Android Social Media

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A good number of ASM (AndroidSocialMedia) readers have their own websites/blogs and this post is to discuss the importance and means of making your site more mobile friendly.

The most recent studies suggest that 1.6% of all USA website usage is done from a mobile phone. WOW!!! 1.6% is a huge number considering the competition of endless numbers of corporate America employees who spend all day on the internet from their desktop computers. 76% of adults say they have done a Google search from a mobile phone at least once! If you have a website or blog it has become imperative that you make your site mobile friendly.

If you are utilizing Wordpress (the most popular website/blog hosting service online) then this process can be quite painless. The most popular plugins available are WPTouch iPhone Theme and Wordpress Mobile Pack. As you can imagine I tend to prefer the Wordpress Mobile Pack plugin since I’m a little anti anything that looks like an iPhone but there you have it. Both plugins allow a great deal of customization including widgets, RSS, pages, and theme options.

If you are using something other than Wordpress I suggest contacting you web developer and emphasizing the importance of getting your site up to mobile standards!

Jacob S Paulsen

Mobile Browser Emulators:

Opera Mini: http://www.opera.com/mini/demo/

Android Broweser: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/emulator.html

The open source wordpress project is now building an official app for Wordpress. The author of the wpToGo app that we previously suggested to our readers is at the front of this new official app now available in the Android Market. So far I’m very impressed with what we are seeing the the development. It is necessary to enable Remote Publishing via XML-RPC in your Wordpress Writing Settings. This quick video will introduce you to the app if you haven’t already downloaded it.

The wordpress app supports both Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org sites. To learn more about this project visit http://android.wordpress.org/

We are looking for people who would like the opportunity to contribute content to our blog. Android Social Media represents the very best of the Android Platform and how it can be utilized to play an active part in Social Networking and Internet Marketing. Would be authors are asked to fill out the form below.

Content submitted by other authors will be manually approved by the site admins but authors will have the chance to post their signature and website in all of their content.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Those of us who have been with Android since the beginning have been waiting anxiously for an app that would connect us with Blogger, the blogspot website by google.

First attempts were quite horrible and while we are still not satisfied I’m glad to have discovered AndroBlogger! AndroBlogger has a very smooth interface and allows you to connect to your primary blog on blogspot.com You can add/edit posts & view comments.

Its still missing some important components such as adding pictures and tags to posts, and having access to multiple blogs on your blogger account.

I’m grateful that all of our websites/blogs are in the wordpress platform but for you blogspot folk give AndroBlogger a try.

Screenshots:

Source: http://code.google.com/p/androblogger/

In our original PixelPipe post we talked about the power of the PixelPipe photo syndication app. Today we want to add to that chain of thought by talking about the new 1.5 pixelpipe app which supports video & audio uploads as well. The new Android version 1.5 added the ability to upload videos directly to Youtube.com While this is a great feature on its own it doesn’t begin to compare with PixelPipe. Let me give you an example.

Today while grilling some steaks in the back yard I took a short video clip of my crazy dog trying to “bite” the smoke out of the air. I chose the share option and instead of choosing Youtube I shared it via Pixelpipe. What did this do? Not only did it directly upload the video complete with title, description, and tags to YouTube but it also uploaded it to Dailymotion.com and Facebook video. Then it also updated my status on all 18 of the social networks I participate on to include the title and link to the video. All of this from the camcorder app on my Android… THATS COOL.

Get an account at PixelPipe.com if you haven’t already and then download the pixelpipe app from the android market. From either the app or the website set up your “pipes” to include all of your photo, video, and social networking websites. Give it a test run… go ahead… syndicate a photo, video, or audio…
How cool was that?

On occasion someone will ask me, “Why? Why do I need a cell phone so that I can do the same things I am already doing from home while on the go from a 2 1/2 screen?” This post is to answer that question. Why should you invest in an expensive cell phone and pay the monthly fee for unlimited data service (mobile internet)? There are basically three HUGE reasons and here they are:

1. I am assuming that since you care at about Social Media Marketing that you must be an entrepreneur of sorts and have a desire for FREEDOM. The usual formula applies: TIME + MONEY = FREEDOM. Now here is the problem; if you are going to utilize social media and the internet to build your business how do you ever expect to acheive freedom while sitting in front of your computer? That would make for a great video on youtube as you sit in front of your computer for 10 hours a day and claim to live the ideal “lifestyle.” GET REAL!!!! Living a life of freedom requires leaving the computer desk and sometimes for days or even weeks at a time. The only way to live that true lifestyle of freedom as an internet marketer utilizing social media is via a good cell phone (Android of course) with mobile internet. ACCEPT IT.
2. Using your android device (or any cell phone for that matter) will cut the amount of time you spend “working” your online business in half. WHAT??????? Are these Android Social Media guys claiming that if I will just get a nice Android device and get away from my computer for awhile that the total time I will work will be 1/2? YEP, YEP, & YEP. Let me explain this from a different angle. Half of the things you do while sitting in front of your computer “working” are in fact non-productive and time wasting. If you instead made the decision to operate your online business from your cell phone you would in fact eliminate the wasteful, non-productive activities because frankly they just aren’t as entertaining from a 2 1/2 inch screen. Make sense? Wouldn’t you rather spend that time out on an adventure/vacation/trip/golf course?
3. Now, this is where you are going to have to really take my word for it. I PROMISE you that when you get your android device with unlimited internet access a whole new world will open up for you. Your life will change! It will be like the time when you got your first cell phone. It doesn’t take long before you start to wonder how you got along without it! You can scan barcodes to check prices of any item for sale locally and online. You have access to google maps with street view everywhere you go. You can use your own cell phone as a wireless router to connect with your laptop when out and about. Its not JUST social media. There is a whole world of endless exciting options waiting for you. Get plugged into it.

Jacob S. Paulsen

P.S. The image shows my primary desktop screen on my android phone. At my fingertips I have access to Facebook, twitter, myspace, friendfeed, linkedin, plurk, ping.fm, flickr, pixelpipe, delicious, google reader, google analytics, wordpress, & TONS more.

This is a two part post. First we need to discuss rss feeds. As you begin to network with others online you will begin to want/need to subscribe to other people’s blogs. This is how you invest in yourself in social media. Find the best people whom you can learn from and subscribe to their blogs.

The term RSS feed refers to a consistent feed of new information that can be subscribed to. Blogs, news sites, and twitter profiles are all in the format of RSS. There are lots of different ways to subscribe via email etc but the most effective way is by utilizing a RSS reader. The most popular of which is Google Reader.

If you have an Android phone (we have to assume you do) you will also find a HUGE increase in effectiveness by reading blogs from your phone. It will decrease wasted time in a big way!

NewsRob is the best program available for the android platform right now. It downloads content to your phone’s SD card. It syncs directly with your google reader account. It works fairly well and has some decent options. Newsrob has released two updates in the last 7 days and I’m more pleased than ever. It allows for easy reading of your blogs and I love that it syncs the statuses. It downloades new entries in the background so that when you open the program you are ready to start reading.

Newsrob also allows for you to share articles in google reader or by email. This program really is fantastic.

Remember that our overall goal is to maintain an online presence in social media without wasting a lot of time or becoming tied to our computers. This program is a HUGE part of making that happen.

Here are a couple of screenshots:

Source: http://newsrob.com/

Wordpress is quickly gaining popularity as a blogging platform and website creator. Wordpress offers a solution to people looking to start a website or blog that don’t have a lot of html or other coding experience. Wordpress is simple, versatile, and powerful when it comes to site optimization. (This site is a wordpress site)

So for us android geeks we have finally seen a wordpress app surface in the android market. WpTogo isn’t fantastic, and I would go so far as to even say it isn’t really that good. Just to give it a full try I am going to create and publish this post from the wpTogo app on my G1.

Most of the functionality is simple enough but it lacks a lot of key features! Basically you can write a basic post with any hyperlinks and attach a couple of pictures from your SD card. You can input tags and categories but that’s about it.

For now I guess it will have to do. The iphone (I know that’s like a cuss word) has released a complete, official wordpress app and so it is just a matter of time now.

If you aren’t already familiar with Ping.fm for microblogging you are really missing the boat. Ping.fm will allow you to update your status on 30 different networks at once including twitter, facebook, myspace, plurk, bebo, plaxo, blogger, etc. Now they have introduced Pingdroid, a ping.fm app for the android/g1 platform.

PixelPipe is the most powerful syndication tool in existence for sharing photos online via social networks. Currently Pixelpipe is linked to over 60 sites including the most popular ones such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Youtube, Ping.fm, etc.
I suggest first setting up your Pixelpipe account and configuring all of your accounts on the online website: www.pixelpipe.com

Then download the Pixelpipe app from the android market and input your user information. Now every time you take a picture or select one from your pictures folder you can select the “Share” option. Scroll down to select the Pixelpipe option.

Now here is where some of the most important things come into play. You will be prompted to enter a title, description/caption, and keywords. If you are going to post this picture to a microblog such as twitter you may want to start your title tag with the words: A picture of…

Use the description area to describe the photo and whats going on. Use the keywords to indicate what key topics are related to the photo.
Here are some screenshots of the program:

Also check out pixelpipe’s app for Picasa, Iphoto, Fotofox, iphone (like a swearword on this site), etc.

On July 6th, 2009 we posted a new PixelPipe Update HERE.