Five Best Personal Landing Pages
Not everyone has the time or inclination to build and maintain a full-fledged web site. If you're just looking for a simple way to unify all your online profiles, these personal landing pages are a perfect fit.
Photo by datarec.
Earlier this week, we asked you to share your favorite personal landing page. A personal landing page is a small-scale web site that directs visitors towards your other profiles on the web, a central page you can direct people to, instead of writing and linking a laundry list of your online presences—your Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm, and other profiles.
If you're looking to set up a personal landing page to unify your online presence without the work of setting up and maintaining your own web site, the following services can help. Read on to see the most popular personal landing pages.
Note: For the screenshots below, we took snapshots of real profiles from all of the services, as discovered by Google searches or provided as examples on the main site of each service. Since the services are customizable, don't assume that all personal landing pages from that particular service look exactly like the sample screenshot. Visit the service web site for more information and to see how you can customize your own site.
Unhub (Free)
The Unhub service isn't as much a personal landing page as a personal landing bar. When you give people your Unhub profile URL, what they see is an Unhub bar across the top of the browser pane and your featured site below it. Unlike most personal landing page services which limit you to well known social networks and services, Unhub lets you link to anything you want. If you want the bar to have your Amazon wish list, your YouTube profile, a link to your Wikipedia page, and then links to a couple virtual portfolios of various work you've done, you can do that. You select the site Unhub will bring the user's focus to and which sites will be displayed across the Unhub bar. Unhub includes a URL shortening tool and site analytics to help you see which links get clicked the most and which profiles interest your visitors. You always have to point Unhub at something, even if it's just your Facebook profile page. If you're looking for a service that serves as a one-stop information board for your visitors, you might consider some of the other personal landing pages in this week's Hive Five.
Card.ly (Free)
Card.ly, as the name would imply, is a business-card-styled personal landing page. You can tweak your Card.ly profile with all sorts of customizations, scaling it from a simple set of social network icons people can click to a full-fledged mini-portal, with a profile, personal quotes, and additional information about you. Card.ly has a demo account, available here, where you can play around with the themes and settings to get a feel for the service before you sign up.
Flavors.me (Free)
Flavors.me is a personal landing page that emphasizes style and presentation over an abundance of widgets. The Flavors.me layout is designed to showcase a photograph or piece of artwork with a small bio and a set of links layered over it. Although the design is simple, the creative variations user come up with are quite interesting. You can browse through a directory of profiles here to get ideas. Simple and punchy design aside, Flavors.me sports a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface that makes it quick to get a site up and running. You can check out our review of Flavors.me here.
Chi.mp (Free)
Compared to other contenders in this week's Hive Five, Chi.mp takes customization to another level. Instead of merely allowing you to swap out pictures or select which links you want to include, Chi.mp lets you build multiple profiles and highlight what's important to you. You can make a professional profile to share with colleagues, a personal profile to share with friends, and as many variations as you need for different situations or projects. In addition, you can emphasize some of the content you share over other content. Say you want to emphasize, for example, your Twitter feed over other shared content like your Flickr photos, Chi.mp lets you promote the Twitter feed to appear more prominently.
ClaimID (Free)
ClaimID has the least splashy personal landing page offering in this week's Hive Five. The emphasis at Claim ID isn't about expressing your artistic side, or wildly differentiating yourself from the crowd, but instead on showcasing the services that are important to you. Customization is limited, but it's easy enough to create a long list of all the services and web sites you want to share. ClaimID is tied into the OpenID service, so if it's important to you to show people that you've actually been verified as the person you're claiming to be, and that your links actually point to the real profiles of John Q. Smith, then you may want to consider ClaimID's personal landing page, despite the lack of eye candy.Now that you've had a chance to look over the top five contenders for best personal landing page it's time to cast your vote in the poll below:
Which Personal Landing Page Is Best?survey software
Have a favorite personal landing page that wasn't featured? Let's hear about it in the comments. Have a tip or trick for making the most of a personal landing page? We want to hear about that too. If you have an idea for a future Hive Five send us an email at tips@lifehacker.com with Hive Five in the subject line.
Send an email to Jason Fitzpatrick, the author of this post, at jason@lifehacker.com.
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Five Best Personal Landing Pages
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Five Best Personal Landing Pages
Testing
Five Best Personal Landing Pages
Earlier this week, we asked you to share your favorite personal landing page. A personal landing page is a small-scale web site that directs visitors towards your other profiles on the web, a central page you can direct people to, instead of writing and linking a laundry list of your online presences—your Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm, and other profiles.
If you're looking to set up a personal landing page to unify your online presence without the work of setting up and maintaining your own web site, the following services can help. Read on to see the most popular personal landing pages.
Note: For the screenshots below, we took snapshots of real profiles from all of the services, as discovered by Google searches or provided as examples on the main site of each service. Since the services are customizable, don't assume that all personal landing pages from that particular service look exactly like the sample screenshot. Visit the service web site for more information and to see how you can customize your own site.
Unhub (Free)
The Unhub service isn't as much a personal landing page as a personal landing bar. When you give people your Unhub profile URL, what they see is an Unhub bar across the top of the browser pane and your featured site below it. Unlike most personal landing page services which limit you to well known social networks and services, Unhub lets you link to anything you want. If you want the bar to have your Amazon wish list, your YouTube profile, a link to your Wikipedia page, and then links to a couple virtual portfolios of various work you've done, you can do that. You select the site Unhub will bring the user's focus to and which sites will be displayed across the Unhub bar. Unhub includes a URL shortening tool and site analytics to help you see which links get clicked the most and which profiles interest your visitors. You always have to point Unhub at something, even if it's just your Facebook profile page. If you're looking for a service that serves as a one-stop information board for your visitors, you might consider some of the other personal landing pages in this week's Hive Five.
Five Best File Encryption Tools
File encryption is your best bet if you want to keep The Man, foreign spies, or your annoying roommates out of your files. Here's a look at five of the most popular encryption tools Lifehacker readers use to lock down their files.
Image a composite of photos by Anonymous Account and flaivoloka.
Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite encryption tool. We tallied up your votes, and now we're back to highlight the five most popular tools for the encryption job.
GNU Privacy Guard (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)
GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is an open-source implementation of the famed Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption tool—you can read the very interesting history of PGP and how GnuPG came to be here. GnuPG is a volume and individual file encryption tool with support for a dozen encryption schemes, paired keys, and expiring signatures. GnuPG doesn't only provide rock-solid local file encryption; it is, thanks to paired encryption and public key servers, a great tool for encrypted communication. Please note, regular old GnuPG is a command line tool. Check out the list of graphical wrappers and application plug-ins for various operating systems here. The screenshot above is from Cryptophane, a graphical Windows interface for GnuPG.
Disk Utility (Mac, Free)
Disk Utility is a diverse tool that handles almost any disk-related tasks you'd need on OS X. The utility is capable of creating secure disk images and file volumes encrypted with AES 128-bit or 256-bit encryption. Like most native Mac utilities and applications, Disk Utility and the accompanying encryption blends seamlessly into the OS X experience and makes mounting and unmounting encrypted volumes a breeze. If you've never created an encrypted disk using Disk Utility before, take a look at our previous guide.
TrueCrypt (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)
TrueCrypt is a free, powerful, and on-the-fly disk encryption tool. With TrueCrypt, you can create secure encrypted virtual disks or even encrypt entire drives. TrueCrypt is an on-the-fly encryption tool, meaning files are decrypted as you access them and modify them and then encrypted when not in use. Thanks to various optimization tricks and full utilization of the power of modern processors, working within a TrueCrypt volume feels no different than working on a regular unsecured disk. TrueCrypt not only offers strong and transparent encryption—it also offers the ability to create hidden volumes within encrypted volumes for even more secure (and obscured) file protection.
7-zip (Windows, Free)
Compared to some of the heavyweights in this Hive Five (like GnuPG and TrueCrypt), it might be easy to dismiss the popular file compression tool 7-zip as a lightweight. 7-zip fills a perfect niche for many people, however, by offering simple ZIP container-based encryption. If you're not interested in encrypting a ton of files or maintaining an entire encrypted volume, but you still want to make sure important documents like tax returns or other Social Security bearing documents are locked up tight, 7-zip sports strong AES-256 encryption. Create a new compressed archive, throw your files in it, and slap a password on. Your files are strongly encrypted and stored right alongside your regular documents.
AxCrypt (Windows, Free)
AxCrypt is a free encryption tool for Windows. Once installed it integrates with the Windows shell and offers simple right-click encryption and decryption of files with AES-256 encryption. Your entire interaction with AxCrypt can take place exclusively from the right-click context menu. In addition to integrating with Windows and offering easy encryption and decryption, you can also use the tool to create self-extracting archives to securely transport files or transfer them to a friend—no AxCrypt installation necessary at the other end.
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Software enkripsi terbaik
Use a Daily Log to Keep Yourself Focused on Productivity
Everybody wants to be more productive, and you can find loads of tools and systems designed to help you do just that. But how do you measure your productivity in any given day? That's where a daily log comes in handy.
Keep a Log of Everything Useful You've Accomplished
You might be tempted to simply use your to-do list's completed items view to track what you've accomplished, but you'd be fooling yourself—between co-workers bugging us, unexpected problems arising, and just plain old procrastination, the difference between what we check off our daily to-do list and what we actually do can be huge. A lot of the things you accomplish may never make it to your to-do list.
This is where the daily log can help you understand what you've actually done for the day in comparison to what you had planned for the day. It's not difficult—simply keep a log of everything that you've accomplished for the day, preferably adding notes quickly as you go along. Made it through a boring meeting without sleeping? Log it. Finally sent in that that TPS report, cover sheet included? Log it.
You might be surprised at the outcome, especially when you give in to procrastination—your to-do list might be telling you to start that big, important project, but your daily log will detail how you cleaned everything in your house instead of tackling it.
Keep Your Daily Log Simple
You can use any tool to create a daily log—it doesn't matter whether you prefer pen and paper, a ubiquitous capture system like Evernote, vim on the command line, or a simple notes application—they can all accomplish the job, and what you choose only depends on what works best for you.
The only really important factor to consider when setting up a daily log is how easy it will be to add new items to the list—if the barrier to entry is too high, you'll find yourself forgetting to add anything at all. As someone who spends most of his time with a computer at least nearby, here are some of my preferred methods.
Use the .LOG Notepad Trick to Generate a Daily Log
There's a little-known trick built right into Windows' default Notepad application that will make it so whenever you open the file, a timestamp is generated on a new line at the bottom of the file, and the cursor is automatically placed below it, ready for your entry.Simply create a new text file, and add the text ".LOG" (without the quotes) on the top line of the file. Save the file and re-open it, and you'll see the new timestamp added to the bottom. This little trick can save you a lot of time and make it simpler to keep track of your daily accomplishments.
Pin the Log to the Taskbar for Easy Access
Now that we've created a simple text file to keep track of what we're accomplishing, you'll want to make sure that your daily log is front and center so you don't forget to add to it.
You can easily pin a specific document to your Windows 7 taskbar by creating a new shortcut to Notepad.exe, and then adding the full path to your text file as a parameter. Open up the shortcut properties and assign a new custom icon to the shortcut, preferably something that stands out and reminds you to keep your daily log. Once you've finished creating the shortcut, right-click and use "Pin to Taskbar" to put the icon onto your Taskbar.
Use a Hotkey to Quickly Add Notes to Your Log
If typing notes into a Notepad window takes too much time for your taste, what with the saving the file each time and all, you can create a simple AutoHotkey script that makes it easier to add to your daily log with nothing more than a keystroke. (If you're not familiar with AutoHotkey, check out our introductory guide to get started.)
Create a new AutoHotkey script, or paste the following into your existing script, making sure to edit the path to the DailyLog.txt file to point to the same location as your own daily log.
^!l::
current=%A_Hour%:%A_Min% %A_DD%/%A_MM%/%A_YYYY%
InputBox, UserInput, Daily Log, What did you accomplish?, , 380, 170
If Not ErrorLevel
{
FileAppend,%current%`n%UserInput%`n, C:\path\to\DailyLog.txt
}
ReturnOnce you've created a new script with the code above, you can simply use the Ctrl+Alt+L shortcut key (you can tweak the shortcut to your liking if you'd prefer something different) to pop open the dialog in the screenshot above, type in what you accomplished—don't forget the cover sheet on your TPS Report—and then hit Enter to append your accomplishment (with timestamp) to your log file.
Review Your Daily Log
Keeping a daily log doesn't do much good unless you periodically review it. Personally, I like to use Notepad directly to add my notes so I can see what I've accomplished recently—you'll be more motivated to accomplish something useful if you've gone through half the day without getting anything done that's worth writing down.
It's also a good idea to add a reminder to your calendar to periodically check through your log and see what you've actually accomplished for the week, or month, and then check the completed items on your to-do list. It's a great way to gauge the effectiveness of your to-do list, and help you tune things for higher productivity.
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EPA Found that Gas Mileage Improved 7% to Record-Breaking 22.4 MPG In 2009 Car Fleet
EPA Found that Gas Mileage Improved 7% to Record-Breaking 22.4 MPG In 2009 Car Fleet: "
Photo: Flickr, CC
The numbers on the fuel economy of the U.S. car fleet are out, albeit a year behind. But the news are rather good: The EPA report for 2009 shows an improvement of 7% in fuel economy, or 1.4 MPG, bringing the average to 22.4 MPG (kind of a sad record, when you think about it). Another piece of good news is that the ratio of cars to trucks has been shifting back in favor of cars. It has declined 'to 40 percent in 2009 models, a decrease of 7 perce...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Flickr, CC
The numbers on the fuel economy of the U.S. car fleet are out, albeit a year behind. But the news are rather good: The EPA report for 2009 shows an improvement of 7% in fuel economy, or 1.4 MPG, bringing the average to 22.4 MPG (kind of a sad record, when you think about it). Another piece of good news is that the ratio of cars to trucks has been shifting back in favor of cars. It has declined 'to 40 percent in 2009 models, a decrease of 7 perce...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Maker Faire Africa 2010 Begins!
Maker Faire Africa 2010 has begun in Nairobi, Kenya. This is the second of what is becoming an annual event, an event that seeks to shed some light on the inventors, innovators and artists creating practical and interesting ideas – mostly from Africa’s informal sector. This year, besides having jua kali creators from Kenya, we also have makers from Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria and South Africa. It’s a great turnout, and continues the tradition from Ghana last year. We’re seeing all kinds of incredible ideas brought to life. Here are a couple: A customized bicycle, with an accessory that lets you charge your phone via dynamo: A robotic porridge cooking machine, made by a Malawian inventor: Artistic sunglasses, made from locally available materials: More pictures in the Maker Faire Africa group
iTriage Turns Your Smart Phone into a Medical Diagnosis Tool
Android/iOS: iTriage puts the content of the iTriage medical information web site on your smartphone. You can search through symptoms, learn more about a wide variety of medical conditions, and more.
From the initial interface you can search for a doctor or a location to receive various medical treatements, look up symptoms, read more about specific diseases, and learn more about the procedures used to treat them. Browsing through the symptoms list displays possible causes of each symptom. Clicking on the injury or disease process itself lists a description, additional symptoms, tests that can be conducted to determine if the suggested disease or injury is the culprit, available treatment, as well as images and videos of the disease or injury.
iTriage is obviously not a replacement for a consultation with your physician or a trip to the emergency room, but it is a well organized and portable index of thousands of symptoms and their causes. Visit the link below for more information or search for iTriage in the iTunes Appstore or the Android Marketplace to grab a copy for your phone.
In High School Chem Labs, Every Camera Phone Can Be A Spectrometer
University of Illinois chemistry professor Alexander Scheeline has developed software that turns a camera phone, an LED, and a few other cheap tools into a spectrometer. Armed with these, he thinks we can bring high-end analytic tools to high school chemistry labs all over the world. “The potential is here to make analytical chemistry a subject for the masses rather than something that is only done by specialists,” Scheeline said. “There’s no doubt that getting the cost of equipment down to the point where more people can afford them in the education system is a boon for everybody.” Purpose-built spectrophotometers are essential tools in analytic chemistry. By measuring the electromagnetic spectrum a substance absorbs or emits, you can determine its molecular composition. They’re also expensive, which is why they’ve generally been confined to universities. Scheeline has already brought his cell-phone spectrometers to high schools in Atlanta and Hanoi. Other high-school chemistry and physics teachers doing professional development at Illinois have also brought Scheeline’s tools to their classrooms. Initially, Scheeline hadn’t been looking for ways for students to use their phones in class. Instead, he wanted students to build their own spectrophotometry tool, to better understand their instruments and their limitations. Putting together the LED as a light source, diffraction gratings and cuvettes were easy; finding a small sensor to capture the light was hard. “All of a sudden this light bulb went off in my head: a photodetector that everybody already has! Almost everybody has a cell phone, and almost all phones have a camera,“ Scheeline said. “I realized, if you can get the picture into the computer, it’s only software that keeps you from building a cheap spectrophotometer.” Scheeline with the analysis software he's developed for the cell-phone spectrometer. Scheeline then published his source code, a compiled executable application and the cell-phone spectrometer instructions for anyone to download from the Analytical Sciences Digital Library. He also published an article on the device and its potential in chemistry education in the academic journal Applied Spectroscopy. “Science is basically about using your senses to see things – it’s just that we’ve got so much technology that now it’s all hidden,” Scheeline said. “The student gets the impression that a measurement is something that goes on inside a box and it’s completely inaccessible, not understandable – the purview of expert engineers.” “In order to get across the idea, ‘I can do it, and I can see it, and I can understand it,’ they’ve got to build the instrument themselves,” he added. Can you analyze me now? Cell phones bring spectroscopy to the classroom [University of Illinois] All images by L. Brian Stauffer via news.illinois.edu
Scheeline wrote a Windows desktop program to analyze the student’s JPEG files from their phones. One advantage of this approach over developing a smartphone application to do the analysis directly: because the phones are used only to take the photographs, it doesn’t matter what kind what operating system a student’s phone is running.
10 Tips for Aspiring Digital Marketers
10 Tips for Aspiring Digital Marketers
A degree in marketing or communications can take you a distance, but most employers are looking for candidates with marketing experience, whether that’s from a previous job, internship or side project. If you already have work experience in the marketing world, congratulations. For the rest of you, internships or other projects will be key.
Rick Bakas, director of social media marketing at St. Supéry Vineyards and Winery said he believes a person’s online presence can be a major deciding factor on whether an aspiring digital marketer makes the cut for a job. “If an employer is deciding between two candidates,” he notes, “they might go with the person with the strong following online. Build your personal brand online. You have to show you can build your personal brand if you’re going to build someone else’s.”
There isn’t just one career path in marketing. You can choose to work for an agency, with an in-house team, or start your own firm. There are multiple marketing disciplines, including affiliate, search, social media, e-mail, mobile, and display marketing, to name a few. Teams come in all sizes — some in which teammates specialize in certain areas, and others where a team can be composed of just one stellar know-it-all.
“Put the ’social’ in social media and spend time engaging with people in the real world,” Bakas says. “Go to lots of events to create or nurture quality interactions that can later continue online. Use plancast.com to see which upcoming events are worth going to. These experiences are ripe with opportunities to meet other digital marketers. The strongest relationships are the ones nurtured online and offline.”
Because of the nature of the Internet, digital marketing is ever-changing. If you don’t keep up with the latest trends and news, it shows in interviews and on the job. Sarah Hofstetter, SVP of emerging media and client strategy at digital marketing agency 360i, says it well:
“Sure, it’s great to know about Facebook, iAds and whatever is coming next from Silicon Valley,” Hofstetter points out, “but when we’re looking for key talent at 360i, nothing matters to us more than intellectual curiosity and passion…In a business where answers and solutions aren’t always obvious, you need to be innately curious (about everything) and obsessed with the ‘why’ behind the ‘what.’ ”
Digital marketing budgets are expected to increase steadily during the next few years, according to Datran Media’s Annual Marketing & Media Survey, which reaches out to more than 5,000 marketing executives from Fortune 500 brands, top publishers, and leading advertising and media agencies.
This is good news for those of you hoping to break into the digital marketing industry. Whether you’re passionate about search, affiliate, social media, or another area of marketing, there are a few things you can do to prove your worthiness to prospective employers.
We asked five industry insiders about their top tips for aspiring digital marketers. Find their suggestions below and add your own in the comments.
1. Get Hands-On Marketing Experience
A degree in marketing or communications can take you a distance, but most employers are looking for candidates with marketing experience, whether that’s from a previous job, internship or side project. If you already have work experience in the marketing world, congratulations. For the rest of you, internships or other projects will be key.
“Any hands-on involvement with campaign creation, analytics, or optimization can be extremely beneficial to aspiring digital marketers,” says Traci Kuiphoff, online marketing manager at BareNecessities.com. “If you’re in school or a recent grad, the best way to gain experience is to do an internship at a company or agency that has a department or focus in online or digital marketing. Not only do you get real world hands-on experience, but it’s also great to put on your resume when you’re ready for a full-time position.”
If you are in college, look for paid or for-school-credit marketing internships at your college’s job fairs, via job search sites, and on social media sites. You could even land your next gig through Twitter.
If you don’t land an internship or find a position of interest, create your own project or enter a marketing contest. While studying marketing and international business at NYU Stern’s Undergraduate School of Business, a classmate and I entered the John Caples Student Campaign of the Year contest and created a digital marketing campaign for Pentel. Our campaign included a mix of digital, social and direct marketing communications, along with thoroughly gathered success metrics. Not only did we win first place, which included summer internships and a cash prize, but we also met industry experts who have acted as mentors to us.
2. Know the Lingo
Being able to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what worked or didn’t is the key role of a digital marketer — in order to do that, you’ll need to know (and love) the industry jargon.
“Understanding metrics on the web is key,” says Naishi Zhang, assistant marketing manager at Barnes & Noble. “The Internet provides so many ways of analyzing user behavior, and knowing how to gather and interpret data is important for success. Read widely and learn the lingo, so when someone asks about the CTR of a banner ad or the number of page views a landing page received, you’ll be ready.”
Mastering marketing terminology and metrics, and knowing what they mean, will take time and practice, but you can get a basic knowledge by picking up a marketing 101 textbook or attending an introductory course. Check out local college or continuing education courses. If that isn’t an option, the Internet is at your disposal. About.com’s glossary of marketing terms and HubSpot’s glossary of social media marketing termsare both very useful for beginners, and you should also read some of the top marketing blogs to get your daily fill of information.
3. Nurture Your Personal Online Presence
Rick Bakas, director of social media marketing at St. Supéry Vineyards and Winery said he believes a person’s online presence can be a major deciding factor on whether an aspiring digital marketer makes the cut for a job. “If an employer is deciding between two candidates,” he notes, “they might go with the person with the strong following online. Build your personal brand online. You have to show you can build your personal brand if you’re going to build someone else’s.”
Your personal brand is value-added in the job market.
“Your online clout is sometimes referred to as ’social currency,’” he continues. “In other words, there’s a value associated with your online personal brand. Increased value carries as much weight as a great resume. A highKlout.com score for example, will help you stand out and validate what your resume says about you.”
Your Klout score is a number between 0 and 100 that measures the size of your engaged audience, the likelihood that they will amplify your messages, and your overall influence within your network. Bigger isn’t always better. Bakas explains, “Aspiring marketers would do well to grow an engaged online following, not necessarily a large online following. Again, Klout.com is a great tool to evaluate the strength of your online presence.”
4. Dabble in Everything, Specialize in Something
There isn’t just one career path in marketing. You can choose to work for an agency, with an in-house team, or start your own firm. There are multiple marketing disciplines, including affiliate, search, social media, e-mail, mobile, and display marketing, to name a few. Teams come in all sizes — some in which teammates specialize in certain areas, and others where a team can be composed of just one stellar know-it-all.
The best way to get a taste of all of the options is to dabble in a bit of everything. “Digital marketing agency experience can be extremely valuable — at an agency you can be exposed to all avenues of digital marketing from paid search, social media, mobile and everything in between,” Kuiphoff advises. ”Most likely, you’ll touch a number of different accounts which can help you choose a vertical focus or specialty.”
Once you have a base knowledge in each area of marketing, you’ll be better equipped to choose a more specific path of focus. Having a specialty enables you to hone your skills in that area and become an expert, which is a valuable asset to potential employees.
5. Attend Industry Meetups and Conferences
“Put the ’social’ in social media and spend time engaging with people in the real world,” Bakas says. “Go to lots of events to create or nurture quality interactions that can later continue online. Use plancast.com to see which upcoming events are worth going to. These experiences are ripe with opportunities to meet other digital marketers. The strongest relationships are the ones nurtured online and offline.”
Kuiphoff adds, “Digital marketing conferences not only provide a great networking opportunity, but most offer in-depth workshops that can enhance your skill set.”
Some worthwhile conferences to consider include SXSW, Search Marketing Expo, Web 2.0 Expo, Ad Age Digital Conference, ad:tech, and Pivot.
If you’re not into the hustle and bustle of industry conferences, you can consider a more toned-down approach by attending or organizing your own Meetups. There are thousands of marketing Meetups around the world. TheNY Entrepreneurs Business Network and San Francisco Entrepreneur Meetup are two of the largest.
6. Keep a Pulse on the News
Because of the nature of the Internet, digital marketing is ever-changing. If you don’t keep up with the latest trends and news, it shows in interviews and on the job. Sarah Hofstetter, SVP of emerging media and client strategy at digital marketing agency 360i, says it well:
“Remember that standing still is going backwards. Yes, it’s an adage that has been used for years to inspire ambition, but it is blatantly obvious in the digital landscape. Not only does that technology evolve at a lightening pace that transcends Moore’s law, but consumer behavior is shifting at a radical pace, and media consumption becomes more and more fragmented.
“Being on top of consumer behavior –- understanding what they’re doing online, what motivates them and their social and mobile behavior –- and staying ahead of that by learning what’s in the market and what’s on the come, will help ensure you don’t get stuck on the sidelines when interviewing for jobs in digital marketing.”
Kuiphoff recommends subscribing to industry blogs and newsletters to stay on top of the latest news. Some of my personal favorites include Ad Age, ClickZ, eMarketer, BrandWeek and AdWeek.
7. Get Technical
You won’t be coding programs or building full websites as a digital marketer, you will need to work with developers and designers or other web specialists to communicate your marketing design needs. A basic knowledge of how the web works, HTML, and one or two programming languages, such as PHP, JavaScript, CSS and Ruby, will help you understand the current boundaries and opportunities that will affect your marketing campaigns.
“It’s important for anyone working in the digital world, whether it’s marketing or designing features for a product, to have a basic understanding of coding,” suggests Dharmishta Rood, a research assistant at Harvard Business School and fellow at the Center for Future Civic Media at MIT. “There are great experiential benefits from understanding the underlying technologies that shape what we do online — it’s easier to understand how users can interact with content, what is possible for design with things like CSS and JavaScript, and understand the nuances of basic technical terminology.”
8. Perfect Your Resume
Everyone needs a resume; what you do with it is up to you. To help you stand out, here are a few tips from our digital marketing experts:
- “Demonstrate that you can produce results and work in a fast-paced environment, whether you’ve had previous digital experience or not. Don’t be afraid to include things about yourself that may not be directly related to the job. Resumes get scanned quickly, so it always helps to inject something creative and clever.” — Naishi Zhang, assistant marketing manager, Barnes & Noble
- “One way you can make your resume stand out is to get certified. Google has a certification program for Adwords. If you have a paid search marketing focus this can help assure a client/employer that you’re proficient in the system.” — Traci Kuiphoff, online marketing manager, BareNecessities.com
- “I’m a big believer in making sure your resume is on LinkedIn, and to have recommendations on LinkedIn. Start asking for recommendations soon. LinkedIn is like your digital resume. Make sure the facts match up. Also, Google your name to see what comes up — your prospective employers will.” — Rick Bakas, director of social media marketing, St. Supéry Vineyards and Winery
- “Use keywords to describe your previous experience that make sense for the specific job you’re applying for — if the job description or department does ’social media outreach’ and your description of all thoseTwitter @replies, Facebook messages and moderated blog post comments is currently called ‘customer service,’ this does not play up your strengths as a digital marketer. Use common sense though. If their keywords don’t match your experience, don’t write anything untruthful, and consider doing things to get the types of experience for the jobs you want, such as volunteering to help with the social media of a non-profit whose cause you support.” — Dharmishta Rood, research assistant, Harvard Business School
To showcase your skills alongside multimedia and other online assets, check out some digital alternatives to the paper resume, including video resumes, VisualCVs, social resumes and LinkedIn profiles.
9. Let Curiosity and Passion Drive You
“Sure, it’s great to know about Facebook, iAds and whatever is coming next from Silicon Valley,” Hofstetter points out, “but when we’re looking for key talent at 360i, nothing matters to us more than intellectual curiosity and passion…In a business where answers and solutions aren’t always obvious, you need to be innately curious (about everything) and obsessed with the ‘why’ behind the ‘what.’ ”
It may sound cheesy at first, but she has a point. Without inquisitiveness and zeal, we’re just work drones on a mission to take over the Internet. Plus, these traits have a positive effect on the way we work, Hofstetter says:
“People who have these qualities can innovate and identify trends from seemingly ordinary data — they’re the first to try new things (platforms, tools, technology) and think about how marketers can benefit from them. They don’t always have the answers, but when you’re being asked to do never-been-done-before things, there isn’t a rulebook. That’s why when we’re recruiting, we look for people who know how to ask the right questions.
10. Unplug for Your Sanity
Staring at a computer screen all day long can take a toll on your body, mind and social life. Get away from that monitor and breathe for crying out loud!
Bakas advocates getting out every once in a while to work on who you are as a person outside of work. “Because transparency is important, it’s important to be a good person in the real world,” he says. “It’ll translate into the digital world — you can’t fake being a good person if you’re a jerk in real life. Unplug for your own sanity, but also to continue growing as a person in life.”
I second that. Now, get out of here and get a job.
Lifeplayer, the MP3 Radio for the World's Most Forgotten
Kristine Pearson has been producing affordable, eco-friendly, and appropriate technologies in Africa for over a decade. Her latest invention is the culmination of her work and research thus far: The Lifeplayer, a comprehensive radio, cellular, MP3, and Internet-enabled device meant to empower groups of families, villages, and schools in desperately remote or deprived regions with access to vital information and education.
Lifeline Energy, which is based in South Africa, today announced the launch of this innovative solar-powered technology for developing markets, which comes with 64 GB of memory and an additional 32 GB SD card, allowing educators and other individuals to download podcasts and MP3 files on any topic. But of particular relevance are educational curricula as well as information related to weather, farming, and agriculture.
From: http://ping.fm/jiSmE
Lifeline Energy, which is based in South Africa, today announced the launch of this innovative solar-powered technology for developing markets, which comes with 64 GB of memory and an additional 32 GB SD card, allowing educators and other individuals to download podcasts and MP3 files on any topic. But of particular relevance are educational curricula as well as information related to weather, farming, and agriculture.
From: http://ping.fm/jiSmE
Shimano kit converts regular bikes into e-bikes
Much the way Sähköautot–Nyt — now known as eCars-Now — aims to facilitate the conversion of standard Toyota Corollas into electric vehicles, so Shimano has developed a kit to help convert traditional bicycles into electric ones.
The new STEPS (Shimano Total Electric Power System) component kit is designed to preserve the feeling of the traditional bike while adding the parts necessary for delivering electrical power. A 250W electric motor can take bikes up to 25km per hour, while a regenerative braking function focuses on recharging the 24V/4.0Ah lithium-ion battery, such as when riders travel downhill. The battery is removable for charging, requiring just an hour to juice up when empty, Shimano says; it can be recharged more than 3,000 times, or every day for roughly eight years. Electric switch buttons for riding mode, display mode and a light switch, meanwhile, are integrated into the 4-finger brake levers, and cables with slim 5mm plugs allow easy internal frame routing. A removable cycle computer, finally, offers a clear and quick overview of all e-bike functions, including riding mode, battery power, speed and odometer.
Pricing on the STEPS kit has not yet been announced, but it's expected to become available in December. Bike-minded retailers around the globe: one to offer eco-minded commuters near you...? (Related: Folding electric two-wheeler offers new take on urban cycling — Lightweight electric bike targets urban commuters.)
Website: cycle.shimano-eu.com
Contact: bike.shimano.com/publish/content/global_cycle/en/us/index/contact_us.html
From: http://ping.fm/QrT46
The new STEPS (Shimano Total Electric Power System) component kit is designed to preserve the feeling of the traditional bike while adding the parts necessary for delivering electrical power. A 250W electric motor can take bikes up to 25km per hour, while a regenerative braking function focuses on recharging the 24V/4.0Ah lithium-ion battery, such as when riders travel downhill. The battery is removable for charging, requiring just an hour to juice up when empty, Shimano says; it can be recharged more than 3,000 times, or every day for roughly eight years. Electric switch buttons for riding mode, display mode and a light switch, meanwhile, are integrated into the 4-finger brake levers, and cables with slim 5mm plugs allow easy internal frame routing. A removable cycle computer, finally, offers a clear and quick overview of all e-bike functions, including riding mode, battery power, speed and odometer.
Pricing on the STEPS kit has not yet been announced, but it's expected to become available in December. Bike-minded retailers around the globe: one to offer eco-minded commuters near you...? (Related: Folding electric two-wheeler offers new take on urban cycling — Lightweight electric bike targets urban commuters.)
Website: cycle.shimano-eu.com
Contact: bike.shimano.com/publish/content/global_cycle/en/us/index/contact_us.html
From: http://ping.fm/QrT46
Coming Soon: Mind-Reading Cell Phones
The cell phones of 10 years ago look like ancient relics compared to the smartphones of today. But our iPhones and Droids may be primitive compared to what's coming next. Justin Rattner, Intel's Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, explained in a keynote at Intel's Developer Forum this week that the next big thing in mobile devices will be "context-aware computing" from devices that anticipate your needs and wants. Read: psychic cell phones.
How is this possible? PC Magazine explains:
All this works...by creating a cognitive framework for managing context. It centers on a context engine that unites information from extensible analyzers, inference algorithms, data stores, and sensors, and then distributes them to the appropriate applications. The framework protects context information by putting the user in complete control of it: The user may specify what context is released, when it's released, and to whom it's released.
For example, a sense system embedded in a cell phone might know whether a user is running or walking, and whether they are outside or in a well-lit indoor area. Combined with inputted information (i.e. whether a user is free at a certain time), the phone could offer suggestions on what a cell phone user might want to do next.
Eventually, Intel might actually produce truly psychic cell phones. Earlier this summer, we learned about Intel's Human Brain Project--a collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh that uses EEG, fMRI, and magnetoencephalography to figure out what a subject is thinking about based entirely on their neural activity pattern. The technology won't be ready for at least a decade--and that's just fine with us.
From: http://ping.fm/ZphTm
How is this possible? PC Magazine explains:
All this works...by creating a cognitive framework for managing context. It centers on a context engine that unites information from extensible analyzers, inference algorithms, data stores, and sensors, and then distributes them to the appropriate applications. The framework protects context information by putting the user in complete control of it: The user may specify what context is released, when it's released, and to whom it's released.
For example, a sense system embedded in a cell phone might know whether a user is running or walking, and whether they are outside or in a well-lit indoor area. Combined with inputted information (i.e. whether a user is free at a certain time), the phone could offer suggestions on what a cell phone user might want to do next.
Eventually, Intel might actually produce truly psychic cell phones. Earlier this summer, we learned about Intel's Human Brain Project--a collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh that uses EEG, fMRI, and magnetoencephalography to figure out what a subject is thinking about based entirely on their neural activity pattern. The technology won't be ready for at least a decade--and that's just fine with us.
From: http://ping.fm/ZphTm
1,500 board games on hand at wifi-free caf�
It's not uncommon to see board games on display at restaurants and cafés, but they're typically used to prop up laptops at least as often as to provide hands-on entertainment. Aiming to re-create the offline interaction of days gone by, Toronto's Snakes & Lattes serves up not just coffee but also 1,500 board games available for the playing.
Billed as “the first board game café in Toronto,†Snakes & Lattes dispenses with the free wifi; rather, it encourages its patrons to play games instead. For CAD 5 per person per visit, visitors can choose from the café's diverse collection, which includes staples like Monopoly as well as lesser-known offerings including Jumanji and Fireball Island, according to a report on BlogTO. Taking the concept even further, the shop's baristas serve as strategic advisors as well, dispensing instructions and tips for play along with the frothy beverages. Coming soon, reportedly, are themed nights, youth-focused initiatives and a rental system to let customers play the games at home.
Given the ubiquity of wifi-enabled coffee houses around the world, unplugging and focusing instead on low-tech games is an interesting premise that could win the loyalty of legions of mass-mingling consumers.
From: http://ping.fm/zrO6d
Billed as “the first board game café in Toronto,†Snakes & Lattes dispenses with the free wifi; rather, it encourages its patrons to play games instead. For CAD 5 per person per visit, visitors can choose from the café's diverse collection, which includes staples like Monopoly as well as lesser-known offerings including Jumanji and Fireball Island, according to a report on BlogTO. Taking the concept even further, the shop's baristas serve as strategic advisors as well, dispensing instructions and tips for play along with the frothy beverages. Coming soon, reportedly, are themed nights, youth-focused initiatives and a rental system to let customers play the games at home.
Given the ubiquity of wifi-enabled coffee houses around the world, unplugging and focusing instead on low-tech games is an interesting premise that could win the loyalty of legions of mass-mingling consumers.
From: http://ping.fm/zrO6d
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