First I have to go on a tangent and explain to my readers how I “use” my twitter account: I am an online marketing gal. I live and breath online marketing in all forms. I have many opinions and thoughts on my industry and when asked, I oblige. When asked. Other than that, I don’t do the numbers game. I don’t mass follow. I don’t push for higher followers. I like having followers for the same reason people like having friends. It makes me feel loved. No lie. Smoochie, smoochie and whatnot. I don’t push my own crap, beg for followers or retweets, or try to sell you any of my oil. In other words, I don’t have a hidden agenda. I get my fill of this with twitter accounts I manage for clients.

My twitter is me. All me. 100% pure Madness, er, I mean Mandaness. Most of my followers know this about me and still continue to follow me anyway (for reasons well beyond even myself). So… when I tweet, it’s me sharing my life with my followers, 160 characters at a time. but twitter isn’t the only place where I share bits and pieces of my life.

A friend of mine suggested a flickr tool to me that would update my followers every time I uploaded a new image. Not being new to twitter, I’m well aware of the many tools available to connect your social media outlets to your twitter account. I’m also aware of just how thin that line is between simply staying connected and being annoying. I decided that instead of playing the “how many followers can I get to unfollow me” game, I would simply ask my fellow peers what they thought. LOTS of great food for thought. Here is my question, what I got back and how I interpreted these thoughts:

1.) Go easy on it.
@saffyre9 “it’s cool when used sparingly, otherwise annoying“
@ArcticLeo “Separation enables filtering what I’m interested in following. Dislike when folks tweet every song thru last.fm for example.”
@elysa “blog posts yes – flickr no. I’m okay with things that aren’t in mass quantity (like photos).”

My thoughts: I think this is an overall sentiment. I’ve always been fortunate enough to be in the kind of company who would give me “the look” when I was nervously overtalking or making an ass out of myself. Too many tweets can be annoying. Period. If you’re ALL I see in my home stream, I’m gonna unfollow you. Especially if majority is music related. Not because I don’t like your taste in music. Ok, that’s a lie. I have unfollowed someone for posting how much love they love,love,love lady gaga. I don’t need a play-by-play of your music experience. Just as much as I dont need a play-by-play of your bathroom visits. I do welcome the occasional “song I’m digging” tweet but I don’t think this requires an annoying plug-in.

2.) The channel is important.
@bradfucious: “I feel fine about it and try do that where possible; I don’t think that some of my friends care much for it, though, esp on fb.”
@carondelet “But posting to tumblr and having it tweeted and vice versa seems to be taken better. So perhaps its more about the channel?”
@ArcticLeo “Too much when people mix what’s suitable for RSS feeds & Twitter. Different tools are suited for different jobs.”

My thoughts: I personally like when my followers post their newly updated images and blog posts. For me, its because I’m far more connected to my twitter activities than I am to my other networks. It makes my life a lot easier. HOWEVER… I am not too fond of seeing twitter activity on my wall or reposted on your blog without any explanation of it’s intent or what it’s in support of (just in case you felt like calling me a pot. or a kettle). Why? Because twitter is a different type of communication. It’s continuous and always evolving. You’re facebook page is it’s own pivot point, your life’s stream.  Twitter streams are much different in that they are equal parts sharing and conversing. No one like to see a one sided conversation you had with someone on twitter. Especially if I’m one of those people who just doesn’t get twitter (yes, they exist).

3.) Don’t use it as a replacement
@jonmikelbailey “it seems that there is no effort in finding information that the tweeter finds useful and thereby wants to share”
carondelet “I think it might be a bit too much. Occasionally there should be some organic updates and true interaction on these channels.”
@jonmikelbailey “too much and a loss in tweet value if you ask me”

My thoughts: Do I really need to go into details here? I can get past the redundant auto-posts if you are engaging enough to make it worth my follow. But if you’ve long since forgotten the password to your account because its been running on auto-pilot for so long, I’m out. “There, that should take care of my tweeting for the day”. With the exception of news-reacted twitter feeds, I’m not into following robots. Don’t lean on these plug-ins to be your value. It’s easy to abuse things that make our life more convenient but if you’re looking to these tools to add value to your tweets then you should be ok.

Overall I think if you’re being genuine, your safe but if ever in doubt just ask. I’m sure someone will be kind enough to give you “the look”.

The good news? There’s a way to turn it off. How? Well… let me show you. My example is brought to you by my friend Steve Plunkett who was wonderful enough to play along. Lisa Barone brings her own personal flare to MandaOtto.com (thanks Lisa).

Here you see a retweet from someone I am not following, thrown into my stream by my friend Steve. I mouse over his name here and click to be taken to his profile where I notice this:

After hitting the green routating arrows you see:

And now my stream is free of said retweet.

VOILA! Problem solved right? Well… sorta. This means that I’ll no longer see your retweets. Now, I know what you’re thinking and yes, I’m pulling out my woman-card, “I like them but I don’t LIKE THEM, like them.”

Here the deal: Sometimes, I like getting retweets. I just don’t care for the new addition of the avatars associated with the retweets. Why? Well because I pick my followers carefully. If I wanted to see other people in my stream I’d just go all follow-happy on everyone. I see the old fashion RTs as a sort of pre-approval of sorts; my friend’s way of saying, “this information might be of interest but it’s up to you to follow through with a RT or even a follow back.”

Considering the power retweets have always had on our little niche, this could become a really big hurdle to overcome. Fortunately, we are creatures of adaption. This is why many of us love this industry.

Crap works. Crap breaks/changes. We adapt. Learn the system. Monetize Put it to good use. Rinse. Repeat.

You can’t edit the tweets: I’ve never been one to simply copy, past, and throw a “RT” in front of it all. Many of my close peers know that I’m not big on retweeting things simply because I’m asked me to. If it’s not valuable content then it needs to disappear. Having the ability to add my own thoughts or even a “LOL” lets my followers know why and sometimes what, I am retweeting.

It steals my thunder: It’s not 100% clear who’s retweeting what anymore. The power of peer to peer review and approval has gone out the window. I think. The usability on it is a bit confusing. My initial attraction to twitter was how simple it was; allowing me to me communicate with a large group of friends and peers without a whole lot of “noise”. Does this sound at all familiar? Anyone remember how myspace started out?

And now the feature I despise the most…

ZOMG, STRANGERS: All of a sudden, my stream has been invaded by people I don’t follow. There are so many things wrong with this, I don’t even know where to begin. I hate to quote the Grinch, what with his bad taste in shoes and whatnot but, “That’s one thing I hate! All the noise, noise, noise, noise!”

Oh my. When I hear “improvements” my instant reaction is to cringe. Myspace’s slow death has proven that change doesn’t always mean for the better. Sometimes the, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” saying really does ring try and the overall consensus of the twittersphere pretty much mirrors my own personal distaste. Now I for one, am all about improving the usability of a powerhouse tool like twitter but somethings are better left undisturbed.

Like my own personal stream. Thanks.

Where do I fit in in all the list making madness? Well… apparently, I am an SEO. Oh, I’m also a cramtinesential. WHO KNEW!?

@graywolf/cramtinesential-seo
@jandrick/search-people
@leekoo/bloggers
@jennstafford/seo
@latenitecoder/seo
@StockC/primary
@JeremyHerbel/dfw
@BrentDPayne/seo
@John_D_C/friendz
@danielthepoet/dfw-tweeps
@katemorris/searchladies
@btabke/pubcon
@btabke/search

So I am going to be attending PubCon. It’ll be my first conference attendance since this time last year so I am really excited to get out and hug some of my favorite people. I am even more excited about meeting new people! Ok, that’s a lie. I am awkwardly trembling in fetal position while singing Jesus Loves The Little Children at the very thought of NEW PEOPLE.

Yes. My name Manda Otto and I…. I am socially retarded. Once I’ve arrived at my hotel room, the first thing I do is draw the shades and then I strategically place all my belongings in places where they can easily be doubled as weapons and then I begin to run hot water from every faucet available to me, creating a nice damp, dark cave littered with boobie traps and shoes. If I can somehow manage to actually get out of my cave, I then have to battle with word vomit. You know… that thing most people start doing when they drink to much? Except, I’m totally sober. I swear. I tend to say the first thing that comes to mind, I trip over air, I stutter, I ramble, I go total A.D.D on folks. All sober. I wish I was lying. So YEAH!!! Come say hi to me! “Really lady? After all that? I’d rather go play escort service playing-card bingo.” Oh, that actually sounds like fun! Mind if I join?!

No really. I am really nice and I am house broken. I occasionally even say something funny but don’t laugh. It only encourage more horrible jokes. You’ve been warned. I’ve listed the session I intend to go to in case you want to try to avoid meet up with me and say hello. See you there!

Tuesday November 10

10:00-11:15
Twitter Landscape – Hot Topics and Trends
Speakers: Warren Whitlock, Dan Zarrella, Kate Morris, Chris Winfield
Moderator: Krista Neher, Q&A: Joe Fernandez

11:30-12:45
Smart Organic Keyword Research and Selection
Wil Reynolds, Craig Paddock, Carolyn Shelby, Mark Jackson
Moderator: Joe Laratro

or

Capitalizing on Twitter & the Microblogging Revolution
Speakers: Jon Henshaw, David Snyder, Brian Carter
Moderator: Jon Kelly

2:55p 4:10p
How Do You Optimize For Universal and Personal Search?
Speaker: Amanda Watlington, Bruce Clay, Brian Combs, Greg Boser
Moderator: Christine Churchill

or

Enterprise-Level Bid Management
Dave Roth, Kevin Lee, Daniel Boberg, Wister Walcott
Moderator: Kate Morris

or

Experts on PR & Twitter
Speakers: Sean Jackson, Lisa Buyer, Adam Singer, Ben Fisher
Moderator: Krista Neher

4:15p 5:30p
The Best Tactics in Landing Page Optimization
Tim Ash, Brad Geddes, Kate Morris, Joanna Lord
Moderator:Ken Jurina

Wednesday November 11

10:15a 11:30a
How do Social Media & Search Intersect?
Tony Adam, David Wallace, Bill Hartzer, Lee Odden
Moderator:Vanessa Fox, Q&A:Brian Carter

11:30a 12:45p
Increase Your Post Click Conversion Performance
Speakers: George Aspland, Janet Driscoll Miller, Brian Massey
Moderator: Kate Morris, Q&A:Michael Dorausch

1:30p 2:45p
SEO Design & Organic Site Structure
Speakers: Scott Polk, Ted Ulle, Michael Martin, Lyndsay Walker
Moderator:Christine Churchill

or

Effective Solutions to In-House SEO, PPC, and Campaigns
Speakers: Laura Callow, Allison Fabella, Laura Lippay, Topher Kohan
Moderator:Joe Laratro

2:55p 4:10p
Social Media Marketing for Affiliates
Joe Stepniewski, Steve Schaffer, Michael Streko, Adam Jewell
Moderator:Joanna Lord

4:15p 5:30p
Interactive Site Reviews: Focus – Social Media
Speakers: Tony Adam, David Snyder, Brian Carter
Moderator:Brian Carter

Thursday November 12

10:15a 11:30a
Reputation Monitoring and Management
Speakers: Brian Chappell, Rhea Drysdale, Jennifer Laycock, John Carcutt
Moderator:Krista Neher

11:30a 12:45p
Online Brand Management Strategies
Speakers: Sean Jackson, Kenny Hyder, Tony Wright, Krista Neher
Moderator:Joe Laratro

1:30p 2:45p
Competitive Intelligence: Know Thy Competitor Well
Speakers: Michael Gray, Michael Streko, Matt Siltala, Andy Beal
Moderator:Tanya Vaughan

2:55p 4:10p
Community Hacking: 96 Baiting Strategies You Can Employ
Speakers: David Klein, Todd Malicoat, Bill Hartzer
Moderator:Jake Baillie

This is for my new design homie, Noel who happens to be one amazing graphic artist (and a very talented D.J might I add).

You Know You’re A Graphic Designer When…

1. You have bags under your eyes so big you’d have to check them in at Heathrow Airport
2. You watch the superbowl just for the commercials
3. You can spot bad typography from 100 yds away
4. You are pro-facebook because 95% of the myspace accounts burn your retinas
5. You can name more than 200 fonts in under five minutes
6. You are completely immune to subliminal advertising
7. You look upon a well-designed project with either:
   sympathy OR extreme jealousy
8. Your hand is permanently stuck in the shape of a mouse
9. You tell stories of exacto-knife inflicted wounds with grizzled sort of pride
10. You practically take caffeine intravenously
11. You have an appreciation for everything unique
12. You’ve been spending three days non-stop on a project and it still looks like shit. You find yourself overcome by Deathlust.
13. “You find your pulse increase at the sight of a lovely ligature, glasses steam up when an unusually elegant arm, leg, or tail comes in view, and a well-kerned paragraph is apt to make you break into a sweat with excitement.”
14. “You know you’re a Graphic Designer when… you buy a CD or DVD for the artwork, even if you have no idea what the actual music or film is like”.
    (even worse, you don’t actually watch or listen to it, just stare at it for hours and hug it in adoration)
15. “You know you’re a Graphic Designer when… you look at the clock and see it’s about midnight and think ‘I’ll go to bed now’… and you actually go to bed about 2-3am”.
16. “You know you’re a Graphic Designer when… you need someone else to point out that you’re sitting in a room in front of the computer with all the lights off, and haven’t noticed”
17. “…when you know what “kerning” is and you really, really like it.”
18. “… when you wear two [ke] [rn] pins on your bag, and only you know what the mean. To others its probably a band of sorts..”
19. Forget the boy-wonder and the man of steel; your heroes have names like ‘Tibor Kalman’, ‘Stefan Sagmeister’, ‘Paul Rand’, and ‘Paula Scher’.
20. You don’t wear black to look cool, you wear it to hide the gauche.
21. You have a thing for chairs. You don’t know why.
22. You giggle whenever you use the colors F0CCED, EFF0FF and 44DDDD
23. You’re in the sun and you look around for a Drop Shadow to sit under.
24. You give your relatives a lecture about color spaces and profiles when you email them your vacation photos.
25. Seeing someone use Lens Flare or Comic Sans adversely affects your blood-pressure
26. You maintain a grid system for your refrigerator magnets.
27. You organize your CD collection according to the Pantone chart.
28. You sit at work for eight hours straight just looking at your monitor, waiting for a spark of inspiration that doesn’t come.
29. You’re up ’til 5am because you came up with the best idea ever while brushing your teeth.
30. The hottest dream you ever had was “Trace contour… Find Edges… Pinch… Extrude… Smudge Stick… Motion Blur…. Sprayed Strokes…”
31. You know Lorem Ipsum by heart.
32. Your kid knows Lorem Ipsum by heart.
33. The preschool teacher complains your child won’t color inside or outside the lines – only indicate colors on a separate sheet.
34. Activating your entire font collection makes your computer crash
35. You deliberately butcher your perfectly cross browser compatible site in IE by placing a “Too Cool for IE” banner on it.
36. You prefer a Layer Style of 50% Opacity (or less) on your wife’s Satin.
37. You spend $200 on a font for your personal website because “it’s the only one where the lower-case g is just right…”
38. Looking at a menu make you go “hmmm, ITC Baskerville italic” rather than “mmmm, lunch!”
39. And when you finally order, you go for Layer Based Slices with Grain Texture…
40. You use words about fonts you dislike that other normal people reserve for fascist dictators and serial killers.
41. Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something.
42. You refer to colleagues as Strict, Transitional, Loose and the Future Unemployed.
43. You refer to your privates as “the Magic Wand”.
44. You know that rivers are more than just water.
45. Your best friends are all employees at the local print shop
46. The only people who seem to know what you do for a living are other Graphic Designers (ex: Graphic Design? What’s that? You’ll never be able to make a living being an
    artist!)
47. Kerning and leading on your shopping list actually matters to you, and you don’t see a problem with that.
48. Several South American economies suffer noticeably any time you try to give up coffee, or even cut your consumption of it by half.
49. You know that “bleeding” doesn’t hurt.
50. when your significant other/ friends have threatened to never speak to you again if you point out one more font to them.
51. when you know the difference between fuchsia, magenta, and maroon.
52. If you could go back in time you wouldn’t go back to see the rise and fall of civilizations, you’d go back in time to destroy comic sans and papyrus.
53. You can understand everything on this list.

I had a very difficult time updating my resume. It had been a very, very long time since I last needed it. Luckily I have acquired all sorts of new little tricks that have shaped me to be the marketing nerd I am today. As I started recounting my daily tasks and listing out my highlight abilities, I found my self doing more deleting than adding. I mean, you cant just as well add Monkey Training, Unicorn Hunting, or Master Time Slayer on your resume can you? No really… can you?! It got me thinking about all the stuff I really can do but just don’t seem to fit. Things I can do outside my typical “marketing-gal” skills anyway. I made a list.

Things I have the ability to do but don’t list on my resume:

1. I write resumes for other people.
- Kinda ironic hu? Considering I have been experiencing an extremely high level of anxiety writing my own. For some reason, helping other people write their own resume comes easy as pie to me.

2. I am a ghost writer.
- I have had companies send me the meat of their topic and I have done the keyword analyzing, researched the topic for filler content, added some spicy verbiage of my own for personalization and viola!  I return to them a meal they can blog about.

3.  I have bought domain names, arranged hosting, and set up wordpress for many sites.
- Yes, mostly for myself or for friends but I have done it enough times now that I can do it with my eyes closed while juggling a ham.

4. I am an amazing “idea person”.
- I’m not sure where these ideas come from and often times my problem is the lack of  resources needed to follow through with these oh-so-grand ideas of mine. In the past I’ve had the good fortune of partnering up with some people who have allowed me to run with some of my ideas and I don’t recall one of them going totally awry. Well, minus the banana costume idea I had but I blame the boss’s dog on that one.

5. I can photoshop any idea thrown at me.
- I’ve had a few opportunity to flex my graphic designing muscles but the places they seem to have gotten the most appreciation is when I’ve used my skills to someway, somehow, pull a rabbit out of my hat and design something someone simply described to me. The desired results where typically a comic or funny of some sorts, something to express an opinion or convey an emotion and I have always been one for the challenge. I’m not too sure how this could be used in the real world but who couldn’t use a comic of themselves battling Darth Vader on marshmallow island?

6. I can tweak the crap out any wordpress theme.
- I am not fluent in CSS or HTML but I know just enough to come in machete-a-blazing and make a theme my own. Yes, I’ve built one all on my own but it took me months upon months of researching, screaming, cussing, reading, and coffee to figure it out so… kudos to all you coders out there. I can however, comfortably tweak an existing theme to fit my own basic needs.

7. I can learn.
- Now I know that just sounds silly but hear me out on this one. Once upon a time I was in a position that required me to do a little resume reading of my own. I sifted through many one trick ponies that didn’t seem intent on bending their skills to fit the bill before settling on a moldable pre-grad student who was at least willing to learn what she didn’t know. Few people are comfortable going outside of their little circle to take on a new set of skills or at least learn about them. I, however, live for that stuff! If it effects the results of my marketing efforts then I want to learn about it. Even if it is only to better understand my own role. I have acquired a fine list of things I can do because of this desire to adsorb as much knowledge as I can get my hands on.

8. I can social network my butt off!
- Simple enough really. I network all day long. I’m not sure if this is a talent but I like doing it so its on my list.

I have skills. Lots of them. I just don’t know if anyone needs them.

How about: all of the above. I first want to say, WHOA! One tweet about me being unemployed opened the flood gate to all sorts of emails, DMs, and retweets (ever want to gain a boatload of new followers, announce you’re jobless). This was a surprising response and one that was a bit welcoming with all things considered.

BACK STORY:
It’s a very long, short story. I started in this industry much like many other search engine marketers, I just sort of fell into it. I started at a company who published an online directory and after gathering as much information (read: blog reading, book buying, conference attending) as I could, I began to excel in my field and I fell in love with the intricacies of search. From there I worked at a few smaller, search engine specific agencies and later was brought in-house to work for a local relocation/moving company. As much as I loved my boss and the company I worked for, I was limited. I like the diversity that working for an agency offered. After being approached to join forces with one of my closest friend and most respected colleagues to help grow her start up company, I couldn’t refuse. The short and skinny: a year later we ended up being brought in-house.

A job was guaranteed. One with benefits, a secure salary, 40 hours a week.etc. In the state that our economy is currently in, its hard to pass up on something like that. But when you’re spoiled to the freedoms of working from home and having the ocean as you’re oyster to be creatively productive, its really hard to go back without a fight. I attempted to fit back in that mold and I just couldn’t do it. The cubical, the security badge,  the monkey suits, traffic, and feeling as if I had lost my voice; I found myself depressed and disappointed in where my career seemed to be heading. After much deliberation and LOTS of soul searching… here I am.

With the blessings of my ex-boss, my husband, and my spirit, I decided to take a massive leap of faith in pursuit of the finer things in life. I’m not talking about money (considering being jobless doesn’t pay very well), I am talking about happiness. Finding my place in life. Somewhere where I can do what I do and feel good about doing it. I have never left a job without having another one lined up. Luckily, my skills are very diverse ranging from graphic designing to SEM/SEO. I am an intensely passionate person and extremely determined. I have confidence in that much. I don’t think I can go wrong with all that on my side.

I have a long road ahead of me. I understand this. I realize the world around isn’t a kind place right now but nothing in life that is well worth its weight in gold, is an easy target. I would love to be a free agent, to do my own thing, to be a (dare I say it) freelancer but to be honest, alone or as a team, it doesn’t matter either way to me. I just want to be part of something great.

This is a new chapter in my life. After turning in my computer and being escorted out (yeah, escorted. A new one for me) the drive home was intense. I felt free. I felt scared. I felt happy. Above all, I felt hope. A new slate. A chance to start over and truly give this the time and attention it deserves. I am excited. Naturally this excitement is laced with mixed feelings of fear but there is an undeniable lack of doubt there. If there’s anything I can hang on to right now, its that.

I am going to chase a dream. Someway, somehow, I am going to push my own limits and really see whats out there for me. Sink or swim. Do or die. Make cheese or not… I am going to make something happen for myself.

Starting today.