Kansas City SEO and SEM

First before this post, I want to do a shout-out to my blog redesign partners. While I try very hard to learn design and coding everyday, I can’t ramp-up to be a designer! In the design world Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and building a site quickly and properly is tough to do, so I leave that up to the professionals. It’s the same as a designer or developer implementing an internet marketing campaing, the disciplines are very different.

Matt Shepard and Jonathan Goetz from Shepard Advertising & Design made my blog weblift happen! I’m the cobbler with bad shoes and when it comes to helping people with their businesses, I generally put my company site on the back-burner. I’m confident this is true in many industries and it’s why outsourcing makes the world a "happier" place. I’m excited to blog now!! My blog has been going since 2006 and I’ve been burned out on the same design. Now with my weblift, I want to write, write and write more! While I still have some content issues, Matt and Jonathan have given me a fresh start. And that goes a long way!

My inspired blog post is because of my redesign. I started thinking about when I started blogging and then the memories came back. Following is my progression into blogging and understanding the communications are changing and will continue to change. Staying on top of the changes are our jobs as marketers, business owners and participants.

First Blog Post Since Shepard Redesign:

Let’s remember when blogging (officially) came out: Google purchased Blogger it was 2003. For those of us that remember when Yahoo! was the top search engine, we remember the word “weblog” from 1997 when Jorn Barger coined the saying. I remember 1997 well; reading the posts and speculation regarding citizens having a “voice”; people buying products online (Oh Gates you didn’t say that); video and audio communications and the rest. Back in the day these ideas seemed ridicules. And today, these technologies are reality.

While I was reading all of these non-mainstream blog posts, I became worried about blogging and being transparent on the web. Fast forward thirteen years and I’m available at the click of the mouse.
It’s not easy blogging; accepting your name (not identity) will be easily accessible; taking your personal experiences and crafting them into journalism worthy articles; stepping out on a limb and dealing with criticism. While this may be mainstream for Hollywood, it’s not for me. I’m a technology person not a journalist.

What I see now are people like me blogging and reporting “news” worthy information and the downfalls are typos, grammatical errors and fast pace communications. Here is a great article on the 4 Grammatical Mistakes that can Enhance Your Copy. And this is how information technology has changed the current communication dynamics. You aren’t dumb when you write, you are creative!!!

As a consultant, my intentions are to put my best foot forward when it comes to communications, but now we talk in 140 characters and that’s where things get strange. 2010, the acceptance of grammatical errors, second phase we are OK with not understanding anything?? When I held an IS Analyst role at a company, I remember being in a meeting and the lead of the meeting used the Palm OS Graffiti while communicating on a white board. In my opinion (IMO) this is rude. Today, I make a point to spell out acronyms because I want people to understand. The hashtag is a joke In My opinion (IMO) because search functionality should eliminate the need. With all the communication hoopla now days, a new graffiti has been born; See You Later (CUL8R), Oh I See (OIC), Got to Go (G2G), Be Right Back (BRB), Sign on the Dotted Line (SOLD) haahaa, Ta Ta for Now (TTFN), Too Good Too Be Forgotten (2G2B4G). I fear these slang acronyms will creep into my work life and end up on a whiteboard and I will sit and be clueless and OK – it’s all good (IAG). Do people make themselves feel better when they write using code and/or acronyms?  There are two ways to think about meetings filled with acronyms; first the people use the acronyms to feel bigger and better; second, it’s in their dialect. Be forewarned there is new Graffiti in the works. How it will affect the conference room is still to be determined. I will cry if I go into a meeting with hashtags!

Here is a list of Top 50 Twitter Acronyms, Abbreviations and Initialism

I need your help! Give me your top 2010 acronyms so we can all stay up-to-date (UTD) hee hee, much love – Anne

By: Anne Haynes
If you browse my blog, you will find me bashing Facebook because it’s too complicated and time consuming. But this year, Facebook has a new face in my life.

Follow me back 30 years, when I lived in Florida with my parents; I was 8 years old. I moved to Florida from the Midwest because my father took an engineering position. I quickly became involved in the music group at my grade school and soon enough I met Rachel and Cory. The three of us became good friends quickly and soon enough I moved to Monterey California (age 14). I went on to graduate from high school and college. I’d think of Rachel and Cory from time-to-time. We recorded a record (not digital) together with our grade school music group. I used Google and tried to find them and boom, one day Cory finds me on Facebook then I’m connected to Rachel!

Now after 30 years Rachel and Cory are coming to my 40th birthday celebration in Vegas. While I nitpick at usability and conversions on websites all day long, I can overlook all of this with Facebook now; it’s enriched my life. I’ve learned that Rachel is a concert pianist, CPA and boat Captain. Cory has three children and is studying to get her masters. And now very shortly I will be talking to my best friends face-to-face after 30 years!

Thank you Facebook for opening your community to everyone; giving birth to the Wall; allowing me to control who sees what; blocking games and applications I don’t like; becoming more like Friendfeed and connecting me with people who’ve loved me in my past!

It’s been forever since I’ve blogged, but know I’m working on a redesign and some awesome content! If you have any suggestions on future blog posts you would like me to write, leave me a comment.

Thanks for your patience!
Anne-

I’m in the market for a new phone. I’m finally off my 2 year contract with Sprint and now I can finally shop around for a new phone and/or network. I search Google and Twitter for the latest and greatest on information about the best phones. I don’t want to be locked into anything when I choose my next phone. But these are facts I must deal with when making my ultimate decision. I like this video it makes me think of the Palm Pre….

Following is a thread from FriendFeed tonight. I reieved a +1 thanks @.LAG for my comment that “Facebook is the AOL of our time”.

FriendFeed Thread:

It’s been a busy couple of days but it’s good because I’m giving clients the “hook” for their fishing poles. I have so many thoughts about what is happening in social media:
1. Facebook is the AOL of our time – I don’t want a service to feed me applications and services.

Cee Bee and edythe liked this

2. Friendfeed is the “stream” in Facebook but in real-time. I’ve seen the FB “stream” updates and heard about the hompage being updated with real-time “stream” data, but Brightkite did/does the real-time updates best on their homepage http://www.brightkite.com

3. When is the consolidation going to happen? I’m grateful that I’ve found my easy button, I don’t see consolidation for many months/dog years to come.

4. There is much to be discussed regarding social media ROI and engagement using twitter. I have a client that used twitter 5 times and within a week had 1200 request for samples. Yes everyone wants free stuff, but the viral aspect of coupon moms and savings is huge right now. Note majority of the 1200 were bots!

Bottom-line I don’t want my internet freedoms taken away from me! The internet is not traditional media and it’s best kept this way. I’m excited to participate and not lurk in the social media industry.

+1 for “…Facebook is the AOL of our time.” i agree, though i do feel FB is more instructive than AOL: they may end up being a giant R&D lab for the future. as long as your data stays locked inside FB, the AOL analogy holds. – @.LAG

@.lag I don’t think R&D labs fit the future. The R&D life-cycle is too short from a technology application perspective. I wish I could say the same about cancer cure life-cycle. Now the average “Joe” does R&D. I wish so much I had time to study APIs and code more. More and more I see coding as an embed cut and past. I don’t like hashtags why can’t we have a button.

I want someone to write a book title “Don’t Make Me Read”

By: Anne Haynes
In the last year I’ve been mesmerized by social media and Web 2.0. In 2008 my Myspace died and my Facebook took off. It’s only because my favorite musician; Jeff Hinkin Band is on Myspace that I continue to login because Jeff prefers communication through Myspace instead of email. With the launch of video on Myspace it’s apparent their niche is music, videos and music videos.

Back on September 5th 2008 Clive Thompson wrote the most amazing article on social media titled Brave New World of Digital Intimacy in the New York Times. And within this article you learned the history of social media and why Facebook has spawned to so many other social media services. First off you have to read this 8 page social media analysis to understand why social media is exploding.

Within this analysis you learn why Facebook facilitates the programming minds to create more robust services that are similar to Facebook but not Facebook. And while I see this is happening, how will all these social media services interact. In Facebook I can add apps and import services and they all overlap. I want the easy button in social media! While I’ve found my easy button with Brightkite and posting photos ending in postings to Facebook, I DON’T WANT TO SPAM MYSELF!!!!

As a social media user I’ve learned that you have to stay up on the technology. The technology is moving so fast that within weeks the technology has changed. I’ve been working on bringing the baby boomers up to speed. I created a Mobile Twitter User Guide that helps with refreshing your browser. If you are a new user of Twitter user this guide!

Social media is not difficult when you have and easy button after the set-up. For now it seems that I’m an easy button, but soon I hope to see the programmers shake hands and give the public the easy button!

If you need help give me a call 619-587-8882.

Well it’s for real! If you upload music to Blip.fm you have the ability to publish all music that is mixed, spun, or remixed!!! WOWAH This song is the best!! If you like DJ C (Ft. Chris Isaak, The Supremes, Switch, & Stereotyp) – Set Me Free From This Wicked Game You will love this one!!!

I can embed music from blip.fm without me being the owner or uploader….Interesting! I love this song, it gets me through late nights of working! Enjoy