Me Being Stupid « Greg Swan

February 2, 2010 • 5:28 pm 0

Huffington Post, Good Morning America, National Geographic, Urlesque and more pick up @groundhogphil

It’s safe to say this year’s tweeting as Punxsutawney Phil greatly eclipsed last year’s experience.

With a dramatic increase in followers, more than 1300 retweets and some major news pick-up, I’m pretty thrilled with the response to me posting sarcastic tweets on behalf of a groundhog this year.

Here’s some of the media coverage:

HUFFINGTON POST

Huffington Post wrote about my beloved @GroundhogPhil yesterday afternoon, Punxsutawney Phil: Groundhog Day STAR Shines On Social Networks:

There is also plenty of Twitter activity. Some unofficial Punxsutawney Phil Twitter accounts can be entertaining, such as @GroundhogPhil, who tweeted just moments ago, “You try forecasting underground while asleep, chump,” in response to this tweet: “Prognosticating PunxsutawneyPhil has only been correct 39% since 1887.”

GOOD MORNING AMERICA

And this morning, Good Morning America retweeted the tweet we were all waiting for (to its 1.7 million followers):

Eek! A horrifying shadow! I’m going back to bed. Guess that’s 6 more weeks of winter, chumps!

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

National Geographic Daily wrote Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil Sees Shadow–And Long WinterThis year “immortal” Punxsutawney Phil—supposedly born no later than the 19th century—broadcast his Groundhog Day prediction in some decidedly 21st-century ways…

People interested in Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction also had the option of receiving his forecast by text message or through Twitter.

URLESQUE

Urlesque wrote Meet the Internet’s Social Network-Savvy Groundhogs:

When Minneapolis blogger Greg Swan noticed that Pennsylvania’s most famous rodent doesn’t broadcast his prediction on Twitter, he set up the GroundhogPhil account to help the little guy out. Greg’s since learned that despite a cushy life, Phil is a bit of a curmudgeon:
“Lots of folks think Phil is a cuddly, happy woodland creature, but in actuality, he’s a grumpy, sarcastic little woodchuck who doesn’t appreciate humans pestering him out of his warm burrow. As @groundhogphil’s tweets indicate, life isn’t all grasshoppers and grubs up on Gobbler’s Knob. And that Al Roker better stop talking smack, or he’s going to find himself a Groundhog Day’s surprise.”

PHOENIX NEW TIMES

The Phoenix New Times wrote Punxsutawney Phil “Tweets” About Seeing His Shadow; For Phoenix That’s Probably a Good Thing:

Normally we would rely on morning shows like Good Morning America to broadcast Phil’s findings but this year the groundhog took his message mainstream — he “tweets.”

“Eek! A horrifying shadow! I’m going back to bed,” Punxsutawney Phil “writes” on his Twitter page. “Guess that’s 6 more weeks of winter, chumps!”

Joke’s on you, Phil, you’re only a “chump” if you don’t live in Phoenix.

What a fun run, but I’ll admit I’m glad it’s over. Here’s hoping my alarm clock doesn’t play “I Got You Babe” tomorrow, and we do this day over.

NOTE: If you represent Punxsutawney Phil and/or Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, I will gladly turn over the Twitter account to you. I’m just having some fun, so please shoot me a note.

Filed under: In the News, Me Being Stupid , @GroundhogPhil, Good Morning America, greg swan, ground hog phil, groundhog tweets, groundhog twitter, Huffington Post, National Geographic, phoenix new times, Punxsutawney Phil, punxsutawney phil on twitter, urlesque

January 28, 2010 • 11:40 pm 1

Punxsutawney Phil’s on Twitter, just in time for Groundhog Day

Do you follow @GroundhogPhil on Twitter yet?

Last year around this time I realized there was a huge missed opportunity for promoting Groundhog Day in social media.

So I went ahead and set Phil up with a Twitter account. @PunxsutawneyPhil was one character longer than Twitter allows, so I went for @GroundhogPhil.

To be fair, at the end of last year’s Groundhog Day, I wrote, “If you represent Punxsutawney Phil and/or Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, I will glady turn over the Twitter account to you. I’m just having some fun, so please shoot me a note.” But I never heard from anyone.

This year I’d forgotten about the account until I got a new follower e-mail notification indicating Laura Fitton (@pistachio) was following @GroundhogPhil.

This is hilarious for a couple reason: 1) no one had followed Phil for nearly a year; 2) at SXSW a couple years ago, my friend Nathan and I (virtually) stole Laura’s shoe, and she ended up slapping Nathan; 3) Laura is a Twitter expert and who knows what she thinks of character Twitter accounts.

So I busted out the password reset and started tweeting for Phil again this year. Here are some of my favs so far:

Hugo Chavez reportedly accusing US of testing weapon of mass de-sunshine in Punx, PA to mess with my prediction.6:48 PM Jan 22nd from UberTwitter

Mustache guy just stuck a hose in my burrow attached to his jeep’s exhaust pipe. I think the stress is getting to him.3:24 PM Jan 22nd from web

They say we’re young and we don’t know, We won’t find out until we grow… Babe…I got you babe.. #musicmonday
10:18 AM Jan 19th from web

Winter! I just love hats, coats, mittens AND sniffles! Let’s do this the rest of the year.
8:05 AM Jan 19th from UberTwitter

Moustache guy just dropped off a Snuggie and Mad Men on Blu-Ray. I aint coming out for months.
8:35 PM Jan 18th from UberTwitter

And…. still winter. In your face, people.
8:49 AM Jan 18th from UberTwitter

My prediction: Chuck Norris will get sick of winter and roundhouse kick the earth to tilt its axis and make it summer.
8:30 PM Jan 16th from UberTwitter

Saturday night, and I’m about to prognosticate up some pizza rolls.
4:59 PM Jan 16th from mobile web

A week ago, the tourism folks at VisitPA.com have moved Phil into the 21st century with a sweet text campaign:

Sign up to get a text of Punxsutawney Phil’s Febuary 2, 2010 Weather prognostication from Gobblers Knob via your moble device by texting “Groundhog” to 247365 between now and Groundhog Day.

They have a Facebook Page and @visitpa Twitter account, too. However, they’re both overtly tourism focused and don’t follow through on the social character personality promise of the text campaign.

So I’ve continued tweeting as Phil. Yesterday, on the same day as Apple’s iPad announcement, PETA suggested Phil be replaced by a robot.

So Phil had some fun with it:

@PETA The idea that a robot could predict weather better than a rodent living beneath the ground is simply foolish. #iPhil
about 10 hours ago from web

Moustache guy is pretty shook up about this PETA robot thing. I’m getting a burrow makeover, complete with HDTV and a Wii!
5:08 PM Jan 27th from UberTwitter

Instead of a robotic groundhog to replace me, how about PETA sends over naked Pam Anderson from those anti-fur ads?
9:49 AM Jan 27th from web

And it was a surprise to get an @-reply from @peta!

@GroundhogPhil How lovely 2 hear from u Phil. Hope u get that holiday u deserve! http://ow.ly/11r38
about 11 hours ago from HootSuite in reply to GroundhogPhil

There have actually been quite a few interesting people to strike up conversations with Phil this year. See some of the better ones here.

Okay, so I’m in year two of brandjacking Punxsutawney Phil. As I said last year, this is yet another example of why it’s critical companies, brands and individuals proactively stake out their online reputation.

Meanwhile, I’m not clever or entrepreneurial enough to keep this up. I’m hoping someone will respond to the note below and take it from here. Otherwise, who knows? Perhaps Phil will start speaking Spanish next year.

NOTE: If you represent Punxsutawney Phil and/or Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, I will glady turn over the Twitter account to you. I’m just having some fun, so please shoot me a note.

Filed under: Me Being Stupid, digital reputation management , ground hog, groundhog day, groundhog on twitter, peta, punxatony, Punxsutawney Phil, punxsutawney phil on twitter, punxtawney, punxtawny, sms, text, Twitter, txt, visitpa

November 2, 2009 • 2:44 pm 0

Laptop Sticker Cleanup

Covering my laptop with geeky social media stickers created me with an evolving techno-mural in the past couple years. The machine was huge — barely fit into the x-ray security tubs at the airport — and provided plenty of landscape for be-stickering.

In case you’re wondering, I’ve only been in a couple client meetings when I wished I didn’t have a “The Internet: All the Piracy, None of the Scurvy” sticker on my presentation laptop.

But today was new laptop day, I spent about 10 minutes fingernail-picking stickers off the beast. And then 10 minutes with Goo Gone trying to get the Peter Shankman/HARO sticker off. That thing was sticky!

What did I do with the stickers? Oh, I made a collage for Doug Hamlin:

I’m now accepting sticker submissions for the new laptop. The snarkier the better.

Filed under: Me Being Stupid , doug hamlin, laptop, peter shankman

August 5, 2009 • 4:20 pm 0

How Greg Spent his time in 2008

The New York Times has a fascinating interactive graphic showing how thousands of Americans over age 15 spent their time in 2008.

Everyone:

Just Greg:

Filed under: Me Being Stupid , nyt

May 29, 2009 • 11:19 am 1

Zooper is not a word, Como Zoo

Zooper Food is the Como Zoo’s main concession area, and it offers hamburgers, fries, pizza, popcorn, ice cream and drinks. It’s run by Lancer Catering.

But they must not understand that “zooper” it not actually a word. I checked:

Better get that fixed, Como Zoo.

Filed under: Me Being Stupid , como zoo, zooper food

April 30, 2009 • 10:27 pm 1

Don’t catch the Swan Flu

In the last four weeks I’ve been in Dallas, New York City, San Antonio and Savannah. Somewhere along the way I picked up a bit of a cold.

My nose has been running consistently for more than a week, I have a little cough and my ears have been bugging me. I’m missing the most important swine flu symptoms (nausea, dizziness, fever). And like the “real man” I am, I’ve been completely ignoring it in the hopes it will just go away.

Until Monday, when swine flu frenzy made us all rethink the sniffles. Except I hanging at MSP Airport, blowing my nose and sneezing while people crowded around CNN televisions in terminal E and listened to the media fear monger them about cold and flu symptoms.

Fast forward three days, my cold is fully kicking my butt, I’m filling tissues like a firehouse, and now people at both the Savannah and Atlanta airports are wearing respirator masks and literally jumping at every cough and sneeze like they’re gunshots.

This morning genius VP Joe Biden said what we were thinking as the cabin door closed, “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico — it’s that you’re in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.”

That’s probably how I got this cold in the first place. All kidding aside, I’ll admit it was freaky seeing civilians wearing masks, especially after I landed at MSP and was still seeing them.

I headed to the Minute Clinic this morning, explained my symptoms and my hunch that I had an ear infection. I was correct and got myself some nice antibiotics. I will say the nurse practicioner seemed reassured I wasn’t asking for Tami Flu just in case.

So the parallel to this story is that my friends at work have been talking about Swan Flu — to the point that the #swanflu hashtag went viral (with a little help from CNN), and they quarantined me in my office.

It’s not that we’re making light of the people who have died or become very sick. It’s more that the overwhelming fear mongering and nonstop media coverage is making us so crazy we have to make light of it.

Then they busted out our workplace-issued emergency kits, including respirator masks, flashlights and space blankets, and…well…the video speaks for itself…