Friday, June 26, 2009

2009-2010 Social Media Club DC Leadership Team

I hope you are all tuned to the Social Media Club - DC. The SMC monthly events are a great learning and socializing experience. SMC-DC Chair (President) Larissa Fair  @LYF108 just sent a note announcing the 2009-2010 Social Media Club DC Leadership Team.

  • Programming Director (Executive Vice President): Andrea Baker (Navstar) @immunity
  • Partnership/Sponsorship Director (Vice President): Anna Gabbert and Travis Mason (BAH) @annagabbert @tgmason
  • Promotions Director (Vice President): Sarah Wurrey (DD&C) @sarahwurrey
  • Event Managers: Meg Roberts and Nisha Chittal (NMS) and Sara Burson (NACCHO) @megmrobrets @nishachittal
  • Membership Manager: Maia Kotlus-Gates (MS&L) and Beth McNamee (McKinley Marketing) @maiakg @bethmcnamee
  • Content Organizer/Digital Scribe: Gabriel Key @gabrielmkey

More details of the team here http://socialmediaclub.pbworks.com/Washington-Leaders . Congrats team and keep up the good work.

More details of the Social Media club http://www.socialmediaclub.org/

Join the SMC -DC Facebook Community  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2419741913

Best Free Antivirus Apps - Security

I saw this article/ slide show on Channel Insider and wanted to share this with my readersBest Free Antivirus Apps - Security

. Posted using ShareThis but I would have liked it if Channel Insider had had the option of using a embed code, instead of just the link.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Indian Technocrat Gives up Plum post at Infosys to do public good as ID Czar

This caused a adrenaline rush when I saw the news this morning that the Indian Government  has appointed Nandan Nilekani as the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. according to the Wall Street journal

The authority will help implement a scheme to assign a unique identification number to every Indian. It will also own and operate the database and maintain it, the government said in a statement.

Nandan Nilekani's Wikipedia page has already been updated with the move . Nandan was in the Time 100 list of 'World's Most Influential People for 2009. He recently published a book Imagining India

I have seen him on the Jon Stewart show and a few others. I am thrilled with this news and if he can pull this off like TN Sheshan did - reforming the Election Commission which conducts one of the world's largest democratic elections- he would have done for India what politicians and bureaucrats could not do for the past 50 years. Good luck Nandan !

Nandan Nilekani's Blog: http://imaginingindia.com/blog/

Nandan Nilekani's Twitter :  http://twitter.com/nandannilekani

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

New York ! New York ! Affiliate Summit East ! August 9-11, 2009 at the Hilton New York

Affiliate Summit East run by Shawn Collins and Missy Ward is the world premier affiliate marketing conference. Book your place at Affiliate Summit East Affiliate Marketing Conference. My first major conference was the Niche Conference that was Affiliate Social Media Summit NYC in 2008 where I was on a panel with Jay Berkowitz and Larry Bailin. Since then I have spoken at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas.  The people who attend the Affiliate summit summit are of different types and here is a handy graph from the Affiliate Summit web site ( Thanks Shawn Collins and Missy Ward

Technorati Tags: ,

):
Affiliate Summit Attendees by Type

This is a very popular conference and I was on a panel at the Affiliate Summit West Las Vegas and the graph of attendance is

Affiliate Summit West Attendees by Year

Affiliate Summit East 2009 is taking place August 9-11, 2009 at the Hilton New York. Register now and listen to all these amazing speakers ( I am honored to part of it )

Chris Brogan (Keynote): Bio (I am a fan)
Peter Shankman (Keynote): Bio ( I have to meet him this time )
Shawn Collins (Co-founder): Bio ( Gave me my first major conference break)
Jim Kukral (Emcee): Bio ( Excellent , educative and entertaining)
Heather Smith (Blog Mistress): Bio  (
Missy Ward (Co-founder): Bio ( Gave me my first major conference break)

I am moderating a panel at this summit on August 9th 2009.

What the Heck is a Website Nowadays?
Session 3b
Location: Classroom B – Clinton
Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm

Businesses may be changing the way they look at web presence. Can you just have a blog? Is a Facebook presence alone a good idea? Does Web 2.0 mean the demise of websites?

I hope to make a lot of new friends in this list of speakers so I am excited.

Any registration questions? Send us an e-mail or call: 866-483-0167.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Twitter and Tonic : Tuesday 16th June by successinthecity.org

I have to thank my friend Kelly Harman for asking me to be part of the panel aptly named "Twitter and Tonic" and is a gathering of Success in the City

Don't know what Success in the City is? Here is some info from http://www.successinthecity.org

Known for its unique, fun and unconventional business networking events, Success in the City has been creating buzz since its premier event in April 2004! 
Success in the City has grown to become the smart, upbeat professional women's answer to the "good old boys" network. We operate on the premise that "trust and humor are key elements for women in developing meaningful friendships and, once those relationships are formed, 'deals on heels' are sure to follow." Members are women entrepreneurs, senior-level executives and CEOs based in the DC metro area.

Event Details:

Success in the City’s Twitter and Tonic

Where
Velocity Five Restaurant & Bar
8111 Lee Highway
Falls Church, Virginia

When
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 -- 04:30 PM to 07:00 PM

There is twitter and fluttering all about you and you just can't seem to grasp what all the buzz is about.  Well we've got you covered.

Come learn “Why” now is the time and you NEED to embrace Twitter as part of your marketing strategy for your business. Panel moderated by Jennifer Abernethy @saleslounge on Twitter.

Members: Before June 5th $35 after June 5th $45

Non-members: Before June 5th $50 after June 5th $60

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Take the Lawyers to Lunch : Social Media event for Lawyers

Announcing New growsmartbusiness.com Event for the Legal Minds of DC

Every industry is gearing up to get into social media, whether it’s to promote good customer service, establish a personal face to a brand, or become a great thought leader. To help those in the legal industry better understand how they can use social media, growsmartbusiness.com is proud to present a series of events aimed at law firm marketers and communicators, lawyers, and others who are interested in learning more about social media and law firms.

The first event will take place on Wednesday, June 24th from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM at the
law offices of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein and Fox, P.L.L.C. The focus of this event will be an introduction to social media and explore reasons why law firms should engage in social media and establish an online presence. Our own social media swami, Shashi Bellamkonda and
Sr. Director Legal and Business Affairs, Raj Malik will be on board to give an overview and share how Network Solutions stepped into the social media space.

The second event will be held July 22nd and features discussion for lawyers and practitioners on how to counsel clients who are using social media for business development and in times of crisis. With an emphasis on crisis communications, social media, and navigating the legal world; Levick Strategic Communications’ Dallas Lawrence and TMG Strategies’ Gayle Weiswasser are teaming up to tackle the discussion. Gayle has practiced transactional law as well as intellectual property litigation and Internet law, so her perspective is especially unique.

The final event in this series will be in August, and will discuss social media ethics and is scheduled to feature CRT/tanaka’s Geoff Livingston speaking about astroturfing and what law firms need to know about company guidelines and behaving in an ethical way and adhering to the “laws” of Web 2.0.

Please sign up today for our first event in June and spread the word!

http://growsmartbizlaw1.eventbrite.com/

More details:

How and why should a law firm engage in social media? What are the benefits and the risks? What kind of employee policies need to be implemented? And what is Twitter anyway? Join us for a lunch meeting as we share information on the various online tools available to venture into the Web 2.0 world (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more) and different ways that law firms can engage their current employees, prospective clients and employees, partners and other stakeholders. Network Solutions’ Raj Malik, Sr. Director Legal and Business Affairs and Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, will be available to lead the discussion and share insight into how Network Solutions took the plunge. Lunch will be provided thanks to our sponsors (http://growsmartbusiness.com/).

Special thanks to Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein and Fox for hosting the event.

A Good Cause : Contributing to the Summer of Social Good :

Mashable launched the Summer of Social Good social media charity campaign. The Summer of Social Good, taking place from June 1st till August 28th, is a charitable campaign to raise funds through the power of social media. Each week, Mashable will host a series of week-long activities to engage, interact and promote four important charitable causes: The Humane Society, LIVESTRONG, Oxfam America and WWF.
Details at (http://mashable.com/2009/06/08/100k-1week-social-good/).

As Adam Hirsch says "The money goes towards ending poverty, protecting animal rights, supporting those with cancer, and promoting environmental conservation. Feel good, and do some social good today. :)"

I Just made my contribution. Poverty , hunger may be strangers to many of us and that is precisely the reason that we should try to help as much as possible.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

2041 : Save the Antartic : Robert Swan OBE the man who walked to both the North and South pole needs your help.

The talk that Robert Swan gave to the attendees to the IABC World Conference in San Francisco was very inspiring. Robert Swan, OBE, as the IABC website descries him  is a polar explorer, environmental leader and special envoy to the director of UNESCO. As the first man to walk across both the North and South Poles, Swan witnessed firsthand the damage to the polar regions. Over a five-year period, he removed and recycled more than 1,500 tons of waste from the Antarctic Peninsula. He is a noted speaker at global environmental summits, a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for Youth and a visiting professor at the School of Environment at Leeds University. In 1995, Swan was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

2041 will be the year that the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty comes up for review. Robert Swan is very passionate about involving todays' youth since it is their inheritance as by 2041 many of us will be ready to fade into the sunset. What can you do to help?

Monday, June 08, 2009

Do you remember this? Asks Blair Christie at IABC World Congress 2009 San Francisco

Blair Christie SVP, Communications & IR at Cisco opened the General Session of the IABC World Conference in San Francisco. Topic - All together now: How collaboration can change your world.

It was very intersting and they shared the CISCO internal technology they use with their employees, demoed the FLIP ( a new Cisco acq) and a HD TV conversation with a Cisco Engineer and the power of conversation and catalog.

Congrats also to Cisco for being added to the Dow Jones Index. More pictures http://cli.gs/2sZJ7L

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Bing Plays Fair : Try searching for Google

image

I like the first kicking of the tires of Bing - Microsoft's new search engine. While the results kind of resemble the Google format I think they could do better with reducing the number of sponsored ads above the search results.( They are like Yahoo in that regard) OI think there are components of Symantic web and my best method of determing this is to search for the term President I like the related searches on the left

 

RELATED SEARCHES

Searching for the term "Thai" brought not only News from Thailand, Thai wikipedia, Thai images and also local results for Thai including Thai restaurants with phone numbers.

On a few result pages I was happy to see results from Freebase. I liked the results for Social Media Swami and the ability to mouse over the ornage dot on the right of the results and see a preview of the referenced article/page and links from that page.

Microsoft you may have a good thing going. I hope you manage it and grow it well. Kudos.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Is your OOO (Out of Office) message useful ?

In my opinion it is important to always leave a Out of the office message to tell people when you will be able to get to their message.  In the connected world today I am confident I can get to most of my messages even if I am traveling and probably with the same time frame ( Not always good as I struggle with my own email volumes) One thing that is working very well though is a customized Out of office message. For the past few months since I have been traveling a lot I have been including a message about where I am going and I have been presently surprised by the reaction to them. Folks have been replying to my Out of the Office messages with their own observations. I like that and it gives me more inspiration to make my Out of the office message meaningful. This is my Out of the office message this week as I prepare to go to the IABC World Congress tomorrow ( 7th June 2009) to receive the 2009  Golden Quill Award from IABC for Voice of the Customer along with our Social Media agency CRT-Tanaka.

My Out of the Office Message :

Heard the good news? Network Solutions won the 2009  Golden Quill Award from IABC for Voice of the Customer. I will be attending the IABC World Congress in San Francisco from 7th to 10th June.

The Network Solutions Social Media team can be reached at listen @networksolutions.com. We are also @netsolcares on Twitter.  If you are a small Business or small business related expert please visit http://GrowSmartBusiness.com and tell us what you think.

Don't know what Twitter is? Read our Blog http://blog.networksolutions.com. Have a few minutes? Check out http://growsmartbusiness.com , http://womengrowbusiness.com , http://www.mysolutionspot.com and http://linktogether.com. We love feedback. Thanks.

Some resources on the web about Out of office messages:

Microsoft template : http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102516181033.aspx

NY Times article OOO :http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/mastering-the-out-of-office-message/

Funny collections of Out of the Office messages

Ron Crumbaker at myITforum.com, Inc.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2006/6/12stallard.html


You may have cooler stuff in your Out of the Office messages or you may have other places that have great advice. Hope you will stop by comment and let us know. Thanks.

Virtualization of Grocery Stores ?


Grocery Store Display, originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda.

Recently Jay Berkowitz a good friend came to Network Solutions to talk to us about trends he is seeing in online marketing. There is one term he used "virtualization" - Amazon is removing the middle man - first it was brick and mortar stores and with Kindle its the printed version of the books themselves.

This morning I was in a grocery store and took this picture. I enjoyed the display. I don't eat potato wafers much but this display made me stop , feel happy and have a "smell the roses" moment. I do hope local grocery stores do not go away. For that matter i hope local book stores do not go away either. My kids love the trip to the local Barnes and Noble. We go not with an intention to buy books but invariably we have spent $20 to $30 after a fee hours of playing with Thomas the Train in the kids section, browsing magazines, looking at the latest best sellers. I am always happy to see books of best seliing authors I know. Frank Warren if Post Secrets is one.

What do you think ? Don't you want to get away from the computer ans spend some time in stores, grocery or book stores?

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