*I say “mildly successful” because I had my fastest time in a half distance, but struggled in the race. This year’s Boise 70.3 race provided some really tough weather conditions – 60 degree water, 21 to 26 mph winds on the bike (with about 75% of the course feeling like headwind or severe crosswind) and a warmer than I’m used to temp of 81 degrees on the run. Craig Alexander, last year’s Boise champ and the current Ironman World Champ (Kona winner in 2008 and 2009) had a tough day in Boise, too. He won the race, but his time was 11 minutes slower than his winning time last year – when it rained and hailed throughout the race. After hearing that, I didn’t feel so bad about going slower than planned. Click on the picture below for my results (Note: 1153 total triathletes finished the race and 1229 started. There were 175 finishers in my division – M35-39.) -

Ironman Boise Results - Scott Stanzel

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Today, ABC World News did a story about it. Diane Sawyer said it had been watched 1.3 million times. That was when World News was recorded on the east coast. When I saw it on pacific time, it had been watched 2.1 million times.

As of this posting, the video had now been seen nearly 3.8 million times. Amazing. Check it out.

One of the best parts of the video is the look on the faces of the girls behind him. Also, his two other videos (songs which he wrote) had been viewed just several thousand times yesterday. Today, they were both nearing a half million views.

Somewhere about 5.5 miles in the air above Hamilton, Canada - There’s no special subject for this blog post, other than I have wi-fi on my Delta flight (739 from JFK to SEA). It makes this middle seat a bit more bearable. The dude behind me loudly talking about caligraphy and wedding invites is making everything less bearable. This gogo inflight service isn’t cheap – $12.95 for the flight. When I suggested the per flight cost was a little pricy to the Delta folks at the gate peddling the service, they said I could buy a monthly pass for $34. But, that doesn’t make much sense, as you can’t tell when you are booking your ticket if the plane you’ll be on has been outfitted with the service. I have seven flights on Delta this month, but this one may be the only one with wi-fi. You don’t know until you get on the plane, so spending $34 could be a big waste.

Something for the Delta suggestion box: Make it easy to find out via Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Kayak, or the Delta website which planes will have the wi-fi service. You’ll probably see an uptick in purchases.

UPDATE: I’m pleased to report the jury in the mancard revocation hearing for the dude in 23b delivered switft justice. By a vote of jury tweeps @ericearling, @jennburgess95 and @RErakovich, 23b’s mancard was permanently revoked for crimes against dudedom. Thanks to baliff @deltalina for escorting Mr. 23b from the plane. His loud discussion of nanny services and the wedding gift registry did not help his cause and left him without chances for parole.

First, here’s a story from Mashable’s Christina Warren about how public relations professionals are using social media. It provides some good insights and useful tips for PR pros seeking to enhance existing campaigns.

Mark Silva reports in the Chicago Tribune that many people are longing for the days when President Bush was in office. His story – “Miss him yet? Apparently, many do”

A New York Times piece over the weekend caught my eye. It takes a look at how social media is impacting television programming. Check out David Carr’s piece – “Talking Back to Your TV, Incessantly”

This blog post is making me think I need to have my Twitter widget for WordPress create an automatic weekly post of my tweets…

Finally, I thought I’d install this widget from the POLITICO Arena to see how it worked.

Here’s the top of the story and my quote. You can read the full story here.

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W.H. messaging in 140 characters
By: Michael Calderone
February 15, 2010 07:07 PM EST

The White House has started using a new weapon for correcting news reports, pushing back against a negative story, or shaping the press corps narrative of the day: Twitter.

On Monday, deputy press secretary Bill Burton told his more than four thousand followers — which includes much of the White House press corps — that a Washington Post report that morning was wrong. The Obamas, he noted, went to Chicago for Valentine’s Day in 2009, not this past Sunday, as was reported in the Post’s Style section.

It was a small correction, but indicative of how the White House press shop can now more actively engage with the press and public through the popular micro-blogging platform that allows users to post 140 characters at a time, and follow any number of friends, celebrities, reporters and a variety of media outlets, large and small.

While there’s long been a White House Twitter feed, only in the last few weeks have members of the administration started using individual accounts in an official capacity. Burton, who’s had an account since August, just started posting regularly in January, gaining attention among reporters with a little push-back against a CNN report.
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While Gibbs and Burton are the first press secretary and deputy to officially use Twitter, the first White House press shop official to embrace the platform was Scott Stanzel, President George W. Bush’s deputy press secretary from just after the 2006 midterm elections until Obama’s inauguration.

“It’s a very efficient way to share information and nearly all White House reporters are active in some fashion on Twitter,” said Stanzel, who now runs his own public relations firm, Stanzel Communications.

Many people at the TED conference were impressed, including Robert Scoble (@scobleizer, with 114,000 followers) who tweeted this -

Microsoft just blew our minds by putting live video and Worldwide telescope together on maps. Wow.

Obama’s first ‘tweet’ makes presidential history
Posted: January 18th, 2010 07:56 PM ET

From CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry

Washington (CNN) – Digital history was made Monday when President Obama became the first commander-in-chief to “tweet” a message on the social networking site, though he had a little bit of help.

When Obama stopped at the headquarters of the American Red Cross’ to promote aid to Haiti, a member of the agency’s new media team wrote a message on Twitter.com telling people he had arrived.

“President Obama and the first lady are here visiting our disaster operation center right now,” the Red Cross staffer wrote.

The new media staffer then asked the president to hit “Update” on the screen and Obama posted the item himself under the @RedCross handle at Twitter.com.

A moment later the Red Cross staffer posted a follow-up tweet: “President Obama pushed the button on the last tweet. It was his first ever tweet!”

White House aides told CNN they believe it is Obama’s first-ever tweet. During the presidential campaign, the Obama team used the @BarackObama account to send out quick messages in the then-senator’s voice, but he did not physically post the items himself, a disappointment to some of his techie supporters.

And after the @BarackObama account took a brief respite after the 2008 election, Gawker.com poked fun by saying his followers had been “Twittered into contributing money and time, and then passed over for more presidential means of communication. Like, say, press conferences.”

Aides to former President George W. Bush told CNN that he never published a tweet, and they were happy to crown Obama as the first tweeting President – with a catch.

“Welcome to Twitter, Mr. President – I’ll follow you if you follow me,” Tony Fratto, a former Bush spokesman, joked to CNN by e-mail.

It’s unlikely the president will be doing much tweeting in office, however. White House personnel – other than a couple of top aides such as Bill Burton – are restricted from using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. There are security concerns with White House computers, and administration officials are also not supposed to be tweeting on taxpayer time.

Besides, the commander-in-chief is a little busy to be re-tweeting the latest cat video on YouTube.

In fact, he admitted to never using Twitter during his trip to China late last year.

“Let me say that I have never used Twitter,” Obama said in response to a question from a Chinese student about using Twitter freely in China. Obama continued: “I noticed that young people – they’re very busy with all these electronics. My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone.”

That may have upset some of the president’s supporters, who thought he was tweeting during the campaign, a point Republicans are only too happy to highlight.

“It’s great President Obama is using social media to build support for much-needed Haiti relief. But, if this was his first Tweet, who is @BarackObama?” asked former Bush spokesman Scott Stanzel, who noted that the @BarackObama is “verified” as being used by the 44th President of the United States.blockquote>

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