This shot taken by Derek Peplau at Nogup3 - a Boston Tweetup - you can find more of Derek's shots at http://www.flickr.com/photos/peplau

The title is self-explanatory. If you don’t know how to host a tweetup, this is the book for you. Just click on the link below and it will download for you. You will know how to host a tweetup and you’ll be the envy of all your friends and business colleagues. This is really Tweetups made easy, and the mystery of successful Tweetups will be solved.

I welcome your comments and ideas for future books. Enjoy!

How To Host A Tweetup

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Post tags: book, Boston, boston tweetup, ebook, fun, how to host a tweetup, parties made easy, social media, tweetups made easy

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And I do. Just take a quick look in this shelf among the “Dummies” books and the books I’ve written (see poster on top), there are multiple social media, classic literary and just plain fun books. But are they really all useful? Should they have been published at the expense of wasting paper, inflating egos and eventually filling landfills and wood stoves?

I say not. But it’s too late for the selection of books on these shelves – I’ll gladly pass some of the good ones along to friends and family who want to read them. Today, I’m going to give you a quick list of fictional social media titles that should never be written (even though some publishers will feel compelled to do so).

Bear in mind that some books that are already out there have some very real value. I’ve even had session attendees ask me for the best books on Twitter – so there is a market for more than you realize. Here we go…

Facebook Status Updates 101 – How to Leverage Facebook to Gain Friends and Influence People

Checking In – Using Foursquare to Get Your House Robbed

Wijacking Your Way to the Top – Using Free Wifi to Save $60 a Month on Fios

Tweetups – Using Twitter to Invite People to a Party

Hashtags and the Rules to Follow

NSFW! The Most Popular Videos on YouTube

Always Be Charging. Why Dead iPhones Happen to Good People.

The Social Media Fishbowl and How to Avoid the Toilet

So, what are some of your favorites of the books already out there? What book would you buy to demystify the Internet – or would you just Google it? And what are some of the subjects and tools you think need no special explanation in today’s socially connected community?

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: book fair, books, Boston, common sense, excess, NPR, Raising a Reader, social media, WBUR

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I’ve given you that preamble for perspective. You see, today I’m at Gravity Summit in Cambridge, MA (part of the FutureM collection of sessions this year) and the last time I attended this event, I was THAT guy. I shared 265 tweets in the span of six hours. I made it possible for everyone to experience the event 140 characters at a time. And I got some flack from my followers.

So, today as I cover the Summit, I’m not going to go overboard. I might tweet a bit and share some photos, but I’ll do most of my work via blog posts here and over on UniversalHub.com. I might even share some info with other news outlets for whom I write.

By the way – if you want to exclude the chatter – or more likely INCLUDE all the conversation about the event – focus on #gravsum via Twitter.

Also, if there’s something you’d like to hear about, let me know. Here’s the photo of the agenda…

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boston, cambridge, conference, futureM, gravity summit, gravsum, social media

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But what you might not have known is that my car already gets 33MPG and I seriously considered a Smart car a while back to even improve on that.

So, when I saw (and actually drove) the Nissan Leaf in Las Vegas in January I had a feeling it might be my next car. Trouble is, after pinging them on Twitter and getting them to agree to call me to set up the purchase of a car here in Boston, all communication stopped.

I don’t know about you, but if you were buying a TV and asked for salespeople to give you a call, you’d be pretty irked if they didn’t. For something larger – that requires a bit more of an investment in time and energy (ironically) – you’d think the company would be more receptive.

Especially as our society has become one where communication can be done anywhere and with any device. In fact, today I’ve written 11 blog posts – half of which were done on my iPhone using a BlueTooth keyboard. So if you can’t reach me with the technology that’s around today, there’s probably another reason I haven’t heard from you. What about it Nissan?

Nothing about Nissan and nothing against the car. I just wonder if the reason they haven’t contacted me is because the car isn’t ready to survive a winter in the Boston area. I’ll wait and see what happens.

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Post tags: Boston, communication, customer service, nissan, scooter, twitter

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Suffice it to say that a Wheat Thins truck didn’t show up at my doorstep…

…and I wasn’t given a special-edition Wheat Thins branded iPad2 (although they have my address if they decide to do so). But I did garner a response with my tweets. In fact, the response I got cemented me as a fan of the marketing efforts and further solidified my belief that the Crunch is Calling. Here’s why…

Watch the video

Look at the unboxing photos

Read the heartfelt and Wheaty letter

Now, what do you think? Does social media marketing work? Is it only effective with a rabid fan base or can it work with less motivated consumers? What other examples can you share that captured your attention and just plain worked?

Please excuse me now, if I dare utter the phrase again, “Crunch is Calling”.

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boston, crackers, crunch is calling, Jeff Cutler, Marketing, snacks, video, wheat thins, WWJCE

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