Sharing the links for the day:
Browsing Tag
Google
So I started my little tool initiative last week with a little help from Kevin Shea of Twing. This post’s tool is Sphinn, I was reminded of it because of a Twitter post which lead me to Social Media Mom. As an aside, Twitter does in fact make blogging just a little more fun and generally improves the conversation.
Social Media Mom (SMM) is a fun little blog, which taunted me to Sphinn for several articles I read, but not being a user I didn’t. SSM’s header is peppered with tools including Mixx link and Propeller, so I now have 3 posts because of 1 tweet. Mixx and Propeller are in currently in progress – a little more complex and extended content. Sphinn’s content is a considerable more narrow – focused on the SEO and SEM segment, with a dash of social media and news. Sorta news, kinda like Reno is sorta like Vegas – both have gambling. Yup – Sphinn is the Reno of social news, it has voting just like Digg. That’s my metaphor and I’m sticking to it! Sphinn has ads too, just like any good SEO oriented site, one of the better ones was a Ninja ad.
Yes – a SEO Ninja! That IS a lofty goal. Question: Just how much content do you have to consume to become a ninja? I clearly would like to be all stealthly and DEADLY while killing it with ad based revenue. I spent the better part of the week experiencing social media through the Sphinn lens, mainly because of that ad. Phinn is essentially what you would think from a content perpective being kin folk of Search Engine Land and all. This is essentially where social media tweekers hang to get thier next fix of tips, tricks and search algorithm updates. There is one BIG twist – a fully engaged conversational community.
Despite the extremely limiting taxonomy, the community is an engaged and passionate group of folks. Quality of the content is managed by an actively engaged community, example conversational comments below from a single post around fake articles:
What’s more annoying? A story is submitted to Sphinn and the story may not be true? Or readers assume that the person who submitted the story is the one who created the untruth? Don’t shoot the messenger….
or
So its ok for people to submit a bunch of junk on Sphinn and waste my time by lowering the signal to noise ratio? Submitters’ reputation on Sphinn depends in part on a submitter pushing quality content.…
It is this very core community value which essentially provides all the relevant headline content for SEO in an easy to reference list of top Sphunned articles. The popular Sphinns for a segment are more or less quintessential nuggets by category. There is one interesting thing about the “optics” of the community’s content; there seems to be a challenge to get to 300 sphinns, two digit rankings are the norm. The highest Phinn, Seattle SEO John Andrews challenges Sphinn to top 300 Sphinns, has not yet reached the elusive 300 since August. I find this a little odd with such a search engine optimized title (place, category, name, keyword and keyword pluralized), but not when content is limited. You can just put your content into the big watercooler bucket.
Net-Net, I have learned a great deal from the community and the content over the last week, but the value just appears to not be sustainable over time for me. Is Sphinn a victim of it’s own specificity? It IS a capable social news platform that is easy to use. I hope Sphinn take the opportunity to leverage a vibrant community to provide more diverse content with extended categories. With extended content it’s possible 300 will no longer be a relevant number.
So with all the buzz around Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans, the holy grail of social media artist, I was thinking how do you know if you’re a true fan, so I got a little introspective and did a little browsing of my network to TRY and identify 5 attributes/activities/attitudes of a true fan of social media:
1. YOU realized Facebook is not just a way to stay in touch, but a way to for YOU to understand: With the myriad of applications available, there are a lot of things you can do on Facebook, but do you use the network to better know people, what they do and WHO they are and WHY?
2. YOU use tags as your main browsing/search option: You prefer to browse by bookmarks rather than traditional search on google. Has folksonomy become your taxonomy?
3. YOU appreciate contribution/sharing as much as consuming: Community is about engaging and sharing and as much as any other noun, social media is about community and the conversations which emerge. This item also means you want your favorite sites to be up, rather than down, (think twitter) and you understand it’s the value of your network, not the size.
4. YOU are constantly on the lookout for the next killer widget: When new platforms emerge, new widgets show up on someone’s blog or you get an invite to participate in a beta -you do it because you want to see if it can improve your life and your relationships.
5. YOU vote with your spend/click for your key influencers: This is the final stop in social media fan-dom, you appreciate the folks who influence your social media experience and click on ads which are of low interest, buy their book or hire them for a speaking or consulting engagement. (That being said – I don’t like keyword ads.)
So I continue to monitor my Google alerts around Top 5, I tracked top 12 (no traffic) and I tracked Top 7 as well – 1 hit in months. Readers are some of the most insightful folks and other writers do love their Top 5 list and more like to refer to other peoples Top 5 lists – creativity is alive and well! What qualifies as a reasonable list? Wit? Detail? A cool Title?
The most reasonable list according to many authors who linked to it, is the Top 5 SEO and Link Building Challenges for 2008 which have cluttered my inbox. (Uh oh – I have possibly broken the linking rules for good [tag]SEO[/tag]!) I’m so appreciative for the ideas of others, but I am continuously curious about what is of interest and what is not for readers, because while I appreciate that a good deal of words were written – I don’t know why so many people linked back.
The other list of multiple linking was the Top 5 Tips on Making Machinima, apparently a type of gamer movie thing. The most useful list I found was the Top 5 greasemonkey scripts to pimp my new GMail, but I don’t have any idea what to do with it. Wish I did as that FB GMail scripts, looks like a cool thing – maybe. Have you installed GMail scripts? Anywho, back to what you want to read or not, my random retort to a very challenging Canadian – Paul.
At Paulitics a very interesting Top5 List – Top 5 Things I saw in America which, as a Canadian, freaked me right out! First I say only 5? Then, I read them and I thought – really those 5? Fundamentally we have this thing called free speech in the US, it is some inalienable right thing, which was further outlined in a thing called the Bill of Rights and it appears 4 of your complaints are around that, which are fairly important things to American folk.
(tongue firmly planted in cheek for the majority of the rest of the post)
While I think your blog’s name is clever – I think your response is a little too Canadian. A little too “our currency is at parity and we can now buy the goods of the bourgeoisie without doing math” uppity member of the proletariat. A little too “can I get some mayonnaise for my French Fries – no Mayo?!?! How about some vinegar or gravy?” My response is really just in response to item #4, in your inverse ordered list:
A breakfast creation in upstate New York called “Stuffed French Toast”. What does “Stuffed French Toast” entail, you naïve non-American might ask? It’s French Toast (which, keep in mind is cooked in butter) stuffed with bacon, eggs and processed cheese (which they proudly call ‘American processed cheese’, I presume, to distinguish it from real cheese which could, after all, be French and/or offer unAmerican nutritional content). But here’s the kicker: on top of your “Stuffed French Toast” cooked in butter, you will find… a square of butter.
I don’t know what to say, except to create my own retort in the form of a Top 5 list.
Top 5 Reasons Stuffed French Toast Should be Awarded the most American Recipe Ever.
- Everything is better cooked in butter!
- Americans, specifically the xenophobe set, can’t accept anything French without improving upon it and topping with a pat of butter as a is a great start, since cooking with butter is not the same as topping it with butter.
- Processed cheese isn’t just tasty – it is also an optimal cholesterol delivery device which is perfectly square and melts more evenly than real cheddar cheese. Completely american – style over substance.
- Bacon is the meat of champions and pork products are best served wrapped in a bread product.
- Eggbeaters are always a heart smart alternative, if not available, ain’t no never mind since Zocor is just a co-pay away.
But I must say, I did enjoy Paul’s Marx-to-English Dictionary post, so I’ve added you to my reader, mainly so I can reflect on my Workers World days. Thanks for the list Paul and the fun, I’ll keep reading!