Online Community Manager: The Analyst Hat

How do you know all your programs and outreach efforts are working? As an online community manager, you’re expected to report the outcome of all your community outreach efforts, whether they’re successful or not. To do this report, you’ll need some analytical tools in place.

Your company will no doubt have a stats or analytics program or app available for you to use. These programs enable you to see a variety of experiences.

When you evaluate your programs and efforts, consider the following questions:

• Where is traffic coming from?

  
  



• How are current promotions doing?

  
  



• Which pages are getting the most response?

  
  



• What older content is doing well?

  
  



• What products and services work, and which need work?

  
  



• What are people doing when they’re on your website?

  
  



• Which tags and keywords are getting the best response?

  
  



• Which discussions and discussion topics are the most popular?

  
  



• In what towns, cities, states, and countries do your community members live?

  
  



• What are people searching on before landing on your blog, website, or forum?

  
  



• Who is linking to you, and what are they saying?

  
  



• Which content, product, or service is getting the most lackluster response?

  
  

The more you know about your community, the better you’ll be able to provide them the conversations, products, or services they’re looking for. You can’t assume you know people just because you tweeted back and forth a couple of times.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/online-community-manager-the-analyst-hat.html

Installing (or Reinstalling) Mac OS X Panther

In theory, you should only have to install Mac OS X once. And in a perfect world, that would be the case. But you may find occasions when you have to install/reinstall it, such as the following:

• If you get a new Mac that didn't come with Mac OS X pre-installed

• If you have a catastrophic hard drive crash that requires you to initialize (format) your boot drive

• If any essential Mac OS X files become damaged, corrupted, or are deleted or renamed

The following instructions do double duty: They're what you do to install Mac OS X for the first time on a Mac, and they're also what you do if something happens to the copy of Mac OS X that you boot your Mac from. That is, the process for installing or reinstalling Mac OS X is exactly the same.

If you've backed up your entire hard drive, you might prefer to reinstall from your backup disk or tape rather than reinstalling Mac OS X from the Install Mac OS X CD. That way, you'll be certain that everything is just the way you left it, which is something you can't be sure of if you reinstall from the Install Mac OS X CD.

Here's how to install (or reinstall) Mac OS X, step by step:

1. Boot from your Install Mac OS X CD Disc 1 by inserting the CD into your machine's CD-ROM or DVD drive and then restarting your Mac while holding down the C key.

When Mac OS X has finished booting your Mac, the Install program launches automatically. Here is where you begin the process of installing or reinstalling Mac OS X.

2. Unless you want to use a language other than English for the main language of Mac OS X, click the Continue button in the first screen you see; if you do want to use another language, select the language by clicking its name, and then click the Continue button.

3. Read the Welcome, Important Information, and Software License Agreement screens, clicking the Continue button after each.

A sheet drops down querying whether you agree to the terms of the license agreement. If you don't, you can't go any further, so go ahead and click the Agree button.

If you're currently using any version of Mac OS except version 9.2.2, you might next see a dialog with the warning that you can't run Classic applications unless you have Mac OS 9.2.2 or a later version installed. You can't install Mac OS 9.2.2 right now (you're installing Mac OS X!), but you can click OK and install it later. (Mac OS X, version 10.3 Panther does not come with a Mac OS 9.2.2 Install CD, so you're on your own here.) If you have Mac OS 9.2.2 installed, you won't see this dialog.

4. Choose the disk that you want to install or reinstall Mac OS X on by clicking its icon once in the Select a Destination screen.

At the bottom of the Select a Destination screen is the Options button, which offers three mutually exclusive choices:

• a. Upgrade Mac OS X: Choose this option to upgrade an earlier version of Mac OS X installed on the disk that you chose in Step 4 above. Your Home and other files are left undisturbed; after the upgrade, things will be (more or less) as they were before, except that you'll be running a factory-fresh installation of Mac OS X.

• b. Archive and Install: Choose this option to move all the System components from your existing Mac OS X installation into a folder named Previous System and then install a fresh new copy of Mac OS X. The Previous System folder cannot be used to boot but it does contain any and all files that were in any of the Mac OS X folders before you upgraded.

• If you select this option, a check box for a second option — Preserve Users and Network Settings — becomes available. Mark it if you want to import all the existing users of this Mac, their Home folders, and their network settings — but still archive all the old System stuff into the Previous System folder.

• c. Erase and Install: Choose this option if you want to completely erase the disk that you selected in Step 4, starting completely from scratch.

• If you choose the Erase and Install option, the disk that you selected in Step 4 will be erased, and all your files will be deleted immediately! You should only choose this option if you've backed up all your documents and applications. In most cases, erasing the start-up disk is not necessary.

• If you select this option, the Format Disk As pop-up menu becomes available. Your choices are Mac OS Extended (Journaled), which is the one you want, or Unix File System, which is the one you don't want.

• Unix File System is not a good choice for most Mac OS X users. Suffice it to say that 99.9 percent of you should absolutely and positively avoid Unix File System like the plague (and the other tenth of one percent know who they are and why they need a UFS disk). 'Nuff said.

After you make your selection in this window, click OK to return to the Select a Destination screen and then click Continue.

Now you have the choice to perform an easy install or a customized install. The Easy Install copies all of Mac OS X onto your chosen hard drive (as you choose in Step 4); the Custom Install (click the Customize button at the bottom of the screen) enables you choose to install only the items that you want to install.

In almost all cases, Easy Install is the right way to go.

5. To begin the installation, click the Install button.

The install process takes 10 to 20 minutes, so now might be a good time to take a coffee break. When the install process finishes, your Mac will ask you to insert Mac OS X Install Disk 2. When it's done installing, your Mac will restart itself, and you can begin using Mac OS X . . . hopefully, trouble-free.

After your Mac reboots, the Setup Assistant appears, unless you've chosen Archive and Install and also selected the Preserve Users and Network Settings option, which obviates the need for the Setup Assistant (since you'll still have all your settings from before the installation).

6. Work your way through all of the Setup Assistant screens (you have to before you can begin working in Mac OS X).

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/installing-or-reinstalling-mac-os-x-panther.html

How to Create a Blog Post in WordPress

Blogging with WordPress lets you share your thoughts for free, and posting is easy. The blogging software lets you add a photo, video, audio file, or other media. This video tutorial shows how to post a blog in the program and join the blogosphere.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-a-blog-post-in-wordpress.html

Golf For Dummies (UK Edition)

>

On the Green: Golfing Do’s and Dont’s

Etiquette is important on the green to ensure everyone enjoys their golf game. Follow these tried and tested golfing tips to avoid making an easily preventable blunder.

Do:

• Be ready to play when it’s your turn.

  
  



• Award the honour on a given tee to the player with the lowest score on the preceding hole.

  
  



• Pay attention to the group behind you.

  
  



• Help the greenskeeper out: replace divots, repair ball marks and smooth footprints in bunkers.

  
  

Don’t:

• Talk while someone is playing a stroke.

  
  



• Hit until you’re sure that everyone in your foursome is behind you.

  
  



• Park golf carts near greens, trees or bunkers.

  
  



• Hang around the green filling out your scorecards after everyone has finished putting.

  
  

>

>

>

Ten Essential UK Golf Rules

In the UK, follow these essential golf rules on the green – they’re pretty simple once you’ve got into the swing of things (sorry, the opportunity was irresistible).

• Rule 1: You must play the same ball from the teeing ground into the hole. Change only when the rules allow.

  
  



• Rule 2: You must hole out on each hole. If you don’t, you don’t have a score and are thus disqualified.

  
  



• Rule 3: You are responsible for playing your own ball. Put an identification mark on it.

  
  



• Rule 4: You must play the ball as it lies.

  
  



• Rule 5: When your ball is in a hazard, whether a bunker or a water hazard, you cannot touch the ground or water in the hazard with your club before impact.

  
  



• Rule 6: You cannot improve the line of a putt by repairing marks made by the spikes on a player’s shoes.

  
  



• Rule 7: Obstructions are anything artificial. Some obstructions are moveable. Others aren’t, so you must drop your ball within one club length of your nearest point of relief.

  
  



• Rule 8: If your ball is lost in a water hazard, you can drop another ball behind the hazard, keeping the point where the ball last crossed the hazard between you and the hole.

  
  



• Rule 9: If you lose your ball anywhere else other than in a hazard, return to where you hit your previous shot and hit another – with a one-stroke penalty.

  
  



• Rule 10: If your ball is unplayable, you have three options:

  
  
  
  

  • Play from where you hit your last shot.

    
    
  
  

  • Drop the ball within two club lengths of where your ball is now.

    
    
  
  

  • Keep the point where the ball is between you and the hole and drop your ball on that line. You can go back as far as you want.

    
    
  
  
  
  

>

>
dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/golf-for-dummies-cheat-sheet-uk-edition.html

Network with Journalists and Radio or TV Producers

It’s critical to establish and nurture your personal brand everywhere you go online. You’ll never know when the media is watching you. How can you get yourself in front of the media to be considered? The old-fashioned way of doing this is by sending out press releases or calling journalists and pitching story ideas. Today these approaches aren’t as effective as they used to be.

Local journalists aren’t the only people who you’ll want to know — plenty of national publications have writers and producers who are consistently seeking sources for stories. It is important to identify the right people to talk to. Focus your efforts on journalists that are already producing stories on topics similar to your blog topic. Generally speaking, you’ll have a much greater chance at getting featured on shows or publications that are targeted to women and moms.

There are a few places you can hang out online to increase your chances of getting noticed. Here are the best resources:

• HARO — Help a Reporter Out: Help a Reporter Out was founded by Peter Shankman in 2008 as a way to help reporters, authors, and producers connect with experts via social media. He now gets over 200 media inquiries a day that are sent out to over 100,000 expert sources around the world.

  
  

  Plus: It’s free and anyone can join. Even if you don’t consider yourself an expert yet, HARO e-mails can help you understand the kinds of stories and topics you can contribute to.

  
  

  When you’re comfortable responding to HARO queries, realize you are dealing with journalists that are almost always on a tight deadline and are probably sifting through hundreds of responses. So that means you have about one paragraph to let the journalist know why you can make a relevant and valuable contribution to his or her story.

  
  

  It is not appropriate to respond to HARO inquiries with your own story ideas, or to introduce yourself for future consideration. Only respond to inquiries with relevant information on a case-by-case basis.

  
  



• Facebook: Journalists spend a lot of time online looking for story leads. Many reporters have public profiles and fan pages; this is a great way to get into conversations with them. This is especially effective with your local media, who are typically much more accessible than national media are.

  
  

  The simplest way to do this is to comment on their Facebook pages. Again, it is most appropriate to make comments that are relevant and contribute to the overall conversation. If your sole purpose of posting is to ask to be featured in a story, at best you’ll get ignored. At worst, your posts may be marked as spam.

  
  



• Twitter: Start engaging in conversations with television personalities, producers, or reporters along with the accounts of television shows and national publications. Give them feedback on what they are currently doing, which shows you are familiar with their respective backgrounds.

  
  

  Suggest ideas for stories and features you would like to see — whether or not you would want to be considered for those stories.

  
  



• #journchat: Every Monday from 8–9pm ET, Sarah Evans hosts a Twitter get-together called #journchat to discuss the current state of journalism. The umbrella theme for every edition is the changing state of media and new media's impact on what journalists are doing.

  
  

  It’s not a place to pitch ideas, but a good conversation to watch and learn from. You can simply follow along every week by searching on Twitter for the hashtag #journchat. Of course, if you meet a journalist during the #journchat that you want to pitch a story to, it is absolutely appropriate to do so privately after the event.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/network-with-journalists-and-radio-or-tv-producers.html