First this has nothing to do with New Media. I just need to share this and get feedback. Sooooo….

I was not a believer. I mocked my friends. They keep telling me about this Shop To Earn thing. Seemed like a  scam to me. I found a few negative things about it on the web. Some positive and some on the bubble. Yet there is one thing that made me change my mind.. Money.

So, I have friends, not these friends of friends. Or the whole my brothers, friends, cousin’s girlfriend thing, that have gotten over $50,000.00! Some have $10,000.00 some have $4,000. I have seen these checks and they cleared the bank and everything.

What is Shop To Earn?  Its an at home business.. here check out this slide show..

Am I sold? I should be. Yet, I’m still not sure about this thing. So I just spent $448.00 to find out. We will see.

Crazy? Maybe.. Nuts? Definitely.

Is my wife going to kill me? More then likely.

Do i keep having friends join and make money that I can verify? yep

Do I want to miss the boat? Nope

So, click the link, check it out, let me know your thoughts.

Just a quick note. About 1 1/2 ago I worked with Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff of the Pacific Coast Hellway on a Virtual World project called Shadow Falls. While doing that I made a donation to a charity in return Don LaFontaine did a 24 second greeting for my answering machine. I still have it on there to this day. Thought I would share it with you.

Click the link below

Don LaFontaine on my answering machine

I still get tons of comments about my greeting at home.

Is it just me?

Maybe it is just me. I am not really sure. The strangest thing has been happening to me on Facebook.

Let me back up and start from the beginning. I see my Facebook friends as three groups. There are my New Media Friends the Susan Reynolds, Cali Lewis, and Mitch Joel types. Are we best friends? No. Do we know and hopefully respect each other in the New Media space…yes. Then there are my high school friends, college friends, parents from the kids school and my best buddies group. Lastly, there are people I just don’t know. They are friends of friends. You know the “You have 5 mutual friends” kind of thing. Or maybe they read my blog and added me, we could of exchanged business cards or something. Ill add them back, check out their blog,profile, linkedin page and such. I try not to add friends via the mutual thing unless we have like a lot of friends in common and/or know their name.(This is my disclaimer so i am not a hypocrite) Oh and never shall the these groups meet until…well.. now.

In the past 2 weeks I have gotten 5 emails or instant messages from friends going.. ” Who the heck is Joe Blow?” Ill say “How the heck do you know that person?” Their response, “Well they added me on Facebook?”. I usually tell them to ignore them unless they are interesting in expanding their friendship base. I share this with you because I find it odd. Why do people add people at random? To what end? My thoughts on this well Ill share this with you in list form.. cause people like lists.

My thoughts: (cause your dying to know)

- Some people on Facebook are clicking and adding friends at random.

- These requests are usually only friends with me, cause that why they contacted me to ask “Who is Joe Blow and why are they adding me?” Why would you want to be friends with someone you have 1 mutual friend with,is on the other side of the country and no common interest? I don’t get it.

- They don’t care who they are friends with and just want to increase their friend count. Kind of odd to me. Ego?

-Is the term “Friend” not what it use to be. People are just adding “friends” at random. Maybe we need subgroups like “Friend”, “Heard their Name”, “No Clue but lets be Facebook buddies”, “Random Add”

Am Iirked, bitter, on a rant? Maybe a little. I find it odd, that you want friends just to increase the number.

Just my thoughts after getting another call.

Agree? Disagree? Discuss…

Well first thing, I lived to tell about the New Media Expo. It was a very nice time. I got to see lots of friends and make lots more. It was a very nice time. Now for the part that many of you might not agree with me on. So, I am just going to put it out there. As I have not seen much chatter about it on the ‘net, twitter, facebook or any social networking sites. The New Media Expo this year..well.. it was…kind of weak. Yes, there I said it. Don’t hate me. Let me compare it for you to say last year with my thoughts. Let’s do it in list form, because people like lists.

The differences from this year and last year:

-2007 was in Ontario, California this year was Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas in great and all, but it was way to spread out. With all this space it was hard to run into people and network. If you have ever been to Ontario you’ll know what I mean about the location.

-The expo floor was a lot smaller. Not sure why, since they picked up sponsers like Sony, but there was not a lot going on when you hit the floor

-The speaker list was basically the same as last year. Been there, heard them, done that.

-There were no Podcasting awards. I know the term “Pod” has a stigma around it and the changed the name to drop Podcasting. Fine, but the awards were fun!!! They created buzz ahead of time.

- Parties! Where were the Parties? Maybe I am not cool and people don’t want me at their parties. But I remember all kinds of parties last year. The only thing going on was the Coverville 500 Concert. This was $25.00 to get in the door.

-The lack of information on Twitter. I would update and check Twitter and Summzie.com. Not a lot of conversations and comments going on. Heck TheNewMediaExpo twitter feed was not even being updated! They have 4900 people following them what a waste of a tool that could be used to create buzz and give information.

-Where were you: Chris Brogan? Rumorgirls? Cali Lewis? Ewan Spence? Eric Rice? Hayden Black? Just to name a few. Heck Podsho.. I mean Mevio did not even try the whole unconfrence thing.

- A Lack of moments like this

So, do I think I will go back next year? Kind of doubt it. Needless to say I was very disappointed.

Next month I head back to Las Vegas for Blogworld & New Media Expo I have hope this will be a lot better. The speaker list looks amazing.

Where you there? What did you think? Did you not go? Why Not? Am I wrong?

Flying out to the New Media Expo this morning. If your there, please make sure to say “Hi!”

All give you all the updates when I get back!

I need your help. Actually I need your vote. I am putting together a panel for the 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival also known as South by Southwest in Austin Texas. I have proposed a panel to help answer the question “What Does A Community Manager Do?”

So if you could please click on this link: Vote for Dave! Once there please register and vote. So thank you in advance.

At this time I will be having three amazing and knowledge people on the panel with me. First there is Jake McKee is an evangelist for customer collaboration, online communities, and fan groups. He has a rich background in Web development, community management, business strategy, and product development.

Currently he is the Principal and Chief Ant Wrangler at Ant’s Eye View, a Dallas-based customer collaboration strategy practice. In a past life, Jake was the Global Community Relations Specialist for the LEGO Company, where he spent five years on the front lines of customer-company interaction.

The next panel member is Bill Johnston. Bill works for Forum One Communications as the Director of Community and Research. He writes the Online Community Report blog and newsletter. He also runs the OC Research Network, and conducts research on topics like online community metrics, ROI, and marketing via social media. He recently hosted the Online Community Unconference.

Connie Bensen is recognized as a leader in community management. She is presently working with Network Solutions. She also provides Community Manager training & enjoys mentoring those interested in building community. She has been working with online communities for two years. First as an evangelist & then as a Community Manager for ACDSee.

She blogs at ConnieBensen.com, MarketingTwo.com, & SolutionsArePower.com. She is also the editor of Personal Branding Magazine. Prior to joining ACD Systems, Connie spent 10 years on the brick and mortar side of community building in public library administration, marketing & PR.

So bottom line, these people know their stuff.

So once again, please vote for our panel:What Does A Community Manager Do? It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I’m a New Media Strategist!! Good enough answer?

Lets just stop right there shall we?

I am very excited to share with you all that I have been hired as the New Media Strategist for LSF Interactive.

So now your saying “Great! Congrats! What the heck is a New Media Strategist?” I am so glad you asked! Well a New Media Strategist provides planning and execution of public relations strategies that will help increase a company’s image, community stature as well as brand awareness.

Yes, that is a mouth full isn’t it?

Lets break it down into its parts. How about a list? People like lists! The areas all be handling and advising on are:

-Blogs

-Social Networking Sites i.e Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Plurk,(always have to work the word Plurk in)

-Podcasts

-Outreach/Advocacy

-Relationship management

-Webcasting/Lifecasting

-Tradeshows/Industry Conferences

-Viral Campaigns

-Public Relations

So there you go. The Cliff Notes version.

Oh, I will be at the New Media Expo next week. Make sure to say hello if your going to be there!

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After all this time being involved in Social Media, I still am amazed of the power it has. Some amazing “moments” have happened these past few days, that make me just go “Wow”. So I thought I would share them with you.

This week I posted an article about the bankruptcy of Mervyn’s Department Stores to my Facebook account. Yes, you can do that. I did not think much about it till I got this email from my friend Ryan:

Thanks for posting the article on Mervyn’s today. My grandfather worked very closely with Merv for about 25 years. I actually just went up to Palo Alto a few weeks ago to meet with Merv and hear the story of how he built Mervyn’s from one store on a street corner, to meeting and hiring my grandfather, and eventually to it’s IPO. Mervyn’s was a big part of my family growing up and it’s sad to see it hit rough times.”

My grandfather passed away in 2004. While what happens to Mervyn’s today is somewhat inconsequential to me directly, it was a great opportunity to sit down with a cup of coffee and remember my grandfather this morning.

Thanks,

Ryan

My first reaction..WOW! My one little click, my one moment of lets post this to Facebook of all places, made his day totally different. Look, Im not trying to get all deep and mushy, thats not my thing. Just take a moment and think of that kind of well,power that is. Its mind blowing.

Here is another one for you. So, I guess some people actually read my blog and even pass some of my posts on. I know, it’s crazy right? This week I got an email from a person we will call.. Ed. Well, Ed wrote me to say a friend passed on a blog post I wrote and he would like to talk to me about doing consulting work for his company. NUTS! All I did was post my thoughts on a new media subject, he passes on to a friend and Bam! I have a consulting job. Im still trying to wrap my head around it.

So my point? Social Media, New Media, Social Networking.. call it what you want, it is powerful stuff. By putting yourself and your thoughts out there, your are changing and effecting people. It is crazy!

Lets start with a picture shall we? I got this via a link sent to me on twitter:

So my thoughts on this in list form of course, cause people like lists:

-Wow I feel so special, its invite only! You picked me!

- Billionaire Club! Wow this must be better then the Millionaires club or the 4h club.

-Wow, location TBD! Its like top secret decoder ring stuff. It must be at a mainson or Bill Gate’s house right?

-Oh, wait you do know I am not a girl right? Yes, I do use the name Britney Mason here and there. Can I still come?

-Hey your holding an ice cream cone, there will be ice cream? Of course all billionaire women eat ice cream at these invite only meetings, how dumb of me.  Can I still please come? I like ice cream. Will you have cookie dough flavor?

-Wait. Is this a marketing ploy? Are you a spammer? Billionaire women, a mystery location and cookie dough ice cream? This is to good to be true right? Let me see who sent me this tweet..

-Dang.. you invited all the girls on twitter. I’m not that special. Also, I clicked the link on your profile, your selling clothes. You tried to trick me. That’s not cool at all. I am going to let everyone know your mean and sneaky.

-Gee, great marketing move though. Bet you get tons of business off this… ya right. You don’t get social media at all.

- So does this mean i wont get ice cream now?

I need to go to Cold Stone…

You!

Yes, You!

You, the company that has setup a Twitter account with a company brand.

Do you really think I care about your product that much? Look, no offense but I have never heard of your startup. I think its great.. no awesome, that you want to bring your company into the whole social networking space. I am really flattered you have chosen my twitter feed to follow. I mean, a big company like you finds what I say important!

I hope I don’t offended you, as we are just starting our relationship, but I am not going to follow you back. Look, its just well.. here let me give you a list. People like lists.

-Your Twitter feed is your brand logo, I want to see a person

-You only post about your product and what great things your company is doing. Yawnnnnnnnnn

-Your Twitter Profile is just your company..again, I want to see a person, a name, anything.

-The link on your Profile goes to your company site. I know you want to advertise your brand. Maybe you need to buy a banner ad.

-Hey is this thing on? Can you see my posts? Maybe respond once in a while.. pretend you care. Throw me a bone already.

-You have gone to all this time and expense to higher a Community Manager, yet they blog, post, tweet whatever as the company. Your not getting it, its SOCIAL media.

Look let me lay this out for you… You created your account added 2,000 people and only 175 follow you back. If that is not a hint, I dont know what is.

Last thing… its SOCIAL MEDIA!!