Before I could say anything, the man told me he was a very successful doctor. He routinely performed Botox on himself.

"That explains the Howdy-Doody look," I thought, nodding and smiling as he talked to me.

"You know," he said confidently. "You could come by my office. I could get rid of those marionette lines of yours. You could look 20 years younger."

"Marionette lines" -- it turns out -- are the creases between the nose and the corners of the mouth.

How ironic is it that removing these lines would probably make me look -- and feel -- more like a puppet than if the cracks remained?

How to be Socially Human. This little exchange at a mixer made me think about social networking. Many business people I know are concerned about how to approach ONLINE social networking.  Online social networking, in part, is an extension of your OFFLINE social skills.

If you enjoy real world social graces or skills, you'll probably do well when you approach online networking. If you exhibit empathy and concern for the feelings of others, you'll do extraordinarily well.

However, if you know people who lack these skills, they'll do well to address their OFFLINE socialization issues before approach social networking channels. The social web tends to magnify poor social and communication skills. For some, charm school may be in order.

What do you think? And what's one of your favorite offline social networking horror stories? (Do tell!)

Imagine my chagrin when I discovered that the Santa account had been suspended -- for months -- due to strange activity.

But "strange activity" is Santa's bag. Flying around once a year with reindeer, snaking down chimneys, hanging out with elves at the North Pole -- of course it's strange activity!

Could it be that Twitter Santa was (gasp) naughty? Heavens!

What do you suppose Santa did to get himself suspended?

And what can he do to get himself on the "Nice" list?

This chart is a valuable, at-a-glance image of how the Air Force responds to blog posts. You can see it and download it for yourself at Flickr.

I also find the Air Force flow chart to be a valuable guide for responding to more than blog posts -- really, it works for all kinds of social media channel mentions (FaceBook, YouTube, Twitter, forums, comments, et. al.)

However, when I perform a "stand and deliver" type presentation to a crowded room, I can't show The Air Force flow chart very well on a PowerPoint slide. (It's - er - something of a visual doozy!)

The information in the Air Force flow chart is great. However, presenting it effectively to a large group can be a challenge!

So here's what I did. I took the same basic content and presented it in a slightly different way. (See below). It's on a PowerPoint slide, and it's still a visual mess, sure to inspire groans.

Here's the twist: I generally ask someone from the audience to come up and perform a version of "PowerPoint Karaoke" -- that is to say, I don't speak to the slide. I ask someone else to walk the audience through the flow chart.

It works. Someone in the audience rises to the challenge. I have yet to have a person walk through the chart incorrectly.  And the audience seems to enjoy the change of pace and hearing a fresh voice.

I always reference the real Air Force Blog Assessment Flow Chart instead of my own imitation, but... people keep asking me for a copy of this slide. It's my number one slide request of 2009!

So I've posted the graphic above for your downloading pleasure. If you download it and use it, be sure to play PowerPoint Karaoke with it. That's probably the real power of presenting the information in this slide - tackling complexity by introducing humor and a fresh perspective.

How else might you present this information?

Anxious business owners ask me versions of this question. Frequently.

This is a summary what I hear:

Twitter. No business model = scary. The concept of tweeting seems stupid. I don't get it. Why bother with it, when it's a silly fad that's going to go down the tubes any second now?

FaceBook. Twenty-somethings are leaving it, looking for the next cool place - especially now that older people are joining. Why bother with it, because FaceBook is probably going to suffer the same fate as MySpace in a few minutes?

I often want to respond to these questions with a question:

So that if and when FaceBook / Twitter / YouTube / LinkedIn / et.al. actually do go away tomorrow -- you've used these tools to build and strengthen relationships TODAY.

Whatever technology comes tomorrow, you take the relationships and ideas you've built with you, wherever you go.

So really. How would it affect you if your favorite social media channel disappears tomorrow?

Why not go through your LinkedIn connections this coming weekend and write someone a recommendation -- a nice, big, public "thank you"?

And why not let it be a surprise? Don't wait for someone to ask for a recommendation. Write it without being asked.

Aren't the best gifts surprises?

Think of how nice it will be for that person -- that special someone who has done something wonderful for you -- to get your recommendation over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Go ahead. They deserve it. Don't wait for them to ask.

Heck, do it now.

Say thanks, social media style!

Pay it forward. Pass it on...

In short, the WalkStation by Steelcase is a desk with a treadmill attached to it. Here's my quickie video of my WalkStation experience --

http://www.youtube.com/maniactive#p/a/u/0/kMtbVOIo0KU

Before you think,

"Oh, like a little wheel for a rat in the rat race...."

...just try it.

I was shocked at how much I liked it. After a long day of working at the conference, I hopped on the WalkStation and got caught up on emails and such -- while casually strolling in place. I logged .64 miles in a little under 20 minutes. The WalkStation won't let you go over 2 mph, so you're really strolling more than speed walking. No getting sweaty, no heavy workout -- but vastly superior to just sitting around while typing.

Surprisingly, 20 minutes on the WalkStation perked up my flagging energy levels.

Now, I'm feeling perky enough to answer a few 100 more emails!

What do you think? Wacky hamster wheel for humans...or a creative approach to increasing productivity?

Today, Twitter introduced a new auto retweet feature. Two clicks, and you can retweet anyone on Twitter.

Instead of getting the classic "RT" - you get a new & cute auto retweet icon to precede your retweet.

Cuteness & ease-of-use aside, I tweeted that I'm going to retweet the old school way and manually type RT (or use the RT button in Tweetdeck!)

Why?

One word: Personalization!

It seems like an easy fix for Twitter to let us add/edit our Tweets instead of auto-retweeting them with two clicks. I hope they consider that refinement in the days to come!

'til then, I'm going to go retro and RT like it's October 2009.

For your viewing and listening enjoyment, I'm attaching a 2 minute video that shows the new feature and explains why I'm going retro rogue!

(Thanks to BobonBusiness, JonErp, oliviacp, ScottEnsink, and JRFire -- who all chimed in with their opinions on the new Twitter auto-retweet feature.)

The only question stupider than "can I ask you a question?" is probably "can I ask you a stupid question?"

What's a sillier -- or more ironic -- question than that?