http://www.squashboxmedia.com Branding | Graphic & Web Design | Social Media & Community Management | Journalism | Digital Marketing | Web Hosting | UK Mumpreneur Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:59:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Over a year ago I coined the term The 5 C's of Social Media as a way of describing how, at it's core, social media afforded us 5 base opportunities: the opportunity to contribute – easy sharing of information the opportunity to comment – your chance to have your say the opportunity to ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/08/14/social-media-the-sixth-c/ The interwebs are abuzz with the news that Facebook is testing a new, streamlined version of its service called "Facebook Lite". From a first glance at the leaked screenshots it appears to be far more Twitter like having just status updates but with Comments and Likes enabled. Some might say ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/08/12/rumours-and-potenial-facebook-lite/ A lot has already been said about Facebook's acquisition of Friendfeed even though we don't know the full details of how it will all pan out. The doom mongers are working overtime, almost revelling in the fact that they have an excuse for another pop at Facebook whilst others feel ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/08/11/some-thoughts-on-facebook-and-friendfeed/ As you know I am currently on holiday (and having a lovely time thank you!) but this does not mean that I have to take a whole week off work, nor does it mean that all our clients have to go on hold whilst I am away.  By the wonders ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/08/04/social-media-on-the-go-a-mobile-office-made-easy-and-cheap/ We have a new look, what do you think? We have gone for the sleek and sophisticated look (with a touch more pink - hear the groans of the men?!? ;) ).  So why the new look?  Simply because we are expanding (and not just our waistlines either!) and we ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/31/new-look-new-services/ So the ongoing saga of our poor Twitter account continues, well it did.  Today is D Day, the day it stops, because today is the day I deleted our old account.  That's it, all over and done with. I can hear some of you gasping already.  Why would I want to ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/28/twitter-account-hacked-the-positives/ As social media managers we use Twitter 24/7.  We use it on behalf of clients and we use it for our own company.  We have damage limitation procedures in place just in case anything untoward were to happen to any of our clients accounts, but imagine our surprise (and anger) ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/26/twitter-hijackhacked-account-what-to-do-if-it-happens-to-you/ Social media and the global economy - the parallels are striking and significant. Now that the global economy appears to be on the upward curve of a major economic "downturn" it is obvious why things have failed. Hindsight is a marvellous thing but too often we don't learn from what hindsight ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/22/the-social-media-economy/ LinkedIn is one of my personal favourite networking sites simply because it does 'what it says on the tin' and it keeps you 'Linked In' with friends, clients, customers, colleagues, managers and more.  It is a superb way to show the world who you are and what you are doing ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/21/so-you-want-to-be-a-linkedin-rockstar/ Twitter has become a worldwide social media and networking tool since it started 2006, if you have been living in a cave for the past 3 years have a peek here.  The problem is, that with so many 'tweets' (OK cave dwellers, tweets are short messages that you send via ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/17/common-sense-tips-for-twitter-user/ Branding is one of the most important aspects of a business profile and it doesn't involve a red hot iron being stamped on your rear either ;) Your brand is YOU! When most people think of a brand, they think of the logos of certain companies, you know the ones, you ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/16/branding-small-biz/ I often get annoyed by the way 'small businesses' are labelled as such.  No matter if there is only you working for your company or you have a team of 1000 employees, the end game in both types of business is to make a profit and to be good at ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/15/are-social-mediacommunity-managers-needed-in-smallhome-based-businesses/ Oh yes here is part 2! Well done to all the lovely peeps who won their twitter backgrounds, I hope you like them! Want to win your very own piece of digital art in the form of an email tag?  Then make sure you enter our giveaway! Email tags are a great ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/10/twitter-giveaway-part-2/ Noticed our new look? Like it? Well for all our lovely followers over on Twitter we have a freebie giveaway for you!  We want to spread the word about our new look and what better way to do it then by starting a Twitter Giveaway! Part 1 of our giveaway is ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/10/twitter-giveaway-part-1/ Once upon a time, their used to be a cry across the land by all Mum's to their offspring at bedtime "Will you PLEASE get off the computer and GET TO BED!" Now, at least sometimes, this can cry can still be heard but not to the children, now ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/03/power-of-the-social-media-mum/ So we all know that I have websites dotted all around the web, doing one thing or another, what can I say I like to have many fingers in many pies! However if you are going to do this, what you need behind you is a good webhost. For my new ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/07/01/big-thumbs-up-for-top-uk-web-host-evohosting/ Sorry I have been quiet for a couple of days, no I haven't gone off on my holidays just yet! Far from it, I have been working on a huge new project that is probably the biggest undertaking I have ever thought about doing.  However, it is something that I ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/06/30/got-a-dream-do-it/ What do most people do on Facebook?  We chat to people, add friends to our friends list, join groups, add applications, play solo games, compete against each other in multi player games, send each other private messages and network.  This is exactly what most gamers do every day whilst playing ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/06/27/is-gaming-the-new-social-networking/ "Listen up you lot, come close, I want to let you into a little secret, I'm a mum......sssshhhh...don't go telling the whole world because I won't get employed!"   Ever felt like this when looking for a job?  Well don't, because many companies and business NEED Mum's, let me tell ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/06/25/why-your-company-needs-to-hire-a-mum/ thisMoment.com is a new social networking site offering members a place to show their 'moments' in a timeline to share with friends, family and new contacts.   thisMoment.com is like having your own vitual scrapbook that you can add blog posts, events (past, present and future), photos, podcasts, videos and ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/06/24/new-kid-on-the-block-thismoment-com/ With all the fuss these days about social media, social networking, twitter this and plurk that, are all these ‘ways of communication’ actually needed by Mums? There are a host of social media and networking sites these days, ranging from simple ideas like Twitter to full on website making profile page ideas such as Facebook ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/06/19/social-media-networking-do-mums-need-it/ The four main branches of the internet social world are merging.  Is this evolution and will we really need all the individual sites in 2,3,4 or 5 years time? It really depends on how YOU use social media and what social media does for YOU. So let’s recap on what the four ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/06/02/social-evolution-do-we-need-all-sites/ In the 90's I started using the new and trendy (as it was then) IRC.  For those people who have no idea what that is, IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, chatting to people all over the world via online chat rooms.  Through IRC and using mIRC (a then and still popular ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/06/01/those-were-the-days-my-friend-is-social-media-a-new-thing/ Gaz from Beat Overload Productions started chatting with us regarding his new company.  He wanted a bright but simple website to use as a mobile billboard for his music promotion company. He wanted bold colours but simple navigation with a standard 3 column layout. He also wanted to be able members to ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/05/04/portfolio-beat-overload-productions/ Leigh from Slippilix Jewellery contacted us to design a website and online shop for her and her bespoke handmade jewellery.  She had a very set brief, she wanted a basic 2 column site that had ecommerce abilities but wanted it light and airy.  The colours were to be pink, white ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/05/04/portfolio-slippilix-jewellery/ One type of business we always try to support and that is WAHM's (work at home mum's) We were asked by Helen Lindop of Business Plus Baby (www.businessplusbaby.com) to create a simple Wordpress blog theme for her using colours she had chosen.  She wanted it to be airy and light with ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/05/04/portfolio-business-plus-baby/ SquashBoxMedia was called into to one of the largest Pagan communities on the web.  The Big Fat Witch needed a bit of everything, branding, graphic and web design, a community built and an online shop created. We were able to create all this within 2 weeks and worked closely not ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/05/04/portfolio-the-big-fat-witch/ After working with our clients from The Big Fat Witch community we received another call for help from some members of the same community who wanted to start a sub -section forum called The Vault. They wanted to run an SMF forum but to have a unique design that signified ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/03/04/portfolio-the-vault/ Whether you like Facebook or not, you have to agree, it is good at what it does, which is bringing people together. You can use Facebook for business or pleasure and it can be used (when used well) as a powerful marketing tool for yourself or your company.However, it is ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/01/23/linkedin-vs-facebook/ So you have just found out your are pregnant, or maybe you have a baby already and you are panicking about money. Here are some tips to save a bit of money throughout your pregnancy and your baby's growth. 1: You want to give your baby the best. You want to ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/01/16/pregnant-got-a-baby-no-money-dont-panic/ Sounds bonkers doesn't it? Making the most of the bad weather, but the freezing cold, snow and heavy rain does provide some positives!1) Use the bad weather as a time to stay in and have a 'doing weekend'. Get all those jobs done around the house that need doing. ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/01/12/make-the-most-of-the-bad-weather-2/ We are lucky enough to have an open fire in our lounge which burns both wood/logs and coal, we prefer to use logs. However during these cold weeks we have been getting through a lot of wood and started looking around at the paper briquette makers you can buy just ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/01/09/make-your-own-fuel-paper-coal-briquettes/ Having lots of money, doesn’t automatically make you a good parent. However there are a lot of parents out there that don’t seem to get that.A common misconception is that if you buy ‘Johnny’ the latest games console, plus a new games console game every week, plus giving him £20 ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/01/08/money-cant-buy-me-love/ Sometimes it’s hard to find things to do at the weekend when you don’t have much spare cash.Here we have a few ideas to help families have a great day out with only a little spending.1: Always take a picnic - Picnics and spare drinks save loads of money during ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2009/01/05/10-ideas-for-a-cheap-or-free-family-day-out/ As the new year is upon us, people are already thinking about getting away from the cold weather here in the UK and booking their summer holidays.I stand in the school playground and hear the other parents saying to one another “oh I can’t wait to dip my toes into ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/12/30/summer-holidays-on-a-budget-2/ Gardening does not have to be an expensive hobby, there are ways and means to be able to garden even on a very tight budget, all you need is a little time and effort.Gardening can be a family activity, it can be something you start and then develop over the ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/12/18/family-gardening-on-a-budget-2/ Are there really such things as Mum Geeks? Or are the Mums of today just becoming more technology aware? Personally, I think it is a bit of both. I am a bit of a geek, there is no denying it. I love digital art, I can write scripts and modules ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/12/07/am-i-mum-or-a-geek-2/ No, we are obviously not suggesting that you hand over your garden to a 4 year old. However why not give your child (or children) a vegetable garden of their very own!Childrens veggie gardens can be made from a small raised bed in your own garden, a large tub or ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/11/19/making-a-kids-veggie-patch-2/ Not of all us can afford travel/portable DVD players and TV’s for the car, train or plane to keep our kids amused and entertained whilst on a long journey. However, our kids don’t get bored because we keep ‘the kids bag’ in the car all the time.It’s not a big ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/11/12/keeping-kids-entertained-whilst-travelling-2/ As you know although I use both social media and networking sites, I dislike the way they can make certain users ‘anti-social’ because they become almost addicted to the social media world rather than living in the real one. However is this the same for children or can social sites ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/10/07/can-social-medianetworking-for-kids-be-educational-2/ I started thinking about how we use certain social media services a couple of months ago and Alexander reinforced the path my thoughts were taking. More recently, Allen Stern stated on FriendFeed "i think sharing on google reader is finished - the value for so many sharers has continued to drop ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/09/08/whose-stuff-is-it-anyway/ It never ceases to amaze me how demanding we can be as IT users and early adopters; to put a twist to the Queen lyric we want it all and we want it now! We have gone beyond just having an opinion and have all become armchair experts in just about ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/09/05/are-we-too-demanding/ So, I took most of August out and distanced myself from social media and blogging - it seemed a good time to do it as I had some other stuff going on (a mini cruise to Amsterdam and a weeks holiday). I had an occasional glance at FriendFeed but only very ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/09/02/lessons-learnt-or-common-sense/ Social media is both a blessing and a curse. We have the ability to communicate with many interesting people from all over the world in the easiest ways we have ever had available to us. The flow of information and responses is incredibly engaging and is making the world ever smaller ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/31/getting-too-social/ Yesterday, I was privileged to do a guest post for Louis Gray and chose to do something a little bit different and wrote about the issue of whether APIs can be used to generate revenue for services such as Twitter, It was something I had been thinking about for a while ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/19/guest-post-is-there-a-way-back-from-free/ I wanted to post something a little different today and look at how my use of technology has altered which, in turn, gives an idea as to how my perception of social media has changed. This blog took over from the old Randomelements site which I had self-hosted on one flavour ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/15/dispensing-with-the-trappings-of-technology/ This post was inspired by an item in my referral log: "Google Search: how media affect our identity". It started me thinking about how we behave when using social media and online in general. Do we just be ourselves or do we play a role? Shakespeare famously wrote All the world's a ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/11/how-social-media-affects-our-identity/ I am reminded every day of what social media can achieve by Sal who continually amazes me with her creativity and ability to use the tools available to draw focus to things that matter - for example, the MooMag project and yesterdays post on cyber bullying. She is connecting to people ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/10/escaping-the-echo-chamber/ Social media use no doubt differs depending on why you're in it. The global conversation is always there: ambient noise, a constant buzz in the background. What differs between us is when we shift our focus to concentrate on that buzz. Casual users can dip in and out as they see ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/09/social-media-casual-user-or-addict/ I have said before that Twitter is a facilitator for communication rather than the conversation medium itself and to a degree the same thing can be said of all social networking services it's just that the scale and details vary on a per service basis. Jason Goldberg posted that he saw ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/08/what-are-social-web-sites/ It is noticeable that bloggers and the social media early adopter crowd (myself included) are very keen to make a good online impression. Why wouldn't they? As has been said before, it is not necessarily the act of blogging or the participation that gets us what we want but is ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/07/freedom-of-conversation-vs-social-responsibility/ Yesterday, Julian Baldwin coined the term "needstream" saying: Basic needs are "needstream" so mainstream doesn't necessarily need to include everyone I commented that as everyone doesn't need the same thing then everyone's needstream is going to be different and no one service can encompass everyone. Alexander says that the future focus will be ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/03/of-social-bookmarking-relevance-and-the-needstream/ Steve Rubel started a conversationon FriendFeed which really polarised opinion. He asked "Should FriendFeed have a private messaging system like FB, Twitter, et al?" Divided Responses ranged from the affirmative such as "Taking conversations private is a great way to further a business relationship" to the complete opposite "Please do NOT add another ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/07/01/the-private-messaging-divide/ Yesterday I wrote about the five base opportunities afforded us by social media and wanted to expand on them a little. As I said, they are: the opportunity to contribute - easy sharing of information the opportunity to comment - your chance to have your say the opportunity of conversation - getting involved ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/06/30/the-five-cs-of-social-media/ When Mark Dykeman commented on my post "People who need people" he remarked "Perhaps many of us do drink the KoolAid more than we should but... it's hooked us for a reason". So what is it that attracts us to social media? No doubt, at least in part, inspired by his ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/06/29/what-brings-us-to-social-media/ Twitters' success was undoubtedly originally due to its simplicity; it was a service that anyone could use via a browser or mobile phone. Then it grew beyond its initial remit with @replies and an entire ecosystem springing up around the API - geek heaven. That was until the crash. Without effective scalability ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/06/28/twitter-robbing-peter-to-pay-paul/ Just as with technology my thoughts seem to be moving away from just social media for the sake of it and instead trying to focus on what it allows us to achieve. In my time away from the blog it seems that very little has changed with the same conversations still ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/06/25/people-who-need-people/ We get so caught up in the pros and cons of individual services that we forget to look at the bigger picture and ask ourselves exactly what we are trying to achieve with social media. What is the purpose behind it and why do we devote our time to using ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/06/11/what-is-the-real-aim-of-social-media/ With all the talk about early adopters and whether they help or hurt a service I decided to conduct an experiment and try to shed my geek hat for a while and become your average Joe user in order to see what utility I could achieve from my service de ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/06/09/early-adopters-and-a-social-media-experiment/ ...but what you can actually achieve with it. Yesterday, I looked at how our continuing desire for the tools we use to develop could cause them to lose their original purpose but, while Marco at the Aurelius Maximus blog asks the 'tech elite' to continue navel gazing, others are gesturing that it's ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/06/05/ask-not-what-social-media-can-do-for-you/ The discussion surrounding Mondays post took on a life of its own with some well crafted responses but I am also seeing a trend that could only be likened to growing pains. While what we currently call 'social media' is still in its infancy we are reaching the point where innovation is giving ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/06/04/are-we-killing-the-things-we-love-the-most/ Having not blogged or been involved in any significant way with social media for a week it's been interesting to note the way my attitudes have changed, not just while away on holiday but also before that. It has been surprising to see how much can change in such a ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/06/02/take-time-out-gain-perspective/ The argument over conversation ownership and fragmentation has taken another twist. Rob La Gesse became unhappy that the conversation around his posts was happening on FriendFeed and so he removed his account from the aggregator. The only problem is that removing all these parent items also removes all of the comments ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/26/conversation-ownership-and-the-friendfeed-backlash/ Brandon Werner left a comment yesterday which, for me, really illustrates the need for us to know both ourselves and our audience. He says that he is a victim - like many others - of the problems we have with attention in modern society and on the web. He says ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/24/the-social-media-time-crisis/ Today I wanted to touch on another hot topic doing the rounds but look at it from a slightly different angle and that is the idea of a 'Social Contract' between users (or friends) on social networking services. I mentioned before that while there was no contract between the blogger and ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/23/who-is-our-audience-and-what-do-we-owe-them/ Alexander van Elsas wrote an incredibly thought provoking post about the future of the social web, if you haven't yet read it then I would advise heading over there before continuing here. He defines the web 2.0 era as being that where "every user can be a public figure" due to ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/22/evolution-of-the-social-web/ UPDATE: now there is a better way. Benjamin Golub has created 'FF to go' which gives you the ability to like and comment on items like the MojiPage widget but whilst also showing you what's already there. See this post from Louis Gray for more details. I recently called for a ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/21/mobile-friendfeed-there-has-to-be-a-better-way/ Hutch Carpenter wrote a very intriguing post over at I'm Not actually A Geek which details why he thinks the FriendFeed service will go mainstream but may take ten years to do so. He defines mainstream usage as 33% of internet users and estimates the timescales involved by looking at the ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/20/the-changing-face-of-friendfeed/ It has been said that there are no social media experts and there has been a fair amount of discussion on this particular point. I wanted to expand on a comment I made on the subject over at Julian Baldwin's blog. The social media space is relatively new and, because of ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/20/social-media-experts-its-all-relative/ That's right, I have taken the plunge and enabled Disqus commenting for the blog. I was originally in two minds as to whether I should go this route, I was unsure about having the comments held away from the site but soon realised that this is a minor issue when ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/20/disqus-comments-now-enabled-here/ The reach of social media is growing ever wider and this is evident in the direction that software and services are taking. The Adobe Photoshop Express beta, for example, has been updated but the only 'functional' change advertised is that you can now perform a 'Save As' in order to ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/19/adobe-photoshop-express-goes-truly-social/ There are some discussions that just don't go away and one in particular is that around fragmented conversations. The main catalyst for keeping this conversation alive is FriendFeed and the effect it is having on commenting. This has been getting peoples backs up for a while and recent events are ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/19/signal-to-noise-on-the-social-web/ I was driving home along the motorway last night and passed a lorry bearing the tag line "a brand is a promise" - it got me thinking. A brand is a promise It's like a line from an inspirational speaker at a dodgy weekend, residential seminar but it does have a very ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/17/a-brand-is-a-promise/ I jokingly posted a message on Twitter a while ago as I was travelling home announcing that I felt isolated as I was unable to 'like' or comment on FriendFeed from my phone. The thing is, it's not actually a joke. Steven Spalding asked: "Other than Twitter? What is your favorite online community?" My answer was ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/16/a-static-friendfeed-is-a-worthless-friendfeed/ A lot has been said about Alltop - Guy Kawasaki's "digital magazine rack" of the internet - some good, some not so good. It does, however, do a great job of aggregating content from multiple sources into categories of interest and presenting them in a simple, easy to use format. Unlike ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/16/now-featured-on-alltopcom/ Yesterday, Michael Martine of Remarkablogger posted the concept of using a 'blog pack' to enhance the promotion of your site. A blog pack is a group of bloggers who set up an 'alliance' to cross promote each others sites by way of comments, links, stumbles, etc. in order to: - Get ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/15/running-with-the-pack/ Socialmedian is a social news service that connects people with personalised news and information in a similar vein to sites like BlogRize or Mixx. The service works around 'News Networks' devoted to a specific topic such as social media or Twitter; anyone can create a new network on any topic ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/14/socialmedian-personalised-news/ After the blog post on the BBC, Sky News tonight ran an item on the events around Twitter breaking the news of the earthquake in China and had approached me to appear on TV as an 'expert'. Unfortunately, this was too short notice and I was not able to go ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/13/the-impact-of-social-media-on-journalism/ I had already planned to write a post about Twitter acting as a facilitator and the unfortunate events in China today re-affirmed what I was going to say. Back in February I posted: "Twitter is more the facilitator of communication rather than the end channel so it is probably better to take ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/12/twitter-is-a-facilitator/ Before having my say on this weeks bitchmeme I thought I would wait for the situation to calm down and look back on one of the issues raised - that of where we should be linking to. As is often the case when emotions are running high the situation can rapidly ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/10/the-old-link-love-she-aint-what-she-used-to-be/ You've probably noticed the link on the right to the Social Media Mafia (SMM) website and wondered what it's all about, some of you have clicked and probably still wondered (the site is still under development). So, as an evangelist for SMM I'll try to explain. SMM is the brain child ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/09/social-media-mafia-get-involved/ A couple of comments started me thinking about our identity in social media circles. Firstly, Robin Cannon commented on another post at this blog saying: register your name, even if your online presence is largely as a brand. So register your name as a URL, create a Twitter account, etc. Even ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/08/social-media-control-your-identity/ I have been tagged by Julian Baldwin of "notes, thoughts, ideas and responses" to share my favourite Twitter tools and continue the collaborative list that has started in reponse to a few posts. Part of the beauty of Twitter is the whole universe that has emerged around the API. While the ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/08/my-favourite-twitter-tools/ Yesterday I asked if the echo chamber was still relevant now that the needs of the early adopter and those of the populace at large are becoming more differentiated. Today I want to follow that up by asking if the masses really know or understand their needs? We live at such ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/07/do-the-masses-know-what-they-want/ There are many factors related to the issue of social media going mainstream but maybe we aren't looking in the right place for answers. Any new social service is being populated by the same early adopters - it is the usual suspects friending each other in multiple locations across the web ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/06/has-the-echo-chamber-had-its-day/ When you think of internet marketing you conjure up images of consultants giving SEO advice or in house designers planning a new web advertising campaign. The average person therefore thinks "what has internet marketing got to do with me?" The truth of the matter is that anyone with an online presence - ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/05/so-youre-not-an-internet-marketer-think-again/ As I mentioned, social media should not be about the hard sell but about outreach: creating a means for customers to interact with you in as simple a way as possible. A typical example happened to me earlier. I have been thinking about the possiblility of an audio or video element ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/02/this-is-how-business-should-be-using-social-media/ I wanted to briefly return to the issue of social media role models after the events following Corvida's very public 24 hours away from Twitter and FriendFeed. Once you get immersed in social media and social networking it becomes incredibly addictive and Corvida jokingly refers to Twitter as 'crack' and FriendFeed ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/02/why-do-we-need-social-media-role-models/ Over the past month or so there has been a distinct feeling of unease spreading across the web with bloggers appearing to be increasingly insecure about their position in it. This first became really noticeable with the discussions surrounding the problem of fractured conversations. Having their posts spread across the web ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/05/01/if-im-not-a-blogger-then-what-am-i/ I said yesterday that I envisoned social media gaining adoption via stealth means rather than a concerted effort to push for adoption and Rob Diana asked "so what are we going to do about it?" Now, I am not a social media professional or involved in marketing but my response, which ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/30/social-media-marketing-its-not-about-the-hard-sell/ The blogosphere came alive yesterday after Kara Swisher's post "Twitter: Where Nobody Knows Your Name" in which she recounted that of a survey of 100 people attending a wedding everyone knew about Facebook (even half of them accounts) but no-one knew of Twitter, FriendFeed or other similar services. In all ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/29/social-media-and-the-dream-of-going-mainstream/ A lot has been said about the way conversations are fragmenting across the web due to the ability to leave comments in places other than at the original source. I've had my say as have many other bloggers. Attempts are being made to re-centralise comments - such as disqus, fav.or.it and ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/28/bringing-the-conversation-home/ Last week, Chris Brogan suggested that today, April 28th should be pronounced Read and Comment Day where we should all get out in to the blogosphere, find some good stuff and add your thoughts in order to progress the conversation. It's a great idea and I intend to do exactly that ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/28/read-and-comment-day/ In his post "The danger of social media falling in on itself" Steven Hodson argues that sites like FriendFeed could potentially kill the likes of Twitter or Flickr as more people interact with their contacts via the FriendFeed interface without actually visiting the source sites. While FriendFeed happens to allow posting of ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/28/just-because-you-use-social-media-it-doesnt-make-you-a-social-media-user/ When a new product emerges its creators must think very carefully about the name they give it; does it accurately reflect what the product is or does, and does it grab the imagination or stick in the brain? Months of research is undertaken to assess the effects of colour, font, ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/25/can-the-leopard-change-its-spots/ Blogging is all about getting your point across and being heard isn't it? Actually, no. As I have said before, the real point behind blogging is getting involved with the conversation which must be a two-way affair for it to work. As bloggers we become so caught up in our own ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/24/the-lost-art-of-listening/ Any product or service should fulfil a function or solve a problem. This is one of the biggest 'rules' out there which businesses must pay attention to or be doomed to failure (unless they are extremely lucky). I would also, however, apply the same rule to anything we do within ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/23/stand-out-from-the-social-crowd/ Darren Rowse of ProBlogger posted a few reader questions around the issue of when to update existing content rather than create a new post. I commented at the thread but wanted to share my full thoughts on the subject here as well. The relevant questions were as follows: Is it good practice ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/22/when-to-add-updates-or-create-new-posts/ Social media, open communication, user generated content - there's no denying that the way we use the web has been changing but is too much emphasis being placed on the label for change? The joy of the internet is its ability to allow us to connect with each other irrespective of ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/20/is-the-term-social-media-dead/ Corvida of SheGeeks.net asked if I would like to do a guest blog post and this is the result: Without question there has been a massive explosion in the uptake of social media, the services and applications available and consequently the number of people blogging about ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/18/guest-post-at-shegeeksnet-are-we-just-jumping-on-the-social-media-bandwagon/ For some unknown reason the permalink structure on the blog became corrupted overnight so, while you could reach the home page, none of the post, page or category links would work (thanks to all those who got in touch to let me know). The issue should now be fixed - I ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/18/permalink-problems/ Following on from his previous post Mark Dykeman takes a look from a contrary point of view and says that being a Role Model 3.0 may not be such a great thing due to the time involved in out reach. His model of the different role model types shows ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/17/what-makes-a-good-social-media-role-model/ Kimberly of Learning SEO Basics has made a great point with her post "Stop Selling and Start Giving". She argues that the ever increasing plethora of social media products (those how-to's being sold by the world and his wife) are nothing more than old school marketing. A very similar point was ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/17/putting-the-social-in-social-media/ Yesterday was a watershed here at the new blog in that it was the first day where the site traffic was larger than the old site at Randomelements. As such I thought it would be a good opportunity to run through how the rebranding was conducted. Starting a new site is ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/17/surviving-an-online-rebrand/ Social influence is among the current topics of conversation and again, bloggers are treading similar waters and their combined thoughts creating something that is greater than the some of its parts. What is influence? Talk in the past has revolved around what an influencer actually is. Do the A-List bloggers have more ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/16/social-influence-or-not-preaching-to-the-choir/ A while back I asked why Digg did not have a category for social media. It seemed ironic that the most popular social bookmarking site did not cater for its own ilk. While I received a couple of positive comments on the blog it was a completely different matter on Digg ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/16/social-bookmarking-for-social-media/ Any service needs a business model in order to survive, a social media site is no exception. Twitter has come in for some flack about not appearing to have one in the past so it was interesting to see the mistaken story that Twitter had been testing adverts during some ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/15/advertising-on-twitter-kill-or-cure/ Rather than the lazysphere "me too" type posts that clog up our feed readers, sometimes different people hit a similar theme completely independently even if – on the face of it – they are not related. A couple of weeks ago I was struck by a post by Mark Dykeman in ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/15/life-by-social-media-rules/ As a extension of the fractured commenting discussion a separate issue has emerged: is our blog content becoming a commodity? There have a been a few good posts on this around the blogosphere presenting both sides of the argument. As far as I see it content has always been a commodity just ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/15/commoditisation-the-root-of-all-evil/ Once a social web application gains popularity the developers invariably look to create client applications for use on our desktops to make the data more convenient to access and use but is this really the case? Twitter has a plethora of client applications for Mac, PC and mobile including the likes ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/14/web-applications-and-their-desktop-clients/ We were on holiday for most of last week so there are only two posts to report: Just what is fav.or.it and how does it position itself in the market. Could it be a Google Reader replacement?   ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/14/week-in-review-15/ The discussion has continued around the issue of conversations prompted by blogs and where they should be held. Back in February I discussed the possibility of being able to comment directly from your feed reader in my post "It's the conversation that matters". Now with services like fav.or.it and FriendFeed this ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/13/fractured-comments-and-owning-the-conversation/ Just before I went on holiday a discussion emerged around what the RSS feed service fav.or.it is or isn't starting with Louis Gray's post "Fav.or.it Beta Effort is Not My Favorite. Not Even Close". In this post he argues that fav.or.it is not living up to its initial potential citing ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/13/is-favorit-a-google-reader-replacement/ This has been a big week for the blog with the move to the new home here at colinwalker.me.uk and I fully expect (and am prepared for) a tough transition. Consequently, there have been few posts while I sorted everything out. I am posting this early as we are going ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/05/week-in-review-14/ Part of the challenge of setting up a new blog is making sure that you have all the required functionality available, especially when changing from one blogging platform to another. Fortunately WordPress, being one of the most popular platforms going, has a whole ecosystem surrounding it full of developers willing ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/04/now-available-on-mobiles/ Now that all the issues have been resolved and some content is in place I have redirected the feed from the Randomelements :: Blog to the new Feedburner address - you don't need to do anything to keep up to date with all the latest posts. I will continue to tweak ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/03/the-rss-feed-is-now-redirected/ Back in January I asked if we were heading for a social media meltdown: are we becoming so swamped with social services that their usefulness is becoming diminished? There are so many "social sites" that we are spreading ourselves too thin and not devoting the attention to each that they ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/03/is-lifestreaming-the-answer-or-are-we-asking-the-wrong-question/ I came across another third party Twitter service this morning called "Twit This" which is an easy way to show your Twitter followers what you're reading or, conversely, a way to get your site/blog readers to tell their followers and hopefully drive a bit of traffic your way. Twit This is ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/03/let-your-twitter-followers-know-what-youre-reading/ Twitter is starting to become more mainstream - it's not just the geeks anymore. With so many users making so many updates how can you possibly keep track of topics, conversations etc? The two easiest, and probably most effective methods of keeping track of your recent responses and those back to ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/03/making-more-effective-use-of-twitter/ I had planned to do some posts around what social media means to me and how I use it from a fairly "newbie" point of view (I'm not a big internet marketer, hub for conversation or anything) but recent events have shown just how difficult it can be to follow ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/03/social-media-when-real-life-gets-in-the-way/ Benjamin Franklin famously said "by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail" and, although I wouldn't put it in such drastic terms, he had a point. I failed to test the new blog in Firefox to check for cross browser compatibility and there is quite a substantial theme issue probably ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/03/the-importance-of-testing/ Welcome to the new blog here at colinwalker.me.uk - the decision to set up here instead of at Randomelements has not been taken lightly. Unfortunately, however, in today's climate the web is leaving SharePoint far behind as a blogging client and while it is possible to customise it (I've made ... http://www.squashboxmedia.com/2008/04/02/rebranding/