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Dear America Online…I mean AOL,

This is one of those letters that I never thought I would write. I don’t mean this in a bad way. I actually shock myself when I say, “It is a good thing that I am writing this letter.” Let me back up and explain what this letter is all about.

As a young man growing up in the 1980s and becoming a young adult in the 1990s you, AOL, have touched and effected my life on many levels. If it was not for the hundreds of discs you mailed me, my college apartment in Chico would not have had any coasters for beers. If it was not for you, AOL, I would never had played the beer drinking game “AOL Card House.” When we couldn’t find playing cards, we built a house of AOL discs. If it was not for you, AOL, I never would have entered that chat room and met that 22-year-old Swedish fashion model, with whom I had adult conversations (I wonder if she ever received that cashier’s check I sent her for that investment?) And, I should go on record that if it were not for you, I would not be where I am today.

Truly, I mean it. It was with you that I first got online, found content, and became networked.

Then you and I, AOL, went our separate ways. You wanting me to just spend time with you and your own content, making me dial in. You tried to keep me trapped. I was not ready for a serious, committed relationship. I had to learn that another whole online world was out there… DSL, websites, content from other places. I had to end our relationship and go on without you. I had to find myself.

At this juncture of my life, though, something has happened. I didn’t really realize it until this past month. It seems we have started to reconnect. But I didn’t know it was you, AOL! Maybe it was the work you had done, the new style, the midlife changes you’ve made. The bottom line is this: you have changed. Maybe you’ve even grown up. Today, we have a new relationship!. Because people like lists, here’s my take on our new life together:

• You are going places and putting yourself out there. It seems you have an iPad application called Editions. I really like it, and I’m using it daily.
• You listen to me now. I emailed your Editions peeps and Sol L. responded to me directly. On a Saturday!
• You seem to communicate better. Sol L. actually emailed me to let me know Editions was back up.
• You care about my family and friends. It’s just not all about you anymore. I find myself reading my local San Carlos and Redwood City Patch. It seems Patch is owned by AOL.
• You take interest in what I like. You even own the Huffington Post now.

So, let me continue to be honest. I still make jokes at your expense when you’re not around. This said, I have a new respect for you. I just hope your attempt at trying to save our relationship is not just a little too late.

I want you to know that I’m willing to work on it…if you are.

Hugs,
Dave

Meet Antonio Sabato Jr… you may know him from such things as General Hospital, Melrose Place, Rizzoli & Isles, CSI:NY, Scrubs, Ugly Betty, My Antonio, Modeling and of course from his very active Twitter account.

Antonio was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to do an interview about his current projects and use of Social Media.

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I don’t mean to bug you, no really, it is not my normal style. My oldest is now on Facebook, I know right? So he discovered the Popchips, Vice President of Pop Culture contest. In short your voting for someone to be the VP to, well President Ashton Kutcher. See, Ashton is the President of Pop Culture… here..

just see his video.

What I am asking is can you please go HERE and vote for our video? I would really appreciate it. Ill owe you, maybe some Popchips? Also, be warned, you can vote once ever 24 hours, so I might bug you a few times. Dont worry contest ends March 9, 2011.

Hey, thanks.. You ROCK!! Really, you do! Oh, if you want to tweet it feel free

Dont forget to click the button to vote!

UPDATE: Currently in 7th place out of 180 videos!! Thank you all so much! Here are 2 new videos my kids made for the contest. Please keep your votes coming!

You may know her from her countless appearances on such TV shows as Melrose Place, Matlock and The Sentinel, as well as her series regular roles on Dark Skies and Shark. There is no doubt that you know her best for her role as Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager!

That’s right — actress Jeri Ryan is my guest this week!

Jeri and I discuss how she got into acting, what it is like being on Star Trek, what she thinks about using Twitter, how she likes interacting with fans and her thoughts on her upcoming show Body of Proof on ABC.

Listen Now!

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How thrilled was I when I got the chance to interview Kathy Ireland this week? Yes, the former model and actress Kathy Ireland, who is now also a wife, mother, Sunday school teacher, Chief Designer and CEO of Kathy Ireland Worldwide. The Wall Street Journal recently acknowledged her company as a $1.4 billion design empire. Pretty incredible!

In the audio posting below, Kathy and I discuss how she went from supermodel to CEO, how her company works and the very cool Chef Andre. Of course we discuss her use of social media and   I also ask her some of the questions you asked via Twitter and Facebook.

Listen Now!

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Last week, I was one of the lucky few to have the new Facebook Messaging/email system feature activated on my profile. And before you ask — No, I do not have any invites to give away. It came with only 2 and somehow they got wrangled away from me already. This will be a very slow roll out to Facebook’s 550 million+ users, so plan on waiting.

How do you know it’s activated? First, an alert will show up on the left hand sign of your screen. It will be a box letting you know about this new feature (wish I had grabbed a screenshot). It’s actually fairly easy to tell after the alert is gone though. By going into the Messages area like normal, you  can now see at the top that you  have a Facebook email address with a green check mark next to it. All systems go so far.

Your email address is your personalized profile url. My profile url is http://www.facebook.com/davepeck, so my email is davepeck@facebook.com. If you forget, go back to the Messages screen, and its still up there for you to review.

That, however, is the end of the any thing remotely user-friendly with this system.

I tested out a couple of emails both outbound and inbound and this is what I’ve come up with so far: It’s not a Gmail killer. Not yet anyway.

There’s still quite a bit that needs to be done before this can actually resemble an email system. So, okay, wow I now I have a facebook email address, but if Facebook is going to make an email system shouldn’t it actually have some of the features that an email system has?

Okay, okay, I know…it’s Facebook Messaging. But whatever – they’ve given me an email address, so now I expect that it comes with a few key email features.

What it does have

• A cool @Facebook.com address
• Ability to add attachment
• Ability to sync attachments with Microsoft

Missing Feature #1 – No inbox

No, seriously, there’s no inbox. Incoming emails don’t even get placed in the main Messages folder. You have to first go to Messages, then go to “Other.” Other.

Missing Feature #2 – No threading

What’s threading? It’s keeping all related messages together in the same conversation. In general email, a message and a response typically will stay in the same place somewhere in the mailbox. In general email, you may have a copy in your Sent Mail folder, and then the new response in your Inbox. However, that new response will usually show the sent message being replied to somewhere else in that email (usually below the response). Not so in Facebook Messaging. When an email is sent to a Facebook address, that message will show up in the “Other” box. When a response is created to that initial email, the response is placed in the Messages folder and doesn’t reference the original email at all. What makes things worse is that when the response does show up in Messages, it gets clustered with any actual internal Facebook messages that you may have had with that person even if unrelated in content.

Missing Feature #3 – No contact folder

The key to Facebook Messaging is that its supposed to keep users inside of Facebook, utilizing all of Facebook’s feature. According to Facebook, if you’re emailing with someone, then you should be connected to them because Facebook is all about connecting with the people you know.

This is really apparent in the glaring absence of a contact folder.

With nowhere to store email addresses and contact information for people, the only way to really remember how to get ahold of someone through Facebook (whether sending a Facebook email or traditional message) is to do the legacy process…start typing in a name or email address and letting Facebook automatically populate who you’re connected to already. If you’re not already connected, then it lets you continue to write the email address and send your email. However, it’s not going to let you store that email address. Essentially, Facebook is saying, “Hey Facebook User A, you can send this email to Person B but since they are not on Facebook or using this email address on Facebook, we’re not going to let you store their contact information. Why don’t you connect with them through Facebook instead so that we can continue to help you build and maintain your network?”

Bottom Line

Facebook is trying to get the message out that the network can be used for more than just the posting of family pictures or a night out on the town. By adopting all of Facebook’s features, it can be easily used for the development of both a personal and professional network. Giving all users a Facebook email address will help for people to be able to easily figure out where to send emails, but a user can’t just use a Facebook email and expect it to work out of the box. The user needs to actively network with both personal and professional connections, utilize Facebook Lists to separate different demographics and then maximize privacy settings so that user updates are targeted to the correct people. Facebook is very much a system that needs to used as a whole and not piece-meal — by maintaining that this new system is “Facebook Messaging” and not “email,” the company is reinforcing this need.

This week, I was thrilled to be able to chat with actor Adam Baldwin. Currently starring in the hysterically funny and intriguing show Chuck, you can catch him every Monday on NBC.  Even if you are not a fan of the show, you may recall Adam from his long career in such movies as My Bodyguard, Ordinary People, Full Metal Jacket, Wyatt Earp and Serenity to name just a few. He’s also had many television roles,including Jag, NCIS, Angel, Bones, X-Files and, of course, Firefly as Jayne Cobb.

I’ve been doing these interviews for a little while now, and I’m really enjoying it. The only problem I’m having is that as soon as I hang up the phone, I realize there is always something I forgot to ask. So, you may note that on this interview, we didn’t discuss Adam’s recurring role on X-Files. Next time, I promise…

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. I only had time for a few and I did give you credit! Don’t forget — you can follow Adam on Twitter…just click here to do so.

Listen to the interview:

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Last week I did a post about “What Is The Must Have Gadget For Xmas 2010?” Though I thought it might be something else, it was hands down the iPad.

So, you want mey to give away free iPad… I will giveaway a free iPad! Hey, I listen!

So here is what you need to do for a chance to win an iPad! (I made sure to keep it really simple and easy to do.)

Step 1: Between November 16 and December 15, 2010 download and install Meshin.

Step 2: Use it for at least one week.

Step 3: Then email us at feedback@meshin.com with the subject: iPad with  two pieces of either  feedback, comments, or ideas.

Step 4: Enjoy Meshin

Yep that is it. Pretty easy huh? So you can take that $500 you would of spent on the iPad and put it towards apps, videos, books and music. I aim to please!

PS you can learn more about Meshin, a semantic outlook plug-in here

Last week myself and 3 others got to meet with producer Mark Burnett. Mark is behind such shows as Survivor, The Apprentice, and one of my all time favorites Eco-Challenge.

We meet with Mark to discuss his upcoming show Sarah Palin’s Alaska on TLC. Yes, I know, your thinking Sarah Palin. I was thinking the same thing. That was until I got to watch the first 15 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the show was more focused on Alaska then Sarah. Then I thought, well why Sarah Palin? Well, Mark answered that as well.. she is Alaska’s best known resident. Can you name another famous person from that state?

Below is video and audio from my interview with Mark Burnett in which we discuss Sarah Palin, Alaska, Eco-Challenge and many other things.

Part 1

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Part 2

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By Leilani Haywood

Steve Dailey in Lee’s Summit MO is a drug tester for a private investigation firm and a Santa from November through December. He has a fan page on Facebook with over 10,000 “likes” from all over the world. I set up Santa’s fan page last November when he asked me how could he increase his bookings. “I don’t have a lot of money but I need to get the word out fast about my Santa business,” he told me in late October 2009. I recommended social media as the answer to quickly raise awareness of his Santa business.

When I set up his fan page at that time, I didn’t realize that he was the only Santa on Facebook. We both suggested the page to our friends and within 2 weeks we attracted over 1,000 fans. I was happy about the results and sent out a news release to local media about the Facebook Santa taking gift requests from his home in Lee’s Summit. The Kansas City Star, Lee’s Summit Journal, Lee’s Summit Tribune and Fox 4 News publicized Santa’s Facebook page.

The fan count ramped up to 3,000 within a week of news coverage. Even a reporter from the Los Angeles Times called Steve to interview him for a news story about the Santa business. For those who want to know how to build up your fan counts, here are a few tips from Santa.

#1 Use traditional public relations for your Facebook page. If you have an unusual service or business, send out a news release to promote your page. Of course you should have a reason for someone to visit your page. An example is you were taking donations for a non-profit organization, you could ask potential donors to visit your Facebook page to view photos of or register for an event. This is one of the best ways to build up your “like” base quickly.

#2 Connect your Facebook page with a related cause or brand. Santa partnered with City Union Mission, an outreach to the homeless in Kansas City. We created an “Operation Santa” toy drive to collect gifts for homeless kids and teenagers served by City Union Mission. The Operation Santa drive sparked a second wave of media attention and thousands of more fans. We used Facebook to publicize the drive and sent an update to fans with a link to donate to City Union Mission.

#3 Give and it shall be given unto you. Santa made a surprise visit to the 10 marketing directors at the top hotels and shopping destinations in the metro Kansas City area. The marketing director of the upscale Hyatt Regency hotel came out of an meeting because he had to see Santa. “You made my day,” he said. Santa gave a holiday cardholder that included his business card. That gift yielded a booking at the Great Wolf Lodge Resort and a promise to give him a call for corporate parties.

As you can see, Santa’s Facebook fan page is a key part of his offline outreach. Every day during the holiday season, his posts are folksy stories about the reindeer, elves and creating gifts. But the rest of the year his posts are reminders to keep the holiday spirit of care and giving alive everyday.

By the way, what do you want for Christmas? Tell Santa here!