11 Tumblr Tips for Power Users

Once you’ve mastered the basics of Tumblr, consider learning a few more tricks to make the blogging experience even easier.

From browsing the dashboard to editing and publishing, the tips listed above can be valuable to seasonedTumblr users like you — especially if you juggle more than one account.

Tumblr’s minimal design may seem pretty straightforward, but the site has a few hidden tricks up its sleeve. Some may have been hiding right under your fingertips this whole time.

1. Mass Editing

To quickly edit multiple posts at the same time, use the Mega-Editor.

The tool looks just like your archive, except you can select or delete multiple posts, and edit and add tags.

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2. Hot Keys

Certain keys help you browse through the Dashboard more quickly.

To move forward, press the "J" key. The "K" key moves you backward.

You can also like the current post by pressing the "L" key.

To reblog instantly, without leaving the dashboard or tagging, click the reblog button while pressing the "Alt" key. If you need to tag, press "Ctrl" instead.

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3. Posting Without Internet

Sounds impossible, but you can do a few things on Tumblr via SMS.

Once you've grabbed the personal Tumblr email from the settings page of your blog, send a blog post with tags, a photo, quote or any other feature. Tumblr will automatically detect it and send to your blog.

Or post audio (once you've configured) by calling 1-866-584-6757.

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4. Queued Posts

To rearrange queued posts, click the up and down arrows and drag to the right order.

You can also hover over the arrows and press the "Alt" key, then click. The post will automatically move to the top of your queue.

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5. Original Posts

There is a small fold at the top-right corner of every post on the dashboard. It's easy to miss because it only folds when you hover the mouse over it.

Leave the mouse hovering to see what time it was published, and click to view the original post on the user's blog. This is a valuable tip for anyone who has lost something in the dashboard.

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6. Quick Engagement

When you hover over a user's profile picture in the dashboard, a small "i" offers you different ways to engage.

Depending on what features the user has available, you can ask a question, send fan mail and unfollow or follow a person, without leaving the dashboard.

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7. What Your Friends Like

Want to know what posts your friends like? (This trick only works for public Tumblrs.)

Minus the brackets, use the following URL: http://www.tumblr.com/liked/by/[insert username].

You can also do the same with archives by typing http://[insert username].tumblr.com/archives.

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8. Personal Stats

If you manage more than one Tumblr, you don't need to switch back and forth to view followers, drafts, messages and queues.

Press the "Alt" key and click on the tab as a shortcut.

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9. Search

Not every Tumblr has the search bar available.

To get around it, type this URL: http://[insert username].tumblr.com/search/[search term].

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10. Let Followers Answer

When you end any post with a question mark, a box appears to the right that allows other users to answer.

Even if you're really excited or enraged and add a "?!," the box still appears.

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11. Short Codes

If you're not a fan of Bitly's new redesign, this tip might be useful.

On the edit screen, pull a short code from any published post when your Tumblr is synced to Twitter or Facebook.

What hidden tricks do you find useful on Tumblr? Share your master wisdom in the comments below.

Reference:  http://is.gd/DMu2T
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How to Use Social Media for Employee Referrals

The war for talent is more competitive than ever. Every company wants the best and the brightest on its team, but traditional candidate sourcing methods may not cut it anymore. As companies, we have to be bold, we have to put ourselves on the line and, most importantly, we have to sell our culture harder than in the past. 

That’s where you, the already-employed professional, come in. More than ever, recruiters and hiring managers are looking to their internal network to help them find the right fit. After all, the real cost of a hire can be around $100,000, when you factor in the non-direct costs, such as training and the productivity lost in finding a new employee and bringing him up to speed.

Many workers are passive candidates, meaning that they are silently looking or waiting for an attractive offer. And, there’s a large chance your friends are lumped into this group.

Pair that with the explosion of social networking and we have a recipe for talent acquisition success. Apart from a status update here and there, you can use social media to help your friends find jobs and earn anywhere between $1,000 to $15,000 as a referral bonus from your company. Check out these tips to get the most out of your friend circle.

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1. Look Beyond Your First Degree of Connections

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No matter what industry you’re in, you probably have tons of connections through your social networks. However, it may be in your company’s best interest to go past the base-level when you’re trying to help your friends find jobs. The right fit may lie beyond your direct connections, but you’d never know this if you just skim the surface.

Many social networks allow you to see beyond your primary network. For example, Facebook “suggests” friends while LinkedIn not only shows second and third degrees, but it also may bring you to the right candidate based on their employment history. This tactic allows you to reach thousands of potential candidates, which is probably a lot more efficient than scouring your friends or contacts list.

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2. Find a Perfectly Catered Match

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Do you think that all you need to do is tweet out a job listing to your friends? There’s actually more to it. Social media also comes with access to deeper technology and analytical insights, so take advantage of it.

You can easily search for the right connections on your social networks by looking for specific keywords. For instance, say your company is looking for a candidate with an extensive design background who knows Photoshop and is located in San Francisco. You can search for these job-specific keywords on your social networks to find a more catered match. Once you’ve found these matches, you can then, of course, check out their profiles and job history to ensure they are the perfect candidate to be your new co-worker.

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Show Off Your Company Culture

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You know your workplace better than anyone else. So, use social media to show why your organization and company culture is inviting and forward-thinking and how it helped progress the careers of its employees.

For instance many companies are using video testimonials to give a better insight into the journey a candidate takes within the company. This video could then, in turn, be posted on your social networks and blog. The aim here is to bring the organization down to a “human” level, free of typical corporate jargon. It makes it easier for your contacts to realize what your company is all about, and why they should consider the particular position. In a similar vein, recruitment videos, such as the one Twitter recently made, have been extremely successful in reaching potential candidates and giving them a better idea of what it’s like to work at a company.

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Share the Bonuses

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Most companies have a significant referral bonus if the contacts you suggest get hired, and the best way to reach beyond your direct contacts could be to pay it forward. If there’s a $5,000 referral bonus at your company, pick some of your well connected contacts and offer them half the bonus if they know anyone that might be a good fit — you’ll be surprised how many people are connected to talented people looking for new opportunities.

In addition, you can make the process easier and help your friends out by using job matching platforms. Many of these actually allow you to analyze what kind of worker someone may be based on their social network value and work experience. By using these platforms, you gain something that keyword searching can’t give you: thorough insight and background information based on the networks your friends are using on an everyday basis. After all, you can learn a lot about a person by what they’re saying on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If it matches what your company is saying, you may be on your way to finding the perfect colleague.

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Conclusion

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The combination of all of these gives your organization access to the highly sought-after professionals who’ll likely stick around for the long haul. Plus, you have the opportunity to help a friend who may be able to bring real value to your company, which is the ultimate goal for anyone looking to fill a coveted spot. It’s a win-win.

What do you think? What are some other ways you can use social media to help your friends get jobs?

Reference:  http://is.gd/ywuwn3

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It’s Facebook Election Week: How You Can Vote on Your Privacy

It’s time to exercise your democratic right — not at the ballot booth, but on Facebook.

The social network is calling on users to vote on which privacy rules will govern the site. As in most elections, you only really have two choices: the current documents, or new ones drawn up with the help of user feedback. 

So what’s different about the new privacy rules? Comparing the current and new rules side-by-side, one thing jumped out at us: the new Data Use Policy. It contains an expanded list of activities in which user data can be collected by Facebook — whether you’re interacting with an app or something else on the site.

The company states that “if more than 30% of all active registered users vote, the results will be binding. If turnout is less than 30%, the vote will be advisory.”

In other words, some 300 million users will have to vote to make this definitive. That’s roughly the same number as the population of the U.S.

Voting started this Friday and ends the following week, Friday June 8 at 9 a.m. PT. You can vote here.

In March, Facebook made changes to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (commonly referred to as terms of use) and Data Use Policy, which outlines how Facebook controls user privacy and protects user safety on the site, among other things. It asked users for feedback on the new documents and received 150,000 comments. Facebook incorporated that feedback into the new policies, and it’s now asking users to vote on which policy you prefer, current or new.

The company said a lot of users simply asked for expanded explanations on certain sections, which it did in the new policies.

Right away, you’ll notice that the Privacy Policy is now listed as the Data Use Policy. Facebook made the change last fall, and they’re now making all the wording consistent. In the new Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Facebook goes into greater detail about user privacy and explains what the changes in the documents’ wording means for users.

The new Data Use Policy will also include an entire section with examples just to make things more clear. Facebook says the “vast majority” of changes between the two documents are changes in wording and how sections are explained, not how user data is captured.

Facebook held a site governance vote in 2009. A spokesperson from Facebook said 665,654 votes were cast to support the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Principles, which won by a margin of 74.37%.

Are you going to vote? For which policy and why? Let me know in the comments.

Reference: http://is.gd/SaWyKs

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5 Ways Facebook Can Boost Corporate Volunteering

With all the news swirling around Facebook’s messy IPO, it’s important to remember one thing: nothing has changed about the site…yet. Despite shareholder lawsuits, NASDAQ fumbles and a stock price faceplant, Facebook is still a powerful tool that can be used to affect positive social change. And when it comes to corporate volunteering, Facebook is a priceless way to stimulate employee engagement.

Similar to Pinterest, Facebook offers a dynamic way to gather support while highlighting your company’scorporate social responsibility efforts. Unlike Pinterest, however, Facebook provides the ability to make your content available strictly to those who join your fan page, which you can create exclusively for your corporate volunteer program.  Deciding ahead of time whether you want to use Facebook as a broad promotional vehicle or tailored outlet for your employees will help drive your privacy settings.

Haven’t begun using Facebook to drive corporate volunteering? Here are five ways to get started:

1. Display Purpose: Without a clear goal in mind, corporate volunteers won’t understand why they should be using your program’s Facebook page. State your reason for this page in the “About” section and make it clear in the content as well. If you’re crafting the page to highlight your corporate volunteering efforts then stay focused on that topic.
2. Tell Everyone: Most social media efforts that fail do so because the team forgot to inform their targeted users about the new feed, page or site. If you want employees to join your efforts, highlight the Facebook page within your volunteer management software, in your newsletter or on any other marketing material that gets distributed internally.
3. Be Active: There’s a reason members of your community joined the page — they want to learn more about your corporate volunteer program. Remind them with content that encourages employees to dive in and get involved.  Fun tips on how to help out or stats on the importance of giving can go a long way, but remember to update the page daily or else it will lose its impact. Respond quickly to users who interact on the page.
4. Show Off: People are encouraged by others’ goodwill. Your program’s Facebook page is a great way to get the inspiration flowing, with minimal work. Post pictures at the next volunteer outing and you’ll get the ball rolling; other followers will “Like” the picture and send it to their Facebook communities, which will encourage still others to join your page and volunteering efforts. Then lather, rinse, and repeat often.
5. Get Help: After you’ve built your page, it’s important to tap into the energy of your members. Sending out challenges to your page (“we need 100 volunteers for our next blood drive, can you help?”) can motivate your community to assist.  Point users to the right volunteer management tool so they can sign up without forcing you to coordinate and keep people involved; if users see that you’re close to your goal, you’ll be surprised at how much support comes from your online community.

Reference: http://is.gd/zlJmHn

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Are Teens Beginning to Prefer Twitter to Facebook?

Did your teenagers suddenly stop using their Facebook accounts? They may not be the only young adults who’ve lost interest in the largest social network on Earth, according to arecent report by The Los Angeles Times. 

There are many reasons why teens could start visiting Facebook less, including the fact that parents keep tabs on their kids on the social network. On sites like Twitter and Tumblr, they can use any pseudonym, and they don’t have to feel pressured to add people they don’t want to add, even if they know them in real life.

Groups of friends also find themselves having fun on Twitter trying to make hashtags trend. In fact, according to a recent Pew Internet survey, 31% of all internet users 18 to 24 years of age use Twitter, though we imagine some of them have inactive accounts.

With 900 million users, it’s unlikely that Facebook will be dethroned as the king of all social networks in the near future. But if teens truly are beginning to lose interest in it, the company has to find ways to keep things fresh in order to avoid becoming MySpace Wasteland 2.0.

Reference: http://is.gd/YJDgII

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10 Reasons You Can Never Have Enough Internet Bandwidth

When discussing computer performance, inevitably the term bandwidth will surface. In that context, bandwidth can refer to several rather different measures. In some cases, it means the amount of network capacity available to users. In other cases it refers to consumed capacity, as in the case of bandwidth caps. In any context, more bandwidth is always preferred, so there are plenty of reasons why you just can’t have enough of it. Here’s a list of ten such reasons:

Multimedia – Computers, and even mobile devices, have long outgrown the basic email/web surfing functions of decades past. Today’s users need far more bandwidth to do the tasks, and enjoy the entertainment that’s currently available.

Speed – The more bandwidth that a network has, the more data it is capable of carrying in a given period of time. That means the network will transfer data faster, which is something everyone wants.

Expansion – If you’ve got more bandwidth, you are better equipped to add users and/or devices on your network without any significant performance degradation. You won’t suffer from the typical bottle-necking that occurs when there isn’t enough to go around.

Population Density – By the same token, when your home network is on a shared network – as most internet connections will be – you’re sharing a finite amount of bandwidth with all other users who connect through your local ISP server.

Transferring Data – Since we’re transferring larger files up- and downstream (streaming videos, music files, movies), there is a greater need for bandwidth than before. Most of today’s apps need far more bandwidth in order to function well.

Throttling – Some ISP’s – notably satellite servers – will have bandwidth caps applied to their users in order to ensure that all users have access. These caps are known as FAP’s, or Fair Access Policies. When a user exceeds his allowed bandwidth maximum, his computer will experience the effects of throttling back the data transfer rate.

Connecting the World – The ITU, or International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the U.N., is working feverishly to “connect the unconnected by 2015”. Third world countries around the world are being brought into the digital age. With added users comes the need for additional bandwidth to carry the increased traffic.

Sites Crash – Every now and then, you’ll hear of a website crashing, because it was hit with more queries/visits than it was equipped to handle; or sites that are shut down for exceeding the amount of bandwidth they were allotted by their host server.

Apps – Anyone with an iPhone knows that apps are virtually breeding like rabbits somewhere between here and Silicone Valley. Companies are creating them by the minute, it seems, and they all take up both memory and bandwidth, as many of them run constantly in the background of the devices on which they’re installed.

Wireless/Wi-Fi – Now that so many computer users are operating more than one device, and going mobile, there is demand for internet in virtually every nook and cranny that people travel to or through. It’s no longer enough to just have connections at home, users increasingly expect an always-on, always-connected internet.

Reference: http://is.gd/QHNYls

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10 Lessons You Can Learn from a Pinterest Spammer

What do you think of when you think of spamming?  No, I’m not talking about the meat product that comes in a can, although I do kind of like that Spam.  You may think that a spammer sends a bunch of junk e-mail to your in-box, but what if I tell you there’s another kind?  A spammer who bombards social sites with information that leads to him making money.  Check out 10 lessons you can learn from a Pinterest Spammer. 

1. A Lot of money is being made: Spammers are making anywhere from $500-$2000 a day on Pinterest.  As they do more spamming their earnings grow.  No wonder they are interested in doing this.  If they kept this up for even a year they would make over a half a million dollars
2. It takes very little money to get started: No big investments are needed to do this.  You need to have a computer with a lot of bandwidth.  So you do need to have already purchased a decent computer and have excellent Internet service.  Other than that it’s all know-how.
3. Spammers use bots: I really had no idea that spammers use bots to do their ‘dirty’ work.  Apparently they have the knowledge to create a program that will pin photos onto Pinterest and note a link on that photo.
4. Not invitation only: When you go to www.pinterest.com you can look around at photos, but you can’t start pinning them to different boards until you become a user.  It says right up front that becoming a user is by “invitation only”.  The spammer tells that this is not true and that if you make a request from a valid e-mail address that you will get your invitation no matter what or you can invite yourself from a different e-mail account.
5. Easy to spot: If you spend enough time on Pinterest the bot postings are pretty easy to spot.  There’s a picture, but the words under it have nothing to do with what’s in the picture.   You’ll see a cute photo of puppies and the link will be for hand bags.  Unless you are making hand bags out of the puppies like Cruella Deville I don’t think the link really relates to the photo.
6. Pinterest not shutting spammer down: Out of the thousands of bots this spammer uses he’s only had one shut down.  His very first bot because he was posting too many photos.  He modified his approach and has had no more problems.  This seems surprising to even the spammer so why isn’t Pinterest shutting down his bots?
7. Money made through Amazon: There’s a long-time existing affiliate referral program through Amazon where they will pay a referral fee to you if you refer someone to their site who buys something.  By creating links to Amazon products this spammer gets people to buy stuff on Amazon and he gets the affiliate money from them.  You’d think they could track down anyone who is making a great deal of money from them and make sure they are not cheating the system.  This spammer is cheating Amazon.
8. Crowding out real posts: While this spammer doesn’t feel any guilt about how he’s making his living because he says he’s not hurting anyone.  He makes a point to say that he’s not uploading viruses or scamming anyone.  But he is hurting the intention of Pinterest.  When I go on to Pinterest I want to see real comments from real people.  I don’t want the site to fill up with fake stuff.
9. Artificially raising photos to popular: On Pinterest the more a photo gets pinned the more popular that it is deemed to be.  Makes sense right?  Wrong, this doesn’t work when bots are posting pictures from fake accounts and then pinning and repinning those same photos to increase their popularity so that they are more visible.  Yet another way that Pinterest could stop this spammer.  Putting in a simple fix that allows you to only pin a photo to 3 boards or something like that.
10. Always be alert: People will always try to make a buck the easiest way possible.  Some will not only cheat, but steal too.  If you don’t want to be a victim stay alert when you are on the web.  The number of scammers on the web is amazing and they would like to dupe you into giving them all your money.  Beware!

Reference: http://is.gd/TpUb5d

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Evernote Acquires Popular Handwriting App Penultimate

Evernote has acquired best-selling handwriting iPad app Penultimate. It is the fifth in a series of acquisitions that Evernote CEO Phil LIbin says will lead up to an IPO within the next few years. 

The $0.99 app, which allows users to take handwritten notes with a stylus or finger, has been downloaded more than 2 million times — making it the fourth most-popular paid iPad app.

After the acquisition, Penultimate will remain an independent brand in the iTunes store and a paid app. The “one-man shop” behind the app, Ben Zotto, will join Evernote and help expand handwriting features in its products.

Evernote’s first acquisition, image app Skitch, has also remained an independent app, but went from being paid to free when it was acquired. Evernote turned two other recent app acquisitions into Evernote Food and Instapaper-like Evernote Clearly, and a third will soon become an Evernote calendar app.

“Penultimate is the biggest acquisition in terms of revenue and users,” Libin says. “It’s the most mature company we have ever bought.”

The acquisition comes just four days after Evernote announced a $70 million round of funding that valued the company at $1 billion.

While Evernote already has more than 1 million paying customers, Libin says the funding makes it easier for the company to take risks such as acquiring Penultimate before going public.

“When you’re a small startup, you can’t take many risks other than the main risk you’re taking on the product,” he says. “When you’re a public company, it’s hard to take big risks because you’re public and have to respond to public in real-time. So this is the sweet spot for us is right now.”

Reference: http://is.gd/XocJBF

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Sparked Makes Volunteering Fun, Easy and Effective

Name: Sparked

Big Idea: Sparked is an online-only volunteer hub for people to donate their talents to non-profits, as well as an engagement tool for businesses to engage and incentivize employees to contribute to volunteer causes.

Why It’s Working: Users can donate expertise and skills instead of money, and make time commitments according to availability and interest level.

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In late 2010, Ben Rigby and Jacob Colker co-founded Sparked, a mobile app with the noble purpose of empowering non-profits. “We wanted to make volunteering fun and social,” Rigby says. But they noticed an interesting thing — nearly all the usage of their new app was happening between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. — during work hours.

So they pivoted, and recast Sparked.com as an online volunteer portal designed primarily to help companies mobilize their workforces for volunteer efforts. The site still connects non-profits with potential volunteers but makes money by letting companies such as Kraft Foods, LinkedIn and the U.S. State Department use its platform to help organize employees.

Here’s how Sparked works: Instead of pledging time, corporate volunteers donate time and skills to selected non-profits or other bodies in need of help. An editor can do some pro bono copywriting, for example, or a social media coordinator can donate Twitter expertise. Volunteers are matched to and able to find tasks by indicating areas of benevolent interest, such as at-risk youth, public health or animals. Tasks can be simple — for example, a graphic designer will be asked to suggest five website improvements for a struggling non-profit.

Intra-company standings and gamification rewards make volunteering into a competition and accelerate engagement. Skeptical that it can work? According to Rigby, companies that have signed on have experienced astronomical engagement boosts.

“Typical volunteering engagement for a corporation is around 8%,” he says. “We’re seeing participation rates up in the 50-80% range, just because it’s so simple. You can take 15 minutes or two hours and do it when it’s convenient to you.”

Sparked is supported by a combination of venture and angel funding, with investors including True Ventures and Kapor Capital. Rigby declined to provide revenue numbers, but says the company’s success so far indicates that business and charity aren’t mutually exclusive.

“We’re not Pinterest by any means,” he says. “But it’s going well.”

Would you volunteer more if your company made it easy?

reference: http://is.gd/z4tITW

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