Quick'n'Dirty vs. The BeanCast: Episode 51

For the first time ever (in our entire one-year history), the Quick'n'Dirty invited another podcaster on as a guest. I would say it was a rival podcaster, but we consider The BeanCast founder Bob Knorpp to be a friend of the QnD, so there wasn't a brutal battle, but there was a very . He joined me and producer / guest co-host Rich Harris (Aaron Strout was off gallavanting) to talk about the challenges of getting a new podcast off of the ground, the importance of building a good network of guest and the right kind of planning, and the use of social media to spread the word. This is an important listen for any budding -- or even experienced -- podcasters out there. For more on Bob's views on podcasting, listen to the replay.

Before we talked to Bob, Rich and I discussed our social application of the week -- Argyle Social. What interested us both about this service, which does social media measurement, is that it focuses on numbers and trends versus sentiment. Rich talked about the fact that while sentiment is certainly interesting, it tends to be hard to really tie down especially on social networks, since it can't account for certain tones or sarcasm. Neither one of us have yet had a chance to try the application but we're looking to hear stories from those who have. I would say that we've been too busy to try it out, but... that would be counter to our point / counterpoint.

The point / counterpoint focused on one of my biggest pet peeves as of late. When I ask someone how he or she is doing, his or her first reaction is often to sigh dramatically and say "busy!" As this began to annoy me more, I realized that I've been terribly guilty of that as well. I thought, "How rude is this? Isn't busy the baseline for everyone these days?" Then someone turned me onto an article that Penelope Trunk wrote on this very topic, so Rich and I discussed it on the show. What did Rich think? Give it a listen... unless you're too busy.

Finally, we paid homage to another featured Twitterer: Barbara Evans (@SeattleWinegal). Rich said that not only is our selected Twitterer a really cool gal, but knows more about wine than most people he's spoken with. For that, Barbara, we love your tweets!

Join us next week for a super interesting discussion with Adele McAlear, who is working on some significant research on death and digital legacy. Remember, you can join us live at noon PT / 3 p.m. ET or find us on iTunes by searching for QuicknDirty.