Google+ is a new social networking site from Google. Launched in beta mode in July 2011, the site had 10 million users within two weeks. This figure is more amazing because during the pilot, an invitation was required to join.
Here are how to resources so you can get started with Google+ quickly.
An email address is required to sign up for Google+. If you ask for an invitation, be sure to include your preferred email address with your request.
Create your profile. Include your work experience, hobbies and any other information which is relevant to your background. Include keywords in your descriptions.
Find connects using the search box. When you add contacts, you will see there updates in your stream.
Organize your contacts into groups or circles as Google+ calls them. Cluster people by how you know them, relationship to you or any other way that works for you. Google notifies them they were added to a circle but does not state the name of the circle.
Google+ Social Networking Site from Google
For more information read more tips for Google+ Newbies.
If you would like an invite to join Google+ enter a comment below including your preferred email address.
The 2011 National Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) Technology conference will feature April M. Williams, an executive coach and author of “Social Networking Throughout Your Career.” She will present two sessions, “Creating Buzz Marketing for Professionals” and Facebook: Your Chapter PR Friend.”
During these 90 minute sessions, BDPA conference attendees will engage in interactive sessions to promote their professional careers using social networking tools. As a result of these presentations, participants will be armed to promote themselves effectively in the marketplace and demonstrate the value of their skills.
“The days of passive job career management are gone. By using technology to expand our professional networking, we can leverage our connections to reach out to the key people in our industry,” said April M. Williams. “By building bridges and crafting succinct on-target messages, we can market our best qualities.”
Before opening her company, April’s career was in Fortune 50 company IT program and project management.
April has been recognized as a Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute. She earned her Master’s Degree (Information Systems) and Bachelor’s (Telecommunications) from Roosevelt University, Schaumburg, Illinois.
April has been featured in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, CBS Chicago News, Project Management Institute, Savvy and Nations Restaurant News.
The 35th annual Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) conference will be held in Chicago August 3-6, 2011 at the Hilton Chicago.
Would you like your blog posts to appear in Facebook every time you publish a new post? There is a way to update your Facebook pages settings to import blog posts and display them on your Facebook page using the Facebook Note application.
You can import your blog posts to your Facebook profile page or your Facebook fan page. Here is how to set up Facebook to import new posts from your blog.
Log in to Facebook.
Go to your profile or Fan page.
Click on the Notes tab. If you do not see a Notes tab, click on the + and selected the Notes application.
Click on “Write a Note”. Create a test note, then save as draft.
Click on “Edit Import Settings”
On the “Import External Blog” page, enter the web URL of your blog feed. Click the check box on then click “Start Importing.”
Once the set up is complete, each time you write a new post on your blog the post will display on your Facebook page.
Following Twitter etiquette and showing good social networking manners is not hard to do. Here are six steps to stay on the good side of other social networking and not become an online clod.
Use @ replies: When mentioning another Twitter account, use the @username to let them know you made a comment. Without the “@”, the account you are mentioning will not likely see your tweet.
Retweeting: Share others messages by retweeting or rebroadcasting tweets to your followers. If a message exceeds the 140 character restriction, it is OK to trim or modify the message to fit. Be sure to keep the original message intent.
Be interesting: Include a variety of content in your Twitter tweets. A stream of pure sales messages will likely turn off followers. Post pictures of interesting sites, links to industry news articles or just plain old fun comments. Be personable.
Follow back: With Twitter, it is a good practice to follow those who follow you. Twitter restricts the number of accounts you can follow based on the number of Twitter accounts following you. Once you follow 2,000 accounts, Twitter will not allow you to add new accounts to your following until you either unfollow some or others begin following you. If you do not follow back, you will find many accounts will unfollow you.
Stop the auto messages: Don’t set up messages to automatically send a response when an new Twitter account follows you. I recently received a direct message from someone I followed saying. “Thanks for following me. I look forward to reading your tweets.” This was a meaningless message to be because this account did not follow me back. They never did see any of my tweets. The message was meaningless and cluttered up my messages pages.
Use social networking etiquette and manners on Twitter
By following these six social networking tips you can navigate Twitter and use tweets for business while using social networking with etiquette and good manners.
THE ART OF CRAFT 2011 URWA WRITERS CONFERENCE PARK CITY, UTAH
Authors gather to share ideas and perfect their craft
ALGONQUIN, IL. July 12, 2011. – Authors, both new and experienced know it is hard to get your writing noticed. Thousands of books are published each year. How does a writer stand out from the crowd?
Recognizing the need for authors to find information on readers, publishers, and their competition, the Romance Writers of America® Utah Chapter presents Heart of the West authors conference. The two day conference will be held October 7 and 8, 2011 at The Canyons in Park City, Utah. Members and non-members are welcome to attend.
“For the price it’s a great conference, and this year we are focusing on the craft of writing so the lessons learned apply across all genres, “ said event organizer and author Lisa Deon.
Special guest authors Anne Stuart and Lani Diane Rich will be at the event and editors will be accepting pitches. The weekend events include presentations from published authors including:
Lani Diane Rich/Lucy March,“Fueling Your Romance”
Alastair Stephens, Storywonk Podcasts, “A Man’s Guide to Writing Men, for Women”
John D. Brown, “Lessons on Story from The Hunger Games”
Collaborations Panel, “How to work with someone you like and not kill them by the time you write The End”. Panel includes: Sisters, friends, spouses and insights from a mother/daughter writing team.
April M. Williams, CyberLife Tutors, “Connect With the Write Stuff: Using social networking to build contacts, attract readers and sell books”
Jenni Holbrook-Talty, Who Dares Wins Publishing , “Indie Publishers and Self Publishing”
Anita Mumm, The Nelson Literary Agency , “Writing Strong Query Letters”
Haley Stokes, Arch Editing, “POV: Pros and Cons”
Jennifer Talty, co-creator of Who Dares Wins Publishing with NY Times Best-Selling Author Bob Mayer will host a workshop covering the digital side of publishing and what this means to the 21st century author.. She runs the technical side of the business including all cover design and ebook file conversions. Her workshop will cover the digital side of publishing and what this means to the 21st century author.
About the Romance Writers of America® Utah Chapter: Utah RWA Meetings are held on the 3rd Saturday of every month, unless noted otherwise. Follow the conference on Twitter with hashtag #RWAHOW.
About April M. Williams: April M. Williams is a nationally recognized speaker, author, blogger and coach who has assisted hundreds of people in their career. By demonstrating the power of social networking tools, April shows clients how to leverage their strengths to enhance their careers. April published two books and numerous articles on career building as well as other related business topics. She has been featured in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, Project Management Institute, Savvy and Nations Restaurant News. April is a contributing editor to the Blacks Gone Geek IT forum and Hawaii travel website 808Talk. For information on upcoming events, visit CyberLife Tutors calendar.
EDITORS: If you would like more information about this topic or to schedule an interview with April M. Williams, please contact us at 414-502-7745 or http://www.cyberlifetutors.com/contact/.
Social Networking Throughout Your Career book cover
Ignite Your Passion: How to Find and Ignite Your Fire InsideNetworking For Results DVD – 51 minute live presentation.
Looking for a creative ways to use Twitter to get hired? Ed Morita posted a link to this Alltopvideo on using Twitter to land a job. Using five different Twitter accounts, they targeted specific people in their industry involved in hiring decisions.
This creative use of Twitter worked. They successfully landed jobs in their field by gaining the attention of those in a position to hire them.
The online profiles and 140 character tweets reenforced their message.
What other creative ways have you discovered for using Twitter to enhance your career? Click on Comments and tell us your ideas.
Animal House is a non-profit, 501(c)(3), No-Kill shelter for all breeds of dogs and cats. Since opening in June 2002, they have rescued, rehabilitated and placed over 15,000 dogs and cats, to date, into their loving forever homes.
Animal House Shelter, Inc. rescues abused and neglected dogs and cats and rehabilitates them mentally and physically in order to place them with the best new family. They rescue 98% of their dogs from high ‘kill’ shelters, pounds and various animal control facilities in which they are usually listed as strays, and almost always scheduled to be euthanized.
Animal House Shelter Huntley
THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
For Animal House Founder Lesley Irwin, the challenge is find dogs and cats homes and to build awareness of the adoptable animals at the shelter. They do this through donations to feed, care for and provide medical care and keep the shelter maintained. The shelter is non profit and relies solely on donations.
“When animals come to our shelter, we often need urgent help from foster families who can care for these dogs and cats until permanent homes can be found,” said Lesley Irwin. “Phone trees and letters through the U.S. Post Office are costly and time consuming. There is also a need to connect with pet product or services companies and other rescue group and shelters.”
Volunteers are needed to care for animals. All dogs are walked 4-5 times a day and socialized with each other and volunteers. The cats are housed in a large ‘free roam’ cat room so they can interact all day with each other, staff, volunteers and potential adopters.
SOCIAL MEDIA BENEFITS
Alexis Williams is the social media/marketing manager for Animal House Shelter. She created an official Facebook page for the shelter, a YouTube Channel and a Twitter account. In addition, she manages and maintains these social networking accounts.
In the first three weeks since they launched these accounts, they have seen a great response. On Twitter they have 2,000 followers and have had lots of engagement from over 1,000 “fans” on their Facebook page. Fans have been posting pictures of their animals adopted from Animal House Shelter and giving updates on how their pets are doing. They also receive lots of supportive comments and words of encouragement. Animal House Shelter has found Facebook to be a great place to also post events, news, and requests for assistance.
Animal House Shelter is using YouTube to post video of dogs and cats available for adoption.
Alexis says, “One of my favorite videos is of Kyrpto, a puppy who was very shy when he first came to us. In the video you can see how he warmed up to the team due to his therapy with our staff.”
CYBERLIFE TUTORS BENEFITS
“Working with CyberLife Tutors, we learned how to build an effective Facebook business page for Animal House and engage supporters through the use of multimedia content, said Alexis Williams. “They encouraged us to create a Twitter account and added us to the McHenry County Business Daily news increasing our visibility throughout the county. We used CyberLife Tutors “Build Your Twitter Following” tips to grow our followers to nearly 1500 in a month. April M. Williams shared best practices to leverage automation tools to reduce our time investment while demonstrating social networking business etiquette. She helped us communicate to supporters about upcoming events increasing attendance. By working with April, we understood how to use video, pictures and links to engage with others and build a larger community.”
SUMMARY
What is Alexis Williams advice to business owners?
“Twitter has also proven to be an exciting outlet for us! We met many other great animal rescue groups who are pursuing the same work. We assist each other by re-tweeting each other’s tweets. Twitter has also become a source of meeting companies who are offering donations. By simply being on Twitter and meeting some pet product companies, we received several companies offer to provide donations of products. We have been given donations of collars and dog skin care products.
It is exciting and we look forward to continuing to use the social networks to not only help our animals find loving homes and bring awareness to our shelter, but to also connect with supporters, pet product companies, and other rescue groups/shelters. “
What is FourSquare, CheckPoint, Gowalla and Location Services?
This is the number one question my social networking connections ask me about. They see short posts on my Facebook or Twitter accounts and wonder what those check ins are all about.
Using my smartphone and software applications, I access location based services and let others know where I am.
A smartphone is a handheld computer with much more functionality than the basic cell phone.
Apps are software programs than run on smartphones. Download apps from your phone store.
Location based services use global positioning systems (GPS) and software on smartphone to locate the user’s position and deliver specific content based on the location.
Here are the location based services I use most often to check in and why I use each of them.
WeReward
With WeReward, users earn points, which can be converted to cash. When you are at a location, search for the business name using the free app. Check in by taking a photo of the business or using the product. The app will indicate the requirements for each check in.
Feel free to leave a comment or tip about the location when you check in. You can also earn points for using products or downloading apps.
I like this app because I can earn $30-$50 a month by checking in at the places I visit during my normal day. Money is deposited directly into a PayPal account.
Check ins with FourSquare earn badges and bragging rights. Those who check in the most often at a location become the Mayor. Users leave tips for others about great deals, places to park or nearby businesses.
Businesses are marketing to customers using FouSquare offering specials to those who check in. At some restaurants, a check in will earn a free appetizer with your meal or a discount.
The FourSquare Mayor of the business is a best customer and can be rewarded with special “Mayor only” discounts.
Users check in at location and earn virtual items they can collect or trade at other locations. One of the fun things to do is post picture from your favorite spots or share tips about locations.
What I like about Gowalla is that I never know when I will earn a virtual item. It is fun to collect and swap the trinkets as I run errands.
Which Checkpoints users earn points for checking in and scanning the bar codes of products at stores. Purchasing the product is not required. Each product you scan is worth a specific number of points.
What I like about Checkpoints is the points I earn can be converted for gift cards at companies like Home Depot and Apple. When checking in, coins are earned which can be used to play a virtual slot machine or scratch off card game.
Checkpoints: Sign up using my code “aprilmwilliams” to get extra points.
With Shopkick awards points when checking in at locations. Additional points are earned by scanning the UPC code of specific products in the store. There is no requirement to purchase these items.
You can earn virtual stamps and badges by using your account.
What I like about Shopkick is points can be converted to gift cards for retailers like Best Buy, Macy’s and Target.
Are you using other location based services? Click on comments and let us know which apps you use.
Would you like to use your club website and social media tools to drive Toastmasters or other club membership? These free tools work both for individuals and club leaders.
I am speaking on this topic at the District 30 Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI). For those who cannot attend, you can download a copy of my presentation
SHAH CENTER IN MCHENRY HOSTS SEVEN PART INTERNET MARKETING SERIES FOR SMALL BUSINESS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ALGONQUIN, ILLINOIS – June 8, 2011
The Shah Center in McHenry hosts a seven part Internet Marketing Intensive series of classes for small business owners. Learn the basics of online marketing and see how you can integrate this powerful tool into your overall marketing strategy. From planning to implementation, this series is the must-have for every small business.
The sessions taught by social media coach April M. Williams of CyberLife Tutors and Michael Bissett of Yellowbird Marketing. You get nuts and bolts practical applications so you can use these tools now. Best of all, most of these tools are free for you to use!
Series 1: Th July 7, 14, 21 6-9 PM
Session 1: Marketing Plan Session 2: Marketing Channels and identifying Prospects Session 3: Search terms, Domains, and Branding
Series 2: Th Aug. 11, 18, 25 Sept. 1 6-9 PM
Session 1: Website development
Session 2: Traffic Builders &Monitoring tools; keystrokes and analytics
Session 3: Integration & Branding
Session 4: Multimedia approach to marketing
For additional information, or to register, please contact the Shah Center at (815) 455-6098 or sbdc@mchenry.edu.These sessions are offered to through the Shah Center, a part of McHenry County College and the Small Business Development Center. The Shah Illinois Small Business Development Center is located at 4100 W. Shamrock Lane McHenry, IL 60050.
April M. Williams, a nationally recognized speaker, author, coach and blogger actively leverages the power of social networking tools. April is President of CyberLife Tutors and shows clients how to leverage their strengths to enhance their business. April published a book “Social Networking Throughout Your Career” and has been featured in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, Project Management Institute, Savvy, Business Journal, CBS Chicago and Nations Restaurant News.
ABOUT CyberLife Tutors – Serving McHenry County, Northern Illinois and surrounding areas to promote business through low cost, high impact marketing, building relationships and driving results.
