the blog

I get this question a lot, “You must spend a TON of time on Facebook”, or “You’re so addicted to Facebook!”

Truth be told, I am spending more time on Facebook lately, but I never update my status from there – I use Twitter (as I’m sure many of you do). Here’s some reasons why:

• I was using Twitter before I joined Facebook
• When I update Twitter, I’m (a) reaching an immediate network of over 600 people, and (b) reaching potentially thousands more thru friends of friends on Twitter
• I can do it from my phone, anywhere, anytime
• I can do it from an app like Tweetie (not having to open a webpage)
• Did I mention that I can do it from my phone, anywhere, anytime?

Maybe I’m putting the cart before the horse here – maybe you’re not convinced that Twitter is a valuable use of your time (to which I would argue that if you update your status on Facebook, ever, than Twitter will be valuable to you). Or, maybe you just don’t understand Twitter, to which, I propose you watch this little video:

Now back to the main point: How to connect your Facebook account with your Twitter account. Rather than reinvent the wheel here, I went out and found the best tutorial I could find.

Here’s a little tutorial on how to have Twitter update your Facebook status. (note: on step #2 you may need to click on the “Application” tag. See screen shots below).

Click on the “Applications” tab.

Click on the application name: Twitter, and then continue following the tutorial.

That’s it. Now you are a power Facebook/Twitter user. Every time you update your twitter, your Facebook status will be updated. And from my experience, there’s not much lag.

Any questions?

Oh yeah, if you’re not following me on Twitter, go on over and follow me.

I’m just starting to really get the hang of Facebook pages – let’s just say I’m pretty much infatuated with them right now (although I wish they would let you do recurring events…). I’ve set up seven pages in the past month and it’s been really cool to see them grow and be a hub for online community.

One of the biggest questions I get about pages is, “How do I tell people about them?” which really means, “How do I tell people about the page, online”. It’s really a lot easier than you might think & here’s my three step process to promote your page.

When you’re on your Facebook Page (not your Profile Page), look over to the left, under your photo and there’s a small button labeled “More” – go ahead & click on that.

When you click on “More”, it will reveal “more” options for you, one being, “Suggest to Friends” – click on that.

When you click on “Suggest to Friends”, another window will pop-up with all your friends. Simply start typing the name of a friend who you want to suggest this page to and click “Send Invitations”. You can add as many of your friends as you want here (I think).

And there you have it! They will all get a little notification that you think this page would be something they’d be interested in, and before you know it, you will feel like a rock star with a plethora of “Fans”.

Till next time…

I was a late adopter to Facebook – I’ll admit it, when I first checked it out I didn’t get it; it seemed way to complicated. Well things have changed, and Facebook has become my online portal/community.

One of the complaints I often hear from people who are new or wary of joining Facebook is, all the poking, pie throwing, charm giving, personality quiz’s, which disney character are you quiz, how well you know that person from 8th grade, and on, and on, and on it goes. There’s good news for you!

The wise folks at Facebook have made it SUPER easy for you to filter that junk out. Here’s one easy way to cut down on all that garbage.

DISCLAIMER: If you like to spend endless hours filling out these tests and throwing virtual water balloons, read no further.

Here’s a typical quiz that shows up on your wall; taking up your precious real estate. Maybe you just can’t wait to find out what Disney Character you are, for me, not so much. There’s a very easy way to make sure this NEVER happens to you again.

All you have to do is roll your mouse pointer over the upper right side of the post. When you do this a magic “Hide” button appears. When you click on the button, two options appear. In the graphic above, I’ve selected to hide the quiz from my wall, forever banishing this application to underworld of the internet. So to be clear, I will NEVER see this quiz again, no matter how many of my friends take it.

Now let’s say you have a friend who takes like 4 quiz’s an hour, loading up your page with their results & inviting you to join in the fun. Well, you really have no choice but to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” And with the click of a button, you will never see another quiz, pie, waterballoon, or poke. That’s right you can simply hide their status updates from your wall.

Ahhhh can you feel the peace and quiet?

That’s all for tonight folks – have fun hiding things & people. And if you want to see what quizes I’m taking, add me as a friend.

Just thought I’d share…

(and these are not in any order, just the top 10)

1. End of the Innocence (Don Henley version – yes, that’s right, not the )
2. Jump (Van Halen)
3. Little Wing (Stevie Ray Vaughn)
4. Stir it Up (Bob Marley)
5. Broken Arrow (The Album Leaf)
6. MLK (U2 – I know a strange one, but gets me every time)
7. Blessed be Your Name (Matt Redman, although I have a ripped copy of a Steve Fee 7:22 version that I like the best)
8. Don’t (Elvis, again I have a version done by David Gilmore of Pink Floyd that I prefer)
9. Danny’s Song (Loggins & Messina – this reminds me of when I was a kid, my parents played this album all the time)
10. Mercy Street (Peter Gabriel – from the Growing Up Live album)

Honorable mentions:

• Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd / David Gilmore)
• Any song from John Mayer’s Continuum
• (Stone Temple Pilots)
• Running Down a Dream (Tom Petty)
• Pretty much anything by Sarah McLachlan (Yes, I know, I lose my man card)
• Wind of Change (Acoustic Alchemy)
• Run to You (Bryan Adams)
• Stranger in Moscow (Michael Jackson)
• Everybody’s Changing (Keane)
• Viternoll2 (Kent – love playing this on Guitar Hero!)
• Viva La Vida (Coldplay)
• Irish Girl (Adrian Legg)
• Walking in Memphis (Marc Cohn)
• When You Say Nothing (Alison Krause)

Of course I’m sure this would be different in about a month, but how about you? Your Top 10?

Our Middle School Department came up with a cool idea for their events – they want the kids to take photos & videos with their cameras & cell phones, then somehow collect all the media centrally & edit it together to make a presentation when the event is over. Personally, I love the idea and want to make it happen today! But I do have some questions for those who have done this before or just know more about this than us. So here’s some random statements and questions:

• My initial thought was to create a Flickr account & pass out the username/password combo to everyone. Of course we’d monitor it and change the password once we had a good collection. But is that easy enough? Can most phones today connect to Flickr?
• What about just an email account? I worry that videos might be a problem for that?
• Is there something out there that works for both photos & videos that is SUPER easy to explain and works with phone & email?

So if you wouldn’t mind sharing your thoughts, ideas, expertice, I would really appreciate it!

Thanks!