New Social Media Tool Lets Your Voice Be Heard
Category: Michele Paige, Social Media

Social media is all about the two-way conversations. Most of us use these tools everyday to share our thoughts and information to those who have joined our circle. It’s fun to connect with old friends but how can social media make a difference?   I can’t think of a better use of social media than to be heard by those individuals who represent me – my city, state and federal representatives. Well, guess what? Microsoft has made the ability to connect with these leaders even easier.

Are You Resistant to Change?
Category: Kim Manley, Ektron, Trends

Change isn’t easy for most of us. Whether we’re set in our ways or just too busy to stop and think about a new approach, a lot of us are getting by just doing the same ol’ thing.

Take Web browsers for example. Do you know what version of your favorite browser you’re using? Probably not, but you may want to check it out because, in the case of upgraded browsers, change is good.

Want to be like Google?
Category: Stacy Benefield, Ektron

Google is now offering a type of related search results it's calling "Something different." The feature allows you to explore other items that fall into the same category as your original search term. Suppose you search for "zebra." The Something different section suggests additional search terms like "giraffe," "hippo" and "elephant."

If you offer a site wide search on your own Web site, you could include features similar to some of the features offered by Google.

How Charter Uses Social Media to Enhance Customer Relations
Category: Susan Cline, Social Media

If you attended or watched our webinar, “Social Media Survival Guide,” you may recall me highlighting Charter Communciations’s use of social media for better customer relations. I singled out the communications company to demonstrate how a corporation can harness the power of social media for good. Charter is a great example because they get it. I should know. I experienced it firsthand. Read this post to learn how Charter is using social media communities to enhance its customer releations. 

Twitter Lets You Bake Your Tweets
Category: Patricia Snodgrass, Social Media, Trends

Twitter has released a new feature that allows for you to "bake" a Twitter status (in other words, embed) into any page, blog post, etc. as you would a video clip via YouTube. Why is this significant? Is it really significant at all?

If anything, it's a shortcut from how users had been displaying single tweets via screenshots or copied and pasted quotes. Also, embedded tweets will look consistent across the board and will be instantly recognized as coming from Twitter. Finally, embedded tweets will be fully linkable, including hashtags, usernames, URLs, and most importantly, the original author. Hopefully, these tweets will lead to more followers for the author as well as more viewership on Twitter.