Don’t Drink and Drive

“The reason not to wear an expensive shirt beneath the tshirt is JUST IN CASE the marker bleeds through the tshirt we give you. This event will be a GRAFFITI PARTY which means the first 100 people will get a t-shirt & a marker (if you don’t have one). You will then have 2 hours (8pm-10pm) to socialize as part of the contest. When you socialize with a person, write your name or twitter handle or whatever on their shirt. The person/people who met & REMEMBERS the most people and has the graffiti (and memory) to prove it at the end of the night will win! There will be other prizes as well for other things.”

It turns out this was an EXCELLENT idea and a great way to get people socializing in a fun and engaging way. Many kudos to Dan Levy (@Dan_L) for organizing this event and making it infinitely more enjoyable than the typical boring card exchange session. Also many thanks to Regina (@fragileheart) for helping to realize this fun event! GREAT JOB YOU TWO!!!

Planned two days earlier due to scheduling issues here in Toronto, there were lots of laughs, photo ops (see below) and lots of discussion – all for #socialgood. I think I remember seeing that we raised just over $200 for Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital – Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital.

They pioneer treatments, technologies, therapies and real-world programs that give children with disabilities the tools to participate fully in life.

Holland Bloorview has 600 inpatient admissions and 58,000 outpatient visits each year from across the province, Canada and around the world. Holland Bloorview serves children from birth to 19 years old with disabilities.

The Bloorview Research Institute conducts research focused on enhancing care, developing assistive technologies, and evaluating the barriers restricting inclusion of children with a wide range of disabilities including brain and spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy and genetic disorders.

http://www.hollandbloorview.ca/index.php
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bloorview-Kids-Foundatio…
http://twitter.com/Bloorview
http://twitter.com/BloorviewPR

Attendees

It was really great to meet you all – happy we did some #socialgood!

@Dan_L, @fragileheart, @GalacticPhantom, @christineestima, @kevinkvs, @jessklewis, @leanne281, @Norflow, @DanGueorguiev, @Entripy, @dezignated, @randymatheson, @brockmclaughlin, @cellguru, @courtsweet, @40deuce, @ValTorontoGal, @AlexBlom, @andreat76, @josefchak, @kevinGW, @ronwolf, me (@socialskillzcom) and many more – please let me know who I missed!

Our Part

In order to do some #socialgood, we’ve decided to donate ALL EARNINGS until November 2010 to social charities.  Our first pick is UnLtd India – see our post http://bit.ly/aMEFYI.

You Can Help Too, Right Now – With a BONUS!

That’s right, so if you’d like a double-bonus, list your social media company in our B2B social media service directory (only $10) and BAM, you’re listed AND you’ve donated $10.

Photo Ops

Here’s a few pics from the event:

#socialgood peeps at the ultra-cool Ultra Supper Club Toronto

Our humble hosts/event organizers - they did a great job!

...and I did it myyyyyyyyy waaaaaayyyyyyy.....

location, location, location....

Hey there, ladies... you like the threads?

dude, man... - I love you man....

The humble organizers and I. Many thanks!

More pics waiting for approval from subjects.

#socialgood is the hashtag being used on twitter to identify all posts about the topic.

From the Mashable page:

“We want you to get involved, so we’ve gotten together with our friends at (RED), who work to eliminate AIDS in Africa, to invite you to attend or organize a meetup in your community to celebrate, share, educate and engage in a discussion on how social media can be used to tackle some of the world’s social challenges and issues.

We’re interested in unleashing fresh thinking about how social media can raise awareness and create solutions for social issues around the world. It starts with each community coming together and contributing ideas and, more importantly, solutions. Whatever community you’ll be participating in we want to know, ‘What’s your solution?’ Let the world hear your ideas through social media!”

Read more about how you can participate in #SocialGood day.

Our Contribution

Not only are we attending the Toronto mashup for #socialgood tonight, we’ve decided to donate all earnings to various social charities during the remainder of September and October, each week donating earnings to a different social charity!

For the remainder of September, we’ll donate all earnings to UnLtd India – they “find, fund and support exceptional individuals whose ideas, passion and entrepreneurial skills can bring about long-term solutions to India’s social problems.”

At the beginning of each week we will announce which new social charity we will donate all that week’s earnings to.

Wanna Help?   List Your Site & Your $10 Gets Donated!

If you’d like to help us, you can donate directly to the charity we select, or if you are in the internet or social media business, list your site in our B2B social media services directory – we’ve already discounted signups to $10 until November, but now getting your site listed in our directory not only means you get great industry exposure and links, you are contributing to #socialgood.

Isn’t changing the world fun?!

Why To Be Remarkable

It’s actually not that hard to be remarkable, or even better, remark-able.
(Remarkable: worthy of notice or attention. Remark-able: to be worthy of mention.)

In today’s world, all that people are looking for is something out of the norm, something extra-ordinary. Being remarkable is not that hard because the norm, the ordinary has a very low bar. Just meeting the bar is normal, ordinary and ‘sane’ – it’s what everyone else is doing. This is the very definition of normal and ordinary, and what we expect as ‘sane’. But people are sick and tired of the bar being so low because the low bar means they stay where they are, and most are unhappy there – that’s why they’re hungry for the remarkable.

So be remarkable to free people from the norm, to inspire them, to give them something greater than the mediocre. Or even better, be remarkable to raise the bar – we all need it. Maybe then you’ll be remark-able – and you’ve won the game.

So what’s stopping you?

The Conundrum

Herein lies the conundrum; it’s really easy to just meet the bar – at least you’re doing what everyone else is doing – the problem is that it’s close to doing nothing. And doing the very minimum to conform is done for a reason: because being remarkable can sometimes mean being heretical or ‘different’, and we all know what happens to heretics and people who are ‘different’.

Being remarkable puts you at risk. Fear of losing control of the message is the most common reason executives procrastinate embracing social media. They have trouble creating a plan for the message, because they don’t realize the message has a plan for them. It says “I’m organic – you can’t control me”. So avoid the conundrum by following the first rule of engagement in social networks – give up control, give up control, give up control, give up control.

Therefore, if control is forgiven, and if done with the principles of social networking in mind and at heart (be sincere, focus on the individuals, not all about you, be a part of the community, everyone’s a peer – best practices for business), not being afraid to use just a little of your creativity will always lead to winning the game.

But realize – the game is with yourself. Are you willing to do what it takes to be remarkable – to win the game?

How To Be Remarkable

I just told you, use a little of your creativity, let the message be organic, and keep the principles of social networking in mind and at heart.

You can start with the 5 step process for social media success.

But, if you’re afraid or can’t imagine how to do any of that, you can always pay me a lot of money and I’ll do it for you.  Contact me here if fear or lack of creativity has you stumped.

At first I thought, “That’s a pretty crazy thing to connect – how does he think SEARCH equals SOCIAL MEDIA? – it doesn’t…” Then I thought, “He’s smarter than me, so he must have something in mind…” Then I thought, “Hmmmmmm…. search DOES equal social media….”

How Search = Social Media  (Thus Social Media = Search)

The easiest way to begin is to reverse the equation.

SOCIAL MEDIA = SEARCH

“We’re all searching for something” – it’s been said a hundred ways a million times. We are all searching for something. Whether it’s answers, companionship, friends, good times, nice things, help or solitude. We SEARCH for the things that we get from and through SOCIAL interactions, and social networks/media.

While we’re on a social network, or ‘following’ someone through a social network, we are searching. We may be searching for ways to improve our social media campaigns. Or searching for the perfect wine to have with dinner.  Or searching for a connection with old friends. Or searching for a place to travel to.  Social media brings us these things through our friends, our connections.  We use social media for ‘searching’ because it is the most effective means of finding what you’re looking for.

We don’t trust ads, big corporations, governments or ‘the system’ any more because they have deceived us too many times.

We have embraced social media so tightly, because it is our human search engine. We use our friends and connections to lead us to what we’re looking for, because we trust them.

Therefore, SEARCH = SOCIAL MEDIA

Conversely, we use search engines to find all these things as well.  Sometimes search engines bring us to a social site, like PlentyofFish or Cork’d, or sometimes it gives us answers that connect us with others through social interactions like shopping, or dining out, or movies, or business, or politics.

Search virtually always leads us to a social situation, a social interaction, or a social network. Therefore SEARCH = SOCIAL MEDIA.

Thanks for the inspiration Brett.

Do you think SEARCH = SOCIAL MEDIA?

Please let us know in the comments below.

There’s a great social media salary calculator we found over at CreativeGroup.com/SalaryCenter.

Once at the Salary Center, click “The Creative Group Salary Calculator – Start Now” button in the right sidebar. Enter your ZIP or Postal Code, then select “Interactive” from the “Job Category” menu.

They also have a great list of social media job types and descriptions.

200+ Free Social Media Icon Sets
Resource List – Pick Your Favs:

1. HONGKIAT

A great collection of 63 high quality social icon sets over at HONGKIAT.

2. WebDesignLedger

‘The best social media icons all in one place’ over at WebDesignLedger.

3. WebDesignBooth

33 beautiful social media icon sets over at WebDesignBooth.

4. komodo media

40+ social icons in 3 sizes from komodo media.

5. W3 mag

63 pro and delicious media icon sets over at W3 mag.

6. Nicolas Gallagher – Pure CSS

Pure CSS social media icons (experimental) by Nicolas Gallagher.

7. Orman Clark – vector

126 vector social media icons ‘Buddycons’ in circular or rounded by Orman Clark.

8. FreeSocialIcons.com

A full library of 100′s of various icon styles at FreeSocialIcons.com

9. Web and Designers

30 free social icon sets over at WebandDesigners.com.

10. Icon Dock – vector

80+ free vector social media icons in 6 sizes from Icon Dock.

Any other resources you can suggest?

Please leave a link in the comments below.