Online content theft is not a new problem. We are so used to it that sometimes we chose to be ignorant of it. Can you imagine the time and effort we could spend on dealing with scrappers? Endless. Even so, does that mean it’s ‘okay’ to let it happen?

So obviously I have a good reason to blog about it again. It’s not the first time my article was scrapped by someone or autoblogs, but this time it has gone a little too far! I’ll explain why in a minute.

How Did I Found Out About the Content Theft?

Two ways, basically. Coincidentally I was running a duplicate-content-check of my post about 16 Facebook Applications to Boost Popularity of Facebook Fan Page, interesting finding:

1. Google Search


- I posted a random paragraph on Google Search and found out a site that ranks higher than mine in the results (possible more popular too):

2. Copyscape


- Copyscape is a free duplicate content detection software that helps to monitor and check for duplicate entries. I double-checked the results and they matched, of course.

More Detection Software to choose from: Detecting & Dealing with duplicate content

Now How is This Particular Case Upsetting?

It is not an autoblog and particularly ‘well-planned’. Despite the fact that I had spent the entire week working on the post, what upsets me the most is the lack of ethics from this scrapper – he sent in the stolen content as a Guest Post! This is serious, not only he jeopardizing his very own image but threatening the other site’s reputation as well! He modified the title, relocated the facebook app sequence and replaced my graphics with his. He removed all the backlinks to my site which is why I was unable to found out earlier. After all the ‘effort’ he left the sentences as they are, word for word. So, need I say more:

• No notification to re-use the content
• No link back or credit given to the original content
• Assuming the article belongs to him based on the way he responded to comments
• Getting link love and credit for his own site and service with stolen content
• Hurting another site’s reputation that published the stolen content

What to Do After Found Out about the Content Theft?

1. Inform/write to the site owner who published the content

Several ways to reach :

a. Email
b. Contact Form
c. Comment Section
d. Social Media Profiles

I wrote an email to the site owner reporting the case and requested for post removal. I had a good look at the site and the services it is using, so just in case the site admin decides to ignore me, I will know whom shall I report to.

2. Request for Opinions from Friends

I had requested opinions from fellow bloggers and friends, most of them agreed on reporting this and standing up for justice. I’m on their side 100%, and it’s a relief to see people are still valuing original content in the internet. Some suggested to request for credit instead of removal, that has to depend on how the discussion goes afterward.

Join us for the discussion at the fan page if interested, we’ll be happy to see you there too.

3. Write to Google and Inform about the Duplicate Content

a. Spam Report – Google Search Results
Request Google to remove the specific web page from appearing on the Google Search results with the keywords used. Stating your content is the original.

If you own a Webmaster account, you will receive a sent report to be followed up if needed.

b. Google AdSense DMCA Complaint Form

This is particularly useful if the site is using Google Adsense. By filling up this form Google Adsense will be notified about the suspicious act and review the troubled site whether their account should be blocked or fail to meet the requirement as a trusted site for publishers’ ads.

4. Other DMCA complaint form/methods for your reference:

Search Engines:
Yahoo: http://info.yahoo.com/copyright/us/details.html
Bing: http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyrtInfrg.htm

Blogging Platform: Blogger

More DMCA Contacts: Hostings, Social Media Sites, Hostings etc (some info may require updating)

What is the Situation Now?

From the Site Owner:
I received a response from them, requesting to grant a few days to sort things out. No specific date given but I hope they will look into this matter seriously and asap.

From the Scrapper:
Just out of curiosity, I ‘visited’ the scrapper’s site and after I ran a check on Google, no surprise he also scrapped from other sites for his own posts as well. Unsure if he is aware that scrapping is harmful to both his site and his service, which brought me to another major concern about:

Autoblogging: NO WAY to Build Brands & Provide Value

If you’re a new blogger, avoid automated blogging at all costs. Blogging is not a get rich scheme where you can trash other people’s work for own benefits and it will eventually hurt your site and own reputation in long term. If you cannot respect people’s work, how do you expect people to put trust in your service as well? Same as in real life, why would you steal to gain publicity at all? That’s not right and not worth to risk for it. Hesham has very good points stated in his post about Automated Blogging Plugins are no way to create a successful blog, and how it will destroy the value of internet. If you need more confirmation, kindly refer to these 6 reasons why you should avoid automated blogging tools.

Do Not Stop Caring about Content Theft

Yes, there is no way we can stop our content from being scrapped/stolen, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore this completely. Continue to report, inform your blogger buddies if you ever came across their work on other sites. If you decide to let them be, at least request for a link back with a mention to the original author. People say there is no more originality in this world wide web, but I do think it’s necessary to respect other people’s work after all. It’s about ethics, asking for permissions, respect and care about Copyright Infringement issues.

Also, always be careful with guest posts from unfamiliar senders. Check them thoroughly to avoid becoming the victim.

Now Is Your Turn…

Did you ever encounter content theft? How do you normally deal with such issues? Kindly share in your comments below.

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Tagging is a method to ‘nudge’ someone, most commonly used when alerting someone who’s in a picture or video. When we tag someone or a facebook page in our status update, our message will be visible on their Wall if permitted.

Why Tag Someone or a Page in a Post?

Tagging can be a networking tool for acknowledgment and bonding. You can share extremely useful information while rewarding free publicity to the original contributor. Your fans can visit his/her profile and interact. At the same time, your profile or page would also gain some visibility out of tagging, probably a friendship from the page admin too – a win-win situation for all.

What Can You Tag in a Post and How to do it?

You can tag both people and items in a post:

• fan pages and groups you loved / joined,
• your friends,
• events you’re attending
• facebook applications you’ve used.

To tag a profile or fan page is simple, just type in the magic symbol ‘@’ and you’ll notice a description box appearing underneath the publisher.

Continue your sentence for more name selections:

Once you found the page (which then appears as a link when published), click Share:

How to Ensure a Status Tagging that Works?

Two months ago, Debra and I were testing fan page tagging from our respective personal profiles. For some reasons, her post was no where to be found on my page and no luck in discovering why then.

Puzzling enough as it was supposed to work. My facebook page had received several ping backs from other pages after that. But how come even my personal profile was unable to tag my very own facebook page too?

Then yesterday the mystery was solved (well, at least for my part)! It was the Publisher privacy setting that hinders my tagging to Social @ Blogging Tracker – it should be set to ‘Everyone’ in order to post  (My option was set to ‘Friends of Friends’ as default).

But I had to be sure so I ran a test:

Example 1:

Privacy option: ‘Friends of Friends’.

End result: Status tagging failed to display on Social @ Blogging Tracker fan page.

Example 2:

Privacy option: ‘Everyone’.

End result: Status tagging worked like a charm!

In order to post your status message successfully on targeted fan page, there are several factors you need to check on:

1. Your posting privacy is set to ‘Everyone’ on publisher.

Optional: To make sure your selection is permanent without having to change back to customized option everytime you post an update, go to Account> Privacy Settings > Things I Share (Posts by Me) > Everyone.

2. You need to connect with the page via ‘Like’ (be a fan first) in order to tag it.

Same as personal account, you need to be friends with that someone in order to tag the person.

Other Reasons Why a Status Tagging Fails to Display on Page Wall

Sometimes a tagging failed because of the viewing option preset by the page admin. Let’s say if the page is set to view Page Posts only, their fans won’t be able to see your tag unless they tweak the below options:

Also, if you are blocked by the page admin, you won’t be able to tag that page as well.

For a Facebook Page to allow status-tagging, it needs to:

• Allow ‘All Posts’ for default view for Wall.
• Make sure Posting Ability for ‘People Who Like This Page…’ is ticked.

Now Is Your Turn…

Did you experience any tagging problems with facebook pages in the past? What else would you like to know about Tagging? I would love to see tagging works within Comments too, you think?

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What I love about Facebook personal page is that it can either go public or private. Some people are precise in protecting their inner circles, completely shield off the outside world; while some are interconnecting it with fan page to enhance online presence. It is important to identify the type of personal account you are maintaining now because Facebook privacy is getting vulnerable.

Shall We Combine Personal Account with Fan Page?

It goes back to the core reasons why you setup a personal account in the first place. How Darren Rowse defriending some people on his Facebook personal account months ago was a reasonable act to clear the line between work and leisure. I would suggest you to examine all the people in your friend lists and people who liked your page:

• Who are they?
• What are their behaviors?
• Are they interrelated from one page to another?

If there’s no way to tell, dip your toes in the water with a brief business update and see how your friends reacted. Indirectly bring to their attention that you can be the go-to person if someday they ever felt like using your service. It’s about making your digital name card visible, even on personal account that can be helpful in two reasons:

• people in your inner circles know what you are doing and capable of handling;
• introducing you to their colleagues or friends whoever needed the service;

Curiosity is a good thing. When they are wondering what you are doing, it’s an opportunity to educate. It doesn’t have to be business-oriented all the time, instead bringing a new information to your inner circles and help them to understand. I was among my closest friends who are the first to quit my job and go for freelancing, they know some of my work from my Facebook updates and basically calling me the go-to person for ‘blogging or internet thingy’. Although none of them needed any of my service now, but I had a couple of them who introduced me to their colleagues for blog setups so that’s a really cool and unexpected way to expand the business.

Now here comes the big question: How Can We Indirectly Promote Our Fan Page Without Pissing People Off?

5 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page on Personal Account

There are ways to not be annoying but keep that fan page visibility alive on your personal account. Again, these methods are not to create controversy but to help those who are in need of extra opportunities. Do not force yourself into doing this if you’re not comfortable with even putting 1% of business info in your private page, no pressure. For the rest of you, here are some suggested methods:

#1 Info Tab

Facebook recent modification of our Info tab into a fan page linking extravaganza forced us to reconsider our online exposures with Facebook. The ability to add extra information to our Info tab is no longer available for any Facebook applications. Therefore, start filling up your work information and Bio all over with extra details about your job scope. Fill up these sections in Info Tab by including your fan page address(es):

i) Contact Information > Websites

Tips: Claim your Facebook Fan Page vanity URL here: http://www.facebook.com/username

ii) Likes & Interests > Other (You need to ‘Like‘ your fan page to have it listed)

#2 Information and Personal Message

The information tab is actually fixed according to what you listed in the ‘website info‘ of Contact Information. Make sure the box is ticked to have them displayed underneath your profile image. Another good idea is to put personal message below your image, making sure you are using every space possible for indirect publicity especially when these two spots are the most visible areas of your sidebar.

#3 Fan Page Badge or Special Announcements

This is my favorite method by far. Customize and place a fan page badge at one of the box tabs won’t hurt. Make sure its position is highly visible, preferably below your friend list or among the tabs. You can have different ways to embed the images and messages to raise their awareness of your fan page. Some people prefer to use contest, announcements or free promotions to draw attention. It’s a good alternative besides sending a personal message to inform them about your existing Facebook fan page. Here are a few Facebook applications you can use to customize a fan page badge that fits right for Facebook tabs:

i) Extended Info

I’m using Extended Info to publicize my fan page badge, along with a brief message. What I love about Extended Info is the variety of ways you can share a fan page message. There are various patterns and styles to choose from, but you do have to take note of the sizes for different tabs. Make sure the image size is properly optimized.

ii) My Info

It’s a pity we cannot customize the title of these tabs like Static FBML does in fan pages. If you are looking for a more personalized name ‘My Info’ can be a good choice. It works the same as any other HTML embedding applications, but the downside is there are advertisements about the application showing up above or below your info. If you don’t mind that then it is a good suggestion for you.

#4 Create A Like Badge

If you are less prone to create a self-promotional badge, a Like badge is a good choice. Instead of saying ‘Come join my page’ directly, you can simply acknowledge it with ‘(your name) Like (fan page name)’. A friendly way to recommend your page to fellow friends. To do that :

i) My favorite Facebook application for the job: Profile HTML

ii) Add it to your fan page and have it authorized as instructed.

iii) Go to your fan page, look for ‘Promote with a Like Box’

iv) Copy the code and paste it to Profile HTML code box. You may need to modify the codes a bit so the image can fit in properly.

Here’s the end result:

#5 Tagging & Sharing

Sometimes you can tag yourself from the fan page, or share the acknowledgment that other friends have given about your work or fan page. This is an extra publicity but not to be overdone. I apply ‘do this ONLY when necessary‘ principle to keep myself from bringing too much noise into my personal page.

Suggested Read : How to Use Status Tagging Successfully on Facebook Pages/Profiles

So there you go, some indirect methods that can help to promote your Facebook fan page even within your personal account. You must be wondering what about ‘Suggest to Friends‘ option in Fan Page? This is a good feature but requires delicate use. I don’t wish to mass-promote it or else its efficiency may be misinterpreted as a spamming tool. Use it when you think the time is right and not periodically with repeating invitations.

Now Is Your Turn

How do you promote your fan page from your personal account? If not, then how do you promote it outside Facebook? Would love to hear your thoughts.

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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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I think Radhika hit the jackpot with her question – unsubscribe.

I don’t know about you, but to follow 200+ Facebook Fan Pages and 400+ friend updates daily without group management can be overwhelming. Last weekend, I spent half day tidying up my Facebook Lists, but never once in my mind I thought about ‘unsubscribing’. Why should I unsubscribe when I could join up to 500 fan pages, right?

I did not pry why Radhika wanted to unsubscribe from a fan page (hopefully it’s not Social @ Blogging Tracker) but her question alerted me: what seems to be a harmless ‘Become a Fan’ feature now has the tendency to worn us out bit by bit. Gaining back our focus and be in control of the news feed is the cure to social media overwhelm. Speaking of which, I eliminated some unwanted noise in Facebook, mainly applications and the hard work paid off! I’m having a better week in capturing page highlights and improving Facebook engagement with other contacts.

How to Declutter Your Facebook News Feed

To answer Radhika’s question about ‘unsubscribing’ from a fan page, we need to firstly identify our commitment:

1. To Stay as Fan but:

• eliminate unwanted noise
• pause and take a break from receiving updates

OR,

2. To Unfollow a Fan Page, completely.

To Stay as Fan but Eliminate Unwanted Noise

Some fan pages prefer to integrate Twitter updates as their wall posts. If you have already followed them in Twitter or FriendFeed, reduce the noise by removing the  Facebook application used to broadcast these updates in your news feed. Beware though, whoever is using the same application will no longer appear on your news feed until you retrieve the app.

1. Locate the fan page among the news feed. Hover the mouse over to reveal the Hide option. Click it.

2. You will be prompted with below selections. Choose whatever that’s applicable to you:

Here we will be turning off the Twitter application to increase visibility for other page updates. To bring back the application (or contact/fan page), look for Edit Options at the bottom of your news feed and click Add to News Feed as indicated:

Caution: Some page admins are actively responding to their Twitter comments in Facebook, so be sure to check the overview of the fan page first before you’re missing any chance to engage.

Secondly, the updates that sent to you via ‘Send an Update to Fans’ feature. Some may not realized but bulk-sending will direct this message to ‘Updates’ – a subcategory of Messages. I can’t thank Facebook enough for separating that from our private inbox. Joining 214 fan pages myself, I can easily receive 50 updates from page admins daily. Now you can have the option to unsubscribe from the hyperactive fan pages. It will remain your membership, just no more updates bugging you afterwards. Of course, the process is completely reversible.

To Unfollow a Fan Page

To quit from being a fan is easy, all you have to do is look for ‘Remove me from fans’ option at the bottom of the fan page itself. So when you hit the 500 mark for fan page limit, you’ll know what to do then.

“Wait, I heard about Facebook Lists?”

Bingo. If you’re not in the mood to decide or quit any Facebook fan pages just yet, why not monitor it over Facebook Lists. Similar to Twitter Lists, you can categorize your most-watched Facebook contacts and fan pages into assigned niche/names so you can easily navigate to check out their latest updates. That’s what I’ve been doing all along and here’s how:

1. Go to Account > Edit Friends

2. Click Create New List > Name & Group your Friends/Pages accordingly via selections

For Page Admins: Shall We Bother?

When a fan decides to pull the plug from our fan page, shall we bother? Some say it’s no big deal to lose just ONE fan. Besides, it’s a self-cleaning mechanism for a more focused fan base – he/she who cares, stays!. Sounds logical, but what if he/she WAS a loyal fan? Are we sending out wrong messages, pissing potential visitors off without consciousness? Plus, there’s no way to tell how many of our fans are opting us out from their Facebook lists or news feed due to (info) force-feeding. Yes, we should bother but not over-panicked. Review your fan page progress periodically can help to strategize your next move.

Now Is Your Turn…

How do you declutter your Facebook news feed currently? If you’re a fan page admin, kindly share with us how you moderate info-sharing to prevent suffocating your fans? In the mean time, would you help me out with this poll by voting (perhaps a Retweet as well?). Appreciate your support:

I’ll leave you with this video from Gary Vaynerchuk who’s not happy when somebody dropped an irrelevant wall post on his fan page recently. Visibility doesn’t mean opportunity anymore, right? You be the judge:

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#1: Why Should We Personalize Our Twitter Background?

Understanding why we need to personalize our Twitter background is vital. It is not about decoration but to:

i)   Manage Personal Branding

People will visit your Twitter page from your social media links and search engines. Be ready to impress at first sight.

ii)  Maximize Exposure with Limited Background Space

Blend in your intro with relevant background design. Provide social contacts for others to reach you.

iii) Show your Brand & Personality

An unique background attracts, it should say something about who you are, your passion and niche.

Another good reason is you might get a free promotion from a post about Twitter background, exactly like this one! (Good for @mashable and @marcome)

#2: How to Personalize Your Twitter Background?

After knowing the purpose, now it’s time for the real challenge – to personalize a Twitter background. Here are some options you can choose from:

a) Use a Twitter Background Generator

For those who are not into crafting their own images, tons of template selections can be found from Twitter background generators. Some setbacks are the duplicate designs and their brand name on your wall. Usually a minimal payment is involved to modify, for example, $4.99 to remove Twitbacks brand while Twitrbackgrounds will charge $9.99 for personalized backgrounds. Login is required for both services.

Tweetbacks, on the other hand offers free templates for modification (.psd). Personalized your information and photo before upload it to Twitter page.

Another service I love is Free Twitter Designer – a background generator and image editing application. A Twitter stream box is given so your design will not run off on the actual page. You can tweak the image settings, blend in the effects and colors, view the final results in different resolutions:

b) Personalize Twitter Background with Image Editing Application

My favorite method so far as it gives you:

• Full control over designing and positioning.
• No distracting brand name on the background except your very own.

Photoshop:

I created my second and third Twitter background with Photoshop. The dimension for the canvas size is preferably 1600 px x 1200 px so it will fit in fine for most screen resolutions. Keep the important information close to the left of Twitter stream. As of right, use non-essential designs as mostly they won’t be visible on regular screen resolutions. Apply Twitter Background Checker to monitor your background designs:

Resize the image to less than 250kb to optimize page load time (maximum file size: 800kb).

I created a blank template to fix for resolution 1280 x 1024. You can tweak its opacity level to adjust text/background image freely. If you interested claim it via the contact form and I’ll send you the file in .psd format.

Suggested Read: Twitter Background Design How-To and Best Practices; Build Twitter Background with Adobe Fireworks

Gimp & Pixlr:

You can download Gimp (for MAC & Windows) or try the web application Pixlr to customize your background image:

PowerPoint:

Not my top-pick for complicated designs but Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 is competent to create a simple and colorful Twitter background. Save your final result as .jpg to be uploaded as your Twitter background. PowerPoint is not a designing program so there will be limitations, such as cumbersome process with measurement and positioning:

Extra Tools:

Some amazing tools to assist your background designing:

• MeasureIt – A FireFox plugin to measure width and height for a web page.
• Peekr -  On and off feature that gives you a clear overview of the entire Twitter background without the stream, control panel etc.
• Twitter Background Checker – Twitter background viewed in high and low resolutions.

If personalizing a Twitter Background is too time consuming for you, you can:

c) Outsource to Professionals and Graphic Designers

Everyone’s definition of ‘quality’ may differ in art. Understand your own needs is important before finding the best designer that fits you. Make sure you are providing enough information so the designer knows about your expectations. Be communicative and respectful for both sides.

#3: How to Upload Your Personalized Background to Twitter?

Let it be a picture or a neatly designed template, it’s time for the final results. To upload it:

1. Log on to your Twitter account.

2. Go to Settings > Design > Change background image

3. Browse to locate the image file you’re ready for.

4. Click Save and see the magic appears before your eyes.

#4: What Makes a Good Twitter Background?

Last week we had a discussion over at the Facebook Fan Page about my second Twitter background. Ricky’s commentary about the font visibility brought my attention of how ignorant I was about my Twitter background.

I did not take the design seriously so instead of just the font, I changed the whole Twitter background. I prefer a non-business-like, harmonious background with nature elements. It may not be my best design yet but I’m happy to keep it for awhile.

For a Twitter background to serve its purpose, we need to refer to why we need one in the first place. Following these designing guidelines will be an added advantage:

• Make sure the background is none distracting for your main info.
• Clear and readable fonts (for example Arial, bold). Avoid spindly text for important messages.
• Use contrast colors for text & background.
• Make full use of the blank areas. Ensure main info are visible regardless low or high screen resolutions.
• Complex does not mean elegant. Keep the K.I.S.S principle in mind unless you have a different purpose for your background design.

There is no right or wrong, but the impression and friendliness you would like to portray to others. Think of it as your name card, but with personality.

Now Is Your Turn…

When was the last time you personalized your Twitter background? What makes a presentable Twitter Background in your opinion? Share it all in the comments below.

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What I Learned from Google’s Big Flaw?

My biggest concern is to lose control over what to be shared publicly for my social accounts. There may be no secrets out in the open web but users should hold the key for privacy authorizations, not the service providers. Nevertheless, Google Buzz had my attention even though we started off on the wrong foot. Now I’m more keen than ever to discover how it can be a ‘helper’ instead of a troublemaker for my social network benefits.

How to Optimize Google Buzz for Social Network Benefits

While Chris Garrett enlightened us with tips to start your Google Buzz, I’m going to share how I utilize Google Buzz as my network booster:

#1 Google Buzz – My Public @ Inner Network Circles

Initially, Google Buzz auto-connected us to people we have corresponded with in Gmail. I wouldn’t want to waste the list so the first thing I do is make sure the contacts are properly grouped- People I Know, Bloggers, ex-Colleagues etc. This helps to keep certain discussions visible and focus to particular group. Also, a good precaution if Google Buzz ever gone public in Google Search. Now is the best time to manage your stream and reputation.

Suggested Read: Manage your Settings in Google Buzz; Filter Google Buzz Updates from your Gmail

Caution:

Be extra careful for the group you’ve picked for your last update. It will remain to be the default receiver unless you manually change it before posting.

#2 Google Buzz – My Discussion Panel & Feedback

Probably what I like best about Google Buzz – no 140/420 word limit as in Twitter or Facebook. Furthermore, it involves your trusted network (correspondence) so definitely can be of some use. I can post a question, include links manually or integrate several social media sites for feedback:

For additional site integrations, follow the below methods:

a)   Your Very Own Blog(s)

1. Sign up for a Webmaster account.

2. Add your blog to Webmaster and verify ownership by inserting the codes given.

3. After the verification is done properly, you can now click at ‘ x connected sites’ to retrieve the newly added blog. Click ‘Add’ to include.

You can add as many sites as you prefer as long you have the access to place the verifying codes.

b)   Other Blogs

Can be imported by Google Reader.  Just subscribe to these sites and include Google Reader in ‘connected sites’. You can manually ‘Share’ any posts with or without comments.

c)   Facebook & Social Bookmarking Updates

Obviously there are no easy options to integrate Facebook in Buzz. However it doesn’t stop us to do so with the big help from FriendFeed. You can even import your updates from Stumbleupon, Delicious, Disqus and many more as long the services are covered by FriendFeed:

This is how Facebook updates been transmitted to Google Buzz:

Extra: To send Google Buzz to your Facebook personal acc, try Google Buzz Sync. (thanks Hartley for this valuable info)

Caution:

• The updates may not be instant, some took minutes while some hours to publish.

• New FriendFeed account holders may experience difficulties to import updates from certain social media sites.

DO NOT simply delete your social media profiles on FriendFeed to prevent glitches. I fail to re-connect my Stumbleupon account as FriendFeed is unable to retrieve my username. Facebook can only allow Links & Notes to be imported to FriendFeed, not status updates. Seems like this issue was brought up since May 2009. However, there is still a possible way to do so although it’s not perfect. I’m still working on improving the method, hopefully good news is on the way.

d)   Selected Twitter Updates

This method only works for those who remained their older Facebook configuration in FriendFeed that’s still able to import Facebook status updates to date. If you can, Do Not Refresh your Facebook configuration. (All imported tweets will be treated as ‘Facebook Updates’, not links.)

If you prefer to keep Twitter moderated so not to flood the Buzz streams, sending selective tweets to Buzz can be done based on the idea of Twitter->Facebook->FriendFeed->Buzz integration. Have a read of how you can fix up the configuration with 3 Easy Ways to Share Selective Tweets on Facebook Pages, even auto-scheduling.

#3 Google Buzz – Discover New Contacts & Content

You can do so by:

• Following your friends, discovering who they are connecting with and participate in the discussions;
• Search for niche discussions using Google Buzz search or Buzzzy advanced feature;
• Have a look at ‘Suggested’ contacts provided by Google Buzz.

I’ve found some people to thank who shared my posts on the Buzz stream,

discover new contacts,

and even had a good laugh.

Google Buzz may not be your #1 place to meet people, but it’s an additional platform for Google devotees to mingle. You can extend the new friendship elsewhere anyhow you’re comfortable with.  Especially when Google Buzz is yet to be a front runner, it’s best to get involved and noticed by your targeted contacts easily with a little bit more effort. Not to mention, it is giving your Google Profile more page impressions.

Google Buzz is not for everyone, but it will work for some

I loved this article – It’s about the people not the tools. There is no right or wrong. No disputes required to prove how effective is Google Buzz. When it comes to which applications you should use, go back to your root: who and where is your audience? How do you plan to utilize social media in reaching out to them? You are the deciding factor.

Now is Your Turn…

How is your experience with Google Buzz? Feel free to express your thoughts and extra opinions on how you plan to optimize Google Buzz for your social network benefits.

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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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Discussion board can be one of the most underrated applications in Facebook Fan Page. It is a mini forum for fans to interact with one another; an excellent area for admin to collect feedback, answer requests and bond with fans in discussions.

However, most of us have neglected its importance due to a huge setback - Facebook does not provide notification for new responses. Fans can either bookmark the thread to check back regularly or have the page admin to send weekly reminders for unanswered threads. Inconvenient and time consuming. Your fans will eventually lose interest and move on.

Why Don’t Just Let the Fans Post on Wall instead?

No doubt we are encouraging an open-posting fan page. However, allowing fans to post on Facebook Wall is a complete different issue than owning an active discussion board. Not only it’s an added value but also a perfect section for new fans to blend in with others. You can easily monitor and trace back the discussions without worrying they be swallowed by busy stream of updates.

While we earnestly hoping for a solution from Facebook, I’m going to share with you how I keep up with the discussion threads:

Google Reader to Track New Responses in Facebook Discussion Board

The main idea is to create a feed from the existing thread and have Google Reader track for new responses. Here are the configuration steps:

1.  Identify the link location for the particular thread you wish to trace.

2. Click ‘Add a Subscription’ to reveal the link box. Paste the URL, click ‘Add’ and a new feed for the thread will be generated.

3. Rename the feed and repeat step 1-2 for other discussion threads. Manage them in a folder for easy follow-up.

4. Once a fan has responded to the selected discussion topic (for example: Fan’s Profile), within an hour Google Reader will retrieve the update as any other regular feed from your subscription.

Now you can head right back to the discussion board and welcome her!

Is it Possible to Receive Updates via Email or Desktop Notifier?

Email notification is not possible for Google Reader. Some third party feed generator services, however, come with delivery options, for example  Page2RSS.com combines with notify.me (email alerts); Feed Notifier is a desktop application as you can see in the image below:

I do need to remind you that time of delivery may differ from one service to another. Google Reader is still by far, my top pick for reliability.

Bonus Tip :

For feed delivery services / notifiers that are unable to recognize / generate feed straight from a discussion thread, you can retrieve the Atom Feed URL for the entire folder which consists of all the discussion threads by following the below method:

1. In Google Reader, go to Manage Subscriptions.

2. Go to Folders & Tags (publicize the feed) > View Public Page.

3. Copy link location for Atom Feed and use it for any feed delivery service preferred. (Make sure the folder feed is ‘publicly viewable’ at all times for the application to work)

Now Is Your Turn …

Do you have a better way to track new responses in Facebook discussion board? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

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It has been several days now since I’m out of internet service at home. The area seems to go static with no connection whatsoever while some areas in town are not affected. As a fulltime blogger I find that a little devastating to start my new week. Negative thoughts crept in but I knew my foremost task is to eliminate them for good — by being practical!

Yaro said it, nothing goes right all the time. Funny how pressure can lead you into believing everything is doomed, but it’s not. Just several hours ago I did 7 productive things that put me in an uplifting mood. Here are some friendly references to some of you who are unable to sit quietly through the crisis:

1. Accept Reality and Fine Tune Your Mindset

You are probably worrying over all the pending tasks and the eagerness to get in touch with your contacts online. “Time is money, chances may pass you by; somebody is waiting for your reply at this very instant!” I’ll say these negative thoughts will eat you up alive before you know it! Those words were in my head on the very first day. We have deadline, urge, that’s true. However, never ever push yourself over the edge before dealing with it. There ARE always plans installed for you no matter how tough the challenge may seem. ADSL not working? Use dial up if you must. Phone someone or go to a cyber cafe or hotel lobby that has the connection. If not, then.. read along.

2. Brainstorm Ideas for Future Posts

Let me introduce you to my Blogger First Aid Folder – the inspirational articles I stored over the months from self-development to blogging tips and handy references. As I was having the disconnection crisis, I ran through the First Aid folder and came out with at least 10 new topics that I like to cover for the next few months. Bloggers are thinkers, don’t say you can’t think of anything because you CAN. Kindly refer to the topic of this post.

3. Transform Your Rants into Helpful Solutions

One of the best inspirational moments is to live through challenging circumstances while discovering solutions to the problem. As myself at this very state of mind, I know exactly how people with similar experience would feel. Of course, they won’t be googling about this right now but it’ll help before it drives you up the wall when occurred. Who says ranting cannot be a post? Sure it can but do remember the ‘WIIFM’ (What’s In It For Me) factor. It applies in all types of writings, especially when the blog isn’t all about your personal stories.

4. Write Off Topic Articles to Other Directories

It’s not easy to get my attention off the screen. Sometimes I still like to make up to the time I lost in writing, even if I did all I can, drafted what can possibly be done offline for my social media posts. Whenever I feel like that, I continue to write but off topic articles to other directories or local newspapers instead. For the latter, they have a column for readers where we get to write in and share our thoughts in various topics. I like to do that as an interest and it gives me satisfaction when I get to use my time for a similar activity yet different prospect! Movies? Music? Life stories? Anything I feel like writing. The more expressive I become the more energy I accumulate to deal with negativity.

5. Clean Up & Check Your OS, Backups

I’m keen in making folders. They are easily misplaced and I can find duplicates in different drives sometimes! Those are not intentioned but they really cramped up my memories. I do month-end backups but why can’t I do it now? Ended up clearing 5GB of free spaces, transferring unneccesary files off my working PC. Doubled my backup discs just in case. Feels good when all the tiresome yet important tasks are off my mind.

6. Working on OFFLINE Pending Tasks

Don’t have any? Good for you.

Sadly for me it’s easy to leave offline work piled up unintentionally when you’re working more than 10 hours a day. I went through my closet and tidied up the wardrobe, gave my toilet a cleanup which I was thinking of doing a week ago, sent out greeting cards for the coming Chinese New Year occasion in February. It put me at ease knowing I won’t have to be nagged about those things again. *YAY!*

7. Exercise, Exercise, Exercise!

I know you’re not in the mood for exercise now, but you got to get your negative energy out somewhere! ‘Swearing’ won’t make you healthier or slimmer but ‘Sweating’ will. I got on my bike and paddled for about 20 minutes and it felt good! I know my muscle is going to ache the next day but I’m cool with that.



So Now It Comes to This…
Here I am, sipping my coffee while preparing to give this post a happy ending (at internet covered town area). Maybe it’s another life lesson to break through pressure. Jim seems to be handling that very well even surrounded by cops! I could use some rhumba right now. LOL !

I believe once in a while we all need a little inspiring input. If none of the above helps, maybe these 50 Simple Ways To Stay Productive will. Do share with us how did you overcome downturns and pressuring moments when you can’t blog? We could all use some ideas from one another.

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