How to Start Using My-Status.net

Getting started on any social network takes a bit of ramp-up time, but joining My-Status.net is worth it! Here are seven steps to get you started quickly.

1. Fill out your profile – and don’t forget an avatar! Your profile is an excellent conversation jumpstart. Take a minute and complete it. You could copy and paste your profile from another site, or take the chance to refresh your bio and really make it shine.
2. Follow 50 new people. Click the My-Status.net public menu in the upper-left of top menu to access to public status, which shows the latest messages from all users. Subscribe to the authors of the last 50 messages (so long as their message isn’t blatantly spam). You can always unsubscribe later, after your community has expanded. I’ve seen a number of experienced users from other services who pop over to My-Status.net, post one message, and then leave, complaining that it’s too quiet. Building a community requires effort. Once upon a time, you had five followers on that other network, too.
   
3. Track five terms. “Tracking” notifies you whenever a message is posted, regardless of whether or not you’re subscribed to that person. You can track using RSS.Tracking is a great way to find new friends and participate in interesting conversations.
   Five suggested terms to track:
   
   • Name of your city
   • Name of your favorite coffee shop
   • An author who writes about something you’re skilled at
   • The word “help”
   • The first word starting with the letter “M” that comes to mind
4. Notifications via Email. Turn on your notification via email, preferences:
   Send me notices of new subscriptions through email.
   Send me email when someone adds my notice as a favorite.
   Send me email when someone sends me a private message.
   Send me email when someone sends me an "@-reply".
   Allow friends to nudge me and send me an email.
   Publish a MicroID for my email address
   
5. Update status a lot! Messages on My-Status.net are called “My Status” Say whatever’s on your mind, as often as you can. The more content you create, the more opportunities you’ll create for people to engage you in conversation.
6. Reply a lot! In turn, make an extra effort in the beginning to reply to other people. Once or twice a day, take a peek at the public status and see if there’s a conversation you can contribute to. This will help the community grow in a meaningful way.
7. Follow me! I’m @jefri on My-Status.net and I’d love to be one of your first subscribers.

Track My-Status.net Using RSS

Tracking allows you to listen to (and participate in) conversations that are relevant to your interests, no matter who is doing the talking.
You can track your name, your business, your dog’s breed, or your old high school. In “How to Get Started Using My-Status.net!” we suggested a few more terms to track.

Here’s how to start tracking:

1. Click “Search” at the top of the page and search for: your company name, your name, or a keyword related to the brand you’re monitoring. (Be sure to use either “People” or “Text” search as appropriate.)
2. Every search results page has an RSS feed attached. Add each one to your preferred RSS reader. (Hint: You can also add “/rss” right before the “?” in the URL of the search results. Your final RSS URL will look something like this: http://my-status.net/search/notice/rss?q=status)
   

That’s it!