I did it! I finally made it to the end! The focus of the April Platform Challenge is to create Social Sphere in order to promote … what? I believe the big drawback of this challenge is the creation of a network without a stated purpose. Make no mistake, this is a fantastic way to create a social platform, I highly recommend it. But, I also think that you need to have a purpose for the building, whether it’s a blog, a book, a podcast, or what have you; otherwise, it’s just an academic exercise.
Archive for April 2012
Scheduling – #MNINB #29
The penultimate task of the April Platform Challenge is to create a task list for the month of May. Since I’m already well beyond that now, I’ve created the list for the month of June.
I think all those years of creating programming schedules for radio has finally paid off. I’ve set things up on a weekly rotation with a rather ambitious two original blog posts a week. We’ll see if I’m able to mange that into my writing schedule. After all, it’s one thing to build a platform, but you have to have something to build it for.
I’m using Google Calendars to track things. If I have content, it’ll be on the schedule below, otherwise it’ll be a big old naught.
Sundays: Reblog Sundays – If I have been out and about and if was any good, I’ll reblog here.
Mondays: Interviews – I’ve been casting a wide net. Once I get the audio suite rolling, it’ll be podcasts.
Tuesdays: Guest Tuesdays – E’nuff said.
Wednesdays: Regular Blog Post
Thursdays: Podcast Thursday – Highly experimental, which’ll mean it’ll either be really superb or outstandingly awful.
Fridays: Review day – Movies, Podcasts, Books, pretty much anything I feel like yammering on about.
Saturdays: Regular Blog Post
Comments, Questions, Queries – #MNINB Day 28
Today’s April Platform Challenge is to reach out and comment on someone else’s blog. Since my goal is to get the April Challenge done by the end of May, hop over to Mel’s Madness and check out Boldly Going …
It’s Middle School Gym, All Over Again – #MNINB Day 27
Pick me! Pick me! I don’t want to be last … again. Pick Me! Sheesh! Today’s April Platform Challenge is to join a Social Media site. Ah, come on, Robert! Another, Social Media site … really?
Well, I not going to join just any site. No sir. I’m going to join someplace exclusive. So, I did. I applied for membership at RedRoom.com. My membership is now being vetted. Which leads me to one question.
What if I don’t qualify for membership?
Auto-Social Networking, Part Deux – #MNINB Day 26
Rounding the home stretch with today’s April Platform Challenge is all about spreading the word. I’m a programmer by trade (my wife will say by disposition, as well), so I’m looking for a way to post to my blog and have it automatically propagate out to my social networks, or as I like to call it, my social sphere. So far, I’ve met with mixed results. There doesn’t seem to be a reliable way to accomplish this. Here’s what I’ve found out so far.
Back on Day 19, I talked a little bit about a very helpful site, dlvr.it. Post to an RSS feed (say to your PlusFeed on your Google+ account) and it will automatically propagate to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc..
All which is great, except, it links back to my Google+ feed. In other words, my Facebook post, links to my Google+ post, that links to my blog. That’s two too many clicks. In addition, this setup will post to all the linked accounts from Google+. All my Google+ posts get propagated throughout my social sphere. So, not the best solution.
There is an alternative. I linked my blog’s Feedburner RSS feed to dlvr.it. That way, every time I post here, it blats out to almost my entire social sphere. At the time of this writing, the dlvr.it API doesn’t include Google+. So, I have to post my blog manually there, but it’s one click from everywhere directly to my blog. As with everything, there is a trade off.
