We all think a differently thanks to Steve Jobs.

Apple just announced the passing of  Co-Founder Steve Jobs.

As I write this post on one of my many Mac computers and dismiss a call on my iPhone – I draw breath at the sheer impact he has had on millions of lives.

We are a wired society thanks in large part to his vision, his demands for nothing less than perfection and because he always believed he could do better.

Before you send out that tweet from your new iPhone 4s . . . remember back just a few years when a cell phone was the size of your grandmothers purse and be grateful for a man like Steve Jobs who demanded better.

As my husband so aptly tweeted : “Steve Jobs passing marks the capstone of an era of innovation. Design such as Apple has revolutionized more than just the computer industry.”

The world of technology is a bit dimmer today from the loss of this master of innovation.

Jobs loved what he did. And pursued that love with a passion. In a 2005 Stanford commencement speech, Jobs said:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma–which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

[EDIT 9:51 PM OCT. 5, 2011]
The White House just posted President Barack Obama‘s statement on the passing of Steve Jobs – I think this says it best . . . .

“there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”

The man changed virtually every American citizen’s daily life with the ipod and iphone, that is a rare occurrence in today’s world. He was a genius and a revolutionary inventor. R.I.P. Steve.  You were amazing.  Thank you for all that you have done to advance technology and design.

Read Steve Jobs Tributes

Read Tribute at NPR.

Read Time.com’s thoughts on Steve Jobs.

Boston.com: Key dates from the life and work of Steve Jobs

LA Times: Steve Jobs mourned by Apple workers, Cupertino residents

Cult of Mac: Mike Elgan’s What Steve Jobs Means to Silicon Valley

NY Times: Remembering Steve Jobs – Send in your Pictures

Wall Street Journal: Apple Chairman, Former CEO Steve Jobs Has Died

Cupertino City Council: Steve Jobs Presentation to Cupertino City Council about Apple’s New Headquarters in June 2011

A simple and fitting tribute on Apple.com's home page.

Related Steve Jobs Stories When He Stepped Down as CEO in August:

• As Apple’s Steve Jobs Steps Down, Tim Cook Steps Up Aug. 25, 2011
• How Steve JobsChanged The Way We Listen Aug. 25, 2011
• Steve Jobs And The Cultural Apple Aug. 25, 2011
• A Story About Steve Jobs And Attention To Detail Aug. 25, 2011
• With A Spotlight On Jobs, Time To Talk About Cancer Aug. 25, 2011
• Can Apple Fly As High Without Steve Jobs? Aug. 25, 2011
• Apple CEO Steve Jobs Stepping Down Aug. 24, 2011
• Will Jobs’ Departure Take A Bite Out Of Apple? Jan. 18, 2011
• Is Steve Jobs Irreplaceable As Apple’s CEO? Jan. 18, 2011
• Steve Jobs Takes Another Medical Leave Jan. 18, 2011

And after Apple announced that the iPhone 4S was going to be available on the Sprint Network. Boom, Sprints Phone page crashes… and it’s been crashed for about 2 hours now.

EDIT: 4:41pm CST, Sprint phones site back up. Still doesn’t have any marketing pertaining to iPhone 4S.

Nice work, Apple and Sprint. You took a potentially huge moment and took a poop all over it. I bet Steve Jobs would be rolling over in his grave, if he was already dead.

But, it wouldn’t surprise me if Steve Jobs is out of retirement as soon as Wednesday morning.

EDIT: 5:53pm 10-05-11. Steve Jobs passed away this morning on October 5th, 2011. So, this original post joke seems kind of assholeish. No disrespect was meant.

Siri Search, makes use of Yelp’s business ratings, thus this makes instantly makes Yelp a strong local competitor to Google Places.

The understated thing for small businesses, is to make sure that you nurture your Yelp business profile page. You need to claim your listing, and encourage happy customers to leave their happy thoughts on your profile link.

Yelp is now very relevant to your small business rankings. Google Places has been the big dog in local optimization or as I call it, Local Awesomeization…. And your places ranking and profile completion has become very important for your local marketing.

Now, Siri, which is a virtual assistant will be able to find you anything you want… and it is using the Yelp Reviews to rank therecommendations.

Apple just entered Local Search in a big way. This is the key take away from this event, not that the iPhone 5 isn’t here, but that the iPhone 4S with Siri is going to revolutionize how Apple iPhone users find local information.

HUUUUUUUGE.

Siri used over 35 APIs to find what its users were requesting, including one to translate speech to text. In April, 2010, Apple bought Siri before it could expand to Android. Over a year later, the app has been built into the next generation iPhone software. The fact that Siri uses Yelp, instantly gives them importance, and even more importance, when the Siri service launches on some of the other iOS versions.

Nuture your Yelp account now.  Claim it, and begin getting good reviews.  Local search is a science, and you have to get that information out there.

Now, what you may want to do, is to connect with and nurture relationships with people on Yelp… the people who leave reviews for your business.  Look at this message that I recently got via Yelp.

Yelp has re-entered the local search fray, folks.  Pay attention.

Photo Credit: Eric Lusion

[EDIT Oct. 3, 2011] – Thanks to @FakhriZina and @OperationLeakS for sharing this humdinger of a video :: Day Trader tells truth live on UK BBCNews 9/26/11

This morning I began my day reading over the messages from those who are showing their support for the #OccupyWallStreet movement by posting pictures of notes that tell their stories on the We are the 99% tumblr blog. I encourage you to pause to read their stories before you judge or accept what you may have heard from main stream media.

Since the #OccupyWallStreet movement took shape on September 17th, 2011 it seems as though there has been growing frustration in how the main stream media is portraying the peaceful, organized and well spoken (and growing) group. Let’s face it – the coverage didn’t really begin until there was violence on peaceful protesters by the NYPD. Major news organizations finally began to cover the story when the rest of the world took notice.

Just to be clear on what the movement is about, please take a moment to read the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City from the The Official Website of the General Assembly at #OccupyWallStreet.

These are not happless hippies or misguided hipsters who are out to inconvenience NYC commuters or waste taxpayers money. There are many older protesters who want change too! Some are even suggesting that people close their accounts with the bail out banks and move all of their money to a credit union.

Read the General Assembly Minutes from 9/29 7PM and you will see that this group is thoughtful in what whey want to accomplish and realize that in order to reach the and gain the support of 99% of America they will have to stick to the main issues of the corruption of Wall Street and the Financial Institutions that have lead us into this recession.

There is even a post on Reddit by HotKariMarx that encourages protesters to wear khaki’s and polos to appeal to the people at home who are watching this developing story on the news. Great idea of a “uniform” to appeal to the masses – but the people are there and protesting because they can barely make ends meet. Who knows, maybe Ralph Lauren or The Gap will donate polos and khakis for a good cause. . . but I doubt it.

This 2004 article by Jack Rasmus lays out some pretty interesting facts about the disparity in earnings in the U.S. between American workers and CEO’s. In 2007 the New York Times even confirmed the widening income gap. I can’t help but agree with the economists who think that the repeal of the Glass – Steagall act aided in our current economic woes.

"Hrmmmmm".

The part that social media is playing in this now nationwide movement is difficult to ignore. The reason international news organizations are reporting on the protests in the US is due largely to the noise being made online. My first glimpse at what was going on in NYC was thanks to my Facebook Friend Eric Lusion who shared an album of photo’s from the streets.

Many, like me, have noticed that Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent) is taking his support of Wall Street / Financial Institutional reform to twitter. I applaud his efforts to educate his followers that 3 out of the 4 largest financial institutions are bigger today than before the financial crisis began. I was some what shocked to learn from the Senator that “Between 1980 and 2005, 80% of all new income created in this country went to the top 1%”

The whole world is watching as the 99% demand real reform.

The Occupy Together movement is growing world wide. Will you join in the movement online via social media or in your nearest city?

Will you risk arrest like MetroFocus Web Editor John Farley did for his piece on citizen journalism?

Are your local representatives addressing this issue?

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Edit 1:36 pm : the WSJ just posted that there WILL NOT be a Radiohead concert.

Edit 12:56 pm : Confirmed from @occupywallst website that Radiohead, who is in NY as part of their tour, will be playing at 4pm. I can only imagine what this will do for visibility of the movement as well as set the stage for other celebrities to step in and show support for the cause. Hashtag for the event is #RadioheadOccupy

First of all, what is SEO?

Wikipedia defines it as:

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.”

Search Engine Optimization is Obviously Part of Marketing.

Search Engine Marketing is certainly a tactic to get more customers to your website. Most website goals are to bring buyers to the company website, and to get them to convert. You want them buying the products or services you are selling. This is marketing. SEO should go in marketing, right?

Well, not so fast.

Search Engine Optimization is Obviously Part of I.T.

When you search engine optimize or as I call it, “Awesomeize” your website, it is a technical act.

Much of the work up front will be changes to website copy, backend work on page titles and meta tags, and other technical work that requires the knowledge and assistance of your IT team. You go through best practices to identify the correct keywords, structure, tags, and content of the site. When you are dealing with the structure and programming of the site, this needs to be done by web engineers, who understand the language of ‘teh interwebs.’

It’s a two-way street. For this reason, SEO bridges marketing and the I.T. dept. And for your in-house SEO to be effective, you need to have buy-in from each dept. But really, SEO is a marketing tool, not just another I.T. project.

SEO is Marketing Tool, not really an I.T. project.

It’s easy to define and allocate a project based on the expertise needed to do the work. This happens all too often with SEO. Because a large part of the practical work seems to fall to the IT department, especially if you’re working with an outside SEO firm and implementing SEO work in-house, it’s easy to also delegate the bulk of the SEO decision-making power to the IT team as well. However, SEO is a marketing tool and requires intricate knowledge and consideration of marketing and branding strategy.

I.T. may work on a large portion of the SEO project, but I.T. involvement, as well as most major SEO decisions should be managed by your marketing team. A lot of companies have their SEO department be strictly I.T. and many companies have their SEO departments in the Marketing department. I’ve heard bitches and whines from both sides of the fence. But, it all boils down to this question, “Is the work getting done, effectively?”

There are two main types of SEO, on-page and off-page, there are different functions that fit under each dept.

On-Page SEO is more Technical, the changes done to the site. It is the changes you make to your website that will help your web pages to be indexed correctly by the search engines. By doing this, you are laying the foundation for future success in your search engine rankings. Here is a great On-Page SEO Checklist that may come in handy for you, when you are “Awesomeizing” your website.

Offpage SEO is a combination of all the things that can help you to rank your website well in the search engines.

• Factors which are not located ON your Web site pages
• There are many functions involved in Offpage SEO that if you do correctly, can help you to get your site ranked well in Search Engines.

Here is a great Off-Page SEO Checklist that will certainly be enlightening after you’ve completed your on page SEO recommendations.

So Where Does SEO Fit?

It can be a tough business decision to definitively decide where you place your SEO team. Again, part of your On-Page SEO is done by the I.T. Dept, but it doesn’t mean that I.T. should be driving the SEO bus.

In fact, Marketing should be driving the SEO Bus, but many of the passengers on that bus will be from the I.T. Dept. It truly does bridge both worlds, so the people in charge of your company’s SEO should be able to fluently speak the language of marketing along with the language of the I.T. dept. You can’t have one without the other, if you want to fully Awesomeize your web presence. Together, I.T. and Marketing can help make your website shine in the eyes of Google… and that’s really what you want, right?

He has since moved to Hong Kong and has created one of the most amazing iPad cases that I’ve seen, yet. This thing is made of freaking KANGAROO Leather! PETA be damned! I said Kangaroo Leather!

Leather iPad 2 Case?

Yes, Leather. Did I mention Kangaroo?

Check this out, I don’t do reviews on this site, but for this one, I just had to. I literally LOVE this iPad 2 case. This stylish case features genuine high-grade Australian kangaroo leather which is known to be the best performance leather in the world – it’s light and tough. When you combine this material with the unique notebook design, the result is a benchmark-setting luxurious leather case. That’s right… luxury.

And it has a handy flip up piece that allows you to turn your kick ass leather iPad 2 case into a stand.

iPad 2 case with a Stand? How legit is this?

I took this iPad 2 case to the SMX conference in New York with me, and had several people comment on how awesome it is. Once I told them about Mr. Gadget and the story behind the case, they thought it was even cooler. So, if you are looking for a non-traditional iPad 2 case, I’d recommend this one.

Here is my unboxing video for this product.

Leather iPad 2 Case – Unboxing

One out of every three mobile searches has local intent.

So, if you are a local business and you aren’t engaging your connections via mobile, you maybe missing a vital component of your interactive marketing.

Here at the SMX conference, they call it SoLoMo, but we call it Mobile, Local, Social. (duh.) SoLoMo doesn’t do it for me, but I have the feeling they may have called it MobLoSo, if we didn’t already own the name. Mwhahahaha.

But whatever you call it, it’s very important.

According to Greg Stewart, here at SMX, the intent of a consumer using a mobile device with social and local utility, 50% want to get coupons.

A study from 2010 of consumers using sources to find local info and content, the numbers show clearly that cell phone and mobile devices have the highest YOY growth rate.

Facebook is accessed on a mobile device 1/3 of the time.

Consumers are increasingly using more sources to find local information and content.

• 76 percent using search engines
• 67 percent use a print YP or WP directory
• 60 percent use IYP sites
• 47 percent local search sites
• 14 percent use mobile, up 40% from 2010
• 9 percent use social media, up 28% from last year

Where is Local Business Information Found?

• 56 percent find it via Company Page
• 55 percent Recommendations (from friends)
• 48 percent Promotions
• 43 percent Ads
• 42 percent References
• 35 percent Apps
• 25 percent Consumer Reviews

Local Search Foundation is about Listing Management

• Accuracy: Ensure that business listings contain the correct information.
• Distribution: Disperse listings to multiple distribution channels.
• Signal Strength: Business listing is accurate and identical across multiple channels.
• Enrichment: Add additional information/features to listings

Claiming and optimizing local listings leads to additional visibility in local search. Nearly half of social network searchers select a local biz based off of consumer ratings and reviews.

So, this is where the rubber meets the road.  Make sure that you have a system in place to help convince your customers to leave reviews for you.

Three key factors in local search rankings:

1. Reviews
2. Citations
3. Links

Despite the importance of this information, only 23% of consumers have ever left a rating or a review for a business and only 6% are active in leaving reviews and ratings. People WANT the information, but most are lazy bastards.

5 Mobile Local Search Takeaways from Greg Stewart

1. Make sure basic listing information is visible and accurate
2. Optimize your pages
3. Engage and capture users through promotions
4. Ask consumers for rating and reviews
5. Monitor all local search sites to see what’s going on and what’s being said about you.

Next up at the panel is Gib Olander, the local guru for Localeze.

It’s never been more crowded and more exciting to be involved in local, social and mobile than it is right now.  People want to get started and create apps. They’re excited about it. That fragmentation is always proving some difficulty in marketing things. He’s gonna share some trends.

• 38 percent of mobile searchers frequently look for local retailer info including phone number and address
• 70 percent of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour
• There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush.

Honey badger even thinks that is disgusting.

Mobile Local Social is getting more personal. Increasing at the local level, our friends’ recommendations are apparent and very important.

Also, services are taking check-in history and presenting similar types of businesses in search results when you visit new destinations. This makes it very important for marketers to upload meta info into listings services.

Our friends are influencing what we’re seeing at:

• Google+
• FourSquare
• Gowalla
• Yelp
• Facebook

What does this mean?

• Establish your online identity, it anchors customer experience.
• Claim your listing or your identity won’t exist across Mobile Local Social.
• Avoid fragmented listings.

Word of mouth is still important

• 83 percent of online shoppers say they are interested in sharing info about their purchase with people they know.
• 90 percent of customers trust recommendations from people they know and 70 percent trust the opinion of unknown users
• Consumers say word of mouth is the #1 influence on Electronics and Apparel purchases
• Many local searchers still considering multiple businesses. 45 percent of consumers say they have products in mind, but don’t conduct a local search for specific businesses.

For more information on Mobile Local Social, here is a post from June from SMX Advanced on how Mobile Local Social drives sales

Does your branding kick ass?

If your branding doesn’t kick ass, then guess what… people may not connect with your company. If you don’t “speak” to your targeted demographic, then your company is going to have a hard time maximizing it’s potential, until this issue is solved. Maybe your brand needs a refresh? Go to a crowdsourcer site like 99Designs or Crowdspring

Does your product kick ass?

Now, your product doesn’t have to be 100% at launch, but you still want it to kick ass. Hear me out. When Apple launched the first Macintosh computer in 1984, it was 100% what they wanted. They were able to fix issues and make it better. But it worked. Launch quick and see if it has wings before you put 100s or 1000s of hours into a product that may have legs. You don’t know if the legs are gonna crawl or run, until you test. But, the main idea has to kick ass. It can eventually get to 100%, but it has to kick ass, and it has to grab people by the balls. If your product doesn’t kick ass… then it’s a fail.

Does your marketing kick ass?

What decade is your marketing stuck in? Are you still paying for dumb marketing? It’s 2011. You should be spending at least 25% of your marketing budget on interactive. And if you get a few key salaried people to do it for you, perhaps it is more. But you have to really think about Inbound Marketing, instead of Outbound Marketing. Are you trying to contact them with radio ads, or TV ads… or yellow pages? Maybe a die-cut piece of shit brochure or direct mail piece that sucks and wastes money and doesn’t kick ass. Read this: The State of Inbound Marketing 2011 PDF from Hubspot. Learn to kick ass.

Do your sales kick ass?

If not, you are missing some of these other principles of ass kicking. And your sales team needs these in their tool set. Now, if you kick ass at all of these other things… and if you have hired competent sales people and given them training on your products… and they are excited about it… then they will be more kick ass. So, do some testing, figure out where your weakest links are… and try to turn those into a strength, by hiring the right candidate for the culture that you are hiring for.

Does your SEO kick ass?

How are you doing your marketing? Do you know the most popular keyword or phrase that people type into Google to find your type of business? Have you claimed your Google Places / Maps listing for your business? Is your business information connected accurately with the main local search ecosystem? Have your researched your industry and competitor keywords? Do you know about your competitors backlinks? How many do they have? How many do YOU have? Have you checked your Mozrank? How is your page rank or domain authority scores looking? Have you ran a website grader report on your site?

Does your social media kick ass?

Do you own all of your usernames for your business? If not, you need to. Go to KnowEm and type in your business name and have them mass register all of your social channels. Take care of that. Do you monitor your online reputation? Do you hear who is talking to you on Twitter or Facebook? Do you interact with them? Do you engage them? Also, do you track your interactions with key influencers? Here is a pretty handy tool out there to help you manage social, Sprout Social and here is one that helps you manage your tweets, BufferApp. It finds the optimal times for you to send out your message, so you get more retweets. It kicks ass.

Does your culture kick ass?

Do your employees want to stick around and kick ass? Or do they go home as soon as 5pm goes off… are they gone? Do people hate coming to your work? Do they complain a lot? Is your boss becoming a curmudgeon? If so, that doesn’t kick ass. You want to have a place where people love coming to work, where they are happy and proud to work. A place with a big ideas. A place that focuses on adding value and finding ways to make things mo’ betta.

Does your team kick ass?

If you hire great people, and continue to hire more brilliant people, you will eventually win. Can they execute on the strategies? Do you need to hire smarter engineers? Do you need to hire more entrepreneurial minded people? The really, really good talent is hard to pay for, at times. So, figure it out. Quit bitching and start doing. If you have to, get some motivated interns in, if you can’t afford to pay top dollar. Do your best to assemble a team that has such passion for technology, knowledge and a love for continual education. Shit changes quick in tech. Do you have a team hungry enough to learn how to maximize the tools to make the products kick more ass?

Does your CEO kick ass?

Do you have a solid leader at the helm of your company? This is important. You need to have someone with vision and insight. They need to love the company and have passion for the ideas. I think what happens to a lot of companies that have too many investors, you have to worry about how much profit you are going to make, and then the consumers end up getting fucked over because of corporate greed. Is your CEO a greedy bastard? Do they make $18 million dollar bonuses and golden parachutes? That doesn’t kick ass. Not for the people, who are the cogs that make the engine work. A good CEO has the best interest of the company, but also has the best interest for the consumers and clients. Make things better. Don’t suck. Kick ass. Your CEO has to kick ass. When you CEO stops kicking ass, it may be time to freshen up the resume.

Do your finances kick ass?

It’s my belief that if you can build something that kicks ass, that has decent sales, that has fully optimized SEO and a great presence on social media it can kick ass. Does your company have kick ass culture and does your CEO kick ass… well, if your product kicks ass… and the other stuff kicks ass, finding an investor will be easy as shit.

There are many ways that your business can kick ass or suck ass, and you have to a plan of action in play to make sure that you stay at the top of your game. If things aren’t where they need to be, now is the time to move the rudder towards kickassness. If you wait to long to make these changes, then one of your competitors may kick your ass!

As U2 never actually said, “In the name of kicking ass… ♪♫ one more, in the name of kicking ass.”

A photoshopped picture of a shark swimming on a Puerto Rico street from (Reddit)

From the Virginia Earthquake to Hurricane Irene – this past week we all have seen a flurry of activity on our own social networks . . . whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Quora or even Linkedin, inevitably someone you know has shared a photo of what was happening around them. It’s citizen journalism at it’s best.

Take this twitpic of Atlantic City Beach taken by @Nathaly_Michele – It’s been one day and already it has had 62,104 views. 62,104!

But along with the honest citizen journalists that simply share where they are and what’s going on (sometimes in a fun and funny way) – there also are those who choose to have a bit of fun with photo shop – Like the case with the photo of a shark swimming down a Puerto Rico street flooded by Hurricane Irene posted to Reddit a few days ago . . . many who retweet or share these photo’s often don’t know they are faked from a real photo and created simply to get attention.

When it comes to natural disasters and social media it is easy to get caught up in the moment and not check our sources. A quick Google search in the case of the Puerto Rico Shark would have given you these results and saved you the embarrassment of explaining to your friends that the link you just shared in shock and horror . . . was a fake.

Natural disasters can impact our social networks in various ways. From getting over 62,000 views on Twitpic to having over 100 people retweet a fake photo of a shark swimming alongside a truck in Puerto Rico . . . it all comes down to how we choose to use our networks and how we protect them from false information.

Be sure that what you are sharing, liking, commenting on and tweeting is the real deal. It’s your credibility.

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What photo’s have you seen over the last week that you had to share?

Behind every screen is a person, who wants to connect. We spend hours and hours of each day behind computer screens, mobile devices and televisions.  Sometimes, they are so concerned about connecting in the screens, that they miss can out on real life offline experiences.

“Now is the moment of power.”, or “Manawa“.as they say in the ancient Polynesian philosophy called Huna. I rarely mix my spiritual thinking with my tech thoughts, but in this case, I feel that it is important. Recognize that we only have this moment, and that your walking around with your face in your phone is fucking annoying.

Now, is the only time that we have, so if you are around real people, interact with them! And if you are driving, put down your phone, at LEAST OCCASIONALLY.

How many of you have had the opportunity to go to conferences and meet the amazing people that you’ve connected with online? For those fortunate enough to go to the cool conferences, you can be amazed finally putting a face to the avatar and a real life connection with people you “met” online, 1000s of miles apart.

It’s about the people. At one of these conferences, Web 2.0 expo in San Francisco, I met the director of emerging media from 360i in NYC. We had a great face to face real life discussion. It was funny seeing most people walk around tweeting, updating statuses and texting and not connecting with people right near them. But, we kept in touch. BTW, this guy is the person who hooked me up with my Google+ invitation. [He may have given me my Google Wave invitation, as well, but I won't hold that against him.]

Tonight, I saw one of Tamar Weinberg’s posts, [another TW, I might add], and she mentioned how she met someone offline, and has been helping him online… which is awesome of her. But, he has been too busy tweeting and checking in on foursquare… and not responding to her job assistance. Plus, the dude is currently unemployed. Yeah, he is too concerned about growing his Klout score so he can get a job, than actually talking to someone who is trying to hook him up with a job.

When we blog and tweet and socialize/whore ourselves out there in the interwebz, it’s important to remember, that it’s not the platform, the tools or your online influence score that matter. It is the connecting with the people. Not to sell them, but to authentically connect. To help. To share. To teach. To care.

We are on this Earth for a very short period of time. Let’s not waste it on worrying about Klout scores and what our social stock is worth… let’s connect and help add value where we can.

Are you authentic? Do you care about the people? Because, that’s what matters.

Have you ever wanted to take a Facebook Fast? And just delete your account? Well, I just finished a 30 day Facebook Fast from my Facebook Wall. I went into my privacy settings and shut down the wall.

I always have to quantify the value of something to my life. And it seems to me that Facebook is serving less and less of an importance, and Google is gaining rapidly gaining even more importance and influence. With Google+ being all the rage, I decided to spend less time reminiscing with friends on Facebook, and started meeting some more industry badasses on Google+.

You know, like many others, I’d love to just deactivate my Facebook account. However, due to my profession as an internet marketing provocateur, that’s hard to do. I run a few Facebook fan pages and am an admin for a few others. There is no way that I can completely deactivate my Facebook… but what I could do, was eliminate access to my full wall so that I wouldn’t feel forced to entertain my facebook friends with my uber wit and hilarity. The cloak of invisibility would be my Facebook face to the world.

One lesson that I gleaned from my Facebook Fast, is that I noticed I would check Facebook much less often. I would end up reading many more worthwhile articles and industry resources. Less time was spent reading about someone you met once at a event or worse reading personal updates from people who you don’t even know.

Another things that I learned during my Facebook Wall FastWell, apparently, if you shut your wall down for any period of time, people think you are only blocking them. I received numerous messages from people who were insulted and who thought that I had blocked them from my wall. So, if you take off your wall, remember, people will probably think you are an asshole. Some of them are probably right.

When I would check-in somewhere on Foursquare, the updates or whatever were posted to my friends news stream… they could see the update, but not make any comments or engage me in anyway, aside from private messages. When you change the privacy settings for your wall, you can still comment on other people statuses, photos, etc. and on fanpages. Which I did.

Who knows, I may decide to permanently get rid of my wall… and now at least if people saw this post… they know where I went. Don’t take it personally. It’s Facebook I hate, not you. But don’t feel bad Facebook, I kind of hate Google, too. Let’s put it like this, though. True story. My phone autocorrected “Facebook”… into “feces book”. I tend to agree with that.

How to Quit Facebook Without Quitting Facebook

Go to the upper right corner Click – Account > Privacy Settings. Here you are gonna look for a option to uncheck “Uncheck Enable”

Also, make sure that “permission to comment on your posts” setting is changed over to Only Me.
.

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San Francisco’s BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cut cell phone service due to Protestors planning a rally on August 11, 2011 to bring attention to a number of recent BART transit police officer shootings.

In the wake of the havoc in London, where Prime Minister Cameron is considering the role social media had played on the riots it seems as though many cities, world wide, are contemplating how to control or snoop on the masses that are equipped with a cellphone and shared opinion.

Just to be clear – I absolutely do not condone the wanton disregard for others property or safety like what happened in the United Kingdom. You may be surprised to learn that UK youth were offered money by “journalists” to start riots, according to some Tweets).

In an ideal world – if you are pissed at your government or your officials, damaging your neighbors property or putting others lives in danger is NOT the way to change things. As Julian Assange was quoted in TheStar.com post by Foreign Affairs Reporter Olivia Ward “The looters and rioters who torched Britain’s neighbourhoods are “doing Big Brother” a favour by giving the government more latitude to destroy citizens’ rights and freedoms.”

You want to see change? Vote. (I know about voter fraud, but that is another blog post.)

We all deserve the right to gather in peaceful protest to raise pubic awareness about situations or circumstances that need to be changed and often are not covered by traditional ‘Murdoch‘ news.

It’s sad to say that it was no surprise to hear that San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) cut cell phone service to select stations where protestors were planning to raise awareness about the slew of recent BART shootings. BART’s justification for cutting service was that a possible protest at rush hour would endanger lives.

‘Anonymous‘ called this a “Mubarak style” attack on free speech.

What do you think?

Now, that I’ve been using Google+ for 3 weeks, I’ve noticed my online behavior evolving. Whenever I’m reading an article by some brilliant thought leader, writer, journalist, marketer, blogger… whoever, I immediately go type their name into Google+ to see if I can add them to some circle, so that I can begin learning from them and interacting with them.

My concern is when corporations and brands enter Google+, that it doesn’t taint the G+ experience. I’m thinking that extensions will be built to help filter the noise, if need be, and we can mute whoever we don’t want in our stream of G+ consciousness.

Connecting intimately with these people, makes the internet feel like an industry conference or something where side conversations happen all over the place. I’m sure that many business deals, friendships and partnerships will sprout as a direct result of the interactions with Google+.

There is a goldmine of opportunities for those paying attention. Personally, I’ve had conversations with the brightest minds in technology, journalism, SEO, social media and I’ve had hangouts with Michael Dell, Mike Blumenthal and other awesome, brilliant people. This isn’t a social media site, this is a connection engine. None of this is possible without Google+ ability to comment and circle these thought leaders.

If you haven’t given Google+ it’s due time, yet. I highly recommend it. You may just meet your next business partner, land your next job or come up with the next world changing idea with someone you interact via Google+. So, anyone you find online who appeals to you, look them up on Google+, and begin to get to know them. Then begin to find ways to add value in the discussions that see them having.

Boom. The science of G+. Circle. Listen. Add Value. Communicate. Influence. It’s as easy as that.

Photo Credit Deirdre Reid

Early this morning I was poking around Facebook like many millions of people do each day, when I saw a post by my friend Deirdre Reid aka @deirdrereid.

She commented on how @MrMichael_Smith of @ESPN had posted tweets on how funny he thought the accident of Dutch cyclist Johnny Hoogerland was on twitter.

Yep you heard right. Michael Smith thought it was funny . . . and apparently still does.

Photo Credit Deirdre Reid

If you do a simple twitter search for @MrMichael_Smith you will see a plethora of outraged people demanding that ESPN reprimand him for his unprofessional behavior online.

@TdFLanterne recently posted the response he received from ESPN regarding Michael Smith’s comments on twitter.

Each second that ticks by, and as word is spreading in the cycling community of Michael Smith’s insensitive tweets – he and his flippant responses on twitter are alienating people from the ESPN brand.

Photo Credit: Deirdre Reid

This is a text book example of when a brand representative can quickly become a liability thanks to the world wide reach of social media.

For those of you who may not have heard – Johnny Hoogerland was forced off the road at around 60mph into a barbed wire fence by a French TV camera car during Stage 9 of the Tour de France. You can read the full story here.

Photo Credit REUTERS

I don’t know about you Michael Smith, but I don’t find a single damn thing funny about this.

UPDATE : July 13 10:02am

Since yesterday #firemichaelsmith has gained strength as more and more cyclists across the world have learned of Michael Smith’s tweets.

Though Michael Smith did finally apologize on twitter, it seems that it’s too little to late after all of his very personal tweets defending his right to laugh at Johnny Hoogerland’s crash.

As one twitter user aptly said -

@_steventran: I take @mrmichael_smith‘s comments seriously because they publicly perpetuate a disregard for the lives of cyclists. #firemrmichaelsmith

additional reading :

This post by @simonmacmichael of @roadcc highlights the number of cyclists killed in Brittan alone.

CTC says rate of deaths among cyclists not falling quickly enough as DfT releases casualty stats

Stats from the U.S.

bicyclinginfo.org: Bicycle Crash Facts

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Do you think Michael Smith should be reprimanded for his lack of sensitivity and remarks on twitter by ESPN?

If you were an ESPN exec. how how would you handle a situation like this?