Are you on Google +  yet?  If not you may want to consider adding it to your Social Networking list.  Why? One good reason is accessibility.

I had not seen an old friend on Facebook in sometime but I noticed him in my Google + stream (what they call the newsfeed on G+). I asked him if he had been like some of my friends that had suspended using Facebook.  These friends abandoned their Facebook accounts due to what they called security issues and switched to G+ for more control over their privacy.  He answered not at all.  Google + was the only social platform he could access at his new job.  So he used it more often to contact people and gain information during the day.

There are still a number of organizations and companies that do not see the potential of Social Media even for marketing. These companies often block Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and various other social media sites from their internet access to stop their employees from “wasting time” and “goofing off”.

I went to a meeting recently at a Fortune 500 company that has over 200 + offices globally.  One person (not me ) who needed to use YouTube to make part of her presentation suddenly was delayed because this Information Technology Company blocked the popular video platform from its internet system.  After using Google, we finally found the video on a blog site and watched the embedded YouTube video from this “trusted” online location.

Whether blocking certain Social Networks at a place of business is good or not is another article. But if your target market or sphere of influence is employed at such businesses it might be good for you to begin using Google + to connect.  As my friend I wrote about earlier testified, Google is often not blocked as the platform is used for business apps and search engine regularly.  But its new social networking program is now available on the same system.

Google + also now has Business Pages  so once you set up a personal profile you can create one for your business quite readily.  Therefore the biggest plus for Google + to me is at work accessibility.

Let me know what you think is the biggest plus to Google +

Thing #3 – Leasing verses Ownership – One thing you must own!

As the housing market declined more people are touting that ownership is over rated, renting is better and cheaper.  That mentality has reached a number of industries as well as websites. Websites are now being what I call “leased”.

A number of organizations are no longer spending a lump sum of money, getting a website custom developed and then having the controls turned over to them for management, either in house or through maintenance contracts with the developer.  Organizations are opting to pay a monthly fee for the website, and not own the site.  As long as the monthly payment is made the site is viewable online.  The controlling company may also include a number of hours of updates in the package.  Full access to the back end of the website is never granted.  These type websites are being offered by phone, cable, newspaper, and various automated online companies.

This is done for a number of reasons.  Some professional fields get locked into these options seeking convenience.  Also businesses that don’t know how long they will be around and those with fleeting budgets, a monthly fee simply sounds more manageable and smart.

Groups have to decide what is best for them and what they can afford when they build website.  BUT if you don’t own your website at least own your domain. 

Domain name can be purchased on a number of  hosting sites including ours Strategic Online Hosting.  Buy your domains and own them yourself.  When the development company makes your site you can forward your domain to that site. You can click here to find out more information about this process or use Google.

Therefore if you have a discrepancy with that firm or decide to build a customized site your preferred domain name is in your organization’s control.

If you need any assistance with your online presence from Website to Social Media contact us.  We will be happy to assist, consult or develop your online sites. Email us at  info@StrategicOnlineNetworking.com or call 823-421-1292.

You often see companies that say at the end of their commercials or on a flyer “find us on Facebook”.  But they don’t tell you where!  They act like they are the only Joe Smoe Acme Product on a platform but they are not!  With millions of business Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts, finding an entity online is not as intuitive as you think.

Why?

Though there are not duplicates in Facebook aliases, web addresses or usernames, there can be repeats in Page Names. Take for instance if you want to find a business that can come to your company picnic and handout novelty treats to your employees and their families on a hot day.  If you are in Central Southern Florida that company is Dragon Ice Cream Treats.  When you search for Dragon Ice Cream you want to find friendly Dragon Ice Cream Treats  the wonderful special events company that delivers great ice cream treats right to your business or home party!

BUT you might end up with this Renaissance Dragon that sells odd ice creams at festivals in upstate New England.

This  is probably not what you had in mine for your employee appreciation and family fun day.

Online search is different for everyone.  Your computer now takes into account what you have been searching for in your recent past when you begin a new quest.  So every Dragon that has a connection to that recent Music search you did may come up before the needed Dragon Ice Cream Treats company that you want now.

Remedy:

Let people know exactly where your business is on Facebook and Twitter especially if you are not a Fortune 500 company.   A good example is on the back of this business card which spells out exactly where I am on Facebook and Twitter.  This is more than just the general Facebook and Twitter icon leaving a potential client unable to find you on those sites.

QR_codes are another great idea for letting people know exactly where you are online.  If you are at an event set up a sign on the reception table or in your program where people can scan QR_Codes and go straight to your Facebook or Twitter account on their mobile phone or tablet and like or follow you ( See below).

Dragon Ice Cream Treats shares in multiple ways in their ad.

Take into account your audience.  You may need to add simple instructions of using an app like Scan Life to scan the QR_Code.  Many people have iPhones, iPads,  BlackBerries and Androids but don’t use it to its full potential only because  they don’t know how.

Scant information can be true in other areas also.  I am shocked how little information businesses can give out at times about contacting them.  I get hundreds of emails a week that have no phone number, website, email address or alternative way to contact anyone in the company.  Every business email  should at least have a simple signature that gives your phone number if nothing else.  It doesn’t have to be fancy just give out the information.

These are just a couple of easy ways to get more people to your Facebook and Twitter pages. We will share more in the near future.

It happen to me once. I got on Facebook like I normally do and there was a message from a woman I didn’t know. She wanted me to leave her husband alone.  What?!  Who was her husband?  Later in the day a male Facebook friend called me to apologize for his wife.  They had been out drinking and when they came home his wife saw I had wrote “Congratulations” on his post about his new job.  Now over 25 people had commented on his post but alcohol fueled she focused in on me.  I don’t know why she accused me of being after her man.

We all know of people that have tweeted or updated a Facebook status with regretful foolishness.  But people that do Social Media drunk are in a league all their own. So much so someone has developed a program that will test your soberity before allowing you get on your accounts during hours that you preset before you go out drinking. It is called Social Media Sobriety Test.

How it works is that you set the time you want the testing to work on certain social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr even MySpace. So if you come in about 2:00 am on a Sunday morning, you try to log into your account of choice the software will lock you  out.  It will administer a couple of random test from within the software.  If you pass the test, it declares you are sober, and  it will open your account allowing you to interact online on your platform of choice.

I don’t know if it is a complete remedy.  An account of a reviewer stated that even sober she struggled to pass the sobriety tests the software gave her after coming in very late night.  The odd thing is that if you fail the test,  you are not allowed on let’s say Facebook, and the software will post for you, “ ”TOO INTOXICATED TO POST”.  E-gads who wants that on their profile? I hope that is an optional feature!

Whether drunk or not we need to be careful what we post online .  A lot of people are listening and everything online last a long time!  Remember once online people can forward and reproduce anything you put out there.  So if you don’t want it forwarded, known, or remembered don’t update , tweet or blog about it drunk or sober.  And be careful if you do Social Media for your company or business and also yourself.  If you get your accounts crossed you can end up getting embrassed pretty quick.

Here’s to sober social media. Cheers!

Scenario:

You want to increase your business presence on Twitter and use it as a social networking tool, but after you sign up and begin to follow others, you slowly become aware that everyone else in the Twitterverse is speaking a different language.

What’s going on?

Your peers are using hashtags (i.e, #hashtag) to group their Tweets according to content.  By using a hashtag, you can up the circulation of your Tweets by becoming part of a user-generated group.  Other Twitter users can search these hashtag groups later to find items relevant to the topic they are interested in.

But how?

Easy-peasey!  Just add a hash mark (#) before a word (or group of words) that relate to your content.  Some examples:

• Came home to a clean room! Thanks #mom! I knew it prolly took you a radioactivity protective suit, and all day, but I love you!
• RT @twitter: Prove the true meaning of humanity. Participate in the relief efforts of Japan: http://t.co/IvY9ihu #hope4japan
• Before you can be effective in your activity, you’ve gotta be secure in your identity. -Pastor @stevenfurtick #grapesandgiants
• Studying with #starbucks. Is there any other way
• Pre-selling 2 ipad 2′s 16gb. Estimated time of arrival is at the end of the month. pm me for details. #ipad2 #appleipad2

Make sure you check out the following pages for more info about using hashtags…then be on your way to a more visible Tweet!

http://twitter.pbworks.com/w/page/1779812/Hashtags

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/twitter-hashtags/9419/

*BONUS TIP:  See that RT at the beginning of the second example tweet?  That means that someone “retweeted” another user’s tweet.  Basically it is a quick way to cut, copy, and repost.  Happy tweeting!

First don’t click on the app. If you do or already have,  stop it by removing the app from your profile.

First go to your privacy settings and click on Edit Settings:

The  click on Removed  unwanted or spammy apps.

Then edit apps accordingly:

This will remove the app from working any further.

The newest web tool we have been using recently is Awesome Screenshot: Capture are Annotate by Diigo.  This makes capturing screen images and marking them up so easy.  No need to cut and paste into PowerPoint and then spend time in Photoshop cleaning things up.  See the video below to understand how easy it is to use.

See the screen I marked up below in less than a minute.  There is a free draw feature, colors, writing and I even blurred out the entire top of the blog  just for grins.  This is going to make making slides for trainings and presentations so much easier!

Check it out and don’t forget to let us know what you think!

Sure there are Facebook, Twitter and other social media platform by the hundreds, but if you want to be online, let people know who you are and what you do without all the personal interaction there are a number of sites that provide that now.  These sites are simple, quick to put up and don’t require any coding knowledge or large time commitment to set up. We will look at just two.

About.me

One of the hottest right now is About.me Mostly young tech people have it currently, but the word is spreading. It calls itself a custom splash page with a personal analytics dashboard. You can add as much as you want to the page.  Mine is not as “splashy” as many but a simple upload of a picture and add your bio and other social media sites if you like and you are finished. Check out my about.me profile!

Neat features – in your bio you can hyperlink out to other sites.  And the personal analytics page can even let you know your twitter and facebook update habits. Not to mention all the options of fonts and colors already built in to this fun platform.

Drawbacks – If you want to be super sexy in these you may need to have a picture that is.  And you’ll  need to  know how to size it in Photoshop to get it to fit the background.  It is also in beta and can be glitch-y to update in some browsers especially Chrome based one.

Business Card 2

Business Card 2 used to be Card.ly, and now has combined a number of services into one place.  Add personal, business, and social to one site.  It also can operate as a real networking platform as other people that have BusinessCard2 accounts can leave questions, messages and review your business inside the platform.

Neat Features – You can add an ad about your business on the Card.  So you can actually upload a logo of your business and set that as the picture that people see at first but as they explore the card they can also see your personal picture. Great for more of a business focus

Drawbacks – BusinessCards2 has premium/pro/pay options. It will ask you from time to time to upgrade.  It is still a little clucky to navigate through as there are a number of pages and options to update on the card. As you will see looking at ours it is not yet completed.

Perhaps you don’t have a business but are looking for a job.  These sites are a  way outside of the norm to have an online presence sharp but simple.  Perhaps you already have a number of online sites already having one of these will just increase your “searchableness” (SEO, SMO) even more!

A nice point of these type sites  is that they are “set and leave” sites to a point.  No need to update or check these daily.  If someones messages you through these sites it comes to your email. And if you have added other social networks they can look you up on the online place you spend most of your time.    And lastly at this moment they are completely free.

How to Tuesday,  it is back after a long stint.  We have been restructuring our business and plan to come back strong blogging to assist you to have a healthier online experience.

Enjoy this week’s list:

How to create better online video

How to make Geeks happy

How to send an Audio Tweet

How to be everyone’s friend on Social Media

How to get more comments on your blog post

I just posted on my FaceBook status the question asking who knows the woman above.  Why, because she knows the oddest cross section of my friends I’ve ever seen.  How does she know my former pastor from Virginia, a MySpace friend I have been connecting with for over 3 years, a new client and my daughter’s music teacher, who all don’t know each other exist?  At first I thought she must be a celebrity that I didn’t know.  I googled her, but nothing, then it dawned on me, the FaceBook Friend List Sham!

The Sham is where people “friend” someone because they think he or she is a friend’s friend but in actuality no one knows the person at all.  In the end you find out someone just went through your friend list requesting friendships.  Is it bad?  I don’t know.  Most of the times, I think these people are marketers (which I saw dead on as her only fan page was a MLM Cruise page) and they are using the site to market something (There is nothing wrong with “marketing’ online -everyone is “selling” something-you just need to be social and relational about it).  I do know people who see these types as part of a more sinister plot of home robbers or information thieves that are looking for an opportunity to do harm.

I am a Social Media Consultant so I friend a lot of folks on FaceBook that I do not personally know.  But I do have the following qualifiers to friend someone on FaceBook:

• The person needs to be a real person.  Not a site or a front for some unspoken organization. Of course I am friends with a couple of mascots on FaceBook but I know the organizations behind those. “Real” to me  can answer yes to the following questions:
  • Does the person comment, contribute content  or return messages?
  • Do they have more than one picture that actually shows them?
  • Do they have a more than one interest in fan pages and groups
• I need to have a real connection with the person in some manner, either they are a “friend” from another Social Media site, account, project or a  real person’s friend in which I have contact .  Also I often friend those that are in the same business or support the same non-profits that I do.

I suggest you come up with your qualifiers for “friend-ing” people  or fanning pages.  Also  give yourself privacy on FaceBook if you have reservations that people may have a sinister plot or just want to be overbearing marketers.