Oracle of Delphi

Haven't seen you in a while but Happy Birthday Ven ...

C&G needs to get in the Twitter game, you want new members? Then this is how to do it. GMI has made huge inroads with GM's Senior staff, just letting you know ... Twitter Etiquette: A guide to getting unfollowed Twitter is hot. If the internet were high school, Twitter would totally be the knock-out cheerleading prom queen. You can’t turn on the news without hearing requests to Twitter the station your thoughts. Stores offer Twitter only discount codes. There’s the CNN/Kutcher race to gain a million followers. There’s Hugh Jackman’s promise to donate 100k to one individual’s favorite non profit, provided the person convinces him of their worthiness in one tweet. There are over 8 million people twittering. Even my husband is contemplating creating an account, and he’s always the last on board. It’s an interesting place, Twitterville. I was hesitant to join— it’s hard enough to find decent subject matter to write on my blog, never mind interesting 140 character updates. But I succumbed, and I can see why people like it. It’s a fantastic networking tool. It’s a great place to get instant opinions on any number of topics, and to spew out fleeting thoughts. I have a tendency to keep e-mail correspondences going for way too long, always wanting to have the final word even if it’s just an emoticon. With Twitter, I don’t feel the need to respond to everything and I don’t get offended when people don’t respond to me. It’s fast moving and fluid and a great way to meet new people. And one of the greatest things is the ability to unfollow those new people in an instant if they piss you off. Last night, I received an aggressive e-mail from someone I recently unfollowed inquiring as to the reasons I unfollowed her. The fact that she bombarded me with that question solidified my decision, but for her (and you,) here goes… The people I’m sure to unfollow: 1. The Twitter Addicts: You know, the ones who post a constant stream of tweets, every minute or two throughout the day. The people whose icons totally monopolize my screen and prevent me from seeing anyone else. What do these people do? Do they have jobs? Lives? Apparently Jennifer Aniston dumped John Mayer for being addicted to Twitter and I can see why. It’s annoying as hell. 2. The Auto Message Senders: Please don’t thank me for my follow and tell me how much you look forward to getting to know me. It’s a surefire way to guarantee that you won’t because I unfollowed you the minute I got the message. Tweet me or send me a personalized message or just ignore me. Please. 3. The Sketch Balls: Folks who follow thousands and have no updates or followers themselves, but want access to the inner workings of my head? No thank you, they get blocked from my updates. 4. The Pimps: People who do nothing but promote their own cause. Sure, I post links to my blog when I have a new post, and I’m fine when other people do the same. But people who do nothing but pimp themselves? I don’t want to see that. 5. The Lazy Bones: If you haven’t updated in six months, I’ll probably unfollow you. Nothing personal, but what’s the point? 6. Annoying Famous People: Celebrities who send public kisses to each other all day long. As fascinating as I find celebs, I prefer to read about them in US Weekly. On Twitter, they are a bit too much like “us” and I find it irritating rather than endearing. 7. The “Follow you, Follow me” folks: Have you ever been followed by someone only to follow them back to be unfollowed? How rude is that? Two can play that game, so consider yourself dumped. 8. Social Media Experts: What qualifications do these people have? I have a blog, a Facebook account etc. Maybe I should start calling myself an expert? Would you all buy that? Exactly. 9. The Overshare-ers: Twitter is innately narcissistic. Are any of us really as interesting as we think we are? Probably not. But do you really think that people want to know about the zit on your forehead or the dump you just took? Maybe they do, but I don’t. 10. The Sunshine Spreaders: Maybe I’m too jaded, but having messages constantly pop up that tell me to smile and love life make me want to punch the computer screen. Perhaps that’s my problem though. Edited to add the following, because this list would be incomplete without and I wish I’d thought of them at six o’clock this morning… 11. The Bible Quoters: {Inspired by Barefoot Foodie} You love Jesus. You know Bible passages. A lot of people do, but is Twitter really the place to profess that? All day long? Not for me. 12. The Number Seekers: {Inspired by Marinka} “I need 876 followers to reach 1,000!! Please re-tweet!!!” And… what’s the point of doing this for you? Tweet something of substance and your numbers will grow. Keep doing this and they won’t. Or at least they shouldn’t. 13. The Contest Whores: Bloggers often offer an extra entry for their contest for tweeting it. There are many people who do nothing but tweet about contests, all day long. I believe these people should disqualify from that extra entry because they rarely have followers and the whole point is to gain visibility. And also they’re really irritating. A new laptop might be worth entering, but a box of two dollar breakfast bars? Not so much. I might be willing to let you slide if you only possess one of the above, especially if you offer me some value mixed in (or if you’re hot, Ashton.) But, two or more and you’re history. And I won’t miss you one bit. And thank you, annoying woman for inspiring a blog post– I was stumped on what to write about today. Now I’ll go and Twitter about it. And you won’t even know, because I blocked you. So there. Link: http://www.scarymommy.com/twitter-etiquette/

GM is going in this direction in a big way, that is a hint for you C&G. The days when corporate communications meant pushing out information to the public are numbered. As social media continues to permeate consumer culture, companies are trying to learn how to engage consumers in two-way conversations through blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other tools. “A customer is a precious thing. No matter how much you think you’re listening, you’re really not,” says J. Christopher Preuss, vice president of communications at General Motors. The company operates several blogs that allow people to comment on developments in the company. I spoke with Preuss about managing GM’s brands: past mistakes, lessons learned about communicating with consumers and the company’s recent effort to combine design, marketing and communications under Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz. Preuss was among five panelists who spoke at a conference on communications strategies on October 20 along with Anita Larsen, director of media relations at Unilever (UL); David Steel, senior vice president and head of strategic marketing for North America at Samsung (05930.KS); James E. Whaley, vice president of corporate affairs & marketing at Siemens (SI); and Jack Leslie, chairman of Weber Shandwick. Panelists agreed that the challenge now is finding creative ways to engage in continual dialogue—through their own Web portals and experts’ blogs, for example—rather than organizing one-off campaigns to grab attention. They must also learn to react quickly to the huge quantities of information and opinion people distribute on the internet. Though panelists acknowledged the importance of cutting through clutter to reach overloaded consumers, in these early days, best practices are still developing. The takeaway: According to Samsung’s Steel, securing brand equity in the recession requires investing in innovation and communicating about these activities. Even in this climate, smart companies will listen to consumers’ needs to keep their brands from slipping. Link: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/...aps_social.html

Bob, are you sure you weren't looking in the mirror when you wrote this? Your hate list is too long, give us your like list, it's shorter!

I'll be at the beach next week, what's this talk of winter ???

Not really, I leave that domain to you...

I wasn't the one stating the obvious once again ...

Oh contrare !!!

Well you know my feelings on that ... And yes he is ...

Yeah it's called Alpha !!! :rotflmao:

Winter? What's that?

I feel sorry for the dealers who invested millions of dollars into their Saturn dealerships and for the nearly 13,000 people who will eventually lose their jobs. Also for my uncle who was a very loyal Saturn customer ...

Here is the official word from Buick to me on names of future vehicles ... "Right now Buick hasn't officially named any of the products that are in the pipeline. It changes every day!!" Sorry if this disappoints some here ...

Nebraska?

I've said enough for one day, time to lock the gate. I'm in Delaware until Friday spending time with the Mrs., then back to Detroit for a day, then a 23 hour plane ride ...

6th generation is still on track, as far as the EP II, maybe Opel can sell it to the Russians or Canadians or Angela Merkel ...

Yes Virginia there is a, Chevyyyyyyyyyy ...

If I were you, I'd save my money. The dream can't be dead if it's still in your head ...

Yes, all things are possible now, and it should be based on the Sixteen and Eldorados from the late 60's ... Look at my avatar for inspiration ...

The economy is not the issue with GM, it was getting rid of the legacy cost, which they did! I do have some money in my budget for a Spellchecker for you though!

How about a Cadillac replacement for the DTS 1st?

You sure that's your full attention? In the weeks and months to come we shall see ...

Hmmm, I wonder why ???

Some vintage iron in some of these clips ... Link: http://fansided.com/2009/09/25/speed-kills...vie-car-chases/

What's the difference between this and Drunk Driving roadblocks Camino? The police may check 700 cars and only find 1 violator in that case too! As I recall you were for those roadblocks? Papers please!