Hands-down, Google is the most popular website on earth. Yet they seem to be worried about their stiff competition coming in at a close second – none other than Facebook.

This is precisely why Google has decided to introduce their own social network as Google +. Google has tried to make a number of different social media channels over the years, like Google Buzz and Google Wave. Yet nothing has caught on so far…

But now we can consider Google + for a second. Google + makes no bones about the fact that it is supposed to be just like Facebook with a few enhancements. Maybe we could call it “Facebook with a facelift”? Instead of opening up Google + to the public, Google has decided to create a little bit of buzz, so to speak.

Upon its introduction, you can’t sign up directly for Google + just yet. Initially, you have to be invited by someone else who is a member in the beta stage of this social network. But even with this type of exclusive appeal, Google + has managed to gather 10 million members as of July 2011. This is nowhere near the mega benchmark set by Facebook at 750 million members, but it seems to be off to a strong start.

Google + versus Facebook

At first glance, Google + looks like a copycat of Facebook. You can post your thoughts and updates, just like you can to the Facebook wall. There is also something called a Stream, which is exactly like the Newsfeed on Facebook. And to compete with the “Like” button on Facebook, Google + offers a +1 button so that you can show that you are a fan of a post, picture, video, or what have you.

But the big, shiny difference between the two is that Google + has a little something called Circles.

If you’ve ever had the thought when using Facebook that you’d love to say something a little more inappropriate, a little more private, or a little wackier than what you would share with all of your friends, Circles may be the answer. You can create circles of friends, family, acquaintances, and following, which is similar to Twitter. You can also create your own circles with specific members, like Grandparents or College Friends, where you can share private jokes or special stories to your heart’s content without boring everyone else on your Stream.

And when you decide to share something, you are able to specify which circle that it is sent to. Of course, you can choose to send the information to all of your circles or just one to keep a bit of news private. This minimizes much of the fuss surrounding social media, like teachers getting fired for posting pictures of a drunken party or saying something inappropriate. If you want to post something that you don’t want your boss to see, then don’t post it to a public circle, plain and simple.

Although this may be a subtle difference between Google + and Facebook, only time will tell how the Circles feature attracts users to this new social network.

Guest Author:  Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

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Welcome To the Google Network

Google TV exists; it is the interactive programming installed on certain models of Sony HDTV televisions and works with various LG products as well. With Google TV, you can search the web, check and send email, and play Internet content directly on your TV. That is seriously cool, and while Apple has it too, but theirs is a little less feature rich. Like much that Google has done in the past, it is a cool project, but it never really captures the public’s imagination; however, this may be about to change. Google is going to be working on some major upgrades to YouTube that could be the beginning of an actual Google Network.

Your Interactive Past

Does anyone remember the Time magazine cover story on our interactive future, way back when the Internet was young? Does anyone remember what WebTV was? WebTV was a set top box that connected your television to the Internet. In reality, it was a simple way to access email and some basic, sandboxed, browsing from your TV. While Microsoft bought the company and did nothing with it, a few are still out there, unbelievably, and one is now known as the MSN TV.

The interactive vision has been around for as long as the Internet has been a part of the public perception, it just never took off. Convergence was the buzzword to describe the future where TV and Internet became the same thing. The person producing the content was the single problem that arose. Companies saw a future in which people would be able to access and share their precious franchises without revenue control, and froze solid. That copyright and infringement issue has kept the Internet on a leash ever since.

Just recently Amazon announced the release of the Amazon Cloud Player, a service that allows consumers to purchase (hopefully) music , store it on an Amazon server, and  play it from anywhere with an Amazon web music player, but the RIAA threw a fit. This coupled with Google’s YouTube announcement means the record executives will no longer control the Internet. Consider Blockbuster’s bankruptcy sale, Direct TV bought the company solely for its online business model. Netflix is starting to build an original content profile and that is what Google hopes to do. One of the major features of this overhaul is the close to $100 million to develop original content, which is the beginning of that interactive future that we forgot about so long ago.

What’s a TV?

So will your 50-inch plasma become a huge multi-purpose monitor, or will your tablet be a really small TV? By the end of the year, we will have a new ecosystem in which online services such as Hulu, Netflix, and others are serving up their own shows that they produced. This is what Google will be doing with YouTube, as it will have channels containing existing content organized by subjects, such as sports, arts, and film. YouTube will also have programs, as they were called back in the TV days, content that it will produce.

Aside from fears regarding what Google might consider entertainment, this is certainly the point where the Internet turns its back on the film and record industry and opens the floodgates. This is the end of the TV/Movie/Recording industry domination of all media; amen. Google TV may soon be more than just the cool interactive menu on your new TV, and just might be the real reason that you bought it. With enough content online, you could very well buy the new 90-inch organic polymer TV and not have a cable provider; what is the world coming to? This interactive future was forgotten so long ago, but much of this new future is driven by the tablet/smartphone/mobile revolution already underway. The iPad drove the concept of a mobile magazine, then it was video, and now the whole market is rushing headlong into the future. Soon TV as we currently understand the idea may not be long for this world.

Guest Author: Jon T. Norwood is a managing partner at High Speed Internet, a site dedicated to providing information on Internet providers and technology.  Jon can be reached at jon@webexordium.com.

It is fair to say that most consumers consider Google and Facebook the Internet in its entirety.  While they may be aware of other sites, when they think about the Internet, what they are thinking about is one of the above corporate giants. Social networking has been around for a long time. One of the first online communities was “The Well,” which still exists and was created in 1985 as an extension of the “Whole Earth Catalog.” MySpace, Xanga, and many others were very popular until the Facebook juggernaut took over the entire Internet. So will there be only one search engine or a single social network in the end?

The Faceless Book

It was not too long ago that Facebook was, while successful, just one of a number of social networking sites that people used to keep track of friends, communicate, and post pictures and messages. Friendster, MySpace, Xanga, Classmates, and others all served different demographics and markets.

Facebook on the other hand was originally a social network strictly built for Harvard students, and because exclusivity breeds desire, it led to Facebook expanding to include all Ivy League students. It later expanded again to include all college students of any school, and, finally, anyone with an Internet connection. This “forced scarcity” and tiered rollout created a huge demand and now we have the Facebook of today.

Facebook now claims to have 500 million users, which, if true, constitutes 25 percent of all Internet users. The other social sites have faded fast and while some have survived, many are no longer in business. With the social networking side of things well in hand, and Google the largest gateway to the web, Romulus and Remus rule us all and we are experiencing the end of the Internet. Or is it?

The Little Guys Strike Back

Like Twitter, Facebook has become awash with companies and individuals seeking to make a name for themselves, generate sales, and drive traffic to their sites; however, nothing could be more annoying. A certain amount of that is to be expected, but when the party population is more networkers than friends, it starts to go flat, and for this reason, other sites are starting to strike back.

Angie’s List is a good example. The website serves as a clearinghouse for reports and reviews on services rendered by contractors in order to aid others in finding good help and avoiding bad service. The company’s recent television ad campaign is proof that it is not fading. Recently a rush of sign-ups for Quora and Aardvark exploded; these websites provide question and answer services in which people can ask a question and get answers from other people on the network.

Increasingly, other social media efforts are gaining back the ground that Facebook claims to own. Actual social networking sites like Path and CollegeOnly are gaining momentum by limiting membership and limiting the number of friends a user can have; up to 50 in the case of Path. These sites are indications of a trend; people are looking to get away from the giant crowd and to a more personal place.

Create Your Own Social Network

SocialGo and Ning are not social networking sites, but they could be the beginning of the end of Facebook’s domination. With services ranging from free to $150 a month, anyone can create their own social network. Do you really want a stranger watching you share pictures with your family in Oregon?  Why not create a social network for only your family and friends and end the problem. Facebook has many privacy issues and this is a clear answer to most of them. Are you an avid Fly Fisher? There is a site for that called Troutpad, as a site exists for just about any hobby or interest.

Facebook may have created the social network as a popular new “Killer App” for the Internet, but the future may not belong to them. History buffs will remember that at the turn of the twentieth century, America fought back against monopolies and won. Maybe it is time for that to happen again only this time users can do it for themselves. There are many alternatives out there and users are starting to find them. The social networking monopoly, or claimed monopoly, will be temporary and people will begin to break off into more exclusive, “walled communities” that are private and safer driven by the increasing security threats and information privacy issues. Teens used Xanga as a way of keeping away from parents eyes. Perhaps the adults are doing the same thing.

Guest Author: Jon T. Norwood is a managing partner at Broadband Internet, a site dedicated to providing information on Mobile Broadband News.  Jon can be reached at jon@velocityguide.com.

QUESTION:

“Mirna, what’s your take on Facebook these days with the privacy concerns? I didn’t like seeing my FB photo, name, text box pop up online.” — Pam W.

ANSWER:

Good question, Pam!  Several people asked me the same thing, since I did not react much to the changes.

As briefly mentioned to you on Twitter, I think users should have the right to choose if they want to show others what sites they visited. However, I also see Facebook’s perspective on helping brands and other businesses boost their viral marketing efforts since this will also support the site’s growth.  To a certain extent, they were not thinking of the average Facebook user because they ended up causing a tremendous amount of confusion and commotion.

Although I think Facebook and other social networks do a very poor job at educating and listening to their users, I do believe it is the users’ responsibility to protect their own privacy.  Everyone online should be focused on having fun, educating themselves about social media and working on their strategies, instead of wasting too much time worrying about the Facebook changes.

We have to all remember that a huge part of using social media is transparency. It is our choice to make whether we want to use social media or not; and we decide what to share and how visible we want to be.

As you know, I share a lot of content and consider myself to be very visible online. But, I am also a very private person and don’t like sharing my entire life with the world.  Although, I allow everyone to get to know my personality, I am very strategic and extremely cautious with what I post or discuss on social networking sites.

If privacy is still a concern, here are a few tips when using any online tool or website:

- Use common sense.  If you do not want your competitors or great great grandchildren to see something, do not post or discuss it.

- Take the time to check the privacy policies before using a social media tool or application.

- Be responsible and use privacy settings when joining social networking sites.

- And last but not least, if you are using sites like Facebook for business, please remember to use them as supporting tools only.  Too many of us are concentrating way too much on these tools instead of focusing on what is truly important — our business strategy and our websites.

If you still have concerns, questions, and comments regarding privacy, please post them below.

If you would like to get your questions answered by Mirna, please visit the Ask Mirna page.

In the past couple of weeks, I received a couple of inquiries from business owners who found me on Google for the terms ‘LinkedIn media consultants’ and ‘LinkedIn social media consultants’ (well what do you know, I come up on page 1 and 2 of Google for these two terms – singular and plural). These business owners wanted to know my rates to do training for LinkedIn. They received quotes ranging from $500 – $1000 from other social media consultants. Why would I or anyone else charge them? LinkedIn offers free training. Yes, FREE!

In my coaching and consulting sessions, I normally inform my clients of LinkedIn’s hidden treasure. When I started announcing this resource on social networks last week, I was extremely surprised of the reaction and feedback. It seems that the majority of people did not know this, including the ones that have been using the site for a while. If LinkedIn did a better job at marketing their hidden treasure, more people would be active on their site. Right?

I am calling these trainings “Treasure” because they show you everything you need to know about LinkedIn and the only way you can truly leverage and maximize your time on this site.

There are a couple of easy ways to get to the free training modules. The first way is through this URL: http://learn.linkedin.com/training/. The second is through the LinkedIn navigation bar you see on the top of the page.

Follow the three steps below, and you will be well on your way to becoming a LinkedIn expert:

1. On the navigation, you will need to click the “More…” link to pull down the menu, and then select “Learning Center.”

2. This will take you to the “Learning Center” page which shows you everything you need to know about LinkedIn. On this page, click “Training Resources” on the right navigation.

3. So here we are! On this page, you can choose to learn at your own pace through free video modules, see what seminars are being offered, and request custom webcast training for your organization. You will have to ask them if fees apply for the custom training.

Once you learn how to navigate and use LinkedIn through these free training modules, a social media consultant like me can help educate you on how to strategize, prospect, recruit, and build your brand through LinkedIn if you are still confused. This is where I would charge for my expertise not for something that is already offered for free. BUYER BEWARE for consultants who want to charge for training that is available for free!

Were you aware of this training?  Please let me know below.

Twitter, how I love thee! Twitter has truly been the best tool for connecting with some fascinating tweeps. One tweep, Imad Naffa (@imadnaffa), a civil engineer and small business owner caught my attention a couple of weeks when I read that one of his tweets was retweeted by Queen Rania of Jordan.  I mean come on, how often does that happen? If you look at @QueenRania‘s Twitter stream, you can see retweets are extremely rare, if any! [Read the full story on @markwschaefer's blog].

What caught my attention even more was how Imad was effectively using Twitter to increase brand awareness and grow his B2B business, NAFFA International in Fresno California.  He increased one aspect of his business by 25 percent in six months just by using Twitter.  Since Imad was already following me I sent him a direct message requesting to chat since I thought his story would be of interest to many B2B companies. For a while now, the big question has been:  “Does Social Media Work for B2B Companies?”  Imad and I say:  “Heck ya, it does!”  Right Imad?

Imad believes that the smartest peeps are using social media (aheeem …wonder if he was referring to me too? LOL).  Listen to what Imad has to say about social media and tell us what you think!

I will be posting more case study interviews like this on a regular basis. If you are using social media successfully in your business and would like to be interviewed, please reach out to me. I love hearing social media success stories!

A huge part of business success is networking by meeting people and building relationships.  Many already network for business in the offline world, but now small business owners and entrepreneurs have a huge opportunity to network online through social networking web sites.  For some, social networking is a skill that may take effort.  It truly is easier than you think.  You need to approach social networking the same way you do in the offline world.  The same rules apply!

Here are seven simple social networking tips to help you connect:

1. Gather a list of business connections you would like to have as part of your community on social networks.  Once you’ve compiled your list, reach out to each of them.

2. Share your personal interests and seek commonalities before you reach out to someone.  People will do business with you when they feel comfortable and can personally identify with you.

3. Know your audience.  Once you know what their wants and needs are, what their interested in, what engages them or what they respond to, you’ll be ready to deliver exactly that.

4. Show energy and passion for your business.  People sense these things even behind the computer.

5. Have a natural conversation with people instead of pitching to them with pre-written messages that you just copy and paste.

6. Before you approach anyone to promote your product/service or to ask for a favor, ask:  “What’s in it for them?” Remember, it’s not about you.  It’s always about them.

7. Don’t destroy communication by being a one-upper (always wanting to be bigger and better than everyone else).

If you are looking for more tips on aligning your online and offline networking efforts, you can read the blog and listen to the podcast I recorded last year with my favorite mentor, Dr. Ivan Misner:  Aligning Offline & Online Networking.

What other social networking tips have helped you in your business?  Please share in the comments below.

When 17 year old Chelsea King went missing on February 25^th, her family called the police as soon as it became obvious the teen hadn’t returned from her run. The search for the missing girl started that same night, turning up nothing but a locked car that Chelsea left outside the Rancho Bernardo Community Center. Then they did something that isn’t as standard . . . they set up a Facebook Group and a Twitter account for Chelsea.

The pages are the perfect way to keep friends and family updated on the worrying situation, but it has done much more than that. In a very short time, close to 6,000 people (and growing) have joined the group, spreading the word about the missing teen through the world of online media and putting Chelsea’s photo and description out on the internet. Hundreds of volunteers showed up to help search for the girl, some as a direct result of the page. Social networking is giving back!

Chelsea’s Facebook Group isn’t the first time social media has been used as a cry for help. In 2007, Tom McEwan set up a Facebook page to help find his 19 year old son Kyle. Today, his MySpace page continues to share songs and memories of Kyle.

If you are a frequent user of Twitter, chances are you’ve seen a few Amber Alerts retweeted there.  The micro-blogging network is often used to share alerts when a child goes missing and to update information. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook get the word out faster than any other medium and can reach thousands or millions within seconds.

A more recent example of using Twitter to help find missing family members occurred just after the 8.8 earthquake in Chile. Sheryl Breuker hadn’t heard from her sister-in-law after the quake and used Twitter to post pertinent info and ask for people to help her find the woman. Just two hours later, a local man tracked the woman down, assuring Breuker via Twitter, that her brother’s wife was indeed safe (See Mashable post).

Social media has been used for many things, from dating to business promotion, but now it can help save lives as well. An organization called Help Find My Child has set up a system to help parents of missing children get the necessary information out fast on multiple networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, among others. It’s just one way to make sure that social networking sites are giving back to families and helping them find their missing children.

Please help retweet and share this blog post on all your social networks so we can help find Chelsea King fast.

The most popular social media question is:  “Where do I start with social media if I want to use it for my business?”  The very first step is to understand the entire social media landscape before jumping on the bandwagon.  This is paramount if you want to succeed with using social media for your business!

The social web consists of many categories and is not just about social networking.  I have created the below diagram to help you understand the types of social media categories.  The categories you decide to use for your business will depend on your business goals and what you are trying to achieve with social media.

Of course, there is a cross between many of these categories.  For example, I placed Twitter under micro-blogging, but it also belongs under social networking; I placed Facebook under social networking but it is also the largest photo-sharing site.

The key to success with social media is to not put your eggs in one basket.  Once you have a clear understanding of the social web, the next step is know how to integrate some or all these categories together so you can leverage and maximize your efforts with social media.

Please note, in this diagram I am giving a comprehensive look at the categories of social media.  The tools in each category are only an example.  There are literally thousands of tools out there that would fall into each category and would not be possible to fit into a single diagram.  Please feel free to add tools that you think belong under specific categories in the comment section below.

The logos and images shown are trademarks of each site.  Let’s hope the sites don’t mind that I borrowed them!

Social Media Landscape Image

In the past week, we’ve seen some big security issues on both Twitter and Facebook. The first big scare was Facebook’s Fan Check application, which many people claimed was hijacking their account. While the jury is still out on whether or not the application was actually spyware, it caused many to accidentally download malware while attempting to find a way to get rid of the application. Then Twitter had a worm that was spread through fake DMs, and shortly afterwards, the focus turned back to Facebook with a worm that is spreading via newsfeed posts.

With so many security breaches of popular sites, people are starting to wonder, just how safe are social networking sites and how can we protect ourselves? While social media can be an excellent way to promote your business, at what price?

Here are a few ways to ensure your security while using sites like Twitter and Facebook, as well as other social media networks.

1. Change your password. If you think you have been the target of an attack or that your account on any social media site has been compromised, change your password immediately. It’s also a good idea to change your password on a regular basis, even if you aren’t sure that you’ve been attacked.

2. Use anti-spyware. A good antivirus and anti-spyware software is a must these days. While some worms and such only affect your online accounts, others will install right onto your computer and glean other information, so it’s important to catch these before they can do any damage.

3. Avoid suspicious messages. Anything that appears to be generic with a link should be avoided at all costs. Nearly all of the worms that are causing problems on social networks these days are posting messages such as, “This video is so funny, you have to watch it!” or “Is this you in this photo?” with a cloaked link. Even if you know the person who sent the message, confirm that they really did send you something before clicking on any of these generic sounding links.

4. Double check URLS. When you are asked to sign into your account, make sure you double check that the URL is where you want to be. Often phishing schemes will use a similar website address, with an identical sign in page to harvest information. Just make it a habit to check the signup page URL to make sure you’re on the right page.

5. Use different passwords. If you use the same password on all your social media accounts, or worse, all your online accounts, including banking sites, then any hacker who gains access to one account can get into every single one that you own. Make sure you keep all your passwords different, even if your username is the same. If you have difficulties remembering, use a notebook by your computer to keep track of everything.

These days, online security is getting harder and harder to maintain. You want to be social and promote your business, but you need to stay safe, too. Following these tips should help you avoid most security issues that you could face on social media sites, but common sense will take you a long way, too.

Were you a victim of any online scams? Please share your story with our readers and tell us how you handled it.

Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networking sites around and with all those new users have come new ways to use Twitter, in the form of customized applications that do everything from search for jobs to finding people with like interests.

For your convenience, here are my top 7 Twitter apps to maximize the usefulness of the micro-blogging site.

1. TweetDeck
TweetDeck allows you to create multiple columns with groups. For example, all your marketing contacts can appear in one column while another would show personal contacts or perhaps others interested in travel or another common hobby.

2. TwitterBar
This is a Firefox add on that lets you tweet right in your browser by adding a special toolbar. It is particularly handy for tweeting specific webpages that you want to share with friends.

3. Twhirl
For those who aren`t following huge numbers and just want a simple pop up application, twirl is perfect. It minimizes to your status bar and updates appear in brief pop ups and has all the basics for tweeting, retweeting and sending direct messages.

4. TwitterFeed
Named as one of the most useful Twitter applications by Darren Rowse, aka ProBlogger, this handy app lets you post links from your blog. To avoid the typical automated look, you can customize the message on your tweets.

5. Socialoomph
This tool lets you set up scheduled tweets, something that is particularly useful if you`ll be on the road or live in another time zone from the majority of your audience. If you schedule blog posts to go live at a specific time, you can now schedule a tweet about it, as well.

6. Twello
Lauded as the Yellow Pages of Twitter, this site lets you find people on Twitter in specific professions or areas of interests. If you`re interested in advertising and marketing, for example, Twellow will give you a useful list of people to follow.

7. TwitScoop
Looking for what`s hot on Twitter? TwitScoop lets you see at a glance what people are tweeting about. You can see all the most popular keywords in a tag cloud. This application is actually integrated right into TweetDeck, for added usability.

What are your favorite Twitter applications? With the hundreds now in existence, I`m sure there are some I haven`t used that could be very useful.