Archive for the ‘Lists’ Category

Vanessa Davis at Web Design Ledger has compiled a list of 10 Useful Website Analytics Tools. If you want to track information about your website or blog traffic you may want to check out some of these tools.

Twitter can be used as a powerful listening tool and Cindy King at Social Media Examiner offers 8 Easy Twitter Monitoring Ideas. If you’d like to monitor your organizations brand as well as what’s happening in your field, you may want to check out these suggestions:

1. Decide What You Want to Monitor
2. Find the Best Real-Time Monitoring Tools
3. Track With URL Shorteners
4. Follow Hashtags
5. Monitor Trends When It’s Appropriate
6. Use Twitter Lists to Monitor People on Twitter
7. Set Up a Listening Plan
8. Build Relationships

Kristin Burnham of CIO.com writes for PCWorld about 8 Must-Have Twitter and Facebook Add-Ons. Most of these are Greasemonkey scripts and require first downloading the program, but many seem like they’re well worth the effort. The two I’ll be addimg right away are:

• Nested Twitter Replies which displays tweets in a nested conversation format.
• Facebook Purity which removes third-party games such as Mafia Wars and FarmVille itens from your newsfeed.

Rodd Lucier at The Clever Sheep rounds up 14 Tools to Teach about Creative Commons. This brief post gathers toolkits, videos, slideshows, projects, and audio files to help educate students about how to license their works through the Creative Commons.

The NFI Research firm has issued a report listing the Top Public Libraries on Twitter. These are the libraries that are active, make frequent updates, have a good amount of followers, and use the tool to promote communication in their communities. Here are a few who made the list:

19,000+ Followers
1 New York Public Library New York, NY http://twitter.com/nypl

4,000+ Followers
2 Houston Public Library Houston, TX http://twitter.com/houstonlibrary

3,000+ Followers
3 Columbus Library Columbus, OH http://twitter.com/columbuslibrary

2,000+ Followers
4 Kansas City Public Library Kansas City, MO http://twitter.com/KCPubLibrary
5 Hennepin County Library Minneapolis, MN http://twitter.com/hclib
6 Cincinnati Library Cincinnati, OH https://twitter.com/cincylibrary

1,500+ Followers
7 Austin Public Library Austin, TX http://twitter.com/AustinPublicLib
8 Grand Rapids Public Library Grand Rapids, MI http://twitter.com/grpl
9 Boerne Library Boerne, TX http://twitter.com/BoerneLibrary

Mari Smith at the Social Media Examiner offers 13 Ways to Move Your Facebook Fans to Action. This helpful post takes a look at strategies organizations with Facebook Pages can use to increase their Fans’ engagement levels. Here are the top 5 recommendations:

1. Ask questions
2. Use the words “you” or “your”
3. Keep it short
4. Post in high-traffic windows
5. Respond promptly

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.

Aliza Sherman at WebWorkerDaily talks about 10 Things to Avoid In Social Media. This insightful article has many helpful tips, here are her top five things to avoid:

1. Avoid the fishbowl syndrome
2. Avoid glut and overload
3. Avoid knee-jerk reactions
4. Avoid overreaching and overstating
5. Avoid the shingle phenomenon

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

Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb posts 5 Google Buzz Tips for the Advanced User. If you’re already up and running with the new Google app, you may want to try these out:

1. Get Buzz Browser Extensions
2. Hide Your Buzz Contact List from Prying Eyes
3. Update Buzz via Email
4. Subscribe to Someone’s Buzz via RSS
5. Email, Link to, or Mute a Buzz Post

Susan Payton, President of Egg Marketing & Public Relations blogs at Mashable about 7 Ways to Promote Your Offline Event Using Social Media. Check out this article for tips on how to leverage today’s cutting-edge social tools. Here are her top 4 recommendations:

• Blog About It
• Post Photos on Flickr
• Put it on Facebook
• Post Photos to Twitpic

DIY Learning has compiled a mega-list of colleges and universities which are offering free courses in Top 50 University Open Courseware Collections. These incredibly useful course offerings are divided into the following categories:

• Academic Behemoths
• Ivy League
• Western Institutions
• Colonial
• Midwestern Institutions
• United Kingdom
• International
• Purely Online
• Less Known, Equally Useful

Tom Walker writes for Powerusers about 10 Alternative Uses for WordPress. This useful post lists some exciting ways to make use of the open-source content management system. Here are his top five:

1. eCommerce
2. WordPress Wiki
3. Forum
4. Contact Manager
5. Job Board

The folks at Online Universities.com have pulled together a list of the 50 Best Blogs for Education Leaders. This mega-list contains many interesting blogs which have been divided into the following categories:

• Education News
• Subject Specific
• Inspiration and Innovation
• Educational Policy
• Educational Technology
• E-Learning and Online Education

The team W3Avenue has posted a compilation of 40 Really Useful Tutorials You Should Have Read in January 2010. These quality tuts are culled from such well-known publications as A List Apart, Webdesigner Depot, Nettuts+, and more. Here are just a few of the featured articles:

• 55+ Most Wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks
• The Easiest Way to Build your First iPhone App
• How To Add a Flickr Gallery to Your WordPress Theme Without a Plugin
• How to Make all Browsers Render HTML5 Mark-up Correctly – Even IE6
• 10 Tips for Better Print Style Sheets
• CSS Transitions 101