My New Best (and Most Embarrassing) Social Media Tip EVER

This past Wednesday, Laura K, Patience Renzulli and I were the featured speakers at the Rotary Club of Paducah. That's us above, with Rotary President LV McGinty. Our topic: social media. And given the excessive amount of time that all three of us spend on our Web sites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and all the rest, it's likely that we've learned a thing or two. Laura K, for example, talked about how she uses social media to help promote her clients — Michelson Jewelers, Martin Fierro, the Paducah Chamber, etc... She offered great suggestions on how other businesses can get started, and key pitfalls to avoid. And, of course, she looked absolutely gorgeous. Patience Renzulli was funny as always. Patience vowed she'd NEVER start a blog. But after a little prodding (a-hem), she finally broke down and launched Patience-please two years ago. Today, it's not only one of the most popular dog blogs in the world, Patience has sold TONS of copies of her wonderful Mama Pajama Tells a Story book through the blog — she even sold one at the Rotary meeting. I, who absolutely hate speaking in public anytime before cocktail hour, quickly clicked through what we do with iList Paducah, this blog, our Facebook and MySpace pages, our Flickr and a bunch of other things that I don't quite remember because about halfway through I suffered a silent death while at the podium. Which is why now I have this very, very important tip to offer involving the use of social media: Careful when doing a live demo of Twitter to the local Rotary Club. Because there it was, big as life, posted just SECONDS before I opened my Twitter page was this handy little Tweet: Yes, I am one of the 692,003 followers of @shitmydadsays, from 29-year-old Justin, who lives with his 73-year-old dad. Every day or two Justin posts some sage little tidbit that his dad says. Which I usually find very funny, but was a little shocked to see it there, projected 50-feet-high, in front of a room full of very lovely Rotarians including bank presidents, corporate CEOs, prominent doctors, lawyers and even a former mayor. And you'd think I'd just apologize and move on. But NOOO. I had to then click the link and show everyone the whole entire @shitmydadsays Twitter page. As if that would make everything all OK and all better. So let me take this opportunity now to apologize to any offended Rotarians for my incredible goof. And Justin, if you notice an influx of new followers from Paducah, Ky., you're welcome. For more on our presentation, here's Laura's quick recap and a very sweet recap from Patience who, perhaps, offers the best social media tip of all: Hug your Rotarians.

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