Social networking is about building your lists, building your groups and your lists of followers, so I started doing some research this evening while passively watching my Twitter stream updates through TwitterFox, a handy little Firefox addon.

The first thing I came across was an article on DoshDosh.com How To Get More Twitter Followers - which is an informative, lengthy, and indepth article.

I’m a reformed spammer, and, like a ex-smoker, I chant the virtues of not spamming all the time. (watch for the upcoming podcast “How I made 30k as a spammer, and why I stopped”) So, I was curious to learn about tools from DoshDosh, like the Twitter Blacklist and Twerpscan, that have been developed to help Twitter users weed out people who try to follow many users in order to build an large audience.

DoshDosh quoted statistics on “Following Others As A Strategy To Gain Followers”:

Take for instance, Osen Komura. A fake profile set up by another Twitter user in February 2008 as a social experiment. The Osen account followed 41,798 Twitter users in one month and 7,847 users added him as a friend, a 17%+ follow-back rate…

DoshDosh goes on to say

Apart from the risk of being labeled a Twitter spammer and increasing the noise on your Twitter stream, this method still works.

Note: The strategy is completed when the spam account stops following almost everyone on it’s list, changes the profile name to seem like a real person, and starts to recommend product reviews that go through affiliate links, etc.,

Another source, Problogger, makes some good, standard social ettiquette suggestions to help correctly befriend people, such as joining in on the conversation, replying to people, and to leverage other people’s larger profiles by commenting on their tweets - but his most important comment to me, in his 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence, was to tweet during peek times when other people are actively watching.  This may seem logical and obvious, but important to consider when scheduling.

While both articles were great reads, I took more time to read the replies to the posts that I did to read the original posts!

The most common thread to the conversation that followed, echoed the closing advice that most of the top bloggers recommended:

• be real, be yourself, and get involved with your niche in an active, positive, helpful way.
• Comment on other people’s thoughts more often than you talk about yourself - and keep on theme.
• Utilize other website profiles and blogs to send people to your Twitter feed.
• Be patient, and build your follower list by offering value to their twitter experience.

READER WARNING:

In the future, the Social Media sites will become better at filtering spammers, HOWEVER, the appeal of a 17% response rate in building a permission based list is fantastic - and this will ensure that, in the short term, we can all expect to see a lot more Social Spam coming our way.

After joining groups and communities, learning what they do to build their memberships, I started creating groups and communities within the Social Media sites too.

Though my journey of registering at

• the sites listed with Profilactic.com,
• all the video sites fed through Tubemogul.com,
• all the blogging sites supported by flickr.com and YouTube.com,
• all the micro-blogging sites that Ping.fm distributes to and
• all the additional social media sites compiled by SecondBrain.com and lifestream.fm -

I’ve come to understand that I’m not in Kansas anymore.

Even as a full time web-nerd, I’m shocked at how different things have become.

Now for The Search
Given #1: I can install software and build websites on Linux and Windows servers.
Given #2: Open Source software exists for running a social media website.

I’ll start my search on Sourceforge.net - a great place for any Open Source software you may need, and I’ll work my way through testing out the demo software that I find.

Here are three systems I’m reviewing:

Truthfully social networking platforms, A SOA system for lover and friends.provide a reliable, fast, social networking package.Easy to install,use,manage,and have web service api raise your business to the next level.

IB Social Network System - Complete social networking system for school clubs, small in-school programs, and even entire schools.

Elgg - Elgg is an open source social networking platform developed for LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) which encompasses weblogging, file storage, RSS aggregation, personal profiles, FOAF functionality and more.

Another great place I search is HotScripts.com

With a quick search in the php area, I found a nice list of Social Networking software, but I don’t think these are Open Source, and they are not likely free. However, you do get to save a lot of headaches by surfing through some example sites that are already running on the software.

Many of these systems offer similar features to Myspace and Facebook, but, as I’m reading through, I don’t see one that also includes feed aggregation from other social media sources…

Many include features like social bookmarking, tag clouds, profiles, image voting, classifieds, events and calendar, clubs, e-cards, forum, polls, bulletins, flash chat and instant messenger.

Some of the better scripts also included audio and video blogging, voice and video messaging, audio and video comments, video chat, music and videos, FLV and MP3 players!

My favorite features -

• address book import (supports Yahoo!, GMail, AOL, Hotmail, MSN, MySpace)
• PayPal IPN support

Missing Features -

• Feed Aggregation from other sources
• Widget tool for users to share their content
• Clear mention of RSS Feeds created

I’ll let you know more as I experiment with different software and scripts -

but, if you have your own social networking website, and you are happy with how the site is working for you, please recommend the software here through your affiliate link.

In fact, the list is so huge, a host of new services have evolved to help coordinate and centralize the information flow from all of your various profiles.

These new Web 2.0 Sites are called Feed Aggregators.
They aggregate your RSS Feeds into one stream of updates.

Since I’m always seeking to better use the web for marketing, I set up a few Aggregators for a number of my feeds.  After a short time, I noticed that I was getting indexed in Google within minutes of when I posted to my blog, and, to my surprise, the aggregator websites were also ranking within the top 20 search results! And so, following the principal “If it works, do more of it”…

Today I am reviewing a List of RSS Feed Aggregator services
as I go through the process of registering for all of them. 

Because I market to a number of different niches, I figure it would be best for me to create an individual account at each Aggregator for each of the unique niche’s I focus on.  Tedious?  Rather!  But I only have to do it once, and the Aggregator does its Search Engine magic for a long, long time without further maintenance.

GETTING PREPARED
Start by visiting all your blogs and profiles and collect up the URL’s for all your RSS Feeds.  Save them all in a unique file that is easy to find and update when you add your business information to a new service.

• www.Filtrbox.com - looks like a powerful service.  It has two different paid levels - so I’m figuring it must have some great PageRank juice because of high trust in Google… but it’s not intuitive to set up, has how-to videos - and I’m on dail up at the lake right now.  So I’ve added this one to my list so you can review it, but I’ll set it up further when I’m on highspeed.
• www.Feedkiller.com - no registration required.  Name your stream, add your RSS Feeds and click Build It.  You are given an URL where your feeds are collected into one centralized RSS Feed stream… So I Stubbled the new feed page, and added the RSS Feed to my list that I’ll add to the next aggregators on my list! (note: this new aggregate feed didn’t work in Whereisme.com)
• www.Feedtweeter.com - Feedtweeter says it’s ’A little service that allows you to link Twitter and Plurk to your other activities.’  Feedtweeter can now monitor your Identi.ca posts too: Post something in Identi.ca, and it will appear in Plurk and/or Twitter too. (with a few minutes delay).  This is a cool service, but I’m already set up on www.ping.fm - a more comprehensive version of the same service… 
• www.lifestream.fm looks great.  I’ve applied for an invitation code and Tweeted to my twitter followers to see if anyone has an invitation code they could send me. 
• www.whereisme.com  - a web identity aggregator. It takes all the places you do things on the web and centralizes them for you to show off. This is a *great* place to collect the RSS Feeds from all of your blogs and a wide selection of the biggest Social Media sites, like Blogger, del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm and several other top names.  Get a cup of coffee - this one’s worth your time.
• www.daylife.com - a new way to explore the world, they say - which is pretty vague to me… it’s a collection on online news sources where you can “star” things of interest.  I looked for a way to add my feeds, there was a link at the bottome right of the footer in the page where I suggested my feeds… If you are looking for an aggregator for your own feeds, skip this site.
• http://linkbun.ch/ - lets you put multiple links into one small link which you can share over IM, Twitter, email or even a mobile phone SMS. So, I put all my fishing blogs into a bunch, and this service created an individual page, listing my bunch of links!  Another easy way to create one-way links to your website. 

Ok - I’ve gone over-time in writing this post.  Here are a few more RSS Feed Aggregator Services that I’ll be registering with - I haven’t tried them yet, let me know which are best!

•  
  • www.dailyme.com
  • www.streamy.com
  • www.turtilla.com
  • www.Afrigator.com
  • www.blastfeed.com
  • www.feedfeeds.com
  • www.feeds2.com

Your profile name
profile email address
small profile picture
150 word intro paragraph
set of best 5 keyword phrases
website address you are marketing

Purpose - why are you doing all this?

Ultimately, all the social attention should gain you new visitors to your main website, new email subscribers and new customers.

You achieve this by establishing a relationship with people who are already in your niche - and by building a means to communicate with them in the future.

Day One

Step One - Register Everywhere

Now you can find WoWGrrl on your favorite social networking sites! And add her as a friend! We started our social networking journey at www.profilactic.com.  It was easier to tackle the project when two of us split the list of sites that are supported, and started registering a new profile on every social bookmarking, file sharing, video sharing, Web 2.0 sites we could find.

As we went through this list of almost 200 Web 2.0 style sites, there were a few that stood out - these were ear-marked for another visit and more development.

These exceptional information sharing sites also included a way to build a friends list and create groups on your topic.

Step Two - Aggregate the Feeds

Another social networking service I found were a few rss feed aggregation sites.  After creating almost 200 new profiles across the full range of social networking sites, it seems impossible to monitor and manage everything.

List all of the sites you have registered with with services like profilactic.com, blogcatalog.com, superglu.com and pownce.com - the beta toluu.com my also be of interest.

Day Two

Step Three - Get Connected
within each community site, join groups, search on your topic to build your friends lists.

Update your profiles - before you start adding friends, be sure to upload a profile image, copy and paste a description the includes a link to your site or offer…etc.

Step Four -
Create a unique ‘Group’ on a theme relating to your topic, update the Group Profile page to include links to your offers then invite your new friends to join your group.

One Week Later

Community Building

A simple and effective way to bring people to your group - a fun contest on pictures and videos.  These simple contests give reasons for members to invite their friends to the group.

One Month Later

Community Partnerships

After your friends list and group membership has grown to a few hundred people, you can start making promotional swaps with other group owners. i.e. I’ll send out a notice about your group to my members if you’ll send out a notice about my group to your members…

Now your groups can start growing to be in the thousands!

On the other hand, Facebook lets marketers connect up to people based on the interests they have expressed through word, and by preferences they have indicated through action.

Recently I have been working with two artists to help them connect up with people by using Facebook as a starting platform.  These artists are local watercolour painters with amazing skill and a small inventory of beautiful paintings to sell.  They have an established and growing reputation, and need an online presence to help promote their work.

They are both new to Facebook, and don’t have a history of personal data on their profiles.  In fact, they havn’t been actively growing their friends list at all.  This is good - both artists were OKay with the idea of using their personal profile as a marketing tool - and less as a personal way to connect with family. 

5 Steps to Get Established in Facebook:

Step 1

Find people with a similar interest. Join several Facebook groups in the subject area of your target Niche.

Step 2

Build you friends list.  Review the Members List from these group for individuals who match the profile for your ideal customer and invite these people to become your friend.

Step 3

Create an Interest Group.  Make your own original Facebook Group and invite your new friends to join.  Establish a monthly activity to give group members some recognition.

Step 4

Create a Facebook Fan Page - promote your Fan Page in your profile AND in your Group.

Step 5

Add the RSS Feed from your Blog to your Facebook Fan Page!

Now you have established a growing presence in Facebook that is easy to update from an external blog or RSS feed!  All of your Fans get a notification within Facebook each time you update your blog!

I see that I must re-format a number of paragraphs in previous posts, but that’s ok.  The previous wordpress theme was ok on a 22′ monitor, but on a regular monitor, it was to much chaos and didn’t fit the screen.

Within minutes, broadcast and interact with a global audience of one to thousands!  All it takes is a webcam and high speed.

Aimed at a financial audience, www.forexfrat.com is a community of blogs on futures trading, stock trading and the forex markets.

The new Wordpress 2.5 is a big change from all previous versions.  The layout is much less cluttered in the administration area of the site

- and I’m completely thrilled
with the new automatic Plugins Upgrade option! 

My standard Wordpress installation routine includes two dozen plugins, and upgrades used to be the bain of my love afair with Wordpress. 

           First, I upgraded a static-page website using wordpress as a content management system rather than as a blog.  My first upgrade went from 2.2.3 up to 2.5, so I was expecting it to go smoothly after I read the upgrade directions. 

           My second upgrade was more nerve-wracking… I updated an older blog with almost three years and 205 posts… from Wordpress 1.5 to wordress 2.5 - following the same directions -

And everything worked like a charm! Which is great for me, I’ve been putting off the upgrade to  www.douglampi.com - not wanting to mess up the site… However, it was time to take the plunge and see what repairs I had to do afterwords. 

Turns out that upgrading a wordpress blog that’s had no version upgrades in two years is just as easy as how to update a wordpress blog I installed last week!

I have another dozen wordpress blogs to upgrade today, I better pay attention to my ftp program and keep those files flowin’.  As I complete the upgrades across my client sites and my own blogs, I’m taking screen captures and video clips as I experiment with the changes in the new Wordpress 2.5 update.

Cheerio!

TouchGraph Photos


This is the first screenshot I’ve taken while using the Touchgraph Facebook Photo Viewer.  I like how you can easily view the photos of your friends if you are on a highspeed connection, but the images are not cached, and if you return to view the same friends images later, they must be re-loaded.  This app is NOT for dial-up users.  Sorry.

The photo viewing aspect is cool, but it’s more interesting to see who know’s who amoung your friends!

Facebook Fans will love this App - and Business Owners should take note.

Cheers.