becoming One)” should check out the “How To Not Be A Douchebag At SXSW” panel as well.