My friend Lane Bailey nails it with this post!

Image by mike912mueller via Flickr

I’m giving away 3 "Mueller Maps " this weekend!

It’s a simple contest with simple rules.  The good news?  You might already be entered to win.

Here’s The Rules

Winners will be drawn at random on Monday March 30th at Noon pacific time.

Winner will is free to use the map on their site or give it away to anyone they wish.

Entrants will include any and all of the following:

1. Any member of any of my 3 Facebook Pages as of Monday March 30th at 8 AM pacific time.

• AreWeConnected.com
• Mike Mueller: Marketing, Web Design, & Social Media Consultation
• Mueller Maps

2. Anyone who has successfully uploaded a geotagged video on the  Map at http://areweconnected.com/say-hello/

3. Anyone who ReTweets this post.

Can you enter in all three categories? SURE! Why not.

One clarification. On the RT… How about One RT per account, per day .

That’s it!  Monday Morning all the names go into a hat and I’ll draw 3 lucky winners!

Good Luck!

Many times when I watch a local video I know about where it is but would love to "see" where it is on a map.
That's how I came to create the Google Map Mashup you see at the bottom of the page below.

Start by watching this video:

http://www.viddler.com/explore/mikemueller/videos/42/

The best part is that you can enter your own video and become a point on this map too! Just follow the simple instructions.

1. Shoot your "Hello" video . Use a webcam, a smartphone, even a Flip Video Camera (I bought my Flip Video Camcorder on Amazon for less than $70! ).
   Keep is short (under 2 minutes) and tell us who you are, what you do, and where you do it.
   You can even mention what it is about the area you live in that makes so special.
2. Upload your video to a webhosting site.
   YouTube, Viddler, Zipvo, or TubeMogul. Edit your video if you like.
   No video? You can use a slideshow just as well (I love http://RealEstateShows.com!).
3. Grab the Embed Code from the host site. Some will allow you to adjust the look and feel.
   Some (like Viddler) will allow you to customize the size, set it to autoplay, etc. You'll need to make sure your code is set to a width of 200.
   Many Embed Codes will have two seperate width references. Make sure both are 200 . If you are doing this manually, don't forget to change the height proportionally as well or you'll look really skinny!

   Here's a quick calculator to figure out your proper dimensions.
   

4. Find your Latitude and Longitude . If you have a GPS you may be able to find your coordinates there.
   If you want to use a computer, here's an easy to use site http://www.satsig.net/maps/lat-long-finder.htm
   HINT: the closer in you zoom the more specific your point will be.

Now that you have the data you'll need let's go to this simple form

• Your Name - This will appear on the sidebar
• Your Email Address - Won't appear anywhere on the map. This is just in case something goes wrong with your entry, I can contact you to fix it.
• Video Embed Code - Once again, make sure it has a width of 200
• Your Info - This is where you can enter anything you like. HTML is ok. Your name, Contact Info, Blog URL, Twitter ID - anything! Just remember to keep the line lengths short (around 40 characters) a simple
  or

  will create a line break or paragraph break.

• Latitude - Enter the number (out to 5 decimal places) Your number should start between 25 (Southern Tip of Florida) to 48 (Northern Border) for the continental U.S.
• Longitude - Enter the number (out to 5 decimal places) Your number should start between -124 (West Coast) to -67 (East Coast) for the continental U.S.
• Verify that you entered correctly and click on the Submit Button. That's it. In moments, your point will be added to the map!

Now if you want to put this map on your site, all you have to do is embed this code for an iframe:

A friend of mine asked earlier about Facebook Fan Pages and Facebook Groups.  I gave him a quick list of what I had so he could go check them out.  Our conversation was "wall to wall" so I thought I would post it here so it would be exposed to all.

Currently I have 3 different Facebook Fan Pages :

Mike Mueller: I started this Page as a way to better promote upcoming events I’ll be speaking at, classes I’ll be teaching, or really anything related to the business side of my life. 

Join the Mike Mueller Fan Page

Mueller Maps: This is just to showcase and demonstrate my Google Map Mashup I call “Mueller Maps ”. If you are not familiar with the concept, it’s a great way to embed video directly onto a Google Map.  Best of all, it’s easily updated by adding a row on a spreadsheet. 

Join the Mueller Maps Page

AreWeConnected.com: I realized after starting the first two pages, I had not yet created a page for this website.  The website itself needs it’s very own page.  This is a place where everyone who comes by the site and signs in using Facebook Friend Connect will be directed.  Think of it as a home on Facebook for AreWeConnected. 

Join the AreWeConnected.com Page

As you can see, each is built to serve a slightly different purpose.

Then there are The Groups too…

Bay Area Social Media Group: This started as a thought.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have regular local meetings where anything and everything Social Media could be discussed?  No agendas, no underlying hooks – just simple roundtable discussions.  Join the Bay Area Social Media Group

RE Blog World: Last year, the RE community joined the new media community in Las Vegas for Blog World.  It was a tremendous success.  I think the RE people surprised the regular blog people with how advanced they were.  2009 will be more of the same.  To stay on top of the event just Join the RE Blog World Group

I would be honored if you joined or became a fan of each and every one.

Hopefully you've failed too!

Yeah I said that.  This video is actually an extended Honda commercial. 

I love the message that is being delivered.

Bringing this into real life, last year my Daughter started playing Softball.  The team at her school had not one a single game in three years.  THREE YEARS!  The new coach didn't change much on the score board.  They didn't win a game last year either.  But he taught the girls the fundamentals and focused not on the loss but what could be learned from the loss.  They concentrated on improving.  Instead of losing by 10 they recognized their achievement if they lost by 1.

This year was different.  They just played in their first tournament.  Guess what?   Yeah, they won a game!  Then another, and another, and another.  They won the tournament.

Hopefully you’ve failed too!

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I’ve always felt Social Media should attract and engage new connections and enhance existing ones.  I went in search the other day (online) for a few new contacts.  I searched in the usual places; Google, ActiveRain, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  While I added a few it also crystallized the cold stark reality that sometimes what we do and how we do it actually hurts our doing business.

Here’s just a few examples:

If someone reaches out and requests to connect to you on a social network and you reply with “Do I know you?!?!?!?!?!” You’re building a wall. In social networking you never know where that next referral is going to come from.  Send me a reply like that and our relationship just hit a brick wall.

If your website has only a contact me form and no obvious email address, phone number or anyway of really contacting you – You’re building a wall. Yes, I know it cuts down on spam, but how many potential clients have you lost because they didn’t want to fill out your form?  I send all my email through Gmail for free automatic spam filtering.  It doesn’t stop everything but stops plenty. Question: If you gain one additional client this year would it be worth it to have a few more spam emails?

If you place non working links to your website on your profile (LinkedIn, ActiveRain, Facebook, Twitter)  You’re building a wall. Test and test again.  Do you have a complete profile to begin with?  Profiles are free links to your real business sites.  Why not use them?  Did you know LinkedIn will return a “website not found” if you don’t start your link with http:// ?  Really!  When was the last time you checked yours?

Congratulations, you are an SEO machine!  Your Market Data Reports get you high up on a Google search for your keywords.  However, if you’ve written nothing compelling, nothing that endears a “human” to want to connect with you, what’s the point?  You’re building a wall.

If your site has banner ads, adwords, and affiliate links placed everywhere it raises the question – what business are you really in?  You’re building a wall.

If you purposefully show just the first paragraphs of a post with a “read more…” hoping to drive more traffic to a particular site. Unless those few words convey everything you needed to say, You’re building a wall. The same could be said for incomplete RSS feeds.  there’s very few that I get that I’ll follow to finish reading.  Very few.

If you don’t do everything in your power to make it as easy as you can for any visitor to connect with you on any and every platform you guessed it, You’re building a wall. Think about that for a second.  Social Media should enable a potential client to be able to communicate with you on the level they choose , not yours.  They should be able to do so quickly and easily.  If a client prefers to call you – how hard is it to find your number? If I find your number will I get you or will I get a recording?  Are you a time blocker?  What happens when a time blocker calls another time blocker?   What about email? Facebook? LinkedIn?  Twitter?

I’ll stop there.  This is just my opinion but I think in times like these we shouldn’t be building walls, we should be tearing them down!

Do you have walls?

* original brick wall image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/vizzzual-dot-com/2226095398/

So you finally gave in and joined Twitter.  Congrats!

OK, now what? You know what they say…

“If a twitterer tweets in a forest and nobody is around to retweet it, does it make a tweet?”

Probably not.  So let’s go find some people for you to follow
(they’ll probably follow you back).

Now that you have a following, you might be tempted to start broadcasting how the world desperately needs your services.   Stop!

May I suggest you take either of two paths:

1. Sit back and lurk .  Don’t tweet – just watch.  Do that for a really long time. 
   When you are ready to issue your first tweet,
   if it starts with “I am…” Stop!  Go back to lurking for another month.
2. Make your first 100 tweets about someone else.
   Yeah, about THEM not YOU. 
   Try making 100 comments about how good someone else is, or how interesting they are, or how you like their new avatar.
   Of course if your tweet starts with “I am…” you can continue with “…totally in love with your new avatar!” – it’s the exception to the rule.

Now go out and start connecting with real people!  Oh and don’t forget to ReTweet this post!

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You may be wondering why all the Pink today.

"I thought Breast Cancer Awareness was in October?"

It is.  Today in California it is Pink Friday.

Find more videos like this on Pink Friday

From http://www.pinkfriday09.org/

California’s public schools, colleges and universities are facing more than $11 billion in state budget cuts. These cuts are going to impact an entire generation of kids and alter public education for years to come.
Friday, March 13 is the deadline for school districts to issue preliminary pink slips to California’s teachers. As of Wednesday, more than 26,000 teachers had received these preliminary notices.

Please join us on Friday, March 13 and Stand Up for Schools.

What You Can Do

1. Wear pink on Friday, March 13 to show your support for public schools, students and educators.

2. Organize or attend an event at a school near you.

3. Call or e-mail your Legislator. Tell them that investing in public education is an investment in California’s future.

4. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Lawmakers read their hometown papers to keep abreast of what their constituents are thinking. A sample letter is available in the Resources section.

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Support our Schools!

James Shiner is the founder of the newest Twitter tool, Tweeple Pages .  You might also know him from Zipvo.com.

"Tweeple Pages is a directory of Twitter users organized by their interests . You login using your Twitter username and password and start discovering other users with similar interests as you. Tweeple Pages lets you create more meaningful connections between you and other Twitter users."

Yes, you can always search using twitter’s search functions but here’s where this is different.

Let’s say I want to find more Hockey people.  A search in twitter is fine but only if you specifically mentioned hockey in your bio.  I know I didn’t.

Even if your bio speaks only of your business interests, when you join TweeplePages you can also tell the world that you are also passionate about the greatest team sport on the planet.  (That would be HOCKEY)  Then, when someone like I comes along, i can find that common thread we both have.  Our ensuing conversations about the Stanley Cup can then lead to off twitter conversations about doing real business together.

TweeplePage s is free.  They just launched February 25th.  Instead of relying on #FollowFriday to find new people today - I’m heading over to TweeplePages .

I can even follow them right from there!

Tweet Me Up!

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I recently went to a Blood Drive in downtown San Francisco that was organized entirely by social media.

It was announced on a blog and advertised via Twitter (and a few other sites)

Hop on the Blood Donation Bus!

One of the donors was turned down due to low iron levels.

After getting menatally pumped up to do this, so many people "just miss " hitting that Iron Bar .

Chuck Stephanski, LVN explained how not to get caught with low iron levels on the big day:

As a motorcyclist, it’s just good karma to give blood on a regular basis.

I imagine as a human being, the same rules apply.

; )

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