@Chrisbrogan's speech at Likeminds last friday was very insightful to have witnessed in person (please see previous blog post for more on my trip to Likeminds). However, I have just watched the video of it again on his blog only to gain yet more insight.

It is strange the aspects you may miss the first time round but the second time I really tried to understand what Chris was trying to communicate about running successful social media campaigns.

In my mind it was all about being a human being and making others feel special. If you do not have this all the marketing, IT, online, social media knowledge in the world will not be enough to compensate for it.

Being human is not something you learn or have to study to be but it is something you have. It is amazing the amount of people in business and society at large have lost touch with this. Often people buy into the social role they play and think that is all they are.

In fact maybe you do not have to be human. My friend has a dog and she is a little over-enthusiastic to say the least! What she does do very well however, is pick up on people's emotions around here very well. She is very responsive to these and because of this she makes the people around her feel special.

I had a really wacky thought! If it was possible to train a dog to do social media campaigns she would probably be quite good at them!

Anyway going back to Chris Brogan... It is great to have high-profile people like him to remind us of the basic fact of human connectedness. We definitely need more of it!

As the year draws to a close there has been time for much festive cheer but it is also a time for reflection. Think of this post as kind of like a flash-back episode on a TV show.

In the spirit of this I decided to put together a list of the top 10 posts from this blog as chosen by you, the readers. In order to do this I have used some background web stats on number of views as well average time people spent each blog post. So without further ado here it is! Enjoy!

1. The 7 Chakras of TweetZen - A fun piece on the emerging existence of Twitter Spirituality (in my humble opinion!). I have a fair few retweets on this one so I will take that as good karma!
   
2. Lost in Social Media Mayhem - The world of social media can be tricky and confusing but there is light at the end of the tunnel!
3. 10 Unemployment Survival Strategies - Over the last year there are many that have experienced unemployment and this is a very challenging time for the soul.
   
4. Google and Microsoft Take Potshots At Each Other - Online business world has been compare to the 'wild west' and this is certainly not and understatement
5. Bada Bing - Nothing to do with Microsoft search engine but something I wrote at the beginning of the year about my love of the TV show The Sopranos. It is a surprise entry in this list.
6. Postcard from Palestine - A fantastic post from Ben Khanna about his experiences in the holy land
7. Arabian Nights.... Dubai Style - Dubai is city I never forgot when I visited it. If you are going yourself give this a read for sure. It includes a video of our expedition through the desert.
8. Is It A Case Of To Little To Late For Mr Murdoch - The way consume news and share information is changing with Internet. Murdoch wants to charge for online news content. We will see in 2010 how successful this is.
9. Has Notting Hill Carnival Lost It? - This is written by guest blogger Nadia Auckburally on how she thinks London's Notting Hill Carnival may be losing the original Carnival spirit.
   
10. Asperger's Syndrome/Autism - Disability or Special Ability - A piece on differing perspectives on Asperger's and Autism. This is especially poignant with the Gary McKinnon case and his possible extradition to the US.