YouTube Makes Video Creating Easier With iOS App

YouTube Capture is a new iOS app that allows users to film videos and then instantly share them on the web and various social media platforms.

The app will make it simpler for users to upload videos from their iPhone onto the video sharing website. Features of the app include the ability to edit videos, colour correction and stabilisation.
Free background music is also available from YouTube to add to videos as well as the ability to write a caption. Users are also reminded to rotate their phone to avoid vertical videos.
There is currently no Android version of the YouTube Capture app and the company has not yet said when one will become available.

The current iOS app for YouTube is for viewing purposes only but with an iPhone or iPad, users can already film videos and upload them onto the video sharing website.
The introduction of the new app comes after Apple had removed YouTube from being a standard app on iOS devices. The social platform then released an updated version of the app which featured a better selection of videos.






The app is set to be unveiled Monday afternoon.
What do you think about this new app?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below

LinkedIn Presents “The Biggest Ideas Of 2013”

A selection of influential “thought leaders” have published essays on LinkedIn predicting the most significant developments to occur in 2013.

In October, LinkedIn began a feature allowing users to follow “influencers”: leading figures from the business and political world. The feature proved to be a great success, with Virgin founder Richard Branson passing the 1 million followers mark earlier this month.
In the run up to new year, LinkedIn has published articles written by some of these “thought leaders”, “chosen”, wrote Francesca Levy on the LinkedIn blog, “for their experience and smart perspectives.”

“We decided to harness that wisdom by polling the thought leaders, and the results were impressive. Industry heavyweights in finance, medicine, education, nonprofit, media and more replied enthusiastically to this challenge: What one issue, innovation or event will change the world in 2013? What’s the “big idea” you’ll be betting on?”

Among those chosen was the aforementioned Richard Branson, who wrote a controversial piece about the 40 year war on drugs. Branson described the work of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a movement that he is part of, in pushing for lighter sentences for drug-related offences and a focus on compassion for those addicted.



Inevitably, one essay was about the future of 3D printing, written by Inge Geerdens, a Belgian entrepeneur. She described the numerous opportunities that 3D printing could provide, but also hinted at a possible negative consequence: the speed and ease of 3D printing could make it very difficult to regulate, for example, the Wiki Weapons Project have already succeeded in partially printing a working assault rifle.

Other highlights included an informative essay about the importance of stress reduction by Adrianna Huffington of The Huffington Post, as well as ex-dragon James Khan’s “Why Young People Will Save The Economy”, a positive outlook on the future of finance.

Which is your favourite essay from the “Thought Leaders”? Who do you most disagree with?”
Leave your comments below.

Twitter Releases Photo Filters

A week after Instagram disabled full photo sharing on their mobile app, Twitter have released a photo filter service of their own.

Last week, Twitter users noticed that Instragram photos were being cropped on their Twitter feed. In a statement explaining the change, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom told Mashable that Instagram had supported Twitter cards before because at the time they had a “minimal web presence”, but actually found the update “really confusing”.
“We’ve since launched several improvements to our website that allow users to directly engage with Instagram content through likes, comments, hashtags,” explained Systrom, “and now we believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives."

After Instagram disabled the photo sharing service, Twitter had to act quickly to release their own in-app image editing software. They announced three days ago that they would hopefully have a photo filter available by the holidays, but managed to release something yesterday with the support of Aviary, an image-editing API firm.


“Starting today,” says Senior Designer Coleen Baik on the Twitter blog, “you’ll be able to edit and refine your photos, right from Twitter.” The photo filtering service is easily accessible from the tweet composition screen.

The app is not as versatile as it was with Instagram, but still has a few nifty features:

• Users can crop their photo or change it from landscape to portrait.
• Photos can be instantly enhanced at the touch of a button.
• There are several photo filters, including Warm, Vignette, Black & White and Vintage.

The Twitter photo filter is not yet available to all users, but should become so over the next few days.
Instagram, meanwhile, have just released their own update.



What do you think of Twitter’s Photo Filter?

Now You Can Send iTunes Credit as a Facebook Gift

If you’ve ever wanted to give an iTunes song or movie to a friend on Facebook, you now can do it with Facebook Gifts. Starting today, Facebook users in the U.S. can send their friends iTunes digital gifts instantly through the service.

The digital gift amounts are set at $10, $15, $25 or $50. You can recommend specific songs and videos to your giftee, but they’re under no obligation to buy it with the credit, which can be used to purchase anything on iTunes. Giving an iTunes gift to someone on Facebook will appear like this on their Timeline:



Facebook recently re-launched Gifts this fall after shuttering its original Gifts service in 2010. However, early statistics from IBM Benchmark indicate that just 0.2% of Cyber Monday online sales originate on social media. Perhaps today’s introduction of iTunes digital gifts to Facebook will change that.

Does giving iTunes credit via Facebook sound like something you’d use? How much do the recommendations matter? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Wordpress Now Accept Bitcoin Payment

Home to 57 million blogs worldwide, Wordpress are the latest company to begin utilising the digital currency, Bitcoin. As a way of paying for features on their site such as blog upgrades and custom designs, Bitcoin can help those unable to use other payment options.

Wordpress.com is a free blogging service built on Wordpress’ open source software. The currency will    provide a payment option in places and countries where more mainstream methods of   payment may not be available.
 A news release from Wordpress.com said that due to many reasons, a lot of users have   restricted access to all of the site’s features.
 “We don’t think an individual blogger from Haiti, Ethiopia, or Kenya should have  diminished access to the blogosphere because of payment issues they can’t control. Our goal is to enable people, not block them.”

“Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables instant payments over the internet. Unlike credit cards and PayPal, Bitcoin has no central authority and no way to lock entire countries out of the network. Merchants who accept Bitcoin payments can do business with anyone.”



The legitimacy of Bitcoin has gathered momentum recently. In August, the co-founder of Bitcoin transfer service BitInstant, Charlie Shrem, announced plans to make a debit card that will work in all places that accept MasterCard. The cards will have your Bitcoin details on the front and back so that you can send coins directly to the card.

Social news website Reddit made news earlier this week by announcing that they are considering Bitcoin as a form of payment for Reddit Gold, a premium service filled with new features.

What do you make of Bitcoin as a source of alternative currency? Do you think this can help Wordpress as a business?

5 Phenomenal Ways Instagram Can Boost Your Marketing Efforts

Instagram is a newly acquired tool by Facebook, available only on Androids and iPhones. It is a photo-sharing program and requires only the possession of relevant mobile apps. Although this holds maximum usage in personal relations, business enterprises are also using this tool to boost their marketing plan. Here are five keys:

1. The common method is by using the square photos for advertising. You can also try different type of affiliate marketing by presenting rebates and events of different companies on the snaps. You can first create relevant brochures or pamphlets and then snap them to make the process viral. It has a tremendous amount of footfall and thus you can entertain others through periodic photo contests. Holding prizes or random selection of viewers has a remarkable way of ennobling followers.

2. You can automatically broaden the horizon for your snaps by geo-tagging the photos and naming the locations. This way, it qualifies into diverse selection of photos privy to that location, and reaches more people. Lately, other web profiles have been engendered to connect to Instagram snaps to any way reach for the stars.

3. You have to be a party animal here. Spare some time to go through others' snaps and like those relevant to your niche. This builds camaraderie and exalts your stand in others' eyes. Apt titling of the photos is must, so that Google Spiders catch these. Bing has a great sense of valor with Instagram.

4. Instagram shouldn't only be about formal etiquettes. Encourage employees and customers to post some rare and shocking photos. The placement of bosses and subservient employees in a casual atmosphere would do well to showcase your love and bond to others. There are a few exceptional photographers and if you allow them their creative streaks, you allow a situation where new snapping ideas come into the fore. This builds enormous rapport with employees and helps impressively into your marketing plan.

5. You can also strengthen your SEO base by naming photos with apt titles. Keep space for viewer's comments. You can use tools like Textagram to pave way for exciting content for your snaps. Send alerts to potential customers about the snaps, and weave a fluent marketing system through your photos. You can tell a smart marketing story through connecting snaps; almost in line of a PPT presentation. You can also be inventive and show others how they can varyingly use your products. It is better to get some basic knowledge about photography before utilizing Instagram. It also allows hashtags to facilitate connection and update with Twitter, where you can be more specific about your plans. Yes, you cannot think your work done by working extensively over Instagram. There has to be a coherent and layered work done on Social Media Sites as well to draw a balance.

There is no question that Instagram and sharing of photos has exponentially helped businesses to thrive. In order to stay updated with viral changes, it is imperative that you stay with the times and accept these mores to your advantage.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7375663

Instagram Rolls Out Web Profiles

While most businesses are focused on going mobile, popular photo-sharing app Instagram is making its web debut. Two years after arriving on the iPhone, the company has finally started to roll out web profiles.
“People have been asking for this for a while now and we’re excited to finally start rolling them out,” explained Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. “We’re going to start out by launching to a small percentage of people today and will roll it out slowly to everyone in the coming days.”

Currently, when you share a link to an Instagram photo on Facebook or Twitter, people can view that photo but not much else. For example, if someone wanted to browse through your additional photos, he or she would have to look you up on Instagram. The company’s new web profiles aim to resolve that.
Bearing an incredible likeness to Facebook Timeline, Instagram’s web profiles feature a rotating collage of photos where your Facebook cover photo would sit. Below that, a small profile image, short bio, and follower stats rest just above your photo history — which is arranged in reverse-chronological order.

Instagram’s web profiles also enable individuals to follow new users, like photos, and leave comments directly from their browsers. To check if you’ve received the new profile, just access your profile (for example, http://instagram.com/sproutsocial). Instagram details what new features visitors can expect on profiles still awaiting the update.

If you’ve been neglecting your Instagram account, the new profile — which puts an even greater emphasis on your photos — is a good reminder to revisit and re-evaluate your goals on the platform. Photo sharing sites like Instagram have revived storytelling through photos; make sure your story is ready.

[Image credit: Instagram]

Social Media Tips: How Good Is Your Audience?

The primary purpose of Social Media is connecting people, and allowing you to share content with a vast audience. However, building an audience isn’t just a numbers game. Today’s social media tips will have you thinking about quality over quantity when assessing your social media audience.
When you’re on a social network, you’re dealing with other people. Other human beings. Amongst the millions of them, you audience is waiting to be formed. But it’s not just about racking up followers early on, that’ll come later, provided your content is of a consistent high quality. Build a solid foundation based on quality first.

Social Media Tips: Target High Impact Users

Naturally, you want your followers to interact with you and share your content, right? But who are they sharing your content with? Have you looked at the people that follow them? How many people follow them? And importantly, do they interact and take notice of that user’s information? When you stumble across a user like this that has an interest in your niche, this is where outreach comes in.
Follow them, interact with them, retweet them, boost their ego. Offer an alternative opinion to something that they post. Don’t just thrust your content in their face. Be subtle. People are more likely to think highly of you if you contribute to the greater discussion or stroke their ego a bit, rather than treating them as a retweet farm. This can be instant, but may often take days or weeks before they follow you. But don’t stop just because they’ve followed you, because the unfollow is just as easy as the follow.
But once you’ve got people with large, interactive follower bases on board, you can build on that foundation. The retweets and follows will start to come naturally.

Social Media Tips – Evaluate how responsive your audience is

So you’re starting to get followers, but how good are they? Do your followers actually care about what you say? The best followers are interactive, they’ll challenge what you say, retweet your content and share content with you.
Ideally, when you share content, (links to your site, interesting pages from elsewhere, your products, etc) the last thing you want is for it to be ignored. Do your followers click your content when you share it? Compare your social media traffic/referrals to your overall follower count, is the ratio of followers to traffic good enough?

Social Media Tips: The Ideal Follower

My formula for the perfect twitter follower:
Is a clicker & sharer
Active at the same time as you.
Has roughly the same amount or more followers.
Has plenty of active clickers & sharers
Is interactive (mentions, RTs)
Has followers interested in your main topics

Of course, these are few and far between, but it’s always worth keeping an eye out for people like this, because they’ll be the ones that will prove instrumental in your social media success.

Facebook: The Ultimate Short Guide for Business

When you get right down to it, a lot of the chatter surrounding using Facebook for business makes it seem more complicated than it really is. It is really somewhat simple: drive engagement, stay ‘Liked’ and get to the top of the stream. Follow these seven simple best practices and you can’t miss.

Rule 1:  Ask questions. The most straightforward approach to spur engagement is to ask for it. Literally. There are a lot of different ways to approach asking questions, so mix it up a bit.
For instance, you could do a real simple question and encourage fans to ‘Like’ if they agree. Also, questions that begin “what’s your favorite…” or “where are you going to be…” or “who else wants…” can be great comment generators. Once you see what gets people posting and ‘Liking,’ you’ll have the information you need to create templates for best question formats.

Rule 2: More video. You probably already know you should be doing more of this, right? Get into a habit of regularly making very short videos. Maybe it is a how-to on your products. Or a brief interview (30 seconds to 2 minutes) with someone at your business. You can also do brief clips about topics related to your industry but that have nothing to do with selling your products.
Plain and simple, people love to click on video. You should be posting them regularly.

Rule 3: Ride a pop culture wave.  There are certain TV shows, movies, and current events that grow beyond normal interest and become a genuine phenomenon. When this happens, use it as an opportunity. Post a link to a poll about it. Make a funny comment and ask for responses. If you can tie it to your company in some way, do it. But that is not necessary and can be counterproductive if you stretch it too far. Sometimes the point is just to generate positive engagement and nothing else.

Rule 4: Keep the conversation going. If a post is generating comments, are you making a point of posting back? This can be as simple as posting a thank you for a compliment or as thoughtful as asking a question about their comment. Show you care about the conversation.  And don’t forget that a larger thread often appears higher in Facebook feeds.

Rule 5: More photos. This is an off-shoot of Rule 2. You already know that visual does better, but do you have a consistent plan for generating relevant photos to post on a regular basis? Here are a few ideas to get you started. Snap and post photos of employees in their work “habitat” with a fun caption (don’t over-do this one). How about personifying your product in some way? For example, how about clicking a photo of the product as if it were attending an event? Have a brainstorming session with your staff to come up with the zaniest photo opportunities including your product.

Rule 6: Be a content curator.  Are you concerned that people will hide your posts, or even worse, “Unlike” you? This is a real concern. One way to maintain your value to your fans is to seek out content your audience is likely to find valuable, entertaining, or both. Think of your social media as not just a channel to push content, but also as a listening station. Use social media to follow others with your radar up for what you can pass on to your fans.

Rule 7: Give them something! This is a very important rule. Facebook users obviously are likely to be much more interested in the personal posts of friends and family than they ever will be in any particular brand.  You need to give them regular incentives to continue being fans. Regularly announce giveaways, promotions, and discounts. If you are a retail operation, what can you do to drive them from online to your store. If you are a service-based business, what link can you provide to offer a special package of services to your Facebook fans? Be consistent about offering these incentives to keep people on board.

Facebook success is really not that complicated. Post regularly using these 7 guidelines and you can count on being well ‘Liked’.

Google Music Ready to Take on iTunes With Warner Agreement

Google is gearing up to go toe-to-toe with Apple and Amazon in MP3 sales.
The company announced Monday that Warner Music Group agreed to begin selling its catalog of songs through Google Play. All four major U.S. record labels have now signed on to Google’s music, video and app retailing platform.

Google launched its music offering, which allows users to upload and play their existing library to the cloud as well as purchase music, last November. The service was hampered by its lack of selection, however, making Amazon’s Cloud Player the superior option for Android users. (iTunes is not available on Android devices.)
Google also said it would begin selling movies in Canada, the UK, France, Spain and Australia on Monday, as well as music in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain on Nov. 13.

The announcement was made in conjunction with the unveiling of Google’s new line of Nexus devices: a Nexus 4 smartphone, a 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet and a 10-inch Nexus 10 tablet.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, ShaneKato

Facebook Messages Update Rolls Out To More Users

We’re closer to seeing a widespread updated version of Facebook Messages.
In August Facebook announced that it would be giving Facebook Messages a whole new look, but didn’t announce when it would be bringing that look to users. Two months later, most Facebook users appear to have still not received the update.

The announcement in August teased a new side-by-side layout to messages, allowing you to see your most recent conversations on the left side of the screen and see a whole conversation on the right. It also allows you to insert photos and emoticons into messages.

Search and Navigation will also be improved in the updated Messages, allowing you to search by sender’s name or keyword from the main messages view, keyboard shortcuts will also be available to access some of Messages functionality.

On Wednesday, Facebook user Interactive Swim posted a picture of the welcome note for the updated Messages which recently hit its page, indicating that the feature may be starting to roll out to additional users.

A Facebook representative confirmed Wednesday that the updated version of Messages will be rolling out to all users. But the representative declined to indicate a time frame for that rollout.

Do you have access to the updated version of Facebook Messages yet? Let us know in the comments.

[via AllFacebook]
Photo courtesy iStockphoto, bb_1.

Pheed Wants to Take On the Giants of Social Media

Is there room for another social network? A new startup, Pheed, certainly hopes so.
Pheed is trying to court users of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. And it’s got some powerful friends. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton and David Guetta have already signed up for Pheed. Since soft-launching last week, more than a million users have signed up for the new service.
Pheed is the ultimate “mashup” of other sites, says Pheed cofounder and CEO O.D. Kobo. Kobo and his team “cherry-picked” what they liked best of their social media predecessors, and left out what bothered them, creating in Kobo’s opinion something both significant and simple.

The site features a Facebook-inspired “timeline,” trending topics ala Twitter, and the ability to easily incorporate photos, videos, audio and even live broadcasts into posts. Pheed allows users to “rate their channel” marking them as PG-13 or R based on the content you plan to produce. You can even share your “pheeds” back to Facebook, Twitter or any other blog.

Monetizing Social

More than just social features, Pheed also has a business model by way of an optional paywall.
Pheed’s concept is based on offering premium content. Pheeders have the ability to apply a month subscription fee ($1.99 to $34.99 per month) to their streams or users can charge on a pay-per-view basis ($1.99 to $34.99). Pheed takes 50% the content’s revenue and the user takes the rest.

“The next step up of the [social media] evolution includes monetization to users,” Kobo tells Mashable. “It’s not fair that just platforms make money for content. The content creators need to have a fair playground.”
Kobo says everyone from celebs to high schoolers have something to gain from the premium option. A famous singer or a high schooler in a band, he says, can charge to broadcast a concert from their living room. Even if the high schooler only makes a few hundred bucks, Kobo says, it could mean a lot to them.
The premium content is only an suggestion, not a requirement of the site. It’s something Kobo says he hopes will only take off once Pheed has gained “critical mass.” He thinks charging for content is a huge responsibility which he doesn’t want users to exploit until they’ve really mastered the power Pheed offers.
And when that happens, Kobo hopes that Pheed will be the answer to the Internet’s white noise. The need for a content filter is what drove Kobo’s startup, he says, believing that if money becomes a part of the process, there is a better chance to increase the quality of information coming through social media streams.
The site has gained about a million users since its soft launch last week and with the app dropping later this week, it is poised to draw in a big crowd in the days to come.

Kobo says mobile advertising will also be another focus of attention for revenue.
“Our business model is based on the long tail,” Kobo says. “We don’t want to be like other platforms that get to 15 million/20 million users and then go round and round looking for money to raise.”

Will This Work

Although charging for access to a network isn’t unheard of — App.net requires users to pay in order to use the service (though non-users can browse the global content and individual user feeds for free). Vimeo is preparing to launch features that will allow its Vimeo Pro creators to charge for access to video content.
Still, paying to watch a video is very different from paying to read a status update or to see an Instagram photo. Will users be willing to pay to access basic social feeds?

Though Kobo believes premium content means elevated content, he forgets that lots of free content is already above par. Payment may simply decrease, instead of increase, access to what’s already high quality. Pheed’s premium channels could backfire, expanding the reach of the lower quality, free pheeds and create a class war of social media. “Elite” pheeds versus the visions of Facebook and Twitter — making people and information more open and connected and less controlled.
Moreover, the service lacks originality and innovation on many fronts. By compiling the services of other social media companies, Pheed offers very little new and creative and could hinder the chances of users splurging on premiums.

So you tell us, are you excited about Pheed and the concept of monetized social media? Answer in the comments below.

Pinterest - The Beautiful Social Media

Pinterest is the newest big Social Media phenomenon after Facebook and Twitter. Although the beta version of Pinterest was launched in March 2010 which operated on an invitation-only basis, it eventually opened to everyone only in August 2012. The interest in Pinterest has been so great that it has become the fastest website in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark which was reported in January 2012.

When you visit the Pinterest website, what strikes you straightaway is the imagery. It is just full of beautiful images which you could not imagine existed. There are pictures posted of everything but mainly of places, clothing, food, babies and cute animals. But it is not just limited to these. The current statistics from Pinterest states the most popular pins to be in the order of Food and Drinks, DIY and Crafts, Home Decor, Women's Fashion, Hair and Beauty and other categories. In short, Pinterest has been taken to heart by the female population. Some estimates suggest the proportion of female users to range anything between 72-96% of total Pintrest users.

So how is Pinterest similar to or different from Facebook and Twitter you may ask. Imagine Pinterest to be at one extreme of image-to-text scale and Twitter at the other while Facebook is somewhere in the middle. In Pinterest there are features just like in Facebook and Twitter that make them social such as the ability to follow, like, share and comment on other users material, which in the case of Pinterest are only the images. The more powerful the image, the more interest you will provoke in visitors to your profile which in turn will result in your profile attracting more followers. As In other social media platforms, followers can be converted to customers.

So, if you have never been on Pinterest, this is how it works. Everything on Pinterest is organised around images. You can pin your images on pinboards which you can create around whatever category you choose. For instance you can create a board on your hobbies, events, businesses, travel, fashions, foods etc. You can even repin other users images you to one of your own boards.
If an image is liked enough, there is a great opportunity for it to go viral. Just imagine the effect that would have on your website in terms of the traffic it would attract if one or more of your images linked to your website went viral!

However, one of the major disadvantages of Pinterest must be finding attractive images to post regularly. Unlike Twitter and Facebook where you can conduct your social interaction with words, you cannot do this on Pinterest without first posting an image. To, overcome this issue, you can post images from third party sites such as Google and Flickr. You must always post images that are relevant to your pinboard and you must adhere to the copyright of the image you pin.

Just as in other social media, if you show interest in someone by following or liking, they are most likely to return the favour. And if those you follow are interested in your niche and they followed you back then you have accomplished what people in internet marketing strive to do, which is to get targeted traffic.

Images are very powerful and emotive objects to humans and therefore a great potential exists to monetize them. The easiest way is to attach affiliate links to the images. Unfortunately from internet marketers' point of view, this practice is frowned upon by Pinterest who have been known to alter the affiliate links to their own advantage. This practice by Pinterest could potentially land them in deep legal waters.

Unlike words which are plenty and readily available, images are restrictive but more importantly they are subject to copyright laws. Certain websites have opted out of having their images pinned on Pinterest by deploying a special meta tag that was released by Pinterest. This puts further limitations on finding attractive and unique images that are readily available.

All social media are evolving entities, including Pinterest. Perhaps it will adapt and evolve into something different in the future. However for now, it presents an enormous opportunity for internet marketer to do business on Pinterest.

Pinterest, as part of the overall internet marketing strategy could make a significant contribution to your online business. It is yet another viable source to make money online.
To your social media success!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7333332

5 Free Traffic Tips

It is a fact that there are thousands of written articles online that can give you free traffic tips for your website or your blog. Some are complicated, some are very easy to do and some may even require you to do some cash outs, which of course you don't want to do. There are good tips to follow to make sure that you get the right kind of traffic, here is a list of 5 free traffic tips that are crucial to building a good audience online.

Search Engine Optimization
Like anything else finding the right words is vital. Whatever your website is about may it be a blog or you're selling something exposure is what you need. It's one thing to be searchable via the major search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing but it is another to be on top of the search list. Targeting the right keywords that people often use to search can help you crawl up on the major list of results.
A lot of companies hire and pay good money for good SEO writers than can spin key phrases and words. Because of these SEO words there is a better chance that you can crawl up your site as among the first results and get more traffic since most people only open the first few choices on a results page. But, you don't have to pay money to get SEO done on your site; just make sure that the right word tags are used or repeat a certain searchable phrase on a blog post then you can slowly optimize your chances for a better traffic.

Read Blogs and Leave Comments
Here is another technique that can build your online presence, reach out and leave comments, sincere ones at that, on blog posts. Writers love to be recognized and be heard, after creating a rapport with other writers you will be expanding your online social circle and can add up to your regular traffic. You never know they may even write about you.

Keep Linking Out
Make use of social networking sites. Linking out through these networks can drive hundreds or even more traffic to your website or blog. These links can also be shared thus making it easier to spread news about your post or site. Sites like Twitter, Facebook and social sharing sites like StumbleUpon are great avenues to promote your stuff.

Good Content is Everything
One way to make sure that there will be consistent traffic to your website is to have killer content. Whatever your site may be, content should be top-notch. This is what separates sites and blogs from each other. It is easier to get traffic if you do different strategies but it will be effortless for you if your content is something people can be interested in that they will even promote your site to people they know. Research and do the proper work in preparing for the stuff or write up you put out, it will all be worth it.

Be Relatable to Your Readers
There are so many sites only after the traffic to earn more on advertising but some of these sites are impersonal and totally un-relatable to readers. Even if you write about car parts or your site is about photos of plants if people can put a face and relate to the human being running the site - readers and site visitors will warm up to you. You can get your traffic in more ways than one but get your traffic the Right way by creating a good relationship with your readers. Through this they will feel like they know you and they can easily adopt you and your website within their respective online community.

These are simple 5 free traffic tips that you can do to promote your site. There is no need to spend big bucks just so people will visit, just set-up a site where they can come to and relax and be entertained.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7327865

Why and How to Use Social Media For Your Business

If you've been in business for a little while, you've probably heard that you should jump on the social media marketing bandwagon. However, you may not be sure what social media is and what it can do for you. Read on to learn how you can best use social media to help attract customers to your business and increase your profits.

Social media marketing has many benefits for most business owners. The two most important benefits are that social networking is a free source of advertising and that social media marketing can reach millions of customers.

To understand why social network marketing is an important part of your business marketing strategy, you first have to understand how social network works. On social media sites, people post things that are of interest to them and their friends read them. Friends may comment on the person's posts or share the same content on their own pages.

This ability is important to businesses because if they can harness it, their messages may literally go around the world. For example, suppose you post a link to your business on your social media page and one of your customers re-posts it with a comment that this is his favorite business. Five of that customer's friends may re-post the link as well, and some of their friends may repost it. As you can see, in a matter of minutes, hours or days, your link may reach thousands or millions of customers via this process! This advertising is all free; the only thing you pay is your monthly Internet service bill.

In order to get the results you seek, however, you need to use social network correctly. Many businesses make the mistake of only posting links to their business. This results in people ignoring the business because they feel it is there solely to advertise.

A better strategy involves interacting with your customers. Your goal should be to make the customer feel valued, special and appreciated. Think about what type of information you would want to get if you were a customer looking for businesses like yours and then post it. For example, post status updates and links that tell customers how to solve a common problem.

You also need to make sure to respond to customer comments as soon as possible. Customers feel honored when a business takes the time to respond to them. In addition, your customers will begin to see you as a trusted friend, which makes it more likely that they will do business with you.

As you can see, it's important to know how to use social network correctly in order to increase your business success. If you're new to social network, don't worry; it is fairly easy to learn. Sign up for an account on Facebook or on Twitter and spend some time looking at other business pages so that you can see how businesses use social media effectively. When you're ready, create your first page. Follow the tips you just read to help you successfully create a business presence online and attract customers to your business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7308770

What Is StumbleUpon? One Amazing Marketing Tool!

I'm on a few email lists and this article came through today that really brought it home about StumbleUpon. Even as long as it's been around, people new to marketing still may ask, 'Well, what is StumbleUpon?'
According to SU's own website...

"We help you easily discover new and interesting stuff on the Web. Tell us what you like, and we'll introduce you to amazing web pages, videos, photos and more that you wouldn't have found on your own.
"As you Stumble through great web pages, tell us whether you Like or Dislike our recommendations so we can show you more of what's best for you. We'll show you web pages based on that feedback as well as what similar Stumblers and the people you follow have Liked or Disliked.
Our members have given us some pretty great compliments in the past, including describing us as "the entire Internet, all in one place," "an epic journey" and "a map to an adventure you wouldn't otherwise have found out about.

Whether you're interested in Humor, Photography, Fashion or Sports, we have something for you. Every Stumble is an adventure, and something amazing is always just a click away."
Personally, I love StumbleUpon for bookmarking my articles and other things out on the 'Net that I think other people might enjoy. And what's really cool about SU is that for as long as they've been around, they haven't made any substantial changes like most other social media sites out there.

As Chris Crum, Staff Writer for WebProNews says in his article "Read This, And Tell Me StumbleUpon Isn't An Amazing Marketing Tool"...

"Some things don't change. StumbleUpon, after all these years, can still be a great driver of traffic to your website, despite how little it has changed in comparison to other social services. Think about how much Facebook has changed over the years, or even Twitter.
"StumbleUpon is certainly a different kind of beast, but each of these products is used by people to consume information, and even if StumbleUpon's primary appeal isn't necessarily the social element, that element is there, and it has helped make StumbleUpon one powerful force for content producers."

And this is so true! As far as social media and social bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, Pinterest, Google +1, Delicious and even Facebook, whenever I bookmark my articles to StumbleUpon, I get more traffic from that one source than all the others put together. When it comes to driving traffic to your site or blog, SU is a "beast" indeed!

So if you haven't already started to do so, add social bookmarking to your To-Do List for places to submit your articles, and be sure to include StumbleUpon on the top of your list!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7315334

Three Easy Ways to Promote Your Twitter Followers

“Pay it Forward Day” is coming April 25, 2013. The phrase has an interesting history and was tearfully illustrated in the 2000 movie of the same name. Our culture values promoting others, and social media is a great example of that. Instead of picking a certain day of the week (#FollowFriday), we should have a regular habit of promoting our Twitter followers. Adding value to our followers is the best way to create not just a following, but a loyal following. Here are three un-cheesy ways to promote your Twitter community.

1. Acknowledge new followers. I always try and send a personal message to new followers. Some days this can be labor intensive as a blog piece published on a national board will create a host of new followers. However, after a while I get pretty good at recognizing who is following for a follow-back, or who really wants the information I have to give. As a rule, I don’t do this with brands or bots. I find out where the follower is from and what their sector is and craft a short and simple message thanking them. I prioritize this by making sure I thank people that have retweeted me as an initial gateway to following. I don’t get to everyone, but I try and get to as many as I can. I do this mostly because I don’t follow back as a way of thanking people. I list people so I can guard my direct message input.
2. 2.       Thank people for retweeting your stuff.  People who retweet you are your gold. I do this selectively. They may be a new follower or an old friend—it doesn’t matter to me. I like to do this a couple times a day, and I @reply them personally so it doesn’t go out to my general Twitter feed.  Just remember to start the message with the @reply if you don’t want to clutter your followers’ timeline.
3. 3.       Retweet other people’s stuff. When I switched to using Sprout Social as a dashboard, I tended to look at Hootsuite less often. One downfall of Sprout Social is that it doesn’t offer a column by column Twitter feed on one screen, making it inconvenient to see everything at a glance. I found myself tracking my retweets but neglecting my newsfeeds. Now, I also keep Hootsuite up on my desktop and check my lists regularly.  I always leave room in my daily tweeting schedule for retweeting. Besides tweeting links I find in my RSS reader and Inbox, I like to pick up good information from my Twitter followers to pass on as well. As a personal note, I only retweet information that I think will add value to my followers. Remember, spread the curating wealth around.

So there you have it—three easy ways to pay it forward on Twitter. And you don’t have to wait for #FollowFriday.

Google Passes Microsoft’s Market Value for First Time Ever

Google‘s market cap passed Microsoft’s in early trading on Monday, making the search engine giant the second most valuable technology company in the world behind Apple.
Microsoft’s stock dropped by about 0.8% in the first few hours of trading, while Google’s stock increased by about the same percentage, helping it to overtake Microsoft’s market cap for the first time ever. As of publication, Google’s market cap was closing in on $249 billion and Microsoft’s market cap had dipped below $248 billion.

Google’s stock has been on a tear ever since mid-July, passing $700 a share in early September and hitting a new intraday trading high of $747.28 just a few weeks later. Since then, the stock has continued to tick up gradually and is currently trading above $760 a share.
For Google, the stock’s rise is tied to strengths in several key areas, including positive reports about its display advertising and growth in mobile activations. On Friday, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek told Barron’s that these and other factors put Google in a great position for long-term growth.
Microsoft’s stock, on the other hand, has been on the decline in the past couple weeks on fears about the health of the PC industry and uncertainty about the prospects for its latest operating system, Windows 8.
Google is quickly closing in on Walmart, which has a market cap of just under $250 billion, to become the third biggest U.S. company behind Apple and Exxon Mobil.

Using Instagram for Brands

Instagram is a mobile photo editing and sharing app that saw its user base explode from 15 to 80 million since Facebook acquired the company back in April.
But even before the acquisition, many savvy brands had joined the platform—especially retail brands with stunning visual content. Clothing, media, and design-based brands were a natural fit for both the platform technology and Instagram’s early adopter user base.
However, unlike Facebook or Twitter, Instagram doesn’t have business-specific profiles, built-in visibility or engagement metrics, or paid advertising options. 
So why are brands rushing to join yet another social network? Here’s why:
Instagram is both a photo editing tool and a social network
By keeping it’s focus limited to photos, Instagram has carved out a unique space in the social media sphere. In essence, the genius is in its simplicity, especially when so many social platforms continue to bloat with additional features and functionality. The app has commonly used social actions built in—post, like, comment, follow, unfollow, etc.—so using the community aspects of the platform feel familiar.
The other side to this app is its ability to turn almost any photo into art by using filters and other tools.
Anecdotally, I’ve noticed that most users follow between 50 and 250 users. I think this is a sign of social media maturity—folks are learning from their experiences on Facebook and Twitter that following too many accounts is overwhelming.
But Instagram’s technology helps you easily create stunning images that you can easily share on your other social networks.
Both Facebook and Twitter have optimized how photos are displayed on these platforms and you can share directly from Instagram to those platforms (as well as to Tumblr, Foursquare, Flickr, and email) automatically or by individual selection.
Instagram is about visual storytelling
Both the way the platform works (the technology) and the way most users approach the platform (the user experience) allows brands to employ visual storytelling that has more continuity and artistic value than other platforms.
With the absence of advertising (or even clickable links in captions or comments), business uses for an Instagram profile begin and end (for now) with awareness and branding. However, a few images that encapsulate a brand moment in a second or two is much more impactful than lines and lines of copy—no matter how brilliant the writing is.
Instagram is the perfect storm of mobile and image-based technology
Instagram combines two of the most powerful forces in the social technology market—mobile and photo sharing—to create a platform that truly offers a unique value proposition. Brands with an Instagram presence can take advantage of that intersection where users are focusing their attention.
Here are six tips to help you get the most out of this tool:
1. Use images to tell a story, not blast your branding
If you sell a product or service, make sure the images you use are about the experience of using the product or service, and not a product placement ad.
Starbucks is an example of a big brand that does this well. Sure their photos show lots of Starbucks cups, but their photos also tell a story—the focus is always on what the person is doing while enjoying their coffee—on the beach, reading a book, etc.
There’s not a lot of tolerance for marketing that’s obviously marketing on social in general, and I would argue less so on Instagram. Keep it subtle and keep the focus on the experience or emotion your Instagrams project.
2. Most photos fall into two categories: beautiful imagery or humor
Make sure your Instagram photos fall into one of these categories. Generally a humorous photo needn’t be beautiful as well. Most users aren’t posting all their random party pics to their Instagram stream and brands should exercise similar constraint. Photo albums in that vein are for Facebook. Think of your Instagram photos as high value/low volume.
3. Don’t post too often
A general rule, don’t post more than three photos in a row or once every three hours. If you post more often than that, you run the risk of hogging your users’ feed. And don’t automatically share your Instagram photos to all your networks—editorially select and customize each one for the appropriate platform.
And remember, you can use apps like PicFrame to include several snaps in one Instagram. Just be sure the images are related and the impact is magnified (rather than splintered) when you use a collage.
4. Choose an account name that’s the same as your Twitter handle
Having the same Instagram account name and Twitter handle serves two purposes. One—your profile will be easily recognizable and easy to find. And two—if you are tagged by another user in a caption and that photo is shared on Twitter, that tag will link to your Twitter profile. It ensures that tagging makes sense when an Instagram photo is shared on other networks.
5. Use hashtags, but don’t be creepy about it
Like on Twitter, hashtagging photos enables discovery of your profile by users outside of your primary connections. You can use the search functionality on the app to find out which hashtags are often used. Like on Twitter, hashtagging Instagram photos by event, geolocation, or subject matter is a good idea.
Other hashtags people tend to use on Instagram are filters and colors. Hashtags tend to be somewhat limited on Twitter due to the character length limitations. Because Instagram doesn’t have these limitations, this has encouraged some users and brands to stuff Instagram captions with every hashtag imaginable. Don’t do this—it looks like you’re trying too hard. Even worse, it makes you look like a spammer.
6. Set up an account on a web-based viewer
Instagram’s focus continues to be all about the mobile experience, but the app recently added the ability to view individual photos on the web through a shareable link. This feature allows your Instagram stream to not only be seen by those not using the app, but allows those who do have an account to like and comment on a shared photo right from the web. However, using a separate web-based viewer can help you manage your presence and track your progress.
Using Instagram’s API, these tools recreate your feed on a webpage, so you can view multiple photos at a time (without scrolling) on your computer. Most often you can make the same actions (liking, commenting, searching, tagging, etc.) on these web viewers that you can make on the mobile app. My favorite tool is Statigram—they even have a few basic metrics, comment notifications, and an Instagram campaign toolkit.

iOS 6 Is Out Now: Here’s What to Do First

Apple is starting to roll out iOS 6 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
The new version of the OS brings lots of new features — including Apple’s brand new Maps app, deep integration with Facebook and enhancements to Siri.
As with iOS 5, Apple is making the the update available as an over-the-air (OTA) download. If you don’t have access to the download now, check again in a few minutes.
Users will also have the option of upgrading from within iTunes, if you prefer that method.

Before downloading and installing the update, there are a few housekeeping items you might want to take care of first.

• Download the latest version of iTunes 10.7 — This will add iOS 6 compatibility to your software
• Back up your photos and important files. Even if you use iCloud, consider doing a full backup in iTunes, just in case.
• If you don’t already have a copy of your contacts and calendars on your Mac or PC, go ahead and back those up too.
• Find your power. Apple won’t let you update your device if you don’t have a minimum amount of power. The updates are fairly large, at over 500MB per device — so go ahead and plug into some power before starting the update.

Apple tends to do fairly well with OTA updates but problems can happen. If you don’t need to have iOS 6 right this second, waiting a few hours for the update isn’t a bad idea.
Are you able to download iOS 6? Let us know how your upgrade is progressing!

New iPod Touch Has Siri, Larger Screen

Playing up the camera angle, Apple has even made it easy to attach a camera strap to the back of the device.

As for video, users can now record in 1080p on the iPod touch. The device will share the iPhone 5′s dual-band 802.11n network, as well as Bluetooth 4.0.

For Apple TV owners, it will also now support AirPlay mirroring.

Siri is also coming to the iPod touch — another first for the device.

It gets better. The iPod touch will now be available in multiple colors and each color comes with a matching camera loop. The colors include, black, white, blue, yellow and red.

We’ve been hearing for years that the iPod touch is particularly popular with kids. The addition of colors and camera features certainly makes it clear that Apple understands that market.

The new iPod touch will be available in October. A 32GB version will sell for $299, a 64GB for $399.

Are you interested in buying a new iPod touch? Let us know in the comments.

17-Year-Old Girl Invents Cellphone Heart Test

Catherine Wong is a 17-year-old high school student from New Jersey but she’s already making a name for herself in both the science and technology communities. Wong was a finalist in second annual Google Science Fair for creating a Bluetooth-enabled device that allows for remote cardiac examination. Yup, she made a cellphone that will test your heart.

Wong was a finalist in the Google contest but she won National Public Radio’s “Joe’s Big Idea” video contest. She set out to make a device that would give some of the millions of people in this world with limited medical access, but who have cellphones, a way to get their heart tested. The device she made is like a portable electrocardiogram, or ECG/EKG, a test performed countless times every day in hospitals around the world.

Here’s the project description via her Google Science Fair page:

The purpose of this study was to design and evaluate a Bluetooth-enabled telemedical electrocardiograph prototype capable of transmitting an EKG image for remote examination using a cellphone to determine prototype feasibility as a method for remote cardiac examination. electrocardiograph, a graphical display of minute transthoracic voltage fluctuations due to heart muscle depolarization, requires amplification of the electrical signal and then a method of display. Device construction involved creation of two separate components, a Bluetooth-enabled wireless transmitter with a microprocessor programmed to read the EKG output for display on the cell-phone, and instrumentation amplification circuitry to amplify cardiac electrical activity. The final cell-phone compatible wireless EKG prototypes successfully demonstrate the feasibility of the concept of remote cardiac EKG transmission over cellular networks, and allowed for three-lead EKG images using multiple electrode placements to be saved and stored. It provides a cost-effective alternative to traditional, non-portable EKG devices and telemedical systems, with low initial equipment requirements and flexibility for integration with digitized healthcare systems.

NPR says the device, “uses off-the-shelf electronic components to pick up the heart’s electrical signals, then transmits them via cellphone to a health professional who can analyze them.”

“It is a leapfrog approach that bypasses standard pieces of medical equipment that are expensive and not readily available to these populations,” Elizabeth Nabel, president of Brigham and Women’s and Faulkner Hospitals and a former director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, told NPR.

Wong received help from her high school physics teacher on the electrical engineering and Java programming aspects of her concept. The teacher “let her borrow equipment and talked through the many problems with her. After months of building, testing and failure, she came up with a working ECG that connected to a cellphone using Bluetooth wireless signals. The heart rhythms are displayed on the phone’s screen, thanks to a Java app that she wrote.”

“I’m going to keep going on this project, making it smaller, cheaper, more durable,” said Wong.

All Facebook Apps to Soon Have Notification Capability

There could be a lot more notifications from Facebook on the way. The company’s rolled out a beta version of a new notifications API, a tool for developers that lets all Facebook apps send notifications to users.

This could open the floodgates to a plethora of notes under Facebook’s “notification jewel,” where that little red number will start counting itself higher than ever, especially if the user has signed up for lots of apps.

Of course, you can always get rid of an app’s notifications — you simply click on the X in the upper right of a notification box, and the messages will stop. For example, here’s how the box will look for the Tester app:

It’s a good thing this routine is so easy, especially since as soon as this developer tool becomes ubiquitous, any Facebook app you’ve subscribed to will be able to send you notifications without first asking for your permission.

Along with this capability, Facebook is instructing those developers who might abuse it to attempt to build “high-quality notifications.” Facebook software engineer Bo Zhang urges app developers, “Don’t make it look like spam — we all know the words on the DO NOT CLICK list — i.e. ‘Click Here!’ ‘Check this out!’ ‘You have to see this…’ or ‘Here’s something free!’”

Let us know in the comments if you think this new tool will result in more convenience for you, or just more noise.

Finding Your Customers on Twitter

Though face-to-face networking remains crucial to the success of your business, taking advantage on online tools can be a great supplement to all your other efforts to find prospects. Personally, I’m not always comfortable at networking events. Trolling for customers online is very comfortable and often leads to the identification of a prospect followed by a live meeting for coffee. Using Twitter to identify prospects, see how they behave online, and then engage with them, can be an incredibly efficient use of your networking time.

Twitter allows you to use keywords and hashtags to find prospects who may even be geographically targeted. Try Twitter’s Advanced Search tool to locate prospects. Using the Advanced Search tool along with the Twitter Operators enables you to find the people or businesses you are looking for in the location you are looking for.

Tweetdeck, Hoosuite and other applications that assist you in managing your Twitter feed, can also be used for prospecting purposes. Use keywords and phrases to add columns in both Tweetdeck and Hootsuite targeting people and/or business you want to connect with. When the columns populate, scroll through, locate those that interest you, and check them out. It’s easy to follow potential prospects and engage with them on Twitter. Who knows, maybe they’ll make the first move and want to connect with you.

Several other tools exist to assist in your prospecting. Twellow is an example of a tool that lets you target prospects by categories like you would use to look someone up in the Yellow Pages. Twellow also lets you add yourself to the directory for free.

Every tool has its pros and cons, and there are many to choose from. Find the one that works best for you and start engaging with your prospects. Let us know how it goes and what tools you are finding most useful.

Now You Can Tag Facebook Friends From Other Apps

Facebook on Tuesday added the ability for people to mention friends on the service via Open Graph apps.

“With this frequently requested feature, companies like Foursquare can implement user mentions that work like they do in posts on Facebook,” a Facebook representative said in a blog post announcing the addition.

“When people mention a friend in an Open Graph app, the story on Facebook links the person’s name to their timeline, and their friend will receive a notification. The story will also be added to the friend’s timeline or, if enabled, to timeline review. There are no privacy changes associated with this new feature.”

Different than Action Tagging (tagging someone you are physically with), Mention Tagging is designed to be used when someone wants to reference a person in a particular post. For instance, tag the friends in a photo or suggest that a friend check out a restaurant where you’re eating dinner.

Developers who want to implement mention tagging will have to provide users with a tokenizer or some other way that they can reference their friends. Developers are also not allowed to prefill messages. Everything in a message needs to be written by the user with the intention specifically of sharing that message on Facebook.

Developers will also need to resubmit their actions and requests approval to Facebook for user messages and tags.

What apps would you like to see use Mention Tagging? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Twitter changes provokes anger from developers

Developers and users of Twitter have reacted angrily to changes made by the social network to restrict creation of third-party applications.

Any new app that wants to serve more than 100,000 users must now seek the company's explicit permission.

Apps which already have more than 100,000 users are allowed to double their user base before having to get Twitter's go-ahead to grow any further.

Critics said it would stifle the development of innovative products.

Revoked key

The changes came as part of Twitter's overhaul of its Application Programming Interface (API).

An API allows different parts of a program to communicate together, as well as letting one application share content with another.

In Twitter's case, its API has allowed for the development of extremely popular third-party services like Hootsuite, Twitpic and Tweetdeck - which was acquired by Twitter in May last year.

Twitter says the new rules, announced by its director of consumer product Michael Sippey, aim to "deliver a consistent Twitter experience".

Mr Sippey wrote: "If you are building a Twitter client application that is accessing the home timeline, account settings or direct messages API endpoints (typically used by traditional client applications) or are using our User Streams product, you will need our permission if your application will require more than 100,000 individual user tokens."

In this context, "tokens" are individual users.

The guidelines also covered how tweets are displayed within apps.

"If your application displays Tweets to users, and it doesn't adhere to our Display Requirements, we reserve the right to revoke your application key," Mr Sippey explained.

'Wiggleroom'

The changes are not expected to have an immediate impact on users.

However, the announcement was heavily criticised by developers.

Marco Arment, creator of popular reading service Instapaper, advised developers who were building on Twitter to "start working on another product".

"Twitter has left themselves a lot of wiggle room with the rules," he wrote in a blog post.

"Effectively, Twitter can decide your app is breaking a (potentially vague) rule at any time, or they can add a new rule that your app inadvertently breaks, and revoke your API access at any time.

"Of course, they've always had this power. But now we know that they'll use it in ways that we really don't agree with.

"I sure as hell wouldn't build a business on Twitter, and I don't think I'll even build any nontrivial features on it anymore."

Twitter is not the only service to put such restrictions in place. Last year, Google announced that it would begin charging companies that made heavy use of its Maps product.

Top 14 Benefits of Social Media Marketing for You and Your Business

There's a lot of fuss surrounding social media these days. If you still haven't jumped on the bandwagon and aren't sure why so many people are making such a big deal about it, here are 14 benefits of social media for your business and you from Success magazine.

For Business:

Establish a brand and raise awareness. Since the majority of the population is already visiting social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, getting your brand name all over those networks can help let people know that you're around. If you have yet to create a company image online, social networks are the place to do it. Create a fun YouTube video that entertains and informs. Funny videos tend to make their way around the Internet a lot faster than any other kind, so when making a video, keep in mind that you want it to be interesting enough for your target audience to want to share. Using Facebook and Twitter to create a fun online community that your customers will want to visit will increase brand loyalty and drive traffic to your Website, allowing you the chance to make more online sales.

Spy on the competition. Follow your competitors on Twitter and Facebook and you’ll be able to see what they have up their sleeve. Just make sure to offer a better deal than whatever they have going on.

Pitch products in a more human, interactive way. Since people visit social media sites to get personal rather than be bombarded with ads, discuss your business in a fun way and engage your customers with questions. Ask their opinions and entice them to respond back. This way you’re making a valuable connection that will help increase your number of return customers.

Bring attention to your products. Featuring a product on a social media site is one of the fastest ways to bring attention to it. Offer a promotion along with it for your online community members and watch your sales skyrocket.

Increase customer loyalty and trust. Speaking to your customers in a personal way will make them feel like their talking to a friend, not a company. This will help increase their trust in you, which will make them do business with you rather than your competition. It will also increase the chances of customer recommendations.

Listen to your customer's opinion. Social media sites are an awesome way to see what your target audience is saying about your company or your products. Take their constructive criticism and use it to enhance your product to better meet their needs.

Conduct market research. Listen to what your customers say about your products and track what links they click on and you'll begin to see what your customers like and respond to. People love to express their opinions on social media sites, which will allow you to hear the truth. Then you can use your new-found information to tweak your product or service to please them as well as continue to post more information and links that they will enjoy.

Increase customer service. Social media networks allow your company to answer your customers' questions and concerns directly in a timely manner. This will improve customer satisfaction and also save you money on long distance customer service phone calls.

For You:

Build your personal reputation. Social networks allow you to get your name out to the world and talk about things that matter to you. This will help you build a good online reputation, which is critical nowadays if you're looking for a job or even a new business contact.

Display your resume. LinkedIn allows you to display your full resume online for any future employers or recruiters to see. This will help bring you new opportunities that never would have existed otherwise.

Find a job. Jobs are posted every minute on social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter along with the links or information you need to apply for them.

Showcase your talents and establish yourself as an expert. If you're passionate about a certain subject, whether it's work-related or a hobby, the Internet is a great place to show off your knowledge. Soon people will be coming to you for the breaking information on that topic, and talking about you to friends.

Increase your business contacts and enhance personal relationships. Through professional sites like LinkedIn, you can build your number of business contacts and enhance your reputation as an expert in your industry. You can also connect with those long-lost high school and college classmates, old colleagues, and out-of-town family members.

Share information with like-minded people. Connect with other professionals in your field to share information. Where else would you be able to connect with industry professionals across the globe to swap stories and advice?

Facebook Introduces Mobile Ad Unit to Promote Apps

Just a few weeks after introducing its first mobile ad unit, Facebook has launched another one, this time designed to help mobile app developers market themselves.

Facebook is testing the new unit with a “limited set of beta partners” Vijaye Raji, a software engineer at the company, wrote on Facebook’s blog on Tuesday. The units drive users to new apps. If a user clicks on an ad and they don’t have the app already, they’ll be directed to the App Store or Google Play to download it.

The unit is automated; to buy an ad you merely have to fill out an online form and delineate which demo you’re trying to reach and what your budget is. Once you buy a unit, you can use Facebook’s analytics tools to assess its performance.

As Raji notes, there is clearly an audience for such a unit: In the past 30 days, Facebook has sent customers to the Apple App Store and Google Play 146 million times.

The introduction comes after Facebook introduced Sponsored Stories for the News Feed in June. A few independent studies have deemed the ads more effective than traditional desktop ads. Despite such success, investors appear skeptical of Facebook’s odds of maintaining its revenues via mobile ads.

3 Game Changers in Online Marketing

Times are changing for web marketers, particularly those dealing with online retail marketing. Customers are getting harder and more expensive to attract and retain, and new technologies are emerging at breakneck speed.

There are a lot of tools that promise to help, but the better approach may be to focus on the following three areas that every marketer needs to address if they want to succeed online.

1. Speed

Many websites are still under performing when it comes to speed, and there’s a measurable financial cost associated to this. Every second added to a website’s load decreases conversions by a massive 2% to 7% and reduces page views by 1% to 2%. Just as importantly, Google makes no secret of the fact that speed is part of its ranking process, meaning that a slow loading site is going to suffer in search results.

A fast website is, therefore, the first thing you need to ensure if you’re going to win in the increasingly competitive online retail world. There are basic, technical things you can do. For example, ensure your site is technically optimized.Also, check out your hosting and bandwidth providers and make sure that you’re not unnecessarily forcing users to download massive videos or images.

Another route to faster site speeds that’s being adopted by major players in web retail is the tag management system. Website tags are used by third-party technologies to track and control activity on a page. Many sites can have twenty or even thirty different tags per page, and each one of these will slow down a page’s loading speed. A tag management system can manage this process, speed up your site, and improve performance.

That said, speed isn’t just about the rate at which your pages load. The best companies are constantly evaluating and rolling out new approaches. To succeed, your marketing team needs to be working with your technical team to ensure that you can move quickly and make the most of the technologies and approaches that exist.

2. Customer View

Online shopping behavior is becoming more complex. Three quarters of customers use more than two points of contact to make a purchase, whether that is multiple visits to a single site or using different online and offline access methods. As a result, 25% of sales cycles take more than a month to complete from consideration to purchase.

During these extended purchase processes, there are hundreds of different influences, offers, social messaging, and other touch points that can influence a consumer decision. A user might visit your website initially, but then they might friend your Facebook page, see a display ad, visit through a search link, or head into your physical store. Retailers need to stay on top of this journey throughout its life cycle. You need to know what led to a customer buying something from your site and, more importantly, what led to them not buying.

The answer is to take a customer-centric view of your analytics, rather than a web-centric view. Traditionally, analyzing website traffic has been all about tracking individual visits to your website, but instead you need to think more broadly about what customers are doing that leads into their on-site experience.

Amazon does a great job of this, using all the information they have on you to ensure that their recommendations are almost always spot on. Similarly, Apple does a great job of integrating the in-store and online experience. They’ve taken the pain away from in-store lines with their remote iPhone-style checkouts. Would you like them to email you your receipt? Of course! And in doing so, you’ve just handed them valuable information about your purchase that they can use on their website.

3. Personalization

Once you have a distinct understanding of your customer the next step is to see how you can personalize their experience. Personalization isn’t the same as recommendation. It’s not saying ‘you bought that so you might like this.’ It’s about building an online experience that’s truly personal and unique.

Imagine a store owner who knows you by your name, your size, your preferences, and hang ups. Imagine if you’re hesitating to buy a pricey shirt and they offer you quality reassurance or even a special offer if you’re about to walk away? What about if they can help you curate an outfit or even try it on? What if the store layout was adapted to your liking? What if you always walked into the Hugo Boss section? (Assuming that’s your cup of tea?).

This is personalization: The combination of bespoke design, layout, stock, and messaging. Some websites out there are starting to do this, but only a few so far. However, many websites still work on a site-wide change basis, changing everything for everyone. Research by Jim Manzi , has shown that only 10% of site-wide changes actually drive business change. True personalization relies on being able to serve the right content to the right segment at a specific time, nearly guaranteeing that your changes are going to drive results.

Of course, personalization isn’t a simple process, and it requires what could be the fourth game changer: automation. If you’re going to personalize for individual users effectively without killing your backstage team then you need to be able to customize on the fly based on the data you hold.

YouTube Users Can Make Videos Creative Commons By Default

Starting on Wednesday, YouTube users can license their videos for Creative Commons by default.

Cathy Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons (CC), wrote a blog post published on Wednesday reminding the public that its Creative Commons video program on YouTube is still up and running — and has added 40 years of video in the past year since its launch.

“Four million creative commons videos on YouTube are just waiting to be reused, remixed, and reimagined,” Casserly wrote.

The program, referred to as “CC BY” allows users to borrow media, edit it and share it without the threat of copyright violations.

“Do you need a professional opening for your San Francisco vacation video?” the blog post suggests. “Perhaps some gorgeous footage of the moon for your science project? How about a squirrel eating a walnut to accompany your hot new dubstep track?”

YouTube users can borrow content in videos marked “CC BY” and edit it in YouTube Video Editor.

“Free tools like the YouTube Editor are essential in helping democratize video,” Casserly said.

Creative Commons licensing allows photographers and videographers to circulate their work, while letting publications and businesses take visuals from their large selection.

YouTube give you this scenario: “Imagine seeing your footage used by a student in Mumbai, a filmmaker in Mexico City, or a music video director in Detroit. By letting other people play with your videos, you let them into a global sandbox, kicking off a worldwide team of collaborators.”

If you’re interested in including your YouTube videos to the CC BY program follow these steps: Once you upload a video on YouTube, select “Creative Commons Attribution license” from the “License and rights ownership” menu.

Will you include your videos into YouTube’s CC BY section? Share with us in the comments.