Chatterbox : tools

Geek Speak: Do you have a voice?

Steve Pham — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:17:00 GMT

Google Voice that is... but wait, what is Google Voice?

Google Voice is an internet based call forwarding service, FREE of charge unless placing international calls. It's currently released by invite only but it's pretty easy to get an invite. Just ask me how if you're interested. Now, I am sure your thinking "Whoopty Doo", what can it do for me? Well, here is what it did for me.

It gave me a local number (you can choose any number you want, from anywhere in the US). This helped a lot. I moved to Charleston not too long ago from another state and do not have a house line. Now I won't get a confused look when I give people my phone number.
It also seconds as a business line. I can make outward calls using the Google Voice number.
Another awesome feature from Google Voice is the option to screen all calls before answering. By screening, I do not mean caller-ID. I mean Google Voice informs you of who is on the other line and blocked numbers will not go through unless they announce themselves. No more random phone calls you send straight to voicemail.
Google voice also has phone management, which is similar to email management. If you are familiar with Gmail, then you will be familiar with Google Voice. You can manage all calls, voicemails, text messages, and contacts using Google Voice.
You also have a block list. You can block any calls from annoying telemarketers, relatives, exes, etc.
Oh yea, did I mention it transcribes your voicemails for you? Well it can! You can get an email, text, or both of your voicemail. No more "wait, what number did they say?" or "what do they want?"
A feature I haven't used yet but can see myself using in the future is the ability to add multiple lines to the Google Voice number. So instead of just forwarding it to my mobile, I can forward the number to my house, work, another sibiling (in the case it's your parents), and more.

As you can see, I've discovered a lot of great features and I just started using it on Tuesday. And knowing Google, I'm sure they will continue to develop it. One key note... Google is very smart about adding a revenue model into the majority, if not all, of their products. Make sure to pick a number that you like or otherwise it will cost you $10 to get a new number.

Don't forget to comment and let us know how you use Google Voice and what benefits or flaws you see. My one wish right now? I wish they would let you have more than one number.

Firefox 3.5: What's New?

Lindsey Robbins — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:42:00 GMT

I’ve had my head down for quite some time now (haven’t you noticed everyone is so busy lately?) and the launch of Firefox 3.5 almost passed me by without much notice. Well, it almost did until my browser kept crashing unexpectedly and I noticed it recommended I could update. Sure, why not I said because I was already losing time and I really was resisting the sage advice to reboot. Rebooting is my arch nemesis even if it somehow fixes things.

After downloading and installing, something in the new features jumped off the screen. It was a development I heard about but had completely forgotten about. Firefox 3.5 now supports HTML5 and embedded video. The idea being with the new version of HTML they could specify a common video codec for all browsers to use so you wouldn’t need to download any plug-ins like Flash, Silverlight, or JavaFX. They’ve run into some problems getting all companies to agree to this common video codec but there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Someday, we may be able to watch video on a website without any extra software installations. The browser would play the video based on the website’s code.

For me, this is a big deal because when the industry can agree on a common standard, then support for video on pages can improve. Someday, this could mean you would have the ability to see video on any computer, platform, or device. Uniformity can equal improved performance.

As a technical communicator, when they can agree on how to improve watching video online, it can mean finding ways to embed video in help documentation. Currently, we can’t embed video without serious consideration for making sure your viewing experience is positive and headache free. If you have to install something extra, worry about browser stability, and consider performance issues (like internet bandwidth) then the help becomes not so helpful. Therefore, standards and consistency make me happy. Even I have to admit, I don’t like to have to stop my website browsing to install something just to watch a brief video. I also get upset when I can watch video on one website but not another on my iPhone.

It will take a while for this movement to take effect because websites will have to start authoring in HTML5 but now it’s more possible to see it taking effect when a browser like Firefox supports it.

Other notable features include: private browsing mode, location aware browsing, an improved awesome bar, one-click bookmarking, and more. More information is available on the Firefox website and this great overview video http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/video/. I think I’m just excited because the internet browser market is getting more competitive, faster, and more options to customize your experience.

Geek Speak: Twitter Tools to Twind Tweeps to Twollow

Steve Pham — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:57:00 GMT

Try to say that title one time fast (yeah, don't even bother with three times fast)! Phew!

Why the alliteration? Well I recently signed up for Twitter a few months ago to see what it was all about, and it wasn’t until I understood the power of it that I began to really dive in. After a month or so, I began to get frustrated because I wanted to find people to follow, but not just anyone. I wanted to follow those who had something to say or those who I could potentially build a professional relationship. So naturally I turned to Google to solve my conundrum. My results? Well, that's what I'm hoping to share here in this blog post. Here's a list of tools that helped me.

Twitter Search – I used Twitter Search to see if anyone I knew was on Twitter. You can also use it to find a conversation about a particular topic. Great to use when you're just getting started.
Twellow – Twellow is definitely not the prettiest tool to use, but it contains a massive database of users that you can search by location or category. Great tool, just a bit clunky.
LocalTweeps – Local Tweeps is fairly new. However, the database is growing and the main focus of this is to find Tweeps (Twitter people) that are in the same locale as you. I found quite a few people to follow using this tool.
WhoShouldIFollow – Who Should Follow is an interesting site, you enter your Twitter name and it finds users that match what you have tweeted, your bio, and who you are already following. This tool didn't help me as much because lately my focus has been finding people in my locale because I just moved to the area.
TwitterLocal – Twitter Local is an Adobe Air application that is great. Basically you follow conversations that happen in specific areas - based on city, zip code, state, etc. It's great to see what is going on locally and to see who the big players are in the area.

Each of these tools helped me find more people to follow.

Other Helpful Hints -
It's also a good idea to see who the people you are following, who they themselves are following. Typically they are interested in the same people, so it's always good to check that out. Also, one of my favorite things to do is to check out the twitter user's ration. What's the ratio of who they follow to how many people follow them. I like to make sure its kind of close, however, if you are following a celebrity or a group or company, you cannot expect the ratio to be close. In addition, I also tend not to follow people without avatars, or a few quality updates. I do a quick twitter history check to verify quality and not just quantity. Sometimes those with quantity lack conciseness and worthwhile tweets.

These are just a few things to look out for when you are looking for more people to follow. Hope this helps and happy tweeting.

Feel Free to follow me @Phamtastik and Lindsey @lindseyrobbins

Little Tricks for Big Help!

Lindsey Robbins — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:11:00 GMT

Once and a while I find a cool, small detail about a tool or website that makes a huge difference to me – so much so, I feel the need to share. I especially appreciate them when they save me steps and time! Here are eight to get you started...

1. Merge Contacts in Gmail.
Gmail made me happy in early February when they announced several changes to Gmail contacts. This little tip will help you if you use Gmail for professional or personal reasons. When I discovered this new feature, I was relieved! I can recall too many experiences trying to update contacts who appear more than once in my Contacts list. I wanted to combine them and had a frustrating time with copy/paste because it would say a contact already existed with that information. Now, you can just select as many contacts as you want and click Merge these [ ] contacts in the far right pane. Sweet!

2. Multiple Attachment Selection in Gmail.
The other small feature from Gmail making me happy now is the ability to select multiple items for upload to an email in Gmail. Instead of painfully adding an attachment one at a time to the email form, you can now select multiple and watch them upload with progress bars.

3. TripIt Application for LinkedIn.
A professional colleague sent me a request for TripIt. Not only did I discover a fun site for tracking travel but I also discovered it integrated well as an application on LinkedIn. I love how it can update your network updates so people know when you are traveling for business. Could be an especially helpful tool for meeting up with colleagues you are “linked” to but hardly ever see!

4. Subscribe to Facebook Status Updates in a Feed Aggregator.
I don’t ever feel like I can keep up with my Facebook friends status updates. They just happen too quickly in real time. Then, one day I discovered you can actually subscribe to a feed of your friends’ status updates. On the top menu bar, click Friends. In the far left column, under Subscribe, click Friends’ Status Feed. This will give you the feed address to plug into your favorite blog aggregator or you can add to Google Reader like I do. Now, when I have time I can scroll through updates quickly and respond to the ones I feel worthy. This is especially helpful to fast readers who’d rather scroll quickly and spend more time writing goofy messages on friends’ walls or getting back to my “real” work.

**Additional suggestion** Subscribe to your LinkedIn Network Updates in your feed aggregator as well.

5. Blackberry CallsBlocker Application.
A great app for you crackberry addicts. You can now block unwanted calls on your phone using CallsBlocker. I haven’t tried this one out yet but it came highly recommended from Geek Speak Steve. Seems like I might have some R&D (research & development) in my near future.

6. Use Picnik to Edit Photos Online.
Picnik is a great site I recommend in my sidebar sites section. It's an online picture editing application. I love it because it gives me enough editing options for free without having to buy an expensive application with too many options. Now, the site is even more improved. You can open and save your photos from Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, Photobucket, Picasa, Webs, and Webshots, all within Picnik.

7. Check Your @Replies on Twitter.
Some people you aren’t following reply to your tweets. You might not be ready to follow them just yet but it’s important to regularly check your replies to make sure you don’t forget to respond. It’s a newer feature on Twitter but one that’s been on my Blackberry Twitter app for some time now.

8. Googlify Your Smart Phone!
Have a new smart phone? Or just have a smart phone that you never added all the awesome Google applications? (Because we all know Google makes some amazing free tools to make our lives easier!) Best place to start for adding Google applications is a website by Google (Google Mobile) that helps you find and download all the available applications for your phone. For example, my super awesome pink blackberry can download the Google Mobile App, Search, Maps, Gmail, Sync, Reader, Calendar, and more!

Hope you have fun with these tips and find that can help at least a little!

Geek Speak: Do you fear having your email address visible to spammers?

Steve Pham — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:43:00 GMT

Well have no fear, because Scrim is here! Scrim is a wonderful new tool that masks your email address from the spam bots that scour the internet to find an email to send their "spicy meat" to. Think of Scrim as Tinyurl for your email address (why didn't I think of this?), you simply enter in your email address and let Scrim do its business. After it works its magic, you get a URL that a user will have to click on and correctly select the captcha to reveal your email address. I created a fake email address for fun (ieatspamforbreakfast@fakemail.com) and this is what Scrim created: http://scr.im/15b.

Oh yea, did i mention you get 12 characters to create your own link? Unfortunately, if you already created a randomly generated link for your email address you are stuck with it. So now place your email address freely on the web and let Scrim do the spam fighting for you.

Discovering Xobni

Lindsey Robbins — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:07:00 GMT

Yeah! It’s fun to have co-workers just randomly mention a cool tool in a meeting and then off you go on a learning adventure. Thanks to Georgeanne, I was recently introduced to Xobni (inbox backwards).

http://www.xobni.com/

Xobni (pronounced Zob nee) is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. So far it’s been giving me cool email analytics about different people who email me frequently (for example, my manager is ranked #1 for emails). It can also show me recent conversations and files exchanged with that person as well as who is in their network. I really like the recent conversations section because when you select a conversation, it shows you the emails in threaded view (like Gmail). This helps save you time searching for your communication history! Also, it has an email search tool. Haven’t had a reason to search my email yet, but when I do, I’ll be interested in seeing how well it works.

Also, Xobni has integration features for Facebook and LinkedIn. I still have more to learn about what I can do with this tool but I wanted to get the word out so you could start optimizing your inbox as well (if you feel so inclined).

The Nonprofit Technology Community

Lindsey Robbins — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:12:00 GMT

Wow, for a geek, I'm sitting here even more geeked up (especially for a Monday). I recently found out this blog is included on the Nonprofit Technology website as a blog source.

Nonprofittech.com is a website that was started by Beth Kanter as a way to bring together bloggers and others to create a content community. This community makes it easier to find and organize good content around use of technology by nonprofits. Tony Karrer, CEO of Techempower coordinates new content and works with Beth to moderate the site.

So yeah, I'm feeling pretty great that not only do I have a forum through Blackbaud to help out nonprofits with technology *stuff* but now a wider audience can read my blogs. No pressure eh? I'm more into the idea that we can lean on each other as we learn, explore, and hopefully master how to use social media and technology to our advantage. After all, when you want to help people like those in the nonprofit community do, you can use all the help you can with or without hard economic times.

Thanks to Beth and Tony for creating such a great resource. I know I'm going to look forward to all the learning opportunities.

Co-Authoring in Microsoft SharePoint

Lindsey Robbins — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:55:00 GMT

Authoring in SharePoint – a world unto its own for those of you brave enough to venture into adding web parts, setting up sites and workspaces, and playing around with site settings. I find it’s often more like a treasure hunt than a systematic process. I’m not entirely complaining; I have had the opportunity to keep some skills fresh including the creation of a wiki for my team’s internal documentation.

However, I’ve been thinking recently about SharePoint and the concept of community or team authoring. I find if you’re tasked with authoring a SharePoint site, at minimum get regular feedback and at best get a couple of co-authors. Why?

Well as an example, another fun role I have at Blackbaud is on a voluntary team of employees who promote philanthropy and volunteerism within the organization. Participating on Team Blackbaud – Charleston is rewarding in so many ways but especially within context of our corporate value that Service to Others Makes the World a Better Place.

One of my fun tasks for Team Blackbaud – Charleston has been to update our SharePoint website. We encourage opportunities to volunteer, recognize employees’ philanthropic achievements, and promote our philanthropic quarterly initiatives. We need to educate, advertise, and encourage participation. But, for a while I was the only one working on the page. I’m not saying I’m terrible at SharePoint web design but I did learn that if you only have one perspective (and limited time to devote to the site) you can quickly find yourself on a sinking ship. We started off small and received input. However, with every quarter we kept adding content to our page. A year later and we suddenly had this lightbulb moment where we realized the page wasn’t working for us. It wasn’t achieving the desired result.

How to clean up an out of control page?

#1 – Get a couple people to thoroughly evaluate the website including an evaluation of what the desired result would be. If you have some subject matter experts in design, by all means solicit their help.

#2 – Find Help! We decided to change this position on Team Blackbaud – Charleston this year from one person to two. And instead of being the main contributer, I’m stepping back to a more supportive role. If you work on something too long, you can easily lose that fresh perspective.

#3 – Don’t let a page sit static for too long, keep the feedback ongoing and the content engaging.

#4 – If all else above fails, just delete everything and start from scratch. Seems drastic but if your site isn’t being used because it’s so unfriendly, then what do you really have to lose?

If we have some success re-inventing our site, I’ll be sure to share our results with you.

In the meantime, remember that your time and skills can be just as valuable to a nonprofit as your wallet!

Can you Digg It?

Lindsey Robbins — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:35:00 GMT

I confess. I don’t Digg and I have no idea what to use it for. In fact, just the other day I submitted my first article. And it doesn’t even really count since it’s one of my own blog posts. I just wanted to test the process. Sadly, as of today, 6 days after posting, I still only have 1 digg (my own). I’m sure it’s because it was my own content and I have no idea what I’m doing. However, I wanted to see if I could make sense out of this tool everyone else seems to be using but me. Maybe I’m not really at the cool kids lunch table?...

In case you need an intro to Digg like I do, here’s an overview of the website:

Digg is a place for people to share with others their favorite content they find anywhere on the internet.
Once you post, others vote on your submissions. The more diggs, the better.
People, collectively, determine the value of content.
Most content people submit are news articles, videos, and images.
If your content really rocks - people will submit your content, you’ll get digg’d a lot, and then you’ll get published on their front page. And published on the front page means you are really awesome and will get a lot more publicity.
They make it pretty easy to comment and share the stuff you find on Digg.
And, you can even make friends because you might trust their opinion on good or bad content and want to follow what they digg. And if not, you can always digg for content by topic category (technology, science, gaming, entertainment, etc).

So what do you think? Should I Digg it and how should I use this site?

Supporting Your Causes in Facebook

Lindsey Robbins — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:58:00 GMT

I noticed this week that Causes in Facebook seem to have improved their ease of recruiting. I was recruited to a couple of my favorite local nonprofits and in return could invite others all without much effort. The other nice part about Causes in Facebook? Once you invite someone and they join, you can thank them! We all like thank you’s and it shows that you appreciated someone supporting your causes. The value of social networking – shared philanthropy and hope of making the world a better place.

Other Causes features I love:

Easy to Feature the cause on your profile (on your wall, info, and boxes tabs)
When you thank or recruit someone, it can show up in yours and their news feed. From the news feed, people can click to join, view, or invite people to the cause.
Hall of Fame for top recruiters – recognition!
Media Board to share links, photos, and videos
Discussion Board and Wall to spark conversations.
Easy to Donate!
And lots more, check out http://apps.facebook.com/causes for more information and to see how you too can make an impact. Halos and Fields to Families are great examples of two small nonprofits jumping into social meda!

Educate Yourself Using RSS

Lindsey Robbins — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:08:00 GMT

Sometimes keeping up with the amount of information, news, and blogs on the Internet can be time-consuming, unproductive, and frustrating. I know for the longest time I had a routine down where I'd visit my list of sites every morning looking for new content. I still have no clue why I spent all that time searching for content instead of having it come to me.

Enter Google Reader into my life amidst glorious heavenly music. It might seem like I'm being a bit dramatic but I'm not. Now, in the morning (or often throughout the day), I go to Google Reader and read up on news, information, social network updates, blogs, and more all aggregated on one page. How?

Well it's easy. You just take advantage of, the ever growing in popularity, RSS.

RSS, or really simple syndication, is not new. However, I hardly ever hear people talking about RSS aggregators and what it can do for self-education. When you use RSS or atom feeds, you can collect them like links/favorites/bookmarks and add them to a website like Google Reader who collects and displays them all in one location. I also use folders on Google Reader so I can categorize types of feeds. This lets me keep friends' updates separate from Blackbaud updates, Technical Communication updates, my "Geek Feeds," and more.

Using an aggregator helps you collect all your feeds and have information come to you. The aggregator lets you know when something is new instead of having to stumble upon it yourself. I'm sure there are many excellent feed aggregators on the market; I just choose to perpetuate the Google empire.

If you're in Firefox, if a page has a feed, you'll see an icon like the one in this post in the website address field. When you click on it, it helps you "subscribe" to a website. On other sites, they will display that logo, something similar, or even a link to the RSS feeds. ***Hint, this page has a link in the Blog Info section.*** Once you start looking on websites, I'm sure you'll see them everywhere.

Either way, using feed aggregators not only makes sense from a time perspective but it really empowers you to take advantage of the wealth of information online. Because you can organize your feeds, you can start handling more feeds, discover new sites, and then be able to share what you find with others.

Another reason why I love Google Reader? When I find something good, they make it easy for me to share by email with people or add it my personal website of Shared Items. And don't get me started on how easy it is to integrate these features with Facebook! I'll save that for another time.

Anyone have any really cool ways they are using RSS, feed aggregators, or Google Reader?

Don’t Overlook the Obvious with Wikis

Lindsey Robbins — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:02:00 GMT

Being in the business of explaining technical things, it’s easy to skip the obvious and jump to the difficult stuff. After all, since we can make educated guesses of what people will struggle with; why not jump to explaining that content? However, doing so can be a trap. Recently this happened to me in my internal team documentation efforts.

A while back, I blogged on my experiences with wikis. In addition to my outside experience, I finally figured out a way in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 to setup a team wiki. We have to do some manual creation of navigation but overall it meets our needs for internal team knowledge management.

When I “launched” the wiki in a brief demo to the team, it went pretty well. And for the most part people have figured out where it is. However, time passed and I forgot one key thing. People needed to know how to use the wiki. It’s not that the wiki is all that difficult or complex but it’s still a process unfamiliar to people. I completely overlooked the obvious.

Now, I have a page set up with answers to the following common questions:

How do I use the wiki?
How do I add a new page?
How do I edit a page?
How do I add a picture?
How do I search for information?
How do I edit the navigation?

Sure, I may be someone who loves technology and will play with it until I figure out what’s going on but not all users are the same. I think it’s a valuable lesson for social media, technology, and software. It’s easy to assume that users can figure out the basic processes and workflows but then when you do that you create easy stumbling blocks that might discourage people from using your new tool. I’m glad I went back to do my how to guide. It’s not thorough or complete but it’s a start. Next up is a wiki page on how to blog. I really want to get my team more involved in blogging since I’ve heard what valuable things they have to say and would love for them to share it with you all too.

Have you ever overlooked something obvious in your social media or technology efforts?

Social Media - It's Not About the Tools

Lindsey Robbins — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:08:00 GMT

A while back, I worked on a grant with a colleague and friend Brian (who’s now an amazing interaction designer and information architect in the DC area), and I fondly remember even then having some great conversations about tools. He really inspired me to look beyond the tools and think more about interaction and outcome for why you use a tool. The focus on the why is an important piece of my workflow today. Yes, I explain to people how to use tools. Yes, I work at a software and services company. But no, we don’t do this for the love of creating geeky things. We have to see you, the user, at the end of the process. Our clients provide our motivation on a daily basis. So we have to ask ourselves:

Beyond the computer, what task or process are you trying to accomplish? And why?
How can we make your life easier? Or in other words, if you were more efficient at your every day workflow tasks, what would you be doing with your extra time?
What’s on your dream list of things you wish you could do?
How do you plan to make the world a better place? What’s your mission?

Thinking about these important questions (and more) is how we prioritize our to do lists. I feel the same way when I promote social media. Sure, a lot of times it can be fun just to play with social media and technology tools. After all, I am the girl drooling over the new Blackberry Storm that hasn’t even been released yet. I’m not sure all that it can do but I still want one. I figure I’ll learn as I go along but that’s not how I always operate. When it comes to business it’s not my time and money it’s someone else’s. I’m sure that’s the way it is for you. You don’t work at your organization just for your pleasure, you want to serve others and make the world a better place.

What does this mean for you? Don’t stress about how to use every social media tool. You don’t even have to have your hands in everything available. Yes, it’s important to try different tools because one might be a better fit for your organization than another. The most important thing you can do when you attempt to use social media is to stop thinking about the tool (and what it can or cannot do).

Instead, focus on what you need to accomplish. Focus on who you need to help and why? Write down what you want to be able to do without even thinking about which tool you will need. For example, “I want to be able to share stories with our volunteers and donors about how we feed the area needy. And it’d be really cool if we found more volunteers and donors because of it.” Then, when you identify your goal you can examine the social media tools and pick out which one will be most effective and easiest for you to implement. Then, social media doesn’t have to be so intimidating and you can focus on what really matters.

A Flickr Suggestion

Lindsey Robbins — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:49:00 GMT

Ever been frustrated trying to find an image when you use Google search? I usually like the Google search especially when you can choose file size. However, I don't always find the quality or the artistic value I'm looking for. Lately, I've been using Flickr to search for an image I need. On Flickr, photographers of all skill levels get to share their passion and consequently there is an abundance of some pretty amazing pictures. Yes, some have spent some time in the photoshop lab but either way, the diveristy and quantity of choices are the highlight. One really great feature Flickr provides is hidden in the Advanced Search.

The last section of the Advanced Search is the Creative Commons section. This is where you can choose to search for photos that Flickr users have given permission, yes explicit permission, for you to use their work. Since I use photos from here for non-commercial use 99% of the time, I just mark the Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content checkbox. But, you might want to consider marking the Find content to use commercially or Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon checkboxes.

My favorite thing about Creative Commons? Well when I find an image I like under this license, I get all the file sizes to choose from. And when you're designing things for print or the web, having a choice of file sizes is key. Oh and last piece of advice, don't forget to give credit where credit is due.

Here's an image I found when I searched for Charleston, SC

Thanks to Micah A. Ponce for the brilliant image.

Let's Talk About Facebook

Lindsey Robbins — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:52:00 GMT

With all the buzz around social networking in BBNC 5.5, I’m very excited about the possibilities. But are you still wondering what Facebook is all about? First I’ll give you a background on my experiences with Facebook and then some recommendations on how to join the Facebook culture. After all, it may seem easy to join but in order to really fit in and build your community you need to understand how this social network operates.

My Background

I joined Facebook in grad school at Clemson, circa 2004-2005, when it was strictly a student website. Admittedly it was for social/fun reasons. It was launched as more of a virtual yearbook. First thing I liked was leaving fun messages on people’s walls especially if it involved complaining about a tough class. I spent a lot more time on Facebook in this era than MySpace. I’ve always been this way because the Facebook interface is much more simple, easy to edit, and yet rigid enough to enforce style standards. No crazy designs from people without visual communication skills. Some MySpace pages are just too hard to read with all the flashing items and weird color combinations.

Since this era, I’ve watched as the website has evolved from connecting people, to communicating on each other’s “walls”, to the new ways to communicate. You can now comment on pictures, notes, groups, pages, 3rd party apps, and more. Facebook has also improved on a steady pace without too many technological glitches which in my eyes has solidified its role in social media much more so than MySpace despite the user numbers. Many people might have MySpace pages but are they as active and interactive as they are on Facebook?

Facebook has staying power especially when it opened itself up to everyone and not just students. Students make great test subjects though, don’t they? Young, computer savvy, lots of free time (I mean who studies and goes to class), and they eventually become your target consumer market when they graduate college.

Also during this time, I was working as an Instructional Technology Mentor on a grant through Clemson's Strom Thurmond Institute with Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The main focus of the grant… online communities. Seems funny to me now how these two separate experiences would merge and provide valuable expertise as I try to make sense of how communication is changing.

My Recommendations –

Don’t just drink the Facebook kool-aid. Fill a pool with it and do a big cannonball. How?
Sign up for a free account. Add your basic information. Add your picture. Yes, a picture of you is a must. People don’t like looking at avatars or buildings. They really do want to see a real person.
Import your email address book and find your friends, family, co-workers, long lost school mates from 1995, and even a few acquaintances.
*** Need help, check out the Help section. Link is at the bottom of the page. ***
Write on someone’s wall. See what it’s like to communicate asynchronously for the whole world to see.
Add some photos from a recent family vacation or a fun work outing. This shows people you are human and approachable.
Add every stupid application your friends invite you to. You can become a vampire, add pieces of flair (think Office Space), share your favorite books, and even share a map of all the places in the world you’ve been. The more time you spend on apps figuring out what can and can’t be done, the better for you later. Applications enable you to integrate social media efforts as well as learn how you might eventually use one to your organization’s benefit. Applications may be annoying at times but there’s a lot to learn here.
Spend time learning about Groups, Causes, and Pages.
Groups =
Anyone can create one. Majority are silly but some are useful. Can be about any topic. Check out the biggest groups on Facebook. What information are they sharing on there?
Causes =
External application built on the Facebook Platform by Project Agape. A cause can be created by anyone on Facebook to organize people towards collective action. Join a few of your own favorite causes. Watch, learn, and take notes. Which ones annoy you and which ones provide benefit?
Pages =
Created by Facebook to help people connect in a way that wasn’t being achieved with groups. People can now connect and support brands, artists, businesses, and more. You might even discover a few pages you might want to learn more about. Also, pay attention to what pages your friends care about. How can you use this “friend network” to your advantage? This is a great time for brainstorming after you spend time on groups, causes, and pages.
Visit Facebook often and check out the news feed. What kinds of information are you finding out about your “friends.”
Update your profile information often. Don’t be static. People need to be regularly engaged. Also, pay attention to what information is shared in your personal news feed.
Learn about the privacy settings. Consider what part of your information should be seen by all, in your network, friends of friends, or just your friends. You can even make it so some information is seen only by yourself.

What Not to Do -

Don’t poke people. Poking was kinda fun when Facebook started but now it’s just there out of legacy and not actual use. People in the know don’t spend time poking anymore.
Don’t update your status every minute and especially not with mundane stuff. If you were calling or emailing a friend, what important status would they want to know. I’m guessing they don’t want to know that you just ate a slice of pizza and are watching reruns of Family Guy.
Don’t over share. You can tell who’s spending TOO much time on Facebook. You quickly realize who actually has a life and who just has a life on Facebook.
Don’t be too serious or skeptical. Have a little fun with an open mind so you can better understand why part of your target audience is really into connecting others in this way. Try to understand why people really get into facebook even if it’s not your thing. Who knows you might just have fun re-connecting with people you haven’t thought about since the times of braces, bad hair, and youthful optimism.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the overview. Next, I’ll try to talk about some cool ways you might want to use Facebook to help promote your organization and build your community.