Hi everyone! My name is Maxie and I normally write at I Hate So Much… but for today, the day of the 20 something bloggers swap, I’ll be writing here. I don’t really write about any certain topic on my blog, but for this switch I will be writing about what Stephanie usually writes about– Social Networks and other Internet related matters. This is perfect for me because I’m basically a slave to the social networks of the Internet. The thing I’m a slave to the most? My blog.
Some people may not think of blogging as a social networking tool, but I think it’s the most powerful of them all. When I started blogging it was just as an outlet for my every day thoughts. I never imagined that anyone would want to read it, let alone subscribe to it. The more people read my blog, the more I wrote. I would go and read my commenters’ blogs and give them my feedback and thoughts on what they had written. Even though blogging started as a solitary activity, it turned into much more.
I’ve been blogging for a little over 6 months and I’ve built many friendships with people I’ve met through my blog. My summer is filled with trips with bloggers, blogger meetups, and the prospect of writing about all of it on the place where it all began. My own place on the internet that has turned into much, much more.
For me blogging isn’t just a way to let out your feelings and talk to others– it changes everything. It changes the way I look at things, how I observe situations, and even my plans for the future. It has changed my life in huge ways and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything (other than maybe a billion dollars.)
I have 32 subscriptions to blogs and 1000+ items in my Google Reader that’s waiting to be read. While I filter through these unread items and take steps to simplify and organize my RSS feeds, here are a couple of standout posts, websites, and tools that I found worthy to be highlighted this week.
Ping.fm is the most effective way to update your status on multiple social networks. A single post to Ping.fm can update 16 popular social services at the same time so you don’t have to sign into each account individually. You can post a status update, a blog, or micro-blog through one platform and posting a link won’t be a problem at all - Ping.fm will automatically convert it to a shorter link before posting to your services.
This week my status updates to Facebook, LinkedIn, Mashable, Myspace, Plaxo Pulse, Plurk, and Twitter and took less than a minute to complete. If I signed into each account individually, it would have taken me even longer.
Since the fire was just off the freeway, employees that usually take the I-805 southbound, left the office because we knew that the brush fire would effect traffic. As I got onto the onramp, the rubbernecking had already began. Speeds were less than 10 mph and drivers were noticeably pulling out their camera phones to take a snap. Fortunately, traffic let up after Clairemont Mesa boulevard and I was able to get home at a decent hour.
Today’s event reminded me of last year’s firestorm.Our home was threatened by the Harris fire and the city issued a voluntary evacuation for our area (see photo below). Instead of driving to Qualcomm, we flew out of San Diego to Scottsdale, Arizona. Having been through previous fire seasons, we knew that the air quality would be poor and polluted in San Diego. (I honestly hope that history doesn’t repeat itself any time soon.)
It’s interesting to note that during last year’s firestorm our relatives and friends were scattered all over San Diego. We couldn’t use our cell phones to contact each other so we had to find another means of communication. Interestingly enough, every one of our family members and friends were connected on Myspace. To update our family and friends, we used my Myspace account to send bulletins to everyone ensuring our safety.
When we arrived in Arizona, we kept a close eye on the news and found a blog called Wildifires 2007 by SignOnSanDiego.com. They kept us up to date on the status of the fires and had links to evacuation centers. Several posts received comments and questions by subscribers and everyone pulled together to share information on where to find help and shelter.
Simply put, social media helped us communicate with our family, friends, and neighbors and proved to be an effective means of communication.
I stumbled across Kristen Nicole’s article on Mashable titled, “Use Flickr for Custom Capital One Cards” and thought it was a great campaign for several personal reasons.
First, Capital One makes it simple to create a personalized credit card. I already have a Capital One card but now I can select a photo that’s already hosted on my Flickr account or simply upload a jpeg from my PC and make it more fun. See upload guidelines here.
Second, by using a personal photo I’m creating an emotional attachment with my credit card. When I’m in the middle of a transaction, do I whip out my boring debit card or use my fancy customized Capital One card? Chances are, I’m going to whip out the Capital One card then chat with the clerk on how fun it was customizing my credit card and tell her where she can go online to create her own!
It would have also been interesting to see what would happen if the Capital One Image Card promotion ran a user-generated contest around the campaign. Let people create their custom Capital One card with their favorite photo then offer a prize (i.e. a $150 Capital One Gas Card) for the best design in a photo category (i.e. Family, Best Friends, Graduation, etc.).
People can engage longer with the promotion and check out what other people have designed and leave comments if they want to. And if they’re not interested in other people’s creations, they can still order their new card. That’s a great way of building brand awareness in my opinion, what do you think?
June 17, 2008 was dubbed Firefox 3 Download Day. The goal, to set a Guinness World Record for Most Software Downloaded in 24 Hours. When I heard of the event, I signed up for a reminder on FF’s download page so I wouldn’t forget. And just as I had predicted, June 17th was a very hectic day. I came down with the stomach flu and was ‘unplugged’ from everyone and anything Internet related. So this morning, when I checked my email, there was my FF reminder and I made it within the allotted 24 hours.
I checked in this afternoon to see the results and it looks like Firefox 3 was downloaded more than 8 million times. The results still need to be verified by the good people at Guinness. In the meantime, feel free to download your very own personalized Firefox 3 Download Day certificate.
I thought it would be ifun to create my very own Social Map. It’s a break out of websites, forums, online communities, and other social networking platforms that I’m a part of and have contributed to (i.e. LinkedIn, Myspace, Ning, etc.).
You can even see which online services I’ve switched from and to. For example, I used to blog on Xanga and Vox but now I’m on Wordpress. I even switched from Photobucket to Flickr because it was easier for me to share photos with friends.
Much like the Brands in a Day Portrait, I’m sure I’ve left out a couple of items but it’s still fascinating to look at.
It’ll be interesting to see how this map grows in a year’s time. A few questions that come into mind are:
I was excited when I saw the question above on LinkedIn because I’m always interested to find out what other people are using to make their life easier at work. I’m glad I checked in on this otherwise I wouldn’t have found out about JingProject.com.
Jing allows you to capture any image on your desktop (includes adding text and arrows) and gives you the option of creating videos. Jing then gives you a link that you can share with your co-workers so they can see exactly what you see.
Now you can avoid lengthy and drawn out text tutorials with Jing. This is absolutely what I needed in the office.
Here’s a video about Jing:
So what about you? What Web 2.0 tools do you find most useful for businesses?
“i-Lighter is a cool way to highlight, grab, and save text and graphics from virtually any Web site and store it for future use.” - PC WORLD
The majority of my reading material is online and if you’re like me, the materials usually covered are articles, blogs, forums, reviews, RSS feeds and more. With all this information, I was notorious for printing pages and depleting the printer ink at home.
Now I can help the environment and my budget with i-Lighter. It’s useful and it’s free. I don’t have to print articles to highlight and I don’t waste any ink. I love it because i-Lighter gets over two hurdles with one leap. I can highlight text, tables, and images from any web page, have it organized in my account by subject, and share it with my colleagues.
In fact, earlier this month they released twitterlights. If you come across an interesting article online, use the i-Lighter to right-click and twitter it to your friends. The URL of the web page will automatically be sent as a TinyURL and your i-Light will be stored in your i-Lighter account for you to organize later.
I know shameless plug… but I’m seriously floored by the quality of entries in Mr. X’s Design Challenge. Who knew so many people were into vintage rock posters? This is the second design challenge sponsored by Mr. X and he has 7 more challenges lined up until January 2009. Check out his other campaigns here.
“A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.” - Wikipedia
Mind maps are great when I need to get my ideas out on a page. In fact, I use mind maps exclusively to map out campaign concepts, types of medium, and prize categories before walking into and during a brainstorm meeting. I also use them for blogging concepts, story ideas, and other creative endeavors. So naturally, my notebook is filled with diagrams. Unfortunately, there are times when I map out ideas too quickly that when I go back and look at them, I don’t understand what I wrote… I had to find a way to do it better.
Just recently, I discovered mind42.com and nearly flipped out. Now I can create mind maps in my browser for free and collaborate with co-workers. I can assign icons and colors to specific nodes and best of all, I can add images too.
Here’s a quick overview of the features at mind42.com:
The opinions blogged herein represent only those of Stephanie Gulley and do not reflect those of her employer, persons or companies mentioned herein, or anyone else.
