Do the Huddle

This blog is now officially 6 months old. Thank you for all of the support. I’ve been using social media since 2008, and started my first blog (you’re reading it) and podcasts (Red Wild Show) in 2010. I’m gradually gaining a larger social media presence than I ever imagined, with more than 500 Twitter followers. They are eclectic mix of social media types, bloggers, politicians, reporters, friends, and spammers. Not necessarily in that order.

Today in Bismarck, my podcast parnter in crime, Scott Wild kicked off a new social media experiment we’re calling the Social Media Huddle. You can find it at www.socialmediahuddle.com or on Twitter @socialhuddle. It will be a monthly and possibly weekly event, webcast live on Ustream.tv, if we can ever get the cameras/computers/software to talk nice to each other. It will also be available as a podcast. Join us if you can. We’re just a bunch of North Dakotan’s, who think they know what they’re talking about, having an unscripted roundtable discussion about anything and everything. Even Charlie Sheen.

Really. Today’s inaugural discussion was about Charlie Sheen’s new “winning” meme and his more on than off troubles, and what people who want to “break into” social media can learn from it. Regardless of what you feel about him, he has garnered a huge following, and social media gives him an unfiltered (and uncensored) access to those followers.

That’s what I like about this blog. Not Charlie Sheen, but the way it allows me to connect in to the people who read my postings. This all started out as a way to stay connected with friends wanting updates about Shannon’s treatment. I’ve never blogged before, but I had a fair Twitter following to begin with, a large number of Facebook friends, and I was writing about a topic that affects far too many people in the world. One thing I’ve learned in the 6 months this blog has been live, you’re never too far from an impromptu cancer support group.

But I never wanted this to be just “that cancer blog.” If I think I have something worthwhile to say on other topics, I want to share it with you. And if you get some benefit out of it, then all the better. Shannon says I should write a book. Maybe I should. For now, I’ll just stick to the blog.