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5 kids, 4 sports, 3 play-dates, 2 parents and 1 dinner party.. for my wife and I, that was last Saturday. Heck, that is a typical weekend for us. This does not even include the other 6 days of the week. I won’ t begin to bore you with the events I forgot about, like one kids baseball practice. Keeping it all together is almost a full-time job. I find myself inputting the dates and times into my phone and making notes on what I need to have with me for that event.

And sometimes the things that are staring you right in the face are the ones that solve your problems.  Recently, I heard from Meshin, a company I worked for last year out of Palo Alto Research Center (think Xerox) .  Yes, they know about the 5 kids and my use of Evernote.   They are rolling out an iOS app that integrates all my calendars into one view and let’s me take notes from the event I am attending.  And trust me not all notes are equal.   Take one day in my life.  I go to a meeting where I have invited two new people who are clients.  Right from my iPad I open my calendar, take a note, save it at the end of the meeting and it is automatically tags all the names of the people so I can find it later, or I can get to it right from that calendar.   Later in the day I go to my son’s baseball game, which is in my calendar too.  I take a photo note with Evernote and save it to the game event.  I have the inside scoop so I know Evernote is just their first trick in making the calendar smarter.

It you want to check it out they are in private iOS beta at Meshin.  Plus I think they are giving away an iPad for the person who gets the most sign-ups ( no I can’t win since I used to work for them.

I plan on using Meshin Recall for the foreseeable, Interested in what you think might make your calendar smarter on you iPhone? Make sure to download it here.

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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

So I have noticed a change in the request for interviews and speaking engagements over the past few months. I am getting a lot of requests for tips/tricks on using social networking to find a job. Now, with the economy is I totally can see why people are turning to this medium.  In the past 2 weeks  I have been interviewed for:

-How Facebook Can Help Job Seekers Find Employment

-Tweet, Tweet: How to Incorporate Twitter Into Your Job Search

Asked to on using Social Networking  & Linkedin to find a job at:

-International Association of Administrative Professionals

-NeCon East

So I thought it would be a good idea to share some tips and tricks that you can use to help find a job. I think I should do it in list form, as people like lists!

Using Twitter

-Post to your Twitter profile, I am looking for a job! So simple, I know some people do not event think to do that.

-Use Twitter Search to find a job based on keywords. Example: CSR Wanted, Denver got me this:

The key here is to play around with the search terms to narrow it down better to what you are looking for.

Also in regards to Twitter Search, use it to find people in your field of work and add them! You need to Network and build your community.

-Follow accounts like: @jobangels, @freelancejobs @manpower

-Use Twitterjobsearch.com

Using Linkedin
-Complete your profile, amazing how many people do not do that.

-Use SEO. Put in keywords your profile, play around with it to increase your visibility.  It is a good idea to find just the right words to describe what you do.  You will know you are on the right track when you see this box:

So lets say you are in website development, use keywords like HTML, MySQl, etc. These are words people may use to find someone with your skills.

The more times you come up in search, well..the better!!

-Save business cards. When your meeting people, chatting folks up, make sure to get their business cards. Then go back to your linkedin profile and add them.  Yes, simple.

-Put a picture up. This goes for both Twitter and Linkedin, it ads something when you can see what a person looks like.

-The Answers Section!! The most underused, yet powerful tool on the site! It is where the magic happens. This is where people in your field post questions they need help with. They are reaching out for “An Expert”. That expert is you! Get on it, respond, refer, engage, chat it up, etc. This is where networking happens. Questions in my area look like this:

Hope some of these tips help. What are some tools /tricks you use to find a job?

I have noticed a trend lately in the social media space. Well there are several trends right now in the space.

Jennifer Van Grove of Mashable pointed out the top 5 for Twitter. Such things as:

-Real Time Search Engines

-Verified Accounts

-Sponsored Tweets

-Well you can just read Jennifer’s great post…

One trend I see picking up is what I am going to call “Social Media For Good”. Now before you say, “Dave using Social Media to do good things has been around for every.” True, but with all these different social networking sites and instant communication tools, things are changing.

Let me share with you a few different sort of ways people are using these tools to do good things. By good I don’t mean “helping me get 16,000 friends in 90 days on Twitter”.  Nor will I ask you to join a Facebook Cause. I will share this with you in list form. People like lists:

Drew, who I have known for several years was diagnosed with cancer in May and.. , instead of me explaining I will post what he wrote on the page:

“Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer.  Ever since that day, Drew has blamed everything on his cancer. Losing his keys, misplacing his wallet, Twitter being slow, the Phillies losing, etc. Why? Because you have to beat up on Cancer to win… and you can help out. Blame Drew’s Cancer for anything you want by tweeting with the hashtag #BlameDrewsCancer and it’ll come here. We’ll keep a tally and when Drew beats Cancer, our sponsors will donate a dollar for every participant to the American Cancer Society and the Make a Wish Foundation.”

Sophie Azouaou is “the interior designer who gives back” as well as the 7X7′s Community Impact contributor where she gives tips on giving back that “put your mind and your wallet at east”. She is what Change Starts At Home calls a “Change Maker”.  Currently she is working on “Touching Hearts” a TV show that will look at philanthropy and The Real Stories for NBC Bay Area. They have just started a donation campaign  to help their show get off the ground and make a difference. It will air right after Monday Night Football in the fall. If you want to get involved or donate, which gets you a credit on the show, contact Sophie direct or go the the Touching Hearts site. Her goal is to use all aspects of Social Media to get the show off the ground!

The Twestival. In February 2009 about 200+ cities around the world held these events. All with one cause, to help let people know about Charity:Water. When all was said and done they raised about $250,000. The key here is that thanks to Twitter it from a local event, to a global event. Come on, that’s pretty cool…

In January of this year David Armano asked people to help a woman and her children who wanted to get out of a domestic abuse situation. He simply reached out and asked people to donate. No big party. No big event. Just do what you can. Well that request raised almost $17,000 for Daniella’s Apartment Fund!

So there you are people using the Internet, social networking and sites for good. To do good things.

I like it!

Yes, its true. I give. You win. It is time for me to buy an IPhone.

If you have been reading my blog for a while you may recall this post, I wrote called “The New IPhone Is Coming And I Don’t Care..”at my old site. So does this make me a hypercrite? Knocking the IPhone last year and now going out and buying one? Well, I would like to think not. I made a bad call. I have been known on occasion to make bad calls. You know, pick the wrong horse.  Go “All In” with the the wrong hand. Some notable wrong moves I have made are (I’ll share them in list form, as people like lists.”:

-I liked New Coke

-I not only paid to see “Howard The Duck“, after the movie I immediately  went out and bought the soundtrack at Tower Records

-I thought the Sony Betamax was going to be huge

-Loved the Arch Deluxe ( hey the lettuce was crisp and cold, and the hot was hot)

So that being said you get that I have been known to make some slight mistakes.

I plan to atone for this by getting a 3rd gen IPhone on Friday. I need to get involved with “applications”. They are just too powerful for me to ignore. I want to start using them. Making my life easier. I want info at a touch…. and to watch “The Office” while I am at the kids baseball games.

So, the point of this blog is not to share with you that in the ’80′s I was eating an Arch Deluxe, drinking a New Coke and watching Howard The Duck. It is to ask for your help.

As a “newbie” to the IPhone, I need to know what applications I should be using. What applications are the “Got to have”? Some applications I have been told to consider by Jeff Podraza are:

Tweetie – 1 of 2 great Twitter apps $2.99

TweetStack 1 of 2 great Twitter apps $2.99 (This is my favorite works with Tweetdeck if you use it)Skype for iPhone

Beejive – costly (15.99) But love the instant message interface.

LinkedIn

Lonely Planet San Francisco City guide normally 15.99 free during WWDC so grab it fast. (still free as of the 15th)

Searchme – this is a visual and media search engine

Evernote – great way to save information and sync with a desktop application
i.TV – I like this as you can integrate your Netflix account and Tivo
One Connect from Yahoo
Google
Yelp
Amazon (I use it a lot for price comparison)
Sea food Watch – from Monterey Bay Aquarium
AOL Radio – I love the comedy radio stations and 80′s stuff
Pandora
Shazam (hold it to a radio, when you want to identify a song)
Reader by Enormego (2.99 but allows for Google reader importing)
ABC News
Huffington Post
The Weather Channel
Ny Times – allows for offline reading
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
NPR
Public Radio
Flight Control – best 99 cents I spent on a challenging but simple addictive game
Lexel word  - game was free but worth paying for if not
Kindle for iPhone – From Amazon
eReader – From Barnes and Noble

What IPhone applications do you recommend and can not live with out? Are there some on this list you disagree with?

Thanks for your help!

So you want to create a successful marketing campaign using Social Media. I cant say I am shocked as  Forrester Predicts Huge Growth for Social Media Marketing. It seems  every brand wants to get into the social media and mobile area as these areas are  growing like wildfire.

Now, if you came here looking for the  exact secret ingredient into a hopefully successful social media campaign, your at the wrong place. If I knew what that was, I would be rich and famous. Oh and living on the beach with lots of Kindles, super fast wifi , Iphones, and.. sorry back to the blog.  My point was that this is a document I created that  has many items that need to have  answered, so I can come up with a campaign that is hopefully putting out the right message to the  right people. It is made up mostly of questions I want answered by myself, my team or the client. This helps me figure out what the campaign could possible be.

Feel free to suggest items that should be added, removed or tweaked in  the document. (as it is far from perfect)

1. What is the goal?

-Reputation Management
-Brand Awareness
-SEO rankings up
-Increase site traffic
-Increase sales
-Other

2.Who is the demo/target we are after? In regards to the demo:

-. Who is likely to be most interested in the content?
- Who does the brand want to communicate with and why?
- What are people currently saying about the brand or business?
- Which type of person is likely to purchase the  product or service?
- What tools or online services does the  target audience use?
- Which websites does the  target audience frequent?
-What dot he  target audience have in common with one another?
- What sites are most popular?
- Where is the brands audience now?
- What is the conversation about the brand now?

3. What are the channels we will need to use?

-We need to take the dynamic content to set up multiple channels that direct traffic and attention to the brand. By doing such things as:

-blog
-Twitter
-Fanpage
-youtube
-digg
-stumbleupon
-Can we use people of influence?
-etc

(This method can work well along side SEO/SEM)

4. What is The Big Idea?
-Is it relevant
-Is it easy to distribute

5. What does the end user get? (why should they join/interact/engage/spread the mess) It could be:

-Knowledge
-relationship
-laugh
-prize

6. What is our ROI? (may not always direct/immediate)

-Relationships
-Better reputation
-Brand Awareness
-Sales

Random Questions/thoughts

-Why will people spread the mesage? WOM/talk about the campaign/brand? Is it same as what they get out of it?
-You need to be transparent (the best you can)
-Who will manage it?
-Who is the person who will manage feedback, interact, be the face on sites? They will need to interact on customer/target level.

social media visibility = brand awareness + word of mouth = new customer

The cliff notes version:

-What is the purpose
-What is the reward

(This is the crazy story on how I got involved in Social Media. It is too long to tell in great detail, but here are the key points to the history. If you are totally confused, check out the video below.)

It is true. Are you done laughing? Yes, I a 38 year old married father of 5, used to pretend to be a 26 year old bombshell on the ‘net. Want to  know the best part? It worked really well for networking and building my brand. Yep.  I would do my social networking under the name: Britney Mason. Here meet Britney-

Britney Mason

Yep, she.. I mean I was a female avatar.

So at this point your totally confused, I know. Let me just tell you the story from the beginning, as I can best recall it.

In August 2005, I was up with my new born twins around 1:00 a.m. Doing my part so my beautiful wife could catch a few winks. I was reading TIME magazine learning about this new virtual world called, Second Life. (I’m not going to get into all the details of SL in this post, you can read more about it here.)

The first thing I was asked to do was pick a last name from a list and create my own first name.  As I looked down the list, the only semi-normal last name I could find was, Mason. As for a a first name, I had US magazine next to me with Britney Spears on the cover.  At that moment it all came together for me, Im going to pretend to be a girl in SL.

(Weird? Yep! Odd? For sure! Do you want to make all kinds of jokes at my expense right now? Yes, you do.  Done? Great)

Now I spent about 3 months in SL trying to figure out what the point was, what I needed to do to have fun, etc, etc. In the end, I got bored. I found really nothing interesting to do there.

Fast Forward to early 2006, I had been listening to Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code podcast since 2005. On one show Adam had mentioned his discovery of Second Life and how he was so excited about this new way to meet and interact with people. He went so far as to invite people to meet him in world, giving out his Avatar name of  “Adam Neumann”.

I thought to myself, why not log in and meet Adam Curry. Well that is exactly what I did.  Adam quickly responded to me, going so far as to invite me to his home. Over the next few days I would meet Adam “In World” and help him build out his avatar, Curry Castle and share tips and tricks. Now, Adam asked me point blank if I was really a woman.  I immediately  replied “Yes, of course!”

At the time Adam’s podcast was truly daily, so everyday he would mention something about SL, what we were up doing, who else was in SL.  As, we spent more time in SL and he updated listeners on his podcast, something interesting started to happen.  A community started to form around us.  I would get Instant Messages from people looking for Adam, or just wanting to chat. It was really exciting.

Then Adam approached me about a Second Life deal. What if we partnered up for a “Virtual Business”? A 50-50 deal.  He would fund it and I would run it. SL was just starting to grow by leaps and bounds, Real Life companies were starting to come in like Home Depot, Sears, IBM, and others. I was all in!

Now, a few other things were happening at this time. All sorts of Podcasters and also joined SL. They all would hang out at Curry Castle or maybe at a piece of virtual land they purchased nearby. There was Cali Lewis, Anji Bee, The Rumor Girls,  among many, many others. They in turn would go and talk about their experiences on their  respective podcasts.  The number of people joining the community just grew and grew because of this.

Seeing that we needed something more organized, I spoke to Adam, who agreed, it was time to purchase our own virtual island, PodShow Island. Podshow was Adam’s company which would later be called Mevio.

PodShow Island, in my opinion was a success when it launched. The sim was nothing but hustle and bustle.  Eventually many of us lost interest and moved on to Twitter. The island closed in March 2008

Yes, I have missed a lot of the details. Think of this as the cliff notes version if you will. So, please do not nit pick.   I wanted to give you this history so I can refrence it in future blog posts, when I discuss communities, networking and online branding. Oh, its also fun to go reminisce of where it all started for me!

Oh, so for those of you who are totally confused and wondering what is the point, check out the video below.

I think this video I did for CNBC somes it up really well.  Questions? Feel free to ask!

Alright lets get right into and see what has been going on this week shall well? Good you agree…

-What is Social Media? I get that question a lot. I do my best to explain it and help people understand it. I think Louis Gray did an amazing job with his post What Social Media Is and What Social Media Is Not

-How is Social Media factoring into the upcoming Inauguration? A lot! Facebook and CNN have partnered up for it. The CNN.com page will use Facebook Connect to allow people to update their status watch video live, chat and much more. Read more about it here

- Twitter, Twitter, Twitter.. most people still look at me weird when I talk about it, or maybe I get those weird looks all the time.. but people are flocking to Twitter. In 2008 it grow by 752%! Read about it here!

-Let me know if I missed anything you think is worth mentioning, if so please put it in the comments with a link!

Sorry I don’t have a lot this week.. Its been tough starting this Biggest Loser contest at my gym. Though I have been making videos to allow me to at least laugh at it. If you so care to watch here is a link to all of them and the one from Day 4:

Have a great weekend!

It is Friday all ready? Wow it kind of snuck up on me. With that being said lets see what links we have for this week:

-Facebook is throwing down with its Term of Service in regards to Alcohol. No more sending virtual drinks to anyone under 21.

-Speaking of Facebook.. they hit 150 million users 4 months after hitting 100 million in August 2008

-A lot of people question what social networking sites are really good for. What else can they do? Read this great post about how social media came to the aid of an abused woman and rasied money for her.

-Remember MySpace? Oh your still on MySpace? Sorry. Well it is becoming a Ghost Town of sorts according to Natasha Westcoast. Read her great post called MySpace:Creating Community In A Ghost Town

-Wanna guess what the best selling album download of 2008 was via Amazon? Nope.. wrong.. good guess. It was Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails. Why you ask is this worth mentioning? It was totally free to download. Yep, the #1 album was free, though people could pay if they wanted too. Oh and Viva La Vida by Coldplay was number 2.

-In November of 2008 Bill Johnston at Forum One Communications started a survey on Online Communities called Surviving & Thriving in the Downturn economy. It short it found that online communities are  thriving and the outlook is good.

So did I miss anything?

Do you have days where you just can stay focused? Those days where you lack motivation because you are just burned out? I think I am having one of those today. I just can not seem to focus on the tasks in front of me. It does not help that there are so many distractions like:

-Christmas

-People in and out of my office

-Phone keeps ringing

-Instant Messages

-Email

-5 kids

You get the idea.  So I decided to turn the distractions around to help me at least get a blog post up this week. What are some things one can do to help “Stay On Target”? Or better said, focus? Let me share some that I do. Let me do it in list form. People like lists:

-Turn off the phone. This is my life line. I put up over 1200 minutes a month on this thing. Sometimes I just have to turn it off to get things done.

-Get off the Internet! Just unplug the cable. I love the internet. I love my email. Yet, it is well.. the root of a lot of evils.

-Clean your workspace up. I know they say a “A Clean Desk Is A Sign Of A Sick Mind” but its not true

-Music. Sometimes I need to  turn on my ipod and get lost in the music. This is one of things that works really well for me.

-Make a do to list. This is something that also works well for me. I just love checking those tasks off. It gives me a great sense of completion.

-No Multi tasking. Weird right? But doing one thing at a time works really well for me. Lets me check those items off my “to do” list faster.

-Have someone to bounce ideas off of. Another thing that works well for me. I will put togeteher a draft or list to send to someone whose feedback I value.

What do you do to focus?