ChuckPalm.com

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OK, so it’s been a while since I updated ChuckPalm.com with a new look, new features, or any other cool social media plugins for my WordPress blog (yeah, I really dig WordPress!) and well, finally, I gave in.  Not only have I update my blog to show our new push at IPN as a web broadcasting company, but I’ve added Foursquare and Social Media tracking on the side, so you can make snide comments about my online activities, just like we were real friends.

Today, I found a few new Facebook plugins, tools that make my blog more interactive with Facebook. You may already have added me as a Facebook friend, but if not, I won’t be upset. I know we’re really more like casual acquainteces rather than friends, but hey, I like to think of us if friends, if that doesn’t freak you out!

But I digress, the new features on my site are pretty obvious, if you look at the sidebar. But one cool new feature I got today, after the big Facebook announcement, was my very own “Like” button! (thanks AJ Batac)
I’ve always dug the simplicity of it, just click the little thumbs up, and hey, I just told the world that I dig it. Not in a life changing way, just enough for me to say, “you’re kinda ok in my book, and that didn’t really suck!”
Go ahead, click my “Like” button, you know you want to!

I’ve always been kind of afraid to put up a fan page for my business, since I am such a prominent part of it, it feels a bit disingenuous, like I’m saying to the world “Hey, I’m important enough to have my own Fan page, if you won’t be my friend, or I have too many already (5000 is the FB limit, sadly, no, I’m not there yet) but because I can’t keep up with all of you, let’s just keep this relationship casual for me at this point, less of a commitment on my part…but you’re welcome to follow my exploits as my fanboy”

Is that not what social media is all about? Don’t we all just crave a bit of acceptance? Won’t you be my friend, and tell me you like my post, pic, vid, or other fanboy link I subscribe to? I’ve now made it easier than ever for you, with all the cool plugins here to the right. If not, no biggie, maybe I’ll create that fan page after all.

Tonight I found it interesting that the blogosphere was all a twitter (ok, sorry, couldn’t resist!) about NiN again! Sarah posted about them yesterday, and today, I found out a bit more about what they are up to.  Nine Inch Nails is not exactly what I consider mainstream, and there are only a few songs I know by name, but being a musician, of course I know the impact they’ve had on music!  What I am most impressed by is their embracing the new music revolution, and getting on board with the Creative Commons Licensing agreement.  As a podcaster, I really dig this.  Podcasting News had a bulletin that since NiN is using this format to distribute freely their latest album, “The Slip” , you can OWN a free copy, and share it with your friends! Or, in my case, your Podcast listening audience! 

Without a CC license, we cannot play, distribute, or post any copywritten music without the sincere risk of being sued by the RIAA (Don’t even get me STARTED on THAT rant!)  Musicians that don’t own their copywrites (which is MOST who are on a major label, by the way) are not even able to give us permission to use it in a podcast, no fair use, no way.

With that being said, Kudos to NiN for being ahead of the majority of the artists who think we are all just a bunch of pirates, waiting to steal them blind.  Oh, wait, I’m a different kind of Pirate!

I can’t believe how hooked I’ve become on all the new social media sites. Beyond YouTube and MySpace, or those that have some entertainment value, I’ve begun to discover real business uses for some of the applications and networks that seem to be springing up every day. I’ve officially joined Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, Webshots, MySpace, YouTube, Reunion.com and Classmates.com, not to mention Skype, Windows Live and Yahoo, Google, and all the PODCASTS newsletters and blogs I’ve been reading on these topics. There’s not a day that goes by that someone “adds me as a friend” “sends me a tweet” “signs my “guestbook” or other related method of “reaching out” virtually. This amazes me coming from a culture of paranoid privacy concerns and identity theft! Regular readers will remember my post about “hiding in the open” by putting most of my information out to the world, but being smart, and safeguarding things that would expose me to threats, But, I dare say that where people used to either have my cell phone number, or an email address, now have close to a dozen ways to find me, or become my friend. My decision to live my life open and online is one that has proven out, and I think my friends agree.  I’m not a fan of the term “friends” for everyone that is in your list of contacts online…hell, most of these people I have had no previous contact with! I do like Linked-in’s term “connections” but for that list at least, I know most of them personally, and it makes it sound so impersonal! So is there a happy medium? Is there a better way to keep track of all your blog subscriptions, friends, social sites, user id’s,
photos, videos, and other related minutiae? There is a new aggregator called “Socialthing“, but it is early stage, and very limiting. I’m addicted to Web 2.0 and Social Networks. By their nature, they are social proof marketing on steroids.  What about the applications? Is there one way better than another to read blogs or subscribe to  Podcasts? The biggest in the world, by usage and sales, is Apple Tunes.
Personally, I can’t stand the interface. I think it is clunky and difficult to navigate, unlike everything else Apple. Not my choice. I LOVE the new program called  Ziepod. It is a RSS aggregator, which is a fancy way to say it gets your blogs and podcasts for you automatically, and organizes them where you can read them easily. I-Google has some of the same features, but no where near the functionality of Ziepod. Try this, I think you’ll like it better than Juice or Apple iTunes. Now go listen to a great   PODCAST will ya?!?!  

Thank you, it’s really great to be here!  That’s me, Charles A. Palm, Jr.   =  C.A.P.  Get it?
Let me get started the way I usually do, “Hello, my name is Chuck Palm, and I’m ________  (insert profession here). Who is Chuck Palm?  The ABOUT section will fill in the blanks pretty well, but let me start by saying, today, I am who I always wanted to be.  Not many people can say that, and it’s taken me quite a while to get to this point.  I’ve had many jobs, a few titles, even more professions, and a BUNCH of nicknames, but now, I am finally…me.