NowStreaming is our new collection of videos that we have created to help others learn the various aspects of Internet marketing. Stay tuned to our blog for more NowStreaming videos on everything from infographics to rage comics. To view all of our videos, head to the NowSourcing YouTube Channel.

NowStreaming is our new collection of videos that we have created to help others learn the various aspects of Internet marketing. Stay tuned to our blog for more NowStreaming videos on everything from infographics to rage comics. To view all of our videos, head to the NowSourcing YouTube Channel.

In this NowStreaming video, Brian gives his presentation on the rising popularity of infographics. Viewers of this video will learn what an infographic is, what it should not be, and why infographics have become an important addition to internet marketing. Brian also discusses two of the many successful infographics produced by NowSourcing that have generated an abundance of traffic for our clients. If you’re interested in having NowSourcing create an infographic, head over to the infographic page on our site and let us know.

In this NowStreaming video, Jay shares his knowledge on the social platform Twitter.  This basic introduction covers topics such as how Twitter has changed, the difference between replies and mentions, dos and don’t, and several tips for getting the most out of your tweets.  While this video may be most helpful for twitter newbies, those who have used the service before may also learn a thing or two.  For more tips on using Twitter, you can check out 10 Ways to Make Your Tweets Stand Out.

In this NowStreaming video, Todd shares his “Introduction to SEO” PowerPoint with the group.  While he covers the basics of search engine optimization, he also dives in and gets right down to what you need to do to get started.  This video can serve as a guide to get the beginner going with many of the necessary tools, as well as an aid for those who have experience with SEO and would like to have a fresh perspective of SEO fundamentals from which they can branch new ideas and strategies.  He also gives pointers on how to optimize local search rankings. Let us know what you think in the comments below!

1. The Passive Aggressive Call to Action

 ”I really hate it when you try to be a good friend and then people you  trust stab you in the back.”

If you have not yet graduated from middle school, I may let you off easy here – on  the other hand, if you are over the age of 14 please take the time to realize how  immature statuses such as these can appear. No one is going to look at this and  think that you are a good friend. (Image)

2. The Emotional Tirade

 ”I will never love anyone the way I loved you. Goodbye.”

You just broke up with your significant other, I assume, and this is a public  expression of your undying love and a big, disgusting “please take me back”. If you  attach sappy theme music to this, I hope your friends hack into your computer and  delete your sad rendition of “How Do I Live” by Celine Dion, or that somebody  reports you to Facebook. (Image)

3. The Song Lyrics

 ”Please, please, please let me get what I want this time…”

While it is a great song and every once in a while I see a cool song lyric update,  this is overdoing it. It is probably late and you’re drunk, sad, and alone – log out of  Facebook and go to bed. If you don’t, you will regret this in the morning, also  known as: Facebook hangover. (Image)

4. The Scary

 ”If any of you ladies are looking for a good man, inbox me!”

Just because Facebook gives you the option to be “looking for dating“, and makes  it really easy to stalk people, does not make it a dating site. There is also a sad  level of desperation that come with a status like this, so show yourself some  respect and have a little more dignity. What girl in her right mind would actually  respond to this? (Image)

5. The Rated-R

 ”My boobs look great in this dress! PARTY!”

While it may be the truth, no one needs to know. Any status that discusses body  parts or sexuality, please spare us all. You might as well have just stood in the  middle of a crowded room and yelled, “hey everyone, look at my boobs!” (Image)

Consider this a Public Service Announcement. All previous Facebook status discretions will be forgotten if you never do this again. If you have any completely ridiculous Facebook updates, please feel free to share so more people will know what not to do.

Throughout the life of this blog, we’ve given you lists on a variety of topics.  From the top 10 technology infographics, to 10 reasons people aren’t commenting on your blog, and even 10 ways to change the world through social media, these lists provide quick and useful information that we think will make you a better Internet user.  We’ve also created a list on 10 Twitter ranking sites, but never have we given you the top 10 ways to get your tweets noticed.  So, here it is.  Below you will find what we believe are 10 of the most useful tips to get your followers to see and interact with your tweets.  The key to this list is not to pick one and do it, but to use it as a guide to shape every tweet you publish.  For the next few days, reference this list and try to follow the tips when writing your tweets.  After awhile, you should have a pretty good grasp on which tweets will get noticed and which ones will mix into the crowd.  Let us know in the comments below if you have more tips, or if after using the list you’ve noticed a difference in your follower’s interactions.

1.  Be Original

When most people find an article they want to share with their followers, they copy the title of the article and paste it into the tweet.  While this gives your followers an idea of what the article is, it’s bland and will mix in with all of the other tweets in their timeline.  Try coming up with your own creative title for the article.  This way if the article is popular, your tweet won’t be the same as everyone else who has also tweeted the same article.

2.  Be Short

Twitter limits the length of tweets so you can provide useful information in a way that is easy to read.  While 140 characters may already seem short, make your tweets around 120 characters if you can.  This ensures that there is enough room for others to retweet (the classic way) and include any opinions or thoughts they have on the subject.

3.  Tweet Like You Are Writing A Headline

Along with being short, your tweets should be straight to the point.  Imagine your tweet is a newspaper headline and your goal is to get a person to read the story.  You need to make the headline catchy and easy to read, while still grabbing the reader’s attention and hopefully luring them into the article.  Treat tweets the same way, grabbing a follower’s attention and getting them to either reply or click on an included link.

4.  Offer Interesting Statistics

People like to be shocked with interesting facts and statistics.  If a follower reads something they can’t believe, they’ll be inclined to click the link and look into it more.  Going back to the very first tip of being original, use an interesting statistic instead of the title of an article as the body of your tweet.

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5.  Be Real

Twitter, and social media in general, is about connecting people and sharing interesting things.  Nobody wants to talk to a robot because it has no real thoughts or emotions.  Use your own voice to tweet and make it personal.  If you feel you must schedule tweets ahead of time, be sure to check and respond to any replies you get.  In addition, show your followers you appreciate them by replying and retweeting them as well.

6.  Time Your Tweets

Time your tweets doesn’t mean you should time them to publish every half hour.  It means you should know when your followers are most active and when you should be most active as well.  If you get the most replies, retweets, and updates in the middle of the day, then you should be on Twitter interacting and tweeting during those times as well.  The eastern time zone is the most populated time zone in the U.S., therefore it would also be wise to time your tweets when those people are most likely to see it.

7.  Focus and Provide Value

People use Twitter for various reasons, whether it’s to learn about marketing or to learn about teddy bears doesn’t really matter.  Find your reason for using Twitter, and stick to tweeting mostly about that subject.  By focusing on one or two subjects, people will see you as being a valuable contributor who they can learn from.

8.  Be Engaging

You shouldn’t focus on just growing the number of followers you have, you should rather focus on getting your followers to interact and discuss what you tweet.  Ask your followers questions to get them taking and giving ideas, but also remember to respond to their questions too.  If you do have a large following, asking for a good restaurant recommendation in a foreign city is always a bonus!

9.  Include Links

Unless it’s the score of a game or an update to something ongoing, 140 characters isn’t usually enough to provide much information.  You should use the space to attract people and lead them to your site or to an article that expands the brief information displayed in the tweet.  Twitter is a gateway to limitless information, not so much a place to learn directly from.

10.  Provoke Thought

Going along with being original and offering interesting statistics, your tweets should leave your followers questioning and wanting to learn more.  A tweet that creates no ideas is going to be read and passed along without further thought.  A tweet that makes a follower think will have a better chance of being retweeted or replied to, exposing you to a greater pool of potential followers.

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I’ve noticed a rise in social media professionals pushing services for social media management.

While I’m not trying to pick on anyone individually, I just can’t seem to figure this one out.  In fact, if the only value that you’re trying to bring to a company is to Tweet and Facebook on their behalf, you may soon be needing to look for another job.  Over the course of the next five years, this will just become part of the computer literate office manager.

This is pretty much the same fate as the social media purists.  If you really want to be able to work in social media, you’d better be prepared to bring a multi-disciplinary approach to the table, including:

• data visualization/infographics
• SEO
• SEM
• User experience
• Conversion rate optimization
• Online reputation management
• Actual business experience!
• Sales

and many more.

You really have to know what you are doing to successfully execute a well-vetted social media strategy.  Facebook updates are important but they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the way one must be pervasive in all these moving targets.

What else are you bringing to the table? Why should people hire you? Why should they keep you? Let us know in the comments.

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I have been using the new Google + (G+) for the last two weeks or so and while I enjoy it, it still has not taken the place of my true social network, Facebook. Granted, G+ is still in the works and I have not fully taken advantage of all the features – I still have not fallen head over heels, nor do I think I will. When I first heard through the grapevine that there was a new social network on the block I was intrigued, and when I took the G+ tour, I really believed that Facebook may go the way of Myspace – but now that I have it and have the features, I’m kind of wondering what I need this for. For instance: whenever I hear something cool through G+, my first thought is to run and share it with Facebook, that can’t be right.

Facebook gives me everything I want and more, and it continues to surprise me with amazing innovation and new ways to stay connected. With G+ I have to wait for all of my friends to get on board with it – my friends are used to Facebook. Also, the status updates are awkward and have a few flaws, it just doesn’t seem worth it.

Another thing that is funny to me, is how similar G+ is to Facebook. They have all the same bells and whistles they just call it something different. The difference is that Facebook really does seem to have more to offer me when it comes to features and I’m already really comfortable with it.  I have put together a chart of some of the similarities I’ve noticed between Facebook and G+.

G+ is great, and definitely looks better format wise than Facebook, and I am not just going to delete G+ out of my life. I still have a circle of friends through G+ and I plan to check in every now and again -  but all in all, I have a real connection with Facebook, and that is the social network for me.

By now you have probably heard the tragic news that British pop star Amy Winehouse has passed away.  She was found in her London home on Saturday afternoon by one of her security guards, and before long the social world exploded with tweets, updates, and posts regarding her death.  This, along with many others, is a prime example of how social media has become intertwined with every part of our lives.  Every tweet, every post, and every status has a purpose and an objective trying to convey some kind of information or get the reader to do something.  Unfortunately in this scenario, too many were using social media and the Internet to try and profit off such an awful event.

Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Spotify and several other companies almost immediately released tweets and banner graphics about Amy Winehouse’s death.  Most of them were sympathetic towards the tragedy, but they also slid in ways to profit.  Microsoft, for example, tweeted “Remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking ‘Back to Black’ over at Zune.”  While presenting it as a way to remember the Grammy winning artist, what they really wanted was for people to go buy more of her albums from their Zune music store.  Apple did the same thing by creating a banner to put on the rotating banner display in the iTunes music store.  The banner simply reads “Remembering Amy Winehouse,” but when clicked it takes you straight to a page where you can buy her music.  At the time of this writing, Amy Winehouse takes up nearly half of the spots on the iTunes top ten albums list.

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While it’s important for companies to acknowledge events such as this, at what point do they go too far?  Why must they connect their products when showing sympathy to the family and millions of fans?  A good social media campaign brings a large company down to an individual level.  It makes the company almost feel human-like in that it creates an emotional and personal relationship with each and every customer they connect with.  Exploiting somebody’s death, whether it’s a celebrity or Joe Schmo, is the least human-like thing anyone can do.  If a company is going to make a statement regarding a death, they should do it in a simple and respectful manner that in no way entices followers to buy something.  Several hours after their first tweet, the same Microsoft account as before tweeted, “With Amy W’s passing, the world has lost a huge talent.  Our thoughts are with Amy’s family and friends at this very sad time.”  This should have been their first, and only, tweet on the situation.

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I suppose you could argue that the remarks and links to Amy Winehouse’s music were genuine; people obviously want to listen to her work now that she’s gone.  But her truest fans have already bought her songs and albums.  The ones who are buying them now are simply falling into the traps that Apple, Microsoft, and others created.  Non-fans of Amy Winehouse are seeing and hearing constant news stories regarding her, so they decide to check out her music to see if it’s any good.  Music stores know this, so they make sure getting to her music is as easy as clicking a link disguised as a sympathetic gesture.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but this isn’t the first time something like this has come up.  Companies constantly ride the “top story” wave to get products out there, which there is usually nothing wrong with.  If it’s relevant, why not take advantage of what the world is talking about?  It’s when it becomes something tragic or personal that it becomes a problem, and that is exactly what happened in the case of Amy Winehouse’s death.

In a press conference this morning Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, was asked what he thought of the possibly revolutionary launching of Google+. Zuckerberg admitted that he had used it very little but that he believed it was part of the social networking evolution. However, Google+ is also his competition, it is offering Circles, which basically allows you to label your friends and groups and choose who sees what and which group you publish content to. It also offers Hangouts, which is the video group chat, Sparks, a feed that revolves around you and only videos, articles, and offers you would be interested in, and Huddle which allows you to text as a group. Since the two networks are so similar, but one comes with more features (so far), people will eventually make a choice. There will be resistance at first just as there was when Facebook blew Myspace out of the water, but as of right now, Google+ sounds like the next step and Facebook may not have the technology to catch up.

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Google+ began a beta release for the network last month, giving only a select few people access – this gave off the impression that the network was elite, leaving those who weren’t allowed dying to see what all the fuss was about. Another blow to Facebook’s ego was the group chat offered on Google+ that clearly overshadowed Facebook’s partnership with Skype, who was recently bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion before they were aware of Google’s innovative software.

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The reason Google+ may not take over Facebook is because despite Google’s Vice President, Vic Gundotra’s belief that they are meeting the needs of the people and their desire to connect, they are really adding a bunch of bells and whistles to a system that was already meeting this need. Also many users may not be ready for the commitment that goes along with another social network.

If Zuckerberg does come out with something innovative or finds a way to at least make group chat available before Google+ is fully launched he may have a shot. However, Zuckerberg recently said they are not focusing on the number of users so much anymore but the features, this was a little unsettling. The fact that Facebook lost around 6 million users in May, may have provoked this comment, and since Google+ is ahead in the feature department it will make a come back even more difficult. The worst thing he could do is reformat the entire network like Myspace did when they saw that Facebook was taking them over – they ended up going beyond their site’s capacity and that helped in everyone’s decision to go full Facebook. Whether or not Facebook survives the war or falls as the social media empire, social networking is evolving right before our eyes and it should be a very interesting change.

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If you were born before 1994 you can probably remember a life without Facebook – what did we do all day? I did an experiment on myself last week to see how many times I actually check Facebook in a day. This was very difficult because I was conscious of it, but the desire to check your newsfeed or update your status does not lie. I became a little angry at myself when I reached close to 50 within the first 3 hours of my work day. That means I checked Facebook around 17 times in an hour and if I stayed on for one minute – I was on for just under an hour of the three hours. Of course my numbers are a bit higher because I work in social media, so Facebook really is a part of my job… but for the most part, I had the desire to see what was going on with my friends and to possibly update a status.

More than likely if there was no Facebook, I would have been more productive in that hour, found something else unproductive to do or been bored. Here’s the thing about this site, it is the epitome of entertainment. It offers: music, videos, funny images, disturbing images, all of your friends and enemies, and the chance to talk about yourself, and build whatever identity you want. It also is the new birthplace of drama and conflict.

It’s no secret that Facebook can make or break relationships,  however this is usually due to one’s own stupidity or sheer  jealousy, nonetheless, Facebook is a legal form of stalking, and  most of us are guilty of it. It’s just too easy. The blog,  AllFacebook published a post last year called The Utimate Guide To Facebook Breakups. It goes through the steps of how people conduct themselves on Facebook after a breakup – you are no longer friends, you need to start posting pics of yourself having fun with someone more attractive, and so on. Cyber Psychology and Behavior did a study in 2009 showing that certain information given on Facebook is given for a reason and there is a distinct connection with relationship status, religion, and status updates. It suggests that there is a psychological process to what people display and don’t display. When someone displays their religion they are seeking a mate who shares these same ideas, when someone displays that they are single, rather than opting to keep their relationship status private, they are looking for some connection through the network. They also looked at the differences in male and female profiles to see how each gender represented themselves. Males are less likely to mention their significant other on their profile page; a female’s page tends to revolve around her significant other. This explains why women tend to think it isn’t official until it’s on Facebook, and men simply do not understand this mentality.

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Facebook has allowed us to share our lives, beliefs, and problems with everyone we know and more. We create an identity online that may or may not be true but it is how we want to be seen. We also follow lives on Facebook, people we haven’t seen for years, we know everything about them and we keep saying “we need to get together”. A life without Facebook would never speak to this person or they would actually get together. I challenge everyone to make a list of people they keep up with on a regular basis solely through Facebook – would you ever speak to these people again if you did not have this outlet?

Without Facebook, people would actually have to have conversations with each other about interests, family, hobbies, what they did that day… instead they can just login to your life. A life without Facebook would be a life that actually takes effort to know anything about, and you would actually have to play tennis, not just put it as one of your activities/interests.

You know when you have one of those days where everything just seems strange?  You do a few double takes because you thought you saw a cat playing the piano, or a crazy chipmunk staring you down?  Well, that was my day last Friday.  The entire day I felt like the world was working together to creep me out and make me as uncomfortable as possible.  Seriously, I’m not joking.  Let me start from the beginning.

I woke up when my radio turned on at 7 o’clock.  While laying in bed listening to the radio, I was suddenly reminded it was Friday (TGIF!).  The morning radio show played a montage of songs containing the word “Friday”, and the first one really annoyed me.  I had never heard it before, and the only words sung were “Friday, Friday, Friday” over and over and over again.  Talk about a reason to get out of bed.  I immediately stood up, clicked over to iTunes and put on my favorite Weezer song.  I checked my email while I was at the computer and was excited to see a message from eHarmony.  The message was telling me someone was interested and my hopes for the day immediately got better.  Could this be the one and only I’ve been searching for?  I watched her promo video, and it turned out she’s not exactly my type.  You see, I’m a dog person through and through.  I love just about everything there is about dogs.  This girl though, she made it very clear that she LOVES cats.  It turns out her love for cats is at about the same level as my love for dogs.  Take a look at her video below and you will understand.
 

 
By the time I headed to work I had adjusted to the morning and was feeling pretty good.  I was still a little bummed about the eHarmony girl, but not enough to stop me from hitting up my favorite coffee shop.  As soon as I walked in I saw the cutest family.  There was a mom, dad, and two young boys sitting together on a couch.  The older boy was holding the young one in his lap and, for some odd reason, kept putting his fingers in his brother’s mouth.  I quickly learned the younger one’s name was Charlie, as his older brother yelled at him for biting his finger.  I wanted to tell him to stop, but it was just too funny.  “Charlie bit me,” he kept crying out in an English accent.  “Charlie bit me and that really hurt, and it’s still hurting.”  While still laughing uncontrollably, I ordered my coffee and took a seat to watch the morning news.  The news was covering the Miss Teen USA Pageant from the night before.  Apparently one of the contestants thought Americans couldn’t point out the USA on a world map because, well, they don’t have maps.  I’m sure she felt real smart after that.

When I left the coffee shop I cut through the park to get to work.  There’s typically a few yoga classes going on, but today there was a guy trying to do some ninja-like moves.  He had a wicked afro and, after failing miserably at a back flip, fell on his face when trying to do a nun chucks routine.  I kept walking and came across another strange person, but instead of ninja moves this guy was swinging around a metal stick.  I think he was pretending to be in Star Wars or something, but no one else was near to fight back.  I always thought the yoga people were weird, but they seem pretty normal compared to Friday’s park people.
 

 
When I finally got to work I didn’t think much else could happen.  That is, until I saw my co-worker.  He was sitting at his desk crying his eyes out with a sheet over his head.  I asked him what was going on and he simply kept repeating, “Leave Britney alone.”  I don’t know anyone named Britney, so I was extremely confused.  He also had a lot of dark makeup around is eyes, so yea, not sure what was going on there.

After seeing my delusional co-worker, I had about had it for the day.  I probably would have quit on the spot, but I had to leave early to take my son, David, to the dentist.  He ended up needing to have a tooth removed, which caused him to be quite loopy in the hours after.  He eventually calmed down, but only once I was preparing to leave for the night.  By the time the babysitter got there, he had become a much more normal seven year old.

My destination for the night was my good friend’s wedding, which ended up being more of a show than a traditional wedding.  The wedding party, in all seriousness, danced down the aisle.  Who does that?  There we were sitting in a lovely church, and suddenly Chris Brown’s Forever started blasting.  I think the old man in front of me nearly had a heart attack when he saw his granddaughter shaking her booty in God’s house.  I guess the bride and groom just couldn’t wait to have their first dance at the reception, though the reception was not without entertainment itself.  The bride’s cousin put together a montage of dances as a wedding present, titled “Evolution of Dance.”  It was pretty cool, I guess, but I was really getting tired of having to watch people dance.  The invitation never said this was going to be a themed wedding.
 

 
Once I made it home, I paid the sitter and immediately went to bed.  That was too much weirdness for one day.  Thankfully the rest of my weekend was pretty normal.  I took David to the zoo on Saturday, and we got to see a lion get reunited with his previous owner.  It was real touching, but my favorite part of the day was when we saw a mother panda get sneezed on by her cub.

So that was my Friday.  I don’t think I’ve had such a strange day in my life, and I hope to never have one again.  For a moment I thought it might be Friday the 13^th, but it wasn’t.  I guess it was just my luck to run into all of the strangest people in one day.  How about you guys, did any of you have a weird Friday too?

Facebook being in the news isn’t necessarily anything surprising.  Every time the social media giant rolls out a new product, feature, or statistic, the world’s news sites make sure you know about it within minutes.  But there have been two recent Facebook related news stories that are a little more intriguing than the usual report of a new design or functionality change.  These reports have more to do with Facebook’s success and future, or perhaps lack there of.

The first piece of news, released by Inside Facebook, was that Facebook’s use is declining in the United States and Canada.  In the month of May, Facebook lost nearly 6 million users in the United States alone.  The drop was significantly less in Canada, with Facebook seeing a user drop of around 1.5 million.  The cause for the user drop is unknown, but it’s more likely than not a mixture of things.  Summer months are typically a slower for social media sites as college students cram for finals and change into their summer routines.  It could also be that Facebook has finally hit its saturation point.  With a total of 150 million users in the United States, nearly half of the entire country’s population is now a Facebook user.  Could this be the end for Facebook’s growth?  Probably not, these numbers are only for two of Facebook’s many countries around the world.  While they are large, important countries that adopted the social network early on, Facebook is incredibly popular all around the world.  The social network’s overall growth is still increasing, with approximately 687 million active users every month.  These numbers could mean a lot of things for Facebook, but we won’t be able to tell exactly what until we see if the decline in the US and Canada continues or levels out.

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With Facebook approaching 700 million users, there are now reports that Facebook is preparing itself for an IPO that could easily top $100 billion.  Yes, you read that right, $100 BILLION.  This would make Facebook’s IPO one of the largest in history.  Much larger than LinkedIn’s recent IPO of $4.3 billion, and quadruple Google’s 2004 IPO of $23 billion.  CNBC reports that the first quarter of 2012 is the likely time for Facebook to go public.  This timing seems very possible, as Facebook will be mandated to report their quarterly financial statements beginning in April 2012.  This will be required of them due to a 1934 Securities and Exchange Act that requires companies with more than 500 investors to publicly release their financial information.  Facebook expects to have more than 500 investors sometime this year, so an IPO early next year would make sense.

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With a valuable future and decline of users, Facebook’s fate is hard to tell.  Some people believe Facebook will someday go the way of MySpace, while others think Facebook is different and will remain a constant part of our lives.  Only time will tell what truly happens, but these are definitely some interesting figures to think about.  Tell us what you think Facebook’s future looks like in the comments below.  Is a drop in users the beginning of the end, or just a bump in the road to a successful IPO?

We are very happy to announce that we released our first edition of the NowSourcing Newsletter today.  A digital copy of the Newsletter will be sent to our subscribers each month.  It is a great way for our clients, business partners, or anyone with an interest in social media to stay current on what is happening at NowSourcing.

Our featured article for our first release is called “Infographic Traffic.”  It offers highlights from a recent interview with Brian Wallace about infographics. He explains what makes them so popular and why they are such a powerful tool in social media.  There is also a link on the newsletter for viewing the full interview.

Our first newsletter also includes a passage on our new office, insight on social media from our interns, and articles from three of our employees.

If you did not receive a copy of our first newsletter, make sure you subscribe so you are included in our next release!

Subscribe to our newsletter

View our first newsletter

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When Facebook launched in February of 2004, it was not the first attempt at social networking. It did however, give social media a healthy pulse rather than a fleeting heartbeat that most referred to as a “trend.” It would appear that social media is alive and well and the outlook is good that it will see us into the future. Now that most of us have accepted this, another movement is trying to bust through the the trend barriers and take up residence in the land of the norm.

When social media meets gaming, or rather, meets a specific, interactive element of gaming – we call this virtual reality. When I was younger I always thought virtual reality was putting a boxy contraption over your head with a screen over your eyes and your physical movements controlled your movements within the virtual world. Turns out, now that the future is here, virtual reality is not physical at all, but rather, psychological and emotional. (Image Two Credit)

I recently heard about the game Second Life, well I had heard of it before but just figured it was The Sims online or something, I had no idea that for some people, it truly was a ‘second life’. The game is being used not only for social purposes but for business and even education. Jay Vasse, a recent graduate from Bradley University in Illinois and a writer for NowSourcing, actually had a class through Second Life. “I had to meet my partner in a virtual classroom, that was really just a beach shack,” says Vasse, “we would critique each other’s papers and we had to take snapshots of ourselves to prove we were really there.”

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After doing some research on the game I found that as a “resident” of Second Life, you can buy land, go shopping, go on dates, orb to other parts of town if you don’t feel like flying, and the areas are marked with a maturity rating: G (general), M (moderate), and A (adult). Now, let’s be honest, you are probably most interested in what falls under the adult rating – of course you are, this is the 21st century after all. It is pretty simple, it works just like it would in your “first life” except you don’t need a rating to know it’s a strip club. The general and moderate ratings are pretty much light fun, for instance: coffee shop would fall under G and dance club would fall under M. Another fascinating characteristic is that Second Life actually has it’s own currency, the Linden dollar (L$). You can buy L$ with your real money or you can start your own business and make a linden profit and go out and buy your avatar clothes, furniture, weapons, instruments, and anything else you can think of.

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So what would life as an avatar be like? Truly, meeting your boyfriend or girlfriend’s avatar before ever seeing their “first life” face, is that ok? Personally, I don’t think I have quite formed an opinion yet due to my state shock, but though I feel I would never want to meet someone that way, how is it different from Facebook? I have met a few friends through Facebook, and there are some whom I know only through Facebook. My job’s main form of communication is through Skype chat. So I don’t have an avatar chatting for me, and I am not going to meetings in a virtual conference room, but the virtual part is the only difference. The social interaction is pretty much the same.

According to Arnold Brown, writer for The Furturist, “Once humans begin to perceive virtual social interactions as actually having occurred, it will greatly impact individuals, relationships, communities, and society as a whole.” Brown believes that people may actually form an attachment to their avatar identity, and when one feels such a connection, brain research shows that our multisensory perception could cause even sexual interaction to be obtained through this form of media.

Many questions arise when new waves of technology threaten social interaction to the point of almost never making physical contact: Should there be restrictions on sites like these? Will people become bored with it before it becomes a serious issue? Is it a threat at all? Or is it simply a new way of meeting people and socializing? Virtual reality may be throwing the social networking generation off of it’s balance and into a whole new world of possibility and conflict.

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It’s 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. You step out from the back office of your business to see three of your employees standing around with nothing to do, and you wonder how much the last half hour of business has cost you without seeing a single customer walk through the door. Whether you work in a bank, a hair salon, or an all you can eat oriental buffet, there are certain times of the day that are just plain slow for businesses, and so far as most of us know, there’s very little we can do about that. Well not for long.

Right now, in a Chicago market trial, deal-of-the-day giant Groupon is testing its Groupon Now concept. Groupon Now allows businesses in the Chicago area to send special limited-time promotional offers to any nearby smartphone with the Groupon Now application. The goal: to help businesses drive traffic to their location with the ultimate in targeted promotional tools. In other words, if your business is typically slow around 2:30 on Wednesday afternoons, you will be able to offer promotions to the consumers closest to you for a one hour window between 2:00 and 3:00.

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Since it’s launch two years ago, Groupon has grown to be the world’s largest daily deals service with more than 85 million subscribers. Groupon has become a promotional powerhouse but, at least until Groupon Now, has been employing a highly imitable business model (as evidenced by the Google announcing the launch of Google Offers following Groupon’s refusal of Google’s 6 Billion dollar buyout offer). With the help of Loopt, a company based in Mountain View, California that produces mobile location-based services, Groupon was able to launch Groupon Now. The rumors are that Groupon is going partner with more location based service providers, chief among them is Foursquare.

Foursquare has been a leader among location-based mobile services since it began interacting with businesses to offer promotions to users who “check in” with certain frequencies. A partnership between Groupon and Foursquare is what many are calling the next “hugely logical step” for both companies. We don’t know when the public will see a product come of this, but it will very likely be coming soon.

While this partnership brings together so much of what businesses want from their marketing efforts, is it what consumers want from their phones? Do you want your phone blowing up with “deals” as you drive from one end of town to the other? Let us know what you think in the comments section!

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Of the people who do still stick to the old ways, most of them are the ever elusive and infamous aging hipster. He still believes that Friendster has not yet had it’s brightest hour and has forsaken Facebook for it’s mainstream ideologies.  He reminisces about when he was top dog of the conforming non-conformists and wonders why they all picked up and moved to Williamsburg. He has, since his younger years, actually used his degree, has functioning glasses and regrets about the howling wolf tattoo and never settling down like his more successful sister.

Nobody likes the aging hipster. Nor do they rely on him for useful information. Unless, of course, you’re also an aging hipster. Then, of course, your time interacting with one another is spent by hurling insults of being “too mainstream” and branding each other posers.

But, here are some easy ways to not be an aging hipster.

1) Get on Twitter

and follow people who know what their talking about. They’re called “experts”. Whatever it is you’re interested in, chances are that there will be someone on Twitter who knows more about it than you do and, unless they’re jerks, you would do well to listen to them.

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2) Social media books

are just as useless and informative as aging hipsters. They’ll be out of date and obsolete by the time they hit the shelves and will most likely be stuffed full of amateur’s business cards advertising “promoting your website”. When you pick up a social media book, it’s a lose-lose situation.

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3) Subscribe to RSS feeds

so, instead of having to search, it comes right to you. Get out there and subscribe to more than one RSS feed, and be open to what others have to say. Not everything is going to be on one site every time. While nothing is stopping you from subscribing to everything in sight, keep in mind (like the clever Tweeters) that not everything will always be useful.

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4) Join in on Tweet Ups

and hear what other people do to stay “with it”. Sometimes they meet up at bars, so you can’t lose. But with all frivolities aside, Tweet Ups aren’t just a happy hour. Tweet Ups are for Tweeters of all shapes and sizes to get together and discuss what they Tweet about, why and, importantly, how they do it. Anyone can create a Twitter account and gain thousands of followers by being clever, but that doesn’t mean they’re clever about anything useful.

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5) Make friends

with said “with it” people. Pay attention to what they do to be successful, and copy them, but not too much.

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6) Mashable.com

is used by businesses and bloggers alike, this is a reliable and very popular site for a glance at the latest news. Definitely not the spot for the aging hipster.

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7) Limited sources

should never be an excuse for ignorance. Look around, the Internet is a big place full of smart (and not so smart) people that just love when they’re listened to.

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As you can see, it is nearly infinitely easier to avoid becoming an aging hipster than actually becoming an aging hipster. And while staying current does take work and dedication, it’s still not as much effort as living in the past and sulking about it. Plus, once the art of staying current is mastered, people will begin coming to you for the latest information.

What’s interesting is that Mixx in its classic (read: social voting) form won’t be going by the wayside. Original Mixxers Greg Davies and Jay Fowler of Social Blend podcast fame are ramping up a social voting site of their own which will grandfather in much of the current Mixx environment.

We caught up with Greg and Jay to hear the rest of the story. Here’s what they had to say.

1 – Welcome back Greg and Jay! How have things been?

Greg:
DILLIGAF to you, my friend. Things are as random and ridiculous as ever, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Jay:
Busy to say the least. Greg and I are still doing the podcast, I have been doing guest writing for other web publications, then there is always Social Media Rage that still has new posts every now and then. I tell you though, I wish I had Greg’s constitution. Not only is he working on our new project, but he is also writing for other websites, has two other podcasts, and is still going strong. He impresses the hell out of me sometimes.

2 – Glad to hear it. So you’re going to basically run Mixx classic through Mixxingbowl.com – this is very exciting! I know many of the hardcore Mixxers and new Mixxers alike will be happy that social voting isn’t going away. Can you tell us a little more about the implementation, transition, and all the bells and whistles?

Greg:
Essentially, we’re starting over. We’re going to be using Keith Wagner’s Open Voter platform to implement the social news site. MixxingBowl.com will still have the blog and the forums, but the social news part of the site will become the main focus. We’re also listening to and requesting feedback from the current Mixx Classic community – we need their ideas and criticisms, it’s very important to us.

And I’ll tell you why it’s important: essentially this is the Community saving itself. This isn’t a startup, we’re not looking for a profit here – we’re trying to keep the spirit of the Mixx community alive.

Jay:
Well our badass engineer Keith Wagner explained it last night on Social Blend. Basically we are using his application called Open Voter. We will have a Karma system and he has an algorithm in place. We are looking at giving our hardcore users awards later. But we will have a voting and comment system as all Social News sites do. Keith Wagner and Brian Hill (the owner of the Mixxingbowl) have been awesome in working with us on this.

3 – I’m sure some are going to be annoyed that karma is going to be reset. Anything that can be done on this or are we all just going to have to grin and bear it?

Greg:
We’re looking into some options on this. At this point we’re unsure if we can successfully port the current karma scores over. Keith is working out the details. There’ll be more on this later. Best thing would be to assume we’re starting over again. That way, if we CAN get the karma over, it’ll be a nice surprise

Jay:
Well we are trying to work something out but we can’t guarantee anything at this point. We are going to do our best but somethings are out of our hands. Mixx has been acquired therefore the intellectual property is no longer theirs. If the new Mixx owners want to help us or can I am sure they will. But as far as the Karma and awards they will all have to be new at this stage in the game.

4 – How about the trophy case?

Greg:
Awards will come in time. Right now we’re focusing on getting the site up, running, and available for the Mixx community. We have ideas like awards and other things, but that’s going in our “We’ll do our best to get to this as soon as we can” list.

Jay:
That is something we are looking at but will take time to implement. We absolutely believe the old hardcore users of the community deserve something, but we want to make the site at least usable for them before we add more bells and whistles.

5 – Who’s going to run this new social voting site? I know that you’re running it from Keith Wagner’s openvoter.org package (which by the way is awesome, I’ve seen it in action over at Mark Carras’ heavyashell.com) but you’ll need editors and technical people and all that. What’s the plan? Superusers? Staff?

Greg:
Both of us, Keith, and also Brian Hill aka Bdog2g2 who founded the Mixxing Bowl to begin with. To start with it will be the four of us acting as support and moderators. I’m sure we’ll add people to the team as we progress, but we’re taking baby steps to start with. Super Users and Power Users was something we were discussing the other day, it’s a possibility – we’d love to implement it. As far as staff is concerned, let me emphasize again, this is all volunteer work.

Jay:

Right now it’s a four person team. Greg, Keith, Brian and myself are going to try and feild the whole thing. But we do have a lot of awesome friends who have offered support so I am sure we will be taking them up on their offers. That’s one thing that we have had is an enormous outpouring of support for this project. I guess when you help build a strong community and establish yourself in Social Media, that’s one thing we have always had, support. Believe me we appreciate all the support our friends in the Social Media realm have given us. Without them and the community, there would be no reason for us to want to do this project.

6 – Anything else you’d like to stress about the new site?

Greg:
This is the community saving itself. We’re not looking to capitalize on or exploit the closing of Mixx Classic – we’re very aware that there’s a community that loved the social news side of Mixx, and we’re sad to see it go. But the Mixxing Bowl is the next step, and we’re looking forward to getting it out there, up and running.

Also, like I said, we still work full time in our regular jobs, so this is all volunteer work. Bear in mind there’s SO MUCH we want to do with this site, but we have limited time. We’ll do our best – but we ask the community for some patience and understanding as we get things set up.

Jay:
Yes, the new Mixxingbowl, is not a startup. It’s a place for the users of the Mixx classic community to crash land, hang out and have fun. That’s what the original Mixxingbowl forum was all about, and that’s the way we want to keep it. We have made strong friendships in that community, and we know others have as well. We want to make it a place where these people can stay connected.
We will still have the blog and the forum, and we are always willing to listen to feedback, be it constructive or other wise. Also none of this would be remotely possible without the community, especially Keith Wagner, Brian Hill, and Greg Davies. I know I poke fun at those guys, but they are awesome.

7 – It’s been a real pleasure connecting with both of you at this exciting point in Mixx history. Thank you again so much Greg and Jay, for all that you do! Much props to Brian Hill aka Bdog2g2 and Keith Wagner aka DarkNemesis618 for keeping the dream alive!

Greg:
You’re welcome. And remember: Social Media is a myth!

Jay:
Brian, it’s always a pleasure, and we can’t wait to see you in the Mixxingbowl!

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Weighing in at an incredibly portable 0.84 pounds, measuring a height of 7.49 inches by a width of 4.74 inches, and sporting two cameras complete with LED flash and video calling capabilities; we give you: The Samsung Galaxy Tab.

In our age where computers are getting smaller, televisions are getting thinner and communication is faster and easier than ever, it’s no small wonder that society would have the bright idea of putting all those things together in one convenient package, the Tab.

Describing a tab is like trying to describe the highway system (or even a car) to the general public of 200 years ago. Even now in our busy, technical age, the tab (or pad) really is a new creation in itself.

The laptop computer is the sleeker, more portable and stylish cousin to the home desktop, and is more widely used and accepted as the “computer”. Wifi is offered in nearly every hipster coffee shop and bookstore nationwide, hotels and campgrounds are even hopping on the bandwagon. And yet, it is still never forgotten where the laptop had evolved: the desktop.

The fancy new televisions, that have become thinner than ever imagined, have made televisions from just five years ago seem obsolete and outdated. But who can forget where it came from?

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The tab is completely different. Yes, sure we can see the inspiration for this incredibly cool device. The internet capabilities and computer like qualities come from, well, the computer itself. And yet is has virtually no resemblance to the computer itself (just look at it). The two cameras, one complete with flash and the other for optimum video chatting, which is beautifully blending a phone call with a face to face conversation; sure that’s nothing new for a phone, but this isn’t a phone. It’s not a computer, or a camera, or an mp3 player. It’s the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

All in all, the YouTube format was impressive, streaming videos had good quality and sound; better than I would have expected for sound only coming out of the bottom, but still. I enjoyed a few round of Angry Birds in great detail, and nearly forgot I was supposed to be writing a review, not exploding those pigs.

I really like this contraption. It is a formidable competitor to the iPad, while its smaller size makes it more convenient to carry and less obnoxious to use on a crowded subway, while still being able to get things done. Whatever they may be.

Plus, it’s cool looking.