Trending December 2023 # The Ultimate Guide To Protecting Your Private Information In Notes From The Prying Eyes # Suggested January 2024 # Top 13 Popular

You are reading the article The Ultimate Guide To Protecting Your Private Information In Notes From The Prying Eyes updated in December 2023 on the website Moimoishop.com. We hope that the information we have shared is helpful to you. If you find the content interesting and meaningful, please share it with your friends and continue to follow and support us for the latest updates. Suggested January 2024 The Ultimate Guide To Protecting Your Private Information In Notes From The Prying Eyes

According to Apple, Notes is one of the most popular and most-frequently used stock applications on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

People use Notes for everything from memorizing recipes to keeping track of errands, creating shopping lists, storing inspirational quotes and even passwords, codes and medical data.

Not all notes contain sensitive information, but many do. Beginning with iOS 9.3 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.4, you can protect your notes with a password or Touch ID.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to set up Notes protection, secure items on a note-by-note basis so no one can view their contents and more.

The Notes app on iOS and macOS lets you define a single password to secure specific notes that you want to lock. The password protects both your iCloud notes and ones stored locally on your device. On an iPhone or iPad with Touch ID, you can optionally choose to use your fingerprint to unlock your notes.

A protected, locked note is denoted with the unlocked icon next to it and displays just the title in the list and the date it was last edited.

Before we proceed, watch Andrew’s video overview of the password-protected Notes.

Pre-requisites

As mentioned, prior iOS and macOS releases don’t support password-protection in Notes. Securing your notes with a password or Touch ID requires:

iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 9.3 or later

Intel-based Mac running El Capitan 10.11.4 or later

iCloud syncing of Notes enabled in Settings → Apple ID → iCloud on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and in System Preferences → iCloud on Mac

You can view locked notes with the web app at chúng tôi but it does not yet support adding/removing a password lock and changing/resetting your password if you forget it.

Types of notes that can be password-protected

The following notes can be protected with a password and Touch ID:

Notes in your iCloud account

Local notes stored on your device (in your ‘On My iPhone/Mac’ account)

Notes that include images, sketches, maps and web attachments

You cannot password-protect the following notes:

Notes that include other types of attachments like PDFs, audio, video, Keynote, Pages or Numbers documents

Notes in other online accounts, such as a Yahoo or Google account

Attempting to protect notes that contain these attachments will yield an error message stating that locked notes can contain only image, sketch, map and web attachments.

Your Notes password is used for unlocking any password-protected note across any of the devices that are authorized with the same Apple ID/iCloud account.

How to set Notes password Settings on iPhone and iPad:

1) Go to Settings → Notes → Password on your iOS device.

2) Enter a custom password for the Notes app, enter it again in the Verify field, then tap Done to save the changes.

Notes on iPhone and iPad:

You can also create a password directly in Notes for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

1) Tap Lock Note in Notes’ Share menu.

2) Enter a custom password for the Notes app, enter it again in the Verify field, then tap Done to save the changes.

Notes on Mac:

On the Mac, a password for Notes is set in the app, not through System Preferences.

Do yourself a favor: create a good password hint

You’re wholeheartedly recommended to add a hint for your Notes password.

Please don’t be lazy—creating a password hint should drastically reduce chances of losing access to password-protected notes should you forget your Notes password.

It should be something that you and only you can grasp the meaning of. The password hint appears if you enter the wrong password three consecutive times. Wise users will avoid using their iOS passcode or Mac login password as their Notes password.

A properly chosen hint will help you remember the password.

If you haven’t added a hint and have forgotten your password, you won’t be able to view existing locked notes. And, don’t count on Apple to help you regain access to locked notes because these are encrypted and Apple doesn’t have the keys to decrypt their contents.

You can reset your Notes password, as described further below, but this won’t give you access to the notes protected with your old password.

How to add a password lock to a note

Adding a password lock is the first step toward keeping your notes safe from prying eyes. Adding a password lock to a note isn’t the same as locking a note: it just adds a lock, without actually hiding contents of the note.

iPhone and iPad:

1) Tap Lock Note in the Share menu of the note you wish to add a password lock to.

2) Enter your Notes password and tap OK to add a password lock to this note.

Mac:

1) Select the note to add a password lock to and choose File → Lock This Note.

How to lock a note

When you add a password lock to a note, its contents isn’t automatically hidden from view until you specifically choose to lock that particular note.

iPhone and iPad:

1) Tap your note in the list and then hit the unlocked button at the top to lock it.

Mac:

1) Select the note to lock and choose File → Lock This Note in the menu.

Don’t worry about forgetting to lock a note: password-protected notes automatically lock after inactivity, if your device locks, goes to sleep or you quit Notes.

How to view a locked note

Before any locked note can be opened, you must provide your password or verify with Touch ID. For the sake of your own security, locked notes stay open for up to three minutes. Furthermore, password-protected notes will automatically lock with inactivity, when you close the Notes app or your device goes to sleep.

iPhone and iPad:

1) Tap a locked note. A “This Note is Locked” message appears.

2) Now tap View Note.

3) Type the password and then hit OK to reveal contents of the note, or use fingerprint verification on a Touch ID-enabled iPhone or iPad to view this note.

Tip: You can also tap the lock icon at the top to unlock the note.

Mac:

1) Select a locked note.

2) Type your password and then press Return to reveal its contents.

After entering your Notes password for one locked note, you can view other locked notes without entering it again as long as you’re working in Notes.

How to quickly hide contents of all unlocked notes

Notes remain unlocked for your current Notes session for up to three minutes so you can easily view them as you work, jump to another note, copy and paste information from other apps and more, but you can also lock them manually.

iPhone and iPad:

1) Tap Lock Now at the bottom of the Notes screen.

This shall immediately lock any unlocked notes in one go.

Mac:

1) Choose File → Close All Locked Notes.

This shall immediately hide contents of any unlocked notes from view.

After choosing this option, opening any previously unlocked note will require you to re-enter your Notes password or verify with Touch ID.

How to remove a password lock from a note

When you remove a password lock from a note, it’s gone on all your devices that use the same Apple ID. Removing a password lock from a note removes password-protection and reveals contents of that particular note until you re-add a password lock to it.

iPhone and iPad:

1) Open a locked note and provide your password or verify with Touch ID, if asked.

2) Tap Remove Lock in the Share menu.

Mac:

1) In the Notes menu, chose File → Remove Lock.

2) Enter your password to remove the lock from this note.

How to change your Notes password

Changing your Notes password will immediately apply the new one to any protected notes.

iPhone and iPad:

1) Go to Settings → Notes → Password and tap Change Password.

2) Enter the old password, then your new password and confirm it in the Verify field.

3) Optionally provide a password hint and tap Done to save the changes.

Mac:

How to reset Notes password

Resetting your Notes password permits you to create a new one for future notes, but at a significant cost: all of the existing password-protected notes shall still have your old password in effect.

iPhone and iPad:

1) Tap Settings → Notes → Password → Change Password → Reset Password.

2) Enter your Apple ID/iCloud password.

3) Confirm the action by tapping Reset Password.

4) Choose your new password and password hint.

Mac:

2) Enter your Apple ID/iCloud password to continue.

4) Enter your new password and password hint.

Important tidbits about resetting Notes password

Resetting your Notes password lets you protect notes that you create from that point onward with your new password, but it won’t unlock any notes that you locked using long-forgotten password. Think twice before resetting your password just for the kicks because the interface doesn’t help you distinguish whether a note has been protected with one of your old passwords or locked with your newly chosen password.

Thankfully, there’s a workaround to this dilemma.

If you see a wrong password alert accompanied by a hint for your old password—that note uses your old password. And assuming you remember your old password, and enter it, the app will offer to update that note’s password to your current one.

A Notes web app at chúng tôi is less capable than its mobile and desktop counterparts.

To perform other tasks listed below, you must use the Notes app on one of your devices with iOS 9.3 or later or OS Xv10.11.4 or later:

Add a password lock to a note

Remove a password lock from a note

Change the password for locked notes

Reset the password if you forget it

“If you ever forget your password for locked notes, and you reset it using Notes on a device with iOS 9.3 or later or OS X v10.11.4 or later, entering your password for one locked note lets you view all locked notes that use the same password,” Apple states.

Need help? Ask iDB!

Problems with your Apple device? Not sure how to do certain things on Apple’s many software platforms?

You're reading The Ultimate Guide To Protecting Your Private Information In Notes From The Prying Eyes

Ios 7: The Ultimate Music App Guide

The Music app is a stock application that comes preinstalled on all iOS devices. It’s the primary way for playing music on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. With iOS 7.0, a new feature was baked into the stock Music app called iTunes Radio. iTunes Radio is an ad-supported service that allows users to browse more than 250 curated stations. Users can also create and build their own stations, which feature Pandora-like customization over time.

While there are many ways to play music via third-party apps on iOS, the stock Music app is the only music application that’s closely integrated with iTunes and allows you to use the iTunes Match iCloud-hosting service. There may be benefits to other apps like Spotify, but no app is as tightly intertwined with the rest of iOS as the stock Music app. With that in mind, please take a look inside, as we break down the many facets of this ever-growing and ever-changing stock application.

Table of contents Playing

Playing music is as simple as launching the stock Music app and tapping on one of the songs found inside the tabs at the bottom of the interface. Tapping on a song will bring up the primary play screen with the transport controls at the bottom of the screen right beneath the album artwork.

The primary play screen is where you’ll be spending the majority of your time when actually listening to music inside the stock Music app. The play screen features many controls that we’ll break down starting with the main controls.

The Music app’s transport controls

The transport controls are the controls that make up the lower portion of the play screen beneath the album artwork. It begins with the music scrubber—the little timeline that shows the progression of a song and the amount of time it will take to complete the song—and ends with the repeat, create, and shuffle buttons at the bottom of the interface.

The scrubber

The scrubber is the little bar beneath the album artwork that allows you to manually progress through a song by dragging your finger across the bar. Dragging from right to left moves to the beginning of a song, and the inverse motion moves to the end of a song. But there’s more to it than meets the eye when it comes to the scrubber.

Hi-Speed Scrubbing

When you first begin scrubbing through a song using a tap-and-drag gesture, the Music app places you in hi-speed scrubbing mode. Hi-speed scrubbing is good to use when you want to briskly move through a track, but it’s not very effective when trying to locate precise points of a song. To help with precision, Apple implemented a clever method for reducing the speed of the scrubbing. As you tap and hold on the scrubber, drag your finger up towards the album artwork to adjust the speed of the scrubber.

Adjusting scrubbing speed using a slide up gesture

Hi-Speed Scrubbing – ten second increments

Half-Speed Scrubbing – six second increments

Quarter-Speed Scrubbing – two second increments

Fine Scrubbing – one second increments

Of course, each speed increment value is approximate, and depends on how quickly you move your finger horizontally to initiate the scrub.

Song details

Directly beneath the scrubber lies the name of the song in bold letters, followed by the artist name and album name. It’s not immediately obvious, but tapping once on the song details reveals the ratings interface, which allows you to assign a star rating to the track.

Rating a track

A song can be rated between one and five stars, or can remain unrated. If you’d like to hide the rating, tap to the left or to the right of the rating interface to once again reveal the song details.

Transport controls

Beneath the song details lie the actual controls that allow you to play, pause, skip songs, and go back to previous songs. You can also use tap and hold gestures to fast-forward or rewind a song.

Skip, Back, Pause, and Play

The controls are self-explanatory, in that you tap the play button to play and pause a song, and use the back/forward buttons to go to previous songs and go to the next song respectively. Tapping and holding on the back button will perform an incremental rewind, where the longer you hold on the button results in faster rewinds. Likewise, the skip button allows you to perform an incremental fast-forward.

Volume slider

Beneath the transport controls lies the volume slider. This volume slider is one-way linked to the physical volume buttons on your device.

The Music app volume slider

Repeat

At the very bottom of the primary play screen, you’ll find three buttons that allow you to perform different functions directly related to the now-playing song or artist. The first in the series of three buttons is the repeat button. Tapping the repeat button yields a sheet menu that allows you to adjust the repeat settings for the now-playing song, playlist, album, etc.

Using the repeat button

For example, if you’re playing an album, you’ll receive a pop up that allows you to turn repeat off, enable repeat song, or enable repeat album. Depending on your selection, the text on the button will change to reflect your setting.

Create

The create button allows users to create a Genius Playlist, or a new iTunes Radio station based on the now-playing artist or song. The Genius Playlist feature automatically generates a playlist of songs from the user’s local library, which are similar to the selected song. The included songs are based on algorithms to match the type of songs as closely together as possible.

When you don’t have enough songs to create a Genius Playlist, you’ll see this error

Playlists come in multiples of 25. If you don’t have enough songs to create a Genius Playlist, you’ll receive an error message stating such. If you have a fairly large iTunes library, then in most cases you shouldn’t encounter the error.

Creating a new iTunes Radio station from artist

The other two options found by tapping the Create button—New Station from Artist and New Station from Song—allow you to create new iTunes Radio stations. These stations don’t rely on the number of songs contained in your local library, as they are streamed directly from Apple’s servers. The stations created using either of these options will closely match the style of music from the origin song or artist.

Of course, we will have more details regarding iTunes Radio in our iTunes Radio section below.

Shuffle

The shuffle button comes into play when you have three or more tracks available to play. Shuffle allows you to play each song in a random order after initiating the first song.

The shuffle button

Each song can be comprised of an album, playlist, or a group of unrelated songs. Shuffling a group of songs results in a completely new play-path every time you initiate a play.

Notice the count at the top of the screen after tapping the shuffle button

When starting a shuffle from a list of songs, you will notice that tapping the shuffle button results in the “of” count at the top of the Music app interface to reset to one of however many songs you have in the queue. Disabling the shuffle mode will cause the “of” count to resort back to its natural order.

Shuffle mode is a great way to keep your music feeling fresh and clean. It’s especially useful when working out. The iPod Shuffle—Apple’s most diminutive device in its product line—was created based off the popularity of the shuffle mode found in larger iPods.

Album artwork

Besides looking appealing to the eye, the album artwork contains a feature that allows you to see more about the album related to the now-playing song. Double-tapping on the album artwork will reveal a list of each song from the album available on your local device. The now-playing song will feature an animated equalizer bar next to it. You can tap on any of the songs contained on the album to quickly switch between songs.

Double tapping the album art reveals all songs contained on the album

But what if you double tap the album artwork for an album where you’ve only purchased one or two songs? If you have only purchased select songs from the album, and not the entire album, a “show complete album” button will be available to show all songs from the album. Tapping this button will reveal all of the songs from the album, with the purchase price directly to the right of the name of the song. Songs that you already own will be in bold, and songs that are available for purchase will be displayed in light gray.

Only own a few songs from the album? Show the complete album

At the bottom of the list of songs contained in the album, you’ll find a “Complete my album” button. This allows you to purchase all remaining songs from the album that you don’t currently own. The price to complete an album will depend on how many tracks you currently own. So, for instance, if you own every track on an album except one, the price to complete the album will probably be in the ballpark of $1.29 USD.

There are a few other functions that I want to be sure to mention before moving on to the next section. First, you can access the same album detail view by using the button in the upper right-hand corner of the interface. This button provides you with the same detail view that you receive when double tapping the album art.

Tapping the button in the upper right-hand corner shows the album detail view

Lastly, you can rate individual songs using the album detail view. Use the rating button in the upper left-hand corner to rate each song. See the illustration below for more details on how to rate each track. Note that only tracks that you actually own can be rated.

Rating a track in album detail view

Landscape mode

Placing your iPhone into landscape orientation will reveal all of the albums available on your device in a bulletin board view. You can swipe left and right while in landscape mode to view your entire collection of album art. You can zoom in or out of the album view by using a two-finger pinch gesture. The lowest zoom level is two rows of albums, while the highest zoom level is four rows of albums.

Use a two-finger pinch gesture to zoom in and out of your albums

Tapping on an album will zoom in on the album art and allow you to view all of the available songs associated with that album. You can then play songs individually, and man limited controls for play, pause, skip, and back.

Playing album content via landscape view

The landscape album art view can be accessed from anywhere in the stock iOS 7 Music app, except for when you’re using iTunes Radio. It replaces the iconic “Cover Flow” view found in earlier iterations of iOS with something more usable and practical. You can quickly switch back to normal view by holding your iPhone in portrait mode.

Lock screen controls

The Lock screen provides basic control over now-playing music. Like the controls in the stock Music app, it allows you to play, pause, skip, and go back to previous tracks if applicable. The Lock screen controls also feature a scrubber, albeit it’s a scrubber that doesn’t have the same precision options found in the full-blown Music app.

Lock screen controls are available whenever music is playing

You’ll find a volume control slider and the album artwork of the now-playing song beneath it. Unlike previous versions of iOS, you no longer have to double tap the Home button in order to reveal the transport controls—they appear by default whenever music is playing.

Control Center

Like the media controls found on the Lock screen, the Control Center media controls allow you to manage playing, pausing, skipping, and going back to previous songs where applicable. Unlike the Lock screen controls, the Control Center music controls are accessible from anywhere, including the Lock screen.

Using Control Center’s media controls

Due to the nature of the Control Center media controls, you can use the precision scrubbing features when moving forward or backwards through a song.

Headphones

Another, perhaps less thought about way to control music, is by using Apple’s EarPods with Remote and Mic. The iPhone comes bundled with a set of EarPods, but you can buy a retail pair as well. The EarPods allow you to control music using the buttons contained on the remote control built into the cord below the right earbud.

Apple’s EarPods with Remote and Mic

The EarPod remote control features three buttons pertaining to music control—volume up, volume down, and play/pause/skip. To play or pause music, press the middle button—the one between the volume up and volume down buttons—once. To skip to the next song, double-press the middle button. It’s a great tool to use when exercising and/or using the Music app’s shuffle mode.

Siri

Like many other functions found in iOS, the Music app can be controlled with Siri. There are several voice control functions that can be performed using Siri. We’ve documented many of the popular Siri commands in our iOS 7: The Ultimate Siri guide.

Playing a song from the Music library using Siri

There are many Siri commands for both Music and iTunes Radio. Here are some of the commands that you can use:

Music Library

Play Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

Play The Fame shuffled

Play Jim James

Play some bluegrass

Play my japan mix

Shuffle my road trip playlist

Play

Pause

Skip

iTunes Radio

Play iTunes Radio

Play my rock station

Play my Jim James station

Play more songs like this one

Don’t play this song again

I like this song

Buying music

Most of the purchasing process happens inside the iTunes Store app and not the Music app. Starting in iOS 7, the stock Music app does have the ability to complete some purchases directly using features like the aforementioned “Complete my album” option. But it’s generally recommended that you stick to the iTunes Store app, as it has the most comprehensive search and discovery features when it comes to purchasing music.

You can buy music directly from the Music app in special situations

The iTunes Radio portion of the Music app is another great way to go about discovering and purchasing music directly. We’ll discuss the iTunes Radio portion of the Music app in just a bit.

Searching

The iOS 7 Music app allows users to search their music library from virtually anywhere within the app. To initiate a search, pull down the page until the search bar is displayed and type in your search terms. The search returns results dynamically so that you can see its results in real time.

Performing a search

Searches are displayed in the following order:

Artists

Albums

Songs

Genres

Composers

Compilations

Audiobooks

If no items appear for one of the search sections listed above, then that section will be omitted. Tapping on an artist, album, genre, composer, compilation, or audiobook will display a list of all of the items that fall within that criteria. On the other hand, tapping on a song will begin playing the song immediately.

It’s possible to move your search to the iTunes Store app

At the very bottom of the search results you’ll find a button that says “Continue Search in Store.” Tapping this button will open the iTunes Store app and display your search results for the search term you used in the Music app.

Editing tabs

The Music app is only capable of displaying five tabs at the bottom of the screen simultaneously. Since there are limited tabs available to be displayed, some have to be omitted (the fifth tab is the “More” tab, which allows you to access the additional hidden tabs). You can always tap the more button to access the hidden tabs, but if you find yourself doing that a lot, you might consider moving the often used section to one of the available tabs at the bottom of the interface.

Editing tabs in the Music app

To edit which tabs are actually displayed at the bottom of the app, you’ll have to tap the More tab in the bottom right-hand corner, and then tap the edit button in the upper right-hand corner. The edit button will allow you to pick, choose and rearrange your tabs using any of the available tabs.

Moving tab locations

Once you’re in tab edit mode, drag any of the tabs to your desired location. You can even move tabs that are already located at the bottom of the interface if you wish to do so.

Undoubtedly, the biggest new feature found in the stock Music app, and one of the biggest overall features to hit iOS 7, is iTunes Radio. iTunes Radio is Apple’s answer to streaming music apps like Pandora. It’s free to use, but it’s also a clever way for Apple to upsell its users on buying songs directly from the iTunes Store.

As of late there have been rumblings that future versions of iOS will feature a standalone iTunes Radio app. That may, or may not prove to be true, but for now, iTunes Radio can be found exclusively within the stock Music app.

iTunes Radio features well over 250 curated radio stations based on DJs and genres. Like Pandora, your stations are cultivated through the music you play. Stations are also influenced by the music that you download from the iTunes Store. Like similar offerings from third-parties, the more you use iTunes Radio, the more it learns about what you like to hear, and the better your stations will become.

Unlike the normal music that resides in your library, iTunes Radio stations cannot be scrubbed, fast forwarded or rewound. In most cases, with the exception of live events and other special stations, you can skip songs, but you can only skip up to six songs per station per hour.

Launching iTunes Radio

There are several ways to launch iTunes Radio, but the easiest way is to open the stock Music app and tap on the iTunes Radio tab at the bottom of the screen. If you don’t see the iTunes Radio tab, you’ll need to edit your tabs to move iTunes radio to the bottom menu bar. See the section above entitled Editing Tabs, in order to learn how to do this.

You can also launch iTunes Radio while playing songs using the create button at the bottom of the now-playing interface. In this instance, iTunes Radio stations can be created based on artist or song.

iTunes Radio interface

The main iTunes Radio page is broken up into two primary sections. At the top of the screen, you’ll see a list of Featured Stations. These are curated stations sourced by DJs, artists, and other means. Sometimes these stations will consist of previews of upcoming albums, or guest DJs. A featured station can consist of a group of songs, or a “live” streaming event that repeatedly loops, such as with Apple’s iTunes Festival at SXSW.

Scrolling through the Featured Stations

Other Featured Stations might include the iTunes Weekly Top 50 pop collection, or additional best of collections. There’s a pretty diverse group of featured stations available at any one time, so it’s a safe bet that you’ll find at least a few items that appeal to you.

Beneath the Featured Stations section is a section called My Stations. The My Stations section contains a grouping of all of the stations created by you. You can even add the Featured Stations mentioned above to your collection of personal stations.

The My Stations section is where you should keep all of the stations that you genuinely enjoy listening to. You can always manage or delete a station by using the edit button found in the upper left-hand corner near the My Stations heading.

History

The played tab allows you to view a history of the songs that you’ve listened to sorted by time and station. You can preview the songs in your history by tapping on the album artwork. There are also quick links found to the right of each song for purchasing directly from the iTunes Store.

You can’t clear individual history items from iTunes Radio

Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t allow its users to clear individual items from the iTunes Radio history. If you want to clear out an item, you’ll have to use the clear button in the upper left-hand corner to clear out all of the items; it’s an all or nothing affair.

Clearing individual items from the wish list is possible

You can, however, clear individual items out of the wish list, and you can also clear all items from there in one fell swoop if you wish to do so.

Now-playing interface

The now-playing interface is quite a bit different than the interface found in your normal music library. For starters, music played with iTunes Radio features no back button, because you can’t rewind, repeat, or go back to a previous song. The back button is instead replaced by a star button which assists with curating your radio stations. We’ll go more in-depth with curation features a couple of sections from now.

The differences between a song from the library (left) and iTunes Radio (right)

Since I own Regina Spektor’s album in the example above, you’ll notice that the option to purchase the song in the iTunes Radio interface isn’t present. When creating a radio station from a song you already own, iTunes is smart enough not to present purchase options to you since you already own the song.

See the purchase button? iTunes has no idea that I already own this song

Sadly, that’s pretty much the only case where iTunes is smart enough to know that I already own a song. For instance, if a song plays during an iTunes Radio play session, and I happen to already own that song, iTunes isn’t smart enough to figure that out.

Yep, iTunes just let me purchase a song I already had in my library…

Yes, iTunes will let you purchase a song that you already have in your music library or iTunes match, so you’ll have to be extra careful, especially if you have a large library where it’s easy to forget what you own.

In most cases while playing an iTunes Radio station, you’ll notice an ‘i’ button at the top-middle of the now-playing interface. This button allows you to access more radio station options.

Tapping the info button yield more options

For starters, you’ll find a quick link to purchase the current song. You’ll also find a button that allows you to view all of the tracks associated with the song’s album, which is, again, useful for getting customers to purchase the content that they listen to.

Below the song information, you’ll find two buttons for creating a brand new radio station using the song or the artist as a mold. This is similar to the option found in the library to create a new station based on song or artist.

The Tune This Station feature allows you to specify what type of music you want to feature on your station. This option is only available for custom stations. If you move the slider to the left-most side, the station will play the most popular hits. If you move the slider to the right-most side, the station will play songs that aren’t as well known, but increases the discovery potential of new songs.

Tuning a custom iTunes Radio station

Below the tuning option, you’ll find a toggle for enabling explicit tracks within iTunes Radio. This explicit toggle is a global feature, so it modifies the behavior of all of the radio stations contained within iTunes Radio.

Lastly, you’ll find a share button for sharing your iTunes Radio station with others. Sharing a radio station keeps your custom name and curation options intact. You can share your station via Messages, Mail, Twitter, Facebook, AirDrop, or by copying the link to the station itself.

Creating stations

The simplest way to create a new iTunes Radio station is to tap the new station button located under the My Stations section of the main iTunes Radio interface. From there, you can select from several subsets contained in a list of genres, or use the search box at the top of the screen to create a new station by artist, genre, or song.

The simplest way to create a new iTunes Radio station

One of the cool things about creating a new station this way is that Apple provides you with a preview of the type of music you’ll hear within the station. If you’re content with the preview, you can tap the plus button towards the right-side of the station name to add the station to your My Stations section.

Stations can be created using a variety of methods. For example, using the Edit feature allows you to create a new station:

Creating a new station from the edit interface

…You can also add a currently playing Featured Station to your list of stations:

Adding a Featured Station to My Stations

…Or create a new station from the artist or song associated with a song currently playing on a station:

Create a new station from a song or artist from a Featured Station

…Or create a new station from an artist or song of the music in your music library:

Creating a new station from music you own

One of the nice things about creating a new station from music that you already have in your library, is that the song that you’re currently playing will continue to play as a part of your new station, and new songs will play after the currently playing song is completed. The way that Apple pulls this off makes for a seamless transition between the music you own and the music you play on iTunes Radio.

Of course, as previously mentioned, you can create a radio station using Siri. Again, here are the commands that can be used to interact with iTunes Radio via Siri:

Play iTunes Radio

Play my rock station

Play my Jim James station

Play more songs like this one

Don’t play this song again

I like this song

Editing and curating stations

The primary way to curate stations is to use the star button on the now-playing screen. The star button allows you to play more songs like the current song or to never play the current song.

Play more like this

Never play this song

You can also add songs to your iTunes wish list for later retrieval and purchase.

Adding a song to the iTunes wish list

Using the edit button in the upper-left hand corner near the My Stations heading allows you to edit your favorite stations. Editing allows you to rearrange, rename, or delete any of the stations added to your My Stations section.

Deleting an iTunes radio station

Deleting a station is as easy as tapping the edit button and swiping from right to left on the station you want to remove. You may also delete a station by tapping the edit button that resides inside of the edit interface and delete each station by tapping on the red ‘-‘ symbol that resides next to each station.

Another way to delete stations

Being in the edit mode allows you to rearrange the order of the stations as well. Once you’re in the edit interface, tap edit again to view the drag-handles used to rearrange the station order. The changes will be reflected in your group of My Stations.

Rearranging an iTunes Radio station

For custom stations that you create, you can change the name of the station by tapping on the station while in edit mode.

Renaming a custom station

Curate your station using the Play More or Never Play options

For stations curated by Apple, you are not allowed to rename or curate the station manually, since these are canned-stations that don’t fluctuate or evolve based on listening habits. You can, however, share or delete the station by tapping on the name of an Apple-curated station while in the edit interface.

Overall, iTunes Radio is a great new addition to iOS. It’s also available on the Apple TV and the Mac. All of your curated stations go with you no matter the platform, which makes for an immersive experience. I was skeptical at first, but after thoroughly exploring its features, I can attest that iTunes Radio is an awesome new addition to Apple’s repertoire.

Albums

The albums tab contains an alphabetical listing of each individual album found in your music library.

Viewing individual albums is a great way to find specific tunes

If there’s a specific album that you want to hear, this is the best tab to use to go about doing that. For me personally, it’s my go-to tab when it comes to playing music from my personal library.

Artists

The artist tab features an alphabetical list of all of the artists found in your music library. Each artist name is associated with the album artwork from an album they are featured on. Tapping on an artist will allow you to view a list of all of their songs grouped by album.

You can view all of the songs and albums related to a specific artist

At the very top of the individual artist page, you’ll find a button to shuffle all songs by that artist. This is useful for the times when you want to hear a specific artist, but don’t necessarily care about the actual song that plays.

Audiobooks

If you have an audiobook synced to your device via iTunes, then an audiobooks section will show up under the more tab. You can add the audiobooks tab to the bottom of the Music app interface if you go into edit mode and drag the audiobooks tab to one of the four tabs at the bottom of the screen.

The audiobook playback interface

Playing an audiobook works very similarly to playing a music track, with a few exceptions. First, the interface has changed to accommodate the extra buttons used for playing audiobooks. Secondly, some of the unnecessary features have been removed to help simplify the interface.

The most obvious change is the presence of two new buttons, one for skipping back 15 seconds, and the other for skipping forward 15 seconds. There’s also a speed button located in the bottom right-hand corner of the interface. This speed button allows you to adjust the speed of the playback by 1x, 2x, and 0.5x speeds.

Compilations

Soundtracks can count as a compilation

Compilations are generally best-of albums, soundtracks, or multi-disc sets. A special key has to be set within iTunes to label a collection of songs or an album as a part of a compilation.

Composers

The composers tab allows you to view individuals who worked on a project behind the scenes

If you’re looking for a specific person who’s had a role behind the boards, then the composer tab is the tab for you. This allows you to view individuals who have played a part in creating a song, even if they didn’t necessarily sing on the song.

Genius

The Genius tab allows you to play predetermined genres using Apple’s Genius algorithm. These are auto-generated mixes that take a lot of the work out of creating a quality mix from a specific genre.

The Genius section doesn’t play very nice with iTunes Match items that are in the cloud

Genres

I guess you could say that I have diverse tastes in music

There are dozens upon dozens of different musical genres, and this tab allows you to key in on specific ones. This is a great tab to use if you’re in the mood to listen to a particular style of music.

Playlists

The playlist tab lets you create, manage, delete and play playlists. There are actually two types of playlists available in the playlists tab: Genius playlists and normal playlists.

A normal playlist can be created by tapping on the new playlist button at the top of the playlist page. You’ll be asked to enter a name for the new playlist followed by the songs you want to add to the playlist. Songs can be added based on artists, albums, or composers. Once you finish adding songs to your playlist, tap the done button in the upper right-hand corner to finish the playlist creation. You’ll then find your new playlist, with an album cover represented by the first track listed, in the playlists tab.

Creating a new playlist

To edit a playlist, tap the edit button in the upper left-hand corner of the playlist. You can then tap the red ‘-‘ button to delete individual tracks, or use the drag handles to rearrange the order of the songs in the playlist. Once you are finished editing the playlist, tap the done button.

You can delete individual tracks from a playlist without actually entering the edit mode. Simply swipe from right to left on a song featured in the playlist to bring up the delete option.

Deleting individual playlist items

To add additional tracks to a playlist, tap the edit button in the upper left-hand corner and then tap the ‘+’ button in the upper right-hand corner. You’ll see a list of all of the songs on your device, which will allow you to add new songs to the playlist.

Clearing a playlist

If you’d like to clear all of the tracks associated with a playlist without actually deleting it, you can use the clear button located at the top-middle of the individual playlist page.

There are two ways to outright delete a playlist. You can swipe from right to left on the playlist itself, or use the delete button when in the individual playlist view.

To outright delete a playlist, swipe from right to left on the playlist remove it

Using the delete option in the individual playlist view

Genius playlists

The Genius playlist feature automatically generates a playlist of songs from the user’s local library which are similar to the selected song. The included songs are based on algorithms to match the type of songs as closely together as possible.

Creating a Genius playlist

Once your Genius playlist is created, you can use the refresh button to dynamically refresh the content of the playlist. Each refresh will cause the playlist to pull in new songs based on the song you used as a baseline for the playlist.

Radio

The Radio tab is for iTunes Radio. Please see the iTunes Radio section above for more in-depth information.

Songs

The songs tab is the most granular view you can possibly have when it comes to the items in your music library. When you tap on an item in the songs view, the song will begin playing immediately.

One of the perks of using the songs view is the shuffle button. By using shuffle in songs view, you can shuffle-play all of the songs in your entire library.

Shared

Shared libraries allow you to access a ton of extra content from your local computer

Tapping on shared will allow you to select the shared library and play songs available from your local computer. This is a great way to expand your music library locally without taking up additional storage space on your iOS device.

One of the benefits of buying music from iTunes is that all of your music is stored in iCloud—Apple’s cloud storage solution. When you log into your iCloud account on any device, all of the music that you have purchased automatically appears.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the same applied to all of your music, even if it wasn’t purchased via iTunes? That’s the premise behind iTunes Match; it allows you to store or match all of your music in the cloud and access it from any device.

iTunes Match is a subscription-based service that costs $24.99 annually. You can learn more and subscribe by visiting Apple’s official iTunes Match page.

Benefits

We won’t get into all of the particulars of iTunes Match, since that goes beyond the scope of this guide, but I wanted to highlight a few of the benefits of iTunes Match that I particularly enjoy:

iTunes Match subscribers get an ad-free iTunes Radio experience

iTunes Match will match all of your content, and only upload the items that it can’t match

Matched content is high quality (256-Kbps AAC DRM-free) even if your original content was low quality

You can play iTunes Match content from anywhere—the Mac, PC, iOS/Apple TV

You can store up to 25,000 songs using iTunes Match (not including those purchased via iTunes)

You can stream iTunes Match songs in order to save storage space on your device, or download the songs for offline access

Enabling iTunes Match

The iTunes Match splash screen

The songs and the album art that accompanies them will take some time to download depending on how many songs you have stored with iTunes Match. You will see placeholders of album artwork until all of the songs can be properly downloaded.

Notice the album art placeholder—it will take some time before all album art is downloaded

As mentioned earlier, one of the benefits of using iTunes Match is that it frees up a lot of the space available on your iOS device. You no longer have to download or sync your entire iTunes library to your device. Instead, you can stream all of the music stored in the cloud.

Streaming music directly from iCloud

If you know you’ll be in a place without access to the internet, you can download your favorite songs for offline listening. This is accomplished by tapping the cloud icon that resides to the right of any songs stored in iCloud. You can download single songs, entire albums, or entire playlists using the cloud icon.

Downloading music from iCloud for offline listening

Since you can download music from iCloud for offline play, it would only make sense if you could delete items as well. Deleting items can be done for iTunes Match content as well as for content purchased from the iTunes Store. To delete a song, all you need to do is swipe on the song from right to left and tap on the delete option. The song will still be listed and available for streaming, but it will no longer be available for offline play until you download it again.

Deleting a song from the local device

In conclusion, I believe that iTunes Match is well-worth its $24.99 annual asking price. It allows you to store all of your music— whether you purchased it from iTunes or not—and makes it accessible from anywhere. Better yet, it saves you from having to use up storage space on your devices, because all of your music is streamable and downloadable on demand. iTunes Match mixed with iTunes Radio makes for a very compelling one-two combo.

Shake to Shuffle

This is a fairly self explanatory setting. It allows you to shake your device to enable shuffle mode while playing music with the stock Music app.

Sound Check

This feature allows you to hear all of the songs in your library at a normalized volume. Sound check tries to play back all of your songs at an equivalent sound level so that your music won’t be outstanding loud or quiet.

Alter the Music app’s equalizer settings using any of the following pre-configured settings:

Acoustic

Bass Booster

Bass Reducer

Classical

Dance

Deep

Electronic

Flat

Hip Hop

Jazz

Late Night

Latin

Loudness

Lounge

Piano

Pop

R & B

Rock

Small Speakers

Spoken Word

Treble Booster

Treble Reducer

Vocal Booster

Depending on the type of music that you’re listening to, you may benefit from adjusting the EQ setting. For instance, if you’re listening to an audiobook, you may want to select the Spoken Word EQ setting.

Volume Limit

Designed to prevent hearing damage when using headphones, you can set a max limit for music played through the stock Music app. This is a good setting to use if you have small children who like to listen to your device.

Lyrics & Podcast Info

This setting allows you to remove the text that appears on top of the album artwork for lyrics and podcast information.

Group By Album Artist

Sort albums under the artist tab by album artist.

Show All Music

As we discussed earlier in the iTunes Match section, you can download music directly to your iOS device, or keep the music in the cloud and use streaming. This option allows you to hide all music that is not downloaded locally to your device. This is a handy option for those moments when you’re offline, or when you don’t want to worry about downloading songs. This option will ensure that only the tracks that you can play immediately without internet access are displayed.

iTunes Match

Enable iTunes Match. Learn more about iTunes Match here.

Home Sharing

The Music app is an incredibly deep stock application—and that’s readily apparent just by looking at the scope of this guide. I learned a lot about the Music app as I wrote this, and I hope that you did as well.

Apple has a wonderful ecosystem on its hands, and its been strengthened with the addition of iTunes Match and iTunes Radio. While the popularity of iTunes and music purchases may be declining due to competitors like Spotify and Pandora, it’s nice to see that Apple is trying to take preventative measure to ensure it stays strongly entrenched in the digital landscape.

Follow For Follow On Instagram: The Ultimate Guide

The follow for follow method on Instagram is a great way to grow your followers on Instagram.

However, for some of us, we’re accustomed to follow a bunch of users in a list.

This is a bad thing.

It’s important to realize that whenever you’re following someone at random, the probability of them following you back is very low. This is because of a couple of reasons.

Firstly, people are increasingly wary of spam followers. Most likely, someone that follows you out of the blue just hopes for a follow back in return.

Hence, they wouldn’t bother engaging much on your posts, or not at all. They’re what we like to call ghost followers.

Secondly, you haven’t broken the ice with them. In other words, they are complete strangers and are less likely to follow you back.

So how do we utilize this method effectively?

In this post, we’re going to take a look at how you can increase your followers with the follow for follow method.

By the end of this post, you can use this method to skyrocket your Instagram followers right away.

Let’s begin!

Follow for Follow on Instagram (Table of Contents)

What is the follow for follow method on Instagram?

Basically, the follow for follow method is the act of following as many users as possible (preferably in your niche) for the intention of a follow back. This method has been around for quite some time now.

In fact, it originated in the earliest days of Instagram. This method is also reinforced by a bunch of different hashtags such as #followforfollow, #followforfollowback, and #f4f.

However, the people who use these hashtags most likely aren’t going to follow you back because they’re using it just for the sake of others following them without them actually reciprocating.

Quite recently, the recent section of the hashtag #followforfollow has been removed to stop the influx of fake accounts, spammers, and bots.

A part of Instagram’s service is to ‘offer personalized opportunities to create, connect, communicate, discover, and share’.

Technically, this method isn’t violating Instagram’s Terms of Service.

This is because if you’re following others in your niche that you want to connect with, the notion that the person will follow you back is entirely up to them.

Moreover, the following limit of Instagram is 7,500. This is a sufficient restriction on its own that speaks for itself.

Anyhow, if you’re following users that are in your niche/mutuals, enjoy their content and truly want a connection (follow back), it’s justified and you’re more likely to get a follow back.

How it works

Note: This is a recap for the article, ‘Follow for Follow on Instagram: Tips and Tricks‘.

Here are three methods. The first being the worst and the last being the best.

Feel free to skip to the last method if you’re looking for the most reliable one.

The old school method

The old school follow for follow method works like this:

Follow as many random users as possible in a list.

Pray and hope for a follow back.

As you can see, this is rather ineffective because of a couple of reasons.

Firstly, you’re less likely to get a follow back because people will regard you as spam.

Secondly, you’re prone to be action blocked (covered later in the restrictions section below) by Instagram and you can’t follow people for a period of time.

This method used to work in the past when Instagram was fairly new, but it’s almost redundant today.

In the past, Instagram hasn’t implemented any follow restrictions. This means that you can spam follow as many users and you won’t get action blocked (good old days).

Additionally, there used to be no following limit, so you could follow an infinite number of users. And yes, there are some users who followed millions of users (who abused the following action to the max).

Unfortunately, the days of spam are over as restrictions are getting stricter and stricter to prevent automation.

The new school method

What’s a newer method then? A more current follow for follow method is by following others in a list and in timed intervals:

Follow users in your niche or of your competitors’ in intervals.

Like a few of their posts to grab their attention.

Hope for a follow back.

This method is more refined than the previous one because it relies on intervals and grabbing attention. This means that the follow back rate is going to be much higher than before.

However, there is still one underlying issue. A very important one.

You’re still not breaking the ice with users that you’ve followed so the person is less likely to follow you back.

For example, if you know someone in-person, you’ll need to ask them for their username to be able to follow them on Instagram.

If you’re following someone using this method, you’re still not providing any context and the person is less likely to follow you back because you aren’t mutual.

A great way to solve this is by direct messaging the user you’ve followed and politely ask them to follow you back. But this is a bit odd.

The most current (and effective) method

The most current and effective method is by joining follow for follow communities. It’s one of the easiest ways to grow your followers, which reinforces the follow for follow method.

You can join our follow for follow community for free today on our website.

Grow your Instagram followers!

Grow your Instagram followers with Followchain, a follow for follow community for Insagram.

These groups are basically places where you can share your Instagram username, follow others and direct message them for a follow back. And the work tremendously!

Here’s how they work:

Share your Instagram handle.

Follow others that interest you or are in the same niche.

Direct message them that you came from the respective community for a follow back.

You can quite possibly gain 10–20 followers a day (until it plateaus) by joining them.

There are lots of follow for follow communities on the web.

You can find a full list of those communities here: List of Instagram Follow for Follow Groups.

Case Study

We’ve created a new Instagram account and tried the follow for follow method using various follow for follow groups for three months.

Here are our results:

Week 1

In the first week, we followed 212 users and 180 of them followed back.

Using simple math, 180/212 x 100 = 84.9. That’s a follow back rate of 85%!

Week 3

In the third week, we followed 451 users (up by 200+) and 413 of them followed back.

413/451 x 100 = 91.5. That’s a follow back rate of 92%, up by 10%!

Week 5

In the fifth week, we followed 751 users (up by 200+ once more) and 701 of them followed back.

701/751 x 100 = 93.3%. That’s a follow back rate of 93%, up by 1%!

Week 7

In week 7, we followed 1054 users (up by 300+) and 1001 of them followed back (up by exactly 300).

We also joined a couple more follow for follow communities outside of Reddit which further expanded our followers.

1001/1054 x 100 = 94.9%. That’s a follow back rate of 95%, up by 2%!

Week 12

In the last week (exactly 3 months), we followed 1467 users (up by 400+) and 1404 of them followed back (up by 400+).

1404/1467 x 100 = 95.7%. That’s a follow back rate of 96%, up by 1%!

In summary, we went from 0 to 1,400 followers in 3 months by joining various follow for follow communities.

It’s noteworthy that we did use several tips that had contributed to the follow-back rate. You can read more about them in the next section.

What we learned

Note: This is another recap for the article, ‘Follow for Follow on Instagram: Tips and Tricks‘.

During the past three months of utilizing the follow for follow method and joining several follow for follow communities, we’ve learnt quite a lot.

Follow for follow communities work tremendously well, especially for new accounts (if you use them correctly)

There are a few pointers you’ll have to follow in order to utilize these communities to its maximum potential.

Firstly, it’s extremely important to send a direct message to the user that you’ve followed that you came from the respective community. This will pretty much guarantee you a follow back.

Otherwise they would have no clue that you came from the community without looking at mutual followers.

Secondly, liking a few of a user’s posts immediately after following them is a great way to grab a person’s attention. After all, Instagram users feed on followers and likes because they are means of gratification.

Lastly, following users in the same niche as you will increase the chance of them following you back.

Always follow and direct message others in intervals and don’t spam

Instagram’s algorithm is super sensitive when it comes to spam.

You’ll have to be sure not to spam follow or direct message others or you will be action-blocked. The action block can last for a couple of of hours or a few days depending on your account’s status.

The quickest way you can get action blocked is when you use an action without stopping (e.g. following users without stopping in a list, or direct messaging users one after another).

Advantages

It’s an actionable way to grow your Instagram followers where you can see near-instant results

But let’s be honest, they don’t perform as well as we hope them to. This is why some people result in purchasing fake followers which is one of the worst things you can do.

Not only it violates Instagram’s Terms of Service but it also ruins your engagement rates.

A great alternative is by joining follow for follow communities and connect with people who actually enjoy the content that you post.

By joining follow for follow communities (reinforcing the follow for follow method), you get the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals who will follow back and engage frequently.

You don’t have to post much; or at all to grow your followers

A great benefit about the follow for follow method (especially if you’re participating in follow for follow communities) is that you don’t have to post much to grow your followers.

This is because your followers aren’t going to be finding you from hashtags or the explore page. Instead, they’ll find you through your post in the respective follow for follow community.

If you don’t have much content prepared or effective hashtags you can use, joining follow for follow communities is the perfect solution for you.

It can drive awareness and traffic to your business

By utilizing the follow for follow method and joining communities, you can drive awareness and traffic to your business from people all around the world.

Because of this, your business isn’t restricted to just friends or family, but other people who might be interested in what you’re offering.

It also provides an opportunity for you to pitch your product/services or provide offers/discount codes.

It’s very time-consuming

Be prepared to dedicate hours of your time daily if you want to utilize this method to grow your followers.

This method isn’t for everyone because it takes lots of work ethic.

Although the method guarantees almost instant results (follow backs), you’ll have to spend a lot of time to follow and direct message those users one-by-one.

With reference to the case study above, we’ve spent approximately 3-6 hours daily just following and messaging users in intervals.

It can be a long and exhausting process but it definitely pays off.

You’ll have tons of photos on your feed

Because you’ll be excessively following others, your feed will be filled with lots of posts.

It may be hard to keep up with every post as you’ll find yourself struggling to like each and every one of them if you’re not consistent.

Sometimes, there’s no other choice but to mute users who spam too many posts. Otherwise, you might have to spend several minutes of your time just liking user’s posts on your feed.

You’ll have to constantly keep track of ghost followers and users who didn’t follow you back

It’s mandatory to have an Instagram app to track ghost followers, people that unfollow you and ghost followers who never engage in any of your posts.

Due to the fact that you’re going to be following lots of users, you’ll have to constantly track people that unfollow you or ghost followers on a daily basis to clean your ratio.

If you aren’t consistent with this, your follow to following ratio and feed will be negatively affected.

Misconception

There’s a common misconception between two methods. The follow/unfollow method against the follow for follow method.

The follow for follow method is not the same as the follow/unfollow method.

These are two completely different methods with different applications.

Follow for follow vs. follow/unfollow

Follow for followFollow/unfollowFollow and stay followed.Follow, then unfollow after a period of time.Usually reinforced by communities.Follow others in a list.Often engages in posts.Rarely engage in posts.Generous with likes and follow backs.Selfish, and does not want to reciprocate.Shows some interest in your content.Doesn’t show interest in your content.

Restrictions

Note: This is a recap for the article, ‘Instagram Action Blocked: How to Fix And Prevent It?‘.

Before diving into the follow for follow method, or joining follow for follow communities, it’s always important to be wary of certain Instagram restrictions.

You should never follow a bunch of people at one go. Similarly, you should never direct message a bunch of people at one go.

Here’s the safest way you can follow to prevent being action blocked:

Follow others in an interval of 5-10 mins.

Direct message others in an interval of 5-10 mins.

We’ve tested following and direct messaging others in intervals of 10 mins and it seems to be the safest interval that prevents your account from being action blocked.

If you follow these guidelines accordingly, you will not be action blocked.

General FAQ

What is the follow for follow method on Instagram?

The follow for follow method is the act of following as many users as possible (preferably in your niche) for the intention of a follow back.

How does follow for follow communities/groups work?

How do I find follow for follow communities?

You can join our follow for follow community at chúng tôi Additionally, you can find the full list of these communities here: List of Instagram Follow for Follow Groups.

Are these communities legit?

Based on our case study, the follow back rate is incredibly high, averaging at 90% if you send a direct message.

If you’re looking for a complete guide to Instagram Marketing, feel free to read this:

Are you struggling with growing your Instagram followers? Stop paying for agencies that require your Instagram password or growth services that utilize bots or fake followers. Followchain is the only community you need. Sign up and create an account for free today.

Author: Lim How Wei. Lim How Wei is the founder of Followchain, a community that simplifies growth and networking for Instagram users. Feel free to follow him on Instagram.

Ultimate Guide To Outsourcing B2B Lead Generation In 2023

What is B2B lead generation?

B2B lead generation is the activity of identifying ideal customers and directing them to purchase by leveraging B2B data.

Outsourcing lead generation is the practice of hiring an external sales department to promote a company’s products or services for a lower cost.

What are the benefits of outsourcing B2B lead generation?

Focus on selling

Sales representative allocate their time on any tasks other than selling. For instance, they spend time on cold calling or email prospecting. Outsourcing optimizes their sales processes and focus on selling.

Increase capacity

Sales growth without headcount growth

Mostly, companies expect to increase their sales to be able to expand their marketing headcount to increase sales headcount which will generate more sales. Yet, many small companies lack the capacity. These businesses can focus on the sales cycle by using the vital revenue for business growth.

Testing new channels

Companies might outsource lead generation as a way of outsourcing risk while they pivot the business. Pivoting refers to a fundamental change in the direction of a business or a drastic shift into a new marketing strategy. Companies test the viability of a channel before bringing it in-house by outsourcing.

Lower costs

Working with a specialist company, businesses might lower their cost per acquisition. For example, For instance, companies might choose outsourcing lead generation while promoting a product or service that is recently launched. In this way, they reduce the extra cost of lead generation for the new product/service.

How does outsourced B2B lead generation work? Sales

B2B outbound process is the way B2B lead generation functions in sales. This process includes:

Not defining ideal customer profile (ICP)

When companies do not pass the ideal customer profile (ICP) to the third-party agency, the lead quality becomes weak and unproductive. To overcome this challenge, companies are recommended to specify their market segment and buyer personas they are targeting.

Check databases

Businesses should check customer and marketing data and remove out of date information. A misguiding variable in the data might cause an additional cost and affect results negatively. For instance, an previously identified lead may have changed the industry. Having the outsourced marketing team contact them will be a waste of resources.

Reputational, financial and technical risks

In some cases, outsourcing lead generation might increase the risks of copying badly, off-brand designing or dodgy messaging. These all are risks harming the reputation of the company. Reputation damage can occur through technical risks as well. A poor campaign with email deliverability issues affects the domain reputation of the company. Compliance risk is even more risky when the third-party ignores local finance or compliance rules and regulations.

For more lead generation

To explore how AI developments can complement marketing strategies and transform marketing, read our articles on:

If you want to leverage B2B lead generation but do not know where to start, you can review our data-driven list on lead generation solutions and companies.

If you believe your business can benefit from outsourcing B2B lead generation, let us walk you through the process and find the right vendor:

Hazal Şimşek

Hazal is an industry analyst in AIMultiple. She is experienced in market research, quantitative research and data analytics. She received her master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Carlos III of Madrid and her bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Bilkent University.

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. REQUIRED FIELDS ARE MARKED

0 Comments

Comment

Ultimate Ad Tech & Martech Guide In 2023

Ad tech and martech have been inevitably linked but technically two very distinct areas of technology. As seen in Figure 1, the interest in these two words almost always went hand in hand, but seems to change in recent years. As digital marketing grows its share in overall marketing spend around the world, ad tech and mar tech tools get more established applications. In this guide, we will compare how ad tech and martech are different from each other and list the top applications of both technologies.

Ad Tech vs MarTech in a Snapshot

Ad TechMarTech ApplicationsAd-level, applied directly on a specific adCampaign or brand level BillingUsually variable based on ad volumeUsually fixed price as SaaS Top SolutionsDMPs, CDPs, DSPs, ad tracking & verification toolsWeb analytics, social media management, SEO, brand protection, CRM

Ultimate Windows 8 Starter Guide: Must

The year is drawing to a close, so there’s a very good chance that you now find yourself staring straight down the gaping maw of Windows 8.

Maybe someone gave you a new Windows tablet or PC as a gift. Or maybe you decided to use your holiday down time to upgrade an old PC. The details don’t really matter. You’re now using Windows 8 for the very first time, and you’re searching for answers on how to make the OS an integral, productive part of your high-tech life.

Sound familiar? Then walk with me as we take a tour of recent PCWorld Windows 8 coverage. I trust we have answers to all your Windows 8 questions.

Getting started with Windows 8

Right when the new OS launched, we published a number of essential how-to guides for first-time Windows 8 users. You can start your orientation process with this handy guide to maximizing your first 30 minutes with the new OS. But perhaps even more useful is our compendium of 20 must-know Windows 8 tips and tricks, which starts off with a thorough look at keyboard shortcuts—you should know them all if you don’t have a touch screen.

But if you do have a touch screen device, then head straight to our guide to Windows 8 gesture commands. In this article (and in its accompany video) we describe how to navigate the initially confusing touch commands that leave many first-time users wondering what the heck just hit them.

You really can’t get the most from the new Windows 8 modern interface unless you have a 10-point multitouch display.

And if you don’t have a touch screen monitor for the new OS, you should definitely read our guide to picking the right upgrade display for full Windows 8 compatibility.

Windows 8 drivers, utilities and customizations

Once you’ve become somewhat acclimated to the new Windows 8 landscape, it’s time to fine-tune the OS experience to your personal preferences. At the top of the list is driver management. It’s very possible that your new Windows 8 device boots up fine, but unless all your device drivers are up-to-date, you won’t get the most high-performance experience possible (and driver issues may stop some peripherals from working altogether).

See our exhaustive guide on the whys, hows and wheres of Windows 8 drivers to nip all these issues in the bud. Utilities like Win8 Start Button will help restore a bit of normalcy in the new OS.

Some Windows 8 problems have nothing to do with drivers. Instead, the OS itself is just innately challenging. To alleviate some of the built-in pain points, you absolutely must read our guide to the 8 worst Windows 8 irritations and how to fix them. Microsoft’s decision to omit the traditional Start Button is among a host of bizarre development decisions, but luckily three different third-party utilities—Win8 Start Button, StartMenuPlus8 and Start8—can return the erstwhile Windows mainstay to your desktop.

But, hey, Microsoft didn’t kill all the good things from previous versions of Windows. It just relegated many of them to hidden, second-class status. For a bunch of great tools hiding beneath the surface of Windows 8, check out this collection of 6 awesome Windows 8 utilities that no one knows about.

In the weeks since the new OS launched, we’ve published a number of deep-dive tutorials that explore the system’s more innovative, richer features. For example, BitLocker To Go is built directly into Windows 8, and helps you quickly encrypt external storage devices like USB flash drives and portable hard drives. If you’re concerned about your data security, you should also read our how-to on activating Windows Defender, a basic anti-malware tool that’s not immediately exposed in many default installations of the OS.

Portable drives can be tapped for use in both Storage Spaces and BitLocker To Go.

Finally, it’s possible that you just installed Windows 8 on a machine from yesteryear, and your gear isn’t up to the task of running the new system in all its glory. If you find yourself in this sorry lot, read our tutorial on optimizing Windows 8 for older hardware. It explains which features to turn off, or otherwise disable.

Windows 8 apps and games to explore and download

Windows 8 comes with a bunch of pre-installed “modern UI” apps, so you might as well familiarize yourself with the most high-profile entries. We have detailed primers on Music, Photos, Mail, Calendar, SkyDrive and People. None of these apps is perfect, though the SkyDrive cloud service is an integral part of the new Microsoft ecosystem, so you really should check out its implementation in Windows 8.

Precisely because Microsoft’s built-in apps are so lacking, you’ll want to hit up the Windows Store for Windows 8 apps to populate your new Start Screen. On the day Windows 8 launched, we published our top 10 list of the Windows 8 apps to download first, but just this week we updated the concept with a new article geared specifically to Windows 8 tablets.

New Windows 8 hardware owners should also read our suggestions of the best streaming media apps for cord cutters, the best Windows 8 casual games (our author tested a vast selection, and then chose the 15 most worthy), and best productivity apps.

Update the detailed information about The Ultimate Guide To Protecting Your Private Information In Notes From The Prying Eyes on the Moimoishop.com website. We hope the article's content will meet your needs, and we will regularly update the information to provide you with the fastest and most accurate information. Have a great day!