Second, watching from Boston I couldn’t help but notice how Islander fans were pretty adamant about who they wanted the Islanders to take with the first pick. Most of the reports I was reading online said that the Islanders front office was leaning towards Matt Duchesne. Even this morning reports were coming out that the Islander really wanted Duchesne. So what happened?

Take a look at this post from Chris Botta of NYIPoint Blank. He asked the question “Will You Really Be Done With This Team?” – if they don’t pick Tavares. The result? 478 passionate responses with a vast majority saying “no Tavares, no more!” In the days leading up to the draft I noticed Twitter posts, Facebook comments from complete strangers who are also fellow Islander fans pleading with Islander GM to pick Tavares. 10,000 fans showed up at the Nassau Coliseum with one message, draft Tavares. The message became  viral and social media channels played a huge part in it.

Today the islanders are applauded by fans and media alike for their selection. The incredible pressure and buzz that the fan base created using Social Media had made it virtually impossible for them to not make the selection. If they had chosen Duchesne-those very same channels would have gone silent and been filled with negative sentiment about the organization.

When you give your customers (the fans), what they want, when they want it – you win their business over and over again! Proven fact!  The Islanders front office will have a record day for season ticket sales today. They might even get the back page of the NY Post- something they haven’t sniffed in years. The Islanders are a case study on the use of Social Media from both the customer end as well as the organization listening to its constituent sentiment.

Home- The General page harbors access to my blog page, weather, stocks, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Twitter. Although I use Digsby for my IM, Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter needs, it is nice to be able to click on a tab and see all services from a birds-eye view.

Social Media – I have a social Media tab that holds all of the fine folks I follow on a daily basis. I additionally added the RSS feeds of keywords that are of interest to me on Twitter. I highly recommend this course of action through: http://search.twitter.com I also, have key Twitter folk RSS’d.

News – I love the CNN news widget. I also have a FOX widget up to get the conservative perspective. Slate has a stellar widget that is quirky and different. I am also very fond of WorldNews.com, and immediately added Whitehouse.gov to watch what Obama is up too. I have a Reddit widget that keeps me informed of hot topics being bookmarked. Wallstreet Journal widget is there too!

Sports- I have the ESPN Widget and the RSS feeds for the Mets, Giants, Islanders, Celtics and Duke Basketball from Sportspyder.com

TV, Movies & Music – I won’t bore you with what I have here. But I have organized all the nerdy sites I frequent into one spot. One nerd site I should mention is Aintitcool.com. If you are a movie buff it is a fun site that is not politically correct.

Tools & Technology – I loved the Wired and Techcrunch widgets. I have a few other RSS feeds that are interesting to me, such as platform providers, etc.

The net sum is:

1. The assortment of widgets that Netvibes provides is robust and they all work splendidly.
2. It takes a 30 to 45 minutes to set up.
3. I save at least an hour a day being able to read only what I want- instead of having to surf to see what is new at the destinations that are important to me.
4. As I mentioned earlier, Netvibes is the perfect birds-eye view of what is important to me online.

I hope this recommendation helps folks become more productive with their day! It certainly has deeper functionality than Google Reader does. Thanks AJ!