Archive for category blogging

Is Google Buzz the Twitter Killer?

Posted by Paul Holmes in blogging, business, internet, social media on February 16th, 2010

Will Buzz Kill Twitter?

Some have compared it to FriendFeed, some have called it Google’s answer to Facebook, and some are just annoyed and can’t wait to turn it off (in GMail, you can scroll to the bottom and click on “turn off buzz”, by the way).

Others have predicted Google Buzz will annihilate Twitter! They make a compelling argument.

It’s a sophisticated broadcast notification system, much like Twitter.
It’s public.
You can send images (and you don’t need third party applications like TwitPic).
You can automatically feed Buzz from other services (Blog RSS Feeds, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Digg, etc.).
Your Google profile is now your Google Buzz profile, and has much more information than a Twitter profile (yet, uglier).

It’s overwhelming like FriendFeed, but this is offset in part by neatly integrating right into GMail (which is certainly the most open tab on my browser). This means you can have a peak, or you can completely ignore it – but it will always be at your fingertips, beckoning you…

And does anyone have any doubt that “Buzz” will very soon be searchable (and from Google, no less)?

Will Buzz kill Twitter? Maybe. Maybe not.

What do you think?

buzz, digg, facebook, flickr, friendfeed, google, rss, twitter, youtube

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Top 10 Social Media

Posted by Paul Holmes in blogging, business, personal, social media on December 1st, 2009

I have written various articles on social media in the past, and a few people have asked what my favourites are. The following list is not “the best”, nor specifically “the best for application X”, rather my favourites – those I enjoy using or gain specific benefit for using.

10. Ning’s (like Your Canada)
Ning is a really cool product that allows you to launch your own social networks around specific themes. Your Canada is an example of one I launched to add a social component to our popular Your Canada website.

9. FriendFeed
Everyone was getting excited about FriendFeed, the ultimate social media collaborator. It’s a cool tool because it let’s you tie all your social media activities into one stream. It can be a bit overwhelming though, so I find myself using it sparingly these days.

8. YouTube
Anonymity is still the name of the game on YouTube. As a result, you get poorly spelled and otherwise idiotic comments on videos all the time. This is too bad, given that it otherwise is the best place for exposure, and the tools to connect people socially are actually pretty good. The social aspects of video are still developing, and I suspect a number of other sites may take the lead in “social video” while Google focuses YouTube more on commercializing what they have (and doing this primarily by pushing sponsored videos, vs. an advertising model). Some to watch include Vimeo, DailyMotion, 12seconds.tv, Ustream.tv, blip.tv, and about a few dozen others.

7. Flickr
Yahoo! has one product that kicks ass and totally owns it’s vertical, and that is Flickr. Flickr is the best social medium for sharing photos/images. Picasa is Google’s alternative, and it is OK. A few others are Photobucket and Flixya, but they are a long way from successful at this point.

6. Digg
The DiggBar has revolutionized Digg (much to the chagrin of the ol’ skool Diggers). I use it all the time, and am a bit of a Diggaholic now. It’s a great tool for sharing interesting stuff you find on the web. It also has some great integration tools to very easily share “Dugg” stuff on Facebook and Twitter. I use Digg every single day.

5. Instant Messaging
Three years ago this was number one (followed by blogging and online forums). Three years ago, I did 100% of my instant messaging using MSN Messenger. Two years ago, 80% was MSN and 20% was GoogleTalk. Today, 50% is Facebook, 30% is GoogleTalk and 20% is MSN. As always, ICQ and AIM are 0%. Instant messaging is still a great way to get ahold of people in a hurry.

4. Blogging
I love to blog. I have at least 5 blogs I update regularly, and I love posting comments to other people’s blogs (which is what makes it a social medium). I also love WordPress; I am a total convert to the platform. I even organized a WordCamp in Victoria a few weeks ago, which was tonnes of fun.

3. Facebook
I was a Facebook holdout for ages, but have grown to like it. I like it because almost everyone I know is there. The platform itself is annoying sometimes, and frustrating at others, but they have the critical mass, so it remains a tool I continue to use, even if I use it despite itself.

2. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is great for business. At a recent presentation I gave at the University of Victoria to all of their business students, I asked several hundred students how many of them were on Facebook, and almost every hand went up. I then asked how many were on LinkedIn, and about 5 hands went up (I think a few of those hands were faculty, too). This is ashame. LinkedIn is a great tool for business, but also for career building. The guy sitting next to you in class today might be CEO of some big corporation in 10 years. Stay in touch and add them to your network on LinkedIn. I’m not sure if I got through to them or not.

LinkedIn is easy, passive and a great way to introduce people. It’s sort of like a virtual business mixer, but doesn’t require you to smile and dress nicely.

1. Twitter
Even people who love Twitter make fun of it. Twitter is an amazing tool for connecting with people and getting a message out. Through the power of the retweet, your potential network is huge. That conference I organized back in #4 above – I used Twitter as the primary medium through which to promote it, and over 100 local (and international) people showed up. Not too shabby for something people love to make fun of.

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I’ll review my list every once in awhile as my tastes change. It’ll be interesting to look back in the future and see what has changed.

I can already say that “FriendFeed” used to be much higher up the list, and I expect there is a good chance Google Wave and Foursquare will appear here in the next year or two. The influence of mobile and video (and mobile video) should introduce a few new angles to the equation, too.

A few others that I use that didn’t make the top list are Plaxo (11), Yelp (12), Identi.ca (13), Vimeo (14), Meetup (15), SlideShare (16), MySpace (17), and StumbleUpon (18). I have profiles on a few others, but don’t use them much.

I’m always happy to connect with people I know on any of these networks, see my social media links in the right column to link to my profile, or visit my Contact page.

blogging, digg, facebook, flickr, friendfeed, instant messaging, linkedin, ning, social media, twitter, youtube

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Share on Tumblr

Posted by Paul Holmes in blogging, internet on August 22nd, 2009

I’ve been playing with Tumblr for awhile. It’s really cool, and the interface is amazingly simple, but I could never quite figure out exactly what to do with it.

Then I went to WordCamp in Surrey and listend to Lorraine Murphy from Raincoaster, and she described it as a “terrible blogging tool”, but a “great scrap-booking tool.”

The lightbulb went on!

I was using DiggBar a fair amount for this, but “scrap-booking” is not really the point, and because of the “social” aspects of Digg, you have verify your humanity every time, which slows the process down considerably. Then, going back and finding your Digg later isn’t rocket since, but it’s not dead simple either. This is not an anti-Digg post (they did send me a free t-shirt, after all), but I would say that Digg is best used for it’s intended purpose (same goes for StumbleUpon and Delicious).

Retrieving links from Tumblr is 100% idiot-proof, since it’s a public blog – no logging in, no messing around. Since it’s “blog-style”, you just need to remember the date you added it, or search for it.

I installed the “Share on Tumblr” bookmarklet (not button, widget or plugin), and already find myself “scrap-booking” all sorts of stuff.

I’m off to the races!

When you login at Tumblr and create your first Tumblog, go to the Account menu (top right) and select “Goodies”. Click on and drag the “Share on Tumblr” button to your bookmark bar (yes, it even works in Chrome).

After that, you’ll be tumbling like a mad tumblr!

blogging, digg, scrap-booking, tumblr, wordcamp

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Guest Blogging 101

Posted by Paul Holmes in blogging, internet on August 20th, 2009

I was recently invited to submit to another blog, to blog on the topic of blogging. This practice has been around for ages, and is generally referred to as Guest Blogging.

I wrote a short article about Feedburner.

Guest blogging is a very interesting concept. On one hand, bloggers are limited by the amount of time they have, so writing content for another blog (that adds value to that other blog) might seem counter-intuitive.

If you blog for fun (and not to try to make millions of dollars), as I mostly do here, this isn’t that big a deal.

There are a couple of benefits to guest-blogging which may not be immediately obvious:

By posting a well-written blog entry, you enhance your reputation as an “expert” or at least a “reliable source”. Certainly you were reliable or expert enough to be trusted by the person who you guest-blogged for.
When that blog content links back to your website, it’s of far greater value from a Search Engine Optimization perspective than yet another link from within your own website. Google, and other search engines, don’t just count the links coming into your site, they look at where they come from, and they look at the context (i.e. which keywords are linked). If you are linked from a highly reputable source, it will enhance your reputation within Google’s Almighty Algorithm™.

There is an excellent Guest Blogger group on LinkedIn to meet with others interested in guest blogging, and to otherwise discuss the concept.

Needless to say, my little experiment isn’t earth-shattering, but it certainly was a great deal of fun.

feedburner, guest blogging, linkedin, reputation, seo

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