When it comes to telling search engines about the content on a website, webmasters might be wondering if they should submit sitemaps or just setup RSS or Atom feeds.

Googles answer? Use both.

For optimal crawling, we recommend using both XML sitemaps and RSS or Atom feeds. XML sitemaps will give Google information about all of the pages on your site. RSS feeds will provide all updates on your site, helping Google to keep your content fresher in its index. Note that submitting sitemaps or feeds does not guarantee the indexing of those URLs.

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In this article, I am going to cover four of the best tools to deliver RSS feed updates directly to your desktop, either through RSS tickers, or from alert boxes that display feed information right inside and scroll automatically. This way, during your workday, you can just glance over at the streaming updates and if a topic catches your eye, you can click on it and bookmark the article to read later, during your lunch break or after work.

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Blogs have increased in popularity because they provide a steady stream of new and unique content. The only issue presented by this quality of blogs is that it may become difficult for those who run blogs to think of interesting and novel posts. If you have jumped on the blogging bandwagon but suffer writer's block, do not panic: we have created a list of 26 ideas for blog posts.

1. Make it visual.
Include a photo or other graphic in a blog post to break up the text, attract your reader's interest, or help illustrate a point. Better yet, talk about the image you have included to further incorporate it into the post.

Great Ideas for Blog Posts

I remember saying that if I could ever figure out how a person could be in two places at once I would retire a billionaire.

And then, I figured it out.

Because being in two places or more simultaneously is exactly what social media allows us to appear to do. With a nearly endless supply of apps designed to cross-post anything we can enter into a digital device, you would think the impossible had finally been achieved.

Certainly a lot of innovative people have ensured a comfortable retirement by making that illusion easy to create. But what is it costing entrepreneurs who fall prey to it?

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Did you know companies with happy employees outperform their competition by 20 percent?

LinkedIn has carried out research to say that 58 percent of employees are proud of their company and are glad to tell others about it, especially on social media.

This is great news, as happier employees means happier customers, because they pass on their energy & passion in everything they do, including customer support.

But how can you create happy employees on social media?

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Celebrity selfies and fan-snapped shots on the Internet have cut the prices they can charge for their pictures. But those tweets and Instagrams and Facebook posts allow them to track down and trail boldfaced names like never before.

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A recent analysis conducted by a University of Florida educational leadership scholar indicates the lack of concrete policy on the use of social media by teachers and other school employees is increasing the potential for misuse and inappropriate teacher-student relationships online.

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Facebook has released a new application called Notify that will allow its users to receive push notifications about breaking news, new movie trailers, and more.

The move into real-time news is significant because could help Facebook achieve two goals: It could make the company more important to the media, and it could increase the traffic it sends to publishers. Now, whether the app will be successful or just something that clogs up your phones notifications feed is another set of questions all together.

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RSS has taken some big hits recently. Of course, people have been announcing the death of RSS pretty much since it came into existence, but when Google Reader bit the dust on July 1st, 2013, many were ready to place a wreath at the headstone and walk away.

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If you want to have mastery of all the news, information and updates about yourself, your business, your industry and your areas of specialty, then this may be the most important column you will read all year.  I'm going to show you how to build the ultimate information dashboard that will sit on your desktop or live in your mobile app and will update you in real time whenever anything of interest happens anywhere on the Internet.

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Never again will mankind have to look for RSS info in more than one place...ok, we're kidding, but we've aimed to create a near comprehensive list of all the RSS readers, tools, browser plugins, tips, hacks and directories available on the web.

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What is the single most important element of good social media engagement? Your content.

With good content you can attract an audience with so much more ease. And at the end of the day, you end up with an excellent brand image.

The only way to consistently share content is through content curation.

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You can keep up-to-date with the content posted on Science Journals by subscribing to our E-mail alerts and our RSS feeds.

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On average people check social media every 6 and a half minutes,thats about 150 times a day.

And that habit is creating phantom phone vibrations in some people.

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Whether you are constantly searching your own name online (you know who you are) or there is a topic you want to follow closely, Google Alerts lets you know when new pages hit the web that match your query—and you can convert these results into an RSS feed (or something else) to make them easier to manage.

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Whether you’re new to social media or a pro, an effective social media program can broadcast   both your company and employment brand. It may also help stock your sales funnel.

Tackle these four fundamentals and you’ll be off and running.

#1: Start with a clear-cut strategy.

A clear social media strategy can help maximize your efforts from the outset. Start with your goals:

Identify your top priority and focus on it.
Who do you want to reach? How do they use social media?
Do you want to drive traffic to your website or store -- or both?
How can community engagement help support these goals?

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Lately, Facebook newsfeeds have been seeing a new page pop up asking for assistance from the community, and the response has been abundant.

Jessica Williams, chief probation officer and program director of the Ross County Probation Department, created a Facebook page for the agency a few weeks ago. She started posting names of people wanted on warrants after violating the terms of their probation, along with their pictures.

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The U.S. Digital Registry was announced Jan. 29 as a one-stop shop for the social networking needs of government departments who are actively engaged on such platforms as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Unlike official government websites that end with .gov or .mil, profiles created through third-party platforms can often look deceptively authentic, but are used to mislead the public and steal personal information.

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Software to Create Feeds
If you are not as confident and would like software to create the feed we strongly recommend FeedForAll an extremely easy to use feed creation tool that allows webmasters to create, edit and publish rss feeds.

If you want to create an RSS feed using a text editor a step by step walk-through at Make RSS Feeds will help.

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When it comes to online reviews, business owners take the good with the bad. Reviews can be highly influential. On the upside, positive reviews highlight things such as terrific customer service, stellar products, delicious food and the like. There is a local Facebook group for Kansas City foodies, and a positive review of a new restaurant can be a major boon to a new local eatery.

On the flip side, even the most customer-focused and conscientious of businesses will eventually get a less than favorable review. It’s simply the law of averages. Reviewers definitely do not lack places to post their comments: Traditional review sites like Yelp are always in play, but people also take to Twitter and Facebook to air grievances.

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Whether you are constantly searching your own name online (you know who you are) or there is a topic you want to follow closely, Google Alerts lets you know when new pages hit the web that match your query — and you can convert these results into an RSS feed (or something else) to make them easier to manage.

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I previously analyzed their 2013 report and their 2014 report and came to the same conclusion each year. Most companies still do not get social media as a customer service channel.

Six years ago, I did my own tiny social media study. That is back when the Starbucks Twitter profile said that some guy named Brad did the tweeting. Things are pretty much the same as even back then. (Except for Brad. I am not sure what happened to him.)

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The most fervent political supporters think only their candidate can possibly win. Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle blames these beliefs on the echo chambers found on our social media feeds.

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Whether you are constantly searching your own name online (you know who you are) or theres a topic you want to follow closely, Google Alerts lets you know when new pages hit the web that match your query—and you can convert these results into an RSS feed (or something else) to make them easier to manage.

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We live in an age of information overload. With all the stories from news, blogs, social media, and other sources, the amount of information about any given subject can be overwhelming. It is hard enough to keep up when you are just a consumer of information, but what about when you need to curate content for a target audience?

Thankfully, there are tools that can collect and organize information from a large number of sources, making that task easier. One such tool is the PressForward plugin for WordPress.

PressForward is a multi-user, collaborative RSS feed reader that integrates with WordPress' publication work-flow and provides users with the ability to curate content for a target audience.

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Many investment professionals are naturally competitive people, myself included. Accustomed to being benchmarked and trained to quantify impact, we run an unusual risk of thinking that social media is a contest.

But applying that perspective is counterproductive. It is a bit like going to a dinner party and trying to keep score. People might be into it if you have strange friends, but there’s a better chance that you will alienate everyone there.

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Although consumers want brands to use social media as a two-way communication channel, the vast majority of businesses are not adhering to those desires, according to a study from social media management software provider Sprout Social. On average, businesses send out 23 promotional messages for every one consumer response.

Social media is now the No. 1 way consumers interact with businesses. The research revealed that 34.5 percent of consumers turn to social media first when they have a problem, compared with just 16 percent who call and 5 percent who visit a store in person.

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New-age publishers are toying with innovative content models that offer more value to end users and set their cash registers ringing. It does not come as a surprise, when content is evolving as a major source of income for them. By offering high-value content and a trove of inbound links, digital publishers can maximise the profitability of their websites.

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Influencer Marketing

According to the latest Nielson study, over 90% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family. We have slapped a fancy name on it, but at the end of the day, this is what influencer marketing really is: getting products into the hands of people whom others trust. Peer recommendations have the power to sway buyers and inspire purchase decisions, not because they have a zillion followers or have perfect lips, but because they are reliable, personable sources we believe.

Most people with a smartphone are constantly tapped into some form of social media. Sharing cute pictures of kids and pets is simply a routine part of life these days. Some people even use social media to vent frustrations or look for advice.

In a divorce case, however, shares on social media can create ample evidence that can be used against one or both parties to affect alimony, child support, child custody, and more.

Email and Text Messages
Email and text messages are admissible in court and can even be subpoenaed. If one party in the marriage reveals something about a new job or an upcoming bonus that has not been revealed in court, this can be used as evidence that the person is not being honest in his or her financial declarations.

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Facebook has 1.6 billion users. Inevitably, a sizable portion of those people pass away, leaving behind a number of inactive social media accounts.

Last year Facebook took a major step forward in how to deal with the 8000 plus deceased accounts that appear on the social network each day.

Its Legacy contact scheme helped make dealing with the death of a loved one easier on the world's largest social network.

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Two years ago, I wrote a story about Nextdoor, a private social network that requires users to register with proof of both their identity and address. Once accepted, you belong to a neighborhood and can see and speak with any nearby users who have signed up. It's trying to build a local graph to complement the social graph, and it has quietly grown into one of the largest social networks in the US, with over ten million registered users spread across more than 100,000 neighborhoods.

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Do you want to exclude specific categories from RSS feed on your WordPress site? Many site owners use some categories for content that they don’t want to appear in the RSS feed of their site. In this article, we will show you how to exclude specific categories from WordPress RSS feed.

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I had never heard of Nextdoor when I lived in New York City. Social media services catering to individual neighborhoods weren’t useful in an apartment building where most tenants lasted a year, and longtime residents kept to themselves.

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For more than 56 years the charity I work for, Bloodwise, has been working to beat blood cancer, the third most fatal form of cancer. In our work, we have had to constantly evolve and adapt to meet the ever-changing needs of our supporters and patients.

Unsurprisingly, the rise of digital channels has been transformational for us, from the delivery of patient information online to communicating with supporters via social media. However, as the importance of digital grew, we knew we needed to use data and insight to understand our online audiences better and measure our performance.

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Last week, a prominent feminist writer left Twitter after a rape and death threat was directed at her 5-year-old daughter. Online violent threats are not uncommon, especially for women and minorities, but when they are reported, police are often not responsive.

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If you want to increase the readership on your website, or you want to make it big with a podcast, you need an RSS feed. The RSS feed keeps your users up to date on all of your latest articles or episodes and can result in a massive increase in traffic. Creating an RSS feed is quick and easy, whether you’re using an RSS creation program or writing one yourself. Follow this guide to find out how.

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From solo entrepreneurs to Main Street businesses and multinational brands, marketers at all levels struggle with finding new ways to keep their followers’ attention. I often see brands fall into the habit of posting repetitive types of content. This usually leads to a sharp drop in engagement.

Your followers need variety. If you don’t mix it up a little bit, you’ll risk losing their attention permanently. To inject some diversity, start working these 10 social post structures into your daily content calendar.

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You read all the social media guru blogs, post religiously across your social media channels, and even publish your content at peak times of the day to capture more views. Despite all of this, you still see competitors gaining ground while your social media influence remains stagnant.

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Whether you are constantly searching your own name online (you know who you are) or there is a topic you want to follow closely, Google Alerts lets you know when new pages hit the web that match your query—and you can convert these results into an RSS feed (or something else) to make them easier to manage.

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A report yesterday revealed that Amazon might open up its Alexa ecosystem to allow push notifications, so that it could interrupt to warn you about a traffic jam, for instance.

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It is absolutely crucial for brands to keep a crisis management plan handy. Ideally, this plan gives an idea of who internally should lead the response and what stance they should take. An effective crisis management plan (or lack thereof) can have a substantial impact on your business.

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Registering to vote just got a whole lot easier for tens of million social media users in the U.S. At least six major social media apps are launching voter registration drives to meet young voters exactly where they spend much of their time: on their phones.

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Most people in the tech industry, as well as avid consumers, marketers, and business owners, are always on the lookout for the next big thing.

In the social media world, we have seen a ton of developments over the past decade or so. Apps have become more friendly to mobile devices than desktops, content has become more visual and more immediate, and borderline gimmicky apps have risen to almost inexplicable heights of popularity.

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Ladies, gentlemen and all overly anxious Jewish mothers, I recently had a date that was NOT set up via a dating app. Hey, you have to start somewhere, right? Even better, it was a great date.

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Good questions. First, here is why you should care.

Unlike getting website updates or ezines by email, RSS feeds give you absolute, 100% complete control over the situation.

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The Internet is a big place. Really big. With more than a billion existing pages and thousands more being created each day, there is a wealth of great sites offering fantastic content free of charge. But with such a massive torrent of media being produced each and every day, it can often be tough to keep up with all your favorite websites. So, how do we alleviate this problem? Easy. Here’s a really simple explanation of Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

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Specifically, all three companies granted access to a developer tool called Geofeedia which allows users to see the geographic origin of social media posts and has been employed by more than 500 law enforcement organizations to track protesters in real time.

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If Uber is going to make its dreams of self-driving ridesharing cars a reality, it is going to need a lot of expertise in artificial intelligence... and it is taking big steps to make that happen. The company has created Uber AI Labs to fuel its research, and it is getting the team started by acquiring AI startup Geometric Intelligence.

This is also a preemptive strike against the competition. The company tells the NYT that there is a fierce battle for AI talent -- acquiring Geometric Intelligence prevents Uber from losing out to Lyft, Google and others hoping to put machine learning to work on the road.

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As we wind down the year and look back on 2016, we find that social media is on everyones lips–but perhaps for different reasons than we social media marketers would imagine or prefer. The discussion happening around social media at the end of the year is about responsibility and control.

The outcomes of the EU Referendum in Great Britain and the American presidential election were no doubt influenced to a greater or lesser degree by social media, from President-elect Donald Trump’s insistence on using Twitter as an unfiltered direct communication channel with his followers and critics, to the soul-searching happening in some quarters about the role social media played in serving up news stories to the American electorate.

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