The Blog Depot

2009-08-11T15:54:00.001-04:00

New Place To View This Blog

2009-06-13T12:03:00.002-04:00

I have decided to export this blog and two others to one WordPress blog. I'll keep this blog on Blogger and feed it into WordPress for the next month and then remove it from Blogger so please start to make this transition as soon as you feel ready.

Thanks so much for your interest and your continued support.

The new site: http://hayencompany.wordpress.com

My Company Web site is: http://www.hayencompany.com

My Company Blog is: http://hayencompany.blogspot.com

The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas

2009-06-06T06:51:00.000-04:00

The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas

"Tweet" Button

2009-05-08T03:02:00.003-04:00

If you're wondering about that little icon/button that reads "Tweet" above every post on my blog, visit http://tweetmeme.com and you'll learn more about it. This is one nifty tool I'm thrilled is available for FREE. Has been a much needed item on my list for sure. Enjoy, tweeps!

12seonds.tv - My Web Tips

2009-04-29T00:55:00.000-04:00

hayencompany on 12seconds.tv Cmon'!!! Why must I look like that. Arg. Oh Well! Enjoy the Daily Tips. Some might be offered more frequently. Daily Tip #1 came as a followup bump from Wesley Donehue's tip for Mint.com. If you don't know Wesley Donehue or his wife, Elizabeth Donehue, then you're missing out. These two are what I consider the powerhouse couple. Each has their own company(s) (Wesley - Under The Power Lines and Elizabeth - Donehue Agency) and both are active in the community and in matters of faith. Get to know them a little better by clicking on the links I've attached to their names. Hope this post doesn't turn the Donehue's red :) Just giving thumbs up to some great people in South Carolina.

Don't Be A Twit..

2009-04-22T05:45:00.005-04:00

H OW TO: Retweet on

Twitter

April 16th, 2009 | by Ben Parr

MASHABLE

Retweeting is an integral part of the Twitter experience. The retweet (or “RT”) allows Twitter users to share the best links, tweets, and gems they find from others using the service. But for beginners, it’s not immediately obvious what retweets are, or what tools to use to make retweeting easier. Read on...

Defeat Your Twitter Archenemy on Tweefight

April 15th, 2009 | by Stan Schroeder

MASHABLE

Another day, another Twitter-based time waster. Luca Filigheddu, the author of Twitter search engine Tweefind, has a new application out: Tweefight. Read on...

Do We Really Need Twitter Search Alternatives?

April 13th, 2009 | by Adam Ostrow

MASHABLE

Competition is good. And generally speaking, it drives innovation – just look at the innovate and imitate process we’ve seen unfold at Facebook, Twitter, and FriendFeed over the past few months as the social sites duplicate each other’s popular features.

One area where we’re currently seeing a ton of competition is in Twitter search. Just in the past few weeks, we’ve seen the launch of Tweefind and OneRiot, not to mention other existing tools likeSocialMention that incorporate Twitter search as part of broader social media monitoring.

Today, yet another tool launched – Twazzup – that adds a slightly new twist on Twitter search, most notably real-time analysis (similar to the new FriendFeed) and a beautiful interface. However, the big challenge facing all of these products is that Twitter already offers an excellent search product. So why bother? Read what Adam has to say and more.....

Why Brands ABSOLUTELY DO Belong on Twitter

December 14th, 2008 | by Lon S. Cohen

MASHABLE

Lon S. Cohen is a writer and social media strategist. He is @obilon on Twitter.

A Mashable article by Dr. Mark Drapeau was passed around on Twitter this Friday, calling for a ban on brands on Twitter. Cohen respectfully disagrees. Read more from Lon here...

HOW TO: Create Groups for Twitter

February 15th, 2009 | by Doriano "Paisano" Carta

MASHABLE

One of the most demanded features for Twitter has been the ability to create groups, allowing members to focus on different sets of people they’re following. For example, you could create groups for all of your fantasy league friends, colleagues at work, friends in real life, family members, and so on.

Because Twitter still does not provide any group feature, it has opened the floodgates for countless third party solutions. There are many different ways Twitter members can create virtual groups. Here is a roundup of some of the most popular methods employed today. Read more here....

Find ‘Em On Twitter: 15 Twitter Directories Compared

January 30th, 2009 | by Jennifer Van Grove

MASHABLE

Searching for people or applications on Twitter? Good luck with that. Since Twitter offers little in the way of people search features (though they now have a suggestion tool), your search for interesting and dynamic people to follow and applications to use could be a giant time suck.

Thankfully there are more than a few third-party resources that you can turn to for finding new people to follow, and new tools to help you do what Twitter won’t let you. We’ll shed a little light on these 15 directories by separating them into four categories: applications, people, politics, and strictly business. Read more...

HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter

March 13th, 2009 | by Sarah Evans

MASHABLE

Sarah Evans is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also authors a PR and social media blog and is the founder of #journchat.

Tough economic times call for innovative approaches. An estimated 51 million people internationally are expected to lose their jobs in 2009, and with the unemployment rate on the rise, how does one find career opportunities fast? One great option is Twitter.

Twitter is evolving as another resource, in addition to traditional methods, for both job searching and recruiting. Read more here..

A Big List of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff - ReadWriteWeb

2009-03-13T01:54:00.001-04:00

With all due respect to Kevin Smith, the web is no longer only for complaining about movies. In fact, there are a large number of very helpful sites that teach you how to do things. These are do-it-yourself sites, but we're not talking about building a deck or baking a cake -- the web is full of more general interest sites that give quality instruction on all sorts of fun and useful projects. Including, sometimes, how to build a deck or bake a cake.

Read more

WhosTalkin.com

2009-03-06T03:49:00.002-05:00

WhosTalkin.com is a social media search tool that allows users to search for conversations surrounding the topics that they care about most.

Yoono Community

2009-02-19T04:33:00.001-05:00

Yoono Community

Posted using ShareThis

Grade Your Website

2009-02-18T04:45:00.002-05:00

Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

10 Things All Businesses Should Do to Market More Effectively on Facebook

2009-02-09T07:48:00.004-05:00

January 27, 2009

Now that there are over 150 million active users on Facebook, more businesses large and small are actively reaching and engaging customers through Facebook and the Facebook Platform.

Global chains all the way down to the local pub are building social marketing strategies that leverage the strengths of Facebook to drive traffic to their pages and feet to their premises.

However, many business owners are daunted by Facebook’s sheer scale, and simply don’t know where to start. Inside Facebook is here to help guide business owners and marketers through that process.

Here are Inside Facebook’s top 10 ways business owners can more effectively leverage Facebook to reach their target audience and drive more business. To dive deeper on the ways you can leverage Facebook for your marketing goals - including each of the tactics listed below - check out the
Facebook Marketing Bible: The Guide to Marketing Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook.

Check out The Facebook Marketing Bible: 40+ Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook

Article from: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/01/27/10-things-all-businesses-should-do-to-market-more-effectively-on-facebook/

Social Media Metrics Superlist: Measurement, ROI, & Key Statistics Resources

2009-02-09T07:43:00.001-05:00

Written by Robin Broitman, Principal, Interactive Insights Group, Inc.

Trying to get a handle on how to measure the effectiveness of your social media programs? Boss asking about the ROI of your social media campaigns?

Need key statistics or metrics that will help you make strategic decisions to refine your social media programs?

Not sure what variables to measure to determine the success or your social media? Want to know the best options for monitoring your brand’s reputation online?

My recent post How to Sell Social Media to Cynics, Skeptics and Luddites touched on the topic of metrics, measurement and ROI. Here I’ve pulled together a collection of valuable resources, tools, & advice specifically on the topics of social media measurement, monitoring and ROI. You’ll also find a handful of key social media statistics resources to put in your toolkit.

MyFlashFetish

2009-02-03T12:09:00.004-05:00

Attention All:

I just stumbled upon a great website devoted to providing the public with widgets and other items of interest used to vamp up personal webpages and social profiles.

The website states the following as a bio:

"MyFlashFetish lets you create music or video playlist and cool widgets for your MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Windows Live Spaces, Gaia, blogs, websites & more. Absolutely FREE!"

Have fun!

http://www.myflashfetish.com/index.php

Twits, Do You Have Mr. Tweet?? You Should!

2009-02-03T08:39:00.003-05:00

Mr. Tweet helps you easily build meaningful relationships by looking through your network and tweets. He will regularly:

Suggest good people and followers you are missing out on

Recommend you to enthusiastic users relevant to you

Regularly update useful stats of your Twitter usage

http://blog.mrtweet.net/
http://www.twitteristics.com/

It’s Not All About The Blog

2009-02-02T15:46:00.002-05:00

Danny Brown

Should I have a blog? It’s one of the questions I’m asked most frequently when I sit down with a new client to discuss their online presence. They’ve seen other blogs - personal and professional - and they’re wondering if they should be part of the party. The answer isn’t always what they expect.

Are you ready to blog?

Read more: http://dannybrown.me/2009/01/26/its-not-all-about-the-blog/

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

2009-02-02T14:26:00.004-05:00

Posted by Nick O'Neill on February 2nd, 2009 11:00 AM

Everyday I receive an email from somebody about how their account was hacked, how a friend tagged them in the photo and they want a way to avoid it, as well as a number of other complications related to their privacy on Facebook. Over the weekend one individual contacted me to let me know that he would be removing me as a friend from Facebook because he was “going to make a shift with my Facebook use - going to just mostly family stuff.”

Perhaps he was tired of receiving my status updates or perhaps he didn’t want me to view photos from his personal life. Whatever the reason for ending our Facebook friendship, I figured that many people would benefit from a thorough overview on how to protect your privacy on Facebook. Below is a step by step process for protecting your privacy.

50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level

2009-02-02T13:50:00.005-05:00

www.chrisbrogan.com
September 14, 2008 ·

Blogging is as varied in its applications as using the telephone or taking a picture. The tool doesn’t predict the output. You might be using your blog to post recipes, or to inform the local community about information you find elsewhere on the web. Maybe you’re just trying your hand at writing, and the web is as good a place as any.

If you’re looking to go beyond that, however, you’ll need to take steps to improve your blog from at least five different perspectives. In 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level, I wanted to share my thoughts on how you should consider your goal, your design, your content, how you promote it, and the business aspects of your blog. Please add to these ideas in the comments, and let’s grow the list out.

Link here...

Pyzam - Blogger Templates, etc.

2009-01-31T11:32:00.002-05:00

Try Pyzam for all your website needs. Looking for templates for your blog or MySpace page? Need cool graphics and much more? Try Pyzam! They are sure to please.

TwitterCounter

2009-01-31T11:20:00.008-05:00

Try TwitterCounter to gauge stats on your Twitter account and display it on your blog or other account. It will show you your ranking among other Twitter users and so forth. Check it out and drive a bit of traffic back and forth.

http://twittercounter.com/ehayen

The Unforeseen Consequences of the Social Web

2009-01-30T06:18:00.003-05:00

Written by Lidija Davis / January 25, 2009 6:39 PM

The social Web has given users great power: the ability to create and share content with people around the world - easily and quickly. The problem of course, is that power is often not compatible with effective and clear thinking. The thought that germinated in an instant can be immortalized in perpetuity on the Web.

With the extraordinary growth of the Internet and the interlinking of information that the social Web has brought with it, it's time to examine the footprints we leave on the Web as we move into the future that promises to "throttle the 'wisdom of the crowds' from turning into the 'madness of the mobs,'" as described so eloquently by Jason Calacanis.

Search Engines Are No Longer Enough

With Internet usage growing at a remarkable pace it comes as no surprise that comScore recently rated Google as the most popular Internet property in the world, attracting over 777.9 million visitors as of December 2008. Not surprising either is the growth of social and news sites.

According to Compete some of the top social sites attracted visitors in the millions during

December 2008:
FaceBook: 59 million visitors
MySpace: 59 million visitors
Digg: 33 million visitors
Twitter: 4.4 million visitors

This growth can be contributed in part to the media as they realize the benefits of instant access to an enormous well of information that the Web provides. As media folk are becoming increasingly tech savvy, they're realizing results from search engines are often lacking. In an effort to gain as much insight into specific topics they are now turning to social sites for research.

Read more here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_web_unforeseen_consequences.php

Facebook and CNN: The Power of the Social Web Revealed

2009-01-30T06:11:00.003-05:00

Written by Sarah Perez / January 20, 2009 10:29 AM

Today Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. As several million people attended the inauguration in Washington D.C., Facebook and CNN invited the rest of the world to watch the moment online. Online visitors to CNN.com were able to use its video player to watch the live broadcast coverage of the event. We also saw what has be one of the most brilliant examples of the real-time web in action: next to the video, the Facebook status updates of those watching streamed by in the sidebar.

The integration of the status updates on CNN.com Live was powered by Facebook Connect, Facebook's relatively new platform for porting your online identity anywhere on the web. When a web site uses Facebook Connect, visitors can easily authenticate on that site using their Facebook account information - no need for a separate username and password. Besides simply being convenient, it allows people to log on as their "real" selves, a trend that perhaps speaks to the beginning of the end of online anonymity.

Continue reading by linking to author: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_and_cnn_the_power_of_the_social_web_revealed.php

10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2009

2009-01-30T06:05:00.002-05:00

Written by Ravit Lichtenberg / January 27, 2009 10:00 AM

"Social media" was the term du jour in 2008. Consumers, companies, and marketers were all talking about it. We have social media gurus, social media startups, social media books, and social media firms.

It is now common practice among corporations to hire social media strategists, assign community managers, and launch social media campaigns, all designed to tap into the power of social media.

But social media today is a pure mess: it has become a collection of countless features, tools, and applications fighting for a piece of the pie.

Facebook, a once groundbreaking online community, has become the ant colony of third-party applications. Twitter users now have a dozen or so additional applications they can use to overcome Twitter's ever-present shortcomings. People spread themselves across a number of tools and maintain different networks on each (large portions of which they don't even know), making it nearly impossible to decide what to share and with whom.

Users, marketers, and companies face an incredible amount of noise, too. For every new application that relies on a network, another crops up that helps users manage it. While "eyeballs" used to be the coveted metric, both ad publishers and investors now realize that having smaller well-targeted niches can lead to much better returns than marketing to one large undifferentiated mass of users.

Meaning and connection -- two key anchors of all things social media -- are corroding by the day as people's ability to organize their experiences and find the relevance of their networks declines. Social media, in essence, is bumping up against its own ceiling, no longer able to serve the needs of those living within its walls; and for these reasons, social media as we know it is changing course.

Social Media is Evolving ... continue reading here

IBM Grand Slam Widget

2009-01-29T01:25:00.001-05:00

EtchASketch Widget

2009-01-29T01:15:00.000-05:00

Get this widget!

Fortune Cookie on SpringWidgets

2009-01-29T01:03:00.000-05:00

Get this widget!

Watch Tennis

2009-01-29T00:50:00.002-05:00

Get this widget!

Visit the Widget Gallery

TwitterCounter

2009-01-28T12:30:00.002-05:00

Twitter Grader

2009-01-28T12:28:00.001-05:00

Check out Twitter Grader to get your value

25 Great Blogger Widgets

2009-01-28T12:25:00.002-05:00

January 26, 2009 - 9:22 am PDT - by Sean P. Aune

Many people think that Blogger lacks in all of the extra goodies you can add to other platforms like WordPress, but it simply isn’t true. By using widgets you can customize your blog as much as you like by just adding little snippets of code to the sidebars. Allow users to talk to you via IM, see what your most popular posts are, or even read news from sites such as Mashable. With these 25 widgets, you can create an even more powerful way of communicating with your visitors, just make sure you don’t overload them with too many!

What are some of your favorite widgets for use on Blogger?

8 Unique Reasons People Like Twitter (And Why Microblogging Matters)

2009-01-28T12:17:00.002-05:00

On the surface, capturing what you are doing on daily, hourly or even minutely (double meaning intended) basis seems like a useless activity. Who has the time to send these incessant "tweets" all day long? As it turns out, lots of smart folks with respectable jobs, but that's besides the point. Driven by Mark Simon's dismissal of Twitter and my hectic travel schedule of 5 cities in 5 days last week, I decided to give Twitter a real test run and become an active user of my dormant account I created several months ago but never really used. This post is a compilation of the lessons I learned about Twitter and an inside look at the appeal of microblogging and why smart marketers should pay attention to this trend and some ideas for the possibilities it offers.

FEEDJIT: Local Blogs & Live Stats

2009-01-28T12:11:00.002-05:00

FEEDJIT shows Blog Readers which blogs are popular in any city and provides useful widgets for Bloggers.

For Blog Readers:

FEEDJIT's newest service, the Geoblogosphere, shows you which blogs people in your city are reading today. Your local newspapers get their stories from a handful of sources. We get our stories from hundreds of thousands of blogs. We figure out which blogs you and the people in your city read the most. When a major event or even a small one happens somewhere in the world, you can use the Geoblogosphere to see which blogs are being read by people in that part of the world.

The blogs FEEDJIT shows for your area are blogs written by real people: People sharing their political views and impressions of the latest events, Teenagers blogging about the club scene in their town, Single Mom's blogging about their kids and Chefs sharing their latest recipes.

For Bloggers:

FEEDJIT gives you several useful tools including the Live Traffic Feed widget that allows you to see what is happening on your blog right now. It's a live view of your blog that tells you what city your visitors are in, what sites they came from and what search terms they used to find your blog.

In addition we include your blog in our Geoblogosphere that shows which blogs are popular in any city, state or country. You get the best of both worlds: A useful widget for your blog and we send you a bunch of new visitors who are interested in reading news from your city.
We use FEEDJIT ourselves on our personal blogs and test out new ideas based on how useful we find it as bloggers and blog readers. Many of our really great ideas have come from people like you who use FEEDJIT. So if you have something to say, use our contact form to send us a message. We'd love to hear from you!

Mark & Kerry - The FEEDJIT Founders

Promote Your Blog & Drive Traffic

2009-01-28T12:07:00.002-05:00

Well-planned promotion not only gets you tons of traffic it also improves your search engine rankings. Submit your blog link or your RSS feed to the big list of blog search engines. Participate on forums and comments sections of other blogs. Submit free articles to websites, ping other blogs and websites and write posts for other blogs (I’m contemplating doing this, so let me know if you want me to guest blog for your blog). Take care that you don’t spam. Good promotion has to be legitimate, and you should add value wherever you interact.

BlogPatrol: FREE Blog Counter/Stats

2009-01-28T11:54:00.002-05:00

Who is reading your blog? What is your most popular content? How do visitors find your blog?BlogPatrol is a FREE blog counter service that answers important questions about who is reading your content. The counter portion of the service provides a free blog counter widget on your blog. The site stats portion of the service provides you with free blog stats reports to keep you up-to-date on every aspect of your readership.

Compatibility. BlogPatrol is compatible with blog hosts that allow Javascript code.
Blog Counter Widgets. 18 visible counter and 6 stealth counter widgets to match your blog.
Blog Stats Reports. Our interactive, 3D graphs illustrate your blog stats in real-time.
Visitors. Unique visitors report for current and historical 7 days including daily and hourly visitor tracking, plus daily forecasting based on previous traffic.

Referrers. Top 10 (most visited) and Last 10 (most recent) referrers, including referring URL addresses and corresponding visitor counts.

Keywords. Top 10 (most used) and Last 10 (most recent) keywords used to find your site.

Search Engines. Top 5 Search Engines most commonly used to find your website.

Visitor Countries. Your visitor countries illustrated by interactive pie charts and country flags.

Visitor Technology. Colorful pie charts display the operating systems, web browsers, and screen resolutions in use by your visitors.

Detailed Analysis. Information on your 25 most recent visitors, including date/time, IP, Browser, Operating System, and Screen resolution of visitors.

The Patrol Blog. A companion blog that provides instructions and tips on using BlogPatrol, plus reviews of blogs and developments in the blogosphere.

Tools. Net tools, directories, and blog rankings to help you stay up-to-date about the latest happenings in the blogosphere.

Control Panel. Free hit counter styles, customized timezones, password-protection, multiple IP-address blocking ability, and option to be listed in BlogPatrol's Top Blogs rankings.

Partnerships. We're proud to cross-promote great sites like Izea's

Social Spark and Bloggeries' Forum and Directory to bring you the web's best blogging services.

Cool Sites. Links to BlogPatrol friends such as

Moving Services and Red Audit (IT Security, Surveillance, Hosting and White Hat Hacking).

BlogPatrol also features articles on consumer interests such as Loans, Bad Credit Loans, Debt Relief, Web Hosting, and Norwegian Cruises, which offer added value to their users.