The Four Things You Need to Launch a Successful Blog

From NOI

1. Resources (time and/or money)...

2. Clear topic area...

3. Expertise...

4. An initial audience...

11 Top Tips To Build Your Twitter Following

From Ink Foundry:

1. When You Create Your Twitter Handle Consider The Following:

2. Fill Out Your Profile Completely

3. Post A Photo Of Yourself

4. Do Not Lock Your Updates

5. Follow Your Followers

6. Follow Your Follower’s Followers

7. Be Consistent With Your Tweet Content

8. Give Back To The Community

9. Avoid Following People With Locked Updates

10. Tweet (seriously)

11. Don’t Over Do It

10 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers

From TechCrunch:

Explain to your followers what retweeting is and encourage them to retweet your links. Retweeting pushes your @username into foreign social graphs, resulting in clicks back to your profile. Track your retweets using retweetist.

Fill out your bio. Your latest tweets and @replies don’t mean much to someone that doesn’t know you. Your bio is the only place you have to tell people who you are. Also, your bio is displayed on Twitter’s Suggested Users page. Leaving it blank or non-descriptive doesn’t encourage people to add you.

As @garyvee says, “link it up.” Put links to your Twitter profile everywhere. Link it on your Digg, LinkedIn, Facebook, blog, email signature, and everywhere else you live online. Also, check out the great feedburner-like badges from TwitterCounter for your blog.

Tweet about your passions in life and #hash tag them. Quality content coupled with an easy way to find it never fails. If others enjoy your content, they’ll add you. Learn more about #hash tagging here.

Bring your twitter account into the physical world. Every time I give a talk, speak on a panel, shoot a podcast, present slides, or hand out business cards, I figure out a way to broadcast or display my twitter account.

Take pictures. Pictures are heavily retweeted/spread around. This one from US Airways Flight 1549 has been viewed 350,000+ times. For mobile pics use iPhone apps such as Tweetie or Twitterific, both which support on the go uploading.

Start a contest. @jasoncalacanis offered a free macbook air if he reached the #1 most followed spot. That never happened, but Jason added thousands of followers…brilliant.

Follow the top twitter users and watch what they tweet. Pay attention to the type of content they sent out and how they address their audiences.

Reply to/get involved in #hash tag memes. search.twitter.com lists the hot ‘trending topics. Look for the #hash topics and jump in on the conversation (see #4 for links to #hash instructions).

Track your results. TwitterCounter will show you how many new users you’re adding per day and Qwitter will email you when someone unfollows you after a tweet.

4 Easy Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans

From Mashable:

1. Ask Their Opinion

2. Test Their Knowledge

3. Pair Promotions with Content

4. Thank Your Fans

26 Tips For Good Social Media Participation

From Ink Foundry:

1. In person etiquette rules apply. Just because you can’t see the other person, doesn’t mean you can ditch what your mother taught you.

2. Research, read, listen, and then engage.

3. Social media is collaborative, be a team player.

4. Imagine you are having the conversation over a nice glass of Romanee-Conti (and you don’t have to pay!)

5. Be personal.

6. Write about what is special to you. Share a personal story and bridge it back to your company in an appropriate way.

7. Be honest and transparent.

8. Posting anonymous comments on a blog is a big fat no no!

9. Be short and to the point quickly – 220 words or less is PLENTY. Any more is TMI!

10. Organize your thoughts before replying.

11. Cross link when appropriate.

12. Reference other links when you are posting information you found there.

13. Comment on blogs and forums, often…thoughtfully.

14. Comment on the comments you’ve received. Think of it as a conversation. If someone responded to you at a cocktail party, you wouldn’t stare blankly and remain mute. (although some comments, we have to agree, do warrant that response)

15. Don’t force yourself to participate in a community you don’t like.

16. Share your secrets…but not all of them.

17. Be yourself – If you are humorous, weave some in; if you have an acerbic wit, knock yourself out; serious? rock on.

18. Work on defining your own voice.

19. Collaboration is key, you’re not the only prodigy in the pod, be a peer.

20. Break your text up into small paragraphs, assume readers have A.D.D.

21. Use proper grammar, punctuation and spell check; but at the same time, you don’t need to be the next Bret Easton Ellis.

22. Don’t be fearful of making mistakes, we all mess up. Just write something already!

23. Be helpful and let people benefit from your experience and knowledge.

24. When someone asks a question, answer it first. You can build the trust and respect of your peers by posting on-topic replies.

25. You are the expert, be the resource that you know you are, but easy on the overt self-promotion.

26. Contact someone directly if you think there is business to be done, not publicly.

New Maplight.com Site

After a year of planning, building, and testing, we're thrilled to announce the launch today of an all-new version of our website, MAPLight.org. The new site includes powerful new tools and features that provide faster, easier access to the kinds of critical information and data you need to shine the light of transparency and accountability on government.

Please stop by for a visit: http://maplight.org/

Take our four-minute video tour, see a complete list of what's new on our site, and read the full news release about the launch.

The new site is being launched during Sunshine Week, a nonpartisan, national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information.

Finally, a word of thanks. All our improvements were the result of listening to what you, our users, wanted. Thank you for your enthusiasm and support!

Best,
The MAPLight.org team: Dan, DeAnna, Emily, Eric, Michele, Mike, Neil and Steve