I’ll admit, I’m addicted to Alltop. If you’re unfamiliar with the service, I’ll do my best to get you up to speed.
Let’s start with the basics. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a way for sites to deliver their content to you via a feed reader. If you’re unfamiliar with this, don’t sweat it….I’ll cover it in detail on here soon. What you need to know is that you can set up a feed reader to “catch” all your feeds in one place - eliminating the need to visit multiple sites daily/hourly. I have well over 300 feeds in my feed reader that I use to find new software, news about social media happenings, technology, and a ton of other things. It’s a great source for inspiration or breaking news.
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I’ve made the decision to start featuring interesting people I meet online, and I guess there’s no better day than today. Robert Scoble is a self-proclaimed Tech geek blogger, and he’s probably the biggest celebrity blogger around. I’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about him when you could just read about him elsewhere, read his blog, or follow him on Twitter.
The reason I feel the need to bring Scoble up today is an interesting list he started on Friendfeed. I “borrowed” the title of his list for the title of this post - hope you don’t mind Robert.
Here’s what’s going on. Robert is building a list in the comments section, and other readers are adding their own tips. It’s a great idea, fantastic topic, and the list has become a nice resource…..so I’ve added it to Vivid! for your learning pleasure.
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There’s a lot to be said about knowing what others are saying about YOU. With social media blowing up, more and more people are finding their voice on the internet. Sometimes, knowing what people are saying about you is hard to find, but now there’s a site that can help.
Spy can listen in on the social media conversations you’re interested in. You tell Spy what you’re looking for, and it searches conversations on Twitter, Friendfeed, Flickr, blog comments, Yahoo news, blogs, and Google Reader to find your keywords. I tried a few, and though it takes it a few minutes to get your results, the depth of the results surprised me - in a good way.
If you want to know what people are saying about you, your company, or your brand, give Spy a chance. I wouldn’t be a good social media coach if I didn’t also tell you to try to involve yourself in the conversations you find in the results. This will speak volumes about your company. One great example of this is the invoicing product Freshbooks. Every time I mention them somewhere (and my unhealthy love for the service), they seem to show up and comment. Maybe they’ll even show up here!
I just ran across a post on TechCrunch called How Obama Will Use Web Technology, and it’s a very interesting read. As the title implies, they discuss the plans Obama’s team has for continuing their web presence. Make sure you take a few minutes and check it out.
Obama’s team led a very effective campaign and used social media to help its grassroots effort. The result was one of the most impressive Presidential victories in history. If that doesn’t show you the power of social media, nothing will.
If you’re a fan of Twitter, and really…who isn’t, you might be looking for a Twitter icon to use on your site to get people to follow you. Below are 7 places to find original Twitter icons and graphics that can be used freely.
This is a link to a “Twitter Icon” search on Smashing Magazine. These guys are an amazing resource for icons, and other free web tools.
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Facebook has been really taking off lately, and once you get familiar with it, you’ll see why. I’ve converted a ton of my friends from Myspace to Facebook, and I hear the same thing everytime, “I don’t get it.”
This is Facebook 101. We’re going to break down parts of Facebook, and share them with you in bite-sized pieces so hopefully, you’ll “get it.”
Today’s 101 is finding friends. As far as I’m concerned, this is the key to having an enjoyable experience on Facebook, and one that will make you keep coming back for more. We’re providing a very detailed explanation of how to find your old school buddies, co-workers, long-lost friends, or just your everyday friends.
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I really don’t have to explain what a Facebook staus update is, do I? Didn’t think so. One of my Facebook friends’ status today read, “Dropping the kids off at the pool.” If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you probably know where my mind went, but it made me wonder if there was a place to find funny status updates that people could “borrow,” and it turns out, there is. The status updates in this post are all from a site called The Collection of Funny Facebook Status Updates. What follows are what I consider the 20 best status updates from that site…and they welcome you to use them.
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