Hi

I used to read Invisible Man Comics when I was a kid and imagined what if I became invisible? (Oops! I still do :)). You do anything and nobody knows who did it. You kick your enemy and you must see the expression in his face, wondering what that was? You may do good or bad, but no one recognize you. Fun isn’t it?? 😛  The same happens in Anonymous Social Media.

You may come across those confession pages in Facebook that keep you anonymous! But I am not talking about those networking platforms like Facebook with a difference that you are anonymous. You may post updates and chat anonymously. You don’t need a user profile to post in these apps. A number of apps which dominates anonymous social media were released in 2013 and 2014. As CNN notes, the two most popular anonymous social networks, Secret and Whisper, have garnered more than $60 million in investor dollars. According to The Guardian, Yik Yak, another recent addition to the genre, has already raised nearly $12 million. Even Facebook has entered the arena by launching a quasi-anonymous app called Rooms.

Reddit CEO Yishan Wong repeatedly states that “We stand for freedom of speech.” The anonymity always gives us the courage to what we really want.  Many post events like corruption like social evils. As we know we often don’t respond to social evils just because we are afraid. Anonymity gives you the liberty to point out and post about social evils.  People can have active debates on social issues and share their opinions. Many post awful life experience and seek life advises. They say openly since they don’t have to care about what others think. And any other person can help them or quote their own life experience that they never dare to share publicly.

There are two sides for every coin and anonymous social media is not an exception.

By now you may have guessed the worst side of anonymity. As I said earlier even if you do the worst, you will not be caught!  Netscape co-founder, Marc Andreessen, is one of the leading critics of anonymous social sites. He called out the various investors and developers who are pumping money and effort into Whisper, Secret, and other apps by voicing his opposition and saying people needed to decide if the systems are legitimate from an “ethical and moral point of view.” In his Twitter dialog, he lamented that many of these experiments start out fun, but “end with broken hearts and ruined lives”.

Main problem is abusive and slander posts. Anyone can post anything defaming a company, a person. Also it created chaos in American schools. Some spread rumors and gossips through the site making individual’s life hell. This was completely against social media ethics. In order to prevent this anonymous social media sites are instantly removing abusive posts. The contents are filtered instantly. Also some apps changed their algorithm to filter abusive posts. But these can be effective to a certain limit only (YouTube is an example of this limitation even though it is not anonymous). Some anonymous social media formats are not public and rely on controlled anonymity like tellM and rumr. In this case, users only interact with their contact list, allowing people to connect with people they know anonymously.

These sites may not be as big as Facebook but surely they will play a key role in future social media changes!!

Thank You 🙂

Click here for government certification in Media

The post Anonymous social media! appeared first on Vskills Blog.

Hi,

Facebook has always been known for ideas which increase people’s attraction to it. Facebook is almost destroying any possibility that any app will win over it, ever!! The latest among those ideas is Facebook’s Place Tip. Now that everyone is going mobile, Facebook keep it up too.

Facebook has recently announced and releasing Facebook’s Place Tip. Facebook find the user’s place using cellular network, Wi-Fi and/or GPS.  An icon will be seen on the top of your news feed and when you tap on it, shows a feed containing information about the place you are in, including your friend’s photos, experiences and moments, reviews and check-ins from there. It is obvious that each user’s tips will be different. Facebook tips is absolutely optional, the user can turn it ON or OFF. You have to allow Facebook to get access to your place. Also it will feature the business from the Place Tips. It will show page posts, upcoming events, specific features, working hours and many more!! If it is a restaurant Place Tips shows us the menu and reviews 🙂 Cool na!

Wait a minute, hold on! Don’t get excited too much! You may be wondering why you never heard of this and why your app doesn’t show it. For that you should have an iPhone and you have to be in New York! Yes!! Initially the feature is being tested in US among iPhone users. There is no clue of releasing an android version soon. But as there are many positive reviews from the testing area we may hope that Facebook soon release the android version worldwide.

Now let us consider what this new feature has to do with business promotion? This will be a great boon to local business. Earlier I’ve mentioned in a post that Facebook changed its algorithm which intentionally or unintentionally depromotes digital marketing of small business. (Read the post here). I guess Mark Zuckerberg is doing some compensation favors! Facebook Tips is a huge asset to small scale business as they can promote themselves to nearby customers. “A bookstore could use the welcome note to tell visitors where a book signing is happening in the store, while a popular deli may share menu items that famous people have ordered.” – Facebook recommends highlighting their features through page as they say in their official Facebook page.

Also Facebook is giving a free device to business called Facebook Bluetooth® beacon which face book claims as most reliable way of business to serve Place Tips. This device sent bluetooth signals to user’s mobile app to show them right Place Tips.

Now that’s a wonderful way of business promotion isn’t it? As far as I can see it will soon be a revolution in business promotion and Facebook may release better versions.

Looking forward to use the new feature!!

🙂

Click here for government certification in Digital Media

The post Facebook’s Place Tip! Tip for business?? appeared first on Vskills Blog.

The future is open source everything-  Linus Torvalds

The same is absolutely true in the world of data management and software. A code a developer develops, if made open, others can make changes in it according to the need and it results in a better version of the code. And by doing the same Facebook and Yahoo! spawned some billion dollar startups.

Facebook built Cassandra as it become difficult to handle data growing day by day. Avinash Lakshman and Prasanth Malik built Cassandra in 2008 to power Facebook’s Inbox searching. Later Facebook made it open software through Apache software foundation. Soon Apple switched to Apache Cassadra and apart from that now companies like Cloudkick, Soundcloud , Wikimedia, Reddit etc. use the software. The developers improved Cassandra in many ways and the benefit returned to Facebook!

Yahoo! did the same on Apache Hadoop and now many companies use this data management software. Now Google is launching the public beta for a hosted version of Bigtable, running in its cloud, backed by its engineering talent, and available to all.

Even Microsoft open sourced their programming framework .NET last year and Apple successfully used it in Mac Version.

Now you may wonder how these will start billion dollar startups. Let’s see some examples. Cloudera built its software on Hadoop and the Silicon Valley Company was the first to commercialize Hadoop, the open source computing framework that makes it easier for large corporations to manage large volumes of data that cannot be stored in a traditional database. In recent years, Hadoop has become synonymous with the term “big data”. And now it is a billion dollar startup. Also DataStax built its software on Cassandra is in top most range.

The open software does no harm and in fact multiplies the productivity. Any software developed by anyone can be improved according to specific needs and this is the most important advantage of open sourcing a program. Open sourcing a program in fact accelerates the growth of startups. In 2014 VCs invested in 37 open source based startups and the stats will grow high. This says it all!!

Yes! The future is open source everything!!

Click here for government certifications

The post Open Source! The future! appeared first on Vskills Blog.

Hi,

Yesterday my friend asked me help to collect some  info . I suggested sites like Quora, Pinterest etc. And he, like many of my other friends, asked me how to use Pinterest effectively? I explained him and then the thought strike me, there will be more who wants to know how to use Pinterest and this is the best way to help them, to write here, isn’t it? 😉

And before going to how to use, I want to clear some common misconceptions about Pinterest.

• Only women use Pinterest
• People only pin food recipes & wedding content
• It is just a photo sharing site.

All these are misconceptions and make this clear! Now!!

The interesting fact is that, it is not a sharing site, it is a collecting site!! Yeah!! Collecting some great contents and bookmark it… And collecting is another key activity of human and that’s why Pinterest has grown this much and become a great social platform.

For beginners there, here are some tips:

Follow others: It is the first step you can do. And you should do!

Pin and Re-pin: Pin directly from a website or blog. (It is just like bookmarking it)But make sure the content is genuine and always make sure the links land in the correct website/page. Pinterest will show that YOU pinned it which encourage others to follow you. Also re-pin great contents which gives valuable information to your followers. If you are a professional, pin the contents your followers want to see. But don’t pin what everyone else do. Be unique!

Categorize and arrange: Categorize the pins. Never label like ‘pic’ ‘nice’ etc. Categorize your pins wisely so that it is easier to search. Use great images for your board. (When you pin content, you pin it on a board. Similar contents may pin to particular board. For eg: all the blog posts I wrote is about to social media. So I will pin all the posts to a board named social media.). You may have many boards, arrange most relevant on top.

Comment and share: Comment on other pins and share informative pins.

Group boards: Groups always increase productivity. Search boards on Pinterest and look for the group symbol. Most will have instructions on how to join in the description, and you can always comment on a pin and ask for an invite.

Pin button: Include pin button in your blog or website. Thus make sure your readers have opportunity to pin your content. Also embed relevant boards on your blog or website and encourage others to follow. Include a button in your blog or website which linked to your pinterest profile.

Use good descriptions: Use good and detailed description and apt keywords.

Pinterest tools: There are tools like Google Chrome pin button which helps you to pin instantly. Use tools like PicMonkey (for images), PinAlerts (email you when someone pinned from your content) and Postris (tell you who to follow and what’s hot).

Every Social Media, if used wisely, will make you smarter and increase your knowledge. But USE WISELY!!

All the best 🙂

Click here for government certifications

The post Interesting?? PIN it!! appeared first on Vskills Blog.

Hi

Today morning I woke up with the beeping sound of my phone.! A new message received through Whatsapp. Suddenly I thought how our life has been linked with Whatsapp. And I found it interesting to find out how Whatsapp become this famous and how it was founded. And here how it did!

Who and When: Whatsapp Inc. was founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, both ex-employees of Yahoo!. After leaving Yahoo! in 2007, Brian Acton applied for a job in Facebook and he got rejected. Twitter also let him down but he took it positively.( Yeah..!! A setback for a wonderful comeback which changed the world, pretty awesome ,isn’t it?!!)

In  January 2009 Koum and his friend Alex Fishman discussed on having a status next to individual’s name. And they developed it with the help of Igor Solomennikov, a developer in Russia. Koum suggested the name Whatsapp as it sounds like ‘whats up?’. On 24 February 2009, he incorporated Whatsapp Inc. in California. Initially it crashed a lot and they got stuck at some point.

Turning point: In June 2009, Apple launched push notification and whatsapp get updated. Now every time a user changed their status,it would notify everyone in the user’s network. And a few days later Whatsapp 2.0 was released with messaging component and no. of users boomed to 250,000. Acton joined the company at this point of time.In October Acton persuaded five ex-Yahoo friends to invest $250,000 in seed funding, and as a result was granted co-founder status and a stake. He officially joined on November 1. After months on beta stage , the application launched in App store for Iphone in November 2009. Chriss Peiffer, an old friend of Koum, joined the company and developed a version for blackberry which arrived couple of moths later.

Whatsapp then switched from free service to paid service as the cost of sending verification texts to users increased.( Yeah,I know, none of us paid for that ever!)

Amazing stats: In 2011, Whatsapp was one among the top 20 apps list of Apple’s US App Store. In January 2013, Whatsapp have 200 million active users. And no. of staffs is 50!! And the no. of users increased day by day. By December 2013,400 million active users.  By January 2015, no. boomed to 700 million active users,with over 30 billion messages being sent every day. And in April Whatsapp have 800 million users.

Facebook’s entry: On 19 February 2014, Facebook announced it was acquiring Whatsapp for US$19, largest acquisition till date. But it is a fact that they lost some business because of anger in social media against acquisition. And this made a little help for other apps like Telegram, Line etc.Also Iran banned whatsapp as its owner is an American.

Web and Call: Whatsapp was made available in web for the first time in January 2015 and it is a simple extension of phone. Also whatsapp introduced Whatsapp calling facility which offers voice call over Internet protocol.Now we enjoy both facilities

After knowing what Whatsapp is, I had a thought. What if Facebook didn’t rejected him? People says true, failures are stepping stones to success. Hope you find your goal and take the chance!

All the best 🙂

Click here for government certifications

The post Whatsapp!! The timeline! appeared first on Vskills Blog.

Hi

Back then when I created a profile in Facebook, I liked my favourite brand pages and it filled my news feed. Now I have a doubt, am I missing something? My news feed don’t show all the posts in my news feed. What? You are also missing something. Oh Gosh! Whats this?? It was a shock for social media marketers. I’ll explain what really happened.

Facebook changed its algorithm in such a way that its organic reach reduced to 16% in 2012 and 8.7% in 2013 and last year it has cut down to 6%. And if a page has likes above 5 lakhs likes the organic reach is just 2%. Yeah, organic reach is inversely connected. More likes the page have, less percentage of organic reach is allowed (Now the no. value may different, 2% of 5 lakhs and 6% of ten thousand is different).

What? Did you asked something? Ohh! You want to know what is  ‘organic reach’ is! Let me explain!

If a brand page has 100 likes and posts from page is shown in all these person’s news feed then the organic reach is 100%. Now organic reach is 6%. If a page has 1000 likes, the posts will be shown in only 60 person’s news feed. Who these 60 persons are depends on many other factors.

Also Facebook changed our algorithm of our news feed to show only 300 posts. Earlier it was 1500! They removed the posts we don’t want to see and don’t need to see. Facebook says it users privacy and comfort do matter and these changes are aimed on that but clearly they have another benefit.

Advertisement!

When the organic reach is cut down to such a low percentage, companies are forced to publish paid advertisement for their brand publicity. This will affect small companies and companies whose income is advertising.

Though control of marketing through social media will definitely have a negative effect on digital media marketing, it is helpful for common users. So these changes will help Facebook for a good future!

Companies may find another way for social media marketing, I guess!

All the best

Click here for government certification in Digital Media

The post Facebook to depromote digital marketing? appeared first on Vskills Blog.

Hi,

Being a professional degree student, when I joined IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the very first thing my senior asked me was to create a LinkedIn profile and update it regularly. He said it will help in your professional growth. I wondered. What is the relation between job and social networking site? Aren’t professionals supposed not to use those sites. But when I signed up in LinkedIn I was astonished to see professional profiles, groups and recruiters in a social networking platform. I realized that creating a profile in LinkedIn and updating it regularly is important considering the fact that LinkedIn is the top professional network today. But there is a high chance for beginners to make mistakes in their profile and manage it.

Here are a few points you have to remember :

1. Upload a high-resolution, professional picture. High resolution is important. Recruiters go through a hundreds of profile each day, a picture, a visual memory helps to remember your profile.

2.A good summary.Write a summary that gets at the heart of what you’re interested in doing and conveys both your ability and your eagerness to learn and take on new challenges. Make a call to action in your summary. If you are willing to speak to recruiters, encourage readers to get in touch.

3.Add connections. It is a misconception that you should connect only with people you know or you have business in nearby future. Every connection in LinkedIn is important.

4. Appreciate. Send a ThankYou message to your new connection and those who viewed your profile. Like and comment on posts and appreciate others on your new job,work anniversary and their achievements.

5. Don’t use oldies which are not so goodies. Including ‘likes to solve hard problems’,’hard-working’ doze off your skills section. Be specific with your skills. For eg. if you have skills to write, be specific whether it is technical or creative.

6.Link to other places you want people to find you online. Showcase your projects or portfolio.

7.Imp: Avoid typo and grammar mistakes. Seek your friend’s help to correct your profile.

8.Regularly update your profile with your new experience and projects. Add your projects,posts and blog posts (links,pictures,documents) in your profile so that it don’t get faded in your profile.

Nowadays all HR check LinkedIn profiles of applicants and LinkedIn opens door to greater opportunities.  I hope this will help you

All the best 🙂 

Click here for government certifications

The post Professional = LinkedIn ?? appeared first on Vskills Blog.

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone is good!

Today when I was surfing through Facebook, I saw some ‘cool’ posts of an event which instantly caught my attention.It had nice caption and an eye-catching picture. I couldn’t resist myself from liking it. Just then I thought why some posts get noticed easily and some don’t? When I worked as publicity team member, I came to know how difficult is it to catch attention through Facebook post. Nowadays every company,organisation and events do promotion through social media. Here are a few tips.

1.Use a picture: It is the very first thing one notices. Photo posts get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more click-through than text-based posts.

2.Catchy title and concise description : It is better if we concise the matter below 250 characters. No one is interested in reading lengthy paras. Always give precise and important description.

3.Use emoticons: You know all of us like to read a post or text with emoticon than without one. Emoticons were discovered with an intention to express emotions and it is important.

4.Post at peak time: For Facebook 6 am-8 am and 2 pm-5 pm are the best time to post. And 10 pm-4 am is the worst time for posting. Peak time-posting make sure that most users view the post. Also Thursdays,Fridays and Saturdays are days which has higher engagement rate than other days.

5.Hashtags: It is important to use the same hashtag for every post on the same event. Hashtag should be simple and directly connected to event. It is better to use the event name as it is.

6.Frequency of posting should be moderate: Don’t post too much of posts and same posts again and again.It irritates users.

7.Polls: If the post is about an event or an organisation, adding questions and polls will do matter. It creates a feeling in users that their response are being counted.

8.Reply: It is important to reply for comments and enquiries asap. It creates a good impression.

All the best 🙂

Click here for government certifications

The post New post! Want to get noticed? appeared first on Vskills Blog.

Hello!

A few months ago we all filled our timeline with a specific hashtag, remember?

#Won’tGiveitback. It was a trend then. While surfing through social medias we came across a lot of hashtags. Actually we don’t realise the power of hashtags. Back in Libia those revolutions and discussions were organised under certain hashtags.

Hashtags have much more to do in the field of social media marketing and event promotion.

Let’s have a look on what #HashTags really do.

What is a hashtag?

It is a social media tagging system categorising the content. Any keyword with a prefix ‘#’ is a hashtag. It creates a hyperlink to search results or streams. A way to search and follow the topics related to your interest.

History

The symbol originated around 14th century as the symbol for pound. In 1988 the symbol first used as hashtag in IRC (Internet relay chat) to categorize content. Term ‘Hashtag’ was coined by techie, Stow Boyd. In 2007 hashtags show up in social media with use of #sandiegofire by     Chris Messina. And in the same year it became popular in social media primarily in twitter. In 2009 twitter officially adopted hashtags into code. In 2010 term ‘trending’ associated with hashtags. Now as we know hashtags are all around in social media creating a great impact.

Power of Hashtags

When you click a hashtag, you see a feed with posts including hashtag where you can see like-minded people. So it is obvious that creating a hashtag for your brand/event increase the reach.It helps to amplify the brand value of your product. Also you can organise social dashboards by hashtag. When we add the unique,catchy hashtag it will be remembered easily and it boosts the online campaigns for event.

Do’s and Don’ts

Now that hashtag have a great power in social media, every brands/events will create one. But before going to create one, remind some tips.

1.Use a simple yet not so commonly using keyword as hashtag which has a direct connection to your brand/event.

2.Don’t use too many words in a single hashtag and too much of hashtags in single sentence. Also don’t tag every word. It irritates users and is complex to read. Also it diminishes the power of hashtags.

3.For an brand/event promotion use the same,unique hashtag in every posts related to it so that all posts comes under one umbrella.

4.Better to use a unique hashtag, gradually it will turn out as a trend.

5. Though capitalisation doesn’t matter, its our job to make hashtag eye-catchy. For eg #HashTag is better than #hashtag.

6.Don’t use punctuation marks but numbers are allowed.

Hashtags are much helpful in your business/brand/event promotion. Create one!

All the best 🙂

Click here for government certifications

The post # HashTags appeared first on Vskills Blog.

Hi everyone..!! All good?

I was actually here to ask you something. How will you feel when someone who is just an acquaintance comment sarcastically in Facebook. Or someone try to pileup photos on your wall by tagging. Or always send game requests. It is annoying,isn’t it.? That’s why exactly we should follow certain ethics in social media. It helps you to interact well and achieve the best from social medias.. But as we know,we should do what we expect from others.

Here are some social media ethics everyone should follow:

Don’t Spam : Try maximum not to send  game requests to all people,tag unnecessarily. Nobody likes to have posts on their wall ,they even don’t know what it is about. And nobody is interested in what you are doing and where you hangout.

Behave politely and respectfully : In discussions in groups and discussions, respect other’s opinion. If you disagree share your opinion politely. Never comment any religious or personal comments which insult and provoke others. Never use abusive languages.

Be professional : If you are chatting with a person for first time, introduce yourself and ask if they are free to talk. Reply to people who seek help as long as they deserve it and you can help.

Share genuinely : Share the quality content, informative posts and socially relevent posts. Also congratulate others if they deserve by like,retweet and upvote.

All the best 🙂

Click here for government certification in Media

The post Social Media Ethics appeared first on Vskills Blog.