How to Meme Your Images on Google+

Using any image on your hard drive, you can instantly create a meme by adding your own text. There’s no need to use photo editing software or a third party website. You can do all of the work, effortlessly, right here on Google+!

Face it, no one likes boring funny images without a witty caption. Spice up your original photos by making your followers laugh! Now start getting creative! Who knows, maybe your next meme will top the What’s Hot list!

Creating Impactful Presentations: How-To

Using nothing but Google Docs’ Presenter, Google’s stock images and a Google+ Hangout, presentation expert +Harold Carey Jr. was able to teach me how to create a very simple and effective presentation.

No more sliding text or sound effects, just a header, image and…well, I’d tell you the rest, but you can watch the video!

Check out Harold’s website at http://haroldcarey.com/ .

How to Be Circled on Google+

Interaction. Interaction. Interaction.

In real life, people commonly ask me, “how in the world did you get so many followers on Google?” Of course, being an early adopter helped, but the most important thing I did when I arrived here wasinteracting with other users. I can’t say it enough, interacting with people’s content shows them two things: 1) You’re paying attention. 2) You invested time in starting a conversation.

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How to Create Engaging Content

Recently I spoke with +Derek Ross about some of his posts about #Android and why they weren’t getting the type of interaction he was looking for. +Derek is an original content creator and a great resource for all things related to #Android.

After taking a look at some of his posts at the time, I noticed that a lot of things he was posting were unembellished hyperlinks–simply a link to a website and the default snippet without any sort of summary or call to action.

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Want to Track How Many People Click Your Links?

When you post things in social media, especially on Twitter and Google+, sometimes it is hard to determine how many people are receiving your message. If you are posting unmodified hyperlinks in your post, you won’t be able to track how many people are clicking through.

By using a link shortening service such as goo.gl you can track how well your posted links are doing. Simply copy the link you wish to track, visit http://www.goo.gl/ and paste it into the window. Once you click the button, the link will be shortened to the right using a series of letters and numbers. When you copy and paste this into your tweet or post, you will be able to keep track of how many people clicked through.

You will be amazed by the difference between +1’s, comments and click-through of your posts.

How to Backup Your WordPress.com Blog

Keeping a backup of all of your important files is important. You probably make regular backups of the important files on your computer at home, but do you worry about backing up your online data like all of the information on your blog?

If you have an account on WordPress.com and you’d like to move it over to a self-hosted site (something that many people decide to do as they continue to grow their audience), you will eventually need to export your data. But, don’t wait until you’re ready to move. Make regular backups of your blog,  just in case.

I was talking to A.V. Flox from BlogHer about an aquaintance that had their WordPress.com blog disappear. There’s no telling why the blog disappeared, whether it was a server error, a violation of Terms & Service, or just an anomily, but the truth is, it could happen to anyone, especially if your password isn’t secure.

To protect yourself from losing all of the valuable information you have created, your words, your posts, your comments, your images–all of the content that you have worked so hard to create–you should perform regular backups. Don’t worry though, they’re easy to do. Just follow these steps.

Step 1

Log into your WordPress.com Account and select the blog you want to backup:

Step 2

Click ‘My Blog’ in the upper left hand corner and select ‘Dashboard’

Step 3

On the left hand tool bar, go down to ‘Tools’ (it’s towards the bottom) and select ‘Export’

Step 4

If you want to backup all of your pages, posts and comments, select ‘All content’ and click the ‘Download Export File’ button.

Step 5

Depending on what browser you are using, a notification should appear asking you if you would like to download the file. Since it is an XML file, your computer might warn you that it could be dangerous. In situations where the source is trusted, such as WordPress.com, you don’t need to worry about this warning. Click ‘Keep’ and then, presto, you have a backup of all of your blog content on your home computer!

When you get more proficient and as your audience continues to grow, you might want to start your own website on an independent server using the WordPress.org framework. The interface is virtually the same, and when you go to set it up (using their famous five minute installation) you’ll be able to instantly Import your content, pages and comments from your previous location!

By backing up your data regularly you won’t have to worry about your blog “disappearing” because you’ll always have a copy of your content right at your fingertips.

If you liked this tutorial, be sure to share it with your friends using the social media buttons below! Also, be sure to enter your e-mail address and Subscribe in the right-hand navigation bar of my website to get weekly updates of all of my content at absolutely no cost!

Photographic Archaeology: How To Find the Source of an Image on the Internet

Are you sharing responsibly?

Most of the content that gains traction on the Internet, whether message boards, social media sites like Google+ and Facebook or through e-mail chains (although becoming less popular) has an origin. A lot of people take for granted the fact that someone took the time and effort to create this work. Instead, they share the image with reckless abandon as if it was their own original work.

Now, that’s not to say that everyone that downloads and image to their computer and shares it on a social network is necessarily in the wrong. A lot of the images that are found throughout the web are not copyrighted and are usually “modifications” of existing images. Think of all of the memes where people take an existing image and populate their own text on top. Just because they captioned the image does not make it theirs, per say.

I was approached today by +Bud Hoffman who pointed out that he shared an image he had found on the Internet and was surprised by the amount of interaction and attention it drew. Bud shared an image of two men smoking and standing beneath a mural to make it look as though they were being buried at a funeral.

Image from Snopes.com
Image from Snopes.com

Continue reading Photographic Archaeology: How To Find the Source of an Image on the Internet

Have You Ever Crawled Through the Mud In the Rain?

Why I am teaming up with +KOMU 8 News +Sarah Hill.

Lady with child in PET
Lady with child in PET

Person Energy Transportation (or P.E.T. for short) gives the gift of mobility to people all around the world that suffer from paralysis, disease and other circumstances which have caused them to lose their ability to walk. Each of these hand-cranked carts allows these individuals to use their own energy to power themselves through third world countries which lack the infrastructure that you and I take for granted every day.

For a mere $250, the P.E.T. organization can gather materials needed to construct a hand-powered cart that allows people lacking mobility to commute through their communities, find work and restore their personal freedom. No longer will they have to crawl on the ground or depend upon the support of others to get from point A to point B.

If you live in a metropolitan area like I do, you might take the infrastructure around you for granted. Most modern suburbs in the United States even boast sidewalks on every street. However, in countries like Honduras and Vietnam, accessibility is a major problem for most people. Especially those with mobility issues.

+Sarah Hill is undertaking a project to raise One Million Dollars which would fund the construction of over 4,000 P.E.T. carts and restore mobility, freedom and jobs to 4,000 people in third world countries who suffer at no fault of their own.

How +Sarah Hill Plans to Do It

Sarah will be using +Google+ Hangouts to her advantage. As she has integrated the technology into her +KOMU 8 News U_Newscasts, she will be offering people the opportunity to “sponsor” segments and get their name out in exchange for their donation to her project. With over 600,000 followers on +Google+ and the ability to touch people with her stories, I have no doubt that +Sarah Hill will be successful with her endeavors.

How You and +Peter G McDermott Plan to Help

Now, this is where it gets interesting. Since I don’t have 600,000 followers and don’t appear daily on an NBC affiliate, I’m going to depend on +The Internet to help me get the message out and show +Sarah Hill that the little guys can make a difference too.

Since my following count is about 5% of Sarah’s, I’m going to recruit you and all of your friends, family members and colleagues to help me raise $50,000 towards Sarah’s goal of $1 Million.

What’s In it For You?

If you have seen my YouTube videos or read my blog, you know that I am a fairly competent speaker, engager and story teller. I like sharing new ideas and innovation (you would know that if you ever read my profile). So, if you want to help me with this project of raising money, I want to help you with getting the word out about your product or service. I will be offering my consulting services and audience reach at no cost to those that help me raise funds and meet my modest goal of $50,000.

So what are you waiting for? If you want to join in, be sure to join my team on Crowd Rise: http://www.crowdrise.com/mcdermott/

Only $50,000 to Go!

How to Find Almost Anything on Google

It’s great to see that Google’s marketing team is starting to reach out to the non-geeks of the world and show them how to use features that more seasoned users like me already know how to use.

Sometimes you need to put things in context and remember that your aptitude in utilizing the Internet might be light years ahead of your friends and family. This quick video shows people that aren’t as technical as most of the people active in social media how to utilize some great time-saving features.

Continue reading How to Find Almost Anything on Google