It has been a nice couple of weeks, relatively quiet at work and the long weekends rounded out the year and softened the impact of launching into 2009. I used my days off as an opportunity to relax, spend time with family and friends, and catch up on reading.
My oldest daughter, who turned 16 in December and wasted no time in getting her driver’s permit (I mean literally no time, we went to DMV on her birthday) used her school recess and my availability to get in more than her fair share of driving practice with dad (that is my domain as the wife gets anxious in the car). I looked in the mirror this morning, and it might be my imagination but I think I have a few more gray hairs as a result of this.
I also took a refreshing break from blogging and Twitter. I did do quite a bit of reading about social media however – there is no other way to keep pace (let alone push the envelope) than to stay informed and see what works best.
The following are a few articles I ran across, found helpful, and want to share:
The Online Marketing Blog had a great post on social search tools. Links for the sites referenced provide an excellent addendum to my post on conquering info sprawl.
Mashable had a great article How to 2008: How to Do Almost Anything with Social Media. You can forgive them for overreaching a bit – e.g., it doesn’t tell me how to walk my dog or prepare my taxes with social media, but otherwise is a great collection of “how to” articles.
The compilation led me to a number of gems, e.g. one article outlines a tool called TwitterFriends that analyzes your Twitter social network, provides all kinds of useful metrics, and actually generates a Twitter social graph.
Mine looks anemic (not taking away anything from the few connections I do show). I guess I need to get to work on building my Twitter network.
Another discussed a tool called Twollow (inactive), which automates the process following people who tweet key words that you specify (up to five terms are allowed for free).
