Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 0 Followers: 0 Listed: 0
Here’s what I did. I actually tried to start a new Twitter using my name. “ChristopherCarosa” had too many characters, so I had to go with “ChrisCarosa” as my username. Having read Joel Comm’s book Twitter Power, I carefully filled out all my profile information.
Name: Chris Carosa
For my name, I kept “Chris Carosa” just to avoid confusing people. As far as I tell in my internet search, Of all the three-hundred thousand Americans, only three of them can be called “Chris Carosa.” I met the other two – when I was a kid. One is another “Christopher” and the other is a “Christine.” They don’t appear to reside on Twitter.
Location: Mendon, New York
Now the location caused me to think a bit. Most web surfers will have never heard of my town. Still, I am proud of my municipality, having once (hopefully ably) served on its Town Board, so I thought I’d identify it. Furthermore, I figured, since I had the room anyway, I’d spell out the full name of the state. I never served in any elective office for New York State (which probably explains why I still have friends), but I nonetheless have an affinity for the Empire State.
It turns out this Twitter username limit helped me avoid a major mistake. My web-site (which I added to Twitter) is “ChrisCarosa.com” and if I had used my full name, my Twitter User Name would not have matched my web-site name. Bewilderment averted.
Bio: Author, speaker, entrepreneur who likes connecting with family, friends and the future and loves Western New York.
My one-line bio proved a bit of a challenge. I’m used to a standard elevator pitch for my business, but this Twitter account isn’t about my business. In fact, being in a highly regulated industry, I’m bending over backward to separate my business activities from my social media activities. So I used a variation on a theme (specifically, Joel Comm’s theme of three). It started as a three and three – what I am and who I want to connect to. I added the “and loves Western New York” when I realized searchers might not know Mendon exists in that region of the state.
Lastly, I added the account to TweetDeck and CoTweet (but not SocialOomph, which I’m determining whether I should continue using.
How many followers do you think I’ll have after 30 days? Click here to enter your guess on my Survey Monkey survey “Chris Carosa’s 30-Day Plan to Dominate Twitter Experiment.” There’s no prize, but the fan who guesses the closest correct number the earliest will “win” and I’ll mention you if you want me to.
Find out today’s results on Day 2 – November 15, 2009 (Sun): Create Your Background Image
First They Came for Our Plastics Bags…
I offer this allusion because Martin Niemöller’s poem remains as profound today as it was when the Lutheran pastor penned his post-war confession in 1946. It’s language of persecution, oppression, and injustice, along with the attendant feelings of shame, regret, and the aura of culpability, ring true today in the Empire State as they once did in the totalitarian morass that immediately succeeded the Weimar Republic.
More on that in a moment. First, a bit of (more) recent history.
By the time Mr. Maguire whispered the word “plastics” into Benjamin Braddock’s attentive, albeit naïve, ear in the 1967 hit movie The Graduate, it had already been two years since Continue Reading “First They Came for Our Plastics Bags…”