Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

Google mail? Since it’s unveiling as an invite-only service on April 1, 2004, Gmail has done nothing but grow, accelerate, and succeed when it comes to webmail. A free service to anyone who signs up for it, Gmail has become the industry leader in searchable, organizable, easy-to-use email.  Let’s take a look at Gmail’s main features.

1. Threaded emails

Remember when you used to email someone back in, say, 1999? You’d send them a message, they would reply and so on, until your inbox was chock full of individual messages. Sure, they were all quoted in each message so you could keep track, but your inbox was a mess and impossible to keep tabs on. Enter Gmail. When someone replies to your email in Gmail, it takes a nice little slot in your inbox, along with all the other messages in that conversation.

2. Google Search for Email

Remember when Google began to dominate the online search scene? You could search images, documents, and of course, the internet. But until Gmail, searchable email was sketchy and hard to use at best. Gmail allows you to search your email, using that same technology that Google used for their famous search engine. Just like the search engine, you can use all the boolean search terms as well as include/exclude terms.

3. Labels

Gmail allows users to set up labels for different messages, much like folders in Outlook or other email programs. Users can color-code the labels for different items, and apply filters to incoming messages to flag them with a particular label. Labels are particularly useful when using Gmail for more than one email account, and for people receiving massive amounts of email daily. They streamline the email organization process, and when combined with threaded conversations make for a much more organized email inbox.

4. Filters

As already mentioned, filters can be set up to automatically categorize emails. Once a filter is set up, when incoming messages apply to a given filter, the filter will then categorize according to a particular label, or mark the message as read, etc. Filters keep the inbox from becoming one big cluttered mess. They can even delete messages upon arrival if the messages meet given criteria.

Gmail is the all-in-one email solution. It can be set up to check/send email from multiple accounts, and it can also be used via POP access to an email client like Microsoft Outlook.

Photo viewing/sharing site Flickr (by Yahoo) got a major update this week; changing and implementing several new features. They added a dark preview mode to dim everything from the background of a picture, as well as faster easier to use controls for photo navigation. According to the site’s blog, they’ve “made it easier to find when a photo was taken, it’s location, camera/exif info and your name in one location to the right of the image.” They have an expanded focus on the story, (who, what, where, etc) of your photos, in an effort to increase the social aspect behind image-sharing as well.

Check out the blog straight from Flickr, and don’t forget to tell us what you think of the new design.

If you’re visiting YourSocialMedia.com, chances are you are already aware of the growing impact that Social Media can have on your business, and its importance as your business grows. Social Media can be a great tool to use when promoting and marketing your business, but it can also be used to keep your finger on the pulse of your business and its influence on your target market, and online in general. Social media monitoring can be used to generate target markets, gather details about how your business is perceived online, and it can help you make important business decisions about where to take your business in the ever-changing online world.

Take a look at this article from Mashable.com about how to successfully monitor social media from a business perspective.

10 Steps for Successful Social Media Monitoring.

Two historic events have made tremendous changes in the way we disseminate information and communicate. Around 1440 German Johannes Gutenberg perfected the printing press and movable type, which made possible the mass production of books that more than just the elite could have. Almost immediately, the issues of intellectual property ownership, censorship, idea exchange and free speech popped up.

Fast forward a few centuries and those same issues affect the second event–the Internet. We are still struggling with the protection of individual works versus mass information, but this time the media is digital instead of paper.

Juggling the creator’s right to protection and the public’s right to know has always been tricky, but even more so now that anyone who has an Internet connection can express an opinion, either original or based on someone else’s work. That’s where the copyright issue comes in.

Keep in mind that even if you do not see the standard copyright wording (Copyright [date] by [author] All rights reserved) that material, whether words, music, film or any other form of expression, is automatically copyrighted on the Internet, via the international Berne Copyright Convention in 1989.

What can and can’t you do with material you find on the Internet? When you see something on the Internet that you would like to reproduce, ask the author for permission. Most likely you’ll receive a positive reply as long as you describe how you want to us the material. However, you must attribute that material to the original source author.

Use material that you like as inspiration for your own words. CAUTION – Doing a re-write is called a derivative and is still under copyright law, but you can modify an IDEA and write about that in your words.

Searching for a picture to illustrate your blog? Doing a Google search for, say, Pomeranians, and downloading a dog picture without the permission of the poster is a violation of the copyright laws.

There is the fair use issue. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a good description of fair use, which allows using a small part of someone else’s work if the excerpt is used for a review, as a parody, a comment or a criticism. The EFF is a non-profit group that encourages digital rights and protection on an international basis.

We like Brad Templeton’s readable explanation of copyright issues. Brad is an EFF board member, Internet expert and software developer who also dabbles in photography. All around, a very interesting guy who explains complex issues in an easy-to-understand way.

In this age of instant gratification and easy access, the temptation, or just ignorance of using someone else’s work and passing it off as your own is very real. On the plus side, by honoring copyrights you can exercise your own imagination and write or produce something that is uniquely your own, and you’ll meet interesting people when you do ask for permission use their work.

In a nutshell

Google is a search engine; so Google Voice is… Searchable voice? In a way, yes. Google takes the traditional method of calling, leaving/checking voicemails, and communication in general and puts it in a whole new light. Google Voice users can sign up for a Google number; one single number to use that will ring any combination of your other numbers. This eliminates confusion of voicemail boxes, and eases the process of getting back to someone. Users can define when certain numbers should be called, and can send particular callers to particular phones as well. In addition, Google has streamlined the voicemail process to include voicemail transcription, as well as sharing voicemails, and the ability to archive voicemails.

Why is it useful?

Users of Google Voice can streamline the way people get a hold of them. For instance, a user can designate a Google Voice number, and get notified of a voicemail via SMS, email, or the mobile application. They can make international calls through Google Voice’s app, or the dialer on some phones at just pennies per minute to most countries. Google Voice makes archiving, searching, and organizing voicemails simple, through its online portal.

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Is privacy in the age of social media just an illusion? Signs certainly seem to be pointing that way. Thanks to Google, anyone with access to the Web can quite easily draw an accurate profile of who I am, where I work and what I believe. With the aid of LinkedIn and Twitter, potential employers can form an opinion of recruits without even checking references. I don’t want to debate ethics or the legal implications of such phenomenon, but I just wonder how long it will be before the public starts looking for a way to get out from under the microscope. Or, if Facebook is correct, and we’ll accept that it is now normal for strangers to peer into our most personal space.

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, received a fair amount of criticism when he said in a CNBC interview that, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” This is probably not what I want to here from the CEO of the company that stores my emails, voicemails, blogs, etc. But it doesn’t make me want to unplug from the web either. I’ve just come to accept the trade-off that balances the power of free-flowing information and our willingness to share what we know.

Popular social networks are literally banking on the fact that there are millions of other people who feel the same way and becoming increasingly lax about their privacy. While Facebook has lured us in with the promise of intimate networks and full privacy controls. Recent changes in their policies have shown that they would rather we opened up and made our lives searchable. After all, that is where the money is. Advertisers would love to know that I’m in the market for a new something-or-other so they can tell me just where to get it at the right price.

As social media develops, I believe the trend will continue towards people opening up and sharing, and over-sharing. It won’t all be bad, because I believe we all gain when ideas are shared and expanded. For now, I’ve drawn the line at geo-location (there’s something creepy about being tracked as a dot on a map). Besides, I still like the option of being fashionably late without my boss knowing that I stopped to get a donut. And it will be a long, long, long time before I’m willing to put my medical records online. Sorry, Google.

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C4OK is using social media technology to position Kenneth Corn’s political campaign for a win

Kenneth Corn, candidate for Oklahoma lieutenant governor, has selected YourSocialMedia (YSM) and Wilson Monnig Creative to coordinate the setup and design of all new media components for his campaign. Corn, D-Poteau, is using social media to support his platform of education, health care, jobs and infrastructure running up to the 2010 election.

YSM and Wilson Monnig are St. Louis, Missouri, social media, design and marketing companies founded by Melissa Wilson. Campaign social media designed for the Corn campaign include YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Flickr, Myspace and RSS feeds.

“Technology is changing politics,” says Corn. “I use social networking as one part of my campaign to infuse vitality and a sense of immediacy. Our Oklahoma voters are spread all over the state, from urban centers like Oklahoma City and Tulsa to remote ranches. I can communicate with supporters, plan events, encourage donations and have conversations with potential voters that weren’t possible in a traditional campaign.”

The growing campaign use of the Internet proves politics and social media are successful, Wilson adds. “Everyday people can participate in the electoral process, especially young voters who are social media savvy. These techniques encourage user engagement and make grassroots organization a powerful tool to spread consistent messages. “Social media is maturing and will certainly be a major component of political campaigns now and in the future.”

About Kenneth Corn (D-Poteau)

Kenneth Corn is a candidate for the Oklahoma lieutenant governor in the 2010 general election. His campaign, A New Hope For A New Oklahoma, emphasizes jobs, healthcare, education and infrastructure. He was elected to the Oklahoma State House of Representatives in 1989 and to the Senate in 2002.

About Wilson Monnig Creative/YourSocialMedia

Wilson Monnig Creative LLC is an innovative marketing, public relations, advertising, website, Internet search engine optimization and print design company. A leading provider for social networking and new media projects through the YourSocialMedia initiative, Wilson Monnig also helps clients to understand and use new marketing methods to compete in today’s business climate. The group’s nationwide client base includes companies in real estate, agriculture, automotive, folk artisans, personal fitness and entrepreneurial start-ups. Founded by Melissa Wilson in 2006, the company is located in the St. Louis, Missouri, metro region.

Written by Myra Vandersall

Facebook is following in the footsteps of Flickr and now allowing people to upload photos and video via email. Here’s how it works:

Go to the Facebook Mobile page, while you are logged in and click on the link “Send my upload email to me now”. Then facebook will email you confirmation plus the email address to use for email uploads. Make sure you save it to your addressbook.

After you attach your photos or videos to an email, you can include a subject line that will be used as the caption for the photos or videos you upload. If you’re uploading more than one photo or video in the email, the captions will be the same for all of them. You can always edit the captions later by logging into your Facebook account. You can send as many photos as you like in accordance with the size limits of your email provider.

Facebook already lets you post pictures and video clips by via their website, as well as a host of mobile applications like the Facebook app for the iPhone or Blackberry, among others. But with this new email uploads feature you can now just forward photos as attachments in an email. This is definitely a convenient feature.

Twitter can be overwhelming. And depending on how many people you are following, it is very easy to get lost in a constant stream of updates. Enter… Twitter For Busy People. This website allows visitors to enter their Twitter username (or anyone else’s for that matter) without a password, and it will load the thumnails of all of your tweeps. Then you can just quickly hover your cursor over of the photos of the people you are most interested in hearing from to see their most recent updates. I found it the web site to be refreshingly simple, with clear instructions. Try it out for yourself.

Beware there is a new scam going around on Twitter. It starts with a message that says, “omg!! is it true what they wrote about you in their twit blog?” The message comes with a link to a web site at www.twittersblogs.com which looks exactly like the twitter home page. Then users are asked to enter their username and password. If you submit that information then they use your account to send the same message to people you know or are following, and from there the scam continues.

Unfortunately, as Twitter grows, so does the number of phishing scams. No one is safe, so guard your information carefully, and change your password often.