• How much are you paying attention to, and how well can you absorb it?
• Is the information relevant to you?
• Are you paying attention to how effective your web presence is?
• Are people talking about you and your brands?

You might think that this is a lot of work, but given the right tools, it’s a snap!  With a few simple tools you can optimize the way you find and filter the information, and then you can easily current!

Most sources of serialized info today (blogs, news sites, etc) publish feeds of their information (technically called RSS feeds, Real Simple Syndication).  These feeds can be collected into a tool called a Feed Reader (like Google Reader).  When you connect these feeds to a feed reader, the data starts coming to you!  You can check your reader for the info (rather than the individual web sites), and filter/organize it however you want.  It’s like your own personal newspaper, all the time!

You can even hook up other things to your feed reader, like Facebook, Twitter and forums.  Not only will you be able to track more information, but you’ll get it sooner, and in a way that is easier to manage!

Stay tuned for some interesting things you can hook into your feed reader!

The Internet never forgets. Anything that gets posted will eventually be indexed by the search engines and other caching servers, which will store that content forever. This is great for keeping historical records of news and such, but it will also store your photos, blog posts and tweets, and anything you say in a forum.

These things will be saved, and will all be part of your brand whether you like it or not. When people search for your name, they will find everything you have ever said or done on the Internet. They will find the cooking tips you posted on Facebook, and the tweets you made about how much you dislike your job. What will future employers or clients think about these?

Assume everything you post can be found by everyone you know. Will they like what they find? Go ahead and share, but think before you post!

Geeks will talk about servers a lot, servers are what makes the Internet do the things we need. Servers run things like web sites, email boxes, instant messenger services… all sorts of things. For each kind of service, there is a… (wait for it)… Server! The page you’re reading right now is sitting on a web server, probably somewhere in California (where the server is doesn’t really matter, as long as it gets power and is nice and cool).

Websites have “Domain Names”, which you may have noticed at the top of your browser (my domain name is “jeremysisson.com”). Your computer looks up the domain name through a “Domain Name Server”, which tells it where to look for the web server, which then sends your computer the web page. Ta da!

The domain name is also important because we can send and receive email with it. Email uses the same system for finding the email server that your browser does. This is why we usually say “yourname AT domainname.com”.

This may be more info than you need, but it can be good to know. These details are part of the foundation of your web presence.

Think about your goals. Do you want to promote yourself? Do you want to promote your company? Maybe you just want to socialize.

Here are a few tips I can suggest:

1) Try and find people local to you. Go to the Twitter Advanced Search page and find people near you. At the very least you can complain about the weather!

2) Use the Twitter search to find people that share your interests, and start following them. Maybe you like video games or baseball? The search interface can be very useful! search.twitter.com.

3) Think about the websites you read, and the blogs that you follow. Are any of the authors using Twitter? Follow them! BONUS: If you tweet at them and they tweet back, their reply will show up in their feed, and some of their followers might follow you!

4) Just start tweeting! Talk about the things you are doing. People will find you based on your tweets about your interests (probably using the Twitter search). If you are slick enough, you can optimize your tweets for searchability (then people will find you).

For example, rather than tweet something like “On my way to work today, it’s raining”, try posting “Commuting on the GO Train on my way to Toronto. Damn this Canadian weather!”. It will appeal to people searching for commuting, go trains, toronto, canada, and weather!

5) Follow lots of people, and socialize, but remember, it’s not a competition to gather the most followers. If you have too many, your Twitter feed will be too cluttered to be useful. Don’t be afraid to “prune” your followers.

And finally:

6) It might feel like you’re “Stalking” people when you follow them… but you’re not, this is how Twitter works! Think about it, they’re tweeting, so they WANT people to read it.

Have fun! (oh, and follow me!)