Science people Bill Nye and Amy Schumer explain the universe

As it turns out, thousands of years of astronomy study has been all for naught, as Bill Nye revealed on Tuesday’s Inside Amy Schumer. In fact, he posits, the Universe’s main function is offering cosmic guidance to women in their twenties.

See also: Bill Nye explains evolution using emoji

“Try to imagine the universe as a giant dream board on which women pin their wishes,” Nye helpfully explains. The ladies of Broad City also drop by to illustrate Nye’s hypothesis: “The universe is totally gonna bring you an apricot puggle.”

So that explains why we get so riled up about that fact that Mercury is in retrograde Read more…

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Snapchat needs a live streaming feature, ASAP

Snapchat isn’t developing a live video feature yet, but it should

“We’re watching and learning,” 24-year-old Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel acknowledged onstage Tuesday evening at the annual Code conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

See also: Snapchat could be in for a big change

My advice to Snapchat? Dive in, head-first.

Live streaming, the kind popularized by apps like Meerkat and Periscope, isn’t just booming right now, it’s the future, one where everyone hops from stream to stream until they settle on one they like. This much we know, based on early adopters-turned evangelists: actors, musicians, politicians and many more folks who use the apps to broadcast raw video, capturing moments ranging from Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail to T-Mobile CEO John Legere on a 5-mile lunchtime run Read more…

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Biggest workplace pain in the rear: smartphone security

We’ve all been there. First day on the job and you’re sailing through the on-boarding process until you get to the IT and security portion. Before you know it, your phone has five new apps installed on it –- most of them you never knew existed until now. Every time you need to log into your e-mail, a specific website, or program, you’re bombarded with 2-step verifications codes, 6-number passcodes, PIN numbers, and random character password generators

See also: Mobile Devices Will Be Biggest Business Security Threat in 2014

Going through all those extra security steps not only burn up precious minutes in the office, especially if you don’t get the password right the first time, but can also contribute to grey hairs. And don’t get people started on the struggle of working remotely –- the absolute worst Read more…

More about Hacking, Security, Business, Passwords, and Data Security

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Why You Should Get Serious About Social Media Automation

Don’t you wish you had a few extra hours in your day?

Your to do list keeps getting longer and longer, and your stress levels are rising. Something needs to get pushed back.

Social media is on the chopping block.

Even though you know it has long term benefits, right now it feels like a pretty low priority. No one will notice if you don’t send out a Tweet today right?

What if there was a way to have an even bigger impact on social media than you are having right now, and do it in less time?

Social media automation enables you to do this.

3 things social media automation will help you achieve;

1. Maintain consistent content

Consistency is key to building a strong following on social media.

Businesses often create accounts on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, but have trouble achieving consistency. A  survey conducted with 900 social media users identified consistency as one of the most important factors that determines whether people continue to follow a brand.

Businesses that are strapped for time or do not have sufficient manpower to assign a dedicated team for social media management tend to drop off the social media radar.

As a result, they reap little or no benefits from marketing on social media.

Social media automation holds the solution to this problem.

Tools like DrumUp and Feedly help you discover fresh, trending content that you can share to your audience. DrumUp also lets you schedule posts, ensuring that your social accounts stay active even while you’re offline.

Feedly

DrumUp

2. Get control over your strategy

Automation tools give you more control over your social accounts and helps you post more content.

Depending on the tool you choose to use, you can control the kind of content that is shared, the time at which it is posted,  and also the frequency of posting.

Plus you can monitor the level of engagement you’re receiving and modify your strategy to get more Likes, Shares or Retweets.

Since social media automation tools help you develop insight into the nature and extent of readership (or viewership) you’ll also be able to share content in a more targeted manner. More importantly, automation helps you deal with volume – it allows you to post more content on multiple accounts, more frequently, with more ease.

3. Give back your time

The biggest incentive of using social media automation is the amount of time it helps you free up.

Rather than spending hours on end trying to find content that might just get shared and bring your website a few visitors, use tools to identify trending topics and discover relevant content. Using a centralized dashboard to schedule content in advance also saves you the trouble of having to log into each account individually and post the content manually.

But note that saving time does not mean spending no time at all on your social media accounts. That would only be counter-productive. While you can automate some of the tasks associated with social media management, you’ll still have to keep a tab on all your accounts and respond to comments and mentions.

Remember that one of the objectives of using social media marketing is to make your brand more relatable. This can only be achieved by communicating with your audience.

3 tips on how to use social media automation;

1. Keep the schedule flexible

Make sure that you always leave room for timely updates when scheduling posts in advance.

There may be an announcement regarding your business that you’d like to make, or perhaps a piece of important news or viral content that you want to share with your audience. Whatever be the case, know that it’s okay to do ad-hoc posts on top of your automated schedule. Just be careful not to do it too often, since that would defeat the purpose of scheduling posts in the first place.

2. Time it right

If you’re looking to increase engagement on your social accounts, it’s important to first understand when you’re audience is most active. Posting content in this time window will increase the likelihood of it being seen and shared.

One of the things to consider in this regard is the demographic information of your audience. This is particularly relevant if your audience are in different time zones.

Although timing your posts requires a trial and error approach to see which schedule works best with your audience, here are few insights into audience behavior on Facebook and Twitter.

• Engagement on Facebook is at its peak on Thursday and Fridays.
• To see an increase in the number of times a post is shared, schedule it at 1pm.
• While Tweets by B2B businesses get more engagement between Monday and Friday, B2C businesses see higher rates of engagement on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
• Twitter users are 181 percent more likely to be logged in while they are commuting.

3. Use analytics

Once you’ve successfully established a steady presence on your chosen social media platforms, it’s time to measure how your accounts are performing.

Are they taking you closer to the goal you set for your business?

There are several social media analytics tools that allow you to measure the performance of your posts. While the number of views a post gets is a good indicator of your reach, there’s little meaning in paying attention to it if what you’re really looking for is more sales. So get clear on what metrics are important to you in relation to your business goals.

The metrics you choose to track may vary based on the objective of your efforts, but can be broadly classified into four categories – Consumption Metrics, Sharing Metrics, Lead Generation Metrics and Sales Metrics.

Using analytics helps you understand what works, and what doesn’t for your business. It gives you valuable knowledge that can be used to improve your social media marketing strategy.

Conclusion

These are the key points from this article;

• Social media automation is a good idea, particularly for businesses with multiple accounts
• Automation helps you achieve consistency in your social media marketing efforts
• It gives you greater control over the content you share, and how you share it
• It helps you save time, which you can then use to grow your business
• Post schedules must be flexible and ad-hoc posts are important, especially if they’re time-sensitive
• Posting content at a time when your audience is online increases the likelihood of it being viewed and shared
• Analytics help you understand what works and what doesn’t for your business

What automation tools do you use?

Guest Author: Jessica has a keen interest in social media and content marketing, and writes extensively about it. She represents Godot Media, a leading content marketing firm that also offer blog writing services. 

The post Why You Should Get Serious About Social Media Automation appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

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Periscope finally arrives on Android, 2 months after iOS launch

27 Killer Strategies for Brainstorming Blog Post Ideas

Remember when you first started blogging?

Your mind was flooded with great blog post ideas – coming up with them wasn’t challenging.

Instead, executing on those ideas is probably what was keeping you up at night.

Then one day, you’re not sure how or why – your flow of ideas started to slow.

Your posting schedule became less consistent, and the pressure to come up with new topics only increased your anxiety.

But you were no closer to a solution.

We’ve all been there.

Some call it writer’s block, others just chalk it up to a lack of inspiration. But whatever you call it, one thing is clear: you need new blog post ideas, and you need them quick.

Here are 27 strategies that will help you come up with more blog post ideas, and fill up that content calendar.

1. Mine your hobbies

I love reading posts that offer a unique perspective on a popular topic – your audience might be the same.

Make a list of hobbies and cross reference them with your industry. It’ll result in a headline like: 7 Things I Learned About [industry topic] from [your hobby].

2. Read a great book

Non-fiction books feature tons of information, studies and antidotes that you can use to brainstorm new blog post ideas.

One easy technique for using this tactic is to go through the Table of Contents and use the chapter headings as new blog posts.

3. Get another perspective

Nothing quite says brainstorming like gathering a group of people together around a whiteboard.

If possible, find people in parallel industries to offer different perspectives (e.g. If you’re writing about marketing, get small business owners, web developers and graphic designers to contribute).

4. Review old content

If you’ve been blogging for a while, you should have a list of popular posts on your website.

Look through your archives and brainstorm new ways to attack old content.

Repurposing your content can open up the door for tons of new posts.

5. Word association

An age-old favorite: word association.

It’s a simple process.

Start with an industry-related word or phrase. Then write the first thing that comes into your head upon reading that word.

Keep going until you’ve found several angles that will make for some unique posts.

6. Use Google’s suggestions

You know how Google suggests phrases as you type your search query? That’s right – we’re going to use it to brainstorm.

Type in your phrase and use the suggestions to come up with blog post ideas:

7. Read the news

You can newsjack stories that directly affect your readers.

Or you can take an indirect approach by finding a popular news story outside your industry and writing about how it could affect your audience.

For example, as a marketer, the drought in California isn’t directly related to my niche. But I could still use this newsworthy topic to write a story like How the California Drought Will Affect Silicon Valley Startups.

8. Go somewhere else

Some places are just more inspirational than others. That’s why I love the idea of PeerSpace (it’s like AirBnB, but for creative spaces).

Even something as simple as a park pavilion or private room in a restaurant can do the trick.

9. Use freewriting

Freewriting is the foundation of several brainstorming techniques.

You simply write nonstop for a set amount of time. Don’t make corrections or edits along the way. Just keep writing until your time ends and see what ideas have come out of your session.

10. Dive into Quora

Quora is a wonderful community, full of people asking and answering questions.

You can follow interests related to your industry and then when you need new blog post ideas, dig through the stream and look for questions or answers that could help your audience.

I’m such a huge fan of this technique that I’ve actually incorporated it into the strategy documents I share with my content marketing clients.

One tab on the document automatically pulls in a list of related Quora questions, giving us plenty of ideas that we know people are looking for information on.

11. Keyword research

Solid keywords are the cornerstone of blog posts, which make them a perfect brainstorming tool.

I try to make an effort to discover new keywords on a regular basis.

Some of my favorite tools for the job include: Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush and BuzzSumo.

12. Make a mind map

Start with big ideas or general keywords (e.g. Internet Marketing). Then, break it down into smaller sections (e.g. Content Marketing, PPC, SEO).

Continue to get more specific, giving you a bunch of topics that will make for great posts.

13. Use an idea generator

Several companies have created blog topic generators. When all else fails, use one of these to spark content ideas. (My favorite is the one by Portent.)

14. Mistakes and learning

Make a list of the challenges, mistakes and failures you’ve overcome.

Chances are, your readers are facing similar things and need the concrete solutions  you can provide from your experience.

It’s a perfect opportunity to create helpful content.

15. Use a brainstorming spreadsheet

Hubspot has a brainstorming spreadsheet that adds a bit of structure to the process. It’s a visual, detailed way to generate ideas based on a general topic.

16. Search social media

Tools like Topsy help you search through the topics that are being shared most on social media. Go through the popular posts related to your industry and mine them for content ideas.

17. Write down your ideas

The best ideas seem to happen when I’m not trying to create them. Carrying around a notebook helps me capture my ideas – whether I’m out and about or waking up from a dream.

When you get in the habit of writing down ideas, you may find that they flow a lot easier as well. Give it a try!

18. Take advantage of your comments

Find a blog in your industry with an active comments section (or, if you have a discussion section on your own blog, use that).

Read through each comment and look at what people are asking. Those questions can lead to great ideas for blog posts.

19. Use the Medici Effect

The Medici Effect refers to the way in which seemingly unrelated things often intersect. When coming up with blog post ideas, look for commonalities across different topics.

For example, let’s say I ran a blog about helping freelancers succeed. If I came across a post about the best morning routines for executives, I could then translate that topic into something specific to my audience.

20. Do competitor analysis

Go through the content that your competitors are creating. I like to start in their Most Popular Posts section, or use one of the many tools online that make this even easier.

Analyze the post topics and their relative popularity. Then, look for ways you can expand on the topics, include better research or create a piece of content that’s better overall.

21. Take the headline challenge

Sit down and commit to writing 50 new headlines for blog topics.

Get started by using some of the web’s basic headline formulas.

Take the formulas and create headlines that are related to your industry – don’t stop until you have 50 options.

It might seem difficult at first, but once you get in the groove, ideas should start flowing quite freely. It may take you until you’ve got 50 versions written to come up with something good, but trust me – your great idea is in there.

22. Take notes as you write

When you’re writing a post, it’s easy to get off topic and start talking about something else. But before deleting that section and refocusing, make a note of what you were veering off about.

Come back later and make a new post from that idea.

23. Put on the pressure

I work better when I’m under pressure. If you operate the same way, give yourself a deadline for the post (or list of ideas).

You can up the ante by using an app like StickK, where money is on the line if you don’t make the deadline you set for yourself.

24. Interview your target readers

The best type of content directly helps and educates your readers. Use an interview to uncover their challenges, questions and knowledge gaps.

Not only is it great fodder for blog topics, but you’ll gain deeper insight into the mind of your audience, which will strengthen your overall positioning and voice in the new content you produce.

25. Attend an industry conference

Attend a conference, debate, or discussion group within your industry.

You’ll learn plenty from the experts that share their thoughts, as well as gain some great new insight by speaking with other conference attendees.

It’s the perfect atmosphere for coming up with great new ideas. Make sure to bring something to take notes with!

26. Skim through Google alerts

Create a Google Alert for keywords that are related to your industry to have the search engine’s top headlines delivered straight to your inbox. Sift through them and see if anything sparks an idea.

27. Write up a list of questions

Write down questions about your industry.

Question everything: the future, current tactics, the validity of present beliefs… Use those questions to springboard new blog post ideas that will engage your audience and interest your readers.

This is a big list, but it’s certainly not comprehensive.

Do you have any other brainstorming strategies you’d like to add? Share your suggestions by adding a comment below!

Author: Aaron Agius is an online marketer, web strategist and entrepreneur and you can check him out at AaronAgius.com

 

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A Marmite taste test in Japan did not go down very well