The answer is of course not! This article from the New York Times ponders a Facebook backlash and the Wall Street Journal chimes in with the notion of how Facebook can ruin friendships. There is truth to various parts of these articles but fortunately Facebook keeps on growing not only in scale but also in evolving to what users want and not forcing changes or restrictions upon them.

Emily Post would have a field day writing about the general lack of manners online but when it comes to Facebook it’s easy to manage your account to shut out the noise and also limit what some “friends” see. Be it political or a matter of not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings, we all add friends that we know we’d never sit down with for a drink or invite to a ball game. Do you really want to know what these same people are doing 24/7 especially if they update constantly and conversely do you want to give them access to all of your photos and personal information?

The Facebook lists are incredibly powerful feature and you can select your privacy level with each list. Chris Brogan shares his approach to managing his Facebook account and if you follow the similar steps you’ll have much more confidence in using your profile as well as knowledge in knowing that people only see what you want them to see.

So reconsider the notion that Facebook has become the new MySpace until it actually happens.

A couple months ago Facebook announced they would allow users to acquire vanity URLs so your personal account would be http://www.facebook.com/timothydahl (insert my name with yours). It was basically a land rush and as soon as they turned on the service you could grab your name and it would be yours to use. For Facebook it was genius. It brought them more press and more importantly an opportunity for all of their users to promote their Facebook profiles with all of their offline and out-of-network friends.

I’m fortunate enough to not have a super common name and I actually forgot about this announcement but was still able to grab my name the next day. What have I done with it? Nothing. It’s comforting to know I have it but beyond that it does nothing for me nor my friends who, if they visit my profile, are doing so while already perusing Facebook. I would also prefer to promote my name before Facebook and since I own my domain name I can use it for just that. Although I have yet to set it up I can go with:

timothydahl.com/facebook
timothydahl.com/twitter
timothydahl.com/whateveriwant

If you’re a business or manage a Facebook page it’s a bit tougher to get your own vanity page URL as Facebook requires 1000 fans. I’ve done nothing to promote our page for Dahlism but plan to build this page up shortly. If you’re so inclined friend us and we’ll only be 999 fans away from our own URL!

There are many social networks that I don’t have any presence on and don’t feel it’s as important. I rank the importance of a social network profile in how well that social network ranks in search engines (Google). Ultimately your own domain name is the most important and I’m wondering how many babies these days are named via available domains?

Here’s how I would rank the steps to acquiring and controlling your online identity.

1. Vanity Domain – You can have a primary domain that’s not your full name but you should also have your first and last name with a .com and maybe even a .net and point that domain to your primary domain.

2. LinkedIn – LinkedIn profiles rank very high in Google and as they offer professional information about you it’s important that your profile comes up quickly when a possible employer or date “Googles” you.

3. Facebook – This social network also ranks high with Google but you should be cautious about what you post in updates, on your wall, and in your photo gallery (also what others post about you). I’ll cover ways to manage this in a later article. Facebook ranks well and also shows a bit of personality as it shows people what pages you are a fan of and what network you belong too.

4. Twitter – Your actual name isn’t as vital here but always helps to have especially if you are a business. As the influence of Twitter the value of your own name will only increase.

5. All other networks – I know I’ve ignored some big ones here that have millions of users so please prove me wrong in the comments if I’ve left one off. MySpace is great for some people but to me it’s not a vital network to be a part of if you want to control your identity especially if you have all of your other bases covered.

More Dahlism available:

Dahlism on Twitter
Dahlism on Facebook
Timothy Dahl’s LinkedIn

As celebrities and public figures continue to use Twitter as a mouthpiece for public relations they will also be held responsible and liable for every statement they post on Twitter, good or bad. Just like anyone, celebrities can be sensible or rude and clueless when it comes to their social media updates.

Recently I came across this great blog that is focused on new media and the law. Specifically the area of defamation on the internet. We all may be lulled into the feeling that just because it’s easy to make a statement online by just turning on your computer and posting a blog entry or Twitter update, these types of actions can be used in a court of law.

Recently internet celebrity and MTV personality Tila Tequila accused NFL star Shawne Merriman of choking and restraining her. He countered that he was only trying to keep her from leaving his home while intoxicated. The truth probably lies somewhere in between but because Tila Tequila decided to tweet numerous statements (that were subsequently deleted) that may have had incriminating in a court, the DA decided not to pursue charges against Merriman.

Perez Hilton, no stranger to lawsuits or Twitter spats, had it out with Kirstie Alley on Twitter. She was over the top on her comments while he maintained his composure and never threatened her. This all broke out because of his recent Twitter fight with Demi Moore regarding her daughters outfit.

Even as these celebs get more savvy so will the number of “famous for being famous” celebrities who have little or no PR experience and will wish to continue their 15 minutes through any medium available.

Unless you are blogging for the pure joy of writing and sharing your thoughts and feelings with the world, you most likely are reading this because you intend to make money blogging, either directly or indirectly.

Blogs make money directly through advertising based on CPM, CPC, or CPA. CPM (Cost per-thousand) is a carry-over from the previous way of buying media and still remains the most popular way to launch an online advertising campaign and almost every blog ad network is measured by CPM. The other two CPC (Cost per-Click) and CPA (Cost per-Action) are more relevant to the interactive nature of online advertising and measure direct referrals, sign-ups, or sales.

The other direct ways of creating income with a blog are through retail sales of a product or service, affiliate programs (pay you per referral or signup and grow from there), or revenue sharing deals with larger websites such as Amazon where you are an “Associate” and you gain a percentage of a sale Amazon process from their ad tags running on your blog.

The indirect ways a blog can make you money are as follows. A blog can raise your profile while you sell a book or pitch a product. A blog can increase traffic to your website and therefore bring in more visitors to your brick and mortar.

The above are generalizations and even though you can set up a Typepad or Wordpress blog in minutes doesn’t mean you will start making money or selling novels. Here are more reasons why you should blog and I’ll break down the steps of setting up a pro blog in future posts.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

English-speaking Americans can no longer afford to ignore Spanish-speaking internet uses within our own country but specifically beyond our borders in Mexico, Spain and the rest of Latin America. Fortunately there are a few internet professionals who have the experience and knowledge to assist US-based websites with confronting and successfully overcoming this issue.

Joe Kutchera of dotGlobal is at the leading edge of this movement and after time spent in Spain and Mexico he fully understands the unique challenges that American websites have in attracting a Spanish-speaking online audience. A core tenet of Dahlism is seeking to expand an audience beyond our own borders whether that be physical, idealogical, or cultural.

Joe will be hosting a panel at SXSW 2010 that explores these topics in detail and is a must-attend for any website seeking the largest growing segment of internet users (Latin America).

Some of the questions that will be answered include:
1. How do consumers cross geo-political boundaries to find, read about and buy what they want?
2. How can marketers understand those trends and then formally create products for international markets?
3. Why did The Home Depot shut down its Spanish-language site for U.S. Hispanics only 4 months after launching it?
4. In contrast, why did Best Buy embrace their visitors from Mexico and Latin America on their Spanish-language e-commerce site for U.S. Hispanics?
5. When will Mandarin, Spanish, and Portuguese bypass English as the top languages online?

Give a thumbs up to this panel and make sure you attend.

I’m headed to Honolulu, HI at the end of the month to launch the website and online marketing campaign for the Joe Aloha Food Truck of Joe Aloha Catering. Mobile lunch wagons have been around for a long time but only recently have they become “hip” by offering more than the standard taco, hot dog and greasy food fare.

Much has been written on the success of KogiBBQ and their reliance on Twitter to share their location and food status with an always hungry group of 42k+ followers. But it’s also their unique melding of Korean/Mexican cuisine that helps build on the buzz. David Chang of Momofuku (superb pork dumplings) in NYC was one of the first to venture into this style by opening Momofuku Ssäm Bar which at one point specialized in Asian burritos.

Joe Aloha will not be serving Mexican or Korean as they stake their reputation on true Hawaiian food that would have been popular 30 years ago and not the typical BBQ and mac salad that has come to represent current day Hawaiian casual food. They will offer an assortment of smoked meats, fresh vegetables and grilled fish on a daily basis at locations throughout Honolulu and the island of Oahu.

The owner of Joe Aloha, James “Kimo” Akaka, has been schooled in fine kitchens such as Luttece but has returned to his roots as the premier caterer of Hawaiian food in Honolulu. His lunch wagon will provide islanders with his fine food 5 days a week so you’ll no longer have to search out events catered by him to enjoy his grindz.

More updates to follow from paradise…

Last week Dooce (aka Heather Armstrong) flexed her social media muscle and using Twitter called out Maytag for their shoddy customer service on a newly purchased washing machine that broke down. Her influence is far reaching as she has over 1.2 million followers and moments after her tweet they chimed in with 140-character stories of their own. Almost as quickly, retailers and manufacturers (Not Maytag) offered to help.

If you’re not already familiar with Dooce, you need to realize that she is one of the most influential bloggers and internet personalities on earth. But she did not achieve this through wealth or position. She does happen to be an extremely talented writer and graphic designer as well as with her husband, very tech savvy. Dooce is a pioneer in the Power to the People moment that has arrived and all business’, organizations and public entities should take notice. No longer can Directv deliver a subpar product without taking a hit on their reputation. The same applies to home builders, electronic giants, and service providers.

Dooce doesn’t take her position and influence lightly and if she made a habit of tweeting frustration of every single product that broke, her influence would begin to wane. But she doesn’t nor should she feel bad for speaking her mind and sharing her opinions with her friends, family, and online social network (which happens to be larger than the greater population of SLC). Fortunately she’s got a philanthropic heart and ended up working with an opportunistic Bosch Appliances to donate a washer and dryer to the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake City.

As I see it Maytag erred in two areas.

1. Not providing a reasonable solution to a new customers challenge.
2. Not being where their customers are and that is online and more specifically monitoring the Twittersphere.

With the balance of power tipping towards the masses, companies can no longer afford to ignore us. Please continue to speak your minds in the comments of corporate blogs, through Yelp!, Citysearch, and your own personal blogs. The power is in our hands and who knows, maybe they’ll start listening.