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Conventional wisdom suggests that time spent playing video games is time wasted. The common perception is that few video games exercise the brain and, if there is any physical activity involved, it’s usually the occasional wave of a controller rather than anything that will work up a sweat. And shouldn’t kids be outside playing, rather than sitting in front of yet another screen?

Not so fast, say many parenting experts and researchers. Studies have consistently shown that the benefits of video gaming can far outweigh the perceived negatives. Although video gaming should certainly be supervised, there are good reasons why you should let your kids spend a few hours a week building cities or battling aliens.

Here’s why:

1. Video games teach problem solving. Video games get kids to think. There are dozens of video games that are specifically geared towards learning, but even the most basic shooter game teaches kids to think logically and quickly process large amounts of data. Rather than passively absorbing content from, say, a TV show, a video game requires the player’s constant input to tell the story.

2. Video games are social. The stereotype of the pasty-faced adolescent sitting in his mom’s basement playing video games on his own is as outdated as Space Invaders. Many games have thriving online and offline fan-bases, and a community component that strongly encourages social interaction.

3. Video games provide positive reinforcement. Most video games are designed to allow players to succeed and be rewarded for that success. Different skill levels and a risk-and-reward gaming culture mean that kids are not afraid to fail and will take a few chances in order to achieve their ultimate goal.

4. Video games teach strategic thinking. Video games teach kids to think objectively about both the games themselves and their own performance. While there are many games that place a premium on strategy, most set an overall goal and give the gamer numerous ways in which he or she can achieve that goal. Players also get instant feedback on their decisions and quickly learn their own strengths and weaknesses.

5. Video games build teamwork. The vast majority of video games are now designed with cooperative play options. Whether it’s fighting off alien invaders, solving puzzles, or being on the same bobsleigh team, video games offer kids a wealth of opportunities to constructively work together.

6. Video games improve hand-eye coordination. Video games have been found to improve the balance and coordination of numerous patients from stroke victims to those suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. There have even been studies that suggest that surgeons who regularly play video games make less mistakes in the operating theater than non-gamers. Even if your child is super-healthy and has no desire to be a surgeon or watch-maker, good hand-eye coordination is an invaluable skill to have.

7. Video games bring families together. If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em. Video games aren’t just for kids anymore. Ask your kids to teach you a few moves and you might find that Family Fun Night is every bit as enjoyable as those games of Clue and Monopoly used to be when you were a kid!

I’m often asked where I get my traffic from and currently Stumble Upon combined with Twitter are my top referral sites. Most people who read my blog know how much I love Twitter and I have mentioned before on webinars that I’ve held my secret weapon of using Stumble Upon with Twitter and how by using both of them together it dramatically increases my traffic.

There are many URL shortners out there, bit.ly is a very common one – in fact one of the great things about bit.ly is that you can spy on how much traffic your competitors are getting who use bit.ly. To do this you simply put their link in followed by the + and voila you can see the amount of clicks and stats etc.Bit.ly also has a customizable feature which is pretty cool.

But my favourite URL that I personally use is su.pr which is Stumble Upon’s url shortner. This little baby is a very powerful url shortner as not only does it shorten your links as bit.ly does (and of course providing all the usual tracking etc) but your link is also seen by Stumble Upon’s community (currently over 11 million and growing). Whenever I’m posting links on Twitter I use the su.pr shortner and add that to my Twitter update.

You can see here my blog post I did only yesterday has already accumulated 475 clicks in a day – not bad just from combining Twitter and Stumble Upon.

Have you just logged into your Twitter account to find it has been suspended? Don’t panic: your account has been suspended not banned. You just have to contact Twitter support, explain your problem clearly, provide a short explanation of your problem and have patience. It normally takes seven days to get your account unsuspended. You have to assume that it will take longer in the future with more and more people using and abusing Twitter and social media.

It is possible that your account was suspended by Twitter in error. This happens all the time as Twitter’s automated spam detection system does not always get it right. Even if you were suspended for the right reasons, because of prohibited following automation from your account or manual aggressive following behaviour, you will get your account unsuspended if you follow the correct protocol below:

 Step1: Login to your account, go to support form and select ‘suspended account’ option and submit the following message:

Regarding: Suspended account

Subject: www.twitter.com/myaccount - account suspended - can you please lift suspension

Description of problem:

Account shows suspended, not sure why! I have followed a number of Twitter accounts over the past few days. I have also integrated the account with my Facebook page. I believe, I complied with the guidelines as I understand them and I am not aware of any actions which might have resulted in this suspension.
Could you please reactivate my account asap as it is important for me.

 Step2. Twitter will respond to your request with an initial standard email:

Hello Twitter user!

We understand that you're contesting an account suspension. Please be sure to read this entire email; you will need to take further action in order to reopen your ticket and trigger a review of your account.

Twitter suspends accounts for a variety of reasons:

• If your account was suspended for aggressive following behaviour, you should have received an email notification to the address associated with your Twitter account. You'll need to confirm that you've removed all prohibited following automation from your account, and will stop any manual aggressive following behaviour. To expedite your appeal process, please review our Best Practices page if you haven't already, and then reply to this ticket with a confirmation that you understand our policies and will not engage in any prohibited following behaviour.

• If you didn't receive an email indicating why your account was suspended, please take a minute to review the Twitter Rules. If you suspect you've been suspended for another reason, please reply to this email with a short explanation.

• If you received an email from admin@twitter.com saying 'you're being suspended' or that we're going delete your account, you're safe; the email is fake. More information herehttps://support.twitter.com/articles/204820-safety-fake-twitter-emails.

• While we strive to avoid mistakes, it's also possible that your account was suspended in error. If after reviewing the Rules, you have no idea why your account was suspended, just reply to this email indicating as much, and we'll take another look at your case. Our apologies if the error turns out to be ours.

Thanks,
Twitter Trust & Safety

 Step3: You respond to Twitter with the following email (or a variation):

Hello Twitter Trust & Safety

I confirmation, that I understand our policies and will not engage in any prohibited followingbehaviour.
I have integrated Twitter with my Facebook page yesterday and created some updates with some test links. If this has caused the suspension, please accept my apologies. We will not Tweet many links in the future, but use the account to update Followers.

I have also followed and un-followed a number of accounts. If this has caused the suspension, again , please accept my apologies.

I have read your guidelines today and I can't see an obvious reason why my account has been suspended. The account is important to me and it is for a very good cause. In any case , I will not engage in any prohibited following behaviour in the future.

I have a lot of great things to communicate and I am an enthusiastic Twitter user and Follower . It would be very helpful to have our account back at the soonest possible.
Many thanks in advance.

Step4: After seven days you should receive the following message from Twitter:

Hello,

Your account was caught by one of the automated systems we have in place to keep Twitter spam-free. It looks like you might have been following other users a bit too aggressively, as a disproportionately large number of the users you followed have blocked your account or reported your account as spam. Your account is now unsuspended, but you might want to review your criteria for following other users and take another look at our rules and best practices pages at this time:

• The Twitter Rules: http://twitter.com/rules
• Following Limits and Best Practices: http://support.twitter.com/entries/68916
• Automation Rules and Best Practices: http://support.twitter.com/entries/76915

Please note that further violations may result in permanent suspension.

 Finally:

You are unsuspended. This process might take seven or more days but with a little patience your social media marketing is back up and running.

Consumers in the Czech Republic have already been able to do their grocery shopping through a virtual store in the form of Mall.cz. Now, South Korea supermarket Emart has created a wifi-based flying store, enabling those within its range to buy products online.

Developed by creative agency Cheil, the campaign saw a large, remote-controlled balloon – fitted with a wifi router – flown over populous locations in Seoul, such as public squares, shopping centers and transport hubs. People who saw the balloon were encouraged to connect to the wifi through their smartphones, which automatically directed them to the Emart app. When downloaded, the app offered discounted products and vouchers to use on its online store. According to the company, although it targets families on a budget, often they will just go to the nearest convenience store and pay higher prices rather than make their way to an Emart. Through the flying store, Emart was able to bring its competitive prices direct to the consumer. The video below shows the innovative marketing campaign in action:

According to Cheil, the campaign saw sales through Emart’s mobile store increase 157 percent, as users bought products then and there. Meanwhile, its physical stores also experienced a 9.5 percent rise in sales as those who downloaded vouchers returned to use them. Combining both an online and offline presence, could mobile wifi-based stores such as this lay the foundation for a more sustainable business model?

Website: www.cheil.com
Contact: www.twitter.com/cheil_worldwide

Spotted by: Murray Orange

If there's one thing that ties all your digital experiences together, it's your browser — let's presume it's Chrome. Maybe you use it on mobile in addition to desktop. It gets to know you, and you, it.

But everyone has a few tricks up his or her sleeve.

We did a little recon and found quite a few Chrome extensions that impact and enhance the way we use social media. See, most social sites try to keep things simple — if they add too many features, it would start to confuse people, especially new users. Other sites are plain lazy and haven't added that one feature everyone wants. But it might exist in extension form, and while you cannot impose it on others, you can apply it to your trusty Chrome browser.

Have you tried any of these Chrome extensions? Let us know what you think in the comments.