Showing posts with label wordpress. Show all posts
THE LANGUAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Click on the image to view it in full
In today’s plugged-in, on-demand world, social media has been credited as one of the key drivers of global connectivity. The rise of social media and its impact on political, economic and social spheres has been hard to ignore in any part of the world. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have gained worldwide popularity paving the way for rapid multilingualization of their sites.
With our focus on languages, we have created an infographic about four globally popular social networking sites showing the languages they support and the top five countries of their user base. Facebook as the world leading social networking site has a clear lead in language support. Google+, a recent entrant to the social networking market, has been able to utilise Google Translate, its own machine translation engine, to develop a substantial list of localized sites. This has helped spread usage around the world quickly. Twitter, with its Translation Centre, relies upon a crowd-sourcing approach for the provision of its localized sites and has recently overcome a technical challenge around the use of hashtags in right-to-left scripts such as Arabic. LinkedIn is also expected to increase the number of localized sites it creates owing to its recent growth in use and popularity.
The image shows the top four social networks listed by size of their user base. The world maps for each social networks shows the languages they support by country of their use. We have also added the top five countries by number of users for each site to show the diversity of their demographics.
5 Essential WordPress Tips for Beginners
Have you ever been driving your car, playing on your computer or trying to change the input on your TV when, all of a sudden, someone introduces you to a mind-blowing new feature? Here, we'll cover five great, lesser-known WordPress features. Soon, you too will experience that elusive "Ah-ha!" moment.
1. Schedule Blog Posts for the Future
The majority of bloggers try to follow a publishing schedule. They post once a month, once a week or once a day. In WordPress, you can schedule posts to go live at a particular time and date, so you don’t need to be at your computer (or even awake) when the post goes live. Here’s how.
In the WordPress backend, go to the Edit screen for the post you wish to schedule.
1. In the top-right of the page, look for a box titled "Publish," where you’ll find an option that reads “Publish immediately."
2. Click the blue “Edit” text next to “Publish immediately” and choose the month, date, year and time you want your post to be published. Remember to use military time (3:00 p.m. would be 15:00).
3. Click the gray “OK” button.
4. The “Publish immediately” text should now change to “Schedule for," with whatever date and time you have chosen.
5. If you’re ready to go, click the blue “Schedule” button (formerly "Publish"). Your post is set to go.
2. Click the blue “Edit” text next to “Publish immediately” and choose the month, date, year and time you want your post to be published. Remember to use military time (3:00 p.m. would be 15:00).
3. Click the gray “OK” button.
4. The “Publish immediately” text should now change to “Schedule for," with whatever date and time you have chosen.
5. If you’re ready to go, click the blue “Schedule” button (formerly "Publish"). Your post is set to go.
2. Change Your Page and Blog Post URLs
WordPress generally does a good job creating URLs for your pages or posts, but sometimes you'll need to adjust. Here are the most common instances you’ll want to change URLs.
1. Your page or post URL contains special characters like %, &, $, @, or *. These characters make it difficult for search engines to read and can be problematic for browsers, potentially preventing some of your pages from loading.
2. Your post or page title is really long and contains words not optimized for search. For example, if we write a post called “Helping Kids Find a Home or Shelter in St. Louis, Missouri,” WordPress may automatically generate this URL: “helping-kids-find-a-home-or-shelter-in-st-louis-missouri.” Search engines prefer shorter URLs, so it's worth removing words that won’t help the post's or page's ranking. Search engines also prefer that high-ranking keywords appear at the beginning of URLs. In the example above, if we want to rank for the phrase “homes for kids in St. Louis” we may want to adjust the URL to read “kids-find-homes-st-louis”.
2. Your post or page title is really long and contains words not optimized for search. For example, if we write a post called “Helping Kids Find a Home or Shelter in St. Louis, Missouri,” WordPress may automatically generate this URL: “helping-kids-find-a-home-or-shelter-in-st-louis-missouri.” Search engines prefer shorter URLs, so it's worth removing words that won’t help the post's or page's ranking. Search engines also prefer that high-ranking keywords appear at the beginning of URLs. In the example above, if we want to rank for the phrase “homes for kids in St. Louis” we may want to adjust the URL to read “kids-find-homes-st-louis”.
If you notice that your new page or post URL doesn’t match one of the two cases listed above, here's how to change it.
1. In the WordPress backend, go to the Edit screen for the post or page you wish to edit.
2. Just below the title, click the gray “Edit” button next to the permalink. If instead of “Edit,” you see a button that says “Change Permalinks,” Click that button and click the “Post name” radio button on the “Permalink Settings” page. Then click the blue “Save Changes” button. Go back to the post or page you wish to edit and you should see the “Edit” button.
3. When you click "Edit,", the URL will change to a text box, ready for you to alter. Remove special characters and any words that could hurt your search engine rankings. That means generic words like “a,” “or,” “in” and “the.” As mentioned above, we might change “helping-kids-find-a-home-or-shelter-in-st-louis-missouri” to “kids-find-homes-st-louis”. Make sure you also separate each word with a dash (-).
4. Click the gray “OK” button.
5. Click the blue “Publish” or “Update” button to save your changes.
2. Just below the title, click the gray “Edit” button next to the permalink. If instead of “Edit,” you see a button that says “Change Permalinks,” Click that button and click the “Post name” radio button on the “Permalink Settings” page. Then click the blue “Save Changes” button. Go back to the post or page you wish to edit and you should see the “Edit” button.
3. When you click "Edit,", the URL will change to a text box, ready for you to alter. Remove special characters and any words that could hurt your search engine rankings. That means generic words like “a,” “or,” “in” and “the.” As mentioned above, we might change “helping-kids-find-a-home-or-shelter-in-st-louis-missouri” to “kids-find-homes-st-louis”. Make sure you also separate each word with a dash (-).
4. Click the gray “OK” button.
5. Click the blue “Publish” or “Update” button to save your changes.
Note: it’s not good practice to change permalinks after the post or page has already been published. Once your page or post is live, people might share it, link to it, email it or even write it down. WordPress usually excels at forwarding links, but it isn’t always 100% effective, and forwarding can hurt your search rankings.
In case you’re looking for more information on URL best practices, check out "11 Best Practices for URLs" from SEOMoz.
In case you’re looking for more information on URL best practices, check out "11 Best Practices for URLs" from SEOMoz.
3. WordPress Editor Tips
If you manage a blog or write content, you’ve probably used the WordPress editor a fair amount. But many people haven’t realized its full potential. Try out the tips below to speed up your workflow and eliminate misspellings and website styling issues.
Spellcheck in the WordPress Editor
This is a simple step that many people miss. If you want to spellcheck your content while you work or just before publishing, click the button that has a checkmark with the letters “ABC” at the top. If you aren't writing in English, you can choose your language using the drop-down arrow next to “ABC."
Remove Formatting from Copied Text
Sometimes you copy text from Microsoft Word and, even though you’re using the “Paste from Word” button (a clipboard with a "W" on it), the text still doesn’t look quite right. It might be the wrong color or size. In any case, a button exists specifically for removing formatting from outside sources. To use it, follow these steps:
1. The “Show/Hide Kitchen Sink” button pictures boxes with different-colored squares and rectangles. Click it to show a second row of buttons.
2. Highlight the incorrectly formatted text.
3. Click the “Remove Formatting” button. This button features a white eraser that turns pink when you hover over it. That should do the trick.
2. Highlight the incorrectly formatted text.
3. Click the “Remove Formatting” button. This button features a white eraser that turns pink when you hover over it. That should do the trick.
Shift + Return Creates a Line Break
Sometimes when you’re working in the WordPress editor, you want to create a single line break — not a paragraph break with a gap between the two lines, but a single line break in which the lines are closer together. To do that, just hold the Shift key and hit Return. That’s it. Adding your organization’s address to your contact page just got a lot easier.
Use WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts
I’m sure you use Control + C and Control + V to copy and paste all the time. But most people don’t know the WordPress editor also has shortcut keys, and if you’re working in the editor a fair amount, they can save you a lot of time. Here are some of the best shortcuts to try out. (Mac users: Use the Command key instead of the Control key.)
Bold: Control + B
Underline: Control + U
Italic: Control + I
Heading 1: Control + 1
Heading 2: Control + 2
Heading 3: Control + 3
Heading 4: Control + 4
Underline: Control + U
Italic: Control + I
Heading 1: Control + 1
Heading 2: Control + 2
Heading 3: Control + 3
Heading 4: Control + 4
For a full list of WordPress “Hotkeys,” click the "Help" button with the question mark on the WordPress editor, then click the “Hotkeys” tab.
4. Easily Embed Videos, Tweets and Other Media
Many people don’t know WordPress can easily embed content from popular websites like YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, Hulu, Flickr and Viddler. Read on to find out how.
1. Put your cursor wherever you want to insert the video, image, tweet or other type of media. The media will insert wherever you place the cursor.
2. Go to the media's source site and copy the URL for the media you’d like to insert. For instance, I might go to this YouTube video and just copy the URL from the top of my browser.
2. Go to the media's source site and copy the URL for the media you’d like to insert. For instance, I might go to this YouTube video and just copy the URL from the top of my browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjGe-_OYWQQ
3. Now go back to the WordPress editor and paste the URL into the main content area of the page. Make sure it's on its own line and don't try to right- or center-align it. This will cause it to display incorrectly. The editor will only show you the URL, but when you view the post, WordPress embeds the media.
4. If the URL you pasted appears in the main content area of the editor as a blue link, you need to unlink it. Click within the URL text, then click the broken link icon at the top of the main content area. The text should unlink.
5. Click the gray “Preview Changes” button on the top-right of the page to make sure the media has embedded correctly. You'll see the YouTube video we embedded now displays within our content.
6. If your media shows up correctly during your preview, go back to the editor and click the blue “Update” or “Publish” button to make the media live on your website. If the sizing of the embedded media looks off, you may need to adjust the media settings.
4. If the URL you pasted appears in the main content area of the editor as a blue link, you need to unlink it. Click within the URL text, then click the broken link icon at the top of the main content area. The text should unlink.
5. Click the gray “Preview Changes” button on the top-right of the page to make sure the media has embedded correctly. You'll see the YouTube video we embedded now displays within our content.
6. If your media shows up correctly during your preview, go back to the editor and click the blue “Update” or “Publish” button to make the media live on your website. If the sizing of the embedded media looks off, you may need to adjust the media settings.
If you're not sure you can embed from a specific site, check out the WordPress Embeds page for a full list.
5. Change Blog Post Authors Simply
If multiple people write for your site, but you’re the only one publishing, you'll notice your username shows as the author for every post. For a lot of WordPress users, the ability to change post authors is hidden by default. Follow these simple steps to change authors for your WordPress posts.
1. Go to the Edit screen for the blog post that need an author change.
2. In the top-right of the page, click the “Screen Options” tab and a list of options will drop down.
3. Check the box that says “Author.” A new box on the page should display, titled “Author” and containing a drop-down box to choose the author of the post.
4. Select the author from the drop-down list. If she isn't listed, you may need to add her as a user.
5. Click the blue “Publish” or “Update” button to save the post under the new author.
2. In the top-right of the page, click the “Screen Options” tab and a list of options will drop down.
3. Check the box that says “Author.” A new box on the page should display, titled “Author” and containing a drop-down box to choose the author of the post.
4. Select the author from the drop-down list. If she isn't listed, you may need to add her as a user.
5. Click the blue “Publish” or “Update” button to save the post under the new author.
5 Benefits of Having a Website for Your Small Business
In this age of the World Wide Web, Internet is the best tool to establish and support our businesses. Internet has reduced the boundaries between countries and hence doing business and promoting it across the world has become easy. Websites these days act as a primary tool in promoting the business. You have to design an appealing website to catch the attention of the viewers looking for information on the internet. Once you can get them interested in your website, you’ll be able to promote your business through it.
Websites can advertise your business and help it expand internationally. It is the best platform to showcase your business all across the world. It is actually extremely important for home based businesses to have a website to display their products or services. There are several online companies running their businesses over the Internet. Without a proper website to showcase their products and services, they will not be able to get the business they want.
There are so many websites which run online stores with different types of products for the consumers to buy and sell. These kinds of websites cannot function without proper advertisement. The currency value is also another important factor behind people selling products online and making profit. For instance, if you’re into restaurant business, then you should have an online website. Your customers can then consider placing orders on the website of your fast food joint or restaurant. This is the right way to market your business nicely over the internet with the help of a properly prepared website. If your business is a genuine one, you’ll serve customers the same menu had they been sitting at the joint itself. It actually saves a lot of time and increases your business.
Websites can advertise your business and help it expand internationally. It is the best platform to showcase your business all across the world. It is actually extremely important for home based businesses to have a website to display their products or services. There are several online companies running their businesses over the Internet. Without a proper website to showcase their products and services, they will not be able to get the business they want.
There are so many websites which run online stores with different types of products for the consumers to buy and sell. These kinds of websites cannot function without proper advertisement. The currency value is also another important factor behind people selling products online and making profit. For instance, if you’re into restaurant business, then you should have an online website. Your customers can then consider placing orders on the website of your fast food joint or restaurant. This is the right way to market your business nicely over the internet with the help of a properly prepared website. If your business is a genuine one, you’ll serve customers the same menu had they been sitting at the joint itself. It actually saves a lot of time and increases your business.
You probably know some businesses who are doing phenomenally well without a website. We do, too. But we often wonder how much better they could be doing if they took the time to invest in one. And when we say “website,” we don’t mean an electronic version of that brochure they’ve been handing out for the past 10 years. We mean a legitimate, well-thought-out site that is designed to inform, engage and convert their audience.
Here are just a few benefits that come along with creating a usable website for your small business. Let us know why you think it is (or isn’t) important for a SMB to have a website in 2012.
1. You stop being invisible.
We’re not trying to be flippant, but by creating a website you stop being invisible to the people trying to find you online. More and more studies are telling us about the ROBO effect where customers are learning to research online before buying offline. They’re typing their problems or needs into the search engine of their choice and are researching the companies that appear for those queries. If you don’t have a Web presence, there’s no chance of you showing up and you never even enter into their thought process. In 2012, you can’t afford to be invisible.
2. You help control your rankings.
While you can’t simply rattle off a list of search terms you want to be found for, you can use search engine optimization basics to help control where your site shows up and for which queries. By creating optimized content, building relevant links and creating a brand that customers want to engage with, you set yourself up as an authority in the eyes of the search engine and increase your chances of appearing for the right queries – the ones paying customers are using to find businesses just like yours. Creating an optimized website helps you to gain important visibility for the right terms.
3. You create another sales tool.
A website is a powerful sales tool and one that allows you to address your customers’ concerns, give them the information they need to make a decision and create compelling calls to action. Sure, you can keep placing ads in the Yellow Pages and hope that word-of-mouth generates on its own… or you can build something that inspires it to happen. Your website is your home turf where people can go to seek out trusted information about your company and engage with you on a more personal level. Use it to build confidence in your brand and to give customers important buying information (and incentives).
4. You build authority.
Though the Web has been around for some time, it’s true that you didn’t always need a website to find your audience. It was a lot easier to market via direct mailings, Yellow page ads and local word-of-mouth. However, today your website and your social presence are the factors that customers are looking for when they research a small business. They want to know that you’re stable enough to have a dedicated Web presence. That you’ll be around tomorrow should something go wrong. That they can get ahold of you when they need to. By creating a website, you set up shop on the Internet and show customers that this is where they can come to find information about you, to read articles that you’ve written and to learn more about your company. All of these things build authority. Without a website, you’re at a huge disadvantage as a small business owner trying to speak to your customers.
5. You build an email list.
Even if you hate the Web, you probably still like email. We bet you even collect emails from your customers by hand so that you can keep them up to date on what’s happening in-store. Having a website allows you to do all of that better because it makes it easier, faster and provides even more incentive for someone to sign up. Create a site that users can trust and then use it to build your email list. Along with your website, that list just may end up being one of your strongest sales tools.
Facebook Integration for WordPress
Starting today WordPress publishers can easily integrate Facebook features, such as social publishing and mentions, through the new Facebook for WordPress plugin.
The plugin was built by Facebook engineers in collaboration with open source partners, and makes it simple for anyone to make their WordPress site more social – no coding required. The plugin will also work on mobile and support internationalization.
Social Publishing
Once the plugin is installed, you can cross-post content published to WordPress to your Facebook Timeline and the Facebook Pages you manage. You can also mention the names of Pages and friends as you post to further distribute your content.
WordPress Widgets
The following social plugins are available as WordPress widgets:
- Activity Feed: Shows readers their friends’ activity on the site, such as likes and comments.
- Recommendations: Gives readers personalized suggestions for pages on your site they might like, as well as a Recommendations Bar option to give users the option to add content to their Timeline as they read.
- Customizable Like, Subscribe and Send buttons.
- Comments Box: Makes it easy for people to comment on your site and post back to Facebook, and includes moderation tools. The plugin also features automatic SEO support for Facebook Comments, so search engines can index them to improve your site’s visibility.
TechCrunch, Buzz Media and The Next Web are already using the plugin to connect with their audiences while providing users with more engaging and personalized experiences. The plugin is available for all sites on WordPress.com VIP as well.
WordPress powers 16.6 percent of the web, from The New York Times to People Magazine, and attracts more than 600 million unique visitors each month. We hope the plugin makes it possible for WordPress content to be shared even more widely among people.
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