Healthcare: It Is Getting Personal Now

This is the first post under my new name, Christine’s Memes.  I would like to take credit for the name but my daughter Alex was the creator. (I am so proud).

According to Wikipedia A meme (pronounced /ˈmiːm/, rhyming with “cream”^[1]) is a postulated unit of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena.

My definition is a meme is anything I want to talk about. I changed the name so I could differentiate my personal blog posts versus my JTMarCom posts.   There will be duplication but I feel that this is a better format for more personal  thoughts and ideas.

My original thought for this first post was to talk about my learning curve in social media after being a traditional marketer for over twenty years.  My learning curve was no curve at all but a straight up rocket. And it has been a fantastic ride.

But all of a sudden life has gotten in my way.

So if you are squeamish stop now. 🙂

I  had to have a radical hysterectomy on March 8. And I was not happy about it. My hysterectomy included the removal of my uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes.  Fortunately, I am finished with my child rearing. I have two wonderful daughters, Alexandra and Victoria  ( Alex and Tori.). Why the surgery? Well, I did what all smart women should do. Get a regular OBGYN check up and found out that I had an “unidentifiable mass”.

Yes, I was freaked out.  I was scared. But more than that, I was and am pissed! Our COBRA insurance runs out in a month.  An unidentified mass was the doctor’s way of saying it could be cancer, which means I cannot switch to the insurance company I planned to.  My mass was considered a pre-existing condition. The medical and insurance company had limited my choices.  I could not try alternative treatment because if it didn’t work I would not be covered at a later date. I have even been told that mentioning the word cancer in my blog could hurt me in obtaining insurance.

Why am I telling you all this? I need your help. How can we as the social media, marketing, public relations community address this issue? I am embarrassed to say I have been so busy building a business that I have not participated in the healthcare debate in our country.  I will take a guess that neither  have you.

I for one, plan to change that. Getting the GREAT news that I did not have cancer has given me a much needed wake-up call. I will no longer put up with mediocrity either within myself or others. I can bitch and moan or I can do something.  I will be doing research over the next few weeks, to see how I can be more involved. I do not care about political parties, red or blue.  I do care about my and my family’s future. The question is where do I start?

I know that the healthcare bill just passed. I want the details and I intend to get them. I am looking for sources….NOT political rhetoric.  Life is too short to be mired in useless words. Do you think getting the facts is possible?

10 Great Social Media Learning Blogs for Beginners and Where to See More!

When I first started this thing called social media, I had no idea where to begin.  As dumb luck would have it, I stumbled across a Mashable post referring to a blog aggregator called Alltop by Guy Kawasaki. This fantastic tool allows you to find blog information about all types of subjects. You can also customize your own page so you can see what interests you. Some of my favorite social media blogs are listed below.

Chris Brogan Community and Social Media

CC Chapman Managing the Gray Podcast-Learn to use Social Media and Emerging  Technologies

Mashable Social Media Guide

ReadWrite Web

Building43

Smart Briefs on Social Media

Social Media Today

Liz Strauss Successful Blogs

123 Social Media

The Harte of Marketing

FeverBee

I hope this helps you as much as it did me. What are your favorite social media blogs? I am always looking to learn.

Hello my name is Christine and I have a FEAR of Blogging.

FEAR

Ok. The truth is out. As a marketing professional  and social media speaker (who advises clients to blog) I am afraid to do so myself. My husband John is the writer on our team and creates fabulous blog posts, speeches and detailed proposals for clients. I help create the concepts, do the research and design the graphics, etc.  I have been providing useful links on this blog but no original content. I know I need to blog.

Here are the reasons I am scared:

1.  I have slight  dyslexia and tend to get my letters mixed up.

2.  I cannot spell.

3.  I now wear tri-focal glasses and have trouble seeing the computer screen.

4.  Verbal communication comes much more naturally to me.

5.  I read a great deal. Books, papers, blogs . . . so I know what good writing looks like.

6.  I am a “people pleaser” and I am afraid not everyone will like me. (If I do this right, not everyone will.)

7.  Most of all I don’t want to appear stupid.

What am I doing? First I Googled “Fear of Blogging” and found out I am not the only “fraidy-cat” out there. Then I read the posts of some  great informative bloggers such as Chris Brogan, Chris Garrett, and Charles Bohannan.

So, here I am for better or worse. I hope that my ongoing posts on social media marketing and other aspects of marketing will not only help inform others but will help me face my own fear.

What is stopping you?  I’d really like to know. Maybe we can help each other.

Christine

8 Tools to Find Someone Online

Author: Thursday Bram

Finding a way to contact someone has gotten a lot easier: just type their name into Google and follow a few links. For many people, you’ll quickly find a profile on Facebook, a blog or even an email address you can use to get in touch. But a Google search doesn’t turn up good results for everyone. Maybe the person you’re trying to reach has a fairly common name. You may need a tool a little better than a simple Google search to find him.

1. 123people

123people provides a good start when you’re looking for someone online. You can type in just a first name and a last name and get pictures, phone numbers, email addresses, Amazon wishlists, websites, documents and more. It turns up a lot of search results for relatively common names — or names that refer to someone famous in addition to the person you’re looking for. The only drawback to so much information is that it can take a little while to search through it all and find the specific person you’re searching for.

2. Pipl

Pipl is a free search tool, although it brings in results from several other sites which do charge for access to particular records. Between those various sources, Pipl turns up a good number addresses and phone numbers, along with links to public records, online mentions and other useful pieces of information. Particularly helpful is Pipl’s ability to search withing a specific city, state or zip code. If you know the geographic location of the person in question, you’ll be able to narrow down search results to that area.

3. YoName

If you’re confident the person you want to find has a profile on some social networking site, a good search tool is YoName. The site searches across a whole list of different social networking sites

, from big names like MySpace to less common options like Webshots. The results can take a little time to look through, but the process is made easier by the fact that they’re laid out in a table — you can browse through it quickly.

4. Zoom Info

Zoom Info is particularly useful if you’re looking to connect with someone at their job. Search results include job titles and employers, along with locations. The site offers a ‘contact this person’ button, but requires you to sign up for a free trial in order to use it. After the free trial, using that button and some of the site’s other features cost $99 per month. If you’re willing to do a little more legwork by calling up the company listed and seeing if you can ask for a direct number or email address, you can generally skip paying that fee.

5. Jobster

Jobster’s main focus is searching for jobs, but it also offers a tool to search for individuals. In most cases, it’s used for employers and recruiters looking for leads — but it can offer up some contact information that can help your search. A few other job sites offer a similar opportunity, as well.

6. Inmate Search

Unfortunately, you may find yourself in need of Inmate Search — while the site isn’t pretty, it includes a list of contact information for each state’s system for finding inmates, as well as the federal system. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of options for searching all states at once, but if you know the state the person you’re looking for might be incarcerated in, you can speed up the search process.

7. Intelius

To access most of the information available through Intelius, you’ll be asked to pay a fee. The site offers everything from phone numbers to complete background checks and actually can have useful information. I have purchased information from Intelius in the past and it did lead me to exactly the person I was looking for. However, I know the price tag (often starting around $40) can be off-putting, especially if you’re only casually searching or if you need to find information on a long list of people.

8. Zaba Search

I know many people who swear by Zaba Search when it comes to searching public records for free. I’ve had minimal luck on it myself, but if you’re having some difficulty, it may be worth a try. The reverse phone look on Zaba Search is particularly problematic — the site actually uses Intelius to look up phone numbers, which charges for the information.

Other Options

There are more than a few other options for searching for people out there. These eight are just options I’ve actually used in the past. There are also a lot of specialized search tools, like if you’re trying to find a person’s criminal record or you want to look for someone who works for the US government. You can also check social networking sites individually — most search tools that cover social media focus on larger sites, and ignore the smaller ones, along with forums and message boards. Unfortunately, there’s still not a particularly good tool for searching such sites — even if you’re willing to pay. You’re left with essentially searching those sites by hand.

The drawback to the options listed above is that they all primarily focus on the U.S. I’ve had little luck finding resources for international searches. If you have any suggestions, please share them in the comments.

Thursday Bram blogs about a variety of topics, from personal finance to small business. She is the author of an upcoming book on the tools and tricks you need to build a career you can take with you during long-term travel. More information about Thursday and her book, Working Your Way Around the World, is available on her personal site, ThursdayBram.com.

Day of Solidarity with Persecuted Bloggers »

ACTION ALERT: Day of Solidarity with Persecuted Bloggers

Written by Hamid Tehrani on March 22, 2009 – 12:19 am –
Background: Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, an Iranian blogger, died tragically in prison on March 18, demonstrating the sad fact that a blogger’s life can be lost as easily as a blog can be filtered by authorities.

Bloggers have been praised on many occasions for their contribution and value to the information society. They are admired in many cases as unheard voices but unfortunately most of the time, when a blogger faces persecution, his or her voice is not heard.

Sadly, Omid Reza’s case is not an exception and dozens of cyber dissidents are in jail around our globalized world and many more face political persecution.

When: I would like to propose March 18 every year as an International Day of Solidarity with Persecuted Bloggers.

Why: We can remember, talk and honor in this day jailed, tortured, killed and threatened bloggers, regardless of their political ideas and social or ethnic backgrounds. We can also discuss on this day what measures should be taken to support persecuted bloggers.

How: Please contact me at helpforbloggers[at]gmail.com if you’d like to get involved.   So far I have received very positive feedback from Committee to Protect Bloggers, Global Voices Advocacy, Freekareem, Mideast Youth and several bloggers and  I am ready to receive your comments, ideas, initiatives and words on this topic.