Social Networking Live Feeds

Unlike e-mail, or even blogs, tweets and status messages are instant communications. If you have many friends, or following many tweets, the messages are a stream of live messages. In our instant world, it is instant news, instant feedback, instant communications.

You can have a browser window open to Facebook, another window open to Twitter, and another to MySpace. To see the latest information, you will have to refresh each window (except for Facebook's Live Feed). Still each one is a separate window, and a separate stream. How can you post the same status message to multiple social networks without retyping the message? This article presents some of the possible solutions.

Facebook

As mentioned in a previous post, you can connect a fan page to a Twitter account. If you create a status message on a fan page, Facebook automatically creates a tweet. Using the Twitter application in Facebook, you can display the tweets in your Twitter account on your profile page. Using this mechanism, fans, followers, and friends see the same message. If you only use Facebook and Twitter, this approach works.

MySpace

MySpace has an account setting that allows you to sync your MySpace account with your Twitter account. When you write a mood status message, MySpace creates a tweet. Tweets are feed back to your MySpace status messages. As above, it works as long as your two social networks are MySpace and Twitter.

Seesmic

Seesmic (seesmic.com) offers a Web application and Desktop application that interface to Twitter. The Web application interfaces to a single Twitter account, while the Desktop application can inteface to multiple Twitter accounts. The desktop application uses Adobe Air, which is a real memory hog. I would not recommend using it, if your machine has less than 2 gigabytes of memory.

Brizzly

Brizzly (brizzly.com) has an extension for the Google Chrome browser that allows you to view and post to one or more Twitter accounts, and to a Facebook account. Once you get over the name and their logo, it is a good application. Each account has its own tab, so you do not see a continuous stream. Brizzly only interfaces with your Facebook Life Feed and Profile. It cannot link to groups or fan pages. The final weakness of Brizzly is that it does not auto refresh.

Yoono

This FireFox extension is my favorite tool for social networking. Yoono provides both a continuous stream view, and separate stream views. It can link to multiple accounts within a single social network, and links to the largest number of social networks of any integrated viewing and posting tool of any I have found. Yoono even links to chat applications such as Google Talk, and Yahoo Instant Messenger (YIM).

Yoono does not have a Google Chrome extension. I have found that MySpace makes it extremely difficult for third-party applications to make and maintain a link to MySpace. While LinkedIn used to work, it no longer makes a connection. These are not Yoono problems, but problems with those social networks. In both cases, you can create a workaround by setting the option to synchronize with Twitter.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com) is a desktop application that allows you to view and post to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. I like the application, it just doesn't like my machine. It is also depends on Adobe Air, and Adobe Air wants more resources than my old laptop with 512 megabytes of memory can give.

Ping.fm

Ping.fm allows you to post to over 60 social networks and instant messengers. It is a one way street, as it is not a viewing tool. It is Web application, and you do need a Ping.fm account. Ping.fm allows you to divide your social networks into groups, and post to a group. Ping.fm was recently purchased by Seesmic, and, according to the Seesmic Web site, will be integrated into Seesmic.

When using Ping.fm, you need to be aware of the following:

• The text box for entering messages does not have a character counter, so it is easy to enter a message that is too long for Twitter.
• Ping.fm has its own URL shortner, so don't shorten a URL with bit.ly, and then use the bit.ly URL in your message. Ping.fm will shorten the bit.ly URL, which just generates a lot of redundant Internet traffic.

Shareaholic

The name Shareaholic tells all. Shareaholic is a browser extension to both FireFox and Google Chrome. While it allows you to share a bookmark with almost every social network on the Internet, it does not allow you to share the bookmark to a number of them at one time. However, it is a useful bookmark sharing tool. It is great alternative to browser toolbar overload.

Summary

Have I covered every social networking tool? Not even close - I only scratched the surface. As shown by a recent Nielson report, social networking is a rapidly growing part of Internet. Live Internet is the future, as the connections between multiple networks grow.

Static Web pages and e-mail are giving way to microblogging and social networks. A post, unit, or squadron can be a social network that connects to other social networks. We share and collaberate in real-time microblogs. Everthing from desktops to cell phones can connect you to a social network.

This is the final post in this series. I hope the series has helped your organization make the transition to social networking.

Social Networks and Search Engines

This is not an article about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Rather, it is about the basics of what search engines will find, and what you need to do to make it possible. Beyond search engines, the article covers social bookmarking sites, and how they can help your organization be found on the Internet.

Facebook

What a search engine can see depends on the privacy settings for the Facebook account. In regards to search engines, you need to mouse over Settings, click on Privacy Settings, and the click on Search. The Facebook Search Results should be set to Everyone, and you need to allow Public Search Results. Most of the setting under Profile Information do not apply to an organization. You may wish to change Comments on Post to Everyone.

Here is what search engines will find:

• Notes posted by you
• Groups that you create
• Fan pages that you create

One SEO bit of advice, search engines are more likely to discover your pages, if you have a user name. Facebook will allow you to create a user name if you provide a cell phone number for verification, or have 100 friends or fans.

Twitter

By default, your Twitter account will be found by search engines. If it is not, you need to verify that the Protect my tweets is not checked in account settings. Google, and other search engines, will find your account but not individual tweets. Individual tweets can be searched using tweetmeme.com or topsy.com.

When you see a tweet with a hash mark in front of a words. The tweet is flagging those words as key words for tweet search engines. This is an SEO trick to direct traffic to the account (channel in twittereze) making those tweets.

MySpace

When you create your MySpace account, make sure that you create a user name. Your account will then be http://www.myspace.com/username. Since their are no groups or fan pages in MySpace, search engines can only find your user profile. Through the privacy settings, you control what is visible to the public.

Social Bookmarking

The world of social networking includes sited devoted to social bookmarking. With variations, these sites share your favorite sites to the public and to your bookmarking-service friends. It really helps if you have a user name for both Facebook and MySpace. You also need a bit.ly account to shorten the long URLs, especially those for Facebook groups and fan pages. The most popular social bookmarking services are:

• Delicious (delicious.com) is a true social bookmarking site. Be careful not to upload all your bookmarks.
• Digg (digg.com) is a social bookmarking site oriented towards news, images, and videos. The popularity is measured by the number of diggs a URL receives.
• StumbleUpon (www.stumbleupon.com) is a site where you tag a URL with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. You have to experience StumbleUpon to understand it.

Social Media Search Engines

A social media search engine is different than a regular search engine, in that its focus is on searching and indexing social networking (social media) sites. The major players are:

• OneRiot (www.oneriot.com) bills itself as a search engine for the realtime Web. It heavly leans on Twitter and Digg.
• TweetMeme (tweetmeme.com) a search engine for Twitter.
• Topsy (topsy.com) has an interesting twist on indexing tweets. For example, you can list tweets that referency YouTube.
• WhosTalkin (www.whostalkin.com) is a social media search engine that searches over 60 social media sites (including blog sites) for information on a particular topic. As with any search engine, it can only find those item that are available to the public (everyone).

The world is listening. It may take time, but search engines are tracking public profiles, FaceBook groups, Facebook fan pages, blogs (notes), and tweets. Being found requires be active. Just like Web pages, social networking requires ongoing activity.

Other Social Network Alternatives

In the previous posts, I discussed Facebook and Twitter. While these two are very popular, there are many other social networks on the Internet. Many of them are for a specific community, or are popular in certain geographical regions. Following are those alternatives that would be of interest to an American Legion Department, Post, Unit, or Squadron.

MySpace

While not as popular as Facebook, MySpace is a very large social network. While there are users who accounts on both, the percentage is very small. If you do a search of MySpace, you will find a solid representation of The American Legion from National down to individual Posts.

While MySpace is classed as a microblog, it also supports email, blogs, photos, videos, and music. It takes a bit of experimenting with their page layout, but you can create a reasonably good looking page. The best appropach is to study other American Legion pages and then build your own. The are easy to change, as they are nothing more than arranging building blocks called Apps.

Yammer

Yammer is a social networking service for companies and organizations. Yammer uses the domain of the users email address to determine the company affiliation. For example, all e-mail addresses ending in mtlegion.org would be part of a single social network. Yammer is an excellent tool for intra-organization communication.

Ning

Ning is a create your own social network site. Ning has tools for finding friends, and building your network. Due to a change in Ning's policy, there is no longer a search engine for finding social networks. However, there is a Ning Social Network that lists those who which to be listed.

Ning takes far more work than any of the previously mentioned options. However, it is the most flexible for building an open or closed social network.

SocialGO

SocialGo is another site that allows you to build your own social network. Unlike Ning, SocialGo is a pay-as-you-go service, although it does offer a very limited free plan.

Yahoo

In terms of social networking, Yahoo is not really a great site. However, it is a good source for an e-mail account, if you cannot get one from your Department. American Legion of Montana offers e-mail accounts to all posts, units, and squadrons withing the department.

Beyond Yahoo mail, the features that you may use are Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Internet Messenger (YIM), and Flickr (for photos).

Google

There is no short way to explain all the Google applications. Your Gmail account is the key to accessing Google's product. In terms of features, Gmail offers far more features than Yahoo mail, including chat. Orkut is Google's social network. However, the majority of users on Orkut are in Brazil or China, with US users making up about 17% of Orkut's user base.

Google Talk is their Internet Messaging (IM) product, which is similar to ICQ and AIM. Picasa is for sharing photos, and YouTube for videos. Of course, Blogger is their blogging product, on which this blog is hosted.

Summary

The above sampling of social works demonstrates that the Internet world is changing. Email and static Web sites are giving away to the dynamic interaction of social networking. Instead of subscribing to e-mail list, you can follow Twitter streams, or Facebooks live feed. Services such as Yammer bring the concept of social network into the organization.

Every service has its own adherents. The temptation is to try and reach every community, by participating in every social network. This can lead to the ever present danger of a site containing out-dated information. When looking at The American Legion's MySpace page, I noticed a reference to VetCam, a service which no longer exits. Yet, there was no reference to Burnpit. The point is that becoming over extended can lead to orphaned pages on some social network.

Tweets for Twitter

Twitter calls its status message "tweets." When it comes to integration with cell phones, Twitter is an extension of text messaging. When it comes to interaction, Twitter falls short of Facebook.

In Twitter creates its network by having:

• Followers, who receive your tweets
• Twitter users who you are following and receiving their tweets
• Your account may be listed in a list of accounts created by another user
• You can also follow lists, instead of individual users
  

Twitter tends to be a one way street. To be sure, Twitter does provide two communication options:

• Replies provide a mechanism for your followers to respond to one of your tweets
• Direct Messages allow someone who you are following to send you a private message

A very handy feature in Twitter is the ability to "retweet." Retweets are identified by the RT prefix to a tweet that you receive. It is a way of spreading the word to your followers, who can retweet the tweet again.

Many tweets contain a link to an external Web page. The maximum length for a tweet is 120 characters, which can make adding URLs real interesting. To solve this problem, you can shorten a URL using a service such bit.ly. Twitter will automatically attempt to shorten a URL using bit.ly. There are two reasons for having a separately bit.ly account:

1. Occassionally, Twitter doesn't want to shorten a pasted URL that forces the tweet length to exceed the limit.
2. With a bit.ly account, you can keep track of how many users have followed the link.

Twitter and Facebook are two huge communities. While some people belong to both, some only use one or the other. For organization to have maximum outreach, it needs both.

In the Facebook post, I mentioned the importance of creating a link between your fan page on Facebook and your Twitter account. This will save you double posting a status message. You always want to post the status message on Facebook, as Facebook has a longer status message. If the message is too long for Twitter, Facebook will use its own URL shortener (fb.me) to create a link to the full message from Twitter.

You have just joined the world of connecting social networks.

Make Facebook the Center Piece

Facebook is a large and diverse social networking Web site. While there is a public aspect to Facebook, Friends is the heart of Facebook. You interact with Friends, and only Friends. The major features of Facebook are:

• The "What's on your mind?" block is a status message in Facebook terms, and a microblog in generic terms. It allows you to share short messages with your friends, which appear in their "News Feed," or "Live Feed," and on your Wall. You can also write a status message on a Friend's Wall. Friends can comment on your status messages. You have the ability to control who sees your status messages.
  
• You can also send a Message to one or more Friends. These are longer and more like email. You can reply to a message, just as you reply to an email. Facebook allows Messages to be longer than Status messages.
• You can write a Note, which can be very long. A Note is like a Blog, and you can import posts from another Blog. Like status messages, they can be shared with your Friends.
• You can also Chat with Friends, who happen to be on-line at the same time as you.

While the above center on communication with Friends, the following two features go beyond Friends to larger communities.

• You can create a Group. A member of Facebook does not need to be a Friend to join your group. The group page looks much like your personal page. You have status updates. Instead of Messages, you have Discussions. You need to keep groups active with regular updates, just like for your main page.
• The latest addition is Pages, or Fan Pages. Much like groups, but with more features, including photos and YouTube videos.

I am going to focus on Pages for the remainder of this article, as they are the key to reaching out to a larger community. As mentioned in the previous article, you need to use an e-mail account that is specific to the organization, and not your personal e-mail account.

Facebook's policy strictly prohibits an individual from having multiple accounts. It is important to remember that the organization account is for the organization, and not for playing games. Keep the organization side separate from your personal side.

Establishing a Facebook account is not difficult. You just need to create a first name and last name that somehow identifies the organization. You can have a first name with two or words and a last name. I recommend using the date your organization was founded as the birthdate. When you see the company name field, this is a good place to enter the full name of the organization.

The hardest part of building a Facebook Fan Page is finding out how to do it. One way is to select the Help option under the Settings tab. In the help window, you will see a option for Fan Pages (don't select the one for businesses). This will open up a window with various articles on fan pages. Select the one that reference creating a fan page and follow its link. You can create any number of fan pages, but you should have one for the organization.

While we haven't discussed creating a Twitter acccount, you will notice that there is an option for linking Facebook to Twitter. If you have a Twitter account go ahead and create a link. Whenever you post a status message on the fan page, it will automatically post the same message on Twitter. This is an important part of building a network.

There is a difference between posting a status message on your profile page and a fan page. On the profile page, the message only goes to your friends. On the fan page it goes to your fans and to Twitter, if you created the link. If you post a status message on both your profile page and your fan page, then those friends, who are also fans, get the message twice.

To make finding your Facebook profile page easier, it helps to have a user name. Again place your mouse over settings and then click Account Settings. If your organization has a cell phone, then you can immediately verify your account and create a user name. Otherwise, you have to wait until Facebook decides that you are who you say you are.

Letting the world know that you exist is the next challenge. Here are a few suggestions:

• If you have email address of members in your organization, you can use the Friend search to see if they have a Facebook account, and then invite them to be a Friend. The spread the word to their Friends.
  
• If you have a Twitter account. Post a message to Twitter. You will need to use bit.ly to shorten the long URL.
• For those who are part of The American Legion of Montana, just send an email to webmaster@mtlegion.org and ask to have your account added to the profile for your Post or Unit. Be sure to send the shortened URL from bit.ly.
  

The above works for both Fan pages and Profile pages. It take time to build a network of fans and friends, but the communication to them is fast and easy. Just remember to communicate. Messages are short, so there is no reason not to get the word out.

Internet Presence Through Social Networks

A Web presence is important means of communication to every Post, Unit or Squadron in The American Legion family. A Web site and e-mail accounts are the traditional means of communication. Social networking sites and messaging are the new media for communications.

Web sites still have their place, but they are not free and require a lot of work to maintain. A Web site with year-old information is worse than no Web site at all. I am proposing that a organization can have a Web presence without a Web site by using the resources provided by social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and many more. Best of all, the only cost is time, and an Internet connection. The only tools you need is a computer with a browser, and an email account. You do not need to pay a hosting fee, or a domain registration fee.

Before proceeding, we need to understand a few terms that are commonly used:

• Social Network - Wether they are called friends, followers, or a connections, the social network provides immediate communication to your network, and still be viewable from a public view.
  
• Blog - What I am writing is a blog. As opposed to the static nature of a Web site, a blog (a conraction of the term "Web Log") is a Web application that allows for easy posting of commentaries, description of events, or graphics. Blogs tend to full articles on some topic.
• Microblog - (also called status updates) are short messages that may have links to Web sites, blogs, photos, or movies. The size of the message varies from the 140 character tweets allowed by Twitter to 255 character status updates for Facebook.
• Bookmarking - Sites such as Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon are bookmark sharing sites, with a social networking twist.

Before diving into this world, I suggest that you do the following:

• You need to create an email account that is for the organization, and not a personal account. This allows you to transfer your work to someone else, as the social network source require an email account. Posts within The American Legion of Montana can get a free email account form the Webmaster. Other alternatives include, Goggle, Yahoo, and Hotmail.
• URLs (Web addresses) are often long, and can quickly exceed the limited length allowed for a message. There are a number of service that shorten URls, which are then expanded to the correct URL by the service. The most popular service is http://bit.ly/. I would suggest creating a bit.ly account, as a first step. We will use it in later articles.
  

VA healthcare will not be endangered by national system, says President Obama

WASHINGTON, DC, August 4, 2009 – President Barack Obama, meeting privately with the leader of nation’s largest veterans service organization this morning, pledged to keep the medical care system administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs essentially as is – quelling fears that VA healthcare would be absorbed into a national health care system.

“(I) got his very strong assurance the VA as our veterans know it will continue to exist,” said National Commander David K. Rehbein. “It will not be diluted or folded into some sort of national system and that the folks who go to the VA…that will be considered their insurance, so any insurance requirements (will be met) simply by being enrolled in the VA.”

Another topic discussed during the one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office was Medicare reimbursement to the VA, a proposal long championed by The American Legion. This proposed practice would require Medicare to pay for care provided at VA medical facilities to Medicare beneficiaries – that is, eligible veterans over the age of 65 with non-service related injuries, illnesses and conditions. Currently, Medicare is precluded by statute from doing this.

“Medicare reimbursement to VA would be a boon to veterans in that it would encourage them to take advantage of what we consider the best care anywhere,” said the Commander. It would also generate much-needed revenue for the VA.”

In fact, The Medicare VA Reimbursement Act of 2009 (H.R. 3365), which is now being considered in Congress, resulted from a discussion Rehbein had with House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) at the Legion’s DC headquarters just three weeks ago. “I am pleased that Chairman Filner visited with us and then took prompt action,” Rehbein said.

President Obama and Commander Rehbein also discussed the positive effects that the enhanced educational benefits contained within the newly enacted and American Legion-pioneered Post 9/11 GI Bill will have on the veterans community and the nation as a whole.

The vexing problem of a dramatically growing backlog of VA benefits claims was also considered by the two. Rehbein said he feels the President “fully appreciates” its gravity and will do what he can to aid in its solution.

Commander Rehbein, obviously pleased with the meeting’s outcome, characterized the 25-minute White House chat as “very friendly…conversational in style” in which “issues were discussed rather than positions being presented.”

With a current membership of 2.6 million wartime veterans, The American Legion was founded in 1919 on the four pillars of a strong national security, veterans affairs, Americanism, and the mentoring of youth. Legionnaires work for the betterment of their communities through more than 14,000 posts across the nation.

Facebook and its evil ad machine...

Facebook is now able to use your name and photos in auto-generated ads to people on your friends list. You can opt out by following these steps: Log in to Facebook, and then go to Settings>Privacy Settings>News Feed and Wall>Facebook Ads (tab near top of page)>Set “Appearance in Facebook Ads” to “NO ONE”> click “Save Changes.” Voila, you’ve now opted out.

Military and veterans health care should not be part of any national health care bill, says The American Legion

WASHINGTON (July 22, 2009) – The national commander of the nation’s largest veterans service organization has reacted to tonight’s urgent call by President Barack Obama for national health care reform.
“While The American Legion appreciates the complexity of the healthcare reform challenge facing the President and Congress,” said David K. Rehbein, “on behalf of our nation's 26-million veterans and the nearly two million personnel now on active duty in more than 130 countries, we urge Congress to ensure that veterans’ and military health care not be part of any national health care bill. They should be exempt in the legislation.”

Rehbein added, “Our nation must maintain its long standing tradition that veterans’ and military health care systems will remain independent and focused on our most deserving citizens.

“The American Legion has a proud tradition of securing and preserving the earned benefits of America’s veterans,” Rehbein said. “Ensuring timely access to quality healthcare for today’s military and veterans is of paramount concern. These are the citizens who have borne our battles in previous wars as they still are in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have earned our care the hard way. We, as a nation, have an obligation to ensure that their healthcare is not compromised,” he concluded.

With a current membership of 2.5 million wartime veterans, The American Legion was founded in 1919 on the four pillars of a strong national security, veterans affairs, Americanism, and the mentoring of youth. Legionnaires work for the betterment of their communities through more than 14,000 posts across the nation.
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Media contacts: Craig Roberts, (202) 263-2982, Cell (202) 406-0887 or Joe March, (317) 630-1253; Cell (317) 748-1926. A high resolution photo of Nat. Cmdr. Rehbein is available at www.legion.org.

I received quite a bit of responses from my original message regarding “another Veterans Corps”…

Thank you all for caring.

From many of the responses, there are valid arguments made for and against this new “Veterans Corps”.

On the one hand, this new initiative, if properly supported by existing VSOs, can help launch an awareness program to returning veterans and introduce them to the traditions of “veterans serving veterans”. This will help increase awareness for VSOs like The American Legion amongst younger veterans and get them involved. And with some mentoring from older veterans, we can expect these young veterans who get involved in the “Veterans Corps” eventually volunteer their time with the VSOs and continue to make an impact. As one legionnaire wrote “If the new Veterans Corps is to strengthen and enable organizations to build capacity for their own missions to assist fellow veterans, then there is a chance this new initiative will actually accomplish something.”

On the other hand, if improperly executed, this program risks wasting taxpayer money and further disenfranchise veterans who are already doing everything they can.

Your collective wisdom has enlightened me in the fact that given this initiative, we can either be counter-productive and argue who can provide the best assistance to our veterans, or we can see this opportunity and work together to help mentor a generation of returning veterans the importance of peer-support and volunteer services to strengthen their communities.

And keeping true to the grassroots, I urge you to find out more about this Veterans Corps and ask your American Legion representatives, and your congressional representatives, to ensure VSOs critical role in developing the “Veterans Corps”.