Social Media In Plain English

Understanding social media is critical for the success of your business or nonprofit. Learn from our expertise in a fun, friendly environment.
April 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

WordPress.com Security Breach

Automattic has reported that there was a recent security incident which could potentially have made account passwords visible.  If you have a WordPress.com account it is highly recommend that you update your password.

NOTE: This does not affect self hosted WordPress sites, but it is still a good idea to update passwords from time-to-time.

Original post from Watershed Studio, LLCSocial Media » Watershed Studio, LLC

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March 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ten Social Media Reads, Vol 5

Here at Watershed Studio we’re always scouring our RSS and Twitter feeds to see what’s going on in the world of technology and social media. Here’s Volume 5 in nice, easy to digest, posts. Enjoy.

If you have any social media reads that you’d like to suggest, please contact us or Tweet us @watershedstudio.

Original post from Watershed Studio, LLCSocial Media»Watershed Studio, LLC

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January 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ten Social Media Reads, Vol 4

Here at Watershed Studio we’re always scouring our RSS and Twitter feeds to see what’s going on in the world of technology and social media. Here’s Volume 4 in nice, easy to digest, posts. Enjoy.

If you have any social media reads that you’d like to suggest, please contact us or Tweet us @watershedstudio.

Original post from Watershed Studio, LLCSocial Media » Watershed Studio, LLC

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November 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

DROID X by Motorola Review

The DROID X by Motorola is clearly a sports car among the current smart phones on the market. Lets take a quick tour.

Platform

The DROID X currently runs the Android 2.1 platform which is very well done & continually improving.

Touchscreen

I’ve always been a little wary of touchscreen phones for two reasons.

1) I have big hands and fat fingers which make it a little difficult to be accurate when typing.  Much to my surprise, with the generous 4.3-in. screen, this hasn’t been too bad.  And once I got the hang of the Predictive Text (Swype) feature it has really been pretty easy to use.

2) It drives me crazy when anyone touches a TV or computer screen. To remedy this pet peeve I highly recommend carrying around a micro fiber cloth to clean off the oil on the screen.

Voice Quality

The voice quality of the DROID X is decent but I’d personally recommend getting a Bluetooth® headset to go along with it.

Battery Life

As with most portable electronics, battery life is a major concern.  Having used the DROID X with Twitter, Gmail & Facebook constantly running in the background with the default screen brightness, the 480 minutes of continuous use is a little generous if you’re looking for active use.  To help improve battery life I highly recommend an app such as the free Advanced Task Killer.

Still Camera

The still camera is 8 MP and has a very decent auto focus feature. Compared to other phones on the market right now I really don’t know what else you can ask for.

Video Camera

The video camera is an amazing HD 720p (1280x720p resolution) camera with 3 built in microphones.  Having shot a few test videos with it I’d personally rather use this instead of toting around something like a Flip.  The only other things I could really want would be 1080p with an external mic option, but this is a phone so I really have no complaints.

Apps, apps & more apps

Packing 24 GB of storage out of the box with the possibility of expanding to 40 GB you should have plenty of room for any of the numerous apps available in the Android Market in addition to the pre-installed applications.

Of the pre-installed applications, Google Maps™ Navigation is an excellent GPS application which will get you where you need to go. You can actually speak your destination to it, using the excellent speech to text feature of the Android platform,  and be on your way. And if your destination is on Google’s Street View, it will show up on the screen when you arrive.

For social media I highly recommend choosing a Twitter app & the Facebook app.  For Twitter there are numerous app options, so give a few a whirl and see what you like.  My personal favorite is Seesmic.  And if you use WordPress I highly recommend installing the WordPress app.

For games there are also numerous options.  Everyone will want to install Angry Birds and then take a look through the other game options in the Android Market.  There are plenty of excellent free games to keep you busy.

Bottom Line

I highly recommend the DROID X.  Of the smart phones currently on the market, the DROID X does just about anything you can throw at it. But I would probably buy a second battery to go along with it.

Technical Specifications

  • Network: Verizon 3G
  • Platform: Android 2.1
  • Battery: Up to 480 minutes continuous, up to 220 hours standby, 1540 mAh Li Ion
  • Memory:  up 8 GB on board, 16 GB removable microSD pre-installed (supports up to 32 GB microSD)
  • Display Size: 4.3-in.; WVGA (480 x 854)
  • Weight: 155 grams
  • Size (H x W x D): 65.5 x 127.5 x 9.9 mm
  • Camera: 8 MP, Digital Zoom, Flash, Auto Focus, Cropping, Rotating, Geo Tagging
  • Video Camera: HD 720p quality (1280x720p resolution) up to 24 fps capture; up to 30 fps playback, 3 microphone technology
  • Media: Android Media Player, Video & Audio (AAC, H.263, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV, eAAC+, WMA v10, MIDI, AAC+)
  • WIFI: 802.11 n
  • 3G Mobile Hotspot: Be a mobile hot spot for up to 5 other devices
  • Connector Type: Micro USB, HDMI® Micro Connector Cable
  • Data Transmission Rate: USB 2.0 (High Speed)
  • Other: Bluetooth®, SMS, MMS, Predictive Text (Swype), Speakerphone

Preinstalled Applications

  • Google Apps
    • Gmail™
    • Google Calendar™
    • Google Contact Sync™
    • Google Latitude™
    • Google Maps Street View
    • Google Maps™
    • Google Maps™ Navigation
    • Google Quick Search Box™
    • Google Talk™
    • Google™ Search By Voice
    • Youtube™
  • Email: Corporate Sync, Google Mail, Push Email, WebKit
  • Web Browser: Android HTML Webkit, Adobe® Flash® Player
  • Other: Calculator, Calendar, Clock, Wallpaper, Ringtones (AAC, AAC+, eAAC, eAAC+, MP3, OGG)

Disclosure: The DROID X by Motorola was provided for review by Verizon Wireless.

Original post from Watershed Studio, LLC » Social Media

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August 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Blogging for Passion or for Dollars

When I saw this story this morning, my jaw dropped.

Taking a step closer to an eerie Orwellian state where creativity is crushed in the name of “the greater good,” the city of Philadelphia is demanding that bloggers pay $300 for the privilege of writing on the Internet.

This $300 “business privilege license” is for all local bloggers – even the ones that make no money off their words.

The city doesn’t stop there. In addition to the $300 for the license to write on the World Wide Web, bloggers must pay city wage taxes, business privilege taxes and taxes on any net profits — on top of state and federal taxes — even if the blogger only made $11 over two years, reports the City Paper.

Full story at NBC Philadelphia

Even though I’ve never heard of anything like a blanket “business privilege license”, I understand paying taxes is something we all have to do. If that’s how it is in Philly for any business, then fine.  But when you automatically label bloggers as businesses then I have a problem with that.

Taking a step back to the mid-1990′s, I used to publish a ‘zine (and yes, ‘zines are still alive and well in 2010).  We printed 100 copies, got some free music to review, had a few small ad sales, and if we were lucky we broke even.  But it was about our passion for the subject and it was nothing more than a hobby for a group of college kids.

Step forward to 2002 and I jumped head first into blogging and haven’t looked back.  The idea of being a zinester & the idea of being a blogger were pretty much the same thing for me, but with blogging there was a lot less overhead and many more potential eyeballs.

Now jump to present day 2010 and I find myself making a living off of blogging.  (Note that I didn’t say from blogging.)

When Watershed Studio was started back in 2004 our focus was on web design and building PHP based web  applications since that’s what I was doing as a day job back then. Today that has morphed into a lot of WordPress development for clients as well as social media related consulting, coaching & training.  Last year WordSprung was launched as an extension of our WordPress services and earlier this year we launched Indy Media School to focus on the social media training side of things.

On the flip side of the coin, in 2006 the decision was made to separate our content (blogs, podcasts, writings, etc) from the design & consulting side of things and Surge Bucket Media was formed.  Four years later Surge Bucket Media (SBM) consists of dozens of web properties, many of which are networked together.  The difference here being that SBM is currently nowhere near the money maker that everything under the Watershed Studio umbrella is.  And a lot of that is on purpose as we are trying to keep advertising down to an absolute minimum and frankly we do that because we like to do it.

All of that to say, we have seen quite the spectrum of blogs & bloggers throughout the years. While many of our clients are businesses, both small and large, we also have numerous clients who blog out of their own pockets. In other words, their blogs are their passion and they are funding them themselves without a concern for monetary gain.  And it’s this crowd that the vast majority of bloggers would fall into.

Going back to Philadelphia, I honestly don’t see how this will hold up. There are just too many issues at hand, not to mention the moment when freedom of speech and press are brought up (and Philly should be pretty familiar with those, right?).   If I were a small potatoes blogger in Philly I wouldn’t be packing my bags just yet, but I certainly would raise a ruckus with your city government.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Please leave us a comment or leave a voicemail at 317-565-4250.

Original post from Watershed Studio, LLC » Social Media

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June 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

WordPress For Small Business and Nonprofits

Are you interested in using WordPress to create an easy to use website for your small business or organization?  If so, sign up today for our WordPress For Small Business and Nonprofits course where you will learn how to post content, add pictures and video, and even how to leverage Facebook and Twitter. This is the perfect introductory course for small businesses and nonprofits.

For more information please visit the WordPress For Small Business and Nonprofits page.

Next course: June 19th from 9-Noon.

Filed Under: Social Media Courses Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
March 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

How Do I Upload Files In WordPress?

Q: I want to be able to upload images (for ads, banners, etc.) without having to FTP in. I’ve been doing it by adding them to a dummy post and then copying the link and adding where I need it-is there a better solution? A: There’s a built in solution for WordPress to do just this. In the sidebar of the WordPress Admin Area, click on “Media > Add New” (located at http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/media-new.php).

Upload Files In WordPress via the Media Section

From there you’ll see the same file uploading interface that you do when you create a post or page. If you need assistance, please contact WordSprung.

Source: WordSprung » WordPress Q&A

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March 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

How Do I Display Random YouTube Videos in WordPress Sidebar

Q: I am after a YouTube plugin for a widget. What I want to do is have a YouTube video that randomly rotates between three/four videos in the side bar. Is there one? A: While it was created for serving ads, Datafeedr Random Ads, should do the trick for you. We’ve used it for images in the past and it does exactly what we needed it to. Installation Instructions
  1. Upload the plugin files to your plugins directory
  2. Activate the plugin
  3. Go to Tools > Datafeedr Random Ads
  4. Create an Ad Group (a set of ads that you want to rotate)
  5. Place a widget in your sidebar or template code in your template files
If you need assistance, please contact WordSprung.

Source: WordSprung » WordPress Q&A

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March 9, 2010 By 1 Comment

How Do I Add A Contact Form On WordPress.com?

Q: How Do I Add A Contact Form On WordPress.com? A: On the standard version of WordPress.com your only built in option is to use the “[contact-form]” short code. To do this, place “[contact-form]” (without the quotes) in your page where you’d like it to appear and save it. Once saved you’ll see a form show up that looks similar to your standard comments form.  Note that this will look differently to anyone who is logged into WordPress.com.

WordPress.com Contact Form (logged in view)

WordPress.com Contact Form (logged out view)

If that doesn’t suit your needs and you’re after a more customizable solution you’ll need to look for hosted form solutions of which there are various options.  And of course, you can always opt to go the self-hosted WordPress.org route. If you need assistance, please contact WordSprung.

Source: WordSprung » WordPress Q&A

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February 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Free WordPress Installation Service

For anyone that has wanted to launch their own blog on their own domain and web server, but hasn’t done so yet, WordSprung has launched a new FREE service which will get you up and running with your very own WordPress powered blog.  For more information check out the details of WordSprung’s FREE Basic WordPress Self-Hosted Blog Installation Service.

Original post from Watershed Studio, LLC » Social Media

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