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Its safe to assume the annual December powerbroker trip to St. Barths this year involved some time plotting career moves for Shawn Carter and Steve Stoute. (this picture looks like a shot from the airport) Stoute was riding high from a recent sale of his agency, Translation Marketing to interpublic for a conservative $10 Million. Jay-Z was getting ready to announce his exit from post at Def Jam, a gig that had lost its allure due to a record business that is in the toilet. For those speculating for the last few days in the blogosphere, the rumor has become reality. Todays NYT reports that Jay-Zs next move will be to create Translation Advertising with partner Steve Stoute and formalize something that has been happening anyway over the last few years. For those close to Translation it was not uncommon for Stoute to spend hours on the phone with Carter coming up with ideas and programs for brands. Now the two have a company umbrella to call home and Im sure Interpublic will be bending over backwards to make the venture a success. Money seems to chase both Stoute and Carter and this will be a successful venture we are sure. No talk of a digital arm, nor interactive advertising component yet, but even in

James Andrews Live In Person: All About Recent Twitter Post

As many of you know there has been a lot of online chatter around a recent situation that has unfortunately spiraled. As an active practitioner in the space, I felt the need to both address the situation and offer my perspective on the practice of social media. Two days ago I made a comment on Twitter that was the emotional response to a run in I had with an intolerant individual. The Tweet was aimed at the offense not the city of Memphis. Everyone knows that at 140 characters Twitter does not allow for context and therefore my comments were misunderstood. If I offended the residents of Memphis, TN I’m sorry. That was not my intention. I understand that people have tremendous pride in their hometown.

Furthermore there has been a lot of conversation going back and forth about social media. I agree that at 140 characters Twitter leaves a lot of room for speculation. While some would say this is evil side of social media, I would say that its pure intention is to foster a back and forth dialogue between people rather then a shield to hide behind and replace human contact.

This is what I passionately do for a living and will continue to do at Ketchum Interactive and in my own personal time here on this blog, twitter, ustream, blogtalkradio, etc. I’m extremely committed to educating my clients and community on better ways to use social media. My most recent situation underscores the need for important dialogue around how we use this space.

Because this is a dialogue not just a post I welcome any constructive comments here.

JA