Whether you’re an individual, a non-profit organization or a business entity, Facebook is one of the most important social media channels to connect with more people. It’s an excellent medium to let other people know what you’re up to. However, there are circumstances when you selectively want to club a group of people on facebook and want to keep the ongoing activities of this group completely private. It can be a family group, a social media group, a company’s elite members group or just a gang of friends. Whatever is the case, facebook let’s you achieve this very easily via Private Groups, that inherently supports private discussion boards.

Facebook provides an option to create private ‘family groups’. Though the name suggests it can only be used for binding family members, you can use it to include anyone who is on facebook. These groups are like normal facebooks groups with the exception of being completely invisible to non-members. So let’s get started and see how to create our very own private discussion board.

How To Create A Private Discussion Board On Facebook

Step 1: Head on to ‘create private group‘ registration page and fill in your group name. Make sure you add yourself as a member.

The registration page gives you an option to add more members either by their name or through e-mail addresses. If your potential group members are not on facebook, enter their e-mail addresses separated by commas. I’ll strongly suggest you to avoid writing names in the first step. Later on, you can add members via friends list to make sure you make no mistake and inclusion is fast and easy.

Step 2: Update group picture and basic information. This includes assigning a relevant category and providing helpful description for the group.

You can update this basic information via ‘Info’ tab. Along with basic information, you can also update the contact information which includes, website link, address, city and zip code.

Note: Updating contact information is optional.

Step 3: Now comes the real part of configuring a private discussion board for group members. That’s pretty easy and requires a few clicks. Go to ‘Edit Group Settings‘ link and uncheck all the options except ‘Enable Discussion Board‘. Save your settings and you’re done.

After applying these settings, group members will be able to access discussion board and all other parts will be read-only for them i.e, they won’t be able to write on wall, they won’t be able to post videos, photos and links. Now, I don’t think you’ll ever want to exercise such strict policy for private group members. The above settings are only for demonstration purpose to show the possibility of creating a private discussion board on facebook.

CAUTION: Be careful while using ‘Events‘ in your private group. Events are either visible to your friends network or to the entire facebook community.

Rajeev is a pro blogger who shares his expertise in blogging & social media tips. He is the founder of mintblogger.com and you can find loads of insightful articles regarding the mentioned topics at his blog. Don’t forget to follow him on @mintblogger!

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First of all I would like to thank Ching Ya for inviting me to post on her blog today, it’s a great opportunity for me. I have titled this post close to the question she was asking and wondering about how I/we can manage our busy Social Networking life and still handling multiple projects/sites “wonderfully”!

OK, it’s a sunny day, so let me go to my backyard next to the swimming pool to get some inspiration while writing

Ok, that’s MUCH better!

How I Manage My Busy Social Networking Life

I really have lots of accounts on several social networks, I even run my own social bookmarks site at the same time, and also working on developing a new site called DesignGizer. Hopefully it will be ready by the end of the month, and in all cases I am trying to keep up with all my accounts and projects all together in one place, but this is not possible as each of my projects has a different type of back-end report system that I have to monitor separately, and at the same time each of these projects has it’s own accounts on social media sites, for example I have to create a Twitter account for each project, a Facebook Fan Page for each project, and so on.

So, talking about how I manage those several social networking accounts and projects and still can manage my person and offline life as well, I must say that there is no big secret or any hidden tools from any kind, until now I didn’t fall in love with a management tool better than HootSuite , Google Reader and my simple normal email account which keeping me updated with almost everything I want to know about!

Of course I had to used a powerful machine (laptop) to get all these working smoothly without problem and all at the same time.

My Laptop as a Tool

Maybe you know that before I became a bloggers I was working on the web-design field, and this is why I am used to powerful laptops, with big wide screens, I cannot survive with a 14” laptop anymore, so my Toshiba Qosmio laptop. I am using right now is a a very powerful one, it’s really helping me to do my work in a very easy and effective way, and also to keep up with all my social networks accounts as the big wide screen allows me to set more tabs on HootSuite to display them all together at the same time, which it’s impossible to be done with a small monitor laptop.

I remember you have commented on that post on My Life Thinking blog, that was so nice of you! I cannot deny that I was going for a Mac, but at the last moment I changed my mind because the Qosmio has 4 processors which is not available on Mac laptops yet, and to understand what I exactly do I have to mention that I never shutdown my laptop!

Actually, I am used to work on several projects at the same time since the beginning of my career, and what I mean by working on several projects at the same time is the ability to set priorities of tasks while you are opening each of your projects, so my powerful laptop allows me to open all applications I use at the same time without crashing, so let me tell you exactly what applications are running now on my laptop:

• Firefox browser with 2 open windows and 66 open tabs
• Google Chrome browser with 2 windows and 27 open tabs
• Internet Explorer browser with 5 tabs
• Notepad with 7 windows
• Open Office with 11 window
• Photoshop with 8 working projects
• Dreamweaver with 11 working pages
• Core FTP application

and some other applications that I use or I forgot to close them!

So, do you think I still need any other applications to give me extra information? I don’t know but I just have the feeling that everything is under my hands and control all the time while I am on my laptop, I can monitor all my social network pages, blogs, blog dashboards, and all other pages just by one click to the refresh all tabs button of a browser, and maybe now you got the idea and have a full picture of how I can do it without needing any extra applications, I even keep some blogs open on my browsers for days until I read interesting post before I close it, and the really beauty here is I save all my accounts passwords to the browser, and make use of the “Restore previous tabs” feature in case I have to restart my laptop for any reason.

In addition to what I mentioned above, I use some services like SocialOomph. Keeps me informed with who is retweeting me just in case if I missed something, and Tweepi is what I use to manage my Twitter accounts, and also a few Firefox add-ons like Google Wave Add-on to keep me informed with new waves I am part of. And of course I don’t want to forget that subscribing by emails to blogs RSS feeds and news letters is a very important thing because it’s easy way to get news early and ideas for my new blog posts.

My Nokia 5800 Cell Phone

By the way I am using the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone, it’s has kind of limited available applications compared to the iPhone, but like any other touch screen cellphones it’s a lot of fun to deal with, but not good as the iPhone of course but it does the work, I am using some nice applications on it like:

• Tweets60 to check my Tweets on the go
• Gmail application from Google
• Fring for Skype calls

Social Media Key of Success

The real key to success on Social Media in my opinion is to organize your networks accounts, email accounts and web-browser in folders, so there is a folder for everything and anything you can imagine on my email accounts and on the top of my FireFox browser toolbar, and it’s very important to check your emails regularly, and never leave some emails without a reply since you have opened it and read it, and what I mean by that is to check your emails more than once a day, and if you are on the road or a way from your laptop, simply connect via your cell internet service and check emails/reply to them if there is a need, and if it need some work to be done on your laptop then do it when you arrive to your small home office immediately, it’s not good to do the work “latter”, chances will not wait for latter.

Tools I Use to Manage My Projects

Talking about dealing with several projects, some of them are running, some other are under development, so it’s a little bit hard to keep myself motivated and concentrating on all projects if I am not using the old fashion way, I have tried every other possible way as a technology fan, but believe it or not, a simple paper or notebook and a pen is all what I really need!

I am sorry to disappoint you if you was waiting for me to list a great or a fancy tools and applications I am using, but I discovered that all these mind mapping software and other cellphone applications that reminds you on time that you need to do something important you set before is not working for me, I just find my self neglecting notifications all the time like if they don’t exists!

And this remind me with my manager at a company I worked for a few years back, he taught me this once, and told how to use a very simple technique to keep up with his daily/weekly tasks, and told me that he cannot work without his little piece of paper and whatever pen. I use the paper to write down main title of my projects, and I list all possible daily/weekly tasks under each title, when I finish a task I just mark it as done and forget about it, and so one, at least it’s the only way for me to see all of my projects going in one place, which is the paper!

One very important benefit of “pen and paper” way is it helps a lot on writing down ideas for new blog posts as well, or draw some charts, and basic layout of a design for example, I believe you know that Ching Ya because you are a designer, so probably you cannot live without a pen and a paper like me.

Hesham is a good friend, a hardworking blogger and designer that I’m sure you’re all familiar with his omnipresence in the blogosphere. He’s always commenting, supporting & setting up projects – I’m amazed with his ability to cope with so many things in one time! So I ‘drag’ him here to share his secrets of success regardless how busy he is. Thank you my friend! Don’t forget to follow him @famousbloggers.

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Traffic is life and blood of Internet. It is the driving force of any successful online business. There are dozens of channels through which traffic may arrive on your web site or blog. Some of these are conventional channels and some are unconventional and relatively new which were non-existent a decade back. Here are some popular traffic sources that contribute in building traffic on your blog.

Organic Traffic

Social Media

Feed Aggregators (Email + RSS)

Guest Blogging

Discussion Forums

Article Marketing

Comments

Blogrolls

Advertising

Other Traffic Sources

Please Retweet if You Find This Post Useful,thanks!

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Merry Christmas

The King is born
A star so bright
Praise him on and on
Day and night

All the girls and boys
So precious and sweet
Santa, reindeers and toys
No wonder they sleep

Christmas is here
Be forever jolly
With Jesus so near
It must be holly

This the reason for living
Our Heavenly Father
It’s the season for giving
Seek no farther

Mae owns Inspirational Words Of Life. She is a data analyst. She gives great honor to the Lord, our God. She loves everyone and everything, and she tries to live her life in a positive way, keeping inspirational words in her mind and heart at all times.

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Don’t you just love the drawing? It’s so wonderfully done! Susie is so amazingly talented and her works are outstanding. This week, I’m honoured to have her do a guest post on The Little Christmas Party That Could! Running out of ideas for parties? You definitely want to check this out~

16 years ago, they stopped doing Christmas Parties where my husband worked so, I took on the challenge of having some football fans over for the holidays. What started out with about 8-10 people has now grown to over 40…why.. I hear it’s fun.

What makes this party different, getting the guests involved!

Making your guests the “party” is what does it, first I set aside about $30.00 to go off to the dollar store, you have no idea what you can find there.. It’s incredible & cheap fun! I individually wrap the 30 gift; I buy gifts for both men & woman and they can fight after they open them. I also scour the countryside looking for a gift that perhaps is A White Elephant or just Stupid, something someone doesn’t want, and that’s the booby prize for the guest that arrives the latest…

During the party there are games, yes games, not the bridal shower type – interactive games. As the guests arrive, they each get a sticker; the stickers are marked 1, 2, 3 & 4. Every 10-15 minutes, I pull out my little bag of questions. Group 1 gets the first shot, and the questions I come up with are similar to the old Let’s Make A Deal Television Show – i.e.

Who is the first one that can produce a $50.00 bill out of their wallet?

Who has belly button fuzz?

Who has an American Express Card & A Master Card in their wallet?

Who has on more than 1 ring?

Who has on Christmas Socks..



Following me? Okay, whoever is the first to react, get’s to dig into the bag of the 30 gifts – at half time – we do the Trivia Questions as well as What’s in the Bag – Trivia questions for all ages and sexes, I throw in Football Questions, History Questions, Questions about the Host & Hostess. Along with the trivia questions, I take items I find around the house and put them in brown lunch bags, there are cheaters and I had to start double bagging and stapling them shut, I number the bags 1-15, the guests have to feel their way to an answer.

i.e –

A telephone cord

Easter Grass

A Pack of Gummy bears

A Condom made



Following me? So, during half time they all get something to do, some separate into teams – and guess what, the winners get to reach into the bag of goodies for their prize. I take the guest that had the most questions answered for trivia and the one with the least.

There is plenty of food, I make only appetizers, and I make about 3-4 dishes, have everyone bring either an appetizer or a sweet, you’ll be amazed at how much food comes through the door.

After the football game is over, we do our grab bag, where people fight for what they want. Count the gifts that were brought – and use slips of paper and number them separately with the number of gifts you have – you can do this several different ways, I’ll start with the easiest. Number 1 goes first

Number 1 picks a gift and opens it

Number 2 can steal number 1’s gift or take a new one and open it

Number 3 can take number 1 or 2’s gift or take a new one and open it …. And so on…

If number 3 takes number 2’s, (they give the unopened gift to number 2) number 2 in turn can take number 1’s opened gift or open the unopened.

As the gift exchange goes on, number 20 goes and wants something someone else has, number 20 takes an unopened gift from under the tree, and gives it to the person with the opened item they want, whoever is now standing with the unopened gift has their pick of all the previous players 19 and under and can steal any gift they want, so say they take a bottle of booze and give the unopened gift to that person..that person can turn around and take number 20’s gift as well, this can only happen 5 times a round with the same item. This is round 20 – so the gift number 20 stole, can now only be traded up for 4 more times, if you have a hot item look out.

I change my numbering system on occasion so number 1 does not always go first, I start sometimes with the last number in the bunch, so that the “guests” don’t get to self assured they are number 1! No one wants to be number 1 .

I have taken 2 sets of identical numbers…pass the first set out, crumple up the second set and put them in a hat, and than call on number 1 or any number in the bunch, maybe the first guest to arrive, last guest, oldest guest, youngest, etc… they than pick a number out of the hat, say number 17 – they are the first to start the grab bag than, similar to being number 1 – and once they open, they pick a number out of the hat, say it’s number 39, they than get to follow…

Hope you have fun!

Who Is Susie Kleiner?

Upon seeing so many great drawings in Pencil Drawing Sketch Art, it is remarkable to learn that Susie is a self taught artist who never had any schooling in drawing or painting! Her talent is well recognized by all the wonderful sketches she did in her posts. Her favorite subject to draw is Stevie Ray Vaughan. By day she works on websites, blogs, and search engine marketing. She loves the beach, the ocean and also corona light!

Susie also accepts quotes/ordering for sketches. If you are interested to have a sketch done for your loved ones, kindly visit: http://soul-to-soul.com/gifts for details.

Thank you Susie!

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]]> http://www.wchingya.com/2008/12/little-christmas-party-that-could.html/feed 12 http://www.wchingya.com/2008/12/earthbound.html http://www.wchingya.com/2008/12/earthbound.html#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:14:00 +0000 Ching Ya http://socialmediatracker.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/earthbound/ Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> I know I have been feeding you guys with some heavy stuffs lately, with so many nice blogs to explore, perhaps something to ease you down while keeping the blog active? How about something light and sweet? Good for our digestions, you know.

This week, my guest post is from Nathan P. He has a nice poem for the snowy season, entitled Earthbound, hear him out:

Each snowflake drifts downward,

Like a feather from the sky,

To soon to be earthbound among its fallen friends.

Who can notice each snowflake that falls?

Or consider its single existence?

But each plays a part,

To become,

Snow.

Quoted from his replies to his readers about this poem:

“Snow is beautiful and its two properties of being cold and white make it a symbol for all things pure and clean.”

“Separate it may seem as if we are insignificant, but together we can be something beautiful, and powerful.”

Simple and well-written, using a natural phenomenon to portray something deep. Nathan sure has his way with words, which got me into thinking: We are all so small in this universe, with our own limitations; however, once united, we can make something happen. Same goes with blogging, it’s the power of voicing out and evoke awareness; the connection that links the fellow bloggers into achieving something big.

Nathan owns 2 blogs: Inkweaver Review & Imagination Manifesto. If you’re into literature, perhaps could have a look at his book reviews that comes in various categories; or indulge yourself in his creative works of poetry. Thanks to Nathan, I actually finished Bicycle Shop Murder within 3 days, and I can hardly remember when was the last time I ever read a novel. I miss the satisfaction, perhaps going to do that more often now.

Thanks again Nathan, for sharing something so beautiful with us.

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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today, I’m delighted to present the very first Guest Post for my blog, by Evan Hadkins. Evan writes a blog (www.wellbeingandhealth.net), which covers all aspects of health (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social). He also has a free email course on health and a free weekly newsletter that you can sign up for on his blog.

I’ve always find his posts inspiring. Apart from getting some tips about how to live a healthy lifestyle, there are topics covered about how to maintain good relationships, self improvements, and one of my favourite topics, living authentically. Now he even added ecology in his discussions as well. Without much further ado, let’s have Evan give us some pointers on how to:

Have a Healthy Christmas

Christmas may be the time of year where our ideals and the reality clash most strongly. How often is Christmas really joyful? Come Boxing Day we are often glad that Christmas is over for another year. I think it can be different – here are some ideas for a healthy Christmas (healthy for body, soul and spirit).

Eating Healthy at Christmas
In the book Mindless Eating (from the website: www.mindlesseating.org), Brian Wansink goes into great details about how the surroundings we eat in influencing how much we eat. (And if you are like me, you are very likely to overeat at Christmas.) To avoid over-eating here are two simple things we can do:

1. Use a smaller plate. If it is a buffet use a bread and butter plate and put a couple of things on it at a time, then go back to the buffet again. (You will usually end up eating less.)

2. Wait until someone else has started eating. We can also pause during our eating. Our bodies take a while to know we are full. Take a break of twenty minutes or so, you will then know whether you feel full or not. You are also less likely to end up with indigestion.

Exercise on Christmas Day?
In my family anyway Christmas is more about sitting around and eating than doing any exercise. Getting in some exercise may be challenging. I have one idea to help it happen.

Take the family and food somewhere other than home. If you live in the Southern Hemisphere (I live in Australia), where it’s summer, this is easier to do. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere then it may mean moving to an indoor venue somewhere. Have part of Christmas day somewhere that it is easy to do things that the people like doing. A park with walking trails or an indoor venue with something like a skating rink perhaps.

A Happy Christmas
There are lots of ’shoulds’ around Christmas. These are often unconscious and they can often lead to us doing things that don’t make us happy (or as happy as we could be).

My suggestion is to sit down and think. Maybe you could start with the following question: how shall I do Christmas so that everyone will be as happy as possible?

Just start by imagining: don’t worry about limitations, imagine you could have whatever you wanted. This is to free up your thoughts and get you out of thinking about Christmas in your usual way. Then you can start thinking realistically, about any changes you might want to make to the way you usually do Christmas.

You might change the kind of food eaten. How presents are given (what difference would it make if no presents were given?). The order things are done in. Altering the seating or the venue. The rituals for meeting and greeting and the topics talked about. There are lots of things to consider when thinking about how to make Christmas a happy time for everyone.

The Spirit of Christmas
Even those who are not identified as Christian will often endorse the spirit of giving at Christmas. I’m not criticising the giving of presents, but I do think that the crass commercialism can get in the way of the Christmas spirit.

Here are some ideas for getting away from the commercialism and more in tune with the spirit of giving at Christmas:

- Buy cards from charities, where the price of the card supports the charity.

- Buy presents from charities and organisations that use the funds to support charity and social justice activities.

- If it won’t offend them, instead of giving a present make a donation to the charity in another person’s name, let them know in a card.

- With close friends or family that you get on with, consider what it would mean to give of yourself to the others. It may mean doing something for them or helping them do something.

- Try telling those you are close to what kind of gift they are to you, or what gift they bring in to your life.

These are just a few thoughts about the spirit of Christmas, I’m sure you could think of many more. Please feel free to contribute more ideas for being in tune with the Christmas spirit, or how to have a happy and health Christmas, in the comments.

Wishing you a joyous, happy and healthy Christmas!

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