This is fantastic. I have a tumblr blog, but never thought of a use for it prior. This hit home:
"...I keep a few around for a few different purposes: one for private notes, and one for multimedia posts."
TroyTurner
· 1 year ago
Chris,
You clearly and simply lay out the tools & potential uses. I see this general style in most of your posts, and very much appreciate it.
Another thing I like, and very much agree with when you write: "we get hung up on evaluating tools and thinking about which are the best for the job...and then, next thing you know, the day’s over and nothing’s been done." I've referred to this as "Analysis Paralysis" for years now. In the case you describe in your post, it's analogous to trying to learn to swim by reading books, watching videos, doing everything BUT getting in the water. Wanna learn how to do it - jump in!
Yesterday I completely deleted my "personal" Google Reader & de.licio.us accounts & started from scratch - because I had learned a lot from "just diving in".
Again, thanks for your post & your overall style of writing, it makes it so much easier to see what part of the pool I want to dive in to next!
Have a great day! - Troy.
bgavin
· 1 year ago
Good list. Our security policy block Meebo - which I sorely miss since I use google, Yahoo, AOL and MS instant messengers. Here's hoping I can get campfire in unde the radar.
Thanks, Chris!
Kfir Pravda
· 1 year ago
I use Pulse also
Vivian Cohen Leisorek (@creati
· 1 year ago
Wait! Where's Netvibes in all of this? I take Coriander (sorry, no Ginger invite yet) over Google Reader any day.
Sonia Simone
· 1 year ago
This is an insanely useful list, thank you. I use most of these, and I can add a recommendation for Backpack from 37 Signals for the scratch blog function. It's my blog junk drawer--I keep a whole bunch of files, snippets, images, links, references, and other potentially useful stuff in there. If I work on a post over a period of several days or more, I throw the draft up in a text file so I can grab it from wherever. I also keep client info, addresses and invoices there, and a few GTD lists. Super handy and easier to sort through than Tumblr. (I do use Tumblr for my personal "kid update" blog.)
I would love to grab a copy of the Five Starter Moves doc!
Don Lafferty
· 1 year ago
My dad spent his youth building drag racers to compete with Big Daddy Don Garlits, then 40 years building transmissions for Boeing’s Chinook helicopters. On weekends, when I was growing up, he worked a side job at a local Sunoco doing state inspections.
He had a bangin’ toolbox filled with every tool you can imagine.
He was intimately familiar with the purpose and functionality of every tool in the box. He understood which required add-ons or adapters, and over the years showed me how turning a wrench could be done with the finesse of any artist.
But it was because he was a professional.
He’d come home to find me working on my bike and cringe when he saw what I was doing with his tools--how I was using pliers to turn a bolt which could have been much more efficiently torqued by a socket wrench or cutting a two by four with a hacksaw.
So now when I look at work and the available tools to accomplish it, I have an eye for the right tool for the job, but I’m also mindful that too many choices sometimes results in employing the wrong tool.
Your toolbox looks like a media professional’s toolbox. It may be everything a media pro needs to be adequately plugged into all the right places through online social networks, but it might look like a tall, scary red box of complicated gadgets to a client who just wants to turn the key and drive a fast car.
David Petherick
· 1 year ago
Awesome list, and a wonderfully lucid, concise and instructive blog. Thanks, Chris.
Fleck is a plugin for your Firefox or Internet Explorer browser that lest you add a note to any page on the web, and then shared that 'flecked' page and note with others.
It's a great way to share pages, gather opinion, and see what other people think about literally anything that's online.
Bernie Goldbach
· 1 year ago
I couldn't live without Backpack either. And I listen to Eventful, Upcoming, Last.fm and Dopplr for specific user names.
Dr.Mani
· 1 year ago
Excellent list, Chris.
I'd add one more category - of profile sites specifically for getting found on Google & other search engines.
There are many more. And don't overlook profile pages on Zimbio, Squidoo or Gather to boost SE presence and branding.
All success Dr.Mani
Keren Dagan
· 1 year ago
Chris,
This fantastic. Wouldn't it be nice to have them all in one "social networker/marketer dashboard"? (the closest one is maybe http://www.netvibes.com/). btw, does tumblr visible to search engines?
Thanks for listening. Keren
Dan Schawbel
· 1 year ago
This is the best post I've seen for beginners.
Keren Dagan
· 1 year ago
@Don Lafferty (http://www.facebook.com/s.php?k=100000080&i... what a beautiful comment. Kind of remindig me of my dad. I wish there was a tool for that too - i.e tool for "digging" blog comments:) Keren
Jennifer Van Grove
· 1 year ago
This is a great post and I can definitely see this as a utility in the corporate world with bosses who either don't understand the tools or are hung up on researching all the tools available.
My two cents. I agree with Vivian that Netvibes deserves a mention. It's really my home base for the web. It's not just my reader, but my personalized view of everything that matters to me on the web. Plus I'm anxiously awaiting Ginger and I'm already starting to see some really cool value in the Universes available.
I'm also becoming obsessed with diigo http://www.diigo.com/ which is a social bookmarking with some pretty darn cool features. Not only can I tag and save my bookmarks online, but I can also highlight excerpts, add sticky notes directly to the page (public or private), and forward these notes on to anyone else. I see this as a huge time saver in the office environment. Why send a link when you can send a link with context, comments, and highlighted sections?
Glen Allsopp
· 1 year ago
I'm a huge fan of Google Reader and Google docs. Google just keeps bringing out these awesome services and get more involved in our lives.
Zena Weist
· 1 year ago
Ah, Chris, you've done it again.
Your posts are always so helpful, timely and easy to understand. You've raised the bar yet again. Thanks so much!
Would love your thoughts on flock.
Shannon
· 1 year ago
Great list, thanks for putting it together. I agree that the power of these tools can be thinking of new and unintended ways to use them. For instance, I started using delicious to organize my online research efforts. But I figured out I could use RSS feeds to funnel my research to my blogs or internal company portal to share my research with others, particularly project teams, and it just became insanely more useful.
BTW, I love Google Docs Presentations. As nice as PowerPoint, but so much easier to share the presentation on the web and give it a second life beyond the point of presenting.
John Johansen
· 1 year ago
I was just thinking about writing a post on the tools that I use. I probably still will, even though it's pretty much everything on your list.
The only other thing that I use not on your list is CoComment.
san
· 1 year ago
extremely insightful and helpful - muchas gracias...!!
Colin Walker
· 1 year ago
I persoanlly use Bloglines over Google Reader for my RSS feeds for one main reason: the mobile interface is so much better. I do a lot of my catching up whilst mobile - 2 hours a day on the train can be great for feed reading, marking for later and planning posts.
Despite this, you are right to put Google Reader on your list as it has become the de facto standard through popularity and word of mouth. Besides, community offerings and mashups are, and will be, based on Google Reader so it makes sense to use a tool that integrates with others.
rob
· 1 year ago
Great list! A couple of thoughts:
1. Well, I guess I missed that PDF. Can you ship it off to me?
2. I use most of these tools also. One that I would add is Skype. It doesn't fully fit in your list since it is a download app, but there really isn't much that beats it for the ability to conference call, dial phones, text IM, and voice chat all in one.(and now I get all my tweets in there using the twitter4skype bot)
3. Someone mentioned cOcomment. I'm having trouble with it keeping me notified of new comments.
4. Re: Tumblr. I have one and can't figure out how to fit it into my overall online presence. Right now I have feeds going to it to make a river of 'me'. But I don't know who would want that besides me!
5. For profile, I like your thought on this. I have Facebook, but I'm not crazy about it. I decided to make a free page on googlepages.com as my 'personal portal page'. It links out to everything I do online. However, I'm not sure people like seeing that domain in there as my first place to go. It's a branding thing I suppose, but I also thought it is cool because I found a free, easy alternative to make a profile. And it's so handy to have one page that will link to everything like my resume, facebook, linkedIN, blogs, etc. I'm thinking about making a profile subdomain on my domain instead. Thoughts?
Ray Valdes
· 1 year ago
Great list. I use many, if not most, of the above.
Also:
1. Google Notebook for filing away snippets of Web pages under various categories. Probably similar to Fleck.
2. Ning for building a custom social network
3. Vox for what I call structured blogging. Probably similar to Tumblr
4. A cheap hosting account where you can use Fantastico to install your own versions of Wordpress, MediaWiki and PHPBB. I use SiteGround but there are many others (Dreamhost, Joyent, BuyHTTP).
5. Facebook toolbar extension to Firefox is awesome, especially on a larger monitor.
6. Delicious toolbar extension likewise.
Actually there is a whole category of Firefox extensions:
Great stuff. Really appreciated the categorization of tools into listening, blogging, mobile, etc. Never really thought about how categorizing in that fashion may be useful for newbies (and execs) getting started.
Regarding Google Presentations...I've found it the best way for me to make "distance presentations" over the phone. It allows me to control the flow...instead of shipping the ppt ahead of time and getting people to go through at your pace (no jumping ahead!). Especially useful for pitches & proposal presentations.
And I'm finding that it's becoming a useful for general conference calls I'm leading. Helps keep the call on the agenda without straying too far off course.
Finally, would love to see that Five Starter Moves PDF if you would be kind enough to send me a copy.
even know height. with a by themselves I noticed managed I noticed think neighborhood took a job I was
Lara Kretler
· 1 year ago
Hi Chris, I'm going back through some of your older posts (from before I started reading your blog and newsletters). If it's not too much trouble, could you send me your Five Starter Moves PDF? Thanks so much! Great stuff as always. Cheers.
Rheen
· 11 months ago
The list you''ve given here is great, how about check this out gotoWebinar a good Social Networking.
All Comments
"...I keep a few around for a few different purposes: one for private notes, and one for multimedia posts."
You clearly and simply lay out the tools & potential uses. I see this general style in most of your posts, and very much appreciate it.
Another thing I like, and very much agree with when you write: "we get hung up on evaluating tools and thinking about which are the best for the job...and then, next thing you know, the day’s over and nothing’s been done." I've referred to this as "Analysis Paralysis" for years now. In the case you describe in your post, it's analogous to trying to learn to swim by reading books, watching videos, doing everything BUT getting in the water. Wanna learn how to do it - jump in!
Yesterday I completely deleted my "personal" Google Reader & de.licio.us accounts & started from scratch - because I had learned a lot from "just diving in".
Again, thanks for your post & your overall style of writing, it makes it so much easier to see what part of the pool I want to dive in to next!
Have a great day! - Troy.
Thanks, Chris!
I would love to grab a copy of the Five Starter Moves doc!
He had a bangin’ toolbox filled with every tool you can imagine.
He was intimately familiar with the purpose and functionality of every tool in the box. He understood which required add-ons or adapters, and over the years showed me how turning a wrench could be done with the finesse of any artist.
But it was because he was a professional.
He’d come home to find me working on my bike and cringe when he saw what I was doing with his tools--how I was using pliers to turn a bolt which could have been much more efficiently torqued by a socket wrench or cutting a two by four with a hacksaw.
So now when I look at work and the available tools to accomplish it, I have an eye for the right tool for the job, but I’m also mindful that too many choices sometimes results in employing the wrong tool.
Your toolbox looks like a media professional’s toolbox. It may be everything a media pro needs to be adequately plugged into all the right places through online social networks, but it might look like a tall, scary red box of complicated gadgets to a client who just wants to turn the key and drive a fast car.
I would only add one tool: Fleck (http://fleck.com)
Fleck is a plugin for your Firefox or Internet Explorer browser that lest you add a note to any page on the web, and then shared that 'flecked' page and note with others.
It's a great way to share pages, gather opinion, and see what other people think about literally anything that's online.
I'd add one more category - of profile sites specifically for getting found on Google & other search engines.
Some nice ones I've found:
Naymz - http://www.naymz.com/search/mani/sivasubramania...
Mevu -
http://www.mevu.com/drmani
There are many more. And don't overlook profile pages on Zimbio, Squidoo or Gather to boost SE presence and branding.
All success
Dr.Mani
This fantastic. Wouldn't it be nice to have them all in one "social networker/marketer dashboard"? (the closest one is maybe http://www.netvibes.com/).
btw, does tumblr visible to search engines?
Thanks for listening.
Keren
Keren
My two cents. I agree with Vivian that Netvibes deserves a mention. It's really my home base for the web. It's not just my reader, but my personalized view of everything that matters to me on the web. Plus I'm anxiously awaiting Ginger and I'm already starting to see some really cool value in the Universes available.
I'm also becoming obsessed with diigo http://www.diigo.com/ which is a social bookmarking with some pretty darn cool features. Not only can I tag and save my bookmarks online, but I can also highlight excerpts, add sticky notes directly to the page (public or private), and forward these notes on to anyone else. I see this as a huge time saver in the office environment. Why send a link when you can send a link with context, comments, and highlighted sections?
Your posts are always so helpful, timely and easy to understand. You've raised the bar yet again. Thanks so much!
Would love your thoughts on flock.
BTW, I love Google Docs Presentations. As nice as PowerPoint, but so much easier to share the presentation on the web and give it a second life beyond the point of presenting.
The only other thing that I use not on your list is CoComment.
Despite this, you are right to put Google Reader on your list as it has become the de facto standard through popularity and word of mouth. Besides, community offerings and mashups are, and will be, based on Google Reader so it makes sense to use a tool that integrates with others.
1. Well, I guess I missed that PDF. Can you ship it off to me?
2. I use most of these tools also. One that I would add is Skype. It doesn't fully fit in your list since it is a download app, but there really isn't much that beats it for the ability to conference call, dial phones, text IM, and voice chat all in one.(and now I get all my tweets in there using the twitter4skype bot)
3. Someone mentioned cOcomment. I'm having trouble with it keeping me notified of new comments.
4. Re: Tumblr. I have one and can't figure out how to fit it into my overall online presence. Right now I have feeds going to it to make a river of 'me'. But I don't know who would want that besides me!
5. For profile, I like your thought on this. I have Facebook, but I'm not crazy about it. I decided to make a free page on googlepages.com as my 'personal portal page'. It links out to everything I do online. However, I'm not sure people like seeing that domain in there as my first place to go. It's a branding thing I suppose, but I also thought it is cool because I found a free, easy alternative to make a profile. And it's so handy to have one page that will link to everything like my resume, facebook, linkedIN, blogs, etc. I'm thinking about making a profile subdomain on my domain instead. Thoughts?
Also:
1. Google Notebook for filing away snippets of Web pages under various categories. Probably similar to Fleck.
2. Ning for building a custom social network
3. Vox for what I call structured blogging. Probably similar to Tumblr
4. A cheap hosting account where you can use Fantastico to install your own versions of Wordpress, MediaWiki and PHPBB. I use SiteGround but there are many others (Dreamhost, Joyent, BuyHTTP).
5. Facebook toolbar extension to Firefox is awesome, especially on a larger monitor.
6. Delicious toolbar extension likewise.
Actually there is a whole category of Firefox extensions:
* Facebook
* Delicious
* Google Notebook
* Bloglines
* etc
Regarding Google Presentations...I've found it the best way for me to make "distance presentations" over the phone. It allows me to control the flow...instead of shipping the ppt ahead of time and getting people to go through at your pace (no jumping ahead!). Especially useful for pitches & proposal presentations.
And I'm finding that it's becoming a useful for general conference calls I'm leading. Helps keep the call on the agenda without straying too far off course.
Finally, would love to see that Five Starter Moves PDF if you would be kind enough to send me a copy.
John
http://www.royaltalent.com
http://www.webinar.com
skimming through it i am now going to read each point carefully and put it
into action if i can.