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Louis Gray to Join the SocialToo.com Board of Advisors

Posted on December 31, 2008 by jessestay

I’m very proud and excited to announce that Louis Gray, my publisher and fellow-author at LouisGray.com, will now be part of my company, SocialToo.com’s, Board of Advisors and helping us to further build out our strategy in the near and long-term future. Louis comes from a strong PR and marketing background, and when not blogging, he works in corporate marketing and public relations for a private Silicon Valley technology infrastructure company, and is an advisor to ReadBurner, Inc. Louis is a UC Berkeley graduate, holding a degree in Political Science and Mass Communications. He’ll serve as a great help in building out strategy for SocialToo, which I believe is a tool for Marketers, to a mass audience.

Louis approached me with several great ideas which I hope we can implement soon, and which we’ll be working to integrate into the already rich set of tools which SocialToo provides. His transparency in what he does I think will serve well in keeping us a responsible participant in building tools that work to meet the needs of all users on social networks our users belong to. Louis himself has quite the following, and has introduced the likes of Robert Scoble and others to FriendFeed – I’m sure you’ll be seeing more from us on that service now with him on board, especially as we branch out to other services beyond Twitter.

Louis was first to recognize and report TweetDeck, the now extremely popular Twitter Client. He was first to cover Social Median, which recently sold for several million dollars under a year. He’s covered many other very successful services and clients, and he’s one that knows a successful company when he sees it. I’m very honored and excited to have him on board, and plan for much, much more thanks to his advice and involvement in SocialToo going forward. Welcome, Louis!

Check Out My New Twitter Avatar!

Posted on December 25, 2008 by jessestay

If you check out my Twitter Profile, you’ll notice a new, winter-themed, festive Avatar. Yes, it’s animated, and everyone is going to hate me now for revealing how to do this. Check out my post on LouisGray.com to learn how it’s done. Consider it my second gift to you this Christmas!

Stay N’ Alive Now Supports Facebook Connect!

Posted on December 25, 2008 by jessestay

Thanks to the Disqus team, along with the guys at Sociable, we’re now supporting Facebook Connect on Stay N’ Alive. It all starts over on the right under Community, where you can see other Facebook users that have visited the site recently. Then, now, when you comment, if you logout of Disqus, and then choose the login option again, you’ll now have the option to login via Facebook Connect and have your comment identified as such. The Disqus guys are continually working to improve this, but now you have one more option to communicate on the site. Oh, and when you comment, your friends should also see your comment in their Facebook News Feeds! Just a little Christmas gift to my readers…

The Christmas Wrapping Paper

Posted on December 25, 2008 by jessestay

(Dedicated to my Grandmother, born New Years Day, who passed away 2 days ago. This is JJ’s first Christmas Gift that he is wearing in this picture.)

The day after my mom died
Was Christmas morning
There were so many wonderful gifts
Under our tree.
We opened them peacefully
Mom would have wanted it that way.
She would have wanted
Her grandchildren to have a good Christmas.
I held back my tears
As each gift was opened
And that Christmas is such a blur,
But it is March now
And I still see the tiny patches of paper
In a corner of my dining room
That I carefully ripped from each gift
To look at later
Of all the love we got
That Christmas
Which was hard for me to see then
Through teary eyes.

Connie Webb

Original Image (Jesse Stay)
Poem Author: Connie Webb

Heart and Soul

Posted on December 21, 2008 by jessestay

Heart and soul, I fell in love with you,
lost control, the way a fool would do,
Gladly…
Because you held me tight,
And stole a kiss in the night..

Heart and soul, I begged to be adored,
Lost control, and tumbled overboard,
Gladly…
That magic night we kissed,
There in the moon mist.

Oh! but your lips were thrilling, much too thrilling,
Never before were mine so strangely willing.

But now I see, what one embrace can do,
Look at me, it’s got me loving you,
Madly…
That little kiss you stole,
Held all my heart and soul.

Original Photo (Jesse Stay)
Poem/Song Lyrics by Frank Loesser

Risk

Posted on December 19, 2008 by jessestay

Risk

And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to Blossom.

–Anaïs Nin

Original Image (Jesse Stay)

Poem Source (Anaïs Nin)

Forbidden Fruit

Posted on December 18, 2008 by jessestay

o, how i long for that kiss
the one kiss
that holds so much meaning
the one that can tell you
so much about a person
even if you’ve known them
all your life
the 1st kiss is as forbidden as the last
scared to start
becuz we are scared of how it’ll end
the forbidden kiss
that we yearn for
like adam & eve
the forbidden fruit
the taste so sweet
and then they were no longer blind
that kiss is just the same
take the chance
the forbidden kiss
full of temptation
‘let our lips do
what our hands do’
romeo told juliet to
take the chance
the forbidden kiss
might be just as sweet.

–Malika Giddens (A 13 Year Old!)

Poem Source (Malika Giddens)

Original Image (Jesse Stay)

Just as the Sun

Posted on December 17, 2008 by jessestay

I took this photo the day before my Grandfather’s funeral this year. The fog rolled in on the Huntington Beach Pier, producing one of the most beautiful sunsets I ever saw. It was as though my grandfather had touched the heavens and smiled at me. It was a peaceful and serene moment. This was written by him:

Just as the sun
Which blesses us
During the day
With light and warmth–

And in the evening
Drops below the horizon
Leaving us
In the chill dark of night–

Is not extinguished!

But shines still
On distant shores
Blessing with its radiance
Other Souls
Beyond our view

So this dear one
Who warmed our hearts
And lighted our lives
Through the day–

Now gone
Beyond the limited horizon
Of our mortal view.

Leaving us
In dark sorrow
And chill loneliness–

Is not dead!

But sheds warmth and light
On dear souls gone before

–Jesse E. Stay (my Grandfather)

Are You Addicted to Twitter?

Posted on December 16, 2008 by jessestay

Are you addicted to Twitter? Janet Meiners Thaeler (@Newspapergrl) thinks I am. Guy Kawasaki has a great SocialToo survey asking the question. Janet even gave me an award for it! (and I sincerely appreciate it – I love awards!) I’m not so sure I’m addicted though. Even though I do have near 10,000 updates on Twitter and am active on the service, I think I use FriendFeed much more, and in a much shorter time frame I have near half that in likes and comments on FriendFeed. I think I also use Facebook more – I wrote two books on it after all.

Twitter is a tool, and I use the best tool for the job. This is part of why I left Twitter a few months ago – Twitter wasn’t doing what I wanted it to. When I realized I wasn’t going to get better from other services I came back. Twitter is where I post my thoughts and share things that I can’t post to this blog or elsewhere. This status propagates my Facebook status (through the Twitter App on Facebook), as well as FriendFeed, where more people comment, and I can have more personal, lengthy conversations in those places. Twitter is a tool I use to meet new people, to share thoughts, and build relationships, just like I do on FriendFeed and Facebook.

Could I leave Twitter? You bet. If another service with a much larger network, and just as many opportunities comes along with an actual revenue model and something I could rely on to not delete my followers or data, I’d leave in a minute. It’s part of the reason I have a close eye on FriendFeed, and have built an early hold there to build a strong network. I see potential there. I’m not addicted – I use the best tool for the job. I’m building a network everywhere I go.

The honorable Chris Brogan (if I may call him so) enlightened me back at BlogWorld. He was joking around at the time, and I can’t even remember our conversation that led to it, but his comments were something to the effect of “Listen, TechDork, technology doesn’t solve problems! Humans do!” Oh how right he is. How do you define Social Media? Social Media is about the technologies we use to enable real-life relationships. Emphasis on real-life. If a service isn’t doing that for you in the most effective way, or if you can’t do it with just one service – be prepared to leave. We can’t afford to be addicted to these services. I know I’m not.

Janet had a great idea though. What awards would you offer your Twitter friends? Janet and Larry Weaver have come up with “Social Media Awards” you can create for your friends. Share yours below.