Tag: Social Media

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Google Friend Connect New Easy Interaction for Your Website

I am not a programmer and simply do not aspire to be one. I consider my expertise to be in other areas, but that does not mean that I do not want to add cool new interactive features to my website that typically require a strong knowledge of web programming. This is why I am so interested in checking out Google’s new Friend Connect.

Created just for people like me, Friend Connect lets Google do the heavy lifting for you. You can now install into your source code cool little mini applications that allow for users to become members on your website, add comments about a page or your website, and to rate your content. It is the beginning of a very neat interactive component that I am sure many will actively embrace. More applications and sharing tools are sure to be created as Friend Connect allows people to add programming-like elements into their static website without programming or database integration.

Friend Connect allows users with a Google account (which Google early on nearly forced on everyone who advertised in AdWords and when Gmail was initially introduced, so many users already have one), Yahoo accounts, and even AIM accounts. You can visit our website today to check out what we’ve done with Friend Connect integration. Just visit our resources section and click any top tip link to see just a bit of how we are using Friend Connect.

Although every page in our website is not using Friend Connect, we see it as a content interaction tool and so on some of our content pages which are really focused on teaching or sharing we want to help others to share our information and leave comments.

Friend Connect is easy to install for users who understand HTML, but not for the person who does not update their own website. You can find out more about Google’s new Friend Connect by visiting the official Friend Connect website.

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Google’s New Friend Connect

Finally I have finished integrating Google’s new Friend Connect into my website content pages. If you don’t know what Friend Connect is, it is a new programmer-free social interface that allows any website to use hi-tech programming features to allow site visitors to interact with the content. The key is that with Friend Connect you do not need to have any programming skills.

I have used the page review rating and comment module in many pages of my website. You can visit our instruction section to click through the various pages to see how it looks and how it works. Click into a few pages and you can see how the modules act and work on the page. Leave a comment, mouse over the stars and leave a rating and you can do so anonymously.

Personally I found the application after a few dry runs, extremely easy to work with and simple to install. There are several modules you may want to consider for your use. You can install a comment module that even allows video upload, a website rating module, a page comment and rating module, and a friend network module. For my needs, I am only using the page rating.

One thing that I have found is that it is best to only have one comment or rating module on a page otherwise the application gets confused.

It is easy to style the modules anyway you want from inside Friend Connect and then style the <div> that contains the content back in your source code. Implementation of Friend Connect is still best for webmasters or people who know their way around source code.

I consider the application a new exciting way to interact with website visitors. Take a look and tell me what you think by clicking comments below.

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LinkedIn The Social Network of Choice For Professionals

LinkedIn is where it is at for professionals of my age and caliber. Facebook is for college and newly employed persons. Yes I have a Facebook site and keep it updated, but by far the number of colleagues, clients, and prospects at LinkedIn beats Facebook four to one.

I have found that more of my peers are on LinkedIn and if not eager to join. LinkedIn is easy to join and set up, but the real power is in your connections. I sent out my Outlook contact book at LinkedIn and in less than 30 minutes I had 30 connections. People are actively using LinkedIn and want to connect with you there. As a comparison, I sent out the same number of invitations on Facebook and got three connections in one day. Professionals are simply using LinkedIn more than Facebook.

So what’s the benefit of using LinkedIn to connect with others? Wow, there are many benefits to using LinkedIn, here are just a few:

  1. People are hungry to connect – no really starving to connect! I have not had a single person turn me down, not even those who did not have an account, they set one up to get into the fun.
  2. The ability to use Questions and Answers is fabulous – wow, that is a powerful tool. I asked a question and got extremely savvy answers from professionals who really took time to point me to links, answer my question, give their personal experience in less than 12 hours. What an excellent way to not only poll others on a topic but to connect with others with common interests.
  3. I sent out a few requests for recommendations and got four in less than 30 minutes. I was able to then ask to be able to use their comments beyond LinkedIn for marketing on my own website. The recommendations that I got from clients were worth their weight in gold. Not only do they appear on my LinkedIn profile, but with the speaker’s permission I will be able to use them any where and any time. Wow! That alone was worth the 10 second investment to send out a mass request.
  4. LinkedIn is very easy to use. LinkedIn shows you what to do to complete your profile, add business history, get referrals, and any additional information to make your profile really work for you.

If you are not using LinkedIn yet, now is the time to jump in and see just how easy and fun this network can be, you may end up as surprised as I am at how friendly, sharing, and interactive it is.

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Social Media: People Are Hungry, No, Starving to Connect

I am shocked really, today I worked on my Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and sent out some invitations and requested for LinkedIn recommendations. Within minutes I had a slew of question responses, tons of new friends, and six recommendations. The response has staggered me. I have toyed with social media networking, it has seemed like a time pit to me without any selling value, but I have to say I am strongly rethinking my viewpoint.

Here’s what I have found so far:

  1. People who are acquaintances, colleagues, and clients really want to know you better.
  2. People want to share what they know through LinkedIn questions and answers.
  3. People want to share resources that they have found to help someone they know.
  4. People are not afraid to give you a recommendation, if you ask for it.

Interesting, as I thought people would just be too busy to do any of these things and that Facebook and LinkedIn were only for people who had a lot of time on their hands. Not so, clearly.

My big question has always been, and has been shared by other professionals, is that the time you invest in social media, specifically social networking, may not translate into sales. But based on what I have seen this may be a concern that I may need to reconsider. Most of my business comes from referrals of other satisfied customers. With these new networking tools, I may be able to tap into the second degree of separation to my colleagues and clients to garner additional clients and access to news and emerging technology through my own connections. This would provide more value to me personally and warrant the time investment not only with increased sales and contacts, but access to new emerging trends and technologies.

As I got responses from others in from my LinkedIn question on how others are effectively using social media, I am finding that use of the question and answer tool is very important and video continues to pop up as a very important aspect as well.

You can click in and join my three social media networks from the badges on my right side bar right now and I’ll accept you. This way you can be part of the conversation as I do additional research on how to effectively use social media and social networking for your business. I’ll be sharing my findings with my networks and offering ideas and suggestions.