Great job MPT

So excited to watch this program with my family.  It will teach my girls and I will get to see some familiar faces! 

The series was created to help increase the public's understanding of Maryland agriculture, Maryland Public Television (MPT) in partnership with the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) is producing Maryland Farm & Harvest, a new series that will put a human face on agriculture, educate viewers about the industry, and tell the stories of the industry that built this nation and continues to feed the world.

http://www.mpt.org/farm

https://www.facebook.com/MarylandFarm...

Maryland's 11 Best Day of Summer

It is officially the end of the summer when the Maryland State Fair rolls around.  Unbelievable how fast the summer went.  I had the opportunity to take a few trips recently and with my new smartphone upgrade and a hefty data plan I was able to download many helpful travel apps.  My favorites included mapquest, trip advisor, weather center and tripit! 

Some apps were even created for the location I was visiting.   As I was writing this post and thinking of the state fair I wondered if any county fairs had gone digital and sure enough!

Erie County Fair in Hamburg New York has one of the first mobile phone applications for fairs in the United States.  The website states "A beloved tradition for over one million people each year, Fair guests will now be able to use their iPhone or Android smartphone to get the latest information on exhibitors, events, and all the excitement at the Fair, Hamburg Casino, The Event Center, Showplex and Buffalo Raceway."

Here are some of the many fun and useful features Fair visitors can do from the free mobile app:

• Find My Car feature
• Facebook integration
• GPS map of the Fairgrounds
• Get the most current information on daily highlights
• Search for a show, exhibit or favorite food item.
• An alphabetical listing of all the Fair exhibitors.

TMI

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/securitytipstalk/archive/2013/07/23/7-ways-to-avoid-tmi.aspx

Technology can make everything in our lives easier—including sharing too much information (TMI). Just because you can take a picture of your new credit card and post it on Instagram doesn’t mean that you should. In fact, you shouldn’t.
Sharing too much information can lead to identity theft. It can also damage your online reputation, which could prevent you from getting into college, getting a job, or even getting health insurance.
Here are ways to avoid sharing TMI:

1. Never share your address, phone number, Social Security number, or other personal information through online interactions.
2. Use and manage your privacy settings. Limit who can see details of your online profiles.
3. Never shop, bank, or enter passwords or credit card numbers over public Wi-Fi.
4. Ask questions. Sometimes we do need to share personal information, but before doing so, ask why the information is necessary and beware of imposters.
5. Use sites that you can trust. Learn what to look for.
6. Stop and think before you post an image, blog, tweet, or comment. What does it say about you and how you want to be viewed online?
7. Take charge of your online reputation: Discover, evaluate, protect, cultivate, and restore as needed.

For more tips on avoiding TMI, check out the hashtag #IsThisTMI on our Twitter channel.

Social Media Photo Sizes

We have all learned that viewers love photos.  These are posts that seem to get the "most likes" or "retweets".  But have you ever wondered what size your photos should be?  Luna metrics has posted a great guide to sizing your photos.

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/11/12/final-social-media-sizing-cheat-sheet/

You Tube for Busniesses

YouTube For Business: Top Ten Strategies & Best Practices

March 31, 2013 by Wayne Ford

YouTube is where the eyeballs are. In fact YouTube is now where over a billion sets of eyeballs are every single month. The vast majority of those eyeballs belong to what Google & Nielsen are now calling the ‘C Generation’. The C Generation is supposedly a state of mind and is representative of those that ‘care deeply about creation, curation, connection and community.’

 

Generation C is made up of 80% millennials which also happen to be YouTube’s core audience. YouTube users are also very likely to constantly use a mobile device during the day to consume media so your videos must be optimized for all viewing platforms.

 

However, the C Generation is not YouTube’s only audience. All demographics are now consuming video online at growing rates and primarily on YouTube.

 

How do you leverage YouTube for Business effectively?

As you’ve probably noticed, YouTube is bursting with silly, weird and pointless videos uploaded by teenagers and young adults. How is your business going to market successfully in that space? Especially if that’s not your target audience?

If your target audience is the millennials it may seem you’ll have a little easier time leveraging YouTube. However it can be really difficult to get your videos seen and your channel subscribed to in this now overcrowded environment.

Below are my top ten YouTube for Business strategies and best practices:

https://www.udemy.com/blog/youtube-for-business/

The term for engaging customers

How to Create a Social Media Buzz with Crowdsourcing

October 8, 2012 by Frank Salatto

Crowdsourcing – enlisting your customers, followers and fans to help you innovate and improve – has made it easier than ever to create better marketing and customer service.

According to social media expert Mark Schaefer, there’s no better way to find the most effective solution: “You are going to get a radically more effective product,” he says, “because, literally, crowds of engaged people are getting involved, providing feedback, and producing finished content for you.”

According to a recent report from InSites Consulting, most social media users are willing to help – so what are you waiting for? Here are five inspirational examples from brands who’ve already taken the lead in social media crowdsourcing.

Starbucks: share, vote, discuss and see

My Starbucks Idea is the coffee corporation’s hub for customers to share and vote on ideas, discuss those ideas, and see them in action.  There’s a poll every day, a running list of ideas that have been implemented, and every hour, dozens more ideas pour in.

Starbucks also runs a Twitter page for its ongoing crowdsourcing campaign – a page that has over 35K followers. They engage those followers and drive interest and traffic to their crowdsourcing site by tweeting pictures of customer ideas in action, polling followers, offering deals and more.

Read more crowdsourcing examples at http://www.vocus.com/blog/crowdsourcing-social-media-buzz/

New Mobile Stats and Facebook Security!

91% keep their Phones within 3 feet of themselves

84% say they couldn’t go a single day without their mobile device

data via Morgan Stanley & TIME mobility poll

http://www.wchingya.com/2013/01/facebook-privacy-timeline-changes.html

Posted by Wong Ching Ya

More changes in 2013?

It’s common for Facebook to undergo drastic (or silent) changes whether the users like it or not. The real question is, how ready are you when Facebook is determined to make the world more open and connected’? Have you made full use of the privacy and account settings to your advantage?

Also, if you’ve been observant enough you should’ve discovered several improvements on the existing features to make them more visible and user friendly. Why not give this list a run-through and see if you missed any.

Privacy Settings:

#1  To Pre-set Your Future Posts

You can predetermine the audience selector for your next status update besides doing it right below your status box before publishing. Otherwise, this setting is fixed upon your last status update.

#2  To Review Tagged Posts and Photos

Your Activity Log had gone through a complete makeover. It’s now easier to scan through your tagged posts or photos and you can set so to be notified when tagged by friends, anyone or friends of friends.

#3  To Control Who Can Look You Up

It’s almost impossible to hide on Facebook. However, you can control who can look you up based on the email address or phone number you provided on Facebook.

Your timeline can be opted-out of search engine results. To do this, simply untick the checkbox. Of course, Facebook will persuade you to reconsider but the decision is yours.

If you prefer to gain followers (formerly known as ‘Subscribers’) for your personal Timeline, then I’d recommend you to keep the box ticked for extra visibility.

Mobile Settings:

#4  To Log Out from Your Missing Phone

When you lose your phone, two critical things you must do to immediately: remove your phone number from your Facebook account and click the ‘Lose your phone’ link to log out from your Facebook mobile app completely.

Managing Notifications:

#5  To Set Notifications for All Your Groups

You can now easily set how you’d like to receive notifications for ALL your groups – including those you’ve joined: to allow all posts, friends’ posts or turn them off completely. How convenient!

There are a few other types of notifications worth exploring, especially if you wish to reduce the noise sent to your emails etc:

• Facebook notifications– you can choose to turn off follow-up alerts by clicking ‘unfollow’ in the notification bar.
• Email notifications- to set so all or only certain notifications reach you via email.
• Mobile notifications– You can choose to receive notifications when someone commented, sent you a request or even from selected friends only. Also, you can set to receive notifications via text messages at the selected time frame.
• Notifications for ‘Close Friends activity’ – to either receive them on facebook, email or none.
• Notifications for Your ‘Followers’ – people who are not your friends but you can set to be notified (or not) about their reactions to your public posts.
• Pages you manage – to set notifications for selected pages you are managing.