It’s that time of the year again, the emails have been send and the list has been made! February is black history month and for the past two years I’ve posted a series called 28 Days of Diversity.

The History

As someone in the technology/web/social space, I often travel and attend various events in the industry and notice a huge lack of diversity, and when it comes to getting attention from mainstream media/tech blogs it’s almost impossible(in 2010). That’s why I started 28 Days of Diversity on SocialWayne.com in 2010.

The goal of 28 Days of Diversity is to feature someone new everyday for the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. The list will include some leaders in the social web space, startups, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends NOT ranked in any particular order. Each post will include a picture, bio, social media profiles provided from the selected individual and this paragraph. It’s my simple way of giving back.

via About 28days of diversity

Since 2012 is a leap year that means it’s 29 Days of Diversity. Like the previous years I’ll cross post the profiles here on SocialWayne.com, the 28daysofdiversity.com, weekly recaps on BlackWeb20.com and this year on google+ along with sharing the post on twitter and facebook. The hashtag for this year is… #29DaysofDiversity

I’m excited about the 29 individuals selected for 2012. Last year I asked each participate “How can we use technology to close the digital divide?” The question for 2012 is “What motivates you to become successful?” I’m looking forward to the responses.

As always, thank you for the support, friendship, following on social networking sites and reading SocialWayne.com. Have a great 2012!

About Guest Author: Victoria Kushner is a blogger and PR manager at Freemake.com. She writes about top multimedia apps and tech startups.

Nowadays everyone is talking about word of mouth promotion success. Viral marketing is a promising method, especially for small business and new companies. As matter of fact, viral campaigns bring substantial traffic, attract new audience and help build warm business-friendly atmosphere. Each business owner dreams about vast public support and good attitude to his/her startup.

However, many useful social media tools are still rarely implemented by small business. The reasons for such viral marketing reluctance are lack of knowledge, fear to fail or viral concept misinterpretation. Let’s dispel myths around viral marketing and explore 3 real viral growth cases that every business owner may apply to own company.

Cool Infographics

Infographics is a powerful viral tool. People love to share it. You can see thousands of Twitter updates with word “infographics”. If you plan to boost your company name mentions in social media – design impressive infographics.

First of all, you need thoroughly research your industry-related topics that may be interesting to wide audience. Visit such popular infographics galleries as visual.ly, Killer Infographics, or Daily Infographics and view ready infographics for your niche.

Then, work out ideas and connect them with your company product/services. Hire a designer and make your infographics dream come true.

Next step is to place your excellent infographics on your website and supply it with social sharing buttons. Don’t forget to promote it among your existing customers via newsletters, Facebook, Twitter feeds or offline announcements.

After that pitch bloggers and suggest your slide for magazines. If you target right journalists and make appealing image, people will talk about it. For, instance, “YouTube Killed TV” infographics has numerous tweets that reached people worldwide.

By Freemake, proud developer of YouTube Converter

Great YouTube Video

For complicated products or services, just an infographics will not do. In this case, try demo or promotional video. There’s no need to hire Hollywood producer or New York Video Agency. A video can simply show your company internal processes or have a video message from CEO. Audience is always excited to learn inside information and to meet real people who stand behind a small company.

Make your video unique, short and outstanding. Compare other YouTube videos and write compelling video title and description. Add as much information as your want. It’s important to put your website, social media links and contacts. Then, buy YouTube ads to drive extra traffic to your video channel – it’s cheap and does not require much online advertizing skills.

A vivid example of this viral tool success is Orabrush “Bad Breath” video that gained 16 million views and lots of comments.

Catchy Social Networks

Invite your current customer to join your Twitter, Facebook or Google+ pages. Offer incentives, coupons and exclusive bonuses to your social networks buddies. Logos Bible Software generated over $300 000 through Facebook promotion. They prepared custom discounts for each fan. The campaign resulted in mass social message distribution and additional orders. Follow Logos way and create active social community.

If you heard me speak at a conference or panel before a common line I will often say about why people should blog is that if you don’t tell your story then who will? Then I usually follow up with some ways to create blog topics and justify blogging and the whole social media building relationships, you can’t rely on news media etc. You get the picture.

But what is Blogging? Blogging is telling a story, blogging is sharing your opinion, blogging is reporting news and more. But at the core, blogging is writing! While being one of the speakers at BrandCamp Detroit last year, I got a chance to hear my friend Peter Shankman talk as well. He said, writing is one of the most important things you can do online or something like that. Then Peter went on to tell a few stories about some bad written letters he received. Since then I’ve been thinking more and more about how to improve my writing skills and constantly telling others to start or continue to write. Regardless let’s take a look at a few examples of how just being a good writer, blogger, journalist or just being able to tell good stories have paid off for a few people.

Recently it was announced that MG Siegler who is a tech journalist/blogger for TechCrunch will now become a partner at CrunchFund with Michael Arrington. This is a special case because of the nature of the deal being in Silicon Valley, TechCrunch, AOL, Arrington, etc but at the end of the day MG did a few things well and mainly he was a good writer and he used his writing skills to build relationships and the rest is history. The same can be said for Pete Cashmore. I remember when Pete started Mashable and now Mashable is not only one of the top tech blogs but it’s one of the top websites in the world. Those are rare cases but I have friends who have received book deals just from their blog that’s not even a three years old. Also look at Groupon, it was reported that Groupon has 70 writers on staff to help with marketing which has lead Groupon to be the fastest growing business ever. It was also reported recently that Cnet was trying to hire Nick Bilton, the NY Times lead technology writer and offered him a significant pay increase, which became news itself especially since he turned it down. Even myself, some of the opportunities I’ve had and clients I’ve been able to work with has come from me blogging, writing telling stories, my experiences online, mainly here on SoicalWayne.com.

As more digital content is being created today from videos, podcast, photo sharing apps, infographics, status updates, tweets, and more at the core of everything is writing. So, why is why writing and blogging are important? Writing can build relationships, tell stories, create opportunities and help educated others. Make time to write, get better at writing and just do it.

For more about the Blog Tree see:
The Blog Tree: New Growth. Fruit for Your RSS Feed [Infographic]
How it was made by Jess3 – Eloqua – The Blog Tree: New Growth

Note: Only blogs launched after 1/01/09 was considered

Today I’m pleased to announced that SocialWayne.com has been selected as one of the Top20 blogs for Black Enterprise Bloggers Month 2011. I want to say thank you to all of the readers, followers on twitter and others who have stopped by left a comment or share an article you found useful. Thank you Black Enterprise for selecting my blog as well. This is all motivation to continue to provide useful information about technology and more in the future.

For more about the Black Enterprise Bloggers Month check out the video promotion below and you can see the rest of the blogs listed here: http://www.blackenterprise.com/blackbloggermonth/

Thank you!

Women who read blogs routinely trust implicitly the advice and recommendations they receive, especially if it is from a blogger that they follow on a regular basis. We find this is true in every study conducted over the past four years and the effect never diminishes. In this year’s Social Media study, 88% of the active blog readers in the total U.S. general population trust the information they get from familiar blogs. Asked why they have this level of trust, nearly half (48%) say it’s because they had made purchases in the past based on blog recommendations and were satisfied with the results. Over 50% of the active blog readers in the general U.S. online population have made a purchase based on a blog recommendation. That number jumps to 80% in the BlogHer network community. The top categories where BlogHer users turn to Blogs for reviews include Food/Beverage (67%), Clothing/Shoes (67%) Movies (62%), and Cosmetics (59%). In the general online population, the #1 vertical for Blog reviews is Consumer Electronics.

via BlogHer.

Does the BlogHer research align with how you are using social media and mobile apps?

The SocialWayne.com blog uses WordPress and I provide WordPress installation and customization support..

Congrats to Matt and the Automattic / WordPress team.

via netchunks

via simplexstudios

Choose WordPress… any questions?

7 of the Top 10 blogs are tech related.

1. The Huffington Post
2. TechCrunch
3. Gizmodo
4. Mashable
5. Gawker
6. Engadget
7. The Daily Beast
8. TMZ.com
9. Boing Bong
10. ReadWriteWeb

Gender:
67% of bloggers are male while 33% are female

Age:
The top two age groups are between 25-34 and 35-44

Where:
48% of blogs are from the US

Updates:
Most people update their blog 2-3 times a week or at least once a week

Who:
72% of bloggers are hobbyists while 4% are considered pros

Source:
Blogpulse.com via 146,628,598 blogs

Via: Infographiclabs and blogherald

What are you thoughts on the infographic? Do you fell like the data is accurate? What surprised you?

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

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?

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!

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!

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

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.

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.

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 .

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.

BlogWorld Notes: State of the Blogosphere keynote by Richard Jalichandra @jalichandra @blogworld #bwe09
Keynote link: http://blogworldexpo09.sched.org/event/25e08630a9d573177753f49af79d031e

Notes:
The state of the blogosphere is strong
The blogosphere is not dying or leveling off but thriving
Blogging is becoming mainstream
Mainstream is using blogging platforms and writing style
Blogs are media

Professional bloggers are keeping the blogosphere strong

Hobbyist – 72%
Professionals 28%
Professional Self-Employed
Professional Corporate
blog full-time for a company

Who are the professional bloggers?
2/3 male
60% 18-44
More affluent and educated than the general population hobbyist bloggers
2 out 3 blogging more than 2 years
Average of 4 blogs
17% say blogging is their primary source of income

Professional are even more prolific in 2009
Main stream media says bloggers are unprofessional,

Why are people blogging more:
Enjoy interacting with audience
interacting with other bloggers
valuable for promoting business
enjoy the attention

Professional bloggers and mainstream media
40% of bloggers have worked with traditional media
27% are still employed by traditional media
73 agree blogs are taken more serious
more agree newspapers won’t be around

Twitter
73% of bloggers use twitter
All bloggers #1 use of Twitter is to promote their blogs
Share links
understand what people are buzzing about
interact with readers

Style & Tone:
Hobbyist Personal, Professional Topical

Professional invest more time & resources
24-32% blog 10+ hours a week
10% blog 40+ hours
Pros invest 7x more money
The top 5,000 generate 100x more post
Professional are using tools:
a. commenting
b. search
c. trackbacks
To drive traffic
a. technorati
b. google
c. paid ads

The upside of bloggging
Success metrics
a. unquie and page views

Pros’ the benefits of credibility
a. 71% have greater visibility in their industry
b. 63% clients have purchased
c. company now a thought leader
d. asked to speak

Monetization and Revenue
Professional bloggers monetize their blogs via
a. 40% display ads
b. search ads
c. affiliate links
d. paid postings
e. self-employed bloggers are likely to sell their inventory through a blog ad network
f. 2 out of 3 part-time bloggers use self-serve ad platforms

Brands and the blogosphere
a. 70% of bloggers blog about brands

Professionals plan for the future :
Expansion and brand extension
a. blog more frequently
b. expand the topics that I blog about
c. Publish a book
d. speaking opportunities

Advice from the pros
a. Be Passionate

So…..How Many bloggers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

On Monday morning Technorati will start posting the State of the Blogosphere on Technorati.com

If you’re anywhere near the blogosphere today then I’m sure you know today is Blog Action Day and this year’s topic is climate change. I’m currently at Blog World Expo and I honestly I’m not a climate change “expert” so I wanted to highlight a few blogs that have already posted about climate change.

• Blog Action Day 2009: Bloggers vs. Climate Change
• A Green Blog Action Day
• Fast Fission Podcast #7: Climate Change Blog Action Day – Why am I so passionate about nuclear energy?
• The human face of global warming: Blog Action Day 2009
• blog action day ’09

Personally I hope everyone finds a way to look at their daily lives and  find at least two or three ways you can adjust your habits for a greener lifestyle.

What are your thoughts on Climate Change?

The Sponzai pitch
Sponsors write their own guest post including multimedia and links. Sponsors then select the blogs on which they want to distribute their pre-written post. Bloggers earn cash for posting the content.

Web: http://Sponzai.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sponzai

This is not a sponsored post, I’m attending IZEAFest as a moderator of a panel but I do wish Ted and IZEA much success with Sponzai. Also congrats to IZEA to continue to push the envelope to create products to help the blogging community and companies to monetize their products and services. Only time will tell how sponsored conversations will evolve and how it will shape the blogosphere as readers trust will be tested with blog authors.

What are your thoughts on sponsored blog post / conversations?

Opt-in: Sidebar: The best thing about blogs, they just keep going

WordPress, the blogging platform we all know and love is used by almost everyone from main stream media such as CNN, MTV to universities such as Arkansas at Little Rock to celebrities such as Perez Hilton. WordPress is also used by leading tech blogs such as Mashable, TechCrunch and Gigaom . Installing a self-hosted version of WordPress.org is very simple and a lot of web hosting providers offer one click installs, but what about a backup? Most web hosting services offers daily backups of your files and I hope for your sake a daily back up of your sql / mysql WordPress database. But just in case they don’t here are three WordPress plugins to back up your WordPress database.

1. WP-DBManager
Pitch: Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database.

2. WordPress Automatic Online Backup
Pitch: You can prevent loss of data using an automated backup of your blog database. You create a free account on www.wordpressbackup.com (wpb), connect your blog with the wbp via a key.

3. WordPress Database Backup
Pitch: WordPress database backup creates backups of your core WordPress tables as well as other tables of your choice in the same database.

Bonus: Two of the plugins offer the ability to have your database emailed to you on a scheduled time. I recommend creating an alternative gmail or ymail email address and use one of the plugins to email you a backup of your database daily.

How are you backing up your self hosted WordPress blog?

Just the other day September 8, to be excat I was thinking that “I want real-time iPhone RSS reader app with push notifications to alert me when a blog updates on the second along with sms notifications” Well guess what, you know the saying “there’s an app for that” well now there is via an app called Notification [iTunes link $1.99] .

The Pitch
App Notifications is an iPhone app that acts as a client for the Apple Push Notification Service.
Use our ready-made Twitter, Gmail, and RSS notification services to instantly receive new tweets, search results, emails, RSS feeds, or create your own custom notifications with our simple REST API.

You may be thinking why do I need Notifications app. We’ll it depends on your industry, but here are a few examples how I would use it.

• I want push notifications when a blog updates in real-time
• I’m tracking an event, person, or tag and want to know when someone mentions them on Twitter
• I want push notifications for emails sent you to me by certain people
• If you’re a media company you could use push notifications for all of the above reasons.

So why is this special? Well, if you have read the RSS news lately, then you’re aware of the PubSubHubbub and RSSCloud technology that is turning RSS from a pull technology to a push technology. The Notifications app uses Superfeedr @superfeedr that uses a group of “helper” services to push RSS updates to the iPhone. Basically RSS is growing up in 2009. Why did it take so long RSS?

A big thanks to Julien @julien51 and the team. For more information on Notifications and how to configure it read the original blog announcement: Real-time RSS notifications on your iPhone

Now I’m making a list of RSS feeds that I want to be notified of instantly when they are updated. Any suggestions?

If you manage a Facebook fanpage and a blog there’s plenty of RSS Facebook apps to help mashup the two such as Social RSS and Simply RSS but one stands out to me and that is the NetworkedBlogs Facebook app ( @networkedblogs ).

NetworkedBlogs.com is an extension of the NetworkedBlogs Facebook Application to make our user-generated blog directory accessible outside Facebook and provide more exposure to our blogs.

As I write this I’m wondering what took me so long to add this app to my Facebook fanpage but from my understanding having the NetworkedBlogs update a Fanpage is a new feature and it use to just work with Facebook profiles. Either way here’s how it works.

1. You add your blog to NetworkedBlogs app in Facebook. Think of it as a blog network inside of a social network.
2. Install NetworkedBlogs app on your Facebook fanpage
3. Add the NetworkedBlogs tab to your fanpage. ( I recommend renaming the tab to “blog” or the name of your blog.
4. Use the publisher to share your blog post with your Facebook fans. You’ll see that option when you click on share.

For a more detailed how to, read information on the NetworkedBlogs Facebook page guide here: http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/help_pages.php or How to Promote Your Blog with Networked Blogs Facebook Application

A few notes when configuring NetworkedBlogs that may stump some people is the initial verification process. One is that you are the blog author and the other is the publishing settings to make sure NetworkedBlogs has the permission to post to your Facebook fanpage or your FaceBook profile if you like. There are at least two way to verify you are the blog author. The first is by adding some html code to your blog to claim it or you could ask your Facebook friends to help you claim your blog. While the first option may be a little technical for some, I recommend it vs blasting out a message to your Facebook friends saying verify my blog ownership. But by asking your Facebook friends to verify you, you may pick up a few extra readers because it post a message on your friends Facebook wall saying they are now subscribed to your blog.

Now that you have your blog setup to post to either your profile or fanpage you’ll want to test the feed settings to make sure when you publish your blog that it will automatically update your wall. If the test works, you’re all set. Then the next time you write a blog post it will show up on your Facebook page.

Here’s where the engagement comes in. As I mentioned earlier NetworkedBlogs is like a blog network inside of a social network. As you start posting your blog post to your Facebook profile or page, other Facebook users can follow your blog which is the same thing as subscribe if they were using a RSS reader. Followers will receive updates and are able to leave comments when you publish a post, just as they would on any status update. Also when you visit your NetworkedBlogs profile you’re able to see your blogs popularity ratings and followers from Facebook.

NetworkedBlogs does have a few pro features for $4.99 a month that allows you to do the following:
1. Access to new features before everyone else. (oooh, ahhh)
2. A fan Broadcast Feature (blast time!)
3. Upload an image to customize your blog page ( hmm a shinny new blog image)

You can read more about the pro features here: http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/pro.php I may give them a try later but for now the free version works just fine.

The only complaints I have so far is that I’m not sure how often NetworkedBlogs app post updates to Facebook and is there a way to use Facebook connect and the NetworkedBlogs app to have comments on Facebook to show on my blog too. But beside that if you’re blogging and on Facebook I recommend using the NetworkedBlogs app.

Do you share your blog with your Facebook profile or Fanpage? If so how?

Ok, this is not your typical blog post or is it? Basically I’m asking one question, has blogging and/or bloggers gone too commercial? Are the days of blogging for the sheer joy of it been replaced with blogging for SEO or ReTweets? Do we blog for affiliate clicks and comments to show off our “social media” blog credibility?

In the beginning bloggers were called something like “pajama bloggers” and the media didn’t take “us” serious but now main stream media and corporations are all trying to blog for profit. I had a conversation last week with an associate about the same topic. We both felt that a lot of bloggers have lost their voice while trying to monetize their blog content and gain traffic.

Either way, I’m rethinking why I blog and who I’m blogging for and of course this is different from corporate blogging. Also I’m not saying their is nothing wrong with trying to monetize your content but just remember why you’re blogging in the first place.

I’m not sure if you have noticed but recently a lot of people have been posting various forms of multimedia content to their Twitter stream with the short url http://post.ly. That short url redirects to Posterous.com a Y Combinator startup that launched a little over a year ago. Posterous isn’t just a short url or multimedia content platform, it’s a social network, blogging platform that integrates with other platforms that allow you to post content via email and more. You can use Posterous as your blog which some have see: Steve Rubel , as a life-stream site or just post random pictures and photos to push to Facebook, tumblr or your other blogs.

At SXSW 09 Kipp Bodnar and I had a chance to meet and interview the founders Gary Tan and Sachin Agarwal about Posterous and upcoming plans for the platform. Also some have wondered how do you pronounce “Posterous” listen very closely as you’ll here it once from Sachin.

In the video the founders talk about how easy it is to use Posterous and upcoming plans for the platform.

Since SXSW I’ve created a Posterous site and configured it to post to a various social networks. As the founders stated in the video being that you can use email to post to Posterous I send pictures from my iPhone to my site. But since I have purchased the iPhone 3Gs I have used Posterous as a podcasting platform by emailing a voice recording message or for video blogging as I can send audio and video emails to Posterous and it automatically adds the necessarily embedded player.

If you thinking that Posterous is just another one of those here today and gone tomorrow startups, I suggest you take a look at some of the users and think again. Posterous users range from everyday bloggers to leaders in the social media marketing and technology space. Here are a few Posterous sites from users who you may recognize:

• http://chrisbrogan.posterous.com
• http://andybeal.net
• http://tedmurphy.mobi
• http://rah.posterous.com
• http://bwana.posterous.com
• http://ginnyskal.posterous.com
• http://georgegsmithjr.posterous.com
• http://idonotes.posterous.com
• http://jasonfalls.posterous.com
• http://jakrose.posterous.com
• http://tweetdeck.posterous.com
• http://ijustine.posterous.com
• http://holykaw.com

Recommended reading: Ten Tips to Get the Most Out of Posterous

Do you have a Posterous site if so let me know the url in the comments and how are you using it.

What is your favorite iPhone blogging app?

– Post From My iPhone

Last week on my Facebook wall I was asked to suggest a good WordPress template to use for a web site television show. Below are my 4 favorite WordPress Video Blogging Themes.

1. eVid wordpress theme – http://www.elegantthemes.com – Membership $19

2. TV Elements – http://www.press75.com- 1 Site License for $75

3. WooTube – http://www.woothemes.com – 1 Site License for $70

4. Quommunication Video - http://quommunication.com/video/ – 1 Site License for $75

Also See:
6 Brilliant WordPress Themes For Video Blogs or Vlogs
Best Video WordPress Themes

What is your favorite WordPress Video blogging theme?

1. Rock the Job - http://rockthejob.com
About: Rock the Job helps students understand the impact of social media on their careers.

2. Bwana.TV – http://www.bwana.tv
About: Reviews and discussions on gadgets, social media, blogging and technology.

3. This week in Startups - http://thisweekinstartups.com
About: Jason McCabe Calacanis is the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, a human-powered search engine focused on the top English-language search terms, including verticals such as travel, products, news, entertainment, sports, food, and health.

4. North Carolina Wine TV – http://northcarolinawine.tv
About: North Carolina Wine TV is an online video show hosted by Jeff Cohen and Kipp Bodnar that is published twice weekly on Tuesday and Thursdays that is focused on reviewing wines produced in North Carolina.

5. From the Couch – http://www.from-the-couch.com
About: ‘From the Couch’ is an Online Video show, hosted by us brothers Marc and David Perel, which covers everything web orientated. We show you CSS tips, how to create websites from nothing and also chat about news in the web world.

Shameless Plug WayneSutton.TV is still in beta and I hope to have it launched by the end of June.

What are you favorite .TV shows?

This past Saturday, I had a chance to participate in WordCampRDU. Matt Mullenweg (Ma.tt), the co-founder of WordPress and AutoMattic, was the keynote speaker at the event. After WordCampRDU several of us had a chance to spend some time with him over burgers and bbq downtown Raleigh. Matt had my full attention, as I always try to learn as much as I can from successful individuals, especially those in the online/technology world. Here are 14 things I learned about WordPress and Matt. Some were new features of WordPress, while others were reminders about existing features that I hadn’t used.

1. VideoPress:
VideoPress is WordPress new video hosting feature. It costs $59.97 a year as an upgrade feature for WordPress.com users, but there is also a beta VideoPress plugin for WordPress.org users. You can custom design the VideoPress player and additional player branding features are on the way.

2. WP.com:
Matt recently acquired the domain WP.com and told the WordCampRDU crowd that it “may” become a tinyurl service for WordPress blogs. It’s something Matt has thought about, but he mentioned how spammers abuse existing tinyurl services. I’m confident that the WordPress team will find a way to implement this feature.

3. P2 WordPress Theme:
I’m not going to say Matt doesn’t like twitter but, have you really taken a look at the P2 Theme for WordPress? It’s not your normal blog theme. By installing the P2 theme you can have your own microblog platform with threaded replies. I use the P2 WordPress theme on http://smhustle.com. Search for other examples of P2 being used to see the many things you can do with this new theme or watch the video below:

4. Press This Button:
WordPress includes a Press This button under the tools section that allows you to blog from any web page. It acts like a bookmarklet for your blog.

5. Matt is a “stat-a-holic”:
Matt love stats. Just ask Matt about downloads of WordPress 2.8, plugins being installed, or how much bandwidth his company uses and he can tell you the numbers off the top of his head. If math is required, he can calculate it easily on his iPhone.

6. WordPress for iPhone app:
You have to like a someone who’s honest about his own product. Matt mentioned in his keynote that he’s not a fan of WordPress for iPhone application and to expect a new version a few months after iPhone 3.0 OS has been released.

7. Matt is more than just WordPress:
At just 25 years old, Matt has already accomplished more than what some have done in a lifetime. With those accomplishments comes experiences and although Matt co-founded WordPress he sometimes would rather talk about other topics such as entrepreneurship and life. He told us a story about a talk he given about a man who had a perfect memory. If you ever get a chance to meet Matt ask him about it.

8. Matt is not the CEO of Automattic or WordPress:
I was writing a blog post on my iPhone blog and Matt kindly corrected me that he’s not the CEO but the co-founder.

9. It’s AutoMattic and not Automatic:
You get it it? It’s Auto”Matt”ic … nice one, Matt.

10. Matt is a forward thinker:
Matt is a forward thinker. We were talking about how the Kindle and the iPhone touch was ready a few years before public knowledge. Matt and the WordPress team are already working on making WordPress better to work with software and hardware three years from now. “If you start now you’ll be ready vs starting in three years and playing catch up.” Matt says.

Photo via Jason Keath

11. Matt is not a Mac guy:
Surprisingly, Matt doesn’t carry a MacBook around, but a Sony PC. He also started Palm users group back in the day. But he does have an iPhone now and most of the AutoMattic team uses Macs.

12. What Matt likes about NC?
Matt loves NC sweet tea. We tried to take Matt to one of our famous BBQ places but it was full. I think he still ordered BBQ, but I didn’t get a chance to see what he thought about NC BBQ vs other states BBQ.

13. Email a post to WordPress.com
Did you know you can create a unique email address for your WordPress.com blog and email post with attachments. You can even email .mp3 files to your WordPress.com blog and they’ll post and play automatically.

14. OpenID and Jabber:
WordPress.com is an OpenID provider and you can use your WordPress.com user name to for Jabber chatting. I think there’s something WordPress may have to turn on to get Jabber to work with your username, or it may be a user error on my part. But it does work. Update: Matt emailed me to let me know the way the WordPress Jabber account work is username@im.wordpress.com.

Overall all after spending a few hours with Matt, I left with the impression that Matt is one of the smartest and coolest guys in technology. He doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves for contributing to the success of others, and to the internet as an whole. Thanks, Matt, for creating an awesome platform and I hope we’re able to cross paths again soon.

Photo via Kipp Bodnar.

Also I did get a chance to interview Matt for the upcoming relaunch of WayneSutton.TV. Be on the lookout for the interview online soon.

This was my second time speaking at a WordCamp event, my first was WordCampCTL in Charlotte, NC in November of 2008 where I was on a promotion/marketing panel. My topic at WordCampRDU was Twitter but I really wanted the audience to not focus on Twitter so much but look at how we use to promote our blogs before twitter, the past, present and future of social media and twitter related plugins for WordPress blogs.

Below is my WordPress & Twitter: “It takes two to make a blog go right” presentation but keep in mind that I talked a lot more than what’s covered in the slides.

After taking a look at the slides and I hope the attendees of my session left with the impression that when I say “it takes two” to make a blog go right, that I’m not actually talking about twitter but the content.

Also here are a few reference links that I used for my presentation:
Jump on the social media bandwagon graphic via Matt Hamm
2010 web graphic via Robert Scoble
Twickie
100+ Remarkably Beautiful Twitter Icons And Buttons
Flavours Icon Set And Cute Tweeters Icon Set
12 Tools To Synchronize WordPress And Twitter
10 Twitter Hacks For Your WordPress Blog

More on the founder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg in another post, as I had the chance to interview him and hang out with Matt after WordCampRDU.

PS. If there is no video it didn’t happen…..

A few of my photos from WordCampRDU:

Today I was interviewed by Fox News 8 ( Bob Buckly & Stewart Pittman @Lenslinger out of Greensboro, NC about Social Networking Etiquette. I was recommended to discuss the topic by Jennifer Ruggiero a long time twitter follower and friend who I recently met in real life at a Tweetup in Greensboro. As I prepared for the interview I made a few notes and asked via ping.fm the following question: What are some good & bad examples of Social Networking Etiquette that you have seen?

Below are my notes, a few other blog post on the same subject and some feedback I received from Brighkite,  Twitter & Friendfeed.
Brightkite Feedback:

ocell: “Bad: anything automatic. Auto followback, autoresponders, autoDM… dilutes real social interaction and relationships.”

ninanord: “Having a hard time understanding why some people constantly use ie Facebook and Twitter to tell others how ill they are and what kind of bad mood they´re in… Easily turns into oversharing in a sphere where so many people talk, not knowing eachother personally.”

Twitter Feedback:
Bad:

Robert_Peterson: @waynesutton the autobot dm to new followers “Hey thanks, now read this great blog.”

Good:

The interview will air on TV this Friday and the reporter asked me a closing question, “If I could only give people just one suggestion for social networking etiquette what would it be?” I told him for people to be themselves.

What would be your suggestion?

Also read:
social networking etiquette: how important is it?
10 signs your Twitter etiquette could be improved
14 RULES OF BUSINESS REFERRAL ETIQUETTE
A Rant on Social Networking Etiquette or, When did Rude Become Acceptable OnLine?

Instructions – Installing Your Own WordPress-Based DIY TinyURL In < 1 Hour
The results from following the instructions from the link above:
I have http://s1w.us domain name which stands for Short ones by Wayne. that auto redirects to socialwayne.com
I have a PressThis bookmarklet that creates a custom TinyURL using s1w.us, example: http://s1w.us/twtconf is from http://socialwayne.com/2009/05/05/twitterconferences/
I have a wordpress login to monitor stats using WP-ShortStat and Wassup.

If you’re not familiar with FTP, PHP or customizing wordpress I suggest that you hire someone (hint) if you would like to create your own TinyURL service using the option above. Another option for WordPress users is the RevCanonical plugin. RevCanonical “generates a short url for your pages, as well as adding link shortening discovery.” For example by installing RevCanonical my default post url: http://socialwayne.com/2009/05/05/twitterconferences/ was shorten to http://socialwayne.com/pin . You’ll also need a bookmarklet called Shorten to display the custom RevCanonical URL.

For bit.ly and wordpress users, the creator of RevCanonical has a plugin called TweetMe that will auto create a bit.ly URL or use your own domain’s RevCanonical url and send a tweet for each new post. This seems to work well versus using TweetSuit or TwitterTools to auto send a tweet when you publish a new blog post.

Corvida asked on FriendFeed: “What’s URL shortener do you use?” My response was bit.ly and idek.net now I can add my own TinyURL service to the list, http://s1w.us

Some of you may be asking why create your own TinyURL service? For me it was, I wanted more control over my links, I thought it was good for SEO and sharing on twitter and I thought it was a super geek cool thing to do. But here’s a blog post called: 10 Reasons To “Roll Your Own” TinyURL Using WordPress, if that’s not good enough for you.

The only thing left for me to figure out is how to add my custom s1w.us or RevCanonical url to my post like TechCrunch has (see image below).

More links about creating your own TinyURL service:
Create Your Own Short URL and Keep the Branding to Yourself
URL Shortening Hinting
la petite url

Have you created your own TinyURL service or thought about it? Did you ever think TinyURLs would be this big?

The following list was created by Jeff Cohen, who blogs at DigitalPapercuts.com, and Kipp Bodnar, who blogs at DigitalCapitalism.com, and yes, it is completely coincidental that both blogs have digital as the first word. Since Twitter is still on the top of everyone’s mind, we thought it would be a good time to document 101 uses for Twitter. Since this list was meant to be both fun and educational, we want you to share it with your readers and indicate how you have used Twitter. There are certainly many other uses for Twitter, but we wanted to compile a list that could be created in under one hour. Please feel free to add your own uses in the comments.

The rules for this post are the following:

1. Please post this on your blog in its entirety
2. Bold or underline your uses for Twitter
3. Add the tag twitter101 to the post
4. Make sure you link back to both of the originating posts: Kipp’s and Jeff’s
5. Add a comment to this post if you like
6. Tweet your post with the hashtag #twitter101

101 Uses for Twitter
1. Answer the Question “What are you doing?”
2. Tell Your Friends Your Going To Jail
3. Alert Your Family That your Plane Has Crash Landed in The Husdon
4. Explain To The World What You’re Eating
5. Announce You’re Currently Peeing
6. Your Chair Can Tell The World You’re Farting
7. Plants Can Tweet You For More Water
8. Say Something That Gets You Fired
9. Gather A Group Of Friends For Drinks
10. Say Something That Gets A Job Offer Pulled
11. Say Something That Angers a Client
12. Complain about a Product or Service
13. Ask for Free Stuff
14. Obsess about Bacon
15. Tweet for Your Dog or Cat
16. Showcase an Endless Array of Self-Portraits
17. Meet People at a Concert
18. Share News
19. Report from a Natural Disaster
20. Pimp Your Blog Links
21. Pimp Your Mom
22. Ask for 1,000,000 Followers
23. Announce the Song You are Listening To
24. Tell People How Awesome Your Macbook Is
25. Wonder How This Twitter Thing Works
26. Gratuitous Cursing
27. Comment That You Are Sitting At Your Desk
28. Make Fun of People Who Use PCs
29. Complain about How Facebook is Ripping Off Twitter
30. Wondering if Anyone Uses MySpace Anymore
31. Ask Someone to Marry You
32. Report on Your Blind Date
33. Tell Everyone What You Thought About the Latest Blockbuster Movie
34. Spoil The Ending of a TV Show
35. Thank Someone for Great Customer Service
36. Complain About Bad Customer Service
37. Bemoan The Fact That Traditional Media Doesn’t Get It
38. Share Speaker’s Quotes from Conference
39. Make Fun of People Who Are Not at SXSW
40. Revel That You are Not at SXSW
41. Tell People How Wasted You Are
42. Talk about the Weather
43. Share Heartwarming Stories About Your Kids
44. Link to Photos of Your Vacation
45. Use a Location-Based Service to Tell Everyone about Your Latte, including a photo and a map
46. Post Cute Pictures of Your Pets
47. Meet Members of Your Local Community
48. Sell Stuff
49. Buy Stuff
50. Promote Events
51. Crowdsource Ideas for Things You Get Paid to Know
52. Hire A Freelancer
53. Report on Terrorist Activity
54. Name Drop People You’ve Only Met Online
55. Name Drop People You Are Having Lunch With
56. Send A Message To The President
57. Talk About Which Twitter Desktop App You’re Using
58. Talk About Snuggies
59. Use Stupid Shorthand such as: nom nom, lol, FTW, WTF, etc…
60. Try to Make Others Jealous of How Awesome your City is
61. Pimp The Latest Sci-Fi Trailer
62. Tracking Trends
63. Announce Your Plane has Landed: Wheels Down
64. Review Movies
65. Tell A Story
66. Make a Public Apology
67. Admit You Did Something Stupid
68. Ask for Computer Help
69. Complain about Battery Life
70. Pitch Your Startup to Scoble and Techcrunch
71. Make New Friends
72. Exclaim the Guy/Girl Across the Room is Hot!
73. Argue Politics
74. Wish Twitterville Good Morning
75. Tell your Followers to Have a Good Day
76. Tell the Twitterverse Goodnight
77. Share Quotes
78. Express Your Belief in a Higher Power
79. Avoid Sending E-mail
80. Learn
81. Listen
82. Ask for Help
83. Raise Money for a Charity
84. Share Stats of Social Media’s Growth
85. Auto-Pimp your New Twitter App
86. Auto-DM Welcome New Followers
87. Get a Date
88. Ask for Travel Recommendations
89. Share What You’re Reading Offline
90. Provide Traffic Updates
91. Talks Sports and Update Scores
92. Share Recipes
93. Tell Someone You’re Running Late
94. Find and Share Funny Videos
95. Talk to Your Boss
96. Train Surgeons
97. Make Yourself Look Smart
98. Change the World
99. Bash Microsoft
100. Express your Undying Love for Twitter
101. Retweet

*Twitter bird icon via @cheth

So after a quick count it seems I have done 75 of the #Twitter101. How many have you done?

1 .
WPTouch mobile plugin

2. WordPress Mobile Edition plugin

3.

If you’re looking for a solution to create a mobile website separate from your blog, you may want to try:  WinkSite “Winksite is the first standards-compliant mobile Website builder that also includes RSS-driven content deployment and mobile-tuned community features such as forum, chat, and polls.” from http://winksite.com

or http://www.zinadoo.com

How do you optimize your blog for smartphones?

There’s been a lot talk about Facebook trying to copy Twitter lately with the new public profiles, instant updates and interface changes, but after taking a closer look, it’s seems that Facebook is copying Friendfeed more than Twitter. For example, over the past few weeks Facebook has added “friendfeed-ish” like features such as:
1. “comment” and “like” to status updates
2.  group friend lists
3.  social network content feeds into status updates.

Friendfeed:

It’s easy to compare Facebook to Twitter because of live status updates but Friendfeed has that too with its real-time updates. Overall, I think Facebook is trying to make changes to keep users on Facebook.com, which is smart for them. They see how others are using twitter plus Friendfeed and see the opportunity to add a wider variety of user-controlled features to fit the need of the super geek like a Robert Scoble to people like my mom (@gwensutton) who is new to social networking.

But everyone is not happy about the changes and don’t see the value of adding the features. They want to use Facebook to stay in contact just with their personal friends and family. Nevertheless I asked the question on twitter “A lot of people are talking about Facebook vs Twitter but to me Facebook is getting more like Friendfeeed …. your thoughts? and here is what a few tweeple had to say.

waynesutton: A lot of people are talking about Facebook vs twitter but to me Facebook is getting more like Friendfeeed …. your thoughts?

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:10:36 +0000 2009

INKAHEXE: I don´t use Facebook, I have a profile on hi5.com, this is more popular in southamerica

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:12:22 +0000 2009

RCcarboy: they’re all the same. just different facets.

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:12:36 +0000 2009

jeremysallen: i would agree that facebook has become more of a feed to funnel all of your feeds to your friends

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:12:49 +0000 2009

Sab_1908: they totally are trying to keep up especially with the pic frames …The longer status updates… Giving people more characters

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:13:55 +0000 2009

jeremysallen: im seeing so many more status updates via twitter now than i used to… people finally have stopped asking what is twitter…

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:14:00 +0000 2009

RedKoolAid2000: Facebook data farming scared me from ever being a user

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:14:07 +0000 2009

chilly_o: twitter is the most effective, not really feeling facebook and don’t know what happened to myspace.The real time variable works

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:14:10 +0000 2009

omaireee: if those are the two options, then yes. i feel fb to be more a glorified myspace than anything else, really

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:15:01 +0000 2009

muffet: it’s hard to have convos/keep them focused on FB bcos of the multiple ways you can interact, so def, NOT twitter-like in spirit

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:15:02 +0000 2009

ram0na: I’m over Facebook. It was interesting for a moment to see what ppl I’d lost contact with were doing. NSM anymore. WTF cares.

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:15:29 +0000 2009

StevenBarley: Facebook is still more about personal connections/sharing, multi-media: Twitter leans professional + interests/hobbies, text

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:16:01 +0000 2009

nishland: never thought of FB/FF that way. True both are broadcasts of collective “rants” but the community aspect of FB doesn’t match FF

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:18:29 +0000 2009

Amir7: I don’t like facebook its boring but that’s me. Some say Twitter is boring so It depends on the person.

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:18:50 +0000 2009

ratrealmpress: I totally agree with you, this cyber world is getting all mashed into one big hole

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:24:09 +0000 2009

Geistbear: FriendFeed but less clean interface, busier

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:25:05 +0000 2009

stu: the main feed looks more like Twitter, but the side bar is trying to be popular items like FF, but feel it falls short on both

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:34:35 +0000 2009

Bmoreguy03: i feel the value of facebook has went down when they changed there to there new layout

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:39:17 +0000 2009

Bmoreguy03: at first no one even put them in the same type of website they both did different things but when they changed it

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:40:38 +0000 2009

DerekAlfonso: Twitter is a single service designed for quick status updates, Facebook has some of that too but that’s not the main focus

about 2 hours ago

Thu Apr 02 13:42:21 +0000 2009

princewh: definitely true

about an hour ago

Thu Apr 02 14:00:24 +0000 2009

JediVinnie: could u explain friendfeed..v twitter I R new to facebook & getting alittle lost..have a good one..

about an hour ago

Thu Apr 02 14:19:45 +0000 2009

pam3la: on FB: the lack of chronological order and refresh irks me. it is not a smooth layout per se. getting used to it.

about an hour ago

Thu Apr 02 14:27:55 +0000 2009

wei_yang: Facebook is making FriendFeed obsolete. I always had a FF account, but never used it cause the chatter didn’t exist.

about 44 minutes ago

Thu Apr 02 15:01:47 +0000 2009

rutgerblom: I agree.

about 32 minutes ago

Thu Apr 02 15:14:07 +0000 2009

How are you using Facebook?

Transparency in Social Media
But what about transparency in social media? The same holds true yet it also has a double meaning. Transparency in social media especially pertaining to blogging and covering a product, brand or service means that’s I’m giving you an honest non-biased opinion or truth when I write or cover a particular topic. Online this can mean that, I am who I say I am online and that my reason for posting or having a discussion about a product, brand or service does not have any hidden agendas.  Or if I’m posting or having a discussion about a product, brand or service and was paid or hired to do so, you’ll know about it up front or it will be included in the conversations.

Why is transparency so important?
Transparency is about trust and with everyone trying to grab your attention online whether it is through a youtube video, blog post, facebook ad or a tweet, trust relationship marketing will be one of the key ways brands will try to sell their services to customers. In other words brands will contact you saying, blog out this, or can you tweet this. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that but will you let your readers or subscriber know that you were paid to post content about a particular brand upfront or at all?

Will you sell?
We’re in a time where companies will try leverage individuals who are community leaders or have a large audience for brand awareness.  If you have a lot of followers on twitter, blog subscribers or subscribers in an email database you have the opportunity to leverage your community and establish a few relationships with brands who may want to reach your audience. It’s something I call “selling their eyes”, to where you’re willing to push paid content to your community via product placement or sponsored ads. How you choose to let your community know about you “selling their eyes” is up to you but if you want to keep them, being honest or “transparent” is the best way to do so.

Do yo trust me?
There’s a lot of good and bad examples of transparency and social media and I’m not going say any names or cases of others but I’m going go over a few cases I’m involved in:

Crocs:
I’ve recently interviewed and wrote a blog post about Crocs’ social media specialist George G. Smith Jr. ,
Did I get paid to write the blog post? No.
Did I receive some Crocs swag? Yes.
Was I planning to write the blog post before the swag? Yes.
Did I let my readers know I received some crocs swag? Yes.

Kodak:

I was looking for a flip mino hd, and was suggested the Kodak Zi6 on twitter.  Then I purchased a Kodak Zi6 from Best Buy and was asked if I would write a blog post about using it for Kodak’s A Thousand Words Blog
Did I get paid to write the blog post? No
Did I receive any Kodak coupons or incentives for writing the post ? No

iPhone app reviews:
I’ve been approached by several iPhone developers or their marketing representatives asking if I would review their iPhone app on my blog and by doing so they would give me a free coupon to purchase the application.
Have I posted the reviews? No
Should I ? Maybe just as long as I’m honest, that if the apps sucks, I let my readers know and give them my truthful opinion.

What does the twitter & brightkite community think?

So I asked on brightkite & twitter the question: Why is transparency in social media important to you? Take a look at the response below:

From Brightkite:

RobertFischer says:Authenticity is what’s important. And it’s impossible to be authentic while being opaque. It’s all “Cluetrain Manifesto” stuff.

maravillasband says: Transparency is why it is perceived by some to be dangerous, I think

kagorges says: Transparency builds trust, which leads to more connection and more interesting sharing of each other — and that is what makes social networking interesting. Just trading references or pitching our product/services is shallow and very quickly boring – just like networking meetings that are all about trading business cards — no real connection or context.

pamperry says: It is about your purpose. If you are not afraid of who you are and know what you are here for – you want to share it! You want to broadcast it and promote it…and nothing makes you feel better than to be understood.

From twitter

aprillwrites: @waynesutton Because transparency is one of the factors that differentiates social media from others.

JoshuaJMills: @waynesutton transparency = truest, without it imformation you provide would be tainted.

jaymeburnett: @waynesutton I just want to know that I can trust people. I like to think that most people are good, and transparency is a part of that.

kerosinclothing: @waynesutton transparency I important because you want the facts on a certain topic, not just someones opinion, which always has bias

Free Marketing
A few notes to remember, if people love your product or service they don’t mind letting others know about it,  remember the mac beautiful youtube video?

But if you do want others to cover your product/services I advise you to be upfront and let you readers now about the relationship or risk being exposed using social media.

Why is transparency in social media important to you?

As for 1938Media, I was reading the Remarkablogger site and saw a video of Loren Feldman at a blogging conference where he said: “the most important thing in your digital life is your personal blog”. This was after Wired Magazine posted an article called: Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004. To Wired’s point I think the post was written to start a conversation but it did have some good meat to it.  

Some points of the article talked about how more people are spending more time on social networks and less on blogs. But in my case what am I to do? I have 11,610 followers on twitter, I just started this blog with 92 feedburner subscribers, 563 Linkedin contacts and 716 facebook friends.  If twitter goes down how would I stay connected with those 11,610 followers, will they subscribe to my feed, connect on Linkedin or Facebook?  

While we wait for Twitter to figure out how to make money,  staying connected and having a global reach with my twitter followers is where I see the true value in twitter but as 2009 come close I’m getting nervous about what’s next.  So I’m taking advice from Tyme and 1938Media and making my blog a priority but with new blogs launching everyday and people spending more time on social networking sites just have a text based blog is going to be hard to stand out from the crowd, but I have a plan. 

The SocialWayne.com blog plan.

1. Continue to use micro-blogs and social networks to reach new subscribers
2. Make the blog as interactive as possible (more features such as chat coming soon)
3. Use multiple blog content for posting: Audio and Video post. You can already subscribe to socialwayne.com in iTunes
4. Content is still king. Be creative in writing, give away free advice, seek guest writers
5. Be original “Think Different”
6. Partner with Friends for link exchanges
7. Guest write on other blogs for exposure
8. Make socialwayne.com more like a service and a social networking site to make users stick

Will it work? Only time will tell, either way if I’m not tweeting as much as I used to, I’ll be blogging here.

Also for those who wonder how I got 11,000 followers on twitter, I’m working on a blog post about that too. It’s going in my F.A.Q section.

Question: If you would start a new blog today, what would you do to grow your audience?  

Twitter started being just a low key “microblogging” social network that only a few serious geeks used to share urls and information about what’s happening in the technology community. In the beginning a lot of the links and conversations were around Engadget, Gizmodo and TUAW. How do I know; I was number 847 to sign-up for twitter.

Now everyone one from mommy bloggers, to main stream journalist, to marketing companies and just about your everyday internet user has a twitter account (almost). Dell just announced that by using twitter they have generated $1 million in revenue and you can best believe others are trying to do the same.

So to my point, “why I owe twitter money and you do too”. For me it’s simple, I evaluate the value of my network and brand now before a year ago. I ask myself “How many people knew Wayne Sutton before twitter?” Think about it for a second, how are you using twitter in your day to day lives? Especially if you’re a blogger and using twitter to post to your twitter profile for traffic or if you’re using twitter for ideas to write blog post.

Even though twitter is just a “tool” that allows conversations and relationships to grow for the world to see, think about how often you use the tool and what the tool was used for in 2008 (earthquakes, fire, politics, etc). I was recently asked on twitter about the site Tweetwasters that’s measures how much time you have spent on twitter by @jtobin and in a blog post from Microblink. Tweetwasters says I’ve wasted 6.57 days on twitter.

My response was, ”For what twitter has done for me it’s worth every second. #lovemyfollowers “ view my tweet here.

In terms of what kind of business model twitter releases in 2009, I’m not sure but below are a few that I think they will implement and if I have to pay for a monthly subscription for twitter, show me the checkout button because I’m buying.

My top five people who I think owe twitter money.

1. @BarackObama – used twitter (and social media) to become President
2. CNN & @Ricksanchezcnn – we all know how the news media industry is doing, Rick has a show call has a new show called “join the conversation”, congrats
3. @GaryVee – I love this man, built a great following and used twitter to promote his http://winelibrary.com TV shows
4. @zappos – Used to twitter for marketing and customer relationship building
5. Anyone who’s selling a twitter iPhone app or using twitter api for a 3rd party site & selling ads on it.
6. About to add @hubspot to the list too, using twitter for marketing, (good job guys)

My predictions on how twitter will make money:

1. Top right ad above profile information
2. Inline ads between tweets, with option to remove if you’re a subscriber
3. Corporate network twitter accounts via company name, or email (like yammer)
4. Sponsored tweets and allow others to create a sponsored tweet monetization system (magpie)
5. Paid background features: Allow css and html custom backgrounds
6. Paid group & tweet features: more than 140 characters or video/image posting (like pownce)
7. A paid follow service, if you want follow more than 500, 1,000 or 2,000 friends
8. Custom search data information sold to news/media or marketing companies
9. Paid API features.

I’m not sure if twitter will use any of these methods to make money but if their business model works in 2009, I might be writing a blog post called “why twitter owes us money for promoting their site”, encouraging others to sign up and now they are making millions. Only time will tell.

I’m @WayneSutton on twitter, a social media strategist & technology evangelist with 11,525 followers. If you’re looking to use twitter or social media for your business contact me.

Who are your top two or five people who I think owe twitter money also?

Do you feel that you owe twitter money too? Let me know in the comments.

For some pinging may be old school in the blogosphere but it’s still needed, so I thought why not post a list of urls that I ping. Not included on the list are pinging sites such as http://pingoat.com.

What pinging services do you use?

What sites do you use to ping that’s not on the list?

The List

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping?u=http://example.com

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://www.pheedo.com/api/ping

http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogoole.com/ping/

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://www.wasalive.com/ping/

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

http://blogping.unidatum.com/RPC2/

One continuing trend with WordPress is the quality of themes we have seen over the past few months and with a open theme community WordPress Premium themes seem to have taken over as the new cool and smart thing to do for theme developers.

Premium WordPress themes are great for not only WordPress but for anyone looking to launch a new website and looking for an easy content management system (CMS) as well.

Here’s a list of 7 Top Premium WordPress Themes via Digg. If you’re looking for a new look for your blog or looking to launch a new website, my suggestion is to install a self hosted version of WordPress, buy or find a free premium WordPress theme, customize it, start blogging or use it as a static page and you’re good to go.

Take a look a the themes and let me know which one is your favorite.

read more | digg story