I'm always looking for the newest tools and widgets that make my life easier. I only have one arm so I depend on multi-tasking and speed. I put together a list of tools I've found to help. Yoono - Useful Multi-task Tool - Yoono is an Internet plug-in that creates a sidebar on your browser (but you can decide if you want it visible or not). You can pick from 10 social networks that you update or follow the most. After putting in your settings, Yoono shows all updates on the social networks you chose to view and any RSS feeds you follow. Yoono is great because you don't need all those tabs open and you can update several profiles at the same time. ShareThis - ShareThis is a nifty widget. You can add it to your web browser toolbar, a blog, and it also appears as an option when you right-click. ShareThis allows you to send anything you find on the web (e.g. cool picture, good blog post, interesting article, etc.) almost anywhere (e.g. email, Twitter, Digg, etc.). It's similar to the ReTweet button. StumbleUpon - The web is enormous, so how can you cut your searches down to only what you want? With StumbleUpon, you give sites a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Based on your ratings ... read more >>
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Here’s a perfect way to engage your community by providing them with local breaking news resources using Twitter and Twitter Lists. And it only takes ONE HOUR to build… see the slideshow (best seen in full screen)! If you build a local breaking news Twitter site from this slideshow tutorial, let us know @pkitano and we’ll LIST it!  Link to original post ... read more >>
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 How much attention do you pay to the headline of a blog post or other content you write?
I always think that the headline of a blog post, newspaper article, news release or other piece of written material is the most essential thing to pay attention to when you write that content. A compelling headline or title is usually how you’ll get the attention of people when they’re doing things like I do most days – scroll through a list of headlines of content in my RSS reader. I don’t see photos or other visual attractions, just words upon which I’ll make a rapid almost subconscious decision on whether to give the content the headline leads to any attention, or skip and continue scanning. As an example of making headline creation an art if not a science, look to the Huffington Post and what they do to write compelling headlines as reported by the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard university: From direct mail to web design, A/B testing is considered a gold standard of user research: Show one version to half your audience and another version to the other half; compare results, and adjust accordingly. Some very cool examples include Google’s obsessive testing of subtle design tweaks ...
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 Photo by the TruthAboutThe success of your blog, or any social media effort, depends on your willingness to solicit feedback and take corrective action when necessary. If you want to have a successful blog that supports your organization’s goals and adds value, improvement should be continuous. You need to pick the right hard data points, or metrics, that will help you harvest insights and improve your blog. Analyzing your blog content
First, you need to set overall goals for your blog and understand your audience. Next, you need to know the right metrics to use, and employ the proper tools to collect the data. Most important, you need a strategy—either for yourself or for a team—to gather insights from your metrics. Remember, it isn’t about the numbers alone. Avoid Analytophilia
Alexandra Samuel coined that phrase in a post on social media analytics and metrics about the greatest peril of social media: analytophilia. It's about obsessing on raw numbers and constantly checking the number of Twitter followers or retweets or Facebook insight clicks. She recommends that you don't go into your analytics or stats program without composing a specific question first. ...
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With more and more marketers jumping onto the social media bandwagon, a lot of questions come up. Is it possible to track metrics and ROI? What are other companies doing? Why isn’t it working? Being prepared to answer questions like these can make a difference in how a company interacts with social media and if they can succeed. How can we track social media?
Unfortunately, there is no one “most effective” social media tracking system. Marketers across the web are still working to figure out how to measure social media, how to attach ROI, and how to sell the benefits of participationon the social web to those that don’t “get it”. Social media marketing isn’t like an email campaign where you can track the number of emails sent out, the number that were opened, the number of clicks, visits, leads and conversions all in one process. Much of what happens in the social media world happens behind a login and the old ways of tracking web visitor analytics just doesn’t work in that scenario. Just like any kind of marketing, each company has their own set of objectives and reasons for reaching them via social media channels. That means different methods and ... read more >>
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It should hardly need repeating at this point: When you post stuff to the Internet, people will see it, and quite possibly use it in ways that you don’t intend. And yet, either people keep finding new ways to make the same mistakes, or other people keep finding ways to use that information. Two recent cases in point: * Project ‘Gaydar’: This Boston Globe article looks at some MIT researchers who analyzed Facebook friending patterns and figured out that they could pretty accurately predict which men were gay, even if they didn’t list it in their profile. They did this by looking at the subjects’ Facebook friends; apparently, gay men have more gay male friends than straight men, so by looking at someone’s followers and plugging them into a computer model, they could infer who was gay. (It didn’t work as well with bisexuals and lesbians.) The reason it works is that people with similar interests tend to cluster. Call it birds of a feather flocking together, or guilt by association. Either way, it shows another way that indirect information — in this case, the company you keep — can be used to reveal more information about you than you might have intended, especially when that ... read more >>
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 Surely to be taken seriously in the world of Social Media, I must have my own blog, Twitter, and Facebook account, correct? However, as a staff member of a Social Media based company, I find myself in a constant battle between my professional and personal social networking sites. What is an acceptable post? Where can I express my emotions? Or will I have to resort back to only telling people how I feel when I can actually talk to them in person? Gasp! Here’s how I’ve sorted it out up to this point.
I was a member of the original Facebook era in which only college students were allowed to join. It felt safe, and being surrounded by only members of my alma mater left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. I actually got frustrated with the folks that used privacy options because, come on, we’re all friends here right? When Facebook opened up to the public, however, it became my most guarded social network. My profile, photos, and information are only available to those people that I have accepted as my friends, and when it comes to the number of Facebook friends I have it is no longer about quantity, but about quality. Only people I truly know are allowed to be my Facebook ... read more >>
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 Chris Brogan (one of social media's Godfathers) and Julien Smith, a trend analyst and expert on building communities have released a new book, Trust Agents.
The subtitle pretty much tells you what to expect....using the web to build influence, improve reputation and earn trust. And that's exactly what the book focuses on. Sort of. The book defines 6 characteristics of trust agents: - Make your own game: Breaking with established ways and standing out from the crowd.
- One of us: Being immersed in your community and truly belonging.
- The Archimedes effect: Focusing your unique abilities to enhance your efforts -- finding leverage.
- Agent zero: Using your network/building relationships so that you have access.
- Human artist: Strong relationship builder -- recognizing that by genuinely helping others you can also help yourself.
- Build an army: You can't do it alone. Align with others, collaborate and create an avalanche.
The book is a quick read -- lots of good stories and examples. Both Chris and Julien make their money by being their own version of an online superstar. They use themselves as examples throughout the book and ... read more >>
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One powerful use of online communities is to help get new ideas into a business; taking advantage of the fact that many (if not most) of the best ideas for your business are likely to come from outside, from people who don’t work for you. There are some well know examples of businesses working with consumers on co-creation in this way: MyStarbucksIdea and Dell’s Ideastorm being among the most well known. Most of these sites use a similar process: people can join the community and then suggest their own idea, comment on existing ideas or vote for the ideas that they think are best. The best, most commented on or most voted for ideas are then responded to by the brand. They are an effective way for businesses to get ideas into their business and, more importantly perhaps, of showing customers some of their internal decision making and letting people who buy the product understand more about, and even influence, the processes by which it is made. Like any good online community, such ideas sites work best when they work with other social networks – interacting with people on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, in forums and blogs. Going to where ... read more >>
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