Dopp Juice

Let’s get right down to it. I need the business equivalent of a Sugar Daddy (or Mama). This is a completely legitimate and legal exchange between consenting adults: I bring the awesome, you bring the rent payments, and we all go home happy.

It’s really that simple. I’ll break it down for you.

I bring the awesome.

I make magic happen on the Internet. I build, I write, I conduct, I support, I rally armies out of Twitter and Facebook, I make communities strong, and I make websites happen.

I am an extraordinary generalist. I’m a collaborator. I’m the linchpin on web teams. I speak everyone’s language (Designer, Engineer, Marketer, User, Content Developer, Director) and I facilitate getting things done. I’m also skilled enough in all those areas that I pick up the slack when something falls through. I ask for more help when I need it, and I can usually get it from my network of great consultants. I’m fast, I’m honest, I’m loyal, I have ridiculously high standards for presentation quality, and I fight like a bulldog to make a project successful.

Because of all this, and the fact that I’ve spent the last 6 years as an independent consultant, I don’t fit job descriptions. I’ve never met anyone else with my particular blend of strengths. So I’m appealing to you — the people who know me and have witnessed The Awesome — to help me find the right business to call home. You’re the ones who can make this happen.

To refresh your memory, I kick butt at:

• managing customer and audience engagement
• Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Wikis, and other Internet rallying points
• mobilizing volunteers
• managing team projects
• any kind of writing (formal or informal)
• HTML and CSS
• WordPress and other CMS systems (templating and administration)
• public speaking
• event coordination

My clients have included:

• Cisco
• Chevron
• Jiffy Lube
• Seton Pediatric Hospital
• Hyperion
• Interbrand
• Bedrock Brands
• Cerado
• … and about 25 others, listed here.

Many of these clients (and some of my colleagues) have written generous testimonials about my work. Take a look.

A little more detail…

I’ve been building websites since 1997, and blogging since 1999.

I built and managed two large online communities of my own, mostly by accident. I understood what people needed, I made it happen for them, and I figured out all the details as I went. One was a 5,000-member writer’s publication and workshop (TheWrit.org; now closed). The other is a 20,000 visitor/mo community expression blog with a volunteer staff of 15 (Genderfork.com; still thriving).

I’ve worn many hats as an ongoing consultant at agencies (branding, social media marketing, and technical). I’ve been called Front-End Developer, Project Manager, Community Manager, and Social Media Consultant. I’ve build a lot of client websites, both through agencies and independently.

I’ve consulted on online community development for Cisco, the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association, Offbeat Bride, the Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, The HINTS Lab at the University of Washington, and the Personal Data Ecosystem, among others. I also run an industry blog about online community development at CultureConductor.com.

And let’s not forget my two caveats:

You bring the rent payments.

I spent four years as an independent consultant for agencies, and then worked the last year and a half as my own Sugar Business. While I found that work immensely rewarding and educational, I also ran into my own limitations. I’m far more interested in doing awesome work than finding awesome work.

That’s where you come in.

You’re a business (or independently wealthy Internet enthusiast) with ongoing, interesting web needs. Maybe they’re your own projects, maybe you have an ongoing stream of clients, or maybe it’s some combination of both. You take a nimble and dynamic approach to your work. You’d rather have a rockstar problem solver than a by-the-book workerbee any day. You value the opinions of people who know what they’re doing. You work at a fast pace and like getting things done. You’re either local to the SF Bay Area, or you’re fine with me working remotely.

And your projects are funded.

I’m ready now to hand over some fierce loyalty to the right business for bringing me on board as a staff member. Whether that means an ongoing consulting contract or full-time employment, I’m open to working out the details. It just needs to be backed with enough funds to serve as my primary income. (Sorry, small projects. I have an embargo on you until I work out something consistent.)

This is the first time you have ever heard me ask for this, and it may very well be the last. Consider me up for professional auction. It will close when a situation fits.

Friends, please send this page to the person you’re thinking of right now. You know I will make them incredibly happy.

Business Folk, you can get in touch with me at info at sarahdopp dot com. Please say “hi” sooner rather than later. My situations tend to change quickly.

We all go home happy.

You need someone to do awesome work. I need awesome work to do.

With our powers combined, my rent gets paid, you look fantastic, and we keep on changing the world.

I just got home from attending the first ever Bees Awards show, and was so equally impressed and disturbed by the event that I’m not even going to change out of my little black dress (fact: I own one!) before blogging about it. (But I am going to take off my heels and put on slippers. Cuz some things just can’t wait.)

What are the Bees Awards?

It took me awhile to figure this out, so let me start with how they summed it up:

“The Best of Social Media Professionals.” (from their logo)

“It’s the first international social media award show for communication and marketing professionals and takes place on November 9, 2010.” (from the email that invited me)

“The Bees Awards grant recognition to the best Social Media practices of the year in order to define and promote outstanding professionals and their marketing expertise.” (from the sidebar of their website)

“The Bees Awards is the 1st international social media competition for marketing and communications professionals. Brands and agencies from all around the world are invited to share their best work. Our jury is composed of 19 renowned social media experts from 13 different countries. The event will be held in San Francisco on November 9, 2010 and will be live streamed.” (from the Welcome page on their website)

“Social Media’s Best Executions of the Year” (from the title slide of their show presentation.)

From all that, I’m seeing: a new awards show for the effective use of social media, especially in marketing.  Is that what you’re seeing, too?  Okay, cool.

Why did I go?

The first time I ever went to a tech industry awards show, I ranted about it excessively, mostly because I just didn’t get it.  I think I understand the point a little better now, especially after attending the 2008 Crunchies (I mean, c’mon, they played THIS!), but I’m still skeptical of the value of awards shows, especially when they’re new.

So I was surprised to be invited. In an effort to mix things up a bit I assume, the Bees Awards used Klout.com to send out promotional free ticket offers to specific demographics, and apparently I met the right criteria (though I’m wondering what that criteria was).  The orchestra seats for the event cost $200 each.  I said, “screw it,” grabbed a pair for free, and invited my friend Maymay, who I knew would be even more skeptical of an event like this than I am.

I’m Impressed.

Okay, here’s the scene…

They held this event at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor, a fine arts museum perched atop a big, majestic hill, right next to the ocean.

They requested formal attire (but still allowed my rebellious jeans-wearing date in the door), and held a pre-show cocktail party surrounded by museum sculptures.  They offered hors d’oeuvres, bite sized desserts, free wine, and a special cocktail made of grape-based liqueur, pineapple juice, and yerba mate tea (which was strange and delicious). There was also a guitarist playing live music in the background.

The founders and organizers were a ridiculously adorable and charming couple who came up and introduced themselves to me. Cara was dressed in a stunning designer ballgown, and Bastien made a point to say he recognized me from Twitter (which I took to mean “from the Klout.com lineup,” but it still made me smile).

There was no wi-fi in the building, and no cellphone service in the theater (which they explained was one of the reasons they chose the location).  All of the techies were forced to set down their gadgets and focus on the present moment.  Uncomfortable and amazing.

They opened the show with a dance troupe performing an international/multi-cultural/hybrid dance down the aisles and up onto the stage.  Surprising, well done, and lovely to watch.

Instead of letting award winners to give a short thank-you speech, they ushered each one off stage for a web broadcast interview after they accepted their awards.  Smart use of time and media.

The screen projections and animations were lovely during the awards presentations. Great transitions, clear images, and interesting things to look at.

The mid-show interlude was a member of the San Francisco Ballet (in a traditional ballet outfit), dancing.  The host took that moment to reflect on their intentions behind the show — to blend the classical with the contemporary, as traditional media is blending with new media.

The Old Spice Man won Best Campaign. I love the Old Spice Man. I cheered wildly.

The show moved along at an interesting pace and felt like it was over quickly, which was refreshing compared to other events.

I’m Disturbed.

I want to cut them a lot of slack because I know this was their first show. All of the details above were pulled off so beautifully that I believe they should consider the whole thing a success.

But.

Some things need mentioning.  Three, to be exact.  Just three.

1) Their first award category was “Best 140 Characters Message (SMS, Tweet)” and they only had ONE nomination for it. ONE. Guys. Come on. Great marketing happens all the time on Twitter. If the nominations really weren’t coming in, this seems like something you could have reached out and asked for. Opening with that category set an awkward tone for the rest of the show.  (Cuz really? You could only find one tweet? Really?)

2) This was an international awards show, and many of the nominees were projects I hadn’t heard of.  An Israeli Coca-Cola promotion in particular came up several times, and had an intriguing picture, but they wouldn’t tell me what it was! I kept craning my neck trying to figure it out, and feeling frustrated that I couldn’t acknowledge what was being honored. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for some short video interludes, or at least a series of demonstration screenshots instead of a single image.  Y’know. Like new-media-style.

3) *deep breath* Okay. Here’s my biggest concern. The Bees Awards show did not seek to celebrate achievements across the landscape of social media marketing. This awards show exclusively honored social media marketing campaigns driven by ad agencies.  It did not consider marketing done in-house at corporations. It did not consider startups and bootstrappers. It did not consider grassroots organizing. It did not consider individuals (with the exception of the Student Works category, but that was still within ad agency culture). There was no acknowledgment of innovation or great works in social media marketing handled outside of the agency world.

The scope of their awards show is fine, but their presentation of it is not.  This group is using “social media” as shorthand for “social media marketing done by ad agencies,” and that’s okay internally, but it is not okay in communication with the rest of the internet landscape. So let me end this with a clear, simple request.

Dear Bees Awards:

You have a good thing going. Please keep it up. But please either broaden the scope of your awards or change your marketing materials to reflect what you’re actually interested in.  The rest of the social media world will appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Sarah

p.s. “Social Media Executions” kinda sounds like a Death Panel.
p.p.s. Thanks for the wine!

Tags: bees awards

Oh hey, I haven’t blogged here in a month.  Why?  Because I’ve been way too busy with life!  To catch you up, here’s an Executive Summary of Exciting Things that are in my line of sight right now:

Social Media

Genderfork

I recently added a form that lets people tell me whatever’s on their mind about gender anonymously. Dozens of people pounced on it, and my little blog curation brain exploded.   We’ve now got an active talkative community, a constant feed of brilliant thoughts, an influx of new profiles, and a really nifty twitter stream.  I have a thousand things to say about all this — on anonymity and gender consciousness — but I’m still trying to collect my thoughts.

Boffery

We showed up in Forbes.com, the Village Voice, a Fox News late show, and — somehow — Italy. A thousand people are knocking on our doors for beta invites right now, and we’re working our asses off to get the site into shape.  We’re also thrilled about bigger questions that this buzz has brought up in the communities around us: How do we currently talk about sexuality with our trusted friends, and where we want to take that conversation from here?

Ventana

Cerado Ventana is evolving like crazy into something of endless potential.  BlogHer’s using it to make search widgets (so gorgeous!), Social Media Club is passing it around as a member directory, and, yes, we even got Barack Obama on board (well, okay, not him personally, but still). Inside scoop: we’re working on a new major iteration of the system which should be live within a month.  Expect another major influx of useful widgets and customizable iphone apps as soon as I can set that free.

Art

Can I Sit With You, Too?

Hey, guess what? I’m in a book!  And the book happens to be fantastic — it’s full of stories of social awkardness in the grade school social scene… stories that are so absurd you know they have to be true.  Mine’s called “Will you go out me?”  (yep — i’m telling that one).  The proceeds benefit a special needs program that directly takes care of some of my favorite bloggers’ kids, so it’s extra-worth the cover price.  Go buy it. You’ll love it.  Swear.

Mosaics not Mortagages

This one’s not mine, but it’s something I want you to know about.  My good friend, artist John T. Unger, is using the recession as a reason to get more creative.  He’s been designing his dream studio for about a decade and is finally ready to build it, but now can’t get a loan because the banks are too screwed up with the economy.  So instead, he’s selling gorgeous high-end custom mosaics to raise the funds.  If you know anyone who’d be interested in this shinyshiny art, please send them John’s way.

Queer Open Mic

Hey hey hey — Queer Open Mic is THIS FRIDAY! Come play!  We went underground for a little while due to a loss of venue, but now we’re back and better than ever at Modern Times Bookstore (it’s perfect!). This Friday, we’re featuring Aimee Suzara, who rocks my socks. Sign-ups are at 7pm and show’s at 7:30. See you there!

Life

::Stupid Grin::

I accidentally fell in love… but that’s all I’m gonna say about it… unless you get me out for dinner… in which case I’ll tell you everything.

I have really exciting news for you (if you haven’t already heard me bragging like crazy about it): I’m the new co-host of San Francisco’s Queer Open Mic!  This is an incredible opportunity for me to give back to something that’s been deeply special in my life for a long time.

The Queer Open Mic has been my creative home for the last year and a half — I go religiously, I love the atmosphere, and I love the people.  Cindy Emch — the open mic’s founder (and the host who’s handing the reigns over to me) — worked her butt off to create a space that felt safe for poets, prose writers, comedians, singer-songwriters, and other artists who fell anywhere along the gender and sexuality spectrums to share their work with one another — even when it wasn’t perfect.  The result was always rich show of ecclectic work that felt deeply personal, creative, inspiring, and generous.

Can you tell I’m in love with this venue?

Oh, and let me tell you about the features!  At every show, there’s a feature performer who takes up about 20 minutes in the middle of the show, and they always knock my socks off. Sometimes it’s a local hero, sometimes it’s a kick-ass artist on tour from another state, and sometimes it’s a bright and shiny Queer Open Mic regular who’s doing their first-ever feature performance.  No matter how you slice it, the show is always intense and beautiful.

But enough of my gushing, let’s jump to the details.  My first show as co-host is next week and I want you to be there.  To make sure you have plenty of reason to clear your calendars, I’ve booked one of my favorite people on earth — a soulful, funny, kinky, creative, and drop-dead adorable singer-songwriter named Fivestar.

Allow me to introduce you.  Fivestar writes…

I’m originally from South Texas and have been making trouble in the Bay Area for 6 years.  When I’m not working with video and the web, you can find me riding my bike, exploring the fabulousness of this city and making music.  Music has been an emotional outlet for me as far back as i can remember.  I’ve been writing music for ten years for the sole purpose of dealing with heartaches and joys.  Aside from a few past public performances, I mostly sing for my friends.  I started performing Queer Open Mic a few months ago and am excited to find more people to share my passion with.   Thank you!

Visit http://www.iamfivestar.com or http://twitter.com/iamfivestar for more.

The show will be followed by a table full ‘o beer at Zeitgeist (an outdoor bar filled with picnic tables and attractive hipsters) to celebrate Fivestar’s performance, my new role as co-host, and the fact that my best friend from high school just moved to San Francisco (it’s about time, girl!). So even if you can’t make it to the show, you should come out and share a pitcher with us there.

Are you in yet?  Here are the details…

What: Queer Open Mic, featuring Fivestar (and Sarah Dopp’s first night as co-host!!)
When: July 11, 8-10pm (sign-ups start at 7:30), followed by beer at Zeitgeist
Where: The Three Dollar Bill Cafe, San Francisco’s LGBT Center (1800 Market St.)

About the Queer Open Mic
Queer Open Mic is a twice monthly gathering of poets, performers, writers and artists of all types to come together and share art. Proto-feminist and genderqueer in scope, QOM aims to combine raunchy enthusiasm, warmth and community, unapologetic queer, radical politics and sweet rhythms to create a space for spoken word, poetry and performance that is multi cultural, multi gendered, completely inclusive and dynamic. QOM is hosted by Sarah Dopp and Mollena Williams. Please show up around 7:30pm to sign up on the open mic list. You’re encouraged to read one piece of work that is five minutes or less. And by encouraged we mean threatened with spankings, shoe throwings and general hilarious tantrums if you don’t follow the rules.

Okay, here’s the plan:

Everyone in the Bay Area who’s paying attention right now, please do the following (even if you’re in a monogamous relationship)…

1. Go to CrazyBlindDate.com.
2. Walk through the SF Bay Area site wizard (it doesn’t ask for any personal info until the end)
3. Make yourself available for Sunday, Monday, and/or Tuesday nights (the more the better).
4. Make your territory as broad as you feel comfortable with, but at least include San Francisco’s Mission District (you can get there. i know you can).
5. Make yourself available for all ages and genders with no other restrictions (come on! you can deal with this! okay, specify gender IF YOU MUST).
6. Use the “Intention” box to be honest about the fact that you’re just doing this for fun and to meet new people. (You should probably mention that monogamous relationship of yours, too.)
7. Finish the wizard, sit back, and see who it sets you up with (you can always say “no”).
8. Show up (even if it seems really really weird. You’re totally allowed to bail after 20 minutes).
9. Twitter an update about your date every time you or your date goes to the restroom (keeping in mind that your date might see those tweets).

You’ve got nothing to lose except your pride, and that’s really not worth keeping anyway. Ready? Go.

It started with a conversation about dating. I tried define my dating class to a friend, and quickly came up with a string of words that sortakinda summed it all up: intelligent independent creative queer professional. This class includes me, and I had to acknowledge that we’re sometimes hard to date.

Another friend-in-this-category, sfslim, quickly noted that we’re also a hard class to find. I decided to take this as a challenge, and put out the following request to the Internet:

quick poll: would all the self-identifying “intelligent indie creative queer professionals” pls raise their hand via @ reply, dm, or email? May 19, 2008

I wasn’t really expecting the results. So far, over the course of a day, 25 people have raised their hands. They’ve come through public replies, private direct messages, email, facebook messages, and IM. More than a quarter of them have come from strangers. A handful of them have been unsure if they really fit, so let me describe what I’m talking about here:

Intelligent – Do you notice change? Are you witty? Do you see patterns in what’s going on around you? Do you critically analyze the opinions that come your way and consciously decide which ones to accept? Can you usually find the information you’re looking for on the Internet?

Independent - (I didn’t really mean indie in the label-free musician sense. I was just working with limited character space.) Do you insist on keeping a flexible schedule? Do you create interesting projects to work on? Do you define yourself by your skills and passions instead of by the name of your workplace? Do you enjoy time alone? Do you (at least try to) examine any sentence that includes the word “should” to make sure it’s right for you before accepting it?

Creative – Do you come up with new ideas when you’re in the shower or taking a walk? Do you have a form of self-expression that feels satisfying and allows you to be playful? Do you enjoy brainstorming? Do you like to make things better? Do you value the time you spend thinking and experimenting? Do you believe your perspective matters?

Queer – Does your gender or sexuality just not quite fit the traditional binary categories (man or woman; straight or gay)? Do you feel excited when you see people playing with or challenging those traditional roles? Are you hopeful that things are shifting in a direction that will better encourage you to be yourself? (This category is big and complicated, and I’m not gonna get into its subtleties here. You pretty much get belong as soon as you say you do… even if you’re not fond of the word.)

Professional – Do you make (at least some of) your living doing things you’re personally passionate about? Did you intentionally choose your line of work? Do you bring unique value to your work? Do you feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for your career path? Do you have a strong sense of personal integrity about your work?

These descriptions are my own perspectives, and none of these categories have clear boundaries to them. To me, this combination of traits is gold, and I want to know as many “identity revolutionaries” (to use sfslim’s term) as possible who share them.

I’m not putting out a call for people to date (although, hey, if the shoe fits…). I’m putting out a call for community. Rally up, folks! Tell me where you are! I believe we’re more powerful when we’re connected, and I know we each have a lot of work to do.

As a side note, to answer a question someone asked: No, I’m not going to publish this list anywhere. Many people are raising their hands privately, and it’s not my place to share their identities, even with each other. I believe you have the right to tell and curate your own story.

If you’re part of this fantastic class of people (which I’m now just calling the IICQP folks) and haven’t already raised your hand, please do so. Leave me a comment, send me an email, shoot me a twitter reply, find me on facebook… whatever you prefer.

Just raise your hand.

Edit: As of 9pm 5/20/08, the total number of hand-raisers is 41. Hot damn, people! I love you guys!

Edit: It’s June 9th, and we’re totally up to 53, oh-yes-we-are.

As promised, I hit the Engage.com-sponsored Love 2.0 party last night and asserted my peaceful protests about their website’s rigid category structure. I met the CEO, the Project Manager, the Front End Developer, and the Art Director. They were all very friendly and tolerant toward the tall queer trouble-maker in the black wig, and I was impressed with how amenable they were to my concerns about their dating service.

The question was: Why can’t I be bisexual on your website?

The answers were along these lines (with my reactions in italics)…

• That was a database decision. We made it possible for you to be straight or gay, but bisexuality requires searching the entire database, and that’s a big load on the servers.
  • Good news! Enterprise-level databases and servers are capable of handling full searches now! Really…
• You can! You’re free to switch back and forth! You can be one way one week and another the next!
  • That’s great that you allow people to be fluid about their identities (really, that’s important, and i’m glad you’re doing it). But I’m not excited about dividing my time into “straight weeks” and “gay weeks.” I want to represent myself on your site consistently and honestly, and not have to make a decision on which group of people is allowed to court me at a time.
• We thought about it, and we’d still like to do it, but it’s just going to require so much code to make it work. It’s very complicated.
  • I hear ya. It’s hard. That’s rough. I believe in you, though. You can do whatever you want to do. You have the tools.
• It’s a matter of release dates and product management. We’ve got so much going on, and we’re working on making the site better all the time. We just haven’t been able to get that piece in place.
  • I totally understand. I’m a project manager myself. I know this stuff gets messy. You can’t get it all done at once. So… are you working on it?
    
• I agree, it’s important, and we want to be the kind of site that welcomes everybody. We should have that done by the end of the year, and we hope you’ll come back when the site is more open.
  • Fantastic! Thanks! I’ll keep an eye out for the changes! It’s been great talking to you. I look forward to becoming your biggest fan.
    

Seriously, they’ve been really good about this. I’ve had several follow up email exchanges with the people I met at the party, scheming what an ideal site could function like, and discussing the pros and cons of organizational styles. Their VP also responded to my original email, stating she agrees with my point and that they would do their best to get it right.

I’m excited about Engage because they’re merging new ideas about connections with models people are already comfortable with. By the way they’ve responded to my noise, I can tell they sincerely care about making their community happy. They’ve just got some growing to do.

Tags: bisexuality, customer service, dating sites, engage.com

I love Seth Godin’s post today on Workaholics:

A workaholic lives on fear. It’s fear that drives him to show up all the time. The best defense, apparently, is a good attendance record.

A new class of jobs (and workers) is creating a different sort of worker, though. This is the person who works out of passion and curiosity, not fear.

The passionate worker doesn’t show up because she’s afraid of getting in trouble, she shows up because it’s a hobby that pays. The passionate worker is busy blogging on vacation… because posting that thought and seeing the feedback it generates is actually more fun than sitting on the beach for another hour. The passionate worker tweaks a site design after dinner because, hey, it’s a lot more fun than watching TV.

I have been trying for years to explain this to friends and family: why I’d rather build a website than read a book or watch TV.

“What do you for fun?”

“I work!”

“No, seriously…”

“No. Seriously.”

I’m not gonna say that I always get it right — the balance between work and self-care — but I will say that it’s an absolute gift to be living in a world where I get paid to do what I already do for fun, and where “going to work” and “doing my hobby” are often the exact same thing.

Tags: passion, raised eyebrows, seth godin, the creative life, work habits

Some people rely entirely on prayer. I find that prayer yields better results when I augment it with social media. Here was my recent cry to the Universe (made through a friends-only social networking website):

“I need to buy a car right now and I don’t know where to start. I haven’t owned a car in three years! I want something reliable that will run forever and gets good gas mileage. I don’t want to spend a lot and I’ve never bought a car without help before. Um… crap!”

The suggestions started rolling in. Honda Civic. Toyota Corolla. Vehix.com. Cars.com. Carfax.com. Kelly Blue Book. Names of trusted mechanics. Tips on finding the right insurance agency. Info about smog checks and DVM registrations. Reminders that rush hour traffic is sometimes slower than Caltrain. Reminders that I don’t have to do anything without help, ever, if I don’t want to.

This sent me in the right direction for research, and I quickly narrowed down my focus to exactly what I wanted: a 2000-2004 manual transmission 4-door Toyota Corolla with power locks/windows and in a dark color, somewhere local. Excellent. That was easy.

But then I scoured the listings and couldn’t find one. Well, that’s not true — I did find one, but it was at a really sketchy-looking small used car dealership with a disturbingly bad website. The car went crashing off my radar when I saw the dealer’s horrible “About Us” photo. Um, no.

[This photo is a direct lift from the website. I did not reduce its quality for dramatic effect.]

I went back to my social networks to tell them my tale of woe, and they agreed that the man behind the desk was not to be trusted. Peanut gallery quotes included: “where’s his computer? this is well into the 21st century; every work desk should have a computer at it,” and “The picture looks like he’s finalizing plans to take over the world… from his computer-less desk. Haha! ‘You’re right, Skeletor, it will be as easy as taking candy from a baby! Mu-hahahaaaa!’ “

Meanwhile, I was decompressing on Twitter, feeling discouraged about the process and getting a lil’ bit silly in my musings. The twitterpaters cheered me up with hedonistic influence and emotional support. I remembered that I was shopping with an army behind me. They had my back.

And then, something magical happened. A friend who had been watching my prayers sent me a link to My Dream Car, being auctioned on eBay Motors from a dealership just south of San Jose. The “Buy Now” price was exactly my budget and exactly the value on Kelly Blue Book. I tried to brush it off as “too far away,” but then another friend offered to drive me there.

Frantically, I asked the Universe for tips on buying from dealers, and it filled my head with suggestions. Then I researched the vehicle history report on Carfax (completely clean) and looked up everything I could find out about the dealership. 400 people on eBay told me they were wonderful to do business with. That’s social media shopping for ya.

I showed up and walked straight to the car. The receptionist quickly tossed me the keys and let me take it for a test drive. It was just as delicious as I hoped it would be. The saleswoman showed up and asked how I was doing. I said, “I like this car. Can I buy it from you?”

She smiled and said, “Yes.”

Tags: consumer experience, customer service, social media, VRM

I’m meeting Surfer Dude in just over an hour. Reality is starting to sink in. This has the potential to be very strange.

(Fortunately, I’m still mostly entertained by the whole thing.)

Watch twitter — hopefully i’ll be able to send smoke signals from the ladies’ room!

Tags: Adventures, crazyblinddate, good ideas, my story, relationships, social media