For weeks, there have been rumors about Google looking to get into the social networking game, and it’s not surprising. (The search giant already has the social networking portal Orkut, but that is only really used in India and Brazil). That fact that Google is such a huge player when it comes to just about everything else on the Internet (Google Search, Gmail, Google Docs, Places, Google Checkout, Buzz, Google TV, Blogger, YouTube, Chrome, Android — the list is seemingly endless) makes it somewhat shocking that they haven’t taken the high-dive into the deep end of social networks yet.

Of course, there’s the Facebook issue. With more than 500 million users (and growing, growing, growing…), the social behemoth seems completely unstoppable. Then again, it probably seemed that way about MySpace “back in the day,” as well and we all know how that has ended up. However, if any one would be able to beat (or even come close to competing with) Facebook — it’s Google.

But the real question is, should we be excited about that? While we don’t know anything definite about how Google Me will look or work, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said the company is not trying to imitate Facebook. Of course not. Surely, they want to be better, different, bigger, faster — further adding to the company’s importance, wealth — and ultimately, our overall dependence on them as Internet users.

Should one company be such a huge player in everything Internet-related, creating online monopolies in just about everything? Will we one day stop “surfing the Internet” and instead just “Google” — Google networking, Google marketing, Google dating? I’m sure they’ll try.

Posted under Social Media

Someone somewhere once said, “Don’t forget about the little guy.” I guess I could Google the answer, but I am to lazy to bother. It just sounded like a good opening line for this post.

Yesterday, a friend of mine who owns a local main street business here in lovely San Carlos, California. I was preaching, evangelizing , chatting about the benefits of Social Media and how it can help brands gain awareness. He quickly looked at me and said “What about the regular folks? You know the guys like me without a big budget?”  After the shock of having him finally engage me in a conversation about what I do wore off, I told him I would write a blog post with my answer. (Hey anything to get traffic.. right?” So here you go Ed. This one is for you. I would like to share with you my thoughts, in list form, cause people like lists. Here are 5 ways a local business can use social media to gain awareness.

-Have a website and a blog. Simple right? One mistake I see is that companies create the website but not the blog. You need to have a blog. It allows your clients to get more insight into what you do, your background, your history and more. If you make sure to tag your articles, use keywords, etc this will help people stumble across you on google.

-Get on Twitter. Yep, here comes Twitter again, its power can not be denied. You need to get on there and start “Tweeting” posting information, insight, background..(wait it is just like a blog! Yes it is, it is called micro-blogging!) Here is the key for success, make sure to comment back to others and engage in conversation. Shhh, this will be our secret.

-Get a Facebook page. Like you did not see this one coming right? You need to have a fanpage. Are you going to get 100,000 fans? No. Do you need a 100,000 fans? No. Will having conversations with some local people and having local people join help with awareness of you in your community? You bet. The key here is when people comment on your fanpage and you comment back, their friends will see it. It is worth its weight in gold.

-You are the expert.  So what I like to tell people is setup you are website like your the expert. So if you are my friend Ed, you are Ed The Real Estate agent. You are Ed, the most knowledgeable Real Estate Agent in San Carlos. Make sure to blog about Real Estate in our area. Your a local guy, talking about homes in New York is not going to make you money. Talking about Homes here in San Carlos, will make you  money. When that family who needs an agent thinks ” We need a bigger home, Who is that online guy from Facebook?” they think of you. You get the idea, right

-Link Love. Make sure to link to other local businesses on your website. They will return the favor. Plus it helps with your Google Page Rank

-Find ways to use online tools in a different way. Try things out. Maybe take orders via Twitter.  Offer to send pictures of products via email.  Give out coupon codes on Facebook. The possibilities are endless. I am talking about taking chances and thinking outside the box.

Bonus tip: Go to Meetups, Tweetups, mixtures or whatever they are called these days. They are all over the place and local. Get out there.

So what are some of the tips I forgot? There must be a ton.

Posted under Blog

So I have noticed a change in the request for interviews and speaking engagements over the past few months. I am getting a lot of requests for tips/tricks on using social networking to find a job. Now, with the economy is I totally can see why people are turning to this medium.  In the past 2 weeks  I have been interviewed for:

-How Facebook Can Help Job Seekers Find Employment

-Tweet, Tweet: How to Incorporate Twitter Into Your Job Search

Asked to on using Social Networking  & Linkedin to find a job at:

-International Association of Administrative Professionals

-NeCon East

So I thought it would be a good idea to share some tips and tricks that you can use to help find a job. I think I should do it in list form, as people like lists!

Using Twitter

-Post to your Twitter profile, I am looking for a job! So simple, I know some people do not event think to do that.

-Use Twitter Search to find a job based on keywords. Example: CSR Wanted, Denver got me this:

The key here is to play around with the search terms to narrow it down better to what you are looking for.

Also in regards to Twitter Search, use it to find people in your field of work and add them! You need to Network and build your community.

-Follow accounts like: @jobangels, @freelancejobs @manpower

-Use Twitterjobsearch.com

Using Linkedin
-Complete your profile, amazing how many people do not do that.

-Use SEO. Put in keywords your profile, play around with it to increase your visibility.  It is a good idea to find just the right words to describe what you do.  You will know you are on the right track when you see this box:

So lets say you are in website development, use keywords like HTML, MySQl, etc. These are words people may use to find someone with your skills.

The more times you come up in search, well..the better!!

-Save business cards. When your meeting people, chatting folks up, make sure to get their business cards. Then go back to your linkedin profile and add them.  Yes, simple.

-Put a picture up. This goes for both Twitter and Linkedin, it ads something when you can see what a person looks like.

-The Answers Section!! The most underused, yet powerful tool on the site! It is where the magic happens. This is where people in your field post questions they need help with. They are reaching out for “An Expert”. That expert is you! Get on it, respond, refer, engage, chat it up, etc. This is where networking happens. Questions in my area look like this:

Hope some of these tips help. What are some tools /tricks you use to find a job?

Posted under Tips & Tricks

First, about 2 hours ago Facebook announced they will be giving vanity urls starting his Friday June 12, 2009 at 9:01 am. This is a great thing for branding, marketing and companies. This got me thinking. There are several features I would like to see on some social networking sites. So let us step into……

In a world where I get what I want. In an imaginary place where companies listen to their customers/users.. there is one man who hopes that the: CEO, President, Community Manager, Guy Who Makes Sure Everyone Is Happy Manager listens.. ME! So listen up Facebook, Twitter and  all you others.

This is a list of things I want. Okay maybe it is more of a, wouldn’t be nice if? Kind of thing. I will share it with you in list form as people like lists!

- Facebook I want a little button at the bottom of a persons profile where I can click “Add them to a friend list?” You click it, a drop down menu lets you pick the friend list they are added to. Its easy, quick and will make my life easier. (cause its all about me!)

-How about a mouse over feature that says “Did you know?” or “Other ways to do this!” Look if you reading this post, more than likely you are pretty familiar with the “Online World, Social Media, etc (insert hot buzz term here). Great, but we are the minority here. Most people do not know you can send pictures to Facebook via email or text. Nor do they know they can update their status the same way. After they do an upload, update, etc. give them a “Hey non power user did you know?” Heck all the parents at my kids school would thank you!

-Hey Twitter. I’m talking to you. I want a friend list option on your site. It needs to work like the facebook one I listed above. Get on that.. please and thank you.

-oh, how about the option to post hyperlinks with text? That way I have a better idea what they are about!

-Since I got on the subject of the whole mouse over thing. Sure would be nice..no make that GREAT if I could put my mouse over a persons pic and see their important stats. Oh, Oh, Oh… I know let’s do that with the whole “@joeblow” thing too. I want to mouse over that and see stats in the text box.

-Linkedin, here is what I want. Now follow me on this. Every now and then I will use the “check your email” feature. I email a lot.  What happens I will do a lot of group emails with people. Some I do no know that well.  So it would be great if you could find a way to display the emails to pick from by “email a lot all the way down to emailed once”. Then I can pick if I should add them. Also, find lets have a filter/fuzzy logic on emails with words like “support, craigslist, etc” I dont want to add Support@huggies.com”

So what features would you like to see on some of these sites?

Posted under Blog

Thought I would just share  a quick note with you that the latest Beta version of TweetDeck has Facebook :Friend Status.

I have been playing with it since early this morning. Its pretty cool. It works just as if you were following your Twitter stream. Its pretty awesome. That being said here are a few quirks I have found with it. Let me share them with you in list form, people like lists:

-It seems to only pull your Facebook Account from Explorer, not Firefox

-You can not easily comment on peoples status updated from Facebook in TweetDeck

-Would be nice that after I clear the FB Status, it stays cleared

Other then that, its great!

If you do install it please know it is still in Beta. I have had it crash a few times.

Enjoy!

You can download the very early version here

Posted under Blog

What is all the buzz about in the last 24 hours?

Why  is Skittles getting coverage on

-FoxNews

-AdAge

-CNN

-LA Times

-Wall Street Journal

It is the top trending subject on Twitter

So what did Skittles do?

This….

So, in short Skittles took their website and turned it into one big Social Media site. The homepage is nothing but a mashup of social media sites.  The most popular is the  twitter feed that shows anyone who uses the word Skittles.  The thing to keep it mind, as far as I can see, is it has no filters. So you can say anything you want. It can be a positive comment about the Skittles brand. It can be a negative comment about the Skittles brand.  Seems to me Skittles is just “putting it” out there and letting it happen.

That is not all they have done. They have created a:

-Facebook Fan page for Skittles

-YouTube Page

-Flickr Page

-Wikipedia

Again I can locate no filters on any of those pages. You can say, post, create anything you want on these pages and they become part of the Skittles corporate website.

You access the pages on the Skittles page by clicking the options on this logo:

I have to say to Skittles, way to go! Its amazing and gutsy what they have done. They are putting their brand out there to take both positive and negative comments from their customers. That is engagement right there for you. They have done something amazing in my opinion. They have reached out to where their customers are. They are engaging with customers with the tools they are using. As well as joining the communities their customers are in. This can become a very powerful way to engage with customers. Some numbers for you:

-The Skittles Facebook Fan Page has over 585,000 fans

-The Youtube Channel has over 26,500 views

-Flickr has over 16,500 items

Not bad…

What are your thoughts about the new Skittles Homepage and its use of Social Media sites?

UPDATE: Skittles has moved the Twitter feed to the back and now features the Facebook Fan Page. This is due to the spam it is getting. Read more here:

Bad Jokes Force Skittles To Dump Twitter For Facebook

Posted under Blog

5 Weeks down for 2009 and 47 weeks to go! Amazing! Its been a busy week in social media. Let me share with you some of the items I find interesting or worth passing on!

- #3 I wore braces

#4  I don’t like mayo

#5… you get the idea, I’m referring to the 25 Random Things Chain letter that is just rocking Facebook right now.  How big is it? Huge! Get this… per Facebook they state that:

• The number of total Facebook Notes created per day has increased over 100% in the last week
• The number of people tagged in Facebook Notes per day has increased 5x in the last week

Crazy! Now not everyone is a fan, check out this great article by Claire Suddath called 25 Things I didn’t Want to Know About You

Since I am sharing about Facebook, which is still getting hotter here are a few other articles worth checking out, if only for grins:

Wife Learns of Divorce via Facebook Status Update

Facebook Turned 5 years Old

-Fears of impostors increase on Facebook

Social Media is only getting bigger! More and more companies are getting on board and using it have an online presence to interact with clients, build their brand and well increase sales. In short, everyone is doing it. Do not believe me? Just take a list of the Top 100 Social Brands of 2008. Oh and the top 10 are:

1. iPhone

2. CNN

3. Apple

4. Disney

5. Xbox

6. Starbucks

7. Ipod

8. MTV

9. Sony

10. Dell

Did your company make the list? No worries as  Mitch Joel points out, Social Media Is Just Getting Started!

Keep in mind that 93% of social media users do expect  that companies should be using social media! Take a look at this study from Sept 2008 by Cone

-Virtual Worlds, something close to my heart and it seems Disney as well. Disney will be investing more money into them and believes they are close to being profitable.

Okay, couple random things  I just wanted to share.

First, check out this video from 1981. It is a segment done by San Francisco station KRON about newspapers going on the web. It is worth the 2:17 to watch it. As they mention the crazy cost , how its experiment, and it takes over 2 hours to get the whole newspaper.

On February 25, 2009 at 8:30 am I will be speaking at the Emerging Media Morning forum in Palo Alto, CA. So if you are bored come on by and say HI!

Posted under Blog, Social Media, Speaking Engagements

Alright lets get right into and see what has been going on this week shall well? Good you agree…

-What is Social Media? I get that question a lot. I do my best to explain it and help people understand it. I think Louis Gray did an amazing job with his post What Social Media Is and What Social Media Is Not

-How is Social Media factoring into the upcoming Inauguration? A lot! Facebook and CNN have partnered up for it. The CNN.com page will use Facebook Connect to allow people to update their status watch video live, chat and much more. Read more about it here

- Twitter, Twitter, Twitter.. most people still look at me weird when I talk about it, or maybe I get those weird looks all the time.. but people are flocking to Twitter. In 2008 it grow by 752%! Read about it here!

-Let me know if I missed anything you think is worth mentioning, if so please put it in the comments with a link!

Sorry I don’t have a lot this week.. Its been tough starting this Biggest Loser contest at my gym. Though I have been making videos to allow me to at least laugh at it. If you so care to watch here is a link to all of them and the one from Day 4:

Have a great weekend!

Posted under Your Week In Review

Would you pay good money for:

-Something you can not hold?

-Something you can not touch?

-Something you can not smell?

-Something you can not take with you?

What’s that? No? Me either. Yet we do it all the time. Let us review it in list form, people like lists:

-In Facebook people can give virtual gifts to friends by  paying real money for virtual credits.

-In Second Life people make a living by creating virtual clothes and goods. People also pay real money for virtual land.

-In World Of Warcraft there  is a whole secondary market where people who have set up businesses  selling virtual gold coins to people so they can buy virtual goods in the game.

The list goes on and on… crazy right?

This is bigger then playing games on line or networking with friends. Companies need to start thinking outside the box and starting embracing these new ways that people interact and consume products. Brands need to do more then buy  a commercial on tv, a radio spot, or a print ad. Consumers are more then ever interacting with brands directly and in different ways. People are spending real money on virtual items and spending real time in virtual environments with brands

Lets look at some examples of how companies use virtual goods and worlds to increase brand awareness and/or generate more revue:

- On top of the monthly fees World Of  Warcraft users are spending up to $10.00 extra for a limted edition virtual pet to use in the game. They sold out.

-Facebook users sold out limted edition virtual New York Times newspapers that had the headline of Obama Wins.

-Club Penigun has created its whole business model around kids paying a membership so they can earn virtual coins to buy virtual goods to decorate their virtual homes..(follow that one?) It is so successful Disney bought them. They paid with real money, not virtual.

MTV has created entire virtual worlds around their tv shows. Even though MTV airs the same episodes 8 times a day, users want to spend more time with the brand. They log into a virtual world based on the show. They cant get enough. It is so successful they now have over 5 virtual worlds based on their tv shows.

Wells Fargo Bank create an entire virtual world and active community to help educate youth on banking called StageCoach Island This includes a community site and blog. It has been so successful it has been around for over 2 years.

So have I made my point? Let me say it again. Companies, brands, businesses, etc need to think and market in new ways. Virtual goods and virtual environments is one way to do it. Wheather they are spending money to buy virtual goods that represent a brand or logging into a virtual world to spend more time with the brand, it is another way to build brand loyalty.

Posted under Blog

Dear Facebook,

Our relationship has come to an end as we know it,  I am sorry to say. Its not you.. its me. Do not be sad. Really, I am going to miss you. See look.. I have no more friends left to add. I do not know anymore people to send friend requests to. Look I have added:

-My co workers even the strange guy who keeps  inviting me to mob wars twice a week

-My Buddies who just created an account to add young college girls.

-All my high school friends, including those people I never said one word to and the senior who shoved me into the girls bathroom when I was a freshman. I guess we are friends now.

-Elementary school friends I have not spoken to since 2nd grade when we played star wars on the playground. So let us see I was  8 when I was 2nd grade and never spoke to them since. Do we even have anything to discuss? It was 30 years ago since I have talked to them I guess we must have alot of catching up to do.

- All the big names in social media  I follow but have no idea who I am like Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble, Brian Solis and such. So maybe there aren’t friend requests, more like “Fan Requests”. I’m just thrilled they added me back. I am such a fanboy.

-My friends’ friends, you know the type. You meet them at your common friend Ed’s party, then Facebook commands you must add them cause you have Ed in common. You have never talked to them or seen them since.

-The guy who bags my groceries, not sure how he got my email

- People who work at companies at Customer Service companies I emailed to complain about poor customer service so we emailed a few times: Yes You Susie at AT&T and Paul at G.E.! Not sure why you want to add me on Facebook but whatever. I figure they checked their email contacts in friend finder and just hit add all.

That is it, I have no one left to friend request. You have them all.I’m done..

Okay to be completely honest there is a little more to it:

-I have no more room for (Lil) Green patch

- I don’t need any more Pieces of Flair in my life

- I already have found out Which 80’s Movie defines me about 10 times (Ferris Bueller by the way)

-I really appreciate everyone asking me when my birthday is on Birthday Calendar but I wish they would send gifts or just look at the Facebook birthday notification on the front page. I just don’t get that application.

-The pressure to update your status. I can not handle it anymore. I’m just not that interesting! For example.. “Dave is Reading. Dave is eating. Dave is getting the boil lanced on his foot and boy does it hurt.” Hey I am just saying.

-Seeing what a great life that the girl I dated when I was 15 is having. She dumped me for the Junior who was 17 could drive. I still hate her for that. So thanks to you Facebook I can see she married the jerk(who invited some stupid tech thing) has 3 kids, great job and is loaded. That just brightens my day every time she posts status updates like ” Tiffany is playing tennis at noon on Wed. Tiffany is waiting on her Au Pair to show up. Tiffany..blah blah. Just salt in my wound.

So its over Facebook. I will miss you but I think with over 100,000,000 users you wont miss me…

Bye

See you around

Later

Are you still here?

Do you not  have somewhere to be?

Great, because I do not either.  I’m addicted. I must see what I am going for on Friends For Sale! and am I still 3rd in the Coolest Person Contest? Maybe I need to go to Facebook Users Anonymous.  I think I have a crush on Facebook.

So what is my point here?

That social networks are here to stay and they are going to grow and change from the way we are using them today. The way we use them will evolve. Once the wheat is separated from the chaff (i.e when they have matured). Social networks will focus on what we need them for most. They will evolve from still being somewhat of a nice way to catch up and trade flair  with friends to becoming even a more useful tool. A tool you will need in your everyday life. This will be the key.

The possibilities are endless.

Stay tuned as I will be explaining my thoughts on this further.

Posted under Blog