Run a FREE Contest on Facebook

By hector Cisneros

If you want to grow your Facebook fan base, this blog is for you. Facebook recently chang

ed its rules on running online contests. Unlike in the past, now you can create a contest without having to purchase additional services or 3rd party apps.  The downside is that there are some pitfalls you have to avoid to keep your account from being suspended. Breaking Facebook's hidden rules can stop you cold. This article will cover what has changed and what to watch out for, as well as providing you with the ins and outs of implementing your contest with and without apps.  If after all that you still want to know more about how to set up and run a free Facebook contest, tune in and turn on this week's episode of Working the Web to Win at 4 PM Eastern on Tuesday November 5.

Out with the Old and In with the New

Prior to August 27^th, 2013 Facebook required that you use a third party application if you were going to run any kind of contest on their site. On top of that, you were required to get prior written permission and also were required to have a Facebook marketing rep assigned to help you create, run and manage any contest on the world's most popular social site. Today FB allows businesses to run contests directly on fan pages without purchasing a third party app. However, you have to cross your T’s and dot the I's because if your wording does’t strictly adhere to their guidelines, they will pull your contest and could possibly suspend your account.

We recently ran a contest for one of our clients using the exact wording listed on the Facebook Promotion Guidelines page and had to revise it 4 days into the contest. The Promotional Guidelines pages were missing several poignant details. What it offers are the basic rules, an example, some Best Practices and some frequently asked questions. What it doesn’t tell you is that the example they use is incomplete. The example leaves out the disclaimer Facebook wants you to include in your caption absolving them of any responsibility. It also leaves out that your contest rule details need to also be listed.

Back to Basics

1.    What is now considered a promotion on Facebook? Anything that requires an “entry/registration, element  or provides a giveaway or prize.

2.    Facebook removed the requirement that promotions must be administered via an application.

3.    You can now administer your contest by monitoring the Fan Page time line. However it cannot be your personal timeline.

4.    You can collect entries by having a user post on your page, comment on your page, like a post, comment on a post, or have a user message your Fan page directly.  

5.    Accurate tagging of people in photos is required in a photo contest. It’s now OK to ask people to submit names for a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize. However,  it’s not OK to ask people to tag themselves in pictures of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize.

Facebook states that their motivation for this is to make it easier for businesses of any size to run contests on their site. Having said that, they have also made it easier for you to spend money promoting your contest with pay per click promotion tools. Under their best practices section, they list “Amplify your Promotions – Create Promoted Post or ads for your Page post to broaden the reach of your promotion. I won’t disagree that promoting your post will produce greater reach but I am sure that they are trying to get more revenue from the promotions where in the past the app companies were getting the lion’s share of the revenue.  Either way following Facebook’s Best Practices is a must. See these three links for details. Facebook News,  Facebook Advertising Guidelines and Facebook Page Terms. After all the confusion that was created by their original “Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines”, they updated their advertising guidelines  on October 22^nd, 2013. 

Pro’s and Con’s

Me and my 542 bestest friends (on Facebook) (Photo credit: tychay)

PRO - It’s free. It doesn’t get any less expensive to run a contest that this. Your cost is yo

ur time and your prizes, period.

CON – You have to be a little creative to find a good picture, figure out how you want people to vote and come up with your contest objectives. This will take a little time and you may have to run several contests to figure out what works best for your company. Also if you break any Facebook’s posting rules you can be suspended.

PRO – It's relatively easy to setup and run. You can find lots of examples where you can copy the verbiage from someone else's contest and reword it so that it now fits your contest.

CON – If you make a mistake in your verbiage, Facebook will pull your contest post and send you a stern warning that you have violated their rules. It further says, any other violations can lead to suspension or removal of your account!

PRO – This type of contest can make it simple to manage a short duration contest (less than a couple of weeks). It also works well if you don’t have more than one hundred entries.

CON – You never know how may people will enter. If your contest takes off, it will be much harder to manage.

PRO – You can use Facebook’s insights page to view your basic contest statistics.

CON - Fully understanding what is represented by your contest's statistics will not be so easy, nor will you be able to measure specific statistics for demographics, psychographics and more.

PRO – You can ask participants to message you with their email address to insure they are entered.

CON – There is no automatic way to capture participants email or other information.

PRO – Your rules can be simple and listed either on the photo or as part of the caption.

CON – Make sure you provide rule details, (age limits, time frame, how to retrieve your prize etc..). If your rules are either too complicated or too long, this kind of contest may not work for you.  If you don’t follow Facebook’s rules to the letter, they could pull your contest post, send you a stern warning and/or could suspend your site. 

I started researching this subject in the end of August when Facebook broke the news of the contest changes. I read dozens of articles on top of what Facebook has released. Facebook releases a video with the head of their promotions department explaining the rules. Check out what she had to say about the new rules.

 A couple of good articles that provide additional examples come from the Social media Examiner. The first I would like to mention is “New Facebook Contest and Promotion Rules: What You Need to Know”. The second article I believe is worth reading is “How to Run a Facebook Timeline Promotion: 6 Tips for Success”.

Are Applications Dead?

Does the introduction of on-page contest mean that contest apps are done for? Absolutely not! There are many reasons why a company would still use an on-page application. 

·         Facebook approved third party apps allow you to gather additional analytic information about your contest. This can include home many people clicked to view verses the actual number of people that click, posted or like your contest.

      ·         Facebook approved applications allow you to build more elaborate rules and usually include Facebook’s disclaimers built in. If your rules are elaborate, they will be harder to show on a timeline managed contest.

      ·         Facebook approved Apps are generally not confused as spam. 

      ·         Facebook approved Apps generally allow you to maintain your company's brand.

      ·         Facebook approved Apps look more professional than just having a photo/comment contest.

      ·         Facebook approved Apps stay in the same place on the page. Your own page managed contest will most likely move down the time like making it harder for people to find it.

      ·         Facebook approved Apps also can hide the results of the contest as it plays out. This means competitors and participants can only see what you want them to see.

      ·         With some third party Facebook approved Apps, you can require that fans Like your page, allowing you to grow your Fan base. If growth is your goal, this is important.

      ·         Facebook approved Apps allow you to gather email address for those who enter. Non app contest requires you to ask the participants to message you directly. This usually has a lower compliance than an app.

      ·         Facebook approved Apps can provide for opt-in forms allowing you to gather more information about the people entering your contest.

      ·         Facebook approved Apps allow you more choices in how a participant interacts in the contest. Voting can be done via check boxes, uploaded videos, pictures, slideshows and more.

      ·         Facebook approved Apps allow you to incentivise sharing. You can not do this with on page administered contest.

      ·         With a Facebook approved third party application you have more control over the contest. This reduces the risk of cheating, or someone gaming your contest because you forgot to list a specific rule.

The bottom line is that there are many ways a businesses can administer a Facebook contest without incurring a large expense. This article has provided not only the basic rules that are now in place. I have also provided detailed information that explains how to avoid some of the pitfalls that many people fell into when the changes were first launched.

Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and social media director for WSquared Media Group based in Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He is also the co-host of Blog Talk Radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl Weiss make Working the Web to Win simple for every business. 

Putting the Plus in Google+

By Hector Cisneros

If you are using, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or Twitter for your business but not using Google+, then 

you’re missing one of the biggest boats in the social networking ocean. In fact, Google Brand pages are tied into Google Search, Google Local and Google Maps all of which contain the magic word "Google". In addition, since Google now controls 81% of search, you should be thinking Google if you want to put a big plus in both your social networking and search optimization.

Google+ officially originally launched on June 28, 2011without brand pages and later added them so that businesses could create their own unique presence on Google's social network. Google has continued to improve its social network and its Brand page by further integrating its other Google properties and applets in to the Google+ fold. Specifically they have added more robust and complete navigation system, a more complete and integrated profile, updated tabs functionality and more in-depth drop down capabilities within any functions. Google+ always had an edge on the competition for ease of use, now it also has greater depth and power as well.

Add Up all the Features

Google+ has also updated its format several times since its inception. Its newest format moves the main navigation menu to the left side as a drop down element. New elements that have been added include "What's Hot "and" Communities functions. What's Hot shows you trending posts that are unique and getting lots of play on Google+.  Communities is Google's version of Groups. Both of these functions are robust  yet they are easy to use and are fully integrated with all other Google apps and properties.

Here are some of my favorite feature and elements in Google+ Brand pages:  

1. First and foremost is the ease of use and high integration of Google applets and properties. 
2. Adding blog posts, YouTube videos and pictures are a snap. 
3. If you properly setup Google's plus 1 system on your website and other social nets, you will make it easy for others to connect and recommend you.  
4. You will also receive additional information on how visitors are using your Brand pages.
5. Google's "Ripples" provide post statistics showing how people in your circles are utilizing your post. Its graphic display is unique and intuitive to understand. It shows how items have been shared.

Do You Hangout?

Looking for an easy way to create useful video content?  Hangouts is a built-in teleconferencing facility that 

you can even use to create conferences or broadcast webinars. By enabling Hangouts on air, you can also simultaneously create a YouTube video of your event.  What could be simpler? When you consider that visual content has the highest clickthrough rate of any content, this is a G+ facility that con't be beat. It also has the highest share rate. Google Hangouts provides relatively high end functionality at zero cost to your businesses. What's not to like?

Leveraging Brand Pages for Search

Since G+ is part of the Google family, there are search engine optimization benefits from linking your website and other relevant internet properties to your Google+.  Make sure all your Google properties include relevant keywords. Also, make sure the "about tab" contains targeted keywords as well. Include + links to your blogs, website, landing pages, directories,  and other social sites.

If you are looking to maximize your exposure, also make sure all your Google properties, (especially Google local and Google maps) are complete and verified. Make sure all your websites and social properties have Google +1 badges and share badges so that people can easily plus and share you when they visit.

Make sure you have a fully filled out profile. All sections need useful content. 

Provide value added service by providing deep information posst on your products and services. Provide 

educational and support hangouts for your products and services. Provide interesting, fun and entertaining posts targeted at specific segments of your circles. Provide posts on a regular basis, (daily if possible).  Use Hootsuite or other aggregation software to schedule posts and provide RSS feeds  from your favorite content sites including your blogs.

Share the wealth by cross promoting content on your Google Brand pages to your other social sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pintrest. Don't forget to utilize to power of YouTube with your Brand pages.

Typical Client Content Posting 

·         Here is a typical posting schedule I use for some of my clients Brand pages.

•               *  Cross promote posts of useful content to the top 5 social nets.
•               *     Daily  forwards/share/retweets of  content.
•               *   Weekly or monthly promos for your products or services. (This needs tobe a soft sell of an                  outstanding offer.)
•               *   Weekly or monthly Hangouts providing useful  information for your targeted audience.
•               *     Weekly blog posts cross promoted to all social nets.
•               *  Weekly YouTube video post cross promoted across all social nets.
•               *  Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly email newsletter linked to your blog, vlogs and/orYouTube                    videos.

Create in-house policies for new clients to connect with you on their social nets. Whenever possible encourage clients to post positive reviews on Google Local or any social or review site to which they are connected.

While many pundits still consider Google+ a big zero, when you factor in all the features and benefits of using Google's business-friendly social network, all I can say is the for my money the pluses far outweigh the minuses.

Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and social media director for WSquared Media Group based in Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He is also the co-host of Blog Talk Radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl Weiss make Working the Web to Win simple for every business. Hector is a syndicated writer for EzineOnline and is an active Blogger, (including ghost writing) and he is a published author of two books, 60 Seconds to success (on sale at Amazon and B&N) and Internet Marketing for the 21st Century which you can get free by clicking on the link at WSquaredMediaGroup.com. He is an active Boy Scout Leader, enjoys family time, loves the outdoors, reading and the creative process of designing effective internet marketing solutions for his clients. 

Lost in Cyberspace

By Carl Weiss

In the recently released motion picture Gravity, astronaut Sandra Bullock becomes detached from the Space Shuttle after a debris storm causes her and fellow astronaut played by George Clooney to wind up adrift in the vastness of outer space.  Tumbling all alone in the dark void with a limited supply of oxygen and little hope of being rescued, Sandra copes as best she can with the terror of being lost in space.  While few of us will ever come to know this kind of visceral fear, many website owners have experienced a similar sense of despair and helplessness when their site went from page one to the vastness of cyberspace after an algorithm reset by a major search engine.

The fact of the matter is that search engine operators do not want anyone save for a select few to understand how their algorithms work.  They are also known to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery from time to time.  Sometimes they do this to shake out the legions of businesses that make money by gaming the system.  Sometimes they do it just because they can.  Either way, while an update by Google may come with a cute and fuzzy moniker such as Panda or Penguin, once published it can leave website owners feeling more like they have been attacked by a Bengal Tiger or Great White Shark. 

Guilt by Association

While there are more than one hundred items that Google uses to rank pages, one of the easiest ways to run afoul of the 800 lb gorilla in the room is to game the system, or hire someone who does so on your behalf.  For more than a decade it was possible to aggregate rank by using underhanded tactics such as keyword stuffing, link farms and invisible text in order to create the appearance of viability.  Of course this was back in the days before the search engine spiders had the ability to analyze what they saw as they leapt from website to website.  Today the googlebots and other search engine spiders can not only understand what they read, but they have been programmed to detect cheaters and respond accordingly.  If your site is determined to be employing any of the Black Hat techniques that are frowned upon, not only will you be relegated to the backwaters of cyberspace, but it could be years before you will ever see the light of day. This last fact is regardless of whether you were the one who added the offending code, or whether it was added by someone in your employ. 

More importantly, when it comes to search engine success, you don’t need to cheat them to beat them.  While gaming the system may generate position in the short run, it almost always fails over the long haul. Plus there is a high probability that when the next algorithm change is published, you may fall into a black hole from which you may never be able to climb out.  Some website owners are literally forced to commission an entirely new website in order to get back into the game, losing both time and money in the process.

                                         

While it is impossible to completely understand every warp and weave of Google’s algorithm, just as you don’t have to understand how to build a chicken to make an omelet, you can get the gorilla to like you by feeding him what he likes to eat.  The Google gorilla is a picky eater who first and foremost likes his own brand.  This translates into creating lots of content on all the properties that Google owns.  So if you blog, you need to become familiar with Blogger, which is owned by Google.  If you produce videos, then you need to create a channel on YouTube.  And even though you may be addicted to Facebook, if you want to make the gorilla smile on your online marketing efforts, you had better start feeding Google+ as well.

What do Webmasters Want?

Now you will notice that so far I have failed to even mention on-page optimization (aka SEO).  That’s due to the fact that while important, it now only contributes to 25% of your overall score.  The other 75% is gleaned from legitimate backlinks, along with blogs, social media and videos.  Not that on-site optimization is unimportant.  It has simply changed over the course of the past few years.  Where such things as Meta Tags and keyword richness were all the rage four or five years ago, Google claims that they no longer rely on Meta Tags at all for ranking.  Today Google places more emphasis on SEO-friendly urls and titles, along with backlinks and mixed media.  Don’t confuse having links to social sites and blogs with feeding them.  Unless you are adding at least a blog a week and feeding your social nets on a daily basis, the googlebots will know and act accordingly.

In fact, as I pointed out in a previous blog entitled, “Is SEO Still Relevant?” the term Search Engine Optimization really needs to be altered to Search Engine Marketing, since optimizing the website is only a small part of the process to achieving page one results today.  As a result the task has become infinitely more complicated.  No longer can you create a perfectly optimized website every two to three years, spin it off into cyberspace and expect it to climb the ranks to wind up on page one.  Now you also need to commit time and/or money to feed the system on a daily, weekly and monthly basis in order to get into the game.  While many people see this as a way of tipping the playing field in favor of larger firms that can afford to hire a team of bloggers, social posters and videographers to do their bidding, nobody ever said the game was fair.

All's Fair in Love and SEM 

Face it, Google and all the other search engines don’t make one slim dime from organic search.  They make their money from pay-per-click campaigns and banner ads, most of which comes from major corporations.  Besides, when you own 82% of search as Google currently does, fairness doesn’t even come into consideration.  As the saying goes, “What do you feed an 800 lb gorilla?  Anything it wants.”

For many small businesses, this isn’t the best policy, it’s the only policy.  Giving the gorilla what he wants gives you a chance to take advantage of the system just as your bigger brethren do.  In fact, we have worked with small businesses who not only competed successfully with Fortune 500 contenders, but who eventually bested them.  Another advantage of being smaller is that you can react faster.  You can analyze the competition and target their weaknesses.  If a larger competitor has the advantage in social media but is weak in blogging, bulk up your blog.  If they don’t understand the advantages of video, go after them on YouTube.  The beauty of the web is that the emperor wears no clothes.  You can see what everybody else is doing and react accordingly.

This brings up the second speed bump that stops many small businesses in their tracks: Making the time to

feed the beast.  Most business owners have enough on their plate day in and day out in simply running their businesses.  This leaves precious little time to write and post to blogs and social sites, let alone shoot and edit video.  However, the answer to this dilemma is but one point and click away.  It’s called outsourcing.  For less than most businesses spend on a display ad in the yellow pages, you can hire out some or all of the tasks mentioned above.  There are legions of bloggers, social posters and videographers out there that are ready, willing and able to come into the fray.  If you find that you don’t have the budget to outsource the entire project, determine which part of the equation you can do in-house and then outsource the rest. 

The only other solution is to ignore the Internet, as all too many small business owners are wont to do.  To this I pose the following question, “If you aren’t found on page one of Google, but your competitors are, is this good or bad for your business?”  (Danger, Will Robinson!)  While it may take a little time and money to get off the bench and into the game, even if it took several months to wind up on page one, this is still better than being lost in cyberspace. 

Carl Weiss is president of W Squared Media Group, a digital marketing agency that offers guaranteed organic placement on a number of major search engines.  He also owns Jacksonville Video Production and co-hosts the weekly online radio show Working the Web to Win every Tuesday at 4 pm Eastern.

How to Score Points Online Without Working Up a Sweat

by Carl Weiss

Working the web is no game for wimps.  It takes guts, determination and staying power to play the game to win.  More importantly it takes organization.  As I pointed out in my blog two weeks back, Google has become the 800-lb gorilla in the room, having amassed more than 80% of search.  With that kind of clout Google not only rules the roost, it pretty much calls the shots.  In order to have any kind of chance of generating page one results on Google, you need to feed the monkey.  Google's ranking system takes everything from on-page SEO, to backlinks, blogs, social posts and videos into the equation.  Their spiders have become sophisticated enough to read/ rank blogs and social posts not only for completion, but for depth as well.  The spiders can tell how often you post, how well-crafted the post is and how relevant it is to the keywords you desire.  If you post a blog once a week or once in a blue moon, the spiders know and react accordingly.  If you don't link your social sites to your website, they know that too.  If you link your social nets to your site but rarely feed them, the spiders will penalize your ranking appropriately.

Who's on First?

For most business owners this means either hiring a full-time employee or outsourcing the task.  They simply 

Image via CrunchBase

don't have the time to write a blog a week and feed the social nets daily.  The bad news is that even this is only the tip of the SEO iceberg.  Google says it analyzes 182 different ranking criteria in order to determine ranking. While they won't actually come out and tell you what they are, the good news is that with a bit of deductive reasoning you can infer many of the most important. 

Generating ranking today comes down to an online popularity contest.  While backlinks are still one indicator of popularity that are ranked by most every search engine, there are a number of recent developments of which you may not be aware.  For instance, online reputation is currently all the rage.  In fact there are hundreds of online portals that are designed to monitor and publicize both good and bad corporate behavior.  Even more important is the fact that Google Local encourages business owners and their customers to post reviews and ratings.  If you aren't cognizant of your online reputation, you run the risk of being relegated to the backwaters of the web.

This is not a game most businesses can afford to lose.  Consider if you will the facts as of 2012:

·         More than ¾ of the world population was online.

·         The US audience alone topped 239 million users.

·         Mobile users in the US topped 139 million.

·         There were 106.7 million smartphone users in the US.

·         Some 72.8 million shoppers made purchases using mobile phones and tablets.

·         83.9% of those made at least 1 online purchase.

·         Holiday ecommerce sales were 42.3 billion

Who's Listening

Even if you do take the time to post blogs, social posts, videos, reviews and ratings this means little if you are preaching to the choir.  To give you an idea of where I am coming from, go to your blog and look at your stats.  On average, how many people are reading your posts?  More importantly, how many people are commenting and/or reposting your posts?  Even the best prose will not get Google's attention if nobody is listening.  Unless your posts generate interest the search engine spiders regard them as billboards in the desert.  That doesn't mean that there aren't ways to correct this problem.  It simply takes a team.

Nearly a year and a half ago my partner and I realized that the search engines were putting a premium on such thing as +1's, comments and reposts.  After scouring the web for companies that offered this kind of service (without any success), we realized that there was a simple way to achieve the desired effect.  Thus was born the concept of Team Tech along with a service designed to organize and manage this service called ClubWCubed.com.  The way that team tech works is that everyone in the team is required to write a blog a week.  (For those who can not do this, we offer to outsource this service.)  Once the blog has been written, it is passed along to five members of the club who read it, comment on it and repost it to Twitter, Facebook and Google+.  In exchange, the blog writer does the same for the other members.  (It's kind of an I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine system.)  

What this does for members is several things:
1. It generates distribution, since your blog will be passed along to thousands of people via social                       networking.
2. It helps members satisfy their daily social networking duty, since by reposting a blog a day you will have         six days worth of content to broadcast.
3. The search engine spiders will notice that your blogs and social sites are generating more activity.  This will     increase your SEO score.

It Takes a Team

Like it or not, search engine marketing is a full contact sport.  The companies who can either afford to outsource these tasks or who put a high priority on accomplishing them will continue to dominate the 

search engines.  If you want to get off the bench and get into the game you are going to have to create a team that can help you score on the field.  Especially in the beginning when it is tough to sustain the fight, you are going to have to coach and motivate your team to continue to fight for every yard.  Think of it this way, if you were going to play a game of football, would you want to hike the ball only to find out you are the only member of your team standing on the field, or would you like to have some blockers keeping the other team at bay?  If you're really looking to score points online without working up a sweat, it takes a team.

Carl Weiss is president of W Squared Media Group, a Jacksonville, Florida company that is all about working the web to win.  You can hear Carl every Tuesday at 4 pm when he co-hosts Working the Web to Win on Blog Talk Radio.

Get on the Bus with Google+

by Hector Cisneros

There is a lot of hype associated with the launch of Google+ and every product has its advocates and critic’s.  Google+ is no exception.  When a giant internet player like Google says, they are getting into social networking,  I pay attention.  This article provides a quick overview of Google+ and its features.  It will compare Google+ with the current leader Face Book to demonstrate their differences..  It will also give you an overview of the neat features that only Google+ currently has.

Face Book is the current gold standard in the social media world. Whether you love Face Book or feel they are purposefully trying to make you mad, is irrelevant, They are at the top. The current discontent over changes in Face book has some people up in arms.  However, it is yet to be seen if this has an impact on whether Google+ can make an inroad versus the social media giant.

Regardless of what you think about Face Book, here are several reasons why Google+ will make a dent in the social networking arena, even if it’s only taking market share from other networks.  First, Google+ is extremely easy to join and use.  If you are a Gmail subscriber, it’s a matter of a few clicks and then filling in your basic profile info.  This process only takes but a few minutes to complete, especially if you are cutting and pasting from face book.

If you’re a Gmail subscriber, some of your contacts will automatically be imported for you.  Some of names in your contact list will automatically populate and begin the process of creating your circles of influence.  You will simply drag and drop people from your list into predefined circles or create circles of your own.

Speaking of the circles function, it is one of the coolest features that Google+ has to offer.  It seems much more intuitive and easier to use than the one provided currently by Face Books.  This interface allows you to organize your contacts into groups that appear as circles, literally.  There are a few predetermine groups, but you can customize them all you want and people can belong to as many different circles as you desire.

Circles also allow you to filter your news feed  (called the stream in Google+ ), so that your circle selection becomes your stream feed control. In other words, the circle you select can determine whose post you are watching. It can limit your view of which posts  are streamed into view.  Changing your view is easy and intuitive. Some of the simplicity that Google+ demonstrates is by design.  Its clean and uncluttered look is chiefly due to the fact that Google+ is new, and is therefore unencumbered with all the trappings that come with a mature social media site.  Either way, I believe you will appreciate the clean, easy to use, and fun interface Google+ has to offer.

Speaking of other fun features, Google+ has two worth mentioning.  The first is Hangouts.  Google+ provides a video Chat room for groups of people.  You can video chat, share You Tube videos, invite others and have a real online video conversation with several people. This is a face to face conversation. You need a video camera and microphone attached to your computer to use this service effectively. Most laptops and tablet computers come with this as a standard item making video chat a snap. This is a cool feature which I am sure will get lots of use.  I believe the maximum number of people that a Hangout session will hold is probably limited by your screen size and the speed of your internet connection.  Between six to twelve people will probably work well.  After that, it will probably seem crowded.  I suggest you check this feature out and start thinking of all the cool ways you could use this service.

Another feature that I genuinely like is the games Google+ includes.  Unlike Face Book games, Google+ has a game's menu built in.  The variety of games they offer is extensive.  It includes 18 games like Anger Bird,  Bejeweled Blitz, City Ville, Diamond Dash, Dragons of Atlantic, Crime City, Sudoku Puzzles, City of Wonder and Zynga Poker just to name a few.  All of these games are designed to be shared socially.  Even Angry Birds lets you to share your score so you can play against your friends.

So there you have it, a quick overview of the buzz surrounding Google+ and how it compares to Face Book.  Google+ is still extremely new, and it currently does not offer the number of subscribers, features and maturity that Face Book or LinkedIn offer. Having said that, Google+ is extremely user friendly, easy to navigate and provides several new, innovative features’.  Features like circles, hangouts and the integrated games provide a high cool factor for most users.  Add to this all the other Google applications and properties you have access to, (Google is prodigious), and you have the beginnings of a social media contender.  It may not be a Face Book or LinkedIn killer yet, but its innovative approach and connections to Google’s vast library of applications and internet properties will help it to receive rapid adoption and meteoric growth.

That’s my Opinion, what’s yours?

Hector Cisneros has been an entrepreneur for 25 years, a veteran of BNI for 18 years and was a BNI director for over five years. He is still an active BNI member and follows the philosophy of Givers Gain. He is the owner of several businesses in Jacksonville, Florida. He actively coaches business owners in the fine art of Internet advertising, Networking and Word of Mouth marketing. He is the president of Website Know How, Inc. A holding company for his business ventures that include online advertising, word of mouth marketing, real estate holdings, health and wellness product sales, consulting for non profits and Adventure sports.  To learn more about Social Media, Internet Advertising and Word of Mouth Marketing visit the Networkers Apprentice workshop http://www.networkersapprentice.com or http://www.60secondstosuccess.com

Social Networking for Business

Many business owners still labor under the assumption that social media is a necessary evil that only the younger generation understands.  But this philosophy flies in the face of reason, since social media is rapidly becoming the dominant  promotional tool for businesses large and small.

All too often, social media activity for many businesses boils down to nothing more than posting links on Facebook , Twitter and Linked In to articles and videos that might relate to their business. Likewise, online public relations activity is usually relegated to a smattering of press releases that are arbitrarily distributed to the masses, or posted to newsfeeds. How can this style of haphazard marketing hope to develop followers, establish personal connections, or encourage redistribution by the general public?

In the first place, 99% of press releases aren't all that newsworthy.  This means their chances of going viral are slim.  Just as with news in general, if a press release, blogpost or social media post is neither timely, humorous nor solves a problem then the marketing effort becomes all but moot. 

In order to punch up your marketing  and make your blog and social network posts “newsworthy” you need to bestow them with a little sizzle.  How to identify the “Sizzle Factor” isn’t as hard as you might think.  Every business possesses an element that could be considered unique. The problem is being able to identify, quantify and market it.  For example, most businesses claim to offer the "best solution," the "best service," or the “best prices in town”.  But these timeworn slogans do little to highlight a firm’s uniqueness, let alone present a tangible benefit. 

If you put a little thought into the process, I am sure there's a niche, a solution or an offer that could set your company apart from the crowd? For instance, if your company vends vacuum cleaner parts, your offer could include “FREE Vacuum Cleaner Bags with Every Order”.  If your business is service oriented, you could offer a “$10 discount coupon good for your next purchase.” You may also elect to create a “Free E-Book” that highlights some facet of your business, such as “The 10 Shortcuts to Online Success,” if you run an internet marketing firm, or “The 5 Best Leaf Peeper Vacations on the East Coast,” if you run a travel agency. The secret to breaking out of the herd is not to try to "sell" the whole enchilada, but find one morsel that is yours alone.

Believe it or not, these kinds of offers work well to “Push” traffic to your website, blog, or social networks.  What’s equally surprising is how few businesses are utilizing this technique.

Once you have determined your uniqueness factor, the next step is to publicize it.  To do this requires you to research relevant blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts of those who would be directly affected, or could be interested in the unique niche that you have identified.  If your business is health related, you need to seek out those bloggers and social networkers who are working the opposite side of the same street.  So if your business and uniqueness factor concerns weight loss, you could easily appeal to non-competing companies in the nutrition, dietary supplement and exercise industries.

If you want to add a PR element with a real punch, you may also elect to target your press releases toward news organs, publications and charities that best relate to your topic. 

As a bonus, blogging and social networking is also a great way to increase your website’s SEO potential.

Granted, social networking isn’t the be-all, end-all of Internet supremacy.  But it is one vital and extremely cost-effective means of building an audience for your growing business.  If you are looking for a way to find the fast lane to the Information Superhighway, don’t short sheet the growing impact of blogging and social networking. 

To view an interview with Access-JAX social networking guru Hector Cisneros, click here

http://jacksonville-video-production.com