Who's in my social circle?

96% of my connections are online. There are only a few people; neighbors across the street, people who shop at the local grocery store, moms and dads from my kids school, who I'm not connected with online.

With more connections happening online, there's an obvious opportunity to make those connections profitable. Hence, the stampede of businesses to social media marketing. It's been proven that the strongest influences are people you know; family, friend, colleagues.

In the relentless pursuit to win in search, Google is leveraging social networks with Social Search. If you haven't heard about Google's Social Search ....basically Google is adding a search option. When you do a Google search, there's a tab at the top of the page that says "Show Options". Those options include blended search; video, news, blogs, recent results and such.

Join the new experiment in Google Labs and you will have the option of searching "Social". This query pulls from your connects via Twitter, gmail, Google Reader, Flickr, YouTube, etc. My initial thoughts: the usefulness is only as good as your connections. And I don't just mean the quantity of connections. It will become really clear that the quality of the connection will be more important than ever. I'll dive into this in my next post.

While everyone has a Facebook or Twitter account, very few people publish anything online. Writing a status update on your Facebook wall isn't the same as writing a blog post or an article.

Using Google Social Search puts a spotlight on two things: who is in my social circle and who is influential in my social circle.

What is your social circle?

Small Business Questions About Google Sites

It is the last week of summer vacation!

I've had the joy of working at my home office, with my kids around all day, all summer! Long story short, I'm looking forward to having my days free to meet with clients and get back out to more networking events with other business owners.

Although I still specialize in elearning development and collaborative learning environments, my main focus is helping small businesses move to cloud computing. I love the collaborative aspects of Google Apps and the scalability of the platform, but sometimes these aspects are not appreciated by the very small business or micropreneur. Until a business feels the pain of web and mail security, the cost of IT services for Microsoft Exchange, and the hassle of not having mobility, they aren't looking for a solution. In the very small business world, the area of focus is on find-ability, not scalability. The benefits of Google Apps is widely unknown among small businesses in Seattle.

I've been providing workshops and training on a variety of Google products for the last year and even among the 11,000 plus members of Biznik, in Seattle, the two biggest questions continues to be "How can I use Google Sites for marketing?" and "Can I use Google Sites for my website?".
Truthfully, I was thrilled to have Google Sites for building my public website, but I was a little leery about promoting it to other business owners as website building tool. I didn't know if Google was going to keep Sites an obscure part of Google Apps (marketed as a great way to build a "work/team site" or a little site for your ski club type activities), or if they were going to support it as a viable way to quickly publish websites for business. But then this past June, Google quietly announced the ability to "Monetize" Google Sites with AdSense; which tells me they think it is good to be able to make some money with a Google Site. In fact, it is incredibly easy to insert AdSense in a Google Site. I'm rather surprised there isn't more buzz about it. No hosting and AdSense..Internet marketers could go crazy with this model. That is another blog post though. In July, Google released a whole slew of updates and new features for Google Sites! This is really good news for micropreneurs looking for an affordable way to quickly create and publish good looking sites.

Ugly Websites

While Google Sites gets a fair amount of criticism for lack of "design" I think we are seeing more and more examples of escaping the academic template look of Google Sites. I remember reading an article that Google was hoping the limited design options would save the world from really horrific looking sites. Seriously, when non designers start building websites, there's no way around ugly sites. Like any website, when building a Google Site, it is important to follow basic design rules and understand how to optimize your site for search engines. While Google Sites seem to get indexed quickly, you still want to submit a sitemap of your Google Site to Google Webmaster Tools , Bing and to Yahoo Site Explorer


Need for Speed

IMHO, you can go a long way in building a web presence by using Google Sites for a website. Especially if you focus on good content and functionality. A small business owner or micropreneur has a huge advantage over competition by having a website that is easy to update. Google Sites includes Gadgets and one click functionality like YouTube videos, maps, Picasa slide shows, Google Presentations, and Google Forms. Most business owners I know, prefer a website that is updated and engaging over a beautiful static site.

Evolving World Wide Web

Open publication - Free publishing - More semantic

Welcome

At Blue Sphere Labs Consulting, we take a new approach to online learning and knowledge management.


We create custom learning programs and courses to enable online participants to assimilate knowledge far more efficiently and effectively; while providing freedom to learn at their own pace & learning style.

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Our services include:

Leveraging Google Apps
We have the experience to go far beyond customizing colors and branding. Our focus is on utilizing Google Apps in your environment to their fullest potential. Our consulting will ensure your strategy, process, and structure is appropriate for your company and
culture.

Custom Online Content Development

Allows content owners to leverage their time and deliver training anywhere, anytime.We specialize in learning within organizations and in creating content that is used in marketing, training and consulting services.