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Michael Fruchter.com - My thoughts on social apps, and a little bit of everything else. |
My thoughts on social networking applications.
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- 35 Tips for getting started with social mediaOctober 26 2008
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If you are going to start using social media, you should at least have an understanding of what it’s about. Social media is not about the tools, the tools are only a facilitator.
Starting with the basics. Roll your sleeves up, get dirty and stake your claim:
1) Register your domain name, preferably a dot com extension. It’s also a good idea to register any variations and extensions of your domain name. Do it sooner rather than later, or you might be negotiating with a domain squatter, paying a premium in the future, rather than pennies in the present.
2) Find a good, reliable web host, and do your homework. Ask for referrals. If you are just starting out, it’s okay and economical to go with the cheap shared hosting plan, I.E Godaddy. Expect to upgrade to a mid level or higher hosting package within 90 days or less.
3) Install a blogging platform, preferably Wordpress. Find and install the necessary plugins, themes and widgets. Installing a caching-system plugin is also a good idea. You need to optimize not only just for search engines, but also page loading time. Find a simple theme and build around it.
- Six Alternatives To TwitterOctober 21 2008
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When it comes to microblogging, the first word that pops into everyone’s mind is Twitter. Twitter will always be the heavyweight simply because they were first. Twitter should be just one of your primary microblogging tools. We all know what happens when we keep all our eggs in one basket. Listed below are six great twitter alternatives. These should be used in combination with Twitter. One more thing to keep in mind is updating. You can use web based apps to update all your microblogging profiles in one shot. There are also Adobe Air/desktop applications such as Posty that work just as well.
1) Identi.ca
Identi.ca was launched in July of this year. It gained traction quickly, partially due to it being the first open-source Twitter clone. It came on the scene at a time when Twitter’s service suffered from extensive outages and service limitations. Twitter users flocked in droves looking for a stable alternative.
Features:
- State of the blog - By a Z listerOctober 8 2008
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I have been traversing on the Internet for a little over a decade now. Throughout the years I have had a number of personal blogs on various blogging platforms that have come and gone. I have never taken any of these blogs seriously, nor have I updated with any frequency, because it was just that, a personal blog for the occasional journal thought and pictures from family outings. I decided earlier this year that I have no use for a personal blog anymore. My substitute is a private Twitter and Picasa account serving as a repository for all things personal.
The start of something:
In June of this year, I put my domain name online and started a blog. This was, and is going to be my creative outlet, a way for me to use a megaphone to broadcast my voice in the biggest stadium of them all, the Internet. My blog is about how I use social media, the technologies behind social media and how business and individuals can benefit from them. While some of my posts have been off subject, most of them have been about social content aggregation, more specifically FriendFeed. It’s no surprise to anyone reading this blog how much I love and support FriendFeed and it’s community. This blog has also provided me an outlet for my social media experiments, epiphanies, explorations and allowing me to “pay it forward ” on a virtual global scale.
Through FriendFeed, I have netwo
- Tools for branding and promotion in social mediaOctober 5 2008
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My last post touched on 10 tools that business and individuals can use for listening in social media. In this post I want to highlight some of the more popular tools, and touch upon some general thoughts for personal branding and self promotion, using social media.
Remember the key to your success is your network. Your impact is only as good as the network you associate with. These tools will give you minimal value and success without the support and distributors of your network. Power in numbers is the name of the game when trying to promote and spread brand awareness. Grow your online networks. The larger your network is, the larger your presence is, plain and simple.
Here are some of the practices I preach and also follow for promoting brand awareness and getting others to participate.
- To quote Louis Gray on FriendFeed “Be yourself, and Mike will Like it.” Be authentic, be original, be honest, and most importantly remember to be yourself. Remember a fake is easily spotted and quickly revealed.
- Promote others, even more than you promote yourself. Share, Share and Share!
- Comment on others people’s blogs when applicable and also provoke conversation on your own blog, or micro blogging platforms that you participate on.
- Don’t promote or spam all y
- 10 tools for listening in social media.September 28 2008
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This post highlights 10 tools for discovery and managing url and brand chatter. If you’re doing business online or offline, these tools are essential. As the saying goes, “keeping your ear to the street.”
Google web search should be your obvious first choice for listening. Web search will sometimes drown you in thousands of pages of results, most of which is often not relevant or current to your search query. Web search is great for research and historical purposes. When you are listening for real time chatter about your brand, Google blog search is the tool you need to be using. Most chatter either positive or negative can track back to the source, bloggers, blog postings, and comments left on blogs.
