Never Share These Things On Social Networks

Many of us cannot live without frequently letting their friends know on social media about what they’re doing. But social networks could turn out to be dangerous places to share some things. Let’s face it, as open as they may be, they are no substitute to talking to your friends face to face.  Respect your own privacy and refrain from saying these following things on the social media.

• When you are going on a vacation, where you are going and when you are returning
• Your current activity/achievement in Farmville, Cityville or any other ‘ville’
• Pictures featuring you in a not-so-sober state
• Pictures or video clips of your kids
• Your problems with your parents
• Expressing your opinions about an issue that has been in spotlight for sometime but is not yet resolved
• Photos of days when you didn’t go to work but hung out with friends
• Issues with your boss/colleagues
• Complaints about your job
• Things that you are not comfortable with
• Any hints relating to your passwords
• Information related to your riches
• Your current state of health
• Your health in general
• What you ate last night or this morning
• Photos featuring you with someone you don’t really want to be seen with

I am sure there are more. If I can think of them, I will definitely come up with another list and keep you posted. Meanwhile, you can check out what ‘Goobuntu’ means here

Why You Need A Content Strategist

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Is regularly updating your company blog enough? Or is there more to content than that? Today's business owners do everything in their power to ensure that their company blog, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts are always updated with latest and most relevant content. Do they allot a budget for keeping the content interesting enough? Do they hire a content strategist? If no, why not?

Role of a content strategist

Who or what is a content strategist? There is no certain definition or job description of a content strategist. But a rough description could be – a professional who ensures that his company's web content needs are identified and met.

Content is probably the most important part of a website. It does all the work that a sales representative and marketing executive would do for your company. The way to find out whether your content is fulfilling all these purposes successfully is to conduct some tests using web analytics tools. Your content strategist audits all the content that has been developed and gives you a report of how it is performing and what should be done to improve its performance.

After auditing, comes the planning. Based on the report, your strategist tells you:

• How the new content should be like
• Who can create the most effective content
• What is the best time to publish it
• Other than text, what forms to use – images, videos or presentations

Everything from your 'about us' page to metadata to your YouTube videos may need to go through a change. Your strategist also tells you about newsletters that you need to send to your potential+existing customers, providing information on things that will really help them.

Now, it's your content writer's turn to churn out helpful write-ups.

Utilizing the New LinkedIn

The new LinkedIn, as always, is good for your social media marketing. It seems like LinkedIn has an uncanny ability to sense the marketing needs of its users and comes up with relevant, helpful updates. It came up with a new homepage with a more contemporary and stylish look yet maintaining the good old simplicity. It has become faster as well.

LinkedIn has brought some fresh air with its design makeovers which will make it more convenient for finding out and talking about important topics. According to Mashable.com, the new look of the homepage is a fusion of Facebook and Google+.

Home Page Changes

The home page shows recommended news by LinkedIn just below your status update box. There are 3 latest stories, in sync with your area of expertise, your industry or your interests. Clicking on any of these will take you to the page where all the aggregate news are. It lets you view and post your comment on other relevant news articles as well.

LinkedIn Today – How it Helps in Interaction

The LinkedIn today offers latest headlines that are significant to those in your industry. Whatever industry you are interested in, just follow it. You will view updates from your connections and the companies that you follow. You can also make others follow you by making a home page of your own. Get involved in conversations. Like, comment and share what others post. Obviously you would have to maintain relevance.

Filter Streams

You can filter the stream of updates and personalize the view. This de-clutters the page. You can now follow the activity stream better than ever.

Image Use

Post updates with an image. You must already know a picture can revolutionize a story! Besides, LinkedIn now lets you upload larger images with your posts. Take advantage of this feature. Remember, the more active you are, the more times you show up on your connections' home pages. And the likelier it is that you will be noticed. The more users view your profile, the greater the traffic to your website.

Status Update

Update your status as frequently as you can. Be consistent. Also, be active on LinkedIn for at least three to five times a day. Take part in group discussions, make new connections, update your status everyday. Be visible regularly, your credibility will be established.

This is applicable to not only your homepage but your company page as well. If you own a company page, be active and consistent there too. But do not be overactive. Conduct a poll and ask users to provide their feedback about your products/services.

Try the “Trending in Your Network”

This feature shows you what's been shared by your connections. View, read, like, save, share or comment on those stories. Don't overdo it. Just make sure to have gone through, shared and commented on a substantial number of articles. This keeps your profile regularly updated and interesting comments can generate others' interest in you.

Marketing Plan

Opt for a LinkedIn marketing plan. Your LinkedIn profile is a very good investment in itself. Make it stronger by choosing a marketing plan.

Please provide your feedback and tell me if I have not included any feature that you have noticed.

Goobuntu

Google and Linux! What a holy combination! I love them both. Linux's Ubuntu is used on Google's servers and internal users desktops. Why? No one had a clue. But last week at LinuxCon, a term 'Goobuntu' has been spoken. Well, what is it? Let's see:

The Ubuntu Desktop

According to Thomas Bushnell, an Engineer at Google who heads the team that handles and distributes Ubuntu to the corporate desktops of Google, 'Goobuntu' is just a light skin over the good old Ubuntu that we are familiar with. Google basically utilizes Ubuntu's LTS (long term support). But what does it mean for the everyday user? It means if they download Ubuntu's latest version, they will probably be using 'Goobuntu'.  

When asked whether anyone can use 'Goobuntu', Bushnell's reply was a yes and no.

Loyal users of Windows and Mac may get a little irritated at Google's affinity for Linux. Please don't be. Mr. Bushnell has confirmed that Google can use Windows and Mac too. They are emphasizing on Ubuntu because their development tools have been created keeping Ubuntu in mind.

The Goobuntu Desktop

The reason why Google has selected Ubuntu is that it offers great performance, flexibility to fulfill the requirements of everyone from a seasoned developer to the new sales guy, and of course, unbeatable security.

'Goobuntu' already has several thousand users inside Google's employee base such as management personnel, graphic designers, sales professionals, software engineers and system engineers.

Guest Posting Instead of SEO-ing to Build Your Brand

As difficult as it may sound, there are still a number of people who just do not understand branding. That's not surprising. Branding is difficult and it takes time to really grasp it. Begin with a contemplation of your goal. Build your strategy of writing guest blogs. Be strategic from the very beginning. Do not post more than 2 blogs a month. Quality is always better than quantity.

Target well-known blogs such as Lifehacker. This will give you a major exposure. But getting your post approved by a major site like that needs time and dedication. You have to research really well and know what you are writing about. People who visit and follow those blogs are knowledgeable. They know their industry. Keep that in mind when you write. Informative, crisp and quality write-ups will lead to considerable growth in your traffic.

My advice is to write about something that your business deals in. You are likely to know about it better than others and provide useful information. Be sure to fill your blog with relevant keywords. The best way to do this is to do a little bit of research using Google's tools.

There's an online community of bloggers named 'MyBlogGuest', you can find guest post-related information there shared by other guest bloggers like you. To write for this site, you have to send a request to them via email.

Follow some major bloggers on Facebook and Twitter. Retweet and share their posts and do not forget to tag them so that they know that you are sharing their posts.

Now, it comes down to the writing. Read, read and read thoroughly some latest and popular posts on renowned blogs. Comment on the guest posts, but only after reading the comments of others. Also, use tools such as Google Trends and Tweetmeme to find out some posts on the 'trending topics'. These are the topics that are likely to get read by more people.

Short sentences and small paragraphs, these are the keys to an interesting blog. Keep as much white space as you can in your post. Write in an interactive manner as if you are talking face-to face with your reader.

Submit your blog to the host blogger with the URLs of the sites where you researched your information. Keep your social media profiles updated every time you write a new post with a link to it.

Talk to your followers about what they would like you provide some insight into- and write your next post on that!

If some user shares, retweets or replies to your post, take the time out to respond to them. This goes a long way to success. Be quick. Don't keep them waiting. Also, share their useful content.

All these contribute in building your brand. Pay equal attention to all these. Best of luck!

Boosting Your Business Through Tumblr

As a social network, Tumblr is almost never given the kind of attention like the big daddies such as Facebook and Twitter. This is a micro-blog to share photos and videos. Some thirty-nine million users have an account on Tumblr and half of them are aged below twenty-five years. Which means, if your product is targeted at such an audience, this platform is a goldmine for you.

First of all, you need to start with high-quality photos. Since this network is all about photos and videos, you have to pay close attention to quality. The clearer the picture, the better the promotion. If you deal in apparel, upload high-resolution images of them. If you have a restaurant, put up scrumptious images of your dishes. If you are a photographer, well, you already know it!

Putting up high-resolution pictures has the potential to interest users which will in turn lead users to re-blog and share your image. Let your image speak for itself. Put a link to the particular product page of your site and that's about enough to take people to your website and generate notes.

These days, advertisements are coming up on Tumblr as highlighted posts, which is a good sign because it means you are in a place that's growing to become more influential than what it is now.

A picture is not just worth a thousand words, it is worth more. That's what it seems when I look at the pictures posted on Tumblr. You may feel like I'm repeating my words, but the more visually appealing your images are, the more popular it is going to get on this network. Think of it as a different kind of promotion, where images do the motivating instead of write-ups.

Infographics. They are really really useful on this micro-blogging site. Convey information through infographics. The information you provide could be anything from your product sales hike to the promotion of your services. Apart from the figures, what you write in your infographics has to be crisp and catchy. If you want to convey more information, write an article on your site and link your image to it.

Flaunt your personality. This is a place where you can really get close to your audience and earn their trust. Make your posts fun to go through. Provide something to users that your usual customers cannot  see in your store. Show them pictures of where your product is manufactured and how it is packaged. Show them how one of your dishes is cooked. This brings the audience closer and gets them to visit your site.

Whatever you do, refrain from lengthy text. You will be surprised to see how many notes you get.