Great Mobile Blogging platforms

The web services that we use today are evolving as we speak. They are becoming more multi functional and multi faceted especially when it comes to social media and networking. 

The debate is free flowing when it comes to demarcating what is and what isn’t part of a particular segment of the market. For instance, content and marketing have seen so many twists in the tale that it is no longer clear where blogging begins and as to where the networking finishes.

Softwares and utilities for the mobile interface have grown to become power assets in fulfilling a variety of tasks. A good example is the plethora of items which can be found in the App Store by Apple. With each passing day the iPhone and iPod touch supplies for download are increasing. Here we enlist and review some of the devices which are good for mobile blogging.

In the blogging space there are many which offer robust frameworks, invigorating designs and templates and are free for use. Some of the popular ones across the blogging sphere which boast of huge users include WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Tumblr and Live Spaces amongst many others. But only two out of these have official and native applications for iPod/ iPhone. There are WordPress and TypePad.

WordPress took the plunge after TypePad made itself at home in the mobile blogging scene. Both the mobile blogging platforms have garnered good reviews as of now. Both the platforms help in editing the blogs, posting and uploading photos. TypePad offers support for English as well as French.

The Micro blogging scene on the mobile platform is more expansive and intriguing. iTunes offers Twitterific, Twittelator and Twinkle for people who can’t do without tweeting. Twitterific is reliable and pleasant. There is a browser within the application which can be beneficial for those who frequently click on the URLs posted by their friends. The webpage loads in the inbuilt browser and once you have seen the webpage you can close the screen and continue tweeting. There is no need to toggle between two applications with twitterific.

Twinkle on the other hand is designed keeping aesthetics in mind. The application also adds a location feature so that you can converse with the users of a specific area. The application however crashes routinely. An update however is on the way to fix this.

Understanding your website’s bounce rate

With the social media sharing and smart SEO many users are landing directly on the blog posts and the product pages. Businesses therefore need to work on these first impressions at every entry point to their website to stop the user from reaching the back button. The two terms of exit rates and bounce rates at many times tend to give rise to confusion.

Bounce rate is used to describe the visitor percentage that visit a page but do not visit any other page in the site. It is used to measure and understand how effective the landing page is. The bounce rate is also connected to advertising campaigns and SEO. In some cases the page might be designed to provide the visitor with information and nothing else. In such cases the bounce rate will not be relevant.

Exit rate is the term used to describe the visitor percentage that leaves the website from a specific page. This percentage helps gauge the performance of particular pages of a website. A page which has a high bounce rate means it is making a bad initial impression on the visitors. As per expert web analytics anything less than 30% of bounce rate is good while a bounce rate over 60% indicates a problem.

Google Analytics is a great tool to keep a tab on the traffic statistics for your site. There is a section in the tool known as benchmarking which allows people to compare their website’s bounce rate with other sites in similar category and having same size. The statistics for the bounce rate of a website can vary depending upon the type of pages and sites you are measuring.

A blog which offers all the contents on the same page itself will have a higher bounce rate of visitors. Generally blogs have an average bounce rate of 80%. This and other statistics like the time visitors spend on the site and the quantity of comments will help understand the performance of the blog. Best standard however is measuring the bounce rate of the individual over the time parameter.

Employee, Brand and the Social Media

For many organizations, companies and their brand managers the actions of their employees on the internet social sphere remains an untamed and daunting frontier. When employees are allowed to the new social web through the means of individual stories and internal messaging the company’s brand can be communicated successfully to the consumer.

There has been an increase in monitoring and strict policies for the social media behavior of the employees. This is due to the tales of caution from the early days of the social media which arose due to mixed and poor communication and stories that of indiscretion.

But slowly the businesses have woken up to the lost opportunities and the new avenues. Some of the perceptive brands have made changes to their ‘internal position’ on the activities of the employees on the webs social network. Many of the organizations have moved beyond the firings due to a Facebook ‘faux pas’. They are now actively involved in ways for the employees to make use of the social medium for personal as well as professional reasons.

There has been a huge change in attitude following the potential of the social media coming into the open. Brands are increasingly becoming proactive while encouraging the employees to express themselves, share opinions and thoughts while involving the brand. This change is positive and good news for the companies as well as the power of the internet in our lives.

We at Rikhav Infotech help in empowering your brand by successfully merging your online assets and the social media to keep you updated with the times.

Clearing the air on HTML5

In Previous post I wrote about HTML5 Changes. You might have enjoyed last post about how HTML5 has changed the webpage look.

HTML5 has clearly got the whole webosphere a buzz with confusion and discussions. A lot of hype also surrounds this new entrant in town. To put things in perspective HTML5 is the evolved version of the HTML which will aim to make web development and designing simpler and easier.

It offers a new array of functions which were earlier only possible with the help of plugins. These functions will help create rich interactivity for applications and websites across many screens. HTML5 is also gaining momentum in the tablet and smart phone development due to usage of the WebKit in the mobile devices.

While HTML5 is being worked upon yet there are a variety of ways in which users can make use of the new elements of the new face of HTML. Developers can make use of the new Header and Footer by making classes with same name and connecting them to divs in a page. The new elements of HTML5 can be used with the combination of CSS and JavaScript to make sure they are compatible with old browsers.

Web developers can make use of the forms of HTML 5 with the new element known as input. Developers should first expand their skills of technology their already know. Understanding the new functions of CSS3 is a good place to start. Watching out for the various Frameworks for JavaScript that are coming up is a good practice. One should also follow the developments through the means of the many blogs.

HTML5rocks.com and HTML5tutorial.net are among some of the guides available on the ’net to update you on html5. Browser support is the crucial factor this time around so developers should keep in their minds the platform that they are developing for.

Wishing one and all a rocking Diwali!

A Youtube Presence is a must for your business

With this video portal emerging as the next best thing, everyone seems to be tuned in. It is the season of the viral videos with social media adding to the power of YouTube. Nowadays a YouTube presence for any brand is an essential medium to tap into.

These videos are an important part of search engine listings makes them that much more necessary. Every video that is uploaded on Youtube is indexed and tagged by the search engines.

While people do not like pure commercials there are many individuals who will be interested in what you are selling. People like anything that is entertaining or informative. So videos of your product depicting how to select them for particular needs, fixing them or using them and their special features will find an audience.

One can even share their expertise beyond their products and connect and build a good following. Sharing the knowledge in your business sphere will also help attract like minded individuals.

For example if you’re a web developer you can showcase the various websites you have developed and take the audience on a virtual tour of what goes into the making of any website. One can even share expert tips on creating a website and sharing the latest technology updates and changes in web development.

Some creative thinking will definitely help in coming up with some interesting ideas for a regular or semi-regular series of videos for the YouTube audience. A great example of using videos to sell products is of WineLibrary.tv which made dollar sixty million during the last year. And it didn’t even make use of the Youtube power which speaks volumes that videos have arrived in the Search Engine scene.

HTML 5 - Notable changes in Markup Language

A lot of hype, talk and confusion have surrounded this latest version of the web technology which is touted to turn the internet on its head. There are many of us who would want to take advantage of this revolutionary model of HTML but don’t know how? Here’s what to expect of the new HTML 5.

While HTML is still years away from being approved for the web some features such as the viedo and HTML 5 canvas are supported by modern versions of the browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, FireFox and more. These changes spell grave news for companies such as Adobe whose Flash platform will face stiff competition.

 Audio and video: these new elements will allow pages to play videos without the support of an external media player. These new elements will be able to playback, preload, provide volume control and loop.

Canvas: an exciting addition which will allow developers to manipulate graphics and design which nowadays is only possible using Flash which is an external plugin.

Data Grid: this will help display grids with the help of the new html. It will end the need for a third party control, dynamic html and the table element to create data grids.

More interface control, Drag and Drop: enhancements such as drag and drop will make for easy implementation like in the case of tooltips. The menu element has been revived and will be linked to the command element which will aid in performing tasks.

Enhanced structure: this will the most important development to the web designers as new elements such as header, footer, nav, article and sectin will add to the old tags of CSS and div. these structure tags will help the browser identify sections of a page.

Database support and Offline storage: HTML 5 supports sophisticated interfaces and great graphics. It also supports data manipulation to maintain a fine balance. It provides offline storage support. HTML 5 is trying to standardize the web SQL databases to allow sites to manipulate and create a database on client computers.