I have never been accused of being a day late and a dollar short – ever.

Yesterday, I was  setting up tweets to help get the word out about Jeff Pulver coming to Madison for a #140Conf Tweetup in my mobile office, aka my Prius, in the parking lot of the Radisson Hotel on the westside.  I had a sinking feeling as I looked at the time that I was late. OMG!  It was 12:30 pm and The Tweetup began at Noon.  I shut my computer down, buckled it into the seatbelt and deftly planned the cross town drive to The Century House at 3420 University Drive.

Tweet what?

While driving, I was evaluating my path due to the construction on University in this area. As I pulled into The Century House parking lot, I noted it was conveniently located beside Panerra for some fresh coffee and even a quick sandwich before, during or after the event.  I was a little disappointed when I walked in and there was no one there.  I asked,

“Where is the Tweetup with Jeff Pulver  taking place?  Acknowledged with blank stares, I continued.  Am I in the wrong place?  Was the abundant parking too good to be true? Did I have to go to the other location?”

No – I was just there on the wrong day.  “Its on Friday, August 27,” clarified the sales staff.

So I looked at some of the most wonderful leather furniture and wood office desks I have seen. You see they have this “stressless” leather furniture that really helped me relax when I tried it out.  Delightful and it will make our Tweetup today even better knowing that we can stand and look or sit and relax in one of the most designy ( is that a word?) locals in Madison.

Thanks to Jacob (@thecenturyhouse) for hosting this event at Noon to 2 pm at The Century House – Home and Office Store at 3420University . There is plenty of parking at the back of the building if the lunch crowd packs the front.

So what’s this all about?

The #140conf events provide a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business. Its about 140 characters.

According to Jeff Pulvers blog:

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Oh. Little did I know.

As I type, I’m surrounded by awesomeness I crave to tweet – local goat cheeses purchased at the Damariscotta Farmers’ Market, tasty vittles at unassuming little seaside shacks , my early AM run with the wild turkeys, a newly reacquainted love for and admiration of the local “rag” the Lincoln County News, and other grand adventures and musings. Yet I’m absolutely, utterly, digitally alone. No AT&T wireless = no foursquare. No Twitter! No Yelp! No Google Maps! No need for #hashtags! Help!

Good god, when wireless becomes available it’s like air to a suffocating man! Otherwise owning an iPhone in Downeast Maine is just a glorious lesson in frustration, a technological neutering of epic proportions. I recall the social media power that was once at my fingertips. I was a god. A god!!! Now I can’t even spell pretzle. (No dictionary.com application access!) This, my friends, is humbling.

Yet it’s also quite beautiful, taking a moment to live in the moment, vs blocking someone’s egress with my spontaneous tweeting. The clicking of the camera lens aside, my iPhone makes nary a peep – occasionally reminding me of some Gmail calendar synched event I must not miss. Such as cookies by the coastline, a daily occurence at 4 PM EST. (You really should join me.)

I’ll admit I want to stay here in Maine. Not for the fabulous views and wonderful, wonderful people, but truly because so much work needs to be done here on the social media front for small businesses - it’s a mobile media wasteland! Thankfully this work can’t begin in earnest until AT&T and other providers get their act together and pipe some signal into these rural areas, so there’s no rush. However I can’t help but think about all the social media success stories I hear from Madison’s small businesses and dream of the day these stories can be told in Downeast Maine too. For surely there are some stories to be told – if they can only get a signal to tell them in 140 characters or less…

Details will be available here for those interested parties, should be a good time – hope to see you there! Rumor has it that the Tweetup will be held from noon – 2:00 PM at the Century House on 3420 University Ave. Nice location!

Madison's own Steve Olsen goes on the social media interview of a lifetime!

When I worked at Hiebing, a local ad agency, I was fortunate enough to work with Steve Olsen, who at the time was an account executive. A nice kid, Steve had that go-getter spirit we all love to be around. I knew he’d go on to do great things, but I had no idea what was in store for him. (That being said, he probably didn’t either!)

When Adidas Golf partnered with Yahoo! HotJobs on a social media campaign to search for two candidates who would participate in a head-to-head showdown/globetrotting golf adventure taking them to nine countries on three continents over 50 days, whodathunk a young lad from Wisconsin would make the cut? After more than 1.1 million searches for candidates,  Adidas Golf  selected Steve to participate in its “Wear in the World Adventure 2″ with the winner earning a chance to become the company’s new social media catalyst.

Okay, so the title is a little hokey. But supporting your local Badger isn’t! It’s super cool to see a local Madison resident on the global social networking scene, and when I learned about Steve’s adventure on Facebook,  I couldn’t help but get the word out to our Social Media Club members and allies. Let’s see if we can’t get Steve hired!

Support your local Badger Steve by voting for him online. (Don’t forget to tweet your support on Twitter too – Steve’s Twitter handle is @SteveWITW so help spread the word!) You can also follow Steve’s golf antics via Facebook!

It’s pretty darn cool to see a Badger take the world by storm, even if it is *just* golf. (Kidding!!)

Go get ‘em Steve!

This is your iPhone on foursquare

So…still not on foursquare? How sad. (For you!)

In anticipation of next week’s Social Media Breakfast in Madison on the topic of Foursquare for the Madison Business Community, here’s a quick list of foursquare’s official venue partners in the Greater Madison area. These businesses are on the cutting-edge of social media promotions, so do your duty as good little Social Media Club of Madison members and support them. (And tweet your support!)

Tip: If you take advantage of Barriques’ “Cookie Monster” or “Scone Fanatic” foursquare promotion like I did yesterday, give your new-found cookie booty to a friend. It’s the perfect way to pass on the social media love offline! Keep in mind these foursquare deals could change daily – you never know what you’ll find, that’s all part of the fun. (Yes, it’s fun.) From coffee, to brats to hotel room discounts, there’s a little something for everyone. Sweet!

Official foursquare venue partners in Greater Madison (according to foursquare)

Absolute EyeCare (Monona)

10% off your eye exam for the mayor.

Barriques (Madison), Barriques Coffee Trader (Madison), Barriques Wine Cave (Madison), Barriques Market (Fitchburg), Barriques Coffee (Middleton)

Scone Fanatic Special! Buy one scone, get one free when you check in today.

Ian’s Pizza (Madison)

Free drink when you get a salad and a slice for the mayor!

Sconnie Nation (Madison)

Free shirt for the mayor!

State Street Brats (Madison)

Free Brat Basket and soda once per day as long as you remain Mayor!

Super 8 (Verona)

15% off any room available on arrival with your first check-in!

Underground Printing (Madison)

Free shirt for the mayor!

Zimbrick Honda (Madison), Zimbrick Honda Service Center (Madison), Zimbrick Infiniti of Madison (Madison), Zimbrick Isuzu Service (Madison), Zimbrick Buick/GMC West (Madison), Zimbrick Saab & Used Imports Superstore (Madison)

$5 off oil changes for the mayor!

If you know of any other Greater Madison area businesses with deals/promotions on foursquare, feel free to add ‘em in the comments section – I’d appreciate it!

Chris Brogan, Wendy Soucie and our Hotdoggers - Rachel and Tara

find the card to properly get the last name) both of Oscar Mayer who assisted in giving Chris Brogan the most awesome send off back to Boston. After having a great breakfast at a local food local area restaurant in Sun Prairie, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile showed up at Chris’s hotel to take him on the ride of his life.

Our two ‘Hotdoggers’, Rachel and Tara, were perfect guides and ambassadors of Oscar Mayer. We can be proud!

What did you think about the Chris Brogan presentation?

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Introducing the Brookie, a Bloom Bake Shop original

Today was the Middleton Big Event in – where else – Middleton, WI, and a few members of the Social Media Club got together to hit Bloom Bake Shop in time to see the 1:00 PM ribbon cutting. (Where DO they get those gigantic scissors? Can WE get a pair?) The ribbon-cutting ceremony was a hit – as were the Brookies, a special Bloom Bake Shop brownie-cookie hybrid of deliciousness, and much merriment was had by all. I’m quite pleased (and a tad bit ashamed to admit it) that I became the Mayor of Bloom Bake Shop on foursquare today – my first mayorship to date on this geolocation social application. For now that means I get bragging rights only, but I’m cool with that until Bloom adds a free coffee or treat to the deal. Drool!

But I digress!

Personal pseudo-accomplishment aside, while I was checking into locations like a foursquare fiend, I noticed Barriques (down the road a spell) was having a foursquare special – a buy one baked good, get one free offer. You’ll remember Barriques recently got on the whole foursquare bandwagon – an awesome thing – a few weeks back. While at this point I already had two brookies from Bloom, I’d never actually unlocked a foursquare deal before. So why not check it out I figured? The group was cool with this social media experiment and off we went to Barriques to do the baked good deed. Once at Barriques, I ordered a refreshing sport iced-tea, checked-in on foursquare and unlocked the baked good promotion! Unfortunately the cashier had never seen or heard of the foursquare promotion, but flagged down the store manager to ask. The manager remembered seeing something about foursquare in an internal email, but hadn’t ever used foursquare and didn’t understand how the social network worked, how the promotion itself worked, or if I’d done the necessary steps to get the deal. I could be a shady fellow, you know! (With a moniker like Fancy_Lad? Oh please.) But the day was saved when I used my trusty iPhone to walk the manager through my check-in process on foursquare and showed her exactly how I unlocked the deal and what the deal was. Once she saw it step by step, I was able to get my two-for-one cookies and trust me, no cookies have been quite so tasty – I worked for ‘em! The manager is in-line to get a smartphone (hopefully an 4G) ASAP – I know she’ll love it!

The Barriques booty - well worth the lesson!

But free cookie aside – and oh, it calls my name even now – what’s really cool about this little story is our little trip turned into a social media missionary of sorts and hopefully we’ve cleared the way for future Barriques Middleton foursquare users, and now the extra-fun part begins. I get to blog about the adventure, upload photos, Tweet, link, tag, give sponsors a little love and – oh yeah! – shamelessly plug the Brogan After Dark social on Monday – hope to see you ALL there, it’s gonna be a blast. Just wait until you see the door prize – who stuffs a Wienermobile? The Social Media Club of Madison, that’s who! (Oh the fun we’ll have.)

I gotta say, I love this social media stuff and helping others dig it too. I encourage you and your fellow Social Media Club members to get out there and have your own field trip. Use foursquare and go nuts – and don’t forget to tell us about what YOU did and how you helped spread social media literacy in your community. After all, this is a social club. Engage!

Mark Anderson (American Family Insurance) showing off his TV interview attire

When you want to learn something about social media who do you turn to? When Christine Bellport of NBC Channel 15 in Madison wanted to get to the people in the know about social media and the upcoming Chris Brogan presentation on this subject they called in the ‘A Team’.  That is  Jan Moen, Executive Director of Accelerate Madison, Mark Anderson on the Social Media Team at American Family Insurance (and board member on the Madison SMC) and Wendy Soucie, Co-Manager of the Social Media Breakfast Madison and chair-elect for Madison SMC.

Here is a quick behind the scenes look on June 17, the day of our TV interview. Did you catch it on the 11 am news? Note Christine mentioning she wanted to cover social networking on the morning news program?  Let’s tap into our collective knowledge and get everyone preparing for their own TV interview.

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