Every now and then, cool and amazing things happen when you least expect it. Earlier this week, I was having a conversation about politics with my friend Michael Josefowicz. Michael has retired from the graphic arts and printing industry, which I still call home. Our conversations are always spirited and respectful. Those conversations are pretty much the kind of mind-stretching fun I look for on Twitter in the early morning and late evening hours. We started this conversation … Then it happened.
Connecting the dots
This week, we’ve also been working on an editorial plan for the blog over on our ColorMetrix website. Last year, we missed our goal of fresh content of a minimum of once a week. I decided that would not happen in 2012. As Michael and I chatted, I recollected how rich his contribution to the Wednesday afternoon #PrintChat hosted over on Twitter by QuadGraphics is. I also remember that Michael has a blog; and the man can write.
I asked him if he’d be interested in providing a guest post for ColorMetrix about the importance of color in printing. He said, “Sure.” … And then started writing the post 140 characters at a time right there on Twitter. This was all really cool except for the fact that I had a conference call coming up within the half hour for which I needed to prepare. So I pulled Shelby Sapusek, our resident marketing expert at ColorMetrix, in to continue the conversation.
The aftermath
About an hour later, I got off my conference call and checked back in on Twitter. The stream of @ messages (mentions) that included me that these two had generated was astounding. It was true conversation and engagement with no broadcasting. I just sat back and thought, “Now how do we capture this and turn it into meaningful content for the ColorMetrix blog?”
About an hour later, Shelby sent me a text and asked me to check out the post she had created from the chat. So now I’ll just stop typing and provide the link to Twitter Tennis with Michael Josefowicz.