That (and a tad more) describes Maddy Dychtwald. She’s pretty well known, ridiculously successful and, dang, good looking to boot.

She’s the author of Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better. She’s also the co-founder, along with her husband Ken, of Age Wave. Together they’ve been warning us for a long time now about the dangers of ignoring the demographics of aging and the talents of our senior citizens.

(Ken Dychtwald, by the way, is one of the very best speakers we’ve ever seen. He’s always understood intuitively what Seth Godin warns about in Really Bad PowerPoint – that bullet points slaughter audiences, but the right emotional images help deliver the message).

So, why in the world would someone like Maddy Dychtwald feel it necessary to tweet? She’s got it all, already.

Contribution

Chris Brogan (one of the most knowledgeable social network experts on the planet) will tell you that online social networking is not about selling – but instead about contributing, mentoring and giving back.

In Maddy Dychtwald’s case she contributes her expertise. She’s intimately involved with issues like the marketing power of women and the implications of demographic shifts. She uses that expertise to link her followers to news, resources, studies and articles on the topics she knows best.

Sure, she tweets about her own books and appearances. (we should be so lucky to have such success and such a schedule!).

But, she also uses her background to lead us to intriguing articles like a Christian Science Monitor article about the popular television show, The Closer; and an NPR story about Sarah McLachlan’s fight to keep her wonderful concert series, Lilith Fair, alive.

And, those are just a couple of examples. Follow her and you’ll see a lot more.

So, what makes Maddy tweet?

Well, it’s certainly not what makes Sammy run.

Nope, those who are already successful, accomplished and knowledgeable are in the best position to give back – and they’re the ones who most need to pick up their keyboard and tweet with us.

Maddy does. Now, we just need to work on her husband Ken.

We can be pretty cynical about the kinds of technical arrogance we see in the computer world. But, in this case, Microsoft got it right in a big way at their Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington D. C.

So, let me ask you – when was the last time the Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft went ape about your company? And, when did it happen in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center? Yeah, happens every day, huh?

What was Kevin Turner so excited about that he closed his keynote speech with a video and salute to this particular company?

It’s Never 2 Late – Never!

He was excited enough about the potential of a Microsoft partner company called It’s Never 2 Late. He was excited about Jack York’s vision of changing the lives of older adults.

You see, as long as Sheryl and I have known Jack (gosh, over 10 years now) he’s had a single-minded drive to help senior citizens connect, enhance and empower their lives by connecting to the computer world.

Jack would never say it’s been easy. In fact, if most of us went up against the odds he’s encountered, we’d have thrown in the towel long ago.

Not Jack.

“I just know this is a good thing to do. It really does change lives and you can just see it when it works. We just need a little more technology juice behind us to make it work.”

Um, so, do you think Microsoft might just have the juice?!

Take a look at the video above. If you want to skip right to the place where Mr. Turner introduces the video about It’s Never 2 Late, just skip to the 1 hour and 39 minute mark.

With Your Head In the Cloud

The Microsoft Partner Conference was often about something called “Cloud Computing.” But, Kevin Turner ended his speech, in front of over ten thousand of their most important partners, reminding all of us that technology just has its head in the clouds if it’s not about truly serving people.

As one of the seniors, Milton Greidinger, says in the video:

“It’s like a godsend. That’s a good word, godsend.”

And, that’s a good job, Kevin. And that’s a godsend, Jack.

The card said:

“You recently tweeted about your ReadyTalk experience and even used the word ‘Awesome.” We appreciate your feedback and for sharing & spreading the word about ReadyTalk. Enclosed is a hard drive as a token of our appreciation.

With Regards, April.”

Wow. Just wow. That’s all we could say.

ReadyTalk.com is a Denver-based, online meeting services company. Think WebEx and GoToMeeting, only without the hassle. ReadyTalk is actually easy to use, doesn’t crash your computer and allows you to hold a webinar without the usual attendant brain damage.

We’ve conducted ReadyTalk.com webinars for the Colorado Society of Association Executives (CSAE). We’ve done a couple others for their Web Seminar Series. But, oddly we’ve never written about them on our blog.

Sure, we’ve gotten online Twitter thank-you messages back for a “tweet,” but we’ve never, ever gotten a card (and gift!) for a “tweet.” Makes you think about your online strategies, doesn’t it?!

Eat, Drink and Be Married

What do you do if you’re pretty much a 100% online company? That describes MyWedding.com. They’re an online local wedding resource, as well as a total management site for the happy couple (RSVP, email, registry, blog, etc).

They already do a great job of creating relationships online, but last week they blew it all out and invited everyone in the Denver/Colorado Springs area to show up at their new offices in Castle Rock, Colorado.

And, boy did they ever provide offline goodies – wines from Castle Rock Winery, superbly neat little gift boxes from Keltoy.com, food and excellent service from Occasions by Sandy, and on and on.

The place was packed! Photographers, florists, DJ’s, caterers, brides, grooms and every other type of wedding hob-nobber, rubbing elbows with Woody Pastorius and the rest of his welcoming crew at MyWedding.com.

Get Off of It

It made us think about online businesses. When was the last time you took your online business – and got off of it?

These days, when it comes to social media everyone wants to pitch its money making power. They tell you that if you just twerp your web site, use the right keywords and tweet 20 times a day you’ll be a success at the online game.

Ever stop to think that perhaps the real power of social media is to keep the “social” in it?

Pretty sure ReadyTalk and MyWedding have. What about you?

What are criminals and stalkers up to these days? What state-of-the-art strategies are being used by the really bad guys?

To answer those questions, we decided to ask novelists Michael Connelly and George Dawes Green. But, darn. Neither of those authors was in our Outlook phone directory. Go figure.

Amazon’s Sneak Peek

So, we had to turn to Amazon.com’s special feature called “Search Inside This Book” (also known sometimes as “Look Inside This Book,” but we digress):

For instance, let’s use this Amazon search feature on Mr. Connelly’s super-scary book, The Scarecrow. Type in the word “LinkedIn” and it will make you more than pause:

What did Michael Connelly’s stalker find out about his young prey by visiting her LinkedIn page? He learned her dog’s name, her favorite band and the name of her favorite pizza hangout. Indeed, here’s this exceedingly dangerous criminal musing on the naïveté of his victim:

“They believed they could bare their souls on the Internet, post photos and information at will, and not expect any consequences.”

We won’t tell you what happens or what other dangers lurk in this masterful mystery. But we will tell you that:

“He was circling her and she didn’t even know it.”

…by Mr. Green, with a MySpace, on the Internet

Use Amazon.com’s “Search Inside” method to get inside George Dawes Green’s compelling new book, Ravens, and a chillingly similar message unfolds.

In this case, Green’s stalker finds his prey’s pictures (and more) on MySpace. Those pages reveal that his intended victim has a very close relationship with her grandmother – closer even than with her mother. He also learns the victim’s age, devotion to Johnny Depp and her favorite bands. Using that information he…. but, we promise not to ruin the story.

The Friends of Your Friends

If you read either of these two books, my guess is you’ll head right to your privacy settings on MySpace (or Facebook, or LinkedIn).

Better yet, buy both of these books for the young people in your life. No, young people don’t know everything about the Internet. You just think they do.

If you’re younger, buy both of these books for the old codgers in your life. They’re on Facebook and LinkedIn these days even more than you are – but they usually have no idea how vulnerable they are.

Sure, your friends are all wonderful folks. But, what about the friends of their friends? Can they see the photos and private information that you post? Usually, unless you’ve been very careful – the answer is “yes.”

Are you and your family at risk when you post information to social networking sites? Just ask George Dawes Green and Michael Connelly. Or, better yet, read these books – and then decide for yourself.

The thing is, he didn’t do it on purpose – he got it from Facebook. In fact, he got it from one of his other Facebook friends who he knew would never send him anything nasty either.

A Lot More Dangerous Than You Think

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all under constant attack, not just from spammers, but from smart, seedy, and even violent criminals.

While you might think this sort of thing is just a pain in the rear end, it’s not. It’s a real threat to your, your family and your business.

The USA Today article pictured above tells the story of Alice and her Facebook buddy:

“With a click of her mouse, Alice let the attackers usurp control of her Facebook account and company laptop. Later, they used Alice’s company logon to slip deep inside the financial firm’s network, where they roamed for weeks. They had managed to grab control of two servers, and were probing deeper, when they were detected.”

You’d Be Fooled Too

We’re all pretty savvy now when it comes to email spam. We know our bank is not really asking us to verify our account and we know SusieQue is not really hot for our body.

But, on Facebook, it’s our trusted friends who send these messages. In my case, because Tim has a band I just figured his link would connect me to a video of one of his songs, or maybe an upcoming concert. Wrong!

When I clicked the link, my computer went nuts and warned me that  cyber-zomboid bots from evil lands were trying to take it over. I still don’t know how badly it’s been infected (read the USA Today article pictured above and it will scare the pants off you).

The Trust Issue

Tim, of course, is mortified. But, it’s more than that. As Gene Leganza said in our recent post, Twitter Spam – Your Friends are Innocent:

“What really bugs me about it is that it made me an unwitting agent of spam. It impacted my followers’ trust in me.”

For Tim, trust is his band’s most precious asset. Just think about who follows his Facebook Fan Page:

“The thing of it is, Michael, many of my Facebook  friends are important music business contacts, and that business is built on trust. Anything that damages it could endanger my livelihood.”

Get a Clue, Facebook

This trust issue is why we are so critical of Facebook. They are dealing with this explosion of spam, crime and personal assaults on their site by stonewalling.

They simply ask us to trust them. We don’t, and you shouldn’t. It’s not enough for a Facebook spokesperson to say:

“We are constantly working to improve complex systems that quickly detect and block suspicious activity…”

We’d never stand for that kind of namby-pamby response from a politician after a terrorist attack. We’d demand swift and specific action that would protect us.

Facebook doesn’t seem engaged or concerned. They never send warnings and they don’t connect or respond to their customers in any meaningful way. This is a social network, isn’t it?!!

And, worst of all, sites like these are being given a free-pass from the hoards of social media gurus and pitchmen who act exclusively as cheerleaders. Almost no one holds up a hand and says “wait a minute.”

You better believe that Tim Champlin now says “Wait a minute.” You might want to, too.

Yes, Cinde Dolphin might make it big in her new endeavor, chronicled in that NY Times article, The Job You Make. But, what happens to those entrepreneurs, store owners, consultants, speakers, inventors and other risk takers when they don’t make it big – and have to (ugh) get a job again?

Yesterday I got a text message from an old friend who is nearing retirement. After working in corporate America for about 13 centuries, he told me he’s now ready to branch out on his own and “find my passion.” My response was simply, “I’d rather find my paycheck again.”

It’s in the Water

What happens when you follow your dream, and then find out that your dream didn’t follow you back? Too often (and these stories never make the New York Times), you squander your 401K, max-out your impossibly high interest rate credit cards and pay millions of dollars supporting your health care coverage habit. Don’t ask us how we know.

I don’t know if he invented the term, but UC Santa Cruz professor Robert W. Fairlie points out that there are a lot more “necessity entrepreneurs” when the economy is bad. (Dr. Fairlie sort of wrote the book (or at least the PDF) about individuals creating businesses in his “Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity.”) 

“Necessity entrepreneurs,” then, are those folks who get laid off of often high-paying jobs and then decide to try speaking, consulting, stand-up comedy or other death-defying gambits.

But, as you can see in the screen shot above, some necessity entrepreneurs now find themselves looking longingly at those regular paychecks of yore.

Who You Gonna’ Call?

You know what comes next, right? Yes, we thought we’d do a little research, send some emails and place a few phone calls to try to find out what’s going on – and then report it faithfully here.

We thought we’d follow some current job searchers and report on their tactics, strategies and mental breakdowns. Our interview line-up looks something like this (we reserve the right to change it without notification):

• New Job Searchers
• Frustrated Job Searchers
• Internet Job Experts
• Old-Fashioned Job Experts
• A Recruiter (or two)
• Some HR Big Wigs
• And anyone else we choose….

Where You Gonna’ Look?

Along the way, we’ll reach out and try to separate the truth from the bunk about how Internet and social networking sites can help your job search, what kinds of strategies are best and what you can do to keep from jumping off a bridge if you don’t find employment right away.

We won’t, of course, be able to resist showing you a few Internet research tricks that might help:

But, that’s just what we do. It’s called Internet research and we’re pretty sure it will lead us to some interesting people and great ideas along the way.

We’ve written a lot about Timothy Bishop and the Ellensburg, Washington Downtown Association, and how they’ve been fighting the good fight to revitalize their shopping district. The most recent was “Associations that Truly Associate,” about how they use MySpace, Facebook and Twitter to get the message out.

Dark Clouds on the Horizon

Well, now Ellensburg (and Kitsap and Gig Harbor and Port Townsend and tons of other small communities in Washington state) are all facing a huge challenge. They are facing a complete cutoff of their funding.

It’s sort of predictable. Times being what they are, there really is a big crunch when it comes to how states will spend the money they don’t have (just ask California).

But small communities, cities and ‘burbs of Washington are fighting back by tweeting, Facebooking, and MySpacing in order to reach the folks who hold the purse strings – the state legislature. And, it seems to be working.

They found the support of two state Representatives, Dean Takko and Bill Hinkle (one Democrat and one Republican), to sponsor a bill to save Main Street programs. Just shows you what those folks can do when they work together.

The result was a 91-7 vote in favor of the bill in the House. Now, though, it heads on to the Senate – and that’s a tougher sell.

Gonna’ Bet Against Them?!!

Where does your money go when it’s spent on buying up car companies and propping up the big banks? I know, sometimes it seems to go to bigger and bigger bonuses for the even bigger doofuses who created the mess in the first place. And, you might not be wrong.

But, guess what? The money spent on small communities and their bedrock businesses pays you back many times over – creating 11,810 jobs and 3,721 new or expanded businesses in Washington State alone. Not bad! Timothy Bishop tells us that every dollar spent in downtown renovation multiplies around 100 times in private investment.

Which is why you’ll find Timothy working the streets, the back rooms in Olympia and typing away on his social media pages – carrying the message. There are good ways for the legislature to spend your money – and this is one of them.

By the way, that article we mentioned at the top of this blog post? It said:

“Grassroots efforts to save the Washington State Main Street Program are generating bipartisan support among legislators during the 2010 legislative session.”

Nice job, Timothy, and all the other folks who are rallying around investing your money – instead of spending it.

As we explained in that post, MyWedding.com is moving its corporate headquarters to Castle Rock, Colorado. These days, that’s not such a big deal because Internet companies are global, not local.

However, even the good folks at an online Internet company aren’t virtual – they’re real people. And, they will be hiring real people in the area. They’ll also be interested in developing some close-by businesses relationships with those both inside and outside the wedding industry.

Did we forget customers?! MyWedding’s customer base may well be global, but the nearby customers they can actually rub shoulders with may become their most ardent advocates.

Search Locally, Think Globally

And that’s why they will want to search Twitter locally. In order to do that, they’ll want to go to the “Advanced Search” tab of Search.Twitter.com:

Here, they can search for any terms they might find useful in order to connect to Twitter members near Castle Rock. (they’ll want to search within 100 miles of Castle Rock, what is called “The Front Range” around here – all the nearby burbs, including Denver, Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs).

Using “Advanced Search,” we’ll do a search for the words “wedding” and “planning” within 100 miles of Castle Rock. You can see the result in the picture at the beginning of this article (you should do the search yourself just to get warmed up), but here’s the fill-in the blanks part that got us there:

Certainly, the gurus at MyWedding know their business and their needs much better than Sheryl and I ever could. But, even by using the most rudimentary search terms, we can turn up some surprisingly interesting contacts who might turn into new customers, vendors, partners or employees.

Nearby Wedding Planner

One of the tweets from someone who lives near Castle Rock (and includes both of our search terms) was from @DebbieOrwat. She is the owner and lead wedding consultant at savetheDate! Events.

Debbie’s got over a thousand followers, offers a profile, web link and her real name. That kind of transparency is crucial to evaluating a potential Twitter contact. As we’ve said, there are a lot of shady characters out there, but she and her company look pretty good.

She also happens to write a blog, so the folks at MyWedding.com might convince her to blog about them or partner with them in some other way. Regardless, she’s a legitimate wedding-related contact who lives near their new offices.

Potential Customer

Another Twitter member who mentioned both the words “wedding” and “planning” in a recent tweet is @kaneil. She doesn’t work for a wedding related company, but she has been mentioning (quite charmingly) her upcoming wedding and what it’s doing to her!

This is the kind of search that companies of all kinds are using to generate qualified leads. In this case, @kaneil might be interested in using MyWedding.com – especially those parts of the site that will help her organize and plan her wedding.

What About Keyshia Cole and Ryan Seacrest?

At first, it looked like our search was going to lead to a couple of celebrity weddings. Nope, because no matter what search terms you use, you’re gonna’ haul in some pretty shady stuff.

It looked like someone was re-tweeting Ryan Seacrest talking about his upcoming wedding. But, the newbie who “re-tweeted” that message seems to have invented it herself. Or, perhaps she has a thing for Ryan.

And, even though Ms. Cole has announced her upcoming wedding, there is no way to tell which, if any, of the many Keyshia Coles on Twitter are the real Keyshia Cole (a common problem on Twitter, only sometimes solved by their “Verified Account” insignia).

Keep it Complicated, Stupid

All this just means that MyWedding.com can find some great connections, but it is going to have to be pretty savvy to avoid the junk.

One way to do that is for them to target their search terms with very specific phrases or combinations of words that fit their needs and industry.

The other way, as we have seen here, is to search a much smaller geographic area. A search for the word “wedding” in Twitter would overwhelm. But, a search for the phrase “my wedding” within 100 miles of their new home office, well, now that’s another story.

There’s More to the Story

Even better? Any of these searches (even the radius location ones) can be turned into alerts that can land in your RSS reader, email or Google desktop.

(But, that’s another article – so, stay tuned).

Let’s take a recent example of some Colorado business news that might have caught your attention. The Castle Rock (Colorado) Economic Development Council just announced that MyWedding.com, a Seattle and Portland based business, will locate its corporate headquarters in their fair city.

Pretty cool news if you live in Colorado, operate a wedding oriented business, or even if you’re just looking for some positive news about the economy.

And, let’s say you’d like to see if Twitter could help you network with some of the folks related to this business story. Perhaps you’re a job hunter, a wedding vendor, or, heck, simply wanna’-be-journalists like us.

Search Twitter Like a Pro

By now, if you read this blog (Just the Guy We Need, Going Next Door for a Drink), you know you have to start your search, not on Twitter, but at their sister-search site, Search.Twitter.com. And, you likely know that you should search for:

mywedding.com colorado

That way, you’ll find anyone who has tweeted a message that includes both the words, “mywedding.com” and “colorado.”

But, here’s the problem. If you do this search, you’ll quickly see that the Twitter River is now a polluted stream, indeed. Many of the people who tweeted or re-tweeted this story are either wannabes, fruitcakes or auto-tweeters. Yes, it’s true, they now offer automatic re-tweeting programs. Ugh.

So, Look Elsewhere

The amazing thing is, you’ll find better connections by simply targeting your search terms more specifically to something like:

mywedding.com “castle rock”

Isn’t that amazing? By adding more specific terms, your results turn up no pollution and offer you five potentially cool people, companies or organizations:

Design Works – a floral supply company, specializing in weddings.

Mike Reid – a designer at the Colorado Springs Business Journal

Christian Eppers – an economic gardening expert in Highlands Ranch

Nicole McGee – of the very intriguing Colorado Stem Network

The Metro Denver Economic Development Commission

Twitter Really Can Handle That

Finally, isn’t it remarkable that while Twitter experts abound, almost none of them teach you even a smidgeon of proper etiquette?

When you refer to someone in a Twitter message, it’s best to refer to them by their Twitter handle. That provides a link and it alerts them to the fact that they were mentioned (which gives them a chance to thank you back).

In the case of MyWedding.com, their Twitter handle is “@myweddingdotcom.”

So, try your search terms combined with their handle, instead of their company name. In this case:

@myweddingdotcom colorado

@myweddingdotcom “castle rock”

@myweddingdotcom jobs

The results will show fewer goofballs and more savvy and experienced Twitter users, like the Oxford and Curtis hotels in the example below. We’re thinking these hotels host a few weddings on occasion, huh?

Yes, it’s still possible to fish for important contacts in “Twitter River” with your ole search fishing pole. But, it does take a little more work. Give it a try with better bait and let us know what your next catch looks like.

Yes, we just found yet another social media “expert” pitching the idea of an “Auto-Follow” program. These programs let you automatically follow anyone who follows you on Twitter

Not a good idea. If the latest round of Twitter spam attacks proved anything, it was that you MUST NOT do that.

And, Now Your Computer Can Be Hacked

It’s bad enough that otherwise smart people have all bragged to us, “I have 2,000 followers on Twitter and I’ve never even used it much.”

No they don’t! If they have 2,000 followers on Twitter, they have 1,800 porn linkers, swindlers, multi-level marketing goofballs, foreign gangsters and outright spammers.

The numbers are so high that people who are paying attention are leaving Twitter in droves. Why? Because Twitter can’t even oust the accounts that are stealing legitimate brands, like Wordpress.

Pictured below are some of the followers of one of the top speakers in the country. She’s been sold a bill of goods because she thinks she is following people of some worth. But, she’s now following:

Don’t laugh. If you use any sort of auto-follow system, you’ll find that you are now following the same kinds of bozos. Just take a look.

The sad fact is that these days 9 out of 10 people who join Twitter are unsavory types of one kind or another – pornographers, swindlers, used car salesmen types and outright spammers.

Go ahead and keep playing around, if you like. Keep thinking that Twitter is some sort of way to make professional connections.

Nope. It’s become simply a way for so-called “Twitter Experts” to deprive you of something even more important than your money. Your time.

Oh, By the Way

Of course, staying away from auto-follow programs only protects you from following bozos. It doesn’t do anything about the folks who follow you. Here are our latest 3 followers on Twitter:

Oh gosh, I sure as heck can’t wait to follow them back!

The fact is, if you like being cornered by veggie pill marketers, used car salesmen or escaped convicts, you’re gonna’ love Twitter.