Archive - RSS Feeds RSS Feed

A Starter Kit for Your RSS Reading

I share many sites with people I work with to get them started on their RSS feed reading habits. While there are differences depending on the discipline, really each of the sites below would make a great starter kit to a profitable feed reading habit:

No Question About It (If these aren't in your reader, we're doing pushups!)

SCAMPER-ability (Take what these feeds offer as a model it to fit you)

Learn From These Minds & Hearts (These folks simultaneously learn and teach with every post)

Building Communities and Networks

Is there Passion in Your Voice?

Hoping and Praying

A real Up-Comer: One to Watch

Remember, this is simply a starter kit. There's plenty more great voices to subscribe to and I'm confident you'll find them.

Do you have a "must-read" we should add to this list?

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Twitter Reading: Skim, Scan, And Save … then Share

About a year ago, I offered up a Feed Reading Strategy: Skim, Scan and Save. After a year, it’s time to start sharing, because sharing information has become a habitude for the 21st century literacy. It’s a combination of communication and collaboration. But who has time?  We do if done smartly.

Here’s how I do the 4 S’ on Twitter (though I can do the same with Google Reader too).

Skim – I glide by when I first open Twitter like I’m on a thin sheet of ice. As I’m gliding, I’m looking for the influentials (e.g. @AlexKaris, @JasonFalls, @Jowyang, @AmberCadabra @MackCollier, et al) and keywords that I’m used to looking for.

Scan – When I find someone or something I’m skimming for, I’ll scan (a quick read) the individual “tweets” or postings. If there is a URL within the tweet, I won’t click on it right away. Instead, I’ll save that tweet.

StarTwitter
 

Save - If I think I’ll find value (and more so, if I think you will find
value), I’ll star the tweet which places it in my Favorites section

TwitterFaves
 

Share – Each day (usually at the end of the day), I’ll go through those I saved
and either tweet them or schedule them for later using HootSuite.

RTweet
 

A couple of quick thoughts (I’ve tweeted these previously):

  1. I prefer ReTweeting (that’s the RT part) a bit after the original. There’s lots of cross-over community on Twitter (birds of a feather and all…), so everyone benefits if the RT is well after the original.
  2. A great tweet bears a repeat (I shoulda Twittered that), so share great stuff with your tweeps.
  3. Why so serious?

Blank

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Social Media Lunch n Learn: Feb 24th in Urbandale

I'll be conducting a Social Media Lunch n' Learn at Connxions in Urbandale just off Douglas and I-80/235 (map) on Tuesday, February 24th from 11:50 – 1:00

Connxions has a great coffee bar and deli (Cristoni's) for your tummy, and I promise the learning will be just as yummy.  Here's the lineup of what we'll talk about:

  • Why blogging is the foundation of social media
  • How (and why) you should tap into the power of Twitter
  • Putting the multi in multimedia
  • The REAL deal with RSS and why you should be fired if you're not onto it

Hope to see you there.

PS:Cost?  I'm thinking $20 per.  But we'll do that after the event.  If you think it's worth more (and you will), I'll leave it to your conscience.  If you don't learn anything, I'll sign you up for Doug's class next go-round (a great class BTW).

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Whistle Stops – 2008 ConverStations Revisited

Cleaning Up, Trimming Down, and Trying to Keep Found Things Found

I’m investing some time over the next few days to clean up and organize my bookmarks.  Here’s how in case you want to follow along (some goodies surely to arrive in certain feeds)

  • Clean It: Get rid of all my browser bookmarks (both FireFox and IE). Trash the ones I don’t want. I’ll use social bookmarking for the ones I do want.
  • Organize it: Social Bookmarking – Four types of bookmarks for me. Some will crossover and be placed on more than one site. I have bookmarklets for each of the tools below, so it will be one-click to save appropriately.
    • Delicious: Tools and Resources
    • Stumble Upon: Social Media, including Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, Articles
    • Magnolia: Business, including Marketing; PR; Non-Profs; Associations; Writing
    • Diigo: Education
  • Tweet It: I’ll be using Twitter and scheduling Tweets as I go, so if you see lots of oldies but goodies – that’s why.
  • Re-Find It: To re-find each item, I’ll continue to use FriendFeed
    as my all-encompassing online stream (as you should too). Everything I
    save or publish gets organized there and I can quickly find anything
    I’ve saved.

Let’s see what’s in my bookmarks shall we? If you don’t follow me on any of the sites above, you should (especially FriendFeed). And if you don’t subscribe to RSS feeds yet (you should be fired!), 2009 is a great time to get in the 21st century.

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Slide: Search Once and Subscribe

What If … 15 times 3 = $2,000?

15 minutes.

3 weeks.

Worth $2,000 or more?

If very business or school would employ (implore?) a 15-minute period for everyone on their team to read select RSS feeds (start at Alltop.com!) for a three week period, I’ll bet I know what happens…

  1. Those on the team who really give it a go… they will become hooked in three weeks
  2. They will also want to have their say, and soon they will be blogging or twittering or something to connect and converse
  3. They will also become smarter. At least to the tune of that $2,000 in professional development that gets yawned away way too often.

Try it! Go to Alltop.com and pick a category that fits. Show the Google Reader in Plain English video.

You’ll thank me in 3 weeks.

You’ll shower me with gifts by the end of the year.

ConverStations Workshops on WiZiQ: First One on the House

I haven’t been able to get enough simulator time in the WiZiQ cockpit this week to prepare for the workshops I mentioned last week. Therefore – if you’re brave enough to ride along, the first sessions are free – but you have to email me (mike@converstations.com) to get access.

You have two chances to take part in this FREE test:
– Thursday, October 2 @ 7:00 CT  or
– Tuesday, October 7 @ 2:30 CT

A limit of 20 per session during this test.  We’ll be talking about Google Reader for the first 45 minutes, then open questions.

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Mini Saga of a Blogger: Get More RSS Subscribers

He wanted more people to subscribe to his blog’s RSS feed. Not via email (though he couldn’t control that), but in a RSS aggregator. By putting a box above individual posts with a call to subscribe, he hoped subscriptions would rise. He hoped he would be helping his busy readers.

Pieceofnews

 


Note:

1. A mini saga is a story told in exactly 50 words. Not 49 or 51 but exactly 50.

2. For a more complete list of Mini Sagas, please visit Raj Setty’s Squidoo lens "Mini Sagas"

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Lunch n Learn with WiZiQ

On the night of October 2nd (and repeated during the day October 7th) I will launch online ConverStation Workshops using WiZiQ. More information coming soon on those times and dates. For now, here are two videos on how WiZiQ works:



The events will be available for anyone to attend for only $30 per person. Our first session will be on using Google Reader as your RSS reader to gain and share information in less time and keep found things found.

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