Jeff Cutler™ – columns, essays and opinions

Setting: Bar room, stage, smoky, night, microphone on stage, couples huddled around the room

Characters: Jeff Cutler, unnamed people at the tables around the room, announcer/bartender

The bartender wanders across the stage and grabs the microphone. If you looked carefully at his hands, you can see the scars on his knuckles from numerous fights. This bartender used to be a bouncer who worked his way up in the organization. To some, bartending isn’t a lateral move.

BARTENDER: Here’s that writer guy. He twits or tweets, whatever. Give it up for Jeff Culter… Cutler.

Jeff bounces onto the stage wearing his Duluth Trading Company firehose pants and presentation jacket.

He smiles at the bartender and then waves to the crowd. Crowd is an overstatement – there are 9 people in the room, eight of them are awake.

JEFF: Thanks for that warm welcome! I just flew in from Boston and boy are my arms tired….

Then I wake up.

That little sequence is an approximation of the dream that keeps me – and maybe other dedicated content professionals – on task and focused when preparing to deliver information and training. I imagine it’s what Chris Brogan used to feel like before he made it (or is making it) big.

The reason I bring this up is because I’m now doing the mini-Chris Brogan tour around the country. As many of you know, the Society of Professional Journalists has hired me to teach newspeople all around the world how to use social media tools to listen to and engage people.

What’s that mean? Aside from harrowing flights on planes about the size of an Egg McMuffin, it means that I’m meeting some great folks, honing my presenting skills, and staying brutally on top of the latest social media news.

It also means that I get to taste some of the magic that Chris Brogan sees on a daily basis. Guess what, it’s not magic.

Like any other job, it looks attractive from the outside (except maybe for cat neuterer and human paintball target). The flying around the country, the exotic meals in random restaurants and the huge paychecks make it seem so. But here’s the breakdown…

Airport food, Wichita, KS (the people and beer were fantastic), wobbly planes, basic paychecks. It’s not the glamour you might have anticipated.

Yes, I’m not Brogan. But I imagine aside from a much larger check – rumors say it’s above $20,000 a day – it’s a similar grind.

So, before you start having dreams, waking up in a sweat, or bobbing around the midwest in little prop planes, take a look at your current workload and assignments. You might be better off with the day job and letting masochists like me and Chris go chat with organizations about how they can better use social media.

What job do you lust for? Share that in the comments.

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Tags: automobiles, Chris Brogan, Jeff Cutler, planes, social media, SPJ, trains, work

There are people on Twitter who occasionally take a break from the madness and go silent for a bit. These people do so, in my opinion, to clear their minds and their days from the constant pull of messages that flow in front of them. This conveyor belt of information isn’t that hard to ignore, or is it?

I decided to take a day – a day where I had a bunch of deadlines – and slip away from Twitter for a while. I still created tweet-length missives, but I saved them all in a text file (they’re pasted below) instead of putting them out in the ether.

The two folks that come to mind when I think of Twitter hater, unfollowers (who then follow Twitter again) are Ari Herzog and Robert Scoble.

Robert went over to FriendFeed for a bit and then came back – albeit a little less loquacious than before.

Ari went away and then came back and then went away and then came back. In the midst of all this he unfollowed everyone and then refollowed some folks. He has reasons and rhymes for all his moves. See those at his blog.

Enough blathering. here’s what I would have said had I been on Twitter today. I’ll be back on tonight in case you missed me.

Today’s the experiment day. Gonna collect my tweets in a .pages document and then post them all as a blog entry. Feel free to comment.

Why do so many shampoo manufacturers make paper labels to go on their product? Heads-up, these bottles are in a wet, paper-destroying environment.

Wearing my Breckenridge t-shirt today. Maybe people will think I’m from Colorado and ask me questions about the wild west.

Already got one comment on my announcement (of this experiment) @chucktanowitz wanted to know why. I say it’s good blog fodder and will keep me focused on work today.

@gradontripp This is amazing. I have had to remain vigilant not to open up Tweetdeck, Seismic, Tweetie or Twitter.

Worried about the #meatcats. @clownface3 hurt her back and can’t save them from danger, and I’m headed to Panera to do some work – might even chance Barnes & Noble cc: @chrisbrogan

Cooking waffles for breakfast. Not sure if I can Tumble my food today as I’m off of Twitter. Guess I’ll take photos and post them tomorrow. #wwjce

Cats are back in. I’m off to the satellite office. NOT THE Satellite Office, but Panera in Hingham.

@jetblue – we have a team of people from Boston going to SXSW in March. We’re all on the same flight on 3/12. We’d LOVE some drink tickets if you have any around. Thx!

Nearly freaked out when I realized March is MADNESS for me. 4th I’m in Wichita. 9th I’m in Chicago. 12-16 I’m in Austin. 26-27 I’m in Saratoga. Yikers. How do people like @peterkim @adamcohen and @schneidermike do it?

One project wrapped up. Now on to a couple others. Trying to breathe. Glad it’s not scooter weather yet. Would be major-league distracted.

My favorite blog right now is Tyson Goodridge’s – http://enterdialogue.com – it’s awesome when it comes to distilling intelligence. Good work!

Just cooked some Pot Stickers and was reprimanded by one of the people who lives in the house. She pointed out that the Pot Stickers were going to be part of dinner. It’s now 3:24 and we’re Pot Sticker destitute.

Now gobbling pretzels and waking up @clownface3 – She’s asked me to be quieter in my consumption. I told her that I was getting a fist for punching.* (see The Office)

Projects 62% done. VERY happy so far. Now on to some audio editing for a client. The fun doesn’t stop.

Seems like airlines are getting slammed on Twitter. First Southwest and now United. Sounds like some companies need to listen.

Just looked at @bostonmarketer and realized she’s about 1000 followers ahead of me. She deserves more. Great content and winning smile all the time.

Got any experiments you’re doing with Social Media? Share them in the comments!

Keep reading!

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Tags: ari herzog, Boston, deadlines, procrastination, robert scoble, scoble, twitter

Today, Steve Garfield was on CBS Backstage being interviewed about video blogging and his new book, Get Seen. Here are some screen shots from the event. And I believe Steve has the interview archived on his site.

Keep reading!

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Tags: Boston, cbs, CBS news, Get Seen, Jeff Cutler, steve garfield, video, vlogging

Guest Post by Philip Zannini

With just a day left to go before the big Apple event at the Yerba Buena center to announce the new tablet, slate, big iPod, iPony whatever the thing will be called, I felt a pressing need to go on record somewhere I could be heard with my prediction.

Now, you might be having some premonitions if you’ve looked at the title of the post (yes, it is a tip of the hat to Caddy Shack BTW) and you’re probably feeling pretty DARN good about knowing where I’m going. Well, you’re absolutely probably pretty somewhere in the right church, I have no idea if you’re in the right pew – or even if this church has pews or chairs. But iDigress.

Yes, my prediction is that on the 27th of this month Apple is about to launch is first bonafide (say it like Colonel Potter from the old MASH TV series) turd since the G4 Cube (pretty as that was too). And I know you’re saying “But PhillyMac! Dude! You’re an Apple fanboy, an iPhone developer (http://ventipixel.com) – heck you even hosted a popular Mac podcast and everything! How can you say that!?” The answer is: easy.

If all the rumors turn out to be true. If Apple does not surprise us with a completely different device and form factor than we’re getting all indications of, this is going to be a big stinker of a product. It’s going to be the slickest, most high powered heavily marketed chocolate snake since the Edsel. Yes it’s true. And I know I say this at the risk of angering many fans, but my job (as I see it) is to speak the truth.

The tablet market has been one going nowhere and had no one (except for Bill Gates) caring about it for a very long time. OK, OK. Fine, there’s a very small niche that actually does give a crap. But that’s it. This market has no broad or radical opportunities in it like the mobile phone market did, where every device had been crippled by the carriers demands, the tablet has been open forever.

I know. This is Apple! This is Steve Jobs, not Bill Gates! This is Johnny Ives, this is a new and better touch interface! (Well, in theory that’s supposed to be one of the big selling points anyway). And you’re right. It’s all of those! None of them make not a hanging chad worth of difference. This thing is still going to be one of the biggest loads laid at 1 Infinite loop since they had to grab the pooper scooper to pick up the Pippin droppings.

First there’s the price. Heads up here. We’re in a bit of a squeeze right now economically if you hadn’t noticed. This makes a difference when selling a computing device. Oh, sure, Mac sales are still up in a crazy manner. I’ll give you that. But those sales are up on machines that people are using as their daily driver. you know, camera, keyboards, track pads. All the standard inputs that make computers work – especially if you like to do things like say… oh, type an post like this one. Rumors are that this iStinker is going to be between $700-1000 dollars. That would make it a primary machine – not a secondary device like a netbook that you’re going to keep in the living room for your three year old to use as a step stool or a frizbee. Got it? Price on this will be a BIG barrier to entry. #PriceFAIL.

Second, there’s the price. No, I didn’t make a mistake, I just said the same thing. It applies differently. Just as price is an issue that will keep this from being the secondary machine, price is also the issue to keep it from being the new Kindle or whatever book reader thingy you’re going to get. Yes, yes. It has a color screen. Whoopee! So what!? So does my MacBook! But you’re saying that I can watch movies on it too! I know! I can do that on my MacBook already! And you know what, I can read eBooks on my MacBook too! With my external monitor, I can even flip it and use the portrait mode to make it even BIGGER to read Oh, wait. I know, you’re going to tell me it has a great new touch interface. Great. See point one in the paragraph above. #PriceFAIL2.

Third, there’s the market. I know I already mentioned it, but I wanted to make sure you knew it was firmly on my list. Pay attention now or I’m going to box your ears. NO-BODY (except Alex Lindsay, Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko and Scott Bourne) want this thing. No one cares! This is one of those things that people at Apple are going to look back at and say “What the bloody hell were we thinking?” This isn’t like the mobile market where we were all desperate for a phone that could really work well and connect us. None of us want to use a tablet. I don’t want writing input, I type about three times faster (at least ) than I can write and when I’m done I can READ what I’ve written. I don’t care if I can use coverflow to find my document if it means that I have to type everything into that document with a virtual keyboard. Sure, I use the one on my iPhone – but that’s my PHONE. #MarketFAIL

Fourth, the size is wrong, Wrong, WRONG. The beauty of my iPhone is that it fits in my pocket. This would fit into my back pack – where it would have to share room with my MacBook because I need a device that has a keyboard and a mouse for all my standard input needs. I don’t care if I can touch the screen to move stuff – I’ve already got enough issues and have to have an expensive chair and weekly chiropractic visits to keep me well enough to function. Having to reach around on the darn input device like I’m drawing on an easel or on a real pad would put me in even more pain. But back to my original point here, it’s the wrong size. This isn’t the device I throw in my pocket with my Blistex and my license. It’s big, I can’t carry it around without thought and it is (as I’ve mentioned already) a secondary device. Let’s see, pick up the baby or spare another hand for the iDoody. Hmmm. #SizeFAIL.

People, please understand. As much as I love Apple. As much as I’d like this new device to revolutionize the world like the iPod and the iPhone – this ain’t it. As much as I love His Steveness, this is going to be another one of his single minded failures – something that gets made just because he’s the big dog at Apple and he says so (like the G4 cube, the hockey puck mouse and the mighty mouse). It makes me sad too.

I’ll admit it. This device is going to come out. It’s going to be pretty and shiny. It’s going to play video. It’s going to he an amazing touch interface that I’m SURE will be a blast to play with in the store (like Minority Report or something) but will be a DOG when you have to use it on a daily basis. I know these guys are the best at User Interface of anyone in the industry, but I can’t think of any conceivable interface based on touch that would mitigate the issues I’ve described above. Yes, I know I’m not Apple – but I am a UI/UX expert with a decade of experience designing interfaces – I can’t see how it will be done.

The device will be beautiful, even powerful. it’ll be very slick. I’m going to want one just because Steve will create a reality distortion field. But, once my head clears and I realize I have no possible use for this – and neither does 90% of the rest of the population – I won’t buy it. I’ll go into an Apple Store and I’ll play with the iDoody. When I’m done, I’ll grab a wipee and the hand sanitizer because really, it’s not hygienic to touch things after doody, whether Apple makes it or not.

BIO:
Phillip is an Award Winning Mobile Device designer, UI/UX Authority, Brilliant Speaker (http://phillymacmedia.com) and the Co-Founder of Venti Pixel (http://ventipixel.com) where they’re busy cranking out iPhone (and other mobile device) applications like their language translation application DoubleSpeak (http://bit.ly/dspeak) and Flame Wars (http://bit.ly/fwtwitter)

Contact:
email: phillymac@gmail.com
phone: 508 65 SHINE (508-657-4463)
iPhone/Mobile Development: http://ventipixel.com
Speaking: http://phillymacmedia.com

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Tags: Apple, fail, guest post, iPhone, phillymac, steve jobs, tablet, technology

Hi, I’m Jeff Cutler from JeffCutler.com. I am sometimes Jeffrey Cutler to my parents and my siblings when they’re annoyed with me. My first name is actually something different than Jeffrey and a bunch of people know what it is. But this isn’t a column about who I am. It’s a commentary on who I am not.

In early December 2009, I saw a tweet go out (a tweet is a 140-character missive that is carried on Twitter.com) saying how excited someone was about a meeting I was scheduled to attend. I panicked and played the skilled investigative journalist.

Sending back tweets like, “Where are we supposed to be meeting?” and “Who are we having the meeting with, again?” I was able to ascertain that Jeffrey Cutler was going to be speaking to the Greater Boston Food Bank about social media later that week.

I didn’t remember making that appointment, but chalked it up to having thousands of Twitter followers, a social media career that went back to 1999 or before when I started blogging, and an increasingly packed training schedule (as I regularly give talks to corporations, learning institutions, nonprofits and even national conference groups on how to leverage social media tools in their jobs, study and operations).

So, I made a phone call. The gentleman at the Greater Boston Food Bank was thrilled to hear from me. We chatted for three minutes before I decided to clear some things up for him.

“No sir. I have not received ANY of the scheduling emails you’ve sent out.”

“Yes sir. I am Jeff Cutler, the social media journalist and new media trainer. But I don’t think I’m the Cutler you have scheduled to speak to you.”

“Yes sir. I do this for a living, but don’t work in PR. I actually am a 21-year journalist and have run my own writing services firm for 18 years.”

“Yes sir. That may very well make my career older than the Jeffrey Cutler who you are meeting with this week.”

Once we clarified that I was NOT Jeffrey Cutler from Fama PR we compared notes. It was decided that the meeting with the other Jeff Cutler would go as planned. Then, if the Greater Boston Food Bank wanted some additional help, they would contact me and I’d come speak to them about social media tactics. That call came quickly.

This past Tuesday, Gradon Tripp and I went to the GBFB offices and spoke for about 75 minutes on the topics of social media, community, listening, marketing and more. Fun stuff. But it hasn’t helped stem the flow of Jeffrey Cutler incidents.

In fact, tonight I was at the #140Conf Tweetup and meeting at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge. I was approached by my friend Alexis who thanked me for agreeing to come speak to her company. Turns out they got the Jeffrey Cutler with 140 Twitter followers to help them mold their social media strategy.

So what should I do? I could send Mr. Cutler a tweet with a link to this post and start a conversation. I could monitor the Internet and see where “I’m” speaking or training next and just show up. Or I could worry unnecessarily about the damage the other Cutler might be doing to my brand and public image by selling people his social media training sessions. Then I could write about it on Things To Worry About and then go get something to eat.

What do you think I should do? He’s not (I don’t think) purposefully presenting himself as me to land jobs. If he is, Jeffrey Cutler deserves at least some credit as a salesman. But if his clients are hiring him based on my experience, prominence and aptitude, that’s a fraudulent path and maybe something the courts would suggest he be careful about clarifying when he signs on to train folks.

Or maybe it’s just caveat emptor. He has an impressive list of PR and marketing coups. He’s done something right to build up his list of clients. And he’s also been in startup land for a while – having been with Going.com from the beginning.

Maybe there’s room for two Jeff Cutlers….errrr, one Jeff Cutler and one Jeffrey Cutler…in this social media space. Only time will tell.

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Tags: @jeffcutler, Jeff Cutler, jeffrey cutler, mistaken identity, PR, worry

If you’re not a Seinfeld fan you won’t get the partial reference to the Jerk Store joke in the title of this post. No matter. The reason I used that joke is because I’m now an app in the Apple iTunes app store. Really.

Just like Chris Brogan’s blog before mine, this very blog has been created into an app you can download onto your iPhone or iPod Touch.

That doesn’t mean you’re going to be happy with the app. I’m thrilled with it, but I like most things having to do with Jeff Cutler. You might not.

One thing you should be amazed at though, is that the fine people at MotherApp were able to do this for a blog. Seriously.

The technology behind what they had to create is just beyond me and it’s really cool that they took the time and energy to use my site as a test case. If you want to learn more, run over to their site and take a look.

In the meantime, I’m excited that many of you will now be reading my blog right on your iThings. Lots of posts coming this week about gadgets, CES, life, journalism and snacks. So stay tuned….iTuned….into my blog.

Keep reading!

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Tags: App Store, Blog, iTunes, Jeff Cutler, MotherApp

Just a quick list of some stuff I saw – along with links to their sites.

The rest of this week will feature a series of columns on my entire CES experience. Stay tuned!

ToolGuard – a loud, battery-powered alarm for your tool box. Not listed on their site yet, but it’s from Dynamco of Australia.

http://dynamco.com.au/

Album is a portible digital-photo storage in a 7-inch display. Stores up to 40,000 photos.

http://www.album-life.com/en/

Laptop to HDTV – watch your movies on your flatscreen.

http://www.alereon.com/

GPS transmitters to maintain tabs on your loved ones or employees.

http://blacklinegps.com/

Bluetooth headphones and in-ear pieces.

http://www.myblueant.com/index.php

Podcasting microphones from BlueMic – they make the Snowball, the Snowflake and the Yeti.

http://www.bluemic.com./

Sync and share your computer, mobile and the cloud.

http://www.dazzboard.com/

Videos and more on your TV, live streamed from your computer or similar device.

http://www.boxee.tv

Evaluate your own car – just plug it in. CarMD.

http://www.carmd.com/

Case-Mate has protective film that needs very little prep. They also introduced the HUG, the first real iPhone osmosis charger.

http://www.case-mate.com/

Collaborative authoring tool for your book. Use the Web to get input and feedback.

http://www.fastpencil.com/

Thermal imaging. It’s neat, but I’m not sure I’d know how to use it as a consumer – unless I was going to use a surface to surface missile to take out a skunk or a pesky rabbit.

http://www.flir.com/US/

The i-Mate is like a smartphone toughbook. Waterproof, drop-proof and built to meet military specs.

http://imate.com/

System software to help speed up your PC.

http://www.iolo.com/

Bluetooth headsets, earphones, earbuds and more. Flashy design, too.

http://www.jaybirdgear.com/

Find Song Lyrics and Download Ringtones. Over 600,000, including hard-to-find, songs. Might be like Mobile17.com, but with lyrics.

http://www.mspot.com/

My favorite smartphone cases. Love the durability and the access to all my iPhone’s functions. Also love the other sports cases they offer.

http://www.otterbox.com/

Tiny scanners that are portable and work fast.

http://www.planon.com/

The QUE is another content reader with cool partnerships and a nice design.

http://plasticlogic.com/

Pocket Radar. Why? I say why not? It’s a neat way to judge speeds. Use it for outdoor sports, baseball and even for calibrating your scooter’s notoriously bad speedometer. Handheld.

http://pocketradar.com/

Computer backup software. Partnered with Seagate…for the PC.

http://www.rebit.com/

One of my favorite headphone companies. I have a pair of traditional on-the-ear headphones for most of my podcasting and leisure use…I love them.

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/home

Radio to your smartphone.

http://www.slacker.com/

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Tags: CES, ces 2010, gadgets, Jeff Cutler, Las Vegas, technology

Some photos for the cool guys at Crayon – taken at the Panasonic press event at CES.

#ces
#lasvegas
#directv

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Tags: 3-D, CES, crayon, DirecTV, Jeff Cutler, panasonic

Just a quick handfull of photos to give readers a feel for the cattle call that is a #CES press conference.

Take a look at the shots here and tell me what you think.

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Tags: CES, Jeff Cutler, Las Vegas, led, samsung

Want to watch TV from your car or other vehicle? Audiovox announced a few moments ago that their FLOTV product is already in the marketplace and will be appearing in more places over the course of 2010.

FLOTV, if youre not familiar, is live television programming in your car. Integrated into existing headrest screens, the unit features a small antenna and simple remotes.

From my perspective, the FLOTV is cool. From consumers’ standpoint – according to Auidovox reps – it’s an easier way to enjoy entertainment in the car.

Some of the numbers…

There are 20 million screens in cars ready for FLOTV

Already shipping everywhere.

Plan is to get FLOTV into cars all over the world.

PTV is the portable version of FLOTV.

Finally, during the event, Audiovox announced their RCA e-book reader, the Lexi.

But what’s better than having a random e-book reader is that Auidovox has partnered with Barnes & Noble to deliver content to Lexi owners.

That’s a big deal. And it may continue to level the e-book landscape.

What’s your take?

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Tags: audiovox, CES, Flo TV, Jeff Cutler