A special hello to new readers of The Hot Iron, especially those who came here after reading the latest edition of the “Out of Date Newsletter” by Christopher S. Penn. I was mentioned in the newsletter which arrived in my inbox yesterday, and I appreciate the kind words!

Apparently I am returning the favor, as mentions from me in social media drove traffic to his newsletter. Of course you can only find out this information from analytics, which I have talked about quite a bit here. If you’re not already reading his newsletter or his blog, visit ChristopherSPenn.com and do so, not to mention the amazing marketing podcast Marketing Over Coffee he does with my good friend John Wall.

The Power Of The Last Post And Tweet

If you are new or a regular reader, you may have noticed I haven’t posted to The Hot Iron in a couple of weeks. I won’t get into any excuses as that is not important. But if you did subscribe, thank you, as many may not have found something relevant as of late and may not have chosen to. Also, if you read my Twitter stream yesterday, you may have seen more mentions of my wedding anniversary than anything business-related, as I took yesterday off. If you are following my tweets, again, thank you!

In a 24/7 world where attention spans are short, where we last left off is sometimes all people see from us. In social media and blogging, this is something to always be aware of. But then again, it is no different than a Web site with minimal or outdated content. You never know who will read, and when, and hopefully what they see is of interest to them. This is why on the Web pages of The Hot Iron I just have a link to my Twitter page, as sometimes the last one I leave is not always the best one.

Any Press Is Good Press

Despite this, I am thrilled to have the mention, especially as not everyone reads an email newsletter the day it is delivered. In my case, it was the next day – I was of course monitoring my email during the day and saw it in my inbox, but did not read it in full until today. Plus I subscribe to Donald Trump’s mantra that “any press is good press” as people are talking about you, and where you can’t control the message all the time, you can have an impact from what you say yourself.

Be on the watch for new thoughts and commentary coming from me here at The Hot Iron. Seriously.

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The next Chicago ExpressionEngine Meetup will be on Tuesday, May 18, at OfficePort Chicago in the Loop. During the first Meetup the idea of "opening the books" and sharing our work in EE was discussed. We now have our first volunteer for what will certainly be a lively discussion and learning experience for all.

Eryan Cobham of Cobwebs Consulting will be subjecting himself to a "code review" by the group for a site he is currently building using EE, and facilitating a discussion on the proper way to do accomplish certain functions in EE. Some topics may include: using extensions, URL segments, and any other questions that people may interest people.

View the details on this event and RSVP on the Meetup site. For more information and to join the group, visit the Chicago ExpressionEngine Meetup at Meetup.com.

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Last week I wrote about my being part of Age of Conversation 3, a crowdsourced book written by nearly 200 authors from around the world. Recently I was interviewed by Rick Liebling on his blog, eyecube. The interview is now posted there, and I invite you to read it and get some insight into my involvement with this project. Rick himself is an AOC3 author, and has interviewed a number of other authors, and those interviews are being posted to his blog almost daily.

Stay tuned for more information about the release of the book itself.

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Imagine a book comprising a few different themes and written by almost 200 writers. Can you? Either way I am proud to say I, Mike Maddaloni, am one of those writers in the book The Age of Conversation 3, coming soon to a bookstore near you.

As you cam tell by the title, this is the third book of its kind in this series. Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan are the curators and editors of this project. It is a truly international project, with authors from around the globe and Gavin in Australia and Drew in the US.

The central theme of AOC3 is 'It’s Time to Get Busy!' and the book is divided into 10 sections: At the coalface, Conversational branding, Influence, Getting to work, Corporate conversations, Measurement, In the boardroom, Pitching social media, Innovation and execution, Identities, friends and trusted strangers. My piece will be in the 'Getting to work' section.

The Age of Conversation 3 will be released soon - look for another post here on The Hot Iron. All profits from the sale of the book are donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Special thanks to Gav and Drew for letting me be a part of AOC3 and for all of their hard work to make it a reality!

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Trends research, innovation, and activation firm PSFK has just released their 2010 Good Brands Report. This is a study on 10 top global brands, their reason for inclusion and opinion on each from a panel of experts.

The Good Brands for 2010 are: Google, Apple, Jamie Oliver, MIT, Ace Hotel, IKEA, Nike, Twitter, Foursquare and Nintendo.

The opinions on each brand come from members of the Purple List, of which I, Mike Maddaloni, am a member. The Purple List is described as “a network of experts for hire. The list is comprised of designers, journalists, marketers, and entrepreneurs.” My quote for Google on page 5 of the report is as follows.

It Reads, “Google builds-in innovation, which most all other companies do not do. By allowing their employees the opportunity to explore their ideas, they are not only seeing fruits from this in new products, but surely happier employees and better primary work from them.”

You can get a copy of the 2010 Good Brands report here, or read the SlideShare report embedded below.

I appreciate the opportunity once again to be part of such a high-profile report, as I was quoted last year on Virgin.

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