Archive for the ‘General’ Category

There are some great FB application recommendations in this Social@Blogging Tracker post about 16 Facebook Applications to Boost Popularity of Facebook Fan Pages. Considering that over 20 million people join as fans of Facebook Fan Pages daily, this is a fantastic way to build your community and engage patrons. Here are the top five suggested apps:

1. SlideShare
2. NutshellMail
3. Reviews
4. Poll
5. YouTube Video Box

Jay Baer at Convince & Convert has an interesting post listing nearly 40 social media applications that he recommends in The 39 Social Media Tools I’ll Use Today. There are quite a few tools on his list that are new to me and I can’t wait to check out. They are divided into the following categories:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Blog Comments
• Virality & Search
• Photos
• Tracking
• Content Creation
• Listening
• Email
• iPhone

I have an article in the March issue of American Libraries!! Please check out 10 Technology Ideas Your Library Can Implement Next Week if you get a chance and let me know what you think. Each of the ten ideas come from the talented authors of my upcoming book series The Tech Set which will be published in March by Neal-Schuman Publishers and LITA.

Sarah Evans at Mashable writes about 10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Lists. If you’re looking for inspiration for how to make the most of this new Twitter feature, you may want to check out this post. Here are her top five:

1. Industry Peers and Professionals Lists
2. Experts Lists
3. Recognize and Reward Customers Lists
4. Niche Lists
5. Employee Directory Lists

A new Nielsen report on the myths and realities of teen media trends reveals How Teens Use Media. Here are a few of the findings:

• Teens are NOT abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more
  TV than ever, up 6% over the past five years in the U.S.
• Teens love the Internet…but spend far less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online—far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes.
• Teens watch less online video than most adults, but the ads are highly engaging to them: Teens spend 35% less time watching online video than adults 25–34, but recall ads better when watching TV shows online than they do on television.

nielsen_howteensusemedia_june09

Jeremiah Owyang blogs about the talk given by Dr. Urs Gasser of Harvard’s Berkman Center at the Corporate Social Networking Conference in Amsterdam earlier today. Dr. Gasser coined the term “Digital Natives”.

“Always online: By age 20, kids will have spent 20,000 hours online –the same amount of time a professional piano player would have spent practicing — Urs Gasser, paraphrased”

Speaking expert Olivia Mitchell guest posts at Pistachio about How to Present While People are Twittering. This timely article discusses how the conference back channel can work for you, and is a must-read for those speakers preparing for conference season. the post is divided into the following sections:

• Benefits of the back channel to the audience
• What about the speaker?
• Managing the back channel

Also, for those still getting up and running on Twitter, Derek Halpern at Prevential has created an Ultimate Twitter resource guide organized into chapters of useful links and articles pertaining to the popular microblogging application.

• Chapter 1: Twitter for Newbies
• Chapter 2: How to Use Twitter Effectively
• Chapter 3: How to Increase Your Twitter Followers
• Chapter 4: Why Twitter Helps Bloggers (and How they Can Use It)
• Chapter 5: The Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business
• Chapter 6: Here are the Best Twitter Marketing Resources… Period
• Chapter 7: Does Twitter Provide Any SEO Benefits?
• Chapter 8: Where Else Does Twitter Apply?
• Chapter 9: Twitter Case Studies: What are People and Companies Doing?
• Bonus Chapter: More Twitter Tips

Webdesigner Depot presents a list of 14 Applications for Project Management and Collaboration. Each annotated entry includes a screenshot of the application, description of its functionality, and price.

According to the Official Google Blog, it is now possible to implement multiple inboxes in your default Gmail view, allowing users to categorize their incoming messages, yet see everything at a glance. To enable this feature, click into “Settings”, find the “Labs” tab, and enable “Multiple Inboxes”. If you want labeled emails to show up in a separate pane, go back into Settings, find the new “Multiple Inboxes” tab, and create a new pane by placing “is:” in front of the desired label, for example, is:professional.

Johnny Karp of Freeware Mission posts about the 70-plus free programs he has installed on his PC. He divides the applications, ranging from audio-editing apps to antivirus software, into program-types and suggest alternatives as well. Karp has also put together a mega-pack consisting of all the programs for everyone to download.

I just want to say a quick thanks to all those iLibrarian readers out there. Happy Holidays to everyone and best wishes for the coming year!!!!

The professional social networking community LinkedIn has now added third-party applications which can be incorporated into profiles. If you’re a blogger, you can embed a widget for your blog in your profile along with your resume to show people what you’re capable of. You can also sync your Slideshare account with LinkedIn to display your slideshows, and more.

If you’re the only one in your work environment who is using the Web’s new social tools, you’ll want to take a glance at ReadWriteWeb’s Five Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don’t Use Social Media. They offer 5 strategies to use new Web tools to effectively interact with non-users including:

1. Develop Relationships with People Who Bridge The Gap Inside Other Organizations
2. Use Web 2.0 Tools to Learn About Real Life Public Events
3. Make Your Blog an Email Newsletter and Promote it Elsewhere
4. Look Harder, Your Audience Probably is Using Social Media That You Aren’t Aware Of
5. Use the Internet to Make Yourself Smarter In Real Life

In case you haven’t been following the news and reviews of Google’s Chrome, an open-source browser released on Tuesday, here are a few news items you may want to check out. I have found it to be quite fast, and appreciate the thumbnails of my most visited sites displayed in each new tab I open.

Giving Google Chrome A Spin. This Thing Moves Fast. - TechCrunch
Speed test: Google Chrome beats Firefox, IE, Safari CNet
So Is Chrome The Fastest Or What? - TechCrunch
Inside Chrome: The Secret Project to Crush IE and Remake the Web - Wired Magazine
Google Redefines Web Browser - Wall Street Journal

Chris Brogan has put together a list of 20 Free eBooks About Social Media, including iCrossing’s What is Social Media and titles such as Google Adwords Secrets, Introduction to Good Usability, We Have a Website. Now What?, and The Zen of Blogging. There are some real gems here that you’ll want to check out, especially since they’re free!