This might be the most difficult post I have ever written. I am literally forcing myself to write these words. The reason I am finding it so difficult about the iPad is two fold. For starters, I do not know my own opinion yet. On the one hand, there is no denying it is a beautiful product like only Apple knows how to make. On the other hand, did they really reinvent the wheel here? Does it include anything particularly exciting on the technology side of things? I think not. I am sorry to be the millionth person to say this, but with the addition of a faster processor and some new software capabilities, the iPad is a giant iPod. But is that really so bad? You starting to get why this is a challenging topic for me?
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Online Resources
Seesmic Buys ping.fm! Blasts your Tweets to 50 Social Networks
Ever since I joined Twitter pretty much, there has been an ongoing debate as to the best 3rd party client to access your tweets. For you newbies out there, let me explain what the heck I am talking about. Twitter? Ever hear of it? Well, it is all based on an ultra simplistic website called Twitter.com, upon which an entire industry was built. Among the endless Twitter services out there, the most important is the actual software you use to access Twitter.com.
An Interview with Guy Kawasaki: The Man Who Made Apple “Cool”
Since I have been using Twitter, I have had the unique privilege of connecting with some seriously amazing people. Now I say “unique” because if not for Twitter, I would never have come across these individuals who enhance my life daily and on so many levels. One of these people is Guy Kawasaki, who besides having one of the coolest names in the industry is also one of the most important people in tech.
The Man Who Made $30 Million from a YouTube Video
Yup, this is no joke! If United Breaks Guitars and Susan Boyle have not demonstrated this point enough, Youtube videos can have a serious impact. This guy made a video with a $300 budget, and was contacted within days with a $30 million dollar proposal.
6 Twitter Tips You Should Have Figured Out on Your Own
When discussing Twitter and social media in general, the conversation always ends with the same sentence “Social media is 90% common sense”. In regard to that, I compare the use of Twitter to SEO. I know there is a lot of material out there when it comes to optimizing a website for search engines, but common sense dictates that if you want people to come across your site on Google, you will use attractive keywords and titles in your article. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to insert links to other articles of yours and place them on relevant words as anchor text. Like I said, a lot of common sense.
The Chrome Extension that Should Have Been Part of Twitter
This blog post started out completely differently. I woke up this morning and naturally logged into Twitter to see what news I missed while I was sleeping. I was surprised to discover what I thought was a new feature on Twitter.com, a new popup when I hover my mouse over a shortened link or a person’s name. Twitter has been working hard on implementing new features over the past few months, some more successful than others, and I thought this was just another new functionality to add to the collection.
Five Chrome Extensions That Will Make you Uninstall Firefox
So out of all the topics I generally write about, rarely will I discuss Web browsers. However, this week, the way I access the Web, both on my home PC, and on my work Mac, has completely changed for the better. The way I had my desktop set up until this week was that Chrome was my default browser on my PC and Safari was on my Mac. In both cases, I had Firefox installed and ready to launch whether it was on my quick launch bar or in my Mac’s dock. On my PC, I also had Internet Explorer at hand’s reach, just in case I come across one of those few leftover web pages that are displayed correctly in IE only. This week, all that changes.
How Social Media Completely Changed Overnight
One of the most common questions people have asked me about Twitter (besides of course “why do I care what you’re doing?”) is how on earth I follow so many people. The question is a valid one since at a following count of over 4,000 people and counting, it is not humanly possible to read every tweet, every thought, or every link that those people share. The basic premise of following people on Twitter is that you are at least somewhat interested in what they have to say, so the question of how I follow them all is a good one.
Eight Google Wave Annoyances
I am a big fan of Google. Generally speaking, I like using Google products whether it is Gmail, which is years ahead of its competition, or Picasa, which makes picture management easy and fun, Google has impressed me countless times when it comes to the usability of their services. Google Wave is different. If you have spent any time at all on Twitter or just listening to the online buzz over the last few months, you must have heard Google Wave spoken about, and if you did not, you need to get your hearing checked. Everyone is talking about it.
Five Myths/Misunderstandings about Social Media
While the buzz surrounding social media is growing, so is the number of people who just don’t get it. In fact, I come across tens of people daily that use Twitter and have a significant following but are totally clueless about maximizing it. They make mistake after mistake and see none of the results social media can bring. Let me emphasize that there is no one way to use social media “properly”, everyone uses it differently, that is part of the very essence of social tools. However, if these people are annoying their audience with spam-like tweets and causing people to unfollow, it is safe to say they are doing it “wrong”.
Ten Steps to Maximize your LinkedIn Network
Ever since Web 2.0 was introduced, or at least since “social” became the big buzz word, everyone talks about the three big social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (then there is the occasional MySpace fan, I never even made an account). Now, I always enjoyed myself a little Facebook, but was never a huge believer in its value as a business networking tool. I am pretty sure you know my stance on Twitter and its ability to help you achieve your goals, no matter what they might be. However, for the longest time, I did not get LinkedIn. I found its interface to be annoying and not user-friendly. I never really got any added value out of my LinkedIn network. To me, it was just another network I was on, that would send me annoying emails once a day.