STI Workbook #1 Content Syndication

Social Traffic Inc. 2009 © The Social Traffic Inc XXX Training System 2009 Index Introduction & Welcome 4 Content Syndication Basics 5 Social Media Today 8 Web 1.0 10 The Advent of Google 14 Google Accounts 15 Gmail 17 Google Reader 17 Web 2.0 21 Facebook Basics 22 Twitter Basics 28 Twitterfeed 33 RSS 34 Google Blogsearch 37 Friendfeed Basics 39 Google Latitude 46 Web 3.0 51 Google Friend Connect Basics 52 Summary 56 1 Sociel Traffric Inc. 2009 Sociel Traffric Inc. 2009 Copyright © All materials, videos, references, and other parts of this workbook are protected by copyright. Copyright Notice All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical. Any unauthorized use, sharing, reproduction, or distribution is strictly prohibited. Legal Notice While attempts have been made to verify information provided in the workbook, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibilities for errors, omission, or contradictory information contained in the workbook. This information is not intended as legal, investment, or accounting advice. The purchaser or reader of this book assumes all responsibility for the use of these materials and information. Sociel Traffric Inc. 2009 Lost contact • What happens if you get disconnected from the • conference call? Simply Call the meeting conference • number again and enter the meeting ID followed by • the # key. • What happens if you get disconnected from the • webinar? Try to reconnect, in the meantime, follow • along in your Training Manual. • What happens if the meeting ID changes? If you try • to connect tomorrow and for some reason it doesn’t • work – please call (XXX)XXX-XXXX __________l or • (XXX)XXX-XXXX __________ for further direction. • About the Control Panel….. • As we present material your phone will be muted.... • Please use the chat box for questions. Or wait for a • question break. • Check EMAILS -before the meetings in case of last • minute changes2 Sociel Traffric Inc. 2009 Welcome! Welcome to Social Traffic Inc. and the XXX-Training System. Our team of mentors and trainers is here to help get you the best possible interactive, guided, hands-on training currently available in Social Traffic Marketing. All of our staff members have extensive experience in training, educating, lecturing and speaking and have themselves gone through repeated courses in Social Media Marketing and all the materials presenting in the XXX-Training system to ensure that you get the best possible advise and help money can buy. For a current list of trainers and mentors with Bio and background info. Please use the following link: http://www.socialtraffic.biz/trainingstaff.html Sociel Traffric Inc. 2009 Introduction Social Traffic Inc. (STI) presents the XXX-Training system. It consist of eight (8) major modules, covering all the toptools and applications in use across social media marketing and the internet today. This is session #1 of 8. Content Syndication Sociel Traffric Inc. 2009 Objective To supply you with the most professional tools, methodologies, techniques and system knowledge that will allow you and/or your organization to become successful in social media marketing, improve branding, revenues, and ultimately profits by applying the relationship marketing approach that will turn you into a 21st century leader in your industry3 Sociel Traffric Inc. 2009 The Training Process The training in the XXX-Training system is a combination of: • Webinar presentations (with Handbook support) • Reading material • Practical exercises (supported by handouts) • Video content • Links to online sources Sociel Traffric Inc. 2009 Training Overview •Training Module 1 -Content Syndication • Cross Syndication Training • The New Media Scape • Web 1.0 • Web 2.0 • Web 3.0 • Google Latitude • R.S.S • Strategy • Content Syndication Practicum Training Module 2 -Twitter • Twitter Training • Getting Started • Twitter strategy • What to Tweet • Hashtags • Hashtags.org • Twttrstrm • Twitter Practicum •Training Module 3 -Article Marketing • Article marketing strategy • Squidoo • Hubpages • Ezinearticles • Article Production Practicum • Video URL Submission • Article Marketing Practicum • Internal Linking Training Module 4 -Google • Open Social • Friend Connect Communities • Friend Connect Networking • Google Strategy • Gmail • Google Latitude • Google Documents • Google Practicum • Training Module 5 – YouTube • Why YouTube • Getting Started • YouTube Channels • Search • Loading Videos • Distribution • Launching Videos • Strategy • Tools • YouTube Practicum • Article and Video URL Submission Training Module 6 -Facebook • Getting Started • Strategy • Etiquette • Paying Attention • Facebook Practicum Training Module 7 -BookMarking • BookMarking Strategy • Best Practices • Digg • Stumble upon • Bookmarking sites • Tagging • Watching your back • BookMarking • Practicum Training Module 8 -Course Review • Content Syndication • Twitter • Article Marketing • Google • YouTube • Facebook • BookMarking Sociel Traffric Inc. 2009 Session # 1 – Content Syndication In this training system, you can find your training videos by applying the displayed links within the workbook. Alternatively, you can also access all the videos from the wicki -page, which becomes an additional source of information for later training modules. You find the Content Syndication Training Module Videos by scrolling down the page to Module 1 If you haven’t previously used the wicki-page, just click on the link below or copy it into your web browser! http://www.eventslisted.com/wiki/index.php/TrainingSteps1 What is Content Syndication? Content Syndication is a way to spread content around a large number of outlets, quickly and easily. The content can be anything -your own written or visual or audible material, or anything you find from another source. There are a few methods of distribution such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication). The basic idea is that your content gets captured in a format that can be electronically passed along to any receiving program which then interprets the RSS code and displays your content. You will learn about the different "reader programs" that do this, as well as how to encode your own RSS links to send out.. What is the Benefit of Content Syndication? This depends on which side you are on -the sending side or the receiving side. For the sending side: Say something once, be heard lots. You just need to generate your content at the source, and have it "syndicated" across all the networks you set up to reach a very large audience in real time. On the receiving side -Get up-to-the-minute content that interests you and no extra "fat." You can "subscribe" to RSS feeds, which means you are choosing to recieve the content that the owner of that feed dishes out, so you get only what you decide you want to receive from sources all across the net in one place. It's quick and easy. Where do we want to get?SOCIAL TRAFFIC – CONVERSATION MARKETING IN A NEW MEDIA SCAPE In 1958 Licklider saw universal networking as a potential unifying human revolution, which many years later resulted in the creation of the web. Till 2000 all we needed was a website to be considered 'on the web'. The definition and usage of the internet has changed so drastically since then that it’s imperative to think about it in terms of your "complete" web presence -which includes your profiles, followings, social networks, life streaming, blogs and much more. People, who aren't part of this new social media landscape, are in essence, not really considered 'online' at all. According to a research, as of today (fall 2008); it’s a fact that approximately 73% of online users read blogs. It’s a fact that 57% internet users are on social networking sites. It’s a fact that Facebook just recently hit their 100 million user landmark within months. It’s a fact that people are tuning in to Youtube more than mainstream TV with approximately 83% internet users having viewed online videos. Almost 40% of all the people on the internet subscribe to RSS feeds. On an average 16,500 tweets (twitter) are sent each hour. Most astoundingly, there is a massive shift in company brands when 36% of internet users claim to think more positively about companies with blogs. Should these stats matter to us as business owners, event managers or marketers? Initially we want to achieve one goal -make you understand that Being 'present online' isn't as difficult as it seems! With its huge potential, Web 2.0 has opened up gateways for businesses. There are more than 400,000 entrepreneurs and developers on the Facebook platform. And this is just a SINGLE social networking site. Imagine if you tap into several, how big and profitable it can be for you. The key is to channel the intelligence and savvy of the collected group and make your space a user-friendly place for people to meet, connect and share. Online event marketing also has a huge potential now, more so than ever before, thanks to Web 2.0 techniques. People are no longer an audience who are “just a witness to the event taking place on stage" but are actually a part of planning and promoting it. Your audiences, customers or markets have the most influence in making your events or launches a huge success. Social media has taken things to the next level and the division between “you” and “them” has blurred and “we” has emerged. Simon Ford (2008) (Source of stats: Universal McCann Wave3 research into social media) 1 The Social Media Market Landscape What we cover How to keep track? While working through the XXX-Training system, you will have to create and keep track of many accounts you create across the Social Media Landscape. We recommend you get yourself a small booklet with alphabetical registry to keep all your data for entry in the systems in one place. For your security and preserve your privacy, make sure you don’t enter the same password and User-ID for every system.2 To improve your understanding of the Content Syndication idea, we will next watch the Video “The New Media Scape” in the XXX-Training System. The screen shown to the right is what you will find when you click on this link: http://tinyurl.com/STIvid1 You might need your XXXTraining System password to be able to start the video. When finished, return to the workbook. What does it mean? Social Media marketing basically defines how you can use online channels to market your products, get traffic, convert people into customers, get your conversation started, etc. So when you’re planning your marketing mix, it is important to understand the dynamics of different social media tools to find the right ones for your business. You can’t just put them all up and expect magic to happen. What works for an online clothing store may not work for a web services company. Simon Ford, (2008) Handout Please use the Handout titled: “My social Media Accounts” for the next exercise:How did it all start? Check this out and have some fun! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPYLn 2QblNI Web 1.0 Defined Jonathan Strickland It's hard to define Web 1.0 for several reasons. First, Web 2.0 doesn't refer to a specific advance in Web technology. Instead, Web 2.0 refers to a set of techniques for Web page design and execution. Second, some of these techniques have been around since the World Wide Web first launched, so it's impossible to separate Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 in a time line. The definition of Web 1.0 completely depends upon the definition of Web 2.0 With that in mind, if Web 2.0 is a collection of approaches that are the most effective on the World Wide Web, then Web 1.0 includes everything else. As for what it means to be "effective," Tim O'Reilly says that it's providing users with an engaging experience so that they'll want to return to the Web page in the future. Here's a collection of strategies O'Reilly considers to be part of the Web 1.0 philosophy: Web 1.0 sites are static. They contain information that might be useful, but there's no reason for a visitor to return to the site later. An example might be a personal Web page that gives information about the site's owner, but never changes. A Web 2.0 version might be a blog or MySpace account that owners can frequently update. Web 1.0 sites aren't interactive. Visitors can only visit these sites; they can't impact or contribute to the sites. Most organizations have profile pages that visitors can look at but not impact or alter, whereas a wiki allows anyone to visit and make changes. Web 1.0 applications are proprietary. Under the Web 1.0 philosophy, companies develop software applications that users can download, but they can't see how the application works or change it. A Web 2.0 application is an open source program, which means the source code for the program is freely available. Users can see how the application works and make modifications or even build new applications based on earlier programs. For example, Netscape Navigator was a proprietary Web browser of the Web 1.0 era. Firefox follows the Web 2.0 philosophy and provides developers with all the tools they need to create new Firefox applications. Tiny Bubbles in the Web Tim O'Reilly says that by looking at the Web sites that were around before and after the so-called dot-com bubble burst, people can see which Web strategies work best. By 2000, the Web had been around for several years and many investors were pouring money into small, unproven Web companies. Many of these companies had no proven means of generating revenue, and eventually the wave of speculative investments crashed. O'Reilly argues that the Web companies that survived the crash did so because their approach was better suited to the Web. In his Web 2.0 explanation, he says that the companies that are now thriving after the dot-com crash learned valuable lessons from the Web 1.0 companies that are no longer around. Is it always a bad idea to take a Web 1.0 approach in Web design? When Web 1.0 is Right? If Web 2.0 is a collection of the most effective ways to create and use Web pages, is there any reason to make a page that follows the Web 1.0 model? It may sound surprising, but the answer is actually yes. There are times when a Web 1.0 approach is appropriate. The Amazon Web site was quick to embrace Web 2.0 concepts in features like its customer book reviews. Part of the Web 2.0 philosophy is creating a Web page that visitors can impact or change. For example, the Amazon Web site allows visitors to post product reviews. Future visitors will have a chance to read these reviews, which might influence their decision to buy the product. The ability to contribute information is helpful. But in some cases, the webmaster wouldn't want users to be able to impact the Web page. A restaurant might have a Web page that shows the current menu. While the menu might evolve over time, the webmaster wouldn't want visitors to be able to make changes. The menu's purpose is to let people know what the restaurant serves; it's not the right place for commentary or reviews. Another example of a good Web 1.0 approach is information resources. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia resource that allows visitors to make changes to most articles. We use it at STI for the main location of our training videos and other static content. Ideally, with enough people contributing to Wikipedia entries, the most accurate and relevant information about every subject will eventually be part of each article. Unfortunately, because anyone can change entries, it's possible for someone to post false or misleading information. People can purposefully or unwittingly damage an article's credibility by adding inaccurate facts. While moderators do patrol the pages for these acts of vandalism, there's no guarantee that the information on an entry will be accurate on any given day. World Book Encyclopedia's Web page is an example of a Web 1.0 information resource. On the flip side of the coin are official encyclopedias. Encyclopedia entries are fact-checked, edited and attributed to a specific author or entity. The process of creating an encyclopedia article is very structured. Perhaps most importantly, there is a stress on objectivity. The author of an encyclopedia entry must present facts without being subjective; a person making an edit to a Wikipedia article could have a personal agenda and as a result hide certain facts or publish false information. While Wikipedia can be a good starting place to find information about most subjects, it's almost always a bad idea to use it as your sole source of information. The boundary between what counts as Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 isn't always clear. Some Web sites are very static but include a section for visitor comments. The site as a whole might follow the Web 1.0 approach, but the comments section is a Web 2.0 technique. Even Web experts disagree on how to classify Web pages, and some think that it's a mistake to even try labeling them at all. There's no denying that some Web strategies are more effective than others. In the end, whether or not there's such a thing as Web 1.0 is a moot point. The important thing is to learn how to use the Web to its full potential. 1 WEB 1.0 Video Please click on this link to watch the WEB 1.0 Video http://tinyurl.com/STIvid2 You might need your XXXTraining System password to be able to start the video. When finished, return to the workbook The advent of What is ? The best known Google service is a free to use search engine containing millions of references and links to material that can be found on the Internet. The information sources it searches cover all kinds of online literature, commercial websites, academic research, news items, as well as lots of personal web sites. Other Google services include Google Books (printed books) and Google Scholar (for journal articles and other academic papers) Why use Google? ? Google is the biggest search engine database in the world: it currently claims to monitor 8 billion web pages. It uses spidering software to automatically crawl the web and find sites for inclusion in the Google index. What search features does it offer? • Ranking: it uses a ranking system (what is this) to sort results that may help you find suitable items quickly if your search terms are relatively specific • Upper or lower case?: Google is NOT case sensitive • Word variations: Google uses stemming technology. When appropriate, it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar, ie: vaccines /vaccinations • Spelling: it can correct your spelling mistakes -it suggests alternatives where it thinks there may be an error • Advanced search: it can be searched using broad terms or by using advanced search methods to narrow down your search strategy 2 Visiting for the first time continued3 Account Sign-in Quick-links to Google applications you have signed up to Apps to start your Social Traffic community As you saw in the WEB 1.0 video, there are a number of applications provided by Google, that help you create a foundation, track what is happening, communicate with friends, and draw from, as you venture out and find new useful tools for your marketing or other online activities. The following is a list of apps we cover in this training program: 􀀹 Google Reader 􀀹 Google Blog Search 􀀹 Google Latitude 􀀹 Google Friend Connect 􀀹 Google Documents 􀀹 Google Mail (Gmail)4 by When you created your Google Account you automatically receive a Google Mail Account, called “Gmail”. If there is a reason for you to just check you Gmail, you can sign into Gmail on this page What is Google Reader and why should you use it? Google Reader is a free, Web-based reader for RSS feeds. You can find feeds on nearly every Web site. RSS feeds offer a simplified view of Web content down to just text, pictures and videos--minus the site's style and formatting, which can sometimes hinder or befuddle casual reading. There will be more detail about RSS feeds later in this training program. RSS Feeds are representated by this button on web pages: Google reader lets you subscribe to these feeds as easily as typing them into your browser's address bar, and lets you read them like you're browsing through e-mail. There are many online RSS readers available, but Google is one of the best. It's easy to get a grip on Google Reader basics, but there are several tips and tricks that can make it extremely productive. Setting up To setup Google Reader, you need to go online and enter: http://www.reader.google.com If you are logged into your Google Account, you will get immediate access. If not logged in, here is what you will see:56 You Reader NEEDS to be fed before it will work. Getting Feeds from most websites you'll see the Orange satellite button There are two ways to get the feeds. #1. The easy way : Click on the Orange satellite button Click on Add to Google Reader and it will feed into your Reader 7 #2. The hard way: You click the Orange button and get to a feed page like this: You find the feed address you need in the address bar: Highlight and copy the address Put the data into Google Reader by pasting it in the field right below the button “Add a subscription” Congratulations, You have just fed your Google Reader. More feeds can be added in this same process. Here is what it will look like when a feed arrived1 Collective Wisdom Psychology So the internet is agreeably one of the most remarkable innovations of our time, and it started out great when it went public. Fast forward to some 15+ odd years ahead and we find ourselves in a love-hate relationship of information overload. There is so much content out there, when everyone and their neighbor's cat considers it their exclusive duty to share their perspectives on everything. It’s incredible to see how much information is out there, yet it sometimes becomes difficult to find the right info or get to the right markets effectively. There is a paradox of interests online – people are spending billions of dollars on product development and want people buying their products. Despite that, they themselves don’t want to be sold to. Is this ‘double standards’, or just natural human behavior? New Media, as we see it, is a panoramic view of the 'One World' from a distance. It’s how different social networks are interlinked to form massive cross syndication networks. It’s the breakdown of communication channels from a river into mini streams. Content creation and sharing across networks. Collaborating and communicating with prospects. Following prospects or industry experts using handy tools. Communicating with audiences using blogs, videos and microcontent, forming communities, interacting directly with people, being a part of the community; genuinely understanding where the people are coming from. WEB 2.0 Video Please click on this link to watch the WEB 1.0 Video http://tinyurl.com/STIvid3 You might need your XXXTraining System password to be able to start the video. When finished, return to the workbookAs we heard in the web 2.0 video was information about the emergence of social bookmarking and social network systems. One of the best and quickest growing networks is Facebook. If you already have an established Facebook account, please skip this part in the workbook and move on to the section titled: “Creating a Twitter Account Creating a facebook account Getting Started Go to http://www.facebook.com Here is the screen/website you will see Sign up for an account Fill in the information required in the fields provided. In case you like to know why Facebook asks for it, here is what Facebook answers to you: Facebook requires all users to provide their real date of birth as both a safety precaution and as a means of preserving the integrity of the site. You will be able to hide this information from your profile if you wish. You are about to create a personal account. If you are here to represent your band, business, or product you should first create a Facebook Page. The security check is to make sure you're a real person. Check your email Inbox to verify your email address and activate your account The emails message will read: Click the link on the email to become an official "facebooker" Here is what your first visit as a “facebooker” looks like STEP#1 There's only 4 steps STEP#2 Finding friends is easySTEP #3a. Begin develop your profile: Where did you go to school? STEP#3b. Who Do you Know?The function about the people you may know is based on your previous addition of friends from your email system. One of the biggest and most important issues that makes Facebook so popular and successful is the fact that you determine what you want to do in your part of the system. In Facebook, each time you see or hear about people you like to have as a friend, you need to invite them to join you. It is up t them to accept or reject. The same is true when people find you or receive recommendations to become a friend with you. You drive and decide if you accept or reject. STEP#3c. Where are you from? This function is particularly helpful for you, when you like to know who is in your area and on Facebook with you, and other can search and find you by the location you add into this area of the profile. Though people like to make lasting connections and create relationships, it is a special treat to meet people you actually first connected to on Facebook and then in the real world, maybe even in your town. Your profile settings get you started. As you become more and more familiar with the Facebook system, you can always go back and update your information Edit your profile anytime from the settings menu In a later module of the XXX Training System we will show you more ways how to actually use and benefit form Facebook. This is just to show you how to establish your account if you don’t already have it. Creating a Twitter account Why Twitter Matters Can the fledgling microblogging service become a social media powerhouse to rival giants like Facebook—or will it be gobbled up? By Stephen Baker It's easy to laugh at nonsense on Twitter, the microblogging rage. "My nose is leaking," writes someone called Zapples, "so imma go to sleep now.…" The key question today isn't what's dumb on Twitter, but instead how a service with bite-size messages topping out at 140 characters can be smart, useful, maybe even necessary. Here's why I'm looking. In the last few months, the traffic on Twitter has exploded, growing far beyond its circles of bleeding-edge tech enthusiasts and hard-core social networkers. Businesses such as H&R Block (HRB) and Zappos are now using Twitter to respond to customer queries. Market researchers look to it to scope out minute-by-minute trends. Media groups are focusing on Twitterers as first-to-the-scene reporters. (They were on top of the May 12, 2008 China earthquake within minutes.) Loads of new applications and services are growing around the Twitter platform, leading some to suggest that the microblogging service could become a powerhouse in social media. Here are two views on the growth of Twitter: Data from Mashable, The Social Media Guide How to register your own Twitter Account Go to http://twitter.com/Here is what you will see: If you like to get a little bit of the understanding that Twitter provides about its service, you might want to click on the red button on the top right hand corner of the screen and watch the Twitter video. It starts with the following picture: Step #1: You are now ready to sign up for your account! Make sure to fill in all the required fields and then click on the green arrow on the bottom to get your account created. People already on Twitter are interested to find you. For them to decide if they want to follow you and receive your micro-blogging of 140 characters or less, they need to get to know you a little. That is called “creating a profile, as you will see in many social network systems. Step #2 Set up your profile using the Settings on the upper right hand side of your screen Make sure to include: • Your First and last Name • A good username • More info URL (Link back to your Bio on another site) • One line bio (Make it snappy, you only have 160 characters) • A photo (no one likes talking to a shadow) !Now that you have an account, Twitter is supporting you in bringing existing friends form other platforms to your twitter presence. Step #3: Find your Friends • Click on the Find People tab • Click on Find on other Networks • Enter your email address • Enter your password Twitter will search through your email database and find your friends. As a newcomer, to get started, here is what the first attempt to tweet looks like You will not be able to read about it, but there are actually mathematical formulas, called algorithms in the background of Twitter. They monitor the activity and try to make sure that all users play by the rules. One of these rules includes a healthy relationship between people you like and want to follow, and people that like what you say or have to offer, and follow you. Ideally Twitter like to see this relationship between your followers and who you follow to be as close as possible to 50/50. The best way to achieve that is to apply the: #1 Golden Rule of Twitter. Don't tweet until you have listened for at least a day. When you follow this rule, you will find people beginning to follow you and you can send them a personal thank-you message (in less than 140 Characters) to start establishing relationships Following this cardinal rule, maybe you like to read a little more. Here is a good source. STI doesn’t specifically endorse what is said in this article, but there is a lot of food for thought to be found that will prepare you for our special section about Twitter in Training Module 2, immediately following This session about Content syndication: http://www.lostartofblogging.com/twitter-guide One of the tools we suggest you give a try, especially since it builds a bridge between Twitter and Facebook is called Twitterfeed. Here is how that works: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) You have created a number of accounts by now and probably begin to wonder how to manage all the information that is being generated. You are probably in any news about your topic area, any interesting blog posts, articles and other content regarding you niche area. In Web 1.0 we needed to go out and find all this content. Web 2.0 now allows us to have content delivered to us. To get a better understanding of the concepts of RSS and getting information fed to you, we have provided two videos for you. The one is putting RSS into a work environment, the other is explaining the process of use of RSS in very simple terms. You can choose to watch either one or both of these videos Example #1:RSS in the workplace ………………… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4osqHYW1qyg Example #2:RSS Explained in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU You can get News feeds and other info from RSS What are News Feeds? News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. You can get the latest headlines and video in one place, as soon as its published, without having to visit the websites you have taken the feed from. Feeds are also known as RSS. There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but most people plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'. In essence, the feeds themselves are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people. How do I start using feeds? In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail or Gmail. Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want it to receive. For example, if you would like the latest BBC News Entertainment stories, simply visit the Entertainment section and you will notice an orange button on the left hand side. If you would like the latest News World video stories, visit the Video and Audio section of the News and click on the button at the bottom of the World section. If you click on the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader. Most sites that offer feeds use a similar orange button, but some may just have a normal web link. Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to feeds much easier. For more details on these, please check their websites. How do I get a news reader? There is a range of different news readers available and new versions are appearing all the time. Different news readers work on different operating systems, so you will need to choose one that will work with your computer. Our recommended feeder is Google Reader What do I do next? In the videos there was some mention of getting the information from your favorite blogs delivered to you each time the blog owner is posting a new article, news, or other information. We now know what RSS does and how to get the feed information into our Feed Reader. We suggest to use Google reader for it, because it integrates with all your other Google tools. This leaves the questions how to find the blogs around your niche or subject area and then get the information and blog posts automatically send to you. That’s what you’ll learn in the next section, called Blog Search Google Blog Search What is Blog Search? Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves. Whether you're looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice. Your results include all blogs, not just those published through Blogger; our blog index is continually updated, so you'll always get the most accurate and up-to-date results; and you can search not just for blogs written in English, but in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Swedish, Malay, Polish, Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog, Turkish, Vietnamese and other languages as well. From any search engine you can enter the search term “Google Blog Search”, and then navigate to the site. The other option is to directly enter the site into your address bar: http://www.blogsearch.google.com When you get to the site, you will find a search bar that allows you to enter any search term you desire and hope to find information about. If you want more control over your search, click the "Advanced Search" link to the right of the search button. There you'll find options to specify titles, authors, languages and more. Once you get your search results, there will be an additional link that allows you to switch between displaying the results with either the most relevant or recent results at the top. What are the sections on the left side of Google Blog Search? The links on the left allow you to browse Google Blog Search results by topic. For example, clicking the Technology link will show you top stories in the tech world. Which blogs are included in Blog Search? The goal of Blog Search is to include every blog that publishes a site feed (either RSS or Atom). It is not restricted to Blogger blogs, or blogs from any other service. What do I do when I find an interesting Blog or Blog post? Look for the …….button, click on it and get the RSS feed form that Blog/Website. You can add it to your Google Reader as shown in the training for Google Reader and receive regular updates to this blog and its postings in your reader. That way you will not have to go back to this site to search for new content but get it automatically delivered to your reader and can peruse it, read it, and work with it all in one place, together with any other feeds you have added to your reader FriendFeed FriendFeed aims to be a one stop shop for all your social networking updates and news items. The four founders were all team members at Google and helped to launch such products as Google Maps, Adsense, GMail and Google Groups. They’ve brought their expertise to a slightly different area: social network aggregating. FriendFeed is a service which, instead of layering a meta-network on top of all your other social networks, will create a news feed incorporating them all much like the facebook news feed. It’s an idea that isn’t too difficult or bothersome for social network users to adopt. Users tell the feed which networks they belong to (Facebook, Digg, Last.fm etc) and FriendFeed personalizes your data feed with info from each of the sites. Other companies, such as Spokeo, ProfileLinker, MyLifeBrand and the more recent Fuser, are trying to help you organize your online social identity as well, all in different ways. To start, go to Http://www.FriendFeed.comCreate an Account your friends Click the Account tab to set up your profile Click on the ME button to set up your feeds Use the Search bar to find people Click “Subscribe” button to subscribe to your friends Decide what you like to receive from your friend: Scroll to the bottom of the page to get the RSS feeds. Here is an example: FriendFeed Reviewed We have told you about a number of tools, and there are many more to come. You will have to decide which ones you really use and need. There are similarities between FriendFeed and Google Friend Connect (GFC). We currently recommend both. FriendFeed -Is This Years Twitter, But Why? by Duncan Riley on March 14, 2008 If you haven’t been keeping up with the noise, FriendFeed is the hot startup of the minute. The service launched to the public February 25 and announced $5 million in funding at the same time. The concept of FriendFeed is simple enough. You add disparate accounts across blogs and social networking services, and Friendfeed aggregates them so friends can follow what you’re doing. The interface is clean, not surprising given the company was founded by ex-Googlers, and using it is easy. I asked for some feedback on FriendFeed via Twitter and Michael responded saying that Friendfeed was this year’s Twitter, complete with SXSW inflection point. Others, such as Steve Rubel and Louis Gray are talking about the service like it was the most amazing thing they’ve seen in years. I signed up to FriendFeed yesterday to see what the fuss is about. Having used it for a day I don’t get why FriendFeed is that much better than the range of other services that do exactly the same thing. Plaxo Pulse immediately comes to mind, and there’s Spokeo, Second Brain, Social Thing and Iminta as well. Certainly FriendFeed wins (by a small margin) on usability and scope, but it’s still yet another service in a sea of similar startups. Then there’s the why behind wanting a feed of content from your friends in the first place. As the chart I pulled from FriendFeed demonstrates, nearly half of all entries from my friends come from Twitter. But if I’m a Twitter user and these are Tweets from friends wouldn’t I be reading them in Twitter anyway? Next comes blogs, and while I may not have every friend’s blog in my feed reader, the ones I mostly want to read I’m already subscribed to. Like Twitter this seems like duplication to me, and FriendFeed doesn’t offer the content from the post either like a full feed would. Google Reader is next on the list: again, duplication as it pulls shared posts from Google Reader…which are shared within Google Reader. Ah, but you can leave comments on feed entries some will point out and engage in a FriendFeed conversation. If most of the content on a FriendFeed is pulled from Twitter, wouldn’t discussing the points on Twitter be the logical outcome for the majority of people? Blog posts get comments on FriendFeed as well, but how rich an experience is a comment thread based on a headline with a link? As a publisher, wouldn’t you want people to hold these discussions on your blog? There’s already a precedent of sorts as well: co-Comment tried to take blog commenting to a centralized point without 100% of the conversation remaining on the blog itself, until it realized that it was a failed model. There is a market for aggregation services, and yet instead of creating a two way interactive service like Google’s still in development SocialStream will be (the real future of aggregation), FriendFeed seems to be nothing more than a fancy RSS service with commenting thrown in for good measure. I may be wrong on FriendFeed; it took me months to get the appeal of Twitter so I may well end up becoming a FriendFeed convert as well. But what I see so far keeps prompting me to ask “what am I missing?” 1 Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographic information program that was originally called Earth Viewer, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a company acquired by Google in 2004. It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe From to to Google Latitude is a feature from Google that lets users share their physical locations with other people. This service is based on Google Maps, specifically on mobile devices. There's an iGoogle widget for Desktops and Laptops as well. Some concerns have been expressed about the privacy issues raised by the use of the service Please click on this link to watch the Video http://tinyurl.com/STIvid-5 You might need your XXXTraining System password to be able to start the video. When finished, return to the workbookGoogle Latitude Now that you have seen the video for Google Latitude, here is how to create your won account. Google Latitude will allow you to see and find where your friends are. It does this by either checking if a friend is logged into his/her account and accepted your invitation to join you in Google Latitude, or calculated where a friend currently is, if that friend has installed Google Latitude on a mobile device, like the iPhone. To create your won account, first use your internet browser and navigate to the site: http://www.google.com/latitudeYou can use Latitude with your Phone or your Computer Using latitude from your computer, Sign In using your Gmail account Agree to the Terms of Service Accept and Share your location with your friendsUse the toolbar to see your friends and find more friends Click on your friends head to see where they are That’s it – You now have Google Latitude installed and ready to go. You can add more friends any time 1 WEB 3.0 Video Please click on this link to watch the WEB 1.0 Video http://tinyurl.com/STIvid4 You might need your XXXTraining System password to be able to start the video. When finished, return to the workbook WEB 3.0 At the end of the video about WEB 3.0 and what will happen to all of us in the enxt 5000 days, you saw that there are new tools available to use and connect with friends. The example provided included the EventsListed Site. To find the site, go to: http://www.eventslisted.com WEB 3.0 On the EventsListed site, you will find the Google Friend Connect right on top. If you don’t have an account or like to know a little about it before proceeded, please watch our video on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpjMBRz61Yg This also happens to be the video we brought to the #1 position on YouTube in less than two weeks. You will learn more about the details of GFC and TYou Tube in later Training modulesJoining Google Friend Connect at an existing Website As you have seen in the WEB 3.0 video, you can connect to people who like a particular website or community through Google Friend Connect (GFC). The typical appearance of this tool is a collection of photos of the members (we call these photos “Heads”). The GFC can be at the top of a website, like we saw at the EventsListed site or at any other place on the site. Sometimes you ned to scroll around a little to find it. For the purpose of this training section we use the EventsListed Site as an example, following what you experienced in the WEB 3.0 video. Joining GFC at Eventslisted.com STEP #1. Go to http://www.eventslisted.com and click on gray "Join" button on the GFC widget (with all the heads) Depending if you created a Google Account when we showed you the section about Google following the WEB 1.0 Video or not, here is what will happen: STEP #2 A. – No Google Account/Not logged in: A pop-up window will come up and provide you the option to join using different tools. Here is the screen you will see At this point you can either log into your existing Google account by clicking on the Icon provided on the screen, or create a new Google account by clicking on the link at the bottom. For a new Google Account please go back in this handbook to the learning section following the WEB 1.0 video for more details. If you have your Google account already and signed in, or you were signed into your existing Google account all along, you will follow the second option: STEP 2 B: Existing Google Account/Signed into Google Account A pop-up window will come up and with your photo and name, click "Join this Site" button (you will receive a confirmation pop-up window) STEP #3. Look through the photos and Click on the team members head that invited you photo so you can "Get in their head" STEP # 4. Click on the "Add as friend" button to add them to your network Google Friend Connect consists of several tools. On many websites you might only see the GFC simple tool that allows you to see the “Heads” of people and join them on the site. In some cases, like on the Events Listed Site, a second tool as part of GFC is installed and allows you to leave your comment and tell people what you think. In addition you can rate the site with a star system. You will learn in a later session about all the details and functions you can use on GFC and how to integrate them into your own website. When the commenting tool is integrated in a website, here is what you can/should do: STEP # 5. Leave a comment in the "Rating" section thanking whoever invited you to the site and saying something positive. Content Syndication Summary You have now almost completed the content syndication training module. As you can see, there is a lot to learn in social media marketing, but it is also an exciting field in which you will learn a lot about your niche, make new friends, and have an excellent opportunity to grow your business or your cause. As a summary, we like you to take a look at how Simon U. Ford is applying the FriendFeed and the BlogSearch applications in concert with the Google reader. Go to this link to watch the video called: FriendFeed: http://tinyurl.com/STI-RSS Where do you go from here? As you saw in the previous video, there are a number of things you can already do with the account you created in this content syndication module. Many of the tools will get much more explanation in the remaining 7 modules of your training program. Finally, to give you a glimpse at how things fall together with the applications discussed and described so far, here is one more video with a little bit of strategy, developed by Simon U. Ford Use this link to watch this video titled “Strategy”: http://tinyurl.com/STI-CSStrategy This concludes the Content Syndication Training module. We are always interested to improve our training materials and answer questions. Here is the contact data for your Training Team so you can contact us and provide us with your feedback and questions: Axel Meierhoefer, MA Email: Axel.Meierhoefer@gmail.com Skype: AxelMeierhoefer Twitter: AxelMeierheofer Website: www.ecoconsciouspioneers.com Barbara Wainwright Email: bwainwri@gmail.com Skype:BarbaraWainwright Facebook http://tinyurl.com/Bwainwright Website: http://www.CoachesInstitute.com Thanks to Simon U. Ford for providing several of the videos and some of his book content to this training module Social Traffic Inc., 2009 ©