Social Media

Thunderbird, which is my email client of choice is starting to become the most used application on my system. Therefor, I am thankful for any productivity tips I may come across to make reading and archiving emails faster. A little convenience never hurt either. Thats why I have to say thanks to Ryan from cubegames.net for pointing out how easy it is to thread emails.

Before using this feature, email discussions with individuals would appear as separate emails. After enabling the threading option, emails are displayed under one subject with the ability to press a button to show the threaded conversation. Not only does this help in keeping tabs on the conversation at hand, but it also keeps my inbox organized.

Here is how to enable threading in Thunderbird. Simply click on the icon as seen in the following screenshot.

Now, all emails under the same subject will be threaded. You can tell if a series of emails are threaded if you see the following icon to the left of the subject header.

This little productivity tip has already helped me out in terms of managing all of the emails I participate in. Threaded emails is especially useful for those who participate in mailing lists as it would be nearly impossible to keep up with the conversation otherwise.

Have any more Thunderbird productivity tips? Be sure to share them in the comments.

Thousands of people each day waste their time submitting stories to Digg without a plan. Some of the stories are great, but get lost. Some of the stories are mediocre, and should never have been submitted in the first place (like digging a hole to China).

One Wednesday, August 20th at 1pm Eastern, Performancing Hive members will be holding a live chat to discuss the secrets of Digg success. We’ll cover content strategies, promotional strategies, and perhaps just as importantly, withholding strategies. At the end of the bootcamp, you’ll have a crystal clear sense of what it takes to use Digg effectively as a social media platform.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Ryan

The topic for todays social media bootcamp was: The Secrets Of Digg Success. Till this day, I have yet to appear on the Digg frontpage. The closest I have been to the front page of Digg is an article which received 35 or so digs. In todays bootcamp, I learned that it is not just a matter of catering to the Digg crowd but that there is much more involved in a successful Digg post.

Apparently, human psychology has a lot to do with many of the posts that are successful on Digg. There are two points which Ryan brought up during the bootcamp which I thought were points to keep in mind.

1) It’s not just about quality content on Digg. It’s about quality content that fits the average Digg user’s sensibilities

2) It’s not just about quality content on Digg. It’s about quality content promoted by a variety of somewhat independent networks.

Andrew then brought up an excellent question. What makes up the average Digg user? According to members who attended the bootcamp, the typical Digg user is someone who love technology, is an early adopter, enjoys sticking it to the man, and contains at least a higher than average intelligence level. Although that last point could be argued based on the comments published on Digg articles. With the psychological profile in mind, you can then write content which pushes those buttons.

Other topics we discussed included the use of digg buttons, the placement of the share bar where social media buttons are displayed (top or bottom of the post), types of content which always seems to be a hit on Digg, techniques on getting articles dugg and, combination of social media (digg, reddit, SU, all at once).

If you couldn’t attended the bootcamp, you can view the entire transcript within the hive. Be sure to stay tuned for the next social media bootcamp. Rumors are, that the next event may focus on Yahoo! Buzz.

Those who use social media on a daily basis have come to a conclusive observation:

Alexa no longer counts traffic that a site gains from social media sites like Digg and Reddit.

Two Lines of Evidence

1. For 2-3 weeks, Alexa has not been reflecting digg or reddit spikes. This is widespread. Spikes only occur on those sites whose articles went viral on non-social media sites after the digg or reddit pop.
2. Sites built exclusively around social media promotion have been dovetailing faster than Roger Clemens integrity.

Now why would Alexa do this? I think the answer is simple. Alexa wants to be a tool used by advertisers. And advertisers know that social media traffic is worth much, much, much, much, much, much, much less than search and repeat visitor traffic.

As someone who is now interacting with advertisers on a daily basis through PerformancingAds, I have a new found appreciation for the concerns of advertisers. Understandably, an advertiser wants traffic that converts. Social media traffic does not convert.

So, in my view, this is another very smart move by Alexa. At the end of the day, their metric has improved by leaps and bounds this year, by introducing weighting techniques to discern between types of traffic.

Kudos for improving a great thing, and making my life that much harder;-)

Just a few days ago, I had mentioned that the Blog World Expo was right around the corner and that some of our members from the Hive would be attending the event. There is actually another expo which is right around the corner called the New Media Expo. This event takes place between August 14-16th and will be held in the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I won’t be able to attend the event and I know many of you are in the same boat. Thankfully, Leo Laporte has stated in his Net@Nite netcast that he will be streaming live from the event. So keep an eye out on the TWiT Live homepage around the time of the expo so you don’t miss a thing!

The next social media bootcamp will be held TODAY Wednesday, July 16th at 11am Eastern.

We’re discussing:

How bounce rate and other temporal metrics affect search rankings, and what you can do about it.

What is social media bootcamp?
It’s an opportunity to learn and ask questions about promoting your blog or website.

How do you participate?
Become a member of the Performancing Hive community

So what the heck IS social media? If you don’t know the answer to that question, this SlideShare presentation will do a good job answering it for you. This presentation was created by Marta Kagan, a self acclaimed social media evangelist + online marketing pro. Special thanks to her for uploading this to SlideShare and allowing people to pass it along.

I’ve gone through most of the presentation myself and although I already had a good idea as to what Social Media was all about, this presentation gives you a ton of numbers to think about and it just makes sense.

Let me know what you learned from the slideshow in the comments.

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Today Performancing held it’s first monthly Social Media Bootcamp. Here’s a preview of some of the things we discussed:

• Why you should use different titles for different social media sites (Reddit, Digg, etc.)
• When and when not to use the technique of social media canvassing
• What to do when you fail at your social media campaign
• How to locate alternative distribution points for your content
• Why having a grasp of human psychology is essential for doing social media

Plus much, much more.

If you want to read the full transcript and participate in future Social Media Bootcamps, make sure to sign up for Performancing Hive.

If you’re looking for someone to handle your social media project, don’t forget that Performancing offers a social media marketing service.