Archive for the ‘technology’ Category

I have dowloaded the wordpress for Android app and will now be able to make remote blog postings to this website as well as add and update content on other pages, all from my Android powered nexus phone.

Being relatively new to the Android Market I have been busy downloading all manner of apps for both personal amusement and apps that I feel could help me in practical ways. I have here compiled a short list of my top 5 apps that I have downloaded so far and a little bit about each one.

	1. Google Goggles I have blogged about this app previously before. I honestly am amazed at how accuratley this app works. It essentially allows you to take a photo of anything, although it works best with objects that have a picture, logo or something of that nature for it to scan. It then basically searches the web based on the image you took. Id say 9 out of 10 times it produces an accurate result. It’s both entertaining and highly useful. You could be in a situation where you see a photo of something and want to know what the origin of it is or how you can buy it – take a quick photo with Google Goggles and hay presto you know everything about it in a matter of seconds!
	2. Netflix App Being a movie buff I was blown away by this app. Theres nothing like watching a movie in bed on a lazy sunday morning and what easier way to do that than to simply stream a full length movie through your android phone with the Netflix app. I was apprehensive that the playback would be patchy, but I have not suffered any major buffering/lag on the playback. Netflix offers a whole host of original TV and films of all genres, the only drawback is that you must be a netflix member to enjoy this app.
	3. Crackle In the same vein of the previously mentioned netflix app comes this similar app for the website Crackle. The difference with this app is that you do not need any kind of special membership to watch a variety of full length movies, TV shows as well as original productions and short films made for the crackle website. You will need to make sure you download the flash player to watch the movies which is a nice touch from the android over the apple iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. This app is a must have and can entertain you for hours on end.
	4. WordPress Being a web designer I have come to love wordpress and consider it my first choice for building client websites on because of its easy to use interface and intuitive dashboard that makes it easy for clients with little or no web knowledge to quickly and easily upload content to their very own site. This app just makes that process a whole lot cooler. It allows you to log into your wordpress site and make blog postings on the fly and directly upload them via your phone. Its amazing to think that you can take a high resolution photo and be sharing it with the world on your personal website all within seconds thanks to this well crafted app.
	5. Facebook This is a fairly obvious app to include on a list such as this. As most people who read this will have a facebook account you can imagine how convenient this makes communicating with friends and family all over the world. Being a Scottish born American citizen who has many family members and friends back in the UK this is an awesome app to use for keeping up to date with all the goings on within your networks. It helps to make the world a smaller place and keeps people in touch like never before. I would also highly recommend the Google+ app. I think time will tell which way I go as they are both very similar in the way they function.

I have just created a design for my new business cards. I have selected 10 of my best photographs to feature on the back. Although I am listing myself as a Web Designer, Photographer and Fine Artist – I feel the visuals the photos display make the cards stand out better. I have included a QR code on the card. I had considered putting this on the back of the card to give people the option of manually going to my site or flipping it over and scanning the code with their smart phone. I just felt the need to add it as the appearance of the QR code gives the card a more cutting edge feel. Below is a sample of how they will look.

1. Utilize already established networks.

Promote your Facebook page via other social media sites. Take advantage of followers you have already gained on other networks by periodically putting out blasts about your Facebook page. Be careful to mix the frequency of self promotion up a little though so you are not just constantly going on and on about your own business.

2. 25 fans = custom domain!

You can get your own facebook domain name once you reach or surpass the landmark of 25 fans. This will make it so much easier for you to send a shorter link to the location of your fan page without sending a link that includes a ton of forgattable numbers and punctuation. Click here to see a video of how to do  this once you reach the 25 fan landmark.

3. Signatures.

Add links to your Facebook page everywhere you can from your email accounts signatures and forum signatures as well as in instant messenger statuses.

4. FBML – Facebook Markup Language.

Create some custom designs. Use FBML tabs as a way to separate your content from the generic looking pages that some other businesses may have. You can include forms to capture potential leads and even include captivating video content and images to further draw in potential fans. For people unfamiliar with creating their own FBML, you might want to take a look at this product which is essentially a CMS for Facebook tabs.

5. Good content and interaction.

Start getting conversations going by writing good content. When people respond or post content of their own, interact with them and try to stimulate more people to join in. Afterall thats what social networking is all about. If the page seems dead people might drift away and you will see this from your page statistics and insights.

6. Post often, but don’t saturate your wall.

Good fresh content will gain the attention of fans and perhaps spread to create new fans. It is important to strike a balance between writing too little and writing too much. You do not want to lose fans by bombarding them with constant updates that will become an irritation to them constantly seeing your message appearing in their activity stream.

7. Use your current friends list.

You can suggest your current friends “like” your fan page by sending out a mass message to your followers. This will be particularly effective if you have a solid friends base established for your personal profile. You can also seperate your friends into lists so that you may send the page out to specific groups if you dont want to send the link to everyone. This will be particularly effective if you have a well established and lenghty list of friends.

8. Integrate Facebook with your website.

Take advantage of the various Facebook social plug-ins available from their open graph protocol. The face-pile widget is particularly useful in recruiting new members as all they have to do is click “like” from the page they see it on to become a fan of your Facebook page instantly.

9. Send a bulk email to existing email contacts.

If your like me you have probably had the same email account for eons. Address the email to yourself as the main recipient, and be careful to BCC all other people who you think will find the page of interest. This way it protects the identity of your email contacts from one another – something that most people will appreciate.

10. Buy Ads on Facebook.

Get your page seen by buying some ads that appear on the sidebar of facebook. You can target these ads to appear on the pages for like minded people and within certain demographics who are either interested in the type of business you run, or they may run similar businesses and would like to network with you.

Feel free to check out my own facebook fan page here

As Christmas approaches I was thinking of ways to boost my social media followers and fans. I decided to dust off my flash skills and create a custom flash snow-globe to appeal to people’s sense of holiday spirit. The flash gadget on its own doesn’t do anything really apart from provide mild entertainment if only for a few minutes. I have however added a facebook facepile and twitter stream widgets in an attempt to gain more of a following using this flash toy as the hook.

I plan on periodically posting the link to the widget on my various social media platforms and in other places such as email signatures and forum signatures. I will monitor my campaign over the next month and see if its an effective way of getting people interested in joining my social media network. Click the image below to check the snow-globe out and if your not already a fan, please feel free to use the widgets on the page to become one and spread the word if you like it.

The flash movie itself uses a blend of XML and flash animation/actionscript to achieve the overall effect.