Socialmedian is social news network that connects people with personalized news and information. socialmedian enables you to easily keep up-to-date on the news that matters to you and to people who share your interests..
2. Why was socialmedian created?
Socialmedian was created in response to information overload. We want to help people more easily filter and discover personally relevant news and information.
3. Who is socialmedian intended for?
Socialmedian is intended for use by anyone anywhere who wants to get access to personalized news influenced by people who share their topical interests. It is available to anyone in any country in the world; unfortunately right now it is only available in the English language. We hope to work on translations soon.
4. What's up with the name?
The name socialmedian itself represents what we believe to be the next evolution of media; as information becomes more universally accessible and people socially can create, share, and discuss it online, what we're witnessing is a massive democratization of information around the globe as people who share common interests can instantly become newsmakers for each other without any regard to political borders or boundaries. Increasingly, when it comes to news and information, it's no longer about the have's and have not's, we are all the social median
5. Why should I use socialmedian?
With socialmedian it is easy to get a personalized view of the news from thousands of sources, filtered by people who share your interests.
Many people have diverse interests ranging from interior design to politics to web technology to their favorite sports team. Join a News Network on each of your favorite topics and get a feed of what people like you are finding interesting
6. How do I get started?
To get started with socialmedian we recommend you join some news networks on topics that match your interests, follow some newsmakers to discover news that other people are clipping, and clip the stories that appeal to you so you can show other people what you find interesting.
7. Do I need to register in order to use socialmedian?
Currently registration is required in order to use the site. We are working on ways to make the registration requirements less stringent in the future. Socialmedian enables you to easily discover and share just the news that meets your particular set of interests.
Anyone! Click here to start your first news network
10. How do I get news into my news network ?
When creating your news network make sure to designate a primary topic, just as you would enter a search term into a Google search. We highly recommend that you try to include at least 2-3 related topics that socialmedian can search for as well. Also, make sure to add a good selection of sources that you want us to search from.
11. How do I add sources to my News Network?
You can add sources manually or choose from sources that socialmedian recommends to you.
To add a source manually, just copy and past the URL of the RSS feed for your desired source. Not sure how to do that? Look for the RSS icon like this one and then copy and paste the url for the RSS feed to socialmedian.
Socialmedian will also recommend sources for you to add based on the topics you have entered for your News Network. By default, socialmedian will email you once we have found a good selection of sources, so if you want you can go watch some YouTube or something and we'll shoot you an email in a short while once we have some recommended sources for you to add.
12. I just created a news network, how long before I see some news?
In just a few minutes we'll populate our initial search of the topics you have chosen from the sources you have specified.
13. I created a news network and I'm not getting stories...what should I do?
1. To try and get some news going, adjust the volume bar to experiment with higher and lower volume.
High volume will include any story that contains any one of the topics you have chosen. Low volume will only include stories that have the primary topic. Medium volume (which we usually recommend) looks for a nice mixture of the primary topic and/or related topics.
2. Add some more related topics. Don't worry you can always delete topics.
3. Add some more sources. You can add sources manually from the "Sources" widget on the right sidebar by entering in the real name of a popular source, like "BBC", or you can enter any valid RSS feed. You can also choose from sources we suggest for you based on the topics you have entered
14. When I manually copy/paste a news source, I get an error...why?
This is usually because RSS feeds must be entered as "http://" rather than "feed://." Just change "feed://" to "http://" and your source should input just fine. If not, let us know!
15. What is the difference between "Home" and "MyPage"
Home is your dashboard for all things socialmedian. We'll do our best to present you with relevant personalized news just for you here.
MyPage is your public page which other people see when they click on you. You'll be able to use this page to highlight your favorite stories to other people.
16. Can I invite friends to socialmedian?
Yes, you can! Click the invite button on your homepage to invite friends from your gmail/yahoo!/hotmail/ or twitter accounts.
17. Can I create a private News Network with just people I know in it?
Not yet, but soon!
18. How does Clips work?
Clips are a key feature of socialmedian. Clipping a story is an easy way to tell other people to check it out. Every time you "clip" a story, we add that story to your MyPage and alert people in your news networks that you find that story interesting.
19. Can I write/submit my own news story or opinion piece?
Yes, you can. To write your own news story and share it with the world click on the "news" portion of the "Add Something" box (located near the top right of each page). From here you can author your own headlines and articles and even choose which networks to place them in (or socialmedian can do it for you).
20. How do I share a news story?
You can share news by clicking the "share" button below each news story on socialmedian. From here you can choose whether you'd like to share a story with a particular news network on socialmedian, share it through e-mail, or via Twitter.
21. What is a "snip" ?
A snip (short for snippet) is a short note on anything that interests you. Have an opinion? Write a snip. See some news? Write a snip.
For instance, let's say you write a snip: "Barack Obama just gave an amazing speech on health care in Ohio!" If you are a member of the "campaign 2008" News Network, that snip will automatically be share with other members of that News Network since "Barack Obama" is one of the topics of that News Network.
22. What does it mean to "Add News" ?
You can use the "Add News" feature to submit anything you find from around the web to socialmedian or to author your own news story or opinion piece.
Just enter a headline, URL (optional), and description.
Alternatively (highly recommended!) you can use our bookmarlet to one-click to add any webpage you are on to socialmedian. When you add news using the bookmarklet, we automatically add that news to your relevant News Networks based on the topics (keywords) contained in the story.
23. Where will my snip/added news be shared?
Whenever you write a snip or add news, you have two choices: either select the networks you'd like to share your news/comments with, or let socialmedian do it for you. These options will be presented every time you add news or create a snip
24. What does it mean to follow someone?
Following someone is a way of tracking a user who shares similar interests. By following a user you will be able to see all of their activity on socialmedian, including clips, snips, and anything else they're doing. It makes for a fun and easy way to discover news through other people.
25. What does it mean when someone follows me?
When someone follows you they will then be able to see all of your socialmedian activity (clips/snips, etc.). Most likely they share your interests and want to discover some interesting news through you.
26. What is the socialmedian bookmarklet and how does it work?
The socialmedian bookmarket enables you to easily add a story from any webpage to socialmedian.
All you need to do is:
Whenever you see an interesting story on any webpage, click the "Clip it! on s|m" button from your browser.
Tip: To auto copy/paste test into the summary field, first highlight a portion of the article with your mouse before hitting the "Clip it! To s|m" button
Click Add
The story will now appear in your Clips on socialmedian and will automatically be shared with any relevant news networks you belong to (based on the keywords in the article matching the topics in those News Networks).
27. How do I change my settings?
From the settings page you can change settings such as your password, email address, picture, and frequency and types of email news alerts.
Click here, go to the account tab, and scroll down to where it says deactivate.
30. How do I report abuse (SPAM)?
We will be adding features shortly to report SPAM or abusive behavior by socialmedian users. In the meantime you can let us know about any problems you may be having by e-mailing info@socialmedian.com
31. I have a feature request. Where can I report it?
Participate in one of our surveys. Socialmedian rewards users with swanky socialmedian t-shirts as a thanks for helping provide feedback to us. If you'd like to participate in our next survey send an e-mail to scott@socialmedian.com
34. How do I learn about what updates the socialmedian team is working on?
You can reach us by sending an e-mail to our CEO/ product guy / chief customer service rep: jason@socialmedian.com, or for the more exciting things to our intern: scott@socialmedian.com
and then copy and paste the url for the RSS feed to socialmedian.
