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Social Media Tools Part 1 – Delicious.com
This is the first part in my new series on Social Media Tools, where I showcase some of the more popular tools and teach you how to use them.
What is Delicious? Delicious.com is a social book marking application that will allow you to save, tag and share all of your favorite websites that you visit on the web. In the past if you wanted to bookmark a site to review or reference later you would use the bookmarks that are built into your browser. The problem with saving sites this way is that they are local only to the current machine that you are on, and if you want to use another machine you will not have access to those bookmarks. In addition they are not easy to organize and search on when you want to find a certain website.
Is Delicious Easy to Use?
If you can bookmark a site in your browser you can use Delicious. Follow these quick steps and you will be on your way to changing the way you store and browse your favorite sites.
- Go to Delicious at (http://www.delicious.com) and register an account with a username and password.
- When you are at the site, download the browser plug-in for your favorite browser. Here are the links for Firefox and Internet Explorer.
- Firefox - http://delicious.com/help/quicktour/firefox
- Internet Explorer - http://delicious.com/help/quicktour/ie
- When you first start to use Delicious you will have the option to import all of your bookmarks from your current browser.
- Browse your favorite website and then you can click on the “Tag” icon in your browser.
- You will have a dialog box appear that will allow you to enter in some key information:
You can see and edit the following:
- Title: I would leave this alone; this is the title from the webpage.
- Notes: You can enter in any words you want, and you can use this to help add more notes to yourself about why you bookmarked the site.
- Tags: You enter in search tags here separated by a space. There are some Recommended and Suggested Tags below and if you want to use any of those tags just click on those tags. You an also enter in any tags you want as well. Feel free to use as many tags as you need.
- You have now saved your bookmark to the Delicious.com website.
- You are able to recall all of your Delicious.com bookmarks within the browser, and better yet view them on any machine that has a live Internet connection. To view your bookmarks online just go to the following URL:http://www.delicious.com/XXXusername - where you enter in your username instead of XXXusername.
- Next to the “Tag” icon on the browser plug-in to the left is the Delicious bookmarks icon. This will bring up your Delicious bookmarks and they are all sorted by your various tags. In addition if you go to the website you have a number of various options as well to view and sort your bookmarks.
- You can now also share your bookmarks with others by giving them the URL from above and then they can see all of your bookmarks.
Go and get your Delicious.com account today and start making the best use of your bookmarks. Ever since I have started using bookmarks on Delicious I have never looked back, I use a variety of machines each day and having my bookmark sites all in one place and available anytime on any machine is why I think this is the most valuable tool I could ever use.
Enjoy and tell me what you think of Delicious.
Be Well
Frank
One of the Best Sites Ever
Ever have a real curiousity? I mean the type of curiousty where you spend hours at night looking up new things on the Internet? I think with my normal sleeping pattern of 4 hours of sleep a night I stare at a lot of things on the Internet. Ever once in a while I take a moment to browse the topics that are being presented at TED (http://www.ted.com). If you have never seen TED before you really need to take a look a the site. There are so many amazing presentations there that are all FREE. That’s right free, and in this economy you don’t get better then that. I am always amazed at the caliber of information and people that I see when I look at that site. If you have not had a chance to look a that site before take a break now and go have a look.
Here is a great example - Photosynth demo
Be Well
Frank
Great Quote
Social equity is greater then financial equity. - by: Gary Vaynerchuk
Happy Hump Day
Hello everyone Happy Hump Day! Here is to wishing all of you a ROCKING GREAT DAY!
Be Well
Frank
Using Twitter and the Debate
If you have read my blog or talked to me at all in the last couple of months you will know I am getting more and more into using Twitter. Twitter is a microblogging platform, and I used it last night to chat with others during the debates. Here is what I thought.
Be Well
frank
Contxts the New Way to Exchange Contact Information
When you meet people on the street or at a networking event one fo the first things you do after meeting them is exchange business cards. In our socity now we rely on this as the tool to help keep us connected. Let’s face it, almost all of us are using some form of smart phone/PDA/iPhone/crackberry, and this makes it very easy to keep up with everyone. 
So what if there was an eaiser way to share this information? A way that did not require so much entry by hand to enter in all of that contact information. Well the folks over at Contxts(http://www.contxts.com/) are hoping to make your life a little easier with their service.
How does it work? You register on their site and provide some basic contact information about yourself. Then the next time you are at a conference you tell people to send a text message with your “username” to 50500. You get back a SMS Text message with all of their contact information.
What could be easier then that? Well short of having each person actually enter their information in for you in your phone I think there is no easier way.
Hats off to Context for saving trees and making it easier to network.
Be Well
Frank
Photo Credit
Motivation – What Motivates You to Get Out of Bed?
Each week I do a guest post for Pink Heels for a series called Tuesday Tech Talk. This has been a great opportunity for me to help others and share, and since I am a big believer in Karma, this is my way of increasing my overall Karma points in that big tally.
Here is a re post of the article that will run on their site this Tuesday.
In life we all go through a point where we start a project or business and then we lose our motivation. We all start the project with the best intentions, but then things change, life changes and then you end up starring in the mirror wondering how are you ever going to get that project moving forward. Well I am here to tell you all you need is to create yourself a serious of great motivational messages or videos to help steer you back on track.
Over the years this same scenario has happened to me several times. See I am a “dreamer” as my father would call me. I love the idea of getting a bunch of new projects starting and then I need motivation or inspiration to help keep me moving. I like to have more then one project going in the hopper, this is just my DNA.
Since I now recognize this I have started created a couple of things that I do to help keep me moving and plowing straight ahead. A long time ago I sat down and wrote a note to myself. This note was more like a self reflection as to what do I want out of life, and why I need to do everything possible to get there. This note was also brutally honest, and serves as a kick in the tail when I need it.
While a note to myself is a start, I have over the last year found a couple of people that I follow that occasionally give a motivation presentation in a video blog or presentation. I have bookmarked these videos into a category called inspiration. Here are two of my favorites:
Building Personal Brand
Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library)
I cannot say enough about Gary. While his deliver can be raw, I also like the fact that he is real with people. He grew his wine business from a $5 million family business to a $45 million wine empire. All because he believes in the “hustle” as he put it, great stuff in my book.
Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better
Tony Robbins
According to Tony Robbins there are Six needs that motivate us:
- Certainty - Having this allows us to focus
- Uncertainty - We need variety
- Significance - We all need to feel important
- Connection and Love - We all need to feel love
- Grow - We all need to grow
- Contribute beyond ourselves - The secret of living is giving
So what motivate you? What makes you want to get up in the morning and keep going? When you are back is against the wall or you have a huge obstacle in front of you, what is your motivation? Leave your secrets to motivation in the comments and share with others, in this world I think we can all use a little help, and to share and help one another is a very rewarding feeling.
Peace
Frank
Lifecasting - NonSociety.com
LIfecasting or Lifestreaming has been around now for a little while, and it is starting to gain greater popularity. So what is Lifecasting? It is the process of opening your world to others, and broadcasting what you are doing on all types of daily activities. It is more then just a website, it includes pics, video, tweeting, blogging, and any other web2.0 communication tool that comes your way.
When I first started to look and see what lifecasting was all about I got there in a round about sort of way. I saw an article in Wired magazine that talked about how to be famous on the Internet. I sat down at lunch and read the article and was instantly curious to know more about Julia Allison. As I searched more about Julia I found the site NonSociety.com which is a company that Julia has founded with her friends Meghan Asha, and Mary Rambin. The site and company are focused around the idea of creating great content through lifecasting. Each of the three have a different focus for the content that they create and gear their lifecast around. Julia is the “Dating Columnist”, Meghan is the “Geekette”, and Mary is the “Style Snob”.
NonSociety 101 from NonSociety on Vimeo.
Here is a sample of their featured video - NonSociety 101
So what do you get when you go to the site, well you get a little piece of them each day. It is kind of like a blog meets Twitter add a slice of Flickr, with your favorite reality show all rolled into one. The idea here is that they are creating an environment and platform where you will come and see what the various contributors are doing. I for one seem to be hooked on the site, and their daily activities. I check their site a couple time of day to see if they have posted anything new, and with the variety of different content it always seem like there is something to see.
What makes them stand out though?
Well in my opinion it is their use of several media forms to help create and package the whole story. They will post a screen shot of an SMS or instant message conversation. Use live broadcasting from a TechCrunch50 a tech show, or Fashion Week in NYC. Open, and sometimes raw blog posts to their users at all times of the day and night, even early morning since Julia never sleeps. Videos of crazy stunts, events, and lipdubs from their exploits out on the town. Beside using several forms of media I think the main reason people check them out is because it has a raw organic feel to it when you read and view their content.
I think another aspect of what makes them stand out is their personality. In the lifecasts you start to identify that they are real people, who dream of building a business, have fun, get angry, and experience all that life has to offer. I identify with them because there are several aspects they embrace that i can identify with as well, I am trying to start 2 dating sites, and a career in the blogging world. I have always been and will always be a techno junkie. I have been doing web programming or strategy for 14 years and love all things web. I want to eat better and exercise more. All of these are experiences that I share and identify with when I read or view their site.
Addiction?
Well at this point I would say I am addicted to the site. I am by nature a reality show junkie and have been involved with the Internet now for 14 years, so this is the best of both worlds for me. I think they have been very successful in creating an environment that engages their users. My experiences over the years in the Internet field have taught me that you need to create a compelling user experience if you want to make the difference and connect with your users. Well they have done that. Through reading the posts and looking at all of the various videos I feel like I am already friends with the all three of them.
They Just Get It!
I think this speaks to the whole idea of creating a lifecast or lifestream. Create an environment that feels as though the user is with you all of the time. We see the ups and downs, and feel as though we are there with the person as they go through their life. This is a very interesting time in the Internet since the tools available to create this content are readily available, and get easier to use each day. In building websites they say you need to create the “Stickiness” factor, which means you want people to come to your site and stay for a while and look around. Well what better way to do that then a lifecast. Their site REALLY rocks, and I am wishing them all of the best in the efforts to create this new platform.
I hope to have the opportunity to interview each of them soon and add that to the blog as well.
So what sites do you look at that shows people lifecasting or life streaming? Let me know in the comments.
Be Well
Frank
The Brand You
If you take a look at large companies that sell products or service that your purchase or enjoy you will notice one thing that stand out in all of them. It is their brand, and it is the reason you choose their products over yours every time you comsume those products or services. Branding is a key componenent in marketing, but it is not reserved for only the large players out there it is for all of us.
It is time we all take a lesson from these large brands and focus on our brand…the BRAND YOU! So what is the Brand You? Personal Branding is positioning yourself and all that you do to stand out in the crowd. It represents how you carry yourself both personally as well as professionally in all that you do. Personal Brand is the perception of what people think about you and your abilities.
So you may be asking yourself what is in it for me and why should I care about my own personal brand. Well let’s aface it people like to do business with people they like right? We all go to stores thatw e feel are the best, we buy products that we identify with in our lives. We socialize with people that have simlar interests and habits. That is why Personal Branding matters so much. I cannot say enough about the imprtance here, and why you need to strive everyday to do better.
You must care about your Personal Brand to stay competitive.
Here are some popular Personal Brands:
- Donald Trump
- Oprah
- Richard Branson
- Michael Jordon
- Tiger Woods
- Jack Welsch
So today is the day that you start to look internally at yourself and what you stand for in your own personal brand. What steps can you take to get started today?
- Take a long hard look at yourself and write down everything that you are good at, and focus on those activities.
- Items that you are not as good at, with er get experience with them, or acknowledge you are not good at them and avoid them if possible.
- Be a great communicator all of the time.
- Always know what skills you have to bring to the table in every scenario.
- Sit down with your friends, coworkers and family and ask them to tell you a list of words that come to mind when they think of you. If these are not the same words you were expecting, time to change your brand.
So take time today to reflect on your Personal Brand and remember Person Branding is all about relationships, so make all of yours successful.
Peace
Frank
Photo Credit
