With taking several weeks off at the end of 2011 I decided to sign up for HootSuite Pro to help manage some Tweets. If anything I thought I’d be able to have greater control over scheduling Tweets to multiple accounts compared to what is already offered via the Basic Free Version of HootSuite.

Comparing HootSuite Pro vs HootSuite Basic shows that the Pro version is more focused on analytics. Reviewing your stats is great, so it’s a welcomed addition but it’s the same information you can pull elsewhere.

Another feature available to Pro accounts is the Bulk Message Scheduling feature.

While the Bulk Message Scheduling feature sounds great there are a few quirks with how to get it working.

In order to bulk schedule you will need a spreadsheet with the following columns:

Date (dd/mm/yyyy format)

Time (hh:mm format)

Tweet

You can upload only one spreadsheet to each social profile and you cannot repeat the Tweet even if you allow for a 24 hour time period in between. If you try to schedule the same Tweet 3 days apart you will get an error message when uploading your spreadsheet to HootSuite. Also if you do end up uploading a spreadsheet for multiple accounts your calendar will be overrun with duplicate Tweets. As in if you scheduled Tweet A for profiles X, Y and Z in your calendar you will have 3 separate entries. This is the complete opposite of how you can manually schedule a Tweet via the HootSuite dashboard in that you can link Tweet A to profiles X, Y and Z which will show in your calendar as 1 entry going to several profiles.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on HootSuite but I was expecting a better solution to bulk scheduling. I was hoping for drag drop date editing, quick copy/paste tweets for mass scheduling or even just being able to schedule a tweet to multiple accounts. Maybe HootSuite Enterprise offers a better solution.

What is IntoNow?

IntoNow is a consumer tech company that aims to enhance the way people engage with each other around the shows they love. Based on the SoundPrint platform, IntoNow gives users the ability to almost instantly recognize TV content and then helps them share and discuss those shows with friends, both within the product and through other social streams such as Facebook and Twitter.

I downloaded the IntoNow app for my iPhone 4 about a week ago. I was instantly amazed by this app and tweeted to all of my followers that they had to download this ASAP! There’s a certain level of excitement and amazement that I get every time I open up the app and run the listening software. I’m always secretly hoping that the app fails to recognize what I’m watching but so far, like magic, it knows exactly what I’m watching and even knows the episode name when applicable.

How Does IntoNow Know What I’m Doing?
One word, SoundPrint.

At the core of our product is the SoundPrint platform, our patented indexing technology. With SoundPrint, IntoNow can identify what’s being watched, down to the individual episode, within seconds.

IntoNow can recognize a show even if it’s airing live for the first time. We also have an index that covers more than 140 million minutes of previously aired shows. That’s the equivalent of 266 years of video! Our catalog represents more than 2.6 million airings, indexed during the past five years, and it’s growing by the second.

The SoundPrint platform is the reason why IntoNow knows what you’re watching during a first time airing as well as being able to identify older episodes of previous aired shows. To me this is the truly amazing part, IntoNow knew I was watching Jeopardy as it aired as well was able to know that I was watching Firefly on Netflix right down to the episode name after listening for around 6 seconds.

There are also social features of sharing what you are watching via Facebook and Twitter as well integration with Netflix, iTunes and IMDb. All this, combined with the wow factor of SoundPrint along with the beautiful design of the app make IntoNow my go to app for TV entertainment checkin and sharing.

The IntoNow app is so smart it even knows when you are deliberately trying to trick it.

The Pitch

Jetsetter is a private online community that provides members with insider access, expert knowledge, and exclusive deals on the world’s greatest vacations. All of the properties we feature are hand-selected by our team of globe-trotting correspondents, and sales last five to seven days. Our philosophy is that travel should be fun and easy — and that includes the planning part.

I’ve been a member of Jetsetter for a little more than a month now and the first thing I need to comment on is the absolutely amazing photography. Don’t get me wrong the deals on the locations are fantastic but something needs to said for the effort put into making this an extremely beautiful travel site. The images of the locations are so inviting that I immediately want to book a flight just so I can take advantage of their hotel deals. While some travel sites give you stock photography of the hotel or outdated images from the 80s depicting a happy couple by the pool or beach, Jetsetter seems to take the extra step to provide high quality images to convey class and prestige. Of course this makes perfect sense since the company behind Jetsetter is the GILT GROUPE which deals in luxury and high fashioned items.

The locations featured on Jetsetter are hand selected and you’ll find many great deals for locations all over the world. Each deal will give you several room options showing you the Jetsetter rate compared to the rate found on the hotel website. For example there currently is a deal for the Evason Phuket & Six Senses Spa located in Phuket, Thialand. The most expensive option is the Deluxe Pool Spa suite from $225/night compared to the hotel website price of $467/night for the exact same room. Opting for the least expensive room would run from $60/night compared to the hotel’s $169/night.

As mentioned I was invited to join Jetsetter right before December in which I quickly found deals on locations in California, Arizona and New York. We wanted to take advantage of these deals since I took most of my vacation time in December but unfortunately we already had a vacation planned throughout the month so we could not take advantage of the deals found. I can’t wait to book through Jetsetter because the locations and prices are great. Not to mention every time I log into the site I get to explore some fantastic locations which I can make note of for future vacations.

You can put in a request to join at Jetsetter.com or if you’d like to earn $25 on sign up you can use my Personal Invitation Link, I only receive $25 when you book your first trip.
Bonus: Once you become a member of Jetsetter you get access to the GILT family of sites.

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Installed a new theme but for some reason your images aren’t aligning correctly when placed via the Image Media Box or is text-wrapping broken? Chances are there are some CSS issues in your theme’s stylesheet. Open your stylesheet.css using your favorite editor and look for img.alignright, img.alignleft or img.aligncenter as these are the default style names given by your WordPress install.

If you do not have any of the names above in your CSS or if you are missing some styles, below is the default styles given when installing a new WordPress installation. You will see the “img” and “a img” styles below which are used for linked images and non-linked images respectively.

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img.alignright {float:right; margin:0 0 1em 1em}
img.alignleft {float:left; margin:0 1em 1em 0}
img.aligncenter {display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto}
a img.alignright {float:right; margin:0 0 1em 1em}
a img.alignleft {float:left; margin:0 1em 1em 0}
a img.aligncenter {display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto}

You can copy the above and paste it into your stylesheet.css or use the above as a reference point for spotting or editing your own stylesheet.

Also note that your theme may use custom naming such as #content img.alignright. This just means that img.alignright is a child style of #content. In other words your theme has an area designated as the content area of which images found in this area and labelled with alignright will get the styles found in your stylesheet.css.

If you are new to CSS the numbers found in “img.alignright {float:right; margin:0 0 1em 1em}” after the “margin:” all deal with spacing. Each number is associated with the four sides of a box and are read in this order; top, right, bottom, left. So “img.alignright {float:right; margin:0 0 1em 1em}” would give some space on the bottom and left-hand side of an image.