If You Can’t Find Anything in the New #Triberr, You’re In the Right Post! #AtoZchallenge

Welcome to Techie Tuesday here at More Cowbell! This is the day each week when I unleash my inner geek and we talk about some groovy piece of technology or a technical point of writing.

You can probably tell from today’s title that there have been lots of changes in Triberr lately. I’ve been hearing a lot of cursing in my tribes over the last few weeks as things moved around. I’ll even admit to cursing a few times myself.

But here’s what I know about Triberr:

• Even with all the software updates, Triberr still saves me a TON of time.
• I seriously missed it when Triberr was down for the big server move.
• Dan Cristo and Dino Dogan, the founders of Triberr, work their butts off to accommodate the bloggers who use Triberr. I tip my hat to them and their talent every day – they are the social media equivalent of Indie authors. TWO of them run it all. Whoa.
• Triberr shares should NEVER be substituted for the “social” in social media.

If you’re new here, this post is number six in a series of posts. Here’s what you missed:

• Part 1 – My New Time-Saving Social Media BFF: Triberr
• Part 2 – How Do I Splash In The Triberr Kiddie Pool?
• Part 3 – Graduate to the “Big People Pool” (or How Do I Rock My Tribal Stream?)
• Part 4 – Lazing Around In the Royal Triberr Hot Tub
• Part 5 – The Boneyard and Other Tribe-y Hot Spots

Even though many things have shifted around in the Triberr window lately, all but three of the things I love are back.

What’s still missing?

1. We’re still missing the LinkedIn button on the Share bar (but Dino assured me it will return – it was an “oops”).
2. I miss being able to see ALL of my Tribal Stream in one window. Currently, you can only see 10 posts.
3. I loved the feature that showed how many hits I got for each person’s post and vice-versa. With the switch to Google’s link shortener, this is no longer possible. I still miss the feature though. 🙂

That being said, 90% of the new changes rock!

Just in case you’re not sure what those changes are, I’ve detailed them below.

What’s new in Triberr?

The biggest changes are in the layout. Let’s go through the screen together.

The Home Screen

When I hit the Home button in my top navigation bar, my window looks like this:

Here’s what moved:

1. All the navigation on the top bar is now in one spot. Your Tribes button has been shifted to the right (over by Home), which I think was a smart move.  The Bonfires button (where you find people and info) is also over there.
2. The Member Search is now inside your Home screen, right above the Tribal Stream. It used to be in the middle of the toolbar at the top and people missed it all the time. (Refer to Part 4 of this series for everything you need to know about Invites.)
3. Note that helpful links and groovy classes have been moved to the upper right, just under your name, in the Triberr window. If you click on your name, you still get to your Triberr Settings, which are all exactly the same.
4. The Tribal Stream is different enough that it gets it’s own section!

The Tribal Stream

There are a ton of new features in the Tribal Stream area and it took some serious programming crowbars to wedge it all in. Here’s a picture of the new window with an explanation of what’s changed.

With the Share bar collapsed on one of my posts:

With the Share bar expanded on one of Roni Loren’s excellent posts:

1. As you can see, the Share bar moved to the right of the post – it used to be underneath (where you see all those pictures of tribemates).
2. You can now see how many people tweeted your post (note the check mark and number above?) and who they are at a glance.
3. The thumbs up buttons to give karma are back! They were missing for a few days and boy did we all miss them. Everyone yelled at poor Dino…it was sad.
4. Dan and Dino forgot the LinkedIn share button, but it will be back soon.
5. The Edit button is just above the photos of your tweeting tribemates. Do you see it? You click there now, instead of the black screw/wheel-looking thing from the old window. I LOVE that you can see exactly how your tweet will look now. (Note: Part 3 of this Triberr series tells you all you need to know about Rocking Your Tribal Stream.)

The only other area of the Tribal Stream area that has changed is at the very top:

1. We already mentioned that the Member Search moved down here. This is where search to see if a person’s already on Triberr. Refer to Part 4 for why it matters.
2. The “Clear Out Stream” button is much easier to see now. Suppose you’re out of town for a week and it’s simply too daunting to go back through your queue…hit this button and start over.
3. Show/Hide comments is AWESOME! If you have a self-hosted WordPress site, there is a plug-in available to allow people to comment and read your post right in Triberr. The show/hide comments button allows those with the plug-in (or curiosity) to see all the comments, and those without to hide them. Nifty!

Everything else is pretty much the same in this area, from what I’ve seen.

This brings me to my last point…

Triberr is about consolidating all your social media into one place to save time.

Here is what Triberr is NOT about:

1. Turning us into an endless source of links with no interaction.

From a Twitter follower sense, it is interaction that will get you followed every time. People want connection. They want to TALK to you and form a relationship. That is what the #myWANA and #ROW80 groups are all about on Twitter and Facebook. Yes, we want to support our peeps, but we also want to chat them up.

2. Adding extra time to your already over-burdened social media schedule.

Don’t believe me? Look at all the fun tasks you can do in your Triberr Home:

• Chat with your tribemates in a private environment
• Tweet your tribemates’ posts at a scheduled interval all day long
• Share your tribemates’ posts via Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ or StumbleUpon
• Click the post title to GO to your tribemates’ blogs and comment or, if you have the plug-in,  people can comment right in Triberr.

I know that every time we all turn around there is the next shiny object, beckoning us away from the “have to’s” in our lives. I can only tell you that Triberr is not that shiny thing.

On a normal day, I spend about 15 minutes in the program, and it saves me at least an hour simply by putting everything into one spot. I comment on 30-40% more posts than I used to with all that extra time.

I’ve seen a few people get overwhelmed by Triberr and it’s nearly always a training issue. I can only ask you to reach out – to me or to the Triberr guys (they can be found on Twitter at @Triberr). There is  training available to you – some of it is even free. 🙂

What has your experience with Triberr been? Do you love it or hate it (or are you pretty much ambivalent)? Are there features that you miss from earlier releases? Are there things you wish “the Triberr Guys” would add? Enquiring minds LOVE to know these things here at More Cowbell!

Jenny

PRIZE ANNOUNCEMENT:
I realized that I had a Blonde Moment and forgot to list the winners from my Life List Club Milestone Party a few weeks back! I’m SO sorry for the delay…CONGRATULATIONS, you two!

Comment Winner:  August McLaughlin is the lucky winner of a $10 Starbucks card – send your email and mailing address to jennyhansensmail (at) aol (dot) com. I’m going to see if I can get it transferred to you electronically. If not, I’ll mail it. (Of course I work in Torrance every Monday and Tuesday…just sayin, August!)

Subscriber Winner:  Monique Liddle is the winner of one of  Margie Lawson lecture packets. These packets are writing GOLD! Plus, Margie will be here two weeks from today so you can ask her groovy questions after browsing through it. You have all the same instructions on sending me an email as August (see above). 🙂