Buzz, Brilliance and Blogging: Week ending June 23

Every week I compile a list of the noteworthy social media news (Buzz), balanced with valuable commentary (Brilliance) and some good advice about Blogging as well. The links that follow are to sites and blogs that I read on a regular basis - consider them recommended reading for you too. Or you can just come back here each week for a taste of what stuck out to me.

~Karen

Buzz

Facebook started rolling out editable comments this week. But be careful: Edited comments will be marked as such and previous versions will be viewable. Other changes that have come out this week include the option to opt-out of notifications in the drop-down menu - a handy, quick way to customize your Facebook experience. In a move toward more stalkerish data delivery, Facebook is going to tell you how many of your friends have logged in recently and the last time you posted. I like the new hovercards that started showing up this week. They include your cover photo and avatar, as well as a bit of info about you. 

Facebook’s editable comments have sparked debate about the need for similar functionality on Twitter. I think the two are different networks - let’s leave Twitter alone. Mistakes happen. We don’t have to revise everything to perfection. If you’re on Twitter and want to read the feed of a verified account, you can now filter all of the @replies out. This would be a useful update for them to roll out globally. 

You might have been a bit frustrated Thursday with Twitter being down. I know I was since I needed to access some information for a client. They have offered a pretty comprehensive explanation here. 

It’s always confused me that I couldn’t post to Google+ anywhere but on the page with my feed. Now that I’m used to that, they’ve changed it so that you can post from your profile - kinda like that other big social network.

How much do you care about your Klout? If last October’s change to the algorithm bothered you, please brace yourself for another change. Or, perhaps, change your perspective on the importance of Klout.

Brilliance

Read this and think about what’s currently driving your content strategy. Do you need to make adjustments?

There are no less than a bazillion posts outlining pet peeves or don’ts in social media, but they crop up because people still do these things. I happen to agree with this list. 

Looking for a solid list of reasons for entering content marketing? BloggingPro has you covered.

Blogging

Blogging for business is incredibly valuable - especially if you know how to blog competitively. 

Do you struggle with knowing what to write about or finding resources to feed you inspiration? There’s no end to the sources, but you should set yourself up so they come to you regularly.

One of the most oft-debated topics in blogging is comment management. Gini Dietrich started the discussion this week with comparisons of her own style with several others. One of those who came up in her post was Mitch Joel and he decided to weigh in with his thoughts on blog comments.

What is your preferred method of blog comment management? 

Buzz, Brilliance and Blogging: Week ending May 5

Every week I compile a list of the noteworthy social media news (Buzz), balanced with valuable commentary (Brilliance) and some good advice about Blogging as well. The links that follow are to sites and blogs that I read on a regular basis - consider them recommended reading for you too. Or you can just come back here each week for a taste of what stuck out to me.

~Karen

Buzz

You can now indicate on Facebook whether you wish to donate your organs or not. Whether people actually post it as a status or not, there’s been an 800% rise in registrations in California! I’m still waiting for the option to show up on my profile. 

The other big news from Facebook this week was the launch of Facebook Offers. This functionality is being rolled out slowly, but Lara and I already see it on one of the pages we admin. If you have a small business, you will want to use this feature! Here’s how you can request it for your page if you don’t already have it.

Twitter is making some tweaks to its user interface (UI) to make it better. The Twitter.com experience has always been one that many (including myself) have refused to partake in. Fortunately, the updates since January have worked really well and I use Twitter.com more than I ever did before. Regardless of where you tweet, it’s good to know if your tweets are worth reading or not.

Brilliance

Do you read TOS and privacy policies? Neither do I, but we really should. Here’s just a few things you’ll want to know from the privacy policy of any web service. Of course, if you don’t like or trust the privacy,there are ways to stop these sites from tracking you.

“Shun social media for business at your own peril.” Says Mitch Joel in this post about social media and business to business (B2B) use. It oversimplifies it a bit, but B2B companies need to use social media like B2C does. You’re creating relationships with individuals, not corporations.

Jason Falls went on a bit of a rant about Klout this week and it’s an interesting read. Love it or hate it, Klout isn’t going away. Though if you hate it, perhaps you should delete your automatically generated account.

Blogging

This post really resonated with me, because I don’t always answer a question or solve a problem with my posts. But if you do, you will not fail to provide value and everyone is short on time these days - we need content that serves a purpose. 

Many people have questions about how to do this or that even months or years after they’ve launched a blog. Here’s a few of those questions answered.

This is one I’m working on. Ergo, this weekly roundup keeps getting shorter. Have you noticed?

Buzz, Brilliance and Blogging: Week ending April 28

Every week I compile a list of the noteworthy social media news (Buzz), balanced with valuable commentary (Brilliance) and I recently added Blogging to the mix as well. The links that follow are to sites and blogs that I read on a regular basis - consider them recommended reading for you too. Or you can just come back here each week for a taste of what stuck out to me.

~Karen

Buzz

It’s probably not a huge surprise to you if I say that women are more likely than men to have a blog or a Facebook page. This is good information for marketers to be aware of when they’re creating and distributing content.

Speaking of Facebook, they have been busy little bees this week making tweaks and changes. First off, the larger profile photos I mentioned last week are now live for profiles and pages. They’ve been making some design changes to how your friends are displayed on your timeline (I noticed this yesterday on mine.) Another new addition is trending articles. I also mentioned them last week and so far, meh. They’re all from readers, so I don’t find it’s useful with such a major limitation.

I still need to download it for mine, but if you’re an iOS (iPad) or Android user, you might want to check out LinkedIn’s new app. Apparently, it’s quite impressive from what I’ve heard so far. Based on this description, I’m quite looking forward to trying it out.

In other mobile app news, you can now know your Klout wherever you go if you’re an iPhone user. Of course, we have yet to see the Klouchebag app come out, so I don’t believe we have a complete mobile picture of influence without that.

Twitter spam occasionally reaches obnoxious proportions. That was the case a while ago, though it’s slowed down. Lately, I’ve heard that Twitter is working on solutions, but perhaps some of the problem is can be solved with greater daily vigilence by individuals?

Google+ has released a share button, which is different from the +1 button, but I actually wonder if that isn’t just more confusing to have two. I often share content using the +1 button, so that part seems redundant at the very least.

Brilliance

As a business, have you realized yet that social media is the easiest way to scale word of mouth marketing? As a client recently said to me, “social media is a big mouth”.

Email has gotten out of control for me, so I’m very interested in tools to help me manage it. For a change this week, I’m also going to try ignoring my email inbox. (And turn of notifications on your phone.) Come back next week and tell me if you’re more productive.

Do you display your Twitter stream on your business web site? You might want to think about reconsidering that decision.

Blogging

I said there probably wouldn’t be anymore to share from Mitch Joel’s challenge, but I was wrong. And I want to share Amber Naslund’s in particular because when she writes about certain things like her philosophy (“I write to discover what I think.”), I relate to it so closely.

Do you want to know if you’re doing things wrong with your blog? Sometimes we need the constructive criticism/suggestions to help boost our efforts to the next level. Scan this article and see if you find three things you can work on this week to make your blog better. 

Blogging regularly can be challenging. Topic ideas can feel dry or boring or uninspiring. Rarely are there blogging memes that businesses can legitimately participate in, but I’m contemplating doing this one.

Fun Stuff

There are such creative, big personalities out there in the world and the Internet is allowing us to see them in action. This is one creative campaign to sell a car.

Buzz, Brilliance and Blogging: Week ending April 21

Every week I compile a list of the noteworthy news (Buzz) from my week of reading. I like to balance news with commentary, but it has to be really valuable for my readers (Brilliance). I recently added Blogging to the mix as well. The links that follow are to sites and blogs that I read on a regular basis - consider them recommended reading for you too. Or you can just come back here each week for a taste of what stuck out to me.

~Karen

Buzz

I’m going to lead off with a story that no one seems to care about based on how much it’s been covered. Klout launched brand pages this week. (Are you excited yet?) I saw one story about it: this one. Does this mean that we’ve finally relegated Klout to the level of importance it deserves?  

Facebook has given notice this week that your profile picture size is about to change as of April 26th. Be prepared to modify your integrated cover photos accordingly. Here’s the statement that came in this week’s Facebook Page Update email:

On April 26, we will be updating the size of the profile picture on all Pages. We are letting you know about this small change in advance so that you can update your profile picture on April 26. The new profile picture will be 160 x 160 pixels and will sit at 23 pixels from the left and 210 pixels from the top of the Page.

Facebook is testing a newsfeed insert that will highlight trending articles. Oddly, this will only include articles from social reading apps rather than curate listings of most shared links. Too bad - I see fewer and fewer social reading app links in my newsfeed. Are people still using them?

Who’s excited about real-time Facebook insights? (Besides me.) This is great news!

It will be extremely interesting to see how One iota does with its self-service deals app for Facebook. If their business model is better than Groupon, it could be a very useful way for business owners to extend special deals to Facebook fans. And imagine if you were able to give an extra discount for check-ins. The marketing possibilities are really good with this one.

Every time the Olympics roll around and I hear all the new (and old, recurring) restrictions the IOC is putting on use of anything to do with the Olympics, I just have to ask if they care at all about garnering goodwill, because this is not the way to do it.

The Red Cross has thought of an innovative way to raise awareness while getting donations. Donate $10 and watch your Twitter avatar break apart and then be restored - much like what the Red Cross does with disaster relief. With all the criticism about slacktivism in social media, it will be very interesting to see how well this campaign does.

Google pulled the plug on Picnik this week, but all is not lost. You can still do a photo collage with iPiccy!

Brilliance

Sincerity in social media is essential, particularly if you want to be taken seriously as a business. Jon Loomer gives some great advice specific to Facebook in his guest post on All Facebook and for general social media use on his own blog.

Related to sincerity is Chris Brogan’s post about earning attention.  Building mutual, genuine relationships with everyone isn’t possible. Capturing the attention of someone with a large following is possible, but do you really want to be known as a squeaky wheel? It’s far better to earn that attention by making a valuable contribution without expectations.

The discussion of the changing nature of advertising has been going on for decades. VCRs and later PVRs threatened advertisers because so many recorded TV shows and fast-forwarded through the commercials. Web content and streaming have taken this discussion in a whole new and interesting direction. 

Some stories are just brilliant because it’s so incredible that they happen. 

Blogging

One of my must-read blogs is Spin Sucks by PR professional, Gini Dietrich, and I should mention that a big reason I started reading is because the name appealed to me. Gini published her response to Mitch Joel’s challenge this week and I think having a set time for blogging daily sounds wonderful. 

One thing I’ve learned from all of the bloggers who shared their process is that they work very hard to maintain a steady stream of great content that exhibits their expertise. 

That said, if you’re looking for ways to take your own blog to the next level, one thing you will want to do is develop your blogging skills. You can start by participating in one of these twitter chats that focus on blogging and reading BloggingPro isn’t a bad idea either.

Do you get stuck on your own blogging process? Here are “just a few” ways to shake it up and maybe even shake you out of writer’s block and make your content stronger than ever.

Are you thinking of starting a blog? Twitter account? Facebook? Any other social network? Before you do, make sure you ask yourself a few questions and answer honestly because content marketing isn’t for everyone.

As anyone reading this post each week knows, I don’t believe in the #4 tip on this list of ways to get more blog comments, but many of the other tips are right on. My #1 tip is not to use captcha as well. Just think about the mobile users and how much a pain captcha is for them. 

Buzz and Brilliance: Week Ending February 11

In a week where Super Bowl commercials and commentary on social media dominated the reporting of anything social media related, I do have a few tidbits to share that have nothing to do with the big game. From Lady Gaga (what?) to Pinterest (of course) to Twitter and Facebook (naturally) and even Klout.

Buzz

Some Klout users have been clamoring for a mobile app for quite a while. With the addition of more and more gamification to the mix, a mobile app makes a lot of sense. This week BlockBoard, a mobile app maker, was acquired by Klout. It's the in thing to do to buy an app maker before you build an app, so we should have a release sometime soon(ish).

Are you using Pinterest yet? More so now than ever before, I'm completely sold on the value of it as a social bookmarking tool. But is your site "optimized" for Pinterest? Having good visuals (video/pictures) is crucial for sharing on Pinterest. You don't have to go very far on the Web before you'll trip over a pin or a post about creative ways to use Pinterest. Without a doubt, it's going to be interesting to watch this network evolve. There was a bit of controversy about Pinterest making money off of users' pins, though they have to make money somehow so I think it's mostly about being transparent about it to users. In other Pinterest controversy, they say that imitation sincerest form of flattery and Pinterest has clones in spades.

There is still a lot of content I'd rather share on Stumbleupon, but they've recently made changes that make it a tad less appealing. As someone who's been a big fan of StumbleUpon for a while, I'm disappointed to say the very least.

In the big question of who owns twitter followers - prompted by PhoneDog Media in South Carolina - a judge has allowed the lawsuit against former PhoneDog employee, Noah Kravitz, to move forward. Do you have employees tweeting on accounts that your company owns? Make sure the ownership and company social media policy is clear and put it in writing. Never just assume that it's understood.

Facebook is still raising the ire of users from its Timeline rollout and privacy concerns around it to demands for dividends as people see through the IPO filings just how much their data is worth to Facebook. They're also doing some really nice work with the design of photo layouts, but users are upset that deleted photos haven't been properly purged - a big no-no for sure.

There was a time when actresses or pop stars had to market themselves as pop stars and actresses. Then it evolved into perfume lines, clothing lines, shoe lines and more. If you weren't dipping your toe into multiple industries, then you were essentially not hip and with it. Now, it seems that tech and social networks are all the rage. From Ashton Kutcher's tech investments, to Justin Timberlake "saving" MySpace and now Lady Gaga has developed her very own social network called Little Monsters - apparently a cross between Reddit and Pinterest where you can share all things Gaga.

I'm just shaking my head. Moving on!

Brilliance

I like posts that debunk myths about Web presence and help support the (already well-proven) business case for getting online. David Meerman Scott published one this week that so perfectly illustrates the fallacy that customers are not on the Web. Sure, not all of them will be, but for the vast majority of businesses I bet you will find a critical mass you can reach out to.

I took a few Web design courses a few years ago and probably the best part of those courses was the emphasis that was put on code that's accessible. I developed an awareness of the issues around usability that I believe helps me address them better for my sites - whether my audience needs it or not. You really never know. I thought about that when I saw this post from Mark Shaefer about social media leveling the playing field. Isn't it so good to read stories like this about the positive impact SM is having?

Speaking of a level playing field, this post from Mitch Joel about the changes our world has experienced is a poignant commentary on how connected we've become and encouragement to sit back, relax and enjoy it when you have a free moment.

How much time do you spend on social media? This was the subject of a poll reported on by SmartBlog on Social Media. The results are interesting - we spend a lot of time. The article has a few good tips to keep your time spent down to a minimum.

Facebook engagement seems to be a universal issue. I always get questions about how to get more from followers. Here's a few suggestions for creating engaging posts from Amy Porterfield. The biggest takeaway? Operate on the KISS principle - keep it simple silly. Make it easy for your followers to respond to your call to action. And keep your posts short.

*****

This past week on The Media Mesh, I talked about the 5 Ws of Facebook and had a very interesting discussion about comments on blogs. This week, we'll dive a bit deeper into Facebook with Social 101. Don't forget that we're finishing up Getting Things Done for the #MediaMeshBBC on February 21st!