To stalk or not to stalk – Facebook for Business not for Personal
Published October 7, 2010It’s hard to believe that it’s been only six years since the launch of Facebook. Over the past six years they’ve managed to change the lives of over 500 million users. Now I already know what you’re thinking… “changed the lives.” Most, if not all of you reading this 
right now have a Facebook account, a Fan Page, or are members of a group. Even if you don’t, you’ve been involved in some type of conversation, lecture, or organization that is involved.
As I watch my friends and family get sucked deeper and deeper into Facebook. I find myself removing more and more of my own personal information. When Facebook first launched I remember feeling a bit like a stalker even if I just glanced at someone’s profile pictures or music interests. These days people spend hours and hours fine tuning their own personal profiles. Likewise, so many people these days spend hours combing through other peoples photos and mutual friend lists. It’s pushed “watching TV” way down on the list of “useless things to waste time with”.
When did it become OK to stalk people?
It became OK when we all decided that we wanted to live our lives in public. WE made it OK to stalk each other. I encourage everyone to pause and take a look at what personal information you have on display to the world.
To some degree, I feel like a bit of a hypocrite. As a web designer and all around “internet guy” I’m constantly working with businesses on Facebook, Coaching Social Media Seminars, and preaching to my clients about the importance of Social Media avenues.
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Flickr, etc… are great. Great for business!
From a business networking and search engine optimization stand point; these platforms have revolutionized marketing as we know it. It’s been greatly frustrating and extremely intriguing to watch this evolution over the past 6+ years. I hope that in 40 years I’ll feel honored to think of myself as “A child of the internet age”.
Professional Blogger and Social Media Expert in The High Country to hold second round of Social Media Workshops for area businesses.
Published March 21, 2010Sarah Pinnix, founder of HighCountryMomSquad.com, and RealLifeBlog.net is gearing up for a second round of “Talk of the Town” Social Media Marketing Workshops…to be held once again at The Broyhill Inn & Conference Center on the campus of Appalachian State University. The new series begins on Tuesday, April 13th and will be held on the first Tuesday of every month moving forward. Pinnix has worked with brands, companies and tourist destinations on marketing campaigns and social media consulting, including , EA SPORTS Active fitness, Nintendo, Ocean Isle Inn, Little Debbie, Frito Lay/ Subway, Broyhill Inn and Conference Center, Chick-Fil-A of Boone, River House Inn, Great Wolf Lodge, Ubisoft, E.L.F. Cosmetics, Kraft, Small Businesses, and more.
Pinnix, Scott Dickson of Dickson Interactive in Winston-Salem, Doug Uzelac of Broyhill Inn, and web designer Boomer Sassman of Big Boom Design in Asheville will guide business people through intensive, hands-on coaching sessions using Blogs, Facebook and Twitter to build your business and boost revenue. Talk of the Town Workshop was created to give participants a private consulting experience at a fraction of the cost of a private consultant. Continue reading
Social Media for the (AWI) Architectural Woodwork Institute comes to the Biltmore Estate
Published February 25, 2010
An Event Update…afterthoughts:
For anyone that wants to start tracking a website without using google analytic you might want to check out Trackle.com or you can link to the google analytics page here.
I also mentioned Hubspot who has a a great online tool called a website grader.
Over the next few weeks I’ll add to this list of after thoughts about todays AWI meeting.
Event Host:
Carolinas Chapter AWI
Location:
Inn on Biltmore Estate
1 Antler Hill Rd.
Asheville, NC 28803 US
When:
Friday, February 26, 9:00AM
Phone: 336-887-0700
Our Speaker:
Boomer Sassmann
Join us once again in beautiful Asheville, NC at the Inn on Biltmore Estate for our Membership Meeting. We have a great program lined up for you!
Social Media . . . could you? should you? would you? Continue reading
A Day on the Internet and Life in this Digital World
Published February 1, 2010I recently had a conversation with a fellow web designer about the sheer magnitude of the internet and how much data we transfer back and forth every day. It really is amazing when you stop to think about how quickly and flawlessly we’re able to send and receive emails, text messages, and other files from one city or country to another without even a hiccup. Even while I write this blog posting I’m transferring multiple gigabytes of data to my server halfway across the country. I can still recall when I was 10 years old my dad brought home a 14.4 Kb modem and we dialed up for the first time ever… boy did I get hooked! So much that the internet has become my career and virtual office. We sure have come a long way over the past fifteen years. One can only fathom what’s to come in the upcoming decade.
Below is an illustration that a friend of mine sent to me that attaches some statistics to all this tweeting and messaging that we take for granted every morning when we boot up our computers. If all these stats are correct then this article makes 900,001 blog posting today.
Baby Boomers and Social Media Awareness
Published February 1, 2010Source: Center for Media Research
According to a new study conducted by CPH Research on behalf of Continuum Crew, Baby Boomer-aged respondents’ anxiety has shifted from the collapse of the economy to the cost of health care. Most significant is the shift in the media consumption of this age group, as the only media activity to rise dramatically was time spent on the Internet.
This is one of several insights on the emergence of the new ‘social media maven’ among Baby Boomers, and indicates that social media has significantly carved out time generally reserved for traditional media.
Baby Boomers/Boomers are defined as the generation born between 1946 and 1964, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Generation Jones, coined by television director Jonathan Pontell, is commonly considered to be those born between 1954 and 1964, representing the younger segment of Boomers. Generation Ike (Ikes) are those born between 1934 and 1945.
Top Findings on anxiety and life events of Boomers are:
- Anxiety about the economy has decreased in the past year (46% indicated it as the issue they were ‘very nervous’ about in 2008); now the issue of most concern is cost of healthcare, as indicated by 49% in 2009.
- For older parents more adult children are moving back home than are leaving it. This is a previously unprecedented finding within this research series, and markedly shows that Boomers’ lives are in transition.
- Boomers are now re-framing the notion of frugal living into the idea of simplicity. Children moving back in with parents, or delaying leaving their parent’s home, is likely having an effect on the family dynamic and household, which may mean an inclination to the return of the extended family structure of the World War II era.
Top findings on media consumption are:
- Ikes and Boomers still use traditional media more than those of Generation Jones or Generation X, but not all Boomers consume media in the same way, the biggest gap being between older and younger Boomers. This is most striking within traditional print media, with high consumption by older Boomers of newspapers and magazines. Continue reading
Posted in Social Media | 
baby boomers, Facebook, Generation Jones, Generation X, Social Media, Social Media Maven, Twitter | Leave a commentBoomer Sassmann to speak at “Talk of the town: Using Social Media to create buzz”
Published September 7, 2009In this economy, businesses small and large are striving to pull ahead of the crowd- to be heard above the cacophony in the marketplace.
Social Media (ie: Blogs, Facebook,You Tube, Twitter, Flikr, etc) are unique platforms to engage your target audience and create the kind of viral buzz that can make or break your business. These days, consumers want to do business with people they know and trust. And we can effectively forge these relationships, without breaking the bank, using Social Media.
The “Talk of the Town” Workshop Series will delve extensively into each mode of social media, and include knowledgeable speakers as well as peer coaching. We will come alongside you as you navigate the world of new media and customize it to suit your needs.
- Instead of talking into the sea of people and hoping one will hear, learn how to inspire others to talk about you in a positive way!
- Reach out and draw consumers to your message through “permission marketing.”
- Discover how to make Social Media work for you, with specifically tailored workshops and peer coaching, abandoning the “one size fits all” approach!
- Teaming with successful bloggers and social media users to promote your message.
- Overcome the publicity challenges unique to a small town!
Future “Talk of the Town” events will be held monthly, and may be purchased individually or as part of a package. Prices start at $30 per session.
The Introductory Breakfast will be an overview of our “Talk of the Town” Series on using social media (Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, and more) to create buzz for your business. The minimal fee includes a deluxe continental breakfast and a private room facility at the Broyhill Inn.
Speakers/Coaches include:
Scott Dickson is the President of Dickson Interactive, LLC. Scott has been helping businesses and organizations define and reach their target audiences for nearly 15 years. A veteran of traditional media advertising, including broadcast, newspapers, and magazines, Scott embraced the digital world when he became the Director of Online Sales for Media General in the NC region and as a Director of Business Development for the real-estate portal, Listingbook.com. After meeting success in the digital world, Scott realized there was a dire need for businesses to optimize their online marketing strategies to take advantage of the culture shift to the digital world. For the past 3 years, Scott has acted as both a consultant and project manager to help lead customers through the digital maze, maximizing their online presence with organic search engine optimization, usability and functionality analysis, competitive intelligence, conversion metrics, analytics, content development, distribution and social media marketing. A graduate of Appalachian State with a BS in Communications, Scott is also a published author and accomplished musician.
Boomer Sassmann is the President and Digital Technology Director for Big Boom Design. For over a decade Boomer has been building progressive, straightforward, and striking websites that combine the perfect mixture of form and function. His fascination with the internet and website design began in the mid 90’s before the days of Google. At that time website design and search engine techniques were fairly simple compared to today’s standards. Boomer began teaching himself Flash Animation and started incorporating these animations into his website projects whenever possible. This interest in Flash (motion) based websites forced him to become an expert in search engine optimization. As the internet continued to evolve, so did Boomers’ interest. First it was the Open Source movement followed by Content Management based websites, also known as blogs. This “worldly” knowledge of the internet gives Boomer an uncanny ability to select the perfect platform to build any type of website, no matter how complex. Basic HTML, Animated Flash, Content Management, and of course Blog design are all offered by Boomer and his staff at Big Boom Design. A graduate from Appalachian State University with a degree in Industrial Design, Boomer also works on the side tinkering with electric cars and sustainable building designs.
Apple, the Boomer Tablet and the Matrix
Published July 17, 2009Every once in a while I’ll do a Google search for my own name, as I’m sure most have done at lease once. Its rare that I find any new links or anything interesting besides the occasional new Facebook listings. I ran across this article today and thought that it was blog posting material. The full article can be seen here: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/apple-the-boomer-tablet-and-th.html
I have written here, here and here about Apple’s inevitable assault on the Tablet market. What I hadn’t factored until recently is how symbiotic such a device would be for Baby Boomers.
Why Baby Boomers? Well, for the same two reasons that this demographic is unlikely to embrace the palm-sized iPhone en masse.
One, such a bookish-sized tablet device – I’ll call it the Boomer Tablet – would be tailor-made for home Wi-Fi setups, thereby obviating the mobile access costs associated with iPhone, a significant barrier for a generation that is programmed to keep mobile bills within a tight spending range.
Two, because a larger-form factor device would offer Boomers a bigger viewing screen and “lifestyle” settings, like fatter keys and a more forgiving keyboard to ease input, and wizard-like shortcuts to simplify recurring tasks.
This is key, because with the onset of age, Boomers’ motor skills have become less precise; their vision has become poorer; and their eyes get tired easier.
As such, the premise of them plugging away on tiny keys and peering into the tiny screen of a mobile device like iPhone/iPod touch is a non-starter.
By contrast, the Boomer Tablet offers a superior input, viewing and playback environment for accessing your iTunes library, personal media, syndicated content services, iPhone Apps and presumably, Mac Apps; something that the 70M+ Baby Boomers in the US who are aged 53-73 would likely find compelling.
Continue Reading here: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/apple-the-boomer-tablet-and-th.html
China Block Facebook and Twitter for Tien An Men Square Massacre Anniversary
Published June 6, 2009Click here for the full article.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the Tianamen Square massacre in Beijing. Tianaman Square was home of the Chinese student freedom movement, the “Goddess of Democracy” statue, and the location for the iconic photo of the student staring down
a row of Chinese People’s Army tanks. However, if you use the Internet
in China, you probably won’t see anything about this event this week -
unless you’re clever.
Starting Tuesday, the Chinese government shut down access to virtually all search engines and social networking sites, including Twitter, Flickr, Bing (Microsoft’s new search engine), Live.com, Hotmail.com, Blogger, and others. All YouTube videos are also being blocked, as are BBC World News reports on the anniversary. These actions should come as no surprise, because China has previously censored Skype and blocked access to iTunes when it offered a pro-Tibetan album last year during the Beijing Olympics.
The Techcrunch UK website reports that some users are bypassing China’s restrictions by using VPNs, and third-party apps that use the Twitter API (TweetDeck, Twhilr, and Seesmic Desktop) are working.
Have you encountered the ‘Great Firewall of China’ or other country-specific restrictions on Internet access?
Posted in Social Media | China, facebook block, social networking sites, Tienan Men Square, twitter block
