OVERDRIVE INTERACTIVE HAS DEVELOPED A FANTASTIC SOCIAL MEDIA MAP TO HELP YOU IDENTIFY YOUR TOP OPTIONS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY BUILDING AND MARKETING

Here’s a helpful Social Media Map, developed by Overdrive Interactive - feel free to pass it on to your contacts, don’t forget to give credit (and links!) back to Overdrive Interactive.  Thank you for all the hard work (it is well done), Overdrive Interactive, and for sharing!

Click on the picture to link back to Overdrive & download a copy of the map if you’d like one for yourself.

Overdrive Interactive is an online marketing services firm that helps companies create genuine and lasting connections with their target audiences and customers using Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Online Media.

Follow Up: I’ve been asking around Twitter and it appears there’s been some controversy over Magpie in Twitterland. While I take the time to consider what else I want to “test” on my Facebook, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, I have disabled the Magpie “promote” activity and require pre-approval of any ads purchased to run in my Twitterstream. I guess I just have to decide which of the two distinct groups of internet marketers I want to be -

1. Smash & Grab - build up links & traffic for people I never know or meet or talk to & just try to earn, earn, EARN!
2. Community Builder - take my expertise (traditional advertising media planning & negotiating) and gain a better understanding of how large & small companies can take advantage of the opportunity to interact with online communities (Social Media), to improve their offerings.

Jan 26th: I’ve been trying something new recently, instead of blogging often, short posts, I’ve been wandering around Twitter and trying to figure it out - how users use it and how real small businesses can use Twitter to promote themselves.

Click on the ad above and see if you can earn money and advertise your business on Twitter.

I am going through a bit of a phase where I find myself absolutely compelled to interact with fictional people online…  

First, Detective Hank Gillespie from the novel Raincloud posts previously unreleased police files to his blog.

Then, Nan Flanagan of the American Vampire League (True Blood) is on Twitter, from Washington, DC (where she lobbys for Vampire rights) 

Now I’ve come across a blog penned by Betty Draper, the depressed ’60s housewife of AMC’s Mad Men

Oddly, I had seen Mad Men when I started blogging, but I really thought my idea of having an “around the water cooler” category was more original…  I just found the Sterling Cooper website and at least they posted their Around The Water Cooler after I started blogging!

A DARK, OMINOUS RAINCLOUD HANGS OVER THE SMALL TOWN OF SCANLON CREEK, ONTARIO

Detective Hank Gillespie, who grew up in Scanlon Creek, has returned from Fort York haunted by visions of the mass murder that took place in his childhood, heightening local racial tensions between whites and First Nations communities beyond the breaking point.  Generations of families in conflict for decades; can they face their closet full of skeletons, overcome personal demons and each other?

Raincloud chronicles the paradigm shift of town residents, as they deal with layers of hostility and compassion for their community members.  I found Jacob Howell to be an especially complex character who goes through a heart-wrenching personal transformation.

Raincloud is a great book for reading on vacation or while commuting everyday; it’s an exciting read with unexpected plot twists, relatable, troubled characters and a satisfying end.

You’ll enjoy Raincloud if you liked:

1. Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons: Raincloud reads like a movie, with many tense, exciting scenes - including a thrilling car chase scene that had me holding my breath.
2. Hunter S Thompson’s journalist reports in Hell’s Angels: I can recall a similar change in my feelings towards primary characters - from being astounded by their graphic & violent lives to being touched by their sense of community pride & loyalty while enduring complex and deep-rooted personal struggles.
3. HBO’s True Blood: Fans of Sookie and Bill will enjoy Raincloud’s complex characters, gallons of blood and dark, brooding small-town setting.  (Fall 2008, 2009 Golden Globe nominee)
4. Blair Witch Project: Similar to how Blair Witch pre-released extra creepy & compelling “police documents”; unpublished case file documents from Scanlon Creek Police Department are released on the blog Letters From Scanlon Creek: Unpublished Case Files Pertaining to Raincloud A Novel.  Posts provide eerie insight as area residents blog their [fictional] thoughts and reactions to the excessively high rate of murder, drugs, violence and corruption, plaguing their community.

Read more reviews of Raincloud on Amazon