#FunFriday: Marketing Meme Round-Up

May 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Friday, we meet again. It’s time for round two of #FunFriday! Today we bring to you some gems from the wonderful world of memes. We’re pretty big fans of a good meme here at Feedblitz HQ and these are a few choice ones that caught our eye this week.

Memes are good for more than just a laugh or commentary on popular culture. A really great meme can rally a community, increase brand awareness and provide a medium for telling a compelling (albeit short) story. Think about how often you see memes within the blogs you read. Memes can reel your reader in and make them stick around for more. Memes are also a great way to add a visual element to your content.

So, in honor of #FunFriday, we wanted to share some of our favorite memes of the week, to give you a little humor and even a great story or two. (Editor’s Note: Any cat themes are purely unintentional and you’re probably just imagining them.)

Crowdsourcing: A Cautionary Tale …

We’ve seen lots of brands use crowdsourcing. Brands from Pepsi and Lays to Audi and Marvel Comics have found creative ways to tap into the power of crowdsourcing. But sometimes, crowdsourcing just fails. This meme caught our eye because it plays into the ‘dark side’ of crowdsourcing …

Crowdsourcing meme

A Pinteresting Development for Marketers

Well, now there’s just another reason to get your ‘pin’ on because this week, Pinterest announced several enhanced features that will make it even easier to use the platform for marketing and driving sales. It is now possible to add pricing, additional product details and the enhanced ability to direct pinners back to your site to purchase products.

Pin All The Things!

Let all the marketers rejoice! Some of the enhanced features include:

Product pins: including how much a product costs, if it’s currently available for purchase online and where to find it.

Recipe pins: this is great for brands that have recipes and want to include product mentions, ingredients and other recipe details. Think food bloggers, food brands and websites.

Movie pins: this one may not be as versatile for most of us but you can now add content ratings and cast members.

Want to start customizing pins for your brand? Visit the Pinterest developer site to learn how to create Product Rich Pins.

Might Grumpy Cat be Smiling?

Maybe. This week the beloved, no-nonsense cat, Tartar Sauce, won “Meme of the Year” for 2012 at the 17th annual Webby Awards. However, despite over 15 million YouTube views and an upcoming commercial with Friskies, Reuters reports that Grumpy Cat has yet to start smiling. And that’s why we love him. Click here for the 50 funniest Grumpy Cat memes of 2012.

Grumpy Cat Meme

Cat is King

As if there weren’t enough cat-themed memes in our lives, we give you … Cat Beards. We’re still not sure how we feel about this phenomenon that’s sweeping the meme-o-sphere but cat beards are popping up all over Reddit, BuzzFeed and most recently, Mashable.

Cat Beards

Maybe it’s Grumpy Cat’s cousins wanting to steal some of the limelight but what we really want to know is … what about the dogs? Click here for 25 of the most epic cat beards of all time.

Hope you enjoyed this little #FunFriday reprieve (no, that was not a feline theme you noticed there.) And again, if you find fun photos, videos, blog posts or other items you think are FeedBlitz #FunFriday worthy, leave them on our Facebook page.

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Blogger Help and Confessions of a Hypocrite

May 23, 2013 By 15 Comments

Josh Wilner FeedBlitzToday’s guest post is by Joshua Wilner.

Confession:  I am a hypocrite.

I teach my children to take time to read directions, and to not feel stupid about needing to ask for help. They have heard me share a million clichés like “measure twice, cut once” and know why it is better to “do it right the first time.”

What they don’t know is I don’t want to read directions or ask for help because I am way too busy. I wake up and hit the ground running at full speed with a list of things that have to be done and the last thing you want to do is get in the way of 240 pounds of Josh.

I didn’t want to move from Feedburner to Feedblitz. I didn’t want to have to learn a new system or spend time with tech support trying to figure out why any part of my mighty social media empire was having issues.

Yet I preferred to be proactive and decided it made more sense to make the move and then roll with any hiccups that came along with it.

That was last September and I am glad I did it.

It is not because I think Feedblitz is the greatest tool I have ever used or because they are paying me a million dollars a year to endorse them.

It is because it was a relatively easy transition and they have a ton of tools I haven’t even taken advantage of yet.

Of Tools and Bloggers

My kids will also tell you that I am a firm believer that the utility of a tool lies in the hands of the user. You can have a professional grade tool but it won’t perform the same way in the hands of an amateur.

I see Feedblitz as being professional grade and as having a ton of value I haven’t unlocked yet because I haven’t taken the time to figure it all out.

It is not because it is overly complicated either, it isn’t. When I have had questions they have been very good about answering them.

More than anything my not using it to full capacity is because what I am using now is working well for me. My blog is growing and I feel very good about what is happening. So some of it is “don’t tinker with something that is working” and some of it is because I haven’t had time to really mess with it.

But that is coming soon.

Change Happens

The blogosphere is a very dynamic environment and bloggers who are unwilling or unable to adapt find themselves having to fight an uphill battle. I am working on carving out some time to figure out what else I can do with Feedblitz that I am not using now.

It has enough features that I think I can cut out a plugin or two and use Feedblitz to take care of what they had been doing for me.

If it works the way I want it to the net result will be a faster loading blog and a more productive Josh.

A faster loading blog is good for SEO, and a more productive Josh is good for the family. And for me too.

What hidden tips or FeedBlitz abilities are you using, that you can share? 

Joshua Wilner is a writer, and the author of 39 unpublished books and three screenplays. A former athlete and would be superhero he still fights for truth, justice and the American Way. Though he may look like a grown man, don’t fool yourself he is still a boy at heart. When he is not engaged in Walter Mitty like fantasies he is a husband, father and friend, and blogs here! 

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , ,

Everyday Heroics

May 20, 2013 By 3 Comments

This wasn’t the post I’d planned to write this morning.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of chaperoning my daughter’s team at our town’s Relay for Life event. It’s her third one, and it was a joy to watch the kids’ energy and enthusiasm throughout the night – even if not everyone (including one of my co-chaperones!) didn’t manage to stay up all the way through to morning.

It’s a moving, uplifting event that is the essence of hope. Yet, as you can tell from the fuzzy cellphone photo I took at 2:00 am here, there are far too many luminarias lit around the track in memoriam.  From my own friends and family, cancer has taken too many, too soon.  It’s likely done the same to you, once you have enough mileage under your belt.

It’s all the more poignant because, coincidentally, several friends of mine have lost friends, family or colleagues these last couple of weeks, for a variety of causes.  I knew none of those who have now gone. I find it hard to know how to best offer comfort to them beyond mere platitudes.

Still, life, as the aphorism has it, goes on. We step through our days because we have to.  Frogmarched by the hands of time, sometimes all we can do is put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes, that’s more than enough, and a heroic act in and of itself. Simply showing up, day after day, whether in life, to support a friend, parent a troubled child or, yes, to build a business that lasts, is more than half the battle. It matters.

As a culture, we tend to focus on headline-grabbing acts, the dramatic escapes, the billion dollar acquisitions. Exciting stuff, for sure. But for me, personally, it’s been a sobering week, and I’m only – thankfully – a sympathetic observer. So today, as I dive into a fresh week here at work, I’m taking the time to think about the everyday heroes. Those forced by circumstance, chance or opportunity to make that small extra step to make a difference, whether at home or at work, often unacknowledged.

To the everyday heroes: Thank you all.

Filed Under: personal

#FunFriday: Best of the Web

May 17, 2013 By 1 Comment

And it’s Friday again. Where did the week go? If you’re like most of us, you’re deluged with data and information all week. We consume so much content daily, it’s nice to have a day off the serious topics, and on to something a little more fun. And so begins #FunFriday.

Fridays in the blogosphere are generally a bit more relaxed. Over at Spin Sucks, Gini Dietrich does her #FollowFriday recommendations, as well as the Gin and Topics series with the top five videos every week.

Geoff Livingston uses his Friday posts to talk about a subject important to him, the environment.

Ken Mueller is doing the Friday Blogging Experiment throughout 2013, where he turns Friday into his own personal sandbox.

Our #FunFriday will be a bit different as we’re going to switch it up weekly. Today is best of the web, next week might be our employees’ favorite music picks, the week after that…?

This week, we came across some great articles from the Interwebs – some fun and some newsworthy – so without further ado…

McDonald’s Egg McMuffin Brings Breakfast to the PM

Breakfast isn’t just a meal you eat in the morning, it’s something you can eat any time of day. How many times have you asked yourself, “Why doesn’t McDonald’s serve breakfast all day?” Whether or not you agree with McDonald’s business practices, their breakfast, specifically the Egg McMuffin, has been a favorite for 40 years so why not serve it all day? PRNewser does bring up a good point: Does McD’s run the risk that this increased availability might eventually equal McMuffin boredom?

How My Mom Thinks Search Engines Work

We’re so involved in our industries, we tend to think everyone knows how important they are, what we do all day long, and why. Of course, the reality couldn’t be more different. Ever asked your mom to explain what you do for a living? For Mother’s Day, Rob Toledo, contributor to SEOmoz, asked his mom a series of questions about what she believes his industry does, and how she thinks search engines function in general. It’s a fun conversation, but the gist is it’s valuable to remove yourself from your “echo chamber” and have a conversation with someone who has a minimal understanding of what your industry is all about.

How Your Business Can Use New Facebook Cover Photos

This isn’t news to those of us who use Facebook for business but this post from Social Media Examiner highlights what has changed and offers some great examples of how business are leveraging the new rules to boost their business. If there’s any that stand out to you, share them in the comments.

Really Bad Infographics

I realize this is a Pinterest board, but it is too good not to share. We live in an age where visual content gets a lot of traction. Infographics are a creative way to display your information in something other than a white paper or case study. When they’re good, they’re really, really good. However this isn’t about good infographics, this is about bad ones. Really, really bad ones.

If ‘Breaking Bad’ Was Made Into a LEGO Video Game

We’ve seen plenty of LEGO remakes, but this one is fantastic. When you combine these childhood building blocks with a hit television drama you get LEGO Breaking Bad: The Video Game. This video does contain spoilers from the show’s first four seasons so you have been warned! It’s amazing what you can do with a little time, effort, and some LEGO.

If you come across any good articles or funny videos, share them with us in the comments or drop them onto our Facebook page.

Happy Friday all and have a wonderful weekend.

Filed Under: #FunFriday Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Making the Most of FeedBlitz: Modified Feeds and AutoCast

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Every second Thursday we’re going to be highlight some of the incredible ways that FeedBlitz can help you with your community building and sharing of content. Today, we follow up on Tuesday’s post on integrating third party content and walk you through creating category specific feeds. As well, we explore using AutoCast, an extension of FeedBlitz’s RSS feed management services for bloggers, podcasters and online publishers, to migrate your iTunes feeds to FeedBlitz without losing your audience.

Dicing Feeds with RSS Tag and Category Filters

One of the great things about a FeedBlitz RSS feed is that you can do more with it than simply share the feed URL. You can use filters to modify what the feed shows to subscribers. This enables you to create category-specific feeds automatically, which can then be used to create category-specific mailings.

You do this using path modifiers, /tag/ and /not/, to pick what you want in or out, respectively. If we use the FeedBlitz News RSS feed as an example (feeds.feedblitz.com/feedblitz), they could be used like this:

All posts tagged “FeedBlitz” only: feeds.feedblitz.com/feedblitz/tag/feedblitz

All posts except testimonials: feeds.feedblitz.com/feedblitz/not/testimonials

You can have multiple /tag/ and /not/ modifiers in a single feed URL. If you have multiple modifiers they are an OR, not an AND, i.e. All posts matching ANY of the selections will be included in the criteria.

Why is this useful? Because now you can use these feeds to create category specific content that can be served to a web site via an RSS widget, and create custom mailing content for niche audiences. Or, if you want to avoid syndicating some articles beyond your web site, you can restrict what’s publicly available via RSS.

These filters work on both your feed’s tags and categories, which FeedBlitz consolidates into a single “keyword” list, against which the filters are then applied. So a post will appear in RSS feed with the filter /tag/happy if it is either tagged “happy” or in the “happy” category.

FeedBlitz AutoCast

FeedBlitz AutoCast is the extension of FeedBlitz’s RSS feed management services. Ideal for producers seeking a FeedBurner alternative, FeedBlitz’s AutoCast enables publishers using the old FeedBurner SmartCast service to switch. It also delivers value – metrics, monetization and migration – for new podcasters seeking to take advantage of content distribution from services and tools like Apple iTunes.

If you’re switching your podcast RSS to FeedBlitz, AutoCast has a vital feature to enable you to migrate your iTunes feeds to FeedBlitz without losing your audience. FeedBlitz’s AutoCast can optionally insert the iTunes <itunes:newfeed-url> tag to an RSS feed, redirecting iTunes to the podcast source’s new location. This enables simpler migration of iTunes subscriptions both to and from FeedBlitz, ensuring that you can be assured your audience won’t be “trapped” at FeedBlitz like they might have been before.

When FeedBlitz detects that the FeedBurner SmartCast service is active during a FeedBurner migration, FeedBlitz AutoCast is automatically enabled (since February 18, 2013). Moreover, any feed can be podcast-enabled from the FeedBlitz RSS feed’s settings page.

iTunes New Feed Tag Insertion

Possibly the most important function in FeedBlitz’s podcast feed capabilities, especially from a FeedBurner migration perspective, FeedBlitz AutoCast adds the required element to your podcast feed so iTunes can seamlessly transition all subscribers to the new feed source without having to lose a single audience member.

Podcast files are linked into RSS feeds using “enclosure” elements. When AutoCast is enabled, FeedBlitz tracks enclosure accesses separately from other links within the post, reporting them as downloads (D/Ls in the reports pages). It’s entirely possible, depending on the nature of the subscriber’s podcast app, that other links and tracking from the post will not be available to subscribers. Tracking downloads separately shows you the true reach of your content.

No Podcast?

No podcast? No problem! With AutoCast switched on, FeedBlitz will find any audio, video, or flash file that you link to in the post and create an enclosure from it if one isn’t already there.

AutoCast also allows you to set up to five iTunes category / subcategory combinations to be defined for the feed, making it more likely that iTunes and other podcast app users will find your podcast when searching for something new to follow.

There are many iTunes specific fields that can be optionally added to a podcast RSS feed. If they’re not already there, FeedBlitz will create them automatically from the other tags in your feed. This creates a richer subscriber experience when browsing your podcast.

Any RSS feed can be followed via email or in an RSS aggregator / reader – and that’s true for podcast feeds too. FeedBlitz now adds a relevant audio, video or other icon to the post’s content in RSS and email to highlight podcast elements that might otherwise be missed by a non-podcast feed subscriber.

And there you have it. With all the chatter lately about FeedBurner’s possible (future) demise, I hope we’ve shown you a few reasons why FeedBlitz could easily – and efficiently – become your community building and content sharing choice.

Filed Under: FeedBlitz, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Introducing: The Wednesday Webinar Series

May 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Change is good. That’s our theme this week, and it continues today with news about our upcoming Wednesday Webinar series. We’re really excited about this, as it gives us another opportunity to ensure you have the best resources available, resources you can easily access any time of the day with a simple click of a button. Miss a webinar? Need a FeedBlitz refresher or walk though? You’ll be able to come to the website and find what you need. Information about the webinars, and the completed webinars themselves, will also be posted on our Facebook page, so pop on over and give us a like so you don’t miss anything.

The series starts on the third Wednesday of every month, beginning in June, so be sure and mark your calendars!

Why Feedblitz?

Many publishers, bloggers and businesses make the migration to FeedBlitz because they need a professional, supported FeedBurner alternative. Here are some of the most frequently cited reasons people make the switch:

    • Prompt corporate support and ongoing development
    • Greater email design flexibility (e.g. add your own sponsorships to the mailing)
    • Multiple email scheduling options
    • Ability to send an email newsletter blast to your list without a blog or feed entry
    • Custom fields, personalization and segmentation
    • Auto responder capability for drip marketing or simple incentive mailings
    • Extensive email reports for click, bounce, open tracking and more
    • Automatic subscriber management, including automatic dual opt-in reminders
    • Better email deliverability to major US Internet service providers, such as AOL
    • Greater integration with social media
    • SSL support

Ok, so we do all of those things, and we do them pretty well, if I do say so myself. But ultimately we’re nothing without you – our users – and customer support and ease of transition is vitally important to us. That’s why our webinar series is going to start off with a step by step guide to migrating from FeedBurner to FeedBlitz.

We’ll address things like:

  • Creating feeds and email lists in FeedBlitz equivalent to your FeedBurner feeds and lists.
  • How to update your web site to use the new FeedBlitz feeds and lists.
  • Migrating FeedBurner RSS subscribers to FeedBlitz.
  • Optionally deleting your FeedBurner RSS feed.

If you don’t currently have a Feedblitz account, sign up and spend a bit of time exploring what we can do for you. Then watch for more details on our Wednesday Webinar series. We can’t wait to get started. In the meantime, if there’s anything you’d like to see on our blog, or addressed in one of our webinars, let us know here in the comments or leave us a note on our Facebook page. We appreciate your input.

Filed Under: ease of migration, Wednesday Webinar Series Tagged With: , ,

Making the Most of FeedBlitz: Integrating Third Party Content

May 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my vacation – and what came before it – has helped me realize that it’s time for some changes. And change is good. We’re going to be introducing some new content here on the blog, including webinars, guest bloggers, and more. One thing I wanted to do is have a set day where we share some of the great insights from our guides and manuals. You can download them fully, but if you prefer, follow along every other Thursday for highlights.

Now, I recognize that today isn’t Thursday. It’s Tuesday. But in the spirit of change, we wanted to get you started with two installments this week. So come on back this Thursday, and every Thursday thereafter, to learn more about what Feedblitz can do for your organization.

So, you’ve either already switched to FeedBlitz, or are considering it. The big question will be – where to begin? And that is a question only you can answer, I’m afraid. You will know your audience, your site and your business much better than us, after all. We’re here to help facilitate your switch, and provide you with all the information you need to get started, and keep moving forward.

FeedBlitz Flexibility

One of the great things about FeedBlitz’s RSS feed functionality is how flexible it is. Which, of course, is one of the challenges: There’s a lot to figure out, and it can be daunting!

Which brings me to splicing and dicing (well, splicing actually – dicing is in the next chapter on). Splicing is the process of merging other content into your main feed so that what your subscribers end up with is more than just your source feed.

Accessed via the “Add Other Feeds” button from your RSS feed’s home page, you can add content from your other social media channels to your feed, or incorporate any other RSS feed into your posts. You can therefore enrich the RSS subscriber’s experience by merging multiple content feeds into one.

Merge and Cross-Promote

For social networks, all you have to do is identify your account. For example, my YouTube channel is at youtube.com/phollows. To include my YouTube channel’s feed into the FeedBlitz RSS feed, I simply enter “phollows” in the box next to the YouTube icon on that screen. It’s the same idea for all the other social networks too. For any arbitrary third party RSS feed, simply specify the RSS feed URL in the “Service ID” field on the form. It’s a great way to merge and cross-promote different blogs into a single feed, for example.

The drop down on the right tells you how you want the posts inserted into the main feed. A daily list that pulls all the content from the relevant feed, a daily summary that is a bulleted list of titles only, or by merging the third party content into your feed in chronological order.

Now, sometimes feeds can get very large. FeedBurner would simply give up when that happens, but instead FeedBlitz will include all new posts up to the RSS feed size limit we impose. If that content consists entirely of spliced in third party content, FeedBlitz extends the feed until at least one of the “main” feed’s posts has been included.

And that’s that! Watch this space on Thursday, and every other Thursday to come, for more on making the most of your FeedBlitz account.

Filed Under: FeedBlitz Tagged With: , , ,

Running to Stand Still

May 13, 2013 By 2 Comments

FeedBlitz as a business has been growing since we started. Successfully competing against organizations multiple orders of magnitude larger than we are. Passionate about what we do, how we do it and run with a business model that is making the company self-sustaining, even with ~60% year on year growth, over the long run.

But the challenges of building a business like this, even as it grows more or less steadily (and 60% year on year growth, over multiple years, is fast), and even though FeedBlitz is still pretty small by many standards, is that the change required to support that growth is distinctly non-linear.  The way it was run this time last year is not sustainable.  It hasn’t been for a while.

Only: I hadn’t fully grasped that fact. I was so busy dealing with the increase in business and concomitant work that I’d missed the warning signs. We couldn’t keep up with the dramatic increase in customer service.  The net result was that we all were running to stand still – and, despite our best efforts, ended up moving backwards anyway.

So it turns out that vacations are a good thing. Clearing my head gave me the time to recognize, realign and recommit.  To enable and empower the rest of the FeedBlitz team.

Last week from poolside, I decided to hire; it was in fact one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made one I’d got my head out of, um, the sand, for long enough to see what needed to be done. Heather made it happen with a brilliant move in less than 24 hours. The metrics are already moving back in the right direction, and although we’ve much catching up to do, we will do so quickly, and we’re not going to let this happen again. We’re ready for the next step.

But the change required is not just about increasing resources, though. Parts – the most important parts for the long haul – are cultural and personal. The team now knows that heroics, while occasionally welcome and indeed sometimes necessary, shouldn’t have to be the daily modus operandi.  That’s incredibly unhealthy.  I’ve got to be a better enabler, too, and focus more on what lies ahead rather than reacting to what’s happening now. Done and done.

To those who didn’t get the response they needed quickly enough, the blame is mine alone; I’m sorry. I hope we can make this right for you.

Meanwhile, though, FeedBlitz is no longer running to stand to still.

And, damn, that feels good.

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The Entrepreneur’s Nightmare: Taking Time Off

May 7, 2013 By 32 Comments

One of the challenges – and one of the most fun things – about running a rapidly growing business like FeedBlitz is that there’s always something (many somethings, let’s be honest) to do next. What’s next is exciting, frequently difficult and usually time consuming.

So I should ‘fess up here: I might be a workaholic. I love my job; building and running this crazy business. And for those of us who are driven to build businesses, the hardest thing is letting go – not only letting go to other people, but also letting go of next enough to take some time off.

I stink at taking time off. Next is so, so very seductive. But I am, this week, taking some time away (that’s a real photo of my hotel pool). I’m going more or less offline, and to hell with my Klout score (that’s an inside joke – pay no attention to your Klout score. Seriously).

Taking time off is making me antsy, nervous and all sorts of fidgety. I clearly need to take some time off! I shall try to put the phone down, keep the laptop more or less closed, and try to enjoy the down time.  And if you recognize yourself in any of this; perhaps it’s time to embrace the nightmare and enjoy a little R and R yourself. Wish me luck and a couple of pina coladas; I’ll be back next week…

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Limited Availability and Mail Delays – May 4th 2013 – Resolved

May 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Update: 10:15 am EDT – All backlogged scheduled emails have been sent; we apologize for any inconvenience. If youre mailing did not go out as expected, use the on-demand or newsflash feature via the “Send a Mailing” button on your list’s main page.

Update: 09:15 am EDT – The datacenter seems to be back up and running and system functions are back to normal. We’re still clearing backlogged emails though; please bear with us while we work through the delayed mailings.

Update: 09:04 am EDT – Admin pages are back, but may be slower than normal to appear. Backlogged mailings are restarting; don’t rush to do a newsflash or on-demand until this post updates to indicate all the backlog has been cleared. Email opt-in ads and ad reporting are not yet restored. RSS-ads are working correctly and will flow into emails as usual.

Looks like the datacenter where FeedBlitz is hosted is having some problems today. While they’re trying to deal with it we’re trying to work our way around the availability problems that’s causing us and, hence, for you, our clients. FeedBlitz admin functions are limited right now and may return server errors; mailings have been delayed since around 3:30 am US eastern this morning. We’ll update this post as we make progress. We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing.

Filed Under: noemail
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