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.

Tags: Google plus, social media

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.

Tags: facebook, online marketing, social media, twitter, web site design

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.

Tags: customer reviews, facebook, social media, testimonials, twitter

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.

Tags: financial planners, financial services, insurance agents, personal branding, social media

QR codes, those squiggly bar codes, are beginning to appear in print articles, on business cards, in newspapers and even online. But what are they and how do they work?

QR stands for Quick Response. They are 2 dimensional matrix barcodes whose popularity is on the rise with the growth of smartphones. Most phones can download an app like Scanlife that is used to read these barcodes and take the action embedded in the code. The code can direct the user to a web site, video, text message, email link, phone number, social media site, YouTube video, Google map or even a PayPal Buy Now link.

So how do you create this magical code? It’s so easy a caveman can do it (sorry Geico). Google QR Code generator and you will find several. (I’ve used www.qrstuff.com).  You select the type of link you want to create, enter the URL, email or phone number you want to connect to and watch the code created on the spot.  Right click the code and save  to your computer (or click the download link to do the same.)  That’s it.  You’re ready to go.

But before you jump in and create your code, let’s think the process through.  A friend of mine recently showed me his new business card with his QR code on the back, so I pulled out my Droid, opened Scanlife and scanned the back of his card.  It popped up a window with his email and phone number.  Very nice BUT…that’s the same information as  on the front of the card.  So I pulled out my card, scanned my QR code and up popped a mobile landing page with links to my web site, an email capture form attached to an auto-responder and my YouTube video introduction.

Comparing my card to his, my business card has now become a multimedia, lead generation tool.  But again, before you jump in and create a YouTube video and attach that to your QR code, hold on.  Once you create your QR code, it can’t be changed.  You’re either stuck with it or you have to create a new one.  But how long is it going to take you to use 1000 business cards?  And how long to you think your cards will be held on to by your clients and prospects?  What happens when you message becomes outdated?  Or you shoot a killer video that will convert prospects to clients by the dozens?   Oh well, too bad.

My solution (believe me I learned the hard way too) was to create a landing page that my QR code points to.  Now I can change the content of my landing page as often as I want.  Shoot a new video, no problem.  Have a special that I want to showcase, piece of cake.  The QR code link stays the same, but the content changes at will.

Take advantage of the technology, take advantage of growing number of smart phone and put your print media to work for you.

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.

Tags: landing page, mobile marketing, qr code, social media

While teaching a Facebook for Business class last week, I went around the room and asked why everyone was there.  I was amazed at the number of people (at least a third of the group) that were there because they didn’t have a website and thought Facebook would do the trick.

I immediately pulled out my soapbox and carefully climbed on top.  You’re trying to market online with no website?!?  In today’s connected world, it’s a snap to pop on your computer or smart phone and do a quick search for any business.  Without a website, how are you going to get found?  And assuming someone accidentally stumbles upon your Facebook page, just exactly how much information are they going to get to make their buying decision.   Plus, my totally un-scientific observations tells me that if someone doesn’t have a website, there’s a pretty good chance they don’t have a customized Facebook page either.

Short of suggesting a Facebook business page to friends (which recent changes to Facebook severely restricted), how are you going to drive traffic to your business page?  A “Follow Us On Facebook” link on your website can help drive traffic back to your FB page where you can begin an interactive dialog with your potential customers/clients.

Online marketing is like a big funnel.  At the top of the funnel is Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  These are like the card tables in the grocery store on Saturday where you can get a taste of new food product.  If you like it, you will go find the product so you can have more.  When people read your 140 character bites and want more, where are they going to go?

Fresh and timely content that showcase your expertise is where you want them going.  And the source for that is your blog.  A blog should give a reader just the right portion for them to digest.  Like the story of the new country preacher on his first Sunday.  With all the preparations made, he’s standing at the door waiting to welcome everyone.  But to his dismay, only one old farmer shows up.  He asks the farmer what he should do and the farmer replies, “Well son.  If I only have one cow in the barn, I feed it.”  So the young preacher launches into his service complete with a 45 minute sermon and 2 alter calls.  As he is standing by the door after the service he asks the farmer what he thought, to which he replied, “Well, I would feed the one cow, but I wouldn’t give him the whole barn full.”  We are an impatient society.  We don’t want the whole barn full in your blog post, just a nice, digestable portion.

Your blog is the bridge to your call to action which should be your website.  (If your website doesn’t tell the browser what action to take, that’s the subject of another post.)

Whether your business is a brick and mortar business, home based business or internet business, having a website is a crucial component that adds legitimacy.  It’s the anchor point of your marketing program, where the efforts poured into the top of your funnel come rushing out.

Gary Wagnon and 800biz Online Marketing Solutions specialize in web site design, search engine optimization, social media marketing and text message marketing. Need to know how to better use social media — check out Social Media Lab, providing step-by-step instructional videos on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogging.

Tags: blog, facebook, linkedin, social media, twitter, web site

As more and more small businesses move into the social media space, the demand for a “Dr. Phil” intervention has increased as well.  It takes a lot of restraint on my part to keep from saying “What were you thinking?” Here are some of the “oh no you didn’t ” moments to avoid.

Just this weekend, I received a Facebook friend request.  The request came from a business, not a person.  What were you thinking? I don’t want to be friends with a business. My business is built on working with local businesses, but never once have I been contacted by a business.  I’ve been contacted by the business owner, manager or decision maker, but never the business.  I actively look for opportunities to recommend local businesses to my network.  But the recommendation is based on the people – the owners, the managers and employees.

Facebook personal pages are designed for individuals.  Even if you and your business are one and the same (as my business is), keep business and personal pages separate. That’s not to say that you never post anything business related on your personal page, but it should be VERY limited.

This same friend request had a second faux pas. While the sender did take the time to write a personal note (not the standard friend request message), the message was the problem.  Their message started out good, we have a mutual friend and I would like to connect with you.  Had they stopped there, it would have been fine.  However the next sentence was “I hope you will become an outstanding customer.”  What were you thinking?

Why not just come out and say “Prepare to be bombarded with my sales message”? Social Media Rule #1 — It’s not about you! Why, when we go to a car lot or furniture store, is the first words out of our mouths, “I’m just looking”?  We don’t want to be sold but we like to buy.

Social media (as in any sales opportunity) is like a piggy bank.  As a business, you make social capital deposits into your customer’s piggy bank.  When their bank get’s full enough, they will cash it in and buy from you.  And how do you make deposits?  By providing valuable information.  If you customer would say, “Thanks.  That was a great idea.” then you have just made a deposit in their bank.

Here’s one more.  Okay, you’ve decided that social media is something you need to do.  Now you are ready to start building your connections.  But your profile has no picture or a picture of your dog.  What were you thinking?

Regardless of how cute your dog is, I’m not connecting with it.  I want to connect with you.  When I see a profile with no photo, it tells me you don’t take social media seriously and are probably not a good connection.

Another instant “no connect” sign is having an incomplete or hidden profile. For some, it’s about how many friends/followers/connection you can get.  But if you’re social media plan calls for building relationships, those relationships will be a targeted demographic, not the masses.  When a profile isn’t visible, there is no way to tell if you’re a serious business minded person, if there is any reason for me to connect with you.  Once you make the choice to be in business, you’re now a public figure so you profile should give me an insight into who you are, what you do and why I should connect with you.

To keep Dr. Phil at bay, treat social media as you would any networking opportunity — build and cultivate relationships that lead to long term business.

Gary Wagnon and 800biz.com specialize in online marketing solutions, including web site design, search engine optimization, social media marketing and mobile text message marketing.  For more tips, watch for Social Media Lab relaunching soon.

Tags: facebook, social media, Social Media Marketing

Unless you have nothing better to do than read the 100′s of blogs that record the merry-go-round of changes taking place on Facebook, you may have missed a few things.  Here are the 5 things you may have missed.

1. Friend Phonebook — It’s very easy to find the phone number for any friend (that included their phone number in their profile) in Facebook.  The other way phone numbers are listed is from contacts imported from your mobile phone.  To view your phonebook, go to Accounts > Edit Friends.  A link to the phonebook is in the navigation on the left.

If you do not want the numbers listed, you may need to disable the feature on your phone.  Facebook does have a page with instructions on how to disable this feature.

2. Secure Facebook Browsing – Hijacking Facebook accounts has become a common occurrence.  One way a Facebook account can be compromised is by accessing Facebook in public locations.  How many of us have logged into our Facebook account while enjoying our Grande Mocha Latte?

To add a layer of security, Facebook now gives you the option to browse over a secure (https) connection when one is available.  By browsing over a secure connection, your data is encrypted and not as easily hijacked.

To activate secure browsing, go to Accounts > Account Settings > Account Security.  Check the box there to enable.  (As a side note, directly below that is a record of your most recent logins.  By reviewing this you can see if someone else has accessed your Facebook account and possibly head off potential nightmares.)

3. Downloading Your Facebook Data — How many of us upload pictures and videos to our Facebook page so we can share it with all our friends?  But what happens if you get locked out of your Facebook account?  Or it gets hacked like above?  All your pictures and videos can be lost forever.

Facebook now gives you the ability to download and backup your Facebook account data.  The information you will download is :

• Your profile information (e.g., your contact information, interests, groups)
• Wall posts and content that you and your friends have posted to your profile
• Photos and videos that you have uploaded to your account
• Your friend list
• Notes you have created
• Events to which you have RSVP’d
• Your sent and received messages
• Any comments that you and your friends have made on your Wall posts, photos, and other profile content

Unfortunately you cannot choose what you want to download — you get it all.  To download your data, go to Accounts > Account Settings > Download Your Information.  There is a download button there as well as instructions and FAQs.

4. Your Profile is Available for All (3rd Party Apps) To See — If you are a Facebook game player (yes you know who you are), then your profile is open for the game developers to see, access, capture and even sell.

The games on Facebook are created by 3rd party companies, not Facebook.  These developers pay Facebook for the privilege of offering their game to the 500 million Facebook community.  And why would they pay to offer a free game?  When you choose to play Farmville or Mafia Wars, you give the game developer permission to access your profile, your likes and interests.  They then gather your information and sell it for marketing purposes. (Wonder where all the spam comes from?)

5. Hiding Status Updates from Specific People -  You’re taking that dream vacation and can’t wait to post your pictures, but for security, you’re worried about announcing to everyone your not home.  If you have your friends categorized into lists, your updates can be made visible only to specified people (or lists).  Before you click the share button on an update, click the down arrow beside the lock just to the left of the share button and choose customize.  You can make visible or hide the post from specific people.  Just type in the person or list you want to select and Voila!

Now you can go impress your friends with these little known gems in Facebook!

Gary Wagnon and 800biz.com specialize in online marketing solutions, including web site design, search engine optimization, social media marketing and mobile text message marketing.  For more tips, watch for Social Media Lab relaunching soon.

Tags: facebook, facebook privacy, social media, social media lab

Your blog is written, it’s got the keywords in the right place and it’s posted for all to read. The final step is to spread the word. The purpose of your blog is to drive traffic — either to your web site, landing page or event. And the broader your readership, the more traffic you can expect.

To increase your blogosphere, you need to expose more readers to your content. Sharing your blog through social media is the best place to start. If you have a business Facebook page, you can have your blog automatically update your status. The same can be done on LinkedIn. Assuming you have dynamite content, it’s an easy step for your friends, likers or connections to share it with their friends.

But how do you expand beyond your sphere of connections? One of the easiest ways to do that is through social bookmarking sites, like Stumbleupon, Digg and Reddit. As of January 1, 2011, Stumbleupon generated more website traffic (referrals) than any other social media site, including Facebook. Social bookmarking sites are the equivalent to your favorites, only made public for all to see and share.

There are a number of social bookmarking sites, some general and some industry specific. The most popular general interest sites are Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Diigo, Mixx and Fark but there are dozens more. To submit a site, you will need an account setup at each of these sites. When you are ready to submit your new blog post, you then login to each one and add the link.

But I’m all about time saving. If you have to go to each site, add the link, add an excerpt, then submit it, it’s going to take some time. Despair not, grasshopper. Simply add a plugin to your WordPress blog called ShareToAny. Once you activate the plugin, ShareToAny adds a button to the bottom of each blog post that will automatically connect you with all the above social bookmark sites, as well as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and close to 100 other potential sites.

When I first discovered this technique, I closely monitored my web traffic to see if it did have an effect. Almost without exception, every time I submit a blog post, I see a significant spike in traffic to my web site as a result.

Now, you’ve learned some of the ninja master’s most guarded secrets. It’s time for you to go forth and make your way in the blogosphere.

Gary Wagnon, owner of 800biz.com Digital Marketing Solutions, specialize in helping small business owners maximize their traffic through web site design, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing and mobile text message marketing.

Tags: blog, search engine optimization, SEO, social media