Results tagged “socialnetworking”

       

The lines were long--but moving--this weekend in the mobile food court section of the Abbot Kinney Festival. Posted along one branch of the annual street fair and community gathering were several of the city's trendiest restaurants, all on four wheels, among them The NomNom Truck, Get Shaved, and Coolhaus. In line to get some grub at the Border Grill truck, however, a friend leaned over to me and asked: "So, is it that all these trucks are started up and run by really young people just getting into the business?"

Users of the business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn who are based in Orange County are sick of being considered part of "greater Los Angeles." One user, Laguna Niguel's Sven Johnston, has "spearheaded the campaign to get the O.C. recognition," apart from L.A. explains the OC Register's Jan Norman in a blog post.

We're a city of many languages, but so often our icons of art and culture communicate in English-only. Now the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is reaching out to their Spanish-speaking (and reading) visitors and members by providing Twitter posts en Español, making them--as far as they or we know--the first museum to do so, according to their blog, Unframed.

About 500 employees were slashed from MySpace's company roll call, CNET reported today. "Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," Owen Van Natta, CEO of the News Corp.-owned social site, said in a release. "I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product." Van Natta was hired in April and used to be the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook. MySpace will continue to employ around 1,000 people in the U.S.

Some would argue that trying to get a grip on the scope of the Los Angeles music scene is an impossible task. By the time you finished listening to every single band in Los Angeles county, half of them would be broken up and like a cacophonous hydra, a whole new generation of music would have sprouted while your back was turned. Few people attempt this daunting feat, and those who do seem to possess crazy, masochistic tendencies (myself included). Fortunately for you, we have one such editor who undertakes that insane quest daily (namely Mr. Joshua Pressman) but should Tonight in Rock not fulfill all your needs, and you want a radio station that plays all local Los Angeles bands all the time...Jon Hershfield has the the website for you. Founder of IsGoodMusic.com, Hershfield has set out to find the diamonds in the rough that are lying right under our noses. The website provides a social networking site for bands, a radio station with interviews, and a up-to-date calendar on all the local gigs that are worth catching. We caught up with Jon Hershfield recently and asked him how it was going.

Young politicians have an awful lot of social networking and "new media" at their disposal to make reaching out to their potential constituents a lot faster and easier. Like many people in their 20s, Emanuel Pleitez, who recently challenged veteran politico Gil Cedillo for the 32nd Congressional District seat vacated by US Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, made use of his personal Facebook profile to share news items and images with his "friends."

This morning's Daily News raises an important question in the era of social networking: "What do you do if you're a local official on a political mission to Washington, D.C., but find there's no media there to cover your activities?" The answer, of course, is to use services like Twitter and YouTube to pass along short pieces of information a la minute to your followers and constituents.

Just what we all need: One more social networking site to sign up for, one more profile to make, quirky picture of ourselves to upload, badge to import to our blog. Except Irvine-based Greenwala is a social networking site that gives something important back to the world with each new member.

Let's face it: Celebrities are people, too. People who...Twitter. The wherefores and hows of the issue notwithstanding, sometimes a 140 or less character Tweet is worth a thousand words. Or, if you are Sandie Guy and a fan of Demi Moore, it's worth your life.

They grow up so fast don't they?

An article in today's Telegraph.co.uk touts the recent adoption of Twitter by British-based Tesco's Fresh & Easy grocery stores. Although the article focuses on the rarity of a Brit business using what's more popular with American businesses, F&E's web-watchers Fresh & Easy Buzz point out that the Tweets are coming from California, not England:

Fresh & Easy's presence on Twitter.com isn't being maintained by a Tesco Fresh & Easy company employee based out of its Southern California headquarters or by a Tesco PLC employee in the UK. Rather, the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Twitter site is maintained on a regular basis by SallieB, who is a social marketing expert with Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's public relation's firm, ABCO International.

Though perhaps not gripping correspondence, Twitter does help to establish loyalty by giving customers an active way of communicating with the company's management. [...]

Continue reading "Does Your Favorite Grocery Store Use Twitter? Should They?"

LA's Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is headed to the nation's capitol today where he'll meet up with other mayors from other large US cities and ask for monetary aid in the form of "federal grants, loans and other assistance." According to MyFoxLA, Villaraigosa intends to focus on implementing "a Main Street Economic Plan that invests in local infrastructure, creates jobs and boosts the green economy of Los Angeles." Although the Mayor is networking with other heads of cities, like Miami's Diaz, Chicago's Daley, and NYC's Bloomberg, LA Observed wonders when Villaraigosa will start to take advantage of social networking sites, like the Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr pages created for him, noting there's "not much happening yet on the mayor's social networks, but then they just started looking for a New Media director."

Word spread like wildfire yesterday online about the arrests of Mark Oshiro and Rich Flores, who may be better known to you as Panasonicyouth and formerme--their online IDs for Twitter and other websites.

The entertainment industry is arguably the most dynamic and kinetic facet of pop culture. While the Internet may have turned everyone into a critic, the blogosphere (by way of technology) has turned everyone into a producer, and for those who wish to tell a story can do so without worrying about high profile book publishers or intimidating movie studios. While the entertainment industry may not be as affected by the perils of the spiraling economy as others, there still has to be a degree of consideration when it comes to maintaining an edge, and one group of Hollywood veterans that have shied away from classic media seem to have their fingers on the pulse. In what started as a simple formula for a TV show about video games, the folks at Gamervision have used their industry expertise to take their ideas to the next level by fusing elements of classic entertainment with web 2.0 themes, creating what can only be described as "laissez-faire entertainment" at its very best.

A study by a journalist from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on her personal blog shows that news agencies are finding Twitter more and more important to their work. Erica Smith (here's her Twitter) observes that CNN anchors and the Chicago Tribune have used the service to great success.

The media has been reporting various small quakes over the last week. But is that really something to worry about? "It’s not uncommon for Orange County to experience several microquakes every week," Sciencedude Gary Robbins said at the OC Register in a brief about the three recent microquakes in Orange County. His statement goes for all of Southern California -- small quakes happen all the time. A daily viewing of the USGS' recent earthquake map shows this or event better, the agency has gotten hip to Twitter and publishes a feed called "socalquakes." They also publish "Earthquake News," which combines shakes worldwide and headlines.

As reports and tweets comes out of of SXSW in Austin, TX where BusinessWeek's Sarah Lacy reportedly held a disastrous interview with 23-year-old Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, news of the popular social networking site with more of a national and local business twist hit the wires: Paramount will offer movie clips via a Facebook application, a first for the movie industry.

I logged into my email this morning to find five Facebook Wall posts from old friends -- many of whom I haven't spoken to in a while. "Hm, what is this spontaneous outpouring of love? How is it that so many have been moved to reach out to me this morning?" I clicked on over to my Facebook account, only to find --

The law has always struggled to keep up with the fast-paced, ever-changing world of the internet. A federal investigation of fraud involving MySpace could set important legal precedents. The case brings up issues of first ammendment rights versus prosecution of harassment and other cybercrimes, as well as the question of jurisdiction in cyberspace.

So we heard that at 12:00 a.m. EST, 9:00 p.m. PST (or LA time for those of us who could give a crap about the rest of the West Coast) tonight, those sexy boys at Current TV, Max Lugavere and Jason Silva, will be hosting the exclusive (yes, exclusive) US broadcast of Radiohead playing In Rainbows. In its entirety. Sexy, exclusive, entirety. After the broadcast, M and J will be hosting a very special Best of Current TV hour.

The Whole 9 is hosting their holiday party tomorrow (Tuesday) night from 6-9:30PM and would like to invite you to come! What started as an online community where creative, entrepreneurial open-minded people can meet and share, showcase their work and get work has turned into a creative space and art gallery in Culver City. The gallery has shows where the artists are selected from portfolios on The Whole 9 website. The host of the most...

Cardinal Roger Mahoney revealed that he had been assaulted in July outside of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral; the attacker was "enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims." Karl Dorrell will not be coaching UCLA in its upcoming Las Vegas Bowl game. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker will coach in the interim. If the world weren't already all shook up by Jakob Lodwick's departure...

StumbleUpon is one of several Web 2.0 properties experiencing a surge in activity that could be related to the WGA strike.

There is nothing like combining fashion and philanthropy. Tomorrow night, the Los Angeles flagship store for Martin & Osa is have a launch party for the opening of their store in Century City. The stylish fashion company has generously donated $5,000 to Step Up Women's Network and the event will feature shopping (optional), cocktails and bites, and time to mingle with friends and to meet new people. While Step Up Women's Network is for...

As California transplants, my family home up north has been a revolving door for visitors ever since we arrived in the Bay Area. While the constant influx of visitors can sometimes get a little tiring, it has had its benefits, primarily that my family has gotten to know NorCal's tourist destinations pretty well, particularly the Napa Valley and Sonoma County. For some reason I always seemed to miss out on wine tasting excursions when...

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a picture displaying the woes of cruising in a tacky limo on the streets of San Francisco.

Here's some tech news that made the cut this week: • Professional social networking site Linkedin has seen its traffic spike over three hundred percent in the last year. I wondered why I started getting all those Linkedin invites recently. • Speaking of social networking, watch out for the Facebook backlash. And, in a related story, what's a site like Facebook worth anyway? • Intel has joined the $100 group (aka one laptop per...

The inaugural EconSM conference, produced by Rafat Ali's ContentNext Media Network (parent of the excellent PaidContent site) is rockin' the Beverly Hilton with entertainment and new media heavies. EconSM addresses the present and potential economy of the social media marketplace in regards to online news, Hollywood, music, mobile media, and more. The amusing "Social Media Meets Hollywood" panel, in which Carson Daly sat alongside The L Word executive producer Ilene Chaiken, preceded lunch. Daly...