Social Media Power is now producing video tutorials on YouTube. You can visit the Internet Empowerment Mini-Series channel or stay tuned as we post them here on our blog. You are encouraged to make tutorial requests.

This video tutorial is about creating a Twitter Background using Twitbacks.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-xIbzcwKtA

Here is a list of some of the best-rated sites for helping you achieve some of the most typical resolutions. And if you don’t have a resolution yet, perhaps this list can help you find a worthy one!

Inclusion in this list is based on how well a tool is rated in common review sites and the cost of a tool’s service. Reasonably priced services and sites that offer a free version were more likely to make the list, as were sites that offer some sort of collaboration or interactivity when applicable.

Weight Loss & Fitness

beYOU.tv offers fitness and wellness videos ranging from yoga to boot camp, pilates to meditation. Videos may be watched for free with advertising or purchased and downloaded.

BodyDaemon is a free lifestyle monitoring tool that allows members to record their workouts, food, body, goals, injuries and lots more. Share as much or as little information as you like. Members can update their journal via the Website, your Facebook application or mobile phone.

Extrapounds is a free online weight loss community that provides you with weight loss tools to help you stick to your diet plans. It is where Extrapounds members share their experiences and support one another on their journeys to becoming weight loss success stories.

Fitness Journal is designed to enhance any diet or exercise program. They do not tell you what to eat or how to workout. Fitness Journal allows you an easy, interactive way to manage your workout and diet information. Their software will help you focus on the end result, and motivate you to keep moving in the right direction.

ProjectWeightLoss is an online community of users looking to achieve a healthier lifestyle. It offers tools to help you count your calories, decide on a diet program and a fitness program, and evaluate where you stand weight-wise. Plus, you’ll be in contact with a lot of like-minded people.

SparkPeople’s mission is to SPARK millions of PEOPLE to reach their goals and lead healthier lives. They offer nutrition, health, and fitness tools; support; and resources that are free. Their weight loss program teaches people to stop dieting and transition to a permanent, healthy lifestyle.

Thintopia is an online community with the purpose of helping each member reach his/her weight loss goals. They are dedicated to providing services the community needs to motivate, inspire, and educate each other. The main service they provide is free weight loss competitions.

Traineo’s mission is to create the most effective health and fitness community on the Web by combining the latest software technology with sound information and services from the world’s leading health and fitness experts. Traineo is the culmination of over six years of development, testing, and focus group studies in partnership with leading experts in weight loss, health, sports, and fitness.

Healthy & Sustainable Living

Fivelimes is an entirely user-generated community that acts as your independent resource for information on the latest eco-friendly and socially responsible products and services. Our mission is to make the job of finding, discussing, comparing, and shopping for green products and services around the world extremely easy. The more people acting together, the greater our impact will be.

Green Map System energizes a diverse global movement of local map-making teams charting their community’s natural, cultural, and green living resources with universal icons and adaptable multi-lingual resources. Explore hundreds of perspective-changing Green Maps created by local Map teams in 50 countries.

Browse through LIME for healthy living resources. Read about healthy food, health, and balance. Meet new people and view the top topics. Access the food section for recipes, food videos, food features, and news feeds.

rVita leverages Web 2.0 by bringing the power of mash ups, user-generated content, and community to the integrative medicine world. The site’s key features include reputed content about integrative therapies, a trusted practitioner network so you can find the best provider near you, and valuable feedback from other consumers and experts about what remedies really worked for them.

Quitting Smoking

The iPhone application My QuitLine puts you in touch with free expert advice to help you quit smoking. This application connects you—by phone or by live help—with a trained quit smoking counselor at the National Cancer Institute Quitline.

QuitMeter is a countdown and tracking widget that you can save to your desktop or embed on other social sites like Facebook or Friendster. It helps you keep track of how many cigarettes you have not smoked and how much money you have saved—in real time.

Qwitter is a social tool designed to help you quit smoking. Quitter is the Web 2.0 way to quit smoking. It’s a social tool supported by Twitter, so you can have your whole Twitter entourage and the Twitter community at large help you quit smoking.

Philanthropy

Better The World is a platform that will let anybody support any cause he finds worthwhile just by browsing the Web. Users download a sidebar that will be employed to display relevant ads while they are surfing the Web. Charities spanning the whole world have partnered with the company in order to give users everywhere many options to choose from.

Care2 provides powerful tools to make a difference in your life, your community, and the world. The Website is driven by passionate people (like you) who want to restore the world’s balance. They’re committed to using the power of business to make a positive social and earth-friendly impact on the world.

Do Something believes you have the power to make a difference. Their aim is to inspire, support, and celebrate a generation of doers: people who see the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action. They provide the tools and resources for you to convert your ideas and energy into positive action.

The mission of YourCause is to empower individuals to change our world—leveraging their own voices, networks, and spheres of influence to improve the lives of others. The dedicated and accomplished YourCause team is committed to supporting and facilitating the efforts of a caring member community and the causes they champion so passionately.

Money & Debt Management

Geezeo offers personal finance money management tools to consumers for free, but they also have what they call a “community of motivators” where you can ask and answer financial questions in a forum setting.

Green Sherpa looks like a budgeting solution but is really a quality of life upgrade. View your money data in a cash flow format for powerful and transparent financial tracking, forecasting, and financial reporting. You also can invite a team to help you: Green Sherpa enables users to collaborate with financial partners, personal or professional, in order to make better financial decisions.

Moneytrackin’ is a free online Web application that allows you to track all your expenses and income easily and without effort, thus allowing you to have a clear view of your financial situation. Their users build saving collective knowledge by sharing both global and local tips. These tips can be discussed by the community itself using comments.

Wesabe offers the same expense tracking and budget management features as other personal financial management tools, but they also offer a way for people to share their experience and benefit from the lessons of others.

Time Management & Productivity

From Basecamp: For years project management software was about charts, graphs, and stats. And you know what? It didn’t work. Pictures and numbers don’t get projects done. Basecamp tackles project management from an entirely different angle: A focus on communication and collaboration. Basecamp brings people together.

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Google Apps is a Web-based hosted solution, which means you can access Google Apps at anytime, anywhere you have an Internet connection and store your content right on their servers. You might hear this type of technology referred to as “software-as-a-service” or “cloud computing.” Applications offered include Gmail for business, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Groups, Google Sites, and Google Video.

From NowDoThis: how do you organize your day? A calendar requires you to predict the unpredictable. A to-do list can overwhelm you with data. I wanted a ‘boss’ to tell me what to do. Enjoy this free tool.

RescueTime is a Web-based time-management tool that allows you to easily understand how you spend your time. Your time gets tracked down to the second without you having to actively track it. Instantly know how much time you’re spending on a particular application (like “Microsoft Word”), site (like “Google.com”) or a category (like “Communication”).

Teamwork Project Manager is an easy-to-use online teamwork and project management software application that helps managers, staff, and clients work together more productively online.

So there you have it. No excuses my real-time friend. Make your new year Web 2.0 accomplished!

In addition to increasing your exposure in the Social Web, adding your images and video to media communities can have other advantages. There are many open source applications that tap into the power of these sites to offer you a host of features you can add to your blog or Website, features like image and video galleries, portfolios, or sidebar widgets. With proper planning, you can even see better search engine placement for your images and video files by adding them to media communities.

The following excerpts are from A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web by Deltina Hay

Copyright 2009 by Deltina Hay. All rights reserved.

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Image Sharing Strategy

• Get an account with the image community of your choice and fill out your profile completely. Remember that this may be the only chance you get to make an impression on potential clients or readers.
• Gather the images you can upload right away. This may include:
  • Logos
  • Head shots of company principals
  • Author photos
  • Book covers
  • Event photos
• Prepare a main key term list to use as tags for every image. This may be your company name, principal name, author name, book title, home city, etc.
• For each image you want to upload prepare:
  • A list of key terms to use as tags in addition to your main key term list.
  • A short title that uses at least two key terms.
  • A description that uses several key terms.
• Use a form like the one below so you will be prepared when uploading images. (A fillable and printable version of this form is available on the resource CD [that comes with the book].)
• Pull images from your account onto your blog and/or Website
  • As a badge or widget
  • As an image gallery
• Connect with others by browsing images and commenting.

(Click on image to see a larger version.)

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Beyond strategies for image and video sharing, this chapter  includes real world examples of media communities in action, as well as ways you can use these communities to increase your search engine ranking.  The resource CD offers linkable resources and a number of fillable PDF forms called “Image Sharing Strategy,” “Prep Form For Image Communities,” “Video Sharing Strategy,” and “Prep Form For Video Communities.”

A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web by Deltina Hay

416 Pages, Indexed, Resource CD with fillable forms.

Buy from Amazon or…

Exclusive offer for Social Media Power readers: $18.00 including US shipping:

About Examiner.com:

Covering thousands of subjects across hundreds of cities and towns, Examiners come from all walks of life and contribute unique and original content to entertain, inform, and inspire their readers. Examiners are credible, passionate and knowledgeable local influencers.

Deltina will write about Web 2.0 related news and events in the Austin area as well as other Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 topics of interest. As usual, her focus will be on using the tools of Web 2.0 in a sustainable and optimized way, so there will also be many tips and information on new tools.

Please check out the Austin Web 2.0 Examiner page, and let her know about any relevant news or events. Deltina has also started a linked list of “Austin Tech Groups.” We realize this list is not exhaustive, so please send suggestions, keeping in mind that we want to list groups that typically have meetings and are in some way related to Web 2.0.

Thank you!

The Social Media Team

The Social Web has evolved into a integrated system based on RSS feeds, widgets, applications, and plugins. Learn how to take advantage of these technologies and maximize your time and resources spent in the Social Web.

This session will cover how to integrate your Social sites and tools by:

* Feeding your blog posts into other social sites
* Using applications to integrate social tools and sites
* Implementing widgets and badges
* Using plugins in WordPress and other CMSs
* Using integration tools like Ping.fm and HootSuite

Registration is limited, so sign up now!

Next Session: Tuesday, December 1, 11am to 12:30pm CST – $99

Level: Intermediate – This session assumes the user has a fair understanding of social media tools and how to use them.

Go to http://www.socialmediapower.com/webinars to register.

This is a bit chopping in the beginning, but move it forward a bit and it runs smoothly after that.

Keep from Falling Off the Face of the Internet

We hope you find this valuable and that it will encourage you to sign up for or recommend our upcoming social media and Web 2.0 Webinars.

Thanks!

The Social Media Team

A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization Webinar Series presents:

Integrating your Social Web presence.

Tuesday, November 17th, 11am to 12pm CST – $99

Level: Advanced – This session assumes the user has a fair understanding of social media tools and how to use them.

The Social Web has evolved into a integrated system based on RSS feeds, widgets, applications, and plugins. Learn how to take advantage of these technologies and maximize your time and resources spent in the Social Web.

This session will cover how to integrate your Social sites and tools by:

• Feeding your blog posts into other social sites
• Using applications to integrate social tools and sites
• Implementing widgets and badges
• Using plugins in WordPress and other CMSs
• Using integration tools like Ping.fm and HootSuite

Registration is limited, so sign up now!

Go to http://www.socialmediapower.com/webinars to register.

1. Burn your feed to FeedBurner.com. Take advantage of the optimization and analytics features they offer.
2. Offer alternate ways for readers to subscribe to your feed. Use FeedBurner tools like email subscriptions and subscription buttons like the ones on AddtoAny.com to offer more choices for your readers.
3. Add your feed to as many feed directories as you can. Don’t assume that just because a service is being pinged (notified) about your posts, that your feed is listed in their directory. Start by claiming your blog at Technorati.com. Then use the toprankblog blog directory list to find more.
4. Import your feed into your social networking sites. Facebook allows you to import RSS feeds into your profile and offers applications for you to import feeds into Facebook pages. LinkedIn offers an application to include your feed in your profile. And you can use a tool like HootSuite.com to import your feed into your Twitter account.
5. Create a lifestream or social page. Start an account with a  lifestreaming service like FriendFeed or create a page on a social site like Squidoo. Import your feed into your new accounts along with relevant information from your other Social Web accounts.

Though these tips will help improve the reach of your RSS feed or blog, the best way to get more subscribers is to regularly generate as much quality and on-topic content as you can.

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Get the critically acclaimed book: A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization

Copyright 2009 by Deltina Hay. All rights reserved.
Deltina Hay is the principal of Dalton Publishing and founder of  Plumb Social.com

This book excerpt from A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web by Deltina Hay contains Chapter 7 of the book in its entirety as well as links to all of the forms and resources for that chapter.

So, if you are reading these chapter posts in order, you will want get your hands on this teaser while Chapter 7 (about social bookmarking and crowd-sourcing) is still fresh in your mind.

Chapter Seven of A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization: Social Bookmarking & Crowd-Sourcing on Scribd.com.

Enjoy!