We are in the B2B Social Media Era, Either Board the Social Media Train or Get Left at the Station

If you are in business today you need a social media strategy. You know like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter…

It is no longer possible to use the excuse that your business is business to business so you don’t need to participate in social media.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Answers, Blogs…, the B2B world has come of age. Regardless of whether your business is B2B or B2C social media is a viable marketing strategy today!

In a recently released B2B Social Media Benchmarking study the writing has been left on the station wall. Businesses are using social media and they are using it at a very high rate. If you don’t have your social media marketing strategy in place yet it is time to get on board.

The 2009 B2B Social Media Benchmarking Study from Business.com gives us some great insight into the use of social media for businesses today. For those of you who really like the numbers here are some that should get things rolling.

The top 5 social media resources as the most popular for business information:

• 69.1% – Attend webinars or listen to podcasts
• 62.2% – Read user ratings & reviews for business products or services
• 62.1% – Visit company or product profile pages on social media sites
• 55.1% – Visit company blogs
• 54.5% – Conduct searches for information on social media sites

This information can be broken down to company size and the comparison is very interesting.

Small Businesses less than 100 employees:

• 67% – Attend webinars or listen to podcasts
• 63% – Read user ratings & reviews for business products or services
• 61% – Visit company or product profile pages on social media sites
• 54% – Visit company blogs
• 54% – Conduct searches for information on social media sites
• 34% – Subscribe to RSS feeds of business-related news of information sites
• 28% – Use Twitter to find or request business-related information
• 27% – Save business-related links on social bookmarking sites

Medium to Large Businesses 100+ employees:

• 84% – Attend webinars or listen to podcasts
• 70% – Visit company or product profile pages on social media sites
• 70% – Read user ratings & reviews for business products or services
• 66% – Conduct searches for information on social media sites
• 64% – Visit company blogs
• 62.1% – Visit company or product profile pages on social media sites
• 48% – Subscribe to RSS feeds of business-related news of information sites
• 46% – Use Twitter to find or request business-related information
• 36% – Save business-related links on social bookmarking sites

In all but one case – reading user ratings and reviews for business products or services – a higher percentage of mid- to large-sized company respondents reported utilizing a given social media resource than did small business respondents. The fact that small business respondents show more active interest in business product/service ratings and reviews makes sense – small businesses typically lack the more formalized purchasing process found in mid- to large-sized companies, and these ratings and reviews provide additional, useful information to support the purchasing decision process.

When it comes to active participation on social media web sites, such as participating in online business communities or forums, or asking questions on Q&A sites like Yahoo! Answers or LinkedIn Answers, there were no significant differences between small company and mid- to large-sized company respondents.

When it comes to online social community participation there seems to be very little difference when it comes to company size.

Small Businesses less than 100 employees:

• 52% – Participate in online business communities or forums
• 50% – Ask questions on Q&A sites (e.g.LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers…)
• 29% – Participate in discussions on 3rd party sites

Medium to Large Businesses 100+ employees:

• 52% – Participate in online business communities or forums
• 46% – Ask questions on Q&A sites (e.g.LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers…)
• 32% – Participate in discussions on 3rd party sites

If you are in business are you active on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Answers? Do you have a blog? If not why not? We are in the digital age changes are only a click away. Just jump aboard this “social media train” it can be fun, informative, and rewarding. If you aren’t on any train yet try LinkedIn.

Late,
Gary Pool SEO

Businesses Are Using Social Media – What is Your Social Media Strategy? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

This is a guest post by social media strategist Taylor Ellwood

There’s a lot of hype about Four Square and the geo location technology it offers. So much so that Twitter and Facebook, and other social media services are starting to integrate geo location technology into their interfaces. Geo location technology basically shows the exact location you are sending a status update from, and can sometimes involve telling people where you are. A lot of people are really into using this technology, especially because Four Square has made it into a game, where you can get virtual awards for showing up a place and telling people you are there. This allows you to compete with other people on Four Square.

However, in their rush to win virtual awards, what Four Square users seem to have forgotten or not thought through are the potential consequences for posting their exact location to other people. The danger in this technology is that people can use knowing your exact location against you. For example, one social media expert I know told me how she’d posted her latest location at a restaurant. While getting ready to eat, she was called by two men who told her that thanks to Four Square they knew exactly where she was. They told her they were breaking into her home to steal everything she had. Needless to say getting such a call understandably frightened her. She got a friend to escort her home, where she found out her place had not been broken into. She had just been pranked. But that experience opened her eyes and she stopped using Four Square.

In truth, she was lucky she only got pranked, but the reality is that Four Square’s geo location can be used for much worse. After all, she really could have been robbed. And if someone wanted to stalk her or rape her, or do something worse, it wouldn’t be very hard to use Four Square’s geo location technology to keep track of where she was and then make a move. And in the end, Four Square won’t recompense her for stolen goods or anything else for that matter.

The other problem however, is that there isn’t a very clear reason as to why geo location technology is actually useful. What function or purpose does it serve to announce to everyone exactly where you are? Sure you can tell friends who then might meet up with you, but you can also use the phone, email, text, or a direct message to do the same.

Four Square’s geo location technology ultimately presents less benefit than it provides. Just because people can use it, doesn’t mean they should use it. Without a clear benefit, beyond virtual awards, Four Square and other such similar services provide more opportunities for people to be stalked, robbed, or otherwise harmed. Of course, it’s not solely the technology’s fault. The lack of common sense displayed by people who use this technology without considering the consequences also is a problem. That people haven’t clearly thought out what could occur is evident when they use this technology indiscriminately and post it to all their social networking sites. in the end, no virtual award is worth the risks that this technology increases. While it’s true that any person could be robbed, stalked, etc., it’s also true that the less you do to open yourself up to it, the less chance it is that it will occur.

In the age of social media, while it is easier for us to tell each other where we are, it’s more important than ever to employ common sense and carefully consider what we tell people and what technology we use to tell people. While I do tell people what I’m doing, I keep the location information and time vague in my social media updates. I focus on informing people more about what I’m doing, as opposed to where I’m doing it.

Why social media geo-location technology isn’t as good as it seems is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

The Battle over US Internet Supremacy Goes to Facebook as Google has to take the Back Seat for a Week

It has happened before but… Facebook beat out Google on individual days during the holidays but this time it is for a full week.

Information released from Experian Hitwise shows that Facebook won the traffic title from Google for an entire week.

Does this mean that Google’s evil empire is being defeated by the Social Rebellion? Has Facebook learned to use the “force” to help them defeat Google?

Here is a graph from Experian Hitwise that will show the battle.

(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)

Hitwise Intelligence – Heather Dougherty – North America
Facebook Reaches Top Ranking in US
March 15, 2010

Facebook reached an important milestone for the week ending March 13, 2010 and surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website for the week. Facebook.com recently reached the #1 ranking on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day as well as the weekend of March 6th and 7th. The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame. Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of all US Internet visits last week.

What can be learned from the fact that people are visiting Facebook more than Google?

Is Google’s core business being a search engine in danger? Google is a search engine it is a tool, and one that works on getting better every day.

Facebook only search is designed to bring users to Facebook. Social networking is the new kid on the internet block. It is still riding the peak of the wave.

Facebook can now leverage those user visits to gain a controlling interest in the online ad-placement business. Google’s advertisers may begin to migrate to the higher traffic site.

The paid advertising on Google’s search results is their monetization. Can Facebook cut deep enough to draw Google blood?

Only time will tell.

Late,
Gary Pool SEO

Google Loses Traffic Battle to Facebook for the First Time is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Does Social Influence have any Effect on Customer Service?

This is a guest blog post from social media strategist Taylor Ellwood

There’s a lot of hype made about social media and how it empowers the customer, especially when it comes to actually getting businesses to listen to what the customer has to say. But I’m a skeptic, and from everything I’ve observed, while social media is certainly a useful tool for connecting with people and building relationships and doing research on something you want, I don’t agree that it empowers the consumer as much as some other digital strategists argue that it does. And the reason for that is simple: Unless you have social influence, companies don’t care about your complaints.

That sounds harsh, but it’s also true. The news stories that get frequented about how people are using social media to embarrass companies and get them to actually perform real customer service occurs usually due to one overwhelming factor. That factor is how many followers a person has. For example, the president of Maytag recently called a blogger up and apologized for his company’s customer service and got her washer fixed, but only because that person had thousands of followers and had gotten those followers to support her, when Maytag’s customer service department refused to help her out. In another case, an artist’s work was ripped off by a company, and it was only when Neal Gaiman posted about it that the company even started to talk with her or offer some form of payment for her work.

My point is that while social media is a very public space, it does not guarantee that companies will provide better customer service or automatically care about what their customers think. Additionally with social media monitoring tools such as what Scout Lab provides, some companies can try to manage the negativity behind changing the rating toward them using some of the tools that social media monitoring companies provide. While this is a dubious practice at best, it is one that companies can use as a way of managing how they are perceived.

However, consumers can develop strategies of their own to get someone to listen. Finding someone who has a lot of social influence, and convincing that person of the worthiness of your cause can help to spread news about a company and its poor customer service. If enough people read and agree with the influencer then the company will have to respond, if only because the spike in negativity will embarrass them enough to make them listen to the original complaint and solve it.

However what ultimately would be ideal is if businesses simply learn to be proactive in their customer service, especially on social media sites. Social media provides consumers an opportunity to complain about a company very easily, but the company can choose to respond and try and solve the issue instead of just trying to avoid it or ignore it. Companies can also build on positive interactions by taking time to comment on a customer that mentions their brand. By building some positive social influence of their own companies can show that they actually care about their clients, and create customer service that actually serves the customer instead of trying to avoid the customer.

Social Influence and Customer Service is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How to Create Your Own Facebook Fan Page Step by Step

We are going to go through the steps to create a Facebook Fan Page.

The first thing you are going to need is a Facebook account. If you don’t have one yet you will need to sign up for one first.

Now that you have signed up… Just sign in and…

According to the Facebook Overview

A Facebook Page is a customizable presence for an organization, product, or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users. The Page focuses on the stream of content posted by the Page administrators.

By leveraging the real connections between friends on Facebook, a Page lets Fans become brand advocates. Posts by the Page will start to appear in News Feed, giving Pages a stronger voice to reach their Fans.

In addition, Pages now have the flexibility of multiple customizable tabs previously exclusive to user profiles.

What you will need before you begin:

• A Fan Page Profile Picture
• A Name for your Fan Page
• Some Engaging Information for your Fan Page

Profile Picture
Profile pictures on Facebook and Facebook Fan Pages can have a maximum size of 200×600 pixels. Facebook Pages do not allow background images like Twitter, Myspace, and other social media sites. You can take advantage of the full 200×600 allotted space to get your brand in front of your fans.

Name your Page
The name you give your Page is permanent, so make sure it’s the one your fans and customers will recognize and that it is one you are willing to live with.

Useful and engaging
You will need some info that will turn your Facebook fans into paying customers, and vice versa. Restaurants and bars can use detailed info like addresses and store hours. Bands can use songs and videos. Photos of what you are offering and hyperlinks to independent reviews will work well. Get what you’ve got, you can always add more later.

Now it’s time to get started.

Step 1: Pick a category and name.
This is probably your most important part of creating a Facebook Fan Page. Once you have chosen your category and name you will not be able to change either one of them. Choose carefully and wisely. Using your company name is not a bad idea.

Click “Create Page.”

Once you have chosen your category and name you will get a chance to link your Fan Page updates to your twitter account. This is not a bad idea. It will automatically post your Fan Page updates without any extra work on your part.

Step 2: Add a profile picture
Click “upload a picture” near the top and upload the graphic or photo that best represents your product. Make sure that your brand is clear even as a “thumbnail.”

(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)
Next you will want to Install the Static FBML App and Add a Custom Tab.

Do a search for “static FBML” on Facebook (or just click this link), and click “Add to my Page” in the upper-left. A dialog pop-over will appear with a list of Pages you administer. Select the Page you want to customize by clicking the “Add to Page” button next to the Page, and when you click the button it will disappear from the list. Now click “Close”.

If you go view your Page now, you’ll notice when you click the “>>” tab there is now an “FBML” option in the drop-down. If you click on it, that tab appears in the list of tabs at the top, and you can drag it around. You’ll notice the tab is completely blank. You can now add some content to it.

To add content, click on “Edit Page” again on the left below your Page image. Go to the “FBML” subsection again, but this time click the “Edit” link. Now you’ll be taken to a very simple form with a “Box Title” field and an “FBML” field. This is your Canvas.

You can change the title of the tab. By default this tab gets called “FBML” when you add it. You’ll probably want to change the title of the tab depending on your purpose!

Now enter enter some content. The “FBML” field will take most basic HTML. You don’t need to include any , , or tags, as the HTML you enter will only take the place of that whitespace you just saw. All the header stuff is taken care of for you. Play with it and see what you can do.

(FMBL information courtesy of post by Jesse Stay, founder & CEO SocialToo.com)

Step 3: Add information
Click “Add information to this Page” underneath the profile picture and enter your basic and detailed information. The fields available will depend on your Page type. The more details you add the more successful you will be.

Step 4: Make it rich and engaging
Just like your user profile, Pages have multiple tabs. The default tabs are a Wall tab, an Info tab, and a Boxes tab for application modules. You can devote entire tabs to several Facebook applications, like Photos, Reviews, and Discussion Board.

Step 5: Publish
Click the “publish this Page” link to share your Page the with world.

Step 6: Update Regularly
Updating your Page regularly with fresh photos, upcoming events, and the latest promotions means your Page will not only look like a profile, it will feel like one, and that will keep your fans returning.

Step 7: Stir and Repeat (Repeat Step 6)
You can also send some or all of your fans messages by clicking “Send an Update to Fans” in the upper-left of your Page (under the profile picture).

There you go step by step instructions to create a Facebook Fan Page.

Become a fan of Search Engine Optimization Portland.

Late,
Gary Pool SEO

Facebook Fan Page – Step by Step is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How Popular are Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz Compared to the Search Engines

Last week a friend of mine, John Poling, forwarded me an email with some questions.

I figured I would make a blog post out of my answer. I have included both the forwarded email and the comment from John.

Hi Gary,

This update just landed in my in-box this morning. Why did I send it to you? Well you are the best person to ask about “how to get the best search results” that I know. I could send you a lot of questions that this email raised in my mind or I could just invite you to do the next BizNet program. Your comments please. I have had several BizNet members ask me about how to build a more professional. I always recommend that they contact you. I have no way to know if they do or not. Maybe you could school us on how to better work with you and each other to better use the Internet for our real estate, investment and small business purposes.

Thank You,
JOHN

The forwarded email.

“This is also a good time for search marketers and marketers in general to think again about Facebook, if you haven’t already. More and more Facebook content has been made visible to search engines over the years.” Sullivan then goes on to say “Google’s move makes having Facebook fan pages even more essential. Without one, you’re missing out on a chance to be found within yet another area, Google’s real time results.”

Danny said it all – if you don’t have a page – now is the time!

Don’t forget in addition to the Notes, Links, Discussion and Wall (default tabs on a Facebook Fan page) you want to create custom tabs with FBML to make the page more compelling and a stronger marketing tool. If you don’t know how to work with code, let me know and I’ll be happy to get you a quote on us creating the page.

Got a Fan Page already? Send me the URL and I’ll take a peek and see if I have any suggestions to improve it.

To Your Success,

Jennifer Horowitz
Director of Marketing

While it is important to have a Facebook fan page is definitely not the most important. Once again your Internet marketing and search engine rankings are like feathers on a balance beam. The balance beam is the ranking scale and all we have to place on the scale to increase our rankings is feathers. So the more feathers you place the higher rankings are going to be. Therefore you should at least be aware of all of the social media.

You should concentrate on the social media that is most applicable to your product or service and your skills. You don’t overlook anything. Make sure to use what you’re best at promote yourself and your business.

Even though the Facebook Fan Pages updates now appear on the Google Real Time Search Results they are not alone.

The search results also include the following:

1. Twitter tweets
2. Google News links
3. Google Blog Search links
4. Newly created web pages
5. Freshly updated web pages
6. FriendFeed updates
7. Jaiku updates
8. Identi.ca updates
9. TwitArmy updates
10. Google Buzz posts
11. MySpace updates
12. Facebook fan page updates

(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)

According to Twitter.

Monday 2-22-10
Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second.

In a post by Matt McGee he quotes twitter as saying that they are currently seeing 50 million tweets per day which breaks down to about 600 per second.

And he brings up the question how does this compare to Facebook, known as the king of social networking and Google buzz, the new kid on the block.

Even though the numbers show there are more Facebook updates per second than tweets Matt’s post was tweeted 335 times as compared to only 39 shares on Facebook.

Updates/Posts:

• Facebook status updates: 700 per second
• Twitter tweets: 600 per second
• Buzz posts: 55 per second

Compared to searches:

• Google: 34,000 searches per second
• Yahoo: 3,200 searches per second
• Bing: 927 searches per second

Disclaimers:

• On Twitter, every post counts as a “tweet” no matter if it’s an original tweet, a comment from another user, a link being shared, a retweet, etc. All of those are rolled into one number.
• Facebook’s number is only status updates. It doesn’t include comments from other users on someone’s status update, nor does it includes “likes” of a status update — both of which are popular activities on Facebook. More importantly, it also doesn’t include photos, links, notes, and all the other types of user activity that happen on Facebook.
• Buzz was only two days old when Google published its numbers.

Using comScore’s recent worldwide estimates for Google, Yahoo and Bing Danny Sullivan did some division to come up with the following figures:

• Google: 34,000 searches per second (2 million per minute; 121 million per hour; 3 billion per day; 88 billion per month, figures rounded)
• Yahoo: 3,200 searches per second (194,000 per minute; 12 million per hour; 280 million per day; 8.4 billion per month, figures rounded)
• Bing: 927 searches per second (56,000 per minute; 3 million per hour; 80 million per day; 2.4 billion per month, figures rounded)

So what does all this meet us. The numbers show me that social media and search are both here to stay. And we’d better step up to the plate and take as many pitches as possible. We no longer live in the world for doing one thing will get you the results that you want. We have to do everything that we possibly can, we have to do it often and we have to do a right.

Late,
Gary Pool SEO

Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, & the Search Engines by the Numbers is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How to Make Following Up an Everyday Habit

Guest post by Social Media Strategist and Avid Networker Taylor Ellwood

The other night I was talking with a friend and she told me that she really admired my ability to follow up with people and asked me if it was discipline or if I had developed a process for doing it. For me, following up is a result of several different factors, all of which anyone can do, provided they make enough effort to do so:

1. Develop a genuine interest in each person you meet. This means that just meeting a person won’t be enough for you. You will want to know more about that person. You will want to know what that person does, but also what that person needs or what current problem s/he is dealing with (everyone has a problem). Most importantly, you need to listen to the person, without trying to talk over the person or be thinking about that next football game.
2. When you get back from meeting someone, think about what that person told you. Who do you know that can help that person? Look through your business cards, and make a couple calls or send some emails to people you know who might be interested in the person you met. By thinking of who you can connect this person to, you start a process that will make you want to follow -up with the person.
3. Either email or phone the person with contact information to the people you know. By making this extra effort, not only will you follow up with the person, but you’ll show that you followed through with the person. In other words you will show that person you cared enough to help him/her make a connection to people who could help him/her.
4. Do it every day. That’s right follow-up every day. When you meet someone, follow-up via email or phone, and connect with him/her on your social networks. Put aside time, in your evening, or at the latest, the next morning and follow-up with each person you met.

Success with following up does come down to discipline, but more importantly it comes down to thinking about other people and how you can help them. My choice to follow up with a person I meet is made out of the desire to help that person. I realize that many times the help I provide will only be helping someone make a connection with someone else, but knowing I can do that and that it will help that person makes me feel good. My biggest payoff for following up isn’t how many new clients I could get, or how much income I might derive from that process, but rather the state of emotional well-being that I feel, knowing that I could make someone’s life a bit easier if I could provide that person an answer or help him/her make a connection. Know your motivation for following up and then you will follow-up on a regular basis.

Make Follow Up an Everyday Habit is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Guest video blog post by social media strategist Taylor Ellwood

In the video below I discuss why I video blog, and why I think video is an underused resource. Video should be incorporated into your social media presence. The advantage of doing so, is that it allows you to show people you and what you are doing, as opposed to just telling them.

Social Media Coach: Why I video Blog

Why I Video Blog is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Everyone is all astir over Linkedin finally connecting its status updates to twitter, but in my opinion, this recent update is not as wonderful as it first seems. In fact, in the few days since it’s been started, I’ve already seen the quality of status updates on Linkedin degrade because people aren’t using #in for sending tweets, but instead are sending all of their tweets over to Linkedin. I’ve learned more about cats, sports teams, and other equally irrelevant information (for Linkedin) in the past few days because people haven’t exercised the proper awareness of how to use the new Linkedin Twitter connection effectively.

A good example of the right way to use the twitter-linkedin connection and the wrong way to use it can be seen in the screenshot below. The top post is the wrong way to use the linkedin-Twitter connection. The person has responded to someone on twitter, but that post has also been sent to Linkedin. In fact, every time this person posts a tweet, it will show up in Linkedin. The result is that we’ll see a message, which isn’t relevant on Linkedin, because even if it’s a professional message, it’s a reply to someone else on Twitter, as opposed to Linkedin. And of course we could also get more mundane and non-appropriate posts, such as the post about a sports team. It’s not remotely relevant to Linkedin, because it’s not a professional update. It’s actually rather unprofessional and is a good example of how to use a social network inappropriately.

The post from the person in the middle is appropriate to Linkedin, at least in terms of describing something professional. He’s also chosen the option where the post from Twitter will only appear if he uses #in. That hashtag indicates that the message should get posted on both Twitter and Linkedin. Without that hashtag, his post will only go to Twitter (and other services he’s connected to Twitter).

What’s happened with the Twitter and Linkedin connection is that most people have simply connected Twitter to Linkedin without using the #in tag. The result is that a lot of non-professional tweets and responses to people in twitter are showing up on Linkedin, but the material isn’t really relevant to Linkedin as a social networking site. This diminishes the usefulness of Linkedin, in terms of status updates, because many of the status updates aren’t relevant to the purpose for using Linkedin.

To set-up your Linkedin and twitter connection, click on the blue Twitter icon. A new window will appear, asking you to authorize the connection. You’ll need to enter your twitter handle and password, in order to authorize the connection.

After you’ve authorized the connection, the window will display the settings for the Twitter-Linkedin connection. Make the Twitter account visible to everyone, unless you don’t want people to see it on your profile. On your profile page, people will see a link to your twitter account, which will allow them to connect with you on Twitter if they choose.

Under share your Tweets in your LinkedIn status DO NOT select all tweets. If you do people, will see all your tweets, including ones which aren’t relevant to Linkedin. Instead select “Only tweets that contain #in.” This way the only time your Linkedin status will update to your twitter account is if you’ve actually included the hashtag in your message. Yes, this means you will need to include the hastag, but this will also help you determine if the update you’re about to post is really relevant to your audience on Linkedin.

If you need to change your twitter settings at any time, simply click the blue twitter icon again and select Twitter Settings. You’ll then be able to change any settings you’ve made to your Twitter-Linkedin connection.

Remember that as tempting as it might be to send all your tweets to Linkedin, it defeats the purpose of the status update feature in Linkedin, if any of those tweets aren’t relevant to your professional activities. Also, when it’s a response to someone on Twitter, it won’t really make sense because the context of the conversation is missing. Restrict your tweets to Linkedin by using the hashtag #in and you’ll not only be using the connection properly for professional activities, but you’ll be showing a sophisticated awareness of how to use social media properly. Remember Linkedin is not Twitter and should not be treated as such!

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

How to use the new Twitter Linkedin connection properly is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Has the Lunch 2.0 Networking and Informational Lunch Hour Come to an End?

Yesterday I visited with the Portland Lunch 2.0 networking crowd at what was billed as possibly the last Lunch 2.0 event in town due to the economic downturn. This Lunch 2.0 was held at the Elemental Headquarters on 5th Avenue downtown.

Portland Lunch 2.0 has received a temporary stay of execution from Elemental Technologies.

I joke, but seriously, either interest has dried up or the idea of giving 100 or so people free grub doesn’t seem as good as it did last year. Surprise.

The folks at Elemental put together a nice spread which included build your own roast beef, turkey, ham, cheddar, Monterey jack, and Swiss on sliced bagel sandwiches. They also supplied the full compliment of veggies and dressings for the sandwiches as well as a real nice build your own salad selection.

After a session of lunch and networking Elemental gave us a very informative presentation on some of their products.

• Elemental Server
  An enterprise-class video processing system that provides fast, high-quality, and highly-efficient video transcoding using graphics processing units (GPUs). Ideal for broadcasters, studios, online video platforms and any other video transcoding application, Elemental Server is significantly more cost-effective than other solutions.
• Elemental Accelerator
  A high-speed, high-quality video processing solution designed to add power and performance to the Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS4 workflow. Coupled with NVIDIA Quadro series cards, Elemental Accelerator harnesses the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) to perform high-speed video conversion and deliver dramatic time savings over conventional CPU-only encoding solutions.
• BADABOOM
  A consumer media converter that is designed to get video onto your iPod, PSP or Blackberry Bold in just minutes.

Elemental touted as:

Elemental is the leader in massively parallel video processing technologies.

We’ve pioneered the use of GPUs and other massively parallel chips for video processing. Leveraging our core technology, Elemental products deliver unprecedented levels of speed, quality, and price performance for a wide range of video decoding, encoding, and transcoding applications.

It was a fine lunch hour with interesting networking and an even more interesting presentation. The presentation, by the way, was standing room only.

A big round of
applause
for
Elemental
please.

Maybe another business in town will step up to the plate for next month?

Late,
Gary Pool

Final Lunch 2.0 Networking in Portland is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Lunch 2.0 this week was a tasty affair catered by Portland’s Crave Catering

This version of Lunch 2.0 was hosted by eROI. With all the people who showed up the event turned out to be a power lunch.

If you haven’t attended a Lunch 2.0, it is

“A social phenomenon referring to a migration of web 2.0 company employees to other offices around the Silicon Valley area; characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share food and ideas…”

lunch20.com

To me it is a chance to have lunch while networking with Portland’s tech community.

The food was outstanding and was supplied by the Portland caterer Crave.

The ambiance was pure eROI.

Some of the better known people in Portland’s tech community attended this time including Carri Bugbee, Taylor Ellwood, and our host Ryan Buchanan.

Social media goddess Carri Bugbee, twitter personality @peggyolson, graced us with her presence.
Carri has presented on social media at many events including a fantastic one at Webvisions. Ms. Bugbee is also the brains behind Big Deal PR “Marketing zest for innovators”.

Big Deal PR offers to help you stand out by using a variety of creative marketing tactics.
All built on sound strategy.

Business, writing, and social media coach, Taylor Ellwood was also in attendance. Taylor’s website Imagine Your Reality offers:

• Business coaching: teach businesses how to develop effective marketing plans
• Social Media Coaching: teach businesses how to automate their social media marketing presence
• Freelance editing and writing: write and edit marketing plans, technical documents, brochures, blog posts, books, newsletters, etc

Taylor also has a blog.

Our host from eROI was Ryan Buchanan. Ryan was a gracious host from a company that is an interactive agency, focused on helping clients establish and enhance their online presence. eRoi is best known for their email marketing. As you probably know I use Constant Contact but I am going to have a meeting with Ryan to discuss the possibilities of me changing teams. Local is one of my priorities.

Thank you for attending Lunch 2.0 at eROI. As you know, eROI is an interactive agency that also develops powerful online software tools. Hosting Lunch 2.0 for a second time is an honor and we are committed to become a more ingrained part of the software community in Portland.

(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)
I did win a bottle of wine in the business card raffle. Thanks Ryan Buchanan and eROI. I am sure I will enjoy the 2007 San Felipe Malbec Roble wine. The label says it is “a perfect balance of varietal characteristics and subtle oak flavours”.

Thanks Ryan, eROI, and Lunch 2.0.

Late,
Gary Pool

Wine and Social Networking Lunch 2.0 at eROI was Quite an Event is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Last Night – SMX Advanced – Microsoft’s new entry into the search field Bing sponsored In The Park Bash

Last night at SMX Advanced Seattle there was quite a party held “against the beautiful backdrop of the Olympic Sculpture Park and the Puget Sound.”

This turned out to be quite an event with live entertainment, outstanding hors doeuvres, pulsating music from a DJ team, and beverages of all varieties, some even with flashing plastic ice cubes. I’m sure a great time was had by all.

The sponsor was Bing.com Microsoft’s latest entry into the search field. Their battle cry is “search is sick” and their answer is of course Bing who in their own words, “Bing is a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions.”

According to Microsoft Bing a decision engine instead of a search engine. Will it unseat Google as the search king? I don’t think anyone but Google themselves can accomplish that task.

Bing does look like it will be fun to investigate.

Late,
Gary Pool

Social Networking In The Park Sponsored by Bing from Microsoft is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

It has finally happened to social networking and using twitter marketing.

Do you remember the pyramid schemes in the seventies? Chances are most of you probably don’t. It works like viral marketing but with a twist. A pyramid is where you have a few people on the top and as each new person joins in they go below keeping them on the top like a pyramid. So on and so on. It works until you run out of people to join.

A fellow Tweeter, Gary McCaffrey has designed such a program that automates this process. You can check it out live here.

What If You Could Press Just One Button & Automatically Start Getting 1000′s Of Legitimate New Twitter Followers On Autopilot… Even If Nobody Knows Who You Are Now? … This system is brand new, so the quicker you get involved the better it will be, fill out the form below and get started right away

Interesting concept to say the least.

I knew it had to happen sooner or later.

Want to join in on the fun just follow this link.

Late,
Gary Pool

The twitter Marketing Pyramid is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

LinkedIn not only a Bully but Incompetent too!

Over a week ago I spent nearly 2 hours leaving 86 LinkedIn groups after they sent me an email stating that they were limiting the groups I could be a member of to 50. See my blog post LinkedIn Just the Neighborhood Bully.

A couple of days ago I went in to manage the groups I had created and much to my chagrin all 86 groups that I had painstakingly chosen to leave were back. I was back to the 136 LinkedIn groups that I had spent my time choosing to join. These 136 groups included the 86 I had been forced to leave and spent nearly 2 hours of my time doing so.

In the email I sent to linkedIn and shared with you via my earlier post LinkedIn Just the Neighborhood Bully I had asked for check boxes to be able to select multiple groups to leave. Did they deliver such a tool? No way they gave me a “Leave Group” link.

This fancy “Leave Group” link sped up my leaving time by maybe 10%, WOW! At least this time I had a pretty good idea which groups I was going to leave. So I blew over an hour of my time once again to leave the same 86 LinkedIn groups I had already left a few days earlier.

I have spent over 3 hours of my time to appease the LinkedIn gods. That isn’t even the end of LinkedIn’s incompetency. Two days after I had left the 86 groups the second time they sent me the following email.

Dear Gary,

This is a follow-up to the email we sent on 8/4/08 regarding upcoming changes to LinkedIn Groups. Please note that your action is required by 9/12/08.

We regret to inform you that you have exceeded the limit of the number of groups you are allowed to be a member of. The limit, which applies to all users, is fifty (50) groups per user. We apologize that these limits were not in place earlier, but with upcoming enhancements to Groups, we are forced to put in these limits without exception. We’re confident that these improvements to Groups, intended to spur communication and collaboration, will make the product more useful to you on a day-to-day basis.

We need to ask you to please get below the limit of 50 by leaving some of your groups. We have added a quick “Leave Group” link to the My Groups page for each of your groups ( http://www.linkedin.com/home?myGroups=&trk=grplimit2 ). If you need assistance because you are significantly above 50 groups, customer support may be able to help streamline the process. Please email groups@linkedin.com for more information. Since this is a timely issue, we will prioritize any email with “Help Removing Groups” in the title until the deadline of 9/12/08.

If you do not take the required action by the deadline, we will automatically limit your membership to the first 50 groups you joined. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes you, but unfortunately we are unable able to maintain the current level of groups.

Regards,
The LinkedIn Team

Have you checked out Konnects? This site is looking better and better to me all the time.
If you haven’t checked Konnects out yet I would suggest you do.

late,
Gary Pool

LinkedIn | Does LinkedIn Even Care? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Portland Lunch 2.0 at Cube Space courtesy of Silicon Florist

I had a great time at lunch today. It was called Lunch 2.0. We played networking games like meet someone you don’t know. I met some new friends and networked with some old ones. We shared some job related war stories and tall tales.

The lunch was a great idea. The Portland Lunch 2.0 was a celebration of the 1st anniversary of Rick Turoczy’s metamorphosis into the Silicon Florist.

Lunch 2.0 originated in the valley and now Portland has adopted it. We are actually attending monthly.

I met and shared stories with a few people that are affiliated with stealth startups. I met many new people one was Dave Kresta from davekresta.com. Dave is a marketing expert.

I also talked with an old friend, Mark from Crave Catering Portland, Oregon. Mark has just earned a “RecycleWorks” Award from the City of Portland, Oregon Office of Sustainable Development. Mark is establishing a Sustainable Catering Association.

This Lunch 2.0 is a great idea. If you get a chance to attend one I would suggest you do.

Happy Birthday Silicon Florist!

late,
Gary Pool

Lunch Ideas | Friends Networking Sharing | Fun Games is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

I received an email from LinkedIn and it made me mad.

I wrote them back and here is my open letter. The original is at the bottom.

If you want us to leave groups on a mass scale why don’t you make it easy to do so?

I have carefully selected the groups I have joined and spent plenty of time doing so.

Now you want me to spend even more time to choose the ones I can’t stay in.

Give me a check box that will allow me to choose multiple groups to leave at one time.

I really used to be an evangelist for LinkedIn and still am, but there are other sites (Konnects) out there with the same services out there and some have services you don’t have.

You send me an email with no information on how many groups I am a member of just that I belong to more than 50.

What ever happened to customer service?

Are you just treating us like you did your first two domain hosts?

I feel a blog post coming on.

Dear Gary

As an active member of LinkedIn Groups, we wanted to let you know about some changes we’re putting in place in the coming weeks.

We are in the process of adding new functionality to enhance the experience of Groups, including the recent release of a searchable directory. We are also working with our development teams to bring new tools and widgets to this collaborative space throughout the rest of 2008.

We are also at this time making some changes to the user-created groups we host. These changes include adding a limit to the number of user-created groups any LinkedIn member may be part of at one time. Currently we are setting that limit at membership in 50 (fifty) user-created groups.

You are currently a member of more than 50 groups. Please take the time before this limit goes into place on August 14, 2008, to choose which groups you would like to maintain. To remove yourself from a group, go to the My Groups page: (www.linkedin.com/home?myGroups=?trk=grouplmt ( http://www.linkedin.com/home?myGroups=?trk=grouplmt )) and click the word “Settings” next to the group you wish to leave. At the bottom of the settings page click the text “Leave this group.”

We would appreciate it if you would please take this action within the next 10 days. If you would prefer, after 30 days we will automatically keep the first 50 groups that you joined and remove the rest.

If you would like assistance removing yourself from groups, or if you have any other questions, please contact us at linkedin.custhelp.com (http://linkedin.custhelp.com/ ) or groups@linkedin.com.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you, but we hope you will continue to find value in LinkedIn and especially enjoy the new functionality of LinkedIn Groups that is coming soon.

Regards,
The LinkedIn Team

late,
Gary Pool

LinkedIn | Just the Neighborhood Bully is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Charlene Li
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Forrester Research

Recently named one of AdvertisingAge’s “Women to Watch 2008″

Author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

TOPIC: Creating A Social Strategy That Will Work
There’s no doubt that social technologies like blogs, social networks, and YouTube are alluring — but most companies today deploy them as one-off, point solutions, rather than as part of a coherent strategy. This presentation will provide you with a framework of how to think about social technologies, from understanding how your customer participate to how you can build a lasting relationship that results in concrete business metrics. The session will also provide practical advice on how to get started and ways to integrate your social strategy into your overall Internet effort.

Charlene’s Highlights:

• Ernst & Young talking to college students on Facebook
• Starbucks has Free WIFI comming soon – They solicited comments from their customers
• Dell beats 75% negative opinion with blogs and being transparent

Charlene Li, Forrester

late,
gary pool

ISF | Creating A Social Strategy That Will Work | Charlene Li is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Are You LinkedIn?
I am LinkedIn and I really enjoy using it.

Just in case you haven’t heard of LinkedIn yet, it is like MySpace only for business professionals. You can read my original post from May ’07 when I had only 22,400 in my entire network. Today I am pushing hard on 10 million.

According to LinkedIn:

Over 24 million professionals use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas and opportunities. And with it you can:

• Stay informed about your contacts and industry
• Find the people & knowledge you need to achieve your goals
• Control your professional identity online

My Network of Trusted Professionals

When people see how many connections I have the always ask.

• How can you manage so many connections?
• What good has LinkedIn done for you?
• Has LinkedIn brought you any business?

Well I have to tell you it is working. I have made critical contacts around the world and am in the process of working on a few projects. I have made some connections that have turned out to be perfect partnerships. I have even received proposal requests and contracts from across the nation. The connections, they just seem to manage themselves.

Yes LinkedIn works. LinkedIn continues to not only brings me business but it also helps to increase my value as a SEO/SEM expert.

At this time I would like to thank David Black for inviting me to join LinkedIn.

late,
gary pool

LinkedIn | Of-course You Know About LinkedIn is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Internet Strategy Forum Summit West is just around the corner and you sure don’t want to miss it.

You don’t want to be left out as we learn smart enterprise Internet strategy at the 5th annual Internet Strategy Forum Summit on July 17 & 18, 2008 in Portland, Oregon.
Portland is a great place to be especially this time of the year just take a look at the companies that will be attending the Internet Strategy Forum Summit West this year. Don’t be left out register now.

This event has been getting better each of the last 4 years and this years Internet Strategy Forum Summit West is no exception. This years event will cover such diverse yet related topics as:

• general digital strategy
• social media strategy
• personalized marketing
• CRM and customer metrics
• social commerce
• email marketing

ISF Summit West
Thursday, July 17 – Main Program
Friday, July 18 – Option: Internet Strategist Symposium

Why travel to Portland? ISF has compiled a list of recent praise for Portland in the national press and to get a personal idea what the Portland experience was like for one specific traveler to last year’s ISF Summit, read this unsolicited attendee letter from Caroline Sposto (pdf format).

Sign up Today! I’ll see you there.

late,
gary pool

Internet Strategy Forum Summit West is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

News about the Internet Strategy Forum Summit West.

• Thursday, July 17 – Main Program
  …for Internet strategists, senior mgmt, marketers and IT
• Friday, July 18 – Option: Internet Strategist Symposium
• Governor Hotel, Portland, OR

The first 250 people to register at will receive a copy of Forrester presenter Charlene Li‘s new book “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies”,compliments of Jive Software. (handed out at event check-in).

Register Now!

See you there.

late,
gary pool

News from the Internet Strategy Forum Summit West is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

At SMX Social in Long Beach, California, April 22 – 23 I had the privilege of asking Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz some questions.

Rand answered candidly about such things as who was his open sharing inspiration, small business SEO and SMM, Jason Calacanis, SMX Social Long Beach, and SEOmoz surprises.

Rand was great as usual and so was SMX Social Long Beach.
Jason Calacanis, well that’s another story.

late,
gary pool

Rand Fishkin | Jason Calacanis | SMX Social is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

While at SMX Social Long Beach, I think Austin Powers was there and he tried to pass himself off as Danny Sullivan.

Judge for your self.

You answer Danny Sullivan or Austin Powers?

late,
gary pool

Danny Sullivan or Austin Powers | SMX Social is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician