WordPress is probably the dominant blogging platform used today as well as an acceptable content management system. One of the aspects of WordPress that has led to its broad use is that it is open source, the code is free and updated and extended by users so that not only is it an affordable option, but it also has been enhanced through design (themes) and feature specific modules (plugins) to do just about anything that you’d want it to.

Despite that, WordPress did not have a BlackBerry application until last summerwhen a beta was released. It was a bit buggy and had some UI issues, but since then updates to the WordPress BlackBerry application have been rapid, developing a useful application for managing your blog. That part is key. WordPress for the BlackBerry is for existing blogs only.  Setting up a blog and refining the design and functionality of an existing blog are beyond the capabilities of this app (that will go without saying for most bloggers, but it’s worthwhile to point out to the newbies).  This app is for managing a blog that you already have, writing new content, editing existing content and reviewing comments.

Before you get started with the app you’ll need to set up your blog (the app supports multiple blogs either self hosted or on WordPress.com) with your log in information in order to download and sync your content changes. That’s how the app works; download content from you webserver, edit or create and then synchronize.

The app has four areas of functionality:

• Posts - blog posts,
• Pages - pages on your WordPress site,
• Comments - reader comments on posts and pages,  and
• Options - application settings.

Posts

The posts section of the app is of course for writing and editing blog posts. By syncing this section (each section of the app can be synchronized independently, which is a benefit for memory and time or causes unnecessary repetition depending on how you work) the number of posts that you pre-set are downloaded from the server. Those posts can then be edited and re-synched.

The landing page displays your recently posted and submitted posts with the title and date. Using the pencil icon at the top of the screen you can open a new post, the folder icon displays drafts, both local (on your BlackBerry or on the server) and when they were last saved. The icon with two arrows refreshes the list of posts.

The edit screen has the same basic content fields as the online version of WordPress: Title, Tags, Categories, Status and Content. The post title is naturally whatever you want to name your post. The tags (words that describe the post) are added as a comma separated list. Existing categories on your blog are imported to the app for selection and new categories can also be created from the app as well. The status refers to the status of the blog post in regards to it’s being posted. With some statuses not yet posted and others posted in different ways I don’t understand the logic behind their order.  Status options are:

• Pending Review – a post that has been uploaded to the web server, marked for review, but has not been published,
• Private - a post that has been uploaded to the web server, published and marked private,
• Draft - a post that has been uploaded to the web server, but not published,
• Published - a post that has been uploaded to the server, published and is currently live, and
• Local Draft – a post that only exists on the BlackBerry app and has not yet been uploaded to the web server.

Finally there is the post content, which is the HTML text for the post. I find it burdensome to write HTML markup on the BlackBerry so I tend to just write posts and then add the markup online later. But you may be more proficient with HTML.

I prefer to do the same with media. In the application image files from your BlackBerry can be inserted into posts and you can add a title, description, caption, etc., but the media can only be positioned at the top or bottom of the post. More precise positioning must be done online.

Once the post is complete it must be submitted to the web server. The status selected for the post determines whether the post is immediately public, is a draft, etc. Personally I prefer to submit posts written on my BlackBerry as a draft so that I can review the spelling, grammar, formatting and media before I promote it to live, but you can push posts live directly from your BlackBerry.

Pages

The pages section of the app functions basicaly the same as the post section. The main difference is that you can set the options for Parent Page, Page Template and Page Order instead of Tags and Categories. Parent Page and Page Template are drop down menues with data pulled from the live site. The Page Order option allows you to determine where in the order of pages on the site the new one will go by using a numbering system. Other than that the structure, submission and content entry functionality is the same.

Comments

Managing comments on a blog seems like a small thing, but it’s critical to maintaining a community and can be rather difficult with a mobile browser. WordPress for BlackBerry app makes managing comments easy allowing you to spam, hold, approve, delete and reply to multiple comments or individually with little time or effort.

Options

The WordPress application doesn’t allow for much customization and the options screen just gives you the ability to change the blog username and password for logging in, the number of posts that are downloaded and an option for uploading images at a smaller size. More options for things like memory usage, default location of media, etc would be nice add-ons in the future, but for now this will do.

Verdict

This application is a must have for any WordPress blogger with a BlackBerry.  It simply provides the primary features that bloggers need for writing and editing content on the go as well as managing their blog’s community.  It is everything that you expect from WordPress, stable, clean user interface, simple to use.  I find it extremely useful for blogging on the go (this post was written in subways during my commute and a parked car waiting for my daughter’s plane to arrive) or capturing an idea before it gets away.  I’ve published a couple posts directly from my BlackBerry, but for the most part I feel that some extra polish is required that this app really can’t do without a more feature rich text editor and finer media placement control.  With that and some memory management this application would be perfect. But even without it I am very pleased with the app.

Review: WordPress for BlackBerry is a post from: Trumblog

Forgot to mention this a couple weeks ago when the latest release of Foursquare for BlackBerry came out, but the application has added a tab in the top navigation for Tips.  The purpose of the screen is obvious enough, it’s a listing of tips for places near where you are and from each tip you can link to the venue, mark tips as done and see the profile of the person who left the tip.

It’s not earth shattering, but it’s a move toward expanding activity on Foursquare beyond just checking in to earn points, mayorships and badges.  Leaving tips has been sort of a secondary feature on the social network and is not promoted, but by making these tips a different way to explore the locations around you, not just by showing their names (that you probably already know), but what about them makes them interesting.

It also adds a little cache to adding tips.  A couple months ago when looking at how social networks were stealing functionality from each other I asked “how could Foursquare support and reinforce the tips and to-do’s for venues?”  This is one answer.

Nice Tips Foursquare is a post from: Trumblog

It’s official.  I am going to South by Southwest this coming weekend.  I’m not going for the full four and a half days, just Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday, but based on the schedule even an abridged trip should leave me exhausted.  I’ve gone through the full SXSWi schedule and picked out what seem to be the most interesting and applicable events to create my own schedule for SXSWi, but it’s an impossible one.  There are just too many interesting things taking place at the same time.

So I’m opening this up to you, my friends, colleagues and anyone else who happened to stumble across this blog.  Since my goal of attending SXSWi is to gather information and ideas for our work together, and of course I’ll be blogging and twittering it all, it seems to make sense for me to ask you what you would like to learn about, what events you are interested in and then I’ll attend those.   My picks from SXSWi are below.  Select as many as you like and I’ll attend the most popular.

Just one caveat about my attending events.  There are so many interesting topics being covered at any given time that if the event I’m at turns out to be a dud or it’s clear that I’m not going to get something out of it I’m going to make the call quickly and bail for a different event.  There’s just too much great stuff there to spend a worthless hour in a conference room.

Poll: Help Pick My South by Southwest 2010 Schedule is a post from: Trumblog

Inappropriate tweets, reenacted by amateurs who are happy to go “there.” Have a great weekend.

Twitter: The Criterion Collection from sween on Vimeo.

Twitter: The Criterion Collection is a post from: Trumblog

This 2010 State of the Internet video is along the same lines as “Did You Know” videos, plenty of stats on the internet, email and social media sites as a video infographic with an electronic beat.

2010 State of the Internet Video is a post from: Trumblog

Back in January Seesmic, the Twitter client developer, bought Ping.fm, the service for simultaneously updating multiple social networks.  At the time they boldly promised a BlackBerry application that merged the two services by the end of the month, but version 1.2.19, that was released at the end of January, had no Ping.fm functionality at all.  This week Seesmic rolled out release 1.3.28 and my dream of total social network access from one app has been realized.

Adding your Ping.fm account to Seesmic is simple and done through the menu options Accounts > Add account… from there you select “Add a Ping.fm account,” enter your email address and password and your Ping.fm account, with access to all of the 50+ social networks that it supports, is set up.  Your Ping.fm account is treated like any of your accounts on the application and when you want to post an update it appears as one of the account tabs that you can select.  You can post to one account (Twitter or Ping.fm), a Twitter and a Ping.fm account, multiple Twitter accounts, and even multiple Twitter accounts and Ping.fm. Multiple Ping.fm accounts are not allowed, but if they were I bet you could post to all of them at the same time too. Posting is very reliable and easy, but I’ve had issues using the Ping.fm @ short codes (such as @li to post just to LinkedIn) to send an update to individual or sets of social media accounts.

When I reviewed the previous version of the Seesmic application I compared it to ÜberTwitter and while it held its own it did not unseat ÜberTwitter as my favorite Twitter client for the BlackBerry.  I’ve updated that chart comparing the latest versions of Seesmic and ÜberTwitter below.

Seesmic - ÜberTwitter Comparison 2

As you can see from the chart above the latest version of Seesmic maintains the same feature set and stands up to ÜberTwitter similarly to how the last release did. Primary Twitter functionality is all there on Seesmic and works well. I even think that pictures load a little faster on Seesmic than on ÜberTwitter. But ÜberTwitter has people search, tweets near you, tweet deletion, profile editing, trending topics, alerts and other small enhancements that Seesmic doesn’t. The only feature like this that Seesmic has is the ability to save searches.

But then there is Ping.fm and its integration with Seesmic. That addition is huge. With the addition of Ping.fm to the Seesmic app goes from an also ran to a product with a significant differentiator. The issue becomes do I (or will I now) update my social networks enough to be worth the trade for losing features like Tweets Near You, Find a Person and a nicer look and feel? Time will tell.

For now the novelty of Seesmic and its ability to post to multiple social networks has made it my go to Twitter app on the Blackberry. But I find myself drifting back to ÜberTwitter now and again for some of those missing features and realizing how important some features that I took for granted are. I can’t say anymore that ÜberTwitter is my favorite BlackBerry Twitter app, but I also can’t say that Seesmic is. Seesmic is in a great position, will need to keep evolving to take the lead. And only time will tell if the feature that I thought would be a game changer turns out to be little more than a novelty.

Review: Seesmic For BlackBerry with Ping.fm Integration is a post from: Trumblog

Mayor Bill Bunten of Topeka, Kansas this week moved  to rename his city Google, Kansas for the month of March as a stunt to secure their selection as the location for testing of Google’s ultra fast internet infrastructure and receive the jobs, investment and who knows, tourism, that goes along with it. Interestingly Topeka means “to dig good potatoes” in the Kansa and Ioway languages.  I imagine that Bill Bunton wants it now to mean “dig for fiber optic cable.”

It reminds me of course of Hot Springs, New Mexico that in 1950 hitched it’s star to a different media channel (radio) and renamed itself Truth or Consequences.  2010 is a different time than 1950 and Bill Bunton is either smarter or less committed than the people of Hot Springs because Truth or Consequence’s name change was permanent while Google, Kansas will revert back to Topeka on April Fools Day.  And that’s probably a good thing anyhow since any city that permanently names itself Google would quickly find themselves on the wrong end of a copyright lawsuit rather than showered with thanks for the PR.

I wonder if the results will be fleeting.  Truth or Consequences (the quiz show) was broadcast from Truth or Consequences (the city) once, but then host Ralph Edwards was dedicated enough to the city that he visited every year for half a century as part of the city’s “Fiesta” held on the first weekend of May.  I seriously doubt that the hardware and fiber optics laid by Google will still be in use in 50 years and if it is then it will be as outmoded as the Victrola used to listen to quiz shows back in 1950. If Topeka’s smart, and I have no doubt that they are, they will need to capitalize on a Google investment by luring tech companies with cheap bandwidth and become a sort of “Silicone Plains.” But they’ll need to act fast because if Google’s plan is a success then Topeka’s window of opportunity will be short and the digital divide closed before they know it.

Photo: Truth or Consequences by einelam

Topeka’s Google Gamble is a post from: Trumblog

Maybe it’s that I’m tired of winter myself.  Maybe it’s the Canadian love afterglow from the Olympics.  Maybe I just like the creative, the live event/ commercial mix serendipity, perfect timing, great editing (love the kid’s double take) and brand bulls eye, but I love this ad for Tropicana.

And the electronic press kit got picked up by local news for a double word score.

Tropicana Sunsation is a post from: Trumblog

Social media isn’t just for B2C anymore.  B2B social media spending is expected to increase 9.9% in 2010.  You may think that businesses are just made up of people so the same rules and tactics apply as for B2C, but as with just about everything else, social media gets a little different when you get business involved. Following are 10 trends that I see in B2B social networking for 2010.

1. Online networking for new business

New business development is the number one reason for companies to get involved with online networking in the first place and the number of businesses coming to this realization is growing every day.   Surveys show that 60% to 80% of respondents primary use of online networking is for new business development; a number that is up 33% from the previous year.  With the ROI for social networking proven in this area expect that new uses for social media to be explored.

2. Influencers will draw businesses to social media

In the first quarter of 2009, 30 percent of B2B trade magazines closed. That sudden reduction in a channel for PR and influencers increased the migration online that was already taking place for these groups.  This new reality is forcing business’ hand and requiring that they engage influencers online and though the social media channels that they are using to build credibility.

3. Recruiting will continue going social

Not only are HR departments vetting job candidates through a search of social networks, but they are also saving money doing so. Intel saved millions of dollars a year in fees by finding senior managers through LinkedIn rather than using recruiters. US Cellular not only saved money by using LinkedIn they also believe that they found  good candidates faster.

4. Mobile and location based social networks are on the rise

For the past 3 years I have heard the “year of mobile” heralded and it seems to have actually arrived.  Riding that wave are geolocation-based social networks like Gowalla and Foursquare as well as  the introduction by Google of search results near you.  All of these consumer trends are making their way into business applications and CRM data.  Knowing when and where leads and clients are is a natural way to improve relationships and increase sales.

5. Social media publishing will get more multi-media

In order to stand out in social media expect to see more and more video and images in B2B social media. Of course there are plenty of side benefits to this tend that encourage it such as  taking advantage of the second largest search engine (YouTube), shooting for a video to go viral, and generally better explaining their products and services.

6. Search driving social media engagement

The inclusion of real-time search results in Google, Bing and Yahoo!’s search engines has added another ally to the forces pushing businesses into social media, the SEO.  The last thing that a search engine optimization agency wants to see is all of their hard work go to waste because of another company’s buzz on Twitter and Facebook.   Social networks are the latest front in the war for search engine rankings.

7. Internal social networking

Business social networking is connecting companies and customers and employees are using social networks to connect with friends, but what about connecting businesses and employees? Expect internal social networks both formal and informal to bridge that gap and harness the power of crowds for internal R&D, market prediction, answering customer support questions while reducing employee turnover.

8. Banning social media in the workplace

The flip side of B2B social media is the concern about lost productivity and security risks when employees have access to online social networks at the office. One study estimated an increase in productivity of 1.5% if access to Facebook was blocked and another estimated that personal use of social networks on the job cost the British economy 2.3 billion dollars a year.  As a result only 10% of employers in a recent study gave employees full access to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter while at the office.  Expect this to continue to be an issue.

9. Online social networking encourages offline networking

All that time on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook seems to be getting companies’ warmed up for some face-to-face time.  WeCanDo.biz reports a 36% increase over last year of respondents who regularly attend face-to-face meetings and that 46% of respondents planned to increase their budget and time dedicated to live meetings.

10. There are no more excuses for not monitoring social media activity

Social media monitoring has gotten better and easy and available at a wide price range that there really isn’t an excuse for not doing it anymore.  In addition, with story after story in the mainstream media of clueless companies dealing with customer uprisings you have been warned and should consider yourself accountable.

10 Trends In B2B Social Networking is a post from: Trumblog

The other day at SoxUp (a Tweetup at Fenway Park and book signing for Steve Garfield’s book Get Seen) someone who I’d never met before came up to me and said “You’re @TPapi? I was reading your stuff today. You’re the guy with the glasses.”

Yup, I’m the guy with the glasses. I feature them in the blog design, have them on my Twitter background using the glasses as an icon. I don’t care about being “the guy with the glasses.” I’m adult enough to accept what I look like (pretty much) and if I really wanted to do something about the glasses I can afford contacts.  But the comment did get me thinking about my brand and specifically my Twitter avatar.

If you follow me on Twitter then you’ve seen, and maybe recognize, my Twitter avatar a yellow and orange Ganesh (Yes it is a Ganesh Prentice). I began using that avatar years ago when I first dipped my toes into social media because I could hide behind it and I thought that being represented by the remover of obstacles couldn’t hurt.

Now of course if I was starting out today I would use a picture of myself as my avatar, which is best practice in order to show transparency, openness, that there’s a real guy behind the tweets, etc.  But even knowing that, I’ve been hesitant to change avatars for two reasons:

1. I’ve used this avatar long enough that I’m afraid that I won’t be recognized without it
2. The little orange and yellow guy stands out from other avatars in the tweetstream

But the comment last Thursday is making me rethink things. I’ve accidentally given myself two icons (Ganesh and Glasses). What do I do? Hang on to my recognizable and identifiable orange Ganesh? Begin using my glasses icon as an avatar? Switch to a picture of myself?  How do I introduce the change and ensure that a new avatar stands out as well as the current one does?

Let me know what you think in the survey below. I’ll announce the results in a week or so and let you know what I’ll be doing.

Twitter Avatar Survey

Thanks

Poll: Should I Change My Twitter Avatar? is a post from: Trumblog