Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

Posted on September 1, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Raleigh SEO discusses Content Strategy FTW

Last night I attended a SEO meetup in Raleigh, NC led by Phil Buckley (@1918). Some of Phil’s notes were from Kristina Halvorson‘s book and presentations on content strategy. As the session was wrapping up I mentioned how I have live video stream Kristian’s SXSW talk, so I decided to repost it. It’s a great presenation for the experienced or beginner blogger or indiviuals repsonsible for creating a content stratgy for clients. Also for a recap of the SEO meetup read Stacey Alexander‘s (@Stacey_Alex) recap post Creating a Content Strategy for SEO.

Photo by Warren Parsons

Repost:
Content Strategy FTW video & presentation from Kristina Halvorson halvorson presenation at SXSW 2009

During her session I sat on the front row with my Macbook Pro and a usb webcam to live stream her talk. It’s a little shaky but I think well worth a listen if you’re in the content strategy/blogging/writing for the web business. Below is the video and her slides from Content Strategy FTW session at SXSW.

The SXSW Video. FYI it’s via the lap cam.

Also check out Kristian’s book called Content Strategy http://www.contentstrategy.com

Posted on June 14, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Step outside the information bubble and why social media practitioners, content creators and the blogosphere needs sites like LazyFeed and Regator

Depending on when you started blogging or started to dabble in “social media” you may notices a recent shift in the blogosphere. It could be who I follow on Twitter or the feeds that I read in Google Reader but it seems we’re in a main stream blogosphere content cycle for shinny objects that are SEO friendly for page views. The popular tech/gadget/social media blogs are being read by the same PR/Marketing agencies, social media practitioners and main stream media who take their word by law and thousands of less visited but valuable blogs are going unread. Those less read but niche blogs have great content sharing new tools and valuable information screaming read me.

As someone who’s always looking to find new and interesting content this is a problem. What we have created now is an information bubble where everyone is either blogging or reblogging the same stories and most are missing out on tons of great content being published online. But depending on how your RSS feeds look or your research time, finding interesting new/valuable content or niche blogs you’re probably wondering where to start. Enter a few new content startups such as Lazyfeed, Regator (launched in 2007) and My6Sense to help you find blog post outside of your normal reading.

About LazyFeed – http://www.lazyfeed.com

Lazyfeed turns the Web into a stream of everything you love, and lets you enjoy “fishing”.1. You create your own stream by adding topics you love to talk about.
2. You will instantly start getting all the latest updates from around the Web.
3. Pick one, read, and post your thought

About Regator – http://regator.com

Regator.com is a website designed to help you find quality blog posts. It does this by using highly selective human editors to find well-written, topical blogs on more than 500 topics then a combination of semantic algorithms and user interaction to find the most interesting, timely, and noteworthy posts from those blogs. Regator provides you with tools to monitor keywords, find related content, view trends, keep track of favorites, and share with friends.

About My6Sense – http://www.my6sense.com

My6sense connects you with the content that matters, providing you with a sharper and better way to experience your information, on your mobile and desktop.
my6sense presents to you content that is ranked according to your preferences from your various streams. You can view what’s most important to you from all of your streams, within individual streams, and even within specific categories determined by you.

Also don’t forget about technorati.com despite loosing traffic to various social networks and startups like the ones above technorati is still a way to find interesting content.

Why do you need sites like Lazyfeed or Regtaor? Because there’s more content being created than what you may realized and “parts” of the blogosphere is now commercialize where you’ll see only certain post about certain compaines/startups about certain topics creating an information bubble…in my opinion.

Blogger Flickr photo by: cokescroaks

Do you feel as if we’re in an information bubble? Do you use one of the four services above? If so how?

Posted on May 27, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Presentation: Using WordPress to build your brand & telling your start-up story from @WordCampRaleigh #wcraleigh

This past weekend I had the chance to attend and speak at WordCamp Raleigh @WordCampRaleigh. I think this was my fourth or fifth time attending a WordCamp event and my third time speaking at one. I must say by far that WordCamp Raleigh was the best one yet. The event was organized by Steve Mortiboy @wpsmort, Michael Torbet @michaeltorbert and Craig Tuller @craigtuller, along with a great team of volunteers. During the 2 day camp I met some awesome WordPress developers and speakers such as Syed @wpbeginner, Lisa Sabin-Wilson @LisaSabinWIlson, Dave Moyer @DaveMoyer and more. Also I had a chance to catch up with a few friends who I normally don’t see unless we’re at SXSW or BlogWorld such as Patrick O’Keefe @ifroggy, Brandon Eley @Eley, Stephan Segraves @ssegraves and Aaron Brazell @technosailor. It was great seeing everyone!

One of the highlights of WordCamp Raleigh was watching and participating in the SitePoint Podcast hosted by @iFroggy and team. The podcast was live video streamed and you can watch it here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7124319

My topic for WordCamp Raleigh was “Using WordPress to build your brand and telling your start-up story” in which Lawrence Ingraham @LawPower, TriOut founder joined me discussing how we used WordPress and blogged the launch of TriOut. Below is the presentation and you can see the notes on SlideShare.

Here are a few more blog post about WordCamp Raleigh:
WordCamp Raleigh 2010 Pictures – Part 1
WordCamp Raleigh 2010 (Overview)
WordCamp Raleigh 2010

Thanks to WordCamp Raleigh @WordCampRaleigh for having me and planning a great event. See you next year!

Posted on May 7, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

4 new ways to integrate Twitter with your WordPress blog to increase vistor engagement

As many of you know tweeting a blog article or sharing a blog article among social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, friendfeed and GoogleBuzz are a great way to reach new visitors. But what if you want your readers to share a post without leaving your blog or just tweet a blog article and keep reading your other post. If so you may want to try a few of the options below. Here’s 4 new ways to integrate Twitter with your WordPress blog to increase vistor engagement.

1. Like it? Tweet it! plugin

“Like it? Tweet it!” is a jQuery-powered JavaScript widget that enables visitors to your website or blog to write a tweet about the site directly in a box displayed in the corner of the website, with a link to the site already embedded in the input field.

2.BackTweets Plugin: Display the best tweets that link to your posts (ok, not that new)

3. Blackbird Pie: Create a generate static HTML of tweets for your posts

4. Add Twitter Anywhere

Embed a Tweet Box on your site and help your users share what matters to them.

Happy blogging and tweeting!

Posted on May 5, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Google News: 7 recent updates made by Google to make the web a better place for you & me…

Over the past few months a lot of news about how the social web is growing up / changing right before our computer screens has been about social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and the  online video war between HTML 5 vs Flash vs Apple vs Adobe as a video experience for users. Not to be left out in the cold earlier this year Google launched Google Buzz with somewhat of a warm yet controversial welcome due to email privacy and public contacts concerns.  Since then the little search engine giant that could, Google has announced a few updates for their line of products. In case you missed any of the Google news, here’s a list of recent announcements made by Google not in any particular order.

1. Google launches Google Analytics Application Gallery, “Google Analytics releases 38 features…”

It’s only been a year since we launched the Google Analytics Data Export API and developer programs. To celebrate we are highlighting some of the exciting solutions that extend Google Analytics in our new Google Analytics Application Gallery!

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-analytics-releases-38-features.html

2. Google launches “New Place Pages for mobile phones”

Last fall, we launched Place Pages which organize relevant and useful information about places on Google Maps. Since then we’ve been developing a version, available now, which gives you access to the same useful information optimized for your mobile phone.

3. Google updates search page and results for mobile phones “Google’s new look for mobile”

When it comes to mobile search, we strive to not only give you the same comprehensiveness and relevance as when searching with Google on your computer, but also a consistent look, feel, and overall user experience. So today, as we roll out a new look for Google Search results on your computer, we are happy to announce similar changes to Google Search results for mobile.

http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/05/googles-new-look-for-mobile.html

4. Google launches, Google Reader Play: “And now for something completely different”

In Google Reader Play, items are presented one at a time, and each item is big and full-screen. After you’ve read an item, just click the next arrow to move to the next one, or click any item on the filmstrip below to fast-forward. Of course, you can click the title or image of any item to go to the original version. And since so much of the good stuff online is visual, we automatically enlarge images and auto-play videos full-screen.

http://google.com/reader/play

5. Google Wave updates: “Embed sites in waves with the Iframe Gadget”

Right now, there are a handful of Google Wave gadgets designed to help you bring information from other sites into a wave and interact with that content collaboratively. It will be a wonderful day when every website can be wave-ified inside a Google Wave gadget, but until then, I want to share a simple method for embedding arbitrary webpages inside a wave- a new third party extension called the Iframe Gadget. When you insert this gadget, you (and anyone else in the wave) can specify the URL of a webpage, and the gadget will render that site right inside the wave. It works best with webpages that provide an embed code, like Google Maps, and fill all the available screen space.

6. Google launches Google Dashboard, “Happy half-birthday Dashboard! Six months in and 100,000 users a day”

Since we’re celebrating our very first half-birthday, we thought it was the ideal time to update you on how things are going. On average, around 100,000 unique visitors a day check out their Dashboard, 85 percent for the first time. Since launch, we’ve worked to grow Dashboard, adding a number of other Google products including Sites, Maps, Books, Webmaster Tools, Buzz, Goggles, Sidewiki and Analytics. We’re still working on adding other products to the tool and are talking with users about new ways to improve the functionality moving forward.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/happy-half-birthday-dashboard-six.html

7. Google search updates: “A spring metamorphosis — Google’s new look”

We’ve added contextually relevant, left-hand navigation to the page. This new side panel highlights the most relevant search tools and refinements for your query. Over the past three years, we’ve launched Universal Search, the Search Options panel and Google Squared, and it’s those three technologies that power the left-hand panel.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/spring-metamorphosis-googles-new-look.html

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Any other news recent news from Google I miss?

Posted on February 13, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Google sent me a Valentine's Day Card

Just in time for Valentine’s Day Google mailed out some Google Adsense Valentine’s Day cards. Aww sweet.

One of the messages on the card says, “Because nothing says I love you like free traffic like free traffic to your website.” The card also have an offer for $100 free Google Adwords and the other message says, “We want to overload your servers.” Take a look.

Thanks Google, Happy Valentine’s Day to you and the AdWords team too.

Posted on January 4, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

What are your business content goals for 2010?

It’s the first day back to work in 2010 for most of the world and I’m sure you have already seen plenty of blog post already on new year resolutions and more, but this is not one of them. On January 1st I tweeted ”1 of my major goals for 2010 is to produce better content which included blog post, videos & podcast that leads to business & new relationships. Also not included in the tweet is to “engage” more with industry colleagues and potential clients through commenting and offline networking events.

My primary content channels are:
Blog: SocialWayne.com
Twitter: @WayneSutton
Facebook: http://facebook.com/waynesutton
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/waynesutton
iTunes Podcast: SocialWayne [itunes link]
Video Show: WayneSutton.TV

As the web is now social, standing out and separating yourself from the rest of the “pack” will be challenging in 2010 but very doable. It seems like everyone is reading the same blogs and retweeting the same people therefor creating a huge echo chamber. By setting content goals and creating content strategies you can measure your results and start using your content for lead generation sales and networking opportunities.

Have you set your business content goals for 2010 or worked on a content strategy for your company or clients?

Have a successful 2010.

Posted on January 2, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Looking for iPhone news? There are plenty of blogs for that. iPhonesinRTP.com is no more.

Back in June of 2007 I had this grand idea of launching an iPhone blog called iPhonesinRTP.com. The RTP part was for Research Triangle Park, NC. Meaning the blog was going to be about iPhone users and apps from the area, along with general iPhone and iPhone app news. Since the launched of the iPhone I have published over 255 post and have covered various local Apple events such the original iPhone launch in 2007, along with the iPhone 3Gs launch in 2009. Other blog entries included featuring iPhone wallpapers, tips and iPhone app video reviews.

For the readers of iPhonesinRTP.com I want to say thank you for your support but do to other projects, working at Twine Interactive and launching TriOut with @LawPower my time is very limited. Plus there’s tons of iPhone blogs and it seems like everyone is talking about the app store and covering niche apps on most gadget blogs. I’ll still cover iPhone news and apps here on SocialWayne.com from time to time and will redirect the iPhonesinRTP.com url to this post.

If you would like for me to review your iPhone app please email: pitches at socialwayne dot com .

2007 1st Generation iPhone launch at the Apple Store Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, NC

2009 iPhone 3G S launch at the Apple Store Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, NC

Binary Game for the iPhone screencast video review

Posted on November 15, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Blog Updates: Making your WordPress blog more Social

Usually on weekends I’m going through my email and trying to reach inbox zero before Monday morning but last night I decided SocialWayne.com needed a few updates. My primarily goals of updating SocialWayne.com was to make it faster, remove WordPress plugins I didn’t need and add social engagement. While adding a few social engagement features I may not have reached my goal of speeding up the load time but I’m hoping WP Super Cache will handle the rest. Either way, here’s what I done to SocialWayne.com to make it more social.

1. Wibiya toolbar


Wibiya enables blogs to integrate the most exciting services, applications and widgets of their choice into their blog through customized web-based toolbars.

2. Added Follow Me Plugin
A floating tab on the right that says Follow me that links to my Twitter profile.

3. Added/Changed Facebook Share Count Plugin

I had another Facebook Share Count plugin installed but I switched to the one created by Jess Stay

4. Updated: Easy ReTweet WordPress Plugin

I still have Topsy and Tweetmeme plugins installed and actived but I’m not displaying them.

5. Added Facebook Connect Comments

Sadly my blog theme doesn’t support Disqus therefore I’m using BackType and Facebook to for social comments.

6. Added ShareThis Plugin

I was using the Sexy Bookmarks Plugin but I can add google analytics to ShareThis therefore I’m making the switch.

7. Added Find Me On plugin

You know what to do.

8. Added Google Friend Connect Gadgets

If you look to your right on the sidebar you’ll see two new gadgets from Google Friend Connect. One always you to leave a comment about the blog or you could post topics that you would like for me to cover and the other is a poll widget. Speaking of the poll, if you have a moment, login and vote. I’m using the feedback for an upcoming blog post.

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There are a few more things I’ve done to SocialWayne.com and I’ll blog more about the Facebook Share plugins in the next few days. Let me know what you think about the changes and have a great week.