Are you using Twitter lists? If not, then you should. Twitter lists, when curated well, are a great way to cut through the noise on Twitter. BTW, you may want to check out List.ly which helps you to curate lists. I have three twitter lists that I created and they have been lifesaving, time-saving filters to find out what people are talking about on Twitter.

Foodiphiles - food bloggers on Twitter. Esential for food news.

Cupcake Bakeries- used mostly for Cupcakes Take The Cake. It is great way to see what bakeries are doing from all over the world.

Cool Black People- I actually created this list because I would get asked about other African American bloggers and twitterers, so the list made it easy to refer people to.

I am putting people into broad categories for my twitter lists, and people do the same to me. Recently, I took a look at the Twitter lists that people have put me in, and I realized that these lists give me an idea of what people think of me…at list on Twitter. I think that it shows how effective I am at reflecting my personal brand. Here are some of the lists I am on:

• Black Entrepreneurs
• Cupcakes
• Food Bloggers
• Food And Drink
• Girl Power
• Interesting People
• Media/Journalism
• NYC
• Social Media Pros
• Startupnation
• SXSW
• Zeitgeist

So I think I am putting out content on Twitter that lets people be able to assign me to the Twitter lists that make sense. Even if their Twitter lists were completely random, that’s fine. The point is that I tweet daily about lots of things, and I think that people are reading those tweets and seeing a connection between me and the content I share.

My first stop on Saturday evening was to an art gallery show on the Lower East Side featuring work by the mother of a friend. While there, I was talking to sisters from Canada and I told them about my trip last summer to Montreal. I don’t speak French, but while in Montreal I threw out a few French phrases when talking. Well, my few words of French was like a cock tease to the Quebecois as they mistook me for being fluent in their language. I quickly learned that it was best to speak English.

Later, I went with two friends to a house party in Williamsburg. It was kinda like a salon with a BYOB situation. The smell of marijuana wafted through the room. There was a French girl with a bob singing songs with an electric guitar. The singer was good. She wore electric blue leggings, a Doc Martens and big wool coat. In another room, there was a pair of red velvet sofas where a group of people were gathered. My friend Mike said hi to this girl. She wore a big hat and wide legged pants. At first, she did not respond. He thought she might be French or something. He greeted her again in French, but she didn’t respond. She just looked at us with her hand near her mouth. Finally, she starts talking to us. I asked what she did for a living. She told me that she doesn’t have a job. She wants to writes movies and her parents don’t give her money but she has friends who have that do. I joked that this party felt like a scene from ‘Girls’ and I would be photoshopped out of it. [Cause I'm Black]. The Girl asked us if we had a coke connection. If I had on pearls, I would have clutched them. It wasn’t because she ask about cocaine, but surprised because she came across a little rude. She’s twenty four. In my day, people butter you up before asking favors from strangers. BTW, I don’t have a connection to illegal substances. So the conversation trailed off, and my friends and I decided to leave. As we left, I overheard her hitting up a guy for whiskey.

Today I watched “Tiny Furniture”, the indie film Lena Dunham wrote and directed. So much of it seems familiar to me. It is set in New York, cupcakes are “googled”, there’s a chef and Bushwick is mentioned. However, many parts of it feels foreign like French. It is not the New York life that I live. Since this city has about 8 million stories, my story is just one of many.

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I have had it up to here (Imagine me at the 5ft marker of a pool) of the articles and blog posts about new HBO show, “Girls”. Across the internet, the creative class is up in arms. I suspect that someone has a Lena Dunham voodou doll and is poking her via the other hole. Their complaints are many, but mostly trite. It doesn’t represent the diversity of New York. The characters are trust funders. It is a not a realistic portrait of young women.

Whatever! How can anyone hitch their hopes and dreams to one show? The cast of the Girls remind me of the band members of The Strokes. They are the scion of rich creatives.

Why the haterade? Is it because Lena is only 25? Is the outrage derivative of the Occupy Wall Street movement? Do people hate rich people so much? I am not implying that Dunham is a one percenter, but there is more class tension today then there was during The Gilded Age, but back then there was no blogs, twitter and other ephemera. Does nepotism still bother people? No one gets success by doing it alone and if you got family that can help, then so be it. Americans are not pioneers and this is not the wild west. Bootstrapping is some antiquated idea that I doubt even Clarence Thomas believes any more.

I am not defending the show, mainly because it so ridiculously mediocre and none of the girls are likeable except for the Asian girl who drinks Vitamin Water and knows Photoshop. She would totally be my friend.

Identify your passion purpose
Determine your path
Determine your audience
Design your optimal experience

Seven Things Highly Productive People Do.

Things I had resolved to do in 2012. I haven’t been good at any of it.
walk more
flirt more
stretch more
get facials
take care of body
make more money
save more
only buy things to make me hotter or nourish me
say no more than yes
don’t work for free. ever.
go on a date

Even though I am super busy, I am producing a one-off comedic storytelling show to Celebrate Mother’s Day on May 3rd. I met Trevor from Mr. Dennehy’s last Friday while at my friend’s birthday party. I have been to Mr. Dennehy’s a few times, but I didn’t know about the event space in the basement. The space is cool, so I have to do an event there.

If you want to talk about being a mom, wanting to be a mom, NOT wanting to a be a mom, adoption, IVF treatment, going into labor, “Dance Moms” or just your MOM, then let me know. Looking for bloggers, comedian, storytellers, writers, and random fun people. I’m booking 8 performers, so complete this form.

The show will be at Mr. Dennehy’s which is at 63 Carmine Street (near West 4th Street Station ) on Thursday, May 3rd. Free show. Drinking is encouraged!

Mad Men is back with its fifth season and I am excited for its return. It has been 17 months since season 4.  There are so many writers busy recapping episodes that I won’t do that here. However I will ruminate on themes of the show that I perceive.  Last weekend, I walked into a vintage clothing store in Red Hook and browsed a bit.  When I left, I laughed at the store’s sign that said “spring picnic realness”. Immediately, I thought of the documentary, “Paris Is Burning” and the ball categories like “executive realness”.

This led me to think how Don Draper is more than a character; he is a caricature of what many think  that a 1960′s advertising executive looked, drank, smoked, and screwed like. In fact, maybe Don Draper is the drag persona Dick Whitman.  It may seem like a stretch, but  to me Jon Hamm’s acting as Don could be like a straight man in hyper masculine drag.

Lately, more people are doing social media for clients and part of that is a numbers game. Like a amateur comedian just starting out, you have to have a certain amount of people coming to the show to perform. These are known as bringer show. If you are a friend or acquaintance of someone doing comedy, then you know about the dreaded bringer show. You get pinged often by people asking to come to the show. Similarly, some social media gigs require a certain amount of “Likes”, “Retweets”, “Followers”, etc. First of all, I recommend to stop over-promising to clients. Building social media presence is long term process. Secondly, the strain that you may be putting on your friendships is not worth it. a A better strategy is to find which subset of friends who may be interested and message them. Stop sending blanket updates to everyone and please don’t beg for RTs. If you treat social media outreach like a bringer show, no one will come and the joke will be on you.

Yesterday, I went to an insightful Social Media Week at the office of 360i. Beth Reilly, Digital & Social Marketing Lead at Kraft Foods and Sarah Hofstetter, President of 360i, led a session on “How Oreo is Using Social to Celebrate 100 Years of Brand Love.” Oreo has over 24 million Facebook likes and they engage daily with their Facebook community.  The page features a member of the community’s birthday every day as part of their centennial celebration which will be in March.  They also encourage people to share #oreomoments on the Facebook page.  It is interesting how Oreo draws upon both nostalgia and innovation to build interest in the brand. Here’s some of my tweets from the event.

Find conversations about brand that are happening outside branded sm to your brand’s community to stimulate more engagement. #smworeo — Nichelle Stephens (@niche) February 14, 2012

.@oreo social media efforts has lead to 2.5M earned impressions so social media does help earned media. #smworeo — Nichelle Stephens (@niche) February 14, 2012

.@oreo built a platform for brand love that is agnostic of social media channel- across platform. #oreomoments #smworeo — Nichelle Stephens (@niche) February 14, 2012

RT @Spilleigh: “Social media is a conversation, not a one night stand” #SMWNYC #SMWOreo

— Liz Dennebaum (@LizelleD) February 14, 2012

I admit that I try to be funny on Twitter.  I like making people LOL, but sometimes I hesitate before I hit send because I don’t want to offend.

Heidi Moore of NPR retweeted this from Courtney Lilly last night after reading tweets about Whitney Houston’s untimely passing, and it was really insightful.

@moorehn If twitter’s good for anything it’s showing us how very few people are actually funny.

— Courtney Lilly (@courtneylilly) February 12, 2012

Lately, people have gotten into hot water because they have tweeted something offensive, rude, tasteless, racist, sexist, homophobic or just plain mean. Most often, the tweet was meant to be a  joke.  Somehow, the 140 characters that Twitter allows seems to be a perfect online outlet for a punchline. The expression, “Brevity is the soul of wit” comes to mind. However, comedy is not easy. There is a set-up. There is context. There is subtext.  Comedians write loads of jokes that fall flat.  The smart thing that many comedians do is write them in a notebook, and later try them out in front of an audience.  The audience for the comedy is niche compared to the internet where an inoffensive joke can cause  a lot of damage.  A dumb tweet can lead to ridicule or worse–, getting suspended or losing a job.

Buzzfeed and Dumbest Tweets are great for aggregating for shameful tweets.  That’s not where you want your tweet to be.

Think twice before you tweet. You are not as funny as you think.

The first time I met Baratunde Thurston was back in 2008.  I think I was invited by Liza Sabater and/or Twanna Hines to have  drinks at a bar in the East Village.  It was an impromptu Black blogger meetup.  I knew he did stand-up comedy, worked at Onion, and most notably was the co-founder of the blog Jack & Jill Politics. Soon after meeting Baratunde, he was popping up everywhere–on my Twitter feed, at parties, and at SXSW.

About two weeks ago, I got a galley copy of Baratunde’s book, How To Be Black, from my friend Rachel. I started reading it immediately.  One of the added benefits of reading How To Be Black in public is the looks that you get when people see the book cover. I can relate to many of the things in the book, especially the chapters on “How To The Black Friend” and “How To Be The Black Employee”.

The book is part about being black, and  part memoir.  I kinda wish there was more memoir.  I am left wondering how did Baratunde make the leap from being a Harvard grad to being a stand-up comedian.  It would be nice to offer more insight on being the Black comedian.  As someone who worked tangentially in stand-up comedy, I know there’s a dirty underbelly to comedy especially when it comes to getting booked and getting paid.  When I read Tina Fey’s Bossypants, I wanted her to share more of the struggle of being a woman in comedy, and Baratunde could have added more as well.  Not as a woman, but as a Black man.  To be fair, I am a wee bit of a comedy geek, and not every reader wants to know how the hot link sausages are made.  Also, it would be a bonus to have a chapter on “How To Be The Black Couple”, but Baratunde is NOT Steve Harvey. Thank God!

How To Be Black is hilarious and very insightful. I highly recommend reading the book if you are Black.  I also recommend reading the book if you are White, but you may want to read it on your Kindle so as to not draw unwanted attention to yourself.

P.S.

I just checked on Amazon, and the book is $12.99 on Kindle and $14.40 Hardcover.  Advantage: People with a  Kindle.

Yesterday, I left New York City,  if only for a day.  I have friends who recently left for faraway places like Hawaii and France, but I went all the WAY up the Hudson to Hyde Park.  Hyde Park is home to the Culinary Institute of America and this past weekend it hosted the Bocuse D’ Or. The Bocuse D’Or USA is a food competition, but nothing like the Bacon Takedown or the Casserole Crazy cookoff.  It is where the top American chefs cook and compete in front a live audience. The winner of the Bocuse d’Or goes on to compete next year in Lyon, France with chefs from all over the world.

Let me set the scene.  I walk into the recreation center with five fellow food bloggers and we are led upstairs to the VIP section where there are delicious croissants from Bridor, coffee from Nespresso and a crepe station manned by CIA student volunteers. BTW, today is Croissant Day! Below us, the bleachers were filled with a boisterous audience as if they were attending a March Madness basketball game.  There were four kitchen stations where the chef were cooking. The music blaring was the best European club music. The event was MC’ed by a very energetic Angela May who kept the crowd cheering for the more than five hours of the competition.  It was amazing to see the work of professional chefs cooking with precision and moving in their tiny kitchens with speed and grace.  I learned something new. I had heard of sous chefs but yesterday I learned what a commis is.  It is a junior chef. The commis who worked the chefs were very skillful and not considered junior by most people other than chefs.

The winner was  Richard Rosendale who is the executive chef of The Greenbrier, which is a luxury resort in West Virginia.  His competitors were Jeffrey Lizotte, Danny Cerqueda and William Bradley.

In the VIP section, we ate well all day including this beef tenderloin that was sou vide with spices including cinnamon and star anise. It was like a mole sauce but it also had Asian flavor. It melted in your mouth!

Thanks to KitchenAid for inviting me to Bocuse d’Or and to Jackie Gordon for facilitating our group of food bloggers. It was fun!

Last night, there was a preview party to for the IACP conference which will be in New York this March 29-April 2nd.  This year’s theme is the Fashion Of Food. It was great to see fellow food bloggers as well as cookbook authors as food makers. Sponsors include Driscolls, Bulldog Gin, Brooklyn Brewery, Jarlsberg Cheese, Jimmy’s No. 43, Voss Water.