Recently Facebook added a new feature called “Places”. Its’ similar in principal to FourSquare and allows users to post their location, so that their friends can know where you are. In the past, I’ve used FourSquare very judiciously. For example, I don’t post my location when I’m on travel without my family, I don’t share when I’m in a private meeting, etc… Essentially, I want to be social, but not at the expense of it being a safety risk.
Here is Facebook’s introductory video on “Places” -
How to Set Your Facebook Privacy Settings to secure “Places”
Awhile back I did a video tutorial on how to set your security settings on Facebook. Whereas I think ‘Places” can be fun, I think that Facebook jumped the shark when they added this feature and allowed other Facebook friends to update your location. There are a number of reasons why I think this is a bad feature. As a professional who has my clients as friends on Facebook, I don’t want people to know where I am socially. I certainly don’t want friends updating my location, when I may not really be at a given location. For these reasons and many more, I’ve turned off the ability for others to set my location.
Here are the steps to updating your security settings to limit who can update your location, and who can see your updates.
1. Login to Facebook and go to “Account” and then click on “Privacy Settings”
2. Click on “Customized Settings”
3. Disable “Friends can check me in to Places”
4. Based on your Group Settings, choose who can and cannot see your personal updates to “Places”.
I think that “Places” can be a fun way to share in the future, so long as we all use a little commonsense in what we update. If you’re sensitive to people knowing where you are and what you’re doing, make sure you’ve updated your settings.
I’m happy to see more and more Realtors using WordPress for their blogs and some even for their static webpages. Over the next few months I’ll be putting together video tutorials and outlines to help those agents who are getting started. This post is just a few tools to get together after you’ve installed the blog and gotten your basics started.
WordPress Friends
Whereas many components of WordPress and Blogging is free, there are some worthwhile tools that do have associated fees. The (affiliate) widgets below are worth exploration. You’ll see more on those in the future.
Plugins
The following free plugins are great tools to add to your blog. Generally, it’s easiest to go to the Plugins page and do a search for these plugins and then add them. However, some of these plugins need to be downloaded in .zip and then uploaded via a FTP client. FileZilla is a GREAT free FTP client that works very well with WordPress.
Wibiya Toolbar is a fantastic tool that adds a footer toolbar on your blog that allows you to add personalized messages for your visitors, chat with you, link to all your other social media sites. Additionally it will allow you to translate your site into different languages and allow your readers to search your site for past posts.
WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete plugin to make your blog more readable and easier to navigate on a mobile phone. With so much emphasis on mobile computing this is a must have for your blog.
WordPress Database Backup is just what is sounds like. This handy plugin will allow you to automatically backup your wordpress blog and send the backup to an email address. I chose to create a free gmail email that I only check when I need to restore my site or make sure the emails were being received in a timely manner.
SexyBookmarks is one of the coolest post sharing tools I’ve seen. This highly modifiable tool allows you to add icons at the bottom of the posts and pages, allowing your users to share your material with their friends on a myriad of social sharing sites including Twitter, Facebook and more!
Live Comment Preview plugin allows your user to see how their formatted comment will look on the post after they hit submit.
Google Analyticator is a MUST have for your blog. Each Blogger should have a Google.com/analytics account to keep track of activities and SEO on your blog. The Google Analyticator plugin makes it easy to setup an account and tie it to the blog. It also posts stats and things on your WordPress Dashboard to easily see who’s visiting your page, how long they are hanging around, etc…
FD Feedburner Plugin makes creating and maintaining an RSS Feed through www.Feedburner.com much easier. The default RSS feed on your blog will allow people to subscribe, but doesn’t track the number of subscribers or allow email subscriptions. Feedburner.com (owned by Google) is handy tool to do just that. One word of caution. Feedburner has a habit of giving fluctuating numbers. So if it looks like you’ve lost a bunch of subscribers, just wait 24 hours and check again.
fbLikeButton plugin adds a Facebook “Like” button on each post, which will allow people to share your post on their Facebook page.
Edit Comments XT allows users a limited amount of time to edit their comments after postings. More than once I’ve commented on a blog and then re-read my post and wished that I had worded or omitted something. My feeling is folks are more likely to comment if they feel they can have a second chance to really say what they want.
Happy Blogging! If you have some favorite tools, please share them in the comments section!
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I think that “Places” can be a fun way to share in the future, so long as we all use a little commonsense in what we update. If you’re sensitive to people knowing where you are and what you’re doing, make sure you’ve updated your settings.
