Be prepared to decide whether or not you’re going to put your entire existence on Facebook. Facebook profiles will under go some major changes in the next few weeks. Today at F8 Mark Zuckerberg announced Timeline, a new version of the Facebook profile that will be rolling out in the next few weeks. Think of Timeline as the story of your life year by year.

“Instead of having to go to the bottom of your wall and clicking more. Imagine expressing the story of your life where you have all the recent stuff that you’ve done, and then all the most important and meaningful things from you’re life are highlighted and called out for you to see right there.” Zuckerberg explained.

My first reaction was this is a cool idea, but do people really want to see all that. Then it hit me, what if you build this Timeline of yourself, a scrapbook of your entire life on Facebook if you will, and it stayed there even after you died. What if my great great grandfather or a historical figure had something like this available to them, a virtual diary/scrapbook and I was able to somehow view it now? That would be pretty powerful. It would be our online autobiographies, and a way for all of us to live on forever in the virtual world. A history of our existance, a record of who we are, and who we were.

But will people really take the time to curate their lives on their Facebook profile? Do we really want to be an open “book” in that way. Yes we can control what we share and who can see it, but the whole point of the new changes to Facebook is to share our life past and present. I guess with a new generation this will eventually become second nature. Won’t more and more generations just share their lives from an early age online? But we have to admit at this point it still gives all of us a bit of an uneasy feeling. Who do we limit this information to. What could people do with this information? Not to mention where do you draw the line from spending time sharing and interacting online, with actually living and interacting in the real world?

The other thought that came to mind was in the context of the Social Networking battle between Facebook and Google+, this really is a genius move on Facebook’s part. If people take the time and energy and invest it in curating their entire history of existence on Facebook, they will be even less likely to quit using Facebook and switch over to Google+ or any other service that comes along. I mean, we are already overloaded with social networking, we aren’t going to take the time to redo the story of our life on every site that comes along.

I know I’m torn, and it will be extremely interesting to see how users react to these major changes. Are we ready to invest even more of our lives and go all in and put our entire history of existence on Facebook? If so, I guess then years from now our kids, kids, kids could find out directly from us what our taste in music, art, and food was like. Well that, or they could at least see what our high score on Angry Birds was in 2011. Guess it depends on how seriously we take ourselves online and off.

As someone who lives and works online, I was eager to try out Google+ the moment it launched. I held out longer than most to join Facebook and didn’t get an account intending to share personally, but more to familiarized myself with Facebook for clients needs. I understood it’s power for businesses, and building and maintaining relationships with customers. Same with Twitter. But even though I was drawn in out of necessity, I couldn’t help but to start sharing my life over both services.

Now that I’ve managed to score the elusive Google+ invite and check the service out first hand, I have to admit… I was surprised. Mostly, because it really isn’t a complete rip off of Facebook as most would assume. Yes, Mark Zuckerberg is right. Google+ is validation of Facebooks vision. But as it’s been pointed out… Facebook was validation of Myspace’s vision, and look at Myspace now.

I found with Circles, Google+ is making it easier to share different content with the right people I intend it to be seen by. Yes, Facebook has lists, but it’s not as easy and upfront as Circles. For me it’s powerful to be able to separate with ease what’s appropriate for people I have a professional relationship with, and what’s appropriate for those I joke around with. It’s sharing in the same way we do everyday. We don’t have the same type of relationship with each person we interact with, so why should we with our social networks? It’s not a totally new concept but it is emphasized in Google+.

Hangouts is a cool feature allowing you to video with up to 10 people and even watch Youtube videos. Even though Facebook launched one on one video chat, the two are completely different concepts. I already use one on one video chat in Gmail quite a bit, so as soon as I installed Facebook’s video chat I tested it, but other than that I don’t see myself using it much. Where Hangouts is different is that it gives you the ability to do just that, hang out, bump into and interact with your people online.

Despite all of these features, where I feel Google+’s real advantage over Facebook is expectations. Google+ has the ability to change and adapt without as much scrutiny, because people aren’t invested yet the way they are in Facebook. This, coupled with Google’s interest in user feedback is what I believe make it the first real threat to Facebook. After all, I’ve always felt when Google launches a new product it’s like they are running it by me. With Facebook I feel like they are telling me what I want. That being said, after I post this blog, I’ll make sure I update my Facebook Status, not my Google+ Stream. Wonder how much that will change in a year?

How Twitter can help you in Google

As discussed in Part 1, How can Social Media help grow my Business?, Twitter can be an extremely valuable asset to your company. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is used to describe the act of optimizing your companies chances of showing up on the front page of search results. People unfamiliar with how Google works sometimes believe this process only relates to the website itself. Unfortunately, adding some code and key words doesn’t go as far as it used to.
Here is an abbreviated version of how the process works: When Google searches, it does so based on relevancy. It uses “spiders” to crawl the web and read site content. It also takes the links pointing to your site, or from it into account. The greater number of times your site shows up via links in a relavent context- the more likely your company will move up Google’s list.

A Successful Social Media Marketing campaign can also result in thousands of new inbound links to your site. Inbound links are one of the most important things that influence the rankings of your site.

Now your probably wondering why this is important in regards to Twitter. When you sign up, you fill out a profile that is attached to everything you do on twitter. This includes a website address and 160 word Bio, which is referred to by search engines that examine your tweets. Next is the different ways you can use Twitter. First, a company can get great insight if they use Twitter to ask questions. Second, It drives traffic toward your product or company. Third, people on Twitter spread your tweets by re-tweeting or replying to them. With all of this activity attached to your company, the “spiders” can’t help but take notice. Here is a great article on some Twitter SEO tips!

Achieve even more with Twitter!

If you thought that SEO was the only reason your company needed Twitter, think again! Twitter is a great way for any company to connect with employees and customers on a more personal level! Twitter Search is an amazing way to see what people are saying about your products or services. Use the reply function to answer questions!

Follow us @ twitter.com/vauxitellc

When we sit down with a client, one of the first questions we ask them is, “What is the status of your Social Media campaign?”. More often than not, we discover that the client has done little in terms of social media marketing. Companies spend money left and right advertising on radio, television and even print. But with the introduction of Social Media, many of companies have “fallen behind the eight-ball” in terms of advertising and marketing. Social Media Marketing is about more than having people “like” you on Facebook, or “follow” you on Twitter- and that is why are writing this series!

The first place to start in any Business is the end. That bottom line. Social Media is the same way (if you use it for anything other than entertainment). You start by identifying what you want to achieve with Social Media. Do you need to increase revenues? Reduce costs? Get new customers? Then you call Vauxite…

The question that is on ever business owners mind, “is Social Media really that important?” Well, I consider having access to nearly 400 Million users, and a fast, easy, and FREE forum where your company can create and share content (( important )). A Successful Social Media Marketing campaign can also result in thousands of new inbound links to your site. Inbound links are one of the most important things that influence the rankings of your site. It’s easy to see how social media can be a great way to improve your rankings.

We will be going more in depth into how companies can better utilize the Social Media Sites: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Make sure to  you check back for part two when we talk about how Twitter can help grow your business!

I just read an article that told how companies like HP are willing to sell printers at a 30% discount. Sounds great right? The problem is that to make up for it, the same companies are selling replacement cartridges at 1000% markup. HP printer sales also makes 3 times the amount of their computer sales. Kodak printers on the other hand produce the highest quality images, while selling ink at a quarter of what the competitors do. Read the article here.