Tony Wheeler dot Net

Web 2.0 technologies are undoubtedly one of the most powerful tools available to marketers on the internet today. Sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube are revolutionizing the way that marketing is taking place. If you use any of these sites you have probably seen support for all of the presidential candidates on those sites, including groups or fan pages.

Let’s take a look at one of the most underestimated candidates out there, Ron Paul. Ron Paul is running on the Republican ticket. Some argue that Paul is not strictly a Republican, but I think that it is more that Ron Paul doesn’t look like the Republicans that we have come to know and “love”. Ron Paul holds true to the beliefs of the Democratic Republican party. While each of the candidates have a presence on the social networking sites, Ron Paul is the most requested Republican friend on Myspace, has about 60,000 friends on Facebook (neither Hilary or Barak Obama have profiles on Facebook), and on Google Trends if searches equaled electoral votes, Paul would have been president months ago. Take a look at just the past 30 days on Google Trends for Ron Paul.

Paul is simply an underrated candidate. Most of his supporters are people who are disgruntled with politics and government. Funny, I’m pretty sure that is how this country started. His supporters are also people who haven’t voted in awhile, so their results wouldn’t show up in polls. Yeah, I know about Iowa. Yes, I also know about New Hampshire. All I am really saying is that this guy has some pretty serious underground support. In all honesty, I think that the Web 2.0 technologies can put a man (or woman) into the White House in 2008.

Here is a chart outlining each candidates support on Facebook alone.  Barak does have a strong following, but there doesn’t seem to be an official Barak Obama profile or even page.  Interesting…

[youtube 8Xon3d9EuoE nolink]

WOW! Can you believe that 2007 is nearly wrapped up?  In all honestly, I cannot!  The end of the year is normally cause for reflection about the year past and planning for the year ahead.  It really is the buzz all around.  Just tonight at work, everyone was asking what my New Year’s resolutions are.  I simply said that I don’t make them.  I’ve made so many resolutions and promises to both God and myself that I never followed through with that it sometimes literally makes me sick.

My year end ritual on my blog is to simply share in recap some of the stuff that has gone on in the past year and look ahead a bit.

So…2007.  What a year!  It has been a whirlwind in our lives. 

• We began this year by starting a business so my wife could stay home with our daughter.  7 months later we threw in the towel on that and decided that my wife would work only part time and we would come out ahead. 
• On the church front, I began the year continuing to serve in First Impressions, then transitioned into Outreach late in the summer.  That lasted for about a month before a mutual parting of ways HAD to take place.  The tension inside of me just couldn’t be ignored any longer.  I felt it.  The leadership team felt it.  Looking back, I should have noticed the tension much before that time.   My friends: I’m thankful for the time we got to spend together.  I’m thankful for the things I have learned during our time together.  I am sorry that I didn’t see the tension earlier.  It is my hope and prayer that God continues to work in you and through you. 
• The Tension.  Wow! What a year.  Let me just say that three years ago when I was working as a night guard at a hotel in Orlando, I never dreamed I would be where God has me now and where he has me headed.  God has laid some pretty serious stuff on my heart this year.  Look through the archives and you can find some of my thought process.  Let me just say that while I have been kind of quiet for the past couple months, God is still speaking to me and putting the right people in my life.  I’m glad to get to know some of the men that God has put in my life.  I’m also glad that other people are feeling tension on their hearts to join with what God is calling me toward.  I’m guessing that the picture will only get clearer in the months to come.
• Our daughter.  Hands down, our daughter is the absolute best ‘thing’ of 2007.  I’m absolutely in love with my baby.  We have worked through my selfishness and worked on being daddy and daughter.  Sophia has a great personality, stubborn and all! Such a blessing in our lives.  She has a tooth now and is eating veggies and cereal.  It was funny to feed her peas for the first time.  The face was priceless!  I guess I could probably fill many pages doting on my girl…so I’ll just stop.

2007 is nearly over.  2008 is almost here.  There has been a ton of other stuff going on in our lives that either would be quite boring for you to read or really don’t fit on this site. What about you?  What has been going on in your life in the past year?  What do you want to do in the next year?

Hey All! Been down a couple of days, some of you may not have noticed if you are on a feed or email list. I switched servers due to some things that I have coming down the pipe for a host of other websites. Obviously, that switch for me, didn’t go well. Luckily, I have a personal nerd herd that was very willing to help me get everything ironed out.