Are you Googley? No matter what area of business you are in, being Googley can help differentiate you from your competitors, at least according to “What Would Google Do?” by Jeff Jarvis.

In the book, Jarvis examines how Google operates and its core values: creation, openness, connections, uniqueness, collaboration, invention and keeping it simple. In previous podcasts I talked about Googlefying your business – that series was more focused on utilizing the many platforms Google has created to help you operate more effectively and efficiently in many ways. But by becoming what Jarvis called “Googley” a company is in essence taking the core values that Google has employed to better serve their clients. Whether or not you like Google (good reads: “Google Whacked” and “When Google Owns You”) some of the core values Jarvis outlines in his book should be fundamental in any business.

Fundamental values:

• Listen and monitor – What are customers saying about you and your competition? Where are they saying it?
• Collaborate and link – What do you do best? Focus on that and refine it. Make quality the one thing you do then collaborate and link with others who have different specializations. Linking to other bloggers helps you get found and increases your Google (or Bing) juice.
• Join and distribute – Your audience will likely not come to you, so go to them. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube…if this is where they spend their time, it’s also where you need to spend yours. Engage, interact and find out what they want. Think about how you can utilize these platforms, like Foursquare, in a different way beyond a special deal for the “mayor.” If you are a restaurant owner or chef, is there room for collaboration with other restaurants to develop a Foursquare-specific deal?
• Innovate – As Jarvis points out in his book, Google employs a 20 percent rule in which technical employees are encouraged to use 20 percent of their time innovating and working on new ideas, products and businesses. It has spawned many of the new ideas and features that come out of Google. Jarvis recommends spending time each week researching, learning, experimenting and inventing.

Get out there and join your audience, the conversation could be taking place without you. Create, and make it easy for your customers to share you or your product with their friends online. Remember, contributing, creating and linking will make you more searchable. Lastly, innovate! It will likely be one of the most liberating things you do in business.

Resources:
1. “Five steps to a Googlier you”
2. “What Would Google Do?”

Question of the week:
Do you implement the 20 percent rule? If so, has it spawned any great ideas that you’ve tested?

For more tips and tools check out JetPack Radio.

Enclosures: MP3, M4V

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

So you have established Facebook is where your organization needs to be. You did your demographic research, determined how you will engage your fans and allocated the time and resources to truly be interactive. So the logical next step is to create a page. But how do you build a page that will be most appealing to your audience? Start with a few of the basics to get a good foundation, then listen to what your fans are asking for and how they are spending most of their time on your page.

Start with the tabs
The wall – this is your landing page for fans and your life stream. It’s all of the activity and interactions with fans. Devote most of your attention here as your page gets going.

Info – this is all about your organization. Be sure to be descriptive, but concise, punchy and appealing. Don’t forget to post links to any of your Web sites or social networks here too. Use this information and the links in the small box under your icon too.

Photos – consider opening this up to fans, allowing them to post, tag and comment on photos. Photos create another level of interaction and can spark dialogue. Post photos of your customers here too (with their consent of course) and tag them. Again it’s creating more activity on your page.

Boxes – you can add various built in boxes like “links” and “notes,” but they also afford you the ability to customize your page. (More on this in the next blog).

Notes – use this to post articles, press releases, anything…get creative. You may find though that you don’t even need this tab. Most of the other tabs get the job done and are more useful.

Events – use your creativity here too. You don’t have to limit it just to in-person events. Think outside of the box. Maybe host online event or some sort of contest or special promotion on your page that is contained within a set number of days.

Landing page – for fans the default landing page is the wall, but for non fans and non Facebook members you can direct them to a different tab with a call to action. Mashable and Victoria Secret’s Pink do this effectively with their landing pages.

Post no bills
Will you allow fans to post comments, photos and videos? You would be wise to leave it open. You can always moderate any inappropriate postings. Keep in mind the more people post the more it will show up in streams, which means more of their friends see it. Not allowing this level of interaction could potentially have a negative effect.

How will you kick start these conversations and postings? Think like a blogger, unravel stories over time and engage your fans with questions.

One last tip, be sure to grab your vanity URL. Not only does it help you retain your brand identity online, but also there are talks that Facebook may be launching an email platform. The platform would use your vanity URL as your email address. You don’t want to get stuck with one that doesn’t fit your organization.

Couple questions:
If you have a page what is one strategy you’ve used to successfully build your fan base? Could running a promotion to get new fans and not extending that offer to existing fans have a negative impact?

For more tips and tools check out JetPack Radio. Feel free to fan Wired PR too!

Enclosures:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

, M4V

There are countless free online tools out there – everything from white papers to eBooks, to tool kits and guides. While they run the gamut on what they offer, there are a handful of useful tools to help manage, market and maybe even grow your business. Google offers a fare share of resources, as well as Bing, Yahoo and several other sites dedicated to the small business.

These tools will focus on creating awareness and driving people to your brand online:

• Google’s Local Business Center – as local search grows this will become a valuable stream for businesses. It enables you to list information about your business – address, hours of operation, photos, videos, real-time updates and special offers. You can also track views, actions and where the searcher came from. (For more see the below interview with Chuck Reynolds)

• SEOMOZ.org – search tons of free resources and information on search engine optimization.

• Websitegrader – enables you to essentially test the effectiveness of your Web site by giving you an actual grade on the site. It will also tell you where you need to make improvements and offer a few suggestions.

• Google Webmaster Tools – search articles, tips and information on improving your site and where it shows up in search results. It is also a great tracking, management and guideline tool.

• Google Analytics – allows you to track your site’s activity. Find what key terms brought searchers to your site, what part of the world they came from, how they navigated your site, how much time they spent there, and even set up specific tracking events. Extremely thorough and intuitive.

A few others to check out:

• Bing Local Listing Center

• Google Favorite Places

• Yelp

One last note, Google is now doing sentiment analysis, which essentially means it is geo-tagging blog references. Now, when a search is conducted for your business on Google maps it will not only pull up the location of your business, but also any other online references, including blog posts. Yet another reason to get listed on Google Local.

What free tools are you using to help your business get discovered online? Please share.

For more tips and tools check out JetPack Radio.

Enclosures:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

, M4V

It’s no secret that Google is the number one search engine, so it should come as no surprise that it can also make or break the traffic on your site. Google is extremely powerful and when a site is properly optimized traffic can reach new heights, resulting in more potential leads.

This post is part one of four part series on “Googlefying Your Business.” First, a few easy steps to get you started on the right foot.

1.    Websitegrader.com – Measure the marketing effectiveness of your site. This free tool by HubSpot will review your on-page SEO, Google Page Rank, indexed pages, traffic rank, inbound links, and blog grade to name a few. Great place to get started.

Websitegrader.com homepage

2.    Google Webmaster Tools – Create an account and verify your site. The tool will allow you to monitor and test your site’s performance.

• Test crawler access
• Submit your Sitemap
• Research top search queries and keywords, links to your site, RSS subscriber stats, internal links
• Detect crawl errors and malware
• Review HTML suggestions

3.    Add your site’s URL to Google – Help Google index your site. While Google adds new sites to its index every time it crawls the Web, this will help accelerate the process.
4.    Submit your Sitemap – This also helps Google index your site faster and more accurately. According to search engine optimization (SEO) guru Chuck Reynolds of rYnoweb, every site should use one.
5.    Add Google Analytics – Analyze traffic data, test and track campaigns, customize reports and charts, and determine how to best target and reach your audience.

What tools have you used to optimize your Web site and bolster its marketing effectiveness? Leave a comment with any suggestions you might have. Stay tuned for more on this topic.

For the audio interview click the play button below, and for the video podcast visit JetPack Radio.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

What is the driving force behind your business?

Sure market research, smart marketing and operations, a good product, and hard work are all essential components of success, but I’m talking about the one thing that keeps you doing what you do, day in and day out.

Hopefully it’s passion.

Passion is the one common denominator among thriving entrepreneurs, strong businesses and great leaders. Of course successful businesses get by without it, but those with true passion at the core often grow faster and stronger, and outlast their counterparts. More importantly, people want to interact with impassioned businesses and leaders.

At the Blogworld and New Media Expo in October, I spoke with C.C. Chapman, marketer and creator of the Managing the Gray podcast, the Advance Guard (now Campfire) and Digital Dads, to name a few, spoke about leveraging passion.

Everyone has a passion, but why is it so important in business, social media and life in general? How do you learn to leverage it?

“It is really important, if you are creating content, whether it’s blogs, or podcasts or anything, that you are creating content you are passionate about,” Chapman said. “It might be a hobby, it might be your family, it might be a topic, but whatever it is, if you’re not writing about it from a passionate perspective then why would the readers connect with you?”

He said with so much content being produced it’s imperative to have passion behind your delivery. Consumers naturally gravitate towards the people who are creating content they feel passionate about. Once you’ve tapped into your passion, leveraging it to earn a living takes hard work and persistence.

“Just having a passion isn’t enough. You have to work really hard. Keep improving your skills. Do everything you can do to make your passion better. Something small and keep building on it. When you get to the point where you’re earning a paycheck from what you love doing, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

“Everybody is passionate about something.”

Thank you C.C. Chapman for the great interview and thank you for the podcast about passion that gave me the extra nudge I needed to pursue mine.

Was your business sparked by a passion? If so, I want to hear about it. Please leave a comment.

Also here are a few motivating resources I’ve come across:

• Entrepreneur magazine: Finding your passion
• The Huffington Post: How do I find my passion?
• Book: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
• Book: Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life by Donald Trump (Ok, so I haven’t read this one, but the title alone is motivating.)

For the audio interview click the play button below, and for the video podcast visit JetPack Radio.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.