23 Mobile Things - Thing 8 - Social Media Management Tools

As you can see, I am social media connected!  Going in to Thing 8, I am intrigued by the possibility of using one app to compile all of my social media conversations.  Sort of like the one ring to rule them all in the Lord of the Rings!  Let's see how this goes.

Cloze

The hardest part of setting up my Cloze account was to remember all of my user names and passwords for my social media accounts.  After much time and brain strain, success!  After playing around with my Cloze settings, I now get an email with current updates to my social media accounts.

As a newbie Clozer, my first observations are:

1. Cloze has a bonus over Hootsuite in that you can add your email accounts to your Cloze stream.
2. How does Cloze decide who I am losing touch with?  I am sure it is some sort of algorithm, similar to what Facebook uses to populate your Newsfeed with the posts they think are most important to you, how almost every site on the internet brings specifically selected advertisements directly to your screen, and how Amazon recommends products they think you cannot live without based on your past searches.  I understand the reasons companies do this, but who is important to me cannot be determined by an algorithm.  Just sayin' Sorry, I digressed.

Hootsuite

First of all, Hootsuite wins in the name/logo category.  I love the owl.  I know, this is not a very sensible way to evaluate an app, but I'm just being honest here. My favor toward owls is due to recent snowy owl sightings.  They are totally awesome birds!

Photo Credit: Zoma Olson (me)

Now, on to the actual app.  Downloading Hootsuite and setting it up was much easier than Cloze because my user names and passwords for the various social media accoutns were fresh in my brain from siging up for a Cloze account.  I did encounter trouble setting up my new Hootsuite account.  After trying several tweaks to my wi-fi setting, I ended up turning off my iPhone's wi-fi and using my service provider's data.  This allowed me to connect my various social media accounts to Hootsuite.  It turns out that Hootsuite is blocked at our school.

My newbie observations for Hootsuite are:

1. I wish Hootsuite supported Blogger and Instagram.  This is a wish for Cloze, too.
2. The ability to schedule tweets and posts is neat.  I'm not sure why I would use this feature, but it's nice to know it is available.
3. Being able to Bump to connect with people is just plain awesome.  Bumping is fun!

To be honest, I am not sure if I will continue to use either Cloze or Hootsuite.  Although it is nice to have all of my social media feeds in one location, I don't really have a problem checking each one individually.

Back when I was participating in 23 Things on a Stick, our school's filtering software was an irritant.  I am sure the school district has to err on the side of caution, but it continues to hamper my 23 Mobile Things learning experience.  As mentioned above, Hootsuite was blocked, but Cloze was not.  The Minnesota Multitypes are using a Tumblr blog to share participant posts and answer questions for 23 Mobile Things.  My boss is using Tumblr, Scott's 23 Things, to track his 23 Mobile Things progress.

As you can see, I will not be trying to override the Tumblr block at work/school.  It is categorized as "porn" by our district's filtering system!  Yikes!

23 Mobile Things - Thing 1 - Blush!

What a nice Twitter surprise today!

We're excited to see 23 Things on a Stick all stars back for more in 23 Mobile Things, like @SZSRocks: http://t.co/OQM8oIDfON #23ThingsMN
— Minnesota Multitypes (@mnmultitypes) January 17, 2014

I'm blushing! Thanks for the nice shout out, but the real stars are the Minnesota Multitypes!

Geo-Coder

I discovered Tiny Geocoder today. This site allows you to type in an address and it instantly converts the address to the exact latitude and longitude coordinates. This site is free and does not require you to register (no login/password to remember). A map is included in the results. It also gives you a tiny url so you can Twitter your results.

I think this site will be useful for traveling. Later this month, I will be joining some friends at 318 Cafe in Excelsior, Minnesota. I typed in the address for this cafe and got the GPS coordinates. Now I can simply enter them into my GPS and be guided right to the restaurant. Cool!

Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN on Twitter

Twitter has now become a competition. Ashton Kutcher has challenged CNN in a race to see who can get to 1 million followers first. Ashton's Twitter name is aplusk, CNN's is cnnbrk, if you want to follow either one. I follow both, so I guess my "follows" are a moot point!



P.S. According to Wikipedia, Ding-Dong Ditch involves knocking on the front door (or ringing the doorbell) of a victim, then running away before the door can be answered. The game has been played since the 19th century.

More Twitter - Thing 31

I had fun playing around with the tasks in this Thing. This image is from the Twitter and Facebook status generator.

I have customized my Twitter page with one of my Flickr photos, listed my blog's url, added a profile picture and written an "about me" blurb in less than 160 characters. Hopefully, this gives people a little sense of who I am.

I basically use Twitter to follow people who tweet about things that interest me. I find out about new web-sites, geocaching hints, shopping deals and much more. I don't do alot of tweeting myself, but will do an @reply, if I have anything of value to share. In doing this "thing," I added my name to the Tweeter Directory. I follow my Twitter "friends" via the BeTwittered gadget on my iGoogle homepage.

I would say that I am a beginner Twitterer and I'm not sure if I will ever use Twitter enough to get more active. Time will tell. I do like the information that I have received by using Twitter. I use search.twitter.com to find people to follow and also the #tag for specific topic tags.

My family and friends ask me what Twitter is, whenever the subject comes up. Twitter is a little hard to define. I enjoyed the list of how others define Twitter. If I had to choose, I would describe Twitter as a community, resource, library and coffee shop.

Twitter - Thing 27

1. Blog about the experience and be sure to post your Twitter username there so others can see it and follow you.
I have been using Twitter for a couple of months. I basically use it like an RSS feed of my favorite bloggers. I follow people who "tweet" about things that interest me, i.e: Web 2.0, books, geocaching, shopping, etc. I did learn how to post tweets from my cell phone and the use of the # mark to follow topics. It was also fun to get notification that the President and First Lady are now following me on Twitter! My Twitter name is: SZSRocks.

2. Did you like micro-blogging? Do you love it, hate it or are you ambivalent? Explain.
I guess I am somewhat ambivalent about micro-blogging. I have received good information from Twitter, but I don't think I will ever be a power-Twitterer. If more of my friends/family used Twitter, I might use it more.

3. How else could libraries use Twitter? How could you use Twitter?
As for our Media Center using Twitter, it might be useful to do quick announcements of book recommendations with a link to that item in our library catalog. Also, it could be a useful tool for communication between staff and students.

There was a plethora of information in this Thing! It took quite awhile to go through. I'm not sure if this quick post does it justice, but I must move on!

Barak Obama and Twitter

"Change we can believe in" - Barak Obama
Originally uploaded by Mikie Bones

I have finally figured out a use for Twitter. I think I "get it" now!

At the TIES 2008 conference, I attended a class on using Twitter in the classroom. Through that class, I learned how to search for people with similar interests. After signing up for a Twitter account, you can go to http://search.twitter.com and type in something that you are interested in, i.e.: Web 2.0, quilting, goecaching, etc. A list of people who Twitter about that subject will come up. You can then click on their picture, look at their "tweets" and if you are interested in what they have to say, you click on the "Follow" button below their profile picture. I added the Twitter gadget to my iGoogle homepage so that I can have easy access to the "tweets" of the people I'm following.

I was pleasantly surprised when I checked my e-mail yesterday to discover that Barak Obama has chosen to follow me on Twitter! I forwarded the e-mail to impress my friends and family!