Jesusita Fire

Santa Barbara is on fire… Again.. Here are some photos from the past few days:

IMSB Tools Wrap Up

Well since Lisa Barone and Susan Esparza both decided to take a break from liveblogging at IM Spring Break, I thought I’d fire up wordpress and do a wrap up post about the tips and tools to use from the hottest conference to hit internet marketing.

Twellow

A yellow pages style twitter directory to help you find people to follow:

We Follow

A user powered twitter directory created by Kevin Rose of Digg.

Tubemogul

Upload and distribute video to multiple sites at once!

Big Boards

Find active forums and message boards by category:

di66.net

Digg stats, news and views, for finding front page digg story lists:

Quarkbase

For competitor analysis:

Feedblitz

A paid alternative to feedburner:

Duplicate Content Checker

Pretty self explanatory, check it out:

Seed Keywords

Another resource for keyword research:

A New Link Building Tool?

On the link building panel, Wil Reynolds talked about how he uses delicious as a link building and keyword research tool. Wil says its a great resource to find out how people are tagging alternative keywords for terms, what sites people are saving as potential link opportunities, and to see what trends through rss from delicious. Great ideas.

NoFollow Free

A nofollow plugin for wordpress.

All in all, an awesome conference from the IM Broadcast team, great info, awesome food, a definite must attend!

Social Media for Everyday Life

Lately it seems there’s been an upsurge in nay-sayers against social media and the people who are heavily involved in the social media space. The general consensus is that people are sick of hearing the term “social media guru”, or other related terms.

Let’s Not Get Butthurt

Now, first of all “guru” isn’t much of an official title anyway, so lets not get butthurt about someone who calls themselves such a thing anyway. And secondly, it seems to me several of the posts that I have read whining about this phenomenon are written by people who would likely be classified in the same categories as such “guru’s”.  Of course, there are many people whom I highly respect that are highly talented when it comes to the whole social media game, you can find them in my blogroll. But this isn’t why I’m writing.

3 Types of People - Connectors, Mavens & Salesmen

I think we all need to remember a few things about social groups and marketing. In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the concept that there are 3 types of people: Connectors, Mavens & Salesmen. I’m going to assume that you’re familiar with the concept with these types of people. But in a brief description, Connectors are the types of people who know lots of other people, Mavens are the people who have lots of information, and Salesmen are the types of people who are persuasive.

We Rely on All of These People

In social media, we have and rely on all of these types of people and/or concepts. The connectors are the people that have 30,000 followers on twitter who can broadcast a message that everyone will end up seeing. The mavens are the 5 million visitors on reddit that keep the content fresh and honest. And the salesmen are sometimes the stars of our beloved youtube videos, or sometimes the magnetic headlines that we can’t deny a click.

It’s One Big Community

The thing is, these concepts apply to marketing, epidemics, social media, social groups, and probably a lot of other things. We all fell in love with social media a few years ago because it was new and different, and you didn’t have to be a “somebody” to play. And I would venture to say that many of us called ourselves a “guru” or an “expert” at one time or another. It may not be the case today, but such wisdom comes with maturity as we have all weathered a few storms in this ever evolving world of social marketing. The fact is, even though it is “social” media that we’re discussing, we still rely on a few key components. If we didn’t have the connectors that could spread the word, no one’s message would get out. If we didn’t have the mavens to vote us up, check the facts and leave comments, we’d have no audience. And if we didn’t have the salesmen to sell the message, entice the clicks, and drive the viewers, well no one would be interested at all. So really, in a sense, we’re all guru’s with our own parts to play in this gigantic social community on the web. And that’s how it’s going to continue to be, and that’s how it has to be. We all rely on each other whether directly or indirectly. Let’s not sweat the small stuff.

So I guess the only question is, what’s your part?

IM Spring Break Meme

I was pinged by Monica Wright in the IM Spring Break meme. So here are my 7 reasons you should definitely attend IM Spring Break:

Plus, I have an added BONUS REASON!!! 

REASON #8:

All of the fabulous 7 plus poker!!! Do you NEED more convincing!?

14 Tools of Highly Effective Twitter Users

A collection of the 14 best tools available to help you manage and maximize twitter in alphabetical order!

Follow Cost

Enter a users twitter name: 

And it gives you a rating on how detrimental it will be to follow that user:

The ratings are given in milliscobles, or 1/1000th of Robert Scoble’s twitter output. It also gives an index of what percentage of the user’s tweets are political and what percentage are @replies. More of a fun tool really, but will still give you an accurate idea of how much the user will pollute your feed!

http://followcost.com/

#hashtags

Hashtags are a popular way for twitter users to tweet and keep track of relevant queries in search.twitter.com, #hashtags keeps up with popular hashtag trending topics on twitter.

http://hashtags.org/

TweetStalk

Ever want to follow someone on twitter, but didn’t want them to know you were following them? Yeah, me niether, but in case you ever did, there’s tweetstalk:

Just download the firefox, install, and stalk away!

http://tweetstalk.com/

TweetStats

Statistics for twitter! TweetStats allows you to see all sorts of statistics from your twitter account like, month to month tweet frequency, daily average tweet density, aggregate hourly tweets, etc.. And, all of this without entering a password to your account, so you can see stats on others as well!

http://tweetstats.com/

Tweetake

Tweetake is a tool that I think is indispensable for anyone that conducts any sort of business on twitter. It allows you to download and save a copy of your twitter account. Followers, Tweets, DM’s, Favorites, you can save them all as a csv download for safekeeping. And if you’re as paranoid as I am about backups, this will be one more thing to add to the list!

http://tweetake.com/

TweetSuite

TweetSuite is a wordpress plugin that is a continuation of TweetBacks. The new and upgraded version includes automatic tweeting of new posts, most tweeted widget, recently tweeted widget, tweet this button, and several other twitter-tastic features to intergrate into your wordpress blog. It’s the ultimate twitter plugin for wordpress.

http://danzarrella.com/beyond-tweetbacks-introducing-tweetsuite.html

Twibs

Twitter business directory. Find businesses on twitter. Nuff said.

http://www.twibs.com/

TwiTip: Host Your Own Short URL

TwiTip is a great blog for twitter users, run by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. In this post Darren writes about how you can host your own short url instead of using a service like tinyurl. I personally perfer to use zi.ma but this is not a post on url shortening services! 

http://www.twitip.com/how-to-host-your-own-short-urls/

TwitPic

TwitPic is probably a service that you already use, or are at least familiar with. It’s most common use is with cell phones posting pictures to twitter for you. I like it because it also tracks views on each photo, and you can login to TwitPic with your twitter username/pass and see all of the photos you’ve ever posted.

http://twitpic.com/

TwitterBar

Post to your twitter from your firefox address bar! If firefox was my main browser, I’d totally use it.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4664

Twittercal

Now this is a great idea, especially for twitter addicts that don’t already have an iphone or a crackberry. Twittercal lets you post events to your google calendar by sending direct messages. 

http://twittercal.com/

TwitterFriends

Yay for friends on twitter! It’s all about the conversation right? TwitterFriends is a neat tool that allows you to look at the conversations you’re having with all sorts of statistics including: @replies recieved/day, links posted/day, retweet quotient, tweets/day, as well as the normal to and from tweet ratios between you and other twitter users.

http://twitter-friends.com/

Twitter Grader

Twitter Grader is a twitter ranking tool that grades your profile based on a number of factors and gives you a grade on a scale of 1-100, as well as a global rank in proportion to the rest of users. It is a fun tool that allows you to see just how “elite” your twitter profile is. I have done extensive blogging on this tool here: (1,2,3,4)

http://twitter.grader.com/

Twuffer

Now, I have to say, this is just an awesome name. Out of all the twitter mashup names, this is my favorite. Twuffer (hehe) is a twitter-buffer, that allows you to schedule and post-date tweets. Oh the possibilities!

http://twuffer.com/

I hope you enjoyed the post and found some new tools you can use! Also be sure to check out twitip.com and don’t forget to follow me on twitter! @kennyhyder

Where’s Your Heart?

As we all face this new year, many of us are excited to face new challenges, meet new goals, aspire to become new people & see new triumphs. We all prepare ourselves in a variety of different ways, lists, calendars, new apps, seminars, meetings, new habits, and this year, even a new president. These things are all good, and help us focus & get on track. But where is your heart at?

You know those moments that you have on rare occasion where your heart rips out of your chest, raw & alive, and is exposed to the world? Maybe it happens riding in a car with an old friend, blasting an old record with the windows down. Maybe with your spouse in the kitchen after sharing a good laugh. Maybe at church when something profound hits you. Or after a conversation that kept you up to the wee hours of the morning. You know, those experiences that give you goosebumps and make you feel like you’re really living? When you stop to reflect in that moment, what is your thought? Is your self reflection a “this is what I’m meant to do” or “this is who I’m meant to be” type of statement? I know for me it often is. Your perception of “reality” throws caution to the wind and your heart beats with passion as your mind grasps to catch up.

Savor that moment. Bottle it up and take it to go. I think the whole concept that “reality” sinks back in is bogus. What is reality that it won’t allow us to live up to the full measure of who we are meant to be in those moments? I’m not saying that we all have to abandon the 9-5 to go live the dream, but what is it that holds us back from living out that fullness in our ordinary lives? Why not BE who we’re meant to be no matter what we’re doing or where we’re going? If we all lived up to our highest self standard, how much better would that make every environment? What if everyone around you was trying to be the kindest person they knew how? Or the biggest giver that they could be? How radically different would that make your workplace, your friendships & your intimate relationships?

I think that if rather than focusing on goals, aspirations, and resolutions this year, we all focused on trying to listen to what our hearts tell us in those moments that we have all had, we would see much greater success than we would hope for with our planning & goals. So I challenge you, in the face of your new years resolutions, and year planning, to set aside some time and get in touch with your heart. Delve into those innermost thoughts and figure out who it is you want to become this year through your travels. Become that person, and all your other planning will fall into place.

(Photo credit: coconutbased.com)

Partnering Profits with Rich Schefren

The third class in the Partnering Profits seminar from Brian Clark included guest Rich Schefren of Strategic Profits. This class totally rocked, and Rich rocked the house with the nuggets of wisdom that were falling from his pockets.

Here are the top 10 nuggets of wisdom:

1. Joint ventures are all about leveraging: weird circumstance, connections, strengths, etc. - You need to leverage them so they benefit all parties.

 

2. Once you figure out what it is that you’re good at, it will open doors for you to work with others who are good at other things. - This works with the concept of leveraging, leverage your skills to work with other skilled people.

 

3. Work with people who have the same sense of fairness - There are plenty of deals out there, don’t try to convince someone for a larger piece of the pie, just find another pie!

 

4. You need to have a “just in time” perspective rather than a “just in case” perspective - information online goes stale very quickly, so better to act fast than have things under your belt for the future. (ex. write the blog post today, rather than thinking about writing it in the future)

 

5. Look for opportunities in areas that truly interest you - Love what you do, and you’ll be a lot more productive!

 

6. Sometimes you don’t value what it is that you know that’s special, because you already know it. - The goal is to realize what’s special that you know, and value it.

 

7. Attention is the scarcest commodity, the way to rise above the clutter is to run a sprint when everyone else is running a marathon - When everyone else is plugging away, you can gain attention by working extra hard in short bursts.

 

8. People pay for advice, not information.

 

9. There’s always some luck involved in success, but if you keep knocking at the door, you’ll get lucky eventually!

 

10. You don’t have to be the best at what you do! - There are plenty of people who don’t know anything, you just have to be better than them to be an asset!