Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, so I’ve decided to take a close look at the last five items I’ve added to my Delicious account. Click here to see the whole feed.
1. What you need to succeed in Social Media, by Chris Penn.
What can I say about Chris? Along with Chris Brogan and Amber Neslund, Penn is one of the web’s most prolific and influential bloggers. He built a nationwide community around one of life’s most painful and boring topics – college financial aid, and used that as a springboard to become a leading authority on all things web and social media. When he talks, I listen.
In this short but powerful blog post, Chris points out that media (social or otherwise) is only a means to help “communicate something fundamentally human.”
The lesson I take from this post is this: Be a great communicator about something you are passionate about. Use social media to help magnify that passion to an audience that benefits from your knowledge.
2. The reason your personal brand sucks, by Chris Penn.
I’ve always hated the term “branding,” but I’ve embraced the whole “personal branding” phenomenon. In this post, Chris urges the reader to “distill your essential quality,” the factor that makes you as an individual unique in what you do, and how you do it.
“Once you figure out your essential quality, your personal brand will take care of itself,” Chris writes.
I’ve taken this piece of advice to heart in both my day job, and my consulting activities, and it will guide my actions for the foreseeable future.
3. Eleven ultimate resources to help you become a WordPress champ, by Blog Design Studio
I loves me some WordPress, and this is one of many posts with links to WordPress info, tutorials, and plug-in data. Link number six on this page was of particular interest to me, a link to wpbeginner.com. I’ve used it myself several times already, and recommended it to friends and clients.
4.Why Flash should be open source – and why it won’t be, by AtomicPoet’s Blog
The lack of Adobe’s Flash on the upcoming iPad has spawned many questions regarding the viability of the RAM-hogging, browser-crashing protocol. This post suggests that by open sourcing Flash, it could be developed into a more reliable product, thus making it an appealing addition to both the iPad, and the iPhone.
The most ironic thing about this post? It’s posted on the most anti-Flash blog theme I’ve ever seen; a plain white page with black Times New Roman type text, devoid of any “gee-whiz” type of visuals.
5. Critic’s Notebook: Christopher Hawthorne on Unhappy Hipsters and the mystery behind it, by the Los Angeles Times
If you’ve yet to stumble onto the Unhappy Hipsters blog, you should take a few minutes to visit. Its author posts a photo of mid-century modern architectural design, mostly from Australia’s Dwell magazine, and adds a snarky comment. Very clever, indeed.
The mystery however, is that nobody has any earthly idea who is behind the new blog. Los Angeles Times architecture critic Chris Hawthorne offers his best guess, as well as a snarky-tinged review of the blog itself.