Did you get your preferred username at Facebook?

June 13, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 22 Comments
Filed under: Social Networking 

I know this is not breaking news for many of the readers of this blog, because you already got the username you wanted on Facebook today.

Still, for others who aren’t up on the latest developments, I thought it would be worth a short post about the subject.

This morning, Facebook made it possible for us to set our preferred username (if it is available) to make it easy to link to our profile there.

I was lucky and now you can reach my profile at facebook.com/johndilbeck.

Have you claimed your username at Facebook, yet?

You can do it here: facebook.com/username.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Are you getting the most from your Squidoo lensmasters profile page?

September 26, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 2 Comments
Filed under: Promote Yourself, Social Networking, Squidoo Lenses, Squidoo Marketing, Twitter 

Did you know that Squidoo made a big change in August 2008 when they greatly expanded what you can show on your lensmasters profile page?

Have you updated your profile to take advantage of the new features?

As an example, take a look at my lensmasters profile page. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

There is a lot more information there than what you would have seen a couple of months ago and much of it can be customized by you.

Depending upon what you choose to show, your profile may show more or less than mine.

Some of the content is automatically generated by Squidoo, however.

Basic information, such as a list of your lenses and the number of lenses you have created, favorited, and ranked, and the members of your fan club, is shown automatically on your profile.

You can add additional information such as your bio, lenses you want to feature, and links to your blogs, other websites, and social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook. Other links can include your CafePress shop, eBay store, and more.

That’s a lot of information that can be shown on one page, and Squidoo even creates an RSS feed for your lenses, although there seems to be a problem with the correct link right now. When I clicked the RSS icon in my browser’s URL box, it took me to an invalid feed, but there really is an RSS feed of all my lenses that can be read in a newsreader and/or syndicated on other sites.

If you haven’t updated your Squidoo profile, what are you waiting for?

That’s an important page. It is already linked to from each of your lenses and from any lenses you’ve favorited. You should be linking to your Squidoo profile from your other sites and blogs, too.

I didn’t really like it the first time I saw it, but after reading Megan Casey’s SquidBlog post, New lensmaster bio page, live now!, I realized there was much more than what I was seeing initially.

Somewhat later, I found her lens, How to rock your lensmaster bio page, and learned how to make my profile page even better.

More sites, including Squidoo, are helping you link to your Twitter profile so you can grow your list of followers and also notify them when you’ve updated a lens or are reading one you want to recommend.

With some extra work on your part, you can include these updates using tools provided by sites such as FriendFeed.com or MyBlogLog.com.

With the use of RSS feeds and tools like Twitter, it is becoming easier to write once and publish (or promote) your content on multiple sites.

Even if you don’t add all the bells and whistles to your profile page, you should be promoting it wherever you can to get more exposure to your lenses.

But, why stop there? It will only take a few minutes to customize your profile and bio and get much more use from the page that Squidoo has provided us.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Have you updated your new Squidoo lensmaster bio page?

August 20, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Comments Off
Filed under: Business Networking, Promote Yourself, Social Networking, Squidoo Lenses 

Yesterday, while looking for something (I don’t remember what), I looked at my lensmaster bio page at Squidoo and was surprised to see that it didn’t look anything like it did the last time I saw it.

What!?

I don’t like surprises and I generally react negatively when one of my pages changes without my knowledge or approval. So, I didn’t really like the new appearance of the page.

But, I tried to keep an open mind about it.

I went searching for more information about the change and found an active thread in the Lensmasters Lounge at SquidU.com.

Then I found Megan Casey’s post on the SquidBlog: New lensmaster bio page, live now!

That’s were I learned that what I was seeing was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of potential information the page could show.

I immediately edited the profile page on my Squidoo dashboard, and you can edit your profile, too:

http://www.squidoo.com/member/profile

I was able to add links to my blogs, websites, social networking profiles, and more. There’s even the ability to feature up to five of your favorite lenses right in the middle of the page.

It took all of a few minutes and now my lensmaster bio page is much more useful to me and I hope to any readers who find it.

I still don’t like surprises, but I do like the features in our new bio pages.

Have you updated your profile, yet?

Act on your dream!

JD

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The personalized profile pages on I Love Hits continue to improve

July 22, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Comments Off
Filed under: Blogging, Business Networking, Marketing, Social Networking, Traffic Exchanges 

Recently, Jon Olson had a great idea and added personalized profile pages for ILoveHits.com members.

For example, here is my profile page: I Love Hits Blog for John Dilbeck.

Now, in addition to linking to several social networking sites, you can syndicate the RSS feed from one of your sites or blogs, link to a blog and/or website, and post entries to your very own blog.

Additionally, a members directory is starting to grow as more people edit their profile and add information to their pages. There is a link to the members directory on the bottom of each of our profile pages.

If you have edited your profile and created your ILH blog page, there is also a link to it on the bottom of the pages you promote on the I Love Hits traffic exchange.

Earlier this morning, when I logged in to the members page, the Locker Room, I noticed three entries from members’ blog postings. I don’t know if these are the three most recent posts or if they are a random selection. There may be other criteria at play, too.

Regardless of how they are selected, the blog postings are now starting to appear in other places and not just on your profile page. Three entries on the Locker Room page are in a prime location.

This just keeps getting better and better.

I also noticed that there is a new “Get to know me” badge with javascript that can be added anywhere you can post javascript. I just added it to the right column of this blog. If you click that badge, it will take you right to my personalized profile page.

This is a very nice addition, too.

Are you a member of ILoveHits.com?

Have you created your personalized profile page and posted to your blog there?

Act on your dream!

JD

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SFI Marketing Group affiliates – have you registered for A2A?

July 20, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Comments Off
Filed under: Business Networking, SFI Marketing Group, Social Networking, Squidoo Lenses 

On July 17, 2008, Gery Carson announced the introduction of the SFI Marketing Group “affiliate to affiliate” (A2A) system.

Now, SFI affiliates can meet other SFI affiliates all over the world, or in their local neighborhood.

Hundreds of affiliates have already registered and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some people that I hope will become friends over time.

I wrote more about this on my SFI Marketing Group Affiliates lens. (This lens has been deleted.)

(Update August 2009: Affiliate link removed, as I no longer promote SFI Marketing Group.)

One of the drawbacks at the moment is trying to find people I know who have already registered. There is no feature for searching by screen name and there are no plans for being able to search by actual name, so, unless someone you know tells you their profile page link or the screen name they chose to use with A2A, it’s going to be difficult or impossible to find them.

To make this easier for me, I’ve added a new module on the SFI Marketing Group Affiliates lens so you can add a link to your SFI A2A profile page – if you want to.

While you’re at the lens, I hope you’ll answer the polls, participate in the duel, and leave your comments or feedback.

Act on your dream!

JD

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