Archive for the ‘social networks’ Category

Posted on January 15, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Location Based Poll: What is your favorite Location based social network/app?

We’re only 14 days into 2010 and if there was one social media / technology prediction that everyone have been accurate about so far, it is that location based apps will be the next big thing. Now with 15 plus location social networks available many have already deemed Foursquare the clear leader, and if you look at the compete website numbers you’ll see why. After purchasing foursquare.com around August, their website numbers have passed some of the early location based social networks in just two months by more than double.

I don’t have all the data on how many users each location based social network has, but I do know that despite what many believe, the location based war is still very much wide open. For businesses looking to implement location based marketing to reach out to their customers, I suggest looking at all of the options and find out which location social network / app your customers are using before starting any with geo marketing.

To help businesses with their decisions and to provide me with some research data, I’m interested to see what is your favorite location based social network. Take a second and vote in the poll below. Also feel free to let me know why it’s your favorite location based app in the comments.

If you want to connect on Brightkite, Foursquare, Gowalla or Whrrl you friend on one or all of the profiles below:
Brightkite: http://brightkite.com/people/waynesutton
Foursquare: http://foursquare.com/user/waynesutton
Gowalla: http://gowalla.com/users/waynesutton
Whrrl: http://whrrl.com/person/7392180/Wayne_Sutton

*Disclosure: I’m a partner with TriOut.

Posted on December 4, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Friday Fix: 3 solutions to solve your social web inbox problem

Friday Fix are short post on niche topics/plugins/tools/presentations or you could call them short simple tips.

One problem with the social web now is that we have too many inboxes. We have our work email, personal email, Facebook inbox mail, Facebook email from Facebook inbox, Twitter direct messages, Twitter new followers email, Flickr email, google alerts, real-time brand notifications and I think you get the picture. Depending on how “social” you are, managing your inbox can be very challenging and time consuming. This all while we wait to see how Google Wave will evolve, it could be a social web inbox platform or just another inbox to manage. Regardless here are three solutions to help solve your social web inbox problem.

1. Inbox2 – http://www.inbox2.com

2. Threadsy – https://www.threadsy.com

3. Gist – http://gist.com/

---

In the future I’ll record a screencast of each of the services for a further comparison.
Are you using any of the three? If so let me know how it has helped you manage your social web inbox?

Posted on September 22, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Personal branding: Making your avatar/profile photo standout from the rest. It’s the photographer

In a day in time where you’re likely to see Twitter avatars ranging from chin-poses, charity support banners and bikinis, having an avatar that matches throughout your social networks is not a personal branding law but its recommended. But does that mean you need to hire a professional photographer just for a headshot for you to post on your Twitter or Facebook profile? No, but find a few friends from your local flickr photo meetup group or the friend who’s always traveling with their digital camera and ask them to take a quick photo of you. For instance a few of my Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) and my online friends on the West Coast are really great photographers who have helped brand profile avatars or profiles for some of the web who’s who and my personal friends. Here are a few awesome profile photos below.

Bio head-shots for Twitter avatars

Photo taken by Don Hazelwood

Photo taken by Brian Solis

Facebook Profiles

Facebook photos taken by Jeff Cohen

Special Case: Self Portrait with photoshop skills :)
Photo taken by Chris Owens

As for the “personal branding” tip; having an awesome, rememberable photo across social networks are easy to identify and can assist in separating you from the rest of the average avatars or profile photos on the web. Therefore making you memorable ref. to 1918’s blog post “Being memorable“.

When was the last time you updated your avatar or profile photo on Facebook or Twitter? Who took your last profile photo?

Posted on September 15, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Facebook releases inspiring video to promote the Facebook Developer Garage Program

For those who know me, know that I love technology, online videos and video blogging. Well today I originally saw on Dave Morin’s tumblr blog an inspiring video created by Facebook about the history of the Facebook Developer Garage Program and how all it takes to make a difference sometimes is your passion and a laptop. Take a look at the video below.

Update: For more on the video read: Celebrating Facebook Developers

After watching the video doesn’t make you want to create something awesome to change the world? Great video Facebook.

Posted on September 15, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

9 controversial topics to avoid on social networks for job security

If you look at one of the recent post on Mashable today about an employee who’s social media activity landed him in the um-employment line, sadly it’s not the first time something like this has happen. Employees are using social networks more and more but without conscious thoughts about how their online posting could effect their employment status.

While social media and social networks may be a way for self expression, a way to stay in contact with friends and family members, you have to remember while you’re on the clock, content you post during work time could be looked as views supported by your employer without any disclaimers. Also even when you’re off the clock, sometimes unless you state that your views are your own, it could be considered the same values supported by the company.

With that being said here are 9 topics to avoid on social networks:

1. Politics
2. Race
3. Sex in general
4. Gay Marriage
5. Sexual preference
6. Religion
7. Porn
8. Past Jobs
9. General complaining on the Job

For best practices it’s best for a company to have a social media policy / guidelines in place for all employees.

Does your work have a social media policy? Do you feel that you should be free to discuss any topic online?

Posted on September 13, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

The psychology behind social engagement: What does it mean when you click the “Like” button?

The psychology behind social engagement: What does it mean when you click the “Like” button?

Photo via Jeffisageek flickr
It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m thinking about the psychology of social engagement. Why do people “Like” comments / post and what does it mean, when they “Like” something. If you look a lot of popular social media sites such as Facebook, friendfeed and even video social networking sites like Vimeo all have a like button or link. Also with social commenting platforms such as Disqus, you can now even hit the “Like” button on comments. Even url shortener services have a “Like” button such as StumbleUpon’s su.pr

But what does it mean when you hit the “Like” button and why don’t we see a “Dislike” button. Twitter doesn’t even have a “Like” button or feature but when you ReTweet a tweet does that mean you actually saying that you “Like” it?  The “Like” feature comes in various formats too. A lot of times you’ll see it as a “Thumbs up” or a “Heart” or just a text link saying “Like”. Some sites/blogs use stars for rating post or videos such as YouTube but they also use “Thumbs” for voting comments. Does stars mean you “Like” it and when you give a video 5 stars means you just “Like” it a lot?

Two services that really push the mentality of “Liking” a post are Slashdot and Digg. Slashdot uses the plus/minus feature if a reader “Likes” a post and Digg users created their own lingo so to speak as to when “Digg” something you “Like” it. Or are you saying I’m endorsing it when I “Digg” a post.

Sorry that I have more questions than answers but I’m sticking to my saying that “I don’t have all the answers but my social network does”. So with that being said here are a few more questions:

• When you click on a “Like” link do you feel ad though as you are endorsing the content?
• Do we really need a “Dislike” link?
• Should Twitter add a “Like” feature?
• Should Brightkite add a “Like” feature?
• Should Facebook and Friendfeed add a “Dislike” link next to the “Like” button?
• Why do you “Like” a post but won’t leave a comment”?
• Do you “Like” this post? (he he)
• Do you know the first site to add a “Like” button?

Here’s a look at various “Like” buttons from the web.

StumbleUpon with Like feature

Vimeo with Like feature (heart)

Facebook with Like feature

Friendfeed with Like feature

Digg’s Thumbs Up/Down in comments

Disqus Comments with Like feature

I’m not sure who started the “Like” social phenomenon of giving users a quick way of expression their stamp of approval for online content but it has been adopted by the social web community. Your thoughts?

The psychology behind social engagement: What does it mean when you click the “Like” button?

Posted on September 10, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Video Screencast: Facebook Lite vs the normal Facebook aka Facebook Heavy, are you hitting the “Like” button?

Just in case and for those who don’t have access to the new Facebook Lite here’s a look at the difference between the normal version of Facebook and the new “Lite” version of Facebook in a video screencast.

Time: 9min… not all my fault :)

What are your thoughts on the Facebook Lite? Like it or hate it? What do you think is the goal of Facebook with Facebook Lite?

Posted on September 10, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Why Facebook @ tagging / mentions won’t affect Twitter’s growth or will it? Let the tweets decide

The Facebook vs Twitter war just kicked into high gear today as Facebook launched a rocket announcing that soon you’ll be able to “Tag Friends in Your Status and Posts” with a simple notion of the @ sign. Ohhhh, Awww. The initial announcement was made here: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=109765592130

Three of the top social media/tech blogs, Mashable (2), TechCrunch and Read Write Web already have a post talking about the move. Each with a different post title leaning toward how Facebook’s friends tagging feature is related to Twitter.

Mashable Post Title

TechCrunch Post Title

Read Write Web Post Title

Personally I really think it’s to early to start saying the death is near for Twitter or say this move will cause people to leave Twitter or say brands will leave Twitter for Facebook. Slow down folks!  The real question is what I think the Read Write Web post tries to discuss is how the @ tagging will affect Facebook users. Who knows it could back-fire especially if it’s not a feature you could turn on or off in your users settings; you never know.  Facebook users may not like it when spammers and brands mentions their name in a lurking move to get their attention on Facebook.  I did read how it will only work for if you friends with a person but still, only time will tell.

Either way the move by Facebook started an instant debate on Twitter about how Facebook mentions may start the downward growth spiral of Twitter. Here are a few of the discussions.

@kbodnar32 @bmcd67 Bet me! Twitter won’t top 25m users. 30 max, before peeking roughly 8 months from now. F’book will be 10x that. :-)

BREAKING: Facebook to launch @replies in Status Updates. http://bit.ly/4a4KV8 Further proof that F’book is slowly killing Twitter

@jtobin so what if twitter tops out at 30 million users it can most likely be profitable at that level, surely won’t die.

@jtobin no you are wrong. they are two different platforms used in two differently ways. Both can exist happily.

@eyevariety But I also think there’s value in everyone embracing conventions. Just wonder if Twitter has IP protection around the use of @

@eyevariety See it as adding tags to status updates with an easy interface. Using @ is unoriginal, but it’s only in writing UI, not display

Plus if people can only mention you if you have approved them as a friend, it eliminates the random @ spam we get on Twitter.

@jefftippett a great feature but not something that will kill twitter- FB is so closed.

@jtobin I guess think of Twitter as new form of media and that that kind of communication eventually will be owned by everyone- like email

---

Do you think Facebook mentions will hurt the growth of Twitter?  Which tweet from above do you agree with the most?

Posted on September 9, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

All the Cool Kids Have ‘Em: Social Web Profile Aggregation Sites

I’m not sure if it started with Tim Van Damme but he sure did kick off a trend of new “Social Web Profile Aggregation” sites or social networking profile identity aggregation sites. Can you feel the “buzzwords” through your computer screen, lol. Either way since Tim’s site was created one “Social Web Profile Aggregation” service has launched called Card.ly and now there’s a WordPress theme from John Saddington. Take a look at the WordPress theme below.

Hat tip to @Corvida who posted John’s WordPress theme on her Posterous site. It’s interesting that John calls his WordPress theme the “The Digital Business Card” vs  a “Social Web Profile Aggregation theme” but since the idea comes from Tim site which looks like a business card, I totally understand.

Back to Card.ly, I’ve blogged about it before here: 3 ways to showcase your social media profiles: Card.ly, DandyiD & Google profiles and since then a few other “Social Web Profile Aggregation” sites have launched such as hi.im. You can see my hi.im profile below.

There’s also chi.mp and Reallywho which that has a goal to be your “Identity Verification for the Social Web” service.

It seems with the explosion of social networks, social media and the social web, the next big thing may be social identity verification and aggregation. Something I’m sure Google is thinking about with Google Profiles and other services such as DandyID, Chi.mp and Reallywho. While these services are great for social web identity verification, they may be a little much for the average user who wants to just setup a cool WordPress site and promote their own social web profiles. If that’s the case then you  may want to give John’s digital business card WordPress theme a try.

Here’s my digital business card theme or Social Web Profile Aggregation Site as I like to call it at FriendWayne.com :)

Corvida has one at: OprahOfTheWeb.com

Jeff Cohen has one at: JeffreyLCohen.com

I want to say thanks to Tim for inspiring the idea and to John for creating the WordPress theme.

Do you have a similar website and what are you thoughts on the future social web identity verification?

Posted on September 8, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

How to use NetworkedBlogs and Facebook to increase blog traffic and engagement

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?

Posted on August 11, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

TheSocialGeeks: FaceFriend or FriendBook? @idonotes @sarahintampa @louisgray @jeffisageek @corvida

I interrupt your regularly scheduled RSS consumption to bring to a) give you a break from feed reading, and b) notify you of an emergency podcasting that took place last night amongst TheSocialGeeks team.

Chris Miller, Sarah Perez, Corvida Raven, JeffisaGeek, Louis Gray, and myself brainstormed over several important questions to consider pertaining to the news that gave early adopters a heart attack yesterday: Facebookacquired FriendFeed to the tune of a reported $50 million.

Listen below or via iTunes to Episode 19 of TheSocialGeeks: FaceFriend FeedBook.

This post was originally posted on SheGeeks.net and I want a mario kart rematch with Louis Gray

Posted on July 30, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Weekly Pitch: GizaPage, a social network organizer

The Pitch:

GizaPage (www.gizapage.com) is a social network organizer that helps consumers and brands manage their online presence by consolidating their many social networking profiles side by side under a personalized URL. GizaPage supports 75+ social sites, from Facebook and LinkedIn to Twitter and Delicious, giving users a hub to organize and promote their Web 2.0 social identity. As part of GizaPage’s ongoing efforts to give users more control of their social networking persona, GizaPage recently introduced several premium services:

• Custom URLs (normally $4.95 per month – free for a year if you sign up in July 2009) – Modify your GizaPage URL, removing GizaPage branding (e.g. johndoe.com vs. johndoe.gizapage.com). If your URL is already in use, you can host your GizaPage as a masked sub-domain (e.g. social.brandname.com vs. brand.gizapage.com.
• 1-Click GizaCards – Displays icons of all your social profiles on a single card. Using one click, the card takes people directly to your GizaPage to browse all your profiles from a single place, under a single URL. The 1-Click GizaCard can easily be embedded on your blog, Web site, Facebook wall or Twitter profile to promote your social identity on GizaPage and encourage further discovery and exploration of your many online profiles.
• Custom profiles – Change the background, color, font and layout of your GizaPage profile for free.
• Basic statistics – Get free up-to-date details on visits and page views to your GizaPage and various social profiles.
• Account updates – Receive free, bi-monthly e-mails alerting you to new GizaPage signups by contacts in your e-mail address book, new connections between friends and updates made to friends’ GizaPages.

---

My first impressions: Clean interface, interesting idea but is it to late to the social profiles landscape.

Will I use it? I have yet to create an account but I will soon.

What features I like? The ability to provide statistics and promote your social profiles.

What features I don’t like? Since I have yet to create an account I really can’t say but I hope it has an auto discovery feature that finds my profiles vs have to paste  a url from my existing social networking profiles.

What does GizaPage remind me of? A mashup of FriendFeed, DandyID and Card.ly

Questions for you:

Will you use it, if so how?

Have  you read about GizaPage before?

What is your first impression of GizaPage?

If you would like for me to review your product or site email: pitches at socialwayne dot com . Disclaimer: I have no investment or relationship with the creators of this site. Thank you.

Posted on July 21, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

3 ways to showcase your social media profiles: Card.ly, DandyiD & Google profiles

Yesterday TechCrunch posted about Card.ly a new website that allows anyone to create a simple clean website with an about area, profile picture, contact information and a list of their social media profiles. Card.ly does take a few minutes to setup but after adding your profiles you’ll have the option to select from a few clean designs and then you’re all set with a short url to share with friends and promote your social media presence. It also creates a VCard for others to download and add to their address book. You can see my Card.ly website here: http://card.ly/waynesutton

Card.ly has a good list of social networks to add to your profile but if you’re looking to create a url to show your complete social media presence take a look at DandyiD. “DandyID lets you easily collect all of your online profiles in one convenient place and allows people to discover the real verified you across the web.” Example, see my DandyiD profile: http://www.dandyid.org/id/waynesutton

Also don’t forget about your Google profile. Google automatically adds social networking profiles to you account. Your Google profile is easy to mange so you can have the sites you want people to friend you on. You can also have your Google profile verified, see: http://www.google.com/profiles/waynesutton

I recommend you setup if not all three but at least your Google profile because the last thing you want in this day in time is go apply for a social media job and no one can find you on the web or they find profiles or content you wish to keep hidden.

Also see: FriendsCall.Me and namechk.com if you’re just getting started building your social networking profiles to make sure your username is available.

The main point is you want manage your social media presence, your content and search results when someone “Google” your name.