The Wibiya toolbar lets you integrate a variety of social plugins, free apps, games, video and image galleries, and more into your website to increase page views, increase visitor engagement, and better promote your content.

Wibiya is giving away two Pro Wibiya Plans, each for a full year! A value of $119.40 each! All you have to do to enter is comment on this post!

The free Wibiya social web bar has plenty of great features for website owners. There are a variety of free apps that can be included in the toolbar to expand the exposure opportunities for your content. The toolbar also gives your visitors a more interactive experience.

The web bar can be personalized to enhance your site’s design, and not stick out more than you want it to. There are dozens of free themes and customization options, in addition to an icon bank where you can choose icons that will complement your site’s design.

One of the great things about the Wibiya bar is that it doesn’t require you to do any coding either to customize it or install it. Just log in to your account any time and edit the bar visually.

The Wibiya bar gives you direct integration with Twitter and Facebook, among a ton of other free apps. Boost interactivity on your site even further by integration chat and social sharing features.

There are over 70 different apps you can install to the Bar, including a variety of share buttons, search enhancements, bookmarking tools, Twitter tools, YouTube video galleries, translation tools, and much more. There are even apps you can install to help you earn more revenue from your site.

And of course Wibiya gives you analytics so you can see exactly what’s going on with your site. View how many visitors your site gets, where they’re coming from, and which apps they use most.

The free toolbar also includes a variety of options for messaging your users while they’re on your site. You can target visitors based on their interests and tastes, and send specific messages to specific users (or send a blanket message). This is a great option for drip marketing campaigns or other highly-targeted promotions.

The Pro Plan for the Wibiya Toolbar includes support for up to fifteen applications to be installed on a single bar, and also allows for more customization than the free plan. The Pro Plan is $9.95/month, though there are additional plans available with more features (and support for multiple bars).

If you want a chance to win your own free Wibiya Bar Pro Plan for the year, just leave a comment below! Make sure you post with a valid email address (not via Twitter/Facebook) so we can notify you if you’ve won. Only one entry per person. We’ll be choosing the winners randomly from the comments a week from today.

[UPDATE] : Contest has ended. Winners are: #5 thedoctor01, and #34 Jcav

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As a higher and higher percentage of high school students spend more time online (and on social media in particular), colleges have made the realization that they stand a far better chance of attracting new applicants if they come visit them on their own turf.

The big social media sites have all become darlings of academia, and students seem not to mind one bit—the most successful schools rack up thousands of Twitter followers, hundreds of thousands of Facebook likes, and millions of views on YouTube, likely in large part from current, prospective, and former students.

And though a great many academies remain dinosaurs of Web 1.0, a few prestigious institutions have truly evolved into social media mammoths.

This Infographic from Best Education Sites breaks down the academic web space with some hard numbers, calling out the schools that are doing the web better than anyone else.

Created by: Best Education Sites

A former Social Media consultant at AOL, Greg Voakes regularly contributes his written work as well as Data Visualizations (Infographics) to publishers all across the Web. He is a regular contributor to Business Insider, Guyism, and owns a blog called Fork Party.

Which schools do you think are best represented online? Let us know in the comments!

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It makes it easier to amplify your voice and get help and feedback with your ideas and projects. Naturally it also allows you to connect to like minds faster and leverage existing connections with a higher impact.

Oftentimes, although many want to establish themselves as authority, we can’t spend hour and hours each day doing this. So here are 10 tools that I am using to make my online networking more efficient.

Buffer – get 200% more clicks on your tweets

What I found to be the most important ingredient to a great online appearance is to create amazing content for your followers. In order to do so, Buffer comes in very handy. You can drop tweets into your Buffer with just one click and the app posts it for you at optimal times over the day.

This allows me to spend a few minutes each morning on finding great posts and throwing them into my Buffer. The app will take care of the rest. In recent research this has shown to increase clicks and retweets about 200%.

Best bit: With every tweet Buffered you will know exactly how many people have clicked, retweeted, and how much reach it has gotten.

Find out more: Buffer [Disclaimer: The author is the creator of Buffer]

Twylah – get more out of your tweets

The lifetime of a tweet is traditionally very short and bit.ly recently confirmed that it lasts only for about 2.8 hours. Yet, putting all that content to waste after only a few hours isn’t very efficient I feel. This is where Twylah comes in.

The app turns all tweets you have ever posted into a beautifully branded landing page, displaying all your past tweets in categories and rich media display. It is a great way to help others understand what you are tweeting about and make use of your content.

Best bit: A great feature from Twylah is a function called “Power Tweet,” which allows you to send tweets that reach up to 4 times more engagement, as relevant content is grouped around it.

Find out more: Twylah

Storify – tell stories with your tweets

This is an app that I have gradually started to use more as I wanted to clip tweets and thoughts together. Oftentimes you might have a quick inspiration for a piece of content, yet, writing a full post about it is sometimes difficult.

With Storify, you can quickly clip tweets, videos and pictures together and turn them into a post themselves. You can then embed it on your blog or on your Storify page and distribute it as normal content across the web.

Best bit: What I like most is that you can add clippings from a great variety of sources including Flickr, Youtube, and other blog posts.

Find out more: Storify

StrawberryJ.am – read what is most talked about on Twitter

One of my recent favorite apps is called StrawberryJ.am. The app is a fantastic way to stay on top of the latest news from your stream without wasting too much time. StrawberryJ.am automatically shows you the most mentioned tweets from your network and orders it by number of mentions.

This also helps me a great deal to stay in touch with a wider network, as I can immediately see, who is interested in the same things as me. On top of all this you can even “Jam” searches, Twitter lists, and hashtags to learn more about topics outside your network.

Best bit: A feature I also appreciate very much is the change to have a daily summary being emailed to me, so I can have the best news right in my inbox.

Find out more: StrawberrJ.am

WhoTweetedMe – find out who tweeted any URL

This is a tool I have been waiting for a long time. It allows you to drop any URL in and get a great analysis around how it was spread around on Twitter. You will learn about the number of retweets, when they happened, and who the top people were retweeting it.

I like to use this app mostly to see how my own blogposts have performed and learn who the most influential people are that are spreading the word about the post. It is also a great way to see, at which times most retweets happen so you can improve your timing.

Best bit: What I like best about this app is that it provides you with a link to thank your top retweeters. This is a great way to strike up new conversations with important people.

Find out more: WhoTweetedMe

Formulists – build your lists more efficiently

Ever since Twitter introduced their list feature, I found it to be quite cumbersome to put people into various lists to help growing my Twitter following. Here is where Formulists is incredibly useful. The app allows you to create lists automatically if certain things happen.

This can mean that upon someone following, retweeting or mentioning you, they are automatically put into the corresponding list you have setup for them. I found this to be a great way to vet my followers more efficiently and stay in touch with a wider network at any given time.

Best bit: Formulists also automatically provides you with tabs of people that you speak with the most. This is one of the best online networking features I have used so far.

Find out more: Formulists

The Archivist – A Super Clean Twitter Analytics Dashboard

There exist a lot of different analytics tools, yet none is so simple and pretty to look at as TwitSprout is. You will get a great overview of the number of retweets, mentions and new followers you have gained in the past. It is all displayed on just one page and helps you detect trends very easily.

What I like here is that all your stats are shown in an overlay, so you can make sure that you are growing organically, without neglecting certain metrics. It is also a great way to understand the speed of growth you are taking on Twitter.

Best bit: TwitSprout allows you to export all your analytics very easily as a PDF file and use it conveniently in presentations or reports.

Find out more: Twitsprout

Parrotfish – Read posts right in Twitter.com

Tired of clicking through to links and coming back because it wasn’t quite what you were interested in? Parrotfish might just be the right solution for you. It is a browser extension, that allows you to see a rich-media preview of the post or video right in Twitter.com.

I have to say that this has brought me back to using Twitter.com a lot more. It makes the browsing experience a lot more frictionless too. All you have to do is click on the tweet and it brings up the content on the right-hand side for you.

Best bit: What I like best here is that the app allows you to save posts to InstaPaper right from Twitter, so you can skip visiting the page entirely.

Find out more: Parrotfish

Mentionmapp – Who are your friends’ friends?

This is an app that is both fun and also really useful. It works super simple. All you have to do is put a username in and the tool automatically draws a beautiful Mentionmapp for you. It shows you who is talking with you the most together with the number of interactions.

To me, this is a fantastic journey through your personal Twitter network, casually suggesting, whom you might should hit up again. You can insert any other username you have in mind to learn about their network more easily too.

Best bit: Try clicking on any username linking to you and the network will naturally expand including people outside your network and hashtags.

Find out more: Mentionmapp

Commun.it – What is happening in your Twitter network?

Lastly, I want to introduce an app to you that focuses solely on helping you establish your Twitter network. Commun.it orders your connections into most relevant, influencers and potential leads. It includes a very comprehensive dashboard to engage with these members right inside the app.

I like to check into my Commun.it dashboard ever so often to get a feel for which people I should engage more with to keep my network growing. Particularly a recent addition of analytics around your tweets and follower count makes me come back more often.

Best bit: What I find most interesting is that the app even monitors mentions of your brand or personal name outside your network right inside your dashboard.

Find out more: Commun.it

Leo Widrich is the co-founder of above mentioned Buffer, a smarter way to publish tweets and Facebook posts. He writes more about Twitter tips and tools on the Buffer blog. Follow him on Twitter @LeoWid.

What do you think of these 10 Apps to grow and establish your personal Twitter network? Could some of them be useful for you too?

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Certainly social media has taken business by storm. People are still in a quandary about how it works, despite proven stats and ROI. Some companies do it on the cheap and some throw millions into it. It seems odd that so many people can’t see what social media is all about – being social!

When I hear someone say, “I don’t like Facebook,” I think, “enjoy the rest of the 20^th century and I’ll catch up with you later…maybe!”

It is, of course, more serious than that. If you’re not keeping in touch with old friends and former coworkers, you are letting your network die and, as many articles keep pounding into our heads, your network is the most important way to get work. As with the occasional phone call to a close friend to see if they’re still alive, sharing some news and laughs and just showing them that you care, social media is the new phone call—it’s how we are social now. It’s important and cannot be ignored.

Your network

There are too many articles out there about the importance of having a strong network, so I won’t elaborate too much. Suffice it to say that if you aren’t keeping in touch with the people you know, you are losing valuable contacts. We all have friends that we forget to call every now and then. When we have a chance meeting with them in the street, it’s an awkward moment of lying about being “too busy” or “I was thinking about you the other day.” Admit that it happens to you, too. That relationship is weakened or broken either through the embarrassment of having been caught in not caring enough or using the age-old excuse.

The importance of Facebook connections, at least in my case with old friends and former coworkers is that I can continue to tease them and show I care in just a few minutes a day. I’m at my computer 18 hours a day, so why not use it to reach out? LinkedIn, while more business oriented is another important network but it goes beyond people we know or have known. As with Twitter, with whom do you connect?

Creatives tend to be drawn together in life and on social media. We follow other creatives, connect with them and spend an inordinate amount of time-sharing our work, dreams and disappointments. Misery does love company but how much time is spent on this commiseration as opposed to searching for solid business contacts?

When it comes to business, other designers aren’t the number one source of work for us as freelancers or referrals. The dark side of relying too much on connections with other designers is that they can sabotage others. People can be petty and the current financial and competitive environment is fierce. Learn to trust your own efforts!

While your trusted friends, whether designers or “normal” people, are great connections and should be treasured and nurtured, you need to seek out those who BUY your services.

Facebook

I’ve had friends who’ve used Facebook ads for their business. While FB demographics certainly make up business owners and executives, no one seems to have been successful using Facebook as a marketing tool. If you’re Coke or Toshiba, then Facebook fan pages will be a necessity but for the design business time is scarce for properly using social media, so use Facebook for keeping in touch with your friends and family. Taking time to update a FB fan page takes away from other social media channels that will be better for lead generation.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a purely business site and douche bag hangout. After a while you’ll learn who is legitimate. Most people are there to do business networking. You will get a fair share of requests for free work and spam for energy drinks, real estate in Costa Rica and vitamin supplement pyramid schemes but you can also connect with some legitimate heavy hitters.

Build a list of a hundred dream clients. Search companies, identify the right people (not the CEO; try people who are in a position to book design projects) and build a list. Make sure you respond to every accepted connection with a personal note (via LinkedIn) to thank people for connecting with you and include your site URL for “more on me.”

LinkedIn has thousands of groups you can join and even more “questions” that you can answer for awards for “best answer.” Search for questions on marketing and answer how design helps marketing initiatives or advertising. Become an expert in the eyes and minds of possible leads who will need your services. There are some members of LinkedIn that like to give one-sentence answers that usually make no sense or don’t even address the question. They like to have the “most questions answered” title for all to see. Their reputations aren’t the best on the site so think quality and not quantity! Good, sound answers show others you are knowledgeable about your field. Building trust with prospects is an important step in gaining new clients.

Groups allow you to create closer connections with prospective clients. Are you going to join the “Lovers of Joomla” site or the “Small Business Marketing Ideas” group? The latter is filled with people who need your services. The idea of marketing yourself is to reach out to prospective clients, not to be friends with other creatives. Leave that for local design group bitch sessions. The biggest mistake a creative makes is failing to network which, in its most simple state, is sales or selling yourself and your service. If you attended a college or university for the art program, you will have an alumni group that will contain members that were not art students and they have businesses that need design services. So, why not urge them to use a fellow graduate? Surely you talked to other people at that school… right?

Were you a member of a fraternity or sorority? Your brothers and sisters are no doubt members of a LinkedIn group. If not, then start a group. Starting a group puts you in charge and number one in the spotlight.

Here’s a handy infographic to get you started!

Twitter

I once explained what Twitter is to a client in very simple terms: It’s a billboard you pass at 70 miles per hour on the information highway!

For creatives, Twitter is only good for driving traffic to your site or blog. Twitter is also only as strong as your followers or ability to hashtag tweets to the right people. I know this sounds easy but it’s not.

Most people on Twitter follow back without thought. This may lead to quantity but not quality. Unfortunately, as with everything listed to this point, designers tend to huddle together and follow each other. Do you want your competition showing up on your follow list when a prospective client is checking out your Twitter profile?

As with LinkedIn, make your Twitter follow building the people you want to reach. While my “Speider” account follows creatives and design publications, I won’t follow back “daily deal sites,” “insurance agents,” “real estate agents” or “fitness and diet gurus.” For my design Twitter account, these are the prospects that get followed back because they buy design services. See how that works?

When I add a new campaign to my site I worked on for a client, I tweet about that to this list. I will also hashtag (# symbol, such as #business branding #real estate advertising, etc.) to reach out to those who follow those interests.

Both LinkedIn and Twitter have intuitive feedback that help you connect, join groups, hashtag to hot trends and see who is following you or viewing your profile. Use this information to connect with the right people!

Blogging

We are in a Googled world of information flying left and right. With sites like Stumbleupon and Digg, just to name two, and aggregators by the dozens, your blog will cross someone’s path at some point, either via a shared link, Facebook “like,” or just showing up in a search for some odd term. The key is to bring that person BACK to your blog again and again.

At my last full time job, people complained that I sent too many links every day. I would send out interesting product ideas or inspirational pieces to people in my department for the good of our company and business. Blogging wasn’t as popular as it is now (this was only seven or eight years ago, mind you) and I was receiving a weekly email blast from a design studio, which they called “The Hip-O-Meter.” It simply had three entries of interesting products or links, which weren’t even done by the studio. There was “Hip,” “Hipper” and “Hippest.” They followed it with a short blurb about something the studio had created as an ad for their services. Simple and brilliant. They touted that the e-newsletter, which was only type, went out to four thousand people. I was inspired but took it to the next level.

Taking all of the daily links I would send out, I created an e-newsletter with an embedded animated gif header, designed separators for each entry and drew together a dozen or so links of unique ads, products and other interesting stuff that would provide inspiration for our company business. Each Monday morning, the “Innovation Lounge,” as I called it, would go out to the department email list. Within a couple of months, it was going company wide solely through requests from different departments. The power of viral blogging that was shared by workers at this twenty-five thousand-person company and distribution grew. Workers even shared it with people outside the company.

When I was laid off from the company (that’s a whole other article in itself!), I branded my new freelance-self and started a similar blog, using Twitter, Stumbleupon, Yahoo and Google to drive traffic with links to the new entries, email blasts to former coworkers and other connections and created an opt-in list for new subscribers aside from those subscribing to the RSS feed. Thanks to the viral nature of the web, the blog garnered over seven hundred unique hits on days new content was published.

The downside was it took a LOT of time and research. When my branding changed (yet another article… which is actually out there on someone else’s blog), I abandoned the blog but every now and then I check the stats and it still gets between fifty and two-hundred hits per day due to the tags and images.

The key to this blog is that it was aimed at prospective clients. As with the “Hip-O-Meter,” it contained an ad for my services at the end of each entry. If I spotlighted vending machines, the ad focused on my studio’s ability to do work along that line and so on.

The mistake many designers make with their blogs is they focus on design issues and techniques that only appeal to other designers. Other designers do not buy your services, so it’s a waste of time. Focus your efforts on business and not fame among peers.

Blogging is a great way to reach prospects but very labor intensive. This is why many firms start to ignore their blogs – they don’t want to have an employee using their time to update the content or pay for someone to dedicate the time and effort. I have several clients that pay me to write blog posts for them. The big danger with a blog is having it show that it hasn’t been updated for months or over a year. It reflects badly on you and your company. Update it at least once a week, even if it’s just one little blurb. Ignore it and it is a blot on your company’s ability to keep up with marketing, which is not a good sign in our business.

Direct mail

Yes, what’s old is new again! I traded my blogging in for something less time-intensive but a little more expensive – direct mail. I created a “wish list” of one hundred dream clients (and about 100 other people with whom I wanted to keep in touch) and send out a greeting card format card with examples of work and a funny message. At first I sent out one a month for the first six months. After that it was one every three months. Due to costs, it’s about twice to three times a year now but I hear back from people how they “loved” the card and either show it to other people or it’s made the prominent place of being tacked to their bulletin board. Being in plain sight is one of the best advertisements as it reminds clients about you and other people will see it and take a look. Referrals from these cards have grown my mailing list.

Some figures on mailings are startling. The average person opens 14% – 28% of all email. 48% of all snail mail is opened but 98% of greeting cards are opened…and opened first! As with blogging and other social media, it’s important to balance time + effort + costs to equal a return on investment (ROI).

Fun images showing your work will get posted on people’s bulletin boards, so think of using interesting designs for direct mail pieces, like the ones below.

Face-to-face

Never forget the power of actually meeting people. This gets back to “your network” and you need to spend time building and replenishing that network.

It’s hard for creatives to properly network. First: we have to talk to people who are not other creatives. Second: we are strange, which adds to our creativity. If I had to make a list for creatives to follow in social networking situations, I would have the following important rules:

• Listen more, talk less. The more you talk, the greater the chance you’ll say something strange and upset the people you want to impress.
• Let your work do your talking for you! Why hand out a business card when you can hand our a set of images and let people faun over it? Don’t print up letter-sized promotional pieces as people like things they can just put in their pockets. Why not think “flash cards” and create a small set of images that are business card-sized to hand out?
• Ask about the person you are meeting. People love to talk about themselves. Once they have finished talking about their business, one of the best answers I have ever heard in response to listening to someone who has just finished pontificating about what they do is, “I help businesses like yours!”
• Don’t tell them too much. Give them the snappy answer mentioned above and then hand them your samples. Tell them you provide marketing services for business. Either they will nod and walk away or they will tell you about something they need. BINGO!
• Don’t dress TOO creatively. A nice weird pair of shoes is a focal point. Purple Mohawks, studded leather jackets with tartan pants and jackboots are a bit much for the business crowd. Remove the piercings, hide the tattoos and look just like the people you are trying to reach. You aren’t “selling out,” you’re selling!

Two or three minutes per person and then move on. Most people have something called “the elevator speech.” It’s called that because you spend approximately thirty to sixty seconds in an elevator. If you had to turn to the person next to you and tell them what you do in that short time, what would you say? Practice it and keep it simple. It can be as simple as, “I design marketing and business solutions for businesses via web sites and graphic design.”

They ask you the inevitable question of, “how much does it cost?”

The answer has to be another question. “It depends on your needs.”

Some people believe that if you mention an hourly rate, it separates the truly interested people from the freeloaders and saves you time and effort. Unfortunately, when pitching creative services, it’s best to back up fees after the proposal has been made. It let’s people see the value and when pitching your work to any client, found through any social network, it’s important to show value.

In conclusion…

All of the avenues mentioned in this article are dovetailed to work together. One is not better than the others and some just may not be necessary for what you want to accomplish. Any small business needs to advertise, market, brand and reach out to prospective clients. Target your clients and go after them. The idea is to use what works best for your needs, keep at it and make everything count towards gaining clients and business. When you don’t have actual paying work, use the time to market yourself but use it wisely!

Written by Speider Schneider. He is a former member of The Usual Gang of Idiots at MAD Magazine and has designed products for Disney/Pixar, Warner Bros., Harley-Davidson, ESPN, Mattel, DC and Marvel Comics, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon among other notable companies. Speider is a former member of the board for the Graphic Artists Guild, co-chair of the GAG Professional Practices Committee and a former board member of the Society of Illustrators. Follow him on Twitter @speider

What social media channels have you found effective for your business? Which ones are not effective? What do you think of the media outlets mentioned in this article?

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Unlike Facebook, Google+ is designed to connect strangers, and inspire collaboration and contribution. It has proven to be an amazing platform for promoting ideas, brands and people.

Since its early rollout, Google+ has forced competitors to begin evolving, inspiring platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to develop new ways of thinking about social media and the functionality they offer.

When used correctly, Google+ is a unique and powerful opportunity to widen your reach, professionally or personally. From making your profile pop to mastering your stream, I’ll share 25 of the most useful Google+ Tips and Tricks to get you going.

Your Profile

The first thing to do when joining any new community, is create a provocative profile that inspires viewers to follow you. Your Google+ profile offers several ways for you to tailor your first impression and communicate your personal brand.

1. Keep your “Current” employer unchecked. This allows you to use the “Occupation” field to describe what you do and like. When others hover over your name on their streams or notifications, they will see a “Google Card” containing your profile photo, name and the contents of this field.

2. If you want to set a quote or tagline, click the space under your name instead. Keeping your “Occupation” text concise and descriptive increases the chance someone will circle you and share content you find interesting.

3. Your Profile Photo is linked to a special album in Picasa, the photo management component of Google’s extensive application suite. Curious visitors can click your photo directly from your profile to cycle through the album. This presents a unique opportunity for creating a short visual story about yourself, a flipbook type animation, or hiding a humorous “Easter egg” at the end of a long series of snapshots.

4. Create a mini-portfolio to show off your work or use your “Scrapbook” to devise a clever header graphic. Enter Edit Profile mode click the header area to manage images directly, or use Picasa to upload them to your “Scrapbook.” The order in which they appear is controlled by clicking “Organize” from the album view in Picasa.

5. Add links to your services and contact pages, in addition to linking to your portfolio and social profiles. Google+ is teeming with industry professionals and prospects, and adding these links will make them visible in search results.

Circles

6. Create a set of circles specific to your interests. Think of these as RSS feeds of people you find the most interesting. Your following can grow rapidly, making it difficult to manage your stream and keep up with everything, so this trick will keep you from getting overwhelmed. Drag these to the beginning of the list so they show up first in the stream list on the Home page.

7. Create another set of circles for topics you wish to target to specific groups of people. Use these circles to share content, whereas your first set is only for managing your stream. As you gain new followers, “subscribe” them to topic circles that match their interests. If you can’t tell, check your “Incoming” stream often to see what people are posting.

8. While publishing content to specific circles will help target certain audiences, †consider posting most of your content publicly. Public content encourages new people to follow you, and lets the world know you are active. It will also show up on Google+ stream services you add your profile to, or plugins you install on your website, increasing your ranking and viability.

9. Create specialized circles for bookmarking or sharing content to services such as Evernote or RPC-enabled blogs. Add yourself to the circle, then click “Add a new person” to add your Evernote or RPC email address. When sharing to this circle, don’t forget to click the “notify” box to email the post.

Home Page

The Home page is where you will spend the most time on Google+, unless you are sucked into the new Game feature. From here, you can filter your stream by clicking specific circle links on the left, and use keyboard controls to move around quickly.

10. J will jump from one post to the next, while K will scroll you back up.

11. If your Chat widget is looking a bit lonely, check out How to Chat with People in your Google+ Circle Post like a pro.

12. Click the “Mute this Post” option in the post menu to stop notifications on any post where you have added comments.

13. Click the timestamp to get a quick permalink to a single post.

14. Add a “+” to the beginning of a name to generate a hotlink to their profile in your posts or comments. This will also notify the person that they were mentioned.

15. Format your posts by adding special symbols before and after a word or line of text. For example:
*bold*
_italic_
– strikethrough -

16. Add a poll to a published post by instructing your readers to +1 to vote, and then quickly add comments containing the choices. Afterwards, select “Disable Comments” from your post menu to encourage voting.

Google+ Photos vs. Picasa

This is a feature of Google+ still undergoing major changes and fine-tuning, and if you are not a veteran Picasa user, things may seem a bit disjointed.

17. Drag and drop content from your desktop or the web into the post box for faster sharing.

18. Click the “Create an Album” option when adding images directly to a post. By default, images will be added to a general album otherwise.

19. Share entire albums to Google+ from Picasa by clicking “Share” in the right sidebar. When creating albums, always go into Picasa to uncheck the “Notify” box in the right sidebar, or your circles will be notified every time you add an image.

20. If you don’t like how your albums are appearing on your Photo page, click the album and select “Actions > Album Properties.” Change the album date to manipulate the order in which it appears.

21. If you only want to rename an album, you can do so easily from your Photo page in Google Plus by clicking the album title at the top of the page to edit it. You may also change permissions by clicking the “Visible to” link.

RSS Feeds

22. Grab your RSS feed URL by appending your Google+ profile ID to the end of this URL: http://plusfeed.appspot.com/

23. If you use WordPress, check out Lifestream or the Google+ Social Stream widget.

Your Vanity URL

24. Now that you’ve gotten the hang of Google+, are generating content and gaining a decent following, you probably want to start promoting your profile.

The default profile URL is long and ugly, and while any URL shortener will do, gplus.to and plusya.com offer Google+ specific vanity URL services that may be a better choice.

Plusya provides the added benefit of analytics to give you a detailed view of how your link is used.

Addons & Extensions

25. A host of Google+ add-ons are available for Firefox and Google Chrome that will enhance your Google+ experience. Check out designer Graham Smith’s Google+ Apps collection for a head start.

A few recommendations include the Facebook and Twitter feed extensions (available for both Firefox and Chrome) and the Publish Sync extension for chrome, which allows you share Google+ posts directly to Twitter or Facebook.

To learn more or contribute your own tips, artistic talent or translations, head over to the Google+ Guide Project, a knowledge collaboration made possible by readers like you.

Written exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Vail Joy. She is a freelance designer and tech blogger with a deep interest in all things web-related. She also enjoys writing for WIX, the free website builder.

Feel free to leave your own tips in the comments!

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You want to make it easy for your visitors to share what you’ve written with their social networks so that others can discover your content.

And the best way to do that is to include a button or two that puts the idea of sharing front and center, and makes it incredibly simple for your users to post your link to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or elsewhere.

Below are ten great social sharing plugins for your WordPress blog. Most are free and all have sharing options for multiple platforms. Some even include upwards of a hundred or more services you can implement.

1. Sharebar

Rail-style sharing icons have quickly risen to be one of the most popular styles seen on WP blogs today. Sharebar is arguably one of the most attractive plugins in this list, and one of the most usable. Its location to the side of posts, rather than at the top or bottom, improves visibility for those reading posts, especially since it moves with the viewport as you scroll. The only downside to Sharebar is that it only supports a limited number of services: Twitter, Digg, Facebook, Buzz, and Email.

2. AddToAny

AddToAny is a button-based sharing plugin that’s un-intrusive and easy to use, both from the perspective of the blog owner and the visitor sharing content. It includes a ton of services, from the most popular to ones you may never have heard of, though they’re arranged so that only the most popular show up on initial hover, with an additional click required to show the rest. It also includes bookmarking and email options.

AddToAny also includes an options panel that lets you customize which services you want to include, how the button will look (including color scheme), and more. This makes is much more friendly to users who want to fully integrate it into their site without having to dive into the code.

3. ShareThis

ShareThis is one of the most versatile plugins on this list. You can configure it to display share buttons in a variety of ways, including a single icon, a series of icons or buttons, or a series of widgets with the number of shares or retweets displayed. Registered ShareThis publishers get access to various tracking reports to see how much their content is being shared.

In addition to the main sharing options above, ShareThis is also testing a ShareBar for the bottom of your pages, and a HoveringButtons bar for including share buttons in a rail style along the side of the page.

4. Sociable Pro

Sociable Pro is the premium version ($9.99) of the popular free Sociable plugin. The Pro version adds a number of functionality improvements over the free version, as well as some additional options. One of the biggest reasons Sociable Pro is worth paying for, though, is the ability to use your own custom icons. This alone makes it a much more attractive plugin, and makes it easier to integrate directly with your site while maintaining the ease of using a plugin.

5. AddThis

AddThis includes both sharing tools and robust analytics so you know how your content is being shared. It includes dynamic personalization options, so users see the right options at the right times. It has a huge directory of services to choose from (more than 300), and there’s deep Twitter and Facebook integration. It also includes automatic translation to more than 70 languages. You can use AddThis without registering, but then you miss out on the analytics options.

6. Socialize

Socialize creates sharing buttons that include sharing counts. It works with Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and other services. The fact that the buttons can be placed either within your post, in the footer, or elsewhere is a big advantage for Socialize.

7. I Love Social Bookmarking

I Love Social Bookmarking is a simple plugin that’s based on a single icon that displays various subscription, social bookmarking, and sharing options when hovered on. It’s small and unobtrusive, and has a number of more advanced administrator options, including automatic or manual display, background colors, font face and size, link target, list title and style, and the ability to select which social media services are included.

8. SexyBookmarks

SexyBookmarks is a more stylized sharing plugin that includes options for a ton of different social networks. It includes analytics information, official support for Google’s URL shortener, uses the Share API, and has been localized to more than 15 languages.

9. Light Social

Light Social is a simple plugin that places sharing icons at the bottom of your posts. Services supported include Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Delicious, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Buzz, and more. It’s implemented with lightweight HTML code for minimal impact on your blog’s file sizes and load time. You can enable or disable each individual service, but other than that there aren’t really any options.

10. SocioFluid

SocioFluid is another stylized social sharing plugin that uses icons. The icons in this case zoom slightly when hovered over, and the name of the service is displayed (similar to the way the Dock works on Mac OS X). If your blog has the right kind of design, it’s a neat plugin. It’s MIT and GPL licensed, and can be used completely for free. The icons are from Icondock and the plugin uses jQuery for the effects.

Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.

Which of the plugins above have you used? Or do you use a different option all together? Let us know in the comments!

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The way you display social media icons or links has a direct effect on user engagement.

You have to consider many details when laying out a page, including the layout, the flow of content and the main area of rest on the page.

Whether you end up with typographic links in the header or icons in the footer, you should test out colors, shapes, typography and iconography to ensure that your social links are thoughtfully combined, engaging and well designed.

Here, we’ll show you some examples of how websites display their social links so that you can see the variety of options out there. Check them out, and let us know what you think.

Contentcube

Contentcube, a digital solutions agency, has a clean layout that gets our attention with a bit of texture and a colored header. Both Twitter and Facebook links are located in the header, with the line “Follow us on…”

glue Isobar

glue Isobar, a creative agency, also has a clean layout, with images positioned beautifully across the page. All social links are in the footer, with attractive icons and a strong background color. The company also includes a widget close to the footer with its latest tweet.

Focus Lab

Focus Lab, a small team of website designers and developers, has a beautiful, clean and minimal page. It showcases its Twitter and Flickr links on the contact page and in the footer.

Adam

Adam fixes its header and footer in place as you scroll down. The social links appear in the footer, fixed to the bottom-right of the page.

The Chase

The Chase features the parallax effect as you scroll around the page. Scroll all the way to the bottom to find the social icons.

hellofisher

hellofisher, the website of user experience designer and speaker Steven Fisher, also has a clean design, with social icons showcased very elegantly in the footer.

Elless

Elless, the creative hub of Paul Morris, has a beautiful and colorful layout based on shape, texture and typography. Social icons are on the contact page, along with the contact form.

Owltastic

Owltastic puts its social icons in the top right of the sidebar, preceded by “Follow me.” The combination of color, typography and graphics here is subtle and beautiful.

Unfold

Unfold is a single-page design that you can navigate by scrolling or via the menu. You can find the social information under the menu option for “Sharing.”

Inflicted

Inflicted is the website of visual designer Hugo Loning. The social icons are in the header, standing out in red.

Really Simple

As you would guess, Really Simple has a clean and minimal design. Its Twitter link is in main menu in the header, as a simple typographical link.

Jarad Johnson

Jarad Johnson, an interactive designer, is another who offers an attractive combination of color, shape and typography. His social icons are gathered on the contact page.

What’s Up Cupcake?

What’s Up Cupcake? follows the theme of its cupcakes by giving its social icons a nice color, shape and frame. The icons appear down the middle of the page.

Small Fortune

Small Fortune, a creative studio, has a simple and beautiful layout. Its social links are text-based and have a nice background color.

Red Pop

Red Pop has a clean layout. The red background and white text mix well, and the social links are also simple and text-based.

Decorated Playlists

Decorated Playlists has a clean, minimal and beautiful design. The minimal text-based Twitter link appears in the header menu.

Big Eye

Big Eye showcases its social icons in the header, above the main menu. Colors, typography, texture and icons are combined very well.

Creative Jar

Creative Jar puts its social icons in two places: in the header as an animated Twitter widget, and in the footer as icons.

Marlon Medau

Marlon Medau has an elegant and clean layout that showcases social icons in its beautiful header.

Octavo Designs

Octavo Design has several different background images and vertical navigation. The social icons are in the top-right corner.

Written exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Gisele Muller. Gisele has recently discovered a new career online. She likes technology, design, photography and creativity, and she is an eternal geek wannabe, tech fan and communications lover! You can follow her on Twitter @gismullr.

What is your favorite way to showcase social icons? Which one here engages you the most?

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The icons are provided as JPGs, PNGs and a master PSD file for easy editing.

You are free to use the icons for personal and commercial projects as per the licensing terms attached in the file.

Please do not distribute these icons. If you want to share these with your friends, simply direct them to this page so they can download their copy from here.

The download button is right under the large preview after the jump. Enjoy the new awesome icons!

Here’s a full preview of all 24 icons:

This freebie is now available through our sister site, MightyDeals.com. Click on the download button below to be redirected to download the files.

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And as simple and innocent as that sounds, it has caused an uproar throughout the Web.

You’d think it was the end of the Internet itself! But people must realize that the Internet will still function as it always has, with or without Facebook Comments. It just might be more civilized place, which isn’t a bad thing.

So, why all the drama? Well, it’s because Facebook Comments eliminates something that quite a few people on the Internet clamor for: anonymity. It’s important in many ways. But anonymity comes with a price, and that comes in the form of an overall poorer experience in online interaction. But does that alone justify the elimination of anonymity?

It’s complicated. But the real question of the matter is simple: will the Web be better or worse with this new commenting system? That is what we are trying to figure out.

Introducing Facebook Comments

Facebook Comments, like everything else Facebook creates, received plenty of media attention. But it was difficult to understand just what Facebook Comments was because no one noteworthy was using it up until recently. I, for one, didn’t think it was going to be a big deal at first. I likened it to the Facebook “Like” button or the Facebook “Share” buttons found around the Web; it would just be there, and some people would use it to help build interaction around a piece of content. No harm, no foul.

Clearly, I was wrong.

TechCrunch was the first major Internet property to adopt Facebook Comments that I heard about. And even though I heard about it, I didn’t actually bother checking it out; I guess you could say I don’t really bother reading comments on blogs much any more, for reasons that will become apparent soon.

But I did eventually read an article on TechCrunch that I liked and wanted to post a response to. I went to the page, scrolled down, and was greeted by a sight that actually blew me away: there were comments only by Facebook users. There were full names, profile pics, and everything! Why this surprised me, I’m not so sure. But there it was. And then it hit me: this is much bigger deal than I had initially given credence to.

I had typed out a comment that wasn’t necessarily critical or impressive by any means, but it was one that I knew would spur on discussion. And for some reason that made me think twice about pressing the submit button — I was actually thinking long and hard about what I was posting, because, unlike before, everyone was seeing what I was publishing, and they would know exactly who I was, what my name was, what I looked like, and what my online identity was.

In one single moment, Facebook made it so that posting any single comment was to put your credibility and entire online persona on the line. Talk about pressure, gosh.

It was both thrilling and concerning at the same time. What kind of response would I get? Would people call me out? Would my job be in jeopardy? Would this come back to haunt me in the future? All this for a normal comment that wasn’t even critical of the author’s article.

It got me thinking that maybe this is bad…

Why Facebook Comments is bad

Anonymity is something that is highly valued in a world with little to no privacy. How can people function if every little thing they do online is tracked and able to be exposed to the world? Sure, there are things that should not be do done online that deserved to be exposed, but there is much more done online that deserves to be kept anonymous.

Is the act of commenting on a piece of work one of those things?

Taken from the perspective of those who live in oppressive countries, something like anonymity is cherished. What if an online publication is posting false propaganda for their government? Shouldn’t it be a right for those citizens to comment on the content in question and let others know what they think? Of course, posting anything negative about a government in some countries could land you in jail, but this is more about the premise of anonymity than anything else.

Or how about in the land of the free, where magazines and news organizations have typically allowed open commenting. What if a user wants to comment on a story but doesn’t want to reveal their identity? What if there is additional information that a user wants to contribute but doesn’t want to reveal their identity? What if there is a controversial comment that must be made that is true, but the person in question doesn’t want to be negatively affected because of it?

How about a piece of information that is published that someone disagrees with? Maybe the person wants to voice their opinion, but they don’t want other people to know who they are? Without this anonymity, people could be encouraged to restrain themselves, just because they know they can’t be completely open about something because of the potential consequences.

In scenarios like those, you can see where anonymity is important. It is crucial because it allows information to be truly free without consequence. To take that away is controversial.

It is also worth pointing out that Facebook Comments will more than likely result in a significant decrease in commenting activity. For TechCrunch, there was nearly a 50-percent reduction. As for which portion of “good” comments remained and “bad” comments — depending on your definition of “good” and “bad” — were eliminated, though, is uncertain.

I’m sure there are numerous other examples of why Facebook Comments could be considered a bad thing for the Web (feel free to share them in the comments below). However, I think everyone understands why this aspect of anonymity is important and why Facebook Comments can be perceived as a bad thing for the open Web.

But for all the negative things that could be said, there is plenty of good to come with the development of Facebook Comments and the unmasking of anonymous commenting.

Why Facebook Comments is good

If you want to see a prime example of a reason for a system like Facebook Comments, you need not look far. Take a stroll over to YouTube, and check out the comments section for almost any video with a few hundred or thousand views. Some of the most god-awful things can be said in those comments — I would know, as I used to publish YouTube videos on a regular basis in the past.

I’m willing to bet that a majority of those YouTube comments are no more than a sentence or two long, and that most of them say hateful things. Some of the more common themes I see is sexism, racism, and plenty of idiocy to boot. There is nothing constructive about most of these negative comments, and they only serve to add trash to the Web.

But what would happen if you took away the existing commenting system and replaced it with Facebook Comments (theoretically, anyways). Would there be less hatred and negativity? Probably. Would there be a dramatic decrease in sexism and racism? Plausibly. Would it result in a much more welcoming experience? You get the idea…

Facebook Comments would result in a more constructive conversation surrounding online content. In fact, WatchingWebsites found that people actually shared more content when Facebook Comments was being used.

People liked content more often. This probably led to a greater number of incoming visits from FB.com, but I don’t have the analytics to prove it. Both Erick and MG have stated that FB referrals have skyrocketed.

However, the report also noted that there was a slight decrease in the amount of retweets that content received after the switch to Facebook Comments. Keep that in mind if your website relies heavily on Twitter sharing.

Who should use Facebook Comments

WatchingWebsites offered some advice for content publishers about whether or not Facebook Comments would be appropriate for them. For the larger websites that need to take control of spam, they recommend giving Facebook Comments a shot and evaluating the effects after a month of usage. For low- to medium-sized websites, especially those seeking to acquire new readership, they recommend sticking with a commenting system like Disqus or Echo.

I agree with the advice to opt for Facebook Comments for those who are battling comment spam. This becomes even more important to larger websites, which is why it is not a shocker to learn that Hotels.com, TechCrunch, Examiner, L.A. Times Technology blog, and others are adopting the system.

But I have to disagree with the outright decision to forego Facebook Comments if you are a smaller publisher — even more so for individual bloggers.

For those who are looking to make genuine connections with their readers, Facebook Comments seems like an excellent tool to gain more insight into your readers. It gives bloggers more access to their readers — as they will know exactly who is responding to their content — and it also presents opportunity to create more connections through Facebook.

Quality vs. quantity

In the end, however, it is simply a question of weighing the importance of comment count versus comment quality. Facebook Comments is great option for those wanting better quality comments and more insight into their readers.

But Facebook Comments probably isn’t the right solution for those who wish to have more comments and the option of enabling users to have anonymity. But for those who know that quality is what they seek, Facebook Comments is a great option.

Unfortunately, one post about this subject can’t explore nor resolve all the potential issues that surround Facebook Comments. However, I hope that this article helps to guide publishers towards making a better, informed decision about the usage of Facebook Comments in the future.

Written exclusively for WDD byJames Mowery. He is a passionate technology journalist and entrepreneur who has written for various top-tier publications like Mashable and CMSWire. Follow him on Twitter: @JMowery.

What are your thoughts about Facebook comments? Please share below…

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Some companies opt to bring users directly to the page wall or other tabs (e.g. info, photos, RSS/blog, discussions and links) and use product images or company logos instead of more elaborate landing pages.

Regardless of where a user lands when they first arrive, something needs to capture their attention.

As we’ll see in the examples of pages from the 50 Top Facebook Pages of Brand’s Worldwide represented below, some pages may come right out and ask for the “like”, some may have a variation on the call to action with a contest, gift, upload, sign-up now, or shop now type message. Some may appeal to emotions. Some will be memorable. And some, quickly forgotten.

In truth, Facebook is about more than the ongoing interaction between businesses and users via status updates. We believe it’s also about the art and design of engagement and a vital new component to the corporate brand identity—the Facebook page design.

Coca-Cola

Total Fans 22, 113, 350 | Food and Drink | United States

Starbucks

Total Fans 19, 386, 229 | Restaurant | United States

Oreo

Total Fans 16, 509, 052 | Food and Drink | United States

Red Bull

Total Fans 15, 002, 570 | Food and Drink | Austria

Skittles

Total Fans 14, 903, 838 | Food and Drink| United States

Converse All Star

Total Fans 12, 522, 419 | Fashion | United States

Victoria’s Secret

Total Fans 11, 273, 214 | Fashion | United States

Converse

Total Fans 10, 903, 272 | Fashion | United States

Windows Live Messenger

Total Fans 9, 555, 443 | Technology | United States

Pringles

Total Fans 8, 902, 303 | Food and Drink | United States

PlayStation

Total Fans 8, 328, 915 | Technology | Japan

Monster Energy

Total Fans 8, 264, 999 | Food and Drink | United States

Zara

Total Fans 7, 907, 457 | Fashion | Spain

Victoria’s Secret Pink

Total Fans 7, 861, 520 | Fashion | United States

Dr. Pepper

Total Fans 7, 730, 330 | Food and Drink | United States

Nutella

Total Fans 7, 482, 885 | Food and Drink | Italy

Ferrero Rocher

Total Fans 7, 464, 229 | Food and Drink | Italy

Starburst

Total Fans 7, 428, 300 | Food and Drink | United States

Disneyland

Total Fans 7, 227, 700 | Attraction | United States

McDonald’s

Total Fans 7, 015, 657 | Restaurant | United States

Adidas Originals

Total Fans 6, 983, 666| Sports | Germany

Reese’s

Total Fans 6, 446, 255 | Food and Drink | United States

Xbox

Total Fans 6, 216, 176 | Technology | United States

H&M

Total Fans 6, 111, 927 | Fashion| Sweden

Starbucks Frappucino

Total Fans 5, 632, 778 | Food and Drink | United States

Google Chrome

Total Fans 5, 452, 638 | Technology | United States

Taco Bell

Total Fans 5, 398, 834 | Restaurant | United States

Walt Disney World

Total Fans 5, 224, 835 | Attraction | United States

BlackBerry

Total Fans 5, 196, 258 | Technology | Canada

Picnik

Total Fans 4, 680, 341 | Technology | United States

SUBWAY

Total Fans 4, 663, 512 | Restaurant | United States

Nike Football

Total Fans 4, 622, 955 | Sports | United States

Lacoste

Total Fans 4, 493, 274 | Fashion | France

BMW

Total Fans 4, 429, 660 | Automotive | Germany

Hollister Co

Total Fans 4, 178, 668 | Fashion | United States

Mountain Dew

Total Fans 4, 127, 589 | Food and Drink | United States

Burberry

Total Fans 4, 024, 562 | Fashion | United States

5 Gum

Total Fans 4, 021, 548 | Food and Drink | United States

Forever 21

Total Fans 3, 972, 013 | Fashion | United States

Buffalo Wild Wings

Total Fans 3, 864, 310 | Restaurant | United States

Nike

Total Fans 3, 826, 717 | Sports | United States

Target

Total Fans 3, 816, 027 | Retail | United States

Chik-fil-A

Total Fans 3, 719, 656 | Restaurant | United States

Puma

Total Fans 3, 715, 460 | Sports | Germany

American Eagle Outfitters

Total Fans 3, 689, 587 | Fashion | United States

Subway

Total Fans 3, 679, 491 | Restaurant | United States

Gucci

Total Fans 3, 659, 709 | Fashion | Italy

Sony Ericcson

Total Fans 3, 656, 301 | Technology | Sweden

Abercrombie & Fitch

Total Fans 3, 653, 314 | Fashion | United States

Aéropostale

Total Fans 3, 604, 929 | Fashion | United States

Written and compiled exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Debbie Hemley. Debbie is a blogger and social media aficionado. She works with businesses to develop content and social media strategies. Read her blog posts on All the News and follow her on Twitter

Have you been creating Facebook pages for your clients? What have your design experiences been like?

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