Top 5 Social Media Apps for iPhone
Guest Post by James Clark.
Social networking sites for smartphones are what make the smartphone experience all the richer. You can get the entertainment and socialization aspects of using a full time PC all in a handy device that is not only portable but can be safely tucked into your pockets or bags. Modern technology really can be a blessing but availing the luxuries can be a bit tricky. With so much progress happening on the smartphone front, there is also a lot of malware and spyware being produced too- – a counter reaction almost for all the things you can use smartphones for.
Of all the platforms for smartphones, iOS ranks number one when it comes to safety. There is just no doubt that an iPhone is the safest platform what with the closed OS and Apple’s strict review policies for apps. So if you feel that you want a social app experience and are safe from cell phone monitoring, keyloggers, and all sorts of malware and adware that spreads through social networking sites, iPhone is your best option. And so, here are the best social apps that will help you socialize with ease and no fear of spyware on your iPhone.
There can be no surprises here. Facebook is King App when it comes to comparing social networking apps for any platform. When we talk about iPhone, we know that the people over at Apple have managed to master social networking app creation and have a great free app version on iTunes. The app is very close to the real website and offers almost everything that is available on the site. The rating is 5 out of 5 and is the most used social app on iPhone.
Meebo
Though Meebo also has an excellent rating (5 out of 5 like Facebook), it still will have to come in a close second behind Facebook since the latter’s preference outdoes anyone else’s. But what is great about Meebo is that you can use it and still avail Facebook chat along with dozens of other chat services all rolled into one iPhone app. The app is free and very easy to use.
IMO Instant Messenger
This is a great app that also allows you to keep in touch with friends through multiple social network platforms and services. Among services it incorporates are AOL, MSN, Facebook, MySpace, and many more. Unlike Meebo, it supports Skype which gives it an edge over some other apps for Skype fans. IMO Instant Messenger is free and allows users to sort out and organize contacts, user push features, search chat history and more. The rating for this app is 4.5 out of 5 but personally, this app is a better option than Meebo.
TweetDeck iPhone App
This is a favorite among Twitter fans. Though it’s the free version of the Twitter app, fans flock to it since it does offer a lot of good features despite holding back many for the users on the paid version. With TweetDeck users can manage more than one Twitter account on one simple interface. The ranking is 4/5 and hard to beat for a free Twitter app.
Now this app is quite possibly the most comprehensive one when it comes to accessing multiple services. Instead of just incorporating the big names, users can also keep tabs on Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Instagram. All the news feeds come to the users in magazine style updates, keeping everything fresh and fun. Flipboard ranks great with a 5 out of 5 rating.
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James Clark has been in the business of providing quality information on Mobistealth Mobile Spy Software for a while now. He’s an expert at all things spyware, but his main forte is iPhone spyware which has captured the interest of many.
Read MoreAdding Variety to Anchor Text for a Natural Backlink Profile
Guest Post by Andy Wallner
If you’ve ever encountered SEO, you know that the whole idea of search optimization is often a battle against search engines, not with them. The life of an SEO expert consists of constantly seeking ways to “trick” Google into thinking that people love your site, even if you’ve only had a few visitors (or have other, more financially related motives). Far too often, SEOers (that’s a word, right?) tend to find the quickest, dirtiest, and easiest ways to bring visibility to their sites, and forget that there’s actually a missing human element. Get big enough in a competitive vertical, and Google might pick your site to be analyzed by their engineers (I’ve seen giants toppled because of this).
It’s unlikely that you’ll ever actually trick a search engineer. But launching obvious link building campaigns can set off some red flags that bring negative attention to your efforts. So, what’s the best way to make sure that Google knows you’re not getting all natural links? Forgetting to add variety to your anchor text.
The State of Anchor Text
Anchor text is a puzzling thing to many new web marketers. Let’s say, for example, that you operate the site marketingdegree.net, and want to generate more traffic by targeting some keywords. What would you do? The phrase “marketing degree” seems to be pretty valuable, so we might target that alone. And that would make sense as many people would refer to the site like I just did above. With an exact match domain, the job is fairly simple and natural links are more likely to come in how I want them.
Now, let’s consider a different scenario. Let’s suppose I went a different route with a “brandable domain.” Google wanted to be more than a website (that’s why they didn’t pick searchengine.com). So, they chose a brand. Suppose I chose something like “Google.com” for my site in some alternate Internet universe. How likely would it be that everyone would link to me using the phrase “marketing degree?” Pretty unlikely unless I was already dominating the SERPs. People would link to me in all sorts of ways, from “click here” to “this site doesn’t agree with my opinion, however” as the anchor text. In fact, some companies have accidentally ranked for that anchor text – try searching Google for “click here” and you’ll find some pretty powerful players on page one (Adobe, Wikipedia, Apple, Mapquest and Yahoo!). When I got big enough, people would likely link to me primarily using “Google.”
Still, conversions matter. Adobe probably isn’t making any money by ranking number one in Google for “click here,” even though AdWords is telling me that I’m one of about 22,200 that searches for it every month and there is no advertising competition whatsoever for the term (jackpot right?). The chances of monetizing such a broad keyword phrase are slim (especially with all those heavy hitters dominating it in Google).
Adding That Variety
Anchor text for incoming links is vital to your success, but it’s not everything. You can think of links as having two different types of “juice” – the normal, delicious kind that passes reputation (called page rank by Google), and the just as delicious juice called “passing anchor text.” It’s far more complicated, but think of it like this:
- Any old link builds your site’s reputation with Google, and helps you rank slightly for all search terms relevant to your site’s content.
- Anchor text helps you rank for specific terms.
So why is it that so many beginning SEO enthusiasts set out on a link building campaign to build thousands of links using the same exact anchor text every time? Can you think of anything less natural? You can sit back and wait for the links to come naturally (like Google wants you to…), or you can add a little variety to your anchor text to avoid setting off any alarms.
First, consider the two juices of a link. As long as a backlink doesn’t come from the bad neighborhood of the Internet (spam land and porn, gambling, etc.), a link is pretty much a link. In other words, getting a link can never hurt you. Otherwise, every spammer in the world would be sending thousands of terrible links to their competitors’ sites to shut them down. This doesn’t mean you need to spend hours getting a link from a PR 0 site either though.
So feel free to mix up your anchor text – a lot. Think about all of the ways a person might reference your site and its content and write them down. How do you talk to people about your services? Furthermore, what value does your site offer?
Using the Long Tail for Anchor Text Ideas
Think of a nice long tail keyword phrase that you’d like to target, preferably one that sums up everything your site has to offer – luxury vacations in Egypt for senior citizens, for example. If you divide that long tail phrase into smaller phrases (luxury vacations, vacations in Egypt, senior citizen vacations, etc.), then come up with all of the variations for those phrases (vacation over 65, holiday in Egypt, Egyptian vacations, and so on), you have a nice list of natural anchor text for your link building campaign.
You’ve successfully made a connection to everything your site has to offer, without spamming the same anchor text over and over again. Your efforts look much more natural to everyone involved – the Google robots and humans alike. And don’t worry too much about not ranking for your targeted keyword phrase. Search engine results don’t work that way. After all, why would Google design a system that relies on unnatural activity to yield natural results?
You might even add a few odd anchor text links to make things squeaky clean, like “I love this site” or “good news for us all.” You’ll still get the link juice.
Finally, if anyone reading this has the guts, free time, and extra cash to try to get their site on the first page for “click here,” please let Trisha know so I can send you a batch of my almost world famous banana bread (only if you’re successful, please!). Unfortunately, I lack all three of my aforementioned elements to do so myself, but I have plenty of banana bread at the moment.
Final Note: I must make one thing clear for those that are about to leave an angry comment. We’re not discussing exact match domain names right now. If you have an exact match domain, adding a lot of variety to your exact match anchor text isn’t really all that necessary, except if you’re branching out to other keyword phrases. You spent enough money on the domain to impress Google already, and they’ll fully expect thousands of links to come to it using your website name as the anchor text.
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Andy Wallner is a freelance writer and web developer that specializes in providing information to students considering a marketing degree, or interested in online and offline marketing information. In his free time, Andy enjoys kayaking, playing trombone in a local jazz band, and learning CSS.
Read Moread:tech San Francisco: The New Power Brokers – Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter & Beyond
Session Description: Whether you’re launching a company, marketing a product or just keeping your head above water, it’s likely that you’re increasingly forced to plot your strategy around today’s new power brokers—Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter. Does the relative hegemony and power of these companies create a stable, predictable environment for the rest of us, or are we continually guessing what the next chess move will do to our plans? In this highly interactive and thought-provoking segment, Upstream Group CEO Doug Weaver brings together experts from the capital markets, industry journalism and agency leadership to explore the impact of these companies on M&A, marketing and advertising. Are these players permanent fixtures, or are there new power brokers waiting in the wings? And what do you need to know to make the very best decisions in the months ahead?
This session took place Tuesday, April 12, 2011. The speakers:
- Doug Weaver, Founder & CEO, Upstream Group (Moderator)
- Shawn Carolan, Managing Director, Menlo Ventures
- Scott Symonds, General Manager Media, AKQA
- Molly Wood, Executive Editor, CNET.com
I enjoyed the discussion, though I wish there had been more actionable items.
Bullet Point Review!
- Only 10% of Twitter accounts follow more than 50 people.
- What is a tweet worth as opposed to a Facebook news update?
- This curve is pretty similar to any participatory medium.
- 1 in 4 twitter users are African-American, which is sort of the mirrored opposite of Facebook.
- Does Amazon belong on this list instead?
- Already selling more digital books than printed books.
- Many start-ups use their services for storage, hosting, etc.
- $36 billion in ecommerce in 2010
- Who is empowered? They’re more about empowering themselves, not other sellers or users.
- They’ve all built really nice walled gardens. Does that make the web less relevant & by association, Google less relevant?
- When you solve problems, you grow the market.
- You still find all these walled gardens through Google.
- Google is tying bonuses to social media strategy (up to 25%).
- The personal recommendation is the absolute social currency of web 3.0.
- Google should let Groupon and Facebook have their games & get really good at search.
- Is the web less relevant with Facebook around?
- “Control, distribution, & delivery of content is the next battleground.” – Molly Wood
- Clients are more willing to go where good content & readers are instead of the more traditional media outlets.
- NBC/Comcast is just one example of vertical integration where one party own a both the content & the pipe.
- Kinect has reinvigorated some new life into Microsoft.
- Yahoo might have some life left in them.
- AOL? Made some good hires and good acquisitions & trying hard, especially with local & patch, but it remains to be seen.
- Who may end up being a power broker in 5-10 years? Apple may not be as people go towards open source, Facebook & Google may be, but ones aggregating content will be ones to watch. Lots of potential with foursquare. Blogging may overturn.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
I apologize, dear reader, as this blog has been on auto pilot lately. A lot has been going on in my world, both personal and professional, and it’s still taking a lot of time and energy to get sorted out.
The good news is, I’ll be back at the helm soon. I’m heading down to CJU tonight and then Blog World Expo next weekend, so I’m sure I’ll be super jazzed to come back to this blog in full force. Lots of travel in my future, which makes me slightly even more stressed considering I’m not the biggest fan of flying really, and I haven’t packed anything yet. Luckily, I have been traveling so much in the last year that I’ve gotten into the habit of keeping travel sized stuff always packed in my toiletries bag instead of packing the stuff I use normally. Travel size for the win!
CJU will be my first network event, and I’m excited. I was looking at the agenda last week in putting together my schedule, and I really appreciate that there aren’t really that many choices to choose from during the few break out sessions. I assume that most of the sessions are just put on my Commission Junction staff considering there’s no names attached to the sessions like other shows. The keynote will be given by Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple guy now working on AllTop.com. I’ve been following Guy on Twitter for sometime now, so seeing him speak in person will be nice. I know a few folks who’ll be there, so it should be a good time. My one regret is that I didn’t book soon enough to get into the conference hotel, Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort. I’ve heard great things, but booked too late so I’m staying nearby. Maybe next year!
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I checked out the agenda for Blog World Expo and there’s about 7-10 sessions per time block to choose from! It’s hard, because my interests vary and I know some good people on panels that I want to check out. Savvy internet marketers talking about monetization that I don’t mention nearly enough, Michael Buechele and Tim Jones. And of course there’s the usual suspects that I love – Jim Kukral, Lisa Picarille, Shawn Collins, etc. I’m not done scheduling for that since I have some tough choices to make in terms of which sessions to attend. I also noticed that one of my favorite musicians, Mike Shinoda, is going to be participating in one of the keynotes. I have no clue WHY lol, but I may have to throw my last Linkin Park CD into my bag in hopes of an encounter!
So, that is what’s on my plate for now. I only have part of a day in between CJU and BlogWorldExpo, so hopefully I’ll get the notes from my CJ sessions up for you to learn from before I’m off again! In the meantime, I hope you’re not overinundated with the daily definitions and happy to take a break 😉
Read MoreEarly Bird Pricing for CJU Ends June 15
One of the leading affiliate networks (which the PsPrint program is also on), Commission Junction, is hosting their annual CJU (Commission Junction University) event September 16th – 18th in Santa Barbara, CA. This event is a chance for publishers and advertisers to meet face to face and talk about the issues facing the industry and ways of improving affiliate relations.
This year’s event has built in more networking time than any CJU before it. The organizers listened intently to the feedback the received last year wanting more chances to socialize with fellow industry professionals. This year’s keynote is Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist at Apple and current managing director of Garage Technology Ventures. It should be a good talk from someone with plenty of experience in the tech industry.
Personally, I’ve heard mixed reviews from industry insiders on this event, but hopefully so have the organizers and they’ve taken those reviews into consideration as well. The early bird pricing ends on June 15th, so now until then you can save $100 by registering now. More details can be found at http://cju.cj.com/events/. I’ve been told that the hotel books up quickly, so don’t wait. I’m still poking & prodding to see if we’re going!
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