Five in the Morning – Finale

Yes, it’s true. Today, after nearly 100 Five in the Morning posts (including guest posts by other bloggers), I’m bringing the series to a close.

Why? Well, mainly it’s a matter of time – there are some other priorities that now require more of my attention. Creating Five in the Morning posts, as fun and fulfilling as it is, can be quite time-consuming. Plus, there is that existential sense that “it’s time” – major goals have been met of exposing people to a variety of great bloggers and resources, and other creative ideas are striving for attention.

Of course, the StickyFigure blog will continue on, as it did before Five in the Morning, so you can expect my usual brilliant insights and world-changing ideas right here – just not daily, perhaps.

A big part of the fun of Five in the Morning has been the interaction with you, the audience, and the participation of other bloggers who have guest-hosted. We’ve enjoyed guest entries from Cam Beck, Mike Sansone, CB Whittemore, Olivier Blanchard, Tom Clifford, Connie Reece, Chris Wilson, Lisa Hoffmann, Arun Rajagopal, Amber Naslund, Mack Collier, Becky Carroll, Matt J McDonald, Ken Burbary, Beth Harte, Karen Swim, and Doug Meacham.

And while we’ve pointed to plenty of posts from “name-brand” bloggers like Seth Godin, Jason Falls, Geoff Livingston, Chris Brogan, John Jantsch, Jeremiah Owyang, Doug Karr, David Armano, Liz Strauss, Charlene Li, Ann Handley, Valeria Maltoni, Shannon Paul, and other luminaries, I hope you’ve subscribed to some of the very smart, but lesser-known lights after seeing their posts featured.

If there is to be a “legacy” to this little series, my hope is that some of you with particular areas of expertise (PR, Design, Writing, Branding, Non-profits, etc.) would become consolidators as well, pulling together great posts (maybe on a weekly basis) for your audiences. Yes, it’s work, but it’s a wonderful way to meet new people, and, done rightly, it can drive more traffic to your blog over time. I will happily link to others who pick up the torch and become info-scouts for the rest of us.

OK, so for your Friday, here’s a Fabulous Final Five. OK, Six. I never was great at math.

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Kiss the next hour good-bye. 2009 ReBrand Winners. Sweet bunch of links showing before/after. Seriously – your day of planned productivity is over. You are GND.

Using Twitter to land a job. Who doesn’t like a success story like this? With a nice passing mention of @prSarahEvans.

How do you keep customers happy? Jay Ehret, @themarketingguy, says to focus on the experience. And at the Brains on Fire blog, here is a fabulous example, with the spotlight on a local Whole Foods store.

[this space reserved for a designated non-mention of Skittles]

How much Money is $1 Trillion? The Anatomy of a Sticky Illustration. Nicely done. Hat tip: Cam Beck.

Give First. Amen. From Mitch Joel‘s Six Pixes of Separation blog.

PLUS: Tabasco advertising. No words needed. Hat Tip: Brand Flakes for Breakfast blog.

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Thanks for tuning in for these 5 months of fun and experimentation. Oh….and I really don’t get up at 5 am most mornings. It’s really 5 (posts) delivered (early) in the morning. But while sipping my first cup of coffee between 5:30-6:00 am, I still get a chuckle out of all of you  thinking I actually get up early…!

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Business Week asks: Who’s lining up to buy Twitter?

Be sure to catch up on John Moore‘s series, highlighting the 100 Best Business Books of all time.

Do you speak Snacklish? At least Mars Inc. is showing some creativity (my take: the best a brand can hope for is to create one or maybe two words that will truly stick long-term. Not a dialect!). Of course, I don’t think the effort to re-brand Google with M&Ms (GmmGLE) is going to succeed…

From Robin Broitman: How to Boost your Social Media Productivity – A Guide for Busy People. A great collection of links.

So, what about this whole issue of paying bloggers to post? Forrester weighs in.

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From WSJ: Social Networking goes Professional. How focused professional communities are using social networking tools to better their work.

The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur (yep, not a misprint) gives us 32 Ways to Cut Costs in Business. And while you’re at it, this post from TPE on How to do Everything is also pretty good!

Matt Dickman - the Techno//Marketer – gives us the scoop on Radian6 with one of his patented thorough semi-geekish reviews. If you’re not reading Matt’s blog regularly, what are you thinking?

Shaping your blog’s brand. Good stuff from Darren Rowse over at Problogger.

Jon Swanson reviews two books on success. Which one was more life-changing?

PLUS: Tom Peters recommends a new book from Steve Farber, called Greater than Yourself. As I recall, Drew McLellan speaks highly of Farber, so with those 2 witnesses, it must be good!

AND: This was just too funny not to include. Really. Just click. Thanks, Jaffe!

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Should brands think like start-ups? “Aim…fire…adjust…aim…fire…adjust…” What do you think? From David Knox, via @prblog (Kevin Dugan).

Measuring on-line influence. After you get through all the verbiage, I think a lot of it boils down to…the very last sentence. Micah Baldwin on Mashable.

From the Duct Tape Marketing blog, a podcast interview with Amber Naslund on Monitoring and Measuring Social Media. I’ll FINALLY get to meet Amber IRL at SXSW!

Rachel Happe on her Job Search 2.0. How her network is coming into play as she searches for her next position. Increasingly, what Rachel is talking about will be the new way we all find work…

So, how did Skittles do with their Twitter-fed attention campaign? WSJ has the scoop. Pretty impressive.

PLUS – Jon Stewart shakes his fist at Twitter. Pretty funny.

AND – where I’ll be this spring, if our paths can intersect at various conferences/events.

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From deep in the heart of Texas, the sun has risen on Five in the Morning for Friday. Cam Beck, he of Chaos Scenario blogging fame, has taken the reigns today to point us to 5 Friday posts – thanks, Cam!

Cam is one of the those bloggers that I’ve had the privilege to meet in real life, and I like him thoroughly – even if our first attempt to use ooVoo to communicate on-line was done with sign language, since he didn’t have a microphone handy!

Visit his blog to subscribe, and follow the Cam Man on Twitter @cambeck

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Five in the Morning decamped from NJ today to take a quick visit to none other than IOWA. Mike Sansone, that partriarch of Mid-America bloggers, that mentor of many, Chief Conductor at the Conversation Station and Founder of PaneraU, volunteered to find us five gems this morning. Go and see.

Mike is one of nicest guys I’ve pre-met (still haven’t met face-to-face!) via social networking, and if you’re not connected to him yet, be sure to subscribe to his blog when you’re there, and follow him on Twitter at @mikesansone.

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Seth Godin, on the milestone of his 3,000th blog posts, considers himself the “luckiest guy” – and, lets everyone know that the first 2,500 are the hardest! If you like what he does, send him a note of congratulations (seth at squidoo dot com).

Marketing Basics: Conversation. An excellent summary and set of links from that folliclly-challenged Texas marketer, Jay Ehret.

Top Documentary films – an interesting on-line resource for your viewing pleasure. Hat tip: Director Tom Clifford.

Your Pitch Sucks? An interesting service provided by Jim Kukral and a team of PR pros. I like this business model – using on-line tools to rapidly offer distributed, scalable, on-demand expertise. In this case, in the much-needed area of creating GOOD press releases! My question for some of you: can you create a similar business model in your niche area of expertise?

Tom Peters. From Action to Excellence. 57 very pithy points.

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This morning, let’s talk a little bit about ego, selling, and success…

How to Sell with a Clear Conscience – This is great stuff to mull over if you’re involved in selling in any way. It took me many years to grasp my selling “style”. From the Men with Pens blog.

Self-Promotion Reluctance – Karen Swim explores the theme of hesitancy to self-promote in Caressing you Softly with my Song. Self-promotion begins with a belief that we are capable. Your dreams will never come true if you don’t take the steps to make them happen. You may sing like an angel, but no one will know if you never open your mouth and let your voice be heard.

Copyblogger discusses Jack Welch – What a Cocky CEO can teach you about World-Class Blogging. What was the key to his success? Certainly more than one factor contributed to it. But if I was to name one singular and solitary reason for his dominance I’d say it’d have to be his philosophy to cut any businesses that GE couldn’t be #1 or #2 in…How can this idea help you in blogging? Easy. Figure out what market you can enter where you are guaranteed to be #1 or #2.

From Mashable: Does Social Media make us better people? My take: It certainly can, if we use it properly – and, as the blog posts suggests, the instant exposure of social media can help throttle down bad behavior. But people are people, and I think we’ll always see a mix of goodness and folly in any method of communicating.

Here’s a minimalistic Twitter Rule Book. Is it really just…all about you? What do you think? Agree? Disagree? From Danny Brown. And while we’re thinking about Twitter, here’s how Kris Colvin is using it (7 Habits!) to succeed in business.

Finally – if you know people involved with corporate training, can you help me out with something?

Oh, and btw…Fast Company has a nice new look. Check it out.

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Five in the Morning gets super-sized today – we have 2 guest-bloggers contributing posts, to make it Ten in the Morning (some of you late sleepers really like this thought…!)

First up, some posts from the usual geographical area of north Jersey – but guest-hosted by blogging colleague CB Whittemore. One of my favorite people whom I’ve met through social media, Christine is an active community participant and a whole lot of fun to tweet next to at a conference. She’s also known to hand out pink pens.

So, go see what link-goodness CB has for us today – and while you’re there, be sure you subscribe to her blog, and don’t forget to follow her on Twitter (@cbwhittemore)!

And, as if that’s not enough, the loquacious Olivier Blanchard gives us a handful of his finds, over at the Brand Builder blog. South Carolina blogger/marketer/aspiring photographer, Olivier is a great guy to follow – and if you want to know a whole bunch more about him, and mascot Chico, this is your spot. GO visit his blog, and find him on Twitter at @thebrandbuilder.

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Before we begin, may I just take a moment and say how much I enjoy interacting with you, my readers, in these early-morning excursions through the blogosphere? It’s fun to find a few goodies each day (so much to choose from!), but it’s even more fun to dialogue with you about stuff you found helpful or interesting.

OK, on with the show…

The Four Horsemen of the Startup. Brief and to the point. Four attitudes to avoid if you’re an entrepreneur starting a company. From the wise and friendly Doug Karr.

Animated advertising icons – the power of strong branding in advertising. Watch this quick clip. From BrandFreak blog.

In Business Week, a profile of social media pioneer Beth Kanter. Nice.

Which businesses are on Twitter? Check out this uber-list on Twibs. Wow. (hat tip: Brand Flakes for Breakfast).

From the Church of the Customer blog, 5 Questions with Emanuel Rosen (on buzz, word of mouth, and marketing). Good stuff.

PLUS – just for fun: 25 “Hidden” Things in Facebook’s Terms of Use (spoof).

Finally – are you going to Blogger Social ’09? Last year’s event was a slam dunk – 80 bloggers from around the world getting together in NYC to get social. This year, the upper limit is 100, and it’s in Boston. Details here – I’ll be there!

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“And now for something completely different…” – a Connecticut filmmaker guest-hosts Five in the Morning. Blogging buddy Thomas Clifford (Director Tom, he of the ubiquitous beret) kindly offered to take us on a tour of five blog posts that interest him, including – and this is COMPLETELY different – quantum activism. Hmmm.

Check it out! And, if you’re not subscribing to Tom’s blog, be sure to do so, and follow him on Twitter (@thomasclifford) post-haste!

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Lon Cohen shares his “Twitter professors” on the Mashable blog – 18 key people he follows who provide ongoing education on a variety of topics. Some known, and not-so-well-known, names listed here.

Who doesn’t like a nice list? Here’s 60 of the best SEO tools. And, some Inspiring Design Links for Creatives (thanks to @brandonacox for these links, via Twitter). And, from Robin Broitman, a Superlist of How to Find, Network with, and Influence People via Social Media.

Good for what Ales you? Costco about to make a bold move – launching its own line of beers. Great strategy, especially if the taste is high-quality. The Difference is Affordability?

Good advice from Branding Strategy Insider on picking/creating a brand name effectively. Drawn from Guy Kawasaki‘s book, The Art of the Start.

Facebook blah blah blah. Terms of Service blah blah privacy blah blah – yes, it was the latest bandwagon issue for the last couple of days. Consumerist blog has some helpful updates on its initial post about this kerfuffle, including some clarifications from the Facebookers.

Can you learn anything about social media marketing from a puppy?

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I hope you enjoyed the Five in the Morning guest posts last week! It’s my intent to pass around the Five spotlight (and link love) to two guest-hosts per week, so that we get the benefit of everyone’s interests and reading lists. Thanks to Arun Rajagopal, Lisa Hoffmann, Connie Reece, and Chris Wilson for helping out while I was busy “conferencing” last week!

Alan Wolk kicks us off this morning with a provocative post: Does Creativity Still Matter? Give it a read and add your comments, esp. if you’re an advertising wonk. Good stuff.

Mining the Thought Stream. Some thoughts on TechCrunch about Twitter’s unique capacity to reveal what people are thinking. Interesting.

Mashable‘s Social Media posts, all gathered together. Great idea. Warning: potential time sink!

How to Communicate Everything You Do. Can you condense your personal message into an effective introduction? Some valuable ideas from Dan Schawbel at the Personal Branding Blog.

The Brand New blog has been on a roll this month, with some great commentary on re-branding efforts, good, bad, and awful. Scroll down and enjoy!

PLUS – The Personal ROI of Social Media. A Sunday Muse.

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PLEASE NOTE: There is reason to believe that the Google/Feedburner changeover has created “issues” with RSS feeds for my blogs (and others). Here are the feeds for my three blogs; if you’re a reader, would you please re-subscribe just to make sure? Thanks!

:: Subscribe to the StickyFigure blog (that’s this one!)

:: Subscribe to the Steve’s Leaves blog (that’s my personal blog)

:: Subscribe to the Impactiviti blog (that’s a pharma-specific blog, for my consulting business)

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Continuing the theme of “Let’s have a whole week of great guest hosts so Woodruff can sleep in for once,” today’s Five in the Morning is brought to us by that dynamo of pink boa blogging energy, Connie Reece. Connie attracts complex complimentary adjectives like magnets attract metal filings – ubiquitous, prolific, & inimitable come to mind – but all seasoned with some caring Texas kindness. Go see what Connie has cooked up for us (and subscribe to her blog and Twitter stream if you haven’t already!)

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btw, the ePharma Summit conference went very well – thanks to all who “listened in” via the live blogging on my Impactiviti blog, and the excessively noisy tweetstorm that the “Twitter Power Corner” put up during the M-W event!

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Who is “New Media Lisa”? Well, if you haven’t yet been introduced to Lisa Hoffmann (that’s 2 N’s, folks – believe me, you will be corrected!), there is no better time than now, since she is guest-hosting Five in the Morning today. Lisa is a Charlotte-based blogger and fun Twitterer – you can get a sense of her outlook from her blog “About” section:

Lisa is a copywriter by craft, a communicator at heart and a marketing maven. New media has changed the course of her life and thrills her with the possibilities….This is the place for a description of her ability to write hypnotic copy, blah, blah, blah.

Head on over and see what she’s put together for your Wednesday!

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While I’m conferencing at the ePharma Summit in Philly, we get our Five in the Morning fuel today from Chris Wilson, who is peeling 5 fresh marketing posts off the interweb, and presenting them at the Marketing Fresh Peel blog. Go see the fruit of his labors – thanks for guest-hosting, Chris!

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While I’m away at a conference (hopefully live-blogging and live-tweeting at the ePharma Summit in Philly), some very fine guest-bloggers have volunteered to take over Five in the Morning duties this week. Today – man Oman – we get to hear from Arun Rajagopal from Muscat (Sultanate of Oman). Check out his post, and explore the world of Arun while you’re on his blog!

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And, since you’re here (for the moment) on my StickyFigure blog, feel free to check out the newly-deployed SteveWoodruff.com, where all my on-line “stuff” is linked.

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We picked up and moved all the way to the Left Coast today! That diva of all-things-customer, Becky Carroll, guest-hosts Five in the Morning over at her Customers Rock! blog (and if you’re not subscribed to her blog, remedy that situation post-haste!)

Here’s the link to her Five in the Morning post - Go! Thanks, Becky!

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fyi – the new Woodruff puppy Mystic doesn’t yet know how to do tricks, but she did set up her own Twitter account – and she has some a-t-t-i-t-u-d-e. You can get some doggie tweets by following her @mysticwood.

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Wired interviews Seth Godin at TED – Tribes, timing, and people (not ads). Classic Seth stuff. And, here’s a interesting thought from Seth’s blog, about “solving a different problem.”

Razorfish data tying consumer social media activity to purchase behavior – “there are significant differences in both engagement and spend between those who discovered the application or widget through media, versus those who were referred by friends. ..those who discovered the application via a friend were almost four times more likely to download the application.  They were also more likely to spend money on the client site and spent much more on average.”

From Derrick Daye at Branding Strategy Insider (Hi Derrick – long time no e-contact!), something we really shouldn’t have to say: When Naming turns Deceitful. Some classic examples here.

John Moore riffing on Ted Mininni riffing on coffee…follow the links for some good discussion. My take – it’s not all about coffee taste. It’s also the experience. Getting a cup of coffee at home (8 O’Clock), or at McDonald’s, or at DD, is…well, boring, compared to Starbucks. Starby’s not only has to preserve their unique taste position, they have to make sure that having coffee at their destination is qualitatively different. But you all knew that…

A Fast Company article that you simply have to read, for its throught-provokingness…

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PLEASE NOTE: There is reason to believe that the Google/Feedburner changeover has created “issues” with RSS feeds for my blogs (and others). Here are the feeds for my three blogs; if you’re a reader, would you please re-subscribe just to make sure? Thanks!

:: Subscribe to the StickyFigure blog (that’s this one!)

:: Subscribe to the Steve’s Leaves blog (that’s my personal blog – you’ll see a story from there below)

:: Subscribe to the Impactiviti blog (that’s a pharma-specific blog, for my consulting business)

Five in the Morning road-trips to Alabama!

Yes indeed, Five in the Morning has taken a journey south today, to the fine state of Alabama. Mack Collier (of The Viral Garden blog fame) took over as guest-host, and he has five fine blog posts for your Wednesday morning. What are you waiting for? GO there!

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Geoff Livingston over at the Buzz Bin has some meaty thoughts about personal branding vs “team social media” within a larger company. This is a valuable discussion. Personal branding for a solo entrepreneur is one thing, but how do we approach putting a “face” on an organization when interacting with the world at large? Just for the fun of it, here’s a mega-post with a bunch of recent links touching on personal branding, from David Petherick.

Mario Sundar is on a tear on his personal blog. First, Using social media to help your friends find a job (this is a real passion of mine). Then, Perfectionism ain’t Bliss -  just do it and don’t worry about making it perfect. And finally, some lists of Twitter worthies to follow. Mario, for those who don’t yet follow him, is LinkedIn’s chief blogger; he also maintains his own personal blog.

Image Recognition Software/Service – from TechCrunch blog. This is a big deal, actually. There are so many images now published on-line, a huge challenge is going to be finding/sorting/identifying/filtering. Here is one company (Milabra) that’s making a run at it, and their solution sounds very promising.

It’s easy to just listen to the voices that you already agree with. We also need to consider other points of view, lest we become infected with group-think, or an inflated sense of self-importance. This muse/rant by Kevin Palmer is a needed corrective as we consider the place of social media in the world. Guest post is found on Social Media Explorer blog – it must be good, because I rarely point to the same blog 2 days in a row (nice job, Jason Falls)!

Downturn. We’re in it. From the NY Times Small Business Toolkit section – Lessons Learned from Hard Times Past. There’s a surprise quote in there…

PLUS – What Happened to your Nose? The latest from Ann Handley‘s A N N A R C H Y blog. If you’re not subscribing to this wonderful treasure of muses and amusements, you should be (Ann – the Zamboni reference is a stroke of genius!)

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PLEASE NOTE: There is reason to believe that the Google/Feedburner changeover has created “issues” with RSS feeds for my blogs (and others). Here are the feeds for my three blogs; if you’re a reader, would you please re-subscribe just to make sure? Thanks!

:: Subscribe to the StickyFigure blog (that’s this one!)

:: Subscribe to the Steve’s Leaves blog (that’s my personal blog – you’ll see a story from there below)

:: Subscribe to the Impactiviti blog (that’s a pharma-specific blog, for my consulting business)

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PLEASE NOTE: There seems to be reason to believe that the Google/Feedburner changeover has created “issues” with RSS feeds for my blogs. Here are the feeds for my three blogs; if you’re a reader, would you please re-subscribe just to make sure? Thanks!

:: Subscribe to the StickyFigure blog (that’s this one!)

:: Subscribe to the Steve’s Leaves blog (that’s my personal blog – you’ll see a story from there below)

:: Subscribe to the Impactiviti blog (that’s a pharma-specific blog, for my consulting business)

Now, on to the show…

Your Culture is Your Brand. From Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. Yes, it was written a month ago, but even in Internet time, ongoing relevance can still apply after 30 days! With the Internet connecting everyone together, companies are becoming more and more transparent whether they like it or not. An unhappy customer or a disgruntled employee can blog about bad experience with a company, and the story can spread like wildfire by email or with tools like Twitter. The good news is that the reverse is true as well. A great experience with a company can be read by millions of people almost instantaneously as well.

Gavin Heaton, the Servant of Chaos, has been churning out some thought-provoking stuff. Here’s a quick read on The Three Stages of Twitter Commitment. And, a very interesting (& longer) post on Happy to be Incomplete, which discusses a river we all must cross (esp. those of us with perfectionistic tendencies – something I know a little bit about).

Lists of 100 _____ (whatever) can be pretty imposing. But if you’re a LinkedIn user looking to use that network more effectively, this may be a gold mine for you. 100+ Smart Ways to use LinkedIn. From Scott Allen.

Are you a Twitter user, curious about why certain posts get Retweeted more than others? Here’s an interesting little study by Dan Zarrella, on The 20 Words and Phrases that will get you the most Retweets.

This is a great thought from Jason Falls, and worthy of robust discussion in the comments. What Happens when Transparency goes Wrong? There’s a lot of information about people (us) floating around out there – how will it be used??

PLUS – A Sunday rumination on Puppy Love. From Steve’s Leaves.

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Hey – where did “Five” go??

To Chicagoland today – courtesy of blogging friend Amber Naslund on her Altitude Branding blog. The link brings you to her post – and if you’re not already a subscriber to Amber’s blog (and Twitter tweets), you’ll want to rectify that right away.

Why are we incorporating Five in the Morning guest hosts? One reason is to bring in a wide variety of voices – each guest writer has particular interests and expertise, reads his/her own set of resources, and has a unique take on things. We want to share the spotlight by shining on many blogs, and exposing you to lots of new voices. We have two more top-notch contributors lined up already for next week!

And – much to my chagrin yesterday morning – in my rush to get out to the ski slopes, I forget to put a “pointer” post here on StickyFigure to Thursday’s wonderful Five in the Morning post guest hosted by that Servant of Chaos in Australia, Gavin Heaton. You probably saw the Twitter notifications for his Five, but just in case you missed it, here’s the link!

(the skiing was wonderful, by the way. It had been years since I’ve had a chance to hit the slopes, and while I’ve never been a great skiier, I managed to stay upright and not self-destruct. The biggest thrill was seeing my two youngest boys make tremendous progress in their abilities – the 7-year old went from falling on 50% of his turns on the “Sugar Slope” to making it all the way down multiple times without falling – all in one day!)

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10 Ways Social Media will Change in 2009. From ReadWriteWeb. Mostly self-evident stuff, but everyone on Twitter was re-tweeting it, so it must be authoritative and all that…right?

Rohit Bhargava gives us Six Non-salesy Ways to Ask your Customer to Promote You.

Chip and Dan Heath write for Fast Company on Incentives – Irresistible, Effective, and Likely to Backfire. Thought-provoking and a bit amusing.

9 Blog Failures and Remedies. Good, practical stuff from Jay Baer.

While we’re doing 6 this, 9 that, 5 the other – here’s 10 Ways to Increase your Twitter Followers. Actually, this isn’t one of “those” posts (“I got 6 billion Twitter followers in 7 days!!”) – these are pretty helpful practices, from someone who should know, Kevin Rose.

PLUS: From Jon Swanson. Reverberant Silence. Just read it – and think.

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It’s great when we move beyond virtual, into real-life. Enjoyed a great tweetup last night in NYC (thanks, Chris Kieff and Ripple6!) with Jason Falls, CK, David Polinchock, CB Whittemore, Jon Burg, and many others.

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Today’s feature will be a little different – I’m going to point you to just one blog that has a whole set of interesting, well-designed posts. David Berkowitz has provided a fabulous set of session summaries from the 1-day OMMA social event – really great stuff. Thanks, David (link is to David’s  Inside the Marketer’s Studio blog – scroll down to see the string of posts)!

AND, just for variety – another Twitter-fueled customer service success story, from Cam Beck. We’ll see more and more of this.

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