14 reasons I love iOS 7

iOS 7 on my iPad mini

iOS 7 isn't available yet. It won't go public until this Fall. But the beta version was released to registered Apple developers nearly 3 weeks ago. I downloaded it. And I love it! Here's why:

1. New Design: The new UI and UX is refreshing. I love the pastel, translucent design. I love the new fonts. And I love the redesigned native app icons.
2. Control Center: Easy access to Bluetooth, WiFi, airplane mode, and other settings is long overdue. Just swipe up from the bottom of any screen.
3. Flashlight: Control Center also includes quick access to your calculator app and a built-in flashlight on/off switch that controls your camera's LED flash -- one of the handiest apps I had in iOS 6 that I can now delete in iOS 7.
4. Photo Moments: The photos app now automagically gathers all your camera roll pictures into "moments" based off time and location.
5. Safari: Safari has been updated to include swipe navigation, bookmark icons on new browser windows, and new browser tabs that look like your flipping through a filing cabinet -- you can even tilt your phone to look down the page to get a better view of each tab.
6. AirDrop: I guess it's pretty cool functionality -- being able to share things with other iOS 7 users in your vicinity -- but the best part about AirDrop is stuffing a sock in the mouth of all those Galaxy S4 fanboys who think sharing playlists with friends is the "coolest thing ever!"
7. Group iMessages: A few subtle updates in iMessage, like photos of those involved, make group chats better than ever.
8. Integrated YouTube / Vimeo: I take tons of photos, but I always wish I shot more videos. With system-wide YouTube and Vimeo integration, hopefully I will.
9. Auto-Update Apps: Apps automatically update in the background so you never have to open up the AppStore again -- which should save you some money too. 
10. Camera App: The camera app has been updated with built-in filters and an Instagram-like square lens. I'm one of those people who take photos outside the social network then import it into the app later, so being able to frame the photos correctly on my first attempt is a big deal.
11. iTunes Radio: I've honestly never been a huge fan of Pandora Radio, but Apple always outdoes the competition, so I have no doubt I'll become an avid iTunes Radio user. Plus, it's integrated with your Music app which means it already knows what songs & artists you like, making it an immediately more powerful music discovery tool.
12. Notification Center Today: The new Notification Center includes a "Today" tab that gives you a personalized overview of your day, including appointments, weather, stocks, tasks, and more. And it's accessible from the lock screen!
13. Unread Mail Folder: The mail app now includes smart inbox folders including an "unread" folder of just new email messages.
14. New Siri Voices: Siri has been updated with a more natural sounding woman's voice as well as a brand new male voice.

Have you downloaded iOS and found other cool features I've missed? Add them in the comments below:

The best Twitterers are Marketers

There's no denying, the best accounts to follow on Twitter have the most followers -- that's why they have the most followers (and if you disagree, please, keep reading). But what you don't realize, is that every one of those people are selling you something. It's true -- even if it's not obvious.

Let's start with just the people YOU follow. There are your friends, your family, and everyone else. An everyone else is selling you something.

Take the list of the top 10 people on Twitter with the most followers (this does not include corporate brands, which, obviously, are trying to sell you something):

1. Justin Bieber: @justinbieber - 39,673,026 followers
2. Lady Gaga: @ladygaga - 37,703,992
3. Katy Perry: @katyperry - 37,075,529
4. Barack Obama: @BarackObama - 31,982,994
5. Rihanna: @rihanna - 29,756,835
6. Taylor Swift: @taylorswift13 - 28,329,970
7. Britney Spears: @britneyspears - 27,372,412
8. Justin Timberlake: @jtimberlake - 20,778,620
9. Shakira: @shakira - 20,773,482
10. Ellen DeGeneres: @TheEllenShow - 19,301,628

They're all trying to sell you something -- mostly music. And even when it's not as obvious as that, they're still selling you on the idea of themselves as musicians, politicians, or celebrities. Their selling their own personal brand.

And then there are the corporate brands. Common sense tells you they are trying to sell you something, but you wouldn't know it by reading their tweets. There is no mention of "Buy this" or "Try that" -- just simple content marketing and engaging conversations. And that's why they're the best brands on Twitter:

1. YouTube: @YouTube - 10,259,054 followers
2. Twitter: @twitter - 8,856,790
3. Twitter en español: @twitter_es - 8,480,198
4. CNN Breaking News: @cnnbrk - 6,923,605
5. TwitPic: @TwitPic - 6,615,838
6. UberSocial: @UberSoc - 5,826,875
7. The New York Times: @nytimes - 4,700,907
8. NBA: @NBA - 4,525,421
9. Google: @google - 4,465,778
10. E! Online: @eonline - 4,267,255

Brands and Twitter are all about content marketing. The best brands -- whether personal or corporate -- are the best content marketers. They post interesting tweets that are relevant to their followers. By doing so, they promote their brand. That's why they have the most followers. And that's why all the best Twitterers are marketers.

[INFOGRAPHIC] How social media changed the search for jobs & talent

The internet and social media have completely changed the way people find jobs and recruiters find talent.

Pre-social media, and even pre-technology, the word "search" had an entirely different meaning. For job hunters, searching for your dream job was a difficult, time-consuming, and often times luck-dependent process. Those who found their dream job just happened to be in the right place, at the right time. For recruiters, searching for qualified talent depended entirely on personal relationships. If you didn't know the person, or know someone who knew someone, you couldn't shake their hand.

Then Google (and Yahoo) changed everything -- and searching was instantly easier. Technology redefined "the search."

Today, technology has made it easier than ever to find what you're looking for. And with social media, you often find things you're not looking for. With everything your friends and follows are sharing you can't avoid it. Every time you check into your feeds and timelines your presented with new opinions, research, and opportunities. And if you're online, you can be found.

Today, everyone is a passively-seeking candidate, whether they know it or not. 

The internet and social media have completely changed the way people find jobs and recruiters find talent. The following infographic from TalentBin shows how these emerging technologies have contributed to improvements in the passive and active search for both the recruiters and the candidates:

Gossip vs Enlightenment

There are two types of information in this world: gossip and enlightenment.

Much of the world's communication surrounds the first, gossip. This information is pointless, useless, and entirely unenlightening.

Everything else, is enlightening. This information is valuable, educational, and thought provoking. It can be in the form of fictional entertainment or scientific nonfiction. It can be historical or hypothetical. But enlightening information is, and always be, exactly that -- enlightening.

Enlightening information is based on facts. Gossip is opinionated.

Enlightening information is helpful. Gossip is often harmful.

Enlightening information is freeing. Gossip is binding.

Enlightening information is the key to your -- our future. It's what moves us forward. Gossip is just a reflection of the past.

So remember, there are two types of information in this world: gossip and enlightenment. Be careful which one you choose to spend your time with.

Megacon, transform! Content repurposing made easy

Content marketing isn't as complicated as it may sound. Content is everywhere! You just need to redefine and repurpose it. And once you've transformed your old content into new mega-content marketing materials you'll have all-new channels to drive website traffic, build brand awareness, and generate sales or leads.

Here are ten tips to make content marketing easy through content repurposing:

Tip #1: Stop saving thousands of .docs, .pages or .txt files and start writing everything as a draft on your blog. Once it's got a working title, keyword tags, and general outline of content it's easy to edit and publish!

Tip #2: Stop writing meeting notes and brainstorming sessions on paper and type it up on your laptop or iPad instead. Now that it's digital, you can easily copy and paste it to your website, social networks, sell sheets, press releases, emails, presentations, newsletters, etc.

Tip #3: Repurpose emails you've written or received that contain interesting data or insightful information. Even a personal one-to-one email can be transformed into an interesting blog post.

Tip #4: Don't just comment on articles you read. Respond on your blog or social networks. Repurposing other people's content with your own unique opinions can be some of the most interesting pieces of content.

Tip #5: Any PowerPoint or Keynote presentation deck you create should be posted on SlideShare, YouTube, and SlideRocket. Then embed the slide deck on your blog or website. The visual content in presentations is often more appealing and more easily skimmable than paragraphs of text.

Tip #6: If you haven't already repurposed your data and/or survey responses into an infographic do so! But infographic images are so 2010. Now you should repurpose the images in your infographic to create an infographic video.

Tip #7: Press releases are still a useful medium to reach journalists and get "picked up" by "official" media channels, but today, you don't need them! Repurpose your press release as a blog post on your own website and then push it out through your social networks

Tip #8: Every presentation, Webex, GoToMeeting or live demo should be recorded and posted on YouTube or Vimeo and then posted on your blog with intro copy and a call-to-action conclusion. Only appropriate for current clients? Make it an "unlisted" video, embed it on a landing page, and only give it to your account managers.

Tip #9: Create an eBook by combining your blog posts into a thought leadership guide, report, or white paper. If you own a Mac, you can even use Apple's iBooks Author to create and publish it yourself. Then record someone reading your eBook to create a podcast or audiobook.

Tip #10: Repurpose old evergreen content by repromoting it on social networks. Just because you created and posted it last year doesn't mean it's not still relevant or interesting to readers who may have never seen it a year ago.


Looking for more tips on repurposing your content? Here are ten other content marketing posts worth reading:

• Content Repurposing Is the New Way of the World
• Content Marketing: 7 tips for content repurposing
• Content Marketing Repurposing Strategy
• 5 Quick & Easy Tools for Content Repurposing
• Repurpose, Reuse and Recycle Your Marketing Content
• 11 Ways to Repurpose Your Content for Inbound Marketing
• 8 Steps to Repurposing and Promoting Marketing Content
• 17 Ways to Repurpose Your Content Marketing Without Being Spammy
• 9 Ways to Repurpose Content
• Repurposing Content to Extend Your Content Marketing Impact

Do you have other mega-content marketing ideas? Leave them in the comments below:

SEM, SMA, CPC, and the holy grail of marketing acronyms: ROI

So many acronyms. But only one matters: ROI.

And when calculating your return on investment (ROI) on search engine marketing (SEM) or social media advertising (SMA) spends, the only acronym that can prove ROI is CPC (cost per click).

How? 

CPC is directly correlated to ROI.

Let me explain.

Over the past year I've been advertising on all the major platforms, and here are the results:

• AdWords: $0.54 CPC
• Facebook: $0.08 CPC
• LinkedIn: $2.00 CPC
• Twitter: $0.21 CPC
• YouTube: $0.41 CPC

What does all that mean?

For my dollar, Facebook is hands down the cheapest advertising platform at just 8 cents per click. But just because LinkedIn costs me 2 dollars for every click doesn't mean it's wasted money. In fact, the advertising platform with the highest average CPC is likely your best spent cents. 

Why?

As long as you've fine tuned your ad copy through A/B testing and honed in on your target audience with the right keywords (and any other targeting criteria available), the platform with the highest CPC is also the network with the largest, most-active population of people you're trying to reach. It's also the network where your competitors are advertising. That's why it costs so much to engage with them.

But every industry will have different results. So which platforms are you advertising on? And which has the highest ROI?

[INFOGRAPHIC] Recruiting has always been social

Recruiting has always been social -- technology just changed how we define "social".

From the beginning, recruiting was always about the handshake. You met someone, got their resume, and shook their hand. Some time later, you introduced that person to another person, they shook hands, and the job was done.

Today, those handshakes still occur, just on a digital level. Instead of shaking hands in-person you connect on LinkedIn, follow on Twitter, circle on Google+, and like on Facebook.

Below is an infographic from JobVite on the social history of recruiting technology. The timeline clearly shows how technological innovations have created a new era of recruiting -- that's oddly similar to where it all began.

Move beyond old-fashioned job postings

The job board is slowly becoming an obsolete tool for recruiters. As the job market turns around and social networking continues to grow, active job-board-seekers will near extinction. However, with some creativity and innovation the job posting can still be an extremely useful part of the sourcing process. You just need to repurpose the job description and start proactively seeking candidates yourself.

Each field of information in a job posting can be used as search criteria in any database or social network to refine the pool of candidates and find the perfect match. Use an advanced search tool to hone in on candidates with experience in your industry and preferences that match your job opening's location and function. Looking for a candidate with specific certifications or degrees? Make sure to include it in your boolean search strings. The more information you include in your search the better the quality of hire.

These simple innovative techniques can help recruiters move beyond old-fashioned job postings -- making the job board the first step in a more proactive and effective sourcing process.

These aren't the Androids you're looking for

The Android versus iPhone debate will never die. But Androids do.

The one thing I've always loved about my Apple products is that I never have an issue with them "not working" or dying. Before I bought my first Mac, I had two HP laptops and a Sony Vaio. Between those 3 computers I had 2 failed hard drives, 2 failed screens, and a handful of other Windows-related software issues over a 5-year span. I have had my MacBook Pro for 5 years now and have yet to have a single issue with the hardware or software.

Beyond computers, I also love every Apple mobile device I've ever owned. Okay, so maybe I'm a fanboy. But I wasn't always! I grew up on PCs running Windows. I actually liked Clippy.  And I'll never forget how cool I felt when I first found the Microsoft Bear easter egg in Windows 3.1. I even had a Treo 700w, a handful of flip-phones, and a handful of problems before I bought my first iPhone. But to this day, I still have every single iPhone I ever owned -- an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and now an iPhone 5 -- and every single one still works perfectly.

But don't just take my word for it, recently, in a study by FixYa, the iPhone was rated as the most reliable smartphone on the market -- 3x more reliable than Samsung smartphones and 25x more reliable than Motorola phones. So if you're looking for a mobile device that doesn't die? These aren't the Androids you're looking for.

You are what you bookmark

I'm no psychologist.  Nor a philosopher.  But I don't think you have to be to see that the websites you have bookmarked in your favorite web browser speak volumes about who you are as a person.

And whether you sync your bookmarks (using iCloud, Chrome, or some other extension) or you have two separate set of bookmarks (one for work and one at home) says something about you too.

Take my bookmark bar (see above) for example:

• Synced across all devices = geek
• Abbreviated to save space = perfectionist
• In Google Chrome, the fastest browser = busy
• Different folders for different jobs/companies = multitasker
• Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn = social
• Different folders for different Facebook and Twitter links = very social
• Blog = blogger
• iCloud = Apple fanboy
• Gizmodo = technophile
• Digg = been online since "web 2.0" was a term people used
• Fantasy Football = sports fan
• Amazon = online shop-a-holic who likes receiving things in the mail
• Nike+ = fit / brand loyal

That literally sums me up. Perfectly.

But now I'm curious. What do you have bookmarked? And what does it say about you?