Last week, I opened a new Twitter account, @All4Monitoring, to support the new social media monitoring service I’ve been offering clients.

Why start a new Twitter account aside from helping me plant seeds for this new offer? Actually, I have a very clear intention for it. As the profile says, it’s “All about monitoring, including links, pointers and the odd challenge to companies to see if they’re listening. Are you all for monitoring?” (Sidebar: The link from the profile is to our new site: socialmediamonitoring.ca, a URL I couldn’t believe was available given the presence of serious social media monitoring players up here in Canada.)

The idea is to become a hub for all things related to social media monitoring. So you can expect to learn about new monitoring services, talk about familiar ones, participate in the odd twtpoll here and there, and general observations about monitoring the social web for all kinds of different reasons.

Of course, you can play a role. To get the most out of this new Twitter account, it would be great if you could:

• Follow and reply to @All4Monitoring
• Tag any tweet with #a4m to point us to stuff and get our attention (as you can see, this hasn’t taken off just yet!)
• Provide feedback on the account
• And anything else you can think of within your comfort zone and the realm of Twitter

I’m viewing this effort as an ongoing experiment with a clear direction. If you have any ideas for how this account can evolve, let me know. I’m all ears!

Otherwise, I’ll see you out there on Twitter!

P.S. Feel free to connect with me on my personal account, @MarkGoren.

Hats off to the Google team for this email, which I received this mornnig. It has all the right elements as it respectfully explains my opt-in options and the changes they’ve made to this list.

But I’ll let you be the judge:

Dear MarkGoren,

You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your YouTube product or account.

•

Nice, clean, simple. Any thoughts?

Hats off to friend and colleague Adele McAlear (blog, Twitter) for being called upon to offer her expert advice for an article in the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.

Adele offers advice for a new site called Lysted.com, challenging their plan to engage and grow their audience through a Facebook group.

I’ll let you read and form your own opinion about the company’s efforts and Adele’s thinking. Here’s the complete story:

• The article: Wooing the Facebook crowd
• Adele’s post about the article, complete with advice on growing a following on Facebook
• Lysted.com

Quick dig: Planting Seeds online, as Adele’s been doing dilligently on Twitter, her blog and numerous other social networks, has brought her great exposure, valuable connections and, ultimately, a mention in an very influential business newspaper. The result? Adele received two direct inquiries from business people interested in social media. Whether they lead to business opportunities or not, these are two opportunities you could almost definitely agree wouldn’t have happened had she not been extending her web presence by planting seeds online.

What are some of your success stories as a result of your online efforts?

Very excited to see that Episode 5 of the AOC podcast has been posted over at Age of Conversation blog. Having participated, I can honestly say that the experience was enjoyable for several reasons:

• This was a truly international discussion, with people on the line from Mexico, the U.S., Portugal, Canada and an audio comment from Scotland.

• The viewpoints and experience were different and wide, which made for an interesting mix. This is reflected right off the top with Angela Maiers perspective on creative and education.

• Jay Ehret has a voice + style made for radio, which, I believe, made everyone feel comfortable in this format.

Here’s a list of people who were on the call:
” Efrain Mendicuti - Google Mexico
• Armando Alves - Draftfcb Portugal
• Ernie Moesteller - Blatttner Brunner/BBdigital
• Mike Sansone - Angela Maiers Educational Services
• Cam Beck - Click Here
• Angela Maiers - Angela Maiers Educational Services
• David Petherick - Digital Biographer
• Jay Ehret - The Marketing Spot

Listen or download anyone of the AOC2 podcasts. Here’s a breakdown.

• Premiere Episode - Gavin Heaton & Drew McLellan: Starting the Conversation
• Age of Conversation Podcast: Episode 2 - Life in the Conversation Lane Starring Robert Hruzek and Dylan Viner
• Age of Conversation Podcast: Episode 3 - The Accidental Marketer Starring David Armano and Gary Cohen
• Age of Conversation Podcast: Episode 4 - Launch! and The Accidental Marketer starring Roberta Rosenberg & Drew McLellan
• A New Brand of Creative - Episode 5

I originally met Melanie Notkin (@SavvyAuntie) online through Twitter. The former Montrealer, now living in New York, was beginning to Plant Seeds to generate awareness and interest in SavvyAuntie.com (site, blog), the new community for aunts that she was about to launch. Mostly, through, she was participating in online social networks to meet people and create real relationships that would lead people back to her site.

Now a few months post launch, Melanie recently posted a presentation to SlideShare that, in truth, is a case study for the Planting Seeds concept. (RSS readers please click through.)

After seeing the presentation, I immediately asked her to answer a few questions for this site.

Here’s that interview:

Planting Seeds: Tell us a little bit about Savvy Auntie and what a PANK is.

Melanie Notkin: SavvyAuntie.com is the first online community for PANKs -Professional Aunts, No Kids - the other 50% of American women who are not moms, but children are central in their lives, be they nieces, nephews, cousins or friends’ kids. So whether you’re an ABR (Aunt by Relation) and ABC (Aunt by Choice) and LDA (Long Distance Auntie), great aunt or godmother, this is the destination for you.

SavvyAuntie.com is like a parenting site for the non-mom, so she can learn everything she needs to know to be a wonderful aunt, find great activities, discover the hottest gift ideas and connect with other Savvy Aunties just like her.

PS: In just over two months, your company has seen significant growth. Can you talk about the $0 Advertising plan that fueled this growth?

MN: I don’t know if it was so much a ‘plan’ as it was the only strategy I had. I am completely self-funded and I don’t have a budget for advertising. That’s where social media came into play. By being active on Twitter, Facebook, my business blog, and other social media platforms, I was able to generate buzz around the launch of my site with people who believed in me and my company.

PS: If you were to give advice to a people responsible for building a brand, personal or corporate, what would be the top thing you’d tell them?

MN: Be authentic and find your voice. Connect with others. Brands are about trust and reliability. Think of yourself like a trustworthy, reliable friend to your consumers, and they’ll stay with you, through the good and the bad.

PS: How would you sell the potential of Planting Seeds online?

•Build it and they will come” is a nice idea, but it’s not generally the reality. You could have the most brilliant idea that solves the needs of millions of people (like a community for aunts, for example), but if no one knows it exists, they’re not coming. Sure, you could build momentum after the site launches, but it will take months. Why not create buzz while you’re building it? If you reach out to the community to help you plant the seeds for the business you are building, they will feel ownership on the fate of your success. And when the time comes for the site to launch, they will be your front line evangelists, blogging about it, tweeting about it, talking about it.

I began really connecting with people through social media almost a year before I launched the site. I networked with people in real life - attending social media events, lunches and breakfasts. I kept up the relationships through social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo and Facebook. About four months before I launched, I got super active on Twitter and began cultivating authentic relationships with people I admired and who I could learn from. I posted updates about my company and its progress on Facebook and Twitter. Then about three months before launch, I published my first blog post, revealing my dreams, details of how I built my business, and how incredibly nervous I was the night before I launched.

Hundreds of people knew that I was launching on July 9th. They Tweeted about it. They blogged about it. The reported on it. They told their friends. They celebrated with me. They launched with me.

I built it. They came. But the key was, they knew the address and couldn’t wait to see it complete. I guess they felt like they had helped plant the seeds and they wanted to see how my garden was blossoming. Lucky for me, the relationships I developed are completely authentic and I am now helping others in the same way. It’s a wonderful way to give back.

Off to buy a watering can…..

•”

If you have have any questions for Melanie or any thoughts on Savvy Auntie or the approach that’s been taken to market, leave your thoughts below. We’ll both be around to field your questions!