Month: February 2016

Top 15 Websites to Find Free Images | Strong Social

Posted by Joanna Doughty on in Resources, Social Media0 Comment

Finding an online library stocked with pictures that are of high quality and available to use for free can be a daunting task. All the effort you are putting in selecting your search words to seem to only yield images that either vaguely agrees with your needs or are completely irrelevant. This can waste a lot of your time and get you really worked up.

If your job involves finding free images online on a regular basis, then having a free image directory would be a smart move. A free image directory allows you to easily and quickly access pictures that are not just relevant and top quality but add more meaning, taste, and eloquence to your message. And saves you hours.

Let me get you started on creating your own free image library. Below is a fairly exhaustive list of the best websites to find free images online:

1.  PICJUMBO.COM

First, there are no restrictions – you do not need to credit the author when using images from this website. New photos are uploaded every day and organized accordingly. They have amazing pictures with a wide range e.g. roads, food, fashion, wedding, technology, business etc.

 

 

2.  PEXELS.COM

This is one of the largest free image directories. It has collated photos from many other free image sites and put them under one roof. So if you are in a rush, then this will work very well with you.

 

 

3. UNSPLASH.COM

A small one-column site that was built on Tumblr. They post 10 fantastic images every ten days. No need to be registered. You can subscribe to receive photos directly into your inbox.

 

 

4. FLICKR.COM

Besides the large collection of high-quality photos, Flickr gives you the option of sharing and saving your photos. With it, you can organize all of your pictures and not worry about losing them. You can also edit your pictures. One thing that is encouraged when using someone else’s photo is to ensure that you link your picture to them. You will need to register as a member to be able to gain access to the variety of options offer by Flickr.

 

 

5. FREEPHOTOSBANK.COM

Easy to download photos. They focus more on abstract shots, architecture, landscape, nature, backgrounds, and patterns etc. You do not any to create an account.

 

 

6. FREEMEDIAGOO.COM

You can credit them if you want to but you don’t need to. They upload high-quality illustrations of backgrounds and many other photos. They have plenty of visual mediums you can choose from. Images have no restrictions.

 

 

7. CREATIVE COMMONS SEARCH

is an online tool that allows you to find resources you can share, use, modify of the remix. You can use find things to use for commercial purposes as well. No registration required. It is a convenient search engine. However, you need to find out about the copyright terms of the image before using it.

 

 

8. PICSEARCH.COM

It is great it doesn’t offer a clear division for royalty-free CC images. It is a useful search engine especially for those who don’t know exactly what they are looking for. Picsearch will help your search by indexing pages for you.

 

 

9. PIXABAY

Here, photos are uploaded by users as in Creative Commons. You can search and sort your pictures. There are no image restrictions. It offers a range of high-quality photos and thought to be one of the best internal search engine sites.

 

 

10. BLOGPHOTO.TV

Plenty of free images. The disadvantage is the loose image restriction that comes with it. In Blog photo, there is more than just getting you the photo you need. They offer resources such as templates, articles planners etc. to help you grow your digital footprint. In addition to that, there are articles published weekly as well as live interactive shows with media mogul to make you outstanding at whatever it is you are trying to achieve.

 

 

11. GRATISOGRAPHY.COM

For high-quality photos with no image restrictions whatsoever, then this is the resource for you. These are high-resolution pictures taken by Ryan McGuire . You can find them on one page, not a group. Just scroll down as the page loads and pick the one want. You are not required to credit the owner.

 

 

12. SXC.HU

There is a variety of image restrictions. However, they offer a massive selection of images covering a wide spectrum including abstract, events, architecture etc. You can share photos whenever and however you want. Sorting can sometimes be a little difficult. The good news is that the search tool is straightforward and getting what you need is simple and fast.

 

 

13. DEVIANTART

With over thirty million registered users, Deviant Art is the leading community in free image online communities. The work of photographers is under Creative Commons. You can use their images as long as you give them credit. There are wealth of high-resolution photos.

 

 

14. PHOTODUNE

They offer the best picture at reasonably low price. They have a collection of over four million.  If you want your website to stand out then use Photodune.

 

 

15. GETTYIMAGES

This is probably the largest place to find free images online. In one month they upload up to thirty-five million photos. They have a wonderful collection of people and capture different activities so perfectly. If you want to get the picture, click on the icon on it and then paste the code onto your target page.

 

Source: Top 15 Websites to Find Free Images | Strong Social

How to Easily Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts : Social Media Examiner

Posted by Joanna Doughty on in How-To, Social Media

Discover how TweetDeck lets you engage, monitor and schedule tweets for multiple accounts from a single customizable dashboard.

Are you managing multiple Twitter accounts?

Wondering how to streamline your Twitter marketing?

TweetDeck lets you engage, monitor and schedule tweets for multiple accounts from a single customizable dashboard.

In this article you’ll discover how to manage multiple Twitter accounts with TweetDeck.

#1: Connect Your Twitter Accounts

The first step is to set up your TweetDeck account.

If your company has one or two people monitoring social media, you can create one login using your company’s handle as the default account. Then you can add more accounts/handles to that same user login.

After you login to TweetDeck, you’ll see your TweetDeck dashboard.

tweetdeck dashboard

The gray navigation bar on the left side of the dashboard is your go-to location for everything TweetDeck can do. From there, you can add accounts, write new tweets, review activity and notifications, read messages, change settings and more.

To connect additional accounts, click on the Accounts icon near the bottom of the navigation bar.

tweetdeck add account

Next, click Add Another Twitter Account and enter the username and password for each account you want to manage. Now you’re ready to begin.

#2: Add Listening Streams

The most powerful TweetDeck feature is the ability to add streams, which are columns of tweets that are updated in real time. There are a number of different streams to choose from, such as User, Notifications, Mentions, Followers, Messages, Search, Lists and more.

To add a stream, click on the Add Column icon (with the + sign on it) in the navigation bar. Then select the column type you want to add.

tweetdeck add column

Select the stream you want to add.

You can customize the content of each column and remove excess noise. This makes it easier to find the information you want. Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the column to access your filtering options.

tweetdeck customize column

TweetDeck allows you to customize columns so you can see the information that’s important to you.

Keep in mind that adding lots of streams isn’t always better. It’s important to choose the columns that will help you reach your marketing goals.

Here are five streams that you’ll want to add.

Notifications

The Notifications stream allows you to see when you have a new follower, someone has added you to a list or one of your tweets has been liked, retweeted or replied to.

Using this stream, you can quickly find active and potential clients, customers and followers. Essentially it lets you monitor every handle that is engaging with your content. You can use additional filters to narrow down your notifications to engagement, users and content type.

tweetdeck notifications

Narrow your notifications by users.

Mentions

Add the Mentions stream to monitor every tweet that mentions your Twitter handle, whether for the first time or as part of a reply/conversation.

tweetdeck mentions stream

The Mentions stream tracks tweets that mention your Twitter handle.

By monitoring and using this stream daily, your marketing team can track every company mention, and then react in a timely manner. You can quickly jump into conversations,offer customer support or engage with your existing user base or potential prospects.

Search

Search is one of the most important streams in TweetDeck. It allows your marketing team to go beyond users and monitor content related to keywords or hashtags.

Using the Search feature, you can keep an eye on topics and conversations that are essential to your business.

For example, if your company is about to launch a new technology product, your marketing team can set up a Search stream to monitor all tweets for keywords such as new technology, today in tech, #techtuesday, and so on.

Set up a stream for a relevant keyword or hashtag.

Bonus Tip: When setting up this stream, don’t forget to use Boolean operators to save space. This way, you can search for multiple terms in the same column.

Source: How to Easily Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts : Social Media Examiner

Audio Transcription Time Guidelines [Infographic]

Posted by Joanna Doughty on in Social Media1 Comment

When people ask what I do and I reply a Transcriptionist their face goes blank for a second. I then explain that I produce transcripts from recorded audio, video, podcasts or webinars.  Ah, typing people think, typing what people are saying yes that’s easy once you can type. Contrary to popular belief audio transcription is a skill and takes years of touch typing practice and experience to be able to turn around an hour’s audio in four.

The Infographic created by Virtuadmin I hope puts into perspective that even the most professional and quickest of touch typists cannot type at the average spoken rate. I have used 15 minutes of recorded audio for simplicity but hope that it illustrates that typing at the spoken word rate is virtually impossible.

There are also other factors to be taken into consideration:

  • Number of Speakers
  • Audio quality
  • Speech clarity
  • Is there any background noise
  • Is this an intelligent or strict verbatim transcription?
  • Is the transcript to be time-stamped?

All these affect the average turnaround time of your transcript.  Taking these things into account when hiring a transcription service will help you understand the complexities of what goes into producing an accurate transcript.

To conclude that with just one speaker, with good audio quality professional transcriptionist that types 80 words per minute (that’s fast but that’s our average typing speed) would take approximate 30 minutes to transcribe and a professional that types 50 words per minute would take 45 minutes.  That therefore on these statistics would mean than an hour’s audio that was just one speaker and straight forward intelligent paragraphing would take the professional 4 hours.  For 2 speakers because each time a speaker changes a new line is started, therefore that takes extra time.

Audio transcription is a skill, you must love typing and a love of hearing people speak.  If you love what you do, have a passion like we do, you will want to produce the best transcript possible.  This isn’t always possible but I always aim to never insert an “inaudible”.  Again, that is time-consuming replaying a part of the audio that you just cannot hear.  You’ll probably get it in the end, but that’s another 5 minutes or so added to the completion time.

Hope the Infographic helps put things in perspective for audio transcribing and putting into text the spoken word is just not as easy as you think!

Transcription - Is it as easy as you think?
Transcription – Is it as easy as you think?

10 Words Derived from “Scribe”

Posted by Joanna Doughty on in Social Media0 Comment

Scribe, from the Latin term scribere, meaning “to write,” referred to a person who performed the responsibilities of an accountant, a secretary, or both But later denoted any writer. (Scrivener is a synonym from medieval Anglo-French.)

The term is rarely used outside of historical contexts but occasionally appears as affected slang to refer to a professional author or writer; the same is true of its use as a verb to refer to the action of writing.

Scribe is the basis of a select group of other words; here are ten such terms and their meanings, along with examples of their use in a sentence. (Note that each verb listed here can be converted to a noun by changing -scribe to -scription, as in prescribe/prescription.)

1. ascribe: attribute (literally, “write to”: “It is largely to this that we must ascribe the national conservatism and contempt for foreigners”)

2. circumscribe: constrict or surround, or define (literally, “draw around”: “To circumscribe the influence of the ruling favorites, he next suggested the formation of a cabinet council of six or eight ministers”)

3. conscribe: synonym for circumscribe or variant of conscript

4. describe: represent by drawing something or talking about it, or trace the outline of something (literally, “draw from”: “I can’t describe how helpless I felt”)

5. inscribe: write on something (literally, “write in”: “They would then inscribe a verse over the door of the house for protection”)

6. prescribe: make a rule, or tell someone to use a remedy or treatment (literally, “write before”: “The numerous fasts of the national church prescribe a fish diet”)

7. proscribe: prohibit (literally, “write for”: “When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen’s constitutional right to free speech, it acts lawlessly”)

8. subscribe: sign or support, or pay regularly for a publication or service (literally, “write beneath”: “Long ago, she had learned that many people didn’t subscribe to her morals”)

9. superscribe: write outside or on top of or over (literally, “write over”: “Kindly superscribe renewal on the envelope if you are sending it by post”)

10. transcribe: copy something written or write something spoken, or rewrite music for a different instrument or voice or in a different key (literally, “write across”: “She will transcribe the speech and send you a copy tomorrow”)

Unsubscribe was a rarely used antonym for subscribe until after the advent of email; now, many companies and organizations have an unsubscribe option that enables the receiver to automatically halt the transmission of subsequent messages. The terms superscript and subscript, meanwhile, refer to small numbers, letters, or other characters (such as asterisks) set above or below the baseline of type as indicators of footnotes or in mathematical and scientific usage.

Source: 10 Words Derived from “Scribe”

Transcription – Is It a Necessity For Your Business?

Posted by Joanna Doughty on in Social Media0 Comment

Do you need transcription for your business?

Yes, you do! Transcription services, freelance or provided by specialist businesses is growing in demand each and every day.

Advancements in technology mean quicker and faster, more capabilities and devices and so on, digital technology grows in cyberspace. This provides more opportunities for the transcriptionist to provide digital transcription services remotely at competitive cheaper costs. 

Transcribing is a niche skill-set that is not really spoken about but such a vital expertise that requires a lot of training, fast typing, and typing experience. Digital technology advancements are now enabling virtually anything to be recorded and if narration or natural occurring speech is within that recording then it should be transcribed.

Entrepreneurs, Business Coaches, Bloggers, Marketing Experts and much more are all utilising transcription services for the benefit of their businesses.  They record podcasts, videos, webinars and video blogs for clients and readers.  They hold teleconferences, teleseminars and business meetings for accuracy and productivity.  Eighty-eight percent of businesses say that video is an important part of their marketing strategy; all should be accompanied by a transcript. 

Here are the top 7 advantages of a transcript:

  1. It gives you a permanent hard copy of what was spoken. What if the audio recording got damaged, lost or recorded over by mistake?
  2. Instant accessibility for the hearing impaired to partake and absorb the valuable information.
  3. Using a Search Engine on the Internet can only search in a text it cannot search audio at this moment in time. (I’m sure it will come as image search is already available!) Adding an accurate transcript increases your chances of your audio, video, podcast, webinar being discovered because of the extra information held within that additional transcript rather than just the title and sub-title text for details about what it is about.
  4. Having a transcript gives you a document to refer to, scribble on, copy, make notes etcetera. Instead of searching through the audio for a certain point that caught your attention you can quickly scan through the transcript instead.
  5. Provides a great resource for repurposing content to create Tweets, blog post ideas, e-books, creating online courses or writing white papers.
  6. For marketers offering online e-learning courses, a transcript can be a tremendous incentive to encourage enrollment onto your program.
  7. For a Business meeting, it clarifies actions points for the participants and employees and also gives an accurate account of who said what during the session.
  8. Hopefully, these top seven advantages of hiring a transcription service for you to add a transcript to your audio or video has convinced you of the benefits to justify the initial cost of getting your recorded audio, video or other formats transcribed.

Virtuadmin offers a professional and secure quality low-cost transcription service; it is my passion to provide you with the most accurate transcript possible.  With over 20 years experience audio typing, transcribing and video captioning Virtuadmin are flexible and would love to work with you, either for either a one-off transcription or on a long-term collaboration.

If you would like to make an inquiry or get a free quote, there is a contact form in the ‘Contact Me’ section of my website and would be pleased to assist you.  All audios and videos are secure with Virtuadmin with the latest firewall protection systems for enhanced security.  Why not let me give you a quote? 

195+ Perfectly Optimized Design Templates for Email, Social Media & More [Free Templates]

Posted by Joanna Doughty on in Resources, Social Media0 Comment

We all know visual marketing works. Visual content is 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. Not to mention, infographics are Liked or shared on social media 3X more than any other type of content. 

The problem is, it can be hard to actually create these visuals — especially when you’re a small marketing team with too much to do and no designer on hand.

So when it comes to creating a cohesive set of campaign visuals — from Twitter graphics to blog images — what’s a marketer to do?

Well, to make your life easier, we worked with Canva to put together the ultimate set of 195+ design templates for every visual marketing need.

There are 10 visual design types and multiple themes that are carried through each design type, making it easy for you to quickly spin up a visual marketing campaign across multiple channels.

This set of 195+ designs includes:

  • Infographics templates
  • Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest templates
  • Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter cover photo templates
  • Email header templates
  • Blog featured image templates

Ready to take your visual marketing to the next level this year? Get your 195+ design templates from HubSpot & Canva today.

download 195+ free design templates

 

Written by Niti Shah | @nitifromboston

Source: 195+ Perfectly Optimized Design Templates for Email, Social Media & More [Free Templates]