Friday Catch-Up: Happy New Year to All Friday Catch-Uppers!

We have observed that this Friday doesn’t really feel the same… But that’s only because it’s the first Friday of 2015! Happy New Year Everybody! May this brand new year witness the making of an even more competitive and flourishing Internet and Marketing market so that we can keep bringing you the hottest updates like we always do.

2014 has left us with a lot to think about, and quite frankly, the immense growth of the industry predicts an even more competitive market where brands will have to work harder than before to stay in, or atop the game. Keeping that in mind, our Friday Catch-ups will be aimed at providing all readers with valuable insights and knowledge that they will ever need, to keep our weekly tradition alive. Let’s see what the mammoths of this industry have been up to this week.

News & Updates

China Strikes at Google’s Throat

The Censorship and Surveillance project by china – The Great Firewall – has blacked most of mainland China’s traffic and access to Google Search and Gmail.   This deliberate change was pushed out on to the entire country, all at once. The Chinese government just can’t seem to make their peace with Google; the company stopped basing direct operations within the country as a result of Beijing’s attempt at censor ship in 2009. Instead, they started offering services to mainland China through servers that are established and located in Hong Kong. But this new imposition by the Chinese government has blocked all Google services from the Hong Kong servers as well, this past week. Read more to find out how Google took the hit, follow this link: The Washington Post

Facebook Isn’t Going To Slow Down, Any Time Soon!

Every few days, we get to see a brand new feature or improvement on Facebook that makes us want to come back more often. Recently, the social media network has been focusing quite a lot on video posting where videos are uploaded directly to the website instead of YouTube. Further incentives have been taken, clearly, because a little birdie told us Facebook has been testing a brand new video module featured on the timeline of your page. Expected to roll out soon, this new feature will allow all businesses to choose a featured video that will be displayed extra large, along with a Live comment feed on top of the page. Your users can scroll through other videos you may have posted as well; this improvement gives Facebook a look that feels a lot like YouTube. Crushing completion with clever ideas Facebook, we’re impressed! Read more here: Inside Facebook

Twitter – Boosting Up User Engagement

Twitter had previously announced its plans to take a number of new initiatives and implement them effectively to increase their User engagement; they seemed to have hit the right spot with the new ‘While You Were Away’ feature. This is a recap of all the posts and updates that you may have missed since the last time you tweeted. The feature hasn’t gone Live just yet but it appears to have rolled out to a good number of users already. A complete roll-out is expected of the first non-chronological feature by the Social Media network soon that will update you about the best posts that you have missed. All we can say to that is, way to go twitter! Read more: Tech Crunch

Useful Posts worth Reading

Webinar Software Comparison

Online workshops and webinars can work wonders for your user engagement, in fact, if you have any courses you will need to promote in the pipeline, a webinar may be your savior and guiding light. There are a number of great webinar services, software and platforms that you can use to incorporate an online workshop in your marketing strategy, follow this link to see the best webinar services you can o for:  Kikolani

Scribble Notes vs. Laptop Notes

College students these days believe in laptops, period. Pecking away at your keyboards for taking notes during seminars and lectures may be faster and more efficient, but if you’re in it for the learning, you might want to sharpen your pencils and grab a notepad. Taking notes as you listen by hand, forces you to listen actively and decide what is worth remembering and what’s not. Not only are internet-connected laptops extremely distracting, they interfere with the ability and process of learning. This research based assessment makes us feel nostalgic about the good old days and conventional methods of learning, take a look: VOX

2015 – The New Age of Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are no longer expensive, confusing or difficult to achieve, as previously believed. Facebook wants to really see your business succeed, and in order to achieve that, in 2015, the ads will become much more welcoming and simple so that businesses can flourish. Read more here: Inside Facebook

Pixar – The Masters of Innovation

Innovation is not something that falls into your lap randomly and simply delivers a brilliant idea that will change the world. No one is born an innovative thinker; it’s the creative process that, if rightly followed, produces something purely original. Geniuses like DreamWorks and Pixar can be observed closely to understand how to make originality and innovation a habit. Creativity is not coming up with a grand idea, but in fact, it is transforming a rather messy and haphazard notion into a completely polished and original scheme. Inspiration doesn’t only hit when it pleases, innovation can be achieved with a fluent and efficient creative process. Read more about how the Giants like Pixar keep coming up with unmatchable originality so that you can apply the processes and create competitive content for your business: Co Schedule

Guarantee Success in 2015 – Post Holiday Checklist

Pat yourselves on the back for making it through another year because soon, we’ll all be back to work. Your holiday success can be augmented and capitalized still, if you aren’t aware, and you need to start working from now to ensure unbound success in the coming year. Your business will be establishing itself in a much more competitive environment this year than ever before, and you need to be prepared beforehand. Check this link for great advice on things you can’t afford to forget in 2015: JXT Group

Top Posts and People of 2014 – MOZ

At the end of each year, the team at Moz Blog and YouMoz compiles a list of the most prolific people and popular posts published. It’s a great way to look back at 2014 and say our final goodbye, follow this link to see which posts hit the roof in 2014: MOZ

25 FREE WordPress Plug-Ins for integration of Google Features

If you are looking to enhance the working and appearance of your website, some great WordPress plug-ins can make your website much easier to find, and provide proper Google integration. Today’s Google is far from its predecessor; the search engine giant offers a wide variety of tools that can be used by individuals and businesses alike. Google’s toolbox is bursting with interactive maps, advertising, and calendars and more, these features came with great functionality as well. Integrating these helpful features in your website is no longer a difficult task; follow this link to find the 25 top Free Plug-ins that WordPress offers for Google integration, and increase the performance of your website substantially: Small Business Trends

Reshaping News through Social Media

Almost 5000 new digital news sector employment opportunities are available in the digital native news world that doesn’t seem to stop growing. Many different outlets have opened up with around thirty huge digital only news outlets serving as platforms. Most of these organizations accentuate the significance of social media in audience engagement and storytelling. Journalists have been gathering news from all possible sources and five of the most commonly asked social media and news related questions. Take a look: Pew Research

Where to look when you’re looking for Great Photographs & Graphics

Great photographic or graphic content that is free of cost is a rare thing to find and for an internet marketer, good graphics are one of the most crucial properties of a good design. Every marketer or designer that requires usage of images or illustrations from time to time has to have a list of sources he/she can turn to, with that being said, check out this great list of sites and inventories that offer free patterns, icons, graphics and images. Linkis

Following-Up on Leads – How & When

In the huge marketing and sales empire, the biggest issues that one may have to face are lead management and follow up. Aligning your sales and marketing efforts depends on clarity around the area of lead management, response times and qualification. Research says, 71% of all qualified leads are not compensated or followed-up with, and the ones that do get processed are touched only 1.3 times. This means tremendous expenses not only in profits but in the experience of your prospects as well. Read more here: Hub Spot

Presentations & Videos

Image File Cheat Sheet

Digital images are used almost everywhere these days, on WebPages, computers, they even get sent to us in our inboxes! When we are surrounded by images, it might be a good idea to understand the kinds of digital image formats and what instances they are created and used for. Check out this great info graphic by following this link: Vertical Response

Responding on Social Media – Flowchart

Starting out on any new social media network can be overwhelming; you are excited about responding to everyone and everything! You know that responding to every tweet you get, helps you grow your following but with time, following up with a large audience can become quite difficult. Check out this flowchart to understand the kind of tweets you need to respond to and the kind you need to ignore: Hub Spot

What All the States Googled the Most

A person’s Google search can tell a lot about them, this is why you need to see this list of search topics like deaths, controversies or news that each state Google-d the most more than any other state. Follow this link to read more: Business Insider