This week we attended a meeting about funding. Boooor-ring? We thought you might say that. But we’re not here to talk politics or our duty to the kids, only to point out how we used social media and invite you to create what we need. We told what happened on our Facebook event page as it happened and we live Tweeted during the meeting.

We notice Twitter follows “as it happens”, Facebook is “here it comes”, and online and traditional media says “Here’s what happened.” Being more specific, Twitter is a mess of information and we all miss the “as it happens” only to hear about it later on TV. Facebook is you and your friends talking cats or you being invited to events, while traditional media is bleeding from the inside out because everyone already knew what happened before the publication.

Well, folks, it’s obvious to me there’s better ways to integrate “as it happens,” “here it comes” and “what happened.” I want easier ways to see Tweet history, even years down the road. I want Facebook events which tell what is happening as it happens and I want to be able to look later to see what happened. Viola! We need a platform which allows people to be the primary source and then later allows for more discussion on the same topic.

Mainstream media (what is that now? I mean newspaper reporters and TV reporters etc) could capitalize on this. Use social media to be the primary source and post that to one spot which can be found later, and finish it off with a nice article describing the event. This is the real missing link from what is happening now to what happened before. And it will work, especially if there is interaction allowed during the early social media experience.

Until then I’ll just have to abuse Facebook’s event capability which allows for me to post live posts as it happens. The trouble is that people don’t go to past events to see what happened or watch during events to see what is happening. At least we can message all guests at once even if they didn’t say yes. Or could that be annoying?

We specialize in broadcasting your message.  Our main talents are web production, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ broadcasting, and QR codes.  We also dabble in android apps.

Minnesota Siren’s Holly Cairns:

Holly Cairns has been blogging, authoring, editing, and creating since 1996.  She might be best known for her android applications, combined RSS feeds MNBlueBlogs, OccupyWallStreetAcrossAmerica, and national unionnews, and for her blogging. Contact information for Holly:

Holly Cairns
holly.cairns@minnesotasiren.com
(612) 399-6757

Facebook status:
http://facebook.com/people/Holly-Cairns/1081820669

Skype:
heccairns

Google+:
Google “Holly Cairns” or Holly Cairns

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/Hollycairns

Twitter RSS feed:
https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=hollycairns

EXPERIENCE
• Small Business Owner
• Educator
• E-commerce, Interactivity, New Media
• Marketing / Strategy

EDUCATION
M.A., Education, Saint Mary’s University, Minneapolis, MN
B.A., Education and Psychology, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

Minnesota Siren’s Heather Suess:

Heather Suess has been in sales and marketing since 1999.   Contact information for Heather:

Heather Suess
heather.suess@minnesotasiren.com
(612) 399-6757

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/MinnesotaSiren

Twitter RSS feed:
https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=minnesotasiren

• EXPERIENCE
• Small Business Owner
• Strategist
• Sales

EDUCATION
B.A., Psychology and Family Studies, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
NFHS Accredited Interscholastic Coach

Have an event you’re publicizing?  Don’t forget to include who will do the live tweeting.  Include the Twitter handle in the literature and the hashtag you’ll use. Why?  It’s free advertising.  Tweeps who cannot make the event can still get images, main points, and opinions. If you choose who live tweets, you can have some control over what is tweeted.  Finally, I’ve live tweeted event and enjoyed following the other people say who are also live tweeting the event.  It surprises me that this isn’t done more often.

What is a Twitter hashtag and why use one?  Many people will answer that hashtags show what is trending and look like this:

#word

Really understanding a Twitter Hashtag:

Log in to Twitter or use a Twitter app and search for #democrat in the search bar.  I didn’t say to search for “hashtag Democrat.” Make sure you enter in the search bar:

#Democrat  

Non Twitter users can go here to see what I mean. 

If you search for a hashtag you will see a stream of the latest tweets  associated with the topic “Democrat”.   You can now see what others are thinking and follow those individuals, if you’d like.

Using Hashtags:

It’s best if you first know what you are getting into before you use hashtags. Each hashtag takes away from your 147 Twitter characters you use to microblog and therefore had better be golden.  And sadly, many hashtags are just a waste of time.  You tweet,  include a great hashtag, and then realize only two others ever use the hashtag.  Time wasted.

The Secret:

On hollycairns.com (now defunct) I devoted whole pages to hashtags.  Not blog posts, but pages, which only showed the latest stream of Tweets including the hashtag.  People not familiar with Twitter could go to my page HASHTAG MN2010 , HASHTAG HCR, or HASHTAG DEMOCRAT and see the stream of live tweets associated with that hashtag.   I included those pages on my website because I hoped those hashtags were always trending (and therefore my pages would always be relevant).  I found this, instead:  Sometimes #democrat was used, but sometimes organizations used #dems or #myorgdem to talk about the same kinds of things. My pages would only pick up #democrat and the information in the tweets containing the new hashtag wasn’t picked up and displayed on my pages.

In my experience using hashtag-tracking pages we can find the secret.  Hashtags can be golden if they are consistent.  My conclusion is that businesses and organizations can effectively use hashtags by:

1.  Consistently using the same hashtag

2. Placing a hashtag bug (saying #word in your literature or media) to let people know about your hashtag

3. Being creative when trying to get others to use the hashtag

4.  also adding trending hashtags in addition to the consistently used hashtag (optional)

As usual folks, a lot of your effectiveness can be found in how easy it is to share what you are trying to say.

We’ve recently redone our Adding Images to WordPress Software video.   Am I trying to do too much in this video?  

This video covers:  Uploading images into WordPress 3.5.1 or greater (with the new media manager).  Specifically, it contains information on: Inserting Images into a WordPress post, finding a public domain image on google, sharing an image to FB and saving to computer, changing the size of an image on http://photoshop.com so it is smaller and easier to see in WordPress, and setting the featured image.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbsEWjTSr8I

Need written instructions?  Here they are: 

Inserting images into WordPress 3.5.1

-log in to your blog
-write all of your new post
-put your cursor where you want the image to be (I put the cursor top left)
-click “upload/ insert” right above where you write your post
-in the new window find the words insert media at the top and right below that make sure you’re in upload files rather than media library
-select file from your computer and open
-the selected image will be highlighted in blue with a check mark
-on the bottom right make sure you set alignment (I like left and thumbnail)
-click insert into post

NOW, after that is done you need to do one other thing, and that is to set the featured image. On the write a post page, down on the right:
-click on set featured image
-select the image you want to use or upload a new one
-click set as a featured image

Featured images show on the homepage and don’t show on in the post unless you add those directly to the post as described earlier above.

If you’re visual, here’s what we do.  We build fast and informational websites which allow you to make your own changes.  Our websites are RSS feed capable and allow for interconnectivity and the ability to broadcast to Facebook and Twitter (hit one button and it goes to your website, Facebook account, and Twitter account.)  And, if you have more than one website to manage we use superuser software.  This superuser software can be used on one server or many servers. If you use it across many servers you’ll have domain names that are easy to share such as website.com and website2.com  (instead of website.com/site  and website.com/site2  ).  Thanks!

Trending:  Social issues are consistently being conflated with gun control.

Women’s rights… and guns. Florida lawmakers believe gun owners have constitutional rights worthy of protection, but pregnant women do not.

Florida legislators who passed the Firearms Owners Privacy Act. This Act prohibits physicians from inquiring about patients’ gun use and / or ownership. Medical associations opposing the bill called it “physician gag law.” When it comes to guns, Florida lawmakers found that protecting a patient’s privacy trumps both the physician’s judgment and First Amendment rights.

When the patients are pregnant women, however, the same legislators have taken the inverse position on privacy rights.  The same legislature passed a bill compelling physicians to recite a speech designed to discourage a woman from exercising her constitutionally protected right, while subjecting their patient, who has made the difficult decision to terminate her pregnancy, to a medically unnecessary sonogram. In other words, lawmakers believed gun owners have constitutional rights worthy of protection, but pregnant women do not.

Personal privacy… and guns.  NYPD is using terahertz machines to scan our bodies.

The New York Police Department announced today that it will soon adopt portable scanning technology that lets police officers see from a distance whether someone is carrying a concealed weapon, according to the New York Daily News.

The scanner is a device small enough to fit in a police van or set up on a street corner that reads terahertz radiation, which is energy emitted by both humans and inanimate objects. When aimed at a person, it’s possible to see anything that is blocking the specific energy coming off the human — such as a gun.

Abortion… and guns. Pro-life and for gun control?  Then you are the anomaly.

Shockingly, many who are most staunch in opposition to abortion are also most opposed to limiting the purchase and ownership of guns. How can this be considered a “pro-life” position?… If limiting a small amount of the personal liberty of some could potentially save the lives of others, this is a minor sacrifice which aligns closely with the virtues and principles long embraced by this country. A true pro-life position demands that a greater value be placed on saving lives than on protecting personal liberties. It’s time for those who claim to be pro-life to support higher regulations of guns and ammunition. This minor suppression of personal liberty is a small price to pay to potentially save many lives.

Fair taxation… and guns. Can we tax liberties?

“As we know from John Marshall, the power to tax is the power to destroy. This does not imply or mean that we can’t tax the sale of guns or the profits of media corporations. What is dangerous is the use of the taxing power, not to raise revenue but to regulate or restrict the exercise of constitutional rights.”

Unemployment rates… and guns.

A country with high unemployment is a place where teenagers and twenty somethings are more likely to drift into gangs and gangs are behind much of the gun violence in this country.

And so on.  This probably benefits the NRA more than it will help social issue activists achieve any desired outcome.   It’s all in the communication.

We have many, fast designs.  Our sites include:

Broadcasting capability.  Hit one button and publish to all your websites, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Greater connectivity between same-theme websites, even if they are not yours.  People can see what other related websites are posting without having to go to those websites.

Social sharing ease.  Readers can share posts to FB, Twitter, Stumbleupon,etc. and also follow you on Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, etc.

Video and other media embedding capability. Easy sharing. Just put a link
in the text box and the video appears in the website post.

Easy maintenance: We can set up autotweets to any Twitter and
Facebook account using any RSS feed, even one we have created which
follows many feeds (such as what happens on Twitter.com/Hollycairns  Holly
rarely posts anything manually to Twitter.

If you plan to maintain your own site:  Easy to learn software (for volunteers to maintain the site). 

And more.  Just ask.

For us at Minnesota Siren broadcasting means the ability to hit one button and simultaneously publish on a website, Facebook and Twitter. (Note:  This is different than superuser software which allows you to post on several RSS capable websites at once.  For that you need to research WPManage or other software.)

Jan, 2013, testing Mailchimp’s Social ability to broadcast:

1. Does Mailchimp’s Social application work?  Answer: Yes.   Blast technique works.

2. Can we broadcast to several Facebook pages at once?  Answer: Yes, even to Facebook pages not connected to personal accounts.

3. Can we broadcast to several Twitter accounts at once.   Answer: Yes.

4. Finally, how does Mailchimp’s Social compare to the broadcasting application Wordbooker?  Wordbooker’s one advantage over Mailchimp’s Social is that it can broadcast to a Facebook group.

These instructions work best when using a PC instead of a mobile device or tablet.

Minnesota Siren recently gave birth to a Facebook page. Here’s instructions for creating a Facebook page using an already existing personal account (associated with your name) and creating one which is not associated with any particular personal account.

Tip: Don’t have Facebook automatically create your company page when you are adding about you information. We did that and ended up not being able to change our profile picture or add a cover image. We learned to first create our company page using the instructions below and then edit our about you information, selecting from a dropdown list of companies.

Creating a business page using an already created personal Facebook account:

Log in to your personal Facebook account and go to this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Enter your data. Are you a local business or other? Choose category and list your address, read the terms and check that you agree to terms, and click get started. Next upload a profile image. Go on to do a great description of your company and enter a link to your Twitter account or to your website. Remember to check that this is a real business. Next fix the url so it is easy to share. In the box I’d put in Minnesota.Siren. Enable ads or skip. After this Facebook has a series of things it wants you to learn about your page.   Viola, you’re done!

Creating a business page without using a personal Facebook account:

Don’t log in to your personal Facebook account and be sure you aren’t already logged in to your personal account (in your computer’s memory). In other words, log out first. Then follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Now enter your data. Are you a local business or other? Choose category and list your address, read the terms and check that you agree to terms, and click get started. Next Facebook will ask you to open an account. Enter in an email you don’t already use for Facebook, a password, birthdate, do the security check, and read and check that you agree to the terms. Now go to your email and confirm your email address with Facebook. They send a link and you click on it which opens a new window. You can then proceed to set a profile picture, set a great description, check that it is a real buisness, and Facebook brings you to an admin panel where you can set security options, etc.

But using this method you’ll notice you CANNOT greate any Facebook groups!  And…  to suggest your page to others you need to log out of your new business page Facebook account and log in to your personal Facebook account. One you are in your personal Facebook account search Facebook to find your page (you might need to click “more results”.) Click to like the page and follow the link to the page. There you can share your page.

Using your new business page in the about you section of your Facebook Timeline (listing it as a place you work or have worked):

After the business page has been created you log in to your personal Facebook account, go to your Timeline and select “about”.  Edit work and education. When you start to type the name of your business in the text box a dropdown list appears and you select the right business .

Tip:  If you just created your new business page while in your personal Facebook account you might be posting as your new page (meaning your identity is the page now instead of you as your personal Facebook account). At the top it says “you are posting as…” There you switch back to your personal account and go to about, go to your timeline and select “about“.  Edit work and education. In the provided text box you’ll begin to type the name of your business and a dropdown list will appear.  You then select the right business.

Here’s the bottom line as of Saturday, January 12, 2013:

If you want both a business page and the ability to create groups first open a personal account and then through that personal account create a business page. While in your personal account you can create groups. If you don’t care about creating groups go ahead and create a business page without using a personal Facebook account.