Social Media Marketing

Get going with the new wave

That’s right, the much awaited Google wave is out and the current experience in the last 3 hours or so of mine with it, tells me, the amazingly crazy genius freaks at Google could not have come up with a better name than ‘wave’.

I have hardly got the hang of it and I am already getting an amazing kick out of using the awesome applications integrated with it. A nice kick, might I add.

Tools, applications, widgets, blogging, chat, conversations, video & voice never looked better.

To start with here is the logo of the wave:

Google Wave

Now entering into the wave:

Techdivine Google Wave screenshot

One word that would describe the ultimate usability factor of wave is “Time”. Time saving seems to be the core behind the app.

Email replies have taken a new meaning to the term conversing.

Real time message typing between users  - No need to even click on send if time is a major constraint. Just type. For eg. When the users who are online are conversing with each other using Google wave, the conversations happen in real time. ie. to say in email as one types his reply to the wave started by another, the first wave creator can see the message as it is being typed in real time. The email has taken the chat system to a different level altogether.

Adding contacts to the conversation is nothing more than a single drag & drop to the wave box on top of the application.

Editing emails simultaneously by users who are part of the conversation looks great and it acts like  chat function but via email.

The amazingly magical “Playback” feature helps to show markups of editing done in earlier conversations which are to be read through are fabulous and that too in real time environments such as a meeting conversation taking place, the app just makes it remarkable. Take for example in a scenario wherein a new wave entrant has been added to the conversation who has missed out on the beginning of the discussions, all he needs to do is just hit the playback button on top and get a hang of the earlier discussions in a jiffy.

Other Features: In case of an ongoing wave, if the user does not want to type his message in real time, he can click on the check box and make it a regular email feature. Moreover, once you have finished typing you can open your contacts pop-up box and simply add as many people in just a matter of milliseconds and even make them part of the conversation and all this again in real time.

Another remarkable feature is the stupendous spell check integrated with Wave. Its probably one of the best features integrated with the wave.

The integration is so powerful with email that all tools linked like chat / real time conversations / meeting conversations / group conversations / video etc are beautifully put into one single application use and made email a conversational pleasure that saves time to an amazing extent.

Adding attachments, wow, that’s now a real joy. Just drag and drop them into your reply box. It’s done.

Creating photo albums is again just a simple drag & drop feature, plus with the new “tags” function integrated with the inbox, all apps can be now tagged and one can go to the extent of creating Weblinks / as the Google says, wavelinks to make the whole feel, like a webpage being browsed rather than images / text being searched for.

Orkut integrations again happen in real time meaning all your cool features are integrated into this feature, so a scrap is not just a scrap anymore, it becomes a wave and is stored as part of your inbox conversation.

Also to avoid too many follow ups on conversations in the inbox, one can easily unfollow a conversation that he has been part of to avoid clogging up of your inbox.

Blogging once integrated with the api of the wave again happenes in real time, i.e edits done to a blog can be seen on the google wave, pics can be edited right from your inbox and gets updated on your blog real time. So adding comments and conversing in your blog was never so easy.

The wave has some real cool apps for Mobile phones too, but I need to try them out before I make any comments on them.

To sum up the so far tested from the million other features that Google wave has to offer:

It’s a definite must have!

Summing up:

• Real time emailing and conversing
• Privacy & controls over conversations
• Splendid spell check feature happening in real time as message gets typed
• Adding any number of contacts to an ongoing wave
• Playback feature takes even a new wave entrant to the original conversation
• Superb application tools like Maps, interactive games like sudoku, conference etc can be added and played in real time with each other
• Web toolkit of Google makes tremendous contributions in taking wave to a totally new level
• Adding weblinks / wavelinks to conversations makes search & click function really easy
• Tags, tag anything & everything including videos
• Wave integrates as many tools as one can into one single application
• It is Open source, so more goodies from developers to contribute and make the pool massively huge and easy for users across the globe
• Organize and create a hierarchical tree structure of discussions easily now
• Widgets in-between the waves, makes it easy to see the comments / edits made / done / keyed in
• Drag & drop attachments to your replies / mails / waves in a single click
• Create amazingly easy photo albums / tag them, add captions and do it in real time simultaneously by all wave users who are part of that shared album
• Markups to keep track of changes during a meeting / conference wave calls

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So far so great, not just good, but great!

Let’s see what more the amazing waves bring with it.

Till then happy waving!

Stay updated with the happenings of the wave!  CLICK HERE

Blogging Made easy – Part 1:

About Blogging / Websites / Top websites / Buying Websites:

Thanks for the numerous responses to our earlier post “Blogging Platforms”.

Hope all of you received my replies to your queries.

For any further queries, you are free to contact us at: socialmedia@techdivine.com

Now to answer your other queries I am putting across few resources & links which I am sure will help you get a deeper insight into the same:

1. “What can I write on a blog”

One can write anything depending on his / her focus & expectation from the blog. Depending on whether you want to offer your writing to a niche market or your blog as a journal / story / personal sightings & stories or reviews for some practical tips / advice on products / services etc based on your experience, your blog needs to slowly evolve for that target audience.

You can also write biographies of people, few personal success stories with examples etc

If you are creatively inclined as in terms of traditional or graphic / photography / digital art, you might make a gallery & showcase your works too to the world across.

Writing an imaginative story, discussing case studies can also be a great way to work on a blog.

Other than these, one has the option for writing their travel adventures, their passion for music, art, cars, books, education, career, parenting and so much more.

2. “How much is a blog useful for a business”

Life is not always about selling. It’s most important aspect is to connect with people at varied levels. At the end of the day, one needs to sell too to survive. Here again, a blog is a great medium. So the answer is Very much yes.

It keeps the customers  / readers updated and their responses over a period of time generates brand loyal customers.

3. “Functions, widgets & Plugins”, what are they used for in a blog / website?

They are tools.

Some refer to them merely as decorations, while I would prefer the term organized & systematic tools for planning and getting your message across to readers / customers / target audience easily.

Eg.1. These tools, lets say a widget that allows one to scan through only a particular category topic which is of interest to him / her, would be definitely popularly used and useful as one does not then need to scan across pages which might run into scores of posts otherwise. Thus, here a “Category” widget (tool) would be great.

Eg. 2. Plugins: Ratings plugins are very common and popular allowing new users to know by a single look whether the post has got positively notable ratings / review. Though it might not always be correct, but a rating allows the user (reader) to take control.

It also shows the reader of the trust & confidence a writer has, so as to share this power of reviewing his/her write up with the world across to judge it.

http://www.simplescripts.com

Widget

Plugin - Ratings

4. What are Statistics / awstats / Hit counters

Some more examples of the same:

• Google Analytics
• Sitemeter
• Awstats
• My Blog Log

http://www.google.com/analytics

http://awstats.sourceforge.net

They tell the reader of the number of Hits / readership views on the page  / website. They can be many a times triggered or hyped but with sites such as WordPress etc, the advantage remains for the reader to know the actual readership hits as such sites do not count the admin / main authors Machine IP hits. So what you see is what really is.

Great examples are “awstats” & Google analytics. It not only gives the viewers & visitors a brief peek into the site hits, but gives the creator of the blog / site many important details to plan ahead for.

For eg. “awstats plugin / tool lets the designer of the site know not only the page hits, but also, the number of people from which country / which page has main hits / keywords / search terms used to land here/ external links / time spent of page / site / most viewed content on site and many such other important info including user id, Unique users on the site etc.

“Share” Buttons at the end of the Blog:

They let you share an interesting post with others using social networkign sites like Orkut, facebook, MySpace, email, Diggit, Stumbleupon etc

awstats

www.orkut.com

www.facebook.com

www.digg.com

www.stumble.com

http://in.myspace.com

http://blogger.com

www.linkedin.com

5. Can you name few good Blog Editors

Qumana / Illuminex / BlogJet / w.bloggar / Ecto are few which are popular.

Few links:

www.qumana.com

http://Illuminex.com

www.scribefire.com

6. What are RSS / Twitter feeds / Blog feeds / Tags: When a Blog / website says, Click here to subscribe: How does it work and what does it tell the reader. Who is it useful for, reader or blogger? What are tags in a blog / photograph? How is it useful and for whom?

New readers / even regulars many a times may not be always there to check or visit your blog.

If a reader likes a blog and you as an author / writer / publisher / content developer want your prospective and regular readers to stay in touch with your site, be updated on new blog posts, new content etc, you can add FEEDS to the site. Best Eg RSS feed / Twitter Feeds.

What it does is, it takes at times few snippets from the new blog post / or the whole post / sometimes only the headline / title of the blog as modified by the user / writer of the blog and keeps the user updated on his machine if a new blog post arrives from that site.

Thus Blog feeds are great, both for the reader and the creator as the feeds contain recently updated content from a website without having to bookmark and keep visiting to check for updates or inform of updates.

RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works

Twitter Feeds:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.

Tags:

Tags are basically labels to objects. They help to describe a post / photograph / place / person / item/ object / a specific purpose and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching on clicking it. Tags are chosen informally and personally by the item’s creator or by its viewer, depending on the system. Eg. Tags on a blog post tell the users different aspects that have been part of this post (blog / write up / photograph etc)

www.twitter.com

FEEDS for website or blog

7. How does one post comment. I always find it difficult to comment, It says REGISTER first. What & how is it done?

Comments can be posted in blogs  / sites many times without having to register.

But professional blogs usually require its users to register & comment as it also helps them keep away unwanted spams and moderate comments to control the quality of comments & language used.

One can find REGISTRATION link at the website or blog Top / Bottom Side. Saying, click to register.

Many blogs today also have Register buttons as a Widget under the META section, giving the blog a more professional look.

User Registration: For Readers to comment

8. What is a domain name & Why do I need to own it. Can I get it free?

Like the old saying goes, if you want something free, buy the giant size first.

Majorly, you can get a domain name free ONLY if you buy website first. There are always exceptions. Still, having your own Domain name URL (web address – Uniform resource locator) can give a sense of professionalism to a site / blog with of course loads of control over it in terms of add-ons,  features plugins etc.

9. What is a hosting service?

A company that is letting / subletting / selling Plots of land (so to speak webspace) on the internet is a Hosting service. Eg. http://bluehost.com

Thus in order for people to find your web site on the Internet, the site has to be on a computer called a web server. The web server runs programs to serve web pages, send and receive email, look up domain names and so on. It has to connect to the Internet, preferably through a fast connection.

10. Is there a free website to create available.

Yes.

Yahoo / Tripod

www.tripod.lycos.com

http://in.geocities.yahoo.com/index.php

11. If yes, why do I need to pay for one?

If you don’t own it, it ain’t yours to control buddy.

Free websites often run their own advertisements on your created content etc. If you want to try website creation & design just to start with, you can try with free websites with Yahoo / Tripod etc. Once you are sure you can build and run the same, go ahead get one and get creative.

12. Cost of a website & a domain name.

Tricky question.

Site costs range depending on what you are looking in for. Business site/ personal site / premium packages / Deluxe and so on. It can range anywhere form say $5 to more than $1000 including web site design / maintenance etc.

Domain names usually cost around $10 with the packages of buying the websites and many offer it free once the whole webspace is purchased.

You can refer Bluehost for more such services & cost: http://bluehost.com

http://bluehost.com

13. Do I need to be a computer programmer to build a website?

No, not necessarily to start with. One can use a content management system (CMS). It is a computer software that handles the presentation of your web site’s content to your users.

Few Good CMS: Joomla, Drupal, Mambo

http://drupal.org

http://mambo-foundation.org

14. Where can I learn more about designing websites, Creating blogs etc.

CONTACT US.

We have, whole range of services with us. We can help you build one from scratch or give you access to get the ultimate pool of knowledge for the same for a training material / workshop fee.

Email: socialmedia@techdivine.com

INTERESTED In Availing of Our Professional Blogging Services: Visit us here

Keep visiting

Admin

Techdivine Creative Services

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TECHDIVINE TM

Over the past few months, we at TECHDIVINE have been getting quite a few e-mails, enquiring about so many different things on blogging and websites. So we thought, why not list down few of those which were asked repeatedly, post them here and probably even try to link them up with answers / sites / links as possible solutions to those queries:

1.        Which would be the best blog site to start with?

There are plenty of sites offering blog start ups for free and for purchase. One best example is our very own WORDPRESS

2.        What would you suggest on Group writing for articles on blogs?

Group writing can be for both, writing for getting feedback from groups and write with teams collaborating with other writers on a particular project.

It helps. As in both cases, others critique and give feedback on your writing and you get to collaborate with other writers on projects. It may also help one to refine and polish their writing skills through group interaction and regular critiquing.

3.       What is ‘tag writing’ & ‘blogroll’

Tags are words with which you create a connection with your writing to make it searchable by others looking to read or know similar queries / articles / information / topics. For example, if I am writing on a gizmo watch, i can tag it as Watch, Gadget Watch, Gizmo watch etc. You can reach the link here to know more on SEO

Blogroll is a feature of blogs, wherein you connect others landing on your blog to different sites of yours

 eg. The Current site / blog where user is let’s say: http://techdivine.com/tdblog and there is a link from here to TDForum

4.       Some real good blogging sites where one can get for free / pay a nominal sum and blog, write their daily diary to World news to fitness etc. and may be even get feedback from readers, but discuss on any topic under the sun.

 Techdivine’s site on CREATIVE WRITERS BLOG is a fantastic example of that to start with. Here so many different authors have got an opportunity to blog and write on subjects that they enjoy discussing all around. Plus they get feedback, critique from readers, writers across.

There are also sites on Freelance writing blogs on specific news etc like www.instablogs.com

5.       How do we decide on interesting writing articles?

Weird, we can’t.

We write (usually) because we want to write.

When we start writing because others want to read, it may end up being just a ‘regular job’. And the passion may get drawn out of it.

Still, if you want to, you can search for popular topics across the world and write on those.

6.       On, Writing on Popular authors

We would suggest, reading popular authors or discussing them, their styles and skills with writing groups, peers etc to learn and grow

7.       Using  pictures on blog

It is a great idea. Always try to do that. Graphic / pictorial appeal always works well. But make sure, you add an image web source and that the images do not have copyrights or restrictions on use by the owner of the images (clicked / created)

 COPYRIGHTS   

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

TRADEMARK etc

8.       How important is writing blogs for upcoming authors

Blogging is simply expressing, sharing your thoughts with the world. You can use text, photos, videos and so much more to make your article to connect with readers. Blogging does not try to replace the traditional writing, but make it more easy to share with refined tools across the globe. It makes writing ‘more’ with rich feedback, inputs, easily possible.

9.       Some really good Free Blogs

www.wordpress.com  www.blogger.com  www.livejournal.com

10. What are RSS feeds and how are they useful

RSS feeds are links that help us to subscribe to a particular topic / forum or website link. It helps both the users and site owners to keep track and update each other of new events / topics etc

An example of RSS with TD Blog would be Click here to Subscribe for FREE: RSS

10.   Through blogging am I a renegade writer

“NO”

11.   How do we improve writing skills

By writing more, religiously, passionately and seeking advice, views, critique from all those who know about writing and even those who don’t (‘coz they are probably the ones who end up reading it). Be Passionate about it (check this out – Deepak Chopra)

12.   What is creative writing

Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature.

13.   Who are some prominent successful writers

Too many. Google them around and so many quality writers you would find. You can go to TDFORUM

Forum Title in the site: Book Discussion Forum and Nobel Prize Forum to participate, share, read and keep track of it more.

14.   If I want to blog / be an author in your Techdivine site, what is the process involved. Can I send some of my literature and mail you. Should I contact your site admin.

No, please do not send across any works of yours unless it’s requested.

But, for being an author in our site / blog, you can contact our admin at techdivine@gmail.com  for more info.

There are also some Interesting writing contests going on in our site TD Site Contest

Keep reading, Keep blogging……

Chao!