By Laura Christianson

This article was originally published in 2011 and has been updated to include the latest, greatest information.

When you visit a blog, what’s the first thing about a particular post that catches your attention?

Other than the article’s title, it’s probably the image (or images) that accompany the post.

Readers’ eyes are drawn to images, so it’s important to place a visual that illustrates your point into every blog post.

Readers are also creatures of habit, so place images in a consistent location, such as the upper left or upper right area of each post. Wrap text around the image to create a clean, packaged look.

I’m forever on the hunt for free and inexpensive stock photos and illustrations to use on websites, blogs, marketing materials, and PowerPoint presentations. You can find oodles of high-quality, royalty-free stock photos and illustrations online.

One caveat:

Pictures you find via a Google or Bing (or any search engine) image search are almost always copyrighted. You can NOT use those images in your blog post unless you receive written permission from the person who took the photo.

Never assume that because you find an image via a search, it’s free for the taking.

To be on the safe side, use a photo you snap yourself or download an image from one of the following stock photo services. Each service functions slightly differently — some require a photo attribution, link, or byline and others don’t.  Make sure you carefully read and follow the terms of service before downloading an image.

Free Stock Images

morgueFile – When I shared the name of my current favorite free stock photo house with a client, she responded, “Oooh, creepy!” She was thinking that a “morgue” is the place dead bodies are kept. Which is true.

However, the traditional meaning of the word “morgue” is “a reference file in a newspaper or magazine office.” The “morgue” in a newspaper office is where the old photos and print editions are stored (at least, they used to be until everything went digital).

Anyway, morgueFile is awesome — they have a fantastic selection of free images.

Stock.XCHNG – Even though it’s saddled with the most unusual of URLs – http://www.sxc.hu/  - Stock.XCHNG, owned by Getty Images, is my number one source for free stock images. I’ve used it for years and can almost always find what I’m looking for there.

stockvault – Free photos are for personal and educational use only. I believe stockvault is a subsidiary of shutterstock, because they offer shutterstock’s premium (fee-based) images, as well.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net – Members of the Blogging Bistro team rely on FreeDigitalPhotos.net to find the perfect images to accompany blog articles we ghostwrite for our clients.

EveryStockPhoto - Touting itself as a “portal for the stock photo community,” everystock photo is a clearinghouse of free stock images from several sources.

Stick Stock – I haven’t used this service but one of my readers recommended it. As far as I can tell, the images are free to download using their creative commons license.

Flickr Creative Commons – You can’t use just any Flickr photo on your blog, but you can use images from users who offer their work under the Creative Commons license. Be sure to check out the license before using an image from the Creative Commons.

Google Creative Commons – Use Google’s Advanced Image Search to find images, videos, and text you can reuse, share, or modify. Keep in mind that you can’t use just any old photo you find in a Google search on your site – it HAS to be one that is labeled for reuse, commercial reuse, and/or modification. Google says, “In addition to images labeled as being under the Creative Commons license or in the public domain, the usage rights filter on this page also shows you images labeled with the GNU Free Documentation license.”

Wikimedia Commons – Millions of images, sounds, and video clips to explore.

Plus! Image - This is not a stock photo service, but rather, a central location from which you can scan multiple image sources including Google, Flickr, Picasa, Bing, Yahoo, Fotolia, and more. Worth a try!

Low-Cost Stock Images

depositphotos – Has three types of payment plans to choose from: Daily Subscription, Monthly Subscription, and Pay-As-You-Go Credits. Choose the plan that works best for you.

photodune – Buy and sell royalty-free photographs and images starting at $1. Items are priced on the size/megapixels of each file.

dreamstime- While their prices have skyrocketed during the past year, Dreamstime carries many of the same images as istockphoto and they have good royalty agreements. I’d compare images/prices between the two services before purchasing. A few select “featured” images are free.

iStockphoto – I regularly buy “credit packs” from iStock, so that must be a good sign that they have loads of great images. Which they do. iStock claims that their library of high-resolution stock photography, clip art, vector illustrations, video footage and music is almost 10 million strong.

Fotolia – They offer both pay-as-you-go plans for as little as 75 cents per image, and subscription plans for as low as 19 cents per image.

123rf.com – Offers Basic and Premium subscription plans and a pay-as-you-go credits.

shutterstock - Over 25 million stock photos, illustrations, vectors, and videos. They offer pay-as-you-go images and a monthly, three-month or yearly plan. This service is more spendy than most, but if you download a lot of stock photos, it might be well worth the investment. They also offer multiple user and corporate plans.

5 hints for using stock images on your blog

1. Set up an account with one or more stock photo services (it’s free) and login to your account.
2. Search images by keyword. When you find one you like, carefully read the licensing agreement before purchasing and/or downloading the image.
3. Before downloading, choose which size image you need for your project. Most stock photo services give you the option of choosing from among several different sizes. If you’re using the image in a blog post, the Extra Small or Small size should do just fine.
4. Even if you download the extra small version, you will likely need to reduce the resolution of the image before you add it to your website or blog. Computer monitors recognize only 72 dpi (dots per inch), and images from stock photo services are usually 300 dpi (also called ppi). Plan on reducing both the image’s resolution and its size before uploading it to your blog. That way, you’re not uploading huge images to your blog, which can slow down your blog’s load time.
5. After inserting a visual into your post, preview it before publishing to ensure that the graphic isn’t too large or too small. Images shouldn’t be so large that they dominate the post (unless, of course, the post features the image, a slideshow, or a video). On the other hand, images shouldn’t be postage-stamp small. If people have to use a magnifying glass (or reading glasses) to see your photo, it’s too small. Better to use no image at all than one that is too small.

Invest the time to carefully select and edit an image that will enhance your story. Images will help visitors to your site remember you longer and connect with you more deeply.

Share Your Favorite Stock Photo Resources

Please share links to stock photo sites you like so we can try them out.

Tweet This Post

Here are three ready-made tweets so you can share what you just learned. Tweet one or tweet ‘em all!

15 fantastic places to find free and low-cost stock photos online [Click to tweet]

5 tips for using stock images on your blog (plus links to 15 stock photo services) [Click to tweet]

Need stock images for your marketing materials? 15 excellent free and low-cost services [Click to tweet]

Happy 10^th Birthday, LinkedIn

LinkedIn recently celebrated its 10^th birthday. I love this unique “moving infographic” retrospective that overviews LinkedIn’s history: http://ourstory.linkedin.com/?trk=corpblog

LinkedIn’s Redesigned Mobile App (Video)

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you prefer to read a detailed overview of the app’s features, check out this article by Mike Allton at B2C.

Recruit “Passive Candidates” with Talent Solutions (formerly called Hiring Solutions)

In the hiring industry, “passive candidates” are those who are not currently looking for a job, but if the right one comes their way, they might be inclined to pay attention. This article by Ken Yeung at TNW analyzes the Talent Solutions tool.

Help! I Don’t Want My Boss To See Me On LinkedIn

If you’re thinking about leaving your current employer but don’t want your employer to know that, Kristin Johnson’s article at Careerealism offers 10 tips for locking down your privacy settingsoffers 10 tips for locking down your privacy settings. She also suggests additional steps you can take to avoid attracting undue attention.

I followed her privacy settings to the letter (not that I’m thinking of leaving my current employer – myself – but just because it’s a wise thing to do from time to time.

1. Click on your name in the upper right-hand corner of the screen next to the search box.
2. Pull down to “Settings.”
3. Enter your password.
4. Look in the middle of the screen, under “Privacy Controls.”
5. Click on “Turn on/off your activity broadcasts.”
6. Un-check the box that says “Let people know when you change your profile, make recommendations, or follow companies.” Save changes.
7. Click on “Select Who Can See Your Activity Feed.”
8. Find “Your activity feed displays actions you’ve performed on LinkedIn.”
9. Select who can see your activity feed. Set to “Only You.”
10. Save changes.

Blueprint for the Perfect LinkedIn Status Update (Infographic)

This handy little chart shows you how to structure your update http://pinterest.com/pin/7459155604019701.

For more LinkedIn infographics, visit Blogging Bistro’s Pinterest board http://pinterest.com/bloggingbistro/linkedin-infographics-tips/

Here is the actual, unretouched text of a guest blogging pitch I received:

Dear Admin,

I have seen your blog http://www.bloggingbistro.com/. I must appreciate your effort to maintaining such a good blog . As a professional writer and a web designer I found it very nice and interesting. I am a specialist in the clear communication of sophisticated concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, using both text and graphical content.I will love to publish my unique latest article only in your blog. Will it be possible for you to post the article with my link?

Eagerly waiting for your reply.

Here’s another one:

Hello,

While surfing Internet, I’ve run into your site – http://www.bloggingbistro.com/. It caught my attention with it’s informative content. I thought it would be nice if you could consider me as a candidate for writing something interesting to your blog readers.

After detailed analyzing of the content performed on your web site, I came to conclusion that I really have something to offer.

I’m a highly experienced article writer, who is currently cooperating with [company buying incoming links].

If you are interested in my offer, I would gladly review your requirements to the post.

Will be highly excited to get your prompt reply.

 A match made in heaven? Or hell?

In a creative twist on the two pitches above, many would-be guest bloggers note that the topics they write on are a “perfect” match for my blog. Then they list topics such as dog training, designer fashion, or baby care. Um… last time I checked, my blog focused on social media. But hey, dog training is close enough, right?

Every week, I receive dozens of nearly identical pitches. I route every single pitch straight into my Trash folder.

Why?

Here are six reasons:

1.  The pitcher has no clue who I am.

“Dear Admin.”

“Hello.”

“Dear Blog Manager.”

I have a name. It’s plastered all over my website and blog. If you’re going to pitch a guest article, learn my name and address me by my name.

2.  The pitcher doesn’t care about my blog.

“While surfing the Internet, I’ve run into your site.”

Ouch! Running into my site must have injured your brain. Never, EVER tell a blogger you stumbled across his or her blog. We know that all you did was google “social media blogs that accept guest blog posts” and inserted “http://www.bloggingbistro.com/” into the first sentence of the same pitch letter you sent out to 100 other blogs.

3.  The pitcher oversells his or her writing abilities.

“I am a specialist in the clear communication of sophisticated concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, using both text and graphical content.”

Can you provide examples of those “sophisticated concepts” you’re so skilled at communicating? How about a list of published clips? Topics you’ve written about?

4.  The pitcher did not bother to read our guest contributor guidelines.

“If you are interested in my offer, I would gladly review your requirements to the post.”

Yes, we have guest contributor guidelines! If you had visited our website, you would have noticed a big, bold box on the Home page and a link in the blog’s sidebar that says “How to Become a Guest Columnist.” Our guidelines detail exactly what we expect from our guest columnists.

Our guidelines also note:

As of March 1, 2013, we no longer accept links to third party sites that hire bloggers to write articles on their behalf.

That’s because we received a dump truckload of poorly-written articles submitted by people who blog on behalf of some company that pays them to obtain incoming links to said company’s website.

After discovering that it took a lot of time to review and reject these articles, we decided to stop accepting them. Period.

5.  The pitcher did not follow our guest contributor guidelines.

While many blogs accept pitches, Blogging Bistro does not. Our guidelines state:

Please do NOT send a pitch for your article asking what we think of your idea. We receive several pitches per day and there are not enough hours in the day to respond to them. Simply submit your article, bio, and headshot.

So, dear pitchers, you are going to be eagerly waiting for my prompt reply for a very, very long time.

6.  The pitcher does not know how to write.

“It caught my attention with it’s informative content.”

Aaargh! You just broke the cardinal rule of the English language by demonstrating that…

a) you do not know the difference between it’s and its.

b) you did not proofread your email.

As a former English teacher, this is a sin of the most serious magnitude and is grounds for the immediate expulsion of your email.

“After detailed analyzing of the content performed on your web site, I came to conclusion that I really have something to offer.”

I work with several people who speak English as a second language, and all of them have a better grasp of sentence structure than you. What, exactly, do you have to offer that won’t make me gag?

Will they listen?

Do I assume the guest blogging pitches will stop as a result of my rant?

No.

Because the people who need to read this article never will, unless they “run into it” while they’re surfing the Internet. You can help that happen, by sharing this post with your friends and fans (and even your enemies).

Here are a couple of ready-made tweet to make it easy for you:

Six surefire ways to guarantee your guest blogging pitch gets instantly rejected [Click to tweet]

Want to make sure your guest blogging pitch gets rejected? Here’s how. [Click to tweet]

Oh, and shoot me a comment while you’re at it. I will be “highly excited” to read your comments!

LinkedIn celebrated its tenth birthday May 5. With 225 million members worldwide (over 77 million of them, in the US), LinkedIn has carved a niche for itself as the social network for business professionals.

Because it serves as a hub to showcase job experience, skills, and education, LinkedIn focuses more on words and less on images. However, its recent profile redesign organizes those words in tidy modules and offers new options for uploading visual content.

Profile Strength: All-Star

In the “olden days” of LinkedIn (three months ago), the user’s goal was to create a “100 percent complete profile.” That challenge has been replaced with a prompt to achieve “All-Star” profile strength.

“All-Star” reminds me of a Little League baseball team and doesn’t seem particularly fitting for a professional network. I wonder how the strength meter ranks people who haven’t reached All-Star status: Pathetic Loser? Lazy-Bones? Under-Achiever?

I certainly don’t want those monikers associated with my profile! Even with the cheese factor, I’d rather be an All-Star. So I revisited my profile to freshen it up. And I discovered, to my dismay, that while LinkedIn deemed me an “Expert,” I had not yet achieved All-Star rank.

Eager to claim the cheesy-yet-desirable All-Star ranking, I made a few minor changes to my profile. Follow these ten simple steps and you can join me as a LinkedIn All-Star.

1. Upload your business portrait.

LinkedIn users routinely ignore connection requests from people whose profiles don’t display a photo. Claiming you don’t have a good enough picture of yourself is no excuse. If you want to be perceived as a professional, act like one. Invest in a business portrait session with a freelance photographer or photo studio. For around $150, you can obtain the rights to use your headshot in all your marketing materials.

2. Use your real name.

LinkedIn’s database alphabetizes all connections by last name followed by first name. If people know you by your nickname but you use your full name in a work environment, put your nickname in parentheses: Jonathan (Jon) Doe. It is acceptable to include a title such as Dr. or Rev.

3. Craft an enticing headline.

After your name and photo, your headline is the single most-viewed element on your LinkedIn profile. The headline displays prominently on your profile, in search results, messages, groups, invitations to connect, company page employee listings, and in popups when LinkedIn users hover over your image.

When you write your headline, ask, “What words and phrases would someone who’s searching for me use?”

Highlight your expertise with those keywords in your 120-character headline. Make your profile searchable by entering your geographic location and industry directly below the headline.

4. Summarize your expertise and experience.

In the Background Summary module, you get 2,000 characters (about half the length of this article) to introduce yourself in a conversational yet professional manner. You can upload or link to portfolios, presentations, photos, and videos from a huge list of service providers including Pinterest, twitpic, Forbes, Hulu, Vimeo, YouTube, Spotify, Scribd, Slideshare, Word.

A little side note:

When you add a job position in the Experience area, there’s an option to check a radio button so you can display your current job in the Headline area. If you check the button, it will override the other content you put in the Headline area.

5. Describe three job positions.

In the Experience module, add your current position as well as two previous positions. As you begin typing your company name, LinkedIn auto-searches for a corresponding Company Page. When you select that Company Page, your profile will link directly to it and will list you as an employee.

6. Highlight your education.

Outline educational experiences relevant to the position you seek or the industry in which you work.

7. List skills and expertise.

This is the “social proof” area of your profile where your LinkedIn connections will endorse you for various skills. To achieve All-Star rank, you must list at least three skills and can enter up to 50 areas of expertise.

8. Connect with at least 50 people.

You must have 50 or more connections to earn All-Star status. From the Contacts tab of your profile, click “Add Connections.” You can instruct LinkedIn to upload contacts from your e-mail service provider to see who has a LinkedIn profile.

9. Check your progress.

Once you’ve added the basics, check your progress toward All-Stardom by viewing the “Recommended for you” prompt in the upper right-hand corner of your “Edit Profile” tab. These prompts alert you about sections of your profile that lack content.

10. Rearrange sections.

Grab the two-way arrow located at the top of each module and drag sections of your profile up or down.

This allows you to highlight your most compelling attributes to people who are checking out your profile.

Connect with me on LinkedIn:

Blogging Bistro Company Page: http://www.linkedin.com/company/blogging-bistro-llc

Laura Christianson’s profile: www.linkedin.com/in/laurachristianson/

Tweet This Post

Here are two ready-made tweet so you can share what you just learned:

Want to be a LinkedIn All-Star? Of course you do! This 10-step illustrated tutorial from @bloggingbistro shows you how [Click to tweet]

10 simple steps to achieving All-Star status on LinkedIn. Illustrated tutorial from @bloggingbistro [Click to tweet]

Unless, of course, your problem is ad-related — people who spend money on Facebook do get a response!

Imagine my delight when I found Kristi Hines’s extensive list of ways to contact Facebook. Now, when someone calls me and I can’t solve their problem, I refer them to Kristi’s list. Thank you, Kristi!

150 ways to contact Facebook Customer Support

http://kikolani.com/how-to-contact-facebook-linkedin-twitter-google-plus.html

You’re going to have to do some wading to find the correct department to contact, but Kristi’s list gives you an excellent place to start.

How to report abusive content on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/help/181495968648557/

For reporting bullying, harassment, fake accounts, and other icky things.

9 ways to contact Twitter Support (while pulling your hair out)

Kristi’s article explains that you have to find the right starting place and answer several questions in order to reveal the correct contact form. Sigh. Please refer to her article for a couple dozen links that’ll help you enter the correct doorway.

Another entry point that may help you find the right form is Twitter’s Help Center: https://support.twitter.com/

How to contact LinkedIn’s Help Center

http://help.linkedin.com/app/home

LinkedIn’s Help Forum is also – er – helpful. Post your dilemma and other LinkedIn users will chime in to offer helpful advice. I’ve used this several times and it does work.

5 ways to contact Pinterest’s Help Center

https://help.pinterest.com/home

Pinterest informs users: “The answer to almost every question we receive is in our Instant Answers section.”

If you can’t find the answer to your question there, you can email their Help Center using this form:

https://help.pinterest.com/anonymous_requests/new

Pinterest recommends that you provide as much detail as possible in your email, and include your full Pinterest web address. “A response may take several business days.”

You can also tweet @Pinterest and tag any tweets for help with the #pinteresthelp hashtag.

40 ways to contact Google and YouTube

http://www.iacquire.com/blog/how-to-contact-google/

Google+ has a Help Forum, as well, where you can discuss issues with other users.

2 easy ways to contact Instagram’s Help Center. Yippee!

Wow. You can actually e-mail Instagram to get help! http://help.instagram.com/customer/portal/emails/new

Or you can tweet @InstagramHelp

Tweet this post!

Here’s are several ready-made tweets so you can share what you just learned:

• 150 ways to contact Facebook Customer Support (plus LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram) [Click to tweet]
• Need to get ahold of Facebook’s Customer Service? Here are 150 ways to contact them  [Click to tweet]
• 5 ways to contact Pinterest’s Help Center [Click to tweet]
• 40 ways to contact Google and YouTube’s Help Desk [Click to tweet]
• 9 not-so-easy ways to contact Twitter Support [Click to tweet]
• 2 easy ways to contact Instagram’s Help Center [Click to tweet]
• How to contact LinkedIn’s Help Center [Click to tweet]

By Erin Kirk
Blogging Bistro Regular Contributor

Ever wish you had your Pinterest boards handy, when trying to explain your design style to someone?

Now you can.

Clipzine.me is a new platform for gathering images from your Pinterest boards or around the web, and putting them together on a page. You can then save that page as a pdf or jpeg to use later – perhaps in a real estate brochure, as ad copy for your wedding photography or maybe for a cookbook pitch.

There is also an embed function that allows you to post your creation, called a “zine,” right to your own blog or website.*

Here’s how to do it.

1. Create a free account at Clipzine.me
2. Add the Clipzine bookmarklet to your toolbar.
3. Open the Pinterest board you want to curate.
4. Select the images you want to save. Name your “zine” and start making pages.
5. Organize the images, edit sizes, add color blocks and text with nice fonts.
6. Save to jpeg or pdf to use later.

Clipzine is a handy tool for promoting your business in non-digital ways.

Portfolios

Here’s an interesting zine showcasing the work of architect Daniel Libeskind.

This zine has pictures of the interior the exterior, and an explanation of the house. Super quick to create, it could be a handy tool for architects, real estate brokers, graphic designers — anyone who needs a visual portfolio.

Trade Show Posters and Brochures

Here’s another from a tattoo shop.

Need a poster or brochure for an upcoming trade show? Download a zine with your best work and print it. Each zine can be up to 100 pages with up to 24 images on each page. That’s a lot of tattoos.

Teaching Materials

Here’s a fun zine with a year’s worth of Montessori based activities, created by a teacher, turned author. Her blog and upcoming book feature Montessori wisdom for parenting and life in general.

The Montessori zine has dozens of image links specific to that exact topic, which makes me think its creator is kind of an expert. Plus, I don’t have to scroll through multiple Pinterest Boards because she’s already done it for me. This makes me more inclined to buy her book.

Recipes

Here’s a zine called Recipes for Kids, which features recipes that even picky eaters are likely to devour. If you’ve got a cookbook in you, consider organizing it on Clipzine.

The Pros and Cons

Clipzine is still a young platform and it occasionally shows. For instance, I found some zines with awkward blanks in them. This can occur if you decide to edit the page layout and don’t finish it right away. As I was editing my own, I couldn’t find a means to keep it private until I was sure they looked just right – ie: with no blanks.

Here’s a zine I created to promote my upcoming trip to Nice, France:

Like Pinterest, each image still links to the source website. You can like it, reclip it, share it and RSS follow the zine creators.

Pin It! Facebook It! Tweet It!

You can also pin your own zine back to Pinterest, or upload it to Facebook. In the future, you will be able to load your zines to Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Blogger and more.

And if you’re a WordPress user and want to create a visual link between your printed material and your blog, you can copy the embed code of your zine and paste it to your sidebar. Or, like we’ve done here, we embedded several custom-sized zines into this blog post. Clipzine has step-by-step, illustrated instructions and various embedding options.

Now it’s your turn.

Create your own zine. Post a link to it in the comments. Tell us what you did and how you plan to use it.

Tweet this post!

Here’s a ready-made tweet so you can share what you just learned:

Great marketing idea! Use Clipzine.me to curate pins from Pinterest boards. [Click to tweet]

*Remember many images on the web are subject to copyright. Make sure to seek permission if you plan to use an image that isn’t yours for commercial purposes.

Erin Kirk

Erin Kirk is a non-fiction writer blogging about faith, travel, creativity and mission at goingtothesea.wordpress.com.

The Blogging Bistro team welcomes Erin as a regular contributor.

Enter Facebook’s “Follow” button. If a user displays a “Follow” button on his or her profile, you can see their public updates in your News Feed, much like when you follow someone on Twitter and their updates display in your Twitter steam.

The key thing to remember when you follow (subscribe to) someone’s updates is that you’ll only see their PUBLIC updates.

How to make the “Follow” button show on your own profile

This is currently an optional feature, so you’ll need to activate it. The easiest way is to log in to your Facebook account and click http://www.facebook.com/about/follow. You’ll see a screen that looks like this:

You can customize your follower settings any time by clicking the gear icon in the top righthand corner of your Facebook account.

• Select “Account Settings” and then click “Followers” in the lefthand sidebar.
• Click the radio button to “Turn on Follow.”
• You can choose whether you want followers to be able to comment on your public updates, and whether you want to be notified when people follow you and when they share, like, or comment on your public posts.
• You can also decide whether you want search engines to index your personal Timeline profile, so people can more easily find and follow your public updates.
• At the very bottom of the “Follower Settings” there’s a little link that says, “Want to know what followers can see? View your public timeline.” I suggest clicking this link and then customizing the parts of your profile that you do and don’t want the public to see.

Note that when you allow people to follow your public updates, you can’t pick and choose who gets to subscribe. ANYONE who you haven’t blocked will be able to see your public updates in their News Feed.

How to determine whether an update is “public”

Two ways.

1. Customize your account’s privacy settings http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy.
2. As you update your status, click the icon to the left of the blue “Post” button and choose the “Public” option. You can customize how every update you post displays.

How to follow a non-friend’s updates

If you visit someone else’s profile and want to follow their public updates, click their “Follow” button. If they allow the “Follow” option, you’ll see the button in the lower righthand portion of their cover photo, between “Add Friend” and “Message.”

After you click “Follow” the button will change to “Following.”

You can hover over the “Following” button and customize what types of updates you want to see, how often you want to see them, and whether you want to receive a notification when this person updates their Timeline.

You can also add them to an Interest List or unfollow them.

How to decipher the “See Which Updates?” option:

• All Updates = everything that person posts.
• Most Updates = the amount you’d normally see (this is rather vague, but I got it straight from the Facebook blog)
• Only Important = just highlights, like a new job or move

You can further customize this option by checking or unchecking the following options:

• Life Events
• Status Updates
• Photos
• Games
• Comments and Likes
• Music and Videos
• Other Activity

Tweet This Post!

Here’s a ready-made tweet so you can share what you just learned:

How to follow the Facebook updates of people who aren’t your FB friends [Click to tweet]

I’ve followed copyblogger for years they consistently produce superb materials – articles, ebooks, seminars, webinars – on topics including content marketing, copywriting, email marketing, metrics and analytics, productivity, and SEO.

To sign up, go to http://my.copyblogger.com/free-membership. Provide your name, email, and a password, which you will use thereafter to log into their system. The basic membership (which gets you tons of goodies) is free.

They offer an optional account upgrade. For $29 a month ($348/year), you can get “all the ongoing monthly seminars, the exclusive Q&A sessions, full forum access, instant access to over 60 hours of education, discounts on tools and live training, and more.”

I signed up for the free account and plan to ingest something daily from their site during my “learning time.” I hope you’ll consider joining, too! (No, they did not pay me to say this.)

You’ve heard that Facebook and other social media accounts get hacked, but Twitter?

Well, Twitter accounts get hacked at the same rate as Facebook and other social networks. To prevent that awful thing, every user should take precautions.

Here are five effective ways to protect your Twitter account from being hacked:

1. Make the Password Unguessable

This is the number one issue that makes people lose their accounts to cyber goons. Hackers and their software are intelligent enough to decode a password made with your birth date or other similar numbers that are easily obtainable.

Your password does not have to be a super hard and long one, use any unusual word and number combo that has no resemblance with your name or any such basic thing but is significant and easily memorable for you. Be little bit smarter and set that un-guessable password!

Go to https://howsecureismypassword.net/ and type in the password you’re considering using to see how difficult it would be for a hacker to crack it.

2. Update Privacy Settings

Twitter regularly updates the Security Settings for people’s profiles. Instead of ignoring the  notification balloon that pops out and tells you about the changes, learn what they have to say and change your Security and Privacy Settings accordingly. If you do not understand anything, visit the Help Center for solutions or simply ask for help.

3. Check Your Apps and Other Add-ons

Apps, add-ons and other similar pieces of software developed by third parties are often the marketplaces for information leakage. Since we let them access our information and allow them to post on our behalf, we practically give them the license to rob our account. To avoid this, use only reputable apps and keep authorizations at a minimum.

4. Be a Careful Mobile User

When we use the accounts with mobile, we risk even more. Most of us do not log out of accounts and we click the “Remember my Password” box. Using anti-malware software is must-do. There are several free ones available.

Also, since mobile screens are not as big as computer monitors, it is easier for phishing sites to camouflage attack and hack your information. So, do not ever enter your password to any site once you are already logged in.

5. Keep Separate Accounts for Personal and Business Purposes

If you intend to market your business with Twitter, do not market via your personal account. It does not take much to open a new business account. Operate your campaign and updates from your business account and do not enter any personal information.

Linda Waters is a marketing executive at mSpy and a blogger who writes about cell phone tracking tools, social media innovations and mobile tricks.

Pinterest fans, you’ll love this new development.

Microsoft and Pinterest forged a partnership, allowing Pinterest members to pin pictures directly from Bing Image Search.

Give it a try right now.

1. Visit Bing’s Image Search at http://www.bing.com/images/.
2. Search for yourself (just for fun).
3. Click on any image and at the bottom right-hand corner of the picture, you’ll see the Pin It icon.
4. Click “Pin It,” choose the board you want to pin it to, write a description of the image, and you’re done.

Even better, all pinned images from Bing Image Search provide the link to the original high-res source with the correct attribution.

If you’re searching for just the right images to add to a particular board, Bing Image Search is a quick and easy way to find those images and build an outstanding board.

Try it! Be sure to post a link to your board (or image you found on Bing Image Search) in the Comments so we can check it out.

Hope you’ll follow Blogging Bistro on Pinterest, too. We pin social media inforgraphics and tips.

Source: TechRadar