I’ve already mentioned that I had the opportunity to be a speaker at the Blog Indiana 2010 Social Media 101 sessions. Myself along with Chris Theisen of Hare Chevy, Erik Deckers of Pro Blog Service and Patric Welch of Noobie all spoke on different topics to serve as introductions for people that were just getting started in social media.
- Keynote “Intro to Social Media” by Erik Deckers
- Breakout “Getting Started with Facebook” by Patric Welch
- Breakout “Twitter Tips & Tricks for Beginners” by Chris Theisen
I presented a breakout session titled “The Blogger’s Toolbox” which covered a list of the various applications that I’ve picked up over the years of my blogging experience. These were tools that have allowed me to write on a number of blogs consecutively, while maintaining a full-time job and being a husband and father of two great kids.
I divided the tools up into the different categories below:
The Fodder of Blog Ideas
Sometimes the challenge is just coming up with a new idea to write about for your blog topic.
- Digg mainly used to see what’s being discussed and is popular, although this site is losing popularity overall with other options that provide similar resource.
- Google News Alerts regardless of your blog topic, put in some keywords in Google Alerts and receive updates in your RSS reader or in your email inbox.
- Twitter Search Twitter continues to be a wealth of a resource for blog ideas. You can either respond to what others are saying online or just get inspired about your own new post idea.
- Blog RSS that’s right, we’re still reading blogs. Sometimes a great post can be an extension of a comment you left on someone else’s original post, or your own spin to a post or topic shared online. I personally use Bloglines as my RSS reader, but Google Reader is also an obvious option.
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