Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

Posted on August 23, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

How Vampires Suck at Social Media

Last week my friend @jeffreylcohen sent me the tweet below about the Who Is the Ultimate Vampire? InfoGraphic via the Yahoo Movies website. The infographic is great and in my opinion bram stoker dracula was the ultimate vampire and one of the best vampire movies ever made. The movie was released in 1992 and it seems that a decade later Hollywood and major networks are obsessed with vampires. From Vampire diaries, True Blood and yes, twilight. Now I think the world are sick and tired of vampire related moves and TV shows. How can you tell? There’s a movie called “Vampire Sucks” mocking all of the other vampire related shows.

For those of you who follow me on twitter know I’m a “vampire” fan if you can ever be such a thing and I have this made up term I use when staying up late at night working on projects between 10:00 P.M. and 2:00 A.M. It’s called #vampiremode. Last year I created a slideshare presentation called How “vampires use social media” just for fun comparing the “lifestyle” or for a better word, behavior of vampires and to social media. With the release of the vampires suck movie and the awesome ultimate vampire inforgraphic, I thought it would be a good idea to re-post it. Take a look below at the How Vampires Use Social Media presentation, the Who Is the Ultimate Vampire? InfoGraphic and the movie trailer for Vampires Suck.

How Vampires Use Social Media Presentation

InfoGraphic: Who Is the Ultimate Vampire?

Via: Yahoo Movies

Vampires Suck Movie Trailer

Are Vampires no longer cool? Did you go see the Vampire Suck movie over the weekend or planning to see it?

Posted on August 11, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Does the World need an Anti-Social Media?

Guest Post by: Jay Dolan, @JayDolan. Jay is the founder, editor, and blogger for The Anti-Social Media blog.

I want you to know a secret: I love social media. When I started The Anti-Social Media, @TheAntiMedia, I choose the name to be different and controversial, not because I have a deep-seated hatred of the social web. I figured the strong title would grab people’s attention and draw them in. It worked. Then Wayne Sutton asked me this question:

Does the world really need an Anti-Social Media?

My little angry blogging bubble popped. Do we need someone to stop and say “This is wrong. Do it this way.” or “This website sucks. Use this one instead.” and even “Do your connections matter?”

I got back from my first vacation since I started my The Anti-Social Media blog, and I can firmly say yes, the world needs an anti-social media.

For all the good that comes from social media, there is an insane amount of crap produced. It’s like owning a car. As awesome as it is to drive around wherever you need to, you still are producing a ton of pollutants by driving it around.

Social media boils down to two things: Information and Entertainment. Amuse or enlighten. If you’re not doing that and being relevant to those who connect with you, what’s the point?

There is so much stuff out there to read and absorb, someone needs to be there to say, “Get your act together.” and “Stop saying, ‘Good Morning!’ every time you get on Twitter before 8 am.” We can use this technology for so much more than the next big marketing campaign or complaining about the terrible barista at Starbucks. We should be better than that.

The world needs an Anti-Social Media if only to make us step away for a moment, so when we look back we can see with much more clarity. There needs to be someone who makes us value each connection rather than jut build a larger and larger number.

On a web that constantly becomes more connected, I’m glad to be the voice of dissent that makes each connection worthwhile. If having my few friends who matter to me makes me anti-social, then I don’t want to know how your 1,000 friends make you social.

Connect with only people who matter to you. Make your content matter. Make sure you inform or entertain. Your numbers may not be as high, and you may seem like a weirdo on your social networks, but being anti-social to the masses will make the handful of connections you keep much more worthwhile.

Posted on July 13, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

11 challenges for social media / technology conference speakers

So…. you want to be a social media conference speaker? Last year when @OurHashtag planned the social media business forum we started receiving tons of submissions via our speaker request form from people all over the USA wanting to speak at our conference. Also as someone who’s been lucky enough to speak at various national and local conferences I often get asked about finding speakers for other conferences. Over the past two years, I’ve seen/experienced both the good and bad sides of speakers at conferences. I’ve seen people get upset and bash others just because they where not chosen or asked to speak.

The question I have for some is why do you want to speak at social media or tech conferences? To show everyone how smart you are? To help build your speaking resume? To get paid for sharing your knowledge? Regardless of what reason you may want to speak at a social media or technology conference, it’s not as easy as some may think. Here’s a list of 12 challenges for social media / technology conference speakers

1. New unique content
The last thing someone wants to hear after paying to hear you speak is a bunch of case studies that you have read from your favorite social media guide that the rest of the world is reading. When speaking at conference be prepared to come with new unique content or at least be entertaining enough so attendees can say they enjoyed your presentation.

2. Peer pressure / expectations
Don’t let the conference organizers over hype you or your presentation. When your times to give your talk the expectations may be to high and the audience is expecting you to wow them with social media case studies and shiny tools that most have heard before.

3. Adding value
This should be goal for every speaker or panelist who would like to speak at a social media conference or any event. Ask yourself how are you adding value to the conference.

4. Real-time critics and feedback
When speaking at social media conferences 9 out 10 times you can guarantee there’s a hashtag or twitter steam flowing somewhere in the background. If you’re sucking or crashing, expect a few angry/mean tweets to show-up in real-time. If you have the opportunity to see the stream during your talk, my advice is get through your presentation as fast as you can, jump to Q&A and write a blog post about what happen afterwards. Also you can try to either send a direct message or public reply to your critics. Most are fine with just a one way bashing but if you approach them some will go as far as deleting tweets or just apologizing.

5. Being always on
It doesn’t matter if you’re sick or had a recent death in the family. iIf you’re speaker at conferences and built a brand for yourself people will approach you and expect you to be same bubble of social media joy you are online. For example, I’m still upset about how I treated a Sony exec who approached me at SXSW 2010 while I was tired as heck. Not from drinking because I don’t drink but just tired. I was headed to the bloggers lounge and she walked over to me and said hello. I wasn’t mean or anything but was a little down. I don’t think she was too happy with my reactions and since then I have yet to hear from here even after reaching out a few times. If you’re reading this… I’m sorry.

6. Your quotes last forever
Be careful what you tweet is a motto of mine but when speaking at conferences be careful what you say. Audience attendees are trigger happy with their laptops and smart-phones ready to tweet a quote from your session. If you say the wrong thing it could be game over and stored in Google and quoted in recap blog post for life.

7. Getting paid for your knowledge
With so many people talking about social media today you’ll think everyone is an expert. The truth is there are no real experts, some just have more experience than others. Regardless you’ll find tons of people who are willing to speak for free at social media conference therefore set your price but be willing to negotiate.

8. Budgeting
You’re now getting paid to speak at a social media conference, your travel and hotel stay is covered. But don’t forget about food, taxi, parties and other miscellaneous charges. Especially if you travel to Las Vegas where everything cost almost as twice as much than any other location.

9. Preparation for the target audience
Make sure you ask the right questions to the conference organizer such as, who is the target audience for the event / session. Most will tell you marketers and agencies but that’s like saying everyone who’s trying to make money using twitter and facebook. If you have the opportunity, reach out to the local community for more information about the attendees if your speaking at an conference in a new city or ask the organizers for a list of companies represented from the registration list so you can be prepare your presentation for the right audience.

10. Winging it
Winging it is a term used by speakers when they wait to the last minute to prep for a talk or they’re speaking off the top of their heads. It’s something I think a few are proud to say afterwards, especially if they did nailed their talk. I’ve seen both professional speakers and newbies attempt to “wing it” but it’s not recommended. You audience deserves better if they come to hear you speak.

11. Dress code
You can almost guarantee that if you’re speaking at a social media conference someone is going to take your picture. With that being said the last thing you want is a ton of flickr photos tagged of you at various events with the same outfit on. Pull out the credit card and start shopping for your social media conference wardrobe.

So, do you still want to be a social media conference speaker?

If you’re currently a speaker what are some of the challenges that you have faced over the years?

Posted on July 12, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Thank You!

This past Thursday, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of teenagers at SAS on social media and personal branding online. The kids were either in high school or college and taking part in the SAS summer internship program. I was invited by SAS’s social media manager and friend David B. Thomas (@DavidBThomas). David also spoke about how SAS uses social media and their social media policy.

Prior to the event David and I used @GoogleWave to collaborate on the agenda to make sure we provide value to the session. We really wanted to give the kids action items, along with showing examples of how they can use social media tools for career development / advancement.

As I prepared my presentation I didn’t want to give the general this is how to use social media media examples or case studies being the audience were kids and knowing how the session could go a few ways. It could be interactive and fun or boring or just blah. Therefore I decided to go with the somewhat fun / interesting approach and show a few opportunities I have been lucky enough to participate in that past few years due to what some would call my brand, social media/ online footprint which includes my blog here, @twitter accounts, @facebook and @linkedin profiles. Many you can see on the right sidebar.

While giving the presentation I looked at the eyes of some of the kids. Some where impressed, others were like just finish already and I think a few found it very interesting some of the places I’ve been and opportunities I’ve had because of my online presence. It also was a time of self reflection and a time of gratitude knowing that without any of my blog readers, @twitter followers, @facebook fans/likes or people who have shared any content I’ve published a lot of those opportunities may never happened. With that being said I want to say Thank you! Also a big thanks to SAS and David for for opportunity to speak.

To read a review about the SAS session see: My Summer at SAS: Social media essentials for students and new grads by @stacemiiister

Also read: The Two Most Important Words in Social Media by @JayDolan

Flickr Thank You photo by: bandita I’m not sure who is Marisa is but I thought it was a nice photo.

Have a great day!

Posted on July 7, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

LeBron James joins Twitter but skips social media to make his decision announcement for ESPN

Yes another LeBron James twitter decision post but I’ll promise to keep it short. Over the weekend I wrote a post about how the Tornoto Raptors @Raptors were upset about some of @ChrisBosh tweets and how it could cost him millions. In the post I also stated how it would be nice if LeBron James joined @Twitter and tweeted his decision announcement instead of a traditional TV/media press event.

Well fast forward two days and LeBron James has officially joined Twitter as @KingJames thanks to his friend Chris Paul who tweets as @oneandonlycp3. I was a little surprised and was hopefully thinking that @KingJames would tweet his decision just so I could say I called it but but LeBron being the business man that he is, decided to call his friends at @ESPN to host a special show on Thursday to announce if he is going to re-sign with the Cleveland @cavs or another team such as the Chicago Bulls @chicagobulls or New York Knicks @thenyknicks or the NJ Nets @netsbasketball. I’m guessing it has to be either @netsbasketball or @thenyknicks because I don’t think LeBron would have a special event if he was just going to re-sign with the @cavs. But the entire @cavs organization has gone @twitter crazy with @CavalierGirls and @CavsScreamTeam accounts, so you never know.

Although LeBron has decided not to tweet his decision, @ajv over at vaynermedia.com thinks it would be cool if LeBron followed the team on twitter to make his announcement. I’m sure @Garyvee and team would love it if @kingjames joined @netsbasketball being that @netsbasketball is a client of @vaynermedia.

One tweet that LeBron did send to his followers was to visit his website ( http://lebronjames.com ) for updates, which is something I did suggest. Although using @Twitter for making announcements sounds great and it’s a big deal for @Twitter to have @KingJames tweeting at this time in his career. LeBron decided that he could use his brand and ESPN to make his decision and raise money for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Now my question is, even though working with ESPN and their sponsors may have been the easiest way to accomplish this for camp LeBron, couldn’t they have used social media to host a one hour decision show too? Think about it, a live video show with guest and kids from his camp, have people to call or text to raise money and at the end of the show LeBron would make his announcement. Also we could see LeBron actually tweeting from the live show. Just a thought….

What are your thoughts on the LeBron decision TV show idea vs him using social media to make his announcement? Are you ready for him to pick just a team already?

Posted on July 1, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

7 blogs you should read if you really want to learn about Social Media

Posted on July 1, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

My Social Media Day Fail. Sorry that I am human. #smday

Yes was not the best day I’ve had in my life nor was it the worse but it wasn’t one I wanted to write home to mom about either. It started off well, I was in a good mood. I responded to some emails, did some client work, wrote a blog post about my awesome NC friends who are making moves in Social Media. Then I had lunch at Golden Corral @GC_Cary with @TriOut sales manager Gregg Morris @greggvm as it was the last day for their 1/2 off check-in special. After that I had another meeting and a few places to attend.

Oh yeah, yesterday was Social Media Day, June 30 and I was planning to attend the Raleigh Social Media Day event. It was being planned by Niki Staehle @marketing_grrl. I was one of the first to sign-up to say I wanted to attend and somewhere along the line the Raleigh Social Media day event went from being a social like a lot of the other Social Media Day events to an event with presentations and was moved to Lillington, NC at ampbell University Lundy-Fetterman @campbelledu, about an 45 minute drive from Raleigh. Nevertheless I’m was planning to attend and speak to talk about location-based marketing. I was looking forward to the meetup as I’ve never been to Lillington or Campbell University before.

After I wrapped up my daytime plans, I came home to prep a little for the Social Media Day presentation. But then things started to go down hill from there. A major headache came, I wasn’t feeling well, my energy level went form an 8 to a 4. On top of that team @TriOut confirmed we were going to launch our TriOut For business platform today. I sat down for a short break and said I can do this. But after the break, I was still feeling like crap and decided to send @marketing_grrl a Facebook message saying I couldn’t attend around 5:00 P.M. The meetup started at 8:00 P.M.

It really upset me to send the message and if anyone who knows me, especially in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area knows that I have no problem driving to a meetup whether it’s an hour away or not. I have even attended two meetups in one night before. Regardless, I didn’t attend this one or any of the other Social Media Day events. To Niki great job planning the event, from the looks of it, it was one of the most attended Social Media Day meetups in NC. I extremely apologize for not attending but the way I was feeling along with other projects, I’m not sure how well I would have done at presenting and if I would have attended, I would have did my presentation and left right afterwards.

Later in the evening before calling it a night, I checked @Twitter and read two tweets about me not attending. One was from @redmetlabox and the other from @sengland. I’m not sure if I’ve met the @redmetalbox before but I think I’ve met @sengland at a recent WordCamp. Regardless one tweet was about me not attending and having a question prepared to ask. The other was saying they were disappointed and I let them down big time. To the both of you, again I’m sorry. As I stated earlier, yesterday wasn’t the best day in the world. Maybe to many #vampiremode nights. Regardless I did not want to back out of the Social Media day event and, I was asked to attend a few more events and didn’t attend those either. If I could make it up to you both I would or just let me know.

I’m not sure what the over all expectations of the event were or how the conversations went that evening about me not attending. Regardless, it was Social Media Day so I hope everyone focused on Social Media. Either way if Campbell University would like to have an event or host a meetup to discuss Social Media, I’ll make up for it, just let me know.

To Niki Staehle @marketing_grrl great job planning the Raleigh Social Media Day meetup. I hate letting people down and not attending the meetup. Sorry that I am human.

Posted on June 30, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Where are they now? 14+ Social Media Professionals to watch for in 2010 from Triangle, NC area #smday

Happy Social Media Day everyone. If you don’t know what Social Media Day is, it’s day to celebrate the revolution of media becoming social according to @Mashable. Mashable partnered with Meetup.com when they launched their everywhere platform to celebrate Social Media Day by attending or organizing a meetup on June 30. As of right now there are over seven Social Media Day events planned in North Carolina.

Being that it’s social media day and the last day of June, I thought it would be a good time to update my list of 14 Social Media Professionals to watch in 2010 from the Triangle, NC that wrote back in January. From the list of social media pros, a few have made some big changes since January, some are still crushing it and there are a few additions to the list.

Here’s the updated list of social media professionals in the Triangle Area who I believe are ones to watch in 2010 at the half way mark.

UPDATE: This list is NOT ranked in any order by their social media activity, it’s just a numbered list.

1. David Thomas
Title: Social Media Manager for SAS
Twitter: @DavidBThomas
Website: http://blogs.sas.com/socialmedia/
6 month Update: Still crushing it at SAS and helped SAS launch their Social Media Analytics platform in April.

2. Nathan Gilliatt
Title: Principal, Social Target and organizer of AnalyticsCamp
Twitter: @gilliatt
Website: http://net-savvy.com/executive/
6 month Update: Still crushing it!

3. Ginny Skalski
Title: Social Media Specialist for Cree
Twitter: @ginnyskal
Website: http://ginnyskal.com/
6 month Update: Still crushing it and doing some awesome adventures in the Triangle, check out TheFarmersMarketProject.com.

4. Morgan Siem
Title: Social Media Strategist at Media Two Interactive
Twitter: @morgansiem
Website: http://www.mediatwopointoh.com/
6 month Update: Still crushing it!

5. Adam Covati
Title: CoFounder of Argyle Social and Founder of http://idek.net
Twitter: @Covati
Website: http://adamcovati.com/
6 month Update: Launched Argyle Social a social media marketing platform that helps marketers link social media efforts (blogging, Twittering, Facebooking, etc.) to business outcomes.

6. Angela Connor
Title: Author of ’18 Rules of Community Engagement.’ Online community manager and strategist at WRAL
Twitter: @communitygirl
Website: http://blog.angelaconnor.com
6 month Update: Has a new job as the Social Media Manager at @Capstrat

7. Catherine Mears
Title: Social Media Specialist at AICPA
Twitter: @catmears
Website: http://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinemears
6 month Update: Still crushing it!

8. Dan London
Title: Director of Online Marketing @ ShareFile.com
Twitter: @Danlondon
Website: http://www.dan-london.com
6 month Update: Still crushing it!

9. Phil Buckley
Title: Support Developer at McClatchy Interactive
Twitter: @1918
Website: http://www.1918.com/
6 month Update: Has a new job as the Search Marketing Manager at Sinclair Institite

10. Karlie Justus
Title: PR/ Social Media Officer with N.C. State Fair & NC Dept. of Agriculture.
Twitter: @KarlieJ
Website: http://www.karliejustus.com/
6 month Update: Launched new blog, guest post on Socialmediab2b.com and now works as Associate Account Executive at Howard, Merrell and Partners.

11. Olalah Njenga
Title: Marketing Strategist at the YellowWood Group
Twitter: @Olalah
Website: http://www.yellowwoodgroup.com
6 month Update: Wrote a book called: 37 What Were They Thinking Moments In Marketing [not an affiliate link but it should be]

12. Gregory NG
Title: VP Creative Director at Brooks Bell Interactive.
Twitter: @gregoryng
Website: http://www.followgreg.com/
6 month Update: [ Still being awesome and his online video show Freezerburns recently joined the Hungry Nation network.

13. Brian McDonald
Title: Vice President of Marketing & Social Media at SignalShare
Twitter: @bmcd67
Website: http://zen-marketing.blogspot.com
6 month Update: Still crushing it!

14. Andy Beal
Title: Founder of Trackur.com, author of Radically Transparent, editor of MarketingPilgrim.com
Twitter: @Andybeal
Website: http://www.andybeal.com
6 month Update: Relaunched Trackur with a new look and new features as a white-Labeled social Media monitoring dashboard. I’m still expecting Trackur to be purchased by the end of 2010.

15. Chris Moody
Title: Social Marketing Manager at Bandwidth.com
Twitter: @cnmoody
Website: http://www.chris-moody.com
6 month Update: Still crushing it!

New half way point additions:
16. Lisa Sullivan
Title: Copywriter & Social Media Specialist at Media Two Interactive.
Twitter: @LisaSullivan
Website: http://www.mediatwopointoh.com/

17. Cara Rousseau
Title: Director, Partnership Initiatives, The Research Triangle Park
Twitter: @CaraRousseau
Website: http://www.thertpblog.org

18. Jeffrey L. Cohen
Title: Social Media Marketing Manager at Howard, Merrell & Partners
Twitter: @jeffreylcohen
Website: http://jeffreylcohen.com
*Partner/friend was on the first list but in the friends mentions section

19. Ryan Boyles
Title: Community Manager at IBM
Twitter: @therab
Website: http://flavors.me/rab
*Partner/friend was on the first list but in the friends mentions section.

20. Jason Peck
Title: Social media manager at @eWayDirect.
Twitter: @JasonPeck
Website: http://www.jasonfpeck.com/
*Jason should have been on the list the first time but I knew he was moving so I left him off but he’s a NC alum and doing great work with eWayDirect.

21. Kipp Bodnar
Title: Inbound Marketing Manager at @HubSpot
Twitter: @kbodnar32
Website: http://socialmediab2b.com/
*As many of you know Kipp is one my good friends and partners. He recently took a job at @HubSpot and said goodbye to NC but we still claim him anyway.

22. James Wong
Title: Communications Manager at iContact
Webiste:http://www.NauticalUrge.com
*Late addition but should have been on the first list. James knows email marketing and more.

Bonus!
Jay Dolan
Title: Jay Dolan is founder, editor, and blogger for The Anti-Social Media.
Twitter: @jaydolan
Website: http://theantisocialmedia.com
*If you’re tired of social media… read this blog*

Ignite Social Media and MMI Public Relations are two companies that I didn’t mention in the first post that offer social media services in the Triangle Area. Both have a great staff and if you’re looking for more social media professional both of the companies have hired smart.

Please note, I do know all of the individuals on the list and this not a buddy list or a list by the numbers of their twitter followers or etc. It’s a list of professionals from various companies in the Triangle who I believe will have an impact locally and nationally in the social media space. If you’re on the list, don’t let me down.

As for me, at the beginning of the year I gave the agency world a try and since then I’ve left to pursue my entrepreneur dreams and now working the location-based startup @TriOut, an augmented reality company that I’ll share more about later, along with speaking engagements and offering consulting services.

It’s been a great 2010 so far and let’s hope the next six months will be awesome for everyone and more.

What are your thoughts on the list and/or who did I leave off and why? Who do you think will be on or off the list by the end of 2010?

Photo: Social Media Participation Chart by Oversocialized

Posted on June 24, 2010 - by carleemallard

iPhone 4 Launch Day at Crabtree Valley Mall (Raleigh)

Guest post by: carleemallard

Although the mall apparently had been open all night for people to start lining up at the Apple store’s front doors, I arrived at Crabtree bright and early at 5:00am, thinking that the mall wouldn’t open until 5:30am. To my surprise, we found two separate lines forming, one for those with iPhones reserved and another for those without a reservation. There were only about 50 people in the reservation line by the time we arrived at 5am, but unfortunately we found ourselves behind at least 150 others without reservations.

As early as it was, people were generally in good spirits and playing nice. Some were still sleeping from the overnight camp while others took the time to catch up on their laptops or iPads even though the reception and WiFi service was pretty slow. One person even brought his guitar and played it in the beach chair he brought. Everyone slowly started making friends with their neighbors in line knowing that they may be in it for the long haul.

Around 6:15am a few Apple employees brought out 10 dozen or so Dunkin Donuts to feed the early morning crowd. A good sign of things to come!

Anticipation grew as 7:00am neared. A few minutes before 7am, employees took down the black curtain that prevented us from getting a sneak peak into the preparation for all the madness that was about to ensue and the crowd cheered for the first time.

Immediately after the curtain fell (at 7:00am on the dot), 20 or so Apple employees came rushing out of the service door, running, screaming, and high-fiving everyone in line. We were all surprised, but it seemed like a great way to get the started!

Minutes later the doors finally opened at Apple and they started letting in about 10 people from the reservation line for every 1 person in the regular line. Needless to say, the reservation line moved pretty quickly for the first few hours while us in the regular line sat in the same place (only moving perhaps a foot an hour) for those first few hours.

But around 11am we at the middle/back of the non-reservation line started heering loud mysterious cheers from the front of our line. Ended up they were just cheering every time someone from our line got to enter the Apple store, approximately every 10-15 minutes. It was pretty motivating, to say the least. After being there for 6+ hours I think Apple realized they needed to keep us customers still in line motivated as well. They started going down the line handing out packs of pretzels and Ritz crackers, bottles of water, and then all sorts of candy just as if it were Halloween.

Not only that, but just around lunch time, Subway staff came around passing out mini ham & turkey subs! Lunch? Really? Amazing. Then more candy. Then more water. Followed by Lindt chocolate passing out those little chocolates to anyone who wanted some. In the late afternoon Bare Essentials even passed out free makeup samples to all the girls. This line wasn’t actually half bad, huh?

The line was moving about 5 minutes per person in line. I calculated I wouldn’t get into the store until 4:00pm at the earliest, but I stayed optimistic that perhaps it would start moving more quickly. By 3:00 I could start feeling the finish line as there were only 40-50 people ahead of me to go. We stayed energized by our new friends that we had just gotten to know over the past 10 hours. It was as if we’d known these people for months. We were never bored, but still eager to get through the line and back to our lives.

But then something amazing happened. A young man approached us in line asking how long we’d been waiting here in line (this was typical as all the regular mall-goers had been asking all day what we were

waiting in line for). When we told him since 5am, he told us that he worked over at Best Buy mobile and had a reservation for one of the 16GB iPhones cancel and he was offering it to me. Pure luck? An act of God? Either way, I left my place in line and followed “God” to his Best Buy mobile store and promptly paid for, activated, accessorized, and left the store with my new iPhone 4 in hand.

Upon leaving the mall I walked past my new friends who were still waiting in line and showed off my new gear.

They probably waited in line for another hour. Sorry Apple, you treated me really really well for those 11 hours, but in the end Best Buy mobile man saved the day!