Facebook: I'm Giving Up, You've Jumped The Shark

I'm giving up. Facebook Wins, We all lose.

Facebook's Edgerank Algorithm keeps getting worse for exposure of both personal and business posts. I'm giving up trying to share relevent and educational articles from other sites. Facebook buries them. Shared photos and videos? Facebook buries them. With my Personal account supporting The Chris Voss Show blog I have roughly 20,000 facebook followers/friends and still even paying to promote, the results suck. I can tell now by how Facebook puts certain boxes around my posts when they go up, some really small for Youtube shares, others simple around a shared news story, that almost no one will see it. You can tell by the lack of comments and engagement. Text posts seem to be the only thing that works anymore. Facebook has been honest about what its burying and the bottom line is they want you to buy ads to promote your interests if you want engagement.

Buy Ads or get nothing. Pay to Play. Content engagement isnt quality anymore, its just about $$.

I knew this would happen all along. I knew Facebook would go ad based and betray all the people who spent tons of money building their Fan Pages and then hold the followers for ransom. Did you really think Facebook wouldnt grow up into an ad service platform? Just think if you'd spent all that money building up your own .com site? This was seen coming by me for miles away. For 4+ years I've told clients I consult with to grab as much online real estate as you can, cause someday it wont be free. Some listened, fools waited. I've got news for all you complainers. It will keep get worse and you will have to pay more or sit out.

Necessity and economics drive change. Time is ripe for change again.

I remember the heady days of MySpace. Its was an awesome exciting platform at the time where you could share and communicate with your friends. For companies struggling with the recent recession it was a great emerging platform for small and large business. Then Rupert Murdoch showed up and bought the company for $580 million and MySpace suddenly had massive debt. It had to grow up and meet shareholder demands. The end result was more ads, more red tape and pages you had to go through to do anything. They killed its experience and we left for new open Facebook.

Even Facebook knows it has you trapped and surrounded.

Now Facebook has become the experience killer MySpace was. A small percentage of followers will see your posts in terms of 3-7% if your lucky. Thats likely Impression Rates too showing up on a giant feed wall so you might as well be yelling into an empty forest? Even Rupert Murdoch Tweeted a warning to Facebook 10 months ago: "Look out Facebook! Hours spent participating per member dropping seriously. First really bad sign as seen by crappy MySpace years ago." Mark Zuckerberg is furiously investing in other companies as people move to other platforms with their time spent online. He knows he's got to squeeze you for whatever $$ you have left as you spend more time elsewhere and hopefully he'll pick you up at the other site. If you really think about it, its pretty smart. Facebook will squeeze you for money, you run to another site, Facebook owns it or buys it and will eventually squeeze you there too. ITS LIKE A RAT MAZE GAME! All Facebook has to do for survival is just buy the next place youre leaving it for. Well at least Facebook was smarter than MySpace in that regard.

Are you expecting it to improve or get cheaper by complaining?

Its not gonna get cheaper or easier on Facebook. If you're complaining now, its only gonna get worse and more expensive. Right now the only thing that seems to get any traction, engagement and views, is writing an original text post and I'm not even sure a photo should be on it, Facebook might think its a meme. The sad part is this really kills sharing outside posts and information which is what social media is built on - the freedom and democratization of information. Facebook wants you to make content for them and if you want to SHARE other stuff as a distribution point for others, you'll need to pay for that too.

I learned a long time ago as a serial entrepenuer and investor that if you dont own it and control it, kiss it goodbye. I've never poured money into getting Facebook Fan Page tons of fans. All my money goes into a site I own and control: TheChrisVossShow.com. I can still send posts to everyone on my lists without paying more. Maybe its time we all invested into something we control for a change and quit the rat maze race?

So Facebook you win. You've killed my fun and experience. Its all about you and your money grubbing now. I'm pulling back all the sharing and just doing a few text posts and a picture or 2 giving you the bare minimums until something better comes along. Which it will. Who needs a Facebook "killer" when you've got Facebook suicide.

Time for a change.

Heartbleed bug: millions of Android devices still vulnerable

Millions of Android smartphone and tablet users could still be vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug, which can be exploited by hackers to steal passwords, credit card details, encryption keys and other sensitive data from web servers, without leaving any trace.

Heartbleed is thought to be one of the most serious security flaws ever found, partly because it remained undiscovered for more than two years. Experts estimate that around two-thirds of the world's web servers run the software that contains the bug, known as OpenSSL, meaning they are vulnerable to attack until a security patch is installed.

In a blog post last week, Google product manager Matthew O'Connor said that all versions of Android are immune to Heartbleed, with the exception of Android 4.1.1. Patching information for Android 4.1.1 is being distributed to device manufacturers and mobile operators, who are responsible for creating and issuing the updates.

Android fragmentation is a known problem within the ecosystem, and millions of users could still be running version 4.1.1, which was released in 2012. According to Google's own Android developer dashboard, up to 34.4 percent of all Android users are currently running 4.1 - 4.1.2, though the exact number of users running 4.1.1 is not known.

The Heartbleed bug was made public at he beginning of last week by researchers from Google and a Finnish company called Codenomicon.

A fix was simultaneously made available and quickly implemented by the majority of vulnerable websites (including Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, Wallet, Play, Apps, App Engine, AdWords, DoubleClick, Maps, Maps Engine and Earth), but there is no easy solution for Android gadgets that carry the flaw, according to security experts.

“One of the major issues with Android is the update cycle is really long,” Michael Shaulov, chief executive of cyber-security company Lacoon Security told Bloomberg. “The device manufacturers and the carriers need to do something with the patch, and that’s usually a really long process.”

However, Marc Rogers, principal security researcher at mobile security firm Lookout, told the news agency there are no signs that hackers are trying to attack Android devices through the vulnerability, as it would be complicated to set up and the success rate would be low.

"Given that the server attack affects such a larger number of devices and is so much easier to carry out, we don’t expect to see any attacks against devices until after the server attacks have been completely exhausted," he said.

Job Interview: Why Only 3 Questions Really Matter

Even for the most fearless amongst us, job interviews can be nerve wracking. In order to give us the best chance of success we tend to prepare for many of the difficult questions we anticipate, questions like:

• Why should we hire you?
• What can you do for us that other candidates can’t?
• What are your key strengths and weaknesses?

Of course, you can never predict how an interview will go and what questions you will get. You might get an interviewer who fires one tough question at you after the other, or one that turns the interview into a more comfortable, natural two-way conversation. Preparing, therefore is difficult. In most cases we practice the answers to a long list of possible questions. The problem is that this can leave you over-prepared and as a consequence your pre-conceived answers can come across a bit robotic.

From my experience, there are really only 3 questions you have to prepare for and you can link most of the interview questions back to these three. Preparing for these three questions also means you can answer most questions more naturally, simply by referring mentally back to your preparations for these three questions.

Basically, any interviewer wants to establish 3 key things:

1. Have you got the skills, expertise and experience to perform the job?
2. Are you enthusiastic and interested in the job and the company?
3. Will you fit into the team, culture and company?

However, during the job interview, the interviewer might use many different questions and angles to get to the answers. If the interviewer doesn’t get what he or she wants from one question, they might ask them in different ways. Or they might probe from different angles to test for consistency in your answers.

Here is what’s behind these 3 questions:

1. Have you got the skills, expertise and experience to perform the job?

Think about the key skills you might need for the job you have applied for and assess your own level of expertise and experience in that context. It makes sense to identify the more specific or technical skills that your potential employer might expect as well as some more generic skills such as being a good communicator, having good IT skills, being a team player, etc. Once you have prepared for this question it will help you answer many different interview questions without getting sidetracked into talking about things that are not relevant. Remember that you want to demonstrate that you are aware of the key skills, expertise and experience required to do the job and that you have what it takes to perform it. Always go back to the key skills, expertise and experience when answering scary (and sometimes silly) questions like:

• Tell me about yourself?
• What are your greatest strengths / weaknesses?
• What can you do for us that other candidates can’t?
• Why do you think you are right for this job?
• What do you think the main challenges will be?
• Etc.

2. Are you enthusiastic and interested in the job and the company?

Any potential employer wants to know that you are interested in the company and excited about the prospect of working there. You therefore want to demonstrate that you have researched the company, understand its strategy, current performance, structure, market position and products and that you can’t wait to join them. For most, you will have done your homework before you even applied for the job, but if you haven’t then check out the ‘about us’ section on their website and search for the latest strategy documents, annual reports, key statistics as well as the company history. Show that you know them and demonstrate your enthusiasm for the job and company. Here you might also want to think about your ambitions and how they fit into the company you have applied for. You can then use the insights for answering questions such as:

• What do you know about our company?
• What do you think our company is aiming to achieve?
• What do you know about our products and services?
• Why do you want to work for this company?
• Why do you think this job is right for you?
• What motivates you?
• Etc.

3. Will you fit into the team, culture and company?

This final key question is about your personality and your style and how you as a person fit into the team and culture of the company. Companies have different cultures, which translate into different ways of behaving and working. It is important to make sure you fit in and don’t feel like a fish out of water. In fact, it is important for the company as well as for you. Again, hopefully you will have done some research prior to applying for the job. Sometimes, it can be tricky to find detailed knowledge about the company culture, in which case you simply talk about your assumptions and why you feel you fit in. One relatively new website that offers a glance inside companies is Glassdoor. The site is still in its infancy but provides a growing amount of data and information about what it is like to work for different companies. You want to map the culture of the company or the team you are planning to join and compare this to your personality traits, style and behaviors. Again, once you have done this you can use it to answer questions such as:

• How would you describe your work style?
• How would you describe yourself?
• How would your colleagues describe you?
• What makes you fit into our company?
• What makes you a good team member?
• If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
• Etc.

Of course, any interview is a two-way process. In the same way the interviewer wants to find out that you are right for the company, you need to assess whether the company is right for you. Each of the questions can be turned around so that you can assess:

1. By joining this company, will I make best use of my skills and expertise and will they help me to grow them further?
2. Is the company excited about having me work for them and will they give me the necessary support?
3. Is the company culture the right fit for me so that I can flourish and be myself?

If you ask relevant questions from your point of view then this will make the interview more balanced and create a more natural conversation.

MEIN TENU SAMJHAWAN KI (UNPLUGGED COVER)

IPL 7 2014 Opening Ceremony Dubai 16th April

3 Strategies for Improving Your Facebook Ads

Facebook plays a large role in many businesses' marketing strategies. Although business pages on the social networking site may have once been just a simple brand extension and a place where companies could connect with customers, it has become a dynamic advertising platform that can produce the same types of results as search engine optimization.

"Before last year, Facebook was all about what happened on Facebook," said Bob Buch, CEO of social advertising firm SocialWire. "Ad campaigns were about buying likes. In 2013, there was a major shift, and Facebook began tapping into direct-response advertisers [and marketing] products to custom audiences. This transformed their ability to drive traffic off-site."

Paid Facebook ads can be a huge source of traffic that ultimately leads to sales, but only when they're properly planned and executed. Buch advised social marketers to keep these three things in mind when planning Facebook ad campaigns:

Think of Facebook campaigns as search campaigns

Buch said companies should plan a Facebook campaign the same way they do SEO keyword campaigns. For example, a shoe company might purchase the keywords "riding boots" to have their ads appear to individuals searching for that term, rather than wasting money on untargeted ads that are unlikely to convert to sales. The same concept should apply to Facebook ads. When creating campaigns, you can work with a third-party partner to create a custom audience of people who have made purchases that are similar to your product or service.

Keep your ads fresh

Running the same campaigns for your products and services over and over again will quickly get old to your Facebook audience, and that could make them hide your ads from their newsfeed. Keep customers interested by updating pictures and copy for your ads.

Remember that customers don't come to Facebook to buy

When people Google a specific product or service, it's generally because they intend to purchase that item. But when people log on to Facebook, they're not there for the ads; they want to connect with their friends. The goal of any successful Facebook ad campaign is to grab potential customers' attention enough that they will either go back and Google your product later or, better yet, click through to your website right from Facebook.

Apple Prepping Sensors That Predict Heart Attacks

We now know that Apple held closed-door talks with Tesla, a meeting of two innovative companies that hints at a number of possibilities. But buried in that same report from the San Francisco Chronicle is the news that Apple may also be preparing to release a heart-attack prediction device.

According to the report, Apple is developing sensor technology that would be able to predict heart attacks. The effort, led by audio expert Tomlinson Holman, the inventor of THX and 10.2 surround sound, will reportedly focus on the sound blood makes as it travels through a person's arteries.

However, in order for Apple's supposed sensor to monitor the sound of a person's blood, that device would likely have to be worn on a person's body. Therefore, this new information directly points to the continued rumors of an upcoming Apple wearable device, commonly referred to as the iWatch.

The iWatch implications of the San Francisco Chronicle report are further backed by last week's news that Apple hired medical-device expert Marcelo Malini Lamego. What's more, a report in January claimed that Apple is also working on new health-focused apps for iOS.

If this new report regarding Apple's heart sensor research pans out — barring a surprise move by the company to enter the medical scanner bed industry — Apple's rumored iWatch will turn out to be far more broadly impactful than anyone could have guessed.