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- Social Media 101
- Confessions Of A Social Media Guru
- Structure Fire at Schoharie County DPW
- The Lights Are All On
- The Summer Of 1999
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I thought that this post full of resources and advice would be the obvious follow-up to Confessions Of A Social Media Guru; in my earlier post, I discussed what blogs and twitter users should be avoided at all costs. This time, I’m going to discuss, in detail, people you should follow on twitter, and how to use social media in an intelligent and educated manner. Getting ahead using social media is exactly the same as getting ahead in real life; it’s all about who you know. I’m one of the lucky ones who has been involved in social media since the beginning; I’ve been developing websites, taking photos, and writing on a freelance basis since 1998. Over the years, I’ve been able to network with a lot of important and influential people; social media as we know it just makes this networking more organized. The greatest misuse of social networking, is the competition for number of contacts. People (especially on Twitter) want to have the account with the greatest number of followers, while at the same time, follow the least amount of people. If you have followers in the tens or hundreds of thousands and are following only a tiny fraction of those followers, the social media concept quickly turns into a broadcasting model. At the time of this writing, I had 539 followers, 9,379 updates, and was following 107 different people on Twitter. The most important people to follow and to have as followers are those in high-profile positions. I have several twitter followers who are involved in the local news media (television) and print media (newspapers). If you plan to have a successful blog, you will need to have a good working relationship with these kinds of people, especially if you ever hope to get your content displayed to the general public. Here are a few news media Twitter accounts that have a reciprocal relationship with me; that is an account where we are following each other. If I forgot you, please let me know; better yet, why not follow me on Twitter? This is a list of news media folks that you should follow, too! While I’m at it, I would like to give a special mention to the folks at WTEN, who have featured my content and photographs numerous times. @inspiredmag @kaitlynross1 @CarySkelton @SyracuseNews @albstudentpress @KristiGustafson @kimlengle @TheOnion @timesunion @TUCenter @WTEN @WNYT @stevebomford @mental_floss @M_Finney @WGSCTalkRadio @KyraCNN @wordpress @Q103Albany @nprpolitics @carmilevy Possibly Related Posts:
What I’m about to say is something that should have been said a long time ago, but despite my best efforts, I never found the right way to say it without being rude (until now, hopefully).
If you are thinking about starting your own blog, don’t bother. Seriously, stop right now unless you are one of the small minority of people on the internet who have a halfway decent education and something worth writing a blog about. If you are going to start a blog about nonsense just so you can join the ranks of everyone else and for no other purpose, don’t waste your time, or more importantly, mine. Twitter Twitter is a lot like blogging, only much shorter and for the most part, a lot less educated. Pafumj678 said it best when he said, “yo @chrisdotrivera did you get a chance to check out any of my shit?” Facebook The trouble with Facebook is that it is slowly turning into the center of the internet universe. In 2009, it was the most visited website of the year. A handful of my contacts use Facebook exclusively for all of their communication with me. Apparently they have forgotten all about E-Mail, snail-mail (pen & paper), or the telephone. Aside from the small handful of people on Facebook who still communicate with me, everyone else forgot all about me moments after accepting my friend request. What I Know Now (That I Should Have Known Earlier) What Social Networking Can & Can’t Do For You Sill want to have your own blog? Might I suggest WordPress? Possibly Related Posts:
Also available on YouTube.
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ReboundTags are the latest trend in luggage identification. What makes them so unique and innovative is that they do not display your contact information directly on the tag surface; instead they feature a large machine-readable barcode as well as a human-readable identification number. What sets these tags and the company that sells them along with an integrated return service apart from others is their introduction of RFID technology. RFID technology has been used to track all sorts of things, and now this high-tech system can track your luggage and ensure its safe return if it is ever lost! You have to register at the ReboundTag website of course, which is also easy. In exchange for this review, I was provided with a ReboundTag to try for myself. Unlike most other products I’ve paid for and became dissapointed by, this is the real deal. I attached a ReboundTag to my camera case, which contains the critical pieces of camera equipment I use for my freelance business. The ReboundTag comes with a stainless steel cable that screws back onto itself quite securely, ensuring that your tag will almost certainly never seporate from your luggage by accident. The tag survived an entire month of torture on the outside of my camera case, which surprisingly showed more wear and tear than the tag attached to it. While I am unable to verify the RFID function (I don’t have access to an RFID reader), I can say without reservation that after a month of heavy use and abuse, all the writing on the tag was still very clear easy to read, as was the barcode. The tag itself is made out of sturdy slightly-flexable plastic that is nearly impossible to destroy. As I said earlier in my review, my luggage (made of military-grade plastic composite) showed twice the amount of wear as the tag after a month of heavy use. What I liked… What I didn’t care for… All in all… FTC Disclaimer: In exchange for my review, I was provided with one ReboundTag, for evaluation and testing purposes, which I was allowed to keep, free of charge or obligation. I was not paid any money, or provided with any other goods or services beyond that which has been stated in my review. Possibly Related Posts:
All photographs copyright © 2010 Thomas W.P. Slatin. All Rights Reserved. Continue reading Structure Fire at Schoharie County DPW Possibly Related Posts:
The January 10th issue of Newsweek contained an article about Umar Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian wanna-be terrorist who attempted to bomb Northwest Airlines flight 253 with a bomb sewn into his underpants, which thankfully failed ultimately earning him the nickname of, “the crotch bomber.” Newsweek tried to explain how a wealthy child of a successful banker was depressed over his upbringing and decided to join the ranks of Al Qaeda. What Newsweek and the general public fail to realize is that Al Qaeda is a terrorist group whose extremist beliefs are based upon religion. Although there is sometimes a monetary pay-off for supporting the terrorist movement, the driving force of the operation is religion. Wars have been waged for centuries over the basis of religious beliefs; I’m not trying to say that religion itself is bad or that some religions are superior to others, I’m only stating the obvious, that religion is powerful. The power of speak wouldn’t be what it is if the prey wasn’t weak. Remember that the next time someone tries to use religion or beliefs to get you to follow their religion or do something you disagree with. Possibly Related Posts:
 Recently, I came across a package of old photographs from the summer of 1999. While all the photos bring back fond memories, one photo in particular stands out from all the rest; I’m standing next to Katy Kolker by the tennis courts at Camp Chateaugay.I was 19 at the time and I literally had my whole life ahead of me, and yet at the same time I had no clue where my life was going. Camp was my life and as the years passed, my campers grew older and those I went to camp with caught their big breaks one by one and left camp far behind. Little did I realize at the time that the next summer would eventually be my last, and although my big break was still nowhere in sight, my life would change for the better but I would grieve the loss of this chapter of my life for many years to follow.
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 Dear Town of Middleburgh, New York, I have talked to your plow guy about this issue and here are a list of excuses he has provided for me: “Your mailbox is too close to the road”, “I must not have seen your mailbox”, and my personal favorite, “Your mailbox always seems to disappear from view after each time I hit it.” Please understand that this open letter is going to serve as my last appeal for your plow truck driver to stop hitting my mailbox, despite the constant excuses he has so willingly supplied to me, when we both know that he managed to avoid everyone elses mailbox on my road, even those located along blind corners that are almost impossible to see while one is driving down the road. Sincerely, Possibly Related Posts:
My apologies for not posting frequently this past year. Next year things will surely get updated more frequently; I’ve had my share of complaints this year…! To make things interesting, the first blog post for 2010 will be reader appreciation. Anyone who comments on this post will get a mention and a link to their blog or website in the first blog post of 2010. You have until midnight on December 31, 2009 to comment. One comment per person, please. One lucky person may even get a permanant link in my blogroll, so please tell all of your friends and tweet this post on Twitter! Happy holidays, and I look forward to a much more productive new year, 2010! Possibly Related Posts:
A few folks have asked me whether this was a business or personal blog. A business blog is all about selling, while a personal blog is all about non-commercial pursuits. My blog is a hybrid; a blog that promotes me, and at the same time, carries a business venture with it. I hope this clears up any questions you had. Possibly Related Posts:
Here are the four photos I took while out today. It’s not much for a 3-hour session, but I believe in quality over quantity.
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This is what I read and found to be [interesting/funny/useful/entertaining] recently while reading through blogs over the past several days. Got an interesting blog or blog post to share? Be sure to mention it in the comments!
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I wrote this update out of sadness. Sadness that despite trying to keep in touch with all of my friends over the years, I’ve moved into the digital era and joined Facebook, where all of my friends can connect with me and all of their friends in real-time. However despite my active “liking” of their posts, posting comments, and writing on their walls, it seems that nobody is interested in keeping in touch with me. It goes far above and beyond Facebook; I had the same problem with MySpace. Take my website for example. For years (a little over a decade), I had lots of traffic. Lots. Lately I’ve had close to none. My friends used to always stop by and send me e-mails, comment on things, and best of all, send me some of their own original content to “plug” for them. Not anymore. Everyone I know just keeps me at arm’s length. I’m a friend on Facebook that nobody really cares about; that one friend in a group of friends that nobody likes. Possibly Related Posts:
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Copyright © 1998-2010 Thomas W.P. Slatin - All Rights Reserved. |
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Happy New Year!
I’d personally like to wish all my loyal visitors a happy new year, especially to Tanya and Nikki-Ann! Not only is it a new year, but also the dawn of a new decade, so this new year is extra special!
Although I have a long list of much-needed resolutions, one of the most important one is to be more productive. I’ve let this blog down by not posting very often this past year, and accordingly, my traffic has suffered. Therefore, I vow to post more often, with more interesting and valuable content (time permitting, of course).
So I look forward to hearing comments from all of my visitors and readers; comments are the driving force behind my creativity, so in theory, the more you comment, the more content you will receive in return.
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