How I Got to #1 on Google

Every once in a while, okay, about once a month, I use Google to see how I rank compared to others that share my name.  Yes, believe it or not, there are LOTS of Jean Pickerings in the world.  When we are talking about ranking, we are talking about the world not just a specific geographic location.

What I have noticed after doing this for the past several years is that I typically show up in the #1 position.  I normally just enter my name when I use Google, Bing, Yahoo, Dogpile, Webcrawler and others.  Sometimes I actually dominate the entries on the first page of the results and at other times I share the results with others.

So how does this happen?

Well, many of you know I am really into social media.  I have accounts on all of the top social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo and Google+).  I also have 2 blogs, an About.me page, an account on FourSquare, plus several others.  I spend probably 4-6 hours on a daily basis curating information that I can post interesting content on my various social media account.  I read what other people are posting and I comment/respond to it.  That is A LOT of time, but it is something I feel I must do to keep my high-ranking as a Social Media Technologist.

I also have tools that I use to help me do all of this.  I use Hootsuite to schedule posts.  I use Tweetdeck to interact with people in real-time (IRT).  I use URL shortners because on Twitter you only have 140 characters & only 120 if you want people to retweet/send it to their contacts.

Here are just a few quick tips:

• Have a complete LinkedIn Profile & post at least 1 update to it ever 24-48 hrs.
• Join discussion groups on LinkedIn and really have discussions versus just posting links.
• Get a Google+ account – because Google searches their services first when ranking you.  Post at least 1 update per day on it.
• Get a personal and business Facebook account.  Post about 2-3 times per day (DO NOT OVER POST) and make sure your content is compelling and useful.
• Get a Twitter account. Post at least once or twice an hour during the peak hours of the day.  DO NOT follow more people than are following you.
• Join Twitter chats, follow people who tweet about subjects that interest you and start to respond to them via retweets and comments
• Use the same look and feel for all of your accounts. This is all about branding and you want people to always see the same thing when they look at your profile on the various social media sites.
• Never offend.  Not everyone will agree with you when it comes to your personal views.  You need to be personal, but be personal in an uplifting and supportive way.

I also do a lot of IRL (in real life) networking because networking on-line is not enough.  You need to let people get to know you and that can be started online, but real relationships form over time and in person.  Get out there and volunteer some time to work for non-profits in your interest areas.

AND remember what your mother taught you “Never say anything about someone unless you can say something positive.”

Of course, this does not cover absolutely everything I do, but I can show you how to do it for yourself.  Just contact me via one of my social media accounts.

Facebook’s New Timeline

Facebook's New Timeline

During the last few days, I have been “playing” with configuring the look of my new Timeline in Facebook. After several days of working with my Timeline and tweaking it so that I like the way it looks, I must say that I like it.  It gives my Facebook profile a more professional look.

So how did I get to my current look for my Facebook Timeline?

• I enabled the Timeline
• I took the tour
• I updated my personal information
• I reviewed the posts in each of the sections of my Timeline
• And finally, I created a custom Cover (banner) for the top of my profile/Timeline page

The hardest parts of this process were enabling the Timeline and creating the Cover.  Oh, I could have used a photo from my album like most people that I know are doing, but I wanted something that really showed who I am so…. I had to create a custom Cover.  This was neither easy nor intuitive, but now I know exactly what the dimensions have to be and the process you need to follow.

Some things I like about the Timeline are:

• The Cover which allows you to differentiate yourself from others
• The appearance of the pages that show your friends, photos, likes and other items which used to be available in the left hand menu on your profile page.
• The About page – this naming is much more consistent with the standard website name which contains information about your business.
• I can delete posts that I don’t want to appear on my Timeline
• And I love the View Activity page which allows you to see everything you have posted and any “to do” action items.

Some of the things that people may not like are:

• The Ticker – the endless stream of posts from your contacts that you don’t really look at anymore
• The EdgeRank which determines which posts will show up in the stream on your Home page and the Home page of others
• The increase in ads
• The “frictionless” sharing – which some people will like and others won’t because everything you do is now shared with your connections

As I said above, I don’t usually like all of the changes to Facebook that we need to deal with on a regular basis.  Also, there are still some bugs in the display and some features don’t always work the way you would think they should.  However, when all is said and done, I have to say I like most of the new features in Facebook and the Timeline.  I think you will too.

20 Tips to Increase Your Facebook Insights & Become More Visible

Two posts within the same week – amazing!  But I digress, I want to talk with you about how to increase the impressions for your Facebook business page.

I manage my own Facebook page in addition to some pages for other organizations.  One of the pages belongs to a small networking group in Chicago.  It has between 20,000 and 45,000 impressions per month.  I have noticed that when I practice the following behaviors, the impressions increase.

1. Post something every day or even better, a couple of times each day
2. Post photos, videos and podcasts
3. Post information that is compelling and useful to your readers
4. Respond when people comment or like something you have posted
5. Use questions and/or the question feature to interact with your fans
6. Post events
7. Encourage discussions and participation, but don’t let one individual hijack your page
8. Encourage people to tag themselves in the photos & videos
9. Welcome new fans. People love to have their 15 minutes of fame
10. Invite your Facebook friends and have your friends tell their friends to “Like” your page
11. Have a custom Welcome page which is displayed to non-fans
12. Have several administrators so that you have content from several people and so that you do not lose access to your page if something happens to your personal Facebook account
13. Use the page settings to control how you interact with the page.
14. Monitor your insights to do some analysis to find out what types of posts have the most hits.
15. Use Facebook as the page name and then like other pages
16. Consider promoting it with Facebook Ads
17. Include the URL on all printed materials, your signature, other websites, and other digital mediums.
18. Stay positive
19. Don’t spam or sell your services or products
20. Be YOU

Increasing your visibility is like “planting a garden”.  It takes time and work in order to see the results of your efforts and to create a blooming garden that people want to see every day.

Impressions do not tell the full story or necessarily convert to increased dollars.  However, the more people that see something, the better chance that they will remember you when they need something or a friend needs something.  Thus, although impressions are not the “end all, be all”, they can help you become more visible.

Google+: A Really Neat Social Media Platform OR a Shiny New Gas Guzzler?

Just a few short days or in some people’s lives, long days ago; Google+ went live for early adopters of all things techie and social.  The buzz is so loud.  All the famous, not so famous and unknown pundits are checking it out and commenting on it both in and out of Google+.

Chris Brogan has released his Google Plus 50 thoughts. Mari Smith is says she will be publishing her thoughts about it very soon.  The news blogs and folks are checking it out and getting their thoughts out about it.  Everyone is so excited and most are saying it is the next (oh, excuse me – current) social media community that everyone is going to use.

Yes, I had to get on it as soon as possible and I am trying to help my connections get on it so they can start playing with it.  But am I absolutely enthralled with it?  So many people are, but in my case the answer has to be “No”.  That is because I have a few questions and concerns.

• Google says they don’t want to compete with Facebook or Twitter. Yeah, if you believe that I have some wonderful swampland to sell you.
• Is Circles a good thing or will it become an unmanageable mess down the line. I started using lists on Facebook and Twitter, but they became a bit of a hassle to manage so now I don’t use them so much.
• How will businesses use this social media platform?  Google says they are working on creating a Facebook page like feature, but how will it be implemented and received.
• Why does Google need Buzz now that they have Plus?  What does this mean to Twitter?
• What does this mean for search engine optimization and for the other browsers?  Do you only worry about how Google ranks your site, brand, etc?
• How or will Google seamlessly integrate all of their services into Google+.  Right now, every time you use one of Google’s services, it opens in a new window.  That could be considered confusing and is a bit clunky.
• People yearn for the days when Facebook had fewer features and was easier to use and connect with your friends.  Will people be saying the same thing about Google+ once the blush of the “shiny new car” goes away?
• Are they becoming too big to be able to provide quality services?  When companies try to become “the king of the mound”, their products start to deteriorate and then the company starts to fail.
• With this move, Google is taking no prisoners in its move to dominate and be all things to all people who use the Internet. That may or may not be a good thing.
• How will the other companies in social media and internet space fight back or will they create a consortium to fight Google like they did to buy all of Nortel’s patents?
• The Federal Trade Commission is already investigating Google for deceptive tactics. How will Google+ affect their investigation?

Right now Google is the “darling” loved by all, but I remember when that was true about Microsoft.  Now, there are more people who hate Microsoft and Facebook.  This could present a tricky challenge to Google.  How to dominate without appearing like the “Big Bully” in the schoolyard?

Meantime, I am still on Google+ and I will contribute to the conversation there.  I will, however, reserve my right to judge it and will not abandon my other social media communities or my clients that are using them.  I guess you could say, I am in a “wait and see” mode when it comes to Google+.

 

 

Getting to Number One

When you are investigating someone, what are the first things you do?  You “google” them and then you look at their profiles on the various social media sites.  Have you done this for yourself?  Are you number one? OR at least are the majority of the mentions on Google about you.

The name of this article is “Getting to Number One” and that is not easy unless you have an unusual name.  Most people don’t have an unusual name, at least, not on the web they don’t.  It takes work to “Get to Number One”.

Here are some starter hints to help you “Get to Number One”:

• Have a complete LinkedIn profile with a photo
  LinkedIn has a relationship with Google so it is the 1^st thing you MUST do.  This is your living professional resume on the Internet.
• Update your LinkedIn status every 24 to 48 hours.
  Search engines love fresh content so you need to keep them coming back to read your LinkedIn profile.
• Keep your LinkedIn profile current, use keywords and don’t be afraid to brag.
  Make it both compelling and easy to read so that people looking at it want to read more about you.
• Have a personal Facebook profile and use it to show your expertise.
  Facebook can be a wonderful tool for letting people get to know your personality and showing them you are an expert in your field. This is your “Cheers” where “Everyone knows your name”.
• Post links, business photos and videos of either yourself or someone else talking about your area of expertise on your Facebook profile at least once a day.
  Again, search engines love fresh content.
• Get a Twitter account using the same name that you used for your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts and complete the profile.
  You need to be consistent when setting up your accounts. Always use the name that is on your business card. Think of this as a cocktail party where you get to quickly meet lots of people.
• Tweet every day.  Participate in discussions and get to know people.
  Need I say it again; search engines love fresh, compelling content so make your tweets interesting.
• Get a blog or website where you talk about your expertise.
  Yes, there are billions of blogs out there, but it is still a good idea to have a blog/website where you can show your expertise.
• Join your local social networks and participate in them.
  People will want to “check you out” online. Search engines love it when people visit your profile, tweets and/or website/blog.  It means people think you are relevant.

Of course, there is a lot more you can do, but these ideas will get you started.  Just keep doing it consistently and your ranking will rise to “Number One”.

Photos, Video and Social Media

Recently, I have been posting a lot of photos and videos on my clients Facebook Pages. What amazes me is how much adding that content has increased the number of impressions on their Facebook Pages. So I asked myself….why?

Well, here is what I think and have NO scientific evidence to support my opinion. People are very visual. They love photos especially if the pictures are of an event, location or people they know. It is fun to watch videos on-line (as long as they are short). Look at the popularity of YouTube. You can impart a lot of knowledge in a very short video that would take several paragraphs to explain.

You do NOT have to be a professional photographer or videographer to do it! The videos and pictures I post on my client’s Facebook Pages are taken with my 2 Kodak cameras; an EasyShare M530 and a Zi8. I use my EasyShare for taking pictures and some videos. I use my Zi8 exclusively for videos, but I could take pictures with it. Together, I spent a total of $150 on both of these cameras and I love them.

As we all know, “Content is King”. If you post compelling content, people will come to consume it. I now encourage people that attend my Social Media workshops to incorporate video and photos in the content that they post on their social media sites. However, a word of caution, it is social media not sales media, so do not post advertisements for your product, services, etc. Also, do not post content which could be considered offensive. Post content which is amusing and/or interesting to your community.

In the future, I suspect I will find more uses for photos and videos. I encourage you to check it out. Here are the steps:

• Get a cheap camera that will allow you to take photos and videos
• Go out and take pictures and videos of things that interest you
• Post your photos and videos on your Facebook Page and/or other social media websites
• Watch the increase of the number of people that like your page and visit your page

OH – one last bit of information about photos and videos when it comes to ownership. Watch this video where Grant Cowell from REELSEO interviews Daliah Saper from Saper Law. Here is the URL: Who Owns the Video You Publish to YouTube?

If you are wondering – why a link instead of embedding the video…I don’t own it and I do not have written permission to embedded it, so to be safe legally, I post the link to the video. My rule – “If you don’t own it, don’t post it. Just link to it.”.

So go out, have fun and watch your impressions increase as your content becomes more interesting to others.

Why I Am Shutting Down My Website

I have decided that with all the social media tools, I cannot justify the cost and effort of supporting a stand-alone website which is more static in nature.  Sure I have a website that was built using Wiki technologies which means that I can change the content easily and could open it up so that others could add content, but I question why I should do this.  In fact, I question why I should even recommend it to my clients.

SO what are the alternatives you ask? Well, here are a few:

• A blog – Like a website based on Wiki technologies, blog websites are easy to create and maintain.  The difference is that if you use a Word Press blog, then your website is a lot more likely to be indexed by the search engines.  Also, you can have people comment on your contents without allowing them to add their own content.  Using the correct template, you can make it look like a traditional website.
• A Facebook business page – Facebook has emerged as the number one site visited on the internet.  If you have a business page, NOT personal profile, then your page can be indexed by search engines and seen by anyone on the internet with a web browser.  In addition, with all of the applications that have been developed for business pages, you can basically have the same features and functions which were available with a traditional website.
• A LinkedIn Company profile – Although, you do not have as many features with a LinkedIn profile, a LinkedIn profile is very helpful, especially, if you pay to have more than just a basic profile.  With a LinkedIn profile, you can have all the static data that you would normally have on a website for your company.   LinkedIn is the most popular social media site for business professionals and businesses that are looking for solutions in the United States.  So the advantage is that when someone goes looking for your services or products and you have used SEO properly, it is highly likely that your profile will pop-up in their searches.  Also, LinkedIn will put you at the top of the page if you keep your profile updated every 24-48 hours.

There are plenty of other alternatives and I often advise my clients to first determine their goals for their internet presence before deciding if and what  services they will use to make their company more visible on the internet.  So before you decide what to do, sit down and really define your whys and goals for being on the internet.  It is still true that if you don’t need a screw driver to get the job done, don’t use a screw driver.  AND if you need a screw driver, make sure you have the right one for the job you need to perform.

 

 

Branding & Jobseekers

In these days of the internet, networking both online and in person, and a struggling economy, it is more important than ever to establish your professional brand.  So what is a brand – when people say your name, your brand is what they say about you.  It is who you are and that encompasses both professional and personal aspects.

Most jobseekers have a LinkedIN profile, but like their resume, once they create it, they don’t keep it up to date.  Often I find  LinkedIN profiles that are not be complete which reflects badly on the individual.  Some jobseekers have a Facebook profile, but they only use it for keeping in touch with family and friends.  Some even hide their Facebook profile.  As a result, they are missing the possibilities that Facebook offers to market their professional brand.  Believe it or not, very few jobseekers have a Twitter account or if they do, they don’t realize Twitter could be the source of your next dream job.  I know one individual who found her dream job via Twitter and she just loves her job.  Everyday, I see many job openings that are posted on Twitter that never appear anywhere else.  You also need to worry about using keywords when creating your resume, creating your online profiles and communicating with your online connections.  There is a lot to getting a job in this market and studies have found that just submitting your resumes to companies and job sites is not as effective as it use to be.  You need to know how to use social networking online and in person.

Recruiters and employers use the various social media websites to research potential and current employees.  They often dismiss possible candidates because of the lack of a fully developed social media presence or because of information that is posted on one or more of the social media websites.  If jobseekers are using social media, they need to use it to highlight their positive characteristics and skills.

So why am I saying all this, well, of course, to explain why you might be interested in taking the series of Social Media workshops that The Tektite Group offers.  We have workshops on Fridays just West of the Loop.  We also have workshops on Saturdays in Hyde Park.  I encourage you to take a look at our workshop schedule which is posted on our Facebook page.  Take a look at the Events tab to see all of the workshops.  (Note: You do not need a Facebook account to see Facebook Pages.)

The URL is: www.facebook.com/TheTektiteGroup.

You need to think about how you are going to find that next dream opportunity and knowing how to use social media must be a part of your roadmap to success.  I hope we can help you find your next opportunity to succeed.  Please feel free to contact us or tell us what you think.

Social Media? I Don’t Get It!

There are two terms that people seem to use interchangeably: social networking and social media. Social networking is the activity of connecting and establishing relationships with people on the internet. You may never meet these people in person and yet, you get to know them quite well due to your conversations with them on the internet. Social media are the tools and websites that you use for social networking Typically, social media are websites with communities of people that you befriend, connect with, follow, etc.

Why

There are many reasons for using social media tools. Individuals use it for personal & professional branding, a source for information & news, to keep in touch with old & new friends, and because it is fun. Businesses use social media because it is a low cost way of marketing their brand. Although they can’t specifically point to a good ROI, they see increased awareness of their products & services, increased traffic to their website, and thus, increased revenue. Recent studies have shown that social media is more popular than email.

The Top Three

The top 3 tools/websites that people use are: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. LinkedIn is still the most popular way for professionals to connect. However, Facebook is edging into that territory and still has the largest number of users worldwide. Facebook allows professionals to create more personal relationships. As a result, the fastest growing group of Facebook users are professionals over the age of 44. Twitter has seen more than a 1000+% increase in users since the beginning of the year. Twitter is only 2 years old and an entire growth industry has sprouted around it. People are now using Twitter to spread news, make announcements, and share knowledge. It is the quickest viral marketing tool.

Note: Yammer is a tool that larger companies are using to allow their employees to tweet between themselves without allowing non-employees to see their tweets.

Must Haves

Just like our March Newsletter, there are 4 tools you need to market your brand on the internet. They are: a LinkedIn Profile, a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, and an interactive website using a wiki or blog. All of these need to be integrated into your website, your business cards, and any other collateral you use to market your company. If you have one of these, each day you need to update your statuses on them. Ping.fm will allow you to do this easily.

Next Steps

The first step in using social media tools is to create a brand strategy. Once you have a brand strategy, you are ready to implement a marketing plan for the internet. Your brand strategy will guide you in determining the content for your profiles, choosing which social media tools to use, and posting your daily updates/statuses.

Start out by creating an account and then watch what what people are saying. As you begin to feel more comfortable, start adding to the conversation by posting updates to your LinkedIn and Facebook pages, connect with people you know, and start tweeting your own bits of knowledge. Soon you will feel more comfortable and you will “get it”. You can also come to our Tech 101 Workshop Series to learn and do.

Remember

There are no experts in social media. It is evolving so quickly that we are all scrambling to keep up. And no one know how will it be affected by the new leap in web technology – web 3.0.

One Warning

Do not be a scammer and do protect your personal information that could be used to steal your identify.

The Tektite Group is here to help you figure out how to use technology to market your brand on the internet and manage your company which will result in increased revenue. Give us a call or send us an email if you need our help.