7 of the Coolest YouTube Banners We've Ever Seen

When someone sends me a really great YouTube video, I always want to know who’s behind it. Was it an ad agency? A small or medium business? A B2B tech company? No matter who it was, if I’m impressed, I want to see more from the content creator. So once the video is done, I click the link to visit their profiles.

And from there, if the brand is really on top of its game, I’ll see its channel art -- the horizontal banner displayed across the top of the user’s YouTube channel that, hopefully, shows a combination of good design and brand presence.

But how do they do it?

We’ve all seen design work that inspires us, but can have a bad habit of not taking it any further than that. What makes something like strong YouTube banners so great? And how can you create your own gorgeous artwork? To answer those questions, we found three excellent resources for YouTube banner templates, as well as seven creative channel banners -- both old and new -- that inspire us as marketers.

What Makes a Good YouTube Banner?

Responsive Dimensions

A YouTube channel banner will take on different dimensions depending on what platform is being used to view it. For example, a banner might have different dimensions when viewed on a TV, desktop, or mobile device.

Google's suggested YouTube banner dimensions are: 

• Recommended: 2560 x 1440 px
• Minimum for upload: 2048 x 1152 px
• Minimum "safe area" where text and logos are ensured not to be cut off: 1546 x 423 px
• Maximum width: 2560 x 423 px
• File size: 4MB or smaller

The recommended resolution seems like an exorbitantly large file size. But think about how YouTube banners would appear on a 30" smart TV or higher. With a growing number of options to view YouTube videos in this way, you'll want to make sure your channel art is large enough to display with quality on larger screens.

Here's a helpful visual representation of those dimensions:

Source: Google

Balanced Design

Take note of the "safe area" we alluded to in the first section. Your banner is essentially the biggest branding opportunity for when people land on your channel, so you'll want to make sure your logo and supporting text is well-represented in the channel art. That's why it might be best to place your company name and logo in that center space -- this prevents viewer confusion if the name of the company behind the YouTube account is accidentally cut off.

If you're not sure how to take up the entirety of a 2560 x 1440 frame, video production company MiniMatters suggests "build[ing] the image from the middle out," putting the most important assets in the center, and going from there.

Finally, as to what to put in your banner, we like to follow a few basic rules:

• Use a high-resolution image. A pixelated or blurry banner doesn't exactly signal that there's high-quality video to follow.
• Keep it on-brand. While your channel art doesn't have to be a carbon copy of your logo or tagline, it should incorporate visual elements that you want associated with your brand, like certain colors, fonts, or keywords.
• Your banner should represent what your company does in a timely fashion. For example, if you run a bakery and you're gearing up for summer, an eye-catching banner might be a high-res photo of a brightly-colored work surface covered with flour and a rolling pin, along with accompanying text like, "April showers bring May flours."

How to Make a YouTube Banner

"That's just great, Amanda," you might be thinking about these tips. "But where the heck am I supposed to get these beautiful design assets?"

You're in luck -- there are dozens of free resources for creating a great YouTube banner. Here are a few of our favorites:

• Google: Why not start with the hosting platform itself? Google has its very own channel art templates to help you get started with your banner design. (Note: Clicking this link will prompt an automatic download of the zip file containing these templates.)
• Canva: One of our go-to destinations for DIY design, Canva offers several free YouTube channel art templates that allow you to use your own art, or its library of stock photography.
• Fotor: Similar to Canva, Fotor also offers a selection of free YouTube banner templates that allow you to use both your own visual assets or its own library of images.

8 Cool YouTube Channel Art Examples

1. Death Wish Coffee Company

In 2016, Death Wish Coffee was named the winner of a small business marketing competition held by software company Intuit. The reward? A free 30-second commercial during Super Bowl 50. Since then, the self-proclaimed maker of “the world’s strongest coffee” has capitalized on that momentum by making sure its branding stays just as robust.

Its former YouTube banner banner is no exception. It’s straightforward, but also, bold. The company’s logo is displayed as the channel icon, as well as a tiled watermark that doesn’t interfere with the text display. And that message doesn’t leave any doubt about what the brand does. “World’s strongest coffee?” Okay, I’m watching.

2. Adobe Creative Cloud

Seeing as turquoise is my all-time favorite color, there might be a touch of aesthetic bias in our selection of Adobe Creative Cloud’s YouTube banner. But color can have quite an impact in marketing -- shades of blue, for example, have been found to invoke feelings of trust.

This banner doesn’t just make great use of color, though. In a single photo, it connotes creativity and visual quality -- two things that the Adobe Creative Cloud promises with its suite products. The person depicted seems to be creating something remarkable -- an ocean inside of a balloon -- with accompanying text to confirm it: “Make wow.” Plus, to learn more, social buttons are right there within the image.

3. Bon Appétit

Is anyone else hungry? It only seems right that the channel art for a food magazine like Bon Appétit should be, well, appetizing. And with a phrase that’s used as frequently as “bon appétit” -- before a meal or as the title of a pop song -- it’s important that folks who land on this YouTube channel know what they’re getting into.

That’s one thing that makes this banner so great. The branding is clear, from the logo icon to the iconic title text in the center of the image. Plus, the photo itself sends a signal of the type of content visitors can expect to consume -- no pun intended -- when they start watching the channel’s videos: All things food.

4. TauliaInc

One great thing about YouTube banners is that they can be swapped out or modified whenever you want, time permitting. That makes them especially conducive to temporary promotions or campaigns. That’s what tech company Taulia did for “P2P Superheroes”: a campaign that shows how its software can eliminate difficult, time-consuming tasks, helping everyday professionals focus more on the work that matters and turn them into superheroes.

The banner communicates two things: 1. That Taulia is in the business of P2P (“procure to pay”), and 2. the brand really celebrates procurement specialists. And by using original, cartoon-like art, Taulia is turning what could be a dry topic into something fun and engaging.

5. Refinery29

We’re big fans of showcasing the people that make your brand great. That’s one thing that Refinery29 does well, by frequently featuring its writers, editors, and content producers in its videos. As it turns out, they’ve all become quite popular personalities -- which is why the brand put them front-and-center in its channel art.

Creating a banner of this nature is two-fold. First, you have to find a way to incorporate your company’s talent into video content in a way that’s engaging and appealing to your target audience. Here at HubSpot, we have our blog writers, for example, recount important information from blog posts in video and audio summaries. Then, once you’ve produced enough of that media consistently -- and if it’s gaining the right kind of attention -- you can use those personalities to promote your channels.

6. TripAdvisor B2B

TripAdvisor is a resource used by millions of travelers to discover and rate lodgings, restaurants, and much more information about endless destinations. But did you know it also offers B2B services for hotel and other property owners to make the most of their presence on the site?

We like to think of it as a B2B hybrid of review site Yelp and vacation rental site Airbnb. On the one hand, TripAdvisor B2B helps business owners create a profile with photos, descriptions, and other information that’s going to be helpful to travelers. But, like Yelp, it also allows them to monitor and respond to the reviews their businesses receive.

That’s represented in the YouTube banner by portraying what the site is all about -- travel -- but also depicts the act of visitors giving feedback on their experiences by way of rating symbols.

7. Nuvolari Lenard

The thing that stands out to us the most about this banner is its simplicity. It represents a Italian yacht design company Nuvolari Lenard, which is known for work that emulates a luxury and chic lifestyle. And while the channel art itself doesn’t portray anything specifically nautical, the use of capital letters and tiered monochrome does connote a brand that’s high-end.

Those kinds of digital aesthetics create what’s often known as aspirational marketing -- the kind that symbolizes something that’s unattainable by most, but still has a vast following of people “who covet the look and feel of the brand,” as Mediaboom puts it. Can I afford a yacht? Of course not. But seeing something like this makes me want one anyway, and makes me want to consume the video content pertaining to it.

Channel Your Creativity

It’s important to note that really cool YouTube channel art is just one part of a comprehensive video content strategy. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your banner is, for example, if your channel lacks in quality video, or hasn’t added anything new in several weeks.

So, along with great design must come consistency. And as you begin to create both, you can turn to these examples for inspiration.

What are some of your favorite YouTube banners? Let us know in the comments.

 

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How to See Word Count in Google Docs [FAQ]

Whether you’re writing a marketing report with a firm 500 word limit, or are just curious if your blog post hits your editor’s 1,000-word minimum requirement, the word count tool in Google Docs can come in handy.

It’s a simple tool to ensure your content is an appropriate length. You can use it for more than just total word count, too -- you can also measure how many words you have within a section, how many characters you have, and your page count. To learn how to use word count in a Google doc, or to get a firmer understanding on what it offers, read on.

How to See Word Count in Google Docs

1. At the top of your Google Doc, click “Tools” and then select “Word Count”.

2. Here, you can see how many pages you have in your Doc (three), how many total words you have (777), how many characters you have (4992), and how many characters, excluding spaces, you have (4204). Characters are individual letters (“hey” is one word, but three characters), and typically only matters if a job or school application requires a character limit, rather than a word limit.

3. Next, let’s see how you can check the word count in a specific section. First, highlight the paragraph or section you want to measure. Below, I chose to highlight my third paragraph to get word count information on just that paragraph.

 

4. With a paragraph or section highlighted, click “Tools” and then “Word Count”. As you can see below, the Word Count now tells me how many words my third paragraph has compared to the entire Doc (59 out of 776), which page it’s on (1), and how many characters it has compared to the entire piece (400). This is useful if you need to cut down on word count for a specific section of your Doc. 

There is also a shortcut to find your word count -- click “command + Shift + C,” and it’ll pop right up.

Now, you’re equipped to measure the word count, character count, or page length of your Doc, which helps you hit word-limit or page-limit requirements. Word count is also an important tool to use when choosing your audience: 1,000 words is good for a blog audience, but 10,000 might be better as an e-book … or short novel.

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The Staircase Guest Blogging Strategy

Our startup journey has proved it -- guest blogging is king, queen and all the aces in content marketing. Guest blogging lets you share expertise and build authority in the industry, and the backlinks you receive to your own website helps your SERP rankings.

We started Chanty from scratch. Thanks to the staircase guest blogging strategy I’m about to share, we managed to get our monthly traffic from 0 to 5-digit numbers in less than a year.

Chanty website traffic growth

Guest blogging is nothing new. There are tons of articles sharing guest blogging best practices. There are also plenty of posts teaching you how to write for top-tier resources. However, it’s hard to find resources that guide you through the entire process -- from the moment you decide to benefit from guest blogging, to actually getting published on Forbes and Entrepreneur.

Luckily, our team has completed this journey from A to Z. Just a year ago, most of our team had no idea how to write a blog post. As of today, we’ve written for well-known blogs like Foundr, GoDaddy, Search Engine Journal, SemRush, Marketo and many more. We set the bar high in the very beginning. Our grand milestone was Entrepreneur. Thanks to the staircase guest blogging strategy, my guest post for Entrepreneur was published just a few weeks ago. Now that our mission’s completed, it’s time to share our step-by-step process with you.

What is the staircase guest blogging strategy?

In a nutshell, the staircase guest blogging strategy is about writing high quality content for third-party blogs while gradually increasing the quality of the platforms you are writing for (climbing the stairs). You start by picking the low-hanging fruit and pitching the ‘reasonably popular’ blogs. The competition and the editorial calendar for these platforms isn’t too intense. Once you build a writing portfolio, you’ll be able to raise the bar higher and pitch more popular blogs with your next article. Although it sounds simple there are plenty of pitfalls along the way. Therefore, let’s go into more details.

1. Start a loveable blog

When you are a no-name company writing your very first article draft, you obviously can’t just reach out to Entrepreneur with a pitch. Although you can try your luck anyway, there’s a good chance you won’t even get a reply (I know this because the first time we reached out, we failed). However, you’ve gotta start somewhere.

When pitching a blog with a guest article, the best practice is to include examples of your work. When we sent our guest blog pitch for the first time, our writing examples were actually the posts we had written for Chanty. Luckily, starting a company blog is a breeze these days -- with platforms like Medium, you don’t need to be tech savvy or even know how to operate Wordpress.

If you don’t know what to write about, start with your experience. As you launch a startup, your way will be paved with many obstacles, pitfalls, and difficult decisions. Your brain quickly falls into the knowledge-consuming mode, constantly searching for answers and solutions. Therefore, you’ll definitely have a few valuable lessons to share with readers, including issues you’ve solved and obstacles your company has successfully overcome.

For example, we’ve written a few posts on our blog covering SaaS pricing models and how we got the first 100 beta testers for our product, all based exclusively on our experience. As a result, we were able to write about similar topics for third-party websites. Another example of experience-based writing I love is Groove’s “From ‘Aha’ to ‘Oh, shit’” startup blog and Grow and Convert blog.

Our blog feedback from a reader

2. Put the content quality in the heart of your strategy

I must emphasize this -- it’s hard to overestimate the power of content quality when it comes to climbing the guest blogging stairs. If you write some mediocre content, you’ll certainly be able to publish it on the same mediocre platforms. However, low-quality content will never let you climb to the top. With that said, how do you make sure to deliver excellent copy?

My first advice would be to analyze the leading blogs in your industry. Check out the style, tone, and voice they use. What makes their content engaging, appealing and resonating? Is it the personal experience they share? Is it the storytelling approach that makes you want to keep reading? Moreover, it wouldn’t hurt to analyze the top Google results for your target keywords. You’ll have to write content that is head and shoulders above your rivals if you decide to compete for these keywords.

It goes without saying, but you must make sure your content does not contain mistakes or typos of any kind. Run a check with Grammarly to see if your writing can improve in terms of grammar. Paste your texts into Hemingway App to make them simple to read. Speak the language of your audience. Consider their age, gender, nationality and education. If you are based in Europe (like we are) but targeting the U.S. population with your articles, little things like $9,99 rather than $9.99 could easily determine whether you are a pro or an amateur.

3. Find the low-hanging fruit

Once you have a handful of well-written blog articles to showcase your writing skills and expertise, it’s time to find the first guest blogging opportunity. There are a few ways to do this:

1. Make a Google search for ‘guest blogging opportunities + keyword/industry’. You’ll find a number of articles like this one with a long list of platforms that accept guest posts.
2. Make a Google search for ‘inurl:write-for-us + keyword/industry’ (e.g. inurl:write-for-us digital marketing). This will bring you directly to the writers’ guidelines page of those websites where guest writers are welcome.

Create an extensive list of all potential platforms where you can pitch a guest article. Next, I’ll show you how to check out these websites’ domain authority and traffic numbers.

4. Check the traffic and domain rating

Not all website are equal. The exposure you’ll get from an article published on a million-visits-per-month domain will be massive. However, with no previous guest blogging experience, you are unlikely to get into that boat. Therefore, let’s stay patient and take it one step at a time. You can get an idea on how popular a website is by checking the estimated traffic, as well as the domain rating. The tools you’ll need are Similar Web and Moz Rank Checker. There are browser plugins for these apps that you can download to conveniently use the tools.

SimilarWeb Chrome extension data on website monthly traffic

MozBar Chrome extension data on website domain and page rating

Along with other useful information, SimilarWeb shows you the estimated traffic a website gets every month. MozBar indicates the site’s domain and page authority, which predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages. It ranges from one to 100 with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank.

At this stage, you should have a list of websites with an estimated traffic and domain authority (DA) for each platform. Make sure to check the numbers for your own website as well. Now, go through the list and highlight the best candidates for a guest blogging outreach.

At that time, our Chanty domain authority was around 10 points, so we started contacting blogs with DA around 20-40 and estimated traffic of 10K+ per month.

5. Send a good guest article pitch

Once we started accepting guest posts to Chanty’s blog, I realized what a hard life editors must live. You can’t imagine how many low-quality pitches we’ve received. At some point, we even had to close down our guest blogging submission, as we started spending too much time going through bad pitches and inferior articles. Here’s just one example of how not to pitch an editor with a guest post idea:

This writer doesn’t mention which company she works for, doesn’t give examples of previous work, and suggests only one topic for consideration. There’s also no image linked to that email account to see who is reaching out. Nothing in this email makes the writer look trustworthy. What happens to an outreach message like this one? Sadly, it goes straight to the trash.

Many companies provide guest blogging guidelines that are an essential read before even sending a pitch. The key is to follow them precisely unless you want to upset an editor. Some websites require a specific form of a pitch, while others prefer to see a full article attached to the outreach email. If the blog you want to write for doesn’t go into detail on pitching requirements, follow this simple formula:

• Introduce yourself
• Make sure you have a full name and a photo next to your email
• Suggest several topics you wish to write about
• Include clickable urls to your writing examples

This should be enough to start a conversation with an editor.

Here’s an example of a good pitch:

6. Get published

Editors get a lot of guest post requests. Therefore, it might take a few follow ups from your side to ensure your message reaches the top of their inbox. Be ready to provide an outline for an article as well, since it’s a common practice for some blogs. Once you’ve agreed on the topic, make sure to specify the blog guidelines and follow them thoroughly.

Oftentimes, the article may require some editing or rewriting, especially if you are at the beginning of your writing journey. One of the guest contributors who wrote for our blog had to fix the article eight(!) times before we could accept it. However, I’d like to acknowledge this -- our communication remained friendly and the writer was eager to polish the article to make it a perfect fit for our blog. Takeaway? Cooperating with an editor in a friendly and eager manner is key to a published article.

7. Raise the bar higher

Congratulations! You now have a few articles published to showcase some examples the next time you reach out to other blogs. Now, it’s time to start climbing the stairs. Go back to the list of blogs you initially put together, and take a look at the publications where SimilarWeb and MozBar numbers are a bit higher.

You can also reach out to blogs that look attractive to you as a guest blogging platform, even if you are not sure whether they accept guest posts (meaning, if there isn’t a page on their website dedicated to contributions). At this stage, our marketing team raised the bar higher and reached out to more popular blogs with MozRanking’s of 50-60 points.

Although numbers play a significant role in choosing the right website to write for, you should also trust your common sense and intuition. Sometimes, just from the way a website looks, we think: “Nah, I don’t want my article to appear here, despite all the cool numbers.” Or, it could be the opposite: “These guys are small, but they are doing a great job with their blog, and I’d love to contribute.”

8. ... and higher

When you’ve published on some well-known websites, get ready for a big move. Don’t be afraid to climb the stairs even higher and pitch the top-tier blogs. However, you might want to use a slightly different strategy when outreaching extremely busy editors who get thousands of pitches every week. Usually, you’d follow the rules and send the article pitch in a form that a platform requires. However, more often than not, you don’t get a reply even after a few follow ups. This is when you should make a step back and think about getting to know your editor.

First off, find and follow the editor on Twitter or LinkedIn. See what their life is about, and what content they post. It doesn’t hurt to like, share or, even comment on their posts. Become the faithful follower of your editor so the moment you send out a pitch, your email account photo rings a bell. For example, here’s the pitch I sent to an editor at Entrepreneur.

Persistence is key when it comes to top-tier platforms outreach. Despite the very detailed and personal email I wrote, it still took another three follow ups and about three weeks before I got the long-awaited “I’m interested in your article” reply.

Last words

You should always keep the content quality in mind, both when writing a guest post or an article on your company blog. The staircase guest blogging strategy is for those who have valuable insights to share with the world, not for blatantly building backlinks. It’s for those who are ready to invest their time researching topics in-depth, and reflecting their personal insights.

It’s not about hiring a $10-per-post freelancer -- it’s about putting your heart into every article. At the end of the day, it’s the one and only way to get to the top-tier publications. Now, it’s your turn to make it to Entrepreneur. I’m confident you can do it. Good luck!

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How to Protect Your Business From a Social Phishing Scam

Are you ready to respond if someone pretends to be you on social media? Wondering how to protect your customers and brand from a social phishing attack? From erroneous links to outright brand impersonation, social phishing is becoming more frequent. In this article, you’ll discover four ways to protect your business from social phishing scams. [...]

This post How to Protect Your Business From a Social Phishing Scam first appeared on Social Media Examiner.

April 26, 2018 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2KhlpkP
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Unriddled: Instagram Data Downloads, Amazon's Big Reveal, and More Tech News You Need

Welcome to Wednesday, and the latest edition of "Unriddled": the HubSpot Marketing Blog's mid-week digest of the tech news you need to know.

This week is big on news from Amazon -- from Robots, to user numbers, to in-car deliveries. But that's not the only thing happening around tech town, and we're here to help decrypt what's happening in this big, wide sector.

It's our Wednesday tech news roundup, and we're breaking it down.

Unriddled: The Tech News You Need

1. We Finally Know How Many Prime Members Amazon Has

In an annual letter written last week to shareholders, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos disclosed a long-sought-after figure by analysts and tech writers alike: how many Prime members it has. The grand total, he wrote, has "exceeded 100 million."

Amazon Prime is a paid subscription model (for an annual fee of $99, or $12.99 per month) offered by online retailing giant Amazon, offering such perks as free two-day delivery on many products, as well as free streaming videos and music selections. In certain regions, a membership also includes free two-hour delivery of certain items through a service called Prime Now.

Just yesterday, Amazon announced the launch of In-Car Delivery, which allows Prime members to have Amazon packages delivered to their cars if they're parked at home, work, or near other locations in your address book." However, it does come with eligibility requirements, depending on the make and model of your car, and your location.

 

Source: Apple

Paid Prime membership numbers, as well as some of the other figures cited in Bezos's letter, are likely to come up the company's Q1 2018 earnings call, scheduled for this Thursday (April 26) 5:30 PM EST.

2. Instagram Will Now Let You Download Your Data

When people began downloading their Facebook data files -- present company included -- for many of us, things got weird.

But some, like Josh Constine of TechCrunch, wondered when other companies would follow suit -- especially those owned by Facebook, like Instagram. 

Yesterday, Constine reported that Instagram has officially made a personal data download available, largely because it will be required to do so by the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) -- which comes into force a month from today.

An Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch that all users should be able to download their data on the network's desktop site, but that apps across iOS and Android devices might still be rolling out.

To download your data on Instagram's site, you must be signed in, and can then begin the download process here. When I tried it, I was prompted for an email address and told that it could take 48 hours for the data report to be fully compiled.

It's worth noting that, as of writing this post, any email address could be filled in to have the data download link sent to -- not just the one associated with your account. However, not only do you have to be signed into your account in order to get to that point, but when I tried it, I was also asked for my password again after entering an email address.

I also discovered that regardless of where the link is emailed, you do need to be logged into the account in question in order to download the data file.

Based on my own data download, the file contains all photos, videos, and Stories uploaded to your profile, as well as the content of any direct messages.

Your direct messages, however, are all compiled within a single JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) file format -- as are files containing your historical comments, likes, and searches.

3. A Big Week for Earnings Calls

In addition to Amazon's above-mentioned Q1 2018 earnings call, several Big Tech players are expected to host their own this week.

Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., held its own Q1 earnings call on Monday, where it was revealed that nearly 5,000 new employees were added to its various companies' headcounts over the last quarter alone. At the end of March, that left Alphabet with a total of 85,050 employees.

About 40% of those new hires were the result of Google's acquisition of an engineering team from HTC to work on the company's Android One line.

Twitter's Q1 earnings call is also scheduled for this week, and as of the publication of this post (7:00 AM EST on Wednesday), should be underway and available for live listening on its investor relations page.

Finally, Facebook is scheduled to host its Q1 earnings call later today (5:00 PM EDT), after two days of UK Parliament hearings on its practices.

Source: Facebook

On Tuesday, Dr. Aleksandr Kogan -- the Cambridge University professor behind the data-harvesting app who eventually sold personal user information to Cambridge Analytica -- testified before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer is scheduled to testify before that same committee tomorrow: the same day the U.S. House Judiciary Committee will be hosting a hearing on social media "filtering practices."

4. Amazon Might Be Building an In-Home Robot

A report from Bloomberg says plans are underway at Amazon's Lab126 -- the company's Silicon-Valley-based hardware research and development division -- to build a "domestic robot," under a project codenamed Vesta. 

These plans are far from the first within the tech sector to build such a robot, as science fiction novels and films alike have long projected a future in which robots are practically members our families -- case in point: Rosie (sometimes spelled Rosey) the Robot from animated series "The Jetsons" -- with many tech companies striving to follow suit.

Robots have often been front and center at major brand keynotes at large-scale annual tech events like CES, where this year, Sony and LG were only two companies debuting their own. (LG's robot, Cloi, malfunctioned more than once durng this presentation).

Meet Cloi — pronounced “Chloe.” #ces2018 pic.twitter.com/AvdeQq2zCc

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW) January 8, 2018

Poor Dave. Dude can't even get Cloi to answer him when he asks for a recipe. (Though I think I saw her "blink.") #CES2018

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW) January 8, 2018

Bloomberg does correctly make the case that Amazon has laid a strong foundation for building such a domestic robot -- which it predicts could be a moving Alexa of sorts that would accompany users throughout their homes -- citing its success with the Echo personal assistant device, which was something of a pioneer in that area.

However, the same argument could be made about Google, whose Home device has seen success since its 2016 debut. It has been speculated by some, however, that the Alphabet portfolio company could possibly be taking a loss in its hardware-building efforts, especially given the Q1 fiscal results indicating Nest -- the home automation device manufacturer owned by Google -- had an operating loss.

The big question for me is: if Google loses that much on thermostats, how much is it costing the company to establish itself as a maker of smart speakers, displays, and phones? https://t.co/KZcomwjkLv

— Janko Roettgers (@jank0) April 23, 2018

And while Bloomberg says Amazon's Vesta project has been underway for several years now, it also points to job listings on the Lab126 site showing an aggressive investment in getting such a robot built and, possibly, out to market. According to Research and Markets, consumer robot market share is expected to reach nearly $15 billion in the U.S. by 2023.

What Else Is Going Down in Tech Town?

More of the Latest From Facebook

Did Mark Zuckerberg's answers to lawmaker questions help restore faith in Facebook? Not really, according to new data -- which indicates people trust the social media giant even less since the CEO's congressional hearings earlier this month. Read full story >>

Speaking of trust: What are social media networks doing to protect your personal information? Check out this infographic and learn how three platforms are keeping information secure. Read full story >>

Yesterday, Facebook publicly disclosed its content review policies to shed light on decisions to remove or allow certain posts. The company also plans to roll out an appeals process around these decisions. Read full story >>

That’s all for today. Until next week, feel free to weigh in on Twitter with your tech news questions or thoughts on what kind of events and topics you'd like covered here.

Featured image source: Amazon

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4 Tools to Help Rank Your YouTube Videos

Are your YouTube videos ranking in YouTube search? Looking for tools to optimize your titles, keywords, and tags? In this article, you’ll discover a four-step process to reveal high-performing keywords for your YouTube content. #1: Gauge Topic Interest with Google Trends Before you create a YouTube video, the first step is to find a topic [...]

This post 4 Tools to Help Rank Your YouTube Videos first appeared on Social Media Examiner.

April 25, 2018 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2FeEzUE
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How to Delete Your Facebook Account, Group, or Page [Easy Guide]

There are a lot of reasons you might be thinking about deleting your Facebook account -- perhaps you think you spend too much time on it and want to take a social media cleanse, or maybe you and your friends have already stopped using it, so there’s no reason to keep it around.

It’s important to understand deleting your Facebook account is different from deactivating your account -- once deleted, it can never be recovered.

Which means, if you’re intent on getting rid of your account for temporary detox purposes, you might want to consider alternative methods to detoxing from social media without deleting anything.

But if you’re sure you’re ready to leave the world’s most popular social media network, it’s a simple process.

Keep in mind, if you delete your Facebook, your photos and all your Facebook information will be lost forever. If you want to save that information, I’d suggest downloading a copy of it.

To download a copy of all your Facebook information, go to “Settings” and click, “Download a copy of your Facebook data,” and then, “Start My Archive.”

This will ensure you can still find all those awkward middle school photos, years down the road.

To find out how to delete or deactivate your Facebook account, or delete a group or page you’ve created, read on.

How to Delete or Deactivate Your Facebook Account

How to Delete Facebook

1. Go to http://bit.ly/2I0tAkM
2. Click “delete my account”
3. Do not log back into Facebook and wait 14 days for the deletion request to complete

Once you’re sure you’re ready to delete your Facebook account permanantly, click this link. When you click the link, this message will pop up:

All you need to do is click “Delete My Account.”

Facebook notes it takes a few days to complete deletion after you request it, and if you log back into Facebook during that time, you’ll cancel the deletion request.

Remember, if you think there’s a chance you’ll want to reopen your Facebook account in the future, you might want to deactivate it instead of deleting it. If you deactivate your account, Facebook saves all your information, photos, and settings, and you can reactivate at any time. In the meantime, your profile will just be hidden.

How to Deactivate Facebook

1. Click “Settings”
2. Under General Account Settings, click “Manage Account”
3. Click “Deactivate Account”
4. Enter Facebook password to continue
5. Choose a “reason for leaving” multiple-choice bubble, then click “Deactivate”

How to Delete Your Facebook Group

We’ve covered how to delete your account, but let’s say you don’t want to delete your whole account -- you just want to delete a group you created.

Note: if you didn’t create the group but you’re an admin, you can only delete the group if the original creator leaves it.

How to delete a Facebook Group

1. Go to the group you want to delete and click “Members”
2. Beside each person, select “Remove from Group”
3. Once you remove everyone else, choose “Leave Group” next to your name
4. Click “Leave and Delete”

1. Go to the group you want to delete, and click “Members.” Click beside each person’s name, and select “Remove from Group.”

 

2. Once you’ve removed everyone else in the group, choose “Leave Group” next to your name.

3. Click “Leave and Delete”.

 

4. And voila! Your Facebook Group is gone.

How to Delete Your Facebook Page

If you created a Facebook Page for a personal business you’ve since abandoned, or an old fan Page for Justin Bieber that no longer suits your passions, there’s an easy way to delete it.

How to Delete a Facebook Page

1. Go to your page and click “Settings”
2. Scroll to bottom of Generals Tab and click “Remove Page”
3. Click “Delete [Page]” then click “Ok”

To delete a Page, you have to be the creator of a Page -- something I learned the hard way. This was the inspiration behind my very short-lived business, “Caroline’s Consulting Business.”

If you want to delete a Page you’ve created, here’s how:

1. Go to your Page, and click “Settings.”

2. From the General Tabs within Settings, scroll to bottom and click “Remove Page.”

 

3. Click “Delete [Page Name]” then click “Ok.” 

4. And that’s it! It’s important to note Facebook takes up to fourteen days to delete your Page.

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