eric rochow : social media handyman

This is one of those weird things where one uses a social networking tool to shotgun a request around the globe only to find the answer 2 blocks down the street.

I am building a new version of the Gardenfork.tv site on WordPress, and needed to drop in a slideshow of recent videos on the front page.

After I messed with it, and messed it up, I sent out on Twitter a request for a WordPress expert:

I’m thinking i’m going to have to set up an FTP account for whoever can help me remotely, but in a few minutes, Rob Blatt, of BlattCave [ who lives down the block from me ] answers back:

Rob’s Twitter page here

Rob Blatt, WordPress Expert http://robblatt.com/

A few DMs later, I’m walking down the block with a six of Summer Wheat beer. Rob fixes the slideshow and I got to watch the Yankees at the same time. What Fun.

So if you are in need a WordPress coding expert & expert Podcast Producer who is also the calmest person you’ve ever met, call Rob Blatt http://www.robblatt.com/.

In Brooklyn, I’m in Prospect Park most mornings around 6:30 running our Labs during off-leash hours.

This week, in addition to the usual crowd of dogs and people in the Long Meadow was a photo shoot for a music group.

A Golden Retriever puppy wandered over to the photo shoot, and as the owner walked over to get the pup, he said he saw one of the band members grab the puppy by the collar and kick it.

Some words were exhcanged, and I thought it best to walk over and back up my friend. I pulled out my phone and took a few pictures of the band.

My friend was quite upset about what they did to his pup, and wanted to find out who the band was,  so  he asked that I post it on  Brooklynian .

I say this a lot, but again,  you don’t own it once you hit the Submit button.

Brooklynian is a local hub for several neighborhood online bulletin boards. The Daily Slope ( the Park Slope bulletin board on Brooklynian ) is where I posted a note about what the band did to the dog, asking if anyone could help identify the band.

There were about 3,000 views of the post in 3 hours, and 50 replies to the post. Almost all of the posts were snarky attacks on the band members, and 2 suggestions for how one could identify the offending band.

The Brooklynian and its neighborhood boards is a helpful site, but the boards seem to be more a place for people to try to out-do each other in sarcasm and bitterness. A popular target for Daily Slope participants are people with baby strollers.

A popular blogger, F***** in Park Slope, with 1900 followers, linked to the Daily Slope post on Twitter:

So the floodgates opened. A few hours, a few thousand more views, more snarky replies.

Curbed and Gothamist both pick up the story:

More views of the Daily Slope post, and many replies. The band has become the latest punching bag for the regular commentators.

“I seriously want to find out what band this is. I would like to show up at one of their shows and kick them. Guy sitting on the ground is dangerously close to mullet territory.”

“Oh my God, what is with the guy in the vest and offensively tight jeans? Is this a Strawberry Fields Forever revival? In response to what these shitheads did to that poor little dog, I would have grabbed these ugly bitches by their collars and kicked them in the f******* head.”

“More evidence that Brooklyn is going downhill if you can’t even walk your Golden Retriever puppy (possibly the cutest sort of puppy ever) in Prospect Park without having to look out for assholes on the prowl.”

A regular poster commented visually:

Douche Bag Nation : Born Entitled

After a few hours I added a note that we wanted to ID the band here, not devolve this post into name calling. But that had no effect.

Then the Village Voice calls and emails me, asking to contact the dog owner. I decline his request, knowing my friend does not want to be the lead story on the local news. The Voice does write a post on their site.

The band is identifed as Surefire, and soon they issue a denial, calling me a “lackey” and my friend “a bitter man” and accusing us of slander and using “shock and awe” techniques.

It is awesome and shocking the power one has by hitting the Submit button, especially if you write about puppies. [ note to all bloggers wanting to increase viewership... ]

I added to the original post on the Daily Slope the Surefire’s denial, but that I still believe my friend.

I posted a reply to the Village Voice Surefire response, and got nailed by a few commenters there, so its not just the DailySlope that is a home for anonymous snarkiness.

When I post online I use my real name.  I think its important and I believe it adds crediblity to the what your are saying. Something posted under an assumed name doesn’t have the same heft.

The band handled this badly from the start. A simple “Hey sorry for any misunderstanding here, we’ll move to a different part of the park” instead of a heated conversation in the meadow would have made for a better outcome. After the fact, it be a good thing for the band to reach out the original poster, but that hasn’t happened. Instead the band has gone the verbose name calling route – never a smart move.

I did not think this one post would spiral into the name calling it did. It was certainly an effective way of using social networking to find out the band’s name. [ To date the original post had 16,000 views and 239 replies. ]

But one has to keep in mind, when you post something like this, you can’t control what will happen afterward. A lesson for people, bands, and corporations.

I was invited to meet up with Mark Fields, Pres of Ford North America and check out the new 2010 Ford Taurus.

Getting in the Taurus, the first thing that came to mind was that this was an adult car, super comfortable seats, really nice interior. The second thing that struck me was that this car was, like the Ford Fiesta I’m driving, is not what most people would expect from Ford. It definitely has that European feel to it, it felt like you were sitting in a 700 Series BMW.

I’m not a car review writer, so I’m not able to describe the car as well as car writer would, but this is definitely one to consider if you’re looking for a step up from the regular sedan. Lots of room, really nice ride, advanced dashboard features, and those leg massagers were something i never expected.

I think Ford is doing some smart things here. ( Of course the smartest thing they’ve done is to make Gardenfork.tv part of their media plan )

Here’s a video Jill Hanner and I made of Jill driving the new Ford Taurus

Its not every day you get a call from Julia Roy of Undercurrent asking if you’d be interested in having a new Ford Fiesta for 6 months, free gas and insurance.

But that’s what happened.

Wow.

Ford asked that I make a video about why I would like a car for the summer, so in true Gardenfork fashion here’s what i did. Get one of the Labs, sit on the stoop, talk for a bit, show video clips of the Labs and the show.

Evidently, one of the execs at Ford likes Yellow Labradors, so I was given the green light to become part of the Fiestamovement.

Charlie, Henry, and the Gardenfork Ford Fiesta

Before signing on to this deal, I did some research on the car, as I wouldn’t say yes to just any deal with anyone. “Down to earth” is the most used phrase to describe me on Gardenfork, ( see the iTunes reviews here ) and I wanted to make sure this is something I really wanted to do. Ford Motor is a natural for me, I was raised on Fords.

My first car was a 1949 Ford F1 that my dad bought my brother and I , it was in pieces, we rebuilt it.

I currently drive an 82 Ford F150

I had drinks with Mark Fields, President of Ford North America, while checking out the Ford Fiesta in NYC before I signed on with Ford.

Here Sam De La Garza, Ford’s Fiesta brand manager, and Judy Gnant, Internet Influencer check out the car at our NYC Fiesta Tweetup.

In addition to meeting Mark Fields and Sam De La Garza, brand manager for the Fiesta, I met Scott Monty, who is now head of social media for Ford. I met Scott at Podcamp Boston a few years back. Seeing that Scott had a hand in running this program made me realize this was going to be good and it also sunk in that this was a pretty amazing social media campaign for a large multi-national company like Ford to undertake.

Many social media campaigns are, to me, pretty much window dressing. Lots of companies are shouting, “Hey, we’re on Twitter!”, or “Let’s make a viral video!” and that’s about it. The Fiestamovement was going to be different, and very big. neat.

I asked Ford what they wanted me to do with the car, and their answer was “use it in your life.” So I have.

Though I like compare myself to Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs and Alton Brown of Good Eats, I still have a day job doing handyman and painting work, and the Fiesta is my truck. ( You can fit eight foot long 2×4s in the Fiesta, BTW)

No surprise, but tons of people know about the Fiestamovement. A client was helping me take tools to the car, and when he see the Fiesta, I get the surprise look. “How did you get one of these?” Proof positive that the Fiestamovement is more well known than Gardenfork…

I covered the back seat of the Fiesta with a sheet for Henry and Charlie

The Fiestamovement is being managed for Ford by Action Marketing Group, a bunch of hard working people from Colorado who have done a really good job managing 100 blogger web video types, which is no easy task.

The Fiestamovement has gotten a lot of press just for the sheer audacity of it. Give 100 social media types a brand new car, with few restrictions.  Some pundits have said from the get-go, “What will they do when something goes wrong?”  Well, I’m on the inside, and I haven’t seen anything go wrong yet.

I’ve seen many things go right.

People have different reasons for participating in this. Everyone who was chosen has some sort of presence on the web, many of them with huge followings on Twitter or Flickr or YouTube.

Then there’s me. I’m not an internet superstar, I call myself a D-list internet celebrity. Though I did get recognized at my neighbor’s potluck dinner last night. “You’re the guy in the videos!”

But everyone chosen is what I call an Internet Influencer. My pitch to Ford was that while my audience may not be the exact demographic fit for the Ford Fiesta – I think i’m the oldest person with one of the cars – the people who watch Gardenfork and Real World Green make the buying decisions for those kids who want a Ford Fiesta.

Jill Hanner is one of the Fiesta Agents whose show is a perfect fit for getting the word out about Ford’s New Fiesta

Grace Piper, Jake Bronstein, and Sarah Austin, all Fiesta drivers + internet influencers at a recent Fiesta event at God’s Love We Deliver.

Sarah Austin’s (www.Pop17.com) Ford Fiesta

So far, the Fiestamovement has gone great for me. I’ve never had a brand new car before, and when I drive it around NYC, it gets noticed. Many just stare at it, some come up and ask questions. I have Fiesta biz cards that I leave on the windshield when its parked for people to get more info.

One person walked up to me in my neighborhood, Park Slope, and says “I’ve seen you and your car for a few weeks now, been checking it out.”

Another runs up to me at a stoplight and yells, “How did you get this car?, I’m buying more stock in Ford!”

Many of the people who talk to me bring up the fact that Ford did not take bailout money from the government, and they are glad to see Ford making a European style car.

Almost everyone wants to know the cost of the car, which hasn’t been set yet for the U.S. Market, I’m pretty sure.

I get a lot of suprise looks, as the car looks very European, and people are surprised to find out its a Ford. On the highway, I get a lot of Hondas and Toyotas pulling up along side, then they linger while checking out the car.

How the Fiesta fits in with Gardenfork

The Internet Influencers who were given a car all have different reasons for wanting a Fiesta. I look at this as a major international brand partnering with Gardenfork. [ Gardenfork is the 3rd most popular cooking show on iTunes ] To me its an integrated marketing project. ‘Here’s a Ford Fiesta Eric, go use it in your shows”

Which is exactly what I’ve done.

still frames from the Ikea Hack Salmon Smoker episode

The viewers of Gardenfork and Real World Green expect advertising. Quite a few people have emailed me to say, “we need to get you some advertisers”.  And a number have pitched the companies they work for to sponsor the show. Its amazing and humbling that people like the shows that much and want to help me succeed with them.

A recent email from a viewer went like this: “OK,  Eric, you’ve got Ford on board, when is the TV and Book deal?”

When I first got the car I went a bit overboard with talking about the car, especially on Twitter, using the #fiestamovement hashtag. It got to the point where close friends said, “I’ve hidden your profile from my newsfeed on Facebook” ( my Twitter account is plugged into my Facebook page )

I was and still am real excited about the car and the campaign. Now I am a bit more measured with the Twitter posts. When I post about the Fiesta, its either a picture of it in a neat place, or a note about some feature, especially the gas mileage, which is quite good ( about 35 mpg mix of city-hwy for me ). When I do talk about it, the tweet or post has substance to it.

I’ve found the Ford  Fiesta to be a great car. I compare it to the Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris. The interior is much warmer, the edges not as hard. And it definitely has a European feel to it, one would expect to see a Volvo logo on the hood, and then you realize its a Ford.

So that’s the Eric Ford Fiesta Story so far, you can check out my profile on the Fiesta Movement site, and i’ll be back to post some follow-ups here soon.

I ran across People’s Popsicle at the Brooklyn Flea, a foodie paradise flea market in Brooklyn.

Good popsicles, but what i liked as well was their unique business cards.

The only improvement i would suggest is their website stamped on the reverse side. Its a must have.

I was interviewed yesterday for the Hey Brooklyn podcast hosted by Amber. I talk about Gardenfork and Real World Green, our viewer forum The Green House, what’s it like being a handyman in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and what I’ve learned about using social media, and my participation in the Ford Fiestamovement.

Check out the show on their blog, or you can listen to it by clicking on the ‘play’ arrow in the orange player console below:

This is one of those things that happen rarely, social media tools affect you in real time.

I was at the Tilzy.tv NY Web Meetup last night, listening to Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch of You Suck at Photoshop talk about their show.

I’m sitting in a chair and I checked Twitter on my iPhone. Paul of For Your Imagination had just sent out a tweet on the @FYIStudio Twitter account:

I see this tweet, and I’m not sure who this is. I’m thinking this person might be from Justin.tv or some web show.

So I google the name on my iPhone, and click on the link to Wikipedia. Up comes the Justine Bateman listing ( I learned she is a famous actor ) with this picture filling up my iPhone screen:

From a group of women sitting behind me is a voice, coming over my shoulder, “What are you looking at?”

I  didn’t turn to see who it was, I just kinda half turned, ( can’t turn well with a ruptured disc ) and said, “I’m looking at Wikipedia”  and then went on to check my other messages.

After the presentation ends, ( and it was really good BTW ) I ask around to see if someone can point out to me who at the meetup is Justine Bateman. And sure enough, it was the woman who asked me “What are you looking at?”

Thinking that must have been a pretty creepy moment for her, I walked up to her and explained that I had seen the FYIstudio tweet and proceeded to look up her info.

Can’t blame her for the look she gave me, but at least I tried.

I’m not a TV star, but I can empathize a bit, as people know a lot about me from watching Gardenfork.tv.

I just thought it an interesting example that shows how information can fly pretty fast, and how it can cause awkward moments.

Sorry for the weirdness Ms Bateman.

Twitter made some changes recently and one is when a new person follows you, you can opt to get an email telling you this.

The email shows a avatar-picture or whatever you call it of the person, and how many people they are following and how many are following back.

This doesn’t help me much decide whether to follow the person. Except for if I see they are following 10k+ people, i don’t bother.

What would be much more helpful AND save people time, is to list the person’s profile in the email. I always read what the person has written about themselves. ( if they’ve written nothing, i don’t follow back )

So, put in some bio info, and it would be a big help here. Just my 2 cents here, but then , it is my blog here…

I haven’t posted anything here for quite some time. I created a site for my handyman – contractor business, HandymanEric.com , where I’ve been posting photos of the work I do for people. 

“Your Handyman Blog was the smartest thing you’ve done” is what yesterday’s client, a PR executive said to me. 

And the blog has worked out really well, I don’t advertise, most everyone finds me on the web here or thru referalls. I participate in the forum section of Brownstoner.com, answering questions people post, and I get a lot of work from that effort. So thank you Brownstoner for that. 

When i get a minute i will go into more detail about how i’ve used social media to grow the biz, but for now go check out the site. 

I’m all about being practical, and most any time I am with social media people, I make the comment that most social media people spend a large part of their time talking to other social media people about how great social media is.

Today in Liz Strauss’ blog, Succesful Blog, she wrote post, The Real-World Social Media Heroes List. She asks, ” have we lost track of how few of us there are [ in social media ] and how small our conversation really is? ”

Yes.

Liz goes on to ask ” Who are the folks using the tools to make a difference in the world?”

My answer on her blog is The Home Depot, on Twitter known as @TheHomeDepot . Sarah from their Corporate Communications department manages their Twitter account, and I learned about their Twitter account during the Hurrican Gustav.

During Gustav, several Social Media types on Twitter set up a ning.com site to help out, what help it did I don’t know, but I saw a ton of Tweets about the site. I gave it a look and one conversation thread was about whether the site should be a social network or a wiki. Once again, social media people talking to social media people, not the people who really need the info.

But social media did help. We can’t measure the impact in a concrete way, but Sarah at The Home Depot did a brilliant job of sending out relevant information about what stores in the storm’s path were open, what supplies one should have, etc.

I don’t think a ton of people saw these Twitter posts, but some people did, and I’m sure they then passed this information on to friends and neighbors. Which location had generators? Sarah told people.

I am really glad she mentioned the following. While one would think this is obvious, you’d be surprised how each year people die of carbon monoxide poisoning from running a generator indoors.

Sarah’s real person writing style is great, this is not corporate speak, its a real person who works for a real company, but clearly someone who cares. A very smart move by The Home Depot to post this information on Twitter, and a very good example of social media used in the real world.