MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over

The Best Twitter Tools

Jan 9, 2009 Digital Marketing & Metrics, Microblogging, Social Media, Web Tools & Applications, social networks

I have written a few times about Twitter, just take a look in my Microblogging Category or search “Twitter” in the search function on my blog.  I am a fan. Want to know what Twitter is? The Do’s and Don’ts of Corporate Tweeting? Just to point you to two of my previous posts on the subject.

I have been on Twitter for nearly a year and a half now. Since that time there have been many introductions of new tools to use to follow, search, and Tweet. Here are my current favourites:

For almost everything on Twitter

Tweetdeck: This is a desktop application that allows you to follow, tweet, search, group your friends, keep a list of “favourite” tweets, and even see what the hot topics are on Twitter.

Let me run you left to right to show you what this program can do!

Note: this is how I have my columns currently set up, you can have them in any order you like, by using the arrows at the bottom of the column, or by simply opening them up in the order you prefer.

1st Column: This is the running feed for the people I follow.  In real time it changes as your Tweeps send out their Tweets! If you minimize the Tweetdeck an alert, and a small box will pop up letting you know of Tweets and Replies.

2nd Column: I have a search running currently in this column. If you are Tweeting for work,  searching for information on a particular topic, or interested in following a particular #hashtag you can use the search function on Tweetdeck. It will pull, again in real time, the tweets containing your search term.

3rd Column: These are my @replies. If someone on Twitter wants to contact you directly they can do so in two ways – by Direct Message (private) or by an @reply (can be seen by everyone). These @replies can be sorted to the reply column.

4th Column: This is Twitscoop a tag cloud including the trending terms on Twitter “right now”. Must be a game on since two of the biggest words are Panthers and Giants!

The other things I love about Tweetdeck:

In this upper dashboard you can type your Tweet, add columns (All, Replies, Favorites, Search, Group, DMs and Twitscoop), and shorten URLs which is a necessity in Twitter since you only have 140 charactors. Once shortened it automatically adds the URL to your Tweet.  The Group function is nice if you follow a lot of people and want to occassionally focus on some key people at a given time.

If you run your mouse over the image of the people you follow this box will appear with four icons. These icons let you reply (automatically puts @twittername in your tweet box), direct message (automatically puts D twittername in tweet box), retweet (which means you are tweeting someone elses message to your followers) or “favorite” the tweet. Just a neat little time saver, for the busy tweeter.

For Searching and Alerts

Tweetscan/Twitter Search: If you don’t have acces to TweetDeck, or if you aren’t interested in searching in “real time” you can use one of these two browser based sites. You can of course watch and refresh, or you can subscribe via RSS to the search. This makes it possible to never miss a tweet on your favorite topic!

For Following Conversations

Tweetree: Have you ever found it difficult to follow a conversation between people you follow? Tweetree makes it easy to see the replies and back and forth of a conversation without visiting multiple profiles. It also shows linked URLs right on the page, without you having to link elsewhere. Here is a quick screen shot of Tweetree:

At the top you can see an indented tweet – that is a reply. At the bottom you will see a inserted URL. (Seriously, why can’t I do a Twitter screen shot without Scoble in the picture!)

Tweettree

For Mobile:

Twitterberry: For the Twitterer on the go, there is Twitterberry. Never leave your obsession for long…get your friends timeline, @replies, and of course tweet from ANYWHERE.

Finding Tweeps

Yes, I dislike the word “tweeps” too, but look I have used it twice already. Woot! (other disliked word I hear too often on Twitter!)

TwitterLocal:
Check out Twitter Local to find people in your area. I used this and have connected with some very nice individuals, who also write some great blogs on digital marketing (Direct Approach; Digital Socialite) politics (Jeejeebhoy) and shopping (Bargainista).

Other Good Stuff

Tweetburner:
When I tweet a URL I use Tweetburner (on Tweetdeck “Twurl” is in the drop down menu by the shorten URL field), this allows me to “track” the clicks on the URL. Tweetburner also tracks it over time and will give you your “Top Twurls” and a weekly and bi-weekly archive of your twurls, and the clicks on the Twurls!

PeopleBrowsr:
This is a new site I have played around with. Similar to Tweetdeck you can have multiple columns, create searches and groups etc. It is however browser based and so if you are working from a work computer where you are unable to download applications it might be ideal (although, then again it could be blocked by a firewall!) The other great thing about PeopleBrowsr is that it allows you to watch a news feed for FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube and more. If only Facebook wasn’t such a “closed garden” – then perhaps I could have my Facebook feed there as well….oh well wishful thinking.

Do you have a favourite Twitter Tool?

Follow me on Twitter!

And, connect to MEGOAgain through Google Friend Connect (right hand side of page!)

Popularity: 20% [?]

Tags: peoplebrowsr, tools, tweetdeck, tweetree, tweetscan, twitter, twitter search, twitterlocal

Why I LOVE Web Analytics…(I am such a geek)

Oct 30, 2008 Search Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Tools & Applications

I know my mother would say I am creative – but she is talking about my propensity for the dramatic, my flare for the arts, and perhaps my ability to write (that may be subjective of course, and a mother always thinks her child is the best). But, I would beg to differ. If there were a balance between a “Creative” and an “Analytical” marketer I believe I would fall squarely on the side of “Analytical (and, I would have to thank my father for that trait).

When it comes to projects such as signage, ads, or other “artsy” pieces I rely on my ability to portray what I need in a creative brief, including the key messages and some ideas on where inspiration should come from. I let the creative department do the rest. Once a project comes back to me for approval I can tell the art director that I love it or that there is something not quite right, but how to fix it is where I struggle! Don’t get me wrong I know the design fundamentals of balance, space, and colour but when it comes to developing the full blown concept beyond the verbage, messages, emotion I want to evoke, and key objectives of the piece – I am at a loss!

I am much more at home in the role of marketer when I am working on marketing strategy, thinking about how to meet the marketing objectives most effectively and how we will measure its success. While a project is running its course and when it is over I love analyzing the data – the clicks, the sales, the phone calls, the number of mentions in the press – the results! I love seeing how things fit together in a marketing program, what works and what doesn’t, and building the next steps!

Perhaps this analytical, systematic and logical side is why I love Web Analytics. I could spend hours delving into Google Analytics (and often do!) both on my blog (I’m watching you!) and on the web sites I manage at work. I love seeing where people are coming from who visit my blog (examples: Sheridan College, Microsoft, Royal York Hotel, India, Japan, and the UK), what search words are they using to find the corporate site (since they are lucky to locate it at all – the site is not exactly search engine friendly as this is a project I am still trying to get webdev to work on!), and what pages are they visiting once they get there (Contact page, service center locations, grills – these all tell us a different story).

So, when I read Avinash Kaushik’s post on new features to Google Analytics I was so excited. Sadly. the features aren’t running yet (only in beta for select people) but I am ready when they are…I have watched the videos and read the many blog posts on the Custom Reports, Visitor Segmentations and motion charts. I won’t go into detail about the upgrades (better people than I already have- see the many previous links!) I can’t wait to start playing around with these features for work and for my blog.

So I am out of the closet with my love of Web Analytics. Are you a geek? Share your geekiness!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Burning Questions about Feedburner

May 18, 2008 Blogs, Marketing & Communication, RSS, Search Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Tools & Applications

I am not sure if it is simply a symptom of being a junior blogger (I have been blogging for less than two years) or if all bloggers suffer from analytic-obsession-disorder.

On a semi-regular basis I check Google Analytics to see who is visiting my site. I look for the following information:

• View the map to see where my visitors come from (last month 29 different countries, majority from US)
• I love to look up Network Location to see if any interesting companies have been visiting, especially to see if any companies I may have written about came to see what I said.
• Traffic is fascinating (really it is!). How did people come to find me? Was I already on their list and they came direct? Did they search for MEGOAgain? Or for my name? Did they search for something truly bizarre and happen to locate my blog? (Most bizarre this month “cliff stoll by coats” and “animals that work well together”)

I also check Wordpress plugin “Wassup”, which gives me stats for the last 24 hours, 7 days, month or year. Most of the time these stats don’t match up with Google Analytics and vice versa. But it gives me an idea of traffic to my site.

Then there is Feedburner. Every couple weeks I will login to Feedburner. My understanding is that Feedburner should show me my subscribers. And, it will show me how they are subscribed (Bloglines, Google Reader etc). What I can’t figure out is why it fluctuates on a daily basis. If I had thousands of subscribers I could understand that frequently subscribers would add you or remove you..and you would see a drop or an increase everyday. However, I regularly see an increase or a decrease of 10-20% from one day to another. On days when I post it always increases…so then I begin to think perhaps it is showing me those subscribers that visit that day – rather than subscribers that exist on that particular day.

According to Feedburner help: “FeedBurner’s subscriber count is based on an approximation of how many times your feed has been requested in a 24-hour period.” – So does that mean that within the feed aggregator  a person clicked on my blog to read it? Or does it mean that the feed aggregator tried to update or retrieve any new posts?

Can anybody out there shed some light on this for me?

Popularity: 7% [?]

I Made a List!

May 10, 2008 Blogs, Marketing & Communication, Web Tools & Applications

How great is this? My MEGO blog made the BIGLIST of SEO on the Online Marketing Blog. 

What is funny is that I actually found out while I was going through my mountains of unread feeds on Google Reader and of course Online Marketing Blog just happens to be one I subscribe to! Later that day my Google Alert for my name and another Alert with my blog name came in to my inbox, and of course this morning I signed in to my blog to add the BIGLIST of SEO badge and I saw my new inbound link – so I got to live the joy over again!

Just when you think that no one is reading, and that the analytics must be mistaken (I mean really they rarely match up!), you get the honour of another blogger recognizing you with a link!

Woot!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Six Points of Change

Mar 22, 2008 Blogs, Web Tools & Applications

If you are a regular reader (welcome, to new readers!) you would have noticed that two weeks ago MEGOagain got a new look. Thanks to my friend Janice (who has been known to say “Friends don’t let friends use blogger”), who set me up on my own self-hosted site on Wordpress. My brother in England also helped with the move since the technical workings of my original blog were unknown to me!

The other day, I was listening Mitch Joel’s Six Pixel’s of Separation Podcast (episode 95) where he went over Six Ways to Re-energize a Podcast. So I thought I would see how it might help me revitalize my blog. With my long break from writing in January, and the move to Wordpress – perhaps it is time to revisit the blog. Re-energize, revitalize, revisit.

This is Mitch Joel’s Six Points of Separation – Six Ways To Re-energize A Podcast:
1. Format.
2. Length.
3. Feedback.
4. Voices.
5. Audio comments.
6. Quality.

How can I use these for my blog?

1. Format: With the move from Blogger to Wordpress, I made a big change to my format, adding a column which gives me more space to promote previous posts, top commenters, and of course my other social networks. I have also added an “About” page so you can learn more about me (if you are so inclined!). Eventually, I hope to add a “Books” page where I can include reviews, and top 10 lists of my favourite books. Despite no longer working in publishing – I am still an addict.

2. Length: This is one I definitely need to work on! Most of my posts are on the long-side. I will make a concerted effort to throw in a few short (yet, equally thought-provoking posts!). Of course if you want my really, really short micro-blogs you will have to follow me on Twitter.

3. Feedback: Comments are a big part of a blog – without them – it would be just an article on the web. Yet, most of my readers don’t comment. The comment field is simply not enough. I must ask questions, request opinions and encourage the feedback from my readers.

4. Voices: This is a tough one. How to add voices to a blog without adding additional writers to the blog? I read about 150 other blogs, from Mom-blogs, to Marketing, to general business blogs. I read many that often make me think – I could add to that conversation, and I have something more to say that can’t be said in a comment. Sadly, I “star” the article in Google Reader and forget about it. So now, I am starting “drafts” in my blog writer, with notes on my initial thoughts and the article name – so that I can go back to it. I will attempt to bring in additional voices and opinions in this way. Bonus, it gives me added blog fodder!

5. Audio comments: For the purpose of the blog we will discuss “Comments”. How do I use the comments that I receive more effectively? First I think I need to conquer number 3 – how do I encourage more comments… then use those comments to create future posts as a continuation of the conversation.

6. Quality: Mitch Joel was referring to audio quality, but I will refer to the written word. I do my best to make this readable – but often in the heat of the post (and of course the limited time I have between work and a toddler!) I publish without taking a closer look. I am an old-school editor, meaning I prefer printing and editing on paper. However, my printer is in the basement because we no longer have a desktop computer, so my blogs don’t get printed and edited. I edit on the computer as best I can! If you notice a typo, spelling error or incorrect grammar – send me a message! I would offer a prize – but I am afraid with the number of errors I would be poor soon! **Please note, this is Canadian blog – so favorite and flavor – is correctly spelled when I type “favourite” and “flavour”.

Here is where I am going to add a 7th Point of Separation:

7. Promotion: What is a blog without readers? When I initially started my blog I listed myself on some blog listings, and of course on Technorati. I told all my friends about the blog (and anyone who would listen). But since then I have grown lazy in my promotion. So with my re-energizing efforts I have done a few things:

- Added Twitterfeed plugin- so that my posts get posted on Twitter as a tweet.
- My Twitter automatically goes into my Facebook status, but I will also add a note to Facebook when I add a post. I write two blogs and Facebook only allows one blog to be imported so my other one is being imported as a note.
- I add each post to my Google Shared Items – which automatically adds a link to Feedheads (Facebook) and my feed on FriendFeed.
- I have also tried promoting this blog on my mommy-blog and vice versa (See Is it a boy or a girl?)
- I added “Share This” so if readers like what they read they can easily share the post on: Facebook, Digg, Reddit, Technorati, StumbleUpon…etc

Do you have any other ideas on promoting my blog? Feedback on the new look? I would love to hear your thoughts on the changes I have made, and ideas on future changes.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: blogging, megoagain, promoting blogs, six pixels of separation, wordpress

RSS Lesson 2 & Facebook Google Reader App

Jul 22, 2007 RSS, Web Tools & Applications

I had wanted to post this video in my original post on RSS, however, I couldn’t find it because it was before I was using De.icio.us (which I will explain on another post since I know some of you are thinking…huh?!) This video should help to explain more about RSS and Google Reader – it even has cute little diagrams.

Click To Play

While I take the time to write a second post today I also wanted to mention that for those of you who are on Facebook – you can now share your Google Shares on Facebook. The new application is aptly named Google Reader Shared Items. All you need is your ID number from Google Reader to set it up. Go to your Shares (left column at the top) and you will see the URL for your feeds, simply copy that long number at the end – it is your ID. If you and I are friends on Facebook we will be able to check out each others “shares”! So far I only have one friend sharing feeds on Facebook (sniff, sniff!)

Popularity: 5% [?]

Blog Search 101

Jul 22, 2007 Search Marketing, Social Media, Web Tools & Applications

If you aren’t already a blog reader, knowing how to keep track of them through Bloglines and Google Reader, as I talked about in the previous post, may seem a rather pointless first step! However, since you have taken this step – when you do find interesting blogs you will easily be able to subscribe and keep your feeds organized!

According to Technorati there are 175,000 new blogs every day, and blogs are being updated with new content at a rate of 1 every 18 seconds, or 1.6 Million posts per day. That is a lot of information to get through to find the ones you are interested in! So how do you find blogs that are of interest to you?

Blog Search Tools

Technorati

Technorati is one of the most popular search tools for blogs. The Technorati “ranks” and “popular” lists are often cited metrics for the blogosphere. Technorati rates blogs by “Authority” and “Rank”. The “Authority” rating is based on the number of blogs that are linking to that particular website. The higher the number – the more Technorati Authority. Quite the popularity contest! The Technorati “Rank” is calculated on how far you are from the top – so the blog with the highest “authority” ranks number one. This form of rating blogs obviously allows you to find the blogs that others enjoy, but keep in mind new blogs (like mine…) will have no authority and will rank at the bottom – but the information you garner can be just as valuable. On the right hand side you will see the Technorati button, click on it to visit my profile.

Ready to search? Let’s say you are a big fan of the HBO show Entourage, and you want to make sure you are at the top of your game in Jeremy Piven trivia. So you want to find an Entourage blog. At the Technorati home page you can use the search bar in the upper right corner. Type in “Entourage”. You will see the below in the window:

It will find blogs with the word “Entourage” and posts with the word “Entourage”. As you can see above you can choose the tab that suits what you are looking for. Obviously a post that has the word “Entourage” in it could be anything – including this blog when it is live! So I would tend to look under the “Blog” tab which will bring you to a list of blogs called “Entourage: Entourage The Dream Team” and “Entourage Fodder: Reviews and News”. As you can also see above, Technorati suggests “Related Tags” – Jeremy Piven, Television, and HBO. By selecting “Jeremy Piven” you will get a list of posts that mention his name, and blogs that use Jeremy Piven as a tag. With all the available resources on Entourage – you should be well prepared for the next round of pop trivia.

Perhaps now is a good time to describe what a label or tag is…
Think of a tag as a category name. People can categorize their posts, blog, photos, videos, or music with any tag that makes sense to describe it. Within the Technorati environment, there are two kinds of tags. There is the “Post Tag” and the “Blog Tag”. The Post Tag is used to describe the topics covered in individual items (posts) and is taken from labels bloggers use within their blog. At the end of this blog posting you will see that I have used labels to describe this posting (Technorati, Finding Blogs etc.) Blog Tags are assigned from the Technorati account blog settings when a blogger sets up his or her own blog, and describe the topics the blogs covers.Technorati also allows you to browse blogs by subject matter, however this particular area was hard to locate. I only found it while reading some of the FAQs. Technorati’s main page seems to focus on the best of the best, top video, top blogs, link here to favourites, link here for popular…Of course you can always use the search function, but sometimes it is nice to browse, see what is out there. Technorati’s Blog Directory is hard to find on the site but is useful for those of us who are browsers. The only downside is that it gives you general topics, such as “Books”, “Business”, “Entertainment” or “Movies” but doesn’t then divide it further to include for instance “Marketing” under Business or “Romance” under books. So great for the generalist.

Other Blog Search Engine’s and Directories

Obviously Technorati is not the only blog search tool out there. But it is one of the more popular ones out there.

Google Blog Search – A very simple search, it is basically Google Search only it looks through blogs and comments on blogs only.

Blog Catalog – Blog Catalog allows you to set up your own blog in the database and search for others of interest. There is a search function which will find keywords in the user-defined features of the blog, and within the tags allocated to the site. It does have a browse feature (which is easily found at the top of the page!) and it is divided beyond “Business” or “Arts & Entertainment”.

Best way to find blogs…

The number one way to find blogs is of course is the best way to find anything – word of mouth! I find the majority of the blogs I read on marketing and PR through other blogs and podcasts. Often within a post a writer will mention other bloggers and link them, and of course most blogs include a “blog roll” which is a list of blogs that they enjoy reading. I have included a list of Marketing, Tech and Mommy Blogs I read to the right as a place for you to start!

www.megoagain.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

RSS Readers for Beginners

Jul 19, 2007 Blogs, RSS, Web Tools & Applications

I should start by saying that I am by no means an expert on all things “internet”. In fact, I am hardly a technically person by nature. In my family that would be my brother the computer engineer, who (shameless plug) has a blog called OMOVO where he discusses “technical” stuff like telecommunications, mobility, and their convergence. I have always been the one who excelled in English due to my love of reading, but Quadratic Formulas haunted my dreams.

That being said, I tend to find trends and cling to them, obsess over them, and spend hours talking them up to friends, coworkers, and random people. Lately, that obsession has been on all the cool things I have found on the internet. When my son was born it was Mommy forums, blogs, and building my own website around his pictures. Now back at work I have found incredible resources and social networks which, along with my mommy forums and blogs, keeps me on the computer for hours after my son goes to bed. When I find something I like – I want to share it. Facebook for example. Friends and family actually began groaning when I mentioned the word “Facebook” in conversation.

On the flip side, they also seemed to start coming to me with questions on “how-to” with regards to web tools.

So that is one of the purposes of this blog. I will start with how to subscribe to blogs – since if you plan to continue reading this one – you might want to learn how to do this:

BLOGS

When I first began reading blogs, I just added them to my “favourites” and sporadically visited to see if anything was new. This meant I either missed a lot, or when I visited I was overwhelmed with new content. I learned later that there was a way around this! It is called RSS or Real Simple Syndication and it is allows you to publish and subscribe to frequently updated content like blog entries or new content on web pages with feeds. While there are Windows based readers, and Mobile RSS readers I chose a Web Based RSS Reader .

There are two that I would recommend – they are simple to use and allow you to “clip” or “file” away your favourite blog posts.

Bloglines has a split screen interface, with subscription menu on one side and the posts on the other. It is easy to set up- all you need is an email address and a password. Bloglines will send you a confirmation email to you, and then you are up and running. The easiest way to begin “subscribing” to blogs with Bloglines is to set up an “Easy Subscribe” button on your browser. Visit Bloglines Easy Sub to add your button (it gives instructions for the various browsers). You can also add subscriptions from the Bloglines front page under “Subscribe” – by copying and pasting the Blogs URL. As well, many established blogs will have a “Subscribe” feature, look for images like these:

When you subscribe to the feeds consider categorizing them, while you may only have a few to begin with – eventually you will have oodles of blogs you are following and it will be helpful to know what they are about! Categorize based on topic, such as Food, Business, Marketing, News…You can do this in the Options section as you subscribe. Automatically the Folder will read “Top Level”, if you drop the menu you down you can add new folders and save your blog under the category of your choice.

As you subscribe to feeds they will show up on the left screen under the “Feeds” tab. It will show that there are X number of unread posts in the last week. Beware as soon as you click on the Blog Name it will look as though you have read all the recent posts. This is also the case for the Folder – if you click on the Folder name, it will assume you have read all the feeds. I have tried, but the back button doesn’t fix this!

A nice feature if you are like me and want to refer to interesting articles later on is the “Clipping” ability. At the bottom of each post you will see a place to “Email” and “Clip/Blog” . A new window will pop up and allow you to make notes about the clipping or comments on it should you wish to add it to your own blog. As well, on the bottom right hand corner you can file it under the folder of your choice. To refer to Clippings later on, simple go to the Clipping tab on the left hand screen.

Google Reader is what I am using now, as it is nicely integrated into my iGoogle (a topic for another posting), my Gmail and so on…
If you have a Gmail account it is easy to set up Google Reader as your email and password will work. Once set up – you can take the Google Reader Tour if you so choose. It is very helpful and goes through all the features as well as the basics. Like Bloglines the left side of the screen shows your feeds while the right side shows the blog posts. A nice feature with Google Reader is that you can show unread posts in an “Expanded” or “List” View. The list view becomes very helpful when one blog has 50+ unread posts and you want to find the posts that interest you without spending a lot of time scrolling. As in Bloglines you can categorize your Blogs under various folders – simply visit “Manage Subscriptions”.

Unlike Bloglines Google Reader doesn’t appear to have an Easy Subscribe button, however you can copy and paste the URL on the main page where it says- Add Subscription.

Finally there are a few other cool features built into Google Reader:

Starred Items – A great way to file away for later.

Tags – Add tags on articles you are saving (bottom of the postings) – this can help you find them later on. There doesn’t appear to be a limit to tags so be as specific as you like. You might also tag things as “Print” if you want to remember to print it at a later time.

Shared Items- You can easily create a Public Page with favourite posts. At the bottom of the page choose “Share” and it will automatically post to your very own public page. Visit my google reader feed and subscribe (yes, there is a feed!) as your first feed subscription (after the MEGO Again Blog of course!)

If you have any questions feel free to post them to the blog – or if you are shy email them to me!

www.megoagain.com

Popularity: 4% [?]