All posts in Technology

Tips for Using Pinterest for Your Business

by Jessica Barnett on April 18, 2012 in Technology with 1 Comment
Originally posted on Big Sea’s Baitshop Blog.

First things first: if you haven’t already, go read Getting Started with Pinterest for Your Business. It’s a guide to getting started.

Make the most of your pins

  1. Pinterest is a visual site. Make sure you pin visually interesting things. High quality designs and high resolution images go a long way. Keep in mind that others may pin your products and posts even if you don’t, so always choose good images for your products and blog.
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StartupBus Florida Wrap Up

by Jessica Barnett on March 23, 2012 in Tampa Bay, Technology with No comments

Originally posted on the StartupBus blog.

Just a couple weeks ago we were a bunch of strangers drinking in a bar in downtown Tampa. It’s incredible how much has happened in such a short time – we traveled across America, created four amazing startups, pitched to tech communities in different cities all over the south and most importantly, found 24 awesome and crazy new friends… all while on a bus.

Our 1,500+ mile trip to SXSW onboard StartupBus Florida was one heck of an adventure. The highlight of which was when BumperCrop won runner up at SXSW! With steep competition from 55 other teams from all over the US and Mexico, having a Florida company take the #2 spot was quite an honor!

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How to Get Started on Pinterest for Businesses

by Jessica Barnett on March 20, 2012 in Technology with No comments

Originally posted on Big Sea’s Baitshop Blog.

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

If you’re marketing to women, especially women 25 – 45, you should be on Pinterest because:

  • People are spending a ton of time on Pinterest.
  • Pinterest is growing at an astounding rate and shows no signs of slowing.
  • Pinterest primes people for sharing and shopping for the products they love.
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Intentions for 2012

by Jessica Barnett on January 15, 2012 in Personal, Technology with No comments

Andi rallied the troops to post about our Intentions for 2012! Here’s mine:

My Intentions for 2012

  1. Better time management. Follow the schedules and to-do lists I make, but don’t use nearly enough. Say “no” more, prioritize better and spend less time browsing the wonders of the internets.
  2. Write more. I’d be happy if I wrote about just about anything at this point as long as it’s more significant than emails, texts and Facebook updates.
  3. Move quicker. Send the stupid email, don’t stare at it in Drafts for an hour. Get things out of “planning” and into “production” faster.
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Writing Effective Facebook Posts Part 2

by Jessica Barnett on January 12, 2012 in Technology with No comments
UPDATE! This article is a follow up to Writing Effective Facebook Posts Part 1. I decided to write this after the original post received over 10,000 views and 2,000 shares on Social Media Today. Originally posted on Big Sea’s Baitshop Blog.

Does Using a 3Rd Party Api to Publish to Facebook Decrease Engagement? Update!  Maybe Not.

Facebook claims they fixed the bug causing updates posted by 3rd party applications (like Hootsuite, Twitter, TweetDeck, etc.) to have 80% lower engagement than those posted directly on Facebook. Despite EdgeRank Checker tentatively agreeing (sort of), I’m skeptical.

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Announcing StartupBus Florida!

by Jessica Barnett on January 7, 2012 in Tampa Bay, Technology with No comments

Last year, I was fortunate enough to ride StartupBus Miami to SXSW. The experience was amazing/exhausting/traumatic/exciting and most of all… once in a lifetime! Some of the people I met on the bus became some of my closest friends.

Upon arriving home, we got to talking and realized if we could do this on a bus, we could certainly do it sitting still and with reliable internet… Thus, Startup Weekend Tampa was born. (It’s coming up again soon, you should come!)

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Writing Effective Facebook Posts

by Jessica Barnett on October 5, 2011 in Technology with No comments
UPDATE! This article was also posted on Social Media Today where it received over 10,000 views and 2,000 shares! Originally posted on Big Sea’s Baitshop Blog.

Some Background: What is EdgeRank?

What you see in your Facebook newsfeed isn’t magic; it’s controlled by a very important algorithm called EdgeRank. Facebook wants users to be engaged, so EdgeRank is a critical aspect of their business. The EdgeRank factors are:

  • Affinity – How often you interact with others (be it visiting a friend’s profile or commenting on a Page’s picture).
  • Edge Weight – The type of content it is. A few types are: photos, videos, status updates, place checkins, becoming friends with someone, Liking a Page, changing your profile picture, etc. Keep in mind, there are general rules, but everyone’s Edge Weight is different and Facebook has carte blanche to tweak things at will.
  • Recency – The older something is, the less likely you are to see it.
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Announcing: Tampa Bay Entrepreneur/Startup Resources

by Jessica Barnett on April 12, 2011 in Tampa Bay, Technology with No comments

CROSSPOST FROM: Announcing: Tampa Bay Entrepreneur/Startup Resources on Startup Weekend Tampa

We’re crowdsourcing a list of resources for entrepreneurs and startups in Tampa Bay.

Tampa Bay, and Florida in general, might not have as many resources for building a startup as we’d like, but I think we have more than we realize. I’ve been in several conversations about the need to start centralizing these resources and Startup Weekend Tampa seemed like the perfect opportunity to jump-start that! With that in mind, I created http://tampa.startupweekend.org/resources/ and version 1.0 of the Google Doc embedded there.

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How Technology Is Affecting Interpersonal Relationships

by Jessica Barnett on April 6, 2011 in Technology with 3 Comments

This entry is in response to/ inspired by Nate Rigg’s post: On Relationship Layers, Time and Facebook

In days gone by, after meeting someone new, you’d probably have to wait to chat with them again until the next time you saw one another face to face or over the phone. Getting to know someone was a slow process. Now, you can add someone on Twitter or Facebook and casually interact with them for months in between. Then, next time you see them, you’ve already done a tremendous amount of “getting to know” the person, the “layers” have been broken down in between.

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Improving Your Local Startup Ecosystem

by Jessica Barnett on March 28, 2011 in Tampa Bay, Technology with No comments

Seth Elliot, a great guy I’ve had a chance to chat with at SuperConf in Miami and SXSWi in Austin, runs the weekly Miami StartupDigest newsletter. He included this in the latest, and I thought it was worth a share:

Our startup ecosystem continues to grow and evolve. Each and every one of you can help in this process. How? Consider the following:

  • Attend events – Remember, these are organized for your benefit. Even though it sometime seems like a pain at the end of a long day, do your best to attend some of these startup events.
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