Week-end Wrap-Up for Sept 26-27

What happened this weekend… not much, but a pleasant time was had by all. Or at least by me.

I had my last class for my PMP certification training (project procurement management). It was a snap, because procurement is one of the things I’ve had a lot of experience with in my career, so it was more of a review. On the one hand, I’m glad the class is finished. On the other I’m regretting it, because now I’m going to have to study, study, study and actually take the test. For a PMI member (such as myself), the cost of the test is $405. Not cheap, so I’m going to have to make sure I pass the first time. I’m going to memorize some formulas this week and then take some of the sample exams you can find online to see how I do.

I was browsing through my various sites looking for items of interest, but the article that I found most engrossing was on Cracked.com of all places. Funny stuff!
5 Awesome Cases of The Internet Owning The Mainstream Media

In an excellent stroke of good luck, I received an email today telling me that my recent posting on One Degree has won me tickets to The Art of Management on October 16 at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre. So exciting – I never win anything! I’m especially looking forward to hearing Jeff Jarvis speak about Corporate Culture in the Internet Age.

In other, riveting news, I made level 60 with my warrior character playing World of Warcraft. (Please don’t judge me.)

Also, as an added note: Doug vacuumed the apartment without me asking him to. I know this is not really professionally-related, but it was such rare and wonderful occurrence, I have to broadcast it to the world (or in this case, the Internet). Good for you, Doug!

Twitter: A middle-aged person’s conundrum

I’m one of those people who, until recently, adamantly refused to use my phone for anything other than making phone calls. I know, I know, I may as well pull my pants up to my armpits and complain about the government full-time.

My best friend Jan often insists we are NOT middle-aged. Usually I smile benignly when she says this, but one of these days I’m going to inqure, “We’re pushing forty. Do the math. How long were YOU planning to live?”

I think my generation often straddles the fence between embracing new technologies and staring helplessly at them, murmuring “too many buttons…too many features…” So I don’t have a Smartphone, but apparently I NEED an iPhone…or I’m a total failure as a marketer.

Because according to the clamouring marketing authorities: if you’re not Tweeting, you’re nothing.

All righty then, but before committing myself to another high-price purchase based purely on hype (I’m looking at YOU, iPod; my generic MP3 player and I laugh at you and make rude gestures in your general direction), I went to the Twitter website from my desktop. I poked around with the features, read some random tweets and – tada! - created an account and…I be Tweetin’ Miss Daisy!

Then I needed followers/to follow, so I searched for my friends.

I was somewhat surprised and stymied when I found that virtually no one I know has a Twitter account.

After searching for hours, here are the people I’m following:
- My ex-husband
- William Shatner
- Sockington the Cat (because I met Jason Scott at Casecamp a couple of weeks ago and he was one of my favourite speakers)
- Will Wheaton (although I thinking of un-following him because he Tweets every ten minutes and it’s exhausting)
- A couple of agencies who tweet to send out job prospects (a viable use! Yay!)

Hey, where are my friends and family? Maybe I was doing something wrong? So I asked around. The answers were pretty much consistent (complete with emotional responses):
- I have better things to do with my time (affronted).
- Twitter is for junior high school girls (derisive).
- I don’t care what Ashton Kutchner is doing right now (superior)

But every marketing article I’ve read in months insists that Twitter is utterly crucial! I stomped my little foot. What’s wrong with my friends? Why do they not have a Twitter strategy?

Perhaps the answer lies for now in demographics. My social network is made up of largely unlikely Twitter users. My contact lists are filled with people with scandalous professions such as banking and insurance, where being in constant contact the latest trends in social networking are less important than say, picking up their dry cleaning. It’s would be too time-consuming at this point for me to dump them and get all new friends. So…

Twitter. Is it a vital tool or a useless ball of nothing? My mental hand hovered over the DELETE button…

But then I remembered Facebook. Cast my mind back two years ago, when everyone was learning about this crazy little social network and I recall my peers’ whining:
"Now I have to log onto Facebook AND email account to retrieve my messages?"
"Right, so I’ve re-connected to all my elementary and camp friends… now what?"
"I don’t care what all these people are doing - where’s my wall???"

But they learned. Oh, they learned. Now you can't have a decent conversation with someone in a restaurant without them taking time check out their aunts' latest pics of her cat. Facebook in Toronto is bigger than Jeebas.

So, Twitter? Speaking on behalf of cost-concious, fad-resistant middle-aged Canadian women… the jury is still out. Do something productive or you’re cut off!

I’m sure Twitter is so scared.

My new blog: the 411

I'm a marketing project manager who has been working freelance for the past few years for various advertising agencies in Toronto. I've been blogging on and off for a few years for fun, but I wanted to create a blog for my professional life as well. This blog will recount my ongoing efforts to learn and grow my business.

What's going on:

PMP Certification:

Studying for the PMP Certification, concentrating on Scope Management this week. Reviewing the PMBOK Guide. Time well spent! But it's like watching paint dry...

The Canadian Marketing Association's E-Marketing course:

Class 1 (Sept 23):

Part 1: Introduction to the instructor (Michael Seaton) and the rest of the class (around 30 people). A very wide range of professions and experiences – the class assignment should be interesting. I hope I get the lady who works for the LCBO (as does everyone else in the class).

Part 2: History of the internet – basic stuff, but the stats are interesting. Apparently Canadians have nothing else do to with their lives but live on the internet. I hear that. Maybe it’s too cold in the winter to go outside? I’d like to see those numbers listed out by months: Jan – March – 99.999% leisure time spent at home on the internet! Pretty much… Things to do before next class:

Check out the following books:

- Clue Train Manifesto, Locke, Weinberger, Series, Levine

- Permission Marketing, Godin

- Call to Action, Eisenberg

- Groundswell, Li, Bernhoff

Look up Net Neutrality on Wikipedia

Look up History of the Internet on You Tube

Review Digg, Technorati, del.icio.us

What I'm reading now:

Six Pixels of Separation, by Mitch Joel

Very interesting so far - I like the personal anecdotes and stories.

What I'm working on:

Development for www.rday.ca, a website for an upscale furniture designer.

I sent Rob the proposed architecture for his website. Waiting for approval so I can get Doug to proceed. Need to follow up with Rob this weekend re: acquiring assets – copy + images.