Is there a better way to do social search? - Credit: BigStockPhoto.com

You’ve probably heard the news already. Google is making search more social with their new Search Plus Your World. Basically, results from or recommended by people in your social network (meaning Google+) are given high placement in rankings when you search.

You might have also heard the biggest criticism of this new search feature — that it’s anticompetitive. (Or at least that’s what Google’s big social media competitors have said.) While I understand that concern, I have bigger ones. I worry about how Search Plus Your World will affect the actual users of Google’s search engine. And I immediately found two glaring problems.

Search Becomes Redundant

The first thing I noticed after the introduction of Search Plus Your World is that my results were repetitive. I already knew so-and-so wrote about subject X and recommended Y. I saw that in their social media updates.

In and of itself, that doesn’t make the content more relevant. I’m using a search engine to find something new or specific. If I want to see what my friends recommend, I’ll check out their +1s, likes, or I’ll ask them on Twitter. Search engine users shouldn’t have to be bombarded with the same material they’ve already found elsewhere.

Google Gets Gamed (…Again)

As a Web publisher I’ve watched Google go after people they see as gaming the rankings system for years. Now it appears they’re handing these heavy promoters better rankings on a silver platter. That’s another trend I noticed quickly — people who are blatant self-promoters ranked high while more trusted sources (like closer colleagues and friends) didn’t appear in my results nearly as much.

Why did this happen? Because these folks are the link whore types who will link to, “recommend,” +1, etc. their own content all day long if they think it’s going to drive more traffic to their sites. These are the old Stumble exchange folks, the “tribes” that blindly link to each others’ content so their own will be promoted too, and the aggressive SEO link builders.

Now don’t get me wrong. These aren’t all bad people. But they do game the system, and the behavior borders on spam at times. I follow some of them because I like what they have to say on their blogs or I have an interest in what they offer elsewhere. That doesn’t mean I should be slammed with their self-promotional nonsense in search results. Keep it isolated to the social networks where I choose to let that through. Wanting to see something on Google+ (or any social network) doesn’t mean we want to see the same people and the same things promoted whenever we search the Web.

On the plus side, Google does let you disable Search Plus Your World (either in your settings or on a case by case basis). The latter option has its own problems though. The options aren’t labeled well, so I doubt the Average Joe searching the Web would even notice. You have to change the results after you search rather than being able to set your options up front. Their highlighting seems almost reversed (when personal results are turned on that button is grayed out — not a big deal, but I can see how it could get confusing).

Then there’s the worst part. You have to change this setting every time you use Google (whether it’s a separate visit or you just open another browser tab). The exception is if you run a new search in the same window where you already changed the settings.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not thrilled with Google’s aggressive tinkering with the default style of search results. If you want your search engine to work as a search engine (rather than a promotional tool for Google+), you need to login and change that in your search settings. I’m sure most readers of this blog are savvy enough to do that. My concern is more about an average user who doesn’t even notice the changes yet (given that the new settings and the ability to change them back aren’t clearly disclosed on results pages).

What are your thoughts on Search Plus Your World? Have you seen the same kind of redundancy I’ve come across? Have you also had issues with bloggers and other heavy promoters ranking better than more trusted people in your network? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Credit: BigStockPhoto.com

It’s another new month (a new year actually!), so it’s time to share some recent search and social media stories with you. This month we have our usual players in Google and Facebook. And we have a few updates from other social media sites as well — from SOPA protests to design changes.

Here are some of the stories that got our attention over the last few weeks.

1. Google+ Pages See Changes

One of the biggest problems with the launch of Google+ Pages was the fact that only the page owner was allowed to serve as an administrator. In other words, if you hired a marketing firm to set up your page, only one of you could update it. Or if you let an employee set up your page and they left the company, you could be left with no access to your own page.

Google listened to feedback on the issue, and they’re finally fixing things. You can now assign administrator privileges to up to 50 people. Is it perfect? Not really. Ideally I’d like to see at least two levels of administrators — those who can fully administer the account (settings, basic profile info, etc.) and those who can only share updates. How about you?

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2. More Social Media Facelifts

In our last update we told you about the next “New Twitter” with that site’s design changes. Now more social media companies are joining in and updating their look. This month it’s everybody’s favorite social video darling YouTube and a new look for StumbleUpon.

YouTube 

StumbleUpon

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3. Reddit to Stage a SOPA Blackout

Reddit has announced plans to blackout their service on January 18th from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to protest SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act). Instead of your usual content, you’ll find a message about SOPA on the site during that time. How do you feel about these kinds of blackouts? Will it annoy you as a user, or do you appreciate their stance and attempt to educate more visitors? Who would you like to see join the blackout? Do you think it will be effective in any way?

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4. Facebook Introduces Paid Ads to News Feeds

Facebook is rolling out featured ads when you view news feeds through the service. In an attempt to keep the ads relevant to you as a user, you should only see ads from friends or pages you’ve “liked.”

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5. Google Takes New Steps Towards Social Search

Google unveiled its new Search plus Your World effort to make search more social. You can choose to search as usual or see more personalized results including things people have shared with you on G+.

I’m already noticing a big problem with the personal results. If you happen to follow just friends and family, that’s fine. But if you follow bloggers and or businesses who aggressively market (read “whore out”) their sites by recommending their own posts and sites constantly, they’re featured prominently in results. Score one for the more sleazy marketers.

Just because I follow someone on a social network and they happen to constantly “share” their own stuff, it doesn’t mean their results are more relevant when I search for something. This seems like a natural flaw with social search though, and a limitation that means I’ll personally be sticking with usual Web searches for now.

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Share your thoughts on these or any other recent search industry or social media news stories in the comments below.

Credit: Fotolia.com

Social media helps you stay in touch with friends and family. You can use social media tools to stay on top of news and updates from your favorite companies or celebrities. You can use social media to promote your business and connect with customers. But did you know social media can also help you save money?

Let’s look at three things social media offers that can help you do that.

Company Social Media Offers

Some businesses offer special deals to their social media followers. If you follow their account or page or update stream, you might get special coupons or offers not made available to other customers. Or a company might give you advance notice of an upcoming sale, giving you a chance to get what you want for a great price before they run out.

Social Couponing

Daily deals sites like Groupon and LivingSocial help you save money by offering deep discounts from local businesses. These deals spread within social networks. Basically, you save because you’re a part of a large social group. Appealing to local masses is what drives the discounts, and you can find these deals in your email, on social media sites, or referred by friends.

Word of Mouth / Reviews

Negative social media reviews are just as important as viral deals when it comes to saving money. - Credit: Fotolia.com

Along the lines of group couponing we have the general viral nature of social media. Great deals spread via word of mouth (maybe you hear about a sale on a friend’s Facebook page or someone you follow on Twitter tweets a link to a discount code).

Word of mouth can save you money in another important way too. You can hear about bad deals or lousy products that you shouldn’t spend money on. For example, maybe the newest hot gadget is really glitchy and people are complaining on social media sites.

Saving money isn’t just about spending less on things you want to buy. It’s also about not wasting money when a product or service isn’t worth it. Social media tools and websites can help you on both fronts.

Your friends can tell you where the hottest deals are in the blink of an eye. Companies you love can reward you with discounts and advance sale notices for being a loyal customer and follower. And social reviews can tell you when it’s a better idea to buy now or avoid spending altogether.

How do you save money thanks to social media? Share your own tips or ideas in the comments below.

Credit: BigStockPhoto.com

The holiday shopping season seems to come to a close almost as quickly as it begins. Yet it’s a time of year retailers rely on. If you want to increase last minute holiday sales online, fortunately there’s plenty you can still do before the holiday shopping season passes you by. Don’t leave your sales figures to chance. Use your online presence to increase holiday sales today.

Here are some simple ideas you can implement on your own website to attract more last minute holiday shoppers this year.

10 Tips to Drive Last Minute Online Sales for the Holidays

1. Push gift card sales — instant or scheduled email delivery for even the latest shoppers.
2. Offer last minute offers to social media followers. They may even spread the offers virally through sharing.
3. Emphasize shipping deadlines to make people buy now when they realize if they order it later it’ll be too late. That includes express shipping options — even a day or two before the holidays might not be too late if they’re willing to spend a bit more.
4. Offer free shipping for orders of a certain value, even if you don’t usually do that. You’ll convince people to buy more.
5. 

   Free gift wrapping appeals to customers around the holidays, saving them both time and money! - Credit: BigStockPhoto.com

   Offer free gift wrapping, gift receipts, or other gift-specific perks that make things easier on both buyers and gift recipients. Also offer to ship directly to recipients.

6. Highlight seasonal items.
7. Associate certain products with common groups of people in your customers’ lives — “this would be a great gift for mom,” etc.
8. Offer gift idea searches by category / recipient group to help customers who don’t have specific gift ideas in mind yet. Tell them what to buy and then sell it to them.
9. Offer free gifts. If you sell books, free bookmarks would be an example. It can be something small. Or if you sell digital products you could do a sale where if they buy one download as a gift, they get the same download for themselves as a bonus.
10. Catch late buyers with after Christmas sales or year-end sales — for those celebrating later, looking to use their own generic gift cards (like American Express or Visa gift cards), or simply looking to save. Remember that holiday shopping goes beyond the actual holidays. Even if they use a store gift card, you can up-sell them with great deals to earn even more.

Don’t give up on reaching and exceeding your year-end sales goals just yet. Find ways to use the Web to drive last minute holiday sales. You might be looking for last minute sales, but plenty of buyers are out there looking for last minute deals too. Be the one to satisfy those needs and you can make the holiday season more profitable than you thought possible.

Credit: Fotolia.com

Every month we highlight some of the biggest news in the search and social media industries, bringing you stories you might have missed (and giving you the opportunity to share others we might not have seen). It’s that time again!

In fact, it’s our last update of the year. So let’s see what giants like Google, Facebook, and Twitter have for us this month with stories to send off 2011.

1. Twitter Launches Brand Pages

I guess Twitter was feeling a little left out with all the hype around the new Google+ brand pages finally launching. So they’ve decided to launch their own version to stay competitive. Two of the biggest benefits for brands are the ability to make your own logo / branding more prominent and the ability to promote a tweet to the top of your feed. So you can keep an important announcement front and center even if you continue to tweet follow-ups.

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2. The Next “New Twitter” Unveiled

Alongside their new brand pages, Twitter announced another design change (making “new Twitter” the new “old Twitter”). I haven’t had a chance to dig into the changes much yet, but I like the cleaner look. The cluttered nonsense of the last “new Twitter” is why I clung to the old. It wasted too much space above the fold with things I didn’t give a rat’s furry little behind about and hid more actual tweets. So I’m glad to see Twitter fixing that issue. Check out the link below to see it (or the mobile version) for yourself.

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3. New Google + Feature: Ripples

If you’ve been waiting for any kind of Google + analytics to roll out, you might be happy about their new Ripples feature. While hardly comprehensive metrics, this “visualization tool for public shares and comments” will at least let you see how your posts or conversations have grown or spread across the network. I like the archival nature of it where you’re able to go back and review a past conversation in a new visual way. Kind of cool. Check it out in the video below.

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4. Facebook Lets Users Post Longer Status Updates

Feel like your friends don’t ramble on enough on Facebook? Then you’ll be thrilled to know that Facebook now lets them post status updates of more than 60,000 characters if they so desire. It’s an obvious move to compete with the longer posts and more substantial conversations on Google Plus. But in their “we want to host your personal blog in addition to your network” kind of push, both companies are starting to feel more like LiveJournal wannabes (long after LiveJournal ceased to be cool).

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5. Judge Rules Bloggers Aren’t Journalists

I’m not going to get into the details of the case and whether or not the blogger in question really did post libelous material. But what’s interesting in this Oregon case is the fact that the blogger wanted to hide the identity of a source. The judge basically concluded that bloggers aren’t journalists and therefore aren’t afforded protection by the state’s media shield laws. One reason is the fact that she has no “affiliation with any recognized news agency.”

Makes one wonder what constitutes “recognized” and whether or not this judge has any real understanding of digital media. What about traditional news outlets that also run blogs with lower editorial standards (and there are plenty)? I guess we’ll have to see how this plays out if it’s appealed.

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6. Facebook Timeline Goes Public

If you hadn’t heard about Facebook Timeline when it was first announced, you’ve probably taken notice now. The new feature was publicly launched on user profiles. Basically Timeline allows you to highlight your most important updates and show friends a chronology of your life. That means you no longer have to worry about big updates being buried almost immediately by the mundane. Go ahead and enable Timeline today, adjust yours (such as by hiding things you don’t want there), and let us know what you think.

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What other news have you seen lately from search engines and social media companies? Share your favorite stories in the comments below.

Credit: Fotolia.com

Whether you’re an affiliate who makes money promoting other people’s products or you run an affiliate program of your own, you can’t escape social media. Social media tools like Twitter or your favorite social network can both help and potentially hurt affiliates.

Let’s look at both sides of the issue — how you might benefit from social media as an affiliate and how a company’s social media activity could hurt your own affiliate sales.

How Social Media Can Help a Company’s Affiliates

As an affiliate, here are a few ways social media can help you:

• You can reach more people about promotions (although you should always disclose the affiliate relationship).
• Social media can help you build a bigger audience for your own website or blog as people click your links to see what you’re reviewing. That, in turn, means you have more traffic on your site that can be directed to affiliate offers.
• In addition to your own active social media marketing, you can include social buttons on your affiliate offers and reviews. That lets your existing audience spread the word even farther, helping you reach new people and make more money.
• Social media tools can be great for link building, which could help your affiliate site rise in search rankings (and lead to even more organic traffic).

How Social Media Might Hurt Affiliates

While social media tools can be great for affiliates, they also have the potential to hurt affiliate sales if the original company selling the products has a strong social media presence. Basically, social media makes it easier for them to reach members of their target market directly. That could mean there will be less need for affiliates in the future.

Will social media's natural (and free) word of mouth nature lead to a decreased demand for affiliates? - Credit: Fotolia.com

Affiliates are essentially paid to refer products and services. Members of a social network can spread the word through referrals just as much, if not more, and the company doesn’t have to pay them. From the company’s perspective, which is more attractive to you?

In no way am I saying that affiliate sales are dead or dying or that affiliate programs aren’t worthwhile if a company is already active in social media. These are just things to think about as you plan your own affiliate marketing strategy.

How will you use social media? How will you diversify the affiliate programs you join? And how will the social media activity of the paying company influence your own affiliate marketing behavior? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

What is it?

According to destination CRM, “CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a company-wide business strategy designed to reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. True CRM brings together information from all data sources within an organization (and where appropriate, from outside the organization) to give one, holistic view of each customer in real time. This allows customer facing employees in such areas as sales, customer support, and marketing to make quick yet informed decisions on everything from cross-selling and upselling opportunities to target marketing strategies to competitive positioning tactics.”

Salesforce’s objectives are, “Sell more effectively with better sales tracking and real-time visibility. With Salesforce, every step of a sale—from phone calls and emails to collaboration with colleagues—is tracked in one place, so reps stay on top of deals and build stronger relationships with their customers.”

Salesforce touts the following statistics:

29% increase in lead conversion rates

21% increase in sales win rates

24% increase in deal size

26% increase in sales revenue

38% increase in sales forecast accuracy

The primary product of Salesforce is their web-based programs that track sales leads, project revenue, and help call center reps deal with problems. But customers have been asking for better ways to respond to social media. Their popular social media tool, Chatter allows companies to monitor what is being said on LinkedIn and Twitter. This winter a newer, higher priced option is said to be even better. An updated Chatter will allow businesses to set up social networks that interface with other users. They can have discussions and share documents. Salesforce is a tool to help boost sales and customer loyalty by harnessing the excitement about a product or brand on social media. Salesforce is a CRM or Customer Relationship Manager that gets businesses globally connected. Today relationships are more important than ever. Businesses formerly were deemed success or failure because of their physical location. Today a business needs to be a social enterprise. Customers need to be “friends.”

Who Should Use Salesforce?

Some businesses, including large companies have hesitated to delve into social media. Social Media Marketing or SMM is scary. The free-wheeling realm of conversation is not easy to control. Safesforce reminds would be users that when consumers are online shopping and trading product tips on Facebook or Twitter, the software can “help companies understand and profit from those desires and complaints.”

Today Toyota uses Chatter to create a network of electric car owners. Burberry uses Salesforce for its ecommerce site. KLM uses Salesforce to follow complaints voiced on Twitter. Disney has a Salesforce marketing campaign with a Facebook trip planner and photo sharing tool. Gatorade monitors Twitter and Facebook conversations at its Salesforce Social Media Command Center. Dell tracks social media users’ conversations about its brand.

View small businesses in US and Canada using Salesforce.

What is the Future of SMM?

Companies that embrace social media and cater to mobile shoppers will get closer to them. Customers that don’t interact with their market will get left behind. Salesforce recommends becoming a social enterprise. This means connecting and sharing, in business. Recognize that customers are just as likely to search for you on Facebook as they are to visit your website. A social context in business is a prerequisite for success.

View a Social Media Marketing Checklist for basics of getting started and poised for the future.

What can you do?

Start simple. Be online; active in as many social media avenues as you can manage. Use tools such as Google Alerts to be aware of communication online. Find out which networks your customers spend the most time in. respond to negative comments and have a procedure outlined for dealing with such (for example, direct them to customer service hotline).

Learn more about Customer Relationship Management at Salesforce.com.

If you too have been waiting with baited breath to see how to use Google Plus for business, I have your answer. Google Plus is completely open to the public (invitations are not required) and Google Plus Pages are now here. In addition to circles to inform your friends, coworkers, and family with the messages you’ve written just for them you can show support to and follow your favorite businesses. Connect with your favorite clothing line, bands, coffee shop, and more.

For local businesses and globally recognized brand names, Google Plus Pages have been introduced, worldwide. Now you can share with individuals who are passionate about what you do. It’s social media marketing at its finest, real relationship building and nurturing.

Individuals can recommend you with a +1, add you to a circle to get regular updates, and get to know you and your business. All you have to do is start sharing. Google is currently limiting pages, not everyone will be able to create one right now. A number of pages are already available for public viewing and soon any organization will be able to create a page at plus.google.com/pages/create.

What does Google Plus Pages mean for search? Two things. One, Google Plus Pages will be included in search results. Two, Direct Connect. From Google search you can search for (+) followed by the page/company you’re interested in. Google will direct you to the Plus Page related to your search and allow you to add the page to your circles. Direct Connect is still in Beta (it doesn’t work for my page yet, for example – just a few well known brands).

I’ve been waiting for months to see if Google Plus could compete with Facebook. I’m still not sure I’ve got a good answer. Google Plus hasn’t taken off quite as quickly as I thought it would, but I’m excited to see what Pages have to offer. I recently added the +1 icon to my blog and will be adding badges to my website soon. I hope to use my brand new Plus Page to build a base of super fans and loyal customers as well as educate potential clients (much like what I already do on Facebook). Be sure to +1 Fletcher Freelance and add my page to your circle for marketing tips and all the latest in social media.

Your Plus Page is a blank state. Share what you’ll make of it in the comments below.

Credit: Fotolia.com

Each month we update you on what’s going on in the search and social media worlds. It’s that time again! Over the last several weeks, most of the news seems to have come from Google’s neck of the woods — largely due to the much-anticipated launch of G+ Pages.

From that change in the social media world to branding changes from two big players in the search industry, here are some stories you might have an interest in.

1. Google Plus Launches Pages for Businesses

The biggest news in the social media world lately was the launch of Google Plus Pages. Google upset some business owners previously when they were told not to sign up for Google Plus because the company wasn’t yet ready to handle business accounts. While the new Pages leave much to be desired (and updates are planned — such as allowing multi-user access), at least businesses eager to jump into the network now have the means to do so. What are your thoughts? Is this is a case of “better late than never” or “too little too late?”

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2. Bing Deals Becomes MSN Offers

In our first rebranding announcement of the day, Microsoft is changing the brand identity of their daily deals service. No longer tied to the Bing branding, they will now be called MSN Offers.

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3. Google Announces More Service Shutdowns

Google is still in house cleaning mode as they streamline services. More on the chopping block include Knol, Gears, Bookmark Lists, Wave, and more. Will you miss any of these services? Tell us why.

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4. Google Checkout Merges with Google Wallet

Mobile payments and more from Google Wallet - Credit: Fotolia.com

You may have heard the recent buzz about Google Wallet as a mobile payment solution. But now Google is officially rolling their older Google Checkout payment processing service into the Google Wallet brand. Does Google Wallet make you feel more or less interested in using Google for financial services?

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5. Google Music Store Launches, Enables G+ Song Sharing

Google already offered a storage locker for music, but now they’re officially competing with the likes of iTunes and Amazon with their new Google Music Store. How is this tied to search and social media? Aside from yet another venture from the search giant, Google is adding a social component to their music store. Users will be able to share songs purchased through Google on their Google Plus accounts, letting followers hear a song once on the social network for free.

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What other stories caught your interest over the last several weeks in the search and social media industries? Share your thoughts and other news in the comments below.

Credit: Fotolia.com

Social media enables us to share our every thought on a whim, with anyone from friends to fans we don’t even know. That doesn’t mean we should share freely all the time. Some things other people don’t want or need to know. And sometimes it’s just about your timing.

Let’s focus on the latter.

How One Social Media User Put Facebook Over Family

Several months ago a relative of mine found out that her sister was pregnant. But she didn’t hear it from her sister directly. She didn’t even hear it through loud-mouthed family members who couldn’t hold their tongues. She found out she was going to be an aunt by stumbling across her sister’s Facebook update.

Some news is best shared privately first. - Credit: Fotolia.com

On one hand it’s understandable that someone would want to share that good news with friends, and doing so via social media makes sense for more casual relationships. But not your sister (and I believe her father also was informed well after the Facebook announcement). We aren’t talking about sisters who hate each other and are completely estranged. They’re not the closest, but the relationship deserved some semblance of actual respect.

This is an example of lousy timing of over-sharing through social media tools. It was stupid and insulting to members of her family. The Facebook update could have easily waited until she made a few personal calls to those for whom they would have been more appropriate.

This is just one example though. There are plenty of other things you probably shouldn’t rush to share through Facebook, Twitter, or your other favorite social media outlet before making a more serious effort to reach out to a few individuals first. Here are some examples.

Don’t Rush to Tell the World…

• You’re getting married (until you’ve told both families).
• Someone you know passed away (until their family and friends have been informed privately).
• You landed a new job (until you’ve told you’re current employer you’re leaving).
• You’re pissed at so-and-so about such-and-such (until you’ve let them know and tried to work it out).
• You’re single (until you’ve broken it to your former partner).

These might sound like crazy examples, but I’ve seen a few of them happen. Back in the day when Myspace was the place to be, I knew someone who used to rant whenever she was mad at someone or just generally upset. And she would often threaten to delete her whole account over it (and did a couple of times). The next thing we all knew things were fine and dandy between her and whomever she was upset with, and she acted like it never happened (until the next time).

I’ve also known people who updated social media profiles to reflect that they were single in lieu of actually breaking up with someone. Their ex was just supposed to know apparently — which means another friend probably saw the update first and sprang the news.

It’s unnecessary drama. And it’s easily avoided. How? Remember which relationships come first and respect those people enough to actually speak to them. Or has our quest for “conversation” online turned real conversation into a lost art?