This isn’t going to be an in-depth discussion about Google+. I’ll leave that to the experts. In fact, before my search tips, let me point you to two sources that provide updates on all that’s new on Google+.

HubSpot has published a comprehensive free e-book How to Use Google+ for Business. Just click on the title and you will be able to download the PDF from the home page.

The other is also a lengthy tutorial (slightly more technical) but well worth reading on Blind Five Year Old by AJ Kohn.

My Tips

These are predicated on your being a member of Google+. My good friend Richard Newman at the Newman Group pointed out this new feature when you conduct a search on Google.

Search Personal Results    

You now have the ability to search a subject and get the results, plus see your own Personal Results for that search. The way you do that is by clicking on the tiny icon on the upper right side of the screen. It’s the one on the left that looks like a head and shoulders. The icon next to it, that looks like a globe, allows you to Hide Personal Results.

Here is a screen shot of the two icons:

Google+ Personal Results Icon (head and shoulders)

I put in the search term The New York Times, which I happen to mention often in my posts. I’ve also written letters to the editors and commented on their stories so I knew something of mine would show up if I typed in “The New York Times” in Google search.

First, I clicked the Personal Results icon. Sure enough, I found a reference to a recent post I wrote about The Times and its mistake in accidentally cancelling the subscriptions of 8 million subscribers.

My Google+ Personalized Search of The New York Times

When I hit the globe icon, that reference disappeared. Neat.

Highlighting Words in Google+ Posts

I wish I could find where I read this because I would give attribution. It’s a tiny but nice little touch that Google+ has incorporated so that you can highlight important words in your posts. Highlighting may improve your search results. I tried this tip and it works.

For example, see the bold face in this mock post:

 “Learn more about Google+ in HubSpot’s new ebook”

Here’s how you do it. Type the words you want to highlight. Then type an * in front and at the end* of the words. Like this: Learn more about Google+ in *HubSpot’s new ebook * and you get “Learn more about Google+ in HubSpot’s new ebook.” Viola!

I’ll pass along other easy-to-understand tips on Google+ as I find them. Please include your tips in the comment box. I’d sure like to know about them.

The title tag is the most important element of your blog or website. My blogging coach Bea Fields just recorded a tutorial about optimizing the title tag for her Become a Blogging Maniac course. It’s at the bottom of this post.

Your title tag must contain key words that describe your business. A descriptive, keyword-laden title tag is essential for increasing rankings in search engines.

The title tag appears at the very top of a blog or website and is usually overlooked by visitors — but not by Google or other search engines.  Search engines will “bold” (or highlight) those terms in the search results when a user searches for those terms.

Here is a screen shot of the title tag of SEOmoz.  I don’t need to tell you what they do. Below the screen shot is the video. Take the 5 minutes or so to view it and learn how to write a powerful title tag.

Related articles

• On-Page Search Engine Optimization Information and Facts (seotacticstoday.wordpress.com)
• Search Engine Optimization – Title and Meta Tags (stepup2success.wordpress.com)

Social Media Examiner (SME) hosted an online webinar yesterday and described how 9 small businesses are attracting thousands of visitors and, in some cases, millions of dollars in revenue. Most of them have only been at it for two or three years. I have to say I was more than impressed.

Social Marketing Makes Dollars and Sense

In the opening slide, we learned why social media is essential for any business.

My key takeaways from the presentation were:

• Give away free content. I’m not talking about the content of your blogs. But useful stuff like Ana White, Carpenter, does — diagrams and detailed instructions, for example, about how to build a cabinet.
• Use very personalized images. In most cases, the business owners had several informal shots of themselves sprinkled throughout the site — with their spouses, holding their dogs, etc.. Photos give you an emotional connection with your visitors.
• Create and empower your community. For example, run a contest to engage your readers. If you have a photography business, you could invite your audience to submit their best photos, select winners and post them on your site.
• Enable readers to share your content. Be sure to prominently display social media buttons for social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ so that your followers can share your content with their followers, potentially drawing many more visitors to your site.
• Leverage social proof. If you have impressive followings on Twitter and Facebook put those numbers up on your site. Include testimonials.
• Choose the channels that work best for you. If you’re a small business, it takes time to be active on every social network. Experiment and see where you should place your focus. You don’t have to be everywhere.

I liked that he showcased offbeat companies such as Easy Lunch Boxes and Orabush tongue cleaner (don’t laugh, he’s raking in the money). I concluded from the presentation you never know when an simple idea will turn into a profitable business.

Lessons Learned

At the conclusion of the seminar, Michael Steltzner, founder and CEO of SME, summed up the key lessons in this slide:

Please share in the comments box how your small business is using social media to build your business. I’m all ears.

I was in a new business meeting the other day and suggested that starting a company blog had the potential to increase visitors to the company’s website. We all know (don’t we?) that Google rewards dynamic content so posting regularly will eventually boost your rankings.

Why Blogs are Abandoned

The designer I was with said “Oh, no” that won’t work. I couldn’t blame him. He had designed websites and blogs for a number of clients and within a short time the blogs had been abandoned.

It’s a commitment to write a weekly or twice-weekly blog. Who will write the blog – someone inside the company or will we outsource it? What will we write about? Where will our ideas come from?

These are legitimate questions, but I believe it is a lack of will and commitment from top management that is behind the failures.There isn’t a plan in place to keep the blog going and building momentum.

Tips for Bloggers

So, if you, or your company, have abandoned your blog here are some steps to take:

• Make a commitment. Decide that you want to increase traffic to your website by x% within six months, or whatever benchmark you want to establish. A blog will help you do that. Static websites don’t cut it.
• Choose categories, or “buckets” of stories. Suppose you’re an accounting firm. You could decide to write about how to finance your retirement, tips for cutting taxes, and estate planning. Over time you could add more buckets.
• Assign responsibilities. Like any other marketing activity, you’ve got to allocate the necessary human and financial resources. Identify content experts in the company as sources for information the writer will need. Think carefully about assigning revenue-producing employees to write. They will usually find an excuse not to do it – I have a client calling, or I need to go to a new business pitch, etc. Better that they supply the writer with the facts she needs. Let accountants be accountants. Let writers be writers.
• Build an inventory of posts. Set a launch date for your blog and then prepare a schedule of posts for the first three months. Write your launch post and at least four other posts from different categories before you begin publishing. The first day, have a launch post that introduces your blog and why you are writing it. At the same time, publish the first four (or more) posts. Why? Because a single post will look like an orphan all by itself. The posts will contain great content and encourage readers to subscribe.
• Offer an incentive. Give readers a reason to subscribe, such as a special report, or something free that would otherwise cost them.
• Solicit guest posts. Ask clients and other experts to write guest posts. You will get backlinks to their sites (another SEO boost) and provide your readers with differing points of view.
• Post to social networks. Now that you have a blog you can automatically distribute new posts to social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. You will be reaching new audiences who may visit your website and decide you’re a company they would like to do business with.
• Repurpose the content. Turn your blog posts into articles, slide shows and electronic brochures. You will be leveraging your investment and distributing your content through other communications channels.

Beat the Competition

It’s true that many companies have abandoned their blogs. Shame on them. They are missing out on a great opportunity to establish the company’s authority on topics of interest to clients and prospects.

Most people still get their information about a company from its website. Your blog will serve as a sort of Pied Piper, luring in readers searching for valuable information to improve themselves and their businesses.

Why not have them come to you and not a competitor?

Related articles

• The benefits of business blogging: Part 1 (marketing.yell.com)
• 12 Business Blogging Shortcuts for Time-Crunched Marketers (hubspot.com)

Image via CrunchBase

My blog is automatically distributed to my subscribers when I hit the “publish” button. It usually works very smoothly. But lately, the gremlins have been at work. So if you are a subscriber, I apologize that twice last week you received an email with my latest blog post and the links to 9 previous posts. I had nothing to do with it!

No Customer Support

Feedburner, owned by Google, is a service that 99% of bloggers use to distribute their posts. But there is no way to get in touch with the company when you have a problem. You are directed to Feedburner Help Groups whose members are simply other Feedburner users who may be able to help you with your problem if you can’t find an answer in Feedburner’s Q&A section. Fine and dandy, but I saw my question posted earlier by other users. The response? Nada.

How are ordinary folks, like me, supposed to work out these technical problems? As I’ve often said, technology is great when it works. It’s not working, Feedburner!!

If you are a fellow blogger and know what is causing the problem, please leave me a comment.

Thank  you!

Image via CrunchBase

When I read in a Nielsen study that Tumblr ranks third in time people spend on a social network, after Facebook and Blogger but ahead of Twitter, I decided it was time to learn more about it.

Sure, I’ve had an account for quite a while, but that hardly counts as being active.  I’m a regular blogger on my own self-hosted site, post to Twitter and Facebook daily, and I’m very involved with the LinkedIn community. Isn’t that enough? Maybe not. So I wrote my first blog on Tumblr, which I describe later in this post with screen shots of how you do it.

Next Great Social Network?

Tumblr is a blogging platform but much more. The power of Tumblr resonated in a post on Pro Blogger about how a single Tumblr link drove a blog post to the top of Google search. Tumblr says it’s had close to 10 billion total posts and almost 20 million total blogs, more than WordPress.com.

Social media maven Steve Rubel, in a recent post entitled Tumblr is the Next Great Social Network, described it this way, “Tumblr, to me at least, isn’t a blog platform but something new entirely — a social network for both original and curated content that is longer than a tweet and often more visual in nature. It’s a hybrid.”

Through the Tumblr dashboard, you can post text, photos, quotes, links, dialogues, audio, video, slideshows, and more, creating a network effect like the one that drove the Pro Blogger writer’s post to the top of Google search.

How Does it Work?

I decided to write my first post, learning by doing. If you’re new to Tumblr you should first sign up. Here is how the registration page looks (with sample blogs). You simply enter your name, email address and URL from your website at the bottom in the rectangular windows.

Next, you click on “start posting.” You will be taken to a dashboard. Note that at the top of the dashboard there is a Chat icon which allows you to have conversations with other members. You can also upload audios and videos. I added my Tumblr account to my Facebook news feed so my blogs will be automatically posted on my wall. I also chose the option to post them to my Twitter account. Here is the dashboard:

You’re given the option of uploading an image from your own computer or another site. Tumblr has a neat editing program for images, and a variety of blog templates. I initially uploaded an image thinking it would be my blog header, but it ended up at the bottom of my post so I’ll need to figure that out. But if you want to keep it simple, you don’t even need an image. Here is how my plain vanilla post looks:

If you are a new blogger, you might find your first attempts at writing a blog, inserting links and uploading images a little intimidating. I didn’t see any detailed instructions. I’m sure if you do a Google search you can find how-to articles. And, like other social networks, there are discussion forums where you can ask for help.

While Tumblr is growing in popularity, it is still a bit of a mystery to many people, what with Facebook and Google+ hogging most of the spotlight lately. But that’s going to change with Tumblr nipping at their heels in its race to be the leading online community where people spend the most time hanging out.

So are you on Tumblr? How would you compare it to your experience on Facebook and Twitter?

I promised myself that I wouldn’t write about Google+ because didn’t I say just a few posts ago that I don’t have time to hang out on any more social networks? I’ve changed my mind. (I’m allowed).

For starters, I want to point out, if you look to your right, that I not only did I join Google+ but you can follow me by adding me to one of your circles. This takes some explaining if you haven’t yet joined Google+ or are just getting your feet wet, as I am.

Google+ Circles

One of the big differences between Google+ and Facebook is that you can segregate your connections into separate categories. Google+ calls them circles. It’s so simple to add people to your circles. Google+ has nicely started four for you called Friends, Family, Acquaintances and Following. You can add more circles and name them what you want – college alumni, cooking class, celebrities. You get the idea.  I’ve included a screen shot of my circles shown at the left.

This is where I think Google+ has a big edge over Twitter and Facebook. If you’re on the receiving end of a friend’s stream, you will only receive updates that are relevant to your circle. You don’t need to know what his Aunt Tilly ate last night for dinner. Also, you can restrict what you say within each Circle. This allows for private conversations that you can’t have on Facebook.

Hangouts

This is another neat feature. You can start a hangout – a sort of chat room – where you can sign in Skype-like and a live video of you shows up. If your friends are also hanging out you can have a conversation.

I’ve filled out my profile, and my stream is filling with updates from people in my Follow circle who are mainly social media mavens that I also follow on Twitter. I need to start posting more content and adding people to my circles. Of course, it all takes time. But I find Google+ more user friendly than Facebook and I think it will be more useful to my business. Specializing in social media communications, I need to know about this newest network where clients and prospects may be hanging out. So I need to hang out, too.

Have you joined Google+ or do you plan to? What do you think of it? The service is still by invitation-only as they roll it out. Let me know if you would like me to send you an invitation and I will. Oh, and if you enjoyed this post, please click on the +1 to the right. It’s the equivalent of the FB like.

Image via CrunchBase

Eli Pariser, the liberal advocate, has written a book  The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You and gave a talk about it at recent TED conference. Thanks to my friend and colleague Joyce Newman, a leading media and presentation trainer, for bringing it to my attention. Pariser’s basic thesis is that the major players on the Internet — Google, Facebook, Yahoo News and others — are filtering what we see to a much greater extent than we may realize.

Pariser recounted a couple of examples in the video from TED that is below this post. While he is a liberal, he also likes to follow conservatives to see what they have to say. One day he was surprised to learn the conservatives had disappeared from his Facebook feed without Facebook consulting him. Because Facebook’s algorithims had detected that he visited liberal friends more often than conservative friends, they simply edited out the conservatives.

Image via CrunchBase

Pariser found Google was doing it, too. He asked friends to search the same word — Egypt –  and the results were dramatically different. He concludes — and it’s difficult to disagree — that the Internet is showing us what it thinks we want to see but not necessarily what we need to see.

That’s how he came to write the Filter Bubble — to show how these content editors (the algorithims) don’t have embedded ethics as they curate the world for us. Pariser believes they must show us other points of view and not just what we’ve searched for. The people writing these codes must take on a sense of civic responsibility so the process is transparent and we can decide what gets through our filters and what does not. I think you’ll find his talk, which is only about 9 minutes long, enlightening — and a little frightening.

Connect with Skype

I know some people will think it’s heresy that I’m wondering what all the fuss was about when Facebook announced its deal today with Skype to offer video chatting. For several years, consumers have been using Skype to connect with each other when personal meetings aren’t possible. It’s particularly useful when you’re in the U.S. and you want to talk to someone half way around the world. And it’s wonderful for families to connect with their loved ones in the armed forces.

Great for the Social Networks

But do you notice that a lot of these new “innovations” are great for the companies – another way for Facebook to attract more users and advertisers – and customers for its corporate clients. But they don’t much matter for people like me. It just means more choices to get the services I can already access elsewhere, thank you very much.

Microsoft’s purchase of Skype solidifies its position in social media. Google+ has entered the fray with a Facebook-like service. Many reviewers of Google+ raved that this new service includes video chatting for up to 10 people in an area of the site called Hangouts, which is not possible on Skype. Yahoo News! took a more solemn view that Skype on Facebook the End of Online Privacy as We Know It. Well, that does seem a little extreme.

Social Media Fatigue

Suffering from social media fatigue

I don’t know about you, but I find I have less and less time to “hang out” on social media and interact with other people hanging out. I’m suffering from social media fatigue, are you?

Just how many social networks can we belong to and participate in a meaningful way?  There are literally millions of blogs floating around the Internet that haven’t been updated in years. Many companies have dormant Twitter accounts and when I went to look at one major law firm I got this message, “@Nameofcompany hasn’t tweeted yet.” LinkedIn profiles are incomplete, and many Fan pages on Facebook have few friends (I’m guilty).

My Advice

So, here is my advice: Relax. Set your priorities of where you’re going to spend most of your time on social media. Develop really deep and meaningful relationships with people. A dollop of social media is only a taste. You’ve got to make a real commitment to the social networks that will work best for you and your business.

Flitting from network to network and leaving barely a trace isn’t my idea of fun. Excuse me while I turn off the computer.

So what’s the difference and why do I think you should consider converting your website to a blog? If you are active in social media – and who isn’t if you’re in business – then a blog is the way to go.

Let’s get to the definitions and then discuss why you should consider a blog instead of a website (and I know some people will think I quibble):

A blog is a content management system that allows for quick updating, or produces, in Google-speak, dynamic content.

A website is a collection of static pages with information about the company that is updated occasionally.

A Blog is Your Social Media Hub

A blog with content that is refreshed at least weekly is rewarded by Google in SERPs (search engine results pages). A blog requires a minimal knowledge of HTML so a small business owner can manage her own updates.

Blogs are popular because visitors know they will see new content on a regular basis, encouraging them to return. Of importance, blogs allow visitors to interact with the company by leaving comments on articles and subscribing by email or RSS feed to receive new information when it is posted. Companies can connect directly with subscribers by email with breaking news or to sell them services.

Image via Wikipedia

A blog is your social media hub to the social media-sphere. It is the gateway for your social media activities. Remember, I talked about functionality? You can use plugins for specific activities. An analogy is a stripped down car – you add a radio, air conditioning, a GPS and other equipment to make your car work better for you.

In a blog, one nifty plugin will automatically deliver your new  posts to many social media sites – including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Your visitors can also give your new post a thumbs up on StumbleUpon, Reddit and Digg. True, a website may also have a blog that is part of the website. But the blog is usually hidden behind a navigation tab. The new content is not readily apparent on the home page.

Like a pied piper, these sites lead visitors back to your hub. Your goal is to eventually turn some of them into customers. It’s a recurring cycle and the search engines will love you for it.

Why Not Do it Yourself?

A website usually requires a webmaster with knowledge of code to change the content and add functions. A huge company has the resources to make frequent changes to its website. But, if you’re with a small organization, it’s likely you need to tap outside help.

Of course, there are a lot of blogs out there that aren’t updated regularly. Keeping content fresh is a major commitment of time. A couple of friends have recently converted to blogs (the most popular version is WordPress), and love the ability to “go under the hood” to make changes themselves. They realized they don’t need a separate website because you can have all your static and dynamic content in one place.

Here’s a little test. Which is the blog and which is the website? Answers below.

Amendment: As several people commenting have pointed out, a blog can serve as a website. In fact, Write Speak Sell, while blog technology, is also my website, with information and about me and my company and where I also blog.

Huffington Post is a blog

Deloitte is a Website