Tweetup

I had my second tweetup today. (tweetup: where people who are friends/associates on www.twitter.com get together and meet up)  I have found that I like them very very much! My first tweet up was with Daniel Cline (@danielcline) and we talked about being entrepreneurs and great ways to conduct business in the networking industry. Dan is with Xango and I'm with Melaleuca.

Today I met up with Shawna Coronado(@shawnacoronado). First of all, I was at the wrong Starbucks. We met at Wheaton, I didn't write down the address and just assumed it was the one downtown. Wrong! I called Shawna and she just came over and met me.

Shawna Coronado is the author of Gardening Nude. Www.thecasualgardener.com I highly recommend you visit her website at the least, and order the book for sure. Shawna writes a local newspaper column, hosts a tv show and has written this book.

Shawna and I poured over the computer, put our heads together – and I took notes. We talked about the importance of helping others to connect; the Brown Brogan project, living green, directions our lives are taking – all over coffee.

I'm still feeling out my blog and where it's going. I see interviews, promoting shopping local and integrating my knowledge of network marketing (I work for Melaleuca) into the equation. Shawna had some very powerful ideas for me.

First of all, visit these sites/blogs:

http://gardenfork.tv/blog/ and http://green-house.tv a weekly internet video show – and a great primer on how to begin with video

www.craftynation.com Jim Long and Toni Lyn have created a wonderful site for crafters ( and wannabe's like me) to get their craft on

www.becauseisaidso.com mother of 6, Dawn Meehan started with a funny story on ebay and ended up with a book coming out in May.

Www.chicagorocks.com how can you use what they've done in your local community?

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/11/looking-for-m-1.html How to get twitter followers

Add these people to twitter:

zemote – microblogger for education

jeffcoffee -mechanically inclined nonpracticing hacker

ev – twitter founder

bodizzle – makes firefox and flock look real cool

shileennixon – the wonder woman challenge

newmediajim – new media soul trapped in an old media body

Then --- once you've followed them, go back into their tweets and see who's talking to them, who's in a conversation. Follow those people! This is a great way to grow your twitter followers. (see above website from Guy Kawasaki)

I will also be working on setting up interviews with all these interesting people.

Then we talked about press packages (traditional media). The world is not all web 2.0 – we are working on it! Got something to say that the world needs to hear about? What kind of media kit do you have? Should we all have a media kit? I'm thinking we should.

The last thing you might want to put in your media kit is the question: What are the top ten stories you can write about me? And then list the stories. Give the press a reason to write about you! A couple of ideas for me would be: How I started a local free paper, Need Interviews? We got them!, I downsized and so can you, Do you use green products? Why not?, How are you using social media?

Shawna put me on notice to watch for 1 minute greening tips from her, to get some of my own videos on youtube.com. Join the video revolution! Contrary to the old believe, the revolution will be televised!

One last thing – local access stations are always looking for content. How many 2 minute interviews can I put together?

“People are depressed in our country. It's changed my life to be more involved in the community.” Shawna could not have said it better!

Deb (@debworks)