Archive for the ‘Best Practices’ Category

Isaac Gube at Six Revisions has published a lengthy article on How to Make Remote Team Collaboration Work. He provides tips and guidance by discussing common remote collaboration problems and how to address each in turn.

• Problem #1: Staying in sync
• Problem #2: Task management
• Problem #3: Idea generation and brainstorming
• Problem #4: Version control of files
• Problem #5: Task delegation

Drew McLellan of The Marketing Minute has put together a helpful Social Media Cheat Sheet listing the best ways to leverage today’s popular social media websites.

Claire Cain Miller writes for the New York Times Technology section about Getting the Most Out of Twitter. She gives some great tips for making the most of the microblogging app, even without posting to it. Here are her suggestions:

• A custom news feed
• Check your lists
• Attend a conference, virtually
• What’s around you right now
• Ask questions

Michael Brito at the Social Media Examiner offers 3 Tips for Managing a Social Media Community. This helpful post provides recommendations for building community through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and YouTube. Here are the three strategies discussed:

1. Embed within your community.
2. Don’t just focus on monetizing.
3. Don’t just listen, get the community involved.

Josh Catone at Mashable blogs about dealing with Negative Feedback in Social Media. This quick guide explains how to identify the type of feedback received in order to respond to it effectively. Here are the different types of feedback discussed:

• Straight Problems
• Constructive Criticism
• Merited Attack
• Trolling/Spam

Laura Bruzas writes for American Libraries’ Green Your Library blog about 11 Ways to Promote a Great Top 10 Book List. These are all great suggestions, but here are a few I think are particularly insightful:

• Plan a book discussion program at your library featuring one or more of the works on the list.
• Showcase the books on the list in a special green display for a month.
• Connect with a local eco-friendly organization and ask them to link to the list on their web site or include it in their newsletter. Mention these books are available at your library or through inter-library loan.

For those Facebook users with over 250 friends, you might not be seeing everyone’s content in your News Feed. The default limit for display has been set by Facebook at 250 which they choose based on who you interact with the most. However, you can adjust this yourself by going to your HOME page –> choosing Most Recent on the top right of the News Feed –> scroll down to the bottom of the page –> click the “Edit Options” link –> change the maximum Number of Friends shown in Live Feed to 5000 which is Facebook’s limit.

via Sarah Houghton-Jan

The folks at Educause have created another one of their helpful “7 Things” guides, this time discussing 7 Things You Should Know About Next-Generation Presentation Tools. New online presentation services such as Slideshare.net are covered in this article which answers the following questions:

1. What is it?
2. Who’s doing it?
3. How does it work?
4. Why is it significant?
5. What are the downsides?
6. Where is it going?
7. What are the implications for teaching and learning?

Matt Silverman at Mashable has some suggestions for How To: Build a More Beautiful Blog. If you’re looking to take your blog to the next level, you’ll want to check out this post which makes the following recommendations:

• Learn Some HTML
• Find the Right Template
• Be a Layout Sleuth
• Make It Your Own
• For the Non-Designer: Go Minimalist
• Need More Inspiration?

Inc. Magazine has created a guide to blogging, social networking, multimedia tools, and online reviews and opinions for businesses and organizations. Their Social Media Toolkit includes these 14 guides:

• Your 10-Step Guide to Blogging
• 8 Steps to Starting a Blog
• 10 Must Have Blog Techniques
• 8 Types of People That Belong on Twitter
• How to Banish Blog Spam
• How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business
• How to Advertise on Facebook
• 6 Social Networking Faux Pas
• How to Use Multimedia for Business Marketing
• Marketing Your Business on YouTube
• 6 Services to Help You With Mobile Marketing
• How to Take Advantage of Online Review and Answer Sites
• Take a Deep Breath
• 7 Secrets to Getting Positive Online Reviews

Mari Smith at the Social Media Examiner takes a look at How to Better Engage Facebook Fan Page ‘Fans’. This is part one of a two-part post. This first article covers the following areas, offering detailed recommendations with screenshots:

• Share Quality, Relevant Content – Daily
• How Often Should You Post?
• What to Post
• Sourcing Quality Content
• Cultivating Your Style
• Mix Up the Types of Posts
• Incite Comments

Aliza Sherman at Web Worker Daily provides a guide to the different types of Facebook pages in Facebook Pages, Groups and Profiles Explained. She briefly explains the why and how to use each, as well as their caveats & quirks.

Soren Gordhamer, organizer of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, blogs for Mashable about 7 Lessons for Better Networking with Social Media. This quick article outlines some key lessons for improving your social networking skills.

• Find a Person’s Preferred Communication Channel
• Say Just Enough
• Don’t Expect a Response
• Clarify Early
• What You Want is Not the Point
• Be Open Without Needing
• Give Space

John Soat at InformationWeek discusses 7 Questions Key To Social Networking Success. Each question is important for organizations to consider in order to effectively leverage the power of social networks:

1. Are my competitors continuing to invest in social networking?
2. Where’s the ROI?
3. Which way works best?
4. How deep within my organization should social networking be allowed to penetrate?
5. Is it necessary to have a corporate policy around social networking?
6. What can social media teach me about internal collaboration?
7. What’s next?

Slideshare.net has published a helpful post about 5 Social Media Secrets for 2010. Organizations who are actively using social media applications will want to check out these quick tips:

1. Pay Attention to the Metrics
2. Scale Good Habits
3. Have Rules, But Trust People
4. Creativity & Personality Trump Big Budget
5. Listen Listen Listen