Beautiful, Free Icon Sets
Brushed steel & black:
Steampunk (Twitter only):
Candy themed:
Glossy Polished:
Grassy icons:
Bubblicons:
And the best for last. Very creative!
Facebook symbols
For all of us who tinker around on Facebook and want to make our posts stand out more or just look prettier, Social Media Dialogue has published a useful list of how to create symbols in Facebook posts. Want to create a heart, a musical note or a male or female symbol. Check out this useful list:
Alt + 1 ☺
Alt + 2 ☻
Alt + 3 ♥
Alt + 4 ♦
Alt + 5 ♣
Alt + 6 ♠
Alt + 7 •
Alt + 8 ◘
Alt + 9 ○
Alt + 10 ◙
Alt + 11 ♂
Alt + 12 ♀
Alt + 13 ♪
Alt + 14 ♫
Alt + 15 ☼
Once Upon a Time…
…there was a young man, say about 26 years old, who lived in a suburb of Los Angeles. His father went into the hospital because he was vomiting blood and while there, was diagnosed with a life-threatening, bleeding stomach ulcer. They had to operate immediately.
The young man wanted to do something to help. The doctors told him he could donate and thus he discovered he had a very special type of blood that could be given to anyone and, despite his fear of needles, donated blood for the first time in his life.
That was in 1986.
Today, the young man is still donating, working towards his 6 GALLON donation pin from the American Red Cross. Inspired to action, he began sponsoring his own blood drives in conjunction with the Red Cross and this year, 2012, will mark his 21st year working for this cause.
I am very proud to say that young man wnet on to become my husband, Dennis Amador Cherry and in 2012 we will be celebrating 23 years happily married.
We’ve had a lot of fun over the years running the drives. For many years we would cosplay (wear costumes). Dennis always bakes homemade cookies for our Thanksgiving Day Blood Drive at the LAX Marriott. He also coordinates and encourages other volunteer/friends who happily do the same. This February we just finished our second year hosting a brand new blood drive, creating the tradition of making homemade scones for Gallifrey One’s drive at the same hotel. Both conventions center around a theme of science fiction – the Thanksgiving Day drive being held at Loscon (a literary sci-fi con) and Gallifrey (a primarily Doctor Who event). I am not ashamed to say these are “my people”, these sci-fi nerds and geek girls who all share with us a common love of science fiction in general and Doctor Who specifically. They are generous to a fault and seeing them every year like clockwork as I work the blood drive registration table is both a wonder and a comfort as they are all people I have come to dearly love for their generosity in giving the gift of life. They would give the shirt off their back and do give the blood from their veins so that you and I and all who need blood in times of crises never have to worry there won’t be enough.
It is to these people I dedicate this post to, with all love in our hearts. You are always loved and never forgotten.
‘droid app review – Google Sky Map
Okay, I’ve got something really nifty for all us ‘droid nerds out there this week. I was reviewing a rather nicely set up mobile phone & broadband website and seeing the next generation of Samsung Galaxy S class phone out there listed under “Best Selling Phones”, it reminded me I have been wanting to review my newest ‘droid app I stumbled upon a couple of weeks ago. (The next generation of Galaxy S phone is, btw, white. Weird, considering I am so used to mine which is black with a purple, shock-absorbing case surrounding it.)
Google Sky Map is the best app you could possibly hope for if you are a night sky watcher. A free, Open Source program donated by Google, over 175,000 users rate it a 5 out of 5 and with good reason. Point it anywhere, ANYWHERE, day or night, and it will show you exactly what is out there beyond planet Earth. It views stars, constellations, planets, Moon, Sun, Meteor Showers, the Horizon line, poles & Messier Objects (whatever that is). Any of these objects can be switched off with the flick of a finger for clearer viewing of your object(s) of study.
Perhaps one of the more fun perks of this app is called, “Time Travel”. Choose a date and a time somewhere between the years of 1900 – 2100 and view the sky as it would appear on that date. How cool is that? The Apollo 11 moon landing and solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 are pre-loaded under popular dates, but any date and time is programmable into the interface for your viewing study and pleasure. Once in Time Travel mode, one can tap the buttons to move forward or backwards in time at the ratio of anywhere from real time (1 second to 1 second) to 1 week per second. Teach kids how the movements of the planets appear from Earth in a real neat way.
Having trouble locating the object of your interest? There is a search mode. Just plug in the name of whatever it is you want to view and the app will find it for you on the map. Under the Gallery you can view beautiful shots of our sister planets, nebulas, galaxies, the Pleiades and star clusters as the Hubble telescope has caught them on its cameras.
This is by far the most fun app we have come across in our reviews AND if you pick it up NOW, you will be able to see many of the planets aligned in a straight line including Pluto, Neptune, the Sun, Mercury, Uranus, Venus and Jupiter. Quite a line up, especially when the Moon gets into the act during the evening hours.
As always, we welcome feedback, comments, etc. Pick up Google Sky Map for yourself, check it out and let us know what you think.
Social Media Holiday Cookies
What are social media cookies? Well, they are little reminders of the big things that make our networks grow and allow us to touch others lives with our messages & causes. I made these for the Warner Center Business Professionals Holiday Party we had at our favorite networking luncheon haunt, the fabulous restaurant BJ‘s in Warner Center, Woodland Hills, CA.
Can you guess what social networks the letters stand for? There are “F”s for Facebook, “T”s for Twitter, “L” for LinkedIn, “Y”s for YouTube and “G”s for Google. All the colors are matched to the actual logo colors of these social network monoliths. The Gs were my favorites to do because they were so colorful.
Happy Social Holidays to one and all and a Happy Blog Post! =)
8 of 26 Promising Social Media Stats for Small Businesses
Small businesses opportunities through social media have grown. It’s been a while since I sat down and took a deep look into social media stats and how they are looking these days. I ran across this article and the numbers just keep getting bigger and better.
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-promising-social-media-stats-for-small-businesses/
For those that like quick, dirty numbers and don’t want to read whole articles, these tidbits might just tempt you to take the time to read this one:
- There are now more than 800 million active Facebook users. 200 million were added in 2011.
- 80% of all Americans are on social networks.
- If you’re going to pick just one social networking outlet to focus on, Facebook is your ticket. Americans spend more time there than on ANY OTHER U.S. WEBSITE!
- A post every day hits all your customers: more than half of Facebook users log in EVERY DAY.
- Is your business international? 80% of Americans may be on Facebook, but 75% of Facebook users are outside of North America.
- According to a Comscore study, businesses that post at least once a day will reach 22% of their fans in any given week.
- Experian’s 2011 Social Media Consumer Report reports, among other stats, that 98% of 18 – 24 year olds access social accounts monthly. If they are doing so only once or twice a month, then the importance of posting DAILY becomes even clearer.
- Fans are filtering through social media and spending with small business. 50% of business owners have confirmed this. The majority of Facebook and Twitter fans are more likely to buy from brands they are fans of.
Consider what is here as an incentive to work that Facebook page you set up a year ago and haven’t done anything with.
Ummm…How do I put this?
Do you care about the people you are doing business with? I mean, do you really care about them AS A PERSON and not just as another rolodex in your card file? Inversely, do the people you network with care about you?
Networking is not just about making connections and getting referrals. If you think that is all it is, you better go find yourself a book on human interaction and relearn how to talk to and treat people. If this sounds harsh, it might be because you need the book. I won’t apologize for the bluntness in this post and if it is found offensive, methinks it is because it struck a sore spot. Those that are ever evolving and refining their people skills will stop and take a look at what is said here and ask themselves, “Do I do that to people?” “Is that why I’m not getting as much business as I could have?”
There are few better ways to discover the value of your networking than in how people interact with you – especially when there is a crisis. People are mirrors held up to ourselves, and they can be brutally honest, whether we want them to or not. So, instead of taking offense at the networker who treated you like less of a person and more like a source of income, learn from the experience. We as a specie are so quick to take offense and so slow to learn. Don’t be stuck at the dead-end of the evolutionary chain with no sales and worse – no friends.
Remember, when you’re old and retire, or move on to another line of work where you no longer network, the friends will stay with you.
The networkers will leave.
‘droid app review – Facebook version 1.7.1
The “official” Facebook app is an improvement over the earlier version of the app and worth it for all us Facebooking fools out there to either pick up or upgrade from an earlier version.
It opens up to Top Stories. When tapped, the “All Stories” button at the top opens up a scroll-up at the bottom with options to view Status Updates, Photos, Links, Pages, Events or Videos – an improvement over the old version of the app. The Photo and Status buttons at the top are convenient since they are the most often function used by people checking in on Facebook (the photo button also gives the option to upload videos). Status Updates is not to be confused with the “Status” button. The Status Updates are everyone else’s statuses while the Status button in the middle of the bar below is the one used to update your own status.
For those that liked the convenience of the 9-icon opening panel, you can still access that dashboard by clicking on, weirdly enough, “Newsfeed” at the top left of the screen. (Guys, you could have just called it something plain yet familiar like…oh well, say, “Dashboard”? That way you wouldn’t have confused the heck out of us.)
I confess I have not yet tried the chat function, so if anyone has experience with it, please feel free to drop a comment on the end of this blog to let us know how it performs.
Note: version 1.7.2 is now available. I will be updating this review as soon as I install it and get some practical use out of it. Give it a day =D
‘droid app review – Dude, Where’s My ‘droid?
“Where’s My ‘droid” is an Android app designed to help you find your lost phone. Simple explanation, simple function, powerful app! Six million users and over 30,000 Likes on Facebook can’t be wrong, right?
This neat little gem is worth the space on your phone and the time and trouble to set it up right, though I found setting it up was no trouble at all for yours truly. If I can set it up, so can you!
What sold me on this particular app was the solution to the past, obvious hurdle of clever users calling their phone to find it, only to remember they had turned the ringer off! This app WILL TURN THE RINGER BACK ON. How smart and cool is that?!?
The opening paragraph on the ‘site declares, “When you lose your phone while the ringer is turned off it can be impossible to find it. Where’s My Droid fixes that problem. After texting your phone a custom attention word the app turns the ringer volume up and makes your phone ring. It’s also possible to get the GPS location of your phone in latitude and longitude and a link to Google maps.”
Among the features listed are:
- Find phone by making it ring/vibrate
- Find phone using GPS location
- Text or email your attention word
- Passcode protection to prevent unauthorized app changes
- Notification of changed SIM card or phone number (BETA)
The Pro version also has a “remote wipe” function that will send the Hari Kari command of death upon your instruction, permanently wiping out all information in case your phone falls into the hands of evil doers.
The website is full of support features – instructions, video tutorials, troubleshooting, an FAQ page and an explanation of why the app needs permission to do certain things on your system.
If you have a ‘droid and no way to find it, do yourself a favor and install this wonderful application before you lose your phone and regret you didn’t have it.
Websites:
http://alienmanfc6.com/
http://www.wheresmydroid.mobi/
Requirements:
- Android 1.6 or better
- 2.65mg of free space
‘droid app review – CurveFish’s Battery Life
One of my favorite ‘droid apps, CurveFish’s “Battery Life” is everything you could want in a phone app. – colorful, functional, useful and most importantly, it’s ACCURATE and it WORKS. Set it to show how much of a charge your battery has left, or get real nerdy and also set it to show the battery’s temperature (in Fahrenheit or Celsius), voltage AND technology. Mine is on my home screen and is so much easier to see and read than that tiny little icon up in the corner of the screen. It can also be color customized. AWESOME!
