Tools For Measuring Social Media Influence

In the article, “Measuring Social Media Influence” you witnessed the value of social media influence. Now you know the need and benefits of measuring your social media influence. Hence, you must be wondering which social media influence measurement tools are suitable for you. I will recommend you few tools. Read More

Promoted Pins Arrive on Pinterest

When Facebook makes money with advertisements, how can Pinterest stay behind? There are promoted pins on Pinterest to enhance its revenue.

You heard it right! Pinterest has launched an advertising business to target its 46 million users. It is charging brands to place content on users’ “pinboards” much the way Facebook and Twitter allow businesses to pay to put their messages inside streams of updates from friends.

Read More

Facebook Introduces New Changes To News Feed

Every day, we open our Facebook and see the updates from our friends and the pages that we have LIKED on Facebook.

We LIKE, comment and share the updates in the news feed. The updates we share appear on our Timeline.

Given the fact that we check our News Feed when we sign in to Facebook, it would be a big surprise if a new change comes to Facebook News Feed.

Read More

Facebook Merger Part 1 – Merging Facebook Personal Page And Fan Page

Due to some reason Part 1 of this series did not get published. Hence, publishing it now:

Many people have their fan-pages on Facebook. Here we are talking about fan-pages that are owned by people on whose name they have been made or are dedicated.

Recently, some Facebook users were contacted by Facebook and asked whether they would like to merge their “fan-pages” with their personal pages. This would turn their “fans” into “subscribers.” Here, the logic given by Facebook was that user would only have to post all his/her content in one place. Also, the user could determine which content was “public,” (i.e., subscribers, the world, etc.,) and which he/she would like to keep only for his/her “friends.”

Read More

Taking Back Control of Facebook News Feed

Last time, Facebook News Feed was in news when the feature of Story Bumping was introduced to ensure that Facebook users do not miss any important posts of their interest.

Now News Feed is back in news because thanks to some new changes from Facebook, your News Feed going out of your control.

Read More

Measuring Social Media Influence

You spend a lot of time and energy to promote your business on social media. But is your time and efforts are really worth this? That all depends on the visibility and sales that you generate by promoting your product or service online. In simple words, it all depends on your social media influence.

What is social media influence?

Your ability to command attention of people using social media and getting sales from them is your social media influence. Your influence depends of how efficiently and properly, you can use your social media make your product or service visible to people.

Read More

Promoted Pins Arrive on Pinterest

When Facebook makes money with advertisements, how can Pinterest stay behind? There are promoted pins on Pinterest to enhance its revenue.

You heard it right! Pinterest has launched an advertising business to target its 46 million users. It is charging brands to place content on users’ “pinboards” much the way Facebook and Twitter allow businesses to pay to put their messages inside streams of updates from friends.

Pinterest is looking to earn the $2.5 billion valuation it received after its last financing round of $200 million.

Read More

How Helpful Are Twitter Analytics

If you are the admin of a Facebook page, then you can see the analytics of that page in the “Insights” section of Admin Panel.

Similarly, now it is possible for checking analytics on Twitter. Earlier this privilege was available for Twitter ad customers only. The new facility is being rolled slowly and it is only a matter of time before it would be available for everyone.

Read More

Facebook Merger Part 3 – Merging Facebook Place Page and Business Page

Among the great products launched by Facebook, Facebook Places has been one of the greatest. Facebook Places went live on 18 August, 2010.

It is a product for both local businesses and Facebook users alike, especially since the launch of Deals.

What is Facebook Places?

When a Facebook user checks in to a location using his/her iPhone, Android phone, BlackBerry or via touch.facebook.com, he/she is automatically connected to what is called a “Place Page” for that local business on Facebook.

Read More

Then And Now

I wrote this story for a story writing competition. Now I am sharing it on my blog.

DISCLAIMER – All characters in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance to those who are living or dead is purely coincidental.

My name is Vijay. Right now, I am doing the most difficult task in this world. That is to feed my 8-year-old son Jayesh so that he can finish his breakfast and go to school. My wife has gone to office.

“Arey beta! Kha le na! Taste toh kareke dekho!” I am telling him.

[TRANSLATION: Hey son! Just eat it! At least taste it!]

“Mujhe yeh achha nahin lagta hai!” Jayesh said in an agitating tone. This sentence made me recall my childhood memory.

[TRANSLATION: I don‘t like this!]

I was 7-years old. My mother had given me lunch comprising of chapatti, dal (pulses) and cooked brinjal. I was saying, “Mujhe yeh achha nahin lagta hai!”

[TRANSLATION: I don‘t like this!]

My mother took it and pushed it in my mouth saying, “Khao isko! Sab achha lagta hai!”

[TRANSLATION: Eat this! You like everything!]

I was angry. During my teen years, I used to recall that incident and laugh a lot.

Today, I know that my mother forced me to eat brinjal because it was good for health. But my little son does not understand that. Not his fault because even I did not understand that when I was of this age. What I do understand right now is that if my son goes to school without breakfast, he would faint during Morning Prayer and fall. Then teachers will call me and scold me for not giving proper breakfast to my son. How can I make him understand?

10 MINUTES LATER:

My son has somehow, finished his breakfast and he is ready to leave for school. But he is crying. He says, “I will not go to school! I will go to office where you go!” I am telling him, “Good boys go to school!”

“I am not a good boy!” He tells me. Now what can I say! Hey! I have a great idea! I tell him, “If you don‘t go to school, then in office, you will have a peon‘s job!”

Now Jayesh asks me, “Who is peon?”

I tell him, “Peon is the man who rings bell in the school!”

Jayesh says, “He is the only good man in the school! Had he been not there, neither madam will allow us to eat tiffin, nor she will allow us to go home! He rings bell to give us freedom!”

Again I am speechless. As a child, I also used to cry when I was being sent to school. My mother used to tell me, “He-Man also used to go to school!” I wanted to be like He-Man. Since that day, I never cried when I went to school.

Now I tell him, “Chhota Bheem also goes to school!” Jayesh said, “I never saw him going school!”

I tell him, “He goes to school when he is not on TV!”

Now, Jayesh realizes that why he does not see him on TV every time. He is ready to go to school.

In order to convince Jayesh do things that are good for him, I need to give him reasons that my mother gave me. Today, he is too young to understand. But years later, when he understands and recalls all this, both of us will laugh on these memories together.

Now kindly excuse me! I have drop Jayesh to school and then I will drive towards my office.

Facebook Merger Part 2 – Merging Facebook Profile With Existing Facebook Page

In our previous article in this series, we had described how the merger of personal Facebook page with a fan-page on Facebook could be done.

Now we will have a look at another aspect of merger where we merge a Facebook profile with an existing Facebook page.

Is it possible to add my Facebook friends as my page fans?

One of the simplest but most step-intensive, processes available to Business Owners on Facebook is the process of “rolling” a profile into an existing page.

Read More

Facebook Introduces Embedded Posts

In an era where social media captured every aspect of our life, we all come across plug-ins that are related to some social-media platforms.

Given the fact that Facebook is popular enough to be a synonym for the term “social media”, one can expect many plug-ins targeting Facebook. The latest one is about embedded posts.

What does the “embedded posts plugin” do?

Embedded Posts is a social plugin that enables you to easily add public posts from Facebook to your blog or web site. At the time of this article being written, you can launch embedded Posts with Bleacher Report, CNN, Huffington Post, Mashable and PEOPLE. Soon a broader availability is expected.

Read More

Image Source: Hail Katrina Hail Ileana on Facebook

Reasons to Convert Your Facebook Business Profile Into Page

Have you ever come across profiles that have the name and images of a business organization (especially a logo as profile picture) instead of a real person? Some people may also receive friendship requests from such profiles.

There are various businesses that have profiles (instead of pages) on Facebook.

Read More

Faking The Fakes Part 5 - Identifying Fake LinkedIn Profiles

LinkedIn is a social network for professionals, intellectuals and educated people. That is why its reputation is high.

Today, the reputation of many people of LinkedIn can be at stake if they have a spammer or some profile in their network.

Does the menace of fake profile exist on LinkedIn too?

Yes! There are numerous fake profiles on LinkedIn as well. Their aim is to join the network of people and spread the spam messages in their news-feeds and clutter their message boxes with spam messages.

Read More

Faking The Fakes Part 4 – Identifying Fake Followers on Twitter

In the era of social media where the worth of a brand is determined on the basis of LIKES on Facebook or follows on Twitter, it is obvious that like Facebook, Twitter is also a hotbed for fake profiles.

There are cheats who take money and get twitter fake followers for a profile. Some people who want to trap people into some fraudulent deals often follow random people.

Read More

Twitter Suggest Hashtags While Tweeting

As anything on social media goes viral, social networking websites need to introduce new features to impress users and stay viral (ahead of others) in competition.

After Facebook introduced Hashtags, something that was keeping Twitter ahead of Facebook and preferable over Facebook over social media advertising and marketing, Twitter has once again capitalized on hash tags, something that made it popular.

As noted by Livefyre’s Lead Social Strategist Nick Cicero, Twitter is offering suggested hashtags as you compose a tweet.

Read More

Avi Introduces Dhwaja on India's Independence Day

Today is Independence Day of India. So I decided to share this story with a fabulous artwork.

On the request of my friend Ashutosh Singh Rajput, I am writing the origin story of Dhwaja (female Tiranga). This super-heroine Dhwaja is on an Earth where women are stronger than men.There society sees women as more important than men.

DISCLAIMER 1 - Tiranga is a trademark of Raj Comics. Created by Raj Comics. Creators are Sanjay Gupta, Tarun Kumar Vahi and Dileep Chaubey.

DISCLAIMER 2 - This is only a fan-fiction, written only for the entertainment of comic-book lovers like me.

DISCLAIMER 3 - All characters in this story fictitious. Any resemblance to those who are living or dead is co-incidental.

DISCLAIMER 4 - The characters of this story have not been created to hurt the sentiments of any community. These characters are purely fictitious.

DISCLAIMER 5 - This story is for mature readers. If you are a prude and get shocked by violence, please do not read beyond this point.

Female version of Tiranga created by Ashutosh Singh Rajput. Story by Avijit Misra a.k.a. Avi Rapstar

Aabha was a young lawyer. She was born in a world (a parallel Earth) where women were more important than men. They were also physically stronger than men. The most important super-heroine in this world was Nagrani. Aabha wanted to be that in the field of law what Nagrani was in the field of crime-fighting. She wanted to win a big case. So she took businesswoman Ratna Daga to court, accusing her of ignoring environmental laws while carrying out production in her factories.

However, Ratna Daga won the case due to money power. Aabha realized that she needed to find concrete evidence. She started investigating Ratna, secretly. Later, she found that Ratna was secretly manufacturing a biological weapon with the help of Sarani which she intended to sell to Pakistan (of that Earth). Abha secretly went into the factory to investigate and she saw Sarani there. Sarani was a wanted criminal and she was on the run. Thus, it was surprising to see that Ratna Daga was giving shelter to Sarani.

(The crime that Sarani was wanted for has been described in Foonkaar (Nagraj Series) when Sarani was talking to her gang in Shell Jail.)

Aabha took pictures with a camera.

However, she made some mistake because of which panic struck the factory. It caused an explosion which killed many laborers. Sarani had escaped the factory. Aabha felt sad as she considered herself responsible for the death of laborers. Ratna Daga got the incident dismissed as an accident. She offered compensation to the families of victims. Aabha was sad to see that police was not interested in investigating the case.

Later, Sarani was captured by Nagrani. Aabha argued the case on behalf of prosecution in court and sent Sarani to jail.

(Sarani‘s arrest would be followed by her escape that was shown in Foonkaar.)

However, later Aabha learnt that Sarani had created the biological weapon. So to save her country, she donned a costume on the basis of national flag, complimented with a mask. Calling herself Dhwaja, she investigated and found out Ratna‘s plans. She foiled the deal between Pakistani terrorists and Ratna as Ratna wanted to sell the biological weapon to Pakistan. This time, Dhwaja succeeded in getting Ratna arrested. The weapon was confiscated by Indian government.

Aabha decided to continue her life as Dhwaja to investigate crimes and gather evidence and use that evidence in court as Aabha to get the criminals sentenced.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please post your comments and observations.

Image Courtesy: Ashutosh Singh Rajput

Fake Number Of YouTube Views Can Spell Trouble For You

In our Faking The Fakes series, we explained how fakes LIKES on Facebook and fake follows on Twitter can damage your ranking as well as reputation.

We also explained that on LinkedIn, you can go through the headache of seeing spam links in your Inbox if you allow fake profiles to join your network. When the menace of fakes can haunt three biggest social networks, it only grows big when it creeps into YouTube in the form of fake views.

Does the concept of fake views on YouTube exist?

Of course it does! It exists as much as you and us. There are fraudulent ways to increase the number of views on YouTube.

Read More

Faking The Fakes Part 3 – Identifying Fake Profiles on Facebook

In the previous article of this series, we told you how to find out if a Facebook page was buying LIKES. We also explained how such fake LIKES destroy the credibility of page.

Security firm Barracuda Networks has explored the menace of fake profiles in a study titled “Facebook: Fake Profiles vs. Real Users.”

What did the study say about the fake profiles on Facebook?

The study analyzed a random sampling of 2,884 active Facebook accounts to identify key differences between average real user accounts and fake accounts created by attackers and spammers.

Results of the studies:

1. Almost 60 percent of fake accounts claim to be bisexual. That is 10 times more than real users.

2. Fake accounts have six times more friends than real users. They may have 726 friends while average real users on Facebook have 130 friends.

3. Fake accounts use photo tags over 100 times more than real users, 136 tags per four photos versus one tag per four photos.

4. Fake accounts almost always (97 percent) claim to be female, as opposed to 40 percent for real users. This would encourage lonely boys to send them friendship requests and enlarge their network of spam receivers.

Read More

Using Twitter Lead Generation Card With MailChimp

In an earlier previous blog post, I explained the concept of Twitter Lead Generation Card and the procedure to create it as well as use it.

Now, as we promised, we are back again, this time, with an easy procedure of using Lead Generation Card from Twitter with MailChimp. Using Lead Generation Card will MailChimp is really easy.

To connect to your Lead Generation Card to your MailChimp account:

Read More