MediaJoltz

Did you comment on two blogs? Did they respond back? Now I don’t want to put too much on you in a week, but I do want you to continue to comment on a blog everyday.

Today’s assignment is something that will strengthen relationships with those who write the blogs that catch your interest. Start examining the website a little deeper to learn more about the author. Do they have an “about me” page? How about a “contact me” page?

What do you know about this author? What would you like to know? Most blog authors have a way to contact them. Find this information and whichever form of contact is most comfortable to you, contact them. Let them know you are trying a New Media Assignment-they’ll be excited for you! Ask them why they started blogging, what inspired them? Ask them why they chose to write on the topic they are covering and what are the toughest things about blogging?

The best way to learn anything is to glean information from those already involved in it. Be sincere, maybe tell a little about what you are thinking of doing and see if they have any suggestions for you. Ask more than one person to get an overall feel about what blogging is all about. This is how I started writing. I talked to a few people like CC Chapman, Janet, Bryce, Cord and Mitch. They all have different reasons for blogging but each one gave me ideas for my own blog.

The people you talk to will have different answers than you, but by asking them questions and listening to advice they might have, you start to form a relationship and advocate for your blog, and its a lot more fun when you’ve got friends supporting you!

So today’s assignment: Continue to comment on blogs and take that further step to contact an author to start building a relationship that can become a resource of help, advice and motivation later on down the road.

Now we have a little bit more information about what a blog is. The next thing we are going to do is something that I believe is very important when you are beginning, and even if you are a veteran at blogging. We are going to comment on a blog.

When someone writes a blog, while it is THEIR opinion and ideas, they are writing for YOU. Let them know what you think-further the conversation. The magic of blogs is that they are a two way street. They allow for someone to post, the reader can comment and the author to then return a reply. I have many people I feel I can call friends whom I’ve never met, and it started as a comment I made on their blog or they made on my blog.

But be careful about your comment. Truly provide a constructive response. Here is a Comment Ethics website that goes over some things that will help you. Be courteous, and intelligent, there are some topics that we don’t agree with, but you want to be professional in everything you do online-remember it won’t be deleted!

So your assignment: to comment on two different blogs. By doing that, not only are you going to contribute to the conversation, but begin to forge a relationship online. These relationships can help you in this new media process too. Believe it or not, but most bloggers are actually friendly!

Till tomorrow, thanks for stickin’ with me!

So how did it go? Did you do the assignment I gave on Friday? What did you find? So what is a blog?

-Blog- found from Wikipedia: A blog is a website where someone publishes entries on topics of interest. The topics vary as there are more than 70 million blogs out there being tracked by technorati.

Where did the term blog come from? A blog is a short term for web log. Basically an online journal or log of life, thoughts, business and ideas. There were a lot of stuff that could be the “beginning of blogs” such as websites with a “whats new page” but today blogging has become more mainstream and right now carries the controversial question: “Can bloggers be considered journalists?”

Terms to know:
Blog- we defined

Blogosphere-the connected community of all blogs together. The Blogoshpere can be defined into smaller niches such as a group of blogs on one topic-business or marketing

Blogger (the company and the term itself) a free website that allows the creation and maintenance of a blog. The term blogger is also a description of one who blogs.

Column- a column on a blog defines the space on the website. In my website the place where I post is one column, the place where I list my blogroll and podcast list is another column, I have a two column blog. Here is an example of a 3 column blog: http://www.davidlaplante.com/
You can find a one column blog template here: http://www.geckoandfly.com/2006/04/27/one-column-blogspot-template/

Tags-what the post is about. It can also be described as a Category-the pre determined topic the post falls under and is grouped with all other posts on that topic

MetaTags-these are used in the code of your blog for your pages that help with Search Engine Optimization

Trackbacks-a trackback is when someone writes on their blog about the post you have written. This is done by clicking on the link of the other person’s actual post and including the link in your post.

Pings-a ping is an alert sent to an author of a post letting them know that their post is being referred to elsewhere.

Permalink-this is the URL of an actual post. Instead of linking to www.mediajoltz.com when you like a post, you click on the title of the post and it takes you to a page with only that post on it. The URL of this page is a permalink.

Post-the body of a text blog.

Blogroll-list of blogs one enjoys or recommends, usually found on the side column of a blog

URL-uniform resource locator, or the address of a website

Domain Name-what is your website called? Mine is mediajoltz

Hosting-when you are writing and putting pictures and video on your website, it takes up space-or storage. Someone has to handle all that space, or host it.

Links- a hyperlink in your post to a reference that supports or further explains your topic

Linking-you can do this with other blogs by referring to them in a post and attaching a hyper link to the word in your post.

Yesterday I had a friend come up to me at a seminar we were both attending and asked me what it was that I now did. I started to explain Mediajoltz to him

“I have a blog that I post on that talks about different ways to use online communication in your company. I tried and do a podcast every 2 weeks with someone who is using some type of online communication in their company and I do consulting if someone wants deeper information…”

He stopped me short and said, that’s all fine with blogs and podcasts, but what about instant messaging?

Instant Messaging? Well I had never thought about that before. I mean, who doesn’t use AIM or Yahoo or Windows Live Messenger? Skype might be too new, but the others I have always taken advantage of using pretty much since I started on computers way back when. You can contact me on AIM with screen name utahcamsboss, Yahoo with than_randle and MSN with Lorri_Randle@hotmail.com. I even have a program for my Mac called Adium which groups all of these programs into one, so I only have one window open on my computer that lists all my buddies so I don’t have to have 3 separate windows open for each program. Windows users can use a program called Trillian to do the same thing.

THE MISSION

This got me thinking harder than ever about NOT knowing anything about online applications. It had never occurred to me that while I feel like I am being simple in my explanation of how and why to use things, maybe to someone who has not a clue about even Instant Messaging and the uses for that, their head spins when i talk about all the other new media stuff that I think is pretty basic.

So while I gather all the information I can and create tutorial videos on how to download, install and use instant messaging to my friend’s advantage, I’m also going to start simple here on this blog.

So this is what my goal and mission is to do. I am going to start from the very beginning of the online world. I am going to give assignments and lessons. There might be some who are more advanced than what this blog can give at this moment. I hope you’ll stick with me, share your views and opinions and help everyone else to catch up to your expertise. I plan on helping each and every one of you who read this blog to have a rocking online presence and a grasp of what that means to your company/personal branding.

HERE WE GO:
I want you to do some research on blogging. Don’t worry about trying to write a blog or subscribe or anything, just learn what people are saying about blogging.

-What is a blog?
-Where did the term come from?

Basic Terms to know:

Blog
Blogosphere
Blogger (the company and the term itself)
Column
Tags
MetaTags
Trackbacks
Pings
Permalink
Post
Blogroll
URL
Domain Name
Hosting
Links
Linking

(Those more advanced, please feel free to post in the comments any other important BASIC terms for those interested in blogging.)

These phrases should get you started. Here are some URLS (websites) that should help you research what exactly blogs are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blogging_terms

Knowing the terms will help you to communicate better and give you the confidence that you can participate in this exciting online community.

CORPORATE BLOGGING

For further reading you can check out: Corporate Blogging

You can also read these blogs to get an idea on how large companies are using their blog:
Marriott on the Move

Jonathan’s Blog (from Sun Micro systems)

The Apple Blog

STUDY WHAT YOU LIKE

Now visit Technorati and in the upper right hand you see a search function. Go ahead and search on a topic you are interested in. Investigate the blogs that come up. See what you like about them, write down what you do like. Is there something that you don’t like about any of them? Write that down too. What features and colors did you like? What attributes caught your attention? Did you notice that some blogs have one, two OR three columns? Take note of the details that make certain blogs stand out.

I hope that this weekend you get excited about what you see. Blogging is something that, while I don’t enjoy writing, I very much enjoy feeling like I’ve helped someone learn a little something today. Thanks for sticking with me as I evolve this blog into something I hope is truly valuable for the business owner in all of us.

So there has been a buzz about privacy on the Internet and I decided to write a post about it. This takes into consideration three questions:

1. What information are you giving to the world through the Internet?
2. What information are others giving to the world through the Internet about you?
3. Who is responsible for the information found?

This post follows one from my good friend Phil801. After sending him a post Christopher Penn wrote on the Matrix 2.0 about what someone can easily find out about you, Phil did a search on himself and shares the results. He does live a good portion of his life online and is fully aware of what can be found. By using some of the sites he mentions, I found out all about my sister-in-law who said she doesn’t have anything on the Internet…

Let me preface this with the fact that while I am not paranoid that something bad WILL in fact happen, I am the type that would rather not make personal information freely accessible. I understand that nothing is private, NOTHING IS PRIVATE, but for me, I would rather that someone had to WORK and pay money or do whatever to find my information than to find out I personally gave them everything they needed.

NOTHING IS PRIVATE
Nope, not a thing. Here is an article “They know all about you” about the AOL incident where they posted a database consisting of 3 months worth of searches. They substituted numbers for names, but it wasn’t hard to figure out who some people were. Think about the searches you do and then think about the world knowing what you’ve searched for.

The problem continues when even though AOL took the data down within hours, it had already been posted on several other sites. Remember, what you post on the Internet is there forever. The Internet is a never ending archive that never forgets or deletes.

BE AWARE OF WHAT YOU GIVE
Just as the article “They know all about you” says, we do give up a lot of information about ourselves. We better not be naïve about what we have given though, don’t be surprised that someone has your

-email address, (if you have a gmail account, Google has your address and an archive of your emails. “Gmail stores, processes and maintains your messages, contact lists and other data related to your account in order to provide the service to you. When you use Gmail, Google servers automatically record certain information about your use of Gmail. Similar to other web services, Google records information such as account activity (including storage usage, number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including UI elements, ads, links); and other log information (including browser type, IP-address, date and time of access, cookie ID and referrer URL.”

-if you’ve bought anything online, you’ve given out your credit card info, (even if it’s a secure site, THEY still have that information).

-Amazon has archived what you’ve bought and even has an idea of what you would like!

Have you been on Facebook lately? Here is a picture from Facebook of the process to add an application to my profile:

I can uncheck all of them if I want to except for the top one, the one that happens to say: “here is everything about me” interesting…

WHAT IF I DIDN’T WANT THAT UP THERE?
Now we approach the idea of information on the Internet that you didn’t put there. I’m talking about third party sites that gather information about you…here is one www.web.public-records-now.com where you can find me, where I live and pay only $60 for more information.

“…you gave me the answer I needed…” “…gave me the detailed information that I needed to locate my son” Who is to say a predator won’t find James’ son too?

OR, someone who wanted to find more information about me could simply peruse through my friends information and find more about me through my friends’ pictures of me, conversations they’ve had with me, or anything else my friends post. Do my friends have my permission to do that, do they NEED my permission to post a picture online that I’m in? With photo tagging, someone can find out the places I’ve been and the people I associate with without ever visiting a single page that I’ve actually contributed to. Is this fair? HMMMM….

TAKE THAT DOWN!
Recently I’ve heard a lot about companies like ReputationDefender and DefendMyName popping up and charging fees for finding and getting rid of reputation destroying content. There are several cases where I think that companies like this are doing right by offering their services. Instances where posting false, libel or slander, information just as in any form of media where this is illegal calls for help when an individual themselves are not able to get through the red tape. An example comes from an article in the Wall Street Journal where an ex-boy friend posts this woman’s phone number online and she begins receiving phone calls:

“Janel Lee, a mortgage loan closer in Minong, Wis., sought ReputationDefender out after her ex-boyfriend began posting her work and cellphone numbers in response to several questions on Yahoo Answers, including “What is 50 Cent’s phone number?”
She got 15 to 20 calls a day, sometimes as late as 3 a.m. One after-hours voicemail, presumably intended for the rapper, was a lengthy rap performance. “I sing blues, jazz and rock. This was painful,” said Ms. Lee.
Ms. Lee said she contacted Yahoo Inc. directly but was unable to get most of the information taken down. So she paid ReputationDefender about $240 for a two-year membership, plus about $150 for the posts that the company, over three months, got removed. “It was quite a great relief knowing that someone was working on it for me,” she said. Mr. Fertik said Yahoo removed the information after being contacted by ReputationDefender.”

BUT, personally I think that people are also using these services simply because they are embarrassed and not taking responsibility for their actions. Anything you say, do, take a picture of, or have someone take a picture of you saying, doing, etc, CAN end up on the internet.

This video is of two girls in a restaurant setting with some boys. Because of the sexual nature I am not including the link.

The scenario is that these boys videotaped these two girls kissing. But it isn’t the kiss that makes this video popular with close to half a million views; it’s the statement the girl on the right makes just before they kissed. “As long as it doesn’t end up on the internet!” Wow, for their sakes, I hope that their future employers don’t find this video.

But is it right for them to demand that this video be taken down now because it is embarrassing? They kissed in front of all the people at the restaurant. Who is to say strangers sitting around them at that public place didn’t see them kissing, how are they different than strangers on the Internet? What do you think? When is it a matter of legal vs. not taking responsibility for things you’ve done in life?

GOVERNMENT’S PRYING EYE
I had a conversation the other night that got me thinking about privacy and the government. Is it wrong for the government to be searching your personal information published online to get an idea about the people of the country? Does it have the right to go through myspace profiles and blogs and look for clues about possible actions people might make. Does government have a right to have access to search information?

Take for instance the example used in the article referenced before “They know all about you”

“On April 4, for instance, user 14162375, the melancholy Portuguese-American in Florida, seems to have passed out on the keyboard at 6.20pm, when he asked, suddenly, “llllfkkgjnnvjjfokrb” then “vvvvbmkmjk” and “vvglhkitopppfoppr”. An hour later he had recovered enough to search for variations on his wife’s name - he thought she might have moved to New England. On the evening of April 16, matters came to a head. “My cheating wife,” he typed; and then, five times, “I want to kill myself,” and then “I want to make my wife suffer,” followed quickly by “Kill my wifes mistress,” “My wifes ass,” “A cheating wife”. Two days after that he was back looking for audio surveillance and bugging equipment and four weeks later he seemed to have cheered up and was looking for motorcycle insurance.”

Would it be wrong for the government to have access to searches and put a tag on this man when he started searching “I want to make my wife suffer” and “kill my wife’s mistress”? Would they be able to stop things like the Columbine Shooting and more recently the Virginia Tech Shooting? In an article found in USA Today we find out that the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, made illegal purchases of guns and ammunition through Ebay. Is it possible he did some searches on the internet?

What is your take on internet privacy? Where are the boundaries and lines? Is everything black and white or are there exceptions? Do you think we all have a right to put whatever we want on the internet even if it involves others?

In today’s episode I talk about the idea of making money with your podcast.  John Wall from The M Show Podcast and Christopher Penn of the Financial Aid Podcast get together at Duncan Dounuts and put together a podcast called Marketing Over Coffee which rocks.

On their 8/08/07 podcast they answer one of their listener’s questions about making money with  a podcast.  I expound on their answer and hope that this helps you figure out your strategy for using podcasts as a part of your marketing.

Also, a little change to the music, trying out another track from Garage Band.  Let me know what you think about this one!

 Mediajoltz 07 Podcast Make money with New media [8:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today is a post about using technology in your everyday life. I want to go over using Google Earth to learn more about your environment.

Last year my husband and I went to Disneyland. In preparing for our trip I researched several hotels to find the best one for the best price. We decided that we didn’t need to stay inside the park, but still wanted to be close enough to the park that we could walk and not have to worry about parking if we felt like it.

I found a Holiday Inn Hotel that in the description said it was a block away from Disneyland. I wanted to double check just how close it really was so I went to my application Google Earth. I really enjoy all the help the Google Earth User Guide gives, instructing me on how to use every detail of this product.

Here is a video of what I found out about my hotel in California I had found:

You can use Google Earth to find out where you are staying in relation to your target destination. This is great for conferences or any type of business or personal travel.