I got more information when I read Silicon Filter and yes, there will be users who complain about this – but finally Twitter is making the right moves!! So many of my friends who want to use Twitter get so confused when they first sign up. There is nothing “keeping it all together” – every tweet is separate and all unorganized!

Here are some reasons I have said in China tech news that Sina Weibo is better than Twitter, in my daily usage of the two:

• Comments and Shares are kept inline – Weibo shows how many RTs and comments each tweet (they call it weibo in China) has, and with the click of a button you can expand the comments section to read all the comments. Very convenient and allows much more interactive conversation. Whereas in Twitter, each reply to a message is independent and not kept together in the conversation.
• I just click on the comments section under my weibo (tweet) to see all the comments that people have said about my message. Similar to above, but shows that I can see the comments on the same screen nice and clean, expand and collapse. Whereas in Twitter, I have to click one-by-one on each @ reply to see what conversation they were replying to. It creates more chaos and takes more time to understand what people are chatting about.
• Real Time carries the tweet along in the next conversation, as well as keeps updating the original tweet’s RTs and comments inside of the RT. So in the original message I shared, others can still keep track of those new comments and shares (its not static / permanent)
• Weibo lets me put my full comments in RT, and shows original tweet – in twitter, if you share another person’s tweet, you also are limited to 140 characters, whereas in Weibo, you have more room to add your comment, and separately below it the original post is kept intact.

I have the screenshots at the bottom of this blog to see some differences between Twitter’s interface and Chinese Sina Weibos.

I’m not the only person who says so – my buddy Larry Salibra suggested Google Plus to copy from Weibo as he says its a better experience. Doug who just arrived in China, doing research says Weibo is a threat to Twitter – they do have an English mobile app now, and may soon expand to USA and other English countries.

Maybe Twitter is realizing this, and reacting. But Twitter also has its hands full with Facebook and Google Plus I imagine.

Probably another reason American internet companies are so frustrated with China. Majority of Western social media platforms are blocked in China – therefore blocking the Chinese userbase from signing up and thus giving more “value” to these social media companies. Not to mention then letting the Chinese social media companies to “copy” and benefit from this unfair advantage.

Overall, I am happy about this update in Twitter. While I am a tweetdeck (3rd party platform for twitter) user and plan to continue, I’m hope more of my American friends can move off of facebook and onto Twitter – its just so much faster and lighter to use.

Incoming search terms:

• twitter copies weibo
• weibo vs twitter copy each other

I know, I think this is hard, to accept facts that we are born with some advantages, and over our childhood, whether its due to our environment (I love the idea we are products of our environment) or preference for what we like to do….we form strengths….and unfortunately weaknesses due to lack of focus and attention on those things in life we are not interested in, or do not dedicate time developing.

As we get older, we get more and more focused on a specific job, industry, or function…..and its harder and harder to learn new things. Forcing ourselves to learn new things is hard (speaking for myself, but I am sure I am not alone), yet we have to face facts and realize that in today’s rapidly changing and growing environment, where information and ideas spread around the world in seconds….we gotta WAKE UP AND SMELL the coffee…..its sink or swim time.

What are my strengths? I do see myself as more of a generalist….I know, that annoying saying “jack of all trades, master of none”, that has been haunting me for my whole life…..and as I approach 30 years old, I think now more than ever what are my real strengths in life and in business…..

One thing I have learned, and realized in life, true value is the team and network around you. I think my mistake when I first started my trek into “entrepreneurship” was focusing on the product or service. Of course that is important and core to your success….but I think even more basic is ensuring you have the SUPPORT NETWORK around you. Now, that is NOT only customers, but its also suppliers, operations, knowledge or at least people to go to for that knowledge.

Because as much as we think our current product or service is, life moves on. And we need good people. Trustworthy people, people from all kinds of backgrounds, skillsets, and cultures.

Problem is, and maybe thats why some entrepreneurs go to MBA school, is how to meet these like minded people? As the network, the “who you know” becomes more and more critical. Its not really the knowledge you get in the classroom, its the network you build with those other “educated” and “networked” people in the room with you.

I keep on going to that DISC method to measure personalities and strengths. I just keep remembering the presenter stressing that in order to be successful, you need to make sure your office, department, team, whatever group is it, has these 4 styles of people and personalities.

So who am I? I am a D and an I….meaning Dominant and Influencial. Of course this depends on the situation I am in, but normally I see myself as Wolverine in the Xmen group…I am rather emotional….and let my mind get ahead of itself…..but I also see that as raw passion not to let things get in my way.

Incoming search terms:

• xmen
• which x-men character are you
• Which x men character are you
• which x-men character are you?
• which xmen character are you
• what x men character are you
• team building for awesome
• which xmen am i
• wolverine and the x-men character maker
• team building awesome

Its going one step further, as bigger blogs like techcrunch making people use facebook to comment…..PEOPLE HAVE TO BE PEOPLE to comment now.

Robert Scoble, a very open and bold blogger, really goes out there and calls people COWARDS who are afraid to put their name / identity to their comments on the internet, part of his article is quoted below:

Hello! Name one person on the web that doesn’t use Google or Bing. One. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Hint, your 700 friends are on Google. Your grandma is on google. Your five ex-girlfriends are on Google. My ex-wife is on Google.

Thinking back over my 46-year life I’ve only read something more wrong a few times.

Not to mention I worked with an executive at NEC who got fired for something he anonymously wrote on a forum (a racist post). Someone figured out where the IP address came from and sent the post to his boss, who quickly fired him. Being truly anonymous and untrackable on the Web is very difficult.

So, what’s going on here? Why is it causing people to lose all perspective on EVERYTHING?
These “authenticity is dead” people are cowards.

See, where I ONLY post opinions I’m willing to sign my name to, lots of people are actually cowards and just not willing to sign their names to their mealy-mouthed attacks.

He is a little harsh there….but if more and more big blogs force you to use facebook connect in order to comment….then either people will have to start creating fake facebook accounts (which do exist I am sure, but is not allowed by facebook’s terms of service) OR only comment when they are not afraid everyone in their life can see what they are saying, and new people they don’t know can look them up on facebook and connect with them more.

For example, I have had my fair share of “comment trolls” on this blog here…..they would use fake names and reach out and criticize me, one some of my friends and readers here (I’m not even going to go back on this blog and check his fake name) he really did annoy me…and he never would say who he was. Every blog post he would say some new annoying comment and upset me, as well as the readers here. I didn’t want to delete / moderate his comments, but after so many of my friends complained I had to block him/her from leaving future comments.

Maybe I will soon force blog commenters here to use facebook connect in order to comment?

Its also going to change SEO as well, as we all know how much comment spam we get in blogs with keywords as the comment name and the SEO target website too. Things keep on changing….social media and SEO merging. People and businesses becoming 1…..the dividing line between personal life and business life blurring….

When can we separate our work life from our personal life? that is another issue.

Incoming search terms:

• troll
• mean troll
• mean trolls
• chinese troll
• real trolls
• Trolls its real ?
• people who are afraid of having their full name on a website
• fake facebook account in the philippines
• mean trolls images
• real name for internet
• putting your real name on the internet
• putting your real name on facebook

WELL – now those tweets and blogs will feed into GOOGLE social search. So….like Monamie commented on my recent blog that facebook will be our online ID card she said that 50% or so of her google analytics traffic came from google organic – WELL HERE YOU GO!! By having an optimized and relevant social media account, this will drive more traffic from google searches from those who are your friends in these social media accounts.

Marshall also was emailing me that not many sales come from Facebook ads, I agree, because in facebook most people are browsing there, reading friends updates….not in a BUYING MODE. When they go to google and SEARCH to buy something, they have their credit card in hand….ready to make a purchase.

Now…by having an optimized social media account, with lots of relevant friends in an industry, when those friends search on google, they will see results from people in their social network.

And like I have been preaching over and over….people trust OTHER PEOPLE. Sure, they trust google’s algorithm, but its getting bombarded by spammers now! by content farms. And just a couple days ago, I could feel it, big changes had to come for internet marketing….google is allowing people to filter their own results (block certain domains), now have their social network also influence their search results.

This isn’t exactly new, since 2009 they have had the social search beta. While I’m reading in the blogosphere that people called it the “ghetto” page space of google results (as the beta social search was at the bottom of the page), now we have it finally integrated into the top 10 results of Google.

Now, being an Internet guy in China…..how is this going to affect those Chinese internet guys, who do the pure SEO link building? Well….they are gonna have to start using these blogs, social networks, and twitter accounts. Sad thing is, the Chinese government has blocked most of these social sites….sure there are VPNs and other tools to get around it…but this will again put the Chinese people at a disadvantage for marketing and promoting their businesses to the foreigner market. Just food for thought for the China SEO marketing to the outside world.

Man, the past couple weeks have been crazy with so many changes to search, and the internet marketing world is truly changing a lot…..

I have already read in blog comments that people are annoyed, they don’t want to see their friends in the search results…..but I am sure the majority of people will enjoy this, appreciate this, and also trust google more when searching.

Every so often I get friends emailing me when they find me or my websites in search results. For example, my friend Mike Andrews thought of me when he search what time is it in new york – emailed me here a few months ago:

Subject – wow, SEO win
Date – Sept 17, 2010

i was fixing the time on my computer.
i did a search for “local time NYC” in google to get a quick accurate time.
congratulations, your face shows up.
i attached is a screenshot of the search results.

Something to note about this – google will not include facebook content at the moment.  WHY IS THIS?  Well, its actually a technical thing really, not business.  Facebook privacy of user’s content won’t allow content to be pulled out of the system….and analyzed/ crawled by search engine bots…..you need to have an authorization to access an accounts data, therefore google doesn’t want to have to have google accounts integrated with facebook accounts in order for facebook results to appear inside of google search.  (complicated I know)

Sorry these last few posts have been mostly internet marketing and business…..I didn’t really want my personal blog to get too much into business, but this stuff is so exciting for me, and I think people would be interested to know!

Incoming search terms:

• how google got into china

Turkle’s thesis is simple: technology is threatening to dominate our lives and make us less human. Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is a poor imitation of the real world.

Maybe this EXPERT is right………..but……for me, it has EXPONENTIALLY added value to my “real life”……….I live on the other side of the world from my home country……being in Asia can be tough…and lonely……and I was here before “social media” was so widespread…..and it was harder to live then it is now. With social media, my “virtual friends” travel with me, and I travel with them…..sharing stories, ideas….I can quickly know where my friends are…..and it brings us closer together when we physically can’t be.

Sure maybe I have also adapted to living overseas…..but I am in touch more with my friends all over the world. I have made business contacts, I have focused my network….been referred to people and referred others to others….all from social media.

In this blog I uploaded a pic that I had on facebook….of me with my facedown looking at my mobile…..here are some comments I got:

Added December 21, 2010 ·

Ellen Luong always on that cell phone…hahaha.

Michael Michelini Yea, im addicted, seems more and more pics may look like that

Theresa Depuy lol Thats what I was going to say your always on the phone…gotta stay connected

Michael Michelini if there is a PA (phone aholics anonymous) i’ll be a memeber…..sure that group may come soon enough

But you know what I was doing at that exact moment? I was setting up a VPN proxy for my mobile to be able to access facebook in China! I was talking to @_williamli in hong kong and testing his new VPN. I was connecting to technical people, that I choose to interact with, that I am learning with, sharing ideas with. Building on relationships……maybe I’m crazy, but maybe this interaction at that moment brought us together, made him remember me more and maybe refer me to another RELEVANT (sorry to be cocky, but yes, I want to know more internet and technical people) who can help me down the road. Or maybe the other way around, I can connect him to some people (which I have already, actually!) and build up value in the relationship.

So is this……..ANTI SOCIAL? Its focusing my network and even when I may be away from them physically, I can connect with them remotely via social media.

Sure, I know I have annoyed some people around me (in real life) as I’m always on my mobile phone…..but hate to be rude, but in a way, I can stay closer to the people and news that is important to my life……

Its my virtual friends…..and they are with me on my mobile phone wherever I go….and I meet so many more people because of this. I am more confident to approach people in real life too…..as I understand the “process” of networking…..the internet has given me practice.

Incoming search terms:

• has social networking made us anti-social
• is social media making us anti social
• social media is making us anti social
• social media makes us anti social
• facebook making people antisocial
• facebook makes people antisocial
• does facebook make people antisocial
• is facebook making us antisocial
• is social networking making us anti social
• is the internet making us antisocial
• social networking makes people antisocial
• is facebook making people antisocial

What will people do for 5 bucks? Seems people get creative, here are a few of my favorites I found today:

I will use some clay figures to display a message of your choice. The clay figures are very basic so as… for $5
The models are basic and roughly fashioned and can be used… (by madmoo)

Read moreLikeShareorder now!
featured
I will have one of my basketball players dunk the ball then say what you want for 5 seconds for $5
I coach a semi-pro basketball team. My guys are SUPER athletic… (by dsavage)

Read moreShareorder now!
featured
I will do a 15 sec. commercial for you or your business. for $5
As a commercial actor I will do a 15 second commercial (you… (by stephanielh)

Read moreLikeShareorder now!

I will make your ecover, ebook, cd, box, book with cd, ebook with cd covers and send of it for $5
I will make your book, eBook, CD, box, book with CD, eBook… (by aleh49)

Read moreLikeShareorder now!

I will illustrate you as a cartoon for $5
I will capture your likeness in an original illustration, great for use as a fun profile picture or… (by themorpheum)

Read moreShareorder now!

I will draw you as a chibi for $5
Thats just it, drawing chibi’s. I will not do nudity of any kind. Sorry, but I do not ship these… (by nijiiru)

I will draw anyone as a cartoon character for $5
I will draw anyone as a cartoon character. You will receive a fully colored, digital drawing. I can… (by nielscostermans)

I will create custom t-shirt designs for $5
I will create a t-shirt design for you. I will be using Photoshop CS5. I will just need a few sentences… (by ziggy513)

I will make a small advertisement graphic for $5
I’ve used Photoshop for half my life, practically, so I know the ropes. Also re-done billboards… (by kristylynn)

I will put your face or your friends face into some one else’s body for $5
i will crop your face or your friends face and put it into… (by rijoro)

So I listed up there I would tweet something related to internet marketing or ecommerce to my twitter followers for the 5 bucks.

Actually faster then I expected I got a buyer, and ….actually I was a little hesitant to post an advertisement in my twitter stream….but I did take off my offer from fiverr ….I’ll think of some more creative ones soon….already thinking of how to tweak it for the Chinese market.

There is an open source version, and we are building it up to be a Chinese version called http://www.33.cm/ so you can make these trades for 33 chinese yuan (reminbi)…think this would be very interesting in the China market.

But this is social media BUYING, social media ecommerce………….its coming fast…..and its addictive.

Incoming search terms:

• fiverr in china
• fiverr nudity
• fiverr tshirt
• illustrator cs5 profile picture fiverr
• t shirt design fiverr

This was my first time to celebrate New Years in the Philippines, a bit different from USA and in China. Let me explain my experiences in each place I have celebrated New Years

New Years in China (Solar Calendar) – Not much of a big celebration, as the Chinese save up all their celebratory energy for Chinese new years (normally in Feb), which is based on the Lunar calendar. The new years in China I remember going to some expat bars to celebrate with friends and party it up.

New Years in United States – Hard to summarize how New Years in America is…I have had new years in Times Square to watch the ball drop in person, but most people do that once or twice in a lifetime, if ever at all in America. In USA, there are 2 main ways to celebrate – house party or going to a night club / bar.

house parties – I remember high school times, having multiple house parties (and sometimes hotel parties) where I would drive between multiple parties (therefore not drinking as I was driving) meeting all sorts of friends from hometown and high school.

Nightclubs and bars, you have to pre-pay for tickets entrance fees, its become a whole business for certain promotion companies in larger cities like New York and Los Angeles….but mostly anywhere in USA the bars and clubs sell tickets for open bar, etc.

Watch the fireworks- In USA, most states ban the sales of fireworks, and the city government is the only way you can see the fireworks. They will announce the city parks or public areas where they will shoot the fireworks, and as early as late afternoon people from the area will start to gather to watch the fireworks shoot off. This is normally for couples dating, or families to go and watch.

New Years in the Philippines – a bit of a different variation then USA, fireworks are not illegal here in Philippines, so they are selling them on the streets EVERYWHERE, so all evening and night you’ll see (HEAR) fireworks cracking everywhere. And family parties seem to come first, and there is a large dinner and family get together at home…..PAST midnight…..celebrating new years at home. And THEN everyone goes out to the bar or club, normally around 1 or 2am.

Interesting variation from my experiences of New Years in USA….

My reasons for coming back to Philippines – well came back to Manila to celebrate New Years with Mike Mo, and see my staff, as well as some business meetings and networking here in the Philippines. Still plan to come to Philippines rather often, though I will be in Dongguan, China more for the new ecommerce projects and building up a team there.

I’m trying to remember last new year….just seems like social media, mobile, and being “plugged in” has escalated exponentially for me in 2010…..and I don’t think its just me….I think everyone now is getting more and more “Dialed in” to their online lives, online friends. I really have made some quality connections and relationships via twitter, and I am thankful for it.

But really, what a 2010 it has been….a year of transition, finding myself, leaving China, traveling to Philippines, Thailand, Philippines a few times more, USA for 2 months, and end up coming back to China. Excited for 2011, and I think majority of it will be in China.

Incoming search terms:

• new year eve fireworks in the philippines
• happy new year in the philippines
• new year in the philippines
• happy new year in philippines
• pictures of new year in philippines
• happy new year philippines
• Business meetings philippines
• new year in the philippines 2010
• new year in usa
• new years in philippines
• new years philippines
• happy new year to all my friends and families from philippines

The idea that social media is a bunch of nerds spawned after reading Ori’s couchsurfing blog on re-living the prom again and having a social media prom, where social media users can unite and find their dates via social media and prepare for the prom via social media…..pretty cool idea!!!!

Maybe because social media is still in its early stage….and therefore the rules and daily lifestyle tactics have not been implemented – therefore we have the EARLY ADOPTERS still mostly utilizing the tools, and signing up for the newest tools first, sharing photos, location sharing, group buying.

It does take an early adapter maybe to jump into uncharted waters….as we have seen certain platforms already “join the deadpool” and all that user content is lost….so you have to have the stomach and patience to go through various new systems and tools, continuous updates and changes and new platforms, mergers, etc.

And maybe its also nerds utilizing these tools because you need to have some technical experience still…sure, blogging is getting easier and easier, don’t need to know HTML or programming to really do it after the blog is installed, but even I , who sees myself as a middle to high experience internet user, have to spend time researching how to implement certain things on my blog, or new tools….especially with mobile internet….constantly crashing my android phone, resetting, uninstalling, upgrading…..

Also I have met other twitter power users, in various twitter meetups hong kong and manila philippines meetup and yes, we all push and fight our friends to sign up and interact…but really, I see the common user of twitter as a creative, open minded, early adapter and connector. WHICH IS REALLY COOL. This means, I want to know and network with as many of them as possible. We are always staring down at our mobile phones when we’re out, checking in on foursquare, @ replying on twitter, status updates on facebook….tottally wired.

Yet I see Facebook “powerusers” as the less techy, less creative….as its more “plug and play” and WYSISYG (what you see if what you get) and more “Closed environment”

But its kind of funny, the nerds have taken over after the high school gossip and drama.

Incoming search terms:

• nerds
• nerd
• social media nerd
• nerd in high school
• nerd on a date
• nerds developing
• bunch of nerds
• just a bunch of nerds
• nerds in media
• nerds people are nerd

The Hootsuite Certification Program went through 4 basic topics of its program, “hootsuite” as well as strategies for social media platforms such as twitter and facebook, also discussing klout.

One thing, the course costs $27usd/month! I think thats a bit strange, as its a 1 time test, and then to remain an approved specialist, you have to keep paying the monthly fee.

Seems the people making money aren’t twitter themselves, but these 3rd party tools and training programs!  Still, I think its worth taking the class, freshening up your social media skills, and learning some new tactics and strategies.

Incoming search terms:

• Hootsuite Certification
• hootsuite certified
• hootsuite certified logo
• m hootsuite
• cost of hootsuite certification
• social media certification
• is hootsuite certified worth anything
• importance certification hootsuite
• how much is Hootsuite Certification
• how long to be hootsuite certified
• how long does it take hootsuite certified
• how long certifcaton hootsuite

Since the Hong Kong meetup wasn’t as well organized, I decided to put together a powerpoint for it. And listening to twitter friends, seemed the most popular topic is social media. And asking location, few people suggested and agreed technohub would be a fun place to go.

I was kinda not sure where to put it, as Manila still confuses me…..Makati, Quezon City, and the volume of traffic. Also a weekday night, weekend? Just feeling it out with people earlier last week made it seem like this was the better place to do it. Actually I had never been over to technohub (and I can walk there)

@jerjerboi – promoting competitive intelligence via internet
@justinbreathes – promoting local pinoy musicians
@mariebalaan
@eglobal
met up beforehand – @mikemo_
and me – @michelini

Kinda wish more people would come….got a few last minute cancellations and bunch of no-shows…little bit dissappointed, but I am told this is common in the Philippines. People who did show up told me that maybe they didn’t believe me, that it was really going to happen. Or to meet people off the internet they don’t know. Its kinda funny, because so many Filipinos chat to me on twitter….seem excited to meet up and network. I had a lot of plans too. But anyway, yea I can understand traffic sucks….and it makes people just want to stay home.

Made a hour or so presentation, may be presenting it or a variation of, at Western Union corporate. You can download the powerpoint I made here - Winning in Social Media 2010 manila meetup which seemed to be enjoyed by those who came. Don’t take it personal, I will keep my chin up and keep on moving forward.

Incoming search terms:

• philippines people
• philippines meetups

One big thing is Klout. While I have heard of it before, it really clicked after reading businessgrow.com ‘s get ready for social scoring.

His main points are:

Klout is the new black – maybe this will be the new resume!

Take Klout seriously – Its real, and its here to stay!

Personal Branding starts with social influence – even Harvard business review says so!

Prepare for gamers – people will cheat the system.

Klout coaches – those who study this early will become COACHES and experts later for those who want social influence.

Just the idea that if you have the high score you can get discounts on airfare, or dinners…..the

what is Klout?

First, from the klout.com website it explains it “technically” as (don’t worry, i’ll summarize after):

The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages. Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100. Network score indicates how influential your engage audience is and is also on a scale from 1 to 100. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.

So what the heck is that? Yea, this is a lot of twitter talk here.. ….and I know tons of my American friends only have facebook….don’t have time for twitter, don’t care about twitter….blah blah…..

well, it now connects with facebook! but because facebook’s content is private…you have to allow klout to access your facebook data.

Then it will check your profile, your friends, your messages, the amount of likes on facebook you have, the amount of comments. What you are talking about on facebook. How many times you post on other people’s walls, how many times they post on your walls.

Next is linkedin I am sure, seeing who your connections are there, the relevancy (are they all in 1 industry, or various industries) locations, positions.

Is this good or bad? Yea, I have to admit, it is kind of scary…but then think about your SAT score when you were trying to get into college…..sure it was somewhat private, but friends asked, family asked. It went into other universities, applications. IT MATTERED. As much as we may or may not have liked it, that SAT score mattered. And to some extent, it was semi-public.

I also liked boy scouts. Call me a nerd or a dweeb, whatever. I liked earning badges, points, advancement in ranks. That was pretty public, within your meetings wearing your uniform, others could clearly see your points, your score.

I am sure military is somewhat like this, with ranks and “order”.

Sports teams, sports stats.

So why is it so crazy to have a “Social media score” (Klout)?

You don’t have to care about it if you don’t want to. You can say this KLOUT is a bunch of crap….but probably someday, and someday soon, it will be looked at when you are applying for a job, selling a product or service, or getting a recommendation for something.

Social media will be measured more and more soon, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Incoming search terms:

• social media score
• klout
• merit badges boy scouts of the philippines
• boy scout of the philippines merit badges
• Klout Score Optimization
• Boys Scout of the Philippines merit badges
• different names of the merit badges in senior scout of the philippines
• boy scout of the philippines merit badges pictures only
• klout badges
• merit badges boy scouts of the philippine
• boy scout merit badges chart
• merit badges in philippines

The beginning the “chaotic” organization started on Monday when I asked William Li to meet up Thursday afternoon for coffee….and then on the open chat of twitter, I invited a few other friends, which then got published out a bit more and retweeted (re-distributed) among Kevin She (CEO of SC Storage in Hong Kong, with 14,000 followers) and therefore made some more traction and got names and faces (@ usernames) I had not yet interacted with. Created then an actual tweet vite event to unite things more than simply a hashtag #hkmeetup

So we said 5pm Thursday at a Retro Starbucks in Central district Hong Kong….which we all thought was rather early as the majority of people still have their dayjobs and have to commute there….but alas, the confusion and mass tweeting created 5pm as the start time.
Somehow I got understood that I would be presenting on internet marketing and social media trends at the meetup….which I was not aware of or prepared for…but luckily I’m a nerd always carrying my backpack with laptop and am passionate about things enough that I could put together some info on the spot….Below are the twitter users that were in attendance:

@takaki_cyo
@kevinshe
@_williamli
@maggiejoella
@NoelYagami
@Battlestars
@kitty_cheung
@AndreMartin
@pannee
@celticshk
@Rosannacheng— new signup to twitter at the meetup!
And me – @michelini

The funniest thing is the reaction I get from my “real life” friends, who still don’t understand my infatuation and obsession with twitter..and why I would meet random people from the internet at a coffee shop on a Thursday evening. But I am connecting with these “random people”, following each other through our recent lives in business and personal life development, laughing and sharing stories along the way. For the most part, the common ideas is their interest in the internet, startups, entrepreneurship, and that seems to be the common users of twitter at the moment.

Then we get to the question…idea…are us twitter users obsessed? It was rather wild to see a group of about 10 people “checking in on foursquare” as we moved from coffee shop to pizza bar to nightclubs and pubs….talking about our internet and mobile habits….and all with the common idea that we are seen as a bit crazy by our non-twitter friends as we’re glued to the mobile phone throughout our normal daily lives.
Tweeting, blogging, checking in has been inspiring for me….I have always enjoyed writing a journal, recording my travels and my ideas…doing it online has allowed me to connect with people better then ever before…and I felt that common idea among many at the meeting. Andre there said he didn’t care, and almost didn’t want, too many people following his foursquare – his main purpose for checking into so many places, so religiously, as he went from place to place, and country to country, is the ability in the future to go back to his travel history and see where he had been. If he had forgot a certain name or location of a place he had enjoyed going to – he can look that back up on the foursquare checkin history.

Others had disclosed they closed other social media accounts, myspace, Friendster, linkedin, as they didn’t have time to update all of them, and didn’t want old or stale information about them around on the internet.

I had invited some “non-twitter” friends and throughout the night they met up….I could see the strange look in their face as they say this tribe of twitter users discussing checkins, other twitter users, and stories that would only make sense to at least a somewhat experienced twitter social user.

Made me think…will the world continue to draw a defining line between the “social” online community and those who resist or don’t have time / interest to understand and interact on the social online world…and will my life be split in two…the twitter world and the real-life world.

All in all, it was really cool to connect with twitter users I interact with, meet new ones, and put faces to “@ names”. Think I’ll try setting up another one in Manila, Philippines next week, stay tuned. Cheers.

Incoming search terms:

• how to make faces on twitter
• how do to get faces on twitter name
• twitter names Philippines
• faces that can go in a twitter nane
• faces you can put in twitter names
• hkmeetup
• how do you put the faces on twitter

I remember my dad telling me when I was young, you are who you hang out with. If you are friends with people who are breaking rules and lazy, it will influence you to be like them. And even if you don’t “Act” like them, t will also make others think you are doing similar things they are doing. Sure, you/we/I can say it doesn’t matter what others think of you/us/I, but actually, in business and life it kinda does.

But while it seemed to be pushed on me negatively when I was little, that if I hang out with bad kids, I will be a bad kid, and forbid / discouraged by my parents to befriend bad kids in school – it also works the other way! If you work actively to surround yourself with POSITIVE people, and positive minds, then it will “rub off” on you as well. It will exponentially increase your chances of growing up positive. These people around you will support you, and prop you up when you get down. And you will do the same for them when times get down.

Putting this in today’s modern world – with the internet and social media, facebook, twitter, linkedin – if notice probably on our “streams” (daily updates from friends / followings) we see messages / thoughts / actions these people are doing. THIS IS INFLUENCING OUR MOODS AND OUR MINDS.

I think twitter is awesome, why? Because I can get information quickly, short messages, and normally my twitter lists (I break the followings into groups) have positive, happy messages. Sure, this is corny to some, and to me it sounds a bit silly, but it is positive energy throughout my day. I check my mobile phone, see status updates of positive thoughts, motivational quotes, and new perspectives, and its like my daily coffee – it keeps me going throughout my crazy day and insane lifestyle.

But there are those negative messages. I have to say, its more on facebook then on my twitter. Maybe I just have some more “special” facebook friends, getting messages about politics, negative news, and “I’m having a bad day”……this kinda knocks me down a bit. But on the other hand, normally I can crack a joke back to some of these negative messages, hopefully changing their perspective and those readers of it.

The other side of it though is, why should I follow someone who has such negative vibes? The rule in life is normally you cannot change people (we naturally want to help CHANGE someone) but they have to be the ones who want to change themselves.
I just think social media and the internet is so amazing...and now with my friends, followings, and linkedin connections, these people are with me all day, everywhere, supporting me and motiviating me, and I am doing the same back.

I truly believe this is helping society and growing / expanding people’s minds and horizons. I am never alone anymore, I have my “Virtual friends”, and will keep on traveling.

Incoming search terms:

• surround yourself with positive people quotes
• surround yourself with good people quotes
• quotes about surrounding yourself with good people
• quotes about surrounding yourself with positive people
• surrounding yourself with positive people quotes
• quotes about surrounding yourself with the right people
• quotes about who you surround yourself with
• quotes about surrounding yourself with good friends
• quotes on surrounding yourself with good people
• quotes on surrounding yourself with positive people
• surround yourself with positive people quote
• surrounding yourself with good people quotes

And the name of the blog – Happiness in Pursuit, it comes from the OPPOSITE of the Will Smith movie “Pursuit of Happyness” because that movie is about Will Smith (or whatever his name was in the movie) trying to GET INTO CORPORATE NEW YORK AMERICA / WALL STREET.  This blog is me doing the exact opposite-  TRYING TO GET OUT OF CORPORATE AMERICA IN NY!  haha, that was the idea of the blog’s name.  for the blog name, I do have the domain  happinessinpursuit.com but still just use my personal name for now, blog.michaelmichelini.com – thinking to use the happinessinpursuit.com as a blogger network of those with the same goals and ideas.

I have about 3 paper journals I have back in my Florida that I was writing since 1997!  I flipped back once, and it was pure emotional about crushes on girls, disputes with people over gossip, hating certain classes…..but writing it down helped me.

But those paper journals I wrote as if no one was EVER GOING TO READ IT.  I even wrote in the journal through my university years, but once I got into corporate america….I stopped.  Well, actually a girlfriend in summer 2003 read them while I was in my New York job orientation meeting….and hated me for about 2 or 3 days….so that knocked the wind out of me for a few years in keeping a journal at all.  So most of my corporate america days aren’t recorded in any journal.

But now that I am being reminded each day of people being touched by my blog here, it makes me feel good, but it also adds a bit of pressure on me – should I worry about what I write for offending someone? Or should I tone down what I am writing for fear of it getting misinterpretted?

I always tried to write this blog as if I were writing my own journal entry back in high school, but having it published on the internet has to make me hesitate a bit.

I just want to stay genuine with this blog, and have to realize the reason people like the blog is because its REAL.  It isn’t some covered up, generic articles.  Its my real feelings, my real experiences, in almost real-time.

Strange thing is, I rarely had comments or interaction on my blog until maybe a year or so ago, and even lately its picking up even more.

I have to believe a lot of that is because of social media – and I integrated this blog into facebook, twitter, linkedin, and others.  People love reading motivational ideas, getting real life analysis, and there are MORE PEOPLE ONLINE then ever before.  Its just so true, the world is truly going cyber.  Cyber friends, cyber business relationship, What is real, and what is cyber?

Anyway, just wanted to thank you guys for reading, and hope I don’t let it get to my head too much, and can try my best to keep this genuine.

Incoming search terms:

• pursuit of happiness
• the pursuit of happiness
• the pursuit of happyness
• pursuit of happyness
• pursuit of happiness movie
• personal happiness happyness
• the pursuit of happiness will smith
• moral lesson of pursuit of happiness
• the pursuit of happiness movie
• pursuit of happyness movie
• pursuit of happyness moral lesson
• movie NAME OF HAPPINESS

• Quick to the point
• All my friends can see what im up to
• Promote new ideas
• Ask questions and share information
• Network and find like minded people fast
• Internet marketing

Quick and to the point - i have ranted about emails being too long, so with twitter you are limited to ____ characters, so there isnt much room for fluff and other bullshit in your message
All my friends can see what i’m up to – i guess the internet has put my life in the public eye and i dont mind, like this blog, my twitter account shows anyone who goes to it see what i am upto. Maybe that scares some people, but when you really think about it, what is so secretive about what you are doing.? By publiclly showing what you are doing, you cab save time telling each person in your life the same story. Plus you can get input and ideas from what you are doing. For example, i was looking for a new cell phone, so i posted (on facebook and twitter) that i was looking for a new phone and needed to get input. My friends replied with their suggestions, and one friend, guilhem from intouch quality, told me he had a used one he could sell me! Haha, that is the phone i am using today! Plus when i travel, people can see what im doing, real time, and almost feel like they are with me. Especially being so far from home and family….i just wish more friends and family used it, but i speculate more and more will over time

Promote ideas – being a businessman,,,,selling and pushing my latest ideas is crucial. On twitter, i can blast a message that im promoting something new, and my friends, who know and trust me, can choose to get involved or not.

Ask questions and share information – this is a bit overlapping with above points, but basically i can ask a question and get real time, human being answers! The idea is the new internet is real time search. Seeing what is hot now! And when you search, you search what real people are saying, and what they are thinking right now…..crazy, and we will see how this develops.

Network with like minded people – twitter is all about building a following, and many people (i have to admit, myself included) get wrapped up with getting a high quantity of followers….but reallly we should focus on good quality. If we build a good following of people who like “basketball”, then when we check our twitter account, we will only get information on basketball….and we can talk to people who are experts. Since actively using twitter, i have found cooperations, friend, and customers from it. The networking is amazing.

Internet marketing – being an internet marketing guy, I see the value in twitter in promoting keywords and products I am selling – not just on twitter.com -  but on google and other search engines and social media platforms. Because  twitter is such a popular site, and so easy for search engines to see, it ranks high for keywords the users place on it.

But really, using twitter on a daily basis has made life more interesting, killed dead time waiting for elevators (I have it on my mobile phone), and allowed me to meet new and interesting people all over the world!  Check me out on twitter today – (@michelini  – twitter.com/michelini )