Last summer, I wrote a blog post on The Earthquake Heard Around Social Media. You remember, the day where earthquakes hit both Colorado and New York and everyone went crazy on social media and posted anything they knew about what was happening in realtime? I made the point that social media, and Twitter specifically, is becoming one of the first places people find out about breaking news.

Now, on a day like today, I can’t help but wonder if Twitter is changing news again. This time it’s a little different.

We’ve all seen them. Ads on the side of our friend’s birthday party photo albums, sponsored tweets breaking up a live feed of what someone is having for lunch, and right on top of the funny cat video I’m watching on YouTube.

The beauty of most of these ads (especially on Facebook) is that they are so incredibly targeted at what you’re actually interested in that they don’t shouldn’t bother you at all. In a perfect marketer’s world, you see the ad, jump up from your chair and fist-pump because you are that interested in what the ad has to offer.

Actually, that kind of excitement may not be too far away — both online and off.  Online, we’ve been working on a remarking platform that goes beyond what Facebook Ads has to offer. Finally, that platform is complete and pairing people with stuff that actually matters to them on the broadest and most specific levels is going to be a lot easier. Ask us if you want to know more about it. It’ll knock your socks off.

GM is working on a little something similar right now in the world of physical billboard ads. Instead of driving by billboards that have no bearing on your drive or decision making, GM and OnStar are going to tag team to serve you relevant billboards based on information you’ve disclosed. Just think about how that will change your next road trip.

Today I had the amazing opportunity of getting to hear the XIV Dalai Lama speak live at my Alma Mater  – Loyola University Chicago. I’d been looking forward to it for weeks and it was just as amazing as I thought it would be.

His speech was on “Interfaith Collaboration” and he stressed the importance of finding inner peace and self confidence being the foundation of living in a more accepting and collaborative world. I’ve heard that he’s a pretty funny person, but hearing his jokes firsthand was something else. He had the audience laughing multiple times throughout the lecture. It was great to see that he acted like a normal person. In fact, that was his opening point, he’s just a regular person like anyone else we know.