Another “Fish Friday” – Wrap It Up!

Whoa! What a week. Lot’s going on and lot’s to discuss. It was a pretty interesting week in the worlds of social media, NetWorks! Boise / Sales Results LLC,  and technology so maybe we can begin the discussion with …. tech talk.

Virus Alert: Not any particular virus. mind you. Just the one that got in my computer (smile). I was pretty upset as I do pay for a multi-computer license for what I was lead to believe was a pretty robust anti-virus package, Nod32. Not robust enough, apparently (smile). Something grabbed, of all things, my iGoogle gadget for Gmail for hosted domains. I ran multiple scans, tried to block it with filters, deleted the gadget and thought that had taken care of it (it had not) and then finally did a shout out to one of our NetWorks! Boise members, Joe Mikitish at SEN Technologies. Joe is a rock star and an uber geek. He now has me running AVG (paid version) and Malwarebytes (also) paid. Go to Joe’s company site for a link to each under the “support” box.

There is another plus side to all of this. I decided not to reactivate (at least at this time) my iGoogle Gmail gadget and instead just set up a direct link on my FireFox tool bar. One of the things that I don’t like about FireFox is that the tabs it uses are so freakin’ wide that they eat up available space real quickly. There is a FireFox add-on available called Tab Control which allows you to specify minimum and maximum tab widths. I have both set to 150 which makes tabs approximately 1/2 the width of the standard tab.

Zemanta introduced their new version and the interface is beautiful and it works wonderfully with both this blog and with Gmail. Performance appears to have been substantially increased!

Paint Shop Pro X2 from Corel was on sale at Staples last week and I got it for $49.99 after mail in rebate. I’m hoping that if I play with it enough, it will allow me to display sharper screen captures on this site. Actually, I know it will as I have already had some success in improving the look at that was without even reading the book. Yes, it even has a book (smile).

On to Social Media ….

TweetDeck‘s web site is now configured to address the new Twitter List features in great detail.

LinkedIn has a new, very clean, interface that I think I am going to like a lot. I wish FaceBook would follow this lead.

SocialScope Lite’s Twitter and FaceBook client for the BlackBerry just introduced a new version (the first that I have seen since I started using it) and it now includes lists and geo tagging. Good thing that I can pull in my Twitter lists because the group tabs I had set for it did not get carried across in the update procedure. Fortunately, I had those duplicated on my lists within Twitter itself.

One thing I have always coveted for this site was to be able to provide readers with the ability to Tweet or otherwise share articles that they read and like. This site is on a WordPress.com platform and that is not one of the available widgets. Addtoany solved that as is demonstrated by the “Share” badge found at the end of this post.

NetWorks! Boise had its Group #3 pre-launch meeting this past Tuesday and we will be formally starting the group on January 5 with 15-20 members which will bring our total membership in the three groups to well over 50. Time to start planning for Group #4 but I am leaning toward it being a little different. I have another version of NetWorks! Boise that has been previously developed but has never been introduced. Maybe the time is …. now. At any rate, here we are in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression and we are doing networking groups that require double the investment of competitive groups, and we are experiencing rapid growth. In fact, seven of our member companies think that the groups are valuable enough that they have chosen to be represented in more than one group. These companies, all of our members, understand the difference between an expense and an investment and recognize the value we provide. If you do not grasp this concept, you don’t belong with us anyway (smile).

Sales Results LLC is the legal entity behind NetWorks! Boise. Very shortly it will become much more as we have several exciting projects and products in the works. I would love to tell you about them now but, that would be premature AND, I would have to kill you (smile). Stay tuned. Subscribe to this blog or get updates via email. Links to do either or both are found on the top right sections of our sidebar.

“Fish Friday”. That’s a wrap! Thank you for visiting!

Craig

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My Top 12 Choices For Social Media Productivity

search1x.com

When it comes to Social Media, I devote a lot of attention toward making the time I spend as productive as possible. Being active in this medium is, I believe, essential. Trying to do so without taking advantage of the myriad of tools that are available … well, that’s just plain dumb.

Mind you, there are literally 100′s of these apps and, certainly, there are some really great ones that I am either not using or, quite likely, not even aware of. Got to go with what I know and here are my top 12. Today (smile).

iGoogle: This is my home page and this is my command center. Many of the tools that we are going to discuss are found right on this page. Google has a tremendous selection of gadgets that you can bring onto your iGoogle page and what this allows me to do is communicate and coordinate with Twitter, FaceBook, and even LinkedIn without ever having to open a new tab unless I wish to.

Gmail Gadget: Until I find someone to “Wave” to, email remains king. Maybe even after Wave becomes widely adopted which is, for that matter, still a question very much remaining to be answered. The gadget does reside on my iGoogle page. Google has many to choose from including those for hosted Gmail accounts as I have. Yesterday, the look and feel of this app was updated making it even more functional in its ability to allow me to conduct, if I wish, all email activities without even going to my Gmail page.

TwitterGadget: Also on my iGoogle page. This is actually a very functional Twitter client much like TweetDeck, Seesmic, or HootSuite. Not as sophisticated, mind you, and it does not have the added capability to post to or monitor FaceBook but, it’s a great little gizmo none the less.

Google Reader: Again, you guessed it, on my home page (smile). I probably subscribe to 15-20 news sources and blogs that I find to have consistently interesting articles. Whenever a new article is posted on one of these sites, it gets added to my reader which I can them peruse at my convenience. My iGoogle gadget allows me to get a quick look at all items in my reader by title and source, drill down to get a synopsis of the article, or click to go to the original source. If I wish, I can go to my full reader and check articles based on everything that is in there or by folders that I have established for each to be filed under. I also have the ability to, right from within Reader, share any article to Twitter, FaceBook, Posterous, or many other sites. Pretty cool.

Google Alerts: I am using Google Alerts to scan the internet for articles that may be of interest to me. Alerts are generated based on keywords that I have specified. All articles pulled by alerts are fed to …. my Google Reader.

ReadTwit: This is a very cool little tool! One of the frustrating things about Twitter is that you have all of these folks posting links and 99% of these are in a url shortened format which makes it impossible for you to determine what that particular link might be about, or might take you to, without having to click on it. On top of that, folks are tweeting so fast that there is an excellent chance that you will miss that one really cool link that could make or break your day. ReadTwit monitors the tweets of those folks that I follow on Twitter, grabs the links from each tweet, moves them into my Reader, and actually gives me the title and a synopsis of each. Very cool (smile).

PowerTwitter: This is a FireFox add-on that actually installs itself as an overlay onto your Twitter home page. I know it does a number of things but what I really like is that it takes those shortened urls and translates them and actually shows me the source and the title of the link. When I go to somebody else’s Twitter page it does the same. It also allows me to re-tweet that article from that person’s page if I so desire. I find this invaluable combined with my Reader and ReadTwit. When I view an article on my Reader that was generated by a Tweet, I follow that article back to the Tweeter, find that tweet, and then re-tweet as opposed to just sharing that article. Credit where credit is due. I have also discovered that re-tweeting is scoring me big points in the Twitter community and is also increasing visits to this blog. A win-win.

HootSuite: Hootsuite is a very powerful Twitter client that is gaining an increasingly wide following. There are many out there that prefer it to any Twitter client that is available. I use it for the Hootlet bookmarklet. The Hootlet is a little button that sits on my browser toolbar. When I am looking at an article that I would like to share on Twitter, I just click on the Hootlet. A tweet is prepared along with a shortened link. I can add my comments if I wish and based on space available and then ………. I can send it now or schedule to send it later. As I like to say … HootSweet! (smile).

Ping.fm: This app also sits on my iGoogle page. It allows me to send updates to one or a multiple of sites with one single post. I use it when I want to send an update not only to Twitter but also maybe to FaceBook and/or LinkedIn. By the way, Ping.fm can also integrate with HootSuite. HootSuite is pretty much a Twitter client only. Combined with Ping.fm it can become much more.

Share On FaceBook: Also a button on my toolbar. If I am reading an article I like, I can share that directly to FaceBook along with the link, an article synopsis, an image I can choose for the article, and my comments.

TwitterFeed: I am using TwitterFeed to automatically post to Twitter new articles that I have written along with the new articles that some other special folks (ones that I trust to be consistently good and appropriate) have written. At this time, it is the only auto-post tool that I am using.

SocialScope: Twitter and FaceBook for my BlackBerry Curve 8900. Only available, at this time and as far as I know, for the BlackBerry. May not have yet been generally released. I had to request an invitation to a closed beta launch. These invitations, incidentally, appear to be quite easy to get. You may have to wait a day or two for yours but no biggie. Sweet, very sweet, app. I’ve looked at other Twitter clients for the BlackBerry and, in my opinion, the others don’t even come close!

Whoa! I can, and do, drone on (smile). Thanks for visiting!

Craig

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SocialScope – Twitter For Your BlackBerry

I realize that there are a lot of very cool apps available for the iPhone including Twitter apps like TweetDeck. For we BlackBerry users …. it always seems that what we are offered is second best. However, and you can take this to the bank, SocialScope as a Twitter client for your BlackBerry is H.O.T.! Let’s examine some of the key features.

Twitter and FaceBook updates: And all from one screen with the ability to update simultaneously.

A Beautiful User Interface: It just looks cool.

Tabs on Top: Tweets, @ Mentions, Direct Messages, FaceBook, and All Tweets and FaceBook. There is a little red star that appears on each tab where there are unread messages.

BlackBerry Shortcuts Work: “C” for compose or “R” for reply etc.

Spell Check

Notifications: A yellow icon appears at the top of your BlackBerry home page if you have a direct or @ message waiting.

Easy identification of your messages: Messages that you have sent appear with your photo/gravatar on the right hand of the screen vs. the left for everybody else.

Attach a Tweeter’s Account and Stream to your BlackBerry Contacts: Sweet!

Send Web Page link directly to SocialScope: A Tweet is opened automatically along with a bit.ly shortened URL

Displays photos beautifully: including those in FaceBook updates

Displays conversation thread on Direct Messages

All the miscellaneous functions: ReTweet, Replay, Follow, UnFollow, Block, Group, Favorite

A fabulous Search Tool

If you have not checked Tweet for awhile: You will not have to scroll through pages and pages of updates to get back up to the top of the page.

I have to say that there is nothing about this tool that I do not love. From what I can tell, battery usage is good. I looked at TwitterBerry and did not like the interface. UberTwitter was o.k. but had some annoying features. A friend is using TweetCaster and loves it but, once I got on SocialScope, I saw no need to look further. There is one catch and it does not seem to be a big one. Right now, when you go to the SocialScope site, you must request an invitation as it is in a private beta mode. I got mine in less than 12 hours as did another friend. They must not be that discriminating (smile). So go there, get your invitation, and get you some (smile).

WordPress Update: WordPress has introduced a new spell checker. I will say that it is better than the previous one. Now it recognizes “WordPress” and “blog” as being actual words (smile). There are still a number of terms, app names, and phrases used in social media that it does not recognize like “gravatar”. For whatever reason it also has trouble with app names that combine two words together and separate them via a capital letter like “FaceBook”. It does not like the spelling but Zemanta finds the link and spelled in the exact same fashion. I know that keeping up with all these names and updating a dictionary would be a full time job. The simple solution would be to allow the option to add it to your dictionary. However, I am guessing that there is no way to do that on a muti-user WordPress.com plaform.

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

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Searching For My Perfect “Sharing App”

allpositiveoptions.com

I’ll admit it. I’m more than a little frustrated about now. I have spent a considerable amount of time looking for the perfect application, widget, gadget, or whatever else you might want to call it that will allow me to easily share what I want, and how I want to do it, on the specific social media sites of my choosing. I still can’t seem to find it and I am hoping somebody will comment on this post with the solution I seek. Primarily through trial and error, here’s my established criteria:

1. I want to be able to selectively share on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, or simultaneously on up to all three. One pass and one click. Check the boxes you want to share on.
2. I want to be able to share content to include links, photos, videos, whatever, and all with one click from the web page that I may be reading.
3. I will want this app to fill in the content name, provide a shortened link if applicable, and allow me to comment on the post.
4. When I share content to FaceBook, FaceBook recognizes the link and does that “content conversion” thing to show what the post was about.
5. This application will also provide me with a way to easily send just a written update to any or all three of these services.
6. I am not interested in something that will also allow me to monitor feeds from these sites. I have other apps that already do that well and don’t need, or want, another.
7. I’m looking for a magic “button” that resides on my browser.

Here’s what I am using and why they do not meet these criteria. Please note that, for the areas listed, if these apps do in fact have these capabilities, I sure as hell can’t figure out how to do it (smile). Your corrections and advice will be highly appreciated!

1. TweetDeck or Seesmic: You need to cut and paste link info into the Tweet. Will also update to FaceBook but not to LinkedIn. Need to open the full client.
2. SocialScope: This is a BlackBerry app. It is, without question, the best Twitter app out there for the BlackBerry. IMHO. It comes close to meeting my needs as a sharing platform, however, my BlackBerry is painfully slow on web page loads and I want a desktop app. This will also not update to LinkedIn.
3. HootSuite: A great app and the Hootlet button is fab for grabbing content but, will not update to LinkedIn or FaceBook.
4. Streamy: May be the closest thing on a desktop but will not update to LinkedIn and is a full blown Twitter / FaceBook client. It also includes, however, a great reader and you can import feeds straight from your Google Reader account if desired.
5. Google Reader: They have just added a “send to” feature in Google Reader but it only works from within Reader itself and does not include LinkedIn. No way to send plain text updates.
6. Digsby: I looked at this yesterday and had high hopes. It will share to all three sites and does so nicely. It is also a full client that seems to run in the background. However, it just did not seem completely polished and my computer speed seemed to slow down substantially. Maybe just me? FYI. This was the only app I saw that actually will monitor update feeds from LinkedIn.
7. ShareThis: Works with all three sites and is a simple button on my browser. You do have to send different posts for all three sites, however. And, it does force you to send content to both FaceBook and LinkedIn. No simple text updates.
8. GizaPage: If all you are interested in is having one page where you can go and tab click to each of your actual social media sites, look at GizaPage. This site is actually designed as a place for you to send folks to learn more about you and connect to you. One link on your signature line. However, if you go to the page it will recognize you as the owner (at least from your desktop) and then you can go to any of your sites and operate them just as you would if you went to them directly.

Here seem to be the two best for what I want to do:

1. Hellotxt: This does not meet my exact specifications but it does allow you to update simultaneously to multiple sites, including LinkedIn, and include content on the updates. It’s really pretty cool. Check it out.
2. Ping.fm: Very similar to Hellotxt. Practically a twin. Also has some interesting apps including HootSuite and I had noticed previously that these two have some sort of relationship.

Ultimately, all of this comes down to specific needs and applications. Each of these tools excels in different areas. You will probably settle on selecting a few.

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

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Four Twitter Clients For Your BlackBerry

I’ve had my new BlackBerry Curve 8900 for a little over one week now. Two reasons that I broke down and got this thing in the first place were email and Twitter. I’ve managed to get email pretty well dialed in although I am still interested in maybe fully syncing with Outlook. Getting a Twitter app that meets my needs has been surprisingly challenging. Everything cool seems to be written for the iPhone. Or so I thought. Here are four Twitter clients for the BlackBerry that I have looked at:  Better read this entire post because I saved the best for last!!

TwitterBerry: As I understand it, this was probably the original defacto standard for the BlackBerry. It is likely a stable platform. However, the interface reminds me of a screen shot from the original IBM PC back in 1981. Sorry, but not cool. I want a more “polished” look. Delete (smile).

UberTwitter: This is a very very nice app and I ran with it for the first week. At the time, I was having problems that were related to Google Mobile App or UberTwitter or both. I pretty much narrowed it down to the Google App and, take this advice from me, if you have a Curve 8900, you had better wait. Looking at various forums, the latest version of this just flat does not work on this BlackBerry. Use it four to five times and you will be visiting “screen freeze city”. “Battery pull time” although I did find a nice little utility called “QuickPull” that does a soft reboot without having to physically pull the battery. I thought that by not using the Google Mobile App my problems would all be solved. Close but no cigar.

For whatever reason, when I want to look at “replies”, @ messages directed at me, UberTwitter chugs and chugs and never seems to finish indexing. It is either very slow or it is getting hung up somewhere. If I exit out of that function, my updates no longer want to send. Maybe I just need to allow it more time. Patience is not one of my virtues.  Also, and I have not been able to figure out how to get around this, when you log on to UberTwitter it takes you back to the last Tweet viewed and you can start reviewing up from there. If you monitor Tweets fairly closely, that might be a desirable feature. I don’t. It might be hours between Twitter checks for me and it might then take me 10 minutes to scroll up to the top. Annoying. I want it to work like TweetDeck where the latest message is on top and I can scroll down if I want to. Still, thousands of folks do swear by UberTwitter and it certainly is worth your look.

I then Googled and Googled and Googled looking for other alternatives and with surprisingly little success. By chance I ran across an article I had saved sometime back about a new product called…….