Make It With Michael

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Jeff Bullas We live in world and a social web that is a whirlpool of innovation and creativity. Every day via the blogs I read, the tweets that I glimpse and the emails that arrive in my inbox, I see an array of ideas that makes my head spin with amazement. Who would have thought that an online pinboard would attract nearly 20 million people a month sharing photos. It sounds like an idea that could have originated after a few drinks down at the local bar! That is a social media platform called “ Pinterest “. Who would imagine that a social mobile app that can be shared from your phone to Facebook and Twitter, would attract 40 million users a month in less than 2 years, have a library of over 1 billion photos and then be bought by Facebook for $1 billion. That app’s name is “ Instagram “. Who could have dreamed that a social media platform that allows you to upload your PowerPoint business presentations ( 9 million to date ) and publishes them on the web f...

By Jeff Bullas We live in world and a social web that is a whirlpool of innovation and creativity. Every day via the blogs I read, the tweets that I glimpse and the emails that arrive in my inbox, I see an array of ideas that makes my head spin with amazement. Who would have thought that an online pinboard would attract nearly 20 million people a month sharing photos. It sounds like an idea that could have originated after a few drinks down at the local bar! That is a social media platform called “ Pinterest “. Who would imagine that a social mobile app that can be shared from your phone to Facebook and Twitter, would attract 40 million users a month in less than 2 years, have a library of over 1 billion photos and then be bought by Facebook for $1 billion. That app’s name is “ Instagram “. Who could have dreamed that a social media platform that allows you to upload your PowerPoint business presentations ( 9 million to date ) and publishes them on the web for all to see would a...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Lisa Galarneau I feel more calm about our future than ever before. The Internet has saved our asses, and we should celebrate. I’ve been on the Web for a long time, but every once in a while I have one of those tremendous moments when I have a mental flashback to these last 20 or so years… It happened today… one of my favorite Adele songs, writ large in a YouTube fan culture spectacular. Someone had pruned the 71 best YouTube covers of the track from the 350,000 or so available. Woven into a mash-up of all the covers in perfect synchrony. A Snippet of Magic I think it must have been magic that produced it. I mean, even if I had the skill, would I spend that time on a small gift to the Internet? But that’s what we’ve been doing. Building a capability network of epic proportions. Leveraging the power of six degrees of separation. Uniting in common purpose and effort in ways that we had been rapidly losing. New Possibilities Created by Connections Here ...

By Lisa Galarneau I feel more calm about our future than ever before. The Internet has saved our asses, and we should celebrate. I’ve been on the Web for a long time, but every once in a while I have one of those tremendous moments when I have a mental flashback to these last 20 or so years… It happened today… one of my favorite Adele songs, writ large in a YouTube fan culture spectacular. Someone had pruned the 71 best YouTube covers of the track from the 350,000 or so available. Woven into a mash-up of all the covers in perfect synchrony. A Snippet of Magic I think it must have been magic that produced it. I mean, even if I had the skill, would I spend that time on a small gift to the Internet? But that’s what we’ve been doing. Building a capability network of epic proportions. Leveraging the power of six degrees of separation. Uniting in common purpose and effort in ways that we had been rapidly losing. New Possibilities Created by Connections Here are 10 ways I see us ...

By Kim Phillips Patience. It is a virtue I don’t have. So when I wanted to grow my audience quickly before my current book launch, I started researching growth hacks . I had a few requirements for what I was looking for: It couldn’t take a lot of time to execute. I run three companies, am a published author, have two kids and occasionally like to see my husband, so time is limited. This hack had to be quick. It had to be easy. I am not a techie and my tech team is busy working on client accounts, so this had to be simple. And yes, I could have hired someone, but I wanted to make sure I could personally do this hack so I could share it with our students as a strategy they could use when I found what worked. There had to be ROI. Audience growth is great, but you can’t use audience to pay for your next vacation or hire your next employee. The growth strategies had to be ROI positive. It had to work quickly. I started this project in June and our launch started just a few months...

http://ift.tt/2ydhiU0 By Kim Phillips Patience. It is a virtue I don’t have. So when I wanted to grow my audience quickly before my current book launch, I started researching growth hacks . I had a few requirements for what I was looking for: It couldn’t take a lot of time to execute. I run three companies, am a published author, have two kids and occasionally like to see my husband, so time is limited. This hack had to be quick. It had to be easy. I am not a techie and my tech team is busy working on client accounts, so this had to be simple. And yes, I could have hired someone, but I wanted to make sure I could personally do this hack so I could share it with our students as a strategy they could use when I found what worked. There had to be ROI. Audience growth is great, but you can’t use audience to pay for your next vacation or hire your next employee. The growth strategies had to be ROI positive. It had to work quickly. I started this project in June and our launch sta...

http://ift.tt/2ftbqup By Judy Alex It’s a brave new world out there. Live chat software solutions are an essential part of successfully running a business these days. They allow companies to communicate with their website visitors and customers in real time using chat windows. You probably already know that they can skyrocket conversion rates when used correctly. This isn’t surprising news. After all, live chat software allows live chat agents and customer service representatives to quickly and efficiently assist customers in acquiring the information or answers they have come for. However, there are a lot of live chat software solutions to choose from, and it seems like every second minute another platform releases another product onto the market with different fancy-looking features. So, let’s separate the wheat from the chaff today, and explore the top live chat software solutions on the market at the present time. Obviously every software has its pros and cons, both for oper...

By Kaylynn Chong If the perfect social video were a cake, what would go into making it? We talked to Hootsuite’s in-house video expert, Derek Saddler, to find out the four key ingredients you need to bake a delicious piece of content. 1. It’s short and sweet According to a survey conducted by Animoto , nearly two-thirds of consumers prefer video under 60 seconds. That’s why Saddler recommends keeping your social video between 30 and 90 seconds long. Attention spans are short and you want to keep viewers engaged. Here’s a few ways to ensure your video holds the audience’s attention: If your video includes text, keep the word count to a minimum . You don’t want your viewer to be reading the entire time instead of watching the actual video. Your audience’s time is precious, so try to get your message across with as few of words as possible. At Hootsuite, when we repurpose a blog post into a social video we’ll often cut it down from eight tips to three, like we did in this video. ...

http://ift.tt/2sQNhGr By Kaylynn Chong If the perfect social video were a cake, what would go into making it? We talked to Hootsuite’s in-house video expert, Derek Saddler, to find out the four key ingredients you need to bake a delicious piece of content. 1. It’s short and sweet According to a survey conducted by Animoto , nearly two-thirds of consumers prefer video under 60 seconds. That’s why Saddler recommends keeping your social video between 30 and 90 seconds long. Attention spans are short and you want to keep viewers engaged. Here’s a few ways to ensure your video holds the audience’s attention: If your video includes text, keep the word count to a minimum . You don’t want your viewer to be reading the entire time instead of watching the actual video. Your audience’s time is precious, so try to get your message across with as few of words as possible. At Hootsuite, when we repurpose a blog post into a social video we’ll often cut it down from eight tips to three, like w...

By Bamidele Onibalusi Content is more important than ever. Research from the Content Marketing Institute reveals that at least 55% of companies will increase their content marketing budget this year. Whether you’re a writer looking for established outlets to spread the word, or you’re a guest blogger looking to promote your brand and get traffic, you can get paid to do so. Many sites will pay you to contribute content , while still allowing you to have a bio and retain a link to your site – but very few sites will pay you really well . Listed below are 20 sites that will pay you at least $100 per article, upon acceptance or publication, and most will allow a bio with a link back to your site. I also have a bonus for you at the end of this article, so look out for that! Here we go. 1. A Fine Parent Niche : Parenting Amount : $100 (potential $200 bonus) Payment Method : Paypal A Fine Parent is a leading parenting blog that focuses on helping people become better parents....

http://ift.tt/2wVnP5v By Bamidele Onibalusi Content is more important than ever. Research from the Content Marketing Institute reveals that at least 55% of companies will increase their content marketing budget this year. Whether you’re a writer looking for established outlets to spread the word, or you’re a guest blogger looking to promote your brand and get traffic, you can get paid to do so. Many sites will pay you to contribute content , while still allowing you to have a bio and retain a link to your site – but very few sites will pay you really well . Listed below are 20 sites that will pay you at least $100 per article, upon acceptance or publication, and most will allow a bio with a link back to your site. I also have a bonus for you at the end of this article, so look out for that! Here we go. 1. A Fine Parent Niche : Parenting Amount : $100 (potential $200 bonus) Payment Method : Paypal A Fine Parent is a leading parenting blog that focuses on helping people ...