That’s all.

Every bit of focus from the media will be on the fact that Ted Cruz asked people to “vote their conscience” up and down the ticket and to focus on defending the Constitution. He spent a good amount of time talking about defending freedom. He even congratulated Trump for winning the nomination. He did not utter the words, “I endorse Donald Trump,” and for that he will be vilified.

What’s missed is the fact that calling on people to vote their conscience SHOULD be enough to get them to vote for the GOP nominee. After all, if the Republican party is on the side of conservatism, freedom, and defending the Constitution, then it should be an easy leap to associate “voting your conscience” with voting for the Republican nominee. The problem is this: telling people to vote their conscience doesn’t necessarily mean voting for Trump. It’s the saddest state of political affairs when a Republican nominee going up against the corrupt Hillary Clinton cannot be definitively proclaimed as the vote of one’s conscience.

Cruz said to vote for those who will defend the Constitution. That, too, should be a no-brainer for the Republican nominee in any other year. The Republican party is one that should live and breath by the doctrines of the Constitution. That should not be in doubt. By telling people to vote for the defender of the Constitution in 2016, there’s simply no guarantee that Trump is that person. In fact, he’s said more things throughout the campaign that go against defending the Constitution than even Clinton. She butchers her interpretation to fit her goals, but at least she attempts to stay within its bounds. Trump, unfortunately, does not know those bounds because he does not know the Constitution.

While meeting with GOP Senators earlier this month, he was asked what he would do to uphold Article I powers in the Constitution. This, of course, refers to the powers granted to Congress. Trump’s response was that he’d uphold Article I, Article II, Article XII, and all the rest. Unfortunately for Trump, there aren’t 12 Articles in the Constitution. There are 7. Even worse, he unwittingly declared that he would uphold his own powers as President which are detailed in Article II. That’s the problem we’re facing with President Obama; he has attempted to expand Article II powers which is exactly what had the GOP Senators concerned. Trump, who clearly knows absolutely nothing about the document that is to be defended by the office he’s running for, is the first GOP candidate in modern history to be arguably less protective of the Constitution than the Democratic nominee.

Ted Cruz proved very clearly that he’s fearless, principled, and has a clear understanding of the things that Trump needs to know. That Republicans will bash him for expecting people to vote for freedom, conscience, and defense of the Constitution is the clearest sign of the downfall of the party itself. Trump has killed the GOP. It’s time for a new conservative party to be formed immediately.

The post LOST IN THE NON-ENDORSEMENT IS THE FACT THAT EVERYTHING CRUZ SAID WAS RIGHTEOUS appeared first on .

We hope to give that exposure to Amover, an apparently new blog whose creator, Amodiovalerio Verde, has experience in other formats of social media information gathering. We’ve included the slideshow from this infographic below as well – very useful since the original infographic is 2000 pixels wide.

Back to Facebook. 600,000,000 users seems inevitable. Will Facebook reach a billion by the end of the year?

The post FACEBOOK DEMOGRAPHICS: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE (AMAZINGLY SQUEEZED INTO ONE PAGE) appeared first on .

With 96% of US college students on Facebook, you can draw a conclusion that it’s somewhat influential within our education system. Some universities are starting to embrace social media, but for the most part students are left to rely on their peers to learn how to navigate the world of Web 2.0.

Is it a good thing or a bad thing? You decide.

Below is a graphic by Online Education that looks at the pros and cons of a national student body that is embedded in social media.

Click to enlarge.

Via: Online Education

The post Is Social Media Ruining Students appeared first on .

33 Digital Marketing Facts Infographic courtesy of Yoda London.

The post 33 Digital Marketing Facts Infographic appeared first on .

The only defense that he and his supporters can muster is that he has “evolved” on his beliefs of nearly seven decades. This is awfully convenient, of course, considering that his new talking points match the narrative that is required to stir up what psychologists are calling the “authoritarian wing” of the Republican party. These are the Republicans who are angry about what the government is doing and who want someone strong to tell them what to think and how to act. It’s the daddy-issues wing of the party – those who know enough to want change but who don’t take the time to research the claims of their chosen candidate.

These people won’t be reached. Instead, we’re appealing to the curious- but thoughtful-Republicans who are interested in hearing what Trump has to say but who won’t follow him blindly based upon the unlikely claim that he’s erased 67-years of liberalism just in time to be Mr. Conservative. They will research him and come to the conclusion that he was pro-amnesty less than two years before his infamous anti-immigrant rant when he launched his campaign.

Congress must protect our borders first. Amnesty should be done only if the border is secure and illegal immigration has stopped.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2013

FLASHBACK: Donald Trump Tells Illegal Aliens: ‘You’ve Convinced Me’

— The New Americana (@SocialNews) February 8, 2016

If you believe Trump did a 180 on #amnesty in less than 2 years, he probably owns swamp land in Florida to sell you.

— Hasai (@hasai) February 8, 2016

Meanwhile, consistent Ted Cruz has been fighting for a wall on the border for several years. Here’s a couple of instance against hostile audiences when he was making the difficult pitch for building a wall in front of people who clearly were against the concept.

Now, let’s take a look at three more videos. The first one was made by a super PAC supporting Cruz. Before you believe that it’s obviously going to be biased, it’s important to note that they’re using actual footage of Donald Trump and others over the years clearly stating what he truly believes.

Here’s my personal take on the two scenarios surrounding Donald Trump. Did he have a revelation after 66-years of life to reverse nearly all of his views, or is it more likely that he saw an opportunity to follow the Obama administration and achieve his personal goal of being President of the United States even if it meant denouncing his own perspectives and reinventing himself as a pseudo-conservative?

For those who don’t care what he thought for 66-years and believe that he’s against amnesty today, you should really take a closer look at what his actual policy on illegal immigration is. He’s actually to the left of a few candidates on the issue, particular Cruz.

Trump’s supporters will never look into the border wall or amnesty matters because the truth goes against the narrative they’ve been sold. However, if you’re undecided and believing that Trump is the gold standard for stopping illegal immigration, you should definitely do the research. Trump’s greatest ally is ignorance..

The post Cruz Wanted a Border Wall in 2012 While Trump Was Still Lobbying for Amnesty [VIDEOS] appeared first on .

Perhaps it’s a good thing that I don’t know a ton about LinkedIn. The site has always interested me, but I haven’t had a need or desire to look for a job in the 4 years that the site has grown in prominence, nor have I been involved enough in hiring to use it as a recruiting tool.

Two things have generated a need to know the site: I’m hiring and it’s turning into a much more prominent marketing tool that businesses can use beyond hiring fresh talent. As a result, I’m promising to learn the site and put more “in” stories to Soshable.

In the meantime, Liz Nutt from Accounting Degree sent us this excellent resource. We normally (never) reprint stories here, but this one is worth the credit with a little teaser to the full list…

1. Find out who’s viewed your profile: See the statistics on your profile to learn more about your performance on LinkedIn, and know when it’s a good time to follow up with a contact.
2. Update at least every 3 months: Make sure your profile reflects your changing roles.
3. Be transparent: Let people learn about you, but still be appropriate.
4. Rearrange your profile sections: Showcase what’s most important to you by putting it front and center.
5. Include your entire job history: People may be trying to find you by searching for previous companies you’ve worked for.
6. Optimize your job titles: Use descriptive keywords in your job titles to attract relevant search engine traffic.
7. Customise your links: Instead of using generic links, create personal URLs with more meaning.
8. Establish keywords: Consider what words you’d like people to use in order to find you, and make sure they are used liberally in your profile.
9. Join groups: Associate the name of the group with your search profile.
10. Don’t forget your headline: Make sure that your headline is filled in and accurately reflects your situation.

The post 50 LinkedIn Tips, Many of Which are Awesome appeared first on .

Nintendo disagreed and sent a cease and desist letter to Digg asking them to remove their trademarked character from use on their site.

The letter below, leaked to us by a trusted source, indicates that Nintendo is concerned about “the marketing or sale of your products & services.” Other than generating traffic for the purpose of increase advertising revenue and the sale of Digg “swag”, Digg does not actually sell a product.

This story is developing. We will update as more information is made available

Read more on this social media blog.

The post Nintendo Sends C&D to Digg Over April Fools’ Joke appeared first on .

Facebook was once the “contender” against MySpace. That didn’t last too long, but soon Twitter emerged as a pseudo-social-network-competitor-thingy to Facebook and the competition heated up again.

Whether or not that competition is valid is arguable since:

1. Twitter incorporates the communication and sharing aspect of social networking but is in many ways easier defined as a microblogging news aggregation site, sort of.
2. Facebook has nearly 10 times more users, hundreds more features, and thousands more apps.
3. Twitter has a clear business model, but only a dozen people in the universe know exactly what that is, while Facebook has dozens of business models, but nobody in the universe knows exactly what they are.

Still, these and many other glaring differences do not take away from the human need to compare the two and argue about them since they are the biggest “buzz” in social media right now (sorry Google).

Here, you will find several pieces of content that take the argument in one direction or another. Some bring up MySpace, LinkedIn, or other social networks. Rather than rehash them, I’ll give them to you to decide what goes where. Why rehash when we have the power of “link and regurgitate”? After all, that’s the way of the Internet today.

Facebook vs Twitter Infographic

(via Flickr)

Articles that (attempt to) Answer the Question of “Twitter vs Facebook”

• Web Strategy Matrix: Google Buzz vs Facebook vs MySpace vs Twitter (Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang)
• Moving Pixels: Facebook vs Twitter (Pop Matters)
• Facebook vs. Twitter Clickthroughs: More Bang For Your Buck (htmlist)
• Twitter Versus Facebook, A Comparison Of The Top Users (AllFacebook)
• Sharing on Facebook vs. Sharing on Twitter (Digital Inspiration)
• Buzz vs. Facebook vs. Twitter and Us (The Relationship Economy)
• Fight: Facebook vs Google vs Twitter (iTWire)
• Web Faceoff: Twitter vs. Facebook (Mashable)
• Twitter vs. Facebook Analysis: What Users Want (Internet News)
• Twitter vs. Facebook – Battle of the Social Goliaths (Inventor Spot)
• Twitter versus Facebook: Should you Choose One? (Twitip)
• Facebook vs. Twitter: How will you stream your world? (CNet)
• Twitter vs. Facebook: Who Will Win in Real-time Search? (Mashable)
• Tools of choice: Twitter vs. Facebook (Social Media Today)
• The Coming Facebook-Twitter Collision (Business Week)

Twitter vs Facebook Cartoon

(via Hubspot)

Another Facebook vs Twitter Infographic

(via TheNextWeb)

It doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, it’s all a matter of preference. Most Twitter users use Facebook. Most very active Facebook users are on Twitter now or will be sometime this year. Whatever it takes to enjoy, share, learn, and engage, that’s what is important. Who will win in the end?

Us.

Read more about Twitter and Facebook on this Social Media Blog.

The post Twitter vs Facebook Across the Web appeared first on .

Nowadays, customers demand more open communication and personal relationships with businesses. The incoming workforce expects a more flexible working environment, and the more successful companies uphold a culture and organizational framework mirroring their social values.

It’s no wonder that more and more tools are being designed to bring the social aspects of a business to the fore. Here are a few of them:

1.Bitrix24

Bitrix24 is a social intranet application that’s free to use for businesses with a maximum of 12 members. With a navigation system reminiscent of Facebook, the learning curve is pretty low. Benefits include real-time activity streaming, a fully functional CRM, project management, document sharing, photo gallery, time tracking, even video conferences. It can also function as an HR information system complete with centralized searchable employee directory, organizational chart, leave/time off management, and HR forms and records management.

For larger businesses of more than 12, or those that need more storage space and/or features not available in the free version, Bitrix24 Cloud starts at $99 per month.

2.Zoho CRM

Zoho’s CRM Social takes customer relationship management to a whole new level. You can listen to your customers’ conversations on social media, follow people and/or conversations on Twitter and Facebook to convert them into future business prospects. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles are integrated right into the CRM application so your sales agents need not switch from one tab to another to view real-time social interactions.

You also get to monitor what people and influencers are saying about your brand, and personalize your interactions and engagement with customers. Zoho CRM has a tiered pricing strategy that starts at free for entrepreneurs, and includes features like lead management, web forms, sales opportunities, accounts and contacts, social CRM, and others.

3.Asana

Asana is a project management software that’s free for teams of up to 15 members. With Asana, everything about work is in one place, allowing you to spend less time on email. You can create, assign and comment on tasks, and know who’s doing what and what’s getting done. Ideas, plans, files, conversations and updates are stored in a single location, so you’ll never waste time finding the necessary information you need to complete a task/project.

Through partnerships and API, Asana can be integrated with Chrome, Dropbox, Google Drive, GitHub, Evernote, WordPress, HipChat, MailChimp, Zendesk, and a bunch more.

For more than 15 team members, Asana Premium starts at $50 per month.

4.Quote Roller

To win projects, a winning quote proposal is a requisite. But this can take time, time away from your business, especially if you’re still using word processors and spreadsheets to create business proposals.

Quote Roller is a cloud-based proposal creation software that allows you to put together a polished and professional proposal within minutes. You can create your own template, or choose from generic templates available in the Quote Roller templates gallery. As well, you can integrate videos and pictures into your quotes for better client experience.

Paperless, your clients receive, review, sign and accept quotes easily and speedily. When they propose changes, you can tweak your proposal according to their specifications. And with the application’s in-proposal analytics system, you know which part of the proposal your clients are spending the most time looking at, allowing you to craft more targeted proposals for better sales optimization.

Quote Roller starts at $9.99 per user per month and offers a free 14-day trial.

5.Slide Share

Slide Share is presentations and YouTube rolled into one. With Slide Share, you can upload, view and download presentations, documents and PDFs on any particular topic. Not only can you share presentations through social media platforms, you can also embed them into wikis, websites and blogs for a better user experience.

Slide Share can be free or pro. Pro starts at $19 per month, with added features like video uploads, private URLs, analytics, lead capture, and branding and control.

The post 5 BUSINESS TOOLS LEVERAGING THE POWER OF SOCIAL appeared first on .

When it was reported that Facebook tracks our moves even when not logged in, many social sites, blogs, and forums erupted with mild outrage. I say “mild” because in the whole scheme of things, what’s half a million outraged users on a site that has nearly a billion?

Facebook responded quickly, noting that “Facebook does not track users across the web. Instead, we use cookies on social plugins to personalize content.” That was September 25th.

It was plausible and offered enough misdirection to give them the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, as Michael Arrington discovered, they filed a patent application 3 days before that said something a little different. I’ve highlighted the juicy parts:

In one embodiment, a method is described for tracking information about the activities of users of a social networking system while on another domain. The method includes maintaining a profile for each of one or more users of the social networking system, each profile identifying a connection to one or more other users of the social networking system and including information about the user. The method additionally includes receiving one or more communications from a third-party website having a different domain than the social network system, each message communicating an action taken by a user of the social networking system on the third-party website. The method additionally includes logging the actions taken on the third-party website in the social networking system, each logged action including information about the action. The method further includes correlating the logged actions with one or more advertisements presented to the one or more users on the third-party website as well as correlating the logged actions with a user of the social networking system.

Sorry, Facebook, but the wording in your patent clearly does not jive with the statement that you do not track users across the web. The patent says precisely the opposite and supports claims that you’re invading our privacy.

Our opinion stands. You’re up to no good.

…and yet we’ll still be using the site tomorrow

Is it wrong that the first thing I’m going to do after finishing this article is to post it on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+? Many of us, particularly those who rely on social media for our livelihood such as journalists, find ourselves in that terrible catch-22 of knowing more than the general public about the evils of some companies but are unable to act upon it meaningfully and personally.

Facebook has become an embedded aspect of millions of lives. Despite outrage, it will take something truly major for us to leave. Never before have so many of our friends and family from across the globe or down the block been able to keep up with each other through a single interface.

It’s not that we don’t want privacy. In many cases, we have either given up, are unaware, or have our heads in the sand thinking that everything will be okay and nobody will use our own information against us. I hope it’s true. I hope we can trust Facebook with tracking us because it won’t change. It doesn’t have to from their perspective. The small group of people who get outraged over things like this simply do not have the ability to change enough hearts and minds. Even major publications like NY Times, Mashable, and Washington Post will likely report something like this, but it will be forgotten or ignored by Tuesday.

We are sheep.

Baahhhhhhh!

The post Facebook is Lying but Nobody is Caring appeared first on .

There was a huge uproar in the search marketing and website design industry last year when Google came out and recommended responsive web design. While Google has been known to make recommendations in the past, they’ve never tackled this particular issue definitively until June, 2012. Since then, many companies have been scrambling to convert to a responsive design.

They reiterated the need for a mobile solution earlier this year when they said that they would soon stop showing web pages that improperly redirected to a different page when called up on mobile devices. The two pieces of news were combined because of a logical series of assumptions:

1. Google wants pages to render on any device
2. Responsive website design accomplishes the goal
3. Google likes responsive website design
4. Therefore, Google does not like adaptive website design

Everything is fine until you come to the conclusion. From a search perspective, properly coded adaptive websites with identical intents on all devices combined with proper transfer of HTML content are just as easy to rank well on Google as responsive website design.

As I researched this, I found one things that was disturbing and that needs to be addressed. The opinions most commonly expressed by companies weighing in on the debate between between responsive website design versus adaptive website design always ran parallel with the offerings of the company posting the opinion. If they offered responsive design, they said that responsive design was the only way to go. If they offered adaptive websites, they said that adaptive was the best way to go.

The unbiased publications that I read almost all came to the same conclusion – functionality of the site was much more important than the type of design used. In other words, if responsive design made it challenging for a website to function properly on mobile devices, then adaptive websites were recommended. If the flow was fine between devices and the path to turning to responsive design was an easy one, then that was the way to go.

I’m going to start with the “bias” on my end and finish this paragraph with the punchline. The bias is this: my company is developing responsive website design for our clients. The punchline is this: even with this knowledge, I still recommend adaptive for any website (including my clients’ websites) that are picture- and call-to-action-heavy on important pages such as inventory.

I have yet to see a responsive car dealer website that did not sacrifice functionality and speed for the sake of responsive design. I’ve seen both sides of the spectrum – websites that looked great and worked fine on mobile devices but that were bare-bones in their PC functionality and I’ve seen websites that looked great on a PC but that were too slow and rendered improperly on many mobile devices. I haven’t seen any that have done it “right” yet because of the nature of car dealer websites.

Most importantly, I’ve seen dealer websites that switched from adaptive to responsive that watched their website leads drop as a result. I have yet to see a single one that saw leads increase. This will change as responsive technology, internet speeds, third party plugins, and image crunching (especially for dealers that load up 30+ images on their vehicle detail pages) improves, but as of now responsive has been a huge flop.

I should also note that I jumped on the responsive bandwagon back in 2011 and strongly pushed for my company to adopt it way back then. Thankfully, we didn’t.

Final note on top of the other notes: for the majority of websites, responsive is likely the best solution. Car dealers have unique website formats. On any given page, especially the all-important vehicle details pages, there may be three or four plugins, a dozen calls-to-action, and dozens of photos that have to be brought in through 3G or 4G connections. The biggest difference between adaptive website design and responsive website design is when the changes are made to adjust for the device. On adaptive websites, the changes are server side, meaning that the data being sent is determined from the server before being sent to the device. With responsive design, the changes are client side, meaning that the whole web page is sent through and then the device is told how to piece it all together.

Here’s a very slanted infographic, one that actually does have some valid points (thankfully). Whoever built it likes adaptive and while they are being too harsh in my opinion about responsive, they still bring up some real challenges.

The post Understanding the Differences Between Adaptive and Responsive Website Design appeared first on .

What would world be without Facebook? It certainly is hard to imagine a world without it. Have a look at this infographic to get an idea how much Facebook has become a part of our day to day life.

The post A World Without Facebook [Infographic] appeared first on .

Depending on which study you look at (and there are several that yield opposite conclusions) you can make a case for either side. We’re sticking with this one from SocialCast, probably because it looks really nice and the facts make sense. Before you dismiss it, think about it. If employees are allowed to relax a bit at work and stay on top of their social profiles, they time they spend doing work should increase in efficiency.

Then again, maybe it won’t. Who really knows? It’s one of those situations where, depending on who you’re asking and what study you reference, a case can be made for or against social media use at work. We’re going with this one:

Learn more about working and social media on this social media blog.

The post SOCIAL MEDIA USE AT WORK YIELDS HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY appeared first on .

Here are some things that seem to have changed since the site was brought down for maintenance:

• This time yesteraday, 6 stories were promoted in 20 minutes. This seems to fall into the norm for a weekday around 4pm PST. The relative high traffic brings more stories to the front. As of the time of this post, 12 stories have been promoted in the last 4 hours — an average of 1 every 20 minutes.
• Normally, stories would go popular in 10 minute intervals with occasional variations. Now, it seems that stories are promoted in real time, as there is no rhyme or reason to the timing of promotion to the front page.
• Currently, there are 10 stories that are over 100 that aren’t buried from the upcoming but still haven’t been promoted. This isn’t brand new, but has been happening for a couple of days now. The real change lately is that it isn’t just top Diggers…
• oboy has never had story go over 80 without hitting the homepage and DigiDave hasn’t had anything recently do the same. Today, both hit over 125, were not buried off of the upcoming list, but didn’t make the front page. One was from an established website, one was from a new one.
• The “Hot in All Topics” section has some new names on it. Actually, almost all are new. Some are very new, having joined today, submitted something, and left. No Avatar. No comments. 1 other Digg. As of the time of this article, Pizzler is the only recognizeable name on the list. In fact, the other nine submitters who are on the “Hot in All” section have a combined 7 stories that have hit the front page before.

There is more data, but it will have to be verified tonight. In the meantime, everything listed above is fact, and clearly points to a change. I will discuss this with others and do more research, but one thing is clear.

There’s a glitch in the Matrix.

The real question is, why?

(we have some theories on that as well, but we’ll post them tomorrow at soshable)

The post THE DIGG ALGORITHM HAS CHANGED appeared first on .

I was surfing trough the periodicals on Mashable and came across a little gem that caught my interest: Reconnect. The Reconnect article challenged the internet community to disconnect from the Matrix and get outside. Participants of the Reconnect campaign would disconnect from anything and everything digital and create from their own minds original and creative content that can then be shared on the Reconnect Facebook page. The creative content can range from painting to flash mobs and is only for a single day.

Seems interesting enough but is this campaign capable of lifting off the ground? My guess is no.

I believe that although the Reconnect Campaign has merit and can prove to be something great, I believe that the world is far too connected to let go of their smartphones or status updates. I find that disconnecting for a single day is a brilliant idea; at times I wish I could take my phone and throw the damn thing in a lake and let go of all of the digital aspects of my life. Unfortunately, I am one of the connected.

Besides the lack luster of the tree hugging and flash mobbing, the campaign has been set to launch on Labor Day weekend. Most of us that are human have plans to BBQ and go to the beach for the final weekend and most of us want to tweet invites or share cool pics.

Here is what I propose to the Reconnect Campaign:

1. Change the date – I work seven days a week and Labor Day weekend is my only time to sit back with a cold one. If you wish to disconnect the world for a single day, choose a more daring day like Monday to really cause some waves.
2. Incentive – I don’t think that the world will disconnect for the sake of disconnecting. As human beings, we LOVE to be accessible and broadcasted on the internet. If there is something more to the campaign, something meatier, I think people would be more likely to Reconnect after they disconnect
3. Fans – Get more fans and tweet your message to a larger audience. With fewer than 700 likes you won’t reach the world. Utilize the strategy of an online marketing company and get your message out there.

The world can Reconnect but only if you can convince them. Can you convince them to disconnect in order to Reconnect?

The post ARE PEOPLE TOO CONNECTED TO RECONNECT? WHY THE RECONNECT CAMPAIGN COULD BE A BUST appeared first on .

Everybody’s already on it.

While many speculated that the site could hit 1 billion before the end of the year, that doesn’t seem possible anymore. In fact, they will have a hard time reaching 800,000,000 by the beginning of 2012.

InsideFacebook reports that at the beginning of June, Facebook was at 687 million users and grew by 11.8 million in May. April showed 13.9 million new users and the average over the last 12 months was around 20 million.

Does this mean the site is done? Finished? Ready to go the way of MySpace? Of course not. It simply means that in the next few months we’ll see changes in the way that Facebook operates with the rest of the internet and the rest of the real world. Could we see Facebook TV soon?

We say yes.

The post FACEBOOK WILL HIT 700 MILLION USERS IN JULY, BUT… appeared first on .

It seems like many people have fooled themselves into believing that Google+ is nothing more than a ghost town and perhaps the interactions on this social platform is not as quick as Twitter and Facebook or perhaps you haven’t circled the right people. Either way, Google+ is only going to get better and has already integrated its social platform into all of their other services, this is something we definitely need to watch since Google+ is the first social network to be able to do that as they actually have other successful investments, such as Blogger, Gmail, YouTube and oh yeah, Google Search Engine.

If people actually took the time to explore Google+ you may actually discover that its gaming platform is smoother, they have a terrific photo sharing gallery and they provide hangouts, where you can choose to visually spend time with groups of people, publicly and privately and even share in watching YouTube videos together.

Google has a great chance to fully unit search engine optimization and social media, in fact if you look at search a little closer, you can already see this unfolding, do you really want to be non-existent on a site that may be a little slower on rising but has the potential to change the way we are seen personally and professionally online?

In the following infographic, 20 reasons to switch to Google+, created by Infographic Labs, can help you become acquainted with Google+ by providing 20 reasons why Google Plus is a must!

The post 20 reasons why Google Plus is a must [Infographic] appeared first on .

As promised, we’re starting to take a closer look at LinkedIn. Its power and influence are growing and it’s quickly becoming one of the “must have” profiles for businesses and professionals alike. This graphic by our friends at Online MBA puts it all into perspective.

LinkedIn is one of the fastest growing social networking sites in the world. While its numbers pale in comparison to competitors such as Facebook and Twitter, catering to business professionals gives the site a unique advantage. Seeking to capitalize on its growing notoriety, owners recently decided to take the company, filing for an initial public offering last month. But how do you put a price on being Linkedin? Before you run out to buy yourself a thousand shares, take a look at our breakdown of the social networking powerhouse.

Click to enlarge.

The post The LinkedInfographic appeared first on .

Tim Cohn first noticed that Google was displaying the last Tweet from particular accounts in their search results. Search Engine Land then tested it and found that Google was popping up the last Tweet almost instantaneously and that the last Tweet would disappear after a certain period of time if the account wasn’t updated.

We just ran a test of our own (above). I tweeted, then immediately refreshed the Google search result as quickly as I could. As you can see, it registered the Tweet immediately, showing “2 seconds ago.” No standard indexing technology could work that quickly. Google has tied their search results directly into the Twitter API (something they’ve done for a while with their “Realtime” search feature).

Most tweets are eventually indexed – some within minutes, some within hours or even days. These Tweets are being presented in their raw form prior to being indexed. The Tweets themselves are not being used in search results through this new method. They will be indexed separately and can then appear in searches as their own listings, but this is different. Just as with Google’s “Realtime” search, this feature is a firehose.

When Tweets (or any other pages) are “indexed,” they have been read, understood, and classified based upon their content, the history of the domain, and links coming into the page (among other factors). Once they’re indexed, they can appear in search results as stand-alone listings. This is a direct feed regardless of content filtered by removing any that start with an @reply.

Groundbreaking? No.

What does this mean? Not much. It’s a cool feature, but it’s just an addition to what they’ve already been saying for a couple of years (and proclaiming more openly in December) about how social signals are playing a roll in their algorithm.

The other minor (but cool) change is that links within Tweets are maintained, including hashtags. Since @replies are not being included, apparently Google is looking for the latest news and statements on Twitter but they’re not interested in conversations between users.

The post FORGET INDEXING TWEETS: GOOGLE IS PULLING THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE API appeared first on .

If you were confused before about the differences between liking a website or story and sharing one, Facebook has confused the issue even more to make it simpler for us all. “Like” it, “share” it – either way you’re posting the details on your wall and onto your friends news feeds. If anything, “like” is more prominent than “share” now.

Website owners will rejoice. Unsuspecting users will likely get annoyed.

Before the update, a “like” appeared in the stream or on the wall as an action grouped with other smaller actions. It was smaller with no details other than a statement that you liked something. Shares were more prominent and were often reserved for something that people wanted their friends to see.

Share functionality will see no further development according to Facebook Spokeswoman Malorie Lucich. The company will continue to support the Share button but Like is the “recommended solution moving forward.”

The major difference between Like and Share: pushing the Like button on a website will automatically post it. Users can go to Facebook and comment on it, but there is no popup dialogue or second button to push as there is with the Share button. One-click and it’s on your wall and your friends’ news feeds.

ProTip for Websites: You want more people to push the Like button now. While the Share button allows for commentary, the benefits of a Like are now just as strong and consolidating in the direction that Facebook wants to head is wise. Plus, Like buttons show faces of friends who have already liked it, meaning that accumulating more Likes can yield a domino effect. “Share” is so 2010 now.

ProTip for Users: Be selective with what you like. You will start to annoy your friends if you flood their news feeds with dozens of stories, videos, or pictures regardless of how much they made you LOL.

We will update once we get more information about this development.

Update: It appears that Likes are registering as Shares now on the Share counter. Changing ProTip – having both available is even better now as long as they are in different locations.

The post Facebook: “Like” is Like “Share,” But Share is Still There appeared first on .