Dive into the archives.
- Are “Lists” The New Twitter Status Measurement?
Let me start this off by saying that I have not made use of Twitter’s new “List” feature because I don’t use the Twitter web interface nearly as much as I use Tweetdeck (here’s a great article explaining Lists). At first glance it seems that the new feature is very similar to Tweetdeck’s “Group” feature that enables me to create groupings of specific people who I wish to organize their tweets and perhaps watch them a little more closely than others or for particular reasons. After doing a little research there is one apparent difference: lists are public. My groups in Tweetdeck are not.
I believe this is not just a good expansion of the social networking capabilities of Twitter, but it is also very strategic. I would be willing to bet that the geniuses behind Twitter, while creating a very useful addition to their already powerful and revolutionary tool, have also taken into consideration one of the driving forces behind its popularity: the competitive human nature that pushes for social media status and measurable success.
- Behind The Avatar #4: David Yarde of HowsYourBlog.com (and more!)
I have been following David Yarde (@dsmy) on Twitter for a little while now and recently started subscribing to HowsYourBlog.com so I could take in his thoughts and insights about writing, blogging and more. David is a self-professed “design junkie” who seems to have a lot of things going on and new ideas springing up all the time. He and his wife Angie (@missneela) run Sevenality, a web and graphic design studio located in the Kissimmee, Florida area. David’s an interesting, friendly guy who I thought would be fun to get to know a little better, so I invited him to be a part of this series so we all could meet the man behind the avatar.
- How To Become A Link-Spewing Maniac and Still Have A Life (Like Me!)
Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook are presumably aware of the seemingly endless stream of quality resource links I provide (an average of around 150 per day). I have developed a few methods to incorporate my own online reading, research and education into my social media management routine to make it one that invites and enables others to discover valuable links on a variety of topics. I share my interests in social media, technology, web and graphic design, web development, freelancing, and art. Without even really trying I have created my own “niche” with widespread reach, thanks to my own personal needs and interests being simultaneously broad yet specific. I have learned to intermingle the spewing of links with real interaction and engagement amongst those that I follow and those that are following me in a way that really fits my lifestyle and provides reciprocal value that is priceless for me. This combination has literally changed my life both professionally and personally in ways that I consider significant improvements. I have explained in previous posts the impact this has had on my site visitor traffic, increase in clients, and my own personal education, so I won’t go into that here. But I do want to share with those that are interested some of the key transferable principles and tools that I have learned to use so far in my foray into social media.
- Behind The Avatar #3: Liz Andrade of CMD+Shift Design
I’ve been a subscriber to the CMD+Shift Design Blog for a few months now. I enjoy taking in the author’s writing style and I’ve found quite a few useful tips for freelancing and web design. I also recently started following cmdshiftdesign on Twitter and have discovered much of the same value. So today I want to introduce you to Liz Andrade, the gifted, humorous, creative and design-community advocate behind CMD+Shift Design.
- I Ain’t No Followback Girl (or Boy)
Just the other day I saw this tweet in my @replies column on Tweetdeck. I have to admit that right at first I was a little angry, offended and irritated. Not because this person chose to stop following me, but because they thought it was necessary to make a public statement about it. It felt a little bit like an attack on me and all because I had not automatically followed this person back after they followed me. Of course, in a matter of seconds my emotions came back to reality and I replied with an apology, explaining that I was weeks behind on going through people’s profiles to determine if I was going to follow them. I have explained my process in further detail in a previous post, but in a nutshell it goes like this: whenever I have time I go through the list of people who are following me and check out their profiles, looking at their bio, background, avatar and recent tweets. If it seems we have something in common, or they seem funny or engaging or interesting in some other way, then I will follow them back. But I don’t automatically follow people simply because they chose to follow me.
I ain’t no followback boy.
- Behind The Avatar #2: Meet The Husband/Wife Team Behind AdmixWeb.com
Today I am pleased to introduce you to the bilingual husband/wife team of Teylor Feliz and Holly Lamarche, creators of one of my favorite new discoveries in the design/development blog world: AdmixWeb.com.
AdmixWeb was created in October 2008 with the purpose of providing information regarding all the latest and greatest technologies, topics, and applications available to use in web design and web development and to improve the web through blogs, postings, feedback, and comments. They feature bi-weekly original articles and tutorials on web development, design, freelance, business, and programming.
- Behind The Avatar #1: Jack Franklin – 17-Year-Old Web Developer and Editor of The Web Squeeze
Today I will be starting a new feature here on the blog in which I will introduce you to people and blogs and websites who I have found to be of value to my education and life experience. Whether I follow them on Twitter or subscribe to their blog’s RSS feed or have interacted with them in some other way, these are people that I am getting to know and want to encourage you to do the same. In keeping with the spirit of previous posts on this blog, I want to try to bring to the forefront those that for one reason or another are not as well known as some of the more “popular” in their field.
This feature will appear at least once if not more per week. When I am recommending someone on Twitter it is a direct replacement of my previous #FollowFriday posts that I used to do each week, thanks to the bit I wrote a couple weeks ago about #FollowFridays Are Like Flowers At A Funeral. That got me to thinking I should recommend others as I am inspired by them, rather than waiting until Friday. Then I decided to expand outside of the Twitterverse and include many others that are becoming a part of my online life in some way.
The idea here is that there are countless avatars and websites and icons and blogs. But every single one of them has a person or people behind them. Get to know the person a little bit and you will be all the more interested and invested in what they have to say and share.
Jack Franklin’s AvatarSo today I am pleased to introduce you to Jack Franklin, a 17-year-old web developer who was born and raised in Falmouth, England.
- Google Wave: Interviews of Real People’s 1st Impressions (Not “Experts”)!
Yes, I was one of the lucky few who happened to know someone who was willing to send me an invite to preview Google Wave last week. You can read more about my experience and thoughts in an article I just wrote for Thoughtpick.com which will be published shortly (check back later today for the direct link). Once I added a few contacts I decided it would be a cool way to test out the collaborative functionality of Wave by conducting a small interview asking my contacts about their first impressions of the new technology. More about the process and experience is in the Thoughtpick article, but I wanted to share the interview transcripts here with you. Each of the users had some similar and some unique contributions, so I think you will find it beneficial as we all voyeuristically anticipate the widespread release of this phenomenal new tool, platform or whatever you want to call it.
- Influencers, Followers and Friends – Oh My!
Is social media unwittingly watering down the true meaning of these words and affecting our relationships in the offline, real world?
- #FollowFriday on Twitter Is Like Flowers at a Funeral
Okay, I admit that the title is a little morbid and maybe a bit extreme, but if you’ll bear with me I think you will see my point.
Have you ever been to a funeral and noticed that the gathering is comprised of a lot of people who haven’t seen each other in a long time (maybe since the last funeral)? When the service starts there is usually a time where friends of the deceased are allowed to share their thoughts about this person they were close to. Some will share precious memories and stories. Others will tell the mourners how great this person was when they were alive. And at almost every funeral I’ve been to, someone will say, “Why do we wait until someone dies to send them flowers or to say nice things about them?”
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