Alternative title: Are Facebook and LinkedIn the largest Twitter aggregators?

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all provide streams of content – the content can either be created on the service or the content can be posted automatically from outside sources – typically either RSS feeds or from one of these services to another. Both Facebook and LinkedIn have content outside of the stream while Twitter is completely based on the content stream.

What I’ve noticed more and more over the past few months is that the stream on both Facebook and LinkedIn is dominated by Twitter updates. And since I follow basically the same set of people on all 3 services, I see the same update over and over again. I understand that everyone is different but I have to assume that for many people, their overlap is somewhat similar.

This overlap of content creates several issues – I’ve discussed a few of them in years past when FriendFeed was still an active service.

The biggest issue I see with the mass sending of content updates to every possible social network is: where to comment to get a reaction from the status creator. As a basic example, if you look below, Anil Dash has posted an update on Twitter which was sucked into Facebook. Three people have commented on Anil’s content. Will Anil respond to these comments? Does he even know that these comments have been posted? And do the people commenting understand that Anil may not even know that these comments exist? While it might not be important for a typical status update, if I ask a question seeking help, then it is important that I see the replies.

There is always talk that some updates belong on Twitter, some on Facebook and some on LI. But the truth is that it seems like people just want to pass along their content to whatever service will take it (most of you know my view is that 99% of updates are not needed). I am hoping that in 2012 both Facebook and LinkedIn will offer the option to turn off third-party aggregation. Such an option would instantly clean up my streams on all three services. The downside from the company perspective is that they would lose the updates that are so important for monetization.

One note, I didn’t include Google+ in this post because they don’t currently support external aggregation. Once they do (and that will be soon I am sure), then my stream on Google+ will follow suit with Facebook and LinkedIn.

Here’s part of my Facebook stream — the highlighted pink sections are the Twitter updates (click the image to view the full stream):

And here is part of my LinkedIn stream:

Find more stories about: Facebook, LinkedIn, social media, Social Networking, Twitter

Another day, another battle of “Google+ is the future” vs. “Google+ is dead”. I am guessing we will see these back-and-forth posts for a long time. This week the hot thing to do on Google+ is to make circles of the same brands everyone else has and then share those circles with your followers who have probably already created the same brand circles.

One of the earliest supporters of Google+ was Edelman EVP Steve Rubel. Steve heads up the Global Strategy and Insights division for the global agency. Steve is a good speaker and I have always found Steve to have interesting insights and enjoyed our in-person conversations. He seemed to post/re-share to Google Plus numerous times every day throughout the earliest days and summer. Then slowly his postings started to become less frequent. If I remember correctly, Steve held multiple internal conferences with his colleagues to educate them about Google+ shortly after launch.

In early September, Edelman announced that they were selected as Twitter’s new PR firm. Did this new client signing influence Steve to spend more time on Twitter than Google Plus? Some of the conversations I had since the announcement seemed to think so but I am not sold on this idea because Steve’s job requires that he understand all of the networks so he can position them properly to Edelman’s staff and, in-turn, clients. Google evangelist Louis Gray noted the new Twitter-Edelman relationship when Rubel shared a post that questioned whether Google+ would be around for the long-term.

On October 20th, Rubel asked if, “Anybody Home” and he received over 20 responses including one from me. There have been no posts from Rubel until one early this morning where he posted the following message:

I have decided not to post here for the time being. I will leave my profile up. Google+ is great. I wish them luck. Really i do. But I have to make choices about where I spend my time and for me that’s Twitter, Facebook and soon Tumblr – where I will be doing more so. It’s where I get the most value for the time invested. So, adios for now. See you on one of those networks. I may change my mind one day, but right now this is my plan. See you online. / Steve

Some have asked me if this is a bad sign for Google+. I am not sure if this should be considered any sort of death sign because I know Steve is crazy busy as it took me quite a while to get on his calendar a couple of years ago. It would be interesting to hear from Steve about how he will position Google+ to his colleagues and to all of Edelman’s clients going forward. I guess I will have to find him on Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr to attempt to get the answer to this very important question.

Find more stories about: Google, Google Plus, NYC, social media, Social Networking

Facebook is holding an all-day, free event on November 2 in Austin at the Sheraton hotel (would have been great if the event was held at the Facebook office). The day will start at 9:30 AM and end at 5PM and will include lunch. The event will center around the Facebook Open Graph and will include talks on games, mobile and marketing. There is a keynote presentation but the speaker was not noted.

If you want to meet a Facebook developer, this looks like a great opportunity to get some time with their team. It looks like the event will host about 100 attendees so it might be a good chance to meet other local developers.

Here is the overview of the event from Facebook:
“This is a unique opportunity to get hands-on experience with the new Open Graph technologies recently launched at f8, Facebook’s Developer conference. During this all-day program, Facebook will host technical deep-dives, a Q&A with our Developer team, and an opportunity for you and your team to share 1:1 time with Facebook Engineers during ‘Office Hours’.”

You can register for the Facebook event here.

Find more stories about: Austin, Facebook, social media, Social Networking, Texas

It seems like you can’t load Twitter these days without seeing someone talking about Klout. Apparently the company rolled out some updates to their “algorithm” which made a lot of scores drop and my sources tell me that appointments to psychiatrists have risen 23% since the update. Klout claims to pull together a number of factors from how you use social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Google+ to come up with a score. This score is apparently your “influence.”

God only knows how they compute the score and how they figure out what profiles go with which users. I assume if I make an account (I haven’t and don’t plan to) then I can associate that on twitter I am centernetworks, on Facebook and Google+ I am Allen Stern. I also don’t use Foursquare so I guess I can kiss those points goodbye. But since I have no account, I assume my score (I have no idea what it is) is impacted negatively because they can’t pull in all of my accounts and see how truly influential I am. I also wonder how they deal with the suggested user default lists which have given millions of free followers to accounts for celebrities and some select bloggers.

If you are interested in the earliest days for Klout, check out the video I recorded when they presented at the NY Tech Meetup in January 2009.

Should I care more about my customers who have a higher Klout score? Should I perk them more than the others? That will absolutely never happen, every customer of mine will be treated the same. Alexia from Techcrunch posted yesterday with the title, “Nobody Gives A Damn About Your Klout Score.”

But for a while now, I’ve started to wonder if Klout is really just another advertising play/network wrapped up in a score which is wrapped up in a game? A year ago the Twitter game was to tell people via Foursquare where you are. Now the new Twitter game is apparently to “+k” someone for something. Or to shill for a product you were given for free. And who knows what, if anything, happens with those tweets. In any case, it’s a brilliant marketing play by Klout because it infects a stream on a regular basis. I see more of these than I do of the,  “Top Stories of the Day” posts that no one clicks on. I assume people click on these Klout freebie tweets because they too will want a free subway sammich or umbrella or Windows phone.

Here is where the ad network theory comes in. The big play for Klout is the idea that they bring together companies and influencers in categories where the company wants to get some play by using the influencers. The company hires Klout, pays a fee I assume and then Klout suggests users that the company should give freebies to. Microsoft is now giving away Windows Phones to influencers of some sort. I guess I don’t qualify although I would actually be a perfect person for Microsoft to talk to because we are currently working on our mobile strategy. (I will eventually post about Microsoft and why their mobile strategy is so poorly played)

Microsoft isn’t the only company participating in what I call the Klout ad network. Sandwich chain Subway must be a huge advertiser on the Klout ad network because I see their tweets all the time.

The brilliance of this new advertising network is that it gets users of social networks to push a company’s message without it appearing as a full-on ad/shill. I have questioned in the past why the tweets proclaiming that a person just got a free sandwich because of their Klout score don’t include a tag that the tweet is a paid ad. I wonder if we will eventually see pushback from Twitter corporate to label these tweets as ads.

In summary, here is how the Klout advertising network works:

1. company (probably via their “social media agency”) wants to get some buzz going about their product/service
2. company hires Klout to share their product/service
3. Klout picks out users based on their score in a vertical
4. Users get the freebies and shill for said product
5. Company gets lots of tweets on Twitter (and tons of mentions for Klout as a side benefit)

What I don’t know is whether this ad network actually delivers value – it’s just too early to tell. Investors believe in this new ad network, they have apparently put $40 million into the company to-date.

Here are a few examples of tweets related to Subway freebies received by Klout members:

Bloomberg talked with Klout CEO Joe Fernandez and the description of the video also confirms my belief that Klout is a new style of ad network.

Will their ad network work? While I think the idea of the score is silly, the majority of people online will want to pump their scores and if Klout can continue to score good freebies, then their ad network should continue to grow.

Let’s just pray that no company ever considers a Klout score when looking at job applicants.

Feel free to leave your Klout score in the comments, although I am only approving comments from people with a Klout score of 82 or higher.

Find more stories about: Klout, online influence, social media, Social Networking

The big Google+ news today wasn’t that the message board service increased their traffic by 1,269%, nope, the big super huge mega news is that you can now share your circles with your circles (see what I did there?). Circles are the apparatus that Google+ uses (most services call them lists) to help you organize your people, friends, friends of friends, required marketing parties, people who are acting as brands, bloggers who you need to circle to help you get press later on, etc.

The truth is that many people will be emotionally joyous or very hurt by their status, or non-status, in a specific circle. For example, let’s say you think you are a person who is a great, news breaking, tech blogger. And one of your popular friends shares her circle called, “Great, News Breaking Tech Bloggers”, you are listed in there and are very excited. Naturally you +1 the thing straight away and re-share the previously shared circle which helps you show off how great and how news breaking you are.

I do wonder how many of the reshares of shared circles come from people who are listed in the circle – somehow I’d bet it will be a very high percentage.

But what about when you are left out of a circle that you think you should be a part of? What do you do? One person I follow on the Google Plus message board noted upon sharing one of her circles, ” If I missed you, leave me a comment so I can consider adding you!!” Oh gee, thanks, let me send you my resume and my linkedin so you can consider adding me to your circle, thank you so much for this consideration!!! I sure hope my Klout score is high enough so she will add me to the circle!

So here’s the new service we will be offering at CenterNetworks – it’s called the “Google+ Circle Representation Service“. If you are left out of a circle that you believe you rightfully and dutifully belong as a part of, myself or one of my team of circle experts, will contact the party hereunto who controls the circle you want to be added to. We will work with the other party to help them understand why you should be added to the circle. By allowing us to represent you, your chances of being added to the circle go up dramatically. We will also work with Google on your behalf to get extra top-down pressurized pressure applied!

To-date we have a 92% success rate and we guarantee you will be added to the circle of your choosing (or we will create a circle with your selected name and add you to that which will allow you to share the newly formed circle with the same privileges and benefits as the original circle you wanted to be shared with).

Pricing varies depending on the person you want us to communicate with. For example, if we have to contact someone named Chris Pirillo, the charge will be higher since he only deals in Star Trek Legos (serious: you should click that link, the post is very touching).

So if you are feeling blue because you aren’t listed in the circles you desire, contact us today to signup for the CenterNetworks Google+ Circle Representation Service!

Find more stories about: Google, Google Plus, social media, Social Networking

As most of the world knows by now, Facebook began rolling out new “features” on their social networking service this week. Besides the ability to go back to 1950 and note the first time you drove an Edsel, the other big change is that now you will be able to share what you are doing without clicking anything – it’s “frictionless”. You should take a moment and read Dave Winer’s post which looks at why you should logout of Facebook and Dan Lyons hilarious post about how all of our lives have been changed forever.

When I watched the livestream of the Facebook announcements, I immediately commented wondering how long before a wife divorces a husband because she sees that he is browsing Victoria’s Secret for panties that are a different size than she wears. I still give it about a week before the first stories of inappropriate business are posted. Back in 2007, a man was fired because his employer-provided GPS showed him leaving work early.

It looks like an example of what is to come on Facebook hit eBay this weekend. Found via Darren Stuart, a man in Swindon in the United Kingdom is selling a Tom Tom Go model 700 GPS receiver on eBay. This might be the most hilarious auction I’ve seen – of course the story is a bit emotional as the man found out that his wife is/was cheating on him. The auction is currently at a price of £10,000,000 which is just over 15 million USD.

From the auction (read the full description on eBay):

This was my wife’s, may her knicker draw be infested with the fleas of a thousand Camels…The Go 700 was once the top of the range Sat Nav from TomTom, with an internal Hard Disk Drive instead of the traditional SD Card, and had full Bluetooth and Wireless capabilities.  I bought this for the back-stabbing harlot, some four or five years ago, before she met Nigel with the Little Penis, and it cost me over £400…

Her infidelity was discovered when I took her car for an MOT, and while waiting, I was tinkering with the Sat Nav and noticed that all her recent journeys had all been to Nigel’s…So, like any normal human, I reprogrammed Nigel’s address to one in a town far far away…

There are over 100 questions posted on the auction and the seller has responded to all of them. The auction ends on September 28th so you have a few days to decide if you want to up the bid from $15 million.

Find more stories about: eBay, Facebook, gps, social media, Social Networking

Last night I was out clubbing in Austin…trying to get my mack on (I do a mean cabbage patch) and finally find the future Mrs. Stern. While I was standing at the bar, (no I didn’t find an iPhone 5) I noticed a piece of paper on the bar that looked interesting so I grabbed it. Turns out it appears the paper seems to be a job posting for a position with a “newly-launched” social network message board. It feels like a job posting for Google+ Suggested Users but I have been unable to confirm. Unfortunately the bartender told me he spilled Milwaukee’s Best on the paper so some parts are unreadable and my scanner is dead so I can’t post an image. Here’s what I was able to put together from the paper…

Job Title: Elite Users Wanted for (word missing) — a Newly-Launched Social Network

Job Description: Are you looking to grow your fan base on a (word missing) network?

This position is perfect for you if you have more than 100,000 followers on Twitter. (partially missing word)ogle is looking for people (or cats, dogs and other non-perishables as long as you meet the 100k+ requirement) to join our (something)+ social network. You don’t need a (something)+ account to apply and even if you don’t have a real name, we will still take you as long as you have more than 100,000 Twitter followers.

Please note that we do not actually care how you obtained your 100,000 Twitter followers – if you were given them as freebies because you are on the Twitter suggested user list, if you bought them on Canal Street, or if you worked really hard and earned them.

Your role within the social network will be to publicize the network in your efforts. For ex(partial word missing), let’s say you are going to be interviewed on MTV – you should note in the interview that you love our (partial word missing)ogle+ social network and that your fans should come join the network immediately and then follow you. Or just mention a few times a month on Twitter your profile on our network to help get people to transition over. Extra bonus will be awarded if you mention our network on (partial word missing)book.

Please note that your viability to remain a member of our Elite Suggested User List is dependent on how much you can bring over – you will be replaced if you can’t maintain a good level of introductions. Don’t worry, we will work with you to help integrate our messaging into your online and offline networks.

Position requirements: Priority membership to the elite suggested user list will be given to those who meet the following requirements:

• has more than 100,000 followers (over 1 million and you will be given security clearance level 1 priority access with a dedicated account rep)
• is willing to pimp our network in media – TV is preferred but we will take tech bloggers who can get our social network on (missing partial word)CHmeme and Hacker (missing word)

Compensation: commensurate with # of Twitter followers. One of the people we’ve already initiated into our (missing partial word)gle+ Suggested User List has noted that he has been, “given thousands of dollars.” And he’s a tech blogger – you can imagine what type of fat wad you can make if you are a celebrity. Also, your face will be shown to millions of people as they signup for our social network. And most importantly, when we put out press releases about the network, we can include you in the release as one of our top users.

Application instructions: Applications should be sent to Br(partial word missing) Horo(partial word missing) care of his Twitter account. Make sure to include your Twitter handle and number of Twitter followers. Please note that due to the high (word missing) of applications we have received for these positions, we will only reply to you if you have more than 100,000 Twitter followers and can help further our goals on our newly-launched social network. All others should continue to do what they are doing and we may eventually find you.

We at (word missing) appreciate your interest in joining our Elite users list and allowing us to mutually benefit! Our success (word missing) on your success!

If you made it this far, you realize this was just a joke based on the absolutely ridiculous tweet posted on Friday by Google VP Bradley Horowitz. The tweet (shown below) made it clear that Google upper management only cares about gaining users who have large Twitter followings which was very shocking to many. Bradley’s comments certainly have made me think twice about what Google’s goals are with their message board.

Find more stories about: Google, Google Plus, social media, Social Networking, suggested user list

Today I was reading through an invite for an event featuring social media experts being held next week and at the end of the invite, the company hosting the event “explained” what it is that they offer. At least now we know what services social media agencies offer!

Since 2009, (redacted) has had the first business intelligence solution for Social Media and Performance Marketing for brands and agencies.  (redacted) uses cutting-edge software for data gathering, reporting and evaluating trends and patterns to effectively create and execute campaigns geared towards a specific audience and help business’s receive a great response rate on their pages.  An example of what (redacted) can do for a business is the increase in response rate takes what recent Social Media experts and press deem as impressive with results of a click through from other firms with 35 out of 1000 to (redacted)’s typical result of 40 out of 100 engagement, conversion and click through rate through its methodologies which emphasize quality over quantity.

(redacted) helps you get the most natural and profitable results for your online marketing.

Note: I removed the company name for the purpose of clarity

Find more stories about: social media, social media experts, Social Networking

A couple of days ago, I created a fun, fake joke post about how you could attend my seminar on how to become a Google+ expert. Most thought it was real (no idea why) and some were very upset and/or angry that I would offer a course for a social network that has been live for less than a month, has already been notified changes are coming and is only used by social media experts to talk about social media experts and Google+. Of course once they realized that it was a  joke, everyone had a good laugh.

But apparently one person saw a gold rush and decided to actually offer a one-hour course so soon post launch — that person? Chris Brogan. Before I continue, let me say that while I have never met Chris, he does come across as genuine. I’d place him second in terms of being able to round up the sheeps – and unlike the person I’d put first, Chris appears to have built his following organically which is awesome. He’s also been one of the few people to be able to post paid affiliate links into his streams without huge backlash. My issue isn’t that he is offering this course, but rather that he should have waited at least six months for the network to balance itself.

Chris is offering a one-hour session for $50 on, “How To Learn Google+ for Business and Networking”. He plans to teach attendees the following:

• Profile tips and tricks.
• Organizing people in circles.
• Finding the good stuff.
• How to post engaging material.
• Keeping up with comments.
• Making the most of your time.

Funny enough some of his agenda items match mine – and the others on his list are very general. He is also going to offer a Q&A session for an hour after the learning takes place.

I currently follow Chris on Google+ and he’s done a great job of posting content that helps him maximize and build the farm. He posts silly posts, silly polls, photo posts, etc (he does post a lot of useful content as well) and with the size of his audience, these posts provide him with amazing stat padding (shares, +1s, comments) as well as to recruit new users. The casual user has no idea that there is more going on than just, “post a photo of yourself right this minute.” I am guessing he will teach attendees some of these tips during the course.

Why do I think it’s absurd to offer a paid course for Google+ at this point? Here are just a few reasons why:

• Google+ is not open to the public — you still need an invite to get in.
• Business pages for Google+ haven’t launched yet and we don’t even know how long before a regular, non-suggested business will be able to register
• So far the users are basically social media experts and agency people, normals aren’t even interested yet
• Once the normals arrive (if they do, I still question this), Google+ will be a very different place rendering Chris’ course even that much more off-base
• Everyone has said that major updates are coming to Google+
• Somehow Chris has logged over 250 hours on Google+ since it’s launch less than 22 days ago as of the time of his seminar ad posting

At the end of the day, this is America and Chris has a right to peddle his wares anyway he wants. Is he taking advantage of his farm? Sadly I do agree to some point (and I hate to say that). I think the attendees would be better suited donating the $50 to a relief organization. There’s plenty of time to become a Google+ expert once the system stabilizes.

Nothing in his agenda is anything the attendees won’t pick up just by using the service (without any extra effort!). I think his decision to jump so quickly will tarnish his reputation a bit but in this Internet world, that should only last a quick minute.

And trust me, Chris’ course is just the beginning — we will see plenty more people who want to get some of the Google+ gold.

Further Reading: Gini Dietrich at Spin Sucks covers the discussion very well – I suggest reading the nearly 250 comments as well.

Find more stories about: Google, Google Plus, social media, Social Networking

Two years ago I created a history of online experts – everything from the early “html experts” to the more modern “social media experts” and everything in between. Sadly I’ve been up way late at night recently and have seen television infomercials that can help you become an eBay expert, Facebook expert and even how to make buckets of cash pushing products on Twitter.

Since the launch of the new Google+ social network and subsequent explosion in users (apparently the count is going up faster than the U.S. debt), I realized that it would make sense for someone like myself to offer a Google+ Expert Course. You see I was one of the earliest users, I have an avatar and I understand the difference between share, like, vote +1 and comment.

UPDATE: The first city has sold out – we filled up the 50,000 seat arena in just two days. Stay tuned for the second city launch or join the waitlist (there’s a $100 waitlist fee)

The Google+ Expert Course will be offered in 4 cities in 2011 – the city list will be announced shortly as I want to make sure we secure a space that can hold at least 50,000-100,000 in each city. The course will also be offered as a “hangout” on Google+ for the 10 people who can get in before space fills up.

What will you learn at the Google+ Expert Course? We are still finalizing the course materials but here’s a taste to get your saliva going:

• How to add the right profile pic to your Google+ profile
• How to optimize your profile for maximum SEO rankings
• What city should you set your profile to? You might be surprised at the answer!
• How to instantly add 1,000 followers to your account
• The one secret word to get Scoble to share your post
• How to generate revenue using affiliate marketing inside your Google+ account
• How to get your Google Plus profile into the top 100 so you can show how much of an expert you are
• How to post baby photos and what to do when the kids grow up
• For agency folks, how to convince your clients to pay you lots of money to create a Google+ account
• How to get your Google+ threads listed on Techmeme
• How to create silly “poll” threads to get lots of comments
• Tips on maximizing pageviews outbound from Google+ to your blog
• How to cancel your blog, Twitter and/or Tumblr and live within Google+

Currently the price target for the Google+ Expert Course will be $4,995.00 with discounts offered if you purchase a table of 10 seats for your team. As a bonus, the first 25,000 people to pay full price will receive a signed Google Buzz invite.

If you would like to pre-register, follow me on Google+ and then the URL to the pre-registration page where you can register to be notified once registration opens will be sent to you. Those participants who register will be added to a new circle which I will closely monitor for one year post-event, a $2,500 value.

Google+ is here to stay so why not learn how to become an expert today?!?

Find more stories about: Google, Google Plus, social media, Social Networking

Well the holidays came early this year for early adopters with the clinical field test trial of Google+ (or is it Google Plus?). I like to think of myself as an early adopter who acts like a normal and frankly so far Google+ seems a lot like Friendfeed.

There is a video feature which will be a huge hit in the adult sector once/if G+ makes it past the e-adopter set. Last night I watched Robert Scoble eat some fried chicken while he and 10 others talked about some technology – I can certainly see why this is the future now.

In all seriousness, I find the interface a bit confusing in terms of where to find updates and if they auto-refresh in real-time but I am sure I will get it at some point. The nice thing I hear about Google+ is that there is no much richness in terms of all the apps and friends and stuff that you may never want to leave!

Of course next week Facebook is apparently launching some video tool so look forward to posts that explain why G+ is dead.

Based on my investigative research along with the CN international team of researchers, here are the companies that are clearly dead because of the Google+ launch:

• Facebook – duh, enemy #1
• Skype – who would want to use Skype anymore now that you got this Hangout video chat?
• Email services like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and all the other X Mails – clearly email is dead thanks to Google+!
• Yelp – business profile pages are apparently coming to Google+
• Friendfeed – oh wait, I think FF has been killed 3.14 times previously
• Twitter – c’mon, the celebs are totes gonna head over to Google+ so they can spend hours in meaningless chats with their fans (Google needs a suggested user list Tout de suite) (Allen’s note, the celebs will join because it’s hot right now)
• Tumblr – post a quick photo via Picasa to Google+, to replace the huge Tumblr porn section, see Hangout video chat comment above
• Foursquare – Google+ has checkins
• Social lending – rather than using a social lending service, you will just ask one of your circles for a loan
• Uber – no need for a cab when you may never want to leave home ever again?
• Quora – why ask a question on Quora when you can ask your circle?
• Color – use Picasa instead?
• SEO – just push your people to +1 the heck out of all your stuff so you can influence the search results directly
• GroupMe – you can totes group sms inside Google+
• Flickr – why pay for a Flickr Pro when you can just make a Picasa album which you can then selectively share with a circle or multiple circles which you can then share?
• Path – isn’t sharing within a circle privately what this team was working on?
• Blogging – who wants to blog anymore when you can plus instead?

Please feel free to leave your suggestions on dead companies due to the Google+ launch in the comments.

I sure hope you realize this is a just a fun sarcastic post — naturally a new service rarely (if ever) actually kills existing services. Now get out there and grill up some dogs and hamburgs!

Find more stories about: Google, Google Plus, social media, Social Networking

During my corporate days, my team attended several leadership workshops led by John Maxwell.  Over the next few years I realized that John became my favorite leadership/motivational speaker. His ability to draw in an audience and keep a story moving is great- since I left corporate America, I miss his workshops.

Early on in one of his workshops, he explained something that had everyone from my team looking at each other wondering if we should stick around because clearly this guy was off his rocker. He said that everyone does something 80% well – whatever that thing is. Yet in life we try to work on the other 20% – why? For those of you who have worked in a corporate environment, you know what this means. Your yearly progress reports always want you to work on the areas that your boss thinks you need to improve on. But Maxwell said this really makes no sense – what would happen if you focused on the 80% and made that part absolutely amazing? If we work on the 20% we aren’t good at, the best we can do is probably a passing grade, but if we focus on the things we do really well, we would own those areas. Take a minute and think about that concept…

I sit at my desk and day after day I read another blog post or journalist explaining that Google either needs to get into social to compete with Facebook or they are doing a crappy job with the efforts they have put forth to-date. Today Google soft-launched Google+ which Danny Sullivan calls a Facebook competitor.  So here’s what I propose…

GOOGLE…FU** SOCIAL.

I am dead serious – stop trying to fix the 20% that you aren’t good at and focus on the 80% that made Google the powerhouse company that it is. I get that Facebook is the sexy social marketing superstar right now and you are a boring utility company and want to feel sexy – forget it – it’s your 20% and it’s a short-term play anyway. And guess what – the utilities stick around for a long time.

Why not kick even more arse in the areas you already do? Why not move us forward on those areas (and guess what +1 isn’t what I mean in terms of moving forward). Google has the financial and human resources that can accomplish these tasks – give us the next generation ad product, office product, maps product, etc. Fix the enormous spam issue on YouTube, clean up the sites you messed up (like this one) in the Panda release. Clearly you believe in looking forward with your launch of Android.

Lastly, if you do want to launch a social network of some sort, I’d suggest waiting until late 2012 when the term “friend” returns to its roots and leaves the current definition of “person who I can market to”. The problem today is that social is more about marketing and creating the largest network rather than networking with only a person’s friends and family. In many of the reviews I’ve read today of your + product, it seems you want to focus on just the close, personal network. Frankly that will last a week – the marketers will want into those circles and once that happens, you won’t be any better than the mess that is a person’s Facebook friends list.

So please Google, put on the horse blinders and focus on making your 80% amazing for the next decade.

Find more stories about: Google, social media, Social Networking

Two years ago I wrote a column with the results of my first Facebook Ads campaign. Interestingly, one of the screenshots I used in that post in December 2008 showed a picture of television personality Rachael Ray with the caption, “The Rachael Ray Diet”. As I use the Facebook website, I’ve often wondered if anyone actually verifies any of the ads that appear on the site.

I think the world of Rachael, she has busted her butt to get where she is. Several years ago I had the very lucky opportunity to spend a couple of days on the set of her 30-minute meals television show. The fun pictures I have of Rachael and me on her set are some of my favorites of all time. Just watching her at her craft from five-feet away was amazing. It is so hard to believe she would be endorsing so many different “diets” on Facebook.

Today I saw the following ad as I browsed through my feed:

There are two things that stood out to me immediately in this ad:

1. The incorrect spelling of Rachael’s name in the headline
2. The URL pointing to rachaelrayshow.com

The URL displayed in the ad is the correct RR show URL. However if you click the ad, you go to a URL that looks close to the correct URL with a “.com-2.tv” tacked onto the end. Does Facebook require that the displayed URL be the same URL before the slash? Or is there a bug with Facebook that somehow made the “.com-2.tv” url appear only as .com?

Clicking the ad takes you to a website where there are pictures of Rachael and some text that makes you think it’s Rachael’s diet when as you read more Rachael had a short segment about a drink which I guess is made from the same fruit as the pills this site is pushing. The website (I am not going to link to it) is full of affiliate offers and while it appears to be a blog that accepts comments, the comment form is completely fake. I think I dropped a few pounds just trying to close all the popup alerts the website displayed when I tried to close the window.

Facebook execs, ads like the one above are the reason I am not willing to give you more of the dollars in my ad budget. I know that when I give my money to Google, ads for my company will never appear near, or in close proximity to, ads like the one above. On Facebook, it’s likely my ad will be wrapped in ads for all sorts of berries, quick weight loss programs and other ways to remove my wrinkles. So many of these ads go to fake news sites that it’s hard for me to believe Facebook can’t ban these types of ads. If you are new to the fake news technique, Danny Sullivan has an excellent analysis.

Here’s a small portion of the website you are presented with when you click the above ad:

Find more stories about: Facebook, social media, Social Networking

Last week I attended a 15-minute presentation at SXSW 2011 by blogger Julia Allison titled, “Social Media or Sado-Masochism? Cyberbullying & Celeb 2.0″. I’ve posted the video from her presentation below. The takeaway for me was that people are picking on Julia and she wants the police to setup a “cyberbullying” group that will go after anyone who says mean things online.

Before I go forward, I think bullying of kids (and adults) is horrible. Bullying someone about their size, shape, color, ethnicity, race, sexual preference, etc. should not be tolerated at any level and it’s great to see the government getting involved with education and other ideas to help end bullying.

After I left Julia’s presentation, I was walking around the expo hall and started to wonder if a personal brand is any different than a corporate brand? Should we be expected to treat personal brands different than corporate brands? Technically a corporate brand is made up of individuals so perhaps it’s the same?

Julia refers to herself as a personal brand – last year she taught a class on how to create a personal brand for yourself. In session number six, Julia notes, “your personal brand is your business”.

Julia has cursed at United Airlines several times via her Twitter account. Did Julia “attack” the current 13 year-old YouTube sensation Rebecca Black for her music video last week by saying that Rebecca’s video is the reason kids shouldn’t be allowed to make music videos? If someone suggests that Julia shouldn’t make lipdub videos because she sucks at it (I am not suggesting she does or does not suck at it), is that bullying? Is it ok for people to bash a corporate brand but not a personal brand?

Julia closes her presentation by noting that perhaps it’s a “gendered” issue – that these Internet bullies only attack women. She talks about Gary Vaynerchuck- and she says that he is treated differently because he is a man. I don’t follow Gary anymore but when I did, I know that he rarely if ever posted pictures of his family. If you lined up 5 women, I couldn’t pick out his wife (although I am guessing she would be the only one wearing a NY Jets jersey). She says Gary doesn’t get attacks based on his looks – but playing devil’s advocate for a minute, Gary isn’t posting pictures of himself in 1,000 different outfits wanting feedback. She says no one is talking about Gary’s family – and the reason for that is simple, because other than him talking about his love for his family, he isn’t putting them out there for the world to see every minute. So I don’t buy Julia’s argument that Gary doesn’t get the same criticism or attacks because he is a guy – he doesn’t because he isn’t sharing every detail of his life – both public and private.

Clearly there is a fine line between criticism and attacks. While, it’s pretty easy to figure out what lies at the far ends of both sides, I don’t know the right answer as to exactly where the dividing line is. Could it be that if you set yourself up as a “personal brand” the line is further out than if you are a private person?

It seems like today, creating a personal brand is an important tactic for social media rockstar ninjas. Perhaps part of the thought process for creating a personal brand should be that you are opening yourself up for potential endless criticism and possible attacks.

Here’s the video from Julia’s presentation:

Find more stories about: social media, Social Networking, sxsw, SXSW 2011

It appears that Twitter is currently down for most users – I was first unable to access the site around 3am Eastern time. As of the time of this post, 8:30am Eastern time, I am still unable to access Twitter.com. The Twitter status site notes, “Currently experiencing elevated error rates — You may experience some problems loading twitter.com and with Twitter clients.  We are aware of the problem and are taking action.”

Based on some searches on Google, it does appear that some people are able to post messages — it does look like if you use a third-party client (Seesmic, HooterSuite, TweetDeck) you might still be able to get in.

This is the first time for an extended Twitter outage in quite a long time. In the old days of Twitter outages, we would all hop on the bus to Friendfeed but that is no longer an option since many have left that service.

Update 9:45am Eastern – Several of my undercover sources tell me this might have to do with the snow in San Francisco.

Update 2 – 10:15am Eastern – Twitter is back – now go post all the things you would have posted if Twitter was up and running.

If you are a social media ninja, social media rockstar and are really upset or need someone to talk to because of this outage, please call 867-5309.

As always, please report in if Twitter is down for you – include your location, whether you use a client tool or the main Twitter.com site and what you are doing to occupy your time during this outage.

Of course, the outage gives me a chance to share Twitter Come Back one more time!

Find more stories about: social media, Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter Down