You probably started to notice it a while back: you started recieving more emails from Facebook. Conversations you never got involved with were suddenly filling your inbox, cluttering your smartphone  and generally obstructing your regularly-scheduled messages. Suddenly, groups you joined years ago are clamoring obnoxiously for your attention and some you never even opted-in for. How did this happen?


In October, Facebook restructured its famous "groups." They added a ton of new features including group-only, as well as an offline email address so members can stay in touch. However, along with these additions came the annoying email messaging and the removal of the opt-in feature. Now, anyone you have as a Facebook friend can add you to their group, with or without your permission. Then, whenever someone posts to this group, you'll get a message. (Read about how this caused Matt Zuckerberg some personal issues he didn't foresee.)


You may not have noticed these changes in October. But now Facebook is only allowing this new style of groups to exist. Old groups are required to make the switch to the new format or be deleted (archived is the word Facebook likes to use). The archiving process started sometime in the last month and group admins are now getting emails alerting them to upgrade. And your inbox might start reflecting those changes.


Many people have complained about the changes to groups (specifically the constant emails). So let's quickly go through the ways to stop the stream-of-consciousness filling your inbox.


There are three options to shut-up your groups. We will go through each one:

1. Silence a particular group (you can still read messages on Facebook, but won't get alerts).
2. Leaving a group.
3. Changing your settings for all groups.

You must, unfortunately, be logged in to Facebook to access any of these changes (aka, no unsubscribing from your email). Log-in and let's begin. We'll start with muting a group.


Look at your home page (the news feed). See the list of groups to your left?





Mouse over the most bothersome of the groups and select it. Then click on the "Edit Settings" link.





Or, for quicker service, just click the x that appears when you mouse over the group.





This will not delete the group, it will bring up the "Edit Settings" box.





The most important section here is "notify me when". You can pick what you are notified for (for the least amount of interruption, select "only posts I am subscribed to"  without emails you are only notified in Facebook). But also make sure to uncheck the email alert box.


From here you can also edit how this group shows up on your page and if you receive group chat messages. (You can also use this to access ALL of your group notifications but we'll get there later.)


Leaving a group permanently is even easier. Select the offending group. On the right sidebar, under the member list and a few other options you'll see "Leave Group" with a cute picture of an open door.





Click it! Facebook will give you a final sales pitch and ask if you aresure, so make sure to verify your escape route.





Note: if someone added you to this group without your permission and you leave the group, they can never add you to another group. The same does not hold true for groups you joined before they upgraded.


Finally, how to change all your settings at once. You can reach you notification settings by editing a single group's settings (see #1) and selecting the "edit your notifications notifications" link in he edit pop-up box,





or select "Account" from the top right corner of any Facebook page.





Click "Account settings".





This will take you to your basic settings. There will be a horizontal navigation bar with different tabs. The third one will be "Notifications".





Be prepared, this page is long.





To the right there is a list of where you can "view settings", click the third section labeled "Groups".

Here you have some limited options to stop unnecessary emails. But notice there is a link "change email settings for individual groups" giving you the option to edit all your groups at once.





This will let you stop postings by checking or unchecking all of the groups you've joined or been added to.





When you're done, make sure to select SAVE at the bottom of your screen!





It should be noted there is not option to stop all group messages. In other words, you will need to update your setting for every group you are added to. (Unfortunately.)


I hope this helps control some of the madness and give you a little hyperspace peace!

Klout managed get a hold of $8.5 million dollars in new funding this past month. A big congrats to them, but some of you may not have used Klout or know how it can be helpful to you right now.

Klout is a free social media analytics tool. It measures your internet influence. Klout started with Twitter and has recently added Facebook to the websites it analyzes. (Klout's team promises Linked-In is upcoming as well, to complete the trifecta.)

So how does it work?

Klout  rates your social media profile on a scale of 1 to 100. It rates for different things including your reach, your influence and your engagement. A number of factors go into these numbers. Klout (with your permission) measures your clicks, comments and responses. Overall, Klout measures over 35 different factors for each area it gives a rating to.

But Klout doesn't just give you a number. It describes your online personality: socializer, explorer, activist, pundit, broadcaster are all examples. You can see what you are and what some of your top friends show up as, too.

Klout also tells you a little about your top followers. Who influences you? Who do you influence? And finally Klout analyzes your content. What you tweet and talk about with others.

Keep it in Perspective

While Klout can be a great tool for discovering more about your network and your influence, Klout can be scary for two reasons.

1. Your score can be scary. Don't worry if you're not tiptop in your network. Social media is a long term process and a simple score can't explain everything you do. Don't let it take over your head, its just an algorithm.
2. How Klout determines influence can be scary. Klout works with a lot of numbers and metrics that may or may not pan out in real life. For example, this article about how Klout shows Justin Bieber to be more influential than the President of the United States. While Klout responded that online, Bieber can shift more people into action, as an influencer of human events at large, he probably can't compete.

So take a moment, go check your Klout score and see how well you add up in the world of social media.

Just a few weeks ago LinkedIn announced their new blackberry app, allowing you to take LinkedIn with you wherever you go.

I have to admit I was already macgyvering a way to do this. I synced up my blackberry to Outlook and then downloaded the Linked-In Outlook plugin. This made life slower but eventually all my contacts ended up on my phone (more on this here).

LinkedIn must have had the same thought I did. All those connections are great but I need to be able to access them easily from my phone. There's just no point to connecting if I can't call them up.

But its more than that. For a long time I categorized LinkedIn as a lesser social media platform. It was for getting business cards stored logically and paper free: that was about it. Don't get me wrong, I know it has more features and some people use it very effectively in their business. But the lack of real time updates and notifications shoved it in to the I'm-too-buzy-to-devote-that-much-energy-right-now category.

But much like my recent post on how Twitter is ineffective without apps; LinkedIn is ineffective without mobile. I have a feeling I will be doing a lot more with LinkedIn in the next few months.

(Additional Note: If you watched my last video blog you'll know my blackberry, may it rest in peace, finally keeled over. So I have not actually gotten to try the LinkedIn blackberry app. However, I got an android and downloaded a Linked-In app. Even though its not an app developed by LinkedIn, I'm still excited to test it and discover all the things I've been missing!)

I've got this really bad habit of gushing about things I love: Wordpress, Twitter, kittens... well I have a new and brilliant tool I want to share with you. The problem with many browser plugin/apps/downloads is that they clutter and aren't very user friendly anyhow. But not Shareaholic! Observe:

Before Shareaholic.

After Shareaholic.

But what does this wonderful and non-space hogging button on my browser do?? you may be wondering quietly to yourself. It might as well be a portal to the end of the universe as far as I'm concerned, its just that spectacular. No really, it lets you share stuff... everywhere! You know how it goes. You're on a site, or reading an article and you are like "Wow, this is brilliant. Everyone should see it." Then you have to copy the url, open an email or Twitter or Facebook, paste it and hit send. And you have to do that for every place you want to share it to. No longer! Just click the Shareaholic button and a drop down menu appears, select where you want to share your info and bang, done. All that's left is customizing and waiting for all the feedback. (Random Tip: you don't have to just share publicly, Shareaholic will let you link to your email or to private Facebook messages as well.)

I know what you're thinking: "Okay, I'm sold, how do I get this amazing button of awesomeness?" Easy. Just go to Shareaholic.com and pick your browser. (It even works for those shameful people who don't have Firefox.) Then download, and the happy little green icon will appear on your browser. Note: downloading this will not hurt your computer, not spyware or anything like that, your hard drive is safe!

Not convinced yet? Shareaholic works with about 50 services already and there's even a video I found on their lovely blog: