Google Hangouts is based on the immense YouTube infrastructure, so people can hang out with, and meet others, in a virtual space with face to face to face interaction. Google continues to create and add new features and applications to the platform, here are a few.

Symphonical

Symphonical is an app that allows different Hangout participants to work together on projects or to-do lists. You can manage projects and also host presentations using this app. The information is stored directly on Symphonical’s website, allowing the users access to it even when the Hangout is no longer in session.

SlideShare

SlideShare is a well known and growing social presentation platform. The host of a Hangout may use the SlideShare app and feature presentations. This can be used for business meetings because you’re able to share your hangout with a few people or the entire world. The privacy and share settings are easy to use.

You Tube Videos

You can provide YouTube videos for all parties to view together during a Hangout. This can add another interactive layer for meetings and conference calls. It can be used for a simple family gathering. You can share the new video of Susie taking her first steps with her grandparents in Des Moines. The possibilities are as boundless as your imagination will allow.

Cameraman

Google introduced the Cameraman app in July. Used with Google Hangouts on Air, it helps people create more professional broadcasts. This app is ideal for controlling how and when guests will appear on a broadcast. Sarah Hill an Anchor/Reporter and Hangout Host at KOMU-TV, Columbia, MO was the first to utilize this app for broadcasting.

Hangouts on Air

Hangouts on Air, which allows hosts the opportunity to broadcast on a public level, or to  groups is a social game changer in my opinion. Some of the biggest public figures and even President Obama have used it to reach viewers globally. Hangouts on Air can be viewed in a variety of ways, like a embedded link on a website, on YouTube, or from the Google Plus page. Hosts can even see the exact number of viewers watching the event as it happens live. Event and broadcast planners are able to interact with their viewers through submitted comments or questions using hash tags.

Once a Hangout ends, a recorded copy can be uploaded to the host’s YouTube channel, as well as to the Google Plus post. The benefits of this are huge, in that the Hangout can be viewed and shared with ease.

Statistics tell us Google Plus already has over 200 million users worldwide. This would make it the fastest growing social media platform in the history of the internet. The most significant yet under utilized feature of Google Plus is Hangouts. I think it’s the best feature of the platform. It will have greater adoption as people realize how cool it is, and more applications are developed to use along with it. Individual apps will make Hangouts a unique experience and this will only improve.

For more information, FAQs and support, visit the Google Plus Homepage.

If your already on Google Plus add me to your Circles and lets hangout.

Why Should I Combine Social Media and Email Marketing?

The benefits of social media marketing are clear, exposure to individuals through sharing can make content go viral. In addition, social media platforms allow business owners to better target their audience. Social media tools allow access to important information, such as age, income and personal interests. You can harness this information to strategically select those individuals who may benefit from your information.

You can integrate social marketing tools into an email marketing campaign. Email list software usually provides a number of options to allow social sharing. For example, if you release a monthly newsletter packed with solid content, the “share” buttons on the bottom of each message will encourage people to spread your information.

It’s really this simple. If more people share your information, you are more likely to reach new subscribers. If you reach more subscribers, you acquire additional business prospects. Doesn’t that make sense?

In addition to your email marketing campaigns, your social media persona can further engage potential customers and fans and provide a platform to share important business milestones, sales or important information.

How Do I Get More From Social Media?

Take every opportunity to share your social media accounts. If you send regular email marketing campaigns, incorporate links throughout the copy in a creative fashion and be sure to add links at the bottom of each email.

Redesign your website to include placement of social media links in prominent locations. In addition, include your email marketing opt-in boxes and provide a link to your social media profiles in the “Welcome” email.

Your business cards can be redesigned to include social media addresses or you can create mini business cards specifically for this purpose. Any promotional items you use, such as coffee mugs or pens, can also prominently display your social media platforms.

What Techniques Can I Use to Build My Email List?

There are multiple techniques that work to build an email list. Your website and blog must include an opt-in box on each page. Using well-developed, strong content, such as a whitepaper or “How-to” document, to entice people to share their email address offers a professional appearance and lays the foundation for building trust.

Some social media platforms allow you to design pages that have additional content. For example, Facebook provides pages that you can customize for fan accounts. Customize your pages to include a link to your opt-in box for your email list.

You should also develop “registration required” content, such as exclusive reports. Once you begin building your list, ensure that you cultivate your social marketing persona. For some additional tips and ideas you can check out the following articles.

A Simple 4-Step Plan for Building an Email Autoresponder that Works

5 Secrets to Write a Clickable Subject Line for Your Email Letters

Four Responsive Email Layouts

The game has changed. Google is not particularly open about changes to its algorithm, but the bottom line message is clear. IT IS FOCUSED ON THE USER. This might mean adjusting your concept of SEO and making a few changes in order to increase the traffic to your site. We get it Google, just stop the slaughter.

 
It’s probably worth your while to review what you already have online and to remember the following as you develop new content.

1.  Audience. The most important thing to me is to know your visitors. If you publish content on your own website, install a web analytics solution to keep track of the number of visitors and how long they stay on the site. You can even drill down into statistics for each page. As mind numbing as this may seem, it’s essential to know how people interact with your website. Depending on the number of pages on your site, the bounce rate might be important. If visitors only look at the first page they visit, ask yourself why. A more important metric might be the total number of page views. It’s important to fix these issues and get more engagement on your website. This is important for search, but ultimately if people are coming and aren’t staying you have to question the overall quality of your message and marketing.

2. Social media. Become active on LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, and any other social networking site if you haven’t already. Do not forget about forums that include professionals in your field. Share your content appropriately to the right audience, and you will see ‘follows’, ‘likes’, and tweets on your posts. These, inevitably, lead to more visits to your site and a higher ranking on the search engines. If you’re not on Triberr, what the hell are you waiting for?

3. Fresh unique content. It might seem impossible to develop content that has gone unpublished. You’ve probably read some version of this article somewhere. However, there are a few guidelines that might help. Write from your head and heart with your unique perspective. Put together ideas and topic elements that are not typically linked. Add a touch of controversy, if appropriate, by citing more than one opinion. In other words, add value to the content. Don’t be afraid to mix it up.

4. No keyword stuffing. For years, the pundits lauded the frequent use of keywords that would be picked up by the search engines. This resulted in some very strange phrases and difficult to read content. Users have expressed their displeasure with content with very little meaning but many keywords piled on top of each other. Know what your keywords are but just use them naturally, letting the purpose and meaning of your content shine through. Although I may want a site to rank well for the search phrase “mattress Sacramento,” using it continually in an article just sounds stupid and makes for difficult reading.

5. Inbound links. Quality is the key with backlinks. They are still very important and still a heavily weighted measure with Google. Focus on quality and not quantity, it’s that simple. A link from a high quality site with solid PR will do more for your site then tons of links from low PR sites with no relevance to your own content or business. You may want to run an audit to gauge the quality of your existing link building efforts.

If you want to keep the gods of Google happy, publish content that users want to read. Focus on the people you want to visit your site and write what you know will interest them as individuals. This kind of quality content, not contrived SEO bullshit, is what’s necessary for search engines and humans alike.

Got any other good SEO tips? Please share them below, and I promise I won’t laugh… just kidding.

Foursquare has always been a unique tool. I’ve been using it for my business and personally for the last year. However, its recent changes help to move it from the realm of novelty apps to a more social experience. The changes themselves are actually quite sweeping, and it does take a moment to get used to the new layout. Once you get used to it, though, you will find that Foursquare’s new features are far more robust and will give you a chance to really connect with others in your area, and discover the best of what’s available around you.

New Layout

One of the real complaints about the Foursquare of old was its layout. It was a bit confusing, seemingly dropping information in random places without any thought on usability. The new layout, however, divides the entire app into three discrete zones. You can view your friends’ information on the “Friends” tab, find out about the area around you in “Explore” and take a moment to go through all your personal information in “Me”. This makes for a more fluid experience, one that advances the social aspects of the app. This small layout change creates a much more usable social experience for those who want to connect with others.

A More Social Application

The Friends section of Foursquare has undergone the most significant changes, and the revamp looks like the Facebook timeline and Instagram. You can still see where your friends have gone, of course, but the information is now coupled with large, Facebook-esque pictures. You even have the ability to “Like” your friends’ check-ins directly from your stream creating a more engaging experience. This adds a new layer of interactivity to the app, and it helps to create more of a community feel than was once available. I would liked to have seen a Tweet button added along the with the “Like” and “Comment” sections, this would have advanced the social aspects of the app even further.

Explore with Smart Recommendations

The Explore section takes what was always great about Foursquare and immediately makes it accessible. A quick button-press will bring you to a Google Maps view of the area around you, complete with the check-ins of your friends and various recommendations. This is a good way to not only learn where your friends have gone at a glance, but a great way to figure out the hot spots in your vicinity. You can always choose to look elsewhere, but the social benefits of the immediate local view cannot be overstated. If you can remain aware of all the great places in your local area, you have a much better chance of connecting with others nearby. Businesses can use this feature to advertise specials and the visibility of the offer and location is easier to see. This feature existed in the previous version, but now it’s highlighted so I expect greater response rates to exclusive Foursquare offers.

Foursquare’s new changes grabbed some of the best features from other platforms while still focusing on what it does best, creating a unique experience that allows you to enjoy the best places around you and hopefully catch up with a friend while doing it. If you want to be able to keep track of your friends, get great recommendations about the world around you and do a little socializing, you should try out the new features of Foursquare.

Twitter has been continually working to make its deceptively simple 140 character interface more attractive to users as well as making it more useful.  While we haven’t seen much lately, that has all changed in the past few weeks.  Twitter has been working in the background and has unveiled a new logo as well as perhaps the most user friendly new Twitter feature coming in the form of Twitters Tailored Trends.

 
The new logo is a simplified version of “Larry” the iconic Twitter bird which has also dropped the text, bubbled typeface and lowercase “t”.  The Tailored Trends are decidedly more interesting and useful to users, in my opinion.  As reported by Sara Mauskopf, a Product Manager at Twitter, the company is finally ready to roll out changes which provide customization for trending topics.

Why New Tailored Trends?

Since its inception, Twitter has provided users with information about trending topics, those topics that are most tweeted about, for over 150 locations worldwide.  This meant if you wanted to find out what was trending in Los Angeles, Bangkok, or Berlin you could simply change your location.  Starting June 13th, 2012 that is all going to change.  You can still access the location based trends, but Twitter is taking trends to the next level with something they are calling Tailored Trends.

The new customized trends are a combination of your location and the people you are following on Twitter.  Twitter has made the new Tailored Trends the default for your trends, but they have left the option to change your location if you don’t want to see the tailored trends.

Isn’t This Similar to #Discovery?

The new tailored trends are not too dissimilar from the Stories feature in #Discover that was rolled out last month.  Stories is curation of the links that are most popular among the people you are following on Twitter.  It has been a successful change for Twitter and was likely a beta test prior to rolling out Tailored Trends, which is a bit more comprehensive.

So, based on the success of Stories I think Tailored Trends will work well for Twitter.  It seems to be a good way of highlighting things that may be of interest to individual users based on the way they currently use Twitter.  The only criticism I’ve seen so far is that Twitter hasn’t done something like this earlier.  It seems they are now on the right track to providing the content that users crave in a way that doesn’t change the core of what Twitter is.

It will be interesting to see what other types of changes Twitter might make going forward.  While it has been not much more than a crowd sourced information source to this point, it looks as if changes are coming.  With the addition of Stories and Tailored Trends Twitter appears to be positioning itself as more of a customized social network.  Now, rather than just getting information through trending topics for my location, I have the option of getting information based on who I follow and my interests.  Also, by using the lists feature of Twitter you can compartmentalize various interests, groups or locations.  It seems like pretty powerful stuff to me.

Many bloggers get caught up trying to perfect their techniques for search engine optimization (SEO) in an effort to stay current with Google’s ever changing SERP algorithms. Panda, Penguin, Porcupine or Parakeet they all seem to overwhelm us with change, and we know people hate change. I made the last two up in case you didn’t notice, but I’m hoping for credit on the next two updates.

 
A good blogging site should never be afraid to try new things to increase traffic to their site from search engines. The objective should be relevancy to your target audience.  However, in your effort to stay current, do not disregard old techniques that have withstood the changes.

 
Here are eleven link building tips, some of which may be ones you are already doing, while others may be new to you. All of the tips are low or no cost and you should experiment to find the ones that work best for your site. Why eleven, because I’m not good enough for 12 most.

1. Make a numbered list like this one. People love easy-to-read, fun and useful list. Keep it relevant to your site, but make it interesting and people will link to it. Boring always sucks, don’t suck.

2. Tackle a myth or hot topic. People love to debate, so this is a great way of increasing traffic and building back links to your site. Stir the pot, but don’t be a jerk just to be a jerk. No one likes assholes, so add value to any discussion you jump into.

3. After each new post, do not forget to prompt your readers to link to your site. A quick reminder that your article can be linked or socially bookmarked is one of the easiest link building tips to execute. If you don’t ask you don’t get as my mom use to say.

4. Write and post a press release. Press releases are easy to write once you get the hang of it. I follow Marc Harty who I consider the master of online PR. I wrote a post about him here.

5. Write quality content that is written naturally and relevant to your site. If your articles have great content, other sites will link to it. A no brainer right, unfortunately most content is swimming in the sea of suck. This might be one of them, who knows?

6. Follow other blogs who post relevant content similar to your site, comment often, get active and most of the time you will see the favor returned. Just remember to add value not just “nice post” that’s so lazy, sophisticated readers will see right through it.

7. Share the love by posting a link or two each week from other blogs that are relevant to your site. They will return the favor or mention they were linked to your site with a link to your post. Even if they don’t it shows you know what you’re talking about because you read credible sources. Just remember to use good resources.

8. Add a link to your site in your e-mail and forum signature. I use a Wisestamp for my email signature. It allows me to add my social profiles and includes a link to my latest post.

9. Do not underestimate trackbacks. This is a handy feature for Word Press blogs and is a great way of showing appreciation for dedicated links. Always recognize when someone shows you love. Do on your blog as you would in real life, it’s that simple.

10. Reward top blog followers or commenter’s who bring in the most referrals or just show the most engagement, everyone likes to be recognized, don’t you?

11. Join forums that are relevant to your site. Get active and post links, while encouraging discussion rather than merely pushing your site. Again, remember to add value to the discussion.

These link building tips can help you build quality back links to your site and have you climbing up the search engine ranks. I’ve got a lot more, but this a good start if you aren’t conscience of your efforts now.

Please add to the list by commenting below and please please share this article. I’d really appreciate it. See that wasn’t hard was it? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just watch out for the Porcupine and Parakeet and you should be fine.

Facebook debuted its arsenal of advertising options at the end of February at its first ever Facebook Marketing Conference in New York. The Facebook ad suite is a new take on premium ads that will prompt advertisers to create unique content focused ads as compared to the traditional premium display ads. The idea behind this is to create more engagement from users, and encourage interactivity and sharing. Now Facebook page owners will be able to include photos, links, videos, questions, events, daily-deal offers all in an advertisement format.

This appears on the page of the particular brand, and on the right hand column on the home page of various fans. This feature actually debuted last year, so it isn’t really new. Apart from the home page, ads began to appear in a fans news feed on the mobile app or desktop back in January. According to statistics, the time spent by fans on particular brands is twice as much as non-fans. This makes Pages the obvious choice for a business to connect with their fans. Typically, brand posts are viewed by about 16 percent of their fans on a weekly basis. However, the new Facebook Ad suite, coupled with the reach generator is aiming to increase impressions dramatically.

How Reach Generator Will Work

Advertisers are not charged for creating content and posts on their page. However, there are charges for their distribution through the reach generator. The brand will be charged according to their fan numbers. According to estimates, the reach generator will enable the new ads to be seen by 50 percent of fans in a week compared to the earlier 16 percent. During the month, the ad will be viewed by 75 percent of the fans.

This is quite a jump in the impressions, and of course, the brand is reaching a highly targeted audience. The new format of the Facebook ad suite tends to make the ads look like a story or news, which has much more appeal than the traditional ads. As per company estimates, this new strategy is capable of increasing click through rates by five to ten times compared to traditional ads, which has always been a problem with Facebook Ads. Therefore, there is not only an increase in impressions, but the click through rate will also increase dramatically.

How Reach Generator Will Enhance Ad Campaigns

The interactive features of the Facebook ad suite and reach generator will also increase the engagement volume from fans. According to COO of Facebook, people now do not expect to be talked to, but rather want full participation in the conversations. This means brands will now have much better feedback delivery, and know where they stand with new offers and products. Apart from all this, the reach generator also has good reporting features. Businesses can now know their level of reach, how many of their fans engaged, and track their brand awareness more closely using these metrics.

The reach generator also provides tips for effective delivery of the ads. It is suggested that posting should be done once in a day, so that there is enough time for the post to be distributed effectively. The new Facebook ads suite also suggests certain optimal posting times for various businesses to engage more fans. Competition in social media advertising is increasing and Facebook needed to do something to build on it’s advertising portfolio. Overall, it looks like a well thought out strategy that has the appeal to fans and benefits advertisers as well.

Internet advertising is perhaps one of the most powerful options at any company’s disposal, finding a reliable site to advertise on, shaping and creating an effective advertisement, and getting your brand out there are all incredibly important in running a successful internet advertising campaign. That being said, there are a few sites that step out of the shadows of mainstream advertising platforms, Tumblr is attempting to be one of them. Using a site like Tumblr for advertising is a new and inventive way to get your brand noticed and to reach a highly captivated audience of social bloggers.

Tumblr is Unique

Though Tumblr offers a fantastic platform for advertising, it’s also incredibly different from other internet advertising sites out there. For instance, rather than allow multiple banner placements all over the site, ads will only be featured on a users dashboard. This essentially makes each and every Tumblr ad incredibly valuable to the advertiser, the creative quality of the content will be of incredible importance. Tumblr will use its own set of metrics to determine how well an advertising campaign is performing and this poses significant challenges to large companies. Without benchmarks measuring things like reblogs, likes, and comments to post this will be an elusive set of metrics for most brands and businesses.

Using an advertising system that is wholly different from any that have been used before has both advantages and disadvantages. Having an minimum buy in of $25,000 will also keep most businesses on the fence until further information can be gathered. Because the road of internet advertising is so well traveled using a new system is incredibly difficult and incorporating information and sales generated from these new systems into the old is nearly impossible. Advertisers and users have issues with Facebook’s ad platform already, this adds another site to the list of internet platforms that for many businesses just aren’t getting it right. Though this is a unique problem with all internet advertising. Tumblr is a massive site and using it for advertising has the potential for being effective, even if it is a pain to get used to. Because the Tumblr advertising platform is still so new, it’s difficult to determine if this will be a good approach and will ultimately become a powerful new internet advertising platform.

Tumblr has Tons of Competition

Only time will tell if a site like Tumblr can pull off having their own platform for advertising and if there will be enough advertisers to buy into it. More traditional advertising sites like Google Adsense and buying banners on smaller sites are still a strong approach to reaching your target market. The information from these sites is easily quantifiable and advertisers can link all their campaigns together to create one central campaign rather than having to keep up with several. With a site like Tumblr for advertising, it may be a bit of a gamble at first for advertisers but the more companies that buy into the system and help to work out the kinks the better it will become for future users and for those that have been using it all along. There are tons of online advertising options and you can find information about any of them with a quick search and a little reading.

I’ve been using Twylah for several months, but I’ve been slow to adopt Scoop.it into my internet marketing mix. Both are currently in Beta, but Twylah requires an invite and Scoop.it is available to everyone.  Scoop.it and Twylah are both content curation services that allow users to create their own resources, albeit in somewhat different ways. Twylah focuses mainly on making webpages or fanpages associated with tweets, while Scoop.it is a little more in-depth. Both services are well-suited for their own purposes, although users with different intentions will definitely have a preference for one of them depending on what they need.

Perks and Features for Scoop.it and Twylah

One of the biggest perks to using Scoop.it is the unlimited number of source types that users can add to their content pages. These sources include anything from websites to social media and RSS feeds, which makes it particularly easy for people who use Google Reader and other feed trackers to integrate their information sources into their Scoop.it topic pages. Another great feature is the ability to add keywords to the tool and search for content based around these keywords. Users who are familiar with search engine optimization can especially benefit from this feature by targeting relevant keywords with high, consistent traffic numbers and build high-quality content around these keywords.

Twylah is a great tool for content curators who want to build and expand their Twitter brand,check out these featured pages.  Those who are lucky enough to have access granted for beta will find that Twylah includes features that make it easy to create a webpage based entirely around tweets and flowing information from a Twitter account of interest. In addition to generating the webpage with a navigation bar that keeps track of popular hashtags, it also helps generate backlinks easily and search tweets in a database, meaning that old tweets never become irrelevant. The Twylah page is versatile, allowing users to add and link the page to their own business domain to attract and keep visitors. The “power tweet” is also a feature that allows individual tweets to garner greater attention and can be used to feature individual pieces of content such as your own blog post.

Setting Up Content Curation

Scoop.it is easier to set up for users who are familiar with maintaining websites and social media in tandem with each other, while Twylah is better for users who are largely familiar with maintaining a follower base on Twitter. Of course, users can easily learn to utilize both, since the applications are both user-friendly with easy interfaces and plenty of helpful information available to learn the system. Additionally, both content curation services offer the ability to reach out to huge audiences, making it a good idea to utilize both where possible, especially in cases where the user owns multiple websites with unique social media profiles for each.

Who Uses Scoop.it and Twylah?

Scoop.it is a popular internet marketing tool for those who are more focused on creating and maintaining high-quality content with an informational feel, while Twylah is better aimed at marketers who simply want a way to integrate their tweets and social media communications into an aesthetically pleasing, easy-to-use website. However, users of both services are often highly focused on content optimization, which is an important way to grab the attention of new audience members. After getting their attention, keeping their attention is largely dependent on the way Scoop.it or Twylah are utilized and whether the desired audience is information-focused or social media-focused. Both tools are highly effective in their own ways, but do require some customization for best results.

Media is becoming increasingly fragmented, with customers’ attention being pulled in many directions at once. You need to be able to make sure that it’s your press release, and your product or service, that grabs their interest. In my opinion Marc Harty is the master when it comes to planning and executing a great online press release. Check out his website 30minutepr.com. I’ve followed Mr. Harty for a long time and continue to gain respect for his approach and the results they deliver.

Online PR has many advantages over traditional formats. Not only do you have access to so many more people, but you communicate with them directly. In the past the media acted as an intermediary between you and your customers, deciding what they would communicate, but with online methods it’s just you and the customer.

 
In order to exploit this opportunity to the fullest, you have to be able to distinguish your business from everyone else who is competing for online attention. To do this, you need to follow a few simple rules. Marc calls these the Four Pillars of the New PR.

#1 -  The first rule is to determine your strategy. This is not just what your business does, but also how it does it. You have to engage with your audience by including your values and your business direction in all of your online PR. If, for instance, your company prides itself on its environmental credentials, build these into all of your press releases. This will strengthen your brand awareness and build up online customer loyalty.

#2 - Secondly, make sure that you have a story. This needs to be consistent, and included in all of your press releases. Traditional PR depended upon making announcements, but today consumers are bombarded with hundreds of announcements every day. Including a story will make your material more memorable.

One way of doing this is to create a Persona for your company. This enables your customers to identify with you, and to become more engaged with your activities, and thus with your products or services. Some businesses have chosen to adopt the Persona of the underdog: the small company that has competed successfully with much larger rivals. This is a good way of gaining empathy, but other Personas can be equally effective.

#3 - The next rule is with respect to Search Engine Optimization. Optimize your content by making sure that your keywords appear in every press release headline, and throughout the text, including the first and last paragraphs. Also ensure that you use the keywords as tags for all associated multimedia such as video or audio clips.

SEO becomes particularly important when you consider one important difference between online and traditional PR: online PR is ‘evergreen’. Where printed media has a particular shelf life, online information can be accessed months, or years, later. If journalists, or others, want to research a company, they will turn to the Internet, and find all of the information that company has released, whether or not it is current. Even apparently ephemeral material, such as that relating to particular events, continues to have an online presence. This is another reason why consistency, of story, values, and branding, is essential.

#4 - The final thing to remember is the importance of social media. Your customers use Facebook, Twitter and other social media on an increasingly regular basis, and you have to make sure that your online PR takes this into account. Include connections with Facebook and Twitter in your online press releases, and also consider adding enhancements such as videos or slide shows.

If you follow all of these rules you will be able to produce a really effective online press release. You will build up your customer base, and maintain their loyalty. This will pay dividends immediately, and also in the longer term.