I don’t know about you, but I’ve enjoyed reading the smack talk from friends near and far, opinions on a muffed national anthem, and off-hand remarks on Doritos commercials.

Does social media bring us together? I’m not saying this is the definitive proof, but I bet if you were participating during the SuperBowl, you probably agree with me.

Well, not to be outdone I’m compiling a list of the best blogs I’ve read, and I’d like to get some reader’s opinions on the subject. What blogs are you reading, why, and how often? I’ll combine our thoughts to give a more thorough list. While I doubt many of you have time to keep up with 50 different blogs, maybe being aware of some of these really good ones will be of use to you.

Here’s what I’m looking for (with an example):

Name of the blog: Seth Godin’s Blog

Author: Seth Godin

URL: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/

Target Audience: Readers interested in business and marketing advice

Frequency published: daily

How often I read it: daily

How I read it: RSS

Why I read it: Great business advice, concise, and entertaining

Send me a comment about a blog or two that you like, and maybe it’ll make the cut.

For instance, someone I know said that ESPN is one of the little things we should be thankful for this Thursday, but I had to remind him that none of the games are actually on ESPN. But why not give thanks for CBS, Fox, and the NFL Network (the HD versions, or course)?

If you are asking “How can you waste Thanksgiving being thankful for something so trivial? HD didn’t even exist 20 years ago!” I’d say “Stop whining and go play with your Wii!”

There are times that we forget to be happy about the little things that are going so well in our lives. The ability to watch Football, Martha Stewart in HD, or whatever, is not in the Constitution. It’s not in the Bible. It’s didn’t even make the cut in Sarah Palin’s new book (I haven’t checked, but I’m sure I’m right). But those are things we can choose to be thankful for (except the new book, I think only SP is thankful for that).

Of course, my list has more than the NFL Network and Sam Bradford (Rams QB) on it, but we all have some small things that we sometimes forget to be thankful for.

So Thursday, when you’re sitting around the flat panel, with the BluRay on pause, watching a 1080p version of life-like grass on CBS, think about who and what you are thankful for. Then after you turn to that person and say so (or FaceBook ‘em if you need to) you can also say “Thank You for Fox Sprots!”. Don’t skip the important stuff, but don’t be afraid to look to the little things and say thanks.

Play ball! (or whatever)

Some random celebrities think that it’s okay to tell you how to define your own friends and acquaintances. They want you to think that having friends on your facebook page cheapens the term in your real life. But is that true, or just someone else’s opinion?

Maybe we’re missing a better opportunity here. After all, what does it matter what word some online system uses to define our connections? It’s how we choose to define our friends that matters, and using different online resources to get and stay connected isn’t such a bad thing, is it? In fact, it can lead to better and stronger relationships.

While it’s true I don’t need to know what 477 people are having for a mid-morning snack, it’s also true that having that system can help me know my friends and acquaintances better than I otherwise would. And the best part is I can limit my exposure if I want, without resorting to deleting those connections.

Take another look at your friends list this week. But this time, don’t look for ways to “trim the friend fat.” Instead, look for ways to strengthen those relationships and make a few more.

Make it your very own National Friend Week. Friend someone, Follow their Tweets, and Digg their work. NFW!

Anywho, my point: one thing about these types of scams is that there is a consistent misuse of English, presumably because Dr. Blah-Blah is, of course, a non-native English speaker. And after all, he’s in a hurry, what with the $3 Million about to be confiscated if it’s not legally claimed in the next few nano-seconds.

What made me think about this is a related issue – the poor quality of the spam comments I receive on this blog. Every day I log in and see about 2 – 10 comments in the spam filter. 95% or more of these are easy for me to spot as spam,  since the grammar is so bad and the even the link is an obvious fake address.

It makes me wonder, what is stopping these folks from sending some semi-moral college freshman $50 to clean up their e-mails? Don’t tell me you wouldn’t take the $50 to spend 3 minutes polishing up their scam letter. You know you would.

Then it clicked.

How do they get the other 5% (estimated) through our human spam filters?

Maybe they’re letting those other 95%ish be crap on purpose so we get used to spam being spammy, and we drop our guard on the other 5%.

OMG! Are we being trained to think that well written e-mails (and blog comments) are worth our time, just because the grammar is good? Think about it.

As we network more, meet people through FaceBook, LinkedIn and other on-line sources it becomes harder for our brains to keep a mental rolodex. Is Brian88@stupiddude.com my cousin’s new e-mail address? Is this link he sent me valid, since it is him. Or, was his e-mail BrianC@regulardude.net?

I’ll just have to hope his grammar is good enough, so I’ll know he’s okay…

I seem to remember, in the good ole days, my Grandfather telling me about a phrase that worked really well for him. It was “I’ll just take my business elsewhere.” Is there a single company in America that would even bother to respond to something like this? I’m reminded of a Simpson’s episode a few years ago called “Flaming Moe’s” where Homer invented a new drink, and Moe (the Bartender) stole the formula and kept the profits. There is a scene where Homer is saying “You just lost a customer.” Moe is so busy serving Flaming Moe drinks, and the crowd is so noisy that Moe can’t even hear him. After Homer repeats it a few times with no effect, he just leaves in disgust.

I’ve seen a lot of use of ”I’m going to tell on you.” This in the sense that if I’m unhappy with your product or service and you don’t remedy the situation, I’ll tell two friends and they will tell two friends (and so on). I’m starting to think this is becoming our generation’s “good ole days” story line. I’ve been keeping up with Alan Weiss’ blog, Contrarian Consulting. He had an issue with Saks Fifth Avenue in New York a while back. In this thread, he talks about not getting much help (he does point out a specific bright spot in the service too) and posts it for the world to see. It’s an understatement to call Alan’s work a well-read blog. A few days later, he posted an update, including a reference to a direct e-mail he sent to the company with no results. Today, he posted another follow-up about a reader who works there who left him a message that has proven difficult to return. If a well known author and general big-whig like Alan can’t get improved service (or even a reasonable response) with the “tell on you” model, how far can you or I get?

Maybe the new mantra is “I’m going to tell on your competition.” Instead of announcing where the deficiency is, perhaps it’s time to tell the world “Hey, I went to Macy’s. Not only were the shirts just as good as the other guys, but the staff made me feel like they were glad to see me.” Note: this is not so much a threat as it is a true course of action. You don’t say it so much to get better service, you use it once you get the service (like a tip). Case in point, there’s a guy at Dillard’s here in Wichita that aways finds me as I approach his department. He’s helpful, pleasant, and now I find myself looking for him when I go in. He’s not an isolated case there.

This leads me to some possible advice for Alan (although I’ sure he’s used this tactic as well); Now that you have pointed out the deficiencies at Saks (which made some great reading, by the way), maybe it’s time for a “Try Sears, where the salespeople care about helping you and you’ll feel so good with that Craftsman wrench in your hand that you won’t care what color your shirt is” post. It’s just a thought…

In the final analysis, maybe there are no magic words for better customer service. I think we are at a point where the best customers find the best service (as Alan did in his post) and if you don’t keep looking, you get what you accept. What does your experience tell you?

Recommendation: Buy it at full price! (don’t wait for the paperback)

Yes, I’m taking the day off from giving a real post. Happy 4th!!!!

This challenge stemmed from his post the day before, where he asked his readers if they would be willing to write a piece for the NY Times, without pay, just for the attention. I’m guessing that he doesn’t quite have the juice to get anything he wants into the NY Times (he may be great…but he’s no Oprah). With that, his challenge was to create something to be posted as a guest post on his daily blog (which is one worth reading, by the way).

You’re probably asking, “Rob, you are such a great blogger, you must have accepted the challenge, right?” Thank you for the compliment, and yes, I did write a short post. I went with the “quick and short” option instead of the “take all day to make it perfect” approach.

Rather than make you search for it in the comments (it’s very near the beginning of the comments section), I’ll repost it here. The rules were <500 words with a <50 word self pitch at the end:

Does it pay to be first?

One of my old pointy-haired bosses used to say that 90% of success is just showing up. Another one called it 80%, and I’ve even heard it quoted as high as 99%. My conclusion: 100% of success with statistics is saying it like you mean it. And oh yeah, it help to be the first one to say it.

This is especially true with advice. People remember what they hear first and what they hear last. Everything else is just 100% drivel (according to a study I may have read). That means that being first gives you a 50/50 chance of being paid attention to. Since you can’t control if you are last (without, say, hacking the blog), being first becomes even more important.

Along those same lines, have you heard the statistic on communication that says 93% is non-verbal and only 7% is what you say?  You know that study is misquoted nearly 100% of the time (so I’m told)? It was about first impressions, not communications in general. That non-verbal is obviously important in that first impression, but once they know you, your words better make sense more than 7% of the time. Otherwise you are 100% likely to be last in that persons mind.

And even that will only last until the next yahoo speaks up…

Read Rob’s blog at www.talktothehuman.com. There is good stuff there; I’m 100% sure!

Not perfect, but maybe Dilbert worthy. If you agree, go to the comments section and vote it up for me.

I clipped Dilbert’s daily comic strip from my birthday in October and had it on my cubicle wall at work. In that strip (you can read it and come back), Dilbert is looking for approval on a new project, and the answer from the pointy-haired boss says “We agreed on a predecisional draft framework for making the decision”. When I showed this to a couple of friends at work, it caused a bit of discussion about how that type of language makes it’s way into those comics, and we pondered how we could use similar language in future meetings to liven up our own workcenter.

We came up with a postcomical draft framework for some other seventh-sigma-quality phraseology for use in the workplace, both ours and yours:

post pre-meeting discussion
version 2.0 of our predecisional draft framework
Static Predecisional Dashboard
Dynamic Predecisional Dashboard

Here are some examples of their use:

Have you ever had a pre-meeting to discuss something before the meeting? It was suggested that we plan (or not!) a post pre-meeting discussion to agree on the predecisional framework. Of course, this discussion being post (i.e. after) the pre-meeting would imply that it’s between the pre-meeting and the actual meeting. Here’s the beauty: this could happen before or after that meeting, or better yet before the main pre-meeting that finalizes some of the efforts you couldn’t resolve in the first pre-meeting and don’t want to waste time on in the actual meeting.

Version 2.0 of our predecisional draft framework would be one if the products of either the post pre-meeting discussion, from the final pre-meeting, or most likely from the MS Outlook tentative meeting attendance replies that include useful responses such as “already triple booked” and “how do I direct dial from Ecuador?”

The Static Predecisional Dashboard would be a graphic representation displayed on the monitor of your computer, a sheet of paper or an Etch-a-Sketch to show where management is in the process of approving your project. The Predecisional Status would always show “green” (since the draft framework is obviously in place). The Project Approval Status would show “in work” until project closure (when you wad up the dashboard page and burn it).  Finally, the Next Update would read “Waiting on post pre-meeting discussion approval of the next release candidate of version 2.0 of the draft framework”.

The Dynamic Predecisional Dashboard is on hold pending project approval. For regular updates, check the Static Predecisional Dashboard for the Dynamic Predecisional Dashboard Project that is hanging up over my bosses second (unplugged…shhh) 24-inch wide-screen monitor.

Scott, if you read this please feel free to use any of this in your comics. Beetle Bailey and Ziggy will need permission from the author…