Delicious

Delicious (formerly del.icio.us, pronounced "delicious") is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. Delicious uses a non-hierarchical classification system in which users can tag each of their bookmarks with freely chosen index terms (generating a kind of folksonomy). A combined view of everyone's bookmarks with a given tag is available; for instance, the URL "http://delicious.com/tag/wiki" displays all of the most recent links tagged "wiki". Its collective nature makes it possible to view bookmarks added by similar-minded users.

Wikipedia June 2009

A Folksonomy is a system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content; this practice is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging. The word folksonomy is a portmanteau of folk and taxonomy.

Wikipedia June 2009

How to use Google Calendar

Google Calendar is a free web based calendar application offered by Google. The interface is similar to desktop calendar applications such as Microsoft Outlook. It enables users to view, add, and drag-and-drop events from one date to another without reloading the page. It supports view modes such as weekly, monthly, and agenda. Users can "quick add" calendar events by typing standard English phrases, such as "Dinner with Michael 7pm tomorrow". Events are stored online, meaning that the calendar can be viewed from any location. In the case of a user experiencing a hard drive failure, it also means that no data is lost. Multiple calendars can be added and shared, allowing various levels of permissions for the users. This enables collaboration and sharing of schedules between groups or families. There are also general calendars available for importing into one's account which contain national holidays of various countries. Google Calendar is integrated with various other Google services.

1. Log in to Google
2. Click the link on your Google page that says "Calendar"
3. Enter in a few events for the week to get started with your calendar
4. In the left navigation area, click the drop down arrow that is next to Your Calendar, and change the colour
5. Click the same drop down and select Calendar Settings, change the title etc. When you see the embed code DON'T copy it yet. Instead click the link that says "Customise the colour, size and other options"
6. Adjust settings to 400 pixels (so that it fits in your blog) and other settings to make it look the way you like.
7. Copy the embed code (it automatically updates as you adjust settings) and paste it as a new post in your blog.

Its Tuesday night again

You know, I quite like Tuesday nights. I get to show off new things to people who are actually interested in social media.

So tonight, Chris asks how to set up an interactive calendar and for a look at Delicious again. We can do that! I reckon Google Calendar is pretty useful, and is very easy to get it together, add multiple users, subscribe to its RSS feed, and embed it on your website. So let's check that out.

And we really must check out Delicious - especially now that Chris is finally using Firefox. (yep, its TwitterFox you need Chris. Nice to see Veronique being social, dunno where all the others are?).

Veronique points to the unstoppable Sue Waters over in Australia (I taught her everything she knows ;).. she'll love that.. let's see if she finds us with that mention..
See Veronique's post with a link to Sue's tips for new bloggers.

So, hope to see some of you tonight.. we have some more tools to learn. We'll start with a chat first as usual, and then its over to a computer with a new blog post entry at the ready.

New videos worth watching

I picked up a few new videos about social media worth watching:

Linking Lebanon: Activists Experiment with Social Media

Eight minute video documenting the development of digital activism in Lebanon as a tool for organizing, facilitating outreach, encouraging dialogue and raising money. It also sets the stage for more experimenting with Social Media for social change.

Using Social Media for Internal Communication

Abi Signorelli, Director of Internal Communications at Virgin Media talks to James Bennett, Online Managing Editor at Melcrum about the use of social media for internal communication.

How To Use Social Media To Get A Job (embedding disabled!)

The credits crunched, the recession is biting and certain jobs are getting harder and harder to come by, especially by the traditional means of finding employment. To get ahead of the game you need to utilize the social media world in your quest for another job. That's right, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin can all help you to find that next pay-check... here's how!

The Company as Wiki

A fast paced over view of how a US company called Best Buy is using social technology to improve store communication and productivity. Some interesting approaches in this - if you can see past the hype and blue skies.

The social media playlist

As always, these videos are added to the Social Media playlist where you can see lots of pretty interesting videos about social media and related topics.

Moblogging

Felicity arrives, and all plans change. We are now loading photos to Flickr from our mobile phones.

This sort of funny bizness is called moblogging. This is what Wikipedia editors have to say about moblogging:

Mobile blogging (moblogging) is a form of blogging in which the user publishes blog entries directly to the web from a mobile phone or other mobile device. A moblog helps habitual bloggers to post write-ups directly from their cell phone even when on the move. Mobile blogging is popular among people with camera-enabled cellphones which allow them to e-mail/MMS or SMS photos and video that then appear as entries on a web site, or use mobile browsers to publish content directly to any blogging platform with Mobile Posting compatibility.^{[1] [2]}

Tonight, we will be using Flickr and our mobile phones to moblog photos.

1. Create and account with Flickr
2. Scroll to the bottom of your flickr page and click the link to tools
3. To the right of the Tools page, there is a section about uploading to Flickr by email. Click the link that says "upload using your own private email upload address"
4. Create a new contact in your phone and add the email address that flickr has given you
5. Take a photo and send it to that email address (NB. Sometimes, phone providers do not give you a phone with the settings in it to send email.. if this is you, contact your provider and ask them fore the settings)
6. View your photo on your flickr page, and click the link in the right that says "add tag", and type a word that will file this photo with other photos like it.

1, 2 skip a few: RSS, Delicious, and Widgets

I expect tonight we will have only a few - seeing as the snow day saw us skipping last week, breaking our rythm.

Speaking on snow day! Check out what I did that day:



So what about tonight!

Let's review RSS, look at Delicious and add widgets to our blogs. Chris Labes has been going great guns on her blog, making it fancy and taking the opportunity to requests demonstrations on the Tuesday nights. Veronique is right there with her, going further and offering back how to based on Chris' questions! Great Job V. Remember to post requests to your blog in the week before the workshops, so we make sure we're helping YOU develop social media skills.

Workshops and seminars

On Tuesday evenings between 6 and 8pm we meet in The Common Room (A cafe and computer suite on the corner of Bath and George St Dunedin CBD) where beginner and experienced alike come together to share know-how and discover new things about social media.

To start the evening we meet in the cafe and talk about things we'd like to know more about. When we have 2 or 3 things to look at, we move to the computers and follow along as someone demonstrates on a projector.

The beginners really appreciate the pace in these demonstrations, and the experts follow along while updating their twitter and blogs, and taking a new thing further. There is always something new to try and discuss.

If you would like to organise a workshop or have someone explain the opportunities of social media to you and your organisation, feel free to call Leigh on +64(0)21736539 or email leighblackall@gmail.com

Useful information - a good way to sell

This video gives a lot of useful insights about the use of social media in a PR sense. The short and sharp sell line was in the back, with the info up front. This method works, especially in the social media sphere, where most people are actively engaged in looking for information and entertainment. But don't forget the 2 way. Anyone could leave a video response, or make a sharp critique of your work, and there it will be sitting right along side you. So be authentic, and give lots.



The smart thing about this ad, is not only is it on Youtube where it gets linked to all the other videos about Social Media, but that it has identified a story that relates to its product and produced a genuinely informative video. The sell is not too up front, although I would have put it even further back, ie.. not in the video where it to easily gets dismissed as just another push.

Imagine you're in the tourism business, lets say a heliskiing business.. Find a story that you know all your most likely customers will want to know about.. like, what's the best way to find the cheapest air ticket to NZ.. there's probably a better example, but that's just off the top of my head. Make an informative video about that, and see how many views it gets. It doesn't have to have top quality production values, especially if there isn't any other videos to compete with.. it just has to be there, ready to answer the search query, and ready to relate to other videos remotely like it.

You could make a video on how to powder ski, but then yours would be one of a thousand, and is probably getting viewed mostly by people who aren't even considering heliskiing in NZ.

How bad do you want it Chuck!?

You gotta hand it to the Yanks. They sure know how to talk it up!



More social media videos here.

Technorati

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs, competing with Google and Yahoo!. As of June 2008, Technorati indexes 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.^{[2]
Wikipedia June 2009}

Wikispaces

For information about wikispaces:
Wikipedia
Wikispaces
Youtube

Here is my wikispace
Here is a link to the workshop wiki

Getting Started

• Click on the edit button above to put your own content on this page.
• To invite new members, click on Manage Wiki and Invite People.
• To change your wiki's colors or theme, click on Manage Wiki and Look and Feel.
• To set who can view and edit your wiki, click on Manage Wiki and Permissions.

Need Help?

• Click on the help link above to learn more about how to use your wiki.

The sweet spot..

I reckon we may have found the sweet spot in the social media workshops.

- but as an aside.. I couldn't stop watching this - I'm not sure why... EPISODE 11--"The Sweet Spot, Part 1"



Ever since we changed venues and Roger snatched a projector for us, I think we have the ingredients for keeping going at a pace that suites everyone, and in a way that keeps the workshops fresh and new.

First off, we start the night in the cafe. We spend a little time swapping stories of social media over the week, and each identify at least one thing we want to get done in the night. I try to group and pair people off according to their interests for the night, and get a list of about 3 - 4 things I might be able to demonstrate.

Then, I dunno where it came from, but I set up the projector and had the people interested in the first demo to follow me step by step on the projector. They each opened their blogs with a new post ready, and as I demonstrate, they follow along and write step by step notes to their blogs.

This way, at the end of the demo we each have written notes, and an example. And it keeps the pace right for everyone. If its going too slow, people can go on with other things and easily find a way back in when the demo catches up to them.. and it can't go too fast because I wait for everyone to catch up.

Now ideally, after doing a few demos like this, more and more people will start doing their own thing. I'd like to try and find a way to keep those people coming on Tuesday nights, just to keep the vibes going and gradually lift everyone's levels up.

One idea is to ask people to post to their blogs what it is they would like to do in the coming week. From that I could form up the 3-4 demos before the Tuesday night and txt message everyone what is planned for the night. From that, others can decide if its for them or not.

Also, this way I think new people can join in when-ever, and people can skip a night or two when-ever. The precarious point though, is that the free workshops are at this point sustained by people turning up.. I'm not sure what the longer term will be... maybe a paper money donation at the door each night?

Another goal is to try and go deeper into social media.. we are only touching the surface, there is so much to it, and a lot of opportunities for us in deep dark South NZ.. maybe even careers in it! How might we get the workshops going to a deeper level, while at the same time welcoming new comers? If it gets to that, perhaps the first hour is for beginner level things and the send for advanced?

Would be nice to get ideas from you all.. do you reckon we've found a sweet spot those who came last week?

Further on the theme of sweet spots:

How to Hit the Golf Club's Sweet Spot by Using Impact Tape - Wikihow

Sweet Spot - Wikipedia

The sweet spot of a tank - Youtube

Social media for marketing a business

Here's a good reader on using social media to develop markets and business. What I'm wondering if I can develop a course or service for local Otago businesses along this vein? Is there, or will there be a demand for such knowledge and insights? Check out the 5th paragraph in the introduction where he describes the gains he made in his boutique tourism business:

• Slashed my marketing budget by over 80%
• Fired my publicist and her expensive monthly retainer
• Increased subscriptions to my monthly news letter by 50%
• Almost tripled my revenues
• Increased my profits by 500%

Surely those claims would catch the attention of local Otago tourism businesses? But how might I go about getting their attention and selling my services to them I wonder? Especially when social media is not a big deal in the local scene...

Social Media Marketing 101

View more Microsoft Word documents from bikeswithoutborders.

Embedding Youtube Playlists

1. Sign in to Youtube
2. Find a video that you like
3. Click the link that says Playlists
4. Select an existing playlist, or if you do not have a playlist already, click the button that says Add
5. Fill in the details for your new playlist and click the button that says Save Playlist Info
6. Find another video you like that is similar to the first video, and click the link that says Playlists - selecting your new playlist from the list, and then click the button that says Add.
7. Keep doing this, and create a collection of videos
8. When you are finished starting up your playlist, view your Channel by clicking your Username in the top right of the Youtube website
9. As you find videos you like on YouTube, click 'Add to Playlist' under the player to add them to your list. You can change the order of the videos in your playlist by returning to the 'My Playlist' page.
10. The easiest way to embed a playlist is to create a custom player. Go to your YouTube account by clicking the link in the top right that says Account.
11. Click "Custom Video Players", then "Create Custom Player". Select a color and format for your player, and then choose what is going to play in it—you can choose a playlist, your own uploaded content, or your favorites—and then click the "Generate Code" button.
12. Copy and paste the code into your blog entry or web page

How to creat a Google Map

1. Sign in to Google Maps
2. Click the link that says My Maps
3. Click the link that says Create New Map
4. Name your map and give it a description
5. Click save
6. Find your location on the map
7. Click the blue marker, move your mouse over your location, and click again to drop the marker
8. Enter details into the popup box and then click OK
9. Save your map
10. Click the link that says link
11. Click the link that is the pop up that says Customize and preview embedded map
12. Adjust the map that is in this new pop up, and then copy the text
13. Paste that text in your blog, and publish blog

View Awakino in a larger map

How to make a hyperlink

This one's for Afife.

This is a link to a video on how to make a hyperlink.

Here is some information on what a hyperlink is!

Here is a link to Leigh's professional blog

Its wikis again!!

I thought last weeks format worked pretty well hey? We start by sitting down away from the computers, going round each person and coming up with a plan each for the night. I think its a good way to get to know where everyone else is at, and to get a sense action before we zonk out in front of the computers.

I'm pretty keen on showing people Wikispaces. Its a free and very easy place where you can set up your own wiki, even create a fancy looking website that is always quite and easy to update.

Good old Common Craft comes to the rescue again, and gives us Wikis in Plain English



So.. what shall we do with a wiki?

How about you set up your own wiki and start a CV for yourself.

Then, lets talk about a Social Media wiki where we can keep notes and collaborate on things...

Here's some help getting started with Wikispaces