Maybe you are Bruce Wayne by day and Batman by night.  Or just maybe, you’re clients and colleagues know you as Professor or Your Honor, but your high school classmates know you as “HotRod”.  Nothing is more comforting to hear than, “Hi, I’m Dr. Hotrod Smith and I’ll be operating on you today.”

Facebook is the great connector.  We reconnect with classmates we haven’t talked to in years.  With them, we relive memories, embarrassing moments and teenage milestones.  Plus, it’s fun.  But sharing that picture of ourselves may not exactly further our professional image.  I’m sure lots of us have those past skeletons (like streaking the quadrangle in college), but we don’t exactly put them on our resume.

Enter the new Facebook Friends lists.  Facebook launched their expanded Smart Friend List feature this week.  With this change, your friends can now be categorized into four pre-defined categories, Friends, Family, Acquaintances and geographic location.  You have always had the ability to create lists but the process of posting to a specific list was cumbersome and obscure.  Today it’s prominently displayed next to the share button on your status update.

When the Friends Smart List feature launched, it automatically assigned friends to your local area list.  It also assigns some family members to the Family group (although I had to add a couple of my immediate family members.  They were in the “List suggestion” section, which made it easy to add.)  You will have to initially add people to the other lists.  In the beginning, it may be a little time consuming, but if you add new friends to lists as you confirm them, it will be much easer.

Maintaining Your Two Personalities

I frequently hear clients and social media students ask, “How can I keep my business and personal life separated?”  Smart lists make that very easy.  But more than that, it can be a good practice to enhance your marketing message.  Chances are, your friends may not be the least bit interested in your business marketing content.  And when your professional connections are “eavesdropping” on your conversations with friends, they probably won’t be able to follow along or even be interested.  Either group may tend to filter out your updates since they aren’t pertinent to them.

A better practice would be to target your updates to the group of friends it is directed to.  Create a list of professional or business friends and post only business related content to that group.  Meanwhile, create another list of friends that you post your personal updates to.  Each list then sees content they should be interested in and will be more attuned to each post you make.

There will be some friends that will fit both categories, so assign them to both.  They won’t receive duplicate posts, but they will receive posts anytime you update either list.  Some of your content will be appropriate for everyone.  In those cases you can post to Friends and everyone will receive it.

One thing you should know about Smart Lists.  When you post to a list, there is an icon on the “Like  Comment” line below the post.  The icon will either be a globe (Public), friends or a cog (lists).  By mousing over the icon, you will see a message that shows what the update was shared to friends, friends of friends or the name of the Smart List.  For that reason, you may want to be cautious with your list names.

List can be useful in many ways, such as announcing local events.  What other ways have you used the list feature?

Gary Wagnon is the Sensei of the Ninja Marketing Dojo, a comprehensive online marketing course designed to relieve the frustration business owners and manager face when trying to understand online marketing.  Using a martial arts model, students will build on foundational principals, mastering each level before advancing.

I have scoured the Internet, unsuccessfully, trying to find a Hermione Granger Time Turner from Harry Potter.  Apparently they were all destroyed in 1996 in the battle at the Ministry of Magic.  Oh well it sure would’ve been helpful.

The challenge for business owners today is finding time to manage their online marketing efforts & social networks.  A business owner could easily spend 8 hours  a day just doing social media.  But unfortunately most owners wear many hats and marketing is only one of them.  Customer service and the day-to-day operations do take priority.

Here are five time-saving ninja marketing tips to manager your social networks.

1. Schedule 30 minutes first thing in the morning and 30 minutes right after lunch or in the late afternoon to review your social networks.  Interact with all comments made to your posts and comment or retweet posts made by friends and followers.
2. Use an aggregator to monitor your social networks.  Programs such as Tweetdeck, and Hootsuite are 2 such services that will pull the feeds from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn into one site for monitoring,  commenting and sharing.
3. Schedule your updates.  One great feature of both Tweetdeck and Hoot Suite is the ability to schedule your tweets or Facebook updates in advance.  Once a week you can plan your week’s updates, and schedule them for the day, time and even the specific site you want them posted to.
4. Install the Hoot Suite plug-in for Firefox.  If you use Firefox as your browser, Hoot Suite offers a plug-in that makes it easy to share articles and blog posts to Facebook,  Twitter and LinkedIn and even schedule them to post at a more desirable time.
5. Combine your Facebook and Twitter feeds into Google +.  Even though the aggregator programs have not yet incorporated Google + into their platform, there are G+ apps already that will add your Twitter and Facebook feed so it can be monitored with your G+.

Do you have any other time saving tips?  Feel free to share them.

Are you new to Google + or curious about how to get started?  Download my free Guide to Google + at www.800bizninjamarketing.com. Gary Wagnon is the CMN (Chief Marketing Ninja) at 800biz Online Marketing Solutions.  Using an integrated approach to online marketing (combining web site design, search engine optimization, social media and action driven content), 800biz specializes in helping businesses stand out above the competition and drive more traffic to their door.

Whether a reaction to Google + or a planned system improvement, Facebook has added a new local of privacy that is rolling out starting today.  Many of the changes revolve around the way content is shared.

Profile Controls

First change is you greater control to the visibility of your profile.  With each section of your profile such as music, movies, religious preferences or political views, you’re able to choose who can see each of those areas.  The changes are made directly on the profile editing page where previously the changes were made in the account settings.

An in-line cue or icon will provide a visual indication of who can see each element.  Choices are to make the content public, only seen by friends, are customized for a friend list.  A “view profile as” feature has been added so you can see how your profile will look in different situations.

Tagging

Tagging individuals in photos, status updates or location tags is a popular practice.  Currently, individual control is either limited or unavailable.  With the new settings you can approve or reject any tag before they appear in your profile.  This includes photos and status updates.  This can be turned on or off the pending on user preference.

Given the new tagging controls, Facebook now allows the user to tag anyone in a photo regardless of whether they are a friend or not.  Of course the tag will have to be approved unless you set your privacy controls to always allow tags.  The dilemma with always allowing tags means you do not have control over your image.  As a business professional, protecting the image we portray should be vitally important.

Some of the other features you will see are changes to Facebook places and a “Nearby” icon in mobile apps for tagging locations.

The privacy and safety groups are hailing the changes is positive actions.  For business owners it will require some adjustment to the way they interact with other people.  But with everything Facebook, standby.  About time you master this something else will change.

Gary Wagnon is the CMN (Chief Marketing Ninja) at 800biz Online Marketing Solutions.  Using an integrated approach to online marketing (combining web site design, search engine optimization, social media and action driven content), 800biz specializes in helping businesses stand out above the competition and drive more traffic to their door.

Some people sing in the shower but I do my best writing and blogging in the shower. Of course the paper does gets a little wet.

Last night while meeting with a group of social media enthusiasts, the question came up about what do you write. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. In fact I could probably retire if I had a dollar every time I heard it. But the truth is so many “experts” write about, or speak about the importance of writing blogs, articles, or e-zines. The cold hard facts are this: most business owners aren’t writers.

If you look up business owner in the dictionary I’m pretty sure the definition says a person that works 12 hours a day, seven days a week. So the thought of creating a regular routine of writing for a blog or website doesn’t conjure up good thoughts. Where is the time going to come from? What am I going to say? And who’s going to read it?

Assuming you can block off an hour or so a week to write your blog, does that mean you’re going to have the light bulb go off with an insightful or witty idea? That’s where my shower moment comes in. Your moment might be driving to an appointment, or working out at the gym or just before going to sleep. So the key is to jot a note down that will remind you when you’re ready to write.

Here are a few other ideas to help you build your content library.
• As you read newsletters and trade journals in your industry, watch for ideas that your customers or clients would find interesting or helpful. Either save the article or jot down the main points so during your writing time you can re-spin this article with your take on it. A word of caution: don’t just reprint the article. While people might find this information helpful it’s not your information so you’re not getting credit for being the expert.
• Think about 10 frequently asked questions about your business. That’s a natural choice for articles.
• What are 10 things you wish your customers knew or would do.
• How to tips – if you’re in a service related business give your reader ideas how they can save money, save time, improve product life or any number of helpful hints.
• Be a resource – in my case, since my readers are interested in online marketing, it stands to reason they would probably be interested in tips on keeping their computer running from an expert in my network. While I am not the originator of the content, I’m the one that gets the thanks for passing that information on.
• Use a guest blogger – along the same lines as the idea above, inviting a guest expert to contribute is a good way to keep the volume of valuable information flowing through your site. Plus it’s a good way to expand your reach into your guests network.

So until they make waterproof paper that works in the shower keep a regular note pad handy or your smart phone. For smart phone users you might try Evernote. This app will let you write or voice record your ideas for you to later retrieve from your computer or phone when you’re ready.

Gary Wagnon is the master Ninja traffic generator for 800biz Online Marketing Solutions. Using a combination of action-centered web site design and the latest search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, combined with efficient and effective use of social media, 800biz creates an online presence that helps it’s clients stand out above the competitors and drive more traffic through the door.

Google Plus, the latest attempt from the Big G, to break into social media, has begun.  By invitation only at the current time, Google Plus is the buzz all over the tech and social media sites.  But will it be another flop (any one remember Google Wave)?

The structure of Google Plus revolves around circles.  As you connect with friends, you assign them to a circle.  The process is as easy as dragging them to the circle where you want to assign them.  You can then filter your updates and your news streams to the specific stream, helping to cut through the clutter that’s so prominent, especially on Twitter.

The signup is ultra easy if you already have a Google profile.  Simply sign up with your gmail or Google profile email and your in.  If you don’t have either, it’s just takes a few minutes to complete.  One confusing step, when you first sign up it asks if you want to connect your Picasa photos.  The choices are Yes and Quit Google + Setup.   If you don’t have a Picasa account, it won’t matter.  If you have a Picasa account and link it, the folders there will not be visible in Google + unless you share each folder.

As with all other social media sites, completing your profile should be your first priority.  You can add videos, links and even photos.

Other cool new features in Google + are Hangouts, Group Chat and Sparks.  Hangouts uses Google voice and video plugin.  You can create a group video or audio chat from within Google +.  It does require you download and install the Google voice application.  Once installed, you can Hangout with an entire circle, share YouTube videos

Group chat allows you to talk to members of your circles in a text chat format, much like Facebook’s chat function.  It’s a quick way to send a message while they are online and much faster than email.

Sparks is another Google Plus feature.  Sparks finds stuff you are interested in and delivers them to your Google Plus page.  It searches news feeds and blogs to find the most relevant content (in Google’s estimation.)  By entering the keywords in the search box, a stream is created for that term and is updated daily.

Google Plus also has an app for Androids.  Pictures and videos shot from an Android phone can automatically update to your private album making it easier to edit and share them.  One feature of the mobile app is group huddle.  No need to make numerous phone calls to confirm dinner plans for the evening.  A group huddle can pull all parties together in a simple chat.

Whether Google Plus will be another monumental flop, or a homerun, remains to be seen.  For my money, I’m betting Google Plus takes it’s place along side Facebook as a player in social media.  What do you think?

Gary Wagnon is the master Ninja for 800biz Online Marketing Solutions. Using a combination of action-centered web site design and the latest search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, combined with efficient and effective use of social media, 800biz creates an online presence that helps it’s clients stand out above the competitors and drive more traffic through the door.

How would you like to be on your competitor’s Christmas card list? Well if you do these really well you might even get a gift basket from them.

So here is a list of 10 things that will make your competition not only smile but be genuinely happy you’re out there.

1. Not having a web site – Let’s face it, if you don’t have a website, no one’s going to find you, so you’re not much threat to the competition. Since 75% of all purchase decisions start online, your competitor will love you for not being there.

2. Not claiming your Google places page – An unclaimed Google places page or maps page is like having a Yellow Pages with no phone number or address. But the big difference is, you’re leaving the details open for anyone else to edit. And with the new Google layout showing the listings on the map so prominently, your competition will probably be sending you birthday cards and thank you notes for all the customers you’re missing.

3. Having a “Me To” website – You have a website like everyone else with a couple pages that give a basic outline of what you do. After all, everyone knows what your business does, right? But you competitor’s site explains in great detail what they do. A prospect visits your site and doesn’t see what they’re looking for, but they find it on your competitors site, you make your competition happy once more.

4. It’s all about me – Your website extols the virtues of how great your business is. Your fantastic customer service, your low prices, your quality product, blah, blah, blah. Your competitor, on the other hand, has figured out it’s not about them; it’s about the prospect. The prospect does not care how wonderful your service is, how great your product is or anything else about you. They only care about whether you can either fix their problem or remedy their pain. Whoever does this best, wins.

5. Web site has no call to action – You go to all the effort to drive traffic to your website only to educate your prospect, then watch them go to your competitor and purchase. Businesses get so concerned about not being pushy that they don’t even create any call the action on their website. Your competitor’s site not only educates the prospect, but makes it easy for them to act, whether via online order or phone call.

6. I don’t do social media – Of the 251 million people in the US on the Internet, 203 million of them are on Facebook. What are the chances some of them are your prospects? Your competitor, on the other hand, is out there building relationships with not only your prospects, but probably even your customers.

7. I have a high school/college kid doing my social media – While it’s true that teenagers are all over Facebook, and can post photos, tag people, like, share, and do all the other things that you don’t understand, social media for business it is COMPLETELY different. You wouldn’t even consider hiring an advertising or marketing person based on the fact that they sold their Xbox on Craig’s list so they could buy the new PS3? Your competitor hired a professional to create a social media plan that they religiously follow.

8. Having an incomplete social media profile – Have you ever noticed at a seminar or tradeshow they give you nametags? Is that just because they had money left over in the budget? No. It’s so you can network and build relationships with the people that are there. So having an incomplete profile on social media sites is like not only having no name tag but wearing a paper bag over your head. There’s not going to be a lot of interaction and you’re certainly not going to build any relationships.

9. Social media is a great selling opportunity – After all, you have a captive audience of Likers/Followers/Connections, why not fire away with your sales message? You’re probably one of those that go to a family reunion, pass out business cards and make your sales pitch to everyone there. Your competitor is giving valuable information, tips and helpful hints to her Likers/Followers/Connections. Her connections are growing and you wonder why yours are.

10. Social media takes too much time besides I don’t care who had Cheerios for breakfast. – Who has time to wade through the dribble on Facebook or Twitter? You have a business to run, marketing to do, and customers to keep happy. Meanwhile, your competitor has discovered a set of tools that let him/her not only schedule and manage their social media, but also monitor what’s being said about them online. They are developing relationships and handling customer service issues in real time before they become a problem.

Do a couple of these things and you stay on your competitors Christmas card list. Do several of them and there’s a chance you will get invited to the Christmas party…as an employee.

Gary Wagnon is the master Ninja traffic generator for 800biz Online Marketing Solutions. Using a combination of action-centered web site design and the latest search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, combined with efficient and effective use of social media, 800biz creates an online presence that helps it’s clients stand out above the competitors and drive more traffic through the door.

Who do you think you are? Or better still who do your clients, customers or prospects think you are? In our interconnected world your reputation, your profile and what your customers are saying are only a few clicks away. So are you moderating what people are saying about you?

When would you call to set up an appointment with someone you just met, what do you think their first order of business is going to be? They’re going Google you, Facebook you, look you up a Linkedin, look for you on YouTube. Maybe they search Yelp, Manta, Merchant Circle or any of a dozen other local business review sites. Do you know what they’ll find? If not you should.

To be safe, be proactive. It starts with completing your profile online. A Google profile, a Linkedin profile, even a Facebook account. Next, as business people, we need to guard our profiles with extreme caution. What happens on the web stays on the web, FOREVER.

With all the tools that are available online today, there is no reason for you not to know what others are saying. We all know that if we do something right or special for a customer they will tell a few people. But if we make a mistake or do something they don’t think was fair, they will tell every one they see. And post it on Facebook, Twitter, local community sites and maybe even make a YouTube video. If that’s the only review out there, how does that make you look? To safeguard against that, cultivate your own reviews. Ask your customers and clients to write a review on your Google places page, on your Yelp page, or on Facebook. Carry a video camera and ask your good customers record their testimonials. Now one bad review among the dozens of glowing reviews has little damaging effect.

Set up Google alerts on your name or your companies name to know when someone’s talking about you and what they say. Set up TweetDeck or SocialMention to find out who’s mentioning you on Twitter and the other social media. If you see a problem, address it immediately. Don’t wait.

Guard your online persona with the same vigilance you would your home, your business and your family.

Gary Wagnon is the master Ninja traffic generator for 800biz Online Marketing Solutions. Using a combination of action-centered web site design and the latest search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, combined with efficient and effective use of social media, 800biz creates an online presence that helps it’s clients stand out above the competitors and drive more traffic through the door.

I hear all the time “my company won’t allow me to use social media.”  It is typically the financial industry – financial advisors, insurance agents and such.  And I can understand.  Each of those industries is highly regulated and the least misstatement by a representative can mean a lawsuit for the company.  It’s not the representative that’s on the hook, although the repercussions would ultimately fall back to them.

But with social media being such an important element in marketing today, how can one afford to ignore it?  The answer lies in personal branding.  With personal branding you build the image around you, not your company.  If you’re an employee, do you really want to promote your company, and in essence, the other salespeople competing for the same prospects as you are?  Of course not.  You can’t speak for the ethics, the work integrity, and the dedication of anyone else but you.

Prospective customers and clients choose a financial professional because of the person, not the company.  You might have the greatest product on the planet; it’s head and shoulders above the nearest competitor.  But if you don’t connect with me, if I don’t trust you, don’t have any rapport with you, I’m not buying from you.  We do business with people not companies.

And for that reason, the logical marketing strategy is to brand you.  Prove to me your expertise.  Show me what you can do for me as an advisor.  Build that connection and there’s a good chance we’ll do business together.

So how do you do that if your company won’t allow you to use social media or other forms of online marketing?  You do that by providing information, tips, breaking news, and the latest trends in your industry without mentioning your company or any of your company products by name.  Like most professionals, you have a continual stream of information flowing through your inbox everyday.  When you see something that I might be interested in, share it.  When you hear a question for the third time from a prospective client, share that.  There is a good chance others are thinking the same question.

One more reason why personal branding is essential.  You might be totally satisfied with your present company, but what happens if new management comes in that you don’t see eye to eye with and you decide to part company?  If you have actively built your brand, you can make a change and not skip a beat.  But if you’ve been branding the company, all your efforts will have been wasted and you will have to start from scratch.

After all, your personal brand is all you have.  Start building and cultivating it today and you will reap the benefits tomorrow.

Gary Wagnon is the 10th Degree Traffic Generator for 800biz Online Marketing Solutions.  Using a combination of action centered web site design and the latest search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, combines with efficient and effective use of social media, 800biz creates an online presence that helps it’s clients stand out above the competitors and drive more traffic through the door.

Goliath has started its latest foray into the social media arena.  Google this week announced the launching of its +1 feature, its answer to the Facebook Like and LinkedIin Share buttons.  While previous attempts in social media (like Google Wave and even Google Buzz) have not had the level of success they expected, +1 could well be the social media success Google has  been searching for.

What is Google +1? +1 allows Web surfers, while logged in to their Google account, to share sites they like or recommend within the Google search.  The plus one button can be added to any webpage or blog with a few simple steps (which we will describe below.)

When do you see the Google +1? To begin, you must have a Google profile or a Google account such as Gmail.   To find your Google profile, go to http://profiles.Google.com/yourname.  If nothing comes up for you,  then you may not have created a profile or you could have it private, in which case you may need to create a public profile (do a Google search for details how to do that.)

Once you’ve logged in to your profile and do any search, you will see, at the end of the top line of the search results, the greyed out +1 button.  Simply click the +1 button and it turns to full-color, leaving a trail for your Google contacts to see.  When one of your Google contacts does a similar search, they will see your +1 link recommendation.  There is also talk that in the near future the link will be visible to your Twitter and Flickr contacts as well.

Google publicly says that +1 activity will be used to show more relevant ads on non-Google base sites, however, you do have the ability to disable that feature within the +1 settings in your Google account.

But what’s the real value of the Google +1? From the initial announcement of +1, speculation has centered around the effect it will have on search results and search engine ranking.  Google has long had, as part of their algorithm, the relevancy and popularity of a website.  By adding +1 to a website, the webmaster/owner may potentially have a positive impact on their search engine rankings.  How big an effect is yet to be seen but with more and more emphasis being placed on social media and the social aspects of the web, logic says this can have a significant impact.

How you add the Google +1 button? The process is a very simple one.  You will need FTP access to your website to complete the process or you will need to have your webmaster complete the process.  Below are the four steps:

1. Go to Google +1 page
2. Choose your button size and language.  The advanced options allow you to include the +1′d count and include the target URL you want attached to the +1
3. Copy the first section of the code and paste it just above the closing body tag of the page
4. Copy the second section of the code and paste it where you want the button to appear

That’s all it takes.  I hope you found this blog useful.  If so, +1 me.

Gary Wagnon and 800biz.com Online Marketing Solutions specializes in helping small to medium size businesses to drive traffic to their door through web site design, search engine optimization, text message marketing and social media marketing and coaching.  Gary is also the co-founder of SocialMediaLab, an online education and training program to help business owners master social media.