What do I mean?  Here is the best possible way to contact me (and I suspect most people; especially technology-savvy folks):

• Send me an email.  I will usually read it immediately on my phone and react according to the nature and/or urgency of the message.  If necessary, I can respond immediately from my phone.  If a more involved response is called for, I can handle it the next time I am using a PC.
• Send me a text message.  This works best if we already know each other.  It is more transient than email, but for many kinds of communication this is perfectly acceptable.
• Bonus points if the communication includes your phone number in a format that can be parsed by my phone.  This is because I can click on your phone number from the message on my phone and initiate a call to you.  Epic fail if you include your phone number but it is in a format that cannot be parsed by my phone.  I am left dumbstruck, staring at your phone number: read-able, but not click-able.  You are giving me work to do in order to contact you.  No, thanks.

Here is an example of the worst-possible way to contact me:

• Call me (especially unscheduled) and leave a voice mail including a number to call you back.  Whenever you find yourself about to speak a phone number or email address onto another person’s voice mail;  just stop.  You’re doing it wrong! You are about to create a situation where they will have to:
  • Figure out who you are.  If I do not know you (well) this usually means writing your name down as I listen to your message.
  • Figure out how to respond to you.  If I do not already have your contact information stored, this usually means writing down your phone number or email as I listen to your message.
  • Respond to you by typing into my phone or PC the information you spoke onto my voice mail, and I then had to write down.  Stop giving me extra work to do to respond to you!
• Special communication-blocking bonus points for calling me using a number that is either:
  • Blocked from caller ID.
  • Different from the number that should be used to call back.

I understand that a phone call is often the best way to communicate.  But the likelihood of you calling me unscheduled and my being able to take your call and deal with our communication immediately is remote.  And I’m practically a nobody.  Imagine how unlikely this is for other, more important people!

I am pleasantly surprised by voice mails that say something like, “Hello, this is John Smith from SomeCompany.  I am calling about the important thing, and will follow up this call via email.”  John Smith called me from the number he wants me to use to call him back.  My phone already has the number from caller ID, so he did not have to speak it onto the voice mail.  John is also going to send me an email containing the details of why he called me, including his contact information in a format that can be parsed by my phone.

Thanks for saving me time and effort responding to you, John – you are going to hear back from me as soon as possible!

I did not have to be a member of Accelerate Madison to attend the event, but the entry fee for non-members was $35.  Since a friend and I both wanted to go, I figured I would join.  Then both of us could participate for “free” and I would be instantly getting $70 back on my $185 yearly membership fee.  Plus, when there’s an all-inclusive, deluxe way to do something, that’s how I tend to do it.  (For this reason, my wife and I established a 3-day waiting period before I am allowed to set foot into a golf equipment store.)

Two notable things happened at this event:  I did get to meet Penelope Trunk and the group of people in attendance got to exhibit their inexperience with social networking.

As my friend and I stepped into the elevator at the Fluno Center, he suggested I hold the door for the woman heading across the parking garage.  I held the door, and as the woman approached, I half-whispered to my friend, “I think that’s Penelope Trunk!  I mean, I’m not sure, since I only know her face from the picture on her blog, but it really looks like her!  What do you think we should….”  By then, time had run out to talk about the situation.  She boarded the elevator and I suddenly and unexpectedly found myself standing right next to our famous, esteemed, very tall speaker for the evening.

And I am not afraid to admit I found myself more than a little bit star-struck!

Like a gazillion other people, I read her blog, and since her posts convey so much about her, I was overcome by the same self-conscious feeling you get when a person you’ve been innocently observing suddenly meets your eye.  Not only that, but she is also so accomplished, she has chosen to run her latest startup here in Madison, and she was the speaker that evening – I felt a lump growing in my throat!

But wait!  I’m going to business school, dammit!  I am getting an MBA!  I have an elevator pitch!  I’m going to lay it on her and blow her mind!

But wait.  Doesn’t she write extensively in her blog about how going to graduate school – especially for business – can be a fool’s errand?

But wait!  I disagree with her when she writes things like that!

But wait.  It’s just a short elevator ride.  Better say something, quick.

“We’re here to see you speak tonight,” I say, nodding and smiling.  Penelope takes over, sparing me further deliberation about how best to handle the situation.  She ably guides my friend and me through a round of introductions and even asks us about what we do.  We discover she is familiar with the services of the company I work for.  I try to say something funny and self-deprecating.  Then we’re suddenly in the lobby reception area of the Fluno Center.  It’s time for her to move on and have the other 200 people there try to talk to her.

Later that evening, her talk about BUILDING ONLINE COMMUNITIES & COMPANIES through SOCIAL MEDIA was on-target, her delivery enthusiastic yet casual.  At the conclusion of her talk, she took questions from the audience; most of them apparently still regard social networking as charming, alluring, and mysterious.  Penelope found herself teaching an impromptu session of Social Media 100.

Her most profound statement came at the end of the Q&A session – in which Penelope revealed that in spite of having been running her company in Madison for three years, she had never heard of Accelerate Madison until recently.  I hope the audience understood the relevance of her comment, especially at a talk about BUILDING ONLINE COMMUNITIES & COMPANIES through SOCIAL MEDIA.