Category: Social Media

All things social media

Found Tweet Friday


Found Tweet Friday!

May 18, 2012

Welcome to the Redlight District of Twitter

I spend a good part of my day using Twitter to find potential customers for my clients. I use the Twitter search function and locate people talking about relevant things that could translate to needs my clients’ products or services could fulfill. During this digging through the nonsense, the marketing messages, the slang and abbreviated hashtags, I find some pretty ridiculous tweets. Many that make my jaw drop. It never ceases to amaze me how many people forget that their tweets are completely public while they treat their Twitter conversations as if they were private. Some of those are simply too offensive or gross (not to mention misogynistic and lewd) for me to bother posting, but below are a collection of this week’s gems that I just had to share. My occasional commentary will be the parenthetical portions. Enjoy!

****Warning: Some content may be inappropriate for young or easily offended readers****

Found tweets:

  • Was told this weekend is a Mexican holiday…I must ride a wooden stick horse with no pants, wear a fake moustache, and sleep in vomit! (I’m fairly certain those things have absolutely nothing to do with Cinco de Mayo. Ah, America…)
  • Klout thinks im influential about running. I hate running. (You expected Klout to know the real you…?)
  • Give your mom something she really deserves this Mother’s Day: an apology. (Ouch. That’s a dim outlook. Sorry mom…?)
  • Overheard: “That guy should be in a retirement home, ’cause he’s a pervert.” (Sound right. I’ve heard about those old men at retirement homes. They kind of ARE perverts…)
  • Will exchange sexual acts for new house slippers! #anytakers? #oldladytweets? (Boy the standards have gone down these days…)
  • Facebook status: “How short should I get my hair cut?” Comment: “Just cut a mundane-question-that-no-one-cares-about’s worth.” (SOMEone was in a mood…)
  • A dog who attends a flea circus most likely will steal the whole show. (Two drums and cymbal fall off a cliff)
  • To lazy too pee (You get a D- for effort. You’re lucky I don’t fail you…)
  • I always wanted a baby manatee. An adult manatee would never fit in my bathtub (It makes sense, yet is still so ridiculous…)
  • I hope my job’s hair gets sucked into the back of hell’s hair dryer, eaten in a Faustian quiche & twosied out of satan’s bifurcated humdrum (I…just…wait. What…?)
  • Wonder if iron man even irons his own clothes… And what if he’s anemic for lack or Iron? Wouldn’t it be ironic? #epictweet (You have now ruined the word iron…)

There you are folks! I will try to keep this going on a weekly basis. Obviously, some weeks will be less interesting than others, but I hope you enjoy it. Also, if you ever see any great ones worth pointing out, send them to me at robzaleski1@gmail.com

I’m also on the hunt for guest bloggers, so if you’re interesting, have a point of view and a personality, and love social media, send me an email. Bonus points if you like to blog about social media for small and local business!

Now go get your social on!

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Tweaking and Guest Post Request!

Social Gnome hoard image

There will be no Social Gnome’s Hoard this week, as I’m trying to tweak the way I do it. I might perhaps look into a Paper.li, the way I’ve seen many others doing it. The way I’ve been trying to insert images and my personal notes are just taking way too much time and not looking the way I’d like them to. I’ll be working on that this weekend, and it will be back next week, so fear not friends!

On a side note, I am looking for a guest blog writer to add something new to my blog. I am looking for someone with a personality, insight, and if you have a specific interest in social media for local businesses, extra consideration will be taken. Please submit guest posting requests to robzaleski1@gmail.com with a link to your current blog or writing samples. I will start a queue of guest posters if I get multiple interests that seem like a good fit!

For the time being, here is a funny reading that my literary friend Jake shared with me.

McSweeney’s THE BEING AND NOTHINGNESS NETWORK: SOCIAL MEDIA FOR EXISTENTIALISTS

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you soon. Now go get your social on!

Subscribe to this blog on Google Currents!

Found Tweet Friday


Found Tweet Friday!

May 11th, 2012

Welcome to the Redlight District of Twitter

I spend a good part of my day using Twitter to find potential customers for my clients. I use the Twitter search function and locate people talking about relevant things that could translate to needs my clients’ products or services could fulfill. During this digging through the nonsense, the marketing messages, the slang and abbreviated hashtags, I find some pretty ridiculous tweets. Many that make my jaw drop. It never ceases to amaze me how many people forget that their tweets are completely public while they treat their Twitter conversations as if they were private. Some of those are simply too offensive or gross (not to mention misogynistic and lewd) for me to bother posting, but below are a collection of this week’s gems that I just had to share. My occasional commentary will be the parenthetical portions. Enjoy!

****Warning: Some content may be inappropriate for young or easily offended readers****

Found tweets:

  • I woke and my lick was in my living room my fuckin grandma lets anyone in (Grandma’s a free spirit, what can she say? And it’s your own fault for leaving your lick in the living room…..Wait. What’s a lick, anyway? Someone help me with this one.)
  • Fact #20- two nude self portraits of me currently hang on display in my parents’ living room. Yeah, that’s me West Bend. Deal with it. (Well that’s just awkward…I mean, I guess they’re really proud parents, right?)
  • me &my mama havin a Movie night in the living room on friday.. Just like the good old days -when i was an ONLY child. (Yikes! Sibling rivalry much?)
  • When you’re out to dinner with your dad and he sees someone he knows and leaves you to go talk to them. #stranded #potato (One of these hash tags is not like the other)
  • If u gt dne wrg by family dnt unexpect that frm sumbdy thats nt. #JustSayn (WHY? WHY do you hate the vowels?? What did they ever (I do to you?)
  • Every time some douche decides to wear a polo shirt Satan steals the souls of six babies. Please, save them and don’t wear that shit ever (I wonder how many he steals if you pop the collar? Does it double?)
  • food menu is legit and the boot well if you can walk away from it you a better man then me i drank what and got home how ??? hahah (In re: to a 3 liter beer boot. Obviously, written post consumption)
  • oooh nice! We have naked babies running around here tonight cuz of the heat lol. I’m just watching tv (Wait, shouldn’t you be watching the naked babies so they don’t, y’know, hurt themselves?)
  • Mom is half off on Mothers Day! Come join us at ********** (Business name withheld for obvious reasons. Who sells half off moms on Mother’s Day? Have some dignity people! Or some grammar. You had plenty of characters left in your tweet to fix that…)
  • I’ve never seen a Brazilian woman’s breasts, but I can only assume pineapples and other tropical fruits grow from them (It’s unfortunate how sorely let down he may be one day.)
  • Horse Massage Therapist Opens for Business (I have a feeling, in this economy, this might be a tough racket to keep afloat.)
BONUS: For those of you who, like me, were excited this week to hear President Obama’s (albeit politically motivated) endorsement of gay marriage, here is a funny Tumblr full of GIFs to make you giggle. Have a great weekend.

There you are folks! I will try to keep this going on a weekly basis. Obviously, some weeks will be less interesting than others, but I hope you enjoy it. Also, if you ever see any great ones worth pointing out, send them to me at robzaleski1@gmail.com

Now go get your social on!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of May 7, 2012:

Social Gnome hoard image

Clip of repost.us grabbed using curate.us

  • If you’re not already aware, there are two excellent tools for sharing great content: Curate.us and Repost.us. Curate.us allows you to clip an article or webpage and share the image in a blog, email, etc. (like what you see to the right here.) Repost.us allows you to embed an entire article, like you would a video, into an email or blog. These are fantastic tools, especially if you know a bit about HTML. Another special thanks to Jay Baer for using this tool in his daily One Social Thing emails newsletter, which is how I found out about these tools.
crowdfunding-nets-millions-for-game-developers1
Image credit: Entrepreneur.com
  • An interesting article from Entrepreneur.com’s blog talking about the use of crowd funding to finance video games. Those seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in backing are finding that they’re getting well into the millions in some cases. The article warns that this should still be considered the exception, rather than the rule. I’m interested in seeing how well these games do financially once they actually hit the market and they’ve promised copies to all the backers – the very ones who would have been their market in the first place. Will solely realizing the game be enough, or will the meager profits steer creators away from promising free merchandise for backing?
Photo credit: TechCrunch.com
  • TechCrunch featured an article spotlighting recent investment into Chicago startup Belly, who is trying reinvent the customer loyalty aspect of social business “through gamification, digital check-ins and a <sic> iPad setup for businesses.” It sounds like it would at least get rid of those pesky customer loyalty keychain cards everyone hates. Although, “scanning” or “swiping your Belly” just doesn’t have a great ring to it. It sounds kinda weird, actually. Nonetheless, this is a start up to keep an eye on.
  • I have a guest post on The Social Penguin Blog this week discussing 4 Important Aspects of Handling Online Reviews. If you have customers that review you online, this is something you really need to take a look at.
  • If you haven’t read my previous post this week on Google Currents vs. Flipboard, check it out. I’ve made myself a Producer on Google Currents as well. You can go here (https://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAow7ZynAQ/robzie_social) to subscribe via Currents if you have the app. I do recommend downloading and using it if you read articles and publications on your mobile device (iOS or Android). It’s pretty slick. Also…I need to get to 200 subscribers so that I can actually be found via search. When you first submit your content, people can only subscribe with the link provided. Help mmeeeeeeeee. 😀
Credit: TheOatmeal.com
  • And finally, I leave you with a laugh. As usual, The Oatmeal gets it right, and makes it hilarious, with their State of the Web, Spring 2012. This captures some of the highlights of what we’ve seen in recent internet and social media news. Things such as Facebook’s purchase of Instagram, a jab at Google+, and constant gamification.
If we haven’t already, let’s connect on Facebook and LinkedIn. I’m always looking to grow my network. If anything, I share interesting and funny things.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know.

Now go get your social on!

Found Tweet Friday


Found Tweet Friday!

May 4th 2012 (Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you!)

Welcome to the Redlight District of Twitter

I spend a good part of my day using Twitter to find potential customers for my clients. I use the Twitter search function and locate people talking about relevant things that could translate to needs my clients’ products or services could fulfill. During this digging through the nonsense, the marketing messages, the slang and abbreviated hashtags, I find some pretty ridiculous tweets. Many that make my jaw drop. It never ceases to amaze me how many people forget that their tweets are completely public while they treat their Twitter conversations as if they were private. Some of those are simply too offensive or gross (not to mention misogynistic and lewd) for me to bother posting, but below are a collection of this week’s gems that I just had to share. My occasional commentary will be the parenthetical portions. Enjoy!

****Warning: Some content may be inappropriate for young or easily offended readers****

Found tweets:

-Boy your lips taste like the night of champion ! (Judging how champions celebrate their big nights, I don’t know that this is a compliment…)
– Why was the frog sitting at the bustop…? Because his car got TOAD! *slaps knee* (But I grew up being told that Frog and Toad are Friends)
– Funny, because avocados are fruit, which means they’re more like ovaries than anything else. (So what does that make guacamole?)
– The 5 second rule : ( food hits the floor) Germs: Get it! Get it! Hurry! King Germ: No no no relax. We gotta wait 5 seconds, it’s the rule (And all this time, I thought it was just a human rule. Turns out, the germs actually follow it too, huh?)
– Yayy I was drawing blood today & I got it (Best bet is that she was talking about Draw Something. Oh how the internet has changed our lingo)
– Fun fact: the average human body contains enough bones to make up an entire human skeleton. (Wow. Had I but known! This would have been great knowledge to know in school. Thanks for nothing internet!)

There you are folks! I will try to keep this going on a weekly basis. Obviously, some weeks will be less interesting than others, but I hope you enjoy it. Also, if you ever see any great ones worth pointing out, send them to me at robzaleski1@gmail.com

Now go get your social on!

Could Sociabell be Facebook’s Google+ Killer?

By now you’ve certainly heard about Google’s increasing involvement of Google+ into search.  You may have also heard of the social + search experiment from Microsoft and FUSE Labs called So.cl. Guy Kawasaki dedicates a chapter to social search functionality in Google+  in his book “What the Plus?” (If you haven’t bought this ebook yet, you seriously must. Even if you think you know Google+, Guy knows it better than you. And it’s $3.). Combining the realms of social networking and search is the next evolution in the way we interact online. The most important part of this feature is that you remain engaged with the your social network while searching. Facebook’s search function is severely lacking in this way.

Enter: Sociabell. I found out about Sociabell in one of Social Media Examiner’s This Week In Social Media columns.

Sociabell’s web page highlights its interconnectivity to all things social

Sociabell is a browser add-on for Facebook users who use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. The completely free add-on turns Facebook’s search bar into a social search. When you type a query into the search bar, you will see the standard drop down options that you get from Facebook: people you are friends with, pages you ‘Like’, relevant apps and an option to see more results. What Sociabell does is add another box to the right of Facebook’s standard options and allows you to jump right to other social networks: Twitter,  Craigslist, Google, Yahoo, Bing, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, Amazon and Google recommended results (but notice, no Google+). You also have the option to share your search with your friends, which creates a post and allows them to answer your question or recommend a site to find what you’re looking for. When you click on one of the above mentioned social outlets, the results automatically open in another tab, thus allowing you to maintain your presence on Facebook. Although, if you’re like me, you would normally just open another tab to Google something anyway, but allowing you to do it through Facebook’s user interface means you are less likely to navigate away. Sociabell states on its page that the add-on collects no personal data, but it’s not clear to me whether your search through Facebook’s search bar is still being tracked by Facebook. My guess is yes.

This is what Sociabell turns your Facebook search bar into

Sociabell is not currently supported on mobile and the Safari add-on is in the works. Friends only see what you are searching for if you share you search, so you don’t have to worry about Sociabell throwing under the search engine bus. If Google+ is clinging to the social search function as one of their big selling points over Facebook, then this is something that deserves their attention. Facebook should also take notice of Sociabell, since they’re in the “buying up useful things” mode of thinking anyway. The biggest concern that the developers at Sociabell have is Facebook taking their idea and actually finding a way to integrate it into the functionality of Facebook itself. As of right now, this browser add-on is pretty slick, and if I’m Google+, I’ve got my eye on what’s going on here.

Have you heard of Sociabell? Are you using it? Does the idea of being able to search all of your networks from Facebook appeal to you? Chime in below!

Now go get your social on!

Found Tweet Friday

Found Tweet Friday!

Friday April 27th, 2012:

Welcome to the Redlight District of Twitter

I spend a good part of my day using Twitter to find potential customers for my clients. I use the Twitter search function and locate people talking about relevant things that could translate to needs my clients’ products or services could fulfill. During this digging through the nonsense, the marketing messages, the slang and abbreviated hashtags, I find some pretty ridiculous tweets. Many that make my jaw drop. It never ceases to amaze me how many people forget that their tweets are completely public while they treat their Twitter conversations as if they were private. Some of those are simply too offensive or gross (not to mention misogynistic and lewd) for me to bother posting, but below are a collection of this week’s gems that I just had to share. My occasional commentary will be the parenthetical portions. Enjoy!

****Warning: Some content may be inappropriate for young or easily offended readers****

Found tweets:

– Some guy is casually scratching his face with his middle finger in my direction. I don’t even know I pissed this guy off. (Maybe he was doing that elementary school “I’m going to act like I hate you to flirt with you” kind of thing…)
– I was jerking infront of these kids and the girl i was with, and some kid wanted too battle me when i was just messing around (Ok, so where did YOUR mind go with this one?)
– Feminist group is sueing LEGO b/c they made a spa set with girl figures & they want the girl figures to be building a spaceshuttle… #women (But I’ll bet those #women can SPELL…so there’s that)
– i hate having to fight with nails on cus now my shit sore . . (Or maybe you just don’t fight. I’m just saying…)
– Girl you special like I met you in a slow class . (Ladies, if this works on any of you, we can’t be friends)
– Its crazy how I was walking home nd some dude was watching porn on a big ass flat screen lol . (Guy with the tv, if you’re reading…cuuuuuurtains.)
– U got a dig bick U that read wrong U read dat wrong 2 (Yeah. Read it again slowly. I admit. I fell for it too. Man…)
– This big ass salad is making me need to shit! Well what goes in must come out! #ThatsTheCircleOfLifeKids (Maybe not EVERY thought should be tweeted, yeah?)
– If I had the chance to drop kick you in the face.trust me you little crotch pheasant I would. (Well, THAT’S a new term…Can someone please render up a drawing of a “crotch pheasant”?)
– #YoGirlDontLoveYouIf she don’t massage your weener. (“The more you knooooooow”)
– Oh joy, the person in the next hotel room has decided to build a tower of squirrels. (Wait….WHAT? WHERE WAS YOUR INSTAGRAM PHOTO OF THAT??)

There you are folks! Some of the best and worst that Twitter has to offer. Obviously, some weeks will be less interesting than others, but I hope you enjoy it. Also, if you ever see any great ones worth pointing out, send them to me at robzaleski1@gmail.com. Maybe the one you find will make next week’s Found Tweet Friday!

Now go get your social on!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of April 23, 2012:

Social Gnome hoard image

Facebook ruining our social interactions?

  • I was presented a very interesting article by @captain_jake on whether Facebook (and subsequent other social networks) are making us lonely. Although the article brought up many interesting points, there were still questions about its generalizations.Then a full fledged rebuttal article came out, also make interesting points. A good read on both accounts to get you thinking about what all this “social” is doing to our real relationships. If you have time for a great video, Sherry Turkle gave a TED talk about the same topic, Connected, but alone? “The illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. ” Wow.

  • What would you think of the possibility to get some Ivy League education without ever leaving your home or studying for the SATs? Well, The Faculty Project will allow you to do just that. This article from a couple months ago tells how professors from prestigious universities will be able to upload lecture notes, which will be downloadable free of charge to anyone with an internet connection. The internet. Providing quality information. Who knew?

  • For a good laugh, here is a list of The 21 Worst Things In the World, courtesy of Buzzfeed. I can’t help but agree with some of them, especially the demon spawn of Satan that is #14. Why? Why does something like that exist? In our homes?

  • Wildcat! Wildcat! is an up and coming band that a friend of mine, @rudyc, turned me on to. They currently have two songs up on Soundcloud. I really look forward to hearing more from them. If they can get an album together this year, they certainly have the type of sound that is doing well right now with bands like Foster the People and The Naked and Famous. They also have a great video on YouTube for Mr. Quiche. Just weird enough.

  • Klout announced that it will be starting something called Brand Squads, which will recognize top influencers for brands, rather than just industries and topics. Many people immediately dismissed it, asking whether brands should even care. I know Klout score doesn’t amount to a whole lot to many people, but I like this idea of focusing on the influencers. This has the potential to really recognize brand advocacy, and although Klout score doesn’t mean much in the marketing metrics world, this could be huge for companies  really trying to drive a force of support for their brand. As of now, only Red Bull is doing this (I’m not exactly their target market, so I think I’ll hang around, leaning up against the wall until something more relevant comes my way.) This has potential to get people excited about Klout. It also has the potential to completely flop if Klout doesn’t get more brands moving wit this initiative.
  • And finally, I have a blog post up on Starr Hall’s website (she is a columnist for Entrepreneur.com, national speaker on social media, author and restaurant owner. In other words, she’s amazing.) I talk about a feature on LinkedIn called Projects. I don’t see many people using it, but it is a fantastic way to create connections with other LinkedIn users while showing off things you’ve worked on.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know.

Now go get your social on!

LinkedIn’s “Projects” feature

LinkedIn Improve Profile button
Improve my LinkedIn profile? How can I resist?

I dig LinkedIn. I enjoy the idea of a completely separate network where I can focus on professional connections, sharing ideas among other industry professionals, and not have to worry about boring my friends or receiving requests for anything ending in -ville. I have denied numerous requests to join people’s Branch Out app requests on Facebook simply on the premise that I already have a LinkedIn profile. Now Branch Out has reached 25 million, but I’m still standing my ground. I’m not doing it.

And speaking of LinkedIn, I just wrote a guest post on Starr Hall’s blog (online columnist for Entrepreneur.com and event speaker extraordinaire) on how to use the little-utilized Projects feature to create great connections with collaborators on LinkedIn. I also made a video tutorial, for you visual folks. It will walk you through how to add Projects to your profile and how to use it as a starting point to create or enhance your connections on LinkedIn while highlighting work you’ve done. I think everyone using LinkedIn should have at least one Project on their profile.

Check it out here: http://www.starrhall.com/create-more-connections-using-projects-on-linkedin/

I’d love to hear your thoughts there or here. Are you already using Projects? Is this news to you? What other ways do you see this feature as useful?

Now go get your social on!

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