I’m sitting in Starbucks waiting for my flat tire to be fixed so I brought my daughter’s new iPad to kill some time. Why not see how well the iPad works for blogging?
First I had to buy some wifi time at Starbucks since they’re free wifi doesn’t start until next week. No big deal because I’m traveling next week so I should be able to use the wifi elsewhere.
The keyboard is a little awkward with the iPad flat on the table. The docking station and keyboard should help when it arrives. There are a few quirks with Safari and WordPress that i’m working through but nothing too major. I usually blog using Firefox so I’m not sure if its a Safari issue or an iPad issue. I’m sure there are some apps that will help WordPress bloggers using iPads (let me know your favorite apps for blogging or start developing some!)
Overall blogging from the iPad is pretty easy but there are limitations. But it sure beats lugging my laptop around! I guess this is one more justification for me to get an iPad (i’ve been self-justifying excuses why I need an iPad!). Overall blogging from the iPad gets a C+ rating. The external keyboard would make it an B.
More answers from the 5 Ingredients of Social Media for Your Website Webinar #5socialmedia
Here are some more questions from the Sitecore 5 Ingredients of Social Media for Your Website Webinar.
Q: How can we use facebook for a non-profit company, what are your recommedations of what kind of info we should display on facebook?
A: There are hundreds of Facebook Groups and Fan Pages for non-profits. I would start by searching Facebook for Non-Profits on Facebook and check out the Fan Page that has almost 300,000 members. There is a lot of great information that will get you started.
Q: How do you ensure that the content people put on your website is in good taste?
A: Unfortunately you can’t control what people post in forums and on your social media pages so you have to have someone delete inappropriate content. By inappropriate content I mean spam or offensive material. You should not delete negative comments about your product or service. Address those comments in a reply and contact the person offline to resolve their complaints. Most of the time when you respond to them in a timely fashion they will be satisfied and will post a positive reply on your website.
Many content management systems have modules that will detect and not publish spam and offensive material. WordPress uses a plugin called Akismet that blocks spam comments.
You should also use social media monitoring tools like Trackur or Radian6 so you will be instantly notified when inappropriate comments or complaints are posted. Responding quickly is the key to heading off an online disaster.
Q: How do you use Facebook for business? I use it personally.
A: Keep your business and personal Facebook pages separate unless you are a consultant or professional service provider and your name is your brand name. Look at the Facebook pages of the companies we talked about in the webinar and see how they’re using Facebook. Also search for any major brand name and see how they’re using Facebook.
Q: Is it better to have your blog as a different url than your company website?
A: This is an ongoing debate with many SEO experts. Some say its better to have your blog and website on the same URL because you’ll have more focused content on one domain name. Others say it’s better to have the blog on a different URL and on a different webhost so you can generate a lot of links between the two sites.
Personally I’ve tried it both ways and I think it’s best to keep the blog and website on one URL. It’s hard to maintain two different web properties unless you have staff to keep the content fresh on both sites. Google likes to see a lot of related content on one URL so it will help your search rankings by combining them.
Q: What is the best free social media monitoring tool out there? What is the best very low cost one?
A: If you’re on a low budget you can set up Google Alerts to monitor specific keywords you are targeting. Every time Google finds those keywords you will receive an email (or a daily digest so you’re not overwhelmed by emails). You can use tools like TweetDeck which is a free program that lets you monitor Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
You can also search Google for “free social media monitoring tools” to see what’s out there. I recommend using a paid service because “you get what you pay for” and Trackur seems to be the best low priced tool I’ve seen.
In case you missed our webinar here are links to the webinar recording, podcast and slides.
http://mediacontent.sitecore.net/5IngredientsSocialMedia/5IngredientsSocialMedia.html
http://mediacontent.sitecore.net/5IngredientsSocialMedia/5IngredientsSocialMedia.mp3
http://www.slideshare.net/sitecore/5-key-ingredients-of-social-media-for-your-website
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