As Facebook approaches its public offering, CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg is making one thing very clear.

“The world’s information infrastructure should resemble the social graph.”

In other words, your business needs to be social by design. Virtually every business in every industry needs to redefine itself around social to be relevant with the changing behaviors of consumers.

Define the Purpose of Your Company

Every business has a purpose – what some refer to as a higher purpose. It is your mission. It’s something that transcends profits – while also contributing to them.

It’s what you and your small business team believe in – and what is vitally important to your success.

My purpose is helping mainstream small businesses take advantage of this marketing opportunity of a lifetime – social media.

Social media can humanize your business to reveal what is real, authentic, and honest about it. And that is the magic that yields relationships, alliances, and everything else that differentiates your business in the marketplace.

Understand How Social Graphs Work

Mark Zuckerberg states in his message to potential Facebook investors that Facebook thinks the world’s information and infrastructure should resemble the social graph – yours and that of your small business.

Social graphs tell a story. They illuminate everything about us – what is good and what can be improved.

When a business is willing to be authentic and transparent, it communicates to its consituents that it is open, able, and willing to make improvements.

Does that describe your business?

Solve Important Problems

Businesses exist for the exclusive purpose of solving problems, what traditional marketers have referred to as serving needs and wants.

Determining the needs and wants of the communities you serve is like chasing your shadow. Yet, solving problems is something that most business leaders can easily wrap their arms around.

You understand the problems of your customers, especially if you are willing to test the boundaries that others have established.

When you have the mindset of solving problems, you are no longer challenged with what to share on the social networks.

The essence of content marketing is teaching – helping your prospects to become better buyers of not products and service – but solutions that will solve their most important problems.

Facebook has become hugely successful by solving an inherent problem – enabling people across the globe to connect and share.

Forget about profits and consider the important problems that your business can solve for your communities.

The social design of your business will lead you right to them.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

And please share this with your community and encourage them to join the conversation.

Until next time, Jeff

If you are a writer you know the challenges – including the distractions. Writers know that getting into and staying within “the zone” (or whatever you want to call it) is essential if you are to accomplish your writing objectives – and meet your deadlines.

Think of the times when your writing is marching along to amazing levels of accomplishment, only to be pulled out of your zone. Also consider the circumstances when you are faced with an impending deadline and need some help finding your focus.

Ambiance is a mobile app that can help. It has certainly worked wonders for me.

Creativity and The Power of Sound

Sound is the most primordial of the senses for human beings. All creation starts with sound. It is the basis of how meditation works.

When you practice traditional forms of meditation, you are mentally repeating a sound that brings your attention inward. That mental sound is known as a mantra. It’s a sound that has no intrinsic meaning, which is why it enables you to connect with your true self – the one that creates.

Ambiance offers thousands of sounds that you can explore to create the right mood that you need to get your writing accomplished.

If you are having trouble focusing, the deeper sounds help to stabilize your mental chatter. Some of my favorites are Gentle Intensity, Light Trails, and Resonance of the Gods.

I’ve created a playlist of these three sounds, and they work wonders for helping me to find and maintain my writing focus.

As you can see, the screenshots that accompany the sounds are also mentally stimulating and pleasing.

Change Your Writing Environment with Sound

Too much of any form of stimulation can dull the senses. Sometimes you need a spark to energize your thinking. This is when I’ll switch to a sound such as Fire, which is the crackling sound of burning leaves.

When I am writing in a public place and need a sound to simply hold my attention, I find that that the many of the Rain sounds (Ambiance categorizes sounds) work well, especially Thunderstorms in the French Countryside. It is one that offers variety, and I imagine evokes youthful memories of feeling safe while the outside environment is changing.

Ambiance offers premium sounds for a modest price, but I’ve discovered plenty of free sounds that work well for me. It is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and Android mobile devices, and it also works from your desktop.

Now that I have Ambiance, when I am working from home and have my Bose headphones on, it’s a signal to my family that I am in the zone – doing the work of writing.

Even if you are able to find your creative focus, Ambiance may just be the thing to take you to a higher level of creativity.

We’re talking about the work of writing here. Couldn’t you use a little help from time to time?

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

And please share this with your community and encourage them to join the conversation.

Until next time, Jeff

Small businesses naturally tend to focus on daily actions that generate results, such as engaging prospects with their sales process, and then efficiently converting that interest into profits.

Advertising is a form of media that fits well with the small business mindset. It creates awareness, a sense of urgency, and a desire to take action now.

Unlike traditional advertising campaigns, social media takes time to do its job.

This is one reason why many small businesses are challenged with using it well. They view it as another form of advertising.

This also leads to the temptation to set up business pages on every social network to drive traffic to your websites.

This is not a good idea – especially when so many others are doing the same thing.

If you really want to drive traffic to your website – get personal. Learn how to use social media to humanize your business. It’s a simple process, one that admittedly takes time – but it works.

If you learn how to do this right, you will indeed differentiate your business – and in ways that are much more sustainable than traditional marketing practices.

Personal is More Trustworthy

Traditional marketing makes claims, often with competitive comparisons that may or may not be true. Some of these claims include being the best, the most awarded, and so on.

As a result, consumers have learned not to trust advertising. They have learned from experience that if something seems too good to be true – it probably isn’t.

Now every claim is challenged. This is why more consumers rely on the Internet to validate what they have learned from other sources – including word of mouth recommendations from friends.

What are they looking for?  Not more marketing – that’s for sure.

Consumers are searching the web for reliable information – not necessarily from companies, but from real people who offer perspectives that are backed up by direct experience.

This is the power of content marketing - bringing truthfulness to the marketing equation.

Personalization is your strongest differentiator, and that is best accomplished via your personal social media accounts – and those of your team members.

Who you are is unique – and that is a business differentiator. It’s subtle, but it is nonetheless true.

The Company is Incidental

Anyone who manages a business presence on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ knows that it can be difficult to engage others. Why?

People have conversations with people – not companies.

You are more likely to engage your audience with a personal account – one where they can get to know and trust you.

Look at this from the perspective of a customer. When you receive outstanding service, you are more likely to recommend not just the company – but the person within it that was responsible for your favorable experience.

The company is incidental. What matters is who personally made a difference for you.

People Take Care of People

It has been said the best way to build a business is not to focus on the consumer, but those who serve them.

Have you ever been unsatisfied and ready to discontinue your relationship with a business – only to change your mind due to just one interaction with an especially caring representative?

That’s the power of personalization. When someone cares about you, its memorable.

This is also why personal social media accounts that are linked to a business can accomplish more than a business account.

Businesses often wonder if they can trust their staff to represent the company well online.

This is pretty simple. If you do not trust your staff to represent your company online, then you have the wrong people. If they are now successful offline, then they can do it online too.

As long as they respect the company, its vision and mission, and most importantly, its values – then let them be who they are.

Your staff will use social networking differently than you.  That’s OK. Let them be themselves – because that personalization is the magic that makes it work.

Successful business is people taking care of people.

There just is no other way.

How exactly is this done?

This related article on Personal vs Professional Social Media Accounts will give you some ideas for further personalizing your online presence.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

And please share this with your community and encourage them to join the conversation.

Until next time, Jeff

Photo Credit: krishnan

Google+ is an emerging social network that promises to challenge Facebook – especially in regards to its benefits for businesses.

While Google+ is only a fraction of the size of Facebook, it is indeed backed by Google – the corporation that controls 2/3 of all search on the open web.

Search results are and will be increasingly influenced by what is shared on the social networks. However, much of the sharing on Facebook is completely invisible to Google and the other search engines.

That alone ought to be reason enough to learn how to use Google+ to make your business more attractive – for Google and consumers alike.

Chris Brogan shares quite a few more reasons in his latest book: Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything.

In our 16 minute video interview, Chris shared a number of tips and best practices for using Google+ for business.

Here are a few of the highlights.

Make Your Buyer the Hero

If you want to connect and build mutually beneficial relationships with potential buyers, you want to focus on them – making them the hero.

Consider the nature of the noise on the social networks that causes people to tune out. It’s selling, and too much about them – which of course, is another form of selling.

When you are engaged in a conversation that has you feeling good about you, suddenly, all of that noise melts away. This is easily the most valuable tip Chris shared – one that I now have posted right above my desk.

Build Your Personal Presence First

One of the laws of human behavior is that if you are desperately seeking attention – you probably won’t get it.

People are hard-wired to interact and socialize with other people. Understanding and implementing that in all of your business activities is sure to make your business brand more desirable.

Brogan notes that we are still in the early days of Google+, and even major brands such as Pepsico and Ford are finding people are not quite yet ready to interact with brands. This answers the most frequently asked question about Google+.

Do we need a Google+ business page in addition to our personal profile? Chris Brogan suggests you can create a Google+ business page as a placeholder for your brand – but in these early days of Google+ it’s best to focus on building your personal presence.

Be Accessible to Potential Buyers

The purpose of social networking is making connections, sharing, and otherwise learning about people and new business opportunities.  Right?

So, why is it that so many fail to share their contact information on their social networking profiles?

The About page of your Google+ profile is a unique opportunity to embed links to your sites, other networking sites – as well as a direct link to your email address. Don’t forget to include your telephone and snail mail address too.

Easier than that are the message and email share buttons on the left side of your Google+ profile.  Take the time to edit your profile and make the settings for these public so that anyone can contact you.

Video Messaging – A Cool New G+ Feature

There are a number of additional tips in Google+ for Business – and in these FREE instructional videos on ChrisBrogan.com (where you can also go to buy the book).

One that isn’t is the new feature that allows you to create a video message to share with your Google+ communities.  Here’s how – just click on the Add Video button at the bottom of the box where you post your message, and it will open to several options – including one to record live video.

Live Video Messaging with Google+

Is Google+ just another social network?

It’s more like a direct line to Google, one that you can dial up to get more business.

You just have to know how it works – and Google+ for Business will show you how.

Thanks Chris for sharing your insights!

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

And please share this with your community and encourage them to join the conversation.

Until next time, Jeff

Imagine a web with perfect search capabilities – one in which consumers have access to everything they want to know about your business and others just like it.

Knowing that, would you operate differently than you are today?

You can hope your prospects will not discover other sources that are cheaper or better than yours, or you can accept that the day will soon come when they will know all that you do – and more.

Competition is something that keeps business owners and marketers up at night. They bemoan that some are trashing their markets by offering pricing at which nobody can offer a quality product or service.

Is that true – or do they simply have a different business model?

The Future of Marketing is 100% Transparency

If you are willing to warm up to the fact that consumers will soon have 100% access to information, you can avoid allowing your business to die a slow death.

In every industry, business leaders sit back and watch the newcomers compete on a new level, while confidently proclaiming they will never last – yet, many do.

There will be more companies that can do what yours does for less. You can sit back and hope it doesn’t happen, or you can join those of us in the race to the top.

The Race to The Top

Marketers know you never want to compete on price. Price is easily matched by companies that have learned to scale, as well as by those that are desperate or stupid. Regardless of why it happens- you still lose the business.

Smart companies are open and honest about their price. If your offering is better it should command a higher price. The question, how much higher?

The race to the top is won by being so good that price does not matter, within reason. Of course, consumers are not necessarily reasonable – they see better quality and expect to get it at the same price as what is inferior.

This is a challenge we all face.

What is tangible will always be scrutinized – and that includes price.

One powerful way to overcome what is tangible is with intangibles, such as celebrity appeal, if you have it. Though, for most mainstream small businesses, the most powerful intangible is the trust of the communities they serve.

The solution is simple – you have to innovate and differentiate. The only way to compete against price is to be priceless, and that is not an easy thing to do.

Nevertheless, it should be your goal. How can you do what you do now at half the price? How can you then increase your value to solidify that position?

The Race to The Bottom

When your products and services are viewed as commodities, you are in a race to the bottom.

If the average consumer cannot differentiate the quality you offer, it doesn’t matter. It’s as simple as that.

This is one of the benefits of having a solid content marketing strategy – one in which you educate your prospects and customers to make them better buyers of your products and services.

Every industry is going to experience a shaking out over the next several years. The survivors will be those who offer the best price or the best value – and the gap between the two will narrow until they are nearly one in the same.

When there is a race, everyone gets better or they drop out of the race. As search continues to get better, you will see more companies drop out – with the survivors getting better, both in terms of price and quality.

Are you ready to redefine how you operate your business?

Or are you waiting for the race to come to you?

The race is on – some businesses recognize it and others don’t. If you think you are not racing to the bottom – you probably are.

The nature of business these days is one of constant improvement and innovation – a race to the top.

It’s the only condition that can sustain your business in an environment in which perfect information is readily available.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

And please share this with your community and encourage them to join the conversation.

Until next time, Jeff

Photo Credit: 89studio

Facebook wants to help small businesses, and they believe the best way they can accomplish that is introducing you to the benefits of Facebook advertising.

FREE Facebook Advertising

So, they have launched a contest, one that will earn you up to $150 of FREE Facebook advertising just for signing up and attracting at least 100 new Facebook fans before the contest closes on April 1st.

If you are especially ambitious, you may wish to go for the opportunity to be one of ten small businesses that will win $10,000 – awarded to those that achieve the most Facebook likes during that same period.

We all know the odds againtst winning $10,000 – so let’s forget about that and just focus on what is easily achievable, as well as other tangible benefits for your small business.

Have you tried Google advertising? Most of you will answer as I will – no.

Learn How Facebook Advertising Works

So, why not give this a try on their dime?  You can reason that Facebook is trying to suck you into trying Facebook advertising, with the hopes you will then use it on a regular basis.

Is there any risk? Not from my chair. This is an opportunity to learn a new skill, one that you can later apply when the timing is right for your business.

You’ll never know until you give it a try, and you can do that by signing up right here.

I’m in. How about you?

Plus, you can use this as an opportunity to tap into the loyalty you have earned with your community to gain more fans, by encouraging them to introduce you to their friends.

Knowing that Facebook advertising is quite economical, aren’t you curious if it will help you grow your fan and customer base?

Why not learn a few things about Facebook advertising before you need to – especially if Facebook is willing to effectively train you for free?

If it proves to be a good thing, you’ll be ready to integrate it into future marketing campaigns. In other words, use this as an opportunity to gain the experience, even if you just put into a drawer for future use.

You may discover you love it – and I’m sure that is their motivation. However it works out, you will have acquired the experience to later make the right decisions for your small business.

It could come in very handy when you need it most.

Does Your Small Business Need A Boost?

In conjunction with this contest, Facebook is hosting events around the county to provide tips for using Facebook to grow your business. It’s a called Small Business Boost.

These are legitimate events put on with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Now, in the spirit of community and sharing, I can use your help. 

Please forward this to a friend that can benefit from the FREE information that is shared here, and encourage them to join our community by Liking my Facebook page.

BONUS: Here’s a hugely popular article on How to Prevent Your Facebook Account From Hackers.

If you want to learn more about Facebook advertising, watch my video interview with Amy Porterfield, co-author or Facebook Marketing for Dummies. She’s definitely got the goods on Facebook marketing.

Come back next week for an exclusive video interview with New York Times bestselling author Chris Brogan on the merits of Google+ for small business.

You don’t want to miss it!  

One of the distinguishing qualities of successful marketers is they are passionate students of human behavior – more specifically, buying behavior.

Human beings have innate tendencies that lead to actions – some favorable, and others not.

Addictions are unfavorable behaviors that can develop very innocently. For example, exercise is a positive action that people take to improve or sustain their vitality.

Yet, even exercise can become an obsessive and unhealthy addiction, one that can lead to fatigue and a number of other imbalances.

What you are really interested in is not addiction, but desirable actions – attracting prospects and customers in a way that is healthy, and therefore, sustainable.

The Addiction Cycle

Human beings are driven by desires. These desires encourage actions that lead to results that are favorable, and therefore, memorable.

Many of us would say that we are addicted to content. We seek out all kinds of information that feeds our desire to be current with our industry and profession, and it all starts with memories.

The addiction cycle is one of memories, actions, and desires.

When you consume anything that creates a favorable response, such as the confidence of being in-the-know, you create memories. Those memories propel your desires. You seek out more of the same to recreate that feeling of confidence.

So, you return to the source. If you are greeted with new information that is congruent with what you previously experienced, you are likely to come back for more.

But what happens if the information is unsatisfactory?

You still have the desire, so you will come back again to recreate that feeling – but it soon becomes one of desperation.

Create Congruent Experiences with Fresh Content

True addictions are the result of trying to create a remembered experience with the same circumstances and conditions.

When conditions are unchanged, the addict seeks to recreate the memorable experience by reaching for more. Eventually, the realization dawns that more and more of the same will not achieve the desired result.

That’s addiction.

As content marketers, you want to create desirable experiences. This is only possible by introducing fresh information that is congruent with the original experience.

Thus, you have to first know you audience – their needs and desires. Then you have to work to give them a reason to keep coming back, and that is only possible if your content is both fresh and congruent with what previously worked well.

The headline of this article was written for purposes of search engine optimization. The word addiction is edgy – it attracts attention.

Notwithstanding that, desires are what you should focus on. Desires work because they are fresh and contain an element of the unknown.

Desire is attractive because it is healthy – leading to new experiences that create new memories and new desires.

That is your goal as a content marketer.

And it explains why Google is placing a premium on fresh and original content.

Leave a comment below.

And please share this with your community and encourage them to join the conversation.

Until next time, Jeff

The reason for this is every message is subject to interpretation, and the better it is presented the more likely the audience will draw from it the necessary elements that are going to be of value to them.

Media used to be the domain of specialists. Some had expertise in radio, television, newspapers, and other forms of print. Now we are surrounded by media – which means anyone in business needs to develop the skills for using it well.

This also means that every small business is indeed a media company. It’s both an opportunity and a responsibility, and presentation skills are an integral part of it.

Presentation skills are as much of an art as they are a science – you can (and should) expect to invest a lifetime into mastering them.

Ultimately, your goal is to follow the axiom that Steve Martin lived by when he was building his career as a stand-up comic – be so good they cannot ignore you.

That’s sound advice, whether your audience is live or virtual.

Skilled Presenters are Flexible

When you are delivering a message you have to own it – its a mindset. That’s the first step.

After that, you have to be ready to adapt to your audience, and this begins before the presentation – by getting to know as much about them as possible.

Presentation preparation is a practice that can only be developed through direct experience with audience members.

Speakers often comment on how they customize presentations for their audiences. Yet, customization feels like something you do to your audience – a calculated adjustment intended to earn a favorable response.

Skilled presenters, on the other hand, are more aware of being flexible – ready to use their familiarity with an audience to respond to even the most subtle signals.

Flexibility is a state of readiness that creates opportunities for learning and inspiration. It’s a collaboration – something you can only do with your audience – in real-time.

It resonates long after the conclusion of your presentation, and also serves to get you invited back to do it again.

Practice is Essential

When you are preparing and practicing your presentation there are often conflicted feelings of excitement – and fear!

This is what creates writers block and stage fright. It’s the two sides of your brain fighting with each other – one rational and one emotional. This has to be resolved – and hopefully before you get on stage.

Practice is the surest method for resolving this conflict so that you can effectively serve your audience. It’s a skill, and one that can only be learned from the platform.

If you want to be a better speaker, you have to speak. It works the same with blogging, selling, and every other endeavor that requires presentation skills.

As a professional speaker, I’m often asked prior to my presentation if I am nervous. My response is always the same.

I hope so!

Coherence is Connectedness

For a presentation to start and progress well, there has to be a certain amount of angst to heighten your awareness – and just a little is enough.

After that, experience comes to bear on the situation. Paradoxically, your intense focus on you will suddenly shift to them. There is simply no other way to do it.

You have to first get centered and grounded within yourself, and then shift that awareness to the audience to create coherence – one in which you are all of the same mind. 

Some people think of this as being in flow or in the groove. It doesn’t matter what you call it, just know that it works.

Presentation skills are vital for marketers. Since I’m often asked for advice in this area, you can expect me to share more presentation tips and best practices here from my personal experiences.

Until then, how about sharing yours?

Leave a comment below.

And please share this with your community and encourage them to join the conversation.

Until next time, Jeff

You can dedicate yourself to learning the complexities of search optimization – though, you may discover that it can easily become a full-time job.

For those of you that already have a full-time job, or a business to run, a better option is to learn the basics and apply some logic to achieving practical results. This is much easier than one may realize.

Despite the complexities associated with how Google serves up relevant search results, the reality is you can readily communicate messages that elevate your content by being clear, concise, and direct – just as if you would with a third grader.

Focus on the User Experience for Your Audience

Update Your Articles

The majority of consumers are open to change, so they welcome anything that is new and better. Since Google serves a worldwide web of consumers, they too are very receptive to change.

Google is a search engine that may not necessarily know what content is better, so they have to pay close attention to signals that make that suggestion – this includes social sharing and recent updates.

This is why it is a good practice to go back to your old articles and freshen them up if you want your site to be relevant.

Make no mistake – updating earlier content is work, but it pays dividends.

If you publish content online (or anywhere else) you know it can sometimes be challenging to come up with good things to write about. So, here’s an idea.

Your earlier work still has merit. Redesign them to make them new, and thus, better in the eyes of Google.

Manage Your Earned Links

Links are a digital form of communication that can also be freshened. Just apply the concept of communicating to a third grader.

As children, we have all been conditioned to link results with specific behaviors, such as cleaning up your room so you can then go out and play.

If you clean up your room – that is, if you kill the links that are leading to tired content and create new ones that lead to fresh content, Google will indeed play with you – favoring your content in search

A clean room is fresh content, but Google cannot possibly notice it unless you link to it.

Updating your content is one signal, but a more powerful one is linking to that content to ensure that Google does not miss it.

When you do this, Google and the other search engines can’t help but notice you and your business.

And guess what?  Your audience will not either – especially if you promote that content on the social networks to encourage social sharing. That’s the icing on the cake – more links that suggest your content is relevant.

Carefully Choose Titles and Tags

Titles are SEO gold – the most important aspect of any article.

Titles are what gets your content read in the first place. This is why Google gives a great deal of weight to titles.

Why?  Because Google wants what your audience wants.

So, make sure your title tag is clear and to the point – matching closely to your title.

If you don’t know, title tags are the few words (with the emphasis on few) that identify the content within your blog post or article – via the permalink for the post.

For example, the tags in this article are: Google-Search-Fresh. Just check out the URL of this post.

You should eliminate words that add no value – such as the word – the. While these words may be necessary for human beings to engage with your title, they really don’t add anything for search engines looking for informational content.

Once again, you have to communicate with Google as if they are a third grader. This means using the key words that your audience is using to search for a company like yours.

For me, these words include – small business, speaker, social media, marketing, QR codes, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.

Your challenge is determining which words are best for your business – and using them well, by linking to fresh content.

Leave a comment below or share this with your community with any of the share buttons below – or with those on the little red bar at the bottom of this page.

Until next time, Jeff

As Google continues to roll out their new Search, Plus Your World capabilities, there is already growing concern that they are compromising search results.

Who are the most vocal objectors?  Naturally, their competitors – Facebook and Twitter.

Google used to have an arrangement with Twitter to index their streaming firehose of real-time data, one which Twitter decided to discontinue. Little did Twitter know that Google had a back-up plan that we now know as Google+.

It’s interesting that Twitter is crying foul at Google for favoring social content shared on Google+, when not long ago Google was doing exactly that with real-time Twitter results.

Go Where Your Future Business Opportunities Are

Google Search, Plus Your World, sometimes referred to as just Search Plus, is soon going to bring personalized social content to search results for anyone that has not opted out of the new feature.

So, if you not already, you’ll want to get familiar with Google+.

As a business marketer, it should not matter to you whether Twitter and Google are playing well together. For that matter, we all know the relationship between Facebook and Google and long been strained.

Your job is simply to play the search game, however it changes – and it will indeed change again.

I’ve heard the arguments. Why should I use Google+ when all of my friends are on Facebook? One reason is that you are not yet friends with the future customers you do not know, and you are more likely to meet them on Google+.

The power of Google+ is that of easily connecting you with like-minded people that have similar interests.

This is actually possible because the Google+ environment is more open than Facebook.

Notwithstanding the comparisons of Google+ with Facebook, it really feels more like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all rolled into one. Thus, you can use it practically any way you wish.

Just know that if you set your settings to public, your Google+ activities will start showing up in Google search results – and quite prominently, too.

If you plan for this, it can produce some profitable business benefits.

Choose No Favorites – Play the Search Game Wherever it Works

This time last year, there was quite a buzz surrounding Facebook marketing. And indeed, improvements such as Facebook Smart Lists have made for a more favorable Facebook experience.

Nevertheless, you still have to contend with the fact that the content you share on Facebook is filtered – dramatically reducing your ability to reach new customers.

What should you do? By all means, do not jump ship and throw all of your resources into Google+. It is always wise to maintain a distributed presence on all of the major social networks.

For one thing, you never know if Facebook will launch their own internal search engine.

Given how Facebook is allowing users to clean up their content for Timeline, it is entirely possible that search capabilities will follow – and that will change the game again.

Search is a means to an end – for you and those performing the search. Whatever is fashionable is what is going to work – and you have to be prepared to be flexible and roll with the changes.

You cannot hang your hat on one social network and expect everything to work to your benefit.

Just remember that the search engines are using all of us – individuals and businesses, in order to gather content to make for a richer, more real, and relevant search experience.

That’s their game.

What is yours?

Circle me on Google+ and we can talk about it.

Or leave a comment below or share this with your community with any of the share buttons below – or with those on the little red bar at the bottom of this page.

Until next time, Jeff

Authored by Jeff Korhan