The Hello Bar is a simple notification bar that engages users and communicates a call to action.

#140Conf Smalltown Recap by Kelly Kinkaid

My friend Deb of Deb Works invited me and a few blogging friends to attend the #140Conf Smalltown in Hutchinson, KS earlier this month. Unfortunately, my work schedule didn’t permit a road trip that week and I asked my buddy Kelly Kinkaid of Kellyology to wrangle some bloggers and make the trip for me. She [...]

What is a URL shortener? Should I use an URL shortener?

URL shorteners aren’t new, but not everyone knows what they are or understands how useful they can be. I want to introduce you to a few URL shortening tools and explain how they can make a real difference in the way you track what your audience is doing with your information. Why Should I Shorten [...]

Twitter Glossary

This week I’m introducing you to some common Twitter terms. Twitter is pretty popular, but not everyone is well-versed in the lingo and it’s a little daunting if you don’t know your DM from your RT. As always, I welcome your additional Twitter terms and definitions in the comments on this post. I’ll integrate them [...]

Social Media Glossary

Social media is how we connect with each other — and with companies and brands — online. These days every marketing plan includes social media; to ignore it would be to ignore a significant portion of your audience. But what is social media? How do you use it? Where do you start? The first step [...]

Google Buzz: Is It a Privacy #FAIL or The Next Best Social Media Tool?

In the past few months Google has been trying to secure their spot not just as the go-to search engine of choice, but a real player in social media. Google Wave and the Google Nexus One phone were cool options to the norm and just last week Google unveiled yet another new social media tool: [...]

Microblogging Tool: Tumblr

Somewhere between traditional blogging and Twitter there lies a sort of half-blog option. If your primary blog is your heavyweight and Twitter is your featherweight, then sites like Tumblr, Posterous, and TypePad Micro would have to be your lightweights. Those sites aren’t quite as much as a full-fledged blog, but they are more than a [...]

How to Automatically Publish Your Latest Posts to Twitter

For the last six or eight months, a friend of mine has told me that she uses Twitter as her RSS feed. She follows everyone she’s interested in and follows the links they provide via Twitter (whether to personal or news blogs). She doesn’t use any other aggregator. Her experience made me stop and think: [...]

Using Twitter: Tools for Productivity (Pt. 2)

Using Twitter effectively is easy when you know which tools to use. hasthtags.org, Twitter Search, and Twitter Answers are just a few of the best Twitter tools.

Using Twitter: Tools for Productivity (Pt. 1)

Using Twitter effectively is easy when you know which tools to use. TweetDeck, TweetLater, TwitPic, and Twitterfon are just a few of the best Twitter tools.

Helpful Blogging Links: May 15, 2009

Every Friday, blog expert Melanie Nelson alerts you to five of the best articles about blogging. This week covers breaking out of the mommyblog niche, adding your Twitter account to Technorati, and taking the guesswork out of design.