Over the course of a couple days, my Klout score went from 65 to 67 because my mother died. Not because I had some sort of amazing Klout-gaming strategy but because I have been honestly and openly sharing my grief at the sudden loss of my mother on Google+, Twitter, but mostly on Facebook. And the reason why my Klout spiked is because so many of my 47,000 followers on Twitter and my 4,800 friends on Facebook came to my emotional aid at my time of need.
Tag Archives: Friends
Chris Abraham Hits LA! Cross-Country Road Trip Makes a Pit Stop in Venice!
[Guest post by Stevie Wilson of the LA Story blog] If you aren’t familiar with me, this is Stevie Wilson and I post very intermittant posts here and on Marketing Conversation.com .
Chris Abraham has been on my blog many times–both in podcast and in reference (where have you been?). If you read this blog you know that Chris Abraham, attends– and speaks at– many major social media events and conferences. He’s an interesting person to know because he’s a multi-dimensional person with an inquisitive mind and lots of interests. If you want to know about the posts on my blog, head over there and do a search on my blog or head over to www.chrisabraham.com or marketingconversation.com and search for my posts there. This might be a bit redundant for this blog but hang with me people, it gets better!
Chris Abraham (looking pretty dapper here and he was dressed pretty much like this the night we had dinner)
Before we get into the podcast, you need a bit of back story. I interviewed Chris Abraham at least 3 years ago– about a statement he made about his life. (Like I said, it’s a podcast, hunt it down in my blog or his). I was able to connect to him and he was willing to talk to me and so began a series of irregular podcasts and contributions to blogs that sort of created a friendship of sorts. Given the range of topics, we have no problems laughing at each other’s jokes or finding out that we both like to do target practice. Yet during all this time, I had never met Chris. The only way I had seen him was his photos or if he was in a video–really– in at least 3 years.
So as Chris Abraham made this sojourn across the country, making pit-stops in all kinds of places (and being stuck in ice storms), we eventually put together a “meet-up” and when all was worked out, we met at the Beechwood Restaurant in Venice. Not the easiest place to find for an Angeleno who doesn’t know Venice but so much easier for someone from out of the area — he beat me there because I got lost and circled the area twice! Patient man that he is, he recognized me as I can flying in the restaurant door and we headed out to the patio for dinner — and to get me a cocktail.
We ordered up some appetizers– and this man has a taste for the exotic and I went with it. Great idea too! Fried edamame, fried spicy chickpeas (YUM!) and some sashimi type fish.
This podcast was done LIVE in a busy restaurant. I have tried to amplify and clean up the sound but parts might be a bit faint so turn up the volume or plug in a headset and turn up the volume. It is very very funny. We had a diverse range of topics to talk about.
We did order dinner– and you will hear it in the podcast along with 2 people who were sitting next to us. The person who mentions Steve Martin’s book is the wife and the man talking about dying his hair red is the husband.. and they were interesting people–VERY interesting people.
Here’s my dinner– and me! Photo by Chris Abraham.
(sparkly eyes thanks to the Jack and Jill cocktail and a lot of laughte. Recipe at the end. )
I didn’t take a photo of Chris because he was back-lit and he would have either been dark with a halo (hmmm Chris does that mean you are an angel in disguise?) or I would have/should have used my flash and then worked it a bit in photoshop! Why didn’t I ? I thought it would stop the flow of conversation and the people on the other side were listening to our conversation too. I guess we were pretty interesting or we were having a better time than them.
Beechwood Jack and Jill Cocktail
- Lairds Applejack
- Pomegranate Syrup
- Fresh Lemon Juice
- Orange Bitters
Served on the rocks, topped with Prosecco.
Yummy drink and the Prosecco adds just the right amount of fizz.
Thankyou to Chris Abraham for being willing to podcast in that environment. I think he may not remember all that was said. I certainly didn’t. Also the couple next to us were very chatty and very funny. Thanks to Chris for dinner too.. he was willing to fight me for the bill. So I deferred to his better judgement as he is over 6 feet tall and I am about 5’3″. We both have the similar taste in cars– fast, German and BMW are 3 key words. What they will be next year.. could be entirely different.
Chris Abraham has left LA now and headed north. So by the time he sees this I am not sure where he will be. However maybe, if we are very lucky, he will head back down into LA and I can corral him into another podcast about social media topics or affects or whatever topic he chooses. “The princessification of girls” is on facebook and his blog.
Thanks again Chris. It was really fun. Hope we can have coffee or show you something other than Venice as part of a tour of LA. I think you would like to see more of So. California.
Stevie Wilson, LA-Story.com
How Many of Your Social Media Circle of Friends are Real?
Have you ever tried to sort out your real friends from your mere Facebook friends? You may have a lot of followers and many people you follow on Twitter, but do you know them all? I would guess not. I always see people with “Add me up” on their status or a thread of “Follow me, I’ll follow back” on my stream. A lot of them must only care for numbers of people they are connected to, maybe they just wanted to enlarge their circle of ‘friends’ and they can’t see that social media can be used to communicate to your real friends and family. Allan Wolk states in his “How Many Friends Have I Really Got?” : **Where’s the Link?**
One day you got an invitation from Bob who you considered a casual work acquaintance asking you to connect as a friend. Fair enough. You were likely flattered that Bob considered you a friend. But if Bob was listed as a friend, then Arun, Maria, Dave and Kevin, all of whom you had listed as work connections, needed to be made “friends” since you were certainly closer to themm than you were to Bob, and it wouldn’t make sense to have him as a Friend and them as mere co-workers.
And that’s the problem: friendship is never as simply as a math equation. The people most of us consider friends rarely have us on an equivalent plane of friendship. So the potential for hurt feelings is quite high. And the second I give my Facebook email to an acquaintance is the second its value as a communication device with my inner circle diminishes in value 100%.
It’s human nature and I’m not sure how technology can fix it. The best bet seems to be to maintain various levels of communication and allow water (or friendship) to seek its own level. That way we’re not forced to declare our level of friendship with someone based on our communication style.
I have nothing against those people adding somebody just to have a long list of followers and friends. That is one of the goals of social media too, making the world as small as a monitor, interconnecting people from all around the globe. Well, in that case it is a success. Social media is now a line of communication and a place where friends and friends you haven’t met meet.
Gifts For Your Facebook Friends
The holidays are here it’s the time of the year that everyone seems to be generous. It is also the time of the year that you will think your heart out because you don’t know what to give to someone you want to give a gift too. Etsy has a good news for you, if your friends that you wanted to give something is on Facebook having something in mind to give him or her wont be a problem.
Etsy will browse through your friends’ ‘likes’ and suggests items that fall under those likes, and it will be up to you to decide what to pick from those suggestions of course.
How To Invite All Of Your Friends On Facebook To A Facebook Page, Event, Or Group
If you’re like me you have a lot of Facebook friends, and sometimes you’d like to invite all of them to an event, page, or group. Normally this could take hours of mind numbing and wrist damaging clicking and scrolling. However, with Google Chrome and an easily installable extension you can have all of your friends invited in a few seconds.
You will need to download and install Google Chrome.
You will also need the Chrome Extension “Facebook Invite All”.
The video below details exactly what you’ll need to do:
This video and other “How To” videos available at HowToPhil.com