Scott Bowler

Being organised in a social world

With hundreds (if not thousands) of social media sites out there it can be an uphill struggle to keep up to date with what’s going on. Organisation is the key and using the right tools can turn what seems like a mammoth task into simplicity.

Usernames and Passwords

If you’re a member of a lot of sites it’s tempting to reuse the same username and password so that you don’t have to have the memory of an elephant. This opens a bag of worms when it comes to security, but there is a simple solution:

This handy web based service has a plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer which allows you to securely save your passwords in a central location so no matter where you go or which computer you use, you will always have access to your passwords. With automatic login functionality you’ll find managing and browsing sites a breeze.

The passwords are encrypted locally, so in the worst case scenario (i.e. LastPass getting hacked) the information the hackers gain will be useless.

Staying on top of trends and the news

RSS feeds are the lifeblood of the social media world - by subscribing to your favourite sites you can get the latest news and stay ahead of the curve. It is possible to receive RSS feeds in Outlook, but it can quickly become overwhelming if you’re subscribing to hundreds of websites. The solution?

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Google Reader is an online tool which allows you to collate and read your RSS subscriptions, but it quickly falls into the same pitfall as Outlook. Feedly solves this problem by linking into Google Reader and displaying the RSS feeds in a magazine style website - imagine having your own personalised newspaper which only has articles in which you are interested and updates as soon as new news is available; this is Feedly.

One drawback of Feedly is that you can’t filter your feeds. Personally I’m bored of hearing about the latest iPhone apps and Apple news, so I don’t want to see anything about them in my Feedly magazine. The solution is to use FeedRinse - it’s a simple tool which allows you to filter (or rinse) your RSS feed subscriptions by setting up rules about which content to allow through.

An example of a filter I have setup can be seen below:

FeedRinse will provide you with a new RSS feed which applies the rules - you then subscribe to this in Feedly. In the next release Feedly is planning to incorporate FeedRinse type functionality so this extra step will be removed.

Sharing your juicy content

Social media is all about sharing and getting involved, and it’s likely that you’ll want to share content you find on sites such as Twitter and Facebook, not to mention bookmarking websites for later. Once again, Feedly comes to the rescue - from your magazine you can share content instantly on Twitter, Facebook, via e-mail and various other websites. However, you’re not always going to be on Feedly when you want to share content, but they have that covered too.

Their Firefox plugin inserts a small tab on the right hand side of the page you’re visiting giving you quick access to the option to share the content.

FriendFeed is another way to centralise what you share - I’ll be honest, I’m still getting to grips with FriendFeed but it’s definitely an interesting website to have a look at. If you have any suggestions on how best to use FriendFeed, leave a comment!

Managing your profiles & files

Another problem with getting involved in social media is keeping all your profiles and files up to date. If you’re anything like me, you will have at least a dozen profiles over sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Google and each one will require their own profile information. Keeping them consistent and up to date can be a challenge when time is short in the day. Enter Dropbox and our old friend LastPass:

We’ve all had the problem of needing a file but realising it’s not on the computer you’re currently using. Dropbox is a simple solution which installs a folder on your computer which gets backed up to their server. If you’re on another computer you have two options:

1. Login to the web based control panel and download the file
2. Install Dropbox onto the current computer and it will download the files from their server

Here’s the clever bit: If you make a change on any computer it will automatically synchronise it across all your other dropboxes. Keeping things such as profile pictures, default descriptions of yourself and various other bits and pieces synchronised and centralised will allow you to become more efficient no matter where you’re working

Back to LastPass - another handy feature is the ability to save form data and profiles. If you setup some default form data you can quickly insert this information into any site you register on, making creating and updating profiles a breeze.

Handy Tip: Get the Firefox plugin “FEBE” which allows you to backup your Firefox plugins, history and settings and set the backup location to Dropbox. This means that wherever you go you will be able to restore your installation of Firefox (and all those handy plugins) in minutes.

Conclusion

Social Media is always changing and keeping yourself organised will save huge amounts of time in the long run (and make you less stressed!). Be prepared for change and keep an eye out for the latest tools that will make your life easier - the web is maturing and the tools that come with it are making it easier to manage.

The solutions I’ve laid out work for me and what I do, but I’m always interested to hear how you organise yourself - so if you have any tips or suggestions, leave a comment for the world to learn from!

Scott Bowler

You can follow Scott on Twitter for other Social Media & SEO tips by going to: http://www.twitter.com/scottybowl

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