Opinions In Social Media

Where You At? - The Rise Of Location Aware Apps

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:18:25 -0700

One of the major trends that appear to be forming in 2010 is the location aware applications made...

Location Based Services: What’s Your Take? It’s no...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:02:00 -0700

Location Based Services: What’s Your Take?

It’s no secret that at this years ~~SXSW~~ f8 conference Facebook will be announcing and probably launching its location service. This will potentially bring 400+ million Facebook users into the location based market. Does Facebook entering into this market legitimize what Foursquare and Gowalla have already been doing? Should Foursquare and Gowalla be worried about Facebook’s entrance into their market? Are you looking at advertising and marketing opportunities for your business or brand in the location bases services market?

14 Tools Or Services To Help You Get The Most Out Of Twitter

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:35:49 -0700

Using Twitter or any of the other social networks shouldn’t be a painful experience but yet many...

14 Tips To Help You, Your Brand Or Your Business Get Started In Social Media

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:09:00 -0700

Are you looking for a few tips to help kick start your social media/networking experience? Here are...

Control Who Sees Your Facebook Content With Precision

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:54:13 -0700

Recently I was asked by someone how they could share an image to their Facebook profile but limit...

The How, What And Why's Of Twitter Lists

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:42:46 -0700

In November of 2009 Twitter rolled out one of its newest features to the general public…Lists....

Don’t Forget The “Social” Part Of Social...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:20:49 -0700

Don’t Forget The “Social” Part Of Social Media

Business and brands need to think of their social networking efforts as extensions of their physical/virtual stores. If someone walks into your store with a question do you ignore them? The same rules apply for social networks and social media, in order to be successful you have to be social.

Avoiding The Initial Social Media Mistakes

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:27:00 -0700

One of the mistakes that I’ve witnessed many new brands and individuals make when first entering...

The Great Blog CMS Showdown: Wordpress vs Tumblr vs Posterous

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:03:00 -0700

Although I have been extremely happy with the use of Tumblr as my blogging platform I can’t help but...

Could Google Buzz Be More Than Just A New Social Network? Google...

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:41:03 -0700

Could Google Buzz Be More Than Just A New Social Network?

Google launched its new social networking platform Buzz about five days ago and it appears Google has been listening to user feedback and has been able to close up some of the privacy concerns users had been voicing since its launch. Despite the fact Google has been attentive to its early adopters I am still not convinced that Google Buzz is a social networking platform and instead may actually be a real-time blogging platform.

Google has already built many blogging features into its Buzz service currently implemented by many of the other blogging platforms either by design or via a plugin system.

Features found inside Buzz that are similar to other blogging platforms include:

Buzz pulls in all your content from around the web (Flickr, Picasa, Reader, etc…)
With the major exclusion of Facebook Buzz is able to pull in most of your social graph
Buzz allows for long form content to be posted where Facebook and Twitter both have limits on the amount you can post
Built in commenting system
Built in sharing system
Built in upvoting system
Tight integration with its mobile platform

So, what would Google need to do to become a real-time blogging platform?

Allow customization/templating of your Buzz/Profile page
Ability to use your own domain instead of the profile url
Facebook integration into the connected sites
Text formatting tools like those already found in Gmail
Third party tools for posting

I don’t think it’s Facebook and Twitter that have anything to worry about as they have already reached a massive audience that will be hard to win over, but instead if I were Tumblr and Posterous I would be looking over my shoulder at the Google giant that is about to strike.

What do you think? Is Google Buzz a new social network or could it be more of a real-time blogging platform? Who should be most worried about Buzz? Is it Facebook and Twitter or Posterous and Tumblr?

To Succeed Online You Must Be Yourself And Be Honest With Your...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:06:10 -0700

To Succeed Online You Must Be Yourself And Be Honest With Your Audience

With the new web 2.0 social networking driven internet it is no longer easy to hide behind an avatar or fake profile. If you want to succeed in this world you must be honest and you must be yourself.

What's All The Buzz About?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:08:00 -0700

Google has launched a new social networking platform heavily integrated into its webmail service...

Defining Goals To Help You Achieve Social Media Success

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:23:43 -0700

By now many companies and individuals have heard the buzz around social networking sites such as...

Add A Share Button So Users Can Distribute Your Content...

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:56:35 -0700

Add A Share Button So Users Can Distribute Your Content Easily

With very little work and by simply cutting and pasting you can easily add a share button to your website’s content making it simple for your site visitors to distribute and share your content with their friends and those in their social networks. The easier you make content sharing the more likely your visitors will share your content.

Here are links to the few I mention in the video:

If you have any questions regarding how to set up any of the sharing buttons I talked about, please contact me and I’ll do my best to walk you through the set up.

Let me know in the comments what you think of this video, what I did right and what I may have done wrong.

** This was supposed to go up last night but I had issues with...

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:46:00 -0700

** This was supposed to go up last night but I had issues with the video upload. The Oilers eventually lost in OT to the Canucks. Poor Devan Indeed.

In its current form I think that the weekly Twitter tradition of #followfriday or #ff is flawed. To make #followfriday actually useful again I think we should get rid of the listed names and instead offer up one follower and a reason why you should be following them.

That’s my suggestion for fixing #followfriday and I will be starting this upcoming Friday implementing this into my #followfriday.

Let me know in the comments what you think about the changes I suggested for #followfriday, if you will be participating or if you think I’m wrong and why.

I’ve noticed a trend lately where many users are simply...

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:09:00 -0700

I’ve noticed a trend lately where many users are simply retweeting others messages and I’m not sure if this is because they are new to Twitter or are trying to gain new followers by simply retweeting. If you are only retweeting someone elses message how will anyone know what your message is? By speaking in your own voice and tweeting own message you will be able to connect with others and build your brand far easier.

What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? What do I need to address? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Your social networking experience has very little to do with...

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:17:43 -0700

Your social networking experience has very little to do with your friend or followers count, instead it has more to do with the quality of content and effort you put forth in engaging with the followers, friends or fans that you do have. The more you put into social networks, the more you will get out of them.

Looking around I’ve noticed a lot of sites and...

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:34:05 -0700

Looking around I’ve noticed a lot of sites and organizations that either aren’t using social media or aren’t using it effectively and so what I’ve decided to do each week is to provide my opinion on how a site could more effectively use the social networking tools we now have available to us.

For my first What I Would Do video post I have taken a look at the Liberal Party of Canada and their current battles with the Conservative party over the proroguing of Parliament. Instead of shelling out millions in print and television ads I offer a few alternatives that they could use to get their message across at a fraction of the cost.

Feel free to leave a comment below and if you are struggling in any way with social media or just want to brainstorm some ideas for your business please contact me by email, on Twitter or on Facebook and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

There's No Such Thing As Can't

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:22:48 -0700

Lately, I have begun to notice a startling trend that even I myself am guilty of from time to time....

As a business owner it’s time you take control of your...

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:27:58 -0700

As a business owner it’s time you take control of your online presence by purchasing your businesses domain name and placing even a basic website online. It’s time to stop relying on the search engines to give you a listing based solely on your yellow page ad.

If you own a business that has zero online presence than this year your goal should be to let the world know what your business is, what service or product sells, who runs the business and what your hours of operation are by leveraging the many cheap and sometimes free advertising platforms online.

If you need help getting started let me know how I can help.