Ok..so I don’t have the Ipad….yet… but seeing this interview of Mike McCue in CNN Money, who created the Flipboard makes me want to get one!

These new applications bring the experience of reading into 3 video. One of the ways to engage people is with visuals. I love to take pictures and share them. As they say, a picture says 1000 words.

Another app, Vook is a publishing platform for a multimedia experience with books – video with a book. You can share to Facebook and Twitter directly from the app. I do love the new form of communicating online, but sometimes prefer to tune out all by my lonesome, disconnect sometimes from all my gadgets, lay down and hold a print book, dog ear it and get lost in reading  the old fashioned way.  What about you?

One of my dreams, like 80%of Americans according to a survey I read somewhere, is to write a book…..someday…when I find the time, and hopefully I can get on Vook. For the moment, as a Droid user, I can’t get their app. They only have it for Iphone.

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I heard a lot of buzz this week about Facebook Places this week. This location based feature allows your Facebook friends to “check in” , but more importantly and scary in my opinion, is that a friend can check you in as well.  Are all your Facebook friends really friends? What if someone checks you in when you told someone else you were staying home?

As this USA Article about Facebook Places states:

So-called location-based services, or LBS, are vying for a slice of revenue for mobile advertising, which is expected to soar in the U.S. to $3.1 billion in 2013 from $320 million in 2009, according to market researcher BIA/Kelsey.

Foursquare, a location based app,  only with real people I have met and  mainly check in when I am at a Tweetup with a group  also use it. It is quite fun, but alas… I have never become a Mayor. As in life, anything can become addicting like these Foursquare afficionados who have Mayorships in many places. In my opinion, they need some Foursquare rehab.

So, use your common sense to protect yourself in the social networks and respect other people’s privacy. This video shows you how to change the privacy settings so friends can’t check you in.

How to avoid being “Checked in” by your friends on Facebook’s Places from Peter Shankman on Vimeo.

Whew! There is so much to say about Blogher.  I won a scholarship from Latism.org because of my Spanish blog called Mi Caminar. In English it means My Walk. I created this blog last year with a cousin in Colombia as a way to connect with my Colombian roots.  After coming back from Blogher and listening to some speakers at the Latina panel, I decided to make Mi Caminar bilingual. Here is a recap with my first post in English and recap on Latism.org website.

I observed what big corporations were doing in their Social Media Campaigns. One that stood out was Yahoo Shines in their campaign called  You Reinvented. They created a hashtag for this campaign, #reinvented, and their Twitter is Yahoo Shine. I  got all doled up with a professional make up artist for my interview about how we have reinvented our lives.

Johnson & Johnson had professional videographers interviewing us on “How You Care”. I will post the videos I did for Yahoo and Johnson and Johnson as soon as I get them.

Besides that there was the American Heart Association with Go Red and Stouffers in partnership with Todd Parr, an award winning children’s book writer. A separate video post will be uploaded next and I will elaborate more on this campaign.

There was  so much activity and so many people at Blogher, that it was hard to get it all in two short days. 2400 women is a huge conference!
The preconference guide alone was 53 pages. Take a look at the 80 or so sponsors for Blogher in the guide.

The international activist panel really inspired me. Four amazing women bloggers and change agents are:

• Marie Trigona from Argentina , Blog: Mujeres Libres
• Dushi Pillai from  Sri Lanka, Blog: Humanity Ashore
• Esra Al Shafei, from Bahrain, Blog: Mideast Youth . This blog is now a group blog comprising almost 1000 contributors.
• Freshta Basij-Rasikh from Afghanistan, Blog:  Afghan Women’s Writing Project , created by an American woman.

We were asked not to take pictures or video for security of the women (except for Maria from Argentina.) I was able to spend some time with these young women during lunch.  They are all in their 20’s and 30’s. The demeanor of all of them is humble, simple, sweet and fun,  and most importantly, independent women who have a need to express their voice.

Just being able to know about their lives a bit was worth the entire trip,  besides taking Freshta to Central Park and the observation deck at Rockefeller Center. She was more curious about the tall buildings in New York. Also, being able to find someone so Esra could hold an Ipad for the very first time was really cool. She said she dreamed of it in her sleep.

So thanks again Latism for the wonderful opportunity and my chance to blab to everyone how great an organization you are. And thanks Blogher for getting all these women together!

Yesterday, Toby Srebnik (@fsutoby), Social Media manager for Tilson PR put together a fantastic Social Media Campaign for Truly Nolen(@trulynolen), a pest and termite control company that is in several states. Gotta give credit to Jarret Streiner (@jarret23)who came up with the idea.

I grew up in Miami and remember that yellow mouse car very well. So when my friend Maria De Los Angeles aka @vicequeenmaria invited me to be a guest, I was thrilled! Thank you Maria..xoxo.

Good thing I brought my video camera because there was so much activity and funny moments that I couldn’t stop videoing, hence why this video is a few seconds less than the You Tube limit of  10 minutes, 59 seconds and why I wasn’t tweeting that much during the mouse car parade.

Some of the highlights in the video:

• Christina Tierney’s warm up convo before we left with her funny driver, Rafael. Normally, because I can’t stand the thought of rat talk,  I would never post any rat conversations.  But they both made me laugh and after all that is Truly Nolen’s service.
• Driving down A1A oceanside  in Ft. Lauderdale and the tourists taking pictures and a local shirtless cycler asking us for Truly Nolen mouse trinkets, t-shirts, stickers etc.. My polite driver, Victor gave him a business card.
• Emily Taffel-Schaper @emilyontheave fulfilling her dream to hold a live tarantula at Museum of Discovery & Science.  Sorry for all my ewww comments during filming.
• Amanda Stewart holding a beautiful butterfly
• Barry the Bug, well known spokesperson for Truly Nolen, talking about how female Black Widow spiders kill their mates.
• Jarret posing with a  jacket that Pizza Fusion gave him as shwag.
• Vicequeen Maria’s happy finger bug
• Toby’s smile at the end when I asked him what he thought of all us Social Media peeps:) and much more..

So you see, that is why it is 10 minutes long! I have much more footage (Orkin car showing up at Pizza Fusion and parking between 2 mouse cars) that maybe later Toby can look through because I think it’s worth making into a Social Media movie where we can all have popcorn and watch at the next Social Media Club South Florida event.

As with all these Social Media events, it was great to meet many more nice people like  finally figuring out that Carolyn’s twitter @bachinaminuet is related to the fact that she is a music therapist. Get it? Bach and Minuet?  Don’t forget to check out Christina’s  video post about the event on her blog. Missing  in the picture below is Tracy Antol @floridafrecks, Stephanie Rodriguez @StephPRbuzz and the men surrounded with all us ladies, Toby & Jarret..aka..idea guy.

The slideshow Flickr pics of the event are here: Truly Nolen Mouse Car Parade Pictures

In my last video, I was interviewed by Jim Fried on 880thebiz.com . The topic was Social Media 101. Jim is a successful business man and has been a Commercial Real Estate broker and  Commercial Real Estate lender for many years. He has been  hesitant to start in Social Media because he didn’t think he would be contributing to the community by doing it “wrong”.

The reality is that to start out in Social Media, you just have to dive in and be yourself. Start finding topics of interest by doing  a search on search.twitter.com for specific keywords in your niche and just have some fun. You really can’t take it so seriously. People just want to know who you are, so it is important to be natural and helpful by being a source of valuable information and take it from there.

Watch how he dives in with some of my guidance so he can do it “right”..ie..have fun with it.:) Oh yeah, and please  follow @jimfried . If he doesn’t follow back right away, it’s because he still needs some Twitter figuring out.

Click on the image for a slide show of the Social Media and Sports event.

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

#SMCSF Sports & Social Media

Social Media Club South Florida went all out with this month’s event about Sports & Social Media at the Bankatlantic Center in Broward.
About 200 locals from the Social Media and Tech scene attended this lively event. The line up for the panel speakers was quite impressive:

• Wayne Bartelo Sr. Director of Content & Development, Miami Dolphins – @MiamiDolphins
• Boris Menier, Marketing Coordinator, Florida Marlins – @Marlins411
• Jennifer Tobias, Director of Interactive Marketing and New Media, Miami Heat – @MiamiHeat
• Matthew Zacko, Director of PR,Florida Panthers – @FlaPanthers
• Kartik Krishnayier (@kkfla737 and @NASLOfficial) Director of Communications for the North American Soccer League

Highlights of the Social Media and Sports  meeting:

• Focus is on rewarding the fans. The fans like to feel special. It is not about selling them tickets, but about being the first to know about something that the press doesn’t even know about even if it’s a couple of minutes or seconds before through a tweet.
• The day is over where fans wait for the 11PM news to get updates on their sports team. It is about building community, asking them and answering their questions instead of telling them things.
• They track what is working and what is not and are taking the time to look at results and implement changes. They are looking at what the end goal instead of just posting a message by asking a partner what they want to achieve.  Measuring success is based on the goal.
• Miami Dolphins is looking to do more partnerships with local businesses. Ex: Dunkin Donuts. They told the fans, ” If you go to Dunkin Donuts, you will get tickets to a game.” This simultaneously brings business to Dunkin Donuts.
• Marlins have implemented exclusive offers for Twitter and Facebook Fans. Fans need to be rewarded if they are following on Facebook and Twitter.
• Can push ticket sales through Facebook and the Website. Twitter is more about getting the scoop in advance.
• Panthers: Most fans already have tickets, so they prefer unique content.
• The National Hockey League is considering using Foursquare. An idea is to reward fans for checking in and possibly have different checkins for different sections of the facility.  Those that become mayors on foursaquare would be rewarded.
• Miami Heat is considering doing more scavenger hunts like the one they did last year at Dolphin Mall.

After that, we went to Chili’s for some fun & food.

Francisco Palacios, our great Miami Photographer and Videographer set up to Ustream the whole event.

Biscayne Nature Center in Key Biscayne is having an opening reception this Sunday, July 18th from 4-8PM  for the artwork of Underwater Photographer Colin Foord called Flower Animal. His website is called Morphologic Studios. It’s free..so come and see this beautiful work of art depicting the live coral rocks.

I am doing some social media consulting work for Biscayne Nature Center to  get them up and running with their blog and social networks so they can share some great images and video footage of all the happenings in this unique place.  

They are a non-profit organization and have been in existence for 25 years. Created from the vision of Marjory Stoneman Douglas,  Biscayne Nature Center is a true hidden gem in our community.

I will be posting more about the wonderful events they do. Plus, their facility is a kids summer camp with over 200 energetic kids. I can’t wait to go and see them in their nature hikes and swimming in the ocean as they discover some of nature’s gifts.