I ran across this video on the TK Carsites blog. It’s a video testimonial from Albrecht Auto Group that takes the idea and has a little fun with it.

If only all testimonial videos were as enjoyable.

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I truly enjoy Mashable. Pete Cashmore and his team have put together my favorite 2nd favorite social media blog. With that said, I’m very disappointed in them for attempting this shameless self-promotion.

There’s nothing wrong with many types of self-promotion. With all of the noise on the Internet and even in real life, it is often those who are best at self-promotion who succeed at their endeavors. This is different.

Twitter has long been considered more of a popularity contest than an actual social networking site by many. The introduction of Twitter Lists has added a new level to this.

In the article, Cashmore tries as tactfully as possible to encourage his significant reader base and Twitter followers to add the Mashable Twitter account to a list. In essence, they’re asking for a vote in a race that nobody knows is being held. For most, if they did know it was going on, they wouldn’t care.

It’s a Twitter list. It’s next to meaningless. Shooting to be #1 and “beat” the Barack Obama Twitter account is so completely unimportant that it didn’t deserve a mention, let alone a blog post.

Mashable, you’re better than this. I could expect it from some of the less “scrupulous” social media blogs out there, but not yours.

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Read more about social media on this blog network.

Most people dread going to a car dealership to shop. They have heard all of the horror stories (and may have some of their own) about car salespeople and their pushy techniques.

Nobody has seen a technique like this.

A lot has been written about how automotive advertising and the industry in general has had a hard time “going viral”. Social media campaigns have proven either spammy, contrived, or simply boring.

At Compare Ford, they seem to understand that sometimes it isn’t necessarily what you say but how you say it.  Kudos.

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Find more interesting videos on the Media Caffeine Blog Network.

Two Terabytes. That’s how much storage the WD 2TB World Edition provides. Just how much is that? For those old enough to remember 3.5” floppy drives, it’s roughly 1.38 million floppy disks. OK, so what does that really mean by today’s standards? You’d have to snap upwards of 500,000 digital photos to fill it; your camera would probably die before that would happen. You could download upwards of 300 fully uncompressed DVD movies; that’s enough movies to watch non-stop for 25 days straight!

The next logical step is how to go about filling the drive with the content you want to watch. Buying movies and TV shows on DVDs can be an expensive investment. Thankfully, now there are many more options, thanks in large part to broadband Internet. The lack of product packaging also means less impact on the earth, thus downloading content is, in one way, the more green option.

1. iTunes is one of the most popular places to download the newest TV shows, movies and music for a small fee along with thousands of free podcasts (video and audio). It does require you to install their [free] software, and the iTunes software is also an excellent way to manage your digital files.
2. Google Video is a video search engine. There are an enormous number of videos listed all free for the viewing. You can’t beat Google for its ability to index everything video!
3. Real, the other media player that never really caught on through the late 90’s and early 2000’s is still around. They offer the SuperPass, a monthly subscription service, instead of a per-piece download. Their price structure is right-on, but requires their media player to watch most content.
4. Amazon launched their Video on Demand service some time ago, offering most current movies, some as low as 99 cents. No special software is needed to watch movies; QuickTime on Mac or Windows Media Player for Windows will work.
5. TheMovieDownload boasts 80 million files for download. They offer full downloads that can be stored and played later, with a monthly fee structure similar to Real media’s SuperPass.
6. Blockbuster has both streaming and downloadable movies and one of the largest databases online. For Internet Explorer and Firefox users a specific extension is required for viewing.
7. MoviePro.Net boasts nearly 4,600 movies to download and offers the ability to download movies ready for iPod / PSP or uncompressed versions. They offer a wide array of genre’s all broken down by category and with a quick search function similar to BZ Results.
8. CinemaNow offers both streaming and downloadable versions of nearly all their titles, along with the ability to order right from your phone (Beta for now). Their website is clean, easy to navigate and simple to use.
9. Starz Play offers more than 2,500 titles in their growing database of downloadable movies and offers monthly payment plans. While they don’t have the biggest selection, the all you can eat billing method means you could try to fill an external hard drive on a fast Internet connection in one or two months.
10. Rhapsody offers one of the most extensive music collections online and is always tweaking their site to offer the best user interface. Prices vary wildly with them, so watch for sales.
11. EMusic offers pay per download or monthly billing options for your music. In addition to their large library of music they are fully stocked with audio books as well.
12. Napster started the music downloading revolution more than 10 years ago, making it easy to access mountains of music. They’ve changed their business model a few times now and offer monthly subscription plans only.
13. Wal-Mart offers a fairly large selection of music, however due to their family friendly ways, not all music can be accessed through them.
14. Audible has more than 60,000 books in audio format on their site, all for a monthly one monthly fee. They usually get new releases before most other sites as well.
15. MTV offers a short selection of recently released music to download for free. Kind of refreshing since they rarely have music on TV anymore.

Streaming movies and TV shows is nice, but it requires the Internet connection to always be on, and doesn’t always guarantee that the show you want to watch will be available. Most legal places to stream from expire shows and movies within 12 weeks of first being put online.

Internet radio is slowly growing in popularity, but listeners are still slaves to disk jockeys (real or automated), so acquiring music on your own, legally, means the ability to listen to what you want, when you want. The beautiful thing about using a network attached storage device (NAS) like the My Book World Edition is that everyone on a home network can access and share music, movies and TV shows conveniently from one location.

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Get more media tips at Media Caffeine.

It was heralded as the end of red tape, the beginning of change, and thr foundation of hope.  Many experts and news sources are asking, “Where’s the impact?”

In the last few days, questions have been hitting the White House about increasing the speed of the money going out, considerations of a second stimulus package, and whether or not the stimulus package is having an impact on joblessness.

Rather than add to the rhetoric, we’ll take a look at how media outlets and economic experts are weighing in and let their opinions speak for themselves.

Where’s the Money?

The picture may not be as grim as it appears. In this video from Business Week, they takes a look at these questions and generally says, “Be patient.”

While this view may be considered overly optimistic based upon projections coming from the White House and congress regarding when the impact would initially be felt, it’s still good to see that, in theory, it isn’t necessarily as bad as it looks.

The article that was published shortly after the video, however, takes a more harsh stance:

President Obama signed the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act into law in February. The President said the resulting stimulus spending on construction, education, and other programs would create jobs and help improve the weakened economy. Critics contend it hasn’t had much of an effect.

Both the White House and media have an interest in making sure that the stimulus package buzz stays as possitive as possible for as long as possible. In a recession, patience is often a virtue scrapped by many.

Warren Buffett: “We’re not in a freefall, but we’re not in a recovery either.”

When it comes to financial understanding from every level, Warren Buffett is widely considered a genius. In this interview with ABC, Buffett tells it like it is.

As Buffett points out without actually coming out and saying it, politicians often have to over-promise to get their plans put into effect.  We may be experiencing that right now, but according to some, it isn’t too late.

Can We Fix It? Should We?

One of the first things that emergency medical professionals learn is that sometimes pulling a knife out of someone’s back may do more harm than leaving it in for now. That may be the case here with the stimulus plan.

David Frum takes a quick, compelling look at the implications of what has transpired so far and the possible courses of actions for both Democrats and Republicans.  The suggestion that may be more beneficial than anything else proposed so far comes in one paragraph:

Why not cancel the wasteful and seemingly useless first stimulus and go directly to the faster-acting and better-designed second stimulus? And why not do it now, rather than wait for unemployment to scrape 11%?

It’s an interesting thought. Would it work? If it could be put together intelligently and with foresight, it probably could.

Then again, that’s asking a lot.

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Read more about what’s happening in the news on this blog network.

Chances are, the only people who will be able to watch Aerovironment’s new Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) will be those who are controlling it. If all goes well for this DARPA initiative, the targets of this potential reconnaissance, device deliver, and (gulp) assassination technology will never know, see, or hear it coming.

Modeled after the flight of the hummingbird, Popular Science reports that it will be the first “controlled hovering flight of an air vehicle system with two flapping wings that carries its own energy source and uses only the flapping wings for propulsion and control,” says Aerovironment.

Some call them the real-life “Men in Black”. Others say that they are simply the best of the best when it comes to technological research and advancement. Regardless of what they are, DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has new leadership in the form of Regina  Dugan, their 19th director, according to the DoD.

Having a silent, long-range, light-weight and fast-moving unmanned vehicle that can fit in a shoebox means one thing for certain: regardless of the intent, science is truly starting to embrace the wonders of nature in their designs.

Hummingbirds are the epitome of efficiency in flight.  With a $2.1 million injection of funds to continue and perfect the research, perhaps science will be able to duplicate the effect.

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Read more at this Blog Network.

As people migrate away from sitting in front of the television and focus on getting more of their entertainment and information from the Internet, Adobe’s Anup Murarka, their forward-thinking Director of Technology, Strategy and Partner Development, discusses ways that new flash technology can bring people back to the boob tube.

As Robert Scoble demonstrates in the interview, in the whole scheme of things, it all makes sense. People will continue to own televisions and invest a lot of money into making their television-watching experience more pleasurable even though they are spending more time away from them. In Adobe’s vision of the future, people will be able to get the best of both worlds by mixing the power of the Internet with the clarity and beauty of set-top boxes.

Notice in the video and discussion that websites and social networds are integrated into the side-view.

“The goal here is not really to replace the video that you get through your cable channels or your services today, but rather to give you access to content you otherwise would get on your TV,” Murarka said.

It social networks, social content, and television. The living room furniture industry may see a rebound soon as more couches are worn to threads.

Video Courtesy of Building43.

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When a luggage cart parked too close to a Japanese 747, the result was predictable. Video from The Telegraph after the jump.

It has been “suggested” that the cart was too close, but it hasn’t been confirmed. The 246 passengers and 18 crew were all unharmed.

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Find more offbeat news on this Blog Network.

Twitter. It’s all the rage with news sources, celebrities, politicians, and millions of everyday folks getting in and playing around with it. The premise was simple: in 140 characters or less, answer a simple question that your followers and anyone who visits your page can see: “What are you doing?”

Since its creation, Twitter has both stayed the same and experienced evolutionary changes. The premise hasn’t changed, but what it means to people and how they use it have changed dramatically up until now. While more uses will certainly pop up, for now, everyone can be classified as having one or more of the following Twitter personalities.

These personalities and how we present them to the world define our uses and intentions on the Twittersphere.  Whether we know it or not, these snippets of life that we cram into 140 characters say more about us as Tweeple than they say about us as people. For many, the distinction between the two is very thin.

The Purist

The site asks, “What are you doing?” and that’s exactly what The Purist delivers. This is the point where many new users start. Many of them continue indefinitely, following the lines of the original intent of the site to truly microblog every aspect of their life, whether exciting or mundane.

Tweeting Style:

• Good morning Twitter.
• I am doing ____ now
• I am at ___ now
• I _____ed just now
• I’m _____ing right now.
• Good night Twitter.

The Clever Purist

The Clever Purist will answer the question just as stated. The difference between them and The Purist is that they put a spin on their tweets to make their actions more entertaining or interesting than they really are. These users can accumulate a strong following once they are noticed as other users see them as adding value a notch above others in their stream.

Any time you can take the mundane and throw a spin into it that makes people think, smile, laugh, or a combination of the three, you’re sure to be followed and retweeted often. The funny ones employ a Seinfeld-esque style of looking at nothing and making something out of it.

Tweeting Style:

• I’m ____ing (something mundane) while I’m ____ing (something interesting)
• Watching ____ on TV begs the (interesting) question ______?
• Have you ever noticed that ____ would be better with bacon on it?

The Journalist

There are live journalists tweeting their findings to the world. There are citizen journalists breaking the news happening in front of them. There are bloggers posting more than just their posts; they post their thoughts on other issues and websites as well.

The Journalist is the Twitter personality that is getting almost as much attention as the celebrities joining twitter. It is as a collective more than as individuals that they are turning Twitter into the place to find and share what is happening in the world as it’s happening.  Hundreds of stories have been written about the Twitter army being on the scene first at major events, tweeting pictures before camera crews at local television stations can find the keys to their van.

Tweeting Style:

Unlike traditional journalism, the rulebook is thrown out the window with Twitter Journalism. Time is everything - breaking news breaks fast on Twitter, opinions can go stale and must be concise, and links fall to obscurity if nobody with a lot of followers tweets or retweets it.  Twitter is changing the face of journalism more than any website in history.

The Celeb Who Keeps it Real

Twitter is a doorway through which many celebrities are able to interact with fans, foes, and everyone in between in a direct yet safe manner.  Most use it to thank their fans, promote their upcoming shows, discuss visiting a Los Angeles BMW dealer, and generally establish a constant public relations facade that humanizes them carefully and in a calculated way.

Others just don’t give a damn and they tweet whatever they want to tweet because they like to tweet.

One celebrity in particular does a tremendous job of being himself.  Shaquille O’Neal, @the_real_shaq, is about as real as it gets, and thankfully for his fans and followers he’s a very entertaining guy, even when he “keeps it real”.

Tweeting Style:

Instead of singling out other celebrities who tend to use Twitter as a PR/Marketing tool, we’ll take a peek at what makes Shaq real. He pleads with nobody in particular (possibly even himself) “Can I plaese cheat on my diet and got to dairy Queen pls pls pls”.  A few minutes later, you see this image linked through a tweet:

Classic Shaq.

The Link Mogul/Retweeter

There are those who enjoy what they find on Twitter more than what they have to say themselves. The Link Mogul/Retweeter uses Twitter as a resource and they’re happy to share what they find with their own followers regardless of where they find it.

They retweet what they find on Twitter and tweet what they find off of Twitter.

In many ways, this personality type includes the people who keep the streams churning. Whether they’re looking for a Boston Used Nissan or the next musical protege, they links they post are important to people. They bring interesting finds to light, whether it’s a link or simply something interesting that someone else has said.

They retweet like crazy, selflessly bringing attention to other people’s content and other users accounts, not because they have ulterior motives or selfish goals but because they find good stuff and they want others to see it as well.

Without these users, many wonderful things on Twitter would never reach more than a few people.

Tweeting Style:

Find links, find interesting tweets that others make, find interesting links that others tweet, and get it out to their portion of the Twittersphere. It’s that easy.

New users who do no longer want to be The Purist often migrate to a variation of this personality.

The Tastemaker

What is happening today? What will be happening tomorrow? What articles should we read? What videos should we watch? Who should we be following? What’s the next big thing?

For better or for worse, there are trendsetters and tastemakers in just about every aspect of Web 2.0. Twitter is no exception, and to accomodate the 140 characters or less aspect, the Tastemakers on Twitter have found 3 major avenues of using their influence to make changes, send traffic, and often even make the news.

Tweeting Style:

• Tweeting links to the coolest, most interesting or entertaining links on the web (hopefully before anyone else does)
• Asking questions of their tremendous following to find out what’s ticking in the world (or at least a microcosm of the world)
• Discuss issues publicly with other powerful users, getting both batch of followers interested in the conversation and subsequently whatever topic they are discussing.

The Everyman’s Friend

The first question that gets asked at least a few times a week of people who are following tens, even hundreds of thousands of people is “how can you possibly keep up with all of those people?”

If asked under truth the influence of Sodium Pentothal, most would simply answer, “I don’t. I can’t. I try, but it’s too much.”

Still, there are a select few who DO try to keep up with their tremendous stream of tweets.

They DO reply to every @reply sent to them, every direct message thrown at them, and still somehow find the time to answer questions and offer help to those who don’t ask them directly.

They read their stream, find interesting points of conversation, and act upon them in some way.

They are Everyman’s friend.

They keep Twitter friendly and help new users get better.

Tweeting Style:

• Lots of @replies
• Lots of responses to questions posed to the community
• Lots of time spent on the site
• LOTS OF TWEETS!

Continue Reading Twitter Personalities 8-14