Monthly Archives: September 2009

28 Sep

Face and Body Expo 2009: GoSmile

Post by Alison McNeill and video by Miiko Mentz

We attended this year’s Face & Body Expo to see the latest and greatest in lotions, potions and more! Although the show was aimed at salon and shop owners, most companies were more than happy to chat with us and show us their goods. First up is GoSmile, where we tested several products on and off camera including their Touch Up ampoules, FlashLites Smile Touch ups and AM/PM Toothpaste duo.

GoSmile differentiates itself from the pack by eliminating the pain and “mess” that usually comes along with teeth whitening. Here’s my assessment of the items I tested:

Touch Up ampoules: I tested original mint flavored ampoules and my first thought was that they’re not very minty. Other than that, I like how the ampoule makes it easy to put the solution on all of your teeth and on some more than others if needed. It’s not messy and or goopy and can be done after lunch and then just left on. Very easy and there was no pain after using them for the week.

FlashLites Smile Touch ups: These were very similar to the Touch Ups, but are more for “instantly erase everyday stains caused by coffee, red wine and more, before they set.” Great to keep in your purse or car.

AM/PM Toothpaste Duo: I’ve been using the same toothpaste for awhile now, so these tasted very strange at first, but I did get used to them. The best way I can describe it is that they taste more herbal-y. The AM is formulated with essential oils including lemon, lime, orange, and mandarin, and is infused with peppermint. The PM has essential oils like chamomile and lavender, valerian root, and a dash with vanilla. Sounds more like a recipe than a toothpaste, but they both contain white cranberry extract (to whiten) and fluoride to prevent decay.

Now check out the video to see more!

28 Sep

Adventures at BlogHer Food

I was lucky enough to be asked to speak at the first annual BlogHer Food. For those of you who remember my BlogHer ’09 posts from July, you might be surprised I so willingly attended. I was surprised myself, but curiosity got the better of me, and I’m glad it did.

Continuing the motif, I was also surprised that I enjoyed myself so thoroughly. I had intended on staying through my session, which was before lunch, and then heading out to explore San Francisco. I ended up remaining at the conference for the entire day. I found the sessions, while geared towards recipe-oriented food bloggers, were still relevant for review and wine blogs as well. The whole attitude of the day was different from what I expected, and I was thrilled. It was the perfect size (I believe it was around 300 people) and the programming struck just the right note.

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My panel focused on blogging best practices. Not only was I on a panel with an impressive group of women, we actually talked about blogging. It was refreshing. I also attended a session on photography basics, as well as a fantastic session on protecting your work and copyright. I learned something in every session I attended. I’m a terrible conference attendee, and often my attention easily wanders, so BlogHer Food’s programming impressed me.

In fact, the only complaint I heard from anyone (myself included) was about the lunch. It was a hyper Rocco diSpirito and Bertolli. Yep, they served a bunch of food bloggers thawed Bertolli. This isn’t a food blog, but when the people at the table are complaining that the ravioli alfredo was more reminiscent of biscuits and gravy, you know there’s a problem.

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Perhaps it was because we were all coalescing around a common topic – the love of food and wine – but I found the entire environment to be a lot more friendly than my previous BlogHer experiences. I hunted down folks I knew, people I hadn’t seen in a long time, and even met several impressive authors who were more than friendly. I gladly attended a party in the evening, looking forward to seeing some people again. I discovered that food bloggers are food bloggers, no matter their genre. Recipe bloggers were interested in hearing from review bloggers (and wine bloggers!) and I was interested to talk to the recipe folks. It was just such a different experience – for me – than the larger BlogHer conference I attended in July.

Finally, while there was swag, it was both excellent and controlled. I believe there were only five sponsors in the expo/demo area (Healthy Choice, Campbell’s, Pur, Cuisinart, and Pillsbury) as well as the Bertolli lunch and the California Milk-sponsored breakfast. I have no complaints with the goodies with which I came home. The organization even set up an easy and obvious area to donate unwanted foodstuffs from the goodie bags to a local shelter.

Even if I don’t speak next year, I’ll gladly return to BlogHer Food. Among other things, it was just great to be in a room with other people who all whip out their cameras to take a photo of their food. Camaraderie wins every time.

Update: Live blogs from the sessions are now available.

Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

28 Sep

Does Facebook Tagging Have Spam Potential?

fbspam Facebook has smartly added the ability to tag things other than photos, such as status updates. This is a feature I’ve wanted to see from Facebook for quite some time. There are plenty of opportunities for sharing something with a small groups of friends or even one user in particular, but it may be something I want to share with all of my Facebook friends as well. Tagging allows you to post something for all to see, but making sure that friend or group in particular is almost certain to see what it is you’ve added to your wall.

But that could also make things pretty messy, and lead to a great deal of tagging spam. If individuals or entities abuse the tagging system, it will diminish the value of the new feature significantly.

The beauty of tagging is that it alerts the tagged person of the action. And that plays to people’s sense of individuality, making them feel pretty darn special. Someone loves them so much that they took the time to tag them in a photo or a status update or a shared bookmark posting on their wall. Instead of having to choose one or the other, all items shared on Facebook now act more like photos in their ability to be shared and tagged across one’s network. This also means that the tagger’s network is extended greatly, as their shared content will now be accessible to the tagged person’s social graph.

This beauty of tagging is also the curse. It’s too easy to spread content across Facebook in this manner. And if you take away the “special” factor when you tag someone, they are less likely to respond to tagging all together. In the same way application notifications have taken over users’ Facebook experience, making it almost daunting to look at your new alerts, tagging outside of photos could simply piss people off.

We’ve already seen it happen with photos. An event planner wants to promote their event, so they tag all their friends for the flyer. Yes, this will get their attention (who doesn’t look to see what photo they’ve been tagged in?). But it also makes some people angry that they’re using the tagging system in order to get people’s attention. This is bound to occur even more frequently and for more reasons now that users can tag more than just photos and notes.

The good thing about Facebook coming out with the feature itself is that it diminishes any third party applications of taking the bad rap for providing a potentially spammy feature. There are some great applications on Facebook, created by third parties, which are devoted to tagging and better sharing content across one’s Facebook social graph. However, Facebook’s decision to launch this option directly means that Facebook has more control over the regulations that will need to be modified and enforced by Facebook. The regulations will also need to be adhered to by users and other entities alike.

It’s a tricky plight to have, seeing as the ability to share efficiently is a goal for Facebook. Providing this service while knowing that very service could become a channel for mass spamming means that Facebook has to walk a fine line. In the end, Facebook will have to continue on its path towards becoming more open and cooperative so that users can easily share content with friends. This will help Facebook retain users for an extended period of time, as they attempt to move with trends and changing needs instead of letting users default to other services that provides the features they currently desire.

As long as Facebook is able to keep users happy, they will be able to effectively roll out new features such as tagging, despite their spamming potential.

image credit:Ian Schafer

25 Sep

Changing The World One Lunch at a Time.

One of the things that people have been struggling to do for a while now is how to use social media and the web for the greater good. Yesterday, the folks at Lunch.com, SF New Tech and Social Media Club converged at Orsen’s in San Francisco to talk about some of the ways we can innovate and evolve the conversation online and get more interaction with those using the tools. Moderated by Chris Heuer, J.R. Johnson & Myles Weissleder, Lunch For Good held its inaugural meeting in front of a packed room at this invite-only event.

According to their website, the goals for Lunch For Good is to:

Connect our industry’s thought leaders for an ongoing, dynamic dialogue about how to improve online engagement so that it can have a positive social impact. Our themes will cover “Responsible Participation,” “Critical Thought,” and “Common Ground” respectively each month.

With responsible participation as the theme for this meeting, people sat down in small roundtables and looked at two main questions about how to conduct yourself online:

1) What are the positive benefits of seeing a shift for online contributors being accountable for their participation and standing behind a credible identity?

2) How might a responsible participation be tactically approached? What specific types of practices, protocols or standards could be put into place to achieve this goal?

After a thorough discussion, participants were invited to present their thoughts and insights to the group – many of which were different answers, but unfortunately not really a definitive solution to the issue at hand. Definitely something to talk about more.

Here are some photos of the event:

Lunch.com’s CEO J.R. Johnson talks to the crowd.

Tamara Mendelsohn & Brian Zisk

Dom Sagolla

Ryan Hupter presents his group’s thoughts.

Marla Schulmann & Andrea Seja

Paul Carr

More photos of this event can be found by clicking here.

25 Sep

140|The Twitter Conference: It’s a Wrap

The 140 Twitter Conference organized by the Parnassus Group kicked off in Los Angeles at the Skirball Center this week to accolades and exhilaration.

Business, marketing, service, and communications professionals joined celebrities, Twitter developers, investors and entrepreneurs to share insights, experiences, and their vision for the future of collaboration, community, and commerce.

Indeed, we learned that micro engagement represents the potential for macro impact.

The energy was contagious and the lessons and education shared and absorbed was priceless.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…