(Brian Wallace and Jaime Mack enjoy a chat about entering social media)

Meeting Jaime was a bit different from meeting my first two meetups. Prior to meeting, Jaime had asked me via chat if I still wanted to meet up as he was so new to the social media scene. This made me think that this was exactly what 10 in 10 was for! What better a way to get more acquainted with social media for a newbie than meeting with a practitioner one-on-one?  Jaime has a regular day job, and for him, social media is more of a past time.  He’s most active on Plurk, with a pretty cool user name.

I gave Jaime some tips on getting he way around on social networks, even with limited time, and even some tips on getting a blog underway.

Jaime was local to the area, so Kevin Mason is still in the leader in the Geeks.com 10in10 contest.

Three weeks down, seven to go! Looking forward to meeting more of you in the upcoming weeks!

Previous 10 in 10 posts:

• iPod Nano / Geeks.com sponsor announcement
• Week 2: meeting with Kevin Mason
• Week 1: meeting with David Finch
• Taking it to the Streets: Initial post

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So, I’ve suggested on here and a few other places about making the
#10in10 series into a contest. Well boys and girls, it’s official.

Geeks.com has officially sponsored the event, and is offering up
an iPod Nano to the individual that comes from the furthest away!

Currently, the front runner is Kevin Mason with an impressive showing, driving over 3 hours to meet up!

We’re only getting started, moving into week 3 of 10, so there is plenty
of time to try to oust the current leader…good luck everyone!

Previous 10 in 10 posts:

• Week 2: meeting with Kevin Mason
• Week 1: meeting with David Finch
• Taking it to the Streets: Initial post

(Brian Wallace and Kevin Mason meet up for a one-on-one chat)

Week two of the #10in10 experiment was a success. This week’s focus was Kevin Mason, who graciously drove all the way from Nashville, Tennessee!

Kevin runs a music marketing company by the name of Intensity Media.

It’s always fun to learn things about people that you just don’t get from a social networking profile. I soon learned that Kevin has already done a lifetime of experience in radio (and has the radio voice to prove it!), and I was quickly suggesting that he starts up a regular video blog, as I think people would find him interesting to listen to.

Having never heard Kevin’s voice before, I had figured a guy from Nashville would have a pretty heavy southern accent. Turned out that he had been from other points north and east, so that wasn’t the case! I’ve seen Kevin on Plurk and Twitter, but meeting him face-to-face showed me another dimension of who he was and what he was about. You can’t get a full view of a person from a few tweets and links.

Week 3 of 10 in 10 is up for grabs - if anyone is interested, please let me know!

(Brian Wallace and David Finch enjoying a chat over coffee)

Well, off we go on our first week of the 10 in 10 experiment. In case you missed it, I’m on a mission to meet 10 folks that I’ve never met in real life before over the next 10 weeks. I’ll start making a hashtag in Twitter for this as well for future easy tracking: #10in10.

I think that 10 in 10 provides an interesting alternative that other in person networking events and online social media interactions do not necessarily cover:

• Introverts are more comfortable with a one-on-one setting: less pressure, easier to open up
• Networking events might not allow you enough quality time with an individual
• Networking events may have some cliques already, and if you’re not a part of them, that sucks
• You often will gravitate towards people you already know, so you miss out on meeting new people
• Social media is a great way to connect, but you don’t necessarily know who you are dealing with
• There is more to meeting people than a handshake and a business card

So this week I had the pleasure of meeting David Finch, Producer at Vupal Network LLC.

I learned some good things about David and what he does for a living. I knew that he blogged on his site, but I didn’t know much about his main gig over at Vupal. And by the look of things, they are producing some awesome content that is all about food. Dear readers, I suggest you check out some of their sites:

• foodvu.com
• groceryschool.com
• therookiecookshow.com

It was also cool to hear that David is fairly new to Louisville as well. We’ve been here for about a year and a half now, so it’s always good to hear how other people wing up here as well

I knew of David before, but now I’ve been able to spend some quality time with him. I’m sure we’ll see each other again, and perhaps we’ll be able to help each other out in each other’s efforts as well. So as you can see, we’re really off to a great start! Looking forward to our next 10 in 10 this coming Tuesday where I’ll be meeting a Mr. Kevin Mason who is graciously driving all the way from Nashville!

Which brings me to another point…toying with the idea of giving a small prize to the person that travels the farthest - anyone want to get in on that action?

(image credit: ernop)

…and no, this doesn’t mean that I want to fight you. I wanted to talk to you about a new goal that I’ve started on. Goal setting is a great way to measure where you are, where you want to be, and can help you on how to get there. So I’ve decided to start a new goal… Read the rest of this entry »