Here are some highlights from the presentation and some thoughts of my own on what to expect in marketing and social media in 2012.

Optimize For Mobile

More and more people are using their mobile devices to browse the web. The biggest thing you can do to get ready for social media in 2012 is to establish your mobile presence. Some stats from a recent ComScore study show:

• More than 70% of users who use mobile social media use it daily
• As of March 2011, there’s been a 45% growth in mobile social media usage since last year

One way to make your site more mobile friendly is to provide an alternative site for viewing on mobile devices. WordPress users can download a plugin like WPTouch and be up and running on their smartphone easily. More recently sites have been experimenting with responsive web design that basically eliminate the need for multiple versions of your site by creating one version that adapts to fit the current screen size. It’s important to at least be aware of your site’s mobile usability as traffic to and from social media continues to increase.

Provide Mobile Offers and Incentives

As more advertisers turn to mobile it’s important to keep up to date with the most recent developments to drive better traffic. The ability to target ads based on location is getting easier and shows great promise for the future. WHERE had some interesting statistics in the ComScore study mentioned earlier. The study says:

40% of consumers who click a location dynamic ad show purchase intent while 30% will go on to share the ad in their social networks.

Here is a list of mobile advertising networks from mobiThinking to get you started.

Another way to advertise is through offers on sites like Foursquare and Groupon. This attracts a more tech savvy crowd which is in turn more likely to share or review your service through social media. Be careful however as  new data suggests these offers could potentially generate negative reviews as well.

More QR Codes and Some NFC

You may have heard of QR codes by now but did you know “About two-thirds of US respondents have seen a QR code. Of those surveyed, about half who saw a QR code, used it” - Heidi Cohen. I personally think most of its usage stems from mere curiosity but the idea behind it is important as newer technologies emerge. Near Field Communication (NFC) although limited in availability is easier to use and has much more potential if it takes off. This provides new advertising opportunities as we can target ads based off location and previous purchase history. Google already has one Android phone using NFC and will soon add another. Expect to see new creative uses of QR codes and a rise in NFC usage.

Collaboration Is Key To Innovation

Businesses already recognize the importance of monitoring social media and using it as a means of interacting with their community. Social media provides a greater opportunity to collaborate with communities to further innovate. Collaborative innovation embraces diversity and enables motivated individuals within the community to contribute in ways that were once not possible due to location, language and accessibly limitations. Expect to see a growth in collaboration tools emerging that will improve upon written, audio and visual communication as well as the organization and development of ideas and resources.

Automation

With the number of public APIs increasing and new APIs popping up from popular social media sites expect easier ways to use them. Sites like Ifttt.com and Yahoo Pipes put the power of public APIs from sites like Twitter, Yahoo, Google and Facebook in to easy to use interfaces. Expect to see more innovation around the automation of network management and content distribution.

Personal Network Integration

We need to start changing the way we think about our social media networks. My smartphone has essentially decentralized my contacts from their respective networks and recompiled them into one list. Instead of searching across multiple networks I can now instantly find the best way to contact anyone in any of my networks in seconds right from my phone.

But it’s not just about the centralization of our networks. A growing number of social media sites allow users to use their site as an authentication method for other services. Not only can you use these sites to assist in the registration process but you have access to most of the data for that user. This in turn allows you to leverage their existing networks and make the user experience more targeted to their interests.

Redefining What’s Relevant

An amazing Ted Talk by Eli Pariser opened my eyes to the problems of Facebook and Google filtering content based on usage. Eli goes on to say that by only displaying what’s relevant we create “filter bubbles” or we only see what Google and Facebook think we want to see. We don’t necessarily see the things that challenge our beliefs and make us uncomfortable but these are the things that help us grow and evolve into better people. I expect this will change as new services, and changes in existing ones, work harder to get more relevant content to us.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to be excited about for the future of marketing and social media. Social media enables those with something to say and good ideas spread faster than ever. Keep an eye on emerging mobile technologies and be willing to embrace change and innovation.

How Does It Work?

The site provides an easy to use interface that allows you to create triggers and actions to automate repetitive tasks.

The site goes beyond the traditional “send all of my posts to Twitter” type of automation to allow you to create tasks that interact with a whole variety of services. So beyond sending all of your posts to Twitter, which you can easily do, you can send your posts to Delicious, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr and more. But it’s not just about automating RSS feeds, the real power is in the interaction between other services. Sending tweets with a hashtag to Delicious or uploading new Flickr images to Facebook.

So What Can This Cool New Tool Do?

Besides being able to do what other automation tools can already do, ifttt currently allows you to interact with 36 other services with some really amazing potential. Here are some of my favorite Tasks I’ve created so far.

Send Starred Posts In Google Reader To Twitter

This task allows you to easily send any posts you star in Google Reader as links to twitter. You can then go into the ifttt settings to sign in with your Bitly account to easily track those links.

Leave A Voicemail To Create New Google Calendar Events

This is my favorite recipe I’ve created so far. Basically I just call a phone number provided by ifttt and leave voicemails with new events like “Meet Joe at Starbucks at noon tomorrow”. I’m always looking for easier ways to interact with my calendar so this has been an awesome bit of functionality.

Send My Featured Images From Posts In WordPress To Flickr

I’ve been wanting to organize all of the featured images I create for my posts in Flickr but just never got around to it. Now there’s no need and my hard work can go on display in Flickr with a link back to my post automatically.

Some Other Great Recipes

• Get A Text Message If It’s Going To Rain Tomorrow
• Send All Tagged Facebook Photos Of Yourself To DropBox
• Save Your Foursquare Check-ins To Google Calendar
• Leave Voice Memos That Are Emailed To You And Transcribed

Scratching The Surface Of Free And Easy To Use Automation Tools

I imagine I’ll find other cool uses for ifttt as they continue to add new channels. The simplicity of the site and use of recipes to share task templates should drive the service pretty far. They have laid the groundwork to become one of the most powerful free social media automation tools on the internet and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Three years later a lot has changed but there are still many ways to find some good people follow.

Find Tweeps You Know In Real Life

The first thing you should do is follow people you are already friends with. Twitter makes it easy by allowing you to import from Gmail, LinkedIn and a few other services. Learn more here.

Find Local Tweeps

Using Twitter Search to find local Twitter users is easy. You just use the near and within search operators. So to find all Twitter users tweeting within 5 miles of Boston you would just search for near:Boston, MA within:5mi.

A few other services that make it easy to find local Tweeps:

• http://nearbytweets.com
• http://www.twellow.com
• http://tweet.grader.com/index.php?Action=TwitterUsersByLocation

Here’s a great article written for businesses looking for local tweeps but it’s certainly relevant for us normal tweeters too.

Find Tweeps With Similar Interests

Anther useful feature Twitter provides is the ability to find popular users by interest.

Some services that help find like minded Tweeps include:

• http://justtweetit.com/
• http://wefollow.com/

Finding Tweeps in Lists

One of my favorite additions to Twitter during it’s rise to popularity was Twitter Lists. What I was most interested in at first was how other people classified me. Beyond being a good measurement of how others perceive you it’s a great tool to find others just like you. For example I’m listed in several WordPress Twitter lists so there’s a good chance the other people in that lists would be good candidates for me to follow.

If finding new lists becomes a challenge you should sign up and check out Listorious, a directory for Twitter lists.

Quality Quality Quality

You can follow people for days until you reach your Twitter limits but what’s the point if no one is talking to you. A few things I look at before following are the basics; a profile pic, a bio and a link to their website. Then I go on to see if they are only talking about themselves or if they actually retweet and communicate with others. Spam and bots are pretty easy to spot once you start recognizing the patterns.

Follow Us and Say Hi/Welcome

Finally be sure to follow myself (@JonDBishop) and my girlfriend Kelley (@monkelley) to say hi. We try to be friendly and talk/help others the best we can. Kelley will especially appreciate your follows and tweets as a distraction from her most recent adventure that is grad school.

What Are Your Options?

Google +1

The Google +1 button essentially socializes your search results and keeps tabs of your personal +1′s on your Google profile. If you needed proof of social signals affecting search results this is it.  A link in your search engine results will get a little boost if someone you know +1′d that link or if a large part of the general population +1′d that link.

This button is still pretty new but you will certainly see it often. This is Google’s direct answer to the Facebook Like button so expect to see the two together.

Facebook Like

Facebook has changed the way you share content a few times however the Facebook Like button is their most recent toy. It makes use of the open graph to identify and connect your liked content to Facebook pages, activities, music, movies, etc.

From the AOL/Nielsen Content Sharing study, we know people prefer to share content with friends and family. That makes Facebook an important place to make your content easily shareable on. Make sure to make use of the open graph to fine tune how your content is shared and to claim your stake in the open graph.

Twitter Retweet

Twitter didn’t always have it’s own retweet button. In the beginning there was TweetMeme. A few tried to copy what Tweetmeme had created however only BackType and Topsy succeeded where others failed. Finally Twitter released it’s own button that gives you the option of choosing a Twitter profile to recommend after a user shares your content. Each retweet button has it’s perks but make sure you display one on your site.

LinkedIn

The LinkedIn button is still fairly new but a great way to easily enable readers to share your content with their relevant networks on LinkedIn. This button will probably perform best with business, marketing and assorted internet related sites.

Email

That AOL/Nielsen Content Sharing study mentioned earlier stated 66% of the population use email as primary method of sharing. Offer an easy way to share your content via email because people seem to like doing that. I’m not fully convinced you need to display a button or link to encourage sharing over email because people are probably already used to just copying and pasting into email. However it never hurts to make things easier.

Social Bookmarking sites

I personally get waves of traffic from Stumbleupon and Reddit and some steady traffic from Delicious. Look at your analytics to figure out which sites your content is getting shared on and only display social bookmarking buttons that are performing well.

Some sites to consider are:

• Reddit
• Stumbleupon
• Digg
• Delicious
• Sphinn

So Which Buttons Should I Use?

Most sites seem to stick to Facebook and Twitter because the share counts are traditionally higher because of the nature of the services. You might also want to experiment with LinkedIn and the Google +1 button as they increase in popularity.

I suggest only using buttons that display share counts. Displaying buttons with higher share counts creates a form of social proof that might encourage other readers to share your content. Also, displaying too many buttons can slow down your site which can in turn result in readers leaving your site while waiting for the page to load.

Socialize WordPress Plugin

The Socialize plugin for WordPress is a social bookmarking plugin that makes it easy to insert popular social sharing buttons into your content. The plugin is unique in that you can easily select which button to display on a page to page basis as well as rearrange the order of the buttons on that page. The plugin also encourages using actionable buttons recognized by the community as popular methods of sharing content. The plugin includes the new Google +1 button, 4 Twitter buttons, 2 Facebook buttons, a custom Delicious button, the LinkedIn button and a few more widgets and buttons from popular social media sites. Learn more on the WordPress plugin page.

I was surprised by some of the results and disagree with a few statements made on the side. The article suggests that students aren’t making the grade as professionals in the workplace, mainly because they feel a sense of entitlement, expecting reward without putting effort. David Polk whose firm was commissioned to complete the study mentions problems with IT etiquette and goes on to say:

“Some of these problems in the workplace are the same things we are seeing in the classroom,” … “Students and employees alike are text messaging, surfing the Internet, and responding to cell phone calls at inappropriate times. It appears that for many the need to be in constant contact with friends and family has become an addiction. The addicted no longer see it as rude to be obsessively responding to calls or text messages.”

The real problem is that organizations and universities have failed to properly utilize these new communication tools that we appear “addicted” to. Companies should instead put together social media policies to regulate and facilitate the proper usage of these tools. The internet and these new technologies create new possibilities for marketing, sales, HR, collaboration and social awareness that should not be overlooked.

When it comes to our education system, Sir Ken Robinson says it best “.. It’s like we’re all being trained to be university professors”. Students are force fed the same curriculum with little favor towards true personal growth. Kids are clumped into groups based on age and location with little attention to their passions and talents. We need to shift from the old “assembly line” mindset to a more passion driven model.

First we need to see a change in the education system where individuals learn how to better use these tools to innovate and cooperate. Then we need to see organizations change their mindset and advise employees on best practices when it comes to internet usage.

Yes, my generation does feel entitled because we have access to more information than the generation before us. Hopefully the next generation will have access to even more information and will in turn teach mine. But the fact remains that we might just know things “seasoned workers” fail to see because everything is moving so fast. Hopefully we can all catch up and move forward as the human race instead of individual generations of that race.

Conclusion

Times are changing and so should the workplace and our education system. We need more access to technology inside and outside of the classrooms for educational purposes. Learning should be fueled by curiosity and allowed to mutate and wander with the mind. The workplace should also reflect these same ideals.

Additional Resources For Teachers:

• Teachers Embracing Social Media in the Classroom
• 7 Free Social Media Tools for Teachers
• Web 2.0 for the Classroom Teacher

Additional Resources For Companies:

• How Businesses Are Unleashing Their Employees’ Social Media Potential
• Online Database of Social Media Policies

The purpose of this post is to educate my clients and readers on some of the best practices concerning HTML in their WordPress posts and pages. Sure you can just write blocks of text and hope the content is compelling enough to stick but knowing a little HTML can go a long way in making your posts easier to read.

Learn Basic HTML

Paragraphs and Line Breaks:

The WordPress editor automatically removes <br> and <p> tags that don’t have any attributes and  replaces them when your WordPress theme displays your content. This causes a lot of confusion when people who already know some HTML start trying to use the WordPress HTML editor and their paragraph tags keep disappearing. WordPress interprets a single line break as <br> and a double line break as <p>.

Headers:

Headers are a great way to tell your readers (and search engines) what the next block of text is about. Us humans have become accustomed to scanning posts rather than reading every little word. For this reason headers are a great way to help a reader find exactly what they’re looking for within your post.

<h1>Most Important Header</h1>
<h2>Second Most Important Header</h2>
<h3>Third Most Important Header</h3>
...
<h6>Least Important Header</h6>

I usually try to pick up where my theme left off. So if my post title is using <h2> tags I will use <h3> tags to punctuate my main points in my post.

Images:

I personally think images are the most important part of a post next to its content. You are best off using the Upload/Insert functionality in your post editor. If your theme supports featured images you should most definitely be using them.

One of my WordPress image pet peeves is when people don’t use the built in CSS classes to align their images to the content.  These are classes that the WordPress post editor uses by default and most quality themes will support.

A basic left aligned image in WordPress would look like:

<img src="example.jpg" class="alignleft" />

And there you have it. I’ll talk about the importance of additional tags like Alt and Title in a bit. For now let’s move on.

Lists:

Lists are a very important part of making your post scannable. I try and use them whenever I want to highlight key points because I know the reader is more likely to read them. There are two types of lists; ordered and unordered.

Ordered lists are exactly what they sound like:

1. First
2. Second
3. Third

And alternatively, an unordered list looks as follows:

• Something
• Something Else
• And More

Your sidebar and navigation menus are most likely already making use of lists because of their ability to efficiently organize information. The basic syntax of a list is pretty straightforward.

First you need to declare what type of list you are using

• <ol> – Ordered List
• <ul> – Unordered List

And then you need to wrap your list items with the <li> tag.

A completed unordered list could look like this:

<ul>
<li>Something</li>
<li>Something Else</li>
<li>And More</li>
</ul>

Formatting:

You’ve got your main points highlighted with headers, lists and images to draw your readers eye. Now you can run though your post and do any additional needed styling to accentuate any remaining key ideas.

<strong> – Makes your content bold. Use instead of <b> to help search engines give extra weight.
<em> – Makes your content italic. Use instead of <i> to help search engines give extra weight.
<a href=""> – The anchor tag can be used to link to other websites or within your site. The href attribute specifies the destination of a link.
<blockquote> – Most themes will indent and emphasize blockquote text so this is a great way to emphasize chunks of text and quotes.
<pre> – By default, this tag maintains a text format. Good for bits of text where you want to preserve line breaks and spaces.
<code> – This tag distinguishes text that is computer code from normal language
<del> –  This tag is useful for chunks of text you want to delete after a post has been published. Most browsers will render it as the original text with a line through it.
<ins> –  This tag is useful for chunks of text you may want to add to your post after it has been published. Most browsers will render it as the original text with a line under it.

Accessibility

Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities via Wikipedia. WordPress recommends that you use Alt and Title tags on images as well as Title tags on links.

Example:

<a href="example.html" title="Example"><img src="example.jpg" alt="Example" title="Example" /></a>

Using The HTML Editor (Video)

Conclusion

This is only a small sampling of the HTML tags you can use based on the ones I thought were most important. All of these HTML tags are either built into the WordPress editor or supported by popular WordPress themes. Of course focus more on the quality of your posts than using as many HTML tags as possible. Look at some of your favorite blogs to get an idea of how you might want to structure your posts. With a better understanding of whats possible you can create a more personal style.

Further Reading

Here are some sites and posts worth checking out to learn more about HTML and blogging on WordPress.

• http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts
• http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
• http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/20/basic-in-post-html/
• http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/quicktags/

- Image by cdsessums

How much different is this version than the last? Well here is a complete list of the latest changes:

• Commented out javascript
• Added security to page meta box
• Added Yahoo Buzz and Google Buzz buttons
• Removed custom Facebook button and replaced with official Facebook Share button
• Created Delicious button with save count
• Provided options to float in-content buttons to right or left
• Provided options to display buttons on different pages
• Added option to hide alert box on specific pages
• Fixed CSS
• Plugin now updates upon activation and keeps record of version
• Buttons can now be displayed in feeds

Highlights

New Buttons

I’ve added Yahoo Buzz and Google Buzz due to popular demand. I also went ahead and changed the old Facebook image I was using and replaced it with the official Facebook Share Button.

My favorite addition is the new delicious button. It was the only button without an official or nice looking share button with a save count. So I made my own, hope you like it.

New Position Settings

You can control whether buttons are displayed on posts, pages, archives, search pages and even your feed. You can also control if the buttons are displayed on the left or right side of the content.

Fixed JavaScript and CSS Problems

I took care or several problems where JavaScript was being displayed on pages and buttons weren’t positioning correctly.

What Is Socialize?

The idea was to create an easy to use plugin that allowed bloggers to selectively add social bookmarks to their post. Furthermore I wanted to only use actionable buttons with counters because I believe displaying a posts social activity gives it positive social proof and can lead to more shares and more views.

This plugin also includes what I like to call an ‘alert box’ that is selectively displayed below posts and pages to encourage comments and sharing. You can also insert buttons into this post to increase the sharing potential.

The plugin is designed to make it easy for readers to share your content and give you full control of what is displayed where.

Download Socialize

So go check out the plugin page and try it out.

Remember if you are upgrading, be sure to deactivate the plugin first and reactivate it once you have uploaded the files.

The tens of thousands of you who already use our paid service represent over 75% of our traffic

So I imagine most of the popular networks you belong to on Ning will remain in place.

However, for the other 25% that might navigate elsewhere you have several options. I’ve yet to see a good breakdown of some of the better free Ning alternatives out there so I thought I would give it a shot. I found most of these sites in the comments and blog posts of other despaired Ning network creators. I’ve also tried to track down these other networks reactions to Ning’s announcement. Hopefully this will help you with your own transition.

Hosted Solutions

Spruz

Spruz seems to be the network of choice for most ex-ningers. I’ve read several reports of great up time and quality service. Spruz seems to have everything Ning has and a few extras that make it somewhat unique. I’ve seen users specifically boast about its file sharing capabilities.
[Post from Spruz welcoming Ning users]

Webs

Webs gets 30 times the traffic of Spruz and any other network on this list falling short only to Ning at two-thirds its traffic. Webs promises to always be free and shares several of the main features that made Ning popular including forums, member profiles and blogs.

[Post from Webs welcoming Ning users]

WackWall

I guess being in beta it wouldn’t be fair to compare their traffic to some of the other sites on the list. However, WackWall looks very promising. They are backed by a software company and don’t rely on investments which is why, they say, they will always remain free.

[Post from WackWall welcoming Ning users]

Grou.ps

Grou.ps is another great choice based on open source software. It seems to have everything Ning has and a very reasonable pricing plan to help scale your network. They also prefer to be called a social operating system. Looks very powerful.

[Post from Grou.ps welcoming Ning users]

Grouply

Grouply looks a lot like Ning on the front end and already has FAQs on importing members from other services. Matter of fact I’ve mistaken grouply groups for Ning groups a few times. One does have to wonder why their traffic has been dropping only to be revived by Ning’s latest news.

[Post from grouply welcoming Ning users]

BigTent

BigTent may be one of the babies of the bunch but it provides all of the same services in an “integrated” approach. Users claim the support is tremendous making it worth their switch. BigTent looks like a very simple solution, maybe a little too simple for some.

[Post from BigTent welcoming Ning users]

Zerista

Still trying to wrap my brain around this one but it looks VERY cool. Imagine FourSquare meets Ning and has little mobile babies. With tons of cool features to integrate the social experience, maybe its about time you take your network to the next level and go mobile?

[Post from Zerista welcoming Ning users]

Groupsite

Groupsite (formerly known as CollectiveX) looks like an awesome network solution with some excellent features. It does seem like they find ways to lure you into buying their premium services, like limiting subgroups to 5 but overall another good solution on the free side.

SocialGo

SocialGo, like the rest has a very impressive feature list and is just as popular as Spruz traffic-wise. The site seems to have a pretty satisfied user-base as I’ve seen several people recommend the site across different blogs and networks. Definitely worth putting on the list.

Open Source Solutions

Maybe the phasing out of Ning’s free service is what it takes to get you to take ownership of your community and move to a self hosted solution. The following are all free and trusted solutions in the industry. I personally would go with BuddyPress but to each his own.

BuddyPress – [Message from Buddypress]

Elgg - [Message from Elgg]

Pligg

Dolphin

LovdByLess

Insoshi

Astrospaces

Conclusion

I wan’t to hear your thoughts. If you know of any other free hosted social network creation services, please share them in the comments. Also feel free to give feedback on any of the networks listed if you are currently a user or have used one in the past.

- Photo by Samuel Stroube

Decorate Your Twitter Photo

Turn your Twitter Photo into an elf or Santa and even add some snow with Twixenate or add a Santa hat with Twibbon.com ( Other Christmas twibbons).

Change Your Twitter Background

You can always decorate your current background with some snow in Photoshop or use one of these templates:

• Christmas Themes on Twitrounds
• Christmas Themes on Twitter-Backgrounds.net
• Christmas Themes on Twitterbackgrounds.com
• Christmas Themes on TwitBacks
• Christmas Themes on Techie-Buzz.com
• Christmas Themes on snazzyspace.com

Help People In Need

The holidays are a time to give  and help where you can. On Twitter you can join a cause like the #twismas movement to raise money for a child or follow some popular charities on Twitter like:

• Make A Wish Foundation
• The Red Cross
• Charity Water
• UNICEF
• Kiva
• More …

Also be sure to check out TwitCause.

View Christmas Pictures

Using TweetGrid you can see all photos being posted to Twitter about Christmas in one place … and you don’t even have to update the page.

Track and Tweet With Santa

Norad has a special website and a Twitter account dedicated to helping you track Santa on his busiest day of the year. Also be sure to check what I believe to be the real Santa Claus on Twitter. Also, don’t forget to keep up with his blog.

- Photo by Steve took it

Let’s start off with my current favorite. BackType is a conversational search engine that scans the web for comments about your posts not necessarily on your posts. Where their original intent was to connect blog comments from one blog to another, one can see why they eventually got into the Twitter game. Using their existing technology they expanded their offerings to a site called BackTweets which became one of my favorite sites in an instant.

BackTweets keeps a fairly up to date list of all mentions of your blog. You can search for all links back to your blog or for specific posts. The data isn’t much different than Topsy’s and TweetMeme’s, I just feel like it’s the fastest and cleanest, but that’s just my personal opinion.

I think BackTweets really shines with their TweetCount widget which lets you customize everything from the color and source to weather or not you want it to be RT or “via”. Oh, and they automatically add Google Analytic parameters complements of Awe.sm. Doesn’t get much better than that. Thanks BackType!

Now on to the grandfather of Retweet tracking and indexing. TweetMeme is still my favorite Digg style Tweet aggregator for instant notification on hot topics and trends. Their RT button is probably the most used because of the websites popularity and is almost as dynamic as the BackTweet TweetCount button but falls short at color customization and Google Analytics integration. However, to compensate for the lack of GA integration, they have developed their own analytics that can track the viral nature of Retweets as they spread throughout Twitter. While I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit, I prefer integrated analytics where available and prefer the BackTweets button for this reason.

I had heard of Topsy but never really learned what they are about. Topsy is basically a Twitter search engine that ranks links being shared based on relevance and influence of those sharing the links. They offer a Retweet Count button as well as a list of all tweets linking back to your posts. What really struck me was that they also displayed which shortened URLs were used as well as all tags and authors involved in the process. This could become my new favorite dashboard for viewing Twitter activity around a specific link but it will take a bit more before I switch over to their Retweet button.

Some Things Worth Mentioning

Bit.ly uses BackType’s data to display conversations relevant to your shortened links

TweetMeme has a site very similar to it called Retweet.com however it is pretty much just a ripoff of TweetMeme and TweetMeme seems to work much better

Sometimes, BackType’s data will differ from TweetMeme and Topsy however the BackType TweetCount widget seems to display correct data

Be sure to check out this post from SEOptimise for a nice break down of the Retweet buttons mentioned in this post.

- Photo by Steve took it

Do you know how many people are RTing your content from your blog vs on Twitter?

A lot of bloggers don’t even realize that they are potentially preventing their readers from RTing their content by not having functional RT buttons. I see a lot of buttons that do any one of the following:

• Post to Twitter with only an unshortened link (example)
• Post to Twitter with no link and only a title (example)

Both of which a lot of people might just abandon and you’ve lost out on a RT.

And then there are people who get very close but miss in the end by doing one of the following:

• Post to Twitter with an unshortened link and a title (example)
• Post to Twitter with a shortened link and a title with a default source (example)

Why do we all tout the same advice on Twitter about RTs and somehow we don’t take that same advice to our blogs.

Some Things Your RT Button Should Do

Shorten Your Link

URL shortening is important for a few reasons:

• Allows potential for measurement
• Creates more space when RTing

It’s also important to use the right URL shortener. For example I know of people, myself included, who prefer clicking on bitly links over owly links because of the way they go about opening content. I have recently become a huge fan of the URL shortening service Awe.sm because of their Google Analytics integration and ease of use.

Use ReTweetable Titles

Most, if not all, RT buttons will just use the page title as the title to be tweeted. This causes a problem with most blogs as most themes automatically generate a title that usually includes the blog name along with some nifty symbols to separate the name and the title. You eventually end up with something like:

Jon Bishops Blog // This Is My Post // Awesome Blog Stuff http://bit.ly/1JrOCZ

It just doesn’t look all that pretty and at first glance in the public timeline on Twitter could be interpreted as spam.

Give You Credit

If you are using a popular RT button like TweetMeme or BackTypes, be sure to change the default source to your own Twitter name. Wouldn’t you rather see a bunch of RTs with your name in it rather than @tweetmeme or @backtype. This one always surprises me and then I have to go and hunt down the bloggers Twitter name to give the proper credit.

Make It Simple

Don’t create extra steps for your readers willing to share your content. Use buttons that send them straight to Twitter, no middle man. I’ve never been a fan of http://twitthis.com/ for that very reason. It creates an extra step between me and retweeting a post when all I want is a shortened URL to share. I also don’t like allowing 3rd party sites because, well, I don’t trust anyone these days.

Easiest Solutions

I’ve compared a few of these services in further detail in a previous post but the easiest way to make sure you are using the best RT button is to use the TweetMeme Button or BackType’s TweetCount widget. Also be sure to properly configure it so that your title’s make sense and it’s not using the default source.

Click my RT button at the top of this post to see how it’s done ;)

First off, we have an excellent article by Devlounge which poses some great questions:

• Things To Consider When Using WordPress as a CMS

Next we have a series of articles from Noupe convering some excellent WordPress as a CMS plugins, techniques and unique uses:

• 101 Techniques for a Powerful CMS using WordPress
• 40 Exceptional “CMS Enabling” WordPress Plugins
• 25 Unique uses of WordPress as CMS

Now WordPress isn’t the perfect CMS solution right out of the box, so NoScope.com discusses it’s shortcomings and some possible improvements:

• 10 Changes To WordPress That Would Make It A Killer CMS

It would also be nice if you took the time to keep your WordPress CMS somewhat user friendly so we’ll turn to Stylizedweb for that:

• 10 Steps to a Client Friendly WordPress CMS

And finally, a few lists of plugins that can help you successfully turn your WordPress blog into a fully functional content management system:

• 31 WordPress CMS Plugins via Jon Bishop (me)
• The Autopsy Of WordPress As CMS With 25 Great WP Plugins & Designs via Onextrapixel
• Use WordPress As a CMS: Plugins, The Bare Minimum via Themeshaper
• Top 10 WordPress CMS Plugins via Blueprint Design Studio

Get Strategies, Tips and Free Plugins to make your WordPress site perform above all the rest. There are plenty of tutorials to get you started using WordPress, but what are the next steps? Lean how to optimize your time and your website within the WordPress environment by subscribing to a bi-weekly newsletter made for business owners with little time to manage and learn about WordPress. It’s a one top resource with actionable topics that will help your site become more successful.

Did I mention it’s Free?

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Your blog should really evolve right along side you. A few things to consider as you learn more about your readers are:

• Is it easy for readers to contact you? Can you make it easier?
• Is it easy for readers to find you on other networks, like on Twitter?
• Is it easy for you readers to find some of your more popular articles?
• Do you offer anything worth promoting to your sidebar or home page?
• Are people using your search and are they finding what they’re looking for?
• Can people easily subscribe to your RSS feed?

Keeping your content fresh can go beyond just posting regularly. Keeping your blog fresh as a whole is an easy way to keep people interested. Just remember not to go overboard.

How Have I Put This Into Action?

First of all I acknowledged the fact that certain posts perform better on some days than others due to trending topics on Twitter and in social media. So I added a ‘Popular Posts’ section in my sidebar that shows the most popular posts over the past 2 days. This is just an easy way to take advantage of the spikes of traffic I get from social media by taking full advantage of a topics popularity within a time frame.

I also added buttons that link directly to the WordPress plugins I created from the sidebar because I recognize that this is one of the main reasons people visit my site and I want an easy way for them to find what they’re looking for.

Speaking of my plugins, my Socialize plugin allows me to selectively add social bookmarking buttons to my posts. After awhile it’s pretty easy to see which button are being used more than others and with my plugin I can easily go in and remove unneeded buttons. This is just to increase the overall user experience as well as to encourage more shares on the services that are already doing well.

And finally, I use the feedback of my readers through comments and on Twitter to come up with new topic ideas. It’s probably my main source of inspiration aside from my spontaneous brain bursts.

How Can You Put This Into Action?

Ask you readers! Seriously. If you can’t figure out what needs to be done through previous interactions with your reader base why not formulate a post asking for ideas and direction. Don’t just let your blog become a place to spill your thoughts, let your readers milk your brain for all it’s worth … maybe that’s where the gold is.

- Photo by Diogo Martins.

To do this, I would need to:

• Suppress all video posts from being displayed with other posts
• Create an archive of all video posts
• Resize and place my most recent video in the sidebar

The first step was pretty easy. I just created a new category called “Video Post” and assigned it to all of my video posts. This would become a fairly intuitive list of videos people could access at their will.

Next I wanted to remove all video posts from being displayed among other posts on the home page. However, I still wanted my videos to be displayed in RSS feeds as well as archives and search pages. To do this, I just modified the default WordPress query used to pull the most recent posts by placing the following code before “The Loop”.

Be sure to change ‘-66′ to the id of whatever category you are trying to hide. How do I find the category IDs?

Also, if you are not sure where the WordPress Loop begins, it is usually located inside of index.php in your theme folder and starts with:

The last step is to display my most recent video in the sidebar. To do this I decided my best course of action was to save the embed code of my videos into a custom field as well as within the content of the post. This would allow me to easily pull the embed code and I would still be able to add text along with my video within the content.

In the example below I used the custom field ‘embed’ in my posts. Just paste this code in your sidebar where you would like your video to be displayed.

You will notice I also included a link to my last video however you can remove this or replace it with a link to your video archive. This code should work with most video embed codes. Be sure to change the width and height so everything fits nicely into your sidebar.

And that’s it. Now all you need to do when adding a new video post is:

1. Assign the post to your video category
2. Paste your embed code into the content and your ‘embed’ custom field
3. And Publish Your Post!

Why should I care about the seemingly random thoughts of complete strangers?

To me, its the same reason why you would go out to a bar over staying home with friends … you are interested in meeting new people. Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media sites out there and is the best medium for conversing with new like minded individuals. This mentality coincides with one of Twitter’s most useful functions. Tapping into the buzz of things that interest us. Twitter’s search capabilities in collaboration with it’s complete simplicity make it the perfect platform for crowd sourcing thoughts, ideas, questions and answers.

For example: If one were interested in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) they could follow the most popular MMA tweeps or even the MMA tweeps with the most interesting things to say. You could also set up a Twitter search for all mentions of MMA so you can jump in on the discussions and get the latest MMA news in REAL TIME.

You see, it’s not about the random thoughts of others but the thoughts of others that are relevant to you.

So what kinds of things should you be Tweeting?

That is completely up to you but the best way to learn is to watch others you enjoy reading. The most resourceful way to use Twitter is to reply and communicate with others. Some people like to use Twitter to show off their own accomplishments (like the completion of a new blog post or the creation of a new piece of art). Others use Twitter to support their business by proving their expertise through helping others in need. I myself use it mostly to talk with others I’ve met through Twitter … simple enough. Here is a list of 25 Twitter tips for college students.

Twitter is whatever you make of it and can be extremely powerful despite its apparent simplicity. The best way to learn about it is to just dive in. It’s always nice to know someone too, so feel free to reach out to me (@jondbishop ) and I’ll do my best to guide you in the right direction to be sure you get the most out of it.

- Photo by tanakawho

• SEO
• Awesome Layout
• It’s constantly being optimized

I guess what originally hooked me was the fact that most of the blogs I was reading by professionals within my industry were already on the Thesis theme. You’ve got Chris Brogan (who wrote about it here), Darren Rowse (who wrote about it here), Brian Clark (who wrote about i here), Matt Cutts and more.

So now a little about what makes it so great.

Matt Cutts recently spoke at WordCamp San Francisco 2009 where he discussed WordPress’s ability to satisfy 90% of your websites SEO. WordPress itself takes care of the obvious things like pretty URLs, syndication, interlinking pages, hiding duplicate content, etc. However, one thing WordPress does not control is the layout of the theme you are using. This is where Thesis comes in and satisfies several immediate needs:

• Cleanly laid out HTML for easy indexing by search engines
• Extra fields that allow editing of header meta on a page to page basis
• Clean, easy to read typography

But if everyone had the same theme, wouldn’t that get kind of dull?

Sure, if everyone was using the same settings. Thesis comes with two new settings pages under the appearance tab of your admin panel. You can move sidebars around, change major content area, and control all your fonts across the entire site.

Now while every other theme out there may eventually become outdated, I know I’m safe with Thesis because they are consistently releasing new versions. Their unique method for customizing the theme allows for easy upgrades and a lot more control. They have even added several new wordpress hooks that developers have already begun integrating into their plugins for easy one-step setup.

But I like it for the cutting edge look and feel

This was probably the culprit for the themes instant appeal in my eyes. Out of the box, the home page of the theme allows you to display excerpts in a slick boxlike fashion. You also get a dynamic content area in your sidebar that you can change on a post to post basis, great for promoting services relevant to the content your readers are viewing. Finally, they’ve added options to your posts and pages that allow you to display images in your posts that are automatically resized for the excerpts on the home page.

I’ve never promoted a product on my blog because I feel money can dilute an honest review by making it slightly more biased in any one direction. However, with Thesis I will make an exception. Ever since I’ve started using it I’ve been able to focus a lot more on content creation and less about SEO and blog maintenance. I very much look forward to future releases and hope you can too.

Disclaimer: All links to Thesis from this blog are an affiliate link. If you purchase the theme through one of these links I will receive a percentage as commission. This is the first (and probably only) product I would ever endorse for money.

You can save me 200 bucks? Prove it.

You can design awesome WordPress themes? Where’s your portfolio?

You know a lot about social media? Who have you helped?

It’s not about what you say you can do, it’s about doing it. Stop saying you can help people with their problems and start helping them. There are people begging for WordPress help on Twitter right now, why don’t you track them down and lend them a hand Mr WordPress expert. Social Media is not about broadcasting your capabilities but rather an excellent platform for displaying them.

There are tons of people creating real relationships in social media because they are communicating. They help and recommend each other. You need to create some sort or tangible social proof. The problem is numbers are a a dying (dead) form of social proof. Your Twitter followers and blog subscriber numbers can both be manipulated. That leaves your actions and thoughts, and the more conversation the better.

So put up a portfolio that proves your artistic capabilities. Reach out to others regularly to both learn and educate. Interaction and communication is your key to developing tangible social proof.

- Photo by Aidan Jones

I’m often surprised at how many great blogs aren’t using these buttons yet when it seems like a no-brainer. The only reason I could see not having one of these buttons on your site is if you don’t want social proof of your blogs failure. In other words, you don’t want the rest of the world seeing how many people are not sharing your posts. But then again, if that’s the case, maybe adding one of these buttons to your site is the first step to getting a solid new following.

TweetMeme retweet button

TweetMeme’s retweet button wasn’t the first of it’s kind, but it definitely sparked the trend that eventually led to this post. This button is probably the most recognizable throughout the blogosphere because of it’s unparalleled support and cutting edge website. Past attempts at aggregating retweets into a “Digg style” website fell short due to shortcomings in functionality and bandwidth.

My only quarrel with the TweetMeme button was the fact that it automatically added “RT @tweetmeme” to your tweet unless you had some sort of high level clearance to get it customized. However, it seems they have fixed this and you can now customize it, as you should be able to. This was an especially smart move considering the launch of BackType’s retweet widget that allowed you to customize itself to your heart’s content.

Backtype Tweetcount Widget

This is the retweet button I am currently using because, at the time, TweetMeme wasn’t allowing me to customize my tweets. The main difference between BackType’s widget and TweetMeme’s is that BackType counts all Tweets pointing to a post where TweetMeme only counts each tweet once. You can also change the color of the widget to match your website’s theme. I’ll probably stick with this one for awhile.

Real Retweet Button

This guy popped up just the other day. Besides being a TweetMeme ripoff … well it’s a TweetMeme ripoff. The only reason I would even consider using this button is if I wanted to try something different.

So which RT button do you use?

1) Test your blogs speed first and get it primed

Use tools like iWebTool’s Speed Test and Pingdom’s Full Page test to visually see your blogs weaknesses and identify any key areas to focus on.

You should also be sure that your HTML adheres to W3C guidelines by validating your website and fixing any problems.

2) Make sure you have reliable hosting

Choose a reliable host that has the most recent versions of PHP and MYsql installed as well as enough space/bandwidth to handle large loads. WordPress has it’s own list of recommended hosts.

Here are a few others worth checking out:

• HostGator
• Fat Cow
• GoDaddy
• Lunar Pages
• Host Monster

3) Handle your images properly

Images can put a huge strain on your server’s load time if not managed properly. Your images don’t need to be any higher than 72 DPI and should be resized before being inserted into your post. Resizing images with HTML can distort the image and increase it’s loading time.

It also might be a good idea to disable hotlinking so no one outside of your website is using up your resources. All you have to do is navigate to your .htaccess file and insert the following code. (Note: If you are unfamiliar with how htaccess works, you may want to skip this step or contact a web developer for help)

It also wouldn’t hurt to cache your commenter’s gravatar images if you are currently displaying them on your site.

4) Easy with the javscript calls

Calls to 3rd party javascripts seem to be the main culprit in slowing down WordPress blogs. Between all the analytics packages available and social media enhancements you can make, their are tons of ways to slow down your blog. It really comes down to just choosing wisely. Do you really need that nifty little MyBlogLog widget? Is Google friend connect that important to your blogs strategy?

Two easy ways to cut down on the amount of time is takes to load whatever scripts you deem are necessary is to:

• Move javascript to an external file so browsers can cache the scripts.
• Move any remaining scripts to your WordPress’s footer.php

5) Don’t load too many videos at once

Too many flash videos on one page is a sure way to use up all of someones memory trying to load your page. I worked around this problem by assigning all video posts to the same category and not displaying any posts from that category on the home page. I just placed the following code above my “WordPress loop”:

Another easy fix would be to use the <!–more–> tag above your code that embeds the video in your post. This would only prevent the video itself from displaying on your home page.

6) Control your plugins

Only make calls to plugins when you need them by only calling them on the pages they will be used on.

This code only displays “function code here” when you are viewing the “archives” page. A full list of all the conditional tags can be found here.

Also be careful not to install too many plugins in general and disable and remove any plugins that are not being used.

7) Cache Your Pages

The WP Super Cache plugin is probably the easiest way to seemingly increase your blogs loading time. It saves a copy of your website to a file on your server so WordPress only need to call that file rather than all the SQL and PHP it normally has to run. It comes in very useful when you have traffic spikes from certain social media sites.

8) Reduce SQL queries and PHP calls

Yoast has a great post that can help significantly reduce the number of calls your blog makes to your database. It also wouldn’t hurt to clean up your database either manually or with a plugin like WP DB Manager.

Another thing you can do that might speed up your database is to disable post revisions.

-

I hope someone finds this useful. Are there anymore tips you would recommend for speeding up a WordPress blog’s loading time?

- Photo by kevindean

Wake Up

I don’t have an alarm clock. I’ve been using my cell phone as my alarm for the last 8 years. That has nothing to do with social media, just thought it was kind of interesting.

Once I am finally up, I sit at my computer to take a quick glance at my TweetGrid. I don’t usually respond to anything at this time, I just like knowing what’s going on.

Morning At Work

When I get to work I check my email and review all new Twitter friend requests. All my Twitter requests go to their own folder so I can easily run through them all and follow/ignore/block as i need to. Then I look over the TweetGrid I made for my company Magicomm to see what’s popping in the industry.

Lunch

For some reason, I’ll still check Yelp every day before lunch yet I somehow end up at the same places. Yelp plays a major role in my real world social life as it’s an excellent means of finding new places to go out at night and locating the best food in the area.

During my lunch break I try and get in as much blog reading as I can. I try to get in a good mix of topics that personally interest me and posts relevant to my job. At this point I’ve probably already tweeted about my coffee and am starting to have some real conversation on Twitter. I also like to check my Facebook at lunch too. I basically use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with real world friends and family and spare them all the techy geek talk.

Afternoon At Work

In between doing actual work and talking with my coworkers, I regularly monitor Twitter and TweetGrid at random times during the day, chiming in wherever I feel is appropriate. Magicomm has also adopted a social media strategy where I spend an hour of my day commenting, tweeting and sharing on behalf of Magicomm. This is when I usually throw around blog topic ideas for the Magicomm blog and maybe post some social media tips on the Magicomm Twitter account.

After Work

After work I’ll send out a DM to some of my buddies to see what they’re up to and update my BrightKite location once I know where I’m going. BrightKite makes it easy to update my twitter status with a photo as well as upload that same photo to Flickr and Facebook automatically. Then I’ll usually take another look at Yelp if I plan on going out or I’ll jump in to one of my more favorite communities, Steam. Steam is a platform for gaming and networking with other gamers interested in the same games. It’s just another easy way to have fun on the web with some of my friends.

Before Bed

Every night before bed I like to play with my blog a bit. It’s a great way to relieve some stress after a long day and be sure that everything is working properly. And if I couldn’t be any more suggestive, sometimes I’ll even squeeze out a post or two.

I guess what I am trying to get across with this post is that I am not forcing any of these routines. I do them because I am genuinely interested in the relationships or the information I am taking in. I read blogs instead of newspapers and I use Twitter instead of yelling at people in the streets. Facebook has replaced my text messaging and Yelp is the collective thoughts of a million different reviewers. I am a social media geek and so can you.