Posts Tagged Educators
Say NO to Big Brother! But how about little brother? 5 Tracking Tools
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on March 10, 2010
Why We Love Shopping, Why We Buy, To Buy or Not to Buy, Addicted to Shopping, The Lucky Shopping Manual, Born to Spend, Shopping for Time, Not Buying It, Spent – all titles of books about consumer habits. Here are a few tools that may help you keep track of who and what your customers care about. 
http://bit.ly/ shorten, share, and track your links
There are a couple of reasons to shorten a url and using this site might offer the main reason for doing so…I think the URL shorteners showed up as a response to Twitter’s 140 character limit but this site offers another reason. We learned from Dan Zarrella at the Southern Social Networking Summit that adding a plus mark (+) to the end of any bit.ly url will show the activity for that url and it is really valuable info. See how many times it was clicked, who clicked it, and where they came from. Again, this is data that booksellers would have had to pay big bucks for in the past. And it is all here. Amazing!
http://delicious.com/ social bookmarking
Okay, again, a wealth of info but be careful not to get sucked in to the home page where the most recent bookmarks are displayed. I got sucked into some celebrity news for a minute but now I’m back. This allows you to search anything and see what items folks have bookmarked and it let’s you collect your favorite sites as well. Again, learn a lot about readers and see who is making their mark on Delicious. I’m delighted that http://www.indiebound.org/ comes up regularly in book and bookselling and bookstore references. Your customers are there.
http://digg.com/ the latest news headlines, videos, and images
Okay, don’t get sucked in. Put in your search item and see the sites that have been sited. Once your search results come up, scroll down the page, and on the left you will see Advanced Search Tips that will assist you in getting even more info on who is talking about what.
http://mashable.com/ the social media guide
This is a great site for learning about social media. Lots of nerd news here. Valuable stuff about Facebook, Twitter, eReaders, all things online; from FourSquare to Phishing. Again, it’s easy to get lost in here. So try to use the search function or follow them on Twitter or Facebook, and just check out the things that impact you and your customers.
http://bloggernetwork.org who is in your area?
Okay, this might be a waste of time. Trying to find book bloggers to invite to SIBA and many of the blogs were no longer active or had not ever been activated. Searched for over an hour and found 6 potential southern bloggers. I think booksellers should connect with local book bloggers and create a mutually beneficial relationship. Just not sure Blogger Network is where to find them.
Please don’t make me feel stupid six ways.
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on February 17, 2010
I love to be productive and I mostly love to learn new things. But I don’t like for the learning curve to be so challenging that I feel stupid. I don’t like feeling stupid. My younger brother and I were often partners in games of Trivial Pursuit, when it was all the rage, and I remember him saying to me – “I can’t believe I spent $50 to feel this stupid.” That, in a nutshell, is how I feel about trying to use some online programs. Granted, in most cases, I’m not paying for them, but even still, please don’t make me feel stupid, even for free.
From the Links List page of this blog, I have pulled out what I term the productivity tools. I’m going to try to present them in a manageable format and hopefully, you can just use what you need, and not bother with the rest. The cool thing about all of the online tools is that it is like a brain-matching game. Finding someone who has a brain that matches mine is my goal (except their brain has the patience, intelligence, education, motivation, desire, and skill to build an on-line tool). Let the brain-matching begin.
I have divided these productivity tools into three sections. The first I will call Strategies for Getting Organized & Beyond. The second will be Paper Clip Sites – These are sites that do one thing really well as does a paper clip. And the third is called Scary Excellent – Sites that have Great Reputations but Scare Me. The second and third sections will follow in blog posts over the next few days. On to section one:
Productivity Tools
Strategies for Getting Organized & Beyond
http://www.stumbleupon.com/ discover the best of the web in less time
I checked books as my interest and did stumble upon a lot of cool sites but for the most part, I became irritated about not having any control over what come up though this could be a great site for finding content you might never see otherwise, like a phone booth that was turned into a lending library. It feels more like a time waster than a time saver.
http://www.shareaholic.com/ the better way to share across Twitter, Facebook, Email and More
I find this site somewhat overwhelming but also appealing. I will go back and take another look at it as it looks like something that would be worth the one-time investment to get it set up…Looks like a timesaver to me.
http://springpadit.com/ a free personal organizer and online notebook
It appeals to me. I don’t have an account yet but Gary Vaynerchuk likes it and I like Gary’s brain so it might be a match. It is one I will go back and spend more time with but I also have to say I am really digging my Google Calendar and it has helped me get more organized. (It reminded me I needed to get this blog post up tomorrow so I went ahead and started the draft tonight. I’m shooting for one post a week.)
http://www.evernote.com/ Remember everything.
Okay, I dig this. I love the clipping notion. Again, I will need to set up an account and get back to you but I will visit this again.
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ online to-do list and task manager
It looks like it will do everything one would need as a task management tool but it seems a little too advanced for me. I can’t really explain why it makes me feel that way but I’d probably visit the seemingly easier options.
http://gtdiq.com/ test your getting things done IQ
I am a huge David Allen fan and relate to his brain and love his strategies.
Start the New Year Right! With Gary V. & David Allen & more…
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on November 5, 2009
Southern Social Networking Summit
Meeting on the application of social networking both off- and on-line to the arts, humanities & business
Dates:
Wed., Jan. 6, 2010 (starting at 10am) & Thu., Jan. 7 (ending by 3pm)
Location:
Hyatt Regency Greenville, 220 North Main Street, Greenville, South Carolina, USA 29601
Tel: +1 864 235 1234 Fax: +1 864 232 7584
Mention code: SSNS when making reservation
Hotel Reservations Online
Thorny Details:
Registrants should have a working knowledge of the Internet and already be making some social networking efforts. Minimally, you should have a Twitter account and Facebook account set up, and have either a blog or website or both that is maintained somewhat regularly. Meals will be provided except dinner which will be dutch treat.
This event is free to the participants who stay overnight at the Hyatt Regency Greenville. The room rate is $99. If you do not stay at the Hyatt, the cost is $135. There will be no refunds. You will be required to forward your reservation confirmation for the Hyatt Regency Greenville to wanda@sibaweb.com to avoid the $135 summit fee.
You must pre-register by Jan. 1, 2010, Limited to the first 150 people. Every participant is invited to bring promotional materials, products, brochures, or other materials that they would like to share with other participants. Take this opportunity to increase your visibility across the south. We are all in this together.
Motivation and strategy:
The arts & humanities have made strides in applying insights from their field to social networking, particularly those involving reaching their direct constituents. So far, however, it has had a minimal impact on what may be the most significant challenge: reaching the masses. This meeting brings together a select group from varied domains to brainstorm about policies and programs aimed at invigorating our social networking. The main thrust of the meeting will be to brainstorm about practical solutions to specific problems that are impeding progress in dealing with the ever changing explosive opportunities in social networking. There will be four sessions (see below), each focusing on a different broad topic area. The first three sessions will each begin with a briefing by a domain expert who will provide background information about the topic and propose some concrete problems for the group to address. Brainstorming will then take the form of breakout group meetings followed by larger group presentations. The four topic areas are:
1. How to make time for all the social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Glue, Google, Delicious, Wet Paint, Net Galley, Author Buzz, Library Thing, Squidoo, FourSquare, CloudProfile and so many more…
2. What’s on line that will feed my work? What’s free and how do I get it? Marketing Partnerships and how to make them work?
3. What does the research tell us? What trends are coming down the pipe? And how do we manage it all with small staffs and smaller budgets?
4. Increasing the effectiveness of our combined efforts. How do we move the conversation from insiders to outsiders?
Schedule (subject to adjustments)
Day 1, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
9:00-10:00 Breakfast (please come and meet the other participants)
10:00–11:00 Welcome and agenda Presentation on Motivation & Strategyfor Successful Social Networking -
Gary Vanerchuk, author of CrushIt! http://garyvaynerchuk.com/
11:00-11:30 Break & Book Signing with Gary Vanerchuk & David Allen
11:30-12:30 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: How to make time for all the social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Glue, Google, Delicious, Wet Paint, Net Galley, Author Buzz, Library Thing, Squidoo, and so many more with
David Allen, author of Making It All Work, Getting Things Done, and Ready for Anything. http://www.davidco.com/
12:30-1:00 Break & Booksigning with David Allen
1:00 -2:00 Breakout group brainstorming (over lunch)
2:00 -2:30 Breakout group reports
2:30-3:00 Break
3:00-4:00 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: What’s on line that will feed my work? What’s free and how do I get it? Marketing Partnerships and how to make them work with
Dan Zarrella, author of The Social Media Marketing Book.
http://danzarrella.com/
4:00-4:30 Break & Book Signing with Dan Zarrella
4:30-5:30 Breakout group brainstorming
5:30-6:30 Breakout group reports
Dinner 7:00 Table 301 Family of Restaurants will present on their policies and procedures for their social networking efforts. (Dutch Treat with a 20% discount to all)
Day 2, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010
8:00-9:00 Breakfast
9:00-10:00 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: What does the research tell us? What trends are coming down the pipe? And how do we manage it all with small staffs and smaller budgets?
Expert to be named soon.
10:00-11:00 Breakout group brainstorming
11:00-12:00 Breakout group reports
12:00-1:10 Lunch to include SIBA presentation
1:10-2:10 Introduction and discussion: Increasing the effectiveness of our combined efforts. How do we move the conversation from insiders to outsiders?
Expert to be named soon.
2:10-3:00 Group discussion and closing reflections
