Are you looking for a blogging conference that will cover social media, social networking, the business of blogging and managing your time?

Do the costs of such conferences make you sick to your stomach?

Enter: The Girlfriend’s Guide to the Business of Blogging conference

Learn the ins and outs of Social Marketing. Learn how to set up your blog, the basics of page rank, SEO, ethics, and very basics of business will be discussed. How to’s of offering ads, advanced sponsorship opportunities plus legal and professional insights and much much more. Every session includes actionable take aways, hints and tips you can put to use right now, today to drive traffic, make money and become a success!

This event is totally online. You don’t need to travel and you won’t need accommodations.  The whole event will be broadcast via a webinar type format complete with videos, graphics and more from your session leaders. At the end of each session we’ll offer a question and answer period where you can submit your questions to the speakers directly and get answers.

Cost: $15.00

Date: December 8th, 2009

Wants more details?

Sessions

Speakers (including me)

Register

Social Media and Customer Service are working hand-in-hand, as companies discover new ways to incorporate new media into their marketing and business plans.

Lufthansa Airlines has recently introduced MySkyStatus. When you go to the MySkyStatus page, you simply input your flight information and your Twitter and Facebook pages will be updated automatically with your flight schedule information, including departures and arrivals.

I’m sure it won’t be long before most US airlines implement something similar.

photo credit

There are a lot of ways that you can now send emails and update your Twitter, Facebook and blog. Smartphones make it easier to do so when away from your computer. What if you don’t have a smartphone yet, or access to all of the handy apps that are available? Or what if you do, but want a quick easy way to do it?

Dial2Do is a free site that does these things for you. You call a number. Say what you want posted, then finish with “Twitter”, or “email” etc. They transcribe it and take care of the rest.

From the site:

Dial2Do lets you do common tasks by just calling a number and speaking. Use it to send EMAIL or TEXT messages, record REMINDERS to help you remember things, post updates to your TWITTER or JAIKU stream and LISTEN to your favourite internet content. It’s easy and handsfree..

For more info: watch the tutorial video here and read the FAQs.

Note: There are currently 26 countries that this site works in [though it only works in English]. See the listing on the FAQs page.

photo credit

Wondering what the trends will be in the Digital world next year?

Here are some ideas from around the web:

1. Facebook Replaces Personal Email (via Marketing Charts)

2. More Flash, Not Less (via Marketing Charts)

3. Brands Must Become More Social Online (via DesignDamage)

4. Marketing Platform Extends to Mobile, Social, and Local in Real-Time (via DesignDamage)

5. Open source software starts making proper money, thanks to the cloud (via Branding Strategy)

Click on the above links to see the lists in their entirety.

What trends do you think will take place in 2010?

TrueTwit is a free site that will attempt to authenticate all followers who request to follow you. If it is recognized as a bot, the request will be rejected. It is only set up to authenticate any requests to follow AFTER you sign up for the service. Any spam accounts that you may already have will need to have a validation request manually sent to them.

It is still possible that a spammer can get through… but:

If a spammer is human, they will get through. The point of TrueTwit is to eliminate automated spam software from grabbing your attention. But as for now, if a user successfully fills out the CAPTCHA, they will be validated. We will be implementing a new feature to help with this issue in the future

It is quite simple to sign up. Simply fill in your Twitter user name and an email address. Then create a password for logging into the TrueTwit site (they do not need or ask for your Twitter password)

According to the About page,

TrueTwit is working on a system that will allow TrueTwit users to check for bots and spammers without using direct messages.  We expect to have this system in place soon.

It’s not perfect yet – there are still some kinks to work out. But it is definitely a step in the right direction. Spam is an unfortunate reality of the internet, and the less we have to deal with it the better.

(look for more answers to your questions on the FAQs page)

According to wiki-pedia, a “denial of service attack” is when hackers saturate a site with traffic to the point that it either slows or crashes the system.

“One common method of attack involves saturating the target (victim) machine with external communications requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly as to be rendered effectively unavailable. In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing the targeted computer(s) to reset, or consuming its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately.”

Twitter is, obviously, looking for the source cause and is attempting to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

UPDATED: 12:24pm EST – Twitter is up and running again. Things appear to be a bit slow, so be patient, as they are “continuing to defend against and recover from this attack,” according to their latest status update.

TweetDeck is super cool for many reasons – one being that it allows you to create groups. This will filter all of the members tweets into its very own column, allowing you to bypass all of the other stuff being twittered about. (now if I can only learn to stay focused on the one column ;0)

To create a group in TweetDeck:

Click on the “group” button:

Name your group (you may want to group by certain friends, family, interests: ie: foodies…). Be sure to “save”.

You can select members of your group in several different ways:

1) Select members from the list that appears. This list doesn’t include everyone, only the most active users.

2) “Other Actions”

3) the “+” by users names

Each of these actions will have you choose the group that the user will belong to. Check the box and then close it to save.

Social Media is fun. It’s a great way to socialize, stay informed, connect and share. But if you are wanting to limit your time on it and still keep your pulse on things,  and you aren’t using a social media application, you are going to spin your wheels and end up not getting much done.

In the last year, several applications have been released that allow you to keep track of Twitter, Facebook and other outlets all in one place, removing the need to visit many different sites. This increases your productivity by allowing you to search for specific topics and create specific groups that are most relevant to you.

Several to look at:

AlertThingy: Also allows you to integrate business social media sites, such as Yammer and Huddle.

Skimmer: a brand new (released 3/24) addition to the streaming social media sites, it also incorporates YouTube and flickr and Blogger.

If you are looking for a browser that incorporates social media, try Flock. Powered by Mozilla, it is a fantastic browser for anyone with a heavy social media life. All of your social media sites can be updated from within the browser sidebar. There are many extensions that make it even more useful.

If you want to be a part of helping develop the newest applications, SocialThing! is currently in private beta, so if you want to give it a try, shoot them a message.

What have you implemented to make social networking more efficient? Share your advice in comments.

(photo pilipala9)

A few weeks ago, I sat down with teenage techie Jordan Drake,19, who broadcasts a podcast on technology, as well as a live call-in radio show and website, called Digital Life Radio. Since Jordan scored his first job (and a Macbook Pro) from Rush Limbaugh when was 16, he’s been working professionally helping people make technology work for them.

Because Jordan is a computer genius, and a teen, I asked him about the protocol for parents who want to connect with their children on the popular social networking site Facebook. “Facebook can be a great way to show your kids that you want to connect on their level, but it can also be a sure fire way to embarrass them if you’re not careful,” Jordan says.

First, a parent who’s not familiar with Facebook must expand his/her vocabulary with a few Facebook terms.

Friend: (n) a person with which you have connected and have mutual access to public information. (v) to request to become “friends” with someone. (ex: “I’ll friend you on Facebook”) Past tense: Friended. I’m not lying, people actually say this!

Wall: (n) the front page of a Facebook Profile, where friends (see above) can post notes, links, photos and videos.

Status: (n) the statement at the top of your profile page where you post what you are doing at the moment! You can also integrate your status update with Twitter, but that would require a whole new menagerie of vocabulary words!

Facebook: (n) The actual Facebook website. (v) To send a message, write on one’s wall, or otherwise connect on Facebook. (ex: “I don’t have time to talk right now, just Facebook me later”)

Here are Jordan’s suggestions for what and what not to do:

Do:

• Be honest with them about what you are trying to do. Let them know that you are trying to communicate with them, not “spy” on them or encroach on their space.
• Talk to them beforehand, and ask their opinion. You don’t want to be shocked when your child refuses your friend request!
• Approach your kids’ friends only if you know them personally, and would feel comfortable doing so in real life. Would you strike up a conversation at the mall or church? Go ahead and “friend” them, but don’t be too disappointed of they don’t respond.

Don’t:

• Do anything sneaky in order to gain access to your child’s Facebook Profile, always be honest and open.
• Approach your kids’ friends whom you do not know in person, or wouldn’t strike up a conversation with in public
• Fill up your child’s profile page with comments from you. Keep in mind that they still need to have space and protect their “cool cred.”
• Post embarrassing photos or stories about them without permission. The 2 year old bath tub picture? Probably not a good facebook photo! Now once they are married with kids of their own, post away… the more embarrassing, the better!

Jordan is a homeschooler, and noted that the parent/teen Facebook interaction may be different in different family situations. Homeschoolers seem to be more likely to socialize as families, and therefore be more comfortable interacting with their friends’ parents. The bottom line is to communicate with your teen; find out how he/she feels about you being on Facebook, and what boundaries and guidelines you want to set for your online connection. And most of all, express that you love and respect your teen, and you want to use technology as a way to deepen your relationship. I bet you’d be surprised how fun it’ll be!

How do you use technology to connect with your teen?

When Sarah isn’t winning “Tech Mom of the Year,” she blogs at www.reallifeblog.net , and is founder and editor of www.HighCountryMomSquad.com. Find Sarah on Twitter at www.twitter.com/reallifesarah .

Jordan Drake, teen, podcaster, tech genius and all around cool guy, produces a podcast and radio show at www.DigitalLifeRadio.net and Tweets from www.twitter.com/jdrake90 .

photo: williamli1983

Like anything else online, Twitter can be just another distraction or it can be a very useful tool.

Looking for ideas on growing a business?
Trying to think of a way to organize your coupons?
Want to know the latest online news or sales?

A well-rounded list of people you follow will give you access to this information right at your fingertips. Seek out people who have similar interests or people who are experts in areas you want to learn about.

Following your friends on Twitter is fun. Following established Tweets and learning from them is smart.

Here are two lists to get you started:

TwitterPower150
Twitter Grader Elite – Top Users