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Leveraging Instagram for Business

Strategies & Tools to Create More Engagement

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then one Instagram post is equal to 32 tweets.

Social networks today have become more visual because still photographs and short videos deliver information and context in a more efficient format than any other medium.

Furthermore, visual storytelling is the antidote to information overload & jaded consumers.

Leverage the incredibly interactive Instagram network by tapping into the power of #hashtags, and learning visual techniques that will grab your customers’ attention. Utilize technical tools that will increase your efficiency, and streamline your Instagram marketing work-flow.

Join new-media lecturer Matteo Wyllyamz, a.k.a. @mouselink, for a introductory and down-to-earth discussion of what Instagram marketing can and cannot do for your business.

Requirements: Note that this is not a class on how to use Instagram. Although the discussion will focus on this social network, an account is not required to attend. It is recommended but not mandatory that attendees bring an Internet-ready device to the workshop, as a wi-fi data connection will be available. All materials (”handouts”) for this seminar will be delivered electronically via the Internet.

Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

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@Mouselink Technical & Business Training

Internet Marketing & Social Media Education

@Mouselink is the internet handle of the New-York-based author, teacher, activist, and artist, Matteo Wyllyamz. Matteo is interested in new media, visual communication, "technorealism," and future trends forecasting. He writes and speaks about the ways in which emerging technologies impact our society, communities, businesses, schools, and us as individuals.

This approach is sometimes referred to as "futurism."  

  Matteo specializes in bringing the details of these emerging technologies to those who may not already be paying attention, and creates visual and spoken-word presentations on these same topics. He likes to tell stories within the framework of ‘sociotechnology,’ and sometimes refers to himself as a “technological change coach.”

Matteo has been a software and Internet media instructor for over 25 years. Today he works as a teacher, consultant, analyst/strategist, and public speaker in the domains of new media and Internet marketing.

He has recently spoken at Ithaca College, Cornell Cooperative Extension, TC3, NYCC, the AFCU "Business Cents" program, and for the Society of Human Resource Managers. He has also taught for CCU in Denver, Colorado Free University, Productivity Point, and the US Department of Defense. 

In early 2013, Matteo became a Shorty Awards finalist for excellence in social media in the category of science. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the professional writing program at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Matteo describes himself as a "Beatnik super-human, disguised as geek, loitering at the intersection of Art and Science." Connect with him to arrange an appearance on radio, TV, and new media, or to organize a public presentation, such as a workshop, seminar, class, panel, keynote, speech, or other spoken word performance.   

  Introduction to Internet Marketing (101)

Telling Your Story Authentically with Modern Tools  

Marketing with Facebook & Twitter

Building Electronic Community Thru Social Media  

Leveraging Instagram for Business

Get More Engagement from Your Posts  

Introduction to Email Marketing

Engage with Your Audience in a Deeper Way  

Getting Found Online

Essential Search Engine Optimization (SEO)  

Introduction to Internet Statistics

Measure the Effectiveness of Your Marketing  

Defining Your Internet Marketing Strategy

Creating Community & Conversation Thru Content  

Branding Your Business

Simple symbols tell complex stories.  

Creating Prezi Zooming Presentations

Zombie PowerPoint is dead, but doesn’t know it.

  Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

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Hire Matteo Wyllyamz aka @Mouselink

Matteo wants to know, "What's your story?"

DOWNLOAD Matteo's Visual Resume in PDF or PNG formats.

The amount of data in the world will increase 50-75x in the next decade. Will people be able to find you in the midst of this information explosion? Will traditional marketing techniques be effective in this new age, or are you assuming that the Internet is just a new way to advertise? 

To find the answer to these questions, we must learn how to tell an authentic human story. The technological tools available to us today represent unprecedented opportunities to share our experiences through rich new decentralized forms of media.

Whether you are in the beginning stages of telling your story, or you have been doing it for some time now, it is always a good time to analyze and evaluate your marketing strategy. Consulting with a seasoned and reasoned coach can help you make key decisions that will not only make your efforts more effective, but will also save you time and money in the long run. 

None of this is as hard to learn as you might think.

I can work with you face-to-face, or via phone, Skype, Internet chat, or email. I help groups both large and small as a teacher and public speaker, and I also consult and coach one-on-one. Contact me, and we’ll discover more together.

Matteo Wyllyamz,  aka @Mouselink   

@Mouselink is the internet handle of the New-York-based teacher, consultant, public speaker, artist, and activist, Matteo Wyllyamz. Matteo is interested in new media, visual communications, “technorealism,” and future trends forecasting. He writes and speaks about the ways in which emerging technologies impact our society, communities, businesses, schools, and us as individuals.

This approach is sometimes referred to as “futurism.”

Matteo specializes in bringing the details of these emerging technologies to those who may not already be paying attention, and creates visual and spoken-word presentations on these same topics.

Matteo likes to tell stories within the framework of 'sociotechnology' and has been described as a "technological change coach."   

Matteo Wyllyamz has spoken at Ithaca College, Cornell Cooperative Extension, TC3, NYCC, and the AFCU “Business Cents” program. He has also taught for CCU in Denver, Colorado Free University, Productivity Point, and the US Department of Defense. Most recently, he presented at the “social media rock conference,” Tweetstock, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and at the 140 Characters Conference in New York City.

In 2013, Matteo became a Shorty Awards finalist for excellence in social media in the category of science and technology. In 2012, he was selected as one of 30 finalists for the PrixMobile global art prize for his creative work in 'phoneography.' Matteo is a magna cum laude graduate of the professional writing program at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Matteo works with companies and organizations, both large and small, to help them plan and/or evaluate the effectiveness of the story they are telling both online and IRL (in real life).

What is the story of your brand? If you didn't realize that you and your company are telling one, then answering that question is the perfect place to begin.

Matteo describes himself as a “Beatnik super-human, disguised as geek, loitering at the intersection of Art and Science.” Connect with him to arrange coaching or consultation, or for an appearance on radio, TV, and new media, or to organize a public presentation, such as a workshop, seminar, class, panel, keynote, speech, or other spoken word performance.  

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Public Speaking & Spoken-Word Performances

Internet Marketing, Social Media, Futurism, and 'Technorealism' Presentations by Matteo Wyllyamz

@Mouselink is the internet handle of the New-York-based author, teacher, public speaker and artist, Matteo Wyllyamz. Matteo is interested in new media, visual communication, "technorealism," and future trends forecasting. He writes and speaks about the ways in which emerging technologies impact our society, communities, businesses, schools, and us as individuals.

This approach is sometimes referred to as "futurism."  

Matteo Wyllyamz has spoken at Ithaca College, Cornell Cooperative Extension, TC3, NYCC, and the AFCU “Business Cents” program. He has also taught for CCU in Denver, Colorado Free University, Productivity Point, and the US Department of Defense. Most recently, he presented at the “social media rock conference,” Tweetstock, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and at the 140 Characters Conference in New York City.

In early 2013, Matteo became a Shorty Awards finalist for excellence in social media in the category of science. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the professional writing program at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Matteo describes himself as a "Beatnik super-human, disguised as geek, loitering at the intersection of Art and Science." Connect with him to arrange an appearance on radio, TV, and new media, or to organize a public presentation, such as a workshop, seminar, class, panel, speech, keynote, or other spoken word performance.  

  The Future Workplace is Social.

Emerging Trends of Sociotechnology  

15 Reasons to Pay Attention to the Future

Because We're All Going to be Living There.  

Dominate Instagram!

What is 'Phoneography'?  

Was Rod Serling the Lost Beat Writer?

(And his smoky, dimly lit coffeehouse, the Twilight Zone …)

Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

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Branding Your Business

Simple symbols tell complex stories in a noisy world.

What is "branding," and why is it so important to the success of your business?

In the information explosion in which we all now live, it is more important than ever that your brand name, logo, colors, and persona be professionally cohesive and easily recognizable by the public.

A "brand" is all that is communicated visually (and otherwise) to portray the personality of an organization, its services, and its products; and an organization's logo is an emblem for all the values that brand encompasses. Conceptually, a brand is much bigger than the logo.

Other elements of brand include the company's name, slogan or "tagline," color scheme, visual design elements, jingles, and types of media and spokes-people utilized.

Whether you're starting from scratch, or you have a brand that is already established, it is critical that you carefully evaluate what your brand is saying about how and why you do business. As Simon Sinek has so famously said, "People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it."

In this new workshop, join veteran marketer and graphic designer Matteo Wyllyamz (aka @mouselink) as we demystify how branding is accomplished and how important the science, psychology, and art of these symbols are in telling your story to the marketplace.

It is recommended that you bring an Internet-ready device to class, as a wi-fi data connection will be available. All materials (”handouts”) for this course will be made available electronically via the Internet.

Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

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Defining Your Internet Marketing Strategy

Creating Community & Conversation Through Content

The social media honeymoon is over. The hype has died down, and realistic evaluations of its effectiveness are settling in. Which networks are still going strong, and what services may not be worth your time? What should you be paying attention to, and what sh*t can you let go?

Designed for beginning-to-intermediate Internet marketing professionals who have been through the basics, and want to take the effectiveness of their online channels to the next level, in this workshop we will discuss ideas and approaches for how to create content strategies for a coordinated social media campaign.

Join new-media lecturer Matteo Wyllyamz, a.k.a. @mouselink, for a realistic and down-to-earth discussion of what social media and Internet marketing can and cannot do for you. Let's be honest about this stuff.

Requirements: Basic experience with Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks will be very helpful.

It is recommended that you bring an Internet-ready device to class, as a wi-fi data connection will be available. All materials (”handouts”) for this course will be made available via the Internet.

Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

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My Zero-Tolerance Policy for Online Bullying

Because I recently changed my Facebook profile policy to a more open model of outreach, I am getting a lot more interaction with my personal Facebook posts than I have in the recent past. I am excited to be using Facebook in this way to meet more new people with whom I may share common ground.

In adopting this more liberal policy, I am meeting lots of folks of which I know little, and that’s what this is all about. “Hello, nice to meet you!”

Unfortunately, when mixing in these unknowns, I am finding a few people who, out of habit, or because of current cultural norms, think that it is ok to be insulting to either myself or to my friends whom are interacting with these posts. 

It’s not.

I just need it to be known to everyone who interacts with me here or elsewhere on the internets, that I have a zero-tolerance policy towards online bullying. My practice is simple: If you want to argue or debate, I’m fine with that. Bring your facts, and try to leave the logical fallacies behind. 

However, any time someone gets abusive, I’m done. That person’s post will be removed without comment, and I will block them from further interactions. And if they are threatening in any way, they’ll be reported.

I’m not interested in the drama, and I know that what these people really want is attention, so I don’t give them any. Don’t feed the trolls, as they say, or they’ll keep coming back for more.

And I’d just like to take a moment here to say how incredibly foolish it is to insult and intentionally alienate another person, especially an online stranger. You don’t know anything about what they are capable of, or who they know, or what kind of power they might have to be retributive.

Some people will become vindictive over very small things. Why would you want to invite that karmic negativity into your life? Far too many have gotten into violent fights or long-lasting feuds because somebody thought it was cute to get in a good zinger on Facebook. What a waste of time and energy.

It’s pretty simple. You get back what you put out there. 

Everyone needs to understand that meanness is weakness. It takes a lot more personal strength and self-esteem to be nice and courteous to others, and the pay-offs in life are great when we treat people kindly.

And I’d like to say one more thing about this from a strictly personal angle:

I was bullied in school to the point where I dropped out of high school during my first year. To this day, I can still feel the patterns of fear in my mind and body that were created during that time. I’m still rewriting that programming, if you will.

It’s a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder, in that I can become physically ill just because someone is being mean. I didn’t talk about this during the majority of my life, because I thought to be on the receiving end of bullying meant that I was weak. But now I see that to hide it and not talk about it — that’s what is weak. To speak out against it and take a stand, that is as strong as it gets.

Hate is the wrong paradigm for the future of our species. And I ask you — if you agree with me — that you ‘like’ this post or that you reshare it somewhere where others too can read it and learn.

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Getting Found Online

Essential Search Engine Optimization Skills (SEO)

The information explosion continues, as the amount of Internet data we are all creating will increase by 50-75x in the next 10 years. With that much information out there, how will people easily find you or your business when they search online?

Join new-media lecturer Matteo Wyllyamz, a.k.a. @mouselink, to learn proven and simple techniques for transforming your search engine placement and website visibility. This beginner-friendly workshop is ideal for business owners, marketers, web designers, sole proprietors, and anyone else who wants to see their website traffic grow.

Choosing Your SEO Key Words

There are many proven and simple techniques for transforming your search engine placement and visibility, but the key is understanding the structure and patterns of information distribution on the Internet.

Knowing how to choose these key words in your SEO is a matter of visualizing this flow of traffic and its infinite niches of specialized data. With this knowledge, you can pinpoint your optimal placement, and carefully craft a list of targeted key words.

When and Where to Use Your SEO Key Words

SEO is easy when you know where and when to use your optimized key words and phrases. In your website, online documents, multimedia listings, and social media posts, to improve and manage your optimization efforts, you need only to understand how Google and other search engines see and analyze your pages. It is also very important that you set goals, and define how much time you'll put into these efforts.    

Target Audience: Anyone who creates content for the Internet needs to understand how to write titles, headings, paragraphs, URLs, etc. that are going to yield the best search results. Small business owners, non-profit managers, marketing departments, writers, media producers, and even website designers can all benefit from a greater understanding of the current search engine landscape.

Requirements: Although HTML is discussed in these workshops, experience with website code is not necessary. 

It is recommended that you bring an Internet-ready device to class, as a wi-fi data connection will be available. All materials (”handouts”) for this course will be made available via the Internet.

Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

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Business Marketing with Facebook & Twitter (Social Media 101)

Building Electronic Community Through Social Media

Modern social media has been around for a few years now, and this technological trend shows no signs of letting up. Businesses both large and small have found ways to leverage the pervasive new mediums of Twitter, Facebook, and other networks to increase customer engagement and their bottom line.

Learn the ins-and-outs of how to leverage these extremely popular forms of rapid communication to raise awareness of your brand.Although class time will include mentions of LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, and more, this introductory discussion will focus on Facebook and Twitter content strategies, with each of the two sessions devoted primarily to one of these two mainstream social networks.

(Note that this is not a beginner’s class on how to use Facebook or Twitter.)Join new-media lecturer Matteo Wyllyamz, a.k.a. @mouselink, for a realistic and down-to-earth discussion of what social media can and cannot do for your business.

Requirements: Students are encouraged to come to the workshop with their free Facebook and Twitter accounts already established, as we will not be spending any classroom time on account creation. It is strongly recommended that you bring an Internet-ready device to class, as a wi-fi data connection will be available. All materials (”handouts”) for this course will be delivered electronically via the Internet.

Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

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#Tweetstock Reminded Me That Developing an Authentic Voice is Key for Any Social Media

In our use of social media, we have lots of choices to make, and one of the most important is the type of voice we develop. Will it be corporate or personal, serious or playful? Angry, political, religious, agnostic, positive, negative, or neutral? Nice or mean, smart or ... not? It is a choice we make when we begin to speak for ourselves or a brand, but it is also a developmental process that never ends, and it is reflected every single time we post something for an online audience, whether it be a blog, Facebook update, or tweet. Through that voice, we create in the minds of our audience an evolving, yet enduring, impression of who we are are and what we are about. It's a persona. And this matters a whole lot.

This last week I had the pleasure, honor, and privilege of being invited to make a presentation at Tweetstock 007 in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. This is more of a "rock show" for social media enthusiasts, than it is a conference, in my feeling. Very professional, but also, not stiff. I like this. For me, the opportunity of being able to take in social media presentations and be exposed to the thoughts of expert Internet marketing professionals from all walks of life, is an experience rife with lessons in allowing myself to be authentic, genuine, and candid. ...

Vulnerable, even.

So many brilliant, experienced, and accomplished people at #Tweetstock007. For me, its like a giant inoculation of humility.

— @mouselink (@mouselink) April 12, 2012

This theme of authenticity first began to resonate for me during the 

"She Said"

 panel, composed of @KathyBuckworth, @juliecole, @stratfest, @juliarosien, and @KarenSD. When the discussion of

voice

and its tone came up, there were questions like, In your use of social media, do you always put your best face forward? Are you consistently smiling, or do you allow yourself to complain? Do you swear? How do you define how to conduct yourself? And for social media professionals, How does your voice change on the different accounts for which you post?

The big answer to these questions, of course, is it all depends. But let me back up a bit.

The night before the conference, I made the drive up to Ontario from Ithaca, New York. Through my unyielding stubbornness to sight-see along the way, I managed to turn a 4-5 hour drive into a 7-8 hour trip. Although it was a beautiful evening for a drive, as soon as I got into Canada, I started having trouble with my wireless connectivity. Namely, the GPS mapping in my phone stopped working because I did not have international data roaming turned on. This meant I had to guess on the next freeway exit from memory -- rather than from looking at a map -- and I guessed wrong. Sitting in a Tim Horton's parking lot, I got my map working again, and I made it safely to the Comfort Inn around 11 p.m. After a goodnight call to my family, I tried to get some quick sleep. I knew the presentation I'd be giving the next afternoon still needed additional work, and I was planning to get up early.

At 4am, I brewed some coffee, and got to work. The Internet access in the hotel was fast and totally solid, and I was able to make great progress on the Prezi I was creating, my eyes on the clock the entire time. By 7:45, I had the visual structure of my talk all solidified, but I still needed to embed the photos and videos, which were absolutely key to the topic of "phoneography" I would be discussing. I thought I'd have time to embed them during lunch, but I had some Pinterest boards set up here, here, and here to display them, just in case I couldn't find the time.

My restored GPS got me to the Galaxy Cinemas around 8am, which was perfect.  I wanted to be at the show early to check out the venue.

Tiltshift phoneography, Tweetstock 007, ala stage point-of-view, via 

Instagram

Trevor, Kevin, Neal, Adam, Josh, and so many more of the Tweetstock crew made me feel welcome, and they were all extremely nice and helpful. Right away, Trevor wanted to address any technical requirements I needed for my Prezi, and he was quick to discourage me from relying too heavily on the show's wi-fi access. With hundreds of social media aficionados tweeting and doing their Internet thing, all at the same time, I wouldn't want to be standing in front of an audience waiting for any media to load during my show.

He wasn't kidding. During the next hour I tried repeatedly to get on the Internet by any and all means possible. My Windows 7 laptop would not connect to the local wi-fi, or it would stop seeing the network entirely. My personal hotspot via my iPhone was also struggling laboriously, and it's normally a totally solid backup anywhere there's 3G. I asked Josh, who had been helping me, "Have you ever seen Star Trek: Yoyager?" I told him, "I feel a little like Seven of Nine when she first gets disconnected from The Borg's hive mind: 'The voices! I can't hear the voices.'"

As it was, I would not be able to use my Pinterest boards as a backup for the media I wanted to share. Neither would I be able to finish editing my Prezi here at the venue, or even be able to transfer the presentation to the crew for the show.  

Feel like I've been wrestling with so many technical challenges today. It always works fine until you leave the house/office.;-p

— @mouselink (@mouselink) April 12, 2012

It then became clear to me that the only way I'd be able to finish my presentation would be to go back to my hotel and use the Internet there. I did not like the idea of missing the beginning of the conference, but it seemed to be the only thing I could do. I drove off around 9:30 a.m.

I don't want to bore you with too many technical details. An hour-and-a-half back on the Internet in my room meant that I was able to download all the pictures and videos I wanted to talk about, and that I could put everything I needed for the formerly cloud-based Prezi onto a flash drive. This way I could simply hand it physically to the tech crew. They worked with me on the presentation through lunch, checking and double-checking that everything worked right.

Just after this, the "He Said" panel (@thesaleslion, @RLavigne42, @cutegecko, and @kitestring) temporarily brought me back out of my technical fog of war, and got me thinking about this concept of an authentic voice again. I really liked how Marcus Sheridan emphasized that the best way to develop your social media skills is to just start creating content, that the betterment of that content and your voice is a part of the process. In a similar vane, Robert Lavigne admitted that the way in which he did his earliest video blogs involved him literally hiding behind glasses and under a bandana.

The giant projection screen, behind the "He Said" panel, via

Instagram

The discussion got me thinking again that when we allow ourselves to be genuine, that the telling of our story can be so much more compelling for our audience. But more about that in a minute. It was finally time for me to go up.

It being the middle of the afternoon, I didn't know if the audience would have low energy and need some perking up, so I planned to do two things to stir everyone a bit: I'd take a picture of the group from the stage POV, and have them all say, "Tweestock!" instead of "cheese." But as I was doing so, the crew was having trouble getting my Prezi on screen, even though we had just tested it successfully an hour before. At that moment, Trevor came to the rescue, and sent the audience to break so that we could get the presentation working again, but in the process, I felt awkward because I obviously didn't want to go through the same opening twice.

After break, we started again, and my Prezi was finally rolling. I was happy with the beginning of the show, as it went pretty much as I had planned. However, after I got through the introductory comments and into the topical matter, I began to feel distracted and disoriented.

With my Prezi right behind me on a gigantic screen, and no computer in front of me, I felt like I was flying blind. I couldn't see my presentation without craning my neck around, and even when I did that, it didn't help much. I realized that in 20 years of teaching computer tech in the classroom, and even in the last few years of building Prezi "zooming" presentations, that I had never been in this situation before. I had always had a computer in front of me when presenting a topic.

This screwed up my tempo and rhythm. If I had been presenting from PowerPoint, I don't think the setup would have affected me as much, but for an unpracticed Prezi, it felt catastrophic. I didn't want a slow pace for this talk, and much to my disappointment, that's exactly what I put out there. 

Afterwards, I tried to console myself. This was only the second time I had ever spoken at a conference, and it was the largest audience I had been in front of since college. I'm a newbie in those respects, and I'm *supposed to* have plenty to learn, right? Still, I went back to my room after the afternoon had ended, and I felt drained, when I normally would have felt inspired. Had I given myself more time to prepare, had I embedded all this media and saved the Prezi for offline use, had I practiced more ... then I might have realized before the show that I needed a stage-facing screen in order to stay oriented. I could have had the forethought to have requested this. But now I had learned.   

#Tweetstock007: Thinking of blogging along the lines of, "If you like me when I suck, then you'll really dig it when I'm actually good."

— @mouselink (@mouselink) April 13, 2012

I drove over to the Brantford Casino for the Tweetstock after-party, and immediately everyone was very friendly and positive with whom I had a chance to speak. Many were complimentary of my presentation, and I started to feel a little better. I had a chance to talk with Karen Schulman Dupuis (@KarenSD) at length about some of the themes of the day as I saw them.

One of the questions regarding the idea of voice that kept coming back to both of us was the extent to which a social media user should allow their own flaws to show. Do you let yourself complain? Or do you allow your audience to know that you are tired, or discouraged, or feeling uncertain about yourself?

If you choose to hide your flaws, an inherent problem arises, and that is, sooner or later you're going to slip up and be found out. Hide something now, and you'll be forever hiding it. But be transparent now, and you'll be making things a whole lot easier for yourself in the long run.

In this vein, I chose to write candidly about the technical problems I experienced during this conference, not because of a desire to complain in any way or fish for compliments, but because I wanted to share my feelings of being frustrated, uncomfortable, and discouraged. I know what I'm capable of in addressing an audience, and I fell far short of my potential that day.

In any good story, the protagonist has something to learn, and he is never at his best when the narrative begins. That is a big reason why we pay attention. We root for the hero because we identify with those flaws, in the same way that we want to overcome our own weaknesses and improve ourselves. A person's ability to learn and improve is part of what compels us to admire their work.  

The bravest thing you can do is choose to be vulnerable. ~KSD #TEDxWaterloo

— Karen SchulmanDupuis (@karensd) March 21, 2012

Social media also tells a story, and we are all the heroes of our own action adventures. Why would we ever want to hide that learning process from our audience? It's a key element of what makes the adventure compelling, and it may be the core reason anyone is interested in following us. I had a Twitter follower one day tell me something that I've never forgotten. She said, "You're not like other so-called social media experts. You actually get depressed or talk about what you're struggling with. Matteo, that is why I keep following you."

There are many different kinds of brands. Whether you represent company interests, or you are a brand unto yourself, you have to decide what your voice is going to be. Consider also that we're entering the point in our technological evolution during which it's becoming more and more difficult to hide anything. I believe this is a good thing for both corporations and governments alike. And I think it will be good for all our own stories, if we allow it.

At Tweetstock 007 in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, I could have knocked everybody's socks off, but I didn't.

The next time, this is gonna change.

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Are insults an effective means of argument in that they can actually change people's minds?

Abusive ad hominem attacks are one of the most common logical fallacies of partisan politics

The duopoloy-based partisan hate-fest in the United States is only getting more intense in Obama's second term. Sadly, what passes for "debate" is little more than people hurling back and forth abuse from the base of their reptilian brains.

What I don't think a lot of folks realize is that the logical fallacies present within all this aggressive and defensive rhetoric do little to change people's opinions. With that in mind, I took a moment on Twitter to air my frustration. The following tweets in this Storify article show some of the resulting exchanges:

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Today's Scarlet Letter is 'Conspiracy Theorist'

It's time for us to decide if we really want a free Internet. Certainly many of us do. Some of us think we do, but we don't really understand what this entails or what the consequences might be. 

Then there is a rising tide of increasingly loud voices who do not believe in an unfettered, level playing field for human ideas, who are frightened by the radical extremes of people's opinions, and who would seek to control thought itself. And some of these folks would like to fundamentally change our online lives as we know them.

In seeking to control human thought, we are really trying to regulate humanity, to restrain life itself in an attempt to rein in the infinite informational interactions of the universe. I dare say, humans do not have this ability. 

Throughout history, would-be controllers always lose control, and are defeated by the power and complexity of chaos. As the fictional character Dr. Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, "If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, expands to new territories, and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously. Life finds a way."   

  The history of our race could be described as a futile, yet reoccurring attempt to control everything, by those who want to administer that control, over those who do not wish to be controlled. And in the minds of the would-be overseers, freedom of speech is dangerous, because in their view, people are not smart enough to be trusted to form "correct" opinions. Some ideas are just too malignant, and therefore must be oppressed at all cost. Other beliefs simply do not serve the self-preservation of the system. This is merely political correctness tending towards its logical end.

And so there is always a great deal of pressure from the current establishment on us as individuals to conform to mainstream ideals. Most often, the people who don't are mocked and insulted, and this is the way it has been done for millennia. Today, of course, it's often done on the Internet, through message boards, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and the like.

Those who do not adhere to officially sanctioned views are rarely described as free thinkers, non-conformists, dissenters, mavericks, rebels, or even ideologues. Rather, we've invented more colorful descriptors in our attempts to mock and suppress them. 

We call such people kooks, oddballs, crackpots, nutjobs, tinfoil hatters, or cranks. Snake oil salesmen. When we want to sound more sophisticated and intellectual, we accuse people of "denialism," or we leverage buzzwords like "extremist," "pseudoscience," or "fringe."  

  But these are just code words -- insults thinly disguised -- that have the same intention as the more fractious aspersions: to discredit someone without the use of reason or intellectual argument. People who study logical fallacies call these ad hominem attacks. Instead of debating the validity of a person's ideas, we attack the person. And that is not an argument at all.

Insults work well for those who regularly preach to the converted, because this maneuver does nothing to change anyone's mind about anything. In that way, it's safe. Easier to mouth off at somebody, rather than attempt a logical assertion. These tactics inflame and entrench, and that only adds to the futility of using them. When I see someone insulting another person in a discussion, it immediately tells me, that's the best they've got. 

And now "conspiracy theorist" has become the granddaddy of all ad hominem attacks. It's the ultimate label, the new scarlet letter that we can pin on someone we desire to marginalize and ostracize. We can pretty much deny the validity of what anyone says with this phrase. As long as the person's opinion lies outside of predominant views, we can merely utter, "Oh, that's just a conspiracy theory," and then act like the argument is over.

Perhaps the opposite should be true.

Popular opinion, or the societally/politically acceptable mainstream way of thinking, has a pretty dismal track record. If we want to enthrone consensus as some kind of absolute ruler over what is acceptable for us to think and speak, then it seems like we'll have to undo every major paradigm shift that's taken place throughout human history. In reality, those who question the status quo are often history's heroes. Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein all questioned and overturned scientific consensus.  

  I'm darkly amused by the 1950s television commercials that tout the benefits of smoking, and that assure us, "More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette." Tobacco industry whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand, who eventually thoroughly disrupted that establishment by shedding light on the practice of intentionally manipulating the addictive chemicals in cigarettes, has said that he was systematically attacked by that industry in an organized smear campaign that was aimed at destroying his character and credibility. This happened little more than 15 years ago, so why do some people seem to think it can't happen today? Truly, Wigand was a conspiracy theorist in the best sense of the word. Yes, sometimes there are real conspiracies. But would we listen to him today, or would Bill O'Reilly simply dismiss him as a pinhead?

Societal issues change over time, but mainstream thought has been consistently overthrown again and again. In the same way that the acceptance and promotion of tobacco use were common on prime-time some 50 years ago, only 100 years ago, women in the United States were still advocating for their right to vote. Only 150 years ago, slavery was legal.

Clearly as a species, we've only just begun to figure some important things out.

Just because the majority has been wrong so many times before, however, does not always make them wrong. That in itself would also be a logical fallacy. I believe it simply means we should maintain skepticism toward popular opinion. Question Authority. Work to think for ourselves. Utilize critical thinking. And so on.

For some people, this has become a matter of course. There are plenty of today's paradigms that would seem to be the view of the majority, that many people not only question, but reject.

I emphasize the word "seem" because I would accept it as a foregone conclusion that mass media has had a death-grip on predominant thought for hundreds of years, essentially homogenizing the topmost ideas in our culture. Whomever controlled the printing press, radio, television, or film studio, had the ability to determine which ideas were promoted and which ones were ignored or even repressed.

With the rise of the populist Internet, however, the thought-control establishment has lost that control, and one of the few tactics they have left is to attempt to marginalize new thought leaders with the aforementioned ad hominem attacks. The way in which the rise of the Ron Paul liberty movement has been covered by the old media is a prime example of this.  

  Today, people are buying into old establishment views less and less, and the Internet has taught us that those of us in the "minority" are never alone in our thinking. In fact, sometimes it's quite the opposite. For instance, since the majority of U.S. states forbid same-sex marriage, one might think this is the majority view of the population, but a May 2011 Gallup Poll actually found that 64% of those surveyed, said that gay or lesbian relations between consenting adults should be legal. 

There are many other traditional paradigms that are being questioned, or even overturned. 

Big banking and Wall Street have become the targets of repeated protests, and American dissatisfaction with big government and big corporations is at a decade-long high. The industrialization of our food supply has come under intense questioning. Monsanto's rating on Amplicate is 96% hate. Consumption and marketing, the educational system, the big pharma/medical establishment, and more personal matters, such as breastfeeding norms, or the practice of circumcision, are all being challenged. 

More than 750,000 in the U.S. die every year from prescription drugs. Not one single death is attributable to marijuana use, and yet the latter is the illegal substance? We no longer allow the tobacco industry to advertise on television, so why do we allow it for drug companies? These are the kinds of questions being asked.

It seems that everywhere, the status quo is being scrutinized or disrupted, and the reaction of the establishment is to protect itself in order to preserve its own existence. It's important to remember that the people who want to censor the Internet often have something to gain from those restrictions, such as the protection of their own organizations from those who would challenge the way they do business.

As corporation and government interests continue to merge, it's more important than ever to question the official line, and to think for ourselves. We need skeptics. We need "denialists." We need people who don't swallow everything they're fed. Actual conspiracies do sometimes take place, and not everything the majority believes is the best thing for our species. If we want a truly free Internet, we have to allow people -- no matter how kooky we may think they are -- to believe and say what they will. When we disagree, we need to make logical arguments, and leave behind the name-calling that does nothing to change minds or further understanding.

Attempting to control speech doesn't make sense, because it doesn't work, and when we try to control thought, we only drive ideas underground, and in some very real ways, that only contributes to their power.  

People who are continually trying to control others are doing so because they are themselves so desperately afraid.

— Matteo Wyllyamz (@mouselink) July 26, 2013

This article was inspired, in part, by the writings of Evgeny Morozov and Cass Sunstein.

[mouselink]

New @mouselink email newsletter

I've got a lot of different things going on now, so starting a small newsletter seemed like a good idea.

Besides the periodic workshops, seminars, and academic lectures that I have always presented, I have begun booking other public speaking engagements. Additionally, I also have a brand-new internet audio program and podcast called Mouselink Radio in which I am discussing technorealism, futurism, and many varied aspects of internet communications and new media. I have already lined up some very interesting and noteworthy guests. Besides all of the above, I am still consulting with varied clients, AND I'm working on my first photo book.

So, if you are interested in any of this stuff, I don't want you to miss it! I have never been a huge newsletter fiend, so I'm not expecting to send this out overly frequently, but when significant developments occur, I obviously want to share them with as many interested people as I possibly can.

I apologize if this message comes unwelcome, or if I've sent this to more than one of your email accounts, or if you have absolutely no idea who I am! If you're not interested in having a little news pushed out to you once in awhile, no worries! I won't take it personally ... but no cookie for you! (~;

I have a new website, so you can check in any time or sign up for the newsletter at a future date. Just point your browser at http://mouselink.fanbridge.com

Thanks again,

Matteo Wyllyamz @mouselink

[mouselink]

Introduction to Internet Statistics

Measure the Effectiveness of your Internet Marketing One workshop in one three-hour session

It's one thing to have a lot of likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter, but how many people are actually seeing and responding to your posts?

A greater understanding of analytical tools and the associated terminology will help you better measure the effectiveness of your Internet Marketing efforts, because numbers on the Internet can be deceiving. 

Is Klout a good measure of your social media effectiveness, or are there other, more transparent tools that provide clearer feedback? And what about the reach of your email marketing campaigns or the impact of your YouTube videos?

Along with these questions, we'll also take a look at Google Analytics, a free, powerful tool that can help you learn where your website visitors are coming from and how they are interacting with your web pages. Marketers and business owners alike can find valuable insights into their website activity and online marketing efforts that can help push online marketing strategies far ahead of the competition.  

  In this beginners' workshop, Internet marketing enthusiast, Matteo Wyllyamz a.k.a. @mouselink, will help you leverage the power of Google Analytics and other statistical tools to help you meet your goals.

You’ll learn how to analyze your accounts, as well as install and configure the various tools as needed. We will examine jargon, interfaces, reports, features, and functions. You will focus on meaningful data, and use this information to improve your marketing results. “Numbers are both more important and less important than we think they are.”

Requirements: This is an introductory level workshop. Knowledge of website code is helpful, but not required.

It is recommended that you bring an Internet-ready device to class, as a wi-fi data connection will be available. All materials (”handouts”) for this course will be delivered electronically via the Internet.

Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

[mouselink]

Introduction to Email Marketing

Understand and Choose Your Best Email ‘Blast’ Tool One workshop in one three-hour session

Email marketing is a cost-effective way for a small business to set itself apart from the competition, and engage with its core audience in a deeper way.

Today's slew of email campaign management services can create for you an increased level of professionalism, not just in your Internet marketing presentation, but in the way customers will be able to engage you and respond to your business services.

In this workshop, you will learn how to format effectively designed email blasts, manage a list of addresses, and access real-time statistics that show you open-rates and click-through percentages.   

  Anyone who may be a bit confused as to how email lists actually work, or how to choose the right service provider, will benefit from this jargon-busting discussion led by experienced Internet marketing presenter, Matteo Wyllyamz, a.k.a. @mouselink. 

Knowledge gained from this discussion will be applicable to Constant Contact, Business Catalyst, Campaign Manager, MailChimp, FanBridge, and other services. 

Requirements: This is an introductory level workshop. Knowledge of Internet marketing techniques is helpful, but not required.

It is strongly recommended that you bring an Internet-ready device to class, as a wi-fi data connection will be available. All materials (”handouts”) for this course will be delivered electronically via the Internet.

Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

[mouselink]

Introduction to Internet Marketing (101)

Telling Your Story Authentically with Modern Tools

The amount of data in the world will increase 50-75x in the next decade. Will people be able to find you in the midst of this information explosion? Will traditional marketing techniques be effective in this new age, or is the Internet just a new way to advertise? 

To find the answer to these questions, we must learn how to tell an authentic human story. The technological tools available to us today represent unprecedented opportunities to share our experiences through rich new decentralized forms of media.

  What then, is the story of your brand? And if you didn’t realize that you and your company are telling one, answering that question is the perfect place to start.

Whether you are in the beginning stages of telling your story, or you have been doing it for some time now, it is always a good time to analyze your marketing strategy, and to get better acquainted with the current landscape.

Do you still need a website in this day and age, and what role will social media play for you? Do you need an email list, and will you need to understand analytics? To what extent will "search engine optimization" be needed? This workshop series provides a general overview of these types of Internet marketing approaches and their ever-changing details.

Join new-media lecturer Matteo Wyllyamz, a.k.a. @mouselink, for a realistic and down-to-earth discussion of Internet culture, technorealism, futurism, and how telling your brand’s story online fits into these realities. Learn the buzzwords and jargon from a seasoned professional who still knows how to speak english, and together we'll demystify these new marketing approaches that have taken the world by storm in the last two decades.

Requirements: This is the most basic, entry-level class in our series. It is strongly recommended that you bring an Internet-ready device to class, as a wi-fi data connection will be available. All materials (”handouts”) for this course will be delivered electronically via the Internet.

Check the calendar for an upcoming presentation or workshop, or hire Matteo to have him speak to your group or at your event.

[mouselink]

#GMOs: #Monsanto earnings fall 34% after a year of global protests >> http://t.co/a6g2Ux0FAa pic.twitter.com/ZYvqiwb2nL

— Matteo Wyllyamz (@mouselink) January 23, 2015