Archive | Apr, 2010
Facebook Applications:fun and functionality for your pages and profile
Not only is Facebook is quickly becoming America’s new favorite past time, but it’s spreading like wildfire. Famous for connecting with friends and family, Facebook is a social media giant that has even managed to outrank Google as the internet’s number one site. Because Facebook is used by so many millions of people and for so many different reasons, incorporating various Facebook software applications can enhance your experience and make using the site more efficient and fun.
A Facebook application count from 2008 shows the current directory at 33,000 strong. That’s a heap of apps to choose from. Just because there’s an app doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a good one. Here are a handful that we consider to be the best of the bunch.
DivShare
If you’re tired of being limited to the types of things you can with friends from your status box, like links and photos, then DivShare is the app for you. DivShare lets users share MP3s, images and any other type of file up to 200MB in size with no cap on storage space. This is great for exchanging large files.
Marketplace
With more than 9.7 million active users, this is definitely one of Facebook’s more popular apps. Marketplace is like Craig’s List for Facebook. You can sell, buy or search for anything you want. Plus, you can support charities by selling for a cause.
RockYou Live (formerly Super Wall)
This application lets you share videos, cards and even draw graffiti. Depending on what peeks your interest, you can easily share your favorite media item of the day, like a popular video from YouTube or a home movie of your dog’s silly pet trick. Discover new and interesting content from the web right from your Facebook wall.
Weekly Schedule
A wonderful application for anyone who has friends that don’t require Blackberry’s to manage their time. Use Weekly Schedule to keep tab on your pals and let them know where you are straight from Facebook. This is a convenient way to coordinate meetings, events or conferences.
weRead
Writing and reading go hand and hand. Show off your literary prowess with a this handy app that helps you catalog, track and share all the books that you’ve read, are reading or planning to read.
Whether you’re interested in getting organized, traveling or marketing yourself, Facebook seems to have an app that will suit everyone’s needs. Explore to find more.
Not only is Facebook is quickly becoming America’s new favorite past time, but it’s spreading like global wildfire. Famous for connecting with friends and family, Facebook is a social media giant that has even managed to outrank Google as the internet’s number one site. Because Facebook is used by so many millions of people and for so many different reasons, incorporating various Facebook software applications can enhance your experience and make using the site more efficient and fun.
A Facebook application count from 2008 shows the current directory at 33,000 strong. That’s a heap of apps to choose from. Just because there’s an app doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a good one. Here are a handful that we consider to be the best of the bunch.
DivShare
If you’re tired of being limited to the types of things you can with friends from your status box, like links and photos, then DivShare is the app for you. DivShare lets users share MP3s, images and any other type of file up to 200MB in size with no cap on storage space. This is great for exchanging large files.
Marketplace
With more than 9.7 million active users, this is definitely one of Facebook’s more popular apps. Marketplace is like Craig’s List for Facebook. You can sell, buy or search for anything you want. Plus, you can support charities by selling for a cause.
RockYou Live (formerly Super Wall)
This application lets you share videos, cards and even draw graffiti. Depending on what peeks your interest, you can easily share your favorite media item of the day, like a popular video from YouTube or a home movie of your dog’s silly pet trick. Discover new and interesting content from the web right from your Facebook wall.
Weekly Schedule
A wonderful application for anyone who has friends that don’t require Blackberry’s to manage their time. Use Weekly Schedule to keep tab on your pals and let them know where you are straight from Facebook. This is a convenient way to coordinate meetings, events or conferences.
weRead
Writing and reading go hand and hand. Show off your literary prowess with a this handy app that helps you catalog, track and share all the books that you’ve read, are reading or planning to read.
Whether you’re interested in getting organized, traveling or marketing yourself, Facebook seems to have an app that will suit everyone’s needs. Explore to find more.
LinkedIn Applications
The professional networking site LinkedIn connects members together and is primarily used as a business and relationship building tool. Through LinkedIn’s profile screen, users can customize information about their current and past business accomplishments. It’s very similar to an organized version of an online resume.
Beyond profiles LinkedIn offers quite a few handy applications that allow its members to integrate into their profiles. This enables members to use their LinkedIn accounts in a variety of ways and it takes the profile for a static page to an interactive hub for professionals. Take a peek below to learn about some of the applications available and how they can elevate your LinkedIn profile.
WordPress
From the name of the application you can probably guess what it does. Use it on LinkedIn to incorporate your existing blog feed into your profile. It’s fuss free. Install and done. The application automatically pulls new posts from your blog and populates them to your profile. It gives your blog added exposure and shares blog details with your LinkedIn connections.
Events
If you’ve ever wondered what professional happenings are scheduled in your local area or region, you need to install Events. Conferences and seminars are recommended based on your industry and job function, plus you can see what events your friends are attending too.
My Travel
If you’re a road warrior then this is the app for you. Track your travel and find out when your connections will be in the same city or location as you. Great way to meet-up and catch-up with out friends and it’s great for organizing travel details.
Google Presentation
Sometimes words from a profile need the support of images and pictures. Using visuals makes it easier to convey thoughts, ideas and showcase achievements. With Google Presentation you can upload a portfolio or show off projects. Upload a Powerpoint file and you’re finished.
Huddle Workspaces
Everyone knows that sending attachments via email can be challenging. Depending on the size of the attachment, servers can kick-back and make it difficult to share. With Huddle, you’re able to collaborate online through a private workspace. Documents are safe, secure and best of all, you can choose who gets to see what.
Visit LinkedIn for more great applications to add to your profile and make it stand out from the pack.
Twitter for Branding: follow the leaders
If you’re thumbs are getting sore from tweeting and searching for good tweeters, give ‘em a break. There are more than 75 million Twitter users according to data published by RJMetrics in January 2010. If you’re trying to find tweeters in a particular niche it can be a tad overwhelming. So we’ve sifted through the millions to uncover the best branding tweeters and thought we’d share them with you.
The tweeters below represent a small portion of branding focused Twitter users available, but what sets this group apart is their influence, ranking and follower base. Make sure to add them to follow them for excellent 140 character snippits to help you build your brand.
@pramitjnathan
Pramit J. Nathan has summarized himself as a marketing consultant, author and speaker that specializes in branding and perception management. With an astonishing 123,836 followers (growing daily), he’s the leader of the branding pack on Twitter.
Following Pramit will connect you to great strategies, suggestions and tips that are brand and marketing related. Definitely one of few tweeters with a ‘pure’ tweet stream, meaning you won’t find random pontification on abstract subjects (i.e. what type of coffee he likes to drink each a.m. or what he purchased for his brother’s birthday last year).
@thebrandbuilder
Olivier Blanchard is author of the Brand Builder Blog and a Frenchman with a penchant for cooking and good food. Not only does Olivier tweet about relevant branding topics, but his blog and website have an amazing arsenal of well-organized links to other helpful business strategists and influential branders.
Absolutely a resource worth following, plus his blog posts and tweets are highly original and entertaining. Don’t know too many people that can connect social media and Bette Davis together for a good read.
@danschawbel
If you’re not following Dan Schawbel, well, you’re just plain missing out. He’s the bestselling author of Me 2.0 and publisher of Personal Branding Magazine. Dan is a personal branding guru and if you’re seeking advice on how to start, where to start and what to do with branding, this is the go-to-guy.
@simonmainwaring
A native Australian, Simon Mainwaring has a fresh and creative approach to branding, which makes him an excellent follow and a fun one too. He specializes in brand triage, or a blend of creative and strategic solutions across traditional, digital and social media. Join the masses and follow to learn how Simon can help maximize your brand.
@landor_dot_com
True, this last tweeter appears to be a bit random and doesn’t have tens of thousands of followers like the others, but it is currently ranked as the number one most influential branding tweeter by a Twitter search directory. Landor Associates is one of those hidden gems in the branding mine. A continual stream of branding’s impact and branding tips can be found. All are encouraged to follow.
Top Social Media Conferences and Seminars
There are hundreds of social media conferences that take place every year and around the globe. No matter what your particular marketing niche is you’re bound to find a seminar that is right for you. Instead of tunneling in on customized gatherings that are unique to a particular city, state or region, we’re highlighting a handful of the larger conferences that have something for everyone.
Hands down, this is one of the most well-attended and most infamous conferences around. Although it’s not specifically geared toward social media, it’s definitely morphed into a platform that seems to be focusing on it. During this week-long event, techies, alternative bands and indie filmmakers gather in Austin, Texas to watch, listen and talk all things social media each spring. This is the place where new applications debut and social platforms launch. Past mentors have included, Chris Brogan, Pete Cashmore and Sanjay Gupta.
The eMarketing Association’s annual two-day conference in San Francisco, California gathers thought leaders and key executives together from well known businesses to discuss best practices, processes and case studies. Attendees learn about marketing directly from the people in companies who practice it every day. This year’s conference takes place in April and features LinkedIn’s Vice President of Marketing & Advertising, Patrick Crane, Technorati’s Vice President and GM, Shani Higgins and eBay’s Senior Manager of Global Internet Marketing & Advertising, Ed Woo. Sign-up today, it’s not too late.
Presented by social media guru Chris Brogan, this two-day conference travels to various cities throughout the U.S. and is geared toward social influence marketers. Field experts share strategies, tools and methods to help you grow your business. The speaker line-up varies from city to city, but this year’s event in San Francisco had HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Manager, Rick Burnes, Constant Contact’s Regional Development Director, Stu Carty and Radian6’s Director of Community, Amber Naslund. Find a conference coming to a city near year by visiting the website.
Similar to Inbound’s traveling conference, this event is a one-day show that travels to 23 cities throughout the nation. It allows registrants to collaborate and network with the best of the best in social media and beyond. Unlike other conferences, vendor booths are amiss in order to provide a clear focus on education and content. Jay Baer, Rohit Bhargava and Dharmesh Shah have been part of past speaker line-ups.
Bestselling Books on Podcasts
As a broadcast medium, Podcasting is a wonderful way to share information through digital media files in an audio or video format. If you’re thinking about podcasting, but you aren’t quite sure just where to begin, you might want to read up on the subject. There are quite a few podcasting books available that do a great job on explaining a podcast from start to finish. Here’s a run down on some of the bestsellers that are worth the investment.
Podcasting Bible by Mitch Ratcliffe
Veteran technology writer, Ratcliffe, chose an appropriate name for his publication when he picked the word ‘bible’. It contains 570 pages that are packed with podcast suggestions and details. The book is well-organized into seven sections that focus on specific podcast segments, such as production, equipment, distribution and media integration. In order to learn all the ins and outs of podcasting, this book is highly recommended.
Business Podcasting Bible: Wherever My Market Is…I Am by Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian
Using your podcast to enhance your business and connect with your audience requires a bit of know how. Fortunately, this book lessens the learning curve through case study models. Reviewing how other businesses use this media gives podcast newbies a chance to borrow ideas and tailor them to fit their needs. A solid book with excellent examples.
Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Audio and Video Podcasting by Michael Geoghegan and Dan Klass
The authors of this book have been referred to as pioneers in the field of podcasting. They’ve been around podcasting since the beginning and offer a wealth of insight for people that are just getting their feet wet. The book covers a range of topics that help teach readers about setting-up a podcast and marketing a podcast, as well as how to format a podcast. A fantastic book that educates readers on all things podcast-based.
Podcasting Hacks: Tips and Tools for Blogging Out Loud by Jack Herrington
Having the right hardware and software can make or break a podcast. Additionally, knowing how to search and subscribe to podcasts is also key, especially when you’re ready to produce your own. Whether you’re interested in recording telephone interviews via podcast or concerned about preparing guests for interviews, this book has it all.
One honorable mention that shouldn’t be overlooked is Podcasting for Dummies from the Dummies Series.
