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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If you are a small business owner that has mixed feelings about the wonderful world of online marketing and even more hesitation about entering the social media realm, you’re definitely not alone. But being the business-savvy entrepreneur that you are, you probably know that this is the wave of the future and businesses that lack some form of online presence will be left in the dust. Consider putting a blog on your site; it’s easier than you might think. The top three reasons that small business owners avoid developing their online marketing plans and stay away from social media is lack of capital, lack of time, and lack of skills. This is where a blog will fit your needs perfectly—it is relatively cheap to incorporate into your site, requires very little time, and you do not need any special technical skills or writing expertise to use it. View this guide for tips on getting started with a blog and for best practices on maintaining it. What is most important to having a successful blog is to understand that it is like hosting a networking event on your site, around the clock. People can read what you’ve written, which should be entertaining and informative. They can also ... 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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This August marks 10 years since I started my freshman year of college, and while it doesn’t seem as though I should be that far removed from today’s college freshmen, consider this list: - I did not own a cell phone and would not get one for two years.
- I did not have a laptop, nor did many of my classmates. My new desktop cost around $1,100.
- The most cutting-edge portable music player of the day involved CDs.
- Digital cameras were an expensive novelty that few of my classmates owned.
- Text messaging was not widely available on all mobile phones.
- “Google” was not a regular part of our vocabulary.
- Facebook would not even be dreamed up until well after I had graduated.
Today’s students are arriving at college with all manner of gadgetry and Web savvy. Most have had Facebook profile for a few years, are all but addicted to text messaging, regularly snap and share digital photos of their friends (often on their phones) and can’t think of a question that Google hasn’t been able to answer.  For students studying PR and communication, the key foundations of the curriculum haven’t changed (communicating an organization’s story in an engaging way) but the tactics are vastly ... read more >>
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 Technorati top 100 Blog PlatformsBlogs make it easy for website publishers to create content. Most blogging software makes it ridiculously simple to add links and images without the content creator possessing considerable knowledge of HTML. Some blogging platforms are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors, but without the miscellaneous extraneous code. In other words, blogging software makes content updates really easy.
Additional benefits of blogs include the integration of RSS without the overhead of setting up syndication channels yourself. The biggest benefit, though, is probably the built-in software that contacts a variety of servers (specified by you, often provided by the blog software) and informs them that content has been updated. This action, called pinging, occurs when a new update is pushed out by publishers. When blogs ping servers, the servers get a notification that your blog has published new content – and almost immediately, search engines may begin to crawl (or “spider”) your blog in an effort to index the content. (In fact, even content on small blogs has been known to get spidered within an hour of publication.) Furthermore, once a blog post is ... read more >>
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The best way to stand out is by being yourself. Don’t waste time trying to copy someone else. We all have different personalities, experiences, thoughts, and ideas that are unique specifically to us; so why try to be anything or anyone else? Don’t spend your time thinking about someone elses blog design, their tone in videos, the topic of their blog post, or the content they share. Sure it’s great to have other things and people influence you, but at the end of the day there is only one YOU, make the most of it! People will like you and appreciate you for who you are, not for who you pretend to be.   Link to original post ... read more >>
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The first step in putting together an effective social media strategy is to understand the dynamics of the landscape. With social media, it is more important than ever to listen to what is being said before participating. What are people saying, how is it being said and where are they saying it?  Using a comprehensive monitoring strategy, it will help you define your online corporate brand identity and help ensure you are engaging with these new platforms effectively. Monitor the social media platforms for discussions on both your company and the competition to determine the value of the platform and the discussion as well as to help understand what is impacting your brand. Look for the platforms that your customers, prospects and the industry influencers are using. If you find your brand or industry discussions are focused on one or two platforms, you can concentrate your efforts. Monitoring will not just help you understand which platforms are the most important for your brand, but also the style and tone of the discussions. All social media platforms are different. While some lend themselves to a more formal tone, such as Linkedin, others are about more informal conversation and .. ... read more >>
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Even on just a first glance, Twitter 101 A Special Guide is an online resource I’d recommend to anyone thinking of using Twitter to support their business goals. In fact, for anyone already using Twitter in business, it’s worth reading. You’ll learn things. Here you’ll find a well-written and realistically-focused collection of web pages that will help you understand why Twitter isn’t simply another traditional marketing channel. […] Twitter isn’t just about useful immediacy. The conversational nature of the medium lets you build relationships with customers, partners and other people important to your business. Beyond transactions, Twitter gives your constituents direct access to employees and a way to contribute to your company; as marketers say, it shrinks the emotional distance between your company and your customers. Plus, the platform lends itself to integration with your existing communication channels and strategies. In combination, those factors can make Twitter a critical piece of your company’s bigger digital footprint. Notable are the best practices guidelines to help you make the most out of Twitter for business. There’s also case studies where you ... read more >>
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You can really do a lot of link building in an hour if you are focused and have a plan. Here you will find that link building workout plan. All you need is just a dash of focus for one hour and you’ll come out of the session with more links with a more solid relationship with your current followers to boot. Low Hanging Links This is your 20 minute warm up. It will get your fingers ready to roll and put you in the “zone” for the rest of the hour. It is best to stretch before every workout, so crack those knuckles, down an energy drink, saddle up and let’s get going! Blog Comments: These are special simply for their traffic. Direct clicks. You need to visit your favorite blogs for the next 15 minutes and do some meaningful, engaging commenting. The more funny, thoughtful, and pithy (to the point) the better. There’s no telling what any blog’s comment links are really worth to the engines unless you slow down to check, so get that out of your head. These links are made for clickin’! Twitter: Make a couple really helpful Tweets for your followers. From some of the stuff you discovered at the blogs above, you . ... read more >>
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