Sunday, February 3rd, 2008...7:46 pm
“Social Media Staples” Fundamental Technologies that Make Learning the Web Easier
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If You Only Read One Thing On This Blog, Read This
This post might be the most important post I have written. It deals with the basic building blocks of social media. There is a mountain of great tools and technologies that can be found online today, the key is to learn what I call the “Social Media Staples”. The staples are foundational tools that once learned make understanding and engaging the rest of the web much easier.
Let me re-emphasize this, if you learn these “Social Media Staples” learning other tools and technologies will be much less difficult.
RSS Feeds: Receiving, Absorbing, and Spreading Information
Links to RSS Readers I Reccomend:
A previous post about RSS Feeds
Social Bookmarking: Collecting, Organizing and Sharing Information
If you have any other technologies you think should be included as a social media staple, let me know in the comments.
Aaron Marshall is a technology strategist, social entrepreneur and newbie kitesurfer. He founded
10 Comments
February 4th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I agree these two new internet tools can change the way you communicate with the web. Ever since you showed me netvibes, I now have it as my homepage and use it not only check my email from aol, hotmail, and gmail but it instantly (almost instantly, about 5-8 seconds) gives me all the feeds from my favorite websites.
I’ll have to admit that I still do spend another hour or so browsing through random sites on the internet and it hasn’t completely reversed the roles of me looking for information vs them looking for me, but lets look deeper at that concept.
With more and more companies out there gathering marketing data, I believe the future will be based around pre-screening the end-user before companies try to hunt you down.
Security will be the next big “buzz” during the coming decade as the battle to collect user information vs the privacy wanted by the average consumer will inevitably start the development of some interesting new programs.
Almost every witty tech company I talk to today who makes third-party software has come up with some scheme on how to “collect data” from the end user. Demographic data such as Age, Location, and Sex are mainstream with information becoming more and more detailed with information such as “The user likes: Ann Rice Novels, Pasta, She on the Internet between 10-11pm, and Likes Burritos” etc, etc.
And may I mention that this data IS very valuable.. Say I cedide I want to make you my target market. I would show Ann Rice coupons on netvibes between 10-11pm, discuss a new recipe for guacamole burritos in your mashable rss feeder, and have an adwords advertisment telling you I have the best pasta!” Garanteed I would get at least one sale.
The point is the internet is expanding and as vast as it is we should keep up on the latest technologies to keep track of all the new exciting things out there!
February 4th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Just got a tip from my friend Rhett to visit your site. Very good stuff! I’m a new subscriber.
February 7th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Good stuff! For those just test-driving netvibes, if it seems a little buggy, give it a chance. They’re preparing to upgrade to a new release, Ginger, and so the little bugs are related to that. I’ve been using it a while and can vouch for it’s usual reliability.
In addition to RSS readers and Social Bookmarking utilities, I would add Social News Engines (digg, mixx, sk-rt, sphinn, etc.) and Social Networking platforms (myspace, facebook, ning, linked in, etc.)
February 15th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Daniel, that was a mouthful! Thanks for the comment though, deep stuff.
Matt and Kat glad you enjoy!
February 20th, 2008 at 10:55 am
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February 27th, 2008 at 6:27 am
This is one of the most helpful sites I have ever visitied. Thanks, AAron!
February 29th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Very helpful - - esp social bookmarking. I already subscribe to feeds, but haven’t done social bookmarking.
March 1st, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Nice sweater. You rock
May 10th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Hey, thanks for the add on Twitter. Nice site here…I agree, those are two important tools for getting connected with others. The biggest hurdle I’ve seen is just getting others to understand the importance of an aggregator like Google Reader or Netvibes. For some people, that just seems like one hurdle too many. Still, though, it’s important to disciple others into the world of social media.
July 28th, 2008 at 12:34 am
[...] has a fantastic post about Church Social Media here, which explains the use of RSS and blogging in very easy to understand [...]
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