Independent Thinking » WordPress

10 Social Tools to Help Your Business

Daria Steigman — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:02:19 +0000

We talk a lot about the “big 5″ social media platforms (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr). But the conversation universe is a much bigger place, and there are other platforms, channels, and tools that just might make sense for your business too.

Here are 10 of them (thanks to a terrific closing session at the Frederick New Media and Technology Conference on February 24 that featured 10 speakers, three minutes each, talking about 10 less-well-known social tech tools):

BuddyPress. Beth Schillaci said that this “social networking in a box” open-source WordPress add-on lets you build a community within your own space (e.g., where you have control and own your data). Suggested uses, said Schillaci, include a safe space for a student community and an in-house (employee) community that you can tuck behind a firewall.
Tumblr. Jessica Hibbard called the microblogging site “an elegant solution” for curating content. She said it is an easy way to post content as diverse as video, photos, and chat scripts. Hibbard said business uses include showcasing your thought leadership by creating a central location for industry news (LL Bean does this) or as a way to connect with your community. There’s even an “ask me anything” button.
Meetup. Kelly Beach said that you need to give to your community before you can start selling, and a Meetup group is one way to do this. She also pointed out that, with 250,000 meetups monthly, it’s a great way to connect with like-minded people in your community.
SlideShare. See my 4 tips for using SlideShare.
Quora. Lisa Byrne said that the fledging Q&A site is great way to both be helpful to your community and to ask for help. She said one way to use Quora is to ask questions that will help you deliver a better service or build a better product. (See here for my early take on Quora.)
HootSuite. Like TweetDeck, Hootsuite is another popular Twitter client designed to make social media monitoring and engagement easier. Sandy Sponaugle said that Hootsuite supports several multimedia sites and recently rolled out a new analytics tool.
3D Visualization. Darian Robbins talked about using Google Earth to layer information to create a 3D representation about your business. Can you say cool?
Open Source E-Commerce Systems. Nick Damoulakis talked about six good e-commerce products. UberCart and WP e-commerce both work with WordPress. His favorite: Magento, which he termed a “mini-Amazon.com” (lots of functionality, but it’s not plug and play).
HTML5. Jon-Mikel Bailey said that HTML5 is all about user experience. He said that the code is easier to develop and maintain, and that it gives you lots of options (including chat features and better form management). This is developer geek chic. While the rest of us don’t have to know how to do it, it helps if we know what can be done.
Google Instant. Jeannine Morber said that Google is moving increasingly toward valuing relevance in search. She said that the biggest implication is that content is and will continue to be the most important and relevant element of your Web site.

What’s your favorite “outlier” social platform or tool?

Photo by tuppus (Flickr).

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Is There a Techie on Your Team?

Daria Steigman — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:08:11 +0000

From a business point of view, I never feel as helpless as when something goes wrong with my Web site. I am fine with DOS, but SQL and PHP just stump me. Maybe it’s because I’ve yet to find a For Dummies book that walks me through how to do this stuff.

And, yes, things do go wrong. On February 26, to be precise.

I was doing a routine WordPress version update install when I got a fatal error message. The net result was that most of the functionality in my WordPress admin area was gone. Really not good.

Monday morning, I put out feelers for a good techie/Web designer. (It was overdue anyway, because I have several design upgrades on my “To Do” list, and I let everyone know that I was looking for someone who could do more than just solve the install glitch.) Hilary Brooks earned the business because:

She was responsive. (This may be a “duh” factor, but it’s worth noting that we’re all more likely to work with the person who picks up the phone–or, in this case, e-mails back–the fastest.)
She recognized my immediate need (reinstalling WordPress manually).
She gave me a quote.
She told me what information she needed (log in info, etc.) to get started.

It’s probably no surprise that I value working with people who understand the business side of running a business. Brooks does, which is why she’s now the go-to techie on my team.

What vibe is your business sending out?

Photo by Aofie City WomanChile (Flickr).

5 Must-Have Tech Tools for Business

Daria Steigman — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:13:10 +0000

In an interview with The New Small author Phil Simon, Zane Safrit asked a great question about essential business tech tools. It got me thinking about the five tech tools my business can’t do without:

1. Access. People talk a lot about the cloud and cloud computing, but what good is having your documents and work processes offsite if you can’t access them? To me, being able to work anywhere today is dependent on a hard-wired Internet connection, a good router, a broadband card, and/or great WiFi.

2. WordPress. If Simon hadn’t mentioned WordPress in his top-5 list, I might not have thought about it. But WordPress is an essential technology platform because it powers my Web site and my blog–the “home base” for my business.

3. SmartPhone. It seems hard to fathom that I once walked around without a portable phone. Now I can’t imagine not being able to check e-mail on the go. And that doesn’t even touch on all the other productivity apps I access daily–and, of course, the mobile phone. My current phone of choice: Motorola’s DROID.

4. TweetDeck. My Twitter client of choice, I don’t just use TweetDeck to keep up with trends, breaking news, and my Twitter community. With its real-time streaming, it’s also great for tweetchats. In addition, I use the platform to monitor LinkedIn status updates and my Facebook feed.

5. Google Reader. I don’t know why anyone says RSS is dead. Between the 130+ blogs I read regularly and the alerts I’ve set up, Google Reader makes it possible for me to organize and process a great deal of information. I also like that I can follow smart people and aggregate–right in Google Reader–what they are curating. Plus there’s a terrific mobile app so I can catch up with my reading on the go.

What tech tools are in your business arsenal?

Do Writing Skills Matter?

Daria Steigman — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:02:13 +0000

[Note: This post originally appeared on IABC's Communications World blog.]

One of the questions at last month’s IABC/Washington panel discussion on 2010 trends was on core competencies. What skills do communicators need to have today?

Panelists cited several, including:

the ability to identify influencers
knowing how to tell a story
tech skills and proficiency (including a working knowledge of WordPress)
thinking more like journalists (accountability and transparency)

And, of course, writing skills.

But are writing skills still important? In an age of fragmented attention spans and 140-character tweets, there’s a battle going on between communicators who believe the AP Stylebook still has its place and those who think grammar rules and style points are so 20th century.

What’s your take? Is writing a core competency? And what other skills must communicators have to succeed?

Photo by karindalziel (Flickr).

11 Months, 1 Web Design, and the Perils of DIY

Daria Steigman — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:21:40 +0000

Eleven months. Eleven months, which equals a cautionary tale about good intentions. As in mine, and my time and ability to brand a Web site.

When I migrated SteigmanCommunications.com onto a self-hosted WordPress platform in January (or, more accurately, when my friend and uber-trainer Lee Watts did this for me), I had every intention of adding design elements quickly. The problem: I thought I could do it myself. And that, at the time, meant learning hooks and understanding CSS style sheets–not my forte.

Not my forte, as in: smart business owner, take your own advice and farm out the tasks that aren’t your specialty (like accounting and Web design). So eventually I figured out that I wasn’t going to do it (and certainly wasn’t going to do it well), and hired someone who actually gets this design stuff.

If you’re reading this post via feed reader or e-mail, pop over to the site and check out the new design. It was 11 months in the making.

Second Look: Hospitals, Blind Spots, and Spell Checkers

Daria Steigman — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:11:28 +0000

Each week I’m highlighting 3 or 4 posts, surveys, and other news that I have read and/or tweeted about that you may not have seen. As the name implies, I think they deserve a second look.

Here’s your second look for this week:

Step 2: Fix the Problem: The Joint Commission, which assesses hospitals on their success in meeting patient safety standards, has decided to help solve the problems it identifies. As the Wall Street Journal health blog points out, the Joint Commission decided to launch its new Center for Transforming Healthcare after hearing hospital executives say, “You need to stop telling us only about the problems and start telling us how to fix them.”
Leadership Blind Spots: Good article from Business Week about recognizing three key leadership blind spots–going it alone, situational cluelessness, and silence.
Spellcheck Your Blog: From Download Squad, an announcement that WordPress has acquired a new, much improved spellchecker. Self-hosted blogs can download it as a plug-in.