If you have seen my video rant about Klout then you is might see where I’m coming from. Today, I have a much more practical approach to my thoughts. The gaps that the services have are tremendous, for example they don’t measure Yelp yet. They can’t measure your activity in a forum, and with the exception of Empire Avenue most of them ignore your own blogs. Blogs are arguably the center of a lot of social media interaction.

As cliché as it might sound, Content is king. So blogs and websites, especially individual’s websites are the place where people find content to share across their networks. We need the measuring systems to quickly build a more flexible framework to which we can plug in all the smaller websites that we participate in. Whether it is our personal blog, GetGlue, GoodReads, Daily Mile, Daily Booth, and even StumbleUpon. If we are going to truly measure influence, or social activity then we must include all the avenues in which this interactions take place, not just the big ones or the ones that are convenient or most lucrative. Until then Klout, Peer Index, Empire Avenue and even Kred are nothing more than a sociology experiment; albeit, one of the funnest experiments I’ve participated in.

But at the same time I’m also limited to just what I want to do and places I’ve been to. I tend to guide myself towards other similar places and maybe I’m missing out on something. When I joined foursquare I found that I would be able to see where other people are checking in. This has helped me find new restaurants, parks and places I didn’t know existed. I thought that was pretty cool.

I have close to 1000 checkins now and I’m hoping to have 1000 checkins or more by February 15th. Besides the fun that I’m having in 4sq, I believe that foursquare is a very important tool that businesses can use. I’m having a lot of fun with it personally but there is a lot of benefit to having your face and your name be out there in the community that you serve or that you work for. It’s all about how many people see your face and recognize you when they want to do business with you.

For example, if you are the owner of a store at a mall it is to your advantage to be the mayor there because when you’re in the store, people will recognize you if they check into foursquare (don’t forget to remind them with a sticker!). You can also offer a perk for checking in. A discount is a good incentive, but also, people like checking in when the Mayor is in the house, as they get extra points. So I don’t see why a business wouldn’t want to join foursquare.

I’ve set a small challenge for myself; to get up to 2000 chickens by the end of the summer. I think I can do that easily. I also want to become the mayor of 45 places. Currently I am the mayor of 11 places, and I try to check into every one of those at least a couple times a week, daily when I can.

I’m also discovering a lot of applications for foursquare besidse foursquare itself, I’ll talk about those in another blogpost. So what are your thoughts on Foursquare?

This in effect means that you can take pictures with your phone, let the settings automatically post to your Google plus profile, and then have those pictures immediately available for Gmail to send to other parties that are not Google plus. Or just because you want to send them as attachments.

This would be so useful for realtors, architects, even photographers scouting out a new location.

This is a list that contains WordPress Core coders, WordPress developers, Theme makers, WordPress service and support providers, WordPress Designers and other similar groups. You don’t have to be Otto to be in the list, but you do have to be fairly active in some aspect of WordPress, but I also need to know you or be aware of you so I can add you.

Maybe you provide services for the front-end, or you provide support, or you lead discussions, etcetera. Let me know so I can include you.

I’d love to make this a very useful resource, so if you know someone that should be included (even if it’s you), please let me know and I’ll add him or her or You to the list.

You can see two of my buddies from Orange County in that screenshot by the way. @HeyDaveCole and @alexjvasquez, follow them!

Definitely discovering why the new wp-pointers are “internal” calls so far. #wordpress

— Dave Cole (@HeyDaveCole) January 10, 2012

Want an awesome sales banner mgmt #plugin for #WordPress? Our friends @brandonove @jeffreyzinn made one bit.ly/uhmLwN

— alex vasquez (@alexjvasquez) December 13, 2011

Will you be using promoted tweets now that they’re starting to show up more?

What do you think about Argyle Social’s promoted tweet? Here’s the link they sent you to: http://ar.gy/opz

Her name is Jessica Latshaw.

First, watch the video:

Then read the story:

how it happened that we played on the subway that day and you all know about it now.

I love how the guy on the black jacket with the Sox hat is all serious, like he’s gangsta and all, then he can’t help it but crack a smile. Yeah, that’s how this song, no, scratch that, that’s how *this event* makes you feel.

Then be happy to be.

Never would I have guessed that this little bit of networking would turn into such an awesome journey of discovery, learning and friendship. I met Robert for lunch at Nieuport 17, and we hit it off. He told me about his goals, and essentially hired me as his personal Social Media Guru (a title He bestowed upon me). After a little while, Robert invited me to do a daily segment on his show for a few minutes each day. The topic of course is Social Media and Technology.

I’ve been doing the segment for a while now, you can listen to it live on AM 1050 in the Inland Empire, that’s San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario and the surrounding areas. Sometimes the radio even reaches into Orange County. You can also listen to it online if you visit kcaaradio.com and click on the yellow “listen live” button on the top left.

But that’s not all, after months of talking and sharing what I know about Social Networking, techniques, strategies and tools with Robert, we’re going to start a more structured segment. The segment will cover A-Z on the major social networking sites: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ & LinkedIn. The focus will be on the strategies, tools and techniques that you need to make your social networking better while maximizing the time you spend doing it.

The difference between my approach and many others you’ll find online, is that I will actually tell you how to do it. Lots of advice gets thrown around and regurgitated about the things you should do, but hardly anyone tells you how to actually accomplish this. We’ll cover all the basics, then move into more advanced topics and techniques to suit all different types of social networking. Come join me, Series start on Jan 9. For more info, leave a comment here or follow me on Twitter.

Yes, The Cloud is THE internet. Whenever you’re buying a new good or service and the fact that it is on “The Cloud” is the most notorious or emphasized feature, make sure you know the actual practical benefits.

Many companies are touting “The Cloud” as this new magical service that will change your life, make you lots of money and save puppies. It isn’t, it’s just the internet.

The Cloud is really just a term used to explain all of the internet’s services in one word or term. It isn’t bad, but make sure you know what you’re buying into when you buy a new “in the cloud” service. The reason why the term is good is that it simplifies explaining how something works.

We don’t need to explain DNS, or the physical layer, or even the network layer; for it all just works. All the different layers of the OSI model are no longer necessary to know. Only programmers, network security professionals and geeks like me will still care about these things. The reality is though that the consumer doesn’t care.

This is how we can tell that the internet has grown up. People are able to create new things, share them online, and even succeed at doing this without a bit of knowledge about what TCP/IP is.

I personally wished that more people would learn the basics, the things that make their computer or their phone work. But it’s okay, I’m happy even if they only use these tools without really knowing how they work. I usually start my car and drive away without a second thought as to how ignition works, or how the pistons that capture energy and how this energy makes it to my wheel and sends me on my way.

For 98% of any group of people that use a technology, this is how technology works and should work. The Cloud is here, enjoy it but don’t forget that it is nothing more than a bunch of interconnected servers giving you access to data. Much like a car is just a bunch of steel, aluminum and rubber taking you from point a to point b.