@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

Business Consulting

About Basil Puglisi: Building Influence with Integrity

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Basil Google Glass

Basil C. Puglisi is a strategic consultant, digital media expert, educator, and author with a legacy rooted in teaching others how to influence with integrity. Since 2009, he has been at the forefront of digital communications—long before “influencer” became an industry term. His work spans consulting, publishing, and public speaking, all grounded in one core belief: clarity creates confidence, and confidence builds influence.

Almost Two Decades at the Forefront of Digital Strategy

In the early 2010s, Basil’s name appeared frequently across the digital media landscape. He spoke on national stages, published insights, and helped shape professional standards for a rapidly evolving field. He served on the Board of Directors for Social Media Club, advancing conversations on ethics and responsibility in media, and co-founded Social Media Action Camp (SMAC), producing collaborative events that generated measurable impact.

As founding editor of Digital Ethos, a nonprofit publication, Basil created a platform for responsible discourse online. His work has been published or featured in outlets including Newsday, Social Media Today, and Social Media Monthly.

Social Media Events, Digital Media Events, Speaker, sessions

Contact Basil today to request availability for engagements, workshops, or panel moderation. – basil(at)puglisiconsulting[dot]com

Proven Experience with Brands, Events, and Community

Basil’s work in digital strategy has always been about building stages—literal and figurative—where ideas, brands, and communities could connect.

He co-produced the Parents & Baby Expo, a nine-location trade show series that partnered with Huggies, Mead Johnson, Babies “R” Us, and other household names, while also producing exhibitor video content that gave smaller brands a national-level spotlight.

He also worked on the AOL launch of Patch.com on Long Island, partnering with local Chambers of Commerce to build visibility through advertising, content, and small business video campaigns.

Basil Events Conferences

At Social Media Week NYC, Basil produced and hosted events that brought global platforms and thought leaders into direct conversation. His sessions featured representatives from Google, Facebook, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, Constant Contact, and Empire Avenue, as well as authors like Ekaterina Walter (Think Like Zuck) and Brian Solis (What’s the Future of Business). Smaller agencies and innovators—including Bumblebee Media, Internet Marketing Labs, Heyo, Wbbgrrls International, and Hyperactivate—also joined, underscoring Basil’s role as a connector across the ecosystem.

At Social Media Action Camp (SMAC), Basil curated and hosted some of the leading voices in digital marketing, including:

  • Ekaterina Walter (Intel)
  • Scott Monty (Ford)
  • Ric Dragon (Social Marketology)
  • Wendi Capllon-Carol (Constant Contact)
  • Duleepa Wijayawardhana (Empire Avenue)
  • Nelly Yusupova (WebGrrls International)
  • Amy Vernon (Internet Media Labs)
  • Mark Coatney (Tumblr)

Social Media Action Camp (SMAC): Teachers Not Speakers™

In 2012, SMAC became one of the most impactful events at Social Media Week NYC, built around Basil’s philosophy of “Teachers, Not Speakers™.”

  • #SMWsmac generated 1,484 tweets across 15 countries, representing about 5% of all social activity in NYC that week.
  • Sessions drew 976 views on Livestream and 71 check-ins on Foursquare.
  • The official event page drove 177 Facebook Likes, 250 LinkedIn shares, and 834 additional tweets, making SMAC the most socially shared event worldwide for Social Media Week 2012.
  • Kred and Ogilvy’s Movers & Shakers ranked Basil the #1 Top Influencer of Social Media Week NYC 2012.

📌LI experts to lead social-media event in NYC
📌 Ogilvy Movers & Shakers Leaderboard graphic

The 2013 SMAC Summit expanded further:

  • 128 attendees (sold out)
  • 3,000+ tweets
  • Over 10 million impressions
  • 1,000+ Livestream views
  • Generated 25% of all #SMWNYC impressions that day

Speakers included Dino Dogan (Triberr), Gemma Craven (Ogilvy), Christine Murphy (DDB), Ric Dragon (DragonSearch), Marc Fischman (Hyperactivate), Gabriel Shaoolian (Blue Fountain Media), Cynthia Sanchez (Oh So Pinteresting), Melonie Dodaro (TopDog Social Media), Amy Vernon, Hilary Topper, and Brian Solis (Altimeter Group).

📌 Kred Top 1% Influencer

Through SMAC, Basil not only hosted conversations—he created data-driven, globally recognized events that shaped the dialogue of Social Media Week.

Early Technology Pioneer

In 2013, Basil became the first Long Island resident selected for the Google Glass Explorer program, a milestone covered by Newsday (“LIer test drives Google Glass,” July 8, 2013). He was one of only 10,000 Americans invited by Google to test the device, blending camera, display, touchpad, and microphone into a wearable headset.

That same year, Basil moderated a featured Google Glass panel at the NYXPO in New York City, leading a discussion with early Explorers on how wearable technology could transform communication, events, and storytelling.

By combining first-hand experience with public engagement, Basil positioned himself not just as an adopter of frontier technology but as a translator—helping professionals and organizations see how new tools could be applied strategically. That same forward-looking approach guides his current work in artificial intelligence.

📌 Newsday article: Newsday Staff. (2013, July 8). LIer test drives Google Glass. Newsday.


Healy, T. (Host). (n.d.). The Profit Express with Tim Healy [Radio broadcast interview with Basil Puglisi]. WRHU 88.7 FM. Available at https://youtu.be/7ZFDvPqG8Ws?feature=shared

Evolution Behind the Scenes

In 2014, Basil shifted into public service, a role that carried strict restrictions on personal use of social media and public visibility. While this reduced his presence on big stages and in public events, it expanded his capacity to guide organizations privately, focusing less on self-promotion and more on building systems that delivered results.

That period of quiet was not absence, but evolution. Spending less time showcasing himself made him a stronger consultant and teacher. It sharpened his ability to create clarity, enforce accountability, and measure outcomes for others.

Behind the scenes, Basil refined the methodologies that define his work today, including Factics—a blend of facts and tactics that turns information into action. His commitment to education over presentation also gave rise to his enduring philosophy: “Teachers, Not Speakers.”

Throughout this time, Basil continued publishing at BasilPuglisi.com, building an archive of more than 900 articles on digital strategy, content, and AI—making it one of the most extensive independent resources of its kind. He also advanced into artificial intelligence, completing the University of Helsinki’s Elements of AI and Ethics of AI certifications, most recently in August 2025.

This chapter was about depth, not disappearance. It provided the discipline of public service, the structure of proven methodologies, and the foresight of AI—tools Basil now brings into every consulting engagement and teaching opportunity.

Methodology and Publications

In 2012, Basil introduced Factics (Facts + Tactics + KPIs) at the NYXPO in NYC’s Javits Center as a model for turning information into action. This methodology became the foundation for his consulting and his first book, Digital Factics: Twitter.

Today, Basil is reviving the Digital Factics book series to guide professionals in mastering modern platforms with clarity and accountability. The release schedule includes:

  • Digital Factics: Instagram — December 2025
  • Digital Factics: X (revised edition) — January 2026
  • Followed by titles on AI, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, LinkedIn, Medium, Threads, BlueSky, and other emerging platforms.

The series blends Basil’s Factics methodology with real-world tactics and KPIs, helping leaders and organizations turn digital complexity into measurable outcomes.

Beyond Consulting: Public Service and Leadership

Outside of consulting, Basil served 12 years in law enforcement. His work included authoring statistical reports, creating training materials for 1,600 officers, delivering FAA presentations on drone policy, and presenting expert testimony in court. This period honed his ability to communicate complex ideas, build scalable systems, and earn trust in high-stakes environments.

He holds dual BAs in Sociology and Criminal Justice, and a Master of Public Administration.

Today: Strategy in the AI Era

Today, Basil continues his mission through two channels:

  • BasilPuglisi.com → his personal thought leadership hub, featuring articles on AI, content, and strategy.
  • Puglisi Consulting → his selective consulting practice, where he applies board-level oversight to events, campaigns, and strategic initiatives.

Through speaking engagements, consulting, and publishing, Basil remains dedicated to one mission: helping others turn ideas into action and content into clarity—always backed by facts, always rooted in purpose.

“Influence is earned, not bought. It starts with clarity, is built with content, and stands on facts. It is far more important to be purposeful than first to publish.”
— Basil C. Puglisi, M.P.A.

Newsday Publications Featuring Basil Puglisi

Other Media Features

Elements of AI Certification at University of Helsinki
Ethics of AI,

Platform Ecosystems and Plug-in Layers

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The plug-in layer is no longer optional. Enterprises now curate GPT Store stacks, Grok plug-ins, and compliance filters the same way they once curated app stores. The fact is adoption crossed three million custom GPTs in less than a year (OpenAI, 2024). The tactic is simple: use curated sections for research, compliance, or finance so workflows stay in line. It works because teams don’t lose time switching tools, and approval cycles sit inside the same stack. Who benefits? With a little checks and balances in the practices, the marketing and compliance directors who need assets reviewed before they move find streamlined value.

Grok 4 raises the bar with real-time search and document analysis (xAI, 2024). The tactic is to point it at sector reports or financials, then ask for stepwise summaries that highlight cost, revenue, or compliance gaps. It works because numbers land alongside explanations instead of scattered across drafts, with Grok this happens UpToDate and in real time, not just a database in the AI. The benefit goes to analysts and campaign planners who must build messages that hold up under review because the output sees everything up to date of prompt, not just copy that sounds good.

Google and Anthropic moved Claude into Vertex AI with global endpoints (Google Cloud, 2025). The fact is enterprises can now route traffic across regions with caching that lowers cost and latency. The tactic is to run coding and content workflows through Claude inside Vertex, where security and governance are already in place. It works because performance scales without losing control. Who benefits? Developers in regulated industries, when they invest in their process and speed matters but oversight cannot be skipped.

Perplexity and Sprinklr connect the research and compliance layer. Perplexity Deep Research scans hundreds of sources and produces cite-first briefs in minutes (Perplexity, 2025). The tactic is to slot these briefs directly into Sprinklr’s compliance filters, which flag tone or bias before responses go live (Sprinklr, 2025). It works because research quality and compliance checks are chained together. Who benefits? B2C brands that invest into their setup and new processes when they run campaigns across social channels where missteps are public and costly.

Lakera Guard closes the loop with real-time filters. Its July updates improved guardrails and moderation accuracy (Lakera, 2025). The tactic is to run assets through Lakera before they publish, measuring catch rates and logging exceptions. It works because risk checks move from manual review to automatic guardrails. Who benefits? Fortune 500 firms, SaaS providers, and nonprofits that cannot afford errors or policy violations in public channels.

Best Practice Spotlights
Dropbox integrated Lakera Guard with GPT Store plug-ins to secure LLM-powered features (Dropbox, 2024). Compliance approvals moved 30 percent faster, errors fell by 35 percent, not a typo. One lead said it was like plugging holes in a chessboard, the leaks finally stopped. The lesson is that when guardrails live inside the plug-in stack, speed and safety move together.

SoftBank worked with Perplexity Pro and Sprinklr to upgrade customer interactions in Japan (Perplexity, 2025). Cycle times fell 27 percent, exceptions dropped 20 percent, looked like plugging holes in a chessboard, and customer satisfaction lifted. The lesson is that compliance and engagement can run in parallel when the plug-in layer does the review work before the customer sees it.

Creative Consulting Corner
A B2B SaaS provider struggles with fragmented plug-ins and approvals that drag on for days. The solution is to curate a GPT Store stack for research and compliance, add Lakera Guard as a pre-publish filter, and track exceptions in a shared dashboard. Approvals move 30 percent faster, error rates drop, and executives defend budgets with proof. Optimization tip, publish a monthly compliance scorecard so the lift is visible.

A B2C retailer fights campaign fatigue and review delays. Perplexity Pro delivers cite-first briefs, Sprinklr’s compliance module flags tone and bias, and the team refreshes creative weekly. Cycle times shorten, ad rejection rates fall, and engagement lifts. Optimization tip, keep one visual anchor constant so recognition compounds even as content rotates.

A nonprofit faces the challenge of multilingual safety guides under strict donor oversight. Curated translation plug-ins feed Lakera Guard for risk filtering, with disclosure lines added by default. Time to publish drops, completion improves, complaints shrink. Optimization tip, keep a public provenance note so donors see transparency built in.

Closing thought
Here’s the thing, ecosystems only matter when they close the space between idea and approval. This doesn’t happen without some trial and error, then requires oversight, which sounds like a lot of manpower, but the output multiplies. GPT Store curates’ workflows, Grok 4 brings real-time analysis, Claude runs inside enterprise rails, Perplexity and Sprinklr steady research and compliance, and Lakera Guard enforces risk checks. With transparency labeling now a regulatory requirement, provenance and disclosure run in the background. The teams that treat ecosystems as infrastructure, not experiments, gain speed they can measure, trust they can defend, and credibility that lasts. The key is not to try to minimize but balance oversight with the ability to produce more.

References

Anthropic. (2025, July 30). About the development partner program. Anthropic Support.

Dropbox. (2024, September 18). How we use Lakera Guard to secure our LLMs. Dropbox Tech Blog.

European Commission. (2025, July 31). AI Act | Shaping Europe’s digital future. European Commission.

European Parliament. (2025, February 19). EU AI Act: First regulation on artificial intelligence. European Parliament.

European Union. (2025, July 24). AI Act | Shaping Europe’s digital future. European Union.

Google Cloud. (2025, May 23). Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 on Vertex AI. Google Cloud Blog.

Google Cloud. (2025, July 28). Global endpoint for Claude models generally available on Vertex AI. Google Cloud Blog.

Lakera. (2024, October 29). Lakera Guard expands enterprise-grade content moderation capabilities for GenAI applications. Lakera.

Lakera. (2025, June 4). The ultimate guide to prompt engineering in 2025. Lakera Blog.

Lakera. (2025, July 2). Changelog | Lakera API documentation. Lakera Docs.

OpenAI. (2024, January 10). Introducing the GPT Store. OpenAI.

OpenAI Help Center. (2025, August 22). ChatGPT — Release notes. OpenAI Help.

Perplexity. (2025, February 14). Introducing Perplexity Deep Research. Perplexity Blog.

Perplexity. (2025, July 2). Introducing Perplexity Max. Perplexity Blog.

Perplexity. (2025, March 17). Perplexity expands partnership with SoftBank to launch Enterprise Pro Japan. Perplexity Blog.

Sprinklr. (2025, August 7). Smart response compliance. Sprinklr Help Center.

xAI. (2024, November 4). Grok. xAI.

Attract Tax Clients with Google Maps Tips This Season

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Tax Clients via Google Maps

Filing frenzy means desperate searches. Categories determine if you appear at all.

What it is: Specific service labels plus offers.

How it works: Add the category, post deals. PinMeTo explains how this unlocks relevant visibility.

What to do this week: Add ‘Tax Preparation Service’ and one seasonal offer.

Why it matters: Meets stressed locals where they are. Builds trust for key sales.

Goal: Aim for 10 more calls this month.

For more:
PinMeTo. (2024). GBP Categories. https://www.pinmeto.com/blog/google-business-profile-categories
Wix. (2023). Select GBP category. https://www.wix.com/seo/learn/resource/how-to-select-your-gbp-category

Quick Steps Cheat Sheet:
• Log in at business.google.com
• Click ‘Info’ in left menu
• Find ‘Category’ field and add ‘Tax Preparation Service’
• Go to ‘Posts’ and create tax season offer
• Include clear call-to-action

About the Barstool Blog
The Barstool Blog is built for small business owners who want quick advice without the jargon. I break things down into what it is how it works what you can do this week and why it matters. For deeper dives check out my #AIgenerated blogs on SEO Social Media and Workflow including ecommerce and CRM. For industry leaders my #AIassisted blog shares a monthly look into business marketing digital strategies content events and AI.

Well I Never, Five Tech Developments We Didn’t See Coming

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touchscreenThe world of modern technology moves so very quickly. It is difficult to keep abreast from week to week as scientists, computer experts and programmers come up with so many new and exciting developments.
Some innovations – such as the useful and fun Google Goggles – have come right out of nowhere in so far as the consciousness of the majority of the public is concerned.
Even mobile telephones with MMS capability, camera integration and web access are something which the public could never have imagined 15 years ago but which have become a necessity now. Other advances such as digital photo frames, mobile phone payments which work with scanners and online gaming with voice chat were hard to predict yet seemed likely with the way in which technology was headed for so long.
Here are just five of the most interesting developments in technology so far – we definitely didn’t see these ones coming!
iPod: The iPod is one of the iconic gadgets of our modern generation. Considering that the predecessor was the personal stereo CD player then this compact little machine really did amaze the general public. The gadget has come a very long way since the original came out and now boasts a touch screen, internet access, video capability, and an incredible amount of storage for games, music and apps.
Reverse image search: The reverse image search sites were a real innovation in themselves. To think that one could upload a photo and that software would find that item and all its relevant details on the internet was incredible.
Google Goggles has taken this technology mobile and through taking a simple photograph with a mobile phone you can find all manner of results on your chosen subject.
Cloud: Cloud computing is something which many in the know could have predicted. However, the way in which it has changed how we work forever is remarkable. By storing information and software on the internet, we now have access to our data in a way like never before.
Touch screens: We now take mobile phones with touch screens for granted and these can be purchased for a reasonable amount of money. However, when these first were introduced they were an incredible innovation.
Google Glass: Google Glass takes us into the realms of science fiction with its “augmented reality”. These streamlined glasses with a small screen above the right eye will give you information on your next appointment, the weather up ahead – and potentially so much more. This is one innovation which – if it caught on – would change the face of the world as we know it.
 
Sarah Paige is a writer with a keen interest in telecommunications. Sarah currently has her eye on cloud computing companies such as the Macquarie Telecom Group (ASX:MAQ). Follow her on twitter @sarahleepaige.

IGNITION: Future of Media Conference

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This two day conference is coming to New York City November 30th through December 1st, 2011. Exploring the future of media business, IGNITION brings together executives and key stakeholders to discuss what is happening in the here-and-now.

We all understand that the definition of media has begun to expand to include games, local, social, and real-time communications that include sharing and other forms of data exchange. However, this also means that the lines between advice, business, and entertainment, has begun to blur.

Business Insider’s founder and CEO, Henry Blodget, will host IGNITION. One of the goals of IGNITION is to discuss how what is happening now, will affect your business. For this reason, a long list of top-notch speakers covering many media industries will be attending.

  • Glenn Beck – Founder and CEO, Mercury Radio Arts
  • Deep Nishar – SVP of Products and User Experience, LinkedIn
  • Sheryl Sandberg – COO, Facebook
  • Eliot Spitzer – Former Governor, New York
  • Sarah Bernard – Director of Online Engagement, White House
  • Adam Bain – CRO, Twitter

Business Insider designs their conferences the same way they design their media: intriguing and straight to the topic at hand. Discussions are kept short and each moderator or speaker will quickly get to the point. The fast-paced schedule will keep all attendees connecting while learning. IGNITION is expecting an impressive list of 400 to 500 entrepreneurs and executives from all facets of media including print, TV, digital, music, radio, and entertainment.

Attendees should arrive ready to strategize and create new business.

Adam Bain – CRO Twitter

Before he was CRO of Twitter, Adam Bain was the president of Fox Audience Network, or FAN, where he administrated strategies that would help to monetize Fox’s digital properties. He got behind Fox’s largest acquisitions of IGN, Scout Media, Photobucket, and Myspace. Before he held that position, he was the EVP for Product and Technology for Fox Interactive Media.

Bain began at Twitter just as they were gearing up to launch new monetization efforts. Although Twitter has executed minor experiments with advertising, they now want to increase their revenue significantly. With Bain’s proven abilities in that exact area, it seems to be an incredibly good choice for Twitter and for all who use it.

Get Ready for IGNITION: Future of Media

If you plan to attend IGNITION, register now and make sure to input dbmei15 for 15% off the price of admission as a DBMEi subscriber! This IGNITION Discount Code has been created exclusively for dbmei.com readers.

Sources:

Professional Spotlight: Robert Basso

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On Tuesday, November 15th, a group of everyday entrepreneurs who have proven track records from building their own successes, came together to share how they had achieved those goals on their own terms.

Some attendees included:

  • Joe Corcoran, Founder of Joe Corcoran Productions
  • Selena Cuffe, President of Heritage Link Brands
  • Jeff Hoffman, Co-founder of Priceline.com family of companies
  • Steve Davies, President, The Alternative Board – Nassau
  • David Becker, President, PhilippeBecker

Robert Basso, the author of The Everyday Entrepreneur, is a well-recognized business leader and advocate. With an entrepreneurs eye for spotting opportunities, Rob has a long list of achievements from founding investor in Empire National Bank to owner of Advantage Payroll Services. Rob frequently contributes on Fox Business as well as other national programming such as Entrepreneur. Rob has also submitted to interviews with USA Today, AP, and CNN Money. Rob also hosts a web program called Basso on Business which features businesses and entrepreneurs.

The Everyday Entrepreneur

The Everyday Entrepreneur is loaded with powerful strategies and important objectives for defining, setting, and achieving goals for your own entrepreneurial success. Revealing how its readers can learn to apply their own ambitions to their desired goals and gain an understanding on how to proceed on their own, this book provides realistic goal setting ideas that can lead to successes that may have eluded you so far.

The Everyday Entrepreneur is unique from other available books on the market in that it supplies palpable entrepreneurial strategies for business owners. The contributions of The Everyday Entrepreneur allows for business owners to build their own wealth, financial freedom, and success regardless of age.

In The Everyday Entrepreneur, Basso explores other innovative entrepreneurs like himself and discovers what encouraged each one of them to push the limits and find their own genuine successes on their own terms.

You can also expect to learn:

  • Valuable lessons regarding how to drive business growth
  • How to best hone entrepreneurial instincts
  • How to reawaken your sense of adventure in your business endeavors

So much more is covered here but we can’t share it all. The Everyday Entrepreneur provides a roadmap allowing readers to follow the success stories of a variety of individuals who all hail from very diverse backgrounds. Take a walk with Basso as he shares the stories of each entrepreneur while they find the answers to achieving their own successes and surpassing goals unimagined.

My Take on Robert Basso

In a room full of professionals this picture speaks but a touch of the moment and what Robert Basso conveyed as an Entrepreneur, Professional and Parent. At the start of the event Robert thanked a few people, something you expect from most at such an event, but the moment to see Robert’s character came forward when he called his children to the front of the room.

“You might not quite understand this yet, but it’s my hope that you will someday” Robert Basso told his two children.

A moment that was so passionately about a father conveying an important message to his children that he had to be instructed and nudged by others to turn so they could get the photos they wanted. One could try and say that this was possibly staged, but if you had seen it first hand, you’d know the sincerity was without question.

My short interaction with Robert leaves little to argue about the long term experience of knowing or doing business with this professional, but if how he cares and treats his family is any indication, then clearly he is a professional worth knowing.

THE EVERYDAY ENTREPRENEUR

Published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Publication date: October 24, 2011

$24.95; Cloth; 175 pages; ISBN: 978-1-118-10644-0

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Google+ Pages Open the Doors for Brands and Businesses

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This past June, immediately after Google launched it’s highly anticipated Google+ social network, internet savvy businesses like Ford, Dell and Mashable.com rushed to create pages for their brands. Only to have them removed a few days later. Google’s announcement soon followed: “In the meantime, we ask you not to create a business profile using regular profiles on Google+. The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers. Doing it right is worth the wait. We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. (Christian Oestlien Ads project manager on Google+)

One hundred days later Google delivered on its promise. On November 7, 2011 Google+ announced the grand opening of Google+ Pages worldwide.

Google+ Pages allows businesses, brands, and organizations create their own page and establish a circle of like-minded people who enjoy the brand and want to talk about it. Not only does the page allow having a conversation with brand representatives in a way of personalized customer service, it also allows the group of followers to have a conversation with each other.

As Google+ puts it, when it talks about the customers: “…we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands… this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.” (Google’s blog)

Not only brands and businesses are involved. Google+ wants to enlarge the circle of users to local business, products, corporations, institutions, organizations, arts and entertainment, sports teams and more. They have been working with businesses since the launch in June to understand the needs and requirements of brand names. You can see the pages of these businesses already active:

  • Dallas Cowboys
  • Macy’s
  • Pepsi
  • Toyota
  • Anderson Copper 360
  • X games
  • Zen Bikes
  • The Muppets

Having pages for brands and businesses is nothing new, but Google+ has a few advantages over the competition:

  • People can recommend the brand easily by pressing the +1 button, and start sharing immediately.
  • A brand can have more than one page. A car manufacturer, for example, can have a page for each of its models.
  • Although Facebook has over 500 million users, and Google+ has, so far, about 50 million, the biggest advantage of Google+ has to do with the billions of queries made every day on the search engine, most of them looking for businesses or services. Google will include Google+ pages in its search results.
  • Direct connect – The easiest way to find a band you like to follow or a product has been amended as well. Typing the sign + before the query will take the searcher straight to the brand page. (Try it with + Angry Birds)

The official announcement on Google’s blog ends with these words: “With Google+, we strive to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. Today’s initial launch of Google+ Pages brings us a little bit closer, but we’ve still got lots of improvements planned, and miles to go before we sleep. So stay tuned.

Sources:

Summify Your Social Media Networks

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Keeping up with the most vital information in your industry was never made easier than with the inception of so many options in social networking. However, if you, like many others, find reading your Facebook and Twitter feeds to be increasingly more difficult as your network grows, it may be time to consider some of the options in news feed aggregation.

What is Summify?

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/15436623]

Integrated Ease

Instead of actually trying to keep up with lightspeed tweets and Facebook shares, the best thing you can do to save time, energy, and frankly frustration, is to head over to Summify and use their one-click integration options to log in via Twitter, Facebook, or Google.  You can choose to use only one network, or you can easily collaborate all three with a few more clicks.

From there you can configure how your summary is generated or you can sit back and wait for it to arrive in your inbox.

Inbox News Updates

Summify will determine by taking notice of your “Likes”, your trending topics, and the information in the industries you have the most influence, and make a daily progress report for you that is sent directly to your inbox. Users can choose to have this sent several times per day if desired.

Top tweets and the most often shared content will also be displayed along with those users names. See others in your fans or followers networks who have showed the same interest and utilize quick one-click buttons to add them to your network instantly.

View it as an email or as a webpage. Using the webpage option will give you far more interactive options.

Benefits of Summify

A very obvious benefit that makes Summify different is that this update will be sent to you per your desired frequency and will require no more effort on your part to configure than your original choices.  However, when you receive your emails you are given the chance to further refine your selections. Further benefits include:

  • Time Saving
  • Filtering Unneeded Info
  • Multi-Account Capability

When you receive emails from Summify you should open your articles from there. When you do, you are given the option to select a thumbs-up, or a thumbs-down option. Selecting the negative will prevent this type of content from being aggregated for you in the future.

Who Uses Summify?

Summify has seen a huge jump in user numbers in the last three months. Currently ranked at #5069 in the US, this aggregation option is beginning to be used widely on mobile devices due to its smooth compatibility with most options.

Sources:

LinkedIn: Updates on Ads & LinkedIn Today

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LinkedIn is a free, business and social network which was built on the idea that personal recommendations in today’s global village is was people really need. Hence, they created a way for people to connect on a professional level, and create a circle of acquaintances, or Connections as they are called. Somewhere, in the people you invite to connect with you, there is a connection to another circle and group of people you might know as well or want to connect with. That is called 2nd degree connections, and from here on, it can grow exponentially.

From this network people can receive personal recommendations, look for employees and search for jobs. LinkedIn has a privacy policy wherein all the connections have to be mutually agreed, so no unwanted connections will be formed.

With over 100 million users, from 200 countries around the world, available in many languages, LinkedIn is a force to be reckoned with.

There are a numerous programs that have been added throughout the years, to make LinkedIn more social and more interactive:

  • Paid Accounts offers more possibilities and tools to find people.
  • LinkedIn Answers allows users to post business related questions that anyone else can view.
  • LinkedIn Ads – LinkedIn has a paid service of ads called LinkedIn Ads, where users can create a small ad to be shown on the side of the prominent pages on the site, in a similar way to Google’s Adwords. The ad directs people to the website of the advertiser. The advertiser specifies which LinkedIn members will be able to view the ad by selecting a target audience. The payment for the ads is done in a CPC (Pay per Click) method or CPM (pay per 1,000 impressions). There is a bid and a maximum price that the advertiser is willing to pay for each click is set. LinkedIn is now testing social recommendation based ads; they are trying to target advertising based on the keywords in a profile and conversations.
  • LinkedIn Today – In March 2011 LinkedIn added another service called, LinkedIn Today. It is a social news product for business people. The news is aggregated from different established sources like The Wall Street Journal, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg, Huffington Post etc. and is customized to match the industries you and your connections work in. The articles in each industry are organized by how popular the story is and how many times it has been shared on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Most of the success stories with LinkedIn Ads come from job seekers and professional services. B2B is also represented in their ads and businesses claim to have success with creating new connections and receiving orders.

Back in January 2011 LinkedIn filed for an IPO, offering the first glimpse into its finances. In the first 9 month of 2010, LinkedIn turned in a profit of 10.1 million on revenue of $161 million. “We do not expect to be profitable on a GAAP basis in 2011” the company said in its filling.

Four months later, in May 2011, LinkedIn became a public traded company. Its shares went for $45 a pop.  That means the company is estimated to be worth $4.3 billion. Reid Hoffman, the co-founder and former CEO of LinkedIn retained 21.7% of the stock which is worth more than $1.6 billion. (Hoffman is one of the founders of Pay-Pal). The shares soared out of the gate to $87.05, and have reached over $100 for a short period before settling in the high 90’s.

Goldman Sachs, an investor, sold all its shares and quadrupled its investment in 3 years.

Read our article when we did a first look at LinkedIn in Nov 2010 and also our article on the LinkedIn IPO.

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What Could Be Better Than a Weekend in Vegas? A Free Weekend in Vegas @Palms

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How about a weekend in Vegas that you do not have to pay for? Usually I am a firm believer in ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is,’ but not this time, not at Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas. In opposition of those many ideas that were in fact, too good to be true, Palms has determined that tapping out a Tweet or sharing Palms offers with your friends may make this a very legit opportunity to reap huge rewards for very little effort. 

Of course, if Facebook sharing or Twitter usage is too much work for you, this may not be the ideal opportunity either, but if it sounds doable, continue on.

Easy Registration

Users simply visit the Palms Social Rewards site and enter their email address, along with a chosen password. The next page offers quick click integration with the users Twitter account, and they are off and running. Once signing into the social rewards page, users will then be able to see their current Klout scores, along with available points, and account profile options. On the right-hand side, there will be many offers and opportunities that can be Tweeted, re-Tweeted, or even Facebook shared.

While users get points for each offer they Tweet or share, they also receive the added benefit of bonus points if their Tweet or Share leads to a purchase of one of the advertised opportunities.

Rewards Vs Effort

Aside from the primitive reward of getting something spectacular for very little effort, are the rewards that Palms generously doles out to those who help spread their word on social media networking sites.

  • Free Deluxe Room
  • Free Fantasy Tower Room
  • 2 Tickets to a Playboy Comedy
  • Palms VIP Passes
  • Dinner for Two at Simon – Little Buddha
  • Free Drinks

These are fairly hefty rewards considering that they entail everything you require for a fun weekend in Vegas, all the way down to your room and drinks. Meanwhile, users are building their Klout score which in the future may help them reap even further rewards once reaching the check-in desk at the Palms.

Maloof just gets it…

The Palms is a Maloof Company, and clearly they get it…

AdrienneMaloof seems to be the one carrying the Klout in the social aspect of the business, but with Klout adding LinkedIn and soon Foursquare, the Klout social influence may have a new look.

The Maloof Companies owns and operates hotels and casinos. It also engages in banking, food and beverage, and transportation businesses in New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada. In addition, the company operates gaming properties; owns interests in NBA basketball team Sacramento Kings and the WNBA basketball team Sacramento Monarchs, as well as ARCO Arena; and distributes beer and liquor in New Mexico. The company is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Disclosure: I recently was a guest at Palms Casino & Resort in Las Vegas, however I was not paid or compensated for this publication in any form. The research for this article came about as a follow up to a previous set of articles.
  1. Klout Measures You Clout On LinkedIn Social Business Network
  2. A look at how important Twitter is to customer service: Palms Casino, Las Vegas

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