TheBigG&Business-v22 by Dimo Stoyanov

Strategy

BUILDING A VAST YOUTUBE AUDIENCE p80

Tactics

Marketing

EXECUTIVE EDITOR JAY ABRAHAM ON GOOGLE TODAY p6

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Inside

HOW TO COURT GOOGLE p54

SEO TRICKS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA p90 GOOGLE/YOUTUBE: SYNERGY OR HYPE? p42 WHY “LIKE” IS THE NEW LINK p86 DAN MILLMAN’S “REALITY CHECK” p94

Unofficially Helping Businesses Storm the Castle

What Keeps Zuckerberg Up at Night? $7.95 U.S.

Now at 40 million users, Google+ is a threat to Facebook — and the new “social verb” for your business.

by ROBERT SCOBLE

TOC

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Table of Contents

INSIDE:

COVER STORY

Google+ : The New Social Verb By Robert Scoble

Courting Google By Larry Brauner

Google and YouTube: Overrated Deal, or…Marketing Synergy of the Century? By John Persinos

The Brave New World Of Google +

By Kevin Lau

Columns: 6 JAY’S NOTEBOOK:

By Jay Abraham, Executive Editor

8 STOP THE PRESSES! By John Persinos

86 LIKE IS THE NEW LINK: HOW FACEBOOK IS REORGANIZING GOOGLE’S WEB By Dave Kerpen

The Fastest Way to Grow a YouTube Audience By Joshua Barnes

98 PUBLISHER’S NOTE: OUR MANIFESTO By Larry Genkin 78 HOW GOOGLE+ WINS OUT OVER FACEBOOK By Dave Taylor Departments: 22 THE SEARCH By Emerson Kim Lineses

90 SEO & INTERNET MARKETING By Mike Rotkin

38 THUMBS UP/THUMBS DOWN By John Persinos

94 REALITY CHECK By Dan Millman

103 THE POWER OF ONE Changing the World with $1

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THE BIG G & BUSINESS MAGAZINE LARRY GENKIN CEO, Publisher and Founder JAY ABRAHAM Executive Editor and Co -Founder JOHN PERSINOS Editorial Director STAN GENKIN Co-Founder JAN STEJSKAL Co-Founder ERIC YAVERBAUM Associate Publisher & Co-Founder MITCH AXELROD Associate Publisher - Business Strategy DONNA EASTMAN Production Manager WEBSTAZE DESIGN STUDIO Graphic Design and Production MIKE ANGLETON Associate Publisher KIM NORKETT Associate Publisher

KENNON FORT Business Development Manager TIERRA JONES Business Development Manager AED ROBERTS Business Development Manager

ADDRESS: GSG WorldMedia 1301 Skippack Pike, Ste. 7A, #218 Blue Bell PA 19422

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Disclaimer: The Big G & Business magazine is owned by GSG WorldMedia LLC and has no affiliation with Google whatsoever. Google 速 is a registered trademark of Google Inc. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Table of Contents

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Jay’s Notebook

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? By Jay Abraham, Executive Editor

“In my role as executive editor, I accept the responsibility as your champion, advocate, emissary, sword and shield.”

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f you’ve never seen the opening sequence from the musical, The Sound of Music, you might find the headline to this column confusing. It’s a lyric, sung by the sisters in a nunnery, about their free-spirited fellow nun Maria. They’re all befuddled, trying to figure out what in the world to do with a young nun whose potential seems infinite, but whose present value as a nun is, well, a challenge. I’d like to use this analogy to start our journey through the labyrinth pathways that combine to make up Google. As a businessperson, you need to clearly understand how to effectively utilize the enormous power and possibility that Google and now Google+ hold for you. In other words: how do you solve a problem like Google? Specifically where do you mobilize your efforts? What’s your strategy? How do you connect as credibly as possible with the community you want a relationship with? Do you even know what that relationship is supposed to look like? Do you know how it is best achieved? Do you know what steps are missteps versus those that are great leaps? I’m betting you still don’t have all the answers. In fact, I suspect that you aren’t even certain which questions to ask. That’s where this magazine comes in. That’s also why, in my role as executive editor, I accept the responsibility as your champion, advocate, emissary, sword and shield. Those of you who don’t know my background, I can summarize it for you. I put myself smack-dab in the shoes of you—the business owner. I try and figure out what

it’s like to be where you’re at, in terms of general knowledge, business acumen, and technological savvy. I will put myself on the line for you each and every issue—and in fact, I will do it each and every day, through this magazine’s intraday updates on the web. I took this role because I have the privilege, the responsibility and the huge obligation to provide you with ideas, advice, connection, understanding, direction, observations and incisive interpretations that you can use to make yourself and your business more connected, more respected, more meaningful, and more profitable in the world that Google controls.

Obviously, the social media sphere is vast. My hope and my promise is that each month this magazine will bring you sharper focus, clearer understanding and greater confidence about what actions to take. If we do that, your business will have benefited. If we don’t, I’ll have failed you. But I don’t plan on letting any of our trusting readers down. There’s an old Chinese proverb you’ve probably heard: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” By opening our magazine and reading my column, you have taken the first step. Shall we now begin the journey? G

About the Author

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CO-FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE BIG G & BUSINESS MAGAZINE Jay is a marketing legend who has been deemed as “possibly the greatest marketing expert alive today” by Success magazine. Over the past 25 years Jay has made billions for over 10,000 clients across more than 400 industries. Clients from Kawasaki, IBM, General Electric, Dun & Bradstreet and AT&T sing his praises and you name the business magazine or newspaper and Jay has been featured in it. USA Today, LA Times, New York Times, Investors Business Daily, Washington Post, Inc and Entrepreneur to name a few. He was the marketing genius credited with bringing Anthony Robbins’ business to preeminence. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen received the idea for Chicken Soup for the Soul from him and credit his marketing guidance for their 500,000,000 (and still growing daily) book sales. Forbes named him among the Top 5 executive coaches in the country, where he charges $5,000 per hour for his services. To date you can find more than 2,000 websites that directly reference his work.

Stop The Presses!

CROSSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE “The noun ‘Google’ has become a verb and a powerful business and marketing tool, as well.”

By John Persinos, Editorial Director

elcome to the inaugural his transformative technology—moveable issue of The Big G & type—still pervades society. Today, despite Business magazine. Why the mind-boggling advances of technology start a magazine in the and the decline of the newspaper business, fragmented anything-goes digital era? A magazines continue to enthrall, influence— good place to start is with the origins of my and generate large, devoted followings. own career. That’s because a magazine is tangible, it’s I began my journalistic journey as a colorful, and it fosters reader engagement. If a reporter on daily newspapers; I eventually magazine is printed in hard copy, it has what segued to magazines. I enjoy making the I refer to as the “thud” factor, which is to say younger members of my editorial staff when you throw it down on a coffee table, the laugh (or gasp in wonderment), when I publication makes a sound that reverberates tell them that I started as long as it sits there my career as a cub From Gutenberg to for passers-by to see the reporter on a manual cover. (This magazine Zuckerberg… typewriter—with carbon also is available in print, and back again paper in the carriage. by the way.) In recent years, I’ve been compelled to stay It has been estimated that Google runs over up-to-date with the Digital Revolution, by one million servers in data centers around the producing webinars, podcasts, blogs, and world, and processes over one billion search disseminating information through various requests and about twenty-four petabytes forms of social media. Journalists who don’t of user-generated data every day. The noun adapt to social media become dinosaurs, and “Google” has become a verb—and a powerful die a horrible death in the La Brea tar pits. business and marketing tool, as well. Long before Larry Page and Sergey Brin Once upon a time in the media, there was of Google, there lived a media mogul of a handful of all-mighty “Powers That Be”, even greater influence. His name: Johannes such as The New York Times, CBS News, Time Gutenberg. More than five centuries later, magazine, etc. Now, their stranglehold on 8

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Authoritarian governments are making a rear guard action against the Internet, with the aim of curtailing its freedom. We’re seeing this unfold in the Middle East, where social media helped precipitate the “Arab spring”, and even in democratic Britain, where “flash mobs” organized via social media wreaked frightening havoc in major cities. One notable example of attempted “cyber repression” involves Google itself, which deserves kudos for resisting the efforts of the Chinese authorities to impose censorship on its search functions. This magazine will cover all of these social, political and technological developments, always with an eye on how it specifically relates to your business needs. G

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John Persinos is Editorial Director of GSG WorldMedia. You can reach him at jpersinos@gsgworldmedia.com. John has enjoyed a long career in media and public relations. Notably, he served as a staff writer at Inc. magazine; a reporter at The Orlando Sentinel; managing editor at Campaigns & Elections magazine; publisher of the web site, AviationToday.com; editorial director at Aerospace & Security Media; and a press secretary to a U.S. congressman.

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information is considerably diminished. The Roman Empire that was centralized mass media is breaking up and we are entering an era reminiscent of feudalism, characterized by many centers of power and influence. If the mass media is the Roman Empire, then Google is the barbarian that smashed through the gates. The proliferation of viewpoints on the Internet can often advance the dialogue faster than a handful of self-appointed experts, much as the thousands of participants in an economic market can make the best choice about which products are best. The successful challenge posed by social media to the old media oligarchy is a heartening development, but we haven’t entered Utopia yet.

Cover Story: Marketing Strategy

THE NEW SOCIAL VERB: GOOGLE+ Previous Story

By Robert Scoble

Here’s why Google+ is a very big deal and what this new “verb-based” system means.

oogle is entering the social arena six years late but is leading the pack to a new world: one of social identity and interest aggregation. A world where you aren’t just following celebrities or sending photos of your cute pets or kids to family members, but one where nearly everything you do is affected by your social connections to people, brands, 10

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Cover Story: Marketing Strategy

places, and interests. This is a world of verbs. “Share.” “Plussed.” “Follow.” “Circled.” “Comment.” With tons of other verbs on the way thanks to Google’s powerful acquisitions, from YouTube to Zagat. This new world is not just your social graph, but your interest graph (hey, you like BBQ, me too!) mixed with your social graph (hi Rocky!) to my news graph (yikes, Steve Jobs retires, video on CNBC) to my location graph (you just checked into Yellowstone’s Old Faithful geyser). Put it all together and you have a new social verb: Google+. We never expected that, why not? Let’s admit it. Facebook has your social graph locked up. What’s a “social graph?” It is the list of your friends (the real life type), family, coworkers, and people you know and

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love. Maybe your “Must see” customers. Your YouTube! banker. The guy See Pg.23 who cuts your grass every week. The name of your favorite bartender. Almost all of those people are on Facebook and you probably already have good connections to them. Share photos with them. Talk about your life with them. Google+ won’t be able to change that much. At least not in the next 12 months. Why not? Because those connections are what geeks in San Francisco call “lock in.” They lock you into Facebook like velcro locks my feet into my sneakers. Go ahead and try leaving Facebook for a while. You’ll get complaints from your kids, significant

Cover Story: Marketing Strategy

others, coworkers. “I can’t find you anymore” or “I can’t tag that cool photo I shot of you” or “hey, I’m married to you but my friends are wondering what happened to you and why our relationship status isn’t ‘married’ anymore.” As much as Facebook has taken over our social graph, it hasn’t yet locked in other parts of our online relationships. For instance, if you are looking for a job you probably won’t find it on Facebook. You’ll hop onto Linkedin, or the new business social network that got hot in Europe and now is coming to the US: Viadeo. If you are looking to follow news, brands, or celebrities, of the search engine and content discovery you can do some of that on Facebook, but Twitter is a far more efficient place to do that implications of putting content into Google+. More on that in a second. (it’s also a much better place to complain to companies that aren’t serving you well). Google+ has a new notification So, how is Google+ going to change system that will eventually join all of all that? Google’s products. You see it on the top of a new social bar at the top of all Google A FEW WAYS; HERE’S SOME: products. This has deep implications for how, well, everything in your life will Everything in Google+ is built around come to you in the future. circles of people and things you want to interact with. These circles are like Facebook’s Google has lots of developers who love groups, or Twitter’s lists, but the entire service it, so when the API turns on (it was just is built around them and they aren’t bolted rolling out to the first developers at press on the side like they are on Facebook and time) you’ll see hundreds of applications Twitter (many Facebook users, for instance, that use social data. First examples of that don’t even know that you can send private messages to just, say, a small group of some of are the Topsy search engine that’s already bringing you real time content discovery your family members). from both Google+ and Twitter. Google+ is already seeing lots of Google’s Android will mean that tons professional content developers (we of users will push photos and location used to call them bloggers, journalists, information into their social streams. photographers or videographers) because

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Cover Story: Marketing Strategy

Google+ already has a quite capable gaming platform, so you can play games with your friends.

Google already understands our intent at a level that most other companies don’t. Why? Because we use its search for, well, almost everything. Want sushi in San Francisco? Google. Want to know about the drug that will cure a new disease a doctor just told you you have? Google. Want to know about the time in London? Google. All of these searches start building a profile on you and what you’re about. But Google can’t share that publicly, right? Well, what if you gave it permission to share some things? That’s what the +1 button is already doing for me. As Google learns more about your intent it will be able to bring the right content to you in the notification feed at the right time. All around Google+ you’ll communicate your intent through who and what brands you circle. What content you click plus on. What items you comment on. And the sentiment you use in those comments.

Brands aren’t being served well in either Facebook or Twitter. What do brands want? To be able to have conversations with customers on their term that lead to sales. Yes, we want to talk to influencers (verb=”influencer” or “Klout score”). Yes we want to help customers (verb=”support needed”). Yes we want to shove videos, photos, blogs at you (verbs=”rackspace media”). Yes we want you to share all those (verb=”important customer shared”). 16

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In addition to the new verbs, which will bring about new kinds of notifications on our corporate screens, Google+ will be a much better place for brands due to its integration with the search engine as well as the circles themselves. On Facebook you can “like” brands, but getting all their posts to show up on your feed is actually pretty tough and there are other problems as well. Brands can’t, well, brand on Facebook or Twitter. If Google+ does it right you’ll be able to put the Coke red more places. We’ll see as Google+ rolls out new kinds of brand pages.

Much better activity streams are coming. Twitter and Instagram just added activity streams, which shows you metadata about who you are following “15

for meetings with coworkers or with potential customers. HOW IT WILL AFFECT YOUR BUSINESS

Google’s infrastructure is fast. I’ve interacted 10’s of thousands of times on Google+ already. Every single time it’s fast and I’ve never seen a fail whale. Google is better at infrastructure than Twitter is.

Google+ introduces a new way to get to know people: video Hangouts. These hangouts let you get up to nine other people into a video room. They are great

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of your followers retweeted a tweet of you” but this is not all that helpful. Really what you want is a new kind of activity stream: one that shows you interesting contextbased metadata. What do I mean by that? “15 new people followed you” is pretty useless. “Your best friend AND 14 other people followed you” is a LOT more useful.

For businesses, what does this new verbbased system mean? Well, there are three things that are important to business: “customer acquired” “sale closed” and “expenses reduced.” How do you get there? Better service? A better product? Look at RedBull. They sell a product that, if you think about it, really sucks. Basically sugared water with caffeine added. If you didn’t know about RedBull and I gave you some to taste you’d spit it out and say “what the hell Scoble?” But RedBull is loved around the world. How did they do that? Simple, they attached their brand to some extraordinary attributes: extreme athletics. They sponsor all sorts of extreme sports from MotoGP motorcycle racing to snowboarding. Those sports lets RedBull make its brand seem energetic, new, fresh, and daring. This branding puts attributes into your brain’s subconscious, which makes it think it’s a bit younger and more extreme when you drink RedBull. They are using all sorts of social media to get your brain to pound this in, too. They have great videos on YouTube and Facebook. They have well designed pages on Facebook, and a Twitter feed. I bet they, and companies like them, like

Cover Story: Marketing Strategy

GoPro camera company, which is the camera used in lots of those RedBull videos, excel at Google+. Why? Because of these new attributes of Google+. Google Vice President Vic Gundotra underscored all of this in a conversation I had with him. As we comment, like, share, buy, review, or click +1 buttons we are, he says, building a portfolio of things that interest us. That will help us discover new content in the future. Why? Well, let’s say you keep talking about mountain biking, both in your posts and in comments on other people’s posts. You keep posting photos of your mountain biking trips. You keep clicking +1 on mountain bike brands, and other people who talk about mountain biking. You write a review or two about a mountain biking brand, or, maybe associated equipment or trails. While you do each of those things Google’s engines underneath Google+ are keeping track and now will bring you more items into your feed about mountain biking. Plus, it’ll give you a credibility score that you can’t see but will help your content get

into more search terms about mountain biking. Already Klout, another company in the social space, says they will be studying our Google+ behavior to build a similar score that it shares with brands. Gundotra told me that Google knows that our buying behavior changes when we know that either our real life friends like something, or that experts we know and trust like something. So, he says to watch for little pictures of both to appear all over search results on Google.com. This will drive a lot of business, he believes, and at the center of all this is Google+. This is why Google built the whole product around circles. Every time you drag a name into a circle you are telling Google something about yourself. Your interests. Your identity. That identity will then be used throughout Google’s products to improve your life. This is why I say it’s the new social verb. Google+ has an opportunity to dramatically change the social web and our understanding of how social media can change our lives. G

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Robert Scoble is a blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technology evangelist at Microsoft. He currently works for Rackspace and the Rackspace sponsored community site Building 43. He previously worked for Fast Company as a video blogger. He is also the co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers with Shel Israel. You can reach him at: scobleizer@gmail.com

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The Search: How-To

by Emerson Kim Lineses

THE SEARCH

Our Roving Editor Scours the Globe for How-To Advice From The Best Minds in Social Media. 3 Free Powerful Google Tools for Your Business, by John Harsdorf of BrilliantImpact.com, as it appeared on the following link Google: a Tool for Every Need

Harsdorf of BrilliantImpact.com lists three versatile Google apps to help you with your business: 1. List your business with Google Places. Google Places helps local customers find your business on Google Maps. A free listing on Google Maps helps users find you and Google Places is what you use to be listed. Customers can then use their computers or mobile to locate you. When you claim your business on Google Places, you can add your location and description, business hours, and even storefront photos. 2. Track your website marketing with Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a useful and powerful tool that shows you how people are finding your website. It gives you info on how visitors navigate your site and eventually how they become customers. It also tracks the physical location of your visitors, the parts of your website they visit, how long they stay in your site, and even the details of what keywords they used to find your website. 3. Listen in with Google Alerts. Google Alerts helps you know what’s happening around the Web about a particular topic. It is basically email updates of the latest and relevant Google results, including news results. It conducts a search of a topic you’re interested 22

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in and delivers the results to your email or to you via RSS feed. This way, you are kept informed on what people are discussing about your business or your industry.

How Google’s New Place Search will affect your business, by Guy Levine, as it appeared on the following link Getting on the Map Be there when netizens look up your business. Google Place Search makes your business visible to local users and does a lot more for your brand. When Google rolled out Place Search, Guy Levine expressed optimism for its benefit for your business. He outlines the following benefits:

1. Higher click-through rates. If you’re displaying images and a lot more information about your business, then you get more attention from users scanning through the search results. 2. Impact on pay-per-click campaigns. Place Search boosts your use of Google Adwords’ Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising system. 3. More telephone calls. In addition to an increase in website visits, you also get more telephone if you place your business numbers in the listing.

10 YouTube Videos Every Entrepreneur Should Watch, from Inc.com, as it appeared on the following link Must-See YouTube Who better to help an entrepreneur than another entrepreneur? Even better is when it’s done via easily accessible and free videos. Inc.com compiled 10 YouTube videos that entrepreneurs should watch: www.TheBigGandBusiness.com

The Search: How-To

1. Developing the CEO Within You. This video is designed to help aspiring executives prepare themselves to be strong CEO candidates. Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Bower says that potential executives should be able to ask serious questions, and also answer them objectively, about their own work and the work done by the company. 2. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. This animated seminar by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce gives insights on how workers are motivated to work and how to take advantage of that for your business. 3. Muhammad Yunus: The Social Business Model. This video shows a successful business model by Bangladesh economist Muhammad Yunus, also on the board of the UN Foundation. He runs Grameen Bank, one of the most socially responsible banks worldwide, which provides small loans to poor people and entrepreneurs with no collateral to help them become financially self-sufficient. 4. Can a “Green” Business Also Be a Profitable One? This video explains how going green can also be profitable. Gary Hirshberg, president and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, presents opportunities to practice sustainability in business. 5. Seth Godin: Ideas That Spread, Win. Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur, and marketing expert, points out that sliced bread, one of the greatest inventions of all time, has spread the world over because of marketing. He summed up his presentation with a very simple thought: “Ideas that spread, win.” 6. The Best Business Advice on the Donny Deutsch Show From the CEO. In this 2006 video of the talk show “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch,” Donny Deutsch hosted Sketchers CEO Robert Greenberg, who was asked what distinguishes successful businesses from the unsuccessful ones. Greenberg answered: persistence. 7. Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. In a very widely watched video, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivered an address at Stanford’s graduation ceremonies in 2005. He told three stories from his life, the common theme of which is having the ability to beat the odds and to persevere at the lowest moments in your life, a very important lesson to all businessmen. 8. Energizing Office Yoga. This video is chock full of healthy tips for the businessman’s body. The video offers several ways as to how an office worker can exercise in his workplace. It 24

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A wallet that packs a wallop! See Pg.39

teaches yoga stretches especially built for office workers. 9. How to Craft Your 300-Second Elevator Pitch or Networking Introduction. Kathy McAfee, executive coach and public speaker, explains how to make your elevator pitch for time efficiency. She says that demonstrating excitement for your product is important but it’s also important to remember to show restraint and tease your listeners into wanting more. 10. Entrepreneurial Advice From Billionaires. The wealthiest and most successful business persons, like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, share nuggets of wisdom in this video. Its bottom line is that the key to a sustainable business is creating a people-driven culture with a hard set of values.

Google Earth Builder: Managing & Mapping Companies’ Geo-Data, following link by Audrey Watters, as it appeared on the Getting Down to Earth

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Google Earth and Google Maps are just two of Google’s most successful tools, and Google found way to translate that success into businesses. Google Earth Builder aims to expand the reach of these location-based services to the enterprise market. And Audrey Watters explains how this Google tool will benefit businesses. It’s in the cloud. Google Earth Builder lets organizations upload, process and store their geospatial data in the cloud managed by Google. Along with Google Maps and Google Earth tools, Earth Builder enables company users, even without technical expertise, to share and publish mapping data. In the Earth Builder Page, Google explains that companies can scale services for traffic spikes, reduce server costs, and control source data. It can also help companies create custom layers, access its extensive basemap, and view and share maps anytime and anywhere. Audrey says that this noble idea brings a cloud-based alternative to GIS-service packages available in the market.

The Search: How-To

Are You Google-able? by Melinda F. Emerson & SecondAct as it appeared on the following link Create a Pervasive Google Footprint

Your resume may have the sweetest-sounding titles and impressive experiences, but your name being visible online via Google search is far more important. You must have a good social media footprint. Melinda Emerson makes a good case about being “Google-able,” which means appearing in Google searches, having social networking profiles, and getting bylines in blogs. She says that in this new digital age, companies conduct Internet searches before even calling you. Here are five steps, according to Melinda, on how to get started on creating an effective social media footprint: 1. Smile and click. Get a professional headshot, and make yourself look friendly. You will be building yourself online, but people still need to know what you look like. Your online profile nowadays gets more prominence than paper business cards. 2. Sign up at Linkedin. Get into the professionals’ world online by signing up to Linkedin. You could also sign up or create your pages on Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but Linkedin must not be left out. It’s the main social network for business people and professionals. And when you’re in Linkedin already, try these tips: make sure your profile is complete and that gauge says 100%; use applications like SlideShare to complement your profile, and create a detailed company profile. 3. Create a website. Register your name or business as a domain and create, for starters, a simple website. You should make a blog too or include that into your website. You can ask for help from a virtual assistant, who does all the mechanical work for you, so you can focus on more important activities. 4. Sign up for a Facebook account. A

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The Search: How-To

Facebook fan page adds to your online presence. Here are tips from Cathy Larkin, founder of Web Savvy PR: include keywords in your Facebook fan page; name those that customers will use in their search; set as default or landing page your info tab/page; and upload photos and videos to promote your products and services. 5. Don’t forget Twitter. It’s all part of online presence. With the millions of people on Twitter and the fast-paced interface, you can connect to customers more effectively and in real time. But these tips don’t stop here. Melinda adds these pointers to promote your online brand: decide what your social media objectives are, figure out who your audience is, create your Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, develop a list of interesting topics for your blog and website, and invest time in social media.

YouTube a Marketing Tool? by Lee Down, as it appeared on the Pursue an Idea, YouTube-Style

Lee Down says that YouTube is a highly effective ranking tool and traffic generator, but you have to follow these tips: 1. Use Google Insights to find out which keywords work best for your business. 2. Make a video, with a bit of humor in it, showcasing your business. 3. Fill the title of the video with keywords. 4. Include your website in the description of the video and load up more keywords. But that doesn’t stop there. You can do more after you made your video. You can embed the video into your site or post it on Facebook and other social networking sites. 28

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following link

The Search: How-To

The 6 Best Google Chrome Extensions for Social Media Sharing by Christine McCarthy as it appeared on the following link Get The Most Out of Chrome

Google Chrome is a powerful web browser already. But there’s more you can do to make it fit your online marketing needs, such as throwing in some Google Chrome extensions. Google Chrome extensions add functionality to this web browser. Christine McCarthy lists her top six extensions that will help ordinary users and online marketers alike in their web sessions. 1. AddThis. With this extension, you can share and bookmark blog posts, web pages, videos and other favorite sites to popular destinations like social networking sites. 2. Bitl.ly. Primarily, this extension shortens the URL of a webpage and sets up a Tweet (post title and shortened link) so you can send it to Facebook or Twitter or you can use the shortened link any way you like. 3. Buffer. The idea behind this extension is simple: spread your tweets out over a span of time so you don’t flood your Twitter followers by consecutive posts. 4. Amplify. This helpful extension allows you to choose clips from favorite web pages, add your own comment or opinion about it, and share it to social networking sites 5. Google Share Button. Very simple to use, this extension allows you to choose from a dropdown menu the designation of the blog post or webpage you want to share. 6. Digg. This extension lets you to “Digg” your favorite web content and share it with favorite social networking sites. There is also a “Random” button to discover new content.

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The Search: How-To

Google Places: the benefits to your business by Lexy Dykhouse,as it appeared on the following link A Place to Call Your Own When you want your business to get noticed, you need to provide details about it, so your customers know exactly who you are, what you do and what you offer. And in this respect Google Places helps. Lexy Dykhouse compiles a great detailed list of what you get for your business when you claim your business at Google Places. As an informative feature about your business, Google Places: 1. Posts info about your business such as the nature of your business, your business hours, contact details, etc. 2. Allows customers to print coupons and win rewards. 3. Builds online relationships with your customers.

With photos in Google Places, your business can: 1. Offer a transparent look into your brand and business. 2. Provide additional information about your products and services. 3. Make way for trust and strong relationship with clients.

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The Search: How-To

Google Places also has a customized code feature, which allows the following: 1. Codes can be placed on business cards. 2. Clients and customers can code into smartphones. 3. Clients and customers are then directed to your Google Places page. The analytics feature allows you to: 1. Find out who is looking for your business and how they found you. 2. Find out the search terms your customers use to look for you. 3. Use those search terms in other social media and websites to create traffic. 4. Discover where customers are coming from. Lexy adds that having a page on Google Places is an integral part of your business. Through this, your online presence and customer interaction are maintained at all times.

5 Useful Google Chrome Extensions for Blogging, by Akop Kesheshyan, as it appeared on the following link

The Blogger’s Friend Google Chrome is a relatively new browser, but its ability to allow users to customize its workspace is one of the reasons users love it. And bloggers, whether personal or business, have a reason to love it to because of these five select extensions. Akop Kesheshyan identifies five extensions that will benefit bloggers, and for business bloggers, these are indispensable as well: 1. goo.gl URL shortener. This Googledeveloped extension shortens URLs for easy social network sharing, It also provides a QR code generator, keyboard shortcuts, and lets you tweak its settings. 2. Tumblr one-click share. Tumblr is a hip and trendy blogging service that’s gaining popularity. The Tumblr one-click share

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extension gives you quick access to your Tumblr dashboard so you can easily share great content from the Web. 3. WordPress comment notifier. Many blogs out there use the WordPress system. For fast moderating of comments coming in to your WordPress site, this extension will give you instant access to your admin panel. 4. Feedly. This extension provides you with a magazine-like start page and allows you to read and share content to your favorite sites. 5. ChromeToPaper. For Instapaper users, the ChromeToPaper extension is a powerful way to save links and Web pages to your Instapaper account quickly.

3 Myths About Google Profiles and 2 Reasons to Have One Anyway, by Dan Schawbel, as it appeared on the following link Show Your Best Profile Companies now find you online before they hire you or add you as a partner or contact. That’s why it’s imperative to create a Google Profile. To be sure, a Google Profile promises to provide a good boost to your online presence. However, James Alexander debunks these common myths about creating a Google Profile. Avoid these pitfalls at all costs:

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1. Google Profiles Influence Search Results. With many people sharing similar names, Google doesn’t know for sure who’s who, so don’t get disappointed when you see little effect on search results for your name, after you’ve created your Google Profile. 2. Google Profiles Will Show Your Profile on Every Search for Your Name. Not true. Your name may come up in other contexts. 3. Google Profiles Will Make Finding You in Google Easier. You name isn’t enough if there are other names out there very similar to yours. Adding a keyword such as your company or affiliation might do the trick. Now, here’s the good news. Google Plus is the newest social networking site, and your Google Profile is added into your Google Plus page if you’ve created yours. Otherwise, your Profile still stands and it appears on organic search results if it seems close to being unique.

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

THUMBS UP / THUMBS DOWN

by John Persinos

We take the news pulse of the cybersphere, to rate the good, the bad and the ugly of unfolding events in the world of Google. Of course, our ratings are intended to be strictly subjective—as well as wickedly entertaining

A BUBBLE IN SEARCH OF A PIN?

oogle evidently believed that it needed to nail down mobile-phone patents so urgently, it paid the highest premium for a wireless-equipment company since the dot-com bubble of 1999-2000. Google, maker of Android mobile-phone software, acquired Motorola Mobility Holdings for $40 per share in cash, or 73% more than the stock’s 20-day trading average. That’s the highest premium paid in a wireless-equipment takeover greater than $500 million since 1999. After losing out in its bid to scoop up Nortel Networks’ licenses to a group including Apple, Google is now using its huge $39 billion cash war chest to buy exclusive rights to mobile-device technologies to compete with rival smart phones such as Apple’s iPhone. Sounds like a good plan, in theory. But that’s what a lot of folks said, when Time-Warner merged with AOL. And we know how that worked out. Now we’ll see how this expensive marriage works out.

WANTED: HUMAN EDITORS!

oogle News has created a new space on its homepage to feature “editors’ picks” of top headlines, and any news organization can apply to be included. To join, follow the instructions to provide a customized RSS feed to Google. This magazine welcomes the inclusion of editorial judgment from human journalists to Google News, which heretofore has been managed by algorithms. Marketers are advised to exert influence on these editorial influencers. 38

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LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

oogle is getting serious about fun. The search engine giant named the wellregarded industry veteran Mark DeLoura as “Developer Advocate” for games at Google. DeLoura’s previous positions included manager of developer relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America, lead engineer at Nintendo, and technical director at Ubisoft. This is Google’s first hire of a position that focuses solely on game development and game developers. And the gamers on our staff say: Cool. The more innovation, the more potential for technological spin-offs that benefit everyone.

A WALLET THAT PACKS A WALLOP

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oogle, Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint announced and demonstrated Google Wallet, an app that will make your phone your wallet so you can tap, pay and save money and time while you shop. For businesses, Google Wallet is an opportunity to strengthen customer relationships by offering a faster, easier shopping experience with relevant deals, promotions and loyalty rewards. “Today, we’ve joined with leaders in the industry to build the next generation of mobile commerce,” said Stephanie Tilenius, vice president, commerce and payments, Google. “With Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint we’re building an open commerce ecosystem that for the first time will make it possible for you to pay with an NFC wallet and redeem consumer promotions all in one tap, while shopping offline.” Google Wallet will support payments with two payment solutions: a PayPass eligible Citi MasterCard and a virtual Google Prepaid card. Most people who already have a PayPass eligible Citi MasterCard can simply add it to Google Wallet over the air, using First Data’s trusted service manager service. Or, they can fund the Google Prepaid card with any payment card. Simply put, we love this new service.

Tactical Campaigns

By John Persinos

Overrated Deal or… Marketing Synergy of the Century?

he answer to the question in our headline is a resounding: “Yes!” Here’s why. We’re a global economy, but to put our topic in perspective, let’s start with the planet’s biggest economy (for now), the United States. How can marketers use social media as a marketing tool, when so many challenges abound? According to statistics compiled by various consultancies that analyze 42

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Tactical Campaigns

about products and services. Here’s the key: a disproportionately tiny minority of online consumers created the bulk of these impressions.

Source: comScore

social media, Americans rack up more than 500 billion online impressions, peer-to-peer, regarding products and services — only about one-fourth the number of impressions generated by advertisers. A small minority (about 16%) of these online consumers generated about 80% of these impressions. Your job as a business and marketing leader is to create programs that reach and connect with this tiny group whose influence exceeds their numbers. The goal of this article is to show you how, using Google. But the lessons are applicable to all forms of social media. More than 145 million Americans engage in social media, but these are human beings, so you can’t approach them they way you’d approach content. Moreover, you can’t connect with everyone on a one-on-one basis, because of the sheer numbers of people with whom you’d need to connect. The challenge: leverage this huge audience of latent influence, in a low-cost, efficient manner and on a mass scale. Keep in mind, the scale of online peerto-peer influence is comparable with paid digital media. Consumers operating within social networks in 2010 generated 256 billion influence impressions on one another 44

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Mass influencers are responsible for 80% of the brand impressions in online social settings, but they make up just 16% of the U.S. online population. By far, people share influence online to the greatest degree on Facebook at 62%, with the other forms of social media running far behind. In 2006, Internet search leader Google snapped up YouTube for $1.65 billion, to grab center stage in the online video revolution. The deal unites one of the Internet’s most

Tactical Campaigns

ubiquitous search companies with one of its fastest rising stars. Google’s bet: the massively popular video-sharing site would provide it an increasingly lucrative marketing hub as more viewers and advertisers migrate from television to the Internet. As with most of its bets, Google was correct. CASE STUDY: “UNITED BREAKS GUITARS” But how can YOU leverage this synergistic tool? The case study of “United Breaks Guitars” provides the most instructive — and now legendary — example. “United Breaks Guitars” is a song written and performed by Canadian musician Dave Carroll and his folk rock band, Sons of Maxwell. The song relates the true tale of how his guitar was smashed during a flight on United Airlines in 2008, and the airline’s callous and indifferent reaction to the guitar’s mishandling by baggage personnel. Upon its release in July 2009, the song became an immediate YouTube and iTunes hit. As he sings it, Carroll’s guitar was busted while in the airline’s hands. He chronicles how, while he was on board a plane, he saw baggagehandling crew tossing guitars on the tarmac in Chicago O’Hare on his flight from Nova Scotia to Omaha, Nebraska. He reached his destination to discover that his $3,500 Taylor guitar had a broken neck (shown in his video). Carroll filed a claim with the airline, which subsequently told him that he was ineligible for compensation because he neglected to make the claim within the company’s mandated 24-hour timeframe. You can view the video here, which surpassed three million views in 10 days. 46

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How to court Google. See Pg.54

Guitar-maker Taylor immediately seized on the incident and produced an ad campaign that capitalized on the video, which was produced for negligent cost. United called Carroll to apologize and contritely informed him that the airline intends to learn from the experience. The larger issue here, though, is how you can learn from this experience. Small businesses, in particular, tend to underestimate the power of cheaply produced online video, epitomized by YouTube and its easily searchable nature on parent company Google. THE SEVEN GOLDEN RULES OF YOUTUBE Here’s a checklist of leading edge—but proven—tips on how to leverage YouTube for peer-to-peer marketing advantage:

Don’t give YouTube/Google short shrift.

Marketers seeking to deploy social media as a tool for their message often start with Facebook or Twitter but give nary a thought to the awesome power of YouTube. Be sure to add YouTube to your quiver of marketing arrows. Producing and uploading video on YouTube is cheap and easy, but it’s a great way to get discovered by consumers conducting a Google search. Many companies make the mistake of producing video and then letting it gather cobwebs on their own web sites. This video is usually several clicks away from the home page and generates poor traffic. YouTube is pervasive, helping you build email databases and lists of sales leads, as well as engaged

Tactical Campaigns

consumers. YouTube isn’t just for amateurs who upload pictures of their cats playing the piano. And, as “United Breaks Guitars” has proven, the video can spread like wildfire— spreading your message with it.

Utilize the sheer reach and ubiquity of YouTube.

YouTube is all-pervasive, quickly and easily available on just about any mobile device you can think of, whether it’s iPhone or Android. YouTube videos also stream through Google TV, Apple TV and Netflix. Remember this key fact that often goes right over a marketer’s head: YouTube isn’t just a repository for videos. It’s not just an archive for “shovel ware”. It’s a dynamic social networking site, whereby millions of users instantaneously swap and share videos every day. YouTube is an interactive, participatory medium. Viewers can “like” videos; they leave comments; they unearth peers with 48

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interests similar to their own by reading their comments on videos. The chart on page 32 depicts the number of monthly unique visitors that were funneled to social media web sites over the past year. As you can see, Google now represents the biggest network of sites, with more than one billion unique visitors. This milestone was reached in large part by YouTube, which contributes well over a quarter of this traffic.

Create a sense of “place” on YouTube.

Savvy businesses can set up YouTube “channels” that are de facto home pages of a web site, within which each video becomes akin to a sub-page of the site. Name your channel with all of the thought and care that you would pick, say, the URL for your company’s home page. Foster a sense of “place”, as if your YouTube channel were a legitimate destination, but

the point of your message—they want to immediately get to the parts that interest them. Don’t make them sit through a long, drawn-out video.

Tag, categorize— and specialize.

Be sure to pick the correct category and tags for your video. This aspect often falls through the cracks and many marketers don’t give it enough attention, but take a deep breath Keep the video short before you post your video and conduct some and sweet. homework. A little due diligence will show Folks nowadays have short attention you the other popular videos in your niche; spans. They’re as impatient and hyper as a run a search for similar content according Chihuahua on crystal meth. Video that’s to keyword and see how that particular made for the web is most effective when it’s content has been tagged or categorized. This punchy and concise; keep within YouTube’s way, you can minimize your competition upload file size limit of 100Mb. This way, and launch your video right into the most your viewers’ eyes won’t glaze over, plaguing viewed within your specific, more narrowly you with indifference, impatience, and defined category. high bounce rates. Viewers want to get to

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with the flavor and feel of a sub-culture that caters to a particular interest, which would be the interest to the consumer or business group that you’re targeting. Make the channel their clubhouse, in a sense. When you upload marketing videos onto your channel, the viewers won’t feel as if they’re being “marketed”. Marketing is exactly what you’ll be doing, but obliquely, through the back door—and ultimately, more persuasively.

Tactical Campaigns

Promote your video with YouTube emails.

Don’t be passive and just sit back, waiting for viewers to come to you. Your email database is pure gold; use YouTube’s email function to send alerts to the appropriate names and addresses on your email list. Remember: YouTube is a social community that can be connected via email.

Make it timely.

In the Internet era, news isn’t just daily—it’s intraday, moment-by-moment, nanosecond-

by-nanosecond. Capitalize on events, by timing your videos with a “news peg” that’s tailored to a certain event. Strike fast! The viral effect will be powerful. YouTube facilitates peer-to-peer networking, which in turn facilitates your marketing message, because it allows for cross-platform interactivity. You can link your YouTube account to your Google, Twitter, Linkedin, or Facebook accounts, which makes YouTube a powerful marketing force multiplier. Too bad that United Airlines learned all of this, far too late. G

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SEO

OURTING

By Larry Brauner

You need to develop a continuing relationship with Google. Here’s how to do it.

he Internet today makes up a large part of the fabric of our lives. Google, Facebook, Amazon and eBay have become household names. We use the Internet at home, work, and school, as well as wherever we happen to travel. Consumers and companies use it to contact people, find information and transact business. Your company has a site on the Internet. You’ve invested to develop it. Why shouldn’t you be able to harness the power of Google, Facebook and other Internet tools to draw people to your website and increase your company’s bottom line? Online business would be a cinch if only you could throw up a couple of web pages and watch sales flood in. Unfortunately, however, success on the Internet requires substantial planning, implementation and follow–up, not unlike generating results off of the Internet. You’ll need to acquire the proper mindset and a mastery of certain key concepts in order to attract and engage interested and motivated visitors to your website. 54

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In this article, I briefly discuss many of the strategies I‘ve found instrumental in the past to help me build my own presence on the Internet—as well as those of businesses I’ve worked with. I hope to cover these topics in much greater depth in the future. Also, just in case this happens to be our first encounter, I warn you that I have a rather dry sense of humor and a penchant for articulating seemingly random thoughts. Please try hard to bear with me and humor me.

About three billion people use the Google search engine each day. Some of them are searching for a product, service or information that you are able to provide. Google will send such people to your website, as long as the search giant finds your site and believes that your site’s content is truly relevant and authoritative with respect their clients’ searches. Consequently, you should be courting Google and developing an ongoing relationship based on mutual understanding and reciprocity. There are too many phonies and bogus websites online. You need to do whatever is necessary to demonstrate to Google that your web content is authentic, i.e., relevant, credible and authoritative. Google, in turn, will reciprocate and index your web pages, track your web pages’ content and direct targeted web traffic to them. When courting Google, establishing your website’s credibility should be your main objective. Attempts to manipulate Google through elaborate schemes will harm your credibility and endanger your relationship with Google. In the best case, such attempts will result in temporary deception of the search engine and short–lived success. However, in the worst case, Google will delist your website entirely, and it will fail to appear in search results for many months or longer. Your relationship with Google will be on the rocks, and your company’s reputation will have been sullied. www.TheBigGandBusiness.com

You should develop human interactions with Google that are based on mutual understanding and reciprocity.

COURTING GOOGLE

SEO

GOOGLE MINDSET

It’s an old saying that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Frankly, I don’t think you or I will Don’t underestimate the importance of be building Rome any time soon. However, having an effective paradigm and a healthy even building a modest Internet presence attitude. From what I’ve observed, failure requires both patience and endurance. Even on the Internet is most often due to lack of if you have sufficient resources to move mental preparation for the obstacles that quickly, your website will still be scrutinized stand in the way. and subjected to Google’s vetting process, Several close acquaintances, not to mention any names, of course, intelligent at their pace, not yours. I like to view web marketing as a marathon, not a sprint. and capable people, embraced blogging, When I launched the Gevril Group social networking and other web–based website in December 2010, the site tools at about the same time as I. Each initially had no traffic, just like other was extremely enthusiastic and wholly brand new websites. My work was cut out sincere at the outset, but each failed to convert that enthusiasm and sincerity into for me. My goal was to exceed 100,000 monthly page views on the site by the end tangible results, ostensibly because they of 2012. After eight months of publishing lacked sufficient commitment, or they content on the site and promoting it, lacked adequate focus. My perseverance only 13% of my goal has been realized. allowed me to accomplish enough to However, I’m pleased with the progress. remain in the game. 56

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The Brave New World of Google+ See Pg.66

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one course until successful.” That course and how you follow it are up to you. If you Google Larry Brauner, you’ll notice that I have profiles and content on scores of social websites. Your finding doesn’t necessarily mean that I lack focus. Casting a wide net is one of my principal strategies. Only about a dozen of those sites do I visit with any regularity, and I’ve joined the other sites just to be there in case visitors decide to drop in. Furthermore, consider that if you change your name to Larry Brauner, how easily will you be able to compete for that name in Google? I just Googled Larry Brauner and the first three dozen pages were about me. All kidding aside, although my strategies will I’ve laid a solid foundation for continued change over time as the Internet evolves, my growth of website traffic and engagement, course or objectives will remain more or less and in my mind, I see myself in a long– the same: Expose more people to my thinking, term marathon, not a short–term sprint. attract new followers and interact more. That’s Your website’s success may take six months, a my course. People are my focus, not websites; year, or even longer. You need to pace yourself, websites are merely tools. You will have review your progress frequently and, when chosen your own course, and your focus will indicated, make appropriate changes. be on that course, not on mine. By the way, chances are you won’t have Now, since you can’t accomplish the time or the expertise to accomplish everything, don’t even try. Invest your everything on your own. I employ effort where you expect the greatest return. consultants to help me with web design and Incorporate priorities in your planning. copyrighting. I’m also looking for a full time For example, I know that Linkedin and assistant whom I can teach to perform many Twitter are useful tools for me, but I find of my tasks. He or she will probably have a Facebook better suited to my way of different work style than I, but that doesn’t networking and marketing. I therefore have to be bad. I have piles of papers on my expend much more effort on Facebook than desk. Hopefully that person won’t. on Linkedin or Twitter. The opposite might Regarding focus, it has been suggested be true for you. Finding an optimal mix of that the acronym FOCUS stands for “follow activities will accelerate your progress.

SEO

During my career, I’ve observed more times than I can remember that simpler works better than more complex. That was especially true when I wrote computer programs and when I massaged data in Excel. It’s true now when courting Google. I never know what Google will do next, and I prefer not to shoot at moving targets. By keeping my approach very down-to58

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earth, I have the best chance of adjusting to inevitable changes. Mr. Eric Marder, a pioneer of modern market research who has since retired from business, was my mentor for more than 20 years. He often preached to his employees, “Make it complex and wonderful and the client will part in awe. But make it simple, and the client

SEO

will part with his money.” If you make it simple, Google will part with its web traffic, which is as good as money.

THE KEY ROLE OF RESEARCH Speaking of research, an integral part of building an Internet presence is conducting research, such as market research, keyword research, competitive analysis and web analytics. ▶▶ Market research lets you determine what customers want and how much they will pay. ▶▶ Keyword research allows you to find the search terms that people are likely to use to find you when they’re searching. Competitive research permits you to study what your competitors are doing, so that you can formulate a strategy for competing. ▶▶ Web analytics helps you to determine what keywords and traffic sources are working and what aren’t. It also helps you to understand visitor behavior. Research is important for planning, and it also plays a role in refining your methodology, once your initiative is underway. Do enough research to make informed decisions but no more. Beware of the phenomenon called analysis paralysis. Excessive research and analysis will undoubtedly hinder your progress. When you do make changes, strive to make only one change at a time. If you make more than one, you won’t be able to determine how each is impacting on your new results. THE RIGHT INTERNET TOOLS Google itself is a tool, as are all search engines. Google also provides excellent free research tools that I use often: 60

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1. Google Adwords Keyword Tool – A keyword research tool you can use even if you don’t buy Google Adwords. Click Here 2. Google Analytics – Helps you track and analyze your Internet traffic as your project progresses. Click Here Other important Internet tools include social websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus, Ning and Stumble Upon, content management systems, such as WordPress, and website widgets, such as Google Friend Connect, as well as many browser toolbars, such as Alexa, and addons, such as Rank Checker and Quirk SearchStatus. Internet tools not only save time, they enable tasks that wouldn’t otherwise be feasible. As I mentioned, social media websites are also Internet tools. A potential client for whom I may do some website optimization is skeptical about the value of social media to his B2B company that manufactures and sells specialized industrial equipment. I have to admit that finding a viable social strategy for his particular business niche won’t be easy, but at least one must exist. Social media can be a strong complement to website optimization. When a website is brand new, social sites may deliver the only traffic the website receives. You can use social media to cultivate a community around your website. If people appreciate your website and link to it, those links will help you rank better in Google, since links to your website signal to the search engine that your site

SEO

is authoritative – or at least credible. Social media is social and can be very enjoyable if you’re a social sort of person.

OPTIMIZE FOR HUMANS

You will certainly want to optimize your website so that Google will rank your site THINKING BIG AND SMALL high up in search results. That’s a given. When I set up Online Social Networking, However, develop your website for the in 2007, I made a serious error due to people who visit, not just for the search inexperience. Having had experimented engines. Don’t let your desire to rank well with online networking for four years, cause you to create website content that’s I elected to write about that subject and unreadable or confusing to your visits. decided upon “online social networking” That would defeat the purpose of having a as my primary keyword term. I could website altogether. have picked “social networking sites” or Your website needs to be optimized for “business networking,” but rejected them usability and conversion of visitors into because they were too competitive for readers, leads or customers. a new blogger according to my way of Pay special attention to the part of each page thinking at that time. Now that my website that can be viewed without scrolling down. ranks #1 in Google for “online social Visitors choose quickly whether to stay or networking,” it’s sort of anti-climactic. I not based on what they see there without regret that I hadn’t set my sights on more scrolling. competitive, higher volume search terms. Each page needs a call to action that tells I strongly suggest that you aim high for your visitor what to do next. Make it as easy the long run. Optimize your website for as possible for the person to respond to your keywords that are difficult to capture request or to reach you. Many websites make now. The trick is to also optimize for less it challenging for a visitor to get in touch, competitive terms too. You’ll grab more and the owners of those sites have no idea traffic not only in the long run but at the why their website doesn’t work. very beginning too, and your traffic will be It’s time to go. Thank you for reading. more targeted. Please enjoy the rest of the magazine! G About the Author

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Larry Brauner is an SEO and social media strategist with a passion and a skill for developing creative and comprehensive solutions to complex business problems. He has applied this capability in many areas, which include market research, computers and actuarial forecasting. Presently, Larry is Social Media Director at watchmaker and watch distributor, Gevril Group, where he focuses his efforts on social media and SEO for webbased marketing, branding and public relations initiatives. Google Larry Brauner or email Larry at larry@websearchstrategist.com.

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Leveraging Innovation

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THE BRAVE

NEW WORLD OF

By Kevin Lau

Social media upstart ”Google+” confers enormous advantages on businesses—in some respects, it already wins out over Facebook. Here’s how to benefit.

ou’ve probably heard by now that there’s a new social media venture in town. What’s it called? Oh yes—Google+. It’s only been in existence for a few short weeks, but it’s already grabbing the headlines in more ways than one. But here’s the big question: Is it worth joining Google+ if you want to promote your business online? We’ve scratched our heads and come up with three good reasons why you should. www.TheBigGandBusiness.com

Leveraging Innovation

They’re also reasons why Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, should worry about this new competitor: Getting in on the ground floor means you get more experience than anyone else. Okay, so Google+ is only open by invitation at the moment. But even if you can’t get an invite, you’ll be well advised to get in as soon as it opens up to everyone. Google+ could be the new Facebook and it’s certainly going to rival it in the future. If you start using it as soon as you can, you’ll be able to connect with all kinds of people – potential customers included. Everyone wants to know what Google+ is all about, so why not be there to show them? You can move in the right circles at the right times. You’ve probably heard that Circles is a big thing with Google+. Up until now it’s been all or nothing in terms of figuring out whether to share some piece of information with your friends or connections or not. With Google+ Circles you can separate people into different groups. So business contacts go into one group and potential clients go into another. Long term clients might even earn a group of their own. Circles are the way of the future, and they’ll be superbly easy to manage. It’s another way to promote your business—even when you’re promoting it elsewhere already. You should never pass up an opportunity to promote your business online. If you’re totally new to social media, Google+ is the name of the moment. Jump on board when you can

Building a vast YouTube audience! See Pg.80

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and look around to see what you can get out of it. Remember, everyone will be looking into it when it opens up for everyone to join. It makes sense to get a presence on there as soon as you can because you’re more likely to be found. Make no mistake, Google+ is intended to be a social thing. But so was Twitter, and so was Facebook. They both cater to businesses of all kinds, and Google+ will too. Just remember not to be overpowering and salesy about it. That’s not the best way to sell online anyway, so it’s no big surprise that social media networks don’t like it either. Time will tell just how productive Google+ can be when you use it to connect with people on a business level. It has the tools to be really outstanding. Will you get outstanding results from it for your business? The 3 reasons above should be enough to warrant giving it a try at least. Then it’s up to you to explore in more detail. GOOGLE+ CAN MAKE YOUR BUSINESS THRIVE WITH EXCELLENCE

Google Plus offers businesses many helpful tools and features to help market and advertise their company. There are many benefits of using this great tool so take a look at some of the great things that can guide your business to better positions. TOP 6 WAYS THAT GOOGLE+ CAN INCREASE YOUR BUSINESS’ PROFITS

Sparks While Searching. Sparks is a great feature that allows you to receive only the most relevant information to your search. This can be

informative and useful to them. Increase Traffic The best benefit for your business is to increase traffic. The more visitors that come, the more likely someone will tell their friends and family to also visit your webpage. Get More Points for Priority Placing If you placed a Google+1 button with your advertisement, the more value you earn, the more relevant your content will be to Google. Worth the wait? Most of us are aware that Google+ is a social network. This means that businesses shouldn’t really use it. But Google+ has taken the world by storm to such an extent that plenty of businesses are already creating accounts there.

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a huge time saver and allows increased efficiency in research. Google+1 Button Simple feedback similar to the “Like” button on Facebook is featured with this great tool. This convenient button on Google can immediately share an article or page with your followers. Video Chat Having the ability to video chat with friends and followers alike is a great bonus for Google users that may also need to have conferences of up to ten people in just one call. SEO Benefits Google can offer great benefits to optimize search results for your company’s webpage. Visitors can click the +1 button to indicate to others that your webpage was

Leveraging Innovation

However, this is all set to change because Google has announced that proper business profiles will be launched in the “third quarter” of this year. So will you be able to wait for them if you haven’t already got your own account? Here are three tempting reasons why you should: You’ll get a proper profile that has been designed for business purposes Apparently, Google has stated that personal profiles used for business at present won’t be moved to business profiles later on. So it’s well worth hanging on to get the best profile, even if it means waiting for a few more months. According to reports the business profiles will also come with analytics. This means you can get all kinds of information from your account that you won’t be able to if you grab an account now. You won’t be trying to fit a square peg in a round hole Google has admitted to getting it wrong when it comes to issuing business profiles. It should have been done straightaway but at least we now know they’re working on it. However with that aside, it’s better to wait so you can use the proper tools. While many businesses already have a personal profile they’re using on the site, it’s clearly not going to be designed for their needs. Sure, they’ll probably find all kinds of workarounds, but it will still be second best when compared to the real thing. At least we hope it will be – since the business profiles haven’t been released yet, we can only wait and see what else they’ll offer.

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You’ll be able to take advantage of all the updates and upgrades Google will make in the meantime. If you check out the Google+ site you’ll see a list of updates they’ve made since Google+ first launched. No doubt there will be plenty more of these before they finally get the business profiles up and running, so it makes sense to wait and see what happens. Any social media site that gets off the ground will have a raft of changes occurring, especially in the early days. By hanging on for a couple more months to get a proper business profile, you will be able to read all about these improvements as they occur. This should make life easier when you finally get the account you want. So you can see that waiting for a proper profile—now that Google has announced they’ll be releasing them—is definitely the best bet. In the meantime you can create a plan of action of how you’ll use the site and how you’ll promote your profile via various

Leveraging Innovation

▶▶ Do offer special promotions on what

means. A little planning never did anyone any harm, now did it?

A USER’S GUIDE TO MAKING GOOGLE+ WORK FOR YOU.

There are many things that can be done to make this great tool work for you. Always be consistent with updates and responding to clients or fans in a timely manner are just basics to making your webpage stand out. Take a look at the many other things you should do before continuing: ▶▶ Do keep things interesting and avoid spamming for posting vague or useless information. ▶▶ Do add a personal touch such as your real name but do not indulge in personal or unprofessional opinions and details.

clients actually want and buy often, not just expensive items or services. ▶▶ If there are ups then there will be downs, so beware of making simple mistakes that can make your site less attractive or welcoming to visitors. Review your webpage for any of the following before posting publicly. ▶▶ Don’t post too many advertisements or useless information that will only cause visitors to lose interest and leave quickly. ▶▶ Don’t ignore feedback or comments left on your webpage. You don’t want to give an impression that you are hard to reach or not attentive. ▶▶ Don’t lie or indulge because visitors cannot see you but they are not stupid. Saying too much or going off track can make your look like a scammer. A tool is meant to help market and maximize your business’ profit and good reputation. This is the most important function because social media is booming with the growing number of users who are looking online for the information and services they need. G

About the Author

Kevin K. Lau from www.KevinKLau.com specializes in Social Media Consulting and Online Network Marketing. His passion is helping clients to increase traffic, media attention, affiliates & subscribers. Learn more about Kevin at www.kevinklau.com/about-kevin and watch his Free Video on marketing. Follow me g+ 74

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Opinion

Why I Prefer Google+ By Dave Taylor

Ever since Google released its latest social network site (after the failed attempts of Orkut and Google Wave) I’ve been interested in assessing whether it was a better match for my audience and online community than the old standby of Facebook. At this point, I’m convinced that Google Plus is winning the race. To demonstrate why, this morning I posted a question to both the Google Plus and Facebook communities to compare how quickly and enthusiastically people engaged. Keep in mind that I have 1656 Facebook “friends” while on the asymmetric Google Plus network I have “circled” 307 people and 3656 have circled me. Here’s what I posted: Look up, then answer: What are the four links you most frequently click on your Web browser’s bookmarks bar? I write this blog post 90 minutes later. On Google Plus I have garnered a +1 and 18 comments, the first within 60 seconds

of posting. On Facebook I picked up 6 comments, and the first took almost 30 minutes to appear. That’s three times the interactivity on Google Plus, and faster too. If we normalize for follower count (for lack of a better word that encompasses both the Google Plus and Facebook models of connectivity) then Google Plus is still ahead with 50% more active commentators on this relatively plebeian thread. Just as Google’s home page is an uncluttered breath of fresh air after visiting search sites like Yahoo, so Google Plus, with its lack of game updates, banal fan pages for corporate products and advertisements, is a lovely respite from the chaotic world of Facebook. For me, Google Plus is definitely winning this pony race. What about for you? Which of the sites are you finding yourself spending more time and interacting more with your peers and social graph? G

About the Author

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Dave Taylor runs the popular free tech support site Ask Dave Taylor: www.askdavetaylor.com. He also writes a film review blog, a business and marketing blog, and a parenting blog. You can find him hanging out on all the social networks, too. Start here: www.davetayloronline.com You can reach him at: d1taylor@gmail.com

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Audience Building

By Joshua Barnes

joined YouTube in 2005, back when it was cool and you could actually find interesting content. At the time, I was most interested in indie-acoustic guitar covers and performances of aspiring artists. Now YouTube is clearly aimed at and for professionals and it’s dominated by major brands and labels. This is problematic for the average person or professional starting to build a fresh audience and competing with people who manage their channels full-time and have a staffs seems imposing to say the least. Additionally, most of the search results are limited by this and thus good content becomes very difficult to find. The corollary is that organic leaders are hard to find and organic audiences are hard to attract. People just don’t have the willingness to sort through the corporate “sponsored” content, or lackluster search results. However, that can change drastically for those of us who are in the know. The principle reason that YouTube is can be un-useful to the disadvantaged is because 80

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of the relevance searching mechanisms, search-engine-pruning that Google conducts and the volume of paid content showing up first in the search results. However, this can all be circumvented via some elbow grease and a neat little tool called TubeToolBox. Before we can really discuss the tool, you need to be aware of

How to

because now keep it personal activity real. See and professional Pg.94 activity affect each other and thus your results. Since YouTube is all about social interaction, finding other ‘tubers, has more to do with finding their content than it does finding them personally. Accordingly, unless your search string is perfect you’re more likely to find the content YouTube “thinks” you want to see, rather than the content you might actually be looking for. There is however, no need to be deterred if your aim is to make the most of YouTube for audience development. Let’s look at the tool. Consider a marketing message directly from their website. “TubeToolBox - Get Subscribers, Get Friends, Get Video Views all with the Best YouTube Marketing Software available!” TubeToolBox does what is advertises. Not by magic, or trickery, but rather vigorous channel management and maintenance. The developers understand that in order to maintain a channel and grow an audience you must actively promote it. This tedious task is accomplished through the automation of all the channel maintenance operations, such as accepting friend invites, subscribing to channels of how YouTube thinks about you. Youtube, via interest and sending out mass messages Google is attempting to draw conclusions as well, including videos! This is no small based on your usage, subscriptions and feat, since the effort by itself is so tedious subscribers and thereby filter appropriate and time consuming that without the tool, content on your behalf. This is evident based managing a sizeable Youtube Channel would on their subscription suggestions on the be a full-time job; literally! home page when you first login. The most interesting thing about how the For the professional this becomes tricky tool will help you build an audience is the www.TheBigGandBusiness.com

Audience Building

fact that it uses keywords and common interests, as well as demographics to target people to be friends with. This is important because becoming friends with someone, in the YouTube sense, is the first step to getting them to look at your content and possibly subscribe. The tool is easy and intuitive to use and you can download a trial here. Lest you think that this contraption and novelty of post-modernity is a cheat, you

must know that the process that TubeTool Box uses is well within the parameters of Youtube’s Terms of Use policies. The best way to think about the tool box is to consider it an automaton. It simply does what you would normally have to do to successfully promote your channel. The tool provides workflows for users to schedule the work they would normally being doing in the wee hours of the evening, after the kids have gone to bed. The tool is easy to use and simple to setup. It’s the easiest way to build an audience and attract the kind of content that you’re interested in. The tool comes in a free version and also has a paid version. The license is based on a subscription, so the cost is pretty low. If you’re trying to leverage YouTube to build an audience and spread your message, there is no more efficient way than to use TubeToolBox. I am a subscriber and love the tool. My only regret is that I didn’t know about it sooner. G

About the Author

Follow me g+

Joshua Barnes spent the last 13 years focused on technology and sales. His focus is now on social media. He is a technologist with a proclivity for abstract thought and process improvement. Notable career highlights include building two information security startups that focused on Web Application Security Pen Testing and a Software Based InfoSec Event Management Platform focused on bot net detection. Joshua established a blogging presence with an emphasis on building a personal brand as well as pioneering the Influencer Marketing Framework; a model that demonstrates the tools and methodologies necessary to create influence in any vertical via social media. Joshua is also a musician, former semi-pro football player, Father of three and husband to a beautiful wife. You can contact him at www.joshuaatbarnes.com or twitter.com/joshuaatbarnes

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Marketing Insights

Like is The new Link: HOW FACEBOOK IS

REORGANIZING

GOOGLE’S WEB

By David Kerpen

ou wake up one morning and your back really hurts. You’ve been putting off finding a new doctor ever since you moved to town, it’s been forever since you’ve had a check-up, and now you’re paying the price. The pain is too much to wait any longer, you’ve got to find a chiropractor now. So you grab your computer, go to Google.com and enter “back doctor” and your town’s name. You see a list of a ten chiropractors who have paid Google to be listed there and dozens of others who come up in organic search results. But do you really want to trust your throbbing back to a complete stranger in an emergency? Then you think of another idea and you head to Facebook and again search “back doctor.” At the top of the results is a doctor’s listing with a sidebar telling you that three of your friends “like” this doctor. Beneath the top listing is a chiropractor– next to which you can see two friends who like him. “Sweet,” you think. “Someone I can trust, because my 86

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friends like him.” You make a quick call, and you’re off to get your backache taken care of by a recommended doctor, a professional your friends “like”. This scenario and scenarios such as this aren’t happening en masse quite yet, but use of Facebook and the social graph for search and commerce isn’t far off. Think about it – why would you possibly make a decision about a doctor, an attorney, a mechanic, or any important product or service for that matter, based on advertising or Google placement when you can make this decision based on the preference and recommendations of trusted friends? Facebook and social media has made it infinitely easier to do the latter. It’s nothing short of a gamechanger for marketers and businesses of all sizes.

About the Author

Follow me

Dave Kerpen is the co-founder and CEO of Likeable Media, an awardwinning social media and word-of-mouth marketing firm. Dave’s book, a New York Times Best Seller, is “Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook and other social networks.” Dave is proud of his Likeable business accomplishments but prouder of his wife and business partner Carrie and two daughters at home in New York, Charlotte and Kate. Dave Kerpen, CEO Likeable Media dave@likeable.com

www.TheBigGandBusiness.com

The great news about the new world of communications we live in today is that everybody has a shot. Build a great product, get the word out to a few people, and make it easy for people to share with their friends, and you can win without spending

a boatload. Just five years ago, for instance, if you went to a new restaurant that you loved, you might have shared this with a few of your friends, family and/or neighbors. Perhaps if you really loved the restaurant you may have raved about it for a week to as many as 10 or 15 friends. Today, you can share these thoughts with 200 Facebook friends, or 300 Twitter followers, or 150 Linkedin connections all with 1 click on your computer or phone. No matter what the size of your business, organization, or client’s business, you too have the ability to follow the simple rules of social media outlined in this book to reap the rewards. Senior management, and anyone in a communications position for that matter, needs to know that marketing in a social media and Facebook world is not about broadcasting your message and getting the largest reach and frequency – it’s about tapping into the conversation, listening, engaging, and empowering. The loudest, biggest spenders don’t win anymore. The smartest, most flexible listeners do. G

SEO Tactics

OUT OF AFRICA: SEO & INTERNET MARKETING By Mike Rotkin

A Search Engine Optimization expert discusses the importance of using social media to boost SEO.

hat an amazing conversation I just had. While located in the jungle of Africa, I was speaking on a cell phone to this magazine’s Editorial

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SEO Tactics

Director, who was located along the Atlantic and are no longer doing anything beneficial shore in Rhode Island. While we spoke, I for the algorithm. could see monkeys jumping around outside There are over 300 parts to the SEO of my villa off Lake Victoria. Meanwhile, formula that Google looks for. Mostly the the Editorial formula is a business The reward for effective SEO is Director told me he standard approach drastically increased online revenue. was bracing for a that Google came up hurricane on his side of the East Coast. with, looking for what websites participate We spoke about the social capabilities on such social media as Twitter and that have arisen from the Internet, as Facebook. They participate by building links it makes the “virtual office” a practical to articles and blogs on social media sites, reality. The Internet fractures time and all of which demonstrates to Google that a space, facilitating social interaction across website is not just stagnating. thousands of miles and many time zones. The reward for effective SEO is drastically Google greatly influences the ways in increased online revenue. By conducting which we think and conduct business. search engine marketing, rather than Accordingly, Search Engine Optimization purchasing conventional commercials, (SEO) is crucial—indeed, I have made it traditional advertising and using the Yellow my life. And it should be the daily practice Pages, your company can achieve top of every business. placements on higher keyword rankings Within my SEO agency business, I only that matter. meet about 10 percent of clients in person, For a case study of successful SEO that I testimony to how much business is now conducted for a client Click here transacted online. My clients get back an ROI of 10-40 fold, as a calculation of Nothing speaks more eloquently than a their payments to me, from SEO and link case study. That’s while I’ll supply more of building. They gain high natural keyword them, in future issues. G rankings, which most companies don’t About the Author understand. It takes knowledge of how to fulfill Google’s daily requirements within Mike Rotkin in the CEO Of SEOChampion, a global its algorithms. Internet marketing SEO That is the brilliance of how Google agency, established operates. As I’ve stated many times during in 1999 In Las Vegas, my speaking engagements around the world, specializing in achieving Google is still a pioneer. My job in utilizing for clients top Google SEO is to move my clients’ websites to the organic keyword eankings: top of major keywords, in turn moving Follow me g+ www.seochampion.com down websites that have been there for years 92

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Professional Development

REALITY CHECK The best-selling author shows you how to “keep it real” in the virtual age. By Dan Millman

FIRST, SOME PERSPECTIVE… In the context of human history, social media — a natural evolution of the Internet age — appeared like an explosion in the human psyche. We’re still reeling from its effects, even as we do our best to stay ahead of the curve, or at least ride that cuttingedge of the waves of change. New programs, apps, smart devices — who knows what will follow — ear-insets or embedded chips that propel us toward a virtual life in The Cloud? The purpose of my column, and the text, video, and audio reminders provide a grounded perspective about Real Life Here on Earth. Let’s use technology, but not let it use us. Our biology has been around far longer than our technology. So even as the pace of life, and access to information, grows exponentially, let’s take a deep breath, relax back into (the rest of) our body, and remember where we live — here and now. Other contributors to this magazine will provide you with insights and perspectives about Google and how to make the best use of it in service of your goals. My aim is 94

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to bring you back to your center, to support your health, reduce stress, and address some of life’s core issues that all of us face. Mark Twain once said, “I’ve had many troubles in my life — most of which never happened.” Profound words that may bring a smile, because most of us get lost in (cyber) space, forgetting the essential beautify of the here and now, even as we rocket ahead at digital-light speed, interconnecting, networking (in every sense of the word), and reaching out to others in mutual support. If we view our Earth as a living creature, floating in space — and ourselves as a part of that body — we can grasp the vision of the Internet as the nervous system of our planet. Our ever-increasing connection represents an evolutionary leap of this

and outreach. It’s not just about making a living, or gathering friends — it’s about making a life online and offline (we call it the Real World). In that real world, we each face challenges that are part of the “spiritual weight-training” in everyday life. By doing regular, moderate exercise, eating a balanced, nutritious diet, and getting enough rest, we are able to better face and move through the issues that rise and fall like waves. (We can’t predict or control them, but we can learn to surf.) In this first issue of The Big G & Business magazine, I’ll offer multi-media guidance and reminders about some of life’s core issues, in support of your growth and wisdom, so that you can make better use not only of Google, but of all the changing www.TheBigGandBusiness.com

Organism we call “Earth.” What a wonder we are part of! And it may do us good, now and then, to contemplate that wonder, that bigger-picture, so that we don’t become preoccupied with “how am I going to use Google to get my start-up off the ground / promote my book / build my platform?” When I was a coach at Stanford University, and later working with professional athletes and Olympians, I would remind the athletes: Don’t simply dedicate your life to your sport; rather, dedicate your sport to your life. I would offer that same advice to you regarding Google. This phenomenal social network avenue is a tool. Use it wisely and in moderation. Focus on quality rather than quantity. Remember your deeper, larger mission that gives meaning to your posts

Professional Development

opportunities and innovations that come our way. We begin this column with a two-part, 5-minute video on a universal topic relevant to us all, to help anyone face each day with a peaceful heart and a warrior’s spirit. I welcome your comments or questions: pw@danmillman.com.

—the only thing you are guaranteed to keep for an entire lifetime. Here we address its care and feeding. Here’s Part One:

ENERGIZING YOUR BODY Astronomers tell us that our universe is expanding at ever-increasing speeds. The same seems true of the growing universe of Google. So let’s say you’re up-tospeed—even ahead of the curve—in this digital galaxy. Terrific! But back here on Earth, as close to home as our own bodies, we’re reminded daily (depending on age and current condition), that the primary hardware we need to upgrade is our own. As our grandmothers told us: “If you don’t have your health, what else matters?” (And “Eat your vegetables!”) My first video here—part one of a two-art series continued next issue—offers practical reminders about how to energize your body

As Sergei Brinn, co-founder of Google (and master’s springboard diving competitor) fully appreciates, it takes fit hardware to properly run our software. And it takes energy. Enhanced energy improves any human capacity—and human capacity, after all, is what runs Google, even as Google helps catapult us all into the future. G

About the Author

Follow me g+

Dan Millman — a former world champion athlete, Stanford coach, martial arts instructor, and college professor — is author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior (adapted to film with Nick Nolte in 2006), and 14 other books read by millions of people in 29 languages. Dan teaches worldwide and has influenced people from all walks of life, including leaders in the fields of health, psychology, education, business, politics, sports, entertainment and the arts. Dan and his wife, Joy, live in Northern California. His most recent book is The Four Purposes of Life. www.peacefulwarrior.com

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Publisher`s Note

Our manifesto for the Big G & Business

By Larry Genkin, Founder & Publisher

“Internetization” (to coin a phrase) is one of the major inflection points in the history of business. As with manufacturers who, at the turn of the century, failed to embrace automation, companies today that don’t migrate fully to embrace the Internet, and all it offers, will find themselves at a critical, and likely fatal, competitive disadvantage to those that do.

nd, to many in business today, using the Internet is nearly synonymous to using social media and, in specific, its four largest services: Google, Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin. To illustrate how ubiquitous and important these social media services have become, you just 98

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need to compare it to the technology adoption cycle of other major media/business tools. For example, it took 37 years for radio to reach 50 million listeners, 34 years for the telephone to have 50 million customers and 13 years for television to reach 50 million viewers. By comparison today, Linkedin (the smallest of

the four services) in just 8 years, has over 100 million users. Twitter, in less than 5 years, has over 200 million. Facebook, in less than 7 years, has over 750 million (roughly 1 out of every 12 people on the planet have a Facebook account). And Google, founded in 1998, has more users than Facebook. These are hugely important services for business, because today social media is impacting every single aspect of the enterprise. From sales, marketing and PR to HR and investor relations, no corporate function remains untouched. However, because these services are so new and are evolving so rapidly, most businesses don’t fully know how to utilize them. And those that do are constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve, which is not easy given all of the rapid changes as these services roll out new functionality at a remarkably staggering pace. These services are far from “under the radar.” Mainstream media covers Google, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter extensively everyday. Typical coverage will be stories like: capitalization

ӹӹ Facebook’s privacy issues ӹӹ Google’s algorithmic modifications ӹӹ Twitter’s acquisitions or new policies

THEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM. The kind of content published is primarily news about the specific service/company. While potentially valuable to an investor or tech geek, this “news” is inherently not useful to a business person looking

There are five factors that distinguish our editorial from the plethora of social media content that is spawned daily in the media.

It’s Exclusively For Business People

In the early days, social media was dominated by tech geeks, music hipsters and teenage girls gossiping about their latest crush. They would all hate our magazines. We don’t talk about the IP protocols that make social media work. We don’t share any tips on cool new bands. And we wouldn’t recognize Justin Bieber if we stumbled across him at a Jonas Brothers concert. We are all about business. Specifically, how business people can use Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin & Google to help their businesses succeed. www.TheBigGandBusiness.com

ӹӹ Linkedin’s stock price and subsequent market

to use these services for their restaurant, consulting firm, dental practice or other kind of business. These business people need substantive, actionable, how-to information that teaches them precisely how to utilize these powerful services to enhance their businesses. The problem is that this kind of information is not easily available in one place ... until now. Each of our social media magazines will solve this problem by finding the best content available, wherever it currently resides (and in whatever format, whether it’s written, audio or video) and make it easily accessible. Most importantly, we’ll make it USABLE for business people everywhere.

Publisher`s Note

It’s Not Necessarily The News

Today, the vast majority of information written on social media is utterly useless to a business person. Dozens upon dozens of stories are published daily on topics related to social media that are interesting for an analyst or investor, but a waste of time for a business person. Our editorial is not about news. It’s about “HOW-TO.” Specifically how business people can use Google, Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook to make their businesses better, stronger and faster. (Maybe even thinner and more attractive.) HERE’S OUR APPROACH:

We start by heading our magazines with editors who are world-class experts:

ӹӹ Jay Abraham (The Big G & Business): The

highest paid marketing consultant in the world—$5,000 per hour—and recognized by Success magazine as “possibly the greatest marketing expert alive today.”

ӹӹ Jeffrey Hayzlett (Tweeting & Business): Former

CMO of Kodak, largely credited for bringing their marketing into the digital age. One of the top 10 C-Level tweeters in the world.

The “unifying intelligence,” if you will, is provided by one of the most seasoned professional journalists that I know: John Persinos. As our Editorial Director, John ensures the highest possible journalistic standards for all of our magazines.

We get our experts to tap their vast network of thought leaders to get the best and brightest minds on social media creating content for us.

Our editorial staff scours the Internet daily to find great content. We don’t suffer from “not created here” syndrome. Our only litmus test is: Is it great content? If it is, we’ll make it available to our millions of readers. Today this approach may be cuttingedge. In the future, we believe it will be obvious that this is how all magazines should be created. I’d really love to hear from you and get your feedback on the magazine. Tell me what you like, what you dislike and most importantly, what we should be doing. You can reach me at: larry@socialmediamags.com. G

ӹӹ Mari Smith (fb & Business): Recognized

as the world’s leading expert on Facebook for business.

ӹӹ Nathan Kievman (LI & Business):

Recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on Linkedin.

100

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Larry Genkin, Founder & Publisher