I’ve just added twitter updates to my sidebar. By doing that, any of my readers can see what I’m doing right now (assuming I’ve told twitter).

I’ve played with twitter for a while now and I am still trying to gather my thoughts on the product.

The Service
For those who don’t know, twitter is a web application that allows registered users to post what they are doing “right now.” They make updates pretty simple. You can update using their web site, text message 40404, and email.

You can follow other users as well. So, if I want to know what my friend Jeff Noble or Capillya is doing, I “follow” him. Once I follow someone, it text messages me an update of “what they are doing.”

The Usage
Twitter makes it easy to update what you are doing… allowing me text message what I am doing it great. In addition, there are some really nice apps that make updating really simple. For instance, Jott.com allows me to call a toll-free number and make twitter updates via voice calls.

The Review
A friend of mine (after discussing twitter), told me that it isn’t a viable service. He called it a “feature” not a product. His thought behind the statement is that this is something Facebook and most other social networking sites have built into their product.

I guess I sort of agree. My only argument is not the service itself. The twitter service is similar to Facebook status update. Facebook does allow you to update status and you can even receive mobile updates when someone updates their status (this is something I’ve had to literally show someone).

The argument is the way the service is used. Facebook users update their status as a statement of feeling while twitter users utilize updates as statements on what they are doing….

Typical Facebook updates look like “RJ Martino is bored” or “RJ Martino is lucky to have such a great friend”

Typical Twitter updates look like “RJ Martino is writing a review on twitter.com” or “RJ Martino is going to a court appearance”

This is hard to explain… but to sum it up, facebook updates tell followers how they are feeling… twitter updates tell you what people are actually doing, not what they’re feeling.

So, as a technical review, I don’t think twitter is much than Facebook. But after using it for some time, there is no doubt that they are used in two different ways.

It seems almost certain that twitter is a viable product by the number of users but I’ve stopped making predictions on product viability.

      

I am trying Jott.com out and it’s really cool. I recommend it. It’s a lot of fun. This will actually sent using Jott.com. listen

Powered by Jott

      

Employee Empowerment
When people ask me about my management style, I usually respond with something corny like “employee empowerment.” The idea is that the people I work with are smart enough that they don’t have to be managed. They know the company goals and they know how to take care of a customer. Let the employee manage themselves. They’ll hold themselves to a higher standard, make their own deadlines based on reality and work load, and they’ll put the customer first because of their own inner drive. Overall, I think this management style has worked for me. It might be the lazy man’s way, but I think if you have good people, you’ll see great results. It’s less time consuming than other management style’s and I think the employees get a lot more, long term gain out of this style of management.

When Employee Empowerment Doesn’t Work
But, “employee empowerment” doesn’t always work. You don’t want to use this style when you’re working with people that don’t care about quality, their customer, or future. These people live for today, not the long term. They over promise and under deliver. They say they’ll be there and never show up. They promise you’ll love the work and you end up hating it. They swear they didn’t see the errors you point out. They make excuse after excuse. They make errors without any excuse at all. They promise to change and they don’t. You don’t want to work with these people but sometimes you have no choice.

When It Doesn’t Work
When I notice that empowerment isn’t working, I switch to what I call “Reward Management.” This is typical in some industries such as the construction industry. This is also typical when you’re working with sub-contractors. The basis is, you only get paid when the job is done and when the job is done right. This is the last leg for me. I’ll call it quits if they can’t get the job done, maintain a great quality, pickup the phone when I call, or they can’t get it done when they say they’re going to get it done.

That’s it. Those two things are my only management options. Sometimes, I get handcuffed to a bad worker. Sometimes, I get a guy who starts a project and they’re so deep in the project, its hard to get them off of it. From experience, its always worth getting them off of the project as soon as possible. Don’t give them a third and forth shot, just get rid of them.

Conclusion
Good people are the hardest things to come by. When you find them, treat them as good as you can and be prepared to treat them better than you treat yourself. Don’t double cross them because you’ll need them in the future. And get them on your team as soon as you can.

Bad people are a dime-a-dozen. Dump them as soon as you can. Don’t give them a third chance and don’t think they’ll change.

      

I was lucky enough to be highlighted by an exciting new publication Talk Business Quarterly. You can read the article below.

Although Talk Business Quarterly is new, Talk business has been covering Arkansas Business since 1999. Roby Brock is the host and executive producer of Talk Business and his show can be seen on Fox 16.

Check out his website at www.talkbusiness.net

In exchange for his nice article, I thought I’d give him a little exposure on my media outlet… rjmartino.com… I probably got a little more exposure than he did.

Read the article
Young Guns.pdf

      

http://del.icio.us/ - A social bookmarking web site… if you don’t use it, try it out… You can see all of my “favorites” at http://del.icio.us/rjmartino.

Does anyone use twitter.com?

      

Opinion: The offer is going to get accepted.

Microsoft obviously wants it, Yahoo!’s stock price is too low, Yahoo! isn’t competing with Google, and the price is right.

Paul Kedrosky describes ways that the YHOO/MSFT deal could be killed, but the chances are slim… very slim.

      

Saturday night Amy and I ate dinner with friends… We had a great time and had some stimulating conversations. It was fun… but then… when we thought the fun was over… we went to Rachel and Chris’ house.

Rachel and Chris have a kid that is 20 months old. Santa brought him a 4-foot basketball goal… for the next three hours Chris, Daniel, and I played games on the 4-foot basketball goal including HORSE, free throw contest, and 1-minute 3-point contests… it was a blast.

I love life… but I’d rather be a kid any day of the week.

      

Obviously Arkansas Business thinks we should go bigger.

Link to Article

A SMALL apartment project in Jacksonville drew an $849,000 transaction. Martino & Carrasquillo Investments LLC, led by Ronald Martino, acquired Loop Road Apartments at 306 Loop Road from Carl and Claudia Clem. The deal is backed with a 30-year loan of $678,960 from Imperial Capital Bank of Glendale, Calif.

PS… don’t call me Ronald.

      

Roxane Martino made me a new design… what do you think? She even stuck our logo at the top… talk about cheap advertising.

      

Maybe I’m jaded. Maybe I’m confused. Maybe it’s inexperience. Maybe it’s poor management. Maybe it’s poor people.

But in my short experience it seems that when I’m pushing someone to get involved in a project, I’m doing most of the work. I can motivate someone to get involved with a project that they’re not initially excited about but after a few weeks, that fizzle goes away. Once the fizzle goes away, I’m the one that’s baby sitting, making sure work is getting done and making sure that the fizzle, that was once there, doesn’t go away. Many times the fizzle is long gone and they’re just doing the work so they don’t disappoint themselves or me.

Well, I think from now on, I’m going to look for people to bring ideas to me. I think I’ll wait to find the people that are willing to stick it out through the inevitable highs and lows. I’ll wait to see what ideas I want to get involved with rather than bringing ideas to people. I won’t try to change people’s minds or ideas until I’m completely sold on the people.

As I’ve said before, people are more important than ideas. Once I know I have solid people then I’ll share ideas. But I still won’t push ideas onto people. I’ll do my best to explain a vision and hope they catch fire… I’m not interested in the fizzle, I need to see the fire.