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iPhone 4s – Upgrade or NOT Upgrade? – That is the Question

October 6th, 2011

So I’ve had several people text, tweet, email and FB me about my thoughts on the iPhone 4s and if I’m disappointed or not. Here’s my response -

Considering I still have a 3Gs, I’m more than ready for the upgrade and happy to get the 4s. So, YES, I’ll be getting the iPhone 4s. I wasn’t eligible for the discounted upgrade when the iPhone 4 came out. I can understand people’s disappointment who already have a iPhone 4, but being in the technology industry and working with developers…if people only knew how long it takes to create, develop, test and deploy new features and technology, they wouldn’t be so disappointed. Plus, there’s always lots of red tape and paperwork that holds things up. I would prefer to celebrate the innovation that is apparent in the new device vs. complain about what’s not there. If you have an iPhone 4, you may be considering waiting for the 5…but who knows exactly when that will be available.

I have a feeling Apple has tons up their sleeve that will blow our minds when it’s good and ready. I bet the 5 will blow away the 4, but they just aren’t there yet and you know Apple…they aren’t going to put it out unless it’s READY.

Below is list of the new features that I’m excited about…in case you missed it =)

New model is called iPhone 4s.
It’ll be available for Pre-order on October 7, 2011 and then to general public on October 14, 2011.
Siri is the new smart assistant (only on 4s) that will interact with you verbally to search, schedule, remind and follow up with your network.
It has a dual-core chip called the A5 that is faster for processing
Improved camera with improved optics – 8 MP camera and 1080p HD recording (hard to believe that’s built into a phone)
Loaded with iOS 5 that includes over 200 new software features
iCloud “Your content on all your devices”

There’s plenty more that’s not included in this list and you can view the features here – http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/

Tags: Apple, IPhone, technology, Tools
Posted in Apple, Mobile | No Comments »

Facebook Makes Content Sharing Even Easier for Page Admins

July 13th, 2011

Recently, Facebook made some changes for business page admins that had been requested by many for a long time. Not only do we now get email notifications when people post on our business page but we also have the ability to log into Facebook as our business page rather than just as our personal account. These changes allow us to see our most recent “likes”, provide a better customer service experience for our followers, and allow us to interact with people and other business pages without using our personal name. As exciting as these updates were, there was one thing that was missing; the ability to quickly share content on our business wall while still being logged into your personal account.

There have been many times where I am logged in as myself and since I follow tons of social media resources I see something that I want to share on the weedott wall. In order to do so, I would have to go to my business page, click on “use Facebook as weedott”, then go back and find the content I wanted to share in order to share it with my weedott fans. Thankfully, Facebook has made this process even easier! Below are step-by-step instructions on how to share content on your page wall (no matter how many pages you admin) without having to leave your personal Facebook profile.

Step 1: When you see content worth sharing with your page fans click the share button as shown below.

Step 2: Before, the only option was to share on your own wall but now you can click “on your own wall” as seen below for more options.

Step 3: Choose to share the content on your page rather than on your wall or with a friend.

Step 4: A list of all of the pages that you admin appears and you can pick which page you want to share the content on.

It’s that simple and you have saved the time and frustration of having to go back and forth between your business page and your personal page! Thankfully, Facebook is always making changes that make it easier for us to use our business pages to increase awareness, interaction, and success for our brands. Stay tuned as we continue to keep you abreast of the latest and greatest updates in the social media industry.

Tags: Business, Facebook, Facebook Page, Social Media
Posted in Facebook, Tips, Updates | No Comments »

Facebook New Groups and How To Use Them

June 27th, 2011

Facebook recently changed the way their groups look, feel and function. In my opinion, they function a lot more like traditional discussion forums online. In this post I’ll outline some ideas for both business AND personal ways you might want to use a group. I’ll also outline the steps you’ll take so set the group up and some of the features of the groups. Keep in mind you can open and close groups when needed, so they don’t have to be a permanent fixture forever. Let me know if you’ve found some really creative ways to use a group that I didn’t list here.

Have an older group on Facebook? You’ll want to visit the Facebook Help Section here for FAQs on how those groups will be migrated. Click here for help –> http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18966

Who would benefit….

Businesses and Organizations Uses:
- Businesses wanting a discussion forum for their clients
- Business launching a new product that needs a space for testing and debugging discussion
- Non-Profits needing a planning space for upcoming fundraiser
Non-Business Uses:
- Students working on a school project
- Large Families planning to travel/reunion
- Clubs/Organizations/Associations planning events
- Have a private way of sharing photos and ideas in a closed setting
- Similar interest groups for food, travel and hobbies

Setting up your group…

Decide on the type (don’t worry you can change this later if needed)
- Open – Anyone can see the group, who’s in it, and what members post.
- Closed – Anyone can see the group and who’s in it. Only members see posts.
- Secret – Only members see the group, who’s in it, and what members post.
Get familiar with the group landscape
- The Right-hand navigation
- Members – See the number of members in the group
- Add Friends to Group
- Go Online to Chat – This is a cool “group chat” feature similar to a chat room
- Create Doc – Great place to collaborate on a document. Only one person can edit at a time, but the document is edited live and there’s not uploading or downloading.
- Create Event – Great way to create events that are specific to your group
- View Photos – You can upload photos and create albums that only your group can see
- Edit Group – If you are an admin you’ll have the option to edit group settings and features
- Leave Group – You can leave your own group =)
- Docs – This is where your docs are listed
What can you accomplish in a group?
- Create events to coordinate meet ups
- Collaborate on group documents
- Share links, pics and video
- Poll the group/take a vote

Have an older group on Facebook? You’ll want to visit the Facebook Help Section here for FAQs on how those groups will be migrated. Click here for help –> http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18966

Tags: Business, crowd sourcing, Facebook, facebook groups, networking, Social Media, social network, status updates
Posted in Business, Facebook, Tips, Tools | No Comments »

Don’t Forget to Update Your Traditional Marketing Too!

June 20th, 2011

When your business is ready for social media integration, you’ll want to make sure that you include your social media channels where possible. We don’t want you to make the mistake of forgetting to update your current marketing to reflect the updates you’ve made across your new social media channels.

How to make it all tie together…

Gather Up All Your Social Media Links (URLs)

When you secure a profile on most social media networks, you will usually have a direct link that directs you to your exact profile. You’ll want to gather up these links so that you can use them to “spoon feed” people to the exact place that you want them. For example, on Twitter, we have the Twitter ID of weedott or more commonly shown as @weedott to indicate a Twitter ID. However, if someone wasn’t on Twitter, they may not know how to actually get to your or better yet, they go to Twitter’s homepage and are sure how to “search” for you . So, the best solution is to provide the direct link (URL) for people to click on or type in so that they get to you directly. The direct link to our Twitter profile is then http://twitter.com/weedott and this takes people exactly where we want them with no fussing and no extra steps.

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Posted in Business, Online Profiles, Tips | No Comments »

Have You Signed Up To Get Facebook Deals Yet?

April 12th, 2011

So you’ve probably heard of Groupon, Living Social, Daily Deals and the list goes on. These services provide you with local daily deals based on personal criteria you’ve entered such as location and interests. There’s also check-in services out there like foursquare and Yelp which allow you to access deals based on your immediate location. What do these services have in common? They are NOT Facebook.

Facebook recently announced they will be offering a daily deals program that will surely rival the above mentioned services. The advantage Facebook has is not only it’s captive audience of 500+ Million users but also the ability to have these deals show up right in users’ newsfeed. If you are Groupon or Yelp and you want to push a deal out on Facebook you are stuck either posting it on your Business Facebook Page wall or purchasing Facebook Ad space. Here’s the problem….more than half of the users that access Facebook access it through their mobile phone and will never even see those ads. HUGE advantage for Facebook…and a smart move.

Here’s a link to the Facebook Deals Page where you can sign up to receive notification when the program goes live. http://www.facebook.com/deals Right now it’s only available in 5 cities: San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, Atlanta and Dallas. If you’re not in one of those cites, then sign up so you’ll be notified when it goes live in your city. Expect to see locations based deals and deals based on how many of your friends are taking part in the deal.

Our local Fox channel did a segment on the upcoming deals and one of weedott’s partners, Echo, was featured in the video. Take a look and tell us what your thoughts are! Carlos thinks Facebook is taking over the world….your thoughts?

Facebook getting into daily deals game: MyFoxORLANDO.com

Tags: Facebook, Facebook Page, Marketing and Advertising, Social Media
Posted in Business, Facebook, Tips, Updates | 1 Comment »

Facebook Fan Pages Get an Upgrade! Learn What’s New

February 10th, 2011

Yup…another Facebook overhaul…but this time it’s Facebook Fan Pages. Although you’re given the “choice” to keep your page “as is” don’t be fooled…ALL Facebook Fan Pages will be migrating to the new look as of March 1, 2011. So here’s a breakdown and tour of what’s to come with the new update! Immediately below is the video tour, but if you prefer to scan the screen shots I took and read…move on down past the video!

Learn more at: http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=upgradedpage

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Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Statistics From Some of Your Favorite Social Media Networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Craig’s List

January 31st, 2011

Ever wonder what the “true” statistics are for some of the most popular online social networks? Well, the best place to get them is from the “horse’s mouth” or straight from the networks themselves…but finding the info can be tricky. Here’s some interesting statistics from your beloved networks along with the links on where to find the info time and time as they change. Enjoy!

Some facts about Facebook…

There are currently over 500 million active users on Facebook and over 50% of them log in on any given day. The average active Facebook user has over 130 friends, so if your Fan Page has only 100 fans, you are only one degree away from 13,000 people on Facebook. (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics)

Some facts about Twitter…

There are currently over 175 registered users who stream a total of over 95 million tweets a day. There are over 600 search queries typed in to Twitter’s search engine daily. (https://twitter.com/about)

Some facts about LinkedIn…

LinkedIn has over 90 million users and more than one million LinkedIn Company Pages. As of January 2011, LinkedIn counts executives from all 2010 Fortune 500 companies as members; its hiring solutions were used by 69 of the Fortune 100 companies as of December 31, 2010. (http://press.linkedin.com/about )

Some facts about Craig’s List…

Craig’s list has over 50 million users in the United State alone but is available in 70 countries. It is ranked #7 in the world for English-language website page views and there are over 1 million job listings posted each month. (http://www.craigslist.org/about/factsheet)

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »