Twitter Never Tasted So Good

Social media king Chris Brogan made a visit to Orange County Tuesday. To may homage to Twitter, the new author of "Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust" brought with him the wildly popular Kogi barbecue tacos, a perfect blend of Latino and Korean flavors, to Barnes & Noble for special book signing.

I joined Nancy Luna, Orange County Register's Fast Food Maven blogger, and the patient crowd outside near the OCTA building for an 1.5 hour wait. Like everyone, I wanted to experience for myself the delicious morsels of goodness that has driven Kogi to become America's darling example of Twitter's high-flying success.

Hear what O.C. residents had to say about their first bite of the hybrid tacos.

I also received a special opportunity to talk to the East Coast native about Orange County and social media before he presented to a standing-room-only crowd at Chapman University Tuesday evening.

Public Agencies Getting Social Media

Check out this video recap of OCTA's highly successful Gov 2.0 social media workshops on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Windmills: Harnessing the Power of Social Media

Government representatives and other public agency officials gathered Friday for Gov 2.0 Deluxe Edition. This no-cost social media workshop at the Orange County Transportation Authority was a follow-up to the wildly popular Gov 2.0 event in July.

Orange County's superstars of social media shared strategies and hands-on experience on how to boost communications with these new cost-effective technology tools.

Neal Schaffer - LinkedIn
Marisa O'Neil - Twitter
Morgan Brown and Sarah Swensson - YouTube
Loren Nason - Facebook
Rochelle Veturis - Keynote

The special event also payed a special tribute to Neal Schaffer of Windmill Networking who authored a new book on LinkedIn due out in October.

Share your thoughts on social media and how it can be used to communicate with the public.

Transportation in 2: CEO Steers an OCTA Bus

From Greece to Ginza, Munching Through Orange

For more than 35 years over the Labor Day weekend, the must-be place for a dizzying array of international food is in Old Towne Orange.

It's a charming historic downtown next to the train depot and Chapman University where I get off the Metrolink train and hop on an OCTA bus almost every morning on my way to work. Metrolink trains and OCTA buses will take you the festivities.

This year's Orange International Street Fair is this weekend, and the culinary scene promises to be just as vibrant as past years. The theme might be "Music Makes the World Go Round," but it's the tasty morsels of goodness that make the appetite come back for more.

This evening in the heart of Santa Ana, I reunited with my favorite food blogger Nancy Luna or better known as the Orange County Register's Fast Food Maven. Nancy and I met six years ago when she wrote the popular "Honk" column for the Register and covered OCTA on the transportation beat.

I credit Nancy for recently helping me overcome my initial skepticism of Twitter and social media. I was excited to see her again as we were both guest speakers for an event hosted by O.C. Register reporter Serena Daniels and the California Chicano News Media Association in Southern California.



We talked about blogging, social media, transportation and this weekend's food festival in Orange. See the YouTube video above taken from my Flip video camera. It's dark because of the venue's mood lighting -- highly symbolic of the economic conditions we're all facing. But I hope you'll see the optimism we share from learning new communications tools.

Also, hear the interview from my iPhone AudioBoo. But you'll have to wait and read her recommendations for palate pleasers on her blog.

Getting Offline and Talking Transit

Steven Chan, a UC Irvine medical student and blogger of the new TransitRiderOC.com Web site shared with his Twitter followers Tuesday that he was taking two Orange County Transportation Authority or OCTA bus lines to come to the OCTA store.

I intercepted Steven's tweet sent from his cell phone while riding the bus. I fired off a message from my iPhone telling him I wanted to meet him to say hello after being one of Twitter followers and blog readers for the past few months.

A big thanks to Steven for being a good sport as I did this impromptu interview with him using my Flip video camera. I also recorded his comments using my iPhone AudioBoo.