Matt Singley | Social Media Optimization

Earlier today I received a private message on Facebook from a personal friend of mine asking me to “Check 151.im”.  Knowing her and knowing the type of message, I immediately recognized it as a phishing scheme…that is, an attempt for me to voluntarily hand over personal information to a site that I think is something I regularly use.  Very often phishing schemes involve bank information, but in this case the website in question looks like the login page for Facebook.  Understand that it is not Facebook, it is an attempt to get your username and password! (more…)

Although I do most of my work in my office, I am constantly on the move, and as such I need to be able to move my office with me.  If you are a consultant or a road warrior, or just want to be more efficient away from your primary workstation, I hope this post will offer some good suggestions for you. Running a mobile office should be simple, but can get a little tricky.  Don’t be caught coming up short when travelling, just remember that today’s work is important, and in a recessive economy even a simple mistake like not being able to take a phone call when you don’t have a cell signal may cost you a job.  As always, I welcome any tips or tricks you have, please drop a note in the comments to share. With that in mind, let’s get started! (more…)

I advise companies about how to optimize social media for brand exposure, adoption and support.  Because of this I am constantly talking to potential clients on the phone, discussing their goals and desires for an effective online campaign.  If you are in the business of consulting or are thinking about moving in that direction I’ve put together a short list of tips and tricks for preparing for that phone call, because as I’ve learned the hard way, if you aren’t prepared you’re not going to get the job. With the economy in the condition it is, every call is critical.

1. Know the client.  There is nothing worse than being asked a question about the company that you are pitching and not knowing what they are talking about.  I’m not talking about obscure facts, this is about their core competencies.  Make sure you have done your research, have at least a general familiarity with the key leaders, products, services and areas of operation. (more…)

Note: I originally published this in November 2008 but have had several people ask me about backup plans since then, so it’s worth a reprint.

Have you ever had a computer crash? Hard drive failure, BSOD, an unfortunate meeting of Diet Coke and your hardware? I have. It’s painful. Trying to restore data feels like something that the U.N. should condemn as universally cruel and unusual. System failure and data recovery is such a horrible thing to go through, it used to be a nice source of revenue for my former tech company…people would hire us and pay a lot of money to see if we could recover their financials, their emails, their files and their pictures. If you have ever gone though this, you know what I’m talking about. (more…)

Easy integration with other social networks is new for FriendFeed

I’ve recently been getting a lot of emails from FriendFeed letting me know that somebody new is now following me over there.  I have started receiving so many that I decided it needed to look into it…was I suddenly interesting whereas I was not before, or was there some change at FriendFeed that I needed to know about?  Turns out I’m still not interesting, but there are some exciting changes at the social media aggregator FriendFeed, including the ability to import all of you Twitter friends’ feeds.

(more…)

I’ve just downloaded and installed Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC)  on my laptop, and I’m happy to report that it was quick, easy and I’m loving it! I installed the beta when it was first released, and even for a beta release it was surprisingly not buggy at all.  Given that, I was excited to get the RC up and running.  Although I’ve only been running through it for a few hours, I want to give you a quick how-to guide, my experience with installing my “must have” applications and my overall initial impressions. (more…)

Okay, I get it…the Swine Flu is big news right now and it’s dangerous and I need to wash my hands and not lick toilet bowls in Tijuana and all that.  I think I’m taking plenty of precautions.  However, my Twitter stream is lighting up all day long with stuff about the Swine Flue and I don’t want to hear about it anymore, so what to do?  This very simple trick will show you how to filter out all mentions of Swine Flu, or anything else for that matter. And yes, I do think that it is ironic that I wrote this post on the same day that I have mentioned the Swine Flu at least three times. And yes, Chumdinger is a friend of mine, and I loved his link in this screenshot :). Keep in mind that this tutorial is specifically filtering out one key word, but you can use it for anything, to remove or to search. (more…)

If you are in Southern California Thursday, May 7th and you like tech stuff (particularly mobile) then join us at the Cat & Fiddle for the Mobile Geeks of Los Angeles (MGoLA)!  We’ll be gathering for an informal evening of mobile story swapping, gadget playing and maybe a drinks.  This is a no-host event, but is brought to you by James Whatley of SpinVox fame, Jeb Brilliant, mobile consultant,  and your’s truly.

I think this is going to be a blast!  This is a pretty central location for Los Angeles, and I know that there are many of you that I’ve wanted to meet in real life as we’ve come to know each other online.  Please come by and say hello, even if it’s just for a quick drink…I would love to put a face with the name, more than a 24×24 avatar. ;)

BTW, this is a very casual event, so come as you are!  Personally, I’ll be in flip flops. 

Go check out the official Facebook page and RSVP, and feel free to drop me a tweet if you have any questions or comments.  Check out the short video below from James (you may also know him as Whatleydude), showing the sick amount of hardware that he’s bringing over from London for this meetup.  I hope to see you there! (more…)

Tweet and Retweet: A great way to share information with others

UPDATE:  I changed hosting companies since originally publishing this article, and ironically it removed the number of reweets from the plugin at the top of the post. You have to love technology sometimes!

One of the fastest and most effective ways of spreading information through Twitter is to retweet somebody.  When you see “RT” followed by a username in an update by one of your friends, that means they are retweeting somebody else…taking that person’s post and redistributing it to their own followers.  It’s rampant on Twitter, and one of the most common questions I get asked is, “what are some guidelines for retweeting, and how can I get retweeted more?”  I want to address both of those with some simple guidelines and suggestions.

How To Retweet

Retweeting somebody’s thoughts, links or pictures is the ultimate compliment on Twitter.  It says that you think enough of what they have written to share it with your followers, a pool of people that may be completely different than those of the original tweeter! It is a fantastic way to share information and ideas.  Of course you are free to retweet whatever you want, but here are some general guidelines that I think make it easier for you and those that follow you. (more…)

NOTE: I originally posted this tutorial in April 2008, but with the recent wave of interest in Twitter because of people like Oprah and Ashton Kutcher, I thought I would reprint it, with some minor updates and edits.  Please feel free to share this with your friends and associates that would like to get started using Twitter.

If a blog is like a roundtable discussion and Facebook is like a BBQ in the backyard with your friends, then Twitter is a cocktail party for text messaging! Twitter is by far my favorite social networking tool right now for several reasons that I will get into. I love the premise that conversations can be had with my friends, but they are limited in their size. Do you know anybody that takes 4 minutes to ask a really simple question that can be summarized in 10 seconds? I do. Twitter is the nemesis of these people because you cannot exceed the 140 character character limit. I love it! That’s even shorter than the standard 160 characters for text messaging! Before we look at the nuances of Twitter, let’s get you signed up. (more…)