[2/24/2009 SteppersUSA Daily News]
The Next Step
By Markie Bee
Send The Best Stepping Photos: BestPhotos@steppersusa.com
Email Address for Pluggers and Flyers: pluggers@steppersusa.com
Contact Markie Bee: webmaster@steppersusa.com
The time has come. SteppersUSA has jumped into the social networking phenomenon with both feet. On the website, you will find a bar across the bottom of your browser window that says Google Friend Connect. To give you a little history, I've known about Google Friend Connect since May last year when it was first announced the idea was simple and their goal to "Easily insert social features to make "any app, any site, any friends" a reality" was something SteppersUSA has needed, but at the time, the program was too new and they didn't have any partners in the endeavor. Now fast forward to today and you can connect using your existing ID's from Yahoo!, AOL, Google, and as I understand it, you can login to Facebook, and MySpace too. Once again Google has come out with a "Killer Application" that will render single site based social networks into one large cross connected network. You don't have to create a new account for commenting or posting if you already have a Yahoo, AOL or Google Account. You can invite your friends from all over the Web and a number of different social networks (they're expanding the list, and eventually will include all major social networks) to join a Friend Connect site you belong to. Currently, you can invite friends from orkut and Plaxo, your contacts from Google Talk, or anyone by sending an email. Once you join any site that uses Google Friend Connect, you can make friends directly on that site or by linking in contacts from other social networks. If you've already made friends using Friend Connect on this or any other site, those friends will appear at the top of the member's gadget. Google Friend Connect is more fun when you have more friends. But friends you make on Friend Connect and friends you invite through your social networks are treated a little differently. Here's what you need to know. Friends you make on a Friend Connect site you can become friends with any member of a Friend Connect site, regardless of what social networks they belong to and what account they used to sign up. Friends you make on a Friend Connect site will be friends of yours on any other sites you both belong to. You can manage this friend relationship in the Settings window. Friends you make (or friendships you end) do not affect any friend relationships you have on other social networking sites. If you decide to link a social network to your Friend Connect account, you'll be able to invite those additional contacts to join the sites you join. When members of those networks join the same sites as you, you'll be friends with them on those sites. However, these friends will not show up in the 'Manage friends' section of the Settings window, these relationships are managed within the social network in which you made the friend initially because you cannot alter these other friend relationships from within Friend Connect. .. Here's how you can invite your friends: At the top of the Members or Sign-in gadget, click Invite. The invite window appears (you may need to disable your pop-up blocker to view the window). If you've linked in any social networks each network will appear as a tab in the Invite window. Click the name of each friend you'd like to invite. If you make a mistake, click again to de-select. To invite friends by email, type their addresses into the box on the right labeled 'Or, invite by email.' Click Send invitations. When friends you already have on linked social networks join the same Friend Connect sites as you, you'll automatically be friends. Oh! I forgot to tell you that you can embed videos too! Give it a try! This may be the best way to promote stepping in the future on the web. If you have a steppers website, I urge you to be ahead of the curve and place the Google Friend Connect on your site, your visitors will become more engaged and it will help in the cross promotion of Chicago style stepping across the web.