Yes, the gorgeous and brand new Talking Stick Resort (and did we mention a casino?) (oh, and did we mention a 36-hole Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore Golf Club?) is literally smack-dab across the street from the new spring training home of both the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

How do we know that the Talking Stick property is gorgeous? Well, a few months ago, before the hotel was even open for business, Sheryl and I got an inside tour from Revenue Manager, Brian Uttley. That was when we stood on the top floor, looked out over The Salt River Fields and gasped. I almost could have thrown a stone and hit home plate (well, before my rotator cuff surgery, anyway).

Not to put too fine a point on it, let’s just say that this resort is not yet common knowledge to most Rockies fans in the Denver area.

So, while the Rockies fans begin to re-calibrate their hopes and dreams toward next spring, it’s a perfect time for Talking Stick Resort to start connecting with them (and getting them to book a room).

Let’s Call them Twidiots

The good folks at Talking Stick can (and do) use Twitter to connect to their customers and fans (@TS_Resort). However, it doesn’t matter anymore whether you are an established business, a famous country western singer or a struggling entrepreneur – the Twidiots are after you.

Yes, you will be followed by @JayJayJayJay – who has tweeted exactly twice (and that was back in May). You will be followed by @LovelyHealer, who runs a legit business and is trying hard, but no one follows her back. And, you will be stalked by @GazillionDollars, who promises you money for nothin’ and your clicks for free.

And, every one of these yo-yo’s will likely be following way more people than are stupid enough to follow them (the picture below show’s that @JayJayJayJay (not his real name) is following 556 poor souls while only 14 have been dumb enough to return the favor.

And you don’t have to be a genius to conclude that none of those 14 will be likely to book a room at Talking Stick Resort next March. And, you don’t have to be a genius to understand that when a good portion of your followers on Twitter are dopes – then your Tweets are actually are falling in the forest… and nobody will hear.

But what’s worse (and you knew that had to come, didn’t you?!) is that @LovelyHealer and @GazillionDollars (but not, as we have seen, @JayJayJayJay!) are tweeting away like crickets. And those tweets have polluted the Twitter search stream into a mucky sludge. And, that has made connecting with potential customers and influential partners on Twitter a Herculean task.

Search Me – Just Don’t Search Twitter

Yes, you used to be able to search terms like “Colorado Rockies” and “spring training” and find some earnest and influential Twitterers making reference to those terms. They’d likely be worth connecting with.

But now, even sophisticated Twitter searches turn up mostly Jujubes and fruitcakes, who are re-tweeting and regurgitating away.

We’ve written about Twitter radius searches in “Just the Guy We Need for Government 2.0,” about combining search terms in new and different ways in “Searching Twitter Gets Tougher, but Still Pays Off” and many more posts too numerous to link to.

The problem now is that even these kinds of searches turn up so much sludge that it’s made searching Twitter a kind of needle-in-the-haystack horror.

What’s a Talking Stick to Do?

Today, how can Talking Stick Resort connect to the true influencers on Twitter (and those that can help them book their rooms)?

Even though Twitter is now so polluted that finding the most influential and engaged Twitter members has become damn near impossible – it’s not IMPOSSIBLE.

The secret is in that word, “engaged.” Not the ones with the most followers. Not the ones with the most Tweets. But, the ones who most engage and connect with their own audience.

What is the secret? Well, we’ll tell you very soon – as soon as we call Brian Uttley and tell him first (to pay him back for his great preview tour of Talking Stick).

In the meantime – ring Talking Stick up and reserve your room for March Baseball Madness. Those Rockies WILL rise again!

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.

Google, in it’s wisdom, has decided that you can just take your crummy search words and shove them.

While writing a previous post about Facebook’s own insanities, I was looking for like-minded writers on the Internet. It’s common to do this sort of search. The most famous example is to put in a company’s name and then add the word, “sucks.” (Don’t look at me like that – we all know you’ve done it).

Watch Closely – This Affects You

What Facebook did made me want to barf, but you’ll notice in the screen shot below that Google (in it’s infinite wisdom) figured I really meant “bar” – and gave me that in every single result:

The only problem? I didn’t mean “bar” – I meant “barf.” I actually had to change my search and treat my word like a phrase (by putting quotes around the word) in order to get the results I was looking for:

Notice that Google’s first idiot results numbered 767,000, compared to the correct 4,320. Isnt’ that enough to make you crazy?

The Queen of Search

I went out looking for help with this one and called on someone who knows (and I mean really knows). Tara Calishain is the author of “Google Hacks” and earlier this year she had written Google Localizes Google Suggest, “Improves” Spelling Suggestions:

Say I’m searching for Carolynn. There are plenty of people named Carolynn. However, there are more people named Carolyn and Google will a) suggest that as the correct spelling and b) put Carolyns in my search results.

Which is just completely nuts. It’s not only nuts, but other than Tara, no one is writing about this or complaining about it! Even Tara is a bit too gracious and generous, calling it Google’s “well-meaning results.”

In response to my fulminations, she wrote back:

Hi Michael. This is Google thinking it knows what you want to search for better than you do.

Yahoo and Bing and Ask, Oh My!

So, Google thinks it knows better.

There must be something in the tech water. People with lots of specialized and abstruse knowledge drink it and it makes them arrogant and stupid.

Mark Zuckerberg drinks it regularly. AOL binged on it for years and finally ended up face down in the gutter. But, you’d never think Google would succumb to the same kind of temptation. Until now.

Thank goodness Bing, Ask and Yahoo are not following Google. I’m moving my search business over to someone who cares what I’m looking for and trusts that I know what I’m doing. I’m going to bet others will be following fairly soon.

Sell your Google stock now.

You Have a Friend in the Facebook Business

Honestly, I don’t really know Mark Zuckerberg all that well. I mean, we’re not “Friends,” or anything (for those of you without a scorecard, he’s the head guy over at Facebook).

I do know that trusting Mark to fix privacy controls is like trusting BP’s Tony Hayward to insist upon safe oil drilling procedures in the Gulf. Not really his strong suit.

In the past few weeks, Mark and his cronies have yet again gotten themselves mired in deep, squishy cow-flop by making more raucously stupid decisions about your safety and privacy.

Oh, you mean just like the one where they thought broadcasting what you buy online to all your friends was a good idea? Yup.

Oh, you mean like when they declared that all your photos and stuff on Facebook belonged to them if you leave? Yup.

Now, here we are again. Another firestorm of protest as Facebook decides to spread your stuff all over the Internet. And, one more time, Zuckerberg is sweating it out and re-thinking his position (was there ever any thinking in the first place?!)

Here’s what I’m thinking. It’s impossible to calculate how just how grave the danger is when corporate America is run by video game-playing snots like this guy.

Sing along, then, with me (and Eric), as we move on:

I don’t care what you do at night oh
I don’t care how you get your delights
We’ll leave it alone
We’ll just let it be
I don’t love you and you don’t love me.

Back to Those Fan Pages

Yes, I’ve became a “Fan” on Facebook of a few of my friends and business acquaintances. These were called “Fan Pages.” (Clever, huh?) Then, in the blink of an eye, I guess I started to “Like” them. Who knew?!

Now? I’ve decided not to “Like” anyone or be a “Fan” of anyone, period.

The “Like Button” nonsense has gotten totally out of hand. It’s all one big giant morass of marketing voodoo and privacy violations.

Wired Magazine’s Ryan Singel (”Facebook’s Gone Rogue)” says:

“Then there’s the new Facebook “Like” button littering the internet. It’s a great idea, in theory — but it’s completely tied to your Facebook account, and you have no control over how it is used. (No, you can’t like something and not have it be totally public.)”

And, as Singel points out, there’s a Facebook Fan Page (Facebook Like Page?!) for every word and phrase in the universe. Whether it’s “My Boss is Crazy,” “existentialism,” “putrid” or “cursive,” there’s a page for it.

How Could We Know that Promises End?

It makes me feel just like The Blogger Also Known as @Snipeyhead. Recently she commented back on one of her own blog posts about Facebook Fan Pages:

Every time I try to sit down and write about the privacy crap they’ve recently pulled, I feel physically tired.

Which is exactly how I feel. I’m tired of trying to keep up with the changes on Facebook. I’m tired of people I don’t know suggesting that I should “Like” their twaddle. I’m tired of the exploitation that Facebook wrangles out of my private likes and dislikes. I’m just plain tired.

So, it comes down to this. I still like all of you. I really do. I just don’t “Like” any of you, anymore. Especially you, Zuckerberg.

In our scientific study of hundreds of thousands of Twitter interactions (well, ok, maybe it was an unscientific study and only included a bunch of our tweets, but….), we are sad to report some disturbing trends:

• Responses to @Messages have gone down a shocking 55% over the last year.
• Even worse, responses to DM Messages have dropped 73.3% in that year.
• Most troubling of all, though, Thank You Responses have plunged a shocking 193% in just 12 months.

These figures had better make you stop in your tracks and rush right over to the @Message and DM Message Links on your Twitter account.

No Excuses, Please

Oh, sure, we can hear you saying:

• “I don’t have time to write back to people.”
• “I’m too important to interact with the doofusses on Twitter.”
• “Lots of my DM messages are spam.”

You know what? If you don’t have time to respond – you’re just another “Bombastic Blatherer,” the fastest growing and largest single group on Twitter (don’t ask us for the statistics).

If Chris Can Do It

Over the past week, we’ve been ignored by the mighty and the meek. We’ve had DM messages sit like lonely hitchhikers on the Bridge to Nowhere. We’ve had @Messages die certain, agonizing deaths. And, while some folks say thank-you, most of you don’t (and you know who you are!)

But, you know what? Real social networking takes time. Time to interact and time to respond and even time to thank people.

Chris Brogan has well over 136,000 followers on Twitter. I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me, but I’ve @messaged Chris exactly twice this past year. Both times he acknowledge my tweet by responding.

So, Back to Janet

We opened this article with a screen shot of Janet Betschart thanking the folks who answered her question about Outlook. My German isn’t very good, but it’s good enough to know she was thanking those folks. Or, you could use Google Translate:

In fact, if you want to know whether a particular person is getting feedback on their Tweets – just go to Search.Twitter.com and put in that person’s handle with the @ symbol in front of it. You’ll find out who has real followers who is simply whistling Twixie.

When we did this for Janet, even though she doesn’t have hundreds of thousands of followers, five or six folks answered her question right away:

And then Janet took the time to thank them, right in front of Twitter and everyone.

What can I tell you? Thanking people and responding to them are now as endangered as the waterfowl in the Gulf of Mexico. The current out-pouring of icky, black, Bombastic Blather is turning the Gulf of Twitter into a giant self-serving swamp.

You can help clean it up. Just write back.

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 press is oh so fond of focusing on the numbers and percentages of unemployment – and this repetition of gruesome statistics can demoralize even the most dedicated job searcher.

The deflating result is that we begin to think, “How will I ever get the kind of job that will fulfill me?”

The Opposite Problem

Consider this. There are tons of unfilled jobs in this country. The challenge is to put the right people, with the right skills, into those jobs.

Sounds easy, right? And, in this age of computer databases and 1/10th-of-a-second Google searches, what could possibly be the problem? Obviously, technology is the answer, right?

“Putting Folks to Work”

Well, maybe not. Say hello to Michelle Diaz. Her job is, as she herself describes it, “putting folks to work.” She doesn’t work for the government. She’s doesn’t work for a non-profit. She works for a company that actually makes money putting YOU in the right job.

Michelle is the Regional Vice President for Spherion Staffing Services. She covers four states and any number of local offices that generate 75 million real live American job-placement dollars.

Motivational Job Hunting

The way Spherion makes its money (and keeps its investors happy – look for SFN on the New York Stock Exchange), is to help employers match the right people to the the right job openings. This matching process, it turns out, is only partly about skills.

When we talked to Michelle, she told us:

“We can interview for skills, but the right match is mostly about getting to the bottom of the question of motivation.” 

And, guess what, it turns out that computers just aren’t all that good at plumbing your true motivations. It still takes people like Michelle, and the folks who work for her, to do that.

Don’t Beg Uncle Harry

So, if you are looking for a job, before fixing your résumé, before buying a new suit and even before calling up Uncle Harry at the factory, you need to get your head on straight.

What you need to know is that there ARE jobs and that companies ARE looking for you. You just need to find the right kind of agents who will not only match your skills, but also get to the bottom of your motivations.

That’s what we liked about Spherion. They “put folks to work.” And that has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Editors Note: As always on this blog, we do not accept referral or affiliate fees from any of the companies or resources we write about.

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.