The web world has a serious case of trying to keep up with the Jones’, or rather the Zuckerberg. This week both Twitter and Google have launched features that mimic Facebook. The other day I mentioned Twitter’s new “Follow” button and since then Google have also launched their “Plus 1″ button.

Why “+1″?

Google wants you to use the  +1 in order to give your public vote of approval for a website, in a similar way that you may click the “Like” button for Facebook. Of course, while everyone and their Grandma’s Chihuahua has a Facebook account, not everyone is so used to using their Google account as a social tool. But for this to work, people will have to be logged in to their Google account so that when you click the +1  (see the button at the end of this post), Google can see who you are and keep track of your preferences. Google currently tries to show you who from your social circle has shared the websites on their search results pages, but you need to have connected your Google account to others like Twitter for that to work properly (and let’s face it, how many people know that you can even do that?!) so “+1″ is probably a more direct way for them to actually own some social data about you. Web publishers will  see the benefit, or actually the need, to adding the button in order to keep up in Google’s rankings. But will regular users understand how or why they should use or click this button? That remains to be seen. 

What happens when you “+1″  something?

A couple of things will happen based on your interaction with a “+1″ button. Firstly, your friends that you are connected with via your Google Account, will start to see your ‘votes’ show up in search results, attributed to you. For example, “Lucy  +1′d this” will appear in Google search results pages. Google thinks you want to see what your friends recommend, right there in the search results pages. I’m curious – do you? I don’t, but I tend to be a bit weird, so I’m not sure I represent popular opinion!

Secondly, it will affect how Google ranks websites. They will look at +1′s as signals of value and popularity, probably meaning that sites with lots of “+1s”  will rank higher (more thoughts on this to follow in a separate post).

For now, if you are a web publisher you need to get yourself a button. It’s quite easy to install with some copy/paste code from Google here. Then head over to Yoast’s site to see how to integrate Google Analytics tracking on the button.

View Google’s video introducing +1:

So what’s your take on this? As a publisher and/or a regular Google user, do you think this feature will be useful? Do you care to see what your friends have voted for when you are Googling for something? Leave a comment!

*header image is part of a hilarious animated cartoon you can find at BLaugh

From Twitter’s official blog:

When you follow interesting accounts on Twitter, it’s easy to stay connected with what’s most meaningful to you. Today we’re excited to launch the Follow Button, a new way to discover and instantly follow Twitter accounts directly from the websites you visit everyday….

…For publishers and brands, adding the Follow Button to your website and using Twitter to stay connected with your audience is a powerful combination. People who follow your account are much more likely to retweet and engage with your Tweets, and to repeatedly visit your website. Adding the Follow Button to your website is quick and easy, and you can configure yours right now at twitter.com/followbutton

image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/topgold/3683957494/

SMBCEO.com just published a guest post I did for them  - “5 Ways To Use Twitter Strategically For Your Business” which gives you a few ideas on how to get the most out of Twitter from a business perspective. By delving into some features like the Advanced Search options you can discover potential business connections, prospects and partners. It can also be a useful market research tool, and if you utilize the power of certain 3rd party applications to manage your account, you’ll be able to maintain and develop  relationships with the people that count, much more effectively.

How would you like to be personally walked through the WordPress installation process, guided through the set-up of your site, and receive expert advice on promoting your site with SEO and social media? Well, if you are in the LA-area, you can come down to the workshop I am hosting with Gary Nicholson of Relevant Trafik (a search marketing, web design, and social media management firm) on October 30th:

WordPress & Social Media Bootcamp for Business
October 30th, 11am – 5pm
@ Coloft, Santa Monica

Full price is: $129 but get $40 off if you use the discount code: love

Not only that, but you can enter for a chance to win a copy of the book WordPress for Dummies by Tweeting the following, or posting it on your Facebook page/profile:

RT 4 chance to win WordPress for Dummies: WordPress & Social Media Workshop – $40 discount w/ code: love http://bit.ly/dojf8E  #wpbootcampla

Next week we will select a winner at random from everyone who posts! So it’s important to use the hashtag #wpbootcampla to make sure that we see your Tweet. Or if you post on Facebook, drop me an email (lucy @ webtrainingwheels.com ) to let me know.

According to research done by Eventbrite, sharing on Facebook is five times more valuable than sharing on Twitter.

Eventbrite mined all this data over the past several months, analyzing how sharing an event through social media translated into ticket sales. On average, sharing an event on Facebook translates to $2.52 of ticket sales. On Twitter? Just $0.43. Sharing through email took second place at $2.34, and even LinkedIn topped Twitter at $0.90.

The great disparity between Facebook and Twitter isn’t surprising. According to a recent poll, users of Facebook have physically met more than 88% of their friends; on Twitter, users have not physically met 48.2% of their followers.

Full story: Facebook Is Worth $2.52, Twitter Only 43 Cents: Study | Fast Company.

This reinforces my simple model of social media in which I said that Facebook is for networking with those you already know, while Twitter is better for reaching a brand new audience.

Not only that, but in another FastCompany article, they show that Twitter click-through rates are far higher than Facebook. While you might think this would lead to a higher value, it really just speaks to the fact that link-sharing is huge on Twitter  and people are often there to gather information, sometimes using it as an RSS alternative. But that can lead to information overload, diluting its effect,  whereas I would guess that Facebook users are a little more conservative in their link-sharing. Since Facebookers have a closer connection to their network, I would speculate they don’t want to spam their friends and so share stuff they feel to be more genuinely of interest to their social network. Since people trust their friends, they are probably more likely to take action on something that is shared on Facebook.

Have you noticed any trends like this in your own social media efforts? How might this information affect what and how you share on Twitter, Facebook and other networks?

Big news from Facebook-land. Soon Page Admins will be able to contact those that have ‘liked’ them via an interface on the site. This function has been available somewhat behind the scenes, but it took a little tech-savvy to figure it out and probably wasn’t very widespread. Creating an actual interface for this feature will make it much easier for the average Admin to utilize.

Recently, Facebook has begun testing an interface to make that communication and the monitoring of those likers more efficient with an “administration interface”.

While it’s still something that many people were capable of accomplishing previously, this new interface, which is essentially just a Facebook Page, made visible to the owner of the website, makes it a heck of a lot easier to contact likers. While I’m sure there were some companies who were already contacting the likers directly, this new frictionless way of publishing to their newsfeed will most definitely present some great opportunities to marketers.

According to the company who forwarded this to us, it appears as though you navigate to the administration page by clicking on “Administer” from the liked page. We’re still trying to get more details, but making it easy for administrators to contact likers is a huge reduction of friction that will most likely result in many more published stories on Facebook.

full story: HUGE: Facebook Releases Admin Interface To Contact Likers.

I’m very excited to announce this in-person workshop taking place October 30th, 11am – 5pm at the Coloft in Santa Monica. I’m teaming up with Gary Nicholson of Relevant Trafik (a search marketing, web design, and social media management firm) for this event – it’s going to be an intensive learning experience, so if you’ve been procrastinating about moving forward with your site, this is your chance to finally get online and be personally guided through the process.

Get your business online and found by your target audience!

Learn how to create a WordPress site for your business and market it with SEO and Social Media.
This hands-on workshop will teach you how to:

• Install WordPress on your domain
• Create content for your business siteHow to create an effective business blog
• Install themes and plugins to provide all the marketing tools you’ll need
• Optimize your website for search engines
• Use social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to market your business and connect with your target audience and potential customers

Register by October 20th at the discounted price of $129

Space is limited to provide an intimate and comfortable environment in which participants can learn and get personalized help.

Facebook dominated the social media/online marketing news this week with their launch of Facebook Places – a location-based service along the lines of FourSquare which allows you to “check in” via Facebook to various places you go. While there was much fanfare, the rollout seems to be quite slow as far as people actually being able to access and use it. As with everything Facebook does, it comes with privacy implications. The default setting is that other people can check you into Places. Visit your settings to change that. Here are the instructions.

This hilarious tweet via @anildash sums up Facebook’s cavalier attitude toward all of our privacy:

If your business has a physical location, here’s how to use Facebook Places for your business

In more Facebook news, AllFacebook reports that Facebook is now the third most popular U.S. video site , behind YouTube and Yahoo. Although this shouldn’t be surprising given their gargantuan audience, I was slightly surprised only because I personally don’t see that many people heavily using the feature. Most of the video I encounter on Facebook comes from YouTube.

The other big news for the week is that Groupon’s star continues to rise with its biggest coup yet  – a nationwide deal with GAP which at the end of the day brought in over $11 million!!!

And just for fun…..Looking for some new Twitter people to follow?  For great entertainment follow these hilarious and smart women: @daniellelaporte and @communicatrix

Here’s a very simple model for thinking about three main social media channels: your blog, Facebook and Twitter.  I should say that this model applies in particular to solopreneurs and small businesses who are still developing their following and trying to use social media to do so. In this model the starting point is simply looking at who the audience is, since that helps determine tone, content and strategy.

The simplest version:

Your blog is for attracting a new audience, and providing value to your existing audience.

Facebook is for communicating with people you know, or at least have ‘weak ties’ with, i.e people that are already in your network.

Twitter is for actively finding and connecting with people outside of your current network.

The longer version:

Blog

1)   Your blog is your platform to pull in brand new eyeballs as well as provide help and value to your regular readers.

2)   Your blog is your opportunity to show your expertise and knowledge of your business and industry, create resources for your customers/readers and create a homebase for your online visibility.

3)   If people like what they find they are likely to use Twitter or Facebook to connect with you further.

4) There can be some 2-way interaction via commenting, but even if not, the 1-way output of information is the norm for a blog, more than any other social media outlet.

Facebook

1)   Most likely, people who join your Facebook Page have come from your personal Facebook network (it benefits you to build up your personal profile before launching a Facebook Page) or have found you via your blog. So the key is to foster the feeling of familiarity and get to know people a little better.

2)   A more casual tone than your blog works well; question-asking and discussion-starting are also great on a Facebook Page. 2-way communication is key – community, trust and credibility-building rather than soapboxing.

3)   Some self-promotion is appropriate, particularly if you can offer discounts and incentives, or news that lends to your credibility. But focus on providing engaging content and don’t just duplicate what’s on your blog.

4)   Since someone has to be a friend of your personal profile before you can actively send them an invite to your page, it’s a laborious process to reach brand new people (without purchasing Ads). So I recommend Facebook for fostering the connections you already have – increased engagement on your Page can lead to organic growth through exposure in your Fans’ newsfeeds.

Twitter

1)   Twitter is the place to initiate and develop brand new relationships. Strangers are just friends you haven’t Tweeted with yet!

2)   Unlike Facebook, you can easily find and interact with people you have no connection to, through use of the @ function. You don’t have to wait for people to passively find you, you can see what people are talking about and join in when you have something of value to add. It’s also great for staying in touch with new acquaintances you have made elsewhere.

3)   A good content strategy would be a mix of content curation (sharing links, valuable resources etc), conversation, opinions, insights and personality.

4)   Talk more about others than you do about yourself. Share your blog posts and news but keep blatant self-promotion to a minimum. Twitter should be the least self-focused of all social media.

5)   Twitter is great for paying it forward and sharing the love – sharing links to others’ blog content, Re-Tweeting people and contributing to the social proof of others.

Is this model useful? How do you make sense of these social media channels?

Header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelgraphix/2504474533/

I discuss the reality of using Facebook to market your small business organically – which is that it’s difficult! Facebook’s primary concern is creating revenue through their Ads, so they deliberately make it challenging to organically promote your page to a new audience. I provide some recommendations for shifting the way we use Facebook for small biz marketing and I let you know where I believe Facebook fits into a small business strategy. Take a look and of course let me know what you think, and what your experiences with Facebook have been.

Read the full article.

*awesome header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/4300931777/