This happened to me yesterday after work and for three hours I panicked, feeling isolated and cut off. I couldn’t pick up a phone to dial my cell and hope that a good Samaritan would pick up and tell me where it is. I couldn’t call a friend and ask them to help. Talk about feeling like a little lost soul; I was E.T. the Extraterrestrial longing to phone home! Literally, my only link to the outside world was social media. But what a link it is.

I thought about using Twitter for the immediacy factor, but I don’t truly know everyone who follows me on Twitter. So instead, I posted about my dilemma to Facebook, where I still don’t know everyone personally but I definitely know the lion’s share of my network. My desperate status update read:

I either misplaced or dropped my cell phone right at the end of the day. Not cool – especially since we got rid of our home phone. Feeling very isolated!

Anxiously, I waited to see who might respond. Several people did right away, and they seemed sympathetic enough for me to quickly post my cell phone # and ask if anyone would consider calling it to see who answered. Ultimately, I believe in the innate goodness of people – I hoped that if someone in my social network could connect with the phone-finder, we’d be able to work something out.

Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened! Jim, the husband of a friend I haven’t seen in years, called my cell and asked the person who answered where and who he was. Jim, also communicating with me in real-time through Facebook Chat, then let the phone-finder know that I’d be coming by within 15 minutes to pick up my phone. It was that easy! I raced over to Easton Town Center, where I work. Turns out I dropped the phone on the stairwell without noticing, and it was picked up immediately by a member of  the cleaning crew – that’s why I didn’t see it when I desperately re-traced my steps.

When I got back to my office building after 8 p.m. that night, I found the gentleman who had my phone without too much trouble. He’s an older guy I see most evenings but I’ve never appreciated him more than I did last night. I thanked him profusely as he handed me the phone. He sheepishly admitted that he thought about keeping it, saying “it’s nicer than my phone, plus you have really great ringtones!” I asked if he would mind me giving him $20 to thank him, and his face lit up. Then we hugged each other and I had the feeling I’d made his night just as he had made mine.

So many lessons for me here. For one, keep that forgetful, ditsy “pregnancy brain” in check by securing all valuables before rushing out of the office. For another, cherish and treasure the cleaning crew at the office, because they are very likely the first people who will find something if you lose it. Third, keep believing in the innate goodness of people and the universe because the more I trust in that, the more I’m blessed beyond measure. And fourth – social media rocks! Take good care of your network and they’ll take care of you.

Social media really can save you if you let it – sometimes all you have to do is ask the right question.

So what about you – what would you do if you lost your phone? Any good stories to share about the power of social media or the innate goodness of people?

Photo credit: Leonard John Matthews

At our house, however, long weekends usually involve some sort of hardcore DIY project undertaken by my husband, the king of home improvement. (Don’t believe me? Check out this video I shot of him two stories up, hanging off a ladder, last 4th of July weekend. And don’t get me started talking about the time he moved our shed single-handedly on his Columbus Day holiday a few years back.)

This weekend’s project had multiple parts. First, Eric rented a sod cutter to carve out some of our front and side lawn so that he can replace the grass with flowerbeds. Then, we rolled up the sod strips into manageable pieces and moved them in a wheelbarrow to our back yard where Eric used some of the pieces to sod over our former garden. I made a video about the sad demise of said garden (short version: it’s my fault). I also did a little sod modeling, as you can see from the picture above. Don’t ask – you simply had to be there.

The Great Twitter Sod Giveaway

Wondering how Twitter factors into this story? Well, at this point in our day, we realized we had way more sod on our hands than we needed. This grass is super healthy, well cared for, fertilized, weed-free and a gorgeous dark green. We hated to waste it, but we had absolutely no use for it – so I had the bright idea to give it away on Twitter. At this idea, my beloved snorted – a sound which spoke volumes. Eric’s not a fan of social media in general, and is especially peeved by the idea of Twitter. He can’t imagine who would find it useful or why. I figured this little sod story would make a nice Twitter case study if it worked. I also hoped that someone in my local Twitter network would need or want some sod.

And so, at about 2 p.m. on a beautiful sunny Saturday, I made my offer to the Twitterverse:

 Columbus Tweeps, does anyone need some sod? We have good, clean, healthy grass/sod up for grabs – hate to waste it and we don’t need it.

Within a minute, my offer was re-Tweeted and then about ten minutes after that, I had a taker. She was thrilled because she had planned to buy grass seed or sod sometime this weekend – and now she gets all the sod she wants for free. Score!

I love it when social media can help real people in real-life situations like this. This particular social media experiment may not be saving the world or improving lives, but it’s still a cool, green, local, friendly example of how to use Twitter. It saves us the trouble of disposing of the sod, saves my sod recipient the cost of buying it or the trouble of coaxing grass seed to grow, and who knows – maybe this will even start to make a Twitter believer out of my hard-working husband.

So, what did you do with your Memorial Day weekend – and would you like some leftover sod?

It was exciting to be in a room with such smart people sharing ideas about how we can use our blogs and social media networks – aka our “powers” – for good to help nonprofits, support charitable causes and affect real change. We learned that Geoff and the folks at the Columbus Foundation have  been working together on a study about social media for social causes, with full results being released later this spring.

Fellow blogger Shane Haggerty did a great job summing up the afternoon. Many of us also Tweeted as the discussion progressed, so you can find some key insights at the Tweetstream for hashtag #TCF. In fact, the Columbus Foundation was the number three trending topic among Twitter users in Columbus yesterday, as tracked by Happn.in, a Twitter trend aggregator that shows you what people are buzzing about in your particular city.

I can’t lie that in the days leading up to this event, I felt a great amount of pride for our fair city. Forget the coasts – our own little Columbus, Ohio is really making its mark as a social media epicenter with top national bloggers and social media pros coming to visit us. First Central Ohio PRSA brought Brian Solis to town, now the Columbus Foundation reveals it has a terrific partnership with Geoff Livingston, and next month the Ohio Growth Summit event brings Chris Brogan to Columbus as keynote speaker. There’s lots going on in social media in this town, and I’m happy to be part of it. 

While we’re thinking about using social media for social good, here are a couple of good resources:

• Ten ways to change the world through social media
• Beth’s Blog: how nonprofits can use social media
• The 59 smartest nonprofit organizations online today

So you tell me – what’s your favorite cause, social media related or not? Have you thought about how you can use social media to affect change?

Personal branding is all the buzz in the blogosphere again this week due to a popular new book - plus several social media movers and shakers changed jobs and took their personal brands with them. Personal branding will continue to be a hot topic while we’re in this recession because with many folks seeking jobs, it’s one of the best ways to differentiate yourself and rise above the rest.

In my presentation last night and in this post, I don’t cover how to find or develop your personal brand – I don’t claim to have any expertise in that beyond my own personal experiences. I will however offer my tips on managing your personal brand. These are taken right from an answer I provided on LinkedIn yesterday in response to a question by Perry Maughmer.

My top tips for managing personal brand through social media and real-world networking are:

1. Offline, online and at all times, be sure your actions match your words. Be a person of integrity. Be consistent whether in public or in private and whether at work or on personal time. Remember that what you say online to one person, one time you are really saying to all people, for all time. Confused about whether you can maintain a separate personal brand and “professional identity” online? I’ve seen people attempt to manage multiple identities, but my take is that it’s best to have one unified personal brand online that incorporates your personal side and your 9 to 5 side. Everything you do online leaves tracks, and it’s pretty easy for those in the know to connect the dots between your two profiles or identities. Social media can get you hired… but it can also get you fired.

2. Google yourself (set up Google Alerts or an automatic calendar reminder to do this monthly) to be sure the results that come back are positive and reflect well on you, your personal brand, your family and your profession/chosen career. Know that you’re being Googled by others including employers, future and current employers, colleagues, clients, prospects, lawyers checking you out for jury duty, even friends and family members. Act accordingly (see #1 above).

3. If something comes up in your Google results that you view as negative – or if there are no results at all for you – take steps to correct that if you can. Be sure you are consistently producing enough good content through blogging and blog commenting, meaningful social networking and other forms of online content generation and participation so that the good stuff far outweighs the bad and pushes the negatives down farther in the search rankings. I’m no pro on search engine optimization, but I know where to find the good stuff to learn what I need. When in doubt, check the most popular bookmarks on Delicious tagged SEO.

4. Build a strong network online and off by making genuine, authentic connections wherever and whenever you can. Be yourself, be memorable and share knowledge and value – whatever that means for you and your situation. Always seek to give more than you get. The people I know with the best personal brands are the ones who are constantly connecting by sharing their knowledge and giving away tips, info and resources. For example, a colleague and friend of mine just started a job networking group specifically for marketers in career transition.  Great stuff. And to that end, I’m including a few more useful links – Me 2.0 is a hot new book on personal branding by Gen Y expert Dan Schwabel (give it a preview here), plus I’ve amassed a few other relevant resources on Delicious.

So, what have I missed. What are your favorite personal branding tips? Any other good insights for job seekers or folks in career transition?

1. WordCamp Columbus – May 16. Hosted at Columbus State Community College, WordCamp is a full day of keynotes, breakout sessions and networking focused around the popular blogging platform. I’m really looking forward to this event as I’m a Wordpress girl myself.
2. PodCamp Ohio - June 20. I attended this day-long “UnConference” last year and learned a ton about blogging, social networks, podcasting and new media from local and national social media pros. This year it will be at the Ohio State University’s Mendenhall Laboratory and it’s sure to be another stellar event attracting attendees from all across Ohio and beyond.
3. Ohio Growth Summit 2009 – June 10.  Longtime readers of this blog know that I’m a huge fan of Chris Brogan’s work in the social media space. In the immortal words of Lewis Howes, Chris Brogan is a social media mutant! Now he’s coming to Columbus to speak thanks to the Ohio SBDC. I’ll be the one in the front row with a huge grin on my face.
4. Spring Informal at MoJoe Lounge – March 25. Last night I got a nice email invitation to an event that’s being billed as the “Who’s Who in Columbus Social Media” – an exclusive gathering of our city’s brightest and most influential people in the social media arena. The email gushed “Needless to say, your name was on the short list of bloggers that are making an impact in the vibrantly growing tech scene in the Midwest!” And honestly, what blogger could resist that kind of flattery? I sure can’t, so I’ll be there. You nailed it, MoJoe Lounge.
5. Katie Paine at PRSA Central Ohio - date TBD. This one’s not final or official yet, and I honestly can’t remember if I heard about it at a PRSA board meeting or in the hallowed halls of the midwest’s top PR firm. Either way, I may be in big trouble for scooping it here – but it’s exciting news. Katie Paine is huge – she’s considered THE authority on social media and PR measurement. Watch this space and Central Ohio PRSA for more.

With all these great social media happenings flowing our way this spring and summer, why would anyone leave Columbus? Happy Friday – and be sure to catch up on the rest of my Friday Five series on social media and PR.

But then I realized what a cool resource this is. In these uncertain economic times, now more than ever we should be networking and building relationships with other local practitioners and PR bloggers. Remember that list Alvin made a few years ago about how none of the PR agencies in town blogged at the time? Ouch. Think of my list as the exact opposite of that one.

Alvin, Cheryl, Experience Columbus and my own agency Fahlgren Mortine have put together great lists of local Twitterers. Dawn has started a wonderful list of Columbus bloggers. Now, with a hat tip to Arik and my aforementioned Tweeps, I’m setting out to create a master list of local PR pros online - and give a little link love to my fellow PR peeps while I’m at it.

To get on the list of blogging and Tweeting PR pros in Columbus, please send me a note on Twitter, email me or leave a comment below with your name, blog (your own, your company/firm’s blog or any other blog you write for), and your Twitter @. I’ll update this post regularly with the entries I receive, and soon we’ll all have a great resource next time we want to throw a party and invite every online PR person in town.

Columbus PR Pros
Lara Kretler, Fahlgren Mortine PR, @LaraK

Amy Johnson, OSCPA, @alillyjohnson

Bill Balderaz, Webbed Marketing, @bbalderaz

Beth Watkins, @bethwatkins

Gary Moneysmith, Conrad | Phillips | Vutech, @garymoneysmith

Ashley Sanders, SBC Advertising, @ashsands

Mary Krouse Garrick, SBC Advertising, @maryg_pr

Craig Simpson, @crsimp01

Shane Haggerty, @shanehaggerty

Michelle Savoldi, Columbus Impressions, @cbusimpressions

John Rhind, @JohnRhind

Lora Deeds, Quest Software, @LoraDeeds

Ashley Moyer, Fahlgren Mortine, @AshleyM_

Amber Gallihar, Durable Slate, @agallihar

Jamie Grove, @hownottowrite

Cheryl Harrison, @cherylharrison

Gary Hunt, @Gary_Hunt

Emily Garvey, @EmilyGarvey

Jessica Hamlin, @jhamlin

J. Martin Poston, @jmposton

April A. Hayes, @Ahayes24

Krista Holloway, SBC Advertising, @kholloway

Kelli Nowinsky, COSI, @knowinsky

Irene Alvarez, Experience Columbus, @Irene_ExpCols

Courtney Cooper, Webbed Marketing, @courtcoop

Dave Culbertson, @daveculbertson

your name here…and so on

What do you think – useful idea? Please send me your info and help make this a great organic directory for PR in Columbus. And while you’re at it, please join my Wired PR Pros group on Majelly, the central Ohio social media community.

These conversations usually start with people asking about specific tools – LinkedIn or Twitter, for example. Once I’ve got the individual or group comfortable with one social site, they are usually eager to learn about others. And in teaching social media best practices over and over, using multiple sites and communities as examples, it occurred to me that there are certain themes or guidelines which apply across the board.

Here are my four social media fundamentals for any and all social networking sites. Keep these principles in mind and you’ll be ready to explore whatever new web 2.0 wonder comes our way.

1. Profile. No matter which social networking site you’re on, or even if you someday join communities that haven’t been invented yet, you’ll need to set up a profile. Be as complete as you can be here – include more than your name and what you do for a living. List your purpose and passions. Be professional, yet also memorable. Positively represent your personal brand as well as your company or industry. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who doesn’t know you yet – maybe even someone who’s interviewing you. Why would I want to read your blog, add you as a friend or contact, hire you or come back to your page or profile again to see what you have to say? Your profile should do all this in as few words as possible. In a nutshell: make me care.

2. Content. Another common denominator across social networks is the need for creative, interesting and distinctive content. Think of it as the meat (or hummus, for you vegetarians and vegans out there) in the social media sandwich. Whether you’re creating and uploading unique content such as a blog or video post - or tagging and sharing content such as articles or links - you need to have a voice. You must have something to say and an interesting way in which to say it. Find a way to share or do something in a way that has never been done before – on Delicious, for example, save only the best and most useful blog posts and article links in your particular field of expertise – and you’ll have content that keeps people coming back for more.

3. Contacts. On Facebook we’re called friends, on Twitter we’re followers and on Plurk we’re fans. Regardless of the socnet in question, our contacts put the social in social media. Let’s face it, all this would be pretty lonely and boring without other like-minded – or even better, different-minded – souls with whom to share it. But be smart about how much and with whom you’re sharing. Whether on LinkedIn, Plaxo or Myspace, don’t just add contacts for the sake of adding. Be strategic and sensible about your connections. Are these people you’d like to get together with over coffee, tea, beer or wine in “real life”? If not, ask yourself why you’re collecting them. It’s smart to have a strong, diverse professional network, but adding random strangers can backfire. Do a little checking before you blindly add contacts, or you could end up getting spammed or worse – seeing your friends get spammed and knowing it’s your fault.

4. Search. How do you find new, relevant contacts on all of these sites? How do you find the latest articles in your niche or industry? How do you figure out whether you, your brand or your company are being talked about in the social network du jour? Easy – accomplish all of the above by doing keyword searches. These searches vary from site to site, but there’s a common theme: you can strike gold if you search just right. Figure out your search terms – your name, your brand, your company or organization, industry terms, your interests, hobbies, area of specialization, or even types of people you want to meet (e.g., journalists or reporters). The key is knowing where to search – on most sites you use the search form right there on the site, but Twitter is a little tricky – you search on a different site.

With a good grasp on these four fundamentals, you can make yourself at home on a myriad of social sites. Their purpose and functionality may differ from here, but knowing how to embrace these basics will give you a good starting point.

What have I missed – are there other commonalities that social media beginners should keep in mind?

When I was a kid, my parents and brother and I lived on Long Island but the rest of our family was in England. We saw our grandparents and distant cousins once or twice each year, but it wasn’t enough to build and keep up super close relationships. We only talked to them on the phone occasionally, and never for long because it was pretty expensive. There was no email or Internet yet, so we were limited to writing letters and cards which seemed to take weeks to get there. I often think about how different it is now – we have so many more ways to keep in touch with people far away, to connect in real time and share photos, videos and more.

The birth of my niece Madison has inspired me to find new ways to connect with family and feel close to them. I have bonded with my husband’s nieces and nephews over Webkinz World and I look forward to introducing Maddie to that as well. But there’s so much more! I already share tons of photos online with my family, but Maddie’s arrival has inspired me to take more videos too. Madison is growing up in LA so I’ll want to share our seasons and especially our winters with her.

Instead of boring phone calls, we can do free live videoconferencing through ooVoo, plus the usual webcam chat capabilities through most instant messaging services. Maddie’s folks and I already text each other and send pics to each other’s phones. And although I do most of my scrapbooking the traditional, old fashioned paper-and-scissors way, I can also make and share beautiful digital scrapbooks with Maddie online via ScrapBlog or Creative Memories Storybooks.

Then there are all the social networks and other online resources dedicated to families. I am especially excited about SavvyAuntie, a community for cool “PANKs” (professional aunt, no kids). Babies are new territory for me, but fortunately there are tons of blogs and family-focused sites I can explore to get ideas, share stories and learn more. There are even oodles of dad blogs, including Chris Brogan’s new Dad-o-matic, which I can send to my brother for ideas and inspiration (I still can’t believe he’s a dad!).

Speaking of social networks, how cool would it be to start a new Ning community just for Maddie and our family as a way to keep in touch, share photos and videos and stories, and even chat live. Imagine if Maddie could log onto her own social network every day after school to see which aunt, uncle or grandparent was there posting info for her or waiting for her to join them in the chat room. The possibilities are practically endless. I want Madison to feel that her family is close to her always, no matter how far apart we may live.

Social media makes it so much easier to reach out and touch someone. Are you using social media to stay connected with family or friends far away? Got any other ideas to share?

In November, the central Ohio chapter of PRSA (the Public Relations Society of America) is hosting two blogger-centric events. On Thursday, November 13 over the lunch hour, meet the biggest local influencers you don’t know yet – top Columbus-based bloggers – at a panel moderated by yours truly. I’m very excited by the line-up of bloggers for this event – Walker Evans, Advergirl and Ms. Single Mama. Get ready to find out how bloggers and PR folks can work together. This is a very hot topic, considering the most valuable tip I heard on today’s HARO “how to pitch a reporter” teleseminar was to pitch bloggers as a way to reach top mainstream journalists.

Then, on Wednesday, November 19, local bloggers and PR pros will meet and mingle over free appetizers and happy hour drink specials at Gordon Biersch in the Arena District. This event is free - and so fresh it’s not even posted to the site yet, but you can RSVP here by leaving a comment. It’s our first official PR pros & bloggers mixer, and hopefully the first of many.

If all that’s not enough, check out the new Columbus TechLife wiki. What a cool tool for corralling tech and social media folks in one place. Between that, Majelly and The Central Ohio Network, there’s certainly no shortage of excellent resources for new media information and events here in Columbus.

And if you’re just to the north and west of Columbus? Then check out the new Irish is an Attitude blog from the Dublin CVB, where with the luck of the Irish, you can win a gift basket of local sweets by posting a limerick or Irish proverb.

Have I missed any other cool news or happenings in the social media world of central Ohio? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

Note: I also could have posed the question on LinkedIn’s Answers forum or searched by keyword on Delicious, but I was in need of immediate assistance. Twitter did not let me down. Before mere minutes had ticked by, I was in luck – informed, educated and helpful souls were sharing their advice and experiences.

Is this a silly example? Sure. Does it illustrate the power of social search? Absolutely. Because I follow – and seek to be followed by – people who are knowledgeable about PR, marketing, social media, tech topics and central Ohio, I could have just as easily posed a serious query on any number of topics. I know my Twitter network would have come through with answers in those instances as freely as they did in the case of the dropped cookie.

Would you rather get answers from a nameless, faceless, personality-less seach engine (no offense Google et al) or from an intelligent, informed network of experts who can understand the nuances of context, uncover hidden wealths of information and still get back to you instantly?

The lesson here, for me, is to surround youself online with the kinds of people you most want to be with in person - as well as those whom you most want to be like. Are you “friending” and following anyone and everyone on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? Or are you strategically cultivating a network of expert sources and people for whom you, in turn, can be an informed and knowledgeable source?

These are important questions to ask. As important as, say, wondering whether you can still pick up and eat a cookie after inadvertently dropping it. Not that I would ever do such a thing.