Using any image on your hard drive, you can instantly create a meme by adding your own text. There’s no need to use photo editing software or a third party website. You can do all of the work, effortlessly, right here on Google+!
Face it, no one likes boring funny images without a witty caption. Spice up your original photos by making your followers laugh! Now start getting creative! Who knows, maybe your next meme will top the What’s Hot list!
Using nothing but Google Docs’ Presenter, Google’s stock images and a Google+ Hangout, presentation expert +Harold Carey Jr. was able to teach me how to create a very simple and effective presentation.
No more sliding text or sound effects, just a header, image and…well, I’d tell you the rest, but you can watch the video!
Check out Harold’s website at http://haroldcarey.com/ .
Interaction. Interaction. Interaction.
In real life, people commonly ask me, “how in the world did you get so many followers on Google?” Of course, being an early adopter helped, but the most important thing I did when I arrived here wasinteracting with other users. I can’t say it enough, interacting with people’s content shows them two things: 1) You’re paying attention. 2) You invested time in starting a conversation.
When you post things in social media, especially on Twitter and Google+, sometimes it is hard to determine how many people are receiving your message. If you are posting unmodified hyperlinks in your post, you won’t be able to track how many people are clicking through.
By using a link shortening service such as goo.gl you can track how well your posted links are doing. Simply copy the link you wish to track, visit http://www.goo.gl/ and paste it into the window. Once you click the button, the link will be shortened to the right using a series of letters and numbers. When you copy and paste this into your tweet or post, you will be able to keep track of how many people clicked through.
You will be amazed by the difference between +1’s, comments and click-through of your posts.
Step-by-step instructions for the “less geeky” ones in your life.
So maybe they still have a Hotmail account. Maybe they don’t watch +YouTube. Who knows, maybe they still search on +Yahoo!
No matter which way you slice it, there are probably some friends or family in your life that simplyaren’t that tech savvy. Maybe one of the big things keeping them from joining +Google+ is the simple fact that they don’t know how to join!
I’ve created a very easy to follow step-by-step video showing them exactly how to sign up for an account. If you want to get them on board, just simply e-mail them this video!
Keeping a backup of all of your important files is important. You probably make regular backups of the important files on your computer at home, but do you worry about backing up your online data like all of the information on your blog?
If you have an account on WordPress.com and you’d like to move it over to a self-hosted site (something that many people decide to do as they continue to grow their audience), you will eventually need to export your data. But, don’t wait until you’re ready to move. Make regular backups of your blog, just in case.
I was talking to A.V. Flox from BlogHer about an aquaintance that had their WordPress.com blog disappear. There’s no telling why the blog disappeared, whether it was a server error, a violation of Terms & Service, or just an anomily, but the truth is, it could happen to anyone, especially if your password isn’t secure.
To protect yourself from losing all of the valuable information you have created, your words, your posts, your comments, your images–all of the content that you have worked so hard to create–you should perform regular backups. Don’t worry though, they’re easy to do. Just follow these steps.
Step 1
Log into your WordPress.com Account and select the blog you want to backup:
Step 2
Click ‘My Blog’ in the upper left hand corner and select ‘Dashboard’
Step 3
On the left hand tool bar, go down to ‘Tools’ (it’s towards the bottom) and select ‘Export’
Step 4
If you want to backup all of your pages, posts and comments, select ‘All content’ and click the ‘Download Export File’ button.
Step 5
Depending on what browser you are using, a notification should appear asking you if you would like to download the file. Since it is an XML file, your computer might warn you that it could be dangerous. In situations where the source is trusted, such as WordPress.com, you don’t need to worry about this warning. Click ‘Keep’ and then, presto, you have a backup of all of your blog content on your home computer!
When you get more proficient and as your audience continues to grow, you might want to start your own website on an independent server using the WordPress.org framework. The interface is virtually the same, and when you go to set it up (using their famous five minute installation) you’ll be able to instantly Import your content, pages and comments from your previous location!
By backing up your data regularly you won’t have to worry about your blog “disappearing” because you’ll always have a copy of your content right at your fingertips.
If you liked this tutorial, be sure to share it with your friends using the social media buttons below! Also, be sure to enter your e-mail address and Subscribe in the right-hand navigation bar of my website to get weekly updates of all of my content at absolutely no cost!
Are you sharing responsibly?
Most of the content that gains traction on the Internet, whether message boards, social media sites like Google+ and Facebook or through e-mail chains (although becoming less popular) has an origin. A lot of people take for granted the fact that someone took the time and effort to create this work. Instead, they share the image with reckless abandon as if it was their own original work.
Now, that’s not to say that everyone that downloads and image to their computer and shares it on a social network is necessarily in the wrong. A lot of the images that are found throughout the web are not copyrighted and are usually “modifications” of existing images. Think of all of the memes where people take an existing image and populate their own text on top. Just because they captioned the image does not make it theirs, per say.
I was approached today by +Bud Hoffman who pointed out that he shared an image he had found on the Internet and was surprised by the amount of interaction and attention it drew. Bud shared an image of two men smoking and standing beneath a mural to make it look as though they were being buried at a funeral.
Continue reading Photographic Archaeology: How To Find the Source of an Image on the Internet
So, tonight, after attending a meeting for speakers interested in +PodCamp Nashville, I went out to dinner with the lovely +D’nelle Throneberry and talked about teamwork and how it relates to social media as a business strategy.
The first thing we talked about is something that “social media experts” are afraid to admit. Social media has grown so much that it is no longer under one umbrella. There are so many aspects of new media that one person can not simply master them all.
Currently the game is being played on a no-frills referral basis in this market. If you’re looking for WordPress, there’s someone for that. If you want to do a Twitter campaign, I can point you in the right direction. Looking for Drupal? There’s a couple of guys in town that do that…
Clearly, what I learned from our conversation and observing the relationships and businesses in this market, I know that everyone is really excited about social media. Especially the people that do it for a living. They are all working independently and love it. Why?
I can understand leaving your M-F 9-5 to become an independent entrepreneur and do what you love, but why do it alone when there is a team of people there all passionate about the same thing?
As this space continues to evolve, more technologies and networks start popping up, we are going to need more than just a few experts. Regardless, though, of how much it grows and changes, all of these things that propagate are all related. There is no reason we should work in silos. That’s why we left Corporate America in the first place, right?
I think that if a group of people with a diversified range of talents band together they will be much more successful than a bunch of people all out doing it on their own.
I don’t care how wide or great your referral network is, there is strength in numbers and if you band together, you can do amazing things. Teamwork is where it’s at.
I just had two incredible conversations with two of my favorite innovators within this space. How did we meet? Google+ Hangouts of course.
Although we might not talk all of the time or keep up with each other on a daily basis, when we feel the need to tap into each others’ creativity and critical thinking skills, we know we are there for each other.
Continue reading Never Discount the Importance of Your Connections
In a world where people connect effortlessly with their computers, mobile devices and tablets, social networks are popping up everywhere. Some of them are geared towards finding and sharing websites (digg, stumbleupon), others are more geared towards sharing what you’re doing in text and photo (Instagram, Twitter), some focus on where you are (Foursquare, Path) while others try to tackle everyone at once (Facebook, Google+). Every day more and more of these networks are popping up like Pinterest and Issuu.
Of course, having a presence in all of these places would expose your business or brand to more eyeballs, but is it really necessary?
Continue reading How Many Social Networks Should My Business Use?