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We have heard it in the news, and it has become quite apparent when you see all the changes that Facebook and LinkedIn are focused on lately. I am talking about businesses and how they do business with each other. If you are a company or a B2B (business-to-business) marketer, it can be hard to choose what social networking platform to use in order to maximize your reach. Just a couple of years ago, I didn’t really have a clue about this whole area of Facebook and LinkedIn (and I can’t say that I am a maven on it now either), but today I understand enough to know that it is important and quite a vital part in today’s business climate.

However, in order to reach other businesses and close deals in quantity, you need to be at the right place doing your marketing. But where is the right place and how do you decide what that is? This is something that Bop Design can answer better than me actually. For Bit Rebels, this is a vital and highly important factor of our every day business since our whole business model is to sell our services to other companies.

It’s easy to think straight up that LinkedIn is definitely better, and that it doesn’t even compare to Facebook since it is completely based around business and the relationships between them. But Facebook is, as stated in the infographic, not to be overlooked. This giant in social networking is actually making up for it with sheer activity. This is valuable information for any business-to-business marketer and should definitely be considered. There is nothing that says you should just focus on one of these when you can actually focus on both of them. It’s just a matter of time, as always. The more time you have, and the more people you have working on it, the better chance you’ll yield better results, naturally. All you need to do is stay focused and determined. Every business that has ever made it big has been built by pure dedication and trial and error, so just go for it!

Click Infographic To Enlarge

Via: [Daily Infographic]

business-to-business-comparison-infographic

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Did you know that your handwriting reveals some things about your personality to those who read it? It’s true. I barely know how to write anymore since I type everything. I wonder what that says about my personality. About a year ago, I read that some schools are considering not teaching students how to write in cursive anymore since it’s becoming antiquated. For those of you who still indulge in the art of handwriting, you may find this fascinating. I know I did.

Flavorwire recently did a fun little experiment. They used two tools… the Fuck yeah, manuscripts! blog and this handwriting analysis test (which is used by hiring managers) to determine some very interesting things revealed in handwriting. Since they needed several handwriting samples for this experiment, they used handwriting from some of history’s most known authors which they pulled from that blog above. I’ve placed a collection of those below. They include handwriting from Emily Dickinson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chuck Palahniuk, Edith Wharton, Franz Kafka, George Orwell, and Ernest Hemingway.

From these handwriting samples alone, they were able to determine which people were emotional, goal-oriented, self-reliant, optimistic, independent, modest, intelligent, tightwad-ish, organized, scattered, cold, withdrawn, social, outgoing, compliant, practical, mechanical, intellectual, moody, restless, introspective, disciplined, sleepy, schizophrenic and more.

According to the author of the original article, Emily Temple, the results were a little horoscope-like in that they were spot on in some places, and random in others. If you’d like to get more information about all this, just click over to Analyzing Writers’ Personalities From Their Handwritten Manuscripts.

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Yup, we are slowly getting accustomed to the new Facebook Timeline and the whole redesign. Personally, I quite like it. It gives us more freedom to pimp it out in various ways, and that is key if you want to be original and impress people with your profile. For all you marketing people out there, this new way of expressing yourself is also a good opportunity to show your genius. I know, my own profile is lame, and I should really do something about it. I need to work up some kind of master plan to redesign my whole header image and see if I can make some good likes that way. But as always, time isn’t exactly growing on coconut trees.

Until now, there hasn’t been too much info or many tutorials about how you could possibly “hack” the Facebook header image and make something really unique. The person to deliver it is Nico Grienauer who writes for Ausgertock. He actually created a template that will give you the freedom to make whatever header image you want, lame or cool, to impress all your friends and subscribers on Facebook.

I have been searching for a good template for this new Facebook profile page that will enable me to “hack” it, visually that is. So now that I have found it, there is no excuse why my profile page looks so darn lame anymore I guess. There are countless numbers of cool, funny examples of new and refreshing profile page designs for the new Timeline design out there. All you have to do is search for it using any of the leading search engines, and you will be presented with tons of great ideas. But as they say, to be original you can’t be a copycat. You have to find your own approach, and when you do, people are definitely going to notice you. Let your creativity flow! You can find the PSD Template over at Ausgetrock.

Via: [Dude Craft]

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One of the things that separates an average photographer from a great photographer is the ability to create magical, intriguing photos from every day things that could be otherwise considered boring and not worth a second look. It’s truly a gift when talented photographers do this. It’s like they are able to see with a different set of eyes than the rest of us.

Take this collection of abandoned cars for example. It’s called From the Backseat of My Car by photographer Alicia Rius. She writes, “I did not plan this project. I never looked for these cars, and in fact, I think they found me. I wanted to immortalize their beauty and turn them into something romantic.”

These photos are truly stunning, and everything about them from the rusty seats to the purple wildflowers to the old tires are completely given a new life. I love those big old-fashioned steering wheels. The lighting and the colors in these photographs really makes them pop and come alive. I would love to know where she first saw these abandoned cars. This just goes to show that what one person considers trash; another person considers a treasure. You can view more of Alicia’s photography on her website.

Via: [Junk Culture]

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Enough of the owling in front of the computer! It’s time to get up from that chair and start moving. Put on a good song and start dancing. When you get old, you won’t be able to dance as geeky as you can now, so time is of the essence. I think geeks of today are way too shy to strike a pose and kick some major butt, at least in movies. Maybe it’s because of the music we listen to, or possibly the fact that movie makers have an obscured idea of how a geek really acts. I mean, there are countless examples of how geeks create the hipster moves in movies. Take Napoleon Dynamite for example. That dude created headlines with his performance in the movie with the same name.

For a geek who is not used to dancing, striking a good move might be as foreign as feeling the rays of the daylight straight in your face. It’s a good time to bring out the heavy artillery and put some boost into those feet. If anyone, the Dancing Plague of 1518 can help us all with that. They have created the ultimate dancing posters based on iconic performances throughout movie history that will surely get your partner to join in on the fun.

I am a little surprised however to find that the moves in Grease aren’t represented. Maybe it is because John Travolta once again showed his moves in Pulp Fiction. Either way, they would make for a good addition to this set of posters. Now, let’s start spreading some joy and get some exercise out of it at the same time. God knows we need it sitting in front of our computers as much as we do, right? As always, the question is what dance to start learning first. Hmm…

Via: [UFunk - French]

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This retro TV is such a beauty in its original form, but when it’s transformed into this super sweet bar, well, it’s goes from retro brilliance to retro badass. I’ve never seen one of these televisions since they were before my time, but I have pictures of my grandmother watching one in her living room.

Back in the old days, when these old-fashioned televisions were popular, people used to gather around it and watch shows together. Now that we all have our mobile devices and social media sites, I don’t know of any family who gathers to watch regular television shows anymore. Most families I know spend most of their time doing this instead of watching TV.

If you’ve got one of these TVs in your attic or basement taking up space, here’s a great way to give it a new life and purpose. You can turn it into your own geeky bar with a retro touch. According to The Spotted Fox, you just have to gut the inside, cut a piece of glass to fit inside for the shelf, load it up with your favorite liquors and add some Christmas lights for decoration. If I was to do this, I’d probably need help with gutting it. I mean, knowing me, I’d blow something up or something. Regardless, this is such a cool mod!

Via: [Craft]

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Planning and executing a startup is one of the hardest things you can do in order to make sure you stay on course. Having an intricate plan for how you will scale your business is key to your success in many cases, and it’s a necessity to stay inspired and not lose focus. However, building the perfect plan is anything but easy these days. If you want the best possible start, it’s vital that you use the Internet to your advantage. This will in turn require quite a few different tech roles to be included in your master plan. Everything from a web designer to your customers need to be aligned with what you offer, and the better they understand your concept, the better your results will be in the beginning.

To further give you an idea about the different roles in a startup, Udemy has taken their “data” to Column Five to produce an infographic that will guide you through the different positions, if that is what you could call it. It’s evident that they have spent some time building this badboy, and the fact that they have used the animal kingdom as their form of data visualization is quite interesting. I don’t know if it makes it all clearer though, or if it just jumbles it up, but that’s all the same.

The purpose of this infographic is purely to give you a better understanding about the different roles in a startup and what might be their focus and “enemies” as you progress your startup from idea to reality. For anyone who isn’t inside the core of a newly formed company, it could be hard to understand what each role really does within the startup, but this thing should clear that right up. After having looked at it for a few minutes, I must say however that it takes a while to get used to the whole animal concept of it all. Once that hurdle is gone, it is a quite neat and interesting infographic that could really open some eyes regarding what it takes and what roles are involved with a great idea when it comes to gaining success.

Click Infographic To Enlarge

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What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you think about following someone on Twitter? Their profile, right? You want to see what the person is about, and if they posted a personal avatar of themselves as well. When you take the time to fill out your bio on Twitter and write little bits of interesting information about yourself, it gets others interested in you also. You are suddenly worth their follow.

If you don’t take that small amount of time to fill out your Twitter profile then why should someone else take the time to follow you? Twitter gives you 160 characters to write a bio, and you can use that for anything you want to say to describe yourself. My advice? Use all those characters and be interesting. Peek people’s curiosity about you. Make them want to know more. This will gain you their follow.

My recommendation for filling out your bio:

Even though people can’t see you, they want to be able to develop a friendship with the person they are following. You can help them do this by being yourself, explaining what makes you unique, what your passion is in life, why you use Twitter, and many other things that could make you stand out as different than others.

Your Twitter avatar:

Just as people want to learn about you, they also want to see you. Most people don’t want to follow an egg (the default avatar). They want to know who you are and what you look like. Take the time to put a picture of yourself up on Twitter. Show people who you are through the camera lens. Believe me, you will be surprised how many more followers you’ll get just from doing this one little thing. I am fortunate that my friend Paul does excellent photography work, and he was kind enough to offer me his services to help with my Twitter photo that you see displayed. If you’d like to get his help, you can find him at Paul Palm Springs Photo.

Filling out and completing your Twitter bio
is just as important as how you tweet.

Most people won’t take you seriously if you don’t show them a picture of you and give them a bit of background about who you are. Your Twitter peeps want to get to know you, so show them who you are.

Image Credit: [Media Bistro]

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Not long ago, a family member gave me the Apple iPad 2 as a gift. Not having an iPhone and having never used a high-tech tablet before, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I surf the web, tweet and use Facebook all from my Blackberry daily, so it’s not as though I really needed the iPad. Nonetheless, I graciously accepted the gift.

Now a few months later, I’ve used it to play a few different apps, to look at websites on a bigger screen while traveling, and to download music and movies from time to time. But I have to say, my  favorite thing to do on it is play Words With Friends. It’s a word-building game in the form of a crossword puzzle modeled after Scrabble.

Different spaces on the board earn you more points than others, and the goal is to use up all your letters connecting real words to each other with higher scores than your opponent. Friends can search for you to begin a game once you tell them your username. If you’re into strategical thinking, have a decent vocabulary and love to best your friends in spelling or grammar, this game’s for you. The app is available on Android and iOS systems, as well as Facebook.

Admittedly, I don’t play it a lot because it can be time consuming. Games can last for hours, days, weeks and longer depending on how much attention you give a particular game, meaning when a friend makes a move, you can respond with your move at your leisure. That, in addition to a few other things, are what make me love WWF.

Here are some of my other favorite parts about Words With Friends:

• You get to show off your vocabulary and dig deep into your brain to find those words you don’t use much.
• You can test various letters together if you think they may form a word without being penalized if they don’t.
• If you place letters on blocks with “TL,” “DL,” “DW,” or “TW” on them, you can earn double or triple points for individual letters or entire words, giving you points quickly.
• It’s a game of strategy where you form words on certain blocks and connect words to each other in various directions to boost your score.
• You can play real-life friends or random strangers. I’ve selected random strangers to play before, in order to practice for when I play real friends.
• It’s unpredictable! Every time I start a game, I don’t know which letters the system will give me or when I’ll get a blank block to use as any letter in the alphabet.

If this all sounds like fun, give the game a try, but don’t blame me if it ends up occupying your days quickly. It tends to have that effect, especially in the beginning. Happy wording.

Image Credits: [App Advice] [iPad Apps Reviewer] [Digital Trends]

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How would you like to dine at a restaurant built right at the base of a waterfall? I don’t mean you’d be sitting a safe distance away from the waterfall, I mean… your table, your feet, and your entire experience (including the sounds) would all revolve around the rushing water. That would create a memory to last a lifetime.

There is a restaurant in the world where you can have this actual experience. It’s at the Villa Escudero resort in the Quezon province of the Philippines. At this restaurant, not only are visitors encouraged to try traditional Filipino menu items, they are also invited to take off their shoes and shirts to get as close to the waterfall as possible.

I bet this would be a fun place to work too. I imagine each time there is a strong wind, water sprays on everyone. Since I know the weather in the Philippines is typically pretty hot, I’m sure it’s really refreshing to sit close to the water too. As you can see in the pictures, the waterfall is relatively small, and the resort is hacienda-style. Yup, staying at the Villa Escudero and visiting this restaurant is definitely going on my bucket list. What a great reason to finally travel to the Philippines.

Via: [Oddity Central]