The American Legion W.R.I.T.E.S

The American Legion Western Region Information & Technology Exchange Service.

This is a site is devoted to the free and open exchange of ideas and applications of pertinent information and technology to The American Legion.


Sunday, January 31, 2010

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.
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Well done, wallpost.com one of the best social networking website developed with tight security and also special features with article writing and password protected albums.

September 9, 2012 at 11:06 PM

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