Me? Social?

I am quite heavily engaged in this social media hype machine, I profess to use a multitude of services that people will probably tell you you don’t need to use. Examples of these services are in my sidebar, which hosts a list of all the Web2.0 type sites I belong to.

The truth is though, the sites I do use are extraordinarily useful. Twitter and Plurk allow me to keep in contact with people across the world but also with my wife, who uses Twitter from her IM client on her laptop. I am kept upto date with the latest news by using sites such as Mixx, Digg and Delicious.

What I am trying to point out here is that social media has brought the internet forward decades from what it used to be. Gone are the days where you used the internet for just research and Napster, you are now able to update your webpage from your iPhone, interact with people who you have never met and build professional relationships that you previously wouldn’t have had any chance of initialising.

The main reason I have embedded the sites I use on my sidebar is so that you can interact and join similar networks should you wish to. I have an iPhone, on which 90% of the applications are communication tools, namely Facebook, Twitter and Plurk.

Wanting to boost my activity and share my knowledge and ideas of the internet, I put forward the writing on this blog as my application to one of the most popular technology websites; Makeuseof.com. Within a couple of days I was contacted by the chief editor saying I was successful in my application, I was to be added to their team of writers.

Fast forward two weeks, I have just completed my second article for them and I have many others waiting in the wings. It’s proving to be a very good way to slowly but surely move away from your typical 9-5 workday and move towards a career that would involve me working for myself.

I have a number of projects simmering at the moment that are only days maybe weeks from launch. I am hoping that I can get a second revenue stream coming in, meaning I can apply for bigger and better positions in the future.

Wish me luck.

5 Social Wordpress Plugins You Should Use

I consider myself to be “involved” with the social media scene and look to make my internet experience simple but effective. I belong to many social sites which allow me to get the latest news or even share some of my own.

I run a self hosted Wordpress blog and use a few plugins to help keep my blog involved with social media as possible. Today I want to share with you a few simple suggestions that you may be able to use on your blog.

1. FriendFeed Activity Widget

The FriendFeed Activity Widget allows you to share your progress through your favourite social websites. If you don’t have a FriendFeed account, simply head over to their website, tie in all your blog, mirco-blogging, photo, video website credentials and alert your website readers to what you have been getting upto. You can see this widget in action on the sidebar of this blog.

2. Social Homes

Social Homes is a nifty little plugin that you could say runs along side the FriendFeed plugin. By entering your usernames on certain social sites, you can have a little widget full of relevant links to your other homes on the web. Again, look to the right and you will see this plugin in action.

Please note: I have added a few extra sites to this plugin, if you wish to use the version I edited, please contact me and I will email you the updated version. I have submitted this to the author and it’s a matter of where it will be used or not.

3. Twitter Tools

If you are a Twitter user, this plugin allows you to send and display tweets on/from your Wordpress blog. By adding your login info to the admin page, you can specify whether your blog alerts your Twitter feed every time you publish a new blog post.

I have disabled the sidebar display as my FriendFeed widget will only duplicate the Twitter information.

4. WP Greet Box

WP Greet Box is primarily aimed at blog owners who submit their content to social news sites. When a visitor lands on one of your pages, this plugin will allow you to tailor a greeting from where that particular user has come from. For instance, if your site was Dugg, this plugin would welcome visitors from Digg, asking them to Digg your site while they’re visiting. It also recognises Google, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Technorati and Twitter.

5. Sociable

This useful little plugin again targets the social news submitters out there. By activating this plugin, you can specify a range of sites that your visitors can submit your posts to. Instead of submitting all your own content, why not let a the people who read your site decide?

Here are a few suggestions to aid you in your quest for internet domination, if you know of anymore, please suggest them in the comments.

How To Run A Social Media Site

Everybody remembers the last time they experienced some truly awesome customer service, whether it be in your local supermarket, dining in a restaurant or when a popular website rolls out one of your suggestions.

The latter is what Mixx did.

Mixx has a fantastic reputation for delivering on user requests as I have posted before but let me show you how a request I put to the Mixx team was rolled out in a matter of days.

The Story (sit down children).

I had requested that Mixx place a “Google” category in the Tech section of their website (as shown below) via Twitter. I didn’t receive a response right away but assumed it would be added to the list of site improvements.

Fast forward four days and I receive a Twitter message notification in my email telling me a Google category has been added.

I log in and low and behold, the section is there in all it’s glory!

It really shows that when users come up with a good idea, the Mixx team will do whatever it takes to get the feature implemented. With all the problems at Digg, I really can’t see people putting up with inadequacy there for too long before they end up coming to the “Red Side” where there is a proper community.

You can view the new category here.

Stumbleupon: The Richest Source Of Traffic?

Stumbleupon was one of the first social sites that I used, it’s been around so long, most people couldn’t have told you it was classed as a social site until the Web2.0/Myspace/Facebook era came into effect.

Stumbleupon started off as a way to “stumble upon” fun and interesting websites submitted by it’s users. As the years have passed and the social aspect of media has come to the fore, users have been able to recommend links to each other, communicate via the site and of course has attracted a lot of self marketers.

I won’t lie to you, I submitted a few of my most popular articles to see if it would bring in a new user base who wanted to read my content, it was shameless self promotion. Did it work? Yes.

I have submitted the same sites to Digg and to Mixx, these sites heavily relying on people to find my article, take the time to read it and then decide whether it was worth a vote. These sites had driven no more than 30 unique hits to my website.

Below is a report from the last month from my Google Analytics:

To put this in perspective, I only submitted links to Stumbleupon this week. The 28 hits from Mixx are based on three submissions over a monthly period. The sheer number of people that have “stumbled” on this site have produced the one comment and a rise in 4 RSS subscribers, I can only say thankyou to the people who found my content interesting.

I will not submit every blog post on this site, I have only submitted a few pages that would genuinely interest a viewer. Stumbleupon to me is a fair and useful way of finding content, it brings back the element of chance that people can find my submissions and vote on them from their toolbar. I will continue to promote Mixx as I would rather promote good content than my own, but Stumbeupon does bring interesting sites to you….fast.

What Mixx Needs..

Mixx has become my daily place for links and news. As discussed before, I used to use Digg for this very purpose but became disillusioned with the users and the content of the popular stories. Mixx has some splendid features, the Groups idea being unique to social voting sites. I am also a fan of the “Karma” points which reward people for posting articles and also commenting, helping to build a sense of community.

There are some services I would like Mixx to offer, to help it grow and become more widespread among the masses (and feel free to tell me I’m an arse if some of these addons already exist!):

• An embedable widget for your website that allows readers to “Mixx Up” your article.
• The ability to see if your Mixx friends are online.
• The ability to see what your “Karma” points consists of, i.e. 20% comments, 80% submissions.
• An official Mixx wordpress plugin (which could also relate to the widget described above).
• A better way to flag a submission as a duplicate.
• A way to add a submission to another submission, the article’s linked in the submissions may reference the same source but have different stances for instance.
• Keeping on the widget theme, maybe introduce an applet you can embed in the sidebar of your blog or signature in a forum that shows your username, Mixx statistics and awards. I think it would encourage other people to check out the site.
• Add the local feature to the rest of the world, as a Brit, I submit a lot more Brit-centric articles so it would be good to have them tagged in the local section for myself and others to see.
• Perhaps, allowing all story, image and video submissions to be grouped together, it would make the front page/popular sections a lot less linear and more visually appealing (this is just my personal preference, perhaps the option to switch between this?)
• Possibly allow some way to give me an indication if one of my friends or followers has “Mixxed Up” what I am reading from a general overview (not if I have navigated into “View Details”.)

I would like to see it as more of an open forum, so if you do have any comments or suggestions, I will add them with due credit.

I enjoy Mixx more and more everyday, I’m just trying to do my bit to help it grow and be seen by a wider audience.

Headed to Mixx

I used to be a very frequent user of Digg, I would check it for tech news, articles and it’s pictures section.

The content on Digg has always been quite diverse until recently. The current tech meme’s are the Nintendo (DS or Wii), Google (Apps, Gmail) and Apple (Macbook and iPhone) and are now the tops stories on Digg’s main page. Even though the content had become predictable, it was still a good place to get your fill of internet news.

Unimpressed by Reddit and Delicious, I have headed to Mixx; a Digg clone with what seems to be more of a democratic community.

Digg’s downfalls are that it seems to be:

• Full of 13 year old kids trying to mount their soapbox
• Paid promoters who game the system
• Very US centric (that can’t be helped but I have no influence over a writers strike)
• Ready to sell it’s users to the highest bidder

Have a look at Mixx, the community is a patch on Digg but it is slowly growing. Mixx users are rewarded “Karma” for their posts and are also given awards for their work towards the community. I shall be submitting and posting there, hopefully see you about!