At least 3 reasons why I’m not Buzzing with enthusiasm

Image representing Google Reader as depicted i...
Image via CrunchBase

At least two people in the Googleverse are underwhelmed with Buzz; me and internet maven Richard Scoble. Scoble bats first…

“Together with a lot of web workers, I depend on being able to skim through information sources quickly. Services like Google Reader are well-optimized for doing this, especially in List mode. (To turn on List mode, from the “All Items” view, click on “Show: List” in the blue bar at the top right of the screen.)

The List views in Gmail and Google Reader make it easy to look at the subjects of posts, and scroll through them quickly. Google Buzz, unfortunately, uses the threaded conversation approach of Google Wave, but without the tools for controlling what appears on the screen that Wave has.

I hope that the limitations of Google Buzz’s interface are just growing pains. Maybe the designers of Buzz didn’t anticipate that some posts would generate hundreds of comments. So let’s hope that they’ll give us the tools to use the service efficiently, or, as one commenter suggests, Google Buzz users might give up on it before it’s a week old.” Source: Google Buzz: Not Efficient? – WebWorkerDaily

On his own blog, Scoble goes on to say…

“OK, now I’ve had a bit of time to play with Google Buzz and everywhere I look I see a badly-executed copy of FriendFeed.

With two important exceptions:

1. Google Buzz actually has a lot of users and much better information flowing through its veins. There’s a reason that FriendFeed doesn’t have many users: it has some very anti-user features that retard user adoption (back when I was excited about FriendFeed I kept hoping that FriendFeed was going to fix some of their issues).
2. It has pretty nice location features built in, especially if you use Google Maps on Android.” Source: Google Buzz copied FriendFeed’s worst features, why?

If you want to read the rest of his rant, go to the source. Here’s my random list of pet peeves…

  • I don’t even like to get electronic newsletters because they’re a distraction; email is for email and needs to be segmented from social media…
  • Information comes into Buzz, but it can’t get out; no rss output for the things I want to share
  • Insufficient keyboard shortcuts; what happened to e for email like Reader? Google Reader is perfect for my needs — Buzz is like a fly droning around my head while I’m trying to concentrate…

What do you think?

Opportunity of a lifetime!

“So, there’s plenty of bad economic news floating around. From the price of oil to Wall Street to bailouts to the death of traditional advertising.

Which is great news for anyone hoping to grow or to make an impact.

Change (and the fortunes that go with it) is almost always made during the down part of the cycle. It might not be fun, but it’s exciting. (Where do you think Google came from?) The opportunity is to find substantial opportunities (in any field) that deliver real value and have a future. Those jobs/investments/companies/ideas are undervalued right now, but not for long.” Click here to go to the source…

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Writing a killer blog

…without killing yourself in the process. Good thoughts from Louis Gray…

How to Setup a Facebook Page for your Business, Organization or Church

I’m doing a training session next week at NWTC on ‘Facebook for Fun and Profit’. Unfortunately, it’s all filled up — for those of you interested in the topic that won’t be able to make it, this may help…

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

Measuring The Total Economic Impact Of Google Apps

TCO of Google Apps for Business http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=45418041&access_key=key-wkav43yxomjyocn46fh&page=1&viewMode=list

A Tale of Three Websites

Here’s a case study — unscientific as it may be — about 3 websites. One is 12 years old, one 7 years old, the other was launched a little over two months ago. The first belongs to radio station WORQ, the second belongs to WTAQ, the third also belongs to WORQ — both stations serve the Northeast Wisconsin market. All three sites serve a similar demographic, although the WORQ properties have an added ‘spiritual element’ that WTAQ does not have…

Here are the Alexa snapshots for each of the websites…

Here’s what I find interesting. WTAQ has the highest traffic rank as well they should — they are a large and successful part of Midwest Communications and they are the local outlet for Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and my good friend Jerry Bader, who regularly outperforms them both in the Arbitron ratings. I don’t know what the budget was for the recent overhaul of the website, but it has yielded them great results in the Alexa rankings — until the ‘total beauty makeover’, WTAQ’s site was ranked in the top 5 million or so. Today they rank at 173,161.

WORQ’s website has been up almost since the dawn of the internet — 5 years longer than WTAQ and their Alexa ranking is a respectable 410,018. Not bad considering they are a Christian radio station that runs on donations. Their developer, Virtualtech, is doing a nice job for them and the station leverages the website well. I do not know the budget for the site…

Now for the upstart ‘Standupforthetruth.com‘. The site was launched two months ago as a companion site to a program called ‘Stand up for the Truth’ which airs M-F, for one hour at 9 CDT [listen here, either online or via podcast]. The show was launched December 6 and the site had a hard launch just 5 days before that. Here’s what I find noteworthy: Standupforthetruth.com is closing in on WTAQ’s Alexa rankings at 175,558 and should pass them up this week on their current trajectory. Pretty impressive considering the total budget for technology and training was less than $1,250!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I developed the social media hub for Stand Up for the Truth. The technologies implemented are all what I refer to as “good, fast, and cheap” free, open source tools:

  • Gmail
  • Google Reader + Feedly
  • Chrome + Shareaholic
  • Posterous
  • Facebook Page
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • MailChimp

All these “good, fast, and cheap” technologies are rolled up in the ‘e1evation workflow‘ — a ‘thought leadership’ methodology that produces great results online. Program host and station General Manager Mike LeMay has been trained in the ‘art’ of ‘consume, create, communicate’ and has done quite well considering he is an admitted technology neophyte. He would be the first to admit that program co-host Amy Spreeman and Hopenet360 director Jeff Strommen have been tremendous assets on the project, but he has come a long way himself demonstrating that the ‘e1evation workflow’ is truly ‘Mike-proof’!

There’s a fine line between blowing your own horn and sharing a story and I hope I haven’t crossed it here. I do believe, however, that it’s a sad dog that can’t wag it’s own tail from time to time. I don’t take credit for Mike’s great thinking, but he has confirmed again that the ‘e1evation workflow’ may be the shortest path to thought leadership on the internet. Mike perspective? “This just shows how hungry some Christians are for Truth. Lord willing He will be glorified as we move forward.” Ouch. I’m humbled — so much for my dog’s tail. I’ll put it between my legs where it belongs…

Bottom line? You don’t need to spend a lot of money to get your point across on the online — a ‘little guy’ like Mike bringing in the same traffic as a ‘big guy’ like Jerry Bader in such a short period of time and with so little money spent is an internet marketing success story of ‘David and Goliath’ proportions. Comment, call or use the contact form to connect so we can talk about how this applies to your business…

Consumers More Likely to Use Businesses Active on Social Media

Image representing Yelp as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

Seven out of 10 consumers are more likely to use a local business if it has information available on a social media site, says a new study.

The annual study, called Local Search Usage Study: Bridging The Caps, From Search to Sales, is a joint effort of comScore and TMP Directional Marketing, a local search marketing firm. It includes an online survey of some 4,000 consumers, plus data gleaned from observing one million consumers who agreed to have their online searches monitored anonymously.

Having a page on Facebook is a start, but it’s not a one-time effort: 81 percent of consumers using social media say it’s important for businesses to respond to questions and complaints. And for the record, you do need to worry about reviews and ratings – 78 percent said they’re important when deciding what to buy.

What else do you need to be doing with social media? Nearly four out of five (78 percent) of users want special offers, promotions, and information about events, 74 percent want regular posts about products, and 72 percent want posts about the company itself. (Wondering about posting those photos of the company office—or picnic? Two-thirds of those surveyed want to see them.)

If this all seems too daunting, the survey also suggests a simple starting place: make sure there is correct information about your business in as many places online as you can (Google, Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Social networkers are 67 percent more likely to buy something than general searchers, but one in six searchers is frustrated by the lack of reliable information about small businesses on the Web – either it’s not there at all, it’s incorrect, or it’s confusing or disorderly. One third of searchers give up on a business when they can’t quickly find the information they’re looking for.

Wow. Just wow. You can follow the ‘via’ link if you’d like to read the rest of the article. Comment, call or use the contact form to connect and discuss how this applies to your business. Thanks to Dana VanDen Heuvel for tweeting this…

How to Combine Your Facebook Profile for Both Business and Pleasure

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

Despite publishing intimate details of their life, most people view Facebook as a very personal network; as a platform for pleasure not for business. But if you’re anything like me, your Facebook friends consist of people from a cross section of your life; some personal friends who you’ve known for years, some work colleagues and some contacts from your professional network. They may include anyone from your best mate to your mum to your boss to an industry peer, and that makes the humble status update a potential nightmare. Do you really want your boss to see the banter you have with your mates about the girl you pulled on your drunken night out? Do your friends really care about your industry blog posts or your work chat?

The psychology behind this dynamic leads to many people I know breaking Facebook rules and setting up two profiles; one personal profile and one professional profile. After all, you should never mix business with pleasure, isn’t that the mantra? But wouldn’t it be great if you could personalise your Facebook profile to every single one of your friends, giving each of them status updates and shared content that is specifically relevant to them and leaving out the stuff that isn’t?

Well, in actual fact, you can. Clever use of Facebook’s Lists feature means that you can keep your personal friends largely separate from your work colleagues, publishing different content to different groups on the same page while ensuring that never the twain shall meet. With Lists you can dice and splice your Facebook friends in as many different ways as you like, effectively presenting a personalised profile to each different one of your friends depending on their interests, your relationship with them and what you want them to see (and not to see). For once in your life you really can keep all of the people happy all of the time.

To get started, watch the short video clip below on how to create lists of friends in Facebook. You can create as many lists as you like, from simply one for ‘friends’ and one for ‘work’ as in my video example, to multiple lists. Importantly if you’re going to get very targeted with it, any friend can belong to more than one list.

This article addresses the most critical issues of using Facebook for business in a very thorough and effect way. You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article along with the authors videos…

6 Ways to Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines

a chart to describe the search engine market
Image via Wikipedia

In an earlier article, I talked about the importance of blogging and search engine rankings. However, once you’ve got the blog up and running, the next thing to do is to start optimizing your posts for the search engines. Although search engine optimization (SEO) can be overwhelming to the newcomer, once you understand a few basic concepts, you’ll soon find it’s really not that difficult.

Good SEO copy and a search engine–optimized website accomplish three things:

  1. They’re easy for the search engines to read
  2. They’re easy for the target audience to find
  3. They’re easy for people to read

Everything you do to optimize a post is based around those three basic concepts.

So with that in mind, here are six things you can do to optimize your website or blog posts for the search engines

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go directly to the source to get the whole story if you’d like to get the 6 ways…

49% of Small Business Owners use a Smartphone

“Over the past few years, it seems that a few mobile devices — laptops, Bluetooth headsets, and increasingly, smartphones — have become ubiquitous among business people. The days of the pager are gone. Small business owners seem to be outpacing the rest of America in smartphone adoption, according to a recent survey of nearly 10,000 small business owners. While only 17% of Americans own smartphones, according to a recent Forrester study, a whopping 49% of small business owners are reported to own smartphones. Of those smartphone owners, 35% own BlackBerrys, 33% own iPhones, 25% own Androids and 7% own Windows Mobile devices. While the study didn’t include a comprehensive look at how small business owners are using their smartphones, we suspect that merchants are turning to mobile devices to stay on top of everyday business needs through e-mail, scheduling and calls. We’ve heard success stories from business owners who also tweet on the go, see the importance of location-based services, and are investing in mobile advertising.

If you’re a small business owner looking for a smartphone, don’t fall victim to the hype — know why you’re doing what you’re doing and make a smart decision. Here’s my perspective on selecting a smartphone…

#1. In many ways, the cellular provider you pick is more important than the phone you use in many cases. If you live in a large metropolitan area, this is kind of a non-issue but most Americans live in non-metropolitan or rural areas. An iPhone is worthless where I live because AT&T is worthless where I live. Before you select a smartphone, review the coverage areas of the network you intend to use and make sure coverage is good in all the areas where you do business and live…

#2. Having selected a network, the services you use should dictate the phone operating system you select. imho, all small business owners should select Google Apps for their business. Period. The Android phone operating system is developed by Google and optimized for Google Apps. BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Windows Mobile devices can all benefit from Google Apps but Android works best. My advice is that small business owners use Google Apps with the most powerful Android phone available from their carrier. Get the best phone you can afford…

#3. Having selected a carrier and a phone, find a rep at your cellular provider who has a clue. You may laugh, but finding a good rep can be a bit like Diogenes searching for an honest man. For me, my carrier is Sprint, my phone is an HTC Evo, and my rep is Cindy Otley at the Oneida Street store in Green Bay. For me, Cindy IS Sprint and she is a primary factor in my decision to stay with that carrier. She’s smart; she knows her company, their policies and the options they offer and she’ll work hard to help you select the plan and phone that will work best for you. I don’t make a move with Sprint these days without talking with Cindy. YOU need a rep like her, especially if you’re not sure about #1 and #2…

There was one more juicy tidbit in the post…

While only 12% of respondents said that they currently market their businesses through mobile — via mobile ads and apps, for example — other reports point towards an upward trend in mobile advertising budgets. In fact, spending on mobile advertising is set to grow nearly 50% to top $1 billion in 2011, according to eMarketer.” Source: 49% of Small Business Owners Use Smartphones [STATS]

More about that later…

5 Tips to Kick Start Your Link Building via Social Media Monitoring

Image representing Gist as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

Lately there’s been renewed interest in building links via social media monitoring. To build links this way, a link builder creates a monitoring search in their favorite social media tool and waits for it to find news stories, blog posts, tweets, comments, and other social content. Each new post is an opportunity to find a relevant influencer and build a relationship.

Unfortunately, in some niches or with some very narrowly-targeted searches, the amount of new content being posted may be one or two items per week, which wouldn’t exactly fill the link builder’s schedule. It’s important to start your social media link building with a thorough review of the amassed social content that already exists. So here are a few tips to find bloggers faster with highly-targeted, relevant searches.

I use Gist + Google Reader for social media monitoring; the first tracks the important Thought Leaders in my world, the second tracks my trusted news sources. Together they help me monitor the important people and sites in my area of expertise and give ample ideas for creating or curating posts for this blog…

5 Steps to Reduce the Pain of Starting a Business Blog

Darren Rowse - Photography Blogger Extrodinaire
Image by kk+ via Flickr

Blogging can be intimidating for someone who hasn’t done it in the past or grown up in the age where everyone has a personal blog.  It is, however, critical that business owners and marketers ‘blog for business.’  Putting pen to paper or more appropriately, putting fingers to your keyboard is the biggest challenge for most people.  So let’s talk about how to get started.

If you’re interested in blogging but not sure how to get started, you’ll want to follow the ‘via’ link above to read the rest of this article. If you’re going to start, I encourage you to set a goal of posting once per day. If that seems like a lot, remember that all your content does not need to be original! In my book, there are two main types of posts; creation [original thoughts] and curation [quoting someone’s content with proper attribution]. I uses tools like Gist and Google Reader to listen to subject matter experts in my field, quote their articles, and then post my opinion just like I’m doing now…

Comment, call or use the contact form to connect so we can talk about how this applies to your business!

400 posts redux; Lesson #1

Image representing Alexa as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

This is the first post in what I anticipate will be a 7 part series…

11 months ago, I posted this introspective piece on the results I was getting from blogging…

Yesterday, I passed the 400 post mark. 400 posts over 18 months. Wow! Roughly a post a day for a year and a half. Is that a lot? Is that too little? I really don’t know. What I do know is this — when I use my ‘pass or play’ methodology, traffic to my site increases and my ‘pipeline’ fills…

My good friend [and brother in law] Jim Gilligan has a blog that he’s starting for his life coaching business at EffectiveLiving, LLC. Jim asked me how many posts he should create before he goes ‘live’. I told him a dozen or so is enough to get started but recently I did an experiment and I believe the number at which you start to see good results is closer to 100 over a 3 month period. Here’s a real world case study…

I had neglected my business blog for a little over a year — my passion was politics and I was attempting to leverage my social media skills in the political space. My political blog was ranked most influential in Wisconsin a dozen times earlier this year and my Alexa ranking rose to within the top million sites in the world, but it didn’t get me what I wanted. More business. One year ago today, my business blog, however, had only served up 147 page views for the month. The whole month. Two weeks ago, I got 233 pageviews in a single day and my traffic so far this month is 11 times greater than a year ago [and the month’s not even finished yet]. By the way, the Alexa rank on my blog is currently 338,142. [That was in the US at the time — now my rank is 341,593 global. ed.]. All this as a result of 100 posts over a 3 month period. Pretty good return on investment, I think.

Yesterday, I passed 2,400 posts — 2,000 additional posts — in less than 11 months. What do I think I’ve learned? Here are some more or less random observations…

1. Blogging is the best, fastest, least expensive way to establish a thought leadership position. Period.

The key to thought leadership is having a point of view that is ‘searchable, findable, knowable and shareable‘ as I say in my seminars. There is not better way to do that then frequent reiteration of that point of view on the internet. If you use the right set of tools, it’s easy and fun to do as well…You can read my posts on blogging here, but two of the best I posted within the past week; read ‘Why I blog’ and ‘Confessions of a really new blogger‘ for two different perspectives on why blogging rocks. It is helpful, however, if you have a simple, repeatable process so that you don’t burn out…

There are 6 more lessons that I’ll roll out over the course of the next week or so; be sure to collect all 7…

The ‘e1evation workflow’ continues to deliver!

In my effort to develop a powerfully simple workflow for my clients, I came up with something so elegant that I had to use it myself. Here are the results after 1 quarter of use…

Ummm. Helloooooo!?

This is why they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The Oatmeal has communicated volumes about how the world perceives your email with one image:

You can move to the top with one simple tool: Google Apps! Google Apps allows you to attach Gmail and other powerful business apps to your internet domain in about 10 minutes… 

Use it if you don’t want the world to think you’re a Yahoo!

If you’re using Ubuntu…

Google Chrome Logo
Image by Randy Zhang via Flickr

…like I recommend [especially for older computers] then Google’s Chrome browser combined with GNOME Do is a great combination. I create application shortcuts for web applications and then summon them with a keystroke combination. Very fast! Very powerful…

Posted via web from The e1evation facebook page

The importance of curation

From a 30,000 foot view, there are two types of bloggers; creators and curators. Let’s talk about curation as an ‘art’ form…

“Content aggregation (the automated gathering of links) can be seen on sites like Google News. Overall, this type of aggregation has been seen as a positive thing for content creators and publishers, and up until very recently, it was left to technology. Content creation, meanwhile, was a human effort.

But all that changes with curation — the act of human editors adding their work to the machines that gather, organize and filter content.

“Curation comes up when search stops working,” says author and NYU Professor Clay Shirky. But it’s more than a human-powered filter. “Curation comes up when people realize that it isn’t just about information seeking, it’s also about synchronizing a community.”

Part of the reason that human curation is so critical is simply the vast number of people who are now making and sharing media. “Everyone is a media outlet”, says Shirky. “The point of everyone being a media outlet is really not at all complicated. It just means that we can all put things out in the public view now.”

Who are curators? What can they gather and re-publish? Do they have the right to get paid for curation? If so, who’s adding the real value, the content makers or the curators/publishers?

For creators — people who’ve spent their careers making content and trying to sort out an economic model — curation can seem like an end-run around hard work. And so the conflict ultimately comes down to this: Is curation about saving money? Or about adding value? The answer, it appears, is “yes” to both.

http://curationnation.magnify.net/embed/player/?layout=&playlist_cid=&media_type=video&content=X4R3BR2QN5MNHDJC&widget_type_cid=svp

“A lot of it is economic — doing more with less — and it has crossed every media industry,” explains Allen Weiner of Gartner Group. “If you think about the tools you want to give an editor to make him or her more complete, you want to give them curation tools.” It could be “something they add to their own content. As more old media companies attempt to do more with less, publishing tools that allow this efficiency without demeaning the product quality … [are] going to be very important.”

So certain things are clear — there’s an economic imperative to add curation to the content mix. And from a user perspective, well done curation is a huge value-add in a world where unfiltered signal overwhelms noise by an ever increasing factor.” Source: Why Content Curation Is Here to Stay

My guess is that this blog is 3% creation and 97% curation. Does it work? You’re here, aren’t you?

“Creating beats consuming”

Auren Hoffman has a great post on consuming vs. producing. He says…

“We are meant to be both creators and consumers. Today, however, most people consume far more then they create. Part of the reason for this is because being both a consumer and a creator at the same time is very difficult, and because goods and services have never been more accessible. But a healthy life is one that balances both creation and consumption.

When you consume you are often appreciating other’s work. You eat, watch movies, visit nice places, read books, and party. You vegetate to the sounds of your favorite musical artist on a wonderful couch while surfing Facebook on your beautifully designed laptop.

Creators do just the opposite: they strive to make something that others (or their future self) will appreciate. Creators toil, try different things, fail, and try again.” Source: Summation: creating beats consuming

…follow the link for the rest of his article.

It’s not hard to move from consuming content to producing content for your internet marketing. I’m working on a screencast to show you how Google’s Chrome, Shareaholic and Posterous can work together to help you make the transition from thinker to thought leader. Stay tuned…

Google Docs; the next generation

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_hJ3R8jEZM&feature=player_embedded

You can read about all the new improvements here. Just a reminder! If you’re already using Google Apps for your organization, these improvements to your product have already been made free of charge…

Decluttering Google Reader

Image representing Google Reader as depicted i...
Image via CrunchBase

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know that I’m a huge fan of Google Reader. Here’s a great post on what to do when you save too many feeds to Reader…

“If your Google Reader inbox has grown out of control, and you’re spending more time trying to keep up with the flood of news than reading about things you care about, it’s time for a little Google Reader spring cleaning.

Newsreaders like Google Reader are meant to help us read more content without constantly refreshing a list of bookmarks, in theory saving all kinds of time. If your Reader addiction feels more like a timesink than timesaver, it might be time to think about decluttering and reorganizing your RSS feeds for a more efficient reading experience. Today we’ll walk you through our favorite methods for pruning and organizing your feeds to get the most from your Google Reader experience without overloading yourself.” Source: How to Declutter and Streamline Your Google Reader Inbox – Google Reader – Lifehacker

Go to the source for some really great ideas that will help you be even more productive using Google Reader…

Spring clean your PC; outside and in!

CCleaner
Image via Wikipedia

Here’s something constructive to do this weekend…

“Most of us clean our computers about as often as we spill something on the keyboard. But to keep your computer in good working order, you should scrub it down about twice a year–more often if you like to eat chips at your keyboard. Before you start, you’ll need some supplies: a large microfiber cloth, a can of compressed air, and a solution of 50 percent isopropyl rubbing alcohol and 50 percent mineral water, and a pair of tweezers. Once you have everything together, shut your computer down (if you’re cleaning a laptop, remove the battery as well). Now that you’re ready to go, review these five simple steps for getting your hardware shiny again…” Source: Spring Clean Your PC in 5 Easy Steps — Life Scoop

You’ll have to go to the source to get the list, but before you do, here are some thoughts for cleaning the INSIDE of your PC…

Click the ‘Tune Up Utilities’ button at the bottom of the right sidebar and download a free trial — Tune Up Utilities is the only utility that I pay for every year. Unlike most tools of this nature, it works quietly and unobtrusively in the background without sucking the life out of your computer. If you only have $50 to spend on improving your computer [subsequent years are $30] then this is where you should spend it! Now, if even that’s too much for you, I suggest you go to Ninite.com and download these 5 things:

  • Ccleaner [used to be called ‘Crap Cleaner’; for getting rid of computer detritus and fixing other issues]
  • Defraggler [for defragmenting your drive]
  • Revo Uninstaller [for performing CLEAN uninstalls]
  • Microsoft Security Essentials [this free Microsoft tool will fix all your antivirus and security needs — after all, Microsoft caused them! It’s about time they cleaned them up…]
  • Chrome browser [because it rocks with Google products and if you’ve been reading this blog, you’re using Google products!]

These tools will serve you well — almost as well as Tune Up Utilities — as long as you remember to use them at least every week…
;-)

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