The Google change in ad display was confirmed by Search Engine Land. And the first changed Google Search results can be found:

If you’re looking for a “trip to New York” you can see that only 4 Google ads are displayed on the top of the Google search results:

In contrast, if you’re seeking a “trip to Barbados all inclusive”, you will still get 3 ads on the top and a bunch of ads on the right side of Google Search result:

Google change in ad display will be rolled out completely worldwide within the next few days, stopping to display ads on the right side of the Google search results. I assume that this will increase the ad prices dramatically. One single winter is obvious: Google!

Stay tuned!

The post Google Changes Ad Display: No More Ads On Right Side Of Desktop Search Results Worldwide appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.

All Publisher will have the ability to bring their own direct-sold ads and keep 100% of the revenue, and track data on the ads served through their existing ad measurement systems, or they can monetize their content through the Facebook Audience Network. Additionally, publishers can use their existing web-based analytics systems to track article traffic or use third-party providers. They can do all this while accessing a rich suite of multimedia tools to create dynamic, interactive stories, that will load quickly everywhere on Facebook, regardless of where in the world their readers are.

Finally, I’m delighted that Facebook Instant Articles gives Publisher like bloggers the opportunity to earn money on Facebook!

Stay tuned!

The post Facebook Instant Articles Opening To All Publishers appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.

Previously, there was just the option to submit a new Podcast feed. Now the Podcaster is also able to modify an existing Podcast feed address. Due to a so-called not changeable Apple given Mirror URL, the Podcaster can change the RSS feed URL without loosing user subscribed to the Mirror URL. Further more, you get an overview about all submitted Podcasts assigned to an Apple ID.

If you are new to Podcasting on iTunes, you will find a ‘How To Create Your Own iTunes Podcast‘ on pabst.socialmedia.

Finally, iTunes Connect Podcasts gives Podcasters more control over their Podcasts by refreshing Podcasts without resubmitting.

Stay tuned!

The post iTunes Connect: Now Adding and Refreshing Podcasts without iTunes appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.

Here’s my website miapple.me – Tech.Blog shown on left hand without adblocker and on the right hand with activated adblocker:

But nothing on earth is free. Adblockers will force bloggers to give up. For example, the adblocker traffic of my website miapple.me – Tech.Blog gained 25% on average. This means that nearly 25% of all my blog visitors are using adblockers leading to a lower click chance on ads displayed on my blog’s posts.

Now it is time to strike back! Some websites in Germany like bild.de are completely blocking visitors with activated adblocker, forcing them either to deactivate the adblocker, to whitelist the website or to pay for an ad-free version of the website.

Until now, I do not want to go that way. I better try to convince people to either deactivate the adblocker or, at least, whitelist miapple.me – Tech.Blog. After testing many different plugins, the free plugin of my choice is Adblock Notify by b*web. Adblock Notify detects Adblock and nofities users. Here’s my notification text:

Taking everything into account, the free plugin Adblock Notify by b*web is an elegant way to block adblocker on WordPress in a very nice way. Indeed, it is not really blocking, but it is starting the process to think about deactivating adblockers.

Stay tuned!

The post How To Block Adblocker On WordPress appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.

How to set up a Broadcast List:

1. Open WhatsApp and tap the ‘Broadcast Lists‘ button at the top of the Chats screen.

   

2. Tap ‘New List‘ at the bottom of the Broadcast Lists screen.

   

3. Type your contacts’ names or press the (+) button to choose from your contact list.

   

4. Select the recipients from your WhatsApp contacts.

   

5. The recipients are added to the Broadcast List. Then Tap ‘Create‘.

   

6. Now you created a Broadcast List.

   

How to edit a Broadcast List:

1. Open your Broadcast Lists and tap the (i) button on the List you want to edit.

   

2. At the list Info screen, you can:
   1. Change the name of your Broadcast List.

      

   2. Add or remove recipients from the list by tapping ‘Edit list‘…

Note: This will create a new Broadcast List. When you send a message to the Broadcast List, it will send to all recipients in the list who have your number saved in their phones’ address book. The recipients will receive the message as a normal message. When they reply, it will appear as a normal message in your Chats screen; their reply will not be sent to other recipients in the Broadcast List. Broadcast List is a one-to-many communication. If you want your recipients to participate in a group conversation, you should create a Group Chat instead.

Creating a WhatsApp Broadcast List is easily done and can be used as a kind of newsletter for your followers. There are also some paid WhatsApp Broadcast List options, e.g. WhatsBroadCast or WhatsBroadCast.

Stay tuned!

The post How To Create A WhatsApp Broadcast List appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.

In the following I show you how to create a custom URL to track Facebook ads in Google Analytics:

1. Build your custom Google Analytics URL: Click here and reference the tracking parameters to create a custom URL with Google Analytics (for details see below in the next paragraph). Note: Google Analytics is case sensitive, so utm_source=facebook is different from utm_source=Facebook.

   

2. Test Your URL: Copy your URL and type it in your browser’s window. It will take you to your landing page. Go to Google Analytics > Traffic Sources > Sources > Campaign. You should see your click identified with your chosen Name. Note: make sure to select today as your date.
3. Track Your Performance: Once you’ve added the code and created a custom URL, you can use Google Analytics the same way you use it to measure the performance of your Website.

Create Google Analytics URL

• Website URL: Enter the URL of the web page that you are going to create an ad for.
• Campaign Source: facebook
• Campaign Medium: Choose cpc (cost per click), cpm (cost per mille), ocpm (optimized CPM)
• Campaign Name: Type the name of the Facebook ad campaign here.
• Campaign Term: Type a descriptive term for your target audience.
• Campaign Content: Type the Name of the individual ad here.

Helpful Information:

• Campaign Source (utm_source): Required. Use utm_source to identifyFacebook ads as your source of traffic.
  • Example: utm_source=facebook
• Campaign Medium (utm_medium): Required. Use utm_medium to identify your bid type. Options are CPC, CPM oroCPM.
  • Example: utm_medium=cpc
• Campaign Name (utm_campaign): Required. Use utm_campaign to identify a specificFacebook ad campaign.
  • Example: utm_campaign=spring_sale
• Campaign Term (utm_term): Use this field to identify your target audience.
  • Example: utm_term=car+owners
• Campaign Content (utm_content): Use this field to identify your ads which can have different copy and creatives.
  • Examples: utm_content=logolink or utm_content=textlink

Create a corresponding Facebook Ad

In this example, I show you how to create a Facebook ad to your main website URL.

1. Create your campaign: Choose an objective for your campaign, e.g. ‘Send people to your website‘. Copy the custom URL created above and paste this URL in the field.

   

2. Create your ad account (if it doesn’t exist already): Set currency and time zone. All your ads billing and reporting data will be recorded in this currency and time zone. To change these in the future, you’ll need to create a new ad account.

   

3. Create your ad set: Fill in the audience you want to reach and how much Money you want to spend.

   

4. Create your ad: Create the loook and text of your ad. Note: The amount of text on your ad Image must be below 20% of the Image area!

   

5. Review your order: Automated check of your ad.
6. Place order: Click on ‘Place order‘ to start advertising…
7. See Facebook ad clicks in Google analytics! Done!

   

Now you learned how to track Facebook Ads in Google Analytics by creating a custom URL link, copying that URL in an objective, e.g. in ‘Send people to your website’. What ad did you create? And how much traffic did you get? Let us know and comment!

Stay tuned!

The post How To Track Facebook Ads In Google Analytics appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.

How to add a custom Profile picture to bbPress

Install WordPress plugin ‘Basic User Avatars’

Profile pictures are a WordPress setting, not specifically bbPress. WordPress calls profile pictures ‘Avatars’ and you will find the settings for Avatars under the ‘Discussion’ link under ‘Settings’ on the Admin Dashboard. Customs Profile pictures are added as follow:

1. In your WordPress Dashboard go to ‘Plugins‘.
2. Select ‘Add New‘.
3. Click in the field ‘Search Plugins‘ and type ‘Basic User Avatars‘ and hit the ‘Return‘ key on your Keyboard.
4. The plugin ‘Basic User Avatars‘ appears. Click ‘Install Now‘.
5. After Installation, click on ‘Activate Plugin‘.
6. Go to your bbPress profile on the front end and select ‘Edit‘. There you can upload any custom Profile Picture you want. You’re done!

Summary

The plugin ‘Basic User Avatars’ adds custom profile Picture to WordPress and bbPress forum, both to the back end (Dashboard) and the front end (profile).

Stay tuned!

The post bbPress: WordPress Plugin ‘Basic User Avatars’ Adds Custom Profile Picture appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.

bbPress plugin

Forum Visibility and Access

By a combination of forum visibility and registration, you can set up who can see your forums and who can post in your forums:

• Public – Anyone can see this forum
• Private – Only logged in registered users with a forum role  can see this forum
• Hidden – Only moderators/keymasters can see this forum

For setting the visibility for each forum, login to WordPress, go to dashboard>forums> and when you add/edit a forum, you can see visibility options on the right hand side in the forum attributes.

The following forum roles for users can be selected:

• spectator
• participant
• moderator
• keymaster
• blocked

Forum Access

You can set whether users need to be registered and control the registration process. These two controls give you various degrees of control:

Public viewing, public posting

By default forums are available to be publicly viewed.  If you set anonymous posting to be on than anyone can also post.  This is the most public version of the forum.  It can lead to lots of spam being posted, and does hand control of what’s said in your forums to the internet community, with you effectively being able to only delete afterwards.

Public viewing, registered user posting

Here anyone can view the forums, but only registered users can join in and post.

Private viewing, registered user posting

Here you have a private forum. Only registered users can view and post.  Here it would be very unusual to allow automatic registration, and this will be typically a manual process.  To set a forum as private go into dashboard>forums> and select edit for the forum you wish to be hidden.  Under the forum attributes on the right hand side, set visibility to private.

WordPress Plugin ‘Private Groups’ for bbPress:

‘Private Groups‘ for bbPress extends the option to set permissions to distinguished forums by establishing groups. This plugin creates unlimited private forum Groups. Forums are then allocated to one or more groups, and users allocated to one or more groups.

What this achieves unlimited private groups each user is set to a group or groups, and each forum can have any or all the groups associated with it any number of public forums combined with any number of group forums. The group forums can be individually set to public or private. Forum title and description (but not topics or replies) can be set to be visible to non-group users, allowing people to see that a forum exists but not access it Separate pages can be set to allow redirection of non group users for sign-up or Information.

Restrictions/warnings

The widgets (bbPress) forums list, (bbPress) recent replies, and (bbPress) recent topics SHOULD NOT BE USED, as they will show topics headings and author names for all forums. Replacement widgets called (private groups) forums list, (private groups) recent replies, and (private groups) recent topics are available instead.

Summary

The WordPress plugin ‘Private Groups’ for bbPress connects each single forum to a group of forum members. Only the group members are able to see this forum.

Stay tuned!

The post bbPress: WordPress Plugin ‘Private Groups’ Adds Forum Groups To User Roles appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.

I searched the web for disabled, suspended and blocked Facebook accounts. And I’m not alone! Since September 2014, Facebook “real-name policy” is rolling out, hitting the right, but also the wrong people, like native Indians and others. The official Facebook statement “Keeping Facebook activity authentic” by Matt Jones, Site Integrity Engineer, tries to explain the whole story. Up to the date when Facebook disabled my account, I got the opinion that Facebook is, in principle, on the right way. But there’s one important point: It is not only the right way what counts, but also HOW you’re going that way. And in that point, Facebook is failing completely.

Submitting an appeal

At the end I found a Facebook’s help page “Disabled Accounts“. Facebook tells you some reasons for disabling an account:

“We disable Facebook accounts that don’t follow the Facebook Terms. Some violations include:

• Continued prohibited behavior after receiving a warning or multiple warnings from Facebook
• Unsolicited contact with others for the purpose of harassment, advertising, promoting, dating or other inappropriate conduct
• Use of a fake Name
• Impersonation of a person or entity, or other misrepresentation of identity
• Posting content that doesn’t follow the Facebook Terms

Please review the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to learn more about our policies. If you think your account was disabled by mistake you can submit an Appeal.”

I’ve nor never ever received any warnings, neither done one of the other things. I was still confused. And further more, Facebook says on that help page:

OK, I thought, go ahead. I followed the instructions and Facebook wanted to verify my name. I was puzzled because Facebook officially allows nick names (for Details see “What other names are allowed on Facebook?“). And I got one: Gee Are stands for the first letters of my two first names: “G. R.”. It’s like A Jay (A. J.)….

Verifying your identity

“Before we can review your account, please fill out the form below to help us verify your identity. Please attach a copy of your ID(s). Learn more about why we require ID verification and what types of ID we’ll accept below.”

Let’s go to the next chapter. I scanned my ID and uploaded it to Facebook. That’s illegal in Germany. You aren’t allowed to make any copies of your German ID. Hence, Facebook forces me to break the law. Okay, Facebook states why they Need my ID and that they will delete the copy after verifying my identity:

“We require everyone using Facebook to use their authentic name and birthday. This way, you always know who you’re connecting with. In order to confirm that you’re using your authentic name on Facebook, we need you to provide a copy of your ID. Please keep in mind that we’ll permanently delete this document after we resolve your issue.”

…and Facebook is telling you what names are allowed:

“Facebook is a community where people use their authentic identities. We require people to provide the name they use in real life; that way, you always know who you’re connecting with. This helps keep our community safe.

Please refrain from adding any of these to your name:

• Symbols, numbers, unusual capitalization, repeating characters or punctuation.
• Characters from multiple languages.
• Titles of any kind (ex: professional, religious).
• Words, phrases or nicknames in place of a middle name.
• Offensive or suggestive words of any kind.

Other things to keep in mind:

• The name you use should be your authentic identity; as your friends call you in real life and as our acceptable identification forms would show.
• Nicknames can be used as a first or middle name if they’re a variation of your authentic name (like Bob instead of Robert).
• You can also list an additional name on your account (ex: maiden name, nickname, professional name).
• Profiles are for individual use only. We offer Pages for professional personas, organizations and businesses.
• Pretending to be anything or anyone isn’t allowed.

If your authentic name isn’t listed on your account, please change your name. If you’re unable to change it, learn more.”

I must apologize. There are many different ways to confirm your identity. Find the complete list of types of IDs Facebook accepts in the following. That’s really nice from Facebook…

“You can confirm your identity in 1 of 3 ways. When submitting documentation, please cover up any personal information we don’t need to verify your identity (ex: credit card number, Social Security number). We encrypt people’s connections to Facebook by default, including IDs you send to us. We delete your ID information after verification is complete.

Option 1

We will accept any government-issued ID that contains your name and date of birth. Examples include:

• Birth certificate
• Driver’s license
• Passport
• Marriage certificate
• Official name change paperwork
• Personal or vehicle insurance Card
• Non-driver’s government ID (ex: disability, SNAP card, national ID Card)
• Green card, residence permit or immigration papers
• Tribal identification or status Card
• Voter ID card

Option 2

You can provide two different forms of ID from the following list (ex: a bank statement and a library card, but not two bank statements). The names on your IDs must match each other, and one of the IDs must include a photo or date of birth that matches the information on your profile.

Below are some examples of IDs we’ll accept:

• Bank Statement
• Bus card
• Check
• Credit Card
• Employment verification
• Library Card
• Mail
• Magazine subscription stub
• Medical record
• Membership ID (ex: pension card, union membership, work ID, professional ID)
• Paycheck stub
• Permit
• School Card
• School record
• Social Security Card
• Utility bill
• Yearbook photo (actual scan or photograph of the page in your yearbook)

Option 3

If you don’t have an ID that shows your authentic name as well as your photo or date of birth, you can provide two forms of ID from Option 2 above, and then provide a government ID that includes a date of birth or photo that matches the information on your profile. We won’t add the name or other information from the government ID to your account.”

Wait and see

I’ve been waiting for 48 hours to get a response from Facebook (some others are reporting 24 hours). In the meantime while trying to log in, I got the following message:

“We’ll take look at the document you submitted and get back to you. If we need more help confirming your name, we’ll reach out for additional documentation.”

Going through the entire process led to the result that my official (Facebook) name is no longer “Gee Are Pabst”, but “GR Pabst”. Facebook asked my if I can accept it. After two days of struggling I frustratedly said “Yes”…

Lessons learned:

1. Have someone you trust, who is knowledgeable about social media and be an admin of your Facebook page(s), too!
2. Be aware, that Facebook got all the force, not you!

Finally, I could recover my disabled Facebook account. The entire story demonstrated how mighty Facebook is, and, on the other side, how less powerful a single power is. @Facebook: Don’t forget who made you mighty! It were we, your users!

Stay tuned!

The post Facebook Account Disabled: How I Recovered It appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.

Post personally, post emotionally and post authentically!

I give you some proves for my thesis. Before I changed the way of posting on Facebook, a post on the Facebook page of miapple.me – Tech.Blog reached roughly 100 people. After the change, personal, emotional and ethnical posts of mine reached at least 4-7 times more people.

My two posts about my Apple Watch order reached roughly 700 people each. The one of the two posts with the headline “Am I crazy?” got more engagement and Likes.

Or just a fresh and short Happy #EasterSynday wish gained 243 people.

Taking everything into account, posting personally, emotionally and authentically are the 3 success factors to reach more people on Facebook and as a logical consequence gain more Facebook Likes, Shares and Reach.

Stay tuned!

The post 3 Success Factors To Get More Facebook Likes And Shares appeared first on pabst.socialmedia.