While I’d love to see some kind of open-source, distributed social network start up, nothing is on the immediate horizon. However, we already have the tools in place to mostly do it ourselves. Here’s some thoughts about how we could make a better social network by starting our own blogs. If you need help getting […]
Social
Monologue vs Dialogue
Is your marketing more monologue or an actual dialogue? There’s nothing wrong with a bit of monologue — buy a TV or radio ad, spread the message, and see what happens. Increasingly, though, customers are wanting more of a dialogue with the companies they do business with, and it’s important not to confuse the two. […]
Use #CamelCaseHashtags
I’ve talked about tips for accessible websites before, to make sure that every user can understand and appreciate your content no matter how they access it, but there is a simple tip that can help make your social media posts more accessible as well — use #CamelCaseHashtags CamelCase? “CamelCase” is when you put a capital […]
What is a Facebook “like farm”?
You see it all the time on Facebook: “Our previous winner of this car/boat/RV didn’t claim their prize, so now is your chance to win!“. As you may have guessed, there is no “previous winner” or even a prize — it’s all just a hoax. But why? “Like” Farming The scammers are building what’s known […]
Who’s listening – Facebook or Baader-Meinhof?
Facebook isn’t listening to your phone, but creepy things can still happen. I had a few things come up today that were assuredly random, but felt like someone might be listening. At lunch today, we talked about the Fyre Festival. It was the first I’d heard of it, but now I’m watching documentaries to learn […]
Fight to avoid the filter bubble
The “filter bubble” is a phrase coined by Eli Parser after he noticed that a search for “BP” came up with very different results for different people. You’ve likely seem similar things on Facebook and Google. Last year Bill Gates said: “(Technologies such as social media) lets you go off with like-minded people, so you’re […]
My new morning routine
A few weeks ago I was inspired by an episode of the Contactually podcast to work on setting a more focused morning routine. As I began working on building a good routine, Adam Walker talked about a great app during this episode of the Tech Talk Y’all podcast called “Morning Routine”. That app is only […]
I’ve finally found the perfect Twitter app on desktop, and it was right in front of me the whole time
Having used Twitter for a bit over a decade now (here was my first tweet back in 2007), I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find the best desktop app for Twitter. Some of my favorites in the past include Sobees and Seesmic and HootSuite, and I’ve spent a lot of time using TweetDeck. To […]
How to easily keep up with 538 blogs
Imagine for a minute that you had to personally request each email that you wanted to receive. Each morning you’d get up and go through your list of people that might have email for you: “Kelly, do you have any email for me today?” Nope. “Ali, do you have any email for me today?” Yes, […]
Be free to change your mind
Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, recently made a powerful statement that has a lot of people thinking. According to Jason Fried at 37signals, Bezos said “people who were right a lot of time were people who often changed their minds“. In other words, putting your foot down and refusing to view things […]