TwitterToolsReviews

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• How Can Social Media Add Value to Cold Calling
• How To Come Up With Blog Ideas Again And Again
• Social Media APIs and Data Collection Strategies
• “The Bachelorette” Is Back! – Chris Bukowski Crashes, Awkward Interactions, and a Tribute to Eric Hill
• Serial Blogging: It Could Happen to You
• How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses [REPORT]
• Electronic Frontier Foundation Report: For The First Time, Facebook ‘Has Your Back’ Against The Government
• We Hope Not: Twitter Reported To Be Interested In Buying SoundCloud
• Hooters Denies It Posted Rape Joke On Facebook
• How to Write Killer Blog Titles

How Can Social Media Add Value to Cold Calling Posted: 20 May 2014 08:49 PM PDT Daniel Frances With all the social media platforms out there, many companies – and sales managers – believe that cold calling has become obsolete. The fact is – nothing could be further from the truth. When it comes to marketing, one of the most incredible present-day advantages has to be the culture of connectivity. Everybody is online. Gone are the days when you had to travel to old Mr Smith's offices, clutching a business card in your sweaty hand, desperately hoping that his 90-year old secretary would let you through the door. Now, with some simple preparation – and learning to work smart – you have dozens of ways to get through the door and engage with Mr Smith. Social media enables you to find an incredible amount of information about your prospect, so make it work for you. How? Invite potential clients to visit your Facebook page or LinkedIn profile. Work on establishing an online presence, posting, commenting on or sharing relevant information that may be of interest to these prospects, while creating the impression that you are knowledgeable and trustworthy. All of these provide clients with greater peace of mind, knowing that they are dealing with a real company with confidence and interest in their own brand and social interaction. What I'm talking about here is called Attraction Marketing – very appropriately, I think. Remember: people buy from people. Not only that, but they overwhelmingly buy from people they know and trust. That means that you need to get face to face, turn on the charm, put on some good manners, and get your prospect to that first date. You're sowing the seeds; you're establishing trust long before you get face to face. On a much deeper psychological level, you're doing something called 'pre-framing', which is the skill of asserting your personality without the other person even being aware of it. So, what is cold calling? If the words 'Sales', 'Marketing', or 'Advertising' appear anywhere in your office or department, then you probably don't need any introduction to cold calling. The odds are – it introduced itself to you. And for some people, particularly sales newbies, that introduction can feel like a visit to the dentist. But is that really what cold calling is all about? I don't believe so, not for one minute. You see, knowledge is power – and the right kind of knowledge can take a huge amount of stress out of approaching a new prospect. In fact, with the right training and mind set, you can actually look forward to approaching your prospect. And if you do it correctly, not only will he become your client, but he'll wind up liking and trusting you. Oh, and giving you money. Too good to be true? Well, it isn't. Before you can play a game of chess, you need to learn the rules. Cold calling – which is defined as 'unsolicited contact with a prospective client' – is no different. Once you understand the rules (the simple principles of creatively engaging and interacting), your ability to do so – and to do so astoundingly well – increases in bucket loads. Did you know that it's usually just a few people from sales that are responsible for the biggest chunk of the turnover? The reason – they have taken the time and effort to learn specific skills which guarantee them a competitive edge. One of these key skills – possibly the most important one of all – is the ability to consistently seek out new business by cold calling with confidence and authority. So why doesn't everyone, well… just do it? The answer can be summed up with a very well-known four letter word beginning with 'F'. That's right: FEAR – which simply stands for Forever Expecting Awful Results. We all fear rejection. And the vast majority of salespeople out there approach a new prospect with a pre-expectation that they will be rejected. Why? Because it only takes a few rejections to make you believe that 'NO' is somehow a default setting aimed at you. Why Has Cold Calling Received Such a Bad Rap? There are several reasons cold calling carries a negative stigma. Most of these are down to the salesperson not laying the foundation and trying to play chess blindfolded: Not knowing who to speak to If you 'cold call' a company and don't know who to speak to, you're going to look profoundly unprofessional. Imagine being in the shoes of a switchboard operator or department head. Operator: "Certainly! Who would you like to speak to?" You: "Um… I don't really know." Seriously? I wouldn't want to do business with you either. Do the research, folks! Lack of knowledge of the target I'm not talking about whether they like Sushi, but rather about their business function, the company they work for (or own), and their core business offering. Your basic knowledge should include: Understanding the business goals of your target. Knowing how big the company is; what the company objectives are, and what products and services they offer. Get to know their culture. Critically important – find out who your competitors are. Who is providing them with the service or product you're offering? Why should they rather buy from you? Here's a biggie: Not conversing Cold calling is not about talking AT someone. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to have someone phone you, and then blurt out a scripted 'sales pitch' like a terrified rabbit with Attention Deficit Disorder? You need to calm down. Establish rapport (which only takes a few seconds if you do it right). Ask questions and provide feedback. Understand that it's about arranging that first date – your prospect has to like you before you can invite them to a movie. If you ignore this, and just shotgun your prospect with a sales pitch, you'll be setting yourself up for the other 'F-word' – FAILURE. So, How Do You Create a Winning Cold Calling Strategy? A proper cold calling strategy involves more than one step. It requires investing some time and effort – prospect diligently, decide on qualified leads and use social media to find out more about your prospects – understand their business and needs. Then – and only then – call to set up a meeting, or to discuss the potential of a meeting. Social media hasn't replaced cold calling, but is an incredibly powerful tool that enhances a successful cold calling strategy. If you are ready to tackle cold calling head on, check out The Cold Call Bible; where you will be taught how to source qualified clients, set up meetings with key decision makers, and increase your sales exponentially. The post How Can Social Media Add Value to Cold Calling appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

How To Come Up With Blog Ideas Again And Again Posted: 20 May 2014 07:35 PM PDT Monica Montesa One of the most common questions people ask me in regards to my job is how I'm able to write about the same topic over and over again. While there are certainly a few days where I ask myself the same thing, I always tell them that there are two reasons why it's possible. First, there's plenty to write about if you think journalistically and dig into the details at the same time (think Red Bull and their extreme sports focus). Second, you just find something to write about – sometimes, that's part of the journalist's job, too. Although there isn't an exact approach for dealing with this extremely common problem, there are some tried-and-true ways to work around the issue. Sure, you might not always discover the best blog topic ever, but it does allow you to maintain the momentum of content creation. At the same time, however, stay away from lowering your standards and creating crap—quality is always important. So, what do I do when I'm struggling with a topic? I look to the following for inspiration: Google Search: A great way to discover content ideas (that has the added benefit of being awesome for SEO) is by typing your topic into the Google search bar (without pressing Enter or Search) to see what people are most commonly searching for. If I'm writing about diets for dogs for example, I'll begin typing "What foods can dogs" and see what autocomplete predictions appear. For additional insights, change the phrase so you can get other content ideas. If I want other topic ideas related to doggy diets, I might type in "How much food to feed a dog" to find what people are interested in.  Google News: If you know the topic you'd like to cover, perform a search under the News tab in Google to see if there's any recent information about it. If you find something you like, then all is right in the world.  Social Media (Specifically Twitter): Similar to Google, I often use Twitter as a search engine to see what people are saying about my topic. It's a great way to get the most recent information that may not be as easily discoverable on Google, such as state of the industry reports. Or, I might find other blog posts that cover the topic or questions people are asking about it. You can also use Facebook, Google+, or other social media platforms. Other Blogs: There's nothing wrong with checking out what the Jones' are creating for a little inspiration, especially if you know they do it really really well. Look to bloggers and organizations that create quality content to see what they're doing and how they're doing it. Discover topics and pieces of content that are popular for them and use it to inspire a post of your own. Just make sure you don't copy it verbatim (or even big chunks of it) and claim it as your own; that's plagiarism, and it's highly frowned upon.  News Organizations: Industry-specific media outlets are great sources for content topics, as they're ahead of the curve and breaking important news. For the latest in marketing, I often look to media outlets such as Mashable, Digiday, and Ad Age. Larger news organizations, such as The New York Times are also good resources, as long as they cover your industry. Events: Whether it's a lecture or a webinar, attending events related to your industry or topic of interest is a great way to find inspiration for your blog. Chances are, you'll learn something new, so why not share that insight with others? New Products: Depending on the industry, trying out something new and reviewing it in a blog post is a great way to add content to your blog. I love exploring new apps or checking out a new content-driven website and discussing the pros and cons of each.  Curated Content: If you're really stuck or in a time crunch, content curation is good to fall back on. You can easily do this by linking to articles that are relevant to your organization and including a brief synopsis of what it is and why it's important. Comments Sections: You can find a lot of inspiration for content ideas just by reading comments people have made to your previous posts or even posts by other bloggers. Look for questions or new thoughts that people share that are not addressed within the original blog.  Existing Content: Identify your successful blog posts and see if you can update it or re-purpose it as something else, such as a slideshow, infographic, podcast, etc. Additionally, consider creating an editorial calendar so you're not on the spot every time you need to write something. Use the methods above to help you brainstorm a list of ideas from which to choose. Trust me, it can make a HUGE difference! Have any other ideas for creating content? Share in the comments below! The post How To Come Up With Blog Ideas Again And Again appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Social Media APIs and Data Collection Strategies Posted: 20 May 2014 04:51 PM PDT Jason Bowden Image credit: sociolytics.files.wordpress.com   Social Media APIs and data collection is very important to any digital marketer who understands the wealth of information that it can provide in order to help improve the ability of your business to thrive more competitively in the online marketing industry. An API refers to the application programming interface which is viewed by search engine optimization professionals as valuable in any SEO and marketing campaigns. Social media platforms use APIs in order to allow the development of web applications that will be suited to its own programming structure for third parties to use and integrate its service features to their own websites. Through APIs, websites can share information seamlessly. If you are fond of using social media widgets to your website, the application uses API in order to connect your website to a particular social media network and make the exchange of information smoother and convenient through the apps. A classic example in the use of APIs in social media marketing is the FriendShuffle which is an application that draws out tweets from the Twitter social network. The API is responsible in helping the application developer to create its own apps that will harmoniously work with Twitter's own programming structure. Many social media networks have currently established their own APIs and digital marketers have been using them to harness the benefits of using social media APIs. With many benefits that can be extracted from social media APIs, it has become a good social media marketing practice to ensure that your business is API friendly. The influence of the social media has become a game changer in the online marketing industry. Your brand promotion should include social media APIs strategy in order to reap maximum benefits from the social media influence to the consumers. Your business needs social connection to the consumers Image credit: blog.programmableweb.com   About 60% the consumers are engaged in online shopping and these groups of online consumers are very active in the social platforms. Your business has the ability to connect to your prospect customers by growing your social connections through social media marketing. You can pull out tweets, ask your customers to like your brand on Facebook, give them good reason to tweet about your latest product updates and promote your brand locally using Foursquare. You need social media APIs in order to use applications that will enhance social sharing of your brand and to keep your business connected to your customers through the social media networks. Social media apps like widgets and share buttons will help encourage your viewers to share your brand to their own social connections. By doing so, you are able to expand and grow your brand popularity online and it helps you to improve your ability to maintain social connection of your business that helps promote brand loyalty and followers. Pull out intelligent social media information through social media APIs Image credit: static1.businessinsider.com   The social media has wealth of information available to an online marketer to use in enhancing their business marketing strategies. Big data collection is embedded within the social media and you can extract it using social media apps. APIs build a convenient programming environment between the application and a social media website to pull out and extract features that will be helpful to your social media marketing efforts. Pull out the best pins from Pinterest and re-pin it to your own profile. Using the Pinterest API that is used by the apps, it is now easy to do this in just a few clicks. Use the social media APIs like that of Twitter and Facebook to open the opportunities of keeping a tight watch on the consumer behaviour and preferences. Monitor how the social community resonates about your own products or that of your competitors. Collect and easily aggregrate social data to give your business the marketing advantage. Social APIs gives your social strategies a boost by providing an easy way to collect data from your competitors. Social APIs helps your business to standout from the crowd Almost all digital marketers are already using social media marketing as part of their online marketing schemes. In your effort to make your brand standout to the social media networks it is necessary how you approach your brand marketing in a way that it will not overload the consumers with options. Use social media apps as a tool in sifting through the most important posts, tweets and popular social mentions in the social community and then highlight them to your own brand to give your brand more value in enticing your prospect customer to take notice of your brand. Social APIs can deliver more targeted branding promotion to your business using the social media applications. Use social widgets to display your posts and updates regularly to give your online visibility a boost and make your brand more popular. Social media API data collection strategies Social networks offer free information that can help you enhance your social media marketing campaigns. Here are some of the social media API data collection strategies that you might find helpful to your own social marketing campaigns: Google Plus APIs Image credit: dev.html5m.com Using the Google Plus relevance graph, a social marketer can increase his authorship popularity, relevancy and credibility to his audience and followers. Integrating the social media API using the Google +1 button to your posts will help give your authorship more value to the search engine that helps you gain better search ranking on Google search results page. LinkedIn APIs Image credit: www.jibberjobber.com   Using the LinkedIn APIs, you have the opportunity to build your own talent graph that will help increase your own network of social connections. You can create as much as 999 first degree connections to your LinkedIn profile and using LinkedIn social apps it is easy to grow your professional business brand and expertise using the LinkedIn APIs and to collect relevant information from people with similar expertise as yours. Facebook social APIs Image credit: www.abouttheweb.de Facebook has the largest number of social community members giving its APIs a high value among social media marketers. Using the Facebook Like button you can integrate powerful social signals to your web page and at the same time view the most popular brands that receive the highest number of likes. With the like button pressed about 2.7 billion times a day by the Facebook social media fans, you have many data to work on with. Twitter APIs Image credit: pad1.whstatic.com There are about 143,199 tweets generated each day on Twitter and using its API powered applications, tracking down the most popular tweets is easy. You can use apps that pull out the tweets with the highest number of re-tweets and get the information about what your target consumers like and prefer from a business like yours. YouTube entertainment APIs Image credit: developers.google.com Using YouTube apps you can extract relevant videos that promote the same business as your niche. It is easier to track down what kind of video presentations your competitors are using in promoting their business brand and market. Pinterest graphic APIs Image credit: magentools.com Using the Pinterest APIs you can easily categorize pinboards and extract relevant information about the latest infographics from your competitors. By knowing which pins have the most number of re-pins from the social media community will give you significant data that will give an insight what the social media users find as enticing in terms of infographic strategies. The post Social Media APIs and Data Collection Strategies appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. 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“The Bachelorette” Is Back! – Chris Bukowski Crashes, Awkward Interactions, and a Tribute to Eric Hill Posted: 20 May 2014 02:54 PM PDT Rachel Consoli Andi Dorfman, the new Bachelorette Season 10 of the popular, addicting, and wonderfully ridiculous show, "The Bachelorette", made its premiere on Monday, May 19. Andi Dorfman, 26, an attorney from Altanta, Georgia, is the star of this year’s show. She was a contestant on the last season of the partner program, "The Bachelor", and even made it to the final three, but after receiving some less than charming off-screen time with former Bachelor Juan Pablo, she realized he just wasn't for her and walked away. The creators of this long-running show were moved by her spunk and asked her to come back to try and find her chance of a happily ever after. Most of the limo entrances were standard with typical remarks of, "Wow", "You're so beautiful," and a rather unfortunate opening line from contestant Dr. Jason saying, "I think you have a fever, 'cause you're lookin' pretty hot." Ouch, not a surprise that he was eliminated on night one. Other bizarre standouts were Emil telling Andi to pronounce his name AYE-mel, "like anal, but with an m", not exactly the best impression, and then there's Brett who claims his mother taught him never to meet a lady empty handed and comes up with the solution of stealing a lamp from his hotel. Interesting choices, men. Not all of the boys are duds though, out of the gate standouts are Tasos for his sweet Lover's Bridge in Paris reference by putting a lock on the gate of the mansion and throwing the key into the fountain, cute attempt. And Nick V. who ultimately gets the first impression rose for opening up to her about being the oldest of 11 children and feeling like a father figure. Opening up and being yourself is clearly the perfect route to this Bachelorette's heart, so he's on his way. There were some very odd twists to this premiere though. Since the show is filmed months in advance of its premiere, a lot of things can happen in between that time. Unfortunately in this case, one of the contestants Eric Hill has since passed away due to a paragliding accident. The show began with a beautiful tribute to him in recognition, but thoughts and prayers to his family and it'll certainly be tough watching him as the show progresses. On a less somber note and more genuinely annoying, Chris Bukowski, a former contestant from Emily Maynard's season of "The Bachelorette" decided to crash the party. He showed up to the mansion with a bouquet of roses, original, claiming he needed to meet Andi and was meant to be with her. Chris Bukowski, former contestant vies for attention Chris Harrison, the host, dealt with the situation and half-heartedly pleaded his case to the Bachelorette. To the crasher's dismay, Andi was not biting and decided it wouldn't be fair to the men inside who waited patiently for her and were doing their best to impress her. She said she didn't want to start off relationships with them on a bitter note and decided to turn away the intruder. He seemed genuinely wounded for not being able to at least talk to her, but we know from past seasons he's not the most sincere person and if he really wanted to meet her it would have been much easier to contact Harrison ahead of time instead of sneaking around. Later Bukowski tweeted: I should have went through the back entrance. #bachelorette — Chris Bukowski (@chrisjbukowski) May 20, 2014 He clearly doesn’t seem to get it. That being said, the rose ceremony commenced as usual. Nick V is already safe with the first impression rose, and the others who received a rose are: - JJ - Eric - Marquel - Craig - Tasos - Josh M. - Brian - Bradley - Marcus - Andrew - Ron - Carl - Chris - Dylan - Brett - Patrick - Cody - Nick S. Then the six men eliminated from the first episode of "The Bachelorette" were as followed: - Dr. Jason Leep - Rudie Baldwin - Josh Bauer - Mike Campanelli - Steven Woolworth - Emil Schaffroth Previews display that the show will be full of kissing, tears, and plenty of drama. Looks like it's going to be just as juicy as always and we're definitely on a great start for a good season. Image Source:http://static.east.abc.go.com/service/image/index/id/c7c87019-e9c3-4573-a41c-08a21d7aaeaa/dim/x.jpg Image Source:http://voices.suntimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Bukowski.jpg The post "The Bachelorette" Is Back! – Chris Bukowski Crashes, Awkward Interactions, and a Tribute to Eric Hill appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Serial Blogging: It Could Happen to You Posted: 20 May 2014 02:30 PM PDT Martha Spelman Anyone who's considered blogging (or who has actually undertaken that commitment) will probably tell you that it ain't easy. Coming up with ideas, producing each blog post and then publishing, distributing and promoting each post takes time. But content marketing is worth it. Sign on and you'll build your industry recognition and "go-to expert" status, gain SEO, have a good reason to get in touch with those on your email list, garner exposure through guest blogging opportunities, strengthen your brand and shape your marketing message. Tough? Yes. Impossible, definitely not. And here's a way that could make it all much easier. Create a blog series. It makes sense. Take your big idea and break it down into "chunks" of information. Address one part of the big idea per post. If you were hired to provide customers with a roadmap of solutions to their needs — you'd give them a manual. That's what a blog post series is. Think of the questions clients ask you, the problems they encounter, the challenges you come across. Answer those questions, solve those problems, meet those challenges. And serial blog posting is the way to do it. I wrote my ebook, The Cure for Blogophobia: How to Create, Publish and Promote Your Business Blog, one post at a time. At the start, I really had no idea that an ebook would be the end result. But when I began listing all of the points I wanted to make, the resources I could provide and the expertise I offer, it became much easier to create it as a step-by-step process. Other benefits of serial blogging? Having that ready-made road map makes it easier to know your next assignment. Readers anticipate each installment and you end up with material for speaking engagements, Slideshare presentations, podcast or webcast content, maybe an ebook and an increase in your status as a "thought leader." In other words, you'll be creating marketing materials with which to build your business. Seriously, become a serial blogger. Make the commitment and you'll reap the benefits. The post Serial Blogging: It Could Happen to You appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses [REPORT] Posted: 20 May 2014 01:59 PM PDT Alex Charalambous Social Media Examiner released their 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report that surveyed over 2,800 marketers in order to understand how they are using social media to grow and promote their businesses. This post will share the highlights from the report. Hopefully these results and analysis will help you to increase your impact on social media and improve your overall online marketing program. You may be surprised by some of the results. Social media is important for business According to the survey, 92% of marketers indicated social media is important for their business and 68% of marketers plan on increasing their use of blogging. Another trend we saw was that podcasting is on the rise and 21% plan to increase their podcasting activities. Facebook and LinkedIn were the two most important social networks for marketers. But only 43% of marketers feel like their Facebook efforts are working. We think that this is because it's hard for marketers to see the ROI from Facebook, but that doesn't mean it's not important. Facebook is a great avenue to show your company's personality and company culture. It can also give your company personality apart from your website that is business focused. The benefits of social media marketing The study showed that the top two perceived benefits of social media were increased exposure and increased website traffic. And 80% of respondents reported positive results. Eight-four percent of participants found that increased traffic occurred with as little as 6 hours per week invested in social media. More than half of marketers who've been using social media for at least 3 years have seen it help them improve sales. However, 50% of all marketers in the survey had not seen social media marketing help them with improving sales. This shows that it takes time to build a presence and audience on social media. It also could have been because the companies lacked the tools to track sales. Another benefit from social media was a gain in partnerships. More than half of marketers who've invested at least one year in social media reported that new partnerships were gained. In addition, 66% of marketers spending as little as 6 hours per work in social media saw lead generation benefits. Marketers also saw improved search engine rankings from social media. This was especially true for marketers that had been using social media for one year or longer with 58% reporting a rise. This further proves that it's important to commit to social media for the long term. It's a marathon, not a sprint. While you might not see dramatic results right away, after a year of consistent posting, you should begin to see results if you are posting quality, targeted content for your audience. Social Platforms to Use Those just getting started with social media selected Facebook as their number-one choice, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn. While the more experienced social media marketers are on those three platforms, they were using more platforms consistently and had a higher focus on content creation (i.e. YouTube, blogging and podcasting). When asked to choose the single most important social platform, 54% of marketers chose Facebook as the most important platform, followed by LinkedIn (17%), Twitter (12%) and then blogging (8%). When comparing B2B and B2C in choosing the most important social network, Facebook (68%) dominated in the B2C space while LinkedIn (33%) passed Facebook (31%) for B2B marketers. Importance of original content More than half of marketers (58%) selected original written content as their most important kind of content, followed by original visual assets (19%) and then original videos (12%). In addition, B2B marketers placed even more importance on original written content (65% compared to 52% of B2C marketers). When looking to the next year, 81% of marketers plan to increase their use of original written content and 73% plan to increase their use of original videos. Marketers also want to learn more about creating original visual assets such as infographics, which are gaining popularity in the social media world. The survey also asked about outsourcing. Surprisingly, the percentage of marketers that are outsourcing their social media has been steady over the past few years, staying around 30%. The two areas that marketers are outsourcing the most is design/development and content creation. Looking ahead Sixty-eight percent of marketers plan to increase their use of blogging in the next year. They also plan to increase their use of YouTube (67%), Twitter (67%), LinkedIn (64%) and Facebook (64%). Google+ has been a much-debated social platform for some time, but 61% of marketers plan to increase their Google+ activity in the coming year. However, about 1 in 5 marketers do not plan to use Google+ at all. Interestingly, even though only 6% of marketers currently use podcasting, a significant 21% plan to get involved more with it this year, which is a three-fold increase. This is likely fueled by the global adoption of smartphones, Apple's introduction of CarPlay and major auto manufacturers opening up the dashboard to third-party apps. This survey shows how content marketing and social media marketing are important components of a marketing strategy. Marketers are using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as the top platforms and looking to continue to create original content. The post How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses [REPORT] appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Electronic Frontier Foundation Report: For The First Time, Facebook ‘Has Your Back’ Against The Government Posted: 20 May 2014 01:20 PM PDT Ian DeMartino Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, (EFF) the world's leading digital rights and privacy advocacy group, issued its fourth annual "Who Has Your Back" report, and for the first time, Facebook, along with several other tech companies, received six star ratings. Twitter and regional Californian ISP Sonic, were the sole two tech companies that received six star ratings last year, now Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Google, Dropbox and CREDO Mobile all joined the list. But it is Facebook's inclusion that is in some ways the most surprising. The social media giant has a reputation, whether it is deserved or not, of being careless with user information. The report by the EFF shows that, at least when it comes to Government requests, Facebook is making major strides. It's important to note that while Facebook is making strides in protecting user data against the Government, the report didn't study how much information Facebook shares with other third parties. They have been making at least a public effort on that front as well. Five other social media sites/apps received five star ratings and only missed the sixth because they have not taken the Government to court, but otherwise protected user data from the government: LinkedIn, Pinterest, tumblr, WordPress and Wickr. Wickr competitor Snapchat meanwhile received an industry-wide worst one star rating, scoring points only for "publishing law enforcement guidelines" but does not require a warrant for government data requests, does not tell users about government requests, does not fight for user rights in either courts or in Congress and does not publish transparency reports. Amazon and Myspace (for anyone still on that) received two stars ratings. [Photo Credit: Flohuels] The post Electronic Frontier Foundation Report: For The First Time, Facebook 'Has Your Back' Against The Government appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

We Hope Not: Twitter Reported To Be Interested In Buying SoundCloud Posted: 20 May 2014 12:35 PM PDT Duncan Riley Twitter is reportedly considering a deal to purchase music sharing site SoundCloud. The potential acquisition, first reported by Re/Code, is said to be an attempt by the NASDAQ listed Twitter to overcome its current growth problem; specifically its lack of growth. Berlin based SoundCloud describes itself as a "online audio distribution platform where individuals can create sounds and share them everywhere." The company has become a major distribution for not only indie and independent artists, but also mainstream artists and celebrities. While a proposed acquisition price has not been discussed, the company has raised $123.3 million in venture capital with its most recent round valuing the company at $700 million. If Twitter was to acquire SoundCloud, it wouldn't be its first foray into the music scene. Twitter acquired We Are Hunted in early 2013 which it used as a base to launch Twitter Music. If you don't remember Twitter Music you're not alonw: Twitter completely managed to destroy its acquisition and wound it up last month. While SoundCloud would be a different proposition, Twitter's previous history with acquisitions isn't exactly a positive sign. They're not in the Yahoo "lets destroy everything we buy" territory quite yet, but only due to time and a lack of acquisitions. We sincerely hope that Twitter doesn't buy SoundCloud; while music is heavily shared on Twitter (and SoundCloud is a big part of that) Twitter does not have the depth of management or knowledge to run a site that really has nothing to do with its core business. Then again two months in Facebook hasn't destroyed Occulus Rift yet…but give it time The post We Hope Not: Twitter Reported To Be Interested In Buying SoundCloud appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Hooters Denies It Posted Rape Joke On Facebook Posted: 20 May 2014 12:04 PM PDT Ian DeMartino Few things in this world are more misogynistic than the restaurant chain Hooters. The chain is better known for its thighs and breasts than its wings and it is generally proud of that fact. Its Facebook page also makes no apologies for its business strategy, with the company consistently featuring aforementioned breast and thighs in its picture posts. But there is at least one thing that is too misogynistic for even Hooters to want to associate itself with: Rape jokes. On Saturday morning an image was posted onto the Hooters Facebook account that made light of sexual assault. The picture, like millions of other unoriginal memes on the internet, was designed to look like a motivational poster. The image showed a girl wearing shorts and spreading her legs while pointing to her crotch. The tagline stated "EXHIBIT A: The Proof that she was asking for it your honour." Understandably, people got a little upset. Hooters eventually took down the picture and claimed that their account had been hacked. They said they needed to contact Facebook in order to restore access to their account, an excuse some have doubted. The image has appeared on the internet at least as far back as 2010, without the tagline, and could be found with the tagline from at least weeks before the picture was posted on Hooter's account. Interestingly enough, the "Honour" indicates that whoever first posted the image first seems to prefer either U.K. or Australian English, Hooters is based in the United States. Many have been quick to doubt Hooters claims that it was hacked, it is a tactic used by everyone from sports stars to politicians when their social media antics have gotten them in trouble. It is certainly not unreasonable for Hooters to claim that their Facebook page has been hacked, but it's their claim that they couldn't access the Facebook account for over five hours that has some doubting them. The meme does seem out of character for the Hooters account. The account does post images, mostly professional-looking pictures of their staff and food, that would make your average feminist a little uncomfortable. However, the rape joke picture, in addition to being an amatur photo posted in the popular "meme" format, seems far beyond what the company that, while always flirting dangerously close to "the line" is generally careful of not crossing over it. The image, of course, has been taken down and Hooters has apologized. We will have to wait and see if the truth about who posted the offending image will ever come out. Facebook has not commented on whether they are "working closely" with Hooters on the issue, as Hooters claims. The post Hooters Denies It Posted Rape Joke On Facebook appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

How to Write Killer Blog Titles Posted: 20 May 2014 12:00 PM PDT Michael Bird One of the best ways to keep in touch with your audience is through an engaging news or blog page on your website. On these pages, you can post tons of useful information, tips and recommendations that your audience is dying to know. All your brilliant ideas are stocked up if they'd only check out your blog. So why aren't more people checking out your articles if they're so awesome? Are you doing something wrong? Are you being sabotaged? Chances are there's just one thing that you need to change in order to make more people read through your blog: check your blog titles. People can't help but judge a blog by its title. There are so many high quality articles out there that aren't captivating the right audience simply because they're not catchy enough. What's more, did you know that up to 50% of a blog post's effectiveness is accounted for by its title? Imagine if great books had bland titles. Would you read To Kill a Mockingbird if its title was really Trial and Racism in the 1930's or Romeo and Juliet if it was called Two Lovers? Think of your blog posts as masterpieces, and like every great work, they demand the best title! Killer Title Tip #1: Stick to the Odds Odd-numbered blog titles tend to perform better than those with even numbers. In fact, studies have shown a 20% increase in an article's click-through-rate whenever a blog post has an odd number of words in its headline. So if you have a blog title in mind, count the words. If it's even subtract a word or add an additional adjective there. But don't go overboard with the additions as you may go against one of the tips below! Killer Title Tip #2: Show Some Structure When a reader knows what to expect from your article, they're more likely to click through to your link. For example, if your blog was entitled "Today's Events," your reader would have very little information to go on in order to decide if he or she would want to check out what you've written. Try changing the name into something that denotes structures like lists, instructions or countdowns. For instance, instead of naming your post "Today's Events," try calling it "How to Get Through Rush Hour Traffic" or "4 Things I Learned Today." Killer Title Tip #3: Show Some Numbers A list article or a how-to article will more likely be clicked on if its title starts with a number. A number gives the reader an idea of how long your post would be. This ensures they won't be overwhelmed with a long list when they thought they'd just be reading your article for about 3 minutes. Killer Title Tip #4: Your Lucky Number is 70 70 characters are all that Google and Bing will display when they feature your article in the search engine results pages. So if you have 100+ characters in your title, the 30+ characters will just become ellipses; thus, your reader would have an incomplete idea of what your article is about. In addition, 70 characters for your blog titles are ideal for retweeting because there's still some space for a bit of intro plus the actual shortened link to your blog post. Killer Title Tip #5: Start with Keywords You probably already know just how important keywords are when you're doing SEO. An optimized headline gives you plus points for this. In order to make the best of your relevant keywords, try to keep them closer to the start of your title. Take the example of a list-style article about baking cupcakes. You could call it "12 Cupcake Secrets You Need to Know." Your keyword doesn't necessarily have to be the first word of your headline, but keeping it in the first three words definitely pays off more in terms of SEO. Killer Title Tip #6: Use Strategic Words Some words are more effective than others when it comes to attracting readers. This is the perfect time for you to whip out your thesaurus and start looking for synonyms. Words like "cool," "good," "nice," and the like are definitely not noteworthy. With such a finicky audience as Internet users, you need better words to attract more readers. Up the odds of getting more readers with words like surprising, secrets, science, huge, critical, intriguing and other hyperbolic words. These keep the readers and casual browsers interested enough to click through to your link. However, don't go overboard with these because it may make your entire blog seem too attention-seeking. Killer Title Tip #7: Learn from the Pros If you're not a pioneer in your industry, you'll probably have a lot of authoritative sources to look through in order to do research about your niche. These sources provide great material for finding inspiration in titling your blog posts. However, you shouldn't copy their titles verbatim as these authoritative sources will definitely best you in search engine results pages. Instead, just gain inspiration by checking out which of their posts get a lot of attention. Have a look at its title and try to discern why it's so catchy. Then, try to recreate this technique with your own blog posts. Are they using technical jargon? Are they using a lot of lists? Do they have instructional blog posts? Answer these questions and choose the right words, and you'll have your headline in no time! Image007: Authoritative sites with different blog titles Killer Title Tip #8: Keep Going Back to Your Headline You don't always have to come up with a title before you start writing. Yes, this may help you steer your writing towards answering your headline's biggest question, but there's always room for improvement. After you've written your content, go back to your title from time to time. See if this is still a title you would like your content to have. Try to check if there are any phrases or words that you've used in your content that would fit into the title. Tweak, write and then tweak again to perfectly match your content to your blog title! The post How to Write Killer Blog Titles appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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