Posts Tagged: Reasons to be cheerful
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 03rd, 2012
We’re long overdue for a dose of cheer. Here are links to some of the online gems we are enjoying and exploring right now.
Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networks right now. It allows you to pin, organise and share images online. It is very visually stimulating and fun. Watch this space for a more in depth post all about Pinterest and feel free to follow me there.
We’ve been exploring online tools that allowyou to create simple graphics. We like Gimp, Aviary and Pixlr – there’s also “lite” version of Photoshop if you can find it.
Edge Rank Checker is a tool that allows you track the effectiveness of your Facebook pages but beware – it takes ages to generate your reports and pages with low fan counts will be skewed.
Mobile apps we are loving include: Ego (check web stats on the go), Flipboard (Social Magazine) and Evernote (to help you remember everything).
Want to customize yor Facebook page? We’re currently evaluating Shortstack, FaceIt Pages, North Social and Page Modo. If you have used any of these and have a preference we’d love to get your feedback.
And now some social media tools: Echofon (never read a tweet twice), Buffer (add posts and “automagically” post them through the day), CoTweet (manage mutliple Twitter feeds).
Enjoy!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 11th, 2011
Every now and then we share with you our social media and internet marketing reasons to be cheerful – a compendium of links to gems we discover online that are interesting, useful or downright wacky. Here are our latest discoveries for your cyber enjoyment.
Diaspora is an interesting concept. Still in beta, it purports to allow you to “share what you want, with whom you want”; you choose exactly who you share your photos and what-not with, and you retain ownership of your stuff. You can sign up for an invite on their website.
If you are a Twitter fan, you should check out Trensdmap which gives you real time local Twitter trends so you can get the scoop on what is happening in your Twitterverse.
CoverItLive is another social media add-on tool. This one is aimed at bloggers – CoverItLive is a tool that allows you to broadcast live commentary to your followers.
Ghostery calls itself a “window into the invisible web” – tags, web bugs, pixels and beacons that are included on your web pages in order to get an idea of your online behavior. It tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity.
SocialBakers is an online tool providing social media statistics across countries, brands, articles, Twitter and so on. Very handy for internet marketing types.
Empire Avenue is another interesting website, this one lets you grow your social capital (whatever that means). It is actually a social game that lets you buy and sell shares of people online and websites.
And strictly for fun, if you are looking for some new ideas, why not swap some on The Idea Swap – keep swapping until you get an idea you like!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 06th, 2011
It has been ages since we posted our social media reasons to be cheerful links. If you have been waiting on tenterhooks – wait no longer. Here, for your enjoyment, is our compendium of social media and online treasures that we have discovered lately.
Layar – “is a mobile platform for discovering information about the world around you”. Use your mobile to tune in to the social media interactions going on around your physical location. Thanks Darko for sharing this!
YMPL – Your Mail List Provider is online email marketing software that allows you to easily create custom templates and manage your newsletters. Thanks to our friends at Social Focus for that one!
Website Magazine – is always a source of great website success tips. In the latest issue we discovered: Sprout Social (Social Media Management Tool) and Bizzy (local business recommendation button).
If social media or blogging interests you then its not too late to get your tickets to Northern Voice (only 83 tickets left!). See you there?
Looking for a quote – try Quotenik.
And last but not least, take a moment to relax at - Do nothing for 2 minutes - go on – you deserve it!
More Reasons to Be Cheerful posts.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 30th, 2010
Here is our compendium of useful websites and online tools that have tweaked our interest recently:
Hustream – the concept of being able to easily create interactive video for your website is huge. This is one to keep an eye on
Free Rank Checker – check out how your website ranks against competitors for free.
Sendible – a tool to facilitate social media engagement.
800notes – Reverse look up for all those annoying 1800 calls.
Aviary – online image editor.
A seemingly endless list of social media case studies.
An easy and quick way to discover the host of a web site.
Need to share or send a large file? Try RapidShare.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, November 30th, 2009
Its almost the festive season, the sun finally came out in Vancouver today after three weeks of rain and there is lots going on online. Check out our new media reasons to be cheerful for this month:
Grooveshark – groove to your favorite music while you work.
About Men – a new men’s health site in BC.
Twubs - making sense of Twitter hashtags #.
Twittersheep – see what your followers are Twittering about.
Sprouter – collaborative networking tool.
Slickplan – Create flowcharts and site maps for free.
SiteScan – verify your Google Analytics tracking codes.
Enjoy!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, September 30th, 2009
I’ve been a bit lax over the summer with our regular month end new media reasons to be cheerful post, not because there are no reasons simply because the sun was too blinding. Now that it has gone away, it back to business with a longer than usual list of the gems discovered this month.
Wibiya – I’ve just activated my Wibiya beta and am trying out their toolbar for blogging. It promises to add great functionality.
Aviary – online tools that let you edit audio clips, images and more.
Free Press Release – an alternative to traditional PR promotion, this tool allows you to submit press releases online.
Boxee – a new way to watch TV
Blogcrowds – for some great blog templates.
Twitterjobs – search for or post a job on Twitter.
Marketing Profs – I continue to find value in this online resource for marketing types.
Slim Timer - I love their tagline: make love not timesheets.
Naked Alarm Clock – a free online alarm clock
TinEye – Find out where an image came from.
Flickr – is an ongoing source for pictures that make me smile, like this one byRerinha – thanks!.
Because if life doesn’t smile at you, then your breakfast will!
: 
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 31st, 2009
Lots of new media reasons to be cheerful this month.
Microsoft has a new offering the promises to change the way we search the Internet. Its called Bing and is still under wraps so we’ll have to wait and see if it will better the mighty Google.
Not to be outdone, Google also has a new offering in beta. Google Wave promises to change the way we communicate and collaborate on the web.
Make your own book with Blurb and BookSmart.
Have fun with your desktop at Bump Top.
Twitter tools: Untweeps (get rid of anactive users), Twilert (Twitter keyword listening tool) and Just Tweet It (another Twitter directory).
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 30th, 2009
I missed last month’s reasons to be cheerful, not because there was nothing fun or innovative to share but simply because I forgot (woops). So to make it up, this months reasons to be cheerful includes more links to valuable websites, tools and social media innovations for you to enjoy.
Wowzio – is a tool that allows you to customise and create your own widgets online. They are also developing an interesting tool called Pulse which will “bubble up topics and posts that users are engaging with across the blogosphere”.
ClipCanvas provides professional stock footage and video clips.
Yelp – found a great restaurant or love your dentist? Then share your recommendations with your community or use your network to find reliable services.
New Twitter tools are proliferating, there seems to be a new one every day. Favs include: Twibes – lets you follow Twitter groups and create your own, and TweetTree - lets you view your Twitter posts and replies in context (thanks to Chakravibe for that one). I’ve also been using Power Twitter to amp up my Twitter experience with Firefox.
Need 4 Design – if you need a log or website design why not crowdsource this and run a design competition with Need 4 Design. You submit your requirement and designers compete for your business.
Add your company to LinkedIn.
Eventbrite – online event registration tools.
Backtype – find, follow and share comments on the web.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 27th, 2009
Scribd - document upload and sharing site, explore books, magazines, manuals, spreadsheets and more.
SocialMention – a social media search engine that searches blogs, websites, microblogs and news sites amongst others for your keywords.
LoadedBow – I love this blog aimed at young women entreprenuers. Packed with handy advice, interviews and links its definately one to subscribe to.
Biznik - a new business networking site allowing you to network, share events, publish articles and promote your business.
ResizeIt – a handy tool that allows you to easily resize, crop and edit images for free online.
And on the lighter side, find out about: The State of the Web – Winter 2009
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, October 31st, 2008
Amid all the gloom and doom of the economic world its difficult to see the silver lining these days. However, we have discovered so many reasons to be cheerful this month that we may have another Reasons To Be Cheerful in mid November so that we can share them all with you.
Our number one reason to be cheerful is that amid all this turmoil and recession we know that Internet and Social media marketing will prevail. Why? Because its more effective, less expensive and easier to track than traditional marketing efforts.
Now to our new media reasons of the month:
Caught the Twitter bug? Then you’ll be interested in your Twitter statistics perhaps. TweetStats reveals your Twitter habits. I’ve been on Twitter (@outsmarts) since March 2007 and it interesting to see how my interest waned then waxed.
Another great tool discovered this month is Ping.fm. Ping lets you post once to any number of social networking tools (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and the list goes on). Very handy if you are trying to be everywhere at once.
Another most excellent discovery this month is the social advertising community AdHack – this is people powered advertising at its best.
Another great resource is HARO – Help A Reporter Out. Its a service that connects reporters with people who have content to share. Its a great way to share your material but watch out for email overload.
GivenGain is another site we came across this month. They facilitate giving. If you are a charity looking to set up a donations stream or if you are looking to give then check this out.
Lastly, WigglyWigglers - a fantastic example of how one company harnessed social media to the max.
Until next time – stay cheerful!
