jasonyormark.com

Video: Toshiba Netbook NB205 Review

I finally got around to start video blogging.  What better way then to review one of my new favorite gadgets, the Toshiba Netbook NB205.  Enjoy! First time around so be gentle. I’m hoping to make this a 2-3 times per month thing, but who knows.

I’ve had the machine for about a week or so and I have to say it’s definitely impressive for a netbook. If you’re in the market or considering, have a watch as I’m sure it will help with your buying decision.

Purchase the Toshiba Mini NB205-N325BL 10.1-Inch Royal Blue Netbook – 9 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)

No related posts.

Booked: Facebook Disabled My Account

I feel so alone.  I didn’t quite realize how much I used Facebook until it was taken away from me.  Between Twitter and Facebook, I had built a nice little social network.  Twitter has turned into a nice, strong following that I leverage for professional and social sharing, while Facebook really had become my way to stay connected to the people I actually have or had relationships with.  I’d spent a good 3 years building a nice little corner of the ‘net and the Facebook gods have spoken.  Why I have no idea.

And there lies my problem.  Facebook just shut me down for no reason what so ever.  They simply slapped me with a “your account is disabled” and threw me a nice little generic FAQ.  No warning, no nothing.  Sure, they have an email address where you can submit your argument, but based on what I’ve found online, it will be quite some time before I get a response, if I even get one ever.

Sure, I get it.  Facebook has 300+ million users, and it’s a free service.  I don’t expect to get the same level of customer service that I would for something I pay for.  But I have a real problem with a company that thinks so little of their users to make broad sweeping account shut downs like this.  I’ve spent countless hours over the past few years using the service, investing my time and providing my trust to Facebook with a lot of contact and content.  I’ve evangelized and certainly contributed to bringing users to the platform.  And all of that does not matter one bit.

It’s a good learning experience for me to realize that using social networks like this can be a risky proposition.  Especially if you are a business.  Imagine investing the same kind of time into building your fan page only to have Facebook give you the smack down with no explanation, or little to no resolution paths.  A few months ago I wrote about how a local donut shop has used Facebook to tremendous success.  They are up to over 2500 followers and have made Facebook a critical part of their marketing plan.  So much so that they haven’t even bothered to create their own website yet.  They don’t have to.  Can you imagine if Facebook decided to just shut them down?  Perhaps they should rethink that whole website thing.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get my account back, which means I’d probably have to start over.  I’m not so sure I’d even bother.  Regardless, it’s an eye-opener, and if you are a business owner thinking about using social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, always ensure that you combine those efforts with your own home grown web presence.  It’s important to have some level of control when the gods decide to wreck havoc.

No related posts.

Google Wave Invites: Grab Your Board

I’ve been playing around with Google Wave for a month or so, and while I think it’s definitely a cool way to manage your communication, the fact is, I don’t know many people that are actually using it yet.  Lucky for me, I’ve got some invites to give out.

As of now, I have 16 to give out.  Want one?  Leave a comment on this blog post with your email address and either a guilty pleasure or pet peeve.  First 16 comments get the invites.  If I happen to score more, I’ll send them in order of comments left.

And once you’re in, be sure to track me down at jasonyormark@googlewave.com.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. How To Use LinkedIn Groups To Drive Website Traffic

Apple Magic Mouse Review

It’s no secret I have formed a deep, passionate love for all things Apple over the past 6 months. After a 2 month learning curve getting used to the differences in operating systems, I am fully assimilated. Of course with Windows 7 now out, I’m much more likely to boot up in Windows once I get around to installing the new system.

My latest love is the new Apple Magic Mouse. I was in an Apple Store the other day and played around with their most recent mouse offering. As with all things Apple, it definitely looked and felt like an impressive piece of hardware. After having the store employee demonstrate a bit, and playing with it, I couldn’t resist. Even despite the $69 price tag.

First things first. $69 is a lot to pay for a mouse. Especially when you can walk into a Best Buy and get a decent one for roughly $25. But when you decide to go Apple, you know you are going to pay more. So was the purchase worth it?

So far, I’d say yes. Like I mentioned, the build quality is far superior to any mouse I’ve ever handled. Even Logitech’s top offering doesn’t even come close to comparing (I know, I’ve had this one). This mouse feels like you could drop it a few stories and it would still survive. It is a very narrow design, so those used to a bulkier mouse design will probably find issue with the comfort factor. This wasn’t as much of an issue for me as I had been using the Microsoft Arc mouse for awhile which also has a low profile design.

There’s also a bit of a learning curve using this mouse with the multi-touch functionality. Most users are used to using buttons on a mouse, so using finger gestures to accomplish similar tasks takes a bit getting used to. For users of the newer Macbook Pros with the glass touchpads, this learning curve is much less.

I absolutely love being able to scroll using finger gestures on the mouse. The new glass touchpads on the Macbooks are revolutionary, and I always found myself missing the finger gesture functionality when using whatever mouse I had paired with my laptop. Now I don’t have to. Holding control and finger swiping allows you to zoom in and out which is also a nice touch.

The bottom line is this; if you are a newer Macbook Pro owner, the magic mouse is a no brainer. You’ll be used to the functionality and it pairs very well. However if the new trackpad functionality doesn’t matter much to you, I doubt this mouse will either. Also, one frustration point is that the mouse doesn’t function entirely out of the box when paired with your laptop. It requires a software update that automatically appears once paired.

Expensive? Yes. But I would anticipate that like other Apple products, the lifespan of this piece of hardware will eventually warrant the price tag.  Time will tell.

No related posts.

Turning Good Intentions Into Action

When I changed focus on my blog towards a professional approach my traffic went up considerably.  Makes sense considering most people are more interested in issues and discussion regarding social media rather then my life.  But every once in awhile, I experience something that warrants the occasional life reflection post.

My wonderful wife has always been about the most generous and genuinely caring person I’ve ever met.  She’s very passionate about helping others, and demonstrates this repeatedly through donating time, money and efforts towards numerous causes.

Jen asked me a few weeks ago if I was interested in a date night while her parents were here.  Of course I was down for it.  Two words….Olive Garden.  Oh yea, romantic feast here we come (jealous????).  However my wife had other plans.  This date night involved actually serving dinner.

The Interfaith Association of Northwest Washington is a homeless shelter that provides emergency shelter and other services to homeless families.  What makes them unique is that they are one of the very few shelters that actually keep families together rather then separate them.  You see, most homeless shelters are forced to separate parents and children for a variety of reasons.  The fact that this one actually fights to keep them together I thought was extra special.

My wife had been participating in a monthly event where she joined a few others to serve dinner to the families and I had always been meaning to go as well.  I think for many people it can be much easier to ignore or set aside the challenges and unfortunate situations that exist in our communities.  This time however I wanted to see it first hand, and help out as best I could.  And it ended up being exactly what I needed.

Go to a homeless shelter, or any worthwhile cause, and it humbles you.  It makes you put your trivial “problems” into perspective.  And for me, it left me asking myself the same question my wife told me she asks herself when she leaves.  What else can I do to help?

The fact is, Jen nor I are going to solve the homeless problem in our community.  But for this one night, we put smiles on the faces of moms, dads and children that are suffering.  The things we can take for granted like a special cooked meal go such a long way.

For the past 6 months I’ve been trying to find the best ways to make use of my time; trying to find a job, trying to start a business.  But for a few hours on a Monday night, I finally felt like I was making really good use of my time.

I guess Olive Garden will have to wait.

For more information about this very special homeless shelter you can visit their website here, or their Facebook page here.

And if you are so inspired to do so, you can donate to the shelter.  Believe me, they can need and appreciate it.

No related posts.

Mobilize Your Wordpress Blog!

I could spew all the stats about mobile browser usage, but the cold hard facts are that more and more people are using their mobile devices to browse the web.  It’s just a matter of time before it eclipses normal computer usage.

So is your Wordpress blog mobilized?  Mine really wasn’t.  So I took an hour or so using some incredible free tools and like magic, I’m good to go.  It’s quite easy and all you need to do is take the following steps.

1.  If you are using a hosted blog on Wordpress.com, you’re already set.  If for some reason you want to deactivate the new mobile themes, instructions are located here.  For those using a self hosted blog, you can download the WPtouch plugin here, and follow the same process you do for any plugin install.  Once installed, there are a multitude of options to choose from to display your theme as you wish.

2.  Once installed, you may want to consider creating a custom icon for your new mobile theme that will also act as a potential home screen button for users who especially like your blog and are willing to devote some screen real estate.  Check out this incredibly slick and easy to use iPhone icon and favicon maker here.  Once created, you can upload this icon in the control panel for WPtouch, and when iPhone users add you to their homepage, you custom button will appear.

Both free applications are extremely impressive, especially considering they are both free.  Easy to use, and within 30 minutes, you can have your hosted or self-hosted Wordpress blog completely mobile friendly.

Related posts:

1. My 9 Favorite Wordpress Social Media Plugins

My 9 Favorite Wordpress Social Media Plugins

The Wordpress platform never ceases to amaze me. It’s by far one of the greatest pieces of software ever built, and to think that it is free is the icing on the cake. What really makes the platform as successful as it is, are the thousands of themes and plugins that the Wordpress community contributes. These add ons turn what essentially is a blogging platform, into just about any type of site you want from community to content management systems to storefronts. It truly is amazing.

Over the years I’ve found some very useful plugins, and lately there have been some great developments with social media plugins as well.  Below are my 9 favorite Wordpress social media plugins.  If you are running a hosted Wordpress blog you should definitely check these out.

1. Sexy Bookmarks – I had been using Sociable and Add To Any for awhile, but stumbled across the Sexy Bookmarks plugin and just think this one looks better.  A unique design, simple to use, and…well sexy.

2. Tweetmeme – Certainly you’ve seen plenty of blogs with retweet buttons on the top left of postings.  Chances are they are using the Tweetmeme plugin.  Easy to use, does what it’s supposed to do.  Retweet.com has recently launched offering a similar service, but I like that Tweetmeme has established themselves already with a proven service.

3. Fbshare.me – This just recently launched and mimics the functionality of Tweetmeme but for Facebook.  The facts are Twitter and Facebook are the kings of social media so having both prominently on your blog posts increases the chances that your readers will use them and spread the love.

4. Disqus Comment System – The Disqus plugin transforms your Wordpress comments into a true social media friendly experience.  The plugin integrates social media mentions in addition to your blog comments which helps consolidate all the “chatter” about your blog articles into one place.  Comments load in real time, and users have multiple options regarding how to log in using any of there social media profiles.  Very cool stuff.  Oh, and did I mention it’s free?

5. Twitter Tools – The Twitter Tools plugin simply helps you be more efficient by automatically tweeting your blog posts once you publish.  It also allows you to pull your tweets into your blog posts and offers a ton of customization features to fit your needs.

6. WP Greet Box – Anytime you can give your readers the impression of a custom or personalized experience, that’s a good thing.  The WP Greet Box plugin uses Ajax to automatically identify how your users found your blog articles, and displays the appropriate referrer message at the top welcoming them and suggesting they share accordingly.

7. Fotobook -While Flickr still offers a more robust photo hosting experience, the reality is, most people are consolidating their sharing, and post the majority of their photos on Facebook.  This nifty plugin allows you to easily “import” your Facebook photos and albums into your blog seamlessly.

8. Smart YouTube – This plugin is all about making it quicker and easier for you to embed YouTube videos into your blog posts.  I’m personally more of a fan of Vimeo (check out a plugin here for them), but the fact is, most of the free world is using You Tube.  Regardless, these plugins speed things up considerably.

9. Yet Another Related Posts – While this plugin may not directly be categorized as a “social media” plugin, it’s a must have.  Social Media is all about sharing information, and when you get users to your blog, you should do all you can to share relevant information to them.  This plugin automatically identifies similar articles in your blog, and displays them as related posts.  It’s a great way to keep your readers engaged on your site and to drive down bounce rates.

Those are my favs.  What are yours?

Related posts:

1. Social Media Friendly Blogging
2. My 9 Favorite iPhone Social Media Apps
3. Mobilize Your Wordpress Blog!
4. The Office For Mac Social Media Extravaganza!
5. 9 Great Social Media, Digital Marketing & Productivity Tools

How I Increased My Twitter Following by 45% In One Week

I’ve been fascinated by the art and science of building a relevant network of Twitter followers in the past few months. Like I’ve written before, I didn’t really spend a large amount of time with Twitter until May of this year. Since then, I’ve learned quite a bit. In previous posts I’ve written about ways I feel Twitter can be useful, and the debate of quality vs. quantity. I still believe that there is value in ensuring that those you follow are relevant to you, but as your following grows, this can be a tricky thing to manage.

In the past week, I’ve incorporated some new tactics that have had me grow my following more in one week, then in previous week’s combined. Below I’ve listed some steps you can take to possibly produce similar results.

First, some disclaimers on my methods/motivations of using Twitter. There isn’t a one size fits all approach to using Twitter. I don’t claim that my way is the right way, or that it would work for everyone. But for me, it works.

I only tweet a couple times a day on average…
There are tons of users who tweet everything they see, find, experience, etc. That’s not me. I don’t have that kind of time, nor do I have any interest in spending that amount of time on Twitter. I keep my tweets to a minimum only sharing my 1-2 blog posts a week, very interesting/entertaining articles and retweets. I imagine this accomplishes two things. One, my followers appreciate I am not flooding their Twitter streams with endless tweets about everything I experience. Two, it makes the content I share more valuable, as those that follow me know that when I share something, it may actually be worth checking out.

A large (albeit, relevant) following is important to me…
I am working to gain credibility in social media marketing and community building while building out my business. I also have aspirations to write a book if I can every get my ass in gear. Imagine having a 10, 20 or even a 50,000 following of potential readers/customers. As long as you took the time to build a strong, relevant, spam free following, I would imagine that a large following might open some doors with publishers that would otherwise be closed. At the very least, some potential buyers/customers.  Chris Brogan touches on this nicely in his latest book, Trust Agents (must read).

The following strategies assume you have some Twitter history with your account..  First being that you already have a Twitter account and some degree of followers/following established.  If you’re just starting out, these tactics might not be as effective (but I imagine they will still produce good results).  Second, that you have some sort of tweeting history.  People won’t be as interested in following you if you don’t have some of this history.  Of course many won’t care at all.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s some steps you can take to possibly mimic some of the success I’ve had:

1. Use a 3rd party Twitter software solution. I have been using TweetAdder for the past few months, and it’s been a fantastic tool.  I am not a corporate shill for them in any way (yes, it’s an affiliate link, but c’mon, who wouldn’t?), I’m simply someone that tried out the demo, had early success, and since then, it’s been a no brainer tool that I use everyday.  I DO NOT recommend anything that I don’t stand behind.  It’s great software, works on Windows and Mac, and they recently updated with some great new features.  Don’t take my word for it.  Check them out and try the free demo yourself.  If you’re serious about wanting to grow your Twitter following, I promise you’ll find yourself a customer.

2. Follow the followers of those you respect. There are so many spam accounts, robots, etc. out there it can be hard to know who’s real or who’s not.  In addition to using TweetAdder to identify relevant users to follow, I’ve found that using the software to identify followers of those users I respect have produced tremendous results.  The idea here is simple.  If you choose to follow users of those you respect or are related to you in some way, there’s a high probability that the majority of those users are real people with similar interests.  The follow back rates tripled for me using this tactic.  TweetAdder has a great feature where you can simply add a user’s name and it will extract those who follow them and add them to your “follow list” that you can use within the software.

3. Add yourself to the wefollow directory. This one is a bit harder to measure, but the fact is this can be a great tool to find others to follow that are relevant to you (including their networks).  You simply add your account and choose categories that are relevant to you.  For example, I listed myself as Seattle, WA, community manager, and social media.  While I probably won’t be cracking the Top 10 for social media anytime soon, I’m currently #9 for Seattle, WA and #3 for community manager.  It’s kind of fun, but more importantly, it’s a great resource because you can simply enter the users in these lists into TweetAdder and add their networks into your queue to follow.

Those are the 3 key areas I’ve focused on in the past week and it’s produced significant results.  There are many users that think using automated software is evil, spammy, etc.  I couldn’t disagree more.  With anything in life, anything can be abused and used in the wrong way.  But utilized the right way, ethically, there’s no reason to not take advantage of tools that can help you be more successful and efficient with what you do.  It’s worked for me, and it can work for you.

Related posts:

1. Twitter Etiquette: Should You Follow Everyone That Follows You?
2. 9 Ways Twitter Can Actually Be Useful
3. Social Network Quality vs. Quantity: What’s More Important?

Vanns Community Manager Update: I Turned The Opportunity Down

Because so many of my family, friends, friends of friends, etc. came out in hordes to support my Vanns Community Manager role video application, I felt it was important and appropriate to write a follow up for everyone.

I turned down the opportunity to be in the Top 5.

Some of you might wonder why in the world would I do such a thing after going through so much effort to win a spot.  Well, it unfortunately came down to something that had I known from day one, might have deterred my involvement in the first place.  The salary was WAY WAY too low to consider moving and supporting my family for.  I received a call the morning of the Top 5 announcement telling me I was being considered as a Top 5 finalist, but they wanted to share some job details with me first.  I was told the salary range first, and I was floored.  It didn’t make sense to me.

From their site:

So how much will you make? Let’s say for the purposes of starting a conversation that you’ll make a wage that is commensurate with your experience level in a job of this nature and get to live in what is probably the most incredible place to live in the Mountain West – Missoula, MT.

I was offended that a role as important as this one, and one that was so highly publicized and recruited for, was as low as it was and/or they were implying that’s what they thought my “experience level” was worth.  I know Community Manager and Social Media roles are still working on gaining credibility for themselves, but I was very surprised regardless.  Especially considering the great lengths Vanns went to hire someone for this role.  Yes, the cost of living in Montana is less then many areas, but I did my homework.  Missoula is not a small town, and the cost of living isn’t that low.  At least not for those newly finding their way there.

I have no ill will towards Vanns, the process, or any of the wonderful candidates that made the Top 5.  They seriously are a group of talented, passionate, deserving individuals, and I’m sure Vanns will have a winner on their hands regardless of which direction they go.  And everyone is different in their needs, cost of living, personal circumstances.  Perhaps their range is well within other people’s situations.  It just couldn’t work for me and mine.

Of course, I can’t help but offer some feedback on the whole process being as passionate as I am about community managment.  Especially some misses from a community perspective that Vanns really missed out on to capitalize on the great idea:

1. 1. Be more transparent. Vanns really should have disclosed a salary range from the get go.  I don’t know; maybe I was the only one burned on this one, but if you are going to do a nationwide search for candidates to this degree, AND put people through a ton of work just to apply, you need to disclose this to negate those that can’t consider the offering. “Commensurate with experience” was not entirely accurate.
2. 2. Be more involved. Besides a few Twitter updates notifying followers of new videos, there was no company interaction with the site.  Nothing to continue the momentum, encourage dialogue, or get people excited about the milestones.  Yes, they obviously are hiring someone for these things, but it certainly wouldn’t have been too difficult to be more engaged.
3. 3. Be more efficient. The whole process took to long.  Interest waned during the down times.
4. 4. Media execution. The process of the video portion of the application was a patch work solution.  It was too confusing for many users to figure out how to vote on the videos, and many of the applicants didn’t get the system working correctly from day one.  Don’t reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to.  YouTube (and Vimeo for that matter), offer robust, fully featured video hosting solutions that could have accommodated all the videos and voting mechanisms without requiring any registration to do so.
5. 5. Involve customers. Vanns already has a community site up and running.  Why not have involved them in the process?  Put out questions or poll the community to get feedback on what they would like to see in their community manager.  Offer prizes, incentives.  Something to turn the experience into something more viral.

I can’t give the constructive feedback without the good.  Here’s what I loved:

1. 1. The platform. By far one of the most innovative, slick presentations on recruiting a position in your company.  It’s obvious the idea was a winner.  I personally scored two news stories based on their innovative approach (here and here).
2. 2. Social Media. Great use of Twitter and Facebook to evangelize the opportunity.  There was plenty of chatter going on throughout the campaign.
3. 3. Vanns Site Integration. Not only did the publicize the role on their main website.  They prominently featured it frequently on the front page.  Bold and shows how important they view this role.
4. 4. Bottom line…it worked. Despite my criticisms, let’s be honest, the idea worked.  They may not have gotten as many applicants as they would have liked, but at the end of the day, I assure you they will come out much farther ahead from the process as opposed to if they went the traditional route.

So another chapter closes.  I loved making the video, I loved evangelizing it, and if anything, it’s provided quite a bit of visibility for me in other areas.  Good luck to Vanns, their future Community Manager and continued success.  In the end, it all works out as I have some exciting things in the works that will involve doing my own thing.  That’s always who I’ve been anyway.

More to come…

Related posts:

1. Community Bootstrapping: Tools & Strategies To Build A Community On A Budget
2. Controlling The Conversation: Strategies To Get People Talking About What You Want
3. Social Network Quality vs. Quantity: What’s More Important?
4. Making Dough(nuts): A Real World Example of Using Social Media Effectively

Twitter Auto DM: Just Say No!

The absolute #1 pain in the neck Twitter nuisance for me these days are the hordes of Twitter auto direct messages I receive after following someone.  It has practically made Twitter DM a useless tool for me.  If anyone actually sends me a legitimate DM, it’s lost in a sea of spammy auto DMs encouraging me to check out  ‘insert product/service/website here’.

I understand that it is impossible to manage a large following by personally welcoming each person that follows you, and it’s not my expectation that anyone would do this.  I rarely do unless there are unique circumstances such as someone I’ve stumbled across that has much in common with me.  But let’s be honest here, people and businesses are using Twitter auto DM to pimp something, which I get.  This sort of thing has been done for years on a variety of different mediums.  What makes it so frustrating, is that Twitter has not released features that allow it’s users to combat this.  Much like an email spam filter, there needs to be ways to block these auto DMs.  I know recently SocialToo has launched some options to help, but it’s certainly not as useful as a Twitter supported feature could be.

I’m certainly not the only advocate for seeing this trend go away.  Sites like StopAutoDM.com are springing up to help buck the trend.  There’s also some useful chatter on the subject on a recent TechCrunch article.

Some of you might say, “Just unfollow those that auto DM, you have the power to filter it out”.  Yes, this is true, but just because someone is utilizing auto DM, doesn’t necessarily mean that person or or organization has nothing valuable to offer.  Often times people just don’t realize that some of the tactics they use are not an ideal way of communicating.  While I disapprove of the tactic, I don’t automatically categorize the user as spam.  In some cases, yes, in many, not necessarily.

I’m not implying that auto DM tactics should  not be available to those who wish to use it.  I’m all for businesses, organizations, and people having the freedom and ability to evangelize their products and services in ways that make sense for their business.  What I’m saying is that as an end user, I should have access to tools that allow me to control whether I see those messages or not.  Yes, Twitter is a free service, but it’s not like they are making money through these tactics to keep the service afloat.  I can tolerate some small, targeted advertising in exchange for using a tremendous tool like Twitter, but we’ve certainly reached a point where we need some tools to better manage Twitter.

I can’t imagine that the click through rates to links in Twitter auto DMs are that high, let alone conversion rates, but it would certainly be interesting to see.  I haven’t found any studies on the subject, but Mashable posted some interesting finds on overall click through rates for Tweeting as a whole here.  If the CTR on tweet links is roughly around 1.5% or so, it’s got to be much lower on auto DMs.

So, if you utilize Twitter auto DMs, I’d be interested to hear your take.  Why do you use it, and what are the results?  And if you knew that your audience hated them, would you stop?

Related posts:

1. 9 Ways Twitter Can Actually Be Useful
2. How I Increased My Twitter Following by 45% In One Week
3. Twitter Etiquette: Should You Follow Everyone That Follows You?