If you are:

• Marketing yourself for job hunting or to advance your current job potential
• To promote your business or employer

You need a Facebook Fan Page for this simple reason: Face book fan pages create Google search engine results pages.

Have you searched your business or own name on Google recently?  I was amazed today to see that now every comment I make on a Google Fan Page creates it’s own Google page index!  My commenting strategy is going to shift from blogs to Facebook fan pages for a while while I test it; anyone else?

If you’re struggling to change your Google reputation (what the first few pages of Google on your name say about you), start making intelligent, witty and helpful linking comments on fan pages, at the same time as engaging in social banter with your friends.

Thoughts?

Let’s face it – Nothing is equal in business.  People tend to do more business with people they like.  Wanna “break in to” a business?  Let your potential customers get to know you & like you a long time before you’re asking for their business.  The longer a potential customer has known you and the more positive interactions they’ve had over time will result in them being some of the highest-value customers to your business.

When you log on and start using Facebook, the first day it can seem a little silly.  But after 6 months, once your profile includes network membership in the high school you attended and university courses you’re in now and you are not only enjoying your friends & family more but also being sent job listings and contract opportunities from headhunters who’ve found you on facebook, you’ll start to see the value in using Facebook to stay connected with your community.

This is building bridges – developing a social relationship with the people who you’d like to eventually develop a professional relationship.

I’m not saying to ignore people you’ve just met; on the contrary, don’t wait another day to explore the value and opportunity on the connections you’ve already built over the years.

We all agree (I hope) that there is nothing we can actually control but ourselves.  The outcomes are not within our control, but our actions and reactions to getting to that outcome IS in our control and IS up to us individually to choose to seize the reigns – take control over your ability to access and activate your network and community.

How many people have you met in your life?  The answer is probably “a lot more than you can still contact”.  What if you could access your own ‘list’ of everyone you’ve ever met in real life?

The specific details of who’s in your network doesn’t have to be shared with anyone, if you choose, but be aware that you’re choosing not to employ the tools the social networking platforms use to make it easier for you to broadcast your passion and create a community around your business.  And for the handful to evil creeps you don’t want finding you – go into your security settings and block them from being able to find you (by name) on Facebook and everywhere else.

1. Open the lines of communication / connection, with everyone you’ve ever met: Develop a full & complete profile (for your personal legal name) on every appropriate social media website including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.  Fill in every field and especially take advantage of any networks or groups you can join that will connect you to classmates, local friends & businesses, etc.  The more authentic you are with your profile (sharing only the info on yourself & business that you would want to go viral), the more your community will be compromised of people and businesses that will support you.  Every few months or so, revisit your security default settings to be sure you are keeping up with your control over facebook’s evolving technology and privacy policies.
2. Connect in social media with everyone you meet, everyday.  Every connection you make now can be much stronger if you can make it a habit of connecting on social media across the web, with people you’ve met both in real life and online.  Connecting on all social media profiles of the people you’ve recently met immediately tells them you’re interested and opens up the lines of communication and opportunities.
3. Share with your growing community: interesting articles from the web, job postings from friends, items/services and special deals, blog posts, achievements & kudos, etc. using TBUZZ and Share on Facebook – these apps make it easy for you to share to Facebook & Twitter throughout the day without ever having to login to either!  (cuts down on the annoying 2 hour distractions of “why did I login to Facebook again?”)

I like to consider looking at Social Media time & activities like the ONE networking party of my life.  If I choose to never attend, I will never take advantage of building a customized network of individuals who share my DNA, interests and passions, enhancing the networking contacts I’ve made in real life.

I think ambition is a requisite for starting a new business or even just becoming self-employed – it’s a tough road, ultimately where you are the only person responsible for the obvious results you can show after your first year, five years or ten years of operation.  What I’ve discovered works for me over the last year is keeping in mind the company I keep: they will be reflected in every area of my business.  

In order to have the energy needed to face your challenges with enthusiasm and a desire to learn-how, I rely on my contacts and Mike is one of them.

I had intended to share on of Mike’s more powerful videos here (about the 3 kinds of people you’ll meet while building your business), but I have to figure out how to get the plug-in installed first- check back soon, or chick here to watch them now ~ It will be worth your time!:

• TPE on Vimeo
• Vlogs on TPE

BOOK: The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

I haven’t read The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur book yet, but I have been connected with the author, Mike Michalowicz sicne I started my own first blog in the Fall of 2008.  I’ve finally ordered the book and am looking forward to sharing my review with you soon.

“Rock solid advice straight from the trenches, this book will change the way you look at everything about business. Mike has done a great job of making the complex – simple to understand. Bravo!”
— Bill Bartmann, self-made billionaire & National Entrepreneur of the Year (twice) Founder of Billionaire Business Systems

“The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur is a great, insightful read loaded with ingenuity, humor, and heart. If there was ever a “must-read” book for aspiring entrepreneurs, this is it.”
— Cameron Johnson, Entrepreneur and Author of You Call the Shots

“Everything they don’t tell you in business school…with a twist. I found this book far more useful than my MBA for starting and growing my business. MBA vs. TPE? TPE is the far better investment!”
— David Mullings, Co-founder of Realvibez and Startuptoons.com

“Fast-moving, packed with anecdotes from real businesses and genuinely very funny, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur shares lessons that I can relate to from running my own business for the past five years.”
— Fraser Doherty, 19 year old Managing Director of $1M+ company,SuperJam

“Stop your crying! Stop your whining! The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur shows you how to get off the pot by using what you have to make your business a success!”
— Barry Moltz, Entrepreneur and Author of Bounce!

Until then, I thought maybe I could whet your appetite with links to his incredibly motivating free online content:

Loads of Energy: Keep Your Entrepreneurial Fires Burning

Mike is consistently high energy and his company Obsidian Launch, helps produce wildly successful multi-million dollar businesses.  Connect with him here:

As a model for your own success, if you aspire to be someone who helps other entrepreneurs realize their potential, you couldn’t select a better one.  If you look at Mike, he spent years preparing for this business success (publicity), so that he would be ready to leverage the publicity he earned when it came fast & furious around the time of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur launch.

When I hear someone who has a passion that is unrecognized say stuff like this, it breaks my heart – Erik doesn’t know that HE’S in control & likely could easily & for free take immediate control of his own Google results – and USE them to showcase his work and artistic talents as a painter.

Here’s 5 Steps to Begin Taking Control of Your Google Results Just 1 Weekend!:

1. Buy your domain name:  www.erikjohnson.com if you don’t already own it, and put a free blog template from www.wordpress.org on it.  Begin PUBLISHING your art & discussing your true passions. If you don’t own erikjohnson.com, if you have a middle initial or middle name, buy that URL (i.e. www.erikjamesjohnson.com) and put all your online content on your website there.
2. Market your website everywhere (with links anytime it’s online):
   • On your contact/business cards
   • On your email signature
   • On every social media profile, comment, conversation, article, etc.
   • On all articles you write and submit to other bloggers or newspapers, etc.
3. Socialize yourself and your business online, openly – so that EVERY interaction you have, also remains online digitally forever:
   • Find Your Flock: Find people around the world who’s own art and blogs make an impression on you, and link to them (from your WordPress blog, to their blog website).
   • Show the Power of Your Connections!: Connect to all these same people and their friends who are interesting to you on all your social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
4. Recognize that EVERY open online conversation you have is filed away on Google and assume it will be there forever – it’s within your control to publish LOTS of content like:
   • updates on Twitter/Facebook,
   • conversations on social media,
   • comments on blogs and articles,
   • links shared,
   • content that YOU CREATE -videos/pictures/podcasts/articles, etc.
5. Take a note of your Google results today and check back on them monthly (print the page out so you can document your work), and with social media online conversations, work towards building & shaping your Google profile to present the image you want the world to see, when they Google your name!

.

ONLY publish content that supports the image you want to project for yourself & your brand.

Now that you have a blog website and are starting to fill it with great content, part of your focus should also lay on how you can draw audiences back to your website.

-

You’ve been networking yourself on facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for months, whether you were job hunting, preparing your business plan or even if this is your first blog.  Since Goolge will only show your blog post when someone has searched specifically for keywords that are included in your article or media, you want to push it out first to your direct network of friends and acquaintances who are waiting to see your next brilliant insight.

Every time you post a new ‘article’ or blog post to your website, the best place to promote it is to your existing network on these three social networking sites:

1. Share on Facebook – use a headline you know will entice your friends
2. TBUZZ (Twitter easy share) – the words in your Tweet are searchable both on Twitter AND add links to your Google rank for the topic
3. Auto update to your LinkedIn profile – it’s an easy to install application that automatically updates your profile with every new blog post

-

For me, this is a direct network of nearly 3,000 people and on LinkedIn and Twitter, an indirect network of millions!  Traffic starts coming back to my blog post within minutes of sharing it to my network and the people who know me best can advise if I’ve missed the mark or if I’m right on!

More importantly, they share my best blog posts with thier networks, making it “go viral”.  Whether you’re publishing to a free blog platform or have had someone design your site for you, you need free, easy and automatic ways to promote your content and website.

Which other tools do you use to promote your blog content?

Sharing interesting and helpful links on Twitter is also one of the best ways to grow your qualified network of followers, so TBUZZ is a great way to help you grow followers (without the bots or schemes).

-

My reaction is that if no one in your field is blogging, then you’ve just been delivered one of the most compelling reasons to get started right away!

You have the unique opportunity to be the specialist in combining your field and blogging for business purposes.  If no one is blogging in your field / niche / vertical, it means is that no one is taking advantage web searches and offering to provide relevant content to those highly interested and motivated consumers (people searching Google and other search engines for expert content on your specialty).

Your competitors, potential employers, investors, vendors, journalists, consumers and employees will learn from you and look to you as a leader in the community – be the one who pulls your community together doing it!

What field/industry are you in where people don’t blog?

If you can find the people in your field who DO blog, you’ll save yourself virtually months of frustration trying to learn from scratch how to do it successfully.

I did a lot of research myself on what other new bloggers were using and what the probloggers were using.  I found that overwhelmingly they recommend WordPress for being the most customizable and easy to use (if you’re not a techie, same as me).

-

1. Blogger is indexed to Google a little bit faster (24-48 hours, since Google owns them), but it’s more difficult to create an active stream of comments on your blog.  For readers to leave a comment on a Blogger blog they have to go through multiple steps.  On WordPress, you can set comments to be open & go, no login necessary!
2. It literally takes as little as 30 seconds to be up and blogging, for free
3. You can have a temporary, free blog that functions as your business website (starting today!), while you’re writing your business plan, marketing plan or blog strategy
4. When YOU are ready, it’s really easy for a professional to transfer your content to a self-hosted and completely redesigned blog, likely saving you money when you’re choosing a website designer to hire
5. A few months experience of blogging will give you a better idea of who you want to link to, who you want to follow, and will give you a wealth of examples of blogs you LOVE, to help your professional WordPress designer know what you want.

-

If you’re looking for an experienced, professional and dedicated WordPress blog designer, DH Partners Media Planning works with many and can direct you to one who is available, enthusiastic and waiting to help you launch your business blog as you need.

For marketing your blog and business, or for help making sure your exisiting blog is Social Media Optimized, contact me.

Official and Unoffcial Students

Suddenly, what was a 45 minute commute through downtown Toronto on crowded TTC has become the most valuable 90 minutes of my day – whatever I need to learn or improve, or whenever I want to catch up on a subject of interest iTunes U rarely dissapoints with recognizable names that make me feel just a tad more distinguished and connected every day.

You can watch videos and listen to lectures from inside Cambridge, Oxford, Duke, Stanford, Texas A&M and many more.

Educators

If you’re in the education sector, marketing for any department, iTunes U is a main consideration for inclusion in a well-rounded social media strategy.  To decide what to make availble on iTunes, ask yourself questions to clarify the purpose of your marketing goals – who do you need to have see these files and for what reason?  

If you can not or do not want to share entire lectures, consider sharing portions of them on iTunes U (that you have the rights to publish) – the majority of people who will enjoy your stuff will never register tuition, but you will be introducing them to the value and relevancy of your educators and cirriculum.  The more they enjoy your content and get real, tangible value from you, the more they will share your free content with their friends, family members and coworkers which is very easy to do on social networking platforms.

Sharing a portion or all of your lectures with the internet on iTunes U lets you enjoy additional returns on your investment in developing the lectures – from the day they are posted, until they are removed, you can continue to enjoy ongoing audiences.  You also have many options for advertising (literally) your own current programs on these video & PodCast lectures, even though the lecture itself may be a few years old.

Students are some of the most active internet users for education and research, so as long as the subject stays relevant in society you can continue to enjoy ongoing exposure for your lecutres, professors and brand by sharing your star lectures and events with the larger population on Web 2.0

Tonight I attended the first monthly meetup of “Tech Tuseday” at AlphaPlus Centre on Eglinton East. 

Booked Through: Meetup.com

Cost: FREE!

Topic: “Delicious” ways to integrate technology & education 

Next Event: 2nd Tuesday of the month CLICK HERE

Description:  Many current web-based tools, such as blogs, wikis, social-networking or social-bookmarking sites facilitate communication, information sharing, and collaboration on the Internet, yet many of them are very new to the teaching practice.

Our very first informal Tech Tuesday event will introduce participants to one of these emerging web-based tools called Delicious, a free social bookmarking site that allows users to store, manage, and share links to web pages with the public and other educators and build a collection of online resources that can easily be drawn on.

In the meeting we will share how to set up your own account, how to save and manage the links to web sites as bookmarks, and how to use networks to share your bookmarks with others. Interesting websites and samples of Delicious accounts featuring collections of online resources set up specifically for adult basic education field will be used.

During and after the session we will have a chance to mix, share opinions and ideas, and discuss if and how we use web-based tools in our programs and explore how Tech Tuesdays can help participants further their technology needs and objectives.

In My Opinion: This was an excellent opportunity to learn in a small group how to use the social bookmarking tool, Delicious. 

Key Learning:  So far, I can see how people who are authors, educators and writors can use Delicisous to share relevant web pages and RSS feeds, or privately prepare links for books, articles and classes.   Not only will Delicious be mentioned in my upcoming U of T class in SM101 for Intro to Marketing, I will be using it in place of a wiki (for  now) and sharing less to facebook.

Take Away: I will definately use Delicious for preparing Teach Me To Tweet for its relaunch and also to categorize links for niche-specific small and large businesses I am consulting for.