Social Media, Da Bulls, Amazon Vine

Two weeks ago, one of my cigar smoking friends, a rather numerous bunch in all, invited me to join The Cigar Group on LinkedIn.  I was intrigued by one of the questions: "Do you buy your cigars online or from a local shop?"  The answers ran the expected gamut, though most said they supported local shops, and with good reason.  First, you can't smoke on the Internet.  Second, and more important, as the anti-smoking, anti-fun brigade continues their inexorable march, the shops become one of few public havens where you can smoke a cigar.

This week I posted my own question, "Where is the most memorable place you smoked a cigar?" and I now find myself as "The Top Influencer" of the group.

Certainly one of the appeals of social media is the opportunity to be a star, even if it is on a rather tiny stage.  Not one of the draws for me.  One of my clients, a rather hip young entrepreneur, announced in one of our recent Forum meetings, that he was the Mayor of Renaissance Executive Forums by virture of Foursquare.  Hmmm, he's the mayor of my business.  I told him I was still the king, but I welcomed his mayoralty.

Facebook allows an instantaneous connection to my friends, especially those in South America, across the United States, and the horde in Glasgow.  While nothing can beat actually sitting across from one of these people, aforementioned cigar in hand, the mere fact that there is an acceptable substitute is comforting. 

If Facebook is the territory of true friends and family, business associates, some of whom also can be described as friends, populate the LinkedIn site. 

I have a Twitter account, but I don't tweet much.  I think my mother slapped me upside the head when I tweeted in church when I was eight years old.  Or maybe it was one of those menopausal nuns from Holy Rosary Grammar School smacking me with a yardstick for tweeting in class.  Life in 160 chacracters.  Cyberspace's version of haiku.

Recently, a rather prestigious publication made a guess on how much productivity was lost at work due to social media.  The number is staggering.  Along with the Internet itself, social media is a black hole of time, sucking in the unwary.

I maintain a few simple rules.  I never spend more than 5 minutes a day on Facebook.  I may spend more time on LinkedIn, but not every day.

Da Bulls
Last night, in one of the most poorly officiated games I have ever seen, the young Chicago Bulls fell to the Miami Heat, not so much a team as a collection of outsized egos.  (OK, I admit that I still like Dwayne Wayne.)  LeBron James flopped more than last year's Dutch World Cup team.  Bulls fans should not be discouraged.  They made it to the conference finals in a series reminiscient of the early days of Michael Jordan.  The Bulls need a latter-day Scottie Pippen, another legitimate scoring threat, to open Derrick Rose's game.

Amazon Vine
I love a good scam.  A couple of months ago I was invited to join the Amazon Vine program.  I think I was invited because I write book and product reviews.  Last year I wanted to see how many reviews it would take to break into the top 10,000.  (At the end of last year, it was somewhere in the high 30s.)
As part of this program you received an e-mail every month with a number of books and products that Amazon will send to you free of charge.  The only expectation is that you write a review.

I've received, read, and reviewed two books, neither of which is even available yet in bookstores.  One of those was by an author whose books I have read and enjoyed, a rather intelligent mystery series.

And now we close the circle on this particular blog.  We, the mob, have become the reviewers, the arbiters, the restaurant critics, the hotel detectives.  Democratization of products and services, with real-time judgments passed.  I find it interesting that first, I would take the time to write a book review, second, that someone else would read it, and third, that same someone clicked that reading the review has helped him or her. 

So much information, same amount of time, more individual discipline and judgment required.