Social Media Reading - 093009

What Else I'm Reading

• Local Politicians Use Social Media to Connect with Photos - Mentions the decline in local journalism as a reason why more politicians are using social media.

Social Media Reading - 092909

• Are You Cherishing the Wrong Trophy - Jay writes that relying on followers / fans is a poor measurement for social media. And, I agree with him. 

What Else I'm Reading

• Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on its survey regarding compensation for non-profit executives
• NPR: Nonprofit Pay in 2008

Social Media Reading - 092809

Tips and Tricks

• Facebook Tagging for Business
• 5 Cool Videos to Really Know Facebook

What Else I'm Reading

• Google Search Results Now Show Hot Trends

Social Media Reading - 092709

Tips and Tricks

• CNN Gives Tips on Trustworthy Tweeting with Mashable's Ben Parr [video]
• 11 Quick Tips to Enhance Your Facebook Fan Page - Great ideas ranging from the easy to use to those that require more work. Includes examples on how other non-profits are implementing each tip. 
• How to Level Up 

What Else I'm Reading

• 13 Tips to Get Found Online: How to Achieve Free Organic SEO 
• Social Media Ad Spend on the Rise
• Report Reveals: 15 Best Practices of Social Media Implemented by the Top 100 Brands
• How to know if your social media agency is jerking you around - They focus on the "cool marketing" instead of where your customers are. Great ideas in the comments that Facebook is a tactic - not a strategy. If your agency is pitching Facebook as a strategy, they're doing it wrong. 

Social Media Reading - 092609 Part Two

• Ad Spending on Social Networks Doubles - Entertainment leads the way in growing online ad dollars. Most of spending happening on Facebook. 

Tips and Tricks

• Social Media Primer for Business [slides]

What Else I'm Reading

• Should Facebook Remove Subject Lines from Messages
• Poll: Firefox Smacks Down Google Chrome in Reader Vote
• Google Adds a Small But Useful Feature - Anchor Links to Search Results
• Judge Rules Against Gmail User After Bank Screws Up
• A New Search Engine for Finding Similar Web Sites
• Why Twitter Is not Like Facebook
• Post-NEA, Could W.H. Lawyers' Warning Put Engagement on Ice? 

Social Media Reading - 092609

• More on Twitter's New Funding 
• NY Times: Twitter Confirms New Funding

Tips and Tricks

• Three Simple But Powerful Ways Nonprofits Can Use LinkedIn
• Multiple RSS Feeds on Multiple Facebook Pages
• 11 Powerful Twitter Tips

What Else I'm Reading

• Confirmed: Twitter is Saving All Your Tweets, After All
• Personal Relationship Manager Gist Launches to the Public
• What's Your Motivation in Social Media?
• 4 Teens Sued for Obscene Fake Facebook Profile
• Teachers and Social Media: A New Learning Frontier
• Social Networking for People Over Thirty

Social Media Reading - 092509

• More on the Google Frame 
• Google Frame, Not Just for Internet Explorer
• Mashable: Study: Time Spent on Social Networks Has Tripled
• Twitter raises a bunch of money in new round of funding 
• Twitter blog: New Twitter Funding
• Mashable: Twitter Funding Confirmed, Amount Dubbed "Significant"

Tips and Tricks

• How to get more followers on Twitter - Great ideas! This is not one of those spammy MLM posts, but actual ideas on how to do it right. 

What Else I'm Reading

• Google: It is Shopping Time

Social Media Reading - 092409

• Five Things Your Nonprofit Needs to Know About Web 2.0 Donors

Tips and Tricks

• Facebook for Non-profits [slideshare] - Presented by Blackbaud and Common Knowledge
• Andy's Answers: Early Warning signs of a social media crisis

What Else I'm Reading 

• Ten Things You May Not Know About Twitter
• Study: Twitterers More Receptive to Ads Than Other Social Net Users
• Five Tips to Strengthen the Design of Your Nonprofit's Website
• A Skeptics Guide to Twitter
• What Cities Give the Most Money Online - Alexandria, VA leads the list. 

Social Media Reading - 092309

• Google Announces Google Sidewiki API
• Google Blog: Help and learn from others as you browse the web: Google Sidewiki
• Legends of Aerocles: The Dangers of Google Sidewiki: Complete Brand Invasion
• Introducing Google Sidewiki [video]
• Rick Klau blog: First Post on Sidewiki
• BuzzMachine: Google Sidewiki: Danger
• oneforty launched
• Mashable: Twitter Gets an Unofficial App Store
• TechCrunch: Twitter Needs an App Store, Oneforty Provides One
• ZDNet: oneforty launches online storefront for booming Twitter app market
• Mass High Tech: Twitter startup launched by 'Pistachio' with funding
• ReadWrite Start: @Pistachio Launches OneForty, Twitter's App Store: 140 Beta Invites
• Twitter Worm Spreading through DMs
• Mashable: WARNING: Twitter Worm Spreading via Direct Messages
• ReadWriteWeb: Don't Click: New Twitter Phishing Scam Targets Users Throughs DMs

Social Media Reading - 092209

• Google announces on Google developer blog that Google Wave will only run on Google Chrome or on Internet Explorer with the Google frame added
• Mashable: Google Invents a New Way to Kill Internet Explorer
• Mashable: Google's Plan to Kill Internet Explorer? Google Wave
• Google Chromium Blog: Introducing Google Chrome Frame
• 19% of tweets mentions brands

Tips and Tricks

• Picasa Photo App Gets Better at Recognizing Faces, Locations

Webinars and Conferences

• Planning and Running Your First Experiment in Website Optimizer - Webinar - 9/24/09 11 am Pacific - Free 
• Real-Time Web Summit - Mountain View, CA - October 15 at 9 am - $195 

What Else I'm Reading

• Redskin Player Deletes Twitter Account After Mocking Fans - Robert Henson posted a tweet criticizing fans, offered an apology and then deleted his Twitter account. 
• Five Companies that Fix their Story to Inspire Service - Zappos, Whole Foods and others are mentioned 
• What's a "Certified Social Media Specialist"? - New certification that seems pretty bogus
• Gelato: Social Media Meets Online Dating
• How Doctors are Using Social Media - Love the idea of a rise in physician-only social networking. Doctors need a safe place that they can talk to each other online. 

Social Media Reading - 092109

• The NonProfit Times - What's all the Chirping - Examples of non-profits using Twitter to help build relationships and raise money online
• FirstGiving - Tweet, tweet - Recap of NonProfit Times article 
• How 20 popular websites looked when they launched

Social Media Reading - 092009

• More on Net Neutrality
• Washington Post: FCC Chief to Propose New Rules for How Firms Control Internet Traffic
• Olivier Blanchard - Basics of Social Media ROI [presentation] - Great set of slides on defining social media costs and how to establish ROI
• Google Docs to be Indexed - If you publish your Google doc on a public web site, Google search engines will now begin crawling and indexing the document 
• Google blog: Published docs will be crawlable soon
• JoeTrippi.com: Google docs soon to be found in search engines
• More on Project Retweet 
• Mashable: Retweets Revisited: Commenting on Retweets is Important
• Mashable: Project Retweet: Why It Will Change Twitter for the Better

Tips and Tricks

• A Day in the Life of an IT Manager: Staying Connected - Great tips on how to manage your time and information resources.

What Else I'm Reading 

• My Top Ten Favorite Google Products
• Facebook: The Most Searched for Term on the Web - Beats out Twitter, porn, Bible, sex and news
• Is the Internet Melting Our Brains?

Social Media Reading - 091909 Part Two

• Foursquare: will it be bigger than Twitter
• PRSA recently posted a guest post about millennial staffers. While there was disagreement on Twitter and the blog regarding the blog, what really stirred up debate was when the guest blogger posted a comment on the blog and then deleted the comment. People felt the comment was self-serving and promotional and didn't really answer the previous comments on the blog. The deletion of the comment stirred up more controversy than the blog itself. 
• Status Update: Millennial Staffers Can Update Your Social Media Plans
• Interesting Case Study on Negative Blog Comments

Social Media Reading - 091909

• FCC to Announce New Net Neutrality Rules
• JoeTrippi.com: FCC to roll out new net neutrality rules
• Google: Net Neutrality Timeline
• Wired: FCC Expected to Announce Support of Net Neutrality Monday
• Mashable: Victory: FCC to Mandate Net Neutrality for the Web
• More on Google, Apple and the FCC 
• Brainstorm Tech: What did Apple and Google talk about for three weeks in July

Tips and Tricks

• HootSuite - in-browser Twitter Client

What Else I'm Reading

• Our online lives slowly leak away - Thoughts about what we store online and how to keep track of that data for the future. 
• RIP Facebook Beacon
• Amazon creates own house brand of consumer electronics
• Small Business Does Not Us Social Media Yet

Social Media Reading - 091809

• Are Fans and Followers Really Useless Numbers - yes!
• 21 Must-Follow Tips for Optimizing Time Spent in Social Media - Great ideas ... especially for those of us who have information overload problems. 

What Else I'm Reading

• Remember the AT&T Ads About the Future? You Will
• The sad truth about today's Internet population
• More information about Apple rejecting Google iPhone applications 
• CNNMoney: Google spills the beans on Apple
• GigaOm: Apple Rejected Google Apps Because They Were Better
• Apple Insider: Apple fires back at Google over Voice app rejection claim
• Google Public Policy Blog: Our complete letter to the FCC regarding Google Voice for iPhone

Social Media Reading - 091709

• Seesmic Desktop Releases Version 0.6 
• Loic le Meur Blog: Facebook Pages in Seesmic Desktop 0.6
• Mashable: Seesmic Desktop Adds Full Facebook Fan Page Support
• TechCrunch: Seesmic Desktop Continues to Grow, Adds Facebook Fan Pages, Yfrog Integration and More
• GigaOm: Seesmic Releases New Features for Its Desktop App
• Inside Facebook: Seesmic: The Largest Desktop App to Make Facebook More Useful
• ReadWriteWeb: Seesmic Updates Desktop App: Now With More Facebook
• The Next Web: Deep Facebook Fan Page Integration Comes to Seesmic Desktop
• CNET: New Seesmic Desktop Supports Facebook Fan Pages
• Facebook: Facebook Platform
• Chart of the Day: The Internet is Finally, Primarily a Content Platform - "Users spend 88% more time consuming content on the Internet each month in 2009 (7 hours) than they did in 2003 (3 hours, 42 minutes).
• Seesmic and Tweetdeck: Two Ways to Immerse Yourself in Social Nets

What Else I'm ReadiPublish Postng

• Busted: Burglar Arrested After Checking Facebook During Robbery
• Is Metrics the New Creative?
• Does Branding Pay off for Colleges? Harvard Thinks So.
• Twitter's New Avatar Takes Over Unsuspecting Accounts

Social Media Reading - 091609

• Twitter Gets $1 Billion Valuation 
• Twitter Now Worth 1 Billion Dollars

The problem with non - my take

In a recent blog, Seth Godin said some things that have caused quite a stir on Twitter and with those that work for and with non-profits. In his blog post, The problem with non, he talks about how non-profits are resistant to change.

There are a couple parts of his blog that I agree with:

• Too many non-profits aren't willing to take the leap from the traditional to the new. If the donations are coming in - even if they have slowed down - they aren't willing to risk those donations to go find new ones. But, for many non-profits this means that they are not engaging younger activists, volunteers and donors and have a donor population that is just going to continue to age. 

There are other parts of his blog that I disagree with:

• Not all non-profits should crowdsource their social media efforts. While crowdsourcing works for some groups, it can backfire on others. 
• Social media is not free. Some of the tools may be free, the resources that it takes to write the messages and get them online are not. 
• I see interactions with non-profits that blow me away on a regular basis. 

Other people's responses: 

• CauseWired communications: Why Seth Godin is Wrong
• Beth's Blog: Seth Godin's Non Post About Nonprofits: Deers in the Headlights
• Chronicle of Philanthropy: Followers and Friends Not the Only Measure of Nonprofit Success Online

Social Media Reading - 091509

Webinars and Conferences

• Boston Email Fundraising Bootcamp - $125 - October 7, 2009 - Boston, Massachusetts 

What Else I'm Reading  

• YouTube Races to be #1 ... on Facebook - YouTube is trying to be the first page with 1M fans on Facebook. If they make it, they are going to let fans choose which non-profit videos are featured on their site.

Social Media Reading - 091409

• Facebook Launches @Mentions in Status Updates
• Mashable - How to: Facebook status Tagging
• Google Launches Fast Flip 
• What Google Understands About the Future of News and Publishing that Publishers Do Not - Packaging is king
• NY Times - Google Releases News-Reading Service
• Google blog - Read news fast with Google Fast Flip
• Little Things: Facebook Friend Notifications Transition to HTML

Social Media Reading - 091309

• Facebook Activities Haunting Job Seekers

Webinars and Conferences 

• Twitter for Nonprofits - Slideshare presentation 

What Else I'm Reading

• 5 Ways Banks are Using Social Media - Community building and customer service are two of the top ways banks are using social media. 
• Mobile Marketing Done Right
• The People's Republic of Google

Social Media Reading - 091209

Webinars and Conferences

• To Mobile or Not to Mobile: Digital Strategies for Marketers - 9/15/2009 - 11:00 AM Pacific

What Else I'm Reading

• Get People to Your Website - Great ideas. Reinforcing the ideas that you need to have an easy to remember web address listed on every thing that your organization produces. 
• Semper Fi Link or Die
• Is Facebook Like Google, or More Like Yahoo?
• Is Facebook leaking notes?
• YouTube Fame Lands Graffiti Artist in Jail

Social Media Reading - 091109

• All for Good Releases Facebook Application 
• Mashable: All for Good: Facebook App Helps You Find Ways to Volunteer 
• Crucial Requirements for Campaign Landing Pages - Great ideas on how to make your campaign landing pages mesh with your email campaigns.
• Virtual SRM Findings: Social Click Through Rates for Facebook are Highest on Tuesdays - Wednesday is only slightly lower than on Tuesday

What Else I'm Reading

• Wilson hires professional tweeter - Joe Wilson (made infamous by shouting at the President) has hired a new media strategist to tweet on his behalf and reach out to bloggers 
• 7 Reasons Why I Love Seesmic
• The Obamas' Choice for the Day of Service: Habitat for Humanity

Social Media Reading - 091009

• Twitter Announces New TOS; Opens door for Advertising 
• Official Twitter Blog: Twitter's New Terms of Service
• Reuters: Twitter expands rules to allow advertising
• Mashable: Twitter Changes TOS, Opens the Door for Ads
• Silicon Valley Business Journal: New Twitter rules allow advertising 
• Facebook Releases Facebook Lite
• Facebook Lite Saves Bandwidth, cuts Learning Curve
• Facebook Lite Is Why They Bought Friendfeed
• Facebook Introduces Ability to Tag Friends in Status Updates (Similar to Twitter Mentions) 
• Breaking: Facebook Introduces @Mentions in Status Updates

Social Media Reading - 090909

• Google launches collection of Internet stats
• An Interview with Sarah Koch from Facebook Causes

Tips and Tricks

• TweepML.org 
• Mashable: Share Groups of Twitter Users in One Click with TweepML 
• Follow all Mashable Editors with one click

Webinars and Conferences

• Business Marketing Association: September Product Marketing Roundtable - 9/17/09 8:30 AM - $30

Social Media Reading - 090809

• 10 Reasons Why Brands Fail at Twitter - This is a really great list, especially about listening and responding when appropriate. 

What Else I'm Reading

• Strategy and the Social Media Pyramid
• Introducing Facebook Connect for Mobile Web

Social Media Reading - 090709 Part Two

• Should Your Organization "Go Google"? - Examination of whether or not your organization should switch to Google Apps

Webinars and Conferences

• Boston Media Makers
• Boston Media Makers Wordpress Official Site
• Having a Blast with Boston Media Makers
• Violet Attends Boston Media Makers
• C.C. Chapman - Boston Media Makers 9/5/09
• Boston Media Makers Flickr Stream
• Video Roll Call [video]

Social Media Reading - 090709

• Don't Take This the Wrong Way - A must read post on the difference between criticism and feedback and how your organizations social media policy should respond to both. 

What Else I'm Reading

• McKinsey's Web 2.0 survey: What do execs know 
• How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey Results
• Report Reveals: 15 Best Practices of Social Media Implemented by Top 100 Brands
• Twitter Fever: 5 Red Hot Twitter Trends to Track
• Stats: Young People are Flocking to Twitter
• WordPress Enters Real-Time: 7.5 Million Blogs Reach Twitter Speed
• Life Recorders May Be This Century's Wrist Watch

Social Media Reading - 090609

Tips and Tricks

• Twitterfall Launches Twitter Reply Search Engine
• How To: Get the Most Out of Posterous

What Else I'm Reading

• Want 5,000 More Facebook Friends? That'll Be $654.30 - Silicon Alley Insider explores some of the different pricing schemes for things like Facebook friends, Twitter followers, Digg recommends, etc. 
• Walmart Classifieds - Walmart creates a very Craigslist-like classifieds system on the Oodle platform.  

Social Media Reading - 090509 Part Two

• Worldwide Facebook Mobile Usage up 300% in Last 12 Months - Facebook for iPhone has 12 million active monthly users; Facebook for Blackberry has 9 million active monthly users
• The First Twitter Class - DePaul University is offering a class on how to use Twitter to its journalism students
• City, neighbors encounter Facebook challenge - More staff than expected is causing parking problems at Stanford Research Center and in surrounding residential neighborhoods

What Else I'm Reading

• Rules of the Pool
• What is Google Doing For You? -  A short, but informative, list of the tools that Google offers non-profits for free.  
• Can a School Library be Replaced by E-Readers? Apparently, it Can - Cushing Academy is spending $500,000 to eliminate its library and replace it with digital e-readers and a more friendly laptop environment
• Google Wave: 5 Ways it Could Change the Web
• Map Wars: How Google, Microsoft and Yahoo Deal With Bridge Closure - Interesting look at how the big three mapping programs are noting (or noting the Bay Bridge closure). Comments show that this might be a Bay Area phenomenon and not happening with other bridges.

Social Media Reading - 090509

• Amazon Apologizes to Kindle Users for Deleting 1984
• Reuters: Amazon offers to replace deleted copies of 1984
• NY Times: Amazon.com Offers to Replace Copies of Orwell Book
• Cnet: Amazon apologizes for deleting Kindle e-books
• Want better digital strategy, ban seven dirty words - Matt Dickman has a great idea on how you can get people talk strategy on social media instead of talking about tactics - don't let them talk about the seven top platforms. 

Tips and Tricks

• How To: Use Twitters's Advanced Search Features

What Else I'm Reading 

• There's no social media revolution - Paul Seaman breaks down some of the most talked about social media by big business case studies. 
• Where does brand fit in your marketing - In a down economy should you worry more or less about your brand? 
• Fox's Fringe "Twitter on TV" Experiment Irks Fans - Instead of doing something with a split screen and then showing the tweets along the bottom or something like that, Fox put the tweets from cast/crew right on top of the video. This is a cool idea but the implementation was flawed. 
• The Future of Search and Search Engine Optimization
• 5 Key Questions When Selecting a Social Media Firm - Great questions to get the conversation started with looking at a firm to work with your company on social media. 

Social Media Reading - 090409

What Else I'm Reading

• Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens
• Actually, Teens are on Twitter
• 20 Weird Uses for Twitter

Social Media Reading - 090309

Webinars and Conferences

• Social Media Classes for Nonprofits: Seattle - October, 2009 - 3 Classes - $39 for one/$90 for mini-series - Seattle, Washington 
• From Zero to Community: Practical Advice for Growing and Nurturing an Online Community - Webinar - 9/17/09 

#chats 

• #SMMetric - Wednesdays at 1 PM Eastern - Social Media Monitoring 

What Else I'm Reading 

• The Influentials: New Approaches for Analyzing Influence on Twitter
• Lunchtime Poll: What's Your Favorite Social Network? 

Social Media Reading - 090209

What Else I'm Reading

• 5 Ways to Attract and Empower Your Crowd - Interesting ideas on how to begin to crowdsource. 
• Boost nonprofit web traffic - Steve Thomas says that the first question you should ask if someone offers to boost your web site traffic is why? 

Why I Started This Blog

About 4 months ago, I started actively tweeting. It was during the NTC NTEN 09 conference, and just like I expected I became hooked.

But, there are limitations to the 140 character format, so I decided I wanted to start blogging about the social media world and what I was reading. This was two months ago, and my initial goal was to post a blog every day. I specifically didn't plan on any original content and just wanted to make comments about other people's content.

My goal for the month of September is to still blog every day, and do around 20+ "Social Media Reading" blogs per month and at least 10 original posts this month. It's a challenging goal, but one that's achievable.

Social Media Reading - 090109

• Pandora One Releases Upgrade
• Pandora Blog - Pandora One Gets an Upgrade: Desktop App 2.0
• Mashable - Pandora One Gets An Update to Desktop App 2.0
• Gmail Crashes 
• Official Gmail Blog - More on today's Gmail issue
• Mashable - Google: Gmail Outage Was Our Bad
• Yeeaauuh! - 10 Hilarious Twitter Reactions to Gmail Going Down

Webinars and Conferences

• An Evening with Shel Israel in Twitterville - Hosted by SNCR - Palo Alto, California - $10 - 9/8 5:30 PM  

What Else I'm Reading 

• Twitter and health care - can a tweet a day keep the doctor away
• Lost: Regional Networks removed from Facebook
• Ebay Sells Skype to Private Investors 
• ComputerWorld - Report: eBay to sell Skype to group of private investors