Claiming my blog at Technorati

Try and Try Again
By Marvin Double


If you happen to be reading this post and wonder what the heck it's about here's an explanation.
I've had an account with technorati for some time now but somethings been missing. Technorati allows you to claim your blog, which could be through of as registering it, using a special feature.

I'm embarrassed to say even though I know the value of technorati, especially for research I've somehow managed to never go through the process of getting my blog claim finished. I had at it more than once but somehow things always went wrong and the claim was just never completed.
What's the point in writing about this little technical fax pas? Simply to advise that if you also have a blog you should take the time and effort to claim it at technorati. The process is pretty simple. You click on the claim your blog here link in your profile. You'll then copy some HTML code into a blog post or side bar, as I've done here and then save the post or update the blog.

After returning to technorati you then click the "complete claim" button and wait. If all goes well in a short while your blog will be officially claimed making it easier for your posts to be indexed and searched. Pretty cool!

I'm only sorry I haven't gotten around to finishing this task earlier - silly me. So there you have it, don't be lazy, or absent minded, go ahead and claim your blog, it's part of the whole blogging thing after all. Technorati Profile

Free Easter Bunny Coloring Page for Kids

Helping to Keep Kids Busy Over Easter
By Marvin Double


After the eggs are decorated, and the chocolate bunny's nibbled, you might want to add a coloring activity to the agenda to help keep kids occupied over the Easter Holiday.

To get your free copy of this 8x10 coloring page got to http://www.twitpic.com/33ouf Simply click on the thumbnail to select the image, then, right click and save as to your hard drive. Print it and give it to your kids or Grandkids to color. Encourage them to add lots of detail to the plain eggs in the basket.

If you want to keep them busy a bit longer give them more than one page and ask them to make each one a little different. My Grandkids just loved this activity so much they brought over friends and had a coloring contest.

If you have one that you're especially proud of scan it, upload and share with other relatives. You might also wish to post a link using the Disqus comments feature on this at the bottom of this post so I can see it too!

The Easter Bunny is a Social Marketer

Happy Easter
By Marvin Double


I recognize that many readers of this post may not be Christian or possibly not religious.  Easter is of course an entirely Christian holiday and for pois Christians the foundation of their faith - but this article isn't about religion.  Oddly there is a parallel between Easter and what has come to be known as social marketing.  Like so many holidays it has been secularized and commercialized to the dismay of those for whom the holiday has a deeper spiritual significance. 

Chocolate Bunnies and Colored Eggs
The Easter Bunny it's much loved and anxiously awaited chocolate effigy have to a great extent come to symbolize the commercial part of the holiday.  For candy makers, card companies and toy makers Easter represents an important part of their yearly business, a fact no one should begrudge in these difficult times.

No doubt kids wait for Easter morning with the enchanted excitement of a child's imagination.  Even in this high tech age of video games not all of the magic has been lost from such mythical creates as the

The Social Marketing Connection
Not unlike Easter social networks like Twitter and Facebook, Myspace began in a more pure, form unsullied what some see as the sacrilege of commercialism.  These  networks originated as channels of communication which rose up from a need to connect with each other not as media for commercial advertising.

But of course as we know, things didn't stay that way and so a conflict arose - a conflict which is perhaps most obvious on Twitter where passions on the subject are often expressed openly.  In my recent article "Taming The Twitter Monster"   I discuss the good the bad and the ugly of twitter, including the use of impure devices such as automation for certain tasks and searching for those with similar interests.  It's a hot topic and a touchy point with the explosive potential of a cream filled chocolate egg in the microwave.

Peace on Earth
Like it or not, the commercial and practical potential of Social Media as a Marketing tool simply can't be overstated or overlooked or ignored.  Social media is quickly becoming a focus of communications for Interest groups, political parties, corporations mom and pop businesses.  Unfortunately many are blundering into it's use unprepared and unaware.  The end effect of course is standing up in church to break into the ministers sermon for a commercial.

Easter is a time when we can reflect on putting aside our conflicts and be more tolerant of our failings . Perhaps it is appropriate then that we reconcile with the the fact social media can , if used responsibly be more than just one thing to one group or another.  After all social media is still a new and evolving technology.  As it changes perhaps we should evolve along with it and embrace what it may become.  In the same way the Easter can be religious and  secular, Twitter and all other social media can offer something different to each individual depending on their preferences, each using it in their own way.

Here's wishing you each a Happy Easter, May Love and Peace be Yours

Social Media Monkeys

The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon
By Marvin Double


In 1952 on the Island of Koshima in Japan, researchers, studying a troupe of Macaque monkeys made a surprising observation. The monkeys liked to eat sweet potatoes but had a problem. It was difficult for them to clean sand off the potatoes before eating. A young female they named Imo solved the problem by washing the sand off her sweet potato with water; a behavior which was previous unknown in the troop.

Monkeys, Sweet Potatoes Marketing?
What the heck you might ask do monkeys washing sweet potatoes have to do with marketing - bear with me.

Imo went on to teach first her mother, then other members of the troop how to wash sweet potatoes The behavior created a primate buzz and went viral, in a monkey kind of way. After a few years it was estimated that 99 monkeys in the group were using the new skill. The whole group had benefited from the insight of one of its members.

Through cooperation and sharing of information through their social network the monkeys demonstrated the true power that also makes our technological human social networks like twitter so important.

This is Hardly News
True enough, information sharing across twitter or other social networks isn't news. It's so common in fact that it seems everyone is doing it. Ah ha, there's the rub - everyone is doing it. In fact there's so much information flowing across social networks that it's easy to just disappear in the crowd. This very fact alone is one big reason why social media isn't considered by many to be a good marketing medium - how is a monkey with a new idea going to get it noticed?

The Power of Ideas
What Imo did was to solve a problem and, her solution was something all the other monkeys needed. It was something unique and for those monkeys, a great achievement, something worth passing on through their social network.

What makes social media different is that it is driven by the power of ideas. Information tends to get sorted and sifted by importance and quickly passed along being filter for relevance as it goes. It is in many ways a network made of of millions of individual editors all pulling together bits of information that is relevant to them.

Is There a Moral to This Story?
Certainly, I wouldn't ask you to read through this without a bang up ending. If you aren't familiar with the book "The Hundredth Monkey" by Ken Keys, here's the short version. You'll recall that earlier I mentioned that researchers noticed that 99 monkeys in the troop had picked up this new skill passed on from the inventive Imo. An interesting thing happened with the one hundredth money began washing their sweet potatoes too.

Mysteriously and almost instantaneously researchers on other islands noticed monkeys in other groups washing their food too. This was a behavior which they said hadn't been previously seen.

Initially the researchers were baffled as to how this could have happened. Various theories were put forward to explain what became known as the "Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon" or HMP.

It was thought that somehow through some undiscovered connection, such as the collective unconscious, information was being shared between isolated groups of monkeys. The theory went that, once the hundredth money learned the technique this action formed a critical mass of thought which in turn stimulated a telepathic connection through which the information was shared with other monkeys.

The idea while being very interesting also garnered tremendous popular support and, generated considerable debate after publication of Keys book. Sine that time new theories have been put forward to offer alternative explanations for HMP but debate still persists. If the monkeys know what's going on they are keeping it to themselves.

The Moral
Twitter offers marketers a genuine HMP like potential for communicating real and valuable information. The key of course for marketers is, just like Imo, you need to offer something which actually does solve a problem, something that others want need or desire. If you've got that, then just as was the case with the Hundredth Monkey, others will know.

Oh yes, if you want a copy of the "The Hundredth Monkey" as of the writing of this post there were a few available on Amazon.

Wake up it's 3AM - Time to Tweet

Tweeting in Your Sleep
By Marvin Double


If you read my previous post "Taming The Twitter Monster" You already know what I'm getting on about in this post. If not, following is a quick summary.

In that post I cover some basic issues with using Twitter as a marketing platform. In a nutshell the problem is simply that Twitter is a real time network - which is great for real time communications: Not so great if you're using it to promote yourself, a product, service or message. Making Twitter Work For You, can be a real challenge

Twitter is a 24 / 7 network. When you log off at night others are just logging on. If you are trying to get your message out to the world, regardless of the what the message is, the issue of communication across time zones becomes problematic. This is especially true for those who need to establish or maintain a web presence.

The Monster is Awake
Unless you are a serious insomniac with pretty impressive stamina it's nigh on impossible to stay online continuously. Keeping up with Tweets can leave you feeling a overwhelmed exhausted or frustrated - but the Twitter Monster never sleeps and needs to be fed.

While you are sleeping or just away from the keyboard you may in fact miss connecting with valuable contacts simply because, when you aren't tweeting. If you aren't online you tend to just disappear for hours, perhaps days - Not good if you to establish or maintain a good web presence.

Making Twitter Work for You
If you are a marketer than you can't afford waisting a lot of time on activities which might more than a little seem frivolous. If however you can make Twitter work for you instead of the reverse, the potential becomes much more tangible. For those of us who actually do sleep or work, attending to Twitter day and night is a hopeless chore without some help and there's a secret to doing that.

Don't you just hate it when markets use the word secret. You just know that here comes the big sales pitch to sell me some lame secret or less than wonderful ebook. I'm going to tell you now that this secret really isn't. In fact the tools you need to Tame The Twitter Monster are FREE. However putting all those together on your own can take some time. That's why I recommend that you buy this little course. It will save you a ton of aggravation trying to figure out the tools. You'll also learn some cool ways of Making Twitter Work For You.

Taming the Twitter Monster

Twitter, Good Bad and Ugly
By Marvin Double


Hold on to your reading glasses, this is a Monster of a post. I apologize in advance for the length. I cover a lot of ground here and, what I feel is an important topic about Twitter and social media. I'm breaking a basic rule of blogging, which is to keep posts short and "bloggy". In this case I feel the subject is to important to short change. If you're one of those folks who thinks the microwave is to slow this isn't the post for you.

If You are a regular reader you already know that I'm a fan of Twitter. I've only been on Twitter for a short time compared to others and am still a neophyte. In that short time I've made some great contacts and discovered some really great folks and a ton of new information. Like many others I've also discovered some bad and even ugly things about the network - but I'll get to that.

It was those very issues bad ugly issues that stimulated me to create a my latest cartoon. If you like you can get your own high quality copy of the cartoon free from Twitpic or if you prefer Flickr

Feel free to use it on a blog or website if you wish.

After my initial delight and enthusiasm for Twitter wore off a bit, I realized that I'd created a something of a social monster. People started following me in droves across different time zones and different countries.

Simply responding to them became a chore and the time differences had me scratching my head.

Like a lot of folks out there, as my list of followers grew, I quickly came to realize that Twitter can chew up a lot of valuable working time. If you are in business like me, or simply a busy person, time is a preciouses commodity. When I put Twitter in the mix of things my already long days got longer still.

Looking for a Better Way to Tweet
It wasn't long before I started looking for ways to better manage my twitter activities. That's when I stumbled across Bill Crosby and his Twitter Traffic Machine course.

Don't panic this isn't a big pitch.

After checking out the video, I bought his course followed his instructions and began to benefit immediately from using it - here's how and you'll see why a bit further on.

I found that I could use third party applications to look for people with similar interests to mine. I loved this idea and have been very pleased with the results produced for both my personal and business interests. For me the most important part of using the methods from this course was how they have allowed me to build my web presence.

Being Present in the Moment with Twitter
Being present in the moment is a concept from meditation but it applies equally well to social networking. Many social media pros point The importance of creating a "web presence". In the case of twitter being present means being online when others are too - hard to do when they are located thousands of miles away and hours ahead or behind you.

Maintaining visibility in social media comes at a price - it takes time and effort to get right. Because we live in a 24 / 7 world doing that can be a bit tricky. Developing a web presence is a matter of being in the moment with your followers. Web presence is all about being recognized and remembered as a, individual person or business. Because Twitter is real time, being present means being there in real time too.

In marketing parlance this web presence could also called be called brand awareness, which applies even if the brand is only just you. The truth is, if you aren't out there you tend to simply disappear. The wonderful thing about Twitter is that it allows us to help each other build brand awareness through our social interactions - which is a topic for another post.

Using methods Bill describes in his course Twitter Traffic Machine you can set up automated RSS feeds which allow you to tweet with content you've selected as noteworthy. The great thing about this is that you can select feeds from blogs, ezines or any other source of important information you want to share. This kind of filtered content let your tweets focus on specific areas of interest, topics even authors which are important in any niche. Using automation really is useful when following emerging stories or ongoing developments or trends - and it cuts down on the daily work load dramatically.

The Ugly Side of Twitter
Little did I know at the time but the issue of auto-following or automated tweets is something of a bear trap. I've read blogs and been on forums where discussions on this topic were down right nasty. Apparently something about these subjects raise passions and divide opinions. Leaning of this was a bit disheartening considering the fact that I begin semi-automating my twitter activities.

In fact there are tons of issues and lots of arguments and no shortage of controversy about how twitter is used in general. It seems some are abusing automated tools and in some cases it is accused some are gaming the system. Tiffany Dow AKA the "Squidoo Queen" is an internet marketer of some renown and someone I admire and respect. In a recent blog post she took a courageous position on these issues, which I endorse and support.

On her blog Tiffany took exception to comments made by Michel Fortin regarding Twitter. He is quoted as saying that "Twitter is Populated by Drones and Fakes". I won't repeat his arguments here. However I do recommend giving Tiffany's Blog a read if you'd like to know more.

As far as I'm concerned the flap about auto-following on Twitter is pretty much a tempest in a teapot.

Do I care that there are people that some people have 30,000, 40,000 or 90,000 followers? No. In point of fact I could care less if they are, using multiple accounts, faking the numbers for some personal or commercial reason. It just seems foolish to be concerned about something that has an obvious simply remedy. If you don't want to be followed by someone who you suspect of spamming or gaming "block them". By doing that you've cast your vote in a very democratic system. If you follow someone back you are simply giving them permission to send DM's. If they abuse that privilege, block them.

If you found me through some automated system that auto-follows that's just fine. If you've done that to spam me with a pitch for some wacky MLM program - sorry but you'll likely get blocked. Eventually I'll un-follow those who don't offer something I want or need, two clicks and they're gone. I don't want to waste my time or theirs.

Personal Responsibility
How the system is used is a matter of personal responsibility, much like driving. It's become popular to support banning Auto DM's, a rallying point against those who are abusing this feature. Here's my thought on the matter. Should we remove cruise control from all vehicles simply because some drivers use it to go to fast? Should we ban alcohol because some people drink irresponsibly?

Is sending a polite non-commercial auto DM to thank and welcome a new follower immoral, unethical uncouth? In my opinion, no. Sending an initial automatic welcome DM might not be as warm and friendly as a personal hand written note but I don't object to them.
A welcome message with obvious pitch is generally considered poor netiquette and just kind of tacky. Blasting someone with commercial DM's is simply uncool and I've already offered my opinion about dealing with that.

It's true that I've set up a system that partially automates some of my twitter activities, but only some. I use it help me find people I actually "do" want to follow. Am I trying to build a huge following? No. Do I want to find people who have an interest in what I'm doing? Absolutely.

So far the system is working really well. I've already made a lot of new contacts across a number of areas of interest both personally and professionally. I'm continuing to tweak and refine the set up to get the most targeted and meaningful results. If that kind of automation is something that appeals to you I encourage you to check out Twitter Traffic Machine

I can recommend it with certainly cause as I've pointed out I actually use it.

One Final Word
For me being able to automate some of my twitter tasks has made my life immensely easier and more productive. In point of fact I think it allows me to add more value to what I'm doing and maintain my web presence more effectively.

I use scheduled tweets so I can keep a web presence across different time zones but, I manually tweet too. In order to control the quality of the content I use controls in the system that allow me tweak or change things as needed. Do I need to say that most of my content is entirely original.

The value of my content is exceptionally important to me as it should be for everyone else. I'll be adding the URL for this blog as well as my cartoons to my automatic tweets for later tonight and the wee hours of the morning so those overseas will get them even after I've logged off for the day.

If you don't find value in following me then I encourage you to stop following. If you like what you see then please hang out and lets get to know each other better - after all that's what puts the social in networking.

To quote Forrest Gump, "and that's all I have to say about that"

The Twitter Connection

Hi
Let's get to know each other

This is a very exciting time to be online in an huge, dynamic and active social network like Twitter. If you are a new follower please tweet me and say hi. What do you do, what are your interests or goals. If you are not yet on Twitter you can find me at http://twitter/mdouble

It's just amazing how much information you can pack into 140 little characters. I love learning new things and hope you do too, there's no shortage of new things to learn on Twitter.

In the interest of getting to know each other, here's a little something about me. I'm a blogger and information marketer. I use twitter in combination with this blog to keep my readers informed about topics related to internet marketing. Because I'm a writer, Graphic Artist Photographer and Cartoonist you'll find that my blog posts often contain lots of original material, and cartoons,

In fact I do my best to keep abreast of new developments, products and trends in internet marketing.

But enough about me! Tweet me and lets get to know each other.

I'm working a lots of new information products which will be released over coming months and years.These cover a wide range of topics and are to diverse to list here. Announcements will be made through twitter, press releases and of course this blog.

It's great to be part of a social network of people with so many varied interests. The wealth of knowledge and experience out there is simply incredible. New contacts and new opportunities happen daily making Twitter one of the most powerful and valuable tools for any entrepreneur.

By the way: I'm also on
Facebook, Facebook/mdouble
Linkedin, http://www.linkedin.com/in/mdouble
Friend Feed, http://friendfeed.com/marvind
Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/marvind/
Twitpic. http://www.twitpic.com/photos/mdouble
Helium Helium/mdouble
Ezine Articles EzineArticles/MarvinDouble
Toonpool Toonpool/mdouble

So, for reading, hopefully you have a better idea what I'm all about and once again

Thanks for following me