FeedBurner: Will Google Shut it Down?

Over the past year or so, Google has been giving us signs that its FeedBurner RSS service is heading into oblivion. Some observations:

• There is no official Google+ FeedBurner account.
• In July of this year, Google failed to renew the FeedBurner domain in Japan – feedburner.jp. A listing with Domain Tools indicates the domain is now owned by Satoshi Mito and is now inactive.
• On July 26th a post on the FeedBurner Blog, known as “AdSense for Feeds” indicated the blog was shutting down because as Google said, “we’re just not generating enough content here to warrant your time, so we won’t be posting here any longer.”
• On July 26th Google shut down the FeedBurner Twitter account with this message:

• On October 20th Google shut down the FeedBurner API causing developers who still rely on RSS technology to worry.
• Google also appears to have stopped offering customer support for FeedBurner. The “Contact Us” email link in FeedBurner no longer works and when I contacted Google I was told “Google doesn’t offer technical or other support for FeedBurner any longer.”

In the event you’ve forgotten how the RSS service works here’s a brief description. Once you connect your RSS feed with FeedBurner, Google caches the feed on its servers and delivers it to those who have subscribed to it. Subscribing to your feed is made easy because an HTML page replaces the XML file in your browser. Owners of the feed may also choose to embed ads in their feeds in order to monetize it. Most importantly, to many, FeedBurner provides a number of statistics such as the number of subscribers and the number of views to your blog posts, for example.

Some argue RSS is “Old School” but developers and podcasters still heavily rely on the service. In September, Dan Benjamin who runs a prominent podcast network, announced he was abandoning ship and moving to another RSS provider.



Many publishers (including me) rely on FeedBurner to publish their RSS feeds. It seems to be time to reconsider this as Google appears to be sending clear signs it could pull the plug on FeedBurner any day now. Hopefully Google will give us ample notice before it does pull the plug so we can look into some of the alternatives. Maybe we’ll look at some of those alternatives in a future post.

Do you use FeedBurner or an alternative provider?

Facebook Barely Beats Twitter, Trounces Google+ Among Teens

It came as little surprise that Facebook was the social network of choice in a recent survey of 7,700 teens across the U.S. But now that the study’s authors have revealed its numbers, we can see just how much — or indeed, how little — Facebook won by.

The teenagers in the survey, conducted by Gene Munster and Douglas Clinton at analyst firm Piper Jaffray, were asked to rank social networks in order of preference, from 1 to 3. Alternatives to Facebook included Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and LinkedIn.

Facebook was the first choice for 3,280 of the teens, followed by Twitter with 2,118 and Instagram with 928. Google+ won the hearts of 430 teens, while Tumblr and Pinterest, respectively, trailed behind. (We don’t know the identities of the five teens who ranked LinkedIn first, but you should probably hire them.)
However, Twitter (1,874) and Instagram (1,680) both outranked Facebook (1,580) when it came to second-choice votes. Google+ had its best performance in the third-choice voting, where it just managed to outperform Twitter — but still got beaten by Facebook and Instagram.

Still, the search giant’s nascent network (Google+ is still little more than a year old) can take some solace from the survey. More teens chose it over the supposedly hot services Tumblr and Pinterest, both of which, we imagine, would perform well among twenty-somethings.

But there’s little doubt that Facebook remains king of the hill. “We believe Facebook is well positioned to maintain its spot as the top social network despite competition from Twitter,” Munster and Clinton wrote, reiterating that they think the stock is undervalued — and that the Instagram purchase looks increasingly smart.

What is your preferred social network? Tell us in the comments below.

How to Edit Video on YouTube

Wave goodbye to the days of inaccessible, high-priced video editing tools — they’re long gone. Anyone with a smartphone and a free YouTube account can create a video that could reach millions.
For context, there are now more than 1 billion smartphones in the world, and YouTube video views surpassed 1 trillion in 2011. Basically, the world has video fever.
And anyone with a camera phone can film. What you may not know is that YouTube has some basic editing tools built into its website.

The YouTube editor is rudimentary, even when compared with simple video editing programs like Movie Maker and iMovie. Let’s not even talk about how it stacks up to Final Cut Pro — it doesn’t.
Even though it’s basic, YouTube editor can still be useful. But while it is relatively simple to figure out, particularly for anyone with previous editing experience, there are some potential pitfalls. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you get the most out of the available tools.

Locate the Editor and Timeline

Many people don’t even realize YouTube has built-in editing capabilities — after all, the editor is not easily found on the site.

One way to access it is by going directly to the URL, which is YouTube.com/editor. Or click on “Video Manager,” which will make the “Video Editor” tab appear directly under the search bar at the top of the page.

Once you get to the editor, you will need to figure out the timeline. Linear video editors like YouTube’s are based around an intuitive and easy-to-use timeline. If you want to add a clip from your pool of videos into the project, simply drag it onto the timeline. You can also include any YouTube videos that were uploaded with a “Creative Commons” license. To do this, click on the tab marked with an encircled “CC,” find a video and drag it in. You can reorder clips once they are on the timeline.

Efficiently Trim Your Clips

The only way to edit the length of your videos is by trimming from the beginning or end. Unlike most video editing programs, YouTube does not let you split and cut parts out from the middle of the video.
If you want to remove anything from the middle of the video, you’ll have to drag the same video into the timeline twice, then trim each down. You end up having two different clips from the same original source on the timeline. Obviously, you can do this more than twice, depending how much you want to chop up the footage.

The photo below shows a single video dragged onto the timeline twice around a text title. The videos are trimmed appropriately, so roughly half the video will play, then the text title will appear for two seconds, followed by the rest of the video:

Also, be aware that the trimming process isn’t always smooth. While you’re adjusting the slider on the timeline to trim a video, the video constantly reloads on the display. The best way to trim a video is to pre-decide the exact startpoint and endpoint, rather than trying to eyeball it while dragging the trim bar.

Go Easy With the Stabilization

Usually we don’t use tripods when shooting smartphone video, which means filming can get pretty shaky. The YouTube editor provides a tool to help stabilize shakiness, to a degree.
If you mouse over a clip on the timeline, three icons will appear. Click on the center one, which resembles a magic wand. That particular clip will pop open in a new window with several editing options.

Before anything else, check the box in the bottom-right corner of the window that reads “Preview effects side-by-side with original video.” Then adjust the “Stabilize video” bar to remove some of the shake. Unfortunately, there is a significant clarity tradeoff involved. The more you stabilize the video, the blurrier it becomes.
Before using the stabilization bar, or any other, it is usually a good idea to try the “I’m feeling lucky” option. Sometimes that makes the slight adjustments your video needs to shine.

Avoid the Temptation to Transition

The YouTube editor allows you to combine multiple video clips, a very useful tool. Simply drag multiple clips onto the timeline and arrange them in whichever order you fancy.


The editor also includes several options to segue between the clips. You can find these beneath the “Video Manager” tab, by clicking on the icon that resembles a bow tie. There are 15 segue options; add them to your project by dragging them onto the timeline. My advice, however, is to avoid nearly all of them. Other than the first two (Crossfade and Crossblur), which are relatively subtle, each of the other transitions will make your video look amateur.
Or select some of the sillier ones, such as Heart and Star, for ironic or comedic purposes — if that’s your goal.

If you really want to break up the clips, use a blank black screen. To do this, click on the text tab, marked with a lowercase “a” and located next to the transition tab. Drag the “Centered Tile” to the proper space in the timeline. When you place it, a popup box will appear. Simply delete the “ABC” from the text box and you’ll have a two-second black screen transition.

Thinking About Adding a Soundtrack? Proceed With Caution

You have the option to add music to your video. To do this, click the tab marked with a music note. A list of songs will appear. These are the only songs you can use; you can’t drag in outside audio files. Even with the option to sort by genre or artist, the list of songs can be tricky and frustrating to navigate.
If you do find an appropriate track, you may choose to either completely replace the audio from your video or engineer a mix between the song and the video’s audio. First, drag the song into the timeline below the video clips. Once that is done, an easy-to-navigate yet often buggy slider will appear on the right side of the screen.

Some of my videos just don’t seem to like mixing with the soundtracks. Usually, I fix the bugs by refreshing the page or taking the video or song out of the timeline, then replacing it. You may have to play around with it for a while to get it right.

“Please Note: After you change your video’s soundtrack to one from the YouTube library, the video won’t be eligible for revenue sharing. Additionally, advertisements may be displayed on videos that contain soundtracks from the library.”
—YouTube

Another shortcoming is that you can’t trim the audio clips at all. If a song is longer than your video, the song will simply end awkwardly at the point where the video ends. Also, you can’t strategically line up the song and the video.

Finally, should you choose to use audio, YouTube will automatically add advertisements to the associated video. And using a song from YouTube’s library negates your ability to monetize a video if it goes viral.

The Secret to YouTubular Video Editing

The YouTube editor is great for compiling footage and making minor improvements to the aesthetics of a video. The secret to great YouTube videos, if there is one, is to start out with solid footage. As with anything, post-production techniques generally won’t yield any miracles.

Keep a steady hand when shooting for stable videos. Go for compelling camera angles. Learn how far from your subject you should stand for optimal volume. And always keep in mind that you have millions of YouTube fans waiting for you to entertain them; so keep practicing and try to produce something amazing.

If you’ve got great tips about how to get the most out of the YouTube editor, let us know in the comments section.

How to Protect Your Brand's Social Reputation?

Every second across the globe, people are logging on to a social media networks like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. They are staying connected to each other 24x7x365 days, sharing incidents, anecdotes, personal experiences, music, movies, information and much more. With the social media network assuming such expansive proportions, few business owners can afford to ignore their social reputation management strategy.

Whether you own a full-time business or a fledgling enterprise, you just cannot ignore the tremendous reach of the online market. More and more buyers are shopping online rather than personally jostling at the neighborhood market. To tap this huge market successfully, you need the right online marketing strategy, and social media should be an integral part of that strategy.

Why should you take the social media seriously?
A brand is not built-in a single day but it takes just a few disgruntled customers to spoil all that hard work. This is all the more true for the volatile online market where customers have million choices at their fingertips and brand loyalty can be very fickle. Aggressive competition and unethical promotional practices from rivals will force you to take your social media reputation management seriously and be alert about any efforts to besmirch your reputation.

Any news on the social media goes viral instantly. This means, all the latest happenings, including the latest offerings from business houses are relayed to thousands of social media members through an endless network of mutual friends. The relevance of social network in today's world also means that any bad word about your company will take just seconds to circulate among millions of members, thereby causing irreparable damage to your brand.

In today's world of online connectivity, customers are really the king. They have endless opportunities of analyzing and evaluating a company's reputation through logical and critical comments on various parameters. They make optimum use of review websites, self-blogs and social media platforms to reach out to each other and exchange information and advice. Most importantly, customers take each other seriously and respect each other's opinion about a particular company or brand.

How to maintain your brands positive image?
It is vitally important for you to be serious about your brand presence on the social media and make sure that your reputation does not suffer. You must be genuinely interested in having a positive presence on these platforms and reach out to customers in a proactive manner. Make your presence interesting by offering innovative services and useful information. Interact with customers meaningfully and respect their views. Think of ways of making customers review your brand in an affirmative way rather than self-promoting your company. Never re-direct customers to other links for any customer service or for lodging complaints. Offering help shows that you take your customers seriously and are willing to discuss their grievances even after the transaction is over.

Do not leave a standard reply for all customers but personalize your response as each of them will have specific complaints. Customers will consider your company as a genuine brand with great after-sales service and circulate the good review among their friends on the social networks. As part of your social media reputation management strategy, be prompt in your response to complaints. The world is moving at breakneck speed and customers will float away from a company which takes weeks to respond. On the other hand, most dissatisfied customers will have a good word for you if your response is prompt followed by quick action.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7327726

3 Guidelines to Make Sense of Social Media Measurement

Social promotions can be fruitful only when you are doing it the right way. But the catch is somewhere else. As the social networking sphere is open and free, whatever we do might just seem useful. And quite naturally, some actions might eventually turn out to be more harmful to your business than doing any good. This is why every digital media marketing manager must make an effort to use a series of analytical tools to calculate the success quotient of the strategies that he has deployed, and also to ensure that the level of engagement is not being damaged at any point in time.

Social media measurement can't be treated as a secondary activity in any digital media strategy. Instead, it must be treated as one of the most important aspects of any online marketing plan. However, when into social media measurement, care must be taken to ensure you aren't doing it the wrong way. If social media efforts aren't measured accurately, quite naturally, you will get wrong results. And these misinterpreted results might trigger misguided social actions. Either the overall reputation of a brand can be damaged almost overnight, or it will become impossible to make any good with whatever is socially done in the future. Quite interestingly, damage control measures seem to be useless in most cases, as the level of damage is rather profound.
Social media monitoring and measurement of success ratio is possible if you are getting a few basics right. Though, there aren't any prefixed guidelines for the procedure, yet experts believe most of us can get it right if we are doing 3 simple things simultaneously. And believe me folks, I did it their way, and was pretty satisfied with the results.
So I thought it will be good if I can share these 3 pointers with you guys today. They are given below.

1. When measuring social media activities, make sure you are not pulling out old records and analyzing the same. This will be a waste of time. You need to work on recent data, and create fresh results. The same reports could be further analyzed to draw a variety of important conclusions.


2. Double-check each data from at least two different sources. This will provide insurance to the results that come out.


3. Use at least a couple of social media measurement tools together, to develop a more comprehensive report.

Follow these 3 pointers, and I guess you can create a pretty useful social media activity report.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7278043

4 Ways to Use More Visual Content In Social Media

Visual content is rapidly becoming an integral part of social media. Facebook redesigned its entire layout to incorporate more imagery with the new cover photo and Timeline layout. Social networks like Pinterest and Instagram have exploded in popularity over the last year. Smartphones have upgraded to include a higher-resolution camera to keep up with user preferences.

More and more, the importance of images in social media marketing has grown. As a business owner, it is important to stay on top of these types of trends if you want to stay relevant and keep your fans happy.
Here are four ways that you can get more visual content in your social media strategy:

Decide What Types of Images Work Best
Every business can be expressed through images, you just have to do a little brainstorming to figure out what will work best. For some companies, it will be obvious, like a handcrafted jeweler will use images of her pieces or a photographer samples of his work.
Other companies may have to get creative with the images they choose. As long as it has a clear connection to the type of business you have, the image will be helpful. If you are a dentist, you can use images of teeth- healthy and unhealthy- to give a visual impact. If you're an auto mechanic, use images of damaged parts that you typically repair.

Build an Image Archive
It is a good idea to have a folder of images to use for your business. If you don't have one already, get a digital camera. You do not have to be a professional to take some great pictures. It just takes a little practice. Most cameras come with an Automatic setting so all you have to do is point and shoot. Experiment a little with lighting to find what works best and take more than one picture of the same item so you can pick the top one.

If you don't have the time or you just can't seem to get a great shot, you can hire someone to take pictures for you. You can also use images from sites like Flickr that offer creative commons licensing for some of their images.
Put all of your business-related photos into a computer file so that they are easy to access when you need to upload them to your social media.

Integrate Images to Social Sites
You can use your images on your website, blog and social media updates. Pictures add visual interest to anything. Using them on social media will get more of your followers' attention.
The images that create a lot of interest get a lot more attention, especially on sites like Pinterest. Try using close-ups of your products, include images of your staff and your business's physical location (if you have one). Pick a great image to use on your Facebook cover photo in order to stand out.
You will get more response from your Facebook posts if you attach an image or video to them. Internet users have a short attention span, so if you want to grab their attention, an image is the best way to do it quickly.

After a while, you will be able to determine what types of images get the most interaction and you can adjust your posts accordingly.

Encourage Customer Images
People love to share these days. Encourage your fans and customers to submit their images that show them using your product, or anything else that is related to your business. You can host a photo contest and promote it through your social networks.
You can also ask your fans to "pin" their favorite products from you on their Pinterest boards. Come up with a unique hash tag for your business and ask followers to use it when posting images on Instagram.
What have you done to start getting more visual content onto social media?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7312810

Grow Your Facebook Presence With These Tips

Many brands are enticed to start a Facebook presence when they see the success of companies like Target and Starbucks. Your practice may not reach hundreds of millions of fans (although it may), but there are targeted steps you can take to build your Facebook page quickly and efficiently.

Use what you already have 
One of the reasons national brands are so successful on social media is because they had a loyal fan following prior to setting up their accounts. Chances are, your Facebook page is not the first online interaction you'll have with your customer base. Use your already established channels such as an email newsletter and your website to drive traffic to your new Facebook page. This is as simple as putting a link to your page above the fold on your emails and website pages in the form of a Facebook logo.

Utilize the (free) tools Facebook gives you
The native Facebook platform provides many opportunities to engage with your community once they become fans. One option is to ask questions using Facebook's poll feature. Remember that many people aren't comfortable interacting with brands on a daily basis, so don't overuse this feature. Ask multiple choice questions so that your fans can answer them quickly and easily. Ask engaging questions that you would want to reply to - don't just use this for target market research. There are paid tools you can use on Facebook as well, such as Offers, which give your fans a special discount on procedures. To take advantage of an Offer, click "Offer/Event" at the top of your publishing box, choose "Offer", and follow the steps Facebook provides for you to create your discount.

Launch fun contests
Many brands see success with contests on Facebook - use an application like Easy Promos to easily create an engaging contest your fans will want to enter. Ideas include gathering their name and email (valuable information for that email newsletter you run) to give them a chance to win something (it can be as simple as a Visa gift card or a free electric toothbrush). Make sure your offer is enticing enough for your fans to enter - offers have to be valuable in order for people to feel comfortable giving you their personal information.

Explain yourself 
Many companies scream at people to "like" them on Facebook... without providing any incentive as to why they might be interested. Instead of just promoting "Like XYZ Dentistry on Facebook", you should say, "For more fun tips, promotions, and photos, like XYZ Dentistry on Facebook!"

Be relevant
As tempting as it may be, don't only talk about your practice on your Facebook page - show that you care about community events and local news. If your city is voting on whether or not to put fluoride in the tap water, write a short blog post about what this means for your patients. Or, if you don't have time to write your own post, publish a link to a local news story about it. The key to social media is to be social, not sales-y.

Keep content fresh
No matter what types of content you post regularly - contests, blog posts, or questions - change it up frequently so you can measure what works and what doesn't work for your page engagement. Posting regularly will also entice your fans to check back more regularly to see what content you've published.

Watch your insights
Facebook's free Insights tool gives brands a good idea of what posts increase engagement... and what posts do not. You can easily click the Insights tab on your Admin panel and see how many fans react to individual posts. You may find that on average, more fans like and comment on posts that include photos or stories about certain subjects. Pay attention to your successes so you can easily repeat them.
Overall, growing a Facebook page following seems like a daunting task - but if you follow these few key tricks and don't give up after a few short months, you will almost certainly see success in your online community.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7315337

Love or Hate Facebook’s New Personal Promoted Posts?

Facebook announced on Wednesday U.S. users will now be able to promote their personal posts to friends for a fee, but the news is being met with mixed reactions.
Although testing first started in New Zealand in May and has since rolled out to more than 20 countries, those in the U.S. can now pay to make sure your network never misses a big update in your life, from a baby announcement to an event you’re organizing. But each promoted post will cost you $7.
That’s right, you can pay to make sure your content is seen by friends on Facebook. This raises two major questions: Why should you have to pay for something that was once already a part of the site, and does this mean we’ll now inundated with life updates we don’t really care about?
Some argue users might not take advantage of the promoted option, while others believe it could be a great resource for getting news out about bands, garage sales and ticketed events. Facebook seems to think it will make the entire experience better for its users.



“Sometimes a particular friend might not notice your post, especially if a lot of their friends have been posting recently and your story isn’t near the top of their feed,” Facebook said in a blog post. “When you promote a post – whether it’s wedding photos, a garage sale, or big news – you bump it higher in news feed so your friends and subscribers are more likely to notice it.”
But what say you? Is this a good thing? A gateway to even more news feed clutter? Take our poll below and let us know what you really think.

7 Editing Tips to Improve your Blog-Writing Skills

Developing your blog-writing skills is a slow process. Work on your technique continuously and your work will attract readers. Take in readers critiques for they know best how well you are passing on your thoughts. Neglecting the editing aspect of blog-writing will deter your readers from your blog.  Here are the reasons why writers need to edit and how to edit your blog articles.

Let's start at the basis of why writers need to edit.

• Inspirational chaos. Say you came across an amazing idea for a blog article that you know and feel will bring in traffic from the web. Then you start typing away with no end in sight. I like to call this ‘verbal/written diarrhea' where your words just flow in every direction. Editing will help your thoughts come together in the end.
• Diverse ideas. Writers tend to get lost in their sentences or words and don't take the time to double-check if their sentences would make sense to a reader. People may capture your writing differently than you had thought. In the creative process ideas get intertwined which can cause for messiness and a blog article that isn't easy to read.
• Grammar and all that other stuff. Editing as you write never works out!  Take your time to edit your blog article after you have finished. We all miss one or two words when editing - sometimes we don't even notice when we press the wrong key so spell-checking and revising each article afterwards is a must.
• Oh, you speak English, too? Even if you consider yourself an English-native speaker - edit your articles. Just because you were born into the English language and learned about it all your life doesn't mean you won't make any errors (it's very naïve to think so).   

Follow these 7 simple tips to when editing your work that promise great writing skills for future blogs: 

1. Take a breather after writing. The first mistake writers make is editing their post right when it's done. Writer's thoughts are fresh in their heads and when re-reading their article they might not pick up on the errors right away. Giving yourself time will put you in the reader's seat without prejudice to your own work.  You won't remember why you chose that exact word over another. This is the only time I recommend distractions: TV, music, Facebook, what have you. The key is to focus on unrelated things then come back to your article.
2. Divide and Conquer. Divide your editing into three processes: content editing, structure editing, and grammar editing. Being more specific while editing will help you focus on specific grammatical errors. Again, take your time.
   -Edit content. Review your article keeping an eye out for sections that don't make sense. Look for unfinished paragraphs and fragments. After identifying them, work towards fixing the errors.
   -Edit structure. Write your articles in a way that the reader will be able to follow your content. Structure your content using bullets or bold headers.
   -Edit grammar. Lastly, edit grammatical errors. This shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes for a 800-900 word article.
3. Less is more. When it comes to words - less really is more. Don't use complicated jargon unless your blog's audience understands the lingo. Readers know when you have used the same words and are saying the same thing again. Remember the reader is smart - don't underestimate their ability to understand your words. Adjectives and adverbs can confuse and distract readers. Keep overused words such as "definitely," certainly," "really," etc. out of your article.
4. Don't trust Spell-check. Trust your spell-check software lightly. These tools don't "understand" your writing and don't grasp variations of sentences or word usage.
5. Read at random. Choose a random paragraph from your article and edit it. Then choose anotherrandom paragraph and edit that one. Do so until you have finished editing them all. I know you're asking yourself why? This tactic stops you from reading in "autopilot." You wrote this article so you know what's coming next and you may miss obvious mistakes.
6. Don't overdo it. What's harder than actually starting the editing process? Knowing when you've had enough. No sense beating a dead horse. If you find yourself rewriting the same sentence over and over then you should call it a night. Reaching the publishing stage is stressful, but don't let your indecisive editing keep your article in the drafts folder.
7. Learn from your mistakes. After following the steps above, you will be closer to a perfectly written masterpiece. Learn from the mistakes you picked up in the editing stage. Analyze what you've done wrong and practice to get to your goal writing style. When you write your next article make a list of your mistakes along with your corrections. This will help you remember your mistakes and hopefully not repeat them.