Tag: google+

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Social Networking – mini blogs and blog replacements

I had a somewhat random thought the other day … facebook, Google+ and twitter in a sense are partially replacing blogs and RSS feeds. Not entirely but to a degree.

People using rss feed readers for blogs hit a peak or market saturation because using one is a choice and it’s a bit tedious because it IS highly configurable. And because it’s one more thing to keep up with as posts sit out there as unread until you read them or tell the rss reader to “mark all as read.” And without an RSS reader like Google Reader, people tend to be able to consume fewer blogs by visiting site by site.

Facebook / G+ / twitter allow everyone and every business in a sense have a mini blog for events and products and announcements. And because the display is realtime, people tend to read only what is right in front of them and current instead of trying to play catchup to things that are older

No, I’m not saying RSS is dead. That’s far from the truth. It’s just that there are a wide variety of opportunities out there from both a publishing and consumption standpoint.

Also note that influencers still utilize feed readers. I still use Google Reader. There’s no way I could consume as much info as I do without a feed reader.

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Short Social Media Checklist:
Converse, Connect, Create

  1. CONVERSE: Social media is ideally a conversation.

    • Reply: reply to comments made to you. Drives me crazy when I post a question only to find out that the person never responds to anyone. You may not need to respond to all questions (see the definition of “trolls”) but don’t neglect responses completely.
  2. CONNECT: Review recent posts by people you are connected to. Set a time limit if you find yourself spending too long on this step.
    • Comment: Are there any posts that you can comment on? Answer questions? Ask questions? Say how cool something is?
    • Re-Share: Are there any posts that you think other people following would enjoy reading? Local events that need to be shared? Industry news?
    • “Like” / +1: Maybe someone has a great picture of a sunset or something else you enjoyed seeing but doesn’t really require a comment. Let them know you liked it by hitting that “like” (facebook) or +1 (Google+) button.
  3. CREATE:
    • What did you do today that’s interesting? (Don’t post about your cereal unless you work for a company that makes cereal please! If you REALLY don’t have anything interesting to say, it’s ok to go a day without posting!)
    • Do you have any events, milestones to share? Upcoming to announce or events you just wrapped up. Some goal you achieved?
    • Do you have a photo or flyer? Visuals often draw people’s attention.
    • What is special about this? Don’t just share what, share something that’s interesting and unique about it if you can.
    • Is there a WWWWWH? Who, What, When, Where, Why, How.
    • Is there a question you can ask? You want to engage people, remember, it’s a conversation.
If you don’t have time to do all of this, don’t panic. Just do something regularly – don’t over think it too much.
Disclaimer: We don’t want any political gaffs so when I say don’t over think it, if you think you would offend your mom or it needs to be a private post, don’t post it. Also if you wouldn’t say it to the person’s face, don’t say it.
I recommend focusing on positive “I like” instead of negative “I hate” posts and responses.
Also, if your business is larger you may need more tools and to focus on more like best times to post and scheduled announcements or reminders. This is just a checklist to help get you started.
Worth repeating: Social media is ideally a conversation.

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Facebook Page “Cover” designs – branded social media

I just updated the Southland Jamboree page & was thinking I should mention that I design facebook “covers” for your facebook page that work well with their layout.

I can also make headers for Google+ and backgrounds that work well with Twitter in case you want a unified look across all of your social media outlets.

See:
https://www.facebook.com/SouthlandJamboree

Or my own:
https://www.facebook.com/hilary.baumann
https://plus.google.com/112754019546978412552/about
https://twitter.com/hbaumann

 

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We’ve been receiving a lot of sales calls from companies that say they can “guarantee front page placement on Google, Yahoo, & Bing.” In your opinion, is this something necessary and worth considering?

Quick summary on the people calling and offering guarantees for search engine placement:

  • No one can give a 100% guarantee on placement in search engines like google, bing and yahoo because people outside of these companies can’t control the search engine’s algorithm. And people within these companies are not allowed to offer these services.
  • You CAN do things to increase probability that you will be placed on the first page for certain words or phrases. BUT you don’t want to go overboard because there are things that will increase your rank but at the cost of customers. Where you place doesn’t matter if you aren’t getting business from the additional site traffic because your site looks bad as a result.
  • The only way to guarantee 100% is to use PPC (pay per click) advertising with the search engines. These are the ads that are on the top and right sides of the search result pages.

Other things that could go wrong: they use techniques that will get you ranked higher but when caught by the search engines, your site will be removed from search results entirely (black hat seo techniques.) And in my opinion even worse than that is if they don’t know what they are doing and open up security holes for your site or server.

Back to your question at hand “is this something necessary and worth considering?”: The short answer is no. Typically companies calling you and claiming they offer a 100% guarantee that they can get your site into 1st position are flat out scams. Even more likely if they are claiming this without knowing what words or phrases you want to be on the first page of results for.

It is better to start with content creation and making modifications to existing content. Fascination Design does offer a more comprehensive SEO review and PPC campaign management. We are also willing to work with a reputable outside firm in this area.

Quick tip: if your business has a physical location, be sure to check out Google Places and add your business there.

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Google+ First Impression { includes video }

First impressions of Google Plus. I didn’t prep a script but tried to cover the basics to let people see how it works. Each video is 5 minutes or less.

Google+ demo series, what’s covered:

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  • First screen

Videos:

  • Home Page
  • Circles
  • Start a Hangout (screencast 1)
  • Hangouts (past the plugin)

 

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