Tools & Tips – Page 19

Tell Your Story on Pinterest

January 8, 2014 Beth Devine

Social media is the place to be if you want to be heard. When you share information and tell your story in images, you are communicating in the format that speaks the loudest.

According to a Searchmetrics ranking study, Pinterest pins play a role in SEO ranking. Seven out of the top eight SEO website ranking factors are social media related, with Pinterest coming in at number seven.

Sharing on Pinterest is getting easier as updates are made to accommodate certain pin types and the Pinterest audience continues to grow. Getting your pins repinned is a way to spread the word and communicate your unique brand on social media.

Here are eight ways to get your story heard on Pinterest, the social curation site for the inner magpie in all of us.

8 Pin Ideas to Tell Your Story on Pinterest

1. Slideshare Presentations

Slideshare is a popular place for searching for interesting content. It’s easy pin button gets your presentations pinned, with viewing only a click away, taking users to the Slideshare site.

An attention-grabbing first-page image captures the pin. Fill your Slideshare story with more entertaining and educational images, such as this pin for the SES Singapore 2013, a Slideshare presentation comparing teenage sex to content marketing.

2. Videos

YouTube and Vimeo videos allow you to easily pin and then watch directly from Pinterest. Pinterest pins for videos captures both the still image and the potential for deeper engagement with film viewing.

Vimeo pins for Nokia’s N8 mobile phone short film competition showcases its phone’s capabilities while reaching a broad audience. Check out a winner in Daniel, the story of a boy who fought WWII with his foresight.

3. Memes

The best memes include both a visual and simple text that makes a statement or represents an idea. Your boards can embody your brand’s spirit and values based on the memes you pin.

Web Savvy Marketers’ Cats With Blog Appeal board features various cat memes created for our blogs and other fabulous felines for your entertainment.

4. Articles

Pinterest recently updated its site to include an article format. Now when you pin a favorite article – a great way to save to read later – your pin showcases the article headline, a short descriptive blurb, and its site origin.

If you want to enable your articles for the new look, learn how to apply for “rich pins.” Get a feel for the updated article pin while learning How Humans Created Cats.

5. DIY

How-to pins continue to be popular, and Lowe’s has capitalized on the idea. Their Build It! board displays a wide range of do-it-yourself ideas and is a wonderful resource that invites the user to come and play.

Your DIY board can include a host of projects that indirectly relate to your product, as well as ideas that capture your brand’s message.

6. Product Pins

Like the new article pins, product pins also include pricing, availability, and where to buy – all updated every day. Etsy models the product pins well. Their products are well integrated into Pinterest, including their own DIY board to celebrate their artists’ craftiness.

Follow the application for rich pins to get yours.

7. Infographics

For a great way to summarize data on a specific topic, share infographics on your Pinterest boards. Not only will it supply hours worth of data in one place, it’s visually appealing.

An effective infographic is easy to read and follow. Best of all, it includes valuable information that tells a story. This social media superhero infographic is a story that’s changing, and like all stories, will need to be revised to stay current.

8. Repurpose Content

Pinterest is perfect for repurposing content from your blog posts, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn posts. Be creative in how you share your story across the social media platforms. Don’t simply repost everything in identical format.

Think about the big picture you are trying to present when you choose your pins and boards. Follow that theme and tell your story so that it’s interesting, entertaining, and informative.

Pinterest Pins Get Tagged

With the recent purchase of VisualGraph, an image-recognition startup, Pinterest will acquire a system for tagging the photos posted to its site. Automatically detecting image contents could help Pinterest target ads based on the pins of users, as well as improving a user’s search for a particular item.

This means finding you on Pinterest will get easier. Make your story known with a little Pinterest help.

Your One Word for 2014

January 2, 2014 Beth Devine

Choose one word. Head into the new year with a focus on this One Word as your personal rallying cry.

One Word. 365 days. A vision.

Words hold power. Words can create movement, inspire beauty, change perspectives, liberate nations, and convey ideas.

Your One Word is a compass pointing you towards a life-changing journey. Will you take the first step and choose One Word?

3 Steps to One Word

In an NBC interview, Jon Gordon, author of One Word books, , described three steps to finding your One Word.

1. Look inward and discern your needs and desires.

2. Look upward and be open to the right word.

3. Look out and practice making it a part of your life.

One Word to Rule Them All

Forget new year’s resolutions, lists of goals, and good intentions that so often are abandoned. Choose one word and let it shape your year. Let it shape you.

Because the One Word challenge can be intimidating, look at it as a “walking marathon.” You have the whole year to walk it and work it.

As OneWord365 explains, breaking the process down into segments will help make it less overwhelming. Think of at least three categories where you can apply your One Word and how you will attempt to make an impact. Consider specific areas that you wish to work on.

My One Word is renegade: In daring to do what I fear, speaking what I believe, and keeping my thoughts positive despite the bashing that goes on around me.

Change takes commitment. It’s uncomfortable. It’s risky. But it’s how we grow.

Rewrite Your Story

The One Word process is an opportunity to rewrite your story. Seeing the vision in your One Word is like flipping through the pages of a book. Every day, for 365 days, you have the ability to write a new chapter.

I asked several people to think of their One Word for 2014. This survey included people who are writers, nurses, website designers, teachers, management, professors, and retirees, and it gives us a bigger picture of where we want to go as a group.

Their One Word often complemented their life situations and professions. Some of Your One Word choices suggest that as we grow older, we are more conscientious of choosing and not postponing joy, as well as maintaining thankfulness. When life hits us hard, we hold fast and grow rooted in our beliefs.

As a writer, it’s critical to be watchful of our surroundings. Hard pressed to meet the demands of a job, we are determined, and we work to do it again, only better.

There are needs to communicate better, plans to read more, resolves for a hopeful attitude, and desires for growth. For some, it is an impulsive and deliberate will to move forward with purpose. For others, it’s the strength gained in how we choose to remember.

Keep the Word Close

To remind you of what your word for 2014 expresses, write your word down and place it somewhere you’ll frequently see it.

Try over the kitchen sink, on the bathroom mirror, above your desk, on your car dashboard, or next to the television. Make it your screensaver, write it with a sharpie on a coffee mug, or create a Tagxedo image.

I know someone who wrote it in the sand and took a picture of it. Jumpstart your year by writing it on your hand, like this high school did. Create a poster at getoneword.com

Focus your attention while you expand your horizons. A single word with infinite possibilities of encouragement. With One Word before you, the story you write has the potential to change your life.

What One Word will you choose?

5 Website Writing Do’s and Don’ts

December 27, 2013 Beth Devine

Website writing do’s and don’ts made simple and straightforward, just like it’s supposed to be. You’ll find readability checkers, the grammar nazi, and other insanely valuable links.

Do promote yourself and have a call to action.

Don’t bore your readers by talking about yourself.

When asking your audience to do something, don’t try to persuade them by simply talking about your product. The hard-core sales pitch doesn’t cut it any longer in an over-hyped, digital age where people are bombarded with sales messages in every facet of communication: television, radio, billboards, banner ads, popup ads, email, blog posts, and embedded social media posts.

When you give them a call to action, follow it up with a compelling reason why. Tell them what the benefits are for buying your product, receiving your email updates, or coming to your event.

Do this by using the most powerful word in the English language: because.

According to Viralnomics, a psychological study found that when someone used the word “because” when asking to cut in line to make copies, people were 93% more likely to let them cut. Even when the reason they gave was no different than what everyone else standing in line was doing.

“May I use the Xerox machine, because I need to make copies?” Why, yes, since you put it that way!

#2

Do write for someone with common sense.

Don’t try so hard to sound intelligent that you forget about the man on the Clapham omnibus.

In Britain, the English courts decide how to rule based on the average joe and how he would approach the situation. If the man on the Clapham omnibus thinks what you said was reasonable, then you’re good to go.

As a benchmark when you are writing, consider the reasonably educated but nondescript man in the back of the bus, and write for someone with common sense. Your writing needs to be simple and straightforward so your readers can understand you.

When I was in journalism school, they taught us the rule of K.I.S.S. If you keep it simple stupid, your average reader will think what you write is right on target.

#3

Do write like you speak.

Don’t try for inflated, professional writing that sounds like legalize.

Good business writing has no place on your website, email, or anywhere you actually want people to read what you write. Get rid of the corporate jargon and cold formality and write something interesting that will distinguish you from the crowd.

When you want to warn someone they are in imminent danger, which warning is more effective?

a. Look out!

b. It is highly advisable that you adopt a course of action that will rapidly move you to a safer locale.

In writing, communicating the same way you speak will get your ideas across more efficiently and clearly. Check the readability of your writing at Readability-score.com. It gives a report of your writing sample’s grade level based on five readability formulas.

The Writer’s readability checker explains the different readability formulas and gives you a comparison chart to other types of writing once you enter in your sample. This post rated a grade level of 9, which is the same for the BBC News site. The Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score is used the most; it’s built into Word and the U.S. military uses it for their technical manuals.

#4

Do use relevant keywords.

Don’t write to include keywords or engage in keyword stuffing.

Including keywords that people will use to search for you makes sense. Structuring your writing to include as many keywords as possible doesn’t. Creating high quality content is essential for SEO.

Doing keyword research is still important. Check out Copyblogger’s free keyword research guides. To learn what keywords and their variants Google found when crawling your site, use Webmaster Tools. After selecting your site on Webmaster Tools dashboard, click on Google Index, then Content Keywords.

If you’re being penalized for misuse of keywords, you can find out by clicking on Search Traffic, then Manual Actions.

#5

Do aim for perfection in grammar and spelling.

Don’t let your pursuit of perfection come at the expense of more important things.

Hitting publish before you proofread is a wise move, but striving for perfection to the degree that you’re crippling your creative genius is unproductive.

As Seth Godin says, “no one reads a comic strip because it’s drawn well.” Don’t let your need for perfectionism overcome writing something your audience wants to hear.

Find someone else to proofread your work for mistakes. If you must do it, then read over your writing several hours later, read it aloud, and, if you’re extra cautious, read it backwards, sentence by sentence.

Occasionally, typos happen. Just as the minced oath “stuff happens” describes the existential observation that life is filled with imperfections, your website copy will have an error. Or two.

Just pray the Grammar Nazi doesn’t find you.

5 Things Cats Can Teach Us About Social Media Behavior

December 18, 2013 Beth Devine

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the behavior of cats has a lot to tell us. Watching cats, or watching the ubiquitous cat videos, will teach us some basic “rules of paw” about social media behavior.

What do cats know about social media behavior? As it turns out, cats were born for the social spotlight. Why else would they agree to star in all the videos?

Let’s take a look and see what cats can teach us.

1. Cleanliness Arrives as the Grammar Police

Cats actively clean themselves with their incessant licking. As a result, they always look superb, and they smell fabulous too. In social media, this translates into keeping your posts clean and free of spelling and grammar mistakes.

More than 4 out of 10 people complained about spelling and grammar on brands’ social media sites, according to a U.K. consumer survey. This pet peeve exceeded consumer dislike for aggressive sales tactics, so be sure to proofread your social media posts.

2. It’s Not About You

Cats remind us with every chance they get that it’s not about you. The universe revolves around them, FYI. So take a cat’s lead and focus on your audience when you’re engaging in a conversation on social media.

Google+ +Post Ads are an example of how effective social media engagement is with the consumer starring in the leading role. The user directs the conversation, giving the brand the attention it craves when and how their fans want it done.

We must be poised to give a rub when a cat decides it’s ready for one – so must a brand be ready to respond to their audience.

3. Play Well With Others

Cats are on the job full time with kitty ninja play tactics, ready to play with anything you’ve got, even if it means resorting to playing with Christmas elf packing peanuts.

For social media behavior, cats teach us that having fun is important to generating shares and comments. While it’s critical to educate your audience, it’s equally valuable to entertain.

At the end of the day, for those who don’t know how to play well, ignore them. Ignore the vampires who are stalking you. As Seth Godin says, be the garlic to the vampires who feed on negativity. When they make nasty comments or send hostile messages, don’t fuel them with a response.

4. Curiosity Won’t Kill Your Results

If cats weren’t curious, they would lose an essential element to their character. How else will cats change the world if it weren’t for their curiosity?

In order to be sure you are effective on social media, be curious like a cat and be active on multiple social media networks. According to this Wildfireapp infographic, greater success means engaging on 5 different social media platforms.

Having a curious nature will get your name out there, widening your social stratosphere and giving you greater feedback.

5. Loyalty Means Getting Fed

Speaking of feedback, cat loyalty is based on the food dish. Is it any different for humans? The hand that feeds you is also whom you’re going to be committed to following

Cats and consumers know when they’re loved by how much you’re willing to show them you care. Showing how you care is as easy – and authentic – as encouraging your fans to recognize your brand.

Feed them information, share your family jewels, or post pictures that feature fans in them. Your audience will rave over seeing themselves on your website blog and social media posts.

User-generated content is the hot trend for 2014, so taking advantage of social media to nurture your unique personality is a photo-moment worth capturing and feeding back to your audience.

Think social media smart like a cat and you’ll learn how to express yourself as a brand on social media. Remember, cats know exactly what they’re doing. They didn’t take the Internet by storm with their furry feline charm by accident.

They’ve been watching our every move.

Tumblr via giphy.

+Post Ads Make Google the Smartest Fish in the Web Stream

December 12, 2013 Beth Devine

Google’s new +Post Ads are making the Internet one giant social stream. With the introduction of Google+ social posts as paid advertising on selected websites, more people are going to join the conversation.

The social stream on Google+ is going to become a raging river.

But not in a bad way. It’s going to grow not only conversations. Growing Google+ is going to build relationships between the brand and consumer unlike any other social platform.

“Rather than to talk at them, we wanted to talk with them,” said Monica Peterson, Director of Social Media, Toyota USA.

As Peterson says, delivering “the right message, at the right time, to the right person” is key to growing your brand. With Google+ +Post Ads, consumers can talk within the advertising itself.

How cool is that?

Advertising on social media sites is like crashing a party. Hardly an effective method for promoting your product. But imagine having the opportunity to share your thoughts on a strategically placed social media post that’s placed outside the social media platform.

Clearly, Google imagined just that. They also thought up a way for advertisers to pay for Google+ advertising in the process. Pure genius.

As Mark Traphagen explains, Google+ +Post Ads will show up as live Google+ posts embedded where we would traditionally see static banner ads on a website, Users can comment on +Post Ads, +1 them, and share them with friends. Because the advertiser will get a notification of every person who engaged with the post, it’s like a landing page on a site where you can capture email addresses.

For a brand, this definitely changes what you’ll say to your audience. For the consumer, how the message is crafted will have everything to do with how you impact the conversation.

The way we interact on social media increasingly defines who we are. From one fish to another, I am excited to see how this all ~~plays~~ swims out.

Folks who haven’t set up a Google+ profile yet will be enticed to do so, and those who’ve merely created one so they could do a Hangout will begin doing more than sticking a toe into the water.

Google+ moves forward as the smartest way to interact on the web. It’s no wonder that Albert Einstein is the most talked about person there, compared to Rihanna on Facebook and Bieber on Twitter.

Google “who is the most talked about person on Google+” and see for yourself.

As Dustin W. Stout so aptly put it, “G+ = IQ². Enough said.”

Watch how Toyota reaches out with new Google+ Post Ads.

This work, “fish bowl,” is a derivative of “Creative Commons flickr photo” by Dean McCoy, used under CC BY 2.0.

Easy Way to Get Your Own Favicon (That Little Image in the Browser Tab)

December 4, 2013 Beth Devine

After hours of trying to figure out how to install my own favicon in WordPress, I finally unravelled the mystery. Here it is, from one computer newb to another, an easy way to get your own favicon.

What’s a Favicon and How Do I Get One?

If, like me, it hadn’t even occurred to you to possess an image in the browser tab when your website is displayed, then you’re a super computer newb. This is why I’m here to explain this amazing process to you in user-friendly terms.

Because everyone in cyber land who writes about these things is far from a computer newb, it can require herculean mental stamina to figure them out. I did the mental weightlifting for you.

A favicon is short for “favorites icon,” and is the tiny graphic image you see on each browser tab in browsers such as Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. It also shows up in other places: a bookmark list, in certain feed readers, and with the site’s title in the address bar.

Having one means it’s simple to identify which tab is your website, making it quicker for your viewers to locate, particularly when multiple tabs are open. It also lends credibility to your site and helps with branding your work.

How to Get Your Own Favicon

1. Choose an image.

A favicon must be 16 X 16 pixels and have an extension of “ico.” You can choose whatever image you want, and Favicon Generator will do all the work of making your image into the right dimensions and ico file.

2. Save your favicon to a computer folder.

By keeping it named favicon.ico, you can easily use the code I’ve supplied without having to make any changes. Save it so you’ll know where to find it for uploading.

3. Upload your favicon.ico into your root directory.

This means going into cPanel. For directions on how to do this, see my post How to Change Your WordPress Username. You will need to know your username and password, so ask your web hosting company for this information. It’s good to have!

4. Once in cPanel, follow these steps or this path:

public_html/websitename.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/themename/images

Click on the public_html folder.
Click on websitename.com folder. (Whatever your website’s name is.)
Click on wp-content (or wordpress first, if that comes up) folder.
Click on themes folder.
Click on your themename folder. (The name of the particular theme you use for your site.)
Click on images folder.
At the top click on upload and find your favicon.ico in your computer folder to upload.
Check that it’s there in the images folder. It should be in alphabetical order.

5. Copy and paste this code into your header.php.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance, Editor, and then Header (which should be on the right side). Once you’re in the Header, scroll down until you see code that starts with <link rel=. Copy and paste the following code at the bottom of all the other link code so that both lines of code have their own line:

6. Check that the file names match.

If you named your ico file something other than favicon.ico, then be sure to change the code so it has the correct name (i.e., myfaviconrocks.ico in place of favicon.ico).

If you ever decide to change your favicon, be sure to erase any of the code that pointed to the old favicon image.

7. Hit Update File at the bottom of the page.

Otherwise your changes won’t be saved. You really are a computer newb, aren’t you?

8. Your favicon should now show up in the browser tab.

I generally work in Chrome, and my favicon immediately showed up in the second tab I had open to my site – the one I wasn’t working on but was just using to check for success. Hitting the reload or refresh button seemed to work for others, but mine still doesn’t display on the site when I am working in the dashboard.

When Your Favicon Doesn’t Display

Your favicon might not display in your WordPress site when you are working from the dashboard. It might not display in the address bar. It should, however, display in the browser tab when you are on the site.

Weird tip for Internet Explorer: I read that by dragging the site name down from the address bar several times, the favicon would eventually appear.

WordPress Plugin Note: I chose not to install a plugin because all of them gave me a warning that they weren’t tested for compatibility with the latest version. The only one that didn’t say that had a different warning that I discovered elsewhere. It’s important to research any plugin you use.

Be Grateful and Generosity Will Follow

November 27, 2013 Beth Devine

There are two things you can do that are sure to kill your negative buzz. That self-pity, bitterness, jealousy, and regret we all tend to cloak ourselves with, like Peanut’s Linus dragging his dirty blanket around with him everywhere he went.

It’s a simple two-step formula, and it requires only a minor sacrifice from you.

1. Ditch the dirty blanket

Instead of clinging to the negative, wrap yourself with gratitude.

2. Choose to share

Without the weight of negative thoughts, its a natural transition to turn around and give.

Your kindness counts, and whatever you choose to do as an individual or business will make a difference.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~Anne Frank

Gratitude is a skill that anyone can practice and learn. Check out Robert Emmons “10 Ways to Become More Grateful” to reap the benefits of gratitude, which science shows can impact your social, physical, and psychological well-being.

Encourage Charity

Implementing this into your business’s mindset can be as simple as organizing a charitable effort, such as including a non-perishable food drive for your next event. When Web Savvy Marketers held their second anniversary celebration Mardi Gras style, we asked for donations for the local food pantry. In exchange for colorful beaded necklaces, guests brought cans of food and checks made out to the pantry.

“He that feeds the hungry spreads out a banquet more sweet and refreshing than luxury can bestow. “ ~The Voice, 1845.

This generosity fed over eleven families. From a small group of concerned individuals, a small section of the world was impacted. Creating opportunities for people to give requires little effort when its incorporated into a scheduled function through invitations, e-newsletters, and online announcements.

Charitable and fundraising efforts of all kinds can be the definitive buzzkill for any negativity that surrounds you. Finding non-monetary ways to help go beyond sharing your treasure. Giving your time and talent makes your donation come to life by connecting you to the causes you support.

Participate in volunteer activities where you live.
Use your skills to help raise awareness by sharing, liking, and commenting in your charity’s social media sites.
Help spread the word by persuading and connecting the charity with new potential donors.

Understand the need through a deeper connection to a charity by staying abreast of stories, statistics, and current events that impact the cause. This will help your connection to grow.

Make a Wall of Gratitude at Work

A workplace Gratitude Wall bulletin board is another way to help usher in a grateful attitude among employees. Be sure to focus on thanking people as opposed to things.

Saying thank you begins with you. Your thank you’s impact will be stronger when you are specific, giving details about the person, action, or thing you are thankful for.

Are you wondering what your gratitude quotient is? Take this online gratitude quiz by the Greater Good Science Center and find out!

The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with the University of California, Davis, is launching a three-year, $5.6 million project, Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude with funding from the John Templeton Foundation.

Look for expanded gratitude results in medicine, education, schools, and workplaces as they work to promote the role of gratitude in society.

As you reach out to others and learn to wrap yourself with gratitude, remember this:

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.” ~Anthony Robbins

To help keep the gratitude flowing, create a gratitude mandala like the one here using these free mandala templates.

How to Be a Giver Not a Taker

November 21, 2013 Beth Devine

To be successful, it’s commonly assumed that a Taker personality will outperform and overshadow a Giver personality.

Givers are people who help others without worrying how they will benefit; they are other-focused and motivated by altruism.

Takers look out for themselves first; they are quick to take credit and self-promote, believing that the only way to achieve is to be better than everyone else.

In Social Trigger’s Derek Halpern podcast interview with Adam Grant on his latest book, Give and Take, Grant reveals the surprising truth about generosity and success.

It’s no surprise that most of us fall somewhere in the middle, believing that a good deed will be equally matched with a reciprocating act. The Matchers of the world operate with expectations of balance and fair exchange.

It makes sense that the common conception is Takers are the winners and take all, with Matchers falling in step just behind.

The Long Run Wins the Race

When you take in the big picture, this is not true. Grant explains that there’s a short run and long run reversal.

This reminded me of the story of The Tortoise and the Hare. The Hare self-aggrandizes from the moment he appears, whereas the Tortoise shows his goodwill immediately.

Takers imitate the Hare and take the fast route based purely on self-interest and winning, often burning a bridge or two in the process.

The Giver behaves like the Tortoise, willing to take the time to work hard, as in helping colleagues and customers, building trust and goodwill along the way.

The long run of the Giver eventually pays out like it does with the Tortoise. The investment of time, knowledge, and resources builds the social capital which will cheer a Giver on and create individuals who are genuinely glad of his or her success.

Tell the truth. Who were you rooting for, the Tortoise or the Hare?

How to Be a Giver Not a Taker and Still Succeed

Grant tells us that true Givers combine what Bill Gates called the two great forces of human nature: self-interest and caring for others.

If you care about the people and causes you are giving to, and you are really interested in and enjoy that form of helping, this mix of motives will sustain a giving nature.

Are Givers really concerned for others or are they more worried about their image? Grant calls anyone who gives solely to boost their image a Faker. They are in reality a Taker who is creating an “aura of generosity to mask their self-serving intentions.”

As for Matchers, if you’re giving for purely Matcher reasons – because you expect payback – then it will appear very transactional and people will see through it, and their appreciation level won’t be as high as it is with a Giver.

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”—Malcolm S. Forbes.

Jobs Vs. Gates: Giver or Taker?

Halpern asked Grant whether or not he believed Steve Jobs was a Taker and Bill Gates is a Giver. Grant conceded that Jobs had Taker moments in his career relationships, but he was extremely customer-centric in his giving.

“Maybe the Giver-Taker spectrum is not the right axis in evaluating him,” Grant decides.

What Halpern and Grant agreed upon, however, was the Giver legacy versus the Taker legacy. A Giver will be remembered long after they are gone, but a Taker will be forgotten, even vilified, regardless of their achievements.

The Key to Getting a Giver Personality

No matter what your tendencies are, you can be a Giver and begin to experience the benefits of building giving relationships. Just ask yourself the all-important question, “What do I desire?”

The key to being a giver is to unlock the secret to your desire. For inspiration on finding your hidden desire, watch this video by Alan Watts, “What if Money Was No Object?”

How would you enjoy spending your life? Find the answer to these questions and you will learn how to be a Giver not a Taker, achieving your goals as well as enjoying the journey along the way.

It’s far more than a race to the top. As Hemingway said, “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

Are Social Media Signals Helping Your Search Engine Ranking?

November 13, 2013 Beth Devine

Why Use Social Media to Improve Search Engine Ranking?

When building a website, search engine ranking is an ever-changing horizon of influencing factors. Just when you think you figured it out, the view has changed and new elements have been added.

In a Social is the New SEO Hangout with Joshua Berg, Google+ SEO and SMO expert, and Mark Traphagen, Director of Digital Outreach for Virante Inc., we learn that Google is looking for social media signals.

When Google is ranking content, it looks for social media signals like how your content is shared, liked, +1ed, and commented on. Your authority on the Web has grown to include how well your content is doing in social channels.

But don’t panic. Old-school page ranking hasn’t gone away entirely. Keywords and link building, for example, are still important. It’s when you over-optimize your website with keyword stuffing and keyword repetition that will bring the wrath of Google upon it.

Ask “Does It Sound Right?”

Instead, do what Berg calls “natural writing,” or writing in a normal conversational language, varying your keywords and keyword phrases, using a “reasonable amount of mix and match throughout your pages.”

Write to create interesting, helpful content that users will want to share. This is where the social media signals come into play.

Google+ Exists for the Data

Google’s effort to improve search results means having a broader understanding of users’ experience and intent. Search and social media are no longer separate.

This is why, according to Traphagen, they created Google+. In order to better understand what you are discussing, sharing, and liking, they needed a social channel they had access to.

In terms of which social platforms will send strong social media signals, Berg says “Google+ will give you a much bigger advantage.”

Traphagen backs that up with a story of a user who noticed that a website’s higher ranking appeared to be directly related to Facebook shares. Matt Cutts, who heads Google’s Webspam team, responded affirmatively that this in no way caused a higher ranking.

Berg explains that this is partly due to no-follow tags in other social media platforms, whereas Google+ was created to have all follow links in everything. The overall effect of social media signals, Berg assures us, does include a diverse range from the different platforms, so don’t put your eggs all in one basket.

What is the Special Power of Google+?

Traphagen explained one of the special powers of Google+ is your profile. He says Google+ profiles are treated like a website. It provides Google with signals on who’s engaging with you and what website’s are linking to your Google+ profile.

He increased his own search rankings by linking back to his Google+ profile in the online articles he writes. The re-shares and other engagement from his content increases his profile authority, which in turn increases his search rankings.

A simple tip Traphagen shares is to include relevant keywords in your Google+ profile. Berg mentions including these keywords and natural-sounding phrases under the Google+ links section as well.

Take Your Authority to the Next Level

By combining well-written, interesting content with social media signals of engagement, you will be using a multi-faceted approach to a real online marketing practice.

Good content and good connections means better search engine results. It’s a horizon filled with possibilities.

Beware of the Trojan Horse Emails

November 6, 2013 Beth Devine

Fraudulent email scams have upped the ante in their realism and ploy for urgency. The hard-hitting scams present themselves as the delivery services UPS, FedEx, and DHL, claiming that you’ve received a package.

Next, they want you to click on a link, or open an innocent-looking attachment of what appears to be a Microsoft Word document, or enter a legitimate-looking tracking number to check on your mystery package.

Hard to resist, right?

Once you’ve clicked the link or opened the attachment, it is impossible to resist. By doing so, you’ve enabled the Trojan program to install itself so it can read your files, extract your confidential information, and then transmit all the goods to a server somewhere in the email-phishing hinterlands.

A Trojan differs from a virus in that a virus replicates itself – yep, just like in World War Z – and sends itself to other computers, whereas a Trojan is sent out by someone, often in a spammed email, and then installed by the unsuspecting victim.

Like the Trojan Horse in Greek mythology, a Trojan hacking program is hiding something that’s designed to attack you once it’s inside your system.

It hides within the phishing (as in phishing for information) email, which looks absolutely authentic, and because your curiosity is piqued – what can it hurt? – you go ahead and click. You thereby install the Trojan and begin the spiral into doom.

Your DNS records can now be modified and redirected so that incoming Internet traffic goes through the attacker’s servers, where it’s hijacked and injected with malicious websites and pornographic ads.

When a client of ours inadvertently installed a Trojan after receiving a UPS email, he called Super Savvy Carolyn to warn her about his doomsday fall. He continues to work with an IT professional who was able to retrieve some of his data.

The UPS email looks something this. As with both the UPS and DHL phishing email scams, when you hover your cursor over the link, the fake link is revealed, not a valid UPS or DHL link.

When I received a DHL phishing email, I remembered the all-important rule of thumb for attachments and links. When in doubt, go to the website directly.

I went to the DHL website, entered the tracking number, and discovered that it was an invalid number – duh! I also found their fraudulent email alert on the homepage. A happy ending to my story.

If you’re unsure of your own story’s ending and are concerned about a Trojan infection, this US government-certified publication outlines the steps to take. Go to the US-CERT site (Computer Emergency Readiness Team) for more security tips and how to know if your computer is infected by a Trojan Horse or virus.

How to Avoid Infection from the Get-Go:

1. Know what you’re downloading and clicking!

Only download from trusted and well-known sites. Go directly to the website of the entity in question rather than the attached link. Don’t trust a pop-up or other unknown source for downloading anything.

2. Don’t go to untrusted or suspect websites!

Remember the rule for expiration dates and food items? It’s the same here.

When in doubt, throw it out!

3. Install a security software system!

If you own a Mac, use the Mac OS X’s built-in Firewalls and other security features. If you download a lot of media and other stuff, try ClamXav for Macs. For PCs, be sure to run up-to-date antivirus software like Norton Antivirus, and check out Mashable’s 5 Best Free Antivirus Software Options.

If you are unsure whether or not the program you downloaded or clicked on is infected, do a quick Internet search to see if other users reported issues after installing a particular program.

4. Avoid peer-to-peer file sharing applications!

By that I mean not only the obvious Napster-type of music file sharing, where you download often pirated small bits of files from many sources at the same time, but other sites as well.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube are also vulnerable to malicious hacking. Links posted on these social networking sites are increasingly connected to malicious software.

The Facebook video masquerade and the Facebook bank account draining malware are two examples of cyber crime targeting social media’s most popular site. According to Symantec’s 2013 Internet Security Threat Report, “the number of phishing sites spoofing social networking sites increased 125%.”

Follow these tips to stay one step ahead of malware and Trojan Horse email and be safe from its hidden assault.

Flickr Creative Commons horse photo by Robin.