Naturally, like just about every other popular activity and subject that urges people to need to know each and every possible thing there is to know about it, Pinterest now has its own For Dummies book. It’s official, guys, Pinterest has arrived, and the time to hop on that bandwagon is now.

Pinterest For Dummies was written by an innovative and just plain awesome woman who is part of a group of people who have the potential to benefit greatly from the magic that is Pinterest: bloggers. Kelby Carr is the founder and CEO of Type-A-Parent, a popular social network and blog, and the Type-A-Parent Conference, which I annually hear tons of terrific things about. Her penning this how-to book makes absolute perfect sense.

I thought I had Pinterest pretty much figured out, and to my credit, I do know what I’m doing when it comes to working the website properly. I can pin images, repin images, I know about the comment capability that almost no one uses, and I know that the like button exists, which I have come to realize through my usage of the website, is used by people who are too embarrassed or lazy to repin an image but still want to make sure people know that they were there. It was while reading this book, however, that I realized I could use a few pointers when it comes to using Pinterest in order to self-promote my own projects and really make an influential difference ind doing so. Turns out I didn’t know everything. Imagine that.

Pinterest For Dummies has the answer to any Pinterest-related questions or concerns you may have. From how to set up an account and start pinning to the many devices you can access and use Pinterest on and controlling your privacy settings, it is all covered. In addition to the whole self-promotion aspect of Pinterest, I was also very interested in getting tips on using Pinterest as an organization tool, effective mood board, and event planning tool. My life has recently changed in some very drastic ways. My partner of six and half years became my fiance in mid-April and in the beginning of February we bought our own home. I am now in the middle of creating a warm and inviting home that signifies who we are and starting the very beginning stages of wedding planning simultaneously! Lo and behold, I not only found out the easiest way to organize the many things Pinterest can inspire, but I also learned how to make a board a collaborative project and read about how it can also be used as a shopping list, a bookmarking site, and even using it to support a cause. There’s a whole lot of valuable information in this book.

The last two chapters of Pinterest For Dummies are also great resources. Chapter 11 lists 10 companies that are using Pinterest effectively, including Etsy, Lowe’s Whole Foods, and Better Homes and Gardens. Chapter 12 lists 10 power pinners that if you have a Pinterest account, you should be following. I was pleased to find out that I already follow the majority of the people who were listed and I definitely agree with the recommendations. The 10 people listed in this book have already been inspiring me on Pinterest exponentially throughout the past several months that I have been using the website.

Giveaway

If you just started using Pinterest and want information on how to make the most of it, if you don’t yet have an account but are thinking about joining the countless people already using the site, or even if you believe yourself to be an expert Pinterest user, I am confident in saying that you can benefit from reading Pinterest For Dummies. So how would you like to win a copy of the book for yourself? To enter, use the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received a copy of “Pinterest For Dummies” for review and the opportunity to host this giveaway as part of a promotional program with Global Influence. No other compensation was received, and opinions are my own.

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Computer, coffee, and headphones at the kitchen table, also known as my workspace, and of course my blog dashboard is up on the computer screen. This is pretty much what my daily workday looks like. Sometimes I move to the couch if I’m having more of a relaxing day and can watch some television between blog posts and emails, but most of the time this is it. It’s a rather nice thing to call “work.” Sometimes I forget how fortunate I am to have taken this hope of mine of writing for a living and running a website and to have successfully turned it into my reality. Fortunate indeed.

If you want to join in, check out the May Photo a Day Challenge List.

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Techy Tribe and Mom to Bed by 8 are proud to present the Techy Summer Xbox Kinect Bundle Event from July 8 to July 22. This is a free blogger event and accepting signups now.

Join the Techy Summer Xbox Kinect Bundle Giveaway event today, grow your readership and offer a gamer’s must have giveaway!

Here’s the deal on how to take part in this giveaway event:

• Post an announcement about the Techy Summer Xbox Kinect Bundle Giveaway event on your blog.
• If you do not wish to post the announcement, send $5 via PayPal to goodnightmommyboutique@gmail.com with your email address and Techy Summer Xbox Event in the subject line or notes portion of the form.
• Once you have posted your announcement or sent the PayPal payment, fill out this form.
• You will receive an email within 7 days confirming your participation. If you do not, please email teri@momtobedby8.com and your status will be checked into.
• Then around July 5th you will receive another email with the HTML code for publishing the giveaway. Note: It is required that you publish the giveaway HTML in full to be included in this event. Links will be verified on July 5 at around 8am central and if you have not published the giveaway, your link on the Rafflecopter form will be removed. This keeps this event fair for all who join.

If you sign up for this free blogger event, please say that Woman Tribune referred you by putting ‘Woman Tribune’ in the referral box on the signup form.

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Instead of meeting someone at school, at work, or seeking out mixers and speed dating events, we now have the ability to find the person of our dreams (fingers crossed) online. In fact, about 10% of the 54 million single people in the United States use a dating service to find a significant other, or at the very least, a date for Saturday night.

Check out the following infographic for fascinating statistics and information on what people are really looking for in a partner, about how long people who meet online spend in a courtship before getting married vs people who met traditionally and face-to-face first, and also some bits of information both serious and hilarious on relationships, love, sex, and the internet.


Dating in a Virtual World by Free Dating.co.uk

Click image to enlarge in new window

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More than 50 million Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Usually we hear most about helping those in need during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, which is when most charitable giving is done. This makes sense, but poverty and hunger affects millions of people every single day, not just during the holidays of selfless giving.

As the instability of the national job market continues, more families are finding themselves in need of a little help, and springtime traditionally brings a decrease in food and charitable donations to food banks across the country. To help increase meals for those in need during the spring hunger gap, Walmart has teamed up with Feeding America in a nationwide Fighting Hunger Together initiative that is expected to generate 43 million meals for families in need.

From April 9th to April 30th, you can Vote to fight spring hunger with Walmart on Facebook and rally support for communities in need of hunger relief. Among the 200 communities with the highest unemployment rate (as determined by a Department of Labor report), Walmart will donate a total of $2 million to the 21 communities who receive the most support as a result of the Facebook campaign. The breakdown is that $1 million will be donated to the winning community and the 20 runners-up will each receive a $50,000 donation.

My support will definitely be behind Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA, my hometown. I would love to see my community benefit from this initiative during a time when it really needs that support. Take a look at the communities with the highest unemployment rates that you will be able to vote for starting April 9th through Walmart’s Fighting Hunger Together Facebook campaign.

During these three weeks of April you can also participate in this Fighting Hunger Together initiative by shopping at Walmart and purchasing select products from four of the most popular and recognized food brands in America that are also participating, ConAgra, General Mills, Kraft, and Kellogg’s. Customers can donate meals to Feeding America or Action for Healthy Kids, a nonprofit organization that works to fight childhood hunger. Just by shopping the brands you and your family love, you can help make a difference in the lives of countless families in need this spring.

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We humans are natural story-tellers. From the earliest people who carved their lives out in drawings on the sides of caves, to the penning of novels and poetry embracing ideas socially deemed as ‘radical,’ to the most recent incarnation of self-expression–the personal blog. We have story-telling down, and as much as we write and share and create, the hunger for more, both creating more and listening more, is always there.

Never has writing and getting the carefully-chosen, perfectly-crafted words you wrote out into the world and into the minds of many been so easy and fool-proof as it is today. All you need in order to share your life story is an internet connection. After that, the web spaces where your voice is needed, where it matters, and where it will be appreciated practically open themselves up at your fingertips.

Life Story Talk is a new website dedicated solely to people sharing their unique life experiences through writing. Whether you wrote a story about the first time you learned how to swim in the deep end of the pool without floatation devices on, or about a whirlwind relationship that left you confused and heartbroken, or about dropping your oldest child off at their first day of college; regardless of what moment it was in your life, if it shaped you and the way you view the world, you can submit it to Life Story Talk and share that time in your life with others who frequent the website.

When people share stories from their lives and their personal experiences with one another, amazing things happen. Ideas are spread, knowledge is gained, minds are opened, and maybe, just maybe, your words could inspire a little more compassion, love, and understanding in the world. We all know our culture could use a little more of that.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Life Story Talk. Incentive was provided to me, and opinions are my own.

Photo by Pixmac_com

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The following infographic breaks down what social services businesses are using the most and how drastically social network usage and micro-blogging has increased deals and sales for all types of businesses.



Courtesy of InsideView

Click image to enlarge in new window

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Here are a few tips to keep in mind when searching the internet:

Look at the Quality of the Internet Search

Inaccurate writing can still be well-written, but accurate, fact-based research is unlikely to be riddled with typographical errors and grammar mistakes. Look at the quality of the writing you’re reading. If it doesn’t flow well, seems like a child wrote it, or is filled with English usage mistakes, it’s probably not a good source. There is one exception to this rule: if you’ve used a translation service to translate a website, the writing may be a bit stilted. Look at the sources the translated source cites and then refer back to these to check facts.

Take a look at the results of your search. The webpages listed may all be one type, may vary from merchants, to articles, to research, to consumer, to YouTube–all could have relevant information, or you may be looking for one type of information. You should be able to make a decision to click or move down the search results based on the meta-tag information provided right below the link.

See the example below that shows a variety of results:

Consider the Source of the Internet Search

One of the simplest ways to determine whether the information you’re getting is valuable is to look for the author. If the author is an expert in their field, you’ve stumbled across a reliable primary source. Blog posts and message board discussions are generally less reliable; however, they can be used as a springboard for further research. If, for example, you find a credible-sounding discussion on the best flea meds for dogs on a blog, look for any studies and author references. If there are no sources, you should avoid using the information because it could be out of date, misunderstood, or completely manufactured.

Laypeople can be excellent sources of information, so long as they back up their opinions and speculations with facts. If a blogger directs you to scholarly studies or primary sources, the information is likely reliable, but you should still check the sources to verify.

Filter Sources From Your Results

Before the internet, getting published usually meant at least one editor and one fact-checker had to approve your work. Now, anyone can publish their ideas with a simple click of a button. They can then stuff their articles with keywords to place them at the top of search engines, making it difficult to find more reliable information. Try using a search filter. Google, for example, offers Google Scholar, which allows you to search for scholarly research and journal articles. You can also search for information from a particular source, like a famous veterinarian, or a top-rated school or university. Simply type the name into the search bar in quotation marks and then type the keywords you are searching for.

Use Good Search Terms for the Search Engines

If you’re looking for scholarly work or for reliable sources, it’s best to avoid using loaded terms and opinionated adjectives. For example, don’t search for “why highlighters are better than markers” because, objectively speaking, they’re not. Instead, search for “highlighter marker differences” or “highlighters versus markers.” Someone with a political or religious axe to grind is more likely to use strong adjectives in their writing, which makes Google more likely to pick up these webpages if you choose to use adjectives.

You may also have to clarify your search terms. If you are looking for a pet ramp for your dog, you could type in “steps for dogs.” However, based on my own searches, in addition to getting listings for the physical doggy stairs product, I also found articles that talked about the steps you take with dog training, which was not what I was looking for. I have also found that I can spend a lot of time looking at other non-related posts that will get me side-tracked, so the more specific, the better!

Photo by jjgwarren

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Paper shredders are a staple in all professional office settings, but they are also important for home businesses and frequent personal use. Think of all the substantial documents you print off your computer and receive in the mail. Your monthly utility bills, information about your mortgage, property taxes, insurance, credit card bills, bank statements, and the list goes on; every one of these things contains personal information that no one ever wants someone else getting a hold of. While you may have been simply recycling or throwing away these documents for years, doing this does not guarantee that the information printed on those pieces of paper is kept confidential. That is where the importance of a paper shredder comes in.

The first personal paper shredder was designed and manufactured 22 years ago, in 1990 by Fellowes, Inc. Considered the category leader in product innovation, they have continued to stay at the forefront of the technology that is responsible for making shredding easier, safer, and faster. This attention to detail and top notch technological design is what has made Fellowes remain a trusted brand over the past two decades, and it is what you can expect from their newest personal paper shredder, the Fellowes 79Ci.

This new personal shredder was created to address shredding needs in the home, home office, or small and shared business settings, and it has some really impressive features.

The number one complaint with any shredder is jamming. Fellowes is the only brand on the market with 100% Jam Proof Technology. A sophisticated sensor measures the thickness of a paper stack and automatically stops a paper jam before it occurs, saving you time and a whole lot of frustration while maximizing productivity.

Fellowes Cross-Cut Technology uses heavy duty blades to shred one single piece of paper into 399 different pieces, making it nearly impossible to piece back together and keeping all of your personal information strictly confidential. Because this shredder is meant to be used in either a small business, shared workspace, or home environment, the SilentShred™ Technology ensures that the shredder is as quiet as possible with the use of a whisper-quiet motor. With this technology, you won’t be disturbing people working alongside you or waking the baby up from a nap every time you need to shred something. Speaking of tiny fingers, the SafeSense® Technology uses an advanced electronic safety sensor that automatically disables the shredder when hands touch the paper opening, ensuring that the shredder is completely safe to use in any and all personal spaces without fear.

The Fellowes 79Ci is available now at Staples for $239.99. What technology features of the Fellowes 79Ci have you most excited about this personal paper shredder?

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Enter: My need for a handy internet organizational tool that is easy to use, won’t disrupt my workflow, and that I will actually remember exists.

I was recently made aware of clipix, a new, incredibly useful, and easy-to-use tool that can help you organize your entire online life. Never again will you be sitting at your computer trying to remember where you found that awesome blouse that would look perfect on you, that yummy recipe you wanted to try out for dinner, or that how-to on repurposing old wine bottles to make a chandelier for above your dining room table.

I know that there are many different organizational tools out there, both browser-based and desktop programs, but I have been playing around with clipix for a few days now and I really like it.

Life requires all of us to wear many different hats. For me, I run this website, and I am also a freelance writer/professional opinion-haver and a (very) sporadic web designer and developer, but I also have a lot of different things going on in my personal life that is also influenced by fantastic things I find online. All of these ideas and inspiration for different facets of life need their own space and with clipix, they have that with individual boards. Due to the fact that I can sometimes be overly-analytical and maybe a little too organized, if there is such a thing, I was really happy to see that clipix allows the creation of multiple boards for one singular category. This means that if I have a recipe board, I can create individual boards for salads, soups, dinners, desserts, and so on, and then group them all together under that recipe board. If I am working on a project with someone else or I want to show off some ideas I have come up with for something, syncboards allow me to share what I have clipped to a board with another person or group of people, and the people who I allow to see a board will also see any changes I make in real-time.

After signing up for a clipix account (it’s completely free and you can sign up using your Facebook login, Twitter login, or your email), all you have to do is drag the “clip” bookmark to your bookmark toolbar in your browser and then every time you see something you want to save for later, just click that bookmark and a small panel will appear in the top right-hand corner of the page for you to clip that page to your clipix account.

Here is what it looked like when I clipped an image of a really awesome home entrance/mudroom from DecorPad:

Then when that page had been successfully added to a clipboard I made specifically for home inspiration:

And here is a screenshot of my entire home inspiration clipboard:

There are endless possibilities of what you could use clipix for and what it can help you organize, so tell me, what would you use clipix for?

Promoted Post

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In the past month and a half, people everywhere took this idea of things certain types of people say and started creating their own videos. Some are based in observation, some from personal experience; some are in the name of awareness which lends to social justice activism (most notably, this happened with the Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls video), and some are merely a few minutes of someone indulging in poking a little fun at themselves and those who can relate to them. Late last week, I found one that sums up what I do here on Woman Tribune pretty accurately–Sh*t Mom Bloggers Say.

I have watched this video several times and I feel very confident in saying that it is impossible that it will get old any time soon. I also sent it to my partner who was very quick to point out some of the hilarious things he has seen me do in the name of blogging. Another great thing about this video is that it introduced me to Mama Knows It All. I began reading her blog very shortly after finding her video and as it turns out, she is pretty awesome, so you should definitely check her out–after you finish watching the video and laughing your ass off.

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Today, some of your favorite websites will not be displaying or functioning fully. They will not be at our collective disposal with just a click of a button, and their content will not be there, ready to entertain us, or inform us, or make us better citizens of the world. Instead, these websites will be dark or possess very little other than a message of protest against proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

As it stands today, the U.S. has laws in place to fight online piracy and copyright infringement. You see this in action every time you go to watch a YouTube video and instead of the video, you see a notice that it has been taken down due to some form of copyright infringement of [insert big name corporation here]. SOPA/PIPA would do surprisingly little to actually put an end to online piracy and copyright infringement. What it would do, however, is give the federal government the authority to censor and shut down entire websites on a media company’s say-so and put innovation, creativity, and freedom of expression severely at risk.

The U.S. legal system is held up by a fundamental idea: that people are innocent until proven guilty. The passing of SOPA/PIPA would make it so that those who own and operate websites would not be protected by this same right, as their websites could be taken down based on accusation alone and without due process.

Woman Tribune will not go dark today because as much as I support this protest and every single person doing everything they can to raise awareness about how much damage can and will likely be done with the passing of these pieces of legislation, I cannot afford for the ads you see on this website to go down for the day. And that is really the point, isn’t it?

I Work For the Internet. I have been blogging since I was 13 years old–nearly half my life–and exactly four years and one day ago, I published the first post on this website. While I love writing more than doing anything else in life, I did not start Woman Tribune because of my love of writing; I started my other blog, Menstrual Poetry, because of that. I created Woman Tribune with the hope that it would become a stable, full-time job. As a person who lives with clinical depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and a debilitating disease that started as minor dental issues that has over the years caused my body to start attacking itself, I am not what one would call a reliable employee under normal, society-approved circumstances. It is because of the internet and its accessibility that I have been able to make a living by writing, editing, and freelancing as a web designer and developer. Without it, I would very likely have had little to no other options, and honestly, I have no idea where I would be today. If widespread censorship of the internet were to become an everyday reality, people who live in this country who rely on their blogs and internet businesses to keep them alive could lose everything.

Our society has been heavily influenced by the tech industry; how so many of us work and live has been strengthened by the tools and the platforms that have been made available to us because of the creativity and innovation that has been fostered through this industry. By having any aspect of that forcibly oppressed, we would all be affected.

Take action against SOPA and PIPA. Educate yourself about these two bills and what their passing would mean for every single person who goes on the internet every day. On January 24th, Congress will vote to pass internet censorship in the Senate. Until then, write and call your lawmakers and make sure your voice of opposition is heard.

If you run a WordPress-powered blog and want to participate in the internet blackout today, there are numerous SOPA blackout plugins to choose from. If you don’t use WordPress, there are other apps and codes you can use. You can also follow news about the strike on Twitter using the hashtag #sopastrike.

Photo by SOPA Strike

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Just like you need to make sure your computer isn’t susceptible to hackers, the level of security on your smartphone is crucial–and both platforms have weaknesses. Check out the following infographic that examines the security features of Android and iOS, and also takes a look at their strengths and weaknesses.


Infographic by Veracode Application Security

Click image to enlarge in new window

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It takes a unique vision and innovation for a company to start with an every day item most of us probably have dozens of lying around our house already and turn it into an exciting, new, must-have product. But that is precisely what Parker is all about–creating fine writing instruments that not only perform their basic function of putting pen to paper, but also make a sleek fashion statement all on their own.

The recently released Parker Ingenuity collection is said to be the first breakthrough in pen technology in many years. With this collection, Parker has set to revolutionize what a pen should feel and look like with the development of “5th Technology.” Where your standard pen is created with the attributes of one of the four current writing modes–either as a fountain pen, rollerball, ball point, or porous-point–5th Technology is the combination of all of these attributes. This means that each one-of-a-kind pen in the collection possesses the beauty of a fountain pen, the smooth writing experience of a rollerball, the longevity and ease of a ball point, and the smudge-free, fluid experience of a porous point pen. In other words, it’s just about as beautiful, comfortable, and perfect as a pen is going to get. Ever.

I have always been extremely particular about the pens I will use. When I was in school, at the beginning of every year I would buy a wide variety of all of the new pens that came out, because new pens always come out in time for back to school season, and I would test them all looking for the one that felt the most comfortable in my very thin fingers while producing a flawless, clot- and smudge-free pen stroke. Comfort and writing style are important when you know you’re going to be using that pen for hours at a time every weekday, whether you’re in school or you work in an office setting, and a pen that is also fashionable is, of course, an awesome perk.

The pens within the Parker Ingenuity Collection are modern, attention-grabbing, and come in six different beautiful finishes, so you are bound to find one that compliments your own style. Not to mention, with Christmas just a little over a week away, Parker Pens would make an excellent gift for anyone you know who loves making a fashion statement with every accessory and would get a lot of use out of a quality, comfortable pen.

Check out Parker on Facebook to stay up-to-date on the technology and innovation Parker is putting into writing instruments.

What would you use your Parker Pen for?

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How I wish social media was then what it is today. We were lucky to at least have Instant Messenger.

According to ComScore 2010 US Digital Year in Review women spend more time social networking than men. Women spent approximately 16.8% on social sites in December of 2010 while men spent only 12%.

Today, social media tools are just as much associated with businesses as well as personal lives. Some researchers claim women are better with social media while others say men are. To confuse matters further, the LinkedIn research team suggests that women are better communicators in male industries and men are better at marketing in female industries (here is the report).

However, is this a real gender issue–or is it more about the skills needed to get the job done?

In this article, I address specific skills which are necessary to have in order to effectively and efficiently work with these tools. A few are listed below.

Communication and Relationships

To be fair, men can be great communicators in the work place where they are required to communicate information related to their expertise. My brother is a perfect example. He is a doctor and is known for his warm old fashioned bedside manner with his patients. He is patient, takes his time explaining technical diagnoses in simple-to-understand terms. His patients love him. However, as his sister, I find his personal communication skills stink (for lack of a better word) and could use drastic improvement.

On the other hand, women stereotypically speaking are natural communicators. We innately desire more emotional components in our relationships, from the personal sexual aspect to the professional relationships we build in the workplace.

Having worked for nearly a decade from a home office, transitioning to a new job in an office location with other women was something I wasn’t too crazy about at first as I’m quite content minding my own when I work. However, it wasn’t before long I started finding the need to get up out of my chair just to see what was going on with others and start a little friendly chit chat.

While working at home, I had my husband to chat with throughout the day or at lunch. In the office in my new job at the time, I still needed that interactivity–I never knew how innate it actually was in my own life.

Organization and Strategy

Another skill a person who wants to be successful at social marketing must have is the ability to be strategically organized. This means planning campaigns and following through. My husband is a big picture thinker and visionary. He comes up with an idea and yet doesn’t have a clue how to strategically implement it. Just throw it out there and see what happens.

Yes, I know some women are like this too, but I’m talking in general–and yes based on stereotypes. In my current job, I just wrote a press release about our sip solutions for encryption. Sip service or trunking is another term for VoIP, but for business. I created a list of all the places I would need to post a link or reference to this press release. No point in posting it online at our website only to not tell anyone about it–what a waste of time! So, I organized a list of all the places and how to spread the word. I also wrote a blog post on the topic, creating additional internal linking and relevant content.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, website, blogs, and newsletters–all these had to be strategically worded and sent out. I had to figure out not only what day to send it out, but what time of day in order to be most effective. Even though my male boss said it was fine to send it out on the weekend, I knew I’d be better off waiting for Monday daytime at the earliest. My efforts proved right.

To do well at social media is not about sending tweets at 2AM announcing a random new promo. It’s much more than that. It’s engaging with your audience in a deliberate and well managed and thought out process.

Intuition–Women Tend to Be Better at It

When dealing with social media, the tone of communication used for one company may be different than another. Learning to discern what is appropriate is an important aspect of communicating–it calls for intuition, something women tend to have a knack for.

For example, when working with my husband’s small business in sales, I knew many of our customers were from the art industry and not Corporate America. Many in our industry were mom and pop stores and having a personal touch is what worked for them.

Today, I work with a corporation, where my interactions may not be as personal–but the level of communication skill is–as long as it’s in an appropriate manner. For example, my role may be to ask a lot of industry specific questions to instigate a stronger degree of interaction and debate by those in my circles.

In the end, when dealing with social media tools, does it really matter if the role belongs to a man or woman? My answer is no, as long as the candidate has the proper interpersonal and relational skills needed for that particular job and industry. If they don’t, are they able to adapt and change?

Organization, strategy, intuition, and the ability to communicate effectively with the target audience–these are the skills which an individual who wants to be successful in the social media marketing world must either already possess or show an ability to learn an attain. If they cannot listen, learn and be trained–find someone who can!

Photo by Internet Marketing1

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“Mobile payments” allow consumers to make purchases or transfer money with a quick application downloaded to a mobile phone. Even though mobile payment systems are available today, plastic cards and cash won’t vanish tomorrow. Consumers and retailers will need convincing and incentives to make the switch.

Consumers won’t save money by paying with a mobile phone. The same fees and interest rates for consumers and interchange fees for retailers will apply to mobile payments. Retailers are also reluctant to spend the money to buy the equipment necessary to link your cell phone to their cash registers.

Google Wallet is the first mobile wallet entry, but it won’t be the last. At least three competing digital wallets (from Visa, PayPal and Isis–a joint venture of AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless) are planned for launch later this year and in 2012.

Google Wallet will not replace your regular wallet. You will still need a place for your driver’s license and credit cards that are not a part of Google Wallet. Google Wallet plans to expand to include other banks, but if your bank is not one of the partners, your options are limited by Google Wallet.

Google Wallet is starting with a limited introduction and is currently not available on all mobile phones. If you own a Nexus S 4G phone from Sprint, you can download a Google Wallet app that will allow you to pay for purchases with Citi PayPass-eligible MasterCards or a Google Prepaid Card by tapping the phone on a PayPass terminal. Google Wallet can also work on Visa’s payWave System.

Tips for Using Mobile Payments:

Most of the electronic payment options are tied to credit cards and debit cards, and the same costs will transfer to mobile payments. Purchase protections vary by type of payment and it is up to the consumer to read the fine print and understand the risks of unauthorized activity or errors on their statement.

• Tie your payments to a credit card. This gives you the best protections no matter where you make your purchase. Credit card purchase protections, caps on liability and regulations will also apply to a mobile payment backed by a credit card. Under federal law, you are responsible for the first $50 in unauthorized charges after you notify your bank. You also have the right to dispute a charge and the right to charge back an item.

• Payments linked to debit cards also have the same purchase protections and liability as a standard debit card.

• Avoid billing to prepaid cards. Prepaid cards have more fees than credit and debit cards. They typically cost more and do not have the same purchase protections or caps on liability.

• Do not bill to gift cards. Gift cards do not offer purchase protections. If you must use a gift card for payment, keep the gift card receipt. If your phone is stolen, contact the merchant immediately to limit your losses.

• Avoid billing to your telephone account. These accounts offer no protections or caps on liability. Ask your carrier to block third-party charges to your cell phone or your landline. Consumers must pay the wireless company for disputed charges even if a report of a disputed amount was made and the report is pending investigation. If you do bill to a telephone company, place a cap on any third-party charges to your phone bill.

• If you lose your phone, immediately call your cellular carrier to disable your phone. Call your bank or credit card issuer to block access to your accounts.

• No matter what payment method you use, look carefully at your statements for any charges that are incorrect and report errors promptly.

• Send complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

• Stay within your budget. The easier the payment, the easier it is to make impulse purchases and spend more than you intended.

“Ideally, consumers should have strong protections against unauthorized transactions and billing errors with a mobile payment, no matter what form of payment is used,” says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com. “But this is new, and consumers have to know what they are signing up for and the risk. Mobile payments are another easy way to charge more than you can afford. If you can’t pay off your balance in full each month, don’t increase your credit card balance with mobile payments.”

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A few days ago I went to Amazon’s website, as I very regularly do, and was surprised to notice that the entire site was cleaner. It was simplistic in its delightful white space, the search area was larger and there wasn’t so much going on around the edges to take my mind off of the reason why I had gone onto their website in the first place. It took me a little while to notice the change as it wasn’t so drastic as it was cleaned up.

Turns out that Amazon has begun testing a redesign of their entire website where even the wish list and shopping cart features are more refined and a lot less hassle for people attempting to utilize their extensive list of services and applications.

Sadly my exposure to Amazon’s redesigned site has been revoked. I’m not sure why this is; it was here one day and today it’s back to the same old cluttered, headache-inducing blue and orange. In fact, I didn’t know just how annoying and hideous I found Amazon to be as a whole until I was given a much more aesthetically-pleasing view of the website. I would like to request that Amazon speed up this whole trial release business and just make what I saw the other day permanent. Please?

Many are reporting that Amazon’s new redesign could foreshadow the launch of Amazon’s very own Android-powered tablet, which would be very smart as Amazon basically championed the popularity of e-readers with their Kindle.

The Amazon tablet rumor has been making its round through the rumor mill since July, where it was speculated that it would be released in October. Some have even predicted that it would be priced at $250; another great move on Amazon’s part, undercutting the iPad by a substantial amount of money and therefore making their tablet more accessible.

Nevertheless, I’m pretty thrilled that Amazon is getting a fresh, new look and I hope the full launch date is soon. I’m also extremely interested in what an Android-powered tablet by Amazon could possibly bring to the table. Amazon, you don’t have to be so mysterious!

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This right here is how you do something super awesome to give back to your customers in celebration of an important milestone, while also drumming up some amazing buzz at the same time.

MailChimp, the very popular service that lets you easily design and customize email newsletters for your blogs and businesses, is turning ten years old. Ten years! That is a pretty amazing accomplishment for any business, even when you don’t begin to consider how drastically the internet market has changed within that time. Nevertheless, MailChimp obviously stayed ahead of the curve within their market and they did it successfully; otherwise, they would not be celebrating a whopping ten years in business. So to celebrate, MailChimp wants to pick up your next coffee tab.

If you have a MailChimp t-shirt, all you have to do is wear it this Saturday, August 20th, into any of the participating coffee shops and you will receive a free coffee. Unfortunately, the coffee shops in on MailChimp’s birthday extravaganza are in select cities and none of the shops are chains. On one hand, this is giving some great exposure and business to coffee shops who are most likely struggling to stay open while being surrounded by extremely large chains. On the other hand, this deal isn’t able to be taken advantage of by every MailChimp customer. Luckily, MailChimp has a little something for the rest of us as well.

All Intelligentsia Coffee online orders made on August 20th are 15% off. Just use coupon code FREDDIEFAN during checkout to receive your discount on any of the coffees and teas Intelligentsia supplies.

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This law is not a bad idea, in theory. There are few advantages for students to have constant access to their teachers outside of the classroom atmosphere and without the supervision of fellow teachers, principals and school boards. The world of social media could arguably aid in teachers’ abilities to mentor and tutor students through group chats, email and instant messaging, but teachers already work a tremendous amount of hours. I find it hard to believe that many teachers would enjoy having their students reaching out to them for extra help or to chat during the little time that they spend away from their classrooms and the almost-constant piles of paperwork and assignments waiting to be graded.

While this law has been received well as a reasonable step to ensure the safety of students and the jobs of hard-working teachers, the extremely vague language of the bill has caused some major concern. In its own language, the bill states that any online interaction between “teachers and current or former students” is forbidden, which has brought up many questions. For instance, does the law pertain to any student that a teacher has personally had in class, or does it extend to any student within a specific school district? When it comes to former students interacting with teachers through social networking, is there a specific time period that must elapse before you can have any online interaction with any teacher who has ever taught you?

This is obviously a new type of law that has emerged from the recent networking possibilities that social networking websites have made possible, but I don’t think that Missouri’s new take on appropriate teacher-student relationships will really accomplish what it sets out to primarily because of the broad wording of the bill.

When I was in high school, which was just a mere six years ago, I had the privilege of having two years of a Creative Writing class with an amazing teacher who single-handedly gave me immense confidence in my ability to write well. Without having him as a teacher, I doubt I would have gone on in life to not just write for a living, but to write for a space that I also created. When I first read about this new law in Missouri, I immediately thought of him and how it was not uncommon for him to give all of his students his personal email address. Out of curiosity, I looked him up on Facebook last night and there are many of his former students who are friends with him on Facebook. If we lived in Missouri, would reaching out to one of the most influential teachers you ever had in your life be against the law, even if you were taught by this educator a handful of years or more ago?

Photo by SCSSAPICS

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Spotify, an award-winning music service that was founded in Sweden in 2008 and has since built up an audience of over 10 million listeners. The service allows users to play millions of tracks instantly on their computers and phones and after three years of getting more and more popular, they opened up memberships in the U.S. late last week. Going the same route Google did with their Gmail web-based email service and the recently-released Google+ social networking service, U.S. accounts for Spotify are invite-only.

By making a service only available to those who can score an invite from a friend, that brand is creating immense buzz for their service. I have seen countless people taking to their Twitter and Facebook accounts in hopes of someone with a Spotify account seeing their request and sharing the love. While it may seem as if Spotify are limiting the amount of people who will utilize their service, they are actually attracting even more people to it by quite literally forcing people to talk about them. People are much more likely to try a service changing the way they listen to music on their computers and on the go if they see a lot of people talking about it.

If you’ve been searching for that friend who will share the experience of the new music service with you but can’t seem to get an invite, Spotify has partnered with Klout in a move that has made social media influencers on Twitter and Facebook very happy. Just visit the Klout Perks page, sign in to your Klout account or create an account (you can sign in with your Twitter or Facebook account), and you’ll know immediately if you have qualified for a Spotify Free account.

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The event was hosted by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and to kick off the event, President Obama tweeted from his @whitehouse account about reducing the deficit, a theme that played out heavily during the Twitter-fueled Q&A.

Over 70,000 tweets were sent to the President either through the #AskObama hashtag or mentioned the @townhall username. Several talking points arose including questions about job creation, the economy, housing and the legalization of marijuana. In fact, the most retweeted question of the entire town hall event was, “Would you consider legalizing marijuana to increase revenue and save tax dollars by freeing up crowded prisons, court rooms.” Sadly, the President did not answer this tweet, which is a true shame. I would be genuinely interested in hearing the President’s answer, considering we have known for quite some time now that the 40-year War on Drugs has been a failed effort.

According to White House officials, out of the 70,000+ tweets that rolled in, President Obama answered 18 questions during the event, questions that were carefully selected by a team from Twitter and a group of veteran Twitter users from around the country.

Being the classy bunch we all know them to be, House Speaker John Boehner and many Republican members of Congress took to their own Twitter accounts to berate the President on job creation and the budget; most obvious throughout these tweets were the snarky attitudes oozing from their 140-characters. It made me think that perhaps these politicians are not aware of how our government works. The Republican members of Congress all ran on a platform that promised voters job creation; that is the reason why so many from the right-wing were elected into their positions in the first place. Fast-forward to the present and they are sitting in their cozy positions, passing their workload over to the President and fighting every step of the way to making any headway.

The most enthusiastic of Twitter users during the event were those from the Washington DC area. Other areas accumulating the most tweets were from major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

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Nintendo representatives issued a public statement of being the target of an online attack yesterday, but the attack itself, which consisted of LulzSec successfully entering a U.S. Nintendo server, is said to have occurred a few weeks ago. The server that was compromised in the attack did not contain any consumer information, so Nintendo users should not be alarmed or worried about their private information falling into the wrong hands. LulzSec has also posted on their Twitter page that they meant no harm by the attack, saying:

Re: Nintendo, we just got a config file and made it clear that we didn’t mean any harm. Nintendo had already fixed it anyway. <3 them!

Lulzsec is the same group that successfully hacked into the PBS NewsHour website in late May and posted a fake story claiming that rapper Tupac Shakur was still alive. They have also taken credit for infiltrating the Sony Pictures and Sony BMG websites in the midst of their cleanup and repair after a previous hacker attack that compromised their entire PlayStation Network, PlayStation Store and Qriocity music service. Lulzsec has also previous hacked into an FBI-affiliated website and into the servers of the well-known hacking magazine “2600″.

Photo by Dynamite Jack

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Since the first attack, as well as a second against Sony Online Entertainment that was discovered on May 2, Sony has announced the return of online services three separate times. Each time, progress has been delayed. Today, Sony has once again announced a time of restored service–the end of this week.

In a press release from the company, Sony assures users that they “have been conducting additional testing and further security verification of our commerce functions in order to bring the PlayStation Network completely back online…”

They are also hoping to make amends to the roughly 77 million users who have been affected by the PlayStation Network outage. Sony will be offering customers a “Welcome Back” package of services and premium content to all registered PlayStation Network and Qriocity account services. These services, which include possible free games, a selection of free movie rentals and more than 100 free virtual goods, are available depending on where each user lives and what device they own.

41 days in the world of online gaming addictions is one incredibly long span of time to be without a service that comes with the price tag of a Sony PlayStation console, but I am actually quite hopeful that security measures have been taken and that it has taken the company this long to ensure that the safety of their users is protected.

Photo by Evolved Gaming

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First hitting the scene in 2008, TweetDeck has been one of the most popular and trusted third-party apps. It is packed full of awesome features that make managing not just your Twitter account, but a myriad of different social media accounts–and multiple accounts at the same time–incredibly easy. Unlike a few apps that have risen in popularity, TweetDeck has not revoked privileges that users have become reliant on in order to effectively manage their accounts and ways of being able to correspond.

In their three years of operation, it seems like TweetDeck has done just about everything right. And it paid off. It paid off big. News was released recently that TweetDeck has officially been acquired by Twitter for a whopping $40 million.

The offer made by Twitter is so surprising because it is $10 to $15 million more than what UberMedia was speculated to acquire TweetDeck for back in February. Looks like Twitter just couldn’t stand the thought of TweetDeck being acquired by another company specializing in third-party apps.

One of the main concerns many users have expressed since the acquisition news was first released is if Twitter is going to continue allowing users to manage their other social media accounts through TweetDeck. Now that it is an official Twitter application, it is very much possible for them to limit TweetDeck’s capability to Twitter-only. Another very large fear of the TweetDeck community is that now that Twitter has acquired TweetDeck, they could have been looking to merely shelve the app and take it out of the picture completely. It is agreed that this would be a very bad move on Twitter’s part, but I suppose we can only wait and see what happens with the future of TweetDeck.

Photo by Rosetta

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Staying up-to-date on news and current events has always been incredibly important to me. As soon as I hit my pre-teen years, I began developing my world view and soaking up as much information as I possibly could about anything and everything I was interested in. I have always had the very strong-held belief that knowledge and information about the way in which the world around us works is power; this is especially true when you notice something within society that you want to help change. This belief in itself is what initially led me to start blogging. Over a decade later, this hunger for knowledge and news has only gotten more intense.

Technology has become such an integral part of how we receive and share information from all over the world. As technology continues to progress, more people are utilizing other gadgets and options in order to share information. The iPad has quickly became one of the greatest resources for new and exciting information and story-based apps being created specifically for the iPad.

A brand new app dedicated to exploring globally relevant topics just launched on April 12th. “the collection” is a media-rich “appazine”, a zine in iPad app form, that uses ground-breaking innovation that is highly interactive in its design and ensures a compelling and entertaining experience for everyone who downloads and utilizes the app.

“the collection” contains first-class articles that you won’t find anywhere else on topics that span a myriad of different topics from several points of view with a whole lot of crisp, clean photos, auto, videos and interactive elements like panoramic photography, 3D digital animation, creative morphing, rubbing and X-Ray lens, among other things. They are really rolling out all the stops to bring users a fantastic experience while staying up-to-date on the world around us all.

iPad Giveaway

To celebrate the launch of the new appazine, “the collection” is giving away an iPad! How awesome is that?

To enter to win, all you have to do is tweet the following mention and you will be automatically entered into the giveaway. This giveaway ends May 15th, so get your tweets in quickly!

Stay up-to-date with current events by using #thecollection iPad App

If you already have an iPad, you can download “the collection” free for the remainder of the year and begin experiencing it for yourself today!

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