If the Ramayan were on Facebook

In my earlier post, I did mention that Sreedharan is trying to re-tell Mahabharata on Twitter. Now, here is an imagination of Ramayana on Facebook. Kokonad. If the Ramayan were to have an status update like Facebook, how would it be like! He has used the appropriate icons and apps to come up with this.

Read If the Ramayan were on Facebook

The Ramayana: A Modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic

Woof – When Twitter’s 140 Characters Aren’t Enough

Sometimes we find it bit tough to limit our tweets in 140 characters. Moreover, if I have to provide the reference to a link, I need to use a url shortening service. But, here you have Woofer which says you to be eloquent, use adverbs and DEA (don’t ever abbreviate). Can I say it as an anti-twitter “macro” blogging platform?

So Woof as opposed to Tweet.

The Woofer website looks similar to Twitter except that they limit the woof (yes, not tweet) to 1400 characters. And to mention it – that’s mandatory. It does not take anything less than 1400 characters.

The Twitter logo is replaced with the Woofer one and which indicates, you don’t have to tweet but “woof”.

The Twitter style search box simply re-directs to Google.

On clicking “Is this Twitter?” link on the top right will lead a giant letters “NO”.

But the bottom-line and the most important thing to know about the Woofer page is that it is mainly an interactive advertisement for Shuffeltime, suggesting that the website is simply a marketing stunt for Join the Company’s main website.

Google Reader Goodies

Here are the three Google Reader Goodies (or gadgets) I like to use. They are very easy and simple and save a lot of your time while reading the different posts or subscriptions. RSS Readers was itself a great tool to save time. Now, you have these gadgets to make it very simple and thus saving more time.

1. Reading Comments From Everywhere: gCreations (not from Google) is a very cool and free Firefox extension that allows you to read comments from all over the web to your posts, directly in Google Reader. For each post in your feed, it gets comments from Blogger, FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook, Digg and more.

1. Send To Feature: Now send and share the posts directly from your Reader to Facebook, Twitter, Blog…more using the Send To feature in Google Reader. Just click on the Settings tab on the top-right corner and enable the services you want to use.



2. Google Reader on Google Desktop: Using this gadget, you can track your feeds and subscriptions directly from the desktop. The Google Reader gadget is designed to be familiar for existing Reader users, yet compact like our other Desktop gadgets. You need install Google Desktop gadget first and then you can download this gadget.

Do let me know if you know more Google Reader gadgets which can be added here. Please put them as comments below.

Basic Initial Compatibility Tests Before You Launch a Website

So, you have a new website and really do not know any HTML coding. And you are not sure the website delivered to you is up without any errors or bugs. Here are few basic initial compatibility tests which you can do, before the launch. These are just the basic ones.

1. Browser Compatibility: Check the website in different browsers. You do not need to install all the browsers. BrowserShots is an online tool where, you have to provide your website address / web page address and the tool gives the screenshot of the page as seen in different browsers. You can check the website for different versions of IE, Firefox, Opera, SeaMonkey and Chrome as well. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue in BrowserShots. A number of distributed computers will open the website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server on BrowserShots.
2. Different Resolutions Compatibility: ViewLikeUS is an online tool which lets you view the way your website seems to look in different resolutions. Just submit the url and check how the page looks in different resolutions from 800 x 600 to 1280 x 800 and still more.
3. HTML Validation: Use W3C Validator to check the HTML conformance to the W3C standards.

These are just the basic compatibility tests for the website to use best practice HTML coding.

Facebook Going Lite on Twitter

According to TechCrunch, many social networkers who have been asked to try out Facebook Lite saying - Surprise, it is more Twitter-like.

The message sent out to beta testers reads, "You have been selected as a beta tester for Facebook Lite! We are building a faster, simpler version of Facebook that we call Facebook Lite. It's not finished yet and we have plenty of kinks to work out, but we would love to get your feedback on what we have built so far."

Check out Facebook Lite now at http://lite.facebook.com.

It has already purchased FriendFeed and according to some sources, Facebook earlier tried to buy Twitter for $500mn last year. And now, it has come up with Lite. What is next?

The Onion: Google's Opt-out Policy

For those who do not want Google to enter or know their personal details, your every thought, your every move, your every click and choice - there is a good news. Now, you can opt-out and Google will move you to a remote village and for those who opt-out are guranteed an enviroment free of Google products


Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

Caffeine Update: Google Asks Webmasters to Test the Next-Gen Search Infrastructure

Today in Google Webmaster Central blog, Google confirmed that for the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: next-generation architecture for Google's web search.

This process will help Google search with indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so to get the feedback from web developers they are collecting the feedback.

The web developer preview of Google’s new infrastructure is available at - http://www2.sandbox.google.com/ . To provide feedback on the current search results and new one can be provided through the link at the bottom of the search results page that says “Dissatisfied? Help us to improve.”

I am yet to identify significant changes in the rankings but, few other experts did notice the changes as

1. This change has effected to rankings related to keywords used in social media
2. This will affect the long-tail keywords
3. Keyword suggestion is popping bit faster
4. Not indexing as many web pages as the normal one
5. Providing the search results faster – may be the load is too less on Caffeine
6. May impact SEO rankings and/or traffic
7. May impact PPC search strategy
8. Link structures will not be the only one to decide the ranking
9. Indexing of social media, news sites and micro-blogging sites as immediate as possible
10. Improving of accuracy of results

Do comment on this if you have noticed something important about this.

Mahabharata retold Tweet by Tweet

Chindu Sreedharan, a lecturer from UK is retelling the Mahabharata on Twitter (http://twitter.com/epicretold), hoping to get the attention and interest of the users. Just imagine the task he has on his hands now. He wants to re-tell the great epic in 140 characters every day, step-by-step? He needs to be creative and efficient to have the interest lured to the tweets.

In 1980s the epic on the television managed to empty the city streets, forced changes in power cuts and railway timings. Even the actors of the serial got elected as members of the parliament. Will Sreedharan be able to create such a situation of narrating the epic tweet by tweet? I do agree the epic itself is written so well that there is dramatic tension every minute.

The strategy that Sreedharan is using here is his narration of this epic as per the point of view of Bheema. Yes, this interested me as well to know how this epic was viewed Bheema and will let us understand his thoughts too.

Now, I can imagine… Hum Log, Buniyaad too on this media. And not to forget “Twitter Mey Sholay”…hmm reality shows?

Source: Reuters

Mahabharat 16 DVD Set

Choreographing the Google News Experience for 2034

Krishna Bharath, the principal scientist at Google Inc., talks about the future trends of how people would like to get news during an interview with TOI.

His envisage about the news after 25 years is, the news delivered will be more personalized which will match the individual’s lifestyle and interests. He also adds that the consumption of such news will be across various devices – laptop, palmtops, mobile phones and more… So, the news will be tailored made for each individual and you will get to read what you really want.

Secondly, news presentation will be more complicated and inter-linked. Readers will like to go deep into the article and would like to know more and gather as much knowledge as required. Moreover, the reader would like to comment and provide opinion on the same. He sees this as a challenge to deliver this functionality.

The third trend he says is public access. In future, the reader will have direct access to government documents, facts and figures and perhaps interact with people at the heart of the news.

News will not be just text. Multimedia and video will dominate here too. Multi-lingual channels can also be anticipated.

Customization is what Google will be looking at now. News has to be customized as per the person’s choices. What is on page 4 for one person will be page 1 for another. When you want to keep the interest of the reader on to the subject, customization and automation of news selection comes into play.

So, the questions which are to be answered are:

• How to give the reader what he/she wants?
• How to give the reader something else in future which he/she will be interested in?
• How to provide good content which drills deep into the area and makes it a rich experience with related information and links?
• How to provide interactivity and sharing of such subject with like-minded people?

Do you think for the media, this is a challenge to choreograph the news experience for the reader?

Source: TOI

Google Holiday Logos

I saw the Google logo depicted for the solar eclipse and want to say that it was an amazing logo. The logo was really depicting the real sense of eclipse and keeping the corporate brand identity of Google.

So, this inspired me to know more about the person behind these designs. And I got this on googling it. He is a 23 year old Korean kid, Dennis Hwang. He started it as a contractor and is now designing all holiday logos for Google. The best part of the interview is his answer the question for his challenging letter of manipulation. He says he relys on the doodles he used to make when he was kid and uses them and he finds it easy to manipulate the ‘o’ and the ‘l’. He finds the first ‘G’ to be the most difficult to deal with.

Few of the holiday logos I like

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss - Valentine’s Day - Veteran’s Day -
But... I like all of them.

Read Dennis’s complete interview and additioanl details here.

And look at the comprehensive list of Google holiday logos here.

Control the Site Links Now Through Google Webmaster

Google announced today in its Webmaster Central blog about a new update named “Summer Sunshine”. The main highlight was you can edit the site links using your webmaster account.

1. You can block the other links from the site links apart from the home page. Site links are generated automatically by Google, but now you can suggest which links you do not want to list in site links.
   
2. The Google site selector now lists all verified sites and allows you to search as you type.

3. It also provides a clear distinction between verified and non-verified sites.

These improvements are really cool. Mostly the #1 and it really helps a webmaster to restrict any links which should not be there.

More Than 100 Free Twitter Tools For You

A list of more than 100 Twitter tools which can be used for an easy tweeting around and keep you updated of the tweets. I have been spending lot of time to keep it updated. You may find some dead links, errors or typos which are unintentional. Please check the tools for credibility before using them. Also let me know if I have missed anything so that the same can be added or updated here.
1. Alex King Twitter Tool – Takes your tweets and posts them to your Wordpress blog
2. BiggerTwitter – Allows you to post longer messages, but uses a link in the tweet
3. BigTweet – Add it as a favorite and IE and send a tweet from any webpage. You can send the url or use the in-built url shortening service
4. Blackbird – It is a Twitter client for Blackberry smart phones
5. Blogo – A blog editor which also helps in search in Twitter. It also updates the status whenever you post a new article
6. CheckYesOrNo – Frame Yes/No poll questions and share it with your friends on Twitter to answer the question
7. Cullect – Helps you find and share. It is a collaborative feed reader that can be used for various accounts. You just need to sign in with your credentials say – your blog, Friendfeed or Twitter
8. Feedalizr – A desktop application that allows to share photos/videos, interact with Facebook and Twitter friends and be updated with the status messages of friends
9. FeedTwit - Get your Twitter @replies as text messages and read your RSS feeds as direct messages in your Twitter account.
10. Flotzam – A desktop application to share photos, tweets, Diggs, pokes and feeds
11. Foodfeed – Share your eating habits. Just point your tweets @having and share with other like minders
12. FreeTweets – Collection of good Twitter backgrounds
13. FriendorFollow – Know who you are following and know those folks that are not following you and vice versa
14. FuelFrog – Keep a log of your fuel and mileage. Compare your mileage with others in your area, or with the same car
15. Green Tweets - Uses semantic language analysis to identify tweets pertaining to green and environmental topics from the public Twitter stream
16. gTwitter – Is a Linux client for reading and posting to Twitter.com web service
17. iTweet – iPhone interface for Twitter
18. Jargong – Is a client application for most of the social networking, instant messaging and feeds. You can also update the tweets from this application
19. jTwitter – A mobile tool to enter updates through your mobile phone
20. KipFolio Widget – Twitter widget for KipFolio
21. LoudTwitter – Helps you to transfer your tweets directly to your blog
22. MoniTwitter – Receive updates of website via Twitter
23. PingTwitter – Add new posts of your blog as status update in Twitter
24. PocketTweets – A web-based Twitter client for Apple iPhone
25. Pwytter – Python Twitter client which can support Asian characters
26. Quotably – Nice tool. Follow the Tweets of a particular account in threaded style
27. SayTweet – Dynamic mashup to have your own pic as a badge with your status update
28. Shareaholic – Firefox plugin to share the webpage via Twitter
29. SnapTweet – Share Flickr photos on Twitter too
30. Spaz – A Twitter client for Palm Pre, Windows, Mac and Linux
31. Snitter – A desktop Twitter client built on Adobe AIR
32. StrawPoll – Tool to create polls in 140 characters
33. TeleTwitter – Open source Twitter client for Windows
34. Terraminds – Search tool to search for users and tweets
35. TopNewsTrends – Combines Google trends data with Twitter search
36. TrackThis – Track your UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS via Twitter or Facebook
37. TreoTwit – Check and update your Twitter right from your Treo
38. Triqqr – A windows tool to submit tweets and to view profiles
39. Twappi – Provides the Twitter mood
40. Tw-autocomplete – Simple add-on for Firefox that adds auto-complete support for @-messages and DMs
41. TweetBar – Use Twitter to Firebox browser
42. TweetBurner – An url shortening service, which also provides the clicks and referrals details
43. TweetCloud – Know what is buzzing around in the twitter world
44. Tweetdeck - Adobe Air desktop application enables you to split the main feed into group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets
45. Tweeter – A java desktop client for Twitter
46. Tweetfeed – As name suggests. Helps in customizing the tweets online so that you can track the ones which are important to you
47. Tweetlater – Sends automated DMs to your followers
48. TweetMyPC – to connect your PC remotely to lock or shutdown, using a mobile device or another internet connected PC just by sending a tweet
49. Tweetr – A cross platform tool to submits tweets
50. TweetScan – Search tool. Search as per keyword or user name
51. TweetWhatYouEat – A food diary online and track your weight. (Hey… should help in burning your calories as well)
52. TweetWhatYouSpend – Cash tracking made simple through Twitter. Built cash journal and export to excel or csv
53. Twellow – A directory of Twitter users
54. TwerpScan – Keep an eye on growing list of friends and followers
55. Twessenger – Updates Live Messenger status as per the latest tweet
56. Twhirl – A desktop client connects you to multiple accounts – Twitter, FriendFeed, seismic and Iaconi.ca
57. Twidget – A dashboard widget that allows to update status
58. Twidroid – Twitter client for android mobile phones
59. Twiggit – Is an automated service that lets your friends on Twitter know what articles you Digg
60. Twinja – A desktop Twitter client (AIR) application that provides all the features of Twitter
61. Twinfluence - a simple tool using the Twitter API to to measure the combined influence of twitterers and their followers, with a few social network statistics thrown in as bonus
62. Twinkle – Location-aware network for iPhone and iTouch
63. Twippera – Opera browser plug-in that can update and view tweets
64. Twit4Live – Sets Live Messenger status as latest tweet
65. Twitbar – Post tweets from the GNOME deskbar
66. TwitBin – Firefox browser add-on to send and view tweets
67. TwitBox – Desktop client to view and submit tweets, supports multiple accounts
68. TwitDir – Allows user to search for users by name, location, or username
69. Twitgit – Submit and view tweets using the dashboard
70. Twitkit – A Twitter sidebar for Firefox. It has a 6-section interface, using tabs to separate content
71. Twitpic – Lets you share photos on Twitter
72. Twitr – Claims to be the #1 Twitter directory
73. Twitscoop – Twitter interface to send tweets, find friends, search and follow what is buzzing around in the twitter world. You can also save searches for future reference
74. TwitSeeker – search engine to find Twitter users as per their tweets and not as per their profile
75. Twitter100 – This app creates a collage of all your friends you are following, so that you do not miss tweets of your special friends you are following
76. Twitter For Busy People – Same as Twitter100. But, if you are following too many friends then this is better
77. Twitt(url)y – A tool to track the URLs people are talking about on Twitter
78. Twittelator – Complete iPhone Twitter client
79. TweetAhead – Schedule tweets to be posted ahead of time with a simple dashboard widget
80. Twitter CLI – A windows tool to post tweets using the command line
81. Twitter for Vim – A Linux tool to publish tweets right within Vim
82. Twitter.el – A Linux tool to publish tweets while in Emacs
83. Twitter100 – Use it to view 100 tweets at a time
84. TwitterBar – Post to Twitter from you Firefox address bar
85. TwitterBerry –Twitter for various BlackBerry devices
86. TwitterBuzz – Find out what URLs are being most linked to on Twitter
87. TwitterCard - Create a 125(w) x 125(h) pixel banner ad to put on your blog or website and display the current status
88. Twit.el – A linux tool that allows publishing of tweets in Emacs
89. twitterfeed.com – A tool which uses the latest blog feed as tweet
90. TwitterFox – Firefox extension that can publish and view tweets
91. Twittergrader – Provides you a grade based on the power of your Twitter profile
92. Twitterholic – Shows the top users and accounts on Twitter
93. Twitterless - Notifies you when somebody stops following you and lets you know who it is and the follower history is graphed out over time
94. Twitterlex – Mac OS X dashboard widget that shows the last 30 tweets which refreshes periodically
95. Twitterlicious – Update Twitter status, check replies and direct messages
96. TwitterLinkr – Collects the links posted trough Twitter
97. Twitterlocal - A tool to filter tweets based upon users’ location. It also provides the searches in RSS or XML file
98. Twittermaps – A mashup technology that allows Twitter users find each other using Google maps
99. Twitteroo – A windows tool to update and view the status
100. Twitter.PollDaddy.com - Create Polldaddy polls and post them directly to your Twitter stream
101. TwitterPost – A Mac client that submits tweets, shows your current iTunes track in your feed and more
102. Twitterrific – Mobile and desktop tool to post and view tweets
103. Twittersearch – Search Twitter and tweets using keywords
104. Twitter SPY - Displays the Twitter public timeline
105. TwitterSync for Yahoo – Syncs Twitter status with Yahoo Messenger status
106. Twittertise - Allows you to schedule your tweets in advance and track the clicks on URLs you tweet
107. Twittervision – See where in the world people are submitting tweets from in real-time
108. TwitterYM – Updates the Yahoo Messenger status taking the latest tweet
109. TwitThis – Allows your website/blog visitors easily share a page or post via Twitter
110. TwittyTunes – A FoxyTunes (Firefox extension) add-on that posts what you are currently listening to
111. Twitux – A Twitter client for the GNOME desktop
112. Twitwall - When it’s too long to tweet, but too short to blog, just TwitWall it! TwitWall is the easy-to-use, quick-to-blast-out blog companion for Twitter
113. Twitxr – Share pictures from your mobile phone. Automatically publish them on social networks and photosharing sites
114. Twonvert – Easily converts your tweets into SMS shorthand language and allows you to say more with the 140 characters
115. Twonvo – Threads your tweets
116. Twuzzer – Twitter / GoogleMaps mashup.
117. Useqwitter – e-mails when a twitter stops following you after a certain post
118. What’s Up? – Gadget that allows you to see latest tweets from your friends
119. WildSets –Twitter app for mobile phones
120. yammer – A similar mico-blogging software to Twitter. Can be used by enterprise companies and can be used as an intranet solution
121. Yoono – Receive alerts, update your status or message your friends in your browser sidebar. No need to switch from one site to another or from your browser to a desktop app. Also integrates other services: Facebook, flickr, friendfeed, major IM services
122. ZenTwitter – A GUI frontend for Twitter using zenity and curl

I thank Shannon. Most of the list is from his page. All credit goes to Shannon.

Men, Women Use Facebook Differently

Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology have found that while woman prefer applications which they can express themselves through, men chose ones they can compete against others with. So, your gender determines which Facebook application you would rather prefer.

According to the lead researcher Russell-Bennett, applications were also considered cool when they allowed self-categorization such as discovering which movie star you are applications which change daily, applications which allows high level of interactivity like scrabble or bowling and lastly applications which are special and novel. Facebook users use the applications and share them only to enhance their standings in their network of friends.

This study is important from a commercial point of view. This will help the organizations developing these applications as they can now identify which features encourage people to recommend the game to others. The more they recommend to others, the more people use it and this will attract a substitute to the traditional and/or viral advertising.

Top Paying Google Adsense Keywords

Google Adsense is a popular affiliate program to earn revenue from your website or blog. It usually allows you to paste their script and that will show ads on your website, with the relevant keywords which you have in your content. And any clicks on these ads will earn you a share of the CPC.

There are various ways to increase this revenue and Google Adsense will also provide you the details. Here is one simple way to increase the dollars. Below is the list of few of the TOP keywords which generate high CPC, means your share will also be at the higher side. So, the easier way is to have the content on the web page or blog around these high paying keywords. This will show the relevant ads and will help you to earn more.

This list of keywords is prepared only through my experience and the CPC may vary from time to time. This list is not complete and completely accurate. You need to frame related phrases around these main keywords and also check for the CPC before preparing the content for the web page.

Mortgage
Mortgage rates
Low cost loan
Fast loans
Loan payment calculator
Student loan
Credit cards
Second mortgage loan
Mortgage quote
Company insurance
Car insurance
Health insurance
Life insurance
Auto insurance
Refinancing cash out
Refinance mortgage
Loans after bankruptcy
Bankruptcy lawyers
Bad credit consolidation
Credit card processing
Credit cards rewards
Balance transfer credit card
Debt negotiation
Out of debt
Domain name registration
Cheap domain registration
Free domain name registration
Domain name renewal
Email hosting
Virtual hosting servers
Windows 2000 hosting
Linux hosting
Dedicated servers
Hosting reseller
DSL service
Internet modems
Conferencing internet
High speed internet
Broadband company
Computer rent
Computer hire
Notebook rentals
Car hire
Online college
Online degree
Online education
Laser hair removal
Hair removal laser surgery

A more detailed and almost complete list is available here.

Update your Facebook Status from Twitter

Yes. You can update your Facebook status right from Twitter now. And that too only for the tweets you want. Just end a tweet with #fb when you want it to update your Facebook status – It’s that simple.

Some more tips to take care –

1. Take care not to confuse your Facebook friends with different and frequent tweets
2. Leave certain updates on Facebook for longer time
3. Twitter is Twitter and Facebook is Facebook. One needs to treat them differently
4. There can be some time lag for the status to reflect on Facebook. Have patience.

5 Simple Tips to Make Your Resume Searchable

Recession has made it tough for the unemployed to find a suitable job for them. The best way is to make your resume easily searchable for the recruiters so that you can get more and relevant calls. Here are few simple tips which can make your profile or resume within the reach of such recruitment agencies.

1. Regularly edit your profile on the job sites like naukri.com, jobsahead.com, monster.com or careerbuilder.com. Let it be any job site, just edit your profile a bit and save it again. Here your edit is not that important, but this will reset the save date on the database making it a latest resume and a latest profile every time you save it. Thus, it boosts the ranking for your profile when recruiters search for candidates. Also, let your profile have all important keywords. Yes, optimize your profile as well.
2. Update your status on social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Let the people know that you are looking for a job. You can provide a link to your profile too in the status message. If you feel right, you can update your IM status messages as well.
3. Google launched the profile page. Update it with the most relevant keywords which you feel the recruiters use and you want them to find you or your profile.
4. Use Twitter search and try to find out users whom you feel will be helpful in finding you a job or they themselves are recruiters and follow them and read their updates. May be they can post a job ad or they may also follow you.
5. Join relevant groups in sites like LinkedIn and Facebook and participate in discussions. Just try to make your presence felt in such groups.

Let me know if these help. When you get a job, let us meet for a drink. Frobes provides the top 15 job sites. Check if they are useful.

Will Online Entertainment Industry Survive?

The emergence of MP3 and MP4 has shattered the business of music industry. Still the film industry is not touching the business it has to in the online market. Many P2P sites come-up and internet savvy folks want to download the audios and/or movies over to their desktop or iPod. I guess making the DVD rentals online has also not yielded much business online. I guess folks really do not want to carry the CD or DVD. They rather prefer a digital format which can be carried in their devices; more so can be easily transferred.

In the report, The State of Music Online: Ten Years After Napster, the Pew Internet Project traces the evolution of online music, and the changes that have been forced on musicians and the recording industry.

This is a period of innovation and survival for this online entertainment market. The popularity of social media networks may hamper the online sales of music. But, can these entertainment companies fight this out? I am just guessing good strategies to come out from these business guys. May be use of biometrics to listen or see these files? May be a tie-up with the ISP to have a cap on sharing such files? Do you have any ideas?

Social Media – Is It the Online Revolution?

Iranians both inside and outside the country are using social media networking sites to spread, to organize, and to make their voice heard. Iranians have shared online images, video, emails and tweets about the protests and spreading violence thus overtaking the local media. Efforts to control the populace of using internet is visible – limited internet bandwidth, blocking of networking sites, interrupted cell phone service and blocking SMSs and more.

And THAT is signal! This is what I guess. All these groupie networking sites Twitter, YouTube, Facebook – are heading the populace towards a new revolution - the online revolution? Is this just infatuation of the internet or the new technology? The revolution has just started in the gathering and sharing of information, of intention, of expression, of opinion and of connection.

The hierarchy is slowly reversing. Many people will control the few. Social media is a great weapon in the hands of the people. This isn't just an Iranian revolution - this is a bottom-up revolution impacting everything. Is it a boon or a bane?

5 Important Approaches for Social Networking for Companies

Many corporate are trying to jump the social networking band wagon. The social networking websites’ links, icons and/or logos are being shown on most of the corporate websites as they want to increase their reach to and want to easily communicate with the folks in their network – customers, prospects or anyone.

Here are the 5 important approaches that they need to be confident of performing prior to jumping in the networking band wagon.

1. Define Objectives: Companies first need to define the objectives and goals as to what they want to achieve by social networking. Defining them before will help the contribution and participation more interesting and productive.
2. Channel of Communication: Companies need to keep in mind that networking in this media is not to increase the sales. It is a channel to make your customers and prospects to communicate with the company in a simpler way. And the other way round, may be customers do not want to receive a phone call or an e-mail but, wants to read the corporate blog or tweet. And the customer may feel comfortable to respond back or ask questions through the same channel.
3. Listen to Customers: This is the most important thing that corporate companies need to be keeping in mind. The jump in social networking makes it easily accessible to their customers and prospects. Listen to them first. The more the knowledge is shared with the customers and prospects to solve the issues the more satisfied the customer gets. Thus, building a good reputation in the market.
4. Track Customers Talking: Search the online media frequently to find out what people are talking about the company. And companies need to immediately attend, communicate the updates to them immediately. This networking channel is to build the brand and not to start the sales cycle. There are tools available which can help to keep track of this - TweetScan, RSS feeds. Companies can also try Andy Beal’s trackur tool.
5. Be Real and Own: People like communicating through this channel as they feel they are talking to a responsible person from a corporate who listens to them. So, one who communicates from the company side needs to be a real person who can own the issue or problem being talked about and respond back with a solution to them.

Also read related posts -
The Four Important Steps to Start Social Networking for Business
6 Tips To Be Successful In Social Media Marketing

5 Easy Tips to Improve the CTR for Google Adwords

It really helps a lot in conversions and better ROI if you try to improve the CTR for your ads in Google Adwords. The better the CTR, the better the ad position with the lower CPC, which leads to quality clicks. And finally this leads to better conversions and better ROI.

Here are few easy tips which can help you to increase the CTR. Couple of them are the same old tips, but rest of them are new ones and are working well for my ads. You can test them out and let me know if it worked for you as well.

1. Spend money on keywords that work: Use exact match or phrase match for the keywords (use of square brackets or quotes like [keywords] or “keywords”). This helps in avoiding unwanted clicks. You will get the clicks which your ad is supposed to be clicked for. This way you get only potential customers to click the ad. Even the use of negative keywords will filter the unwanted clicks. Check for more details on Google Adwords.
2. Double Advantage: Have variable title for the ads like – {Keyword: Default Title} where you need to replace the default title with suitable text. Visitors tend to click if they find the keyword they are searching for in the ad. In addition to that, Google bolds the keyword which is being searched. So, you will have a double advantage to use the keywords in the title.
3. Create Urgency: Try to use good call-to-action lines in the ad copy. Let it create the sense of urgency to make the visitor click. Keep in mind that your ad is being shown among your competitors and you need to attract that click. Try testing these which suits the ad – Click now, Get it now, Download free trial, Try our trial today, Special Offer, only for today…
4. Specific Action: Direct the visitor in the ad the action he/she has to make after clicking. This will help them to make a quick decision to click or not. For example: Register now, Buy at a discount, Download the white paper, Read brochure…
5. Numberings: Numbers really help in attracting quality clicks. Try putting the prices in the copy. The visitor will decide prior to clicking the ad if he/she finds the price attractive. You can also put toll free numbers in the ad as it will avoid that click and the visitor will directly call you and will not click. Just give a unique phone number so that you can track the calls and calculate the conversions and ROI.

I would like to hear your experiences too in this regard.

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