The New MySpace: A Lesson in Just Being Yourself

If Facebook and Spotify had a love child, this would be it. The new MySpace is clean, user-friendly, highly intuitive and, best of all, music-centric. The platform isn't trying to be something it's not. It's not attempting to be the "new" Facebook. It isn't even trying to kill Twitter. In fact, it would rather just be...itself. What a concept. Though MySpace broke ground as our first "real" social media network (founded on the concept of Friendster) in 2004, it reached it's peak in 2008 before finally declining to less than half of its original value in 2011. After the collapse, we figured MySpace was finished. Another relic to look back on with your friends and say, "Yeah, remember when we had MySpace accounts?" followed by nostalgic laughter and references to Crystal Pepsi. Today, however, all that may have changed. The resurrection of MySpace, funded in part by Justin Timberlake, ... Keep Reading

Categories: News  Social Networking 

Thursday Think Tank - 10/25/2012

Join WebLift CEO Pedro Sostre and Product Director Misty McIntosh as we review the latest in business and marketing. http://www.spreecast.com/channels/weblift... Keep Reading

Categories: News  Web Tips & Advice  Search Engine Optimization  Social Networking  Marketing 

5 Points to Excellent Email Marketing

Email marketing seems easy, right? Create a simple email, throw in some products and a sweet little sales code and voila - quick recipe for ROI.  Right?  Wrong. It's not quite that easy.  With at least a dozen dynamic variables to consider, it's understandable that many small business owners invest time and money in email campaigns that don't garner results.   Even if you're not a marketing or analytics expert, there's still hope.  A few simple guidelines can turn your campaigns from useless spam into helpful sales: Frequency.  Be sure to guage how often you send out campaigns, and monitor the response. Sending too many emails may desensitize your audience, making them less likely to pay attention. Subject Line Testing.  Subject lines are extremely important, especially when users receive, on average, 10-15 valid emails per day.  Your subject... Keep Reading

Categories: Web Tips & Advice  Marketing 

Facebook Doesn't Listen to Users, so Why Should We?

Facebook is notorious for their bad press, especially when rolling out updates that irritate their users. Even so, this doesn't stop them from making UI changes. Why?  Because Facebook understands user behavior.  They know that users who combat change will complain (quite loudly) at first, but accept and embrace the updates within a few weeks.  In other words, Facebook knows that what users say doesn't always translate to what they do. As a provider of social media services, our clients frequently ask us for advice and direction on how best to work their business into social channels like Facebook.  They're concerned about what users say. With a much smaller audience in mind, they want to ensure that the community is happy and that their business is perceived positively. Typical questions include: What kinds of posts do people want to see? How often should I pos... Keep Reading

Categories: Web Tips & Advice  Social Networking 

5 Steps to Remove Old Pages from the Google Cache

If you've ever searched yourself (or your website) on Google, you've probably found a cached version of your pages.  These cached copies are stored backups of your live page, which Google keeps on file to judge whether or not the result is a good match for a query.  Since Google answers millions of search queries per day, it's faster for the user to receive a cached copy of a page instead of the live site.  This means users will have access to your content in their search results, even if your site has gone down or is temporarily unavailable. There are certain times, however, when a cached page is not helpful. A couple of these situations include: Changes to time sensitive page content (such as event results or breaking news) Adjustments to page URL (where Google may still have a copy of the page under the old URL, inadvertently sending users to a broken page) If y... Keep Reading

Categories: Web Tips & Advice  Search Engine Optimization