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If you’re an alum of a particular top-tier, non Ivy college that shall remain nameless (it rhymes with Bons Mopkins), you may be accustomed to getting a weekly phone call from a very pushy undergrad asking for money. Since you graduated with a degree from this excellent institution, you must have a bunch of money that you just don’t know what to do with, right? ROFL!

I have this problem, and I tried saving the phone number in my contacts and setting the ringtone to silent. Then they called from a slightly different number, so I added that to the contact record. When they called from a third number, I realized I needed a better solution. I used an app called Tasker that lets you automate things on your Android. It’s a little tricky to figure out, and there are a lot of steps involved. So here’s step by step instructions for blocking an entire exchange on an Android phone:

1. First, you’ll need to install the Tasker app. It’s not free, but it’s worth it. (You can do a lot of other things with it.)
2. Once that is installed, open the app and press the ‘+’ at the bottom to create what they call, in the Tasker lingo, a “profile”. Name it whatever you want and tap the check mark.
3. You’ll see a menu that says “First Context”. Tap “State”.
4. At the menu that says “Select State Category”, choose “Phone”.
5. The next screen says “Select Phone Action”. Choose “Incoming Call”.
6. Here’s where the magic happens. Where it says “Caller” put in the first six digits of the phone number (the area code and the exchange) followed by an asterisk. So if you’re getting calls from numbers like 410-555-1234 and 410-555-1235 put in “410555*”. Tap the green check mark.
7. The next screen will say “Task Selection”. Choose “New Task”, name it whatever you want, and tap the green check mark.
8. Then you’ll see a screen that says “Task Edit / [your task name]“. Press the ‘+’.
9. On the screen that says “Select Action Category”, choose “Phone”.
10. On the screen that says “Select Phone Action”, choose “End Call”. This will reject all calls from the exchange.
11. On the screen that says “End Call”, press the green check mark.
12. Finally, on the screen that says “Task Edit / [your task name]“, press the green check mark.

You’re done! The next time you get a call from this exchange, your phone will ring only very briefly before the call is rejected and you’ll get a “missed call” notification.

Enjoy pushy-undergrad-fundraiser-free bliss!

Online social sharing tools have been around since del.icio.us launched in 2003.  Now, after almost a decade of social bookmarking and sharing online, it’s clear that link sharing tools come and go. I don’t know about you, but when Yahoo! threatened to shut down delicious, I exported my bookmarks and never looked back. And how many of your friends are still using Digg? Meanwhile, Google+ just joined the party this year and Pinterest is starting to hockey stick.

So if you haven’t updated the sharing tools on your blog for a few years, it may be time to ditch some of the old buttons in favor of some new ones. Take a look at your Google Analytics and consider which sites drive traffic and which do not. If a sharing site hasn’t driven any traffic in the last six months, ditch the button. You don’t need the clutter. Plus, if it’s a widget that loads within an iframe, it can really slow down the loading time of your page.

Next consider which new buttons you should add. Do your analytics show referrals from link sharing sites that you are missing? Add them. Then consider the newcomers like Google+ and Pinterest. It’s still too soon to tell whether Google+ will really take off, but considering how it can boost your results in Google search, you should add the +1 button for now. If you have a blog related to fashion, home decor, crafts, art, or food, the Pin It button is essential. I’ve found that at Feastie, Pinterest drives more traffic than any other social sharing tool besides Facebook. I attribute this to the close match between the Pinterest demographic and the Feastie audience as well as the relatively high signal to noise ratio compared to other sites like twitter. Finally, consider adding the Linked In share button. The links people share on Linked In are mostly work related. That’s why I included the Linked In share button here but not at Feastie.

What social sharing widgets have you included on your blog?

I’m happy to share some very exciting news about Feastie. We recently won 1st place in the High Tech Category of the Rockville Economic Development StartRight Business Plan Competition. The prize includes $5,000 in cash and one-year virtual membership to the Montgomery County Business Innovation Network. We’re grateful to REDI and our sponsor, Shulman Rogers, for honoring us with this award!