Month: July 2009

Friday Five: Hey, Rittenhouse, I really wanna win that guitar! edition (plus posts about four other things.)

  1. Lately I’ve been tweeting this mantra, or some slight variation, every day:

    I want to win a relic custom guitar from #RittenhouseGuitars at www.RittenhouseGuitars.com

    I’ve been doing that to meet the requirements of a contest to, well, win a relic custom guitar from these guys. One way of entering the contest is by tweeting that statement on Twitter. (Check.) Another way is to become a fan on Rittenhouse’s Facebook page. (Check.) Yet another way — and something I almost forgot about until I started this post — is to blog about the giveaway. (Check.)

    So, I’ve entered this contest about every which way I can. Those of you on Twitter who’ve been annoyed by my constant tweeting about it, you may now relax. I won’t post anything else about it — until I get the word that I’ve won. And then, well, Katie bar the door.

  2. Right now, I’m listening to It’s Blitz! the latest musical offering from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Yesterday, I read that Amazon’s editors picked it to top their top-50 list of best albums of 2009 so far. I haven’t listened to it in weeks, and hadn’t planned on listening to it today, but then @radiofreegeorgy pronounced it “amazing!” And she seems to know her music. (She’s obviously written more about Freedy Johnson than anyone on the entire Internet, and I’ve learned everything I know about Freedy from Georgy’s blog.) So I thought I’d better have another listen. And my verdict: Yeah, for a Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, it is pretty amazing. Karen O. has learned to sing without all that ecstatic moaning and squealing from earlier albums, so that’s a good thing. If I were to post a mid-year list of best albums, It’s Blitz! would probably be in the top 10.
  3. Companies, take your social media cues from your customers, not your favorite blogger/Twitterer. This little reality check comes from Mack Collier’s post about why companies should ignore social media early adopters like Steve “Blogging-Is-Dead” Rubel. I think much of what he says applies to the higher ed community. Thanks to Deanna at The Old College Try for directing me to this post.
  4. On the other hand, Karlyn Morissette makes some good points about the value of tweeting and blogging for expanding your networks, landing speaking gigs and learning new stuff. Good points. Social media does expand your networks and open opportunities previously unavailable.
  5. Finally: Get your ’70s cheeze fix at Retroland! Time sink extraordinaire! Via Kill Jill’s Awesome Thing of the Week.