I Dream in Tech

Clicks: Merits of mobility aids

2011-08-22T17:27:00.000-04:00

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5 for Friday: The End of a Blog and other New Beginnings.

2010-06-04T08:47:00.003-04:00

Yes, the Sign says it all.

I'm leaving...blogger.

But the good thing is, I'm moving this spot over to WWW.IDreamInTech.Com and have a few good ideas planned for it.

The website is currently under "construction" but feel free to send your thoughts to me at ColinWWatts (at) Gmail.com or connect with me on Twitter @Cole_watts.

5 for Friday:

1. Bad news for Iphone owners: NO MORE UNLIMITED DATA.

2. The AP offers 42 new Guidelines for Social Media, most of which I still have no read.

3. Google makes a play, by creating it's own OS.

4. You can now customize your Google landing page, to your heart's desire.

5. Quit Facebook Day, didn't get the turnout that many people expected.

Follow Friday: @JasonPeck, @EwayDirect, @FrancoFrenette,

Podcast you're not listening to: The BS Report with Bill Simmons

A few tips for the Social Media novice.

2010-06-02T11:22:00.002-04:00

If you do not read this blog regularly or just happened to find it, last week I called an Ad Agency out for not using Social Media. You can view that recap here. So in honor of last week's column, I decided this week's column would be about the way's you can use Social media to your advantage. If you are an average joe like me or if you are the Ad Agency I talked about last week, here are a few ideas on how to get the most out of your Social Media experiment.

1. Talk to your audience.
-During my time at my first Internship, the manager owned a bar and was a HUGE Social Media guy. I give him credit because he was the one who introduced me to the power of Social Media. For every event, or band that played at his place, he would send out an event immediately to all of his followers letting them know about what was coming up at the bar.
-All social media platforms have the ability of sending out a long message to a group of people. Use this to your advantage. Inform your audience of not just events, but sales and other things that might catch their eye.

2. Follow your competitors.
-I would never know about Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or any of the other Social Media dashboards without hearing about them from the people I have followed, who use it to leverage their social media presence.
-You can learn tons from your enemies on the field if you if you simply follow them and see what they are talking about. Learn what they are doing successfully and implement it, implement it into your own brand.

3. Information
-If you have ever used Twitter, you are well aware that is filled with thousands of backlinks that will lead you to news stories spawning from the New York Times to ESPN to Paris Hilton.
-Use this information. Just like following your competitors this can give you tons of insight into breaking news that is happening in real time.

4. Customer Service.
-A few weeks ago, when I had my Identity Stolen, I was bitching about Verizon's customer service on Twitter, and immediately got a message, and a follow from the Verizon team. Customer service has been given a strong emphasis in this web 2.0 atmosphere and with various technologies such as TweetMeme and Radian 6, it is easier than ever to find out where the messages are originating from.
-Social Media is a springboard for many people to talk about the pros and cons of almost every aspect of human life. If you are able to find out the problems that people are having with your product and/or company, you can possibly act quick enough and fix these issues before you have a full blown PR disaster.

These are four big parts of the Social Media pie! Social Media can be used for all of these and much more...and if you're not implementing any of these into your social media game plan....then again, you sir are an idiot.

5 for Friday: A Memorial Day Message.

2010-05-28T09:24:00.006-04:00

The above image is my old neighbor Jason Ray Parsons, who was killed in a Roadside bombing while serving in Afghanistan on Janurary 9th, 2009. Monday is Memorial day, so please remember the people who have fallen so we can enjoy your freedom.

Wherever you are Jason, know that you are missed by not just me but thousands of others.

5 for Friday:

Apple officially passes Microsoft in Technology supremacy.
Facebook announces even more privacy changes and the Wall Street Journal is there to cover it.
To pave room for the Upcoming Iphone, Wal-Mart slashes iphone 3GS price to $97.
Limewire COO talks about filtering out pirated content that currently has his company in a whole heep of trouble.
After years of doing nothing, the FCC finally takes a long hard look at the wireless community.

Follow Friday: @RickM, @Helpaprproout, @SocialMediajobs,

Podcast you are not listening to but should: Security Now with Steve Gibson

Have a story that you want featured here? Send me an e-mail at ColinWWatts (at) Gmail.com

Why no Social Media plan, does not make it a Good Plan.

2010-05-27T16:02:00.003-04:00

If you do not get Social Media at this point YOU ARE AN IDIOT. There I said it. As most of you know, I am at a giant turning point in my life where I am looking for a full time position in the Marketing world, preferable in Social Media.

I love it and I get it! Yes, I don't have 20,000 thousand readers for my blog, but that's not the point. My blog is for me to rant and rave about Social Media and the occasional episode of Lost. I do not want to make money at it. I am not Chris Brogan or Amber Naslund....at least not yet.

But the amount of followers that I have should not stop you from hiring me, because apparently I have a stronger presence than some of you out there. As I have been planning my next grand adventure of what to do next, post my current Internship, I've been reaching out to Ad agencies both small and large, and I have been DUMB FOUNDED by the number of agencies/companies that do not have any social media links anywhere on their webpage or a social media presence of any kind.

Do these people not realize how many early adopters there are out there! Do these people not realize that Foursquare is gaining 15 thousand users a month! Do they not realize that Facebook has gained 10 million active users since April 21st and despite recent backlash they do not seem to be slowing down!

As an Advertiser/Marketer you have to follow your audience, no matter where they are, if it's down the dark hallway of Twitter or the hip check-in's of Foursquare. YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THEM! You have to understand that kids these days are growing up with this technology and they cannot imagine a future without it. So it's best to target this medium now!

So I'm not asking you to hire me to fix your problem, but for crying out loud, just adopt a Social Media plan because if you don't YOU ARE AN IDIOT!

My Goodbye to Lost.

2010-05-25T22:42:00.027-04:00

I have to do this...as a Lost fan I feel almost obligated to write a post about the final episode of Lost. So if you are not a Lost fan, go somewhere else....maybe here Amber Naslund's blog or here at Laura Ruettiman's blog. Okay, are you still there? You are, GREAT! You will not be disappointed, I promise.

Before I start anything I want to say good-bye...good-bye to Jack's self-doubt, Sawyer's charm, Sayid's tortured soul, and John Lock's spirtual quest. Thank you Lost, it was a fun and crazy journey and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Now it's been a little over 72 hrs since the ending and many people are still talking about what the hell just happened? Was this future purgatory? Did Jack die in the plane crash? Though these questions like many others were unanswered, I have to honestly say that this show, told it's story.

The number one thing about figuring out Lost's ending, is figuring out what the show was about. Watching an episode of Lost, many people will tell you that the show is about a group of people on a mysterious island and at that point I have to agree, but then most people will ramble on about the mysteries of the island and I have to say that's where I disagree, about the premise of the show. The show is, was, NEVER ABOUT THE ISLAND instead it was about the characters. The show was named Lost not because this is a group of characters who are lost on a mystical Island but because this is a group of character's who are lost in their lives. These people were battling there own demons before they ever landed on the island, be it a woman on the run or a soon to be mother who was giving away her baby, all of these people were lost in their lives and they found themselves on this island. This is what Lost is in a nutshell, not a story about a smoke monster or.two brothers locked in a battle of good versus evil, but a show about a group of people who found each other in their time of need.

This show was more about the characters than it ever was about the Science Fiction. Yes, I was one of those guys, who read the blogs about Walt's visions, the maps on the hatch, and Eloise Hawkins appearances, and I can honestly say I am happy that some of these questions were never answered.

So good-bye, once again Lost, there will never be a show that confused this many people ever again.

5 for Friday: A case of Stolen Identity, Google Announcements and Microsoft Updates.

2010-05-21T09:44:00.004-04:00

If you have not heard by now, I am currently suffering from a case of Identity Theft. When my twin brother heard about it, he couldn't help but grab a magnifying glass and run around going "there's a mystery a foot."

5 For Friday:

Microsoft has upped the Ante in the map game, by introducing new features into Bing maps. including Apps to find Gas prices and parking spaces.
Google introduces GoogleTV leaving this writer to wonder if the Google Fridge and Microwave are next.
In other Google news, Google announced the Google Chrome Web App Store. at the Google I/O conference.
The number one E-mail service in the world Hotmail not Google, receives some long needed updates.
In Social Media news, the Wall Street Journal has dug up some info that show Digg, Myspace and Facebook giving your private information to Advertisers.

Follow Friday: @Rena_Turnmire, @Kaylee11, @Sweetsammi11687

Podcast you are not listening to but should: What the F@#$! With Marc Maron.

Want to be featured here? Contact me at ColinWWatts (at) Gmail.com

What to do about that other Cole Watts? Yesterday's tale of Identity Theft.

2010-05-19T08:15:00.002-04:00

So I became a victim of Identity theft, yesterday. Yes, you read that right. I came home yesterday from my Internship and found out that I was now the owner of six cell phones attached to family plans with both Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Thankfully, I was able to call and cancel AT&T's plan almost immediately, and I am still waiting to hear fromVerizon Wireless.

I micro-blogged the whole event starting with this tweet, and followed it up until my eventful return from the police department. As I was tweeting my friends at JHP Advertising, they sent me their sympathy and I said thank you, and went on to tell them that my bank account's safe but my social security numbers are another issue entirely. These thieves used my Social Security numbers to order the phones and if they're smart enough, they will realize they that they can use these numbers to order anything at all.

This got me thinking about just how important our social security numbers are to us and our future. Now that we have decided to become a digital society, paper money is becoming irrelevant. Though it is easy to go to an ATM these days, few people actually carry around cash or any coinage. With debit and credits so easily to be stolen is it not time that we implement some kind of retinal scans, or the fingerpriting devices that we see in the movies.

Though these thoughts of simply being a number in the system are scary, being a victim is scarier. Now, I have to worry about myself and my future, because I am a victim and this can only make me wonder where our current future will take us.

Where will the banking industry take us, in order to protect our security? Are we going to have chips in the back of our heads that serve as our bank accounts as well? Let me know.

With Lost over, I am now Lost.

2010-05-17T10:41:00.001-04:00

So after tomorrow night, there will be only be one episode left of Lost, which means the end of the Oceanic Flight 815's journey and also the freedom of my Tuesday nights once again.

There are few shows that have captivated me in the last five years like Lost. I am not an avid TV watcher to begin with, but I have given a few shows a chance such as the Mentalist, The Unusuals, Dark Blue, and Pushing Daisies. But none of these shows have filled with the same wonder as Lost. None of the shows filled me with the same wonder and awe that Lost has, so I am left wondering what show will fill this gaping void that is now in my life.

Breaking Bad(AMC) - A show that I've told myself numerous times that I would watch. I even have a sister who watches this show religiously, but have not been able to make myself to sit down and watch it. The story centers around a Science teacher turned drug dealer and if that does not remind you of your high school days something is completely wrong.

The Wire(HBO) - Yes, the show is off the air and despite winning thousands of awards, I have still never watched a single episode of it. I love shows that do not pull any punches and from what I understand this is the show to watch if you want the see true dirty underworld of the streets.

Dexter (Showtime) - A show my friends give me hell about every season for not watching. I watched the first season in the span of a week and was truly captivated by Michael C Hall's scary performance of a forensics agent with a deadly secret, however, I was deeply worried that after the first season of the show, that the premise would get repetitive and dull, but I keep hearing good
things about it.

Mad Men(AMC) - A character piece at it's best. The story of an Advertising Agency in the 70s truly captivates me and though I know nothing else about the show beyond it's location, I am still intrigued by it. I really want to watch the first season of this show, just to see what it is all about.

Walking Dead(AMC) - The one show I am looking forward to the most this fall season. This is not a truly episodic show but instead a mini-series. Though, word is if it succeeds it will turn into a weekly. If you are unfamiliar with the Walking Dead, it's based on a Comic book series by Robert Kirkman. Walking Dead tells the story of Rick Grimes who tries to survive a Zombie Apocalypse. AMC + Zombies = You have me hooked.

If you have not heard of any of these shows, something's apparently wrong or like me you are a Lost zombie.

Now that I have listed the shows I look forward to spending my free time with, is there anything I missed and what are you looking forward to watching now that Lost is over? Leave a comment below.

5 for Friday: A Turkish Kid, Matt Vaughan, and My Sister's Graduation.

2010-05-14T08:38:00.004-04:00

Last weekend was graduation weekend for my sister and another excuse for my mother to take ridiculous shots of the entire family. On the plus side, I got to spend my free time the cutest neice/nephew combo in the world.

Android outselling Apple? Looks that way.
Leo Laporte and other web leaders are leaving Facebook, but for how long?
Hear the one about the Turkish kid and Twitter?
Facebook jumps into Geo-social networking.
The NYTimes says suprisingly, we do not use our cellphones as phones.

AND THE BONUS SHOT: 919 Marketing's Matt Vaughan decided to start a blog, check it out and tell him I said hey.

Follow Friday: @919marketing, @VaughanMatt, @ALanning79, @grchapman5

Podcast you're not listening to: Engadget

Have a story you want mentioned here? Contact me at ColinWWatts (at) Gmail.com

Microsoft and now Facebook, the Bullies of the Technological age.

2010-05-12T12:10:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday, I posed the following question on Facebook, "What Internet browser do you currently use?" and got the following results:

   3 - for Explorer
   3 - for Chrome
   2 - for Firefox

I had posed this question to see how many people still used Internet Explorer and was surprised that I found a decent portion of my test audience still used it. If you are familiar with Explorer, you know it as the default browser for all Windows operating systems. I partially wonder if people still use it, because it came as the standard browser in early computer systems and people have yet to make a switch.

Microsoft was a bully in those early days and felt it a crime to allow any other Internet browser on it's operating systems. Those times have changed though with Microsoft being more lenient on other Browsers being on there machines. Though Microsoft is no longer the bully it once was, other such programs have been bullying us the last few years, such as Apple's Safari which is almost a required download when updating Itunes/Quicktime these days.

Do we want these bullying sales tactics and what of the future? Facebook, is currently taking our privacy away, but if we leave it, such as Tech host Leo Laport  who recently did, will we be able to communicate with our core audience, whose still on it?

Being forced into something, is not a good thing, but in the age of the branded Internet, bulling is almost a given. Microsoft was the original bully in the early days as it "convinced" us to use Explorer and now Facebook is trying the same tactics by telling us that sharing our information is a good thing. As a salesmen I understand this tactic, but these stakes that Facebook and other Internet companies are playing with our different, by eliminating our options and making us do exactly what they say, they are not just being cruel but straight bullies.

5 For Friday: New Beginnings.

2010-05-06T18:57:00.012-04:00

Ah...new segment time. Welcome to 5 for Friday's, 5 links that send you to the stories that you might of missed.

Google's new look, examined by the LA Times.
Bit.ly and the real time web.
Conan O'Brian on 60 minutes, in case you missed it.
Apple vs. Flash, the fight heats up.
Walking Dead Free #49 free comic book day was last weekend, but that doesn't mean the free comic books have stopped. Check out Walking Dead, soon to be an AMC Miniseries.

Follow Friday: @RRW, @NYTimes

Podcast You're not listening to.: TWIT(This Week In Tech)

Have a story that you want featured? E-mail me: ColinWWatts@Gmail.com

I Dream in Tech Update

2010-05-04T21:09:00.000-04:00

Okay for those that have been wondering, about the status of this blog, I believe it's time that I update the ground rules and structure for this blog. I believe in my very first posting, the rules were that I would post a blog every Tuesday and Thursday and for those of you that have noticed, Tuesday has just passed and there is no new blog. So, I think it's time for you to know what you can expect from me as a writer.

I cannot make any true promises, my life is upside down and inside out at the current moment, but I will make a vowel to post once a week. That is my job, as your writer. You come here for a particular reason, all of you do, and so it is my job to at least keep this blog updated and fresh. So in order to do that I am laying out some ground rules as your regular blogger.

1. I will post every Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning.

2. I am rolling out a new column, 5 for Friday's. 5 for Friday's, will be five stories from the week that I believe you should read. This will be started this coming friday.

Now that I have laid those rules out, that does not mean things are not subject to change. Does this mean, you can not expect me to write anymore than those two articles a week? No, it does not. You might still get the average three posting a week from me or more. It depends how my schedule goes. But in the meantime, my job is to keep you the reader pleased.

I want to say thank you for following me so far and I look forward to continuing to educate you on tech and social media, as the future we once dreamed of, is now here.

"Bitching and Moaning" on Social Media.

2010-05-04T20:08:00.000-04:00

So as everybody knows I am one of those social media dorks that believes Twitter is a religion, checks Facebook every hour, and "check's in" everywhere I go on Gowalla and Foursquare, but today I committed a cardinal sin in "Social Media" by bitching and moaning about my life on Twitter.

As most people know, I am constantly staying busy on a variety of levels:

I work full time at Radioshack, to make ends meet.
I am an intern at 919 Marketing, a marketing company located in Holly Springs.
I try to manage this blog.

But today I reached a new all time low by committing an act of Social Media that I never thought I would do, I COMMITTED BAD SOCIAL MEDIA. . Exhausted and unhappy with my performance at 919 I bitched and moaned on Twitter. A lot of factors could of led to this...exhaustion maybe, failing to reach a level of performance, I have placed on my life? But regardless of the reason, once someone "bitches and moans" online, can such a cruel act on Social Media be fixed? Sadly, I do not believe so. Though, I am just a normal everyday Joe, and most people will see it as my one only slip up, imagine if I was a company spokesman. Would they have the same leverage that I, the average Samaritan have.

Imagine if I was a top notch executive at Radioshack and was bitching about the company on a company social media account. What would happen to me? Would I lose my job? Would I be fined? Most companies have Social Media rules and regulations in place today to prevent such an action from taking place, but I have to wonder are these rules enforced and what are we going to do in the future as Social Media becomes more of a part of our every day life. Though we are protected by the First Amendment, I can only wonder, what exactly would happen next.

We have reached that point in Social Media where our very lives, our being monitored 24/7 and "bitching and moaning," is just counter productive to the whole notion of social media. We as a civilization do not want to hear about your daily problems, or your cry for help, this is not your soapbox. If so GET A BLOG! So please stop the "Bitching and Moaning," because if you promise too, I will as well.

Smartphone slideshow.

2010-05-02T22:57:00.000-04:00

The following exert is from Jesse's smartphone powerpoint that he created for his one of his college classes. Enjoy!

Simon says the smartphone wave is upon us! It has been nearly 17 years since IBM released Simon, the world's first smartphone. We haven't looked back since then. Simon's touchscreen and applications suite (calender, address book, email, games, etc.) resemble today's models, only on a smaller scale. Smartphone users today enjoy an endless array of features, such as GPS, voice command, and multi-tasking, and choose from an even greater playground of approximately 128,000 applications (...and counting). The smartphone market has taken a mighty leap in just the past few years. Across the globe, less than 8 million units were sold in 2003, as opposed to a nearly 80% increase in that number in 2008. Smartphones are owned by roughly 15% of the American population and these devices have been mainstays in the lives of their users - users that are waiting for everyone else to jump onboard!

-Jesse Ford

Treating your fans right, in Social Media.

2010-04-28T11:13:00.000-04:00

Before I say anything...I want to mention about the lateness in this post. I have been teasing on Twitter/Facebook all week that I will have a new blog post up, but for the life of me i have not got around to it. I have written a few things here and there but nothing truly stuck. Until I saw Alissa Sheley's twitter post last night.

"Are you following @dudecavanaugh? If he gets 2,000 folowers by 12am tomorrow he has to get a tattoo on his butt. Only 600 more!"

Now I love Alissa, do not get me wrong. I was kindly allowed to join her and the JHP crew during the Superbowl show and debate my thoughts on commercials. The whole experience was rather fun and entertaining and something that I will not forget. But I do have to ask one thing? Why does Ryan Canaugh need 2,000 follwers? I am sure their contest is all in fun, and this blog/rant is not meant to be directed at them, but people in general. What is the point of having so many followers?

Though Facebook and Twitter are two different applications both of these applications have this same issue. What are you going to do with 2,000 people following you? What is your ulterior motive? People need to think about this before they add that person or company.

How many of us has a friend or family member who has over a 1,000 followers in a social media page? There was a girl I went to high school with who recently created Facebook fan page for herself that said "****** ***** wants 1000 fans." Okay, why does she want this number of fans? As every marketer says before they start anything..."Why are we doing this?" Why did she need such a large number? If she has nothing more to give to these people, why would they want to join her?

Most people forget that this is Social Media and regardless of what you think, it is here as a vessell of communication. Look at Kevin Smith, this is a guy who knows marketing. Kevin Smith is one of the most recognizable guy's on Twitter, who usually entertains his audience by going on numerous rants that always include pot and sex. But not only does he use these rants to keep his fans (and himself) entertained, but he uses this to remind his followers to go see his movie's or to check out the latest comic book he's written. This is a guy who engages his customers and then slips in the occasional reminder that he does produce something. This is what marketing should be.

VICTORIA SECRET OR ANY OTHER BRAND CAN HAVE A MILLION FOLLOWERS BUT WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH IT?

Does Cavanaugh plan on using these numbers in some interesting way I do not know? Will the fans stay afterwards if he does/does not get the tattoo, who knows? But these new followers will be here with him for the foreseeable future, and whether or not he does anything with them, is up to him.

Why and how to like something, the Facebook way.

2010-04-24T10:42:00.000-04:00

What do you like?

I ask you this, because Facebook is rolling out a universal like button, that will allow you to like almost any article that you find on the Internet. If you have not heard anything about it feel free to visit this article at PC WORLD where they break down this new application a bit. The whole point of this new universal omniscient like button, is to allow you to LIKE any article and share it at ease, with your friends.

Now I am not quite sure all of the reasonings behind this button, but do we really need this? I mean do we really? People tend to forget about the invasion of privacy that many of these websites tend to have over us. True they are not stealing your credit card, but they are stealing your browsing history and this like button will be able to do the same. Do we really want Facebook and everyone to know where we went? Our privacy on the Internet is shattered now as it is, but do we really need everyone going on to the Internet and being able to follow our every move through Facebook.

I have already visited TIME which already uses the service and has the LIKE button on many of it's articles. I visited a few stories to experiment with this new feature and I found no real reason on why I should LIKE the story. I did play around with this new button however and you can simply LIKE a story or comment on it and send it to all of your Facebook followers.

Many people will click on this new feature, just to be a part of the in crowd, but these people need to remember that every click has a reaction, though we do not always see that reaction. This clicking on the LIKE button will store that information and place it somewhere, though that destination is not quite known at this point. Though Facebook currently says it will not give that information to Advertisers, that information is there to be sold and used. Only time will tell,what will happen with the LIKE button so in the meantime be careful on what you like, because it might come back to bite you.

Why it's important to get your fan on, in the Social Media scene.

2010-04-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

Are you a fan of anything in life? Do you have a favorite sports team? Do you have a favorite restaurant? Do you have a political affiliation? At any set point in life, you have your own morals and rules you live by, you are obviously a fan of something. Well are you a fan of anything in the Social Media world. Are you a fan on Facebook? Are you a Twitter follower? If not, why not....you are missing quite a lot.

For those of you that do not know, I have worked on my share of Social Media accounts in the past and I currently manage a local Restaurant's Fan Page (McKinley's Restaurant and Pub, look it up?). It started one night when I was at the bar talking to the owner's daughter. "This place, needs a Facebook page." I had commented. "Yes," it does she responded back dreary, and so that was how Mckinley's fanpage was born. But why a fanpage? In general why do companies need fan pages? Or social media accounts in general, you might ask?

Well McKinley's needs a fanpage for it's fans. I manage the page, but I have not been there in over two months. Despite my effort and the money in my checking account, I have not been able to go McKinley's as of late, however no one would ever know this because I can tell you about all of the bands that have played there and the events that they have had. Why? Because of Social Media.

Fanpages and Social Media in general are another way to reach out to our clients and their fans. The best way to think about this process is imagining the reason you use social media. You use it to reach out to your friends. Can a company not do the same? They can tell you about all of the hot deals and sales that they have going on. They can tell you about the event that is happening next Wednesday, but most of all they get you talking and thinking about them.

Once that little worm has slipped into your brain it's hard to forget it. In McKinley's case, you wanted to go out Saturday and you just saw Rexasaurus is playing that same night. Coincidence? I think not.

In a world of youtube, and attention spans getting even smaller, their's nothing wrong with being a fan of a particular event or sport. Heck, they might even teach you a thing or two. So do not feel wrong about getting your fan on and becoming a fan of a particular page, it might just prove to be beneficial after all.

Myspace or Deadspace. What do you call it these days?

2010-04-15T22:32:00.000-04:00

What do you use your Social Media accounts for? I know why I use mine. I use Twitter because I have found it to be the ultimate tool to follow my fellow Social Media collages. I mainly use Facebook to keep up with my perspective friends and family throughout the country. I use Foursquare, well, as a game and to brag to my friends about my mayorships. But out of all of the Social Media accounts I have, I am left wondering why do I use Myspace? What do I use it for?

As I was pondering this question, I recently sent out an online message, through Tweetdeck(WWW.Tweetdeck.com), asking if anybody still used Myspace and somebody responding back with, "I'm actually deleting my account tomorrow." Wow, I had thought? Is this what Myspace has become, Deadspace?

To know the future of the product we have to know the past. Myspace was one of the first social media tools that captured everybody's attention. It had a fairly simple user interface that was geared toward content creation by editing your personal page, or your "myspace page" to your personal preference. You could change your color, layout, and avatar. You could even add music and videos to your Myspace page, to make it even more individual.

However Myspace did fail at one thing and that was communication. Despite the fact that people did enjoy the customization of the pages, the application failed in the exact reason that people were using it for. Sure people liked the customization of it, but they were there to talk to their friends and family, not to customize their page. So when Facebook became open to the public, shortly after 2008(after being strictly restricted to college kids) Myspace failed. Many people soon jumped ship and found the user interface of Facebook much easier as a communication device than Myspace.

Though Myspace has done a little bit to become more streamlined and become similar to Facebook it is still falling behind. Where does this leave it? I doubt it's ever going to become a dominant engine for social media such as Facebook or Twitter, or regain any of the steam it had in those early days. Myspace might be a dying application, but it still has many features it can capitalize on. One feature in particular that I believe is vital to Myspace's success is it's ability to integrate music and video into it's pages.

Myspace is the only Social networking site that allows users to add both music and video to their profiles. Through Myspace you can create your own song list and share it with friends or upload your videos and share them with other people. I have come to the conclusion that I am making Myspace my own personal music page, filled with songs I can jam out too in one afternoon, because that is all Myspace has going for it. It's film and it's music. It has to capitalize on this, or it might as well call itself Deadspace.

*Feel free to add me on Myspace and check out my music list I have created. WWW.Myspace.com/TheBilljake125

The town.

2010-04-13T15:43:00.000-04:00

It's Tuesday and we are a little less than halfway through the week. Here's a little poem, I wrote when I was 16 that I have always kept with me. Whenever I am down it always cheers me up.

A man came into town today,

And asked me a jolly question.

"The town is so pure,

so beautiful,

how'd you get it this way?"

I smiled,

and patted the gentlemen on the back,

"To get here my friend,

you have to follow your dreams

And never look back.

A call to save the Internship.

2010-04-09T11:21:00.000-04:00

So as I was driving home from work last night, I made my usual post-work call to my father to check in and see how the family was doing. We did our usual chit-chat, "How was work?", "How was your day?", when I hear from him "Did you hear Obama's going after Internships?"

"What?" Those were my first thoughts. Me and my father usually talk politics and though we agree and disagree on many subjects that the current administration has been talking about lately, this hit me like an uppercut with the power of a hurricane. This entire subject is touchy for me, as it definitely affects me and hundreds of my colleagues who are going through the same situation right now. Forewarning though, this blog is going to get a little more personal than usual.

For those of you who do not know I spent the first few years post college working retail before finally getting the opportunity to pursue a career in the field in which I received my degree.

I received a degree in Communications from Appalachian State in December of 2007 and finally decided to make that giant venture to the Raleigh area in the Summer of 2009. But shortly after moving here, I was running into the same problems I had then, no experience. This was nothing new to me, after hearing this numerous times after college, from various employers who did offer me the opportunity to talk to them.

So when I first moved here, unsure of where I was going to take my next venture, I found an Internship at a music management company. Though it was not truly in the marketing field, I spent the next six months doing a variety of marketing related tasks to help not only promote them but also the events they put together as well. I will never forget some of the things I learned there and I thank the whole company altogether for the experience that I will never forget. I moved on from that Internship to another one, working now at an actual marketing company, in hopes that I will sharpen my craft that much more.

This is my story currently. Seven months ago, I moved to the Raleigh area, how else was I suppose to network with people, without the Internships I took. I knew a total of two people, who were non-family in the area. I am taking these internships not only to meet new people, but to get the experience that I need to move to the next level. Both of these have been non-paid Internships but do I care, no? I am getting something much more out of it than money, I am getting experience.

In a current job market where people can be ever so picky about their next hire, what else as college graduates and job seekers are we supposed to do to get this ever growing experience that these companies so dramatically say that we need? Yes, as Interns we are probably improperly trained at times to handle the tasks that are thrown at us, but doesn't that happen all the time on the job? A client or a boss asks you to jump and it is our job to ask them how high.

Mr. President, you and your circle are talking about ending non-paid Internships. This is after you are furhter burdening companies with healthcare restrictions and individuals with new taxes. Can companies really support to create an opening for one more position on their staff? Do not get me wrong, I WOULD LOVE TO GET PAID FOR ALL OF THE WORK THAT I HAVE DONE IN THE PAST, but, Mr. Obama, payment does not always come in the form of currency, sometimes it comes in something else.

So I am asking you as a citizen and an individual, yes there are problems out there with Internships but you have to have the good with the bad. How else are we suppose to climb the mountain if you are going to take out the very steps that we use to climb.

Where does your Social Map take you?

2010-04-02T12:00:00.000-04:00

Imagine looking at a map and that being literally filled with millions of tiny red dots. Now imagine those dots representing people. Every living person is now located on this map that you are looking at. If you need to find somebody, simply pull out this map and look for the John or Jane you are looking for. I imagine this map is our future or will be, at least as long as Geo-Social networking is involved.

If you are not familiar with Geo-Social networking feel free to reflect on this at a previous post, "The Beginner's guide to Foursquare.". I use Foursquare. I have no problems with this application. I am proud to be mayor at half a dozen locations, but the question remains where are these applications headed.

Though people are worried about privacy I cannot help but think a social map is going to exist down the road. People are worried, as the day's come and go, that we will eventually be machines with chips in our heads. But have they thought about the active map, that will show our every movements. Where is the privacy line being drawn? Do people at this point want privacy?

But what does all of this mean? Imagine a website such as WWW.PleaseRobMe.Com becoming a staple for most Americans. If you are unfamiliar with WWW.PleaseRobMe.Com, I recommend visiting the website at least once. Though the website is currently down, after being flooded by hate mail and nasty complaints, the website was a breakthrough idea and really made us question Geo-social networking applications. The website literally listed every check in that people made using Foursquare and added a "please rob me, I'm not at home" to these check ins.

Though social networking is still a "niche" program these days imagine if people checked in everywhere they went. This map would literally be a social satelite of where you have been and where you are at that very moment. Is this a problem? I am not suggesting that is, all I am saying is that our maps might lead us somewhere different in the not foreseeable future.

Where is your Playlist?

2010-03-30T10:51:00.000-04:00

"And I wonder, when I sing with you..." I love the Foo Fighters and their music. They are probably in my top ten of favorite musical acts. I love music in general, and consider myself quite the music junkie. Quite simply, music is life. Though it does not mean too, music affects everything we do from that first song we hear when we get up in the morning, to the song that plays on our drive home, after a long day at work. Music can be used for a variety of effects and many times can reflect the consumer, if you are happy play something that reflects your mood, or do the exact opposite and let out your rage listening to a metal band. If you are lonely, listen to something a ballad. Music has a variety of songs and methods to ways to our varying moods. A comicbook writer I use to read about, Devin Grayson(@Nemone1), would make mixtapes of all of her characters laying out the plot beats. If you are unfamiliar with a Mixtape, it's a series of songs that usually are put together for a particular reason and more often than not tell a story. Just like Mrs. Grayson's characters, we all have our own playlists that play in our head, such as breakup songs or songs of rebellion. Music is a people's medium. It came along way before both the TV and the Internet, and it will be with us forever. But just like society which has had to evolve in the last few years in the recent technological boom, so has music. Gone are the bulky Walkman's by Sony and the CD players, that just barely fit in your pockets. In it's place, we now have Ipods and MP3 players, that are barely bigger than any key that we have on our key chain. The day of the CD is at an end. CD sales have been on the decline for the last few years, and in it's place has been the rise of music purchasing sites such as Itunes, Amazon and even Wal-Mart. The future of music is in online services such as Itunes and Pandora(Pandora.Com), that offer playlists on the go. No longer are we confined, to a radio in a car, or having to carry a bulky player. We can now take our music anywhere we go and traveled with us it has, as even Cellphones are now adding music playing as a standard application. Your playlist now seems to follow you wherever you go. Want an idea of where the technology is going the next few years? Watch the music world, because just as Napster was the beginning of user paid content on the Internet, the music world can boldly predict where technology will be the next few years. It was the first on-the-go technology and it was the first to truly take use of the Internet. Music is no longer that device you listen to in your car, it has definitely evolved into something else. Listening to music anywhere these days is as easy as hitting a play button.

What does your cell phone do?

2010-03-23T10:43:00.000-04:00

So I was in a cell phone store the other day and was listening to a salesperson try to sale a cell phone to a mother and her daughter. As the salesmen leaned in, waiting for some commitment from the two, I could not help but smile as the mother stopped and made the comment that her daughter should just get a phone that makes phone calls. Now, a cell phone that just makes calls? Do we really have those those anymore? Texting seems to be a standard feature on phones, these days as most phones require some kind of texting plan on the contract and data plans are becoming more and more prominent as people continue to buy smart phones. The cell phone now does more today than just make phone calls, it's a multi-tool that does a variety of features. This new product not only affects the cell phone market but a variety of products as well. But what products are affected the most, by these new phones? Who wants a GPS when you can have a phone that has GPS positioning on it? Here are a few products that plan on taking a few hits in the next few years, as Cell phones continue to evolve. 1. The phone - The home phone market has changed a lot over the last few years. With cheaper long distance rates, cell phones are slowly taking the place of the home phone. Though the home phone will still remain a necessity for the office, the home phone is slowly dying away. 2. The MP3 player - Most cell phones these days come with the ability to insert flash memory and with memory's price continuing to decrease more and more people will be looking at cell phones to replace their MP3 player. The Iphone was the first to truly offer a music service on a cell phone and most other developers have taken tasks to catch up with the Iphone's MP3 player. 3. GPS - Most phones with a data plan offer some form of Global positioning device. These devices help you find local directions with the aid of Google Maps or Map quest, also add the growing use of Geo-Social networking Apps and one can tell that the GPS will change in the next few years. No longer do we have to carry bulky devices that take up space in our car. We can find directions, simply with the click of an Application and find out where we are and where we want to go. 4. The Camera - It was just about ten years ago, when the camera market took a giant step into the digital world. Soon people were carrying cameras with them wherever they go. Flash forward to today and most cell phones come with some form of a camera. Though the features are still not what one can get from the most standard of camera's, the phone allows for you (with a data plan) to instantly add pictures to various Social Networking sites or to send it to a friend instantly. 5. The laptop - With a data plan, most people can instantly access the Internet or check their mail almost anywhere they are. Instead of having to carry a laptop or waiting until you get home, one can pull out a phone immediately and have access to the Internet and various other mobile devices. The future of the cell phone is forever changing as they develop more and more features. What will the cell phone be able to do in the future? It seems the possibilities are endless.

Why we should not be upset at Rich Johnston.

2010-03-16T09:54:00.000-04:00

It's Monday night...I am writing this half asleep, the hour change definitly affected me a lot more than I would of liked. As soon as I put my labtop down I am going straight back to reading the Criminal Omnibus by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Now, the reason why I am bringing Criminal up, is because of the story of how I got it. If you are not familiar by now Amazon had a colossal blunder last week on March 7th. They horribly marked down a ton of omnibuses'(imagine a graphic novel double sized and similar to a Blu-Ray disc, as it is packed with tons of extras), from fifty to sixty dollars down to fourteen or eight dollars. I was in awe when I first heard the news and immediately added three of the books to my cart and checked them out. I mean why not? Nobody knew the true reasoning behind this. Was it an Error? Was it a promotion that we were not quite aware of? Who knew? I just knew that tons of books I wanted were on sale. Eventually however, I got the dreaded letter from Amazon saying that I would not be receiving the items I ordered due to a pricing error that caused the books to be sold out, and that they would refund me my money. So out of the three books I ordered, I had one of them sent to me instead(The Criminal Omnibus). A few days later, I even got a twenty five dollar credit from Amazon due to the problem that this caused, which I used to buy two trade paperbacks. So for those counting at home, I got three books for around sixteen dollars that had a seventy dollar retail value. Now if you are unfamiliar with the man who broke this story, Rich Johnston(@RichJohnston) he is the creator/head-honcho of BleedingCool.Com, a blogsite devoted to Comicbook content. Well Rich caught a lot of slack due to this event. Many people calling for his head and the such, but I want to do the opposite. I want to applaud Rich Johnson. If a friend of mine had called me up and told me the same thing, I would applaud him as well, but with Social Media that friend was replaced with Rich Johnson. Rich did what anybody would of done last week. He simply found a huge gaping error and told people about it. Was it his fault that he has become a public figure and has 4,000 followers on Twitter! Social Media has become such a prominent powerhouse in communication that people fail to realize just how fast a message can go from a secret to a full blown story. Look at what happened with Kevin Smith and the Airline fiasco! So in closing I just want to tell Mr. Rich Johnston thank you again for the free comics from comic fans everywhere. Again, Keep up the good work and the journalism, from a fan who has followed you from your Lying in the Gutter days at ComicbookResources.com, I appreciate it.

What 3D Movies need to do, to fill the seats.

2010-03-12T10:43:00.000-05:00

So I broke down and saw my first 3D movie last Sunday night, "Alice in Wonderland" to be exact. I went with Cal and my sister Jessica, who was visiting us on her way to the beach. Going into the movie, I did not know what I was getting into, as I had not fallen into the hype machine that was Avatar, and had yet to truly see a 3D movie. The movie itself was a bit lack luster and involved some flying beast that I did not remember from any Alice tale that I had ever read. But as I sat back in my seat with these funky glasses, resting on the rim of my nose, I could not help but wonder about the future of film making. "Alice in Wonderland" was a decent movie, do not get me wrong, but it was far from spectacular. I would have had the same reaction if the movie had not been in 3D, which did add some nice effects but that was it. The 3D effects were not the reason I went to see the movie, I went to see the movie to see what the combination of Tim Burton and Jhonny Depp were up to. Just like anybody else, I have my own particular movie habits, but I mainly watch a movie, just like everybody else, to escape the reality of my life and relive it in the form of a Mad Hatter, a Paraplegic Marine, an Estranged Cop or as a thousand and one other opportunities that they currently offer. But no matter what, the movie we go and see, the movie audience is there to see a story that allows them to escape their everyday life, so no matter how many 3D scenes a movie has, it is not as overall important as the story itself. This is not to say that 3D does not have a current place in the movie industry. Cartoons and Science Fiction are two strong categories that will rely on this field for years to come. The upcoming Tron:Legacy (http://tinyurl.com/ydocqe9) was born to be a 3D movie, but does anybody really want to see Legally Blonde 3 in 3D? 3D is a cool feature and has given theaters a shot in the arm that they needed to reinvent themselves for the dying movie watcher. However, filmmakers need to watch out of falling into the pitfall of the 3D concept, and remember that the basics come first, because if not the audience will continue to get their movie experience online and at home, instead of in the theater.

The Big 25!

2010-03-09T12:08:00.000-05:00

Number 25. Wow! I would be lying if I said I knew that I would make it to 25 posts on this blog. But like anything in life what something starts out as eventually evolves into into something else, or as a friend of mine put it practice makes perfect. So here we are, my 25th posting on a blog that has changed/evolved since it's original conception. Here are a few things I have learned on my way to the 25th posting from my blog and various other marketing ventures, that hopefully will help you as many of you have helped me. -Your first attempt at something new is always a failure. Just like riding a bike, the first time you got on it you fell. Looking back at the original template of this blog, I can only ask myself, "what was I thinking?" -Study your competitors and other people in the field! I once had a great conversation with my Brother-In-Law back in the middle part of this decade on how to create a good website. The Brother-In-Law, whose an avid entrepreuner simply said, you copy from the best. Now I have not copied anything directly, but I did find outside influences that helped this blog become what it is today. -Always advertise! People have a small attention span online and with thousands of things being said on social networking sites around the world, you have to constantly remind your audience about yourself and who you are. -Remember that your brand exceeds your blog. Not only is your blog a reflection of you, but you are a reflection of your blog. So avoid picking fights online or saying something that truly contradicts who you are. -Be yourself! If your blog gets stale so are you. If you're getting tired of writing your blog, take a breather and find out why you enjoy this medium to begin with. Explore other avenues in the field that you write about. -Have a schedule! I try to post a blog every Tuesday...sometimes that happens, sometimes it does not, but at least it keeps the blog fresh and entertaining for many people. It also helps me to keep up with my writing schedule as I juggle my full-time life along with my personal blog. So there are a few facts, that I have learned in the past few months that hopefully will help you, as you start off into your own marketing project.

Facebook and What those Crazy Copyrights actually do.

2010-03-04T09:44:00.000-05:00

Copyrights are a crazy thing. Back in the 90's, DC Comics changed Batman's logo and removed the yellow circle out of it. Now if you are not a comic book junkie like me, I doubt you remember the circle. It appeared in the first Batman comic up until the 90s, and then simply disappeared shortly after, without a reason given. Well it seems that the folks at DC(whose parent company is Warner Bros.) could not copyright the yellow oval so they simply decided to removed it. Again copyrights are crazy. Their are copyrights for stuff that most normal people are not ware of. Apple recently copyrighted two finger touch on it's touchscreen devices. Apple has not filed a lawsuit against anybody, quite yet, but they do own the rights. Google avoided putting the feature on the Nexus One to avoid such harassment. The reason why I am bringing copyrights up this morning, is because of the recent patent that Facebook was awarded. Facebook was recently awarded a patent for "news feeds". Now for most people who fancy themselves as non-social media fanboys, this will seem to mean nothing. However, this small patent like most, means a lot more than most people think. Now before I begin this patent does not effect twitter, which is considered to have a status update feed not a news feed, but it will affect other social media networking applications such as the recently launched Google Buzz. This patent could mean the end of Social Media as we know it. Newsfeeds, have become a prominent part of Social Media and taking them away, literally takes away the Social out of Social Media. In a day and age where people are getting more and more of their news from Social Media, this could turn out to be a prominent lawsuit, as it limits where they can get their news/links from on other Social networking sites. This patent truly eliminates a lot of the competition from Facebook, as GoogleBuzz and other social networking applications will now have to take a step back and reanalyze their approach to the Social Media world. This could be a good thing, as it causes companies to reinvent their Social Media approach in the next few years, or it could lead to the dominance and eventual decline of Facebook. Only time will tell. In a world of technology and applications that do just about anything the patent is a very interesting creature, what can be called copyrighted to you might be freeware to another. But one thing is for sure, the copyright might turn the Internet into a very crazy and protected place.

The Business card

2010-03-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

The new Business card. What do you think?

How your default picture is worth a 1000 words.

2010-02-23T10:56:00.000-05:00

Finding a good picture is tough. I have been thinking about changing my recent Facebook/Twitter/Social media accounts default picture these last few days and I have found myself thinking about how a picture can convey so much in today's society. A picture is literally worth a thousand words in Social Media. It is usually the first thing people notice about you when they go to your account and look you up. If you look up an old friend and/or colleague, through Facebook or twitter, their picture will be the first thing you look for, especially if it's an old friend from high school. A picture will tell you a lot about the person beyond the normal physical changes the person has gone through in the past few years. This is especially important if you have set your page to private. That one picture is your only hope to catch the attention of others that you have not talked to in years. I recently wrote a blog at the beginning of the month on how the Internet has branded us and I forgot to mention how much our pictures have. Your picture is the logo of your brand, the image that most people will signify you with. If you're a blogger like me, or anybody else, this is important. You want your picture to signify that you are smart, intelligent, but to many people they want the picture to say something else. They use it to show their children or loved one(s), or maybe show off a particular sport or event that they are fond of. Regardless of the reason, of why it is there and it helps to convey a certain message to the people who are looking you up. Want to be seen as a family man? Make your default a picture of your kids. Just got married? Add a wedding day picture. Want to be seen as jovial and fun? Add a Halloween picture. The possibilities are endless. Regardless of what your picture is there is a reason why you choose that one. So take your time choosing your default picture, because it can scare away the very people you are hoping to find.

What Google Buzz has taught people about their privacy on the Internet.

2010-02-19T10:50:00.000-05:00

If you did not hear it in the news yesterday morning, it was announced that Google was facing a class action lawsuit because of the information that Google Buzz leaked to perspective groups. If you are not familiar with Google Buzz, Google Buzz is the new social networking device created by Google that is now incorporated into Google mail(WWW.Google.Com/Buzz). This application reminds me a lot of Twitter and is Google's attempt at creating a network of contacts through your e-mail address. When the application first launched, it automatically put everybody into groups which at the time did not seem wrong. Google wanted to cash in on the fact that people were still trying to figure out Google Wave, and many had no pure friends on the list. This was a good idea in principal, however many people found their information being transferred to groups and networks that they were not even aware of joining. Now many people are throwing their hands up in arms and joining a class action lawsuit that could prove to be devastating for Google and the future of Social Media. In a world filled with social media and real time search, we have nothing left to hide. A friend of mine asked me this very question the other day as she found all of my personal information posted on Facebook. "You're inviting stalkers," she told me as she found both my address and phone number listed on the page. Well, my thoughts are that all of this information can be found online anyways, so why not have it listed here. If you Google Cole Watts, two of the search results on the first page send you to either my Myspace page(WWW.Myspace.com/TheBilljake125) which I have had since '03 or my Twitter account(WWW.Twitter.com/Cole_Watts). I understand what this girl was saying when she said I should be worried about a stalker, but in today's day and age you can find almost anything you want to about a person in a matter of minutes. A quick google of my parent's home phone gives there address and names. So, yes, I am giving the "stalkers" free reign to my info, because I know, if they really want to find it they can and will in other ways. I am just eliminating their search for the information. If I was anyboy else, I might be worried but as a 25 year old, single white middle-class male I have nothing to worry about. Now let me get back to Google Buzz. I understand that E-mail is a completely different vehicle than Social Networking. Many people have personal information that they send every day in their e-mails to friends and co-workers,but E-mail has been leaked since the early days as companies such as Google used this information to select advertisements that meet your particular needs. People have to understand though in today's world that the day of privacy has ended and the day of being searched has begun.

How Human Resources hit the 2.0 level.

2010-02-16T16:34:00.000-05:00

Bye bye human contact. That simple comment, slowly reflects on what has happened to us in today's society. Because of Social Media we are less prone to have actual conversations in today's world, more now than ever before. A friend of mine and I recently had a discussion about the loss of true emotional contact one receives, when it came to getting a job. You do not introduce yourself, or anything of that nature these days, instead you go to a website or submit an e-mail...hoping for days on end that you will get a call back. Instead of spending hours on end ranting as usual, I would like to focus on this particular topic, how social media and technology has affected the Human Resources world. A lot of people will tell you that the job market has changed in the last five years, especially with the downfall of the economy. The job market has changed a lot because of the economy, but most people forget that technology/social media has a fair amount to do with the changing of HR practices as well. Let's look at Joe. Joe graduated from college and needs to find a job. So he goes online, because nobody does paper applications anymore. The day and age of filling out a paper application is gone as many companies have decided that it is more environmentally friendly and that it will save them thousands of dollars. Joe knows this, so he decides never to leave his apartment, instead spending hours on end searching through job websites such as Monster, Indeed, and Craigslist. Joe is the typical person. To find that dream job, there is no reason to go out anymore. You simply stare at your computer for eight hours a day hoping for that one call/e-mail back. Joe finally finds a job he wants but as he applys for the job, he ends up coming to a 35 page questionnaire asking him his thoughts on drugs and would he ever steal from the company. These surveys, more properly called likert surveys are used to weed people out who do not fit the particular companies personality assessment. Joe now, just like every other applicant spends hours just to fill out this survey, not answering the truth, but answering what the company wants to hear, like the average American. I have had thousands of conversations about these surveys and I personally think that they do more harm than good. Joe spends the next few days wondering if he's going to get hired. He looks up the companies management online and e-mails them wondering if they received his e-mails and if there is anything more that he can do. Two weeks later, after not hearing anything at all Joe gets the message he dreads. An automated message saying that he did not get the position he wanted. Now I am writing you the story of Joe, because we have all gone through this. We have all sent out a resume and not heard anything back. I believe that the HR process needs to be reworked in someway to avoid this confusion. Regardless of my thoughts one can tell just how much technology has changed the HR process in the last five years. I understand that now more than ever before that HR specialists are being bombarded with thousands of resumes, but there has to be someway to fix this mundane process. What does Joe or any other person do at this point? They revert back to their social network. This has led to the power of Social Media in the work place. As soon as you land your first job, you learn one thing, no matter what anyone says, your network matters even more so than your qualifications do, when it comes to getting a position. Social Media is now changing this through such career oriented sites as Linkedin.Com, where you can keep complete track of your professional contacts. So as you plug away at your job, trying to find the best fit for you, plug away at your social network as well. You would not believe it but your peers might be just as useful in finding that dream job.

How to Create a Successful Brand, the Lost way.

2010-02-09T09:52:00.001-05:00

As time goes by many companies are working around the clock wondering how they can create the next big product that everyone will want. Once they have what they view as this wonderful product created,it is next to the branding station. CEO's are awaiting the count down of the product launch, as they are imaging their product and company being the next big brand, in an already branded world. But as they launch this product how do they plan on creating this brand? As I sat on my couch last night I was wildly amused that the show Lost, if followed, is an excellent example on how to build a strong product line. Step 1: Have a good product. Before you market your product and have dreams of success it all starts with the product. No matter what people say if the product is not good it will fail. Imagine JJ Abrams walking into a crowded business room of Hollywood Execs and pitching Lost. "Imagine a plane crash and 44 passengers stranded on an island. We follow them over a year's time as they learn to survive with the various monster's that plague them." Though the show has slightly geared off it's original premise, the product has remained good and intriguing enough to keep people's attention for the last six years, winning various awards along the way. Step 2: Engage the Customer. If you have watched an episode of Lost, you know it is filled with Easter Eggs. From phone numbers that are flashed on the screen to fake Driver's licenses that give you interesting addresses. Once you have a good product you have to encourage your customer to enjoy and talk about the product even when it is not in their hands. Step 3: Listen to the Customer. If a product is failing their is a reason why. If their is a feature that customers like, find out. Lost writer's originally planned Michael Emerson's character Benjamin Linus to only appear in a few episodes, but after receiving positive reviews from fans around the world the character stayed and proved to be a prominent character in the show. Step 4: Accessorize. Once you have that million dollar product it is time for the lunch boxes and action figures that will link to your core product. These will not be for everybody, but your niche collector and die hard fan will die for these. They cannot get enough of your show right now, so give them a little bit more. Microsoft knew this when it invented Windows. Look at the success of such products as Microsoft Office. Step 5: Give back to the Customer. Throw conventions and Q and A's in which the consumer can engage their product at the very highest. Everybody from Apple to Blizzard Inc, to comicbooks have been doing this over the years. Invite your customers in and make them feel like a part of the product. So that is it. Follow these steps and you should have a widely recognized brand for years to come or just simply a hit TV show that has left, millions confused since day one.

Superbowl Reflections.

2010-02-08T10:42:00.000-05:00

As I was watching the Superbowl last night, I followed two Twitter groups curious to see people's reactions of the show. The first one I followed was the #SB44 which was the superbowl's hash tag, which was literally flooded with thousands of people watching the game. The other group I followed, was the nice folks at JHP Advertising, who allowed me to share my advertising thoughts with. As I followed both groups, I was pleased to see Social Media have such a strong force during the game. The commercials however, were an entirely different beast. I wondered a few times if the commercials had forgotten that they were there to sell a product. These thoughts came primarily with the Doritos and Budwiser commercials? The commercials were funny and creative but what did they tell us about the product? The Google Ad I personally loved. I had heard it was going to make an appearance, but I did not know in what fashion. I found the Advertisement to be simple and in a time of over the top jokes and celebrity commercials, it was creative in it's simplicity. A number of ads, I felt really hit the spot. They were both creative and funny, and surprise, they actually tried to sell the product. These include Monster.Com, Career.Com, and Teleflora flowers. Also how I could leave out the Letterman commercial, that literally left me and my roommate stunned. The advertisement was a success and not just for Letterman. I feel that this was a commercial for not just Letterman but Late Night as a whole. Worst Ad: Now I have talked to a few people on Twitter about this, who disagreed and many who have agreed. But my choice for worst commercial is GoDaddy.Com. The shock value of these commercials had already ended, when they first debuted this campaign years ago, and I feel that these commercials are now in just bad taste.

How the Internet has now Branded you.

2010-02-02T10:33:00.000-05:00

Many people talk today about how important a brand is in today's society. What feelings or thoughts that a particular item conveys, is very important, as an item tries to build rapport with it's customer base. Imagine computer giant Apple, who survives on their brand name. You hear Apple and you immediately think words like "Smart" and "Innovative". These words have came to signify not only their technology but the grand in general. People perceive brand's as an item or company so much, that they forget about branding themselves. Now your names mean a lot in this online world. When you were growing up and going to your first job interview at the age of seventeen or eighteen, the first thing you always heard, from your parents, was just how important that first impression was. Your parents would spend hours with you going through your wardrobe and trying to find the perfect outfit. Well the same thing can be said about your online presence. The first thing in today's society that many people see is your e-mail address or your social networking name. Your online identities say alot about yourself. Would you rather read an e-mail from RacerFan32@Gmail.com or Steve_Wozniak@Gmail.com. Which sounds more professional to you? If you read Racerfan, you can jump to two conclusions, either he has some affiliation to the sport of racing or you can jump to the conclusion that he is a nascar fan on the weekends. These names and persona's mean everything, and many people tend to forget this. How often have you viewed a Myspace page that is simply titled "Crazy B****" or some other random name. Many times, if you are intrigued you do, but more often than not you ignore them. Especially in today's professional atmosphere, there is no reason to view a "Crazy B*****" unless she's someone trying out for a new reality show. Imagine Linkedin.com, a professional social networking site, where you can post your resume on. Through Linkedin.com, you can create and manage your own resume page. Now imagine as someone sends you their Linkedin domain, as a place you can view their resume on. Would you want to hire WWW.Linkedin/in/RacerFan32, even if he is qualified for the job? You know immediately that this person does not care professionally if he is using such a name, but maybe the race means more to him than the position. This has caused quite a stir in recent years as people find it so hard to get their naming rights. Early adopters are quick to get their names, but imagine everybody else in this three hundred thousand packed country. Surely there are thousands of Jack Smith's and even a few Cole Watts'. Many professional sports players have found problems with this in the past as many have found their name rights bought up before they even get a chance to register them for domains. This has caused quite a controversy and many people offering money for their name rights'. Your domain name means a lot. No matter, what you say. It is your online persona that your friends come to recognize you as. What is your online persona? Do you have the same name for everything? Or do you just wing your names as you go? Because no matter what you pick your domain name says a lot about you, more than you probably think.

What content readers mean to paper and books.

2010-01-28T10:49:00.000-05:00

With yesterday's announcement of the new Apple Ipad, I could not help but wonder how everything is going digital and the loss of paper products in today's society. Are we totally ready to embrace the concept that we are now a paperless society? We have given up on the Newspaper as a hard copy, in the last few years as more and more people are going to the Internet for their news these days. But with the announcement of the Ipad, as a true "content" driven platform more people will be exploring the use of it and Kindle's book readers. Books are not the only thing losing their value in our society either. Have you tried to fill out a job application these days? If so you might notice a quick difference in the application process from years ago. No longer do you go to a store and simply ask for a job application, instead many company owners and manager's simply direct you to a website where you can file an application or an e-mail address where you can send an application directly to them. Now I could highlight all of the various reason's on why one could choose a book reader over a book, but I am not going to do that. I am hear to make you think about the other alternative. The other view. An electronic book might be more cheaper to make, save us on cutting down trees, and be better to read at night, but does it have the same intimacy as a book? Is it something that can be passed on to your friend? Or left at a gas station for the next passerby? I think not. A file is a file, but a book is a book. It does take up space, but it takes up space in an almost magnificent way. A book can be shared from person to one another or can sit on your coffee table for days at a time without being touched. To a content reader a book is just another file, but to a couch a book is an adventure.

A Beginner's Guide to Foursquare.

2010-01-26T10:36:00.000-05:00

Where are you? Where did you go last night? Do you know anything about this place? All of these questions can be answered by a small Social Networking application called Foursquare. If you are unfamiliar with Foursquare and have a smartphone, see this as an introduction to the newest Social Networking application that is grabbing people's attention. Foursquare just released it's latest application for the Blackberry and this will hopefully make it popular as the newest Social networking application continues to gain steam. For those of you unfamiliar with Foursquare you can simply go to Foursquare.com or continue reading for a quick tutorial. Once you have foursquare downloaded on to your mobile device, you simply go to a "venue" and check in, and write a review, or even try and the become mayor of that particular location. Foursquare uses a unique badge system, that user's of the application win under various circumstances. The person who most often visits a particular location becomes the "Mayor." The "Mayor" badge is the most prestigious badge however, there are a variety of other badges to win including Newbie, Local and even Crunked and Bender. But feel free to read the entire list at Foursquare.Com. Foursquare also offers a variety of solutions, for the regular social networker. Feel free to shout to your friends and follow them as you like, as you try and outrace them to become "Mayor" of your favorite hot spot. Now beyond the fact that it's fun to be a "Mayor" Foursquare has a variety of things that make it fun and unique. You can instantly write a tip for any visitors to a particular venue and you can also find the address to help better describe your location to a friend. Though few companies have yet, to truly adapt Foursquare into their marketing campaign many venues here in Raleigh are already experimenting with it by offering their "Mayors" free coffee and other small gifts. Is Foursquare for you? Well unless your a homebody and plan on sitting at home the rest of your life. I definitely recommend getting Foursquare for your next night on the town.

A look at our Splintered Market.

2010-01-22T11:51:00.000-05:00

What do your Apps say about you? As our marketplace becomes more and more splintered, more and more websites are popping up in this niche market we now find ourselves in. What do these websites say about us? That we are movie buffs? That we are avid sports fans? That we are avid readers? Everything is becoming about us and getting our attention. We can now customize our phones even. Look at the Iphone and the over one million Applications that are available for it. What do your Apps say about you? The following are the top eight Apps on my Iphone's homescreen: NYTimes ESPN's SportsCenter The Weather Channel Pandora Foursquare Facebook Myspace Tweetdeck What do these top two rows say about me? Obviously one can concur that I am a Social Media user and lover, from the fact that I have four social network accounts on my Iphone. Plus I apparently like to stay on top of news, sports, and the weather from my other apps. Also I probably like to have some down time and listen to music. Our cellphones should tell us something. Our marketplaces are becoming more and more divided, as more and more people are after are after our attention and hard earned dollar. The Apple Itunes store is a prime example of this. It boasts to have over a million applications that are available to download, however that does not mean that every single application is for everybody. It simply means that every app, has a niche in this marketplace. As our marketplace continues to splinter this means a lot, not only for advertising but for the everyday marketplace as well. Obviously Wal-Mart and Target, two retailers who survive as one-stop places for everything will survive on their brand alone. But coming up with a general product is something that is hard to in today's society. One has to target a particular group and do it well. Look at the common Newspaper. One could argue that the many reasons behind it's loss of readership is because more and more people are turning to specialty sites for their information. Tons of companies are trying to capitalize this and trying to find your niche and the best way to expose your money to it. Generality is gone. You can no longer find something, with a broad range appeal in today's marketplace. The marketplace is becoming more and more segregated and it harder than ever before to keep the attention of the common person. Markets will continue to segregate as more and more niches open up, look at Cable TV for example, who would of thought ten years ago we would have such channels as Home and Garden, True TV, Comedy Central, and the Travel Channel. So good-bye general stores and brands that try and cater to everyone. I look forward to seeing things in the future as more and more people are trying to figure out what our lifestyle has to say about us.

How much will you pay for the News? The Life and Death of the Newspaper.

2010-01-19T15:35:00.000-05:00

Where do you get your news from? If you are like the typical person, you get your news from a variety of sources. These sources probably involve one or more of the following sources: 1. The Daily Newspaper. No matter what people say, you still find yourself reading the occasional hard copy of the newspaper. 2. The Online Newspaper. Why read the daily when it costs so much money? Simply go online and read this for free. 3. The News? This might seen a bit crazy, but you watch the news for news. 4. Social Media. Have a twitter or Facebook account? Simply read the stories that your friends are talking about through links or various other messages. 5. From a Specialty News Source. Want sports info? Go to ESPN. Want to hear about Paris Hillton? Go to TMZ. Now, no matter who you get your news from, one thing stays the same, where the the news comes from. News comes from Newspapers and News programs, which publishes the hard work of journalists. What happens though when newspapers cease to exist? Or journalists for that matter? What happens to the news? This is all asked because of the decline of not just newspapers but the New York Times, the number one daily in the world. Rupert Murdock, current owner of the New York Times, and owner of TV affiliate Fox, is currently doing whatever it takes to keep his Newspaper alive. He recently took the New York Times out of Google and as of Monday, announced that the New York Times is going to create some new sort of payment system. This system will be surely monitored by other newspapers as to whether it will succeed or fail. The future of news has changed in the last five years and with Murdock's recent announcement I am sure it will change again. We will have to pay for the news. In some form, either through increased online ads or having to pay for the content online. The people who write the stories have to get paid, in some shape or fashion. Publishers around the world are struggling to stay alive in today's marketplace, where everything is free online. Why pay for your news when you can simply go online? This is the question many people have been finding themselves asking the last ten years as more and more people become Internet users. However all of this leads to the point where we are at now. Will we give up news entirely and just rely on Social Media and headlines? If we do not pay for the newspaper now, will we pay for it online? While, I am sure a few Newspapers will survive in some form such as the New York Times and the Wallstreet Journal, but I wonder what will happen to the rest. Will local news combine with local town websites, to offer there news available for all who are interested? Will Kindles take the form of paper as people get news stories beamed directly through their mobile reader? Will even the big guys, continue to be able to publish? Where do you see News going in the future? Because I am sure that with the current moves of Rupert Murdock, whether they are viewed as good or bad will change the News Industry for years to come.

SAVE HAITI, The message heard Around the World.

2010-01-16T14:13:00.000-05:00

It's Friday night and I just turned off Tweetdeck(TweetDeck.com). I am sure I will be back on it later tonight, if not the next fifteen minutes, but I need a break from it right now. As I was checking my usual twitter feed, I noticed that my next blog was already writing itself, as I saw the fan outcry for Haiti. If you have been left out of the Social Media world in the last forty-eight hours than you will probably have no idea what I am talking about, but if you have checked your Facebook, Twitter, or even your text messages, you are probably aware of the various ways companies are reaching out to get help to Haiti. "Send a text and donate a dollar," many of them say. Red Cross is currently saying that they have earned up to 10 million dollars in a text campaign to help Haiti. This astonishing number, would not have been reached without Social Media and it should show us just how important Social Media has begun. For starts unless you have been living under a rock, you are probably aware of the Haiti situation. The nation that was hit with an earthquake late Tuesday afternoon. Many Americans immediately felt sorry for this small, Hispanola nation, as the dead and wounded were reported in the 10,000s. Many Americans wondered what they could to do help? This was not 9/11 and a local disaster. They could not simply pack up, and go and help. The American Red Cross though, came up with a wonderful idea. Send a text with the words "Haiti" to 90999 and donate $10. This campaign which started off small became brillant as millions of people spread the word in their social communities, and the donation number reached 10 million dollars. Now this article is not about Haiti, even though that story is a sad one, but I want people to take a look on how that message was spread. Before the day's of Facebook and Twitter, many people had started developing text technology, but how could one get the word across. How could a company such as Snickers, get the users to text a vote and make them want their voices hears? American Idol, was a good example of a company that embraced text voting. Idol allowed online voting for it's show, through it's texts, but unless you watched American Idol, why would you care or know about this? Sending a robotic text to an individual person, seemed like an inferior and ignored way, that annoyed many people. But how could they get people to vote? This was the question. But years later, Social Media has become the ultimate advertising tool. Many people who simply do not watch the news found out about this campaign through their regularly visited Social Media accounts. They may not have watched the news, or seen a commercial, but they are surely listening to what their friends have to say and the messages that they are spreading. Brands and Marketers need to take note on this. Red Cross learned how to use Social Media the right way, let people pass on a message that they feel is important and care about. Do not MAKE THEM force a message, simply give people something they are passionate about and they will pass the message along, all on their own.

Driving down Cell Road, why Lawmakers need to be weary of banning cellphones on the road.

2010-01-12T11:47:00.000-05:00

The other day, I spent my afternoon at my local Toyota dealership getting a new tire put on. A quite simple task, that should not have taken more than fifteen minutes. However this simple and easy feat, ended up being done at a snails pace, so I spent all afternoon there. Luckily I brought my laptop. I was able to get my work done freely, with an endless supply of free coffee in my hands and CNN playing in the background. The day could not have been that bad. Well, as I was surfing away, reading the latest on the Mark McGwire debacle, I heard from the corner of my ear "Law Makers want to ban the use of Cell Phones in cars." I took a sip of my coffee and paused for a minute, I knew it was only a matter of time before something like this would be passed. I was still thinking about this later in the day when I pulled out my phone to use it's GPS. I stared down at the phone, as it brought up the directions that I needed. Law makers were going to ban the cell phone in the car, I thought again. I stared at my phone hard, now in shock, as the Epiphany hit me. This cannot happen. Now before you attack me, which you are probably thinking about doing at this point, let me ask you, what do you use your cellphone for? The most standard use of a cell phone is used to communicate to a friend or family member. One does this through either a phone call or a text message. These are all standard features that all cell phone providers provide. Now if these features are going to be banned, I could not totally argue with this. Text messaging is now mostly outlawed in the entire United States, though most people would admit, if pressed, that they have sent a text message in some form recently, despite this new ban. Most people will admit that text messaging, plus the occasional phone call does limit the driver's awareness and leads to increased chances of a car accident. Statistics currently say that 1 in 4 car accidents involves a cell phone in some fashion. So this law that congress wants to give us, does make sense on all of these points. However, if you ban the cellphone entirely are you banning something else altogether? At the end of 2009 15% of people reportedly owned a smart phone. Let me say that again, 15% OF PEOPLE OWN A SMART PHONE, not a regular cellphone. Most smartphones have thousands of other qualities that normal cell phones do not have...including music playback and GPS. Most phones are starting to come standard with these devices, however the smart phone has this application built in from start. So if you ban the cellphone in the car are you banning me from listening to my music? Are you banning me from using my GPS? Lawmakers need to think about this before they throw this bill out. What does it say? What are it's details? A BAN ON CELL PHONES IS A BAN ON TECHNOLOGY. Back in the late 90's people were worried about the distraction of theCD player, when it was first introduced, so this controversy is nothing new. This is not to say that the driving has remained the same in the last 10 years. Car's are now equipped with TVs, DVD players, and Video game systems that can easily distract any driver, not to mention the hassle of unwary passengers in any car. This does not include the addition of CD players, GPS systems, and radar systems that can now be found standard in most cars. Also I would be stupid to not mention the Apps, that many manufacturers are now rolling out in their future vehicles. I am not arguing for the Cellphone use in cars or saying it's okay to text while you drive. I have seen up close and personal, how much damage a cell phone and distracted driver can cause. All I am asking for, is for lawmakers take a step back and really think about what they hope to achieve with this bill. Because this bill will not only affect driving, but technology for years to come.

Phones of the future, what the Nexus One really means.

2010-01-08T12:50:00.000-05:00

Now that the holidays are over we can get back into more pressing matters. No more top tens about the future or New Year’s resolutions stories. Now stories on more pressing matters. If you have not been living in a cave the last few months, you may have heard about the Nexus One, Google's new phone. The Nexus One is Google’s new Smart Phone that plans on being launched next week. I am not going to go into the details of what the phone can do, but you can read the New York Times review of it here, http://tinyurl.com/yc7wqcw. But again, this article is not about what the phone can do, instead it is about how this phone will affect you and your life.

As noted in my previous predictions column the Smart phone market is going to boom and that is not only being predicted by me, but other social media/tech experts as well. The main leader in the smart phone market the last few years has been Apple and their defining smart phone the Iphone. The Iphone was generations ahead of any other phone, when it entered the market and it instantly captured the attention of rival smart phone maker Research In Motion, the creator of the blackberry. However this fight has been fairly one-sided in the past year as Apple gains more and more market shares with it’s Iphone device. Apple might currently be the leading smart phone manufacturer, though a challenger is one the way in the form of Google’s Nexus One. Many people are already buying the product which is currently available through it’s website, which comes either supported by the T-Mobile brand or in an unlocked form. What does all of this mean, though? It’s just another cell phone, being dumped in the endless choices that we already have. Well for one thing this means a lot for both Apple and it’s current carrier AT&T. Most of you are probably aware of the fact that Apple’s exclusive contract ends this year with AT&T and that it will be free to sign a contract with any carrier that it chooses. The arrival of the Nexus One, however does limit the choices that Apple believed it once had. Will it Apple really want to go to the Verizon network, in which it will have to fight with market share with the Nexus One? Will Verizon want to sign a lucrative contract to Apple, now that it has it’s Iphone killer? Can AT&T afford to let the Iphone go and still compete in the cell phone market? These question have led me to believe that Apple WILL RESIGN WITH AT&T, to do anything else would be suicide as it now faces it’s greatest competitor yet.

Now what does that mean to you? A lot of people either hate Apple or love them. It’s a brand, more than anything else, and many people have brand loyalty to Apple and their products. So to those people who do have this loyalty this means nothing, but the same can be said about Google. Many people will be picking this phone up because of the Google name attached to it and this will deeply affect the cell phone market. The influx of smart phones will radically change the way of not only how you do surf the web, but how you conduct your personal life and your business life as well. Why own a laptop when you can surf the web with your phone? Why go out and buy a portable DVD player, when you can just download the movie on to your phone? Why own an MP3 player, when your phone can stream music? Simply look how much Apple has not only affected the cell phone market, but technology in general. Did you really imagine two years ago, that the Cell phone could do so many things? Now imagine the limitless potential that the Iphone has, on the number one cell phone carrier in the country.

The sales numbers are going to be astronomical this spring and the places that the Nexus One is going to take us are the same. Competition is good, but it will be interesting to see where both of these companies, Google and Apple, take us in the future.

What to watch for, things that I am sure will happen in the next 10 years.

2010-01-05T17:00:00.000-05:00

To compliment last week's article here are some predictions to look forward to in the near future.

1. Paper money will start to lose it's value, as money begins to convert to electronic currency, and checks will cease to exist altogether. -This is not that hard to figure out, is it? First off, one has to wonder, who still uses checks and what are they used for? The people who use checks are usually 45 or older. This age group will continue to get older and as they get older, they will be buying less and less, which will decrease the number of checks in circulation. Now why do we use checks? Mainly to mail our bills, but the amount of bills being paid through the mail will continue to decrease as more and more people discover the benefits of paying their bills online. So with no checks, people will be forced to switch to their debit cards for big transactions, a switch that millions of Americans have already made.

2. Twitter will last longer than both Myspace and Facebook. -Yes, I know that Facebook has 350 million followers which, at the best, is only triple of what Twitter has right now. The technology of Twitter will succeed though, as more and more people adopt this technology to share stories and various other forms of information. Before anybody says it, I also know that the current form of Twitter does not bring in the revenue that both Myspace/Facebook has, but I stand by the fact that Twitter (in some form. Being bought out is a possible option.) will last longer in some form, as people continue to want to reach out the producers of their loved products. What will happen to Myspace/Facebookthough, is up to debate? They will survive in some form, but Myspace is already a shell of it's formal self and it will be interesting what Facebook will do in the future, as it already has the backlash of the changing of the privacy statement.

3. More than 50% of people will own a smart phone. -I do not think I need to argue this one, do I? More and more people are looking to connect to the Internet on the go and the smart phone is just the next branch of the portable computer.

4. Google will be the new Microsoft and have to be split up after succeeding in cloud computing. -Many people are currently predicting the fall of Google for various reasons. It will only be a matter of time before the company is split up for whatever reason, the real question is, when will it happen. I believe in next 3-5 years, as cloud computing catches on Google will reach it's zenith point, however I think that this will ultimately be it's final downfall. Many people will adopt cloud computing and as people do, Google will be the forefront leader in it and we will all hear the chants of "Monopoly!" coming from it's competitors. This chant will be all the government needs in breaking up a company that it has had it's eyes on for awhile.

5. Only a few newspapers will exist in America. -No matter, what Murdock has to say about it, this will happen. The newspaper industry is currently fighting a battle it cannot win and one that it will eventually lose. A few publishers will stay once the fire dies including the New York Post and Wall Street Journal among others, but many others will perish.

6. The kindle will replace the newspaper. -This might be a stretch...but hear me out on it. Imagine a whole newspaper being sent directly to your kindle every morning when you wake up. It will still give you the solid form of "the newspaper" that you want to read, but it will eliminate the cost of paper and ink. The kindle is still a new device to many people, however with the reveal of the Apple kindle this will surely change.

7. Libraries will evolve and offer direct download of their books, among other things. -Go into a library and tell me right now, tell me the ratio of people in there for a book vs. the people in there to use the Internet. Nobody wants to get out any more and despite the law suites that Google is currently suffering through, all of our classics will one day be online in some fashion. The kindle and Apple's rival kindle(which is to be announced this week), are just the start of what will be a very different library experience.

8. Apple will be left scratching it's head, after a handful of defeats. -I love Apple, do not get me wrong. One of my resolutions in my New Years' column was to buy an Mac. But with Google's recent Droid phones and the upcoming Nexus One, they will soon find a true competitor in the cell phone market and in the next few days Apple plans on launching their own version of the Kindle. I do not believe that Apple, will ever lose it's brand prescience in the market, especially with the success of Itunes, but product line...I think Apple is going to start worrying.

9. The Video game market will start to decline as more and more people start to use their smart phone for gaming. -Why own a video game system, when your phone can do the same thing? Apple has said that the next version of the Iphone, will be designed to increase the gaming capacity of the phone and why not? With smart phones becoming more predominate(see prediction no. 3) people are going to start looking at the Iphone has a possible gaming device, with the millions of games available for it. The handheld market has been a successful market and one that video game super-giant Nintendo has made successful in, in the previous years. So why not try and capitalize on it?

10. %50 percent of movies will now be 3d. Regular 2D movies will go straight to the consumer. -Avatar has now topped one billion dollars worldwide and if there is anything Hollywood likes to do, it's it likes to try and recreate success. Avatar will probably not become the biggest grossing movie of all time, but it has showed us the future of movie making. Movie theaters will soon be not just a place to see a new movie, but a place to experience something different altogether. Movies will soon be made and distributed directly through Youtube and Itunes, the vehicles for many modern film makers today.

Dancing in the Rain, a love story to my sons.

2010-01-05T09:42:00.000-05:00

The following is a sample of my father’s book that was published in 2005, “Dancing in the Rain, A Love story”. I found a copy of it doing some cleaning, late last night. If interested you can find a copy of it at Amazon.Com for a mere 12.95, or just feel free to contact me. The beginning of the book is addressed to me and my brother, so if anything, I thought I would give it a free plug.

Turning into Angela’s driveway, Charles quickly recapped the last several days. None of them had been anywhere near as heartbreaking as he had originally expected. The day before he left New York he had actually dreaded the trip back to North Carolina. He had thought about the turmoil that would be playing out in his every thought but as the old saying goes, nothing is ever as one expects it to be. Even the drive back up to New York had been much quicker than he originally thought it would be and fortunately, he thought, with fewer thoughts of what he was leaving than he expected. There were times, as he knew there would always be, that he thought of his children but throughout most of the drive his thoughts had been of Angela and how totally at peace with himself she made him feel. He thought back a few days to when he first met her and still could not believe how any one person could make another feel the way she made him feel. And this was only the beginning, he said to himself as he knocked on the door to begin his new life. Only now registering in his mind, Charles noticed the absence of her car as he knocked again. He also saw the dimness of a single light through the living room drapes, something he thought unusual considering it was getting late and the sun had been down for a couple of hours. Maybe he should of called her and told her approximately when he would get back, he thought, as he dug into his pocket for the spare key she had given him. Oh well, she was probably gone to the store, he thought, as he slide the key into the lock and opened the door. “Hello? Angela, Sam?” he said, as he entered the house. Not hearing a sound he walked up the few steps, turned into the kitchen and turned on the light. Now that he could see better he began to walk the short distance to the sink to turn off the small florescent light she had also left on, all the while looking for a possible note from her informing him of where she was. He was looking more out of habit since it had been something he and Charlotte had always done to explain their absences. As he reached for the switch by the sink he saw it, the envelope addressed to him and beside it was a small gift-wrapped box. With a sigh of relief, as well as anticipation, he hurriedly opened the envelope and began reading until his legs began to shake and he had to sit down. Walking the short distance from the kitchen to the table where they had shared their meals, he began at the top of the letter again.

Again you can find it on Amazon.Com or just send me a tweet. It’s a love story, along the lines of Nicholas Sparks(A Walk to Remember) and Robert James Waller(Bridges of Madison County).

Flashforward: Resolutions that I am sure, I will not live up to.

2009-12-31T14:38:00.000-05:00

This column is going to be a little different today? Since it is the last day of the new year, I decided I would take a couple of steps back and look at my resolutions for next year. So hold on to something and brace yourself for this column might go into the Deep end.

So without further delay, here are some resolutions that I am sure not going to live up to in 2010.

1. I will be the mayor of somewhere on Foursquare. If you are not aware of foursquare and have the ability to go online with your phone, I highly recommend it(WWW.Foursqure.com). It is one half social networking and another half, one fun, cellphone game. It might be a few steps behind other social networking programs as far as communicating to other people are concerned, but it makes up for this with it's fun ability to map out where you have been and where you are going. It has been on my phone for a month now and beyond turning it on here and there, I have not stayed on it regularly. Hopefully this will change.

2. I will officially switch over to the Mac platform, sometime this year. Yes, you heard me! The Vio labtop I am working on has been my baby for the last year, but I am already thinking of my next machine and I am thinking of switching sides. I am ready to explore every bit of the mac's operating system and see what it has to offer.

3. The words "Settle down" will somewhow/somewhere be expressed by these lips...afterwards millions of facebook followers will gasp in awe. Or at least my buddy Jesse will, after repeatedly hearing me sworn off these words.

4. I will keep this blog up and running, and every twenty-five posts will involve a good beer.

5. I will watch the finale of Lost and promise not to be shocked, upset, and/or pretend that I knew this was going to happen the whole time(JJ Abrams do not let me down!). Afterwards a blog from me and a million others from around the world will debate if this was the greatest Science Fiction show ever.(sorry X-files)

6. I will teach my father the computer skills he needs, to the point that he no longer needs me or to the point, where he has at least an idea of what is going on.

7. I will volunteer at least 5 times this year and enjoy every bit of it, not saying I haven't enjoyed it in the past. I just have never gotten into the volunteer thing until recently serving some time at a Habitat for Humanity restore center.

8. I will oficially finish collecting Neil Gaimen's "The Sandman" and start collecting the Robert Kirkman's "Walking Dead" after hearing so many good things about it this past year.

9. I will start taking more pictures(with either my camera or cellphone), so I can relive every moment of my youth. Also I will create accounts with Photobucket and/or Flickr(Photobucket.com and Flickr.com respectfully).

10. I will not give my brother any discouragement on any girl he chooses, in his life, no matter where he meets her nor the circumstances. However...this resolution stands that I get the same treatment.

These are my ten resolutions. I am sure by the end of January I will officially of screwed all of them up in some shape or fashion.

Anyways, with the end of the year looming I want to say thanks to a wonderful year to all of my friends and family(way too many to list here, but you know who you are). Also thanks to Facebook(who I rediscovered), District 9(who showed Hollywood that you can make a good movie with a small budget) Foo Fighters, (for putting out a best of), my Iphone, (for allowing me to do anything,anywhere), and most importantly you my reader. Here is to a new year, Ladies and Gentlement! Be safe, be proud and most of all, be yourself.

Gossip Boys: How Social Media continues to keep stories alive.

2009-12-23T15:58:00.000-05:00

*Note: This was Actually written last week, but due to Holiday Travel, is just now being posted.

Fame comes easy with the Internet. It is the Ultimate vessel for the aspiring movie director, writer, or artist. If you have something you want to create, be it a movie, book, or even a band, you can simply plug your product into the Internet and go from there. Nothing becomes famous overnight, but if you can create a little buzz, and chip away until you find your audience, anything is a possibility. There are so many possibilities that if you use the Internet, you can literally become famous in just about every venture. The Internet is the ultimate place to get noticed as people can literally comment and see everything these days on it.

The reason why I am writing about fame today, is because of the passing of Britney Murphy, a few days ago. If you are not familiar with her work, I recommend you going to IMDB.Com and looking up her credits, but her most notable performances came from "8 Mile" in which she played Eminem's girlfriend and "Sin City" where she played the Ex of cop killer Dwight. When I first heard about her passing, I was saddened to hear that we had lost another star, who seemed to have it all. The story just like any other story, seemed to be popping up everywhere on twitter and as one person put it "It is a slow news week, so I am sure we will hear more about this." When I first read this, I thought that that was so true. It is the Christmas, season, we have no news stories, that people seem to care about. But as I continued to think about this, I thought about how much us as a Social Network were adding to the buildup of the story. We will discuss and talk about her death on every Facebook account and message board, and with all of these thoughts, I could not help but think how much power that we truly have when we log onto the internet. True, we follow every product, and icon that we like, but in doing so we make them that much more powerful over us.

Now I bring this all up because of the passing of Britney Murphy, if she had passed away in any other decade, it would of been just another young actress passing away, but we live in the age of Social Media where we are able to comment on just about everything, digest every fact, and even uncover the truth. Our gossip, our critiques mean more now. than ever before, with online reviews and the ability to comment on just about everything through social media and message boards.

At the end of the day, I wonder not just what people will say about Britney Murphy. Was she just another Hollywood actress to die or in this day and age of media relevance, will she become something more? Will the Internet empower her or will it even empower you? Only time will tell.

To go Private or not, that is the question,

2009-12-15T11:41:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been bored and just for the fun of it googled yourself? I mean, c'mon, you know you have. You probably answered one of those Myspace surveys and found question number 36 asking you to find out what was the first link you found when typing in your name. It is okay to admit this, because just like skipping school, everybody has done it at least once. Now as long as you are not a public figure, and I am guessing you are not, you either found references to some company you had never heard of or a link to some weird sexual device, but either way, you did not find yourself...but wait...that is about to change.

I mention all of this because information in real time is about to change. As of last week, Google, with the help of Twitter, has entered Real Time Search. This means, you can now get up to the date updates on searches. Now imagine the on-going Tiger Woods story, instead of just typing in Tiger Woods in Google to find out the latest and getting a variety of hits, you can now find the latest story, article, or even the latest twit, on the item you are searching for. Now you have to no longer wonder which hit/link has the latest information on a particular story, because you just need to search the Real Time Search engine and find out. Try it out, if you have not. Simply go to WWW.Google.Com/Trends and type something relevant in the box. I recommend a hot news story. This technology, I suspect, will be groundbreaking once perfected, instead of just getting a list of links, which will lead you to the story, you are looking for. Imagine getting up to the date story on the latest news from the Afghanistan war or the Climate talks going on right now in Copenhagen. Now this was announced and went live last week, so I am sure there are still some kinks to work out in the system, but Google could not have picked a better partner in this program than Twitter. Twitter does not have the users that a Social Network application like Facebook has, but if you have used twitter before, you know it is a really good application for spreading news and other small bits of information. Now imagine another Social Network device trying to go public like that...say Facebook going public and changing it's privacy statements on all of it's users. Well...wait it did..a few days later after the Google announcement. Facebook revamped it's privacy statement in the thought of giving users more ways to share information, however just like the Y2K virus...these changes seemed to be better on paper as many people are now enraged that the default privacy statement, that all of there profiles have reverted to, is allowing more information on their profiles to be public now, than ever before.

Now before anything is said Facebook and Twitter, despite the fact that they are considered Social Networking applications, are two different applications altogether. Twitter at it's best, is a simple way to convey quick and small chunks of information to a large number of people. Twitter was, and in my current opinion, the best application to enter Real Time Search and I am interested to see what this will mean for Twitter's account numbers in the future as Real Time Search continues to grow. Facebook on the other hand is a more personal application where you store your pics, address, and to some people even their phone number. Now imagine this information being public and even showing up in Google...wait it does.

Now I am bringing up all of this, because the main question is, in all of this, do you want to be a part of this? Do you want to be a part of Real Time Search? If not just go into your privacy statements, no harm, no foul, but in doing so you are not becoming part of the discussion. This is going to be the burning question in the future and the one that you have to decide on your own.

It seems, in the end, that the Real-Time search is going not just going to change the way in which we get information but also the way in which we share information going forward.

Send it: The Life and Death of E-mail.

2009-12-10T11:15:00.000-05:00

When you go online and need to get a hold of somebody, what is your first thought on how to reach them? Five years ago the answer was simple, you would simply go to your E-mail account be it AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, or any other E-mail server, and you would send the person an e-mail. E-mail is a simple concept, instead of mailing somebody a letter, that will take them days to get, send an e-mail that takes seconds.

Now revert back to today's society, if you need to get a hold of your best friend, who lives on the other side of the state, do you E-mail them today? More often than not, you will log on to your Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, or whatever other social networking site you use, and send them the message. I had written in last week's columns about the use of Social Media and the growing number of people who are using it today to share information, but I never touched upon the creature it destroyed in the process, the E-mail. But what exactly happened to E-mail, on it's way out?

During the early days of the Internet, E-mail was the standard of communication and you had many servers to choose from as your E-mail host including AOL, Yahoo, and Hotmail. If you were online, you had an e-mail account, it was as simple as that. The Internet was a communications tool and its vessel was the E-mail, which you would use to send messages to various places around the world in minutes. However, during this time the Marketer came in and knew that they had something here. A mailbox that people were sure to check every day, if not multiple times during the day? Hmmm...he thought. Shortly after, the Newsletter was born and then Spam. Spam might not have been the deathblow of E-mail, however E-mail's decline started shortly afterwards. Spam was a great concept in the beginning, send an advertisement directly to the customer in their e-mail. Interested in the book deals at Amazon? Sign up to Amazon's newsletter and get up to the date updates on their latest deals. People check their e-mail almost everyday, why not? Well what started off as an e-mail once a day became multiple e-mails being sent daily, many times from companies that the account holder had not even visited online or even heard of. To avoid this many e-mail servers created what is now known as Spam boxes, to help receive and filter your e-mail, however this technology is still a work in progress as important e-mails can sometimes be filtered as well. The average person, to combat this threat also started creating multiple E-mail address', one professional and one commercial, in order to filter the Spam that was being sent to their accounts. If a website asked for an e-mail address, you would just give them the dummy one, to filter out the span and try and avoid the company's E-mails to be sitting beside an E-mail of the Sale at Macy's next week.

E-mail is still considered, the proper business tool when talking to clients, however it has lost its personal persona for many people. E-mail might of lost it's soul with Spam but it lost it's heart with Social Networking, as social Networking soon became the choice when talking with friends and contacts. Instead of having multiple accounts, most people have one account in which they can customize and edit, to fit your own personal needs. Social networking also created status updates and a million other ways you an communication your emotions, thoughts and feelings to people without having to send an e-mail. The forefathers of Social Networking learned a lot from E-mail, on the pros and cons of communication. If you do not want to talk to somebody simply do not add them or make your profile private. Want to get a hold of a company and not just be "another e-mail"? Send them a message on Twitter and at least allow yourself the tranquility of knowing that they got it and have read it, instead of it sitting in a box unread, as many E-mailers do.

Does E-mail still have its purpose in this day of Social Networking? Yes it does, just like it's predecessor the mailbox, but how much longer is the question.

Welcome to Cloud Nation

2009-12-08T09:28:00.000-05:00

If I asked you to log on to your computer right now, could you tell me how much hard drive space you are using on your computer? Now first, subtract the operating system, we do not need that, but include everything else, even those thousands of songs you have on your Itunes account, also do not forget those PowerPoint presentations you from last year, count those as well. Now add all of these various applications together, along with all of your personal stuff, and imagine all of those, not on your computer, but on the Internet, all saved in one spot so you can easily access them from various computers around the world.

Now this simple concept, the idea of offering everything online, is the simple idea behind cloud computing and what many people believe including Google, IBM, and Apple is the next big evolution of technology. With everything stored online, you have no reason for that high end Pentium 4 anymore, simply dust off the old clunker in the corner, to go online and have access to everything you will ever need. Imagine signing into your Google account and having access to everything that the Pentium 4, could do and more. Want to save all of those old pictures on your hard drive? Just save them to Google Wave. Need to finish that last minute Chemistry paper? Well just switch over to Google Docs and finish it there. All you will soon need is an Internet connection, and the possibilities of what you can do from there are endless. Now I have to ask though, are you ready for this? Despite the 350 million people Facebook claims to have and the growing number of people getting on the Internet, are you ready for cloud computing?

Now Google despite being the current forerunner in this push for Cloud Computing is not alone. Apple, who is best known for there Quicktime and Itunes applications, is not one to be left behind in this evolution of technology, so they recently purchased Lala.Com, in hopes of keeping up in this race. Lala's premise, if you have never visited it, is really quite simple, just pay ten cents for a song and you can listen to that song online as long as you want to. You do not own the copyrighted song however, you cannot copy it, you cannot move the song or hide it in your folders, however you do own the song online for free and as long as you have an Internet connection you can listen to it as many times as you want to. This move, however small shows just how much Apple is interested in keeping up the pace when it comes to Cloud Computing. Itunes might be a huge success, but in the future where everything is online, Apple has to keep up, if it wants to be successful.

Now I tell you all of this simply because again, I have to question, are you ready for this? Are you ready for every application you need to be readily available online for free or at a small cost? Where does the marketer come in all of this? How much will each application cost? Will we have to pay for each application individually? There are a thousands of questions still left that we need to see answered before we can say more. But in the end are people ready to get rid of their USB drives and hard drives, and are seriously ready for all of their information to be online and to trusted with a various company to protect it. Now I want to say that again, if you are not paying attention DO YOU TRUST ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION WITH ANYBODY BUT YOURSELF? That is the question we have to really ask. Scary isn't it? Ladies and Gentlemen the future is here, welcome to Cloud Nation.

Tiger Woods, my Father and the future of News.

2009-12-03T09:58:00.000-05:00

It happened last Friday, around 12 o'clock, right before lunch, I checked my twitter feed and saw that is when I saw it. "Tiger Woods in critical condition after car accident at 2:30 am." Just like everybody I was shocked by this news and immediately shared it with my father, who I was enjoying a post-Thanksgiving lunch with, "Tiger's been in an accident." "What?" He said, shaking his head. In his usual, shameful, where has society gone voice. My father has never been a huge sports fan like me and my brother, however he knows the big names and it is hard NOT to know Tiger Woods' name. Now I am bringing this all up in reflection to last Tuesday's blog. My father after reading it Tuesday, commented, what are we turning into? Are we just electrical pulses that spew random bits of information, like gears in a cog? Well, I argue no. Social Media is allowing us more individual freedom and it is allowing us to gain all of the information, that we as individuals want faster and quicker than ever before. Look at the Tiger Woods incident, before the day and age of social networking the story would have hit the 12 o'clock news if we were lucky, or we would have to wait five or six hours to watch it on the nightly news. In those twelve hours a PR "spin team" can come up with a number of excuses and false stories for Tiger Woods, "well he was off to get some milk for his baby." Now it is not my purpose here to judge Tiger Woods, however it is my part to react to how fast this story broke, using social networking. Like I said earlier, I did not hear about this story from the newspaper or TV, I simply like thousands of others found out about this story from my Twitter Feed and no not from the New York Times Twitter feed, but from fantasy sports analyst Mattew Berry(@MattewBerryTMR) who simply tweeted the breaking story, to his followers. I cannot help but wonder what would of happened, if we had this technology during the OJ case, or even going further back, what if Bernstien and Woodward had a twitter account? Would Bernstein have tweeted DeepThroat's words, to the populace? Can you imagine news breaking in an instant? And not just news, but opinions, thoughts, emotions all breaking the minute that they are conjured up, because this is the that society we now live in The day of getting news the old fashioned way is gone. Billions upon billons of newspapers are losing money as more and more people are turning to the Internet for their news, and that is now even changing with social networking. Before the newspaper where did we get our news? It was from word of mouth and twitter/facebook and various other social networking applications are simply adding to that. Do you remember the family reunion, when your family use to sit around and tell stories about what they had been up to and all the crazy hijinks that happened in their personal lives. Well that part of our lives is simply gone. Change a job? Update your Facebook status. Have baby pictures? Upload them to Flicker or PhotoBucket. News and information is not changing us, it is becoming more of a reflection of us as a whole, as a society. True, we have to straddle that line on how much information we want the the world to have access to, and that very line seems to change everday, but at the end of the day in the Social Media any information you want is there.

The Future is here.

2009-12-01T10:55:00.000-05:00

If you have never read, Transmetropolitan the 60 issue comic book series written by Warren Ellis, I highly recommend it. The story follows a man named Spider Jerusalem, who has lived in the mountains for the last five years and for reasons I will not reveal, he has to revisit the city, after leaving for the mountains years ago. Now, that is all of the plot you are going to get from me. The point why I bring this up is because of the city that Jerusalem has to revisit and live in, once again. At the time of the publication the city was set in the future and ends up becoming a character of its own. The city is filled with viral information everywhere, we find out, as Jerusalem first enters the city and later goes on to explore it. it is literally a social networkers' dream as commercials are beamed directly to the head, people are getting constant updates about the world from "The Feed," the book even goes as far as the main character going, "walking out in the city, is like walking out of sensory deprivation," later even simply remarking that there is noise everywhere. And the reason, that I bring all of this up, is because this age of getting information directly to us, is where we are ladies and gentlemen. The days of not knowing what is going on in the world are long gone. Got a radio? Better yet, got a computer? Heck, got a cell phone? Technology is taking us to places where we never thought. You can pull out your phone and find a variety of info, from the latest news, to what time the movie is playing tonight. All of this leads to this blog. Now you came across it for a certain reason. Now, all I ask is for you to stay with me. As I write this, I cannot tell you what this is going to be about, but I will tell you I will throw a little pop culture, a little daily news, and sports news at you but from there, well we will see. But for now, all I can is that the future that Warren gave us in Transmetropolitan is here.