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6 Things Social Media Can’t Do for Your Business

Social media is occasionally hailed as a do-all solution for businesses – an indescribably brilliant marketing platform, a can-do-everything publishing option, and a complete tool for keeping in touch with clients, customers, and business contacts. There’s a lot of hype in the social media world, and unfortunately very little of that hype is backed up by any real results.

A lot of that hype is grounded in the lack of understanding that many have about social media. It’s not a do-all tool, and it’s certainly not something that can revolutionize every business. While a range of brands and businesses have had their successes in social media, many more have ended up with nothing to show for their efforts, except of course wasted time and money.

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These six social media “can’t-dos” are truths that almost every online business owner needs to absorb. Yes, social media can be a valuable tool, but no, it can’t do everything for your business. Take a realistic approach to your social media strategy, and let these six occasional impossibilities serve as limits for your social media marketing efforts.
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6 Low-Cost Design Tools

A popular design phenomenon is that of “office porn”. No, it’s not anything sexual or sinister, but the seemingly never-ending desire of every designer out there to have an office that’s slicker, sexier, and more loaded than technology than the last. From Flickr home office competitions to design firms loaded with Mac Pros and 32 inch displays, the design industry has a major crush on shiny high-performance equipment.

Unfortunately for newbie designers, furnishing a swanky design office requires a lot of money. A top design rig costs several thousands of dollars, and a multi-screen set-up can increase costs even further. Add in a huge executive desk, flashy lamps, and a high quality office chair and you’ve exhausted all your startup capital.

These six low-cost design tools go against the “expensive is best” idea that seems to flow through the design industry. Cheap, simple, and very designer-friendly, these gadgets, applications, resources, and services are perfect for bootstrapping designers and budding design firms.

1. The WordPress Thesis Theme

No WordPress theme is as flexible and user-friendly as Thesis. It’s 100% SEO optimized from the get-go, includes a range of awesome tools for developers, and is available with a multi-use developer license for just over a hundred bucks. Add to that the huge list of pre-built templates and themes, the massive support community, and the endless flexibility on offer and you’re left with one of the best WordPress themes out there.

Sure, it’s not free, but it’s very cheap for the amount of value that it offers. If you’re a WordPress developer or designer, pick it up today and cut down on development time and project-related stress.

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5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Photography and Take Better Photos

Digital photography is a huge and varied discipline, with millions of photographers worldwide meeting on services like Flickr and Picasa to share their shots, improve their work, and develop their career. Whether hobbyists or would-be professionals, these photographers share one thing in common – a burning desire to improve their photography and take cleaner, more balanced, and overall better photos.

Doing the same for yourself isn’t as difficult as you may think. Almost all digital cameras, even the inexpensive and old, are capable of taking great photos in the right hands. These five tips, tricks, and tactics for taking better pictures can help you improve your photography, build a portfolio of high quality images, and boost your visual artistic ability.

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