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6 Things You Didn’t Know About Google+
The cool new phrase in the social media world is “Circle me.” Google seems to have hit on a great new social media platform with G+. Is it a Facebook Killer? No, it isn’t. Will it be the end of Twitter? No, it won’t. Will it become a viable component to the social media universe? It may. Time will tell.
Aside form some questionable moves by Google, like supporting animated GIFs, + has some really nice options. I thought I’d take a moment to tell you about some of the really cool things available to you that many people don’t seem to know about.
- Import Picts From Facebook: Though you can do this through a Yahoo account, you can also use a program like Pick&Zip, a free backup tool, that allows you to download all your pictures from FB into a .zip file. At that point all you need to do is to drag the .zip into your browser and Google will upload all of them for you.
- Watch YouTube with Your Friends: In Hangouts you and 10 of your friends can watch a YouTube vid simultaneously. The group chat is muted when the vid starts but you can Push-to-talk if you want to talk over the vid.
- Format Bold and Italics in Your Updates: You can use the ‘*’ and the ‘_’ keys to do a bit of formatting in your updates. Use them sortta like HTML tags. *bold* and _italics_. Pretty cool. You can even double them up to create a bold italicized statement.
- Tagging People in Facebook or Twitter: You can use the + symbol before someone’s name and will reach out to them on the other platforms. If you can’t quite get the hang of using +, @ works just as well.
- Direct Messaging: You can send a message to only one person and, unlike Twitter where you both must be following each other, they need only be in one of your circles. It is a simple as creating a post directed at only one person. Make sure to disable re-shares.
- You Can Quit, Easily: Unlike Facebook, where friends can still invite you to events, tag you in photos or ask you to join groups. However, with +, if you’ve had enough already, will completely erase all traces of you and let you download all your data you stored on it.
That’s what I got for now. Have any helpful, but little known tips? Let me know, we’ll start our own little circle.
Still Friends I Hope?
The last couple of weeks have seen me making some definitive changes in how I am handling my social media presence. Mainly, I talked about why I decided to leave Empire Avenue, not because it’s not a viable platform, but more about keeping in mind what I have time for and working with platforms I am comfortable with. If we want to succeed, achieve even, in social media we must be willing to try out the new stuff. If it doesn’t work for us, so be it, move on.
I started with Triberr almost three months ago. I wrote about it an earlier post. In that post I talked about how Triberr is one of the best Twitter services out there. I still believe that. I thing that D-n-D have put together something truly amazing. That being said, I am leaving their service. I has nothing to do with them or the application so much as it does the time I need to devote to it.
Triberr has done some great things for me. I have gained in website hits, I have gained in Twitter followers, and comments have drastically increased. On the other end of the spectrum, the majority of the comments have been from those within my tribe, I have not gained any new subscribers, My bounce rate has gone to crap, I have not converted any of the new readers to clients, and I have received a lot of complaints from my core followers about what has been pushed by my account.
This isn’t Triberr’s fault, it’s mine. I haven’t watched the tweets coming out as closely as I need to be. I have not been interacting as much on Twitter to offset the amount of tweets generated by Triberr, and I have not really pushed to build my own tribe. I simply don’t have the time to do these things.
There are so many things going on for Anocial right now that I really have to refocus and critically look at what I am able to reasonably do and what I cannot. D-n-D, thank you for this awesome opportunity, but at least for right now, I must put you on the back burner. Like in any break up, it’s not you, it’s me. I hope we can still be friends.
BTW, in my efforts to get refocused, Anocial will be going under a redesign. This template broke a while back, and I have needed to give it a new layout for some time now. That time is now, well in a couple weeks at least.
Why I am Quitting Empire Avenue
The time has come. It am selling out all my shares and getting out of the stock market game. You know, Empire Avenue? The game seems to have captivated just about every social media maven out there, and I have to admit, it is fun to play. I seem to be good at it. In less than a week I became a VP in the Marketing index and shot to a Net Wealth of almost 600,000 eaves. If you’re not familiar with Empire Avenue, eaves are the fictitious currency that you buy and sell shares of people with.
Here is the kicker. I only have so much time in my day. Many people would have you believe that social media is free, but I spend a lot of time in social media. I don’t know about you, but my time is expensive, and as a friend of mine said, I “can only chase so many shiny objects at once.”
Now this is not a slight on Empire Avenue at all. It is a great platform, that many people will do really well marketing on. I am simply choosing to place my efforts other places. When it comes down to it, I have never been a fan of the stock market. I have a basic understanding of it and took classes on it in college, but it never really jelled with me. Ultimately, it is a big jumble of really odd logic, to me. Because of that there are pieces of EA that I simply don’t get.
First and foremost, if you are going to place efforts into a social media platform, it must feel right to you. I’m looking forward to see how Google+ develops over the next few months. It feels better to me, but it may be a place where I do more conversing with other social media professionals. Who knows? That’s the beauty of the 2.0 experience. It’s wide open and you can choose where you want to go.
What are your favourite, and your not so favourite platforms? Why do like/dislike them?
Soccer is More Than Life, It’s Business
Haruki Murakami wrote a book titled What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. In it he states; “When I’m running I don’t have to talk to anybody and don’t have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can’t do without.” This one statement made perfect sense to me, and a big reason this book is quickly becoming an integral part of my present life. As running is life for him, soccer, is life for me. When I play, I am focused on nothing else but the game. To me it is an extension of who I am off the pitch. Soccer, like running, can offer us many lessons about many things. I thought I’d take a few minutes to share how soccer, the most graceful sport on earth, teaches me both life, and business lessons. I’ve said a bunch of this, in one form or another on previous posts but this is going to be a bit more concise, focused, collection.
- Pre-Game Waiting is the Worst: The number one time that you will psyche yourself out is standing at the midfield line, waiting for the ref to blow the whistle, starting the game. In any presentation you give, the number one time that you will psych yourself out is that final minute before you take center stage. Learn to accept the fact that you have done all you can to prepare for this. Accept the fact that, while you have control over the outcome, you really have no control at all. Accept that you cannot prepare for every possible outcome. Roll with it.
- Addressing the Ball: I have spent countless hours in my life kicking a soccer ball. From long ball shots, to short quick passes, I have focused on how I approach the ball in any number of situations. Those couple steps that bring you into alignment with the ball so that you can effectively kick the crap out of it, is called addressing the ball. I only became proficient at addressing the ball by doing it. I will only perfect the art of the proposal by doing it, over and over again. I will only become better at addressing my clients by consistent practice. Address the ball over and over again. Address the client, over and over again.
- Capitalize on every advantage, hopefully: When, in the middle of a match, you gain the advantage, the last thing you want to do is to let that slip through your fingers. This concept may seem very elementary, and hardly worth mentioning, but the application of the concept is much harder to effectively do, every single time. When I intercept a pass, I have a matter of seconds to decide on the best course of action, and act on it. Many times it is the wrong move, many times it is the right move. Which ever the move is, right or wrong, I must live with it. No action gets a redo, but I can at least get better at moving forward after making the play.
- Play the ball, not the player: The players legs and feet have a way of lying to you. You will get faked out if you concentrate on what they are trying to make you think the ball is about to do, instead of what the ball is actually doing. Even then, you will still get faked out. The point is that you don’t make it personal, meaning focusing on the individual instead of the important object is the wrong point of focus. Yes, this game is, on many levels, between your team and theirs. This game is also between you and the ball. Learning to separate the two will also teach you the difference in business.
- It is All Trial and Error: When I go head to head against someone, I win sometimes, and sometimes not. what I do with this is of the most importance. If I win, I probably cannot win that way again so what will I do to beat them again? If I loose, it is basically the same question. This time though I’m focused on the adjustments that need to be made to beat the player the next time. Some things will work, some won’t. Can’t be afraid to try, can’t be afraid to get beat.
- You will not Succeed if You Don’t Live in the Moment: You must be focused on the game to the exclusion of all else if you hope to be successful. Nuff said.
- You Will Fail: And that is perfectly OK. In soccer, business, and life, failure is built into the equation. It’s all about what you do with it. You will not get better if you don’t evaluate what as happened, win or fail. Again, nuff said.
Soccer, and running, is for me, very spiritual. Being on the pitch, I get an opportunity to refocus myself. It has been nice to gain that competition back. I am better for it. Running, is a bit different. Like Murakami said, “When I’m running I don’t have to talk to anybody and don’t have to listen to anybody.” Nor, do I have to think about anything in particular. I am free to let my mind wander, thoughts passing through, like clouds across the sky, and with each falling step, I sort through my issues. Each step gets me closer to a unified me.
To be different, focused, exceptional, or passionate in business, I must be these things in my personal life. There really is no separating them.
17 Inspiring Pictures of Americana
I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ~Abraham Lincoln
Happy 4th of July for all of my fellow Americans. I’ve put together a small collections of what America is to me. I hope you like it.
Traditional Business Blogging is Outdated
A new age of small business blogging is close at hand, or at least it should be. Things have been converging for a while now. Social media has started blurring the lines of business and personal, but blogging has stayed relatively resistant to this change. I think that this is a mistake, at least on the small business level.
People are wanting, requiring a certain amount of transparency. Yeah, I know it’s a buzz word, but there is a tangible quality here that people are looking for. People are tired of the stoic face of business. There are real people behind those logos, and the public wants to see who they are.
Ever since I started my business, my blog has been a bit different. I post about my thoughts on social media and marketing, but I also throw in posts for fun, and some that are very personal. I share various aspects of my real life in an effort to show you the passion that is running this company. When I screw up, I take the chance and talk about it. When I win, I put it out there to you.
I think that small businesses, especially the one-man-show, will benefit greatly from adding some reality into the mix. I’m not talking about going as far as some of these people have, who wound up loosing their job because they lacked any real tact. What I am saying is share that funny story about your daughter one day, and the next talk about your business. Part of what make your business special is the life you have outside of it. Share with the class. My children are involved with my business because they are involved with my life. Child care is not really an option, so they are with me. My office is at home, and they go to meetings with me. They meet potential clients, and they come to my board meetings. I am an extreme example, I know. The thing is that even if your personal life is much more separate from your professional life than mine is, it is still involved. There is still a balance that needs to be struck. Maybe that line should be blurry. People want to see who you are. Show them. By the way, the picture is of my youngest putting her two cents worth in at a recent board meeting.
Business blogs do one thing, they talk about their business, every single aspect of their business. *Yawn* I don’t subscribe to them, for the most part. What I do subscribe to are blogs that have passion, blogs that have variation, blogs that aren’t afraid to lay all of it out there.
So think about what you want your business to say about you, about your life. Do you want to be one of the many, in a sea of grey, or do you want bright vibrant splashes of humanness lighting your blog up like a beacon. You only stand to draw people to you. Isn’t that a big part of why we are drawn to social media? Happy Social Media Day!
Book Review: Taking on Twitter by Kathi Browne
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I am one of the lucky few on this planet to have met and work alongside Kathi Browne. She is smart, articulate, and confidant, so when she asked me give her book a read, I was both overjoyed and humbled.
I have to say I was really surprised by her book, Taking on Twitter. The book’s subtitle is “Strategic Tweeting for Small Business”, but that really doesn’t do it justice. This book, while great for small businesses looking to get into Twitter, is a perfect beginner’s handbook, a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe of Twitter. All it really needs are the words “Don’t Panic” emblazoned on the cover.
In all seriousness, Kathi has given the beginning tweep an amazingly easy to understand guide for using, really using, Twitter. She uses case studies and anecdotes to guide you through the whys and hows of this ever expanding platform. One of my favourite parts of the book comes in near the end, Twittiquette, or proper Twitter etiquette. Many of these important, gems to live by, are missed by the first time tweeter, but could make for a much easier lift off if they were to hear these point first. In Chapter four, she does a fantastic job of realistically explaining what Twitter can do for you and/or your business. One of the things I appreciated most about this book is Kathi fails completely to make any grandiose claims about what you can do with Twitter. If you’re wanting smoke blown up your tuckus, this is not the book for you.
In all I found this book to be a bit hard to read cover to cover, but for two very good reasons.
- This book is intended for beginners so I knew pretty much what was in there. It did, however, remind me of some aspects I had forgotten.
- This book is best used as a reference manual. It has an excellent index making it a perfect handbook to refer to when you need to.
Yes, yes, yes. I recommend this book to any beginner, or novice, whether for business or personal use. Know someone just getting into the Tweeting game? This is a perfect gift to help them along. You can purchase it at her website, kathibrowne.com.
Is Bre.ad the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?
And enter bre.ad to the marketing arena. Taking from one of my favourite mantras, “A good product must solve a real problem” bread sets out to help you stand out from the crowd. You can create your own digital billboard that will show for five seconds and then carry your reader to their destination.
Ok, I can see it, but why should I buy into their philosophy? They give three reasons as to why I should love Toast:
- They’re Personal: A toast is a personalized recommendation from someone you trust. If you follow someone on Twitter or Facebook and you click on their links, it’s probably because you’re interested in what they have to share. All toasts are hand-selected by your friend because they represent something meaningful, so toasts are a great way to get a personal and relevant recommendation from someone whose opinion matters to you.
- They’re Quick: Toasts are shared only for 5 seconds while your destination page is loading. You can see the countdown clock along the top of the page. If you don’t want to see a toast, you can always skip it by clicking the “Continue” button in the top right corner.
- They’re Fun: Getting a taste of your friends’ interests can be exciting — toasts are a great way to learn about new charities, brands, and products that you might not have known about before.
Depending on how you came to this post you may have already seen the test billboard I created. If not then click this link and you will see it. The billboards, or Toasts, are clean and simple looking. The interface when setting up your own toast as a great feel to it. Easy to navigate and easy to complete. There is a great potential for self promotion through these but I think that the real magic here would lie in freely promoting something that interests you, like a cause or an event.
Overall, I am really happy with this new application. Kudos to Alan Chang and the rest of Team Bre.ad.
I think that this tool has an incredible potential for marketing, however, I also see the very real possibility of this becoming another form of spam. As in everything else, time will tell. I hope that this becomes a valued marketing tool.
What do you think?
With Resistance, Social Media is Reaching the Classroom
I’ve written my thoughts out before on how social media can be used in the classroom in my post Classroom 2.0 and I still believe that this, in part, is the future of teaching. Last week I saw a piece on CNN.com about a teacher in Los Angeles who is using Twitter in his class with what seems to be very positive results. He has shy, out of place students that are finding a voice, and his overall class interaction has increased. This is exactly what I had been talking about in my earlier post. I’m glad to see this actually start happening.
There is one thing that I did not foresee though, the resistance to the use of this tool in the classroom. I never expected quite the backlash at this “new” use of Twitter. The comment section is full of tidbits of close mindedness.
Here are some of my favourites:
- “Students will lose their ability to express ideas in a coherent manner since texting doesn’t lend itself to this.”
- “Another paid attempt to find a use for a tool that has minimal purpose. The only use is is for the media to quote and fill content”
- “So if I want my order at Taco Bell correctly filled I need to tweet to the teen in the window?”
- “Fire this techer! He is not required.”
- “You might as well shown them MTV too.”
- “Legaspi’s methods are part of the Dumbing Down of Americans.”
- “Oh good, yet another way to cheat.”
Aside from the fact that all of these statements show a lack of understanding regarding social media, this last one really gets me. Cheating? Really? It is time for the classroom to get away from the idea that collaborative thought, or collaborative problem solving, is cheating. when was the last time your boss gave you an F for asking a coworker for help? We have a problem here in the U.S. of A. with our failing school systems. This country’s politicians would have us believe that the teachers are the problem, but that simply isn’t the case. Our problem is that we have an out dated view of how classrooms should be run. What do our children stand to learn about becoming “productive members of society” when we teach in a way that is devoid of real world experience? Teachers want to teach. We should let them.
Social media is just the tip of the iceberg in a revolution of thought that is/needs to be taking place in our classrooms. Bravo Mr. Legaspi.
Am I a Social Media Expert? Does it Really Matter?
You’ve probably been hearing a lot lately about Gary Vaynerchuck’s statement that “99.5 percent of social media experts are clowns.” First off to come out with a statement like this is, in my mind, a bit lacking in maturity, and not at all what I’m used to hearing out of Vaynerchuck. To be fair, he has recanted his statement a bit. Second off, this name calling in the social media world has been getting out of hand. I’m starting to wonder, is the new strategy to bring in business to do so by tearing the others down?
People are missing the point here, and Jay Baer is quite right when he said, “The goal is not to be good at social media, but to be good at business because of social media.” I think that part of the problem is that many are expecting a full on social media expert. Just what is that, exactly? I’m not really sure that I can answer that question. Since I got into this business, I have found that there is an amazing array of skill sets that can be applied to social media. I believe that there are too many areas of social media and how it can apply to business for any one individual to be an “expert” in all fields.
Distillation is the process of purifying a liquid by boiling it and condensing its vapors. It’s is time for us to start distilling our talents. I have taken consulting jobs working with a wide variety of businesses, from a hair salon to a political campaign. While I have had successes in most fields I have worked in, the learning curve is steep. Each business has aspects that are unique to it, and while many of the practices can be played across the board, each holds it’s own idiosyncrasies.
I believe that in the near future, we will be seeing niche consultants. I came to this business after spending over 20 years in the restaurant field. I have an understanding of that business and can better apply my social media skills there, than I could many other businesses.
Will we see real, all around, social media experts? I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. Does it really matter? Instead of trying to lift ourselves up by tearing down those around us, isn’t it more important that businesses find a social media professional that has the ability to add real value to the company and its efforts?
