A Tradition of Celtic Jams

The Irish and Scottish people that settled the Ozarks area of Missouri and Arkansas have had a long history of making some of the world's best jams and jellies. In fact, that tradition continues into modern times in the Ozarks. So, let's take a trip down Ozarks Jam and Jellies Lane.

The traditions of Celtic Jam makers can be seen with the love the Ozarks have for blueberry, blackberry (also called Braeberry), and strawberry jam. You can also see the influence with local berries like gooseberry and elderberry. Orange Marmelade and Lemon Curd are also popular Celtic jams to be found in the Ozarks.

The process typically makes use of real fruits that are picked and then made into jams or jellies right away. It is possible, though, to make jams or jellies from frozen fruit. Pectin is used to make the product thicker, and real sugar is used to sweeten the product. High fructose corn syrup varieties just don't taste as good, and many people are now avoiding the long term effects of fructose.

Besides making the product taste good, the sugary environment also helps to preserve the product over time. The environment is not condusive to bacteria, mold, etc. You may often still see old Ozarkians just scrap the mold off the top of old jams and jellies and eat them. It may look grose, but it probably will not be a health issue. Any product sold in the state of Missouri or Arkansas should have an expiration date to be safe, though. Unopened jams and jellies last a long time. That is part of the reason our Celtic ancestors made the items: they lasted a long time, and provided a nice bit of carbohydrate to a meal.

In modern times, people in Missouri and Arkansas just like the taste of home made jams and jellies that are made in the Ozarks. If you do not live in the Ozarks, take a moment and order some. You'll enjoy the fine Irish and Scottish jams and jellies of the Ozarks.

Slainte,
Ray Province
The Celtic Ozarkian

Ray Province is an IT Programmer by trade, and owener of www.celticozarkian.com and co-owner of www.ozarkscelticmarketplace.com . He frequently writes about Irish and Scottish history in the Ozarks. You can reach him at contactus@celticozarkian.com or @celticozarkian on Twitter.

Social Media Marketing Still Has Value

There are many people today asking questions about whether or not social media marketing still has value. There are so many people that have jumped on the Facebook and Twitter bandwagon. Can using these types of sites still help my efforts?

Part of the answer to this question lies on who you are marketing to on a regular basis. I am not sure that the youth of the world ever expected the Baby Boomer generation to like Facebook as much as they do. Limited PPC ads on Facebook still work well for the Boomers. You might have to look a little harder for younger people though. Facebook still works for the very young, but their influence on the buying market is limited.

Twitter, to me, is almost hopeless as a medium for direct sales. You have to be willing to pay your dues on the social media site, make friends, engage in conversation with people. Many business people don’t want to put in this kind of time. Outsourcing the work can help. Talking about hot topics can also help you get noticed. If all you want to do, though, is throw link bait, don’t waste your time.

So where are people going on the social media sites these days? Here is a list of sites that may help you out.

Facebook.com: as I mentioned, it was initially intended for college students — it branched out, and now allows everyone membership. 500 million members. Most of these are Baby Boomer age any more.

MySpace.com: 130 million members. This site is massive, boasting the largest membership of any social networking site on the Internet. There is also a lot of crap on MySpace. You can reach a lot of people though.

Linkedin.com: 75 million members — a powerful tool for business networking.This site is worth the time spent. Go out and get to know people. Even your employer is probably watching this site now.

Friendster.com: 90 million members. Friendster was considered the top online social networking service until around April 2004, when it was overtaken by MySpace. Demographic studies indicate users are from 17 to 30 years old. The younger generation still likes this site for social contact. Keep that in mind.

Stumbleupon.com: Boasting over 10 million users, StumbleUpon is a web browser plugin that allows its users to discover and rate webpages, photos, videos, and news articles. A great way to get website promotion. Bought by eBay for $75 million in May 2007, this is a great site to promote an Ebay business.

del.icio.us: The website del.icio.us (pronounced as “delicious”) is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The site was founded by Joshua Schachter in late 2003, and is now part of Yahoo!. This is a good site to hit to get search engine recognition on the nation’s number 2 search engine.

digg.com: Digg is a website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories, in a social and democratic spirit. It is more of an intellectual site though. It reminds me a lot of writing for HubPages.com.

Orkut.com: Orkut is an Internet social networking service run by Google and named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten. It claims to be designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Now has a membership of 100 million. I really think this is the site of the future. I know I have really been trying to hit this one harder.

Yahoo! 360° (a.k.a Yahoo! Days) is a personal communication portal similar to orkut and MySpace — it is currently in the beta-testing phase. It integrates features of social networking, blogging and photo sharing sites. I think this site has merit for the future.

Xanga.com: 27 million members. Xanga is a free Web-based service that hosts weblogs, photoblogs, videoblogs, audioblogs, and social networking profiles. I really like this site, and it has received a lot of attention of Mashable.com in recent months. Take a look.

Care2.com: Over 9 million members. Care2 is a social networking website that was founded to help connect activists from around the world.

Ryze.com: 500, 000 members. Ryze.com is a free social networking website designed to link business professionals.

So, don’t count social media marketing out of your overall marketing for your website. Good luck with your social media campaigns.