Posts Tagged ‘Tutorial’

Have an awesome presentation that you want to share with the world?

If you’ve already posted the presentation (could be a Power Point presentation) to Slideshare.net then you can embed that presentation into your WordPress.com blog. I’ll show you exactly how to do that in this video. This process also works for WordPress.org blogs.

I appreciate and value your Comments and feedback.

[Update 6/5/2010: Added captions (English) to the video, click on the "CC" popup button on the bottom right of video. I also added a transcript of the video to the end of the blog post.]

Have you ever tried using Google to find answers to complex and niche business questions? I have, but sometimes the questions are so specific that they require custom answers from an expert. When that happens, I turn to my secret weapons, LinkedIn and Aardvark (Vark.com).

In this video, I’ll show you how to use the one-two punch of LinkedIn and Aardvark to get answers to tough questions from an army of experts in a matter of minutes.

I skipped over some of the nuances of using each tool so I included some best practices for using each network at the end of this blog post.

LinkedIn

This Question was posted on LinkedIn under the “Internet Marketing” category.

LinkedIn’s Q&A feature allows users to post questions by category then allow LinkedIn members to answer them. Members usually provide rich and in-depth responses because they care about the subject and also to share some of their expertise.

Results
As of May 26th, 2010, the question has received 13 high quality responses. The answers started rolling in shortly after it was posted.

Learning Points

• The Question should be brief and clear with personal side to it.
• If you’re going to eventually blog about a Question, mention that in the Question. Most people love being mentioned in blog posts. It’s great for PR and further establishes the responder as a topic expert.
• Follow up on each and every response. On this Question, I communicated with each responder via LinkedIn’s private message system. I asked follow up questions and requested permission to use the response on my blog post.
• The Q&A process is also a great opportunity to connect with responders and add them to your LinkedIn network. I often extend an invitation to responders.
• LinkedIn responses usually provide amazing feedback on difficult questions.
• This is a link to my LinkedIn profile. Check it out and let’s connect.

Aardvark

This is the question I posted to Aardvark.com.

You may not have heard of Aardvark. Aardvark is a crowdsourcing Q & A site. I first heard about it via technologist Robert Scoble (@scobleizer on Twitter). To use Aardvark, you have to sign up and become part of the Q & A community. To ask a question, you just go to vark.com, login, and submit your question. Aardvark figures out the related category then emails potential responders that have expertise in that field.

Results

• The question received four highly relevant and almost immediate responses. That’s the main forte of Aardvark – you get answers fast.

Learning Points

• Make sure the question is brief and to the point. When people receive the response, they will most likely make up their minds in a second as to whether or not they are going to respond. If they have to figure out the question, they’ll be less likely to respond.
• While Aardvark provides rapid responses, it limits the number of responses. There is a “resubmit” feature though.
• I communicated with each person that responded and asked for permission to mention their response in the blog post. This is a great way to extend the conversation and get more helpful information.
• CAUTION: I’ve only used the Q&A feature a couple of times and I did not realize that the conversation was all posted online. Make sure you review your privacy settings and be careful what information you transmit.

Video Transcript

New to WordPress.com or just learning how to customize the blog? Well, this brief video tutorial will walk you through the process of activating a new WordPress.com theme.

Now that you’ve seen the video, are you ready for some practice?

WordPress just released a new theme called “Twenty Ten.” It’s pretty nifty and is now one of the “default” WordPress.com themes. I especially like the drop down menu lists. Test out your new skills and try it out.

Facebook unleashed its new wave of site integration tools including the new Like button for external sites. This button works like the regular Like button on Facebook, where you see a status update and can give it the thumbs up.

Please note, this post is rated D for Daredevil.

To implement these changes you will need to muck around in the PHP. So make sure you’re wearing your developers propeller hat and some sort of Star Wars attire.

This micro video tutorial shows you how to find the Facebook button code, add it to your site’s template code, and get it up and running. However, this video only shows you how to add the Like button to the Single Post page in your blog. You’d also want to do the same thing with your Main Index Template page.

If you really don’t want to tinker with the template code, there are some plugins floating around. I’ve seen three different plugins already but haven’t tested them out yet. If you developed a Like button plugin, drop a comment with a link to the site. I’ll add comments to this post as I see them as well.

Related Posts/Resources:

• Facebook Like Button Developer page
• Adding Facebook Like Social Plugin to WordPress
• Just Launched: Facebook Like Plugin for Every Post on Your WP Blog!

Code Snippet: the modified Like button code

And this is a zoom-in of the Single Post template page where I pasted in the iFrame code.

Facebook Like Button Code in WordPress Single Post Theme

[Update: I mentioned "WordPress.com" in the video a couple of times but hovercards DO NOT work with WordPress.com, only with WordPress.org blogs and sites that allow for JavaScript.]

Twitter rolled out its new @Anywhere site and developer resource yesterday. @Anywhere allows you to integrate Twitter with your application or site.

Today, we’re going to trick out our WordPress blog by adding the Hovercard feature. Whenever I type in an “@” plus a username on this blog, site visitors will be able to mouse over the hovercard link and see the Twitter peep’s mini-profile. You may have seen this feature on the Twitter.com web site.

Here’s a quick test – my Twitter friend @heykim rocks! You should be able to mouse over @heykim and see her profile information. Cool, no?

Ok, time to grab your small bowl of popcorn, pump up the volume, and enjoy the tutorial. Then roll up your sleeves and try this out on your blog. Enjoy!

WordPress just announced its new WordPress.com Slideshow feature. This is an AWESOME update.

You can now select photos to upload then quickly add them to a blog post as a Slideshow. [Update: And, I forgot to mention that the Slideshow is iPhone and iPad friendly!]

I did a video on the process, so check it out then see my notes below the video.

Notes:

As soon as I saw the email from WordPress.com, I jumped in and started testing things out.

I found the following:

1. There are several paths you can to get the Slideshow up and running. The video above is by far the easiest.
2. You can use images that you have previously uploaded to your WordPress.com blog and that are already in your Media list. But, they cannot be “attached” to a different blog post or page.

   My lovely wife suggested a workaround here. If you really want an image to stay in a blog post or page and want to use it elsewhere in a Slideshow, just upload the image again and use it.

3. If you only add one image at a time via the “Add an Image” button on your blog post page, you will not have the option to insert the slideshow as I demonstrated in the video. You’ll have to go back and use the Gallery tab then insert the slideshow from there.

   The Gallery tab appears next to the “From Computer” tab (that I pointed out in the video), but only does so after there is an upload or an unattached image has been added to the post.

Here are some more resources to help you troubleshoot any problems:

• Information on Images and Galleries
• All about Unattached Files in WordPress.com

So now you have everything you need to go out and create an awesome new slideshow on your blog. If you want to show off your new creation, come back here and post a link in the Comments field. M’Kay?