Archive for the ‘Twitter’ Category
Bloggers Honoring Bloggers: Award Nominees To Be Voted On At Blogbash CPAC
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Blogbash was created for one purpose: to honor the unpaid, activist bloggers who are making a huge difference in the conservative movement. They are, as Pamela Gellar said, “the ones who will change the world.”
This year, we’re adding something special: A tangible way for bloggers to honor bloggers by nominating posts, blogs, tweets, podcasts for awards. Seeing all the amazing things bloggers have done over 2011 in one place is inspiring.
Below, you’ll find the nominations for the different awards and you bloggers will be able to vote for the winners.
You’ll also note the categories of awards to be chosen by committee.
This is so exciting! Please tweet this post and share all the great work bloggers are doing!
See you Thursday!
Activism Post
(The Right Sphere) Brandon Kiser, Editor and (Tea Party Brew) Dennis Pedrie, Editor — Greater Food Bank of Boston/Occupy Boston, encouraging readers to donate
(RedState) Breanne Howe, Writer
(LaborUnionReport) Peter List, Writer
Investigative Post
Welfare Reform (Christine Rousselle – The College Conservative)
Occupy Wall Street (John Sexton – Verum Serum)
Weiner-Gate (Ace – Ace of Spades)
Sunlight Post
James O’Keefe, Project Veritas, New Hampshire Voter Fraud Expose
Matt Boyle, Daily Caller, Fast & Furious
Doug Powers, at Michelle Malkin on Solyndra
Best in Show: Podcast
Jimmie Bise, The Delivery Show
Andrew Lawton & Ben Swenson, Strictly Right
Fingers Malloy, The Snark Factor
Best in Show: Twitter
@rumpfshaker (Sarah Rumpf)
@iowahawkblog (David Burge)
@RBPundit Rebel Pundit
Best in Show: Video
Attack Watch: Ezra Dulis, Misfit Politics
New Hampshire Voter Fraud: James O’Keefe, Project Veritas
The Story of Citizens United, A Critique, Lee Doren
In addition, there are more awards that will be awarded, selected by a Blog Bash panel of your esteemed colleagues, including:
Best State-level Blogger
Changing the Narrative
Friend to Bloggers (Julie Laughridge Award)
Bloggers Stand With…
We will honor one pioneer blogger with the Legacy Award. And, of course, we will honor the Blogger of the Year.
Learn more at Blogbash.org
Blog Bash: What Was I Thinking?
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Three years ago, I thought it would be cool to do something fun for bloggers at CPAC. Everyone was gathering there, why not have a casual get-together for people who work so hard.
In fact, my thought was little more than a Tweet-up sort of deal. Ha!
Turns out, I wasn’t the only one thinking about doing something for bloggers. Ali Akbar, who himself, a young blogging buck, along with Aaron Marks, a young finance and tech genius who helped online fundraising for elections, also wanted to do something for bloggers.
So, we three started Blogbash. Like most things in my life, it started as a modest idea and morphed into something else entirely–sponsors, food, drink, cake, swag, speeches, awards.
Blogbash became a thing.
We continued the tradition last year. And this, year, Ali, Aaron, and I have been working nearly full time putting together the best Blogbash yet. Hours of work, endless conference calls, dealing with caterers, procuring bartenders –and we’re doing it all from out of state. Aaron is in Pittsburg. Ali is in Dallas by way of Georgia. I’m here, north of Houston.
We have helpers (learn more about everyone here): Devon Wills has worked on getting bags, shirts and other things printed up. Others like Lyndsey Fifield and Abby Alger will help organize in DC. In other words, it takes lots of work by lots of dedicated people to pull this off.
It’s important, too, to know that some groups have loyally supported bloggers by way of Blogbash–Freedom Works is chief among these. We are gratified to have their help again. We’ve had new supporters, too, like Heritage Foundation, Injustice the Film, etc.
This year, we’ve had groups clamoring to support the bloggers–some candidates, more industry groups. This is heartening for the conservative movement as a whole. Many industry groups have been afraid to “come out” for fear of punishment by the Obama administration.
Please go take a look at this (still incomplete) list of sponsor Blogbash.org/sponsors/.
Please make sure and thank them and remember them. Blogbash approached nearly every single group who asks bloggers to pimp their stories, candidates, ideas, etc. With sponsorships as low as $300, it didn’t take much to participate.
Finally, this year, we’re adding to the already big party atmosphere of BlogBash. Bloggers can nominate their peers.
Best Investigative Post
Best Activism Post
Best Sunlight Post
Best in Show: Podcast
Best in Show: Twitter
Best in Show: Facebook Fanpage
Best in Show: Video
Conservative bloggers are doing amazing work shining the light in dark places, causing real change. They are making a difference. Please nominate the posts, podcasts, social media stars. They will be voted on AT the party.
What started out as a friendly get together, has become that and much more–an event filled with surprise guests, renewed relationships, and rewards recognizing our peers phenomenal work.
It’s been an honor to put this together. Unlike the left, where the blogging community is almost entirely corporate, now, on the right, bloggers tend to be unpaid and independent.
Blogbash is a yearly token of appreciation for hard work and sacrificial commitment.
Pinterest: Why You Should Be Interested
Sunday, December 25th, 2011
A couple years ago, I immersed myself in Twitter over a Thanksgiving weekend. This weekend, I’ve done the same with Pinterest.
Some thoughts:
1. It’s going to change online search. People are more inclined visually anyway. So, imaging putting in “pink bedroom” and imagine hundreds of people sorted pink bedrooms which you now see after it has been filtered through Pinterest. Like Twitter, it’s a smart, people-driven search.
2. Artists, graphic designers, architects,interior designers will love it. In fact, I’d force my clients to do two weeks of “Pinning” before I worked with them. It’s one thing to describe what you want. It’s another thing to see it. This could be a way to diminish communication problems. A person can collect art, websites, logos, homes, living rooms, etc. and then show their designer/decorator.
3. Marketing to women has just changed. You know how I know Pinterest is a big deal? Every techtarded woman I know is on the damn thing and has ten boards going already. Women make something like 80% of home-focused purchases. Everything. Still. Retailers better make sure their website interfaces work with Pinterest so women can “pin” what they like. That includes you snobby tech sites.
4. Bloggers better make sure EVERY post has a picture so it can be “Pinned”. Have a favorite book? movie? military installation? gun? car? Just post a picture so it’s shareable.
Now, Pinterest has some shortcomings, but if they’re smart they’ll fix them soon:
Namely:
Share-ability. I’d really like to be able to tag people I think would be interested in something within Pinterest. Ironically, I can share something on Twitter or Facebook and tag, but it’s not easy (is it even possible?) in Pinterest.
Maybe (not sure) more ability to text modify the comments below a picture. Maybe some simple commands like bold, italics, underline like Google+.
Ability to make a board private or shareable with only a few people. I can see business and family applications here. A group project where you can share all sorts pictures and ideas? Pinterest is ideal for that, but not if the whole world sees what you’re up to.
Finally, Pinterest needs a killer iPad app because, really, it is a match made in visual social media heaven.
For those scorning it — namely dudes– get over yourselves. It is a fantastic organizational tool. I’ve saved the best part of Pinterest for last:
You know all those things you see online and you hate your bookmark bar and lists because they’re a hot mess? Pinterest really is logically made to organize. It is fascinating how people break things down already based on their interests/needs. I especially love my Tech board. I’ll see something cool and then forget about it. By pinning it, I can come back to it. Do I want to buy it? Do I really like it? Maybe.
At least squat on your name on Pinterest. It’s going to be a big deal. It’s the first social media that I’m aware of that is dominated by women out of the gate. Facebook was both guys and girls (college students) to start with. Twitter and Google Plus (predominately male to start and then women joined). Friendfeed? Well, that was dominated by Robert Scoble. Heh. Get your name before someone else does.
Hot Conservative Men And The Men Who Could Have Been
Monday, June 7th, 2010
Well, there’s one way to get a male’s attention: make sure he doesn’t make the Top Twenty Hottest Conservative guys (in case you guys think you don’t want to see that nonsense, I would suggest that you look at the judges). I have received direct messages, emails and got regaled by the bitter Matt Lewis on his podcast this morning [30 minutes of hilarity]. Somehow I doubt that John received the same sort of hew and cries from the women. Women are stoic that way.
If nothing else, objectifying men in this shameless way has revealed the gender differences. Women are unsure of their beauty and few would dream of nominating themselves, much less complain when they don’t make the list…it would be a confirmation of what they secretly suspect.
For men, who all seem to view themselves as incredible specimens no matter the package, it’s an affront to not be nominated and worse, to not be on the list.
As my friend Stephen Kruiser says, if men weren’t confident like that, men and women would never hook up.
Anyway, the women judges were all kinds of wonderful. They had diverse tastes and some of the people who didn’t make it scored well–they may have just inspired strong feelings both ways.
The list of men is great from the perspective of getting to know what people are up to in the movement. There are many great men and women doing impressive work.
Armano: You Are The Media. Do You Trust You? Me: Trust Is Topical
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010David Armano a Twitter friend (we’ve never met, but I value his perspective and suspect I’d like him in person) has a must-read piece about trust in the media. And since we are all media now, who do we trust? His whole piece is worth reading, so please go look at the research, and then come back here for my thoughts.
It’s simple, really. We trust those who we respect, but we respect different people depending on the circumstances.
So, when I ask an opinion about guns on Twitter, I listen to the recommendations given by former military, current CHL instructors who are police chiefs. I could listen to my brother, and I do, he has some valuable insight, but I more heavily weight the expert.
The same is true for nearly every topic. I have a friend who I call when I have a economics questions. I have a friend who knows everything about Texas tax policy. Then there’s the local blogger who knows every dirty nook and cranny of Houston politics.
My brain doesn’t have enough room for all this information. It doesn’t need to have it. I have trusted advisers everywhere who can help me.
When it comes to social media growth, development and research, I trust David Armano. His advice and information over the time I’ve been on Twitter has been solid. Had he flaked out at some point, I’d discard his advice. So far, he’s still reliable.
There are an infinite number of “experts” who are regular people just like me but who have expertise in a slice of information. They become my friends. I value their perspective even more.
Or not. There are some people I don’t particularly like, but they have extraordinary insight in an area and I respect that.
With social media, who qualifies as an expert is fluid. People can observe another’s intellectual implosion online and a once-valued expert becomes a former expert in short order.
Where my opinion conflicts with David’s perspective is this: I may have a couple thousand friends on Facebook and Twitter (which I do) but I won’t trust them just because they give me an opinion. Human interaction is far more nuanced than that.
Just one example: I asked my followers on Twitter to recommend a cake company in Washington, D.C. Five people recommended the same place. But one of my friends recommended that place plus a place that was even better that was near her home. In addition, she said she’d help me pick up the cake. So I Googled both cake shops, called both cake shops, got stellar service from the out-of-the-way place and called in assistance from my friend.
Did I trust all the recommendations? Yes. Absolutely. But I also made my purchase decision based on intangibles and finally, the old business stand-by–customer service.
Social media is a tricky thing to study. It’s not like Google, where every metric can be broken down. It’s more human, more fickle, but the data a user gathers can be infinitely more helpful and accurate. I choose Twitter and Facebook over Google every day. Or rather, I get their recommendations and then Google the filtered information.
I trust my friends. I also verify. And an “expert” is all in the eye of the beholder.
Web Surfers Have More Depression
Thursday, February 4th, 2010Hmmmmm……
A “dark side” to the internet suggests a strong link between time spent surfing the web and depression, say psychologists.
British scientists found that the longer people spent online, the less likely they were to be happy.A small group of the worst affected individuals were both depressed and addicted.
But it was not clear whether using the internet causes mental health problems, or whether people with mental health problems are drawn to the internet.
More work is needed to answer this “chicken and egg” question, say the researchers.
Well, if a person tends to be a solitary person, he might enjoy hanging on the internet. But then, he does self-reinforcing things, like look at porn, and gets stuck behind his desk even more. Then, he is kinda addicted..he exercises less, gets less natural sunlight, interacts with real people less and it becomes a vicious cycle.
Or, the person starts depressed and the internet doesn’t force human interaction or exertion.
I don’t think there is one cause here, but it does seem to be a risk for introverted people.
Live Blogging – Tweeting – U-Streaming (I hope) The SOTU With A Twist Of Lime
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010So, I’ll be live blogging over at Right Wing News and here at my blog. I’ll try embedding the code for the U-stream too. This is new to me. We’ll see how it goes.
Also, if we can make it work, Tab Hale will be doing a simulcast and for sure live blogging on Right Wing News. She’s a braver soul, so if we make this video stuff work, it will be her win, most likely.
Hawkins will be live Tweeting for ABC news, I think.
There will be a whole lot of new media going on tonight…but mostly drinking while doing new media.
