Feature segment on Washington DC's ABC news affiliate WJLA-TV (Channel 7) aired today, asking - and answering - the question: do you really care what your friends are doing? Not if it's: going to the bathroom, going to the doctor, sitting in traffic. Segment quotes me as the "expert," advising Twitterers to "put their best foot forward." And noting that "you can smell" self promotion online.

Ten minutes max. Really. There are no excuses. You can pull out the "too much time" card for getting traction with social media and social networking. But don't try it for "setting up" a Twitter account. Won't fly. Just got off the phone with author and freelance writing expert Peter Bowerman, whom I've met several times and whose books I love. We know each other well enough that I was able to razz him a bit about not being on Twitter. 

I've had the opportunity to speak with communications folks at two very large organizations in the past few days: one a Fortune 500 company, the other a national nonprofit. (Neither is a client.) Both are eager to use social media (especially Twitter) for branding and PR. Both are stifled by the silo-ing of who does what, internally and externally, in marketing, communications AND website management at their respective organizations.

Monica Guzman is a young reporter at the Seattle Post Intelligencer who was one of the few to survive the drastic cuts when the print edition was shut down in March 2009. She doesn't call herself a reporter, however. The new terminology is news gatherer and she is expected to be as adept at creating videos, Twittering, blogging (she's the main contributor to the Seattle PI's The Big Blog), public speaking and maintaining the paper's website as

What was White House Director of New Media Macon Phillips doing on a conference stage at 4 PM Eastern today, hours before President Obama's pivotal address to Congress on healthcare reform? Good question, lobbed by old media celeb Kojo Nnamdi (at R in pic). Kojo was interviewing Macon before an audience of 300 or so at the end of Day 1 of the Gov 2.0 Summit. "Well this is the place to be," Macon replied. "The President makes a lot of speeches

I twittered a lot yesterday, along with dozens of others attending the Gov 2.0 Expo here in D.C. Is that a sin? This morning I awoke to a "suspended account due to strange activity." (I have submitted a help ticket.) Twitter hashtag #gov20e became a trending topic yesterday. Are we to be punished for that? Apparently I’m not the only person this morning with the problem.  @timoreilly and @gov2events are also suspended.