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5 Tips For Politicians on Pinterest

2012-05-27T22:56:57Z

From presidential contenders to school board hopefuls, political candidates are experimenting with a wide variety of social platforms to get their message heard. Some are turning to Pinterest, the explosively popular image-based pinboard site — even President Obama and Ann Romney, wife of Mitt Romney, have accounts on the image-based social network.

What’s the key to political perfection on Pinterest? Scott Peters and Garrett Law of social media agency Attention Span Media, which has worked with several political campaigns, have shared with Mashable five of their can’t-miss tips for Pinteresting pols:

It’s All About Images

“Pinterest is very visual,” said Peters. “It’s less about words and more about images, and it’s meant to be quick, easy and digestable”

Translation: Don’t put overly-long captions on your photos or send out too many infographics. Instead, send out plenty of photos of the politician hard at work or interacting with the public. Pinterest users are there for eye candy, not tomes of text.

“If people wanted to read position papers and debates,” added Law, “there are other platforms for that. Pinterest is best thought of as a visual resume.”

Make it Shareable

“Put stuff there that’s shareable,” said Peters. “Voters and potential voters will appreciate engaging content that relates to them and their community. Ideally, share something they’d be interested in repinning on their own page.”

What might sharable content look like for a politician?

“Mitt Romney on the Republican side is very much about family values, so he might pin a photo of himself and his family,” said Law. “He’d want to piece together a nice image that he’s using to communicate to voters and supporters. You should know what ideals your audience upholds and use visuals to communicate those ideals.

Law also gave an example from a campaign his firm has been working with.

“One strategy we’re using in the Scott Peters for Congress campaign in San Diego is building a pinboard of people that have endorsed Peters,” said Law. “It’s about putting a face to a name. People react better to interactions with other people visually than just via text. It’s a great way to create that more personal connection.”

Interact, Don’t Just Broadcast

“Pinterest intended to be a social platform,” suggested Peters. “It’s not all about politicians being ‘me, me me,’ it’s about the people — which is what all politics should be about, really.”

How should a politician engage on Pinterest?

“Give people material they can repin and encourage them to comment on photos from the campaign,” said Peters. “Also, develop a preemptive or proactive plan to understand which posts you want people to engage with freely and which you might want to moderate, instead of flaring up a conversation you’d rather not have active on your Pinterest page.”

It’s Not Just for Women

Pinterest has gained a reputation for having an audience made mostly of women, so should politicians post content that appeals mostly to females? No way, said Peters and Law.

“There’s this misconception that there’s only women [on Pinterest],” said Peters. “But there’s a wide range of age demographics on the site.”

Law agreed.

“Even outside sphere of politics, interest has collected a reputation of being female-centric,” he said. “But we really have seen a wider range of people from male to female, young to old that are participating.”

The lesson for politicians, then, is to post content aimed at different demographics and see what gets the attention of the audience. Experimentation is key.

Don’t Pin and Ditch

This is a rule across social media: If you’re going to start using a particular platform, you’ve got to commit. Otherwise, your followers are going to be left feeling abandoned, wondering what happened: not a good sensation to be felt by potential voters.

“Be active. It’s about being visible,” said Peters. “If you’re not active, your visibility on the home page drops dramatically, your fans will be less engaged, and you’ll see fewer interactions. People can access conversations at any given time — people do check often and see what’s new, and I think especially this year there’s a huge timeliness to things in online politics. You only get so many chances to get in front of voters, so you want to make sure you have every chance you can to control the last thing they see before voting and to have a share of that voice.”

How’ve you seen your local politicians using Pinterest or other forms of social media in unique ways? Tell us in the comments below.

Thumbnail image courtesy ep_jhu, Flickr.

More About: pinterest, Politics, Social Media, US

6 Brands Get It Right on Viddy

2012-05-27T21:57:52Z

Viddy, the hot social video editing and sharing app, has racked up millions of ordinary users and a whole host of celebrity participants.

Perhaps leery of video, brands are not signing up to the network quite as fast. Nonetheless, there are some early-adopter corporate Viddy accounts worth checking out. We’ve taken a look at six brands currently using Viddy in smart and savvy ways.

SEE ALSO: How to Get Started With Viddy

Discover which brands we’re highlighting and why. We have included a sample clip from each, so have your say in the comments below: which brand is using the service most effectively and why?

1. DVF

The Diane von Furstenberg fashion brand is a big user of the social video platform.

As well as using Viddy to show mini-clips of Diane and “everyday” footage, DVF joined forces with Viddy during New York’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.

DVF staffers used the app to shoot exclusive behind-the-scenes footage as they prepped for the show, encountered celebs. The event highlights were then cross-posted to the DVF Facebook page.

Giving fans an insider glimpse is a clever way to make the most of short-form video — viewers feel like they can enjoy special access to a brand they admire.

2. Red Bull UK

Because it only recently added its Viddy account, Red Bull UK has only created a handful of viddys, but every single one is worth watching.

The beverage brand keeps tight to its sports/action message with footage of the recent Red Bull-sponsored Empire of Dirt BMX contest. Such events are ripe for the “highlights reel” treatment. The content is incredibly shareable, and Red Bull’s editing of the clips is simply superb.

We hope to see more of the same in the future from Red Bull — we think the brand has found a match made in heaven with Viddy.

3. General Electric

General Electric has made great use of Viddy with its small selection of well-edited clips, which offer viewers a peek at its cool technology and premises.

While the company has only posted three clips so far, they are perfectly suited to Viddy’s 15-second format. Each provides a visual insight to the brand in a format that is accessible and fun for Viddy’s youthful audience, especially when longer, more explanatory YouTube videos might not.

4. Warner Bros Records

Warner Bros. Records appears to be testing the Viddy waters. It has created a dozen clips, featuring just one artist: American rapper Waka Flocka Flame.

The clips are primarily behind-the-scenes footage from music video shoots. They are surprisingly effective, thanks to Viddy’s cool filters and music effects.

While we like the style the Warner Bros. viddys thus far, we might question the need in the future for separate Viddy accounts for individual artists. Perhaps the brand can reserve the main account for a “best of” collection of curated content.

5. Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines has uploaded a variety of content to Viddy, from light-hearted “guess the airport” challenges to in-flight footage to what can only be described as good, honest plane porn.

Recently, the airline used Viddy to host fun competition. It challenged users to create a Southwest-themed Viddy for the chance to win roundtrip plane tickets to the Sundance Film Festival.

With fresh content every few weeks or so, it seems Southwest plans to use the platform as one tool in its wider social media dashboard, taking advantage of the unique proposition Viddy offers brands.

6. The Muppets

Finally, The Muppets brand is no stranger to social media, and it got in on the Viddy action quite early on.

Ahead of the release of The Muppets movie in November 2011, the Disney-owned entertainment brand teamed up with Viddy for a production pack, which contained content and special effect filters that featured The Muppets. The super-shareable clips featuring each of the main characters were also posted online to promote the movie.

The Muppets-Viddy partnership is particularly exciting, as it shows how the tool could play a part in movie marketing. For example, it would be the perfect platform to issue a series of teaser clips.

We look forward to seeing how other brands use Viddy, as more sign up to the service. Have you seen any other interesting uses? Have your say in the comments below.

More About: apps, Business, features, General Electric, Marketing, red bull, Social Media, Southwest Airlines, the muppets, viddy, Video, warner bros

Top 10 GIFs of the Week

2012-05-27T21:39:43Z

1. Getting Down

You'll never look at the Power Rangers in the same way again.

Image courtesy ruinedchildhood.

Click here to view this gallery.

It’s been a lively week in the animated image world. We found a GIF of the Power Rangers dancing inappropriately, another of a hugging cat, and one that shows President Obama and likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney dancing to Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit song “Call Me Maybe.”

SEE ALSO: Top 10 GIFs of the Week

Take a look through our gallery for the best GIFs of the week ending May 25. Which one gets your vote for top GIF of the week? Let us know in the comments.

More About: features, GIFs, humor, president obama, Social Media, trending

Joe Trippi: ‘Texts From Hillary’ Could Help Clinton Win in 2016

2012-05-27T21:20:48Z

Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for Howard Dean and author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything, thinks the ultra-popular “Texts From Hillary” Tumblr could help her win the 2016 presidential election because of the public relations boost it’s given her, especially among digitally-savvy young voters.

SEE ALSO: Yes, Secretary Clinton Submitted Her Own ‘Text From Hillary’

However, Trippi doubts that Clinton, currently serving as President Obama’s Secretary of State, would actually choose to run.

“I really don’t think Hillary’s going to run,” said Trippi in a backstage interview at this year’s Mashable Connect conference. “I think she means it. But look, she’s a totally different candidate in terms of understanding technology than she was in 2008. In 2008, she just didn’t believe in this stuff. But boy, she has gotten it. In terms of the State Department … they’re doing amazing things in terms of the global conversation about the future, and she’s behind it one hundred percent.”

What are your favorite politically-themed Tumblr accounts? Share them with us in the comments below.

More About: mashable connect, Politics, tumblr, US, Video

12 Extravagant Instagram Pics by the Rich and Famous

2012-05-27T21:08:14Z

1. itsludacris

Ludacris doesn't have to worry about a no-parking zone when it's his Ferrari 458 Italia next to a private plane. “Conn. we on the way!!! Show will be crazy tonight!” - Ludacris

Click here to view this gallery.

We love it when celebs open up their lives to us on social media. Once the envy subsides, we can daydream about the perks of Hollywood life simply by checking Instagram. Scratch that — “perks” is an understatement. We’re talking Ferraris, private jets and stacks of cash. Peanut butter and jealous!

SEE ALSO: 25 Stunning Cityscapes on Instagram

Celebs like Rihanna, Ludacris and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley are not shy about sharing snapshots of their lavish lifestyles. These 12 such Instagrams will put you in quite the otherworldly mood — we pretty much guarantee it.

Tell us in the comments which celebs you follow on Instagram. How do you feel about that added layer of social media intimacy?

More About: apps, celebrities, Entertainment, instagram, photography, trending

Facebook May Launch Smartphone by Next Year [REPORT]

2012-05-27T20:41:13Z

Facebook may be gearing up to launch its first-ever smartphone by next year, a new report suggests.

According to The New York Times, engineers have been sought by recruiters to work on building hardware for a Facebook smartphone. This would be the social network’s third attempt to develop a smartphone, the report said, citing sources close to the matter.

The news comes as search engine giant Google completed the acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion earlier this week. This move could help Facebook counter that with its own foray into the smartphone hardware business.

SEE ALSO: How a ‘Facebook Phone’ Could Help Facebook Break Into Mobile Apps [VIDEO]

Rumors about a possible Facebook phone have been circulating for the past few years. Although Facebook was reportedly first working on a smartphone in 2010, sources said the initiative stopped due to development complications. Meanwhile, AllThingsD has reported Facebook and manufacturer HTC were working together to develop a mobile device under the code name “Buffy.”

It’s believed that “Buffy” may still be in development. Hiring engineers to work specifically on building Facebook phones would position the company to explore other smartphone projects, as well.

Do you think a move into the smartphone business would be smart for Facebook or would it overextend itself? Would you buy a Facebook phone?

More About: Buffy, Facebook, mark zuckerberg, smartphone, smartphones, trending

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Defend Your Home From These 10 ‘Space Invaders’ Accessories

2012-05-27T20:11:25Z

1. Space Invader Welcome Mat

Welcome visitors to your home with a lone invader for them to wipe their feet on -- sweet revenge for all the times they got zapped by the aliens. Cost: $45

Click here to view this gallery.

Released all the way back in 1978, Space Invaders has become more than a retro classic — it’s a cultural touchstone for multiple generations, symbolizing the golden age of arcade gaming.

To celebrate the iconic, pixelated design of the original, we’ve found 10 accessories that will have alien ships invading your home.

SEE ALSO: Happy Birthday Pac-Man: Celebrate With 20 8-Bit Accessories

Take a look through our geeky gallery above. Let us know in the comments which items get a high score with you.

More About: accessories, fashion, features, Gaming, geek, office accessories, retro gaming, space invaders

AOL Squatter: Young Entrepreneur Caught Living in Offices [VIDEO]

2012-05-27T19:55:47Z

A 19-year-old entrepreneur has been caught living and working out of AOL’s Palo Alto, Calif. offices, putting in long hours to get his startup off the ground. Sure, companies pride themselves in having employees with intense work ethics, but this guy wasn’t even an AOL employee at the time.

Eric Simons — who stayed at the office for two months, crashing on office couches, eating the company’s food and exercising every morning at the gym — was previously a member of a tech incubator program called Imagine K12, which is how he gained access to the building.

The AOL squatter stayed at the facilities while working on his own company, Class Connect, a startup he pioneered to help teachers teach more effectively.

Simons only spent about $30 a month squatting at AOL offices. His stay ended when he was finally caught by a manager.

Image via Flickr, MarioAnima

BONUS: Exclusive Look Inside the New Facebook HQ: You’ll Like This

Facebook HQ. You Like This

The company is now completely moved out of its Palo Alto pad, and into the much more spacious Menlo Park facility it broke ground on last year.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: aol, entrepreneurs, startup, trending

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Kodak Image Sharing and Storage is Dead: 5 Alternatives

2012-05-27T19:37:47Z

As part of Eastman Kodak’s efforts to be a much slimmer business, the imaging and photography company is restructuring, selling its online sharing and storing site, Kodak Gallery, to Shutterfly for $23.8 million in March. Kodak Gallery will close on July 2, and each user’s account will automatically transfer to Shutterfly. Users that do not want to make the transition to Shutterfly can opt out, but they can only do so before the May 28 deadline.

In the transition from Kodak Gallery to Shutterfly, users’ personal photos will be moved to Shutterfly’s website free, but all previous projects such as photo books and calendars need to be completed and purchased by noon on July 2. According to Kodak Gallery’s announcement page, Kodak has not yet determined if shared albums, group albums and sharing sites will be accessible after the site closes, but it will keep its customers updated. Note that if you are a Kodak Gallery Europe customer, these changes will not affect your account.

How to Opt Out

If you wish to opt out of Kodak’s transfer to Shutterfly, follow these simple steps:

Download all of your photos from Kodak Gallery and save them to your computer.
Finish any products and purchase them as soon as possible.
To complete the opt out process, go to the announcement page and click the link that says “Click here to opt out.”

Photo Sharing and Storing Alternatives

If you decide Shutterfly isn’t for you, check out the gallery below for 5 alternatives:

1. Picasa

Google's Picasa has been around for a while, but the latest version (3.9) is integrated with Google+, so uploading and sharing your photos have never been easier.

Cost: Free

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: features, Kodak, photography, Shutterfly

New Details Surface About Mark Zuckerberg’s Wedding Day [PICS]

2012-05-27T19:18:17Z

Exchanging Vows

Mark Zuckerberg and his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan -- who first met while attending Harvard University -- elected to exchange vows in front of guests. Attendees arrived at their Palo Alto, Calif. home for what they thought was Chan's graduation party from medical school.

Image via Facebook, Allyson Magda Photography

Click here to view this gallery.

A little more than a week after the big day, new details have surfaced about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s secret wedding to his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan.

The private wedding, held in the backyard of their $7 million home in Palo Alto, Calif. in front of about 100 guests, came just one day after Facebook went public and was valued at more than $100 billion.

In the past few days, we’ve learned more about the couple’s nine-year relationship — in fact, according to a New York Times report, Chan purchased her dress last October, indicating the marriage had been in the works for at least the past seven months.

In addition, the couple had an agreement about how to approach a work and personal-life balance. Chan required Zuckerberg to spend at least 100 minutes of time together each week, as well as one date night and a two-week vacation each year.

Details about the wedding have also come to light, including the modest fare served to guests, songs the couple danced to and who accompanied Chan down the aisle. Find out about those specifics and more in the gallery above.

If you were a billionaire, what would you choose for your wedding? What food would be served? Who would play the music? Where you would go on your honeymoon?

More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, mark zuckerberg, trending

Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week

2012-05-27T18:40:21Z

1. Eclipse

Last Sunday, the moon passed between the sun and our planet, causing an awe-inspiring solar #eclipse. This special phenomenon was captured by thousands of people around the globe. This picture, posted to Twitter by aerospace engineer @wikkit (1000+ followers), was tweeted along with the text: "I'm sorry to inform you that Earth is about to be been eaten by a fire demon."

Click here to view this gallery.

It was another explosive week for pics on Twitter, with the total number breaking records yet again. This week, we analyzed more than 56 million photos shared on Twitter from computers and mobile devices all over the world.

Summer, fun and celebrities were the main themes that ruled this week’s top 10. And now that the festival season has kicked off, we can spend hours gazing at pictures from festivals and other beautiful and sunny places all over the world.

SEE MORE: Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week

Special thanks to Skylines, whose custom algorithm finds only the most popular and best pics. The best part of this weekly report is the keen insight of Skylines writer and analyst Julie Donders (@IkbenJulie), who makes sense of the top 10 Twitter pics with her context-rich captions.

Take a peek at the pictures that made it to the top of Twitter’s visual food chain this week, and please let us know which one is your favorite in the comments below.

Bonus: Here’s last week’s Top 10 Twitter Pics.

1. Happy Mother's Day

This week started off with Mother’s Day, with sons and daughters surprising Mom with gifts and visits, showering them with love. Posting this pic of her mother at age 13: young actress Chloë Moretz (@chloegmoretz, 240.000+ followers, who played in Kick-Ass and Hugo and is now featured in Dark Shadows) along with the tweet ““#HappyMothersDay mama :) you even looked chic at 13 #1971”

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Skylines, Top 10 Twitter Pics, trending, Twitter

Tell-Tale Signs Your Employee is Overworked [INFOGRAPHIC]

2012-05-27T18:11:22Z

Are you stressed at work? You’re not alone: A recent Gallup poll indicates that on-the-job pressure is the top reason for employee dissatisfaction in the American workforce, and nearly half of American workers say their job is “very or extremely stressful.”

And whether you notice it or not, you’re broadcasting clear signs that should indicate to your employer that you are overworked and need a change of pace. The infographic below, developed by Column Five in conjunction with employee wellness company Keas, shows exactly how employees behave when they’ve been pushed to their limits. Workers tend to develop classic symptoms when their workload gets too much to bear, such as poor memory, fatigue and bad time management. They also exhibit odd behaviors, working too much or too little in response to the level of stress in the workplace. Employers should be watching for these key symptoms and redirecting overworked employees to a more manageable situation.

Of course, the consequences of ignoring these signs can be major — 66% of employees suffer from stress-induced health issues, including but not limited to high blood pressure, headaches, sleeplessness and more frequent periods of sickness. Overworked employees are also more likely to have drastically decreased productivity and play hooky than those who are satisfied with their workload. The overall result is clear: Overworked and stressed workers are never good for a company.

Check out the infographic below for an inside look into how overworked employees behave — and how it all can be fixed. Do you ever feel stressed at your job? Let us know in the comments.

Infographic research and design by Column Five

Social Media Job Listings

Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

Social Media Strategy Director at Likeable Media in New York City
Online Marketing Manager at USA Football in Indianapolis
Social Outreach Manager at Awesomeness TV in Los Angeles

More About: features, infographic, job search series, jobs, mashable, trending

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‘Feel Me’ iOS Texting App Gives You a Direct Live Connection [VIDEO]

2012-05-27T17:43:09Z

Videoconferencing apps like FaceTime give you direct and live interaction with another person — and conventional phone calls let you do the same thing — but that’s hard to do while texting. Here’s Feel Me, an iOS app concept that shows you in real time what your texting partner is doing.

Created by Marco Triverio as his final project at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, it adds a subtle dimension to texting, where you can see a small red dot that shows where on the screen the other person’s finger is currently pressing.

When your finger and the other person’s finger touch your screens in the same place, there’s a vibration or a sound. It’s an emotional connection — almost like the two are physically touching.

So far, the idea is in the concept stage, and Travario invites all those interested to visit his site and leave an email address or follow him on Twitter @FeelMeApp if you’d like to be notified when the app becomes available. Here’s his full demo on Vimeo.

Let us know if you think there’s something romantic and interesting about this. What other uses could be devised for such technology?

More About: apps, design concept, iOS, mashable video, trending

10 Funniest Tweets of the Week

2012-05-27T16:51:26Z

@JoseConseco

"Jose Canseco is the Brian Wilson of Twitter and this is his Pet Sounds."

Click here to view this gallery.

What better way to enhance this three-day weekend than to enjoy a raucous roundup of Twitter comedy?

Internet LOL-curator and comedian Jake Fogelnest has selected his favorite hilarious tweets of the week.

Whatever you do, don’t google “Neil Young Dubstep.”

— Jake Fogelnest (@jakefogelnest) May 20, 2012

“I don’t know how other people use Twitter, but for me it’s a constant stream of entertainment and jokes. It’s also become my first news source,” says Fogelnest. “Sad as it may be, the reality is I find myself seeing ‘OMG DID U SEE THE NEW YORK TIMES?‘ before I actually see The New York Times. This is because I am a ridiculous person and part of the problem!”

Fogelnest has requested that all of you retweet the tweets above and favorite them — in some cases, he would like you to print the tweets, take them to a laser cutter and engrave them on the Vietnam memorial.

“Some people may say, ‘It’s not appropriate to put a bunch of dumb tweets on the Vietnam Memorial,’” says Fogelnest. “To those people I say, ‘It’s not appropriate to be such an killjoy. Lighten up, you dweeb!!’”

(Note: If you have access to a laser cutter, please do not actually vandalize the Vietnam Memorial.)

More About: funniest tweets, trending, Twitter

This Adorable ‘Lip-Dub’ Marriage Proposal Is Worth Watching Now [VIRAL VIDEO]

2012-05-27T15:50:08Z

It seems as though there’s a new viral marriage proposal every week, but this delightful “lip-dub” effort from a Portland actor who called in some help from family and friends is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

On Wednesday May 23, Isaac Lamb surprised his girlfriend Amy — a choreographer with a Broadway dancing background — with an elaborate proposal that involved more than 60 people performing down a street. Lamb’s brother sat her in the back of a car with a pair of headphones and told her to listen to the song that played.

As the car starts to move, she watches people pop up around her, from a marching band to parent cameos, dancing and lip-syncing along with the song.

Social Media Marriage Proposals: 10 Clever Ways to Pop the Question

What’s so charming about the video — in addition to the heart-warming concept and creative choreographed moves — is Amy’s infectious giggles and excitement throughout the video. It will make you smile and tear up at the same time. She, of course, said yes.

The video has already reached more than one million views on YouTube.

BONUS: 5 Geek Marriage Proposals on Video

1. Internet Memes

Timothy Tiah Ewe Tiam snuck up on his long-time love interest, Audrey Ooi Feng Ling, at Neroteca, a restaurant in Malaysia, and began showing her poster-sized printed memes such as Socially Awkward Penguin, Y U NO Guy and Success Kid.

At the end of the meme-ridden surprise, he knelt and confessed, “I’m very nervous and terrified about this, but I love you and I think you’re my soul mate. And I can’t see myself living without you in my life. Will you marry me?”

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: marriage proposals, trending, YouTube

12 Ways to Optimize Your Resume for Applicant Tracking Systems

2012-05-27T15:04:58Z

Mona Abdel-Halim is the co-founder of Resunate.com, a job application tool that tailors and optimizes your resume for a specific job. You can find Mona and Resunate on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

You filled out the job application, updated your resume and clicked “Submit.” But as the days or weeks pass, you never receive a phone call or email from the employer. What happened?

Unbeknownst to many job seekers, a whopping 72% of resumes are never seen by human eyes. Why? Well, employers large and small now use applicant tracking software to parse the information from your resume and map it into a database called an ATS (applicant tracking system). From this information, the system will assign you a score based on how well you match the job the employer is trying to fill, and then rank and sort all candidates. Naturally, the potential employees with the highest scores move on, while others are left in the dust.

Wondering how you can optimize your resume and rank highly in the employer’s ATS? Here are several tricks to improving your resume’s score.

1. Use Language from the Job Description: Look through the job listing to determine the skills required. Identify industry terms, buzzwords and jargon the hiring manager uses most frequently in the description and incorporate these words into your resume when possible and applicable — the ATS is looking for these keywords.

2. Get Rid of Images and Graphics: Remember, the ATS is breaking down the information you’re providing and sorting it into different “buckets.” It will not be able to read or understand an image.

3. Choose Fonts Carefully: Stick with standard web-safe fonts like Arial, Georgia, Impact, Courier, Lucinda, Tahoma or Trebuchet.

4. Don’t Hide Keywords: Think adding in a bunch of keywords in white text is the best way to rank highly? Think again.

5. Get Rid of Irrelevant Information: Only include past positions and skills that are relevant to the job at hand. Irrelevant positions just end up as filler — a waste of valuable real estate on your resume.

6. Don’t Use Any Special Characters: Standard bullets are fine, but other characters (such as arrows) can cause issues that could prevent the ATS from correctly parsing your information.

7. Avoid Fancy Borders and Shading: Stick to simple templates that are easy to read.

8. Pump Up Your Skills Section: Most employers use their ATS to search by specialized or technical skills. Make sure your resume includes any special skills you’ve attained, such as computer programs, strengths, competencies and other abilities. Spell out your skills and include industry-specific abbreviations or acronyms that the employer may also search for when finding candidates with the right experience.

9. Create a Customized Professional Summary: Include a list of bulleted achievements and qualifications that relate to the job description and desired skills.

10. Ditch Spelling Errors: The ATS will miss important keywords when they are misspelled. Avoid mistakes: Spell check, read your document backwards and have a friend (or two) look it over. You can never be too safe.

11. Place Contact Information at the Top: Don’t forget to include vital information, such as your phone number and email address. The ATS may even send an email after you’ve applied to the position with additional instructions — so check your spam folder religiously to ensure you don’t miss further communications.

12. Tailor Each and Every Resume: Different ads will contain different keywords and phrases. If you want your resume to be one of the top rated for each position, you must tailor your skills and experience to each opportunity.

Unless you know your highly stylized resume won’t be taking a trip through an ATS, it’s best to save your infographic resume for the in-person interview and upload a .doc or PDF instead.

Do you use the above tricks to avoid the resume “black hole”? Let us know in the comments.

Social Media Job Listings

Associate Product Editor at Rodale in New York City
Online Marketing Manager at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in Burbank, Calif.
Membership/Community Manager at Word of Mouth Marketing Association in Chicago

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, vicky_81

More About: contributor, features, job search series, mashable, resumes, trending

Secure Your WordPress Blog Without Touching Any Code

2012-05-27T14:03:44Z

This guest post is by Karol K of ThemeFuse.

Right now WordPress powers 48 of the top 100 blogs online. More than that, WordPress actually powers 19% of the web as a whole.

Essentially, this is great. Such a strong community of users and developers means that the platform is sure to evolve even further and provide us with lots of cool features that are yet to be developed.

Unfortunately, this creates some dangers as well… Whenever there’s a big number of people trying to make something happen, there’s another group of people trying to take it all down.

The cases where a blog owner loses complete access to their site are not uncommon. Actually, sometimes even whole domains get hijacked, and I honestly have no idea on how that’s done.

But we don’t have to know how hijacking a domain or stealing a blog works to be able to implement some basic security precautions. And that is exactly what this post is about—making your blog secure without playing with source code, understanding things, and stuff.

Typical WordPress security problems

WordPress as a whole (a website management platform) is very well designed. It doesn’t have any preposterous security issues that beginning programmers could exploit. The problems, however, arise when you try to tweak your installation of WordPress by adding new plugins or themes, implementing hacks, or doing anything else that interferes with WordPress.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should settle for the default installation, not use any plugins, and only blog using the default theme. What it means is that you simply need to be careful when installing new stuff on your blog, as well as when setting up your blog for the first time.

Let’s start by discussing some of the common security problems you’ll need to handle.

The basics

Excuse me for being obvious, but you really need to start with proper usernames and passwords for your user accounts. Everyone realizes the importance of this, but not as many people implement the best practices.

You must use complex passwords—letters, numbers, special characters, spaces—and usernames that are not obvious. A password of “admin,” for example, is extra-obvious.

For more information on account security, see my recent guest post here on ProBlogger, which explained user accounts and roles, and how to set them up properly.

The name of the next problem in line: shady, untested plugins. WordPress plugins have a fair amount of power over how your WordPress installation works. If a plugin contains some buggy code, it can crash your blog completely. The same goes for code that’s not secure. Finally, if one of your plugins doesn’t implement any security features, it can become the point of entry for malicious bots or direct attacks by hackers.

Remember, the weakest link is where the chain breaks. You only need one low-quality plugin to get into trouble.

The advice I have here is: don’t use any plugin that hasn’t been updated in a while, or hasn’t been officially tested with the newest version of WordPress. Being up to date is always the best precaution. Also, plugins that are more popular are usually more secure as well.

There’s one more big issue we have to in terms of shady code, and that’s WordPress themes. I will say this again—and I’m not sorry for it—free themes are evil.

Well okay, not all of them. There are two kinds of free themes: (1) the good ones, released by quality theme stores as a way of attracting new customers by spreading one or two great free themes, (2) the evil ones made primarily to look great, attract many users, and use the space in the footer for SEO purposes.

These SEO-focused themes often use some strange, encrypted PHP code that can’t be removed, otherwise the theme stops working. This code usually displays search-optimized links (sometimes in an invisible font).

You never, let me repeat, never want to have encrypted code on your site. Even when you get the theme for free in exchange for hosting this encrypted section, it’s not worth it.

If you’re planning to use your WordPress site as the base of your online business then buying a quality theme is a must. If you have a bigger budget, you could even hire a developer to build your theme on top of some popular theme framework.

Since we’ve now covered the basics—user accounts, plugins, and themes—let’s look into some of the things that you can do to actively make your blog more secure.

Steps to better security

First, let’s talk through some of the best practices in terms of security. Then, let me show you some cool security plugins.

Hosting security

Yes, it all starts here. The story is similar to the one about WordPress themes: if you want to have a secure environment, you simply need to invest money. Don’t use free hosting.

Make sure that your web host implements basic security features and that it has good reviews among users (search on forums; Google is likely to display only affiliate reviews, which aren’t always credible).

Secure your own machine first

This is not something that comes to mind immediately when we’re talking WordPress security, is it? But what’s the point of securing your WordPress installation on the host if you have a malicious key-logger installed on your computer that will pick up your password and send it to the attacker?

You always need to start by securing the machine you’re using to connect with your WordPress blog. There are many good antivirus apps available, so I won’t discuss this any further. Just keep in mind that this issue is equally as important as anything else described in this post.

Update, update, update

Update WordPress. Update your plugins. Update your theme. Try to install these updates immediately after the alert apepars in your Dashboard.

Here’s why. Fixes to new bugs and security holes are always a big part of every update. The minute an update gets released, all the changes are announced in the official doc that goes along with the update.

If a hacker wants to attack a site that hasn’t been updated yet, they just have to take a look at the document, do a little research and tackle the holes that the new version fixes.

For example, here’s an excerpt from the information on the newest version of WordPress:

“WordPress 3.3.2 also addresses: Limited privilege escalation where a site administrator could deactivate network-wide plugins when running a WordPress network under particular circumstances, disclosed by Jon Cave of our WordPress core security team, and Adam Backstrom.”

Essentially, such information is a guide for hackers on how to attack outdated sites. So be sure to update everything, without delay.

Back up regularly

No one likes to get hacked, but we can’t assume that it won’t ever happen. You always should have an up-to-date backup of your WordPress site, just in case something goes wrong and you have to restore your blog.

You can do backups manually, or you can sign up to a paid service or simply get a plugin to do this for you (more on this later).

Delete plugins you don’t use

There’s no point in occupying your server’s resources with stuff you don’t use. The same advice applies to themes. Leave just the theme your blog uses, and delete the rest (you can leave the default theme, just in case).

Handy plugins to improve your blog’s security

Everybody loves them some cool plugins, right?! So here’s a list of the ones I recommend you use to make your blog more secure:

AntiVirus: This plugin protects your blog against exploits, malware, and spam injections. It scans your theme’s files and notifies you if anything suspicious is going on.
Online Backup for WordPress: This app is the one I use for my backups. You can use a schedule or perform backups by hand, and have them sent to your email address or made downloadable. The plugin backs up the database as well as the file system.
Secure WordPress: This is where you stop scanning and start acting! This plugin performs a number of security tweaks to your blog. There’s no point in listing them here, so I invite you to check for yourself. Also, you can choose which ones you want to enable and which you don’t need.
BulletProof Security: The list of things this plugin does is quite impressive. It’s a really serious piece of software. Just to name a few features: protection against XSS, RFI, CRLF, CSRF, Base64, Code Injection and SQL Injection hacking attempts, one-click htaccess protection, wp-config.php protection, and loads of other tweaks. It’s really worth looking into.
Hide Login: This plugin has a very simple idea behind it. You can use it to hide your login page. In other words, it creates a custom login URL. It also lets you create a custom admin URL (instead of domain.com/wp-admin), and a custom logout URL.

Other considerations

Content security

Your content is the most valuable asset on your blog. You naturally don’t want it to get stolen by some evil content scrapers and SEO marketers who just want to launch thousands of sites with content from various RSS feeds.

Unfortunately, you can’t protect against this completely. There’s always a danger that someone can steal your content and republish it without attribution. But you can make it just a little harder, or at least let everyone know that your content is protected.

Try checking Copyscape. It’s a service that searches for copies of your content around the internet. If it finds some, you get an alert and some instructions on how to get it taken down. Copyscape offers a couple of different services, so it’s good to pay them a visit and choose one that suits you best.

The just-in-case approach

No matter what you do to protect your blog, something bad is always possible. That’s why you need to have a strategy set in place for the time when something goes wrong, and you need to act fast.

I invite you to check out two of my own: how to restore your blog after a crash, and what to do when you lose access to your blog. And I truly hope that you’ll never have to use either of these guides.

How secure is your blog?

There you have it. I think that’s it when it comes to securing your WordPress site without going into code and implementing various tweaks manually. There’s always a never-ending stream of things you can do, but if you take care of just the ones described here you’ll have a pretty secure blog, and you’ll be ready in case something bad happens.

How diligent are you when it comes to your blog’s security? And what security tweaks would you add to this list?

Karol K. is a 20-something year old web 2.0 entrepreneur from Poland and a writer at ThemeFuse.com, where he shares various WordPress advice. Currently, he’s working on a new e-book titled “WordPress Startup Guide – little known things worth doing when creating a WordPress site.” The e-book launches soon, and now the best part … it’s free. Also, don’t forget to visit ThemeFuse to get your hands on some premium WordPress themes.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Secure Your WordPress Blog Without Touching Any Code

Spanish Soccer Scores a Goal on Social Media

2012-05-26T22:56:12Z

When Mashable took a look at the English Premier League’s social media side last week, the main takeaway was that the 2012 season marked the big social push of the world’s most high-profile soccer league.

But Spain’s LigaBBVA — considered a tier below the EPL on the pitch, although it’s home to powerhouse clubs Real Madrid and FC Barcelona — actually looks to be world soccer’s digital leader. To get the fuller picture, we scoured social media sites, and consulted LigaBBVA as well as the Spanish sports and social media site Sportwist.

Perhaps the place where La Liga’s social media dominance shines most is with its biggest stars. Three of the top four sports-related Twitter accounts are from Spanish soccer — Real Madrid stars Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo have 10.7 and 9.9 million followers, respectively, while the FC Barcelona club account claims almost 5.2 million. Last month, Kaka became the first sports figure ever to break 10 million followers on the the network. Fellow LigaBBVA stars Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique, Carlos Puyol, Xabi Alonso and David Villa each top one million followers as well.

The league itself maintains profiles on pretty much all the social web’s major networks — Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest and multiple Chinese services.

LigaBBVA engages fans extremely well on Facebook in particular. The league’s official page has more than 1 million fans. During a stretch in April, engagement peaked according to Sportwist, with more than 55% of those fans “talking about” LigaBBVA teams, matches and players — an outstanding level of engagement for a brand in any industry.

SEE ALSO: English Premier League: The Social Media Season

LigaBBVA also dominates world soccer leagues on Twitter. The @LigaBBVA profile counts more than 280,000 followers there, compared with the official @premierleague account’s approximately 209,000 followers. LigaBBVA also has a Klout score of 74, compared to the EPL’s score of 70. The German Bundesliga — considered by many the world’s third-best league in overall quality of play — has a Klout score of 49.

On the Chinese social network Sina Weibo, Spain’s soccer league has 155,000 followers, as well as an additional 106,000 fans on the similar Chinese network Ren Ren.

What powers LigaBBVA’s social media popularity? Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, arguably two of the world’s three most popular club teams. Consider this, for example: Barcelona has more than 31 million Facebook fans and about 5.2 million Twitter followers; Real Madrid has over 28 million Facebook fans and 4.7 million Twitter followers. No other LigaBBVA team approaches a combined total of 500,000.

Why do you think LigaBBVA beats out the EPL on social media? Let us know in the comments.

Image via iStockphoto, mikkelwilliam

More About: Facebook, Social Media, sports, Twitter, YouTube

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7 Top Mashable Comments This Week

2012-05-26T22:22:58Z

Mashable comments this week were more than fun to read. Our readers found many ways to express entertaining opinions while creating heated conversations.

Top stories included the rumored Facebook Timeline redesign, a fake Facebook suicide video, as well as Facebook’s new iPhone camera app.

Outside the world of Facebook, other popular stories included Google Chrome surpassing Internet Explorer as the most used browser. Commenter, TileGuyJesse, made a joke about Internet Explorer being the number one Internet browser…for downloading other browsers.

Also, earlier this week Guy Kawasaki attended Google+ Photographer’s Conference where he spoke and compared Google+ to Apple in how they’re both a religious experience.

At Mashable, we’re always on the lookout for thoughtful, insightful comments that add to our stories or further the discussion. Take a look at this week’s top comments and let us know what you think of the readers’ opinions.

FCC Data Rate Regulation

Mike Ensley comments with questioning the idea of the data rates a cable company would charge if data was charge per usage as opposed to a flat fee. Comment originally seen on FCC Boss: You Should Pay for Internet By How Much You Use [POLL]

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Fancy Hands: The Most Helpful Startup in the World

2012-05-26T22:00:21Z

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Fancy Hands

Quick Pitch: Delegate work to a smart and savvy band of personal assistants for $25 to $95 a month.

Genius Idea: Fancy Hands lets you hand off time-consuming, menial tasks to reliable web-based assistants.

Ever want to pay someone to sit on hold for you? Or to compile a list of the best gluten-free food in your area? Fancy Hands is a NYC-based startup that lets you do just that. The web-based service makes extra help affordable with flat rates.

Fancy Hands offers the services of personal assistants to the masses. The company’s fleet of professional contractors, located throughout the U.S., are always available for service requests around the clock. The army of assistants will do almost anything that doesn’t involve them getting up from their chairs.

Fancy Hands specializes in research, making phone calls and returning emails. Popular requests also include arranging appointments, finding local services, transcribing small chunks of audio or compiling lists. For a better idea of the range of services, check out Fancy Hands’ list of common requests.

Members can submit requests from anywhere in the world to Fancy Hands. Submissions are received by email, by phone or through Basecamp. Requests are usually completed on the same business day. Tasks may take a couple minutes or an hour depending on details.

The two-year-old startup was created by Ted Roden at a busy point in his life. He had his first child and signed a book deal in the same week. With a full-time job as a developer at The New York Times, he needed help with small, everyday tasks. Roden built the service around his own need.

“If I wanted to do anything outside my core area of responsibilities, I just couldn’t get it done,” Roden tells Mashable. “If I wanted to make a reservation to take my wife out to dinner, I wasn’t able to do it. So, I said maybe I could get someone to do this for me.”

Roden eventually finished the book and turned his startup dream into a profitable business with the help of freelance assistants.

Fancy Hands is based in NYC’s SoHo. Its six full-time employees of programmers and developers are building new features within the website. It’s a well-oiled system. Speed and quality are top priorities for the team of handpicked assistants, Roden says. Everything is quality-checked before completion. Detailed reports are written up for each task, stating the amount of time spent and specific actions taken to get the task done.

“All the communication is logged,” he says. “You can get a good sense on how much we’re working on a task for you. At the end of the day, you can say, my time is worth $10 an hour. If someone sat on the phone two to three times on the phone for me, I saved a lot of money.”

The startup’s goal is to make life easier for everyone. Roden wants to revolutionize the way people work the same way the Internet changed airline ticket purchases. Before Orbitz, Expedia and other websites to compare flights, the only option for customers looking to fly was calling the airline or travel agent. Instead of being able to compare prices and buy the cheapest tickets, customers had to agree to whatever the airline agents told them.

“The Internet came along and now it’s almost hard to remember how it was before,” Roden says. “I want to do that for other things. In the future, I want people to say ‘For scheduling, I can’t believe I used to email back and forth.’ I want that to happen for a lot of aspects in your life.”

Fancy Hands offers monthly rates as well as yearly packages. Get five requests a month for $25, 15 requests a month for $45 and unlimited requests for $95 per month.

What is the most time-consuming task in your day? Tell us in the comments if you would consider delegating specific tasks to personal assistants.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Bethan

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

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