How to Make Your Instagram Photos Speak

We've all heard the old cliche: a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to Instagram, a picture may be a worth new player and volunteer registrations.

So outside of taking great photos, picking the perfect filter and adding a snappy caption (find info on all that here), how can you make your Instagram photos say what you want them to say? The answer is simple: add words!

What Makes a Succesful Facebook Page

When it comes to creating a successful Facebook presence for your AYSO Region, a lot of thing are in play. How frequently you post images, how responsive you are to your Facebook fans, and a variety of other factors.

Social marketing company Wishpond recently did a study on what makes a successful page. Here's what they found:

Help with Choosing Your Region's Website Host

We realize that choosing a web host can be a difficult decision to make. They all seem like they offer the same products for the same price. We've decided to break down our featured hosting providers so you can get a direct comparison on the features they offer.

Social Media at the AYSO EXPOs

It's almost January, which means it's nearly AYSO EXPO season!

If you haven't heard the news, AYSO Section Meetings have been revamped and revitalized; hence the new name. And this year, I'm happy to report that a social media course will be at every single EXPO location!

Also, for the more seasoned social media people out there, I've been working on an advanced social media course that I will personally be teaching at select locations (as of now, it's Section 6 and the big EXPO in Las Vegas) so if you've taken my webinar before, this advanced course would be the perfect next step for you.

Learn more about AYSO EXPO and register for yours here.

See you there!

Lock it up: The best ways to secure your Wordpress site.

 

 WordPress, I can't think of a website CMS I like better, it's ease of use and incredible sophistication make it the best place to go for amateurs and professionals alike when it comes to building and maintaining a website. Now i've used a lot of different software and languages over the years in building more than a few websites (cold fusion anyone? Hello Tom are you out there?)

If you get the reference, you rock.

Granted there are times when a starting from ground up on a build is obviously the best choice for your needs, but what most people don't realize is a lot of those reasons have to do with security.
When you have a one size fits all kind of application like WordPress security is going to be a issue. Fortunately Wordpress has a amazing market of free to download plug ins that can not only add some incredible features and SEO options to your site, but it is also the place where you can go to get all your security needs squared away.

In my humble opinion when it comes to security, there is no better plug in than "Better WP Security" it is by far the most robust and secure, that I have used. Best of all; like most WordPress plug-in's, it's completely free. Remember if you do download this plug in make sure to keep it updated otherwise you will throw that security right out the window. Click the the link below to connect to the WordPress Marketplace to download "Better WP Security" Happy coding!

Click Here

Do You Have a 5-Star Region?

Facebook is rolling out another fun new feature for its business pages: ratings! Much like the popular ratings-driven site Yelp, Facebook ratings allows visitors to rate your company with a star rating, from 1 to 5 (see example below).

How do you activate this feature? Simply put in your Region’s address information under Page Info and check the provided box, and that will allow visitors to your Facebook page to rate you. Users can also leave comments with their ratings and “check-in” to your Region, which is a way of sharing with their friends that they were on your fields, participating in an game/event.

WebRTC and the bleeding edge.

Have any of you heard of WebRTC technology? anyone, anyone, (the sound of crickets ensues...) Of course you haven't basically no one has this stuff is the bleeding edge of web development, but fortunately for you dear reader I love the bleeding edge, I have a house there year round.

I see nothing wrong with this...

WebRTC is a technology that is currently being looked at by the W3C (the grand high poobah's of web standards) into becoming a standard with the goal of providing a web-based set of tools that any device can use to share audio, video and data in real time. It’s still very much in the early development stages, but WebRTC has the future potential to replace technologies like Skype, Flash and many hardcoded native apps with web-based alternatives that work on any device.