Apple Kills iPhone 3GS, Makes iPhone 4 Free

With the launch of the iPhone 5, one familiar Apple product is being retired: the iPhone 3GS.

During its product announcements Wednesday, the company announced that the iPhone 4 would be taking the 3GS’s place as a free phone with a new two-year contract, pushing the earlier handset out of Apple’s handset lineup.

The 16GB iPhone 4S is now $99 with a new two-year agreement, with the iPhone 5 taking top billing at $199 for a 16GB version of the phone.

Removing the 3GS from its lineup means all of Apple’s new iPhones are now able to run on both CDMA and GSM carriers. It also means that AT&T, Verizon and Sprint all now have a free iPhone model to offer customers.

The iPhone 5 sports a number of enhancements from Apple’s current lineup of phones including a larger screen, faster processor, and support for LTE data networks.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 5 will happen on Sept. 14, with the phone expected to be released on Sept. 21 in the U.S., Canada, Japan, the UK, Germany, France, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Quick 5 tips: How To Create Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign

If you are planning a new marketing strategy for your business and you have no idea how to start or what path to follow that will be successful and cost effective, you should go for the social media marketing. Most of the major brands as well as small companies are using this medium to promote their products & brands on social media. Social Media is considered to be the best and most effective way of communicating and addressing your target audience in an efficient manner.

You don’t have to be a marketing genius to setup any social media campaign, it’s a simple process if followed correctly.

Here are the five steps that will help you to create and implement a successful Social Media Campaign.

1- Select your Platform:

First of all you need to decide which social platform works best for your campaign.You need to know which social platform is more preferable and most suitable according to your nature of business and where the desired audience is availablei.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest etc.

Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are widely used and preferred for marketing for B2C services. On the other hand, if you are in B2b services then LinkedIn is more suitable according to your needs.

2- Target Audience

You should have the idea of what kind of audience you are targeting. It includes all the demographics (e.g. gender, age, education) and in order to get a true understanding, you must need to examine more socio-graphic information on how consumer interact with the social media. This could include the information such as (which websites do they visit regularly, which is more interesting for them). In addition to this information, an effective campaign needs to center around what value the company will be bringing to the consumer.

3- Implementation

Once you are done with the identification of an appropriate platform, you should start working on the idea and start decorating your business page, put some beautiful images which will attract users to company’s profile. Your presentation and content are the two things that gives a strong impression on the users. Put some notes about company’s back ground and setup a profile that will describe the nature of your brand and its services.

4- Engage Your Audience

In social media, it is easy to attract a consumer to join a campaign (e.g. ‘like’ a Facebook group or follow a Twitter stream). However, it is much harder to get a consumer to actually engage with the campaign and remain connected. The consumer needs to see that there is value with theengagement in order for them to continue to follow the execution and becoming more invested in the campaign. Choose your post wisely so it does not backfire on your brand, always try to post something that will trigger the user to get engage itself in the discussion and generate their interest

5- Evaluation

After specific time of period, evaluate your performance in order to determine how successful your campaign is and what impact it creates among the users and your consumers. The most important metric is to know how it works out for your business and how it helps you to create an image among the consumers and other users.

Above are just some basic tips for a successful social media campaign, although it seems very simple and easy and they are, but in order to get the right result you must understand the true power of social media before step in into it.

20 Tricks to Make Facebook Better

Facebook is by far the largest social network on the web. While Mark Zuckerberg has made plenty of great calls in its design, the site — and the way people use it — isn’t as streamlined as it could be.

These 20 tips, tricks and tools will give help take your Facebook experience to the next level. From simple settings options you may have overlooked, to browser plug-ins dedicated to making the social network even better, you’re sure to find something on this list that will make your Facebook time even more addicting than it already is.

Tweak Your Facebook Settings

1. Appear Offline to Certain Friends

By opening your Facebook chat window, clicking the settings icon in the upper right corner and then navigating to “Advanced Settings,” you can customize your chat experience by appearing offline to certain people on your friends list. This tweak will be especially helpful for those of you with chatty acquaintances who like to talk your ear off when you’re online.

2. Reposition Your Timeline Photos

When uploading a new photo, it might not always appear on your feed the way you intended. Particularly long or wide photos have a tendency to be cropped awkwardly, but you can fix this rather easily. By clicking “Edit Photo” from your Timeline page, you gain access to a “Reposition Photo” option. Using this tool, you can move your photo around the preview window so that it appears as you intended.

3. Add Photos to Your Worldly Travels

If you’re a fan of Facebook’s “Places” feature, you can very easily decorate it with pictures to show off your various activities all over the world. On the main Places page, simply click “Add Photos to Map” and start tagging away! If you frequently upload photos directly to your Facebook profile using a mobile app for iPhone or Android, you might find that your map is already pretty well populated.

4. Easily Hide App Notifications

By going into your account settings, navigating to the “Notifications” tab on the left side of the page, you can browse the applications that have permission to populate your news feed. If find that a friend has spammed your feed with an excessive number of app notifications, simply deactivate the offending app. It’s easier than breaking off the friendship.

5. Upload Photos in High Resolution

Sometimes you’ll find that a gorgeous photo you wanted to share with your friends appears tiny and blurry after adding it to your social network profile. Remedy this by going into your Facebook albums and, before uploading a photo, click the “High Quality” box.

6. Use the “View As” Option to Tweak Your Appearance to Specific Friends

Knowing what your friends can see on your Facebook Timeline is an invaluable tool to ensuring your virtual reputation stays intact. From your Timeline page, click the settings icon next to “Activity Log” and then click “View As.” From here you’ll be able to see what specific friends see when they visit your page.

7. Download Your Entire Facebook History

Ever wanted to browse your entire Facebook profile at once — including every status update you’ve ever submitted? Facebook makes it easy. Under your Account Settings page, a small link will appear at the very bottom of the options list. Click “Download a copy of your Facebook data” to begin the process of securing your entire archive.

8. Forward Your Facebook Conversations

Having to repeat yourself is annoying in day-to-day life, and it’s even more of a bother when online. Rather than copying and pasting directions or instructions to multiple people, click the “Actions” tab at the top of any Facebook message thread to access the option to forward it to others. Ta-da! No more double-talk!

9. Turn Chat Sign-in Off by Default

Can’t stand endless chat when you’re simply browsing your status updates? No problem. Click the settings icon in the main Facebook chat window, and click “Turn off chat” to have all future messages sent to your inbox, rather than pop-up in realtime on your screen.

10. Use Facebook to Design Your Business Card

If you’ve put a lot of work into making your Timeline page reflect exactly who you are, consider using it as a pre-designed business card. Clicking the “About” link — located under your name on your Timeline — lets you browse your social network details. In the Contact Info window is a small business card icon that will direct you to Moo.com, where you can customize a Facebook-flavored business card and place an order.

Web Tools That Optimize Facebook

11. Analyze Your Facebook History With Wolfram Alpha

For the most comprehensive breakdown of your entire Facebook history, Wolfram Alpha can’t be beat. Simply type “Facebook Report” into the main search bar, approve the app’s use of your Facebook data and wait for the system to break down your history. Once it’s finished, you’ll be treated to a seemingly endless number of graphs and data points showing your update history, most-liked photos and much more.

12. Schedule Facebook Updates With Sendible

Believe it or not, thieves are big fans of Facebook. By finding out when you’ll be away from your home, security experts believe would-be robbers target those who go on a Facebook hiatus. Sendible — an application that allows you to schedule updates even when you’re not near your computer — can keep your online persona active, even when you can’t.

13. Use Twitter to Update Facebook

Sometimes you just don’t have enough time to keep all your social networks up to date, but thankfully Facebook and Twitter play nice together with a little tweaking. Head to the Twitter app page on Facebook to begin the process of syncing your virtual social lives. After authorizing the Facebook app via Twitter, all your tweets will appear on Facebook as status updates.

14. Export Your Facebook Calendar to Your PC

Make sure you don’t miss any important events by exporting your Facebook calendar to either Microsoft Outlook or Apple iCal. Head to your Facebook calendar (located under the “Events” tab on the Facebook navigation bar) and click the settings icon. Click “Export,” and then choose either your Facebook birthday list or upcoming events. Your desktop’s calendar app should launch immediately, making the process even more streamlined.

Chrome Extensions for Facebook

15. Facebook Photo Zoom

Using this extension, you no longer have to click on the photos in your news feed in order to view them in full size. Simply move your mouse cursor over the image thumbnail and the larger version will pop up right in front of you. You can even adjust the zoom by moving the mouse back and forth over the photo itself. It’s like magic.

16. Revert Facebook Photo Viewer

If you’re not into real-time photo zooming, this extension turns back the clock on your Facebook’s photo feature. Rather than displaying pictures in the new “Theater” layout, photos will appear on their own pages, complete with the full comments section and “Like” options.

17. Facebook Chat Notifications

Have you ever left a Facebook tab open on your web browser and missed an urget message from a friend? This handy plugin produces a pop-up window on your desktop to notify you when someone needs to chat, ensuring you never miss an important bit of info.

Firefox Add-Ons for Facebook

18. Like the Page

If you’re a Firefox user, you can use this add-on to instantly share any web page they come across, even when the site doesn’t have a built-in Facebook share button. A small “Like” icon will pop up at the bottom of every browser window, and all it takes it a click to share your find with the world.

19. FB Purity

This plug-in returns your Facebook to an earlier day, back when spammers and useless clutter wasn’t a hinderance to your browsing habits. You can hide any type of notification you wish, including birthdays, relationship updates, tagged photos, links and much more. You can make your social experience as simple as you wish.

20. Facebook Auto-Logout

Do you hate it when you accidentally leave yourself signed in to the social network, only to come back to missed chat messages and anxiety over whether someone else was browsing your digital life? This handy add-on will automatically sign you out of your Facebook windows if you’ve been inactive for too long, ensuring that nobody can snoop your info.