On the Web with Kim Vallee

Archive | June, 2009

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS | June 30, 2009

The Blogger’s Toolkit and Why I Upgraded to the iPhone 3G S

I wish to discuss today the essential tools for bloggers. The two must-have tools to start blogging are a laptop computer and a digital camera. You need a laptop because it enables you to cover live events. If you are on a market for a laptop, read why I prefer the Mac to the PC [...]

HOW to use, SOCIAL MEDIA | June 29, 2009

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IDEO’s Innovative Ideas on the Future of Journalism

Newspapers are endangered species. Like many industries, it must adapt to its time. Although it is easier to read a print media, the hyperlinks, the velocity of the news and the multimedia power of the Internet clearly highlighted the weakness of the print media. Look at how this article I read on the San Francisco [...]

TECHNOLOGY | June 18, 2009

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Bad Search Results Hurt Customer Service

Here is another missed opportunity to provide good customer services by a telecommunication company. I am going to San Francisco next week. I read on PCWorld that with iPhone OS 3.0 AT&T will deliver free Wi-Fi access non-U.S. carriers who include Wi-Fi access in their plans. Naturally, I am curious to see if the plan [...]

MARKETING, SOCIAL MEDIA | June 17, 2009

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Why Businesses Should Embrace Social Media

I am a proponent of social media. I believe it empowers everyone to get a voice. If you are good at what you are doing, participating in social media enables you to build a strong personal brand. Social media is not only for people. It provides great opportunities for businesses, when done right. Social media [...]

Social GAMING, SOCIAL MEDIA

June 9, 2009

23 Comments

Farm Town Unavailability Causes Torments to its Users

If you play Farm Town on Facebook, you noticed that the game is not available. I received many comments where players express their fear of losing everything. Rest assured that your crops and farm possessions are still there. I did some digging and I found out that information from the maker of Farm Town. Update: [...]

Blog PROMOTION, BLOGGING

June 9, 2009

4 Comments

My blogs’ business cards dilemma not yet solved

Since I published my new brand identity I tried to produce, with my graphic designer, business cards for my blogs. I did 2 attempts so far. The difficulty does not rest in the design of the cards. My problem is what content do I put on my cards. At first, I imagined a double sided [...]

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS

June 8, 2009

3 Comments

How to Add a Related Posts Section for each Post

Well-designed blogs encourage readers to explore the blog longer. One way is to achieve that is to add a Related Posts section at the bottom of every post. You could select the posts manually but this is too time consuming. If you assign WordPress tags to every post, you get a way to intelligently automate [...]

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS

June 4, 2009

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Pictures Sell Your Story | Advice for Bloggers and Brands

I always say to new bloggers that they must try to take their own pictures. Nothing beats original content. Time constraints, money, logistics and talent do not always make it possible. Most successful food bloggers excel at photography; it is part of their personal brand. Take for example La Tartine Gourmande. We are craving to [...]

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS

June 2, 2009

1 Comment

Found a New Usage for the Email Subscription to my own RSS

I prefer reading blogs through Google Reader. Still, they are people who prefer getting my posts through an email subscription. This is why I provide the option. With Google Feedburner is so simple to do and once you set up the service, it runs by itself. Use it to Build Loyalty The popularity of email [...]

SOCIAL MEDIA, TOOLS

June 2, 2009

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The City of San Francisco fully Embraces Social Media with Twitter

San Francisco is known as a city with a diverse pool of Web 2.0 professionals. So maybe it is not surprising that the City of San Francisco launched a Twitter application where anyone can send direct messages (DM) to report a problem or send a request to the city’s customer service hotline. Twitter became one [...]

APPLICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY

June 1, 2009

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Need for More User Control with Mashups

One of the main reasons why I migrated my blogs to WordPress is to be more independent technically. I wish to be able to add features using plugins without needing the help of a programmer. For the most part, it works fine. But as many other bloggers, I often wish to mix and match plugins [...]