Social Media

For cyclists looking to pimp their bikes with smartphone integration, look no further — new stylish technology from startup Helios makes your bike "smart." Helios Bars boast an integrated headlight and two rear LEDs, and riders can use the left and right lights as turn signals. But what sets the product apart is the ability to connect handlebars to a smartphone via Bluetooth 4.0. Using smartphone connectivity though Helios' iOS app, the rear lights on the handlebars take advantage of a GPS connection — so they can help you navigate via Google Maps' API. After inputting a destination into Helios' app, your phone plots a route. Then, once you start biking, the rear left and right lights blink, indicating where to turn. Read more...More about Bicycle, Cycling, Kickstarter, Tech, and Gadgets

If you want to see what the Apple TV will look like, I hope you were tuned to Spike at about 1 p.m. Eastern today, because we got a pretty solid picture of the rumored device: a powerful all-in-one entertainment hub with a hands-free interface that smartly integrates live TV with a wealth of streaming and downloadable media. I'm speaking, of course, of the Xbox One, Microsoft's freshly unveiled new game console. Except it's so much more than a game console. The Xbox One is intended to be the command center for any and all media you experience through a TV screen. Sure, the Xbox 360 already had that job, but the One is a considerable upgrade. Read more...More about Microsoft, Apple, Itv, Apple Tv, and Xbox

Many words and phrases are trotted out by self titled social media marketing experts that are tossed around so much they lose their meaning and impact. Specialist, thought leader and even guru are some of the glib terms used. Maybe we should be using words that are a bit more fun and less serious. Like…savvy, adept, adroit or even crackerjack. Just imagine being at a dinner party and someone asks you what you do. You respond with I am a “Crackerjack Savvy Social Media Marketing Specialist“. Bit more fun really. The “Guru” term is the one phrase that makes me cringe the most. It makes me think of someone who has disappeared into the Tibetan mountains, had a vision, hummed a lot and and has come back with insight and enlightenment that is god like and transcends being human. They are wearing sandals, donned a magical cloak and the halo is shimmering. Sorry…haven’t met one of those yet.. but looking forward to it. The path to professional Becoming well known and a professional in your industry is often a journey that starts with a burning passion. This is maybe the most important quality because you need that fuel to maintain the dedication and discipline required to be at the top of your game. In social media marketing the two most common formal paths that converge in a social media expert and specialist are from public relations and marketing. With the rise in the importance of content marketing, multi media and technology the skills required  can even extend into creative, technical and writing. Also thrown into the mix is an understanding of data that keeps us on track in our quest for determining what does and doesn’t work. One term I have heard kicked around is a “Creative Ninja Geek”. This sort of conjures up a  picture of someone that  understands tech but hasn’t forgotten to be human and social. They are the sort of people I often enjoy hanging out with. How do you become a social media marketing expert? Here is an infographic that provides some hints, colleges and education ideas that you may find useful on your path to becoming that social media expert. Infographic source: Schools.com   What about you? What was your path to being an expert in your area. Are you self taught or is it a combination of formal education, experience and learning on the job? Are you passionate about social media marketing? Look forward to hearing your stories in the comments below. Want to learn how to supercharge your marketing and content with social media? My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how. It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog. I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 149,000. Download and read it now. Image by Shutterstock

Arizona Senator John McCain gave Apple CEO Tim Cook a customer satisfaction review at Tuesday's senate hearing on corporate tax reform. "What I really want to ask is why the hell I have to keep updating the apps on my iPhone all the time?" McCain said to Cook, who then responded, "Sir we're trying to make them better all the time." SEE ALSO: Tim Cook: Apple Doesn't Use 'Tax Gimmicks' Image via Allison Shelley/Getty Images Read more...More about Apple, John Mccain, Tim Cook, Apps Software, and Mobile

It's been a while since Will Smith bust out his rapping chops, but he proved on Monday that he's still as skilled as he was in his Fresh Prince days When Smith appeared on the Late Show with David Lettermanstage for his interview, the band responded with his 1992 hit "Summertime." Smith didn't hesitate to join in, launching into the full rap and eventually making his way to the mic to finish the verse SEE ALSO: Fall in Love With John Krasinski Lip Syncing to Katy Perry Smith abandoned his music career more than a decade ago for acting in blockbuster films like Hitch, and Men in Black. He stars in the the upcoming film After Earth, along with son Jaden, but his late night music interlude proves Smith should consider a music comeback — maybe even rapping on one of Jaden's new tracks. Read more...More about Viral Videos, Celebrities, David Letterman, Tv, and Watercooler

A supercell thunderstorm spawned a deadly F-4 tornado that ripped through Oklahoma City and its suburbs on Monday, and NASA satellites tracked and beamed images of the storm. As the storm plowed through the city, it left a devastated trail two miles wide and 17 miles long. At publication time, there were 24 confirmed deaths and more than 230 injuries. The images below are from various NASA satellites, which followed the storm from its strike point near Newcastle, Okla., to the hardest-hit town of Moore, Okla. SEE ALSO: How to Help Victims of the Oklahoma Tornados NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument captured this first image on May 20, 2013, at 2:40 p.m. CDT, as the tornado roared along its path through Moore, Okla. MODIS is aboard one of the Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. Read more...More about Space, Nasa, Weather, Tornado, and Us World

Technology companies' public policy project of the year has been their fight for changes to the United States' immigration systemFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote an op-ed about immigration reform and set up a political group to advocate for the cause. AOL founder Steve Case made the Sunday talk show rounds to publicize the issue, and a myriad of top technology companies — Mashable included — are joining a virtual pro-reform march on Wednesday. At first, some tried to separate the high-skilled immigration issue from the debate over the approximately 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally. Now, Congress embedded the future of high-tech immigration reform in its larger comprehensive immigration reform plan, which is currently up for debate in the Senate. Read more...More about Congress, Immigration, Us World, Politics, and Us

The newly announced Xbox One will not be able to play previous generation Xbox 360 games, Microsoft confirmed Tuesday. The Xbox One is designed on an x86 architecture, on a new eight-core chip. The Xbox 360 uses a Xenon processor, with PowerPC architecture, making the systems incompatible "The Xbox One hardware is not compatible with Xbox 360 games. We designed Xbox One to play an entirely new generation of games — games that are architected to take full advantage of state-of-the-art processors and the infinite power of the cloud. We care very much about the investment people have made in Xbox 360 and will continue to support it with a pipeline of new games and new apps well into the future," a Microsoft spokesperson said. Read more...More about Microsoft, Gaming, Xbox 360, Entertainment, and Xbox One

This article gives some great advice on creating a social media marketing campaign and the 6 steps that are needed to do it. Follow these simple steps, and you can begin to implement an effective Social Media Marketing strategy too.

Let's visit a ninth grade math class. You're learning the basics of geometry and discover that a circle has 360 degrees. If you add up the degrees of each angle in a four-sided figure, it's 360 degrees, as well. But on a more thematic level, the number 360 represents a route that might travel near or far but lands in the same place it started. Everything is connected Marketers are always looking for ways to give their ideas a fresh spin. Sometimes a new terminology can set apart an idea. "It's like what we did last year, but now it's gamified," someone might say. And sometimes a term comes along that is not only fresh, but flexible. The phrase "360 campaign" is one. The number 360 is both broad and powerful, and there's no definitive example that sets apart what a 360 campaign really is. Rather, it can mean a lot of things Read more...More about Features, Buzzwords, Business, Marketing, and 30 Days Of Buzzwords