“Ideas worth sharing.” You probably recognize the famous tagline of TED, the phenomenal annual meeting of super bright presenters. Hopefully you’re already a regular consumer of the free video content offered through TED and, if you’re an iPhone user, hopefully you’ve already downloaded the TED app (yep, there IS an app for that).

Here’s a widely-known secret (it’s only a valuable secret to you if you’re willing to open your imagination and step away from conventional wisdom): here’s a hint—what kind of people would even CARE about hearing ideas worth sharing? Ready? While TED is certainly all about ideas worth sharing, it creates immense potential riches by gathering PEOPLE WORTH MEETING™! Unless you’re going to a Thunder Lizard training conference, you’ll probably get the most out of the conferences you attend by both listening to the presenters on stage AND the people you meet off-stage.

Here are some people worth meeting from the inaugural TEDxGreenville (there are hundreds more, too; the schedule was so full, these were the only interviews I could capture; wish I could have spoken with everyone there):

Maxim Williams of Bon Secour St. Francis Hospital System

Maxim Williams: LinkedIn | Web | Twitter

Steve Bailey of Merus Refreshments Services, Inc.

Steve Bailey: LinkedIn | Web | Facebook

Steve Bailey and Nigel Robertson enjoying freshly brewed coffee courtesy of Merus

Okay, this was just for fun. After watching Steve interact with folks, I just had to capture at least one conversation. He’s tireless and engaging (and the coffee really IS good, too).

Nigel Robertson: Twitter | Web

Russell Tripp of Infusion Web & Video

Russell Tripp: Twitter | Web

Russ Davis of Sandler Sales Training

Russ is a joy to be around. He’s humble, helpful, and in this clip, humorous—I put him on the spot about something totally unrelated to TEDx and he was a good sport about it all.

Russ Davis: LinkedIn | Twitter | Web | Phone 864-527-0497

Tim March of Thee Inner Cirkus

Walking on broken glass. That’s what Tim March did. He also gave everyone permission, just in case someone was waiting for permission, to be that crazy thing they dream of being.

Tim March: Twitter | Facebook | Web

TEDxGreenville was incredibly well organized, held in an exquisite setting, and brought together brilliant minds to present, to listen, to meet, to hear, to create something worth doing. A huge THANK YOU to Peter Waldschmidt and the incredible organizational team for bringing TEDx to Greenville.

Photos from TEDxGreenville on Phil Yanov’s site.
TEDxGreenville video on GreenvilleHD.com

Wonderful people at LikeMinds 2010 in Exeter, Devon, England in February. Speakers came from three continents and 350 attendees came from around the world, too.

Soon I’ll add a post or two from my experience at LikeMinds, but for now, I’ll simply post this video of one of the sponsors of the event, Molly Flatt of 1000Heads. (The speakers all received a quite cool Kodak ZA8 digital camcorder, so I’m sure there’ll be tons and tons of video content coming about LikeMinds.) This video does NOT give you three steps or seven secrets for getting more followers, increasing the number of fans of Facebook; it is simply social. That’s all. It features one person; one person who’s really cool to know.

Molly Flatt: Twitter | Blog | Work | The Guardian | Finch’s Quarterly

Molly’s post on LikeMinds (for those still discussing the “content” of LikeMinds, please consider how Molly interacts with the “content.” Her post strikes me as a brilliant post-event post and one that highlights a robust reflection of “value.”)

Bet you heard the economy stinks, right? Bet you actually might even FEEL something that sure feels like a stinky economy. As of this moment, Edelman Digital has 30 job openings. How do I know this? I heard it directly from Rick Murray, President of Edelman Digital.

Rick says Edelman is always on the lookout for people who are naturally curious, not self-absorbed, and are willing to boldly be creative. Since July 2009, Rick’s division has added 50 new employees and he says he needs 30 more right now.

You can hear our conversation about Edelman’s cultural transformation to embrace social media, what tools have their attention at the moment, where they see social media heading and what’ll be required for companies to leverage it, and, most importantly, his exact words on what it takes to grab one of those 30 job openings at Edelman in the USA (he says they have even more openings outside the US).

Rick Murray: Twitter | Web

UPDATE: Just heard from Rick (2/23/2010 11:00pm). He clarified that Edelman has 30 job openings in DIGITAL right now PLUS more openings in PR. If you needed a bright spot on the economic horizon, take a look at Edelman, be bold, put your serious/fun game face on, and do something to show your personality (and your track record of results). Now is the time to launch.

“There are four Americans pursuing every one job opening out there,” NPR on February 19, 2010. If that’s true, 75% of all job seekers are probably going to be disappointed.

MissDestructo is colorful in every sense of the word. Her boldness and genuine friendless enabled her to land the deal she wanted, even if it did take nine months.

When I suggested to my friend, Amber, known as MissDestructo on Twitter/Web, that these are terrible times, she said, “No, this is the time of opportunity!” She’s not just whistling Dixie or mustering up some positive affirmation to drown out reality either. She’s living it. After over nine months of struggling to find work, make ends meet, and just make it in general, she finally achieved that wild thing she’d been dreaming—working with Bruce’s Yams.

Her experience is both a road map and an inspiration for everyone who’s struggling to survive the current economic mess. Inside the mess there’s tremendous opportunity. Anyone who’s willing to

• be bold
• be determined
• be friendly
• be helpful
• be consistent
• be patient
• be ready

can do what she did.

Here’s her story in her own words in a 30-minute interview with her.

As you listen to her story, listen for the role passion, proactivity, fans, and technology played in landing MissDestructo her dream job.

If you’re looking for work (whether you’re paid through payroll or through accounts payable), you can leverage the same tools and tactics MissDestructo employed. Now is the time to start. Hear the admonition of an African proverb: “It’s best to dig your well before you’re thirsty.”

MissDestructo: Twitter | Blog | ITweetNaked | Bruce’s Yams | Bruce’s Yams Was Here

Photo shoot MissDestructo talked me into: Trey Pennington and Olivier Blanchard in SKIRTS!

Subscribe to the Trey Pennington on iTunes.

The Brandbuilder (Olivier Blanchard) posted another solid entry on his blog again today. (I read his blog most of the time, but especially over the past few days, since he, Chris Brogan and I will be heading to England to speak at the Like Minds Conference next week). He titled the post “The answer to most of your business problems is simply this: Be helpful.” It reminded me of the long running “Be” series written by Warren Weirsbe of the last century.

With the world continuing to change so quickly (new technology, new media, new publishers and more), maybe it’s time to refocus on helpful stuff that doesn’t change—principles and admonition that have stood the proverbial test-of-time. Here’s a start:

The Be-Attitudes for a New Millenium

shhh…be still, be quiet, listen: experience the sensation of new life. And, yes, I'll be a grandfather this year. As soon as my grandson arrives, I'll post pix of him!

1. Be alert.
2. Be quiet.
3. Be available.
4. Be visible.
5. Be responsive.
6. Be generous.
7. Be helpful.
8. Be quiet.

Be alert: there’s an inherent conflict implied. You may either be self-centered or alert. (Being alert to one’s own self doesn’t quite fit.) Companies, politicians, and people who are alert are focused outwardly, which sets them up for success.

Be quiet: so much of the world is consumed with “getting the message out.” (Please, if you catch yourself saying, “we just need to get our message out,” rest assured your message probably just isn’t worth getting out. Whenever you hear those words, picture Saint Jude and hear the words as, “I am confessing I am a failure.”) When you’re quiet, you can listen. When you listen, you increase your chances of getting a message IN. The rest of the world needs you to get the message IN; they’ll probably be okay even if they don’t hear your message. If they know you heard theirs, you both win.

Be available: yep, this is a 24/7 world. Banker’s hours went away as an acceptable measure of availability a long time ago. Being available means having enough media options available for your customers to express themselves to you when and where they want to. Being available also means responding through those same channels. For instance, if you’re a politician who has made the choice to dive into social media, you have chosen to make yourself available to your constituents through social media. Yes, you do indeed have a moral obligation to be responsive to them there. If you do not want to pay attention to them and respond to them then you simply should not be there in the first place. This far into the social media product life cycle, if you don’t have the knowledge and the decency to follow your constituents back on Twitter, for instance, you have no business saying you represent them. It really is just that simple.

Be visible: don’t breathe a sigh of relief yet. Being visible probably doesn’t mean what you think it means. It doesn’t mean non-stop self-promotion. Instead, it means having a sufficient presence wherever “your people” might be hanging out they know you’re there when they need you. If they’re on Twitter, be on Twitter. If they’re congregating on Ning, congregate with them. (But stay out of their way. You’re there for when they need you, not to get them to do something for you.)

Be responsive: blinding flash of the obvious, or as Grandpa would say, “a healthy dose of just plain common sense.” If “your people” ask you a question, give them an answer. (See, it would probably be cool for you to be visible wherever they’re getting together to ask these questions, huh?)

Be generous: the days of protecting your turf are long gone. Just watch what’s happening to the dinosaurs grasping at DRM. Take a look at how well John Piper’s books SELL. He also gives away a PDF of every one of them for free.  (More, much more, on this in Spitball Marketing. Also in Napoleon Hill’s work, Zig Ziglar’s, Bob Burg’s, The Bible, etc.)

Be helpful: see Olivier’s post and Chris Brogan’s post. Help people solve their problems; good things will happen.

Be quiet: do a little research on how quietness is linked to humility is linked to greatness. It’s amazing to think through the names of the great ones who radically changed the world quietly. (Yes, the loud ones changed the world, too, but it often took the following three or four generations to clean it up, too.)

The world is changing. If Einstein’s famous quote was appropriate when he first uttered it, it is surely appropriate today: “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking as when we created them.” Maybe even a little twist on his expression would fit for today’s world, too: “We cannot solve our problems or seize upon our opportunities with the same way of being we enjoyed last year.”

Maybe you have an even better twist?

Naked Conversations author and social media icon from his famed days at Microsoft, Robert Scoble, says, “You’re not supposed to be able to do what David Meerman Scott is about to tell you in this book.” The book Scoble had in mind is The New Rules of Marketing and PR and the thing you’re not supposed to be able to do is “use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly.” It was profound when both men wrote—way, way back in 2006!

Before his book was released in stores, David Meerman Scott sent me an advance copy of World Wide Rave. We've had a good time getting to know each other through that WWRave. Can't wait to meet him face-to-face

The world has changed A LOT since David Meerman Scott wrote the first edition of The New Rules. He took a few minutes to talk with me about the new world, what he’s learned since New Rules because a run-away best-seller, and what he sees as important for the present. Last year his book World Wide Rave was published by John Wiley & Sons and already this year he’s released an second edition of New Rules.

David Meerman Scott: Twitter | Web | Blog
Subscribe to the Social Media Professor Podcast on iTunes.

[direct link to Social Media Professor podcast with David Meerman Scott because Google Buzz drops the embed]

Talk about cutting through the clutter! Want to make a point about pointless wall posts? Check out the Unmarketing hit song and video. Makes the point, yes? If you want to do something even more memorable, check out Scott’s contrarian marketing philosophy and tactics on his blog and Twitter stream (but please don’t post teddy bears, hearts, or even blessings on his wall).

Scott took a few minutes with me to talk about his upcoming book, Unmarketing, the tour to support it (how ’bout that “un-book tour”?), and the un-usual method he employed to git-r-done. Time with Scott is like happy hour at an oxygen bar: you’ll leave refreshed and pumped for a grand adventure.

Scott Stratten: Twitter | Website
Subscribe to the Social Media Professor Podcast on iTunes.

[link to the Social Media Professor with Scott Stratten podcast file because Google Buzz drops the embed]

Would you please share your stories with me to help wrap up Spitball Marketing: Using What You’ve Go to Get More of What You Want?

If you know of an individual or company who is using social media to shine a spotlight on customers or someone other than themselves, would you please share their story in the comments below or send the story to me by email? I’d like to include your stories in the book I’m working on, so by commenting below or emailing your story to me, you’re giving me permission to tell your story in Spitball Marketing and the marketing materials supporting it. In exchange, I will certainly give you credit in the book and promote your story as coming from you, everywhere I can.

This is a long, long, long shot, but, if you know of a politician or a political candidate who is using social media to shine a spotlight on constituents, PLEASE share that one with me.

If your story is included in Spitball Marketing, I’ll also send you five free copies as a “thank you,” and list you on the blog.

Here are a couple examples:

Jason Baer’s Twitter 20 interview series

Kim Madden’s use of Flickr at Carolina Manufacturing [last segment on this video]

Many thanks for your help.

“Use the approach in this book and you will not only sell more, you will also live a rich and joyful life” Spencer Johnson, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Who Moved My Cheese? and coauthor of The One Minute $alesperson on Go-Givers Sells More

Bob Burg's new book will be available online and in stores February 18.

The ultimate salesperson’s dream is to sell more, have more fun doing it, and feeling really good about having done it. That’s exactly what you’ll discover if you buy into and apply the principles Bob Burg presents in his new book co-authored with John David Mann Go-Givers Sells More. It’ll be released February 18, 2010, but we’ll get to talk with him live this Tuesday, February 9, from 11:30am to 12:00pm ET.

Bob Burg and his business partner Thom Scott are the ones who asked me to be on the program Zig Ziglar is keynoting. (Speaking on the same program with Zig is one of those “impossible dreams” for me.) All three men share the same worldview, a worldview that’s essential for enduring success—you can have anything you want in life if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.

Please tune in to the Social Media Professor online this Tuesday for a mind-expanding, career enhancing, net worth building time talking about successful sales.

Bob Burg: Website | Twitter
John David Mann: Website | Twitter
Subscribe to the Social Media Professor Podcast on iTunes.

February 16, 2010 UPDATE:
Here’s the audio file for the Social Media Professor podcast with Bob Burg

“Why did you do that?!” How many times did YOUR mother ask you that one?

Getting to the “why” is a fascinating journey. What drives human behavior? is a question every marketing pro contemplates. It’s a practical AND philosophical question. Philosophy is cool. This year I’m reading a couple of mind stretching philosophers from a long, long time ago (David Hume, the Scottish Skeptic, and Immanuel Kant, the transcendental idealist).

A couple of not-so-long-ago philosopher’s have popped up on my computer screen this year. These two are probably more accessible to the modern thinker than Hume and Kant. You might know them as entertainers—they are that AND much, much more.

MODERN PHILOSOPHER #1: Will Smith (yep, THAT Will Smith)

MODERN PHILOSOPHYER #2: Jay Smooth

Having trouble getting stuff done? Got 25 browser windows open and calling it work? Here’s some “self talk” to get you going.

Both of our modern philosophers cut through the clutter, the psychobabble and flush out essential truth: “If you’re not making somebody’s life better, you’re wasting your time,” from Will Smith, and the “traps” one’s “little hater” sets up to prevent true accomplishment from Jay Smooth give us plenty to ponder regarding others and ourselves.

Ponder a while, and then come back to social media: How are you using social media to make somebody’s life better; how are you dealing with your own “little hater” standing in the way of living out your passion?

Update: Jay Smooth’s video is worth the watch if you’re a creative or entrepreneur. He reminded me once again how our own internal voice, the “little hater,” is often our only obstacle to success. Sometimes that harsh-self-judging voice paralyzes us and keeps us from just doing that something we know we really need to do. Yes, sometimes people ARE going to laugh, judge, criticize, but that’s okay. Let the passion out to kill perfectionism and procrastination and, as Nike says, “Just do it!”