How to Install Google’s Awesome Android L Update Right Now

By Zach Epstein at BGR:


Google’s I/O 2014 keynote certainly had its ups and downs earlier this week, but the clear highlight as far as we were concerned was Android L. Google’s next Android build, likely named Android 5.0, will feature a number of key changes.

Google won’t release Android L to the general public for some time yet, but the developer preview is already available and thanks to some handiwork from the hackers on the XDA Developers forum, anyone can install it right now.


All you’ll need is a rooted Nexus 5 and some time on your hands. You’ll also need to be somewhat savvy — this procedure is not for beginners and missteps can end up doing real damage to your phone.





Read the full story >>

25 Ways to Make Your First Online Sale

By Mark Hayes at KissMetrics Blog:  


As an online merchant, making your first sale is as symbolic as it is necessary.

Completing the first sale sounds straightforward enough, yet the optimism and reassurance it brings can make it the biggest turning point in the life of your business.

However, don’t let the simple concept of a first sale mislead you. Obtaining that first customer can sometimes be a long, arduous battle.

To make the battle easier to win, below are 25 sure-fire ways to make your first sale, and then some.



1. Send Free Samples to Influencers

The Internet is packed with influential bloggers, journalists, entrepreneurs, and vloggers from a wide range of industries and niches.

Many of them have large followings on social media and loyal audiences on their websites.

Sending a free sample of your product to such influencers, who are either within your industry or related to it in some way, gives you an opportunity to let them know you appreciate their work with a small gift. Also, hopefully, you will get a mention on one of their sites or platforms.

Not only will this provide you with a spike in traffic and social media followers, but you’ll also have a seal of approval from industry experts. These influencers will provide you with measurable results following a potential share or shout out, and you’ll likely raise the status of your product in the eyes of potential customers.

A useful resource regarding influencers is KISSmetrics’s definitive guide to influencer targeting, which tells you everything you need to know about getting your brand under relevant, important noses.


2. Start Blogging

If you aren’t already running a blog associated with your store or product, then you’re missing out on the limitless potential of content marketing.

By producing free, valuable content, you will create trust in your brand and keep people informed. Blogging also gives you something to share on social media and helps you rank in search engines.

A simple yet highly effective way to get started with content marketing for your business is to think of all the starting-point queries people have about your products and industry. Using your blog, you can answer these queries as individual articles.

As an example, visitors to the Shopify blog are interested in learning about e-commerce and drop shipping among many other topics. Because of this, we created content that ranks for terms like “how to sell online” and “how to drop ship.”

Additionally, you can use your blog to offer tips, tutorials, and resources related to your products and the lifestyle around your products.

If you can create epic content on a fairly regular basis, you’ll begin to see the power of content marketing via social media shares, search engines, and so forth. All of this is covered under KISSmetrics’s guide to content marketing.


3. Build an Email List

Building up an email list for marketing purposes is absolutely essential.

In fact, according to research by MarketingSherpa, 60% of marketers polled found that email marketing produced an ROI for their company (32% believe it will eventually produce an ROI). When asked what the estimated ROI from email marketing programs for the company were – the overall group reported 119% – a figure that’s tough for any online store owner to ignore.

Having a list of emails from previous and potential customers means you can get your information, products, and content into their personal mailboxes. In contrast, updates made to your Facebook page and Twitter handle will almost never be able to reach your entire following, due to time zone differences and other factors.

Start building your email list today by including an email subscription form somewhere noticeable on your website. Here’s a clever way to convince visitors to sign up for your list. Instead of simply saying “Join our Newsletter,” offer an incentive or some type of value for signing up. Skinny Teatox offers the chance to win a free product every week, so they showcase that offering to encourage people to join.

If you need some more advice on how to get started, KISSmetrics offers the perfect beginner’s guide to email marketing.


4. Sponsor an Event

In some cases, sponsoring an event can work wonders. In other cases, it can be an immense waste of time and resources. To avoid the latter, you’ll need to do your research.

First, you should ensure that you select the right event to sponsor. Search for events where attendees actually will be interested in your products, and then find out how many consumers will be in attendance.

Once you get a rough idea about the different event types and sizes, you can begin sorting them by cost.

It’s also important to avoid sending just a small convoy of marketers to simply set up a table and hand out flyers. If there are potential customers attending, you’ll need to be more creative than that in order to build relationships.

Demonstrate some of your most interesting products to tell your story, get people talking, and provide on-the-spot rewards like coupons and free stickers in return for email list subscriptions and social media follows.

Here are some tips from Inc to help you maximize your return when sponsoring an event.


5. Interview Industry Influencers

Remember the importance of content marketing I mentioned earlier? Well, interviewing an industry influencer is a prime example of how to create epic content.

Interviews work because they are win-win situations. The interviewee gets more exposure, while the interviewer gets their hands on some hot content for their publication, which in this case, is your blog.

Make the most of the interview by asking relevant questions surrounding not only their lives and careers, but also the industry as a whole. This will ensure that fans of the influencer get a taste of their personality, while others will value their expert advice.

A great example of this is 500px’s interview with Elena Shumilova. As a popular name in the world of photography, her interview made perfect content for the online photo vendor.


6. Pull a PR Stunt

If you want that first sale fast, pulling a PR stunt could do the trick.

Much like viral videos, which are based on the same concept, a PR stunt has the potential to propel your brand into fame. If executed well, you’ll be swapping conventional time-consuming brand marketing with instant publicity, gaining you loyal followers and customers in the process.

Essentially, a PR stunt consists of doing something unusual, outrageous, hilarious, or remarkable enough to be worthy of media attention.

If done correctly, your store could benefit from tons of links from authority news sources, which is great for both traffic in the short term and SEO in the long term.

No company pulls a better PR stunt than Virgin. Their founder, Richard Branson, has dressed up like a wedding bride, jumped off a casino roof, posed as a zulu warrior, driven a tank down Fifth Avenue in NYC, and flown a balloon around the world, among many other newsworthy things.

To get your creative juices flowing, take a look at Entrepreneur’s list of top 10 successful marketing stunts. They’ve covered everything from outrageous tattoos to left-handed burgers. Remember, a good PR stunt doesn’t require tons of cash or a big brand to pull it off. It just requires creativity.


7. Experiment with AdWords

AdWords is Google’s hugely popular pay-per-click advertising network that allows online retailers to place advertisements on nearly every Google search results page, YouTube video, and partner website. Who wouldn’t want to rank in the top three of a search query that drives sales? Here’s what shows up when you type “Samsung TV” into Google. Note that the first result is a paid ad from Samsung.

The beauty of AdWords lies in its speed and massive reach. In as little as a few minutes, you can set up and launch an advertising campaign which gets your text, image, or even video ads seen by browsers all over the web.

Using the AdWords campaign options, you can create targeted ads which are triggered and displayed alongside Google searches when Internet browsers search for predefined keywords. Additionally, your ads also will appear on websites and articles which contain similar keywords.

To get started with your advertising campaigns, check out The Next Web’s informative Google AdWords beginner’s guide, where you’ll learn how to build and launch a successful AdWords campaign.


8. Share the Load with Affiliate Marketing

Trying to sell your products alone can be a difficult task, so why not share the load with others?

Affiliate marketing is when you let other people market your products and send you website traffic. In return, you pay them a percentage of any sales that originate from their efforts. Their marketing efforts can be kept track of by giving them unique hyperlinks (which they can post on their website) containing an ID code at the end of the link, just for them.

For example, a website owner may post your affiliate link for a blue sweater that is for sale on your website. If one of his website visitors clicks the link and then buys the blue sweater, you’ll have made a sale, and as an affiliate, the website owner will be entitled to a percentage of that sale.

The success of affiliate marketing schemes depends greatly on the types of products you sell, as well as the commission percentage you reward your affiliate partner.

To get started, check out this explanatory affiliate marketing guide from QuickSprout, which goes into great detail about the different facts, figures, and methods you’ll need to know.


9. Sell Wholesale to Other Retailers

Selling to consumers is fine, but there’s nothing wrong with selling wholesale to other retailers, too, especially if the consumers aren’t biting as often as you’d like them to.

One of the main advantages of selling wholesale is the obvious increase in cash flow. You may be selling with a finer profit margin, but you’ll be shifting products in quantity.

Additionally, if you’re selling your own products, you’re essentially enabling other companies and resellers to market for you, spreading the word about your merchandise as they buy it themselves. In other words, selling wholesale could indirectly boost your consumer sales.

For a crash course on the basics of selling wholesale, check out Entrepreneur’s guide to starting a wholesale distribution business.


10. Publish a Press Release

Lots of new online stores push out press releases in order to attract media attention, but fail.

It goes without saying that to get ignored by every single news outlet when distributing a new press release is demoralizing and often a huge waste of resources.

The secret to getting noticed is simple. Don’t publish a lousy press release!!!

First of all, make sure your news actually is news worthy. Don’t expect a massive response unless you’re giving the public something seriously interesting to read about. Also, a press release should be presented in a way that is concise and professional, without being too monotonous.

Copyblogger has pieced together six ways to write a killer press release, explaining everything from avoiding jargon to creating a magnetic headline.


11. Pay Attention to Stats

Reviewing and acting upon website analytics is paramount. The behavior of every website visitor from entry to exit helps you understand why you are selling, and more importantly, why you aren’t.

Your website stats (or analytics) will show you what your customers are doing on your site, including which web pages they enter, the time they spend on particular pages, and the route they take to leave your site. Occasionally, some tools will display additional information, for instance how frequently a customer visits your site.

It won’t cost you a penny, either. Google Analytics is a completely free service, allowing you to measure your traffic in more ways than you can think of.

Here’s an example from Miracle Berry. You can see steady traffic up until early January when there is a huge jump. They looked at their data and saw that the jump came from StumbleUpon, which could be a good indicator that the social channel is worth pursuing further, either organically or via paid placement.

After you launch your online store and while you’re fighting for your first sale, it’s extremely important to spend time analyzing your traffic in Google Analytics. You never know what you’re going to learn.

If you need a hand getting a grip on the world of analytics, Simply Business offers a comprehensive Google Analytics guide, covering everything you need to know.


12. Run a Survey

Learning about the common pain points and desires of consumers can help you make all the right moves going forward.

Consumer surveys are an ideal tool for obtaining honest feedback. Unlike your friends and family, consumers have no qualms about hurting your feelings by picking at your web design or your marketing material.

To run your very own survey, you can make use of online apps like Survey Monkey and Qualaroo to create online surveys.

Econsultancy has picked up on some important practices to be used when conducting e-commerce consumer surveys, which can help you get the most out of your feedback.


13. Network on Forums

Online discussion forums are great places to give out industry tips and advice, answer questions, and acquire a customer or two.

Use Google to search out some active forums that may directly relate to your niche. When you post, ensure you aren’t breaking any forum rules when you promote your brand or products. Get to know the limits and restrictions of the forum, and stick to them. Using your forum avatar, signature, and profile page to promote your brand are usually well within the rules.

You may feel the temptation to post and promote wildly, but keep it professional. No forum will tolerate constant promotion or posts full of links to your website. Bedsides, acting in such a way online will damage your brand in the eyes of other forum users. So, keep it simple by posting just enough for people to notice your activity, but not enough to constitute spam.

Two popular business focused forums worth getting active on are Digital Point and Warrior Forum, both of which have thriving, helpful communities.


14. Set up a Cartel

Sometimes it’s nice to have some support. A small online cartel could be just the trick.

Find a group of complementary (but not competitive) retailers and agree to promote and support each other. It’s a brilliantly simple way to gain traction in a variety of ways.

For example, if you run an online clothing store, ideal cartel candidates might include jewelry and footwear outlets. Essentially, the stores you would partner with are similar enough to be able to cross-promote and share advice, but not similar enough to create a conflict of interest.

You can opt for a completely private setup, keeping things small and tight-knit, or you can branch out and publicize your online cartel in order to attract more members to help build a supportive community of online merchants.

Take The ecommerce Group for example. Operating via a Facebook group, they have over 2,500 members sharing advice, giving feedback, and providing a helping hand whenever possible.


15. Build the Right Relationships

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Building the right relationships, both online and offline, can act as your portal to success.

No matter what type of product you sell or which industry you work within, there always are like-minded businesses out there, and you need to befriend them.

The trick is to build relationships with others that are closely aligned to your business but not direct competitors.

For example, suppliers, blogs, and websites that focus on your industry would be ideal, as they can help provide you with consumer feedback and offer promotional deals, without stepping on your digital toes.

To learn more about how to build a positive relationship with your supplier, All Business offers a great relationship building tutorial.


16. Offer a Contest or Giveaway

Everybody loves free stuff, and if you’re looking to build up some trust while launching your sales efforts, a contest or giveaway could help you do just that.

Not only can contests and giveaways help you build valuable inbound links, they also are a great way to show potential customers that you can be trusted and that your brand means business.

It’s important to remember you don’t have to start big. Tease Tea is a new online tea store running a simple contest on their Facebook page.

This contest costs no money to run and likely took only a few minutes to put together.

Online services like ViralSweep and Gleam allow you to run such contests and giveaways online, helping you to keep things simple and professional without all the added work.

Get started by checking out Stoked SEO’s brilliant tutorial on how to get a ton of eCommerce traffic via giveaways.


17. Begin Tweeting on Twitter

Twitter’s beautiful simplicity is what makes it one of the most effective ways to engage with your target market. An excellent method for finding potential customers is to proactively search for people tweeting questions about your industry and reach out to them in a helpful way.

The idea is not to pitch or even mention your products – just be helpful. For example, when Gary Vaynerchuk was running Wine Library, he would search “Chardonnay” on Twitter and find people asking related questions. All he did was offer advice; he never pitched.

As a result, people would be grateful and naturally look further into who he was, and ultimately discover his business on their own. This is just one of many Twitter strategies that can work wonders for your sales figures.

If you need some real life examples of how to nail Twitter marketing, take a look at the Twitter profile of online jewelry store Lola Rose, which could teach you a thing or two.


18. Make Connections on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the office block of the Internet. Within it, you’ll find professionals and executives of all types, boasting about their abilities and connecting with others. It’s an online resume so to speak.

After you set up your e-commerce business profile, you can begin doing the same for yourself (if you haven’t already). You may not make many direct sales through LinkedIn, but you’ll discover an array of opportunities with other companies, suppliers, related websites, and more.

LinkedIn Groups also are a stellar way to engage with other business owners in your industry. There are vast amounts of public and private groups set up for specific niches, allowing you to post questions and converse with other members.

To find some relevant Groups, check out Practical Ecommerce’s top ten LinkedIn Groups for ecommerce.


19. Go Visual with Pinterest, Instagram, and Vine

When it comes to representing personality and creativity via social media, the three big visual platforms do it best.

Pinterest, Instagram, and most recently Vine, all allow you to take a slightly different approach to engaging with consumers.

These platforms are the perfect place to present the creativity and passion that goes into your business behind the scenes. Snap pictures of your products, take videos of the manufacturing process, tell a story with images. Always aim for beauty if possible. People love beauty.

Need some visual inspiration? Melt Cosmetics is a new brand that already has over 150,000 followers on Instagram.

They are doing a great job of Instagram marketing, building up a brand image and a following with their beautiful photographs.


20. Don’t Forget Facebook

It may not be what it once was, but make no mistake, Facebook still is a social media powerhouse.

Leverage your personal Facebook profile and your business page to engage with friends, family, and acquaintances and to get people talking about your products. Get creative with status updates and interact on public groups and fan pages relevant to your niche.

It’s also important to keep Facebook Ads in mind. Much like with AdWords, you can create targeted campaigns to attract Likes, make sales, and promote your brand.

A popular blow drying salon in Toronto called Drybar has an extremely engaged Facebook community of over 80,000 who talk all things blow drying.

If you’re fresh out of ideas for your Facebook business page, check out Shopify’s ten ways ecommerce brands can increase traffic and sales with Facebook.


21. Beat the Competition on Comparison Shopping Engines

Many, if not all, consumers like to shop around before making a purchase, and that includes a visit to comparison shopping engines.

Popular engines include The Find, Google Shopping, Nextag, and a range of others, all with thousands of products and stores being simultaneously compared.

Here’s an example from The Find where I’m searching for a price comparison on my favorite hot sauce.

To get noticed, you need to play by the rules of each engine, stay competitive in terms of price, and play the waiting game while you experiment to find out which engine suits you the best and gives you the best ROI.

PC Pro has put together a detailed guide on how to get noticed on Google Shopping, and Sociable360 has a list of the 10 most popular comparison shopping engines with a brief explanation of each one.


22. Create an Infographic

An infographic is exactly what the name implies, a graph of information, or a visual representation of facts and statistics in a form that is easy to digest.

Although they aren’t entirely easy to create, infographics are gold when it comes to social shares and search engine traffic.

In fact, according to UnBounce, which has created an inspiring and detailed guide to marketing with infographics, people are searching for infographics like you wouldn’t believe, with Google seeing an 800% increase in such searches in the last two years.

If you aren’t a visual genius, there’s no need to worry, plenty of firms like Column Five Media offer infographic creation services, leaving you to focus on content.


23. Design your Store to Look the Part

First impressions are everything, and when it comes to selling online, first impressions rely heavily on web design.

Based entirely on your website design, visitors need to be able to grasp your brand and products without too much scrolling or exploring. Furthermore, navigating through your catalog should be easy, if not enjoyable.

Additionally, making your store responsive to mobile devices is nothing short of vital. Perhaps more so than having a website built for standard PCs and Laptops. Internet Retailer recently reported that 55% of all online shopping occurred via mobile devices in June 2013 compared with just 45% from desktops and laptops. We’re seeing similar numbers with our stores at Shopify. So, looking the part on all devices is an absolute must.

To get some creative ideas about your own store’s design, have a look at Smashing Magazine’s list of 35 beautiful ecommerce websites and Inspired Magazine’s roundup of 40 stunning online stores.


24. Hold a Pop-up Store

Just because your store began online, it doesn’t mean it has to stay online. A pop-up store could be just what you need to compliment your online presence.

Unlike traditional bricks-and-mortar premises, a pop-up store is far less of a financial burden, thanks to its temporary nature.

Like most kinds of physical stores, a pop-up store is all about location. You can open a pop-up store at farmers markets, art fairs, shopping malls, galleries, and any other place people gather. Just make sure you’re set up in an area that is clearly visible and where your target market will be wandering.

A pop-up store also can act as a great offline marketing outpost. You can use your store to hand out coupons to be used via your online store, and you can collect email subscriptions and social media followers.

For some ideas on how to get your pop-up store going, Business Insider has compiled no less than eighteen creative pop-up store ideas to get you thinking.


25. Document your Launch on Reddit

Reddit is a socially powered news and entertainment website where registered users submit content. Also, and more importantly, Reddit is a place where you can attract a large number of dedicated followers and customers.

Using the r/entrepreneur subreddit in particular, you can introduce your brand, gain feedback from consumers, and learn lessons, while also promoting your own products.

The process has to be one of give and take, though. Walk those entrepreneurial redditors through your journey, take them behind the scenes, detail your mistakes and expose some personality in order to gain not just customers, but fans, too.

A brilliant example of using Reddit to promote an online store is what the guys at Beardbrand did. The beard grooming specialists documented their launch on the r/entrepreneur subreddit, deriving valuable advice from subscribers and customers, while giving back to them via regular updates and inside information.

Here’s the founder posting an update to the r/entrepreneur community.

Note how many upvotes and comments this post received. Reddit can be an extremely powerful tool, not only for gaining valuable educational resources to help you start your business, but also for helping you make your first sale.

It’s In Your Hands

The 25 strategies listed above are stellar ways to kick-start sales for your online store.

With the right approach, you will need only a handful of the strategies listed above to make the first of many sales.

So, what are you waiting for?





Via KissMetrics.

Tips and Tools for Mastering Google Plus

By Steve Rayson at Social Media Today: 

As Google+ has over 300m active users (and growing), I am always keen to learn how I can use the platform more effectively. This week, I was very lucky to catch up with Google+ guru Martin Shervington in a Hangout before his talk at Social Media Marketing World. The downside of a Google Hangout was that I could see he was on the sunny West Coast of the US while I was sitting in the dark in London, but on the positive side I learned a huge amount about how to maximise my use of Google+. Martin also shared his advice for people new to the platform.


Getting to grips with Google+

martin shervingtonMartin first joined Google+ in 2011. I was pleased to learn that, like me, he didn’t immediately understand all the intricacies of the platform. However, unlike me, in 2012 Martin decided to spend a number of days learning about the platform and started writing copious notes, including the tools he used, the best extensions, and the best tips he picked up from others. Luckily for me and everyone else on Google+, Martin openly and actively shared all his knowledge. Martin’s Google+ videos have had over half a million views and over 300,000 people have circled Martin on Google+.

Martin says once he understood that Google+ was a social layer within a much bigger ecosystem, he was blown away by the possibilities. The fact that it combines Google, the world’s largest search engine, with YouTube, the second largest search engine, and also the full range of Google products and services, makes it much more than a social network.

I think Martin is one of the first people who fully grasped the power of Google+ as part of a much bigger ecosystem and the increasing importance of social signals in areas such as search, authorship and authority. You can read more on the search benefits of Google+ in my article on Ten ways Google+ will improve your SEO.


The power of Google+ circles

Martin uses circles in a sophisticated way for campaign building which highlights the potential for amplifying content on Google+. He believes strongly in seeding content with an opt in list of people in a circle. As an example he asked people to share what Chrome extensions they used to put together a helpful list for people. He built a circle of those that participated and then notified them when he published his post and shared it with them, which they then also shared and amplified.

Martin demonstrated the power of this approach with his #PlustheZuck experiment last month. He started again with an opt in list of 200 people which he put into a circle and then published a post asking them to circle Mark Zuckerberg. This post was shared by people in the circle, see the image from Google Ripples below.

Within an hour #PlustheZuck was trending at number one on Google+. This was followed by a further post that got 2,900 people involved, and 1,590 people took action increasing the number of Mark Zuckerberg’s followers. You can read more in Martin’s PlusTheZuck case study.

The #PlustheZuck campaign was tracked by one of Martin’s favorite tools Nod3x. NOD3x is a real-time social network analysis and data mining application that is free to the Google+ community. You can see the full details of how Nod3x tracked the campaign.



How Martin uses tools with Google+

I was really interested to learn more about how Martin manages the sheer range and volume of work he undertakes on Google+. These are the tools that Martin uses and how he uses them.


Buffer

Martin uses Buffer as the mechanism to create and distribute content to his Google+ pages. Buffer is a go-to tool for many to manage their social media activity both for ease of use and its detailed analytics. Just a note that you can’t distribute to a Google profile using Buffer or similar tools.

Friends+Me

friendsplusmeMartin then uses Friends+Me to distribute his his Google+ posts to LinkedIn and Facebook. Friends+Me allows you to share your Google+ posts to other social sites including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Martin chooses to manually create his posts for Twitter rather than automate these via Google+ as they are crafted differently to his Google+ posts which are specifically designed for that platform.

CircleCount

circlecount Martin uses CircleCount to get a good understanding of who has shared him in circles, to get insights into communities and to get updates on what is happening more generally. You can read my previous review of CircleCount in the SMToolbox outlining its core features and how they can help you be more effective on Google+. http://socialmediatoday.com/SMToolbox/google-plus-circlecount-be-more-effective

Circloscope

circloscopeMartin uses Circloscope to review information and gain insights on people in his circles. Using Circloscope he can find and uncircle dormant accounts, and also to get data on who has been engaging with him. Circloscope is a powerful tool for analyzing your circles and filtering people. For example you can filter users in your circles who haven’t been active for a specified period of time, who don’t circle you back or who engage with you. You can filter down to locations such as cities. Circloscope then allows you to manage your circles by for example by automatically uncircling people who haven’t made a post for say the last two months.

Martin also makes extensive use of Google tools such as Ripples within Google+, which provides a great visual representation of how content is shared as we can see above in the #plusthezuck example. Ripples also allows you to test content that resonates with your network. Martin makes extensive use of Google Drive and Docs which has transformed collaborative working, this post was written on Google Docs. Martin also uses other extensions such as Checker Plus and Winestamp.



Martin’s Top Tips

Martin’s advice is that before you get started on Google+ you decide clearly what it is you want to do, for example:

- build your personal profile - build trust, reputation and authority

- develop and promote a brand page

Your objectives will determine the appropriate strategy to follow and the tools to use. Martin’s top tips for getting started on Google+ are as follows:

- Settle in for a month before you try to push your own content. Spend time looking around, engaging with people and building relationships. Set up and start to include people in your circles.

- Set up your profile with new pictures including a nice headshot image and tag it. Don’t create a Google+ page initially, start with your profile where you can post and share.

- In your profile update the sites linked to you such as your blog and claim your Google authorship by listing the sites you contribute to and including the rel author tag back on your own sites. See more on how to set up authorship https://plus.google.com/authorship

- Develop a list of influencers in your area. Plus one their content and more importantly reshare their content that is relevant to your audience. I like the way Martin described it as a shop, you don’t want to start by only stocking your own products, share content from a range of authoritative sources. Google+ is a great platform for content curation.

- The more you socially interact with people and the more you share, the more you will be respected. Develop your relationships and collaborate informally, be helpful and willing to share.

- Only after you have done the above should you post content that is relevant for your networks. Do make sure it is high quality and helpful content as no one wants to read lots of sales material.

- Use Google Hangouts. They are great for building relationships, also interview people via a Hangout as I did with Martin for this article. Martin gave me many examples of how you can use Google drive and docs together with Hangouts to create a powerful collaborative working environment.



I hope this artilce has inspired you to look again at Google+. If it has and you want to learn more your best starting point is Martin’s PlusYourBusiness Quick Starter kit. This kit has a mass of helpful videos and PDFs to improve your performance on Google+. You can also follow Martin Shervington on Google+.




Via

3 Ways to Tweet From Turkey

By Karissa Bell at Mashable:

Twitter went down in Turkey following Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's pledge to eradicate Twitter in the country.

The service may be officially banned — but Turkey's 10 million Twitter users are still finding ways to tweet.

Here are three ways users can get around the ban:


1. SMS

In what is likely the simplest way to get around the restrictions, users can send tweets via SMS — though this solution is limited to sending outgoing tweets.

Twitter provided both English and Turkish instructions for doing this.

2. Change Your DNS

Many users are reporting they are able to bypass the block by changing their DNS settings. Non tech-savvy users will need to exercise caution when changing these numbers, but solutions like OpenDNS or Google DNS are reliable.

Wikileaks posted step-by-step instructions in Turkish. This video demonstrates the process for iPhones:



3. Use a VPN or Tor

Another solution is to use a VPN connection. Setting up a VPN usually requires paying at least some cash upfront, though there are free versions. But as one Reddit user pointed out, people should be cautious when using free VPNs. They can be unreliable, or in some cases, malicious software.

Users can also get around the restrictions by using Tor, which anonymizes your Internet connection. "Individuals use Tor to to connect to news sites, instant messaging services, or the like when these are blocked by their local Internet providers," its website explains.





Read the full story >>

How to succeed with Google+ Hangouts

By Andy Nathan at Web Designer Depot:

Google Hangouts have been at the heart of some of the hottest video conferencing technologies since it first debuted as part of Google+ several years ago. The Hangouts’ technology creates a dynamic place to engage your social network through video, chat, and other applications. Let’s uncover how to use this unique video conferencing system from Google as an attendee, and as a host.
If you are interested in creating professional connections through Google+, then you need to attend the various Google+ Hangouts. These hangouts are an excellent place to connect with other entrepreneurs, designers, and techies.


Find a good Hangout

Check out Google Hangout and Google Events to discover Hangouts that are of interest to you. The hangouts and events are listed on the left of your Google+ Page, on the side menu.
Another way to find relevant Google Hangouts is to join the Google Hangouts On Air Community. The community has over 8,000 members that are constantly posting new Hangouts.


Get there early

Google+ Hangouts are video conferencing events. For users with free accounts, the first nine people can be on video; for hosts with pro accounts that goes up to the first fifteen people. Everyone else can only interact with the Hangout via the chat or watch on YouTube. This is still worth doing, but the bigger benefit lies in joining a group of people to talk with on the video Hangout.


Be prepared to speak

If you join the hangout through video conferencing, you might have to actually talk a bit about the topic. While this might be terrifying to some, keep in mind that you cannot make connections sitting on the sidelines. The most profitable connections come from engaging with others online, not randomly submitting updates.


Google+ Hangouts are great for networking events

The social media community I run on Google+ has a monthly Google+ Hangout where the community members can gather to connect. We treat this as a regular offline-networking event, where everyone gets a chance to do their 30 second introductions, and then we discuss some social media challenge we are all facing together.

Not everyone will attend, but the people who do attend get a kick out of talking to each other through the video conferencing system.

Finding the hangout through the community is a little challenging. They place the live hangout link on the sidebar of the community underneath all the members. Unfortunately, they do not allow you to share a hangout link as a post, which would be more visible to members.


Use Google+ Hangouts for interviews and podcasts

What if you need to do a video or audio recording with someone, but do not have webinar or recording software? Google’s instant recording software is available to you free. This is great when you need to do interviews, screen shares, and video presentations. Afterwards, YouTube has your video saved for easy use.


Use Google+ Hangouts on Air (HoA) to do webinars from your website

This might surprise you, but with the technology available with Google’s HoA through YouTube, you can embed a video on your website and turn your hangout into a live webinar. We actually tested this during a recent hangout and everything went very smoothly.

There was a bit of a delay running the webinar through WordPress, however, WordPress is ideal for merging these technologies. You can now add WordPress plugins for chat boxes, social sharing, and any products you want to sell directly on the webinar page.



In conclusion

Google Hangouts is a technology that has the potential to re-define how people connect on the internet. It takes away the already outdated notion people can no longer develop quality relationships online. The tools are here to help you create the experience you want to develop with your prospects, clients, and referral partners.

5 Fantastic iOS 7.1 Features You Have to Try Right Now

By Zach Epstein at BGR:

Apple’s new iOS 7.1 software was released earlier this week, and it brought with it a wide range of fixes, improvements and new features for compatible iPhones, iPads and iPod touch handhelds.

Sharon Vaknin at CNET has compiled a quick list of four must-try new features in iOS 7, and we have added a fifth that will definitely be appreciated by many users.


Kill parallax, keep the zoom

First up, Apple finally made it possible in iOS 7.1 to disable the annoying parallax wallpaper effect without eliminating the great zooming transition animations when opening and closing apps.

To do this, first ensure that “Reduce Motion” is toggled off in Settings > General > Accessibility. Then go to Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness and tap your lock screen wallpaper. Toggle “Perspective Zoom” to off and tap set, then do the same thing for your home screen wallpaper.

It’s as easy as that.



Teach Siri some manners

iOS 7.1 includes a number of enhancements to Apple’s virtual personal assistant Siri.

They’re all appreciated to some extent, but CNET has compiled a collection of terrific advice on how to make sure Siri is always working for you instead of against you.



Bring back the buttons

One of many complaints people had about iOS 7 compared to earlier versions of Apple’s mobile software was the fact that the tap targets in this new minimalistic OS were very confusing.

With iOS 7.1, however, users can now add button shapes to the software’s text-only tap targets.

Adding button shapes is simple. Just go to Settings > General > Accessibility and toggle “Button Shapes” to on.



Enable HDR Auto

iOS 7 had an awful bug that caused devices to constantly disable HDR each time the camera app was closed. In iOS 7.1, Apple repented for its annoying mistake by introducing a new “HDR Auto” setting on the iPhone 5s that will monitor the surrounding lighting conditions and enable or disable HDR automatically.

To enable this great new feature, simply tap “HDR On” or “HDR Off” at the top of the screen with the camera open. Then select “HDR Auto” and you’ll never have to think about it again.



New visibility options

Apple’s iOS platform is a clear leader when it comes to accessibility options for the disabled. There is no close second. For those with relatively minor vision problems though, some accessibility features in iOS 7 were a bit drastic.

In iOS 7.1, Apple has addressed one such issue by adding new fine-tuned options for increasing the contrast on the screen of your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and tap “Increase Contrast.” You’ll now find three separate options in iOS 7.1.

“Reduce Transparency” will remove all of the transparency effects in areas including the home screen dock, folder backgrounds, the Control Center and the Notification Center.

“Darken Colors” will do just that: Darken all of the colors on the device’s display to make them more visible.

Finally, “Reduce White Point” will make whites on the screen less bright, which is another way to improve visibility.



Via BGR

5 Social Media Profile Optimization Tips for Brands

By Travis Bernard at Search Engine Watch:

One of the easiest things you can do as a social media marketer is to optimize your social media profiles. It only takes a few minutes to improve a social media profile, and most of the optimizations can be implemented when you first create the account.

Here are five recommendations to help optimize your social media profiles.


1. Branded Cover Photos and Background Images

Every social network has different image dimensions for cover or background photos, but the reasoning for why we want we want our logo on the images is the same: branding. The cover image is usually the first thing a user sees when he or she becomes a fan of your page, and you want to give them a good impression of your brand.

On Facebook, adding a logo to your cover photo turns it into a giant brand billboard. If a fan "likes" the cover photo, it could show up as a story in a non-fan's feeds.

Why not make the Facebook story a giant brand billboard? If you aren't adding branding to your cover photo or background images, you're missing out on a great opportunity.

Here's an example of great branding on a Facebook cover photo. It's simple and effective:

Sometimes brands get creative with a cover photo by letting it "bleed" into the profile picture:

Search Engine Watch Facebook Cover Photo


2. Link to Other Social Media Profiles

One of the easiest ways to activate your brand loyalists on another social platform is to tell them about it. Simple updates informing fans that you just launched an Instagram account can do the trick, but the time the post sits in the feed (regardless of social network) is ephemeral.

A quick way to fix this problem is to have easy-to-find links to your other social networks within your profile. Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+ provide the best opportunities to link to your other social profiles.

Let's start with Facebook. First, you can add Facebook apps that link or showcase other social profiles. The Instagram and YouTube apps can be found in the app store, and Pinterest or Twitter can be added through WooBox.

Here's an example of a page (Kitchen Daily) with a Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter app activated.

You can also add links to your social profiles in your Facebook profile contact information by putting a comma and a space after your main website URL. I highly recommend putting links to your other social profiles here because it will help users easily locate your other official social accounts.

The National Guard added links to all their other social profiles within the Facebook contact information so that users can stay connected with them across the web.

Next, you can add a link to your Twitter profile within your Pinterest account. Go to Settings>Social Networks, and log in with your Twitter account. When it's linked, it will show in the profile like this.

Google+ gives you the ability to link your other social profiles in the About>Links section of the profile. Connect everything, especially YouTube.

By linking to the other profiles, it will help Google connect the dots between your content and your social accounts. The YouTube connection is especially important because Google+ now powers the commenting system.

If you're a blogger, you should also set up Google+ authorship. This will make your name appear under the article title on the search engine results page. More information on Google+ authorship can be found here.


3. Link to Your Main Website

Make sure your main website is listed on each of your social profiles. This will improve branding, and it will help users distinguish between the official versus unofficial profile pages.

One trick on Facebook is to add the site URL in the "about" section under the page description. If you're page isn't verified, I highly recommend doing this to convey a sense of authenticity.

4. Fill Out Every Profile Field

This might seem like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised at the number of brands that have incomplete profiles.

Fill out everything you can with quality descriptions and accurate information. Doing this will improve brand association (with locations, topics, goals, etc.) and add value to your followers' experience with the brand.

Facebook has way more profile fields than any other platform, so it will take the longest to complete. The other social networks will only take a few minutes to finish.

Over the last few years several new fields have been added to Facebook and Google+, so make sure you double check your profile completeness once a quarter. Again, the National Guard offers a great example of a near complete Facebook profile.


5. Uniformity in Profile Descriptions

Every social profile doesn't have to have the exact same description, but you should use most of the same keywords. You want consistency in how you market your brand to fans, and a social media profile isn't any different.

Daily Finance does a great job with uniformity between social profiles. Here are their Facebook and Twitter profile descriptions.

Summary

Optimizing a social media profile is easy, and it doesn't take much time to do. Play around with these recommendations, and feel free to leave comments with any additional suggestions for how to optimize your profiles.




Via Search Engine Watch.

How to Download Facebook Paper Outside of The US

By Nick Summers at TheNextWeb: 

Facebook Paper is now in the App Store, but it’s only available for citizens in the United States. If you’re too impatient to wait for an international release, you can still get your hands on the app with a fairly straightforward and well-established workaround.

In short, you’ll need to reconfigure your iTunes account so that Apple thinks you live in America. To begin, fire up the App Store from your iPhone and tap the ‘Featured’ button located in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Scroll to the bottom and you should see a long, horizontal button with your Apple ID, just above the Terms and Conditions.

Tap it, followed by the ‘View Apple ID’ option at the top of the pop-up menu that appears. After punching in your password, you’ll see a few options for your account, including the country and region where you currently preside. Hit the corresponding button, followed by the ‘Change Country or Region’ option – here you can opt for the US version of the App Store.

Agree to the new Terms and Conditions, and then you’ll hit your only major roadblock – Apple requires a valid payment method if you want to buy anything in the App Store. Facebook Paper is free though, so just select ‘None’ from the payment options, followed by the Next button in the bottom right-hand corner.

Congratulations! You can now return to the App Store and download the new Facebook Paper app for your iPhone


Via TNW.

How To Access The Invisible Internet You're Not Supposed To Find

You may think that the internet is a huge resources of information, but in fact the most of us see is just one link in a very long chain of underground websites.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.


Via 

How To Get A Wikipedia Page And Make It Stick

By B.J. Mendelson at SocialTimes: 

Yesterday at SocialTimes, I mentioned that if you or your product don’t have a Wikipedia page, some could argue that you don’t exist. I don’t think I would go that far, but it’s certainly true that you wouldn’t exist to lazy reporters out there. And if you don’t exist to them, it’s less likely that they will cover the thing you’re asking them to cover. If you have a Wikipedia page, even if the reporter just regurgitates stuff from that page in order to do their story, the presence of the Wikipedia page can be the deciding factor between you getting coverage and you getting ignored.



That’s why it’s important to have a Wikipedia page. Because once you do have one, you’re able to help control the story that’s being told about you and your product. For example, if you were feeling devious, you could plant something into the page that’s not entirely true, then have the reporter repeat that not true thing in their story. Then, you can add the citation of that reporter repeating that not true thing to your Wikipedia page, making that untrue thing a true thing. This happens more than you’d think.

Not that any of you would ever THINK to do something like that … Right? Right. I’m going to assume you want a Wikipedia page for good reasons. Primarily because you want to help get yourself and your product some coverage and not because you’re looking to manipulate people for evil.

How do you get a Wikipedia page? Especially one that will stick and survive the review process? Anyone, and I mean anyone, can go in there and create a page, but the odds are it’ll be deleted before long, usually because the page won’t meet Wikipedia’s “notability guidelines”. Solving Wikipedia’s “stickiness problem” is what I’m going to focus on here. That’s because whether you know someone who is a Wikipedia editor, you’ve paid to have a page created for you, or in the rare but preferable event, a Wikipedia editor has taken it upon themselves to create a page for you, it doesn’t matter how the page comes about. What matters is getting the page to stick once it has been entered into the system. And how you get that page to stick is by meeting the notability guidelines of the site.

So once you’ve figured out how to get that page created, you immediately have to deal with Wikipedia’s “stickiness problem”.




You need to do two things to make sure your Wikipedia page sticks:

1. The need to use neutral language in your Wikipedia article should be obvious. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, the entries shouldn’t read as advertisements. Self-explanatory, right? So any page created should be neutral. And what that means is that nothing in it should be promotional or self-serving. Think Joe Friday asking for just the facts. That’s all that should go into any page on Wikipedia, not just yours. And facts are neutral. Sure you could be selective, but that’s not a wise decision. If you look at my Wikipedia page, you can see it talks about my heart attack, my divorce, and getting banned from Alfred State College’s campus radio station, WETD, in 2002. Or perhaps more embarrassing, how I once had to take a job as a Mall Santa in Queensbury, New York. These are not things I go around discussing with people or ever bring up, but they’re facts that are mentioned in numerous places accessible by the public, so I can’t hide them either. Wikipedia pages are meant to read like an encyclopedia, and so all the facts, both good and bad, should be included in any page that’s created. So that’s what it means when I say “neutral language” here. You’re just presenting facts, and you’re telling a complete story with those facts, warts and all. And if you’re uncomfortable with that, you shouldn’t be. Don’t ever try to bury something you don’t want people to find because they will find it, and when they do, it’ll be ten times worse. Especially if a lazy reporter finds it and thinks they might be able to squeeze some page views out of embarrassing you for their website.

If you really want (or in this case, need) a Wikipedia page, this is the cost of doing business.

2. Where everyone messes up most when it comes to creating a Wikipedia page that’s going to stick is rounding up sources that Wikipedia would say are credible. And the truth is, you just might not have a lot of credible sources out there about you. The only way to fix that is with good publicity, and that’s a topic for another time. But let’s say you have had some press coverage about either you or your project. The general rule of thumb I’ve found is that the bigger the media outlet, the more successful that source will be in terms of it being defined as credible. So if you were in your local newspaper, like The Glens Falls Post-Star, that’s more useful than if you were interviewed on some random blog. Traditional media trumps online media within Wikipedia, and the larger the traditional media outlet, the more likely it is that the information you include from it will stick. So the more of those credible sources that you have, the more likely it is that your page is going to stick because those outlets are credible and you’ll have plenty of information to source your facts from. There are other places that count as quality sources of information, like IMDB, and there are some obvious exceptions to the traditional media rule like The Huffington Post, but I’m looking to present you with a strategy that’ll work consistantly.

(A good test to use: Does the average person know of the media outlet you’re citing? Or is it reasonable to assume that they would know? If so, the source is credible and can be used. If not, find another one and use the questionable source only after you have enough credible sources to use to build your page.)

I would say you don’t even want to bother going near Wikipedia until you have ten, solid, credible sources. Then you can fill in those other ten with links to your own website, some blogs, and other things that might not necessarily get your page to stick on their own, but help fill out the information that you have if you have enough sources to get the page accepted.

You also want to absolutely avoid using anything that remotely appears to be biased. So while your site may be ok, your friend’s site or a business that you own whose website is writing about you may not be. One thing you can, and should do, is get transcripts of any interview that you do that’s audio or video based. It can get pricey, which is why I haven’t done it too much, but taking those transcripts and posting them on your site with a link back to the original is important for a couple of reasons. First, you can’t assume that this piece of multimedia is going to be online forever. I did a sit down interview with Yahoo! Finance with Aaron Task and the video vanished after three months. So having those transcripts is good just for that purpose alone, but in terms of Wikipedia, being able to directly quote the interview will help you present factual, and credible, information that will aid in the creation and sticking of your page. So if you haven’t been doing it in the past, start documenting and transcribing the multimedia interviews that you do now.

That brings us to the last point, which is often a major hassle in terms of creating Wikipedia pages: Pictures. Specifically, getting the expressed written permission from photographers (if you even remember who took the picture) in order to get your pictures added to your page. The work around to this is as easy as it is troublesome for people who might be particularly possessive with their copyright. If you noticed, here at SocialTimes we use pictures that we find on Flickr. Included with the picture at the end of the post is a note that says, “Photo Credit: Some Guy on Flickr”, replacing some guy or some girl with that person’s username and a link back to them. We’re able to do this because the photos are available for use through Creative Commons, which is where content producers post their stuff that they don’t mind anyone using as long as they provide a link back and don’t make a quick buck off it. (Or in some cases, allow the content to be used regardless of whether or not someone would make a quick buck off of it.) Since everything on Wikipedia is public domain, the photos also have to be public domain, or at least be close enough to it, which is where Creative Commons comes into play. So once you have those ten solid, credible, sources, you should take the photo (or photos) you want to use on your page (or would like someone to use if you’re approached about a page for yourself or project) and then upload them to Flickr. Once they’re on Flickr, you can mark them as being available to use via Creative Commons.

I’ve provided you with a lot of information here. Enough so that you don’t necessarily need to hire someone like Wiki-PR to create and maintain a Wikipedia page for you. That doesn’t mean you don’t need those services, but I think what I’ve laid out here is a win for everyone. It gives you a guideline on how to build a Wikipedia page that would meet their notability guidelines, and at the same time for Wikipedia this method would ensure that good quality and worthwhile information is being entered into their system without it (necessarily) being paid for.

Good luck, and look out for the backlog for when your Wikipedia page is submitted. It could take up to a month sometimes for a page to go through the review process.