Archive for the 'social media' Category

14
Apr
11

Things we like… Red Tettemer + Partners & Under Armour

By Gloria Bell Leave a Comment
Categories: business and social media
Tags: , , , , , ,

The team at Red Stapler Consulting knows what we like and what we believe in.  One of the things we like to do is share.   In that spirit, we have decided to start a semi-regular series sharing things we find that highlight some of the things we like and believe in.

So what are some things we like?

Passion blended with creativity

Things that help businesses grow

Things that bring communities together

Things that help people

And the candle on this birthday cake of goodness – Effective uses of social media that do any or all of those things.

The inaugural entry in our Things We Like series is a campaign developed by the creative masters at Red Tettemer + Partners.  They have hit a trifecta!  A social media campaign that is creative, is helping a business (their client) grow and is helping people (college students).  Check out the Under Armour Ultimate Intern Team program.

Does it get better than this?  Simple, clean, straightforward, fun and giving a few lucky college students the opportunity to have “the most memorable summer of your life.”   It reaches the demographic where they like to communicate – on Facebook.  It is fun without being goofy.  It is intriguing. It tells you what you need to know, but holds back just enough to make us want to fill out the application to find out more and get to have the fun they are promising.  And it is all wrapped up in a solid marketing principles.

Definitely a +1 in the Things We Like category.  Head on over to Facebook and give them a Like – They deserve it!

09
Sep
10

Philly “BloggerGate”

By Gloria Bell 1 Comment
Categories: business and social media
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Last night I attended the “Bloggergate” Happy Hour where city officials tried to answer questions and provide explanations of the current city tax regulations and how they are applied to members of the creative economy and freelancers.  There is an excellent writeup on the Phillyist site, so I am not going to summarize everything that was discussed.

I posed a question that seemed to be on the minds of many of the local bloggers I know -
The current Philadelphia revenue regulations require that anyone conducting business and receiving revenue in the city of Philadelphia is required to have a Business Privilege License.  An issue that arose among the blogger community is not the requirement to have the license and pay taxes on actual income.  The issue is the “recreational” blogger who does not blog for income.  They may place an ad on their site and charge just enough to cover hosting and domain renewal costs.  They are now being told because they receive revenue (the payment for ad placement) that they are a business and are required to have the Business Privilege License and pay taxes.  Obviously because it is a break-even financial arrangement, they will not owe any taxes, however, they are now being required to buy the Business Privilege License which likely amounts to much more than the amount they are charging for their blog ads.  Is this issue being looked into?

The city indicated that, because of situations exactly like this one, they are looking into the relevancy and applicability of the Business Privilege License.  They made no promises that change would come, but they are considering options.   They genuinely seemed to have had their eyes opened to some of the differences in conducting business in this new creative economy.   That the old ways of regulation and collecting taxes have to be re-evaluated to better apply to how a large majority now do business.  It is a start.

Several other freelancers and business owners asked questions and expressed their frustration with the current tax system and the complexity of starting a business in Philadelphia.  To the city officials credit, they listened and did their best to explain the current system.  The city gets props for showing up on “our” (the tech community’s) turf, National Mechanics (as opposed to say a stuffy room in City Hall), for listening to the questions and complaints and for, at least appearing to, trying to understand the issues and questions.  No one got the answers they wanted last night, but anyone who came expecting instant results was being unrealistic.   As I said to KYW’s Robin Culverwell,

“The fact that they called this meeting tonight, they’re willing to come out, they’re willing to take questions of any kind is a positive step forward.”

28
Jul
10

Top 10 Philly Influencers on Twitter?

By Gloria Bell 13 Comments
Categories: social media
Tags: , , , ,

I want to preface this post with this disclaimer – I LOVE the guys at Technically Philly.  They are smart wonderful people who are doing great things for Philadelphia and its tech community and I support them 100%.  If you are not reading Technically Philly, you should be!  Just one of the truly great things about all of the guys at Technically Philly is they are open-minded.  If someone does not agree with them, they quickly and willingly reach out to find out why and are open to lively, respectful debate.

While it is not the first time and I am sure will not be the last, Technically Philly, I respectfully disagree with you.

On 7/27/2010 Technically Philly contributed an article to their partner, Philly Mag’s section The Philly Post – ” Philadelphia’s 10 Most Influential Twitter Users“.  The premise of the article was their view of not who the are the most followed Philly Twitter users but who are the “must-follows”.  As a Technically Philly reader, an active member of Philly’s tech and social media communities and a self-admitted Twitter addict, I was intrigued.  Till I read their list.  Of the 10 people on the list there is 1 musician, 1 techie, 1 serial entrepreneur, 1 athlete and 6 newspeople/journalists. While I don’t disagree that the people on their list are influential.  I follow almost all of them myself, but to consider them the 10 MOST influential Philadelphians on Twitter.  I don’t think so.  Technically Philly and I have different definitions of influence as evidenced by our Twitter convo on the subject -

GloriaBell: @TechnicallyPHL I found it interesting that a news magazine picked primarily news people as the most influential – really?
TechnicallyPHL: @gloriabell Who do you think we missed?
GloriaBell: @TechnicallyPHL I guess who you may have missed depends on your definition of influence. I don’t consider news ppl as the only influencers
GloriaBell: @TechnicallyPHL IMHO There are a lot of influencers as defined by ppl making things happen in Philly as opposed to just reporting it
To be clear, I am not defining influence by numbers (most followers) or interaction (amount of time/effort put into interacting with their Twittersphere).  My basic definition of influence is rooted in how many people you touch on and off line, how many people you help, how many people not only listen to what you say, but are moved to action by your words – whether those words are on Twitter, some where else online or offline and mostly by whether you are, at least in part, using your Twitter interactions to help make things happen in our wonderful city.
But here is my quandary – How to answer the question that Technically Philly posed to me – “Who do you think we missed?”   I know that I disagree with their list, but to name who I consider the top 10 – I am at a loss.  I can think of so many people who are part of the Philly Twitter community that I consider influencers for different reasons that it would be difficult for me to name a “top 10″.  So I leave you with the same question – Who would you name as your top 10 Philly Twitter influencers?
18
Feb
10

Upcoming Events 2-18-2010 Edition

By Gloria Bell 1 Comment
Categories: Events and social media
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

(Disclaimer: This is not a comprehensive list. There are many more events occurring throughout the city and I encourage you to locate and attend the ones that appeal to you.  These are just some of the events for the organizations that I am involved with.  If you need help locating an event, please let me know and I’ll try and point you in the right direction.)

February 22 – M.A.P.P.  (Making a Progressive Philadelphia) Happy Hour – Making A Progressive Philadelphia (MAPP) hopes to give out 20 grants – totaling $20,000! – this year throughout the city of Philadelphia. We can only do this with your help!  …and join us on Monday, February 22nd, from 4-7pm, at CANTINA DOS SEGUNDOS (931 N. 2nd Street). The Cantina will donate 20% of Happy Hour proceeds to MAPP!   (@phillymapp)

February 23 - PANMA – 5:30 – 8:30 pm  3711 Market Street, 8th Floor  – Mobile App Development DeMystified – a look at what it takes to develop mobile apps for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and more (as well as a brief look at designing & optimizing regular web sites for the next generation of mobile browsers).  (@panma)

February 24 – SMC Philly - 6:00 – 8:00 pm  Jolly’s Dueling Piano Bar, 2006 Chestnut Street – “Digital Love” – Shmitten Kitten’s own Anna Goldfarb will be leading a discussion on dating and social media.  (@smcphilly)

February 24 – Philly Startup Leaders Fishbowl – 7:30 – 9:00 pm – UArts Terra Building, 211 S. Broad Street – Featured company, Technically Philly shares its plans for building a sustainable technology news site. (@startupleaders)

February 26 – Trend Camp – 6-9 pm Two Liberty Place, 32nd Floor, Offices of Buchanan, Ingersoll, and Rooney, 50 S. 16th St, Philadelphia – A user-generated conference where we explore What’s next. The community is the best tool available to predict, analyze, and create the future.  (@trendcamp)

March 2 – NetSquared – 6 – 9 pm Location TBD – “Social Media & Crisis Response”  This month’s Net Tuesday will be on “crisis response” (whether caused by nature or humans) and social media.  (@phlnet2)

March 3 - A Mad Tea Party at the Rosenbach Museum - The Rosenbach is toasting Lewis Carroll and his Alice books at a madcap tea party. Examine the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, meet Scott Hoyt, the director of the documentary, The Meaning of Tea, sample unique teas, and learn how to brew the perfect cup with Alexis Siemons, a local tea enthusiast and founder of the blog teaspoonsandpetals.com.  (@teaandpetals)

March 4 – Screening of The Meaning of Tea - 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm Tbar 117 South 12th Street – An exclusive screening and the opportunity to meet the filmmaker of the documentary The Meaning of Tea

March 8 – 140Conf Philly Meetup – (stay tuned for further details on venue, time and speakers)

March 10 – Philly Startup Leaders Happy Hour 6:30 – 9:30 pm – Midlantic Restaurant 3711 Market Street (@startupleaders)

March 11 – Coworking & Networking Day 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Tuscany Cafe 725 Walnut Street – This is a great way to network and work collaboratively with other Philly entreps and freelancers. Make new connections and learn more about coworking in Philadelphia. (@EntrepEntourage)

March 17 – Social Media TownHall 7:30 – 9:30 AM  The Hub at the Cire Center -  This program will focus on the high-level opportunities and challenges of social media, which will include a discussion about the human resources, legal, marketing and risk management aspects of social media.

March 25 - Twestival - Philadelphia  – Old City  (times & more details TBD)  Join us for Philly Twestival’s “Search for Concern” – a Bar Crawl Scavenger Hunt!  More details to be released soon. Twestival is a Global charity event held in hundreds of cities in the same 24 hour period to raise money and awareness for the same charity.  This year’s charity is Concern Worldwide.  (@phltwestival)

April 8 & 9 – Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise – Society Hill Sheraton  Discover what’s new and what’s next in enterprise technologies. ETE 2010 brings together pioneers across the spectrum to discuss the principles, practices, and products that are transforming IT’s ability to drive the success of the enterprise.

April 13 - Entrepreneur Expo 2010 – 6 – 9 pm  Hamilton Hall, University of the Arts – Innovation on Display   Join Philly Startup Leaders as we once again celebrate & show off the entrepreneurial spirit in Philadelphia!  (@eexpo)

April 14 – Createadelphia 10 am – 2 pm  Kimmel Center   This is the once-a-year chance for job seekers and employers in the creative industries to gather together to network and explore full-time and freelance opportunities.  (@innovationphila)

April 20 & 21 – 140Character Conference - The 92nd Street Y – Exploring the State of Now – This event is shaping up to being the largest worldwide gathering of people interested in the effects of the real-time Internet on both business and “we” the people.

May 1 - Marketing Camp Philly - Where online & offline marketers share, learn & grow – Interested in learning more or sponsoring?  Sign up here http://bit.ly/mktgcamp (@mktgcampphl)

May 25 – Social Media Plus Summit – Philadelphia Convention Center – learn and discuss the future development of social media and the technology related to it.  (@socialmediaplus)

Hope to see you at some of these events!

20
Jan
10

Upcoming Events 1-20-2010 Edition

By Gloria Bell Leave a Comment
Categories: business, Events and social media
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

(Disclaimer: This is not a comprehensive list. There are many more events occurring throughout the city and I encourage you to locate and attend the ones that appeal to you.  These are just some of the events for the organizations that I am involved with.  If you need help locating an event, please let me know and I’ll try and point you in the right direction.)

January 22 – PhillyChi Design Slam - Messagefirst, 230 N. 2nd Street, Suite 2C, Philadelphia  6 pm – 8:30pm   Contestants will participate in a fast-paced race to create the best design solution to a “made-up” real-world problem.

January 25 – Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic Demo Night - The Hub at Cira Centre, Philadelphia PA,  5:30PM – 8:30PM.  DEMO Night gives mobile-related businesses from the Mid-Atlantic region the chance to present their products, innovations or business ideas to an audience of local and national industry experts, entrepreneurs, investors and media.

January 26 – Social Media Club Philly January Meetup – Tritone 6:30 – 8:30 pm  Join SMC Philly for Happy Hour – Putting the Social in Social Media!  Bring an idea for a resolution or prediction for social media in 2010.

January 26 – The Innovators Club - Great American Pub, Conshohocken, PA  – Jim Worth, IT Director for Merck Research Labs, will share his insights about how enterprises are utilizing social media approaches within and beyond their four walls.

February 2 – NetSquared – February’s Net Tuesday will be a highly participatory event where a few “Social Changers” who are using — or trying to use — the social web for the common good will have the opportunity to tap into the skills, talent and experience of all attendees. (The Center City location will be announced shortly.)

February 3 – Delaware Tweetup – Gov. Jack Markell will be the guest of honor at our Feb. 3 tweetup.

February 26 – Trend Camp – Philadelphia (location and times TBD)  – A user-generated conference where we explore What’s next. The community is the best tool available to predict, analyze, and create the future.

March 25 – Twestival - Philadelphia (location, times & details TBD)  Twestival is a Global charity event held in hundreds of cities in the same 24 hour period to raise money and awareness for the same charity.  This year’s charity is Concern Worldwide.  Stay tuned for more info!

Also coming in Spring 2010 -

Marketing Camp Philly - Where online & offline marketers share, learn & grow – Interested in learning more or sponsoring?  Sign up here http://sn.im/mktgcamp

Entrepreneur Expo 2010 – Join Philly Startup Leaders as we once again celebrate & show off the entrepreneurial spirit in Philadelphia!

Hope to see you at some of these events!

09
Jan
10

Redefining social through a lesson learned

By Gloria Bell 2 Comments
Categories: social media
Tags: , ,

I posted this tweet yesterday afternoon -

“DO NOT call yourself a social media consultant, expert, guru, visionary – anything – if all you do is push out links & RT other ppl’s stuff”

To my surprise, I received a fair amount of negative feedback from my followers.  I was, rather harshly in some cases, admonished for “telling people how to use Twitter”.   I have to admit that the responses both hurt and made me angry, until I stopped to really think about them.

There is one clear truth when it comes to Twitter. We all use it for different reasons.  We all have different objectives, or in some cases, no objectives at all.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  Every social media platform should be used by each individual in the way they find most beneficial.  I realized that I was upset because the negative responses I received made it appear that I was trying to tell others how to use Twitter.  That was not my purpose and, unfortunately, 140 characters was not enough to explain. So, it was time to write a blog post.

What prompted my tweet was a series of new followers.  As I have explained in earlier posts, I carefully evaluate each new follower to decide if I am going to follow them back.  I want to make sure that the connections I make will be mutually beneficial.   I was aggravated by several new followers who, per their bios, were self-professed social media consultants, experts, gurus, visionaries, etc… , but when you read through their tweetstreams, they were comprised almost exclusively by links, retweets and self-promotional statements.   Go ahead and call me old-fashioned, but I still believe in the SOCIAL part of social media.  That if you are going to profess yourself an “expert” in this field, then you have to also believe its power is in its social aspect.  That means you don’t just talk to yourself.  That you understand it is not traditional push marketing.  That is a medium that allows us, possibly for the first times ever, as people and companies, to TALK to one another in larger numbers and on a wider reach.  When the supposed “experts” devalue the medium by using it to solely push information at others, I believe we all lose.  But, that is just me.  I may be alone in my thinking, I would love your comments and feedback to know if I am or not.

What I did find most valuable from these exchanges is the lesson I learned in the potential damage of a poorly worded tweet, status update, email, whatever the message form.  Failure to find a clear way to express our message or intention leaves open the possibility of misinterpretation and misunderstanding, as was the case with my tweet.   My critics apparently interpreted it much differently than it was intended.  My intent was never to tell anyone how to use Twitter, it was to express my frustration with the self-professed social media “experts” who have not embraced what I feel is the most important aspect – the social.

08
Jan
10

Upcoming Events – 1-8-2010 Edition

By Gloria Bell Leave a Comment
Categories: business, Events and social media
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

With the Holidays and end of the year hustle, I was a bit lax in keeping this post up to date, but with a new year, comes many new & exciting events in Philly.  Here once again is this week’s list of some of the fun, interesting, educational and exciting things I’ll be doing over the next few months.

(Disclaimer: This is not a comprehensive list. There are many more events occurring throughout the city and I encourage you to locate and attend the ones that appeal to you.  These are just some of the events for the organizations that I am involved with.  If you need help locating an event, please let me know and I’ll try and point you in the right direction.)

January 11 - Refresh Philly- Science on Tap at National Mechanics – 6 pm – Dr. Ernie Schuyler, Curator Emeritus of Botany, Academy of National Sciences presents “The Origin and Evolution of Beer”

January 12 – 140Conf Philly Meetup - National Mechanics 5 pm – 9 pm – An opportunity to discuss the emerging Real-Time Internet and the effects on business. A monthly gathering for friends of #140conf to get together and discuss issues of the day.

January 14 – Ladies Who Launch at Rittenhouse Women’s Wellness Center - 1632 Pine Street Philadelphia, PA 19106  5:30 pm – 7 pm  Learn about three excellent resources for women in one night!   You’re invited to Rittenhouse Women’s Wellness Center to meet this unique and highly talented group of practitioners along with other women in the community who either have their own business, are starting their own business, or have an idea percolating in the back of their minds to start one.  Learn more about the center from its medical director, Dr. Leslie Saltzman, talk with the directors of Philadelphia’s Ladies Who Launch market, and the dynamic team behind the Empowerment Group.

January 20 – Philly Startup Leaders Fishbowl - featuring Fwd:Vault

January 22 – PhillyChi Design Slam - Messagefirst, 230 N. 2nd Street, Suite 2C, Philadelphia  6 pm – 8:30pm   Contestants will participate in a fast-paced race to create the best design solution to a “made-up” real-world problem.

January 25 – Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic Demo Night - The Hub at Cira Centre, Philadelphia PA,  5:30PM – 8:30PM.  DEMO Night gives mobile-related businesses from the Mid-Atlantic region the chance to present their products, innovations or business ideas to an audience of local and national industry experts, entrepreneurs, investors and media.

January 26 – Social Media Club Philly January Meetup – Tritone 6:30 – 8:30 pm  Join SMC Philly for Happy Hour – Putting the Social in Social Media!  Bring an idea for a resolution or prediction for social media in 2010.

January 26 – The Innovators Club - Great American Pub, Conshohocken, PA  – Jim Worth, IT Director for Merck Research Labs, will share his insights about how enterprises are utilizing social media approaches within and beyond their four walls.

February 26 – Trend Camp – Philadelphia (location and times TBD)  – A user-generated conference where we explore What’s next. The community is the best tool available to predict, analyze, and create the future.

March 25 – Twestival - Philadelphia (location, times & details TBD)  Twestival is a Global charity event held in hundreds of cities in the same 24 hour period to raise money and awareness for the same charity.  This year’s charity is Concern Worldwide.  Stay tuned for more info!

Also coming in Spring 2010 -

Marketing Camp Philly - Where online & offline marketers share, learn & grow – Interested in learning more or sponsoring?  Sign up here http://sn.im/mktgcamp

Entrepreneur Expo 2010 – Join Philly Startup Leaders as we once again celebrate & show off the entrepreneurial spirit in Philadelphia!

Hope to see you at some of these events!


01
Jan
10

Glancing back but looking forward…

By Gloria Bell 1 Comment
Categories: social media

I was asked to write the end of the year post for Addicted to Social Media.   While trying to craft the post, the question I kept coming back to was “how social is your social media?”.  From those musings came this post, hope you enjoy and more importantly, I hope it makes you think.  —-

Happy New Year

As this year comes to a close and a new one dawns bright on the horizon, many are reflecting on the impact social media has had on our lives this past year, but what about the impact we have had on social media?

One of beautiful things about social media is that even though we can all have different definitions and experiences, they have one thing in common, the concept of community.  Whether it is a community of knitters connecting via a Ning group or the communities that big name companies are building on Twitter and Facebook to reach their customers, we are all drawn to the various forms of social media because of the promise of a community.  The promise that we will find others with whom we can share information, education, entertainment and a sense of kinship.  Whatever our views, education, interests or personalities may be, we know that somewhere in the vastness of the social media galaxy, deep in the internet universe we will find someone with whom to connect.

So the real question is, how social has your social media been this past year?  How have you built your community?  Have you let it come to you? Have you actively reached out to others?  Have you made the time investment, whether your purpose is business or pleasure, to not only build or join a community, but to be an active contributing member?  Are you happy just being an observer?  We talk often about “putting the social in social media”.  What have you done to be “social”?  Not everyone has to be a power tweeter, have thousands of Facebook friends or be a member of the most Meetup or Ning groups, but we do have to remember that the power in social media is in the Social.

Whether your community is made up of 2 or 10,000, we have an opportunity to reach beyond ourselves and our limited physical world and touch the lives of millions of others. Whether your aim is connecting with friends and family or building a billion dollar enterprise, we have the ability to spread a message faster and farther than ever.  So, what do we do with these opportunities?  Are we using the power of the social for good or evil? Are you solely self-centered and self-promotional or are you reaching out to others, sharing and helping?  How do you plan to use your social media super power in 2010?

Delicious
14
Sep
09

Twitter Tales

By Gloria Bell 1 Comment
Categories: social media
Tags: , , , , ,

For her blogaversary Conversation Agent, Valeria Maltoni, asked her readers to submit their Twitter Tales.  She asked us to “write a short post describing how a connection you made on Twitter, first, lead you to an opportunity and opened new horizons”.   While I have many, many Twitter tales of deep and lasting friendships and professional relationships that have developed from chance meetings on Twitter.  There are a few that stand out as examples of how small and connected our world truly has become and how wide we make it when we reach out to those we encounter on Twitter.

The first story occurred shortly after I joined Twitter.  I had become “pals” with a wonderful lady by the name of Kim (Haynes) Hollenshead (@kimhollenshed) who lived in Austin (I live in Philadelphia).  Kim and I had exchanged pleasantries and had some Twitter convos for a few months when she happened to Twitpic a photo of her new home.  I responded that it looked a lot like my father’s house north of Austin.  We chatted briefly about the area and the fact that I am originally from Texas.  During our Twitter exchange and telephone calls to our respective parents, we figured out that not only were our families from the same very small town but also that her uncle had been my father’s best friend all through school.  Two women that would never have met, had it not been for Twitter, have now become close friends and have brought our families back in touch after 30+ years.

Not only has Twitter opened doorways for me personally, allowing me to develop deep sincere friendships with people I would never have met, but it has also been a cornerstone of my professional development.  Every day on Twitter I learn something new.  Someone reaches me with information and knowledge.  They open my mind and stretch my imagination.  Being actively involved on Twitter led me to people like Beth Harte (@bethharte)  and Annie Heckenberger (@anniemal) who welcomed me with open arms into the social media world and Social Media Club Philadelphia.  These generous women who took time to teach me, mentor me and eventually encourage me to start my own social media consulting practice.

Twitter has touched me in multiple ways, personal and professional, and it has also touched my heart and my compassion.  My first couple hundred followers were the result of meeting Connie Reece (@conniereece) and Susan Reynolds (@susanreynolds) and becoming involved with the Frozen Pea Fund.  Twitter helped me find others who were as passionate about the fight against breast cancer as I am.  From these initial connections has grown my Twitter “family”, the people I laugh, cry and share triumphs and tragedies with.   Twitter’s involvement with my philanthropic side does not end there.

I first met Melissa Thiessen (@melitami) at PodCamp Philly 2008.  We shared a love of so many things, geeky and otherwise, we quickly became inseparable friends.  One of things that Melissa and I share is a belief that life is about giving back.  That we are not complete as human beings unless we are doing our best to help others.  Twitter has allowed us to live that belief in the form of Twestival.  When the announcement was made last year that they were recruiting volunteers from cities all over the globe to hold events that would raise money for charity:water, Melissa immediately stepped up to make sure that Philly was represented.  Knowing me the way she does, she never even had to ask if I wanted to participate, it was a given that I would be her partner in charity.  Together with a wonderful team of volunteers, we built Twestival Philadelphia.  On February 12, 2009 Twestival Philly joined 201 other cities globally to raise $250,000 to bring clean drinking water to third world countries.   And we did not stop there!  Twestival HQ decided not to wait another year so the Twestival cities were encouraged to choose a local charity and hold a Twestival Local event between September 9th and 13th.  Cities around the globe, including Philadelphia, again brought together their communities to raise money for deserving charities.  Twestival Philly’s charity was Gift of Life Family House.  We helped this deserving organization raise money to build a safe, supportive affordable place for organ transplant patient families to stay.

None of this – my friendships around the globe, new business relationships, the speed and depth at which I learn and grow from shared knowledge, the privilege of being a part of something so much larger than myself – it would not have been possible without the power and reach of Twitter.  There are not enough words, time or space to acknowledge all of the people from Twitter who have touched my life.  Everyone I have met, interacted with, developed relationships with, they all have a special place in my heart.

My final words are a Thank You to Valeria for collecting these stories.  Showing the world what Twitter means to us.  How powerful these 140 character conversations are in building meaningful, productive personal and business relationships.

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