Monday, April 13, 2009

Talented Frederick Photographer steps up to donate

Facebook is Your Father's (and Mother's) Social Network

By John C Abell March 26, 2009 | 9:20:23 AMCategories:Facebook, Social Media, Social Networking

FacebookFacebook (and other social networks) has been skewing older for a while, but the trend has been "massive" in the past six months, according to InsideFacebook.com. In the past two months alone the number of new members over 35 has doubled. Marketers take note: the median age is now over 25, and the largest single group 35 to 44.

Women over 55 remain the fastest growing group, and growth among the teen and college-age set has been relatively paltry. In absolute numbers there are now even slightly more members between the ages of 45 and 65 than there are 13-to 17-year-olds.

Looking at Facebook US audience growth over the last 180 days, it’s clear that Facebook is seeing massive increases in adoption amongst users 35-65. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is still women over 55 — there are now nearly 1.5 million of them active on Facebook each month.

The biggest growth in terms of absolute new users over the last six month came amongst users 35-44. Over 4 million more US women 35-44 and nearly 3 million more US men 35-44 used Facebook in March 2009 compared to September 2008.

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You probably have already joined Facebook, and created a profile there. Did you know you can also create a (FREE) Facebook Page for your business?

Go to http://www.facebook.com/business/ -- Click on Facebook Pages


If you run a Frederick Maryland Small (or any size) Business and want YOUR business to be listed on Facebook Call David Bruce at 301 363-8206
We charge $100 for company Facebook Page for your business. Here's an example of what we did for Gilbert's Restaurant Equipment on Facebook

Frederick is home to some talented Photographers


One of our subscribers is a Frederick Business Person who stepped up to the plate and put her money where her heart is.

Cindy Alderton of Dancing Daisy Photography
was the first local Frederick Business to donate $25 to A Mission of Mercy via Facebook

So what kinds of photography does Dancing Daisy Photography do?

Portraiture~
Children~
Maternity~
Wedding~
Boudoir~
High School Seniors
Studio & Location Photography
Frederick, Maryland and Surrounding Venues including Adamstown, Urbana, Middletown, New Market,
Walkersville, Brunswick, Thurmont, Emmitsburg, Montgomery and Washington Counties
240.674.6881
Cindy & Steve Alderton

Basic portrait session...$55
A la carte image pricing - create your own package, pay for only what you like.

Other session types only slightly higher, starting at $99.

Wedding coverage starts at just $895, photo CD's are available for purchase with your package.

Magazine Covers start at $45...available in 8x10 or larger sizes only. Covers can be customized to suit a particular sport, personality, look. These are great for any occasion ~ kids, wedding, holidays, and boudoir, to name a few.

Custom albums and graphic design available.

Call or email the studio for additional information, we have a lot to offer and we know we have something to suit your needs!



Let's start here: time goes quickly and we take so many things for granted. We forget in the sameness and mechanics of each day, how all those little things we do, see, say, and feel can ultimately end up having so much meaning and importance when they're gone.

That said, Daisy was a small dog - ok, she thought she was a person - who we had the privilege of loving for seven way too short years. She ended up being a testament to the importance of those around us, the memories we make, and the sadness of what we may forget. How such a little dog could change so much for us, we would have never guessed. She had a huge impact on our lives. Daisy loved to dance around the backyard, up and down our fence line, chasing whatever took her fancy and doing it with a passion. We will always remember her joy.
Our purpose here at Dancing Daisy Studio is to celebrate your moments, big and small. To never forget them and have a way to hold them close when they have passed and we have moved on to the next. Don't let your moments go...

Issue #58
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Thursday, April 9, 2009

MD Government Banned from communicating with constituents

It looks like an unelected buearuacrat who doesn't want to do his job is prohibiting OUR elected officials from engaging US in the manner we most prefer to be engaged.

I'm only going to publish the comments section of this important blog post from a written by Judd Legum, an attorney, progressive activist and Annapolis native.

Previously, Judd was the research director at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress, where he created the blog ThinkProgress, which remains one of the most popular progressive blogs on national policy and politics.

Most recently, Judd was research director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. He graduated Georgetown Law in 2003 and currently practices law in Annapolis.



  • Phil In Denver on 06 Feb 2009 at 2:39 pm

    This guy, Mike Gaudiello is NOT an elected official, he is an IT director. He does not have the right to make a decree of this magnitude if it interferes with the business of legislation, as clearly something like this certainly would do. As an IT director he would report to the head(s) of the Maryland General Assembly. Furthermore, viruses and phishing schemes can easily be blocked with anti-virus software and up to date browsers properly configured.

    As an IT director he knows this all to well, so he is either incompetent and not qualified to hold that position, or he is injecting his own personal political agenda into his duties which as someone who serves the entire MGA, are by definition supposed to be non-partisan.

  • Sonja on 06 Feb 2009 at 5:05 pm #

    Interesting that an IT director has the authority to select content that our elected officials find helpful and useful as an application. Wonder who blessed him with that much control? Rooted in ignorance methinks (is the IT person in inept that he cannot remedy a virus, one might ask?

    This is a terrific template for whom not to hire when looking for IT people. Control-seeking individuals who overstep boundaries and claim security issues to further their own bias. Note to self, when searching for IT staff, make sure paranoia isn’t apparent in the resume. Maryland just moved back a few decades technologically.

    Unfortunately, the 150 million people on Facebook might be worth another glance, Maryland. There is great potential for marketing, promotion, relationship building, resource sharing, collaboration, and problem-solving.


  • Steve on 06 Feb 2009 at 5:41 pm #

    As being a Director of IT and having been in the IT field for over 32 years, the bottom line is clear. It doesn’t matter where the viruses come from, Facebook, MySpace, whatever. All this proves is that Maryland’s antivirus protection is severely lacking and horribly inadequate and proving the incompetence of the IT staff. It would be like a grocery store setting a policy to not accept checks anymore because someone wrote one that bounced. How absurd.


  • because, after all, why would they want to make it easy for people to communicate with politicians and their staffs? it's almost like they don't want to hear from millennials or anybody else on social networks ..
    =====

    Newspapers Not Effectively Using Social Media


    Need better integration
    Newspapers should be using social media more effectively to engage their readers and boost online revenue, according to a new survey by Gartner."In the wake of the economic challenges facing the U.S. newspaper industry, publishers are losing focus on the crucial imperative of how to capitalize on those consumers who remain loyal, engaged online and print readers," said Allen Weiner, research vice president at Gartner.

    If you enjoy this post, please consider leaving a comment and subscribe to my RSS feed or via email to ensure you can enjoy the latest post(s).

    The survey indicates that newspaper Web sites are failing to optimize for search and a there is a lack of integration between content and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

    Nearly half (49%) of respondents use general search engines (such as Google and Yahoo) once a week or more to find content, but only 20 percent use search tools built into a newspaper or magazine site.

    Only 24 percent of those surveyed share good content with friends or others via email and instant messaging. Just 7 percent say they usually or often share content via embedding into social networks.

    - Although many newspapers list their staffers who are on Twitter, an influential microblogging social network, few offer Twitter users the ability to "tweet" stories from their Web sites.

    - When asked what they do when they find interesting content online, more than half of respondents (52 percent) said that they usually read it immediately. Only 9 percent said that they bookmark it to read later.

    "Although it's easy to criticize the newspaper companies for falling behind the digital curve and not thinking innovatively about their future, some of the industry's current failures fall under the category of looking past the basics," Mr. Weiner said. "One of those basics is turning those who are fans of your product or service into your best and lowest-cost marketing channel. Even simple social media tools not only allow sharing and recommendations, but also provide a level of identity and reputation management to give others a snapshot of a content curator's credentials."

    Mr. Weiner said that while the newspapers have incorporated social media content, they just haven't taken the step of integrating social media tools into their content management "ecosystem" to provide pervasive deployment of important social features. The task at hand is now to prioritize the integration of social media into a current or future content management system.

    Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Newspaper Publishers Must Do More to Empower Brand Stewards." The report is available on Gartner's Website at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=911415&subref=simplesearch.

    Issue #57
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    Sunday, April 5, 2009

    Frederick News Post falling behind the digital curve

    Newspapers Not Effectively Using Social Media


    Need better integration
    Newspapers should be using social media more effectively to engage their readers and boost online revenue, according to a new survey by Gartner."In the wake of the economic challenges facing the U.S. newspaper industry, publishers are losing focus on the crucial imperative of how to capitalize on those consumers who remain loyal, engaged online and print readers," said Allen Weiner, research vice president at Gartner.

    The survey indicates that newspaper Web sites are failing to optimize for search and a there is a lack of integration between content and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

    Nearly half (49%) of respondents use general search engines (such as Google and Yahoo) once a week or more to find content, but only 20 percent use search tools built into a newspaper or magazine site.

    Only 24 percent of those surveyed share good content with friends or others via email and instant messaging. Just 7 percent say they usually or often share content via embedding into social networks.

    - Although many newspapers list their staffers who are on Twitter, an influential microblogging social network, few offer Twitter users the ability to "tweet" stories from their Web sites.

    - When asked what they do when they find interesting content online, more than half of respondents (52 percent) said that they usually read it immediately. Only 9 percent said that they bookmark it to read later.

    "Although it's easy to criticize the newspaper companies for falling behind the digital curve and not thinking innovatively about their future, some of the industry's current failures fall under the category of looking past the basics," Mr. Weiner said. "One of those basics is turning those who are fans of your product or service into your best and lowest-cost marketing channel. Even simple social media tools not only allow sharing and recommendations, but also provide a level of identity and reputation management to give others a snapshot of a content curator's credentials."

    Mr. Weiner said that while the newspapers have incorporated social media content, they just haven't taken the step of integrating social media tools into their content management "ecosystem" to provide pervasive deployment of important social features. The task at hand is now to prioritize the integration of social media into a current or future content management system.

    Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Newspaper Publishers Must Do More to Empower Brand Stewards." The report is available on Gartner's Website at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=911415&subref=simplesearch.


    ===
    Yes the Frederick News Posts has blogs... but they strip those blogs of any 'meat', perhaps they fear losing control?

    It's not just the local newspapers either... Newspapers still want to think of themselves as the alpha dog... and they are not.
    The days of the newspaper being top dog are waning

    Issue # 57
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