You can now access a mobile version of [justinrlevy.com] when you use a touch mobile device such as an iPhone or Droid.  Previously this blog had utilized the Carrington theme to create a mobile version of the site.  But, I just switched over to WPtouch to create a fuller experience.  Carrington had many of the features that WPtouch has but I like the look, feel and design of WPtouch a little more.  It displays photos, Tweetmeme and Disqus tightly as well as the basic features of the site including tabs, tags, categories, date/time, and more.

What really impressed me about WPtouch was the level of customization the theme allows from the Settings menu.  In my previous experience with themes or plugins that created mobile versions, they usually were limited in their customization options, if they allowed customization at all.  Of course, you could pay to have a custom mobile version created but who wants to spend money if they don’t have to.

To highlight the high level of customization that the user is allowed, I took the below screenshot of the just the icon selection menu.  This menu allows you to choose the icons that will be displayed for your different tabs.

That is just one of the many customizable features that you can tweak and have fun with.

So, if you’re looking to create a mobile version of your blog/website and you’re on WordPress, head over and grab WPtouch.

So, I was getting jealous watching Danny Brown talk about how much fun he was having playing with the newly released Headway theme.  Knowing that my friends over at CoffeeHouse Ideas will be designing something new and sexy for me in the next few months, I was a little hesitant to switch things up.  But, then I saw this video from Remarkablogger and I was sold.

If you can’t view the video, it is also hiding over here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHnd0H1tIQo[/youtube]

As I get a chance to play with the back-end of Headway more, I will post a complete review of my experience behind-the-scenes.  But, I know that many, if not most of you, connect here through RSS or email so you may not notice when design changes are made.  With this update, I have also added in a Lifestream, Photostream (from my Flickr), Google Connect and a few other nifty things.  I purposely left it kinda minimalist so there is a focus on content and connecting.

I really like the changes and was getting bored staring at the same blog day in and day out.  I’m curious to know what you think.  Do you like it?  What’s ONE thing you want to see around here?

Want to try out Headway for yourself? Check it by hitting up the banner below (affiliate link)…

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Prior to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed, if you wanted to discuss a blog post, you would normally do it in the comments section of the blog post.  Of course, you could discuss on the phone, in person or via email but on the web it would be discussed on that specific blog post.  That still continues but what has changed is that many conversations are taking place around the post as well on these various networks.  For example, someone could read this post in Google Reader, share it causing it to post to Facebook and FriendFeed.  Then on both of those networks, separate conversations could take place that I would never be aware of.  Well, that is changing and today Mashable announced the implementation of social media comments.

The feature is through the blog comment service Disqus and is powered by the comment aggregation service UberVU.  One of the benefits of using Disqus is that it provides a single commenting profile across any blog using the service.  It also allows you to post your comments to Facebook, FriendFeed, and a host of other features.

I have always enjoyed using Disqus on other blogs but have hesitated to implement on this blog or over on Prime Cuts.  The reason for my hesitation was that even though the Disqus comments are integrated into the blog, the comments on my blogs would no longer belong or be in control of the blog…they would be in Disqus hands.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing but, like I said, something that caused hesitation.  However, now I am considering testing with Disqus as I really want to test the social media comments when it enters general release.  It is currently being exclusively tested on Mashable over the next 2 weeks but there are plans to release it.

As of right now, this feature will only be able via the Disqus platform but is where the future of commenting is headed.  We first had the aggregation of social networks into platforms such as FriendFeed and now we will see blog comments become aggregated.

So now I turn it over to you, what are your thoughts on this?  As this eventually becomes a standard feature, what do you think will be the next big step for conversation on blogs and social networks?

This was a busy week for me starting off with a speaking engagement for an event that my restaurant sponsored as well as attending the WBJ Sales Summit.  I’m still trying to catch up and over the next few days I should have a few new and exciting posts ready!

I also wanted to take a minute to say thank you to Josh Whitford of the Unconventional Marketing Blog.  Earlier in the week he showed the blog some love by posting an excellent review on his site.  If you haven’t subscribed to Josh’s blog yet then you should subscribe now and take some time to dig through his archives.

Currently Reading
Since I didn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to reading, I’m still busy reading Scoble’s Naked Conversations. Once I finish with his book, I’m going to pick up one of Seth Godin’s Meatball Sunday: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?

I’m curious what everyone else is reading.  So, in the comments section let me know what books you are currently reading or have recently read along with a quick review.

Interesting PR/Marketing/Social Media Posts

• Social Media 2015
• Project Dogfood / New Marketing Summit
• 12 Creative Secrets to Beat Writer’s Block
• Tweetpoll Results on Social Media and Management
• Branding & Blogging-Bigger Impact in Smaller Business Cards?
• Insanely Brilliant or Just Insane?
• Online Reputation Management 2.0
• Comcast Cares and Why Your Business Should Too

Ok, that’s it for this week’s roundup.  Short and sweet.  This coming week I’ll be conducting a few interviews which I’ll be posting soon so keep a look out for that.

The HubSpot team just posted a video of a presentation that they recently gave.  The topic of discussion was about developing an inbound marketing strategy that incorporates SEO, blogging and social media to drive results.  They did an excellent job describing the synergy that is formed when you utilize all 3 in your marketing strategy.  Best of all is that their suggestions are completely free and just takes an investment of your time.  Granted, you could get into PPC campaigns, purchasing of themes for your blog, etc but at the basic level, which will produce great results, this strategy is free and ready to be implemented.

The video is about 40 minutes long.  If you don’t have time to view the video right now, at least take a look through the slides which are available for download at SlideShare.

Starting today this will be a weekly roundup of everything I found interesting from the slice of the blogosphere reserved for the world of PR, marketing and social media.  Besides popular PR, marketing and social media posts, I will also post what book(s) I’m currently reading as well as any other non-PR related interesting posts, tweets or articles.  Most of these will be new posts but some may be some older but still relevant.

This is a way for me to expose you to other blogs that may be of interest.  I hope that everyone enjoys and please leave any interesting posts and articles that you may come across in the comments section.

Currently Reading

Title: Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
Author(s): Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
Published: January 2006
ISBN: 047174719X
Summary: “Robert Scoble, author of the nation’s best read business blog, and veteran consultant Shel Israel believe blogging is already changing the face of business.  They show you how employee bloggers altered the public’s perception of Microsoft.  How an outspoken NBA team owner uses his blog to connect with fans.  How small businesses and Fortune 500 companies alike can benefit from blogging, and how failing to use it properly can be disastrous.” -Inside Cover

Yeah, yeah, I know I’m late in reading this but I finally picked it up and am enjoying it so far.

Interesting PR/Marketing/Social Media Posts

• The Blog Card, Unconventional Blog Marketing Tool
• Not All Social Media Fun & Games
• New Communication Theory and the New Roles for the New World of Marketing
• Business-to-business ebooks: Spreading your ideas for free
  
• The Long Tail and the Dip
• The Nirvana of Personal Branding is to Become Indispensable
• 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky
• Top 50 PR Blogs in the World
• Social Networks – Business or Pleasure?

Other Interesting Posts and Random Musings

• Bagging Lunch: The Inflation Effect (thanks to @tmonhollon for the article)
• On Peanut Shells and Email Archiving

That’s it for the first weekly roundup.  As the weeks go on and I get the formatting down, I’ll continue expanding this with more and more content.