“The next Cascadia earthquake has the potential to be the biggest natural disaster that the United States will have to come to terms with—far bigger than Sandy or even Katrina,” says Benjamin Horton, associate professor and director of the Sea Level Research Laboratory in the department of earth and environmental science at the University of [...]
Selected by bakermcc
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Most Topular Stories
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Tiny fossils help predict impact of next quake
Holy Kaw!20 May 2013 | 6:21 am -
Forget the Year of Mobile -- It's Actually the Year of Video
Advertising Age - DigitalNext17 May 2013 | 10:30 amAs much as we all talked about 2013 finally being the Year of Mobile, I'm convinced that it actually is going to be the Year of Video. Here's why:Viewing is growing on video, with more time spent on more devices. Too much is made of falling network prime-time ratings. According to our estimates at GroupM, overall video consumption is up year on year by about 3.7%, assisted by viewing of streaming video on PCs, connected TVs and mobile devices. According to the latest comScore, on average, 183 million Americans view 215 videos each month online. Mobile's big boost is also being driven by… -
Can AT&T Use Its Ad Spend Data to Help Clients Target Consumers?
Advertising Age - Digital20 May 2013 | 4:00 amAT&T is the country's fifth largest ad spender -- and now its using data gleaned from its own digital advertising to to help other marketers buying inventory through AT&T's AdWorks business. The company is unveiling a new platform, called Blueprint, for targeted online, mobile and TV ads. However, the platform falls short of achieving what largely remains elusive for advertisers: a way to target one person or group of the same people across digital, mobile and traditional platforms. At the outset, there will be three Blueprint platforms: one for online, one for mobile and one for TV. Most… -
Morning Brief: The New Yorker and WIRED apps get minor tweaks, as does The Economist; Yahoo's CEO helps the PE firms that invested in Tumblr
Talking New Media20 May 2013 | 5:25 amCondé Nast Digital rolled out a couple app updates to improve their digital editions. These included an update to The New Yorker Magazine app to improve iPhone 5 display support. The iPhone edition was originally launched in August of last year. WIRED Magazine was also updated, though the app description only mentions "cosmetic fixes" – one of those fixes may have been the app's icon as this month's issue has a concept cover that includes only text against a white background, effective in print but pretty much invisible when seen inside the App Store. The Economist for iPad was updated:… -
Taking a Newsroom Approach to Content Marketing
Journalistics5 May 2013 | 10:01 pmBrands have never cared more about content marketing. It is the hot topic for 2013, as brands look to leverage great content to expand their reach, drive more engagement or improve their search engine rankings – to name a few. Don’t believe me? Search any content marketing related keyword in Google Trends and you’ll find a spike in conversation this year around the topic (the graph to the right is for “content marketing” news headlines). The problem facing most organizations is how to create great content that will get noticed and shared as information volumes…
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Holy Kaw!
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Tiny fossils help predict impact of next quake
20 May 2013 | 6:21 am“The next Cascadia earthquake has the potential to be the biggest natural disaster that the United States will have to come to terms with—far bigger than Sandy or even Katrina,” says Benjamin Horton, associate professor and director of the Sea Level Research Laboratory in the department of earth and environmental science at the University of [...] -
Clawed frogs spread deadly amphibian fungus
20 May 2013 | 6:03 amThe African clawed frog, a species used around the world for biomedical research, is spreading an amphibian-killing fungus when they are released into the wild. Researchers provide the first evidence that the frogs in California harbor a fungal infection that is decimating amphibian populations across the globe. Among 23 samples tested, the researchers identified three [...] -
Don’t let them steal your happy
20 May 2013 | 5:11 amThere’s this parallel life running alongside yours. “They usually don’t intersect, except every once in a great while. When your eyes won’t close late at night like someone is holding the lids open for you to look at something, but you’re not sure what, so you just keep looking and looking until you see that [...] -
Cyber crime statistics and trends [infographic]
20 May 2013 | 4:44 amWorried about cyber crime? As GI Joe always said, “Knowing is half the battle…” and Go-Gulf.com is here to help with this infographic on cyber crime stats. Via Go-Gulf.com. Like infographics? So do we. -
Struggling high school robotics team makes final eight in the nation
20 May 2013 | 4:36 amNeed a feel good story to kick off your week? Not long ago, we brought you the story of the Clairton High School Robotics team, who were struggling to raise the $4000 they needed to go to the national competition in Indianapolis. We’re thrilled to say they met their goal and made it into the [...]
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Advertising Age - DigitalNext
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Forget the Year of Mobile -- It's Actually the Year of Video
17 May 2013 | 10:30 amAs much as we all talked about 2013 finally being the Year of Mobile, I'm convinced that it actually is going to be the Year of Video. Here's why:Viewing is growing on video, with more time spent on more devices. Too much is made of falling network prime-time ratings. According to our estimates at GroupM, overall video consumption is up year on year by about 3.7%, assisted by viewing of streaming video on PCs, connected TVs and mobile devices. According to the latest comScore, on average, 183 million Americans view 215 videos each month online. Mobile's big boost is also being driven by… -
What Do We Say When 'Digital' Has Lost All Meaning?
17 May 2013 | 7:00 amI am the CEO of a digital agency. I also chair the board of an association of digital agencies. My problem is I don't know how to tell people what I do. It's not that I don't know what I do. I just don't know how to describe it in terms that people will understand. The problem is that the word "digital" has become obsolete. Every time I hear it or use it I cringe. What isn't digital these days? TV is digital, you can't even get the old kind anymore, whatever that was. Photography is digital. The old days of film are so gone, but do you see Canon trumpeting their digital cameras? Digital vs. -
No Need to Dream of Interactive TV -- It's Already Here
14 May 2013 | 7:00 amThe dream of interactive TV has been around for almost two decades. We've imagined a TV that allows us to transition seamlessly from watching a Yankees game to pulling up a music video on demand to ordering an advertiser's product. But iTV as we conceived it remained elusive for the brightest of minds, even for the likes of Steve Jobs.But today's TV is increasingly a laptop, mobile or tablet experience, unless it arrives on a "proper" TV screen through a broadband-enabled device like an Xbox or Roku. It's not coming through the cable operators that, at one time, were thought to hold the keys… -
Broadcast TV Is Having a Rough Time, but Don't Count It Out
13 May 2013 | 8:04 amIn this season of upfront presentations, the major broadcast networks are facing their toughest challenges in memory. Will they survive? History tells us yes. The 2012-13 broadcast season has been, with little question, the most disruptive to the broadcast television industry since the medium was in its infancy over 60 years ago. Cable networks, which have been siphoning off viewers and ad dollars for three decades chiefly with sports, news and children's programs, now are reaching parity with broadcast television for original scripted entertainment shows. And online video programming reached… -
YouTube Wants You To Pay So It Can Have More Of Everything
10 May 2013 | 7:45 amYouTube finally announced this week that it would allow channels to charge monthly fees to access content on YouTube. Some have predicted that YouTube's subscription model would undercut its ad model in an echo of the infamous paywall problem that has bedeviled online newspapers as they shifted from ad-supported to paid. Others have suggested this shows that YouTube is up against an advertising wall of their own making -- advertisers will only pay so much to advertise against this amateur and semi-pro content. Still others gleefully wait to watch as YouTube learns how hard it is to get people…
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Advertising Age - Digital
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Can AT&T Use Its Ad Spend Data to Help Clients Target Consumers?
20 May 2013 | 4:00 amAT&T is the country's fifth largest ad spender -- and now its using data gleaned from its own digital advertising to to help other marketers buying inventory through AT&T's AdWorks business. The company is unveiling a new platform, called Blueprint, for targeted online, mobile and TV ads. However, the platform falls short of achieving what largely remains elusive for advertisers: a way to target one person or group of the same people across digital, mobile and traditional platforms. At the outset, there will be three Blueprint platforms: one for online, one for mobile and one for TV. Most… -
Is a Yahoo-Owned Tumblr More Attractive to Brands?
19 May 2013 | 1:56 pmThis story has been updated.Like a host of other brands, Yahoo has a millennial problem, and its acquisition of Tumblr could be a step toward fixing it. But will new ownership help Tumblr with one of its biggest problems -- drawing major advertisers? All Things D on Sunday morning reported that the Yahoo board unanimously approved the deal to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Continue reading at AdAge.com -
Adland Gets a Good Look Through Google Glass
18 May 2013 | 9:00 pmIt was Larry Page's Willy Wonka moment: The Google CEO was handing out pairs of Google Glasses to anyone who could dream up a novel way to use the device. All they had to do was submit the idea via Twitter or Google Plus and pony up $1,500. More than a few agency execs ended up with golden Glass tickets, and they're toying with how the technology could be used in marketing. Ian Schafer, CEO at digital agency Deep Focus, was awarded a pair after posting on his G+ account: "#ifihadglass no matter how far away I was from home, my family would be close." MDC Partners-owned KBS+ created a website… -
Armed and Dangerous Unicorn-Riding Cat To Help Reddit Gin Up Advertising
17 May 2013 | 9:43 amAdvertising Age makes a cameo appearance in Reddit's new ad-sales pitch deck in the form of a quote grabbed from my recent column about the social-news site: "Reddit has become, simply put, mainstream media." (See slide 3.)Reddit's new sales and strategy boss, Mike Cole, sent me the whole deck last night and I'm sharing it with you here because, well, it's pretty funny. It tries to make the case for Reddit's reach, cultural power and user engagement using the lingua franca of Reddit: goofy images. Continue reading at AdAge.com -
CNN and Elle Test Google Glass as a Way to Push Content to More People
17 May 2013 | 7:40 amDoes the future of media include breaking-news headlines materializing in front of your eyes as you walk down the street?CNN and Elle magazine have become the second and third media brands with apps on Google Glass, following The New York Times, and all three are testing early adopters' appetite for a constant stream of content served to them on the go. In their current form, the apps seem to follow the vein of push notifications mobile phone users get increasingly frequently from The Times and The Wall Street Journal. Unlike the apps those push notifications bring users to, however, the…
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Talking New Media
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Morning Brief: The New Yorker and WIRED apps get minor tweaks, as does The Economist; Yahoo's CEO helps the PE firms that invested in Tumblr
20 May 2013 | 5:25 amCondé Nast Digital rolled out a couple app updates to improve their digital editions. These included an update to The New Yorker Magazine app to improve iPhone 5 display support. The iPhone edition was originally launched in August of last year. WIRED Magazine was also updated, though the app description only mentions "cosmetic fixes" – one of those fixes may have been the app's icon as this month's issue has a concept cover that includes only text against a white background, effective in print but pretty much invisible when seen inside the App Store. The Economist for iPad was updated:… -
Two new food magazines shows that a gulf that remains between major commercial magazine publishers and new, citizen publishers within the Apple Newsstand
17 May 2013 | 12:50 pmDigital publishing was supposed to be the great equalizer – at least that was the hope of citizen and small publishers. While the major magazine publishers had good printing contracts that favored high volume publishers, in digital publishing the playing field would be more level. But a look inside the Apple Newsstand shows that if you have the money to spend on native digital publishing platforms the end result will be quite different than what is seen with simple, PDF-based platforms. A look at two food magazines that have released digital editions today show the differences. Nourish is a… -
The app review team appears asleep at the switch as dubious apps continue appearing in the Newsstand
17 May 2013 | 8:15 amThe Apple App Store, when first opened, was like the wild west – apps would routinely make it through the review process that were of dubious worth. It led, eventually, the Apple famously proclaiming stating that "We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don't need any more Fart apps." But Apple is back approving Fart apps – possibly driven by a desire to remain the number one app store in existence. It won't work, it is inevitable that Google Play surpasses Apple's store simply based on the market share of smart phones. I've recently written about the some of the sharks that are… -
The Saturday Evening Post enters the Newsstand with an app build by replica edition and flipbook maker YUDU
17 May 2013 | 7:00 amYou probably would not expect a legacy title like The Saturday Evening Post to be a leader in the digital media space. The magazine title was founded in 1821, with a dotted line link back to The Pennsylvania Gazette, first published in 1728. For years the title was a weekly, but hard times nearly killed it off and today it is published only six times a year by the Saturday Evening Post Society. And no, the magazine will not be a leader in the digital space. Today the old title launched a Newsstand app built by YUDU which specializes in flipbooks and replica edition apps. The best that can be… -
Morning Brief: Hearst launches Totally Global Media, a worldwide advertising platform; Boston Globe launches new Sunday Arts section, Travel section also re-branded
17 May 2013 | 5:55 amI think rather than rounding up the news this morning I'll let the companies speak for themselves, editing out some of the puffery, of course. Of all the media news, the news from Hearst I find the most interesting (see below). The launch of Totally Global Media is a reflection of the fact Hearst owns many of their international titles and are actually in a position to sell advertising globally. Many other major publishers have licensed their magazine titles to other overseas publishers and would not be able to do this. The thing is, though, that digitally, inside the Apple Newsstand, copies…
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Journalistics
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Taking a Newsroom Approach to Content Marketing
5 May 2013 | 10:01 pmBrands have never cared more about content marketing. It is the hot topic for 2013, as brands look to leverage great content to expand their reach, drive more engagement or improve their search engine rankings – to name a few. Don’t believe me? Search any content marketing related keyword in Google Trends and you’ll find a spike in conversation this year around the topic (the graph to the right is for “content marketing” news headlines). The problem facing most organizations is how to create great content that will get noticed and shared as information volumes… -
Apologies From Journalistics
24 Apr 2013 | 11:05 amFor those of you Journalistics readers who subscribe to our RSS feed, you will have noticed a random headline and spam text was accidentally sent to you yesterday. Our technical resources are looking into the problem – please know that we do not intend to start posting Viagra content on the blog anytime soon. Journalistics will remain committed to bringing you great content about public relations and journalism topics. As always, thank you for reading the blog and let us know if you have any suggestions for content. All the best! where can i buy viagra in canada Related Posts:Making the… -
Your Brand As Media
17 Apr 2013 | 9:15 amThree years ago, using the “earned, owned and paid” organization for media strategy sounded cool. The earned-owned-paid slide in my presentations generated eyebrow raises, versus the eye rolls that are more common today. Like any good marketing catch phrases, this one has probably run its course. I’m not saying the underlying principles aren’t still incredibly relevant – in fact, they’re probably more relevant today. That’s not the point of this post though… When I first started talking about earned, owned and paid (and no, I was far from the… -
Let Me Ask You a Question
5 Apr 2013 | 7:45 amIt’s much easier to answer questions when you have time to prepare. When you’re being interviewed by a journalist, grilled on the stand a trial, or trying to convince an HR manager to put you through to the next round, it helps to know the questions in advance. More often than not, you won’t have the questions in advance… or will you? As a continuation of my series on messaging and positioning development from earlier this year, I wanted to make my next installment about how you can prepare for interview questions journalists might ask – but this advice could… -
Skills Entry-Level PR Hires Should Have
2 Mar 2013 | 4:02 pmThree months from now, the class of 2013 will walk across the stage to collect their diplomas and immediately have a panic attack when they realize it’s time to look for that first job out of college. First, let me give you a piece of advice – you have the rest of your life to work, take the summer and explore the world if you have that luxury. That’s something I wish I had done (I started my first job the day after graduation). For those of you that need to get a job – you know, like yesterday – I thought it would be helpful to share my perspective on the skills…
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Media Matters for America - Latest Items
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NBC's David Gregory Mainstreams Theory That Obama Personally Fomented IRS Focus On Conservative Groups
19 May 2013 | 9:33 amFrom the May 19 edition of NBC's Meet the Press:Previously: The Bureaucrat Whisperer -
CNN's Crowley Adopts False Right-Wing Claim That Obama Didn't Call Benghazi A Terrorist Attack
19 May 2013 | 9:04 amFrom the May 19 edition of CNN's State of the Union:Previously: Fox And Issa Claim There's A Difference Between An "Act Of Terror" And A Terrorist Attack Major Newspapers Whitewash Obama's "Act Of Terror" Assertion -
ABC's Jon Karl Tells CNN He Regrets Getting Benghazi Talking Points Reporting Wrong
19 May 2013 | 8:55 amFrom the May 19 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources:Previously: What ABC And The Weekly Standard Got Wrong On The Benghazi Emails Media Observers on ABC's Jonathan Karl Benghazi Talking Points Story: "Sloppy" And "Inaccurate" ABC News & The Whitewater Tactics At The Center Of The Scandal Machine -
Fox News Sunday Anchor Chris Wallace Repeats Falsehood That "No Forces [Were] Deployed" To Benghazi
19 May 2013 | 7:29 amFrom the May 19 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday:Previously: The Wall Street Journal Ignores Troop Deployment To Continue Benghazi Scandal Mongering Krauthammer Still Hasn't Seen This Photo Of Obama From Night Of Benghazi Attack -
Network Sunday Shows Give Credence To Absurd IRS-Watergate Comparison
19 May 2013 | 3:20 amSunday talk shows on NBC, CBS, and ABC compared reports that the Internal Review Service (IRS) applied extra scrutiny to conservative groups to President Nixon's Watergate scandal, a comparison which people who worked on both sides of the Watergate scandal agree is baseless.IRS Inspector General Report Found Agency Used "Inappropriate Criteria" For Some Tax-Exempt Applicants IG Report: "IRS Used Inappropriate Criteria" For Some Conservative Applicants. On May 14, the IRS' Inspector General released a report on how the IRS applied additional scrutiny to some conservative applicants for…
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Mediashift
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Daily Must Reads, May 20, 2013
20 May 2013 | 4:37 am1. Yahoo purchase of Tumblr shows power shift (WSJ) 2. Tumblr brand will remain, with mostly “hands off” approach by Yahoo (AllThingsD) 3. Chart: Where Yahoo’s Tumblr ranks next to Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest (The Atlantic) 4. Pinterest takes a “first step” toward working with big brands (GigaOm) 5. Associated Press CEO: DOJ’s seizure of phone records was “unconstitutional“ (Huffington Post) 6. TV investments reveal big plans for digital programming (Variety) 7. The evolution of hacker news (TechCrunch) 8. Publishers are to… -
Jose Antonio Vargas on Using Social Media to Change Perceptions and Policy
20 May 2013 | 4:00 amIt’s 4:40 p.m. on a spring Monday in New York City and Jose Antonio Vargas is energized. Armed with a Venti Starbucks iced coffee and a laptop suited for travel, Vargas quickly dives into a recap of a recently concluded cross-country tour. Over the course of 30 days, the tour hit 15 states, and despite the grueling travel schedule, Vargas shows no hints of slowing down. These days, Vargas is in the midst of a campaign to change the way Americans talk about immigration. The effort began in earnest in June 2011 after he publicly revealed his status as an undocumented immigrant in the the New… -
Daily Must Reads, May 17, 2013
17 May 2013 | 4:56 am1. Yahoo wants to buy Tumblr. Will Facebook swoop in at the last minute? (GigaOm) 2. Bloomberg scandal raises ethics questions for new media (Huffington Post) 3. Reporters using sensors to collect data and report on it; is this ethical? (paidContent) 4. NewsRight, an ambitious attempt at licensing newspaper content, quietly folds (Poynter) 5. From Twitter to Evernote, Tumblr and Facebook: Google Glass gets more apps (memeburn) 6. Sun pay wall needs more than 300k subscribers to cover outlay, say analysts (Guardian) 7. Amazon taps NBCUniversal to bring ‘Covert Affairs,’… -
Mediatwits #80: Feds Spy on AP, Bloomberg Spies on Feds; Future for Broadcast TV, Radio?
17 May 2013 | 4:00 amWho’s snooping on whom? First came the news that Bloomberg reporters were using the company’s terminals to find out when federal officials were logging into the system. Then came the news that the Department of Justice was secretly obtaining phone records of up to 20 journalists at the AP. While both cases were not connected, they point to a blurring of boundaries in the digital age, when digital spying and cyber-security grow ever more important. Special guest Declan McCullagh of CNET joins us to talk about our lack of privacy and what we can do about it. Plus, special guest… -
Daily Must Reads, May 16, 2013
16 May 2013 | 5:31 am1. U.S. Attorney General defends DOJ seizure of phone records (NYT) 2. Microsoft’s anti-Google campaign gets a boost…from Google (AllThingsD) 3. Under fire, the White House pushes to revive news media shield law (NYT) 4. Advertisers lure Vine whiz to create new 6-second ads (CNN) 5. Publisher threatens to sue blogger for $1 billion (The Chronicle of Higher Education) 6. AOL quietly sells off its industry news sites (Forbes) 7. Kevin Poulsen on creating StrongBox with Aaron Swartz (New Yorker) 8. USA Network’s dividing line with Twitter (WSJ) Subscribe to Daily Must Reads…
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Reporting on Health
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Reporter Offers Guidance for When the News Gets Personal
20 May 2013 | 6:00 amLos Angeles Times health reporter Anna Gorman believes first person health stories can be appropriate. That's why she shared about her deeply personal decision too undergo breast and ovarian surgeries to dramatically lower her own cancer risk. -
Should Medicare Yank Hospital Mistake Data? You Decide
20 May 2013 | 5:00 amOne of the most powerful U.S. government agencies is bungling its public duties by planning to remove information about hospital-acquired conditions measurements from a website that allows patients to see how hospitals stack up against the national average. -
Some Native Americans could lose coverage under Affordable Care Act
17 May 2013 | 11:26 amThe Affordable Care Act is stirring up confusion and anger among the patients who visit a Los Angeles clinic dedicated to serving urban-based Native Americans. That's because President Barack Obama's reform has raised a painful question: which tribes get free health care and which have to pay? -
End-of-Life Bill Sparks Anger, Accusations
17 May 2013 | 11:16 amPolitical powerhouse Texas Right to Life is working overtime to try to defeat a compromise measure aimed at improving state laws governing “end of life” medical decisions. But with time running out to get Senate Bill 303 passed, the fight over the legislation has shifted from political to personal. -
Florida's Child Health Care Law Leaves Thousands in Limbo
17 May 2013 | 9:40 amAs the Medicaid expansion became a higher priority for lawmakers, two state bills that would eliminate a five-year waiting period to access a public health insurance program for at least 20,000 lawfully residing poor children failed to pass this year.
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Journalistics
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Taking a Newsroom Approach to Content Marketing
5 May 2013 | 10:01 pmBrands have never cared more about content marketing. It is the hot topic for 2013, as brands look to leverage great content to expand their reach, drive more engagement or improve their search engine rankings – to name a few. Don’t believe me? Search any content marketing related keyword in Google Trends and you’ll find a spike in conversation this year around the topic (the graph to the right is for “content marketing” news headlines). The problem facing most organizations is how to create great content that will get noticed and shared as information volumes… -
Apologies From Journalistics
24 Apr 2013 | 11:05 amFor those of you Journalistics readers who subscribe to our RSS feed, you will have noticed a random headline and spam text was accidentally sent to you yesterday. Our technical resources are looking into the problem – please know that we do not intend to start posting Viagra content on the blog anytime soon. Journalistics will remain committed to bringing you great content about public relations and journalism topics. As always, thank you for reading the blog and let us know if you have any suggestions for content. All the best! where can i buy viagra in canada Related Posts:Making the… -
Your Brand As Media
17 Apr 2013 | 9:15 amThree years ago, using the “earned, owned and paid” organization for media strategy sounded cool. The earned-owned-paid slide in my presentations generated eyebrow raises, versus the eye rolls that are more common today. Like any good marketing catch phrases, this one has probably run its course. I’m not saying the underlying principles aren’t still incredibly relevant – in fact, they’re probably more relevant today. That’s not the point of this post though… When I first started talking about earned, owned and paid (and no, I was far from the… -
Let Me Ask You a Question
5 Apr 2013 | 7:45 amIt’s much easier to answer questions when you have time to prepare. When you’re being interviewed by a journalist, grilled on the stand a trial, or trying to convince an HR manager to put you through to the next round, it helps to know the questions in advance. More often than not, you won’t have the questions in advance… or will you? As a continuation of my series on messaging and positioning development from earlier this year, I wanted to make my next installment about how you can prepare for interview questions journalists might ask – but this advice could… -
Skills Entry-Level PR Hires Should Have
2 Mar 2013 | 4:02 pmThree months from now, the class of 2013 will walk across the stage to collect their diplomas and immediately have a panic attack when they realize it’s time to look for that first job out of college. First, let me give you a piece of advice – you have the rest of your life to work, take the summer and explore the world if you have that luxury. That’s something I wish I had done (I started my first job the day after graduation). For those of you that need to get a job – you know, like yesterday – I thought it would be helpful to share my perspective on the skills…
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Pacific Standard. Smart Journalism. Real Solutions.
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The Harry Factor
20 May 2013 | 6:00 amNow that Prince Harry has returned to Great Britain it’s maybe time to look critically on the significance of his visit for Americans. What are royal visits for? Why do Americans react to them so intensely? The seven-day trip of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales, coinciding with the visit of Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, sparked an intense, strange enthusiasm. But this sort of thing is nothing new. In fact, we’ve had the exact same fascination with foreign royal families for centuries, almost since we stopped have one of our own. We’ve always been into this, the… -
Female Professionals of 1970s Face Higher Risk of Breast Cancer
20 May 2013 | 4:00 amA group of feminist trailblazers—women professionals in the 1970s—may be paying a high price for breaking the mold: An increased risk of breast cancer. “We find that women who were in professional and managerial occupations in 1975, at age 36, had a substantially higher risk of a breast cancer diagnosis up to age 72, compared to housewives and lower-status occupations,” writes a research team led by Penn State sociologist Tetyana Pudrovska. The researchers, writing in the journal Social Science and Medicine, cite a combination of factors for this disturbing finding, the largest of… -
Rural Talent Migration
19 May 2013 | 6:57 amRural America is dying. Rural America is in good company. Half of the countries of the world are experiencing demographic decline. The typical reaction is to plug the brain drain. That doesn’t work. Also, such policies are anti-economic development. Restricting geographic mobility does more harm than good (if it does any good at all). Some communities embrace attraction. Rural Kansas is dangling carrots in front of prospective residents. Such schemes have a poor track record. Luring immigrants, as Iowa has done, is more effective. But what happens if the source country of those… -
Gentrification in Buffalo
18 May 2013 | 9:35 amPortland is dying. Buffalo is gentrifying. We live in interesting times: “This is much more though a forced migration that is coming and I think that is the tone that has really upset the neighborhood,” said Ricardo Herrera, executive director of the Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers. The Rust Belt is full of Detroits. The Sun Belt is full of Houstons. What is wrong with the Rust Belt? What is right with the Sun Belt? That’s about the extent of our policy geography. The scale of analysis is too coarse. Mesofacts muddle the picture. I advocate for pulling apart the… -
Portland Is Dying
17 May 2013 | 10:46 amWhat does a dying city look like? Brains are draining. The population is shrinking or aging, or both. Vibrant, creative class cool Portland is the antithesis of dying. Yesterday, journalist Annalyn Kurtz tweets: “See! The Portland labor force lost 25,000 workers in the last year. http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LAUMT41389006.” What in the name of Richard Florida is going on here? The link will take you to the Bureau of Labor page with a bunch of employment data for Portland (select data recreated below). You can see the boom, the fuel for Portlandia. More recently, the labor force…
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Teaching Online Journalism
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Your syllabus as a blog: How to do it
7 May 2013 | 11:58 amFor about three years, I have been using WordPress.com (a free blogging site) to create a syllabus for each one of my courses. I first tried it in 2007, and now I’m totally sold on the practice. (See two examples: graduate course; undergrad course.) One of the best features for students: If you choose a WordPress theme that is mobile-ready, your students can very easily check their deadlines, assignments, etc., on their smartphones, from anywhere. You can also update your syllabus from your smartphone. There’s an app for that: IOS and Android. So how should you start? First, set… -
Teaching Web video: Everything you need to know now
28 Apr 2013 | 7:46 amIn non-TV news organizations today, we see mostly one of two choices for video (or both of these): iPhone (more than any other phone or small device) DSLR (various models) All the smaller video cams seem to have fallen out of favor. Only TV and feature-length documentary makers use high-end video cameras. What does this mean for teaching in j-schools? Some great minds in multimedia journalism education have been discussing that on the Facebook group "ONA Educators," in response to a question posted on April 25, 2013. With permission of those named, here is what they said. -
Code for journalism students: Presentations
26 Apr 2013 | 7:15 amIn the semester now ending, I taught a course in coding for journalism students. You can see the detailed course schedule online. Here are all the PowerPoints I showed in that class. You can view them on SlideShare or download them there. Beginning jQuery – Part 1 – Part 2 Introduction to the DOM JavaScript 101 Responsive Web Design Design Concepts/Web Design HTML5 Canvas Python – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 Bonus: Learning Python (rationale) The class went well. The students seem happy with what they have learned and done. They had had a basic intro… -
Top 10 posts this month
25 Apr 2013 | 6:44 amThese are the most-viewed posts on this blog in the past 30 days: 10 examples of bespoke article design and scrolling goodness 10 Rules for Visual Storytelling Advice to journalism students: Forget grad school! Recording phone interviews: A solution that works Get started with Web coding. Part 5: How to use Git and GitHub List of requirements for a digital story designer Best social media tools for journalists Why does anyone major in journalism? How to shoot video interviews Get started with Web coding. Part 1: HTML and CSS Enjoy! -
Journalism curriculum, and the hands-in-the-air approach
23 Apr 2013 | 11:49 amIt’s hard work making sure a journalism curriculum remains relevant. Here are “four essential components to the new curriculum for teaching news and communication,” according to Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute and co-author of The Elements of Journalism (2001): “Teaching of technical skills (how to use different platforms and technology). …” “Journalistic responsibility (including history, values, ethics, community, material that always made journalists better). …” “Understanding of business (how to…
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Technology
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Why is The Great Gatsby in 3D? Audiences are sick of this fairground trick (though the Nazis liked it)
15 May 2013 | 5:20 amThe story of Jay Gatsby holds a fascination for Hollywood film execs: Fitzgerald's dark portrait of the Roaring Twenties has been filmed five times. Maybe they can identify with Gatsby's shallow lifestyle, hosting incredible parties for people who secretly despise him. The latest version, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, comes out on Thursday. The revolutionary twist on [...] -
3D printed guns: it seems you can make them after all. So go ahead and shoot me with one
6 May 2013 | 9:35 amIn this article, I said that if Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed could 3D print a whole gun, not just a part, he could shoot me with it. I gave him until Christmas as a deadline. I was pretty confident it couldn't be done. An array of law enforcement professionals and manufacturing engineers had told [...] -
The online drug marketplace Silk Road is collapsing – did hackers, government or Bitcoin kill it?
1 May 2013 | 2:52 amAt 6am this morning, I got an email from one of my sleazier contacts. It simply said "looks like Silk Road has collapsed". I fired the Tor browser you need to connect to the site and, indeed, it wasn't there. At the time of writing, it's still not back up. A look around on assorted [...] -
An unhackable, uncrackable iPhone messaging app? If this is for real, the Government needs to pay attention
29 Apr 2013 | 5:02 amThis morning a ballsy Shoreditch tech firm, Redact, have launched an iPhone messaging app that they say is completely uncrackable, unhackable and totally secure. Unlike a lot of people making big claims about their technology, they've actually put their money where their mouth is. They've offered a cash reward to anyone who can intercept and [...] -
Facebook isn't censoring posts on NHS protests because, frankly, they aren't worth censoring
26 Apr 2013 | 2:13 amLast night, there was a minor internet furore after a Bristol-based blogger claimed her blog posts about a clever NHS privatisation protest were being censored by Facebook. I can't quite believe I'm having to write a blog debunking this – it is, of course, utter paranoid nonsense. I'm having to debunk it because the rumour [...]
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Online Marketing Blog
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Integrating Digital Marketing & PR – Breaking Down Silos Through Content
20 May 2013 | 5:11 amFor a recent presentation at a corporate communications and PR conference, I polled my network of digital marketing and PR pros about the most pressing questions they’re dealing with when it comes to integrating Marketing and Public Relations. Since we’ve been working in the digital marketing and PR space at TopRank Marketing for well over 10 years, it was interesting to see the diverse feedback from companies of various sizes and industries. But several themes revealed themselves that I think our readers will relate to. Thanks to feedback from Digital and Integrated Marketing… -
Online Marketing News: Video Trends Map, Content Recommendation Engine & New Google+ Layout
17 May 2013 | 4:00 amNew Google+ Layout: Hangouts, Photos and Stream Reminiscent of Pinterest Google announced a major update to their social network this week that changes the way Hangouts, photos and the Google+ stream are viewed by users. The decidedly Pinterest-esque layout was just one of many announcements this week out of Google I/O, the totality of which Jeremiah Owyang and Chris Silva dubbed a “wreck.” “The end result, we hope, is an app that looks and feels great across a family of devices,” Senior VP Vic Gundotra wrote of the Google+ changes. This is in line with Google’s… -
11 Examples of Killer B2B Content Marketing Campaigns Including ROI
16 May 2013 | 7:23 amAccording to a CMI and MarketingProfs study, 91% of B2B Marketers are using content marketing and that means a few things: First, it means content marketing has gained critical mass within the popular marketing mix and any company in a competitive industry would be hard pressed to attract business without it. Second, it means competition to stand out with your brand’s content is only going to get harder as more companies adopt content marketing best practices and mature in their skills. As companies evolve from simply recognizing the important role of content and experimenting with it,… -
The Power of Visual Content Marketing and Brand Visuals in Action
15 May 2013 | 4:00 amVisual content is certainly trendy – see the meteoric rise in infographics and social engagement with images as proof. Yet the need for content that appeals on a visual level and presents information in a more engaging format than text goes far beyond what is cool or fun to create. In creating curriculum and learning materials for students (child to adult) and their teachers, I learned just how important visuals are in meeting the needs of different types of learners. This is too often a missing piece in the marketing mindset; we focus on what we want people to do, the action we want… -
Content Marketing Tactics: Business Blogging Pros, Cons, Best Practices & Brands Doing It Right
14 May 2013 | 3:55 amAs part of our continuing series on content marketing tactics, I’ll be covering a topic that is absolutely near and dear to every content marketer’s heart: business blogging. According to a recent NM Incite report, there are over 181 million blogs around the world. The way many companies treat blogs in their content marketing mix is to incorporate blogs into their website as a section or subdomain, or host them on their own domain name as we do. With that kind of popularity, you would think everyone in business would know what a blog is and would be using them to their maximum…
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Web Ink Now
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Building inbound marketing assets are not marketing expenses
16 May 2013 | 7:03 amI get pushback from many entrepreneurs and business owners as well as CMOs in larger businesses about the idea of using inbound marketing because they see the investment in people to create content as a barrier. They say things like: "I cannot find money in my budget to spend $5,000 a month (or whatever the number) on content creation." When I probe, the vast majority of these decision makers are looking at content creation in the same way as they look at other marketing expenses they currently have such as advertising, trade show booths, spending on agency retainers, and printing brochures. -
My TEDx talk The Need to Explore
14 May 2013 | 9:45 amThe video of my talk was just posted to the TEDx YouTube channel. Direct link to The Need to Explore on YouTube. This is a completely new speech for me with no reliance on the material I use in my keynotes. It was fun (but hard work) to create a brand new talk combining several subjects I am passionate about: space exploration and our ongoing communications revolution. Soon I will post about how I created the talk. -
How to Pitch a Blogger
8 May 2013 | 8:41 pmI get several hundred pitches a week from well-meaning PR people. Conversations with other bloggers suggest this is the norm, so now it is as tough to reach a blogger as it is to reach a mainstream journalist. It may be even more difficult since most of us work part-time on our blogs and we devote less time to wading though pitches as journalists. Sadly, nearly all of the pitches I get are just plain spam. But the good news is that I do pay attention to things that people send me. I occasionally write about them. So how do you increase your chances of getting a blogger like me to talk about… -
How Gareth Fairhurst used content marketing to get elected
2 May 2013 | 9:14 amGareth Fairhurst, a local councillor on Wigan Council, has used online communications and social media, including his blog, Twitter @cllrgwfairhurst, and Facebook to communicate with his constituents in Standish, a village in Greater Manchester, England. In 2012 Gareth, an independent, won re-election with twice the number of votes as his nearest major party rival. He credits his content marketing efforts as instrumental in his success. "In the last local elections [May, 2012] I knew I had to try the online experience, as I was an independent candidate and that is always a disadvantage to the… -
World's worst website
29 Apr 2013 | 7:25 amI'd like to nominate the English-language edition of the Tokyo 2020 Candidate City website as the worst English-language site in the world. The site is built in support of bringing the 2020 Summer Olympic Games to Tokyo. Where to start. Well anywhere, really. So let's look at content. How about Vision: "Tokyo 2020 will bring together dynamic innovation and global inspiration. It will unite the power of the Games with the unique values of the Japanese people and the excitement of a city that sets global trends. It will be a unique celebration that will help reinforce and renew the Olympic…
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Marketing Darwinism
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Why CMO’s Need To Be More Involved in Ecommerce
15 May 2013 | 11:00 amPosted in CommerceConversion OptimizationCustomer ExperienceeCommerceLeadershipOnline TestingOptimizationPersonalizationTesting If the $42.3 billion spent online this past holiday season has taught retailers anything, it’s that capturing customers—and their dollars—online is crucial. But online is a big place. And mobile, which can seem like an entirely different universe, looms ever larger. So where to even start if you haven’t yet…started? And who should lead the charge? The modern day merchant must have an intimate understanding of the importance of online and mobile commerce,… -
3 Ways Social Media can Boost Sales Success
7 May 2013 | 10:45 amPosted in BloggingBusiness IntelligenceCommunitiesContent MarketingConversational MarketingEnterprise 2.0FacebookLead GenerationLead NurturingPeopleSalesSocial Business IntelligenceSocial MediaSocial NetworkingStrategyThought LeadershipTwitter Recently there has been a lot of conversation against the importance of relationships in selling such as this recent Harvard Business Review article on Selling is Not about Relationships which makes it seem like social media would not make a good fit for sales people. But a new RAIN Group report proves otherwise and shows that sales people that truly… -
6 Things to Keep in Mind When Replatforming
30 Apr 2013 | 11:00 amPosted in Business IntelligenceTesting As the shelf life of ecommerce sites gets shorter, it becomes harder for marketers to balance the latest trends while maintaining a seamless customer experience. When constant upgrades and revamps become daily tasks, or the functionality just isn’t meeting your growth demands, it might be a sign that it’s time to replatform—or migrate your site to a more stable, streamlined infrastructure. The bad news is that if you’re considering a replatform, it’s likely because your ecommerce site is highly complex and dynamic, with rich content, targeted… -
The Social-Shake-Up: A New Breed of Marketer is Coming
25 Apr 2013 | 9:47 amPosted in InnovationInteractive MarketingStrategy Gartner is predicting that by 2015, 25% of organizations will have a Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and further estimated that 20% of existing chief information officers (CIOs) have already taken on some of the responsibilities of the CDO. So what does a CDO do? The role of the CDO in the enterprise has gotten a great deal of attention in recent months. Perhaps because of the impact and influence that the CDO had in the Obama campaign last fall. All the tools of the trade – text analytics, social media analysis, Website personalization,… -
Your Testing Program: Smart Ways to Get Your Team On Board
10 Apr 2013 | 1:01 pmPosted in eCommerceOptimizationTesting On the face of it, the idea of a rigorously testing and optimizing your ecommerce web site seems like a no-brainer. After all, who would object to gathering hard data on exactly how customers move through your site, what happens on specific visits, and what unseen speed bumps and sticking points are hurting sales? Who wouldn’t want definitive answers to such questions? Fact is, though, in many online marketing organizations, there is often surprisingly sharp resistance to technologies such as multivariate testing. Sometimes, it’s simply because…
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Post-Advertising
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Why It’s a Mistake For Brands to Ignore Tumblr
15 May 2013 | 11:24 amPretend I’m someone who understands the basics of the Internet but has never used a social platform. Now let me ask you: What’s Facebook? What’s Twitter? What’s Instagram? Most answers, at least from the readers of this blog, would be similar. But I’ve got another question. What’s Tumblr? I would bet that at this point the definitions start to differ. “It’s a blogging platform, like WordPress or Typepad.” “It’s a social network where people share all sorts of content.” “It’s a website for theme-based GIF repositories.” For the record, Tumblr defines itself as a… -
4 Lessons in Creating Dynamic Social Content
13 May 2013 | 3:22 pmWhy would I care? Why would I share? These are two key questions that Droga5’s chief creative officer, Ted Royer, says his agency considers when creating social content for brands on Facebook. Royer and Carlos Figueiredo, associate creative director at Publicis Kaplan Thaler, hashed out what makes engaging Facebook content during a Creative Week panel titled “Newsfeeder: The Most Creative Posts From Facebook Brands,” moderated by BuzzFeed’s CCO, Jeff Greenspan. We’ve gathered a few of the key takeaways from the conversation for you as well as specific brand takeaways. 1. -
The Difference Between Fun and Useful Content in Social Sharing
8 May 2013 | 1:52 amTo say I’m not much of a handyman would be an understatement. I’m my father’s son—a Boston sports fan through and through, hardworking and always trying to please. But he and I know absolutely nothing about maintenance or repair work. So when I recently bought my first house with my wife, the renovations we opted to complete ourselves weren’t going to be easy, no matter how simple they were. But in the connected world we live in, help was no further away than a YouTube search. Hanging towel racks, painting stripes and installing the Nest thermostat (a must-have, IMO), lighting… -
6 TV Ads That Will Grip You With Their Story
1 May 2013 | 7:09 amTelevision advertising has traditionally been seen as an interruptive yet creative means of exposing audiences to a brand. There’s no denying the massive audience that television commands, not only in the United States and the UK but around the world, but it’s been said that audiences hate advertisements so much that they created technologies for avoiding them. Many households have “pulled the plug” on television altogether, opting for on-demand television viewing with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Roku, HBOGo and many more alternative services. Add to that the Nielsen Global… -
When Promoted Hashtags Are Campaign Killers
29 Apr 2013 | 2:31 amThis post originally appeared in our April ’13 issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here. No matter how lofty a brand’s goals are when it uses hashtags, there are always individuals ready to use them to drag it into the gutter. McDonald’s is on its second go-round with promoted hashtags gone awry, this time with #UnwrapWhatsFresh. The hashtag was created to support McDonald’s new Premium McWrap, which features chicken (grilled or crispy) and fresh vegetables served in a warm tortilla. The hashtag was…
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Conversation Marketing from Portent, Inc: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon
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Building Successful Low Budget PPC: Understand your Campaign Settings
17 May 2013 | 7:00 amIn charge of building your first PPC account? Don’t have a lot of time or money to spend within AdWords? Well you came to the right place. Over the course of the next six weeks, Portent PPC Strategists Chad Kearns and Tim Johnson will be laying down the knowledge in a six-part blog series detailing best practices for setting yourself up for PPC success. Follow along to pick up tips on how to build your first PPC account like a PPC superstar. Post #1: Building Successful Low Budget PPC: Account Structure During campaign creation, AdWords provides a number of settings to tailor a campaign to… -
Manage Stuff, Lead People: How to Turn Workers into Leaders
16 May 2013 | 7:00 amWe’ve all seen it happen. An employee is doing killer work, initiating great ideas, and displaying a willingness to take on larger projects. The employee is quickly promoted to a manager position. But while this top employee has excelled at the tactical parts of the job, he or she has never managed a team before. Letting these employees just sink or swim will be chaos – for you, the new manager, and for his or her team. For growing companies like Portent, it’s important to guide even the smartest, hardest working employees as they transition into management roles. As president, my role… -
3 Google Algorithms We Know About & 200 We Don’t
15 May 2013 | 7:00 amWhen I meet with clients or present at conferences, I am always asked: “How do I rank high on Google for (insert keyword-phrase-du-jour)?” I give the standard answer: “Only the search engineers and Google can tell you and they aren’t talking.” Inevitably, the questioner looks dejected, mutters a slur on my credentials, and walks away. I scream silently in my head: “Don’t kill the messenger because we are all hapless Wile E. Coyotes chasing the Larry and Sergey Road Runner with zero chance of catching them, no matter what we order from ACME!” Thirteen years ago, before… -
Building Successful Low Budget PPC: Account Structure
10 May 2013 | 7:00 amIn charge of building your first PPC account? Don’t have a lot of time or money to spend within AdWords? Well you came to the right place. Over the course of the next six weeks, Portent PPC Strategists Chad Kearns and Tim Johnson will be laying down the knowledge in a six-part blog series detailing best practices for setting yourself up for PPC success. Follow along to pick up tips on how to build your first PPC account like a PPC superstar. Understanding how to setup the structure of your account is vital to PPC success. The account structure is the back bone of your account. Creating a… -
SEO for Beginners: Improving Site Speed
7 May 2013 | 7:00 amWe write about a lot of fancy stuff on the Portent blog, such as server log analysis, advanced keyword research, and Tom Cruise. I want to address something that doesn’t have to be fancy: site speed. We’ve written two posts on how we configured Portent’s site: one is pretty advanced and the other is blindingly technical. They’re awesome, but what if you’re a small business owner without a geeky CEO or talented developer at your beck and call? When talking to clients, I noticed that many conversations went something like this: ME: HTTP compression is a breeze. Just have your dev…
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Influential Marketing
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5 Unforgettable Things I Learned From The Office
17 May 2013 | 9:08 amFellow fans of The Office television show are sharing a moment of sadness this morning. Last night was the series finale of the documentary-style comedy show that exposed the silly side of the workplace for nine years. For me, the show coincided almost perfectly with my move from Australia back to America and my own journey of joining an American workplace, and then leaving to become my own boss around the time that one of the main characters in the show (Jim) first did the same. But the real star of the show left last year – a lovably lonely character named Michael Scott played by… -
Get A Free Copy Of My Newest eBook … Always Eat Left Handed: 15 Surprisingly Simple Secrets Of Success
13 May 2013 | 1:42 pmI want to give you a free copy of my new ebook … but I don’t want you to keep it.* Let me tell you why. On June 4, my newest ebook will be released and I am writing it for an audience that may not include you. Unless of course you happen to be in high school or college, or starting your career right now. It’s graduation season and there are lots of pieces of advice floating around the Internet these days. Some are going viral – like the video inspired by a forgotten commencement address from late fiction writer David Foster Wallace back in 2005. About a week ago a… -
The Norwegian Art of Strategic Waiting
8 May 2013 | 2:23 pmChoosing not to preserve a 1000 year old Viking ship doesn’t really surprise anyone in Norway. For Americans who are used to their own country putting mere 75 year old documents behind bullet proof glass, though, nothing could be more confusing than the longstanding debate about the fate of the Oseberg ship – a remarkably well preserved 1200 year old Viking ship unearthed from a burial site in Norway in the early 20th century. I have been spending this week in Norway for a series of events and meetings, and yesterday I had the chance to visit the fascinating Viking Ship Museum on… -
The Most Authentic Movie Marketing Campaign Ever?
3 May 2013 | 2:45 pmIt’s hard to imagine a movie trailer without “The Voice.” You can probably hear it in your head right now. Usually “The Voice” starts with the same three words: “in a world …” There are few marketing campaigns as well scripted as movie marketing. Though the timing and strategy may vary slightly, the trailer is the most typical marketing method used to showcase the best parts of a movie to try and convince you to come to see it. The other common tactic is to grab random quotes from reviewers and publications promising “a gripping… -
Culpa Marketing: How To Win By Publicizing Screw Ups
1 May 2013 | 1:13 pmThere is nothing more powerful than a genuine heartfelt apology. At least, that’s what JCPenney is hoping based on a new ad the brand just released today featuring an apology to customers for recent changes and a promise to start listening more: The ad is a marked departure from the Apple-style “we’ll tell you what you really want” strategy employed by former CEO (and longtime Apple exec) Ron Johnson (here’s my take on why that didn’t work). Will this rapid apology and departure from the past year’s rebranding of “JCP” work? If recent…
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Marketing Interactions
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B2B Content Marketing: Thoughtful or Rote Activity?
18 May 2013 | 3:07 pmI recently read a post written by Brian Carroll of MECLABS. An excerpt caught my attention as this is a problem I see often. He was discussing a finding in Marketing Sherpa's 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report that found only 15% of marketers reported they have dedicated resources to produce content for each stage of the buying process. Brian's colleague, Daniel Burnstein, shared that he had heard a related story from one of their partners: They, too, wanted to send emails that were relevant and didn’t know where to begin. Typically, as a matter of rote, they blasted out an… -
Use Content Strategy to Break Into a New Market
4 May 2013 | 12:06 pmI've been on a number of calls recently with companies that want to break into a new market. They think that content marketing may be the key, but are uncertain if they're right, as well as how to approach this new direction. Content Marketing is definitely a key strategy. In fact, I'm not quite sure how a company would go about breaking into a new market without it. But there are some challenges when your goal is quick uptake and your company doesn't have a lot of exposure or familiarity with the target audience. Here are the things that come to mind. It shouldn't be… -
The B2B Website Audience Litmus Test
27 Apr 2013 | 2:44 pmMany B2B companies think that their website must serve every type of customer they have—every flavor of persona. I'd ask you to step back a moment and think about your website audience. Just because your company serves a range of people, titles, and roles, doesn't mean that they all use your website—or ever will. The elephants in the room during this discussion are usually represented by the CXOs—the ultimate persona that all companies want to attract, engage and sell to. However, these people are not likely your website's greatest fans or visitors. Why not? CXOs are: Too… -
Is Social Selling in Need of Sales Enablement?
2 Apr 2013 | 12:41 pmIn my last post I wrote about some of the ways Marketers could benefit from LinkedIn in relation to the report Jill Konrath and I released recently, Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code. Today, I’d like to write about some opportunities that surfaced during our analysis of the data that point to the need for sales enablement that can help your company’s social selling initiatives, as many salespeople appear to be struggling to find the value. The fact that only 4.9% of the 3,094 survey respondents are identified as Top Sellers is a wake-up call. The idea that gaining access to InMail is… -
Cracking the Code on LinkedIn is For Marketers Too
27 Mar 2013 | 1:54 pmJill Konrath and I recently released a report, Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code, that details what we learned from a survey of 3,094 salespeople about their use of LinkedIn as a sales tool. As a marketing professional, I found the responses fascinating and began thinking about how the data crosses boundaries to inform the marketing side. In the report, we looked at two sides of the coin; Salespeople who could attribute lots of sales opportunities to LinkedIn (Top Performers) and the others who generated a few—or none at all. The differences were quite striking—as was the admission by 58%…
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SEO Copywriting
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Penguin 2.0: Should you rewrite your evergreen site copy?
20 May 2013 | 3:00 amWelcome back! In this video of the SEO Copywriting Checklist series, Heather discusses the impending Google Penguin 2.0 update and what it means for site owners and evergreen web content. Matt Cutts, a distinguished engineer from Google, recently released a video announcing the next wave of Google algorithm updates. He specifically discussed Penguin 2.0, saying it will roll out this summer. So Google is giving site owners a big heads up! Also, on last weeks’ SEO Copywriting Certification call with Bruce Clay, he discussed Penguin 2.0 and what it means for site content. So Heather thought… -
How to fire a vendor (and still feel OK after doing it.)
16 May 2013 | 3:00 amI had to fire a vendor today. When it comes to giving someone the ax, I am a far cry from Donald Trump. Did I get pleasure from the experience? Heck no. Did I lose sleep over the decision? Sure. Did it need to be done? Yes. Fortunately, I’ve (finally) learned when to fire someone – and how to do it well. Chances are, you’ll have to fire someone someday. The writer who misses deadlines. The accountant who doesn’t return your calls. The consultant that isn’t teaching you anything new. It’s never easy – no matter why you have to let them go. Looking… -
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending May 15th
15 May 2013 | 3:39 amMarketers focus on predictions for the future in this week’s latest and greatest online marketing news, with talk of emerging trends, upcoming algorithm updates, and changing demographics. Content and social media marketers discuss the reality of a youthful audience and its preferences for mobile, social, and visual content. Meanwhile, YouTube introduces paid channels, Bing helps Klout out with its new “experts” feature, and local search shifts to mobile apps in a big (and affluent) way. The SEO and search community buzz about Matt Cutts’ forecast for SEO over the next few months,… -
SEO client education: It’s your most important job
14 May 2013 | 3:00 amIt doesn’t matter if you’re an SEO consultant, SEO copywriter, content writer, or social media coordinator that reads keyword reports – if you are helping clients with SEO, client education is your most important job. In fact, I’d wager that if you’re struggling in your business as an SEO provider, client education is the missing piece. Client education and managing expectations go hand in hand. What do I mean by education? It can take many different forms, but the goal is to help your client get up to speed on what you provide, why you provide it, and how they’ll benefit. -
SEO Copywriting Checklist: Are you writing content “for Google”?
13 May 2013 | 3:00 amGreetings! Welcome to another installment of the SEO Copywriting Checklist series. Today, Heather gets back to the basics in discussing whether you’re writing content “for Google”. The idea that you need to write content in a particular way for it to position well in search results is a tenacious misconception. It’s also an unhealthy one, both in terms of search engine appeal and user experience. Tune in to hear what Heather has to say about writing “for Google” and how to correct for this stubborn tendency in your own SEO content: “Gift Baskets” Is Repeated 9 Times! So…
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Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
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Smart Marketing is about Help not Hype
18 May 2013 | 7:00 amCan I please get your help making my new book a smash hit when it releases next month? Please watch this… Through speaking engagements and such, I’ve sold a lot of copies of Youtility, and we’re headed toward the best-seller lists. But I could use a hand from you to make sure it does even better. We’ve produced thousands of hours of free content here, and I don’t ask for much. But I REALLY need you this week, please. Until Friday, you can take advantage of a collection of exclusive book-related bonuses, not available anywhere else. Plus, free shipping anywhere in… -
Contagion, Social Media, and Why Things Catch On
17 May 2013 | 4:00 amJonah Berger, Wharton @j1berger Jonah Berger, Marketing Professor at the Wharton School, joins the Social Pros Podcast this week to discuss his bestseller Contagious: Why Things Catch on, the science behind those viral marketing hits, and the importance of setting realistic and helpful goals with a viral marketing campaign. Read on for some of the highlights and tweetable moments, or listen to the full podcast. Please Support Our Sponsors Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn’t do it without their help! This week: From… -
3 Ways to Use Google to Be Better at PR
16 May 2013 | 4:00 amI’d like to let you in on a secret that most PR pros don’t think of: some of the easiest placement opportunities you’ll EVER land for a client (or your employer) are found using the most common online tool you can think of. Google. It’s completely under-appreciated as a PR tool. Let me share a few specific details, so you can get your company or your clients more business online. After all, when you do things that other PR pros don’t think of doing, or don’t know to do, it puts you that much further ahead of the game, right? It’s a win for you and for your clients. 1. Use… -
When is Social Media Experimentation a Waste of Company Resources
15 May 2013 | 3:00 amSocial Media Controversies Addressed, Fresh Each Week In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about whether brands should be taking the plunge into other emerging platforms, specifically SnapChat. As an author, it scares the bejesus out of me, but it appears kids really don’t want to read. And as a parent, it spooks me, but it appears kids don’t want to use social networks that their parents also use. Thus, the rise of SnapChat, a darling of certain segments of the teen set – including my daughter – whereby you can message one or more… -
How to Integrate Social Media into Your Website with a Homeland Embassy Strategy
14 May 2013 | 3:00 amImage by Eric Schwartzman Editor’s Note: A version of this post originally appeared on Social Media Explorer. I’d like to walk you through a social media strategy concept known as the homeland-embassy approach. It’s an idea shared first by Steve Rubel, though I’m not sure he meant to take it as far and as literal as I’m going to here, but the basic gist is that your website is your homeland and your social networking accounts are your embassies. Before we delve into the nitty-gritty of the homeland-embassy strategy idea and what it suggest strategically about how you…
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Social Media Explorer
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What A One-Hit Wonder Taught Me About Marketing
20 May 2013 | 4:19 amThere’s one phone number that most people can recite, regardless of demographic. And I mean full phone number, not 9-1-1. Think about it for a minute: What’s the one phone number than most everyone you know has in common they can recite without hesitation? 867-5309. Tommy Tutone’s hit from 1981 emblazoned the number in our minds, and while little more of the song is all that memorable, “867-5309/Jenny” has an incredible marketing lesson buried within it’s one-hit wonderness. The song is the probably drunken announcement of a man who finds the number of a… -
Highs and Lows in the Parent Blogging World
17 May 2013 | 3:00 amThere’s never a dull moment in the parent blogging world. This past month has brought new highs and lows to this group, a group I’m firmly enmeshed in both as an agency which works with bloggers and as the founder of a conference bloggers attend. (I also happen to be married to a parenting blogger – my husband blogs on his own dad blog as well as in a number of other outlets.) Mom 2.0 Summit The high was most certainly the Mom 2.0 Summit, a fantastic conference for moms (and others) who blog (there were many men in attendance, and many non-moms too – my husband joined me). This was my… -
Forget about Personas. Meet some real people.
16 May 2013 | 3:00 amAs new disciplines emerge – like content marketing in the digital age – new jargon blossoms like wildflowers in a new meadow. Or sometimes like clods of cow shit. Whichever category you put the term ‘Persona’ into (for me, it’s bovine-centric), you can’t deny that it’s won a permanent place in the B2B content marketing canon. “Don’t even think about doing content marketing without personas.” is Commandment Six last time I checked. At Velocity, we’ve propagated the cult of the persona ourselves, with round-up blog posts and the… -
The Trick Is Applying General Knowledge To Specific Needs
15 May 2013 | 3:00 amHow does this apply to me? That should be the question we ask when encountering learning about the digital marketing world. Whether you’re reading a blog, a book, attending a webinar or conference, the one thing you won’t likely get is advice and examples that are directly applicable to your specific business. Conference speakers are generalists. People who write books are, too. Their job is to be informative and helpful but appeal to as broad an audience as possible. If I were to speak at an event about how to leverage Twitter in medium-sized floral shops, I would only help a few… -
SPARK – #GivingTuesday
14 May 2013 | 11:00 amWhile doing some fundraising training in Philadelphia last week, I was introduced to an incredibly cool program called Spark. Spark was founded by a 7th grade science teacher who wanted his students to see why school mattered. The premise is really simple: place 7th and 8th grade students in apprenticeships with people in their community. They’ve placed students in apprenticeships with all sorts of professionals: fire fighters, chefs, pilots, artists, and tech folks. The results speak for themselves Spark has grown to serve in students in at-risk neighborhoods in San Francisco, Los…
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Sparksheet
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Five Journalism Habits Brands Should Avoid
15 May 2013 | 5:07 amWilford Brimley plays Asst. U.S. Atty. Gen. James A. Wells in the 1980 journalism drama, Absence of Malice. As a longtime journalist, I’m happy to see so many of my colleagues finding work at brands and agencies as content marketers, brand journalists and all the other new roles and titles beginning to emerge. (Me? I’m a Director of Content!) At its best, marrying communications and marketing with a journalistic approach can result in quality content that’s of value to the public, as opposed to purely self-interested promotional copy. One unintended consequence, however, may be that… -
Marketing Lessons from the Wu-Tang Clan
13 May 2013 | 9:15 amIn the early 1990s, the rapper RZA (pronounced Rizza) formed a new creative partnership, or as I like to call it, a brandscape. His daring five-year plan was to leverage the distinct style of seven New York rappers to help the group reach number one on the Billboard charts and change the face of the music scene. This successful brandscape was called the Wu-Tang Clan. Creating a supergroup In a recent NPR story celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Wu-Tang Clan’s debut on the music scene, RZA recalled how the group developed unique personas designed to attract different sub-categories of… -
CTRL ALT Delete: Google+ Hangout with Mitch Joel
10 May 2013 | 1:25 pmIt gets harder every year to think of an industry that hasn’t been disrupted by the internet. Brands big and small are finding themselves sandwiched between a dead (or dying) business model and an uncertain future. Blogger, podcaster and Twist Image president Mitch Joel calls this state “purgatory” and in his new book, CTRL ALT Delete, he argues that it’s time for businesses and individuals to “reboot.” Mitch has been a friend of Sparksheet since the beginning and he joined us for a Google+ Hangout to talk about his thoughtful and thought-provoking book, which comes out on May… -
From Iron to Silicon: How Startup Culture is Rebranding Central and Eastern Europe
2 May 2013 | 8:51 amDish soap and laundry detergent. The mundane items adorning supermarket shelves in the former Eastern bloc in the 1990s were as far as one needed to look for symbols of change. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, shoppers began filling their grocery carts with Western brands, such as Henkel’s Persil, rather than the state-owned equivalents. And in less than three years, those Western products weren’t just appearing on store shelves; they were being manufactured in places like Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. So began Central and Eastern Europe’s wobbly road to… -
How to Fill the Information Gap During a Crisis
2 May 2013 | 5:08 amImage by Metro Library and Archive via Flickr. During a crisis, everyone is riveted. We keep watching the news or scrolling through our Twitter feeds, desperate for a new morsel of information. Has the oil spill been contained? The cause of the crash determined? The source of tainted meat identified? If we were on a television show, new developments would break every couple of minutes, ensuring a steady stream of thrills. But in real life, it’s murkier; progress comes slowly, and initial information may be unclear or inaccurate. Innuendo swirls and serious mistakes are made, including (in…
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Content Marketing for Technology
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Business blogging pays off
9 May 2013 | 4:57 pmNot sure whether it’s worth your time to create and maintain a blog for your business? HubSpot’s latest survey on inbound marketing answers that question with a resounding YES. The survey highlights the fact that blogging is a remarkably effective means of inbound marketing: “Seventy-nine percent of companies who have a blog report a positive ROI for inbound marketing this year, compared with just 20% of those companies that do not have a blog.” [HubSpot 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report] But blogging requires time and persistence Business blogging delivers… -
Curating research as a content strategy
11 Apr 2013 | 9:50 amMy last blog on research as a content strategy talked about the many content marketing benefits of creating original research. But what if you don’t have the time or resources to create or commission original research? Research may still have a role to play in your content strategy. If you can’t create, curate. Research can be an important part of a ‘content curation’ strategy, in which you collect relevant and interesting content for your followers or customers. Find some interesting research and put your own spin on it. I did that recently in this post citing… -
Research as a content strategy
1 Apr 2013 | 5:52 pmIf you’re pursuing a ‘thought leadership’ strategy and want to make some noise, consider adding original research to your content marketing strategy. Got data? The key is coming up with good original research. Look through your own data sources. You may be able to find emerging trends in the course of doing business with your customers or buried in your ‘big data.’ One of my clients, ThreatMetrix, publishes threat trends discovered in its global threat network. Commission a survey. Another option is to commission research into your market or prospects from a… -
Social media in marketing: A work in progress
11 Mar 2013 | 9:12 amAre we getting any smarter about using social media in marketing? Not according to Duke’s most recent CMO survey. The Duke CMO Survey Twice a year, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business conducts a survey of Chief Marketing Officers. What makes the CMO survey so interesting is the fact that you can track how things change over the course of the time between surveys. According to the most recent survey, both B2B and B2C CMOs plan to increase spending on social media – more than doubling the percentage of the marketing budget spent on social media in the next five years. -
A must-read for marketers: To Sell is Human
28 Feb 2013 | 9:43 amDo you feel uncomfortable when someone ‘confuses’ marketing with sales? Reading Daniel Pink’s new book To Sell is Human might change your mind. According to Pink, teachers, physicians, entrepreneurs and others are all in the business of selling. My only worry is that our conditioned aversion to the idea of sales will prevent more people from reading the book. The book’s premise is that most of us are in sales if we spend a significant part of our time trying to persuade people to part with resources (whether money, time, behavior change or attention). It includes a…
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Jontus Media
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Strategic Planning for Productivity
16 May 2013 | 2:33 pmI recorded episode 91 of the show over a week ago but although it was ready to edit I just didn’t get around to it. Duh! If you’re using content marketing to market your business online you’ve got to keep the content coming. So why did I drop the ball ? Well, a mixture of client work and losing my mojo, I suppose. I just wasn’t happy with the episode and after exchanging a couple of mails with my good friend Jamie Wallace over at Suddenly Marketing I decided to scrap the episode and start over. So this week’s show is a more personal insight into my business and… -
Put Your Face on Your Blog
8 May 2013 | 12:20 pmIf you’re a consultant or solo entrepreneur you should put your face on your website. Preferably on the front page. It’s important that you’re visible. It’s important because it’s all about building trust and a sense of personality. After all, we do business with people. Show Who You Are I’ve written a lot about podcasting as a way of making it transparent to your potential customers just who you are and what you do. Video, of course, is also an incredibly useful tool for giving a clearer indication of who you are and what you do. It’s important,… -
What Makes a Perfect Homepage?
1 May 2013 | 1:49 pmThere is, I am afraid, no perfect homepage. Only the perfect homepage for your website. Still… A great homepage will answer the three Ws: Who we are, What we do and What we can do for you whilst you are here. It’s trickier than it sounds, though, because you have to get the balance right. Too many homepages put the emphasis on “Who we are” instead of focusing on addressing the needs of the visitor to the site. The BBC website doesn’t start out telling you who the BBC is, does it. You just get there and start consuming the news. Similarly, Nordiska Kompaniet… -
It’s Time to Launch a Podcast
29 Apr 2013 | 12:36 pmIt seems that wherever you look right now that podcasting is hot. Michael Stelzner, from Social Media Examiner, recently told the audience at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego that: Podcasting, Bar Nothing In Our Study, Is The Hottest Thing In 2013. Period! Pat Flynn, another very successful marketer, has had incredible success with his podcast, seeing it as one of the key ways in which he has been able to grow his business. In this episode of Online Marketing and Communications – Episode 90 !!!! – I encourage you to think again about the benefits of podcasting and suggest some of… -
What You Should Know About Branding When Digital Marketing
19 Apr 2013 | 5:27 amIt can be really difficult knowing where to start when it comes to branding – especially if you have to talk about it with a marketing professional! Would-be podcaster Craig McBreen On this week’s episode of Online Marketing and Communications I talk to American designer and branding specialist Craig McBreen. Craig runs McBreen Design but is equally active as a blogger, sometime video-caster and would-be podcaster. He also runs one of the best newsletters I’ve come across that’s both full of advice, support, and encouragement when it comes to building your online presence.
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1stwebdesigner
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WordPress Plugin Development from Scratch, Part 4/4: Settings Page
17 May 2013 | 6:00 amWelcome to the final part of our tutorial series on WordPress Plugin Development for Designers. In the last three parts, we discussed the importance of plugins for you as designers and identified a basic structure for design based plugins while integrating a jQuery slider into WordPress. Today we are going to complete the basic structure of a plugin by learning how to create a WordPress plugin settings page for our slider. Stay tuned as settings are an important part in customizing the functionality of a Plugin. So let’s get started. WordPress Plugin Development Series: WordPress Plugin… -
Free Webinar: Proven 3-Step Formula on How to Get Clients
13 May 2013 | 11:45 pmReading this post might be the best decision you will ever do for your entire career. New Free webinar about freelance web design on how to get started and how to earn your first $300 in just 3 days. What are you waiting for? Our method has been proven and tested, and it even went beyond expectations. We offer a free introductory lesson and a course where people can enroll on, and people are achieving success through it! Ok…couldn’t wait to get home and post this. I got my first $600 check today (installment 1 of 2) for a site and it was from using the SIMPLE steps in the… -
How These 11 WordPress Scripts Will Stop North Korea And Improve Your Blog
13 May 2013 | 6:00 amIn this post you will get 11 WordPress scripts that will help improve your blog’s performance and that may or may not stop North Korea from terrorizing us. Either way, you will find these little WordPress hacks very useful for your daily blogging needs, which can help you save lots of precious time! If you’re eager to enhance or improve the functionality of your WordPress site, then below are powerful WordPress scripts that will definitely give you a great head start. Okay, these probably won’t stop North Korea from wreaking havoc, but you can’t blame a man for trying! 11… -
Create a Contact Form in HTML5 and CSS3 for Dummies – Downloadable
8 May 2013 | 6:00 amToday I will teach you how to create a simple contact form in HTML5 and CSS3 that you can download for free. Many WordPress plugins come with fully functional contact forms that can be installed and used right away, but we believe in beautiful design and in your right to style it however you choose. Therefore today’s video will focus on how to create, but mainly how to style, your contact form using CSS3. There is not much HTML5 in this video tutorial, unfortunately, as the contact form is built with code available in previous versions of HTML, but you can use today’s tutorial as… -
Get More Clients as a Web Designer with these Social Psychology Tips
6 May 2013 | 6:00 amSeveral years ago, I enrolled in a self-improvement course which taught me a concept I found pretty useful to get more clients for my freelancing career. If you want to “hit” a goal, you need to focus on two things: Trying to hit the goal as much as possible, called goal intensity. Trying to increase your chances for each hit, called goal efficiency. Let me explain with a simple example. Let’s say your goal is to get ten dates this month. How do you go about doing it? You could spend all your time at the gym, attending self-improvement courses and so on. These things won’t help you…
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Web Design Blog, Web Designer Resources
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30 Free and Awesome Music Vectors
18 May 2013 | 1:25 amAmongst the various art forms, music is the most versatile one. It can easily reach out and touch the heart of millions of people.Even if the listener does not understand the language of the lyrics, the tune and rhythm of the song will tell them a lot about the genre to which it belongs.A composer or lyricist creates music with the sole of aim of spreading it among the music lover through different mediums like music concerts, audio or video cd, different platforms on the internet and many other mediums. Different kinds of music related designs are also needed for designing the online musical… -
30 Superb Barn Photography Examples
17 May 2013 | 11:41 amBarns are small buildings which look similar to huts. Barns are found on agricultural farms and these are used for storing different kinds of equipment, livestock that work on the field as well as produce of the farm. In the old days, wooden planks were primarily used for constructing barns, but in the recent time barns have transformed into big steel buildings as wood is costly and at the same time not environment friendly. The old wooden barns are one of the most favorite subjects of the photographers. Since the barns are usually located inside farms, the photographers have the opportunity… -
35 Creative WordPress Themes with Multiple Color Options
15 May 2013 | 4:38 amWord Press is one of the most dynamic open source content management systems which is used by about 70 million sites on the web world. This CMS was developed for supporting blogging sites, but as the functionalities of the WordPress CMS increased it began to be used by different kinds of organizations and institutions for establishing their online presence. The best part of using WordPress CMS is that the web developers have the opportunity of using different themes available on the web world for launching the site quickly. On the internet, developers will come across a wide range of both… -
DXThemes Giveaway – Win 70+ WordPress Themes Bundle
14 May 2013 | 3:57 amThe name “WordPress” has become a synonym for “blogging” in the blogosphere. Almost all the good bloggers use it. But if you want to take your WordPress platform to the next level then you should invest in a good WordPress theme. You see, since literally millions of people use WordPress and many of them go with the default templates provided by the platform therefore if you too are choosing a default WordPress template you are giving up on the uniqueness of your website. Although it’s true that the same theme you buy may also be bought by others but since the number of third part… -
35 Creative Booklet Designs for Inspiration
10 May 2013 | 12:39 amBooklets are an important and creative medium of advertisements that is used by different kinds of organization for promoting the range of products and services offered by them before the prospective clients. Moreover, manuals that come with different products are also in the form of booklets. Therefore, these advertising mediums must have an eye-catching design so that it can draw the attention of the prospective clients and induce them to read it. These are usually distributed along with magazines, journals, newspaper and even with different kinds of products. In this blog post we have…
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CSS-Tricks
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Replace the Image in an with CSS
20 May 2013 | 5:43 amThe following is a guest post by Marcel Shields. Marcel in a difficult place where he needed to change the image on a page but didn't have access to the HTML. Rare, but I'm sure we've all be in weird situations like this. He explains how he managed to replace that image without needing to access the HTML or JavaScript. Also turns out to be a pretty good way to replace anything with an image. I just wanted to share something I found really cool about using CSS box-sizing. Chris wrote a really good introduction a few years back if you're not familiar with the property. It makes things a lot… -
Slider with Sliding Backgrounds
17 May 2013 | 8:14 amAmong the many super nice design features of the Yahoo! Weather app for iOS is the transition between city screens. The background image doesn't just move away as the screen moves from one screen to the next, the background image itself slides. It appears to be hiding some of the "old" screen and revealing more of the "new" screen those closer you have it to being in full view. Let's try and pull it off on the web. The HTML Like any slider, there are three main components: The container that holds everything into shape A sliding container that is as wide as all the slides in a row Each… -
Photo Swivel
15 May 2013 | 5:06 amThe following is a guest post by Alex Young (@the_alexyoung). Alex has created a simple technique to "rotate" the subject of a photo simply by hiding and showing multiple stacked photographs taken at different angles. Enjoy! Web designers and developers have always fascinated us with fun and engaging ways we interact with their websites. I love discovering new techniques that these designers/developers have come up with. One technique in particular that sparked my interest is something that I saw on Warby Parker’s website. They were able to create a cool effect where model follows the… -
Media Query Change Detection in JavaScript Through CSS Animations
14 May 2013 | 5:55 amThe following is a guest post by Alessandro Vendruscolo. Media queries are relevant to both CSS and JS. The need and desire to manage those in one place is real. There have been some clever ways to do this, like Jeremy Keith's Conditional CSS. But in that case, the onus is on you to test after window state changes. You can get a true listener with MediaQueryList, but then you're maintaining the media queries in both places again. Ah well, I'll let Alessandro explain. Media queries were first introduced more than twelve years ago (yes, the first draft dates back to 4 April 2001!) and were… -
Naming Media Queries
9 May 2013 | 5:55 pmIt would be pretty cool if we could do this someday in CSS. The best idea for it that I've come across is to define it in a <meta> tag in the <head>. That way (perhaps) CSS could use it and JS could use it. Like window.matchMedia(nameOfMyMediaQuery) or @media (nameOfMyMediaQuery) { }. But since we can't, Sass has our back. Now the question is, how do we name them? In Sass, the @mixin would look something like this: @mixin breakpoint($point) { @if $point == papa-bear { @media (max-width: 1600px) { @content; } } @else if $point == mama-bear { @media (max-width: 1250px) { @content; }…
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MachoArts | Design, Social Media, Blogging tipsMachoArts | Design, Social Media, Blogging tips
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5 Web Design Mistakes Novices Make
9 May 2013 | 4:25 amAs a web designer or business owner, you’ve probably seen it all when it comes to novice web design creations. On the one hand, it’s understandable that small-business owners need to stay within budget while getting their online business up and running. What they don’t understand is that sometimes the shortcuts that save money in the short-run end up costing a lot more down the line. These five web design mistakes are ones you can present to potential customers when trying to help them understand why it’s worth their while to pay for your services. In the end, having a The post 5 Web… -
Friday Photography Inspiration #89
26 Apr 2013 | 12:39 pmThis post is a part of our weekly photography inspiration series. Each Friday we feature some of the most professional and amazing photographs captured by talented photographers from all around the world. Here are latest photographs for your inspiration. If you like this post feel free to share it on Twitter and Facebook. Photography Quote of the Week: “While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.” – Dorothea The post… -
Would You Turn Down a High Five From Tom Selleck? No – and You Shouldn’t Turn Down Outbound Links Either
24 Apr 2013 | 6:44 pmA nasty rumor has been going around the web and it has caused a lot of problems for bloggers, webmasters, SEOs, link builders, and even site visitors and readers. In an effort to hold on to Google’s ever important PageRank, some people are unwilling to link out to other websites and only link internally within their own site. The thought being that linking out to websites will make their PageRank flow right out the door and they’ll lose everything they’ve been striving for. But this is a backwards way to approach the web and it creates a poor web experience The post Would You Turn Down… -
Friday Photography Inspiration #88
5 Apr 2013 | 9:30 amThis post is a part of our weekly photography inspiration series. Each Friday we feature some of the most professional and amazing photographs captured by talented photographers from all around the world. Here are latest photographs for your inspiration. If you like this post feel free to share it on Twitter and Facebook. Photography Quote of the Week: “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams  The post Friday Photography Inspiration #88 appeared first on MachoArts | Design, Social Media, Blogging tips. -
7 Useful tools you should use to make web development more efficient
1 Mar 2013 | 6:34 amWeb development is rocket science for most people because it’s demanding and detailed. The development process requires a site map, a design, the code, styling and many small elements to make its entirety. Without using the proper management tools, your web development process risks suffering from inefficiencies, which cost money. This article gives you some of the most effective tools to use in order to have an efficient web development process. Plagiarism checker The technology age is moving so fast and web developers need to move with it. With the number of competitors springing up…
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DesignM.ag
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User Interface Icons for Web Applications
20 May 2013 | 6:37 amAdvertise here with BSAThere are so many newly released icon sets which are free to download and use in your own projects. Building a website application will take a lot of time and patience. If you are using a CMS or backend programming framework then it might shave off some time. But overall you will be dedicated to finishing your projects in a decent timeframe. It is worth taking any help which can hasten the completion date. I feel these small user interface icon sets will provide a lot of benefit to web developers. Creating webapps specifically for mobile and desktop computers are not… -
Budding Design Trends for Custom Video Players
17 May 2013 | 7:29 amAdvertise here with BSAVideo players both HTML5 and flash-based are becoming more popular. Faster Internet connections are leading towards a full technological breakthrough all around the world. We are now able to share content with people in almost every country – and streaming video is one of the cornerstones to Internet media. I want to look into just a few video player styles from some popular social networking websites. Of course YouTube is known as one of the titans in the industry. But there are some other savvy companies and startups which are pushing the boundaries for online… -
How to Craft Unique and Valuable Content for your Website
16 May 2013 | 6:16 amAdvertise here with BSABuilding your own website is certainly a task in-and-of itself. But to then fill up your website will useful content and get those pages indexed into Google is a completely separate task. The obligations are much different and SEO factors a big role into the equation. But webmasters should feel comfortable writing their own copy and putting together pages with great content. There cannot be any single rule that always tends to work. But we can look at trends over time and see how other websites have followed things in the past. Also don’t be afraid to do your own… -
20 Examples of Fruit Photography
15 May 2013 | 5:00 amAdvertise here with BSAFood pictures have become one of the more prominent forms of photography. Years ago no one took the time to photograph food as a hobby but with the growth of picture focused blogs and mobile devices it has become the primary focus for a lot of photographers. Today we are featuring 20 awesome examples of fruit photography. Enjoy! 1. A Glimpse Of Summer 2. Red, White and Blue 3. Summer Berry Fruit Salad 4. The Fruit of Summer 5. Think different 6. Sweetwater 7. Strawberry Basket 8. HAHA i’m taller 9. My first strawberries of this season 10. Mmm diet 11. Fruit cube…
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ScienceDaily: Archaeology News
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Agriculture in China predates domesticated rice: Discovery of ancient diet shatters conventional ideas of how agriculture emerged
17 May 2013 | 5:57 amArchaeologists have made a discovery in southern subtropical China which could revolutionize thinking about how ancient humans lived in the region. They have uncovered evidence for the first time that people living in Xincun 5,000 years ago may have practiced agriculture -- before the arrival of domesticated rice in the region. -
From ocean to land: The fishy origins of our hips
14 May 2013 | 7:15 amNew research has revealed that the evolution of the complex, weight-bearing hips of walking animals from the basic hips of fish was a much simpler process than previously thought. -
Oldest fossil hominin ear bones ever recovered: Discovery could yield important clues on human origins
13 May 2013 | 2:43 pmAnthropologists could shed new light on the earliest existence of humans. The study analyzed the tiny ear bones, the malleus, incus and stapes, from two species of early human ancestor in South Africa. -
Elephant's Tomb in Carmona may have been a temple to the God Mithras
10 May 2013 | 4:55 amThe so-called Elephant's Tomb in the Roman necropolis of Carmona (Seville, Spain) was not always used for burials. The original structure of the building and a window through which the sun shines directly in the equinoxes suggest that it was a temple of Mithraism, an unofficial religion in the Roman Empire. The position of Taurus and Scorpio during the equinoxes gives force to the theory. -
Justinianic Plague was caused by bacterium Yersinia pestis, DNA of skeletal remains shows
10 May 2013 | 4:54 amAncient DNA analyses of skeletal remains of plague victims from the 6th century AD provide information about the phylogeny and the place of origin of this pandemic.
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WSJ.com: Technology
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Vista Equity Partners to Buy Websense
20 May 2013 | 6:18 amBuyout firm Vista Equity Partners agreed to pay about $1 billion to acquire Websense, a maker of software and services designed to help protect companies against cyber attacks and data theft. -
Yahoo Deal Shows Power Shift
20 May 2013 | 5:57 amIn a deal that highlights shifting power in technology, Yahoo has agreed to pay $1.1 billion for Tumblr, a blogging site with little revenue but more than 100 million users. -
Xbox Girds for a Smartphone Battle
20 May 2013 | 5:57 amWhat's underneath the hood of the latest Xbox videogame console represents a multiyear odyssey of trying to figure out how to keep the machine "cool" in the age of smartphones and tablets. -
Sell Your Used Textbooks Online
20 May 2013 | 3:02 amForget the campus bookstore. You can typically get up to 70% back selling to online resellers. -
'Now You See Me' Banks on Magic
20 May 2013 | 2:41 am'Now You See Me,' to be released May 31 by Summit, hopes to make movie magic without computer-generated special effects. Director Louis Leterrier hired magic consultants, including David Copperfield, to create and execute some of the more complicated illusions.
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WSJ.com: Personal Technology
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Raising the iPad's Productivity Level
15 May 2013 | 12:09 pmIPads and other tablets are being used every day for productivity tasks once reserved for laptops. Walt Mossberg looks at apps that attempt to emulate the features of Office. -
An Old Start to a New Windows
14 May 2013 | 1:50 pmWalt Mossberg reviews Start8 and Pokki, two products that restore the Start Menu to Windows 8. -
Walt Mossberg: Spring Laptop Guide
7 May 2013 | 11:57 amIt should be an easy time for laptop buyers, but the market is still pretty confusing and frustrating. Walt Mossberg offers his guide to buying a new laptop. -
Galaxy S 4 Is a Good, Not Great, Step Up
24 Apr 2013 | 9:23 amThe Samsung Galaxy S 4 is an evolution of prior Samsung models and despite some improvements, it still is especially weak in the software Samsung adds to basic Android, says Walt Mossberg. -
Review: Facebook Gets Hold on Phones
16 Apr 2013 | 5:27 pmFacebook Home, a new suite of software Facebook is introducing for Android phones, aims to take over phones right from their lock screens, writes Mossberg.
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WSJ.com: The Digital Solution
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Devices for Inner Peace
15 May 2013 | 12:11 pmKatherine Boehret looks at two sensors that aim to help users get to a calmer zone. -
iTunes You Can Use
8 May 2013 | 11:56 amFor people who are puzzled over fine points of iTunes, Katherine Boehret offers some ways to improve the way they use the digital-download source. -
Won't You Be in My Nextdoor Network?
1 May 2013 | 5:14 amThough it sounds counterintuitive, you might get to know your next-door neighbors better by joining a free social network called Nextdoor, Katherine Boehret writes. -
The BlackBerry of BlackBerry Users' Dreams
25 Apr 2013 | 8:55 amNew Q10 has a smart keyboard, fast browser and impressive camera features that may keep fans loyal, says Katherine Boehret. -
HTC Makes One the Android to Beat
10 Apr 2013 | 12:22 pmNew phone has sharp display, ultrapixel camera and features such as special video clips and news feed.
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WSJ.com Video - Walt Mossberg
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Mossberg Reviews Productivity Suites for iPad
14 May 2013 | 6:00 pmMany regard the iPad as merely a media consumption device, but Walt Mossberg shows us several Microsoft Office-compatible app suites that allow you to be productive on Apple's tablets. (Photo: Apple) -
Mossberg's Annual Spring Laptop Buyer's Guide
30 Apr 2013 | 6:00 pmWalt Mossberg brings us his annual spring laptop buyer's guide for 2013. His number one tip for Windows 8 laptop shopping: "Wait, if you can." (Photo: Asus) -
Mossberg Reviews the Samsung Galaxy S 4
23 Apr 2013 | 9:01 pmIt has a bigger screen, higher-resolution camera, and good battery life, but Walt Mossberg tells us that the new Samsung Galaxy S 4 is "a good phone, not a great phone, and it's not a game-changer." (Photo: Samsung) -
Mossberg Reviews Facebook Home
9 Apr 2013 | 6:00 pmWalt Mossberg gives his take on the new Facebook Home, which becomes available to Android users on Friday. He says it gives Facebook a great mobile user experience, but will deactivate or bury certain features on your Android phone. (Photo: Facebook) -
Mossberg on The Dell XPS Laptop
3 Apr 2013 | 11:48 amDell's convertible laptop is a perfectly fine laptop, but a thick, heavy tablet. Walt Mossberg joins digits. Photo: Dell.
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WSJ.com Video - Books
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Dan Brown Reveals the Secrets of 'Inferno'
15 May 2013 | 9:33 amWhen Dan Brown was researching his new novel, "Inferno," he went to great pains to keep copycats and spoilers off his trail. Alexandra Alter joins Lunch Break with details from her interview with the famed author. -
Babysitting: Where are the Boys?
10 May 2013 | 1:00 pmShould parents hire more boys as babysitters, as a way to stop reinforcing gender roles? Weekend Review contributor, Charlotte Alter, tells WSJ's Jason Bellini that she thinks it's time to teach boys that child care is their job too. Phtoto: Getty Images -
Make the Official ‘Great Gatsby’ Cocktail
8 May 2013 | 9:54 amReaders of "The Great Gatsby" know all about references to green light. How were those references made into a drink? PDT’s Jim Meehan demonstrates how to make the Moët Imperial Gatsby on WSJ After Hours. -
'True Blood' Series Author Tries to Kill Sookie Stackhouse
2 May 2013 | 9:30 amCharlaine Harris is ending her popular “Sookie Stackhouse” vampire series, which has sold 24 million copies and got a massive boost from HBO's “True Blood,” despite passionate objections from her fans, agent and publisher. Alexandra Alter reports on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty Images. -
Juanes On New Book 'Chasing the Sun'
22 Apr 2013 | 6:15 pmWSJ's Alexandra Cheney sits down with author and Latin Grammy Award-winning musician Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez to talk about his new autobiographical book "Chasing the Sun."
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NYT > Science
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High Plains Aquifer Dwindles, Hurting Farmers
19 May 2013 | 8:10 pmParts of the vast High Plains Aquifer are so low that crops can’t be watered and bridges span arid stream beds. -
Joseph Farman, 82, Is Dead; Discovered Ozone Hole
18 May 2013 | 8:02 pmMr. Farman’s single-minded and at times officially derided study of atmospheric changes in the Antarctic led to one of the most important environmental discoveries of the 20th century. -
Prototype: At Ministry of Supply, Teamwork in Making High-Tech Apparel
18 May 2013 | 11:16 amTwo groups of M.I.T. entrepreneurs were working on similar ideas for high-tech clothing. But instead of becoming rivals, they combined their efforts into a single, growing company. -
State of the Beaches: Rebuilding the Coastline, but at What Cost?
17 May 2013 | 10:17 pmBeach nourishment projects will restore shorelines but require expensive upkeep and affect ecosystems; federal taxpayers will foot the bill. -
State Of the Beaches: In Rockaways, Racing the Clock to Repair the Beach
17 May 2013 | 10:16 pmHurricane Sandy left the parks department with the onerous task of having the beach ready for a Memorial Day weekend opening.
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NYT > Technology
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Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Getting Passes for Passbook
20 May 2013 | 5:11 amYou do not need a special iOS app to get coupons, tickets and other digital documents that work with Apple’s Passbook electronic wallet. -
Gadgetwise Blog: Skullcandy Cuts the Cord, and Offers Better Sound
20 May 2013 | 3:25 amAt $180, the Plyr1 wireless gaming headset from Skullcandy is more expensive than rivals, but it does offer a few advantages. -
Chinese Hackers Resume Attacks on U.S. Targets
19 May 2013 | 6:38 pmA cyberunit of the People’s Liberation Army in China appears to have resumed its attacks using different techniques, hitting several of the same victims it has gone after in the past. -
Yahoo to Buy Tumblr for $1.1 Billion
19 May 2013 | 5:26 pmYahoo’s move aims to make up for years of missing out on the growth of social networks and mobile devices. -
Tech Industry Pushes to Amend Immigration Bill
19 May 2013 | 4:55 pmExecutives from Silicon Valley say that the Senate immigration bill imposes too much regulatory control over a company’s hiring of temporary foreign worker or laying off an American worker.
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NYT > Personal Tech
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Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Getting Passes for Passbook
20 May 2013 | 5:11 amYou do not need a special iOS app to get coupons, tickets and other digital documents that work with Apple’s Passbook electronic wallet. -
Gadgetwise Blog: Skullcandy Cuts the Cord, and Offers Better Sound
20 May 2013 | 3:25 amAt $180, the Plyr1 wireless gaming headset from Skullcandy is more expensive than rivals, but it does offer a few advantages. -
Gadgetwise Blog: App Smart Extra: Apps for Editing Photos
17 May 2013 | 1:56 pmSome simple photo apps can turn ordinary photos into quirky works of art — converting images into colored bubbles or warping them like a funhouse mirror. -
Google Escalates the Competition in Map Services
15 May 2013 | 6:27 pmThe new service creates real-time, personalized maps and incorporates 3-dimensional images from inside businesses and from Google Earth. -
App Smart: Mobile Editing Tools for Smartphone Photos
15 May 2013 | 3:29 pmA powerful lineup of photo-editing apps allows users to experiment with a range of effects and share the results on the Web.
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NYT > Magazine
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The 6th Floor Blog: Behind the Cover Story: Michael Pollan on Why Bacteria Aren’t the Enemy
20 May 2013 | 4:00 amThe author of this week’s cover story answers questions on why we should go easy on the Purell, how owning a dog might be healthy and why we should be wary of antibiotics. -
The 6th Floor Blog: The Greatest Hits of Michael Pollan
17 May 2013 | 3:28 pmThis Sunday marks Pollan’s 13th cover story for the magazine. -
The 6th Floor Blog: Covering Michael Douglas
17 May 2013 | 3:21 pmAn insider’s perspective on how this week’s New York cover came about. -
The 6th Floor Blog: What We See When We Look at Wild Animals
17 May 2013 | 12:27 pmJon Mooallem’s first book explores our complicated relationship to endangered species. -
Look: Kathleen Hanna’s Mementos From Her Riot Grrrl Days
17 May 2013 | 9:04 amFliers, lyrics and zines from Kathleen Hanna, the vocalist and songwriter for the band Bikini Kill.
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NYT > Paul Krugman
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Bernanke, Blower of Bubbles?
9 May 2013 | 10:00 pmWith all the talk about financial bubbles lately, do current bond and stock prices make sense? -
The Chutzpah Caucus
5 May 2013 | 10:00 pmLooking for realism in all the wrong places. -
Not Enough Inflation
2 May 2013 | 10:00 pmThe economic hole we’re in just gets deeper and deeper. -
The Story of Our Time
28 Apr 2013 | 10:00 pmA refresher on our economic woes, and why this is a very bad time for cuts. -
The 1 Percent’s Solution
25 Apr 2013 | 10:00 pmWhile the austerity doctrine seems to have imploded, austerity has strengthened its grip on elite opinion. Why?
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NYT > Thomas L. Friedman
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Without Water, Revolution
18 May 2013 | 10:00 pmThe Syrian disaster is like a superstorm. It’s what happens when drought, a fast-growing population, a repressive and corrupt government, and sectarian and religious passions combine. -
A Visit to Yemen’s Zoo
14 May 2013 | 10:00 pmThe state of the endangered Arabian leopard may be a bellwether for Yemen and its people. -
The Yemeni Way
11 May 2013 | 10:00 pmThe national dialogue taking place in Yemen is a lesson for other Arab nations. -
Postcard From Yemen
7 May 2013 | 10:00 pmA severe water shortage is taking a devastating toll on this breathtakingly beautiful country. -
This Ain’t Yogurt
4 May 2013 | 10:00 pmJust what would it take to put Syria on a path toward democracy?
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NYT > David Brooks
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When Governments Go Bad
16 May 2013 | 10:00 pmThe I.R.S. and Justice Department scandals disrobe a culture festering in unrestraint and overreach. -
The Taxman Cometh
14 May 2013 | 10:00 pmBrooks and Collins on the I.R.S.’s attack on the Tea Party and the Justice Department’s disdain for the First Amendment. -
The Next Scapegoat
13 May 2013 | 10:00 pmPolitical one-upmanship has just hit a new low with the recent charges leveled against Victoria Nuland, the spokeswoman for the State Department. -
Started at the Bottom
9 May 2013 | 10:00 pmFour Hispanic young people peel back the curtain into a different wiring of aspirations and loyalties than those held by the empirical kids I described in March. -
An Ethnic Map
7 May 2013 | 10:00 pmBrooks and Collins on how the politics of immigration reform are shaping the Republican Party.
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NYT > Maureen Dowd
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Taxing Times for Obama
18 May 2013 | 10:00 pmNow comes the mess with the I.R.S. The president could use a little J.F.K., and a little Bulworth. -
Cascading Confessions
14 May 2013 | 10:00 pmThe revelations of two famous women help bring their diseases out of the shadows. -
When Myths Collide in the Capital
11 May 2013 | 10:00 pmIt’s a glorious spring weekend of accusation and obfuscation as Hillaryland goes up against Foxworld. -
America’s Military Injustice
7 May 2013 | 10:00 pmThe women in Congress take aim at the complacent brass. -
In a Gaudy Theme Park, Jay-Z Meets J-Gatz
4 May 2013 | 10:00 pmWhy are we borne back ceaselessly to West Egg and Gatsby swag?
