Attract new followers and release your inner twit, a la Ashton Kutcher!

You are on Twitter – now what?

You are not Ashton Kutcher, so you don’t automatically get a gazillion followers.

You are not the New York Times, so still no crazy fan following. You are plain ‘ol you – like me.

Here’s how regular folk like you and me can maximize Twitter’s potential.

Max Chafkin writes on Inc.com of the four ways to gain followers:

Get Listed: Create a list, follow a list, whatever. Get listed, get noticed

Follow Others: Follow a bunch of other people – they might be kind enough to reciprocate it. But Chafkin suggests on not going overboard – then that’s the stalker alert.

Talk to people: Instead of being the douche with the constant updates (my words, not Chafkin’s), the author says it helps to retweet – or talk back.  How to do this gracefully? Look for users with common interests and then send them a message. And if someone tries to talk to you, talk back.

Re-tweet: Have nothing interesting to say? Chafkin says “re-tweet” – Find one, copy the message, and send it to your followers with a reference to the original author. (Do this by typing RT and then the @ symbol followed directly by the person’s username.) The author will often pay you back with a reply. And your retweet might just get retweeted — which is confusing, but good.

And if this is all old hat to you, but still feel like you aren’t attracting enough followers – here’s why.

Go forth with this knowledge into the Cyber-universe, attract followers and release your inner Twit. Be the  Twittus Maximus.

David Letterman leaves the Ed Sullivan Theater, in New York City, after a taping of Late Show, July 29, 2009. By Ray Tamarra/Getty Images.

You know the saying – never dip your pen in company ink? No? How about, never crap on your doorstep? No?

Well, you have heard both expressions now and can use it in polite company on what the act of sex does to professional relations. Especially sex with your collegues or superiors. The long and short (haha) of sleeping with someone at work is that a) someone will eventually discover it and b) they will credit your success to sexual favoritism. Mostly though, even though you may be thoroughly enjoying the act, it is thoroughly unprofessional. That is pretty much what one ex-Late Night employee had to say about David Letterman’s affairs at the workplace.

In a piece in Vanity Fair, Nell Scovell writes about the hostile, sexually charged atmosphere at Late Night with David Letterman – the show where she worked briefly as a writer. Scovell said Letterman didn’t ”hit on her” during her roughly five-month stint with the show in 1990.

Without naming names or digging up decades-old dirt, let’s address the pertinent questions. Did Dave hit on me? No. Did he pay me enough extra attention that it was noted by another writer? Yes. Was I aware of rumors that Dave was having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Was I aware that other high-level male employees were having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Did these female staffers have access to information and wield power disproportionate to their job titles? Yes. Did that create a hostile work environment? Yes. Did I believe these female staffers were benefiting professionally from their personal relationships? Yes. Did that make me feel demeaned? Completely. Did I say anything at the time? Sadly, no.

Scovell quit Letterman’s NBC show, because she saw ”I was not going to thrive professionally in that workplace. And although there were various reasons for that, sexual politics did play a major part.”

When Letterman asked why she was leaving the New York-based show, she says she considered telling him the truth but balked because his ”rumored mistress” was within earshot. Instead, Scovell writes, she told him she missed Los Angeles.

”You’re welcome back anytime,” Scovell recalls Letterman telling her.

David Letterman’s sexual dalliances with his co-workers came to light after a CBS News producer Robert J. “Joe” Halderman tried to extort $2 million from Letterman to keep the lid on an affair Letterman was having with Joe’s girlfriend, Stefanie Birkitt. (This sentence is too long.) Letterman still has his job, Halderman pleaded “not guilty” to the extortion charge, and Birkitt is apparently “mortified” by the whole thing.  But more than the sordid affair itself, the Letterman saga brings to light sex at the workplace and how that can horribly distort workplace power and politics.

]]> http://indiejourno.com/2009/10/27/sex-at-the-workplace-ex-letterman-employee-spills-beans/feed/ 0 http://indiejourno.com/2009/10/26/so-much-infidelity-so-little-time/ http://indiejourno.com/2009/10/26/so-much-infidelity-so-little-time/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:16:29 +0000 MajorDomo http://indiejourno.com/?p=319

Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men

So much infidelity, so little time!

On Sunday, ESPN fired baseball analyst and former general manager of the New York Mets, Steve Philips, after he admitted to an affair with a 22 year old production assistant.  ESPN said Philipps ability to be an “effective representative for ESPN has been significantly and irreparably damaged.”  Last week, the New York Post  reported the affair between 22 year old Brooke Hundley, who was also booted by ESPN today and Phillips, creating a nation-wide story and causing a serious problem for ESPN.

The New York Times writes that a letter from Hundley to Phillips wife, Marni, also turned into salacious fodder.

When Phillips was the general manager of the Mets, he was forced to take a leave of absence in 1998 because of a series of affairs and an accusation of sexual harassment by a Mets employee. He entered counseling and returned to the Mets, but was eventually fired in 2003.

In other infidelity news, New York Magazine has a great profile of Late Night host- David Letterman. The article, “ The Devil in David Letterman“  chronicles the time before and after news broke of Letterman’s affair with his personal assistant Stefanie Birkitt. Check out the comments at the bottom of the page and most of the readers’ rage seem to target Birkitt, for cheating on her live-in boyfriend, with whom she was reportedly “over the moon” – with a married man , whom she was “great friends with.” You decide!

Last, but not the least! Mad Men! And perhaps the biggest cad, albeit a fictional one, of all time – Don Draper!

Is it just me, or were other people also rooting for him to be caught with the incredibly annoying and cloyingly sweet Miss. Farell? Honestly, I think no other woman Don has taken up with has annoyed me as much as Miss. Farell – what is with the raging idealism, the long curly hair “no one has anymore” and it’s quite nauseating to see Don, sappy eyed over her! Blechh.  So, I was hoping Miss. Farell would actually walk through the door to check on why Don’s taking so long. No such luck! But if she had done so..Betty would have been done too! No way Jose!

I would rather see more Betty and Don’s dysfunctional, limping “love” than anymore of Sally’s teacher shacking up with Don. I am glad Don got rid of her! Good riddance to idealistic rubbish! Go cynical, self loathing, depressive relationships!

And Roger Sterling, as always, being smooth skinned and brilliant! why don’t they have more of Roger anyways?

Two more episodes to go before the season ends and I can only wonder what’s going to become of Don and Betty

( chewing nails! Sitting on edge of couch, mouth open!)

Here is a preview of next week’s show “The Grownups”

Every newspaper in India has probably seen the success of the NY Times’ blog site. From the The Lede, ArtsBeat and At War, the blogs are rich and diverse in content; frequently updated, with a lot of events being live-blogged. The blogs generate massive page views and feedback for the site.

Thanks to the Times’ online success, India’s largest newspapers and TV channels now have a prominent “Blogs” section on their websites: The Times of India (TOI), Hindustan Times, CNN IBN, Mint, DNA and NDTV all have their “bloggers.”

However, except for the blogs at Times Of India and Mint, the story seems the same everywhere: blog sections are started with great fanfare; lots of noise is made about how that particular channel/newspaper is “connecting with the youth” and the phrase “web 2.0” is tossed around. But, within a few months, all is forgotten.

For example, on the Hindustan Times’ blogs page, everyone seems to be posting exactly once a week. Coincidence? Most definitely not: some poor intern down the line must’ve been assigned the task of putting up their weekly op-ed for print, onto the blog. How does that even qualify as blogging?

CNN IBN is pretty much the same story: opinion pieces written for print are picked up and put on the blogs page, and that too quite irregularly.

TOI.com and Mint’s blog sites have some excellent and rich opinion pieces – but still lack the live updation and frequency that might draw television news viewers to news sites on the internet.

Compare this to the NY Times’ blog page: daily multiple updates on virtually every blog, and very different content from what is seen in print. In fact, it’s easy to spend hours a day just reading updates to the blogs.

Even Time magazine is known for its rich online-only content: The Page and Swampland are two of the best sources of information on the white house.

It is time that Indian media empires understand that the internet is not a broadcast medium like television or print, but an excellent means of offering more value and interacting with readers.

Disclaimer: The writer used to work for The Times of India.