flickr: Are you Buzzed?
- 02/16/10 01:17 PM
Image by Máximo Gómez Santos via Flickr If you haven't been in Gmail lately, you might not have noticed Google's new toy tool. It is called Google Buzz. In a nutshell, Google is integrating a social media component into Gmail. In Buzz, users can strike up public or private conversations with integrated video, photos and links. Kind of like the Status Updates on FaceBook. In that regard, it is a step above Twitter... the king of the micro-blog/status update world. Twitter doesn't allow inline photos and videos, so when users share them, viewers have to leave Twitter to view the associated … (8 comments)
flickr: Features I wish were on Active Rain...
- 02/09/10 09:02 AM
There are a few features I wish Active Rain would adopt... I love them on my WordPress blogs, and would like to see them implemented here as well. Scheduled Posting. This is one of my favorite features on WordPress, and it is on many other platforms as well. When I took a vacation a couple of weeks ago, my WordPress blogs soldiered on, posts coming out as scheduled. It would even be cooler (on WP) if I could schedule a change to the post, but that is a whole different thing. Zemanta, Apture, PhotoDropper. These are all different, but do similar … (85 comments)
flickr: The Great Posterous Experiment...
- 11/26/09 12:32 PM
I have been VERY curious about Posterous. I have watched about it, written about it, listened about it and played with it. But I have really "used" it much. I'm a Man with an Excuse Plan... While everyone else is shopping for nifty junk they don't need for people they may not like that much, I will be road tripping with a friend of mine. Atlanta to Hampton, VA on Black Friday... then Hampton to Gaithersburg, MD on Saturday... and Gaithersburg back to Atlanta on Sunday. Pat and I have done a fair number of road trip together, but previously only … (9 comments)
flickr: Get Posterous-ized...
- 11/25/09 01:09 PM
Let's get the first part out of the way... It is pronounced pa-stir-us... like in preposterous... which would be "life before Posterous." Posterous is a blogging site... and if you are playing in social media, you really need to get onto it if you aren't already. In fact, I will be including it in the future when I talk about the places that agents MUST have a presence. It is THAT important... It isn't because of the audience, nor is it because of the name. It is because of the integration capability. It is one of the coolest options for syndicating … (13 comments)
flickr: Catch a Wave or Make a Plan?
- 11/19/09 12:38 PM
I've talked about it, as have many others... Social Media Plan... But is it even possible? During this morning's Social Media Breakfast - Atlanta, one of our members was talking about social media planning... and something occured to me. Just moments before, we were talking about how social media tools had changed dramatically in just the last few months. So... How can we make a plan for a rapidly changing landscape? Can a surfer make a plan for the wave? Or does the wave unfold and he reads it and responds?
It would seem obvious that while a surf has … (8 comments)
flickr: Implementation Day...
- 11/17/09 11:41 PM
One of the things I find useful after a great day of tech training is to take a day to concentrate on implementation. #VREBC... COOL! Hundreds of "tech forward" real estate professionals around the country took time out of their schedule to attend one or more of DOZENS of webinars for Virtual rebarcamp. But it doesn't matter if the event is an rebarcamp, REtechSouth, RainCamp or something else... the idea is the same. Learning is cool... but IMPLEMENTATION is KEY! Taking a decmpression day is a good idea. When I am done, I have hundreds of ideas and notes and possibilities … (9 comments)
flickr: Edit, Edit, Edit...
- 11/14/09 11:24 AM
I'm making some modifications to another one of my websites... This is when it would be really nice to have a staff like the AR folks to design scripts to convert terms and so forth with the theme change. But the end product will be worth it. And yes, this is a tease... Here are some of the ingredients... I am ready to make a change on my WordPress site... Brad and Bobby Carroll (Dakno Marketing) have made a very good point that sites need to carry a brand identity... I have a LOT of content and I would like … (10 comments)
flickr: In Atlanta? Interested in Active Rain and Blogging? Take a look...
- 08/20/09 07:05 AM
I just got the confirmation from Corey at Garner Creek at Parkview. We are going to be presenting a seminar and discussion about Active Rain, blogging and Social Networking at GarnerCreek at Parkview in Lilburn on Thursday, August 27th. The program will start at 11:00am, and lunch will follow at Noon. I'm pretty excited. This was one of the first things I thought about when I entered the Ambassador Program here at Active Rain. There is so much great information here, and getting the word out has been a priority for me for a long time. I have often referred … (10 comments)
flickr: 8 Tools #3A "Sweet Embeddable You"... before
- 08/17/09 04:34 PM
Ok, so if you have been following along, you have seen that you really need both a self-hosted WordPress blog and an Active|Rain RainMaker blog. You say, "OK there Skippy, now what?" Well bunky, you need content... GREAT, compelling, addictive content. And you need to present it in a great, compelling and addictive way. Venture out from the wall of words and throw so fun at the wall and see if it sticks. This post is actually what I call a second level post... it is broken up into bite size chunks that are easier to chew than a straight up … (6 comments)
flickr: 8 Tools #3B "Sweet Embeddable You"... after
- 08/17/09 04:26 PM
So, just a moment ago I posted the other half of this blog. I worked VERY hard to make it visually unappealing and kind of boring. I did that on purpose. For a purpose. You see, there are SO many ways to add rich media to your WordPress and Active|Rain posts. YouTube (and dozens of other video sharing sites) SlideShare (and some other presentation sharing sites) Flickr (and the other photo sharing sites) MagToo (I don't know of any other panorama sharing sites) Pictures Graphics And most of them are free or nearly free. And they are easy to use. you … (9 comments)
flickr: Social Media Breakfast Atlanta #2 is almost here!
- 08/16/09 03:11 PM
That's right... Some of you might remember the first Social Media Breakfast - Atlanta event that Ken Cook and I hosted July 23rd at the Duluth Diner in Gwinnett County. There were a lot of folks that just couldn't make it all of the way over the Gwinnett County... Event #2 will be in Cobb County... That's right, this time we will be meeting at the Atlanta Bread Company near town Center Mall. We will start being social at 7:00am, with a more formal portion of the program running from 7:30 until about 8:30, and everything should be wrapped up by … (4 comments)
flickr: What is YOUR Social Networking Strategy?
- 08/09/09 03:22 PM
We often talk about Social Networking and business strategies. Some of us even have created Social Networking Strategies. I have talked about mine. I'd love to hear about yours... One point I'd like to stress is that any strategy is like a battle plan. And every battle plan shares one similarity... it lasts until the first contact with the enemy. In this case, instead of lasting until first contact with the "enemy", it would be first contact with reality. That means that we can sit down and create a plan, but when the rubber hits the road... the plan has to … (4 comments)
flickr: Why bother with a blog? There are all of these other tools...
- 08/01/09 10:10 AM
I get asked that question pretty regularly. I am active here on Active|Rain... I'm even an Ambassador. I'm linked up on LinkedIn. I'm showing my face on FaceBook, with 4 business pages and a personal page. I am a solid light on Flickr. I tweet on Twitter, Digg and find things del.icio.us. I am also on about 50 other networks to a lesser extent... from music to Jeeping and sports cars. Why do I need a blog since I am using all of those other tools to interact with consumers? Well, for one thing there is only so much you can … (65 comments)
flickr: Social Media Breakfast Atlanta #1... a great time
- 07/23/09 01:16 PM
The first Social Media Breakfast Atlanta event was this morning at the Duluth Diner. At 7:00am, about 20 dedicated Social Media Adventurers gathered to discuss better ways to deploy social media for their businesses. Ranging from neophytes to experienced, the common thread was a desire to learn and grow. The first order of business was to talk about one of the basic conventions of marketing on social media… Don’t be a butt-head… engage others with meaningful conversation. Educate your target market. Interact with them. Listen. We also talked about building future events. The next event is going to be in Cobb … (6 comments)
flickr: WikiHow... This is a good one...
- 06/18/09 02:11 AM
On my Google Homepage I have a couple of WikiHow tips each day. Some of them are entertaining, some are informative, and some are downright weird. And then there are some that are hilarious... Today was one of the funny ones. How to Get Up and Start Taking Photos. It is a good read... and could be applied to WAY more things than just taking pictures. But let's talk about pictures for a minute... For those that don't know, I was a professional photographer for 10 years. I worked in commercial photography, as well as some editorial (magazine) work. Advertising, … (13 comments)
flickr: Failure to Launch...
- 06/16/09 07:17 AM
As many of my FaceBook friends and Twitter followers have been well aware, my family and I went down to Florida for Saturday's failed Space Shuttle launch. It was a long and somewhat frustrating trip... driving down with two small kids and a dog presented some challenges... as did getting the camper packed up for the trip. The result was that we didn't leave Atlanta until Friday afternoon. We arrived at the campground in Titusville, FL at almost 1:00am... with tired kids, annoyed parrents and a dog that was ready to run... Our 8 hour trip took about 12 hours. And … (4 comments)
flickr: Let's go grab a bite... Atlanta Social Media Breakfast
- 06/06/09 05:05 PM
If you haven't been reading Ken Cook's blog, you might not have noticed that we nailed down the time and location for the first Atlanta Social Media Breakfast. The event will take place on July 23rd at the Duluth Diner on Peachtree Industrial Blvd. We will have the whole place to ourselves from 7:00 to 9:00am. There will be a little bit of networking from 7:00 to 7:30 and from about 8:30 until 9:00, with the program and discussion in between. We are working towards having one of these events each month, moving the location around town in order to allow … (2 comments)
flickr: With my last Flickr-ing brain cell...
- 05/17/09 10:58 AM
No, I didn't misspell Flickr... If you aren't familiar, Flickr is an online photo sharing site. It is world-wide and very diverse... and it can be hyper local and quite specific as well. So, the question is... How can a photo-sharing site be a social network? And the answer lies in a little creativity. I talked about this a little bit during #rebcclt, in a couple of different groups. Flickr is a perfect way to help build online relationships and foster offline relationships. Here is an idea... Using a site like MeetUp, you put together a group of like-minded folks … (40 comments)
Image by Máximo Gómez Santos via Flickr If you haven't been in Gmail lately, you might not have noticed Google's new toy tool. It is called Google Buzz. In a nutshell, Google is integrating a social media component into Gmail.
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