Plugins are simply bits of code that you can add on (or “plug in”) that can do all sorts of things beyond the basic program.

As of this morning, WordPress had 5,546 plugins listed in their Plugin Directory that had been downloaded a total of well over 35 million times. That’s a whole lotta code!

Yesterday Rober Hruzek asked me which plugins I recommended. Well the short answer is, “It depends on what you want it to do.” But then he came back and asked if there were any “must haves” in my book.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that for me I’m a fan of things that make my life easier. So, with that in mind, here are 21 WordPress plugins that I have found make my life easier. I’m guessing they’ll do the same for you.

I don’t mean this to be an exhaustive list by any means. Heck, I’ve got more than twice that many installed here on SuccessCREEations alone. And not every one of these will work on every blog. Some of these are very popular plugins and some are more obscure.

Here’s my list:

Spam Protection

1. Akismet – [download]

Pretty much the gold standard of WordPress spam protection. Akismet comes from the creators of WordPress and is one of 2 plugins bundled with WordPress when you download it.

2. Defensio – [download]

Defensio is the spam protection plugin I prefer to use on all my own sites. The way Defensio displays spam in the spam folder makes it easier for me to review more quickly.

Actually I keep both plugins installed and updated (though only activate one at a time). The reality is tech stuff breaks and both systems have occasional outages where spam gets through. That way, if I see a problem with the one I’m using I can deactivate it, activate the other one, and never miss a beat. It’s all about making it easy in my book.

Utilities

3. Google XML Sitemaps – [download]

Having your site rank well in the search engines is paramount. Once it’s set up the sitemap plugin will take care of keeping the major search engines abreast of what your site is up to.

4. WordPress Database Backup – [download]

Servers crash from time to time. (Did I mention tech stuff breaks?) Having a recent backup of your database will prevent that sickening feeling of loss should you experience one. This plugin can automate that process for you. Oh, and don’t forget to back up your theme and upload files too!

5. All in One SEO Pack – [download]

WordPress is inherently SEO friendly, especially when it is set up correctly. That said, the All in One SEO Pack can supercharge your performance in the search engines and help you bring in more of that search traffic.

6. Page Link Manager – [download]

Do you have pages on your site that you don’t want cluttering up your main navigation? Page Link Manager creates a list where you can check which pages you want included and leave the others out.

7. Exclude Pages From Navigation – [download]

A twist on the plugin above. Instead of creating a master list, this plugin puts a check box on the edit screen when editing pages where you can select whether or not you want the page you are writing to be included in the site navigation. You probably only need one or the other of these two.

8. Executable PHP widget – [download]

Have you ever downloaded a WordPress theme because it had some cool functionality in the sidebar only to realize that if you added any widgets to that sidebar it disappeared? You can’t add PHP to the standard Text widget. Good thing you can add it back in with the Executable PHP widget. Very handy for making managing sidebars easy.

9. FD Feedburner – [download]

One of the great things about using Feedburner is that you can track how many people are reading your blog. It also gives you a ton of different ways to customize your feed. The trouble is, when you set up a Feedburner account and point all the links on your page to that feed your plain old WordPress feed is still discoverable. And you will have some folks subscribed to that feed that you won’t know about. FD Beedburner will redirect your WP feed so everyone gets subscribed to Feedburner.

10. WordPress Mobile Edition – [download]

More and more people are accessing the web via mobile devices. WordPress Mobile Edition makes it easy to accommodate viewing your WordPress installation on mobile devices.

Stats

11. WordPress.com Stats – [download]

WordPress.com Stats is probably the easiest basic stats package to implement on a WordPress blog. Like the Akismet anti-spam plugin above, you will need an account at WordPress.com for WordPress.com Stats to work.

12. Google Analyticator – [download]

Google Analytics is considered by many to be the gold standard of stats tracking packages. It gives you a ton more info than WordPress.com Stats does. There are several plugins for integrating Google Analytics into your WordPress site. Google Analyticator is my choice because it combines some good features and is easy to use. Keep in mind that Google Analytics only updates once a day.

13. Woopra – [download]

If you are looking for more extensive real time stats then you should consider Woopra. Their WordPress plugin integrates their stats into your WordPress Dashboard. And they have a desktop application (for both PC & Mac. Yay!) where you can see what people are looking at on your site right now.

Fun Stuff

14. Wp-Cumulus – [download]

I’m sorry, but WP-Cumulus is just about the coolest plugin I’ve seen. It’s what powers my tag cloud. And it even comes with a sidebar widget that you can see over on the bottom of my sidebar there.

15. What Would Seth Godin Do – [download]

A little bit of marketing here. This plugin shows a customizable message to anyone visiting for the first time that doesn’t get seen by returning visitors. You can get creative how you use it.

16. TweetMeme Button – [download]

There are a whole lot of Twitter plugins for WordPress. In my desire to keep life easy, I like the TweetMeme Button. It simply adds a button at the bottom of the post. Makes it easy for people who like your post to tweet it.

17. Subscribe to Comments – [download]

The rumors of the death of email have been grossly exaggerated. There are still a good many people out there who like to get updates and notifications via email. If you allow your readers to subscribe to your comments some of them will. And it might just bring them back to your site more.

18. TD Word Count – [download]

There was a time, back in the day, when WordPress didn’t have the little “Word count:” number at the bottom of the edit window. And if you’re a little, um, focused (a polite way of saying anal) like me you might want to know how many words you were typing. (This post is well over 1200 so far. Did I mention I’m a tad on the wordy side?)

Anyway… The TD Word Count plugin gives you all kinds of word related stats. Like, for instance, I’ve got over a quarter million words here on this blog. Yeah. Wordy. And focused.

And… I just noticed that this plugin hasn’t been supported since, well a long time. Since WordPress version 2.1 in fact. That being the case you might want to skip this one. Did I mention I’m focused?

Niche

19. NextGen Gallery – [download]

NextGen Gallery is the preeminent photo gallery management plugin. I’ve seen sites that have thousands of photo galleries all running along seamlessly with NextGen gallery. Here at SuccessCREEations I’ve got one.

20. WP Super Cache – [download]

For high traffic sites, WP Super Cache will dramatically reduce the server load. This is a very powerful plugin and installing it is not for the feint of heart. Nevertheless it is phenomenal plugin that can probably reduce your server costs if you are bumping into bandwidth issues.

21. Podcasting – [download]

If you are into podcasting then you’ll probably want to take a look at, well, the Podcasting plugin. It makes managing your attachments and integrating with iTunes easy.

Well there you have it. 21 plugins that will make your life easier. And it only took me 1,427 words to tell you about ‘em!

If you’re struggling to see how to tap into all those people and all that growth to help grow your own business, here is something you need to check out.

Twitter Masters TeleSummit 2009

The Twitter Masters TeleSummit 2009 brings together 15 of the best social media marketing experts to share exactly how to tap into that market for your business.

We’re talking 15 hours of interviews with some incredibly sharp people who know their stuff when it comes to Twitter. People like Joel Comm, Dan Hollings, Carrie Wilkerson, Scott Stratten, Deborah Micek, Scott Tousignant, and the marketing team of Travis Miller & Jimmy Vee just to name a few.

There’s a broad spectrum of backgrounds and approaches to Twitter in this group. Follower counts for these folks range from just over 2,000 to in excess of 58,000 followers!

Did I mention they’ve invited Yours Truly to be one of the speakers too?

Sneak Peek at What You’ll Learn

Here is just a tiny taste of some of the topics the speakers will be covering in this landmark event.

• Connecting online and offline strategies quickly
• Simple techniques that increase your followers by being yourself
• Successfully creating buzz for your business and product promotions
• Create fanatical fans on Twitter through offline leads
• How Twitter can build strong relationships one tweet at a time
• Big mistakes social networkers make that cost you fans, followers, leads, and sales
• 4 Hands-Off Twitter tools to manage your time and get business done efficiently
• Building a word-of-mouth army for you on social media sites
• Attracting interested followers through retweetable (RT) material every day
• 12 Must-Have Tools when Using Twitter For Your Business
• Create a growing and active fan base in just a few weeks
• 2 simple ways to streamline your social media strategy
• Build an intentional Twitter space that gets you heard and respected by your followers

And here is what you’ll hear from me.

Becoming a Master Media Marketer
by Blogging and Micro-blogging (Twitter)

• 4 Top Reasons Bloggers NEED Twitter
• 9 simple trade secrets that get you noticed and attracting more subscribers
• Effective and proven Twitter techniques that gain influence without automation
• Why Twitter is the “Secret Weapon for Non-Profits”
• How to build presence on a shoestring budget

It is an amazing amount of content.

And here is the best part…

They’re Giving it away for FREE!!

That’s right. If you register for the event prior to the kick off on Monday you can listen to all 15 interviews absolutely FREE!

UPDATE: You can still listen to the remaining interviews for Free until the end of the week!

It doesn’t get much get much more affordable than free, I know.

But I’m sure you’ll want to get the mp3 recordings of the entire series. The folks running the Twitter TeleSummit are offering downloadable recordings of the entire series that you can listen to as many times as you want along with PDF transcripts of each interview to study at your leisure.

Be sure to order them when you register now so you can save 30% off the price. If you place your order before the end of the TeleSummit you can get all the recordings and all the PDF files for only $67.

After that the whole enchelada will still be available for the incredibly low price of $97.

Go Register Now and get your complete set of this incredibly valuable information so you can harness the power of Twitter to help your own business grow.

Not only that, but using a consistent image to represent yourself around the web can help improve your branding. Using a Gravatar is an easy way to do that. Easy and free (I like free!)

The name Gravatar came from Globally Recognized Avatar. An avatar is simply an icon or an image that represents a computer user. Using Gravatars is really very simple. Since version 2.5, Gravatar support has been built into the core WordPress functionality.

And even though the service is owned by Automattic (the same company that develops WordPress) it is fairly easy to implement in all sorts of other platforms too! Check out the Gravatar Implementation page to see how to use Gravatars with platforms like Blogger, MovableType, Drupal, Joomla, LiveJournal, Ruby on Rails, Cold Fusion, Pearl, Python, ASP… And the list goes on.

Gravatar as a Commenter

The easiest way to use Gravatars is as you are commenting on Gravatar enabled blogs. Simply go to the Gravatar website and click the link at the top to Sign Up.

The site will ask for your email address which you will have to validate. Once you do you can add your image from either your computer’s hard drive, web cam, or a web URL where your image is already online.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will want to crop your image to be square, which you can do after uploading the image, to keep it from distorting when it is displayed as a square image around the web.

Your Gravatar will then be married to your email address so that whenever you use that address on any Gravatar enabled web site your image will be shown automatically. That’s all you have to do. Piece of cake.

If you have multiple email addresses, you can even set up a different image for each one. Then choosing which image to use is as easy as entering a different email address.

Displaying Gravatars in Your Blog’s Comments

Displaying Gravatars in your blog’s comments is easy too with WordPress versions 2.5 and later. The first thing you will want to do is make sure they are turned on.

To do this click on the “Settings” menu and then choose the “Discussion” option.

Then scroll down the page to the “Avatars” section to adjust your settings.

Here you can turn your Avatars on or off, set what rating to show and choose the default Gravatar to display on your blog. The three “Generated” default Gravatars will generate a random image based on the email address the user inputs.

Don’t forget to click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom after you have the settings the way you want them.

If your WordPress theme is Gravatar enabled then that’s all you need to do and you are good to go.

Getting Technical

(The rest of the post gets into coding and php. If you are not familiar with all that, feel free to stop reading and don’t feel bad. Most users won’t need to mess with any of this stuff anyway.)

WordPress will automatically call up the Gravatar as part of the wp_list_comments function. For example, if you wanted to just list comments (without trackbacks or pingbacks) with a Gravatar size that’s 48px square your comments.php file should have the following code in it:

<?php wp_list_comments('type=comment&avatar_size=48'); ?>

You can adjust the size to fit your theme or omit the type if you like.

Displaying Gravatars for Multiple Authors

If you have a blog with more than one author you can display the author’s gravatar as an easy way to let your audience know which one wrote any given post.

There are a couple of different ways you can do this but they both use the get_avatar WordPress function.

Since Gravatars are tied to email addresses you can use the author’s email to display the Gravatar with this bit of php code in your loop:

<?php echo get_avatar( get_the_author_email(), '80'); ?>

Where the number ‘80′ is the size of the Gravatar. Simply change that out with whatever size fits your theme.

You can also use the author’s ID number that is assigned by WordPress in the get_avatar function instead of the author’s email if you’d rather. Here’s how that code looks:

<?php echo get_avatar( get_the_author_ID(), '80'); ?>

Either way should give you the same results.

Styling with CSS

The other piece needed to display Gravatars correctly, whether in the post area or in the comments is some styling. WordPress automatically adds a couple of classes to the html output to make things easier for you.

These classes are .avatar and .avatar-$size where “$size” is whatever avatar size you have set to display. So in the examples above the second class would be .avatar-48 and .avatar-80 respectively.

Using different size avatars for the author images in the posts and for the comment Gravatars can be one easy way to style them differently because of the different classes that WordPress assigns to the different classes.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is Gravatars are a very simple way to add a bit of personalization to your blog that can help foster conversation and build relationships.

With WordPress it’s nearly automatic these days and because the Gravatar system is so simple it is even easy to impliment in other applications beyond WordPress. Since it Gravatars are so easy to use, using them seems like a no-brainer to me.

The flood of spam is the reason I first implemented a Comment Policy here at SuccessCREEations.

Spam is nasty stuff.

Danger of Getting Labeled a Spammer

When it comes to blogging, there is a big danger in getting labeled a spammer. Most of the prominent spam filters such as Akismet (Defensio is another good one I recommend) have filtering algorithms that learn which commenters are spammers and which are legitimate (hammers?) based on user submissions.

This means that every time I mark a comment as spam, or tell the filter that I think a comment that it has marked as spam is really OK, it sends that info to a central database and learns. Combine my input with millions of other users and the filters get pretty accurate pretty fast.

Of course, if the filter ever starts thinking you are a spammer it can be nearly impossible to get your comments approved again. On any blog anywhere.

I’ve had friends end up there by mistake and I promise it is no fun. You don’t want to have that happen. Seriously.

Characteristics of Spammers

To help you out I thought it would be good to share some common characteristics that spam comments tend to share so that you know what to avoid. Hopefully it will help you stay out of spam purgatory.

Keep in mind that most of these characteristics taken individually do not necessarily mean your comment will be marked as spam. However the fewer of these you have in your comments the lower your chances of your comments being marked as spam. On, and I’m going to leave out the painfully obvious things like link stuffing for porn, pills or gambling.

1. Arrive from a DoFollow list. The short version is that there are lists of blogs floating around out there listing blogs with decent Page Rank who have removed the NoFollow property from comments. Since this blog is on many of those lists I know that the majority of folks who come here from them are more interested in link juice than conversation.
2. Leave several comments in a very short time. It is not unusual to see a commenter leave a half a dozen or more short comments on various posts in the span of 10 minutes or so. More often than not they never comback after their initial slash and burn pass. Instead, leave on comment a day over several days.
3. Use key words instead of their name. Since spammers are all about getting better ranking in the search engines they often fill the name field with key words instead of, well, their name. Talking with keywords instead of people makes for awkward conversation, to say the least. Use your name and participate in the conversation.
4. Don’t have a Gravatar. Spammers are about staying anonymous. Adding a picture of yourself goes a long way towards identifying you as a person and not a spammer. Go get your Gravatar set up so blog owners know you are a person.
5. Only 1 or 2 sentence comments. Spamming is a high volume, low return activity. Since comment spamming is about getting the link the only incentive is to add just enough comment text to (hopefully) make it past the filter. Taking a moment to add value to the conversation will go a long way towards your comment being approved.
6. Use free email service instead of email with your domain name. Spammers use throw away email addresses because it helps the anonymity factor. They tend to be random letters and numbers. Using your name in your email, or better yet your own blog domain will help you look less like a spammer.
7. Blog has comments closed on all posts. Spammers are not interested in conversation. Since they are spamming, they probably think everyone else is spamming too. Turning their comments off is a sure way to prevent getting spammed back. Make sure yours are on and encourage conversation.
8. Link to a sales page instead of a blog. Spammers are trying to improve the ranking of their sales page so they can make more money. It is much more effective long term to engage in dialog and let your ranking grow over time rather than trying to “trick” the search engines into giving you good ranking. If your blog is on an internal page of your business site, consider linking there instead of to your front page.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list. But avoiding these mistakes will go a long way towards keeping your comments out of spam filters.

What would you add to the list?

With the social media service Twitter beginning to be more widely adopted, less sophisticated marketers are joining the community. Some of these folks are opportunists of dubious ethics who are not looking to use the medium engage the community.

Instead these social media hucksters are simply looking to take advantage of Twitter’s simple format and established user base to push their weak marketing message out to a larger audience.

It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before the slimier and more obnoxious fringe of the internet marketing world saw Twitter as yet another target for their short sighted slash and burn, spammy approach to marketing.

Some of the worst offenders are actually selling “secret” techniques on how to quickly build a massive Twitter follower list. I’ll save you the money & tell you exactly how to do it. For free.

Why Share How to Game Twitter?

This whole gaming Twitter thing has become a hot button topic amongst long-time Twitter users. When new Twitter accounts are opened and get as many followers in a few weeks those of us who have been on Twitter for a couple years have, we tend to notice. Obviously we think about how and why they are doing it. The how is pretty simple. There could be several reasons why.

Jim Turner of One By One Media (Love the new OBOM Logo!) has been leading the charge on exposing the process of gaming Twitter. Last week he hosted one of the best shows I’ve ever listened to on BlogTalkRadio called, The Gaming of Twitter Exposed, where he laid out exactly what I’m sharing here. We’re encouraging folks to Hold Fast against the gaming.

I’ll tell you strait up that I don’t see anything illegal or particularly immoral about gaming Twitter to inflate your follower numbers. I just don’t think it’s smart.

You might ask, “Chris , if you think it’s such a bad idea, why would you guys share how to do it?” Well there are a couple reasons.

Credibility Issue

First and foremost I see a big credibility issue. The hucksters who are promoting this technique are really not adding any value to the Twitter community as a whole nor to the people who blindly follow their lead. Sure that they are amassing gobs of followers. And to the unsophisticated Twitter user, it is impressive.

While numbers can certainly be a significant factor, those who don’t know any better measure success and influence only by the numbers. Regardless of whether the new Twitter user is a solo entrepreneur or a large corporation it can be easy to assume that the number of Twitter followers equals credibility and influence.

The mistake in this line of reasoning comes from ignoring the quality of the followers. Some followers are more interested in hearing your message and engaging you in mutually beneficial business relationships than others. Having gobs of uninterested “followers” who aren’t listening to your message is worse than pointless, because it gives a false sense of accomplishment and progress.

There is nothing wrong with big numbers of followers. In fact I’m all for it. As long as they are the right followers. Having large numbers of enthusiastic followers is obviously a good thing. The trouble is, inflating your followers by gaming Twitter only succeeds in adding legions of disinterested non-listeners. Beyond bragging rights, there is no real value in it.

The mistaken assumption that numbers equals influence creates two issues from my perspective. 1). I have to repeatedly explain to prospective clients why the number of followers does not really indicate the influence of the account. And 2). Prospective clients may assume that I am less knoledgable because I have just over 3,000 followers after being on Twitter for over 2 years and Mr. Huckster got 16,000 followers in just two weeks.

Of course choosing not to do something is very different from not knowing how it’s done. So to save time explaining, I’m writing up a blog post that I can simply point to.

People Getting Ripped Off

The second issue involves people getting ripped off. People are charging anywhere from $6 to $200 for this same basic information.

Now I don’t begrudge people packaging information that is available for free, selling it in a more accessible format and making a profit. Consulting is very much like that at times.

What bothers me is that a lot of what is being offered only adds numbers without really extending the reach or influence of unsophisticated folks doing the buying. And in some cases, the “secret” techniques can even result in the Twitter account being suspended.

How does getting a reputation as a spammer or getting your account suspended help expand your brand or your business?

Do you really want to pay someone for a pass into the slimy end of the pool?

I’m here to help people. That means I work to assist them in expanding their influence on line so their business will earn more money.

People who are looking to make a quick buck from unsuspecting and unsophisticated customers and then disappear can give our profession a bad reputation so it’s in our best interest to expose the huckstery.

I know. I know. You want to know how they do it.

How to Game Twitter

First of all a disclaimer. This method has been tested on a dummy account and it works, to the tune of adding 6,000+ followers in the first week the account was created. However, if this approach is executed poorly it can result in your Twitter account being suspended. Your mileage may vary.

And again, I do not recommend doing this. While big Twitter follower numbers are good for your ego, having the right followers is much more valuable to your business no matter what size the list. I do not do this on my own Twitter account.

With that disclaimer out of the way, here’s how to game twitter and add thousands of followers every day:

Gaming Twitter

1. Get a Twitter account. Kind of obvious. But if you don’t have an account with Twitter, you can’t game their system.
2. Next, sign up for a service like Twollo (Twollow is another possibility. Not sure who copied whom with the idea here.)
3. Within their system set up “auto-follow” searches on basic keyword phrases like “social media”, “hey”, “twitter”, “marketing”, “dude”, “make money”, etc . Right now the best phrase to autofollow is “followfriday”.
4. Be sure to set the “maximum number of follows” to 500. This is important precaution to help prevent your account from being suspended.
5. Set up accounts at places like TweetLater (or TwitterKarma or FriendOrFollow or Tweeple Twak or SocialToo – If you’re really ambitious use all of ‘em!)
6. At least once a day go through and “unfollow” anyone who didn’t autofollow you or who hasn’t followed you back within a day or 2.
7. Many of these services will email you lists of those who have unfollowed you recently. Drop these followers as well to keep your follower/following numbers within “acceptable” twitter ratios

Bonus steps – accelerate gaming results!

1. Be sure you have autofollow on  for your own Twitter account (setting found in services from step 5 above)
2. Email lists of fellow gamers (with your Twitter account at the top of the list) so you’re sure to follow each other and show up on these lists.

Average growth rate using this method appears to be approximately 500-600 per day initially after startup day. As your followers grow it can quickly pass 1,000+ new followers per day if you manage it well.

If you are too lazy busy to actually send tweets on Twitter, then be sure to also set auto-tweets so that you show up in public time lines.

Maintain the number you are following within no more than about 500-1500 more than you have followers to minimize the chances of getting your Twitter account suspended. You can also set up an “@/reply summaries” email notification so that you can “interact” with anyone who @s you.

And there you have it. How to Game Twitter and Add Thousands of Followers Every Day. For free.

What are your thoughts? Is gaming Twitter a bad idea?

If you feel strongly on this issue, Tweet about it using the hashtags #gamingtwitter and #HoldFast to let your voice be heard.

No. It’s way beyond cool.

Carbon Motors E7 police car in Savannah.

The coolness was on display down at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center in a public event that, well,  really wasn’t publicized all that well. I happened to hear about it from my good friends over at the Creative Coast, and being into cool stuff, went down to check it out.

Straight off the company executives made a big point about how no one would be allowed to touch the car, which seemed kind of strange to me. I mean granted they don’t want some doofus breaking the $5 million prototype that they are staking the future of their entire company on. But shouldn’t a police car be at least somewhat doofusproof?

Of course they then proceeded to parade any law enforcement personnel that wanted a closer look through a tour of the interior, pushing all the buttons and touching whatever the heck they wanted.

That part I get. All the police officers had guns. You walk up to my car with a gun and I’ll probably let you sit in the driver’s seat too. Touch whatever you want. And I’ll smile while you’re doing it, just like they did.

I briefly thought that perhaps I should have brought my Glock stuffed down the back of my shorts like Magnum used to do. Though somehow I don’t think that would have gone over so well in a room full of police officers.

I took my pictures from a distance. But I digress.

The Car

Carbon Motors E7 police car. Suicide doors are cool.

The car is a prototype built by Carbon Motors. They’re a start-up car manufacturer that is looking to build their E7, which has been especially designed for law enforcement from the ground up.

It makes sense when you think about it. Right now, to get a police car they start with a car that was built for the comfort of folks like you and me (and I do like my comforts) like a Crown Victoria, for example. Then they add everything from light bars to more powerful brakes and extra electronics as well as tear out things that aren’t needed. (Want to keep a suspect from opening the rear door during transport and escaping?  Ditch the door handle.)

Instead, Carbon Motors has started from the ground up with a specialty law enforcement vehicle. With the E7 there’s no need to pay for things like normal brakes that are only going to be removed and thrown away to make room for more powerful (and more expensive) brakes. The emergency lighting is built conformally into the body so that there isn’t extra drag (which means gives the E7 improved fuel economy) or holes drilled through the roof (reducing corrosion start points on the E7).

They’ve managed to engineer a car that beats most of the current popular police vehicles in both performance and in fuel efficiency. And they did it with a 300 horse power diesel engine.

High Tech

And when you get inside it gets even more cooler. Poor grammar I know, but it’s true.

Carbon Motors E7 police car. No door handle to let a perp escape through the suicide door.

First thing a geeky guy like me notices on the inside is the huge electronic display console on the dashboard and between the front seats. Imagine a laptop sized iPhone planted where your car stereo is and you begin to get the idea.

That touch screen display can pull up all kinds of policely information. For example, there are external cameras on the car that recognize license plates (we call them “tags” down here) and the car can pull up the info on the car associated with that plate (tag?) with just a touch.

But it gets better. Suppose the officer is in hot puruit of the vehicle. Looking away from his driving to find the spot on the screen to touch could be dangerous, right? Well the E7 has built in voice recognition commands so the officer can shout out police speak for “tell me the scoop on this car I’m chasing” and the car will pull up the info, without even needing a touch.

It gets even better, though. That’s the active mode. There’s also a passive mode for the plate/tag recognition. The car can be set to record all the tags it comes across while on patrol.

So say there’s a bank robbery and some sharp eyed bystander notes the registration of the get away car. And let’s further suppose that your city has a whole fleet of E7’s on the street. If any car spots that tag it can alert the officer, “Bank robbers dead ahead.”

Or maybe there’s an Amber Alert. If they know the registration of the vehicle involved in the abduction, police departments can go back through the patrol records of the cars looking for that tag. By piecing together where the E7’s were when they saw the suspect car the police can get a good idea where it is going and track down the suspect. Did I mention that the video is synced with GPS and map data? Think Google Street View, but much closer to real time.

Look out bad guys. Big Brother is going to be watching!

Marketing the E7

So besides totally maxing out the coolness scale, how does this have anything at all to do with SuccessCREEations?

Well I think the good folks at Carbon Motors can improve how they are getting the word out about their very practical purpose built (and very cool) law enforcement vehicle. Getting more exposure would likely attract more potential investors and potential orders at the same time.

Carbon Motors E7 police car in Savannah. But for how long?

From a brief conversation I had with one of the Carbon Motors executives, their entire focus has been in getting the vehicle in front of the law enforcement community. From the turn out at the room, which I’m guessing was at least 90% law enforcement, that part is working.

However there was very little attention paid to the event by the local media. The local paper had a 539 word write up and one of the local TV stations mentioned it on their web site with only 200 words!

Especially when you consider that Savannah is lobbying hard to entice Carbon Motors to locate their manufacturing plant here that complete lack of local press coverage is unbelievable. Even combining those two press mentions with the article in the Creative Coast that I mentioned at the top of this post and my blog post here more than doubles the coverage of the event in Savannah yesterday.

Hitting Social Media

If I had any influence with the folks at Carbon Motors, and since I don’t carry a side arm I really don’t, but if I did I would encourage them to add a social media component to their marketing efforts.

Winning over law enforcement is a good idea. But reaching the law enforcement community shouldn’t come at the cost of ignoring the general population. Voters can influence budgets and purchasing decisions to some extent. Politicians who make budget decisions are keen to keep their voting constituents happy.

And if a sizable portion of them are hollering that the current patrol cars aren’t as safe or cost effective and E7’s should be phased in, the politicians will respond accordingly.

They have a blog. Can you say boring?!

It’s obviously written by an executive. OK. That can be a good thing. Someone at the top of the company is interested in getting their message out.

The trouble is the blog is all about the different locations that are trying to become home to their manufacturing plant. Sure, that’s something that is incredibly important to the company. But no one else cares! That stuff isn’t going to attract any attention. At least not any positive attention.

Get someone to blog about the car!

Talk about it’s overwhelming coolness. Explain with enthusiasm how much better and safer and cost effective your purpose built car is over existing modified civilian vehicles.

Talk about the cool places the car is visiting on your tour. Savannah is a cool place. Tell people about it as a backdrop for your car. Show your car in their cities so that people can see your car as a critical part of their local police force.

The E7 oozes coolness, with the conforming light panels flashing, Television would eat it up. Get it on the local news programs. People would start talking about it.

Get on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. Encourage people to participate. Did you know I was on Twitter telling folks about your car? From the Event. I posted photos of your car on Flickr.

Hire someone who loves cars to blog about your incredibly cool machine. But make sure he’s got a little doofus in him. The last thing you want is more boring blog posts.

The reason Top Gear is the single most watched TV program in the world is because the hosts are NOT car experts. In fact they often tread deep into doofus territory. They are sure are entertaining, though.

And that’s what your blog needs. They say “facts tell and stories sell”. Don’t let your blog get buried in boring facts.

Because the bottom line is, our police departments need your car. I’d like to see you build it here in Savannah. And hire an entertaining doofus to blog about it.

Check it out. 25 Things I Hate About Facebook – What do you hate about Facebook?

Facebook passes MySpace for unique visitors.

Facebook Now On Top

In spite of the new TOS changes Facebook is growing at a record pace. In fact, Facebook surpassed MySpace to take over the number 1 spot for social media traffic levels.

You can see by the Compete comparison at the right that Facebook has been growing traffic steadily since last spring while MySpace has been steady to slightly declining over the same period.

According to the published Facebook statistics they currently have over 170 million active user accounts with over 15 million users updating their statuses at least daily. (I’m not one of those 15 million.)

MySpace doesn’t have any published statistical data that I can find. In fact, the only “company” info they have on their website is this very lame “About Us” page which doesn’t say much of anything. Perhaps that is part of what contributes to the general perception that MySpace is for kids. If they don’t bother to even appear to take their business seriously, why should the rest of us?

Real Connections

Personally I’ve never done much of anything with MySpace for myself beyond opening a profile and poking around a fair amount so that I could have an understanding of the platform’s pros & cons when working with clients.

However I am fairly active on Facebook (in spite of my TOS concerns). I probably average checking in on my account about once a day to see what my friends are up to. I figure since so many others are active their it would be irresponsible of me not to. I’ve got over 300 friends there and have connected with folks that I haven’t been in contact with in years. Ok, in some cases it’s more like decades.

If you want to send me a friend request, here is my Facebook profile.

Congratulations to Facebook for becoming the number 1 social media site. It’s a place where we can all make real connections.

I’m big into social media, especially as a way to promote your business. Even so I’ve never been head over heels about Facebook as a means to promote business. I know many businesses out there who see great returns from their networking on on the site.

Facebook: All your profile belongs to us.

Facebook recently made a change to their Terms Of Service that make me a little less enthusiastic about the site.

Their Content, Not Mine

As long as I can remember Facebook has always had in their TOS that they can do whatever the heck they want with anything that gets posted to their site. However, until the change this month, if you ever closed your account that “irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense)” of theirs would expire.

Sure they’d probably still keep your stuff on their servers. But at least they wouldn’t have the rights to distribute it once you closed your account.

You see, their TOS used to have this at the end of the Licenses section:

You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.

But I guess that Facebook decided they just couldn’t stand to ever part with any content you gave them (and probably thought was yours) so they  deleted those two sentances from their TOS.

Business Implications

Does this mean that Facebook is a bad idea for businesses? No. I think it still can be a great way to help get the word out about your business. Just understand that anything you post/upload to Facebook is not yours, it’s theirs.

What it does mean is that it is especially important to keep in mind the Law of Online Perpetuation:

Internet content will persist in direct relation to how embarrassing it is to you irregardless of your efforts to remove it, so don’t be stupid.

And in the case of Facebook, that could be forever.

There are more social media sites out there than you can count.

Social Networks can be very powerful. For those who know how to tap into them effectively, social media websites are are greatly accelerating businessesby expanding their reach and influence in a cost effective way.

There are even tons of options for those who want to create their own networking groups. If you want an all-in-one solution you might look at Ning or CollectiveX. To add social modules to an existing web site, KickApps is an option. Or if you just want some basic message board like communication you can look at a free Google Group or Yahoo Group.

But what if you want more control than any of those options offer?

Up to now your only option would be to spend a huge pile of cash hiring a crew of programmers to develop a custom solution. That’s out of reach of most small business owners.

Open Source to the Rescue

Leave it to the good folks at Automattic to come up with a solution. They are backing BuddyPress which builds on their WordPress MU (multi-user) platform to create full blown social media sites. For those who are familiar and comfortable working in the WPMU environment, BuddyPress is a very cost effective way to get a new niche social media site up and running relatively quickly.

And BuddyPress moved one step closer to being ready for prime time today with the release of Release Candidate 1, which means it is getting more stable and most of the bugs have been worked out of it.

This is really good news. Having an open source option for creating social media sites really opens the doors for organizations that can really benefit from providing a way for their communites to better connect.

I’ve been working with BuddyPress for a couple months now and I’m impressed. Something tells me once word gets out about this project we’re going to see BuddyPress sites all over the place.

Update: Here is a video intro to BuddyPress so you can see what all it can do.