I have long said that twitter marketing is a little like fishing. There are so many cheesy, perhaps funny, parallels:

So here’s what has me thinking this morning: if twitter is your Brand’s fishing pole, and your business topic is the boat…

Facebook must be where you count how many people talk about fishing, and brag about how many fish you have. Of course this will all be regulated because – after all – its a private Lake, Lake Zuckerberg.

Pinterest is where you can show off your catch. And perhaps get input about the decor of the room in which you chose to stuff and hang your fish, and if that fish’s color scheme is hot this season.

Google+ is the game and fish department, forcing you to take G+ fishing with you, or you’ll be threatened with no one ever seeing your boat again….

foursquare is to tell your friends which market to go to to buy fresh fish?

GetGlue is to watch people fish? (Deadliest Catch, River Monsters, Jaws!) Fish fans nonetheless.

Okay, this is a little ridiculous. What’s left, in all seriousness, is that the best social companies have great bait. Also important, there’s only a small amount of “fisherman’s folklore” allowed. You can’t stretch the truth with social marketing – the fans are with you for the trip, so they know how big the fish really is.

Why does Google+ have my head spinning? It’s not that I don’t “get” it. I have been using social media daily for 12+ years, if you include those time-sucking photoshop message boards I used back in the Nate 1.0 era. I attended Ragan Communications’ Google Plus Summit at MGM Grand today. The rockstar presenters were @chrisbrogan, @shelholtz, @maggiefox,and @ScottMonty.

What’s got me stumped is what’s next for Google and when the line blurs between Google as we know it and Google+. (Google+ content already shows up higher than original content. Try it with this blog post if you want. I will). Mostly though, today I was educated on the phenomenon known as Google Search Plus Your World, which Google turned on for you in January, and  now essentially mixes what you know with what you don’t know. Eh? You say. Yeah, I did, too. Let me see if I understand it right – keep me in check if I’m off track on this, for those familiar with SPYW.

Google will mix a cocktail of what’s in your address book, your Google+ posts, your circles’ Google+ posts, your search history and your surfing tendencies to create what it thinks is essentially what you’re searching for.

What’s this mean? Well, potentially, it’s the end of Search Engine Optimization as we know it. Why bother, you know? Everyone’s results will be customized. What else does it mean? Initially, people will probably freak out and squeal big brother stuff like Joe Public does every time Zuckerberg tweaks the big blue 850-million pound gorilla. (Remember, people tripped out about the news feed initially).

Here’s my four initial 6-hour-old -therefore-probably-premature conclusions:

1. It’s Google’s house, so they can essentially do whatever they want. We may think Google is ours because we made it a verb. It’s not. At the end of the day, it’s business, baby. Suck it up.
2. If you don’t like it, use Bing. That’s what Facebook did.
3. If you don’t like it, log out. What a concept! Personal accountability while using the WWW!
4. If you don’t like it, tough. The engineers at Google are smarter than you. Likewise for Facebook. Go along for the ride, and don’t forget you have options if you don’t like what you see.

So, what do you think? Let me know what’s up: Is this a game changer? Are you even using Google+? After today, I sure am. And I’m using Facebook. And Twitter. Follow me, Friend me and Circle me. Or, just Google me. Duh.

Not a big boxing fan anymore. I think a few high profile promoters squeezed and embezzled all the momentum out of it. Gone are the great megafights of the 70′s, 80′s and even a couple good fights since. Don’t get me wrong: I respect the hell out of the athletes and the great, gritty history of the sport.  I love to watch good fights as much as the next guy, but I’m a marketer by trade. Marketers see how bad those in charge of the boxing universe are blowing it.  I have to confess, I’m a MMA convert. I religiously watch UFC and I read all the blogs and the apps that go with it – daily. I can’t name a boxing blog, though I’m sure there are great ones out there.

Here’s who I really respect and you should, too: boxing photographers. These guys and gals do it for the right reasons. They show up early and claim their piece of the canvas. They know the stats, the score, the shutter speed and the f-stop – as well as the tells of the fighters. You should respect them for their dedication, artistry, and most of all their passion. Let’s just say some of these folks will throw elbows to get the shot. Others will bake you cookies. These photographers are taking the shots that will help keep the sport alive, no matter how hard the couple remaining big names and their managers continue to let it perish by clinging to their wallets while the fan-friendly UFC’s wallet gets bigger and bigger.

I had the fortune of shooting my first Friday Night Fights in over 5 years last weekend, at Texas Station’s Dallas Events Center. It took me a while to get up to speed, but I’d say I got back in the groove by the time the main event started. Let me know what you think. Maybe I’ll see you at the next one.

Congratulations to Otherwise on their new deal with Century Media Records! These guys rock, and they work their tails off. I had the pleasure of shooting the concert last night at Ovation inside Green Valley Ranch, and the band was surprised to receive a visit from the label President, Don Robertson and a gift from the VP of Entertainment for Station Casinos, Judy Alberti.

Here’s a link to the announcement from Century Media Records.

Go pick up some Otherwise music from iTunes (my personal reco’s are Soldiers and I Don’t Apologize) and look for their videos on YouTube. If you like hard rock and heavy metal, you’ll thank me for it.

42 Concerts ranging from Aaron Lewis to ZZ Top. Everything from Boney James Jazz to P-Funk. Get this: 9,894 photos taken in 2011.

Know I how I knew all this? I just catalogued it and backed it all up to an external hard drive. In 46 minutes. Gotta love Adobe Lightroom, folks.

I’m such a freakin’ freak for Lightroom. I have taught a few classes to the Vegas Adobe User Group in the past few years, and I’m doing it again in the next couple months. If you shoot photos, don’t wait. Invest in a copy and learn it. It won’t take much money or time.

Here’s a couple shots from 2011 that I had on hand. Hope you like ‘em.

Check out a few of the photos I shot this weekend for Station Casinos.

Blue Oyster Cult – Nov. 18, 2011 at Boulder Station’s Railhead.

What a summer! I haven’t blogged in a while, and those of you who know me know why. Here’s some highlights of my summer 2011:

• Best Man in my brother’s wedding
• Tried to keep up with yard work while watching toddler on evenings & weekends
• Develop Social Media campaign for summer-long concert series
• Work with internal and external team to implement strategic sharing of said concert series
• Turned 35
• Photograph each concert in series (with a couple exceptions), meet & greets & after parties
• Met B.B. King
• Taught my 18 month old son touchdown dances
• Reached 1,000 followers on twitter (Seriously – I don’t get it. I’m not that interesting, am I?)
• Met Motley Crue
• Neglected my lawn to the point that we have now hired a lawn service (worth it!)
• Continue to monitor and manage dozen or so social media streams for work
• Met Weezer
• Develop Social Media campaign for biggest football contest in Vegas
• Hosted mega fantasy football draft (I’m currently dead last. Thanks Mike Vick!)
• Met Eddie Trunk from That Metal Show and bought him a beer
• Attended classes at the first Digital World Expo, organized by my local friends in LVIMA

Saturday, June 18th was one of those nights where, although I worked by feet sore, I wore the same grin of me as an obnoxious 12 year old. I bought Theatre Of Pain and cranked Smokin’ In The Boys Room about 50 times in a row at night just to irk my parents, I guess. Below you’ll see me, 23 yrs later, 2nd from the left, in between Vince and Nikki from Motley Crue. Later, they signed my Dr. Feelgood LP. Nikki was rocking a sweet Leica camera. I gotta get one of those! I chatted briefly about LPs with Vince and with Nikki about his Heroin Diaries book. Go read that, if you haven’t. I read it in about 36 hours, and it stuck in my thoughts for weeks. He’s one of the most creative minds in entertainment, I think.

Poison went on immediately after the meet and greet session, so I had to haul ass to the photo area – conveniently located 100 ft from the stage. (Sarcasm). Using my Canon 70-200mm prime, I was able to get “in there” somewhat well. Hell, some of the photographers didn’t even sport a DSLR. Wonder how their stuff turned out. Sucks, because every 3rd person in the 100 ft ahead of us had a droid or an iPhone getting the same shots. Whatever. Rules are rules.

CC and Bobby Dall from Poison. Genuinely nice fellas who sounded great on stage.

Motley crashed the party at 9:30, and caught many off guard. No ringmaster-hype, no encores at the end. Just there to kick your ass, which is what they did. They rocked a mix of old and new stuff before settling into the classics for a 90-minute set.

How creepy does Mick Mars look right here? My favorite shot of the night, I think.

This session from Tommy Lee blew 9,000 minds. What else can I say?

Friday June 17th. I think this was the first Reggae show I have had the opportunity to shoot, and what a way to start:  legendary, classic, icons, however you want to describe Steel Pulse, they live up to it. Absolutely awesome live set. Not a frown in the place.

How you feelin’?

Lead guitar, Donovan McKitty. The dude can shred. I bumped into him at the Grand Cafe after the show. What an awesome guy – he picked up our dinner check for us! We chatted about Hawaii, where they just returned from doing 4 shows. I hope he got the photos I sent over on Sunday.