About the author: Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury.
Beside this she is fond of games. She recently bought a Gaming Mouse for herself. These days she is
busy in writing an article on Suzuki Motorcycles.

There was a murmur heard in the Microsoft camp a couple of weeks before about the social networking project being carried out by the company. Later these things embarked at a place called Socl.com with a name Tulalip. The fact of the matter is that Tulalip happens to be a website which allows you everything right from getting any information to sharing it unlike you see in any social networking site. With passing time, more information has emerged out now in public making things clear. Microsoft has embarked with a project called Socl and dropping the Tulalip. This place will allow you to search for information and clubbing things with a complicated blend. Microsoft has tested the applications with limited users in a group along with a number of features as discussed under:
The UI or User Interface: On the face of it, people can call it somewhere a Facebook; however, it is still too early to trust this notion completely. This can only be said when Microsoft will eventually launch the social networking website. However, at the moment you can consider having the same design of three columns as seen on Facebook. These include the updates coming in the middle section, information at the right side and the navigations links on the left side. However, the difference comes with the input area which is placed at the top side area where you can you can update about your statuses just beside the question asking to do so. However, you can choose for a standard format rather treading this path.

The Tags: The Socl is taking a different route to this path and not just replicating things from FB. At Socl you get the choice of using tags with some specific subject trying from anybody’s status or search the query; thereby you can get result of anything having this searched tag. It is still unclear how it will work while you can use your RSS feeds or just try Google as well for you. This feature is still under the phase of testing, we can have a clear idea after it comes out.

The Videos: Having the presence of high end HTML5, Socl works out without any hassle or issue even when you will see the video being used at the right side. In this way the users can therefore do two things together, watching the videos from YouTube and put comments through the chat box window.

The Social Element: As you see how Google is using the social element in its search results since they think that it can pull out information which is unique from the users using their friends. With Socl you can expect similar thing in this direction, though we need to wait and watch this thing.

Knowing the fact that the Microsoft social networking site –Socl is under test, it’s a tough task to understand it completely at this juncture. People though feel that the company will bring something different rather than mere replicating things from Facebook or any other social media site. To survive indeed you need to be different, by just being a copy cat it will make things tough for the Socl to combat the giants of Social media.

Paul works in the marketing department for CliqStudios, a cabinet manufacturer that sells white kitchen cabinets and more factory-direct, and is a blogger and Apple fanatic.

We all know of Google’s dubbed “Facebook killer” called Google+ that has, in fact, failed to kill Facebook. We also know that the success of Google+ is also highly debated. Sure, it sports over 40 million users, but only a fraction of those users actually remain active. In contrast, as of last September, Facebook has over 800 million active users worldwide.
So, what went wrong for Google+?

From the outset of its beta, the primary selling point of the service was its almost too simple way of organizing your friends into Circles so you can share specifically and privately with only certain people. Circles was meant to be a means of one-upping Facebook’s lackluster and underused Lists feature.

However, Circles is by no means perfect, and the way it’s intended to be used is somewhat laborious. Using Circles is a manual process and requires you to drag and drop your friends in a variety of friend categories that you’ve created.

The problem is that friendships aren’t one or the other, and are constantly changing. Google+ can’t keep up with your life outside of your interactions on Google+, and thus requires you to continually evaluate your friendships and manually change them on the service.
If you think about it, most people wouldn’t bother spending the time to organize their friends into super specific categories, let alone keeping the Circles organized and up to date. This, basically, then renders Circles useless.

Shortly after Google+’s release, Facebook announced Smart Lists, a feature capable of automatically grouping some of your friends. For example, it creates Smart Lists for people you are related to, places you work, and for where you are currently living.
What’s more, and what is the most important part of Smart Lists in terms of updating relationship and organizing friends on a social network, is its ability to dynamically update. If a work friend leaves for a new job, he is automatically removed from that List once he updates his employment. Facebook is showing that developing better ways to categorize your friends without you having to think about it is important for its users.

Therefore, rather than Google+ requiring its users to manually update their Circles, Google should start to give Circles some artificial intelligence capable of evaluating and updating for you. While there’s not a way that I’m aware of for Google to know every detail of your life, there must be a way to analyze your behavior and interactions across the site to do this. I don’t know what that is, but I’ll leave it to the developers to figure out.

What do you think about Google+’s Circles? Do you use them? Do you constantly update them? Please share your opinion.

Francis Santos is a writer and blogger for Benchmark Email and can be found on Twitter.

A few months ago, internet users suddenly found a big black bar across their browser windows whenever they accessed Google’s services. Standing out in stark contrast to the gargantuan corporation’s usual light colored palette, this bar became “Google Control Central.” This was the first step in a comprehensive effort to harmonize all of Google’s far-flung serviceswhich range from search and translation to email and social networking.

Blogger users should now identify themselves
This harmonization recently extended to the untold millions of users on Google’s über-popular Blogger site. A pop-up field on the Blogger In Draft Dashboard holds out the promise of accessing future Google+ social media features. However, the blog writer has to switch out their current Blogger site profile with a Google+ one. From then on, any social connections would have their blogs appear in Google search results along with an annotation that the writer shared it.

With this announcement came a footnote that this new integration facility would not be available to any writer who is currently using a pseudonym. This policy provoked considerable oppositionfrom a wide range of users, not just on the Blogger site but also on Google+ itself.

Google+ is integrating with Blogger but not all users are thrilled.

Many hesitate to use their real names
Google seemed to forget that their users are located all over the world, including the 42 nations Freedom House claims have repressive governments. Therefore it could be understood that Cuban, Iranian, or Tibetian citizens wishing to even mildly criticize their leaders might be hesitant in linking their real name to their comments.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of The Googlization of Everything states that that “we are Google’s product, not its customers”. That was clearly evident when Google+ first launched and the admins went into “seek and destroy” mode. They erased thousands of profiles because they suspected that the name on the profile was not the user’s “legal name.”

Bloggers have received death threats
For many of the users of the Blogger service the real name policy also presented a clear obstacle. Bloggers don’t have to be in Third World countries to receive credible death threats, as some in North America and Europe have. There are a number of reasons why an online writer might want to remain anonymous in perpetuity. They might have been blogging for years under a pseudonym and could confuse their readers when they found that their habitual read of TheCreepingGecko’s blogs were now being written by Mr. Bartholomew Featherstonehaugh. Or perhaps they had made some deprecatory remarks about clients or co-workers that they did not want to be personally identified with.

Google changed its policy to allow nicknames
The real name debacle is a primary reason why Google users everywhere welcomed the official announcement that the policy had suddenly changed. Google will soon allow users to maintain their anonymity and chosen public identity on Google+ and Blogger. However this is not the only worry Google users have, as participating in the services offered by the web juggernaut can lead to some very unpleasant results.

Google shuts down all access to violating users
An underage user in the Netherlands signed up for a Google+ account. As soon as the Googleplex discovered that the boy was three years younger than the minimum allowed, they not only just deleted his new social network account but all of his Google services. In a single action, Google shut down his access to email, documents, maps, and everything else they supply.

Of course Google has the right to enforce its policies, which include prohibitions against “copyright infringement” and “publishing of someone’s private or personal information”. The worrisome question is whether any Google adult user could see years of their personal emails and precious work documents vanish because they violated the terms in any way. Perhaps they did something as innocent as posting a photo they copied from a copyrighted site, or mentioning in a post that “BTW, if you need Steve’s cell number, it’s…”

Impossible to change your primary email address
Google+ users also found a troublesome, albeit less critical quirk in their new accounts. Whatever email account they used to sign up for the service remains the primary one… with no way to change it. Alternate additional addresses can be added but the primary remains immutable for all eternity. You might have signed up for Google+ with your work email and changed jobs; got married and are no longer using your maiden name; or used one of your websites’ domain names which you’ve now closed down. If so, your “no longer applicable” primary email account will continue to be associated with all your Google services. And there’s nothing you can do about that as it’s against Google’s terms to open another account.

Google’s global search market share is 85%.
The original name for Google was BackRub.
W3 Markup Validation shows that Google’s home page has 37 errors and 3 warnings.
The Googleville Data Center uses up as much electricity as all of Tacoma, Washington.
The current market capitalization of Google is more than 12 times greater than the CBS TV network.
Google Co-Founders’ Larry Page & Sergey Brin have a net worth of $16.7 billion each.
$16.7 billion can buy you 68,940 2011 Ferrari 458 Spiders, or 282,840 houses in Kansas.
Excite CEO George Bell was offered Google for $750,000 in 1999. He turned it down.

Publicly identifying yourself can be a boon
To be fair, there are many advantages to write on Blogger under your own real name, as Google continues to be the online leader that Microsoft could have been if their internet policy hadn’t run off the rails when we were still using 2400 baud modems. Blogger is a major platform which can allow the savvy writer both an effective platform and a wide-reaching pulpit. It is far easier to identify with Mr. Featherstonehaugh than to TheCreepingGecko. Google is essentially correct in stating that the change could boost blog readership and help readers gain a greater insight into the personality and viewpoint of the writer.

Google certified as a U.S. government identity agency

Google has recently had their user credential policies certified so that they meet U.S. federal privacy and security requirements. The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace now includes Google as an accredited identity agency, which makes its services suitable for a number of federal applications.

The slow death of the anonymous web
The move to the use of real identities on the Wild Wild Web is meeting with begrudging approval by most of its users. However, many are recognizing that a network directly responsible for pumping trillions of dollars a year into the world economy needs to grow out of its “sophomoric prankster” stage and into the light of greater legitimacy and verifiability.Google is leading the way to this future of near-universal identifiability where the internet will be less anonymous and by extension, perhaps tamer.

What is your opinion on the legitimization of the web? Please join the debate by entering your comments in the box below.

I guess this is a good/bad problem to have but since the Black In America 4 showing on CNN, emails and phones have been flowing in like crazy. A lot from entrepreneurs pitching their ideas, or entrepreneurs looking for a designer, developer or just help get started (See NewME Community for help) . Other calls and emails have been from people wanting to know more about NewME Accelerator. A few have been from investors or Venture Capitalist and then there are the feedback calls and emails saying you should do this or that. In the mix of it all, there’s national media, local media, and niche media such as blog talk radio shows, podcast and more. I’m humbled and grateful to be put in the postion by NewME Accelerator and CNN.

Sadly, I can’t handel it all alone. I need a virtual assistant or something, but in the mean time I’ve changed my voice message saying please send an email for a faster response. Please don’t see this as an insult or a “I’m to busy” but just the truth. As an entrepreneur myself I don’t have set hours and I plan on keeping my phone number and email address public on this site but that doesn’t mean you should call at 2:30 AM EST and expect me to answer or at 7:30pm EST all of the time. My voice message says please send an email and I’m serious.

When you do send an email, please include the following information:

• Name:
• Company/Startup Name:
• Company/Startup Website:
• linkedin profile:
• Twitter: profile:
• Blog URL:
• Angel List profile (optional and for investors)
• The ask? (keep it simple and short)
• Deadline (if you’re on one)
• Mobile number:
• Work Number:
• Best time to call back in the next three days if necessary.
• If you’re media/press please put in the subject (MEDIA/Press)

If you must leave a voice message please leave the following:

• Name:
• Company/Startup Name:
• Email address:
• Phone number:
• The ask? (keep it simple and short)
• Deadline day (if you’re on one)
• Best time to call back in the next three days.
• If you’re media/press please state deadline time.

I’m not sure if this helps anyone but please don’t leave an angry voice message when you are making a cold call and I have no idea who you are or what you have done or what your company does or what you can offer or even if I can help you.

Let’s keep it professional, friendly and keep it moving.

Much Success!

Sharing facts
Address bar sharing (cutting and pasting a URL into an email) is 10X larger than any other type of sharing (i.e. Like button)
Sharing data in one week outpaces what the Hubble Telescope collected in its first 20 years
Peak engagement with shared content happens 2 mins after a share.
Most content is shared at 9:30 in the mornings, and on Wednesdays.
AddThis was viewed approximately 2.86 billion times last Monday. If each user viewed the page they visited for at least a second, that’s over 90 collective years of human attention that Clearspring saw that day alone.

Among most shared content in 2011
What if Everyone Saw This Facebook Status: http://front.moveon.org/what-if-everyone-saw-this-facebook-status/
Dog Mourns at Casket of Navy SEAL: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44271018/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/t/dog-mourns-casket-fallen-navy-seal/ (shared tens of thousands of times and clicked hundreds of thousands of times; many of the shares and clicks were thru copy/paste in the address bar)

Originally posted on google+
For the record. I agree with Eric Schmidt. It’s google’s platform. If they say the rules are real names then you play by the rules or you don’t use it or you get bumped off. Google knows their plans for + and they don’t have to tell everyone what they are right now.

When you purchase something on Amazon or with iTunes you have to use your real name, credit card information and address. Amazon and Apple/iTunes has all of that information. Apple by the way has the largest online store.

The difference is you provide both services with your email address, password and your profile url / name is less relevant. Well, Google already has your email ( gmail ) address, now google wants your real name ( identity) to go with your gmail address. This could be very helpful to google AND you in the future in terms of matching transaction, matching search results to your content and connecting your identity across the web with your other social networking content/profiles. Also it could help reduce spam and people leaving / making anonymous comments where they feel as though they can hide behind a computer screen and say whatever without any consequences.

At the end, I think everyone will see the value of google+ in terms of real name and identity. Yes it could overlay with other services and probably will when the google+ api is released. You may be able to use google+ for your blog comments or openID login or as a publishing platform all together.

In the mean time, join the other real name / people on google+ or continue to use your other favorite other social network and stop complaining or launch your own.

Response to: Mashable post: Eric Schmidt: If You Don’t Want To Use Your Real Name, Don’t Use Google+. via google+ reshare by Jess Stay.

I’m Wayne Sutton on google+ profile is here: https://plus.google.com/100894513529515310753/about

via TechCrunch

What Photo Sharing App Should You Use?.

Head on over to your privacy settings page (found here), and click on “customize settings.”

Next, scroll down to the “things others share” area and locate the setting “suggest photos of me to friends” (pictured below).

Once you click on the button, a dialog box (like the one pictured below) will show up. Click on the drop-down that says “enabled,” switch it to “disabled” and then click “okay.”

 
via Facebook Expands Availability Of Facial Recognition Globally — Here’s How To Turn It Off.

Geosocial is huge trend that continues to entertain us all. As we all know, things change incredibly quickly in the world of the internet, so we decided to update our infographic The Geosocial Universe a few months short of the one year anniversary of its first iteration

via JESS3 Labs – The Geosocial Universe 2.0 | JESS3™.

SocialTimes is reporting that News Corp is selling MySpace for $480 million less than they paid for it back in 2005. What a difference six years make.

Struggling social networking site MySpace is looking for a new owner and hopes to have one by this week’s end. According to The Wall Street Journal, News Corp is seeking $100 million for MySpace, much less than what they paid. The sale is projected to draw bids from several investment firms and companies who may try to buy parts of MySpace or the whole social network.

News. Corp paid $580 million for MySpace back in 2005. While the purchase appeared to be a solid investment at the time, Facebook grew to become the chosen social networking destination. MySpace users left and joined Facebook.

via News Corp is Selling MySpace for $100 Million – SocialTimes.com.

Do you think we’ll see another popular social network drop off like MySpace did in the near future?

Like Quora? Read:
The question and answers guide to Quora: How to get the best value out of Quora and look smart at the same time.

Hat tip to Louis Gray who posted about QuoraTop. QuoraTop provides a list of the Quora users who have the most followers. It’s like twitaholic but for Quora. Is this another sign that Quora is the next big thing? Maybe but that’s just tech bubble talk. Anyway, I thought Quora was all about questions and who could provide the best answers and not about who has the most followers… Louis said it best, “The second-most popular activity on the Internet (ego stroking)” .

Regardless, QuoraTop started because of the “Which Quora users have the most followers?” question on Quora and thus QuoraTop was born. QuoraTop was created by Matt Mastracci and is not affiliated with Quora.

Instead of who has the most followers on Quora what I would like to see is who has provided the best answer, or the most answers, or who has been thanked the most on Quora. All of those list including who has the most followers could come from Quora themselves via a soon to be announced API.

What type of Quora list would you like to see from Quora’s API?

Like Quora? Also read:
29 of your top social media questions answered on Quora

The question and answers guide to Quora

Using the PostRank extension for Google Reader to filter the social media rss Quora topic feed, here are the top 29 social media questions answered on Quora in the last seven days.

1. Why does Google fail at social media?

2. For my website, should I chose AddThis, ShareThis or Twitter’s and Facebook’s specific sharing tools?

3. What is a community manager?

4. What are examples of successful “green” social media campaigns?

5. On Quora, why has the quality of the Social Media Marketing topic declined so extraordinarily, so quickly?

6. How do I export the ‘like’ list of a Facebook company/brand/fanpage?

7. What are the biggest mistakes one can make in managing a social media account?

8. What are the issues of scaling Twitter for customer service?

9. What are some ways schools are using social media tools to make the classroom more effective?

10. How relevant is the Klout score?

11. What are the best PR and social media blogs to follow?

12. What is social targeting?

13. What are the biggest legal concerns with using social media?

14. How different is Social Media Strategist from a Digital PR Consultant?

15. Is keeping a locked account in Twitter a good practice?

16. Is it a good practice to duplicate content in Twitter and LinkedIn?

17. What are some recommendations for good social media and/or digital marketing conferences to attend in 2011?

18. What are good ways to become more influential on Twitter using Quora?

19. How can one prove to a more traditional marketer that social media is essential for a food truck’s success?

20. Which universities are effectively using social media?

21. How could the functionality of Facebook Groups be improved ?

22. What if in the future a “Social Scoring” system like Klout or PeerIndex, would determine, just like credit reports do, your job hiring, promotions, life, etc?

23. Is there a social media website to complain about a customer service from an online company?

24. What is a “social object” in social media context?

25. Why might someone want to follow 1,000+ people on Twitter?

26. What are the best practices or interesting case studies about social media for non profit organizations?

27. Why should an established private community switch from a mailing list like Yahoo groups to a microblogging tool such as Socialcast or Yammer?

28. What should Google do to completely overhaul its social strategy?

29. Do I really need Quora in addition to Facebook and Twitter?

Bonus
What is a Social Media Guru ?
How many Social Media Gurus does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

If you didn’t see your social media question listed you can follow all of the social media topics on Quora here: http://www.quora.com/Social-Media

To say that Quora the questions and answers site is off to a good year is an understatement. Launched in June 2009 in private beta Quora has seen a massive growth in page views and user registration with many speculating how and why. Some give credit to Robert Scoble and the Scoble affect. Others to MG and the TechCrunch gang for consistently referencing Quora in blog post. All makes me wonder who has shares into Quora but that’s another post.

Regardless if you think Quora is valuable or not, bloggers, social media enthusiast, main stream media and brands are flocking to Quora trying to get a jump on what could be the next big thing. The keyword here is “could be” especially since Quora is not the only questions and answers startup to gain some traction and when you think about Quora is really one big message board/forum with new social integration.

If you’re new to Quora, wondering if you should invest time into Quora and/or wondering what’s all the hype about here’s my questions and answers guide to Quora.

What is my Quora history?

I signed up for Quora shortly after it was lunched in June 2009 via a beta invite from Jolie O’Dell (Thanks Jolie)

How to get the best value of out Quora?

If you’re on Quora, I would suggest not to follow everyone who follows you and only follow topics and people that relate to your industry profession or topics you’re really interested in. Quora is not twitter!

What type of questions should you ask on Quora?

Any type of question you want! For instance my last question was “What are some good tips for first time fathers?” but if you want to be considered as an industry expert on certain topics it’s a common practice to ask, follow and answer questions on those topics.

What are the ways you can look smart and as a thought leader on Quora?

Write the best answers and get people to vote up your answers. Simple.

What are some simple getting started Quora tips?

1. Have an updated Quora bio and profile picture.
2. Decide how you’re going to use Quora as tool for personal or professional reasons
3. Create a list of topics that you would like to follow
4. Search for topics and people on Quora you want to follow.
5. Understand how Quora notifications work when you follow topics
6. You can ask a question and recommend people to answer the question
7. Decide if you want to connect your twitter, Facebook, WordPress.com and/or tumblr accounts to Quora
8. Start following a few topics/people and ask your first question.

How do I search for topics and people on Quora?

You search for topics and people in Quora via the same box where you ask question.

How can brands use Quora?

Currently Quora does not allow branded profiles although you may find a few but brands can use Quora as customer service channel.

Example: The Comcast topic on Quora.

What is a bad example of how not to use Quora?

Read: How Not To Be Influential? Quora Spam On Mechanical Turk

Was Quora better when it was in private beta?

Some would say yes, especially since all the new users have joined. Quora’s goal is to provide quality answers from smart people, not to create another Twitter where users try to get a lot of followers and just look smart to say he look how cool I am by answering questions on Quora.

What should you be doing instead of answering questions on Quora?

1. Email
2. Blogging
3. measuring
4. looking for leads
5. customer service
6. Exercising
7. Reading

Can I use Quora without answering questions?

Yes, by creating an account and following topics in general or by RSS Feeds.

When is it Quora day on Twitter?

I had tweeted a month ago and told Jason Keath @Jakrose it was Friday.
David Armano tweeted last week “I declare Tuesday to be “Quora Tuesdays”. David has more Klout than I do, so I guess David wins.

What is it called when you answer questions on Quora?

“Quora-ing” I made that up for this post. #joke

Do you have to be on Quora?

No and hear’s a great twitter quote from @ConversationAge

What does Quora remind you of?

A big online community forum.

What is an example of a really good Quora Answer?

See, Patrick O’Keefe aka @iFroggy. Answer to the question What are some tips for moderating a panel?

What is a good example of a Quora Question starting a debate/discussion.

See, Jason Keath @Jakrose question: Who are the best female speakers on the topic of social media?

How can I game Quora to look smart?

After you have answered a question on Quora DM your Twitter friends or email them asking them to vote up your answer so it shows up at the top. Read: Is the upvote bias towards more popular answerers a threat to quality on Quora? (It’s happening already but not recommended)

Who are the Quora experts?

No one, please don’t even go there.

Is there such thing as a Quora Ninja?

Yes, Robert Scoble, Sorry Robert. I look up to Robert a lot but Scoble will answer a Quora question with a link to his website or twitter list that may or may not even answer the question faster than a pubhubsubbub feed update. (geek joke). Only Robert can get away with that, = Quora Ninja.

What is the one Quora question/post you should read?

Welcome to Quora. Do Yourself a Favor & Slow Down by Lucretia M Pruitt

Is Quora like Twitter?

Yes, there are some similar features but very different at the same time. Don’t treat Quora like Twitter.

Is Quora like LinkedIn Answers?

Yes, but a different community at this time depending on who/what topics you are following.

Is it ok to leave links to your blog post in Quora?

Yes, but I don’t recommend it all the time. Only if your blog post answers the question or adds value to it.

Is there a Quora button for your website or blog?

Yes, see the Unofficial Quora button

Is there a Quora Google Chrome extension?

Yes, see the Quora Google Chrome extension

Is there a Quora Firefox plugin/extension?

Yes, see QuoraFox

Is there a way to embed Quora topics on your blog/ website?

1. Copy and paste (duh)
2. Quora topics have RSS feeds. Note I said topics and not actual questions:
a. Subscribe to the topics RSS feed
b. emebed feed into a RSS widget or subscribe to the topic RSS feed in a google reader folder
c. copy the widget code and embed or embed the google reader folder into blog/website
Example:

Is Quora the next big thing?

Maybe, NO ONE KNOWS, if they say they do then have them answer the following questions on Quora and email you back when they have completed.
Is Quora the next big thing after Twitter?
What will be the next big thing in social media (besides Quora)?
What are the next big things?
Will Quora be the next big thing?

What are some other blog post to learn more about Quora?

How Quora Works
Everyone’s talking about Quora
API of the Week: Quora Extension API
Ultimate Guide to using Quora for SEO Ranking on Google
How Small Businesses Can Use Quora
Can Quora drive traffic?
Frequently Asked Questions About Quora
How is Quora Able to Auto-Like Posts on Facebook?
How Quora could get interesting
6 ways journalists can use Quora as a tool for reporting, sharing ideas
Why Consumers Love Q&A Sites
How do you hyperlocalise Quora?
An SEO’s Introduction to Quora, a New Social Site
All the Quora post on TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/tag/quora/
All the Quora post on Mashable: http://mashable.com/tag/quora/
All the Quora post on RWW: http://www.readwriteweb.com/tag/quora

Is there a dedicated blog all about Quora?

Yes, it’s called Quora Town

Is there a mock site about unanswered questions on Quora?

Yes, it’s called Cwora.

What are other question and answer sites like Quora?

http://stackoverflow.com
http://yoomoot.com
http://www.chacha.com
http://www.mahalo.com
http://answers.onstartups.com
http://news.ycombinator.com

What WordPress themes can you use to create your own Quora / questions and answers site?

AskIt WordPress Theme
Answers WordPress Theme
Instant Q&A WordPress Theme
Themeflicks WordPress Theme

What to be cautious about using Quora?

Bubble talk! The tech/social media bubble telling you why and how you should use Quora.

Is Wayne Sutton on Quora?
Yes at: http://www.quora.com/Wayne-Sutton

Why my Quora profile url is Wayne-Sutton and not WayneSutton?
Because I created my Quora profile with Facebook when Quora was still in private beta and Quora won’t change it.

Source: Quora.

Any questions?

By now I’m sure you have read and at least heard about some of the tragic news from today. Also in the news at least on Twitter are tweets about music artist coming out about their sexuality and there’s always a debate about religion, race and politics. No matter what your opinion is or how strong you feel about what’s happening in today’s society I always caution clients, friends and family be careful what you say online, especially Twitter as it can and will be held against you. Here are seven post with proof if you don’t believe me.

1. Starting 10/10/2010, Twitter will begin transferring all of your tweets to the Library of Congress for archiving

2. US subpoenas Wikileaks tweets, and why this could affect you

3. Courtney Love Twitter defamation trial starts in Feb; Designer sez crazy tweets ruined her career

4. Man in Twitter bomb threat against airport loses appeal

5. Twitter-Jacking On Trial: Cardinals’ Manager Sues Twitter

6. Woman Sued for $50,000 Over a Tweet

7. DOJ subpoenas Twitter records of several WikiLeaks volunteers

While anonymity remains a goal for some and it still exist for some social networks and web apps the government and other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are buying to be your online single point of interest as your online identity profile. Of course you can add Google to the mix but this all means it is becoming easier to find you and hold you accountable for your remarks online. This means blog comments, tweets, status updates, videos and more.

No longer can individuals hind behind the computer screen or smarthphone. What you say online is the same as if you said it to someone’s face or in other public media formats such as TV and radio. Therefore be careful what you say especially on Twitter because your tweets can and will be held against you.

From the data in the AddThis sharing trends in 2010 infographic it shows that if have content you want to spread across that web. Make sure it can be easily shared on Facebook and/or sent via email easily.

A few data points:

Average Salary

• $61,800.00

Most Popular Community Manager Cities In Order

1. NYC
2. San Fransico
3. Boston
4. Denver
5. Austin

Gender Breakdown of Community Managers

• Female 68%
• Male 32%

For more information about social networks use across the world see http://www.vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/

Do you think a new social network if launched today could gain as many users as Facebook? Do you think Google’s rumored +1 Social platform will be as dominate as Facebook in the upcoming years?

If you want to upgrade your Facebook profile you can visit http://www.facebook.com/about/profile/ and click on the “Get the New Profile” button.

For more on the new Facebook Profile pages you can watch The New Facebook Profile introduction video below.

You can see a screenshot of my updated Facebook profile below or click on the badge below to see the new Facebook profile on Facebook.

Wayne Sutton | Create Your Badge

If you watched the 60 minutes interview what did you think of Mark Zuckerberg? Are you going to upgrade to the new Facebook profile or wait until Facebook forces you to?

The saying is a photo is worth a thousand words and if that is the case books are being published in popular mobile sharing applications such as Instagram, Path, picplz, Burstn, Treehouse and more. Stories and experiences are being shared by uploading photos and new mobile social networking communities are being formed. Yesterday I posted an overview of Instagram and how Instagram lands its first brand partner the National Geographic. While the popularity of mobile photo sharing apps seems to be growing, I believe we will see more brands use photo sharing applications as another tool to engage with customers or gain new customers or as another marketing channel.

While more open photos sharing apps like Instagram, picplz and Burstn continue to gain users, another sad but inevitable trend we may start seeing is more users trying to increase their followers and treating photo sharing apps like another Twitter or social networking site. Just yesterday someone was searching “how to get more followers on Instagram” and landed on this site. Gaining more followers at this point just means more people will see your photos but soon as more brands partner with photo sharing applications to offer incentives for let’s say, best photo or a caption contest the race to get more followers on photo sharing apps could start.

With the rumors around how many users Instagram has and the news around Path and picplz VC funding, it will be curious to see what is next for photo sharing apps outside of multiple platforms support (Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile 7, iPad and Tablets). Will photo sharing apps create dashboard for users and brands to see analytics on photos? Will photo sharing applications create APIs for other services to pull in photos? Will leaderboards be created from photo sharing applications like Twitter had that lead to its early success?

Regardless, not just iPhone users although Instagram is said to have one million iPhone users alone, but it seems mobile phone users are joining photo sharing apps and uploading thousands of photos. The only thing left now is monetization, brands and agencies start seeing opportunities to use photo sharing apps as a way to increase customer engagement or for marketing and when they do…. please do not call it social media.

Until then, here are few ways brands can use Instagram and other mobile photo sharing applications for marketing or customer engagement.

1. Sell Cat food!

Really… do not laugh, Instagram is full of cat and other animal photos. I’m not a big animal person and not a fan of ads but a brands could have “show us your cat” and pick the winning photo for free cat food for the month. They would have to follow the brand on Instagram to win. Then the brands could reply to announce the winner in the comments.

2. The same could be said for diapers.

There are a lot of baby photos being uploaded.

3. Caption Contest.

4. For Questions and Answers:

What is your favorite artist or What CD should you buy?

5. Product placement

6. Show us your best photo of our location

7. Book Cover feedback

8. At conferences, find the exhibit booth with xzy and take a picture

9. Photographers can show there work.

10. Holiday photo tagging.

Ex: Show us your Christmas Tress

So far I have seen photos being uploaded of brands such as Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, Old Spice, Staples, McDonald’s, and various energy drinks. For brands and agencies, what is one of first tips we said in social media class 101? Participate where customers are talking about your brand online. As for photo sharing applications, it’s participate where people are posting photos about your brand in mobile applications.

Do you think we’ll see more brands partner with photo sharing applications in the future?

Also read:
Will Instagram become the next big mobile social network or just one awesome photo sharing app?
On Thanksgiving Instagram is all about the Turkeys! 9 Thanksgiving Day Turkey photos on Instagram
The 7 most popular photos on Instagram, there’s more than lol cats!

Instagram

Instagram the fun easy iPhone photo sharing application is a hit for professional photographers, bloggers, and just about anyone who loves to take photos using their iPhone. I’ve been using it heavily over the past few months, but more often when I started posting movember photos. Since then my Instagram activity has increased tremendously and I’m enjoying seeing amazing photos from friends and others around the world.

Still, like any online or mobile community, after joining you will start to see a few trends. One trend for Instagram is cat photos but there are lot more than cats being posted. Here are the five popular photos you’ll find people sharing on Instagram.

1. City scenery

2. Babies

3. Food

4. Coffee cups

5. Cars

6. Dogs

7. Nature

8. Cats

Instagram

A simple photo mobile social networking application The social networking aspects of Instagram are simple and familiar if you’re a Twitter user. While looking at users profile you can see an Instagram username, their first name, how many photos they have uploaded, how many followers they have and how many people they are following. As an Instagram user you have four options to interact with other users. You can follow them, like a photo, leave a comment on a photo or flag a photo for review. Instagram embraced their inner Twitter by not only how user profiles are shown with the following and followers but if you leave a comment with @username on any photo you will receive push notification as well. Other Instagram push notifications are sent to your phone when someone likes your photo or follows you. Another social feature of the app is the “Popular” photos section which you could almost compared to the suggested users list or trending topics on Twitter. No, I’m not saying Instagram is a photo version of Twitter and please do not call it that, but the similarities are there. Two other social parts that I believe is a key to Instagram’s early success is the “Find More Friends” options where you can easily find other Instagram users via your contact list, Facebook friends or Twitter friends. There is even a news stream to keep you update on your Instagram likes, and new followers.

Instagram is not complex to use even with all of the features mentioned above. The founder of Instagram, Stanford University graduate, Kevin Systrom, a former intern at Odeo that later become Twitter and a former Google employee along with Mike Krieger who is a former Microsoft intern and Meebo employee before joining the Instagram team doing design & development built the app to allow users share photos and interact with others in seconds. The simplicity and usability of Instagram is smart and you can tell they followed the K.I.S.S. (Google it) rules. Along with the thought of enhancing your photos, the Instagram team has built a fun app with a growing interactive community with “likes” and comments.

Cats and Early Adopters
Speaking of community, the type of photos Instagram users are posting ranges from food, models, babies, sporting events, music concerts, holiday scenery, nature, pretty faces and animals. When it comes to animals, you may see a few dogs but as of right now cats rule Instagram. Along with cats you may find some of your favorite web “tech” personalities such as Chris Messina, Robert Scoble, Jenn Van Grove, Chris Rauschnot, Kevin Rose, Tristan Walker, Angela Benton, Dave Delaney, Tessa and John Gruber sharing their photos. A few of my North Carolina friends such as Abbyladybug, TyDowning, Jay Dolan, Mollybuckly, John Lane and GirlonCamera have started to use Instagram too making my experience even better by sharing photos from families places. Regardless of who is using Instagram make one thing clear, as of right now it is not another look at me app or see how many followers you have but Instagram is about sharing your experience via awesome photos. Still if the app continues to grow I’m sure the how to get more followers question will become an issue and a problem for early adopters who right now just love to post photos.

One Million users?
Last week it was rumored that Instagram has already passed the one million user mark which is truly impressive for the nine month old startup. If you are new to Instagram or never heard of it and asking yourself how do they have over one million users, it looks like Instagram is popular overseas. Having one million users is a marvellous achievement for any startup but to gain one million users in nine months, with 500k in funding, little press, an iPhone only app and no social networking website is amazing. Yesterday one Instagram user posted a screenshot saying the National Geographic has joined Instagram which cold be the beginning of leading social brands starting to use the service.

What’s Next for Instagram?
As for what’s next for Instagram, maybe an updated website, longer profile history, an Android version, search options, more notifications options to know if your photo is on the popular page, follow photos, like notifications tracking,leaderboards, profile badges and no startup would be complete without stickers and widgets. Regardless as Gina Bianchini stated in The Seven Principles You Need to Know to Build a Great Social Product TechCrunch post, “Create a party, not a museum.” As of today, Instagram is a party for sure.

Do you use Instagram? If not what mobile photo sharing application do you use?

Instagram

Myspace or is it My____ has been in the tech news recently from changing their new home page, new logo, new profile themes, a new focus on music and a new partnership with Facebook. With that being said, I took a few minutes today to update my … MySpace profile. I have not updated my profile for a few years being that it was a social network that was not fitting my business or personal needs. Regardless, that is not a good social networking etiquette practice as I suggest for you to update your social networking profiles every year or if you have a career change.

As for Myspace profile updates, I updated my bio, changed the profile theme and restricted access from anyone who is not a friend to post any type of content on my profile. While updating, I also noticed MySpace has new privacy settings. What stood out to me the most was the two options below: ”

Do not allow my profile information to be accessed by games and third-party services I haven’t connected to.
Do not allow communications from games and third-party services I haven’t connected to”.
Both options I selected. You can see how I set my full MySpace privacy settings in the screen shot below.

Regardless of what some “social media’ people and bloggers may think about MySpace, according to Crunchbase they have 800 employees and 125 million users and with the recent changes Myspace has made 2011 may be it’s defining make it or break it year. If you have a Myspace profile, I recommend you update your bio and your privacy settings. For more on Myspace privacy see “ How do you control your privacy on Myspace?” from the Myspace FAQ section.

Do you have a Myspace account? If so how are you using it?

I just watched The Social Network Movie, aka the Facebook movie and I loved it! But I don’t think it’s for everyone, for instance while I was walking into the theater a guy was saying real loud that the movie sucked and the only reason some people were going to see it was because of Justin Timberlake. Umm, Ok. We’ll, I’m all for bringing sexy back, Justin Timberlake was not the reason I went to see it. I wanted to see how the movie portrayed Mark Zuckerberg, was it damaging to Facebook as a company and if it has content to make people want to delete their Facebook accounts. Please note the movie is fiction and based off of the book The Accidental Billionaires.

Depending on how you view The Social Network movie there are some questionable actions in terms of stealing ideas and the movie leaves you with questioning the trust between Mark and his best friend, who called the police on who and who reported the chicken story (have to see to get it). But The Social Network didn’t leave me with a negative feeling towards Facebook. If any part of the movie is accurate in terms of how smart Mark Zuckerberg is, the movie acutely made me even more impressed with him and at some points during the movie you actually feel sorry for Mark Zuckerberg, the character.

Other aspects of the movie as an entrepreneur was great to see how programmers with passion and coding skills could build a site over night and launch a social network that gains millions of users. The downside of the movie for me is where you start to feel bad for the Winklevoss twins and Mark’s best friend Eduardo Saverin. Which reminds me of times where I’ve shared ideas only to see them impleaded by others. But unlike the Winklevoss Harvard Connection idea mine has yet to gain 500 million users.

Overall I give the movie an 8 out of 10 but I think that rating varies depending how familiar you are with Facebook and the web/tech industry. Also being that the main action in the movie is seeing a young Mark running to his dorm room and another incident that individuals a pool that I won’t spoil, after a few minutes into the movie you may be thinking when is the bashing going to start. I’ll give you one hint about the movie, you have to pay attention to realize how many lawsuits and interrogations you’re actually watching at one time.

Another feeling I’m left with from The Social Network movie is how men are driven and/or torn by relationships/women and can make us do some of the craziest things. What if Erica Albright never broke up with Mark Zuckerberg and he never created the site Hot or Not and blogged about farm animals? Then would Facebook even exist today? But was that part even true? Regardless, I enjoyed The Social Network Movie and think you would too.

Even though Facebook has 500 million users, Twitter over 11 million and Linkedin over 70 million users that doesn’t mean there’s not a place for a new social networking site to launch and be successful. Especially if it has a niche audience with a great brand. In the past year to six months there has been a recent wave of new niche social networks launched. A few based off of the question and answer format and others are new micro-blogging communities. If you’re an agency or brand I think you should at least create company profiles or have those managing your brand to preform search queries across these new sites for see if they are discussing your products/services or your competitors. Here are eight new social networking sites your brand should monitoring.

UPDATE: I forgot Cliqset!
UPDATE #2: Cliqset has shutdown as of December 2010

Are you aware of or using any of the seven social networks above? If so how?

For more on the new version of Digg see: Exclusive Video And Screenshots Of Digg Version 4

I’ve been on Digg since 2006 but haven’t been a huge Digg users but I get the feeling that is about to change. You can find me on Digg here: http://digg.com/users/waynesutton

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

It was reported earlier that Facebook started sending some businesses window decals to Facebook fan page administrators to place in a viewable area. Ironically a few weeks ago someone from a restaurant downtown Raleigh had walked into the office asking where he could have some made. I’m not sure if he received one of the Facebook fan page window decals being the letter stated it was only  being mailed to a few selected businesses.

Today I was able to read  the letters but this one wasn’t sent to a  business but to a local university. It’s good to see Facebook not only sending window decals to businesses but to colleges too being that’s where they started at. The letter included most of the same information sent to business including a $25 in credits for a Facebook Ad. The letter also had this message from their Director of Product Marketing;

“Our mission at Facebook is to help people share and make the world more open and connected. To that end, you are welcome to share your Coupon Code with up to one friend or colleague. Thank You for using Facebook pages to connect with your customers!”

If you’re thinking, doesn’t this sound familiar? Then yes, both Google and Yelp have mailed out window decals / stickers for businesses to display. Also now Foursquare provides businesses with window decals to show mayor specials and promote check-ins. Google has even mailed out Google Adwords coupons on Valentines day. Here’s what the Google and Yelp window decals look like.
Google:

Yelp:

Now the real question. With Facebook receiving a little “I’m closing my account” due to privacy backlash along with Yelp, Foursquare and Google mailing out window decals too, will you stick it if you receive one?  Let me know why or why not in the comments.

Interesting enough one of the questions from the audience was, what’s the next big thing or next big social network they should pay attention too. Being that one panel member is from Google, the other from Facebook you can guess what they said, Zeynep joked and said Facebook will take over the web, Henry and I agree on a level that some new soon to be announced platform could be just as popular as Facebook and Google now. When it came to me I repeated the question and stated that I felt like the guy asking the question was trying to verify what he may have read online that a very popular location-based app may be the next big thing. I don’t agree or suggest that any one platform at this current time will be the next big thing therefor I stated the following which was tweeted by @ImagineInternet “An aggregation of social platforms around your home base is going to be the next big thing.” – @waynesutton #fw2010 #www2010″.

In other words I believe moving forward people while start creating there own social networks via their website/blog that will pull in feeds and friends from existing/new social networks around content that they find valuable to their interest.

Do you agree or do you think some new shiny social network will be the next big thing and draw users from Facebook, Twitter or others?

– Post From My iPad

Location:S Salisbury St,Raleigh,United States

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.

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/

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?

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.

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?

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?

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?

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

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?

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?

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

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.

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

Questions for you:

Will you use it, if so how?

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.

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.

The Pitch:
“Would you know a Christian who is savvy with social networking who might be interested in helping us? We are looking for a volunteer in areas of twitter, blogging and facebook.
We are a nonprofit and send books and Bibles to prisons. We do have a website: www.cli-nc.org – thank you so much.”

Company: Christian Library International
Product or service Requesting volunteer social networking help

Contact information:
Kathleen Skaar
Executive Director

Christian Library International
3800 A Hillcrest Dr
Raleigh, NC 27610
919-212-8122
www.cli-nc.org

About:
Christian Library International serves adult and youth prison inmates by providing Christian books, Bibles, CDs, and DVDs to prisons, jails and youth detention centers. The new and used materials are shipped directly to chaplains who distribute them by means of a lending library, a book cart or by personally giving them to the inmates. God matches up just the right book, with just the right inmate at just the right time!

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

Company: Miracle Whip
Product: Zingr Firefox plugin
Pitch: Zingr is the newest way to add your own flavor to the web. Zing! anything you deem worthy of your wit. Zingr works through Facebook Connect so when you leave Zings on the web, they get shared with your friends.
How it to works:
You install the Firefox plugin from the Miracle Whip Facebook page. After you restart Firefox you’ll see an icon beside the address bar and the bottom right where you click on the active the Zing posting window.

If you click on the bottom right Zingr icon in Firefox you’ll see the settings to have your “Zings” published to Facebook and Twitter. There’s also an option to post “Zings” via the Zingr Firefox sidebar. Zings are limited 160 characters.

The Zingr glossary:

My first impression:
“Miracle Whip does social media?” After that I think the idea is creative but limited being that it only works with Firefox via a plugin at the moment. Also that Zingr reminds me of Clipmarks .
My first zing was:
Testing Zingr. Have you heard of it? If so what are your thoughts? It post to Facebook & twitter. This is a Zing!
Will I use it?
Maybe but doubtful unless Zingr creates a reverse engine where if I would post certain messages on Twitter or Facebook and use a keyword (zing) that could auto post to the Zingr community.
What features I like?
The ability to leave comments on page any page.
What features would I like to see or improved.
Although I haven’t spent to much time with Zingr, I would like to see an existing users list or a aggregation page that list current Zings posted on online. Kind of a like a tag cloud of Zings. I also would like to see miracle whip’s employees and/or marketing team use Zingr with their existing marketing. My thoughts is that if you create an app I expect you to use it also.
Final thoughts
It will be interested to see if Zingr grows and how it plans to work outside of Firefox and the Facebook community. I think it’s a good start for miracle whip but I would measure the growth of user participation after three to six months and either “think different” or continue with the platform.

Other blog post about Zingr:
The World Is Your Comedic Tumblr Blog With Zingrs
Miracle Whip serves up a real ‘Zingr’
Miracle Whip Rolls Out Social App

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

1. Pandora – http://www.pandora.com

2. Blip.fm – http://blip.fm
/>

3. Songza - http://songza.com

4. Songkick – http://www.songkick.com -
http://www.mixcloud.com

Mixcloud – connects the dots between radio content to listeners.
Currently in private beta. I have an invite code that will work one or two more times. If interested leave a comment.

6. JameWee – http://www.jamwee.com

Private beta

7. last.fm – http://www.last.fm/

8. the sixtyone – http://www.thesixtyone.com

thesixtyone tracks the web’s musical obsessions in real time

9. iLike – http://iLike.com

10. Buzznet - http://www.buzznet.com

Buzznet.com is a social media site where passionate fans interact in thousands of music communities.

11. Flotones - http://www.flotones.com

12. Seeqpod - http://www.seeqpod.com

Close to a buy out or dead pool, read: Seeqpod Starts Shopping Domain Name, Acquisition Talks Nearing Close

13. Music For Busy People – http://www.musicforbusypeople.com

An invite-only online music community trying to rid ourselves of the reliance on our tired quagmire of college era playlists, by occasionally sending fresh tunes directly to your inbox.

14. imeem – http://www.imeem.com

imeem is a social network that enables users to discover, interact and express themselves
with media, including music, video and photos, and form connections based on shared tastes and interests.

15. Spotify – http://www.spotify.com

Not available in USA yet.

16. twt.fm – http://twt.fm

twt.fm lets you share music on Twitter

17. PartyMusic.fm – http://www.partymusic.fm

What is your favorite social networking music site?

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:

In the mean time, facebook.com/sexyman has been taken. Oh someone really wanted that.

Also @TarheelEvan create a group called: Give Wayne Sutton His Facebook Username and my wife facebook.com/latoyamacksutton got hers. It looks @skydiver is have some trouble too getting the name he requested.

Come on Facebook guys, I know who you are… help a friend out.

Related post via Mashable
SocialToo Vanity URLs for Facebook: Better Than the Real Thing
Good News: Small Brands Can Get Custom Facebook URLs Too
Facebook to Launch Vanity URLs for All
Facebook Team Celebrates and Explains the Usernames Launch [video]

Update: I did reserved my name as a trademark with facebook a few days ago and I think that’s the reason I can’t reserve my name tonight. “I think” , we’ll see.

Update #2: I received an email from Facebook at 2:00 A.M. saying “Thank you for submitting your trademark term(s). We’ve seen a large number of submissions and over the next few weeks we expect we’ll introduce a process for trademark owners to request the use of their restricted terms. We appreciate your patience in the interim and will be in touch soon.”

This is great news but I talked to another facebook user who did the same thing and he was able to register his name and it would have been nice if I received the email a day or three hours earlier. But still Facebook.com/waynesutton will be registered soon. I hope. To be continued …

Uploaded on June 9, 2008 - by fredcavazza

Uploaded on June 9, 2008 - by fredcavazza

Uploaded on October 26, 2008 by Gary Hayes

Click on each image to see a larger version.

I just returned from a trip to Atlanta, GA for the Mashable/Regator Mixer along with my one of my business partners Jeff Cohen (@dgtlpapercuts http://digitalpapercuts.com).  It was one of those “Social Media Hustle Road trips and we used Brightkite to track our journey. While on the way back we stopped in Charlotte, NC to catch the end of REbarcamp (Real Estate Barcamp ) and had a mini conversation about how realtors could use location based social networks like Brightkite. Part of my response was an example of how realtors could take pictures of houses for sale and let their contacts on other social networks see what properties are available now that Brightkite integrates with Facebook, flickr, fireeagle and twitter all with one simple update (check-in).

Also here’s 3 reasons to use Brightkite from a guest post that Kipp Bodnar (@kbodnar32 and I wrote for Louis Gray @louisgray about Brightkite.

1. Building Your Digital Footprint
2. Integration with Your Existing Social Media Workflow
3. Facilitate Face-to-Face Communications

You can read the full post here: BrightKite: If You Think Your Life Is Boring, You’re Missing The Point

If you’re a Brightkite user how do you use it?