Proof of Concept: Google Docs Mail Merge Form #wordpress #updated
I needed a way to be able to shamelessly plug the posts I recently bundled into the booklet “Write Something“. I want to build a list, and offering something which adds value for the subscriber is a good way to do this. There is a host of good material which you can use to help, so I won’t elaborate on that in this post.
I have a hosted WordPress.cam blog, which means that I can’t run a local script to collect the mail addresses and mail them, so I turned to Google Docs’ Form functionality for the entry form, naturally I give them the option to download the booklet there, and I wanted to send the subscriber a message to thank them. In the Google tutorial: Simple Mail Merge they explain how to do a mail merge using the Script Editor. I wanted to go a little further and have it send a mail with thank you note and a link to each subscriber as soon as they filled in the form.
Dealing with Software Vendor Failure for Vendors #risk
I have a confession, I am a former software vendor, I’ve worked for software vendors as a consultant, and I’ve been guilt of delivering a solution which didn’t work as advertised. This is sadly an all too common occurrence which can be due to many things which I will not be discussing here. Here I will identify some of the common pitfalls that all vendors face, and what can be done to reduce and mitigate the risks these pose.
There are a number of pitfalls that a vendor can fall into when addressing the issue or the customer, Groopman calls[1] these the 3 A’s: Read the rest of this entry »
Kred.ly the new Klout? #influence #authority
Recently there was some discussion on Klout, their influence calculation is unclear. Many people were unhappy with the fact that their Klout Score is a moving target. People who actually use the numbers generated by Klout to find the influencers they want to contact also have the issue that they don’t see what the results are of their contacts.
There are other options like Kred.ly or PeerIndex although they have not yet got the klout of Klout.
Kred.ly is an interesting option as the scoring is extremely transparent, with this transparency the system could be gamed. This would need collusion on quite a large scale.
PeerIndex is less transparent, although it gives more statistics and information on the date it uses to calculate authority and score. Roughly your PeerIndex is an average of your Authority + Activity + Audience. Unlike Kred.ly it doesn’t give numbers on individual social actions, although it does give more direct feedback it can’t be used to directly game the system.
What all of them suffer from is that they see authority stemming from one account, and neglect to see that power users – who use different channels to curate content for different audiences – may have their klout spread thinly over places that aren’t included like multiple Twitter, Google+ or FaceBook pages.
Image source: me
WunderKit, HandPick.me, Google Analytics, Blogging, Social Media Job Trends, TwitSprout and more… #podcast
Last night’s Cinch about:
- HandPick.me
- TwitSprout
- Google Analytics
- Blogging
- WunderKit
- Social Media Job Trends
- and more…
Source: me
Image source: Cinch
Pssst, Chris Brogan hasn’t started a secret podcast #gtd #productivity
Chris Brogan isn’t reinventing himself, and his project for 2012 Shhh! The Secret Show is certainly not a podcast.
So what is he doing?
Social Networking Job Trends 2012 #jobs
In 2008, and again early 2011, I wrote articles about the Social Networking Job Trends, again I checked the graph I’d included, continued to be updating and had shot over 1% of all the job postings on Indeed.com in December 2011. Perhaps these employers and sourcers should be reading Why I Will Never, Ever Hire A “Social Media Expert”:
Social media is just another facet of marketing and customer service.
Say it with me.
What else could this mean?
It’s obvious to me that this graph shows that Social Media as a term is winning ground over web2.0, which is lost from the mid 2011 high of 0.35%.
“social networking” Job Trends
technorati tags: social, networking, jobs, business, work
Pythagoras taught us how to get things done #productivity #gtd
Some time after 530 and 510 BC after Pythagoras woven to Italy and had gathered his students he would established a strict routine for his students, being Pythagoras he paid particular attention to the hours they woke and slept. On rising his students were advised to repeat the following verses:
As soon as you awake, in order lay the actions to be done the coming day.
At nightfall they were told to recite:
Allow not sleep to close your eyes
Before reflecting on the following questions three times:
The actions of the day.
What deeds done well?
What not?
What left undone?
Source: The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI
Image source: zerojay
CloudFlare, WordPress, Google Analytics, My Permissions and Kred.ly #podcast
Google Analytics for WordPress with @CloudFlare
You can set up you DNS to point to cloudflare, although it’s far more powerful you can view this functionality as a High Availability proxy. Cloudflare then accepts the connections for http and requests the requested page from wordpress.com. This file is manipulated to inject the GA script into the site. There is NO need to perform any modifications on wordpress.com.
As it says in the blog:
Since CloudFlare is optimizing and delivering your site’s content to your visitors, it inserts the Google Analytics JavaScript tracking code in the proper place as your site’s visitors pass through our network. Your site now benefits from both WordPress.com site analytics and Google Analytics.
Source: Enabling Google Analytics on Your WordPress.com Blog
Image source: CloudFlare
Google +1 In My WordPress SideBar
I was playing with adding the Google +1 button to my blog and added the icon you see below this blog, then I realized by adding the following HTML block in the sidebar I can add a page button.
<div class="g-plusone"></div>FYI
Image source: Google
