Do you ever get frustrated by the lack of organic analytics available for your Twitter account? Sure you can track follower growth, retweets and favorites, and even the number of clicks each Tweet receives using HubSpot’s social publishing tool, but that only scratches the surface as far as everything marketers want to know – especially when you compare it to Facebook’s robust Page Insights. Whereas Facebook gives you a detailed look at each post’s reach and engagement, total Page visits, optimal publishing times, and even a demographic breakdown of your fans, Twitter has really only offered it’s users the bare-bones metrics mentioned above. That is, until now.

If you missed the announcement earlier this month, Twitter opened up their organic analytic doors to verified users, Twitter card publishers, and users with a Twitter Ads account. And while card publishers and advertisers have had access to their paid analytics for some time now, Twitter finally made this information available for user’s organic Tweets as well.

Here’s what we’re talking about:

As you can see, not only can you track your overall daily impressions, but now users also have access to each Tweet’s individual performance. You can tell exactly which Tweets are the most effective, and start digging into the factors that contribute to their success. In addition, Twitter also offers users a 28-day overview of their Tweets’ engagement levels, including metrics like link clicks, retweets, and replies.

With so many new metrics available to social media managers, businesses are able to work that much smarter to perfect their Twitter campaigns. In fact, to help you do just that, here are 3 different ways you can use the organic analytics to improve your Twitter marketing strategy:

•  Tune Your Tweeting Frequency

One of the best parts about having access to your organic Twitter analytics is being able to see the success of your Tweets in relation to the times and dates that they’re posted. For example, looking at this segment of Tweets below, can you tell which Tweets were posted between before 8 AM and which Tweets were posted after

• Twitter Mechanics

As I alluded to in the point above, though timing certainly plays a role in your Tweet’s success, it’s the Tweet’s content that’s really going to earn you clicks. And while you could sort of measure a Tweet’s success like this before based off its favorites, retweets, and clicks, now businesses can get a much richer look into how users respond to different Tweets. Looking at your activity feed on your analytics page, simply click on the Tweet you want to know more about and VOILA!

Here, you’ll find insights like how many link clicks it earned, the number of image clicks it earned, and even the of number times users expanded the Tweet’s details. And although these numbers don’t have much value when you look at each Tweet individually, if you compare Tweets side-by-side, you’ll start to see which style of Tweets perform better than others. For example, does placing text on an image earn more engagement than images without text? Do you actually get more retweets when ask for them? These are the types of questions these analytics help answer.

•  Promote Employee Evangelism

Quick show of hands: how many of you ask your employees to promote your company’s content on their social networks? Alright, now keep your hand raised if you’ve ever had an employee gripe about doing it. Chances are I’d see a lot of hands in the air if I weren’t stuck behind this computer screen. That being said, one of the hardest parts about convincing employees to share work-related content with their personal networks is proving that their actions are valuable. If they’re going to be mixing work with their personal business, it better not be too intrusive, and it better be for a damn good reason (so they think). With Twitter’s new organic analytics, however, it’s easy to prove.

Looking at a Tweet’s expanded analytics, you’ll find a chart measuring its impressions over the first 30 hours of it being posted. As an example, looking at our Tweet below and comparing it to the impressions chart, can you tell when @greglinn retweeted this to all of his followers? I’ll give you a hint: it’s the massive spike in the middle. 15 hours after our initial Tweet, Greg’s evangelism earned 31 impressions – 48% more impressions than in the Tweet’s first hour. Of course, it always helps when your employees have accumulated an established following on the social network, but this is proof that any kind of evangelism can help extend the life of your content, and bring significantly more attention to it.

With its lack of analytics before, Twitter was a confusing place for businesses because so much was unknown. However, by opening up the organic analytics to them, businesses will have a much easier time measuring their Twitter success and fine-tuning their strategy on the social network. Can you think of any ways to use the new analytics that I might have missed? Please share them in the comments below!

Very insightful and wish I had relayed this in my dream, so thanks to the guys at WEIDERT for this great article.

-PC, Laptop, or Desktop – Adobe Lightroom ver 4-5 Ok now that you set with the prerequisites lets dive in.

Open up Lightroom

For this Lightroom I’m using the new Mercedes Benz CLA , so first things first, go to the import option down to the left side of the program, and browse to the group of pictures you want to import, Lightroom will then display them in your library filter. To the right of Lightroom, locate the metadata palette.

File Name

Click in the file name text box, from here you can name your photos, all at once or one at at time, file names are very important as Googles search engine algorithm pics them up first.

Then scroll down and you will find a text box for your image captions, here put a good relative description for your images, the description should relate to your business product or service.

Presets

From here click the presets drop down, and you’ll notice you can add a new preset which you can add your image metatadata , or choose an existing preset, for now we will create a new preset

Click on the “edit preset” Then add your preset name, in this case I’ll choose “Mercedes”

Edit Metadata Presets

A new dialogue pops up which allows you to add various image metadata, go ahead and add the location for your images, bare in mind that if your market range is regional, you would want to add your country then downsizing it down to the city or town your business is located in…

Once you have completed all the details click done and save your preset Filter preset for all images Once you have saved your preset, go ahead and select all your images in your library window then go back to your presets drop down then choose the preset you just created i.e “Mercedes”

Choose Your Preset

Then you will be asked to apply Metadata Preset, choose “All Selected”

Keywords Once all that is out the way, scroll up to your keywords pallette, now start adding all your keyword tags which relates to your product or service, i added tags such as mercedes, benz, amg, new sedans, Gauteng cars, luxury cars, etc.

Once you are done with that go ahead and save all changes. Lightroom will save all metadata for your images and you will be sure that they all have been optimized for your SEO needs. So that’s how quick and easy you can optimize your images and get them ready for publishing.

With the new design, there are some great benefits as well as some drawbacks. We’re here to give you the low-down on what’s changing and what you can do to prepare.

Change #1: Page Posts Get Better Placement

Single-Column Timeline Format: A new single-column Timeline format displays your posts in a single column on the right side of your Page. The left side of your Page will now feature information about your business, as well as photos and videos. The new single-column format will make it easier for your page visitors to find (and follow) your posts.

Wider Page Posts: With the new single-column format, Page posts will now be 511 pixels wide versus 403 pixels wide previously. That means you can use larger images, giving your content greater visibility.

New Position For Like Button And Apps: The Like button will now overlay the cover photo, and your apps (or tabs) will now be located on the left side of your Page, as well as under the “More” drop-down menu. Moving the Like button and apps brings your Page posts closer to the cover photo, drawing more attention to your posts. A couple of things to keep in mind… If your cover photo is visually noisy, your Page visitors may have a hard time locating your Like button. Also, if you’re using custom apps, it may become more difficult for your visitors to find them.

Change #2: Less Screen Real Estate For Apps

Cover Photo Appears Above App: When your visitors view any of your apps, your cover photo will now appear above your apps. This means you’ll have less screen real estate to work with for your apps.

New “Similar Pages” Feature: When someone likes your Page from either your main page or one of your apps, a list of similar pages appears, pushing your Page and app content down. Similar pages could potentially include your competitors’ Pages.

Change #3: Better Admin Tools

New “This Week” Section: The new design includes a new This Week section. This means that no matter where you are on your Page, you can now view information about the ads you’re running, new likes on your Page, post reach, and unread notifications and messages. You can click on any section in the This Week section for more detail. New navigation options are also available at the top of the Page, making it easier to access your activity, insights and settings. The Build Audience menu at the top of the Page offers direct access to your Ads Manager account.

New “Pages To Watch” Feature: A new Pages To Watch feature allows you to create a list of Pages similar to your own and compare their performance to your own. You will be able to see key stats about the Pages you are watching, as well as the past week’s most engaging posts from the Pages you’re watching.

3 Ways To Prepare For The Redesign

Right now, Facebook is giving you the option to move to the new design. You can add your page to the waiting list by clicking on the notification that appears on your page (example below).

But… before you add your page to the waiting list, we’d like to add a word of caution: With the new design, fan-gated apps do not refresh automatically, as they did with the old design. The user must refresh the page to see your fan-gated app after liking your Page. It’s not clear if or when Facebook will fix this, but if you opt to move to the new design, here are three things you should do to prepare:

Use Larger Images For Your Posts

You’ve got more space… use it! As you design or pick images for your posts, be sure they meet the new 511 pixels image size.

Remove The Visual Noise From Your Cover Photo

Because the Like button now overlays the cover photo, it may be difficult for visitors to spot if your cover photo contains a lot of visuals. Opt for a simple, clean cover photo that allows visitors to your page to easily spot the Like button. You may even consider adding some directional visuals to help the visitor locate the Like button’s new location.

Design Apps With Important Info At Top

Because the cover photo remains constant on your app, and the new “Similar Pages” feature pushes your app down, having your content as high up on the app is important. Make sure your most important messages are near the top of your app.

Also, if you’re fan gating your apps, consider adding language to the fan gate that tells fans to refresh the page to see the app. Or consider removing the fan gate all together.

That’s it! If you’re already using the new design, tell us how it’s working for you.

Shu Yoshida, President, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, today revealed Project Morpheus, SCE’s prototype virtual reality (VR) system that works with PlayStation 4 at GDC 2014.

“Virtual reality is the next innovation from SCE that we believe will shape the future of games,” he said. “I have long dreamed about VR and the possibilities it brings in regards to game development. This new technology will deliver a sense of presence, where you as the player actually feel like you’re inside the game and your emotions feel that much more real.”

Project Morpheus features a head mounted display with 1080p resolution and a 90 degree field of view. Accelerometer and gyroscope sensors built into the head mounted unit as well as PlayStation Camera accurately tracks head orientation and movement, so as your head rotates, the image of the virtual world rotates intuitively in real-time. Project Morpheus also features Sony’s new 3D audio technology that re-creates stereoscopic sounds in all directions and changes in real-time depending on your head orientation.

In addition to PlayStation Camera, Project Morpheus works with DUALSHOCK 4 Wireless Controller and PlayStation Move to deliver an easy-to-use, plug-and-play VR experience. The prototype will serve as the first development kit for PS4 developers.

Part 1: Free vs. Paid Tools: Which Should Your Business Use?

By William J. Comcowich, Founder, President & CEO, CyberAlert Inc.
Image of Media Monitoring Strategies for Small and Mid Sized Businesses Media monitoring services that offer in-depth analysis and shiny features are mostly geared toward big consumer brands and B2B companies with substantial PR and marketing budgets.
Small and mid-sized businesses don’t have a big budget to afford those tools, and frankly, don’t need many of the glitzy features that some media

monitoring services push on them. Many media monitoring tools and services are locked into a feature war, which distracts businesses from what’s really important: actionable results that inform business decisions.
Both free online tools and subscription services can deliver these actionable results. However, the choice depends on a business’s goals and market footprint.
Some small businesses can get by with free tools. But larger “small businesses” — including small and local B2B companies — have needs and a larger market presence that warrants a subscription media monitoring service.

Brands can decide whether a free or paid solution is right for their company by assessing the goals and scope of their media monitoring strategy.

When to Use Free Tools

The landscape for media monitoring has changed in just two years. Years ago, most all small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) could get by without any form of media monitoring.
Image of Media Monitoring Strategies for Small and Mid Sized Businesses With the emergence of social media, most businesses — even small, local businesses like restaurants and car dealerships — must mine blogs, review sites and customer conversations to see what their customers say about them. A bad review can reach many eyes in a matter of hours and damage a business’s reputation. An unhappy customer can rapidly spread his/her discontent about a product or bad customer service through the social media world. If a business doesn’t monitor social media, it misses out on valuable market information, potential opportunities for growth and correcting misleading or negative conversations being spread.

SMBs with a very local market footprint and short-term goals may get by with free media monitoring tools like Google Alerts, SocialMention and Hootsuite. Free tools lack an integrated media monitoring solution, but many of these businesses, which include local B2C companies and retail stores, have very little news to monitor. If they’re featured in a local paper, they usually know about the placement beforehand.

Yet another type of “smaller business” exists that benefit from a subscription media monitoring service: small or mid-sized businesses that have regional or national market footprints and promote their business through a more dispersed market, thus needing the online news and social media monitoring integration benefits a subscription service offers.

It’s important to distinguish between the two, as assessing the footprint of your business will determine whether free tools make the cut for your media monitoring needs. How can businesses determine whether they fit into the “free tools” category?
Businesses should consider their market and media footprint to determine its coverage needs. Will free tools cover every publication, social media network and channel that talk about your brand?

Additional questions to ask about coverage:

*What media publications publish/broadcast your business?
*How many news and social media mentions does your brand receive in a day?

*Where is your business active online and in social media?
*Where is your audience active online and in social media?
*What keywords (and how many) should your business monitor?
*How much time will it take your designated employees to gather results from all these channels? Can your employees analyze these results and transform them into actionable data?
*How many staff members need access to media monitoring results?
*Do you plan to use media monitoring results for customer service?

cover, your business. A list helps businesses determine the types of media they should monitor — whether it’s online news, print news, social media, or a service that integrates all three — and if a paid service is needed to do so. Some organizations must monitor industry trade journals and niche publications. When that’s the case, they should look for a media monitoring service that’s flexible enough to add publications to their media list.
Workflow can also be important for companies monitoring news and social media, especially if they use social media for customer service. No business wants to end up responding to a customer twice with two different answers. Free tools rarely offer multiple-user access so staff can easily share data among themselves.
Comparing the “Costs” of Free Tools
Once a business has established its goals and media footprint, it can determine its media monitoring budget. This means weighing the cost of free tools (yes, free comes at a cost) against that of a subscription media monitoring service.
The advantages of free tools are quite obvious: they’re free, quickly accessible and offer a general overview of results.
But free tools have their shortcomings: they provide a limited scope and only a partial view of what customers and the media say about your business.

As free tools are do-it-yourself, they require businesses to designate one or multiple employees to collect results and analyze data.
Image of Media Monitoring Strategies for Small and Mid Sized Businesses Each free tool offers a “niche” monitoring service: Google Alerts monitors only

Online news; Hootsuite tracks only social media conversations; and Klout interprets social media influence. For reasonably comprehensive media coverage, it is necessary to use at least 8 to 12 separate free tools — a time-consuming daily process. Using free tools, then, makes economic sense for companies that employ volunteers or unpaid interns to perform media monitoring and measurement functions.
With all the back-and-forth switching between platforms to find relevant data and aggregate it into a single report, businesses may spend more time and money employing in-house staff to monitor than they would hiring a subscription media monitoring supplier.
Depending on a business’s volume of mentions, it can take over an hour — and sometimes several hours — each day for in-house staff using free media monitoring tools to:

*Search social media sites to find company, product and competitor mentions;
*Store media clips in an easily searchable format for future reference;
*Aggregate media mentions into a single file for analysis and share with employees, partners and clients;
*Convert the information into measurable data;
*Measure the data to determine the clips’ prominence, reach, sentiment and other factors.

Do-it-yourself monitoring is not as reliable as a subscription media monitoring supplier. If your business has a busy day, will your designated employee(s) still be able to spend as much time assessing media monitoring results? A major benefit of a subscription service is that it guarantees all your clips will be monitored, measured and delivered to your business on a daily or real-time basis.
These same rules apply to PR agencies that service SMBs. Not only is it virtually impossible for a small PR team to do the media monitoring work for multiple businesses — it’s also unrealistic to expect the results and data to be reliable. PR agencies should instead employ a media monitoring service that enables them to subscribe to multiple clients. CyberAlert’s Partner Program, for instance, delivers media monitoring services to agencies so they can resell the service to their clients under their own logo and price terms.

It’s best for PR agencies and SMBs to explore their options through the media monitoring free trials that services offer to determine which publications, channels and metrics are important to their business. During this experiment, you can also determine just how much time and resources you invest in your current media monitoring plan, and decide on reasonable budget expenditures per month or annually.
The bottom line: Free monitoring tools rarely provide the media coverage sought by most organizations with a larger market footprint, and require substantial staff time to conduct daily media searches and aggregate the data. The outcome: low-quality results and high staff costs.

Just because your company falls under the “small business” category, doesn’t mean it should use free tools. A business’s media monitoring budget depends on its footprint and goals. For small and mid-sized businesses that have a regional or national footprint and long-term goals, outsourcing media monitoring to a subscription service delivers the best deal: better coverage and smaller time investment.

About the Author: William Comcowich is founder, president and CEO of CyberAlert Inc., a worldwide media monitoring service for online news, broadcast news and social media. With over 40 years of communications experience in public relations, marketing and production of multimedia programs for major corporations, Mr. Comcowich edits the CyberAlert Blog and Media Monitoring News, a weekly newsletter on public relations, marketing and social media.

In today’s digital world, the creation of visual content has become increasingly popular as businesses have found it to be an effective way to attract and engage prospective customers.

It makes sense: people are drawn to colorful, eye-catching visuals. We’ve seen this with the creation of visual platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter’s Vine. We’ve even seen recently that Google Plus changed the dimensions of cover photos to allow even greater visual messaging.

Infographics are one of the most popular ways to engage prospects, primarily because they make information simple to understand and, at the same time, provide added dimension. Infographics use copy and visuals – typically icons – to tell a complex story. 

4 Ways To Use Infographics As Inbound Marketing Content:

1) Show “How To” 

One of the best ways to explain how to do something – how to nurture leads or install a tipped roll detector on your conveyor line or conduct genealogy research or, even, skin a cat – is by using an infographic. Your infographic becomes a step-by-step instruction guide that helps prospects understand, appreciate and feel more comfortable with your product. This is especially effective with products that are complicated and about which prospects likely have many questions.

2) Present Benefits & Superiority

Infographics are also valuable as tools for demonstrating how your product benefits the customer, and/or how yours is superior to competitors. Ordinarily, this kind of information is presented in big chunks of dull copy that no one wants to read. An infographic will communicate the same information – statistics, benefits, ROI, TCO, etc. – in a more visual and interesting way, with detail that creates a richer, more engaging message. Even the most sophisticated concepts can be quickly communicated using visuals that show – rather than tell – prospects about your product.

By extension, an infographic is also a quick way to overcome objections prospects typically have about your product type or about your brand specifically.

3) Illustrate The Big Picture

Inbound Marketing is a process and a set of tools that attracts prospects to websites and nurtures qualified leads, then turns those leads into customers. Simple, yes, but in reality this way of marketing can be a challenge to explain to prospects. An infographic is a great way to lay out all the moving pieces, show who does what and when, illustrate the interaction of all contributors, show points of influence and those where modifications are made, indicate areas that are critical for immediate attention…essentially, present The Big Picture in a single document prospects will value and refer to regularly.

4) Provide Helpful Insights

When your industry is experiencing change, use an infographic to help prospects understand and take advantage of that change. Change has a tendency to confuse prospects, delay purchase decisions and, often, create costly misperceptions. An infographic that clearly and concisely explains the change and gives prospects valuable pointers about navigating their way through it helps position you as a thought leader in the industry.

Just about anything that can be communicated in copy can be more powerfully communicated visually in an infographic. These “at-a-glance” content pieces will demonstrate your expertise and put you top-of-mind when prospects are ready to buy.

Competent corporate marketers are always on the look out for new data. On a daily basis, technology changes, updates are made, and very quickly, the data you thought was reliable is already obsolete. That’s why we see market research companies in business; everybody needs data, and few companies are prepared to generate it themselves. In an age where information is nearly everywhere, companies like Nielsen and Ipsos are doing surprisingly well. Why? Because marketers at every company don’t just want general information; they want industry-specific, well-researched marketing insights based in hard data.

Public Resources for Marketing Trends

If you fall into this group—as I do—I’m willing to bet you’ve read your share of recent digital marketing reports. You’ve probably seen the results that companies have reported with pay-per-click advertising on Google and the huge impact SEO and social media have had in building companies’ sales. But where is the data for relating these trends to your company? Presidents and CEOs want to invest in marketing that has low risk and high rewards, but it’s not always easy to find cheap data that clearly shows marketing methods’ potential.

In fact, a big frustration for business-to-business (B2B) marketers is that when data on important areas like SEO is publicly available from large market research companies, it often focuses on B2C trends, showing few statistics for developments in the B2B sphere.

Consider this consumer behavior report on mobile browsing, published earlier this year by Think with Google – the search engine giant’s marketing insights arm. Called “Mobile Path to Purchase: Five Key Findings,” I opened the report thinking that it might have valuable insights for building a new mobile marketing strategy. Overall, it is a well-structured report, with original research by Nielsen and easy-to-understand data visualization that makes it pleasing to read. The headline data point is this: 59% of consumers visited a business website via smartphone when thinking about a purchase. A related point is that people who eventual make a purchase visit the site an average of 6 times—all via smartphone.

Where are my B2B, industry-focused trends?

A great stat! It made me want to read further and understand more. But almost immediately, I realized a problem. This research focuses on general consumers. There’s no consideration for the characteristics of the sale or the kind of products/services the mobile user is interested in.

In other words, it’s a broad, inclusive B2C study—as most of the publicly available information out there is. Think with Google and other insight collections have sections for B2B, but it’s often the smallest section. Think with Google only has about 1 study per year in the B2B category, so B2B readers are pushed toward relevant B2C studies, like “The Mobile Path to Purchase” instead. If you’re a B2B marketer, you’re probably used to this. Current insights research has us interpreting B2C information for B2B use, rather than understanding our industries in full scope.

To me, this is an important barrier to why many marketers can’t quite sell new marketing techniques to their bosses. Whether it’s the choice to invest in a new mobile-responsive website or to adopt a focused Inbound Marketing strategy, there is a growing translation barrier because marketing heads don’t always have the industry-wide data to show digital marketing is a smart B2B move.

How Inbound Marketing offers new B2B resources

Luckily…this is starting to change with Inbound Marketing. Successful agencies that focus on B2B lead generation aim to collect professionally researched data on the B2B value of social media, SEO, email, etc. and drive this information to our followers.

The value is that by providing usable information, companies can begin to openly think about weaknesses in their marketing strategies and holes in their current technology structure. One big resource we use for this is HubSpot, which has grown its value beyond marketing software by generating new research for B2B marketers. For example, did you know this handy number? “Companies with over 50 employees and 1000+ web pages see 9.5x more traffic than companies with under 51 employees” (HubSpot, Marketing Benchmarks from 7,000 Companies, 2011). Now that’s usable information! It shows why digital marketing methods like blogging and landing page creation might be helpful. It also demonstrates why Inbound Marketing sees employees as a fundamental marketing resource; they make web pages work harder for your brand by sharing on social media and in emailed links.

More likely than not, B2B marketing insights will continue to be less represented in free spaces than B2C data because the latter has a broader reach across many industries. B2C sales are also faster, easier to track, and closer to the forefront of researcher’s minds. But, there’s no need to keep B2B in the dark. With the growth of content marketing and new data visualization, agencies like ours aim to reduce the industry-wide translation barrier for company VPs and CEOs that need to see the clear advantages in various tactics. If you can’t find the statistics you want or trends you need to create a better marketing strategy, reaching out to marketing agencies—people in the game of marketing data—is always an option. Yes, every once in a while, you might be offered a sales pitch or two, but they also have the data resources you need to make B2B marketing work.

Hi guys, its that time again where the latest and greatest are being given centre stage,  in this unplugged review we dive into Google latest flagship  the Google Nexus 7….

With only being launched a month or two ago, this bad boy is making headway in the tablet market, #rivals-iPad mini 2 -Amazon kindle fire HDX….we found alot of things to adore with this tablet, from the sleek design to the raw untapped performance

Lets dive in…

Design

The 2013 Google Nexus 7 has changed  prior is predecessor,  the rubberised rear and faux metal accents have been chucked away, and their place there is now a refined matte black plastic exterior. The Nexus 7 has really got a soft sleeky feeling and i must say it feels great in the hand, the nexus  logo, which has a new glossy embossed  design on the back which now been changed its orientation from portrait to landscape…..which we must say is the best orientation to use the tablet.

The bezels on the flanks have been shrunk substantially, making the 2013 Nexus 7 much easier to handle with one hand, in portrait orientation. The top and bottom bezels have remained almost unchanged which, according to ASUS and Google, with tablet also loosing 50g from its predecessor, this makes the nexus 7 a really light weight tablet in a heavyweight division….we also loved the rear cloth like matwrial seems to stick other than slide off what ever you place it on….you could say it waa bitten by a spider and now has the newly acquires spidy grip…we trust no one  will try through it against the wall and expecting it to stick…

Software

As expected the nexus 7 comes with android jellybean 4.3 . however expext many retail sellers to ship their tablets with androids latest offering, android 4.4 kit kat , probably due to drive more demand for the tablet.

There are improvements such as OpenGL ES 3.0 support for better 3D performance and Bluetooth low-energy compatibility, something that will come in very handy as the much-hyped “smart watch” revolution kicks off. For long-suffering parents there’s the welcome ability to run restricted profiles on the device, which means you can disable in-app purchases in games to avoid having your pesky offspring spend thousands of pounds of digital goods.

The fact that many of Android 4.3’s improvements are hard to see makes it feel very much the same as 4.2. In fact, if you didn’t know you might even assume it was the same version of the OS. However, when you take into account the level of polish that is now applied to Android, it’s hard to grumble – it’s an exceptionally good operating system with excellent stability and customisation.

Android 4.4 Update

Android 4.4 KitKat which is also avaliable for the Nexus 7. KitKat brings with it a brand new UI design, lighter and brighter interface and even bigger icons. Google Now is fully integrated into the launcher for the first time ever which makes Nexus devices a lot better to use. Expect to be asking your tablet a lot more questions very soon. Hangouts has also been reworked, and the KitKat will also run on 512MB of RAM – not that you need to worry about that with the Nexus 7!

Display

The screen remains the same size as it was on the 2012 model and uses the same IPS tech, but the resolution has risen to 1920×1200 pixels, giving a pixel density of 323ppi. That means it’s practically impossible to spot individual pixels, and makes the Nexus 7 perfect for reading eBooks or magazines.

It also helps that the screen’s brightness has been enhanced over the 2012 model, and contrast is noticeably better. This is one of the best tablet screens we’ve ever seen.

Battery, storage and connectivity

The 2013 Nexus 7 may beat its ancestor in almost every regard, but it’s stuck with a lower-capacity battery. The 3950mAh cell offers around the same stamina though, with about 8 hours of solid use possible – Google says this was achieved by tweaks in the Android code.

It also supports wireless charging now – just like the Nexus 4 – which is handy to have, but you’ll need to invest in a Qi charger to make use of it.

The 8GB model from last year has been dumped, making 16GB the entry-level storage option. This should be enough for most people, especially when you take into account cloud services such as Google Drive and Google Music. If not, then there’s always the more expensive 32GB edition.

Like many other devices in the Nexus range, there’s no way to expand the storage space with MicroSD cards, so keep this in mind if you like downloading loads of stuff and are used to the card slots found on other Android products.

Conclusion

It may not be a radical departure from the previous model, but the 2013 version of the Nexus 7 is arguably the best Android slate you can buy right now. It may not be at the cutting edge of tech – its innards are almost the same as those of the soon-to-be-replaced Nexus 4 – but for the price this device offers amazing value for money. It’s also truly portable and much easier to carry around than other tablets.

.

Specifications
Price …………………………………..R 3,200.00-R 3,500.00
Length…………………………………200mm
Width ………………………………. 114mm
Thickness ……………………….. 8.65mm
Weight 290g
Screen Size ……………………….. 1920×1200 pixel IPS LCD, 7 inches
Processor …………………………… 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro
Built-in Memory ………………….16GB or 32GB – no microSD
Operating System ……………….Android 4.3
Designer Lens ………………………5 megapixel (rear), 1.2 megapixel (front facing)
Video Resolution …………………..1080p
High-speed Data ………………….. LTE, HSPA+
Connectivity ……………………….. ..WiFi, Bluetooth

1. Reading – And no I don’t mean read more blogs or more Mashable.com, I am referring to deep reading. “Recent research in cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated that deep reading — slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity — is a distinctive experience, different in kind from the mere decoding of words.” Yes that is the kind of reading that will actually help you think better and probably be more focused and get through your emails quicker.

2 Writing – With our never ending focus on content, this is almost a necessity to be filed in the “practice makes perfect” category. But there are many cathartic and health benefits to writing regularly. Oh and that emotional email you were planning on sending to your client or significant other? Sleep on it, re-read it and then either delete it or save it as a draft. Focus on a positive tint to any writing you share.

3.Speaking – Have you ever dictated a blog using a tool like Dragon Naturally Speaking? It’s a useful experience. I’ve found that you have to form your thoughts and do the heavy lifting of structuring your content before even uttering a sound. It’s much different than writing for me – which allows you to stop, start and iterate. If you start dictating nonsense as it’s being written out in front of you get a much different sense of creating quality content.

4.Signaling – I’ve written about Hubspot’s Signals previously so I’ll keep this short – if you’re interested in who opens your emails or clinks links in your email you should check it out. You can also connect Signals to the HubSpot CMS or COS.

5.Calling – or perhaps Skyping. If you’ve exchanged more than five emails with someone, it’s probably time to call them. There is a lot we can get done through email and instant messaging. But sometimes, a five minute voice to voice conversation can eliminate the need for superfluous emails, texts, assumptions of intonation and instant messages.

6.Serving – Stop thinking it’s all about you. It’s not and it never was. It’s about your clients, your company, your family and your friends. All of that includes you but is not solely about you. Are you a servant or a leader? Or a servant leader? Are you more worried about your career or how you can help the companies you’re a part of?

7.Renting – no I don’t mean an apartment. I mean software, or teams, or expertise. Whether you have a subscription to Salesforce or HubSpot you’re renting world class software while at the same time decreasing your internal infrastructure costs. Similarly, rather than spending significant time on searching for and hiring an internal inbound marketer, consider “renting” an entire team of inbound marketers from an agency. You’ll get a lot more bang for your buck.

8.Purging – I recently moved to a home less than half the size of my previous home. I was tired of the upkeep, the yardwork and the time spent not doing something I truly enjoy (i.e. marketing, writing, being a Dad). What (either in life or in inbound marketing) are you doing that isn’t bringing value or benefit? Is Pinterest really growing your B2B client’s reach? Do those email lists really work? Marketing is always a test of a null hypothesis. Don’t ever stop purging or experimenting.

9.Being Responsive – whether it’s email or websites – you need to be responsive. And no I don’t mean calling your customer back. I mean making sure your virtual salesperson (i.e. your company website) responds to whatever type of device your web visitors are using to view your site. Don’t make your website hard – your visitors will leave, quickly.

10.Automating – Where would we be without Henry Ford? Relatedly, where would salespeople be if they had to send out their own emails – without tools like HubSpot or InfusionSoft. Probably in a lot worse place. The more you can intelligently automate your marketing and sales in 2014 – the better off you will be. Key here – intelligently. Otherwise – it’s all just spam. In 2014, automate personally and contextually.

11.Platforming – Are you a Facebookie? A member of the Twitterati? Pick a platform of focus for 2014. Maybe it’s Instagram or G+ and focus your brand or your client’s brand there. Focusing will help you learn the intricacies of your new platform.

12.Sleeping – Are you sleeping your way to the top? As marketers we are part of the creative class and people depend on us for the best and brightest ideas. Your best ideas may not come while you are sleeping – but they may come in the shower after a good night’s sleep. We are paid for what’s in our brains. Make sure you let your brain rest more in 2014.

13.Coaching – are you coaching and/or being coached? If you’re an executive it’s useful to consider an executive coach or an executive program outside of your company to keep your skills sharp. Similarly if you are an experienced executive you should also be giving away your experience and helping others. Even Tom Brady needs a head coach and quarterback coach – he doesn’t do it all alone.

14.Inbounding  – and finally take all of the above and apply it to better inbounding. The better we are as inbound marketers the more respected we are as a profession. Be the best inbounder you can be in 2014.

For more great examples for your inbound strategy , visit social media today as they have great resources to get you going….

Facebook collage

We found this article very interesting on Weidert Group’s blog and thought we should reblog it here , this article is very relative to us and many small B2B companies

“For companies like ours, a small-medium sized B2B business working within a rapidly expanding global network, it’s hard to fall in love with Facebook.

When I look at Weidert’s “likes” on Facebook (334) versus our number of Twitter followers (2,238) and LinkedIn followers (543), it often feels like we just started our page. Each month, our Facebook growth feels slow and our reach looks small, and often, it’s a frustrating experience.

The reality is that Facebook is a tough crowd, and you have to be smart about growing your audience. Social media marketers sometimes talk about the various “cultures” of online social networks. LinkedIn is like a professional cocktail party; Twitter is your personal news ticker. But with Facebook, users tend to treat their profiles a bit more personally.

How Users Treat Facebook

In a recent article by Jayson DeMers, CEO of AudienceBloom, he described how Facebook is increasingly a place where people “scrapbook their lives” and prune their activity to portray a specific persona. Twitter, on the other hand, is “about speeding things up, often becoming a source in and of itself.” Users self report their experiences, opinions, and ideas as freely as they would tell friends or co-workers some exciting news.

These two paradigms give us some idea about why users might be willing to follow a company on Twitter, but not like the page on Facebook. Just today, it was announced that in 2013, Apple replaced Coca-Cola as the top global brand by value. Certainly, that’s huge news for Apple marketers. However, if you check both companies’ Facebook pages, you’ll see that there, Coca-Cola beats Apple 8 to 1 (Coca-Cola has 73 million likes).

What’s the lesson here? It’s that Facebook is not optimal for all companies and certain businesses, and we shouldn’t expect it to be. Often we find that depending on your industry and target audience, other social media options can be more effective. In the past year, Weidert has seen our Twitter audience grow by 9.8% each month—exciting news for a company of our size and type. Other companies see huge success with visual social media like Instagram or Pinterest where they can promote their products and services and artistic stories. And still others value LinkedIn because of its huge potential for B2B connections.

How to Attract More Facebook Followers (“Likes”)

This does not mean we should all give up on Facebook. Instead, we have to think more carefully about how we attract Facebook users. If Facebook is really becoming a place where users “scrapbook” their lives, how can you convince users to include your business or brand in their personal identity? I have three ideas:

1. Emphasize meaning in your Facebook presence.

If you’ve developed cause marketing, a company culture identity, or results-based case studies, promote this kind of material on Facebook. Meaningful stories are things that your current audience will feel good about sharing, which will help generate more page “likes”.

2. Tell stories with images.

More than any written update, an image or video is a sharable piece of content. Studies show that Facebook photos get 39% more interaction than normal updates, and videos are an opportunity to draw people in with good, well-developed storytelling.

3. Promote your Facebook page with other social media.

Now, don’t tweet: “Like our Facebook page. Here’s the link!” Instead, draw people in to your Facebook presence by giving them real reasons to visit. Create Facebook-oriented content offers, like coupons, contests, or special photo albums. Or, link to events you’re hosting, and promote interesting discussions when they develop on your page.

For many businesses, Facebook has the potential to be a supporting social media vehicle but shouldn’t be relied on as a standalone. Especially if you’re looking to create a robust Inbound Marketing presence. For tips on how to best maximize your daily Inbound Marketing routine, check out our free checklist!”

Through endless hours of research through social media  and how your uses make buying decisions on social media, it really just boils down that having an inbound/content marketing strategy is the most insuring way to focus on your return on investment, without one your just another Facebook page waiting for people to stumble upon your page and will hopefully buy what you are telling them.