Google TV Has Landed
Looks like we're one step closer to trading in our 19" computer monitors for our 50" LCDs. Then perhaps we can all finally die happy.
-Dusty.
Four Amazing Resources for Finding Blog Topics
Let's face it, people have more options than they know what to do with when it comes to subscribing to blogs. How on earth can you keep things interesting day-in and day-out without blogging yourself into the poor house with all the time you spend researching? How do some bloggers constantly find something great to talk about?
Answer: They use some great tools.
Blogging and creating great social media content is not about knowing everything, it's about being resourceful. It's about letting others do most of the heavy lifting for you, and then putting your own spin on things. Here's four great resources for finding fascinating topics to blog and tweet about no matter what your subject matter may be.
StumbleUpon - Just pick a topic you want to chat about today and click the stumble button until something catches your eye.
AllTop - Find out what's hot right now on just about any topic you can imagine.
SmartBrief - Get daily email updates on hot topics in your industry.
Google Alerts - Setup email alerts on a daily or weekly basis to find out what's ranking at the top in Google for certain topics each day or week.
-Dusty.
Using Humor to Smooth Over Customer Service Issues
I'm an avid Pandora user both on my computer and my phone, but from time to time I like to use a fun little internet radio site called Grooveshark instead. Upon visiting Grooveshark today I was dismayed to find their servers were down, but quickly forgot all about that once I read the thoroughly amusing webpage they put up explaining the outage.
You can check it out here: http://down.grooveshark.com/
I found this a fantastic (and refreshingly unique) way to mitigate potential customer service issues. You can bet I'll be visiting GrooveShark again soon when they're back up.
Just another great example as to why it's getting more important to personalize your business.
-Dusty.
The Effects of Social Media on SEO
Nice presentation by Hubspot on the evolving nature of search engine optimization (SEO). The video talks you through how SEO has evolved first from being all about page content (Context), to being heavily influenced by inbound links (Authority), and now to being highly customized based largely off of social media data (Personalized).
"At any one time you rank #1 or #8 or #40 based on who is searching, where they search, and what is happening."
In other words, who you're connected to, what is known about your interests, and things like your search history affect the order of how websites appear in your searches.
So one basic answer to the question "Why does social media matter?" is for search engine optimization.
Check out the presentation below if you want more info, or watch the video if you're really salivating. 
How to Make the Best Homebrewed Low Acidity Coffee
Something spectacular happened about 2 months ago now - our coffee maker broke. After the initial shock and horror wore off, we decided to pursue the brewing of a better cup of coffee. We were aiming for something both flavorful and low acidity, since my wife has a highly sensitive stomach and we both love our morning cup of joe. This is what we landed on.
Shopping List:
- 1 x Half pound bag of Guatemalan French Roast (whole beans) from Dunn Bros. ($10-$14)
- 2 x 5 liter glass jugs. These can be oddly expensive to buy, but you can get a cheap table wine in a 5L jug for $15 and just reuse the jugs. Also, the wine jugs come with a cap, which helps for shaking things up without a horrible mess.
- 1 x Aerobie Aeropress. ($22 on Amazon) Perhaps there's another way to filter coffee as effectively, but we found using the Aeropress works a whole lot better than anything else we tried.
- 1 x funnel
How-to
- Grind 1/2 pound (8 oz.) of beans and funnel them into the 5L jug.
- Fill remainder of jug w/ filtered water.
- Cap the jug and place it in a dark place at room temperature for 20-24 hours.
- After the 20-24 hours is up, filter the entire coffee mixture with the Aeropress into a new jug. Replace the filter every 3rd load. The coffee gets a bit acidic if you overuse the filters.
- Store the filtered coffee in your fridge.
- Drink at your leisure.
Give it a shot. It definitely adds a notch or two to your quality of life in the early morning.
-Dusty.
What Does Twitter Do For Business?
If you think you're imagining a trend in my recent blog posts, fear not dear reader, you're not merely hallucinating. The fact is, I blog about what's on my mind at the moment, and a people keep asking me about the business applications of social media. It seems like every professional I run into or grab coffee with asks me about this, so here's a few more case studies on how to use Twitter to support your business.
Once you've followed the below link, click the case studies on the left nav to see more.
Twitter for Business Case Studies
Want a more thorough walkthrough on how to use Twitter for your business? Here's a link to the more detailed guide.
Enjoy your Monday,
-Dusty.
How to Create a Web 2.0 Logo
Tired of that logo you rushed to create when you first got your business going? Not happy with the Microsoft template you based it off of? Green with envy when you see your business partners' shiny new cards complete with reflective-drop-shadowed, glow-enhanced logo goodness?
Well, you're in luck my friend. Here's a few easy steps for updating that pre-millenial embarrassment you've come to loathe.
Step 1: Find Some Inspiration.
One of my favorite places to visit for up-to-date web 2.0 logos is www.go2web20.net. Not only is it chocked full of brand spanking new logos, it's also a fantastic site for keeping up with cool new web applications. Now you can be the guy who knows about every new thing on the internet before your friends do. Fancy.
Another great site for inspiration is The Art of the Business Card. This sites got some great logos, but it also has some killer business card examples so you can see things in context.
Step 2: Pick 5-10 Logos You *Really* Like
Let's face it, if you were a designer you wouldn't be reading this far down in the post so your next step is to cull down the list of logos you love to 5-10 examples. This way you can give that new intern you're trying out a good idea of what you're looking for. This also works great for website designs, by the by.
Step 3: Hire a Designer
If there's one thing you need to actually spend a buck on in terms of graphic design, it's your logo. Your logo is the cornerstone of your brand. It determines your color scheme, limits your font choices, and narrows the look and feel of every bit of online and offline content you'll ever have made for your business because your logo's going to be on all of it.
That said, if you really want to do something on the cheap, get your hands on a burgeoning art student looking for some internship hours and something to expand their portfolio with.
And with that, I'm off to bed.
Night night,
-Dusty.
How to Lay Claim to Your Social Media Presence
Don't let someone else lay claim to your precious profile or screen name.
If you're even just thinking about getting into social media and have an established brand, business, or screen name, it's high-time you laid claim to your profiles. Much like reserving a desired URL for a website, you need to reserve your desired social media accounts. So here's a simple web application for doing just that.
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- Visit namechk.com.
- Enter your desired profile/screen name into the search box, and NameChk will show you whether it is available on 70+ of the largest social media sites.
Voila! Now you don't have to worry about being stuck with some lame screen name with weird abbreviations, numbers, and special characters. Not to mention the resulting heckling from your online compadres.
Oh, we'd do it too,
-Dusty.
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