An African administrative chief uses Twitter to help solve problems and maintain order in his Kenyan village, showing another example of how social media has evolved beyond wired metropolises to reach even the most previously unconnected corners of the globe.

Chief Francis Kariuki — or, @Chiefkariuki, as he’s known online — tweets to defeat thugs and thieves, locate missing children and farm animals, and organize village logistical matters, according to the Associated Press.

In one example reported by the AP, criminals were raiding a school teacher’s home at 4 a.m. until Kariuki intervened via Twitter. After receiving a phone tip, Kariuki sent a tweet that mobilized village residents to gather outside the teacher’s house and scare the robbers away. In another example, Kariuki used Twitter to organize a rescue operation after a man fell into a latrine pit.

“There is a brown and white sheep which has gone missing with a nylon rope around its neck and it belongs to Mwangi’s father,”

Kariuki tweeted recently in Swahili to help locate a wayward sheep, in another instance the AP cites.

Chief Kariuki lives in Lanet Umoja, about 160 miles west of Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi. Kariuki tells the AP that, although he has just over 400 followers, his messages are able to reach thousands of the area’s 28,000 residents. Many of those citizens are subsistence farmers who access his tweets via forwarded text messages or a third-party mobile application that works without a smartphone, Kariuki says.

“Twitter has helped save time and money. I no longer have to write letters or print posters which take time to distribute and are expensive,”

Mr. Kariuki tells the AP.

He says his Twitter activity has helped decrease the crime rate to virtually nil in recent weeks, compared to prior reports of break-ins nearly every day.

Here are a couple of examples of Kariuki’s tweets:

Kariuki also uses Twitter to spread upbeat, inspirational messages such as this one:

With Kariuki’s smart and effective use of Twitter, it appears to be a new day indeed in Lanet Umoja.

What are the most interesting or unexpected examples of social media use that you’ve heard of? Let us know in the comments.

This is the first in a series of short articles that are intended to help grassroots activists better utilize social media websites. These are the definitive and comprehensive guides for progressives. Every week there will be a new guide published about how to more effectively use Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Other Sites, and on Advanced Strategies.

Social Media is going to be one of the central battlegrounds in the 2012 election cycle in the US. The corporate right understands this very well, and they have invested mass sums from their war chest to send in legions of mindless astroturfers to try to control content aggregation and spin. It is essential for genuine grassroots supporters of real change and reform to take an active role on this front to fight back. If you believe that all men and women are created equal, that every person deserves to start out on a level playing field in life to succeed or fail on their own merits, if you believe that science, reason, education, and truth are valuable in this world, and that freedom requires ordinary people to stand up and fight, then these guides are for you.

It is more important than ever for progressives to take an active role across the social media spectrum. The internet in general and all tech-savvy folks are far more likely to tilt left, and that has been used with great success since 2004 to spread center-left issues and debunk right wing lies.

Starting in December 2008, right wing corporate front groups began invading social media en masse.

Their methods have grown more sophisticated since then, like using automated software to handle hundreds of sock puppet accounts. There is a massive amount of astroturfing from the Tea Party, anti-science groups, “patriot” groups, the the military-industrial complex, federal security contractors, and anti-environmental groups.

This is all meant to create the illusion of popular support for theocratic, corporate, or imperial forces that are actually not supported by a majority. Anti-authoritarian progressives like us need to redouble our efforts to counter this manipulation.

The Social Media Solar System

There are generally two tiers of social media: the larger websites with more traffic (Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+) and the smaller, more personal websites (Newsvine, Slashdot, Fark, Chime, MetaFilter, etc.). Within the realm of social media, there are also different types of sites:

Social News
Social Bookmarking
Social Networking
Misc.
Social Blogging

Social news sites like Reddit, Digg, Newsvine, Slashdot, Fark, Chime, and MetaFilter are places to post and discuss the latest headlines. They the primary focal point for activism. Social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Delicious, Diigo, etc. are places where longer news has a role, but longer term topics do better. They are also not very social. Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and Linkedin are the most social but not the best aggregators of good content. Miscellaneous sites like Disqus, YouTube, Quora, etc. combine various aspects in an original way. Social blogging sites like Tumblr, Blogger, Posterous, Care2, the Daily Kos, etc. provide a unique method to add your own input and focus your message.

The chart above reflects the overall user base of the main social media sites discussed in this series. The 2-dimensional values are based on various sources, run through a magic algorithm, adjusted by my whims, and not meant to be taken as literal figures. There is exponential growth in communication technologies in the world, including social media communities. Facebook projects 1 billion users this year (up from 6 million in 2006) and other sites are rapidly expanding as well. This means social media will play an increasing role in activism for the foreseeable future, and is an essential vehicle to get onboard.

The key to any social media activist is to invest a large amount of time initially to build a strong, loyal network on the big sites. The larger the following base you have, the greater impact your work will have. Eventually, anything you share will generate hundreds to tens of thousands of page views and hopefully shape and focus the larger debate. Consider everything you have done prior to this moment as prelude. This is your starting point.

Before You Begin

Start by creating a simple but catchy username. While you can certainly use your real name and in fact will get more respect if you do, most activists wish to protect their personal identity. While you may think that using your real birth name is fine since you have nothing to hide, remember that our opponents are not kind, rational, respectful people. They thrive on fear, anger, hate, and conflict, and if you are really bold in confronting their disinformation, propaganda, and lies, they will stalk, harass, and even threaten you. That is their nature.

Think of a username that demonstrates your core beliefs with a humorous twist like FreedomDonkey, Johnalicious, SirSpeaksAlot, ScienceMonkey, peacetronaut, etc. Something short, sweet, and easily recognizable. Google search your preferred username first to make sure there is not already someone using it. Avoid underscores and symbols at all costs, although a number that looks like a letter embedded in the text can work (for instance eth3real or 5ecularist). There is nothing more annoying than someone with a confusing username like 111111rogerdg7241, diepalatidescapesinMB, yNgREdIL, or Pl#bius_Harrring_9.

Then chose a visually appealing avatar. Search around a bit for it. It should be something memorable with a strong contrast that looks great when it is tiny, as most Social Media websites only allow for ~150×150 pixel avatars or less (sometimes as small as 20x20px). It should be something that stands out, a uniform expression of your identity that people will be able to recognize the instant they see it. After you sign up for your email address, put your avatar on Gravatar to save time from having to upload it on every site you register for.

To keep your activities more anonymous, you can use a proxy like Hide My *ss one. You can also install TOR (free) or pay a small monthly sum to have a professional service do it. Just be forewarned that this will slow down your activity and some snoopy sites like Facebook may force you to log back in and sometimes verify your identity by various means if they see different IP addresses being used.

It should be noted at this point that if you would like separate your activism from your personal accounts, rather than constantly logging out and back in, just use a different browser. You can set up all of your activist accounts on Firefox, then use Chrome for everything personal or vice versa (Safari, IE, and other browsers can also be used, but are more cumbersome). Some social sites strictly prohibit multiple accounts however (Digg, SU, FB, and G+) while others do not (Reddit and Twitter), so check with each site first so you do not violate any rules.

Next you should set up your primary activism email account through any free email service on the internet. Gmail is preferable for compatibility. Also consider opening identical email addresses at Yahoo! and other free email hosts.

Then go sign up at Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, using the exact same username and avatar.

Fill in some personal details on your profile page. Link and list all of your accounts to each other so folks can know where you are active and can follow you everywhere.

The final thing to do before you get started is download and install the Shareaholic add-on/extension for your browser. This gives you a button in your url bar that makes it easy to share content on Reddit, Digg, SU, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and many more social media sites. Also essential is the SU toolbar or add-on which takes up a bit more real-estate on your browser, but will ultimately be well worth it.

General Strategies

Phase I. The initial strategy at this point is to invest a lot of time into building up your profile on every network. Don’t submit much, but generally try to vote up at least 100 articles per day on social news/bookmarking sites like Digg and SU. Share 5-10 links per day on social networking sites like Twitter , Facebook, and G+. Don’t worry about following/followers or generating traction at this stage, you need to spend at least a month just clicking buttons on stories you like to build up your profile before there is potential to link up with other progressively oriented activists. Explore and become familiar with all of the functionality on every social media website you use.

Phase II. While future articles will describe how to proceed on each specific social media website in detail, in general after about a month, you can start to focus on making connections. At this point you should have noticed other like-minded individuals on each site. Begin to send a few friend requests with a personal message (if that option is available). For the next month or so while in Phase II, you don’t need to read/vote on as many articles across the social media spectrum as you did on Phase I, but still engage in this process. Stay active.

To help yourself get noticed, craft a good brief comment that you can copy and paste on every social media site for a particular article. For instance, you’ve found a good story on corporate tax dodgers on Think Progress. Write a reply on TP (most sites use Disqus, so link that to your Twitter and/or Facebook account), then you can copy/paste that same reply to Reddit, Digg, Facebook, G+, etc. Comments get you noticed, but don’t get lured into long debates yet. That is the biggest time suck on social media, and you still have work to do.

Phase III. While keeping your activism diversified across a wide range of social media sites is extremely important both for message impact and to hedge your bets, this is the stage where you should pick one or two sites to focus on more heavily. Rather than being a mid-level user across the board, be a rockstar on one or two social media sites and a mid-level user everywhere else. You can now start to engage in longer discussions on the comment streams, both to get a deeper understanding of various issues and to hone your messaging skills. Also bookmark important citations for future discussions. All of the hard work you put in during the first two phases should now start to pay off, but be mindful that this is a long path towards the horizon. There are no shortcuts to being a genuinely organic grassroots activist.

Avoid Pitfalls

There are different strategies to social media activism, but the methods outlined in these manuals are the quickest paths to become an influencer who can have a strong impact. This requires having a presence on multiple sites, connecting with a large network of friends who actually listen, broadcasting a clear message on a diverse set of issues, and building up a respected reputation.

Many progressive social media activists fall into a few common traps that prohibit them from becoming more influential. For instance the numerous content sharers that submit everything they find to every social media site. While aggregation is essential to retaining a responsive network, if you share everything under the sun, it drowns out the key messages and people will stop paying attention. Worse still, important news stories and analysis articles shared this way will usually get absolutely no traction what so ever. This is usually wasted effort, and in the case of Digg can actually be counter-productive as it prevents those who can actually get traction from doing so on that article.

Another trap is to get sucked too deep into debates. Understand that about 20% of the population does nothing other than spew talking points from the corporate right. They will deliberately waste your time, try to bait you into saying something foolish to try to get you banned, and never be convinced of anything reasonable or factually based no matter how clearly you explain things and how good your citations are. For all intents and purposes you can just block/ban these trolls and save your time, or just severely limit the amount of time you spend.

A third trap is to focus on only one social media site. While we all have time constraints, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Sites wax and wane, and you might find that the site where you have devoted all of your time and energy suddenly suddenly declines, goes bankrupt, or disappears (e.g. MySpace, Propeller, Orkut, Mixx). Work on a variety of sites and be adaptable.

Conclusion

This series of guides will not spell out the basic functionality of each social media site. There are plenty of instructions either on the website itself or on previously written tech articles to learn the basic steps. This series is intended to be used by progressive activists who seek the most effectiveness for the least amount of required effort.

It should be noted that internet activism is important, but it also cannot replace real-world activism. In order to have an impact on your community, state, and nation, you need to make connections in real life, go to meetings, support reform minded candidates, and participate outside your castle. That being said, for progressive Americans and liberal people around the world who wish to fight for expanded freedom, human rights, equal rights for women, LGBT folks, and people of every color and creed, campaign finance reform, science, a separation of church and state, education, worker’s rights, unions, peace, economic freedom, legalization, medical marijuana, health, social justice, justice, and real reforms for humanity, these guides should help you immensely.

There are some things in this world that are worth fighting for, and the internet is an important battleground. The Progressives Guide to Social Media series will give you the tools to get started.

Progressive Guides to Social Media articles:

1. Intro
2. Reddit
3. Digg
4. StumbleUpon
5. Twitter
6. Facebook
7. Google+
8. Other sites
9. Advanced Strategies
Be Sociable, Share!

Twitter has rapidly become the leading way to exchange short messages online. Within the 140 character limit, people socialize, network and talk about anything they want.

Twitter has a very simple interface, but at the same time it can be effectively used for many different purposes.

That’s why it can be the perfect place to promote any kind of online business. Twitter is used by many online marketers to increase website traffic and sell products. Twitter can be very profitable, but you should stick to certain guidelines if you want to succeed.

We will now discuss a few helpful strategies so that you can get the most from your Twitter marketing efforts.

Being helpful on Twitter will take you a long way.

Focus on effective communication and giving before you take. Twitter is a social network, and that means that people have come there to connect. Focus on communication and your followers will stay with you for the long haul. If your style is hard selling, then you need to learn to tune it down before you begin your Twitter marketing. If you make recommendations it better be something good. Again, the hard sell does not work on Twitter. Twitter has been bombarded by spammers so the followers really crack down on them. If you haven’t built a basic relationship with the people you are tweeting then don’t waste their time. The simple solution to this is to create a relationship by helping people out.

The cool thing about helping people is that you can point them in the direction of one of the products you promote that best solves their problem. This will give you a fair advantage over your competition who is trying out direct marketing.

Don’t go into Twitter spamming, instead, look at it as a place where you can build an ongoing relationship with thousands of prospective customers. Marketing on Twitter doesn’t have to be difficult, unless you decide to focus on scammy methods that don’t work. There are lots of different means by which Twitter can become part of your business. One of the best ways to leverage Twitter for enhancing your business and marketing with it is to use it for customer service. You can help customers with their needs and even answer questions all without picking up the phone. This is due to the fact that most problems are miniscule and don’t require that much attention so Twitter can be used to alleviate those problems so that the customer is satisfied. That way, if the customer needs further assistance, you can always pick up the telephone. At first, however, using Twitter will save time and you’ll usually be able to work the problem out. Besides that, this will give you a unique opportunity to build a relationship with your customers and create a better bond with them. Your customers are valuable and by using Twitter you can make them feel special by rapidly responding back to their queries.

Your follower ratio is something else you’ll want to be careful about.

You will always want to stock up on great followers rather than focusing on getting as many followers as you can. It’s great to have as many followers as possible, but if those followers don’t even use their accounts they’re not much good, are they? So it’s really important that you give utmost attention to not only your followers but also who you are following. Your main aim when using Twitter for marketing is to grow your business by creating relationships. The stronger these relationships are, the better you will fair into making Twitter useful for your business. You will see that it’s not too hard to have the proper people follow you and to follow the proper people. It only takes interacting with people and being hip to what’s current. Being aware is necessary here.

With Twitter, you can build a brand, customer loyalty, and get lots of free visitors, what else could you ask for?

Source: Google Webmaster Help

Q:
I use the Google Toolbar to monitor PageRank. I read on the Internet that it gives old and quite unreliable data. Can I have reliable realtime PageRank information about the sites I administer? And how can I identify causes of a PageRank drop? silviot, Torino, Italy

Have a question? Ask it in the Google Webmaster Help Forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters?hl=en

Source: Helium.com
by: Natalia Jones

It is not enough to create a profile on each of the popular social media networks. To truly leverage the great marketing potential of taking your company to sites like Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn you need to have a comprehensive strategy for your content and also for how you will interact with the people your profile attracts. Take a look at the following tips for some insight into how to make the most of social media marketing.

Integrate Social Media into Your Overall Marketing Plan

Social media cannot be used in isolation; it must become a seamless part of your company’s overall marketing strategy if it is to be successful. This means not only ensuring that your logo, company colors and even the style of writing relates to your offline marketing campaign, but also ensuring that those who represent the company on the social networks do so in a manner that can be held up to the company standard for customer service. Some companies choose to hire brand champions who are trained to use social media platforms to further the company image. There is a tendency to approach communicating over social network sites in too much of a relaxed manner. Responses can be more informal, but they should never be delayed or insolent, which is why delegating your social media campaign to a specific person is a good idea.

Understand Your Target Audience

It is important to understand your target audience if you are going to make your social media profile shine. People who use social network sites may not be your “normal” type customer and on the other hand they might be long time supporters of your brand. Be sure you can speak to both types of user and make each feel welcome and accepted.

Work Hard at Engaging the Audience

Engagement is one of the huge advantages of using the social networks. Users can “Like” pages, they can comment on pictures, statuses or even air their views openly on your forum. This makes your social network profile a very dynamic place, so you must work towards keeping the dynamism alive. There is nothing more disappointing than a profile that does not reach out to those who take the time to visit it.

Be Patient

Lastly, achieving results from social media marketing takes time and a lot of hard work, so don’t be discouraged if you only manage to attract a few followers or fans in the early stages. The important thing is to keep at it and continue to strive for a profile that properly reflects your company products, services and values.

1. An Introduction to the WordPress Dashboard

The WordPress Dashboard is often the first thing you see after successfully logging in to your Admin account. It contains useful information about WordPress and your site, a “quick-post” form, and is quite customizable.

2. How to rearrange the post editor

There may be areas of the post editor that you always use, and some that you never use. You can drag and drop sections of the post editor into different positions, and also turn sections on and off.

3. How to use quick edit and bulk edit features to manage your posts in half the time

While on the “Edit Posts” page, it’s possible to change categories, tags, titles, publish dates, and other details about each post listed on the page without having to leave the page. It’s also possible to select multiple posts, and edit many of these details for several posts at once.

4. How to manage recent comments on your site from your dashboard

As comments come in to your site, you often will need to approve or moderate them. You can do much of this right from your dashboard.

1. How to add new categories or edit/delete existing ones

As your site grows, you may find you need more categories to organize your content and make sure important posts remain accessible for longer. You can also go back and edit existing categories, though you might want to avoid changing the “slug” on any older categories to ensure that your URLs don’t get altered.

2. How to add a widget to your sidebar or elsewhere

If your theme is widget-enabled, you can add and remove widgets from each area of your site that has been “widgetized”. Most themes allow widgets to be added to the sidebar. Some widgets require configuration. For example, any widget displaying your Twitter feed will require you to enter your Twitter account information.

3. How to add new links to your “Blogroll”

Many themes display a links list or “Blogroll” in the sidebar. You might also have a page devoted to links if you want to present a large number of links as a resource.

4. How to change your discussion and moderation settings

If your site starts to take off, and you are getting lots of comments, you may need to change how your site manages discussions. WordPress offers a range of possibilities for discussions, from allowing anyone to comment, to requiring registration on the site to be able to comment. With plugins, you can even offer logging in via Facebook, Twitter, etc. to comment.

5. How to add new users or authors to your WordPress site

If you want to grant access to your WordPress site to someone else, you can create a user account for them. Then they can add their own posts with their username attached to them.

6. How to make a post “private” – adding a password to it

You can password protect individual posts on your site or even password protect the entire site.

7. An Introduction to Custom Fields

In more advanced themes with a lot of customizable parts, a common way to provide more options in a post is to use custom fields. You might want to provide a custom field for the URL to a video file, if for example you wanted more control within your theme over how a video is displayed on the site.

This is a great breakdown of the various considerations in building up SEO for a fledgeling website. The video divides your tasks into the following categories:

• Accessibility
• Keyword Targeting
• Content Quality and Value
• Design Quality and Usability
• Social Accounts Setup
• Link Building

Most WordPress content is in the form of posts which are presented chronologically by default, and can be further organized into categories. A WordPress site can also have static pages which are like posts, but are not part of the timeline of posts.

Content management in WordPress consists mainly of adding and editing posts or pages. We’ve selected an introductory set of videos from WordPress.tv to get you through most of the essential aspects of posting content on your WordPress site.

1. How to create and publish a blog post

This is an overview of the process of adding a new post. To edit an existing post, you can click on “All Posts” under “Posts” in the WP-Admin sidebar, and the click on the title of the post you want to edit. The interface is the same as when you add a post.

2. How to add photos, audio and videos to your posts

They say a picture is worth a thousand words – and on the web perhaps more. It’s often important to include photos, and sometimes audio or videos in your posts.

3. How to add categories and tags to your posts

Categories and tags allow you to organize your posts in meaningful ways. For example, you can use categories in your main navigation to make your content more accessible. Tags are like keywords that further describe your article content.

4. How to create an excerpt and how to use the “more” tag

Many themes will use thumbnails and post excerpts with links to the complete posts, in order to display many posts on one page. Some themes will display posts up until the “more” tag on pages with multiple posts. The post excerpt may also be used in your RSS feed.

5. How to change the author of a post

If your WordPress site has more than one author, you will need to be able to select the correct author for each post.

6. How to schedule a post to be published at a later date

You can publish your post when you’re done editing it, or you can opt to have it published later. By setting a publish date in the future, you can schedule your posts in advance.

7. How to add a static page, like an “About us” page

Most sites have at least a few static pages – pages where the content doesn’t usually change or that aren’t really articles. Some common examples include an “about us” page, a “contact” page, a privacy policy, etc.

Diaspora is an open source and distributed social network. This means that user generated content doesn’t reside on central servers owned by a company, and thus users retain full ownership of and control over all their content. It’s described as a privacy-aware, personally controlled social network.

One of the main purposes of Diaspora is to provide an alternative to Facebook and Twitter that is completely transparent in its handling of user’s information and where privacy is taken seriously.

Here is a 3 part video tutorial to help you get started with Diaspora.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3