I have attended the last four BlogWorld’s and benefitted from each one. BlogWorld is just the right size for meeting people, enjoying sessions and learning. Even if you plan to attend, it is a great idea to buy the virtual ticket which gives you online access to recorded conference sessions with slide presentations and audio. That is because it is impossible to attend every one of the 100 plus sessions as they run simultaneously. If you buy a full access or two day pass to BlogWorld, the virtual ticket is just $49. This exclusive deal is good through 11/12, after which, all Virtual Tickets will be $497.

Be sure to use promo code BWELA to get 20% off of your pass if you are attending in person and haven’t bought your ticket yet. This code is good even for the $47 Expo Pass.

BlogWorld features sessions on content creation, distribution, monetization, mobile, digital broadcasting, tools and technology, and social media. There are community tracks for specific areas of content including: cause,food, music and entertainment, real estate, health, sports, tourism and travel.

I presented a content creation session at BlogWorld NYC in May 2011 called How to Write For and Engage the 50 Plus Marketplace Online. If 50 plus consumers are of interest to your business, cause or study, you should find the slides here of value.

Although I write for Boomer Tech Talk, my focus is on providing easy to understand tips on social media and technology that boomers can use for themselves, their business and their parents or other significant seniors in their lives.

To prepare for my presentation, the first step was to provide an educated overview of that marketplace, including why it is valuable to attract these readers and what interests and concerns them. Following is a list of acknowledgements for interviews and books that were kindly provided to support my preparation, as well as resources that I accessed.

Interviews:
Vinton Cerf, Google
Shelli Snelling, CareGivingClub.com
Dr. Sandra Timmerman, Mature Market Institute, MetLife.com/mmi
Michelle Robson, EmpowHer.com

Useful Books:
They’re Your Parents Too! – Francine Russo
Turning Silver into Gold – Mary Furlong
Vibrant Nation, What Boomer Women Know, Think and Buy – Stephen Reily

Special thanks:
Rosa Mangiardi, Continuum Crew, public relations

Additional Resources:
AARP
BoomersinTheWild.com – Lori Bitter
Internet Retailer
Osher Foundation
Pew Research
Purdue University Center on Aging
Scarborough Research
SeniorNet.org

I co-presented with Eva Abreu. You will see in the slides that I presented part one and Eva presented part two which focused on case studies. It was a pleasure creating this presentation with her.

Although, there is a message on this presentation frame saying “view on slideshare, you can see these slides right here by clicking on the arrows at the bottom of the show.

Nothing you put on the internet is private.

This does not mean avoid the internet. It means manage your online reputation by not putting things online that you would not want others to see.

Do no write emails, texts, tweets or Facebook posts that you would not want to see in a newspaper. Never post anything online when you are drunk or otherwise impaired.

Much general discussion of “sexting” has come with the Weiner incident. Sexting was originally coined in 2005 to refer to texting sexually explicit language or photos. But today’s news discussions have broadened the term, applying it to sending photos or language of a sexual nature through the internet on a variety of platforms. It is still thought to be primarily related to mobile phone communication. With a smart phone, the internet is on your phone.

Representative Weiner is taking a leave of absence to enter treatment for his sext addiction. But his problem is not medical. It is technological.

Our politicians should be computer literate and internet savvy. These skills are essential to almost every job in today’s economy. Internet activities, both local and global, play a part in economic, PR and other concerns that affect politicians at all level of government.

We launched the Boomer Tech Talk project because it is essential that we all learn social media skills. Understanding social media includes understanding how to manage your reputation online. You do this by publishing things online that you want to see associated with your name. The more the better.

If you are a parent of teenage children you might want to have a talk with them about the impact of what they put online. Of course, this would include the dangers of “sexting.” The current Weiner news creates an opportunity for a quiet, rational discussion of the dangers of sending or allowing provocative photos to be taken of them. There was a flurry of research on teenage sexting in 2009 by Pew Research and others. This page from the Crisis Intervention Center might help you. The truth is that anything from 2009 is already out of date. Technology just keeps rushing forward. But it gives you some perspective into the teen environment of today.

The guy or gal who seems so sweet and trustworthy today might want to show a trophy photo of you off to their friends tomorrow. People get mad and do stupid things. It is dangerous to assume that someone who is requesting or taking a suggestive photo or video of you today will never get mad at you. People fight. Things happen.

It could be argued that Anthony Weiner wanted to get caught. Unless you want to risk getting caught, we recommend that you do your frisky flirts in person.

Steps to set up your alert:

1. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts

You can use any email to set up your alert, however, signing in with your Google account will give you more options to manage your alerts. If you are not signed in with your Google account when you set up an alert, you will receive a confirmation email so that Google can verify your email.
2. Enter your word or phrase that you want to track
Note that you can preview a search result.
Use quotes to keep phrases and full names together such as “Linda Sherman Gordon”
If there is someone else with your name that frequently comes up in search, you can add a minus to tell Google to ignore them by using something that describes them like: “Linda Sherman” -professor
If you prefer to exclude Twitter or another website you use a site exclusion “Linda Sherman” -site:Twitter.com
There are additional advanced search suggestions on the alert site.
3. Choose the type of alert you want from the following choices:
- Everything: Also called “Comprehensive”, gives you everything on this list
- News: If you only want results from newspapers
- Blogs
- Realtime: Appears to be mainly Twitter
- Video
- Discussions: Forums
4. Choose how often you want to get alerts
As it happens
Once a day
Once a week
I generally find “once a day” sufficient.
Keep in mind that you get alerts when Google indexes* content with your search term on the internet, not at the instant it is published. I find that Twitter gets indexed fairly quickly (reminder not to drink and tweet) but some content may take days.

Each time you get a Google alert, there is a link at the bottom to delete the alert. If you signed up with your Google account, you will also get a link to manage (tweak) your alert.

You can set up to 1,000 alerts for one email account.
Make a conscious decision which email account you want these alerts sent to.

** Please find here a video interview with Ian Lurie introducing the concept of setting up Google Alerts with your children’s name. Internet Safety article by Bruce Sallan.

*Boomer Tech Talk Guide to Technical Words Used in this Article:
Publicly accessible: Google searches and Google alerts do not include content that require a password to view them. Publicly accessible pages on the internet can be seen without a password. Facebook personal profile walls are passworded so they are not publicly accessible. Facebook Fan Pages, Myspace and Twitter are among sites that are publicly accessible and indexed by Google.
Indexed by Google: Google uses search spiders or bots to crawl through fresh entries on the internet and store them.

Howard Schultz led into talking about the importance of social media for business by summarizing key factors that have changed in the business environment over the last two years including:

a. The recession has changed the way consumers make financial decisions. Beyond cost comparisons, those decisions can be influenced by the customer’s feeling of connection to a company.
b. There is no longer any doubt as to whether social media is essential for your business or your organization.

“The issue of social digital media – that train has left the station. It is a runaway train, and it’s not coming back. And as a result of that the understanding, the capability, the insight that goes along with emotionally engaging with people through these channels is mission critical to any enterprise.” – Howard Schultz

Starbucks was able to initiate social media programs in 2008 that acknowledged the company’s role in their customers’ lives, listened to their opinions and engaged them in an authentic way.

“With regards to the things we are doing in digital media, especially with regards to Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter – here’s the thing: people are looking at these channels as an opportunity to sell something, as an opportunity to create more revenue. That is a manifestation of these channels but should not be the primary reason for them to exist. The primary reason they exist is to share and engage with customers in a way in which you are making a deposit in the reservoir of trust as opposed to a withdrawal.

In a withdrawal, every time you try to sell something or ask someone to do something, it is not building authenticity. So these channels for us have given us the ability to engage with customers in a very, very powerful way.” – Howard Schultz

In the book, Howard Schultz lists “igniting the emotional attachment with our customers” as a critically important element in their transformation. Social media is an essential ingredient in achieving that attachment. In spite of internal executive resistance to getting negative feedback, in March 2008 Starbucks launched MyStarbucksIdea.com, inviting customers to tell them what they needed to change. Over 250,000 registered members have submitted 100,000 ideas. Successful loyalty programs were among the 100 initiatives launched in response to these customer ideas.

Starbucks now has more than 27,000,000 Facebook fans globally, more than one million followers on Twitter, and very strong monthly traffic to their website. In the past 90 days, payment by smart phone has been successfully introduced in the USA. Howard Schultz was explicit that social media platforms played an important role in launching this program.

“In less than 90 days, Starbucks became the number one company in America in terms of revenue and frequency of people paying for something on their smart phone at Starbucks. However, we were able to create significant awareness and relationships with our customers as a result of using social and digital media to explain it, to talk about it, and it had a life of its own.” – Howard Schultz

The addition of two new board members – Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg and Jupiter Networks CEO Kevin Johnson – is further evidence of Starbucks’ current love affair with technology. Broadly embracing tech is relatively new and important for the company. A part of the turn-around was dealing with out-of-date back room computers and obsolete point-of-sales systems (electronic cash registers) in the stores.

Overall, the book is a good read. In this article, I have focused on the social media success story for Starbucks. The scope of the book is far broader. Howard Schultz shares his discoveries of what went wrong at Starbucks and what was required to return it to health in a way that is readable, inspiring and useful to anyone who runs a business or organization, large or small.

Complete video transcript for your reference:
In any endeavor that you are engaged in, the issue of social digital media – that train has left the station. It is a runaway train, and it’s not coming back. And as a result of that the understanding, the capability, the insight that goes along with emotionally engaging with people through these channels is mission critical to any enterprise.

People thought we were crazy two years ago, but that’s one of the reasons that we have done so well this past year.

Our first alert in Kauai to the huge, tragic Japan earthquake was at 9PM Thursday night, March 10. We attended first to preparations for a tsunami predicted for 3AM our time. There was little sleep for everyone on Kauai and the rest of the state of Hawaii with tsunami warning sirens going off every hour from 10PM through 3AM with a bonus at 2:30AM. Residents from homes and vacation rentals directly at the coast needed to evacuate and we supported that effort by taking in a few people. As it turned out, the tsunami effect in Hawaii was very limited but given the magnitude of the quake and tsunami in Japan, it was certainly better to be safe than sorry.

We immediately got on Twitter @KauaiTalk @LindaSherman @RayJGordon and Facebook to make sure that our local friends in Hawaii were aware of the warnings and were taking precautions. We passed on news and responded to questions using the hash tag# created for the local event: #HITsunami.

All night, we watched the first shocking, horrifying and heartbreaking images that CNN could get a hold of. CNN didn’t have many that first night and kept running them over and over but we kept coming back to watch. My husband Ray and I lived in Japan for more than 13 years beginning in late 1993. (I was there for an additional 8 years before that). We were very worried about our friends in Japan. We checked for whatever social media we could find and also bothered them with emails.

At times of humanitarian crisis or when a nation or the world is focused on a special event, social media brings us together. Twitter in particular is very immediate. I wrote about this phenomenon calling it the Twitter Shared Experience. Facebook Pages that are open to updates can also be very useful. Blogs follow and allow us to share stories that support all of us. Information shared through social media is helpful to those in need and it links us all together, in all of our humanity.

Social Media for Social Good
Social media can be used for Social Good. You may have seen stories written about “social influencers” people whose voices carry to many thousands of listeners through their followers on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. In these times of crisis, these influencers can be a positive force. But so can each and everyone of us. You can share your voice on Twitter by including a # in your tweet such as #HelpJapan. People who use Twitter search can create a stream of information by putting that # in their Twitter search bar.* You can contribute your voice to the Facebook Pages I have listed here. You can comment on relevant websites and blogs or post a blog yourself.

I worked in Japan as an executive and was one of the few foreign participants in the Nihon Keizai Doyukai (Japan Associate of Corporate Executives). The Keizai Doyukai produces white papers for consideration by the Japanese government. There are few foreigners in this organization because it is conducted entirely in Japanese and requires the ability to not only speak Japanese but read Japanese in order to fully participate. I participated in several committees that touched on the image of Japan to the world.

Japan is a huge international aid contributor but they never talk about it. Japanese are humble by nature and do not brag about what they do. I am hoping that this crisis ultimately drags more English capable Japanese onto social media to communicate with the rest of the world about Japan. This will be part of an overall change from a rather insular society to one that is more fully linked with the rest of the world. We can help Japan financially and emotionally through our support delivered through social media platforms.

Following is the list of links* that I have collected so far. This has been a labor of love and I hope you find it useful. You are invited to add useful links that I have missed in the comments.

Social Good – Giving
List of Local Japanese Organizations Providing Direct Support Links to their English pages selected as trustworthy by Todd Wassel and his Japanese wife who are both professional aid and recovery workers with the United Nations
Tokyo IS Support Tokyo International School & TEDxTokyo communities have partnered with Second Harvest Japan to receive needed supplies at Tokyo International School for immediate delivery to the disaster areas (local donations)
Seven Ways to Help from Mashable a leader in Social Media news and analysis
South by SouthWest SXSW Giving
SXSW* – Use your social media influence to help Japan message – Red Cross
Time Magazine – Five Ways You Can Help
How You Can Help from Tokyo Time Out
USAID.gov links to this Interaction list of charities

There are additional references to charities within many of the links on this page.
Celebrities are making major contributions, some direct and some collecting donations through fans such as Lady Gaga with a Pray for Japan wristband.

On corporate or non-profit giving: some people have objected to requests for passing forward the word on Twitter through retweets (Microsoft for Bing) or joining Fan Pages to raise money but Charlie Weingarten at Dog Bless You smartly replied: Some people ask why I don’t just give the money. Because together we are far stronger than working alone. Others are suggesting that Apple is taking a cut of contributions through iTunes (they are not!). I have to admit that I personally didn’t like a 2009 cancer campaign on Twitter that appeared to be all about breaking a guinness record so that a particular PR agency could show they had clout (without acknowledging major players that had helped them along the way). But while using caution to only contribute through organizations you trust, we need not be stingy with our Facebook likes and our Twitter RT’s (retweets). Microsoft quickly decided to just donate the $100,000 instead of continuing their RT campaign but ultimately, continuing to spread the word is good for everyone and … why is it that we need to begrudge these organizations some positive PR?

Useful Japan Disaster Dedicated Sites
Google Crisis Response includes flight cancellation status and other useful updated information (English)
Wikipedia current disaster page filled with useful links and updates
Press Releases from the Prime Minister of Japan related to Measures Being Taken
Olive – Advice Wiki for emergency areas in English and Japanese by @_nosigner
Wiki for Earthquake Info
American Embassy in Japan
Fukushima International Association

National Japanese Newspapers – English Feed
Nikkei leading business newspaper
Yomiuri large daily newspaper
Asahi large daily newspaper

Live News Streams from Japan – English
NHK World (Japan’s national TV station) has is providing livestream with full earthquake/tsunami coverage on this NHK Ustream Link

Live News Streams from Japan – Japanese
TBS Channel on UStream.

Useful Sites About Japan Providing Updates
Yokoso – Japan Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment based in Yokkaichi, Mie, Japan
Entertainment Magazine in Japan – Time Out Tokyo
Japan Times – English Language Newspaper in Japan
Tokyo Post Online News Magazine
Japan Today Online News Magazine
Gaijin Pot Online Live, Work, Play Magazine for Foreigners in Japan

Rolling Black Out Information – In English
Yokoso News Updates
Links from Daniel Kahl showing specific cities

Finding People
Google People Finder

Useful Facebook Pages in English – includes Giving
eJournal USA published by the United States Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs
Help Save Japan at SXSW
Prayer for Tsunami Victims in Japan (fortunately has non-prayer related info as well)
Rescue Dog Organization: Explore Dogs
Tokyo International School Emergency Supply Center

Useful Facebook Pages in Japanese, English and Other Languages
Bringing the world together Facebook Page
Facebook Page for Touhoku EarthQuake
Free Medical Consultation For Earthquake Victims

Twitter
Twitter Corporate Produced (in both Japanese and English) helpful links and useful hash tags.
Search for essential local Japan earthquake crisis information in English on Twitter

Twitter #Hash Tags*
I am seeing tweets that say ‘instead of #PrayforJapan please use #HelpJapan’ and I agree! However, #PrayforJapan is still going strong, so if you want to get a message to all on the English channels you should use both tags.
In Japan they are using #jishin (earthquake) and others you can see listed in the Twitter blog at the top of this section. #EQJP has become an accepted format from recent earthquakes in Equador and New Zealand.

The #j_j_helpme hash tag reminds us that Twitter can be used to save your life. We wrote about this in our Your Cell Phone Can Save Your Life article.

Tweets From Japan
Tweets From Japan 60 volunteers translating tweets in Japanese into 12 languages – Google Doc
Earthquake and Relief live tweet streams on Twimpact this system by Matthias Jugel, owner of Twimpact (in Germany) searches tweets by keywords and #tags and includes cloud of active twitter accounts providing information. This is generally designed to capture Japanese tweets because of the keywords used. You can choose the translation language for your country.

In English (curating news)
@Tzarimas Helen Tzarimas from Sydney (update – Mar 15 – exhausted – passed to her Japan twitter list)
@seacorro Zoe Daniel from Bangkok
@Colvinius Mark Colvin from Sydney
@HiroTag Hiroko MD from Cardiff, Wales, UK
@Bunguman Yoshi Suzuki from Minneapolis, Minn
@MarianSteinbeck from Cologne, Germany
@MarcySensei Marcy Sensei, from Mexico City

Thought Leaders Not Currently in Japan
@Joi Joi Itoh from wherever he is in the world

Tweeting From Japan Personal Experience and Information
@YankeeReview Darren in Fukushima, Japan
@UnusualOlive Rika Oshima in Yokohama, Japan
@DanielKahl public personality, born in California, in Japan
@audreybenten Usually in Shinjuku, Japan – in Austin for SXSW conference
@tokyoreporter Brett Bull in Tokyo
@Matt_Alt Matt Alt in Tokyo
@tamegoeswild Joseph Tame in Tokyo
@1rick Rick Martin in Tokyo
@survivingnjapan Ashley Thompson in Shizuoka
@sandrajapandra Sandra Barron in Tokyo
@HidekiOnda in Tokyo
@Gen Gen Kanai
@MutantFrogInc Roy Berman
@KenMogi in Tokyo
@OurManinAbiko in Abiko, Japan
@Shioyama in Tokyo
@Tom_Vincent in Tokyo
@gakuranman Michael Gakuran in Nagoya, Japan
@SteveNagata in Tokyo

News Bureau Related People Tweeting from Japan
@martyn_williams in Tokyo
@HirokoTabuchi in Tokyo
@W7VOA Steve Herman
@JustinMcCurry
@JNatsuko Natsuko Fukue
@jtmasami Masami Ito
@Kenji_Hall
@Ularainblack Ulara Nakagawa
@fieldproducer Neal Mann (free lance)
@AkikoFujita
@sanchanta Mariko Sanchanta
@dicklp Richard Lloyd Parry
@kzinagata Kazuaki Nagata
@AyakoMie
@Daiwaka Daisuke Wakabayashi
@TomokoHosaka
@ChicoHarlan

Japan News Sites in English
@DailyYomiuri
@TimeOutTokyo
@YokosoNews
@JRNHeadlines
@JapanTimes

Japanese Government
@Norishikata Noriyuki Shikata, PR Prime Minister’s Office

Updates and Rescue Information in Japanese
@Kantei_Saigai

Accurate Nuclear News
@BraveNewClimate Barry Brook author Brave new Climate
@W_Nuclear_News
Japan Status Accurate radiation level information @JapanStatus
March 17 Obama Public Address: USA Not Threatened by Nuclear Fallout from CNN
Why I Am Not Fleeing Japan – Washington Post

I have created a Japan Crisis Twitter List on my @KauaiTalk account and am doing related tweeting from both @LindaSherman and @KauaiTalk but no longer in the format of a constant stream of information that you will find most of the time on the twitter accounts I have collected for this article.

How to Pronounce Japanese
Japanese pronunciation is flat with no emphasis on the second syllable that you are used to in English, so please stop putting emphasis on the dai in Sendai. The vowels in Japanese are the same as in Spanish so it is relatively simple to pronounce Japanese words. I produced this little Japanese pronunciation tutorial with audio during a raft of news anchor mispronunciations of the word karaoke during the holiday season.

Failure of Closed Social Media Systems – American Chamber of Commerce
ACCJ (American Chamber of Commerce) should be an important resource to American companies doing business in Japan. They have recently put up a Facebook Page and Twitter feed. Unfortunately, they have set their Facebook Page as a fairly closed system that does not encourage others to update. Their LinkedIn Group moderates comments (slowly!) so there is little activity there as well.

Why Japan Will Emerge Stronger After the Earthquake
We were in Japan during the Kobe (Hanshin/Awaji) earthquake in January 1995. Japan refused international assistance during that disaster which proved to be a regrettable decision. The spirit of cooperation both internally and internationally during this horrible tragedy and in the rebuilding to follow should be a positive force.

*Boomer Tech Talk Guide to Technical Words Used in this Article:
Hashtag: Used in Twitter, written #. This is used to create a stream in Twitter of all tweets that include that #. Using the hashtag allows Twitter uses to follow particular topics and events using the search bar in Twitter without needing to go to any particular one source. Twitter refers to some of these hashtags as “trending topics”. You can search for a key word with using the hashtag but the # encourages people to use the same word, making it easy to find a stream of information or commentary on one topic.
SXSW: Stands for South by Southwest. A huge annual music/film/social media conference held in Austin (this year March 11 – March 20, starting shortly after the earthquake hit Japan)
Links: You can click on a live link to get to a website, including a Facebook Page. I have not made the Twitter profiles into live links so when you see @name you need to enter http://Twitter.com/name to get to the link.

We hope that if you are not yet participating in social media, this article has given you one more reason to take that step. Social media can help you cope with a crisis in your personal or business life with immediate information and emotional support.

I would greatly appreciate it if you add useful links that I may have missed in the comments.

We would suggest that for most businesses it is appropriate to use both Twitter and Facebook. But it is important to think about what you want to accomplish on each platform. As Robert points out, you should not just be running your Twitter feed through your Facebook Page. Actually, while posting Twitter to your personal profile might be tolerable to your close friends, it is completely inappropriate for your Facebook Business Page. One reason you should not do this is that you should use your Facebook as an opportunity to expound and use visual illustrations. Why limit yourself to 140 characters as you have to on Twitter?

Robert likes Twitter because he loves information rich environments. Robert Scoble is an advocate for and and a generous contributor to information distribution. He has made his photographs public domain and follows over 30,000 people on Twitter. Wikipedia describes Robert as a blogger, noting his popular blog, Scobleizer.com and his high profile work for Microsoft, Fast Company and now Rackspace.

All that information involvement can seem overwhelming to average folk, including some of our readers on Boomer Tech Talk. I thought you might enjoy a song that a gentleman named Scott O’Raw wrote in his attempt to express his own experience of the overwhelming volume of information rushing in on us these days. He calls it the Ballad of Robert Scoble although he carefully explains it is not critical of Robert. It is just that Robert is an example of a prolific information generator.

Understanding the information environment your clients live in helps. How can you participate effectively? How can you as a business use Twitter to build relationships with customers and potential business partners through engagement and information exchange? Where does Facebook fit in? Here are Robert’s ideas.
Filmed by Linda Sherman at South by Southwest Interactive Conference 2010 in Austin

Transcript:
I’m here with Linda Sherman. I just gave a talk on Twitter and one of the questions she asked me to expound on was Twitter versus Facebook for businesses. The way I look at it, each business will be different or each genre of business will be different… like the tech business is very Twitter happy, “Twitter-centric.” And that’s partly because we can mix different brands together or different people and brands together in one stream and that’s really difficult to do on Facebook. Facebook sort of does it by following but it’s not a strict stream the way it is on Twitter.

Twitter is also very information dense because they limit you to 140 characters. So even on a mobile phone I can get a lot of tweets very, very quickly and there’s not a lot of visual noise because of comments, photos, videos and thumbnails and stuff like that.

On the other hand, that’s what makes Facebook more fun for normal people… if you have a birthday party for your kid and you see photos coming through the stream and videos – that makes them very engaging and very interesting for Facebookers. So you have to view Twitter and Facebook as different things with different audiences and different expectations on what you would put in the stream.

If you’re a business, I would look at both and look at doing certain things, certain behaviors on both that are separate. Don’t try to copy your tweets over to Facebook necessarily.

Robert Scoble’s iPhone Apps show his engagement with information and social media

How do you separate the use of Facebook and Twitter in your business? You are invited to show off your Facebook Page and Twitter links.

We came up with a few  Valentines Day tech gifts for both men and women that we think break the mold of the usual fare. Hopefully one of these will appeal to you or might lead to a creative gift idea of your own.

Portable Hard Drive Loaded With Memory Photos

Photo Montage by Ray Gordon

Back in the day, mix tapes were a very nice hand-made offering to a loved one. Today high capacity portable pocket-sized hard drives are surprisingly low cost and very useful. Why not fill a small portion of a new drive with photos special to your special guy or gal before presenting. Very personalized and very valuable!
We examined a variety of these drives at the Consumer Electronic Show in January that we look forward to reviewing for you soon. For Valentines Day, our featured pick is the Verbatim Acclaim 320 GB USB Portable External Hard Drive.

The Verbatim Acclaim series of portable hard drives are among the smallest portable hard drives we’ve seen.  The drive comes in capacities ranging from 320GB all the way up to one terabyte (1,000GB), which is plenty of room for back-ups and  important files you’d like to carry with you. Even the smallest capacity drive (320GB) can hold over 100,000 (10MB) JPEG photos or up to 80,000 songs. The series comes in various colors (black, blue, red and pink), but not all colors are available for each capacity model. All the Acclaim drives connect via a supplied USB cable, making it easy to connect to virtually any computer.

High Tech Beach Mat for Two Eliminates Sand

Photo courtesy of CGear Sand-Free Ltd

The CGear Sand-Free Multimat can be used for the beach, picnics, camping or other outdoor experiences alone or with a beach towel. Keep your cuddling experience sand and dirt free. Their unique, patented two-layer mesh allows sand and dirt to fall through without coming back up from below. This mat is easy to pack up and carry – and you won’t be carrying home half the beach or pounds of dirt.

The MultiMat has a tech background – this product was originally developed for the military in Australia as a helicopter landing pad, eliminating surface dirt and sand to prevent the disorienting dust cloud common in helicopter landings in dry, dusty places.

For Your Unattached Friends

Single men and women have no reason to feel left out on Valentines Day but why not gift them a potential romantic experience on a premium dating site. Your friend or relative is probably already on a free or inexpensive dating site, but the luxury of a Chemistry.com profile is a step up. Right now you can give them three months for the price of one. They can easily edit the temporary profile you create in order to kick-start your gift.

Even those of you who hate Valentines Day might enjoy it more if you take the time to dream up a creative alternative to the usual commercial Valentines Day products.

Would you like to share a creative Valentines Day suggestion with us?

Bruce in the Super Pipe at Mammoth, CA in 2010

Jack LaLanne had an influence on the lives of many Baby Boomers. His inspiring chatter during his TV exercise show about healthy food and regular exercise was revolutionary at the time. He died January 23, 2011 at 96. Jack’s level of activity in his late years demonstrates the possibilities for all of us. Jack LaLanne published the well received Live Young Forever: 12 Steps to Optimum Health, Fitness and Longevity in September 2009.

Was losing weight high on your resolutions for 2011? You have lots of company. Weight loss and other fitness goals are perennial staples of New Years resolutions lists. As work becomes more sedentary in developed countries, we really have to challenge ourselves to stay fit.

One thing the three co-founders of Boomer Tech Talk have in common is that we are in remarkably good shape “for our age”. We have all had busy careers but we value staying in shape enough to work that into our schedules.

Like most of you, our endeavor to stay fit has peaks and valleys. Sometimes, we have to go on a special regime to get back to where we were. If you are 40 or older you’ve discovered that every 10 years, staying fit gets a little more challenging. We can’t eat what we used to be able to eat and maintaining a high percentage of lean muscle mass becomes both more difficult and more necessary.

The three of us spend huge amounts of time in front of a computer. So the adage that no diet or fitness maintenance regime is complete without regular exercise is even more important for us.

Ray Gordon

Like many kids, I played basketball, baseball, touch football, soccer – and I often played until darkness fell and I couldn’t see the ball. As I grew older, I experienced some success participating in organized sports in high school and college. Even after entering the work force, I continued to exercise frequently, running with friends, playing some basketball, lifting weights, all while concentrating on racquet sports – especially tennis.

As time passed, I realized that most of my peers did not share my level of activity. The high school football star morphed into an overweight couch potato. The less athletically inclined usually fared even worse, gaining weight while developing ailments typically associated with being overweight.

I was also fortunate to have had an aptitude for tennis that allowed me to play at a competitive level for decades. I worked hard to maintain my fitness and refine my skills, so that as I grew older, I actually became better relative to those in my age group. I could hang tough with players one third my age, and have success against many accomplished players in my own age group.

Being an athlete, I had to deal with a variety of injuries. I loved contact in basketball, and always played racquet sports at full speed. I’ve sprained many joints, had casts on ankles, torn muscles, and taken many a fall. I approached each injury as a challenge to be overcome, and worked hard to rehab principally using weight training and stretching exercises. I’m convinced that keeping my weight down has saved a lot of wear and tear on my joints and allowed me to stay quick on the court.

As I aged, I found my baseline weight increasing slightly every decade, due mostly to a slowing metabolism. However, if I found myself putting on a few pounds, I just increased my exercise and ate a bit less. The goal was to lose excess weight without traditional dieting. This strategy has always worked for me.

I have a few tips everyone can follow to enjoy staying fit:

1. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables and stay away from highly processed prepared foods.

2. Stay away from all those highly sugared, fried or heavily salted snack foods.

3. Try to exercise every day for at least a half hour. Walk. Jog. Lift weights. Go to the gym. Any activity is better than none.

4. Fad diets don’t work. Find out your daily baseline calorie requirement based on your weight, age, and gender. If you want to lose weight, eat less than that amount each day.

5. Lose weight slowly. Remember that a pound of fat is the equivalent of 3,500 calories, so it takes time to lose weight. Be happy with steady progress… the loss of two or three pounds in one month is realistic and more likely to stay off than if you try to lose pounds by radically altering your eating patterns.

6. Get regular medical check-ups. If you have a condition that requires special dietary adjustments, make sure they are accounted for in your weight loss planning.

7. It’s important to build or at least maintain muscle mass when losing weight. You don’t want to just reduce calories and actually lose muscle mass rather than fat. Weight training or active exercise will help build muscles while you burn away fat.

8. Men and women really are different. Generally, men have greater muscle mass, and since muscle burns more calories than other body tissue, it’s easier for men to lose weight as they exercise. Women can help their cause by working out regularly to slowly build muscle tissue.

Linda Sherman

How I stay fit:
I eat lots of fish, tofu and veggies. High fiber, no sugar cereal with fresh ground flax seed, a small amount of fresh fruit and skim milk or light soy milk for breakfast. Fish or tofu with veggies and brown rice for lunch. That stays fairly consistent. When I am in diet mode I eat NO carbs for dinner, fish or tofu with veggies.

Breakfast is important to kick start your metabolism. You may think that skipping breakfast saves some calories but that decision actually has a negative effect.

Eat dinner as early as possible, especially during a dieting phase. When I say, no carbs at dinner, it’s because what you eat close to bedtime is so important. You haven’t had a chance to work it off before you sleep on it.

Snacking is fine. It is WHAT you snack. When I was in Japan, I concocted a soup for dieting with pretty much zero calories but lots of taste and enough fiber to make your stomach happy for a while. The secret ingredient is daikon, a long white radish. Use chicken stock, flavor with onion, carrot and celery. Remove the onion, carrot and celery but keep the daikon.

Carrots have a bit of carbs but shouldn’t hurt you for snacking, along with celery and other raw vegetables. A SMALL portion of walnuts or almonds is good for you – count out 9 and stop.

I prefer Zero tolerance on sugar. I find it easier to “just say no”. I can get vicarious pleasure from smelling my companion’s desserts. I know from experience that when I have just a bit of this or that sugared sweet – I start getting a craving.

Another thing that makes dieting easier is not drinking alcohol. It’s not just the calories in alcohol, it is the steep decline in self control that accompanies its consumption.

Any diet and maintenance of weight must include very regular exercise. I try to get 30 to 60 minutes of aerobic exercise every day and light weight training 2 or 3 times a week.

One of the biggest challenges both during the dieting and maintenance phase is dining out. My professional nutritionist friend Erica Angyal says that during the maintenance phase you can indulge yourself once a week.

I have had several jobs in the food and beverage industry and learned how to order out of necessity.

Just as Weight Watchers has recently figured out with a sweeping revision of the program to acknowledge the glycemic Index, food choices are not just about calories. There is much to do with the amount of time it takes food to turn to sugar. So an orange is fine, a glass of orange juice is not. The health benefits of non-gluten have also been popularized recently.

How to Order Well:

Don’t Order List Key Menu Words:

Butter (butter sauce, cooked in butter)
Fried (the only exception is fried tofu)
Pasta (with the exception of brown rice pasta)
Rice (with the exception of brown rice)
Cream
Bread (includes buns, sandwich bread, croutons and phylo wrappings)
Tortilla
Cheese
White Potato
Sauce (caution for anything with the word sauce – ASK if it is heavy)
Dessert: except for fresh fruit, tell them you don’t need a dusting of sugar
Corn
Go easy on beans
Go easy on salad dressing

Do Choose These Menu Items List:

Fish
Vegetables
Tofu
SMALL portions of white chicken, turkey or pork meat
Brown rice (small portions)
Yam (small portion, no butter, no maple syrup)
Fruit (not canned)
Olive Oil

Beverages:
I keep alcoholic beverage consumption to once at most twice a week
(during diet phase, you’ll see how much skipping alcohol for a few weeks will give you a running start)
If you like tonic drinks, use diet tonic.
Drink lots of water.
Just forget about fruit juice, soda and any sugary drinks.

Especially if you are at a fine restaurant, your waiter should be able to assist you if you explain what you want to avoid. Be careful with fish advice. Fish oil is good for you. Don’t let the waiter steer you to a species of fish that is dry.

I realize it is very difficult to avoid sandwiches in many countries. Sandwiches are a huge convenience. If you are stuck at a gathering where all they offer are sandwiches, try to discretely eat the filling without the bread.

Bruce Sallan

My change of work status to work-at-home-dad and work-at-home-at-desk-with-laptop has diminished my work-OUT time, without a doubt, though I still work out 3-5 times per week, ski 30-40 days a season, and am constantly active.  I’m currently in a phase where I want to lose some pounds I never carried before.

These days, the hardest exercise I get are my frequent ski trips.  That is where I shine, in my opinion, though what and how I ski is something that most boomers are not doing.  While I’m not dropping out of helicopters, I do play in the terrain parks at Mammoth Mountain, here in California and I’m proud to report I may be the oldest dude in the pipe, which you can see in the video below.

Following is my simple advice and 10 tips to a healthier and fit self — for you and as a reminder to myself:

1. Don’t snack.
2. Drink lots of water or other good drinks. Stay away from soda, period.
3. Get up and move around if you have a desk job.
4. Whenever there are stairs, use ‘em instead of an elevator.
5. Walk to lunch. Walk, period, whenever you can.
6. Don’t skip meals and don’t binge eat if you’re in a hurry.
7. Set a work-out schedule that is realistic for you and stick with it. As I learned from the Canadian Mounted Police’s handbook, when you begin a work-out schedule, set the bar very low. That way, you will keep that schedule and reinforce your commitment. Raise the bar later.
8. Did I say “Don’t Snack!”
9. Vary your work-outs, whatever they are. Do not do your cardio on the same stair machine each time you do it. This means you, too, ladies!
10. The best tip I ever got was from an older man I worked with early in my showbiz career, decades ago. It’s the best and only diet tip that I believe we can all keep. Eat good during the week and enjoy yourself, with restraint, on the weekends.

Sarah Evans is a recognized expert on how to generate publicity and we were fortunate to get her advice on the topic of local PR. I had the opportunity to interview Sarah at Blog World Expo 2010, an annual conference that we recommend to bloggers.

Sarah’s public relations company Sevans Strategy is adept at both traditional and new media PR. She has recently been included in Vanity Fair’s America’s Tweethearts, Forbes’ 14 Power Women to Follow on Twitter and Entreprenuer’s Top 10 Hot Startups of 2010.

You can find Sarah on Twitter @PRSarahEvans and on her blog. Sarah launched in 2008, and hosts #journchat, a weekly live chat between PR professionals, journalists and bloggers held on Twitter – Monday nights from 8PM to 9PM Eastern Time. (Please look forward to an article about how to participate in Twitter Chats on Boomer Tech Talk in the near future).

Transcript of Sarah Evans Tips:
“One of the most simple things you can do is watch your national news in the morning and see if there any national angles that relate to your business where you can serve as a local source.

That is important because you can contact your local daily print, radio, TV outlets and say ‘I can offer a local perspective on this topic or issue.’

Really get to know your local media and in addition to that now your local bloggers – people who are talking about business, industry or if you serve a certain niche – food, entertainment, tech whatever your business in, find the people who are writing about that.

These days that would include bloggers.

Invest time in getting to know people who can help you reach your consumer – just like I learned in my background for traditional media, the same applies to your social networks and bloggers.”

Have you had a local publicity success? Please tell us about it.

Affiliate Summit West Feb 2008 Linda Sherman with Jason Calacanis Following His Keynote

Learn from the best in the conference sessions as well as private conversations. Since it is impossible to be everywhere at once, choose a conference pass that includes session video recordings.

Aside from easy networking in the halls during the day, Affiliate Summit West has Parties!

Parties at Affiliate Summit West 2011:
Saturday, January 8, 2011
buy.at’s Mixology Party
Sponsor(s): buy.at
Time: 8:00pm -
Location: Mix Lounge
How to RSVP: The event is invite only, but if you’d like to attend, please send an email to Amy at USEvents@buy.at
Who is invited?: buy.at affiliates, clients, partners, and industry contacts

Sunday, January 9, 2011
Affiliate Summit Happy Hour hosted by Viglink
Sponsor(s): Viglink
Time: 6:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: Sin City Brewing – inside the Flamingo Hotel
How to RSVP: RSVP at Facebook
Who is invited?: All.

ShareASale “Under the Stars” Party
Sponsor(s): ShareASale
Time: 8:00pm – 12:00am
Location: Tryst Nightclub
How to RSVP: Pick up an invitation at the Meet Market on Sunday @ the ShareASale Table.
Who is invited?: Everybody who picks up an invite.

The Mailer Meetup
Sponsor(s): RoboMail
Time: 8:00pm – 11:00pm
Location: Caesars Palace (The event will take place inside a suite at Caesars Palace. Free drinks and food will be provided.)
How to RSVP: Send an email to mailermeetup@gmail.com, subject :mailer meetup.
Who is invited?: This is a for mailers by mailers event. Anyone who has experience in the email marketing industry.

PMG Private Reception
Sponsor(s): Paulson Management Group, Inc USA, PMG Affiliate Management LTD UK
Time: 9:00pm -
Location: The WYNN Salon Suite
How to RSVP: Email McKenna@PaulsonManagementGroup.com
Who is invited?: Anyone interested in speaking with PMG.

Moss Networks Presents: Ultimate Affiliate Event
Sponsor(s): DankCash, Empyre Media, Webair
Time: 10:00pm – close
Location: Blush Boutique Nightclub inside the Wynn Hotel
How to RSVP: Guests must be invited by each sponsor. Contact one of the companies listed above, or find them during the Meet Market for your invite!
Who is invited?: Guests of sponsors only

Monday, January 10, 2011

2011 PMA Member Meeting
Sponsor(s): N/A
Time: 5:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: Maggiano’s Little Italy (across LV Blvd. from the Wynn)
How to RSVP: Complete RSVP form
Who is invited?: Everyone

Network Solutions Affiliate Cocktail Party
Sponsor(s): Network Solutions
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: La Cave at the Wynn
How to RSVP: The event is invite only, but if you’d like to attend, please send an email to Mia Vallo at mia.vallo@networksolutions.com
Who is invited?: Network Solutions affiliates, vendors, partners and industry contacts

AffiliateWire Elite VIP Party
Sponsor(s): RevenueWire
Time: 6:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: TAO
How to RSVP: Contact your Affiliate Manager.
Who is invited?: Invite Only

Affiliate Summit Trivia Tweetup
Sponsor(s): Affiliate Summit
Time: 9:00pm – 12:00am
Location: Wynn Las Vegas Mouton 2
How to RSVP: Confirm at this Tweetvite
Who is invited?: Everybody

Profit Kings Media presents the Affiliate Ball w/ Three Six Mafia, YTCracker
Sponsor(s): Blu Cigs, ClickBank, Market Health, Neverblue, OJQ, PeerFly, Profit Kings Media, Underground Elephant
Time: 9:30pm -
Location: Rio’s Crown Theater
How to RSVP: Please sign up at http://www.affiliateball.com/registration or contact a wonderful sponsor for a VIP code – VIP entrance is at 9:30 PM, general admission is at 10:30 PM.
Who is invited?: Everyone.

Affiliate Summit Tip Off Party
Sponsor(s): DM Confidential, Experience Advertising, John Chow Dot Com, Offervault, Purpose, Inc.
Time: 10:00pm -
Location: The Palms – Hardwood Suite
How to RSVP: Click Tip Off Party and RSVP!!
Who is invited?: Everyone.

Affiliate Avalanche Party
Sponsor(s): Health Converter, Vantage Payments, CCBill
Time: 9:00pm – 12:00am
Location: Lucky 7 Suite Hard Rock Hotel
How to RSVP: Visit Health Converter to RSVP for a chance to attend.
Who is invited?: Invite Only

Clickbooth’s Black Card Party
Sponsor(s): Clickbooth
Time: 10:00pm – 1:00am
Location: Location will be revealed on Monday, January 10th at Clickbooth’s Booth #405
How to RSVP: Contact your rep.
Who is invited?: Invite only.

Please note: As some of the parties are “by invitation only”, you need to contact the sponsor directly for more information. If you’re running a party, dinner, etc. during Affiliate Summit, submit your details to ASW so that they can add you.

Wild and crazy things happen around Affiliate Summit West.
Jeremy Schoemaker is running a contest at ShoeMoney.com to win:

* A platinum pass to Affiliate Summit West.
* 2 nights hotel accommodations paid for at host hotel.
* $500 Airfare Reimbursement.
* $2000 to gamble on 1 hand of blackjack (can you handle the pressure?).
* Roll with Jeremy at Affiliate Summit.
* A pass to the Epic Advertising Playboy Mansion Party this fall.

Why I should win Jeremy’s contest:
I bring a different perspective to affiliate marketing because I am a social media marketing consultant with a multinational CMO/CEO background.
I will take photos, video and tweet, facebook and blog my positive thoughts about my experience.
I will wear a skirt.

Be sure to register early for the next Affiliate Summit since they do sell out. You can however, look for cancellations and on-site registration.