I love my friends, you do too.  But sometimes you just need to block things out of your Facebook news feed, for whatever reason.  Facebook has evolved over the years, and has recently introduced some nice features that allow you to target your status updates to specific people and thus not publishing every single thing to the news feed for the world to see… but… not everyone is using that feature.

So if you are looking to block a single post, or even block all posts from a particular person in your Facebook “friends,” here is how you do it:

"Hide This Post"

Start by running your mouse over the upper right hand corner of the specific update in your news feed you’d like to block.  A little “x” will appear, and when you click on it you’ll get the drop down shown here.  If it’s spam, you can report it, but in this case we accept it’s from a friend, but just want to block it from our feed.

Once you’ve opted to “Hide this post”, the post will disappear from your news feed.  At this point you can undo the block, hide all posts by that particular friend, or remove them from your friends altogether.

Undo, Hide All, or Unfriend. The choice is yours.

If you decide you do want to block all future news feed posts for that person, click the “Hide all by…” link.  You will get confirmation that states:

“Posts from ________ will no longer appear in your News Feed.  Edit News Feed Options.”

Either you are done, and you want to go back to whatever you were doing before this post appeared in your feed and you decided you needed to block it… Or you can take a look at your overall preferences for your News Feed Options and look at who you are already blocking, what applications are being blocked and more.

Hope this helps!  Happy Faceblocking!

My Klout Score as of June 24, 2011

When was the last time you checked your Klout score? When you did check it, did it totally bum you out?  Did it make you feel unimportant?  Did you feel a sense of self-pity, thinking, THIS is what people really think of me?  If you felt that way, then I would encourage you to pay attention and take some notes.  It’s not about your self-image and how much people like you.

Your Klout score is not the end-all-be-all rating of how people perceive you in the land of social media.  It is, however, an incredibly useful to understand who you are reaching, and what topics you might be influential about.  If you are a content publisher using social media as your medium, then your Klout score should give you some insight about how your messaging is perceived.

Forget about the numbers and the scores, and think of your Klout score in terms of keywords and topics.  If you are using social media channels professionally, my guess is you probably want to be heard about certain topic or set of keywords, and that your voice provides value in a particular area, whether you want to tell the world everything you know about cooking with artichokes, or you want to be heard about b2b social media.  Your Klout score will give you some baseline information as to how you are being heard.  By understanding this, you can adjust your communication strategy to gain influence in particular areas over others.

Twitter Bio: SocialPMChick

Let’s dig in a bit.  My Klout score as of today is 56.  Not a huge number, but I am totally cool with it.  I use social media both personally and professionally to connect with folks all over the place who share common interests and have knowledge in areas that I can learn and grow.  Professionally, I’m tweeting and blogging about social media strategies for b2b companies.  Personally, I’m tweeting about things like NASCAR and artichokes (yeah, weird combination I know, but if you get to know me, you’ll understand).

You are probably using #hashtags in your tweets, and if you are not, you might consider doing so.  This enables your tweets to be seen by people who don’t necessarily follow you, but may be interested in what you have to say.  Without letting your Klout score rule your universe, you can use it as a guideline as to what hashtags are working and perhaps which ones might be misrepresenting what’s important to you. Checking your profile to see what you are influential about can give you some insight into how well you are communicating.

SocialPMChick Influence

Take a look at your topics from time to time to better understand this.  If there are things showing up that you are influential about that don’t represent who you are, then perhaps you might consider changing up how you communicate and what your are talking about.  If you are slowing gaining influence about a topic that matters to you, well then, keep on keepin’ on!  Don’t let the actual number of your score deflate you and make you think your efforts are for nothing.  And don’t worry about the number of followers.  The use of hashtags can reach far beyond your followers, and help you grow your network.

That’s it a high level. Start there to gain better insight into what your Klout score can tell you.  I think next time we’ll dig in a bit more to some of the other tidbits that you can learn from Klout.

Yahoo has rolled out a new search feature. When searching on news or entertainment related items, the search engine gives you a more tabular approach in your results.

Often times I’m searching for a particular song, lyrics, video because I’ve heard a song on the radio I cannot get out of my head. Or where movies are concerned, Yahoo now throws up images, trailers, tweets, buy tickets and more all in this new interface. Check out this short video about the changes Yahoo is offering.

I may find myself using Yahoo now for more specific searches that pertain to entertainment and news.  How about you?

Doesn't get much more verbose than that.

A little Friday fun and something to ponder.  My good friend Sue and I often talk about words and their meanings.  Often times we’ll make up words or acronyms as our fearless Cazbah leader Charles Broersma likes to do.  Somehow this week we got on the subject of such words and vernacular and verbose.

Here are the definitions according to Dictionary.com.

Vernacular:  of or pertaining to such a language.

Verbose:  characterized by the use of many or too many words

I like to say that Charles is a “vernacularist” (which is my made up word) when it comes to the language of Cazbah.    When you provide internet marketing and community management services for small business, there are many words that can describe that, but some words are better created from scratch to describe the uniqueness of Cazbah’s business.

My definition of vernacularist would be ‘speaking in dialect pertaining to such a language’.  Charles is great at creating words that actually mean something to Cazbah employees and make perfect sense when spoken without a definition provided – brilliant in my mind!  To those outside of Cazbah these words may require further explanation, therefore these words are vernacular.

As we dug deeper into this subject, we started pondering the term verbose and the question was asked “if verbose is too many words, what is the opposite of that”?    According to Dictionary.com and Opposite-Word.com the opposite of verbose is concise or laconic.  I have to tell you I disagree, and here’s why.  The definitions are as follows:

Concise:  expressing or covering much in few words; brief in form but comprehensive in scope

Laconic:  using few words; expressing much in few words

Now expressing something in few words, but being comprehensive and getting to the point is concise (unlike this sentence).  The opposite of Verbose, however, might be defined as  “not having used enough words to make ones point” or  ”the inability to make ones point due to finding ones self at a loss for words“.  THAT is the opposite of verbose in my mind.

Being concise gets the point across in few words, but not TOO few words.  Verbose gets the point across with using too may words.  If there were not enough words (which is the opposite of too many words), then the point would not be made (like this post).  I might propose a new word for the opposite of verbose to add to my vernacular, and the nominees are:

• inverbose
• unverbacious
• verbaciousless

Can you tell me in a concise manner what your opposite might be?  A little fun for a Friday – use as many or as few words as you like!  (Yes, I’m still talking…)  Hopefully I’ve made my point in a very verbose manner that to be concise would be nice, but would also use just enough words.

Google Analytics recently rolled out the new “Intelligence” section of Analytics – adding more features to how we track and manage web conversions.  I thought I’d take a few minutes to show you the basics on how to set them up and why you might want to use them.

The more we know about our web site’s performance, the better we can plan for upcoming drops in traffic (based on past trends), or prepare for increased traffic with successful marketing campaigns.

Annotations can be an effective tool in placing reminders right into your analytical data that you can refer back to when pulling historical data.  A couple of examples of where you might do this:

• Large/Sudden drop in traffic due to perhaps a power outage – note the power outage so a year from now when you look at historical date you remember that.
• A jump in traffic could be due to an email campaign, press release, blog post, new product intro – note the specific event in your Google analytics account.
• When you are working with tools like Google AdWords you often make budget changes, create new Ad Groups, pause Ad Groups.  Creating an annotation is a good idea to track these events.
• Perhaps you launch a full site redesign that includes all new content that will need to be re-indexed by the search engines.  Create an annotation.

There are many reasons to create annotations in Google Analytics as they are quick ‘at-a-glance’ checkpoint when looking at your data.  Below is a quick snap-shot of annotations and how to create them.

The above image shows the same data point and how to view/create annotations.  Here’s the breakdown:

Image A shows the data point (date) where there was a jump in traffic.  Notice in the image the little thought bubble at the bottom. This is the indicator that lets you know there is an Annotation associated with that date.

Image B shows what you will see if you mouse-over the annotation bubble.  It shows you the date, how many site visits on that date, and how many annotations have been created for that date.  (If you have clicked on that, you’ll see your annotations just below this graph).

Image C is what you see when you click on the annotation bubble – this is where you get the option to “Create New Annotation.”

Once you’ve clicked on “Create New Annotation” you have the option to insert text associated with the event you want to track for that date.  (See image below)  It’s pretty straight forward – just put in a very brief description of the event you are tracking.  “BLOG POST:  Creating Google Annotations” would be the description I would create if I created one for this post.   Save it, and your done!

Creating Annotations in Google Analytics

I am finding Google Analytics Annotations to be a good tool to use when doing specific tasks related to Social Media tasks.  I know we use monitoring and tracking tools for Social Media, and Google Analytics was not built specifically for that, but often times customers want that quick ‘at-a-glance” view of how things are going, how a Facebook change may have been successful or generated new fans, if a blog post drove traffic to your site, etc.

I hope this was helpful.

• Good Morning World – Day 14 Free of Tobacco is looking pretty good (and smellin' good too!) #
• RT @copyblogger How to Quit Hitting the Snooze Button on Your Blog http://bit.ly/cyxfcq #
• RT @sewatch Universal Search 101 – Search Engine Watch (SEW) http://bit.ly/b0ABAD #
• Google Analytics now allows annotations by date – excellent news! #
• Sitting in doctors office. Just noticed A LOT of dust on closet door in my exam room. Hmmmmm. Kinda really bothering me. #
• http://twitpic.com/11c9hi is that normal dust in a doctors office? Or am I being over dramatic here??? #
• @AllWomenStalk I'm thinking I'm looking for a new PCP after today. in reply to AllWomenStalk #
• CNN Breaking News: Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologizes for recall, says "Toyota's cars are safe," Kyodo news agency says. #

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• @rochrazorsharks congrats on the home opener win against Buffalo. Saw it in today's paper. #
• RT @microgeist: Conduct internal customers satisfaction surveys (how about blind employee satisfaction surveys too) #
• RT @sewatch Apple/Google Turf Battle Rages On: Mobile Search on the Block – Search Engine Watch (SEW) http://bit.ly/52iGFx #
• RT @SkeeterHarris: The Kandle is obviously a LED light for the Kindle http://is.gd/70mJb (@surrealVAD Do you have one of these yet?) #
• Day 7, No tobacco. T/U to all my Social Media friends who tweeted their support & left encouraging words on FB. http://bit.ly/6jQml6 #
• @surrealVAD You must get your Kindle fully accessorized! in reply to surrealVAD #
• RT @Flipbooks Most failures could've been converted into successes if someone had held on another minute or made more effort ~N. Hill #quote #
• @GeekMommy That would have come in handy for me this weekend in reply to GeekMommy #
• Tip: If you are going to auto reply to my following you, please check your Auto-Reply for errors… #
• @maryhruth Hey friend… I'm struggling today (day 7 no nicotene)- what have you got for me? #
• @jennyjo70 Just stopping by to say hello. in reply to jennyjo70 #
• My latest quit smoking aid… virtual bubble wrap… http://bit.ly/7w44f1 #
• RT @mashable Google Toolbar Keeps Tracking Your Browsing Even After You Choose Disable? http://bit.ly/5hFIkR (Big Brother is watching?) #
• @maryhruth I'm good Day 8 no tobacco still plugging along! 153 comments from FB friends kept me going too! in reply to maryhruth #
• Pack of cigs $8, Regular gum to quit $3.50, nicotine gum $52, Support of my Social Media friends – PRICELESS http://bit.ly/6jQml6 #
• Apple Announces the iPad today http://bit.ly/9EIUbI #
• Thank you Lindsey from Twitter support! You saved my week! #
• Checking out weRead app on Facebook – hoping to exchange great book info #
• @lorenpmatthews That is a fabulous question! I'd much rather ponder that than #sotu #
• When you are feeling down – a random act of kindness for someone in need is a great way to improve your spirits (and theirs)! #
• @Theresa111 Imagine if everyone did one small random act of kindness a day. Can you imagine? How simple! #payitforward in reply to Theresa111 #
• @kidsareheroes Hey Gabe. Just wanted to say hello! It's been far too long. #
• I'm thinking about writing my bucket list. Who has theirs written and what's your #1? #
• Today's Daily Challenge: "Choose your most available resource (time or $$) & donate a little each month. Schedule it." #payitforward #
• RT @ShootHistory: Turnbull Restoration Firearms Stolen From Dallas Safari Club Gun Show – Press Release http://bit.ly/9ccjgX #
• Tim Hortons in Victor, NY gets my vote for #customerservice. Ed the manager there rocks! (even without the chicken stew bread bowls!) #
• RT @maddiegrant: RT @sharisax: #smsci Your brand should be a box of crayons NOT a rubber stamp, so people can input their own needs, ideas #
• Are you prepared in a roadside emergency? AAA/CAA discount on safety equipment – good stuff (Please RT) http://tinyurl.com/yh44veq #
• #followfriday shout to @ShootHistory new to Twitter – specializes in accurate restoration of antique firearms – Doug is an artist! #
• @SkeeterHarris Stay warm my friend! in reply to SkeeterHarris #

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• @Buzzy5025 thanks for the vote buzzy! Tweet yah later! in reply to Buzzy5025 #
• RT @tessa: Shoes That Tweet (Yes, Really!) http://bit.ly/8CgnhQ (That might be a little too far for me!) What will they think of next? #
• CNN photos of Haiti – Very powerful & gut wrenching. http://bit.ly/7pf4sV One thing we can do that's free… PRAY for them! #
• RT @Kibler: "Everything that is done in the world is done by hope." Martin Luther King, Jr. #
• RT @inspiredguru: Faith is a positive feeling. Cultivate it. #lawofattraction #
• Welcome @RochRazorSharks to Twitter – Rochester's Professional Basketball team! Cool! Looking forward to following you guys! #
• @MsGreene I'm told by @AvenueZ (who rocks!) we should connect! I'd love to chat #
• RT @Flipbooks: "The time is always right to do what is right" ~Martin Luther King Jr #MLK #quotes #
• @RochRazorSharks Never been to a professional basketball game my friend – the last game I went to was probably our Blue Devils! in reply to RochRazorSharks #
• I just learned about FourSquare today (am I too late?) What a cool concept! I'd love to be the Mayor of anywhere! #
• @JMCCustomCakes Hey – get your logo uploaded as your Twitter Avatar. If you need a smaller file to do it let me know. in reply to JMCCustomCakes #
• Adoptive Family finds that Haitian baby (Ester) they were to adopt survived the quake – family to be united. Finally some good. #
• US military rifle sights with secret biblical code? http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=9575794&pid=574 #
• My Advice: When you're wrong, just ADMIT IT, take responsibility. It's easier to move forward in a positive direction. (I just did) #
• @KelleyMoore I am passionate about God & working to let that spill out into other areas of my life, from my career to my children, etc. in reply to KelleyMoore #
• RT @AceConcierge: * “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin (Oh how true that is!) #
• @JonathanLWade OK Jon, blushing here. Thanks for the vote of confidence – you are too kind! in reply to JonathanLWade #
• @AceConcierge Oh Thank you! I love hugs! (and thanks for the content that is worth the RT!) in reply to AceConcierge #
• RT @guyro: RT @Beaker: You can outsource responsibility but accountability is on you. <- wise words even out of context (now that's deep) #
• Just fought the urge to have my "after work cigarette". Phew! 24 hrs and counting. Lord, give me strength! I can do this. #
• Quick! Someone tell me something funny to take my mind off smoking a cig. #
• @B_BMom Thanks for the encouragement – I'm chewin' gum like mad! in reply to B_BMom #
• @maryhruth It's been since Monday – so far so good Just keep telling me I can do this! My lungs will thank me for it in reply to maryhruth #
• Is there any way to have a twitter account deleted that was perhaps not set up properly? Please help! #
• Check out these amazing high speed photos http://bit.ly/6tzUmQ (RT @GuyKawasaki ) Incredible stuff! #
• "When you start feeling sad, stop being said and be awesome instead" ~Author Unknown (just saw that on facebook and love it)! Just Be! #
• I just unlocked the "Newbie" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/5cjhk4 #
• I'm at Basin Pub (637 Pittsford-Victor Rd, Marsh, Pittsford). http://4sq.com/78IqCp #
• New to Twitter Brunings Wine Cellar – Check them out! Welcome @brunings #
• Not loving the follow limits. How am I supposed to gain followers if I can't reach new folks by following them & building new relationships? #
• @maryhruth Thanks Mary! I'm toughin' it out but great to have an online accountability partner – since that is where I spend my days in reply to maryhruth #
• @maryhruth 48 hours tobacco free! Doing pretty well. in reply to maryhruth #
• Rise and shine! Day three with no nicotene/tobacco. Thank you God! #
• How I'm using Social Media to quit smoking (please RT so someone else might quit too!) http://bit.ly/6jQml6 #
• @askmanny Thanks for the RT! in reply to askmanny #
• @maryhruth Thank you thank you! in reply to maryhruth #
• Day 4: Tobacco Free. I'm using Social Media to quit smoking (and it's really working). http://bit.ly/6jQml6 Please RT. #
• #followfriday shout to @JonathanLWade cause he's just all around #coolfolk. Check him out! #
• Please follow @JMCCustomCakes she's new on the scene. Her custom desserts are edible art (and she's a sweetheart!) http://bit.ly/8dHNBF #ff #
• One More for all you basketball fans – @RochRazorSharks – Rochester's own basketball team! #followfriday #
• @maryhruth You definitely deserve some #followfriday love just for being genuine and truly caring! Thanks for being you! #
• RT @DanielleCyr: YouTube has some new features: http://tinyurl.com/ybfdyqr #
• #followfriday shout to @leedrake because he's all about quality relationships. #
• Time to get back to basics on Twitter – clean out the cobwebs & work on building some quality relationships both new and old. #
• Found these stunning infrared photos via @speedmaster http://bit.ly/8Irpvj Some breathtaking shots worth taking a moment to enjoy! #
• RT @rachbarnhart: I love how this guy turned a layoff into work…http://bit.ly/7L0qLA #
• @jimmerz213 is #coolfolk. Happy Friday Jim! #
• Dr Seuss Memorial Garden (via @successnations ) http://bit.ly/8vEJYH #
• Some Jokester put up a cube wall at the entrance to my office – guess I cannot go home for the weekend #
• Lentils & Spetzle for dinner with the parental units in B-port. #
• @MarkShepard more often than I'd like! That's a great shot! in reply to MarkShepard #

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What a horrible image! Makes you think doesn't it?

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 I woke up and said to myself, “I don’t feel like smoking anymore!”  It wasn’t something I planned or thought much about in advance.  I have talked about quitting smoking but always told myself that I had other things to fix in my life before I gave up the tobacco.  Here was my list:

• Get my spending/bad money habits under control (working on this!)
• Lose 40-50 lbs (already did that)
• Wait for my significant other to be ready to quit (he’s just not ready)
• New Year’s (or this date or that date – like ‘after my birthday’)
• When I move into my new place (that didn’t happen)

Excuses, excuses – and sometimes the spontaneous things we do in life are the most effective.  So with Tuesday morning’s revelation, I just gave it to God and decided to run with it.  I should note, I’ve been on a spiritual recovery journey these last 2 years anyway, and have overcome a gambling addiction, and have vastly improved my unhealthy relationship with money.  The foundation for my recovery has come from Celebrate Recovery and the work I’m doing there has allowed me to gather up the tools I need to get my life in order.  This time around, the quitting smoking is entirely different for me because I’m viewing it as an act of worship that is pleasing to God.

Some days, this is how I feel.

So what brought this on?  I’m not 100% sure, but I know it’s a God thing.  This past weekend in church a very wise young pastor talked about the importance of community – he shared statistics that stated that a person who is totally healthy and totally lonely will typically not live as long as the person who smokes and drinks but is actively involved in community.  The by-line was something to the effect of – it’s better to eat a twinkie with friends than to eat an apple alone. (Remember this is all a paraphrase, but the message was profound).  So, since I am actively involved in community, I thought it would be even better to get healthy AND be in community – so I can live to be 120!  (I’m sure my kids will love that!)

So in line with that, I am leaning on my community to hold me accountable.  I currently co-lead a women’s 12-step study at my church to help others through their journey to let go of life’s hurts, habits and hang-ups, but I’m also realizing that I need far more than that small group to hold me accountable. That’s where Social Media comes in.

The rough math – in my real “in person” life, I probably have about 20 people who I would look to keep me in check and hold me accountable to not smoke – but knowing myself and my lack of will power I decided to take it to the masses.  If I add up my current online social networks – just including Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn, the numbers amount to about 3,300 connections.  To some that number may seems small in the world of social networking, but for me that’s over 3,000 that can hold me accountable to not smoke.

I hadn’t intended to use my online connections for this purpose, but one Tweet and one Facebook status update (both which fed to my LinkedIn status) amassed many many comments in just mere moments, and the comments and praise continue to come.

The kinds words from all of my Social Media “friends” and “tweeps” and “connections” are truly helping to keep me motivated.  The only one I’m truly accountable to is God, but the “You Go Girl!”, “You can do it!” (and my personal favorite) “Just think about how much money you will save!” are really helping me to stay motivated.  Here are my other 3 reasons for quitting:

So for those that don’t want to hear about it – sorry, but I will continue to tweet and post until I feel I’m free and clear – and to those who are taking the 30 seconds to leave an encouraging word – I AM TRULY GRATEFUL!

If you would like to join my accountability team and watch my progress, please send me a friend request, or catch up on Twitter!  Not only do I already feel better… but I smell better too!  :)

Please Re-Tweet this post! Maybe we can get just one more person the encouragement they need to quit smoking too!  We can do this!

MYTH!   Google does not use Meta Keywords to determine search position.

Today, Matt Cutts of Google published a blog post and short video about the lack of impact that Meta Keywords actually have on your web sites Google search position and further added that content is the key driving factor in Google’s method of determining your site’s ranking.

Meta keywords has been a touchy subject with some of my clients, as for some time now we have been letting them know that keyterms in the meta data just don’t matter much anymore.  While there has been an increase in ranking after keyterms have been added to the meta data on some sights, I have to now believe that is more coincidence than anything.

As for my clients, I will continue to utilize the meta-data fields on their web sites, however the level of priority I will place on this piece of the SEO process will be far less than it has in the past.  Meta Data, now officially becomes a smaller piece of the puzzle when it comes to SEO.

Get your clients developing keyterm rich and keyterm relevant content.  That’s where they will enjoy better ranking, and frankly – it’s what the site users are looking for anyway!