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Sean D – Page 6 – Instant Sean

Author: Sean D

Quotes are meaningless unless…

If you take a look at Twitter at any time of the day, you can always find someone tweeting a quote. I don’t have a problem with the quote, but expand upon the quote, tell me why that quote is important to you, and when your account is nothing but links to other social media articles and quotes but no reason for me to follow you, you get a quick unfollow.

That is the problem with chasing a number. Social Media “experts” have to chase the followers and scores that give them notoriety which allows them to be invited to speak and be considered an expert. But are they really an expert? Probably not in my opinion because they are just a manufactured number given to them by a flawed system. Anyone can buy followers, and get reaction with paid sponsored tweets. The internet continues to move on, and you can’t just sit on your laurels celebrating your 75+ Klout score with 100k of followers.

I have 400 followers and try to respond to every message that I get back. Now imagine if you are someone who has a large amount of followers. You have to feed the beast and if you don’t it all crumbles. The world continues to spin, and with each day quality content is demanded by users. If you aren’t putting compelling content on your site, your followers and clicks disappear. Don’t give your fans an excuse to leave. Tell them a story so they may stay awhile.

[1]

When the poker boom of the turn of the 21^st century began, I was part of a group of bloggers that played poker, blogged about poker and couldn’t get enough content about poker from each other. From 2003 to 2011 this group of players were creating content, blogs, videos, podcasts, live broadcasts and poker players ate it up. Sponsorships and money flowed to users.

Then Black Friday happened[2] and poker as a fun gathering shriveled up. The weekly gatherings online were gone, and all of the content provided by these players disappeared.

Content was created because of a common love and gatherings of these players, friends, compatriots still occur, but the websites where content flowed are now like graveyards[3] of old airplanes.

The passion that hundreds of thousands of players had died on Black Friday, and poker media with it. Friends of mine watched as they sponsorships disappeared and the people who used to shill for sites went back to their lives.

This is just an example of the content explosion and implosion that happens daily with different groups around the world. All it takes is one event to change the pattern of how a group’s dynamics change forever.

So my friends, don’t give me just quotes, tell me why that quote has meaning. Make me feel like I am an insider into your life. Tell me a story where I find out more about you and enrich our relationship. Give me a reason to give you that retweet and you shall get it.

Because if you just give me a quote, it makes an unfollow so much easier to give you.

[1] Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Scheinberg ,the unsealing of the indictment on April 15, 2011 killed online poker in the US.

[3] http://www.dtra.mil/press_resources/photo_libra

July 24, 2015
Would you like some cheese with that WHINE?

I’ve held my words these last couple of days. I’ve tried to be the better man.

But in the immortal words of Popeye… “That’s all I can stands, cuz I can’t stands n’more”

Stop complaining people. Yup, I said it. If you have a problem with something, don’t complain, offer to help.

I have been told of several people who would like to complain about the 4th on Broadway parade, street fair and fireworks today. I would like to reserve this place for such bitching.

I will take the comments and requests up to the 4th on Broadway Committee when we next meet.

Please remember the following: 4oB is volunteer driven. most, if not all of the problems that you may have experienced were due to the errors of other individuals and not of 4oB.

I will accept all flames here.

I accept them and then will reply to your flame with an invitation to be a volunteer next year.

My wife and I will be co-chairing the parade next year and unlike the under 33 days I had to prepare with no previous experience with a week taken away, since i was out of town getting my teenage kids, we will spend the next year trying to make the parade even better.

Please have the guts not to leave anonymous emails and messages at my work unlike some people who have done so since Saturday.

Have the guts to sign your name to your complaints, then help us make it better next year.

I believe in the volunteers and in our city! Do you have the fortitude to back up your words? I do, will you?

I have the guts to be proud of the volunteers of 4th on Broadway cause they were too few. I have the guts to say that a bunch of people cussed my wife out because she told them to back up and they didn’t.

Some people will say that “parade marshals” will stop people from coming onto the road.

I have a better idea, let’s try this out for size. Parents should take responsibility for their children instead of letting them run out into the streets. People hate change, but we as a city need to change.

How about one suggestion, that I heard, no candy throwing at all? Or would people complain about that too?

I love this city so much, but people complaining about the parade are the reason why this city can’t have nice things.

You want to complain… down below is where you do it.

This is my opinion and not of Alpha Media, our sponsors, 4th on Broadway or of anyone else but me.

July 8, 2015
Origin story of my public twitter handle… InstantTragedy

Q: What is the background of your online name… InstantTragedy?

So I have tried to keep an optimistic attitude toward everything that changed after my wife of six years left me. I became a very bitter man. I did not understand the bad luck and fortune that had started to accompany me. I saw not the good in life but the more realistic in life. I saw the homeless that I had once pitied as someone that I could be. I saw the negative in anything. I had let my divorce affect who I was and what I saw in life.

That was a tragedy.

When I was at work one day I was reminded of a band that I had managed or saw named Tragedy, which played in Lubbock a long time ago. We were having all sorts of problems on the (WORK COMPUTER SYSTEM) and we were waiting for AV Tech support to call back.

Then it started to rain.

It was the beginning of a long day, and I told “Ah Instant Tragedy: Just Add Water” and a co-worker started to laugh asking me where that came from. “This is like some bad dream, some instant meal where all you do is add water and POOF, it’s done”.

So when I decided to go online playing poker I wanted to have fun and Instant Tragedy was born.

InstantTragedy is where I can be gonzo fun and not care about the consequences. I am a performer for a radio group and my life is truly never private. However I have a private Twitter handle / Facebook account where only the elite of elite ever gets to see behind the curtain. If anyone in the public asks, my handle is InstantTragedy. If people want to know the real me I’m @SeanADonahue , but the line is long for people to enter and I just don’t feel like moving the rope line yet.

For if I don’t understand where I have been, I will never truly know where I am going.

So @Ginaschreck that’s how I got my name.

What’s one fact about you that nobody would know about you but would find interesting.

I’m waiting…

June 20, 2015
Hold for Weddingapocalypse

I just finished the opening chapter of “Weddingapocalypse – why you should elope”. Here is a couple of paragraphs. Enjoy :
I could tell you this story is all true, but you would never believe me. I could tell you about one friend who drove from Texas to Connecticut to end up getting a haircut, another who decided he was married to video game consoles or the ashtray that stood in for a friend who was underage and couldn’t get into the titty bar. But instead, I’ll tell you about all of them in a romping good time. If you will give me a moment, I’ll tell you about the most miserable experience a man could ever have at a wedding. No, it wasn’t my wedding, but I had the misfortune of being the best man to the Weddingapocalypse. Let me set the stage:

Her name was Brittany and she was from a small East Texas farming town, where Friday’s were reserved for drinking and screwing.

She had to get the hell outta there. But she needed a nose job and a set of boobs before any of the frat daddies at State Tech would look her up.

Brittany was looking to be a trophy wife, but she had to work on the trophy first.

“This morning, little dog woke me up by wearing my swimsuit bottoms… on his head.”

May 31, 2015
The VIP

You see it in the world every day, VIP. It means Very Important Person? What makes a VIP? Is it wealth, position, fame?

I think, in this day and time, the word VIP has truly lost its meaning. It is the gold rope in which people used to separate the haves and the have-nots, but why?

Why are we forcing this separation?

One of the most successful airlines Southwest Airlines has NEVER gone bankrupt. In a competitive business model Southwest Airlines in 1998 was responsible for 3.4 Billion dollars in savings to passengers (1). Does Southwest have a VIP section? First Class? No, every seat has the potential for selection by any of Southwest’s passengers. Does Southwest offer business travelers the chance to get to the top of the line, why yes, they do. But not for an obscene amount, a simple $16 “business select fee” may be purchased to improve your place in line and other benefits such as VIP line for security. From someone who has traveled a lot in my life, I truly enjoy the benefits of being a VIP. But the seats are the same from the front row to the back row. There is not a noticeable difference if you are flying alone. I still may have to fly with the crying baby next to me or the passenger who should have paid for two seats but didn’t. In this case a VIP isn’t a VIP.

Concert promoters love the VIP concept, “it’s probably the biggest negotiation in any tour deal,” said Randy Phillips, the chief executive of AEG Live, promoter of the Bon Jovi tour. “On a hot act you can make as much money from 10 percent of the house as the other 90. (2)” Concert promoters use the exclusivity of the package to push the packages that can range from $350 for a Justin Bieber sound check VIP package all the way to the gold star of VIP packages with Bon Jovi which includes a takeaway chair, leather bag and catered meal. Now you might think that a package like this would include a meet & greet with a picture with the band. It is not included, even at the price of $1,875 a ticket.

So is VIP really a very important person, or a person who has the disposable income to afford these packages? People throw the VIP “brand” up everywhere. To everyday people VIP is important. It is a status symbol. “Oh, you are a VIP that sounds so cool.” But VIP is a toss away line. It is totally meaningless. I can throw on a pass that says VIP and ALL ACCESS to any event, but it is barely worth the paper it is printed on. VIP time is now being traded, money for experiences. People that want to separate us, throw the VIP phrase up to fool us. Now we can debate the right or wrong of this concept, but it has no value.

We have to put the term in its real perspective. In the days of old, VIP meant VERY IMPORTANT PERSON, something that would put images of movie stars, politicians and rich people with influence could have.

You are a VIP, I am a VIP. We are all VIP’s. All that matters is the perspective that we see it in.

When a person asks for your help, they are asking for you to treat them like a VIP. They want your undivided attention, the exclusives that you can give them with complete focus on their needs. Give it to them; get your client EVERYTHING that they ask for. There is no VIP for the cheap seats. Nobody wants to pay big bucks for “obstructed view”. So give your clients everything, find the thing that they have spent years looking for. Then charge them out the ass for it. Because being a VIP now is expensive.

Be a VIP, look for people who can help you and give them your business. Make them do the hard work for you, pay them well and look for the next challenge.

A VIP is anyone. You just have to see everyone as your next star.

(1) Morrison, Steven A. “Actual, adjacent, and potential competition: Estimating the full effect of Southwest Airlines.” Journal of Transport Economics and Policy (2001): 239-256.

(2) Sisario, Ben. “A Front-Row Seat, to Go? Rock Fans Pay for Perks.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 May 2010. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/arts/music/23VIP.html?_r=0>.

April 21, 2015