The end is here: Your last post

Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful semester! We’ve gone from Twitter to BlogPulse to Quora, with several stops along the way. Through it all, you’ve blogged about the things you’ve learned in class and found ways to find your particular niche.

For your last post of the semester, share a quick post with the rest of the class your favorite part of blogging, your biggest challenge, and whether you think you’ll continuing blogging after the semester is done. Leave a link to your post in the comments section below.

Week Eight: Searchiness

For the past two weeks we’ve discussed the implications of Google’s dominance of search as well as how search engines act as gatekeepers, how the way we search is changing with new tools and technology, and that the meaning (and future) of search is largely dependent upon our expectations. We also took a look at some of Google’s core business strategies:

• Draw consumers and $$ follows: Google firmly believes that if you share great content that draws a wide audience, money and revenue will follow
• Provide specific tool to fill unspecific needs: Generate new products that leverage your existing expertise, then find the demand
• Let others work in your lab: Free access to tools and data allow outside developers to take Google to places it hasn’t gone before
• Expect failures: Just fail early, before you’ve invested too much

Beyond Google, we also discussed the relationship between Bing and Facebook, as well as alternative search engines that rank serve information in different ways. Make sure you check out DuckDuckGo and Blekko for a look at two new options.

For your blog post this week, consider Google’s mission: “Organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” From tags to linking to rich content, how are you making your blog more relevant to Google or those searching for you? Demonstrate your SEO and SEM savviness with your post.

Some Helpful Links to Remember

Here are some of the tools we’ve talked about last week, as well as a few previous ones that you should continue to use. Start practicing with some of them and let me know which is your favorite!

Use:
AllTop and Technorati for finding blogs and measuring their influence

Quantcast for measuring traffic and demographics of a website or blog

Monitter for real time Twitter searches

Twazzup for building a rich newsfeed out of any Twitter search

Trendistic for measuring trends in Twitter

Trendsmap for identifying Twitter trends by geography

Listorious for finding people and lists on Twitter

Tweetstats to map the stats of any public Twitter account

Tweetmeme for tracking the most popular links on Twitter

Hashtags.org to find out what might be driving a trend or tag on Twitter

Tweetpsych to build a psychological profile of your Twitter account

SocialMention and Twitrratr for measuring sentiment on Twitter and blogs

Week Four: Personality

Last night Claudia from Brunch in the City shared with us how she has been able to maintain her blog and show her personality on her website and Twitter, while also keeping her blog focused on a single topic. One of the themes of the book we’re reading, Say Everything, is that letting your personality shine through is key to success online.

This week, please write a post about how your blog is related to your personal interests and how you plan to show your personality in your blog while also maintaining a focus on your blog’s topic. Link to your post here before class next week!

Helpful links from last night:
Social Media Policy Samples

Fall Syllabus for Introduction to Social Media

Welcome to Introduction to Social Media. Here’s everything you need to know to start the semester. See you Tuesday night!

Fall 2011 Social Media Syllabus