5 Steps to Setting Up an Efficient Social Networking System This will work for setting up a social system, or pretty much any other project you may be considering. For our example, let's say you want to create a new site, with supporting social networking profiles and pages, and keep it all separate from your existing projects. Step One: Create a new email address at one of the free webmail systems. We'll use GMail for this example, because it will give you a chance to learn a bit more about how the tabs function works. Choose a generic username for the account. Something that relates to your topic, rather than a personal name. Pick a strong password. Next, make sure the account is set so you always log in using a secure connection. To do that, click on the gear icon at the upper right while logged into GMail, and select the "Settings" option. Next to the "Browser Connection" label on the page that comes up, click on "Always use https." Scroll to the bottom and click on "Save Changes." If you picked a strong password and are always logging in securely, you've beaten most of the security problems you might encounter. Not all, but extreme security is beyond the scope (and the point) of this article. .... Step Two: Set up your blog. Give it a name that's catchy and fits the topic. Choose a theme to suit your tastes. Create the admin account with a name that is NOT admin. Pick a strong password that is different from the one you used for your GMail account. Use the GMail address you just created as the admin email address. Install Better WP Security and activate it with the default settings. Leave the advanced stuff for later, after you've had time to look through them and learn their implications. Some of them can break themes and plugins. Install and activate Spam Free Wordpress. You've just cleared up better than 90% of the potential security issues you might face with most blogs. It's not perfect, but random hackers won't bother with most blogs that have this set-up. Too much work for too little return. .... Step Three: Set up your Twitter account. Use a name that's similar to the one for your blog, and use a different password from the previous two. Make sure your blog is listed as the URL for this account. Note: You are allowed to have more than one Twitter account, so don't worry if you already have one. During the sign-up process, set it to only allow secure (https) log-ins. Do whatever customization you want. For an example of the extent to which you can tailor the appearance of your Twitter page, see the one I set up for this newsletter, at http://twitter.com/TalkBizNews There are no Tweets there so far. (That comes later.) .... Step Four: Create your Facebook account, and use the GMail address you created for this process. Strong password, etc. Set your Facebook account to only use secure log-ins. To do this, click on the gear icon at the upper right, and select "Account Settings." On the page that comes up, click on the word "Security" on the left side of the page. Enable "Secure Browsing" on the next page. If you have an existing account, you may want to change the email address listed in it to the one you created earlier, unless you plan to "flip" (sell) the system you're setting up. If that's the plan, create a page on your topic instead. We covered that a few times recently, and it's a really easy thing to do. You are not allowed to sell Facebook pages. You CAN sell the domain and blog that are associated with them, and then just make the buyer an admin on any existing pages that relate to it. .... Step Five: Tweak the email set-up. Log into your newly created GMail account. Click on the gear icon at the upper right, and select "Configure inbox." Enable all five tabs. Uncheck "Include starred in Primary." Click "Save." Now you have to decide where things go. You may have other social networking/sharing accounts, for example. LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Digg, etc. For the basic set-up I outlined above, here's how I recommend sorting things: * Primary: Direct email from one person to another, plus critical notices, like domain renewal reminders. * Social: Facebook mail. * Promotions: Any niche-specific lists you subscribe to. * Updates: Twitter-related email. * Forums: Notes sent to this address by your own blog. (Continued from previous post) To set which tab a given type of mail goes to, you can right-click on the message title in any display list. That will bring up a menu with the option "Move to Tab." The list of tabs will appear as a sub-menu off of that. Select the tab you want mail from that sender to go to, and click on it. You can also just drag the listing to the chosen tab. Whichever way you prefer, once you've moved a message to a tab, you'll see a yellow alert box near the top of the screen, which will say: "The conversation has been moved to "Tab Name". Undo Do this for future messages from mail@example.com? Yes" If you got the wrong tab, click "undo." If you want all messages from that sender moved to that tab from now on, click "Yes." Easy. And it keeps things in order, which will help you to get things done much more efficiently. If you use more of the social media sites, there's a better system. The tabs would be used like this: * Primary: Direct email from one person to another, plus critical notices, like domain renewal reminders. Same as before. * Social: Mail from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social sites. * Promotions: Mail from broadcast lists you subscribe to. * Updates: Notes from your own blog and any Facebook pages you may have. * Forums: Mail from FB groups, forums, and email discussion lists. Basically, all the many-to-many conversational channels you may choose to participate in. .... There's one more trick you want to learn, at least if you are mixing a number of sources under one tab. To test it, click on the gear again, and then Settings. At the top of the settings screen, you'll see a row of links. First, click on the one labelled 'Labels.' Create a new label for each site and/or type of message you want to be able to find quickly. Now, click on the one labelled 'Filters." Click on "Create a new filter." In the first screen that comes up, you set the conditions that trigger it. Sender, subject, words or phrases in the message, etc. Something unique to the type of message you want to be able to find quickly in that category. Then click "Create filter with this search." On the next screen that comes up, you'll see a bunch of options under the phrase "When a message arrives that matches this search." Check the box next to "Apply the label," and choose whichever label is appropriate for the message type. You can also check "Categorize as" and choose the specific tab you want those messages to be sent to and, if you like, mark that group as important. The latter will make sure it's displayed at the top of the listing under that tab. You have just sorted and prioritized the majority of the email you'll receive at this address in the future, in a sane way that lets you work quickly, and without a lot of messing about. By the way... If you look at the left side of the GMail screen now, you'll see each of the labels you created listed there as a link. Click on one of those and the mail that fits the label will be listed. It will switch to that listing regardless of which tab you happened to be in at that moment. .... Controlling the mail flow is a big part of this system, especially if you use it for additional social site accounts. You can do a lot of that by changing the settings in the various profiles. If you only want to be notified when someone comments on something, you can turn off the "followed you on Twitter" or "wants to be friends on Facebook" stuff. Depending on what FB groups you may participate in, you may also want to turn off notifications from those. If you plan to check these sites regularly, do you really need an email every time someone follows you on Twitter, or "likes" your Facebook page? If not (and you probably don't), turn those off at the source. In fact, turn off everything you can that you don't want to act on as soon as you see it, or need to store for future reference. .... Congratulations. You've just set up a streamlined and efficient system for handling your social media sites. You can easily tweak this to work for nearly any playground project, test niche responses, develop sites/systems for flipping, and a lot more. You don't need to use GMail for these, either. Doing it that way just allows you to hand over the whole system with nothing but an exchange of passwords and maybe a domain transfer. If you're keeping the system, you can just as easily set it up with one or more email addresses at your own domain, and using the filters and folders in your desktop email client. The main reason I chose social site management for this example is simple: It's the thing that too many people allow to chew up too much of their day, with too little return on the time invested. A process like this can help you get the important things done, and then just go away until tomorrow. .... I mentioned earlier that you could get this started on less than a shoestring budget. If you can afford one dollar, you can get it up and running on that for the first year. First, hunt around for a $.99 domain registration coupon. They're all over the net. Register your domain. For free hosting that isn't horrible, set up a free account at http://www.000webhost.com/ Follow their instructions to point your new domain to that account. If you want to set up a list and let people sign up, get automated follow-up messages, and all the usual list management/autoresponder stuff, set up a free account at http://www.listwire.com/ The Facebook, Twitter, and other social site accounts are free normally, so you're still at under a buck for the whole thing. Note: I do not recommend the free website or list hosting if you can afford a paid service. The primary reason is support, which is notoriously (and understandably) absent with such systems. The other is that you can get shut down pretty quickly if, for example, your site uses too many resources. Just like with any service, free or paid, there is one main commandment: Keep regular backups. .... As you can see, this sort of thing is really easy, as long as you have the blueprint. Of course, this is just the structure. You still have to get out there and do the content, the networking, and the promotion. But now you have a focus on which to hang your learning. That can save you a ton of time on the curve.