Technical Tidbits™

This post will probably affect maybe 1% of our readership, but I felt it worthy of posting anyway.

I have been having problems for quite some time using HootSuite for my social networking in both Firefox and IE 8 browsers. I finally found that it worked best in IE8 if that was the only thing running. Meaning, I didn’t have other tabs open like I so often do with Firefox. And, I can run IE 8 with HooteSuite while having my Firefox open with all the tabs I want without interference.

This morning, I made an amazing discovery! I had HooteSuite running in my IE and I had opened Firefox to log in to my BlogTalk radio show. Panic set in!

BlogTalk radio would not load properly and even when I tried to call in to the switchboard, the phone call would not connect and my switchboard items became dimmed out.  (Now why the calling part would be related to the online switchboard I don’t know.) With less than 3 minutes to show time, I started panicking!

I don’t know what made me shut down IE and HootesSuite, but as soon as I did, I was able to connect to the BlogTalk radio switchboard and my call went through!

When I decided to write this post, I went back to each page – HooteSuite and BlogTalk Radio – and looked at the page sources to see what might be conflicting.

Both sites use JavaScript but I’ve never had a problem having multiple tabs open with JavaScripts running on each page. Even the most complex JavaScript doesn’t seem to be resource intensive by any means.

The problem appears to be Flash. I don’t know whether each of these sites are so Flash intensive that the browsers (both IE and Firefox) can’t handle it, or whether there is a conflict with the resources being used by each and the way the browsers manage it.

Even now as I type this post, I have the radio switchboard open in one tab and HooteSuite open in another and I’m getting a lag in the typing here in the WordPress blog tab.  It seems to happen when either HooteSuite is updating the tweets, or when BlogTalk radio refreshes the page for the advertising at the top. Which appears to be handled by JavaScript so I’m really confused!

Anyway, I wanted to put this out there so anyone who might be having a problem using HooteSuite might benefit from knowing that you may have to restrict using it with other resource intensive sites.  At least until we can upgrade to such a powerful computer that it won’t matter how resource intensive a web app is for the browser! (Where is an affordable terabyte processor when you need one? )

So, if you’ve been kicked out of our radio show chat or lost your sound during a show, make sure that you’re not running HooteSuite in the background while you’re listening to the show live. I bet you won’t experience any problems during the show!

BTW, I know that friend of the show, Charles Taggart, uses TweetDeck during the show and he has never reported being kicked out of the live chat nor losing sound. (Yes Charles, I’ve heard the chirps over our phone conversations! LOL) So, whatever the difference is between how TweetDeck and HooteSuite is programmed to work, is where the problem is.

And I’m not going to blame the browsers on this one! Are you surprised? (GRIN)

Yesterday, I was downloading and reviewing my clients Google Analytics reports because I always like to see where I might be able to help them improve traffic.  I always leave my site reports for last.

When I opened the report for my personal/professional website – DebbieMahler.com – I was a bit startled to see the following search term that led someone to my web page!

(Click the image to see the full size)

I was a little taken aback when I saw that! It’s like reading your Obituary when no one told you were dead yet!

I immediately proceeded down to my roomies office in the lower level and said to him, “I’m a bit creeped out!”  Of course, he wanted to know why.

“I was just looking over my own Google Analytics report for Debbie Mahler. com and someone got to my site by searching for the terms: ‘radio show host woman death debbie’.” I replied.

My roommate started laughing and said, “Now there’s someone who knows you and knows how to use a search engine!”  I was stumped by what he meant. After all, I had myself dead!

As he went on to explain his reasoning for the results, it became clearer! And he was right! Not only did the person know enough about me, they also knew how to use the search engine to find me!

As you all know, I host a radio show – Technical Tidbits™ on Blogtalk Radio – and my name is Debbie. The key to what makes this search relevant specifically to me was the “death” search term!

What more and more people are finding out about me through listening to the radio show, connecting with me on the other social networks, or reading my metaphysical blog, is that I had a Near Death Experience (NDE) many, many years ago.

So, the person who actually did the search knew this about me and that’s where the “death” search term came into play.  And yes, this person does know how to use a search engine!

But there is also something telling in this search.  The person didn’t know my last name (Mahler) or didn’t know how to spell it?  And, they most certainly didn’t know my company because if they did, they might have entered MICE as a term.  And, they also didn’t know the name of my radio show because they didn’t use the search term ‘Technical Tidbits’ to narrow their search results.

Now, what does this rumor of my death search have to teach us? I’m not marketing my company nor my radio show properly! Otherwise, the person might have refined their search even more had they known more about me, my company, and my radio show.  So, I can guess from this search that the person is one of my social networking followers or a student from my Introduction to PC Security> course, or the Advanced PC Security course with Ed2go.

Why do I arrive at that conclusion?

1. I rarely, if ever, do self-promotion on my social networks – with the exception of the radio show.
2. I am restricted by contract from pointing my students to my personal or business website with Ed2go.

So, the take-away point of this post is that when you are reviewing your Google Analytics reports, look at more than just the basic information that it provides.

We all have a tendency to look at how many new and repeat visitors we have, what browser they’re using, where they came from, and the time they spend on the site.  What you might be missing – as I have until this search popped up in my report – is that the actual search terms may be telling a different story unrelated to SEO; as with my death!

The rumors of my death may be greatly exaggerated, but failure to get the word out about my business and my radio show could accelerate my professional demise much more quickly!

Now, go back and look over your own analytics report too!

Keeping in the theme of reigning in information overload this week, I’m going to talk about managing Facebook.

Many of us use our Facebook profile to keep up with High School friends and family but we also use it to market our business! So, how do you keep from having to scroll past all the Farmville news feeds and silly app invites while still keep your sanity?

First, you need to make a decision about what your primary purpose is for Facebook. If you are going to use your profile for marketing your business, then you have to put down some ground rules with your friends and family.

I am all in favor of playing games on social networks, don’t get me wrong! I have a private MySpace profile where I play my games but because games automatically post to your status feed – or wall on Facebook – I do not allow game playing on my Facebook account. Conversely, I post very little about my professional life on my MySpace game playing profile.

That doesn’t stop my well-meaning friends and family from sending me app invites for all kinds of things on Facebook. I just quietly block the app and ignore the request. Occasionally, I will also post a friendly reminder update that I do not play games on my Facebook profile.

Another step you can take to manage your news feed on your home page is to group your connections by category by using the list feature.

When you are on the Home section of your profile, click the Friends link on the left navigation. In the upper, middle section of the screen, you will see a button that has a plus sign (+) and is labeled:  Create a list. You will have the option to make the list private or public during the creation of it.

For example, I have my High School friends in a list titled: High School. Family is under a family list, and for people I am professionally connected with I have a Professional list. There’s a list for politicians I follow, Fans and Pages, and even a catch-all titled, Peeps for my social networking friends from Twitter and other social sites.

Now, here’s where the lists come in handy! On your Home section news feed, you can click on your list and see only the feeds of the people of that particular list!

Checking up on your family? Click the family list. Want to engage your professional or business connections? Click that list.

You manage the information overload by not having to sort through all the Farmville, Mafia Wars, and hug posts of your casual friends and family when you really want to focus on your business relationships!