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Get More Out of Google+

By IM News on October 20, 2011

This guest post is by Matthew Weber of T3kd.com.

When I first started blogging in early 2010, I was relatively new to social media. I had been a member of Facebook since 2004, but I was not using it to promote myself or my content: I was using to stalk old girlfriends. When I finally joined Twitter in 2009, I was unsure what the purpose of it was. Sure, I used Twitter. I followed some feeds, some interesting famous people, and I had a few followers—most of them very special bots.

But once I started blogging in January 2010, I came to the realization that I was using Twitter in completely the wrong way if I wanted people to actually engage with me, and through me, my content.

Image copyright ra2 studio – Fotolia.com

I realized that I couldn’t just tweet out something and expect people to see it. In order for people to see my content, they would have to have a connection with me, and they would need to remember me.

I tried different ways of doing this. I tweeted more, and I started to retweet others’ content. But this was still not enough. In the end I realized that the only way for other people to have a personal stake in “Matt”, would be to have them feel like we had a relationship beyond just me spewing a lot of content at them on Twitter. I realized that if I wanted the true Twitter experience, I would have to jump in and participate and engage with other people.

I found that once I stopped treating it as a place just for sharing, and started participating and conversing with other people, not only was Twitter much more entertaining, but also the people with whom I interacted started paying more attention to my content.

Google+ is the same

Amazingly, I’m currently making the same mistake with Google+. I seem to use it only as my own personal soapbox. I spew content, and no one pays attention. I know this problem all too well, seeing as I’ve made these mistakes before.

From everything I have heard, read, and been told, Google+ is an amazing place in which to get people to talk and interact with content. I have not seen this. Originally I just thought that this was because Google+ was no good. Then I thought that it might be because Google+ is so new, and there might not be a big enough audience for my content.

Then I realized that, as usual, this wasn’t the fault of Google+. It was, of course, operator error. I wasn’t using it properly.

It’s all about interactivity

In order for people to interact and consume your content, you have to give them a reason to do so.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Matt, isn’t interesting and original content enough?” No, no it’s not. I know that original and interesting content is very important. But that is not what social media is all about. Your content is not even really in play when it comes to social media.

On social media sites people are not interacting with your content, at least not yet. They are interacting with you. When I share a link on Google+, people will interact with it if they have a reason to.

The biggest reason I can give them to click on that link is to make them think that they are a part of my story. If they think that there is a social relationship between us, then they are much more likely to think that my content is important. Originality and interest only come into play once they click that link.

So how do you become interactive on Google+—or any other social media site? You have to talk to people. I know that sounds almost stupidly simple, but it’s true. When they share something, strike up a conversation with them about it. Ask them questions, and share something related. There are innumerable ways to do it, but in the end it comes down to being social.

Once you have the interactivity down with one person, you will find that they are much more likely to reciprocate that interactivity back towards you and your content.

It’s your opportunity: don’t waste it

It is this statement that I have to remember. This is exactly where I was at the beginning with Twitter, and I again need to make sure that I squeeze Google+ for all it’s worth. Google+ represents a unique opportunity not only for me to spread my content out through interactivity, but also for me to gain useful connections to others. Even more than Twitter, Google+ gives me the opportunity to garner great conversations surrounding my content. I need to start using it properly, before I miss the opportunity.

When thinking about social media, we have to remember that it is not about us. We can’t be selfish, we have to be social. Being social, whether it is on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook, means to have a two-way interaction between people. A relationship that is only one way will not last long, if it takes off at all.

Just like your personal, real-life relationships, in order to flourish, an online relationship must be cultivated and fed with communication and good times. That interactivity will make it so the people you share your content with will remember you and be interested in the things you share. So go forth and be social, my friends!

Matt is the Founder of Blogs Media Network, a collection of blog sites covering assorted content. His main site, T3kd.com, is a site dedicated to covering technology news, and providing tech analysis. You can circle him on Google+ here.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Get More Out of Google+

ProBlogger Blog Tips

This entry is filed under Make Money, Social Media and tagged google, More.

Dot Com Pho – Google+ Vs. Facebook Edition

By IM News on September 26, 2011

You will not find a single thing about Pho and food on this edition of Dot Com Pho. That was because we were busy discussing something far more important: which was better? Google+ or the new Facebook? We weight the pros and cons of each social network to help you decide which one to go with. In addition to the battle for socia media, we also discuss why you should never start a business selling tarts.

In all, we had seven people attend Dot Com Pho. Ed would have been last again, but he called and said he couldn’t come because there were accidents on all three bridges heading into Vancouver. We find that very hard to believe. Also, he sounded like he just woke up when he called us at 1:30PM.

Anyone is welcome to join us for Dot Com Pho. It happens every Saturday at 12:30PM. Follow me on Twitter to find out the location, since we change up restaurant once in a while.

John Chow dot Com

This entry is filed under How To Make Money Fast, Social Media and tagged Edition, Facebook, google.

How To Turn Social Media Into Your Own News Channel

By IM News on August 31, 2011

What We Have Learned From 2011

There is no doubt that 2011 is the year when Mother Earth has been incredibly active, with the most notable results being earthquakes/tsunamis in New Zealand and Japan, cyclones and floods in Australia, and hurricanes on the East Coast of America.

I found it very interesting that for each and every one of these major events, the source of information for me and many others has not been the television, radio or newspapers, but social media.

Admittedly, this comes as no great surprise considering that so many of us now live our lives on and through social media. This is where we interact with others, socialize, spend our money, gather information and do business. So why would it not be the place where we obtain up-to-the-minute updates on global events?

My Experiences Of Sharing And Obtaining Critical News Updates Via Social Media

Before we look at some tips at using this realization to work for you professionally, I just thought I might share my personal experiences in both being caught up in a natural disaster and observing from the outside, concerned for loved ones.

In January this year, my home city of Brisbane and surrounding areas flooded. Many people lost homes and possessions, while a few tragically lost their lives. The enormity of the flood was not known until literally a day before it hit, as is the case with so many other natural disasters. But even then, many of us did not take it seriously, still heading to work like any other day. While I had heard reports of a flood coming our way (via television and radio reports, I think), a phone call on the morning of the flood from my parents made me realize that it was real and my home was in the disaster zone.

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What followed over the next 12-24 hours is something I will never forget, and I don’t really want to go into it in detail because it still causes an emotional reaction for me. But in general terms, my husband and I evacuated, and had just about two or three trips back to our home to gather important belongings while the water was rising around our ankles. We watched the creek behind our home surge and floodwaters engulf our beloved home, suburb and the homes of our neighbors and friends.

Electricity was cut for days while authorities waited for water to subside and for it to become safe for them to switch on the mains again. We were without television and only had a portable battery operated radio, but I couldn’t bear to listen to updates because it was just more of the same. While my phone battery lasted, I used Facebook on my cell phone (via status updates) to notify friends and loved ones in other areas of Brisbane and around the world that we were safe. I was also able to read relevant status updates by others as to conditions near my suburb that might affect transportation.

Receiving News Updates Via Social Media

On the other side of the coin, very literally the first I had heard of the other natural disasters around the world was via status updates on Facebook. Friends of mine had posted about them. One of my best friends was in Tokyo, and I wasn’t sure if she had been affected by the tsunami. I also have friends and acquaintances in New York and was concerned about them during both the earthquake and Hurricane Irene.

When I asked for more specific information, either they or someone else on their page replied immediately. I found this to be a great benefit, because my specific questions were answered directly, and I didn’t have to trawl through news reports on public news outlets for information I was looking for.

I thought the other benefit was the information I received was so much more relevant to me. I wanted to know if my friends were OK, and how various places around the world I had come to know and love were affected. This is not necessarily information I would have received by tuning into a radio or television broadcast.

Furthermore, friends added photos and video content that was so much more personal than what a journalist might record. It was real and I could be there with them during the event.

It goes without saying that everything I have described also applies to positive events, such as the birth of a baby to a loved one, a celebrity wedding or an awards ceremony. If you are following a celebrity on Twitter or Facebook, this may alleviate the need to rely on traditional news or entertainment media to ‘get the goss’ (especially because this is exactly the same source journalists will use!).

Whether social media will replace all or a part of the need for traditional media remains to be seen, especially as it bleeds across into disseminating news in the areas of politics and business too.

So, how can you use social media to effectively disseminate your news? Here are my top tips:

Firstly, make sure you have a presence on the various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google Plus.
When you have news, post it there. Facebook and Twitter don’t allow room for your entire news broadcast, but they are perfect to provide links back to your blog for the full report, or even brief updates on news you have previously shared.
Make sure you collect an audience across these channels. No point sharing news here unless you have people to consume it. There are plenty of tips to gather your audience specific to each platform, but generally, be active in relevant groups on Facebook and invite relevant people to “add” or “like” you. Hash tag relevant words in your Twitter updates and follow others so they are more likely to follow you.
Post regularly and make sure it’s interesting and relevant. Whether your posts are all news oriented or personal as well depend very much on your publicity strategy, the nature of your industry of work, and the posts themselves among other factors. But the golden rules are regularity and relevance to your audience.
Have an end goal in mind. Always! What are you hoping to achieve? This could be to build your profile as an expert in your area with the view to gaining a reputation, or to sell a certain product or service. But an end goal will help you develop your news posts accordingly.

Your social media platforms could become your very own news channel!

Kerry McDuling

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This entry is filed under Best Ways To Make Money, Social Media and tagged Channel, into, Media, News, Social, Turn.

Let Twitter Improve Your Copy Editing

By IM News on August 17, 2011

This guest post is by Jason of FindingMyFitness.com.

You know that one of the “tricks” to writing great posts is to keeping the content short, crisp, and clear.

So why is that so hard to do?

Adopting the Twitter method

Ever write a great tweet and have to shorten it because it doesn’t fit? You tweak and edit until you get your point across in 140 characters or fewer. I noticed my tweets were snappier when I edited them down.

I get wordy in my posts, so I wanted to practice writing more succinctly. I began playing a game with myself by putting my wordy sections in Tweetdeck and crafting them to fit. Long sentences get shortened to 140 characters. Sometimes, even whole paragraphs.

Twitter can help improve your writing in different ways:

You have to craft sentences instead of write them, so your command of the language improves.
It helps you to communicate more clearly, specifically, and directly.
If you tweet parts of your posts (I have), you’ll see immediately how readers react and even generate interest in your next blog.

A practical example

I didn’t edit while I wrote this post. I knew I wanted it to be short, but I didn’t specifically try to make it tiny.

By using the Twitter method to edit, I shortened it by 20%.

I’ve noticed that my shorter posts get retweeted more often than my longer posts. When you make your point and get off your box, people react. You haven’t given them time to be bored.

You can take it too far

This method won’t work for all posts in all situations. Sometimes you’ll just need to use more words. Just a few tweaks can completely change the meaning of what you wrote, and that is something you don’t necessarily want.

Short and crisp works great for inspirational posts. For explanations and how-tos, clarity might require more words. Don’t let your long posts be boring, though: break them apart with short, concise paragraphs.

Eventually, you’ll be concise without thinking about it. Your sentences will be snappier; paragraphs, clearer; readers, happier; wallet, fuller. Nothing but wins!

What techniques do you use to make your posts as tight and clear as possible?

One day Jason got tired of being fat, so he created FindingMyFitness.com to help him get skinny. Follow him there or on Twitter at @fmfblogger.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Let Twitter Improve Your Copy Editing

ProBlogger Blog Tips

This entry is filed under Make Money, Social Media and tagged Copy, Editing, Improve, Twitter.

5 Ways To Use Google+ Social Circles Like A Pro

By IM News on August 12, 2011

Let me level with you: I am not a big fan of social media. I just don’t have the time and the energy for it, it’s that simple.

However, social media traffic generation has always been and undoubtedly will remain one of the best referral traffic sources on the web.

We go where our audience goes, right?

And right now, our audience seems to be all over the still relatively new Google Plus.

And now it’s time to start learning more about it. Really.

There are many a Google Plus social network tutorial out there and this post is not intended to be one of them.

I am very much into learning shortcuts, useful tips, tricks, and advice – anything and everything to make my Google Plus life a whole lot easier and here’s what I’ve learned so far.

1. Google Plus Social Circles

It seems like the Circles are one of the defining features of the new Google Plus.

The most talked about, at the very least.

And here are some tips to help you to figure out how to use them to their full potential.

Tame Your Google+ Circle Madness In 3 Easy Steps

id=”more-7774″>This tip comes from Vincent Mo.

After using Google+ for almost a year internally at Google and almost a week in the “real world”, this is the best way I’ve found to manage my circles.

Step 1: Face reality

Come to grips with the fact that you will never read EVERYTHING on Google+.

Step 2: Make circles for SHARING

Create circles of friends that you share with (e.g. Work, Family, Church). These are the circles you use to control access to the posts you write. People can be in multiple circles. For example, a coworker might also be in your photography club.

Step 3: Make a circle for READING

Decide on a few people you really want to keep up with and add them to a separate *Inbox circle. This circle has a selection of people from Work, Family, and Church. Face it, not everyone at work or in your family is that interesting. If you can’t read everything, you might as well make sure the stuff you do read is interesting. =)

When you share something, use your “sharing” circles. Did you take a trip with your family? Share the photos with your Family circle.

When you’re reading your stream, click on your *Inbox circle on the left side of the stream.

This will give you a more manageable amount of content than the Stream link, which for many people is already a fire hose of random stuff, most of which might not be that interesting. You may want to make a couple other circles for reading different topics. I have a separate *Inbox: Photographers circle where I read a few popular photo bloggers.

Note that my inbox circles start with * so that they sort to the top of the circles list on the left side of the stream. (Except for the default circles like “Acquaintances” – I just renamed those so they don’t automatically sort to the top).

2. Google Plus Stream

1. Speaking of your stream: your default setting is to see the feed from ALL your circles – very overwhelming!

That’s why I love Vincent’s tip above to make an “inbox” circle.

2. Alternatively, just choose any of your circles on the left hand side of the page to limit your stream to that circle only.

3. The “Incoming Stream” is stuff from people who are sharing with you, but who you haven’t added to a circle.

4. The “Extended Circles” are the circles of your circles – one degree of separation.

5. When you share something as “Public”, people who you haven’t added to your circles, but who added you to theirs, will see your post.

6. Use “Mute”: don’t be afraid to use the “mute” options to shut down posts that you have no interest in – if you don’t, they’ll keep popping up in your stream each time someone else comments on them.

It’s hard to see the forest behind all the trees that way; muting those posts is the only way you can ever see the rest of your stream.

3. Add More Google Plus Friends

There are several things you can do to avoid adding people manually – as much as possible anyway.

style=”color: #000000;”>1. Add Google Plus to Your Sidebar

GoogleCards is a new Google+ wordpress plugin.

It adds a widget to your blog that will display a link to your google+ profile so people can add you to a circle (follow you). It also displays your name, profile picture and the number of people who have you in circles.

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That’s what it looks like – you can find it in my sidebar. And don’t forget to add me to your circles – I want to make sure to be in EVERY part of your online life!

2. Export your Facebook friends

This used to be easy with a Chrome add-on. Unfortunately, Facebook decided it didn’t want to share your friends’ contact info with Google Plus and the add-on was shut down.

Of course, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

The new “work-around” requires you to use your Yahoo! email account as a go-between.

All you do is:

Log into your Yahoo! account (create one if you don’t have it yet);
Go under Contacts ==> Tools ==> Import
Choose Facebook to import contacts from and follow the instructions.

Tip: I am sure you don’t really want all these contacts to linger around in your Yahoo! contact list after the export. You can easily delete them by going into “Contacts” and changing “View All Contacts” to “View Last Import”. Check all and delete.

3. Export Twitter Followers

The best solution I found for exporting your Twitter followers is to use Export.ly.

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You can also use the same service to export your FB friends.

Since I did mine the Yahoo! method, I can’t vouch it’ll work, but I don’t see why not.

Word of caution: Google Plus has currently set a limit on how many names you can import at a time at 4,000. So if you have more Twitter followers than that, you’ll have to manually edit your CVS file: delete extra contacts or separate them into different files.

4. Google Plus Sharing Options

1. Share via Gmail

I use Gmail for just about all of my business email, so this shortcut is a huge time-saver for me.

You can now directly share from your Gmail account by clicking on the small “Share” icon in the top right corner of the interface. Awesome!

class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-4264″ src=”http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/google-plus-share.png” alt=”share google plus from gmail” width=”500″ height=”229″ />

2. Share Later tip

This tip is great for those of you who love sharing, but don’t want to overwhelm your followers with too much info at a time.

Here is a way to save your own or your friends’ posts for later sharing:

Create an empty circle named “Bookmarks” or “Drafts” or whatever you like.
Share your drafts with that circle only.
Any time you want to share something, just go into that circle and publish your info from there for the rest of your circles to see.

5. Become Google Plus Personality

As of right now when anyone hovers over your avatar, all they’ll see is a bigger version of your avatar, plus a one-liner of who you are.

Just like this:

class=”aligncenter size-large wp-image-4287″ src=”http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Screen-shot-2011-08-01-at-5.16.33-PM-e1312255570532.png” alt=”default google plus profile picture” width=”302″ height=”185″ />

Not too exciting, to say the least.

And here’s how we are going to change it.

Go to “Edit Profile” and click on “Employment” section.

Add your bio under employer’s name, check “current“, and save.

This is what you’ll see after you are done:

class=”aligncenter size-large wp-image-4288″ src=”http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Screen-shot-2011-08-01-at-8.33.11-PM-e1312256154192.png” alt=”improved google plus profile image” width=”407″ height=”279″ />

Not a bad way to stand out…

Google Plus Marketing Takeaway

Conquering a new social network is no easy feat, especially when we have no idea if it’s here to stay (knowing Google’s past track record with all things social).

Since I don’t have a crystal ball, I can’t give you a definite answer either way.

However, from everything I’ve been reading about it and all the time I spent learning and using it, I would definitely give Google Plus your attention.

No one likes to be left behind!

Ana Hoffman

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This entry is filed under Best Ways To Make Money, Social Media and tagged Circles, google, Like, Social, Ways.

Top 5 Social Bookmarking Sites That Can Drive Crazy Traffic To Your Blog

By IM News on July 30, 2011

Social bookmarking sites these days are powerful marketing tools that SEO content creators can use to drive traffic to their blogs and niche sites. Traffic from social bookmarking sites is a great boost in addition to receiving traffic organically from search engines. If you’ve been in the SEO game for a while now, you probably know that every blogger has their favorite list of social bookmarking sites they think are the best, hands down. You probably even have your own list, but it seems as though everyone has different opinions when it comes to the best social bookmarking sites for driving traffic to your content. Knowing what social bookmarking sites have the potential to drive the most traffic your way is important because bookmarking your content takes up a good amount of your valuable time, even if you minimize this task with automated submitters.

The relevant stats of a social bookmarking site that make for the best possible link back to your content include; Google PageRank, number of inbound links, Alexa Rank and as far as eyeballs looking at your content, you’ll want to concern yourself with the stats on monthly visitors too. Given these criteria, here are the top 5 social bookmarking sites that can get the most visitors in front of your SEO content:

1. Digg

Google PR: 8, Alexa Rank: 284, Inbound links: 267,000,000 and monthly visitors according to Quantcast: 23,900,000.

We all know about Digg – the power of this bookmarking site is truly crazy. Get your content on the first page of Digg and you better hope your servers can handle the tens of thousands of visitors that will be headed your over to your site. The much harder part is getting your content to take off on Digg.

What does well on Digg? Apple related stories, useful tech news, negative stories about corporate corruption, news stories about odd and outlandish crimes, political opinion pieces that are not run of the mill and anything that is simply very quirky, funny or out of the ordinary.

2. Technorati

Google PR: 8, Alexa Rank: 457, Inbound links: 43,000,000 and monthly visitors according to Quantcast: 2,400,000.

Technorati is great because you can actually link you blog up to Technorati, which provides a stream of the latest and greatest in the blogosphere. Get you blog connected with Technorati and all your posts have a chance to be featured on a very high ranked social bookmarking site.
What does well on Technorati? A variety of blogs can do well on Technorati, but how much your content is featured depends on your “Technorati Authority” to a degree, which you must build up over time using their system of guidelines.

3. Del.icio.us

Google PR: 8, Alexa Rank: 2,648, Inbound links: 154,000 and monthly visitors according to Quantcast: 325,000

Another, great highly ranked social bookmarking site that has seen a lot of improvements and grown significantly in the last few years.

What does well on Del.icio.us? According to some analytical reviews, about 50 percent of Del.icio.us top ranking stories are about anything tech, 8 percent are about business and making money; 8 percent are tutorials of some sort or how-tos and 7 percent are simply offbeat, lifestyle stories. The rest are broken down into much smaller, various categories.

4. StumbleUpon

Google PR: 8, Alexa Rank: 939, Inbound links: 119,000,000 and monthly visitors according to Quantcast: 978,000

StumbleUpon is another great social bookmarking site – just use it yourself and you’ll soon find how addicting “stumbling” can be. You can “stumble” or bookmark your own content and review it yourself to get more hits from StumbleUpon. However, only “stumble” your best, most original content, as “stumbling” too much content that sounds the same or like it’s trying to sell something, will cause you to get kicked out from bookmarking content on this site.

What does well on StumbleUpon? This site is really the most diverse content wise; all sorts of topics can do well here. However, the top categories of topics are technology and off beat.

5. Reddit

Google PR: 8, Alexa Rank: 4,815, Inbound links: 3,807,418 and monthly visitors according to Quantcast: 1,200,000

Reddit has millions of loyal, tech loving, quirky users. Just post an interesting enough question in the AskReddit forum, and you could find your question and its comments on the first page of Reddit’s “what’s hot” section.

What does well on Reddit? Politics, news, science and programming.

Remember getting huge amounts of traffic from these bookmarking sites or any bookmarking site for that matter, means getting on the front page. This involves writing on certain, popular topics, but mainly creating stellar content that people just have to click on and share.