Ginga WordPress Design Development. Sydney, Australia, Boston, USA

Statistically speaking most people in business have an iPhone, however if you are in business you will find that the apps you need most are from Google. Here is a must have list for any person who is serious about their online (and offline) business. But before I give you the list, think very carefully about your next iPhone purchase as business wise you are limiting yourself. Consider a Google Phone next time around and everything you need for your business will be within a swipe all synced nicely to your Google Account. My choice? Google LG Nexus 4 Phone ($299 Outright) but the Samsung Galaxy S4 ($699 Outright) is the power users choice and arguably eclipses the iPhone in features and technology!

Google Search: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-search/id284815942
Google Maps: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id585027354
Google+: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google+/id447119634
YouTube: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/youtube/id544007664
Gmail: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail/id422689480
Google Drive: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-drive/id507874739?mt=8
Google+ Local: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-places/id406513617
Google Voice: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-voice/id318698524 (USA Only)
Google Translate: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-translate/id414706506

A little firestorm has been developing since Ken Krogue a contributor at Forbes Magazine recently penned an article titles “The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content” and followed up with another excellent article on feedback with some additional thoughts.

In these articles he spoke about a lunch date with an SEO consultant named Adam Torkildson who told him that “Google is in the process of making the SEO industry obsolete, SEO will be dead in 2 years.” The feedback to Ken was immediate and rather vitriolic. I am sure no one in the SEO industry wants to hear this, but let’s be honest. if you are outside of the SEO industry, Google’s move makes complete sense. After all, wouldn’t each of us be better off without link farms and companies touting nonsense SEO claims, wouldn’t it be better for everyone if when searching Google the results were based off matching content, rather than little tricks?

“We hardly do any of the old SEO stuff. It still brings results, but not like it used to. Google is pulling the rug out to provide better search for their audience. They are routing out the counterfeiters. Now it must be real, valuable, content, and lots of community value and interaction” – Adam Torkildson

In the good old Google days, it was important to get links from as many sources as possible, the bigger the site that linked to you, the better your rankings became. The more links the better, it was all about volume first and quality second. Then followed SEO link farms and all the nonsense that came with these sites and today every man and his dog talks about the importance of SEO. I am in no way saying having good SEO foundations is not important, but hiring companies to enhance this – well, I always thought it was just a waste of money.

In recent years Google has been continually updating its algorithms to look for relevant content within websites to match natural search strings. Users of the search engines are also getting better and better at inputting better search queries, so it makes sense to everyone!

The article highlights the important not only of unique targeted localized content, but with the additional of social media links, likes, shares etc. Google also has the power to enhance the strength of its +1 likes, shares etc and because Google Plus is an open platform it obviously makes sense as a business to be all over Google+.

You can make the claim that Facebook is more powerful, but this depends on how many followers you have and if you have less than 1000 then you are pushing waste uphill.

I will go further to say that Google+ will – within a few short years become much more relevant and powerful for businesses, considering its deep business ties to solutions most of us use such as Gmail, Google Plus, Google Places, Google Maps, Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics.

So how will this effect you? Even if this linked article is only partially correct, if you are using software to enhance your SEO, then I would wean yourself off this over the coming months (at the very most a year). If you currently rely on a sound Google Standards based system for your content and continually write your own unique targeted articles then just keep doing what you are doing. You may however think to hire a Social Media Expert who can manage your social media sites or at the very least train someone in-house to do the same.

The final part of the article was about PR, I am not sure on this, as it is outside my area of expertise. So do yourself a favor and read the article and the comments, it is quite enjoyable.

Part One
Part Two

Comment from Adam Torkildson

Thanks for the followup article Peter. When Ken and I had lunch, it was back in March, just about 30 days prior to Penguin. My prediction was based on lots of different things, among them being the fact that google is trying to personalize, localize, and mobilize (not sure if that’s a word..) their search results and properties. Google is definitely pretty far away from being able to personalize everything, and make their search results 100% accurate. But they are working on it very hard, and by invoking Moore’s Law in their behalf, if their algorithm today doubles in effectiveness 2 years from now, most SEO’s will be out of a job just because of that fact. Add to that fact that doing SEO today is really more like doing Online PR and Content Marketing, and you find that the phrase ‘SEO’ will simply fall out of common use and will be called what it essentially is: Online PR and Content Marketing. I’m giving a keynote address to the New York chapter of the PRSA in November about this, if anyone wants to hear more.

You have something to say and can’t wait to get it out in the blogosphere. Raka and Bitly have got together and done some data crunching to showcase just what is the best time of day to send those Tweets, and add to your Facebook, Google+ profiles for maximum results. It is worth a look and possibly a change of pushing practice!

Yes the message and content is still of the utmost importance but so is timing. Just like with sending out email campaigns, timing is of the essence. You do not want a mailing campaign going out before anyone gets to work. They are more than likely to arrive and open their email with 20 or 30 messages, and you do not want to be a part of that group. Always post fresh news articles after 8.30am and preferably between 9am and 2pm.

From Raka: There are few resources better than URL shortener bitly for monitoring click-through rates for content shared on Facebook and Twitter. So when bitly released a report last month telling us all the best time to tweet or post to Facebook for click-throughs, we listened. And then we created an infographic.

This handy infographic highlights bitly’s data on the best times to share content on Twitter or Facebook if you’re looking to drive traffic to your site (or any site). Bitly found the best times to tweet for click-throughs are early afternoon Monday – Thursday, while Facebook content posted Wednesday at 3 p.m. generates the highest click-through rates, according to bitly’s data.

But why read words when you can look at pictures? Here’s the best-time-to-tweet-or-post-to-Facebook infographic created by digital agency Raka with data provided by bitly:

During the past week Google has been hosting their annual Google I/O event. Apple Events attract diehards from all over the world and in the past we have seen almost evangelical like scenes at these events. The annual Apple events always feature new products or updates to current offerings. Google I/O in the past have mainly focussed on what’s coming and some of that has never actually appeared.

There has been quite a few new innovations at this years conference, however the one I think will have the most impact for business is Google+ Events. There is no API for this yet, but once there is, I can see a world of possibilities.

Creating an Event in Google+
You simply login to your Google+ Profile and you will notice a New Events Tab on left side. Once you click on this you can create an Event. The first thing you will notice is to pick a theme (could be a property photo) or you can choose from a set of themes!

Events automatically added to Google Calendar
All events created by you will appear in your Google Calendar and you can also add photography to these events. Not only can you add photos in realtime (from an Android Phone), but others can too (that you invite to event) either in real time or after the event.

Google+ Circles Importance
If Google+ Circles were not important before, well they are now. You can build your list now and add circles for separate types of customers, current, potential, industry, friends, family etc. Google+ Circles are going to become increasingly important.

Google Events API
Once the API hits the market I am sure you will also be able to add events shortcode to your websites or develop systems for events to automatically appear with blog posts.

Google Hangouts
This is the sleeping giant and if you are not using Hangouts – you should. You can have discussions, experts and reviews right from a Hangout with up to 10 people. You can now even stream them live via Youtube and your own website via an embed code. With Google Events you can also schedule Hangouts right from the Google+ Event creation tool!

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/events/

Did you know that Facebook allows you to convert your profile into a company page? This is great for people who started on Facebook as a profile but also allowed people they do not know to follow them and their product or service? Since the early days Facebook added pages as a way for businesses to promote their goods and service. This however has left many people with a very public personal profile page, some would like all of their current followers moved across to the their business page, but this can be a slow proces as you have to plead with people to like your page, and really this never works.

Facebook actually has a solution to this. When you convert your profile (timeline) to a Facebook Page, they transfer your profile pictures and add all of your friends and subscribers as people who like your page – very simply. Here is a link on how to do this, but remember to follow the backup plan!

This does leave you with the problem of having to update the remaining profile page, however this will not be much of an issue. Here is some information from Facebook, be sure to follow their instructions to a fault!

To avoid losing important content, we recommend taking these steps before you convert your profile (timeline):
Download your profile (timeline) information. You can download a file that contains all of your sent and received messages and all of the photos and videos you’ve uploaded to Facebook.
Appoint a new group admin or a new Facebook Page admin to any groups or pages that you manage. The account you’re converting will lose these admin rights during the conversion process.

Since the death of one Steve Jobs and release of the Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson rumors have been spreading like wildfire about a new television to be released by Apple sometime in 2012.

In this book, Isaacson quotes Steve Jobs: ‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told Isaacson. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’

So what will this be?
Personally I think you only have to look at the iPad or iPhone to understand where this may go and I think I might have some ideas on this. If you look at televisions today they are the slave to the incumbent lazy broadcasters and cable providers, basically every TV has a receiver that scans for channels and if you have cable it works a little the same albeit with a set top box. Nothing has changed for decades and TV manufacturers are stuck in loop of releasing the same tired systems and upgrading them with silly things like hacked on 3D (does anyone seriously think the whole family wearing 3D glasses would catch on?)

I think when Apple releases the new television it will revolutionize the industry and force TV networks, cable suppliers and television manufacturers to change the way we receive our channels, much like music producers were forced kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Channels as Apps
I think it will work like this, you buy the Apple television and it comes with all the free to air TV apps (think channels as Apps), you download an app (channel) and that is included in your lineup, each app (ABC as an example) has a list of shows that are regularly updated that you can subscribe to and add to your list of shows to watch when you want to watch them. You simply ignore the ones you do not want and they do not appear in your lineup. Newly released (upcoming) shows are showcased on your TV Dashboard.

Accounts
A family may have multiple accounts for different family members (restrictions included) and each login displays a different lineup on the TV Dashboard. This will allow owners to filter access for different users within their family.

Subscription Style Apps
Just like you pay for subscriptions to your favorite magazine and now some apps, you pay for subscriptions for TV/cable style channels, as an example Fox Sports may cost $4.95 per month and you will receive notifications of any Pay per View events from that channel.

iTunes
I think everything will be in iTunes and you will be able to sync watch this across multiple devices such as your iPad, iPhone, iMac, Laptop etc.

The Cloud
Everything will be stored in the cloud, so you take your TV with you on the road or in your hotel, by having everything stored in the cloud access is just a few clicks away.

Location Based Advertising
I have written about this multiple times in the past, but location based advertising is the only thing that will save free to air TV networks and will be a worldwide trillion dollar industry. This will mean if you live in Queens/New York you will not only see national chains advertising on your channels, but also local pizza stores, cafeterias, nightlife and local tourism operators, finally giving the networks access to small business again (watch TV now and advertising is almost entirely from the big boys).

Advertisers
Advertisers will be able to login and see what space is available to advertise their products and services in there own area or areas, they will be able to create ads using web based systems and ad templates and book spots, pay for commercials by credit card and Apple takes a chunk and distributes the rest back to the networks. It would almost make an ad agency/ buying group cry.

Open
I also think this will create a wave of new Tv shows, basically anyone can create a channel and obviously the success of these will depend on subscribers and social word of mouth, but how exciting would this be? Local realtors could create a channel on their local market, local tourism operators could create channels on local areas and attract their own advertisers, you create a channel that becomes popular and advertisers will follow.

Summary
I know this is fairly well departed from anything I have seen written on the web, but I truly think that this model would work if it had the power of Apple, then perhaps Google as a competitor behind it. Current free to air TV networks would get a lifeline – even though I think they are the last ones to deserve this and it would open up a world of opportunities for the little guys.

Then the only thing left for Apple to conquer would be the car stereo and you would easily see how they could change this tomorrow.

Your thoughts?

If you have a Google Apps Account and you understand how to administer this account you can now enable Google Plus for Google Apps for each of the users in your organisation and they in turn can now finally have a Google Plus Profile.

Note: If you are logged into your Google Apps GMail click on Manage Account (should be top right)

A Note on Facebook Pages
Facebook Pages are terrible, admittedly they are getting better. As a company we have invested a considerable sum in building applications for pages with some success, but it is a hard road and the rules governing these developments can be quite limited, with changes looming, it may get better for developers, but for business without integrated apps it can still be a very manual – time consuming affair.

Google Plus for Business

Yes, you will need to be on this site and yes Google Plus for Business (pages, brands) will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Here are some things you will need to know.

Google Apps Users will get Special Treatment
If you are a power user or you want to be a power user you should already be using Google Places, Google Reader (you site must have rss feeds), Google Webmaster, Google Analytics, Google Calendar and possibly even Feedburner. If you have a Google Account you can sign into that account to get access to all of these services (after sign-in)

The above have little to do with what you can accomplish with Google Plus but they definitely will make life easier once Google Business Pages rolls out.

Google Plus Company Pages

Looking through the Google Plus source we can definitely see what is on the horizon and most of this is pretty cool indeed and will have Facebook rolling out updates (finally) for Facebook pages.

Google Meeting
Like Hangouts, but for business, Google Meeting will allow you to organise, record and store, phone, text and video meetings with groups of up to 10 people. Attendees will be able to be invited via Google Calendar, GMail and Google Chat. The possibilities with this will be pretty cool for people to collaborate and share information on projects and the like.

Google Screencasts
You will be able to record screens and share them with people within this meeting, you will possibly be able to create notes whilst you record your screen on the screen and archive all of these within a screencast.

Google WhiteBoard
Google Whiteboard is a document style process where users can collaborate on documents, share them amongst users and then post them via email.

Google Location
This one is a wild guess, but looking at the code, it seems that you can also track people within an organisation (users must opt in) to see where they are currently located on a map.

My feeling is business pages will take over Google Sites, which is very underwhelming, this would mean users can create multiple business pages and create circles for those pages.

All in all Google Plus is building into a substantial success for Google and my belief with Google Company Pages being released shortly it is going to cause some headaches for Facebook. Better yet, we will all benefit from the competition as more and more features are rolled out. Competition – don’t you just love it.

How to get Shortcut (Vanity URL)

www.Gplus.to allows this. This nifty little app lets you create a short URL for your Google+ page, making it easier to share with your friends. As an example, is Gplus.to/peterricci , is much easier to remember instead of digits e.g http://plus.google.com/117489371829741156604

I have just created my Google Apps Plus Account. You can add me here

This week we released Decently Exposed V3. This is the 3rd development for this company over the past 7 years who has taken Car Decals to a completely new level and created an industry pretty much on their own that only others can try to follow.

7 years ago Decently Exposed spent all of their marketing and communications budgets by direct mail and word of mouth , today Decently Exposed marketing is exclusively done online or from the superb products and services they offer.

Why the upgrade?

The company has grown so much over the past few years that information on all of their releases were becoming a little time consuming to find, and with new technologies it made it a no brainer to move it to a cleaner more sophisticated look and feel. The technology was also not available 5 years ago for HTML5 compliant videos, forms, galleries etc.

So we developed a WordPress Multisite install using a rapid development theme framework and then built child themes for each individual website, basically this means we can easily update WordPress, the theme framework at any time without having to worry about overwriting important changes to the site and keeping the site current and secure.

Each of the 5 websites developed feature:

• Custom Branded Home Pages
• Custom Theme Development
• Custom Portfolios
• Custom Sliders
• Menu Management
• Forms Management
• Font Management
• Social Network Integration
• Email Subscriptions + RSS Feeds
• XMl Sitemaps

The Company Decently Exposed is actually a group of companies, AutoSkin (vehicle wrapping), taylormadesigns (signage, exhibition graphics) PrintAsArt (printed banner bags, window decals), Wall Scrawl (whiteboards, clear acrylic memoboard) and of course their Flagship Product AutoSkin. Here is a breakup of their companies and links to each individual website we created.

AutoSkin

AutoSkin is a vehicle wrapping, car advertising, car graphics, vehicle graphics, branded vehicles, mobile advertising, one way vision, car signage

• View Home Page
• View Portfolio

PrintAsArt

Print As Art deals in recycled printed banner bags, window decals, canvas printing, wall decals, children’s artwork on canvas, children’s artwork on media

• View Home Page
• View Portfolio

Wall Scrawl

Wall Scrawl has changed the look of the boring whiteboard, its products include whiteboards, clear acrylic memoboard, clear perspex memoboard, printed memoboard graphics, menu boards, perspex calendars, perpetual calendars, to do lists

• View Home Page
• View Portfolio

taylormadesigns

taylor made signs has been creating signage around Melbourne for nearly 2 decades including but not limited to environmental signage, sustainable signage, custom signage, exhibition graphics, retail graphics, LED Signage, Enviroboard

• View Home Page
• View Portfolio

We are also developing the soon to be released Online Shopping Site

Ever since Google introduced Google+ to us a few months back we have seen a rapid acceleration in features both on Facebook and Google+, particularly on the personal front, whilst business pages and groups are being left behind.

Google’s Shame

The one thing that truly baffles me is how Google are treating it’s business customers. If you have a Google Apps for Business Account you would have noticed your Google profile and other services being migrated across to get ready for the slew of new features. After this migration you find you cannot have a Google Profile and you cannot access Google+ (and some other services with your username and password). Google inform the millions of paying Google customers that these features will be available soon.

I can see their reasoning (but only from their point of view) in getting Google+ to tens of millions of free users for beta testing, but to relegate your business customers who, incidentally, are the only ones who pay for Gmail, Docs, Calendars, Contacts etc, is well, nothing short of pathetic! You would be hard pressed to find another large company in the world who would offer new services in this manner! Business customers are angry and they will need to do something special to win back their hearts.

Facebook Accelerates

Facebook is going down the media path with music services, they have also updated their Chat feature to include videos and group chats, rebuilt their photo tools, viewers, added HD photos and rumored to announce movies – where you can watch together online. In fact over the next few months Facebook will add more new features than they have added in the past 3 years.

Business currently goes Missing

One group that has been left behind so far are Facebook Pages, the features are pretty ordinary compared to what you get on your personal profile! As an example – you cannot feed directly to your Facebook business page directly from your website, like you can do on your personal profile, it would not take a lot of coding to get this feature up, but it seems that Facebook is obsessed with Google+ on the personal level at the moment and with a looming IPO they do not want to head to a huge payday on the downward slide.

As for Google+, well the less said about this in its current form the better. Christian Oestlien, Google’s Group Product Manager, recently spoke on Google+ for businesses and said it was an oversight, yeah right Christian. I can assure you there would have been multiple meetings about this very subject and the heat you would receive on this, so we are left with open assurances and very little information.

Google CEO Larry Page has been taking the axe to many of the services Google offers that do not have widespread popularity and instead focussing on what he thinks will define Google over the next decade – Google will neglect business users at their own peril as they now number in the 10′s of millions. Luckily for Google is the reality that their Google Business accounts and services are pretty darn good and more importantly ingrained in the day to do minutia of what how we go about our business!

I personally think Google+ will be much better than Facebook for businesses when it becomes available? Why? Because Google already provides and we rely on so many of their services for our websites and day to day businesses, integrating all of this no doubt takes time, but once this is integrated, I feel that Google+ will dominate the business market. Not only that, I am sure Google+ for business will also be integrated into search results and other business services such as Google Places, Google Voice, Google Checkout, Adwords, Adsense, Google Analytics, Google Calendar etc. Many of these Facebook can ever remotely compete with, especially with many coupled with Google Search results.

Competition

We again learn the lesson of competition in the marketplace being good for consumers, the more robust competition, the better the features offered, the more ongoing innovation and of course the less money bled from our collective wallets.

For all of us in the business world, well, we just need Google to enter the business fray with Google Plus (later this year) and finally we will then see a host of new services on Facebook for businesses and the real fight will begin!

Google+ has just been launched to a limited release and I have spent a few days playing around with the new Social Website. Whilst it is not perfect and needs some better integration – it’s potentially is enormous and already it has become the best social network tool for a generation that wants a smarter more private platform.

A few years ago I gave a talk to a real estate franchise group in Adelaide and told the audience that I shared Twitter and Linkedin with pretty much anyone, but wanted to keep my Facebook just for family and close friends – I even had a 100 rule, that is I would never go over a hundred family and friends, this made it a culling process as I quickly reached 100, and it also earned me some ire on occasions. Over the past few years has become impossible, I mean, how do you tell a client you like and that spends their hard earned money with you that you have just denied them friendship on Facebook, how do you tell a childhood sweetheart that that ‘pash’ we had behind the gym meant nothing to me (when every single one of them is still indelibly imprinted in my mind) and that after meeting a new friend in a new city that you have strict rules of engagement on your Facebook profile, yes, you see where I am going – put me immediately in the strange “Circle”!

I know Facebook allows you to do some major tweaking to make it limited for certain types of users, but it is very primitive and way too time consuming and definitely a programming afterthought.

Facebook also has some of the most ridiculous algorithms for filling up your profile wall and news feed with junk from books, movies etc and people you like who have a strange tendency to click on anything slightly pornographic!

Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is great, you can share and connect with friends, but to me, something just seems missing from the experience and it is definitely not friends sharing the minutia of their daily life with me or celebrating some dunce unelected peer marrying another dunce. It just seems so 2009!

Google Plus

Enter Google+, Google Plus is Google’s challenge to Facebook and really is the evolution of Facebook for people who want to selectively share/connect their personal information all in very unlike Google beautiful way.

The interface is gorgeous and very intuitive and getting up and running is a breeze, I have added a link here to the demo here so you can have a play for yourself and see what I am talking about.

Here is Google’s Take on the main features, you will see I have added a brief comment in italics below each of Google’s comments and a video guide for each of the major features.

Circles

You share different things with different people. So sharing the right stuff with the right people shouldn’t be a hassle. Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself – just like real life.

The Circles tools is easily the most powerful tool and is seriously cool. Just watch Facebook try to emulate this as their groups settings is a major programming and user embarrassment.

Hangouts

With Hangouts, the unplanned meet-up comes to the web for the first time. Let specific buddies (or entire circles) know you’re hanging out and then see who drops by for a face-to-face-to-face chat. Until teleportation arrives, it’s the next best thing.

This is another great feature, adding people is easy and the video chat is of great quality. I can see meetings, catching up with the family on special occasions and sharing old times with friends

Instant Uploads

Taking photos is fun. Sharing photos is fun. Getting photos off your phone is pretty much the opposite of fun. With Instant Upload, your photos and videos upload themselves automatically, to a private album on Google+. All you have to do is decide who to share them with.

This was also a breeze for me, although I have read some threads where some users did not have the same experience.

Sparks

Tell Sparks what you’re into and it will send you stuff it thinks you’ll like, so when you’re free, there’s always something cool to watch, read, or share.

Sparks needs some work, it can be a little overwhelming and you will need to be sure you enter terms carefully or you maybe presented with too much information

Huddle

Texting is great, but not when you’re trying to get six different people to decide on a movie. Huddle turns all those different conversations into one simple group chat, so everyone gets on the same page all at once. Your thumbs will thank you.

I loved this feature, although I currently have limited people to share it with, but I can see this being another great addition to the suite.

Future Support for Business

Google has made is clear it will add support for it’s business clients later in the year, this is a bit of a pain, as I want it now and will have to delete my profile when the business version is added, or have two profiles, not good!

What’s wrong with it so far?

No Google Apps Integration, this seems silly and possibly a sign the product was a little rushed, but this needs to be done ASAP – these are your premium customers Google!

Product Manager Christian Oestlien says that the Google+ is working on creating a unique experience for business customers that includes many of the features business use such as analytics and adwords. “How users communicate with each other is different from how they communicate with brands,” Oestlien argues.

There are still some bugs around and updating sometimes throttled and was slow. This is a limited first release, so I am not going to be too harsh on this at the moment.

Summary

Overall Google Plus is a killer product and one that users with varied interests, privacy concerns will embrace en-masse.I can also see this as being a great education tool for schools and projects.

It is by far the best personal/business social networking tool on offer and you can kiss Linkedin.com goodbye, which wouldn’t be hard to do as it is by far the worst large social site out there (too many chest thumpers).

I am seriously so enthralled by this technology and really, it has come from nowhere. I cannot tell you how cool this is, you will have to experience it for yourself.

Will it top Facebook? Well, firstly I am not sure it needs to, but this will be my destination, primarily because I already use so many of Google’s Apps and so many of their tools already. There is also a small user base compared to Facebook and only when it kicks to the 10′s of millions of users will we see if it explodes in growth from there.

I just wished it came from someone other than Google, I am seriously disappointed with the innovation of Australia’s Largest Media companies who seem to be just stuck in this mentality of “well if someone builds something cool we will just buy it”. The problem is that everything that is super cool surpasses even their budgets and they are left buying companies that are very easy to beat in the long run or they beat them to death until they are a shadow of their former selves.

Google Getting its Groove

Google is learning from Apple here as well, interfaces that are beautiful do work, if they are done in a simplistic stylish manner and this looks like an Apple Product and it works! Google has always been about user interfaces and mainly text based, but this shows you can mix it up a little with nice icons and beautiful font usage.

Over the past year or so we have seen the rise of businesses using Facebook to promote their business or personal profile. The best of you continually add informative and fun content to your page and have seen a steady rise in fans. But there is a disturbing trend to this and this shows complete mis-understanding of how to market yourself online.

If you are a business who has a page on Facebook and you are reading this, I am going to give you some advice, and some of this will hurt a little, but here goes.

Preaching to the converted

Let us say you have a fan page on Facebook and you update this page daily, you deserve a pat on the back and get one social strategy point, however if you have a website and do not do the same, you lose that point, why?

Because you are preaching to the converted on Facebook, they are already a fan. Your first strategy should always be on your own website, this is where the whole world is waiting to connect with you and my guess is that your advice is not the most amazing advice on the planet, where all of your fans spread your word and get other people to join (this is the holy grail of social marketing). The only true way to build your Facebook page is through your own business or personal websites blog and then to select appropriate articles to post onto your Facebook page.

Rachelle Hirt Real Estate Agent Miami Beach Florida

We recently built a site for a local agent in Miami, Florida. Her name is Rachelle Hirt and she wanted a site to market celebrity style homes in and around the Miami area. She has only just started, but she has the right strategy and will learn quickly from any mistakes she makes, but off the bat, she has the right strategy.

Her Facebook Page is here (you must be logged into Facebook) and I advise to follow her, just to see what she does and the content she publishes on both her website and Facebook Page.

Her site is fun and bright and she posts regularly and doesn’t push everything to her Facebook page, she selectively chooses what to post and push.

Understanding Technology
If you think it is cute to tell your potential vendors that you are a technophobe, then get with the program, you are and will be left behind. You dont need to know quantum physics to understand how a browsers works or how to resize an image, there is a world of information online that can help you to better understand the business you are in and the technology that you use. Spend some time online learning how to get the most out of your web browser, mobile phone, tablet device and computer. Understanding and possibly helping vendors out will impress them in more ways than you think. This is your business now, get it!

Trusting you
Start being honest on your website and Facebook page, display content that helps and hinders you, good or bad, thin or flush, this content makes a trust difference between you and your competitors.

You as a consumer would know that good advice is brutally honest advice. If you believe it when the salesperson tells you every dress you try on you look fabulous in or that Donald Duck tie you wear to work makes you look windswept and interesting then you are naive and in the case of the donald duck tie – an idiot

But tell me, how many vendors are easy these days? Very few! In most cases vendors are well armed with a good dose of information and an equal distribution of mis-information. You need to be honest and tell them what will work for them and what will not.

Liking you
You are awesome right? You mum and dad thinks the world of you, you can do no wrong, in fact you dream of receiving the greatest person of the year award each year. Here is one lesson you must learn when publishing to any website or social media platform. People love self deprecating humor, it gives you a human side to your electronic life. For me, luckily it comes naturally. There are two types of self deprecating humor, the first is first person and this is where you let people know your stuff ups and remind them of this on occasions in the future.

The second variety of self deprecating humor and a great example of this type of person is Sam Newman (Australian Personality). Yes, there are people that dislike him (most of whom rarely watch or engage with him), but overwhelmingly he is liked.

Sam Newman says some of the most ridiculous offensive things and should be “banged to right” on occasions, but one thing he does magnificently, is when someone makes fun of him and his positions, he laughs, he doesn’t fight back, he doesn’t get angry or show negative emotions, he laughs at himself!

So when people make a comment on your website or social profile (that is not overly abusive) display it publicly, laugh it off, or at least explain why you do not agree. If you are one of these people that blocks or deletes negative comments then you are already a failure and need to get over yourself or your business.

Finally, enjoy your social profile, don’t treat it too seriously, make sure you mix the informative with the fun.

Different Content – Different mediums

Your final strategy should be to not always post information to both mediums (blog and social) keep the mix a little different, otherwise why would they follow you on both your website and social platform? Keep the social posts a little more fun with articles from across the spectrum, if you do post funny stuff, make sure it will appeal and not offend (you can save the offensive for direct messages on Twitter – Anthony Wiener tells me it is very hard to get caught out with this strategy).

So post regularly and make 100% sure your website blog is the king when it comes to your marketing strategy! Make sure your title of your post is informative and describes exactly what the article is about, this is important for subscribers as they scan for articles that interest them.

Titles are everything

Given that we use technology differently today than we did even a year ago, speaks volumes in how we must communicate effectively. Today we are overloaded with so much information, that we care more about the time it takes to scan and read, be it your Facebook News Feed or your blog Feed, titles are everything and if you use Facebook, you should already know this. I cannot emphasize how important titles are. Here is good and poor example for real estate. (think of your own market and adjust)

Poor: Property prices continue to rise. Comment:For who, for what? This is not personal or direct at all.
Good: Mosman, Neutral Bay Sydney see steady rise in apartment sales. Comment:This is going to appeal to homeowners or potential buyers in this area. It mentions location and property type.

How to get the ideas and motivation for writing articles

I use Google Reader (help here) to subscribe to hundreds of different websites. I create folders for these subscriptions. Here are some examples of these folders. Apps, Client, Company, Design, Style, Real Estate News, Technology, WordPress, Social, Travel.

Everyday hundreds of new articles from all of the sites I subscribe to come into my reader. I do not need to waste time jumping to each article. I scan them for ones that interest me and this is usually in the title. Sometimes I write an article about this news, sometimes it inspires me to write something else. The great thing about Google Reader is that it saves me so much time and if you organise it well, it can also save you money (daily deals etc).

If you havent got Google Reader (or similar) then you are missing out on a great little program.

Footnote: One thing that always amuses me is friends on Facebook who ‘accidentally’ click on what is obviously adult spam on Facebook. These are little posts on your news feed with images that have titles that are of the erotic nature, that one of your friends ‘accidentally’ clicked on.

What is more amazing, is that they do not know how to delete this immediately and leave it for me to ponder why this married man (or woman) of three is doing looking at this stuff anyway. Human nature is a wonderful thing isn’t it

As a developer of WordPress Solutions since the software arrived on the scene in the mid 2000′s I have seen many developments go through our Sydney, Melbourne Boston and Miami studios and the one thing that is always a constant is the need for the business owner to take responsibility for the continued success of the website. To me the design should be in the simplest form possible to allow users to get to the information as quickly as possible.

The moment you begin thinking about wanting things on your site for purely an aesthetic purpose is the moment you start to lose the core principal of interface design. Concentrate on what your users want to see and hear on your website. Here is a breakdown of some important tips and advice to make sure your development is a success.

Choosing a Domain Name

Your domain name should be as close to your business name as possible. If you are starting a new venture, then you should either go for a .com or a country specific name such as a .com.au (for Australia) and .co.nz (for New Zealand). Remember this one important note – I call it “out the door” policy. If someone is leaving your home or office and they are walking out the door and ask that simple question – “what’s your domain name?” and you have to explain it’s spelling or something special about the name, then it is the wrong name!

Branding & Design

So you have a logo? Great, next thing you must do is to create a style document, one that instantly gives your brand understanding and recognition. A style document also explains font usage and other elements that guide the web design, printing, signage etc. Here is a little list of minimum requirements that should accompany any logo.

This way anyone who works with your brand understands exactly the requirements that must be met.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) + Unique Content

We all want our websites to appear higher in search rankings and you can be assured you will get a truckload of enquiries from SEO firms telling you how you can appear higher in search results. Truth is they are for the most part useless and a waste of money.

Only one thing rules in SEO and that is a proper framework (WordPress is perfect) and the second thing is unique content. Unique content means articles, posts, pages links all written by you that directly targets the audience you want. Let’s use this article as an exmaple.

We have a headline “WordPress Design & Development for success on any budget!” we have the bosy content (everything you are reading here) and we also have tags. Tags in WordPress are unique identifiers within a post. These should only be keywords such as people, places and items of importance. In this instance I am using these tags, WordPress, Web Design, Domain Names, SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Logos and Logo. These are all common terms and I do not expect to get great results from them. However if I continually write about these terms then the more and more pages I will have in Google and other search engines under these terms.

Ginga ranks highly in search terms such as WordPress Web Design Sydney because we take the effort to continually write about WordPress, Web Design and we have an office in Sydney. We have only opened up our WordPress Studios in Boston and now Miami and over time we will continue to rise for those terms as well.

Remember, you put the effort in and you get the results. If not – then do not expect empathy from your developer. The problem with this route is it takes time, but once you get there all the rewards will come. So make the effort now and get the rewards later. You can of course choose to combine this with Search Engine Marketing (paying for search positions) but the moment you stop paying is the moment you lose position.