Entries Tagged 'How-To' ↓

Listen to the 2 minute audio above. It’s great advice.

Most folks joining Twitter or Facebook today, they’re advised to follow a bunch of folks. Likely these aren’t folks they are not only direct contacts with in the physical world, but not even a friend of a friend.

This sounds like fun until that newbie drowns in the messages, messages with no meaning. Sure, they might make one or two friends out of that mess, but likely they’ll initially just be frustrated.

In the end, the recommendation to follow a bunch of strangers is just bad advice. There’s no relationship building going on. It’s like trying to make instant bake success.

So what works? Organic one relationship at a time growth of contacts. Instead of focusing on stratospheric numbers, focus on one new contact at a time.

How to do this?  Best advice I’ve received is to watch who your friends engage with. Listen in on those conversations. See what those folks who do interact have to say and how they say it.  If you see something you enjoy, friend that person.

New contacts you add, be sure to let them know how you found them. Be sure to mention the shared connection, and considering adding a note about one of the new friends messages. It lets them know you’ve been listening.

In summary, build your network one valued connection at a time. Give them your best. Your network will grow fast enough.

Recorded using Screen Jelly.

Twitter is already overwhelming for some users. Add lists and groups on top of that and you’ll find even more confusion.  Tweetdeck makes those both easier.

In the video above, I walk through adding a user to a group and a list with just a few mouse clicks and without leaving Tweetdeck.

I have a list of requirements for my WiFi spots before I’ll grab my laptop and head out for a work session. My favorite places have all 5 of the features below.

Free Wi-Fi (free)
Good coffee with free unlimited refills (coffee)
Good access to outlets (plugs)
Real food…not just muffins & dessert (food)
Easy parking (cars)

Karen kicks off a great blog post with that breakdown. The article goes on to list free wi-fi spots in the St. Louis metro organized by area of town.

Each establishment is listed with the features below it. Beyond that are descriptions of many of those locales, including comments on the coffee, plugs, and ease of parking.

This is the most definitive list I’ve run across for St. Louis.

Karen Goodman is a well respected realtor and blogger in the St. Louis metro area. Karen uses Arch City Homes to provide tips to home buyers and sellers, as well as good advice for St. Louis natives. Karen can also be found on Twitter as @KarenStL.

Scheduling blog posts is the most recommended winning practice for bloggers.  Pen and paper, whiteboard, and Google calendar are all popular tools used to track schedules.  Now there is something better.

Chris Garret demonstrates how to use the Editorial Calendar Wordpress plugin. Scheduling a post or rescheduling is as easy as drag and drop.

This post was started via a click on the editorial calendar. It would be easy enough to reschedule this post with just a click and drag on the calendar.

Clicking on the  + sign for today’s date triggered the new post method.  It opens a draft post and puts you in edit most.  The post is scheduled instead of immediate, with in this case about a 2 hour lead time.

This plugin will become my most used of 2010. How about giving it a go. Under Plugins, click on Add New. In the search box type ‘editorial calendar’. It will be the only plugin that shows up.

Cheers and Happy New Year,

Todd aka @tojosan

Devon is a father. He’s been raising his son, Miles, with intentional parenting. The video above is Devon’s introduction to us about how he’s approaching parenting. You’re invited to join Devon in his further journey as a father.

You can find Devon’s introduction on Dadomatic.

About Dadomatic:

Dad-o-Matic was founded in 2008 by Chris Brogan who was inspired by the work of Doriano Carta (now Editor-in-Chief) on his personal blog where he shared interesting experiences about being a dad.

The concept was simple: build a place for dads to share thoughts and ideas about parenting. This can be views, news, reviews, and advice. You don’t have to be a dad to participate. It’s just a blog from the Dad’s perspective.

Realtors use Twitter. Shocked? You shouldn’t be.  Real Estate Agents are voracious consumers of new communications technology. Proving that out, several agents turned out for Twitter training given by Karen Goodman (Arch City Homes blogger and premier realtor), and me. The class was offered by Keller Williams Realty.

Agents were aware of Twitter and it being a social network.  A few of the real estate agents were already members, as well as being Facebook members. Universally though, they were using only the basic web sites and none was using Twitter on a regular basis.

Training took Twitter from the ‘what is it’ level up to installing Tweetdeck on personal computers.  The questions focused primarily on privacy and distribution. People were worried about being spammed and spamming others.

Here’s a few of the questions and how Karen and I chose to answer them.

• If someone starts following me do I start seeing their posts?
  • No.  It does mean they’ll begin seeing of your Twitter messages
• Do my Twitter messages also post on Facebook and LinkedIn?
  • Not automatically. There are add-ons and tools that allow cross-posting; those are all optional and can be controlled.
• Someone I’m following starts spamming, talking about porn, etc. What can I do?
  • Unfollow them. Visit their Twitter profile page and unfollow them.
  • They don’t stop copying you? Visit their Twitter profile page and block them.
• How do I find people I know?
  • Using Find People on the Twitter home page.
  • Email or call that person. Most reliable choice. Avoid’s picking someone else with the same name.
  • Check that person’s web site for Twitter and other social network information.
• How do avoid being sucked into too much Twitter use?
  • Time control – only open Twitter at regularly scheduled times. Much like you’d handle email inbox review.
  • Browsing control – unless you have plenty of time, only check your replies and direct messages.

These may seem like basics to many of you, but these are questions anyone in business should be asking.  Approaching Twitter and other social networks with a plan, even if it’s a ‘don’t do this’ plan is better than winging it as a business user.

We also discussed what’s appropriate in terms of content.  Realtors online seem to line up on two sides; those that broadcast listings, and those that never talk shop.  Karen explained how becoming a local area expert is more valuable than spewing out listings.  Expertise shared equates to trust building and from there to clients.

Attendees were quite involved, asking good questions, and wanting to understand how Twitter connects, and how it could be used. A great follow up class would be on mixing up social networking to find what works best for each individual.

If you’d like to have a Twitter class at your work, please contact me – todd at toddrjordan.com, @tojosan on Twitter, or by phone (636) 486-4723.

Realtor shout out to attendees from Keller Williams Realty:

@patislay

@jbbutler03

@karenprinster

@Nancygkw

Twitter brings out Lists. Lists is a way to organize Twitter users.  Users can be people you follow or people you don’t. Lists can be public or private. List names can be just about anything, as spaces become dashes, and the words just string together.

Lists makes Twitter users curators.  A list is like a gallery of people you’ve grouped together, either for private use, or to share in public, that have a common theme. Themes can be as simple as being in the list. Lists I’ve formed include the example above, social media gurus, but could be based on location, profession, or expertise.  Heck, you could make a list of ‘beautiful’ or ‘ugly’ people. Hopefully you don’t and if you do, you make it private.

The last example points out just one potential problem with lists, Negative Labeling. Negative Labeling occurs even involuntarily when you group folks as Hillbillies, Hoes, or whatever. You can’t assume no one will see that list.

Negative labeling can also cross the line into the illegal.  It’s borderline, in my opinion, to put together a list of politicians you believe are taking bribes. Likewise a list of neighbors you suspect of cheating on their wives might not be prudent.

Another problem with lists is Outing. Outing commonly refers to outing a secret, and most often is used to refer to gays. Your list of gay friends, the one you make public, may unintentionally out someone to family, friends, or coworkers. Yeah, no big deal to you maybe, but that might cost someone a relationship.

Outing can also be a problem with regard to location. At least a few of my contacts don’t publish a location on their Twitter profile because they are avoiding someone.  It could be an ex-boyfriend, an estranged family member or they could be very private.  Location outing them as being in a certain neighborhood may cause no end of problems.

There are many other ways of Outing or Negative Labeling someone besides the examples I’ve given. Likely folks are already constructing lists such as these.

My lists are focused on location, skills, and other groupings, such as my Master Mind group.  Locations I’ve included are St. Louis, Chicago, DC and more.  Ultimately I see myself adding lists of fellow game players, such as XBox Live folks, or lists of origami enthusiasts.

What will you do with your lists? Will you be responsible? Childish? Or do you even agree it makes a difference?

Whose in your list?

Block – Dirty word in Twitter land

Chances are you don’t block many of your followers and you aren’t alone. Blocking is looked upon as a dirty word. Bringing it up results in confused looks up to outrage. Judgmental, big ego, and more labels may be assigned to you for admitting you block more than the occasional spammer. But let’s take a look at who folks block.

Blocking – Not just for Spammers

Spammers aren’t the only ones you might want to block. Spammers covers those users (or robots) sending out a steady stream of noise. There are a few other types to block:

• Multi-Level-Marketers aka MLM – enough said
• Get Rich Quick – preys on those looking for easy street
• Get Followers Quick – looking to find those that seek the fast path to many followers
• See my video/pictures/site – usually adult oriented. Fake profiles to snag in the easily tempted.

But how do you go about finding and stopping them?

Twitter Block Tools – Spammers Eat Dirt

Manually blocking followers is work. Consider one of these useful tools for blocking.

• Twittfilter – http://www.twittfilter.com/
• TwitBlock http://www.twitblock.org/

So still think those who block have big egos? Or it’s too much work?

Twitter Friends Block Spammers

My friends block spammers and the like as well. Here’s just a few:

• @gloriabell
• @creativereason – Yessiree. I block all that I see follow me.
• @PhilGerb – woot! Blocking in the USA (Channeling the spirit of John Cougar)!
• @levitanl – I block them all!
• @Allisoncds – Holla! Block & report here!
• @MilliGFunk
• @deborah91473
• and more…

What’s keeping you?!

Seth Godin introduces the concept of the third guy with the video above.

To quote from his blog:

My favorite part happens just before the first minute mark. That’s when guy #3 joins the group. Before him, it was just a crazy dancing guy and then maybe one other crazy guy. But it’s guy #3 who made it a movement.

Initiators are rare indeed, but it’s scary to be the leader. Guy #3 is rare too, but it’s a lot less scary and just as important. Guy #49 is irrelevant. No bravery points for being part of the mob.

We need more guy #3s.

I’m in total agreement about the folks beyond guy #3; they were just along for the ride. So the question is how to be guy #3.

I’m not sure I have a tried and true answer to that question, but I do have some tell tail behaviors.

The third guy is…

• the guy that after the two wiz kids in the class get their answers out, raises his hand and asks the dumb question.
• the guy that after the two tennis pros take up a game at the local court, grabs his Walmart racket and some random stranger and starts up game on the next court over.
• the guy that after the first two order fancy scotch and no on else can decide, jumps in and orders a light beer.

If I had to say there is one common characteristic, it’s that the third guy is not afraid to take part but also not afraid to not be the best/perfect/leader and just have fun with it.

Those types serve the purpose of bridging the gap between the early adopters or pack leaders and the rest of the crowd. It’s their initiative that really breaks the ice on an event or a new tool or technique. They aren’t afraid to be imperfect and laugh at themselves.

How can we take that and walk away with something useful? We can be that third guy (or gal) every day with the huge amount of web 2.0 tools coming out.

One guy that gets this is Robert Scoble. He took up blogging without worrying about getting it right; he just blogged what came out. When video tools go started, he didn’t wait for the book or the guide lines from the inventors or early adopters, he dove in and started recording low quality, fun and spontaneous videos.

His behaviors enabled us less than cutting edge folks to look at those tools with a wink and a nod instead of fear and frustration. We no longer cared so much if our blog posts didn’t follow the rules of grammar, talk about starlets, or ran way to short for a ‘real article’. It made me realize that recording 12 second snippets can not only be fun but rewarding, and that wearing a strange hat can be just as valuable as HD video.

So keep in mind, you aren’t always going to be the cutting edge person, the one who uses a tool first, but you can be the one that jumps in and makes it less scary, lowering the barrier for the rest of us.

Notes:
Read Seth Godin’s full post, #3.
Robert Scoble’s latest project

Problogger, aka Darren Rowse, is always full of great ideas. His recent article, How to Improve Your Blog When You Have No Internet Access, is another bundle of them. Shared with a bit of a wink, they are some simple suggestions for when your access is down but you want to blog.

The most underrated one on the list is the last one.

Take a Break – perhaps the universe is trying to tell you something by conspiring to bring your internet down. Why not go with the offline thing and go for a walk, play with your kids, take your better half out for a coffee, have a sleep, read a book….. your blog will still be there when your internet is working again.

I find I don’t do this enough. Oh, I play on the computer and stuff, but I’m not really making some down time or taking advantage of it to enrich my life.

Origami has become one of my new downtime hobbies. Heck, I’m enjoying it so much I started an origami blog, Folding Paper.

Another great down time way to help your blogging along is taking picture. Bring your camera wherever you go, even if it’s a cheap one. Take pictures of people, architecture, plants, water, birds, and everything in between. This is a wonderful way to get your own stock footage for your blog. So many people ignore pictures all together, yet I continually get compliments on photos I include with blog posts.

Cheers,
Todd

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