WATCH THIS EVENT LIVE FROM YOUR HOME COMPUTER.

BUY A TICKET HERE: http://socialmediaremotebootcamp.eventbrite.com/

Register here | Our Speakers | Our Sponsors | The Venue | What To Expect | MAP

This event is perfect for Los Angeles small biz owners, bootstrapped startups, motivated corporate ladder climbers, real estate agents, restaurant owners, or anyone wanting to wear the “social media” hat in their organization. This event has FOUR sessions to chose from.  One ticket gets you access to the whole day!  Pick which area you would like to learn (we highly suggest attending for all day).

Facebook Bootcamp (9am-10am)

Twitter Bootcamp (10-11am)

- How to offer a discount for anyone that follows you on Twitter
- How to automatically send a message to new twitter followers
- How to run a very SIMPLE twitter contest/treasure hunt – This is worth thousands of dollars to some brands
- One phrase to remind your whole team before they send out messages

Website & Email Bootcamp (11am-Noon)

LUNCH AND NETWORKING (Noon-1pm)

Competition Bootcamp (1pm -3pm)

Official RSVP Here

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE WHO ARE HELPING TO MAKE THIS EVENT A SUCCESS
@Geoffabrown @altavert @aaronmoskowitz @RohitkJain @ggdm

Here’s exactly what you can expect (VIDEO)

Park in the areas highlighted in YELLOW

THIS WORKSHOP DOES NOT INCLUDE BORING HIGH LEVEL ‘AGENCY SPEAK’
- We will NOT use the word ‘strategy’ or any 40,000 foot phrases that bog down small businesses
- We will NOT bother you with anything that gets in the way of adding to your bottom line (attracting and keeping customers)
- Everything in this seminar will be TACTICAL and teach you how to ENGAGE with your audience (Social media is not strategic, it’s tactical)

Enter to win a free Apple iPod shuffle at this event!

Click this button to RT and automatically enter to win on twitter (roll over iPod for rules)

SCRAPPY STARTUPS:
- Learn how to listen to your followers so you can have them recommend new features and services without a focus group
- Push out new product announcements at certain times of the day to update your followers when they are online
- Learn how to setup messaging ONCE and continue to deploy similar messages that work well with your audience

REAL ESTATE BROKERS:
- You will quickly understand how to post photos of your new listings and get people to comment/notice your stuff
- You’ll learn how to use twitter to automatically broadcast your facebook feed and have a presence on both networks
- You’ll also learn how to add customers on facebook while you’re face-to-face with them using your mobile device (blackberry, android or iPhone)

This is a great article on Mashable.com that we found useful and wanted to share with our readership.

One of the most complex features of Twitter for new users to understand is the hashtag, a topic with a hash symbol (“#”) at the start to identify it. Twitter hashtags like #followfriday help spread information on Twitter while also helping to organize it.

The hashtag is a favorite tool of conferences and event organizers, but it’s also a way for Twitter users to organize themselves: if everyone agrees to append a certain hashtag to tweets about a topic, it becomes easier to find that topic in search, and more likely the topic will appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.

So how do you disseminate and make sense of all this hashtag madness? By going through the art of the hashtag step-by-step, of course. This short guide details how to identify, track, use, and organize hashtags in an efficient and useful way. Just be sure not to flaunt your new hashtag wisdom.
Have a tip to share on hashtags or a unique way you utilize them? Be sure to share with everyone in the comments.

1. Identifying hashtags

For new Twitter users, and even we veterans, figuring out what a specific hashtag is being used for can be a major chore. When a hashtag starts to trend, it gets even more difficult to parse the information stream.

So what’s the most efficient way to figure out those nasty hashtags? Luckily, there a few great tools that can assist in hashtag enlightenment:

What the Trend?: This useful little service makes it really easy to learn about trending hashtags. When something starts trending, What the Trend? will provide a quick blurb on what’s going on.

Twubs: Twubs, which we recently reviewed, uses a wiki system to help disseminate information on a hashtag. It aggregates tweets and imports pictures to help illuminate the topics being discussed.

Hashtags.org: While not the best at helping you understand the meaning behind a tag, Hashtags.org is good at showing you its use over time and recent tweets, which oftentimes is enough to figure out the meaning behind the tag.

Tagalus: Tagalus is a simple dictionary for hashtags. It’s very easy to find information on thousands of hashtags as defined by other users. You can also define a hashtag by tweeting tagalus.

2. Tracking hashtags

What’s buzzing on Twitter right now? If you’re a tech journalist, marketing professional, or just a person interested in trends, there are many useful tools and techniques to keep up with the Twitter conversation via hashtags.

If you’re trying to track tweets from a hashtag in real-time, Monitter and Twitterfall are good choices. Once again, Hashtags.org provides graphs and hour-by-hour information on top hashtags.

One last tip: if you need to track a less popular Twitter hashtag, try setting up a Twilert to get a daily email of the use of a specific hashtag.

For more, be sure to check out 15 Fascinating Ways to Track Twitter Trends.

3. Using hashtags

Another simple tip: give your hashtag context. Most people won’t actually know what your hashtag means, so give a quick explanation in one of your tweets or, if you’re making a hashtag, make it very apparent what it’s talking about.

Finally, if you’re looking to create a hashtag, be sure that it adds value for yourself and your followers. The best way to utilize them is when you need to organize information. Conferences, major events, and even reminders (i.e. #todo) can help organize specific tweets and make life easier on you and your followers.

The Twitter Fan Wiki also has some interesting reading material on hashtags if you’re looking to further your hashtag education.

4. Organizing hashtags

When I speak of organizing hashtags, I’m talking about conferences and events, which rely on the hashtag system more than almost any other entity. It’s become standard to track the conversation regarding speakers and afterparties via a hashtag.

If you’re about to put on an event or are looking to take your event to a new level, here are some useful tips for hashtag organization:

- Choose a single hashtag early: This may seem simple, but it is vital to get right. Choose a simple hashtag that represents your event or brand. If your event is the Business of the Calling Ducks conference, don’t use #businessofthecallingducks as your tag. How about #bizducks instead?

- Remind attendees of the hashtag constantly: On your website, on your Twitter feed, at the opening remarks, and throughout the day, make a friendly reminder about your hashtag and that you can track the conversation through it.

- Provide a website widget: For anyone who isn’t using or knowledgeable with Twitter, provide an easy conversation tracker tool on your website. You can make one via Widgetbox or Tweetgrid.

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)

———————————————————————————————–

Is Social Media a Fad?

Or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

Welcome to the REVOLUTION

§  Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30 years old

§  96% of Millennials have joined a social network

§  Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.

§  Social Media has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the Web

§  1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. met via social media

Years to reach 50 million users:

§  RADIO – 38 years

§  TV – 13 years

§  INTERNET – 4 years

§  iPOD – 3 years

§  Facebook added over 200 million users in less than a year

§  iPod application downloads hit 1 billion in 9 months

“We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.”

     -  Erik Qualman

If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3^rd largest

1.       China

2.       India

3.       facebook

4.       United States

5.       Indonesia

6.       Brazil

7.       Pakistan

8.       Bangladesh

Yet QQ & Renren dominate CHINA

US Department of Education study revealed that online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction…

80% of companies use social media for recruitment

% of these using LinkedIn . . .95%

The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females

twitter

What’s happening?

Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of:

§  SWEDEN

§  ISRAEL

§  SWTIZERLAND

§  IRELAND

§  NORWAY

§  PANAMA

50% of the mobile Internet Traffic in the UK is for Facebook imagine what this means for bad customer experiences

@

Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passe

@

Some universities have stopped distributing e-mail accounts

Instead they are distributing:

§  eReaders

§  iPads

§  Tablets

What happens in Vegas stays on facebook

What happens in Vegas stays on twitter

What happens in Vegas stays on renren.com

What happens in Vegas stays on B KOHTAKTE

What happens in Vegas stays on flickr

What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube

YouTube is the 2^nd largest search engine in the world

While you watch this 100+ hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube

WIKI is an Hawaiin term = Quick

WIKIPEDIA has over 15 million articles

Studies show it’s accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica

78% of these articles are non-English

If you were paid $1 for every article posted on WIKIPEDIA you would earn $1,712.32 PER HOUR

There are over 200,000,000 Blogs

WORD OF MOUTH           =             WORLD OF MOUTH

25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content

34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands

Do you like what they are saying about your brand?

                                                                          better . . .

Google:

§  People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than how Google ranks them

§  78% of consumers trust peer recommendations

§  Only 14% trust advertisements

Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI

90% of people skip ads via TiVo/DVR

Kindle eBooks Outsold Paper Books on Christmas

24 of the 25 Largest Newspapers are Experiencing Record Declines in Circulation

Facebook:

What’s on your mind?

§  60 million status updates happen on Facebook daily

§  We no longer search for the news, the news finds us…

§  We will no longer search for products and services

§  they will find us via social media

Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.

Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like Mad Men

Listening first, selling second

The ROI of Social Media is Your Business Will Still Exist in 5 years

Still think social media is a fad?

Welcome to the World of Socialnomics?

Are You Ready?

Source Data Listed Here: http://www.socialnomics.com

In Association with:

HULT International Business School

GET PLUGGED INTO THE WORLD

Music:  “Right Here, Right Now” by Fat Boy Slim (1999)

Inspiration:  Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod | Enjoy their “Did You Know” video

Edited by:  Evan Kutsko

Contact:  @equalman

an @equalman production

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypmfs3z8esI

By Max Chafkin |  Nov 1, 2009

We scoured the Web and came up with a list of the smartest business bloggers. Their advice just might help you run a better company.

There are more than 130 million blogs on the World Wide Web today, and 1.5 million more are created each week, according to the blog tracking service Technorati. It is unknown how many of these are tainted by shameless self-promotion, mindless ranting, and other nonsense — but you can bet the figure is extremely high. So Inc.scoured the Internet, tabbed through Twitter, and asked the smartest people we know to help us come up with a list of bloggers who, if you pay attention, can help reshape your perspective. Here’s what we found.

• Ethan Zuckerman A senior researcher at Harvard‘s Berkman Center, he’s also the blogger with the best wordlview.
• Penelope TrunkThe Brazen Careerist is the voice of the new guard.
• Guy Kawasaki The ubiquitous Garage Ventures founder is also the Web’s ultimate realist.
• Jason Fried This Chicago software entrepreneur offers the most interesting rants and raves.
• Mark Cuban The bigmouth you gotta love.
• Matt Mullenweg The blogger’s blogger.
• Charlene Li The wonk you gotta love.
• Howard Lindzon The CEO of StockTwits is also the best antidote there is to CNBC.
• Jason Calacanis The guide for tough times.
• Tim Ferriss Want to work less and accomplish more? This productivity guru can help.
• Rashmi Sinha The founder and CEO of SlideShare offers a view from the weeds.
• Paul Graham Y Combinator‘s founder on the view from on high.
• Seth Godin The master of pithiness.
• Fred Wilson A venture capitalist on the art of the deal.
• Tim O’Reilly The founder of O’Reilly Media offers the best glimpse of the future.
• Michael Arrington TechCrunch‘s founder offers the clearest view of the mood in Silicon Valley.
• Dave Winer An entrepreneur who is also the voice of experience.
• Anonymous Banker In the realm of business, the Web’s most shameless agitator.
• Craig Newmark The founder of Craigslist consistently presents the most unconventional views about business and technology.

Top Words of 2009 are Twitter, followed by Obama, H1N1, Stimulus, and Vampire. “King of Pop” is Top Phrase; “Obama” is the Top Name.

(Media-Newswire.com) – Austin, TX November 30, 2009 – The Global Language Monitor has announced that Twitter is the Top Word of 2009 in its annual global survey of the English language. Twittered was followed by Obama, H1N1, Stimulus, and Vampire. The near-ubiquitous suffix, 2.0, was No. 6, with Deficit, Hadron the object of study of CERN’s new atom smasher, Healthcare, and Transparency rounded out the Top 10.

“In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic, the after effects of a financial tsunami and the death of a revered pop icon, the word Twitter stands above all the other words. Twitter represents a new form of social interaction, where all communication is reduced to 140 characters,” said Paul JJ Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor. “Being limited to strict formats did wonders for the sonnet and haiku. One wonders where this highly impractical word-limit will lead as the future unfolds.”

The Top Words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.58 billion speakers.

The Top Words of 2009

Phrase Comments

1. Twitter — The ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 characters

2. Obama — The word stem transforms into scores of new words like ObamaCare

3. H1N1 — The formal ( and politically correct ) name for Swine Flu

4. Stimulus — The $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the US economy

5. Vampire — Vampires are very much en vogue, now the symbol of unrequited love

6. 2.0 — The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything

7. Deficit — Lessons from history are dire warnings here

8. Hadron — Ephemeral particles subject to collision in the Large Hadron Collider

9. Healthcare — The direction of which is the subject of intense debate in the US

10. Transparency — Elusive goal for which many 21st c. governments are striving

11. Outrage — In response to large bonuses handed out to ‘bailed-out’ companies

12. Bonus — The incentive pay packages that came to symbolize greed and excess

13. Unemployed — And underemployed amount to close to 20% of US workforce

14. Foreclosure — Forced eviction for not keeping up with the mortgage payments

15. Cartel — In Mexico, at the center of the battle over drug trafficking

The Top Phrases of 2009

Phrase/Comments

1. King of Pop –Elvis was ‘The King;’ MJ had to settle for ‘King of Pop’

2. Obama-mania — One of the scores of words from the Obama-word stem

3. Climate Change — Considered politically neutral compared to global warming

4. Swine Flu — Popular name for the illness caused by the H1N1 virus

5. Too Large to Fail — Institutions that are deemed necessary for financial stability

6. Cloud Computing — Using the Internet for a variety of computer services

7. Public Option — The ability to buy health insurance from a government entity

8. Jai Ho! — A Hindi shout of joy or accomplishment

9. Mayan Calendar — Consists of various ‘cycles,’ one of which ends on 12/21/2012

10. God Particle — The hadron, believed to hold the secrets of the Big Bang

The Top Names of 2009

Name/Comments

1. Barack Obama — It was Obama’s year, though MJ nearly eclipsed in the end

2. Michael Jackson — Eclipses Obama on internet though lags in traditional media

3. Mobama — Mrs. Obama, sometimes as a fashion Icon

4. Large Hadron Collider — The Trillion dollar ‘aton smasher’ buried outside Geneva

5. Neda Agha Sultan — Iranian woman killed in the post-election demonstrations

6. Nancy Pelosi –The Democratic Speaker of the US House

7. M. Ahmadinejad — The president of Iran, once again

8. Hamid Karzai — The winner of Afghanistan’s disputed election

9. Rahm Emmanuel — Bringing ‘Chicago-style politics’ to the Administration

10. Sonia Sotomayor — The first Hispanic woman on the US Supreme Court

The analysis was completed in late November using GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator ( PQI ), the proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet, now including blogs and social media. The words are tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity.

The Top Words of the Decade were Global Warming, 9/11, and Obama outdistance Bailout, Evacuee, and Derivative; Google, Surge, Chinglish, and Tsunami followed. “Climate Change” was top phrase; “Heroes” was top name.

About the Global Language Monitor

Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English.

English has become the first truly global language with some 1.53 billion speakers as a first, second or auxiliary language.

Paul JJ Payack examines its impact on the world economy, culture and society in A Million Words and Counting ( Citadel Press, New York, 2009 ).

The current estimate for the number of words in the English Language stands at 1,002,116.

For more information, call 1.925.367.7557, send email to info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.

In case you haven’t noticed, there are approximately 3 billion different ways in which friends, relatives, clients, freelancers, employers, and anyone else riding the World Wide Web can communicate. Okay, so maybe I can’t back that number up, but the point is, there are enough communications-based software suites, stand-alone programs, freeware downloads, payware applications, and other nifty add-ons to help ensure that even your mother-in-law can stay in the loop. Some of these applications are basic chat programs, while others offer everything from video conferencing, online document sharing, and even real-time brainstorming and document editing in virtual online meetings. Whether you’re a part-time freelancer with just a couple clients, or a swamped buyer with a large staff of contractors working on multiple projects, these five communications keepers should be close at hand.

Skype

Skype offers users high-quality voice and/or video chat to any other Skype user in the world, free of charge. Let me put that another way: Free international voice/video conversations in a professional, high quality application. The only fees associated with Skype are for calls made to traditional land lines or cell phones, but then again, isn’t that what a normal telephone is for? Skype is one of the most popular online communications tools, and it should be a staple for anyone who makes a living through the internet.

Eyejot

Eyejot is the exact opposite of text-messaging, in that it uses a web interface to send and receive video messages through email. Eyejot is convenient in that it requires no special install or client, it works with just about any web browser, it’s free to download and use, and the video emails can be sent to any valid email address. In an era where people fanatically send text messages over a phone, sending video messages in an email seems deliciously ironic.

Digsby

Digsby is ideal for social networking aficionados seeking a single interface to manage communications across multiple platforms, including personal email accounts, social networking sites such as Facebook, and popular chat programs like Yahoo Messenger, all with a single login. Users can also respond to individual sites through Digsby, or issue a general posting to all sites under the Digsby umbrella.  And since Digsby is free to use, it could be the most convenient piece of communications software you never had to buy.

AIM Pro

AOL’s dressed-up, free-to-use, Instant Messenger professional edition offers some impressive resources for online communications, including video conferencing, integration with Microsoft Outlook, encrypted communications, and when partnered with WebEx (see below), secure online file sharing.

WebEx

Cisco’s WebEx is the only item on this list that actually costs money to use, but it’s also arguably the best web-based meeting software available. It features a relatively simple interface that allows users to set up virtual meetings complete with voice chat and video conferencing, secure connections, file hosting, desktop sharing, and real-time file corrections for anyone participating in the meeting. If your workweek consists of daily brainstorming sessions or regular project updates, shelling out $59 per month for WebEx isn’t such a bad deal.

These are but a few of the tools available to both buyers and providers in the quest to keep the lines of communication open. Have you any other offerings to add? Tell us about the must-have communications suites you use to keep in touch with your associates!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Job-seeking in this 21st century recession may just have gone viral and mobile.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, about 6.7 million workers have been laid off according to latest statistics — at a time the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have exploded, drawing millions of users per day.

As these sites continue to alter social and cultural landscapes, they are also transforming the job search process, enabling more and more people to connect with potential employers, promote their own skills, set up support groups and search for job leads and contacts.

“Mobile technology and social networking has shifted the whole job search paradigm,” said Susan Joyce, editor of Job-Hunt.Org, a site offering online job search tips. “You don’t need to stay glued to your phone or computer at home anymore.”

With mobile devices playing a bigger role in the social networking phenomenon, any job hopeful with a Web-connected or smartphone can now compose resumes, view job listings and contact prospective employers on the go.

Joyce suggests creating a resume through popular networking site LinkedIn — a business networking site that lets users create a profile, list skills, work history, employment goals and contact details — is among the more secure ways to compile a resume online.

It can be done via Research in Motion Ltd’s Blackberry device or Apple Inc’s iPhone, she added.

“The LinkedIn Profile is really the resume of the future,” Joyce said. “The ‘resume’ on LinkedIn is really the standard LinkedIn Profile, but it’s very popular with recruiters looking for good candidates.

“You could build your whole LinkedIn presence from any Web-enabled phone.”

There are any number of job-search applications — downloadable programs for your phone — available for the iPhone, for instance, including one piloted by recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash. Others pool information on jobs in travel and in education, among other sectors.

GETTING CREATIVE

With jobs still scarce, many hopefuls are getting creative about getting noticed. Many have begun using Twitter — a microblogging service that allows users to send 140-character messages at a time — to get the word out.

A career is unlikely to be launched on Twitter alone, but candidates are increasingly “tweeting” or posting messages to outline their skills, experiences and career goals. They are pasting links to their resumes on the micro-blogging service.

People can also use Twitter to follow recruiters or companies of interest and learn of networking events.

Job seekers have gotten job leads and tips on networking events that they otherwise would have missed, had it not been for their Twitter or Facebook account.

“It’s really helped in these hard times. You have a much easier time finding job and networking events. And every time I go to one of these events, I add at least one connection,” said Nilo Sarraf, who was laid off from Yahoo Inc recently and formed a Silicon Valley online networking group called Layoffs Cafe at www.meetup.com/Layoffs-cafe/.

Layoffs Cafe is one of several online support groups that have sprung up during the downturn, tipping off job seekers where physical networking events are taking place.

Chris Hutchins, a former management and business strategy consultant in Silicon Valley, launched LaidOffCamp as the online component to offline events.

“We focus on organizing events for people who are unemployed,” said Hutchins, noting there have been about 11 “LaidOff Camps” set up around the country, drawing anywhere from 100 to 600 participants who attend panels on topics such as how to live on a budget, how to develop a personal brand and how to find a job in the current market.

“We spent no dollars on marketing. If it weren’t for social media and blogs, Laidoff Camp wouldn’t exist,” he said.

While candidates these days are taking advantage of to easily access job information, one of the downsides, according to job seekers and employment experts, is managing the data.

“It can be overwhelming. It’s hard to weed out all the information and manage your time,” said Sarraf.

Privacy issues and falling prey to the many recruiting, work-at-home, make-a-million and resume creation software scams are also risks for the unwary.

“When someone is job hunting, they need to be careful. I know a lot of people who have been hurt by bogus resume companies. People tend to think if its online, its legitimate and when you’re doing a resume, people are being asked to provide a lot of personal information, such as where you live and your social security number,” she added.

(Reporting by Sue Zeidler; editing by Edwin Chan and Andre Grenon)

SPECIAL UPDATE: Check out our event called: “How to ace your interview” on October 10th in Los Angeles

by Robin Wauters on September 14, 2009

As an employer, chances are you use sites like Craigslist or Monster.com to try and get the best candidates for vacant spots. If that’s indeed your modus operandi for recruitment, than you’re probably also used to receiving bad or incomplete resumes, applications from totally unqualified persons or just utter spam. LocalBacon thinks it doesn’t have to be that way, and believes the solution to the problem is making job seekers pay to apply for jobs.

Launching at the TechCrunch50 event today, LocalBacon wants to remove the clutter from the inboxes of many a manager or HR professional looking for the right person to put to work while at the same time giving job seekers the opportunity to stand out from the crowd in their quest to land a good position. The way they want to achieve that is by both increasing the quality of applications and decreasing their amount by charging potential candidates $0.99 (or more based on interest/demand) to apply.

If you think about it, making potential candidates cough up cash – well, virtual currency in the form of credits – for applying is a solid way to weed out the ones that apply just for the sake of applying even if they know they’re not really qualified for the job. It also decreases the chances for employers, who get to post job openings for free, to get sent incomplete or sloppy resumes because applicants would likely make more of an effort having put some money on the line. This in turn means solid candidates have a better shot of getting noticed in the first place.

Aside from the fairly innovative business model, LocalBacon also offers a pretty amazing lightweight program for employers to keep on top of applications across vacancies and applicants for managing their profiles and resumes. LocalBacon uses a standardized listing format and application process that is aimed to reduce the amount of time it takes for job seekers to search and apply for openings. Job seekers also receive specific contact information about the hiring manager, real-time updates about the status of their application and timely concise feedback regarding their application.

Expert panel Q&A:

Q – Roelof Botha: I like the idea of turning the job board concept upside down. No one seems to be satisfied about it. Think about clever ways to extract more value. I really like it though.

Q – MM: I want to complement the app, but I have a question about the social component. How are you going to work social behavior into the service?

A: Facebook is a potential way to go, and we’re thinking more about referrals.

Q – Tony Hsieh: It doesn’t seem to fit with Zappos to have job seekers pay for applying?

A: Certain cultures might conflict what the job seekers paying. But remember they wouldn’t

Q – Paul Graham: Is the chronological listing of incoming applications scalable?

A: We’re in early stage right now, so we’re thinking of ways to add more features for organization for premium users.

Q – Tony Hsieh: Do you integrate with existing ATS systems?

A: Yes, we can (with APIs and such).

Kijubi launches at TechCrunch50: 6 outdoor activities you wouldn’t expect from a travel site

Most travel websites sell you the essential parts to a vacation — how to get there and where to stay once you do. Many also offer destination travel guide information and attractions to visit once you get there — but Kijubi enters the travel Web space with a refreshing angle focused on selling outdoor activities. Originally known as CalActive, the Web effort is being relaunched by its founders this week at TechCrunch50 in the DemoPit with the new name Kijubi. As in: What “could you be” (say it really fast) doing right now? Lucky for us SoCal travelers, most of the activities archived so far are in California, but they have some activities in Nevada, Maryland and Florida, with plans to fill out Florida, New York and Hawaii within the next six months.

There are travel activities that you might expect to know about when traveling like discounted tickets to theme parks, whale watching tours, mountain biking tours, hot air balloon rides and even a ropes course in Anaheim. Kijubi also has hundreds of options divided by what you can do on land, air or in the water, including some outlandish things to do on your vacation like:

> Flying a historic WWII “Kittyhawk” airplane in Sonoma (starting at $949)

> Polo lessons for beginners in Los Angeles ($150)

> Stock car racing 10 laps in a real NASCAR racer in Los Angeles (starting at $249)

> Zero-gravity flights in several California locations ($5,197)

> Driving a Maserati Quattroporte in Newport Beach (from $850)

> Helicopter flying lessons in Long Beach (Starting at $135)

Even if you don’t see yourself participating in extreme outdoor sports or entertainment opportunities, there are plenty of options to consider for less adventurous travelers in their family, luxury, romantic and kids categories. And at a wide variety of prices too, don’t let the options above scare you off.

– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

[Photo: Screenshot of the Kijubi homepage; Courtesy of Kijubi.com]

By Alex Wilhelm on September 14, 2009

Tony Bradley, PC World | Thursday, September 10, 2009 8:03 PM PDT

In the ongoing battle to capture mobile service customers, Sprint has just thrown down the gauntlet with a potentially game-changing feature: unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling…regardless of mobile carrier.

You read that right. The concept of unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling is not new. I have unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling and unlimited night and weekend calling in addition to the minutes in my AT&T Family Talk plan. But, my mobile-to-mobile only includes calling other AT&T mobile numbers. Sprint is opening the floodgate and allowing customers to make unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls domestically even if the recipient is using AT&T, orVerizon, or T-Mobile, or any other domestic carrier.

There are a couple smaller mobile service providers, such as Virgin Mobile(which Sprint agreed to purchase earlier this year) and Boost, offering completely unlimited calling without a contract for about $50 a month. Those plans are completely unlimited regardless of whether calls are placed to mobile or landline recipients. Among the big 4 mobile carriers in the United States though, Sprint’s new offering is unique.

The move is probably at least partly in response to those smaller no contract providers. Customers are typically willing to commit to a 1 or 2 year contract with a mobile carrier in order to get cutting edge mobile phone technology at subsidized prices. Subscribers can get an iPhone from AT&T for about $100 with a contract, but without a contract the device costs more like $600.

But, an increasing number of customers are willing to forego the bleeding edge equipment in favor of no-commitment pricing with virtually unlimited bells and whistles at an affordable flat rate. Sprint may be able to retain more customers and possibly even win some of the no-commitment crowd over with the unlimited mobile-to-mobile plan.

How long will it take before other carriers follow suit? Its hard to say. Alltel pioneered the idea of selecting 5 phone numbers for unlimited minutes with its My Circle plan in early 2006. T-Mobile co-opted the concept and dubbed it Fave 5. Verizon then rolled out the Friends and Family plan. Just this week word has leaked that AT&T will introduce the A-List plan later this month. That is a cycle of over three years to make the rounds, and Spring hasn’t yet jumped on that bandwagon.

Sprint is the third place carrier in the United States. It is comfortably ahead of T-Mobile, but well behind both AT&T and Verizon. Sprint isn’t going down without a fight though.

Sprint is running neck and neck with Verizon in the race to roll out next generation 4G broadband wireless networks. Sprint is the exclusive provider of the Palm Pre, a cutting edge platform designed to take on the iPhone. And now, Sprint is blazing new paths with mobile pricing plans that raise the bar for the industry and set it apart from its competitors.

Based on the evolutionary timeframe for carriers adopting the Alltel My Circle concept, I guess I can look forward to unlimited vendor agnostic mobile-to-mobile coming to AT&T around….2012.

Tony Bradley is an information security and unified communications expert with more than a decade of enterprise IT experience. He tweets as @PCSecurityNews and provides tips, advice and reviews on information security and unified communications technologies on his site at tonybradley.com.