Thoughts on the web
So I was trying to link directly to a Google Images search today to share it with a coworker and had to look around for a while before finding how to do it. Here’s how.
All you have to do is use:
http://www.google.com/images?q=<query>
Where <query> is 3d+street+art or whatever you’re searching for. Oh, and remember to use pluses (+) instead of spaces.
Full example: http://www.google.com/images?q=3d+street+art
Hopefully you find it useful. I know I did!
About a year ago I started a test automating Twitter using dlvr.it. The idea was to bolster my Twitter presence by automating Tweets using posts from two of my favorite sites: 99u and Content Marketing Institute. Nearly every post they put out is great, so I thought why not automatically Tweet them. That’s where dlvr.it came in. [Read more…]
Never restrict your online content from mobile phones and TV.
Not ever. It’s a horrible idea. [Read more…]
Ever yell at people on TV? Come on, don’t lie.
Does it ever do anything? I doubt it.
Ok, maybe you’re calmer than most and just want to ask them a question. How’d that work out? It’s not too often your message actually gets to them, yet alone gets a response.
Until Twitter.
Twitter makes it possible to reach out to those who were once unreachable. Professional athletes, actors, journalists and more can now be messaged 140 characters at a time.
But this isn’t an article on the pluses and minuses of Twitter; it’s about what happens after one of these celebrities retweets you. [Read more…]
The following is an article I originally wrote for the Woodmark Times, a company newspaper distributed quarterly to 3,000-plus employees.
Tell me you know nothing about social media and I’ll quickly disagree with you.
In fact, I’ll bet most of you regularly use social media. How many of these sound familiar: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, blogs or forums? They’re all under the social media umbrella.
Ask Google what social media is and you’ll get 131 million answers. It’s a phrase that means many things to a lot of people, but it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Quite simply, social media is the use of technology to shift communication from a one-way to a two-way street.
Let’s look at an example you might not have thought of: Amazon.com. They are an online shopping site that sells hundreds of thousands of items at fair prices, but that’s not what sets them apart. The real value isn’t what they provide–products that buyers can find anywhere–it’s what their users provide: Reviews!
By allowing users to review products and provide feedback, true value is created for everyone involved. Amazon learns which products people like, manufacturers learn ways to improve, and potential customers learn whether or not they should buy.
While technology can do a lot, it can’t make decisions for us (yet!). Remember to communicate with people, not at them, both on social media and in the real world. But you already knew that.
Told you so.
What’s your definition of social media? Was Amazon a good or bad example? Let me know in the comments!
Photo credit: Jeff Milner