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Social Media - The Basics

Tracey Lee Wallace — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:00:00 GMT

view presentation (tags: true light resources tracey)

6-Aug-08 3:00 PM

Tracey Lee Wallace Featured on ABC World News Tonight

Tracey Lee Wallace — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

You know the drill. Dial the phone number for the company you are hoping will solve your problem -- cable, phone, Internet, credit card rates. The list is endless. twitter to the rescue Got complaints? Send it out on twitter and someone may answer your cries. (ABC News Photo Illustration)

You want a real live human so you have to figure out how to get past the recorded uninterested voice that says: "Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Spanish" -- while you start pressing 0 in an attempt to bypass the phone tree and get to someone who has the ability to solve your problem.

Millions of people call customer service every day, yet few are satisfied with the responses they get. What does a frustrated consumer need to do to get prompt help?

Tweet.

That's right, tweet. Twitter is the newest social networking Internet site that asks its 50,000 users only one question when they log on: "What are you doing? The trick is to respond in 140 characters or less, which keeps posts short and pithy.

When Tracey Lee Wallace logged on one Monday morning she was venting her frustration because her Comcast service was down -- no phone, no cable, no Internet, and she was dead in the water.

Wallace is a single mother who runs a Web design business and often works out of her home so she can tailor her activities around her children's schedule. When her 11-year-old son needed to stay home from school because he was sick she thought she could work from home.

Read the full article >>

22-Jul-08 10:00 AM

Comfort Food Club Blueberry Crumbly

JJ Lassberg — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Blueberry Crumbly to Celebrate the Inaugural Houston Comfort Food Club

2 pints Organic Blueberries (enough to cover bottom of 9 inch pie dish 1 inch deep)

1 stick organic butter, melted

1 cup old fashioned oat meal

1cup whole wheat flour

1 cup organic brown sugar

1 cup organic white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Wash berries, place in bottom of 9 inch pie dish

Mix all other ingredient in large bowl (will be crumbly - 'cause, its a crumbly)

Pour mixture on top of berries - I smoosh (that's a technical cooking term) it down a bit

Bake for 1 hour, until juice is bubbling through crust

Serve with Bluebell* Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. If you can't get Bluebell, then I am not sure you can make this dessert? (just kiddin')

*Bluebell did not endorse this recipe... but it was the Inaugural Houston CFC and I just felt like we needed REAL Texas Ice Cream.

**We do not guarantee the above pictured results from eating this dessert

16-Jul-08 10:00 AM

Twitter Fail Whale While being Interviewed about Twitter

Tracey Lee Wallace — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Can you Twitter on Twitter that you're being interviewed about
Twitter if you can't get on Twitter?
Nope. Damn that fail whale!

"If it weren't so cute I would have some serious anger." ~ Matthew Wettergreen (@organ_printer)

On April 28th my business partner's Comcast internet went down. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, who needs a better excuse than that to head out to a wifi coffee shop. This day, her son was home sick from school and when our kids are sick - we stay home. One of the most important reasons we started True Light Resources is so we could be available to our families. We have set up our work environment accordingly. We both have home offices and though I work harder and longer than I ever have before, that just may look like working on the laptop in my rocking chair with a flu ridden 4 year old sleeping in my lap. But if I am home with a sick kid, or the repairman, or cause dang it I want to work at home that day and I don't have internet - well that just throws a wrench in the whole system... and that's what happened to Tracey. She struggled through the jungle of the Comcast phone system and finally got an estimated time for the repair - 4 days. 4 Days! With not only no internet but no house phone. Then Tracey (@truelighttracey) did what we do in this Web 2.0 world and picked up her Blackberry and Twittered her frustration.

Who knew it would have such a far reaching effect. Here's the blow by blow... in very condensed format:

Dwight Silverman (@dsilverman) at the chronicle saw Tracey's post and responded in kind, asking who her provider was
With Comcast being the answer Dwight alerted Frank from ComcastCares (@comcastcares)
Frank looked up our site, looked up the Whois data, got my info and contacted me in search of Tracey
I passed Frank's info on to Tracey who called Frank who had a repairman out to the house and the problem fixed that day... not only for Tracey, but the entire block
Tracey Twittered about the success and Comcast's victory in the changing face of marketing
Dwight wrote an article in the Houston Chroncicle
ABC Nightline World News got hold of the story and came out to Caroline Collective (@carolineco) today to interview Tracey for the evening news

Yes, that's right... ABC World News

See, like I said... who could have predicted that?!!

And who's the bell of the ball? Twitter of course.

I know I am not the only one who has a growing level of frustration with Twitter's performance these days. I love twitter... and I was one of the more resistant adopters. It was Ed Schipul's (@eschipul) tweet about me not tweeting that actually got me to jump in. Ed is good like that. Twitter helps me know what's going on in my world, it connects to people I would never have met otherwise, and bonus... people send me Nutella recipes. How could that be bad?

I start to get a little panicky when people predict the early demise of Twitter... you know, well this is the beginning of the end, the writing is on the wall kind of talk. How will the editor of Pink Ray Gun (@jul_weiss) find me to send me recipes? How will I reconnect with people working in cities I used to work in? How will I know my friends have landed safely on their travels? How will I connect instantaneously with people to bounce ideas off of when that magical moment of inspiration strikes me?

Twitter helps me serve my clients better. It helps keep me abreast of the latest news and technological breakthroughs. It also helps me connect to people. People from all over the world doing all kinds of things. And right now, as I design the logos for Super Hero Camp, using Twitter to communicate about ideas, get decisions on meeting times and direction on the project - Twitter and me are making the world a better place.

So, now you know where Twitter and I stand. I have a little love affair with the Twitosphere. And this morning, I did what I really, really don't want to do. I researched other options.

Why?

Cause ABC Nightline World News came to my office to interview my business partner about Twitter. And I being a good Web 2.0 Evangelist for my company, stood in the hallway and twittered the event blow by blow... down to the mic being turned off for Tracey's final pit stop before filming. As the crew was wrapping up Matthew walked down the hall and let me know nothing I had twittered for the last hour and half had been posted.

I uttered the best/worst word under my breath.

We checked and rechecked and they just weren't there.

I uttered the same word again - a little louder - but not loud enough to make it onto tape.

Brent Ozar (@brento) helped me find the messages on my phone. Erica O'Grady (@ericaogrady) advised me to resend them. Matthew suggested transcribing them at a later date. Still, the point was to have the community at large be able to follow this story blow by blow in real time and Twitter Fail Whaled me.

They took the entire site down this morning. I don't know the technical reasons behind it.

Glory be - when they brought it back up, all my tweets went through.

And not so glorious - getting the very cute whale filmed by the crew of ABC World News as we tried to show them Twitter.

I like to think geek in pink... but I am not a super techy star. I don't know what's up with Twitter. I do know I like it. I use it - probably too much. I recruit people to it (even my extremely reluctant husband (@lassberg)). I sing its praises. It (and Dwight Silverman and Comcast) got my company on the evening news.

I just want it to work - cause I like it.

And I am writing this cause I want the Twitter guys to know - I like it. I am frustrated with it. And I really, REALLY hope that when the piece airs and everyone goes to check it out... there is no whale to be seen.

Good Luck Guys.

~ JJ

3-Jul-08 4:00 PM

Got Social Media for Non-Profits

JJ Lassberg — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Join us in Austin, Texas on June 27th to discover
how Social Media can take your Non-Profit organization
to new heights!

After selling out our first Got Social Media event in Houston, Texas, Got Social Media is back - and this time we're targeting Non-profits. We've assembled some of the top minds in Social Media, Technology, Design, and Marketing - to help your Non-profit soar. If you currently work with a Non-Profit, or in Advertising, PR, Marketing, Technology then the Got Social Media conference is for you.

The American Red Cross and local organizations like NetSquared, churches, schools, and basically any non-profit trying to get the biggest bang for their buck -- all across America, are discovering that Social Media is a great tool for community outreach, publicity, and grassroots marketing campaigns.

The Got Social Media™ Conference will show you how to use Social Media and Community Based Marketing to gain clients and get the edge on your competition.

Click on "Enter Discount Code" on the registration page.
Enter "TRUELIGHT" to receive a $50 discount.

11-Jun-08 4:00 PM

Houston Chronicle Covers Coworking + Caroline

Tracey Lee Wallace — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Tuesday, April 8th’s Star Section in the Houston Chronicle splashed a couple of familiar faces on the the cover. In a story about Houston’s alternative working spaces, Caroline Collective was featured, along with Houston Jelly, and quote <3 from Alex Hillman of Philly’s Indy Hall and Tara Hunt of San Francisco’s Citizen Space.

Thus inspired, Rice University graduate students Matthew Wettergreen and Ned Dodington are developing what they say will be the largest co-working space to date. The Caroline Collective is a planned 6,000-square-foot, two-building office and art studio space in the Museum District.

“I see it a lot as a product of our friendship and working relationship. He’s a bioengineer; I’m an architect,” said Dodington. “We started to collaborate on projects and are consistently wowed by the fact through a collaborative effort you can produce interesting results.”

Dodington said, fee-paying members as well as the public — it’s seen as a magnet for freelancing or self-employed Web designers, programmers, artists, writers and other “creative types” — will gather to work and hang out. (A Chronicle employee is among the investors.)

Wettergreen and Dodington, who are working to raise the $15,000 to $20,000 to renovate the space in time for a June opening, said they hope it becomes a community gathering spot. They plan to charge $300 per month for anytime access to a desk and facilities that will include a lounge, conference room and, if the members demand it, an administrative assistant. Occasional access will be available for $125 per month, or a private office ranging from $450 to $600 monthly. Five out of the seven offices available have already been committed.

Read the entire article here.

2-Jun-08 9:00 AM

Tracey Lee Wallace Featured in Houston Chronicle Article

Tracey Lee Wallace — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

On April 28, Tomball resident Tracey Lee Wallace woke to discover her Internet access was down.

And because her phone service is tied to her broadband connection, she also had no dial tone. For the single mom who runs a Web site development business out of her home, this was something of a crisis.

But when she called Comcast, her Internet service provider, scheduling conflicts on both her end and the company's meant she couldn't get a technician out for a repair until four days later.

"I seriously considered getting DSL, but AT&T couldn't get out here any sooner," Wallace said. "If they could have, I would have switched."

Wallace complained about her situation on Twitter, the microblogging service that's captured the hearts of techies but left many nongeeks scratching their heads, wondering what the fuss is about.

"Damn Internet down in my house," she wrote, using her BlackBerry. "Arrrrgh can't fix until THURSDAY. Shoot me"

A Comcast employee whose job is to troll cyberspace in search of frustrated customers saw Wallace's grievance and asked if he could help.

And indeed he could. By the end of the day, Wallace was back online and delighted with a company that, just hours earlier, she'd been cursing.

"I'm a crazy loyal dog now," she said.

--> Click here for full Houston Chronicle Article

1-Jun-08 10:00 AM

Little Fish, Big Pond - SEO Enlightenment

Jean Lassberg — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:00:00 GMT

Google: 1,310,000 for litte +fish +big +pond

Ok, I make websites for a living. Well, I do a lot of other stuff too, but one of the things I do is make websites. I make these sites 90% of the time for small to medium sized companies, and of course these days everyone knows (well just about everyone, I do occasionally still run into a person who thinks just cause they have a website for their TOTALLY off the wall widget they are going to instantly sell a million of the dang things and retire on an island they buy with the money, anyway. . .) almost everyone knows if you build it, it doesn't mean they'll come. Enter SEO, Search Engine Optimization that is: SEO, SEM, META-Tags, Pay-Per-Click, etc. I know with a limitless budget I could buy my way to the top, yet all the data out there suggests I can get to the top organically (yes, like the milk that doesn't have any additives.) Still, no matter how much I read, see, and hear about SEO, I can't get the Little Fish in a Big Pond out of my head. I mean let's face it, with 11 billion pages indexed on Google, (and I got that number off the internet, so I am sure by the time you read this it will be out-dated) the Web is a pond the size of Pacific Ocean - and my client's website is like, well. . . krill (swim away, swim away. . .)* As a responsible designer I did all I was instructed to do in regards to SEO on our site as well as on our clients' and I still had a hard time really having faith in SEO. . . heresy I know. The internet inquisition would have found me out for sure. And then, it happened, the thing that led to my true conversion. . . www.savethecenter.org.

At True Light Resources we have a passion for giving back to the world (one of our core beliefs is that through giving one truly receives) and we are very involved on a personal level with the success of The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation (The Center) here in Houston, TX. When we were informed that the City of Houston was making plans to remove The Center from the city owned property it resided on and sell the land to a developer for high-end high-rises, we jumped at the chance to be helpful. We did what we do for all our clients. We encouraged and guided The Center to drive all inquiries and traffic to a newly created website. A central location where they could keep the public informed of what was going on with the "Save the Center" campaign. The site served as a scalable and immediately changeable presence. We called on our dear friends over at Schipul and got Save the Center into a Tendenci site. We felt Tendenci would be beneficial to the movement for many reasons, one the most important. . . SEO. Tendenci has all those basic SEO guidelines built into the system and bonus, they are great at that little thing called link backs. Well, not so little really. . . I mean the two most important things in SEO are content and link backs. So, link backs are actually a really big thing, and Tendenci does a really good job at it. Consequently, we had the beginnings of a good Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign.

Then, focusing on consistency, we created a suite of campaign collateral; buttons, car magnets, signs, etc. Using the established look and feel, and simply stating the web address, we were able to create low cost collateral materials. We drove people to the site and The Center was able to conserve resources (and for a grass-roots operation and/or small business, that's a good thing.)

Finally, we had all the pieces in place. We had a dynamic site, with keyword heavy content, embedded links, all the appropriate and necessary META-Tags. We had the ability through Tendenci to add articles easily, to send out news via email, and to continually add new content. We had a system of legitimate link backs in place and were able to make use of RSS technology. We also had a suite of collateral materials driving traffic to the site. If we were students in an SEO classroom, we would have gotten the Gold Star.

Still, I was truly amazed and transformed by the response we got on the site. There were articles written and press conferences held which helped immensely. All the while we kept encouraging The Center to send people to the site. At The Center and here at True Light Resources we dedicated a focused energy to pull all the information about Save the Center into one place. Miraculously, The Center received over 10,000 submissions of their petition to The City of Houston in less than 3 weeks and I am a True Believer. I know those faithful SEO devotees out there will say it's not miraculous, that it is the system working as it should, but have some patience with this newly, re-devoted disciple.

~ JJ

(*) Finding Nemo (and now you know I am also the mother of little children, but that's a total aside.)

16-Dec-07 12:00 PM

Website Pop Quiz - How well do you know your WWW

Tracey Lee Wallace — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Website Pop Quiz

Sponsored by www.truelightresources.com

1. How much time to do you have to capture someone’s attention before they leave your website?

a. 1 seconds

b. 10 seconds

c. 1 minute

2. What is SEO?

a. Secular Equality Organization

b. Security Enhancement Optimizer

c. Search Engine Optimization

3. How many searches are conducted per day on Google?

a. 900,000

b. 90,000,000

c. 90,000,000,000

4. Who has control of your website?

a. The President/Owner of the company

b. Our company’s IT Manager

c. Uh, I have no idea

d. The Dude

5. What is a Meta-Tag?

a. An HTML tag that provides information about a Web page, such as its title, description, and subject keywords

b. A demarcation that allow statistical information to be collected regarding number of visits to Adult Sites

c. A particularly harmful Web-borne virus

6. Is there a difference between a Search Engine and a Search Index?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Huh?

7. What is a Content Management System?

a. A tool that allows Management to monitor/control employees email

b. Content management tools allow companies to take control of their Web pages by managing the content as distinct from the design

c. A new software implemented by the Department of Education to be used by librarians

8. It takes $25,000 or more to have a Fortune 500 like website?

a. No it would take more money than that.

b. Yep that’s about right

c. Nope you don’t need to spend that much to look good.

9. Do your email and your website have to be hosted in the same place?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Dunno

10. How many indexed pages are there on the Web?

a. 11,500,000 pages

b. 1.5 billion pages

c. 11.5 billion pages

15-Dec-07 5:00 PM

www.SaveTheCenter.org

Tracey Lee Wallace — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 19:15:00 GMT

www.SaveTheCenter.org

Hello All,

We have just returned to the office after attending a press conference held by Shelia Jackson Lee at The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation.

The City of Houston is intending to sell the property The Center resides on, relocating 600 individuals with disabilities. The City thus far is intending to do this without consideration of the emotional and logistical impact this will have on the individuals served by The Center and their families.

Many of you have been made aware of this issue from the article in this Sunday's Houston Chronicle.

To read this article and much, much more you can visit
www.SaveTheCenter.org

Please visit this site and Sign the Petition (http://www.savethecenter.org/contact/petition.asp) telling Mayor White and The City of Houston,

"I am opposed to the City of Houston pursuing an agenda that would have the West Dallas Campus of the Center Serving Persons With Mental Retardation confiscated and the property sold. The Center must be allowed to continue its services and operations at the West Dallas location or hundreds of people with disabilities will be affected."

Thank you so much for your support in this.

Peace, Love and Light

~JJ & Tracey

www.TrueLightResources.com

9-Apr-07 2:15 PM