The TweetDeck app is dead -- at least it will be soon.

The service, which Twitter bought in 2011, announced on its blog on Monday that it will discontinue its mobile and desktop versions, including the apps TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for Android, and TweetDeck for iPhone.


According to the TweetDeck blog, the apps will be removed from their respective stores in early May and will stop working shortly after that. The company also said it will discontinue support for its Facebook integration.

“To continue to offer a great product that addresses your unique needs, we’re going to focus our development efforts on our modern, web-based versions of TweetDeck,” the company said on its blog.

TweetDeck emerged as one of the more popular and useful tools for monitoring and tracking conversations on Twitter. It was free, and it was useful. Recently, however, it’s become less popular with social media managers. TweetDeck was stuck in a middle ground -- the average Twitter user doesn’t need a management tool, and brand managers tend to gravitate toward the more sophisticated tools.

However, if TweetDeck’s demise leaves you scrambling for a new social media management tool, here are a few of the top alternatives -- they’re not free, but they do offer a host of services that go beyond most free monitoring tools:

Better for social media publishing: 

HootSuite. One of the most popular Twitter management tools, HootSuite enables you to manage multiple accounts across multiple social platforms. Last September, HootSuite acquired another top TweetDeck alternative, Seesmic.

Sprout Social. Here’s another popular management tool in which you can schedule posts and get snapshot metrics. It’s not free, nor as cheap as HootSuite, but it’s customizable in ways that HootSuite isn’t.

SpredFast. This tool markets itself to large brands and caters to them, while Sprout and HootSuite could be just as effective if you were using it for personal account management.

Better for social listening/monitoring: 

Radian6 (now called Salesforce Marketing Cloud). Clients are often comfortable when their agencies use Radian6. It’s relatively easy to use, and empowers companies to clearly understand their place in social.

Crimson Hexagon. Looking for in-depth sentiment metrics to help you determine your overall social strategy? This is absolutely your tool. The depth of information you can mine from Crimson Hexagon is truly awesome.

Sysomos. Although Sysomos is less sophisticated than Radian6 or Crimson Hexagon, it is easy to use for quick monitoring around your brand. It’s better as an everyday tool than the others.




































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Peter, a friend of mine and I decided to look for some holiday work to top up our meager income. He had some contacts in a local steel plant that was offering some holiday shift work that paid well.

The only challenge was that it was a 12 hour night shift.

On taking the job I was given the task to sit on the other side of a machine that chopped large pieces of metal into smaller pieces of metal. Task two was stacking those small pieces of metal into piles on a pallet.

This was brain numbing. By the end of the first night I was thinking, there had to be a better way.

I also had an insight about my future career path and it was “not” going to be in a steel fabrication factory!

Twitter can be tedious

When I started with Twitter it was great to see people start to retweet my content.  On a social web it is not just  about you, so you need to share other people’s content that adds value to your followers and friends. This can be done a few ways. I can follow their Twitter feed and retweet their content when they tweet it. Another way is to check their blog for new content.

The problem is that this can take a lot of time and it is tedious. I thought, there has to be a better way.

So I had to find an answer to the question. How can I share fellow bloggers content that I trust without sitting at my computer all day?

The Twitter tool that saves time

In my quest I stumbled upon Twitterfeed.com that allowed me to share great content from other bloggers on automatic pilot. It meant that every time they published a new post it was tweeted into my Twitter stream.

It serves three purposes.

1. It shows up in my Twitter feed and alerts me to new content from bloggers who know their stuff. They publish and I learn.
2. It also places valuable information into the Twitter accounts of my followers. They discover.  
3. It makes sure that I don’t miss sharing their new content every time it is published. The tool handles it and doesn’t forget.

So how do you use it?

Step One: Create a new feed

Go to the top of the Twitterfeed dashboard and click on the create new feed . In a few simple steps you will improve your social media effectiveness.



Step Two:  Create a name for the feed

In this example I am entering Jay Baer whose blog “Convince and Convert” is one of the top marketing resources on the web, especially in the area of content marketing.



Step Three: Advanced settings

I would recommend that you tweak your Twitterfeed so that you also let the blogger know you are sharing their content.  So at the bottom of the “Step 1″ page click on advanced settings.



Then enter the Twitter name for the blogger whose posts you will be sharing with the @ before their Twitter name.



This will ensure that the blogger knows you are sharing their blog posts on Twitter. This could create awareness about you and could even lead to them sharing your content.

That only has to be a good thing!

Step Four: Select and authenticate your Twitter account

The last step is to enter your twitter account  and then authenticate it.



You are now done!

This will free you up to write more blog posts. Engage with your followers and spend valuable time on creative tasks.



































View the Original article

Oddball LinkedIn Endorsements to Give Your Connections

1. Fruity Loops

Fine, fine. We know Fruity Loops is a digital audio work system. The cereal also makes one odd endorsement.

Image courtesy of Flickr, terren in Virginia;


2. Embroidery

Dani embroiders so well it's as though she used Photoshop. Endorsement, earned.

Image courtesy of Flickr, TinyApartmentCraft;


3. Dinosaurs

Unfortunately for Brian, this field is going extinct. Oh, wait...

Image courtesy of Flickr, shvmoz; composite by Mashable


4. Medical Marijuana

Dispensary owners are entrepreneurs in a just-legalized field, after all.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Dank Depot; composite by Mashable


5. Snowshoeing

Nina snowshoes so well she puts Olympians to shame.

Image courtesy of Flickr, FurryScaly;


6. Tractor

Matt's expertise stems from honing his skills from a very young age.

Image courtesy of Flickr, dave_7;


7. Virus

What other endorsement would you give Mashable's viral content editor?

Image courtesy of Flickr, kat m research; composite by Mashable


8. Dangerous Drugs

Having skill in dangerous drugs is a real art.

Image courtesy of Flickr, e-MagineArt.com;


9. Exotic Animals

Not just skilled in basic, run-of-the-mill animals.

Image courtesy of Flickr, m.prinke; composite by Mashable


10. Footprint

Matt leaves his mark wherever he goes.

Image courtesy of Flickr, m.prinke; composite by Mashable


11. Guinea Pig

Taming a rodent takes some real chops. Hats off, Christine.

Image courtesy of Flickr, uberzombie; composite by Mashable


12. Gorilla

This gorilla is so intelligent, you could endorse it in Elisha. Doesn't work the other way around? Hmm...

Image courtesy of Flickr, Corey Leopold; composite by Mashable


13. Baskets

Neha is one skilled craftswomen.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Balthazira; composite by Mashable


14. Towels

And one big thank you to my colleague for sending me this kind endorsement.

Image courtesy of Flickr, davco9200;


LinkedIn, the most clean-cut, professional social network, is rarely known for its sense of humor. But little did you know, there's endless fun to be had when you endorse your connections with the most unusual skills.

The pre-written list of LinkedIn Endorsements include a host of job skills you're familiar with — think PowerPoint, leadership, social media and time management.

Wondering what else is on this list? Gorilla is listed as a job skill. Baskets is on there as well.

We understand that there are in fact experts in gorillas, baskets and many other things that we in the digital media world find humorous. And we certainly don't mean to offend the badass basket makers of the world.

That said, no matter your industry, we promise you'll laugh perusing some of the most oddball options on LinkedIn's list — we sure did.

Take a look through the gallery above for some inspiringly weird endorsements we found on LinkedIn's list of job skills. What's the most bizarre skill you found on LinkedIn? Let us know in the comments.































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In case you hadn’t noticed, Pinterest has been in the news a lot recently.
In November last year, Pinterest started courting the business community with the creation of its business-specific accounts  and a dedicated business support page.

Then earlier this month, Pinterest quietly raised a cool $200 million at an astonishing $2.5 billion valuation – not bad for a company that has yet to make a profit!

Most intriguing of all though was a study published last week by research center Pew. It suggested that Pinterest has grown so quickly, it’s now on course to catch Twitter in the battle for second place behind Facebook in the US social networking market.

These events indicate that Pinterest is quickly evolving from being last year’s hot new upstart to a legitimate social network that should be part of your marketing mix.

How can you maximize your time on Pinterest?

But how can you maximize your Pinterest activities without spending a ton of time on it? Well, along with scheduling your pins, one of the most effective but underutilized strategies to get more exposure from Pinterest is by using group boards.

Now, if you’re new to Pinterest, you may only know of regular boards that only you can pin to. You may have never have heard of group boards. Or maybe you have but you don’t know how to use them or don’t think they apply to you.

I’ve been dabbling with group boards over the past few months and have seen a dramatic increase in followers since I strategically introduced them to my Pinterest marketing.

So in this post I am going to demystify group boards, explain the advantages of using them and outline a few ways you can get started straightaway with this strategy.

What Are Pinterest’s Group Boards?

A group board works like a regular Pinterest board. The only difference is that along with the board creator, other people are also allowed to pin.

Group boards go under many different names – shared boards, contributor boards, community boards and collaborative boards. Regardless the term, they are all exactly the same thing.

There is currently no directory of Pinterest group boards. In order to distinguish a group board from a regular one you need to look out for the group icon at the top of a board when you are browsing someone’s page.

This snapshot of Jeff’s Pinterest page clearly shows that the board on the left, “For The Home”, is one of Jeff’s own, whilst the two other boards have contributors.



Key Benefits of Using Group Boards

Group boards are not only a great way to organize ideas and bring people together, but they can also have real tangible benefits for your brand and business.

#1. Dramatically boost your followers

If you join a group board with hundreds or thousands of followers they will automatically become your followers too. More followers means greater exposure.

#2. Exponentially increase the number of repins

The more followers you have the more likely they (and their followers) are to see your content, repin your pins and click through to your website. This means more traffic to your site and potentially more subscribers, customers and clients.

#3. Put your pinning virtually on autopilot

Implement this strategy correctly and you could get other people creating content for.

Certainly at the start, Pinterest can be time-consuming but managed well, you could soon have a team of people perpetuating your content for you across their networks.

#4. Increase engagement and create brand ambassadors

Your customers may already be liking, commenting and sharing your content with their followers on Pinterest. But inviting them to pin to your brand’s group board will get them more engaged and involved in your online conversation.

It will also elevate them to the role of brand ambassadors, who their followers are more likely to take note of.

Let’s take a look now at some ways you can harness the power of group boards in your business.

How Can Businesses Use Group Boards?

• Collaboration – are you working with other people, employees or co-workers on a specific project? Use group boards to share industry-specific tips, training materials and resources. Make the board “secret” if you want to keep the information under wraps.

• Planning – are you a wedding planner, interior designer or in charge of an event that requires input from others? Invite the stakeholders to join you on a group board where you can collect and share design ideas, compare menus, color schemes, flower arrangements, room layouts, fabric samples and so on.

• Promotion– thinking of running a contest, raising funding for your big idea or promoting a worthy cause? Group boards are perfect for engaging your audience, getting customers to interact with your brand as well as sharing data, statistics, success stories etc to raise awareness about your brand or a particular issue.

• Networking – why not invite other pinners to pin about a common topic and expand your network at the same time? Bloggers especially can benefit from group boards by using them to connect with other bloggers and actively repinning each other’s content as part of a blogging network.

• Authority – are you knowledgeable about a particular subject area? Create a themed group board and contribute regularly to build credibility and establish yourself as a thought leader to the board’s followers.

How To Create A Contributor Board

Go to the Pinterest home page and click on the Add + tab at the top of the page.



Then select the option to Create a Board.



Next choose a name for your new board, select a category and whether you want to make it a private (secret) board or a public one.

The final step is to decide who you want to add as a contributor.



How To Add Contributors

There are two ways to make someone a contributor:

You can type their email address into the Who can pin? field. Pinterest will email them an invitation and prompt them to join Pinterest if they haven’t done so already.The easier way is to simply add the username of a pinner you would like to invite. The only condition is that you must be following them first.

As you start typing their name, Pinterest will automatically bring up all the potential matches i.e. people with those initial letters in their username.



Just select the names you want to add as contributors, click invite and then save your settings using the Create Board button.

Pinterest will send an invitation from you, the board creator, to the invitees to join your board. When they accept, they can pin on the same board with you and the group board will appear on every contributor’s page.

You can of course make any of your current boards into a group board. Just follow the steps above from How To Add Contributors.

A word of caution.

Pinterest will send you a notification each time a contributor pins to a group board. I recommend you turn off these notifications to avoid bombarding your inbox with unnecessary emails.

Just select the group board in question, click the Edit Board button and turn off the notifications tab.

Keep An Eye On Your Contributors And Group Boards

Remember that you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) accept every invitation you get to join a group board. Be selective.

Check to make sure that the board is on-brand for your business and a good fit for your audience before agreeing to join. The number of followers on a group board is another metric to take note of; the more followers a group board has, the greater the exposure you can expect for your business.

When you follow a group board, you will be able to see all of the content that is currently on that board. Any new pins that get added to this group board will also appear on your Pinterest feed, regardless of the person who is pinning the images.

There is currently no way to filter which pins you can see.

This means that you might see pins from people you are not directly following which could include inappropriate content and spam.

Make a point of regularly monitoring your feed and respond quickly if you spot something undesirable by taking one of the following actions:

How To Remove Someone From A Group Board

If you would like to remove someone you have added to a particular group board just select the group board, and click on the Remove tab next to their name.

You can also delete the board entirely if you created it by hitting the Delete Board on the far right.



How To Leave A Group Board

In the example below, you can see Jeff was added to someone else’s Marketing Infographics board and that he can leave any time.



Pinterest will prompt you by asking if you are sure you want to leave the group board, just click Leave again and you will be permanently removed from that board.

Final Words

It’s important not to go overboard with this strategy and send out blanket invitations to all your followers. Not everyone welcomes group board invitations especially persistent ones so be careful not to annoy people!

In fact, the Pinterest blog recommends that you should only send invitations to Pinterest users who have expressed an interest in your pins and to avoid sending out repeat requests.

One way of encouraging people to join your group boards is to add a line in the board description. You could state that you welcome contributors and that anyone interested in joining the board should add a comment against a pin.

So there you have it, a whirlwind tour of Pinterest’s group boards.

What do you think? Is this a strategy you’ll be trying out? Or have you already set up a few group boards? Please comment below and share how they are working out for you.






































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From hactivism to the flipped classroom, the Internet has sparked an online revolution with digital tools.

Classified documents on Wikileaks helped spark the Arab Spring, and protestors organized through Facebook. Daily tweets about the Egyptian revolution increased 100% after the overthrow of the country, showcasing the power of trending.

Not only has the World Wide Web assisted in shaping our political persuasions, but also our personal interests. While there are 139,500 professional photographers in the U.S., Instagram rekindled the snap-happy side of everyone, with 90 million active users each month on the social platform.

As the number of Internet users grow, the world changes, as suggested by this infographic from NowSourcing. There were more than 2 billion web users in 2012, which is a 566.4% increase from the year 2000 (we've come a long way from Y2K).

Check out the infographic for more stats about how the Internet has made an impact.



Image via iStockphoto, franckreporter. Infographic courtesy of Best Communication Degrees
































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Facebook is testing a new Timeline design. Currently live in New Zealand, the new look brings a slimmed down toolbar to the top of profile pages and repositions other content.

First spotted by The Next Web,

Check out the two photos below. The top is the new design, while the bottom is the older version:

New:



Old:



The toolbar at the top of the page is where the most drastic of the changes takes place. Where there are currently large photographic tiles, there are now just text buttons for your About information, Friends, and Photos.

Maps and Subscriber information are removed from the top of the page. Subscriber info is now made available in a new About widget at the top of the screen, while Map info is restricted to the Places widget on your Timeline. Photos also have a new home on the left side of the page, where nine photos are shown in a square (currently Facebook shows eight pictures in a rectangle).



Timeline navigation moves to the top right of the screen, swapping places with the ads that currently reside there.

Likes and App information are now centralized on the left side of your profile page, while status update are placed on the right. Notes are also given a new prominent placement.



Perhaps the most noteworthy change in the redesign comes in the form of advertisements. Owen Williams shared with us that now when you share a link on Facebook, a prompt to Like the page for the company you're posting about is automatically added. For instance, in the photo below, Williams posted a link to a Mashable story, and a link prompting readers to Like Mashable on Facebook was added to the bottom.



It's important to note that Facebook is likely using New Zealand as a testing ground for the new look. Depending on how those tests go, we may not see the new design come to the U.S.

Check out the gallery below for a closer look, and let us know what you think about the new design in the comments.

Facebook Updated Timeline 

New Toolbar

The redesigned Timeline changes the top of the page in particular, removing the photo tiles for Friends and Photos, and moving Map and Subscriber information lower on the page.



Navigation Up Top

Timeline navigation moves to the top right of the page, trading places with the ads that currently reside there.



Divide and Conquer

App updates and Likes are on the left side of the screen, while status updates are in the center.


Take Note

Notes have a new prominent location in the updated look.



About Me

Your About Me info has been moved to right below your profile picture.



9 Lives

Photos are now displayed in a square format that holds nine pictures. The same with Instagram shots.



Sponsored Stories

Sponsored ads appear below the Timeline navigation on the right side of the page.


Screenshot images courtesy of John Lai; Thumbnail image via iStockphoto, LeicaFoto
































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The big question that is often asked about social media when it comes to investing money, resources and time is “what is the return on investment?”

Some pundits will say that is not the right question because it is like asking “what is the ROI on your phone?”. Others will say social media should stand up and be measured in its own right. The challenge though is that we live in a multi-channel marketing world and the path to your sales door for your product is not a straight path and easy to measure.

It is not unusual for a company or brand to have the following digital channels and tactics that are all engaging, marketing and selling.

• Email
• Paid search ads
• Organic search results
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Blog
• Slideshare
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest

And I have only just started and haven’t even mentioned Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr or a multitude of other channels.

These are all working to drive the prospect to your business and buy your product or service.

But there is also another question.

Should the first click or the last click get the credit?

In our social and online world seeing that your friend  liked a certain brand could lead you to visit that Facebook page and click on a link that offered a discount for their product that took you to their online store. You didn’t buy but left the site.

A week later you do a Google search for the brand, visite the site and buy the product.

Who gets the credit? Google or Facebook?

Research by Adobe analyzed 1.7 billion visits to the websites of more than 225 U.S. companies in the media, retail, and travel industries. It shows that the ROI for social increases significantly if the first click attribution is accepted.

“Using first-click attribution for the retail websites we analyzed, the average visitor from social media sites delivered $1.13 in revenue. In contrast, when using last-click attribution, the average visitor from social media generated $0.60”

In the end both contributed.

Is social media about engagement or selling?

“Social media’s” main role in this online marketing game is revealed by the first word in the  phrase. It is about engaging first and selling second. It is human and social. Do this well and selling your product becomes easier. Your content will define your brand. It is achieved with images, videos and content that humanizes your business.

Social media’s value is not always captured by first-click or last-click attribution models. This value includes:

• Brand awareness
• Customer loyalty
• Engagement through social conversations
• Engagement due to content
• Offline channel transactions
• Personal referrals due to awesome content that adds value

These are hard to put a value against but they are real but soft metrics and should be in your marketing tactics tool box.

10 Examples of Social Media ROI

So what has been the results achieved from social media marketing? Here are a few examples.


Infographic source: psoshul.com

So what about you?

How do you use social media? Is it more about engaging than selling?

Does your CEO need more hard facts and wants to see the ROI before they commit the resources and cold hard cash or is creating brand awareness and customer loyalty valued?

Look forward to reading your stories in the comments below.




































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Twitter is underwhelming at 140 characters. Any sane person would say “What do you do with that?”

Why limit yourself to so few words when there is a dictionary
and an encyclopedia available and limitless communication at your disposal.

Its brevity is both an enigma and its charm. It has been its weakness and strength due to that simplicity.

Keeping it simple is not without success precedent.

One of the most successful children’s books of all time was written with only 50 words. It was a challenge thrown down to Dr Seuss by his editor when he was about to write his  next book “Green Eggs with Ham“.

Simple is good.

The history of short and simple

Just over twenty years ago on December 3, 1992 the message “Merry Christmas” was sent by software engineer Neil Papworth to the Vodafone director Richard Jarvis.

That was the world’s first text message. It was short and it was simple.

Who would think that 20 years later that:

• 6  billion messages would be sent every day in the USA
• 2.2 trillion texts would be sent every year in the USA
• 8.6 trillion SMS messages would be created every year around the planetText messaging would be a $150 billion a year industry

It is the messaging of choice for most teenagers. The adults have also realized its time saving capabilities.

People have also understood that having a conversation is maybe not something you always want to do.

Twitter wants to transform video messaging

Twitter has just announced a smart phone app called “Vine” that allows you to take a video that is limited to 6 seconds and continues to loop.

It is not alone with the idea.

There are competing apps called Viddy and Tout that do much the same.

So what can you do with a 6 second video and it raises this question again.

Why bother?

Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to put the boot in. Twitter took texting to a new level and put it on steroids. Maybe a short and simple video is enough to get a powerful message out that is memorable.

Is less more?

How could you use Vine for marketing?

Viddy thinks that 15 seconds is the right length for a video short message while Vine has chosen 6 seconds. Maybe there is some science behind both but let’s look at some possible ideas for marketing with a short video.

Here are 6 ideas:

1. The brand elevator pitch

Want people to understand what your brand is all about. The elevator pitch is where you wrap it up in one sentence or two. 6 seconds is maybe enough.

How could you make it visual and viral.

2. Product demonstration

One to two minute video reviews of products in your online store are now maybe too long. Why not experiment with six seconds?

3. Launching a new product or service

Explain your new product in six seconds if you can. (If you don’t then use YouTube). Maybe your messaging will  get better as you learn to communicate the key features and not the unnecessary.

4. Give your brand a personality

Social media allows and wants you to give your brand a personality. Use Vine to make it real and authentic. Make it quirky or innovative.

Many brands want an image that goes beyond bland.

5. Marketing a promotion

Use a 6 second Vine video to market a new promotion. This could  be a new book, song or  a movie or even an event. How long do you need to communicate something new. Remember the power of simple.

6. Announcing a special offer or discount

50% off. How long does it take to announce that special offer for your clothing store?  Make it visual, aural and shareable.

If you want to look at how 15 businesses are using the Vine video app for their brand. Check out this post over at Hubspot.

What about you?

How do you think you could use a six second video on Vine to market your business and brand? Do you even want to?

Do you think this idea will stick or do you think it is a fad?

Look forward to your comments below. Tell us your thoughts and ideas.








































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1. Facebook Messenger

If you haven't already, you'll need to download the free Facebook Messenger app for your handset or tablet.
The version for iOS devices can be found on iTunes, and the Android option is available over on Google play.


2. Composing the Message

Once you're up and running with the app, click the compose button (a plus sign on Android, a notepad and pencil on iOS) to create a new message.

Alternatively, you can just jump into the thread of an existing conversation.



3. Adding Voice

Next, press the plus sign that appears to the left of the text entry box. This will give you the option to attach an image, use the camera or record your greeting.



4. The Recorder

The voice record functionality works at the press of a virtual button. Simply hold the record button, speak, release when you're done and you can instantly listen back to your message.



5. The Voice Message

The message will appear in your conversation thread as an audio bar, per the screengrab in the slide above. Your recepient simply has to click on it to hear your greeting.


Our favorite thing about Facebook is that it keeps us connected to our faraway friends and family. If you want to send someone a special message via the service, did you know you can record a voice version?

Thanks to the Messenger apps for iOS and Android, it's possible to sing someone "Happy Birthday," record a good luck missive or even say — rather than just type — "I love you."

Take a look through our simple walkthrough in the slideshow above. Will you use this feature? Have your say in the comments below.






























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