The Joys of Being a Plumber

For those of you who follow along, you know that I haven’t been posting much of late.

To be honest with you, there hasn’t been much in the VoIP industry that has truly inspired me to write. Sure I had fits of passion here are there, stringing you along with a post here, a post there.  Something seemed to be missing though, about the way I felt about the VoIP industry.

It wasn’t that VoIP was now thought of as just plumbing or that VoIP was dead, it was that my inspiration was a sailboat with no wind – stranded in the middle of a lake of thought.

I’ve read on as the great debate raged and everyone (including me) had their say in deciding the fate of the VoIP industry. A plumber myself, I knew VoIP wasn’t going away. After all new pipe is laid everyday and pipes break, so there will always be a need for people who can install and fix them.

But for some reason I didn’t really understand this fact. Until a few days ago, that is. It was then that I finally understood what had caused my inspiration for writing about VoIP to sit motionlessly afloat  – At some point I started thinking something was wrong with plumbing and being a plumber.

Oddly enough, it was an unexpected twenty minutes that put this all in perspective (and renewed my inspiration).

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Facebook: My Friend CRM

A few minutes ago I was trying to explain Facebook to a group of older business folks when it came out that Facebook was my, “Friend CRM.” After spurting that out, I paused and restated that Facebook was actually my “Friend Relationship Manager.” Not that I ever struggled with finding value in my Facebook efforts, I often faced questions as to the value of it and would spend an exhaustive time describing it to someone.

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Thoughts From A Communications Burnout

Being “offline” is a great way to think about the online world. Over the last two days “offline” (for the most part) I have been thinking a lot about the online world, most specifically about how, in a world that is continuosly changing, does a marketer keep up with the changing ways in which people consume content online.

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Disclosing the Double Standard

Pat Phelan is upset.

He is mad that a videoblogger is getting paid…and not disclosing it.

Pat, don’t fret. It is not worth it my man. I am not sure when everyone decided that the Internet was pure and full of goodness; that the purveyors of it followed some sort of golden path of righteousness.

Honestly, I assume that everyone is getting paid (in some way, shape or form) to write online. It might be cash, it might be in gaining connections, it might be indirectly through a sale consummated as a result of someone “finding you” online. Pat, this is not an attack on you, I know you do not take direct advertisers on your blog, but how many people have you met, befriended, had write about you, your company, your products and services as a result of your writing online? You might not be getting paid directly, but your efforts are indirectly rewarded.

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Why Are PR and News Distribution People So Stupid?

I feel like doing a little hating today.

So, I have had enough. Really, I can’t take it anymore.

Why are most PR, communications and news distribution service personnel so clueless?

This stuff really is not that hard.

Why are these people spamming me?

Quite being so lazy and get to know who I am, what I do and what I will write about. Really, it might take you an extra five minutes to fake that you actually give two shits.

Why would you sign me up for a service I never said I wanted?

If I didn’t say that I wanted it, do you think that you are doing your clients a favor my sending me news I don’t want. Honestly, it makes you and your client look bad. Really bad.

Do not spam corporate blogs. Do you think a corporation wants to get press releases from other companies so they can write about them?

Simple answer? No.

Look, I am not a journalist. This is not my full time job. I do this because I have an opinion, I have thoughts and ideas that I want to have heard. I want to create and engage in conversations with a group of like-minded peers…I am not here to crank out story after story about your new <insert widget here>.

If you want me (or anyone else that I manage or consult on blogging) please send me an email, introduce yourself, the company you work for (and your client), wait for me to respond, then sell me on why I should spend my free time (remember this is not my day job) writing about you.

This post was inspired by this comment. Thanks webitpr for getting my blood boiling this morning.

Why I Should Be Blogging More

Followers of my blog know that my frequency has died down considerably over the last two months. After two year of posting three or four times everyday, I am now down to three or four times per week…at best.

In many ways having a widely read successful blog is a catch 22.

The more success you have, the more access you gain, the more people want to work with you off-line. At a certain point your off-line demands, that were created by your on-line success, make it very difficult to continue doing what it was that got you to the point you are currently at.

I have not forgotten what has gotten me to where I am today…I have merely put it aside for a short time, in hopes that doing this will result in long term gains. But what’s strange is I feel that by relaxing my blogging frequency, I have lost a step. I no longer feel I am on the cutting edge. Of late when people mention a new story, product or trend that I would have previously regarded as “old news”, I find myself saying, “No, I did not hear about that.” It is strange feeling for me because for so long I “knew” about everything.

Blogging was and is my way to learn more about what is going on in the industry and world at large.

Some people learn by reading, other learn by doing, it seems that I learn my blogging. In blogging less in the last eight or nine weeks, I have also been learning less. In this era of the knowledge worker, learning less is not an option.

With 2008 just around the corner, I have convinced myself to that it must be the year that I blog more, so that I can learn more and make sure that I am always a step-ahead of those around me.

Fonality CEO Chris Lyman Now Blogging

Another Visionary Joins the Blogosphere

One of my favorite people to interview in the VoIP industry, Chris Lyman, has started blogging. Chris is the mind behind Fonality and is leading the growth and development of the trixbox open source telephony platform. Chris new blog talks about the company, the industry and the business of growing a business.

Welcome to the club Chris!