Archive - Social Media RSS Feed

Why I Use Twitter – Increase Infosumption without a Headache

By on March 6, 2008 in Conversations, Social Media with 7 Comments

Twitterlogo
Twitter has quickly become on of my favorite tools. It allows me to do several things at once — and any tool that can synchronize my efforts is a winner.

I use Twitter for three reasons (listed n my order of importance):

  1. Keep my finger on the pulse. Lots of valuable information flies across Twitterati in the form of tinyurls as people share new blog posts, results from their own feed reading, and new stories.
  2. Brainstorming and white boarding. Questions asked on Twitter are often the genesis for richer blog posts,  solutions to problems and sometimes value-additives for current business plans. I call them "Twideas"
  3. Chit-chat, eatin’ pizza & gettin’ fat. Sometimes – it’s great just to vent, or listen to a vent, share funny goings on and such.

But who has time for it all?  I don’t. Not in the normal fashion — so with a few tools and tweaks, I’ve been able to synchronize things so I don’t miss too much (Twitter or work).

Incoming Twitter
I use Google Talk IMs to skim, scan, and save. As I’m working on other things, I’ll notice a pop-up (like an email notice). If the message has a URL or question mark (see the first two reasons above), I’ll pay close attention.

Outgoing Twitter
I have a Twitter button on my bookmark toolbar, but sometimes I keep an extra browser window open just for Twitter. When I run across a web page or blog post, or a problem needing some brain power — I go to my Twitter community with a quick 140 character message.

All those TinyURLs
I hate missing them. The web pages shared on Twitter are the number one reason I follow.  I found out how to subscribe to just Twitter entries that share an URL by using Yahoo Pipes, and this has been a real plus for me.

Twign-up. It’s Free!
In the next two or three posts, I’ll explain how to set up Twitter for your Google Talk, and also how to set-up Yahoo Pipes and a feed for your Twitters.

If you’re not on Twitter – you should be. It’s become a traffic-generating, reach-extending, knowledge-sharing bonanza. It’s free. And if you do it right, it will synchronize your communications. You can catch me on Twitter @mikesansone

Related:

For a video on how to use Twitter (more on the social side than business…but use your imagination), check out Common Craft’s Twitter in Plain English

Other Posts Here:
 – Twitter as a Business App?  Create a Plugin Panel
– Twitter Search: Still Missing One Key Component

MyBlogLog Goes Live Streaming with Profile Pages

By on February 29, 2008 in Cool Tools, Social Media with 3 Comments

If you’ve ever wondered where some of your community gets/saves all that info they collect, maybe you can now follow along with MyBlogLog profile pages.

As I was updating my own profile this morning, I noticed a lot of new features, then my Techmeme Twitter follow alerted me to Marshall’s article on Read/Write Web (which covers the update more so than I will here).

Cutting to the quick, I’d recommend updating your profile to grab the services you’re involved with (I chose StumbleUpon, Delicious, LinkedIn, Shelfari, Technorati, Twitter) and MyBlogLog will stream updates onto your profile page.

Better yet, you can subscribe to the feeds of those in your community. Here’s Ben Yoskovitz’ new MyBlogLog profile page (and his feed).

Benbloglog

I’m just starting to poke around this, but I already like it.

Spring Training: All-Stars in the Conversphere

By on February 20, 2008 in Conversations, Social Media with 13 Comments

Baseballs
With blizzard warnings and white-out conditions in Iowa, and ballplayers reporting to Spring Training this week, I thought it might be fun to name a team of all-stars of the conversphere (h/t to Tony Clark for coining that term). This is my A-team (must reads)

Catcher: Robin McMaster & Ellen Weber  – A lefty-right platoon here.  Not bats or throws left righty.  But lefty-righty brains.  These two are always talking about brain-based stuff.

1st Base: Steve Rubel – A master at handling all the incoming news, hacks and tidbits.

2nd Base: Drew McLellan – Versatile. A team-builder and player, always giving his all. A co-creator of both Age of Conversation and Blogger Social.

Shortstop: Scott Ginsberg – Another core up-the-middle blogger, especially now with the NametagTV

3rd Base: Jeremiah Owyang – Handles the hot corner (and topics) with aplomb. Often on the move, connects as well offline as he does online.

Right Field: Leo Babauta – The rookie on my team (list). Informative and balanced reading.

Center Field: David Armano – The anchor on my list.  Used to be my MVT (Most Valuable Twitterer), but has been replaced there by @jowyang

Left Field: Paul Williams – Dig the design and content. When I need an idea, I steal / modify / adapt / whuddevah from this site.

Pitcher: Joanna Young – Delivers from many different sites, including Joyful Jubilant Learning, The Calm Space and BusinessBlogAngel. Also all over the commentesphere.

Bullpen: MarketingProfs Daily Fix. A team of versatile and savvy and witty marketing bloggers. Every bullpen needs this kind of depth in their pen.

Bench: Copyblogger – This used to be a Brian Clark only project, but now a cadre of copywriters and wordsmiths contribute

Manager: The Slackers

Mascot: The Purple Cow man himself.

Money Man: Fred Wilson – Golden touch and a great ear for music.

Traveling Secretary: Bill Geist – If there is ever a CVB for the blogosphere – this guy should run it.

As a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates (yes, they still play ball), maybe I can convince ownership to put these folks on the field.

Photo on Flickr by ian_ransley

Glossary of Blogging and Social Media Terms – M

By on February 6, 2008 in Blogging, Social Media with 1 Comment

This is part of a series of posts (and a project-in-progress),
compiled as a glossary of terms and phrases used in blogging and social
media, that will continually be added to and modified.


Mashup: Most often a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single tool. Not necessarily restricted to online applications ("Hey – you’ve got Peanut Butter on my Chocolate!")

Meme: Keeping things simple, here’s a partial definition from "The Daily Meme": In the context of web logs / ‘blogs / blogging and other kinds of
personal web sites it’s some kind of list of questions that you saw
somewhere else and you decided to answer the questions. Then someone
else sees them and does them and so on and so on.

MicroBlogging: A form of blogging allowing users to compose brief text updates and publish them. These messages can be submitted and received by a variety of means and devices, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, mobile device, MP3 or the web. Think Twitter

Moblogs: A blog published directly to the web from a phone or other mobile device.

Movable Type: Movable Type is a publishing platform a served web publishing platform (it sits on your server) created by SixApart, the same folks who operate Typepad (a hosted web publishing platform — hosted on their server).

MyBlogLog: A Yahoo-owned community and social networking site that tracks traffic and visits to member sites. One of the better community-building applications available. Also read: Faces on a Blog…

If you’ve suggestions, additions or modifications, add ‘em in a comment. Together we’re smarter.

Glossary of Blogging and Social Media Terms – F

By on January 29, 2008 in Social Media with 2 Comments

This is part of a series of posts (and a project-in-progress),
compiled as a glossary of terms and phrases used in blogging and social
media, that will continually be added to and modified.

F
Feed: The RSS or Atom feeds used by news aggregators (aka feed readers). We have a category dedicated to using Feeds.

FeedBlitz: An RSS service that makes it easy for those addicted to email. Read FeedBlitz in a Nutshell for more.

FeedBurner: FeedBurner is a Google company/tool allowing web sites, blogs and podcasts to "burn" content into a simple way for readers to subscribe (incl. email). I don’t just recommend this tool – it’s a must-have.

Feed Reader: An aggregator of content, subscribed to by the user, so that specific content or search results arrives in their "reader". Among the popular (and free) tools are GreatNews, Feed Demon and Google Reader.

Findability: Refers to being locatable. Though tied closely with Information Architecture on the Web, particularly within one site, findability has also become a popular term in creating a findable, locatable and navigable presence on and across the web and social networking. Also see findability.org

Folksonomy: The collective indexing by use of tags, labels or keywords by the consumers of the content. The tagging system of Flickr of Delicious are examples of this social indexing.

If you’ve suggestions, additions or modifications, add ‘em in a comment. Together we’re smarter.

Photo on Flickr by invisiblemadevisible

Glossary of Blogging and Social Media Terms – E

By on January 8, 2008 in Blogging, Social Media with 1 Comment

This is part of a series of posts (and a project-in-progress),
compiled as a glossary of terms and phrases used in blogging and social
media, that will continually be added to and modified.

EEcosystem: A community and their environment functioning as a whole. The blogosphere can be viewed as an ecosystem (See It’s the Conversation Economy, Stupid)

Ecto: A stand-alone publishing application, allowing users to compose posts offline.

Edublog: A blog site focused on education, be it teacher, administrator, consultant or student.

EFF: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world

Entry: An individual post or article published on a blog. Each of these entries, while appearing in an index, are also web pages unto themselves. (See Blog Posts are Inventory)

Event Blog: A blog specifically launched as a companion to an event (e.g. Blogger Social)

Expression Engine: A robust content management system (CMS) with plenty of features. Not a free tool.

Eye Rest: Using "gifts" in your posting to give your readers a rest. Includes images, bold text, bullet points, lists, and hyperlinks.  May go against writing like your teacher taught you – but does she read your blog?

If you’ve suggestions, additions or modifications, add ‘em in a comment. Together we’re smarter.

Photo on Flickr by Eye Captain

Pete Blackshaw: ConverStations will be a 2008 Buzzword

By on December 22, 2007 in Conversations, Marketing, Social Media with 2 Comments

Pete Blackshaw at ConsumerGeneratedMedia offers his thoughts on 2008 Buzzwords…and Converstations makes the list.

 "Converstations": Brands now have multiple entry points for meaningful dialogues or conversations with consumers. These are essentially converstations. Brands fully immersed in CGM or social media may have dozens of conversations, from the consumer affairs interfaces and toll-free numbers to the corporate blog. They all matter, and every brand manager should know his or her converstations.

Granted, Pete probably wasn’t thinking of this site in particular (otherwise he’d have spelled it ConverStations, yeah?), but he’s spot on how smart companies should be entering the new year thinking about all the touch points as potential "conversation stations."

Thanks for the (sorta) Buzz, Pete. Here’s to a great 2008

Glossary of Blogging and Social Media Terms – A

By on December 13, 2007 in Blogging, Social Media with 4 Comments

This is part of a series of posts (and a project-in-progress), compiled as a glossary of terms and phrases used in blogging and social media, that will continually be added to and modified.

Letter_a
Adsense: Google’s pay-per-click, context-relevant program available to blog and web publishers as a way to create revenue.

Adwords: The advertiser program that populates the Adsense program. The advertiser pays Google on a per click basis.

Aggregator: A web-based tool or desktop application that collects syndicated content.

AJAX: An acronym (Asynchronous Java Script and XML) representing a way to create real-time Web applications.

Akismet: Comment spam filter popular with WordPress blogs.

Anonoblog: A blog site authored by a person or persons who don’t publish their name.

API: An acronym (Application Programming Interface) representing a computer system or application allowing for requests to be made of it by other programs and allows for data to be exchanged. Think "programmable web"

Archives: Most often an index page, often organizing posts or entries by either category or date.

AstroTurfing: A fake grass roots push to generate buzz or interest in a product, service, or idea. Often this movement is motivated by a fee or gift to the writer of a post or comment or may be written under a phony pseudonym.

Atom: A popular feed format used for syndicating content.

Avatar: A graphical image or likeness that replaces a photo of the author of the content on a blog.

If you’ve suggestions, additions or modifications, add ‘em in a comment. Together we’re smarter.

Photo on Flickr by doctor paradox

Free Webinar: The Power of Facebook

By on November 26, 2007 in Social Media with 2 Comments

Teresa_2
If you’ve ever wondered about how to tap into the power of Facebook, social media evangelist Teresa Valdez Klein is hosting a free webinar series on Tuesday (11/27) and Wednesday (11/28) at 12:00pm Central.

Teresa is one of the key contributors in the Blog Business Summit series and Web Community Forum.

This event, sponsored by PR Web, will be a great look at how to start up or engage with Facebook groups (including the fast-growing "Petition:Facebook Invading Privacy" group.

Facebook_bug_prweb

UMCVB Fall Conference

By on September 16, 2007 in Blog Coach, Social Media with 1 Comment

Umcvb_2
I’m in Siouxland early this week, speaking at the UMCVB Fall Conference, being held at the Marina Inn.

I’m not the only blogger on the docket:

  • Keynote Steve Siemens just got started – though he doesn’t accept comments yet. Hopefully we can have some dialog about that.
  • Keynote Bill Giest’s Zeitgiest might have just missed the Z-List (shouldn’t "Zeitgeist" be automatic there?), but he’s the foundation of the T-List.

With two breakouts (Monday: Listening; Tuesday: Talking), we’ll put the Upper Midwest CVBers, tourism pros, and event planners in a position to engage an audience already talking about them.

One of the key sponsors, Midwest Meetings, offers three different RSS Feeds — a great place to start the listening (Wisconsin leads the league with 49 results linking to their site).

I still think Savannah’s Creative Coast Initiative is setting the bar in this space and has kept it up for awhile.

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