What’s the one app that fashion bloggers all over the world go crazy over? It’s Pose, the Instagram-meets-style app that allows its users to share their daily outfits with brand information included. It’s like street-spotting, but with your phone. Sounds super fun, right? It is, especially after the start-up made major upgrades to the app, taking it from a basic photo app to a more engaged community.

If you were one of the original Pose users, I’m sure you remember the painstaking tagging feature. Did I just hear you groan in agreement? Now, Pose has streamlined the tagging feature, cutting down on the amount of time it takes to upload your photo by syncing up shopping information in the tagging fields. No more manual input for each and very item you are wearing!

Also, users can now follow friends or personalities, even brands.  Want to know what items your favorite blogger goes crazy for? Follow him/her on Pose. It’s like getting a sneak peek into someone’s closet, or tagging along with your favorite bloggers as they go shopping. But without the overspending and buyers remorse! Before the upgrades, you couldn’t leave comments and there was no “hearting” option, but those features have since been added.

Another helpful addition? The sharing options. By linking their Pose photos with their Twitter and Facebook accounts, bloggers can share their closet and wardrobe with readers and brands, leading to more comments, and potential marketing partnerships. Sounds like a win-win situation!

The one upgrade that literally made me weep for joy was the blogging widget. Seriously amazing. You basically  install a widget into you blog that shares your Pose photos and likes in real-time action onto your blog. No linking and downloading. Just snap and share. Best upgrade ever!

I can’t wait to see what else the Pose team has in store for us. Possibly an e-commerce functionality? My bank account should be frightened.

What do you think about Pose? Are you loving the new changes? What else would you like to see?

Measuring a blogger’s influence can be tricky. Along with your basic statistics, there is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google + and all the other social media platforms waiting to be added into the “influencer” pot. Enter Klout, the start-up that measures users social media relevance and influence through algorithms. Sounds fancy and fail-proof, right?

Wrong. I recently entered my social media accounts into Klout and guess what? It stated that I was an influencer in blueberries and bacon. Say what?

The problem with Klout lies in its inability to actually see its users. To actually understand them. Sure, it can mathematically create an equation that somehow summarizes you as social media user, but what about me as a person? I rarely eat meat and blueberries so how did I become an influencer?! I probably talk about shoes that are blueberry-colored but that is as close as it gets.

According to Klout, it “measures influence online using data from your social networks. Anywhere you have an online presence, you have the opportunity to influence people by creating or sharing content that inspires actions such as likes, retweets, comments and more.” The key word in understanding Klout is data. Everything you say and everything you like equals into your Klout score. It’s all about numbers and less about you as a blogger.

Yes, Klout can be a fun tool, especially for those who want to see potential marketing opportunities or get insight into their social media profiles. But do I use my Klout score for anything? nope. Do brands ask what my Klout score is before working with me? Nope.

Sorry Klout, I think that I have a better idea of what I’m all about, not a computer that breaks me down into an algorithm.

ps: no blueberries or bacon were consumed while writing this post.

Last week, our Twitter fans got to talking about Google + and how they were a little confused about it. Why should I use it? How does it function? Do I really need it? There were so many good questions and I thought what better place to talk about this new social media network than here!

Introduced last year, Google + never really took off amongst bloggers. Frankly, a lot of people didn’t have enough incentive to use it. Not enough users, lack of business integration, and an overall anticlimactic first couple of months led many bloggers to ask what was the big deal. However, the momentum for Google + is picking up a little speed. With impressive networking capabilities, a fun video hangout option and brand pages, it looks like Google + is carving its own niche in the social media world.

But, based on our Twitter conversations, it seems that many of you are still on the fence about it. Let me say that at first I was a little bored by it. I don’t need another Facebook and it will never replace the news-feed feel of Twitter. But, after playing with it more, I realized that Google + has the potential of being a great marketing tool for all you bloggers out there. I know, the layout is a little confusing and getting to know its functionality can be frustrating. Plus, you are probably asking yourself, “Why do I need another social network?” However, here are 5 reasons why you should give Google+ a shot.

1. The power of circles. Let’s face it, we don’t need to share certain information with everyone and their mom. That’s why I love the Google + circles. Now I can separate my friends into specific groups and make sure that the content I post is relevant to that specified circle. That means no more weir conversations with grandma about why I was wearing leather leggings and a fur vest to work the other day.

2. Video “Hangouts” are amazing. Three words for you: group video chats. After doing a hangout with a group of friends scattered across the country, I decided that the Hangouts might be the best thing about Google +. Dare I say, it is even better than Skype?

3. News feed updates with every comment. If you are looking to stay up-to-date with who is commenting on what blog post, Google + is your best friend. With every comment on a Google + post, your post will be moved to the top of the news feed. Hello instant advertising!

4. You can’t escape it. From Gmail to your Google Reader, Google is everywhere which means accessing Google + is easy. You don’t have to open multiple tabs to view your Google + profile because, chances are, you already have at least one Google program running.

5. Easy interface. Unlike Facebook, Google + has a clean, simple interface that makes it easy for anyone to use. There are no hidden settings and everything you need is on one major page. Less head-scratching, more posting!

Do you use Google + already? How do you balance all your social media outlets? Let us know in the comments!

You love Instagram, it works so well for you on Twitter. Posting links on your Facebook? Well not so much. People like ok… but don’t react as well as a proper image upload to a gallery (with tagging).

Lo and behold, instafb.com . It’s an ultra simple tool that directs your Instagram feed automatically to a Facebook Gallery. You just go to the site, enter in your Instagram account, your Facebook account, name the album you want to create in Facebook.. and wella. It only uploads 50 images on the first try, but after that it all goes in automatically.

The Advantages?

At first, I thought, What’s the big deal? Well, there are a couple of things.

• Branding: Posting the images directly into the gallery show up on your page and in the feeds in a much more visually appealing way. That tiny thumbnail on the wall post is hard to read for those skimming through.
• Higher Interactivity: Your friends a better chance to get a good look at your pics, and like them! I’ve noticed a much higher rate of interactivity on my profile since linking the two accounts.
• Tagging: You can’t tag wall posts as well, but you sure can tag the bejesus out of your photo uploads. Now if you take a great pic you can tag them on Instagram, Twitter, now Facebook. This enables you to give your bffs the shout out they deserve.

So give it a try! Since I’ve started using this.. it’s given me a whole new perspective on how to leverage Facebook!

by Nubia’s Nonsense

I don’t know about you, but if I don’t have a list in front of me everyday I am very scattered brained. I do end up getting work done, however I don’t feel it’s to my full potential and it ends up taking a lot longer than it should have. As a blogger there are tons of methods I utilize to get the word out about my site: Twitter, Facebook, Chictopia, Lookbook.nu,Tumblr, Instagram (one of my newer favorites) and that’s not even the end of the list. To keep good relationships in all these networking sites, it’s imperative to keep them constantly updated. Keeping these updated can be rather… draining? Especially if you don’t blog full time and you’re coming home from a hard day of work to get everything done. We’re not robots after all. This brings me to my point.

Organization and Time Management are Key.

Time is not your friend! It goes by extremely quickly and if you don’t treasure it, it shows no mercy no matter who you are. It’s extremely easy to get distracted while you’re on your computer and if you don’t have some sort of set goals, You will probably end up compromising valuable time.

As of late I’ve been fond of the task manager Wunderlist. It’s amazingly easy to use. You can create an account or you can log in via Facebook. This online task manager is also I-phone, I pad, Andriod, Windows, and Mac friendly #score. It has cute themes to choose from for your visual pleasure and lets you plan by day, week or you can add your own dates. You can always use your phone as your planner or use a hand written planner, But I like playing and exploring with new programs. This is something I’ve been using for my social network time management and I thought I’d share my method. I simply keep it open in a tab and reference back to it from time to time.

(Click on image to enlarge)

The list I have above is an example. But if I have 6 hours to work with, This is my usual method.

• 2 hours publishing existing post and drafting post for the week. Also figuring out how or where I’m finding content for future post.
• 1 hour dabbling with Twitter and engaging in coversations as well as finding material for my instagram.
• 1 hour checking my emails and replying to people. Also creating emails to people I want to get in contact with.
• 1 hour updating my Chictopia, Lookbook.nu, and IFB. Adding friends and perhaps participating in forums.
• 1 hour catching up on my favorite blogs and helpful reading WWD, Cutblog, Problogger, IFB, NYtimes, Etc.

Do I have 6 hours to give my blog everyday? Absolutely not. I wish! I do not blog full time as of now. But If I only had 3 hours to work with, I would make the most of them. I guarentee that if you use time management effectively you will see a noticeable change in all of your social networks.

Image by meowsk