It’s crowded out there, and it’s only getting worse: Join us at to this event, join this group, like this thing, donate here, friend this person — you might know them. Egads! (Yea I wrote, “Egads!”)

The more people jump into and become versed on Facebook and twitter, the worse the epidemic will get, and the more invisible everyone will become, creating a phenomenon only a little more appealing than static.

So, how are you feeling about your growing numbers of requests? How are you coping?

Would love to hear about what you’re doing or not doing. Heck, maybe it’s not even affecting you at all. Would love to know if that’s the case too.

Guests are limited to 10, so please RSVP as soon as possible if you’d like to attend.

Choose One

General $10.00 Student $5.00

WHERE: The Conversation Factory
WHEN: Friday, June 18, 2010; 12pm – 1pm
COST: $10 (includes pizza & beverage); Students: $5 PARKING:
Please park at the BrackenChase parking lot adjacent to our building off Eliza Rd.

This week, I want to try something different. Bring $5 and your lunch (or not) and we’ll talk about whatever’s on our collective Social Media mind.

We won’t be serving pizza and we won’t be offering up a formal topic. Hopefully, you’ll have enough faith in the forum and the people — and the fact that we’re never short on passionate conversation — to show up and give it a shot.

Love it? Hate it? Tell me here or tell me Friday, 12-1 at the Conversation Factory.

(Please note: We will not be holding Conversation Friday on June 12, 2010, as I will be out of town.)

After our Thursday evening festivities (yes, you’re invited, click here for details) we’ll be talking about where you need to go from this point forward on the online side of your business.

What needs doing in terms of creating a space for your brand? Do you have a plan? Is it flexible? Where do you want to be 5 years down the line? What are you doing now to help you get there?

Whether you’re just starting a business, or are well on your way, we’ll cover lots of shoulds and shouldn’ts — of course, those will all be open to interpretation and discussion.

Want in? Let me know.

Hope you’ve been well, and hope to see you here.

Guests are limited to 10, so please RSVP as soon as possible if you’d like to attend.

WHERE: The Conversation Factory
WHEN: Friday, May 21, 2010; 12pm – 1pm
COST: $10 (includes pizza & beverage); Students: $5
PARKING: Please park at the BrackenChase parking lot, adjacent to our building off Eliza Rd.

You’re invited to hang out with us at The Conversation Friday on Thursday, May 20, between 5 and 8pm.

If you’re in the neighborhood and want to finish your Thursday here, come on over anytime after 3pm. Use our Wi-Fi, use our conference room, make some calls, play some pinball, whatever. We’ll be here.

Our friends from the Liquor Loft/ Proof, Byron Burroughs and Angela Harding, will be here between 5 and 6pm to kick things off with a tasting of two unique beverages: the cocoa-infused Alchemia Czekoladowa Vodka from Poland, and the coppery blond beer, Bons Vœux, brewed by the La Brasserie Dupont. If you haven’t been to the Liquor Loft, they’re right on Tennessee Street next to the Starbucks.

At 6pm we’ll tap the Stella Artois barrel, uncork the wines, and hang till 8pm. If there’s anything specific you’d like to drink, bring it with you. We’ve got a thirsty fridge.

Hope you can make it over for a little while — or even a few minutes.

Date: Thursday, May 20, 2010
Time: 5-8pm (Doors open at 3pm)
Address/ Map link: 3033 Powell Road
Parking: Please park at the BrackenChase lot adjacent to the Conversation Factory just off Eliza Rd. If you haven’t been here, please see photos below.

Big and special thanks, as always, go to David Hanselman, owner of BrackenChase Home Builders, who’s been a driving, supportive force behind The Conversation Factory, Conversation Fridays, and transplant.

Now’s a great time to check in on what’s working and what isn’t working for you on Facebook, twitter, and any other social networking platform you’re on.

Is it still exciting? Has it lost its luster? Are you finding little pockets of successes or have you found yourself lost in a flood of time management issues?

Let’s chat and help each other get out of the muck; and let’s share some best practices that really feel like they’re working for you.

Hope you’ve been well, and hope to see you here.

Guests are limited to 10, so please RSVP as soon as possible if you’d like to attend.

WHERE: The Conversation Factory
WHEN: Friday, May 14, 2010; 12pm – 1pm
COST: $10 (includes pizza & beverage); Students: $5 PARKING:
Please park at the BrackenChase parking lot adjacent to our building off Eliza Rd.

Here’s the article that sparked the idea for this week’s topic. The quote that did it was: “I don’t want a relationship with my deodorant; I simply want it to work.”

In the post Mr. Derek Walker, “the janitor, secretary and mailroom person for his tiny agency, brown and browner advertising based in Columbia, S.C.” goes on to describe a conversation he had with his teenage son while eating a cheeseburger in their car. He writes: “For me, the consumer, the message is the experience. I don’t need to see commercials about how good the food is. I need to see and hear a message that talks about the experience of eating in your car. Price is not my motivation.”

In this day and age, with all the technology at our fingertips, it’s important to understand the difference between what the consumer expects, and what the consumer doesn’t want out of your brand or your company. Some things should be left to the imagination and experience of your customers.

Want in?

Guests are limited to 10, so please RSVP as soon as possible if you’d like to attend.

WHERE: The Conversation Factory
WHEN: Friday, April 16, 2010; 12pm – 1pm
COST: $10 (includes pizza & beverage); Students: $5
PARKING: Please park at the BrackenChase parking lot here.

This Conversation Friday, we’ll cover the many facets of one incident that evolved over two weeks.

It’s got it all: ugly marketing tactics, tweets, blog posts, a big social media name, and ultimately, a diffused story that never got to critical volume — and rightly so. Most importantly, you’ll see how a social media superstar responds to negativity dished out by a disillusioned fan.

It will be an interesting discussion to say the least, and I’m sure you’ll have plenty to say during our session.

Want in?

Guests are limited to 10, so please RSVP as soon as possible if you’d like to attend.

WHERE: The Conversation Factory
WHEN: Friday, April 16, 2010; 12pm – 1pm
COST: $10 (includes pizza & beverage); Students: $5
PARKING: Please park at the BrackenChase parking lot here.

Seattle-based, Gist, has already amassed some serious momentum in the tech space, so we’re fortunate to have their Marketing and Product Managers (Jennifer Pitts and Rob McCann, respectively) Skyping in for Conversation Friday. A few accolades and articles include:

• Gist selected as one of twelve FiReStarter businesses for 2010
• Gist Named Featured Tool by Smart Selling Tools
• Gist a finalist for WTIA “Breakthrough Startup of the Year”
• Announcing the winner of our “Join us at Defrag” contest – Liza Sperling
• Gist Founder & CEO T.A. McCann Named Top Innovator & Entrepreneur by Seattle Business

From my brief interaction with Gist, it’s a super-powerful e-mail contact based hub that updates you with news and information by and about the people you know (the contacts in your inbox), but here’s the official take with Gist CEO T.A. McCann.

I actually joined Gist a few weeks ago and was amazed at how much it “saw” into the web — and what it delivered. Quite honestly, I thought it was a little big-brother-ish, so I deleted my account after a couple of uses. After Conversation Friday veteran and fitness blogger, David Csonka, brought up Gist during our session last week, I invited him to present on it.

Friday afternoon, I announced the  topic on twitter, which prompted Gist’s marketing manager, Jennifer Pitts, to chime in. I invited her to be part of the conversation and she agreed to participate along with product manager, Rob McCann.

So, that’s the story.

Do you want in? We’d love to have you.

Guests are limited to 10, so please RSVP as soon as possible if you’d like to attend.

WHERE: The Conversation Factory
WHEN: Friday, April 9, 2010; 12pm – 1pm
COST: $10 (includes pizza & beverage); Students: $5
PARKING: Please park at the BrackenChase parking lot here.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve received numerous pings on Facebook suggesting that I become a fan of this or that candidate. I always click “ignore,” and a few days later, some will ping me again with another invitation (multiple invites from candidates and businesses alike, however, are a whole other discussion that merits its own hour).

Those of you who know me won’t find it surprising that I haven’t fanned any candidate. It’s not that I don’t agree with anyone’s view, it’s that I’d like to keep my business apolitical — not an easy task in Florida’s capital city.

The Conversation Question: Why publicly align yourself with any political candidate if your business has nothing to do with politics? It seems to me the affiliation could really hurt business (and yes, I understand there’s an upside such to alignments)?

Do you fan candidates on Facebook? Why or why not? Are you outspoken on twitter? Do you merely observe? Or do you land somewhere in the middle? Do you know if it affects your business either way? Have you decided to patronize a business or avoid one because of their public political views? (I certainly have, but my decisions had to do more with the tone and intensity with which they offered their views, not solely because their view was different than mine.)

As we head into election season and those invitations when fanning requests and event invitations start barreling in, it would be a great to discuss it all.

Guests are limited to 10, so please let me know as soon as possible if you’d like to attend.

WHERE: The Conversation Factory
WHEN: Friday, April 2, 2010; 12pm – 1pm
COST: $10 (includes pizza & beverage); Students: $5
PARKING: Please park at the BrackenChase parking lot here.

If you’ve already attended Conversation Fridays, consider joining our facebook group.

On November 5, I published this post about The Red Elephant’s Manager, Jeff Hanson, going out of his way to please a long-time customer (me).

The next day, at 11:30am, just moments before our Conversation Friday guests began arriving, Brandon (pictured at right) showed up at The Conversation Factory. He held out a brown bag, and said he was from Uptown Cafe. He said Fred Tedio had seen my post from the day before and wanted me to see how his Chicken Salad Wrap compared.

I laughed. Not only did Fred send the wrap, he posted a photo of the sandwich on my Facebook wall with the note:

Mike – Please enjoy our Uptown Cafe Chutney Chicken Salad Wrap. We’ve been making it from scratch for over 15 years and have many customers say it’s the best in town. You be the judge.

It was a good wrap, but I’m not here to judge food, I’m here to report on how Fred used social media to make something happen. He saw an opportunity on his Facebook news feed and took it.

What Fred did became part of our Conversation Friday discussion.

Three of us at the session tried the wrap, and agreed  it was tasty, but it wasn’t as important as the gesture itself (there’s certainly a lesson in that statement alone). I explained how I met Fred at the Tallahassee Chamber’s Annual Conference in August; how he prepared and delivered the sandwiches at our first Conversation Friday; and how I’ve become a fan of his smoked salmon with apricot glaze. I’m almost 100% sure that Fred Tedio and Uptown Cafe gained three new fans on Friday (and one blog post today). Although the wrap was very good, the gesture was infinitely more powerful.

All from seeing a post on Facebook, and responding in a timely and appropriate fashion.

Well done, Fred. Well done.