Gay Business Report - July 2009

In this issue:

• Understanding the Business Use of Twitter
  It’s all in the tools that lay “on top” of Twitter, illuminating those millions of conversations per hour and allowing the “crowd” to take the lead in journalism.
  It’s no secret we’re living history as we speak when it comes to the technological advances in social network marketing we’re seeing today. One often heard quip is “can’t it all just stop for a little while so that the rest of us can catch up!?” Well, as we all know, it’s not going to stop, and ever since the recent Iranian Election coverage on Twitter.com, it’s clear there is definitely SOMETHING going on, but what that “something” is can be a challenge to wrap one’s head around....
  
  Thus, the power of one’s "Tweets" is not in tracking click-throughs of each individual Tweet, but rather posting something worth "ReTweeting" and spreading that information far and wide...
  
  
• Tips & Tricks:? Shooting Photos at Events
  Photos are definitely VIRAL in the social networking world. But how do you get those photos tagged and working for you in Facebook?
  
  
• 4 Reasons Why Marketers Should Choose Facebook Pages Over Facebook Groups
• Six Marketing & Community Lessons From a New York City Hotel
• Tourisme Montréal shifting to 100% Web-based advertising
• The 7 Deadly Sins of Inbound Marketing
• Three decades professionalizing LGBT Media

Link to PDF: http://www.pinkbananamedia.com/pdf/pbmbizreport_july2009.pdf

Link to site: http://www.gaybusinessreport.com

New Rebirth to Old Persia?

Iran's Flag (Pre-Islamofascist-Revolution)

themostsearched would be amiss if we didn't publicly show our support for the demonstrators in Iran; acutely so when we are married to a 1979 political refugee from the great Persian nation.

Iran has been hijacked by Islamofascist terrorists; this is not new. They held our people--workers in our embassy--hostage until Reagan took office because they new better than to mess with Reagan. Khomeini and his puppet president Ahmadinejad are huge supporters of terrorist groups including Hamas. In Tiananmen-esque style they are arresting and slaughtering their own young people who sought nothing but peaceful demonstration in lieu of a corrupt, rigged election. They have taken hostage 8 diplomats employed at the English Embassy in Tehran. They have banned freedom of the press and threatened anyone who seeks to simply tell the truth of what is going on. They seek nuclear weapons against UN resolutions while the Persian economy tanks. They spread their hate by chanting "Death to America" in their mosques.

But the Persians are a proud people with centuries old history--predating Shi'a Islam and the birth of the Prophet Muhammad--including Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes. Under these classic rulers Persia was the world's superpower and particularly in the case of Cyrus allowed Jewish (and other) religious freedoms. Persians today, themostsearched feels, yearn for the freedom of religion of their forefathers. They don't want to be the Islamofascist Republic of Iran. They respect the Jewish, Armenian (Christian), and Zoroastrian religious minorities that peacefully coexist within their borders and have done so for millennia. They DO believe in the holocaust and its tragedy. Most of them are followers of Islam but not of jihad against America. We see this in their chat today: "Ahmadinejad is Hitler and a holocaust is here."

themostsearched praises the efforts of its people to peacefully revolt and overthrow the Isalmofascist regime. We also are completely willing to support the Persian People if and as they deem it necessary to overthrow the regime by force as we Americans had to do in declaring ourselves free from Britain in 1776. Finally, themostsearched believes that the reason why so many noble Persians are willing to risk their lives and property is because they realize that their leaders are fixated on obtaining nuclear weapons which will result in retaliation from the international community in the form of an inevitable war, like neighbors Iraq and Afghanistan who were unsuccessful in overthrow tyranny by themselves.

On Mary Bono Mack's vote for Cap n Tax

Mary isn't the conservative her married surnames--from deceased husband Sonny Bono and current husband Florida Congressman Connie Mack--might convey her to be. Indeed she has quite liberal views in some areas although she generally votes along Republican lines.

themostsearched voted for Mary when we lived in Riverside County (CA) and would take Mary over the radical liberal Democratic alternatives we were offered pretty much any day.

However, the 45th Congressional District of California deserves not just a Republican better than a socialist Democrat, but rather a conservative: one who will uphold family values and traditional marriage as so many Catholic and Hispanic voters in the district would urge, as well as a fiscal conservative who will seek solutions to our problems though paying down federal debt not growing government and expanding revenues.

themostsearched was disappointed in Mary's vote today for Cap and Tax; perhaps better said irate, although the emotion is directed at her vote, not her person. Mary was one of just 1 of 8 Republicans voting for Cap and Tax in a vote so close that if just 4 of those Republicans had not bolted from the party, the bill would have been defeated. Consequently, themostsearched feels that the time has come for Mary to retire from Congress. As we remarked in an earlier post themostsearched supports a maximum of 5 or 6 terms for our U.S. Representatives. Mary is on her 6th term and that is enough.

To replace Mary, let's have a conservative Republican rise up now to run in 2010 and have Mary support him or her. One thing we like about Mary is that she does have respect for conservatives. That is the noble thing to do. Be like a George Washington who refused to run for a third term because he knew it wasn't good for the country.

Understandably there are many who need to retire worse than Mary starting with the longest-serving senator ever, nonagenarian Senator Byrd, who themostsearched predicts will die in office before he ever retires because he is now too old and senile to accept change and comprehend his own senility. It is an uncomfortable thought that behind plagiarist Biden and know-nothing-on-interrogations Pelosi is this KKK relic to be President. Byrd should have retired long ago. But Republicans must lead and not wait for their Democratic partners to die or acquiesce power because the Democrats won't--as we learned from having to create the 22nd Amendment in lieu of Byrd-esque gems like FDR.

Read Our Lips, Obama: No Cap And Trade

Obama promised in his quest for re-election a tax break "for 95% of Americans." Now with the Cap-and-Trade bill he urges Congress to pass he is indirectly taxing 100% of Americans. How so?

Obama gets away with his "inconvenient truth" of increasing taxes or the amount we pay to the federal government by effectively redefining taxes to be limited to personal income tax. Obama is not raising our income tax. Instead he is raising a massive tax on energy companies who must pass on the levied tax in the form of higher rates to consumers. This is not right and themostsearched is calling it out for what it is: a scheme to raise a massive $1.5 trillion through indirect taxation.

Interestingly, taxes levied through the higher rates are disproportionately levied on Republican-voting states. This chart shows that the 8 of the 10 states to receive the most energy price increases voted for McCain:

(1) Wyoming
(2) North Dakota
(3) West Virginia
(4) Kentucky
(5) Indiana
(6) Montana
(7) Alabama
(8) New Mexico
(9) Oklahoma
(10) Utah

while of the 10 states least affected in this proposal include 9 voting for Obama:
(1) Vermont
(2) Delaware
(3) Idaho
(4) California
(5) Washington
(6) Oregon
(7) New Jersey
(8) Rhode Island
(9) New York
(10) Connecticut

Put another way, the incremental energy-bill costs to consumers in Wyoming are close to 4000 times as more as if you live in Vermont.

But isn't the issue of CO2 emissions an issue for the states? themostsearched says yes. Yet in the 2007 Supreme Court 5-4 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA the court ruled that the EPA must regulate CO2. themostsearched believes this ruling was made erroneously and was out of bounds for the authority granted the court. Yet the court has no power to specify what actions must be taken as this is the arena of Congress. themostsearched feels that voluntary compliance with CO2 reductions fulfill our erroneous court-ordered obligation and that a massive tax burden on us Americans is unwanted, unwarranted, and un-American.

For anyone who believed Obama's garbage pre-election promise of a tax break, you need to get on the phone with your representative NOW (vote in Congress tomorrow) and urge them to defeat the energy tax of Waxman-Markey--else take that bundle of money you saved by switching to GEICO and kiss it goodbye.

Understanding the Business Use of Twitter

It’s all in the tools that lay “on top” of Twitter, illuminating those millions of conversations per hour and allowing the “crowd” to take the lead in journalism.

It’s no secret we’re living history as we speak when it comes to the technological advances in social network marketing we’re seeing today. One often heard quip is “can’t it all just stop for a little while so that the rest of us can catch up!?”

Well, as we all know, it’s not going to stop, and ever since the recent Iranian Election coverage on Twitter.com, it’s clear there is definitely SOMETHING going on, but what that “something” is can be a challenge to wrap one’s head around.

Google knows there is something there... over the past few years, Google has become one of the top destinations online users go to when they want multiple sources of up-to-the-minute news, and they want it first! Google’s method, of course, is in their superior algorithms scouring the web for top news content as it happens. But with this recent election coverage, Twitter emerged as the new front-runner in the race for quality access to information first, and both Google and Facebook have taken notice.

Why is this so important, and why should anyone care about the millions of Twitters out there that range from “I’m off to walk my dog right now” to “I just saw Jennifer Lopez eating a bagle”? The fact is that for most Twitters, it is just a sea of useless information, and when one goes to Twitter.com to see these various “status updates” changing by the minute, one wonders how this can help them... in life and in business.

The first glimpse into how this can help a business is by getting away from that Twitter.com front page experience and moving quickly into the recently launched SEARCH function on Twitter. Using this, one can do a quick search of key terms relevant to their business, such as “hotel Miami” to find various conversations going on out there in the “Twitter-Sphere” that are mentioning these key word search terms.

And what does one find when doing this? A potpourri of various business deals, user reviews and also a bit of junk related to the world of hotels in Miami. Following along to find out WHO is chatting about hotels in Miami can lead one to become connected to other businesses and key influencers out there in the Miami hotel and travel world. By clicking on the user’s name or icon, one can learn more about who is chatting about this topic by reading their short Twitter bio or by clicking over to their website directly. By connecting with this individual, in the form of a FOLLOW, one can build a nice Twitter network of other individuals and businesses that have useful in formation related to the world of hotels and travel in Miami.

This is what I call LEVEL 1 in the world of Twitter usefulness. It’s better than reading random status updates all day, but it’s still a bit messy when it comes to spending quality time getting quick, quality results in a timely manner.

The next step, LEVEL 2 of mining the Twitter world for useful information, is in using one of the newly developing 3rd party programs created specifically for this task. Twitter is different from Facebook in that Twitters have started from Day One as OPEN SOURCE technology. Any programmer could build an interface to work with Twitters, and build they did, developing a wide variety of unique programs for using Twitter ways the founders could not have dreamed of. Two top contenders, TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop, turn on the lights and bring even more order to the chaos of those millions of “Tweets” going on out there in real time, every minute of every hour of every day.

What these two programs do is allow the user quick updated access to the various searches one may wish to do on a daily basis related to your business. All of the most recent Tweets found using the key search terms one is using on Google today can be kept organized and up-to-date using these programs. In addition, for those individuals and businesses a person is currently “following” on Twitter, these contacts can be organized into Groups, very similar to the Friends List feature found on Facebook today. Using Groups, one can create a group related to business, one for travel, one for personal use, etc. These groups provide immediate screening and filtering of the Tweets one is currently following today, making the act of staying current on Twitter just a bit easier than it once was.

These programs also allow the online user the capability of automatically creating shortened URLs (using bit.ly and tinyurl.com) for use in Twitter, as well as automatically allowing the online user the capability of uploading and linking to photos and videos. As these technologies develop, they begin to look more and more like Facebook does today, including emulating the key features of Facebook that has made this social network so powerful over the past year. In addition, they both integrate with Facebook as well, and when one places a Facebook Status Update feed side by side with their Twitter feed when using these programs, the comparisons become obvious and the reasons why Facebook re-engineered their entire system to become more like Twitter also becomes more clear.

Lastly, these programs allow the online user the capability, in one click, of seeing what some of the top “conversations” are among the people and businesses one is following, as well as within the key word searches being followed. Such immediate access to current “trends” and “topics” within a series of conversations is very powerful, and leads us one step closer to what I define as LEVEL 3 of the power and utility of Twitter today.

Let’s start big picture. Before the Internet, we learned about what was happening in the world via a small handful of television stations, print magazines, newspapers and radio. Just prior to the Internet, we had even more access to choices and information with the advent of Cable TV, providing us access to history, science, travel and food, just to name a few of the key topics covered early on.

Then came the Internet, and websites blossomed, providing us even more finite access to unique information and allowing people of similar interests to connect like never before. And then, just as the Internet was finally becoming easier for folks to understand, the world of blogs emerged, allowing anyone who chose to become a citizen journalist the opportunity to voice their opinions.

Blogs were unique in that they were both the next logical step in “democratizing” access to information on the Internet, allowing individuals such as Perez Hilton the opportunity to find new-found fame. What blogs did is make access to news and information even quicker, as individuals were now posting news-like items. In addition, and more importantly, blogs allowed for individuals to INTERACT with each other, planting the seeds for what is now known as Web 2.0.

So why is this so important? Because up to now, the online world grew comfortable in this information space. Google News gave quick access to this information, as did the various RSS news readers that allowed anyone to subscribe to and receive exactly the mix of CNN, BBC, the Huffington Post and a wide variety of other news sources and blogs, that was right for them.

Then came the Iranian election coverage and Twitter. Remember, the technology of Twitter had recently become more and more advanced, allowing for direct links and short, easy-to-read descriptions of videos, photos, website articles and blogs. The openness, usefulness and power of Twitter was ready to be capitalized on by the “masses” of users of both Twitter and Facebook, and nobody saw it coming.

As was mentioned, Twitter’s power is in the 3rd party programs which interface with and make it more efficient and useful to work with. Taking that to the next logical step are programs and websites such as TweetMeme.com and OpenRiot.com. These sites take all of those millions of Twitters and try to figure out, based upon almost any search combination provided, what are the most RELEVANT Twitters at that moment in time. Since relevance is based upon these programs’ new but developing algorithms as to what is most popular and “Tweeted” the most, these programs have harnessed the POWER OF THE CROWDS in bringing the most current, relevant and in more and more cases, quality information to the average user. Some of the headlines of this week emerged based upon this, asking the question - “Is Twitter the CNN?of the Next Generation?”

Thus, the power of one’s "Tweets" is not in tracking click-throughs of each individual Tweet, but rather posting something worth "ReTweeting" and virally spreading that information far and wide.

As individuals, we have a knack for wanting the best information NOW. Although one can argue the higher quality of a fully fleshed out news story done by the New York Times compared to that of one hundred various blog postings about the same topic, the fact remains that a whole new means of accessing information has been released to the public. And the public is using this access and this technology in ways that were not thought possible just months before.

Now Google is racing to develop even better algorithms than TweetMeme.com, so that they remain relevant in the new world of “real-time conversational search.” Facebook is redeveloping their service yet again, launching a new feature which will allow users to make their status updates available to EVERYONE, the same way Twitters are today. Facebook was caught by surprise in this... they had some high-quality and timely information in their service as well, but it wasn’t available to the public at large. Thus, in the case of the Iranian Election, this information was useless when it came to planting the seeds for what has already become a major world event and could spiral into something even bigger.

So why is this important to any business using social network technologies in their marketing today? Because if you have something important and of quality to say, posting it in your blog or on your website and then putting the headline and link out there on Twitter can become increasingly important each passing day. More and more people use technologies mining these “Tweets” for access to information that is relevant to them. With this technology, some of the final barriers, also known as GATE KEEPERS of information, have been removed.

What can you do today? Besides the headline and link recommendation outlined above, you should spend some time ensuring you are connected to as many key individuals and businesses that are relevant to your business. You should also make a point of following conversations relevant to your industry based upon monitoring key word search terms in Twitter. When you come across a Tweet about an article or blog posting that is relevant to your industry, RETWEETING that Tweet allows you to both participate in this conversation and sets you up as a leader in your field. Being a leader means having more and more individuals and businesses follow what are you doing on Twitter and subsequently follow you more and more in the business and social networking world in general, including Facebook.

So is Twitter a fad? Absolutely not. When viewed from the big picture and interpreted as a truly social, human phenomenon, it’s more than obvious that Twitter has opened up a new frontier in the emerging world of global, immediate access to information, and will be considered a stepping stone to technologies we will be using in the future. That said, leveraging your time and marketing efforts on Twitter today should allow your business to grow and stay contemporary in the world of tomorrow.

Link to article in PDF format: http://www.pinkbananamedia.com/pdf/pbm_web20_twitter_use.pdf

Happy Flag Day

Almost as a surprise after a disappointing National Prayer Day remembrance, President Obama issued this week a delightful celebration of Flag Day, encouraging us as citizens to fly our country's flag proudly this week beginning today in honor of the flag.

themostsearched is following the much missed leadership of our President and flying the flag today and this week (although we have unusual amounts of rain so forecasted so we may not be in compliance every day). We are proud of this great symbol of our country as it unites our 50 diverse states under the common constitution we share. America is the worldwide symbol of freedom, democracy, and republicanism (said even with a lower-case "r"). Americans proudly worship God through many divers forms, acknowledging without him we would not have America and a reason for Ol' Glory.

Today reminds themostsearched of a wonderful song "High on a Mountain Top", a classic Mormon hymn sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in conjunction with the 2002 Olympics. The hymn speaks of a banner of truth to be unfurled and all nations to look up to her for the truths that God promised he would disseminate to us his children. It puts a tremendous obligation on us as citizens of the United States of America to be the country of liberty, truth, and nobleness we are in our hearts but not always our individual actions; to free ourselves by eliminating corruption and deceit; and to having power given to no man but power consented to our government from her equal citizens endowed with "unalienable rights".

NH Governor "Flinch" Signs Gay Marriage Into Law

themostsearched believes marriage was instituted among humanity by God to provide men and women with companionship and the happiness and blessing of children, while providing children with the happiness and blessing of having a Mother and a Father.

Yet today in New Hampshire, the once wildly-popular Democratic Governor John Lynch signed into law HB 73 which coupled with HB 436 legalizes homosexual marriage. Obviously this is a sad day especially considering that Lynch had already previously signed a civil unions bill.

But scandal lies behind the sadness, for the "gay victory" was wrought in corruption. First, Lynch did an about face on one of the most important issues before the people. He campaigned as a supporter of marriage between "a man and a woman" but signed the first bill reaching his desk approving gay marriage. themostsearched has already called out our own Governor Huntsman on a broken promise; and although admittedly themostsearched knows of no specific promise made by Lynch to veto gay marriage, themostsearched feels that Lynch should have been true to his clearly stated position on such a serious issue. Because of his dishonest approach to this, Lynch merits his nickname "Flinch" as New Hampshirers have labeled him.


Second, a Committee was established to work out details of the proposed law including exclusion rights of religious groups. The Committee had to vote unanimously but when Republican Senator Sheila Roberge refused to sign, Democratic Senate President Sylvia Larsen (pictured) violated Senate rules and simply replaced Senator Roberge with a Democrat who voted in favor. For this illegality, Senator Larsen earns a well-deserved themostsearched Political Opprobrium Onus. themostsearched also predicts that this law will be brought before the New Hampshire Supreme Court, who should invalidate the law if nothing else based on its illegal scheming.

Finally, themostsearched protests the way in which a centuries-old law was thrown under the bus by a Democratically-controlled New Hampshire Legislature and Governor. Where is the voice of the citizenry of New Hampshire when the elected Governor Flynched on his position and the Legislature founded the bill in corruption? themostsearched urges states everywhere to adopt State Constitutional Amendments protecting marriage between a man and a woman.

6/1/9 Islamic Terrorist Attack On America

We sadly announce the first successful foreign terrorist attack on the United States since 9/11.

Yesterday, 24 year-old Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad opened fired on an Army recruitment center in Little Rock, Arkansas, killing Pvt. William Long and injuring Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula. themostsearched’s prayers go out to both families.

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, formerly Carlos Bledsoe, converted to Islam in 2004 and trained in Yemen--a top Al-Qaeda training ground for U.S. recruits--studying in the school of jihadist imam Yahya Hajoori. Muhammad was under investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force after his return to the United States.

Whether Muhammad acted alone or under al Qaeda or other Islamofascist orders is unknown and under investigation. However, joining the facts that he trained in a foreign terrorist camp and committed an act of terrorism makes this a foreign attack on the U.S., and not merely domestic.

themostsearched asserts that al Qaeda is extremely dynamic and crafty in its jihad against the United States. It and other Islamofascist terrorist networks seek non-conventional jihad in ways we don’t suspect. It uses individuals rather than squads, companies, and armies to accomplish its evil designs. The world cannot know peace with the existence of such radicals and they must be removed and destroyed from global society through careful diligence and monitoring. We call upon moderate Muslims and followers of Allah to aid America in destroying those terrorists who would murder our families.

OBAMA = NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN

themostsearched sadly also predicts further foreign terrorist attacks on our soil as Mr. Obama continues to fail to protect our country, instead choosing apology and appeasement. (Indeed we predicted so a month ago.) Unlike the Presidential posture exhibited by our last president upon being attacked by foreign terrorists, Obama celebrated yesterday in France by hailing America as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Obama, you are a disgrace to our national security. themostsearched holds you accountable and you have failed, you failed Pvts. Long and Ezeagwula, and you will unfortunately continue to fail for as long as you model your foreign duties in the mold of Neville Chamberlain when we so desperately need as a country a Winston Churchill. Even Mr. Chamberlain was forced to declare war and admit about the fascists of his time: “[Hitler’s] action shows convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force…” Substitute Bin Laden’s or any other Islamofascist’s name in for Hitler, Mr. Obama, and you have before you the shield to protect our country.

Brigitte Gabriel understands the Islamofascist threat we face with this 2007 video introducing the ACT! for America organization:


This is no “overseas contingency operation,” Obama. This is terrorism, Obama. This is war, Obama.

NGLCC Conference in Seattle - May 2009

I just returned from the NGLCC Conference in Seattle these past few days... it was a roaring success, and larger than it ever was with companies ranging from UPS to Office Depot to Wells Fargo Bank and many, many more global companies continually making outreach and great strides in embracing the GLBT business community. It also had a very strong contingent from the local community, led by Louise Chernin of the local GSBA (www.gsba.org).

The event began Wednesday evening with a GSBA Mixer at the top of the Space Needle in downtown Seattle. I missed this but everyone who attended found it to be an incredible experience and a great start to the week's events.

The main events began Thursday morning and continued on with a variety of educational workshops throughout the next few days. I had the opportunity to do a workshop on social network marketing to the GLBT community, which seemed to go over very well and was standing room only. The best part of this was the interactivity of the audience, who asked some excellent questions and even helped each other in some of the answers.

The evening receptions were a blast as well, and the attendees, all professional networkers in their own right, knew what to do and mingled and schmoozed the entire time. The cocktails were open bar and the hors d'oeuvres flowed all evening. One reception was held around the GLBT Marketplace, where the various companies had booths set up to better present their companies... a great way to kick this event off as the Marketplace was then open the entire next day for folks to come back and spend even more quality time with the various attendees promoting their companies.

In the meantime, several of us hit the local scene after-hours as well, checking out The Elite, Purr and The Cuff throughout Saturday night. The Elite on Thursday evening was fun as half the crowd was our group and the other half were locals, making for an excellent evening pub affair that kept everyone rather "reasonable" so that they could pace themselves for the following two days of work, networking and fun. I also had the opportunity of dining at Wild Ginger, a famous downtown restaurant with some fantastic Asian cuisine.

Overall, the event was a complete success. Check out some of the photos found below, and if the GLBT business-to-business marketplace is your scene, be sure to attend the conference in 2010 in Washington DC.

LINKS:

- www.nglcc.org

- http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattskal/sets/72157618888637745/