It's All About the Conversation

I regularly find myself with way too many tabs open of good, interesting articles I find via email, twitter, facebook, and you know, all the Social Media avenues that everyone knows about.  It really slows my browser down to have so many windows open (more than what I’m listing below).   I don’t want to lose all these pages, but I don’t feel like bookmarking them all either as then they just get filed away never to be seen again… So, I thought I’d list them all here so I can FINALLY close my browser windows and be able to find them again…

So, here goes, in no particular order.

Why Should a Business Have a Social Media Marketing System in Place? – Social Media Bits

WordPress Firewall Plugin – SEO Egghead

Here’s What You Should Do to Improve Your Blog Today – Pro Blogger

How to Make an Absolute Fortune From Your Blog (Really) – Pro Blogger

5 Tools I Am Willing to Pay for [And Recommend] to Improve My Blogs – Pro Blogger

Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech – Swift Kick Online

15 Excellent Corporate Blogs to Learn From – Open Forum

5 brand blogs to learn from – iMedia Connection

8 Cool WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins – Chase Sagum

Corporate Blogging — Expert Series: Interview with Lou Hoffman. Part 1 – Steve Farnsworth

The 10 Best Infographics for Internet Marketing Pros – Marketing Pilgrim

100 Days of Real Food – Jason Leake & Lisa Leake

Getting started with “Getting Things Done” – 43 Folders

21 Simplicity Tips from the Worlds Most Popular Bloggers – Live Simply

10 Easy To Implement Flash Based Mp3 Players For Your Website – Web Design Booth

Five Rules For How To Make Things Go Viral – Tech Crunch

What I’ve Learned From Blogging Weekly Instead of Daily – Justin Kownacki

Yeah, solar and wind power are nice. But you need the grid to get off the grid. – Christian Science Monitor

50 Surprising Facts About Social Media – EduDemic

Alex Bogusky interviews Robyn O’Brien – The FearLess Cottage via YouTube

Technology to liven up your creative – iMedia Connection

8 Powerful Ways to Use Facebook Landing Tabs – Social Media Examiner

Website design: 12 sites dissected – Going beyond “pretty” – iMedia Connection

How Women Use the Web – Mashable

Just as we’re building more and more Facebook apps (stay tuned, they’re pretty cool) it seems more users are bailing on Facebook and committing Facebook Suicide, if they can find the link. So, in case your curious, here’s a link to more info about this.

How do I delete my Facebook account?

Recently I’ve had several friends tell me that they’re not using facebook as much as they used to or anymore.   My brother keeps talking about “facebook suicide,” a term I first heard from him.  Basically it means he would unfriend everyone or just turn his account off and walk away.  He hasn’t done that yet, but I do have another friend who did.  In both cases, they just got too tired of “acquaintances” wanting to be their friends, and the endless stream of useless application and requests from friends.  How many food fights and mafia wars can you be in!?

I also have slowed down my facebook access, checking only once every couple or few days instead of several times a day.  I have to say, the novelty has worn off.  That said, I have been in closer contact with a few friends that I probably wouldn’t have made otherwise.

As  business application, I don’t believe it’s nearly as effective as others.  But it is in the top 4 popular social media applications, which are: Twitter, blogs LinkedIn, and facebook (according to Social Media Marketing Industry Report at WhitePaperSource.com)

Anyway, back to facebook suicide…  According to the April 27 issue of Advertising Age, we’re not alone.  It explains why nearly a third of social networkers are frustrated and why social network marketers have to work harder and be much more transparent.

How to Get the Most Out of Social Networks and Not Annoy Users – by Emma Hall

Nearly a third of social networkers say they are fed up with the constant requests to join groups and try new applications, according to research by the Internet Advertising Bureau in the U.K. That means marketers will need to work harder and keep innovating if they want to harness the consumer power of social networks and persuade people to join their sponsored sites or pages.

When asked “What do you dislike about social networks?” by far the highest response, at 31%, was that there are too many invites to install applications, followed by 16% who said “when advertising isn’t relevant to me.” Slightly more than 5% complained about messages from brands and another 5% actually lamented the addictiveness of social networks. About 12% said they had no complaints. The research showed that 7% of respondents sign up to find out about brands.

I’ve also recently noticed that I’ve been “unfriended” by at least 2 friends and I don’t know why.  But, I suspect it also has to do with people trimming their friend lists to make a tighter circle of close friends (that maybe won’t throw food at them).

Oh, and please share this on facebook!