@BasilPuglisi

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

internet marketing

#SMWF: How Hilton Does Social Media

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Hilton has one message from their industry that rings true into their social media campaigns. Hospitality is social. If it isn’t, the execs at Hilton think it should be. Their studies into how social media integrates with travel accommodations has shown:

  1. Those who travel often are commonly also active on social media networks.
  2. Those who use these channels do expect their favored businesses and locations to be listening, available, and willing to respond via these networks.
  3. Those using these venues are not only interested in deals, but often also travel advice, and to deal with customer service issues.

Hiltons Wide-Reaching Social Network

Hilton has made finding information on an incredible variety of things on social networks of all types, quite easy. They regularly post interesting videos on YouTube that show a myriad of benefits for choosing Hilton accommodations when you head out for your next vacation.

Check out this video about a spectacular special drink created by one of Hilton’s own bartenders at the Hilton Hawaiian Village® Waikiki Beach Resort.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xZJbW5uBY]

Not only does this create an interest in this location and its amenities, it also builds upon true customer engagement by giving them a real taste of what to expect on their next trip, but also a familiarity that many can appreciate.

None of the above even takes into account that not only does Hilton engage their customers with this type of open information but they have also effectively engaged the employee. It looks like Hilton has taken the proactive stance that many other businesses have by utilizing their current staff to share the big picture through social media networking.

@HiltonSuggest

Social Media Guru for Hilton, Vanessa Sain-Dieguez, helps implement training for their employees on how to use social media to help take care of their customers. In a comprehensive study on using social media with their guest, they noted one very important issue, customers do not just expect their favored businesses to be ‘listening’ to them, but they also expect them to act.

A highly active Twitter account known as @HiltonSuggest stays on the lookout for those who Tweet messages like:

Although none of these Tweets specifically mentions Hilton, @HiltonSuggest still doesn’t mind offering immensely helpful suggestions based on exactly what folks are looking for in the Twitterverse. Also noticable is the fact that not all of the blurbs thrown into the Twitterverse have hashtags, which shows that Hilton is really listening, the replies show that they are also willing to act, even when it doesn’t mean a direct consumer experience for their industry.

It turns out that dbmei author had written an article that had personally touched him and his family, and yes Hilton was behind it! Check it out here.

Defining Social Media in the Hotel Industry

A panel co-hosted by HVS Executive Search and ESSEC Business School Paris was held on February 7th, 2011 to discuss what the rise in social media means for the hotel industry. Attendees were students, hoteliers and other staff, all of whom declared they are active on at least one social media network.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhg4vug1yZM]

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Increase Your Facebook Friends and Fans?

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Just as with Twitter followers there are two approaches you can consider. You can add those who are willing to Fan you in exchange for you fan’ing them regardless of their niche or industry, or you can utilize tools and services that offer more targeted fans and friends for Facebook. This means you can either cultivate them organically, or use paid services who will do so for you.

Paid Facebook Friends and Fans

Increase Your Fans offers a great many social media network increasing options. For Facebook Fans they have a larger variety of options than most similar sites. Although this may be the more expensive in options, one centralized site can take care of most of your social networking needs, while supplying you with two important elements in Facebook fans, live users, and niche targeted ones.

Fans Galore is a similar paid Fan site. This site accommodates custom orders and while also in the pricey range, are also worth the extra funds to cultivate a useful Facebook Fan page following.

Fan Page Hookup offers a much more affordable, and a significantly less targeted crowd to be added to your Fan Page.

Free Facebook Friends and Followers Exchanges

Let Us Follow provides an open community of many different industries and interest with users on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more. Site users simply follow members to receive auto-follow backs, effectively growing your network with real users and not clones you may sometimes get with paid accounts.

Hey Gorgeous may have an odd name for a Friends and Followers service, but they have an effective method worth signing up for so that you can gain:

  • 250 Free YouTube Views
  • 50 Free Facebook Fans
  • 50 Free Twitter Followers

Hey Gorgeous does require that you show them where you shared their links on your social networks. Easy work for such a great benefit.

Increasr also offers similar exchange options as users sign in with their Facebook page and “Like” other pages. This generates reciprocal “Likes” for their sites.

Unique Alternative

Wildfire App allows users to create Fan generating content such as sweepstakes, contest, and more interactive events that can bring you natural followers who are already investing some interest in your industry.

There are tons of ways to increase your Friends, Followers, and Fans quickly and efficiently, or slowly and organically. The options here are truly great places to begin.

About Like and Fan Methods  

There are different schools of thought about this, some believe that paying for fans has perceived, others believe that generating real fans is the only value, then there is the middle ground and likely the best alternative. Find ways to target fans using paid services so that part of the likes or following is creating a unique exposure that is similar to advertising and may generate value, while also making the page seem more likable as the quality user does not feel like they are ting an interest into a site with only 30 likes, reducing the perceived value.

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SMX East: Acquisio for SEM Display Management

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A productivity efficiency platform, Acquisio was specifically created for search engine marketing agencies. Agencies are able to establish, organize, automate, and optimize their PPC campaigns across all search engines with Acquisio’s management tools, including search display and social media. This helpful platform will help marketers save time on repetitive or superfluous tasks so that more time can be allotted to campaign planning and improvement.

Acquisio offers:

  • External Data Feeds
  • Multi-Engine Bulk Editor
  • Seamless DART Integration
  • White Label Reporting Engine
  • Easy-to-Use Campaign Automation Engine
  • Advanced Budget and KPI Tracking
  • Automatic Currency Conversion

At the SMX conference on September 13th, 2011, Acquisio shared insights and their results from a year-long partnership with demand side platform. Without leaving the Acquisio platform, nearly 3,000 users are now managing over 7,000 brands by purchasing, tracking, comparing, and reporting on their display purchases across multi-million websites, without the need to leave Acquisio’s platform.

Many users believe that search and display should have been brought together far before now. The focus is on supplying targeted display ads for consumers who have shown intent by querying search engines with keywords that indicate they are likely to make a purchase. Acquisio has filled this gap by integrating this type of approach in an easily scalable manner.

Acquisio allows agencies to handle all tasks associated with their ads performance from the time of purchase. They host their own third-party ad server while employing single tracking functionality across channels. This in turn, provides agency marketers unrivaled conversion, revenue modeling, and reporting proficiency.

Who Uses Acquisio?

On the corporate level, users of Acquisio include the Yellow Pages Group, Media Experts, DAC Group, Guava, and many others. On the website level, Aquisio is currently ranked at #56,440 around the globe but does have a more concentrated following in Edinburgh where it ranks at #2,153.

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The Power of Facebook Webinars

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The Power of Facebook Webinars

Webinars are fast becoming a vital source of communication for a variety of different industry needs. Some examples of trending Webinar needs include:

  • Online Education
  • Business Meetings
  • Brainstorming Sessions

This is just the foundation for many of the ways that companies are currently utilizing Webinars. Most businesses and institutions have little choice these days but to look for more cost-efficient manners to carry out communications with a group who are not within affordable geographical reach. Company’s developed and deployed only online may also have serious outsourcing needs that can include vital training for their businesses. Even in a superb economy, having a face-to-face with online employees is an expenditure nightmare.

FBWebinars

As Facebook continues to step up their game in many areas, FBWebinars has added another element to the social networking giant that can provide business owners with a system that incorporates automated and recurring presentations, videos, webinars, and VSLs. Utilizing all of the viral aspects of Facebook, list building features make creating a FBWebinar a snap.

Currently still in their Pre-Launch phase, FBWebinars has an Alexa ranking of #61,602 with the larger part of its visitors coming in from the United States at 76% with a local traffic ranking of #15,661. Most users are males over the age of 35 with mid-level incomes.

What Can Users do with FBWebinars’ System?

With the FBWebinars system, users can promote any service, product, training or other webinar needs, as well as the products of any others, with their permission of course, or even create your own to promote many affiliate products or services.

Users on the basic account can add five custom webinars for their own products or services, and using pre-screened options do not count against your basic five.

The Future of Business and Educational Communications

Harnessing the educational or selling power of a webinar, with the mass marketing capabilities of Facebook certainly adds a few elements of ease to Webinar creation. Many users have already become loyal fans in just the short time FBWebinars has been in open beta. If your business or institution regularly relies on Webinars for communications, you may want to have a look at a review or two, do some research, and see if your webinar needs can be more efficiently met on the FBWebinar system.

With new updates popping off left and right, FBWebinar.com seems to be continually improving, at a rather fast rate. New methods such as the Viral Traffic Generation method and incentive programs are offering users innovations in Webinar technology previously unseen. You will not know until you investigate, but even without the impending updates, the current platform may be the perfect tool for your organization to launch products or services, create educational and training presentations, and improve your online marketing campaigns.

FBWebinar Updates

FBWebinars has already implemented a few new upgrades.

FBWebinars Incentives – This program will offer users a gift when they invite a designated number of friends to attend their webinar.

FBWebinars ‘Done for You’ – FBWebinars’ goal is to provide its users with a consistent stream of the newest and most profitable webinars with the highest conversion rates. Let FBWebinars help you to turn your webinars into sales, traffic, and a powerful tool for list building.

Click Here to get your account now!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkpJdmxTX-g]

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New Trends: Online Retail Boutiques

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There have long been many sources of purchasing items online. Ebay, Amazon, and other big names have made online retail a much more common method of consumer purchasing. For the most part these services have done their duty by general consumers, but there are others who seek a more of a personal touch in their online retail experiences.

Although most all of the online retail sources do provide some type of cash or credit benefits through purchasing, referrals, and networking among other consumers and shop owners, the more general the service, the more general the benefits.

The Boutique Experience

The difference between Amazon and sites like Fab or The Fancy is not only the products available, but the benefits of referrals and other methods may be a bit more beneficial for the particular buyer.

Items on the online boutique sites differ a bit from mass produced products on general retail sites. While Amazon sells plenty of high-thread count sheets for a great price, they do not sell those sheets custom dyed, and custom fitted for your customized mattress. Users can find just about anything on a boutique site to match an amazingly large variety of taste. Not only can users find unusual items for their uncommon situations, but also the boutique owners are usually available to meet any custom needs, at much fairer prices, than a consumer would ever find for such specific items on the larger general sites.

What is the Attraction to Boutique Retailers?

Some of the coolest elements of boutique retailers are the consumer’s ability to customize just about anything at an affordable price. Moreover, do not let your mind limit the possibilities. Unique items that can be quickly found on boutique retailer sites are:

  • Food
  • Media
  • Gadgets
  • Art

This list, however, does not do justice to the items any consumer can find to fit their specific taste. Are you a musician? How about a cheese grater shaped like a guitar for your kitchen? Have an affinity for Grasshopper art? Need a new purse to tote your doggy around in? How about just turning the dog itself into a tote?

Rather have your grasshopper art on a blue background? Or perhaps you would rather your ‘doggy-gone-tote’ be red, to match your shoes. Chances are you can send those shop owners a message, and they will happily create the custom item for you. Although some boutique items can be higher priced than their generic counterparts, this is not always the case. Be sure to shop around, and in depth for options that match your current interest. Another great element of boutique shopping is that you can often actually bargain out your prices. If you see another item that is acceptable, but would prefer to get your item from another shop owner with slightly higher prices, you may have great luck by simply sharing that thought with your preferred retailer. They may be happy to strike a bargain with you that will please everyone.

Get Your Own Boutique

Setting up your own boutique is simple. Most sites will allow users to build anything from a very simple to a highly complex storefront. Although some sites may charge a set fee per month for owning your own store, most often, they work much like Ebay where a small percentage of sales are calculated to pay for your online shop ‘rent.’

Even those who have no experience building websites can quickly build a storefront by following prompts and choosing themes to get set up. User can usually also create their own custom designed storefront by writing their own html or paying a pro to do so. For shop owners, the best part of boutique management, is that you cannot usually overextend yourself if you are careful. Most often items are created, and then posted, and custom orders are frequently expected to take longer.

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Google AdWords: Call Metrics & Click to Call

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Since Dec. 2010, Google has allowed placement of phone numbers in AdWords text body.  Their rational was that most people seeing the ad know they are one click away from the advertiser’s site, where they can find all the information without bothering anyone. They thought people would be unlikely to call instead of clicking the mouse.

Others thought that displaying a local phone number, especially if it is  for location based services such as a dentist, have their own benefits.

Google realized they might be losing money, if people do call instead of clicking on the ad, so they’ve added Call Extensions. Those are types of ad extensions that allow advertisers to include additional information about their businesses and specials in their text ads. Call extensions works differently whether or not you’ve enabled Call Metrics.

Call metrics allows advertisers to track phone calls that come from the ad. This is done by generating a specific phone number for this specific ad. With the popularity of mobile gadgets there’s a growing benefit for advertisers to receive calls from mobile users. In this platform, calls generated, duration of the call and the area codes of the callers are noted so advertisers will have information about the location of the calls. The Call Metrics is free to use, but by setting it up the advertiser started paying for the calls as they did for the clicks.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIJ36uUxJBw]

There are metrics available to see how effective it is and how many people call instead of clicking. If you did enable Call Metrics, Google assigned a custom phone number to the ad and displays it on both desktop and mobile devices. Vanity numbers (which include letters and numbers) are also allowed.

But In July 2011, Google announced click-to-call enhancement in AdWords ads which will affect charges for the ad. All non-clickable numbers in the ads will be converted to a click-to-call numbers, and they will start to incur extra charges when the number is clicked.

If you didn’t enable Call Metrics, your phone number will appear as a clickable phone number for users of smartphones using Google search, voice search, Google mobile apps or Google maps.

If you are using Call Metrics, and you have a phone number in your ad text, only the newly clickable phone number in you ad text will show. That is done to reduce confusion for users not knowing which number to click.

If you would like your Call Extension number to display, you need to delete your phone number from your ad. You will receive an additional line of ad text. The phone number will still be displayed without the need to take up text space.

If you didn’t use Call Extension and you have a phone number in your ad, it will convert to click-to-call automatically. You don’t have to edit your ad to make the phone number clickable. But, if you want to maximize your ad space, you should consider using Call Extension  to free up more space. You will be charged for the calls either way.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88VTa0GfBiE]

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Google Plus (G+): Business Review

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After months of rumors, speculations, analysis and fear, Google finally unveiled its social media platform  Google +, now what has that meant for business?

They’ve decided to roll it out slowly, by invitation only, and the response was overwhelming. So much so that they had to issue an apology for taking so long to register new users. It seems that one request or recommendation to connect is not enough. To get invited to this new party you need invitations from different sources.

As the platform came out and was evaluated by business people, it became obvious that Google+ system has a few advantages for business: Dell CEO, for example, started talking about it becoming an alternative to the traditional customer service call. He posted the following question on his Google + page: “I am thinking about hangouts for business. Would you like to be able to connect with your Dell service and sale teams via video directly from Dell.com?

Other businesses saw the potential as well. Mashable.com, Ford, Sesame Street, Search Engine Land an others managed to get invited and immediately opened a brand page. Mashable.com, the technology site, had 103,000 followers by the time Google+ put a stop to businesses on their platform and removed all those pages.

At the end of June, after a few rocky weeks for brands on Google+, Google announced that business pages would be coming soon and asked brands to stop making new accounts. They eventually invited some businesses to apply to be part of a test program.

A few hours later, Mashable and Ford accounts were restored, but not completely.  After talking extensively with Google, Mashable founder Pete Cashmore agreed that he will personally take over the account, which had 100,000 followers already, and wind down his personal account which had only 40,000 followers.

Immediately Christian Oestlien from Google posted the following announcement:

“With so many qualified candidates expressing intense interest in business profiles, we’ve been thinking hard about how to handle this process. Your enthusiasm obligates us to do more to get businesses involved in Google+ in the right way, and we have to do it faster. As a result, we have refocused a few priorities and we expect to have an initial version of businesses profiles up and running for EVERYONE in the next few months. There may be a tiny handful business profiles that will remain in the meantime solely for the purpose of testing how businesses interact with consumers.

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. We recommend you find a real person who is willing to represent your organization on Google+ using a real profile as him-or-herself.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4oafKRykUg]

What is it about Google+ that prompted businesses to jump on the bandwagon so quickly?

It is the wave of the future, experts say, and it might signify a drastic shift in social activity on the internet. Connecting to people will no longer be faceless. It addresses one of the fundamental problems of why social interactions through the internet are so risky. The one writing messages as a 17 year old girl, could turn out to be a 40 year old man looking for easy pray. No more. Now you will be able to connect and see the face behind the post.

It lifts the veil of anonymity. People can see and hear the people they interact with, can hear their tone of voice and see their demeanor. Business will become personal again?

Businesses can use circles to target their ‘tier one’ costumers with specials deals. They can provide personal attention by seeing the customer who can see them as well.  When a number of customers have the same question, one conversation with a whole group will save time on customer service.

It might also encourage personal interactions between people who see each other, who can lend a helping hand.

Companies will need to consider the intimacy of a given relationship. The first wave of social media forced businesses to become a little more transparent and compelling online, this wave of relationship relevancy will push them to take their customers more personally.

The biggest advantages Google + has against Facebook?

Google is a big company. It can offer an immediate search. It has connections to Google’s other platforms off the bat.

As of July 4 Google’s contract with Twitter expired and they did not renew it. Expert speculate that Google+ will incorporate some form of tweet possibility. If they do that, businesses will have one more reason to join them rather than the competition. It will make their life simpler.

Google has apps for business productivity as well as an apps market for third party apps.

Google can provide companies a web presence integrated with social networking. There will be very little reason for people to leave the Google platform at all.

Google has already the Checkout system and its Products search is connected to all sorts of online merchants. Google can tie those and enable e commerce through the company’s page – when those pages will become available – enabling payment service and database of products without sending shoppers off to another site. Facebook does it with the help of a third part tools which cost  anywhere from about $20 to a few thousands a month.

Google’s model of advertising and analytics is well established and most often used. AdSense and AdWords have been around since 2000. Google Analytics has a head start on traffic and advertisement performance tools, and is one most often used to check results on campaigns.

Google can, and probably will, tie-in the business pages of Google+ to Google maps and Google Places.

Google’s mobile integration includes mobile payment option, which allows users to transmit data by tapping two phone together or to a scanner. 

Facebook rushed to supply an answer to Google+ strength and announced immediately a connection with Skype to do the same. Their new video calling works by clicking on the Video Call button, being rolled out to users. It requires a plug-in to be able to use it. They are working on other means to come closer to the new things Google+ has to offer. Indeed this week Facebook unveiled a new step by step guide aimed at helping small businesses use their site. Facebook’s new business page does not come with any new features, it just puts a lot of information in one place, and serves as a reminder that Facebook encourages companies to use their services, while they can’t use Google+ yet.

Some statistics at a glance:

  • Number of users of Google+ – 20 million
  • Time it took to get those numbers – 3 weeks
  • Number of users from the US – 5 million


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Digital Brand Experience: Google shares it’s thoughts on Brand

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Digital Brand Marketing is about taking traditional concepts and rethinking how those practices can be streamlined and transformed into digital practices. I have repeatedly published on how so many businesses have taken the extreme approach to digital and social marketing. This has resulted in lost opportunities and negative impact on their brand.  

If you do not claim your brand, someone else will!

Social Media is but a tool or advancement in what people have done throughout all time, if your product is wonderful people talk, if your product is terrible people talk. The big change is how they talk, and how many people they can reach.

In traditional marketing it was found that November, December, July and August are the big word of mouth months. These are the times of year that people congregated the most for Holidays and/or Vacations. This is when word of mouth could really be capitalized on. Did you see what I bought, where we went, the quality of work the installer did, the product I would never buy again.

As Erik Qualman pointed out, “word of mouth”  is now “world of mouth”. Social Media is about having the ability to interact at any given moment and beyond the limitations of physical presence. Social Media thoughts, comments, reviews, posts, blogs, etc are almost all sustainable. The comment does not go away like a traditional conversation, the review, thought or post continues on to reach others, shared and searchable forever!

This has created three major issues in modern marketing.

  1. The Company is not participating or facilitating their “brand”. Others are welcome to lay claim to it and control the information about it.
  2. The Company rushed to execute and participate and did not consider the “brand” experience. How they facilitate and deliver a consistent experience across the different digital medias was lost. The worst continue to rush along making half measures to recover sections or parts of campaigns and services instead of rethinking the “brand” experience.
  3. The Company has not learned how to use free resources to respond to the market. By not participating in Social Media the company cannot address issues and opportunities in real time. Surveys, Customer Complaint numbers are traditional, websites are 1.0, social media is engaging and seeking out the customers in their space. If you don’t seize information for your benefit, perhaps your competitor will!

An Anonymous Case Study for point 2:

A company decides that they wish to use twitter, they know its popular for news and marketing. The company creates accounts for 800 locations. The first mistake is made when they leave a default image in the service. A few months later they start to fill the profile image with the company logo. As a young marketing assistant learns about the personal interaction that twitter thrives from, the company starts to take “brand” accounts @GeoCompany and tie the individual name and a personal photo to the profile image. At this point the @GeoCompany John Doe has a picture of just a head shot with news updating from the company site. The profile area talks about the company and links to the company’s local site.

At each stage the half measure reviews have cost the company brand awareness. Something as simple as taking the time to think out the strategy would have saved the company’s social image as their claim to be social has struggled from day one. To date this company still has personal photos without proper branding on them. If the company takes the time to rethink the brand experience, they might decide to use something like this. @MorichesNews John Doe, with a Picture of John Doe accompanied by the Moriches News Logo in the corner or part of the frame, perhaps the background of the headshot. Provide a profile statement that looked like “John Doe is a reporter for Moriches News, a local source for issues and events. MorichesNews.com. An additional option, they could go one step further and develop a brand background to upload to the twitter accounts so that each twitter account looks consistent.

If you avoid your digital brand, or don’t invest quality time into the digital brand then you’re hindering your success. If you’re not listening to digital media you will not be able to learn about product opportunities in real time.

Here are two important videos from Google that talk about brand.

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q71uXKEBXrw&feature=player_embedded]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJuAvrHd3DU]

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Is Google Plus (G+) the key in the transition to Web 3.0

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A Google account has become the most powerful tool that any entrepreneur or small business owner could ever hope for. While Google’s general public brand has been tied to Search, Google has been building a monopoly that can and will change the shape of business, politics, and education forever. In fact, Google is Web 3.0!

Google has many, many tools and products in its offering, most of which are free! If you have not taken the time to look around I suggest you spend a few minutes and start to familiarize yourself with them, they will save or make you A LOT OF MONEY!!!

Google recently made a few updates, but the top bar has been around for longer than most realize, it is in this bar that Google is writing the book on Web 3.0.

What is it that makes Google such a force? Why is Google Plus or G+ such a big deal?

As seen above, Google has captured the “cloud” era ahead of schedule. Without even looking at the advanced features or Google Apps, one can create and store documents on their google account, set appointments organize and share a calendar, find new information and search for products, solutions, books, or even watch a movie or a how to video.

Social Media has changed the way that people interact and use the web, in fact web 2.0 was all about social media. Websites, software and plug-in updates that allowed people to interact with one another and turned a one directional internet into a multi directional web. In web 2.0 not only can you talk back to the media or information source, you could share it or pass it around. The individual web user could claim the brand of a company for better or worse. Dell had individuals that were not related or employed by the company providing customer support in the forums, and Milton’s Scrabble lost thousands, arguably millions in its brand because two other developers claimed the brand in Facebook.

Web 3.0 has been branded the “cloud” era where information, both public and personal is stored on the world wide web and accessed via data plans, Wifi or traditional cable and dial up. This includes massive files for things like high definition media, entire company databases, etc. This is really not something that is new, just look at how startups like Patch Media use google to simulate a traditional IT infostructure or Saleforce.com to organize track and distribute leads, sales and work. With only one main hub in NYC, Patch Media delivers people and content without traditional overhead in over 800 communities around the United States.

Google Plus bridges the gap between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0

In Google Hangout people interact in a real time public space. Others now have to rethink how they look, speak and the body language or facial features that they use. (The innovative marketers and advertisers will need to think how to get a coke can on the desk during that hangout, how to get a new movie poster on the wall behind that person on the hangout etc.)

Google Hangouts has a game changing advantage for those that know how to present, speak and are truly genuine in public. Users should be aware that this new social tool is a lot like “Larry King Live” and you better be prepared for questions that you may not want to answer.

Google Plus has an A symmetrical sharing system, which means that we can send to others but not get a share in return. G+ from its creation allows users to separate professional and personal lives and even organize beyond the largest separation issue that has plagues social users. This interface along with many other features makes Google Plus the most advanced social media site/tool/software that has ever been created, but all that pales in comparison to why Google is so powerful in web 3.0.

If you are in a space where you are using social in a way that allows you to network and share both your personal life and professional life, what could be better than the Google suite of products? You can share and update documents in real time, video conference, make appointments, develop leads, search out information, shop and buy products, services and so on…

A small business now has an IT Dept. in one place. They can seek out support, generate leads, share reports, organize their schedule, promote their business with video, learn from other videos, advertise in Search, not to mention capture the power of social or viral activity. The digital business can now provide face to face support in a familiar environment something that many still crave.

A teacher or tutor can instruct a class or group from half way around the world, share documents, collect home work in real time. A educator or small college can now reach millions and take online learning into a space that captures the best of brick and mortar with distance learning once only done through text based posts.

A politician can capture and organize moral entrepreneurs, organizations and supporters from an account that brands who they are, what they are doing and interact with them with little or no technical experience or knowledge.

The shift in the world economy has come from millions of individuals competing with large corporations and brands that once held a monopoly on professional marketing, networking and talent. Thanks to a Google account you can now work with the best talent, develop a impressive network and generate a brand that is professional, technologically competitive and organized.

 

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Three Easy Ways to Turn Twitter Blurbs into Cash

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You don’t have to be Shaquille O’Neal or Kim Kardashian to make money on Twitter. You may need their celebrity status to make $10k per Tweet, but turning your Twitter account into its own minor source of funding is quite possible for even the most obscure Tweeters around.

SponsoredTweets

On SponsoredTweets users can sign up easily using Twitter account integration and they will not have to worry about their account being used, or unsolicited Tweets being sent out through their accounts. Simply wait for opportunities to come your way via email, and you are free to accept and create, or reject them as you please. SponsoredTweets is one of the few sites that try to avoid making anyone’s Twitter account look like an annoying spammer.  So unless you are mass posting, you shouldn’t have to worry about a large loss of followers.

Once your user score is determined, users are shown how much worth each potential Tweet may hold for them. Don’t underestimate yourself here, but be careful. Having a Twitter account that provides nothing but paid advertisements is likely to cause followers to drop in droves. It is possible to provide a good balance of organic input as well as some automated entries and still retain your credibility on Twitter. SponsoredTweets does go out of their way to be sure any paid tweets are not sent out back-to-back.

TwittAd

TwittAds work similar to SponsoredTweets. TwittAds users are given the opportunity to promote only the content they choose to. Signing up and getting started is once again as easy as using the Twitter integration option. Once opting into a campaign, users are notified via email once there Twitter activity is monitored, if they are accepted for it. The offered opportunity then becomes the choice of the user to accept or reject.

Organic Reviews, Advertising, & Marketing

There can be no doubt that taking the organic path will reap you more valued results. Although these methods may be hit-and-miss, they are also likely to preserve the integrity of your Twitter account more than the previous options.

A great restaurant experience, a perfect vacation get-away, or even new features on your favorite software are calls for legitimate tweeting. So do so. Better yet, grab a web 2.0 site and post a link to your full review of another’s website, products, or opportunities. Businesses that are active in social media marketing know when you do tweet about them, and many business connections have been made in exactly this manner. Your free review could result in future paid reviews from that company or others who enjoy your work.

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