I’m thuper confused as of late, what with Talvid’s decision to enter the 140-character-or-less world of twittering. I just don’t know where to vent my ridiculously life altering (for you, not me) musings. Facebook? The blog? Twitter? Your mother? Here’s what I’ve discovered: they’re all basically serving the same purpose. The purpose of relieving what it is that ails you. Think of the void in your life that Talvid fills. Nay, not a void, a deficiency. Even better, , the void/deficiency is a hemorrhoid. And fucking Talvid’s Blog of Shit, his Twitter account, and his respective facebook profiles are travel sized, everyday sized, and Costco sized containers of Preparation H. Does your Mind’s Brown Eye ache? Rub some Talvid on it and have a good modereffen night.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Things Arise
Most of the time, I can ignore big world changes here on this blog. They might get a fleeting mention here or there, but I don’t usually dwell on it. Not usually. I feel like there’s something tonight that deserves a mention, mostly because of my own mixed feelings on this.
The Healthcare bill. That thing that Obama passed tonight, by a tiny nine votes. Not that we didn’t know it was going to be close either way, but this is interesting. Marnians got into this whole argument ages ago, and then consequentially banned it from the chat. They know my thoughts. Hell, I’m Canadian. Everyone knows my thoughts. I’m also pretty damn socialist, so lead on.
But I’m more interested in how it divides people. I have friends on both sides of the spectrum, and it always amazes me just how much policies affect people. I know. It’s a huge deal. I mean, Obama essentially has a cult following which was cultivated in a most interesting manner. But how much people differ in beliefs makes me wonder. As realist as I am, I’m still a little bit whimsical and hopeful. The human race hasn’t wiped themselves out yet, and there is a reason for that. The passions that flare over issues like this is understandable, expected to a degree. I imagine much of the world is seriously conflicted like this a lot of the time after big decisions. Hell, when I decided to apply for university, after I paid for it, I was seriously conflicted.
Politics is a divisor. It’s a heavy subject, but it is something that exists whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. We were born and bred to play the political game, and so help me if we ever stop. It is essential that in some form, we decide as a collective what will be better for us. It does more often than not show quite clearly the tendencies of people though. When we play politics, Machiavelli instructed us to illustrate altruism, even if our purposes have darker meaning. However, when decisions are made, it is as though all the masks come off. Any costume your wore during your play is now being returned to the box and any altruistic purposes no longer matter. What matters is how you have gained from the decision.
I’ve said my piece and I’ll say no more. I will neither rejoice nor weep at the decision made tonight, for it is not my place. I’m tired. School is tomorrow. As I said in my facebook status, I’m conflicted about a lot of things right now. Politics is the least of my worries, as long as I don’t have to think about it.
Seriously conflicted. About politics, boys, song lyrics, facebook statuses, shrimps, macs, mysterious men, french, couches, shoes or abs, sleep. You’d think the last night of march break would be less confusing.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Pioneer to an uncertain future: The Internet
I often wonder of how our future will be with our relationship with the Internet and it’s minions driving fiercely forward from a mere casual to one…. something uber-serious!
I very clearly remember my first date with the Internet. It was a sunny summery day of the 90’s to remember. My dad was checking his emails and sipping away to glory his freshly grounded coffee made from the finest Arabica Coffee Beans that were handpicked from the most succulent coffee plants found in the high up altitudes of Costa Rica…(or wait, maybe it was tea, lipton…bought from the local supermarket 
)…but regardless, it was that Friday summer afternoon, when it suddenly dawned to my dad that I, his protégé, was ready and mature enough to take care of myself and venture off into THE virtual entity all by myself! Excited yet nervous about the decision, I picked up the courage and sat on that throne of a chair, sweaty palms and shaking thighs, I slowly moved the cursor over and double-clicked on the shiny blue icon, the Internet Explorer. It was a moment as if I had just surpassed the blinding white lights of the sky only to see that the doors of heaven had just opened up to me. That fine summers day was when this bond with the ever-so increasingly addictive Internet first started! Its been around 12 years now, we’re going stronger than ever!
Nowadays, the scene of getting introduced to the Internet is a little different. Its become something meaningless and completely ordinary. These days, even before a new-born baby gets the inevitable spank from the doctor:
#1 It has a Facebook account
#2 Has a picture of him/herself tagged and commented on!
Gone are those days when a newborn baby would either receive a gold or silver bracelet from his/her parents or cousins to welcome them into this world with luck. Instead, the biggest and most seismic gift the baby gets is the sacred password his lifelong Facebook and twitter account!
I strongly detest these means and solemnly swear to stick to means more traditions and gratifying in nature! When the little “Shah-Legacy Carriers” pop out, I’ll probably gift them something that’s more of a necessity than a luxury. Something logical and down-to-earth….something like, an iPhone.
I very much believe our generation, pro 1985, to be the one that’s a curve ahead than our parent’s generation in terms of adapting to technological advances. And to be honest, I don’t think the generation that will follow us, primarily our kids, will be able to outdo us in this respect either. Oh sure, holograms may become part of our daily lives, we’ll be flying in cars and all kids by law be will required to have mohawks…but seriously, we’ll adjust to it just as quick as we did with the arrival iPhones and beta versions of the X-Box Natal!
To give you an accurate idea of how our generation will never be outdone in terms of technological advances, here’s an image that just naturally played over in my head this very instance:
You know how quite a few of our parents are just starting to use things like Facebook, whereas we’re already established and esteemed gods and goddesses on the site…say in the near future, our son and his female-counterpart come back home from their very first day at kindergarten… and they’re all excited and pouncing on us to preach about what they learnt in school. They start, “Today we learnt about this really cool site called Facebook where” (we stop them right there…and we continue) ….”where u can make your own profile and stay connected with friends! YA YA…been there, done that. I have been a member on Facebook for the past 15 years and am deemed as great as Zeus himself there. Now tell me, WHOSE YOUR DADDY ??
SEE!! This is exactly what I’m taking about! The timing of our generation cannot be better! We’re an integral part of it all!
(Maybe I wont think the same way say…15 years from now, but oh well! I’m quite well justified for now! )
The only way the upcoming Generation Next will be able to outdo us, is if they start speaking like this:
For the time being, I’ll just hold on to my guns and best pray that I don’t see this day !!
Forgive me friends, for I have sinned...
Forgive me friends, for I have sinned… it’s been over a month since my last news update on Facebook.
How did it happen? Why did I lapse? Where did my Facebook faith go?
I remember those first zealous days of discovery. The joy of reconnecting with old friends… and co-workers and high school classmates and college buds… and ex-girlfriends, in-laws, business associates, guys I played D&D with while Reagan was still president, friends of friends I met at a party once, and even the siblings of schoolmates from elementary school.
I proselytized, I evangelized, I got my friends and family to join.
I spent lunchtime on Facebook. I went on at night after my wife went to bed.
And then something happened.
I discovered Twitter.
I didn’t intend to convert. I avoided Twitter as long as possible. Josef Katz (@directmaestro) said I should tweet, and I resisted. Eleanor Haas (@EleanorHaas), one of the most forward thinking marketing professionals I know, started tweeting and still, I resisted. But then Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) tweeted while interviewing Twitter founder Biz Stone and I was hooked. It was all just so meta.
So I started tweeting.
For a while I did both. I even thought about connecting my Twitter (@jlsimons) to my Facebook.
But my Tweets tended to be about marketing and advertising, and that wasn’t really what Facebook was all about for me. Facebook was about reconnecting with friends, and Twitter was about business.
At least, that’s what I told myself.
But that wasn’t the truth.
It’s time to face the truth.
Twitter is just plain easier. Twitter doesn’t miss me when I don’t tweet, or at least, I don’t feel guilty about not commenting on every tweet I read. Twitter rewards me when I’m relevant… and challenges me to stay relevant. Some of the most interesting articles I’ve read recently I found because someone I follow tweeted them.
I’m not the most prolific tweeter. The total of my tweets wouldn’t add up to a single week of Kevin Smith’s tweets (@ThatKevinSmith). Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) gets more followers in an hour than I’ve gotten in almost a year.
And still, I tweet. When I find something I think people will appreciate, I tweet it and I feel like I’ve added something useful to a conversation I want to be part of.
When I post a new post on my blog, I usually tweet it. Heck, I might even tweet this.
I almost never tweet about where I’m going or what I’m doing. I never tweet about what I’m eating. I know some people do, and I respect their right to do it. Tweet and let tweet, I always say. (Well, actually, that was the first time. But I’ll probably say it more often now.)
Sure, sometimes I still go to Facebook, but it’s not the same for me anymore. I can’t tell you why, or maybe I just don’t want to know, but I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Facebook is now the most popular site on the web and gets more visits than Google.
That would be silly, right, avoiding something just because everyone is doing it? Because then, someday, I’d have to give up tweeting for the same reason.
I’m not the kind of person who does things just because they’re new and shiny. Really I’m not.
But just in case I’m wrong, can someone please explain Foursquare to me?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Kepribadian Manusia dari Status Facebook
1. Manusia Super UpdateKapanpun dan di manapun selalu update status. Statusnya tidak terlalu panjang tapi terlihat bikin risih, karena hal-hal yang tidak terlalu penting juga dipublikasikan.
Contoh : “Lagi makan di restoran A..”, “Dalam perjalanan menuju
neraka..”, “Saatnya baca koran..”, dan sebagainya.
2. Manusia Melankolis
Biasanya selalu curhat di status. Entah karena ingin banyak diberi komentar dari teman-temannya atau hanya sekedar menuangkan unek-uneknya ke facebook. Biasanya orang tipe ini menceritakan kisahnya dan terkadang menanyakan solusi yg terbaik kepada yang lain.
Contoh : “Kamu sakitin aku..lebih baik aku cari yang lain..”, “Cuma kamu yang terbaik buat aku..terima kasih kamu sudah sayang ama aku selama ini..”.
3. Manusia Tukang Ngeluh
Pagi, siang, malem, semuanya selalu ada aja yang dikeluhkan.
Contoh : ” Jakarta maceeet..!! Panas pula..”, “Aaaargh ujan, padahal baru nyuci mobil..sialan. .!!”, “Males ngapa2in.. cape hati gara2 si do’ i..”, dsb.
4. Manusia Sombong
Mungkin beberapa dari mereka ga berniat menyombongkan diri, tapi terkadang orang yang melihatnya, yang notabene tidak bisa seberuntung dia, merasa kalo statusnya itu kelewat sombong, dan malah bikin sebel.
Contoh : “Otw ke Paris ..!!”, “BMW ku sayang, saatnya kamu mandi..aku mandiin ya sayang..”, “Duh, murah-murah banget belanja di Singapur, bow,”
5. Manusia Puitis
Dari judulnya udah jelas. Status nya selalu diisi dengan kata-kata mutiara, tapi ga jelas apa maksudnya. Bikin kita terharu? Bikin kita sadar atas pesan tersembunyinya? atau cuma sekedar memancing komentar? Sampai saat ini, tipe orang seperti ini masih dipertanyakan.
Contoh : “Kita masing-masing adalah malaikat bersayap satu. Dan hanya bisa terbang bila saling berpelukan”, “Mencintai dan dicintai adalah seperti merasakan sinar matahari dari kedua sisi”, “Jika kau hidup sampai seratus tahun, aku ingin hidup seratus tahun kurang sehari, agar aku tidak pernah hidup tanpamu”.
6. Manusia in English
Tipe manusianya bisa seperti apa saja, apakah melankolis, puitis, sombong dan sebagainya. Tapi dia berusaha lebih keren dengan mengatakannya dalam bahasa Inggwis Gicyu Low..
Contoh : “Tie and Chair..”, “I can tooth, you Pink sun..” dsb..
7. Manusia Lebay
Updatenya selalu bertema ‘gaul’ dengan menggunakan bahasa dewa.. ejaan yang dilebaykan..
Contoh..” met moulnin all.. pagiiieh yg cewrah… xixiixi” << lol~
8. Manusia Terobsesi…
Mengharap tapi ga kesampaian.. pengen jd artis ga dapat-dapat.
Contoh : “duwh… sesi pemotretan lagi! cape…”
9. Manusia Sok Tau..
Sotoy tenarnya. Padahal dia sendiri tidak tahu apa yang ditulisnya.
Contoh : “Pemerintah selalu memanjakan rakyatnya.. bla..bla…bla,”
10. Bioskop Mania..
Update film yang abis ditonton dan kasih comment..
Contoh : “ICE AGE 3..Recomended! !”, “Transformers 2 mantab euy..”
11. Manusia pedagang:
Contoh: “jual sepatu bla bla bla”
12. Manusia penyuluh masyarakat:
Contoh: “jangan lupa dateng ke TPS, 5 menit utk 5 tahun bla..bla”
13. Manusia Alay..
Ada berbagai macam versi, dari tulisannya yang aneh, atau tulisannya biasa aja, hanya saja kosakata nya ga lazim seperti bahasa alien.
Contoh:
Alay 1 : “DucH Gw4 5aYan9 b6t s4ma Lo..7aNgaN tin69aL!n akYu ya B3!bh..!!”
Alay 2 : “km mugh kog gag pernach ngabwarin aq lagee seech? kmuw maseeh saiangs sama aq gag seech sebenernywa? “
Alay 3 : “Ouh mY 9oD..!! kYknY4w c gW k3ReNz 48ee5h d3ch..!!”
(Khusus buat tipe ini, ga usah di baca juga gpp..saya pribadi juga mikir
dulu buat nulis ini, walaupun jadinya kurang mirip sama yg aslinya..)
14. Tipe Hidden Message
Tipe ini biasanya tidak to the point, tapi tentunya punya niat biar orang yg dituju membaca nya. (bagus kalo baca..kalo ngga? kelamaan nunggu) padahal kan bisa langsung aja sms ya..
Contoh : “For you my M***, I can’ t live without you..you are my bla bla bla..”,
“Heh, cewe bajingan..ngapain lo deket2in co gw?! kyk ga laku aja lo..” <<< (padahal ce tersebut tidak ada dalam jaringannya.. mana bisa baca…:p)
15. Tipe Misterius
Tipe yang biasanya bikin banyak orang bertanya tanya atas apa maksud
dari status orang tersebut..Biasanya dalam suatu kalimat membutuhkan
Subjek + Predikat + Objek + Keterangan. Tapi orang tipe ini mungkin
hanya mengambil beberapa atau malah hanya 1 saja..Dan pastinya
mengundang kontroversi.
Contoh : “Sudahlah..” , “Telah berakhir..” <<< (apanya??),
“Termenung.. .” <<< (so what gitu, loh)
sumber : http://techno.okezone.com/read/2009/08/03/93/244457/93/kepribadian-manusia-dari-status-facebook
My contest, film audition, and new webisode!
Yesterday marked the 2-yr. anniversary since we finished the actual filming on Bloodwine. In honor of that, I wanted to do something a little fun, so, I started a best impression contest on a site I found called ibeatyou.com
http://www.ibeatyou.com/entry/fae31b/vanessa-leinani-says-hi-as-carmilla-from-bloodwine
OMG, I saw Jessica Alba’s on there, too. That girl is such a trip! I got such a kick out of here “I Pity The Fool” picbeat. Hilaaaaaaarious!
Eileen Hadler-Pickard, a fan of mine, made a facebook fan page for me! J Check it out!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vanessa-Leinani-Official-Fan-Page/395759316833?ref=search&sid=896760579.3009560702..1
On Saturday morning, I went and auditioned for a feature length film and had a fantastic time. I was thrown a bunch of different roles to read, and it felt like I was on the playground just sitting around being goofy with a bunch of good friends. It was THAT fun and had a really great atmosphere!
Then the lead of the film for that audition sent me a friend request and said he heard I nailed the audition, so, it looks positive; however, in a casting situation, it’s never over until you have a contract signed, and even then…funding could disappear, a project can go on hiatus, or right as you’re talking about coming on, they could get the celebrity actor they were holding out for and you could get bumped out of the role. We’re talking a whole slew of variables that could change the casting situation. So, you go in, confident that the role is yours, prepare and present yourself as if it is yours (which is why you hear the common saying “own it”) and remember that it could all change at any second no matter how you have prepared. The point is, to present yourself in such a way that you become memorable, endearing, and above all, indispensable.
Also, on Saturday evening a filmmaker approached me with a pitch for a new webisode series. As I found out, he had written it with me in mind and wanted to know if I would be interested in the project. I happily accepted the lead role in the new webisode series set to film in September. I cannot even begin to tell you how PUMPED I am about this project. Not only is it going to be action-packed, but I’m also getting a chance to put my musical skills to work and already started writing a song for the show (with some delicious harmonies) and looking forward to more songwriting for it, too. More details on the way as soon as we’re able to let you know!
+++++
Vanessa
http://www.vanessaleinani.com/
http://vanessaleinani.wordpress.com/
Monday, March 15, 2010
webflexx on: twitter, facebook, google and yahoo!
These days, Twitter and Facebook are two essential websites that most would access apart from Google.com. Up till now, many are still in the dark as to how Twitter and Facebook works. It is true though when the industry experts and analysts mentioned that these two web giants can actually help propel a small business forward by miles.
Webflexx facebook is still very preliminary, but we have been actively advertising on Facebook. We started on Twitter not too long ago and came up with a lot of interesting observations. The amount of information is so vast that sometimes, I am beginning to wonder how does certain quarters pace up with these overloaded information.
We know more but the more we know the more I know I know much less than I thought I would knew!
My browser is telling me that Twitter is my most visited site in the past 7 days. Yeah I am addicted to reading the latest news online and get into the minds of some of these web intellectuals as well as some of our Malaysian politicians.
Here’s a tip for those who have just started.
Do not follow more than you could manage. It may send you into a frenzy and you may end up being more confused than ever.
I went surfing at some government websites as well as some big corporations. Most websites have yet to establish themselves with a Twitter or a Facebook presence. Seriously, if you were to ask me if Facebook is ever going to slow down, I would respond with a resounding NO. Not for the next few years at least.
From Facebook and Twitter, you can see how much Google is responding with the Buzz, and these days, Yahoo tried entering the market quietly though. Yahoo’s respond to enter the buzz market is nothing to shout about. It is plain boring and you can tell it’s done in a hurry.
Looks like we will all be twitting and facebooking for a long time to come!
When to use URL Shortening Services?
Following the popularity of social networking and microblogging services, URL Shortening Services are springing up like mushrooms. In less than a year, I have used services offered by TinyURL, bit.ly, goo.gl. I also came across some shortened URLs with a twist, i.e. diu.li (The pronunciation of the URL sounds like 屌你 in Cantonese, which means “f*ck u” in the language).
URL Shortening Services is extremely handy when we have character limit in our way of communication. Twitter only allows user to use 140 characters in a tweet, Facebook allows only 420. If I would like to post a URL and tell my friends where Twestival is going to be held by linking to a Google Street View Image, I have to copy a 381 characters long URL and include it in my tweet.
http://maps.google.com.hk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=zh-TW&geocode=&q=Staunton’s+Cafe&sll=22.38131,114.168639&sspn=0.779675,1.212616&ie=UTF8&hq=Staunton’s+Cafe&hnear=&ll=22.282976,114.152541&spn=0,359.997632&z=19&brcurrent=3,0×3404007e811b3f95:0×47c863b8fcf83784,0,0×3403ff80eb6f67b1:0×46c3c89b39011247&layer=c&cbll=22.283108,114.152709&panoid=PGP8AwzKwwO5MtvtiN8wGQ&cbp=12,235.12,,0,5
Obviously, the tweet cannot be sent as the URL is lengthy enough to exceed the character limit of Twitter.
By using URL shortening services, the link can be shortened as a URL which uses only 20 characters (in bit.ly’s case).
http://bit.ly/d0ZT09
One of the assignments that I gave my class on “Computer-aided Translation” is on Terminology Management using Google Docs. Apart from building a simple bilingual or multilingual glossary which contains the term in its source language and the corresponding translations, I suggested them to include the following fields – “Created by” (to identify the creator of the entry”, “Definition”, “Source” (to indicate where the entry or its translations is from).
Not every group follow the suggestion strictly, but the group which did includes a column of shortened URL.
The layout of the spreadsheet is definitely more presentable with shorted URLs, however, readers got no idea on where the information comes from. I don’t know where the link will take me – a press release in the government’s website? Tech spec of a certain product? A blog post? Worse, a spam/virus spreading website! Not a clue!
My stand is URL shortening service is useful when it is used with microblogging services like Twitter or 2D matrix code like QR code. However, the usage must be limited to that. As the messages are like Instant Messages, it appears for a day or two, then being lost in no where. As an active twitter user, I never dig up my first tweet, and I think I do not need to refer to the tweets I posted a week ago for a new tweet.
For comparatively formal writing like academic writing, journals, essays, I do not think it is acceptable to use URL Shortening services as people may have to refer to your articles anytime. What if the shortening service is no longer available? What if people only want to know where the information comes from but do not want to verify themselves? Providing a full URL in this case can give people a better understanding on the website without really opening the browser.
In short, Shortened URL looks good, but not for formal writing.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Realtor’s Top 10 Marketing Preferences
No matter what business you are in, marketing is the KEY. Without great marketing, no matter how excellent your products or services are, it would not get too far. Today, we’re still in the beginning of the social media hype. Countless of business market themselves on the internet, but are they doing it the right way? Using the most effective tools?
HomeGain ®, a connection portal for realtors and buyers of real estate conducted a survey on the top marketing practices and preferences of realtors today. Parts of the result were a bit shocking to me.
According to HomeGain®, over 1,300 real estate agents and brokers in US participated in the survey. Each type of marketing strategies receives a score out of 10 for effectiveness; with 1 as the least effective and 10 as the most effective.
1= Least Effective 10= Most Effective
Networking and referrals for Realtors is at the top of the list as excepted. Word of mouth advertisement is at its best in this industry. Building a large and solid network should be the top priority for realtors, as a matter of fact for any industry. Printed Ads may become obsolete. The public views thousands of advertisements a day, no matter where they go. They have learned to look pass it and place them into their unconsciousness. For me personally, I will not complete give it up. Its low cost/investment will still give me an increase of 3.6%; it’s better than nothing.
This second part of this survey asked the agents and brokers what strategy they will choose in the future. Results show that they will continue to focus on referrals, e-mail campaigns and featured listings. They are less likely to invest time and money on strategies such as Twitter, banner ads, pay per click advertisements, outdoor advertising and MySpace.
Below is the Top 10 Marketing Objectives for Realtors in 2010. We will likely in all the top 10 strategies mentioned. Moreover, YouTube will likely to be used more than before in the future as a marketing tool in the real estate industry. (1=Least Likely to Use; 10= Most Likely to Use)
- Referrals (8.9)
- Email Campaigns (5.7)
- Postcards/Mailers (5.4)
- Featured Listings (5.2)
- Facebook (4.9)
- Print Ads (4.3)
- Blogging (4.2)
- LinkedIn (4.1)
- Online Lead Generation Services (4.0)
- YouTube (3.5)
- A final note: NETWORKING IS AND WILL BE THE WAY TO GO
Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010-homegain/real-estate-survey/prweb3712784.htm
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Blog: the Revolution at Work; the industry reacts to @salesforce’s moves:http://bit.ly/cjls1e @yammer @socialtext @socialcast @zoho @jive (Scobleizer)
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Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Social Networking Will Kill Us All
I’m trying to become famous here. How famous you ask? I guess about as famous as I can get while being a father/trophy-husband/son/friend/guy-with-a-life.
I don’t know what EXACTLY I want to get out of this blog. I can say with reckless abandon that “I don’t care how many people read my stuff. I do this for me as an outlet to pour my creative juices into for a little bit each day.” To a certain extent this is true… buuuuuuuuuuuuuut… it’s not entirely accurate.
I’ve always liked being acknowledged thus I always dreamed of becoming an actor… but then life got in the way.
After my dreams of talking with David Letterman on The Late Show about my latest flick were replaced with dreams of raising my daughter to be filled with nothing short of my unending love… I still craved some sort of recognition.
I think I would have proved a more valuable interview…
Even if it was in my mind.
I’ve always had a good imagination. When I was 18… I mean 8… I can remember setting up entire battle sequences with my sisters stuffed animals she’d indebted to me to keep safe while she went away to college. As I punched her large stuffed bear named “Beau” in his (rapidly deteriorating) fluffy neck… I imagined I was in an epic battle with some vicious animal from the netherworld.
That would be me, our family cat and Beau… right before I kicked him in the groin and then roundhouse kicked him in the temple
I used to be gone for hours traveling around the 300-acre farmland we had with my BB gun shooting trashed glass bottles. These glass bottles would represent my enemies… and each one I eliminated meant I was that much closer to “rescuing” Jill: my elementary school crush at the time who obviously had no idea what I would go through to rescue her from such evil empty Coke bottles.
While my battles with evil Coke bottles and innocent stuffed animals are long gone… they’ve been replaced with the all more real battle of trying to figure out “what the hell am I doing with my life?”
My imagination still rolls on.
These days, I imagine getting “discovered” i.e. Lorne Michaels magically reads my blog among the 10 million other things he’s doing and wants me to write some sketches for SNL. Or I could get featured on some “mega-blog” and start experiencing a paradigm shift in the number of readers who visit my site. Or I could actually get paid to do this crap!?
Lorne… first of all… what kind of name is “Lorne” and uh… I’m available
I realize this doesn’t EVER happen on accident… but rather, with hard work, marketing and perhaps a little luck. I know what I have to do. I have to visit other blogs, socially network myself like hell (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter… I got ‘em all), join other networking forums (Dad Blogs, blah, blah) and maybe even spend some cash for advertising or making my site a little more “flashy”.
Which brings me to a question: “How do I have time to do all this?”
Quick answer for you: “I don’t really”.
Uh-oh… Here comes the catch.
So, I have these ideas (they’re free!):
- Follow me on Twitter and catch up with all my random quips throughout the day that prove I’m really completely uninteresting. I more than likely will follow you as well.
- If you’re not a freak… you can ask me to be your friend on Facebook with the notion that you’re a reader of mine and I’ll accept you.
- If you’re still on the archaic social networking site known as “MySpace” you can find me there too… but not very often.
- Visit my Blogroll. There are some great blogs there that I read continually that would love to see some traffic directed their way from my site.
- Visit my Fanroll. If you have a blog, business or just want to see yourself on the internet the you could feature yourself in my fanroll… just read how to do so by clicking this sentence that’s underlined in blue.
- If you’ve never made a comment before… THEN MAKE ONE ON THIS POST! Seriously… I have tracking software and a guy named “Brutus” who’ll shatter your kneecaps if you don’t.
Did I mention he’s a tranny…
- If you’ve made a comment before… THEN MAKE ONE AGAIN! I’ve never made it over 25 comments (and some of those were mine) so why don’t we get it over 40… that would be awesome.
Okay… I’m officially done begging.
Help my imagination become reality (and inflate my ego)… and I’ll help you do whatever you need help with (within reason). I’m serious. Just let me know. It’s a big bloggy world out there… and we could ALL use a little help now and then.
Twitter Turns Tuesday Into Testing and Tweaking Time
Twitter, the micro-blogging service and social media company founded by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone among others, has seen steady growth month over month and a combined growth over the past year of 294.26%.
So, if you are a social media networking site with 23 million unique visitors, what do you do to attract a revenue stream and more users? Apparently, spend a day testing out some new features and updates. And that is just what they spent today doing.
Twitter spent Tuesday doing some experimentation and some tweaking. These appeared and then disappeared like a blip on the radar.
One of the changes? Modifying the “update” button to “tweet,” seemingly to signify that it’s official. 
Those of you sending out those 140 character message aren’t twittering but in fact “tweeting.” It only took the stats to rise to 50 million tweets per day for them to make the update, but even then, only momentarily. It was noticed by a few and TechCrunch sent out a post regarding it, but at the time of this post, it still remains “update.”
In an attempt to timidly enter the location wars, Twitter turned on the geolocation function on its website. TechCrunch featured small screenshots of tweets with small location place markers, displaying a Google map showing the location of the tweet when a user hovered over it. This feature has also been deactivated since TechCrunch’s post broke the news and screenshots.
Twitter’s geolocation feature has been live through its API since November, but until today, there was no indication that Twitter was looking to fully integrate geolocation into the main website. Twitter has timed this move well, with the report from the New York Times earlier today that Facebook has finally decided to enter the location war by unveiling its response next month at its f8 conference. Coincidentally (or not), Twitter’s inaugural Chirp conference takes place 1 week before the f8 conference. Google is trying to get into the location war as well, but has made a disappointing debut thus far with meager offerings through Buzz and Latitude. Of course, each day it seems Twitter is bursting with the buzz of the new and shiny app of the day to throw their hat into the ring of the location wars. Most of the new apps are passing information back to Twitter, leveraging Twitter’s geolocation API, which further supports the timing and logic of Twitter to turn this function on within their own website.
Written by: Sara Paxton, managing partner, CTO, and Social Media Officer of Evans Media Group, Kansas City’s Social Media Agency, a boutique agency located in Overland Park, KS that specializes in traditional marketing, social media marketing, online marketing, and public relations.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Gestures Across Cultures: Thumbs-Up
Gestures do not have a universal meaning across cultures. Be careful when using body language in your business and social interaction and make sure you understand your audience.
While the thumbs-up sign might show approval in the Western world, it might be interpreted as obscene in other cultures. In some Middle Eastern countries this sign traditionally translates as the foulest of gesticular insults. In Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, and Thailand thumbs-up is an obscene gesture, equivalent to the use of the middle finger in the Western world. In Italy, in the right context, it can simply indicate the number one. In Russia and Finland the meaning of this expression is “good”, or “well done”. In the England, a single handed thumbs-up sign can be used as a farewell or greetings gesture between young males. In Egypt and Israel, it means perfect or very good.
In fact, Facebook users encounter the same thumbs-up sign every day. The most popular “Like” button allows members of the social-networking site to show their appreciation to messages, photos and videos by putting a thumbs-up. But do you think this feature communicates the same message worldwide? I doubt it.
It’s Rahm vs. Axelrod, and Rahm Is Winning
In the days of the old Pravda, one could determine who was winning secret Politburo power struggles by just looking at the official Soviet newspaper. Those winning simply got better press.
Perhaps it may be no different here in the United States.
This week two of the heaviest guns in American media, The Washington Post and The New York Times, unloaded their missiles at Obama adviser David Axelrod while heralding White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel as a centrist and pragmatist.
This Sunday’s New York Times, for example, features Axelrod and describes him as the ideological courtier advising the president into darkness as Emanuel remains the level-headed counselor.
Here’s an excerpt from “Message Maven Finds Fingers Pointing at Him”:
“Recent news reports have cast the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, as the administration’s chief pragmatist, and Mr. Axelrod, by implication, as something of a swooning loyalist. ‘I’ve heard him be called a “Moonie,”’ dismissed Mr. Axelrod’s close friend, former Commerce Secretary William Daley. Or as the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, joked, ‘the guy who walks in front of the president with rose petals.’”
The Times speculates that the “No Drama Obama” Team is indeed “fracturing.” The Times report follows the page one, top-of-the-fold story in Tuesday’s Washington Post that screamed “Hotheaded Emanuel May Be White House Voice of Reason.”
Sorry Ballerina Boy Following Axelrod, make your flight reservation
The Post story details the enormous transformation Rahm has been making.
Once considered a “caricature,” the paper says he has had a reputation as D.C.’s “resident leviathan, a bullying, bruising White House chief of staff who is a prime target for the failings of the Obama administration.”
But then the dagger falls on Axelrod as Emanuel is played as the White House voice of reason, as the Post describes:
“But a contrarian narrative is emerging: Emanuel is a force of political reason within the White House and could have helped the administration avoid its current bind if the president had heeded his advice on some of the most sensitive subjects of the year: health-care reform, jobs and trying alleged terrorists in civilian courts.“
Emanuel could have saved Obama from falling poll numbers if only he had avoided all the agenda items pushed by Axelrod!
For instance, the Post notes that Emanuel pressed Obama not to allow Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed to be tried in civilian court.
Attorney General Eric Holder argued for doing just that as a matter of “principle.”
The Post says: “David Axelrod, senior adviser to Obama, supported Holder, the source said. The president agreed that letting the Justice Department take the lead was the right thing to do.”
The paper quotes Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham: “During this whole civilian-trial debate, Rahm’s gut instincts knew that taking KSM to New York for civilian trials was going to be a misstep. He has a better ear for domestic politics on this issue than anybody in the administration, quite frankly.”
Kremlinologists can see the handwriting on the wall. Axelrod will soon be ousted or sidelined. Rahm emerges, and so does a more pragmatic and moderate Obama.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Should you cross-post updates to Facebook and Twitter?
Here’s an article I wrote that was published on Ragan.com:
Published: 3/5/2010
Should you cross-post updates to Facebook and Twitter?
By Ari B. Adler
The root strategy for any public relations initiative includes creating your message, determining your audience, and finding the best way of delivering your message to that audience. But now, with social media, technology has given people the ability to blast identical messages to different audiences.
LinkedIn allows you to post your status update simultaneously to Twitter. You can automatically feed your tweets to Google Buzz. You can connect tweets with your Facebook status updates or your Posterous feed. And with third-party software like Tweetdeck, you can post the same message to multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook and LinkedIn with the touch of one Send button. Whether that’s a good thing or not depends on whom you ask.
“I don’t cross-post, because I use each tool for a slightly different purpose. Therefore, I target messages for each audience,” says Angela Dockett, marketing and communications manager for the American Cancer Society in East Lansing, Mich.
“I’ve done it, but am starting to back off,” admits Jason Dobson, a professional gaming blogger in Broken Arrow, Okla. “Audiences can be quite different between social media sites, and the messaging needs to reflect that.”
Although there is some mingling of followers and friends from one platform to the other, the style of how people communicate on those platforms differs, especially from a language standpoint.
While Twitter often is filled with abbreviations and symbols, those same messages appearing on a Facebook page could be confusing. Still, that hasn’t stopped some people from connecting their accounts.
“I post Twitter to Facebook, because I have friends and family finally on Facebook that don’t get Twitter. It’s too much of a hassle for me to keep up with both,” says Colleen Lin, senior rich media producer for the Dallas County Community College District in Texas. When asked if the audiences were ever confused, Lin said they were at first.
“I had some complaints, but I find that most people ‘hide’ me (on Facebook) if they’re irritated,” she says.
For some entities, particularly government agencies and universities, cross-posting may make sense.
“We cross-post, using Facebook for students and future students; Twitter for corporations, media and parents,” says Laurie Creasy, a new media specialist at Penn State.
Creasy said they aren’t using quite the same message everywhere, but Penn State hopes all the separate networks see similar messages. She noted the messages on Twitter are “more professional.”
In Rhode Island, the state Department of Transportation uses the exact same message on multiple networks, according to Dana Alexander Nolfe, RIDOT’s chief public affairs officer.
“I have a very broad target audience, and I think my goal is to get my message to as many people as possible. With so many venues, and to ensure consistency, I cross-post my message,” Nolfe says. “Some social media have a good-size audience, and some are very small, but my feeling is if MySpace, for example, is the only place someone is going to go to get RIDOT’s message, then I am going to continue to ensure that the message gets out that way.”
Some argue that business accounts should be given some leeway when cross-posting.
“The audiences are completely different if you are coming from a personal perspective,” says A.J. Teachout, owner of Ulu Marketing in Detroit. “My Twitter followers are likely not my Facebook friends, or friends at all for that matter, so they will not care to hear about what my kid did the other day. My Facebook friends actually know me and care to hear more personal details.
“That being said, from a business perspective, I think it’s a wise move. Your audience is in it for the same reason—to learn more about the business and, likely, your messages will be similar.”
In the end, it’s up to the individual whether to cross-post. With social media being such a new conduit, there’s no proven right or wrong way to do things—yet.
“The bottom line is: Know your audience and how they might be different across multiple networks and social sites,” Teachout says. “How would that affect your message?”
Are employment publications really helpful at all?
A funny thing happened one day as I was out for breakfast in Saint Paul. Every now and then in the morning I would take a walk down the street and catch the first #21 bus to get myself an egg mcmuffin, hash brown, and orange juice at McDonald’s.
I would pick up the local newspaper the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and also each one of those freebie Employment Guide & Employment News publications and look through them while I sat down for breakfast.
This weekly issue of the Employment Guide was one of the smaller ones I had seen in quite a while. As I unfolded it I realized that it was only a four page issue. On further inspection, the pages were filled with only advertisements for job training in multiple fields: truck driver CDL training programs, a full page of medical assistance training advertisements, culinary training programs, online college courses, and GED classes.
What caught my eye was that there were no job listings! None whatsoever. Not one.
I was so surprised by this that it prompted me to make the following sarcastic status update on my Facebook page when I got home:
I just picked up the new issue of the Employment News. The unemployment rate in the Twin Cities must be at zero because there are absolutely no advertised jobs.
The recession is over!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Beware of Ganj A Fahma on Facebook!
Totally not a forward, and completely real. A friend of mine has pics of her baby on Facebook and got a comment from someone she did not know named “Ganj A Fahma.” HE, SHE, or IT is a fake!!!
Beware if you get “Ganj A Fahma” (ganja farmer = weed farmer) for a friend whom you never added who starts leaving random comments about some awesome game that you have to check out or anything else that is irrelevant to you.
Report it FIRST by going to the profile by clicking on the name, go to the bottom of the page, and click the Report/Block link. Then, go back to your pics and delete the comments if they’re still there so no one clicks on the link the faker provides. They’ll get hacked or worse!!!!! Totally a faker, you DID NOT add this person!!!!
Please pass this note onto others.
View This Pollsurveys
Facebook ads
Creepy facebooks ads currently showing on my profile:
See what your baby looks like, all you need is a pic of you and a pic of anyone else! Subscription required.
You only live once, Make the most of it. Date wealthy and upscale men. Join MeetingMillionaires and meet the man of your dreams!
I’m not ready to think about having a child, and am not shallow enough to go to a site like meetingmillionaires
Monday, March 1, 2010
Mud is good.
Well, it was muddy – incredibly muddy. There were all different kinds of mud. There was the shin deep mud that pulls your runners off your feet. There was the slippy mud you kind of skate on. There was watery mud – up to your waist at points, that you waded through. There was grassy looking mud that you thought was grassy enough to be safe, but wasn’t and you went flying. There was mud that looked like it had broken glass in it, but it was just muddy ice.
Last Saturday I participated in Ireland’s first ever ‘Mud Run’. It was in aid of MS Ireland and each runner had to raise a minimum of €150 to take part. Probably about 500 people turned up and ran on the day – it was out in Mondello Park. There’s an off-road tank track there and they marked out a running route through it. It was a lovely morning, cold, but bright. My running mate had flaked out, so I was on my own, but actually you couldn’t really be on your own there, because there was great banter and fun and helping each other out as you fell.
The event raised about €75,000 for MS Ireland and it was also sponsored by Persil – and that’s where it’s a bit interesting from a marketing point of view. What a nice fit for Persil. Not too big, not too clever, but some lovely touches. They had a giant clothes line at the finishing line. And when you finished you got a goodie bag including a sample of Persil Naturals. Of course what do you do when you go home, only chuck your gear in the wash? The facebook page for the event had about 800 fans, there’s photos and video up already – I found myself at 1:35 here: . Not to mention all the online talk and content outside of the official pages. Already the runners are talking online about next year.
Between the ideal sampling opportunity (proper old-school marketing), the on-course branding, the online presence and the good cause, it worked out pretty well for Persil. Sure, there are probably things they could have done better – but that’s something they can start working on for next year.
In the meantime, Dirt really is good.
John Clancy
so, is this Facebook stuff worth it?
I asked this question about Social Media in general a few weeks back. I also noted how at the C.H. Nash Museum we do not want our newsletter, website, and Facebook to be simply different versions of the same thing. We routinely use Facebook to interact and with our fans. So how is that going and what are we learning?
The first thing I learned was the need to give up control. This seems somewhat contradictory to my position as the Museum Director, but all of our staff and graduate assistants are now administrators of the Facebook page. We routinely discuss the type of content we think will work. I thoroughly enjoy that the posts I at first might cringe at, are in fact those that engage our fans the most. Further, this interactivity is driving increased awareness and participation in our on-site events, such as our annual 5k run.
Second, the ability to interact with other Museums, cross promote activities, and simply share and be engaged with other folks experience is tremendous. The page Museums on Facebook lists some 600 different institutions with fan pages. I am a fan of a couple dozen different regional, Native American, and archaeological museum pages. The types of posts from these museums is diverse. Most museum web pages continue to just push product. However, an increasing number are becoming more interactive and “social” in their approach. For example the Newseum Facebook fan page always ends their posts with a question to engage their fans. On the C.H. Nash Museum page, we find that questions posed are always answered by at least a couple of fans.
A recent post on Beth’s Blog discussed Facebook analytics. Options range from the complex such as Google Analytics to not so complex analytic options. For example, the simpler Insights link available to administrators of each individual Facebook fan page actually has a wealth of data. There are also links with lots of Online data on Facebook fan page analytics. A good starting point for me was a download that reports on comparative data based on Facebook Insights. The report contains abundant detail on averages for Fan Pages, on everything from number of fans, average posts, number of comments per post – more stuff than you can shake a stick at. This downloadable report allows you to see how your Fan Page stacks up against the norm. For example, on the C.H. Nash Museum page, we are above the norm on the most of the various feedback measures.
However, these data still do not directly answer the question, is this Facebook stuff worth it? If a page maintains above average rankings on all measures, does that mean it is working and is worth the time expended? I’ll play with this more in the future.
What are your thoughts on how to measure if your energy expenditure in Facebook is worth it?