1. Don’t think I have the time
2. Don’t have anything valuable to say
3. Don’t think I have anything valuable to say
4. Everyone else has already said what I wanted to say
5. Not in the mood
6. No one is going to comment on the post anyway
7. Not allowed to write about what I am working on
8. I want to make sure my wife’s blog gets all the attention
9. My first amendment rights have gotten enough exercise lately
10. …Twitter

So why don’t you blog more often?

Friend and social media enthusiast Erica O’Grady alerted me last night to a little legal dust up that forced the Digg like site with a woman’s touch to change its name from Sk!rt to Kirtsy.com

I met the founders briefly during SxSW and think they are some pretty cool women. While I am bummed they had to go through this, am very happy it is earlier in their growth. Might even be just the sort of thing that gets them enough attention to bust out over the top and get some real traction with new users (though having all the current users updating links on their posts and sites has gotta be tough).

The Bloggess has a great and snarky post that gets into some of the details (and a bit of the speculation regarding the allegedly evil penises behind the forced name change). Ellen Centor has a more legally oriented retelling of the tale on Blogher, complete with some of the dates and legal reasoning behind it.

Update: to make it clear, I think Morriss was within its rights to seek the protection of the courts on this (as anyone with a legal background who reads the account on Blogher will tell you) they clearly have been working on a digital strategy for their new site and brand for some time as you can tell by visiting their site Skirt.com and reading the story behind the publication, which includes the many years of history the editor has in advance of this little dustup.

Was very glad to finally catch up with Brian Shields of KRON4 at the Web 2.0 Expo. Brian is doing some great work over there, bringing new media and social media to a traditional media company.

I sat down with Chris Brogan and Kris Smith (with special driveby guest Chris Messina) for a great podcast on BTRex during our last full day of SxSW this year which you can listen to here. We had a rollicking good time talking about social media and so much more. Some portions of it are potentially NSFW, and some aspects are not fully PC, but if your sensibilities can get beyond those minor issues, this is one heckuva entertaining and informative podcast.

I still love the line I laid down during the opening section, “Serendipity is a weapon!” gotta love it.. and be careful of it.

It looks like we are going to have a good turn out on Thursday morning for the Social Media Breakfast, but we would love to see you there too. Jeff Pulver will be in town as our host / guest / leader which makes this quite a special event.  If you didn’t see it, there was this great article on the event and Jeff’s Social Networking Toolkit in Fortune a few weeks ago called “Geography, social media and breakfast.”  Of course, Jeff has done a great job further expanding on an idea Bryan Person started last August in Boston.

Please do register for the Social Media Breakfast on Eventbrite if you are planning on coming so we can have a decent head count.  Breakfast is at the “world famous” Sears Diner by Union Square in San Francisco, where we will be meeting downstairs…  A big thanks to Cathryn Hrudicka of Creative Sage for helping to put this together with Jeff, and for being such a strong supporter in our community.

This is exactly the sort of thing we want to promote more of through Social Media Club, and was one of the community events we spoke about bringing into what we called the “Coalition of the Willing” at SxSW last week (more on that soon).

Our panel at last week’s SxSW Interactive conference was by far the best panel I have ever had the pleasure to join.  Self Replicating Awesomeness: The Marketing of No Marketing included Deb Schultz, Jeremiah Owyang, Tara Hunt, Hugh Macleod and David Parmet who are each absolutely brilliant in their own way, and some of my favorite peers in this field.  You really should listen to the audio (where is it?) and I really should do a better recap post then just linking to the Google Search Results, but a few things have been bouncing around in my head for the past few days I wanted to share with you now.

First, several people are attributing to me something I quoted from the CEO of iProspect, Fredrick Marckini, who said “The brands with the best storytellers win.”  I wish I could take credit for that awesome insight, but Fredrick deserves the credit.  More people should set the story straight when they are standing on the shoulders of our peers - it is a shame so many seemingly smart people quietly sit by and take credit for the work of others, but that is a separate story.

Most importantly, there are three major thoughts about marketing that I have been thinking about deeply that I want to share with you now.  The first is my definition of marketing, the second is about marketing’s place in the product lifecycle and the third is about marketings interaction with markets.

1. Marketing is the work we do to match a company’s product or service with the people or companies who will get the most value and/or satisfaction from it.
2. The best marketing is done during the product development process, where the needs and desires of those who will use the product or service are considered and designed into the product or service with an understanding of the broader marketplace in which they will be sold.  You can’t easily market a product that was not well made, but the iPhone sells itself.
3. Marketing is not the transactional process with which it has become associated despite its close proximity. If markets are indeed conversations, then marketing is a series of conversations intended to serve the better interests of the market. (David Weinberger has famously said ’somewhere along the way marketing became what we did TO people’)

Of course, all of this is moot if you don’t remember and live the original golden rule DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU.  In short, don’t sell people crap, don’t try to pretend that people need your crap and don’t, by any means, try to pretend your crap is not crap - because everyone knows crap when they smell it.

So this is my first draft to attempt to redefine how we think of marketing, or rather how marketing is perceived and presented.  What do you think the new golden rules of marketing should be?

Yesterday, Utterz (my client) announced its new election focused social media tool, a widget you can easily place on your blog, web site or social network, that tells the world who you are supporting in the US Presidential Election.  Unlike most of the badges that are available from the main campaign Web sites that are just GIF Banner Ads, the Utterz Voice Your Support widget contains an audio message that you personally record, telling everyone why you support your candidate.

Whether you are behind Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul or even Ralph Nader, you can get a Voice Your Support widget that activates your blog readers to understand why you are supporting your candidate of choice.  When they first announced the widget on the Utterz blog yesterday, it came out with only the top 4 candidates - but listening to the feedback from everyone, they quickly added an additional 4 widget options.  In addition to Ron Paul and Ralph Nader, they added an independent option and a ‘fix the electoral college’ option.  <plug & praise> This is what I really like about the team at Utterz - they are really responsive to the community and totally focused on their users. </plug & praise>

So enough of the pimping, I want to get more into the subject matter at hand - the elction… Perhaps you saw Larry Lessig’s excellent video on why he supports Obama - this is a powerful way to move beyond static banner ads, simple blog posts, and lawn signs, to lend your real voice and your real reasons to your candidate.  As all of us social media folks know, we trust each other, more than we trust media or institutions. This new widget allows anyone, from their computer or any telephone, to record a message and display it easily for everyone to hear.  Its so cool.

As you may have already seen, I placed a Voice Your Support widget on my blog the other day, putting my support behind Obama.  Why? Well, click the play button and listen for yourself…. ok, I am waiting.  So, as you heard, I am supporting him because I think it is time for a visionary leader - someone to see beyond this mess we are in and who isn’t held down by ‘the way its always been done’.  If we keep doing it the same way, with the same insiders, playing the same game - our game called Life may soon be over. Don’t agree?  I am up for talking about it civilly - here in the comments or over at Utterz.

I don’t ever recall seeing an advisory board announcement getting any attention, but when it is one of social media’s finest and wisest joining a great new company, I guess people notice. Yesterday Utterz announced that Chris Brogan agreed to join their Board of Advisors, which is fantastic news for everyone involved (including me since they are a client of mine at The Conversation Group).

Chris pointed out on his own blog how the ease of use and wide availability of Utterz was so important and cool “I love that the barrier to entry of using a social communication
platform is pressing 2 on their cell phone. Do you have a “2″ on your
cell phone? Yes? You’re in.”

Chris has been an active user of the service since the early days of its launch, helping other people learn to get more out of the service by using Utterz to teach, as he did here with his Utter about “5 tips for Utterz Users“. In fact, Chris introduced me to Utterz and we have a photo (on Utterz) that captured the moment down at BlogWorld Expo.

Mashable also covered the news with some a bonus prize of an interview they did with Michael Bayer, CEO of Utterz a short time ago.