4:38:03

Posted on April 17, 2012 by myleftone

So… the 2012 Boston Marathon was epic. I heard that more than 4,000 runners took the BAA up on their offer to defer until next year. These are probably fast runners who wanted to go for PRs (personal records). Smart folks. Another 2,000 or so did require medical help of some kind, and they included elite and expert runners.

The BAA warning before the race was pointed: If you had never run a marathon or had not run in these conditions, they recommended you bag. I realized if I ran in the 88 degree heat, next time that warning wouldn’t mean me!

So the moral of my story: I got greedy. Inexperience told me to add a half-minute to my planned 8.5 pace. Ha! More like two minutes. The BAA warning mentioned adding two minutes per mile, too. If I was realistic, I should have targeted a 10 minute pace, and maybe the plan would work out for 4:20. Maybe. That was the best I could have hoped for. In reality, I ran it in 4:38:03, and I consider the 18 minute extra time to be my punishment, and I’ll take it. The weather was a huge deal for everyone, even for the winner. The word of the day was ‘Brutal’.

Now on to the fun stuff (I’m typing this on an iPad. Why am I typing this on an iPad?): The crowds are awesome. They screamed and made noise whole way. The guardsmen were everywhere. I saw the full-dressed Marines out there. Inspiring!

At some places there were bands playing on trucks or on a lawn. A blues outfit, a bluegrass band, a horn ensemble, and some drum circles. There were some funny signs that I can’t remember. One spectator wore a shirt that read, “Running Sucks”. I was running in pace with a bandit crew from BC (unregistered runners). They got big cheers from their crowd when we reached the school.

I didn’t see any people fall, but I did see runners resting in the shade, being helped by police and volunteers. The volunteers were exceptional. So much work goes into this thing that a staggering number of volunteers are needed. And they get a cool jacket. Orange this year.

I started feeling cramps after the hills. There are four miles on Beacon Street that deserve mention. By this point you want it over. The crowd is loudest here, and tend to yell stuff like “Four miles left! Almost there!” And you feel like you have to oblige.

They really do provide a boost, but at this point swerving over to the edge to high five and whoop back with them uses precious energy. Of course that didn’t stop me. I knew this stretch would be my nemesis, so anything to have fun. One group had a sign for someone named Skip, so I started skipping, and a couple other runners joined me. There was a percussion group banging away, so I gave them a taste of my weird brand of step dancing. More cramps.

At the end, some runners spread their arms wide and ‘flew’ serpentine toward the finish, I didn’t do this, but I did run that last mile. I ran the entire Kenmore stretch (this is where you get seen on the news, doncha know), and just ran through the cramps. Probably stupid, but it’s in the books now, and we’re uninjured.

So, now what?

How about 5k on Tuesday? You can’t say you ran 5k the day after the Boston Marathon unless you run 5k on the day after the Boston Marathon. So I did.

Ready

Posted on April 7, 2012 by myleftone

10K. 42Min.

To many people, that means nothing. It looks like some kind of running stat, like that annoying cousin, the triathlete or something, is always talking about. Normal people talk about Final Fours, Yards per carry, and RBIs. You can stuff your 42 minute 10Ks.

Real runners don’t care much for numbers like that either. They run a 5-minute mile, not a pokey 8. A 42 minute 10K is the mark of a piker.

Well, this piker is pretty darn proud of the number. I turned it in this morning, one week before my first Boston Marathon. I’m in ‘taper’ mode, which means I’m not supposed to be running very much during the 2 to 3 weeks before race day. After 5 months of training at distances of more than 20 miles, the heart, lungs, legs, stomach and mind are ready.

Well, I’m ready.

A lot of real runners have been running since they were stars on the high school track team, so they turn in times like 25 minutes for a 10K and 2:30:00 for marathons. I’ve never seen these folks while training. Most of the people I see while running are doing about my pace. The fast folks must train in some exclusive village they never tell us about.

Come to think of it, I hardly see these folks during the race either. Before the run, I can’t tell which ones they are until they gravitate to the front of the starting line. Then they’re gone like a bullet at the gun, and are dressed and fed and outta there before I hit mile 10. But still, the race people keep the barriers up and keep boxes of bagels out so people like me can finish. Nice of them, really.

So why do people like me run marathons?

A vain search for the fountain of youth?
The manifestation of a serious midlife crisis?
The dumbest weight-loss program ever?
A thinly-veiled substitute for a depressing lack of career success?
An attempt to ‘get fit so I can play with my kids’ that results in being too tired to play with my kids?

The fact is there are a lot of people like me, who were not track stars, but just want to run. Maybe it was just a way to keep fit, but then we get fitter, and faster, then suddenly we get the notion that we can enter the realm of real athletes. That’s kinda how I feel about the Boston Marathon, like it’s hallowed ground. Thanks to Team Playworks, the awesome charity I am running for, and a lot of great people who have donated and helped me raise money, I’m allowed to touch it and graze the grasses of greatness for just a few hours. It’s a little awe-inspiring and overwhelming.

It’ll be hard to feel like I belong on the course, and it’ll be hard to overcome the crowds, the adrenaline rush, and the runner’s high. I already know it’ll be hard to push the last few miles if I’m not disciplined about the early ones. If I want that late kick, I need to watch the pace, take care on the hills, watch my water and gel intake, keep a light step, and just let the ground coast under me like I’m a leaf on the wind.

Whoa, those are things real runners say. Like I said, I’m ready.

And What Have We Learned, Hmm?

Posted on March 13, 2012 by myleftone

The Boston Marathon is less than five weeks away.

Normally that wouldn’t bother me at all, but this year is a little different. This time I’m supposed to run in it.

It’s 26 miles. 26.2 actually, as any marathoner will probably point out. I’ve run 5 miles. Even 10. But that’s always been my limit. I don’t think it was physical as much as mental. Running 10 miles takes an hour and a half. That could be a movie. Instead, I’ve chosen to spend that time pounding my legs into pavement listening to an iPhone shuffle playlist that is short enough to call up Barry Manilow twice.

Barry Manilow. Twice.

And now I’ve signed on to run more than twice that distance. No iPhone allowed.

But I have learned some things. First, I’ve learned that a die-hard skier can actually shift priorities. This was probably the mildest winter I can remember in awhile. As a lifelong skier, I’m sure feeling a bit torn about my good luck with the weather. If there was ever a winter to keep the skis in the cellar and train for a marathon instead, this was it.

I’ve already been telling people this was my plan all along, because I knew, (yes, KNEW) this was going to be a warm, dry winter with the roads clear of slush and sand and the temperature a balmy 20 degrees for my 5AM runs.

I’ve learned whenever I’ve heard runners say: “If you can run two miles you can run anything.”, “If you can run 16 miles you can run a marathon.” it’s emphatically NOT true. I cannot run 10 miles if I don’t get used to running 6. I could never run 13 without first running 10. And so it goes. The 26.2 mile distance is only getting HARDER to reach as I start running 18, 20 and 22 miles.

I learned to be cavalier about injuries. Is that a bone spur? Is that an IT band? Is that tendinitis? Did I just jam an ankle doing something really stupid at the playground with the kids? Let’s run it out. Let’s put in 3 miles and see if it goes away. I have to put 22 miles on this ankle tomorrow.

I learned about ice.

Speaking of that, for the first time in my life, I’ve learned what it felt like to be unconsolably cold. A long run takes so much out of you that I now have this unnerving need to bundle up right afterward and just be warm. Now. This is a concern because I always want to be a northerner, but I think it’s because endurance training draws down every ounce of energy I have.

About that, I knew my legs and ankles would feel it, and I knew my mind would be tested. I wasn’t ready for the gastrointestinal issues associated with distance running but that’s now under control.

I’ve learned that my heart and lungs actually work really well during a run even though I’m slightly asthmatic. In fact, I’ve become annoyed that I can’t get my heart rate up anymore during regular exercise.

The biggest energy effect I wasn’t ready for? The crushing stupidity. After three hours running the road, I’m a much bigger moron than usual. Alcohol wears off in a day, and I assume other popular imbibed and inhaled substances wear off overnight. But running 20 miles puts me in a should-not-drive-should-not-use-scissors-should-not-be-put-in-charge-of-children stupor that can linger for days.

I learned that runners see a lot of sunrises from the road. More than that, after a year of hiking and running, I’ve become far more claustrophobic. I can’t stand being indoors. But I consider this a happy discovery.

I’ve learned that it’s possible to raise ridiculous amounts of money from friends and family, but it’s hard for someone like me who hates asking. You have to. You just do. And many amazing people will come through for you and the Playworks cause.

I’ve learned that I like this. I’ve learned that it is possible to see runners on the street and wish I was out there. I can sit up and say “You know what? I feel like a quick 5 miles.”

Most importantly, I’ve learned that I can do this.

What’s Wrong With Pinterest?

Posted on February 16, 2012 by myleftone

I suddenly realized I’m not a thirty-something woman from the midwest.

I first heard about Pinterest only a few weeks ago. Apparently it’s the latest fad in social media. But what the hell is it? I wondered. I went to the site and saw a massive array of gorgeous photos of stuff that looked a bit too upper-class for my taste.

“It’s a pinboard!” I was told. Now, pinboard was a brand new word to me. Yes, I’m 40, and I got all this way without ever hearing about pinboards. Now here’s Pinterest, supposed to be this big public ‘pinboard’, and not only was I totally in the dark about the site, but the idea it was based on.

I asked my wife. “You know, it’s a board you pin stuff to, like the one in the kitchen,” she said. She meant the corkboard where we stuck calendars and notices from the public school.

But a pinboard is apparently not a thing; It’s a concept. Maybe like a scrapbook? I wondered. ”That’s where you put pictures and souvenirs,” she said. ”Of stuff you’ve done.”

So she didn’t know either. Neither did the next several people I asked. It was dawning on me that we here on the east coast may have no idea what a pinboard, the very concept that Pinterest is based on, actually is.

Maybe it’s a class thing? You just have to be in a certain income bracket? Or maybe it’s an age thing? Or a taste thing? A regional thing?

Anyway, a pinboard is a place where you put up pictures of stuff you really want. The idea is that if you affirm your desires every day, they will come true.

Gag me.

Basically, to even know what a pinboard is, you have to watch Oprah or Martha Stewart (Actually, being from the east coast, I wonder if Martha even knew). To have ever used a pinboard, you have to be a thirty-something woman from the midwest. Maybe they do these in the South, too, I don’t know.

What I do know is: TO REALLY BE A HUGE SOCIAL MEDIA SENSATION FOR THE LONG TERM, YOU HAVE TO APPEAL TO CYNICAL PEOPLE WITH DARK SENSES OF HUMOR AND LITTLE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE.

And that’s what’s wrong with Pinterest. To be a fan, you have to be a person who believes, really BELIEVES that dreams can come true if you just pin them to a wall somewhere and share them.

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but in my experience, the best way to assure that something will never happen is to want it really bad. The last thing I ever want to do is tell people about my hopes and dreams, so I can be mocked years later after they never happened. “Still have the picture of that sailboat, Tom? Heh heh.”

Shut up.

So my Pinterest site is full of photos of stuff I’ve done, and things I already have, as well as some really ham-handed attempts at inspirational messages. I suck at that. I’m basically using it as a scoreboard, not a pinboard. This is why I didn’t get it at first. This is also why my pictures are terrible compared to the gorgeous cover shots offered by merchants for thirty-something Oprah-watching women from the midwest to share and pin to their own boards.

I’m sorry, I just can’t see guys posting pics of cars they want or golf vacations they’d love to take on Pinterest. I also can’t imagine young urban types posting shots of zombie video games, black t-shirts, and music that isn’t Yanni. The minute Pinterest goes that way, the party will be over, the way it was when your mom joined Facebook.

So kids, hurry over to Pinterest to wreck it for mom. Payback, I guess?

UPDATE: I hope folks see my attempt at humor here. A recent post of mine to Pinterest has garnered 25 repins, so maybe I’m figuring it out after all. Now where can I get a DVD of Oprah seasons 1,2 & 3!

A Letter to my Children

Posted on February 12, 2012 by myleftone

Dear Riley and Connor,

I may never again get the chance to sit down and do this. You are two active, precocious, lovable, beautiful children who create your own energy together, the way an intense fire creates its own whirlwind. You spin and fly and run and think, and the threshold where I can no longer keep up is rapidly approaching.

Before frustration causes me to forget what I believe when it comes to parenting, I wanted to put my promises to you in writing.

I will try to be a different kind of parent. I’m sure everyone says this, but this is more and more a world of hate and ignorance, where a lot of people get their principles from a mob mentality. It is dangerous and I will not be a part of it.

I will always try to earn your trust and respect, not to demand or expect it from you without deserving it.

I will be less than perfect, and we will not always agree. You may hate me for what I do, but I will always try to do what is right and what is best for you and for our family, not for myself.

I will never try to humiliate you, especially in front of your friends (though I may sometimes be inadvertently embarrassing).

I will never lash out against you when I am hurt.

I will not try to be your friend, but will use my experience as an adult who was once a child, to guide you and lead you.

I will also let you lead me.

I will never, ever act like a child to punish you. I will sometimes act like a child when it drives us closer, not further apart.

I will never try to alienate you. You will feel like hitting me at times, and you even will. I will never retaliate with violence.

Yes, I will spoil you.

I promise to lose games to you. I promise to lose races to you. I promise to never keep score.

I promise that you can say anything you want to me, and you can also keep secrets from me.

I promise that you can complain and vent about me, to whomever you want, and I will not respond in kind.

I promise to laugh at your jokes and cry when you hurt me, but I will never try to hurt you back.

I will to never try to intimidate or bully you.

I will fail at times, but I will always try to fix my mistakes.

I will not make sense all the time, and you will hate me for it.

I promise that I will know this.

I will silently weep in frustration as I watch you copy my own mistakes. I may try to help you avoid them, and I may stand by while you resist. I will not get in your way when you make your own decisions.

I will try to help you see and experience as much as I can give you, and it will be much more than I ever knew myself.

I will offer unqualified support and hope.

I will give you opportunities, not chores.

I will give you chances, not strikes.

I will give you wings, not shackles.

I will love you, no matter what you do or say.

It is not just love that matters, but what we do with it. I promise that I will use it to be your foundation.

I will be your ground, and the sky will be your limit.

Sincerely,

Your father, Tom Bishop

The New York Times Email Mistake: Can It Happen To You?

Posted on January 27, 2012 by myleftone

By now you probably know about the New York Times’ little email error on Wednesday, December 27. But if you don’t, here’s the nutshell: The Times sent a ‘Cancellation’ email to 8.6 million people, presumably every single one of their online email subscribers. The email was meant only for those who actually subscribe to the paper’s home delivery service.

First the Times claimed it was spam, then blamed their email service provider Epsilon, and finally fessed up; The Times did it themselves.

As I’m sure we’re all wondering: How exactly did it happen? And how can you avoid it? Only people at the Times know for sure, but it’s possible, in fact easy, to guess. In fact, it’s a worthwhile exercise, because it may help you to avoid copying their mistake.

Let’s consider what we know:

The email itself is of the ‘transactional’ variety, designed to be sent to people who canceled their subscription recently, supposedly about 300 people, not 8.6 million.
It is very likely that the emails were triggered to send immediately after some change in the database, like an upload of canceled subscribers. This may have been automated or transferred as a .CSV or some other kind of data file compiled by the circulation department.
It is likely that the Times uploaded, updated or moved their entire subscriber database, changing the field that is used to trigger the cancel emails, which is how 8.6 million people would wind up in the ‘Canceled’ category.
If the database driving the auto-trigger is part of a web analytics platform or the site’s backend, it could have been altered by another department doing something that was considered purely technical and unrelated. This could mean the marketing and circulation departments had nothing to do with this. The database update was made by people whose primary focus is elsewhere, and whom are not familiar with the email system.
Or, it is possible that someone in the marketing or circulation department was playing with the database, maybe ‘cleaning up’ fields, without considering the consequences.
Finally, while it’s interesting to imagine that someone pressed the wrong button somewhere. It may have been an automatic change triggered a long time ago, when somebody set a transactional mailing to run for a very long time, like 24 months, before expiring and throwing the emails into the regular queue.

What doesn’t seem likely is that someone manually set up the ‘Cancellation’ email and selected the entire database by accident. I’d like to think the people at the Times are beyond that.

The bottom line:

Today’s most advanced email systems have a lot of moving parts, including triggers and filters, database connections, hundreds of fields, countless segments, dynamic content, differing browser compatibility, myriad admin levels, and multiple departments with people of varied experience. How many marketers have made manual uploads, global field changes, or set up automated systems and made a few compromises?

It isn’t just a matter of testing the content and using a browser with your email platform (though these measures help). You have to run all the scenarios. You have to think about the worst case outcome before uploading a file, integrating a database, eliminating or merging a field, or setting up a trigger.

Somebody within the New York Times is being called onto the carpet, where the explanation may be too technical and complex for the bosses to understand. That somebody, who may or may not even be at fault, is headed for the door. Don’t be that person.

Email is an extremely powerful communications tool. And remember, with great power…

Crossposted at The Net Atlantic Email Marketing Blog

Deconstructing the #McDStories blunder: What could they have done?

Posted on January 25, 2012 by myleftone

You know how a lot of teary downer movies come out in January, in an effort to capture the mantle of “Best Movie of the Year” before anyone else? On January 18, it seems the McDonalds chain used that approach in their attempt to win the award for “Biggest Social Media Blunder of 2012″ with the #McDStories hashtag.

Why do social media marketing ideas sometimes fail so grotesquely? Sometimes the idea is truly idiotic, or malformed, or naive. #McDStories is different. It actually seemed like a good idea for a well-known brand like McDonalds, which trades on convenience, cost, speed and a chipper all-American wholesomeness. The problem is that McDonalds is well-known to different people for different reasons.

Creating a hashtag is like naming a child. You’d like him to get through kindergarten without being tormented because of his name. But you’ll never know if the name you give him at birth will be considered wierd by the other kids, or so popular that he sinks into a sea of Coreys or Parkers. If an infamous criminal or Hollywood star arises with the same name, you can’t control that. So you choose a name and bear it. That’s what McDonalds did.

So what was the mistake?

In using the #McDStories hashtag, their first few posts were about the people who provide the restaurant chain with raw materials, such as farmers. The genesis of their error resides here, because it led Twitter users to align the campaign with where McDonalds gets their food, not the family-friendly sappiness the brand offers to the public.

No doubt McDonalds was hoping that the campaign would morph into people posting about the time they took the kids’ soccer team out for burgers, held a birthday party, found a much-needed rest stop on a long trip, or shared moments after a fun day out. In other words, they needed parents; People like me, who actually have stories like this but have no time to tweet about it. Why? Because we have kids.

So they reached a different audience instead; Socially plugged-in, cynical, humorous young adults without kids, who do have time to tweet about an unethical brand they abandoned long ago and don’t believe in.

Could it have been avoided?

It actually could have been, if McDonalds used their legendary brand awareness acumen to appeal to their traditional audience with a broader campaign. In other words, soften the ground with radio, television, and parent-oriented websites, infusing the hashtag with the kind of stories they want their audience to tell, and invite them to use it on social media platforms. McDonalds is not grassroots, and can never be. Even parents like me see it as a necessary evil. It can not drive a social campaign that is not top down. Period.

Here’s the worst part: This social campaign was clearly attempted without any such strategy, and #McDStories backfired, so there’s that. But this is really a tragic double-fail. Here’s why: the notion of using real customer stories to strengthen McDonalds’ community relations, a very powerful idea that is well-aligned with their brand, is now dead. Not just the hashtag; but any stories at all.

There is one silver lining: Clearly, McDonalds has learned that it should never, ever, remind people that its food once ever existed as chickens, beef steers, or potatos.

My Current Obsession: Mountaineering Books

Posted on December 11, 2011 by myleftone

For some reason (maybe a long summer of hiking mountains with the kids), I’ve been reading book after book about and by mountaineers. It turns out there are hardly any books about the White Mountains, except for guidebooks, history books and one exceptional collection of harrowing tales called Not Without Peril by Nicholas Howe.

So I’ve been spending a lot of time in the library picking out books that are mostly about the Himalaya. Believe me, I will never set foot in the mountains of Asia, so I’m reading these mainly in disappointment that there’s hardly anything to read about the mountains I am familiar with.

But I’m becoming fascinated not only with the stories and the peaks, but in the personal dynamic between the mountaineers themselves and the people who support them. The factions and arguments that surround these guys (and they are mainly guys) are worthy of any soap opera about Kardashians:

There’s Dead Lucky by Lincoln Hall, who was rescued after a night out on Everest, but only after another climber, David Sharp, was left for dead a week earlier, causing an international wildfire of online accusation that did not go unnoticed in base camp.

There are several books about K2 in 2008, which killed several climbers in a series of overnight avalanches, causing a rash of heroism from the climbers and second-guessing from their aficionados around the world.

Some rise above the fray, like elite mountaineer Ed Viesturs, who in No Shortcut to the Top covers his own life and his successful climbs of all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks without oxygen. He also explains why he considers it dangerous not to use oxygen when working as a guide.

The 1996 Everest disaster is covered in numerous books, and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is only one of them. As a journalist, he is partly blamed for the event itself, in speculation that his very presence on the mountain caused the leaders of the two largest expeditions to test their luck further than their normal sensibility would have allowed them. He also blames climber Anatoli Boukreev, for guiding without oxygen, thus speeding up his own trip, leaving the summit and reaching camp IV before nearly everyone, including his clients. Yet, Boukreev is the only one in camp who is able to go out into the blizzard later to rescue others.

Of course, Boukreev has his own book, The Climb, covering his own side of the Everest disaster. I am currently reading Above The Clouds, a collection of Boukreev’s diaries from his numerous ascents, postumously published in 2001 (he died in a Christmas Day avalanche on Annapurna in 1997). This book opens with forewords and introductions by his defenders, scratching raw the disagreements that seem to be a lot more plentiful than oxygen on the high peaks, and perhaps always have been.

So here I am, fifteen years later, catching up on these events and finding myself unable to avoid passing judgment on these people, despite the fact that I would rather be reading stories about the Whites.

If only somebody would write a book about an epic adventure in the Pemigewasset wilderness, or a traverse of the southern Presidentials after a hurricane tore through the forest. How about a book with a collection of tales that end with prime rib at the Common Man or a burger at the Red Parka, or getting turned around by the maitre’d at the Mount Washington Hotel because you looked like you just crawled out of the backcountry (which you did).

I’d read all of them. Maybe that’s why I’m so looking forward to reading UP by Patricia Ellis Herr, about hiking New Hampshire’s 4,000 foot peaks with her five-year-old daughter. It will be available in April 2012.

Then I can return all these Everest books and start reading about peaks I can actually visit myself.

The New SEO: Social Sharing and Sentiment Matter More Than Ever

Posted on December 5, 2011 by myleftone

By now you’ve heard of Google+, right?

When Google announced its very own social platform earlier in 2011, the theories abounded: First, there was “It’s a competitor to Facebook and Twitter.”

Nope.

Then we heard “It’s for the geeks who use all of Google’s unique applications.”

Not quite, unless Google really wants to hang its future on all three of those folks.

Finally, “It’s a way to gather activity data that can be used to drive search.”

Now we’re talking. Google realized that SEO has changed severely because of social activity, and it happened while they were sitting around tweaking their obsolete code.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh. After all, Google’s algorithm includes user behavior data. The company pioneered true organic search technology, and is still the standard setter that every webmaster strives to please. Content-based SEO strategies have long been a thing of the past, thanks to Google.

But there’s no doubt that Google noticed that more and more web activity was based on social sharing, and the associated data was owned by others. Google had your IP address and pretty detailed click data, but Facebook had your name, favorite rock bands, activities, brands, and list of friends, among other items, much of it volunteered. The segmented advertising power this provides is staggering, and Google didn’t have any of it.

Can you say “Writing on the wall?”

In January 2011, Facebook was valued by investor Goldman Sachs at around $50B. Many wondered how the hell a startup with a bunch of pointless time-wasting apps led by a megalomaniac geek could be worth anything like that. For some of us in marketing, it was easy to understand. It was the data.

For the folks at Google, who know marketing better than just about anyone, it was a drop-dead cinch: Get Google+ out there, and quick.

So now here it is: The New SEO. You want inbound links? Social platforms give you an endless supply of them, should you be able to sway crowds to your cause. Which platforms should you use, you ask? How about “As many as humanly possible?”

Are you producing a ton of content on your website and blog but not getting it out there using social tools? Keywords alone won’t cut it anymore. You need activity, so use your content to create buzz.

Are you getting buzz, but it’s not all positive? Such is life, but you need to be online and ready with a social fire drill strategy. And you need to be thick-skinned but able to tread lightly in the social realm.

It’s the customer’s world, you just live in it.

Google will be the search engine of choice for some time to come, so we’re all settled in for a long winter’s night with their rules, but if you’re sitting around waiting for content keywords to work their magic, you’re old school.

We’re long past the “Why should my company get social?” discussion by now, anyway. If your dead-in-the-water SEO strategy isn’t impetus enough, nothing is.

The Tom Bishop Fan Club – Yes, I’m Serious!

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Posted on November 28, 2011 by myleftone

If you really, and I mean really have nothing better to do today, please join The Tom Bishop Fan Club on Facebook! This is where I will share stuff about hiking with the kids, training for the marathon, and Team Playworks. You can post stuff there too. It’s the new home of fun!

Plus, sign up for the MyLeftOne Newsletter! It’s like a little ray of sunshine in your inbox.

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Tom Bishop on Marketing, Running, Hiking, and Being a Dad

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