Mr Business Golf

I have been tagged and I can’t be more excited.

Dave Raffaele, a talented soul who I started following on twitter (@daveraffaele) a few months ago, thought I would be a good candidate for the “7 Things You Wish You Didn’t (Or Did) Know About Me”.

That sounded pretty cool to me.

Here’s how it works:

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged

So on to the fun part. The 7 things I think you may or may not want to know about me, in no particular order, are:

Number 1

I am a great cook.  I actually was forced against my will to (and with the threat of being fired if I refused) had to go to a Chef School as a Department Team Building event.  Little did I know that everyone there was like me and it was one of the most FUN things I have done outside of going to golf school.   Yaw, I get a lot of laughs about it and some of the jocks at the golf club I am a member of rib me about having to go home to cook dinner, but it is not because I have to (which really it is) but I like to..my favorite dish is Sockeye Salmon Casserole with a Pinot base.

Number 2

I am a Blues Guitarist.  I have been playing since I was eight.  However, I was forced into taking an 18 year hiatus to raise two daughters during which I did not play a lick.  Naturally I lost my ‘chops’.  About five years ago I took my 1969 Les Paul Black Beauty out of the case and seldom have I put it down..Well, OK, only when I am playing golf.

Number 3

I am a former Real Cowboy..well, almost.  My youngest daughter wanted to ride horses and like a good daddy I obliged her for nearly 13 years which lead me into hanging out with all the dads while she learned how to ride horses.  This meant I was leaning up against a lot of pick-up trucks with other dads who were actually REAL Cowboys.  Naturally, I got asked to attend a Rodeo or two or hundred and eventually became an accomplished amateur Team Pinner.  Yes, for 10 years I walked bow-legged from sitting on a horse all weekend and had chaps and boots with custom made spurs that had my Ranch brand on them.  Now, I feel every bruise bone from being thrown off wild horses more than I did when it happened.  I can safely say that my cowboying days are over and that those where the good old days.

Number 4

I met my wife at the most obvious place for me…on the golf course.  After more than 12 years we still are playing golf together all over the country and enjoying our lives together. And yes, I admit, she has beating me in a few rounds.  That is the fun part of life for me..playing golf with the person I love.  Now my dad, daughter and grandson join in from time to time which makes up for four generations of my family on the Teebox.  Tell me another activity outside the Thanksgiving dinner table that brings the family together for four or five hours.

Number 5

I am a carpenter and remodeling expert.  35 years ago, right after high school, I started my apprenticeship for carpentry.  Being the perfectionist Virgo, I learned quickly and went beyond the carpentry.  During that training I became a project manager which lead me to spending over 20 years in part-time residential remodeling and 30 years of full-time professional project operations management for SBC (now know as AT&T).  I know the right and wrong ways of remodeling and have more than once faced off cheating General Contractors for my friends who asked me to look over the remodeling they were doing to their homes.  I have now started to offer remodeling consulting.

Number 6

I am a Fifth Generation Texan.  So what is so special about that?  Well, there are not that many 5th generation Texans around.   Only about 20 percent of the population of Texas have more than two generations born in Texas making native Texans who are 5th, 6th and 7th generations (like my grandson) the rarest Texan of them all.

Number 7

I am a card carrying 12 handicap golfer.  I, like most young adults, started playing golf in my late twenties but had to put it down, along with everything else, to raise kids.  About 15 years ago I picked golf back up which was like starting allover.  I played hundreds of rounds of golf in business over the past 15 years of my operations management career along with being part of producing over 200 golf tournaments.  It was during one of these golf outings I was introduced to the group as Mr Business Golf..which carried on with me to..well you know where.  Yes, compared to the youngsters today I am a late bloomer in playing golf, but I am bound and determine to hit single digit handicap (again) before I have to move on up to the forward tees.

Now for the Fun Part..the tag:

Rex Dixon Blog Twitter

Rex and I go back a ways.  He played an incremental part in what I am doing online today.  He hangs out at Lookery.com but is worth following.

John Lusher Blog Twitter

John and I have just met but so far is one of the most up front, laid back social mediaist on twitter.

Patricia Hannigan Blog Twitter

Patricia is one of the best Women Golf bloggers online and keeps a finger on the golf fashion world.

Nathan Kam Blog Twitter

Nathan is the man with the plan in Hawaii.

Colleen Wainwright Blog Twitter

Next month Colleen and I will be celebrating our one year anniversary of when we met in Chicago at a FuelMyBlog event.  If there ever was a wordsmith worth their salt Colleen is one.  I absolutely enjoy her intellectual comic style of blogging which carries over into her Tweets.

Alexander Muse Blog Twitter

The guru behind the Start-up Texas Blog, the SavvyShopper as well as Big in Japan businesses.

I hope you all are up for the challenge…I think it would be fun to hear more about you.

As I sit here waiting for the sun to come up and dry off the roof I am shingling this morning, I had a few thoughts I felt I needed to write down about all that has gone on this year for my businesses that make me smile and frown.  I’ll get into a full scale write up of all the happens here in the world of IBGS later, but for now the overall look of this year was balanced with as many ups as there were downs.

The big picture for me since 2004 when I retired from the fury of hectic live in corporate America is to do what I can to help people through problems I have already solved and to have fun.  So far I don’t feel I have accomplished either one so I plan on keeping at it until I find the key that starts the engine of my entrepreneurial projects which are Innovative Business Golf Solutions and its new division, Why Not Remodel?.

Friends Are the Key to Success

I have met a lot of new friends this year and threw a few back into the cesspool of deception that seems to be a natural part of the internet.  From the relationships I have made with the GOOD friends I have new insight on old insights of business and now better understand how GOOD friends balance what BAD friends try to teardown.  Generally, I leave this year with a stronger relationship with the good friends I met at the beginning of my journey out here in la-la-land.

Bad Economy New Adventure

It is really good to have a financial advisor who is not part of the big boxes and who saw the failure of the economy coming at the first of this year.  His frugalness helped me from being one of the many people who lost all of their retirement funds.  This has allowed me to hang on to my entrepreneurial projects a little longer.  With that extra time I was able to do like YOU should do..move your business to a balance of offline and online endeavors.

New Year’s Advice

I have learned a lot about how the internet works and does not work..mostly from first hand experience, but also from the Good friends who understand the true value of what I have to offer the younger generation that hangs out on the internet.  With this new found learning I now can consult people who are just venturing through the pearly gates of the Internet and some of the salty veterans who have never worked outside the internet.  My advise to all on how to handle what is going to take place starting next year is pretty simple…

If you are totally just an online business your future will go with the Spammers and if you are totally offline you are going to dry up and blow away.

For total interneters, Get serious with your efforts online, show your true self, show your true face, stake out your own space which means don’t rely on setting up your home base on Facebook, and start letting people learn who YOU are, not just what you are selling.

For the total Offliners (who are just getting here online since you are reading this), don’t open up with a full salvo of hard sales tactics…start off with building a community of people who would be part of your market.

For both: Learn something new to do..EXAMPLE: if you are a social media expert..take up golf or some other totally offline activity.  If you are a golfer, (or in some totally offline endeavor) take a class in WordPress and learn how to effectively blog….better yet, you social media experts could teach the golfers the ropes and the golfers teach the SM’s how to use golf as a form of social media offline.

See how it is going to work…think about what you are going to need to do to survive the next eight years.  Let me know how I can help.

Have you ever wondered why anyone even bothers to comment on some of the ‘Big Dogs’ Social Media Bloggers.  Some of these guys and gals get hundreds of comments in just a few minutes after posting the blog.  It is one thing to get that many comments to a blog and a total other thing to ’serve purpose’ to the community that author has built to get those kind of numbers by commenting to some of the commentary.

Geez, what is it with the numbers game out here in la-la-land?  How many comments can a person get to a blog?..How many people can I follow on Twitter?, How many hits can I get to my blog site?…You would think that some of the internet marketers and PR experts were financial advisors with needing to make 250 contacts each day to keep their job.  Hummm, maybe they are…

I ran across Lena West’s blog this morning over on MarketingPros (Bloggers on Blast) which got my Monday morning started off on the right foot.  Her blog confirmed that there are many other people out here in looneyville who think like me.  It was not that I doubted that there were not people out here who think like me, it is just that I am encouraged that I am finally starting to find these people out here online.

It could be that the reason I am running into more of these people who are highlighting what is hurting Social Media is why I am running into more of these people like Lena.   What I have been seeing amongst the noise of the information highway is what Lena described so eloquently in her breakdown of these online opinionated bloggers in her ..The hallmarks of social media narcissism .

To not respond to relevant comments posted on a blog is like committing Social Media Suicide. I hear the same belly aching Lena is hearing from these apparent self centered people reporting that they ‘can’t respond to all comments’.  I also agree, there are times when responding to all comments is impossible, but to not respond to ANY comments (or worst yet, only respond to the comments from other Big Dog Bloggers) kills the blog for me..and I now finding..for many others as well.  Doesn’t that Hurt Social Media?

If you have no intentions to respond to someone else’s thought then why blog? Why build a community when you have not intentions to be part of the community you built?  If you are not going to carry on a conversation then why not just write articles for the newspaper, Magazines or online News Lines…Oh wait, most of these people do.

The blogsphere is already overcrowded with redundant blogs…heck, the subject of this blog has been wordsmithed to death.  However, there is one difference in this blog than those of the Big Dogs…I will respond to a worthy comment.

Let me know how I can help.

I remember a while back, about a year ago, I read where someone said that trying to keep up with the post on Twitter was like trying to get a drink out of a fire hose.  I can relate but for someone today to grab a hold of Twitter and figure out how to get started is like trying to jump on board a Bullet Train from a standing start.

I get asked all of the time by my clients who are just getting started on Twitter ‘how do you manage Twitter?’.  My answer is..’You don’t, you manage who you want to listen to.’

For anyone to effectively use Twitter you have to throttle down the noise.  By noise, I mean the rapid fire posts made to Twitter from all over the world on subjects only the author knows what they are about.  If it was not for Twitter Applications like Tweetdeck or FriendFeed there would not be anyway to make any sense out of the information that is being posted.

Even after you do get the interesting tweets under control and are able to corral you Followers and the peeps you are following into some logical order you still will sometimes have the volume of posts up to loud.  The way to manage that is to not follow more people that you can mentally keep up with or have time to care about.  The balance of followers and followings is up to the person managing their account.

Even still, the noise of relevant information sometimes still needs to be squelched down to the Tweets that hit your interest.  There is why I created my ‘A List’.

My Twitter ‘A List’ consist of people who

1. follow me,
2. Respond to my @replies and @reply to my post without being prompted to
3. have a Photo posted somewhere on the Internet
4. and have something REAL to say about something other than sending out endless links to blogs on subjects only relevant to online tech industry.

These are the people I read first on what they have to say.  I check out their blogs frequently and comment as much as I have time to comment.  These are the people I have a good time with and enjoy having conversations with. These are the people when it comes time to refer business to will be who I go to to pass on those leads.   This is how I manage Twitter to make sense to me and it works.

This does not mean I shut off the rest of the world of Twitter.  No! I check out the people following me and from time to time I will go to the shore of the ocean of Twitter members and case out a search for people talking about a subject I am interested in or am an expert in to see if I can find new people who like what I like.

Of course I do have my Twitter Manifesto that explains how I will use Twitter.  This has help focus my following of Tweets to be a very strong group of supporters.

This is how I use Twitter and my ‘A List’ is the honored place in my online community I am building.  Hope this helps and let me now how I can help you.

Make sure to get your copy of my book.

An interesting questions was asked of me recently that got me to thinking, again.  With the failing economy more businesses are having to break down their product and services to fit into what I define as Micro-Niche markets.

Micro-Niche: A very small group or part of a community that has special needs or interest.  These groups represent less that a fraction of a percent of the entire Niche.

EXAMPLE: Since Business Golf is a Niche of the golf community, and example of micro-niche would be the golfers who already know how to play business golf.

The questions I was asked was..How would I use Social Media in a Micro-Niche market?

Since Niche marketing is a very special type of target marketing it only makes sense to use social media to promote the niche or the service that is offered the niche.

Since Social Media is defined as…

The interaction, and the manner in which information is presented to small groups or on a one-on-one basis.

It makes sense to use Social Media Marketing to Micro-Niche Markets.

Social Media Marketing is defined as..

Social Media Marketing is all about collaboration between people. It is about participating with everyone and sharing information. It is as much about giving as it is about receiving from the group. The premise of social media marketing is engaging with the consumer and providing value.

I see no reason why social media could not be used in a Micro-Niche.  Matter of fact I could see how social media would be one of the only ways to market to a micro-niche.

For businesses to survive they will need to get back to basics of doing business.  Gone are the days where the CEO or entire C Suites sit in their boardrooms twittering away their time attempting to solve problems that are all caused by bottomline problems.  These business men and women will now have to get their hands dirty and get on the frontline with the rest of the staff to get to know their customers.

It would be good if businesses look at their services and products and identify what their Micro-Niches are and start marketing to these customers using social media methods.

What is not Social Media is…

Social Media Marketing is not about spamming. It is not about copying certain links and spamming it in discussion groups and forums. It is important to create value for the people with whom you are dialoguing.

If you are not using Social Media to market your business you need to get on the stick.  If you need to learn how, Let me know how I can help.

If you are one of my followers on Twitter then you know I am spending a lot of time in my office lately which makes me very accessible to my PC.  The reason I am spending the desk time instead of the time out on the golf course with clients is due to me doing what nearly the entire business world is do, making changes to meet market demands.

One of the many things businesses need to do is find new markets, new customers, broaden their reach and also keep it REAL.  In order to accomplish this businesses need to market more effectively.  Today ‘effectively’ is defined as knowing who they are marketing to.

Gone (thank goodness) are the days for the shotgun effect of blasting out an email , direct mailer, a billboard on an interstate, a full page ad in the newspaper and yes a 140 character promotions with a link to a web-site on Twitter.  Those methods really did not work effectively.  Not to say they did not work at all, just not as effectively as they NOW need to work.

The old method of gathering up a few hundred thousand contacts and hammering them with mind numbing information to squeeze out the few who maybe interested in your product/services is DEAD.  Obviously, businesses are going to have to know who the person they are dealing with better, or as I tell my clients, you need to “Know the color of their eyes”.

Devaluing Twitter

So how do you use the tools that were built yesterday that did an excellent job of marketing to millions?  How do you narrow the focus down to your markets that are more than likely the ones who are needing what you have to sale?

Lets take the internet as the prime example of “Shotgun Marketing”.  There are a number of applications, platforms or sites that businesses use online..Facebook, MySpace, Second Life, LinkedIn and the list goes on.  The one that is a mystery on why it is so popular is Twitter.  It is no mystery on how it is being used, but more of a question of why it is being used.

I read everywhere where internet experts are harping on Twitters ability to get a message out to millions, but not many mentioning how Twitter can be used Now to get the message out to the peeps who care about your message.  This generates the questions that I titled this blog..How do you use Twitter?.

Paring Twitter Down

Businesses and business people need to keep in mind that things NOW have changed.

Until a tool is created to get the job done better, I am a proponent of making the tools available work as best as they can.  That is how I feel about Twitter.  When you see how others are using Twitter as a game of “How Many Followers Can I Get” you naturally wonder how can Twitter be used as a business tool?  In some ways that questions is still valid.  However, it is a tool to getting to your market.  You just have to pare it down to be more effective.

There are literally zillions of posts made to Twitter from around the world.  On the most part they are made by people, but like everything else out on the internet there is this dark cloak that shadows who is posting these messages.  The questions is are these posts really produced by a person or a computer programs to spray out gibberish to humor some warped sense of humor.

Once you turn the volume down on Twitter by using tools like TweetDeck you can see the real people better, but even then you have to weed through those who are “totally” out for themselves.  The people you will hear are “Branding Themselves” take up a lot of space on Twitter.  However, there are those on Twitter who are out doing what you should be doing..meeting other likeminded people.

The way you tell the difference if a peep is a real person or not is if they ‘Respond” to your @reply..if not, they are more than likely only out to promote themselves or what someone is paying to be on Twitter to promote.  So, move on quickly…you can waste a lot of time to produce nothing from them.  If they do @reply, and @reply frequently with a DM (direct Message) from time to time, then they are the Tweets you need to follow.  This is called. “Building your own community”.   Put these people on your “A List”…these will be the people you know you can go to get your message heard and on the most part help you get the message out to others.

This is how I have found using Twitter works for me. There are other ways of getting your message out to Real People who are on the internet.  I will be back from time to time to enlighten you on other ways of cutting through the crap out here in la-la-land.  Until then, let me know how I can help.

Make sure to read more about other business tools you can use to improve your business in my new book, How to Play Business Golf.  Click on the cover of the book below to learn how you can get your copy.

Every once in a long while I run into a blog that turns my head and this one written by Chuck Blakeman really put a crick in my neck.  Chuck’s question… Are we wasting our time with social networking?.. is one you need to ask yourself.  I have asked my self this question each day for about four years and now have an answer after reading Mr Blakeman’s point of view. 

Hey Chuck…Go Deep, my friend.

<- TeamNimbusWest Blog ->       Why Social Networking (locally and digitally) Can Be a Bad Idea.

For the first time in over three months I have finally gotten time to sit down to review all that has happened around the world of Business Golf these past few months.  After staring at my first sentence of this blog for about 20 minutes thinking of how to organize my thoughts I figured a ‘Chat’ format would probably work best.  So, here is my side of the Chat…

"Chat"

Chat:  to talk in an informal or familiar manner

The Visits

For the past year I have visited with more people interested in business golf than I have in the four years I have been out here.  It wasn’t until a dozen or so chats with business men and women that I thought I should start logging them in.  I lost count of the visits around May of this year after 93 log-ins.  That was due to me losing my log sheet in the clutter here on my desk from spreadsheets, business plans and SOP’s most of these people want me to review.  The reason these people came to me was summed up by a lady’s (who asked to stay anonyms) remark she made to me..

"I came to you because there does not seem to be anyone else on the internet open for discussion on the subject of business golf and who merges the two with a focus of balance between golf and business. There are plenty out here who have the golf as their only focus and even more who are only after the business side, but you are the only one I found who balances the golf with business"

The encouraging part of these visits is it confirms there are a large number of people interested in turning their business around and moving back to a better way of doing business which is to get to know the people who pay their bills.  Golf is what all of these people found as being the only way to really get to know a person. 

For the business people I talked to who do not play golf the concept and benefits of playing golf as part of doing business was convincing.  Their quest after visiting with me was to find ways of learning golf in a productive manor.

For those people I chatted with who played golf for years and played golf as part of business the chat we had usually enlightened them of things they were doing wrong or how to take what they were doing right to the next level.

Of course, I learned a lot also.  In almost every conversation I learned about another part of the business economy and about industries I did not know even existed until I had the ‘Chat’.

The most exciting part of many of the visits was I got to make another Online Friend. Plus, I was introduced to some very interesting business ideas for my company.  Some of which I am seriously considering and am going to add to IBGS’s menu of services…thus, is why my IBGS is under construction.  I’ll get to that in a bit.

Many of the visits I have had resulted in revisits and follow-ups.   Many of those conversations encouraging me to get back into doing my Podcasts and Videocasts so these people can help me spread the word on why Business Golf is something every business person needs to consider learning how to play…especially in this economy.

Politics

Yes, we have a new President elect. From all of the online activity this past few months you would think that this was the last one..however, it happens every four years like clock work and, yes, everyone has a political opinion..including me.  However, discussion politics online is a lose-lose situation for anyone in business.  No, I am not a sour loser or a proud winner.  End of debate.  Surprisingly, very few of the chats I had hinted of any political overtones.  Seems the interest all of the people I chatted with was summed during my chat by Dave Bisbee…

"..the bottomline for me is to take care of what I know I have control over and not worry about what cannot be controlled. The only person that is bailing me out is me.  So I need to find things that work now and not worry about what did not work yesterday."

Economy

What I have seen coming for a few years now has finally gotten here.  Being a Texan, I view the arrival of the failing economy like watching the dust storms rolling in from Abilene.  You see the dust storms coming your way a long time before they get here.  Sometimes days before they hit.  Once they arrives dusts covers everything you touch, inside and out.

Seems this failed economy was the dust storm of the decade and it in fact is covering everything that it touches, inside and outside of the business arena.

The majority of the conversations I had with people was on the economy.  Even my friends in other countries were feeling the down turn and looking for ways to survive the recession.  It every case it was good for people to talk out their thoughts on things and I found it interesting to sound out some of my ideas with them also. 

Even my competitors who are contacting me have turned civil in realizing now their survival is going to depend a changed attitude towards how they do business and who they do business with.  As much as the word ‘Change’ has become cliche, it still is the best and simplest way to describe what businesses will have to do to survive….CHANGE.

Social Media

Twitter

…what a game.  Over the years I have seen and read most of the so called "A List" blogger and social media experts.  I have even had a Martini or two with a couple of the ‘king pins’ here in Dallas.  What I have learned about the game being played online comes mostly from my offline conversations with these people since it pretty much contradicts their online comments or directions.

Every conversation I have had, online or offline, over the past year has mentioned Twitter.  The consensus from all of the conversations is..

What does Twitter DO?

One of the local insiders and early adaptors (who asked to remain anonymous) of the internet I have chatted with told  me..

"The only people gathering any value from the time they spend on Twitter are the ‘Internet Gurus’ and ‘Regional Tribal Leaders’.  Everyone else on Twitter wants to be associated with these people to feed off the attention they get.  The downside is, those who these few people associate with by @replying to them become their A List making all of the tens of thousands of people their follow ‘Losers" and are only followed to produce the high number of ‘Following ‘they need to keep their status amongst their tribe. "

I was enlightened to learn that for people like me, a person in a niche or associated with something more offline than online, was to form my on "A List" of my own and publish my own ‘Twitter Manifesto’ outlining how I will be using Twitter.   One of my international supporters put it this way..

People want to be part of something special and hang around with people who look important. There is two ways of doing that…go in and spend endless nights following people to get your number up to unbelievable numbers of people you are following or..state clearly how you are not going to play the game and form an "A List" of your own.  You will find that there are many tweeters out there who think the same as you and will want to be part of something special which is your A List.

LinkedIn

WOW, if you are looking for doing business online..this is the site to be part of.  Out of all of the chats I have had with people I have met online, the men and women I chat with on LinkedIn are the only ones that actually have brought me business.  That is were I found my new business partner.   My Business Golf Country Club is the fastest growing Golf Group on LinkedIn and consist of people ONLY interested in golf and business…and I plan on keeping it that way.  As one of my supporters put in during one of our chats..

There comes a time when you have to pay the bills and if you are going to be online why not make the time you spend there connecting with people who actually are interested in doing business. Like most business people, my time is limited and valuable…why spend it in venues that are full of pranksters.    Thanks for providing me a safe place to come and visit with people who think the same way I do.

My presences on LinkedIn has produced a higher level of satisfaction than any of the 89 other social/business/golf groups I am currently holding a profile on…some of which I fall in with the millions of other people who have totally forgotten about having a profile on many of the groups.

Solutions

In nearly every conversation I was asked for a solution or a suggestion for a possible solution to a problem a person was having in business or in life.  Finding solutions is what I have been highly trained to do.  That is how I came about writing my book on How to Play Business Golf.  The book was a solution to a problem.  Actually several problems.

Now, after having so many of these problem solving conversations I was asked if I would be a mentor which lead to me taking the time to become a certified business mentor.  I find that helping people really is satisfying to me.

Where is the Talk Leading

All of these chats, emails, phone calls, and sit-down face to face meetings over a Martini, Glass of wine, table full of sushi or even a bottle water on the golf course has lead me to say it is time for me to step my efforts to meet more people and get the word out about golf and business to more people.

Over the next few weeks I will be announcing how I plan on going about doing this.  I have already started the process with announcing my little gathering in Phoenix on Dec 27th…there I will let those who attend know what my next step will be. 

There are still a few spots left to fill in my golf outing, so if you are wanting to Chat..here is a great time to learn more about why golf is the best business tool..or way to meet more people.

Let me know how I can help.

Make sure to get your copy of my New Book..it is full of great information on golf and business.

I have been hearing this for sometime from  the offline fortune 500 executives I run around with.  Now I am reading more about it online.  I am not sure I totally buy into that nobody will advertising online.  They will but on very selected sites that are targeted to their market….and after there is some social media done around what the product is about and (the most important part) who is offering it.

Consumers are going to be very selective in who they do business with from now on. Pop-up ads and obnoxious displays ads will be replaced with content, videos and other forms of technology yet invented that will educate the consumer instead of tricking them into looking at something that is worthless.

I guess we will have to wait and see what takes place.

Online advertising is now dead (Scripting News)

AH Yes!?  TwitterRank, that flash in the pan that went through Twitter the past two days like a bad piece of sushi, causing all kinds of stories ranging from it being an Al Qaeda based front to a third party political party both wanting to get all of the Tweets passwords is not what it was made up to be.

Oliver Marks of ZNET was contacted by the creator of TwitterRank, Ryo Chijiiwa, asking to state his side of the story.  Now the Real story is..who do you want to believe.  Since the war on terror still goes on I tend to believe that hijacking Twitter is a low priority for the axis of evil..I will go that my Twitter Rank of 69.73 is pretty accurate.

Twitterank Creator Speaks | Collaboration 2.0 | ZDNet.com