Google+ Adds Total Content View Counts To Profile Pages

Google made a small but interesting update to Google+ today. Every profile page now includes the total number of times the user’s content has been seen by others. This new number is the sum of all of the views of the user’s profile, posts and photos since October 2012.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Google started highlighting these kinds of stats. Google also previously started showing view counts to all of the photos its users share on the service. For now, though, it doesn’t highlight view counts on posts, even though this number does flow into the total view count on the profile page.

If you would rather hide your views, you can also do that from your profile settings.

Google probably hopes that many users will be surprised by how many people have seen their posts. The same probably goes for brands and the many celebrities Google has been courting on Google+.

Overall, Google only makes a very small amount of analytics data available to its users. While the company recently added the ability to see the Google Analytics stats from your Google+ dashboard if you are a page admin, the overall stats displayed there are just for your follower count. Today’s update may be a hint that Google could also start including your Google+ numbers in Google Analytics at some point in the future.

Publisher: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=58

Black (#000000) tie for the serious #Web #Designer #MediaMonday #SSLLC

Black (#000000) tie for the serious #Web #Designer #MediaMonday #SSLLC

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C&C Creations Shakes Hands With Scriptable Solutions

C & C Creations, a gourmet coffee, tea, and cocoa Company, has commissioned Scriptable Solutions to provide them with a new first class ecommerce website.  We are looking forward to creating a website that will provide their customers with an easy and comfortable shopping experience.  A quick look at their new site will follow soon!



View our web design portfolio to see some of our work.

Author: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=36

People Nowadays #FridayFunday #SSLLC

People Nowadays #FridayFunday #SSLLC

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Setup Gmail For Your Own Domain

Setting up a Google Apps account

1. Go to the Google Apps Gmail page and click the button that says Get Started.
2. In the About You section, enter your contact information.

Figure 1: Enter your details

• Enter your domain name in the input box and click Submit. The rest of the application form will appear below.

Figure 2: Your domain name

3. Agree to the terms of service below and click I accept! Create my account.

Figure 3: Accept Terms of Service

Note: If you are already logged into a Google account, you'll be asked to switch to the new one at this point.

4. Next, you'll see a window that says "How would you like to set up Google Apps?" Choose the option that works best for you. For this tutorial, we'll be doing a custom install. Click "Go custom" to move on.

Figure 4: Go Custom

You'll need to work your way through a somewhat lengthy wizard now (as indicated by the line that says "Click Next to get set up now (takes less than an hour)").

5. Click the Next button to get started, and get ready to click it a lot more. Just follow the on-screen instructions and you'll be just fine.

Figure 5: Google App Settings

6. Shortly into this process, you'll need to verify that you are the owner of your domain. You'll accomplish this by downloading a file that Google provides, uploading it to your server, and then clicking the link in this step of their wizard.

Figure 6: Verify ownership.

Let's pause for a second to explain how to do this—specifically, how to put this file on your domain to ensure that the link will work.

Verifying Your Domain Name

Click the link in the Google wizard that says "Download this HTML Verification file." This will start a download of a file that looks something like this: google2827f5df19545a84.html

Now you need to put this file in the root folder of your domain.

• If you're using S-Drive, the easiest way to do this is to go to the Dashboard, click the Site tab, and click the button that says Upload a File. Browse for the file and click Add File.
• If you're not using S-Drive, you'll need to upload with an FTP program, like Direct FTP. Just connect to the server that hosts your website, select the root folder of your website, and upload the file with the method your FTP client uses.

Okay, you're all ready to click the link in that Google wizard!

Now, back to the wizard

7. Click the link in Step 3 on the open wizard page, then click the Verify button in the wizard. You should now see a message that declares your ownership confirmation a success! But we're not done yet.
8. Work your way through the rest of the wizard until you get to a page that says "Set up your Apps". Ensure thatGmail is selected (and choose any other options you'd also like to set up) and click Next.

Figure 7: Set up Apps

8. Keep working through the steps of the wizard until you encounter a step that asks you to change your MX records. These are the mail server addresses that your domain uses to process email. Google will need you to use their mail servers for your Gmail account to function. Let's take another detour to set that up.

Changing your MX records

Google provides their own mail servers, which you can read about here. Switching your records to the ones provided on their page differs depending on whether you use S-Drive or another hosting service.

• If you're using S-Drive, sign in to your S-Drive account here, then go to the domain management page here and click Manage DNS Settings under the domain name you are using. You'll need to get Google's MX records here and enter them into this page so that your DNS setup looks similar to this:

Figure 8: Your MX record

• If you're not using S-Drive, you'll either need to sign into your hosting provider's control panel and change the records yourself, or contact a server administrator to take care of this for you.

You can get more help from Google here. You can also choose to change these records later, so if it takes a while, you can still finish setting up Gmail. Your email won't work until this is taken care of, however. Most likely this part of the process will take a while, so put in your support request and then head back to the wizard!

Back to the wizard again!

9. Work your way through some more steps in the wizard, setting up your other applications (Docs, Calendar, etc.) as you go. Note that some steps you may encounter (billing, mobile apps, etc.) are optional, and you can click the "Do this later" button.
10. Pretty soon, you'll finally reach the end of the set up! You'll see a screen that looks like this:

Figure 9: End of set up

Now you can click the Dashboard button at the top of the window to access your Google Apps, including your email account settings. Once your MX records are changed, you'll be able to use your Gmail account through your own domain! You can find the link to your account by clicking the Email icon on this page and clicking the link shown next to Web address.

Figure 10: All done

Enjoy!

Publisher: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=45

Common #WebDesign Words #WebWednesday #SSLLC

Common #WebDesign Words #WebWednesday #SSLLC

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Responsive Design: May Not Be The Right Answer

I generally find myself in agreement with the authors on Econsultancy, but when I read Ben Davis’ article: 10 websites that aren’t responsive (and probably should be).

I didn't agree with this, as I think those websites aren’t responsive because they don’t need to be.

Responsive design is a wonderful tool and is a great solution for quite a lot of sites. I have used responsive design to deliver many sites, but it’s not a magic bullet that will solve all pains around mobile.

I believe mobile focused companies like Amazon, Apple and Walmart, that are featured in Ben’s article, are deliberately choosing not to roll out a responsive website because it is not the right option for them.

Think about it… large American enterprises rarely make business decisions without guidance and data to back them up.

If responsive is the way to go, then why have they not done it already? What could they know that others don’t?

Let’s start by making the terminology clear.

Responsive

A site that will change the content of the page to suit the device it’s being viewed on. You can usually see this in action when you resize the window width of your desktop browser.

Metro.co.uk provides a lovely example of responsive web.

RESS Mobile

RESS is what I treat as the next generation of responsive web using server side components to improve performance  e.g. using a device API and/or server side image resizing.

Smythson.com is a good example of this.

Mobile specific

A dedicated mobile site that serves content specifically for mobile users, which may or may not be similar to the desktop site.

The National Lottery mobile site uses this technique as its weapon of choice.

Five reasons to choose mobile over responsive

So why would some companies choose mobile specific over responsive? Here are some possible reasons...

Guarding the desktop conversion 

A responsive solution means having to make some compromises on either a desktop or tablet site in order to get the technology to work.

That could be very costly if the desktop site is performing well. A 0.1% drop in desktop conversion rate could potentially cost £100,000s in lost revenue.

You know the saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… get a mobile specific site’.

Companies focused on growing mobile conversion

Mobile conversion is growing but it’s still a long way behind desktop and tablet metrics. The build-test-learn cycle for mobile needs to move faster than the “tried and tested” desktop process that has been honed over the years.

A responsive site by default will tie mobile releases to desktop releases, which can hamper the ability to trade.

If you want to experiment in mobile, having a mobile specific site will be like having an ultra fast race car to road test the best ways to reach your mobile customers.

Large amounts of mobile traffic justifies having a dedicated team

Most brands talk about mobile in relative terms i.e. as a percentage of desktop. The argument is that if you are getting 30% of your traffic from mobile, it psychologically warrants less effort than the desktop, which is getting the lion’s share.

In my opinion dismissing the mobile audience like this is wrong, and I hope attitudes change quickly.

If you are getting a large number of mobile visitors in absolute terms i.e. 100,000’s of users, it makes sense to have a team focused on those users and to optimise for these people directly thereby extracting the maximum value from the traffic.

Let’s consider Facebook, which has over 1.1bn daily active users, of which 751m are on mobile. 189m users are mobile only and have never used a desktop.

Is it worthwhile having a team and dedicated mobile site catering specifically for those 10% of users who are mobile only? You bet it is.

Performance, performance, performance

Ebay is a perfect example where performance is paramount. If a mobile user submitting a bid gets pipped to the post by a desktop user because of speed, this is a sure way to lose customers and money.

Having a simple stripped down mobile specific site allows Ebay to serve pages lightening fast without the extra weight that responsive gives.

This gives you a fighting chance of approaching the magic 'one second page response time' which Google and us conversion geeks are shooting for.

I am sure Ebay’s pages per view and dwell time metrics on mobile will reside firmly in the dreams of many a marketer, thanks to its mobile specific site.

Sites where mobile users have a different journey to desktop users 

‘Location, location, location’ goes the saying and if you have a critical mobile journey, or a drive to store element, then mobile specific is a better way to go.

Mobile users generally have a different agenda to desktop users and are looking for quick information. Macys.com has its store locator prominent on its mobile site but hidden in the footer on the desktop site.

Some other great examples of this are yell.com and the big grocery companies: Walmart, Tesco and Asda who all have mobile specific sites.

Finding the mobile way forward for your own customers 

As someone who works in mobile, creating high converting mobile experiences is something that gets me out of bed every morning.

Mobile is still in its infancy when it comes to building experiences that convert and engage so we’re still discovering, innovating and learning.

Responsive vs mobile specific: a way forward?

In my opinion, it will ultimately be a combination of mobile specific and responsive in a single website that will win out, but we are still a long way from that.

The message for now is that the only constant in mobile is change.

Learn to love your analytics, build for change, build for experimentation and build for continuous learning.

Most importantly, try to keep up with your customers.

Grant Kemp is Omnichannel Manager at Inviqa/ Session Digital and a contributor to Econsultancy. You can follow Grant on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus.

Publisher: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=46

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JD Oxfords Is Getting A New Look

JD Oxfords, a Rochester, NY bar scene staple is working with Scriptable Solutions to redesign their website.  The new design will capture the atmosphere and tradition of this timeless pub, while providing its patrons with up-to-the-minute food and drink specials and events.  Stay tuned for updates...



View our web design portfolio to see some of our work.

Author: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=34

#Programmer n. [proh-gram-er] an #organism that turns #caffeine and #pizza into #software #FridayFunday #SSLLC

#Programmer n. [proh-gram-er] an #organism that turns #caffeine and #pizza into #software #FridayFunday #SSLLC

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11 Reason SEO Is A Science; 14 Reasons It's An Art

If your brand has a website, more people are likely to come to it from search engines than anyplace else according to Forrester. That means Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to secure a high-ranking placement in the search results pages, is as essential means of marketing for anybody doing business on the internet.

Is SEO a science or an art? Science is facts or truths systematically arranged showing the operation of general laws. Art is the conscious use of skill and creative imagination.

Here are 11 reasons SEO is a science; 14 reasons it’s an art.

SEO is a science because it operates according to mathematical laws that are statistical reliable and predictive of human behavior.

1. #1 reason people come to your website (source: Forrester)
2. 80% of people click on a website that is on the natural or organic side of the search engine page (source: Search Engine Watch)
3. 35% click through to the website that is in the #1 position (source: SEO Book)
4. 90% click through on a website that is on the 1st page (source: Search Engine Watch)
5. Algorithms that comprise hundreds of criteria determine how websites rise or fall in rank for specific keywords
6. Volume of search for any keyword and key phrase can be easily known with tools the the Google Keyword Planner and Wordtracker.
7. Demand for those keywords, if it is increasing or decreasing over time, is measurable through Google Trends. So you can even predict what their value is both now and in the future.
8. Search rank of your domain or your competitors’ can be tracked for any keyword or key phrase to help understand the rise or fall in rank by Ispionage or Rank Checker.
9. Number of links that increase or decrease your authority in a particular area and also influences search rank can be found through Majestic SEO or Alexa.
10. Value the links, whether they are high or low value authority, can be determined by SEO Majestic and Marketing Grader.
11. Machines, or search bots, that do the searches on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines are programmed to even identify the underlying meanings behind by keywords to returns the most meaningful results. The is called Semantic Search, predicted to play a more important role with the Google”Hummingbird” algorithm.

SEO is an art because mathematical models don’t establish business goals, tell convincing stories or know why your audience buys your product. You do.

1. Search bot don’t buy your product, people do.
2. It is impossible to model an algorithm on the needs of human being.
3. Models can’t study your niche, let alone know your audience’s internet surfing habits or their shopping behavior.
4. Keyword research takes creativity to know what is best for your audience and where there is an opportunity.
5. People read good content before the read good keywords.
6. A top rank doesn’t mean people take the action you want unless you’re clear with them on your website.
7. Good, relevant, quality content is what readers (and algorithms) want. If you focus on this, search visibility follows.
8. SEO is thinking about how marketing can encompass social, graphic design, link building, content generation, and PR to drive toward a common goal.
9. SEO and marketing is creating social buzz (especially with Google+).
10. High value links have to be placed where they are going to be most relevant and cause the most desirable actions
11. Marketers, not machines and models, tell good stories, use keywords consistently and naturally, and flow them seamlessly into your copy.
12. Titles that convince people have clarity, creativity, and imagination. The right keywords and key phrases just happen to be in them.
13. If you view SEO as a byproduct of good content, high search rank generally focus.
14. SEO won’t make your business a success, but you will.

This post comes out of a dialogue from Hollis Thomases, Augustine Fou, Mike Moran and Mark Schaefer, which was inspiring and worth building upon.

Do you think SEO is more science than art? Or the other way around?

Publisher: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=43

10 Things You Must Know About Your Audience

1. Who is your audience?

• How old are they?
• What is their education?
• Where do they live?
• Where do they work?
• What do they do for fun?
• What is their lifestyle?
• Where do they hangout when not at work?
• Where do they hangout when online?
• What types of conversation are they having?
• Are they talking with your partners? With your competition?
• How much money do they make?
• What is their lingo? Tone? Casual? Professional?
  *The list goes on and on here. You get my point by now, hopefully!

2. What are their pain points?

• Why do they need your product?
• Why do they experience the pain that requires them to need your product?
• What is the financial, emotional and life impact of the pain? How bad is it?
• What happens if they don’t have your product or service? What alternative products and services are there?
• Will they mitigate or reduce the pain themselves if you don’t help them?

3. What does your product or service do to minimize or mitigate their pain?

• How does it solve the business pain?
• What relief does it give them? For how long?
• Does it improve efficiencies?
• Does it help them better sustain their business?
• Does it help them increase return on investment?
• Does it help simplify their business?
• Does it help them better serve their customers and increase customer satisfaction?
• Does it help them better inspire and connect with their audiences and customers?

4. How can your product or service inspire and help them personally and professionally?

• Does it give them hope?
• Does it help them have a better day?
• Does it make their family more at peace?
• Does it help them keep their job?
• Does it help them live a longer life?
• Does it improve their career opportunities?

5. How is your product or service positioned?

• What are the replacement product or services to yours? This includes competition, alternative products and do-it-yourself.
• Why would they choose a do-it-yourself product? Is it time, money, lack of trust or all of the above?
• Do they choose an alternative or do-it-yourself option because the pain isn’t bad enough to justify the investment or time spent?
• Where does your product or service sit in comparison to competition? Is it better? Worse? Why?
• What value does your audience place on your product?
• Why do they place value on your offering?
• What are the complimentary products to yours? Who do they buy them and why? Who do they buy them from?

6. How are you different?

• How is your product or service differentiated?
• Do they believe your story of differentiation?
• Do they understand why you are different?
• Why should they buy from you versus other options?
• What market lead do you have regarding competition? How long until your competition catches up to you?

7. What is your competition up to?

• How is your audience engaging with your competition?
• What is your competition doing that you aren’t?
• Why are they doing such things different? Do they have a competitive differentiator because of this or do you have the leg up. Remember, different isn’t always better. You may be on the right track.
• What type of response are they receiving online and offline from your target audiences? Is it different than how your audience is engaging with you?
• Does your competition have a consistent tone, message and brand? If not, how can you enhance yours to zoom faster?
• Is your competition engaging in a way their audience expects them to? Casual when they’re expecting professional or opposite?
• What are the weaknesses to how your competition is engaging and leveraging social media that you can use to your advantage?

8. What are the replacement products or services to what you offer?

• If they don’t buy your product or service, what will they buy?
• What are the top industry competing products and services to yours?
• What are the top industry free products that could be used as a replacement?
• Is not buying your product or service really going to impact their business or life?

9. What’s your audience up to both online and offline?

• Where do they hang out online? Offline?
• What conversations are they having?
• Who are they talking to?
• What is the tone of conversation?
• Does the tone differ based upon who they talk to? Does it differ based upon social platform (i.e., different on LinkedIn vs. Facebook and Twitter?)
• How are they engaging and responding to your business partners, local businesses and competition?

10. What are the emotional reasons for them to buy from you?

• Do they have a need for belonging?
• Do they want to be part of something bigger than themselves, maybe even bigger than me and you?
• Do they need to become more educated?
• Are they seeking higher status?
• Are they looking to increase their position in the market, industry, niche?
• Are they looking to be simply inspired?
• Do they need you to inspire them?

Content that connects with an audience is the key to inspiring an audience to listen, to engage and to take action. Content is the foundation of conversation. Conversation is the fuel that will ignite your success in social media.

Use your knowledge of your audience to create compelling content that grabs their attention and inspires them to connect, converse and engage with you and your brand.

Publisher: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=44

#head #body #html5 #SSLLC #MediaMonday

#head #body #html5 #SSLLC #MediaMonday

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CAP Amusement Signs With Scriptable Solutions

CAP Amusement of Rochester, NY has signed with Scriptable Solutions for a mobile web design.  We completed the design and development of their current website, CapAmusement.com in 2011 and we are excited to be working with them again on this new project.



View our web design portfolio to see some of our work.

Author: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=33

My #code doesn't #work, I have an #idea why . . . My code works, I have no idea why #FridayFunday #SSLLC

My #code doesn't #work, I have an #idea why . . . My code works, I have no idea why #FridayFunday #SSLLC

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The 3 Biggest Social Media Trends of 2014

The Super Bowl was an early peak on the calendar for social-media marketing. In what new ways will brands use social platforms to connect with customers the rest of the year?

If there is one lesson to glean from the Super Bowl this past Sunday, it isn't that America is obsessed with football and beer. It is that social media is now embedded in our everyday lives--and it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Tuesday marks the 10-year anniversary of Facebook, and it's remarkable when you think about how much the social-media landscape has changed since everyone first learned what "friending" was. 

For a while, there were predictions that social media was just a passing fad, but now it is clear that's not the case. Today, everyone is on social media (in some fashion), and many companies have decided that it might, in fact, be the best way to reach their customers. Like regular users, brands have adapted to the changing social-media landscape and altered the ways in which they interact with their audience online. So as we move further into 2014, what are the year's most important social media and marketing trends? 

1. Purposeful Marketing 

In the early stages of social media, marketers would disseminate content in the hope of reaching a receptive audience. The presence of companies on social platforms has evolved greatly over the past few years from an impersonal, one-sided conversation to a much more genuine relationship with customers. Now, businesses will continue to approach social media with even more specific plans. 

Veronica Fielding, president of Plainsboro, New Jersey-based digital marketing agency Digital Brand Expressions, stressed that today, marketers need to look for consumertouch points. Businesses can no longer approach customers from one direction; they need to add value to customer experiences through these various touch points, in what she calls a "neural network kind of approach."

"Brands are starting to realize that you can't just keep throwing stuff out there," Fielding says. "People don't want to be marketed at in the social channel. This is where they want to talk to each other, and brands are there by invitation. They have to be a great guest at the table--otherwise they are going to be uninvited."

Companies need to listen to their customers across social platforms and respond. They must then use the information that they gather through those conversations to their advantage. "It is putting a game plan to all of this so that every single tweet has a reason that it exists," Fielding says. 

2. Data-Based Marketing

"Brands are finally starting to gather lots and lots of data from different places, and trying to use it to market in a smarter way is going to be a huge trend," says Aaron Everson, president and chief strategy officer of Shoutlet, a Madison, Wisonsin-based company that makes social-media marketing software. When used correctly, all this information can help companies truly understand consumers' affinity for their brand, and they can use that knowledge to get their consumers to take action.

Everson also stressed that brands will increasingly combine the data they collect through social media with data they have from interactions with customers outside social channels. "We want brands to be able to bring the existing customer data that they have in their systems--whether that is purchase history, demographic history, et cetera--into the social space, where they can interact with the consumer."

3. Timely and Relevant Content

With the one-year anniversary of Oreo's famous blackout tweet during the 2013 Super Bowl now behind us, it is the perfect time to identify this next social-media trend. Social media is now at a saturation point in terms of commercial messages, so to stand out, brands need to stay on pace with the rapid conversations happening on various networks. 

Everson says it will be important for businesses to establish teams and protocols around how they respond to big events on social media. "The smartest thing about the Oreo episode was that they were spontaneous and able to take advantage of an opportunity," Fielding says. "That wasn't planned. They were at the ready. [Companies] have to put themselves in a position to be comfortable taking risks and taking advantage of those opportunities. You can't have a lot of layers of authorization. People who are handling social media for your brand need to be in power." 

Publisher: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=42