Dennis Champion

Miyerkules, Hulyo 8, 2015

EyeEm’s photo app adds curated content to inspire you and connect you

If you’re not reaching, engaging, and monetizing customers on mobile, you’re likely losing them to someone else. Register now for the 8th annual MobileBeat, July 13-14, where the best and brightest will be exploring the latest strategies and tactics in the mobile space.

Photography marketplace EyeEm has a new update for its mobile apps that it hopes will help its community members find recognition and make connections more easily.

People using the EyeEm app will see an improved Discover feed that will be manually curated by EyeEm editors in an effort to showcase what it says are the “most beautiful images from featured photographers and albums.”

EyeEm is a mobile app that is a photo-sharing app much like Instagram, but instead of constraining pictures in a square, it publishes the full image and also enable people to sell their photos through a community marketplace. It has more than 13 million users and recently raised $18 million from Valar Ventures and others.

iPhone 3 When you log into EyeEm on iOS and Android, the first thing you’ll see is an updated feed. It no longer has a giant map with your location on it, as previous versions did. As it’s a photo-centric app, the new EyeEm rightfully places a lot more emphasis on photos — you already know where you are, so why should the app tell you that information?

The intent, EyeEm says, is to get people’s creative juices going so that they’ll feel inclined to upload their most amazing photos not only to the app, but share them through EyeEm’s Market. That’s a marketplace, which opened up to the public on March 2015, where users can sell their photos easily. It seems to have done quite well in the United States and the United Kingdom, as the company will be expanding to Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands starting next week.

So what makes EyeEm’s Discover feed so special? For me, it’s the editorial and algorithmic control it offers. The company says that what the user sees depends on their location and the quality of the content, not “superficial” metrics such as likes and comments. By focusing on these two metrics, EyeEm believes that “unseen talent will emerge.”

There are five full-time members on its editorial team, who produce new content multiple times a day.

Chief Product Officer Markus Spiering offered this additional fun tip: The team will also write editorial content in Spanish and German, and translate English content to those languages.

The new feed may look like a response to Instagram rolling out its improved Search and Discovery feature last month. But there’s a difference.

Instagram’s Search and Discovery focuses on events and live moments, while EyeEm isn’t focusing on that area. Instead, it’s directing its attention towards the creative people and making it like it’s an art gallery. To that end, EyeEm wants it to help photographers get recognized. One possible scenario is that you might be looking for a photographer in your area who specializes in a certain type of photo so by looking in EyeEm’s Discover feed, it might highlight their work.

Another distinguishing point here is that EyeEm is more akin to the Vimeo of photography, where all the creative artists once published all of their really amazing work.

EyeEm is connecting the creatives together and has really fostered a community thanks to not only spotlighting great photographers, but also giving people the tools to better understand and improve their own skills — I may see a picture from a professional photographer and would want to know what type of processing has been done. Until now, EyeEm showed my that information via its Open Edit feature, but limited it to a small group of people. Today it’s available to everyone. According to Spiering:

The Open Edit Beta has been a great success. We are seeing very high engagement numbers on photos that participated in this program and we are now ready to make it available to everyone. Starting now any photo that is edited with EyeEm’s powerful editing tools is part of Open Edit and users can not only see which filter has been used, but also apply all the edits to images of their own.

To get the new Discovery feed, update the EyeEm app on iOS or Android device.

More information:

VB’s research team is studying mobile user acquisition: Chime in here, and we’ll share the results.

More information:

Facebook updates its cost-per-click definition to only include clicks to websites and apps

At Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on March 18.

Attention marketers: Facebook has redefined its cost-per-click (CPC) measurement. In a blog post, the social networking company said that as part of its latest API release, a CPC will only include clicks to websites and apps. No longer will likes, shares, and comments be included, which should help advertisers make better sense of what they’re getting for their money.

So why is Facebook updating the definition? The company says that its ad offerings have become “increasingly tailored to helping advertisers meet specific business objectives” and as such it will provide measurements that are “more closely aligned with how advertisers are bidding so they can better optimize their campaigns against their stated goals.”

Here’s exactly what’s being counted: clicks to visit another website; clicks on a call-to-action that results in going to another website; clicks to install an app; clicks on a Facebook canvas app; or clicks to view a video on another website.

This isn’t a product change. Facebook is merely offering some clarity in how things are measured with the aim of helping marketers know where their money is going. In the early days of online advertising, clicks were easy to define. But in the age of social media with end users interacting with products in so many different ways, it’s much harder to get an exact definition. Facebook wants to buck that trend and simplify things — a nice gesture that may entice more advertisers.

Here’s what the company lists as next steps for advertisers:

If you buy through a Facebook interface (like Ads Manager or Power Editor): You don’t need to do anything right now. We’ll share further information about the updated CPC’s implementation in our interfaces. We’ll also provide messaging in the interfaces themselves once the change has occurred.

If you buy through a Facebook Marketing Partner: You should speak with your Marketing Partner to understand when they’ll be implementing the new API with updated CPC.

If you buy through the API: You can begin buying ads with the updated CPC today (July 8) in v2.4 of the Ads API. If needed, you can continue using the existing CPC definition until October 7. After this date, only the updated CPC will be available.

More information:

VB’s research team is studying mobile user acquisition... Chime in here, and we’ll share the results.

More information:

Martes, Hulyo 7, 2015

How to Choose What Social Media Space to Focus On

A brand new week and day 8 of our 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge! Let’s get started.

Today it’s all about social media, and the role it plays in your blogging. If you’re not careful, it can suck up all of your time and you’ll be left struggling to find hours in the day to create content for your blog.

Also it is easy to just drift along doing whatever whenever and really just not using it effectively – it can go so far as to even harm your blog and brand if you don’t pay attention.

In this episode (listen to it here or find it on iTunes or Stitcher), I talk about the moment I had recently when I realised I’d let things slip, and what I did to overcome it and make the ProBlogger social media accounts once again a thriving hub of blogging community.

I share the plan I came up with to revive my online presence, and issue you a challenge to help boost you out of any ruts you may find yourself in.

The first thing to do is to figure out which social network is best for your site, and I offer some suggestions to help you figure that out. If you’re already happy with the platforms you’ve chosen, you can also use the second few questions to help you accurately gauge whether you’re using them effectively, and what you can do to make them better.

I’ll also give you tips on how to navigate an editorial calendar for the platform you end up choosing, and I share what my calendar looks like for the ProBlogger social media accounts to help you along.

I hope you’ve been enjoying the podcast so far – I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments.

Click here to listen to day eight of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog series on the ProBlogger Podcast.

No matter what you do, your job is to tell your story - Gary Vaynerchuk As usual, Gary V. is RIGHT. The following stats prove it. 52% of marketers worldwide believe that video best ROI compared to other types of digital content (Source Syndacast) A staggering 90% of online shoppers watch videos prior to making […]

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

The Ultimate Video Marketing ROI Cheat Sheet (Part 1)

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Written by Heba Hosny, Heba Hosny's Portfolio

The post The Ultimate Video Marketing ROI Cheat Sheet (Part 1) appeared first on Search Engine People Blog.

Semicolon tattoos are a new way to talk about mental health

A global movement is revolutionizing how we talk about mental health — with punctuation.

Project Semicolon, which offers hope to those struggling with depression, suicide, addiction and self-injury, borrows its philosophy from the punctuation mark in its name.

“A semicolon is used when an author could've chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to,” the project's website reads. “The author is you and the sentence is your life.”

The idea behind Project Semicolon is simple: Draw or tattoo a semicolon on your body to raise awareness about mental health and the power of choosing to continue. Read more...

More about Social Media, Social Good, Hashtags, Activism, and Mental Health

Using Solar Power in Your Home

Residential solar power is becoming an attractive option for many people. They can use the sun’s energy to operate various devices and to heat their homes. It is also earth-friendly and economical way to bring the power in your home. Solar energy can help reduce external energy consumption by 50-70 percent. There are several different ways you can use solar energy in your home, which may include the use of solar panels and solar thermal systems to produce electricity.

Once you have installed solar power in your home, you can use water heated by solar energy to produce hot water and heat your home. There will be a collector mounted on an elevated area, such as the roof, and is used to absorb thermal energy from the sun. Often increases the heat and stores the resulting hot water. This heat can be piped through radiators to heat the house and provide hot water. Besides reducing your electricity bills, it can add value to your home if you decide to sell your home.

The main reason why many people are using residential solar power is helping to reduce the cost of their utility bills. Depending on the type of solar system used in a dozen years, the solar panels can pay for themselves. The Department of Energy United States hopes that by 2020, solar energy will become common place in homes. They also expect to see the normal cut energy consumption by seventy percent in that time.

The solar electric panel is the technology used in solar power, which uses photons to produce electricity. Solar electric panels, known as photovoltaic panels (PV) can be installed in a variety of ways, such as:

• Free standing rigid sheets
• Adjust your ceiling
• peel and stick laminate

How dependent are installed ceiling. The captured energy is converted into electricity through a modified grid system. It has an installed meter that reads the amount of solar energy used in your home compared to normal electricity used. The meter will then subtract the power of solar energy is used and what is left is then applied to your electric bill.

Most solar energy systems that are used are also able to store some of the energy they generate so if there is a surplus of energy can be used at a later time. Besides using the stored energy to generate rooms hot water and heat, it can also supply for other electronic equipment and light your home. The main cost of solar energy is the cost of installing the system and solar panels.

Lunes, Hulyo 6, 2015

6 Ways to Make the Most of Your Site Navigation

6 Ways to Make the Most of Your Site Navigation written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Your website is one of the most important aspects of your business. If done correctly, it’s the first thing people see about your brand or product. Unless you’re such a well-known brand that people don’t have to search online to find out about, then you should make sure your website is not only a sales tool but a resource for your potential customers.

Fill your website up with good content, about your product, about your company, about your process, about how to use your product or service effectively. Then, make it easy to find.

When you consider your website, take a look at your navigation. A bad navigation could ruin the fact that you have tons of great content on your site by making it too much work for your website visitors to find. When creating a good navigation, there are several things you can consider:

1) Who is looking at this page?

The audience for your website and specific pages is perhaps the most important thing to look at when considering your navigation. Put yourself in their shoes. What would they be looking for? What information do they need served to them via a sidebar or header navigation?

Additional supporting information should be easily accessed. In this case, someone might want more related videos or they might want to go ahead and attend an upcoming training.

2) Is there related information that should be easily accessed from this page?

When someone visits this page and consumes the information, what other information do they need to supplement this information? Are there questions they might have to follow up on the information they’ve just consumed?

3) Is your content clearly labeled?

This one should be a no-brainer! However, it’s not. Ensure that you aren’t using industry slang unless your content is focused only on people in your industry. Make sure that when someone clicks on a label, the content that you then serve to visitors is what they expect to see associated with that label, and vice versa. Ensure that the content you have is labeled in an easy-to-search-for-and-find-way.

4) What are the key elements you want customers to see when visiting your site?

When people get to your site, what is it that you want them to find?
There should be a clear main point for your website and business. If you have other lines of business or supporting points, make them prominent as well. What options is it that you want people to have as soon as they get to your site?

5) Is your contact information easily accessible?

There’s a good chance that when someone visits your site, they will need to access your contact information. They might need to shoot you an email, call or even know your location and hours. Make this information clear. Don’t make your website visitors search for this information.

Add a sign-up to your newsletter in the sidebar navigation to make the call to action clear, noticeable and easy to find.

6) What call to action is your page looking to incite?

Extremely important, what do you want your site visitors to do when they consume the content on each page? Some pages might want you to watch a video, while some might be more compatible to get visitors to sign up for an email list. A downloadable eBook might be the goal of your information. Whatever your call to action is, the navigation is a great place for it.

Your navigation might just be something that you install as a necessity, but if you put a little bit of thought and strategy around it, you’ll find it can be one of your greatest online assets.

Kala Linck is the Community and Content Manager at Duct Tape Marketing. You can find her blogging her travels, praying for summer or tweeting about marketing, coffee and cats @tadasunshine.