Social Media Squad

Socially Bookmarking Content Using Shareaholic

2008-06-05T23:20:00.000-07:00

Shareaholic makes it easy for you to submit articles, blogs, video, images and many other content types to sharing or bookmarking service, including: digg, del.icio.us, facebook, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader notes, magnolia, mixx, reddit, stumbleupon, tumblr and twitter.

Shareaholic also lets you know how many times the web page you're on has been dugg or saved to del.icio.us.

You can get Shareaholic at http://shareaholic.com/.

Using the Amazon S3 (Simple Storage) Firefox Add-on

2008-06-05T22:57:00.000-07:00

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any user access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites.

To use Amazon S3 you need to first be using the Firefox Web Browser, if you already don't have it you can download the Firefox Web Browser.

Once you have the browser installed you can use right in the browser using the Amazon S3 Firefox Organizer. It gives you access to the Amazon storage in a interface very similar to FTP.

Once installed you will have to add an account for the Amazon S3 service. You will have to add the key and secret key provided to be able to access.

Once added you can then upload and download files freely.

Managing your online reputation

2008-03-31T22:36:00.000-07:00

As you will come to find out, we're a large fan of the google tools. Most people rely on Google Alerts to monitor their online reputation. Google alerts works by sending you an email any time a new relevant result for a certain search is found. People will set it up to be notified for their company name and sometimes even competitor names.

We like to take this a step further and setup a google home page tab for reputation watching. Inside that tab, we'll add various RSS feeds created from searching various search engines for our key terms. Some of the sites that we consider a must add for repuation watching are:

Technorati

Yahoo! Answers

Google News

Yahoo! News

Google Blog Search

Blogpulse

Bloglines

This should give you a good monitoring base for both blogs, news and the randomness of Yahoo questions. It would definately be a good idea to customize this list for your own personal niche market, but this is a good base to start from.

Keyword Sniping

2008-03-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

The folks over at Courts Internet Marketing School have an excellent article up about Keyword Sniping.

What is keyword sniping? It's a method of SEO where you setup up an entire site based on one keyword in hopes of capturing a niche market.

I agree with them in the sense that it's very important to do keyword research. They mention Wordze (paid service) and WordTracker (free service) other options are Google AdWords: Keyword Tool and Submit Express. Google's solution is nice because it shows advertiser competition as well as avg monthly search volume and past month search volume. However, google uses graphs instead of actual numbers like the others. I'd recommend spending the extra time and using both Google's solution as well as WordTracker (or if you're really serious - Wordze).

Targeting something outside of the tech market is another great idea. The majority of "tech" people ignore ads or have ad blocker installed. Try thinking about things your mom, grandpa or child would search for.

The article also provides great insight into how much content to have and how to load it with keywords, domain name consideration, setting up inbound links and also good guidelines for site branding.

Joining Conversations? What ARE conversations?

2008-03-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

The web has gone through a large transformation in the past few years. Before the whole "Web 2.0" explosion the web consisted of a lot of static pages. People presented their information and that was it... Read it and move on (but please click the animated gif ad first). Lately (last few years) sites are becoming a lot more focused on interaction and community.

Besides the obvious giants - MySpace and FaceBook - there are tons of other socially based sites. Flickr, Dopplr, Digg, Reddit, YouTube, Classmates.com, Fotolog, Friendster, Linkedin and Plaxo to name just a few. All these sites are based around communities. Sharing photos, suggesting new articles, keeping in touch with highschool classmates and sharing addresses are all examples of the basic ideas behind these sites.

These are all examples of one for of conversation to join. Registering for any of these sites (that are relevant) is an early step in the marketing campaign - but a step we'll talk about in a later post. Other examples of conversations going on on the web would be Yahoo Answers where people post a question and then members of the interweb try to answer... users rank others answers and the best answer is chosen.

Of course another form of conversation is blogs. Blogs allow readers to comment on the authors posts. The good blogs (in my opion) have th author respond to those comments... this allows readers to ask questions, point out errors and then the author can reply... and there's your conversation.

One of the largest forms of conversations has actually been around since, I guess you'd call it, web 1.0. This would be forums. There are forums out there for almost everything. Forums work a lot like blogs where someone posts a topic and then anyone is welcome to join in on the conversation. Forums can be a great place to join in on conversations and get your name out there.

Now that we have some examples of conversations, in my next posts I'll start explaining how to utilize them to your benefit.

Social Graph - Extending Your Presence Out On the Internet.

2008-03-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

One of our goals when implementing a social marketing campaign is "Joining the Conversation". It's not our goal to increase page rank or sell throughs on pay per clicks. Our goal is to drive traaffic to the site because people are interested in our clients content. One of the best ways to do this is to slowly build a reputation in the clients industry.

Lets say our client is a supplier of specialty products for Salt Water Fish tanks. This is a pretty specialized market that deals with a lot of educated customers. Chances are good that we aren't going to have a Campaign Manager that is a specialst in this area so we will dedicate the first 40-80 hours of the project to just educating ourselves - nothing more.

The first step in a campaign should ALWAYS be educating. Many places make the mistake of jumping right into the conversations and talking about thing that they are not educated about. It is very important to actually have a base of knowledge to pull from. Of course 40-80 hours is not nearly enough time to become experts on any subject, over the next few posts, i'm going to take you through a sample campaign using the Google platform to help create the illusion that you are knowledgable about your client, that you want to join in on conversations and are not just their to market yourself (even though that is the main reason).

DNS Joy and Stabilitiy

2007-06-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

I was so excited in the 2002 when I finally grasped all the concepts of DNS. Well at least the concepts that apply to my world. I'll never get it all. And I truly understand what a big world network addressing is.

Recently I am moving all my DNS up to the Registrar level. Most of the registrars I use offer a DNS management panel for me to handle most of my DNS needs.

So I am using this, I am decommissioning R2D2 who has been a loyal DNS server for several years.

Thank you R2D2 for your loyal server in addressing and routing all my clients.

Thanks especially to GoDaddy for their wonderful DNS interface which allows me so much control for 80% of my domains.

Operating as an Email Business

2007-06-23T22:02:00.001-07:00

I just cannot compete anymore. I work about 2 hours a day transferring all my email customers to use the FREE base offerings of Google Apps.

The Google Apps offers email, events, spreadhseets, and more as their Google Apps offerings.

I really only care about their email implementation, everything else can be obtained through their base applications and then some.

However I am sooooo tired of email, I do not like hosting peoples emails. Their web sites can crash and throw errors or look like crap and they do not care, their email goes down and I am getting more calls on my cell phone than I know how to handle.

Most of the time it isn't even the email server it is upstream somehwere.

Regardless of the blame, keeping up with SPAM, FCC requirements, DNS configurations, Server Configurations, etc. is exhausting. It is a full time job.

So thank you Google and Gmail for all your hard work. I honestly appreciate it and it allows me to do what I do best.

Enjoy the Google Apps Platform.

RESTful Web Services

2007-05-29T22:29:00.000-07:00

O'Reilly Media -- Bookstore: RESTful Web Services: "RESTful Web Services

You've built web sites that can be used by humans. But can you also build web sites that are usable by machines? That's where the future lies, and that's what this book shows you how to do. Today's web service technologies have lost sight of the simplicity that made the Web successful. This book explains how to put the 'Web' back into web services with REST, the architectural style that drives the Web."

This is a book I am adding to my list of reads....

Signing up for Tailrank

2007-05-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

Used Tailrank several times before, but really haven't gotten into it. Great service, in their own words they:

Find the hottest stories by tracking conversations between blogs. Tailrank takes into consideration linking behavior, the text of the post, links in common with other users, text relevance, weblog ranking, past performance, and various other factors for recommendations.

Interesting to see the 10,000 foot view of blog trails and what is going on around a topic.

I encourage you to check it out. www.tailrank.com

Wiki - AboutUs

2007-05-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

Wiki - AboutUs

I was conducting some link placement research on my series of Social Media Squad web sites and I notice that I was getting traffic from AboutUs Wiki on the Wiki Squad web site.

So I looked into it further. It is a great Wiki Platform for nothing more than information About anything.

I guess it is kind of like About.com, just Web 2.0 and in Wiki Format!

Anyways, great resources for showcasing your company it comes up favorably in search engines.

I recommend showcasing your work here.

Importance of an About Us Page

2007-05-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

I am cruising around various Web 2.0 web sites conducting research on platforms for Social Media Marketing efforts and one common theme comes up with groups, and I think this is probably commonplace with hard-core geeks.

They don't have an About Us page?

So what you say, what we are doing is self explanatory. We are a video sharing service, or photo sharing service. Everyone knows about this.

Well this may be true for the 5% of internet users who are Web 2.0 savvy, but not for the rest of the crowd.

This is a basic marketing principle:

Who are we?
What am I selling?
How to buy or get a hold of us?

Those 3 element should be right on the front of your web site, and not buried.

You losing a lot of potential coverage if you don't give someone like me an easy way to grab a paragraph about you and take that text and build on it, post it somewhere else, and link to your site.

There are plenty of services who make a business out of doing this, for example the About Us Wiki.

So make sure and give all the people out there wanting to learn about your product or services and easy way to find out.

Google Universal Search - Google Platform - Shifting Gears Part Three

2007-05-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

I am going to spin through each Google application that I use and talk a little about how I use it. As I've stated before I think a key part of your presence in the Google search engine is an active presence on the Google Platform.

Give some value to Google, I am sure they will return the favor.

Gmail. Boy I remember when Gmail first came out and I found an open invitation for an account on a blog I was reading. I begged the guy and convinced him to give me one. I had it the lucky ticket!!!

Then I was that excited in using it, I was hopelessly hooked on outlook.

However in the last 2 years I have really grown fond of it and how it threads messages, and the SPAM filters are great.

Now that I can POP in, tag and I have huge storage I really love the application and use it heavily. It is essential to have quick web-based acess to email to be successful in my online social media marketing strategy.

Just to show you how fond I am of it, I am starting to implement Google Apps for Your Domain a s the base platform for all my hosting and email customers at Original Web Solutions. I am getting out of the email hosting business as soon as I can.

I will go into more detail about how to use Gmail as part of the campaign later.

Google Universal Search - Google Platform - Shifting Gears Part Two

2007-05-22T23:01:00.000-07:00

Since I am focusing on Google during this study, what better place to start and manage my campaign then using the Google Platform. I am already a heavy Google Homepage user on a daily basis.

I subscribe to most of their tools and religously use Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Notebook. So why not extend this and evolve my Google Universal Online Marketing Strategy using the Google Platform.

I am currently writing several books, executing online marketing campaigns, and running the day to day operations of my company Original Web Solutions using the Google Apps Platform.

So I encourage you to start here as well. If you don't have a Google Account go get one then signup for:

Make sure and use Firefox and get all the Google Add-Ons for the applications we just talked about.

Now your ready to get going on your road to quality placement in the Google Universal Search.

Google Universal Search - Shifting Gears Part One

2007-05-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

Be reading all talk about Google's new strategy around their Universal Search. They have done a very fine job rolling this out as I can tell. I have seen their listing results really clean and offering more focused, precise results.

I have had a few clients lose placement momentarily or all together for certain search terms. It is pretty scary stuff if you are dependent on Google for a large portion of your traffic.

I am going to take some time each day and apply existing grass roots online and social media marketing strategies to Google's Universal Search and see if we can't flush out some new ideas for staying relevant in this new Universal Search World.

This is the first part in an ongoing series, I will traverse the vertical ladder of Google Universal Search and see what it can do for the Web 2.0 Squad, and maybe it will help you to with your Social Media Marketing Strategies.

Features of Web 2.0 - Where the rubber meets the road!

2007-05-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

I have been obsessing about how to continue cutting through the large amount of Web 2.0 applications out there. I am overwhelmed with the number of platforms, case studies, and information about Web 2.0.

So currently I am just focusing on the features available on each platform. I am adding a list of features for each platform available on the Squad Sites.

Once I build a comprehensive list of platforms and their features we'll see what kind of tools or reports I can pull on what is out there.

Social Programming

2007-05-18T00:57:00.001-07:00

I bought the domain www.socialprogramming.net a long time ago when I was having an inspiration about ways to work together to achieve a project goals.

I did a full page write-up about it and bought a domain. That was it.

I never consider a project or thought closed, they always come up again.

Today I had new inspiration for the topic of Social Programming and started a blog here to organize some of these thoughts.

We'll see where it goes.

There is a new version of Google Analytics in town!

2007-05-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

New Version of Google Analytics!

Today at the Emetrics Summit in San Francisco, Google unveiled the new version of Google Analytics. They will be activating this new version on all current Analytics accounts over the next few weeks.

They have redesigned the reporting interface for greater customization and collaboration, which will make it easier for businesses and website owners to find and share the data. The new version presents data more clearly and in context, so you can look at a single report to gain insights rather than having to pull up several reports to understand what action to take.

Here are a few more of the features in the pipe:

Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format.
Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can email to others.
Trend and Over-time Graph: Compare time periods and select date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.
Contextual help tips: Context sensitive Help and Conversion University tips are available from every report.

They say in their blog they're doing this because they been listening to users and feature enhancements / requests.

It is good to know they are listening and improving their existing product line and not just launching new applications.

» Enterprise 2.0 as a corporate culture catalyst | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com

2007-05-07T22:54:00.000-07:00

I was just reading Dion Hinchliffes Enterprise 2.0 as a corporate culture catalyst.

I was pondering the many directions corporate culture can go. One of the things I really dislike is the hiring / interview process. It is really tough from both sides of the coin.

I look forward to the day when my interests and skills proceed me and they are just part of my online profile. I can scour the web for companies and groups with needs that match my skill sets. I can accomplish small tasks and full projects without question to my abilities.

Once I am done with a project or a task I can go on my way to the next item, and I am compensated for my time accordingly and the work automatically becomes part of my profile / work history.

No more job hunting, interviewing or dead-end job situation.

Someday.....Publish

Playing with my Google Co-op Search Engine

2007-04-12T23:01:00.000-07:00

So I was playing with my Google Co-op search engines tonight. I try to keep up to date on all my google services so I don't lose track of what is going on. Plus my google reader uses a Greasemonkey script for the search tool that ties into my Kin Lane Google Co-Op Search Engine.

Anyways, I was just updating my OPML file and I came across Google Marker. This is new to me.

Here is the text from the page:

The Google Marker allows you to add and label sites in your Custom Search Engine or in a Google topic. Please note that you must already have created or signed up to collaborate on a Custom Search Engine to use the Google Marker with a Custom Search Engine. You must already have signed up to contribute to a Google topic to use the Google Marker with a Google topic.

Once you are ready, simply add the Google Marker to your browser toolbar.

More good stuff from Google. Enjoying figuring out more ways I can use their services.

IT Living Operations Plan

2007-04-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

Reading one of Dion Hinchcliffe's latest posts on Enterprise 2.0 -More results on use of Web 2.0 in business emerge.

First of all I am still digesting all the information and links...whew.

Next a thought occurs to me about IT Directors and Managers being worried about company operations outside the firewall.

Seem some sort of Living IT Operations plan can be setup with each person in the company taking an active part outline how they "roll". Utilizing a Wiki of some sort you could have everyone start with one page and outline the tools they use to get their job done on a daily basis.

Then go through and fluff every area up with overview of how they utilize the tools. Document processes, screen shots, etc. Whatever the user can handle.

Then other users can have access to this information to either try out the tools their coworkers use or find complimentary applications that will work as well.

Maybe have each user keep a spreadsheet of accounts they have and access....and in a secure place allowing directors and managers to get access upon leaving?

Just some random thoughts Web 2.0 operational strategies...

Word Documents while search Google end up in my Google docs and spreadsheets

2007-04-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

Interesting way Google handles search results for Microsoft Word documents now. I went search for "Eugene Web Design" as I often do because we monitor this as part of our online marketing strategies.

When doing my search I notice halfway down the listings a new item for "Web Design Internship for Sustainable Eugene Site".

So I am curious and I click on it...looks as if it is an RFP or something. Right as I am clicking I notice it is a Microsoft Word Document. As I am clicking I notice my browser doing something strange:

Sure enough my browser quickly gives me the option to "choose another application", but it is routing the opening of this word document in my Google Docs and Spreadsheet.

Interesting approach to building interest from users in using Google Docs and Spreadsheets. All they are doing is searching for something and if they have a google account it dumps that document in their docs area. Interesting way as a document owner to possible gain some retention of your content since this document is still in my docs and spreadsheet area even though I didn't choose to have it here. I have to delete it now.

Complete Suite of Features you Never Use

2007-04-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

I was just reading a couple of different blogs / articles about the big applications we use everyday such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Adobe Photoshop, and how most of use only use 5% of the features available in the applications, yet we still pay for the entire thing.

With the growth of online applications when are we going to see smart scalability of features and value to me the user.

I would like to see simple, integrated applications that have a solid foundation.

As features grow and evolve I would like to see a "pay as I use" model for web application features. Meaning, that is great that it has the bell or whistle but you know I should not have to be paying for an unnecessary feature that I will never use. Give me a handful of "trials" on the feature to see if it is something I will adopt..give me the option to add it to my application for a minimal fee ($1)..or if it is not useful to me I shouldn't have to see it.

So c'mon web 2.0 application developers, lets see some pay per use application features and keep things simple.

Switching to Google Apps for Domains

2007-04-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

So I did it....I setup our company domain originalwebsolutions.com to use Google Apps for your Domain which basically utilizes the Gmail application for my own email infrastructure.

I am not really excited about everything else it offers, I am just looking for the email infrastructure primarily.

It was really easy to setup....just a few steps and I was up and going.

My really 2 complaints after 2 days of being on the platform is:

1) The cost: I thought it was $50 / year per domain. However it is $50 per user / per year. So my company I need 3 users @ $150.00 / year.

2) The home page environment. They give you the google home page environment for your domain, except NOT! It is very limited and only gives you a few gadgets? What the hell?

Beyond that I really saw no value beyond the email application for my domain. Everything else I have setup through my @gmail.com account which I've had for years and enjoying my well groomed desktop environment.

So at this point I am still using myself as a guinea pig for setting up the Google Apps for your Domain. We'll see where I end up when recommending if for clients.

Official Google Data APIs Blog: GData for Picasa Web Albums

2007-03-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Just cruising through the Google API directory and seeing whats new and discover new ways to utilize google and I came across,
Official Google Data APIs Blog: GData for Picasa Web Albums.

I have a picasa album, but haven't really adopted it fully. This is interesting because now you can store images using the Google GData API.

Another interesting addition to the Google GDATA API arsenal. Pretty soon you will be able to store any data you need to store using GDATA.

Innovative Uses of Instant Messaging

2007-03-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

I think instant messaging is a very under utilized platform for marketing and PR campaigns. It is nice to see when people get creative and use it for more than just talking with friends.

Microsoft just launched I'm Making a Difference campaign where you can sign up to participate and Microsoft will give a portion of the ad revenue generate when you are instant messaging to charity

Of course this is just promotion for their own IM platform and this is probably money they would have donated to charities to take advantage of tax write-offs, but it still is innovative.

I think there are many ways you as a company can take advantage of Instant Messaging (IM). If nothing else it is a great communication tool, but I bet there are some ways you could market your company as well.

Digg Owns the Voting Process

2007-02-20T23:16:00.000-08:00

I really "digg" each time a new social site that comes on the scene with a voting option it gets compared or referenced to Digg.

Those digg followers sure are passionate!

OpenID Adoption, the Buzz and Beyond the Geek World

2007-02-20T22:58:00.000-08:00

Was just recently reading the post on O'Reilly Radar about Digg announcing they will adopt / support OpenID.

This is in the wake of other big boys Yahoo, MSN and AOL doing the same.

I am excited about the buzz and adoption OpenID is experiencing, however I have to wonder:

How long until it starts getting usage by the mainstream public and moves beyond the "geek" crowd.

Opening up Data while Preserving Personal Data Security

2007-02-20T22:50:00.000-08:00

How are we ever going to build up confidence in local, state, and federal government as well as corporation to continue releasing data via API's in the Web 2.0 spirit if we can't keep personal data separate and build some confidence?

I read about some personal data theft or accidental leak on the web weekly now and it is really eroding away at the publics confidence in putting ANY data on the web.

One of the elements of Web 2.0 I look forward to is the continued opening up of API and evolution of SOA.

We need to find some real strict ways to keep personal data and viable public data separate and start building some trust.

Giving it All in your Blog Feed

2007-02-20T22:42:00.000-08:00

I have Red Herring in my RSS Reader. I scan their posts everyday as I have for the last year. You know I can't remember the last time I actually clicked into one of their posts.

Wonder if they realize how much the devalue their news by not providing at least a portion of the article to try and get me stimulated enough to click in.

Oh well....I will keep giving it all and let them bore me with only their titles.

C'mon Red Herring!

Web 2.0 Squad is Up and Running

2007-02-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

Here it is 2/19/2007 and I just finished launching the first phase of the Web 2.0 Squad. I worked to get each of the individual squad web sites up:

I wanted to get each individual squad up before I started on the parent Web 2.0 Squad site. They are all up with each system to feed off the central Blogs for each squad as well as get it's news from hand selected RSS Blog and News feeds that I go through each day.

Now I can get back to continued work on our implementation strategy:

Future Blog Outline Strategy
RSS Reader Blog and News Cultivation
Case Study Development
Squad Member Recruitment
Press Releases
Platform Research
Squad Wiki Deployments

This is good stuff. Really enjoying structuring this and getting a real pulse of the Web 2.0 sphere and all the players.

Keep you posted.

Build platforms, not channels - Enterprise 2.0

2007-02-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

I was just reading Andrew McAfee's blog entry FastForwarding to a Better Understanding, which is a great move towards the continued defining of the Enterprise 2.0 space.

One line from his entry that really struck me was:

"So my definition instead emphasizes another 'rule for success:' the use of technology platforms that are initially freeform (meaning that they don't specify up front roles, identities, workflows, or interdependencies) and eventually emergent (meaning that they come over time to contain patterns and structure that can be exploited by their members). "

I think this is huge. I think there is a very difficult line to walk when releasing an application that is Web 2.0 or Enterprise 2.0, and working hard provide a tool that is well defined and easy to understand or providing an extremely powerful tool.

2 excellent examples the big boyz are providing are:

Google Notebook - This is as generic as can be, but it has the elements Andrew is talking about. Free form and not clearly defined interdependencies. It has a simple Web 2.0 interface for managing as well as an API, Widget, etc.

Yahoo Pipes - This is another very generic yet powerful tool, the sky is the limit. Users can define the tool for what it is.

Great work at continuing to define the Enterprise 2.0 space Andrew.