rawandev-blog

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Should Sliders be avoided on websites? Check out 5 website designs to avoid, including Sliders and auto play videos! #SFUDC2015 #webdesign #digitalmarketing

Compelling design is an imperative aspect to your website. Learn these design flubs so your design aids the user experience of your website.

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10 Must have mobile apps for Digital Marketers.

Smartphones have become an integral part of our life, even we as marketer’s pitch to audiences for mobile marketing and various apps. So, I found 10 mobile apps and used them for a while, to know their functionality and usability.

These 10 apps can make you an complete ace marketer; as some of these apps will organize your life and some will make you more productive while commuting, lounging and waiting.

Feedly

Best app for aggregating news and tracking latest news. You can organize content by topic and it is fully integrated with several channels as well as HootSuite and Evernote for easy social sharing and bookmarking.

I mostly used Feedly while commuting, very easy to use, and deliveres tailored content directly on my smartphone.

TED me app

This app plays various TED Talk videos with subtitles of your chosen language, so good for language learners. Just download videos when connected and play it offline.

I play TED me while doing my assignments.

DropBox

The DropBox app allows you to store, sync and share folders online on a straightforward interface and access them anytime and anywhere with an Internet connection.

I can easily transfer files to this app from mobile and later access it on laptop.

gAnalytics App

Yes, gAnalytics app, a must have if you want to quickly check the statistics for your Google Analytics account. The format is easy to read and understand. The interface gives you various options to compare and see on charts too. It supports multiple profiles and multiple accounts.

I would rate this app better than the original Google Analytics app. I use it everyday to track my website traffic.

Asana and Trello

Asana is a popular project management app that brings tasks, to-dos, and organization to your phone or tablet, too.

I currenlty use it for self-organization, but later I plan it to use for group projects.

Trello is similar to Asana; only difference is the interface. Trello allows to create boards to get you organized and cards to add details and you can swipe these cards from Doing to Done card.Being able to edit, rearrange, and add from a mobile device is a huge benefit when you are suddenly onto a new idea.

Photo Editor by Aviary

Aviary provides rich suite of editing tools to quickly create awesome images, either from the shots you take from your phone or from existing images you have uploaded to your camera roll.

Useful for marketer’s to get awesome pictures for content marketing.

Quora

A great app to learn about new topics and it's in Q & A format, so you can ask question on almost any topic you are interested in. Each question is answered from leading industry experts. It’s a fun way to increase your knowledge.

Plugged Podcast

Use this app to listen to podcasts on any topic, create a custom list or download it to play offline. You can also share these podcasts on social media or set a reminder to listen later. I have just started listening to Online Marketing Made Easy.

Everypost

This app allows sharing of multimedia content on almost all social media platforms. You can search content and schedule your post and the app also provides a functionality feature that allows posting content without having a 140-character restriction. Isn’t it amazing!

Mention

Mention app lets you create alerts and monitors, every time somebody mentions your name, brand or target keywords, and its user-friendly interface makes it very easy to use. All the updates are in real-time.

You can use Mention for 14 days free trial. Though other options are Hootsuite and SocialEngage.

“Your mobile device has quickly become the easiest portal into your digital self.” - Phil Nickinson, Editor of Android Central

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ME TO WE

OVERVIEW

Me to We is a social enterprise, that means an innovative combination of business and change maker. It exists to further the work of Free The Children, their charitable partner and best friend. Half of Me to We's net profit is donated to Free the Children and the other half is reinvested to grow the enterprise and its social mission.

It is a movement of people like us, living their lives as socially responsible global citizens.

This movement believes that a better world is possible if we all make responsible choices in our lives, as we are all responsible for each other.

Me to We measures the bottom line by:

Number of lives they change at home and abroad

Positive social and environment impact

In-kind and cash donations they make to Free to Children.

In summary, Me to We is about making better choices to create a better world.

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Me to We is very successful on promoting themselves thru their social media platforms, and successful ones at increasing awareness and promoting engagement with their audience are Facebook, YouTube and Tumblr.

CALLS TO ACTION 

We noticed a very strategic call to action along every single channel, starting with their website.  All the calls to action encourage users to go back to the website to learn more, volunteer or shop. 

The following chart shows the most common calls to action Me to We uses in their digital communication materials. 

RECOMENDATIONS

We would like to recommend the following ideas of improvement:

FACEBOOK:

In order to have more engagement on their Facebook page, we believe they should add questions to their posts, encouraging people to share their thoughts about them, as well as including some giveaways or contests that would definitely help to increase engagement.

TWITTER:

They have a good tactic of marking other people's tweets as favorites, but we would recommend they also reply more to those tweets.

INSTAGRAM:

We would suggest Me to We to post more pictures to keep their followers more up to date with their recent news and events.

YOUTUBE:

To keep engagement going on constantly, Me to We channel should keep posting videos while the main events are not happening. It is easier to promote the events when the audience was kept engaged during the whole time than catching their attention after a long time with no connection done.

VIMEO:

This platform has only 3 old videos and almost no activity on this channel. We believe they should use this platform more often, sharing videos from YouTube and keeping as much engagement as they have on the other social media platforms.

LINKEDIN:

Me To We campaign might attract more sponsors if they post some additional news on their LinkedIn account. This account should be focused on business to business purposes.

PINTEREST:

It might be beneficial for Me To We to share news on Pinterest including hashtags to the posts so people could follow their conversation online.

GOOGLE PLUS:

For Google Plus we believe that, in order to have a better social media presence, they should share more interesting visual content and also include descriptions on their videos. 

TUMBLR:

Me to We's Tumblr account is one of their most effective social platform because they share very inspiring posts. Keep up with the great work!

PARTNERS AND MEDIA

Me to We Awards partners and sponsors who support the organization to keep doing their beautiful work and to gather, celebrate and share stories about great Canadians helping others.

The following gif image shows a compilation of partners and media involved with the organization as well as which platform they have been featured. 

For more information on Me to We success you are welcome to read their 2013 Annual Impact Report below: 

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Exercise: Facebook Posts

1) Post that summarizes the news release:

2) Post that should pose a question; or invite discussion on key issue/theme from news release:

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Twitter Relations

The assignment is to draft tweets in a strategic way, for the prior news release about the LDC's by UN.

Below are the tweets:

1.

Despite #economy growth of average 5.7% per year, most of LDCs have to still achieve time-bound #MDGs; #world support needed "link"

2.

#Poverty is more than lack of income; lack of health, education & living-standards are also important-My World survey.http://bit.ly/1yDRF9p

3.

New ideas of innovation are critical to improve lives of those children who are the hardest to reach: http://bit.ly/1CR8yuX.  #EVERYchild

4.

People globally want an end to injustice, poverty and illiteracy #Malala #actionplan2015 world leaders to agree. http://bit.ly/153y5q8

5.

Support #sharedgrowth and income of bottom 40% of the population within a country to reduce poverty to 3% #by2030. http://bit.ly/1p1ftj3

[rawandev-blog]

Pitiching a press release to an Influential blogger.

To: Mark Weber at povertycure.org

Subject: Achieving the MDG target for Least Developed Countries.

I am writing to you because our team at United Nations feels that your blog theme fits with our organization’s objective. I have a news release for which, I am approaching you to write a blog about.

Recently, a report was completed on Growth with Structural Transformation: A Post-2015 Development Agenda, in which three key policies are recommended.

So the news release talks about how Least Developed Countries (LDC) are not able to eradicate poverty despite having a strong growth in their economies.

The economies of these countries are increasing due to hike in export prices and aid flows but they are not able to reach structural transformation like increasing the labour productivity in dynamic activities such as manufacturing and high value services.

The call to action here is to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing the poverty to zero by 2030. And UN has recognized 48 such LDC’s, which are posing high challenges for international community to make changes in the financial and trade system and also fulfill their long-standing commitments so as to reach the goal.

I have also found a few news articles, which are related to this topic; please find their link below:

Resource-Backed Investment Finance in Least Developed Countries.

The world's poorest countries have stagnating economies and won't reach the Millennium Development Goals, report says.

Also, if you are interested, our team can offer you an interview, which can be broadcast on news channels.

Thank you for your corporation.

  Rawandev Kaur

PR Coordinator

United Nations

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Exercise 2: What is Newsworthy

Both Marketwired and Newswire gives many options of social media features to share, print or save the news releases. 

Marketwired:

The two news releases that is newsworthy & Why?

1) http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/holiday-travel-gift-guide-1974537.htm

The headline was short and simple; eye-catching.

The timing of the news is right and its worth sharing.

Many people will be influenced by the news and would read and share it.

The news added a personal touch to it by giving recommendations.

Readers from different countries or areas can take advantage of it and would be relevant to them

2) http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/black-friday-turns-gray-this-november-according-newest-us-retail-benchmarks-report-from-1974483.htm

The headline is very interesting and is share worthy for many retailers.

The news is giving out statistics and measured data analysed in a report and main highlights.

Timing is good and would impact many.

The two news releases that is not newsworthy & Why?

1) http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/slice-of-prince-williams-and-kate-middletons-wedding-cake-sells-for-6000-at-auction-1974605.htm

The news is not worth of sharing and won't influence anyone.

It sounds very centeric and not logical (to buy 3 year old cake).

It looks like the company is trying to gain pulicity through the well-known personalities.

This is a news that would not even survive a day.

2) http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/four-dead-construction-workers-illicit-slap-on-the-wrist-fine-in-plea-bargain-deal-1974559.htm

The news have a weird headline.

Not many details are presented in this news article and thus sounds little confusing.

Newswire:

The two news releases that is newsworthy & Why?

1) http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1458287/ikea-canada-compensates-employees-for-their-contribution-to-success

The headline is simple and easy to understand.

The news will have strong impact on large number of customers.

It shows a positive side of the company.

Its definitely worth sharing.

2) http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1457251/walmart-canada-extends-store-hours-for-the-holiday-season

Again, nice headline.

Worth sharing, as its a popular brand.

Timing of the news is perfect and will have good impression on customers.

The news article is made personal, by adding quotes from company officials.

The article also gives recommendations for buying top gifts from walmart. (good strategy to attract customers)

The two news releases that is not newsworthy & Why?

1) http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1453029/-r-e-p-e-a-t-gap-inc-makes-it-easy-to-gift-and-get-exactly-what-you-want-this-holiday-with-black-friday-sales-giveaways-and-old-navy-s-overnight-milli

The headline is long and has all the update in it; so no one will open the link and read it.

The body of article has same words as in headline.

The article is short and does not offer any new information.

2) http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1456653/over-2-400-students-respond-to-on-line-survey-on-bullying-and-intimidation-vanier-college-students-association-submits-memoir-on-bullying-and-intimida

Long headline and repeat of information in the body of article.

There is more proximity as it is only for that province.

There is nothing new to learn from this article.

[rawandev-blog]

Exercise 1: What is Newsworthy ?

This post will compare two organizations Newsrooms to note differences between them, whats interesting and newsworthy, is it share worthy and social media features.

Canuck Place: Its a non profit organization, which provides care for children with life-threatening illnesses and also for their families.

The newsroom is not regularly updated; last post was made in March 2014.

Mainly news about donations are posted.

They dont have any social media feature ; for example like Facebook or twitter button to share.

Some of the news is not share worhty because it will lead to free advertisement of other organizations.

BC Government: Offical website of Government of British Columbia.

The news is regularly updated; also shows featured story.

The news is organized under different Categories.

General news about events, new openings, and new laws or changes.

This website gives lots of options to share across many social media platforms.

They also show live Tweets and audio sound bites.

Most of the news is worth sharing.

One news release from EACH media room that is newsworthy and why ?

Canuck Place:

http://www.canuckplace.org/news_events/media_centre/press_releases/articles49.php

This article is about a new public service campaign  ‘EmbracingLife one goal at  a time…’ featuring Canuck(s) goalie Roberto Luongo. (November 16, 2007)

A known personality is associated with the Add campaign.

Also gives more credibility and awareness.

BC Government:

http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/10/bc-post-secondary-institutions-build-ties-with-india.html

The article informs about delegates from different post-sceondary insitutions to go on a trade mission to India. This mission is lead by Premier Christy Clark to expand the two-way flow of students, teachers and ideas between B.C. and India.

The article impacts large number of audience.

Its more recent and features a prominent person.

Has more of Financial interest.

One news release from EACH media room that IS NOT newsworthy and why?

 Canuck Place:

http://www.canuckplace.org/news_events/media_centre/press_releases/articles1543.php

The article might not excite a different influential group.

The goal to publish the news might note be accomplished.

This news might require a different medium to be informed or told.

BC Government:

http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/11/beginning-dec-1-2014-health-care-visitors-should-be-vaccinated.html

The news might scare people.

It kind of shows negativity.

It is less interesting for a few sector of people.

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My social media experience

When I was working in a consultancy firm back in Dubai, I used to handle the social media accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn. Also, maintain the personal LinkedIn account of my supervisor.I also had a chance to update the company website.

Personally, I am active only on Facebook; but I don’t update any posts or pictures. I also have a LinkedIn profile and its updated.

I do handle a blog through wordpress which, I use to submit my english class assignments.

I am technology savvy person, so I can quickly learn to use various social media medium's. I am comfortable using Youtube and Wordpress.

I would like to learn more about:

Ad Campaigns

AdWords

Search Engine Optimization

Campaign Creation 

Content Management System

I would really like to gain good amount of work experience and be an expert in Digital Marketing Field.