It’s a great idea to learn the basics to make sure you are getting the best from your iPad. You may already be familiar with some of these of course but I have been surprised how many weren’t known to iPad users I have spoken to. (All based on my iPad2)

I hope you find them useful.

My 20 Top iPad Tips

1. Multitasking gestures

You can use multitasking gestures on your iPad to move between apps more easily or to go to the Home Page or Multitasking Bar. To turn multitasking gestures on or off:  In Settings, go to > General > Multitasking Gestures, then tap On or Off.

This will allow you to – Return to the Home screen:  Pinch four or five fingers together. Reveal the multitasking bar:  Swipe up with four or five fingers. Switch apps:  Swipe left or right with four or five fingers.

2. Close apps

When you are finished with an app it will still be open in the background possibly using memory and slowing other apps down. To close apps press the ‘Home’ button twice to reveal the open apps in the multitasking bar, press and hold any app icon in the bar which will ‘wobble’ all the icons. Just tap the ‘minus’ symbol which appears to close the app. Press the ‘Home’ button again or touch your screen to finish.

3. Delete apps

If you download an App that you don’t want to keep or if you want to remove any you don’t use any more just press and hold any App icon on your Home screen. This will ‘wobble’ all the icons and add a cross which will remove the app when tapped. Press the ‘Home’ button when finished.

4. Split Your Keyboard

If you would like to be able to see more of your screen when using the Keyboard then you can split it by using 2 fingers to ‘pull’ the two halves apart, just push them together again to reconnect.

5. Keyboard symbols

If you are looking for more symbols on your keyboard you will find them by way of the #+= button on the numbers screen

6. Turn off Location

If you don’t need to use the Location facility for any other reason then changing Location Services in Settings to Off can mean that your battery lasts longer between each recharge.

7. Night read – iBooks

Do you like to read from your iBook app in bed but worry that the glare will disturb your partner? Tap the AA button at the top right hand corner when in the iBook app and then Theme and this will give you the option to change to the Night theme.

This will change the text to white on black, reducing the glare and allowing you to read with a clear conscience! The font and text size can also be changed here.

8. Read Aloud

Some children’s books in iBooks 1.3 will allow young readers to follow along with their favourite books as the words are read aloud. Visit the App Store to find out which titles are included. (Don’t forget to read books to the children yourself though – there is no greater pleasure!)

9. Auto shut off

Do you have a cover for your iPad? I do use one and not only does it give additional protection and act as stand but it also puts your iPod to sleep by closing it when the device is not in use.  If you do have cover then you can switch the Lock/Unlock feature on and off in Settings > General

10. Screensaver

When your iPad is locked you can use it to display a slideshow of all, or selected albums, of your photos. To set this up go to Settings> Picture Frame.

11. Search

Swipe to the right when on your Home Screen and you will reveal a ‘Search’ option which will allow you to find anything on your iPad by an alphabetical search.

12. Notifications

You have a Notification Center although you might not have realised it’s there. You can use this for Reminders, Calendar events, E mail and message alerts. Access your Notifications Centre by swiping down from the top of your screen. The notifications that you would like to receive can be set in Settings > Notifications.

13. Cookies and Pop-ups

Make sure the security on your iPad is how you want it by checking the settings for Fraud Warnings, Cookies and Pop-ups in Settings> Safari.

14. Full Screen Video

To view a video in full screen you can either double tap the screen or tap the symbol in the top right hand corner of the screen, repeat to return to normal mode.

15. Take a screenshot

Press and release the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time to add a screenshot to your Camera Roll Album.

16. Maps

‘Peel’ back the bottom right hand corner of the screen to reveal the viewing options for Maps.

17. Cleaning

Just use a soft, slightly damp, lint free cloth to clean your screen. Using solvent cleaners or abrasive materials might damage the protective coating on the screen.

18. Storage

If you would like to see what you have added to your iPad and how much of your memory is being used for each app then go to Settings > Usage. You can delete unwanted apps from there.

19. Sound Alerts

You can change your  sound alerts for notifications in Settings > Sounds.

20. iPad Guide

The iPad has an invaluable User Guide already installed in Safari, be sure to have a good look at this to find all these tips and more. Open Safari, click the ‘Bookmarks’ button (the book symbol at the top of the page) and you will find it waiting for you there.

I hope you have found something new here to help you to get the max from your iPad, please feel free to share any other tips you might have below.

Many thanks for visiting The Top 10 Blog. If you have enjoyed this post please share it with your iPad loving friends. If you would like to see more like this you can Subscribe, Follow, Like or Add to your Google+ Circles using the options in the sidebar.

So I thought it would be good to share my wisdom on the things you should be thinking about if you are preparing your own Top 10.

It doesn’t need to be 10 of course, many posts contain variable numbers of items but the same principles apply however many items you choose and indeed many are useful to remember in all forms of writing.

1.Choosing your topic

Choose a subject that has at least 10 items. For instance “Top 10 Continents of the World” may be hard work. If you feel that 10 may be a stretch, you probably should widen the subject. By the same token if you have too many choices then split the list down to more than one category, it’s a shame to waste good material.

Choose a topic of interest to you, or one you know well. If you feel that you don’t have enough knowledge in a particular subject, seek out an expert and invite them to compile the list. Make sure to give them proper credit for the work.

2. Ranking.

Some types of lists, like this one don’t really need to be ranked, as they are more for providing information. If you do rank the choices, then start with number 10 at the top and work down to number 1 to build up the suspense. People tend to scan a Top 10 list fairly quickly, so give them a reason to read the whole post.

3. Research

Research thoroughly and make sure you get your facts right. People may disagree with your opinions and that is fine, but, if they are pointing out errors, you will lose your credibility. Remember to give credit if you are quoting a source of information.

4. Be Controversial

Don’t be afraid to be controversial. Slip in the odd unusual item, as that is likely to stimulate debate. If you are listing music or movie items, then add something obscure; don’t play too safe, and just list the obvious choices. Maybe leave something obvious out, that will usually get people talking … and commenting.

5. Give reasons

A straight list of items is boring. Again, expressing your opinions is more likely to start a conversation. Be logical in your arguments for including an item but, as with #4, don’t play too safe all the time, be outrageous from time to time.

6. Don’t be a slave to convention

I know the #1 tip is to have at least 10 items but there’s no harm in sometimes being daring and slipping in the odd Top 5, 6, 7 or even 20 or more if it fits the subject matter.

7. Consistency

Be consistent in how you present your lists. Readers like to know what to expect. A consistent layout is pleasing to the eye for regular readers, constantly changing font style, size  or the way you use images can be irritating.

8. Variety

Have variety in your topics. I invite guests to write lists on my blog and have had subjects as varied as dog fashion, raw foods, ghosts, and poets! Vary the way you source your lists, invite guests to compile their own, run polls, or perhaps ask for suggestions from your readers as to what they would like to see.

9.Images

Use appropriate images and links as the correct use of these can significantly increase the appeal of your listings. When adding a link, set the target to open in a new page so the reader doesn’t leave your website and if adding an image make sure you have permission to use it and add any required accreditation.

10. Feedback

Ask for feedback from your readers. As with any blog post you are much more likely to get a response if you pose a direct question to your readers, so here’s mine!

Top 10 Challenge

Which topics would you like to see given the Top 10 treatment on the blog? The subject can be as wide or as obscure as you like (but nothing obscene and no politics please).

If you let me have your ideas I will do my best to research and compile a Top 10 and then give you the opportunity to argue for your own choices.

All just for fun but hopefully it will lead the blog to areas that I would never had considered. (See #8)

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks for visiting the Top 10 Blog today. if you have enjoyed the post please share it with the world. If you would like to see more like this you can Subscribe, Follow, Like and Add to your G+ Circles using the options in the sidebar.

Following on from my recent Twitter post ’10 Words Every Successful Tweeter Needs To Know’ I thought it would be fun to have a look at the different types of Tweet that we all use and see – some good, some not so good and some which are downright evil! Let me know what you think.

Disclaimer – I don’t claim to do any of the good stuff myself, I merely observe and admire those who do!

The Fresh Tweet – Good

The life blood of Twitter. You tweet a new quote or a link to a blog post or website with some killer content.

If you have your own blog it’s easier to do as you can introduce your own (hopefully) quality content for others to share.

It’s getting harder to do the same with other peoples content due to many people using automated services however it’s still possible if you keep your eyes open and subscribe in the right places.

There’s nothing wrong with circulating content that others have introduced to the system but how satisfying to try to bring new toys to the party. We all have a responsibility to try to do that I think as the attraction of Twitter would soon fade if the supply of new gems dries up.

Remember too that perversely old content can be new to many of your followers, don’t be afraid to reintroduce some gold from your blog and other places that people haven’t seen for a while. (Make sure it’s good stuff though!)

The Conversational Tweet – Good

Some people are just naturals at the Twitter chat, just connect to Ellie, Jessica, Terri or Gini and you will see what I mean. I’m not particularly good at it though and envy their relaxed  ability to communicate, maybe it’s my British reserve or maybe it’s due to being a man! (Take a look at my earlier offering – Do Women Tweet Better Than Men – and let me know what you think)

The Added Value ReTweet - Good

Those of you who like to ReTweet will have different ways to do it. For instance I like to share Tweets by doing a little edit in Tweetdeck or Buffer so that the name of the original tweeters appear at the end, I just think it looks better with the content of the Tweet being the first thing that the reader sees.

The ones I particularly admire though are the people who add some value to the R/T by adding a brief comment, it’s usually just a couple of words but they can have a great impact and I love it when someone does that to a Tweet on one of my posts. So why don’t I do the same? I just don’t have the knack, when I add something it doesn’t look right, connect with Bill Dorman to see how it should be done!

The Participation Tweet – Good

Twitter is a fantastic medium to interact with other people with similar interests and to have an input into live events. It can be used to spread news and information on a local, national and international basis and gives fans the opportunity to connect directly with the celebrities, sports people or TV shows that they follow or admire. We also can use Twitter as a conduit to politicians and business organisations that never existed previously, not always with positive results but it’s certainly something that they are having to take more notice of.

Hashtags,Tweetchats, blogchats and many more have given people many opportunities to interact, communicate and exchange ideas and knowledge. We can all participate at whatever level we wish and this is surely something which has greatly added to the fun of the world, can you remember the pre-Twitter days when you just watched and didn’t have this opportunity?

The Message Tweet – Good

Not a DM in this case but thank you’s, shout outs, Follow Fridays, recommendations and many more types of the messages which adorn our Twitter streams. All a valuable way to communicate however try not to add too many at once as they might put your followers off if that’s all they see.

By the way did you know that if you Tweet a message or reply and start with an @name then only you and the users named in the Tweet  (and anyone who follows you both – thanks to @Tycoonwoman for the reminder – see comments) will see it? If you want all your followers to see who you have thanked or recommended then be sure to start your Tweet with a symbol or character other than @.

The Sycophantic Tweet – Sometimes Good – Sometimes Bad!

We have all done it! Go on admit it – I will!

We sometimes ReTweet something from someone we admire and whose attention we would like to catch or maybe send them a reply to one of their Tweets. They might be a celebrity or a social media ‘superstar’ but we would love to connect with them and even add their name to our ‘Followers’ list for the perceived kudos that might bring.

Nothing wrong with that as long as it’s done in the right way with good intentions and in an open genuine way. Beware though of becoming obsessed and over doing it, that might be seen by some as stalking and you will have crossed the line from good to bad!

The Unattributed Tweet – Bad

When you take the trouble to find some killer content or produce a great quote it’s really annoying to see it doing the rounds without you being given any credit.

So if you are going to Retweet please make sure it’s a good one by including the twitter handles of those who have gone before you, if you think there might not be room within your 140 character limit as there are already too many names there then maybe it’s too late anyway as it’s already been around the houses several times.

The worst type of bad Tweet to my mind is the one ReTweeted with all the names removed except the celeb/Twitter star who you want to impress – that one has a category all of it’s own – The Unattributed Sycophantic Tweet – to be avoided at all costs if you want to retain your Twitter credibility.

 The Desperate Tweet – Bad

You know the type although I’m sure you never send them. ‘Please Follow Me’ or ‘Follow Me – I Follow Back’.

The unsolicited Tweet from someone you have no connection with who sends you a link and asks you to R/T, the automated Direct Message which bounces back as soon as you follow someone with a message telling you how wonderful they are and a link to their blog or Facebook page.

I never follow those links as you never know what you might end up with and the messages give such a desperate first impression that I think they are unlikely to be people I will ever form a good relationship with. No harm in promoting what you are do and asking folk to pay you a visit but it’s a good thing to establish a relationship and some rapport before you do that.

The Malicious Tweet – Ugly

I mentioned previously that Twitter is a wonderful means to participate and to communicate your thoughts and opinions. Sometimes though people use it as a means to make comments about public figures, private individuals or events which can be abusive and deeply hurtful to those involved.

I suppose it is inevitable that this can happen in such an open forum. I’m all for free speech and don’t want to see Twitter turned into a bland uncontroversial place to be but there is a line that should be observed and those who cross it should maybe pause, take a deep breath and not post anything that they wouldn’t feel comfortable saying to someone’s face.

There have been cases in my part of the world where Tweeters have been jailed for comments and where sportsmen have closed their account after making a mistake in a game and receiving a torrent of Twitter abuse. Neither outcome seems to be desirable to me and I think we all have a responsibility to make Twitter a largely positive place .

The Infected Tweet – Ugly

We have all seen them and hopefully not clicked on the link – OK I did once in my early days and sent spam to all my followers but learned that lesson the hard way.

So any DM or Tweet sent to you which contains a message telling you what terrible things people are saying about you, offering a free iPad or containing an unknown link should be firmly ignored.

My motto is ‘Better safe Than Sorry’ so I err on the side of caution and never click any link when I’m not 100% sure of the source. I suggest you do the same, maybe if we all stop clicking them then the senders will give up and get a life (Some chance of that!)

Finally a bonus!

The Pointless Tweet

No further comment needed

So what do you think? Are you a good Tweeter or a bad Tweeter and does it matter anyway? I would love to hear your opinions.

Many thanks for visiting today, if you have enjoyed this post I hope you will share it with your community and if you would like to see more like this you can Subscribe, Follow, Like and Add to your G+ Circles using the options in the sidebar.

*Image Credits

Twitter Good/Bad – Rosaura Rocoa Flickr

Woman with Megaphone – imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Copyright Symbol – jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sounds of Silence – GeekAndPoke Flickr

Classical music is one of many things that are hugely subjective. Anyone who listens to classical music has their own favourites, and these are some of mine.

I’ve written them as a top 10 but honestly, the order can change depending on my mood: sometimes Tchaikovsky is my favourite, sometimes Brahms or Chopin. Most often, however, the number one spot is taken by Beethoven.

My Top 10 Classical Composers

1. Beethoven

Well-known as the composer who lost his hearing but still kept composing, Ludwig van Beethoven produced an amazing array of works even when he was deaf. He was also not afraid to move away from the musical conventions of the time, playing with musical form until it suited his purposes. And he certainly had the confidence to do this – if people didn’t like his music, it was their problem, not his. Beethoven believed he had a God given gift and a higher purpose, and never had a well paid job because he wanted to concentrate on his own compositions.

Although Beethoven was relatively old when he wrote his first symphony, and only composed a total of nine (although this is nine more than I could compose, it is a small number compared to, say, Mozart or Haydn), they are all extraordinary pieces. Beethoven composed a number of pieces that are extremely well-known now – the Moonlight Sonata, Fur Elise, the Symphony No. 6, and also the one I have chosen: the first movement of his Symphony No. 5.

2. Mozart

Despite producing a lot more music than Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart comes a close second in my eyes simply because he never faced the obstacle of losing his most important sense – although I know for many, Mozart is easily their number one composer. Mozart had an outstanding natural musical ability, which allowed him to not only become an extraordinary composer but a conductor and virtuouso pianist. He also played the organ and violin.

He produced over 600 compositions, ranging from operas to symphonies, and chamber music to choral works – and everything in between. This achievement is made all the more remarkable due to the fact that Mozart died weeks before his 36^th birthday, meaning he had a short career with a phenomenal output.

Choosing a piece from Mozart’s extensive catalogue was very difficult, when it includes such works as the operas Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute, and the extremely famous Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (to name just a few). But here is the first movement of his Symphony No. 40.

3. J S Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a self-taught musician and was considered nothing special by his contemporaries – hard to believe now, I know. The problem was that he came from a family of outstanding musicians and it would have actually been more noteworthy had he not had the same talent. Bach became court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar and in 1714 took on the position of conductor of the court orchestra.

In 1723 Bach was given one of the most prestigious musical roles in Europe at the time and became Cantor of Thomasschule. There was a massive amount of work involved in the role: teaching music and Latin, playing the organ and composing music for the services, and directing the school’s musicians. But still he managed to compose a massive amount of his own music, and eventually become father to twenty children!

For something incredibly dramatic which you will no doubt have heard before, look up Toccata and Fugue in D minor, played on the organ. A lot of Bach’s music is written for organ, an instrument which can be very difficult to play and is also often an acquired taste for the listener as well. My chosen piece for J S Bach is not for organ, but is the first movement of his Concerto in D minor for two violins.

4. Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky was a composer who wore his heart on his sleeve, and let his emotions flood into his compositions. He was very neurotic and relentlessly troubled by his homosexuality, something which he just couldn’t come to terms with. But it is this inner turmoil that gave him his musical genius, as music was the only way he knew to express himself.

Tchaikovsky’s life seemed to comprise one disaster after another. His Piano Concerto No. 1 (definitely worth looking up) and Swan Lake were massive flops at the time; now they are two of his best known works. One of his students, Antonina Milyukova, became obsessed with him and forced him to marry her by threatening suicide if he didn’t. He managed to last a matter of weeks in this unhappy marriage before fleeing and trying to drown himself in the Moskva river. These and other events all contributed to a rich and emotional musical catalogue.

Of all his compositions, Tchaikovsky is possibly best known for his ballets: Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, and the Sleeping Beauty. Because of this, I have chosen The Sleeping Beauty Waltz, which is an undeniably beautiful piece of music.

5. Puccini

You don’t have to be an opera buff to recognise three of Giacomo Puccini’s most popular titles: La Boheme, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. And if you don’t recognise the opera Turandot, you will certainly know one of the arias from it – the well-performed ‘Nessun Dorma’ (if you aren’t familiar with Nessun Dorma, there are some fantastic recordings of Pavarotti performing it a few years ago). Another one to look out for is the soprano aria ‘O mio babbino caro’ from the comedy Gianni Schicchi.

Puccini didn’t belong to any particular school of opera; he stood alone in what he did. Although Verdi was his role model, there are influences of Wagner, Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg in his compositions. Puccini was a master at manipulating the emotions of the audience. Moving the audience was one of the things he did best, and also something he was much criticised for!

The following video contains one of the most beautiful and haunting choral pieces I know of – the Humming Chorus from Madama Butterfly. As the name suggests, there are no words – just the melodic humming of the chorus singers.

6. Haydn

Joseph Haydn lived in what might be called the golden age of composers. As a friend of Mozart and the tutor of Beethoven, he had a massive and varied catalogue of compositions: over 100 symphonies, nearly 90 string quartets, around 60 piano sonatas, 23 operas and numerous concertos, oratorios, masses, choral works and many, many instrumental and chamber compositions. The ‘Father of Symphony,’ he developed it to the form that lasted through the 1800s.

He was six when his musical talents became apparent, but throughout his miserable childhood he received no formal musical education. He eventually became Kapellmeister (head of court music) for the Princes Esterhazy and was known as ‘Papa Haydn’ amongst the court musicians. Haydn became known throughout Europe as a musical genius and received a very warm welcome on his trips to London.

I have chosen Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E flat major (which was composed more than 200 years ago in 1796) because it is not only beautiful but a bit different. So many composers wrote concertos for violin, piano, cello etc that I thought a piece for trumpet might make a pleasant change.

7.     Brahms

As the third of the three B’s (Beethoven and Bach being the other two), Brahms is one of the great classical composers. He composed in every form except opera and ballet, with a massive number of his works still being regularly played. Brahms’ music was traditional and unadventurous compared to someone like Beethoven who was regularly pushing the boundaries. This didn’t bother Brahms, however, who composed what he liked and bowed to no pressure.

Brahms didn’t escape criticism, though. Some bordered on abuse, such as the following from Tchaikovsky, for example. Tchaikovsky couldn’t stand his music, and described Brahms as “giftless” and a “scoundrel.” Followers of composers such as Liszt and Wagner felt at the time that Brahms’ music was dated and his devotion to the classical form laughable.

Whilst one of my favourite pieces by Brahms is the Waltz in Ab major, I have chosen another popular piece from his set of Hungarian Dances. Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor is probably the most famous, but my favourite is No. 1 in G minor and that is the one I’m sharing with you today.

8. Vivaldi

When people think of Baroque music, Antonio Vivaldi is often the name that comes to mind. But this wasn’t the case 100 years ago, when he was virtually unknown. The 1930s saw a revival of Vivaldi’s music, but the famous Four Seasons concertos weren’t recorded until 1947. Vivaldi composed around 770 works but was best known by contemporaries as a violinist who captured the attention of his audience with his skilful technique.

Vivaldi was the one who championed the violin as a solo instrument, and wrote over 200 concertos for his instrument. Indeed it was Vivaldi who had a lot to do with the development of the concerto as we know it today. Although it was not originally his idea to have one soloist playing against the backdrop of a full orchestra, Vivaldi brought the concept to life in his music.

Seeing as Vivaldi had so much to do with the concerto as a musical form it seems only right to feature one of his concertos, and I have chosen one which you will likely recognise when you hear it: Concerto for Mandolin and Strings in C major.

9. Chopin

Some of the most beautiful, emotive and expressive piano music ever written was composed by Nicolas Chopin. He was different from the majority of great composers in that he never composed any larger works: no symphonies, no operas, nor a great deal of chamber music. He composed shorter works, all of which included the piano in some way.

Throughout his 39 year life, his catalogue remained fairly small, but a great deal of it is still popular today. He was very self-critical and had extremely high standards, and the only works that were published were ones which he was happy with.

I have a weakness for beautiful piano music (but then who doesnt?) and I must admit that this was the trickiest decision I made for all of the composers in this top 10. I finally decided that amid much other beautiful music, Chopin’s Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major was my favourite piece.

10.  Dvorak

Antonin Dvorak is probably the most popular Czech composer, writing music that is coloured by the countryside and nature that surrounded him during his childhood. A deeply religious man, Dvorak thought life was wonderful and was a happy and outgoing man who, strangely enough, was friends with Tchaikovsky.

Dvorak’s early career was a struggle, but the year of his marriage saw a burst of creativity which produced a string of compositions, including his Symphony No. 5. This symphony won the Austrian State Prize and caught the attention of Brahms, who helped Dvorak find a publisher for his work. Dvorak’s career went from strength to strength.

For me, some of Dvorak’s most notable compositions include the Serenade For Strings in E major, the Humoresque in G flat and the String Quartet No. 12 in F (‘American’). But my chosen piece for Dvorak is the fourth movement of his Symphony No. 9 in E minor, also known as ‘From the New World.’

Stacey Mitchell is a writer who lives in South Wales. She writes both fiction and non-fiction, and has an obsession with all things historical. Her bitesize biography of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven is being published by Collca in April or May this year. Stacey Tweets  @_staceymitchell and blogs at Stacey Mitchell – A Writers Blog.

Many thanks to Stacey for her compilation, please do let us know what you think of her choices and if you have any favourites that think should have been included.

Thanks for visiting today – if you have enjoyed this post please share it with your own community below. If you would like to see more like this you can Subscribe, Follow, Like and add to your Circles using the options in the sidebar.

*Image credits

Music Notes/Musicoiti – luigi diamanti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In celebration of the movie recently being released, I’ve decided to round up the top 10 Hunger Games merchandise that every fan should own.

This list ranges from the books, through to the unofficial cookbook of the trilogy (featuring some of the more unusual treats on show in the books).

I hope you enjoy my list. Let me know if I miss anything and of course, may the odds be ever in your favor.

1. The Books

This is almost a given, but make sure you have the whole trilogy at hand because you’re going to need them as a reference. We’ve highlighted the hard back box set, because every real fan should have the best versions possible.

The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxed Set (Amazon US)

The Hunger Games – Trilogy boxed set (Amazon UK)

2. The Official Illustrated Movie Companion

The illustrated movie comparison is a great guide to the making of the Hunger Games movie. It features exclusive interviews from the cast and crew on things like casting decisions, sets and costumes. A must-read!

The Hunger Games: Official Illustrated Movie Companion (Amazon US)

The Hunger Games Official Illustrated Movie Companion (Amazon UK)

3. The Soundtrack

Taking a leaf out of Twilight’s book, the Hunger Games features an amazing soundtrack. With artists such as Arcade Fire, Taylor Swift and the Low Anthem, it’s a perfect accompaniment for reading the books (again).

The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond (Amazon US)

The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 And Beyond (Amazon UK)

4. The Unofficial Cookbook

Has Suzanne Collin’s descriptions of the food on the train left your mouth watering? Well, this Hunger Games cook book has over 150 recipes inspired by the trilogy. Lets hope they don’t include many to do with squirrels…

The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook: From Lamb Stew to “Groosling” – More than 150 Recipes Inspired by The Hunger Games Trilogy (Amazon US)

The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook: From Lamb Stew to “Groosling” (Amazon Uk)

5. A Mockingjay Pin

Show your support for the rebels with this Mockingjay pin. You might want to keep it under wraps when the capitol come calling though…

The Hunger Games Movie Mockingjay Prop Rep Pin (Amazon US)

The Hunger Games Movie Mockingjay Prop Rep Pin (Amazon UK)

6. The Board Game

Throw yourself into district 12 and pit your wits against the capitol with this board game. You will need to on top of your game to gather food, clothing and medicine to outlast other players.

The Hunger Games Movie The District 12 Strategy Game (Amazon US)

The Hunger Games District 12 Board Game (Amazon UK)

7. The Movie Poster

You can’t really call yourself a fan of anything unless you have a poster hanging in your room. There are a ton to choose from but my personal favourite is the official movie poster.

The Hunger Games Movie Poster Poster Print, 24×36 (Amazon US)

The Hunger Games Poster The World Will Be Watching (61cm x 91,5cm) (Amazon UK)

8. The Mug

You’ll never have to search for a source of water with this thermal Hunger Games mug.

The Hunger Games Movie Thermal Mug Katniss & Logo (Amazon US only)

9. Team Peeta t-shirt

Were you rooting for Peeta throughout the trilogy? Show your allegiance with this team Peeta t-shirt.

THE HUNGER GAMES 2012 TEAM PEETA MOCKINGJAY LADIES Short Sleeve T-shirt (Amazon US only)

 10. Team Gale t-shirt

Were you rooting for Gale throughout the trilogy? Show your allegiance with this team Gale t-shirt.

THE HUNGER GAMES 2012 TEAM GALE DISTRICT 12 MOCKINGJAY LADIES Short Sleeve T-shirt (Amazon US only)

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These ten steps to success have been taken from the international best-selling book by Sarah and Dean Gratton, Zero to 100,000 which was listed as one of the top marketing books for 2012 by Social Media Marketing Magazine. You can find more details about Sarah, her book and how you can connect with her at the end of the post.

1. Listen First, Engage Second

The first step to success in social media is learning how to listen effectively before you start to engage with your audience. “Surely there aren’t enough hours in the day” I hear you cry, but it’s actually far easier than you might think.

There are some wonderful listening tools available, such as Google Alerts, Twitter Advanced Search and Technorati, which will do all the trawling for you and find those snippets of information that will make you a great curator of knowledge. It’s important not to bombard yourself with too many tools. Stick with a few really good ones to keep you informed and updated about the topics that relate to you and your followers’ interests.

2. Understand and Build Your Social Voice

You need to understand the impact of your social media voice within the social media spectrum, along with all the emotions or ‘sentiment’ attached to it. To do this effectively you need to find all the mentions about your personal brand using your preferred listening tool from step 1. Once you have accumulated all these mentions, you need to assign a number to each in a way that categorizes their sentiment value. For example: Positive = 1, Neutral = 3 and Negative = 5. This will enable you to calculate your average level of sentiment.

Now you have a measure of your sentiment, you can use it to better understand your social media voice by tracking it alongside what’s known (in social media terms) as your Share of Voice (SoV). Your SoV represents the conversations going on about your brand versus your competitors or your business sector in general. To find your SoV, you need to divide the number of conversations or mentions about your brand by the total number of conversations or mentions about other brands in your market.

Over time you’ll be able to see exactly how your social interaction benefits your brand, which will enable you to make smarter and more confident marketing decisions through social media.

3. Identify and Optimize Trends

By spotting and optimizing trends correctly and frequently, you’ll be able to identify them before they happen and discover those keywords that will work to attract customers to your brand rather than your competitors. So look for those trends and themes that come up time and time again in your particular field.

These will arm you with great insight about how your particular industry’s products or services fit into your consumers’ lives. Be sure to study the terminology used in discussions, noting down any keywords that come up repeatedly, as these will prove incredibly useful when optimizing your website through keywords, and when tagging future blog posts and other online content.

4. Find and Attract the Influencers

Influencers tend to engage in conversation with a number of different individuals and retweet or repost a variety of content simply because they find it interesting. Influencers lead and create trends rather than just follow them. In other words, they truly engage and don’t treat social media as just another promotional vehicle. They provide their audience with interesting content, clever responses and an eye for new information that will, in turn, be shared by their followers.

Engaging with the influencers in your business sector will enable you to engage their audience as well as your own. Join in their conversations, being sure to include fresh and relevant information that will grab their attention and mark you as someone who can add value to their community. The provision of information that continually adds value will assure you of their support in spreading the word about your brand through their sustained influence and will start your journey to become a key social media influencer yourself.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Try Something New

Social media platforms are continually changing and evolving and many offer their users the opportunity to try out beta features, widgets and tools on a regular basis before their general release.

Let your communities know that you are keen to grow and expand upon your embrace of social media, and don’t be afraid to be a pioneer in terms of new ideas. Expanding your social media applications can work to grow both your brand and your following.

6. Use Cross Platform Promotion (CPP)

“Cross Platform Promotion (or CPP) defines the synergetic partnership between social media platforms to bring about the greatest content exposure.”
– Gratton & Gratton, 2011

When Dr. Dean Anthony Gratton (@grattonboy) and I started talking about cross platform promotion early in 2010, there was a great deal of debate taking place about the best way for small businesses to promote themselves online. We attended a huge number of seminars with experts talking about the best platforms out there on which to make the strongest impact and very little about harnessing the overall power of the global social community.

When it comes to building a trusted brand, we’ve always believed in the power of teamwork, each member of the team working together to spread the message quickly and with as much impact as possible to maximise Return on Investment (ROI) or Return on Involvement as it’s now being called in social media circles.

It starts with organisation. Applications such as HootSuite and TweetDeck allow you to put all your major social media accounts into one central location – your hub of operations if you like. From there you can plan a CPP schedule for success, using it to create a response buzz.

Effective use of CPP means getting the most out of each social media platform you choose to employ. For example, you might offer additional incentives for those people who like your Facebook page or tweet about their favourite products from your range (with a link to a photo of it). You can also build in geographically-tagged response buzzes through both Facebook and Foursquare, enabling your audience to echo their loyalty and empowering them as your brand ambassadors.

7. Keep Your Content Fresh

Stale and outdated content can be unattractive for both visitors and search engines alike. In fact, search engines often reward sites for having content that is fresh and frequently updated by promoting them ‘up’ on the list.

When writing new content for your blog, try to include the primary keyword phrase approximately five times. And don’t forget that including the phrase in your hyperlink and metadata are great ways to strengthen your posts’ relevancy during a search. This task should be tackled at least once a quarter after you update your keyword list.

8. Find Your Elite Social Drivers

Discover the most valuable traffic-driving sources across your social media platforms and rate each one to provide a top-down list of what and who’s working the hardest on your brand’s behalf. You’ll find some key drivers that are, in essence, you’re ‘A-listers’ or elite driving forces for your social media brand presence.

Use tools such as Sprout Social to track them and provide all the necessary stats your need, and others such as Klout and PeerIndex to keep tabs on those you influence the most and, likewise, those you are most influenced by.

9. Don’t Get Too Big for Your Social Media Boots

It happens to us all! That point of complete self-assurance, where the self becomes more important than the assurance. And, make no mistake, it will happen to you on your journey from Zero to 100,000!

You see, it’s all too easy to be seduced by the responses and comments surrounding that latest and greatest post of yours. Be flattered and honoured, but don’t allow the adulation to distract you. Remain focused and bear in mind that you’re only as good as your last post, so continue to ensure that each new one is as good as or better than the one before.

And remember to pay special attention to any negative feedback. Don’t sweep it under the rug with a “what do they know?” click of your mouse. These are the comments that can prove the most valuable to your business and your social media longevity.

10. Keep Them Hanging on to Your Content!

Instead of focusing solely on the number of blog page views you receive, take time to review how long your social audience spends viewing your content or using your online applications. You need to pinpoint those posts that achieve the longest audience duration periods to correctly assess what works best for your brand in terms of content.

A number of useful free and low-cost tools are available to help you measure both duration and other valuable visitor data, including W3Counter , OpenTracker and Footprint .

When my @grattongirl brand started to really take off on the social media circuit, I found this kind of measurement particularly valuable, as it enabled me to target different types of content to certain social media tribes within my overall audience based on categories of interest and media delivery preferences.

Buy the Book!

The above ten steps to success have been taken from the international best-selling book Zero to 100,000 by Sarah-Jayne Gratton & Dean Anthony Gratton (2011), available from Que Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other leading booksellers.

The book provides the ultimate low-cost social media plan for finding your 100,000+ followers and has been listed as one of the top marketing books for 2012 by Social Media Marketing Magazine.

The book is available in Paperback and on Kindle at Amazon. Visit Sarah’s Amazon Page to find all her titles including her forthcoming book Follow Me! Creating a Personal Brand with Twitter

About the Author

Sarah-Jayne Gratton is a celebrity author, television presenter and former theatre performer. She has become an influential social media persona (as @grattongirl), speaker and writer, being regularly featured in Social Media Today and other publications including In-Spires Lifestyle Magazine and blogcritics.org.

Sarah-Jayne is the winner of a 2012 Shorty Award for ‘The Best Twitter in Social Media’ and is one of “Twitter’s Top 75 Badass Women”. She is also listed as one of the ‘Top Marketing Book Authors on Twitter’ in Social Media Marketing Magazine.

Sarah-Jayne is the co-producer and host of online TV talent show TwittersGotTalent.TV where contestants submit videos to the show and the Twitter community vote for their favourite act. TwittersGotTalent.TV was featured on the BBC’s Click TV program. Sarah-Jayne is listed in the Top 50 of The Sunday Times Social List.

You can contact Sarah-Jayne at assistant@sarahgratton.com and follow her on Twitter @grattongirl to enjoy her personal branding and social media related tweets. You can also read more about her work at sarahgratton.com.

Sarah’s previous guest appearances The Top 10 Blog Interview, Top 10 Party Games For Halloween.

*All images courtesy of Dean Gratton

Accomplishing an aim or purpose or having achieved popularity, profit, or distinction

So what would your measure of success be on Twitter? If your aim is profit then that can easily be measured however popularity and distinction are much more intangible factors to evaluate. Although I’ve never tried it (and never will) I understand that I could buy thousands of followers tomorrow, would that make me more popular or a more distinguished power tweeter? I don’t think so!

So I think it’s important to be honest with yourself about why you Tweet and to measure your level of success against your objectives. For example you might Tweet for fun and only have a few followers but have a wonderful relationship with the people you connect with. From the outside looking in you wouldn’t appear to be very successful however you will probably be achieving all your goals.

By the same token you might have hundreds of thousands of followers but little interaction with any of them appearing to be successful and a tweeter of distinction but actually having an empty, unsatisfying experience. So don’t make hasty judgements about others and, when you look at my 10 words consider your own experiences and how you can use the messages to make Twitter a better and more successful place for YOU.

Participate

Join in the fun, it’s ok to watch from the sidelines when you start to get the feel of things but you will have a better experience if you jump in, connect, converse and relate to other tweeters. Follow people who interest you, if they follow you back say hello with a personal message (not automated – see below) and when you are ready;

Share

A good way to get started is to share Tweets, it gets you noticed and if you share quality content and maybe add something of your own then you will begin to attract followers. Please make sure to give credit to those who have tweeted or shared before you, nothing is designed more to alienate people than taking credit for something they have done. Think about sharing appropriately in the other online places you inhabit too, people will love you for that. Before you share though be sure to;

Check

If a Tweet contains a link then check it out before you share it both to check it works and also to make sure the content is suitable for your audience.Beware of links from unknown sources though, if you see a tweet mentioning your name or a Direct Message from an unknown source Never click that link, it invariably leads to trouble!

Reciprocate

When someone takes the trouble to do something for you it’s just good manners to do something in return. So when you see that a fellow tweeter has mentioned you or has RT’d your content send them a thank you, add a follow, find some gold in their Twitter stream and share it with your followers. They will appreciate it and will be more likely to notice you again, you no doubt like it when that happens to you so make sure you do the same to others.

UnAutomate

Ok, it’s not a real word, I admit I made it up but I wanted to make a point and it fits the purpose. I hate it when I follow someone and I get an automated message, especially if it contains a ‘check out my blog’ link – Yuk – it makes me want to unfollow not check you out further.

There might be a place for automating services such as Buffer and Tribber but please use them wisely and always read content before you share it.

(Update April 24th – Ok, I admit it – I have been trying Buffer on @AnnTran_ ‘s recommendation and I’m liking what I see. I still read the posts so I’m not changing my view on automating but I am finding I am sharing more and better content by scheduling.)

Balance

Keep your activity on Twitter balanced by Tweeting about a variety of subjects. Many people operate within their niche, for instance most of my Tweets will be about social media and technology however I think it’s good to mix with tweeters with all sorts of interests. So why not throw in the odd ones from other areas and connect with people from all sorts of backgrounds and parts of the world. It’s much more fun that way.

Aim to have balanced activity too, try not to get too carried away and bombard your Twitter stream with too much all at once, people might just get tired of seeing you if you overdo it.

Positive

Twitter seems to me to be an overwhelmingly positive arena to operate in. OK there are ‘haters’ and ‘trolls’ out there who can make it an uncomfortable place to be, particularly for tweeters with a high profile, but for the average user it creates a positive environment. So keep it positive, constant negativity and moaning will soon put people off or attract the wrong kind.

Informative

What a place to share information, share your interests and add to the knowledge of the world. Don’t just be a sharer of content that’s already doing the rounds.

Instead of always recycling a link that’s already been around the Twittersphere (I made another word up!) several times just because it was tweeted by a ‘celeb’, why not be an innovator of information and seek out new stuff to entertain and amaze the world. Subscribe to blogs (like this one) and web sites so that you are among the first to know whats going on and become a leader rather than just a ‘follower’.

Compassion

Many people use Twitter to promote charitable or Social Good causes. Tweeters such as Amy @charityideas, Ann @AnnTran_ , Sean @2morrowknight and many more, use Twitter as a vehicle for good so give them a helping hand. However much we might like to we can’t contribute to every good cause we come across but it costs nothing to share the content of someone who is trying to help others so be generous with your Tweets to support them.

Enjoy

The last word and the most important. If you aren’t enjoying all or part of your Twitter experience then stop what you are doing, think about your reasons for being there and make changes so it’s fun again. I’ve been through periods where I’ve got bored with all and it’s become a bit of a chore but I’ve made those changes and found all the old enthusiasm returning.

And remember – if you need to take a break it will still all be there when you get back. If you have built good relationships in your time on Twitter then your friends will still be there for you when you are back on form again.

What do you think is a good measure of a successful Tweeter? 

Take Our PollTake Our PollTake Our Poll

So now it’s your turn, what do you think? Do you have any other words you would like to add or any comments on my advice? I would love to hear your thoughts.

 If you’ve enjoyed this post I hope you will share it using the options to your left and below and if you would like to see more like this you can Subscribe, Follow, Like and add to your Circles using the buttons at the top of the sidebar.
*Image credits

Success Key – Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Hacker – chanpipat / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Spheres Balance – Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

With Spring just around the corner there can be no better time to throw open the windows on your blog, let some fresh air in and do a bit of dusting and polishing to make sure it’s looking good.

I’m not talking about anything too technical or time consuming like changing theme here, just some straightforward tasks to help your blog look cleaner and run more smoothly.

Sweep up dead plugins

Have you looked at your plugins lately? I did and I was surprised to find that I had 3 still active that I had actually stopped using months ago, additionally I had several that I had deactivated but not deleted.

I was amazed with the effect when I completely deleted all of these from the Plugins, the load speed of the blog improved dramatically, particularly the Home page which used to hang for an age while the featured panel loaded, simple to do but very effective.

Rearrange your sidebar

The sidebar can be an essential feature of your blog but sometimes can look neglected and tired. Take a look at yours – is it a while since you freshened it up? Have a look at what you are displaying, is it there for a purpose, is it a benefit to your readers and therefore doing something for you?

I would say keep the ads to a minimum but have them in a prominent place, have some options for people to subscribe and follow you and also something to highlight other content on your own blog. Review it regularly and change things around to keep it fresh for returning visitors. Above all don’t clutter it up with useless stuff.

Dust off your ads

Do you have ads on your blog? I like to have a very limited amount as I feel that too many can make the blog look messy and distract from your content. I think it’s vital to let your personality shine through on your blog and making it look to commercial can stop that happening.

Take a little time to analyse whether the ads you display are returning any revenue, there’s no point in having them if not. Mix things up a bit and don’t be afraid to experiment to see what works.

Tidy up your sharing options

All bloggers love to have their content shared so it’s vital to make it easy for readers to do just that. Have a look at the options you use and make sure that you are up to date with changes in the social media world. For instance I still see many blogs which don’t have the option to share to Google+.

I am using DiggDigg at the moment, you can see it floating to the left of the post and below. I had been trying others but since the boys from Buffer took over development they seem to provide the most comprehensive list of options and tempted me back. Make sure that you configure the settings so that Tweets include your own Twitter handle when shared.

Reinforce your SEO

I must admit that I have learned so much about SEO since I started out on the blogging road and my efforts now are I think much better than in the early days. So one job to do this spring is to go back over all the early posts to review the SEO and to make positive changes.

Refurbish your subscription options

You would love to have readers returning to your blog time and time again and to connect with you in all the other social media places you inhabit. You hopefully have some shiny buttons on your blog to let people connect but have you reviewed them lately?

I did and was shocked to see that I only had options to subscribe via e mail and RSS and on Twitter.  Take a look at the top of the sidebar and you will see that you can connect at many more places, make it easy and people are so much more likely to do it, make it hard and they definitely wont.

Polish your profiles

Have a look at your profiles in all these other places too, are they up to date? Could they be improved, review them regularly to make sure they are kept up to date and to keep them fresh.

Remove unloved rubbish

Have a look at the visitor stats on the posts on your blog. Have a fresh look at the earlier content on the blog. Are there posts that are languishing, gathering dust and unloved? Are there some that are now frankly embarrassing? Consider having a tidy up and maybe binning some of the clutter on the blog.

Stand back and admire

OK – you have done all that and hopefully the blog looks cleaner and is working smoothly after all the work you have been doing. Step back and look at your blog with the eyes of a new visitor, if you find that hard then ask another blogger who you trust to do it for you.

Do this regularly and make any changes that you think you need to keep things fresh, keep the blog tidy and move the furniture around with your sidebar and ads to make sure your space looks good.

What do you think? Do you have any tips to add or regular routines that you use to keep your blog fresh and clean? I would love to hear your feedback.

Many thanks for visiting the blog today. I hope you have found this post useful and will share it with world if you’ve enjoyed it. If you would like to see more like this then you can connect with me by way of the options in the sidebar.

*Image credits

Wash Me – Sean MacEntee Flickr

You can find out more about Iggy and connect with him on Twitter @iggypintado and you can find the original article at his excellent iggypinatdo’s posterous blog.

Connecting Social Communities FTW – Personal Case Study and 10 Tips

In December last year, my daughter Rachel asked for my help to win a Bride of the Year Facebook contest that required entrants to have their particular picture LIKED on the contest page. As a connector who often gets asked what possible benefit there is in having so many Facebook friends (currently 4,500), Twitter followers (currently 36,000) and Linkedin connections (currently 26,000), I took on the challenge to apply my marketing experience to prove that if utilised effectively, you can derive a benefit from connecting a social community – for the win (FTW).

As you can see from the picture, Rachel won the contest. Her winning picture generated 1,657 likes, taking out the grand prize of an all expenses paid trip to Australia’s Hamilton Island for two. She won as a result of a carefully managed marketing campaign that connected individuals in various social communities to take an action that resulted in her win. This isn’t the story of the campaign – a good cook doesn’t reveal his full recipe. It does provide some tips as to how to connect social communities to achieve a desired result which I hope you find useful!

1. Understand the RULES and OUTCOMES.

The contest rules as defined by MMG Photo + Cinema were very clear: Eligible brides were asked to post a photo on their Facebook contest page. Whoever got more recorded “likes” than all other entrants legitimately by midnight 31st December 2011 would be the winner. The marketing challenge was to get more likes on Rachel’s picture than all other 45+ competitive contestant brides in 4 short weeks in December, ensuring her picture was in a winning position a few hours before the contest close time.

The RULES were very clear. The OUTCOME was simple: She had to win.

2. Consult the PRACTITIONERS (People in the KNOW, not necessarily the “experts)

As much as you think you might know about social media and communities (myself included), I asked for the advice of some the smartest people who plan, play and experiment in social media. I’m not talking about the people who talk the theory. I’m referring to the people who practice what they preach – daily. I got some great advice and support from Mahei Foliaki, Michael Todd, Keith Keller and Annalisa Holmes. These folks are in the social game every day and provided reality checks that I was grateful to be able to cash.

3. Marshall your COMMUNITY.

The people who want to assist you directly are usually those close to you – family and good friends – so start compiling that list first. Next are people you relate to regularly – work colleagues and good acquaintances – they may not ‘know’ you well but they may be willing to take an easy action such as liking a Facebook photo due to your connection. Thirdly, there are interest groups who you have some connection with – school, church, university, clubs, etc – again, if the request is simple and easy, they’re likely to support.

Finally, always apply network theory by asking every simple person to SHARE the request with their own connections at the same time you ask them to take an action. If the action is simple, they’ll be more willing to ask their friends to maximise the reach of the request.

4. Make task easy – LIKE in 2 clicks

The easier the better. The request sent to various individuals and groups was to LIKE Rachel’s posted competition picture. The first step was to click on a link to the photo and once there, to click LIKE on her photo – easy as. To make it easier, the request was usually done on Facebook, the platform they were already on. I found it harder to post as links on other social platforms like Twitter, Google+ and Linkedin as they had to switch what they were doing. However, it didn’t stop us posting there too!

5. Ask nicely … and personally.

I sent a direct Facebook message to many of my Facebook connections as did Rachel. I messaged around 20 connections at a time and sometimes a few more, using their first names in every case. I preferred Facebook messages as it was more personal and direct. Those who chose to opt-out by leaving the message conversation made it easier to send follow-ups to later and prevent potential accusations of spamming. The message was simple and included a direct link:

I hope this short message finds you well. I need a small favour. My beautiful daughter Rachel is getting married next year. She is in a Facebook contest to win a holiday on Australia’s Hamilton island for her honeymoon in a contest that ends on 31st December 2011. Can I please ask for your support to “LIKE” her photo via the link below and SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS. She promises to post photos of her trip if she wins!  Cheers and happy holidays, Iggy Pintado

I was ably supported by the communities of supporters like Tessa Gutierez, Mark Simmering and 124 others who shared my message as a Facebook post.

6. Monitor performance along the way.

I monitored Rachel’s progress daily from day one and hourly in the last 24 hours. When the LIKE rate started to slow down, I would send a mix of follow-up messages and interest group posts to get it moving again. As the contest was open to people in other countries, I sent messages to connections in their time zones to maximise their views of the messages. Also, it was important to avoid holiday dates like Christmas and Boxing Day as there was minimal social activity during these times.

In doing so, Rachel jumped from 31st place in the first week of the contest to 9th place by the start of the third week. She was in the top 5 with a week to go and hit the lead two days before the contest end time.

7. Get ready for plot twists.

The contest organisers were also clear that they could change the rules along the way. With two weeks to go, they culled the number of contestants to the top 10. In another twist, they allowed 35+ brides who didn’t make the final cut to allocate their LIKES to anyone in the top 10. Fortunately, Rachel was always pleasant and friendly with all the contestants throughout. It helped that she LIKED all the other contestants pictures and added them as friends on Facebook prior to their elimination. The plan now called for a closer monitoring of LIKE allocations by the other contestants and the real possibility of having to get more LIKES than planned.

8. Keep an eye on the competition (but don’t let it obsess you)

Due to the plot twist, closer monitoring of the final 10 competitors was required. In week three, I started a simple spreadsheet recording LIKES every few hours by finalists PLUS allocations from the other 35+ brides. By tracking performance, you could assess what tactics they were using via comments left on their posts.

9. Stay awake until the very end.

The contest deadline was midnight on 31st December 2011, New Years Eve. Although there was little one could do if there were any massive LIKES or LIKE allocations made in the last few hours, there were some tactics planned as contingencies just in case. It’s a little like watching final bidding on an eBay item – you must watch until the very end.

10. Say THANK YOU.

The day after she won the contest (New Years Day), I personally messaged all the people I knew who LIKED her photo. I posted my thanks on all my social platforms to maximise the message. I re-posted her thank you picture at the top of this post. So many people were grateful for the thanks and delighted by the part they played in being part of the success.

So again, I’d like to thank EVERY ONE of the 1,657 people who took the time to be part of Rachel’s success and for validating that you can connect social communities for benefit.

Many thanks from me to Iggy for allowing me to share his excellent article and of course congratulations to Rachel! Please do let us know what you think and share any other tips that you might have.

Many thanks for visiting the blog, if you like this post I hope you will share it with your communities. If you would to see more like this then you can Subscribe, Follow, Like and Add to your Circles using the options in the sidebar.

*Rachel’s image by permission of Iggy Pintado

Do you ever think about what lies outside of our beautiful planet? I love all that astronomical and cosmological stuff (Many thanks to @ProfBrianCox and his wonderful TV programmes for that!) and I do think that sometimes looking outside of the world around us can help to give a better perspective on some of the small stuff that we all worry about in our lives.

“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened”.  ~Michel de Montaigne

So here are 10 things about our amazing Universe to remind you of where fit in the grand scheme of things. Even if they don’t make your day feel any better I hope you learn something new to give you pause for thought.

There are estimated to be 10 billion, billion stars in the observable Universe, that’s just the bit we have been able to see so far! If you would like to see that in real numbers it’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Our nearest star is the Sun so the number of planets and moons is even larger than that. Kind of makes you feel small and insignificant really.

Our Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy, which has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years and contains about 200 billion stars. To put that distance into some sort of perspective a light year is the distance that light would travel in a vacuum in a year or approximately 6 Trillion miles so 100,000 light years is a long, long way.

You may feel quite still at the moment but depending where you are on Earth you could be travelling at anything up to 1,230 kilometers per hour with the rotation of the Earth, add on the 107,000 kilometers per hour as the Earth revolves around the Sun and you are fair whizzing along, hope I haven’t made you feel dizzy.

Imagine for a moment that the history of the Universe were squeezed into just one year. The first humans would have appeared at 11:39pm on the 31st of December, the Greek philosophers would have arrived 5 seconds before midnight and everything since the discovery of America by Columbus in the last second before midnight.

You could theoretically fit all of the human race in the volume of a sugar cube. That apparently is due to the fact that an atom has a lot of empty space into it so if all that was squeezed out there wouldn’t be much left. We are all just a load of fresh air really

There could (again theoretically) be somewhere in the Universe where there is a copy of me writing this post and you reading it! I couldn’t begin to start explaining the quantum theory behind this but I recommend you read this excellent and entertaining article from Marcus Chown if you would like to learn more.

Recent research has shown that there about 10 billion stars with planets in our galaxy alone in the “habitable zone” – the distance from the star where solid planets can be found – many of which could in theory be capable of supporting life.

The farthest man made object in space is Voyager 1 which was launched in 1977 with a mission to study the outer Solar System. It’s flown past Jupiter and Saturn and is still going strong. Voyager 1 has so far travelled the equivalent of 119 journeys between the Earth and the Sun and is still sending back information to earth. It will need to fly for another 40,000 years before it reaches the nearest star system to our own.

Each Voyager space probe carries a gold-plated audio-visual disc in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings  and a medley, “Sounds of Earth”, that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a collection of Earth music, including works by Mozart and Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode.

The disc also contains pictorial and mathematical instructions as to how to play it – that could be really handy if any of the ‘youth of today’ find it and wonder what to do with it in this digital age!

If an alien ever visits earth the respective strength of our gravity compared to their own planet might mean that they could leap amazing distances and heights, keep that in mind when you are watching the Olympics!

I know that all of this won’t pay the bills but I hope that sometimes thinking on a grander scale will make you smile at yourself when you are sweating on some of the trivial stuff that we concern ourselves with – it works for me!

“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow”.  ~Swedish Proverb

Perhaps the world would be a better place with less conflict, aggression and greed if the Human Race could take a look outside of our own small world and remember how lucky we are to exist in this vast Universe and in this brief moment in time.

Please do let me know what you think, are we sometimes just too insular and should we think on the larger scale sometimes?

Many thanks for visiting the Top 10 Blog, I hope you will share this post with the Universe if you have enjoyed it

*Image credits

Earth man – Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sounds of earth Disc – Wikipedia