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Using Facebook to aggregate your web presence

14/05/2008 send to a friend

Last week, I attempted to wrestle Facebook from the jaws of procrastination and onto the desktop of your productivity, with a list of Facebook apps designed to help you get more (not less!) done. This week I'm going to show you how to use Facebook as an aggregator for your online presence, a way to bring together information about you and your home business from across the web.

Were you cajoled into signing up to Facebook? Practically everyone I know was. It almost begs a chicken/egg style question. But we all know someone who joined before us and invited us along.

So, reluctantly, I joined. I was a MySpace user at first and couldn't bear the thought of creating another online profile. I'd already hacked my MySpace profile to death, written some blurb for my YouTube and Flickr accounts and then of course there was my own blog.

At the time, Facebook seemed nothing more than another form to fill, another bit of information about me posted on the web. But now I see it as much more - a way to aggregate all of that disparate information and fashion a sort of hub of knowledge about me, my home business and my presence on the web.

This is how I did it.

Importing my blog

There's no need to install a third-party application to import your blog posts to your Facebook profile (although there are plenty available). Facebook's built-in Notes application will do the trick. Find it in the Applications menu and edit your import settings to include your blog's RSS feed.

Now, every time you post to your personal or home business blog, a small preview, with a link to the original post, will appear in yours and your friends' feeds, as well as on your profile.

Importing my Flickr photos

If, like me, you had a Flickr account long before Facebook was a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg's eye, you might be wondering what to do with Facebook's actually-pretty-good Photos application. Do you upload photos to both accounts, essentially creating duplicates?

What I decided to do was to upload photos of events - friends' birthday parties, for example, networking events, etc. - using Facebook Photos, taking advantage of its people tagging features. And then, I'd upload my more artistic photos (what I would consider to be, with some snobbery, real photography!) to my Flickr photo stream.

I then installed an application called zuPort: Flickr. It's a terrible name, I know, but it works pretty well. It automatically imports your latest Flickr photos into your mini-feed and to your profile, so your Facebook contacts don't miss out on your real photography!

zuPort: Flickr

Importing my YouTube videos

zuPort: YouTube works pretty much the same as its Flickr counterpart, automatically importing your latest YouTube videos into your mini-feed and onto your profile.

zuPort: YouTube

Importing everything else

If you've an account with micro-blogging service, Twitter, you might be wondering what to do with your Facebook status, which essentially performs the same function... You could always add the Twitter Facebook application!

Doing so will plonk a little Twitter box on your profile, displaying your latest 'tweet', which can also be reflected, automatically, in your Facebook status. I've actually turned that option off, because I'm using Twitter quite a bit now and it was changing my status so much (and blowing up my friends' feeds)! But if you're looking for a way to integrate Twitter with your Facebook account, this application is the only way.

Twitter

Import your del.icio.us bookmarks and recently Dugg articles with these Facebook applications. They'll appear on your profile and in your mini-feed so friends can see what takes your fancy on the web!

And if you listen to music in your home office with social music website, last.fm, you can share playlists as well as your own radio station (based on your tastes) via your Facebook profile. Friends can listen without leaving Facebook!