A work at home mom discusses social media and networking.

This guest post comes from Chris Brogan. Chris is the author of ChrisBrogan.com and the eleventh in my series featuring social media dads.

Being a Social Media Dad

One of the frequent questions I receive is, “How do you find time for your family?” People see my hectic travel schedule, my rigorous blog posting and other writing projects, my conference attendance and speaking gigs, and they imagine that my family has no idea who I am. The thing is, social media has done more to bring my family closer together than one might think.

Connectivity

When I’m away on a trip, I’m not relegated to my cell phone. I can use iChat, Skype Video, or ooVoo to reach home and share a visual of where I am and what’s going on with my children and wife. If not live, I can at least shoot video using a Flip camera and share that with them later. I’m more connected to my kids now, which is nice.

Collaboration

My daughter has grown up using social media tools. She was my intro voice for my first (and second and third) podcast. My son and my daughter both use my Mac’s photobooth software with reckless abandon. (Sometimes, I have to remove some of these photos, because one of them loves to put up pictures of one’s bottom). We do some of this stuff together, and we have fun doing it. I recently wrote my daughter a Happy Birthday blog post, sharing my feelings with her to the web. I shot a video for my son’s first birthday. So it’s a way to collaborate.

Knowing When

But the truth of the matter is, what people don’t know much about, and what can’t be accomplished by software, is that when I’m home, I’m really home, and I spend a lot of time and affection and attention with my children and wife. I’m not nearly as fidgety as I used to be when I didn’t work in social media and when I didn’t travel around sharing my dreams and aspirations with the outside world. I LOVE spending time at home with my family, and they get a lot of tickling, tumbling, imagining, playing, and story time from me when I’m there.

I hope this helps others who are wondering how it all blends. It takes work, but you can definitely maintain a creative and media-filled life while raising a family. I’m grateful that I have a job that allows me to spend as much time with my family as it does, and further thrilled that I get the best of both worlds. Here’s hoping you’re every bit as fortunate as I am for that.

Follow Chris on Twitter here or on Plurk here.

I have been featuring a series of posts written by some fantastic social media dads. So, in honor of Father’s Day, I want to honor those dads that have contributed to this blog as well as those dad I am hoping to feature here.

Happy Father’s Day Guys!

Brian Wallace

Darren Rowse

Tim Jackson

Jeff Quipp

Jason Falls

Doriano Carta

Mark Dykeman

Marty Weintraub

Jim Stroud

Scott Monty

JD Rucker

David Harry

David Armano

Jeff Tippet

David Wallace

Matt McGee

Derek Semmler

Brian Clark

Chris Brogan

Alex Iskold

Please forgive me if I did not include every social media dad in the blogosphere. Leave me a note if you are a social media dad and of course, Happy Father’s Day to you too!

Everyone is talking about Plurk, the new microblogging platform that has all kinds of special features that Twitter does not have. Yesterday, Brian, asked if I had checked out Plurk. Since my answer was “no” he went ahead and sent me an invite; he wanted to know what I thought of it. At first I was a bit overwhelmed and did not see the attraction. It was not love at first site, as it was so very different from Twitter. I really did not do much with it at first other than get registered and set up my account. As the day went on, the friend requests started coming in and I was forced to spend some time on Plurk.

I accepted a few friendships, read a few updates and noticed that some friends from Twitter looked to be having a good time “plurking” so I started to chime in. Needless to say, 3 hours later, I finally said goodnight to all of my new friends and was determined to write about Plurk today!

The jury is out, when it comes to the question of whether or not Plurk is unique or just another Twitter clone. But the buzz, speaks for itself………

“Yesterday I spent an absurd amount of time exploring a new social media site called Plurk. The buzz started a couple nights ago when Leo Laporte tweeted out that sites like Plurk show that there is a lot of opportunity for innovation in the microblogging space. The end result was that thousands of users flocked to the site. Robert Scoble then popped up in my FriendFeed and I suddenly knew that there would be a bunch of people checking it out.”

I am totally hooked. Plurk is by far, more fun, more colorful and more interactive than Twitter and since Twitter has had so many technical issues lately, I’m really starting to think that Plurk might just be my new addiction. There is a great tutorial that I found, that does a great job explaining how to get the most out of Plurk. I sincerely suggest you give Plurk a try and by all means, let me know what you think of it!

The guys over at Common Craft have done it again with their clever and informative video analogies. Recently, I had a chance to watch their newest, “Social Media in Plain English“.

Take a look:

What do you think? Does Common Craft do a good job of analyzing how social media works? Does it show, in plain English, how businesses are using social media to improve awareness and open communications? Does this video do a good job at explaining how the sharing of opinions and ideas lay the foundation for success in business today? What say you?

Rumor has it, that Starbucks free Wi-Fi will start today in most US Starbucks stores. According to The Zatz Not Funny Blog, Dave has seen the corporate memo dictating a June 3 launch……

“Earlier today the manager approached me (unsolicited) and said the system was configured a few days ago and they’ve confirmed it works. I saw the back of the store memo and the manager says they’ve got signage behind the counter ready to go in conjunction with the June 3rd launch..”

This is very exciting for me. I have been asking at several of my local Starbucks when they were expecting their free Wi-Fi service to start and no one seemed to really know. Evidently, patrons will need to buy a Starbucks Card and use it at least once a month to receive two consecutive hours per day of blissful, Chai lovin’, internet access. Sign me up!

I recycle. I drive a hybrid. I conserve energy. I am really trying to be part of the solution and not the problem on our planet, and now, even web hosting companies are jumping on the “green” bandwagon to provide environmentally guided hosting.

Elizabeth, over at Able Reach, has put together a list of 22 environmentally friendly web hosting companies that are going green. This list is surely not complete so if you know of a hosting company that is doing something specific to save our planet like giving carbon credits, using renewable energy or solar power, hop on over and leave a comment.

And Media Temple, if you’re listening, what are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint?

After serious thought, and reconsideration of her goals, Kimberly Bock, aka SpostareDuro, has changed “Learning SEO Basics - Search Engine Optimization for the Curious Newbie” to “Learning SEO Basics - Supporter of Ethical Marketing”………..

“I am on the lookout for marketers / bloggers that are actively involved with charitable organizations, environmental causes, and endeavors that are of benefit to the welfare of humanity, including marketers blogs that are focussed upon ethical marketing. Regular activity in something as simple as Facebook causes where games are played for free is a good and fun way to contribute as well as make terrific friends.”

Kimberly has been an inspiration to me. Whether it be the environment, animals or an overall world in need, she continually promotes the changes she wishes to see. Unfortunately, some don’t see it that way.

I recently wrote a post regarding SocialVibe, a social site designed to bring consumers and brands together for various causes, and some of the comments I received led me to the conclusion that some may not really believe that marketing and ethics can co-exist………..

By saying, “most international corporations are not your friend if you’re in for charity and good will”, is to assume that companies are appeasing their consciences by exploiting others with one hand as they give liberally with the other and that is pure ignorance.

The Marketing Man notes that “ethical marketing” can be a core operating value and explains it like this:

“According to a recently released white paper on that subject, ethical marketing is a model of ethical interactivity between businesses and consumers that includes seven practices – notice, choice, access, contact, security, horizon and intrusiveness.”

Essentially, it’s not that the companies are bad, what it boils down to is intent and social media does a great job in allowing the bullsh*t and truth to be revealed. Not only theirs but mine as well. Are we in it for ourselves or for others? How am I, as a consumer, using my blog, my business, or my social media tools to make the world a better place? I can tell you that Kimberly is on the right track. She is using her blogs to build a network of marketers that wish to be included in a community that is green minded, ethically secure, and positively rooted in online pursuits. Does that include you? I hope so because “the best contribution to marketing isn’t requested of someone else. It’s given”. What’s your contribution?

This guest post comes from Jim Stroud. Jim is the founder and CEO of The Recruiters Lounge and the tenth in my series featuring social media dads.

The Popularity of Expletives

I was watching the movie - “Akee lah and The Bee” the other day. It is a very charming film about a young girl in her pursuit to win a prestigious spelling contest. I highly recommend it. It is rated PG and for the most part, is family-friendly. However, I had a few moments of discomfort over some of the expletives being used by some of the characters on the film. To be sure, I am not a prude. If I were watching a film about the Mafia or some intense action film, hearing such language would have gone unnoticed. But to hear them in a “family” movie, I was a bit taken a back.

So then I began to wonder, “Just how popular are expletives in the English language and what regions of the world tend to use these words the most?” (These are the type of things that Social Media Dads ponder? Well, I do.)

In case you are unsure what I mean, here is a definition of the word expletive.

ex-ple-tive - [ek-spli-tiv] curse: profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger

So, I did a bit of research. I went over to Google and used their Google Trends tool to see how many of Google’s users are searching for expletives and how often they are cited in the News. The results were surprising! For my study, I chose four expletives that I believed were commonly used in movies. (So as not to offend anyone, I am not spelling out the full words, but blocking letters with an asterix.) Those four words are: Sh*t, F**k, As**ole and D*mn.

In terms of internet searches:

• By far the “F” word was searched for the most and by a wide margin.
• The second most popular was Sh*t.
• The third most popular was D*mn.
• The fourth most popular was As**ole.

In terms of how many times these expletives were referenced in the news, a different result is revealed.

• D*mn was the most popular.
• Sh*t was the second most popular.
• The “F” word was third most popular.
• The fourth most popular was As**ole.

Here is a chart detailing the results:

I also thought it curious as to what regions used these words the most. Here are the results from that survey.

• The “F” word was searched for the most in India
• Sh*t was most popular in Australia.
• D*mn was most popular in the United States
• As**ole was also most popular in the United States.

I am very curious to hear your thoughts on this. How often have you heard these words in common use outside of Movies and Television? (Hearing these words in rush hour traffic does not count.

Follow Jim on Twitter here.