19 May 2015

University of Auckland: Health Research Doctoral scholarship

University of Auckland has invited applications for Health Research Doctoral scholarships for the 2015 session. The interested candidates must apply on or before November 1.
Scholarship details
Total no. of scholarships- 3
The students will be provided a tax-free stipend up to $25000 per annum. 
The students will be given a health insurance for 36 months, if applicable.
The part-time programme students will be paid pro-rata up to 72 months.

Eligibility Criteria
The scholarship will be awarded to domestic students and domestic-fee paying students. 
The students who will be enrolled full-time will be awarded a scholarship. 
The students must have an appropriate research programme.


Selection Procedure
The selection of students for the scholarship will be based on their academic merit and the quality of research proposal. The scholarship will be awarded on the recommendation of a sub-committee of the Board of Graduate studies, comprising the Dean of graduate studies, the DVC, two faculties from Medical  and Health Sciences and one faculty each from     Arts and Science.

How to apply
 The interested student must apply online for their scholarship. The application should be sent for the scholarship office.
The applicants must send their applications with a written statement.  The statement should have relevant information which is their achievements, interests, work experience, future study prospective etc. 

Important dates
The last date to apply for the scholarship is November 1.

'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao': Foodpanda's scholarship keeps reservations for females

The website www.foodpanda.in, an online food ordering platform, has started a 100 per cent scholarship scheme to promote educational courses. They are aiming at providing scholarships to atleast some 100 students.
The website has started these scholarships with an objective to help students pursue courses onwww.twenty19.com. Twnety19.com is also an online platform which enables students to gain knowledge and skills through experience.
According to IANS report, foodpanda.in has so far received applications from over 200 cities and 1,000 colleges. 
Co-founder and managing director at foodpanda.in, Rohit Chadda in a press release said, "we believe it's important for each and every one to contribute towards a brighter future for our country and its children, and this is just another small step in that direction after our 'food for soul' initiative that we started last year."
He said that 40 per cent reservation has been kept for the female students. This has been done as a part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign.
Foodpanda India is part a of the Rocket Internet group and is partner with the coupon site Cuponation.

Yale University of United States is providing scholarships for intensive continuing education

The Yale University of the United States is providing scholarships for intensive continuing education programmes in book and magazine publishing courses.
The university is ready to award "Innovative Leader Scholarship" to mid-level to senior-level book and magazine media professionals. The awards are for book publishing in the US and another for magazine media publishing in the US. Both these publications have a worldwide reach from US.
The scholarship pays 5,450 dollars as the tuition cost for the Yale Publishing course. The winner of the scholarship, however, must pay their own travel and housing costs. Applications for the 2015 course, which starts in July, are currently being accepted. The magazine class will start from July 12 and the book publishing class will start off from July 19.
Yale University comprises three major academic components namely the Yale College undergraduate program, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the professional schools. In addition, Yale also provides a wide array of centres for programmes and also includes libraries, museums, and administrative support offices. With approximately 11,250 students attending Yale; it is one of the most emerging educational centres of the world. 
Students with the right frame of mind and having an inclination towards studying abroad may get something more than they are looking for. With more and more international courses coming to the foreground, students have a wider exposure to the international education scenario which keeps updating every day.
Indian students have a lot of opportunity in the field of publication as they will get to know the international publishing industry from a close range and at a much cheaper rate thanks to the scholarship.

Five key leadership lessons I learnt early : Prabir Jha, Presidents and CHRO, Reliance Industries By Prabir Jha

I was then a freshly-minted civil services probationer, years before I studied theories of leadership and organisational behaviourat a top business school. But in those very early years, I discovered wonderful human resource insights that are simple but powerful lessons in leadership. They shaped a lot of me in my journey through a variety of industries and operating contexts. Maybe these five lessons - key elements in anyone's leadership evolution - will help us to at least pause and reflect. 

Stay close to your team, not your high office

All of 23, I remember going on my brand new red cycle to a subordinate office every morning. A round of hellos and personal enquiries with my staff, many of them decades older, brought firm handshakes and smiles. They were not used to a senior officer coming to them, clearing files at their tables, with them. My bosses were amused and perplexed. I knew my team better, understood what was happening in their lives and learnt from their wisdom. It was quicker, more inclusive, and built my early reputation as a leader of men and women. They delivered for me in full, even when I rarely had a typical reward carrot of the corporate kind with me. 

Look to compliment at least one person every day

This was something my boss noticed in me and pointed out. I was thrilled no doubt but also became conscious in what I now call, 'positive psychology'. I see so many leaders yell at and rebuke their teams. And I know that raising voices is not needed. What a few kind words can do, no fear can secure. You always will have many things that will go wrong. We must correct them. But let us look for that one thing that went well and not assume praise will build complacency.

You are there to take a decision. Take it

I hated seeing files in my 'in' tray and would ensure all were settled before I left for the day. One day someone asked me why I always make my decision or recommendation so quickly. My belief was nothing is dramatically going to change by the next morning. And a bad decision can always be reversed. But what do you do with a stuck decision? I also realised that you must delegate well, trust the right people and not micro-manage. Otherwise, there will be no time to do what you are supposed to focus on.

Be high on candour and honesty

As a young officer, I did see a lot of my senior officers not disagreeing with their bosses. I, however, also saw they were not necessarily respected by the larger team for that. They were holding back more for political expediency than a better administrative decision. One could be polite but not feel shy of airing a point of view.
I did have a few difficult experiences too but overall learnt that an honest speak-up is a better career builder than being a pure survivor. I have had senior bosses call me weeks later to say they valued my input, even if then they found it contrarian then. The same has largely played out true in the many years since.

Build your people

I had no formal input on HR then. But intuitively I knew one must give credit to whoever has done the work. I recall taking some outstanding staff to give them visibility to senior officers. Some may have even found me not confident. But to me it was building greater significance and exposure for people who otherwise would have thought they were mere file pushers. 

A lot of good work is done by people down the hierarchy. If only we could build them better, we could all have high-performing organisations. Life has moved on. Contexts have changed. The challenges of leadership have multiplied. Every leader is under greater pressure. But my early lessons have remained relevant. As one of my civil service bosses had told me years back, "Remember you finally have to earn your right to be a leader of men (and women) beyond your success at the UPSC (public service) examinations". 

(The writer is president and CHRO, Reliance Industries)

Source | Economic Times | 3 March 2015

வேலை வாங்கித் தரும் பேஸ்புக்

தன்னை தானே செல்ஃபி படம் எடுத்து சமூக வலைத்தளங்களில் போஸ்ட் செய்து எல்லோரையும் லைக் போடச் சொல்வது. புரியுதோ, புரியலையோ கவனத்தை ஈர்க்கக்கூடிய எந்த விஷயமாக இருந்தாலும் நம்முடைய இணையதளம் பக்கத்தில் மட்டுமல்லாது நண்பர்களின் பக்கத்திலும் ஒட்டிவைப்பது.

தூங்கினால் ஒரு ஸ்டேட்டஸ், கண் விழித்தால் ஒரு ஸ்டேட்டஸ் என ரகளை பண்ணுவது. இப்படி கும்மாளம் அடிப்பதற்கான சகல வாய்ப்புகளும் அள்ளித் தருபவை சமூக வலைதளங்கள். அதே சமயம் தொழில் நிமித்தமாக ஒருவர் தன்னைத் தயார்படுத்திக்கொள்ளவும், உலக அளவில் உள்ள வெவ்வேறு வேலை வாய்ப்புகளைப் பற்றித் தெரிந்து கொண்டு விண்ணப்பிக்கவும், ஆட்சேர்ப்புக்கும் பாலமாய் அமைகின்றன சமூக வலைதளங்கள்.

இன்று பல முன்னணி நிறுவனங்கள் லிங்க்டின், பேஸ்புக், டிவிட்டர், வியாடியோ, இன்ஸ்டாகிராம், பிஇண்ட்ரெஸ்ட், ஜிங், கூகுள் பிளஸ், பிரான்ச் அவுட் போன்ற சமூக ஊடக வலைதளங்களின் மூலம் தங்கள் நிறுவனத்துக்கான பணியாளர்களைத் தேர்ந்தெடுக்கிறார்கள்.
சமீபத்தில் ஜாப்வைட் (jobvite) எனும் அமைப்பு வேலை தேடுபவர்களைப் பற்றி ஒரு கணக்கெடுப்பு நடத்தியது. அதன்படி இன்று வேலை தேடுபவர்களில் 86 சதவீதத்தினர் பேஸ்புக், லிங்க்டின், கூகுள் பிளஸ், டிவிட்டர், இன்ஸ்டாகிராம், பி இன்ட்ரெஸ்ட் ஆகிய ஆறு இணையதள சமூக வலைத்தளங்களில் தங்களை பதிவு செய்து கொண்டுள்ளனர். அவ்வாறு வேலை தேடியவர்களில் 76 சதவீதம் பேருக்கு பேஸ்புக் மூலமாக வேலை கிடைத்துள்ளது.

தங்கள் வேலைக்கான சான்றாதாரர் (referral) மற்றும் நல்ல பணியில் இருப்பவர்களோடு தொடர்பு கொள்ள லிங்க்டின் தளத்தை பயன்படுத்துகிறார்கள். வேலைத் தொடர்பான அறிவுரை மற்றும் உதவிகள் பெற பலர் டிவிட்டரை நாடுகிறார்கள். ஆனால் வேலை அளிக்கும் நிறுவனங்கள் எந்த இணையதளத்தை விரும்புகிறார்கள் என்பது முக்கியம் அல்லவா? 94 சதவீத நிறுவனங்கள் தங்களுக்குத் தேவையான சரியான பணியாளரைத் தேர்ந்தெடுக்க லிங்க்டின் இணையதளத்தைத்தான் நாடுகிறார்கள்.

வேலைக்காக காத்திருப்பவர்கள் பெரு நிறுவனங்களின் கவனத்தை ஈர்க்க தன்விவரப் படிவத்தை கண்கவரும்படியாக ஒப்பனைகள் பூசி தயாரிப்பார்கள் என்பது எல்லோருக்கும் தெரியும். அதே போன்று, வேலை அளிக்கும் நிறுவனங்களும் பணியாளர்களை கவர்ந்திழுக்க பல ஜாலங்கள் செய்கிறார்கள். அதில் குறிப்பிடத்தக்கவை, பேஸ்புக் மற்றும் யு டியூப் மூலம் செய்யும் வித்தைகள்.

ஒரு நிறுவனத்தின் சிறப்பைப் பறைசாற்ற ‘லைக்’களின் எண்ணிக்கையை முன்னிருத்துவது பேஸ்புக்கின் வழக்கம். அதே போல கம்பெனிகள் தங்களைப் பற்றிய வீடியோ பதிவுகளை வெளியிட யு டியூப் சைபர் வெளியில் இடமளிக்கிறது. அடுத்தகட்ட வளர்ச்சியாக ஸ்மார்ட் போன் மற்றும் டாப்லெட் மூலம் வேலைக்கு ஆள் எடுக்கும் நாள் கூடிய விரைவில் வரும் என எதிர்பார்க்கப்படுகிறது.

Thanks to : The Hindu Tamil | Daily | 5.5.2015

18 May 2015

Book Challenges that improve reading habits

While the internet is flooded with fitness, cookery and fashion challenges, the book challenges that are being hosted by the various literary sites have proved to be the toughest deal so far. Moreover, some of these challenges have received really good feedback from their takers and have helped them improve their reading habits. So, if you are a bookworm who prefers poring over tomes to partying the night away, here are a few interesting book challenges that you will love...

52 books in 52 weeks
The challenge is to finish one book every week, so that by the end of the year, you would have read 52 books in total. This is an exciting challenge for readers who want to improve their speed of reading. The key is to stick to your favourite genre. If non-fiction and autobiographies do not interest you, don't try to explore new genres because your aim is to finish one book every week of the year.

The Victorian era challenge
The task at hand is to finish reading the work of the major authors of the Victorian era — between 1807 and 1901. The major writers of this era are Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, the Bronte Sisters, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, Robert Browning, George Eliot, Lewis Carroll and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Pick up the works of one author at a time and finish it within a stipulated period of time. For instance, give yourself a fortnight's time to finish The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle and follow it up with other works of the same author.

The five-book challenge
This challenge, started by the Duke's Library in United Kingdom, demanded the taker to finish five books from five different genres in one month and then write a 100-word review for each of them in an hour. What makes this challenge unique is that the idea is to go to a library to read the selected books. So, you have to give up your cosy blanket and mug of hot chocolate while reading, and embrace the silence of a public library instead.

The social media challenge
Challenge your friends on social media to read ten of your favourite books and give them a time period and ask them to carry forward the challenge once they are done. On successful accomplishment of the mission, you can reward your friends with small and cool surprises.

The A-Z Challenge
The rules of this challenge are simple. You have to finish one book with a name that begins with A in the first week. In the second week, you have to read a book with a name that begins with the letter B. So, in 26 weeks, you are supposed to finish 26 books.

Theme challenges
Pick up a theme, for instance, a book that is about a journey (Motorcycle Diaries) or coming of age (The Sense of Ending) as its theme. You can also select one predominant place, thing or activity and read a book on it. For example, you can pick up a country like Japan and read books that have been set there.

The book club challenge
Form a book club on your social networking page or in your phone's chat group. Invite friends to join and put up monthly challenges. The exciting thing here, you can fix a prize and reward the winner who wins the challenge.

12 books in 12 months
This is an easy challenge to take. Unlike the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge, here, you have enough time to experiment with different genres. This challenge is for someone who has been trying to read different genres. Make this year the year of trial and error. You can try 12 interesting books based on these classification:

- A book published in the year you were born.
- A book that has the initials of your name in the title.
- A book with a colour in the title
- A book with a name in the title
- A book with a number on the title
- A book with your favourite colour on its cover
- A book with non-human characters
- A Booker-winning book
- A book written by an author with your initials
- A book set in a different era
- A book that borrowed its title from a song
- A 600-pager

Even in the Internet age, good research needs a good library

When the foundation stone for the Prince of Wales Museum, now the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), was laid on November 11, 1905, by the Prince of Wales (later King George V), it also marked the beginnings of the library that became an integral part when the museum was thrown open on January 10, 1922.

One of the oldest reference libraries in the country, the library at CSMVS has managed to remain the primary source of information for archaeologists, historians, artists, heritage conservationists and students, despite the onslaught of the Internet and social media, say officials at the museum.

“This is a reference library where researchers and scholars can find all important reference books and latest publications on art, history, archeology, heritage and culture,” said S Mukherjee, director, CSMVS.

“Since we are a reference library, noted scholars and researchers access the library for primary information. We also get students from various colleges, including our own students of Post Graduate Diploma in Museology,” he added.
What started off as a modest library with around 5,000 books has now grown into a rich collection of over 30,000 books and 5000 periodicals and journals.

There is a massive collection of 200 rare books and manuscripts and these can be accessed only with special permission. The oldest among these include ‘Travels in India During the Years 1760, 1781, 1782, 1783’ by William Hodges and ‘Jataka, Volume 4,5 6’ by V Fassball among others. While the pages in some of these books are worn out, the process of restoring them is currently underway.

The library, is divided into two primary sections.

The first floor stores journals, which includes Marg, Artibus Asia, Annals of Bhandarkar, Journal of Bombay Asiatic Society, Islamic Culture, Journal of Indian Museums, Indian Journal of History of Science, Epigraphia Indica, The Indian Antiquary, Rooplekha, Rupam, National Geographic and Oriental Art.

The floor also houses the rare books that are stored carefully.

The ground floor, which includes computer facilities and reading tables, has books segregated into dedicated sections covering paintings, Ancient History, Archaeology, Geography, Sanskrit literature, Indian Civilisation, Zoology, Mahabharata and Ramayana, Mughal period, British period, customs, language and folklore, Sociology, Economics, Hinduism, Vedic religion, Buddhism, Jainism, Mythology, Religion and Philosophy, Library Science, Textiles and Handicrafts, pottery, terracotta and jewellery, coins, sculptures, temple architecture, Indian, Western and Mughal Art.
While the library was refurbished in 2013 with the help of funds from the Kala Ghoda Association, it is currently engaged in digitisation of its collection.

“I started using the library since I was studying for my BA in history in 2012. I am currently pursuing my masters in history and I am simultaneously pursuing my PG diploma from the museum. I am working on my dissertation on museum exhibition and this library is a one-stop information platform,”said Ajay Salunkhe, a student.

Sofiya Karanjia, who teaches art and design at Rachana Sansad, is another regular. “It is not an ordinary library and has a huge resource in art and culture from the beginning of the 20th century.”

The museum staff consider the library as “a robust back-end resource”. The curatorial staff consult the source material for writing books, catalogues, guide books and research papers. “

“It is an integral part of the museum as we need research and references for our collections. We need to refer to the books here constantly so that we can effectively communicate about the collection to our visitor”,” said Bilwa Kulkarni, education officer, CSMVS.

Even in the Internet age when information is readily available by entering the correct terms in a search engine, the library is quite popular among its users.

“The Internet and social media revolution has a discernible impact on physically accessing books, youngsters want to take shortcuts which is definitely a cause for concern. However, it is heartening to see that people still do come to the library,” said Mukherjee.

Source | Indian Express | 11 March 2015

Now, an app to censor your books!

Don't like profanity in your books? Let 'Clean Reader' make it easy for you! This new app is developed by Jared and Kirsten Maughan from Idaho, United States, who were concerned about their daughter when she began reading library books with significant curse words. This led to creating a 'profanity-filtering' programme, reports The Washington Post.

Users of the app can choose from three settings, 'Clean', 'Cleaner', and 'Squeaky Clean'. The app obscures the F-word, the S-word and all their permutations along with racial slurs and other racy terms, coming to a total of more than 100 words. And it's an ever-growing list!

The app is available on Apple store and Google Play store for free.

In its online demonstration, a line from a David Baldacci novel, "Pick up your damn game, Bobby", becomes "Pick up your darn game, Bobby".

The creators of Clean Reader explain, “If there are books you’ve put off reading because you’ve heard they’re full of curse words, chosen to stop reading some books because you weren’t comfortable with the bad language in them, or if you worry about what’s in the books your children read … then Clean Reader is for you!”

Source | Daily News Analysis | 18 March 2015

How to Develop Reading Habit in Your Children

Karthika Gopalakrishnan

Karthika Gopalakrishnan is Project Manager at the Book Lovers’ Program for Schools. She has worked previously as a journalist and a sub-editor with The Times Of India and The New Indian Express, Chennai. She loves books and runs a free beach-side library on Sundays.
I teach at DAV Public School, Velachery three days a week as a part of my work with the Book Lovers' Program for Schools (BLPS). Ours is a company that gets children from classes I to VIII to love to read. Each school that works with BLPS devotes a class once a week to storytelling, discussions about books, and activities revolving around books.

Achyuth, one of my students from class VIII, is among the best readers at the school. I spoke to his mother about his reading habit. She told me that ever since he was a child, Achyuth and his mother would get on a bus and travel to a library whenever he had a holiday. "Now, if I give him a book, he finishes reading it in a day. His father downloads ebooks for him and tells him to read slowly so that his father has some time to find and download another book for him."

There are a lot of ways that you can get your child to read. One of the first things to do is to give your child access to lots of books. These could be of any genre: animal stories, adventure, mystery, folk tales, fairy tales and so on. It's important to expose your child to a range of books at his or her reading level. By reading level, I mean just that a child should be able to read a book independently and understand the content correctly. Allow your child to tell you which of the books he or she is comfortable reading. Once children tell you about their choices a few times, you will be able to figure out what types of books to pick for them. A best case scenario is for children themselves to select the books that they want to read.

Discussing a book that your child has read provides an added boost. Your child will finish reading the book knowing that there will be an audience that is interested in his or her opinions. Often, the thought process that a book can trigger in a child's mind can surprise you. This next step may be hard but you should try your absolute best to go through with it as a parent: don't impose your tastes in books on your child. You may think that Geronimo Stilton is nowhere near as interesting as Georgina Kirrin (or George from The Famous Five series of books by Enid Blyton) but if your child prefers Geronimo, do let your child be. It's great that he or she is reading a book. Time will spur them to discover other, possibly better, books and authors.

Make reading a family activity. Allow your child to see the people around him or her reading. You could be reading newspapers, magazines, non-fiction, biographies, or any other sort of book, if not fiction. Give books a visible presence in your house. Make them a part of your child's life. Birthday gifts, return gifts, visits to book stores, trips to the library during the summer holidays are wonderful ways to instil and build a love forbooks in your child that lasts for life.
 
Source | http://idiva.com

5 safest apps to send private and secure messages

People are always looking for better ways to shield their communications from prying eyes. The `end to-end encryption' technology means that a message is ciphered before it's sent and then deciphered after it is received. This way, anyone looking to snoop on intermediary servers won't be able to understand the message.

erson to adopt into their everyday work. Now developers are figuring out new ways to make message-sending as easy as possible using this kind of encryption. 

TextSecure 

TextSecure is an Android app built for the sole purpose of secure texting. It was created by a group of developers known as Open Whisper Systems, who build suites of completely private communication apps and release the code to the world under an open-source license. TextSecure is OWS's Android solution. It provides end-toend encryption both over the air and in the actual phone. The app used to send encrypted messages using SMS standard. Last month, the app decided to nix SMS and send messages using data. This made it possible for users to send messages to TextSecure's iOS counterpart, Signal. The app requires users to have a unique passcode, which can be used to prove that they received the message. 

Signal 

Signal is the iOS app made by t he O p en W h i s p e r S ys t em s pr oje c t . L i ke TextSecure, it provides complete security to protect users from any external snooping. It now supports sending and receiving messages from TextSecure, which runs on Android. The app uses the same encryption technology as its Android counterpart. 

Telegram (secret chats)

Telegram is a messaging app available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. It was created by two brothers who helped launch the huge Russian social network V K (formerly VKontakte) in 2012. It offers two different types of chat op tions: normal chat -which has chats stored in the app's cloud, and `secret chat' -which uses end-to-end encryption. While the normal chat does not follow the most scrupulous securing processes, if a user sends only secret chats, that person ought to have their security bases covered. 

Silent Text

Silent Text is the secure messaging app from Silent Circle, one of the better-known companies building secure communication programs. Most famously, the company built the supposedly ultra-secure BlackPhone, which purports to be an NSA-snooping proof mobile device.Silent Text is said to be completely secure, using the best encryption practices available.But it requires a monthly subscription, which starts at $9.99 (`629 approx). 

Gliph 

Gliph is another messaging app, supposed to be completely secure. Its spin dif fers from most other apps, however, in that it also facilitates Bitcoin payments. The app allows users to anonymously send amounts of the digital currency to other Gliph users. It also has special message features, including the ability to set a message. expiration time as well as schedule messages

Source | Economic Times | 22 April 2015

Regards

TOOLS THAT WILL MAKE YOU A SOCIAL MEDIA MASTER

It's hard to stay on top of everything in the social media space because there's so much happening at any given time. The problem is compounded if you have multiple accounts to handle. Hitesh Raj Bhagat & Karan Bajaj show you show to make it seem that you have six hands when it comes to managing all that data
 
HOW TO MANAGE MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS 

Many of us have accounts with multiple social media networks. Posting the same thing individually on each network will require a lot of time and you need to juggle tabs so that you can sign-in to all sites. Some networks let you cross-connect with others to post simultaneously. For instance, Facebook lets you connect with Twitter, Twitter lets you connect to your Facebook account, Instagram lets you post to both Facebook and Twitter at the same time and so on. You can access and activate this feature from your account settings. 

EveryPost 

The inter-connect method works fine if you mainly stick with Face book and Twitter. However, if you use other social networks like Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Tumblr, you need a tool that will post to all of them. We recommend Everypost (http:everypost.me).

The paid service (US$ 9.99month) lets you post simultaneously across multiple networks and lets you cus tomise content to suit each platform. It is also loaded with features -you can post images & videos, select which networks they should be posted on, automatically shorten posts for twitter and even schedule posts. You can try it for free for 7 days before deciding if you need to subscribe for the service. 

Buffer 

This tool is great for scheduling posts on multiple social networks.The free account lets you connect one profile per network which is good enough for most unless you want to use it for business. It works with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest and you can queue up to 10 posts per network. You can attach images, set automatic link shortening, queue posts via email and even mention people on various networks in each post. Plus, Buffer seamlessly integrates with the default Facebook and Twitter interface -this makes it easier to schedule a post directly from the default page instead of logging into Buffer every time. 

GET YOUR ANALYTICS ON

Klout

Klout connects with your social media accounts, analyses them and gives you a rank and Klout score that depicts your influence level. It connects with Facebook, Foursquare, Google+, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn to compute an influ ence score -the higher your score the more influence you have. Klout shows an easy to understand graph to show the impact your posts have on your Klout influence score. 

Cyfe 

With Cyfe, you can connect almost all you social networks for analytics. It has a dashboard view that shows individual as well as collated reports for all the connected networks in real time. It's a cloud-based service and also lets you view detailed infographics about each social network so that it is easier to understand which of your posts have had have more impact.Keep in mind that the free account limits you to five social networks. 

TWITTER 

Pullquote 

This is an interesting extension for Google Chrome that lets you get around the 140 character limit when you want to share something. You start by downloading the extension and creating an account. Then, if you see an interesting piece of text you want to share on Twitter, just select it and the menu will appear. Pullquote takes your selected text and embeds it into the tweet as an image ­ but it also includes a link to the URL, to take a reader directly to that page when heshe clicks on it. You can also Pullquote images, though this fea ture is in beta. Warble Twitter is useful so long as you're signed in and watching carefully. The more number of accounts you follow, the more you will miss when you're not looking. Warble (http:www.warble.co) is a free daily alert service for Twitter. It tracks the keywords, phrases and hashtags you want, collates your messages and mentions, compiles it all and sends it to you in an email for you to read at your convenience. It's also a great way to discover content and people that you may miss otherwise ­ especially if the people talking haven't specifically mentioned your Twitter handle 

FACEBOOK 

F.B. (Fluff Busting) Purity is a free browser extension that gets rid of all the superfluous junk on Facebook. If you're constantly annoyed by Candy Crush invites, horoscopes of random people and nonsense status updates, this is for you. It's free and compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and Maxthon web browsers. There is a long list of features on offer, mainly designed to help you save time by seeing only what you want to see. For instance, you can disable those annoying autoplay videos, hide posts using keywordsphrases, remove trending topics (which can easily flood your feed), change font, font size, background image, background colour, hide notification pop-ups and hide smiliesemoticons. A basic blacklist and whitelist is built in too -by default it hides the more annoying stuff: info about someone liking something, attending something, joining a group and so on. 

NutshellMai

These guys offer a free digest email that will help you de-addict from all these services (or keep track of multiple profiles without taking up too much time in the day, as the case may be). For Facebook, they will send you new friend requests, birthday reminders, status updates & photos.For Twitter, it will tell you who followed or `unfollowed' you, direct messages, retweets and replies. Reviews, photos and checkins for Yelp, job listings & recommendations on LinkedIn and finally, Foursquare checkins. You will need to create a NutshellMail account and then link all your accounts. 

Hootsuite 

This platform includes tools that let you listen, respond, analyse and collaborate.It integrates with over 25 different social networks and lets you manage them all from one dashboard. You can reply with a single click, schedule updates at optimal times, target posts, send messages in bulk and view detailed reports. The free version lets you manage up to 3 social accounts (ideal for personal use). You can schedule one message at a time and get 3 basic analytics reports. If you need more, the Pro account (US$8.99 per month) lets you manage over 50 profiles and allows you to have multiple team members to divide up all the responsibilities. 

Source | Economic Times | 13 May 2015