May I point out that I love Scotts Turf Builder lawn products? May I also point out that, when you’re doing your all-important “listening” on social media, be sure to get the banana out of your ear. This tweet exchange between Mitch Joel, Scott Stratten, Amber Brooks and Scotts Lawn Care’s social media team is just so wrong.

Amber is referring to Scott Stratten in her tweet but fails to use an apostrophe when she types “Scotts step by step process.” Scotts Turf Builder feels a discussion about lawn care is taking place and jumps in with a toll-free number.

Do better next time!

P.S. Mitch and Scott were tweeting about something rather serious. Please consider buying the book “End Malaria,” where $20 of the $20 purchase price ($25 for paperback) goes to buying malaria nets that save lives.

I never ask for your help. But, today, I need your help. WIll you help?... http://t.co/4wV1K9t

September 7, 2011 9:16 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@mitchjoel

Mitch Joel

Rather awesome postscript – the tweet below came through from Scotts the day after. A worthy response by Scotts – well done

@RizzoTees @courtneyengle Consider the banana removed! BTW Have you seen a missing bot? Some1 left our gate open. Apologies all around

September 8, 2011 11:47 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@ScottsLawnCare

Scotts Turf Builder

I was pleasantly surprised to see record U.S. visitor numbers for Facebook and Twitter for the month of July. Well, I was very happy for Twitter (I tolerate Facebook). I watched with anticipation as the new beast on the block, Google Plus, made it’s exclusive invite-only debut. It took off like a rocket, and engagement was strong. Things have tapered off a bit there, while I’ve seen a renewed interest in Facebook and Twitter. Just my observations as a heavy daily user of the platforms.

My 15 year old neighbor is NOT rooting for Facebook. I asked him whether he uses it or not, and he said, “NO, it’s stupid. I don’t have an account. Facebook is stupid.” When I inquired as to why he felt that way, he said “Because it’s like jail.”

His reasons for making this analogy?

1. You get poked by strange men you don’t know. (I’ve never been to jail, but I’ve heard stories.)

2. You write on people’s walls. (To be fair, I see prisoners in movies writing on their own walls, or scratching messages into their walls with shanks, but I digress).

3. You sit around all day and do nothing.

4. You have a profile picture (AKA a mug shot).

I enjoyed his take on the matter, and then it dawned on me. Will Facebook ever snag him as a user? And how many more young people like him are out there? I’d venture to say if all of his best friends were using Facebook, he would be too. Is there an up-and-coming generation that’s Post-Facebook? And what does that mean for Facebook’s future?

Twitter has a major problem. Spam is driving away quality users, and Twitter needs quality users (vs. mere quantity) if it wants to remain a go-to social media platform.

Have a listen to this 5-min podcast and tell me in the comments below if you agree with my thoughts on this.

image courtesy of pinoytutorial.com and Apple

The Green Light.

That’s what I got from my wife after a somewhat lengthy discussion about the reasons I wanted to purchase an iPad 2. “Do you need this?” she asked. “Need?” I responded. “No, I don’t need this. I would survive without it. It seems like something that someone in my profession should have, and I want it. But no, need is not the right word.” To quote Jim Morrison, perhaps it was with that bit of honesty that I broke on through to the other side!

However, in the case of one of the most hyped and successful launches in the history of consumer products, the Green Light doesn’t mean you get an iPad 2! As is the Apple norm, the lines outside Apple stores and electronics retailers were long and sustained. Apple sold everything they had on debut day. Reports had the first day numbers at anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million.

And it didn’t end there. Lines started forming at stores on the second day. And the third day. And the fourth day. Supplies were limited, and any time an Apple store received a shipment, there was already a line of people waiting outside the store with line tickets in hand, ready to buy. Best Buy in Brentwood, MO was accepting reservations for iPad 2′s. You tell Best Buy personnel which particular iPad 2 you want, put $100 down (which they provide you in the form of a Best Buy gift card), and then they call you when the iPad comes in. They are selling new shipments of iPads exclusively to people on the list. Walk-in traffic will not be able to buy iPads until all names on the list get theirs. I was at Best Buy the other night and almost threw my name on the list, but hesitated. I was already spending $230 on two portable DVD players, so I chickened out and left.

I went to Target. None. Micro Center. Nope. Apple stores? “We had ‘em, but we’re sold out.” Honestly, I was OK with waiting. I didn’t have the Apple Shakes. But my iPad 2 seemed so far away. How long would I have to wait?

Enter my friend Muljadi. Actually he’s not my “friend.” He’s a Twitter friend. Actually, I’m not sure we’ve ever spoken on Twitter until a few days ago. And obviously we had never met in person. I can tell you this – he’s my friend now!

After a few @RizzoTees tweets about how every place was sold out, here’s Muljadi’s first tweet to me:

His tweet came in around 8am Wednesday, so I asked him if the store was even open yet. His response:

So he’s telling me he’s not trying to profit from doing this for me. However, at this point I declined his offer. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a 3G iPad or a wifi one. Muljadi must not have found the unit he wanted, because next day, he’s back at it!

I thought that was very nice of him to alert me to the stock they had at the West County store. I did not go to the store. Something told me I should probably go to Falk Harrison and work. Then, on Friday morning, Muljadi is on the hunt again, and repeats his offer to grab one for me:

I was about to have coffee with my bud Greg Bussmann, and gave it some quick thought. Damn, I wanted this thing. OK, why the hell not? I’m going to have a total stranger, my Good Samaritan, buy an iPad for me. I told him which one I preferred, gave him my cell phone number, and wished him luck.

By 9am, my mobile rings. Muljadi was in possession of my new iPad 2. Wonders never cease, and Twitter never ceases to amaze.

Why did Muljadi do this? He saw my tweet, asking if anyone knew of a store with iPad 2′s in stock, and thought he could help me. Why did I do this? My reasons were two-fold: I really wanted that iPad, and I wanted to take part in yet another social media experiment. I can assure you, this was way more fun than standing in line with strangers for four hours. I got to meet a really cool dude. We met up at the St. Louis Bread Company on Ballas (Panera for the rest of the country) and chatted for maybe 30 minutes before we parted ways. I could have easily talked with him for another hour, but we both wanted to get home and play with our new iPads!

THANK YOU MULJADI! I’ll see you online….

POSTSCRIPT: Muljadi was and is a really stand-up guy, and he assumed I was too. Nevertheless, I told him I didn’t expect him to accept a personal check from me, and that I’d bring cash. He sent me this DM:

“cash will be fine with me; you’re pretty well known, so I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be harassed if your check bounced ”

Guys, that is what social media is all about. Yes, you can have fun, you can learn, and you can sell stuff. But it all comes back to letting people get to know you – the Personal Brand. I tell any individual or company that will listen to me that this is exactly how you want friends, bosses, husbands, wives, customers and prospects to feel about you. There is no way whatsoever that I would or could do Muljadi wrong. All I have is a few case studies, my reputation, and my personal brand. I figuratively could not afford to screw Muljadi over, and he understood that. Therefore, he explicitly trusted me before we had ever met. CEO’s and CMO’s, that’s how you want a prospect to feel when you are introducing them to your company! That’s what this is all about. ROI? You tell me what the ROI is of making life easier for your salespeople.

POSTSCRIPT 2: Buying an iPad with cash… this might be the only time I’ve ever pulled $560 in cash out of an ATM at once. It just felt a little weird.

POSTSCRIPT 3: Assuming neither of us have ever been drug dealers, I’m not sure either of us have experienced such an exchange. I sit down at the table. He pushes a white iPad 2 box across the table. I tell him, “OK Mul, here comes the awkward part!” I whip out $560 in cash and hand it to him. The lady sitting next to us thought we were nuts!

Here’s a fun tip for following a current event on Twitter.

1. Boot up Search.Twitter.com

2. Do a search for your current event AND a Twitter pic sharing service. For instance, today is iPad 2 release day. There are people all around the country and world waiting in ridiculously long lines. Using Search.Twitter, here are a few sample searches I did:

iPad2 twitpic.com
ipad 2 twitpic.com
iPad2 yfrog.com
iPad2 plixi.com

3. These searches and more like them yield the following amazing set of image results from people all over the world:

WHOA!
http://plixi.com/p/83269483

http://twitpic.com/48jhyv

http://twitpic.com/48jri6

LONG LINE
http://twitpic.com/48ji9v

NYC
http://twitpic.com/48jdes

http://twitpic.com/48jrik

http://twitpic.com/48jldg

http://twitpic.com/48jr5i

http://twitpic.com/48jqzr

A pile at Wal-Mart
http://twitpic.com/48jqgr

http://twitpic.com/48jq3k

TONS of people, but it looks sunny
http://twitpic.com/48jhyv

http://twitpic.com/48jowf

Store about to open?
http://twitpic.com/48jt5m

http://twitpic.com/48jrey

http://twitpic.com/48jtt4

http://twitpic.com/48jsbx

http://twitpic.com/48jrix

http://twitpic.com/48jso0

http://twitpic.com/48jeta

http://twitpic.com/48js6u

http://twitpic.com/48jh9h

http://twitpic.com/48jpvo

http://twitpic.com/48ji5n

http://twitpic.com/48hj1b

http://twitpic.com/48jux6

http://twitpic.com/48juh5

http://twitpic.com/48jufs

http://twitpic.com/48juhk

http://twitpic.com/48ju8y

http://plixi.com/p/83272059

http://plixi.com/p/83272136

http://plixi.com/p/83271969

http://plixi.com/p/83271881

http://plixi.com/p/83271217

http://plixi.com/p/83271117

http://yfrog.com/h2mxbyrj

http://yfrog.com/h3ln3ysj

AWESOME PANORAMA
http://yfrog.com/gz1pbrj

http://yfrog.com/gzq7kzxj

http://yfrog.com/gy5jbsdj

http://yfrog.com/gymbnpdj

http://yfrog.com/gynvtepj

http://yfrog.com/h4qutwsj

http://yfrog.com/gz7lbukj

Traveling the world with my body… actually boarding planes and going places… is superior to looking at pictures. But this is still fun. You can also use Twitter to keep up with less fortunate events like the earthquake in Japan, or the uprisings in Egypt.

This real-time set of search results is one big reason why I prefer Twitter to Facebook.

Here are two recent blog posts of interest: one about me, and one I wrote. BTW, have we all thawed out yet? Can I get a hells yeah to winter being over?

1.) Jessica Radloff, AOL City’s Best author and Huffington Post contributor, interviewed me for the St. Louis City’s Best website. Thank you for reaching out to me Jessica!

2.) Here’s my second “Social Media Rizzolution” column for AdSaint.