Blellow: A Productivity Microblog for Professionals

The following articles were tagged: twitter.

The Blellow Queue: May 2009

posted by Sean Loyless on May 6th, 2009
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Which new features did we push this month on Blellow? What’s up and coming? Here’s the official Blellow Queue:

New Features

  • Search Blellow - You may now search Blellow status updates and replies! Just type your keyword or phrases in the top right of your dashboard
  • Find Your Friends - We’ve made updates to the email address book importer as well as added the ability to search and add your friends and followers from Twitter. Try it out here!
  • API - Blellow now has an API, or Advanced Programming Interface. An API allows other websites, 3rd party tools, and sites like Ping.FM and TweetDeck the ability to read and post status updates to Blellow without having to go to the site. We’re working with several developers to get us added to the list of services soon!
  • Invite your friends to Blellow - You can now send messages to your friends to join Blellow through your email address book
  • Improved SignUp process - We’ve simplified the signup process to Blellow even more, and added the ability to resend the verification email in case something went wrong. Not a Blellow member? Sign up today!
  • Group Postings - You can now post a message in a group even if you’re not a member, depending on restrictions to that group (does not apply to Private groups)
  • Improved Group Administration - It’s even easier to make changes or modify group settings. We’ve added a handy “edit” button below the group name.

Coming Soon

These are features that we are working hard to get in place to improve your Blellow experience even more!

  • RSS Feeds - Subscribe to user status updates and group updates via your favorite RSS reader like Google Reader or NetVibes.
  • Revamped User Profiles - Currently the user pages simply list the recent status updates, but we are looking to import other services like Flickr and LinkedIn to allow your profile pages to be more like a mini-portfolio.
  • Increased Character Count - We like the ability to have 300 characters for our status updates, but we want to increase this especially for private messages
  • Notifications - New options for notifications (when someone replies to a post, subscribed group activity email)
  • Reporting - Spam and abuse reporting for posts, jobs, projects, and meetups
  • Group Activity in Dashboard - Group activity included in My Network view
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Posted in Feature Queue
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What’s Your Story?

posted by Mark Sherrick on April 17th, 2009
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In the comments of my previous blog post on Blellow, I was asked in the comments to expand on what I meant when I write about your personal story.

Every product, every service, every business, basically everyTHING has a story. Why did you pick that brand of pasta over the other, why did you eat at one restaurant instead of the one across the street, why did you buy that computer brand instead of the cheaper one?

Because of the story each of those things that you bought was in your mind, the better story. This post will probably sound very Seth Godinish, and to be honest, he is one of the biggest pushers of the idea.

The story that you need to create is what will make people choose you over someone else. The story that you create will tell everyone what they need to know about you, without you having to say a word. Your website, your bio, your clients, you yourself; all of this is within your story.

For example; this is my Twitter bio:

Freelance/blogger for hire. creative thinker, technology dork, music geek, free minded, passionate, curious, husband, creator, and marketing guy.

In short form, this is my story. It presents a certain image in a potential client’s mind, in my followers’ minds, in the mind of someone who happened across my page however they did. Twitter bios are literal interpretations of your story, since you need to use words. Your bio picture also is part of your story. Your bio is you. You are your bio. If you are looking for a particular type of client, your story will present that. As also previously stated don’t just put stuff in your story for it to be there, because it will be obvious once things actually get going. Clients and viewers and others can smell bullshit. If you manage to fool them once, they will not fall for it again. Neither will people they tell, and so on.

Who are you? What do you want? What do you have? What do you do?

Answer those questions honestly, and you’re on your way to crafting your story. It’s as simple or as complex as you want it to be… just make sure it is YOUR story you are telling. You may already be telling a story, whether you know it or not. Please know it. Please.

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Posted in Freelance, Guest Bloggers
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San Antonio Tweetup Hosted by Blellow, Rackspace, and Robert Scoble

posted by Sean Loyless on March 18th, 2009
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Blellow Offices Downtown San Antonio

On Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 7pm Blellow is hosting a San Antonio TweetUp with Robert Scoble at our offices on 918 South Alamo. Please join Robert Scoble, Rob La Gesse and Rackspace, Mandi Leman, and the rest of the Blellow crew for some Twitter Meetup fun. We will have a keg and a margarita machine on hand, as well as plenty of finger foods to munch on.
 
Parking is available in the parking lot behind the Blellow offices and along the street. If you are looking for accommodations within walking distance, we recommend Victorian Inn, Beauregard House, Gardenia Inn, or King William Manor.
 
Entrance is free for all Twitter and Blellow users! Please click here for a map of our location, and see ya tonight!


 
View Larger Map

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Posted in Events, Just For Fun, News
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Blellow vs Twitter: What’s The Difference?

posted by Sean Loyless on March 11th, 2009
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Blellow Vs Twitter: What's the Difference?

One of the most common questions we receive when explaining Blellow is “How is Blellow different than Twitter?”

Our main objective while creating Blellow was not to be “the next Twitter,” but instead provide an alternate platform that is geared more towards work and productivity. All of us at Blellow love the Twitter platform, and still use it regularly along with our own site.

In its original inception, Twitter was created to be a socializing platform allowing you and your friends to keep updates on “What you are doing,” which is anything from what you’re having for lunch, events you are attending, and sharing helpful tips and articles from other web sites and blogs around the internet.

To further establish the differences between Twitter and Blellow, we’ve come up with this list noting the main points that separate the two platforms:

What Makes Blellow Different From Twitter?

Read the rest of this page »

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Posted in About Blellow
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How Can Microblogging Help Your Productivity?

posted by Sean Loyless on February 17th, 2009
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Popular social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Friendfeed are becoming rich sources of productivity tools. Tutorials, freebies, tips to write better code or how to create better web designs, and more are being passed through the sites on a daily if not hourly basis.

What’s even more amazing is these networks weren’t built for this purpose originally, but have adapted to the user to provide better features and allow more useful options to the user. Popular 3rd party tools like Tweetdeck take this a step further and offer features that aren’t available in the native web client of Twitter.

Blellow prides itself on not only interacting with users, but also listening to your thoughts and suggestions on what can make us a better network! If you had to pick one feature or option that would help you be more productive in social networks, what would it be?

Photo by Rob Burke

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Posted in Freelance
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