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Facebook Adds Granularity To Sharing Options
http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-adds-granularity-to-sharing-options-2011-05?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+allfacebook+%28Facebook+Blog%29

The feature enables users to select between posting items on their wall, on a friend’s wall, in a group, and in a private message

(via Instapaper)

Recently, I came across a article on a special tool which the New York Times R&D lab has created to visualize the cycle of stories in social media. On top of being extremely cool to look at, it provided a very interesting perspective on social media. The tool is called “Project Cascade” and according to NYT the tool allows precise analysis of the structures which underlay sharing activity on the web. As far as I can see the tool analyzes twitter tweets and the distribution of a news story through twitter. Represented by colored squares on a plane of concentric circles representing a timeline, the tool allows a reader to see the velocity the sharing of a story has, the degree of influence certain sharers have on twitter, the degree of impact a story has based on how many times it is shared.

Project Cascade Examples

Have a look at some of these examples of Project cascade visualizations, Really cool.

Project Cascade Clinton
Fed Up Flight Attendant Makes Sliding Exit
Another Pill That Could Cause A Revolution
But Will It Make You Happy?

Insights from Project Cascade

For an online marketer the tool raises some questions. Since this tool illustrates the degree by which a webpage can become popular by tracking the number of links generated from the time the story is first published on the internet, can this activity be repeated without penalty. The answer is naturally yes because this happens every day with thousands of stories on the world wide web.
Another insight is of the types of distribution of links. You have seen on many webpages including this one a method to share the content of the webpage you are on either with a facebook like, or twitter retweet. Well, when looking at the Project Cascade diagram original tweets are represented by a pink color and shortened links are represented by a yellow color. What this implied to me was original tweets with original shortened links held a bit more authority or influence than links with duplicated shorteners or Retweets. What this tells me is I will implement a rule to shorten my own links from now on, to give them a bit more authority as an original link. I will still RT links on twitter, but I will publish original tweets with original shorteners that I can track.

Examine Project Cascade for yourself and see what you can extract from this tool.

What other observations do you see in Project Cascade data?

Jonas makes a heck of a pitch for the people and culture of Phillipines, almost evangelistic. The standout aspects are the loyalty, trustworthiness, integrity, skill level, americanization, and aptitude for the English language. Jonas was also very adomate about Filipinos not being Entrepreneurial on nature, which I immediately thought, how could you know that… Anyhow I eventually went on to sign-up for the free audio at his Replace Myself website and listened to it. More mindblowing information and a call to continue in his program. Before I signed up I had to do some more verifying. I came across another interview of John Jonas by Yaro Starak at Entrepreneurs Journey and the comments about the interview were spirited and even John Jonas himself chimed in on the conversation. It gave me slot of information and varying points of view in the situation, though some must be taken with a grain of salt.

So, fast forward to today. I’m on Carnival cruise lines about to sail to the Bahamas and what do I notice? Filipinos! Filipinos on the ship staff. Not just one here and one there but 5 here and 4 there, 4 in the kitchen, 3 on every deck to give information and direction, 1 at every dining room as hostess and front desk coordinator, baggage deliverer, servers, busers, bartenders, on and on. Of course there are Indians, Indonesians, Vietnamese, Ukraine, and others. But there is another imbalance if nationalities leaninng toward Phillipines.

So here is what I’m going to do while at sea. I am going to do a small case study about why there are so many Filipinos, and if there is some truth to John Jonas theory on Filipinos. Right now I find it interesting that Carnival has so many people of Phillipines nationality on staff. I want to know if it’s intentional or coincidental. Is John Jonas right about the character aspects if the Filipino people?
So check bac soon for my results.

Every great blogging web site starts with a great idea, and you can’t build a successful site that will last without one. There are many great sites aimed at today’s bloggers, and competition for the attention of this growing demographic is fierce. To make your blogging web site stand out from the pack, you will need to offer something that no other site is currently offering, or you will need to do the same thing that an already popular site does but in a more impressive or valuable way.

One way to discover an ideal model for your blogging web site is to look at the sites that have successfully captured a blogging audience already to determine if you can appropriate some of their strategies to help realize your vision. Of course, you will also need to add a unique flair to your project in order to stand apart from your competition. Many people agree that the web sites that do the best in today’s market are the sites that have the most personality. The fiercely individual surfers who are bloggers are a demographic that responds especially strongly to personality, so consider how you can give your site a unique and attractive feeling by lending your own voice and sensibility to your site’s design and content.

Once you have a great idea for your site, have pinpointed a special niche that you are well equipped to fill, and have infused the site with personality, the next step is figuring out how to get the word out to bloggers. In the long run, a great idea just isn’t enough to propel your blogging web site to success. You will need to draft a smart and realistic marketing plan in order to draw readers to your site. Once you hook a blogger, your great content will keep them coming back, but it is vital to get that first glance or your site won’t have a chance to shine.

5 things you must do to prepare for military transition:

1. Plan, Plan, and Plan
   • As soon as I knew that I would not re-enlist for another 4-year tour I began planning my transition. You cannot take being a highly trained soldier, sailor, or airman for granted and think your going to be discharged and just get a job, or just be accepted in the school you want. Life will quickly give you a reality check if you try that one.
   • Get an idea of what you want to do when you “get out”. Whether it is going to school full time, getting a full time job, or becoming an entrepreneur, you need to plan. Sit down with yourself and assess what scenario is going to work best for your future. Ask yourself what you want things to be like 5-years after you get out, 10-years after you get out. Then put together a plan that will get you to that place. Here is a powerful tool I learned in getting me to that point:
     • Begin with the end in mind – I learned this from reading the classic by Stephen R. Covey “The 7 habits of Highly Effective People” and it is a life-changing concept.  Create, imagine, and visualize how you want your future to look at the end of the preselected timeframe. Design the path to the point from the end to the beginning. This is similar to designing a house. First, start with a picture in your mind on how you want the house to look when it is complete, then you draw up the blueprint, and execute. The same principle goes for your life. Dream it up in your head put it on paper and execute.
2. This is your plan, start very general, and begin to fill in the details as you think it through.
   • Really get serious with yourself, because this is your life. You only get one life and this is the time to plan it out at least for the next 5-10 years. So if it looks kind of foggy that’s fine, continue to hash it out in your mind. Use your imagination and dream big, think big with no limitations.
3. Be realistic
   • When you get your biggest dreams and imaginations together in a big picture then make it realistic. You won’t feasibly make One million dollars the next day from your dream session, so make it real. What are you going to have to do to make the dream come true? Do you need lots of money? Do you need more education in the field you want? Do you need to meet certain people? Make it real and put faces and names to the people and things in the dream.
   • Write it down on paper, to start transferring this dream from mind to reality. As you put it on paper you will become more energized. This will be a daunting task because your thought might be coming out faster than you can right them down. If that is the case get a tape recorder to capture your thoughts, then transcribe them later.
4. Give yourself milestones—measure your progress
   • When you get things on paper and rationally organized put dates on them. When do you need to call people? When do you need to have your degree? 1 year milestone, 2 year milestone, 18-month milestones. Milestones will help you track to a certain point or event and evaluate if you have made it there when it arrives. If your early and have achieved the milestone events early then GREAT, if not then get to gettin!
5. Be Persistent
   • Be relentlessly persistent in you pursuit of your future success. Don’t get discouraged by lackluster results. This is your future and potential a point that can make or break the next 5-10 years of your life. So be persistent and don’t quit.