Tag: ScribeFire

I’m a big fan of effective curation for content marketing and ‘thought leadership’. My preferred platform is Windows 7 these days, but many of my clients prefer MacOS. I put together a little riff yesterday outlining how use 3 tools to effectively curate content on the Mac. In this screencast I cover…

Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/M0XaKcFxcrk

Questions? Feedback?

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Open Share Icon
Image by Si1very via Flickr

Here’s my new, favorite Firefox plugin…

“Shareaholic makes it easy for you to submit the web page you’re on to your favorite sharing or bookmarking service, including: digg, del.icio.us, facebook, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader notes, kaboodle, magnolia, mixx, myspace, pownce, reddit, stumbleupon, tumblr, twitter, and ycombinator. You can also e-mail the web page directly to a friend.” Shareaholic – The browser add-on extension to share, bookmark and e-mail web pages quickly

If you’re a blogger, one of the most important things you can do is to get your content out into the social media stream is to share, share, share. Shareaholic is the fastest, easiest way I’ve seen to do that so far…

6/29/2011 My old friend the ‘Blog Post Promoter’ tells me via this post that I’ve been officially loving Shareaholic for over three years now. Although I have moved from Firefox to Chrome as my primary browser, Chrome remains the one extension or add-on that I could not live without. While I’m not a Chris Brogan or Darren Rowse, when an internet mechanic like me says this extension rocks, I’d suggest you find out why…

;-)

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Google Calendar is a contact- and time-managem...
Image via Wikipedia

The folks at Lifehacker took a poll on the top calendaring applications. Here are the results…

“Nothing’s more important to your productivity arsenal than a solid scheduling tool, and considering so much of what we do happens at the computer, a good calendar application is just the thing to bring order to your agenda. On Tuesday we asked you to share your favorite calendar application, and today we’re back with the five most popular answers. Keep reading for a detailed look at the top five and to cast your vote for the calendar tool you like best.” Source: Hive Five: Five Best Calendar Applications 

Me? I use Google calendars — the free one associated with my Google account as well as my business calendar in Google Apps. Go to the source to read the whole article — it’s worth it!

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Netscape Communicator
Image via Wikipedia

Somehow this escaped my attention…

“Given AOL’s current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it’s the right time to end development of Netscape branded software. Read the history page for more details about this decision.” Home :: The Netscape Archive 

It’s the end of an era, although Netscape as a company and a product has been dead for a long time. Long live Firefox! Get your free copy here.

Powered by ScribeFire.

…

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…but don’t want to use an rss reader? Personally, I think that’s going in the wrong direction, but  that would be your choice. ‘Feed my Inbox’ is a website that will allow you to track websites with newsfeeds and send an update to your inbox with new postings every day. By the way, if you agree that news readers are the ‘inbox for the rest of the internet’ and want to learn how to use Google Reader, click here for my free 30 minute training session on Reader…

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The Future of Local Commerce = Facebook + Foursquare + Yelp + Groupon [+ Outdoor]

Image representing Foursquare Solutions as dep...
Image via CrunchBase

Buy local? It’s more than just a tagline but if you want more than your fair share of drive by business, you have to consider what these tools can do for you…

“There’s been much hype, crazy valuations, and overall market excitement about businesses that promise to unleash the power of the social graph, location, recommendations and group buying. Facebook’s latest valuation according to SecondMarket is now about $30 billion, Foursquare raised $20 million at a post-money valuation of $115 million while still at a pre-revenue stage, Yelp, short of selling for $550 million to Google, raised over $25 million at an undisclosed but very high valuation, and finally Groupon raised $135 million at a whopping $1.35 billion valuation. So besides their huge success with the investment community, and their users, what do these companies have in common, and what does all this have to do with disrupting Local Commerce?” Source: The Future of Local Commerce = Facebook + Foursquare + Yelp + Groupon

imho, you if you want maximum impact, you also have to consider what these tools will do for you when combined with old media like outdoor advertising as well, but not everyone has the ability to help you integrate outdoor like e1evation does…

What do each of these tools do? Here’s your primer and why you should care…

“Let’s focus on the main function each of these different startups provide to understand how bringing them together will ultimately disrupt multiple trillion dollar industries:

  • Facebook: provides the Social Graph, which is fast becoming a utility. Through its open platform, and APIs, we share more about our lives and our interactions online and on mobile every day.
  • Foursquare and Gowalla: provide location services and check-ins, along with game mechanics that motivate users to unlock badges, earn mayorships, and get discounts at local stores in the process.
  • Yelp: provides crowdsourced reviews of local businesses. Now also provides check-ins, and offers.
  • Groupon: provides discounted offers against a promise to increase sales and bring in brand new customers to local businesses.

The interesting thing here is that there’s a lot of overlap between the features offered by these companies. Recently, Facebook launched Places, a mobile geo-location service that mimics Foursquare local check-ins. Yelp also added check-ins, and recently rolled out Yelp Deals, a Groupon clone.” Source: The Future of Local Commerce = Facebook + Foursquare + Yelp + Groupon

My advice? Find someone who can help you get launched and get moving, but I’m in that business so what would you expect me to say? Really! Comment, call or use the contact form to connect so we can talk about how this applies to your business…

via ScribeFire
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49% of Small Business Owners use a Smartphone

“Over the past few years, it seems that a few mobile devices — laptops, Bluetooth headsets, and increasingly, smartphones — have become ubiquitous among business people. The days of the pager are gone. Small business owners seem to be outpacing the rest of America in smartphone adoption, according to a recent survey of nearly 10,000 small business owners. While only 17% of Americans own smartphones, according to a recent Forrester study, a whopping 49% of small business owners are reported to own smartphones. Of those smartphone owners, 35% own BlackBerrys, 33% own iPhones, 25% own Androids and 7% own Windows Mobile devices. While the study didn’t include a comprehensive look at how small business owners are using their smartphones, we suspect that merchants are turning to mobile devices to stay on top of everyday business needs through e-mail, scheduling and calls. We’ve heard success stories from business owners who also tweet on the go, see the importance of location-based services, and are investing in mobile advertising.

If you’re a small business owner looking for a smartphone, don’t fall victim to the hype — know why you’re doing what you’re doing and make a smart decision. Here’s my perspective on selecting a smartphone…

#1. In many ways, the cellular provider you pick is more important than the phone you use in many cases. If you live in a large metropolitan area, this is kind of a non-issue but most Americans live in non-metropolitan or rural areas. An iPhone is worthless where I live because AT&T is worthless where I live. Before you select a smartphone, review the coverage areas of the network you intend to use and make sure coverage is good in all the areas where you do business and live…

#2. Having selected a network, the services you use should dictate the phone operating system you select. imho, all small business owners should select Google Apps for their business. Period. The Android phone operating system is developed by Google and optimized for Google Apps. BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Windows Mobile devices can all benefit from Google Apps but Android works best. My advice is that small business owners use Google Apps with the most powerful Android phone available from their carrier. Get the best phone you can afford…

#3. Having selected a carrier and a phone, find a rep at your cellular provider who has a clue. You may laugh, but finding a good rep can be a bit like Diogenes searching for an honest man. For me, my carrier is Sprint, my phone is an HTC Evo, and my rep is Cindy Otley at the Oneida Street store in Green Bay. For me, Cindy IS Sprint and she is a primary factor in my decision to stay with that carrier. She’s smart; she knows her company, their policies and the options they offer and she’ll work hard to help you select the plan and phone that will work best for you. I don’t make a move with Sprint these days without talking with Cindy. YOU need a rep like her, especially if you’re not sure about #1 and #2…

There was one more juicy tidbit in the post…

While only 12% of respondents said that they currently market their businesses through mobile — via mobile ads and apps, for example — other reports point towards an upward trend in mobile advertising budgets. In fact, spending on mobile advertising is set to grow nearly 50% to top $1 billion in 2011, according to eMarketer.” Source: 49% of Small Business Owners Use Smartphones [STATS]

More about that later…

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Has business social media hit the mainstream?

“SmartPulse — our regular reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social-media practices and issues. Our most recent poll question: Which statement best describes your business’ current approach to social media?

  • We are experimenting — 41.88%
  • We have a documented social-media marketing plan and metrics to track performance – 24.79%
  • We have analysis paralysis. (In other words, we are all talk and no action) — 11.97%
  • We are well on our way to becoming a social business (i.e. implementing social technologies across the organization) — 11.11%
  • My subscription to this newsletter is the extent of my company’s social-media activity — 10.26%

The genesis of this poll question came after reading a recent article by Geoff Livingston, “The End of the Social Media Adoption Road,” that references Rogers’ Innovation Adoption Curve. Livingston states his belief that: “We’re rapidly approaching the end of the technology adoption curve for social media. … We’re likely moving into the laggard stage currently.”” Source: Has social media for business hit the mainstream? | SmartBlog on Social Media

What do you think? Is social media ready for prime time at your organization?

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ShareThis 101

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1492638&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

The ShareThis User Experience from ShareThis on Vimeo

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Tactic #4: Use an external blog editor

Last week I covered tactic #3 in the tactics and tools series: blogging. Assuming that all my clients and readers went out and immediately launched a new blog by now you’re thinking to yourself ‘there’s got to be an easier way’. That easier way is to use a blog editor. Not just any blog editor; use ScribeFire. Jon M. of the Affiliate Business Advisor blog writes this:

“I mentioned previously in an older post how I have used various Blog Editing software, some have been good some have been complete crap and some fall, somewhere in the middle.

I just want to mention one that I have been using now for quite some time. Previously I was using software called Post2blog and I worked closely with the designer to add features in that I thought would make it better.

After Microsoft came out with their free Windows Live Writer software, the owner of post2blog decided to call it a day, and with it a number of features stopped working.

So i [sic] moved over to windows writer. I started to find that has numerous issues and was extremely slow to use. Posting videos was a nightmare though I believe they have fixed that now.

At which time I began looking for another editor to use to post to my multiple blogs.. i came across Free Scribefire which at the time seemed excellent but once again I found a ton of issues like you couldn”t align images which was a pain, they also had a number of other issues.. Yet I could see that it had potential if only the creator would fix some of the issues.

Well I have to say that the creator took the feedback from his users very seriously and I kid you not… within a matter of a month or 2 he had output at least 4 to 5 new updates to Scribefire… taking into account pretty much all of peoples requests.

Yet still there seemed to be a few issues that I ran into so i decided to create a video to show the owner..

And once again the owner took seriously the feedback and within a week had a new update out which included some of my suggestions

I stand behind this as its not only FREE but the support is by far some of the best support I have seen provided for a free based application.” Source: Internet Marketing Blog – Making Money Online » Blog Archive » Scribefire Review

Jon also put together a nice video review which you can view here…

Why use ScribeFire?

  1. You want to easily be able to slurp content from websites you visit.
  2. You want additional features or enhancements like Zemanta.
  3. You edit multiple blogs and want a way to quickly update them all.
  4. You want to actively manage pings and technorati tags.
  5. You want an easy way to generate ad revenue.

Slurp content? What is that you say? Here’s a video — easier to show than tell…

I’m a little bit rushed today — my focus is on gettings things in order before my trip to Germany Friday so I may have missed a thing or two. You can always ask a question in the comments or via the contact page. One final note; I would have liked to write about Windows Live Writer which had shown some promise, but due to the pissing match between Firefox and Microsoft, the Windows Live Writer add-on for Firefox does not work with the current version. If you’re an Internet Explorer user, you may want to evaluate that solution as well…

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Tactic #1: Master Firefox!

Image representing Seth Godin as depicted in C...
Image via CrunchBase

First, what’s this nonsense about ‘Tightening your Tribe’? Well, it’s a reference to Seth Godin’s social media masterpiece ‘Tribes‘. As I read the book, I really enjoyed the strategic discussion but found any reference to practical, tactical tools was missing. I therefore decided to create a series of posts on tools that could possibly accompany the book. This is the first post — there are 9 more. I hope you enjoy them all!

Just in time for the first major entry in my series ‘Top 10 Tactics and Tools for Tightening your Tribe’, Google was kind enough to do a short video on the topic of browsers…

They even launched a new site called What Browser? for people who are unclear on the concept. The truth is there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of different browsers you can use to view content on the internet, but most people never venture beyond the familiarity of Internet Explorer. Personally, I go back and forth between the 5 browsers [Internet Explorer, Firefox, Flock, Chrome and Safari] I have installed on my computer and many times I have multiple browsers open at the same time because not only is it possible, but also desirable, to use a certain browser for a specific task.

I have joked before that Firefox is my wife and Chrome is my mistress, but my wife does not think that analogy is very funny. Maybe it’s better said that Firefox is my workhorse and Chrome is my show pony. In either case, I do most of my work in Firefox, although I am using Chrome more and more — especially with web-based Google products. So why do I love Firefox so much? Let me break it down for you… Continue reading “Tactic #1: Master Firefox!” →

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