Leslie Kirk - Miva Merchant Specialist

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Twitter Updates for 2010-01-26

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A Few Must Have’s For WordPress

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As I was wrapping up WordPress project for my father-in-law, I made a list of all the user name and  passwords that would be needed for various accounts I had created for him to conjunction with the site. I can hear it now, “This is WordPress” what else do you need?” Well, I’m glad you asked, here’s my list of must have’s for WordPress:

Gmail Account – create a Gmail account, it will come in handy for other items on the list.

Google Analytics – use that newly created Gmail/Google account and setup Google Analytics.

Google Webmaster Tools – another perk from having created a Gmail/Google account.

Feedburner ID – while you are rumbling around with your Google account grab one of these too. The theme I used for my father-in-law’s site had a built in subscribe to Feedburner.

YouTube Account – another benefit from Google. Take a few minutes to create a YouTube account, then you can associate it with your Google account. Even if you don’t have videos of your own, you can still search and share favorites that you find.

Twitter Account – a must have. I’ll recommend a great WordPress plugin to go along with this in just a bit.

bit.ly – this will come in handy to create shortened URL’s.

Facebook Account – huh? Why would you need a Facebook account or Facebook Fan page if you have a WordPress blog? I’ll get back to you on that one too.

Next you will need to be able to tie these into your WordPress blog, so here is my recommended list of WordPress plug-ins:

Google Analytics for WordPress by Joost de Valk – this plugin with allow you to easily add your Google Analytic tracking number into your WordPress blog.

Google XML Sitemaps by Arne Brachhold – this plugin will very nicely handle creating the XML Sitemap that you will submit to the Google Webmaster Tools you signed up for.

Twitter Tools by Alex King – this plugin is by far my favorite plugin to use with Twitter. Not only will it create and send Tweets about your blog posts, it can also create blog posts from your tweets. Alex has also added the capability to create Bit.ly URLs when you opt to send posts to Twitter – hence the need for a Bit.ly account.

Sociable by Blogplay – you need to have a way for your readers to easily share your posts to their favorite social bookmarking or media.

Akismet is a built in plugin but is worth it’s weight in gold when it comes to trapping spam. Signing up for your WordPress.com API key is so much easier now, no more having to create a WordPress.com account to get one.

There are other plugins that I use depending on what features and functionality the site owner needs.

That brings me to my next point – I recommend that you host your own WordPress blog. Yes, you can get one at WordPress.com, but your options are limited, you can’t tweak the look & feel of the installed themes and you can’t install any additional plugins. If you are wanting to have your WordPress blog look like your E-commerce site, then this is the only way to go.

So now why should you have a Facebook account too? Not everybody will find your WordPress blog, not everyone is using Twitter, so by also adding Facebook you giving yourself another avenue to help people find you. If you are a business, then set up a “Fan” page (a business page). You will be able to post links to your blog updates and your site here too. With a personal account you can even have your blog posts automatically feed into your Facebook page.

These are a few of my favorite things…

Twitter Updates for 2010-01-23

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  • @seesmic why only Windows? Kind of disappoints this loyal Mac user. in reply to seesmic #
  • Don't forget that DesignExtend is donating $5 to Haiti relief for each order that includes a 5.5 book http://bit.ly/62Zzg4 #
  • First Tweet From Space: 'Hello Twitterverse!' — InformationWeek: http://bit.ly/58Lb6a #
  • Spending time on my resume and job search today – Web Production Manager with strong E-commerce and Social Media… http://fb.me/4IkDek5 #
  • Spending time on my resume / job search today – Web Production Manager w/strong E-commerce / Social Media skills http://bit.ly/7B4WYB #

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Twitter Updates for 2010-01-22

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Twitter Updates for 2010-01-21

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Twitter Updates for 2010-01-20

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Social Graces of Social Media

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I was bringing a friend of mine up to date on my recent unemployed status and started talking about how I’m looking to help online businesses incorporate more Social Media into their marketing strategies. His response almost stopped me in my tracks: “I’m trying to get people to stop using Social Media.”

I intently listened to the problems he was up against with Facebook, Twitter and other “Social” online applications. He talked about how it cut into productivity with all the games and such. Not only was he having to deal with the deluge of email related spam, now he was having to handle company resources being eaten up by all the bandwidth to the Social Media sites.

Then he said something that reminded me of the AOL Chatroom days – “people say things on Facebook and Twitter that they won’t say to your face.” It’s beyond the old, now updated, joke “What happens in Vegas winds up on YouTube.” Comments made in cyberspace can be far worse than accidentally hitting Send All on something you probably shouldn’t have been forwarding in the first place.

In Tamar Weinberg post The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook she has some great common decency tips:

“Publicizing a private conversation on a wall post. In case it isn’t obvious, Facebook wall posts are completely public to all your friends (unless you tweak your privacy settings). Private matters should be handled privately: via email or even in Facebook private messages.”

Read more: http://www.techipedia.com/2008/social-media-etiquette-handbook/

Forbes.com asks the question Are You Practicing Proper Social Networking Etiquette? It touches upon the conversation I was have with my friend:

“where managers have limited or banned Facebook for being a distraction and monitor employees’ personal pages for images or comments that might reflect poorly on the business.”

Chris Brogan addresses the Facebook games that I so dislike in his 2007 blog post Considering Social Network Etiquette

Don’t play along, if you don’t want. It sends the message of how you want to use the app. Don’t feel that this is a ‘when in Rome’ situation. Use the networking tool the way you want to use it.

As users of Social Media, we have to remember that we are putting ourselves “out there”. It is something that even I have to remind myself, to “practice what I preach.”