I missed Mid-week reads last week. I’m sure I had a good reason but it’s currently escaping me.  Please accept my apoloiges.  Since I missed last week,  I will include a bonus article for your reading pleasure.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

Seriously…drop what you are doing and watch this… - I’m not a fan of this type of title for blog posts.  Usually, it’s a stupid video of somone doing something moronic that they will regret having posted online in five years.   While i think that this title is a bit over the top, I think the video of Gary Vaynerchuck that Saul of Freshbooks shares in this post is worth watching.

After the Election, Will Obama’s Online Army Target Congress? - This is an “old” but good one.  In this post, Colin Delany of E-politics.com discusses the possibility of Obama unleashing his online supporters on the hill to apply pressure on congress as needed to get legislation through were he to be elected president.  Very interesting read.

Finance Industry Giving Visualized -  In the wake of the current financial crisis, we’ve been wondering how the financial industry became such  “laissez faire” industry.  Well,  the good folks at the Sunlight foundation built a tool that shows campaign donations from the financial sector since the early 90’s.   Needless to say the findings dont boathe well for our elected officials who claim to be independent.

Twitter, Facebook, Charitable Campaigning - In this post, Jeff Trexter warns online community managers of 501(c)3 organizations about the hidden risks of Web 2.o technologies when it comes to online activism.  If you blog, tweet or manage your organization’s Facebook/MySpace page, this is a must read.

Five Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don’t Use Social Media - Have friends/colleagues that think social media is worthless?  Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb suggests five ways to rope them in.   If you’re already a web person, the suggestion are very easy to implement. I’m thinking of setting up Yahoo Pipes myself.

***Bonus***   The Playboys of Tech - The title is self-explanatory.  Who says geeks don’t know how to party?

If you are reading any interesting blogs, please don’t hesitate to share them with me via comment or email at blog at makembe dot com.  A more extensive list of shared reading items can be found on my Google reader shared page.