Saturday, March 29, 2014

Earthquake Rattles Los Angeles, Twitter Buzzes Back With Meme

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Shortly after Los Angeles residents had their evening interrupted Friday by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake, many fired up their Twitter accounts, sharing comments and photos that showed the effects of the brief jolt.


Most of the images that were shared online focused on damage done to retail locations, some of which included rows of destroyed merchandise, and inventory strewn all over store aisles. Aside from the chaos, however, the stores appeared to be fine.




Lots of wasted wine , damage from #LAquake at an Albertson store in La Mirada, Ca pic.twitter.com/02baIoIMg8


— Phil Doudar (@PDoudar) March 29, 2014 Read more...


More about Twitter, Earthquake, Los Angeles, Quake, and Natural Disaster
Earthquake Rattles Los Angeles, Twitter Buzzes Back With Meme

Twitter still blocked in Turkey, despite legal victory

Twitter still blocked in Turkey, despite legal victory

Above: Turkish women using cellphones outside the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, in 2008. Cellphone use is widespread in Turkey.

Image Credit: Kate Dixon

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Twitter is making progress in its fight against the Turkish government’s attempts to take it offline. Sort of.


Yesterday, Twitter announced that a Turkish court had given it a legal victory: Overturning a takedown order aimed at a specific Twitter account. That account contained tweets accusing a former government official, former Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, of corruption, and the government wanted the account deleted. Twitter petitioned the court to overturn that takedown request, and on Friday, the court agreed.


“This decision is an exceptionally strong win for freedom of expression, and it will be of paramount value for us in protecting Twitter’s users against other attempts at censorship in the future,” Twitter wrote, in a post titled “Victory for free expression in Turkish court.”


However, the court did not address the overall ban on Twitter in Turkey, and Twitter — along with YouTube — remains unreachable in that country via most ordinary methods.


However, as ABC notes, “Many tech-savvy users, including President Abdullah Gul, have found ways of circumventing the ban on both Twitter and YouTube.”


 



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Twitter still blocked in Turkey, despite legal victory

Is You Skull Pressing On Your Brain? Print A New Skull

Here's a video of neurosurgeons at UMC Utrecht successfully implanting a 3D-printed skull in a patient. Technology is amazing.
Is You Skull Pressing On Your Brain? Print A New Skull

We Invented A Lensless Camera

I’m no optics expert, but the idea of a microchip camera without a lens seems what we laypeople would call “impossible.” And yet that’s exactly what David G. Stork and Patrick R. Gill of Rambus Labs have managed to do.
We Invented A Lensless Camera

Social Media Jobs: Maxim Magazine, The University of Chicago, Poets & Writers


This week, Maxim is hiring a social media manager, and The University of Chicago needs a social media manager. Meanwhile, Poets & Writers is seeking an associate web editor, and Trent & Company is on the hunt for a social media community manager. Get the scoop on these openings below, and find additional social media jobs on Mediabistro.


maxim130


Find more great social media jobs on our job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented SocialTimes pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.


New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.




Social Media Jobs: Maxim Magazine, The University of Chicago, Poets & Writers

Harsh Truths And The Method To Make You A Great Content Marketer

Harsh truths in content marketing

We have all seen it before. A friend tells you to check out his new site. He is talking about big dreams for the future, about all the plans and the goals of making money. Couple of weeks later you see the same friend, ask him how the new project is doing, and you hear that same old excuse of not having had enough time to work on it. There are some harsh truths that your friend needs to know and the method that will empower him to become a great content marketer.

The fear of starting

One reason for this is the fear of starting. It is a very common problem for people. They are unsure on what will happen when they post something. They are insecure about the quality and the value of what they have to say. They are shy thinking about what their friends and family will say. They think that nobody will care about their site. Nobody cares about you or your site, everyone is too busy thinking about themselves. Get on with it.

Dreaming about building a large audience and a name for yourself is not enough. Don’t be one of those people who would rather dream and be safe, than to actually act on the dream a have a chance of failure. Don’t be happy and content with the status quo. To give life to your dreams, you must start doing it and start doing it now. The more you think about it, the more time it will take you and the less probable is it that you will do it.

What people need in situations like these is a bit of a motivational push to click that publish button. When you do click on that button and your first post is online for the world to see, you realize how silly it was to have any fears and how you should have published that post a long time ago. Just go for it really. Close your eyes and publish that first post.

Find your sweet spot, know what you want to achieve, get the minimum viable site live, start publishing content and get the message out there. Measure, learn and improve as you go along. Some spend months on research, on planning, on the design and other details. I do not find this a valuable way of spending so much important time on. These are weeks and months spent without writing, without creating content, without marketing, without connecting to your audience, building a name and testing things in the real world. Don’t fall into the analysis paralysis. This process can be much faster.

"Plan do study act"

Your first post will suck

Be realistic. Your first post will most probably suck. Only your mother might like it. Your analytics report might say you had two visitors only. No one would click on the Twitter share button or the Facebook like button. This may sound a bit harsh but even the biggest bloggers published posts that sucked early on in their careers.

What separates them from the rest is that while publishing these awful posts they were learning the fundamentals of creating immersive content. And this is what counts. Getting experience, learning how to write better, improving the way you present your content, getting more comfortable about reaching out to people and promoting your content. These skills are key skills that you need in order to build a successful site.

Focus your time and efforts on learning the craft of blogging. Learning how to create great content is the most important lesson for you to become a successful blogger. The content and the way you present and promote that content, determines how well your project will do. It takes a lot of time to master all these activities. It is natural that you will be starting from almost zero and building your way up, learning from all the bad content you put out there and all the experience that you gain.

Starting is not the end, it’s the beginning

When you start a project is actually where you hit the reality and realize that maybe the plan you had has to be changed, or the dream you have will need a lot of time and effort to be reached. After starting that site or after publishing that first post you realize that the work is only starting. Visitors won’t just come after you publish, you will have to go out and get them.

Starting a site is not the end as many people see it, it is just the beginning of a process. You cannot expect just to launch your site, publish the first post and have visitors come to you in any numbers. It does not work like that. The real work actually starts after you have launched. That is when you need to put in the effort and time. Without doing that your project will surely fail. This should not discourage you from trying though.

Don’t just give up after couple of weeks if you feel like you have not reached your high expectations, but manage your expectations better. We have all heard too many success stories about people starting sites and making products and then selling them and earning tons of money. We have all heard about people that started posting content online and ended up with book contracts and lucrative speaking engagements. We see people traveling the world and having great lifestyles thanks to their online projects.

These stories are possible but they only happen to a small percentage of people. Keep this in mind in order to have a more realistic expectation of your project. This will keep you grounded and will help motivate you to put in the effort that is needed over a longer period of time before you start seeing any progress.

It is a marathon, not a sprint

The real work of a content marketer is about performing consistently day after day and building an audience few people at a time. It takes time to become a successful blogger. It is a lot of work, takes up a lot of your day and is hard to get away from. It is a marathon, it is not a sprint. There is a long road ahead and your first post is just the start of your blogging journey.

  • Keep creating great content, the best content you can think of
  • Entertain people, inform people, educate people… make them love and share your content
  • Keep posting regularly and consistently
  • Keep connecting to people in your target group
  • Keep promoting your content wherever you can
  • Keep networking with other authors, entrepreneurs and influences
  • Keep measuring, learning and improving your efforts

By taking these first steps you will already achieve more than most people do. Other people keep talking and dreaming and you are not one of them. You have started a site. You have published that post despite being fearful of the feedback. You are actually in the field working. Only doing the actual work can help you, it will improve you, it will teach you what works and what doesn’t.

Slowly but surely your site will grow, your reputation in the industry will increase, you will be growing an audience and will start seeing the benefits of having a successful site. You will not stand still like you would have if you were only talking about it and thinking but not doing it.

The post Harsh Truths And The Method To Make You A Great Content Marketer appeared first on How To Make My Blog.


Harsh Truths And The Method To Make You A Great Content Marketer

Next Arab-Israeli War Will Be Fought With Drones

Hezbollah, weaponized robots and a future that's already here.
Next Arab-Israeli War Will Be Fought With Drones

'A Man Walks Into A Bar' Is Worth Watching Until The End

Without spoiling anything just remember — it's perfectly legal in Austalia.
'A Man Walks Into A Bar' Is Worth Watching Until The End

Weekend Favs March Twenty Nine

Weekend Favs March Twenty Nine written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.


I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting.


word swag, woovent organigr.am


Good stuff I found this week:


Word Swag – iPhone app that lets you add words to images in stunning style


Woovent – Nice looking tool for organizing and promoting events on Facebook


organigr.am – tool that makes creating directories and org charts easy


 


 






Weekend Favs March Twenty Nine

The 6-Foot Earthworm That Sounds Like a Draining Bathtub

They say everything in Australia can kill you. The truth is there are plenty of harmless animals, but even most of those are somewhat terrifying.
The 6-Foot Earthworm That Sounds Like a Draining Bathtub

He Remade Our World

Almost exactly a decade ago, Vice President Dick Cheney greeted President George W. Bush one morning in the Oval Office with the news that his administration was about to implode.
He Remade Our World

Yahoo Is Considering Creating Its Own YouTube

Google-owned YouTube hasn’t had a serious competitor for years. But Yahoo would like to try: the web giant has been working on a plan to lure some of YouTube’s most popular stars and networks to show their stuff on the site.
Yahoo Is Considering Creating Its Own YouTube

Deals: iPads from $239; $120 to 150 off current iMacs & MacBooks; $150 off BT headphones

The weekend is delivering a number of deals on iPad minis and 128GB 4th-gen iPads, which are being discounted by up to $329. Meanwhile, a pair of resellers have again slashed the price of iMacs. And a trio of exclusive prices on MacBooks for AI readers are set to expire following the weekend. Also $159 off Bluetooth headphones.

    







Deals: iPads from $239; $120 to 150 off current iMacs & MacBooks; $150 off BT headphones

SlideShare for Business: Tips and Tricks for Success from #SMMW14

Todd Wheatland SlideShare Presentation #SMMW14


If you’re not using SlideShare in your digital marketing tactical mix, you are missing out. As Todd Wheatland said in his session at #SMMW14, ‘whatever you’re selling, there’s a business case here.’


SlideShare is a fantastic opportunity for marketers and businesses for many reasons, including:


  • Huge visibility: over 60 million unique views / month

  • Relevant audience: heavily business focused

  • Improved search visibility: presentations posted on SlideShare tend to rank high in organic search

Below are 3 tips to help you achieve success in SlideShare:


Optimize Your Content Within SlideShare


Similar to search, great content is a prerequisite, but optimization techniques provide the extra secret sauce that result in improved visibility and views within SlideShare. Because SlideShare content also ranks well in organic search, optimizing is a no brainer. Some key things to think about:


  • Keywords: as with search, including keywords which are relevant to your target audience in your title, description, tags, and presentation itself is key to achieving visibility. A great place to start your keyword research is to look at your competitors who have a SlideShare presence to see what they are competing for.

  • Aesthetics: The thumbnail image is the first impression people will get of your content, so make sure it’s a good one if you want anyone to click through. Make sure your presentation pages look polished, professional, not too busy with text and represent your brand’s look and feel to the letter. Graphic design not your strong suit? Fear not, for there are plenty of excellent tools that make creating professional quality presentations easy, such as Haiku Deck, Canva and good old PowerPoint.

Promote Your Content Outside of SlideShare


A huge benefit of SlideShare is the flexibility which the format allows for you to promote your content. Embedding Slideshare presentations in external web content couldn’t be easier and the clean, minimally branded look blends well into any blog, website page, or social channel.


Great places to promote your SlideShare content are:


  • Blog posts

  • Social  messaging

  • Resources pages of your website

  • As part of promotion for industry events, such as Social Media Marketing World

  • Offline via printed versions

Optimize Slideshare Content Across the Sales Cycle


As with any successful content marketing tactic, it’s most effective to create optimized content in multiple formats that speak to each phase of the sales cycle. Say you have a huge, authoritative, extensively researched mega deck that you just know is relevant to your potential customers and will solve all their problems, so you throw it up on SlideShare and wait for the leads to roll in. How could that not work?


Unfortunately, for those unfamiliar with your brand or content, consuming a huge piece like that as the first touch point is asking for more attention than most people will be willing to give until they know you a little better.


In order for your content to be effective in reaching your target audience and resulting in desired outcomes, it’s important to create content that syncs with where they are in the sales cycle: attraction, engagement and conversion.


  • Attraction content: short, easy to digest, low barrier to consumption (i.e. no form gating yet)
    • Example: micro-messages such as quotes, industry stats, or images from your slide deck pushed out through social channels, with links to a summary deck.


  • Engagement content: longer form, useful content that solves problems, answers questions, provides how-to’s, etc.


    • Example: shorter summary version of your deck, concluding with a call to action to view the full version.


  • Conversion content: detailed, product / brand focused, contains direct calls to action (demo / contact / purchase)
    • Example: remember your huge presentation? Now that you have brought people to it via your attraction and engagement tactics, they are now ready to consume it and take action. The final step is bringing them to key conversion areas of your website where they will be ready and willing to fill out your contact form, schedule a demo or buy your widget.


SlideShare for Business #SMMW14


Tricks from the Pros


  • Embed social widgets: SlideShare allows for including built in social sharing widgets, which you can add at strategic points throughout your presentations to encourage sharing of micro-messages. For extra credit, include pre-written social messages to help make sharing easy and on-brand.

  • Collaborate with influencers: SlideShare presentations are a great format for collaboration with thought leaders in your industry. Not only will you get great contributed content, added perception of authority, but you will have a better chance of getting your content amplified to a much larger audience.

  • Include hashtags: a hashtag placed strategically in your presentation title and body can help amplify your content by riding trending topics or starting a conversation when shared.

  • Repurpose: if you’re not repurposing your SlideShare content into alternate formats and promoting it across varying channels, you’re not getting the full bang for your buck. If your presentations are high quality, on brand and speak to your customer’s needs, they will play well in many places.

  • Try to reach the front page: gracing the front page of SlideShare by becoming a featured presentation of the day means your content will be exposed to an exponentially larger audience. There’s no short cut to achieving this coveted placement, but hopefully the above tips and tricks can give you the extra edge needed to make it.

Are you using SlideShare as part of your digital marketing mix? What are your favorite tips for success?



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SlideShare for Business: Tips and Tricks for Success from #SMMW14

The Secret To Success On Twitter: SMART Goals

smart goals twitter


“I want more Twitter followers!”


Does your Twitter goal sound something like this? Or maybe it’s “I want to be more influential on Twitter,” or “I want to sell stuff via Twitter.”


If you’re having trouble achieving your goals, and if they sound something like the examples above, there’s a reason: your goals are hazy. They’re only half-defined. And although you might think that “more followers” is a pretty OK goal, it’s not.


But rest assured, there is a way to set Twitter goals that will be successful. They just have to be SMART.
continued…


New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.


The Secret To Success On Twitter: SMART Goals

Is the Water Safe Yet?


Is the Water Safe Yet?

Instagram Engagement, LinkedIn Content Marketing, and More Big News

Sprout Social Media News


Spring is slowly making its way across the midwest. Maybe you spent your lunch break this week outdoors and couldn’t keep up with your RSS feed. Not to fear, we’ve got a recap of this week’s biggest social media news stories right here.


A recent study found that including human faces in your Instagram photos can result in a 38 percent increase in shares. Quora began offering verified accounts, making it a strong contender for brands looking to add something fresh to their content strategy. Facebook is helping you step up your targeting game on the social network with new features for Lookalike Audiences. Even LinkedIn and Twitter hopped on the new feature bandwagon this week, introducing content trends and photo upgrades, respectively. You can read about each one of these stories in our recap below.


Show Your Face: How Brands Use Faces to Boost Instagram Engagement


How Brands Use Faces to Increase Instagram Engagement


We’ve already seen how Instagram can help brands reach audiences through captivating imagery and video. But as with any form of marketing, there’s usually something you can do to give your content an edge — in this case, more engagement. According to a study from Georgia Tech, that something is including human faces in the photos you upload.


In one of the first studies to examine how photos with faces drive engagement on large-scale, image-sharing communities, Georgia Institute of Technology and Yahoo Labs looked at 1.1 million photos on Instagram. Researchers found that pictures with human faces were 38 percent more likely to receive likes than photos without faces. They’re also 32 percent more likely to attract comments. [Read More...]


Quora Just Got Better for Brands, Here Are Some Getting-Started Tips


Quora Just Got Better for Brands, Here Are Some Getting Started Tips


Imitation might be the best form of flattery, but it can be a nightmare for marketers who are trying to establish a brand or public figure’s presence on a social network. Popular social platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook offer verified accounts, which help people find the authentic profiles of celebrities and high-profile businesses. Quora is the latest social website to adopt the verification tool.


Citing increased adoption from public figures, Quora yesterday introduced Verified Profiles. The new feature will give the website’s readers confidence in the authenticity of public figures who actively contribute to the platform. Much like on other social networks that offer the feature, these profiles will have a verified checkmark icon next to their profile picture. [Read More...]


Reach Customers With New Features for Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences


Reach Consumers With New Features for Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences


If you advertise on Facebook, then you’re probably already familiar with the Custom Audiences tool that lets you target existing customers. What you might not know is that the social network also offers the ability to help you reach people that are similar to your existing customers through Lookalike Audiences.


Launched last spring, Lookalike Audiences let you reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to a customer list you already care about. The tool builds off Custom Audiences and uses interests or demographics to show ads to people who share common attributes as your existing customers. [Read More...]


Elevate Your Content Marketing Strategy With New Tools From LinkedIn


Elevate Your Content Marketing Strategy With New Tools From LinkedIn


While social media has created a lot of new opportunities for marketers, it has also made it more difficult for brands to be heard. The Internet is flooded with content and social platforms are more crowded than ever before. As a result, marketers face a challenge in trying to capture the attention of consumers online. Hope, however, is not lost thanks to content marketing.


Today, your brand’s voice is a marketer’s most valuable weapon. Where once you relied on the media to announce new products or features, now businesses are writing blogs, uploading photos and videos, and creating all kinds of content on social networks. This has forced marketers to communicate more skillfully and strategically. But while more is being said, how much of it is actually effective? [Read More...]


Step Up Your Photo Game With New Mobile Features for Twitter


Step Up Your Photo Game With New Mobile Features for Twitter


There’s no doubt that Twitter has been pushing more visual content, and the success of images on the platform is undeniable. From President Obama’s “four more years” to Ellen’s Oscar selfie, photos are one of the most powerful drivers of engagement on Twitter. Now the company has given you one more reason why visual content should be an important part of your Twitter strategy.


Notable public figures and businesses have already done a fantastic job of integrating visuals and successfully generating more traffic with their tweets. But as Twitter continues to stress the importance of images, achieving social victory is always easiest when you have access to the right tools. [Read More...]


The post Instagram Engagement, LinkedIn Content Marketing, and More Big News appeared first on Sprout Social.




Instagram Engagement, LinkedIn Content Marketing, and More Big News