A1-Webmarks…. if you are like me, you’ve never heard of it before and just think – jeesh!  another site to have to worry about. So let’s check it out.

At first glance I see that it was very recently added to Add-This (mid-late October of 2009).   They define as “Webmark” as follows:

A webmark marks a location on the web, just like a bookmark marks a location in a book. It’s a web page, whose address you want to remember for some reason. Webmarks are often called bookmarks or favorites, especially when the webmark itself is stored offline on your PC.

Furthermore… A1 stands for:  Anywhere, 1 Click Away. If that’s true, then in theory I already like this service because I feel I’ve got bookmarks on sites all over the darn place.  Here’s what they tell me they claim they offer:

• Hierarchical tagging of webmarks to assign them to a topic
• Instant access to your most often used webmarks (your favorites)
• Alphabetic indexing of your webmarks
• Personal evaluation of webmarks
• Private webmarks and private comments, visible only to you
• Webmarks to password-protected areas or to your local intranet or files
• Webmark search
• Periodic checks of your webmarks to let you know, which pages are no longer accessible
• Import and export of webmarks

And the social aspect of what they say they offer:

• Sophisticated evaluation of the community’s webmark evaluations to show you “more webmarks like that” for all of your topics
• Most popular webmarks amongst all A1-Webmarks users, separated by language
• Most popular tags and their corresponding most popular webmarks
• Access to the public webmarks and public comments of other A1-Webmarks users
• Publishing lists of interesting webmarks on some specific topic
• Rating of lists and list entries
• Making proposals for new list entries

At first glance it appears to be much like the other Social Bookmarking sites out there, but not as “pretty” or dolled-up.  The interface loads quickly, but it also includes banner ads.

I see the advantages of this site with the ratings and evaluations of links, rather than just ranking based on number of bookmarks.  I see the advantage of some of the organization and tagging methods behind the ‘webmarks’ and such.  It looks like it’s a good service that may be up-and-coming.

I have to say personally for me.  I probably, at most, will be a very basic user of A1-Webmarks for the time being – only because of the time factor, and the number of sites I already need to manage.  I may down the road decide to import and organize my bookmarks fully into this service, but for today I will pass.

As it rates/ranks and allows you to vote on webmarks and lists, it gives no point of reference on how those approval rating are calculated, the number of “members” or people voting.  So until I learn more – I have added a few basic ‘webmarks’ that will create incoming links to my favorite sites, and we’ll leave it that.

Know more about A-1 Webmarks than I do?  Please leave a comment and tell me why you like/dislike it.

I’ve not been great in recent weeks about getting blog posts up and writing about cool stuff.  Primarily because life is just so darn crazy between work, family and church – along with my recent to decision to get back into working out at the gym several times a week – my only free time seems to be after 10pm at night – at which time, I’m generally catching up on Food Network shows like Iron Chef America and The Next Iron Chef.

This week (today actually), I also begin co-leading a group of women through the 12-Step program, a year long commitment which I am soooo excited about – to help women overcome their personal hurts, habits and hang-ups.  This fills up another night of the week, and leaving little to no free-time.

This morning as I’m getting signed up for yet another Social Media Service, which I have no time for, I stumbled onto something that has given me inspiration for my next 100 posts or so – literally.  I created a Naymz profile, which I still don’t what I’m using it for and why – but like me, you probably always get invitations to this site or that site by your social media contacts.  Here’s what I’ve decided to do… I’m going to assess each one of the “services” listed on the AddThis list (see below).

My next 100 or so blog posts...

Some I know inside and out, and we’ll have some fun with those – others of these, honestly I’ve never heard of – so this should be a journey.  We are going to start with the top of the list and work our way down.

I hope you’ll join me on my “AddThis” adventure.  I think there is much to be learned!

A while back I wrote an article called “What’s In A Name?” which further explains the meaning behind my social media handle “SocialPMChick”.  The article was written in fun, but there is some truth and reason to how you define yourself online.  We are so much more than just a name without a face, and our online identity needs to have meaning.

I don’t consider myself to be among the top experts in the Social Media arena, though I learn quickly what works and what doesn’t.  I quickly gather information, and try to share with the world so others don’t make the same mistakes I have.

Remember that first impressions are huge in an arena where nobody forgets anything, and even when you think they’ve forgotten, some old thing you may have said, written, posted etc. may rear it’s ugly head and get blogged about, tweeted about, etc…. You get the picture.

My advice, take it or leave it, is to consider what your goals are for using Social Media and set out to define your personal brand, personality or identity – before you run off creating Twitter IDs, blogs and all the other things we Social Media fanatics do.  Once you establish your personality that is how people will remember you (and whether or not they like you or find you of any value!).

When defining your identity, ask yourself the a few basic questions?

• What am I passionate about?
• What am I good at?
• In what areas do I hope to grow?
• What am I a subject matter expert on?
• What types of people do I want to interact with?
• What do I hope to accomplish through Social Media?

The answers to these questions can help you define your online personality or personal brand.  Maybe your social media handle is simply your name, or maybe it’s a combination of things that you get excited about or what to network around.  For me, I strive to gain knowledge in the areas of Social Media, Project Management, Internet Marketing and Passionate People.  Those were some of my criteria, and after much thought and tossing around ideas I came up with SocialPMChick, which has served me well.

Especially on Twitter, I find myself intrigued by really interesting Twitter IDs, and that leads me to explore further what that person is about and what they have to offer.  I have a whole theory on who I follow and why, which I also wrote about, but first impressions can go a long way if your online identity is well thought out and executed.

What defines you online?  I’d love to know.