Finding the RSS feed for your Facebook status updates

June 11, 2010 by JD · 4 Comments
Filed under: RSS Feeds, Social Networking 

I use RSS feeds quite a bit to keep track of what I have said and to learn what my friends are saying on their blogs and social networking sites.

One thing has been bothering me and I just haven’t had enough energy to track it down and implement it until this morning.

In the left and right columns of this blog, you’ll find several RSS feeds showing recent updates on several of my blogs and several of the social networking communities I manage. It makes it easy for me to visit this blog and see at a glance what is being said on my other sites.

So, what’s been bothering you, JD?

I’ve been wanting to add the status updates I’ve posted to Facebook, but I didn’t see an easy way to find the feed. I’ve looked at the source code for my Facebook profile page and saw no evidence of an RSS feed, so I would just let the matter drop and/or forget about it.

This morning, I decided to give it another go. To make it easy on myself, I decided to see if anyone else had solved the problem. No use reinventing the wheel, right?

I did a simple search on Google for “Facebook RSS Feed” and found the answer to my question on the very first page returned in the search results. (Gotta love that!)

On TechLifeWeb.com there is an article: How to find your Facebook Status RSS feed.

Apparently, Facebook has changed how this works, but the updated information in the article helped me find the RSS feed I was looking for.

So, I came here and added a new RSS widget to the right column and pasted in the URL of the feed.

It didn’t work.

I knew the feed was working, because I could view that URL in Safari and see all the recent status updates I’ve posted.

Then I looked closer at the URL. When I changed feed:// to http://, the RSS feed widget correctly displayed my status updates. You can see them in the right column of this blog.

It’s not a huge thing, but it’s difficult to find.

Facebook makes this more difficult than it should be, but it’s still possible to make use of it with a little digging.

All the best,

JD

Tags: ,

The entire Sitesell company is now tweeting

June 6, 2010 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Promote Your Business, Site Build It, Social Networking, Twitter 

Sitesell, the company behind Site Build It!, took an interesting step forward in social networking this weekend. The entire company will be tweeting using the Sitesell account and individuals will be identified by a hashtag at the end of their tweet.

Here’s a link to the Sitesell Twitter feed.

This is a really cool idea, and I like how they’ve implemented it.

For example, Ken Evoy, the founder of Sitesell, is identified by #Kenfounder, the unidentified technogeek known as Help Elf is known as #Helpelf, and so on.

There are 130 people working for Sitesell and they are located all over the world, each working from home. Now, we’ll get a chance to learn more about the different people and what they’re doing, both personally and as employees of Sitesell.

Individuals in support, coaching, education, management, programming, and other departments will now offer their tidbits, insights, and updates about what they’re doing to make SBI continue to be the best way to build a small business online. We’re used to Ken having an RSS feed of his forum posts, and Erin, the affiliate program manager, also has an RSS feed.

Now, everyone in the company effectively has an RSS feed of their tweets by searching on their hashtag.

The one problem I see is that on the Internet, people being what they are, others will attempt to confuse the issue and co-opt the goodwill that Sitesell has earned over the last decade by using the hashtags that individuals there use. The difference is that Sitesell employees will be tweeting from the @Sitesell account and identifying themselves with their hashtag. If you see those hashtags used on a different account, don’t let it fool you.

As far as I know, this is the only company that is approaching Twitter in this fashion.

How can you adapt this approach for your business? Set up a Twitter account for your business and let your employees post to it, identifying themselves with their own personal hashtag.

This is going to be an interesting experiment in company-wide tweeting and I’m looking forward to seeing how it evolves over the coming months.

Want to follow Sitesell: Sitesell Twitter feed.

All the best,

JD

Tags: , , , ,

Why are local businesses important?

May 25, 2009 by JD · 4 Comments
Filed under: Murphy NC 28906, Murphy North Carolina, Promote Your Business, Social Networking 

Today, I have spent some time pondering this question:

Is buying local a form of protectionism or is it something that is truly good for our community?

I can argue for both sides of the question, but I’m coming to believe more strongly that buying local is truly good for our communities.

I was reading several blogs on the topic this morning and was going to write a post with my thoughts on the topic on this blog, but decided it would be more suitable as the start of a discussion on the Murphy NC 28906 social networking forum.

So, instead of writing it here, I’ve created the new forum topic: Why are local businesses important?

I’m specifically wanting to discuss this with people interested in our Murphy, NC community, but others who have constructive thoughts on the topic are welcome to join our discussion either there or by commenting here.

More and more, as time passes, I’m becoming concerned with the economic health of our towns and cities and feel drawn to do whatever I can to help local business owners learn to use the new tools that are coming available to help them promote themselves and their businesses.

In doing so, we’ll also be promoting our towns, local organizations, and people who are working hard to make a difference.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , ,

Murphy, NC online community growing

March 3, 2009 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Business, Groups, Murphy NC 28906, Social Networking 

I always enjoy creating something new and watching it grow. That’s what’s happening with our new online community for Murphy, NC – a website designed for business networking and social networking for people who live in our charming little mountain town or who are interested in the area.

Our Murphy, NC Social Networking Community is less than a month old and already we’re attracting visitors from four countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Australia.

Over 17% of the visitors to the site are coming from the search engines, so that indicates that we’re getting indexed and found for both local and general searches.

Over time, as we get new members and increased participation, more visitors will find us and learn about what is taking place in Murphy, NC. I believe this community will be even more useful for the people who live here and join in the fun.

I am happy to do all I can to help promote our community, but I can’t do it all by myself, so I encourage you to join and participate.

Tell us what you are doing and keep us up to date on what’s happening with your business, organizations, churches, and other interests and activities.

When you join, you can customize your profile page with information about you and what you’re doing.

You have your very own blog there and can join in, or start, discussions in our forum.

I’ve been busy creating new groups to make it easy for people who share common interests to meet and interact with each other.

I don’t want to create too many groups, but I’m always listening to what you want, and if you want a new group created for your interests, just let me know.

The following groups are active and ready for you to join and participate in, and are presented in no particular order:

If you visit the groups page, you’ll see all the groups and a brief description of their purpose.

I am happy to do what I can to help promote Murphy, NC and the people who live here. I can cover a small part of the activities in our area, but your participation is required if our online community is to reach its potential.

Don’t be shy. Join in the fun and tell us what’s happening in your corner of the Murphy area.

Of course, it’s free!

I hope to see you there.

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , ,

Twitter blog says nothing to report

February 11, 2009 by JD · 8 Comments
Filed under: Social Networking, Twitter, Web Services 

For the last couple of days, there has been a lot of rumors and speculation that Twitter is going to start charging corporate customers for using the service.

Yesterday, the Twitter blog was updated with a post entitled: Nothing To Report Just Yet

In part, the article says…

However, it’s important to note that whatever we come up with, Twitter will remain free to use by everyone—individuals, companies, celebrities, etc. What we’re thinking about is adding value in places where we are already seeing traction, not imposing fees on existing services.

So, all the speculation about how Twitter is going to determine whether someone is an individual or is acting as a corporate presence is unfounded and a waste of time.

Now, back to work.

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: ,

Come visit the brand new Murphy NC 28906 social networking community

January 2, 2008 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Dilbeck Marketing, Murphy NC 28906, Social Networking 

In late December 2007, I created a new social networking site for Murphy NC 28906 on Ning.com.

If you live in, visit, or want to know more about Murphy, NC, come join us at the Murphy NC 28906 social networking site.

You can customize your profile, write a blog, discuss topics related to Murphy, NC in our forum, meet and get to know fellow residents, upload photos, and much more — all for free!

Anyone living in, visiting, or wanting to know more about Murphy, NC is welcome. Come join us today.

Tags: