I have been blogging on other sites. Most recently Louis Gray handed me the keys to his blog. If you have not been to Louisgray.com to read them, follow the two links below.

• 30 Different Uses for RSS

• How to Discover New Content

I also wrote a post for Mashable.com in mid October, titled “What Happens to Our Social Profiles After We Die?.”

I hope you enjoy these posts. I hope to resume with updates on this blog next week.

Thanks,

Mike

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1) Atul Arora

Short Bio: Atul’s primary background  is in software engineering. He currently is the Director of Product Management at Vimo.  Atul is an active FriendFeeder. I rely on several human filters to look for new content, and Atul is one of them. Atul’s feed is strictly business which is what I appreciate about it, and I think you will as well.
Topics of focus: Current events, Technology,  Social Media,  Applications,  Web 2.0

FriendFeed:Subscribe

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2) Chris Brogan

Short Bio: Chris comes from a background in applications engineering, project management, and telecommunications. His passions is for teaching businesses how to use social media technologies for external outreach and beyond. He is one of the leading and most sought after Social Media Strategists on the market. His blog should be the starting point for any individual or business looking to seriously get involved with social media. Chris is currently Vice President, Strategy & Technology at CrossTechMedia.

Topics of focus: Social Media, Applications, Marketing Strategies, Enterprise Collaboration, Web 2.0

FriendFeed:Subscribe | Blog:chrisbrogan.com

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3) Corvida

Short Bio: Corvida is an active and passionate blogger. She blogs about the latest news on social networks, social media, and social applications. Corvida is currently a writer for RRW and occasionally guest posts on sites such as, chrisbrogan.com and louisgray.com.

Topics of focus:Social Media, Social Applications, Technology, Web 2.0

FriendFeed:Subscribe | Blog:shegeeks.net

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4) Daniel J. Pritchett

Short Bio: Daniel is a lifelong technology professional and hobbyist. At his day job he builds and analyzes business intelligence systems. He writes about technology, collaboration, and enterprise technologies. He is very active on FriendFeed, and I consider him to be a thoughtful and valued voice to the community.

Topics of focus: Technology, Enterprise, Collaboration, Social Media,

FriendFeed:Subscribe | Blog:sharingatwork.com

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5) Napoleon Dynamite

Short Bio: The story of Daniel Kemp.  One man and his mission to become an Earth Emperor.

Topics of focus: Goofy videos, squashing bugs and the an occasional book review. Really, I don’t know what else to say except that it’s pure comedy.

FriendFeed: Subscribe | Blog:earthemperor.com

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6) Jesse Stay

Short Bio: Jesse is a successful Facebook application developer and marketer. He blogs about technology, social media, microblogging, and Facebook related issues. He is very active, vocal and an intricate part of the FriendFeed community.

Topics of focus: Technology, Social Media,  Applications, Facebook, MicroBlogging

FriendFeed: Subscribe | Blog:staynalive.com

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7) Mark Krynsky

Short Bio: Mark, at his day job is a Web Producer at the X PRIZE Foundation. Mark also blogs about social media and technology. Mark also  guest posts on a variety of sites including mashable and louisgray.com. Mark has become a definitive voice on lifestreaming, and is an invaluable resource to the community.

Topics of focus: Social Media, Applications, Lifestreaming, Technology, Web 2.0

FriendFeed: Subscribe | Blog:lifestreamblog.com

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8 ) Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

Short Bio: Tina, despite the nick, is a very passionate and smart thinking FriendFeed member. She is one of the most active users on FriendFeed. There is never a dull moment on her feed, and you can expect plenty of variety and conversation.

Topics of focus: Current Events, Humor, Technology, Web 2.0

FriendFeed: Subscribe | Blog: isthisstupid.com

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9) Tad Chef

Short Bio: Tad is a search engine optimizer by trade. He is very active in the German SEO community. He writes  informative posts about SEO. You could seriously learn a few things from this guy.

Topics of focus:SEO, Social Media

FriendFeed: Subscribe | Blog: seo2.0.onreact.com

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10) Neal “thePuck” Jansons

Short Bio:Neal is a writer, copywriter, and consultant in new media. A lifelong geek interested in just about everything. He maintains several blogs and is the founder of the Social Media Philosophy Project, an attempt to address the philosophical implications of social media and web 2.0 technologies.

Topics of focus: Social Media, Technology, Web 2.0

FriendFeed: Subscribe | Blog:thepuckwrites.com

Related Posts

• September 24, 2008 — 20 people you should follow on FriendFeed
• September 10, 2008 — What does your digital fingerprint say about you?
• August 28, 2008 — Fake following in social media: Yay or Nay?
• August 21, 2008 — The bookmarking system on FriendFeed
• August 19, 2008 — Getting social with bookmarking on FriendFeed.

Best Practices:

• Consistency: This should be applied to every area of your involvement in social media.  All of your online profiles should share the same information. Make sure to use the same user names. If possible, use the same profile pictures (if applicable), logos and contact info.  Maintain a recognizable streamlined presence across all social networks, professional and personal. Be consistent with your blogging updates, marketing campaigns, product updates, improving website usability and responding to customer feedback, good or bad.

• Listening: You  need to  listen on a consistent basis for customer chatter. If people are talking, it’s usually a negative. Satisfied customers remain quiet for the most part, as there is nothing to gripe about.  Satisfied customers, on occasion, will leave testimonials and reviews. Happy customers are loyal endorsers of your brand, and it’s very important to keep these people happy.

• Transparency: People relate to people, plain and simple.  Show the human side of your brand.  Create an experience and tell a story. Put real faces and stories behind the message you are trying to get across.  Most of all be authentic. If faults are made, acknowledge them.

• Handing over the keys: Give someone else the spotlight. Louis Gray and Chris Brogan are two examples  of this.  Both of these guys constantly turn their blogs over to smaller lesser known voices for guest posts. Let others shine when the chance presents itself. With millions of voices in the blogosphere, unless you have an edge, you probably wont be heard. I firmly live by, and believe the old saying “do onto others as others do on to you.”

• Promote others first: There is a multitude of ways to do this.  If you have the platform and audience, hand over the keys to your blog. Share good content via Google Reader, Digg or Stumble it. These are the easiest ways. If you are blogging about a particular subject, make sure to reference and link to the source. Bloggers love the “link love”, I know I do. It’s a sense of accomplishment and acknowledgment. Linking to others is also very positive for search engine relevancy and rankings.

Worst Practices:

• Don’t Ignore: Negative criticism or customer complaints should receive some kind of response. Saying nothing can seal your fate on the web. Word of mouth, especially negative, on the web spreads quickly.

• No drive bys: Drive by spamming is a major no no.  People will see it for what it is, spam. Do you want your brand recognized as spammers who are just trying to make a quick buck?

• Lie, cheat and deceive: Don’t create fake profiles and or personas. Creating a fake image with the goal of marketing will eventually backfire. Fakes are always found out, it will just take a matter of time.

• Don’t player hate, but participate:  Sometimes saying nothing is better then something. What I mean by this is, dont trash talk your competition.  Listen and learn instead.

These are just a few examples off the top of my head.  What are your best practices?  What’s the worst you have observed?

Related Posts

• October 26, 2008 — 35 Tips for getting started with social media
• October 21, 2008 — Six Alternatives To Twitter
• October 8, 2008 — State of the blog - By a Z lister
• October 5, 2008 — Tools for branding and promotion in social media
• September 14, 2008 — Owning my name in Google

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. KISS is always a good rule of thumb.

4) Customize  your permalink structure immediately. By default, WordPress uses web URLs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them. This will severely limit the amount of traffic you will see from search engines. Change your permalink formatting to the following markup: (day and name) yourblog.com/blog/2008/10/25/sample-post/

5) Create an about page. Tell people what your blog is about, and most importantly what you’re about. Put a nice head shot of yourself on the about or profile page. Make sure to include any awards or recognition that may be relevant about the author.  Give people an email address to email you, rather than an online form. Add your primary social networking badges and urls on your contact page. Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter should be a starting point. I would also create a blogroll. It can be on your sidebar, or a separate page, but it should exist somewhere on your blog.

6) Install analytic software, such as Google Analytics. It’s a good idea to have at least two stats packages installed and running. All analytic software is not created equal, they all have the same purpose, but vary in their reporting and tracking methods. Results will vary to an extent, comparison of multiple data sources is vital.

7) Give people the tools to promote your content.  Social promotional buttons make it easy for your visitors to Digg, StumbleUpon, and share your content. Bring the good word back to your blog. For instance, if you’re active on FriendFeed you should install the FriendFeed comments and likes plugin on your blog.

8 ) Establish a Feedburner account. Provide easy visibility for new RSS subscribers, use text links in addition to graphics to promote your RSS feed  You can also add an email subscription form on your site. People who do not use feed readers, will be emailed your latest postings.

9) Focus and be consistent with your blogging. Most professional bloggers get paid per post. Don’t be intimidated or feel forced to compete with them. Work at your own pace. Quality takes time, plain and simple.

10) Build as many social passports as possible. Passports are basically the profiles that you build on the various social platforms. These profiles all should be consistent, and most importantly point back to your blog or website. The goal is to create as much organic link juice as possible.  The core target is search engines. Consistently update these profiles, and use tools such as ping.fm to update them.

11) Leave thoughtful and constructive comments as much as possible on other blogs. Don’t stop there, post comments on Facebook walls, FriendFeed, and Twitter. This promotes good practices in social media, and it also gives you an opportunity for exposure and link placement. This can lead into  new networking opportunities and potential new friendships.

12) Establish and actively use your Google Reader account. This perhaps is the most powerful tool in any social media arsenal besides a blog or microblogging platform, such as Twitter. I will outline more in detail as we get further down the list.

13) Find the top 50 blogs in your space, and subscribe to their RSS feeds in Google Reader. Consistently be on the lookout for new blogs, and the voices behind them.

14) At this point you should already have a Twitter account. If not, establish one.  If your objective is personal branding, your Twitter username should be your name. Otherwise you could brand your twitter username the same name as your blog. Remember consistency with all your profiles is key.

15) Work smarter not harder. Use the tools to help you manage and stay ahead of the pack.

16) Listen to what’s being said about you.  Create Google alerts to monitor for positive or negative chatter.

17) Link out as often as possible when the circumstances permit it. If you are writing a post on a related subject, always look for a chance to reference a fellow bloggers work. This is not only good blogging etiquette, but will also put you on that persons radar in a positive way.

18) Build relationships with key influencers in all the communities and platforms that you participate on. Relationships take time to develop and grow in time.  One good example on how to do this, is listed above at #17.

19) The material that you create should be something that people want to share. For the most part, it should be relevant to your networks’ interests. Create newsworthy, thoughtful, intelligent content that has immediate usefulness.

20) Become an expert in your field.  Try to align and surround yourself with the best tools, and people to accomplish this. It’s all about networking, networking and networking. Take it offline when permitting. Organize local social media meetups and tweetups. Make it an effort to attend trade shows when possible.

21) Don’t knock it until you tried it at least once.  Be open to trying new multimedia applications that enable self promotion, audience engagement, brand retention and participation. Experiment with podcasting, creating video, slide shows, or creating and posting any type of original user generated content.

22) Solicit not only your peers for feedback, but your audience. Ask your readers to submit feedback for site improvements, ideas on new topics to blog about, follow ups on previous topics, participation in polls etc.

23) Good content speaks for itself, and is recognized. Let others promote your content and only promote your best stuff.  Ask your twitter followers to spread the word by re-tweeting good posts. Be sure to do the same for others.

24) Promote others, even more than you promote yourself. Practice this, and it will come back to you tenfold.

25) Use Google Reader to share and promote your own work, as well as your  core networks content. Don’t limit yourself, share complete strangers work too. Good content needs to be rewarded, recognized and distributed through the appropriate channels and relevant communities.

26) Hopefully you will already have at least one active social bookmarking account established.  Delicious, Diigo, Ma.gnolia, any of these will do. Open accounts on all three of these services.  Make Diigo your primary account for bookmarking. By doing this, you can use a Diigo feature that allows you to bookmark to all three services simultaneously.

27) Establish accounts on Stumbleupon, and any social news sites such as Digg, Reddit and Mixx.

28) In addition to sharing content with Google Reader, be sure to StumbleUpon, good blogs, or websites.  StumbleUpon is key for traffic and exposure.  You can expect a large spike in traffic initially, then gradually it tapers off within a few days. You can expect long term traffic from SU, albeit in dribs and drabs.

29) Tag your media, especially blog posts and bookmarks.  Social bookmarking, video and image sharing sites also serve as search engines, therefore tag accordingly. The traffic comes in dribs and drabs, but it’s targeted traffic nonetheless. Every click counts. Same applies to any other forms of media you create, including videos you publish on Youtube, Vimeo. Images you publish on Flickr, podcasts, etc.

30) Blog postings, bookmarks, Flickr images and so forth should all be imported into a social content aggregation site, such as FriendFeed.com

31) Be omnipresent on all the networks. I should be able to find out about your latest happenings, and or statuses if I am browsing your Facebook profile, Linked profile, Twitter or FriendFeed stream.

32) Use the cloud to your benefit. Work more efficiently by using online applications to manage and organize the workload.

33) Take full advantage of all the Google services that are offered. Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Notebook, Google Reader and so forth. These services are all web based, and offer sharing and group collaborating features.  You can also import the data publicly via RSS, and an html page via your Google Reader shared link blog. Bottom line is, most of your Google data is easily accessible, manageable and integrateable with the web.

34) It can take months even years to see successes.  Stay consistent and focused with your social media strategy. Adapt when necessary, and do not be afraid to take calculated risks.

35) Do not ignore the simple concept of “transparency.” Personalize your brand. People relate to people much more effectively than they can a logo or commoditized brand.

Any additional thoughts?

Image by mr.beaver under Creative Commons license.

Related Posts

• November 2, 2008 — Best and worst practices in social media marketing
• October 21, 2008 — Six Alternatives To Twitter
• October 8, 2008 — State of the blog - By a Z lister
• October 5, 2008 — Tools for branding and promotion in social media
• September 28, 2008 — 10 tools for listening in social media.

This software has become a necessary and important application. In fact, I will not buy a future smart-phone if it does not support Qik. If i were to get even more picky, I would also say that if the phone does not stream high quality video like a Nokia N Series phone, I would not buy it. Then I would be foolish, because I have just stopped myself from purchasing an iPhone or Android phone, both of which I’m looking at as replacement for my current phone.  I have seen Qik videos shot from jail-broken iPhone’s. The quality is comparable to my phone, but I am not impressed.  I would not buy Android in it’s current state, because HTC manufactures the phone, and I’m sure it has the same imaging, video, hardware as my current phone, based on the hardware reviews I have read.

Motorola and other manufacturers are starting to develop Android based phones. This is great for consumers, because in the current mobile market, we lack selection.  Pretty graphical interfaces, touch screens and  applications are nice, but we need more emphasis and development on the hardware that powers these devices.  What good is all the eye candy if we don’t have the hardware to support it, or supports it minimally at best?  We could talk about batteries and a whole slew of others issues, but my rant is primarily about the imaging and video capabilities of mobile devices. How many pictures and videos of terrible quality have you viewed taken by mobile devices? Some phones get it right, but most fail.  I’m noticing a trend where people are increasingly using their mobile devices as replacements for cameras and camcorders.  Our mobile devices should have at least the same or comparable video and imaging quality as a camera or camcorder. Is this asking for to much?

Taking a look at Qik:

The Qik application is very simple and easy to use.  When launching Qik, you are presented with two soft keys, stream and options. Clicking stream will instantly begin streaming live video to the Qik site, where viewers can watch it live, if you have your stream set to public.

Options:

Clicking the options key will allow you to do four things.

1. Mute the audio on recording.
2. Stream info: you can add a title as well as a description for your video.
3. Privacy: select whether your stream is public or private.
4. Settings, see screen shot below.

Settings:

Settings allow you to choose between Max Quality or Minimum Delay. I have found that  both settings on my phone produce the same quality of videos. I can’t tell the difference, so I keep it set on Max Quality. Audio start mode keeps your audio set to “on” by default. Access point by default should be left at Automatic.  Capture resolution is set at 240X320, there is no option to change it. Qik documentation states you can also zoom, but I am unable to. This could be a phone limitation, not Qik.

Qik also integrates seamlessly with microblogging platforms such as Twitter, Pownce and Tumblr.  It also integrates with video sharing sites such as, YouTube, Seesmic, and Justin.tv. Last but not least, your online Qik account gives you access to all of your videos. You can change the privacy settings, delete, rename,  and download the videos. Embed code is also provided for each video. You are also provided with an RSS feed for all your videos.

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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:

• 140 characters  limitation
• Open ID
• SMS capabilities
• (XMPP based) instant messaging client IM updates
• Crossposting to Twitter
• Option to automatically follow back new subscribers
• Adobe AIR/various desktop applications

It’s a win win situation for developers and end users:

Identi.ca is open-source, open data, has an API, and can be federated.

2) Rejaw

Rejaw is an interesting microblogging platform. Unlike Twitter, you are not bound by 140 chars, you have a spacious 1,000 character limit. The ability to post images and video is a major plus. The user interface is simple, easy on the eyes, and easy to use. I particularly like the use of big fonts and big text implemented on the site. It’s a definite welcome for the visually impaired.

Features:

• 1,000 characters limit messaging
• Ability to post videos and images
• Threaded conversations
• Permalinks
• Guests can comment on threads, no registration is necessary.
• API for developers

3) Pownce

Pownce is the creation of Digg founder, Kevin Rose. It’s another web based instant messaging system aka microblogging application with some distinct features. The character limitation is unlimited which gives you a lot of freedom to ramble. You can post messages, events and even share files.  Grouping of friends is a great collaborative feature built into the service.

Features:

• No character limitations
• Ability to post videos and images
• Grouping
• Share files
• Adobe AIR/desktop applications
• API for developers

4) Jaiku

Jaiku is  currently a Google property, since Google acquired them in Oct of 2007. It’s very comparable to twitter, with a 140 character limit. It offers a lifestreaming element by allowing you to add your blog, photos, and other RSS or Atom feeds to your stream.

Features:

• 140 character  limitation
• SMS capabilities
• (XMPP based) instant messaging client IM updates
• lifestreaming capabilities
  
• Adobe AIR/desktop applications
• API for developers

5) Tumblr

Tumblr is a microblogging platform abundant in features.  It is highly customizable and is suitable for short form blog posting. There is no commenting system, but a third party application such as Disqus can be implemented.  Along with posting messages, you can also post and share an assortment of media.  You also have the ability to use  a custom domain name. Overall, Tumblr blogs are easy to set up, maintain and should suit your basic microblogging needs, with a ton of bells and whistles.

Features:

• No character limitations
• Ability to post audio, videos and images
• Customizable
• Email posting
• Bookmarklet posting
• IM updates via AOL Instant Messenger.
• lifestreaming capabilities
• RSS output feed
• Adobe AIR/desktop applications
• API for developers

6) Kwippy

Kwippy started out as an IM status aggregator. It has since evolved into a microblogging platform. It’s similar to Twitter with more of an emphasis on IM updating and aggregating. It currently lacks any mobile options. There is also an API, which I’m not sure has been publicly released yet.

Features:

• No character limitations
• Convenient commenting on status messages
• Instant messaging updates via Gtalk or Yahoo Messenger
• Facebook statuses intergration
• Threaded discussions
• Permalinks
• RSS output feed

Related Posts

• November 2, 2008 — Best and worst practices in social media marketing
• October 26, 2008 — 35 Tips for getting started with social media
• October 8, 2008 — State of the blog - By a Z lister
• October 5, 2008 — Tools for branding and promotion in social media
• September 14, 2008 — Owning my name in Google

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 networked and made numerous new meaningful connections and relationships. FriendFeed has provided me a platform for my own personal growth, and the growth of others as well.

I guess by the definition of this post, I would be considered a blogger.I don’t have a background in Journalism, and don’t claim or consider myself to be a professional blogger. I’m just an average Joe who writes a few times a month about my thoughts on how we use social media. I consider the people who do this day in and day out to be the “real bloggers”. People like Sarah Perez, Steven Hodson, Svetlana Gladkova, Duncan Riley, Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins are the definition of professional blogger. The individuals I mentioned are just a handful of the people in the industry that I respect tremendously and that inspire me.

Then there is Louis Gray. It’s quite clear the admiration and respect I, and many others have for him. This man is taking on an iconic status, and is in a league of his own. Louis has blazed trails for himself and many others, including myself. Louis is the type of person that does onto others as others do onto him. Louis repeatedly gives the little person a chance to shine. He is not one to steal the spotlight. Louis was one of the first people I started to follow and get to know on FriendFeed. He was the core inspiration for me starting to blog. A turning point for me was when Louis gave my blog a notable mention in a thread titled, “Five Blogs For June on Your Summer Reading List.” This was, in a way my 15 minutes of fame. It was totally unexpected, and it caught me off guard. I was never prepared, at least in my mind, to be catapulted into the spotlight. Looking back, I see it as sign. Since then things in my life have not been the same. Louis has given me the ball, now it’s my turn to run with it as far as I can. Hopefully I can score a touchdown. Louis has also exposed me to countless new friends and networking opportunities. While I never met Louis in person, I look forward to the occasion sometime in the future.  So to Louis, I say thank you very much for all that you have done for me, I’m truly grateful.

State of the Blog: 06/01/2008 - 10/01/2008

• Total posts published to date, including this post: 50
• Total comments to date: 275
• FeedBurner subscribers: 188
• MyBlogLog Members: 27
• Twitter Followers:183
• FriendFeed Followers:611

Report: michaelfruchter.com
Report Name:Pageviews Graph
Date Range: 06/01/2008 - 10/01/2008

• 6/2008 28,288
• 7/2008 35,864
• 8/2008 42,127
• 9/2008 63,706

Most Popular Posts:

• 20 people you should follow on FriendFeed - Pageviews 3,904
• 10 people you should follow on Friendfeed - Pageviews 3,177
• My A,B,C’s of FriendFeed - Pageviews 3,177
• Paying it forward on FriendFeed - Pageviews 2,319
• 10 tools for listening in social media. - Pageviews 2,130

In closing:

I’m very optimistic about the future. I now have more of a clear head, and for the first time, focus. This blog will continue to be my outlet, and hopefully my road for new beginnings. I would also like to say thank you to everyone who has commented and subscribed to this blog. I would also like to say thank you to everyone who has ever shared, bookmarked or Twittered any of my posts. You are the reason why I continue to do this. Reflecting back on the last 120 days has really put a lot of things into perspective for me. It’s been a fast and wild learning experience. One that I have learned from and continue to do so.

Related Posts

• November 2, 2008 — Best and worst practices in social media marketing
• October 26, 2008 — 35 Tips for getting started with social media
• October 21, 2008 — Six Alternatives To Twitter
• October 5, 2008 — Tools for branding and promotion in social media
• September 14, 2008 — Owning my name in Google

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 your content. Save it for the best only!

• The material that you create should be something that people want to share. It should be for the most part relevant to your networks’ interests. Create newsworthy, thoughtful, intelligent content that has immediate usefulness.

• If you build it they will come. Assuming your network is in place, be patient. Good content will get noticed, StumbledUpon, Dugg, Tweeted, Bookmarked and broadcast. Social networking and spreading the word is bound by geographical locations and time zones.

• Build relationships with key influencers in all the communities and platforms that you participate on. Relationships take time to develop and grow in time.

• Persistence overcomes resistance.

Your personal brand starts with your domain name:

• Reserve your domain name. If possible, a dot com extension should always be your first choice.
• Install a blogging platform. Wordpress is the route to go, but they all accomplish the same task.
• Decide on the subjects you will write about, and stick the course.
• Stay active, create, comment, collaborate, and share as often as possible.
• Ensure you use the same username and profile image on all your service profiles and url’s.
• Establish Twitter, FriendFeed, FaceBook and Linkedin accounts.
• Establish multiple social bookmarking accounts. Dont forget to also include StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit.
• Establish a Google Reader account. Add and find relevant RSS feeds with Toluu,
• Establish a FeedBurner account, and install RSS icons on your site. Include text links for RSS subscriptions as well.
• Establish an opt-in mailing list for your site or blog.
• Network, Network, Network
• Link back to bloggers and story sources. Spread the link love when circumstances permit.
• Become an expert in your field, and surround yourself with the tools to accomplish this.

RSS/Google Reader:

RSS in combination with Google Reader is the easiest tool used for sharing. I believe it is the most powerful tool you can use for self promotion and others. Google Reader is mandatory for discovery, digestion and redistribution. Everyone that you network and follow whom you deem relevant should be in your Google Reader. When you post quality content, others will share it, and it’s only polite to do the same.

When you find interesting items on Google Reader, you can choose to share those items with your Gmail chat contacts, or with a list of Friends you create. In addition, you can share with people automatically, so your shared items appear in their friends’ shared items feed, in their Google Reader. Make it a point to subscribe to any of your contact’s Google Reader feeds that share the same interests. Google Reader also automatically creates a public page for any items that you mark as “shared.” You can also choose to create public pages for your starred items, or for items you have marked with a particular tag. My Google Reader public page is located here. Share your Google Reader on your Facebook and FriendFeed account.

Put a clip on your site:

You can share the content that you and your peers create through Google Reader. Copy and paste an HTML snippet into any web page or blog that supports JavaScript. This is also very good idea for SEO purposes as well.

Twitter:

• Make your content asTwitter friendly as possible.
• Build relationships with other Twitter users.
• Use Twitter only to broadcast your best stuff.
• Listen, Listen, Listen.
• Direct message or @ new followers - thank them for following.
• If you want people to re-tweet your content, append “please retweet” to your tweet.
• Don’t send out tweets just because you feel you must. Focus on quality over quantity. Use in-between time to be a helpful and good listener.

FriendFeed:

• Participate actively on Friendfeed.
• Build, Build and Build your network especially on FriendFeed
• Import all your services into FriendFeed.
• Create lists and rooms for your content objectives.
• like and comment often.

Social Media/Social-Bookmarking Sites:

Social bookmarking is a service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized source. These type of sites do provide a slow stream of targeted traffic. They also increase your brands relevancy and ranking in search engines.

Del.icio.us: This is the most popular and widely used social bookmarking service.

Diggo: This is another popular social bookmarking service, I prefer this over Del.icio.us but I use them both. Diggo has more community features, also Diggo allows you to bookmark pages simultaneously to Ma.gnolia and Del.icio.us.

StumbleUpon:

• Don’t spam, stumbles lots of other content besides your own site.
• Find people interested in your topic and connect to them.
• Find niche groups related to your topic and join them.
• Stumble your networks content often.

Professional Social Networking Sites:

LinkedIn: Is a popular social networking site where headhunters, alumni, business associates, recent graduates and other professionals connect online. Promote and sell you personal brand here.

Facebook: Facebook has plenty of opportunities for networking, event promotion. Facebook is also a great place, to promote and spread your brand awareness.

These are just a few of the most popular methods. There are many out there, so pick and choose what works best for you. You want to be omnipresent.

Related Posts

• November 2, 2008 — Best and worst practices in social media marketing
• October 26, 2008 — 35 Tips for getting started with social media
• October 21, 2008 — Six Alternatives To Twitter
• October 8, 2008 — State of the blog - By a Z lister
• September 14, 2008 — Owning my name in Google

1) Google Blog/Web Search:

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.

2) Google Custom Search:

Google Custom Search allows you to create a custom search engine that only searches the keywords and sites you specify. It’s basically a filtering layer over the main search engine. Custom Search can be used for an endless amount of purposes. It can be a very effective and a productive tool in your arsenal, and it just takes a few minutes to set up.

3) Google Alerts:

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Creating an alert is as simple as the screen shot above shows. Input the keyword, sources to search, or leave it set at the default of comprehensive, this will search everything. Lastly set your email alert frequency.

4) Google Reader:

It’s simply not feasible to visit hundreds of websites/blogs a day looking for brand mentions, chatter. Google Reader makes it possible to stay on top of several hundred websites in one place.This is as close to real time as you will get courtesy of RSS feeds. As I mentioned earlier, there is a good chance that you will find chatter on blog postings and comments. Compile a relevant list of these blog RSS feeds and if possible their comment RSS feed as well. As you come across them, input them into Google Reader. If a source does not have RSS implemented, a custom search filter will do the trick. Google Reader should be your central hub for content discovery, digestion, redistribution and monitoring.

5) Twitter:

Twitter can be, if not as equally important as Google Blog search for discovery of mentions regarding your brand. Twitter needs to be paid special attention to. It’s no longer the shiny toy for early adopters, it’s gone mainstream. Consumers are voicing their frustrations in growing numbers on Twitter, and corporations are listening. If something is being mentioned on Twitter, it should be relativity easy to track it down using a basic Twitter search. You can also narrow your results down further using search operators or advanced search. Twitter search pages also gives you an RSS feed for the search term. You can add the RSS feeds to your watch lists in Google Reader.

6) Technorati:

Technorati is  a good tool for searching a url or brand mentions. It searches a broad base of content sources. It’s built on blogs, so it’s a safe bet any mention of your brand on a blog will usually be picked up by Technorati. Use this in combination with Google Reader.

7) Yacktrack:

Yacktrack is a tool for anyone who wants to search for comments on the content they produce. It searches various sources such as Twitter and other blogs for chatter about your content. Yacktrack does a nice job of searching for those distributed comments and pooling them into one place. You can additionally search for comments by either url or keyword. Yacktrack search page results also gives you an RSS feed for the search term. I would recommend adding that to your Google Reader watch lists.

8 ) Filtrbox:

Filtrbox is for professional, persistent media monitoring. Filtrbox makes it easy to mashup all your content sources into one monitoring service. It offers a plethora of features and options. It’s “FiltrRank” technology scores content based on three dimensions: contextual relevance, popularity and feedback. In testing I was extremely impressed with the accuracy and relevancy of the test filters I set up.  Some of the various added features are, email alerts, the ability to share articles found by Filtrbox via email, or post them to Facebook, Digg and del.icio.us. Filtrbox offers a free, and a pay to play membership offering.

9) Social Mention:

Social mention is a social media search engine. It searches various sources such as Google blog search, Twitter, Delicious, FriendFeed, Digg etc. The data looks to be very fresh, and as close to real time as possible. In addition, they state that they offer email alerts and personalized RSS feeds. I was unable to locate these features on the site.

10) FriendFeed Search:

FriendFeed search deserves a notable mention. FriendFeed, at its core is a social content aggregator, but it’s also a very powerful social media search engine.  FriendFeed gives you the ability to search its entire user base for content that is being imported in from over 43 different social media sites and applications. FriendFeed also has a highly active and vocal community. Rest assured if it’s on a blog, it’s being posted, shared or commented on FriendFeed. FriendFeed recently also implemented the capability to search rooms.

Related Posts

• October 26, 2008 — 35 Tips for getting started with social media

1) Robert Scoble

Short Bio: Robert is a husband, father, blogger, technical evangelist and author. Scoble is best known for his popular blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. He currently works for Fast Company as a video blogger. There is a reason why Robert is the most followed person in social media.
Topics: Technology, Social Media, Social Applications, Software, Startups
Web: http://scobleizer.com/

2) Mona N

Short Bio: Mona in her own words, “I’m just a regular girl addicted to: Social Media, the Internet, Star Wars, LEGO, and anything with a power switch + USB.” Mona is considered the Queen of FriendFeed, and I happen to agree. Mona is one of the main reasons why FriendFeed is fun, and will achieve mainstream success. Mona posts funny, weird and creative things.You will never find a dull moment when surfing her feed. Subscribing to Mona is a requirement.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Legos, Toys, Twitter, Bacon, Food, Odd, Funny, Applications, Interesting. A little of everything.
Web: http://pixelbits.wordpress.com/

3) Mark Wilson

Short Bio: Mark has been coined the male version of Mona. Like Mona he posts entertaining, odd, funny and  interesting content. Mark like the rest of us, is a die hard FriendFeeder. He loves FriendFeed so much  that he ” want’s to take it behind a middle school and get it pregnant.”
Topics: Music, Odd, Funny, Interesting. His interests run the gamut.
Web: http://markwilson.wordpress.com/

4) Mark Dykeman

Short Bio: Mark is a married IT professional with two children from New Brunswick, Canada. Mark is a very  articulate deep thinker who writes extensively about social media and technology. Mark also guest posts often on Louisgray.com and Mashable.com
Topics: Social Media, Social Applications, Communication, Technology
Web: http://broadcasting-brain.com/

5) Rob Diana

Short Bio: Rob is a software engineer, a husband and a father. Rob writes about social media, technology  and general programming. Rob created and developed Yacktrack.com. He also guest posts on Mashable.com and Louisgray.com
Topics: Social Applications, Social Media, Technology, Software, Programming
Web: http://regulargeek.com/

6) Kyle Lacy

Short Bio: Kyle is an energetic graphic designer who hails from Indiana. Kyle writes about social media and branding. Kyle breeds life on FriendFeed at night. Paired with Mona he is one of the driving forces of the FriendFeed night crew.
Topics: Social Media, Branding, Marketing
Web: http://www.kylelacy.com/

7) Carlos Ayala

Short Bio: Carlos is a technology and multimedia expert from New York, currently residing in Florida. Carlos posts entertaining, odd and interesting things. He also has great taste for Hip Hop and Classic Rock.
Topics: Technology, Random, Funny, Interesting. A little of everything.
Web: http://friendfeed.com/cma3

8 ) Edythe

Short Bio: Edythe Aka Polly R, resides in California.  Last I checked she held the record on FriendFeed for most likes. If Edythe likes it, you know it must be good! She posts entertaining, and interesting things
Topics: Funny, Interesting. A little of everything.
Web: http://friendfeed.com/furry

9) Michael J. Cohen

Short Bio: Michael is an active FriendFeeder and technology buff who resides in Florida. Michael posts a good mixture of entertaining and interesting content.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Interesting. A little of everything.
Web: http://325i.org/

10) Dobromir Hadzhiev

Short Bio: Dobromir is a web designer and marketing consultant from Bulgaria. Dobromir is one of my human news filters. He constantly shares, stumbles, diggs, and discovers great technology and social media related content.
Topics: Technology, Social Applications, Social Media, Design
Web: http://friendfeed.com/dobata

11) Tamar Weinberg

Short Bio: Tamar is a freelance writer and internet marketing consultant, specializing in viral marketing, and social media. She is a Florida native currently residing in New York. Tamar has written for numerous blogs, including Lifehacker.com and Mashable.com on a variety of subjects, from tech to travel.
Topics: Social Media, Viral Marketing, Technology, SEO. A little of everything.
Web: http://www.techipedia.com/

12) Susan Beebe

Short Bio: Susan is an IT professional from California, currently residing in Rochester, New York. Susan shares a good mixture of technology and social media content. Susan knows a thing or two about IT!
Topics: Social Media, IT, Technology. A little of everything.
Web: http://friendfeed.com/susanbeebe

13) Justin Korn

Short Bio: Justin Korn is a 30 year old web developer, blogger and photographer from Pennsylvania, currently residing in San Francisco, California. Justin’s core passion is photography. I would consider his photography far from amateur. He closely follows in the footsteps of the legend, Thomas Hawk.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Web Development, Photography
Web: http://blog.justinkorn.com/

14) Erhan Erdogan

Short Bio: Erhan is a blogger residing in Turkey. Erhan blogs about technology and emerging web 2.0 start ups.  He shares a good mixture of social media and technology related content.
Topics: Social Media, Social Applications, Technology
Web: http://friendfeed.com/erhan

15) Rahsheen

Short Bio: Rahsheen is a father,blogger, bodybuilder, singer/songwriter/rapper. You can’t label Rahsheen. The only label Rahsheen needs to see is a record label contract. You can expect an assortment of material on his feed. He blogs about technology, social media, applications, and his personal views on a just about anything.
Topics: Social Media, Social Applications, Technology, A little of everything.
Web: http://sheenonline.biz/

16) Shey Smith

Short Bio: Shey is a graphic designer who was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada. Shey blogs about design, social media, social issues and technology.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Design, Sports
Web:http://www.sheysmith.com/

17) Nice Fish Films

Short Bio: Michael Wright is a film producer from California. Michael is an active FriendFeeder who’s feed always has something worthy of looking into. Topics: Interesting. A little of everything.Web: http://nicefishfilms.com/blog/

18) Chris Baskind

Short Bio: Chris lives in Florida and is an environmental writer and the Publisher of Vida Verde Media, a green lifestyle company. He’s also a regular contributor to EcoTech Daily. If you want to go green, then I suggest subscribing to Chris.
Topics: Environmental
Web: http://chrisbaskind.com/

19) (Jeff)isageek

Short Bio: Jeff is a married blogger from Kansas. Jeff blogs about social media, software, social applications, and gaming, just to name a few.
Topics: Social Media, Social Applications, Gaming, Technology, Humor,
Web: http://www.jeffisageek.net/blog

20) Duncan Riley

Short Bio: Duncan Riley is a married, father, blogger and technologist from Australia. Duncan wrote for techcrunch.com for a period of time. Duncan currently owns and operates inquisitr.com, a blog that provides a relevant mix of tech, pop culture and odd/ funny news.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Humor. A little of everything
Web: http://www.inquisitr.com/

Related Posts

• August 6, 2008 — The last few days on FriendFeed
• July 18, 2008 — Staying active in social media.
• July 9, 2008 — Friendfeed link love
• July 8, 2008 — 10 people you should follow on Friendfeed
• November 6, 2008 — 10 people to follow on FriendFeed for the month of Nov