Two weeks ago, I was invited by local contractor, Billy Owens, to speak to the Tallahassee Association of Professional Remodelers at the Ole Times Country Buffet near Lake Ella. I didn’t expect to be greeted with passionate enthusiasm, but there it was — as down-home and honest as the Southern fried catfish.

At the end of our lunch, talk, and engaging question-answer session, Steve Peppers (pictured below) introduced himself. Almost immediately, he opened up and spoke candidly about his work, his family, and his views on technology.

As he went on, I knew he would star in an upcoming post. I wanted to write down every word. In the end, however, his point of view was so unique that I asked if he wouldn’t mind offering his verbal account in an email so that I could blog about it.

I expected a paragraph. What I received (the very next day) is the honest account of a man’s enduring battle with technology you see below.

Initially I felt the need to edit edit edit, but the more I grappled with the document, I realized I was losing Steve’s voice. In the end, I decided to leave the text as Mr. Peppers sent it to me in a Word document on February 19. I’m honored to have met Steve, and feel privileged to have permission to share his story with you.

So without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to Steve Peppers:

***********

Before I write about my meeting with Michael yesterday, I feel it important to give some background on myself.

I’m a 46 year old father of three children making my living as a contractor (glorified carpenter). I seem to have been just ahead (or behind, depending on how you look at it) of the curve as far as technology and the computer age are concerned. Out of high school before computers were used in education (the IBM selectric typewriter was quite hi tech at the time). During a stint in the USMC the punch card was still being used. Shortly after I had quite my first civilian job with Coca-Cola the drivers were trained to use computers that were used in the truck on the delivery route.

Well, I distinctly remember one of my high school teachers prophetic statement to the effect that we all would have a computing device in our homes during my lifetime (ha, I thought).  I can remember being slightly amused by Atari and them by the game asteroids at the local Jr. Food store, but I have fought against being consumed or even amused by any digital games to come along, except the cell phone.  I was furious when my cellular service provided “took away” my analog signal and forced digital.

So hard have I tried to hide from this new age that till this day I still use rabbit ears on my television and once again am furious that just this week my analog  signal has been stolen from me.  The children have never had an Xbox or Game boy (although they do have a small carry around, game device). I have tried to keep them busy with sports, music, camping, board games and the like. And as a glorified carpenter I have been mortified that at a point they may find a way to computerize my circular saw.

My daughter Lindsey was the first child to receive a cell phone when she was about 13 or so because “everyone else has on daddy”, although I fought hard against the texting option until she reached 15 of so, although that genie is now out of the bottle as she is 16 now and driving my car and texting her ass off (hopefully not while she is driving) like the rest of the worlds young people.

Now that you have my techno resistant background, I will write of my unlikely meeting with Mr. Calienes.

I am a member the Tallahassee Area Professional Remodelers, who are a small group of like minded dinosaurs like myself who have discussed the need to come into the new age of advertising/marketing but most of us pride ourselves in only “word of mouth” advertising because our quality work kind of speaks for itself.  In our round table discussions we had really not made much headway (blind leading of the blind).  I don’t know if it was fate but it certainly was a blessing when on of our members was hired by Mr. Calienes and at some time during that relationship the deal was struck that brought Michael to me, or us, should I say.

Just yesterday at a local resteraunt, Mr Calienes addressed the TAPR group to explain a concept that he called “presence engineering” (never heard of it? Me neither), the gist of this concept is that our businesses could benefit from the use of many online tools to create a digital footprint. As he started to speak I could feel the fear creeping in as my palms started to sweat as I fought to keep my eyes from glazing over (not really, the information was fascinating). As he spoke I wrote down the various sites such as facebook and others that he suggested we use to build this “footprint”.  Up until now I thought facebook was just something to fear as a father trying desperately to protect his children from (it’s a dad thing, much information out there about perverts and the like who might want to do harm to my baby’s).  We had only one young man who was currently utilizing many of these tools to promote his business and he seemed normal to me. We had discussion on how it seemed to us all that conventional phone book advertising was nearly a thing of the past with basically no ability to track the return on investment.  Some of the websites Michael discussed even have the ability for customer feedback. To curb the fears of my likeminded dinosaur buddies he broke it down to this simple concept…it all amounts to digital “word of mouth”.  Our time with Michael was far too short and I hope to visit with him more in the days and months to come but he did give me his ear, one on one for a while after the luncheon was over and I would like to share our conversation with you all.

I told Michael that just the day before at my daughter softball game that a previous coach (an under 30 woman) had told me that she was keeping up with Lindsey via Facebook.  Well, like to many other times ole dad found out that “by committee” information about said daughter was being purposely kept from me and I was more than a little pissed. I had even shown my ass a little (as we say in the south) to the wife just the night before.  And while I was at it I even brought up the overabundance of texting being done by Lindsey.  Well, I felt a little better having gotten it off my chest (and a sharp guy like me knows when he’s been whipped). I also shared a story of how my son Austin (age 11) amazed me recently when he helped me put together a proposal using photo I had taken of a storm damaged roof.  The young man knew not only how to attach the photos to the proposal but somehow used a yellow marker circling and drawing arrows to the damaged areas of the roof. I know your thinking I’m easily impressed or a real dumb hayseed (you’d be pretty close with that assumption). Mr. Michael Calienes of the company TRANSPLANT to help jar me to several realities.

As I sit here on this computer in the corner of my living room (as my high school teacher said I would) this is the most apparent reality. I have done a great job, loving, protecting and contributing to the successes of a beautiful daughter who is now a young lady.  I have a decision to make in this great digital divide.  I can either sit back, bitch, gripe and complain or allow these beautiful bright children help me understand and even train me in the skill (because it a skill) of the text, email, digital foot printing and the like because
WE AIN’T GOIN BACKWARDS!

Thank you for the opportunity to jabber. And thank you Michael for your time and expertise.  And feel free to contact me at stevepeppers1@msn.com. I do know how to open em up.

***********

Thank you, Steve, for sharing your story.

Thank you, Billy, for inviting me to speak.

And thanks to everyone from the association who attended. I hope to share more catfish with you in the very near future.

1. Sam Littlefield of Gutter Solutions & Waterproofing
2. Tom Ertl of Ertl Custom Homes, Inc.
3. Norandex Building Materials
4. Steve Peppers of Peppers Contracting, LLC
5. Gary White of Dream Homes Remodeling, Inc.
6. Rigsby Jones of Rigsby Jones General Contractor, Inc.
7. Greg Hensley of Greg Hensley, Builder
8. Jenkins Brick Company
9. Robert Janus of Robert A. Janus Commercial Contractors, Inc.
10. Bill Davis of Davis Construction
11. Chase McNeill of Keith McNeill Plumbing
12. Brandon Jett of Jett Builders, Inc.
13. Sonny Phillips of HR Phillips, Inc.
14. Ken Cooksey of Franklin Insurance Agency
15. Ed Dion of Dion Builders
16. John Cunniff of Power On, LLC
17. Destry Burch of Burch Companies
18. Linda McKenzie and Trish Sowell of Capital Floor Coverings,Inc.
19. Mark Ice of Audio Video Connections
20. John Rudolph, Attorney

attack of the misconceptions: media that works on 12seconds.tv

True story. Yesterday I wrote a guest post on “Moving the Needle.” Since Michael Calienes had been nice enough to ask me to post, I would, periodically throughout the day, tell him the reactions I was getting. At one point he shot me a message that said “Wowser. We should do a follow-up post. Something like, ‘is it possible to move the needle in 24 hours?’”

So I duly put together “results” in a “report”, and posted a draft on Michael’s blog. Around midnight, I sent him a cranky email. “Michael, I just don’t think it’s that *interesting*. Yes, I moved the needle, but *who cares* except for me. I mean, it *felt* like I got some buzz today, but what does that even mean?”

Then I went to sleep, figuring we could decide in the morning whether to post it.

At 2 am, I sat bolt upright in my bed. I had just figured out what was interesting about the results. But first, here are the ways the needle actually moved after the blogpost:

* Three people who I consider “influencers” in this sphere either contacted me by direct message or retweeted the link.
* Four people that I’ve met since starting on Twitter — people with whom there is mutual respect and the possibility of working together in the future — retweeted the link.
* Three people I had never heard of before retweeted it.

* One follow-up phone call has been scheduled to strategize ways of working together.

*One person called to just say he loved the article and had emailed it to some friends.

* One person asked if she could re-use the content in a presentation.
* Two people I never met sent me direct messages telling me they enjoyed the post.
* One person @ replied me with a comment.
* Two people commented on the post on my Facebook wall.
* One person sent me a Facebook message saying she “heard I was doing stuff with Twitter.”
* One person clicked on the FB link saying they “liked my status”.
* One email exchange happened about a possible speaking engagement.
* One email exchange happened where I got to pitch a project idea to a potential client.
* Three people commented on the blog itself.
* At the time the link was being retweeted the most, I was getting new followers on Twitter at the rate of one per minute.

And the insights I had at 2 am? Here you go:

The needle did in fact move, in over a dozen different ways. Any one of those ways might lead to work in the future. All good. All part of the strategy. But the sum total of everything that happened “felt like buzz.” Why?

It felt like buzz because people were taking action across a variety of different media. It the midst of it all, it felt like people were having conversations everywhere. If I had just gotten, say, 35 discreet comments written on the blog post itself, the numbers themselves would have been better. But I don’t think it would have been as impactful.

It felt like buzz because people were talking not just to me, but to each other. One of the great things about social media is that by monitoring the conversations, it’s now possible to “see the buzz” as it unfolds in real time. That’s powerful stuff.

It felt like buzz because people posted comments in public places. When somebody writes on my Facebook wall, it becomes a testimonial for my brand without me having to ask for one.

It felt like buzz because there was a wide variety of the types of people responding: Complete strangers, people I’ve recently met, potential clients, friends, supporters, influencers.

It felt like buzz because people used words – without any prompting from me – that supported my vision of own personal brand: “Insightful” “Useful” “Smart” “You the bomb!!!!”

It felt like buzz because it was all organic — I didn’t ask people to comment, or retweet, or anything. They just did.

My theory is in all this is that if enough needles get moved, enough ideas get shared, enough action gets taken, enough buzz gets generated, that I will create my own personal tipping point. Is that possible? What do you think? And…were my 2 am insights helpful to anyone? Would love to hear comments.

A few months ago, I had never heard the term “Social Media.” Sure, I had several hundred  connections on LinkedIn and Facebook. But I was using the connections mostly to say to myself “Wow! I sure am connected!”

So I joined Twitter because I thought it was just what I needed. More connections.

It didn’t take me long to realize that there were a bunch of really smart people on Twitter, saying some really smart things. People like Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble, Dr. Mark Drapeau, Laura Fitton, Karl Long, and Carmen Villadar. And so I listened. I listened to people like Chris Brogan, who taught me how to use social media strategically. Granted, I didn’t even realize that’s what he was doing at the time. I only knew that he was getting me to think about things, really think about them, in ways I hadn’t before. And the more I learned from everyone, the more I wanted to learn. I set goals, tried things, saw what worked, tried new things.

As I tried new things, I made mistakes. I read somewhere, for example, that it was possible to connect with the influencers. Poor Chris Brogan was my first victim. I replied to things he said, sent direct messages, emailed him, friended him on Facebook. In short, I was downright annoying. Finally, I wrote a comment on his blog post saying that I had tried all those things but nothing had worked. He messaged me back that day. Two hours later, Chris Brogan and I meet for lunch.

Chris talks to me about how he spends his life trying to figure out where the intersection of technology and communication will be six months from now so he can show up there. He talks of business strategy and 110 hour work weeks. He says that every time he walks into a client meeting, he tells them exactly how he will move the needle. I tell Chris my belief that coming at communication tools like Twitter from a brand messaging standpoint has great value. We barely notice that the chowder is lukewarm and oversalted.

The brand messaging discussion is similar to one I had a few days earlier with Kim Dougher. Kim is a former client who I hadn’t seen in four years. She joined Facebook, and since she was new to Facebook, I wrote on her wall,  inviting her to meet. Over tea, I explain Twitter to her — how it’s the combination of individual conversations and brand messaging to thousands that makes it so different from other media platforms. I am so excited I almost knock my cup of tea over. Kim tells me she wants to be known as the person who can jump into any freelance project, figure out what needs to be done, and do it. Driving home, I get an idea for how what we discussed could work in real life for a major retailer. I email it to Kim. Three days later, I get a reply saying she has spoken to the client in charge of Social Media for that retailer. That person wants to meet me. Kim has set up the introduction.

Flash back to 20 years ago, to a creative concepts course taught by Edward Boches. It was there that my passion for branding and advertising began. Yet for the past 20 years, Edward and I had probably said four words to each other. When he started on Twitter, I shot Edward an email talking of one way I was using Twitter strategically – to follow at least one person from every country in the world, learning to be a “global conversationalist.” Five minutes later, Edward phones, thanking me. His passion for the potential of Twitter is palpable, and he, too, has an idea: invite the ad community to comment on Superbowl commercials using Twitter. Within a week, we start promoting the idea on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Ad folks I barely talk to in real life email me late at night. “Help me figure out this Twitter thing, will you?” I help them. Hundreds of people show up to review the ads.

It’s the night of the Superbowl, and guess who I meet for the first time? Michael Calienes. A day or two later, Michael appears on Chris Brogan’s blog. It seems to me this guy is everywhere. So I send him quick message, comment on his idea of “Presence Engineering” and the next day we talk on the phone. I feel like we’ve gone from stranger to friend in about 60 seconds. After my own lunch with Chris Brogan, I send Michael a long email, sharing all I learned from Chris that afternoon. Yesterday, Michael asked me to write this blog post. He suggested I call it “moving the needle.”

You know, there’s a debate that rages on about whether it’s the quantity of connections or quality of connections that’s better in social media, and I want to laugh. In my mind, it’s not really about either.

It’s about the courage to have ideas, share ideas and act on ideas.

Find a needle you think you can move. And move it.

How have you used social media to “move the needle” today?

(Connect with Lisa Hickey here.)

In the two weeks since buying Chris Brogan a beer, I’ve had a chance to think about and analyze the gesture, as well as the events and content that flowed from it. My take:

1. The idea is still the most an important part of social media involvement. If the idea sucked, there would be nothing to discuss right now (believe me, I had my doubts about purchasing the beer, but fortunately, I followed the advice of my robust gut — he is a force to be reckoned with.)
2. Taking real world action is vital.
3. The stuff that transpires is extremely organic.
4. The ripples from ensuing content are far-reaching.
5. The connections to the people who engage in the conversation about the event, specifically, become more real and the gaps between us all close a little bit more.
6. Today, collective and collaborative engagement is essential to creating heightened brand awareness.
7. See item #1, sentence #1

I’m extremely grateful to everyone on twitter — you’re all teaching me large lessons about honest engagement. Post by post by post, the borders between us continue to dissolve.

If you’d like a clickable PDF of this image, click here –> tweet2awareness

Thoughts? Opinions? Drop ‘em here. And again, thank you.

Well done, Jason. I could type more, but simply pressing play would be so much better. Cheers.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSP-7rKfHDc[/youtube]

Just about every time I mention twitter to a friend or client, they respond with a cockeyed look and pursed lips — like I’ve just squeezed grapefruit pulp into both their eyes.

It reminds me of the early years when I evangelized True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes off Red Hot Chili Peppers’ first album (check out that cheesy-awesome video below). Then making friends listen to Yertle the Turtle off Freaky Styley. Digging into Anthrax and deconstructing Efilnikcufecin.

All these shiny new tools and how we continue using and exploring them are a lot like the underground music that defined some of us way back when. Our love for the unique made us a little different, socially questionable.

Today, however, that is our advantage. We are connecting dots. We are painting pictures. We are doing remarkable things with very few resources — just like innovators have always done. With every tweet, blog, video, and podcast, we are essentially pushing deeper into the communications underground. The cool thing is there’s a lot more air and light down there than there is up here.

Thoughts? Comments? Love to hear ‘em. Let’s keep pushing.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Drop ‘em off here. Hope you’re all well.