Monthly Archives : July 2009

Set Up A Facebook Group in Less Than 3 Minutes

Sure you may already have a Facebook page/profile – but have you ever wondered how to set up a Facebook Group?

Facebook Groups are a great way to organize a community around a cause. From the group page you can then add events, meetups, post links, have discussions and more. Once you set it up you’re the administrator, but you can always add other administrators who will also have access to help you administrate your new group.

Here is part 1 of the series of How to Start and Customize a Facebook Group. (Customization will be in the next video.)

Interview with Teresa Ging, Woman Entrepreneur

Teresa Ging is Founder of Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique, located at:

115 N Wabash Ave
Chicago, IL 60602-1907
(312) 845-9669
Open Weekdays 8am-7pm; Sat 9am-6pm; Sun 10am-5pm

www.sugarblisscakes.com

 Sugar Bliss is a premium, Chicago based bakery specializing in gourmet cupcakes. Watch the video to see how Teresa launched her business as a woman entrepreneur.

Group Collaboration – Step 1 Conversation

The internet has allowed for user groups, colleagues and new partnerships to form without the necessity of face to face time. How do we stay in synch on a project if we’re not working down the hall from each other? There are some great options available for online collaboration of work teams and projects.

Of the paid solutions one of the most popular seems to be Basecamp by 37 signals. While I enjoy this product – there are so many other free solutions available they definitely need to be considered when evaluating a collaboration tool or platform that’s right for your project or business.

To keep the conversation flowing two great tools are Yammer and the WordPress P2 Theme. Think of Yammer as a hosted solution and WordPress P2 Theme as your own white label, self hosted solution.

Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: ‘What are you working on?’

As employees answer that question, a feed is created in one central location enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge base where past conversations can be easily accessed and referenced.

Anyone in a company can start their Yammer network and begin inviting colleagues. The privacy of each network is ensured by limiting access to those with a valid company email address. Information is never shared with third parties.

The advantages are that the basic Yammer service is free and it’s a hosted solution so updates and upkeep is performed by Yammer. The disadvantage is that to become an administrator or have control over the group or information companies need to pay to claim and administer their networks.

The WordPress P2 Theme would be installed on your own site. Access can be controlled by modifying your privacy and user settings. The advantages are that as it’s on your system you’re in total control and can truly customize this installation. The disadvantages would be that you need to purchase or own your url and pay for hosting fees.

 

screenshot PS Theme is a ”group blog theme for short update messages, inspired by Twitter. Featuring: Hassle-free posting from the front page. Perfect for group blogging, or as a liveblog theme. Dynamic page updates. Threaded comment display on the front page. In-line editing for posts and comments. Live tag suggestion based on previously used tags. A show/hide feature for comments, to keep things tidy. Real-time notifications when a new comment or update is posted. Super-handy keyboard shortcuts. Helvetica Neue for you modern font lovers. And more to come…”

Together these two both offer a great solution to keeping the conversation flowing when working together. How do you keep in touch with your work team?

Tracking A Tweet

Why track your tweet you may ask? Well, for many reasons. Besides @replies to your tweet how do you know if your Twitter followers are finding your links and information of value? Social Media is about 2 way conversations, information sharing – it’s not about shouting into an empty room or standing on a soapbox – which is what you’re doing if people aren’t reading your tweets, clicking your links or finding the information you provide valuable – or at the very least mildly interesting. Also, it takes time to share that information – so if you’re sharing the wrong information or information that your followers don’t think is relevant it would most likely be a better use of your time to share different information or resources.

The most basic way to track your tweets is by doing a search for your tweet or subject on Google or Twitter Search.

Or – you could use a new tool that combines these two into a powerful search engine called Twoquick

A more focused twitter search/tracking method could be had by adding a meme or hashtag to a specific keyword. hashtags.org provides real-time tracking of Twitter hashtags. Opt-in by following @hashtagsto have your hashtags tracked.

Budurl offers a free service to shrink and track your shortened link. Budurl allows you to see referrers, click charts, and more. You can create multiple BudURLs that point to the same destination so you can tell which source generates the best ROI. This allows you to see which cities, states, and countries drive your traffic. Their basic service is free and their dashboard is pretty intuitive.

PeashootApp offers to shrink and track your shortened link  but also allows you to set goals for your campaign. Like Budurl it allows tracking and a personalized dashboard. It’s good that it sets goals for measurement but the coolest option was just added. It now also lets you build an audience around a particular keyword or theme. In essence:

Peashoot’s Audience Builder automatically follows people on Twitter who are relevant to you or your company. Over a matter of days Peashoot can increase your total audience size giving you more people to connect with and help spread the word about you or your company.

Both Budurl and PeashootApp offer paid monthly plans and free trials. 

Do you currently track your tweets and if so have you changed the nature of what you tweet based on the measurement stats you’ve received?

Copyright © 2011 Jackie Cuyvers