NetVibes

Finishing up the course on Web Marketing, I'm re-reading the section on Social Media. There, the recommendation is to set up a "Social Media Desktop", to monitor information - about your business, your products, your competitors, or anything else. One of the technological tools mentioned was NetVibes. Let's see what it's all about:


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Trumpia

Mobile marketing is not the same as other forms of Web marketing. The challenges are MUCH bigger. This video shows how Trumpia is reaching out to online businesses with a simple appeal - they allow multiple marketing using multiple media & methods. Check it out:


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Historypin

Now I've seen everything - a site that makes it easy to add vintage photos to a Google map so that we can envision how the world looked back when. Historypin may be the answer for all those old family photos you've wondered what to do with! And what about genealogy - putting the family houses on a map will make the stories we've heard make more sense. I will DEFINITELY be exploring this site - how about you?


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How to Reddit

Many of the social media mechanisms are unfamiliar to most Web surfers. That's why it's so nice to come across an image such as this one. It gives a visual description of just what Reddit is, and how to use it. Check it out!


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Privatizing the Web

I've had an interesting experience with this next video. The talk by Eli Pariser at the 2011 TED Conference is certainly interesting in and of itself. However, the effort to include it in this blog has led me on an unexpected journey. I've discovered the coding used by this apparently-transparent Web site, which aims to be cutting-edge, has posed many problems for this ordinary human being. Most video platforms, such as YouTube or Vimeo (check out this review of free and premium video platforms) allow you to customize the size to fit your blog space. This TED video allows no such options. How ironic for a talk whose theme is how restrictive the Internet has become! Everywhere, unbeknownst to the viewer, are filter bubbles that surround our Web searches. Acting as "gatekeepers" that keep information out, they purport to customize our viewing according to our preferences. Instead, they have ended up "privatizing" us inside increasingly-restrictive environments, and leave us with little control. Anyway, here it is, an excellent introduction to the narrowing paths our widening search algorithms have stumbled upon... http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html
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LinkedIn

Here's the first in a series of six videos for new graduates on how to use LinkedIn to pursue their career goals finding a job. It must be pretty intimidating to be entering the job market in 2012, and I imagine that every tip, such as these videos, will help. Good luck!


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Tech Tools for Non-Profits

Here's a great idea: TechSoup provides free accounts for non-profits, which includes training videos and a learning center.



This webinar shows us how to integrate social media into a website. Watch out, though - it's 54 minutes long. BUT - well worth it...


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HootSuite

HootSuite takes social media marketing one step further - they allow clients to collect ALL their social media feeds in one location. The more I read about Web Marketing, and explore the options of social media, the more I realize that a tool such as this would be ideal. Why? One can be overwhelmed so easily! There's too much info to keep track of. SO - explore with me the advantages of a Social Media Management suite of tools.

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Plans cost $5.99/month, and a free plan is available. That sounds like the one for me...
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Cultural Conflicts

I recently wrote criticisms of the policies and practices of what I will from now on call the Unnamed Company. Within days, I discovered that two sites I had built on their platform had simply disappeared. No notice to me, no evidence of prior existence. Is this retribution? I don't know, but I will be more cautious. It's sad to have a trust level shattered...

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SlideShare

I've come across a new method (at least to me) of creating presentations: SlideShare. I found it on a British Web site: RBA Information Services. I'm looking for something to replace Slide.com - not sure if this will do it, or if it's just one more way to present information...

SlideShare 101

View more presentations from Amit Ranjan

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Dreamweaver Multiscreen Templates

At last - a template that is adjustable to various screens! I came across this video embedded in a tutorial by Chris Converse of Codify Design Studio. I am contemplating the redesign of an association website, and one of the main upgrades needed is to make the Web site viewable on all platforms. I will study this Dreamweaver template tutorial, and see if it works!

Called "Customizable starter design for multiscreen development", the tutorial can be found online here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/dw-template-media-queries.html#articlecontentAdobe_numberedheader_1

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Spoke

Here's a new way to explore information about companies and people in the business world: Spoke. Here's how they describe themselves:

"Spoke is an online free content business database and the authoritative source for business information. Spoke aggregates business information automatically as well as allows industry experts or any knowledgeable people to share their business information on any type of business profiles, topics, companies or people. Industry or Business Information is atomic in nature, an address, a link, a name, and can be added to an industry profile in a matter of seconds. Each updates are then attributed to the knowledgeable person having made those additions enabling those contributors to gain recognition in their fields as well as providing the right level of transparency to the entire business community."

What is Spoke? from Spoke Software on Vimeo.

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Considerations

I am writing a report on my evaluation of blogging platforms, and I used the word "considerations". Wanting to be quite sure of what the word means, I looked it up in Google. For the first time, I noticed the odd inclusion of a definition at the top of the research results, a definition not documented, and not linked to any Web page. In other words, it was content inserted by Google into the search results page. As such, it was unexpected, and being undocumented, it became suspicious. Investigating further, I noticed the link called "More info". Following that link led me to a page of wonders - 6 definitions (from unspecified source), 5 more definitions under the header "Web sources", but again with no documentation of where they come from, and finally 20 examples of usage, with Web links to the source page. At the bottom of the page, hardly noticeable without close inspection, was this: "The usage examples, images and web definitions on this page were selected automatically by a computer program. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Google Inc. or its employees."

Well, it looks as if Google is off on another tangent. They have been an incredibly innovative company, providing product after service after service after product, for "free", that are just downright useful. But now they are beginning to skirt the edge of acceptability more and more. In this case, they have changed the apparent PURPOSE of the search engine, with no explanation or apparent fore-warning to their customers. They have used it to showcase THEIR product in with their algorithms. 

They have already done this before, with "sponsored" searches, and even more insidiously, by "privatizing" and "commercializing" their search engine. For instance, because I am using the Blogger software to write this blog posting,every search I do is tracked and recorded by Google - they have sent me to an "https" site, and they have added miles of tracking code to my search terms. Like this: "https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Tsa&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=consideration&tbs=dfn:1&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=0W1ST_qPOqev0AHSsPzeDQ&ved=0CDIQkQ4&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=537&ech=1&psi=0W1ST_qPOqev0AHSsPzeDQ.1330805578586.3&emsg=NCSR&noj=1&ei=0W1ST_qPOqev0AHSsPzeDQ". They have tricked us. 

Google's recent consolidation of 60+ privacy policies into 1, and the subsequent "sharing" of all the information ANY of these once-private-companies contained, was just the final nail on the coffin. They have been entombing us for years, and we were too eager to use their "free" products to question their motives. They have become an insidious company, no longer trust-worthy. And now we are each left on our own, to try to work our way out of this worm-hole.  

Well, there are some things you can do. To "clean up your act", follow these suggestions from the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/google-privacy-policy-changes_n_1310506.html

And then there's the arrogance of thumbing of their noses at the European Union's Justice Commission! See this quote from the IT Security and Network Security News on eWeek.com:

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Google's product policy privacy changes violated European data protection laws by failing to gain consumer consent.

The Financial Times ran a terrific editorial on Friday, 3/2/12, called "Privacy Property", in which they end with this quote:

The principle must be that data are the private property of the users they are obtained from, which they may share or sell but only in free informed transactions. A free
market is a good model for the internet – and markets only do their job if property rights are well-defined.

 The editors also maintain that "The Commission should move ahead on revised and harmonised privacy legislation with a robust right to be forgotten." Amen.

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Joomla!

Well, finally we come to Joomla! And, by Jove, I think I've found it - the blogging platform for my next endeavors. Why? Like Drupal, it is open source, free, and supported by a large community of developers. That means, there will always be someone to help, when the going gets tough. Also like Drupal, Joomla! has Content Management Software embedded into it. And, Joomla! has extensions for a mobile blog (http://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/mobile-joomla-tutorial/). One final thing: what I like most about Joomla! is the visual component: it is more attractive visually, and more intuitive to a designer's eye. Check this out:

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WordPress

I actually downloaded the WordPress module for a Yahoo! Small Business Website I have, and was rather disappointed with its performance. It just felt clunky. It was not nearly as intuitive as I expected it to be, and it didn't have the editing controls I was used to, and wanted available. I have to say, this was a big disappointment. Granted, this may not have been the best test of WordPress - maybe I should download and install the stand-alone software, which will give me much better hands-on control. However, the experience was just jarring enough to make me want to look further. That's why I've been checking out these other platforms...
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Drupal

Drupal is a blogging platform that is DEFINITELY over my head. And yet - it might have what I need to take my blogs to the next step. Here's a page that has lots of links for those of us who want to get started: http://drupal.org/start. But first, I have to ask, why would one want to use Drupal? Well, for starters, it's open source, its free, and it has a large community of supporters, much like Joomla! Here's the "elevator pitch" about Drupal, geared for the non-technical people: 

  Drupal is a free, community-built website development tool. It allows you to easily create, update and manage a website without requiring a lot of technical know-how. Drupal uses a point-and-click interface to let you add pages, menus, images and file uploads and it enforces security, so you can apply permissions to different kinds of users. As your website grows, it's easy to add custom features from the thousands of free modules you can download. Drupal is highly regarded as one of the best website frameworks available and is rapidly gaining adoption all over the globe.

(http://drupal.org/node/220314)

I think this is one platform I'll explore further!
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Posterous

Can you think of a more preposterous name than Posterous? Well, lo and behold, it is the name of a blogging platform, for the phone, no less. How pre-posterous! Check out this review: https://posterous.com/press/Posterous_App_Review_Guide.pdf. Naturally, I couldn't let it go at that. I had to look up the word: preposterous means "Contrary to reason or common sense; utterly absurd or ridiculous". So, that would make posterous mean...absolutely sensible, no? Alas, it doesn't have what I'm looking for, but it might be the right platform for you.

The find out more, check out the Helpdesk for Posterous Spaces
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Squarespace

With a surprising name for this blogging platform: Squarespace. And yet, maybe the name is a good indication of what it's all about: not fancy, but functional. This video, however, shows that it is far more than that - Squarespace has the snazziest set of design tools I've seen. For $12/month, $20/month, or $36/month, you can create a personal or business blog that will stand up to the best of Blogger, WordPress, or TypePad (3 of the most popular blog platforms).
In addition to state-of-the-art design tools, Squarespace offers something I haven't seen before: an Advanced Blog Importer. That's the conumdrum of these easy blogging platforms - what happens when you're ready to move on? For instance, how on earth do you move a dozen Blogger blogs? They download as RSS feeds, which is pretty useless for importing into one's own domain.

Touching all the bases, Squarespace also touts their ability to manage one's Social Media:

Mobile blogging? Square space has it: http://www.squarespace.com/iphone. Support? They have that too: http://help.squarespace.com/. So what's missing? Manual coding! It's as if they've taken all the ease and beauty of Adobe Dreamweaver and put it online, in a hosted package, with options for just about everyone. EXCEPT - for those of us who want to own the data, to house the Website, and control the details. So, I guess I'll pass this one up. But, it might be just right for you...
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Compendium

Here's a different sort of blogging platform: Compendium. They brand themselves as "The Business Blogging Software Platform", so naturally their focus is a little different. Their features include:

•  Moderation Workflow, 
• Customer Story Caption
• Content Generation Tools
• Social Media
• Category Optimization
• Search Engine Optimization,
• Technology.

Here's a handy link to articles on their Business Blogging Resources page. All in all, I'd say I would explore this option more, if I had a large company, and wanted to minimize the hazards of doing the Web work myself. However, it does bother me that no prices are listed...
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Penzu

I'm taking a look at the 20 Best Blog Blog Platforms, from New Movement Media, and this one is unfamiliar to me: Penzu. It looks like it is set up for private journaling, as opposed to public blogging. Check out this page called Penzu - Why Journal (http://Penzu.com/content/why). And, of course, check out this video!.

Penzu from Penzu Inc. on Vimeo.

The company has 3 videos, all of them short and sweet. Check out the others at: http://vimeo.com/user3215195
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Dreamweaver 5 and CMS

Here is an excellent video about using Dreamweaver 5 and a content management system such as are now available with Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress blogging platforms. It's really an eye-opener, how well these systems can work together. I'm not quite ready to add another dimension to my web development skills by using CM software, but I am definitely exploring the options.


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