A discussion within the SocialTimes team stemming from recent news that Buddhist religious leader-in-exile, the Dalai Lama, was tweeting on Twitter led to the question of whether the microblogging service could be use to deliver religious services, and whether anyone was doing so. In this post we explore how Twitter can be used as a platform for religious services.
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After reading about distributed database solutions and watching the entire NOSQL movement I had to figure out a way to start building something on a distributed database system. While I only needed one server to get started on (i.e. I didn’t need multiple database nodes right away), I already have a couple projects that are breaking from the old MySQL replication plus Memcached problems (effectively articulated here). In other words, it’s becoming a pain in the butt to maintain the system so I decided to dive in. Here’s how I first got setup.
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In the face of funding challenges, startup entrepreneurs have turned to the Internet to raise funds through crowdsourcing techniques and the leveraging of social media. “Friends and family” funding takes on an expanded meaning through crowdsourcing via the Internet. This post looks at some of the ways that a startup can crowdsource funds, and refers to some of the lessons learned by Zero Point Software, a game development studio.
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Last week Social Times reported on the impact of the Twitter backchannel on dana boyd’s presentation at the Web 2.0 Expo. If you’re speaking to a tech or social media conference soon, you’re probably thinking how you can avoid getting roasted by the backchannel. Here are some tips:
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After going to one event after the other, it’s easy to think that hosting conferences is a great business. All too often we see the same type event, with similar people, and as a social capitalist we think to ourselves: I can do this too! While hosting a conference can boost your influence, build a lot of buzz, and make a lot of money, it’s unfortunately not for the lazy person! (Yes, the title is misleading!) In this guide, I’ll highlight some of the most important things to keep in mind if you are considering hosting a conference of your own.
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Yesterday morning at Engage Expo in San Jose, I delivered a presentation on the “State of Social Media”. After contemplating what I was going to talk about during my presentation, I decided that I would start things off with a joke. Untested jokes are a risky thing to incorporate into a presentation because there’s a very high likelihood that the joke will fall flat, as it did during yesterday’s presentation. Hopefully you can take advantage of my personal embarrassment and learn how to deliver a joke that doesn’t fail.
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Last night while having dinner at a hotel in Atlanta, I was listening in on a woman who was talking about the new Twitter account she had just set up. It was a personal story that she wanted to share with the dinner table. The only problem was that nobody at the table had any idea what she was talking about, and they didn’t really care. They didn’t understand Twitter but funny enough, neither did she. She said she had posted a few updates but that was about it because she didn’t completely understand what to do. While they may not have been the most “social media savvy” individuals, that’s not the main point of the story.
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How has the recession affected you? Perhaps you lost your job and you’ve turned to the online market to become an entrepreneur. Maybe you already had a web presence but the recession has forced you to step up your game. Or you could be an advertising company that’s witnessed severe budget cuts and now is the time for you to be more creative with spending and marketing campaigns. There are a few ways in which social media could be of great benefit for you, when it comes to continuing to build your brand.

Network Socially

Online social networks all seem to do the same thing, but there are only a handful of social sites that enable you to actually network. That means that you can leverage real relationships with people in order to work your way through a crowd, albeit a virtual crowd. You have a social graph, and everyone else has one too. Turn to sites like LinkedIn and Facebook for actually expanding your social graph and reaching the people you need to get in touch with.
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As unemployment rates rise over 9% and job search results are down, everyone and their mother’s managers are on LinkedIn trying to social network their way to a new career opportunity.

Except the rest of us think the site is like Facebook’s online schmooze fest and that jobs are going to clutter our home page as do mundane status updates, revealing photos, and odd quiz results. “Not so,” says Lindsey Pollak, LinkedIn Campus Spokesperson and author of Getting from College to Career. Pollak says, “The biggest mistake people make is that they join LinkedIn, and expect it to work for them like magic. It’s a tool and you have to work it to make it work for you.”
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Social media can really help you grow your brand, personal, professional or otherwise. But do you have what it takes to become a social media god? If you’re looking to take your status to the next level and have worshipers bowing at your feet, take note of the following pointers to help you get on the right path towards eternal life.
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