Update Feb 2010: For those who think I’m pulling their leg on the “no special way” to get your handle “use the support ticket system”, here is @kim’s take on it, giving you the same advice

Note: By the way – Utterli as a service is having problems. If I can ever figure out how to download the videos I made, I will do that so I can just upload them here and they won’t keep disappearing willy nilly. This one is an Utterli video that comes and goes. I’ve been making future videos in Viddler. It’s more stable. however, check back for this one if you haven’t seen it yet, it seems to appear off and on.

(if you follow me on Twitter, you will see this twice – once direct from Utterli and once from the blog)

(those on Twitter will get this auto posted twice – once from Utterli and once from the blog)

Here is a link to Mark’s post I mentioned. Worth a read to grasp some of the potential misapplications of the retweet button as it stands today.

I neglected to mention another great post on the implications of the flawed implementation of the RT button, by Alex Howard. It is another recommended read on the issue.

Most of us make contracts on a daily basis without even knowing it.  If that mooching friend of yours says, “Can I bum a cigarette, and I’ll get you back when I buy my next pack,” she’s making an offer.  If you give in once again to her moochiness, you just accepted her offer and made a contract.  It’s that easy.

In social media, many of the offers that are made, accepted or rejected are communicated by way of the tools we use so very often, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.  Just because it involves a keyboard and Twitter, not pen and paper, does not mean that the deals you make aren’t valid.

So, as you probably know by now if you are reading this post, there are but three types of tweets: general tweets, tweets to others that can be seen by all, and direct messages visible only to parties between whom the messages are being exchanged.  I will briefly highlight how each of these forms can be construed as an offer or acceptance.

GENERAL TWEETS:

Generally speaking, a tweet that is directed to no one cannot be construed as an offer.  In contracts, there are basically three broad categories under which contracts fall: sale of goods, sale of property, and services.

While the ins and outs of how offers are made and accepted differ between these three categories, all you need to know is that there’s really only one way a general tweet to the world can be construed as an offer, and that is if you, in a clear, definite and explicit manner, leaving nothing open to further negotiation, make known your position to render service or exchange goods.  This is akin to an advertisement, which in most cases is not binding for the reasons stated previously.

If you tweet, “selling my unlocked iPhone 3Gs for cheap because #AT&T blows, DM me if interested,” you haven’t made an offer that someone can just accept, forever locking you into selling your iPhone.  You’ve merely advertised your intent to negotiate or barter.  However, if you were to say, “I have 1 iPhone 3GS new, still in original packaging, and I will sell for $99 U.S. to the first person who DMs me before 4pm” you have made an offer.  The first person to comply with that offer in accordance with your terms has rightfully accepted, and you can kiss your iPhone goodbye (at least legally).

Point is, you don’t really have to worry about your general tweets being construed as binding offers unless you are so clear that nothing would be left open to negotiation if someone complied with your terms.

TWEETS TO OTHERS/DIRECT MESSAGING:

This is where the bulk of your contracting is likely to take place.  Unlike general tweets, when you extend an offer to someone or a group of people specifically, your offer is significantly more viable, and can be taken more seriously by the person(s) to whom you extend your tweet.  We’re no longer in the realm of advertisements, kiddies.

Let’s say you notice that a fellow blogger or social media personality tweet that she really could use a hand improving her site design.  Proud of yourself for remembering that her tweet doesn’t constitute an offer, you reply “hey @_____, I like some of your design elements; check out some of my work (insert link to work).”

If all goes to plan, for argument’s sake let’s say she sends you a direct message saying, “Let’s talk shop…what would your rate be for the redesign?”  This, too, is not an offer.  It functions more as a price inquiry.  If you respond in a way that reflects your intent to render your services to her, perhaps saying, “I think I could do the whole project for $1,000 start to finish,” that IS an offer.

At this point, things get a little sticky with the law.  Though there are quite a few rules on the issue, unless you revoke the offer directly or indirectly, she then has the right to accept your offer.  The exact wording isn’t so important, so long as she makes clear her intent to reasonably accept your offer.  If she does, you have a contract.

If you’re thinking that you can play off your offer and her acceptance like it was meant to be a joke, or that you weren’t serious, think again: in the good old days, the “meeting of the minds,” or each party’s intent to contract mattered.  Today, the communications you exchange with her are as good as ink on the paper with signatures at the bottom, according to the objective theory of contracts.

The examples provided aren’t to be taken as God’s truth, and the only situation in which one might contract with another.  You could sell off 500 acres of land in the same manner, or trade a mold of Robert Plant’s unmentionables for an autographed poster of  Lady Gaga.  The courts won’t care how absurd you think the exchange might be.  What counts is that one person offers, the other accepts, and both parties offer a consideration (I give you the Robert Plant mold, you give me your signed poster).

With all that swirling around in your noggin, here are a couple quick things to keep in mind as you go about your lives on Twitter (or anywhere else for that matter):

1. A general tweet may usually not be construed as an offer; rather, it tends to function like an advertisement, unless the terms are so clear, definite and explicit that nothing is left open to negotiation.

2. Tweets are entirely viable means for communicating an intent to buy or sell goods or property, or render services; if an offer is made by one person, and accepted by another, then you probably have a legally binding contract that can be enforced.  If either of you breaches it, the non-breaching party has the right to file a suit against you.

3. Generally speaking, once a contract has been formed, if one of you wants out….tough luck.  Your unspoken intent won’t matter where there are actual expressions reflecting your intent to contract.

4. Contract law isn’t intended to stick it to the breaching party, meaning you aren’t going to get punitive (punishment) damages for someone breaching a contract.  But, in the case of our website designer above, if the offeree (person who may accept the offer) can demonstrate that the next highest bid for a job like that you would have done would cost $1800, the court might very well order you to pay the difference.

5. Do yourself a favor and act with integrity and character.  Nobody wants to endure a legal battle.  Don’t take negotiations in a joking manner, and honor your word.  Because unless you’re clinically crazy or under the age of 18, the court just might enforce that contract you didn’t take seriously, and then you’re out whatever damages you’ve caused to the person with whom you contracted…and a reputation.

Triston McIntyre is a former Uptown Uncorked associate, now studying law in Maryland. He may be popping in from time to time to share what he learns with us as relates to social media. You can find out more about him under the Company menu above.

He and I first met when I was on the Blogger Board for his start up CreateBuzz. CreateBuzz was a great idea, but it didn’t go quite the way he had hoped. You’d think he’d be discouraged, but instead he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and came up with more ideas that took lessons from the one that didn’t work as planned. I like that kind of pluck and staying power, that ability to look at life’s fumbles as a way to learn.

Jim and I kept in contact after CreateBuzz, and started exchanging ideas. I’d give him a little social media counseling here and there, or help him get unstuck in the social media space, and he’d give me sales advice. It turns out, taking his sales advice made all the difference in the results I was seeing. He pointed out my weaknesses, and let me know simple, effective ways I could change from within to see results. Now my sales process takes a bit longer than I was spending before, but its worth every minute. I went from closing roughly 30% of my pitches, to closing roughly 85%, and I’ve only been doing a few simple additional things at his suggestion. Can I close more using his advice? I think over time as I get better at it, that I can.

The great thing about Jim is he gives you the same advice every day over on his blog, so you can do a little reading and see how to improve your sales technique as well. When Jim came to me with his idea for a book (Online Profile: Asset of the Future), I was more than happy to team up with him on it. If you want a preview of the kind of content and information you will get out of it – watch his blog for that also. We’re uncovering some pretty interesting information and case studies about the intersection of online life, real people and the future of worth.

She actually gave me the best scheduling advice ever, before she even came on board with me. She asked why I was so frazzled, and I told her about my schedule. she pointed out my desire to help everyone who asked and my tendency to schedule while I was traveling (on my phone, for example) was causing me problems. She gave me a few pointers on how to break both habits while still being helpful – and they worked like a charm. My stress level dropped back to normal, and I still felt like I had time to help people. So thank you, Michelle!

Not only is she a big picture thinker, she is a great communicator. That’s often the hardest part of what we do – telling others about it in a way they understand. Tara does that very, very well.

Chris’s post got me thinking about two things. One was my own dual style of working: management vs creative. The best encapsulation of the dichotomy there as relates to running a creative business I have yet read is by Paul Graham, found here. Go, read it. I’ll wait. The second is the concept of interruptive technology versus the concept of disruptive technology. I see those two terms interchanged often, yet I don’t actually find the concepts interchangeable.

Interruptive Technology

These are technologies most often used to complete a task or communicate. I rank mine in order of “interruption level” in the video. What makes a technology interruptive is how it alters the work flow or life flow of another person or company. That means email will remain the least interruptive (in my opinion) and the most useful, for now, at tracking the minute and changeable details of a project. The phone and in person meetings or conference calls remain the highest level of interruptive technology with the lowest return. Yes, you get to see the body language (meeting/web cam) or hear the vocal inflection (phone/conference call) with these technologies, but they leave room for excessive blocks of time not spent working on a project, and for project details to slip through the cracks with no written record.

Disruptive Technology

Though this term is often used interchangeably with the above (as you can see in the replies to Chris’s post), to me it is not at all the same thing. A disruptive technology may involve communication (like Twitter) and it may become interruptive (like Twitter or Instant Message services), but it has a wider impact, disrupting an entire system, not just an individual work flow (like Twitter DMs and their effect on Email, or like Google Wave is hoping to disrupt multiple systems, including chat, message service, email and more). It is that system wide disruption as opposed to an individual, more myopic effect, that sets the two apart for me.

And Then There Is Ego

Once you realize how interruptive technology diffuses your efficiency and can put speed bumps and road blocks in your work flow, you may turn to disruptive technologies to manage your systems (Away Find is a great example of this, as is Evernote, and also using a mobile phone and voice mail to control what reaches you to interrupt your flow without missing the important items). So where does ego come into play?

Ego becomes its own problem when people begin to take your time management personally. There are a number of people and companies I work with that are awesome, and that have time management systems of their own. They see that I try to work within their parameters, and they do their best to respect mine – it s a win-win (It helps that I started adding an “effective work flow for this project” section in contracts). Then you get people who aren’t able to see your system (or the systems of others) as time management – these folks take it as a personal slight if an email isn’t replied to immediately, and then, they begin to bombard your system structure like a Kamikaze pilot from WWII – hitting your DM box, your email repeatedly, your phone, text, instant message windows and more in a look at me blitzkrieg. What kills me is the message is often then “Hey, call me ASAP.” and not “These xx items are urgent because of xx. I know you are writing per your away message, but could you please contact me.” (Guess which one would actually get a response from most people, by the way.)

Truly, there is not much you can do about how someone else’s feelings work. Personally, aside from doing my best to be tactful and understanding, I haven’t found a “magic formula” for the times when ego enters the equation. Have you?  How are you using disruptive technology to handle interruptive technology?

How to find the right person changes as these new agencies learn to game the system, but here are my slides from my most recent presentation to help you choose a good match for you and your company, band or film right now. I hope this helps you navigate the choppy waters and find your perfect social media match.

My biggest word of advice for today is to consider how a question is being asked or a thought presented in social media. Often, I will ask a question of Twitter, or in my Facebook status. I do this publicly to not only receive help myself, but to have the help I receive also help others.

If you answer those public questions in a private manner, no one learns from our conversation. You are robbing people in both of our networks of information they may want or need.  So if you see me ask a question on Twitter out loud, and I don’t put “DM me” anywhere in the tweet, I want to be answered out loud as well so others can benefit.

The same applies to Facebook, or Friendfeed, or anywhere else I am online. I often use questions to start a learning process, and statements of opinion to open discussions to the world. I know I’m not the only one. So use that as a chance to be helpful, and to educate. Generate that social media knowledge base and trust network that so many of us are here to foster.

Some may say that’s noisy. It is, but it is useful noise. Useful noise is beautiful noise, and you can ride its wave to a new understanding of something, or someone. Sure, if you want to thank me for a RT, or for following you back somewhere, or for sharing something you wrote, those are fantastic examples of private conversations in which a Facebook message or Twitter DM may be better suited. But if I ask for local bands for a BBQ, replying in private message does nothing to help promote that band or share with us what makes them special the way a reply out loud would.

How are you listening, and are you answering out loud to build a web of trust?