TwitterToolsReviews |
- Rocky Horror Mansion Valued Today At $224,000
- 12 Better Blogging Practices for Up-and-Coming Publishers
- How To Use LinkedIn’s Most-Viewed Connections Feature To Leverage Personal Branding
- 5 Quick Ways To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
- Snapchat Updates – and How Brands Can Capitalize
- Family Cat Saves Small Boy From Dog Attack In Driveway (Video)
- Choosing the Perfect Timing for your Social Media Posts
- 5 Sure-Fire Ways You Can Write Click-Worthy Blog Titles
- Flying Bounce House? Three Kids Injured After ‘Freak Dust Devil’ Ruins Party
- 3 Reasons Executives Should Be Active On Social Media
| Rocky Horror Mansion Valued Today At $224,000 Posted: 14 May 2014 08:54 PM PDT
n 1975, a strange little piece of film came to the screen that would soon go into the history books as the biggest cult movie phenomenon of all time. That film was "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Almost 40 years later, Frank-N-Furter, Brad, and Janet still grace movie screens at midnight showings across the world. To quote Riff, it's astounding. Over the years, fans have become obsessive about every minor details of this movie, from the patch on Frank's medical gown to the type of pastry eaten by background characters. I should know since I'm a pretty diehard fan myself, as any Bay Area shadow cast will tell you. Of course, when I got the chance to figure out the cost of Frank's castle for theMovoto Real Estate Blog… well, I would have given my right arm for the privilege. But where on earth to start? Why, by watching one of the best movies ever of course! I grabbed my toilet paper, toast, noisemaker, and best rubber gloves, and sat down for a night of absolute pleasure. With that and some serious math, I was able to figure out everything I never even wondered about the Frankenstein Place. It all came out to a surprisingly low home price of $224,224. Dig it if you can. I Would Like, If I May, To Take You on a Strange JourneyUnfortunately, the journey we're going on doesn't involve Movoto employees dressing in drag and dancing to catchy tunes. I know you're disappointed. This journey begins with figuring out what we need to know in order to find the cost of Frank's castle. You could argue that I could just look up a similarly sized castle somewhere, but this was a thorough bit of research and too nice a job to rush. For that, I needed to know:
Being that I couldn't send Brad and Janet to check the layout for me, I needed to figure all this out myself, room by room—but how many were there? So, Come Up To The Lab…
After much study, I determined that we see a total of 10 different rooms during the movie. These rooms are:
It also included some things we didn't count in our calculations:
Because very little living is done on any of the walkways or elevator, and we see neither the bathrooms nor the kitchens, they were not included in the square footage. We can assume that Frank puts on his makeup somewhere and that Eddie's massive drumstick was roasted somewhere, but without seeing them they'll just remain as much a mystery as this film's meaning. Over At The Frankenstein Place
I checked to see if the house was modeled after any one location, and instead found three. Bray Studios, Oakley Court, and a country house in Berkshire, England were all filming locations for the movie. That meant the floor plan would be a mix of all three, and using only one place for this assessment would be out of the question. After that, I took still frames of each room shown in the film so I could measure them by hand—but what could I use for scale? A friend of mine initially suggested I use the cup sizes for the different actresses as reference points because, hey, it's "Rocky Horror". However, that size would have been… inadequate for easily scaling the rooms, so I instead went with the actors' and actresses' heights. The actors I used were:
From there, using different actors and actresses for the different rooms, I figured out the following:
All that came out to a grand total of about 5,096 square feet. Now, I know the house is a castle, but that really is huge. Three stories of Transylvanian splendor and debauchery that loom over the rest of the forested, isolated countryside. Now I just had to figure out which countryside that might be. Denton: The Home Of Happiness
Source: Flickr user OZinOH There's been much debate about the location of Denton over the years. Some say that it must be in England, because that's the writer, O'Brien's, birth country and where a lot of filming was done. Others say it's one of the many Dentons in the United States, such as Denton, Texas. Either way, we know it's supposed to be some little town with wholesome values and a simple way of life, but we fans can't just let it go at that, now can we? There's good evidence, with which I agree, that Denton is in Ohio. The newspaper Janet holds over her head is from Cleveland, and there's a "Rocky Horror" scrapbook that includes a clipped questionnaire that shows Janet's address as being in Denton, OH. The kicker for me, though, was a scene in the Criminologists' office, where you get a glimpse of a map with Frank-n-Furter's location on it in relation to Denton. The X on the map is a jump to the left from a large national forest and a step to the right from the Scioto River. From that map, we can determine that if it existed in real life, Frank's castle would be just outside of McArthur, OH, towards the Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest. Yes, Frank' home is in an experimental forest. This probably surprises absolutely no one. Didn't We Pass A Castle Back Down The Road A Few Miles?Now that we knew the location, the only thing to do was find homes for sale that I could get the area's price per square foot from. As it turns out, McArthur really doesn't have much of a thriving housing market, and there aren't any castles for sale around there (and definitely no human-making laboratories). Still, it didn't take a time warp to find a few large houses, and I determined from those buildings that the average price in the area is about $44 per square foot. What this means, after some simple multiplication of the size by the price per square foot, is that Frank-N-Furter's massive castle would cost a mere $224,224. While I won't take into account the elevator maintenance or upkeep of sonic oscillators, I should mention that an indoor pool the size of Frank's costs about $20,000. The overall price could be quite a bit higher than I estimate based on that alone, so potential buyers should keep that in mind. Also, you'll have to pay to have someone install phone lines, because everyone knows that castles don't have phones. Don't Dream It, Be ItAssuming you decided to make this your home, you wouldn't be getting a lot of the cool goodies for that low price. You'd have to pay for the elevator, rockstar-sized meat locker, "Scooby-Doo on acid" gargoyles, all zen room playthings, and any blond creations on top of that base price. Still, to own a piece of cult history, wouldn't it be worth it? Besides, the thing is a spaceship in disguise, a thing us fans would know but potential realtors might not. For $224,224 we might be getting quite the steal, or even a ticket to Transexual Transylvania if we could figure out how to prepare the transit beam. All of this is just speculation, of course. All we know for sure is that this flick—and, by association, this house—will live on forever in movie lore. Oh, and one more thing: …pation. The post Rocky Horror Mansion Valued Today At $224,000 appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 12 Better Blogging Practices for Up-and-Coming Publishers Posted: 14 May 2014 08:31 PM PDT Readers are drowning in content. At the same time, bloggers are caught up in a never-ending rat race to author articles cheaper and faster.
Last month, WordPress.com users published 41.6 million new posts. Tumblr alone hosts 186.1 million blogs. Even though billions of people can access digital content, demand hasn't quite scaled as fast as supply has. It is safe to say that digital publishing is an absolute mess. Though competition for reader mind share is fierce, independent writers still stand a chance of being heard on the grand, global stage. Whether you're a small-time blogger or an established publishing house, here are a few tips well-worth remembering to help you blog smarter: 1. Email is your friend
Email is an easy way to gently alert loyal readers about newly published blog posts. Most readers won't have your blog bookmarked and fewer still would periodically check in to see if you've written a new article since their last visit. Fortunately, everyone checks their email. At Shareaholic, we use the Scroll Triggered Box plugin to capture new subscribers. Since we started using it, we've increased email subscriptions by more than 150%, and those readers tend to open our weekly newsletter more often than others. 2. Social sharing can go a long way
Growing a strong fan and follower base is hard work, but the beauty of social media is that you, yourself, do not have to always be at the forefront of promoting your content. All you have to do is enable your readers to do so, and you'll be surprised at how many referrals you might receive. Take, for instance, this post I wrote about LinkedIn's new publishing tool and what it can do for businesses. Generally, posts I actively promote on LinkedIn get 10-30 shares. This one received 600+ shares thanks to a few of our most enthusiastic readers. What should you do? Add social share buttons that'll let your readers do a lot of the work for you. 3. Always remember, engagement is one of your top performance metrics
The longer readers spend on your site, the more pages they visit, and the lower your bounce rate, the more successful you truly are as a publisher. High volume, fleeting traffic is of no use to anyone anymore, especially since the cat is finally out of the bag and advertisers and publishers know those dubious visits are thanks to misleading robot activity. Bloggers should focus on creating more in-depth content that not only will rank higher on search engines, but will also keep readers fully engaged. 4. Know text isn't the be-all and end-all (add interactive visuals and even gifs)
Some readers want long-form stories. Others want the story told in image or video form. Many want both, depending on the time of day and their current mood. The best publishers know how to create a healthy mix of all. On OkDork.com, Nate Desmond published a "How To" post that outlined his strategy for driving more social shares. In it, he used gifs to visualize, step-by-step, how to scrape a site and do analysis of social activity to identify the best times to publish and the most viral words to use. On the Shareaholic blog, Jennifer Spivak authored a post which included gifs to elicit stronger reader emotion, and they loved it — 99 Pinterest users thought it was well worth sharing. 5. Pay for traffic
As satisfying as purely organic growth is, the smartest blogs pay to promote their content too. The reasons are simple: there are limits to organic growth and paid traffic can boost an article's overall reach. Buzzfeed does this exceptionally well. When a Buzzfeed post becomes "hot," it has a high "social lift" quotient which means each new visit will actually spawn several more by virtue of the post's virality. For your own blog, it is well worth paying to amplify posts that are overperforming, so you get the most bang for your buck. 6. Provide targeted recommendations
Your most loyal readers are addicted to your content, so surface relevant posts for them so they may discover and continue to consume your best reads. Our related content widget has proven to increase sites' pageviews by up to 29% simply because it is available. Best of all, it is absolutely free for publishers. 7. Bring on the guest bloggers
Get more content, gain access to a new audience, and all you have to do is edit and format a post. Are you sold yet? Inviting serious guest bloggers — not the spammy link-generating kind — to contribute to your blog is a brilliant way to source more support for your blog and bring in a new audience (the guest blogger's fans and followers). As well, occasional contributors invigorate your blog with a new voice and help you boost your site's content portfolio so readers may access a greater breadth of information. 8. Interview the experts (or source expert opinions)
Let's face it. You are not the leading authority on anything in your niche (yet). While you're working your way to the top, you'll want to learn from industry experts who can teach you (and your readers) a thing or two about the topics you all care about. You can turn those interactions into recorded interviews for your blog, or highlight snippets and reference those to add credibility to new posts. 9. Empathize with your reader
Ultimately, publishers create content with the overarching goal of educating and entertaining readers. Therefore, readers' needs should always be top-of-mind, and if you're not aware of what their biggest needs are, survey them. Crowdsource post ideas through forums and social media. Research reports and studies that point out your audience's biggest struggles and build content that helps them on those ends. 10. Own your data
Use analytics to make better publishing decisions. Before you brainstorm next week's set of blog posts, craft an upcoming email newsletter, or do a complete site redesign, utilize sophisticated analytics to identify areas your reader connects well with or struggles with on your site. You might realize your food blog's audience is most receptive to posts about quinoa, while they absolutely abhor stories about fast food. Quantifying how often they comment about a particular topic or ask a certain question also sheds light on the things they truly care about (and want to read). The numbers you end up pulling may also help you identify areas for improvement on your site such as blog categories, user flow, etc. 11. Take an unconventional approach to content
You can simply ignore most of this advice and do the exact opposite of what the "experts" suggest are "best practices for blogging". For example, you can blog less, disclose sensitive information and publicly challenge your readers and yourself. The results may surprise you. 12. Be incredibly bold
As the digital publishing landscape evolves, it is also worth making bold moves to stay ahead of the curve. Therefore, whether you use any of the tips above or decide, intentionally, or do the opposite of everything I suggested, you should always be trying new and imaginative things. Though you're guaranteed to upset some readers, few will abandon you long-term as long as you don't make a habit of repeating the same mistake twice. The rest, including new readers, will admire and thank you for working hard to create content that matters in different ways and forms to best engage them. What are other smart blogging practices you'd love to share with us? Image source: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 The post 12 Better Blogging Practices for Up-and-Coming Publishers appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How To Use LinkedIn’s Most-Viewed Connections Feature To Leverage Personal Branding Posted: 14 May 2014 08:23 PM PDT My great-grandmother Michelena used to say "If you are going to have people over to your house for a party, then make sure you know who are the most popular, who you need to get to know better, and who can help you. If you are handing out cake, you want to make sure your most influential guests get a piece!"
Her advice can help you understand how to use social currency to plan accordingly – investment, influencer planning, sales focus, and content creation to name a few. Do you know whose social currency is worth the most in your network? If you knew whose brand was hot, what would you do to leverage it? LinkedIn launched a new feature called Most-viewed Connections – a rank-ordered list of your connections based on the amount of times their profiles have been viewed. The link to this feature is located just under the "Who's Viewed Your Profile" link. Click it and you have a rank-ordered list of your contacts, by profile views, as well as all contacts in your current company. How To Use LinkedIn In's Most-Viewed Connections Feature For Your Personal Branding Strategy1. Who are your network influencers? We all say that we dislike Klout scores and other numbers that rank us. But, as my great grandmother Michelena also said, "It is what it is." In today's personal branding terms, this means that if you have contacts in your LinkedIn network who are viewed a lot, then get you should get closer to them and leverage their influence. If they are getting checked out, then them must be influential, right.  LInkedIn Most-Viewed Connections is located under Who's Viewed Your Profile 2. What contacts should you spend time connecting with on other social channels? Believe it or not, your personal brand and your social selling hub extends beyond LinkedIn. If not, then you should start building an even deeper relationship with this group on Twitter, Google+, SlideShare, YouTube and blogs.  Receive immediate feedback from the tool to see where you rank against your connections. 3. Is it time to polish up your, or your team's, LinkedIn profile? My great grandmother would NEVER invite anyone to her house if it were not in pristine condition. If people are viewing you through the windows of your personal brand's home, LinkedIn, then it better be in great shape. Otherwise, you can damage your story. Or, your underwhelming presence could cause a customer to move on to the next person in their network. Use this new LinkedIn Most-viewed Connections tool to inspire you to make changes in your profile to increase views.  Is it time to polish your profile on LinkedIn? 4. Do you need some personal branding therapy to understand why no one is viewing you? People don't view your LinkedIn account because of the word the street is that you have a complete profile with your smiling face. The social media profile is new calling card, but content is the new networking tool. If your profile is not getting viewed, then it's because you are not regularly networking with content and engaging with your community and LinkedIn groups. Once they find you, then you need to make sure you have a complete profile with your smiling face displayed!  Increase your 2-week view counts to increase your profile views. 5. Who at your company can you tap to tell the company story? If you are looking for internal thought leaders to help tell your product or company story, then this LinkedIn feature is the one to use to find the 'hot personnel property.' Spend some time viewing your company's top 25 most-viewed social assets and leverage them with your speaking, blogging and video strategy.  See where you rank with your fellow team members. There must be more ways to use this LinkedIn feature. If you know of a way, please share it below. Every feature of every new and old social media platform should be innovatively and strategically considered as part of your social branding, social business or social selling strategy. It's like my great-grandmother used to say when making golumpki" you need to figure out how to use every ingredient creatively. Even those pig ears." Well, I am not sure how many pig ears she stuck into her golumpkis, but it taught me a lesson to look at every feature and tool to understand how I can use it to my advantage. I hope you picked up a tip or two. The post How To Use LinkedIn's Most-Viewed Connections Feature To Leverage Personal Branding appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 5 Quick Ways To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile Posted: 14 May 2014 07:47 PM PDT Do you have a LinkedIn profile? If so, you are in good company, with more than 300 million users, it's the world's largest social network for business professionals and among the fastest-growing social media sites joining behemoths like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Google + in terms of monthly active users.
Professional usage of social media sites as a business tool is on the rise and LinkedIn is the premier business to business networking site with users from all industries and countries converging to use it as powerful business-building tool. Unfortunately, LinkedIn is being taken for granted by far too many of you, which may be a huge mistake. LinkedIn No Longer Just a Job Hunting Site For many, LinkedIn is perceived primarily as a job hunting site; however that viewpoint is very short sighted. While LinkedIn is an extremely valuable head hunting tool (94% of recruiters use the site as a resource to vet candidates), the site has morphed into a full-fledged business development site and savvy users are finding great success as a publishing outlet, an outlet to source new vendors, and powerful lead generation tool. If you set up a profile and forgot about it, here are some usage statistics from the most recent LinkedIn quarterly earnings report as well a research report exclusive to Forbes to show you what you are missing: Here are some of the highlights:
In another recent Forbes survey of executives (director and above), LinkedIn is the favored social media site ranking well ahead of Facebook and Twitter. It's Time to Freshen up That Profile The world of social media is confusing for many of us, but the times are changing and optimized social media profiles are essential to doing business now and in the future. LinkedIn is the first stop that new business contacts go to evaluate you as a businessperson. What Message is Your LinkedIn Profile Conveying? If you haven't touched your LinkedIn profile in a while, it may be time to open it up and see how you are communicating your presence to the world. Here are 5 easy ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile and enhance your personal branding: 1) Claim Your Vanity URL Make your profile look more professional (and easier to share) by claiming your LinkedIn vanity URL.
Instead of a URL with a million confusing numbers at the end, it will look nice and clean like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbcuevas. Customize your URL by going here and clicking Customize your public profile URL along the right-hand side. 2) Upload a Professional Photo One of the most important parts of your LinkedIn profile is your photo. Your photo helps the people you invite to connect with you to identify you at a glance. You want to present a personable and professional image that conveys who you are as a professional. You don't need to hire a professional photographer to make a terrific impression, but if you do have a professional headshot use it. Make sure to avoid unprofessional and inappropriate images. Unfortunately these are all too common. Out of focus or grainy photos are also common on the site, so make sure the image has good resolution. Your best bet is a high resolution smiling photo that communicates energy and enthusiasm. 3) Grab People's Attention With an Optimized Headline According to LinkedIn Expert Melanie Dodaro of TopDog Social Media, "you've only got 120 characters for your LinkedIn profile headline and you should use every single one of them to leave an impression in the search results." LinkedIn search provides users with the ability to search using keywords and geo-targeting to find networking contacts and prospective vendors. Many users make the mistake of settling for a job title as their headline, while perceptive users utilize keyword rich headlines that will make it easy to be found for your particular niche, specialty or industry. According to Dodaro, "One of the most significant factors that will get you showing up on the first page of the search results is your LinkedIn headline." 4) Show Your Work Samples A recent and extremely cool feature of LinkedIn is the ability to show work samples. LinkedIn allows you to add a variety of media such as videos, images, documents, links, and presentations to the Summary, Education, and Experience sections of your LinkedIn profile. By adding work samples to your profile, a prospective employer or business lead can immediately view the quality of your work. This enables you to showcase different projects, provide samples of your work, and better optimize your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn provides a great tutorial about adding, removing, and rearranging work samples here. 5) Don't Neglect Your Summary The summary (your bio section) is a key piece of your LinkedIn real estate with a maximum word count of 2,000 words. All too often people don't bother to fill out this section on their LinkedIn profiles.
Why should you fill it out? It gives your profile viewer a quick overview of the who, what, where, when and why. Most importantly, this is a section of your profile where you can communicate what you can do for them. Most people won't take the time to read all of your job titles and try and figure out what skills you possess by looking at groups and associations. The summary provides you with the opportunity to communicate your value proposition – what you can do for others and why people would want to engage with you. You want your summary to stand out and leave the reader to want to connect with you immediately. LinkedIn is arguably the best online business-to-business tool that we have today. Starting with these five simple tips, will freshen up your profile and get you online business-ready. For more information on ways to get the most out of your online marketing spend, make sure that you download a free copy of our latest eBook, "How to Use the Internet to Drive Leads and Increase Revenue."
The post 5 Quick Ways To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Snapchat Updates – and How Brands Can Capitalize Posted: 14 May 2014 06:40 PM PDT
Every social platform is adding features to make it even easier to connect. Case in point: earlier this month, Snapchat introduced its biggest update yet. Now, in addition to trading disappearing photos and quick videos, you can actually "chat" with your network via text and video conversations — and you can save them, too. Straying from its model of impermanence, individual messages can be saved by tapping on the screen, giving you the newfound ability to track your interactions. The app's new feature challenges brands to become more social with their networks. One way Snapchat differs from other social media channels is that it's meant to connect "friends" through the sharing of funny, heartwarming, and engaging images. Brands that effectively use the app can build the same "friendship" with their followers. The dialogue no longer has to be one-way or broken up. You can now have a two-way, continuous conversations through which to build relationships on Snapchat. This means Snapchat can better fulfill one of the first commandments of social media marketing: adding value by publishing helpful content, answering questions, or providing tips. The functionality of these new features isn't perfect, but these enhancements give brands a reason to consider making Snapchat a more significant part of their social media strategies. Any thoughts on the video? The post Snapchat Updates – and How Brands Can Capitalize appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Family Cat Saves Small Boy From Dog Attack In Driveway (Video) Posted: 14 May 2014 05:46 PM PDT Uploaded to YouTube earlier today, a surveillance video from Bakersfield, California captured a dog attack a small boy riding around on his tricycle in a residential area. Not even seconds later, out of nowhere, the family cat named Tara fearlessly jumps and attacks the dog forcing him to let go of the boy's leg and run away. The video has gone viral, getting 160,000+ views since the morning. The dog (stray or belonging to someone?) doesn't appear to have a collar on, sees the boy from underneath a parked truck, runs around the vehicle, grabs the boys leg, swings him off his bike around in a circle, and before the cat saves the boys life. You can see the dog run away and the cat chases him far enough that the cat turns around to see if the boy is alright. His mother (assuming) runs towards the madness to get the boy up and see where the dog ran off too. The video ends with some photos of the boy's leg after the attack. His mother told KERO-tv that he is fine and only needed stitches.
According to TMZ.com, the dog was found by animal control and will be euthanized. [Photo credit: YouTube]The post Family Cat Saves Small Boy From Dog Attack In Driveway (Video) appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Choosing the Perfect Timing for your Social Media Posts Posted: 14 May 2014 03:47 PM PDT
When is the best time for you to send a tweet or post something on Facebook? With automation programs like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, marketers can easily schedule their posts ahead of time. Unfortunately, the actual time of the posts tend to be overlooked. Why is this important? Studies have shown that half of the total reach of a post will be achieved in the first 30 minutes. Choosing the correct time to post could greatly impact the number of people who will see it. Different target audiences will check their phones at different times. For example, if you're targeting high school students, the 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM segment becomes crucial as they're just getting out of school. If you're targeting young professionals, posts early in the morning are more effective since many of them read the news early on. Here are some of our posting time recommendations: Time of Day Reason 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM Did you know that 80 per cent of people aged 18-44 check their phones before they brush their teeth? An early morning post has the potential to be seen by a large number of your followers. 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM Both students and employees are on their lunch break. 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Many people check their feeds during dinnertime. Remember, every business is different. Times that may work for you may not work for your audience So when should you post? It might sound like cop-out answer, but you need to find out for yourself. Test your posts for different times of day and examine which ones work the best for you. As backward as it may sound, posts that are off-peak times may actually end up being more successful since there is less competition from other pages. If you just have no idea where to start, try our posting recommendations (listed above) for one week, and then move the times around for the next week and see if there's any dramatic changes in response or engagement. According to ConstantContact: "Try to find your engagement sweet-spot by determining the intersection of time when the majority of your audience is on Facebook and the time when the least overall posting is occurring." The post Choosing the Perfect Timing for your Social Media Posts appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 5 Sure-Fire Ways You Can Write Click-Worthy Blog Titles Posted: 14 May 2014 01:20 PM PDT Did you know that on average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest? When it comes to writing your blog title, first impressions are everything. You get one chance to make them click so make it count! Here are 5 sure-fire ways to make sure people will click on your titles. 1) Write with emotion, make readers feel somethingA title that evokes emotion is a strong one and I'll tell you why. Emotion spreads, especially when blog posts get shared on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Sentiment travels fast, says researchers at Beihang University in China. Writing with emotion really helps keep readers engaged. Jonah Berger, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a study that showed anger is a high-arousal emotion, which drives people to take action. It makes you feel fired up, which makes you more likely to pass things on. 2) Talk to your readers, like literally.When you're crafting your titles, address your readers when you can. Using 'you', 'your', 'yours' enables you to talk directly to them and makes them feel like you're interested in them and want to help with their problems. Heidi Cohen points out that 21% of respondents prefer headlines that literally talk to them. 3) Pack a punch with superlatives!Data from a Conductor study shows that readers resonate with superlatives in the headline. The number of superlatives will surprise you so take note of what they prefer.
4) Capitalize your titlesIt doesn't sound like a big deal, but when as much as 500% of traffic comes from headlines, you want to try to optimize your first impression as much as possible. So here's a tip on capitalization: do it. From the same Conductor study, it shows that readers will click on headlines that are in the traditional sentence case.
5) Start with a numberNumbers work well in titles, especially when you begin them with digits. Interestingly, the bigger the number the better. A lot of times, when you're using numbers in your titles, you're probably writing a "listicle", which is ok! People love reading list posts because it's easy to skim, straightforward, and delivers on what the headline promises. More tips!Here are more tips on creating engaging titles. Check out this guide we made! It's a summary of these points, plus some additional bonus tips! Pin it, share it, bookmark it to easily refer to it every time you write. How to Write Engaging and Effective Titles from Atomic Reach Lastly, the most important tip is to understand your readers.Think about what your readers and learn about what they like and want to read. Grab their attention by identifying what they want to know and what applies to them. Answer their questions and tell them why the content is important to them. By doing so, you're focusing on your audience's needs. Apply these tips to write click-worthy blog titles to really engage your readers. Do you have any other tips on writing amazing titles? Do tell in the comment section!The post 5 Sure-Fire Ways You Can Write Click-Worthy Blog Titles appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Flying Bounce House? Three Kids Injured After ‘Freak Dust Devil’ Ruins Party Posted: 14 May 2014 12:57 PM PDT Have you ever seen a flying bounce house? It isn't as fun as it sounds. Three children were injured this week after a "freak dust devil" sent a bounce house flying through the air with the kids inside.
According to MSN, three children were playing in a bounce house in South Glens Falls, New York on Monday when a strong gust of wind sent the toy castle airborne. Two of the children, ages 5 and 6, suffered injuries when they fell out of the bounce house while it was about 15 feet in the air. The other child, 10, fell out of the bounce house as soon as it took flight and only received minor injuries. Taylor Seymour, whose sister was injured in the accident, told WLIX: "The first thing I thought was that was my sister falling through the sky, because all I saw was arms and legs going." South Glens Falls was experiencing 6-8 mph wind gusts during the time of the accident but AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Eric Leister noted that winds can get much stronger in localized areas. Leister said: "Wind gusts can be very localized and also depending on terrain and structures, winds can be funneled and become much stronger than other nearby areas, which could possibly explain the extreme wind gusts responsible for lifting the inflatable bounce house." Another AccuWeather.com Meteorologist, Jesse Ferrell, said that the flying bounce house may have been caused by a "freak dust devil." Ferrell said: "The truth is, vortexes are all around us constantly; it takes something physical to give them shape such as dust, snow, steam or leaves."
The Glens Falls Post Star reports that two of the children were taken to a nearby hospital with serious injuries after the accident. photo credit: Arnoffoto via photopin cc The post Flying Bounce House? Three Kids Injured After 'Freak Dust Devil' Ruins Party appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 3 Reasons Executives Should Be Active On Social Media Posted: 14 May 2014 12:13 PM PDT
The fact is that the top executives at different companies aren't all that social. A study from CEO.com found that just 5.6 percent of the CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are on Twitter. In addition to the time constraints, many execs just don't feel like it's worth it to be social. That's why most leave that for the marketing and communications team. But the benefits of having an active executive on social media can be worth it. Here's why. 1. Individual Brands Build Personal Connections.Unlike the company Twitter or LinkedIn account, a social executive who shares things periodically can build closer connections on a one-on-one basis with prospects, partners, investors and industry influencers. The material execs share shows people what's on their minds and what big issues they're thinking about for the future. This is a great way to both build thought leadership and help foster trust in the company. A study by BrandFog found that, among U.S. employees, 77 percent believe that actively social C-level executives create more transparency for the brand, and 83 percent believe that social media allows for stronger relationships. 2. Social Execs Can Amplify PR Campaigns.If a new piece of coverage about the company comes out, a social-savvy executive can significantly amplify the reach of that coverage through a single status update. The same goes for press releases, blog posts, case studies and any other collateral that supports the brand. An exec who has an active social presence cannot just help elevate visibility for his/her company but also become a big asset for storytelling. Social media serves as a platform for them to communicate directly, transparently and immediately with their audience; this is especially important in times of a crisis. 3. Conversations Can Lead to Conversion.Business is all about building relationships. If execs take the time to follow and connect with industry peers or businesses that truly interest them and then interact by sharing content or tweeting a response to a conversation, that can create a ripple effect. According to the BrandFog survey, 61 percent of U.S. respondents are more likely to purchase from a company whose values and leadership are communicated through exec participation on social media. Clearly, execs should choose to make the relationships on social media count because customers are paying attention. We've all seen how one social media conversation can snowball into something much bigger, for better or worse. With the right engagement strategy, social-savvy executives can foster meaningful conversations and grow relationships that turn into real opportunities. An active social media presence effectively means that there's a networking event at anywhere, anytime, so the brand building is limitless. As long as you feel like showing up. The post 3 Reasons Executives Should Be Active On Social Media appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
If there's one word that you could safely use to describe executives at tech companies, it's probably "busy." After the meetings, presentations, networking events and sales calls, there's hardly a moment to spare. And especially not for something like "social media."| You are subscribed to email updates from Twitter Tools Reviews To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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