How to Invite a Household Member to Share Your Amazon Echo | Dramel Notes

The Amazon Echo is a fantastic tool for using your voice to manage everything from shopping lists to music play lists, but what if you have other people in your household? Read on as we show you how to link multiple Amazon accounts to the Echo for shared music, lists, and more.

Why Do I Want To Do This?

If you’re the only one in your household and/or the only person who does any purchasing through Amazon, then this tutorial probably isn’t for you (but you may still find that multiple profiles are useful for your family or roommates, so we’d encourage you to keep reading).

For people with multi-person households, especially where members of that household all have purchased various content on Amazon like music and audio books, it makes sense to enable shared profiles so that you can, for example, play songs and albums through the Echo system that your spouse or roommate have purchased.

In addition to sharing music you also can share shopping lists, to-dos, calendar entries, and other useful features available on the Echo/Alexa system, perfect for ensuring that whoever does the shopping has full access to everything added to the collective shopping list and other shared household tasks.

Note: There is one minor caveat worth noting: giving someone access via shared profiles also gives them access to the purchasing capacity of your Amazon Echo. You may with to turn off voice-based purchasing (or enable a PIN code) in the Settings section of the Amazon Alexa app.

Adding A Profile To Your Amazon Echo

Let’s take a look at how to add a profile to your Amazon Echo. You can perform all these actions either by using the Amazon Alexa app on your smart device or by visiting echo.amazon.com while logged into the Amazon account of the primary Echo user. For easier to read and larger screenshots we opted to use echo.amazon.com for the tutorial but the menu layout and function is identical.

To get started navigate to the menu by tapping the menu button on the Amazon Alexa app or simply loading the echo.amazon.com portal. Select “Settings” from the side menu and then select “Household Profile”.

You’ll be prompted with a summary of the Amazon Household system and asked if you want to continue. Select “Continue” once you’ve read over the summary.

Next you’ll be prompted to pass the device or computer to the other person, as seen above. Once you click “OK” they’ll need to input their Amazon login credentials to authorize their addition to your Amazon Echo.

After their credentials are verified they’ll be presented with a summary of the Amazon Echo/Alexa sharing experience that runs through everything that will be shared (music, audio books, calendars as well as joint-managed to-do and shopping lists). After reading over the summary and the information about Alexa voice processing and data collection, select “Join Household” to complete the process. You’ll see a confirmation process welcoming you to the household of the primary account holder.

Although it looks like you’re all done here, there’s one final step before the process is officially over. The user you just added to your Echo needs to either download and install the Amazon Alexa app on their smart device (a recommended step, regardless) or visit echo.amazon.com while logged into their Amazon account so that they may accept the terms and agreements of the Alexa voice assistant program. Until they agree to the user agreement their profile will not be accessible on the Echo and all profile-related commands will be met with a prompt for the user to go accept the terms of service.

Now that we’ve invited the user, set up the profile sharing, and accepted the terms of service, it’s time to take a look at how to actually use multiple profiles on the Echo.

Switching Between Profiles

Once you’ve completed all the steps in the previous section it’s easy to jump between profiles. When using commands related to the profile system you can use the word “account” or “profile” interchangeable as Alexa responds to both terms. We prefer using “profile” as it most naturally fits with the function of the profile system on the Echo.

First, if you’re not sure which profile you’re currently on you can say:

Alexa, whose profile is this?

In turn, you’ll get a response like “In Jason’s profile”. You can then switch between profiles one of two ways by saying:

Alexa, switch profiles.

Alexa, switch to [Name]’s profile.

If there are only two Amazon accounts links to the Echo then you can stick to “switch profiles”. If you have more than one account linked to the Echo then it is much faster to switch profiles by name like “switch to Steve’s profile”.

Once you’ve switched profiles you can use all the commands you would normally use when speaking with Alexa but the commands will have access to the content of the currently active profile. (Thus, if your spouse or roommate is the huge music fan who does all the music purchasing, you’d want to switch to their profile when using the Echo as a jukebox).

Removing A Profile From Your Amazon Echo

If a member leaves your household or you simply decide to remove them from the device for other reasons, doing so is easy. To remove a household member from your Amazon Echo simply open up the Amazon Alexa app or visit echo.amazon.com as we did in the first step.

There is one element to this process we want to emphasize: once you remove someone from your Amazon Household you cannot re-add them for 180 days. If you remove someone in error you’ll need to contact Amazon’s support center to get them put back onto the account as you will no longer be able to manually add them in.

With that in mind let’s take a look at removing someone (if you’re certain you wish to remove them).

When you return to the Settings section and scroll down to the location where we originally found “Household Profile” you’ll now find an entry that reads “In an Amazon household with [Name]”. Select that entry.

You’ll be prompted to reauthorize your Amazon credentials and then you’ll be presented with the screen above that allows you to select and then remove the other user.

In addition to removing users yourself the users you’ve added can also remove themselves by repeating the above steps. (So if you found this tutorial because you’re trying to remove yourself from your roommate’s Alexa-enabled device you can repeat the above steps an instead select “Leave” beside your name to initiate the removal process yourself.)

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Have a pressing question about the Amazon Echo or the Alexa voice-assistant? Shoot us an email at ask@howtogeek.com and we’ll do our best to answer it.

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How to Combine Multiple Partitions Into a Single Partition | Dramel Notes

Some manufacturers ship PCs with their internal drives divided into multiple partitions — one for the Windows operating system, and an empty “data” partition for your personal files. You can combine these partitions into a single one, if you prefer.

This trick can also be used to remove recovery partitions, freeing up space that would normally be used for recovery data. Or, if you set up a PC with multiple partitions, you can undo all that.

Why Do Some PCs Ship With Multiple Partitions, Anyway?

Some PC manufacturers seem to think that devoting one partition to the operating system and another to data will provide a clean separation of the two, allowing you to wipe your operating system and reinstall it while keeping your data in a separate area.

This may be convenient for some people, but it often isn’t necessary. Windows 10’s “Reset this PC” feature will reset Windows to its default settings without erasing your personal data, even if both are on the same partition. This divides the space on your hard drive into two chunks, and you might fill up one of the partitions and not have space for programs on your system partition or data files on your data partition after you do.

Rather than live with the drive setup your manufacturer chose, you can change it yourself. It’s quick, easy, and should be fairly safe. You can do it all from within Windows, too.

Note that some PCs actually have multiple hard drives in them. If they do, you won’t normally be able to combine these multiple drives into a single partition without some more advanced tricks.

Delete One Partition and Expand the Other

We’ll start first by deleting one of the partitions. If you have a new PC with one partition containing your system files and an empty partition labelled “DATA” or something similar, we’ll be erasing the empty partition.

If you have data files on that partition already, you should move them from the data partition you’ll be deleting to your system partition you want to keep. If there isn’t room, you can temporarily move the files to an external hard drive or USB flash drive. Just get those files off the partition as they’ll be lost when you delete the partition.

When you’re ready, open the Disk Management utility. On Windows 10 or 8.1, right-click the Start button and select “Disk Management.” On Windows 7, press Windows Key + R, type “diskmgmt.msc” into the Run dialog, and press Enter.

Locate the two partitions you want to combine. In the example below, we’ll be combining the OS (C:) partition with the DATA (D:) partition.

These two partitions must be on the same drive. If they’re on different drives, this won’t work. They’ll also need to be adjacent to each other on the drive, or else you’ll need to do a bit more work.

Remove the second partition by right-clicking it here and selecting “Delete Volume”. Remember: You’ll lose all the files on the partition when you do this!

Next, right-click the remaining partition you want to enlarge and click the “Enlarge Volume” option.

ClIck through the wizard and accept the default options to enlarge the partition to the maximum amount of available space. It’ll expand into the free space left behind after the adjacent partition was deleted.

It’s that simple, and the change will be instant and happen without a reboot. The second partition is gone, and the first partition now contains all the storage space previously allocated to the second one.

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You can’t create a partition that expands across several drives. However, the Storage Spaces feature added in Windows 8 will allow you to combine multiple physical hard drives into a single logical drive.

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#Instagram Tests Multiple Account Feature by @dantosz | Dramel Notes

Instagram may finally be looking to solve one of its major user hangups – the inability to manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard, similar to the way you can in Facebook or Twitter.

Currently, in order to have two accounts with the photo-sharing platform, you must completely log out of one and re-login with another email address and password.

This is cumbersome for brand managers, social media account managers, and anyone else who wants to have more than one account.

The new multi-login feature was first reported on Twitter by user @fro_rouge last week.

Instagram Multi-aacount pic.twitter.com/gWKPOcvKbh

— Rogue (@fro_rogue) November 25, 2015

Currently, the feature appears to be in beta testing mode and only available to a limited number of Android users. Instagram has not said whether this feature will be expanding, or when it might be available for iPhone users.

Recently, Instagram changed its developer policy, which will restrict third-party app access to the platform. These new restrictions are set to go live next summer, which could be the reason they are testing this feature now.

If Instagram does roll out this feature for all users, it would make life a whole lot easier for many marketers.

Are you part of the Android test group? I would love to hear your thoughts if you have tried this new feature.

 

Featured Image: Bloomua / Shutterstock.com

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10 SEO Tips You’d Be Surprised You Didn’t Know by @texasgirlerin | Dramel Notes

Whenever I set out to write something like this, I’m always hesitant because I know that someone (or multiple someones) will read this and know every single thing on the list already. I write it anyway because I think it’s always good to have a refresher. If you pick up even one new idea that you can put into practice, then I think it’s worthwhile.

When it comes to SEO, there’s obviously a lot of fluctuation in the industry, and not just from search engines like Google, but from the way people themselves search for and consume information. The tips below are a blend of analytics, organization, and productivity practices I find useful and seem to be the most frequently forgotten during chats with other marketers.

Create Keyword Groups to Better Leverage Your Data

When I say create keyword groups, I mean create lots of them. Here’s why: Keyword groups can be used to reflect things like products, features, marketing campaigns, audience segments, messaging, geographies, and more. Consider creating multiple types of groups (keywords can belong to more than one group) so you can compare products and features as well as messaging, campaigns, etc. Keyword groups are not only good for comparisons of your internal marketing efforts but also for monitoring and analyzing competitor movements as well.

Create Content Groups

I promise I’ll talk about something other than groups, but if you’re taking the time to create keyword groups, you should also look at grouping your content. One of the reasons I like to group content, in addition to keywords, is that it gives you a different angle on how your audience is finding and interacting with you. A few ways I group content to get the most insights are:

1. Use the same groups you used to create keyword groups such as: products, features, campaigns, geographies, etc.
2. Create groups of content by content type such as videos, white papers, case studies, blogs, etc.
3. Create content groups based on user flow – for example, I might have one that is lead gen content, consideration content, etc.

This method allows me to make comparisons easily and to see how keyword groups and traffic are driven to my content.

Pay Attention to Top Keyword Activity

Top keyword activity is essentially the keyword, and corresponding content, that has changed in rank the most over the past few weeks. I keep an eye on both the top positive keyword activity and declining keyword activity for my content because it tells me not only when we’re hitting the right content and keyword combinations, but it also alerts me to shifts in audience needs and interests.

Keep an Eye on Top Keyword Activity for Your Competitors

Watching top keyword activity for competitors allows you to see not only which of your targeted keywords they are focusing on, but also the corresponding content they’re creating that is being served to your audience. This data may help inform future content creation decisions or improve existing content.

Pay Attention to Competitor Social Signals at The Content Level

Social signals are often a good indicator of what’s organically popular and relevant to your audience at the moment. While most people pay attention to their brand’s social signals, viewing your competitor’s social engagement is also important. By viewing a list of their content sorted by top performing social signals, you can see what your audience finds relevant for the same keywords you’re tracking and see where you might have gaps in your own site content.

Prioritize Your Recommendations

If you’re using an SEO and content platform that delivers recommendations, it’s possible that you’ll get a list of recommendations back that’s daunting and scattered. Prioritizing your recommendations will not only help you stay sane, it will also make sure that you focus on the most important items first. Whether you’re looking for a site-wide rankings boost, doling out simple tasks to other team members, or looking to focus on a specific group of content or keywords – you should be able to use your platform to sort and assign recommendations.

Start Your Day by Staying in the Loop

Depending on your level of experience and interaction with your organization’s SEO and content efforts – you may or may not dive directly into a platform first thing every morning. One thing I do to let me know just how quickly I need to log in, (can it wait til after I check emails or not?) and how deep I need to dive, is set up email alerts with some basic data that will give me an overall health check of my site and its content. A few things included in my daily notification list are: a traffic summary, top keyword activity, recommendations summary, and marketing channel performance overview.

Do Some Competitor Discovery

So you know about the competitors already in your market, and you’re probably doing some checking in on them. But what about the new brands that are starting to take traffic from you, or existing brands that may have shifted focus and are gaining your audience’s attention?

Keeping a regular eye out for who is starting to rank for your targeted keywords and looking at the corresponding content can help you catch and strategize against changes in traffic before you lose position and visits.

Polish up Older Content

One of the most frequently missed opportunities is reviewing your older content to see what could be polished up using new information, updated SEO practices, and current content to give it new life. Most of us have lots of potentially evergreen pages out there that could increase in rank with just a little time – often less time than creating entirely new content. We’re often focused on driving traffic to the latest campaign and features, so it’s easy to overlook or de-prioritize these supporting pages. Don’t overlook these opportunities already on your site – they can be great “bread and butter” places for your audiences to find you and may even open up new audiences with a bit of a refresh.

Annotate as You go

Adding new keywords? Annotate that. Make a bunch of changes to page structures or complete other recommendations? Annotate it. Your team just released a bunch of new content for a campaign? You got it – annotate! Why annotate, other than because I think it’s a fun word? Because it helps you tie actions to outcomes.

When you’re looking at rises and falls in ranks across groups of content and keywords, if you’ve been adding annotations to your analytics along the way as you complete tasks, you’ll have a much easier time figuring out cause and effect. Trust me, for every 20 seconds it takes you to annotate something, you’ll save 20 minutes trying to figure out why that spike in traffic happened.

When it comes to good SEO, it’s as much about managing your own process and priorities as it is about keeping up with Google’s changes, so hopefully some of these tips are fresh ideas to try or just good reminders of best practices.

 

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Erin Robbins O’Brien
All screenshots by Erin Robbins O’Brien. Taken November 2015.

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