Naturally, like just about every other popular activity and subject that urges people to need to know each and every possible thing there is to know about it, Pinterest now has its own For Dummies book. It’s official, guys, Pinterest has arrived, and the time to hop on that bandwagon is now.

Pinterest For Dummies was written by an innovative and just plain awesome woman who is part of a group of people who have the potential to benefit greatly from the magic that is Pinterest: bloggers. Kelby Carr is the founder and CEO of Type-A-Parent, a popular social network and blog, and the Type-A-Parent Conference, which I annually hear tons of terrific things about. Her penning this how-to book makes absolute perfect sense.

I thought I had Pinterest pretty much figured out, and to my credit, I do know what I’m doing when it comes to working the website properly. I can pin images, repin images, I know about the comment capability that almost no one uses, and I know that the like button exists, which I have come to realize through my usage of the website, is used by people who are too embarrassed or lazy to repin an image but still want to make sure people know that they were there. It was while reading this book, however, that I realized I could use a few pointers when it comes to using Pinterest in order to self-promote my own projects and really make an influential difference ind doing so. Turns out I didn’t know everything. Imagine that.

Pinterest For Dummies has the answer to any Pinterest-related questions or concerns you may have. From how to set up an account and start pinning to the many devices you can access and use Pinterest on and controlling your privacy settings, it is all covered. In addition to the whole self-promotion aspect of Pinterest, I was also very interested in getting tips on using Pinterest as an organization tool, effective mood board, and event planning tool. My life has recently changed in some very drastic ways. My partner of six and half years became my fiance in mid-April and in the beginning of February we bought our own home. I am now in the middle of creating a warm and inviting home that signifies who we are and starting the very beginning stages of wedding planning simultaneously! Lo and behold, I not only found out the easiest way to organize the many things Pinterest can inspire, but I also learned how to make a board a collaborative project and read about how it can also be used as a shopping list, a bookmarking site, and even using it to support a cause. There’s a whole lot of valuable information in this book.

The last two chapters of Pinterest For Dummies are also great resources. Chapter 11 lists 10 companies that are using Pinterest effectively, including Etsy, Lowe’s Whole Foods, and Better Homes and Gardens. Chapter 12 lists 10 power pinners that if you have a Pinterest account, you should be following. I was pleased to find out that I already follow the majority of the people who were listed and I definitely agree with the recommendations. The 10 people listed in this book have already been inspiring me on Pinterest exponentially throughout the past several months that I have been using the website.

Giveaway

If you just started using Pinterest and want information on how to make the most of it, if you don’t yet have an account but are thinking about joining the countless people already using the site, or even if you believe yourself to be an expert Pinterest user, I am confident in saying that you can benefit from reading Pinterest For Dummies. So how would you like to win a copy of the book for yourself? To enter, use the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received a copy of “Pinterest For Dummies” for review and the opportunity to host this giveaway as part of a promotional program with Global Influence. No other compensation was received, and opinions are my own.

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More than 50 million Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Usually we hear most about helping those in need during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, which is when most charitable giving is done. This makes sense, but poverty and hunger affects millions of people every single day, not just during the holidays of selfless giving.

As the instability of the national job market continues, more families are finding themselves in need of a little help, and springtime traditionally brings a decrease in food and charitable donations to food banks across the country. To help increase meals for those in need during the spring hunger gap, Walmart has teamed up with Feeding America in a nationwide Fighting Hunger Together initiative that is expected to generate 43 million meals for families in need.

From April 9th to April 30th, you can Vote to fight spring hunger with Walmart on Facebook and rally support for communities in need of hunger relief. Among the 200 communities with the highest unemployment rate (as determined by a Department of Labor report), Walmart will donate a total of $2 million to the 21 communities who receive the most support as a result of the Facebook campaign. The breakdown is that $1 million will be donated to the winning community and the 20 runners-up will each receive a $50,000 donation.

My support will definitely be behind Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA, my hometown. I would love to see my community benefit from this initiative during a time when it really needs that support. Take a look at the communities with the highest unemployment rates that you will be able to vote for starting April 9th through Walmart’s Fighting Hunger Together Facebook campaign.

During these three weeks of April you can also participate in this Fighting Hunger Together initiative by shopping at Walmart and purchasing select products from four of the most popular and recognized food brands in America that are also participating, ConAgra, General Mills, Kraft, and Kellogg’s. Customers can donate meals to Feeding America or Action for Healthy Kids, a nonprofit organization that works to fight childhood hunger. Just by shopping the brands you and your family love, you can help make a difference in the lives of countless families in need this spring.

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The following infographic breaks down what social services businesses are using the most and how drastically social network usage and micro-blogging has increased deals and sales for all types of businesses.



Courtesy of InsideView

Click image to enlarge in new window

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How I wish social media was then what it is today. We were lucky to at least have Instant Messenger.

According to ComScore 2010 US Digital Year in Review women spend more time social networking than men. Women spent approximately 16.8% on social sites in December of 2010 while men spent only 12%.

Today, social media tools are just as much associated with businesses as well as personal lives. Some researchers claim women are better with social media while others say men are. To confuse matters further, the LinkedIn research team suggests that women are better communicators in male industries and men are better at marketing in female industries (here is the report).

However, is this a real gender issue–or is it more about the skills needed to get the job done?

In this article, I address specific skills which are necessary to have in order to effectively and efficiently work with these tools. A few are listed below.

Communication and Relationships

To be fair, men can be great communicators in the work place where they are required to communicate information related to their expertise. My brother is a perfect example. He is a doctor and is known for his warm old fashioned bedside manner with his patients. He is patient, takes his time explaining technical diagnoses in simple-to-understand terms. His patients love him. However, as his sister, I find his personal communication skills stink (for lack of a better word) and could use drastic improvement.

On the other hand, women stereotypically speaking are natural communicators. We innately desire more emotional components in our relationships, from the personal sexual aspect to the professional relationships we build in the workplace.

Having worked for nearly a decade from a home office, transitioning to a new job in an office location with other women was something I wasn’t too crazy about at first as I’m quite content minding my own when I work. However, it wasn’t before long I started finding the need to get up out of my chair just to see what was going on with others and start a little friendly chit chat.

While working at home, I had my husband to chat with throughout the day or at lunch. In the office in my new job at the time, I still needed that interactivity–I never knew how innate it actually was in my own life.

Organization and Strategy

Another skill a person who wants to be successful at social marketing must have is the ability to be strategically organized. This means planning campaigns and following through. My husband is a big picture thinker and visionary. He comes up with an idea and yet doesn’t have a clue how to strategically implement it. Just throw it out there and see what happens.

Yes, I know some women are like this too, but I’m talking in general–and yes based on stereotypes. In my current job, I just wrote a press release about our sip solutions for encryption. Sip service or trunking is another term for VoIP, but for business. I created a list of all the places I would need to post a link or reference to this press release. No point in posting it online at our website only to not tell anyone about it–what a waste of time! So, I organized a list of all the places and how to spread the word. I also wrote a blog post on the topic, creating additional internal linking and relevant content.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, website, blogs, and newsletters–all these had to be strategically worded and sent out. I had to figure out not only what day to send it out, but what time of day in order to be most effective. Even though my male boss said it was fine to send it out on the weekend, I knew I’d be better off waiting for Monday daytime at the earliest. My efforts proved right.

To do well at social media is not about sending tweets at 2AM announcing a random new promo. It’s much more than that. It’s engaging with your audience in a deliberate and well managed and thought out process.

Intuition–Women Tend to Be Better at It

When dealing with social media, the tone of communication used for one company may be different than another. Learning to discern what is appropriate is an important aspect of communicating–it calls for intuition, something women tend to have a knack for.

For example, when working with my husband’s small business in sales, I knew many of our customers were from the art industry and not Corporate America. Many in our industry were mom and pop stores and having a personal touch is what worked for them.

Today, I work with a corporation, where my interactions may not be as personal–but the level of communication skill is–as long as it’s in an appropriate manner. For example, my role may be to ask a lot of industry specific questions to instigate a stronger degree of interaction and debate by those in my circles.

In the end, when dealing with social media tools, does it really matter if the role belongs to a man or woman? My answer is no, as long as the candidate has the proper interpersonal and relational skills needed for that particular job and industry. If they don’t, are they able to adapt and change?

Organization, strategy, intuition, and the ability to communicate effectively with the target audience–these are the skills which an individual who wants to be successful in the social media marketing world must either already possess or show an ability to learn an attain. If they cannot listen, learn and be trained–find someone who can!

Photo by Internet Marketing1

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This law is not a bad idea, in theory. There are few advantages for students to have constant access to their teachers outside of the classroom atmosphere and without the supervision of fellow teachers, principals and school boards. The world of social media could arguably aid in teachers’ abilities to mentor and tutor students through group chats, email and instant messaging, but teachers already work a tremendous amount of hours. I find it hard to believe that many teachers would enjoy having their students reaching out to them for extra help or to chat during the little time that they spend away from their classrooms and the almost-constant piles of paperwork and assignments waiting to be graded.

While this law has been received well as a reasonable step to ensure the safety of students and the jobs of hard-working teachers, the extremely vague language of the bill has caused some major concern. In its own language, the bill states that any online interaction between “teachers and current or former students” is forbidden, which has brought up many questions. For instance, does the law pertain to any student that a teacher has personally had in class, or does it extend to any student within a specific school district? When it comes to former students interacting with teachers through social networking, is there a specific time period that must elapse before you can have any online interaction with any teacher who has ever taught you?

This is obviously a new type of law that has emerged from the recent networking possibilities that social networking websites have made possible, but I don’t think that Missouri’s new take on appropriate teacher-student relationships will really accomplish what it sets out to primarily because of the broad wording of the bill.

When I was in high school, which was just a mere six years ago, I had the privilege of having two years of a Creative Writing class with an amazing teacher who single-handedly gave me immense confidence in my ability to write well. Without having him as a teacher, I doubt I would have gone on in life to not just write for a living, but to write for a space that I also created. When I first read about this new law in Missouri, I immediately thought of him and how it was not uncommon for him to give all of his students his personal email address. Out of curiosity, I looked him up on Facebook last night and there are many of his former students who are friends with him on Facebook. If we lived in Missouri, would reaching out to one of the most influential teachers you ever had in your life be against the law, even if you were taught by this educator a handful of years or more ago?

Photo by SCSSAPICS

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The event was hosted by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and to kick off the event, President Obama tweeted from his @whitehouse account about reducing the deficit, a theme that played out heavily during the Twitter-fueled Q&A.

Over 70,000 tweets were sent to the President either through the #AskObama hashtag or mentioned the @townhall username. Several talking points arose including questions about job creation, the economy, housing and the legalization of marijuana. In fact, the most retweeted question of the entire town hall event was, “Would you consider legalizing marijuana to increase revenue and save tax dollars by freeing up crowded prisons, court rooms.” Sadly, the President did not answer this tweet, which is a true shame. I would be genuinely interested in hearing the President’s answer, considering we have known for quite some time now that the 40-year War on Drugs has been a failed effort.

According to White House officials, out of the 70,000+ tweets that rolled in, President Obama answered 18 questions during the event, questions that were carefully selected by a team from Twitter and a group of veteran Twitter users from around the country.

Being the classy bunch we all know them to be, House Speaker John Boehner and many Republican members of Congress took to their own Twitter accounts to berate the President on job creation and the budget; most obvious throughout these tweets were the snarky attitudes oozing from their 140-characters. It made me think that perhaps these politicians are not aware of how our government works. The Republican members of Congress all ran on a platform that promised voters job creation; that is the reason why so many from the right-wing were elected into their positions in the first place. Fast-forward to the present and they are sitting in their cozy positions, passing their workload over to the President and fighting every step of the way to making any headway.

The most enthusiastic of Twitter users during the event were those from the Washington DC area. Other areas accumulating the most tweets were from major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

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First hitting the scene in 2008, TweetDeck has been one of the most popular and trusted third-party apps. It is packed full of awesome features that make managing not just your Twitter account, but a myriad of different social media accounts–and multiple accounts at the same time–incredibly easy. Unlike a few apps that have risen in popularity, TweetDeck has not revoked privileges that users have become reliant on in order to effectively manage their accounts and ways of being able to correspond.

In their three years of operation, it seems like TweetDeck has done just about everything right. And it paid off. It paid off big. News was released recently that TweetDeck has officially been acquired by Twitter for a whopping $40 million.

The offer made by Twitter is so surprising because it is $10 to $15 million more than what UberMedia was speculated to acquire TweetDeck for back in February. Looks like Twitter just couldn’t stand the thought of TweetDeck being acquired by another company specializing in third-party apps.

One of the main concerns many users have expressed since the acquisition news was first released is if Twitter is going to continue allowing users to manage their other social media accounts through TweetDeck. Now that it is an official Twitter application, it is very much possible for them to limit TweetDeck’s capability to Twitter-only. Another very large fear of the TweetDeck community is that now that Twitter has acquired TweetDeck, they could have been looking to merely shelve the app and take it out of the picture completely. It is agreed that this would be a very bad move on Twitter’s part, but I suppose we can only wait and see what happens with the future of TweetDeck.

Photo by Rosetta

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Current research and medical studies reveal that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Each time one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, she brings a league of family, friends and loved ones with her to join in the fight against it. The fight against breast cancer is never just the fight of the one diagnosed with it; it is the fight of everyone who has ever known someone who has been diagnosed.

It’s true that countless people have committed themselves wholly to fighting breast cancer, but what every person who has donated their time, resources and finances to this fight will tell you, is that the fight will not stop until a cure for this severe and tragic cancer has been found. One of the most pivotal steps in ensuring a cure is found within our lifetime is to continue raising awareness while making a difference in the lives of those who have been affected by breast cancer.

BeeWell for Life is a resource dedicated to supplying people just like you and me with the resources and tools available to make the most of your healthy active lifestyle. Their website is fully dedicated to the health and wellbeing of your body, mind and spirit while continuing to lead the way in breast cancer awareness and support through their partnership with the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization.

The BeeWell for Life website is also the home of the BeeWell Miles Program where you can Walk and Bee the Difference. For every mile you walk, run or cycle and log on their website, they will donate $0.10 to the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization to fund YourShoes, a peer support program that includes a 24/7 breast cancer center that provides a toll-free hotline, email and support groups staffed by trained breast cancer survivors, as well as other outreach and awareness services and programs.

To make sure you never miss an important health tip, be sure to follow @BeWellforLife on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook.

iPad2 Giveaway

In an effort to get more people having active conversations about breast cancer, raising awareness and to help make a difference in the lives of those affected by breast cancer, BeeWell for Life has just launched Tag4Cancer.com, where they are giving away an iPad2 to two lucky winners. To enter to win, tweet from the Tag4Cancer.com website and make sure your tweet includes the hashtag #Tag4Cancer, links back to the official Tag4Cancer website and mentions both @beewellforlife and one of your friend’s Twitter handles so they can raise breast cancer awareness too. The more you tweet, the better your chances of winning.

But that isn’t all; you have yet another chance to win an iPad2 by introducing other participating bloggers (like myself) to some of your most inspiring, motivating friends! To enter to win, leave a comment on this post telling us how or why a certain friend of yours inspires you to either be fit or to make a difference in others. You must link to your friend’s blog, Facebook profile or Twitter handle in your comment.

For the list of participating bloggers where you can also comment to enter to win an iPad2, check out the contest rules. This contest will end May 31st.

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While full details have not been released, we do know that in Oregon Trail you have the ability to form a “wagon party” with your friends and in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, players are sent on a global search for criminals with the ability to enlist help from friends along the way.

Take a look at the trailers for the new games inside.

Oregon Trail Trailer

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego Trailer

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Late last night the social network client sent out an email to users unveiling their new Pro service, which at $5.99 per month (plus $5 per month per additional team member you may have on your social media accounts), gives subscribers an ad-free HootSuite experience, Google Analytics Integration, an unlimited number of social network accounts that can be accessed through your account, unlimited RSS/Atom feeds, unlimited Ow.ly stat history, unlimited social insights, influence scores, URL parameters, and enhanced support.

If you decide not to opt for the new HootSuite Pro, your account will automatically be downgraded to a Basic account, which allows users to have 5 social network accounts tied into their HootSuite account, 2 RSS/Atom feeds, 30 day Ow.ly stat history, message scheduling, saved draft messages, and multi-network integration through an ad-supported HootSuite experience.

While I understand that the bottom line of any company is to make money, in the world of social media clients, there way be a little too much competition for HootSuite to make as much money as they are most likely hoping to make with their monthly Pro accounts. There are a myriad of desktop and web-based clients that remain free that have become popular amongst those with the strongest voices in social media.

I have personally used HootSuite for a few months now and began using it for the ability to have more than one Twitter account accessible at one time, which makes it a lot easier to update multiple accounts throughout the day. I also like that I am able to have access to my Facebook pages right through the website, instead of having to log into Facebook, go through my list of pages, pick which one I would like to view and update accordingly. However, even with how much easier HootSuite has made it for me to update my social network accounts throughout the day, I couldn’t necessarily justify yet another monthly subscription account and opted to just remove two of my previous seven accounts that were synced with HootSuite to continue using the service with a Basic account.

Will you be switching to HootSuite Pro? If you don’t use HootSuite, what social network clients have become your favorite?

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It’s not every day you hear of a CEO taking it upon themselves to step down and basically demote themselves within their own company, but that is exactly what Williams is doing. Of course, he assures Twitter fanatics that their social networking service of choice will be in good hands from now on, speaking very highly of the newly-appointed CEO, Dick Costolo, who used to be the COO of the company.

Williams points out that “during [Costolo's] year at Twitter, he has been a critical leader in devising and executing [Twitter's] revenue efforts, while simultaneously and effectively making the trains run on time in the office.”

Just two years ago, Twitter had 3 million registered users and people were creating 1.25 million tweets a day. Today, Twitter has 165 million registered users who are creating 90 million tweets a day.

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Mark Zuckerberg has captured the attention of practically everyone and if you’re not excited enough about David Fincher’s upcoming The Social Network where Zuckerberg is portrayed as more of a villain amongst those who were in on founding the social networking website, then stay tuned for the Mark Zuckerberg comic.

Bluewater Productions, a Canadian comic book production company, plans to release a 48-page saga that seeks to answer the question “Who is the real Mark Zuckerberg?” Mark Zuckerberg: Creator of Facebook will be available in December and many are wondering what Zuckerberg we’ll see in the comic–”[will it be]the young billionaire and creator and CEO of Facebook who announced recently that he is generously donating $100 million to public schools in Newark or the cold-blooded businessman who walks over people to get what he wants – the way he is portrayed in the critically acclaimed movie The Social Network.”

Regardless of how you feel about Zuckerberg, the author of the comic book, Jerome Maida, has made it very clear that he is trying his best to be fair in his writing, keeping in mind that no one is totally innocent in the story and that each of the major players’ point of view will be represented.

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Twitter has just launched the offical Tweet Button, a small button that when clicked, will bring up a small window that lets you log into your Twitter account and automatically share what you’re reading with all of your followers.

Twitter found that close to a quarter of all Tweets contain a link in them and I know from personal experience that every single piece of huge news out there that I get, comes directly from the people I follow on Twitter. Whenever there is a celebrity death, breaking world news, or something going on that I’m interested in, Twitter is the service that is usually making me aware of it. Now, with the release of the Twitter Button, sharing links to what you’re reading and interested in is simpler than having to open Twitter in your browser or load your desktop Twitter application and shorten a link. Just by clicking on the official Twitter button, that has already been implemented on countless websites you frequent every day, you can share that information in a lot less time.

We have just implemented the official Twitter Button here on Woman Tribune and already, I found a really awesome feature that I’m super excited about. If you click on the number of the Tweets a particular blog post has on the Tweet Button, it will bring you to Twitter and show you, in real time, who’s retweeting that post. To see it in action, take a look at everyone Tweeting about our $25 Walmart gift card giveaway.

Before the launch of this official Tweet Button, there was a very popular retweet button made by TweetMeme and they haven’t been left out by Twitter releasing their official button. In fact, the developers behind TweetMeme will be working closely with Twitter.

TweetMeme has written on their blog all about how they will be working with Twitter to assist them in the technical challenges involved with the button and they will also be working with Twitter on delivering real-time curation of the Twitter Firehose.

Websites like Huffington Post, Gawker Media, SFGate, Hulu, CNN and many others have already implemented the Tweet Button on their websites and if you want to put it on yours, just grab the short code and you’ll automatically be making it super easy for your readers to share your content.

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If you have attended BlogHer in the past, or just know a lot about it from seeing it being blogged about practically everywhere or have a few friends who have attended the conferences and just had to share every single detail with you, you know that in 2008 a tradition was created–the Community Keynote. This year will be no different, but after two years of receiving hundreds of submissions for the Community Keynote and going through the agonizing process of narrowing the list of entries down to just 15 to 20, this year’s Community Keynote will work a little differently and it will include quite a few more people.

While 15 bloggers will be chosen to present their work to the BlogHer community, 75 additional bloggers will also be honored as Voices of the Year. BlogHer has partnered with the savvy social media mavens behind Kirtsy, Gabrielle Blair, Laura Mayes and Laurie Smithwick to create a Gala of quality voices that will be heard during the 2010 BlogHer Community Keynote. The event, BlogHer 2010 Voices of the Year Gala and Art Auction Curated by Kirtsy, will be held the night of Friday, August 6th from 6:00pm to 10:00pm and it will be held over an entire floor of the Hilton hotel in New York.

So what kind of things can you expect from this Gala? Well, one section will feature a type of performance art from bloggers like Jenny of The Bloggess. In another section, Karen of Chookooloonks and other accompanying bloggers will be painting and throughout the entire party, there will be an art exhibit full of artwork and photography from over 150 bloggers.

The auction segment of the Gala will not take place during the same night. Instead, it will be held a few weeks after BlogHer has ended and everyone who attended is still adjusting back into their daily routine and planning for next summer’s BlogHer conference. All of the proceeds from the auction will benefit Nature Conservancy to assist with oil cleanup in the Gulf.

Sounds like a pretty awesome party and a great way to feature the bloggers who work hard to keep their blogs up and running and whose creativity and openness we can sometimes take advantage of as readers.

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Facebook has reached 500 million users, making it the most popular social website on the internet (by a long shot.) To celebrate the tremendous milestone, not only will Facebook launch Facebook Stories, a website within Facebook that will sort user-submitted stories and feature them for all to see, but Facebook CEO, infamously camera shy Mark Zuckerberg, also sat down for an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer.

Sawyer asked Zuckerberg about the recent lawsuit pending in the Supreme Court of Allegany County, New York, that claims Zuckerberg had signed a contract to sign over 84% of ownership over Facebook. Here’s what he had to say about what has already been called a pretty ridiculous lawsuit across the board:

Facebook has also had a great deal of problems with users when it comes to privacy. People are running into confusion when it comes to what they are sharing and who they are sharing it with. Zuckerberg also addressed that.

You can watch the entire exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer and Mark Zuckerberg here.

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Facebook has quickly become the most popular social website and next week, they will reach the tremendously impressive milestone of having 500 million users. This time last year, the site had just reached 200 million users and five months ago, 400 million people were logging onto Facebook.

To celebrate 500 million users, Randi Zuckerberg, the marketing guru behind Facebook, gave an interview to All Things Digital’s BoomTown blog, saying that to celebrate its number of users, the company wants it to be all about the users. The initiative she’s talking about is Facebook Stories.

From Mashable:

“Facebook Stories will be a website within Facebook that’ll sort actual, submitted user stories by location and theme. Theme examples given included “finding love” and “natural disasters.” Each story will be limited to the same number of characters a Facebook status caps out at: 420.”

Do you have a great Facebook story of your own you would like to share with the 499 million other Facebook users out there? You can submit your own story and if it becomes popular, gaining more “Likes” than most of the other user-submitted stories, it could be featured among other popular Facebook stories.

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The lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of Allegany County in New York last month and according to the contract he signed with the people behind “thefacebook.com”, he was to be given $1,000 and a 50% stake in Facebook for the services he provided. Not only that, but he claims he was also to be given a 1% stake in the company for each day that passed until the site was finished. The website was complete on February 4, 2004 and after adding it all up, Ceglia claims that he should rightfully be owed 84% of Facebook.

The lawsuit is a little weird because firstly, where has this guy been? Facebook is bigger now than it has ever been which definitely piques your interest when you’re thinking of the perfect time to sue a company and get a pretty penny out of them. Ceglia has not made any mention of this case for over six years after he had signed the contract with Facebook. Furthermore, Ceglia was just sued last year for failing to deliver wood pellets to customers. He racked up damages to the effect of $200,000. How is he going to dig himself out of that whole? Well, 84% of Facebook should more than cover it, don’t you think?

While the likelihood of Paul Ceglia actually walking out of court with 84% ownership of Facebook is very slim, the court has issued a temporary restraining order which makes it illegal for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook to transfer any assets. To put it lightly, Facebook is definitely feeling the pressure from this court case. Facebook will need to go to court to disprove Ceglia’s claims and from the sounds of it, the lawsuit sounds pretty ridiculous, to say the least. How does a company give a web designer and developer stake in the company and keep adding to the stake the longer it takes him to complete his work? That is just rewarding someone for not completing a project and that makes absolutely no sense.

You can see the entire lawsuit and all 9 court documents over at Mashable.

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MTV is currently looking for someone who can engage the network’s audience, spread the word about important events, report on MTV special events like the Video Music Awards coming up in September–and do it all in 140 characters or less.

According to MTV, they are looking for a social media maven who will represent their audience by taking note of their thoughts and questions and who will be able to bring those questions inside the walls of the people who make the network what it is.

But of course MTV isn’t just looking for resumes–that has never been their style. Anyone interested in the full-time Twitter Jockey position will take part in a series of online challenges over the course of the summer. The challenges are designed to reveal the applicants’ personalities and to also demonstrate how they connect with Twitter followers.

There are currently 18 potential candidates for the job and MTV is looking for two more. You can nominate yourself or your favorite Facebook friends for the position online. After the challenges, the five finalists will be part of a live show airing August 8th where MTV fans will hold all the power in choosing who gets the new job.

And is it really a sweet a deal as it sounds? Well, considering the new MTV TJ will earn a six-figure salary, I think it is.

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I am not alone. There are many, many, MANY other women out of there who get home after a long day of working or errands, or working and errands, take off their shoes and feel like crawling right into bed because they’re so exhausted, yet there’s always so much to do and our work is never truly done.

Lisa Quinn understands. She not only understands, but she wrote a book about how women can’t get everything done–and that’s okay. Lisa Quinn is an Emmy Award-winning television host who used to go gaga over Martha–she is now reformed and is feeling a lot better now and shares her wisdom in the upcoming Life’s Too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets.

To celebrate the release of Life’s Too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets, MomSelect is having a Twitter party where we can all share our own secret weapons for domestic survival and balancing family, life and happiness. Some lucky Twitter party-goers will also have a chance to win a copy of the book for themselves.

So join MomSelect (and a bunch of fab women including me!) on Tuesday, May 5th at 8PM EST and use the hashtag #LifesTooShort. The Twitter party will be hosted by @MomTalkRadio and be sure to also follow @ResourcefulMom and @MomSelectAmy for updates, prize information and contest details during the party.

See you there!

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The Ultimate Blog Party 2010 has officially begun! Towards the end of March Jenny posted about the annual blogging event going on at 5 Minutes for Mom and since then, I have been completely stoked for it, having participated the last two years, each time being amazed at the wonderful women I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and the new blogs I was introduced to and still read today. Finally, the time is here and I can’t wait to meet even more wonderful ladies!

So I suppose I should tell you a little about myself…

My name is Holly and I created this here website. Woman Tribune is more of a women’s magazine than your average blog. We try to post on a variety of different topics and issues that are important to women today, from the serious, like parenting, green living and ways people and organizations are changing the world, to the completely frivolous and fun entertainment industry. No one has just one interest, which was the exact concept behind the creation of this blog, being a woman of many interests myself, and also a woman who wears many different hats. While you’ll find a lot of news oriented things here, I’m always sure to add a personal touch to what I write and you’ll also be sure to find a lot of things about my day-to-day life and my family as well.

I’m 23 years old and I’m a full-time, professional blogger both here, as well as on a feminist/political website, Menstrual Poetry. When I’m not blogging, I do freelance writing, web design and development. Needless to say, I spend most of my time in front of a computer. I live with my partner of nearly 5 years, Allen, and our cat, Devin.

Yes, that is my obscenely over-crowded desk and Devin acting like she owns the place.

While we don’t have any children of our own, I get to share his two little girls from his previous marriage. Their names are Lydian, who is five and Rylie, who is four. They provide constant joy, laughter, challenges and have a tendency to consistently get me to question my own sanity. Fortunately, I happen to have a database of Disney Princess trivia stored in my head, which gives me unlimited brownie points with Rylie.

I’m really excited to be participating in this year’s Ultimate Blog Party and I also happen to have a really great giveaway going on; well, at least I think it’s pretty great! Oddly enough, coinciding my giveaways with the party was not planned, it just happened to (thankfully) work out that way.

We are giving away 10 copies of the new edition of My Little Red Book, an anthology of short stories from women of all ages, from all around the world about first periods. To win, all you have to do is leave a comment on the giveaway post telling us about your first period. Don’t worry, we’re not asking for graphic details! This giveaway ends April 14th, so go enter!

Lastly, you can follow Woman Tribune on Twitter @WomanTribune and become a fan of Woman Tribune on Facebook–if you like Woman Tribune, that is! Otherwise you don’t have to and I won’t be mad or anything!

That’s it for me! I hope you enjoyed your time here on Woman Tribune and got a feel for what I’m all about. I love meeting new, fellow bloggers and I can’t wait to meet all of the wonderful ladies participating in the Ultimate Blog Party. Happy blog hopping!

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When news first broke of Jay Leno being pushed back into late night by NBC, the masses began siding with Conan O’Brien, also affectionately known as “Coco.” He became the most popular he had been for what seemed like his entire career, as he faced unemployment from NBC.

While Conan was host of the Tonight Show for a mere 7 months, his popularity has not died down since we all tuned in to see his last show and it was only a matter of time until Coco came to join his fans on the internet–starting his very own twitter account.

@ConanOBrien became active on Twitter a mere 19 hours ago and since then his identity has been verified by Twitter and he has accumulated over 270,000 followers and has been listed over 6,000 times. He has only tweeted once since his account has become active, but that isn’t stopping his fans from flocking to his Twitter account.

Will you follow Conan O’Brien on Twitter? Do you think it’s about time he hopped on the Twitter bandwagon?

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CEO of Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz, has resigned and as only appropriate for a CEO of an IT company, he went out in style, tweeting his resignation. But it wasn’t just any old tweet, it was a full on tweet-haiku. Yeah, pretty awesome.

Schwartz has officially become the first Fortune 200 boss to tweet his resignation, which isn’t too big a surprise, considering he was the first chief executive of a major company to come out with a public blog of his own. He had also pushed the Securities and Exchange Commission to treat blogs the same as press releases and filings in matters of disclosing critical business matters to investors.

The reason behind Schwartz’s resignation is said to be because Sun was recently acquired by Oracle, which acquired the company after I.B.M. had moved to buy them out, but when negotiations came to a standstill, Oracle moved quickly to grab it. In an interview conducted last week with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, he had stated that he fully expects Schwartz to resign, rather than play a role in the new Sun/Oracle company.

While it is not well-known what is next for Jonathan Schwartz, he had stated in an e-mail that “with a few million businesses and a few billion consumers on the Web, rumor has it there are some interesting opportunities to be had.” and he is completely right; you never know what’s going to happen when it comes to an IT professional joining the ranks of the recently unemployed, but I’m sure the right company will snatch him up, perhaps a company with the same innovative ideas and mindset for the internet and blogging world.

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But how do we know what words people are saying the most in a particular year? Well, Twitter was crowned the winner by Texas-based algorithms company, Global Language Monitor (GLM). Other words people like to say a lot are vampire, which we can blame on Stephanie Meyer and her Twilight series as well as True Blood, and of course, the word stimulus, which makes sense since we’re in the middle of a global recession and $800 billion sure is a lot of money to be pumped into the US economy–and still have more people living below the poverty line since the Great Depression.

This definitely shows how big Twitter is, not just as a social networking site, but as a daily part of our lives. All of the really big news that has broken over the past year or more, I have heard about first on Twitter and a lot of other people have remarked with the same sentiment. Twitter is easy for anyone to hop onto, it’s accessible and that is why it has seen so much success covering pretty much any and every topic imaginable.

So what do you think? Are you on Twitter? Do you Tweet your days and nights away or still not understand why everyone is on it? Also, don’t forget to follow WomanTribune on Twitter!

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Please note that this week’s Monday Mingle was recorded on Tuesday night and posted Wednesday afternoon. Hopefully future Monday Mingles will actually pan out to be posted on Monday; we’ll see.

Now it’s your turn! Go get your camera and join in on the fun! Eighty MPH Mom has her linky up all week so you can record your video for Monday Mingle any day of the week. It’s a great way to meet other great bloggers out there and also get to know a little more about the people you’re reading.

Here are the questions for next week:

1. Talk about a breast cancer awareness program and post a link to that site. You can wear pink if you’d like, or do something else for Breast Cancer awareness (this whole step should be simple).

2. What is the closest you have come to meeting a celebrity? Or have you ever met a celebrity? (this can be ANY celebrity- famous author/singer/actor/even blogger LOL)

3. Would you rather lick a grocery cart handle or lick a bus stop bench?

4. Do you like to sing? Are you a good singer? What would Simon Cowell say about your singing? Feel free to sing a short song if you want.

5. Make up a limerick about Monday Mingle! (you know – limericks? “There once was a man from Nantucket….”)

See you next week!

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Facebook is a daily staple in many people’s lives. It has a tremendous impact on people who want to get back in touch, stay in touch, contact companies with any questions or comments you may have about their line of products or their business ethics, and it also allows you to receive the latest news and special updates from your favorite websites.

And Woman Tribune has just joined that list of websites you can keep track of on Facebook! We have recently created a Facebook page where you can receive the latest posts you may have missed and share news, ideas and stories with other like-minded women who also read Woman Tribune. We also have plans to offer exclusive giveaways only available to our loyal Facebook fans, so there’s your incentive to become a fan right there!

So how do you become a fan? It’s easy. Just go to our Facebook page and click ‘Become A Fan’ and you’re all set and will begin seeing our updates on your Facebook home page immediately!

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