With so many apps on the market, there are bound to be some hidden gems. We have identified 6 apps that we think are pretty awesome that you might not have heard of. If any of these sound cool to you, go ahead and download them and let us know what you think!

AirCalc

Just as it sounds, this is an app that seems to float in the air. AirCalc is a floating calculator for Android that sits on top of whatever is on your screen which means that you won’t have to close whatever application you are currently using in order to use AirCalc

Locale

In 2007 a New York Judge jailed 46 people when a phone in his courtroom rang and no one came forward to take responsibility. This ridiculous incident led developers to design this innovate app. Using your GPS, Locale lets you customize your phone settings based on your location. For example if you want your volume to be loud when you are at home, but on vibrate when you are at work, this app will automatically change your settings based on your location. Set it up once and you will never have to worry about your phone going off when you don’t want it to.

Zedge

This is by far our favorite free app for downloading cool wallpapers, ringtones, and themes. Zedge is available for Androids and iPhones alike.

Aisle411 Shopping Companion

If you love to shop, then this free app is for you! All you have to do is create a shopping list before you head to the store and once you arrive, this app will create a customized shopping route for you. Aisle411 will sort items on your list based on the location in the store

TonePad

Designed specifically for iphones, TonePad allows you to make your own music on your phone. You can create songs by simply touching your screen and seeing notes light up. You can save an unlimited number of songs and sharing them with friends is extremely easy. If you really like a song that you made, you can make it your ringtone.

Field Trip

If you love learning about local history, finding the best places to eat, or love to shop, this app is for you. Filed Trip runs in the background of your phone and when you get close to something cool, it will automatically pop up in your background. You can discover new restaurants, museums, shops, or just random cool facts about the places you are in.

If you have tried any of these apps let us know what you think. When you discover more hidden gems, leave us a comment and tell us a little about your new favorite app!

On Thursday, it introduced a “Photos of You” section, a new feature that allows you to tag your friends, or things such as a band or donut shop.

The mobile photo app company was acquired by Facebook last year for $1 billion so it was only a matter of time before they understood marketing through social media and added tagging feature was created. Instead of using the word “tag,” which is used on Facebook, Instagram is calling it “Add” as in adding names of people to a picture.

After you take a picture, you have the option to “Add People” from the Share screen.  You then tap on a person in the picture and answer the on-screen question. “Who’s this?” You select their name from the drop down menu or you can search for the person. You can also share a picture you’ve already taken by going to the photo and selecting “Add People.”

When you have been tagged by a friend, like on Facebook, you’ll be notificationified and and the photo will appear in your “Photos of You” section. This new section is available through an update from Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

This is my big Thank You to the folks at Instagram for finally jumping on the bandwagon of offering a tagging adding people feature!

The Pain of Indifference

Indifference is more painful and lonely than any other punishment the public can give a copywriter. Nothing kills a will to work quite like it. A writer can spend hours creating and tweaking the perfect article for his or her audience. The topic was well written and the grammar was impeccable, and yet no one did anything about it. The piece isn’t influential.

The problem isn’t that the writing isn’t good. The problem is that your content has already been written time and time again. People don’t want to read it. The ideas don’t vary from what you’re reader is already thinking.

The Problem with Groupthink

Groupthink is a condition where a majority of people see a problem or topic of debate from the same point of view. Comments made by the group are predictable and obvious, because everyone thinks alike.

Remember the “rats with wings” from Finding Nemo? These seagulls moved as a group with only one thought in mind: food. Even their vocabulary was limited to a single word that they all used together, “mine.” No single bird ever said or did anything other than what everyone else was doing. They moved and spoke as one, and thus, no single bird stuck out in anyone’s mind.

Should one have tried, he would have had to reinvent his vocabulary and do something different to attract any attention. Had he done that, we all might remember the story going a little bit differently. This concept holds true in the real world as well.

How Luther Changed the World

The reason Martin Luther stuck out so much during his time was because he challenged the status quo. After gaining a thorough understanding of the Catholic Church, he began to question the world he was seeing. He dared to think outside the crowd. He changed the world through his words and deeds.

His punishment was excommunication. His legacy was a lasting religious revolution that could very well have laid the foundations for the industrial revolution.

Challenge the Norm

As a writer, don’t approach a topic from the point-of-view of the crowd. You will add little to nothing to the conversation.

Challenge the status quo instead. Think outside the crowd.

Consider ideas and suggestions that scare you. Gain a new perspective. Listen to the opposing side. Form your own opinions.

Once you have carefully thought through the topic, then sit down and begin writing. With an opinion that wavers from the crowd of seagulls on the internet, your writing will become influential, even if you only influence one reader that visits your site once.

Your writing will be seen, even when it’s suffering from little SEO. Your ideas will be shared. Your audience will want to share it, because you dared to think outside the crowd, bringing a refreshing opinion to a large community that simply agrees with everything.

When the day started, Collins had 3,700 twitter followers and as of 5:30pm MDT that number had climbed to 57,178. That number will continue to climb as more and more individuals share their support or opposition to his decision.

Several NBA Players and celebrities have shared support for Collin’s decision to come out including Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Baron Davis, Kenneth Faried, Bill Clinton, Howard Stern, and several others.

There has also been a tremendous amount of opposition including ESPN’s Chris Broussard condemning homosexuality on national television. For a time, Chris Broussard was also trending on twitter.

Several hours after his announcement and millions of tweets later, Jason Collins himself took to twitter and thanked all of those who showed their support.

To understand how to use social media, a person first needs to know what it is. In layman’s terms, social media is a crossroads between people and technology. It is a two-way road where a company should not only take but give.

It’s About The Connection

Grow relationships through social media.

Many business owners think social media is simply a cheap platform to mount digital “billboards.” They do little other than promote pictures and information about their products, neglecting to see that social media is all about engagement with consumers. Don’t misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with the occasional product update or promotion, but people nowadays, and particularly Millenials, want brands to talk with them not at them.

When a brand understands their consumers as people that is when it will start to realize success. Why do you think people use social media in the first place? It’s to stay connected! People want to connect on a personal level, which is why they obsessively update their profiles, take pictures of random meals, and tweet the latest news and trends.

If you take nothing else away from this article, at least understand this: If you want to succeed in social media, you need to connect. Get to know your consumers likes and dislikes, their dreams, what makes them laugh, etc. Oh, and if you expect to know these little tidbits, then you also need to know who is in your target market. You cannot appeal to everyone, so find people with whom you can connect and then get connecting.

Creatively Connecting

Get creative with how you connect with your audience.

If it is within your budget, your company should constantly be coming up with, and be open to receiving, ideas to reach your consumer base in new, attractive ways.

Let’s say you are a cheese company named Cheesy Cheese Co. (a brilliant name, I know). Perhaps your company could host an event in the city where your company is based–maybe a cheese-tasting contest. Or you could partner up with other brands who are popular with your target market. If Cheesy Cheese Co. has the budget, they should actively be pursuing a sponsorship of a local sports team, or join a charity effort. You can even go the simple route and write about current events to reach your audience.

Events like these help brands to connect with their target market and gives everyone something to be passionate about. Leadgenix has a trained social media team whose goal is develop strategies and techniques to help your company connect with your target market. We will help you to expand your social media efforts beyond promoted product posts and status updates.

photo credit: mkhmarketing via photopin cc

photo credit: lumaxart via photopin cc

First, Provo’s existing fiber infrastructure will be improved and widened to include all of Provo. In 2006, iProvo completed construction of its fiber-optic network. Well ahead of its time, iProvo’s network didn’t pan out the way they had planned because the technology was not there to support it.

Fast forward 7 years and in steps Google. Google has the technological and financial means to implement an effective fiber-optic network throughout the city. Boasting Gigabit speeds and new television/internet plans, Google is looking to completely overhaul the existing framework of Internet and Cable/Satellite Service Providers.

How Fast is Gigabit?

Second, internet will be lightning fast. Yes, Google claims “gigabit” speeds, but what does this actually mean? Gigabit simply refers to the amount of data that is flowing through the system to each house or business. For reference, most “high speed internet” providers today offer around 10-100 megabits (Mb, or megabits per second, Mbps). There are 1000 Mb in a gigabit (Gb, or gigabits per second, Gbps).

Both of these units are measured in the base unit bits. They are different from, but related to bytes. You’ve most likely heard of bytes being used to talk about how much storage your computer or iPod has. Examples could be like, a computer with a 500 Gigabyte (GB) hard drive, or a 16 GB iPod touch. A single byte is composed of 8 bits. A gigabit internet speed means you could download a high definition movie at Blu-ray quality in less than 3 minutes, whereas before it could take you upwards of 3-4 hours.

Gigabit Ethernet ports supporting these gigabit speeds on computers and internet routers have actually been around since 1999. But ISPs (Internet Service Providers) haven’t been able, or in some cases willing, to provide internet capable of using gigabit Ethernet to its fullest potential. Google is seeking to change that.

Provo’s Future in Tech

Third, what does it mean for Provo as a city? Provo is one of the fastest growing tech cities in the country. The entire Wasatch front in Utah is now being referred to as the “Silicon Slopes” because of the rapid growth in technologically focused industries in the area.

We can expect to see major companies joining those already along the Silicon Slopes such as Leadgenix and Adobe. Provo may become a hub in the near future for the tech industry because of its location and revamped fiber-optic network. Existing local businesses will have a level of exposure that was not possible before and will have the opportunity to expand into larger markets.

The appeal of true gigabit internet to businesses, especially within the tech industry, is extremely high. The implementation of Google Fiber in Provo might prove to be the catalyst of an even larger scale tech boom on the Silicon Slopes.

Photo Credit: Owen Xu, Ben Stanfield, Ken Lund

AuthorRank vs. Authorship

So, a common misconception is that AuthorRank and Authorship can be used interchangeably. This is not true. AuthorRank and Authorship are not the same thing. Think of it this way: Authorship is the tool, and AuthorRAnk is the potential thing built with that tool (in the words of Mark Traphagen). Just as SEO is another tool, PageRank is the thing built with that tool.

So, Google has always ranked webpages. But now, Google will rank individual authors as well. When Google finds a piece of high-quality content, now they will reward the author of the content in addition to the website where that content resides. This is important because you as an individual can get credit for all the great content you write! This will lead to more search result visibility, higher click-through rates, and thus more traffic, more money… you get the picture.

Authorship on a Company Level

Now let’s talk about why Authorship is important on a company level. To give some background, many companies opt to have all their content posted by their own company name. For example, every blog post we publish would simply be published by Leadgenix, and there would be no real author associated with it. This is basically ghostwriting, and it is WRONG!

Mike explained in depth that employees NEED Authorship, and we as a company need to be advocates for that. If a company is not willing to highlight their people, they’re not going to enjoy the benefits of Authorship. This was a good pat on the back for us, because we clearly let all our employees establish their own Authorship on our blog. Through this method, everyone can build up their own credibility through the content they create.

How to Improve Your Author Authority

Now we’ll run through three steps you can take to set up your profile properly, establish Authorship, and improve your authority as an author:

Set Up Your Google+ Profile

First, you need to fill in all the information about you. This includes name, education, where you live, etc. In addition to all this, upload a high-quality photo as your profile picture. This picture shouldn’t be you with other people, a mere silhouette, an animal, etc. It should be a frontal head shot of your face. Google’s image-identifying technology is getting better and better, so pretty soon they’ll be able to tell if these photos are legit or not. (Side note: you might want to consider placing the same photo across all your platforms so that people recognize you by your photo, thus enhancing your credibility.)

Add the Code

My preferred method to establish Authorship comes in two parts. First, go into your Google+ profile and establish that you are a “Contributor To” a certain blog. All you need to do is add the URL to that blog. In my case, I am a contributor to the Leadgenix blog at www.leadgenix.com:

The cool thing about the “Contributor to” section is that you can designate whether you are a current or a past contributor. This way, you can build your authority across all the sites to which you contribute.

Next, you’ll need to log in to the backend of your blog (we prefer WordPress) and include a link to your Google+ profile in your author bio. Because your bio will appear on every post you write, each of these posts will then be attributed to you.

Produce Great Content and Measure the Results

If you would like a more in-depth look at producing great content, I recommend you reference these posts on creating your own blog or making your online content engaging. In the meantime, we’ll focus more on some neat ways to measure your personal reach as an author.

Google+ Ripples

The purpose of Google+ Ripples is to show an interactive graphic of the public share of any public post or URL on Google+. It shows you how this content has, in essence, “rippled” through the network, and will in turn shed some light on the advocates for your content.

Below is an example of a Google+ Ripples graphic. You can see the URL of the post that we are analyzing, as well as all the individuals who shared it publicly on Google+. According to the size of the bubble, these individuals might be “strong advocates” or “light advocates” of your content. This graphic will help you to discover who is sharing your content (and the most frequently), in addition to providing you with new and interesting people to follow.

Webmaster Tools

In addition to Google+ Ripples, Webmaster Tools is a great resource to see the statistics for all posts for which you are attributed Authorship. If I log into my Webmaster Tools account (below), it will show me the data for the past 3 months’ worth of impressions, clicks, CTR, and even my average position in the SERP’s.

The interesting thing about logging into my account is that my top source of clicks in the past 3 months is a blog post that I wrote in March of 2011. This just goes to show that really good blog posts will continue to bring traffic back to the site for a very long time.

Authorship as a Whole

All of that being said, I am a strong advocate that everyone needs to set up their Authorship. There are rumors that in the future, AuthorRank could have a higher impact on the overall presence of your website. Imagine it: a site with a high PR and a low AR could be flagged as engaging in suspicious activity. Who knows? If your Authorship score doesn’t seem congruent with the site to which you are contributing, this could be a serious ranking factor that could make or break people.

Overall, not only will this help you to better establish yourself as an authority in any niche you are trying to emphasize, but also the site to which you are contributing will receive a boost as well. Get your Authorship set up today and be prepared for this forthcoming update to the algorithm.

Both online and brick & mortar businesses use Search Engine and Social Media Optimization to grow.  These tools are not, however, exclusively useful in this arena.  Niche communities are using social media to collaborate and grow every day, but many do not even consider how SEO may help.

In my spare time I participate in and help to grow a local social dance community.  Social dance is all about the people and the in-person connection.  Why would we need to effectively utilize a website or even consider SEO when the foundation of the community is the social interaction at a physical location?

The Answer is Simple

Millions of people search online every day for special interest groups that they want to learn more about.  Many special interest groups don’t even have a website and the websites that do exist are not user friendly or even attractive.  Information on where, when, and what can be outdated and incomplete.

With a little work and some DIY Search Engine Optimization most niche communities could increase their visibility significantly.   By creating and optimizing a simple, sleek website and utilizing a few effective keywords, your community will be more accessible to the public.  More importantly, any individuals searching for your niche group will be able to easily find, join, and begin collaborating with you.

Growing Through SEO

The best inventions and ideas all start small. They start as a conversation between friends over dinner or in the early hours of the morning after a party.  They begin as collaborations between a few close creators who are passionate about what they are doing.  Starting small is hard and growth takes patience and many hours of frequently volunteered time.

SEO and social media will help you grow your community and attract others with just as much passion as you.  Where growth, collaboration, and passion meet, successful businesses are born.  Who knows, one day you just may find yourself getting paid to do what you love.

Photo Credit: Eric Esquivel, bertboerland, Marc Wathieu via Photopin cc

So, what do people think of Facebook Home? Surprisingly, most of the reviews have been quite negative. Just over 11,000 people have left reviews with the average rating only being 2.2 stars out of 5 and over 6,000 only gave it one star.

Some complained that it wasn’t as user friendly as they thought it would be and that it limits their phone’s capabilities. Many complained that it drained their phone batteries extremely fast. Others didn’t feel the need to have their entire phone organized around what was happening on Facebook.

Most of the people who did like it seemed to think that it was off to a good start, but there is room for improvement. Those who like it also seem to be individuals who enjoy being on Facebook frequently and knowing what their friends are up to.

Currently Facebook Home is only available for seven Android devices so there is still a lot of room for improvement. As more devices adopt Facebook Home and more individuals begin using it, we will get a better idea of how good it actually is. If you are still wondering what exactly Facebook Home is and if you should download it on your Android, check out the video below.

photo credit: morner via photopin cc

While this eventually would help in the catching of the culprits, there were a few interesting hiccups and facts caused by people’s reliance on social media that were reported on CBSnews.com that I think you should watch:

Our thoughts and prayers are still with everyone affected by this horrific attack not just on the Boston Marathon, but on our country. God bless Boston, and God bless America.