As you may already know, I was lucky enough to be one of those 15 distinguished visitors (DVs so the Navy likes to call us).

So there I was on the morning on the 29th, nervous, frightened, intimidated, and just plain star-struck alongside Guy Kawasaki, internet god Robert Scoble, Charlene Li of Groundswell and Forrester fame, Pamela Slim published author and cubicle naysayer, Jenny Larson The Bloggess, Andy Sernovitz Mr. Word of Mouth Marketing, Andrew Nystrom the LA Times social media guy, marketing guru Jennifer Jones, travel blogger Jennifer Leo, Tech Mama and Silicon Valley Moms spear header Beth Blecherman, Jefferson Wagner the future Mayor of Malibu, Avere Group founder Dennis Hall, Venture Capitalist Bill Reichert, and milblogger Captain Carroll ‘Lex’ LeFon, USN (Ret). If you don’t know them, you should make it a point to, they’re some of the most influential bloggers and web/tech leaders around.

Let’s start at the very beginning

I think I need to rewind a bit. Let’s start with the invitation. After really connecting with Guy Kawasaki at SXSW, I was totally in awe of how genuine someone of his stature could be. A few short weeks later, he followed up to inquire if I would be interested in an invite to attend Bloggers Embark, a night aboard the USS Nimitz.

Of course I said yes, but I had no idea was to come. In fact, my outlook on the military wasn’t especially too high. I mean I live in a military town, frequently sing karaoke at a military dive bar, and sometimes see the negative side effects of young enlisted men who drink too much.

But I said yes, and my email commitment was my word. Little did I know that there would be minor hiccups to actually making my way aboard the Nimitz, but I’ll save those highlights for private discussions.

Dining with celebrities

Now fast-forward to the night of the 28th, the eve of the Nimitz trip, and our scheduled dinner with embarking bloggers. I was so nervous that I barely spoke a word. See, what many people don’t know about me is that I’m shy, and I’ve always been shy. I was a loner as a child, adolescent, and even more so as a young adult. Now I’m just a shy person masquerading in a confidant woman’s body. It’s the only way I know how to live, because I’ve learned that one must build relationships and that meeting the right people means being extroverted. So I typically put on a strong face, saunter up to anyone that will listen, and do my best to find something that can help me get acclimated to the situation. It’s usually talk of social media or web and technology news.

Okay so I’m sitting at dinner. Jennifer Leo (amazing travel writer for the LA Times) is sitting across from me, Jenny Larson is to my right dishing about sex toys and lick-able tattoos for the sailors (I learned later that she has social anxiety as well), Andy Sernovitz is to my left, and Charlene Li is to his immediate left. Did I mention that Jefferson Wagner is to be the next Mayor of Malibu? I felt trapped in a sea of really important people. And then we had to introductions, which was terribly awkward for me because my accomplishments pale in comparison to those around me.

I balked a bit, but I made it through the dinner. In fact, after a glass of wine I was able to strike up a few meaningful conversations and get to know Andy Sernovitz as Andy, and The Bloggess as Jenny. Of course, LCDR Charlie Brown was a fantastic and friendly resource who was fielding questions left and right, and definitely made me feel more at ease about the whole experience. And then there was Lex, the retired FA-18 Hornet pilot and fellow blogger, who — over the coarse of dinner — made me start to really anticipate the next day’s adventures. Maybe I could do this after all.

The morning of and minor freak outs

As the procrastinator that I am, I flaked on the packing part until 6:30am the day of departure. It’s what I do. So I packed and showered in a rush, and knew that before reporting to North Island Naval Air Station that I would need to stop by the bank, pick up missing travel toiletries (seriously how do I go through these so fast?), and stop by the Westin to grab my carpool buddy, The Bloggess.

After throwing everything in my bag haphazardly, I ran out the door and drove the two blocks to Ralphs, where I threw a few travel items in my basket and ran to the checkout counter to consolidate errands and get cash back instead of stopping by the ATM. And that’s where the anxiety set in. After a few failed attempts to enter my pin number correctly (I don’t withdraw a lot of cash), I tried to pay via credit, and that transaction was subsequently declined.

As the line grew behind me, I started to feel the tension of the situation become tangible. Not only was I now late to pick up Jenny, but I couldn’t purchase my items, withdraw the requisite cash for the trip ($50 for the stay plus meals), let alone make any purchases. I started to freak out.

After being on hold for what seemed like forever, my bank informed me that my account had been blocked due to entering an incorrect pin number multiple times. Thankfully I was able to remove the block, remember my real pin, get my cash, and pay for my toiletries. Picking up Jenny took all of 2 minutes, and after my unnecessary breakdown at Ralphs, we actually were early to the North Island meeting spot.

There we all banded together, dropped off our bags, and learned that we would have no connectivity on the ship (they do have internet access, but it’s limited to the Library and a few other computers), and that all iPhones would be fried on the Flight Deck if they were left on. Yikes. I decided to turn off my iPhone then and there. Well, only after streaming another live video to Qik…

I’m not sure when the exact moment was, but somewhere between that pre-embark dinner and the moment we boarded the COD to fly to the Nimitz, the group dynamic shifted from relative strangers to fast friends.

Maybe it was the combination of embarrassing, albeit so cool, gear we had to wear, or the fact that together we were all about to experience something remarkable, but whatever it was, I noticed a perceptible shift. A calm came over me as I realized that I was among friends and this was about to be an experience of a lifetime.

After this short commercial break

This is where the story stops for now, but rest-assured that this is just the beginning. I should state, for those of you who are wondering, this trip was not a paid vacation orchestrated to encourage us to blog only the positives regarding the US Navy and the Nimitiz. All of us had to pay our own way (most everyone flew in from out of town), and though we were encouraged to share our experiences, there was none of the you can only say this nonsense. More goodness to come, but I just had to get that piece of non-disclosure out there.

Here’s a few teasers of what’s to come next:

Flight Deck awesomeness courtesy of Guy Kawasaki

Me, a gun, and a look of determination (thanks Scoble)

Initial reactions

The perks of having Jason wear your shirt include:

• The price – it’s a pretty cheap price to pay for the exposure he’s offering online and off
• Daily video on YouTube and Ustream
• Daily photos on the blog and Flickr
• Daily posts on the blog and Twitter
• Company logo on the calendar

When I discovered the site (iwearyourshirt started following me on Twitter), I was so impressed by the ingenuity of the idea that I asked Jason Sadler, the man behind the shirt, to chat with me via Skype so I could get the real scoop.

Here’s what I found out…

Jason’s been working in the web space for 10 years, and he has hands-on experience with social media and various online marketing initiatives. The iwearyourshirt idea came to him at the end of the October, he got the website up a week later, and started promoting his idea via Facebook, Twitter, and email. Just a few short weeks later, Jason’s garnered a ton of interest with all of January and February already sold out, and widely celebrated days like New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day selling out as well.

I asked Jason how he planned to provide the same quantity and quality of exposure for each t-shirt purchaser given that some days are more inherent to exposure than others. Jason says that he doesn’t expect any forseable obstacles to making sure each t-shirt is promoted both online and off; he’s fully prepared to livestream everything from his everyday activities to family gatherings and opening presents on Christmas day.

Jason isn’t alone in his ground breaking marketing initiative, there’s also Girl in Your Shirt who was covered by TechCrunch and certainly has the cute girl factor working in her favor. But Jason seems pretty confidant that he’s got a large enough network to compete, and he asserts that he’s no copycat—iwearyourshirt was launched before Girl in Your Shirt. Something tells me that both entreprenuers will do just fine. Given our economy, there’s a huge opportunity for startups and small businesses to reach a broad audience at a super cheap price.

I’d really love to hear your thoughts on this. Are you considering using Jason’s upper half to promote your business? What day would you buy and why? Personally, I’m contemplating purchasing my birthday and forcing Jason to wear one of my tiny sleeveless @jbruin tees, but that would just be cruel.

Malone and Marashlian, a part from being likable and incredibly hilarious (check out their Halloween costumes), are living and breathing the core of community building by making themselves entirely available to the users of their product. Their using Ustream.tv to broadcast live daily from their offices in Sorrento Valley. Got a question, problem, or just want to maximize your usage of their software? Just ping Troy during business hours on PeloTV and he’ll not only answer your question, but he’ll show you how to do it yourself using WebcamMax, a super awesome camera utility that allows you to switch to a view of your desktop (I found a neat alternative for the Mac called CamTwist), to visually walk you through the step by step process of your inquiry. It’s customer service meets community building using the best of social media, and I absolutely love it.

I was surprised to find such innovation so close to home, but it turns out that Malone and Marashlian haven’t always been so savvy. In fact, Malone’s old school marketing and PR approach led him to Marshal Kirkpatrick, a New Media Consultant and Lead Writer for ReadWriteWeb. Malone emailed a plethora of bloggers with a press release looking for web coverage only to find that his approach was fruitless and flawed. Kirkpatrick was the only blogger to respond, and Malone decided that he’d rather have Kirkpatrick’s help as consultant than a single blog post. Obviously Malone’s decision has paid off. He’s making innovative strides and thinking like a savvy web entrepreneur.

I give him huge kudos for trying something new and not being afraid of taking risks. Did I mention that in the process of switching to this “new” marketing approach they totally eliminated their marketing budget that was thousands of dollars per month? Small business owners, are you paying attention? Let’s just hope that Pelotonics can scale their customer service efforts with their growth. Good luck guys!

I’m in the process of finalizing my presentation, but I’d really like to add your thoughts, experiences, and opinions on why you think startups should or should not use social media to build their customer communities, what you think the best practices and pitfalls are, and which startups you think are using social media in ground breaking ways. All thoughts and opinions and welcome, and if I quote you, I will give you credit and a little link love.

Help a girl out!

What Do Startups Need to Know About Blogging? from Jennifer Van Grove on Vimeo.

The Doing Needs to Come From You

Any audience or customer community you do have doesn’t care about what your team has to say (unless it’s their unique point of view in their words and voice), your latest press release, or your brand new ad spot (unless your Apple). Please do not treat your blog readers, Facebook friends, and Twitter followers like your own personal marketing channels—the message doesn’t matter here, you do.

You matter.

What you’re doing matters. Who you’re doing it with matters. It’s what human that matters and what other people can relate to. If you fake it, you will be found out and you will ruin any credibility or influence you may have had with your fans, brand advocates, or customer community.

Some Advice to Britney that You Can Take to Heart

Gary Vaynerchuk says it best in his video directed to Britney Spears and her team regarding the @therealbritney Twitter account. The best takeaways are to remember that social media should not be used merely as another outlet for your message or press releases. Social media should be used for learning, sharing, listening, and genuine conversation.