That was the subject of my first appearance on the Lab with Leo, and at last I have the embeddable video of that conversation.

Mr. Laporte and I talk about how to set up a Google News Alert, as well as how to monitor tags and search within Technorati. (Scroll past the obligatory G4 Tech TV promo, if you prefer)

Big thanks to Ryan Yewell and the rest of the producers for having me on the show, and then even being kind enough to have me back!

Stay tuned for my second appearance, where we discuss using social media tools to market your business, including a discussion about Facebook profiles, apps and groups.

I’m proud and delighted to report that Tell Ten Friends has been selected to be among the Top 30 Canadian Marketing and Advertising Blogs, by Experience Planner, authored by Scott Weisbrod.

Membership on the list is based on a number of factors including # of subscribers, link count, Page Rank, and a few others. Having been around a while, I still have enough “juice” to be on this list, even though I’ve been posting a lot less frequently over the past several months.

It’s an honour (spelled with a ‘u’ today, thanks) to be among such bright, talented and well-informed bloggers such as the rest those that grace the list along with me:

1. adgoodness
2. One Degree
3. Canuckflack
4. Twist Image
5. Pro PR
6. My Name is Kate
7. Leo Burnett Toronto
8. chroma
9. Common Sense PR
10. Buzz Marketing with Blogs
11. Crap Hammer
12. PR Works
13. Buzz Canuck
14. Student PR Blog
15. Transmission Content + Creative
16. social media group
17. The Client Side Blog
18. The Praized Blog
19. Experience Planner
20. Canadian Marketing Blog
21. BPWrap
22. The New PR
23. ADS-Links.com
24. Blogging Me Blog You
25. Mutually Inclusive PR
26. FlackLife
27. The Other Blokes’ Blog
28. Tell Ten Friends
29. Happy Pixels
30. Youngblood PR & Marketing

Go Canada! With lists like these popping up all over the web for various categories in various areas, it’s nice to see that someone is willing to take the time to index all of the incredible Canuck blogs on the web each week.

Thanks Scott!

Rob emailed me a post from Read/WriteWeb recently (say THAT three times fast) that lists 10 Future Web Trends to keep an eye on.

Admittedly, some of it goes over my head. But of particular interest to me were the references to mobile, virtual worlds, web sites as web services and the “Attention Economy.” This is an idea that has been developing and evolving for some time, the concept of relevant marketing and advertising messages bundled with content that users opt-in to receiving.

Definitely a great article about the bleeding edge of the web, and one that will get the gears turning for many, I’m sure.

Once again, the folks from the Common Craft Show have put together a great tutorial; this time on the subject of social bookmarking.

Lee LeFever lays out the concept of bookmarking using Del.icio.us, and along the way explains how tagging works, in just under three-and-a-half minutes:

Click To Play

A great resource for people getting their feet wet in the web marketing space. Remember, every time a site gets bookmarked in this nature, it raises that site’s (or page’s, or entry’s) SEO ranking as well.

For good measure, why not bookmark Lee’s original post, or if you like, save this one too:

I am taking a quick holiday to Kelowna, BC for a week of golfing, wake-boarding and of course water-skiing (in case I have not mentioned this in a while, water-skiing is one of my favorite pastimes).

It’s also something of a work project, as while we’re there playing three Golf BC courses, we’ll be compiling footage and audio for GuysOnGolf.com, my beloved side project that I started along with my brother and friends Jeff Leyland and Ryan Sullivan of The Team1040 sports radio station here in Vancouver.

We’re still just getting started, but there are already some videos, podcasts and a number of BC course reviews over at the site.

While I’m gone, I’ll be trying to upload a few posts, pics and maybe even some raw chunks of video, so keep an eye out for that (if you’re a golfer, that is).

We’d love to have you in our new Facebook group, too.

Several months back, I signed up to be one of 100 authors to write a new book titled “The Age of Conversation.”

The project was the brainchild of Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton, who did it on a dare, and used just a few blog posts and several emails to compile the group and the submissions, before the real work started. The book itself launched two days ago. It is available as an e-book, in paperback and as a hard cover, starting at just $9.99 USD.

All proceeds from the book go to Variety, The Children’s Charity, so do yourself a favor and feel that good feeling that comes with helping the kids while discovering a great book penned by a grand total of 103 authors. My paper-back copy is still en route, and I can’t wait to read it all.

Authors were asked to submit 400 words or less on the topic of conversation. In such a large group of terrific bloggers and thinkers, I chose to hone in on web content, and how when it is done right, it can start a conversation.

Here’s an excerpt from my “chapter:”

A good web presence starts with your website; your base of operations. The words you use to represent yourself are incredibly important; even visual learners need to know that there is some substance behind the pretty pictures. The copy on your website should tell a story about you, even though it’s not actually about you. It’s about your visitors, and you should speak to them accordingly.

A rather short snippet, but when the whole chapter is just 400 words, that’s a relatively good sample size. I would be remiss if I didn’t give a nod to my fellow authors, so they hear they are:

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Luc Debaisieux
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Robert Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
G.Kofi Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg

It was tremendous pleasure being a part of this, and I am proud to be among such a great collaboration that was made possible through the conversations we have online everyday. It has already been featured by Fast Company, Business Week and many, many others.

Go. Buy your copy. Now.

That’s the question.

As a sweet Monday morning treat, check out this catchy little music video (presumably from the Netherlands); a playful look at blogging.

I love the typewriter keys as an instrument. Great stuff.

Hat tip to Erno Hannink for emailing me the link.

His timing is excellent, because over the past few days I have asked by several small business bloggers about how to make their blog a better business tool.

And who better to impart that kind of wisdom than Mack Collier of the Viral Garden. Better still, you can read Mack’s condensed version of “Eight Easy Ways to Grow Your Blog” on his own site, or read the full monty over at Marketing Profs (freebie article).

A quick excerpt:

#4 - Showcase readers who make special contributions. Do everything you can to make sure that readers that frequently comment, or link to your blog, know that you appreciate them. It’s just common courtesy, and when you have a reader that’s going out of their way to be a faithful community member, you cannot do enough to encourage and reward that behavior.

I for one can attest to the fact that Mack certainly practices what he’s preaching there. Great post Mack, and a great one-stop resource for business bloggers, all.

The episode of The Lab that we taped last month will air on August 7 on G4Tech TV (news about the Google Video “release date” coming soon), and I have been invited back to tape another segment on July 12, on the subject of using social media to promote your business.

So, in the true spirit of community, I’m polling everyone (rather informally, just use the comment form below) to find out what social networking sites you like, and how you use them to promote yourself (or your company, where applicable).

I’ve already drafted some notes on:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Virb
• Flickr
• and Bebo (which I actually know very little about. Erno? Can you help?)

Any tips or hints you want to share? Any others that deserve top billing in a lightning-fast, six minute talk on social networks? Linda, I’m counting on your input here.

I welcome any and all comments and suggestions.

I’ve been pretty silent about it until now, but I was selected as one of the 50 bloggers to receive a Nikon D80 DSLR camera for a review period of six months. The camera arrived yesterday ( coincidentally on the same day as a scheduled Gastown Photowalk- photos below), and now I’m finally going public about my involvement.

I suppose it’s likely that I was chosen because of my photography hobby in part, but I assure you that nobody is expecting any photographic magic from me. It’s more likely that I was selected because I’ll take an active interest as much in the campaign as in the camera itself. Or maybe they just didn’t want the list too heavily stacked with talent .

I’ll go into my take on all of this in a second, but to avoid any confusion, here are the facts, as I understand them:

Nikon hired the MWW Group to create a blogger relations program that they’ve called “Picture This.”

50 bloggers were chosen, 48 (To date, 46) of whom opted to participate

The trial period is six months, after which the camera can be purchased (at a discount, with the funds going to charity), sent back or kept for an additional six months.

There is no obligation or even expectation to blog about it, the only rule being that if we choose to, we must disclose that we are part of the program. Already, there’s some controversy over the program, which critics say is unethical. They wonder how a blogger could possibly be objective with such a generous loan in the equation?

It’s possible that sending me a camera will make me go ga-ga and cause me to start singing the virtues of Nikon, sure. But that is why there is only one rule: that I disclose my involvement, so the reader can take my opinions and feedback with the proverbial grain of salt. This mandated transparency is what separates this campaign from many of the others that have been under fire for avoiding this extremely important factor. As always, it’s up to the readers as to whether anything that I write rings true for them, and as long as they have all the facts they can make an informed decision one way or another.

I suspect that the dissenters share this one in common with me; we both wish we’d thought of this campaign first. But whether I had been selected or not, I would agree that it is a great way to spread the word online and is perfectly legal and ethical. The only thing that is different in this case of this campaign is the middle man has been cut out. The middle man in this case being the MSM (main stream media).

This time, the consumers are having their say, and have been contacted directly for their opinion. This has rattled the feathers of a few PR types, mostly because the model that they’ve “always used” has been abandoned. After all, what kind of future is there for the PR industry if there’s no need to kowtow to the media anymore? We’ll have to address that one another day, but for an example of how to adapt, start reading this post again from the beginning.

Now that I have been completely up front about my involvement and my feelings about all of this, I can move on to why we’re here; the camera in question. But first, a few more short words about the campaign. The box arrived via courier, accompanied by a hand-written letter on Nikon letterhead from a Senior Director at MWW. In the letter, they offered to give me a walk through of the camera’s features at my convenience. Even if I were being extremely critical (which I often am of attempts at blogger outreach) I have yet to find fault with the way they’ve conducted themselves.

Now, the camera. As I mentioned, I am a bit of a hobbyist photographer, and I used to shoot sports on the weekends while still in high school and between semesters of college. Since getting a new Olympus Evolt E-500 for Christmas, I’ve been trying to relearn the art, this time in digital. So although I’m not completely uninformed, running out on a Photowalk with nary a clue as to how to use this new tool was an interesting adventure. I took a bunch of shots, and I published them in their unedited form, in a set made specifically for my involvement in the program (equal parts disclosure and evangelism). Check out my first attempts with the D80 on our Photowalk by clicking this image:

I will continue to disclose my involvement each time I blog about this subject, and the meta data on my Flickr photos is all the disclosure I feel is necessary as to what camera took what shots (including my webcam, we now have four cameras in the house).

I welcome all feedback in the comments below. There are obviously a number of differences of opinion on all of this, and I’d like to hear them all.