Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking is one of my favorite things to come out of the web 2.0 revolution. The two sites that I LOVE for social bookmarking are StumbleUpon and Delicious. These sites allow me to tag and share websites that I come across online and feel compelled to save for work or personal reasons. Now, if I am not on my computer, I can access my favorites from anywhere and everywhere.

A snapshot of my recent favs ...

How my favorites sites are saved is the super cool part - since I have added tags to my favorites sites, I can quickly and easily recall them without having to remember where I saved them. I have folders inside of folders inside of more folders in my old static favorites and honestly, for as organized as I thought this once was, now because I have so many saved, I find it cumbersome and hard to navigate.

Your tags are your labels - here is a snapshot of my tags:

So, why would YOU want to do this? The "social" part of Social Bookmarking is hands-down the reason you should get involved. SHARE your links with people you are connected with AND they will share with YOU!!!

Web 2.0 is all about participation. Why keep all of the cool information you find online to yourself? Share it with others and they will share with you!

You might even learn something!!!

When Twitter Met Facebook: The Acquisition Deal That Fail-Whaled

When Twitter Met Facebook: The Acquisition Deal That Fail-Whaled

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Here Comes the New StumbleUpon

One of my favorite sites - StumbleUpon is getting a face lift ...

Here Comes the New StumbleUpon

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Calling all Twits - More on Twitter!

It's Friday! Let's talk Twitter!

If you haven't heard me talking about Twitter in your offices, then you may have heard about Twitter during the election ... if you still have that blank stare, let's get you up to speed!

What is Twitter? Twitter is a micro-blogging platform.

Don't panic - I know what you thinking ... what is micro-blogging? Let's break the word apart, micro means tiny or small and blogging is well, this ... a conversation, a live journal, a learning tool and more.

So, with Twitter, you are answering the question, "What are you doing now"? You answer the question in 140 characters or less - that's the tiny part. Don't you LOVE this???

Remember - you can micro-blog on LinkedIn and Facebook too! More on that later ...

Want to learn more ... check out some of the resources below:

Video - Twitter in Plain English from Common Craft




Blog Post - CBH EDU 2.0 9/15/08 -- http://edu2dot0.blogspot.com/2008/09/micro-blogging-with-twitter-and.html


Blog Post - HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter

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More of the "Now What" - More Biz Uses for Facebook

Let me start out by saying that Facebook is not specifically a business social networking site (like LinkedIn or ActiveRain), but I believe that you can have some business success on Facebook if you can walk that business/social line.

You've heard me say it before - that line that used to exist between our personal lives and our business lives is getting blurry. Depending on how immersed you are in social media at this point, you may have almost no line at all anymore. The good news is - business is social :)

Think of Facebook as a way to soft sell your business and listings. A few ways you can accomplish this are:

1. Update your Facebook status to show what you are doing ... are you showing houses? Type it in! Listing a home? Type it in! One small word of caution - don't have every status update you type in be work-related.


2. Use the Post option to let your Facebook friends know about a new listing, price changes, or even an update to your personal website. You can post the URL for your listing fairly easily. If you are using Postlets, Realtor.com or even your microsite, each listing has it's own unique URL if you drill down far enough. A link to your virtual tour is simple to add as well in this section.


3. Create a separate Photo Album for each listing you have - use the Photos tab, create a new Album and name it the property address. Upload your property photos and include info about the home in the album information. You even have the option to share the album with folks that are not on Facebook!


These are just a few ideas to get you started - but we are only scratching the surface!

Remember that your Facebook page should not be all business, if you want a business-only social networking site use LinkedIn or ActiveRain. If you use Facebook as a way to connect with your sphere of influence in a meaningful way - you will see the rewards.

1 in 12.5 Million is Still a Killer Business Model for Spammers

Great post on Mashable by Adam Ostrow:

1 in 12.5 Million is Still a Killer Business Model for Spammers

As someone who often wonders - who in the world would actually click ON THAT??? It's interesting to see how these clicks translate into dollars for spammers.

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Facebook Privacy

Our CBH agents are getting on Facebook at an amazing rate! I am happy to see so many of you embracing this form of social networking and I hope to provide you with more information, specifically, the answer to the famous, "now what" question. This question has many answers and I will attempt to address as much of the "now what" as I possibly can in this and future blog posts. We will start with Privacy, as that is a key ingredient to making you feel comfortable with using Facebook.

I want you to feel comfortable about the information that you are sharing online. Remember the Mother Rule, but don't be afraid to post appropriate information and photos.

So, let's see what your privacy options are ... go to "Settings" - next to your name (top right).


So, on th screen above, click Profile.


There are two tabs: Basic and Contact Information ... let's look at BASIC.

Use the drop-down arrows to select who will see your information. You can specify, "Everyone, Only Friends, Some Friends or Only Me" here. You can also open your profile up to your Network - that is the "Philadelphia, Doylestown or Coldwell Banker" network you joined when you initally signed up. You can lock your information down as much or as little as you want.

If you click Custom Settings, you can drill down even further into your privacy options (see below).

You can also "Exclude" certain friends. Let's say you are Facebook friends with Chris Beadling, but you don't want Chris to see your family photos. Type in Chris's name in the "Exclude" box and this will exclude him from seeing this information.

You can also group friends and exclude folks in an entire group. One group that is built into Facebook is th Limited Profile. You can add Facebook friends to this group by ...

> Click on Friends
> Click on Limited Profile
> Type in the friends you want to add or click, "Select Multiple" to add them all at once
> Click Okay

Your Photo Albums have their own privacy options on Facebook. Click on Photos, then My Photos and finally, Album Privacy to set the permissions for the photos you upload on Facebook.
These are the basic privacy options you have with Facebook, but there are even more ... email me if you have a specific question.

Have a great week!

Birthday Wishes - Another Reason I Heart Tim Sanders

One of things I always talk about when we discuss the practical uses of Facebook is the simple act of wishing a contact "Happy Birthday". It's super easy with Facebook- they tell you a day or two in advance, right on your homepage. I usually tell the group about Chris Orth, an agent in our Philadelphia Office that does this regularly. Since Chris has ~ 400 friends on Facebook - this is a POWERFUL networking tool for him.

People want to know that you care, plain and simple, in your business life and your social life.

You know I heart Tim Sanders - today he had a great post all about how wishing one of your contacts a happy birthday is a great little networking tool. Tim says, "I've noticed that great networkers are birthday wishing fanatics."

Become a fanatic! You can do this ... post a little note on their Facebook wall or send them an email. Wishing someone happy birthday is another meaningful way to connect with your sphere of influence. Show them that you care.

Read the full blog post here.

Okay, I joined LinkedIn - now what?

I'm so glad you asked! The answer is ... YOU DECIDE (and you thought we voted already). I wanted to post a few answers to that "now what" question that I get every so often in one of our offices where I have been evangelizing these social networking tools.

So, you posted your "resume" on LinkedIn, you uploaded a photo, maybe joined a group or two ... what should you do next?

> Reach out to others - you can send invitations to people who are not already on LinkedIn and ask them to join. To do this, click on the green button that says, Add Connections - from here, you can type in a name and email address, upload a contact file and check your webmail or Outlook contacts.



> Ask for a recommendation, or two or three and recommend others that you are connected with on LinkedIn. My general rule of thumb, if you are not feeling it, don't write a recommendation out of obligation. Get recommended from past clients!!! To do this, click on Profile, then click Recommendations - from this screen you manage, send and request your recommendations. Start with the Request tab ...



> Put your customized LinkedIn address into your email signature. When you first sign up for LinkedIn, you have the option to customize your public profile URL. Most of you probably blew this off because you were not sure what it was ... have no fear, you can go back. Click on Profile, then click Edit Public Profile Settings (on the right) - that will open the screen below. Type your name in the box - ie: Stefanie Hahn and click Set Address. Google your name in a week or so and you will be very pleased. Don't leave this screen without highlighting and copying your customized LinkedIn URL! Add this URL to your email signature, website and more. We'll get into the fancy buttons later ...

Running out of room ... next post - "What now" with regard to Facebook!

Thanks all - have a GREAT day!!!

How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn

Great article on Mashable from Brian Wallace:

How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn

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