The Social Path

Day 13: See what your readers see.

 

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more. 

We're going to be talking about a few ways to streamline your blog's look and navigation in the next few weeks, so we wanted to get started with an easy little test that can help you step back and take a good look at your own site.

Recently, Google unveiled a tool called "Browser Size," which lets you find out what percentage of the world's Web browsers can actually see your site's front-page content without scrolling.

Why is this important? Because chances are, your blog has a purpose in life. Whatever that purpose, shouldn't it be reflected in the layout of your site? 

Are you looking for new customers? Soliciting donations? Sharing hot news in your industry? Angling for a book deal? The answer is rarely a simple one, but I bet you could summarize your strategy in a few simple bullet points. 

For our part, The Social Path is aimed at helping Luckie's clients, partners and friends stay up to speed on the rapidly evolving world of social media. It also helps introduce Luckie to folks who might not know how much butt we're kicking down here in Birmingham.

With that in mind, several things jump out to me when I look at The Social Path through the lens of Google Browser Size:

1. Why do our bios get such prime real estate? Sure, it's nice for you guys to know who we are, but this site is about what we've learned and accomplished as an agency, and that should probably be better reflected in the design.
2. Why are the subscription options so hidden? Only 40% of our site's readers can see the "Subscribe by E-mail" form without scrolling, and just 20% see the RSS link. (Admittedly, most RSS enthusiasts know to look for it in the browser's URL bar, but that's no excuse to hide the button below the fold.) 
3. What kind of topics does this blog cover? There's really no hint at the types of info we write about, beyond the tagline. How can we get some basic navigation or popular topics into the main display without cluttering it up?

Some of these are issues we'll be able to improve within the 30-Day Social Media Makeover, but some others might take time — and that's OK. The key for today is simply to take stock of your design and see what kinds of opportunities you're missing. 

After all, there's no shame in taking a moment to question yourself and admit that you're not perfect. Or as mythologist Joseph Campbell once said, "Out of perfection, nothing can be made. Every process involves breaking something up.”

Estimated time needed: 10 minutes.

Benefits: A clear look at areas for improvement in your blog or site design.

Coming tomorrow: Isn't it time you shared the love on LinkedIn?

Day 12: Actually follow the people on your Twitter Lists.

 

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more. 

 Here's a quick and easy tip that even the savviest Twitter users often don't know about.

Late last year, Twitter Lists debuted with much...well, confusion. The idea was simple: You could now organize your Twitter contacts into lists, like "Social Media Gurus" or "People Who Wish They Could Slap Social Media Gurus."

Easy enough, right? Except that the list system was just weird and clunky. Namely, when you find a great list, you can't actually follow the people on the list. You have to follow the list as a whole, or else go through by hand and start following each person. Basically, instead of building a better engine, Twitter added a questionably useful sidecar.

What was especially strange was that a site called Tweepml.org already existed, allowing you to create or find lists AND follow all the people on it. In other words, if I found a list of 100 cool people I didn't know, I could follow each one with one push of a button. Twitter Lists just don't let you do that.

In response, Tweepml got even better. You can now go to the site and paste in the URL of any Twitter list. Then you can follow everyone on the list or pick and choose which ones you'd like to connect with.

Again, just find a Twitter list, paste its URL into the "Follow A Twitter List" window on Tweepml.org, and start following. It's that easy.

To see the difference, check out these links:

1. Mack Collier's great Twitter List of "People That Inspire Me"

2. The same list, converted into Tweepml.org.

Here are a few of my lists in easy-to-follow form:

• Luckie & Company

• Unsleazy PR Pros

• Twitter Savvy Execs

• Social Media Superstars

Estimated time needed: 15-30 minutes.

Benefits: Easier way to expand your network with worthwhile new contacts.

Coming tomorrow: A cool new way to see your blog through your readers' eyes.

How fast is social media growing? This fast.

Here's a pretty incredible gadget by media innovator Gary Hayes:

Pretty hypnotic, isn't it?

If you're reading this post from e-mail or RSS feed and can't see the graphic, be sure to click through the headline to the original post.

Hat tip to Aaron Velthoven on Twitter.

Day 11: Review 3 things you've owned 3 months.

 

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more. 

 How many product reviews did you read when you were making your holiday purchases last year? Dozens? Hundreds even?

Now riddle me this: How many product reviews did you write in all of 2009?

Unless you're one of the very few, very prolific reviewers on the Web, chances are that you don't contribute much to sites like Amazon, Overstock.com, CNET, etc. When we do write reviews, most of us are making snap judgments — often negative — based on our first experiences with a product. ("I found the box overly difficult to open! Thumbs down!")

But what about the trusty products that stick with us for months or even years at a time? We rarely re-visit the sites where we bought them and share our opinions.

So today, we're going to try something easy and fun to get you in the habit of reviewing things you've put to the test.

First, just pick three items that you've had for three months or more. Not a Christmas gift or impulse buy from last week. Go for things that you've started to take for granted because they've been consistently useful, even if they're not that sexy.

For my three, I picked a random mix of gadgety goodness: my modest Acer Aspire One Netbook, an Oxo digital kitchen scale and a silicone sleeve for my iPhone.

Admittedly, I gave each one a five-star review on Amazon, mostly because I think they're each great at what they do, even if what they do isn't all that exciting. But more important than the star rating is the actual feedback you write into the review. Be honest about how the product has met your expectations and about any shortcomings you've experienced. 

Chances are, you'll also learn a few things about the item you're reviewing when you browse through other people's opinions. I've found some pretty cool new ways to use old gadgets just by reading reviews.

That's it for today! Three reviews. I'm sure you can swing that, even on a busy Monday. We'd love it if you shared the items you reviewed in the comments section.

Estimated time needed: 30-60 minutes.

Benefits: Contributing to the global well of information that you drink from every day.

Coming tomorrow: One simple Twitter Lists tip that will make you say, "How did I not know about that?"

Day 10: Lock your phone already.

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more. 

You know you should do it. I know I should do it. And yet, none of us does it.

Code-locking your phone is the single easiest thing you can do make your personal information incredibly more secure. But because it adds a minor annoyance to our lives, almost no one bothers.

An unlocked phone is an open invitation for thieves to pillage your life on a level that makes household burglary look like a stolen hubcap. Your contacts, your calendar, your ma ps, your Facebook, your e-mails, your photos, your texts, your Tweets...the scope of information available in today's phones is terrifying when you imagine it falling into the wrong hands.

That's exactly what happened to the wife of Chicago Tribune columnist Mark Bazer, who wrote a popular piece last week called "Congratulations on your new iPhone!" Bazer's writeup walked the thief through the many great features of the phone, which had been snatched right out of the owner's hands while she was waiting for a train:

"My wife, in the one whole month she was using your phone, downloaded some great apps  for you. The Facebook app, for example, works just like regular Facebook, and should allow you to easily join the Facebook Groups "iPhone Thieves" and "People Who Make Other People Cry."

"My wife also downloaded a great app to help if you're planning to redecorate your home, another if you're looking to get into pilates, and another that helps locate the nearest pawn shop."

While Bazer's column conveys the frustration of a stolen phone, what he doesn't discuss (perhaps because it's not funny at all) is how your entire identity is left vulnerable when a phone gets grabbed.

Whatever your phone model, I'm willing to bet it's got a PIN-lock system that won't add too much frustration to your life.

The iPhone offers several settings that make the code a little less cumbersome for daily use. For example, you can set your phone to go idle every minute for power saving, but only require a password every five or 15 minutes.

If you want some Mission Impossible-level protection, you can turn on a setting that erases all data on your iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts. (All these options can be found in the "Passcode Lock" section of your iPhone's Settings menu.

Whatever your phone model, please consider taking this small step toward better security in a disarmingly dangerous world. This isn't like asking you to use the parking brake every time you leave the car. It's like asking you to take your keys and your kids with you.

Estimated time needed: 1 minute.

Benefits: Improved security for your data, your identity and your life in general.

Coming tomorrow: OK, enough doom and gloom about security. Let's talk about shopping!

Day 9: Ratchet up your Facebook privacy settings.

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more. 

In an effort to compete with websites like Twitter, Facebook has started a push to encourage more users to publish content publicly. However, they still have settings to respect each user's desire for privacy. 

Yesterday, we tackled the simple step of dividing your Facebook friends into lists. Today, we really put those lists to good use by determining what information each group will get to see about you.

Essentially, each privacy setting in Facebook can be customized to include (or rather, exclude) specific groups you've created.

 

To get started, scroll over the Settings tab in the upper right hand corner of your Facebook page and then select "Privacy Settings" from the drop-down menu. The first section, “Profile Information,” is a good place to start, since it includes most of the info you'll want to assign to friend lists.

Your privacy option for each of these sections include Everyone, Friends and Network, Friends of Friends, Only Friends, and Customize. You'll probably want to use Customize, since it lets you set large-scale filters (ie, Friends-only) and then further refine it by saying which friends or lists should be restricted. 

•  About Me and Personal Info: These include all boxes under the Personal Information heading in your profile: Interests, Activities, Favorites, and About Me. You openness about these tidbits probably depends on how you spend your free time and whether you'd want clients or bosses to know about it.
• Birthday, Religious & Political Views, Family and Relationship: All housed under the Basic Information section of your Info Tab. Facebook clumps family members, "interested in," relationship status and "looking for" together. So if you want strangers to know you're into dudes but not that you have a boyfriend, then you're outta luck.
• Education and Work Info: The very last field in the Info Tab. You may want this public to make it easier for coworkers and clients to find you by searching for your employer.  On the other hand, you may not want your stalker to know where you work. Tough call.
• Photos and Videos of Me: These are important ones.They determine who will see pictures and videos where people have tagged you, usually because you're in them. What that means is, you can't control where you're tagged or what the photos and video will show. Because of that, you might want to limit these categories to close friends. Blocking these from some friends or everyone will take them out of your Photos Tab and the listing under your profile picture. Please note though, these settings do not apply to albums you upload.  
• Photo Albums: This section has its own Edit Settings button so each album can be assigned to specific friend lists.
• Posts by Me: Sets your default for Status Updates, Links, Notes, Photos, and Videos you post. If you're using Facebook as a Rolodex of sorts for some casual acquaintances, you might want to bar them from seeing these updates.
• Allow Friends to Post to My Wall: This is a general setting across all friends no matter groups. To have a wall or not to have a wall, that is the question. 
• Posts by Friends: It's probably smart to limit this category to "Only Friends" instead of "Friends of Friends" or "Everyone." That way, your friends can write on your wall without having to worry about their own privacy. On a related note, you can also restrict bosses, professors, etc., from seeing what your friends are writing.
• Comment on Posts: And to further the wall confusion.... you've already decided whether to have a wall, who can see your posts, and who can post. Now you get to decide who can comment on posts. Because comments from Mom are always the best ones on Lamebook.

Don't forget to go back and set privacy on specific photo albums you've uploaded in recent years. Just can’t part with that album from your dorm kegger freshman year? Odds are you don’t want your boss complimenting your funneling technique, so be sure to set which groups should be able to see each one.

So you've read to here and decided that you just don't publish content frequently enough or offensive enough to warrant using all those darn groups I made you make. But some day you may want to publish just one status update or one album, but restrict it to certain friends. Facebook is ready to accommodate you for that moment.

Each album, status, or post of any kind has individual privacy setting options. Simply click on the lock icon below the status or album publisher and select your level of privacy. This is also great so that once you get your content secured to your liking, you can easily set your privacy for future posts in snap.

Back to your Privacy Settings, once you're satisfied with your profile content, go back to the Privacy homepage and select Contact Information. If you’ve shared openly with your profile Information, you may want to consider being a bit more private here. Facebook gives you the option of sharing home address and phone numbers with everyone but that doesn’t mean you should. In general, these are best shared with a trusted group or not at all.  Past this, Contact Information houses who can add you as a friend from your search results. There are only two options, "Everyone" or "Friends of Friends. 

If you’re a social media hermit and want to be invisible to members outside your friends, you’ll have to go through the Search section under the Privacy Settings menu and select “Only Friends” from the drop-down menu. Side Note: this is also the home of your public search listing (i.e.- whether or not people can find a link to your facebook through Google, more on this when we discuss Universal Listings soon).

Once you’ve finished, select the “Preview My Profile” button in the right hand corner and check how individuals or members of groups will view your profile. And most importantly, always remember that Facebook is not flawless and you shouldn’t post anything that could be damning to your personal life or reputation. Unless it's really, really funny.

Estimated time needed: 30-45 minutes.

Benefits: Improved privacy and security in Facebook.

Day 8: Start segmenting your Facebook "friends."

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more.

I started a Facebook account my freshman year in college. I had no idea what was coming, and I was not alone. We posted pictures and wrote on walls with reckless abandon because Facebook was for us, the college kids. Right?

Then Facebook had to go and let all you others in. I'm looking at you, kid I babysat, and you too, Grandma. The mainstreaming of Facebook hasn't just been rough on the early-20s crowd like me. These days, almost everyone should be using Facebook lists to filter your friends into different categories.

Sure, it's a bit of a pain at first, but once the lists are up and running, you can rest assured that your pastor won't be in the same crowd as your tattoo artist. (Unless you have a really cool pastor, or a really lame tattoo artist.)

Getting started with lists

If you haven't set up a Facebook friend list before, here's a quick primer:

1. Click the "Friends" tab at the top of your Facebook home page.

2. Click "Create New List." If you want to update an older list you created, select it on the left sidebar and click "Edit List."

3. Name the new list and start selecting which friends should go into it. Couldn't be easier, though it can be time-consuming the first time out.

Slicing and dicing your friends

What lists should you create? Of course it's up to you, but here are a few suggestions:

• Family
• Supervisors
• Coworkers
• Clients
• School friends
• Close friends
• Casual acquaintances 
• Industry peers

Ideally, Facebook would let you set your privacy options for each list as you create it, but unfortunately that's not the case. You have to go into your account's privacy settings and start tweaking each category.

We'll tackle all that tomorrow. For today, just focus on creating the right lists and getting your friend pool organized. From then on, each new connection can be added to an existing list.

Estimated time needed: 30 minutes to set up your lists or bring them up to date.

Benefits: Improved privacy and security in Facebook.

Coming tomorrow: Now that you have Facebook user lists, it's time to start assigning different privacy settings to each one.

Day 7: Check in on your YouTube channel.

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more.

In late 2009, YouTube forcibly switched all its users to the new channel format, a look that I find great for corporate purposes but pretty annoying for the average user.

While debate continues about the switch, there's little you can really do at this point except make the most of what YouTube hath wrought.

Essentially, YouTube made its channels feel more like channels, instead of just jumbled piles of boxes. You can watch dozens of videos without ever leaving one YouTube channel, where the old format would generally just steer you to specific video pages.

While I personally think the new change made it a bit more difficult to share videos easily, there's no denying that it's aesthetically a better look.

Before we dive into design issues, here's a quick comparison of the before and after. I'm randomly using ExploreMinnesota as an example, just because I happened to have a pre-change screenshot of their channel.

 

and then...

As you can see, profile information really got the shaft, with your bio info getting kicked below the fold. Again, it's more like a channel, and less like a social network profile.

So here's the real question for those of you already using YouTube: Have you gone back and checked your channel since it got switched over to the new format? If not, you're probably going to want to make some design tweaks.

Editing the new channel is pretty self-explanatory, though please note that some of the most important settings (font colors, background image, etc.) are hidden under "show advanced options" in the "Themes and Colors" tab.

Two other important points about the background image:

1. It's a pretty big pain in the butt. The image size limitation is preposterously small (256K) for the width of background image you'd likely want to use. That's why I went pretty minimal with Luckie's agency channel, the before and after of which are shown at the top of this post.

2. If you want to actually see your background image, be sure to change the two Transparency settings, which will make the channel's frames as translucent as you'd like.

The good news is that you probably won't need a comprehensive redesign. Just tweak your colors and select which info (subscribers, favorites, etc.) you want featured on your channel.

Again, I'm not totally enamored with the new look of YouTube channels, but I will say that it's a cleaner way to watch videos, and it really does open up more design options for those who want their channels to look a little more professional.

For example, I love the look of the channel we created for The Alabama Tourism Department:

If you're an active YouTube user who's been playing with the new channel format for a while now — or you learn something helpful while giving it a shot today — I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

Estimated time needed: 30-45 minutes
Benefits: A cleaner, more professional look for your YouTube presence.

Coming tomorrow:Time to start segmenting all those "friends" on Facebook.

Day 6: Revamp your RSS reading.

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more.

When you first learn how to use RSS subscription, it's easy to get carried away. Next thing you know, you've got thousands of unread posts, and Google Reader has become just another inbox you dread opening.

If that sounds like you, try experimenting today with a few other options for reading your favorite RSS feeds. I can't say that any one approach is best for you, because we all use these subscription tools differently. But maybe you'll find that one of these is right for you:

1. Streamline Google Reader with "Better GReader"

This Firefox add-on gives you a whole swath of new options for using Google Reader. My favorite are the multiple "skins" you can browse, such as the Helvetica-based "Helvetireader." I personally prefer the "Optimized" skin, which strips down Google Reader into its most useful essentials and subtly improves the font.

One downside: Since it's a browser add-on, you'll still go back to the standard Google Reader interface when you check in from another machine. But chances are good that you're doing most of your RSS reading from one computer anyway.

2. Get a real-time, ticker-style updates with Snackr.

I love how Snackr works, which is to scroll your newest RSS subscription updates across part of your monitor. But honestly, I love it too much and simply can't use it at work. With so many other distractions in social media, I don't need another stream of fascinating data to snag my attention.

That said, if you find yourself frustrated with having to go to a specific site like Google Reader just to catch up, or if you work in an industry where you need to respond to news within minutes, Snackr might be right for you.

3. Got an iPhone? Try the Reeder app.

There are metric tons of iPhone RSS apps, but this one offers just about everything you'll really need to read subscriptions on the go. It's clean, quick and intuitive.

Of course, it also costs money. $2.99 to be exact, which can seem steep in the world of free iPhone apps. But if you want something that will sync your iPhone to your Google Reader, this is probably the one to try.

4. Abandon RSS altogether.

If you're really struggling with Google Reader backlog, ask yourself if there's even a benefit anymore. Chances are, you're getting most of your favorite info from Twitter, Facebook or news aggregators.

There's been a lot of talk over the years about how RSS never caught on, with less than 10% of online Americans using RSS once a month or more. That's no reason to stop using RSS feeds if they're right for you, but it is a good sign that this approach to distribution is nearing some sort of evolutionary dead end.

Personally, I think RSS just needs a better name, like "Scrip" or "Riz." If one of those takes off, remember, you read it here first.

Until then, did you know you can subscribe by Riz to The Social Path?

Estimated time needed: About an hour for experimentation.
Benefits: More efficient news and industry updates.

Coming tomorrow: Have you seen your YouTube channel lately? If not, you might be in for a surprise.

Cautionary tale: Good headline writing doesn't end on your blog.

UPDATE: Please see Mashable's response at the bottom of this post. Great transparency and chronology of how this all went down.

Today, there was a relatively minor bit of Twitter-related news on the social media hub Mashable.com. It was essentially just an update about how MSNBC is expanding its use of the "@BreakingNews" Twitter feed it bought last month:

Not that big of a deal, right? Except that it soon exploded into a burst of speculation that MSNBC had actually purchased Twitter itself. How could people get so mixed up?

Because Mashable's Twitter link to the item was one of the most misleading I've ever seen:

Personally, I'm pretty sure this was just a case of unfortunate phrasing, and not really an intentional misdirection. But that doesn't change the fact that people were soon retweeting the headline like a forest fire. Like it or not, a lot of people simply don't read through links before sharing them, a problem exacerbated by the fact that Mashable has nearly 2 million followers on Twitter.

Here are just a few of the many comments posted by the blog's readers, who overwhelmingly had more to say about the tweet than about the news itself:

The moral here is pretty clear, and I'm really not trying to beat up on a site as stellar as Mashable. But I think it's worth taking the time to note that the way you rephrase your headline is just as important as the original phrasing.

Now excuse me while I try to write a Twitter link to this post without implying that I have purchased both Mashable and Twitter.

UPDATE: Response from Mashable's Adam Ostrow, who wrote the blog post (and headline) at issue:

Hey David - Not sure at what point you saw all this, but here's what happened and my thinking:

1. Original headline and tweet were both the same with the "Breaking News:" at the start. Typically, when something actually is breaking news, we use "BREAKING:" so I was trying to be (too) cute and reference the name of the brand that the article was about.

2. Quickly noticed a lot of people thought I meant something else, so I changed the headline. However, if MSNBC had bought Twitter, I'd have simply said so (BREAKING: MSNBC Buys Twitter" or something).

3. My thinking was that enough people knew about the @BreakingNews account and the prior MSNBC deal that it wouldn't lead to mass confusion, but be a clever headline that complimented my story nicely. Clearly, I assumed too much.

4. I agree with you that many people RT before clicking thru - hence, headlines like this one don't work. Hopefully won't make the same mistake again :) Thanks for the post.

Big thanks to Adam for taking the time to clarify. Just goes to show that Mashable is, as always, a class act — and that they can be as human as the rest of us.