SEO advice: url canonicalization | Matt Cutts

SEO advice: url canonicalization: "Q: What is a canonical url? Do you have to use such a weird word, anyway?
A: Sorry that it’s a strange word; that’s what we call it around Google. Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls:

* www.example.com
* example.com/
* www.example.com/index.html
* example.com/home.asp"

Starting Your First Blog? 29 Tips, Tutorials and Resources for New Bloggers | Problogger

Darren's post contains a range of resources about getting started as a blogger. Tip Top.

Making the most of hashtags

Hashtags on Twitter are a way to create groupings or channels. Channels can be used to filter information that relates to an event, product, service, person, geographical location. See the earlier post by Chris Messina.

Subscribe to the RSS feed for any hashtag here.

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag. (www.hashtags.org)

Making the most of hashtags | FactoryCity

The track facility provided by Twitter makes some # tags redundant. Eg "There's a heatwave in Adelaide" is just as trackable as "There's a heatwave in #Adelaide". The # just makes the post look ugly and provides no additional context.

This was not the case with the #mumbai tag. Adding that tag allowed the tweeter room to post other more descriptive information. The #mumbai tag provided the context and the rest provided the content. Eg. "#mumbai Snipers on the roof" meant much more than "snipers on the roof".

See also Using Hashtags and Themes for Twitter.

How to use the #tag at An Introduction to Twitter Hashtags.

And a bit more at Tweet Your Message to a Larger Audience with Hashtags (from Twitip).

Twemes is another tag aggregation service.

Vancouver Real Estate Video Blogs Ian Watt

A Realtor in Canada using short video blogs with a clever twist.

Vancouver Real Estate Video Blogs Ian Watt

Why do people use Twitter? / we are social

Why do people use Twitter?

Couple of videos in which Twitter users are asked why they use Twitter.

Thanks to Hans for bringing this one to my attention.

Fundamentals of Social Media Marketing

Nine part tutorial series on getting started with social media marketing.

Fundamentals of Social Media Marketing

Building a Popular Social Media Profile: Seven Essential Characteristics

Building a Popular Social Media Profile: Seven Essential Characteristics: "The point here is not about me transforming from nobody into someone of social media importance. Anyone can do that with some concerted effort. The lesson I want to impart here is that there are some general characteristics which underlie a popular social media profile. I’m going to tell you what they are..."

The Importance of Social Media Marketing: Why You Should Learn and Master it

The Importance of Social Media Marketing: Why You Should Learn and Master it: "Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.

There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again..."

27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community | chrisbrogan.com

There are some great tops in this article. Basic, but useful.

27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community | chrisbrogan.com

Social Media Will Change Your Business - BusinessWeek

Update to the original article How Blogs will change your business:

Social Media Will Change Your Business - BusinessWeek

Social Media Starter Moves for Real Estate | chrisbrogan.com

Social Media Starter Moves for Real Estate | chrisbrogan.com

The Power of Relationships & Influencers- Social Endorsement- Part I | Real Estate Magazine - Real Estate Opinion Column - AgentGenius

The Power of Relationships & Influencers- Social Endorsement- Part I | Real Estate Magazine - Real Estate Opinion Column - AgentGenius: "Popularity gives you a voice, but social capital makes your message matter- social capital is granted, not purchased, nor demanded."

Twitter popularity does not equal business acumen | Feeds | ZDNet.com

Twitter popularity does not equal business acumen | Feeds | ZDNet.com: "These are hard times and we have businesses making critical decisions to stay afloat. At the same time we have social media marketers and software developers breathing down these decision-makers necks saying that social media can help them save money and improve their sales. In some cases, this is true. Social media presence could help some companies during this time (more consumer than enterprise, in my humble opinion). On both sides of the coin, however, it depends on the company. Those company leaders will then have to determine who to trust to help them lead this social media charge, and it’s my estimation that trusting someone to help you because of a Twitter follower count or blog subscriber list is a gigantic mistake."

It’s Time For Corporate Blogs 2.0 | www.gillin.com

www.gillin.com: "Forrester Research continued a theme last week by reporting that only 16% of people surveyed said they trust corporate blogs. That makes..."

Making Your Corporate Blog Presence a Strategic Priority « Bernaisesource

Making Your Corporate Blog Presence a Strategic Priority « Bernaisesource

Keywords for research

Keywords I'll be using for my thesis research will be:

• free speech
• free expression
• workplace
• blog
• blogs
• weblogs