Jun

02

Monitoring The Web Using Google Alerts

In a past post on how to be more responsible on the web, I brought up Google Alerts as a tool to help locate information on yourself to build awareness to what others would see. I think it’s time to dive a bit further and discover how to monitor the web for news, brand interaction, interesting articles, yourself and other people.

There really is no limit to what you can ‘monitor’ on the web using this tool. Below I will give a few scenarios and hopefully you can find value in this short post. Start monitoring the web today to bring value to you instead of participating in the constant struggle to discover new information.

The Self-absorbed

Most of us have never found the time to Google ourselves and discover that our names are a big part of who we are. Without a ‘name’ we have no true real estate on the web. Whether it be an avatar, business name, nickname or your real name, you deserve to know when you are being represented on the web. Google Alerts can take a parameter as simple as “Lucas Shaffer” and email me every time Google crawls a site that uses the term “Lucas Shaffer”. You can set it to instantaneously alert you which provides a quick boost of ego altering messages or you can have it digest the top amount for a day, week or month. You can toggle this feature to get the best managed result.

The only lesson here is that while you may have Google’d your name in the past, you possibly were not aware you could monitor and receive emailed reports of your name ‘activity’. I personally use many versions of my name and prefer the avatar ‘lucaslshaffer’. So, I currently monitor the following combinations and receive regular reports on them.

Lucas L Shaffer
“Lucas L Shaffer”
lucaslshaffer
Lucas Lamberto Shaffer
“Lucas Shaffer”

Needless to say, I seem a bit ‘self-absorbed’….

The Brand Police

If you own a copyright or trademark then you partake in a very customary ritual. You subconsciously seek your name or brand throughout the entire day. You possibly use a search engine to find whether or not you are mentioned in an online periodical or if you are trending on twitter. Either way, you are working way too hard. Google Alerts can search for your brand for you and report any discussion to your email as you command. It’s liberating to turn these services on and watch as you concentrate more on work and less on finding the ‘bad guys’.

You can basically be your own brand monitoring service to a certain degree.

Maybe you just want to follow Nike and their new Air Jordan campaign or follow a trending topic on twitter about the Oil Spill and BP stock reports. Here are a few brands I monitor on the web in which I can turn a blog comment into a connection.

“The Game Headwear”
The Game LLC
Soffe
Delta Apparel, Inc
Junk Food Tees
“the bar design”
classic headwear

As soon as the web crawls this information on the web, I am alerted and can consume as I like.

News

With the proliferation of news sites you can get lost really quick. You almost always have to fight the gushing ads and ‘feeler’ comments to get to the value you seek. You possibly already have RSS feeds attached to your favorite reader and enjoy the combination of time and effort built into these tools. That’s all fine. But what about ‘bleeding edge’ news? The news that is so lava hot your awareness is compared to the watchdogs at the Huffington Post or Mashable.

Well, here it is. A trick I will share with you now to help fulfill your needs from gathering the latest and greatest from the web. Your fishing line that only reels in the fish you want. If you want mobile device information for Androids new releases as it hits the wire directly from the source and you also want competitors reactions, then you can have it. That is it. This scenario is easy to follow and seen daily from my tweets as I try to provide the latest Android info to my followers. My monitoring keywords are below.

“Android”
Google Android
Android Froyo
Nexus One
iPhone
BlackBerry
Incredible

As these topics hit the feeds, I am the first to know and sometimes first to share! :) This has been a reliable and very intuitive way to create remarkable conversations on facebook and twitter. It also has the ability to create a bubble of expertise around yourself as you consume the alerts daily to build knowledge on the topic of choice. Others notice your are just a step ahead of them on the news and they will begin to expect it.

I will stop here as I feel I have covered the major scenarios. Either way you slice it, I stay up to date without much effort. Google Alerts brings my consumable news, brand engagement and interactions and people talking about me directly to my inbox. Google is also expanding into social media sites, like twitter, making the power of news management a skill where filter creation supports precision and not just broad strokes of results as in the past.

The first question to ask is what do I search for regularly? Financial data? Twitter blogs? iPhone articles?

The cost of Google Alerts are cheap. They take less than a minute to set up and begin paying off rather quickly. You may find yourself tweaking popular parameters to a digest setting while your inbox fills with the information you seek.

Teach a user to search, the user learns for a day. Teach the user how to utilize Google Alerts, the user learns for a lifetime, in small emailed reports. Until turned off.

Happy Alert Building!

Warning: In an effort to filter the entire web on everything you want to know, you may create a wave of uncontrollable spam for yourself. Start slow, build alerts that work with precision and go from there.

Posted by Lucas Shaffer | 0 comments

May

27

@Gist And The Social Importance Factor

facebook / google / new society / social media / twitter / Uncategorized

Have no fear, Gist is here! On the tail end of my conversations on Social Media and it’s impact on our behavior, I end up bringing awareness to a growing, and exhaustive, amount of time our social networks require and how ‘that’ time is becoming just as valuable as the information and interactions we seek.

All of our feeds are being watered down and filter creation is becoming a mandatory necessity to wade through the spam and other “less” relevant feeds.

So, how can we factor in social importance to our networks to gain more from the aggregate?

If you are anything like me, and I think you are, then you navigate a few main browser windows with dozens of tabs containing facebook fan pages and twitter cleints like @HootSuite, blogs, news and Gmail scattered across your multiple screens. I have always gravitated towards the available ‘information nets’ that allow me to quickly, or efficiently, find the value I seek and now I have found a comprehensive tool that allows me to manage all (most?) of my feeds including Gmail inbox, contacts and calendar. This tool is Gist.

It’s easy to get caught up in the next new “it” thing and simply treat “it” as a pivot point from bouncing in and out of networks like a mad man but Gist has made progress. This is quite possibly the first(?) application that allows an algorithmic view of the data as you would relate to your current connections and interactions. Yes, you and I get a lot of email, @mentions, comments, newsletters, etc. BUT how important are each of these categories? Above all, how important is one users communication within your entire network as opposed to someone you hardly know? What about new contact you want to track short term to see what type of connection you can make? Gist allows you to answer these questions.

Gist: In the beginning…

After creating an account you are zipped through all the main networks you are connected with, including facebook, twitter and RSS feeds. Quickly, Gist begins analyzing your contacts, including Gmail, in each network and calculates their importance by how many times you have have connected (via tweet, email, comment, event) with that person. This is necessary, as we will see next; manually setting individual persons “importance” level would be tragic and Gist would fail…

How important are you?

In Gist, I may not be your most important contact. If I am not, our interactions are lower than others and Gist has automatically given me a low rating like 65/100. 100 being the *most* important. If we connect more than any other person in our network then I would be closer to 100/100. See below the “People” view.

As you can see above, there is a panel to “View” and manage all of your contacts. Here is where we make people more “important” and effectively control the flow of your main Dashboard feed. As you can see my wife gets 100! :) Other contacts are people I consider valuable and important (majority were configured through Gist). With the Importance Gauge on each user you can dynamically change any persons value and Gist allows their posts to “bubble up” higher in your main feed which is seen below.

Above is the payload area. After all the networks collide and personal information is sorted you begin to examine the heart of Gist. At the Dashboard above you can do so many things to filter your networks news and links and emails and …. it is mind boggling the intuitive process of this level of organization. Again, you can see a new Importance Gauge in the toolbar. You can lower this value to show less important feeds or squeeze it tight to 99 to get only the MOST important connections.

You can toggle networks, people, tags, date range and sort functions. Take that social media! Very easy…

Last, but not least by far, is the accumulating of calendar events, feed links and attachments from previous connections. See below…

Here you can see my Event Calendar which is the combination of network cross-pollination and an aggregate of my events in one area. Also, it’s very easy to track links from your favorite twitterer or sort through the important document attachments with an “important” client. It’s a bit new to me and I haven’t done my due diligence on this aspect just yet but I see the benefits and look forward to learning more…

Whether you are the sum of just a few networks or manage a ton of contacts with heavy interaction, you can utilize Gist and be functional in just a few moments. Drop the stress, sit back and let Gist make it relevant. It’s free and requires only the access you already provide to many other networks. Albeit, I am a fan of @Gist and I am continually visiting the site (and sending feedback!) and relating the interface to my current situations. It is an odd blur going from many to one. And the one right now, is Gist.

How can this help conquer your growing social graph?

Posted by Lucas Shaffer | 0 comments

May

19

What Would YOU Do For $5? Fiverr.com Asks Everyone

bad habits / facebook / google / twitter / Uncategorized

In the world of quip communication and information abundance, Fiverr.com has found a way to maximize your cash. Users of Fiverr can post services to the world where for a not-to-shabby $5 you can get everything from motivational words, website help and even lyrics to a song.

How exciting is this? Well, I have been a member for 48 hours and I am already finding interesting things to try and tap into this “quip” commerce arena. I am merely offering services that I would find interesting and fun. Find my gigs here: http://www.fiverr.com/users/lucaslshaffer

Choosing to play, errr…make money, is easy. Set up an account and create a service you think may be worth$5. Of course, you can create a high value item such as “being a personal assistant for 1 hour” and “recording a voice-over message for phone service” or you can offer something fun like “sing Happy Birthday in Hebrew to anyone”. It’s obvious I believe this to be a great idea and will follow this to the fullest.

What do you think about adding $5 jobs to the marketplace? Can someone make a living off this type of micro-commerce? I think its a novel addition to the realm of fast communication and as the dust settle this could easily become the niche market for the mundane task we deal with everyday. I mean, who REALLY wants to take the time to write a resume when some someone would do it for $5. Get ready for a micro-economic shift. 140 characters last year, 500 pennies today.

What would you do for $5?

Here are some “important” bullet points from Fiverr.com your should know first.

You need to be a Registered Fiverr user to sell and buy. Registration is free.
Services that are offered by sellers on Fiverr are called “Gigs”.
Gig prices are fixed at $5.
For each of your gigs that was ordered and delivered, your net share is $4.
Sellers and buyers identity is anonymous. Do not request or provide emails to users on the site
Sellers may not accept payments from Fiverr buyers outside of Fiverr (directly through PayPal or any other service)
Posting of adult, illegal, copyright protected, violent, nonsense or other improper material on the site is strictly prohibited
Content on the site is moderated. Users posting, messaging or suggesting any of the above prohibited subjects will get their account blocked permanently
When buyers order one of your gigs, they will be required to pay for the gig in advance.
When a buyer orders one of your gigs, you will be notified and asked to Accept or Reject the order. Rejecting an order should only be used when you will not be able to perform your offering on time. If you are away and cannot handle orders, it is good idea to suspend your gigs from your “My Store” control panel.
During your work, you are required to use only Fiverr’s internal mail system to pass material from and to your buyer. Using the Fiverr mail system protects the seller’s and buyer’s privacy. Never ask a buyer to switch to third party email.
Purchase of gigs from Fiverr can be done using your PayPal or credit card (credit card purchases are handled by PayPal as well).
You can cancel your order at any time until the seller Accepts your order. Once the seller accepts your order you will not be able to cancel it.
Sellers have the option to reject an order if they can’t handle it on time. If for any reason your order gets rejected, your $5 will be placed in your Fiverr balance and will be available to you for purchasing other gigs on Fiverr.

Posted by Lucas Shaffer | 4 comments

May

09

Social Media A ‘Trend’? Barnes & Nobles Must Think So

facebook / linkedin / twitter

Barnes and Nobles - Social Media Non-Section

I recently visited our local Barnes and Nobles to scan the books and periodicals to see what was new. I walked around for a moment looking for the section where I could find resources on Social Media. Most importantly, I was looking for hard copies of “Socialnomics” by Erik Qualman or “Social Media 101″ by Chris Brogan. These books are strong and would be good to have around physically (as opposed to the audiobook versions I own) as the knowledge in them are divided into many ‘short’ sections and contain tons of knowledge in understanding the social ‘trend’.

I walked around for the majority of my visit and finally found the books on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media ‘how-to’s. I was surprised to find these books in the “Trends in Business”. It made me smirk a bit. It was as if Barnes and Nobles (in Columbus, Ga) hadn’t begun to understand that this ‘trend’ was more than just another quick sell to build your business or acquire more sales. It is about adding value, not gimmicks.

As I scanned each of these titles one common phrase connected them all. ”One Hour A Day” seems to be the thread that was built to grab the curious reader or busy business professional. It failed for me.

An hour a day is a good start. However, if you are serious about fully impacting your professional or personal social capital, you could find you would need to spend many hours of your day connecting to new people and exuding value into other’s social circles. When Chris Brogan was asked about how to build a solid network in “Trust Agent’s” he simply answered, “Be helpful.” He is dead on.

As this is not a new concept, it is sometimes blurred with the hurried feel of following twitter feeds and facebook contests that we can feel overwhelmed. More reactions come from adding value to others social circles than adding value to yours at every chance.

While Barnes and Nobles has yet to adopt the curriculum required for businesses to understand Social Media instead of trying to bank on quip communication niche ideas, I will continue to get the knowledge from the sources. I am not assuming the books at Barnes and Nobles are value-less. I am simply stating that only having a section called “Trends of Business” to harbor social media knowledge is a slight misnomer and would fend off a Social Media enthusiast. Even worse, this misinformation could deflect a curious newbie by labeling “Social Media” as the next big niche’ when in fact it’s grip on business is just the tip of the iceberg.

I am sure my town may be a few years behind (in tech-time means centuries) but I expected Barnes and Nobles to be a bit ahead of the selections in my local supermarket. I suspect as the worldwide recognition of the impact of social sites like facebook, twitter, linkedin grows, we could look forward to a ‘new’ designated area of gaining knowledge of this new frontier instead of reading ‘trendy’ footnotes to quickly inflate a business’s presence online. For those of us who know, a valuable social network takes time to build and starts with helping one person at a time.

Posted by Lucas Shaffer | 12 comments

May

06

Is Twitter Doomed? Uprising of the Auto-tweet

automation / bad habits / common sense / communities / power of automation / scheduling tweets / social media / stats for twitter / trending topics / twitter / Uncategorized / value content

I recently studied the predator-prey model for a grad class this Spring and found that it’s properties could possibly foretell an upcoming Doomsday for Twitter. In this model, the simulations concluded that with each corresponding variable change to either animal there is a diverse effect on both populations. For instance, if the birth rate of the prey decreased, the predator population would suffer. Adversely, if the predator required more prey to fill the growing nutritional needs, the prey population would suffer. There is a state of equilibrium, in respect to time, that drives the predator and prey relationship to evolve and adapt.

As revealed at Chirp (Apr 2010), Twitterers are now tweeting 55 Million tweets a day. This is an amazing amount of information flowing through the twitterverse. As we stand in front of the endless barrage of quip communication, we can no longer use our original tools to wade through the feeds to find value. The twitter search page only lists a small group of tweets before you either load “more” on the bottom of the page or click the top part which reports that while you were reading, “3,176 new tweets” occurred about this criteria. Twitter has no natural predator and it’s very apparent. When will twitter fall prey to a new, feasibly self-inflicted, predator? I do not know. Is it in itself, it’s own worse enemy?

Let’s take a brief look at where it is getting out of hand.

It is common to find the accounts you follow hint at a product rumor or a humorous website and even a valuable morsel of knowledge. It is also common, to find spam. As auto-tweeting has become more popular and API limits are being pushed to 3 billion hits a day (stat from Chirp), we can see something that was once a naturally occurring melodic voice change dramatically into a resonating robotic regurgitation of half-life knowledge. Are applications built for auto-pilot the new ‘predator’ of the twitterverse? Instead of nurturing the value of the tweet, we have begun to mass replicate and squeeze them back into twittersphere and in turn, they have begun to depreciate. A friend and fellow twitterer, Joshua Whitley, mentioned to me today that the ‘next’ generation of free social communication should begin soon as many popular feeds are transforming into “streaming ad space”. I agree. I am having trouble finding value from what were once prominent accounts whose focus has shifted to dominating it’s profession by keeping score in a game they are playing by themselves.

As our skills adapt and develop sharply to filter more and more tweets, we will eventually be unable to find true value in a tweet, or should I say it’s source. Following the source is the real goal of communicating and interacting with Twitter, not the fabricators or ‘news on news’. This ‘subtle’ predator will continue to fill the feeds with ambiguous links to mediocre blogs and marketing messages disguised as the next valuable piece of knowledge until we can longer distinguish value. Of course, we could simply not follow the once valuable feeds as their daily tweet has gone from 6-8 a day to 3-4 an hour. Whilst 1 of 6 tweets could bring real value, 4 of 36 leave 32 tweets that do nothing but camouflage the real value with the valueless. How many lists and filters do you use already? I know I use many and I consider myself a strong value ‘finder’.

For those of us who seek value, conversation and interaction, I predict an exhaustive future of finding a tweet that truly deserves to be read. Value is always worth the digg. ;)

Posted by Lucas Shaffer | 12 comments

Feb

17

Please Rob Me?! 8 Ways To Be More Responsible Online

facebook / google / google alerts / google buzz / location tagging / mobile devices / mobile safety / pleaserobme.com / privacy settings / responsibility / social media / social safety / twitter

What? Really? A site dedicated to informing the public of your adventures? You can not just walk out of the house and take the same non-precautions your parents did. C’mon people, this is the 10′s….uh, ok. ;) I fall into the range of kids that our parents rarely locked the door so this could be a tough sell.

Being responsible online is a bigger issue than one may think. Sites like http://pleaserobme.com/ stand for awareness (more than information) about a growing issue with the unbeknownst user wanting to graffiti their new Buzz update on the latest diner. Or becoming mayor of the local Waffle House on http://foursquare.com. It is this carelessness that can get your house uncovered, smothered and robbed!

Being proactive about your location safety can come in many forms. One of most important no-no’s is a series of updates stating an upcoming vacation or long absence. With the uprise of twitter and Buzz, we have become maddened by the clouding of the non-essential, blotter style news that we are drifting into a pirates haven. Thieves can have a twitter account, right?! @iWantToRobYou……suprisingly not taken! Makes me feel a little warmer inside….

Here are a 8 safety topics I would recommend to learn more about. Take a second, buckle your social seatbelt and stop punching away on your phone for one minute. We really don’t need to know every time you pass by the boutique or tech shop to tout your thin, online ego…

Privacy Settings – Find them quick. From foursquare to twitter to Buzz to facebook, you have a ton of privacy concerns that have already been brought up by the above statements. Trustworthy sites make it easy to protect yourself. Make yourself aware of the depth you would like to provide to the public, if any. Once you begin looking around, you may be surprised to see how much is actually out there.
Mobile Settings – Yes, your phone has a GPS. Yes, I see you on my Latitude. Yes, I am now bored with your location. All phones ask who you would like to see your location. Spending time with this familiar feature can provide easy access to turning this ON and OFF quickly.
Your Updates – My personal policy is to update statuses mentioning my attack birds frequently so a would be robber will be deterred from getting pooped on relentlessly by my birds. They are well fed. Otherwise, I stick to ambiguous comments about the locations I am at. I have nothing worth stealing so most of my updates are open but the advantages to being open, as opposed to anonymous, are yet to show themselves. Use your own common sense on this.
Pictures – It’s always best to post pictures of your vacation when you return. This can be a heartfelt gesture to your family and friends but your social network can include many people who don’t need to know you fell off your bike in Times Square and here’s the picture to prove it! Wait til you get home, organize them and then post! At least mobile pictures can be ambiguous…use playful comments. Post a picture of Burger King and say, “Man, I love this place!” Then post to facebook. Don’t say, “Man, I love this place….looks like imma stay here til dinner time. (So you can rob me!)”
Digitally Cleanse your following – facebook is safe(?). Don’t quote me but at least you can confirm friends. Unlike facebook, twitter and Buzz can become a hassle trying to cleanse your followers by hitting ‘unfollow, block, report’ just so you feel better. It’s the comparison to barnacles on a boat. Spam followers inflate your following but when real people come through and notice you are not tending your flock, you lose a little social capital. Stay on top of your followers! It’s time to clean house!
Easy Target Syndrome – Yes, you! The guy in the red shirt who hasn’t looked up at this thread one time. You are so busy with all your friends business you are forgetting you need to take some time to protect yourself. This point is really easy to explain. BE CAREFUL! The police will not respond to “@911 Help Me!” Lock your doors. Tell family, friends and neighbors when you may be out of town. Have a safety net for times there may be problems. Give your landlord notice, tell pops you will be gone and don’t stay gone for extended periods and notify twitter of every move. Well, unless you have menacing attack birds ready to poop on anyone who enters your home!
Google Yourself - Nothing represents a good old fashion confidence boost like a Google search on yourself. For the most part, you will likely find other people in the world that share your name and yes, they do exist. Google is probably the most comprehensive search tool available. However, using other sites can only improve your technique for finding out who is talking about you.
Google Alerts – If you are web conscious already you probably already use Google Reader or Google News Alerts to scan comprehensive results and spoon feed these reports to you at an alarming rate. Setting up a Google Alert is easy and can immediately send you details of when your name is found on the web. Don’t be shy! Try several types of searches. For example, I use “lucaslshaffer”, “Lucas L Shaffer”, “Lucas Shaffer” and “Lucas Lamberto Shaffer”. If any of these terms cross the wire, Google alerts me and I can be there before anyone else. Be Smart! This is very useful on many levels…

Many of these are common sense but still reflect a big part of what you CAN and CANNOT control. You pretty much have the power to handle your online visibility and it’s ‘your’ responsibility to monitor your online social life just as it is to monitor your in-person social life (if you still have one, yikes!)

Nothing is more important than the safety of everyones family and friends. Take the time to learn to protect yourself, as well!

Posted by Lucas Shaffer | 5 comments

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