Cincinnati Women Bloggers

People who enjoy location based applications like Foursquare and Gowalla were in for a treat as Facebook rolled out its own location based tool, “Places.” Much like Foursquare, Gowalla, etc., Facebook’s new Places feature allows users to see where their friends are, what their comments on venues while also sharing their own locations and comments. Users can also post their location as a status update (please don’t do this very often…). Business owners will also have the ability to claim and edit their listings. For those of you worried about privacy, controls that determine who sees your Places updates have been set by default to friends only.

So how does it work?

Tagging:

In order to tag someone their settings must allow tagging.

• Select the Place and click “Tag Friends With You” link. Select the appropriate people from your friends list.
  (You can choose to add a description of what you are doing at the place {Think Shout on Foursquare}
• Click the “Check In” button.

Create a new Place:

• Select”Check In”
• Click “Add” to the left of the search box.
• Enter the new Place (you can also add a description).
• Click “Add”

Claim a Place:

• Search for the Place you would like to claim.
• Click the “Is this your business?”
• Follow the step-by-step verification process to claim your Place.

I just downloaded the update a few hours ago so I am sure I’ll have more thoughts on this after I’ve had time to play around with it.  One feature that really stood out to me was the ability to tag your friends should they not have access through their phone. Knowing that location based application users in our area are big Foursquare users, it will be interesting to see how this effects that usage. With Facebook adding it’s own location-based application and having such a huge user base, you have to wonder, will people decide to kill their Foursquare / Gowalla accounts?

What are your thoughts? Have you played around on Places?

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to speak on “Building an Online Community” at WordCamp Columbus / PodCamp Ohio along with Debba Haupert of Girlfriendology and my husband Tom Streeter who co-owns Hoperatives.com and Tag Team Tech with me. Being in that environment got me thinking about a question we sometimes get: “I’m thinking about starting a blog. Can you give me any tips?” Luckily, there are two podcast episodes that I think should be required reading for all new bloggers.

At 2009′s SXSW, Merlin Mann and Jon Gruber gave a talk called “149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog with Credibility!”  You can find more information about the session at http://www.43folders.com/2009/03/25/blogs-turbocharged. In this presentation, Gruber and Mann talk about “building a blog you can be proud of, trying to improve the quality of your work, reaching the people you admire, and maybe even making a buck (in a way that doesn’t blow your deal).”

The thing that really resonated with me from that talk was that a successful blog must have three things: “obsession + topic + voice”.   If you have those three things, you can “become the go-to person for whatever your topic is.”  Consider this: “How do you know it’s time to start a blog?  Because people keep telling you to shut up.” And finally: “When CPM [cost per thousand] becomes more important than making readers happy, you’ve lost it.”

For me, this talk was an “A-ha!” moment.  It crystalizes exactly why my first two blogs never really took off and why Hoperatives and now Tag Team Tech have.  You have to have the obsession, the topic and the voice.  If you are missing any one of those three, you’re doomed.

The second podcast episode I would recommend is this week’s special episode from Grammar Girl on “How to Get Started Blogging“. If you go to the link, you can both listen to the podcast or read the transcript. Mignon Fogarty’s tips are the perfect next step since she talks about defining your audience, finding good information that is credible, and building confidence as a blog writer. The whole podcast episode is only just over seven minutes long so you can easily listen to it one time, spend some time thinking about it and listen to it again. By the way, if you want to brush up your English and grammar skills, I highly recommend listening to Grammar Girl on a regular basis.

So when you are thinking about starting a new blog, think about “obsession + topic + voice” and think about defining your audience, finding good information that is credible, and building confidence as a blog writer. And then let us know what you’re blogging!

– Carla

For those of you managing a Facebook Fan Page, recent updates to the  Insights dashboard should make analyzing user interaction easier and much more meaningful.

The updated Insights dashboard now offers analytics regarding your Page’s tabs, insights on referral sources, and the ability to track Facebook sharing and Likes on your own blog or website.

FROM FACEBOOK: The new Insights dashboard is your single source for all your Facebook analytics needs for:

• Websites: Fully-integrated sites and those that use social plugins, or add a non-integrated domain in one easy step
• Applications: Including canvas, mobile, device, and desktop applications
• Facebook Pages: Including Pages created on Facebook.com and those that are part of the Open Graph protocol

To view your page’s Insights, go to the Insights Dashboard. Insights are viewable only by Page administrators.

The tickets are sold, the plans are made…here are the details for CWB’s First-Ever Tailgate Extravaganza:

* We’ll get this party started at 4:30 on Saturday.  Bring your chairs and your best party jokes.  We’ll be located in the back of the side lot of the Gardens if all goes as planned. Look for the balloons floating…it’ll be just like UP.

*It’s BYOB, this includes any beverage other than water (see below).  Bring your favorite brew, your loaded flask, or a couple cans of Throwback Pepsi…whatever floats your boat. We’ll have coolers on hand for your chilling pleasure.

* Tom from Cafe de Wheels will be on hand in his uber-famous burger mobile to wow our taste buds for the main course.  Never fear, we’ll have hot dogs and veggie burgers if burgers ain’t yo thang.

* We ask that you bring a dish to share – your favorite app or sweet surprise…whatever, we’re easy. The tailgate committee has some delicious dishes in the works: potato salad, mac & cheese, succotash (Mojo’s fancy ‘tash – not your Gran’ma’s), cheese & veggies, edamame dip (why yes you can do edamame in a dip and it’s delightful) and much, much more!

* Brian (who is awesome for many reasons, the top of course being that  he’s a OSU alum – GO BUCKEYES!) owner and creator of Avitae 45 has generously donated a couple cases of his caffeine water at our par-tay.  This stuff is clean and refreshing – I think you’ll love it. It will be just the kick you need to boogie all night or recover the next morning.  Love this company because it is OHIO-born and bred! A special shout out to @racheltayse at Hounds in the Kitchen for delivering our Avitae 45 from Columbus to Cincinnati.  Smooch Smooch Smooch

And oh so much more.  But it won’t be nearly as fun without YOU, so make sure you’re there.  Don’t make me come and get you.

Please give up your thanks to the best tailgate committee ever: Maureen, Kelly and Andi.  Without them, you’d be getting day-old pizza and kool-aid. And you’d like it.

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Finally a brand that I really care about is offering a benefit to their beloved Foursquare “mayors.” Starbucks recently announced they will be giving $1.00 off their Frappucinos to Foursquare mayors, their first promotion on the geo-location service.

logo courtesy of www.brandsoftheworld.com

What does this mean for me who has gleefully taken mayorship at two Cincinnati Starbucks?  At first I was thinking nothing, have you seen a Starbucks Frappucino?  Those things look like they could just cling to your hips, butt and thighs in 2.5 seconds after you take that first sip.  But then I actually looked up the nutrition facts and noticed the Grande, Non-fat, Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino Light Blended beverage was only 170 calories.  That aint too bad, only 40 calories more than my daily order of a Grande, light foam, Skinny Vanilla Latte.  With the $1.00 off promotion I’ll be giving the Frappucino a chance tomorrow morning.

My next question, how much effort will I need to put into protecting my mayorship?  I live near two locations that are rarely discovered by other Cincinnati Foursquare users and now I’m really going to need to “check-in” each and every time I’m going through the drive-thru.  No matter if I get the lovely “force-close” message on my Droid or not, I’m committed to keeping my mayorship and I look forward to other incentives for Starbucks Mayors.

This isn’t Starbucks first involvement with Foursquare, they have actually given out virtual badges such as the “Barista” badge for checking in to 5 different Starbucks locations.  The promotion for the Frappucino is the first monetary reward tied to Foursquare for Starbucks and it is expected to run through June 28 as part of the current “however-you-want-it Frappucino” campaign.

What about you?  Are you on the Foursquare bandwagon or are you reading this post thinking of the game you played on the blacktop at your elementary school?  Let me know!

If you’re like me, you probably tend to focus on promoting your blog in its entirety. After all, you’ve worked on the design and layout, installed widgets and plugins, backed up files and databases–you’re presenting the whole package. When I hand out a business card, it’s printed with my blog’s URL, not a link to a specific post.

But what about promoting individual posts? For many bloggers, not everything we write covers the same topic. Personally, I write about fashion, social media, graphic and web design, random life events…all of those things may appeal to different types of readers.

So, what’s the best way to attract new readers from distinct audiences? If you promote individual posts, you can speak to several different niches and possibly gain some loyal readers in the process!

Here are a few ideas:

1. Do a keyword search and find other blogs that focus on your topic. Leave a comment on a particularly relevant article, or send a friendly, short email to the webmaster letting them know your post might be useful to their readers. You might also ask their opinion about the information you’ve provided.

2. Find a niche community focused on your topic and add a handful of helpful comments. Include a link to your post in your signature.

3. Don’t underestimate the old faithful trinity: Digg, Stumble, and Technorati.

4. Do a Twitter search and find five people tweeting about your subject. @ reply to them with a quick, personal response to their tweet and a shortened link to your post. If they respond, start a conversation and/or thank them.

5. Don’t forget about the other trinity: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Post, tweet, and update.

6. Speaking of LinkedIn, search the Questions and Answers section for keywords related to your topic. Add your helpful response and a link to your post to someone’s question.

7. This sounds crazy, but talk to actual real-life people about your article. They can be people you know, or mere acquaintances, but if you think your post can help them, let them know. Via phone. Or (gasp!) in person.

8. Include a link in your email signature. Sell it by including a teaser question (“Do you need a professional header for your blog?”) and a clear call to action (“Read this post for instructions on creating a beautiful header in 20 minutes”).

9. Add a link to the post in the footer of your RSS feed. Remember to include descriptive anchor text.

10. Remember the “multiple outposts” theory? Post your article somewhere else, either as a teaser or in its entirety (for example, as a blog post in a Ning community). If it’s good, people will click on the link to your site/profile to see what else you have to say.

You may have noticed a common thread in all of the above tips: be helpful. It’s not about spamming poor, unsuspecting internet victims, it’s about letting people who might be interested in the information you provide know that you can assist them.

How do you promote your posts? Any tips to add?