Sadly, while this is true in many instances, one thing that has not gone out of style is a well-organized protest that scares politicians and companies alike.

Instead of the  picket sign,  the protest weapon of choice is  now a computer.

On Wednesday, online websites, companies and individual alike, bandied together to protest The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, (the bill basically is trying to strip the free rights of  users of the internet).

Thanks to the online protest from sites like ”Wikipedia, Reddit and about 10,000 other websites blacked out their pages Wednesday” according to the LA Times as well some guy named Zuckerberg who said  that “SOPA Is ‘Poorly Thought-Out Law,” the bill now is quickly dying.

According to the New York Times  freshman senator, Marco Rubio of Florida said that “he would no longer back anti-Internet piracy legislation he had co-sponsored”.

Although digital piracy is an issue, the bill was written by people who barely understand the digital age and that’s the problem with most policies these days.

Instead of having knowledgeable experts help write bills, too often in politicians craft legalisation to pay back a  major donor or lobbyist, (the funny thing is that these bills are so complex that most politicians can’t tell you what’s in most bills).

The fact that the Anti-SOPA movement moved so quickly reminds us that we still have a voice.  

We all have cell phones, access to computers as well as the ability to communicate to each other, so we still have a voice to force change.

Sure the SOPA blackout  had the backing of powerful digital media players) , but as the uprising in the Middle East showed us, we all have digital power to force change,  even if your last names isnt’  Zuckerberg.

 Question:  Have you been part of an online movement? How did work out?

A few months ago, I lost my phone.

I know boo-hoo, right?

Although I found my phone about a week later, (darn seat cushions),  I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to return to my beloved LG Rumor 2 .

You see , during those days without my phone, I went through a withdrawal.

No, like a Tom Sizemore on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew type of withdrawal, where I’m sweating and shaking like a chihuahua, but a social media one.

I was so used to checking my phone for my Twitter and Facebook updates on an hour to hour, minute to minute basis that those first few days without my phone, I was still reaching for it like it was still there, but in actuality, all I was grabbing was air.

Social media is a part of me.  

If it wasn’t for social media, I’m not sure where my career would have taken me at this point in my life.

The fact that I can blog my own stories, shoot video and stay connected to the world with a few clicks still amazing me.

However, after those first  few days of grabbing air, something changed:

* I started to look people in the eyes more often than I did when I was  checking my phone for Twitter updates, (to my previous date, I apologize, but I it was crazy to see that the  Dalai Lama was tweeting.)

* I was able to enjoy TV programs like Law & Order SUV much more fully, because I paid attention to the episode without asking people what happened when I was checking my text messages.  

* I was able to have full conversations with people without saying “Uh-Huh” while typing Facebook messages, ( even though I don’t if that is a social media thing or just guy thing?)

Sound familiar?  

 A few months ago, the comedian Louis C.K. told Conan O’Brien that social media sucks go.

Now that sounds like a contradiction, since recently Louis C.K. artfully used social media to make $1 million in 12 Days for his $5 comedy video, but he basically said we are missing out on life by reducing  our experiences to a small screen.

Sometimes the best memories we have is not on YouTube or Flickr, but in our minds.

Sure there are moments that we wish we could have videos and or photos to commemorate a special time in our life, but sometimes telling story of that moment is more dramatic than a 3 minute video in our hands.

Am I denouncing social media?

 Heck no!  I still love it and I still have student loans to pay.

However, I do think that we should take the time out of our busy lives to put the iPhone, tablets or laptops down and actually live it moment, which means actually giving people our full attention or better yet, living in moment and experience the life around us.  

I was on that path of non-digital enlightenment, but unfortunately for me, I just got a Droid (more on that later) and those apps are so much fun that I fallen off into a digital media relapse.  

I guess my next step is to admit my problem and enroll  myself into the Chris Borgan Center for Digital Addiction huh?

Question:Are you as connected to the people around you as you are to your device? What do you to make sure that social media does not take over your life?

The ideas of resolutions are funny to me because most of the time people do not keep them.

“I’m going to join a gym” says someone who really wants to lose weight ….then six months later they are stuck with a three year contract at a gym that they  now hate.

“I’m going to treat people nicer” says another …but then they morph into Lisbeth Salander for the “Girl with the Dragon” (excellent film directed  by David Fincher and score  by Trent Reznor ) tasing a worker at McDonald’s after they gave them the wrong order (people really do love those McRib sandwiches).

It’s not really the resolutions that are bad, it’s the execution.

Resolutions = Change and for many of us, it can be a daunting thing.

Fear, anxiety, doubt and comfort keeps most of us from finding out who we really are or what we can  actually become.

I have been guilty of some and at times all of those things in the past, But my resolution in 2012  is pretty simple:  

All I want to do is fully establish my career in digital media full-time .

I know what you’re saying, “But Kevin haven’t you been doing social media for a long time and don’t you operate several blogs and  make videos?”

Yes, but I still feel like that indie movie director at Sundance who won awards, butwhio  now feels like it’s time to make big budget flicks like  Mission Impossible 15 with Suri Cruise as she  takes over for her old man Tom.

I am in space now that I want to grow faster as a professional, learn new skills, actually meet more liked minded people whom I can colloborate with and learn from as well as have conversations without seeing a  confusing look when I mention Mashable or Quora.

But for this to happen, I have to make to ask myself some questions:

Should I network better?

Probably, but for that to happen I have embrace Steve “Diddy” Jobs way of promoting myself, which can be a challenge sometimes.

Do I need to make more content online?

Maybe, but I really want to expand try things like what  Maker Studios does in Cali or work harder to create even better content.

Should I move from making my own digital kingdom in Akron, Ohio and move to more social and digital friendly areas like New York, California, Atlanta, Austin, etc.?

That would be the biggest risk of all, because I love Akron, but do I stay and fight to make myself more digitally known in Ohio  or move and maybe grow faster professional in another city?

These are some of the tough questions I have to face, but the new year is clearly about challenging me following a new digital path, (throw in digital honey bunny and that covers 2013 ; ).

The path I decide to take will be one that will affect me for years to come and although I know I will make the decision, only time will tell me if followed the right path.

Question: So what are your resolutions or goals in 2012?  What ways would you like to change or grow in the New Year?

Also read: What’s Your New Year’s Resolution for your Favorite TV Show or Artist?

Last night as I was taking a break watching a 2006 episode from “Intervention” on A&E, (I wonder what happened to that gal Christie anyway?), when I came across this email:  

“Jason Voorhees requested to add you as a connection on LinkedIn”

Now anyone who is a student of 1980′s slasher flicks knows that Jason Voorhees  was the hockey mask wearing killer for most the Friday The 13th movies, (his mom was the killer in the first one).

As I clicked on the link, expecting to seal my fate as some kind of cyber victim, I came across another horrifying line: 

“I give Free software to Marketers http://marketersoftware4free.com/ “

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

OK, it’s not the same as getting a hot poker through the stomach while I’m getting it on with my old lady (“Friday the 13th Part III”) , but I did feel like I just got a machete through the dome.

The Jason Voorhees that I received the LinkedIn message from wasn’t a killer from Crystal Lake, but  a spammer, which many times is just as terrifying.  

I’m not faulting this Jason for requesting us to connect, he’s doing what he can to drum up business for his website,  but when you are accepting invitations on any social network, you have to be somewhat discriminate. 

Having a bunch of LinkedIn connections or Facebook friends doesn’t mean anything if  they are not a valuable connection.

I routinely receive messages from people wanting to connect on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinlockett)

For the most part, I accept their requests because they are either in my field of digital entertainment, recruiters who might help me to find work or colleagues looking to connecting   (even though it like most of my connections comes from Facebook or Twitter  than LinkedIn these days).

Every so often I do  get an invitation from someone like Jason who casts a big net to see if anyone would connect.

I’m sure Jason’s  shotgun approach does work on some people who are looking for a free software, but I’m already pretty tech savvy when it comes to free goodies, so unfortunately  I had to decline my pseudo-slasher friend’s  invitation. 

I just  hope in the sequel this Jason Voorhees doesn’t take a cue from “Friday The 13th Part 2″ by showing  up to my house one late night and stabbing me in my head with an iPad stylus?!?!?

Hmmm on second thought, maybe I need to make a LinkedIn invitation re-request to Jason than send one to Freddy and Pinhead and Chucky!!! 

Question: How do you handle invitation requests from people you don’t know on LinkedIn?

One of the misnomers about African American men is that we are always the coolest, smoothest guys in the room, where the term nerds and geeks does not apply. Umm, that’s not always true, (cool yes, but not always smooth). 

The best thing about the 21st century is that creatives like actor Donald Glover and music producer  Pharell made it cool to be black geeks who embrace marching bands, ride skateboards and acknowledge that they are in fact nerdy, (in Pharrell’s case his band with Chad Hugo N.E.R.D.).

Add another black geek to the fold as Rolling Stone follows The Roots’ Questlove aka Ahmir Khalib Thompson around for a few days, (which including the whole Michele Bachmann/Fishbone incident on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”).

Although the piece doesn’t delve too much into the The Roots, it’s a great character study  of Questlove who talks about losing summers as a child as father made him played drums, being bullied and teased as a teenager for his hair, his almost “rain man” gift when it comes to music as well as his awkwardness around his celebrity crush, Community’s Alison Brie, ( dude, I agree by the way)

I found this article endearing to me, because I am very much like Questlove.

Growing up, I found a kinship with Questlove’s Philly contemporaries DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince.

Like Will Smith and Jeff Townes, I was just a nice guy with stable family life with no guns, no arrests or  wild parties ( to me watching “Happy Days” wasn’t a guilty pleasure, it was a way of life (the Richie years of course).

Songs like ”Girls Ain’t Nothin But Trouble” and “Parents Just Don’t Understand” were not just songs, but my life story.  

But much like Questlove, who also grew up during that time period, those songs also meant I wasn’t the cool kid.

Like Quest, I had a love, almost obsession with  all things entertainment including music, where I was drummer  DJ and later a music critic.

Although I didn’t do the lunch box thing like Questlove, I was true geek in every sense of the word as I  loved X-Men comic books and watched sci-fi movies like Star Wars wearing my Dwayne Wayne flip-up glasses from the TV show ”A Different World”.  

(Fellas, don’t make the mistake I did, if you meet a gal who loves comic book movies like “Spider Man” and “Iron Man”, make sure you marry her quickly because they are hard to find!)

Even now, if I am in my confident creative space, I am full  “Questlove mode”, charismatic and entertaining, but more often than not, I morph into “Ahmir Mode”, standing in the back of room, either trying to figure out ways to say something witty to a crowd or attractive woman and/or go in the opposite way and obsess over a new idea that I can’t wait try when I leave.

This past year, Rolling Stone has had some great pieces on Sirius XM’s Howard Stern, Curb Your Enthusiasm’s  Larry David and FX star Louis C.K.

The thing that ties them all together is that they are not only creative and at the top of their craft, but they are in relatively solitary positions ( Stern: radio announcer, David/ C.K: comics, Questlove: drummer).

Being a blogger, I found that have a kindred spirit with each each one, but after reading Questlove’s Rolling Stone piece, I found a long lost brother.

Read a section of the Rolling Stone piece here: ”Questove Talks Love for Aison Brie; Told Jay-Z To Go to Harvard in Rolling Stone”

Recently, Forbes.com posted an article entitled “Who Are the Top 10 Influencers in Social Media?”.

In the article Forbes.com said “PeekYou” have created a “social media audience” metric to help you find out” who has the most juice in social media ( I tried to log on, but the PeekYou is currently invitation only).

The article noted usual social media heavyweights like Scott Monty, head of social at Ford, Ann Handley at MarketingProfs, Jason Falls at Social Media Explorer, and Mari Smith, a Facebook marketing expert.”

I’m sure I won’t crack PeekYou’s top social media influencers list, but in my hometown of Akron, Ohio I’m a new media Sumo! 

Just for the years I have  put in learning and implementing social media campaigns, blogs and videos, I think I made a difference in my city.

The only organizations that has just as much or more  juice than I is the Akron/Canton Airport whom has been doing social media as long as I have (2008) as well as  Akron Children’s Hospital who are doing some interesting things with online videos dealing with young patients.

But to quote P.T.I’s Tony Kornhieser, “That’s it, That’s the list!”

It’s me and two organizations!

OK, I’m having a Kanye West moment so forgive for  all the bravado but if I am following Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” model, I’ve put some serious miles on my digital media tires and I’m still going strong, (as well as many other people and organizations who are doing good social media work throughout Ohio).

But of enough me  and P.Digital ego, I want to know who are the social media heavyweights  in your city?  

If I say the name of your town, whose name, company, organization pops into your head?

There are plenty people across the U.S. and world who are doing wonderful work in social media who won’t get a sniff from  PeekYou and Forbes, so I want to give them a place to shine right here.

So during the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, I lost my Sirius XM radio.

As I was going through Howard Stern withdrawal, I decided to stop by Radio Shack because I remembered seeing a  Sirius XM radio on sale.

There were several radios at Radio Shack, but only one had a price.

When I asked the clerk about the specifics about the radio, she didn’t know the answer and then told me to Google info or find it on Wikipedia.

WTF???

Now she wasn’t being mean or sarcastic, but I wondered how many people were told the same thing and decided to make a purchase someplace else where they didn’t have to the Google the answer?

(This was the second time I had an issue with Radio Shack.  A few weeks ago I bought a Virgin Optimus Slider, but the clerks debated to me that the phone wasn’t on sale, until I made them look at the ad!!??)

When I was in college, I worked at a hybrid music/video store called Hot Tracks.

If someone asked us a question about album or video at least one of us would have the answer. Much like The John Cusack film “High Fidelity” , we were music and movie geeks working in music store and I truly believe that our new and REPEAT customers we’re happy for our expertise and we enjoyed imparting our geek-dom onto them.

Sadly, I’ve seen more of the former in recent years, where more and more store clerks  are collecting checks while displaying  very little knowledge about the store or their products.

The Apple Store is a great  example of a place where their employees seem to be quite knowledgeable about their iProducts.

 Even if you are knowledgeable about Apple products like the MacBook Pro, their clerks are educated enough in Apple-ese to tell you some nuisances that you might not know,  (could you even imagine what Steve Jobs would have done to an Apple Store employee if he heard they told  a customer to Google information on the iPad???)

As a person who is looking for a full-time job in digital media, I know it is tough to find a full-time job and I don’t want to see the young lady who told me to Google the Sirius XM radio at Radio Shack to lose hers; however,  wouldn’t it be wise for Radio Shacks store managers as well as their executives  make sure they hire people who might not be tech geeks, but at least know enough where I don’t have to do the work for them?

Have you ever been in a store where you knew more than the employees? What happened?

It’s funny when I read job postings for a social media positions where it says, “MUST ALSO KNOW SEO”.

Although I know a few aspects of SEO aka  Search Engine Optimization (which basically improves the  traffic of your website/blog) ), I am a social media person through and through, meaning I create content and ideas, not analyzing algorithms.

Expecting a social media person to be an expert in SEO is like asking a dentist if they can also deliver a baby.  

Sure the dentist can do it, but that’s his or her expertise, (Mam your baby have a lovely smile, but is head shaped like a Chicken McNugget).

However, over the years I have picked up some SEO tricks that have helped me build traffic on my various blogs, so I decided to give you a few McNuggets that could be beneficial to increase your traffic:

1.) Ping Me Baby!  Submit your blog to online tools like Pingomatic or  Pingoat, which will notify all the major blog directories that your blogs exist. This doesn’t guarantee major increase traffic immediately but it puts you in the game for your blog to be seen.

2.) Content, Content, Content! You don’t become a successful blogger overnight,  it takes time, energy and content. It doesn’t matter if it’s written, pictures or videos, the more content you have, the better the opportunity have to find your blog on search engines.

3.) Tag You’re it!  Place at  5-10 releveant tags on your blog. Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool Box to find words that will make your blog post a lot more searchbale.

4.) Become Paul Revere 2.0! Paul Revere was famous for saying “The British is Coming, The British is Coming”! Use that same mindset in 2011 to promote your blog.

Tell everyone you know, put it on your business card, promote your blog on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. , place your link on your greeting cards put it on T-shirts, mugs, get a tattoo!

 Do everything you can online and offline to let people know that you have a blog, (but make sure your neck tattoo isn’t permanent, you don’t want to be that guy that still has “Pets.com 4 Life” on his neck).

Like I said before, I am nowhere near the SEO expert , but I do know content and social media, so hopefully some of my tips can help you increase your traffic in 2012 and beyond.

What tactics have you used to increase your blog’s traffic?

So as  my Yahoo fantasy football team was going down in flames today, (thanks a lot Buffalo Bills defense), I decided to jump on th net to take  look at some Black Friday deals. 

But I came across something that I never even thought about..apps.

The blog iPhone Apps Review listed their Top 10 Black Friday iPhone Apps, which is fantastic. 

In the post IAR said ” With the Black Friday Apps you have all Black Friday deals with you when you hit the mall.”

Some of the apps include:

These apps are  fantastic tools for Black Friday and I am cursing myself because I should have thought of this sooner LOL.

To see the full Black Friday app list  click here , also peep my Black Friday 4 Guys blog @ BFGuys.com, which is my witty of way of helping men become better shoppers during the holiday.

I’m a big fan of wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk’s book  on social media”Crush it“,  I bought it last year and even though I still can’t tell the difference between a red and white wine, the book was easy to read book was and for me it still is essential reading for social media enthusiasts.

However, one of the things I didn’t embrace was Vaynerchuk’s use of Tumblr.

I had nothing against Tumblr, but in 2010 I was just beginning to use the  WordPress as blogging platform for KevinLockett.com , this is years after being a  proud  Bloggger user,where  I still host my long running entertainment blog Music is My Soul.

I didn’t see the use of Tumblr at the time.

Recently, while  I was re-organizing, I came across “Crush it” under a pile of books.

When  I started re-reading it, not only did I find “Crush it”  just as fresh as it was last year,  but I  found myself being even more intrigued by Vaynerchuk’s success with Tumblr  blog Wine Library TV.

I decided right then that the next blog I was going to launch, Tumblr would be its destination; thus BFGuys.com or Black Friday 4 Guys was born.

I knew I wanted to showcase all of the shopping knowledge I gained from my parents over the year and since Tumblr users tend to gravitate more towards videos and photos than text, I decided to roll the dice.

The set up was quite simple and the great thing is that I don’t have to worry about hosting.  Tumblr also made it easy for to make my domain name BFGuys.com than the main URL for my site, ( I also place some of the same content on BlackFriday4guys.com on Blogger)

I then followed Vaynerchuk’s model of video blogging model from Winelibrary TV. But instead of wine, I was dispensing advice to men on how shop during the holidays, where I upload the videos using YouTube and Blip.TV (Ex: “Buying the Right Size for your Lady“)

One of the things I missed completely the first time I read “Crush it” was Tumblr’s re-blogging tool, which is basically re-tweeting for a blog.

For a new blog, this is a great tool  to build traffic at a faster rate, (I’ll let all of you know the status of BFGuys.com when the holiday season is over).

Re-finding “Crush it”  under a stack of books is why I still love books over tablets.

No offense to  tablets, but if I simply downloaded the “Crush it” book as an app, it would have been lost in a sea of other apps on my tablet and I probably wouldn’t have made this step towards Tumblr.

Do I think the iPad is a wonderful piece of technology? Of course.

Will I buy one in the future? You betcha.

But there is nothing like coming across a book you haven’t read awhile and  finding  new information that you either missed or didn’t embrace the first time around.

That’s what Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush it” did for me and that’s why BFGuys.com was born.

I guess the goal for 20101 is  figuring out how to move KevinLockett.com from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

Question: Which blogging platform do you use? Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress.com,Wordpress.org or other?