Las Vegas Web Design

Shopping online at websites like Amazon or ThinkGeek is generally pretty easy - click, confirm, and pay. But there’s something to be said about shopping in-store, especially when you want to ask whether a product is right for your needs. Even Amazon reviews can’t replace this interaction.

A new social service has launched to address the issue: IMshopping. IMshopping is a human-powered shopping assistance tool where users can ask complicated shopping questions via its website or on Twitter. Yes, by @replying IMshopping, you can find out everything from the best cookware to where to find authentic sports memorabilia.

Once you’ve asked IMshopping a question (it can be on practically any shopping-related topic), the service will send you back an @reply with a link to the answer of your question. Answers include research information from an individual, as well as recommended products to purchase with pictures.

One of the best features of IMshopping is the ability to follow-up, just as you would in a store. If IMshopping hasn’t gotten to what you want, you can clarify or ask another question until you find the right product. Sometimes the additional inquiries are answered by the same person and sometimes by a different person.

Clearly people believe in IMshopping’s potential, as well as its business model. The service intends to generate revenue by collecting affiliate revenue if a user buys products recommended via the IMshopping website. The company also announced $4.7 million in funding from SK Telecom.

We like the idea of a human experience for shopping, but wonder if the company can fund all of those people answering questions round-the-clock. Good, productive people are expensive and a person can only answer so many questions in an hour or a day. IMshopping intends to allow customers to become human shopping guides as well, although how that will works is uncertain.

One other potential problem with IMshopping is speed. The reason people ask for help in Best Buy isn’t because they want to have a human experience, but because a human can help us accomplish our goal (to find and buy something) faster. If IMshopping can’t get information to users in a reasonable time, people will turn to the faster search engine, even if it may be less precise.

Then again, having someone else do the research for you isn’t a bad thing, either.

Tags: imshopping, shopping, twitter

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Although they don’t publicly release all the toys they have at their disposal, the folks at Facebook are capable of thoroughly analyzing the massive volume of data their users create every day.

Using Facebook Lexicon, a tool that looks for occurrences of words and phrases on Walls over time and displays them on a graph, they’ve released a couple of screenshots which show how the discussion of the swine flu on Facebook went over time, and how it spread geographically.

Unfortunately, the current version of Lexicon doesn’t support geo data, and the new, beta Lexicon only lets you choose from a number of predefined phrases, so I wasn’t able to play with the data myself, and Facebook didn’t give us too much data. Still, the maps, which show the percentage of people in the US, UK and Canada discussing swine flu on their wall posts in the previous week, are worth a look; see them all here.

Reviews: Facebook

Tags: facebook, statistics, swine flu

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When you’re a major brand utilizing social media, you can sometimes hit a home run or strike out with a major blunder. Last year, Motrin utterly failed to connect with mothers with its controversial Motrin moms YouTube video. Today’s story, however, is a tale of what happens when you get social media right.

Not long ago, General Mills set up a blog network called MyBlogSpark. Bloggers in the program have access to some of the newest General Mills products around, so long as they review the items on their blogs. This is a unique way to access and discuss General Mills products (i.e. Cheerios, Yoplait Yogurt). One of the other cool things about the MyBlogSpark program is that about 80% of its bloggers are moms.

MyBlogSpark is a program to anyone with an interest in GM brands. According to AdWeek, so far about 900 people have signed up, meaning over 700 of the participants are blogging social media moms. There is no actual compensation for reviewing products, just insider access, some samples for review, and maybe a few freebies.

General Mills gets several things right about its MyBlogSpark campaign. First, it wants its bloggers to be up-front about being part of the program. We’re fans of transparency. Second, it asks its bloggers to contact them if they don’t feel as if they can write a positive review. This is good brand management on the part of GM. Finally, it understands how influential moms are not only in the marketplace, but in social media as well. The vitriol reaction of Motrin Moms is proof of how powerful and influential mothers can be online.

Social media moms are becoming more and more influential, and General Mills knows this, which is why the MyBlogSpark campaign will probably continue to grow in size and influence. Moms get access to products they and their kids will probably like, while General Mills gets some positive social media press. This is social media done right.

Tags: Moms, social media

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The White House has recently started populating its official Flickr channel with some fascinating photos of President Barack Obama during the first 100 days of his presidency.

The photos were taken by Pete Souza and depict Obama in a variety of situations: watching the Super Bowl in 3D, playing with a football in the Oval Office, or being briefed about the recent swine flu outbreak in the Situation Room.

The White House has already shown its commitment to embrace various social media channels such as YouTube and Twitter; the Flickr photo stream, which now seems to be updated regularly, is another great way to open up the daily ins and outs of the president’s life in the Oval Office to the public. See our choice of the photos below.

Reviews: Flickr, Twitter, YouTube

Tags: barack obama, First 100 days, flickr, White House

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This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Tenant Txt

Quick Pitch: Tenant Txt is a website that apartment management or apartment safety leaders can put in place in order to single or mass alert their community of any maintenance repairs, criminal activity, or community events by text message and email.

Genius Idea: In most apartment complexes, communication between management and tenants is sparse - a phone call emergency here, a complaint there. But when there’s an announcement or major damage at an apartment, a piece of paper posted on the front door just isn’t a good way to inform tenants. Emailing a neighborhood after a crime spree can be tough as well. Tenant Txt is a tool that attempts to remove the communication barrier between tenants and apartment managers.

Tenant Txt is a mass notification and communication tool - an apartment owner, office manager, or other designated administrator can send alerts or information via text or email to members of the apartment or community. Tenants sign up via the website; they choose whether to be emailed, texted, or both. Once signed up, they will receive updates whenever you send out a message. You can try out the demo to see how it works (you have to provide an email address).

Messages can be sent out via groups (Tenants, maintenance, etc.) and just to email or txt subscribers. Texts can only be 110 characters, instead of the standard 160 or even Twitter’s 140 character limit. Email is full HTML - there are a lot of formatting options, maybe even too many.

The service costs anywhere between $25 to $90 a month, although they are unclear about the differences between packages. At its core, it’s just a simple way to contact apartment tenants. Neighborhoods, clubs, offices, and other organizations could use this as their communication tool as well. Really, you’re not paying for the email services (there are cheaper methods), but instead paying for the texting services. People pay attention to their texts, so you may catch harder-to-reach tenants this way.

Tenant Txt could use a few more features like automatic rent payment reminders or contact via social media, but it’s a good start. Tenant Txt is simple and performs its function well. If you’re just looking to get updates to your tenants or office that they won’t ignore, then Tenant Txt might be a fit.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Reviews: DiggDigg reviews, MashableMashable reviews

Tags: bizspark, SMS, text messaging

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MTV’s new show produced by Justin Timberlake, The Phone, is a strange experiment in scripted reality television. The Phone challenges four strangers, in teams of two, to solve a mystery and win $50,000 (in the first episode, contestants had to find a fake car bomber).

Instead of encouraging fan participation in the show, MTV and their agency Fanscape, have opted to create a Twitter telephone game that encourages retweets of misinformation.

Each week, in conjunction with the airing of The Phone, MTV’s Twitter account is tweeting random information and asking their followers to retweet and change one word of the original tweet. The idea is to emulate the original Telephone game, where a slightly altered message is spread to new people, and the original message typically gets distorted beyond comprehension.

Even though it’s kind of a fun idea, it’s also a fairly transparent effort to get tweets with the hashtag #thephone to quickly disseminate through the Twittersphere. The more tweets, the more chances #thephone becomes a trending topic.

The end game seems to be an attempt at engineering a viral Twitter campaign to raise awareness about The Phone. So far, the results are a mixed bag, with just a small smattering of retweets since today’s MTV #thephone tweet.

Is this is a clever attempt at attracting your Twitter attention, or a poorly executed game with no winner? We’ll let you decide. Just make sure to share your thoughts in the comments.

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: #thephone, justin timberlake, mtv, the phone, twitter, twitter games

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If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.

But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable’s job boards are a place for socially-savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space, and beyond. Have a look at what’s good and new on our job boards:

Mashable Job Board Listings

Human Resources Director at Mediasmith, San Francisco, CA.

Mediasmith is looking for an Ad Ops Tracker with a minimum of one year ad serving experience.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Manager, HCP Relationship Management at Sanofi-aventis in Bridgewater, NJ

We currently seek an experienced marketing professional to join our Marketing/Sales Operations department at our U.S. corporate headquarters in Bridgewater, NJ. Responsibilities include driving healthcare professional RM, digital practices, and program development for assigned brands and managing external resources to implement and optimize HCP RM programs and digital initiatives in partnership with brands.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Administrative Clerk/Assistant at Global Venture Network, Ltd. in Atlanta, GA.

A personal assistant is requested to handle sensitive information with professionalism and integrity while communicating openly among team members and continually striving to promote smooth work flow to ensure client needs are met.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Web Development Rockstar at Greystripe in San Francisco, CA.

The initial focus of this position is to re-architect and overhaul our entire web platform, from the front-end corporate pages and CMS, to the publisher admin pages that configure ad serving for our mobile developer partners, to the internal admin pages that make everything run. That’s a big job and you’ll have a huge amount of autonomy to get it done.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Senior Manager of Social Media Marketing at Fanscape in Los Angeles, CA.

The Senior Manager, Social Media Marketing is a full-time position in Fanscape’s Digital Communications Department which specializes in online word-of-mouth and conversational marketing methods. This position will be engaged in multiple campaigns at all times and must ensure consistent successful execution. This person will take the lead on several marketing campaigns and manage a team to assist in the execution.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Community Manager at The Wing Girl Method in Venice, CA.

We are looking for a Community Manager/Social Media expert that can help us create and grow our online presence. Responsibilities include consulting on social media direction, assistance with blogging, providing direction to the owner and face of the company on how to present herself online, and selecting online tools to help grow the company.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Front-End Engineer at Bizmore in San Francisco, CA.

Our Front-End Engineers have the opportunity to be an integral part of building this innovative, consumer technology. The successful candidate must be a master of web-technologies and be able to apply the right solutions to a variety of engineering challenges.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Back-End Engineer at Bizmore in San Francisco, CA.

Our Back-End Engineer’s role is to design, install, monitor, and maintain production databases while ensuring high levels of data availability. This individual is also responsible for developing, implementing, and overseeing database policies and procedures to ensure the integrity and availability of databases and their accompanying software.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Operations/Network Engineer at Bizmore in San Francisco, CA.

Our Operations/Network Engineer’s role is to maintain development, staging and production environments. This position will also be responsible for office operations and desktop support.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Community Communications Manager at Second Life/Linden Lab in San Francisco, CA.

The Community Communications Manager is an articulate collaborative individual who is responsible for ensuring Resident Communications are consistent with Linden Lab corporate goals and messaging. In addition, the Community Communications Manager will provide insight into the Second Life community with an eye towards cultivating a fruitful discussion among Residents and Linden Lab. This position is based out of our San Francisco office location.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Director of Social Media and Technology at Zocalo Group in Chicago, IL.

We are currently seeking a Director of Social Media and Technology to join our company. Reporting to a Partner, this position is responsible for managing the company’s technology platforms and helping develop and execute online marketing programs with emphasis on social media.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Manager of SEO and Research Analytics at Howcast Media in New York City.

Howcast, an online video producer and distributor in the “how-to” category, is looking for a Manager of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Research Analytics. This individual will manage all aspects of the company’s SEO efforts, including measuring and reporting traffic gains in organic search. This individual will also work closely with members of the senior management team to analyze and exploit site-generated, partner, competitive, and external data.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Product Manager at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

We are seeking a Product Manager who will provide technical oversight and be a liaison between Business Owners and Engineering to facilitate product development, technical issue escalation and prioritization of engineering resources.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Senior Systems Administrator at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

We are seeking a Senior Systems Administrator who will work under limited supervision, administer all aspects of an advanced, distributed computer system supporting an important functional area of Synacor operations. Day-to-day tasks may involve any or all of the following: operating system administration, configuration of mail systems, system installation, SAN administration, fundamentals of security, installing third party software, etc.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Vice President of Technical Operations at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

We are seeking a Vice President of Technical Operations who is a highly technical individual, experienced in designing and managing infrastructures that provide a variety of web applications and e-mail services to millions of individual users, daily.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Web Architect at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

We are currently searching for a Web Architect who will partner with the Product organization to help drive product innovation and specification, as well as provide guidance during development. The web architect will be responsible for defining the technical architecture of web applications. We’re looking for someone who has an extensive background in PHP application development in a high volume environment.

Read more about this opportunity here.

UI Design/Frontend Developer at UserVoice in San Francisco, CA.

Seeking a kick-ass designer to create an amazing user experience for our customers and their users. It will be your responsibility to make user feedback an enjoyable process, designing and supporting some of the largest most recognizable brands in the world - and some that aren’t so much! We need sexy and usable user interfaces, copy that sings and workflows that are to die for.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Director, Web Development at Roku in Saratoga, CA.

Roku is looking for a Director, Web Development to lead all web-related software activities. This is an extremely visible position within the company and we are searching for highly qualified individuals. You will provide hands-on leadership, implementation and architectural design experience to ensure quality and reliability for a host of new web initiatives and applications to support the Roku product line.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Experienced Web Developer at Blast Advanced Media in Roseville, CA.

Blast Advanced Media is looking for an experienced web developer that knows how to create simple and elegant code for the backend of various websites and web applications. We are looking for someone that doesn’t need their hand held through a project and yet plays well with others. As a Web Developer, you will be responsible for creating, maintaining, enhancing, and optimizing various websites. If you are someone that knows multiple programming languages (such as PHP,.NET C#, Coldfusion, SQL, to name a few) and has programmed the backend of many websites then drop us a line.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Social Media Marketing Manager at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington.

The Windows Social Media team has an exciting opportunity for a passionate Online Marketing Manager to research, coordinate, project manage and implement social media marketing initiatives as part of the Windows7 launch team. The ideal person will be immersed in what it means to “live life online” through channels such as; Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. This team member will stay up to date on latest social media developments, consumer behaviors and trends, identify current and future opportunities and develop business case, marketing plans and proposals for implementing social media solutions within Windows consumer marketing. This person is a strong collaborator and team player that can function in a cross group, ambiguous environment.

Read more about this opportunity here.

User Experience Designer at Turnto Networks in Brooklyn, NY.

The ideal candidate has expert knowledge of the social networking space,

- Very familiar with social networking / web 2.0 design and user experience, strong knowledge of the internet landscape and industry trend, knowledge of HTML, CSS and Javascript, and 5-10 years of experience with user experience design, information architecture and creative design.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Marketing Program Specialist at simplehuman in Torrance, CA.

The Marketing Program Specialist will be in charge of developing and implementing a complete social media and online marketing strategy for simplehuman, as well as manage the company blog. This position is an excellent opportunity for anyone passionate about design and new technology trends—someone who admires innovation and wants to create something effective and fun.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Community Director at Warner Bros. Records in Burbank, CA.

You’ll get to oversee day-to-day operations of online communities for WBR roster, including Artists’ sites, fan clubs and Artists’ presence on social networks, establish metrics for Artists’ communities and track weekly goals across site traffic, social networks, email databases, and mobile lists, and grow communities and fans for key Artists by increasing fan engagement, site traffic, time spent on site, and data collection, among other roles.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Creative Director Guru at Kgb in New York City.

As the head of Design and User Experience you will be a core member of our leadership group. You will immediately have the ability to drive the overall user experience and creative direction of our products and to define and drive the brand. We expect you to push the limits of user interface and creative design.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Head of Community Development at Kgb in New York City.

As the head of community development and social media you will be a core member of our leadership group. You will immediately have the ability to drive our overall direction for user acquisition, community development and maintenance, and social media engagement. You will be the translator between us, our community of users, and the overall tech community.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Social Network Web 2.0 Developer at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

We seek to hire a web programmer with social networking experience to help build and maintain Social Psychology Network, a suite of nonprofit web sites focused on peace and social justice, psychology, and sustainable living.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Search Specialist at Mediasmith in San Francisco, CA.

Mediasmith is looking for a smart analyst with search engine marketing experience in the major search engines. You have probably spent a year or two working on a search account and are looking to take your search, marketing, and analytical skills to the next level. You have experience with Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Yahoo Search and MSN AdCenter. Experience with Omniture, Efficient Frontier, Databases–MySQL, PostgreSQL, Filemaker, Scripting languages–Python, Ruby, PHP, Web Coding–HTML, Javascript, AJAX, CSS, Google Adwords Certification and/or Yahoo Ambassador designations are all a plus for this position.

Read more about this opportunity here.

LAMP/Perl Engineer at Media Match, Inc. in Los Angeles, CA.

The ideal candidate will be bright, adaptable and innovative with the ability and desire to learn new things quickly, to an excellent standard. They will have an interest in the specific problems that need solving in addition to the bird’s eye view. They will not be afraid to try new things, and open to the giving and receiving of constructive criticism. The ability to work under their own steam, seeking innovative solutions to all manner of problems is a significant requirement.

Read more about this opportunity here.

Mashable has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development, and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at Mashable’s Job Board.

Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($50 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).

Reviews: Facebook, Google Analytics, Mashable, PHP, Twitter, YouTube

Tags: jobs, mashable

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The Swine Flu continues to be the main topic of discussion on Twitter, and for good reason. The World Health Organization today raised its pandemic alert level to 5 on a 6 point scale.

But with more than 10,000 tweets per hour about the virus, keeping up with the news has become challenging – setting up a Twitter search or following a hashtag is pretty much worthless at this point, unless you want to dedicate your entire day to monitoring it.

A more useful way to stay informed without obsessing over every Tweet is to follow the health professionals, organizations, and on the ground reporters that are sharing accurate news and information as it happens. Here’s a look at some of those users:

Authoritative Information

@cdcemergency is the Twitter feed setup by The Center for Disease Control where they are tweeting official announcements (like posting a travel warning for Mexico) and the case count nationwide (for the US).

@whonews is the Twitter feed for the World Health Organization. Like the CDC, they are posting links to official announcements, but with an international focus, such as reporting that there are now known cases of Swine Flu in 6 different countries.

Healthcare Websites

@healthmap is the Twitter feed for the website HealthMap.org, a mashup that plots disease alerts of all kinds on a Google Map. The site and Twitter feed have obviously become a lot more interesting this week as Swine Flu grips the world’s interest.

@newscientist is the Twitter feed for the magazine sharing the same name. While they are publishing articles about Swine Flu, they are using their Twitter feed to supplement it, with other useful information and links.

Reporters

@sanjayguptacnn is perhaps the world’s most famous doctor, and he’s in Mexico covering Swine Flu for CNN. He’s talking to doctors and telling us what he sees on the ground through his Twitter account.

@mexicoreporter is the Twitter account for Deborah Bonello, another person on the ground where the epidemic is currently the worst. In addition to some great original reporting on MexicoReporter.com, she’s sharing more of what she’s seeing and hearing on Twitter.

@JamesJanega is a reporter with The Chicago Tribune, a city that has seen a number of Swine Flu cases so far. He’s providing lots of local coverage on Twitter, like school closings and tracking cases within the Chicago metro area.

Now What?

Once you’re following these folks, you’ll probably want to setup a separate group to track them within your Twitter client of choice. With TweetDeck, which I use, that means I’ll get a notification every time one of these sources posts something new.

This list is probably far from comprehensive, but for the sake of getting the information out there, we figured we’d start it off. Please feel free to add the names of users that you’re finding especially useful in the comments area.

More Health Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Use Social Media for Better Health

- Top 10 Free iPhone Apps to Lose Weight

- Stop Smoking: 9 Resources to Help You Quit

- 15 Exercise Video Tutorial Sites to Pump You Up

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, cornishman

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: health, swine flu, twitter

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Events, whether they are a local tweetup, a championship game or the world’s largest conference, can be notoriously difficult to plan, promote, and execute. But the end result can be amazing, and that is why we plan them in the first place.

Whether you need to work with organizers, generate buzz, or share post-party photos, social media should be a primary weapon in your arsenal. With the power to share comes the ability to spread the word, increase awareness, and accomplish your goals.

Many conferences and event planners have come up with unique and powerful ways to promote and plan gatherings via online social tools. This guide will help you understand how social media can power and drive an event, step-by-step:

Step 1. Plan with social media tools

As with any event, the first step is to plan. This goes beyond the simple logistics - it’s about locations, agendas, and the people that will help you make it happen. Whether you’re inviting people over for a small BBQ or you’re planning a conference, here are some useful social media tools to get the planning started:

Skype: Use Skype for conference calls and chats about event planning. Bouncing ideas back and forth via video or audio can make the brainstorming process move much faster. Gchat and Tokbox are also fast and easy ways to engage audio and video conversations.

PBworks: The wiki is an ideal platform for planning events - it’s easy to add notes, edit information, and organize content. Both mediawiki (the software that runs Wikipedia) and PBworks (formerly PBwiki) are good choices, but PBworks has been a favorite of organizers because of its business features, better document-sharing features, and RSS notifications.

Google Calendar and Google Docs: Assign tasks and meetings using a collaborative calendar like Google Calendar and work together on your event information using a software like Google Docs.

If you need a more detailed file collaboration and calendar system, consider Basecamp, a business project management solution. CalendarHub is also a good calendar tool with event feeds and scheduling.

Step 2. Organizing and inviting

Once you have the basic plan in the pipeline, it’s time to get your ducks in a row and start inviting some people. This is different than promotion - you’re making sure to invite key guests, speakers, family, and whoever else is important to the success of your gathering, conference, or party.

PBworks is once again a great tool for keeping information on the event organized - you can publish guest lists, speaker lists, and more with PBworks. But if you’re going for a more professional feel, we suggest actually setting up a blog: Creating and posting updates to a WordPress or Drupal blog is generally worth your while.

For inviting and organizing guests lists, always be sure to set up a Facebook event - this will be one of the first places your guests will look for event information. You can go beyond a simple Facebook invite for added emphasis: Anyvite and Eventbrite are two solid solutions for inviting guests that include RSVPing and customization features.

Step 3. Promotion and distribution

Promotion is the key to any successful gathering. Without it, you will not attract the interesting people that you’re looking to bring in. There are several levels of promotion and dozens of social media tools available, enough to write another full article about, but we will only highlight some of the most important details.

First, be sure to have as many distribution channels available as possible. Your potential guests or attendees must be able to easily find you on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and for business events, LinkedIn.

Twitter and Facebook should be your primary promotional tools - they are built for spreading a message. On Facebook, be sure to set up a Facebook Page - they are better than groups because you can appear in News Feeds every time you update the Page’s status. Creating a Facebook Event is also key, as well as having guests and members update their own status with links to the shindig. Twitter’s key is retweeting and hashtags: be sure to have an event hashtag and promote it, and ask for retweets of the most important information.

If possible, all of these accounts need to link to one central blog, PBworks, or event page. If you’re using an Anyvite or Facebook event as your main distribution method, be sure that’s where every one of these social media websites links to.

Here are some more advanced promotional tools to consider:

Ning: Some organizers create their own social networks to build up hype and to keep connections even after the event has occurred.

Upcoming and Gary’s Guide: Add yourself to major event websites. If it’s a nightlife event, Going may be a good choice. For technology, Gary’s Guide is a smart place to be listed. Upcoming by Yahoo is a good listing of events all across the spectrum.

If your event is social media-related, don’t forget Mashable’s Social Media Events Guide as well.

Step 4. Optimize the event for social media sharing

When the day comes and everyone is arriving, be sure that you keep people happy and that you’ve optimized your event to create additional buzz. You didn’t do all of this work just to have people complain over Twitter, did you?

Have high-speed wireless available - this allows people to tweet and converse more easily. Promote following the event’s Twitter account for event updates. Don’t forget to have a unique hashtag for the event. Have a web page or even a giant whiteboard where people can share their social media contact information too.

For people who cannot attend the event, consider setting up a live stream. Live video services like Ustream and Mogulus make it possible to stream out key portions of events. You don’t have to stream everything - just the good stuff. If you can’t stream, upload videos to YouTube afterwards.

Finally, and most importantly, listen to your audience - do they complain about a specific speaker, the food, a lack of responsiveness? Address their needs by tracking the Twitter conversation for a large event. For small events, simply ask them for their feedback or have an online survey guests can fill out.

Step 5. Post-event social media communication

Contrary to popular belief, the event is not done when everyone leaves. There’s still more to do to make sure the event leaves a lasting impression, especially if you intend to have future events or even an annual one.

First, be sure to continue communication with all the attendees. The web page where users can add their social media contact information is vital towards this end, as are the emails you probably have access to. Send them thank yous, updates, and information. Be sure to promote friending or following your social media accounts.

Next, do not forget to share all the media generated by the event. Upload photos to the Flickr account and post videos on YouTube (Vimeo and Viddler are also good alternatives). Post recordings of your live video streams as well (you did have a live video stream or two, right?).

Keep communicating

Good communication is central to the success of any gathering. Even if it’s just a one-time event, keeping in contact with everyone who attended could result in invaluable contacts or lifelong friendships. Promote social media and good communication whenever you’re planning and executing an event and your extravaganza will turn out to be more engaging and more popular than you may have ever realized possible.

More event resources from Mashable:

- 5 Ways to Save Money on Conferences and Events

- HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup

- 5 Events That Have Used Social Media for a Good Cause

Image courtesy of iStockphoto,

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FriendFeed’s once optional beta, which we think looks a lot like Twitter, is no longer a choice.

Starting today, all users of the feed aggregation and comment-rich social network will by greeted by the completely overhauled, real-time content chasing, FriendFeed.

Keeping pace with the real-time Web, FriendFeed’s scraped their previous design, thrown in a bunch of useful new site features, and added FriendFeed by Email.

Besides the obvious constant stream of information (that you can pause), you’ll notice that the navigation is now on the right-hand side of the page. From there you can quickly access your settings, edit your profile (yes, you have one now), view your lists, visit your groups, and see your saved searches.

As we mentioned before, FriendFeed now includes smart direct messages that auto-fill names as you type. The same auto-fill behavior exists if you’d like to publicly share a new update with specific individuals. Just select the update box, and edit the “To:” field to include the groups, lists, and people of your choosing.

Also, should you find something that you really enjoy and want to re-share, FriendFeed has introduced a better, faster way to do just that. Now the share link on every item opens up a new window, where you can repost the item to your feed, select the full or tiny URL, grab embed code, or quick share with Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, and Delicious.

Plus, if you’re the type of person who lives and dies by email, the new FriendFeed by Email means you can send and receive FriendFeed updates without ever visiting the site. To post new updates, email share@friendfeed.com, groupname@friendfeed.com (posts directly to a group), or username@friendfeed.com (sends a direct message).

With the much easier to manage notification options, you can opt in to email, IM, and desktop notifications for a myriad of content and behaviors. Each of these alternative ways to receive content also supports FriendFeed updating, so you can update, comment, and like items right from your inbox, desktop, or IM client.

FriendFeed’s looking and behaving a lot differently these days, but will these changes result in new members, increased engagement, and better traffic? It’s too soon tell, but from the looks of it, 2009 could shape up to be a much better year for the site that tends to live in Facebook’s and Twitter’s shadow.

For more information on FriendFeed’s redesign and the new features, watch this video:

Reviews: Delicious, Digg, Facebook, FriendFeed, Twitter

Tags: friendfeed

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