Listening, bookmarking and aggregation
Social bookmarking is a method for internet users to store, organise, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the internet with the help of metadata. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine. (from Wikipedia).
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardised format. An RSS document (which is called a ‘feed’, ‘web feed’, or ‘channel’) includes full or summarised text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favoured websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an ‘RSS reader’, ‘feed reader’, or ‘aggregator’, which can be web-based or desktop-based. (from Wikipedia).
Definitions: RSS in Plain English from Common Craft; Social Bookmarking in Plain English by Common Craft; Google Reader in Plain English by Common Craft.
Communities: WeAreMedia ‘Listening is the First Step’; WeAreMedia on RSS Readers; WeAreMedia on Social Bookmarking.
Consultants: Beth Kanter’s Social Media Listening wiki; Mike Kujawski’s Social Media Monitoring, 10 Free Tools slideshow; Jason Falls’ The Art of Listening slideshow; Beth Kanter’s Listening Primer.
Blogs: NP Communicator’s Way Beyond News Alerts blog post; Neil Williams’4 Methods and 40 Free Tools for Listening blog post.
Tools: Google Alerts;Delicious;Magnolia; Google Reader; Netvibes; Yahoo! Pipes.
Data sources: List of tools from Wikipedia.
Publications: Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies by Ellen Finkelstein;The Art of Strategic Listening: Finding Market Intelligence in Blogs and Social Media by Robert Berkman.
How to subscribe to an RSS Feed
by Amy
- Set up your RSS reader, like Google Reader which is free and easy to use, by going to http://www.google.com/reader.
- Visit the blog or site you'd like to stay up-to-date about.
- Check for an RSS icon in the URL address bar (the icon is a square with a dot and two curved lines, like a signal), or a ‘subscribe to RSS’ link.
- Click on the RSS icon or link and select ‘subscribe in Google Reader’.
- It will redirect you to Google Reader with the feed, where you can organise your subscriptions by folders, and unsubscribe if you ever want.
How to create a Google Alert
by Amy
Google lets you save searches and get e-mail updates on them, so you can monitor new content about a topic or keep track of the conversations about your products and services.
- Go to http://www.google.com/alerts.
- Enter the terms, title, name, etc you want searched (it's a good idea to set them up for the name of your organisation, names of services you provide, projects you are working on, and so forth).
- Choose the type of search you want (note: ‘comprehensive’ means all of the options, so is usually the best for full coverage, but if you only want videos, then choose that, etc.).
- Choose how often you'd like the results sent to your email.
- Enter your email address.
- Hit ‘Create Alert’ and you’re done!
How to use Delicious.com
by Amy
Delicious.com is a great place to keep track of useful websites you find, tag and share with others. And quickly browse the sites other people have found already. As well as signposting you to lots interesting content to read, it's a great social research tool.
- Visit www.delicious.com and create an account.
- Check out the about page to see how it all works.
- I’d recommend installing the delicious browser plugin (for faster tagging).
- Browse the web in your normal way, at work or at home.
- When you find a page you'd like to save or share, visit www.delicious.com/save and enter the URL
- Hit ‘next’ and you can add notes about the page, select whether it is a public or private bookmark, and add the corresponding tags .
- If you have a tag for your organisation, make the links public and use this tag for all relevant links so that other people in your team or community can find them.
How to choose tags for your organisation
by Amy
By choosing a unique word or phrase to represent your project, you can start to build up a distributed conversation, track discussions and create an online brand. It makes it easier for people to reference you and share their knowledge. For example, conversations about this project are tagged ‘social by social’.
- Search on delicious.com for your organisation's URL and review how others have tagged it (if no one has tagged your URL, try searching for those of larger or more prominent organisations in your field).
- Ask everyone in your office to contribute the most frequently used abbreviations or common 'nick names' they use for the organisations.
- Compile a list of terms for projects, teams, services and your organisation as whole.
- Encourage staff to begin using delicious.com (see above) and watch for tags naturally used most.
- Promote the tags you want staff and others to use by mentioning it on your website or blog (like, “Any information you’ve found useful and want to share with us? Tag it online with ‘YOURORG-shared’ and we'll be sure to catch it!”).
