Today, there was a small evacuation at Grand Central Station in New York City. It was so small, in fact, that the media didn’t even pick up on it. However, all over Twitter, within minutes, the rumor mill had fueled stories of “Explosions!” “People dead!” and other mass hysteria. Except, none of it was true. There was a stray package. It was proven to be nothing, life went on as normal. In New York, we call that “10am.” So, as a former journalist (stringer for AP and Editor at AOL News) may I offer these tips on how use Twitter to report breaking or unfolding news or events. Report what you know – And only what you know to be [...]

UPDATE! TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SPOTS SOLD ALREADY. THREE TWO LEFT ONE LEFT!!!! SOLD OUT!! SOLD OUT!!! Any desire to get your company, logo, or brand image in front of thousands and thousands of people, all around the world, all throughout 2010? It’s no secret I travel a lot. It’s no secret I speak a lot at conferences, major corporations, etc. when I do. It’s no secret my Macintosh comes with me wherever I go, from Asia to Starbucks, from Australia to Whole Foods, from Newark Airport to the Tokyo Subway. So far, I’m booked for over 50 speaking gigs in 2010. I’ve already purchased airline tickets totaling over 125,000 miles SO FAR. I’m expecting this year to be busier [...]

I’m speaking at a conference in a few months – keynoting it, in fact. I’m obviously not going to mention which one, it could be any of the countless conferences at which I’m speaking over the next six months. But the person running this conference has sent me (and my assistant) no less than five emails a piece asking me to blog, tweet, or otherwise do free PR for their conference. Knowing that I have over 50,000 followers, this conference organizer suspected that getting me to tweet about my attending would be an easy way for her to get free PR. Ain’t. Gonna. Happen. I’ve built my Twitter following on what I preach in my speeches: Honesty, transparency, brevity, relevance, [...]

Co-written by Peter Shankman and Sarah Evans There’s a new phenomena of people declaring themselves social media experts. We’ve actually heard from firms who pushed someone to become their resident social media expert because the person was on Facebook. There is no endorsement or accreditation to set apart legitimate industry leaders from bandwagon opportunists. Social media is a hot topic. We get it. And we don’t want to see people getting scammed by self-touting experts ready to make a quick buck. There are very few people who could, or should in all honesty, be called social media experts. We’re sharing this list with our networks, including those not yet involved in the social media world to give them a helpful [...]

Gave a new speech in Raleigh a few days ago – I think it went well. Thoughts?