Spundge

Notebooks of Note: The Obamas, innovative storytelling and ‘Amazing Things Will Happen’

We’re always on the hunt for great Spundge Notebooks to share and spread. Here’s a look at some of our recent finds:

• This comprehensive Notebook about President Barack Obama is a great, timely read in light of his second inauguration. The Notebook features over 200 items about the President, his administration, and his legacy.
• Last week’s bitter cold inspired our selection of the Consumers Council of Canada’s energy-efficient building codes Notebook. Grab a blanket and learn how to keep your home warm.
• Remember, Notebook curations don’t have to be vast to be compelling. Steve Outing, program director and founder of the Digital News Test Kitchen at Colorado University-Boulder, pulled together this collection of thoughtful discussions and powerful examples of innovative storytelling.
• Spundge Notebooks are a great way to promote your personal brand by collecting online references to your work. C.C. Chapman, social good entrepreneur and author of “Amazing Things Will Happen,” uses a Notebook to highlight press reviews and public reaction to his book.

Embedded stories

Digital First Media, one of the largest publishers in the U.S., regularly uses Spundge story embeds for crime blotter, sports and general news roundups. Here’s an example of their daily national sports multimedia roundup by DFM sports reporter Bobby Bonnett. (Stories are part of Spundge Pro, which you can try for free for 30 days if you sign up here.)

Do you have a Notebook or embed you’d like to share? Email us about your Notebooks and we’ll feature them in a future post.

5 tips for getting started on Spundge

In the past four months, thousands of users have signed up for Spundge accounts and have created a vastly diverse collection of Notebooks. Here are several tips to get our newest Spundge users up and running quickly.

• Take the time to link your social media accounts. Linking to Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn sets you up for being able to share content from Spundge via those accounts later on. We also access your social graph to suggest relevant Notebooks for you to follow. But we never post without your permission!
• Install the Spundge It bookmarklet/Chrome extension so you can add content from anywhere on the web to your Notebooks. (Also learn how to master Spundge It!)

• Make sure to fill in all the profile fields: avatar/photo, full name, location, title/position and web link.
• Fill out your bio with a description of the work you do and how it relates to the collection of Notebooks you’ll create. Here’s an example of a completed profile page that introduces the user and gives context to her Notebooks. It also helps search engines find her profile, and it makes it easy for other users to see if they want to connect with her and follow her Notebooks.

• Start your first Notebook. Write a short 1-2 word title for it, as only one line of the title shows up above each Notebook on your profile page.
• Adjust the Notebook keywords to help you get the right results. Do the same for the Notebook firehoses and filters. Remember, Notebooks work best with a specific topic and focused keywords. A Notebook about social media and lawyers is better than one about social media in general.
• Go to the Notebook’s Settings tab (above the Notebook results stream) and add a brief description. This provides context for what’s in your Notebook to anyone who might have an interest in following it. It also helps search engines find it.
• Now start saving and removing items from the Notebooks’ results stream using the curation buttons.
• Repeat for other Notebooks!

• Go to the Notebooks You Might Like tab to discover and follow relevant Notebooks curated by other users. You’ll receive an email update when new content is added. Let them curate for you!

• Find other Spundge users you know using our connections search. Then connect with them so you can now add each other to Notebooks as contributors. It’s easy to add your friends and colleagues to Notebooks once you’re connected on Spundge. Now you can collaboratively curate the best information and instantly share it with each other.

News about the crisis in Mali, and other Notebooks worth following

Check out our new, updated landing page! 

You’ll find testimonials from individuals and organizations about how Spundge is helping them save time and create better content. (Note that you need to be signed out of Spundge in order to see the new landing page.)

While you’re there, sign up for a free 30-day trial of Spundge Pro to take advantage of our powerful writing and publishing features. 

Notebooks worth following

How very meta: here’s an exhaustive curation of all things content curation by Seoul-based web designer Jimun Gimm. Thirty-four Spundge users follow it; you should, too.

If you’re interested in intrapreneurs, work 3.0 and the Millennial work force, you’ll want to follow New Zealand-based communications strategist Alexandra Lutyens’ Notebook about the role of technology in the emerging business culture.

Notebooks and profiles of note: Lions and tigers and BtoB social media. Oh my!

In this week’s round up of featured Notebooks, we’re sharing massive Notebooks and pithy, targeted ones. We’re also showcasing Spundge user profile pages that invite connections and followers.

Remember that you can follow any public Notebook and receive email updates when new items are saved.

Notebooks Worth Following

• French tech journalist Pierre Tran curates an extensive Notebook about technology, journalism and the intersection of the two.
• However, bigger is not always better: Another effective use of Spundge Notebooks is for selecting only the most relevant and valuable content about a general topic. LinkedIn trainer and coach Emily Miller has curated a concise Notebook about LinkedIn Marketing that illustrates her expertise and understanding of the powerful social network. 
• Think ahead! Paris-based strategic planning director Sandrine Andro is one of our most prolific Notebook curators, having created 54 Notebooks for all the aspects of her work. This way they’re all in place, ready to be filled up as she finds great content. Check out her Notebook about BtoB social media topics. 
• Florida-based Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit that advocates for abused and abandoned big cats, has added embedded Spundge Notebooks to its website to easily stream cat-specific news updates. Here’s the one for lions: http://www.spundge.com/notebooks/6952/ And here’s how it appears embedded on the site: Lion News: Your One Stop Source for All Articles About Lions

Notable Spundge profile pages

Spundge profile pages are a great opportunity to promote your online brand. Taking the time to add a photo, links, and description allows other users to immediately see the value in connecting with you and following your Notebooks. Here are two profiles that help showcase the work and expertise of Spundge users:

• An elegantly crafted profile page can quickly tell your story. By creating simply titled, similar notebooks, Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole Baskin presents her organization’s advocacy with compelling clarity. At a glance, this simple but striking Spundge profile shows what Big Cat Rescue is all about: advocating for abused and abandoned big cats. 

• Canadian University Press recently hosted Canada’s annual student journalism conference. Quebec bureau chief Erin Hudson created a separate Notebook for each day and block of workshops to track tweets and other conference-related content. Here’s her profile page with each Notebook.

Do you have a strategy for your profile page or a great Notebook we can share? Email us and we’ll feature it in a future post.

Notebooks and stories of note: Locked in a supermarket, shale gas, and champagne

Happy 2013!

We’re starting the new year with a new feature on our blog: a weekly look at interesting Spundge Notebooks and stories created by users. There are many great Notebooks being curated with Spundge, and this is our curation of some of the ones you should check out and follow.

In the spirit of the new year, we offer a symbolic Notebook “toast” with this collection of stories about and images of a favorite bubbly indulgence. If you care about the difference between cava and proseco or want to learn about the science of champagne before your next celebration, check out and follow this Notebook: http://www.spundge.com/notebooks/6707/

Notebooks Worth Following

This Notebook by A Broader View, a non-profit that promotes international volunteer efforts, is a great example of how a Notebook can offer an at-a-glance picture of your organization’s work. You can view video testimonials, photos, and tweets promoting their participants’ experiences and volunteer opportunities by following the Volunteer Abroad Notebook: http://www.spundge.com/notebooks/4315/

Planning to see the new film Promised Land? You’ll want to get up to speed on the issues surrounding the controversial shale gas industry and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. This Notebook features nearly 100 articles and videos on the controversial subject: http://www.spundge.com/notebooks/3657/

Embedded Stories

The journalists at Digital First Media use Spundge Notebooks to curate a weekly collection of odd news from around the world. They then write and embed a Spundge story that rounds up what they found. The most recent selection includes a woman who spent New Year’s Eve locked in a French supermarket — and had the self-control to eat nothing. http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2013/01/04/news/doc50e6e5850c4c2462954873.txt#.UOch4TT8jQQ.twitter

They also used a Spundge Story embed for a year-end collection of firsts that occurred in 2012. The curation has a little of everything, including videos, a tweet and a free-falling gif. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22268666/2012-10-things-never-happened-before-firsts

For details on how to embed Stories on your site, see this entry from our Help Center: https://spundge.zendesk.com/entries/22192486

Embedded Notebooks

Embedded Spundge Notebooks make it easy to keep your website content updated and relevant. Check out how social media consultant Dawn Raquel Jensen uses a pair of embedded Notebooks to refresh her consulting site’s Resources tab. See her curation of articles about social media policies: http://www.socialmediaspeakerdj.com/resources/social-media-policy/

And her curation of notable content about social media in general: http://www.socialmediaspeakerdj.com/resources/social-media-training/

Jesus Alvarez, a business development and marketing management consultant in Spain, has curated a comprehensive collection of marketing articles in his Marketing, Social Media, and Branding Notebook and features them on his landing page. http://sercompetitivos.com/

Make the most of your curation efforts and follow these steps to embed your Notebooks on your site: https://spundge.zendesk.com/entries/22191587

Get Inspired!

What will inspire you in 2013? Will it be a dream you had, a photo that captivated you, or a new approach to failure? Look through this Notebook with hundreds of ideas such as these to help you view the new year in a fresh light. http://www.spundge.com/notebooks/544/

If you have a Notebook or Story you’ve embedded on your site that may inspire other Spundge users, email us the link.