Ravit Abelman, Omnidate and Julie Spira, Cyber-Dating Expert at iDate

Twice a year the online dating industry gathers in the U.S. to discuss the latest trends in Internet dating. The conference, called iDate, was held last week in Beverly Hills at the SLS Hotel concurrently with the Social Networking Conference. The event started with a 3 hour presentation by Google followed by the evening party at the Stone Rose Lounge hosted by Elitemate.

This year I was a speaker and presenter on Web 2.0 Dating: Using Social Media to Create Brand Loyalty.

I spoke about Twitter marriage proposals and celebrity breakups and how Facebook has become the third largest country in the world. Social media is successfully keeping users engaged and informed with meaningful updates, dating advice, and well-deserved bragging rights of their success stories.

One of the examples of dating 2.0 I spoke about was, social dating site Zoosk. Zoosk has done an excellent job in creating brand loyalty through social media. When they reached their 1 millionth “fan” on Facebook, they celebrated by creating a video called What is a Milion to thank those who now like their page. They posted it on the Zoosk blog, on their Facebook page where over 200 fans commented and over 600 said they liked it.  They posted their video on their YouTube channel for Zoosk TV, where they have over 4500 views for this one celebratory video.

Other examples I presented included online dating newcomer, Brainiac Dating. Their Facebook page features profiles and photos of singles looking for love online. Several online dating sites use social media to engage their fans. eHarmony‘s Facebook page gives advice to daters. A sample update of theirs is, “Picnics make great casual dates, especially in the summer. What are some good picnic ideas?” Lavalife has a contest on their page where you can vote for the Top 10 singles. Match.com congratulates their success couple of the week, and JDate include their success stories on their pages.

I provided a list of online dating sites on Twitter. Sample tweets from online dating sites included eHarmony_Jack: “Are you in love or are you infatuated?”  Match “How do you break up with someone you met online? 25% of Happen readers said on the telephone.” OkCupid: “Speaking of faced and attractiveness..has the recession made you more beautiful?”

iDate 2010 - The Final Debate at the Internet Dating Conference

I participated in the conference highlight, The Final Debate, along with Elitemate’s CEO Victor Daniel, Mark Brooks from Online Personals Watch, Karinna Kittles-Karsten from Sacred Love, Tai Lopez from Niche Enterprises, Violet Lim from Lunch Actually, and Frederick Vallaeys from Google adwords.

Mobile dating was clearly a hot topic at the conference. Thank you to Marc Lesnick, head of the Internet Dating Conference and Mark Brooks from Courtland Brooks for the opportunity to speak at this well-respected event about Dating 2.0 and Social Media.

The next two Internet Dating Conference events will be held in Paris, France on September 15-17, 2010 and in Miami, Florida on January 19-21, 2011. If you missed my presentation and would like to hear more, contact me at CyberDatingExpert.com/contact or Social Media and More.

In Part Two of my Interview series by Social Dating site Zoosk, I share my tips for creating your irresistible online dating profile and talk about the future of mobile dating.

Click here for Zoosk Interview, Part One>>>

We’ve been counting the days and hours at Cyber-Dating Expert Headquarters for the approval and release of our iPhone appfrom Apple. Today, we received the good news from Mobile Roadie. Our app was added today for iPhone users around the world to enjoy.

With our iPhone and Android apps, users can now share their online dating stories, listen to live streaming of Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show and even get the chance to read sample chapters from the bestseller, The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online.

Download the app now for dating advice in a Web 2.0 World.

**If you are interested in getting your own mobile app, go to MobileRoadie.com/ref/SMAM. Put SMAM as the referral code and receive 10% off your initial fee.

It’s with great excitement and enthusiasm to announce the Android mobile app for Cyber-Dating Expert.

If you have a Droid phone, click here to download the app for free.

With the new Cyber-Dating Expert mobile application, you will be able to read two free chapters of The Perils of Cyber-Dating, receive dating advice, listen live to Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show, and receive expert online dating tips and advice. Don’t forget to share your personal online dating stories to get featured in the Cyber Love Story of the Week and the Peril of the Week.

We’re excited to share our new app with you and welcome your feedback.

Click here to download the dating expert application

Welcome to dating in a Web 2.0 World.

I’m filled with excitement as I prepare for the first-ever dating panel at the 140 Characters Conference in New York, which will be held at the 92nd Street Y. Conference organizer and creator Jeff Pulver has been working around the clock to make this the best social media event ever. There will be over 180 people speaking in 76 sessions on one stage.

On the flight from Los Angeles to New York, I had the chance to read part of Andrea Syrtash’s new book, He’s Just Not Your Type (And That’s A Good Thing) (Rodale) due out next week. Andrea will be a panelist in Wednesday, April 20th at 11:30am and will be signing copies of her book in the Schmooze Lounge from 12:00pm – 1:00pm in advance of it’s release, so don’t miss it. She’ll also be the featured guest on Saturday on Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show at 1:00pm/Eastern Time.

I’m looking forward to seeing my co-panelist Tom Miller, General Manager of Your Tango. Our panel: Experiencing: Love, Dating and Romance in the Real-Time web is scheduled for 8:45am on Wednesday, April 21, 2010. I promise you it will be worth getting up early for. I’ll be talking about the changes in online dating since I created my first Internet dating profile 16 years ago and the effects of the real-time web in how we date and relate. I’ll toss in some dating advice, success couples, and where I believe we are heading with mobile dating and more.

After our panel, I will be signing copies of my book The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online in the Schmooze Lounge from 10:00am-10:45am. I hope to see you there!

Other authors who will be signing copies of their books include: John Kremer, Hank Wasiak, Melinda Emerson, Jonathan Maberry, Michael Tasner.

For a complete schedule of times visit the 140 Conference site.

If you can’t make it to the event, it will be streamed live on UStream at http://www.ustream.tv/nyc140conf. The hashtag for the event is #140conf.

The excitement will continue past the 140 Conference. On Thursday, I will be a guest on WPIX TV, channel 11 in New York in a segment with Tamsen Fadal. I will be talking about Cyber Dating Safety at 6:45am. I hope you tune in to watch.

On Thursday, several of the 140 Conference speakers will be attending the Broadway performance of Kelsey Grammer, now starring as Georges in the revival of La Cage aux Folles and we’ll be going back stage afterwards.

If this isn’t enough excitement, I’ll be back in New York again in May for Book Expo America where I will be speaking at the New York Public Library on May 25, 2010 and signing books at BEA -10 on May 26, 2010.

If you haven’t signed up yet for the 140 Conference, visit their site for tickets. Two-day passes are SOLD OUT, but you can still attend on Tuesday. For media inquiries visit CyberDatingExpert.com/contact

Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert

Listen to Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show where we talked about the hot topic of Mobile Dating with SKOUT’s CEO, Christian Wiklund.

SKOUT originally started as a social networking application and became the first iPhone social dating application. Marie Claire magazine named SKOUT their favorite iPhone dating application.

Find out who the mobile dating users are and how over 50% of iPhone dating users met their sweethearts using location based dating services.

Learn more about dating, love and romance in a Web 2.0 World.

Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert

Join Cyber-Dating Expert, Julie Spira as she welcomes Christian Wiklund, CEO of SKOUT to Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show.

SKOUT is a social dating service which allows you to browse singles, flirt, chat, and meet in real life. Their location based service is growing in popularity as mobile and GPS based services are expanding worldwide.

Find out more about real-time mobile dating on Saturday, February 20, 2010. Call in at 646–929-0012 to find out more about dating, love & romance in a Web 2.0 World.

Listen to Cyber-dating Expert on Blog Talk Radio

Online dating has become a very HOT topic.

The Los Angeles Times featured a story on how to find the right online dating service which appeared in the IMAGE section.

In the article, Mark Brooks from Online Personals Watch called the Internet the world’s largest bar. I have to agree here.

Read my expert dating advice in the cover story of the Valentine’s edition of  Los Angeles Times.

“EHarmony has [about 250] questions in their questionnaire,” says Julie Spira of CyberDatingExpert.com and author of “The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online.” “Anyone who signs up with eHarmony is truly serious about having a relationship with someone.”

Industry experts Brooks and Spira also praise GPS-based mobile applications like Skout and Foursquare that let users find out what people are doing and where they are so they can join the party at the bar or restaurant and meet new people.

For those who want to approximate a real in-person date before spending time and money on what might very well be an awkward first date, CyberDatingExpert.com’s Spira says to look to webcams.

“People are so conditioned on the first date to be disappointed that you don’t look like your photo,” she explains. She lists Speeddate.com or WooMe.com, both meet-via-webcam sites with younger clienteles, as success stories because their users tend to be less inhibited and quick learners of the software platform. “With video, what you see is what you get. But the older people in their 40s and 50s aren’t taking the time to do videos. You’re just getting them to join online dating for the first time so it’s like baby steps.”

Virtual sites, such as Second Life, OmniDate.com and Weopia.com, or even gaming sites, such as World of Warcraft (where romances have sometimes sparked between members of the gamers’ playing guilds), are perfect for those who are “gadget oriented” but also add another layer of anonymity, Spira says — something that can be a pro or a con. She says that virtual daters should get real pictures of their suitors before getting too serious.

Spira says it’s also common for online daters to be on several dating sites at once, at least one of which is free. But there might be a lot of abandoned profiles on free sites because “if you are paying $50 a month for an online dating site, you’re going to pay more attention to those e-mails. It’s economics.”

Click here to read full article on the Los Angeles Times

Listen to the Season Premiere of Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show featuring Sam Yagan, CEO and co-founder of OkCupid.

Find out why they are different from other online dating sites and why Sam thinks his site is like an online singles bar.

Hear about OkCupid Trends, their blog filled with interesting surveys including:

• How to get a better response to your initial greeting
• How short or long should your profile be

Find out what the most popular dating tests are including:

• The Commonly Confused Words Test
• What Kind of Girl Are You Test

Hear about their iPhone app and what Sam thinks of mobile dating and more on Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show.

Are You Interested? Are you Interested right now? Get ready for more GPS – In real life dating. Over 2.5 million user sessions have occurred with Are You Interested’s iPhone application and meeting someone from the convenience of their cell phone has become more popular and easy to use.

Snap Interactive, just announced their live chat feature for singles wanting to date or hook-up with their new GPS-based chat feature on its popular Are You Interested? iPhone mobile dating application. The chat functionality enables singles to communicate with other singles through their iPhone in real time in their choice of chat rooms, which are broken down by age range and other categories including sexual orientation. Additionally, singles have the ability to identify users that are nearby and initiate private chat conversations with a specific user.

Are You Interested? iPhone Stats:

• More than 2.5 million user sessions
• Users across over 170 countries
• Users average time – 16 minutes per day on the app

The 'Are You Interested?' brand, has over 14 million users. Singles can date on several platforms including  Facebook, AreYouInterested.com, and the Are You Interested? iPhone application.  Are You Interested? was one of the first dating application success stories on Facebook. By introducing their new chat feature with its real time, GPS-based functionality, as well as integrating their mobile dating application with their web properties, they believe they have successfully differentiated this.

If you have tried AreYouInterested? please share your success story on the CyberDatingExpert.com site.

Julie Spira is a dating expert and author of The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online. Visit her at CyberDatingExpert.com