Social Reviews? Yes, reviews are huge. Google indexes them and attaches them to your Google Place Page. Depending on your industry, you may want to use a service like DemandForce, that will solicit reviews from your customer and publish them in a Tab on FaceBook as well as to a searchable resource such as your Google Place Page increasing your SEO ranking. LinkedIn enabled reviews/recommendations for services and products on Company Pages on LinkedIn. This may be the missing link companies have been waiting for to find value in their company Pages on LinkedIn. Are you getting ready for 2012?

If you want breaking news, stay tuned on FaceBook and Twitter. If you want to find out what happened yesterday, subscribe to a newspaper.

We are not chasing Rainbows here…we are looking for the Pot of Gold. Get in your car, buy your plane tickets, take the train or bus. Get together with your people in person and develop the deeper personal relationship that makes your social media come alive. This is going to take time, money and a commitment to being authentic in everything you do. Are you ready?

As you post content on FaceBook and Twitter, ask yourself “Am I being a Shmuck?” Are you Educating or are you Selling? How can you sell if you haven’t educated the customer? are you pretending to educate? If you are, forget about it. We see right thru it, you are just being a shmuck.

What should you do? Develop quality authentic content that educates people. Let your competition be the Shmuck (I have a better word here that I like to use in conversation that starts with a D and sounds like Swoosh, but it is inappropriate and for some reason I think Shmuck is o.k).

Do you want a piece of Gold today? Your Page MUST start using FaceBook questions. This is a GREAT feature that is Viral by Nature (Like Naughty By Nature, but not a rap group). Why? When you Post a Question on FaceBook (Note this is a feature right above the status bar), the answers are seen by the friends of the people who “Like” your Page. If they answer the Question, they will see your Page and be exposed to your brand.

*Tip – Use your name or brand in the Question, it will be more visible!

Educate More = Sell More.

How can you use technology to create more intimate relationships, rather than create space and barriers between us? I am convinced FaceBook is the cream we all need to rub on more, the hug that is personal and engaging without being inappropriate. How do you hug more people on FaceBook?

Start with high fives. These are easy forms of personal contact that will not invade your space or make you feel uncomfortable. High fives are fun, quick little bursts of energy that will motivate you and somebody else. What is a high five on FaceBook? The “Like” button. Go ahead, try it. Clicking Like on one of your friend’s posts is easy and let’s them know you are there and you hear them. It is the most basic acknowledgement of your mutual existence, it is a high five.

If you are high fiving with ease, try hugging. What is a hug on FaceBook? It is a comment!!! Commenting on FaceBook is the way we create conversation, it is a longer touch that opens the door to deeper insight into each other, it is the Hug. Comment on basic banal details of life, from “I love that restaurant” to “I can’t wait for the sun to come out.” Commenting on the little boring details of life turns our black and white pictures into kodachrome. These gentle hugs are the glue that binds us together.

As you comunicate more on FaceBook, it will be easier to comment on more personal posts and even to make your own status updates.  This is where we can engage in public conversation and share our thoughts. Stop waving at people and start hugging people more.Get to know each other better today. I don’t want to be the guy spraying sun screen on my wife at the beach, I want the physical connection of rubbing the cream into her back. I don’t want to be the friend you wave at either, give me a high five or better yet a hug.

Be Social, Hug More People.

Sounds great, what should you do? Start by Sharing a FaceBook Page for something else than your business. This is a link to the FaceBook Page for Imagine, a great organization that is working to end Human Trafficking. Try using the Share button on their Page to promote them, it is 10x easier than sharing what is on your mind and it helps someone else.

You can do the same thing on Twitter, start using the Re-Tweet functionality to raise awareness for causes you believe in. We are doing the same thing on Twitter for Imagine. Re-Tweeting a message is the best way to promote a cause and share it with your community. Looking for a cause? Check out http://sharedwith.me – we built this amazing software so you can sign up with a cause once and you will automatically Re-Tweet one message a week for them. Could it be any easier to do something good with your status update?

Yes, you can donate your status on LinkedIn as well. Is there anything else you can do? Sure, write a recommendation for someone who you know that works at an organization doing good. Follow their company! Or the easiest action you can take is to Like or Comment on one of their status updates, exposing it to your newsfeed.

With all of these ideas, what are you going to do to Donate Your Status for Social Good?

5 Easy things you can do to improve your SEO with Social Media:

1) Optimize your Social profiles. Yes, clean up each profile with links back to your website on FaceBook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter.

2) Post weekly updates on LinkedIn – Promote your content with links to your Blog.

3) Share your videos on FaceBook and include links to your site in the post.

4) Embed your videos on your website, increasing the links between your site and YouTube.

5) Blog. Yes, it is that simple. Blogging will increase your presence and give you content to share with your networks. This is great content to share on Twitter and will Feed into your LinkedIn profile as well as your FaceBook Page. Make sure you add your keywords as Tags or Labels and put relevant meta data into your blog.

Yes, you can have a positive impact on your website traffic. Yes, this will take some time commitment. If you are committed to using your website to drive revenue for your business, then use your social presence to improve and support your search engine optimization efforts.

In the early days of FaceBook, I sent multiple people the same message trying to promote software we had developed. After 10 messages FaceBook popped up a warning and told me if I continued to send repeat messages my account would be suspended. I sent two more messages and my account was suspended. Did I learn my lesson? Yes! It was quite humbling to send an email apologizing to FaceBook and requesting reinstatement. What am I suggesting here? The obvious. Twitter needs to shut the spammers down and make the private DM system useful. Until then, FaceBook’s email system will continue to grow and Twitter’s DM system will continue to wither….

1) Funny

2) Sexy

3) Smart

Being funny is very hard, comedians are professionals and they practice and experiment to be funny. Being sexy is a commitment your brand or company may not be willing to make, meaning the risks may out weigh the rewards.

What can you do? Be Smart. Share your knowledge. You are an expert at what you do – you study, practice and apply knowledge every day that people want to know about. When you decide to create content for social media, make sure you are educating your intended audience.If you are a resource to them, they will include you in their community. If people learn from your content, they will share it. Think about what you know and make that the cornerstone of your social media campaign.

We started talking about Lists on Twitter. There are plenty of Lists out there in your interest/business. If you have been put on Lists, great! Otherwise, start looking at the lists of the people you follow. Whether your lists are passion based or geographically based, find great Lists.

1. These are great tools to identify niche communities of people you want to follow. Find a relevant List, look at who the List is following, if they are interesting and in your niche, follow everyone on the List. Some will follow you back, these people are important to your business!!!
2. Click on the name of the person who made the List. Follow that Person!!! Ideally the List maker will see how relevant you are to that List and put you on it. This will improve the odds of people who are interested in this niche following you.