If you are being strategic about your internet marketing, then you are likely engaged or at least aware of all the social networks out there for you to put your brand and attempt to engage with your potential customers. Most of you ask if it’s worth putting in all the effort for so many different profiles and trying to reach your audience all over the place. However, unlike almost all the other networks that Google (or anyone else really) has tried to push out (Google Wave anyone?), Google+ actually makes social networking interesting again. So how did they do this, why does it matter and how to benefit from it?

How They Do It

Google really ramped up their war chest of developers for Google+ and it shows, not only is it an extremely powerful platform but they are constantly pushing new updates to it to make it better all the time. They also took the time to think about how to make the most compelling experience they could by taking what makes Twitter interesting, what makes Facebook dominant and how to make a really unique social experience.

The term “game mechanics” is thrown around far too often in startups, especially if you watch any of the TechCrunch Disrupt conferences “We are going to take game mechanics to badges and FarmVille your friends for profit and lulz”. But Google+ really does take just enough elements of true game mechanics that make the users actually feel good when new people add them to their circles.

Why It Matters

Why does it matter that Google found a way to make game mechanics meaningful in a social network that isn’t a Zynga brainchild? ENGAGEMENT. While Google+ is still invite only (don’t have one? let me know in the comments what your gmail is and I’ll invite you) so it has small, but rabid user base. TechCrunch has Google+ showing up in their top 10 referring sites regardless of the fact that their Google+ presence is 1/10th the size of their Twitter and Facebook connections.

The Benefit (and how to get Google+ users right now)

Besides the obvious perk of more traffic, it’s important to grow your audience in Google+ because people will engage with your content. This extension of your conversation is great for you because when people comment and “+1″ your posts it will resurface the content in your audiences feed so the conversation doesn’t die as easily as it does on Facebook and Twitter.

The important thing to note here however is that you don’t want to put all your eggs in the Google+ basket because you don’t own it like you do your Aweber list, and while Google+ is awesome today – social networks can come and go, but you need to own the rights to your hard work and be able to help them engage across any contemporary platform in the future.

(Pro Tip: Add a P.S. with a link to your Google+ profile in your next email blast and watch your follower count go up)

If you are already on Google+, what are your thoughts? If you aren’t and need an invite just let me know in the comments.

Who inspires you in business? It’s likely someone who is a known entity in their field and thinks differently enough to stand out. For me, it’s people like Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk because they have built up influence and an audience within a very difficult vertical.

But like any good entrepreneur you are probably asking “HOW did they get such a strong and passionate following?”

The answer is actually more straight forward than it seems, you see most people believe the influence comes through the ability to persuade people into thinking or doing what you want – or worse yet into just telling them what they want to hear so they do an action that parallels with your goals. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, these personality types are influential because they have provided an enormous value to their prospective audience that resonated well, was shared with their friends and then capitalized in a way that was sticky (read: built their list).

Create killer content

Writing what you want to hear likely won’t get you the results you are looking for, what you want to write is something that resonates with your target audience. For instance, do you think President Obama really had a deep seated passion about every subject he campaigned about leading up to his election? Of course not, it’s just not human to be that personally invested in ALL the issues, but he definitely had an audience, the American public, who across all the segments was deeply invested in every issue.

Love him or hate him, it’s easy to agree upon the fact that his campaign was smooth because it was able to seemingly appeal to so many different audiences that felt like it was personalized, and when he hit that nerve people shared his message – and they shared it quickly.

You see in order to create killer content you must not try and please someone just like you, you need to please someone who wants to be just like you. Think about that for a moment and realize how non-ego centric that statement really is.

Make it sticky

Once you have grouped together your initial base audience and have found a way to inspire them to share your message, your content, your ideas – your brand; you need to find a way to create a sticky community for the new people who come across your content and message in order to inspire and influence them to an even greater community.

Making the experience sticky doesn’t even have to an email list (although in most written work it’s the most effective). For rich media and niche content streams such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook it’s all about bridging the connection to communicate at a later date. That comes by getting users to subscribe to your channel, follow or “like” you – respective of the network you are creating your content on. The most influential people are bringing their audience into the conversation and engagement across every medium possible to help them “spread the gospel” that is your content.

If you are able to find what motivates people, give them a compelling reason to share and then give them a strong call-to-action that connects them with your brand, content and message repeatedly in the future you will be able to create a snowball of influence. Those mechanics are what make the world leaders so effective getting where they want to go, it doesn’t have anything to do with being smarter or even having the best content. They simply know how to constantly leverage their resources to reach an ever expanding audience and strengthen the influence they have with their existing constituents.

This past weekend was the SeattleTweetup at HasOffers, a local favorite of the Seattle Tech scene that is doing some really interesting things in the performance marketing space. This event that I did with John Chow was a huge success as we had tons of people filtering in and out over the 5 hours that it went on, which isn’t hard to imagine when you see that people like Rand of SEOmoz and others were in attendance plus the free food and drinks! For those who weren’t able to make it, check out the video below and make sure you come on out next time we throw together a meetup because it’s the place to be for this market.

Being appreciative of what we have is often humbling, especially when you compare what even the “have not’s” of America really do have compared to most of the world. I wanted to take a second and list off the 10 things I’m most grateful for in my life as it stands today:

1. Family

My family runs the entire spectrum, from slightly socially functional geniuses to drug addicts – we have it all. However the extremely wide net has taught me that even a fragmented family blend can be there for you and support each other in ways you never thought possible. It also can give you amazing context on a number of situations, since likely someone in my family has gone through the same or similar situation.

2. Friends

There are no two ways about it, I have some of the highest caliber friends in the world. I’m not necessarily talking power, money or influence – just some of the smartest and most genuine people on the face of the planet who also happen to know how to party. There have been times that I have wanted to give up on the things that matter most to me, and this group has always helped push me through those humps to see the next wave of greatness.

3. Health

While I am certainly not in shape, I don’t have any major illnesses or diseases that I know of. No cancers (yet), failing organs or otherwise. I have 10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 eyes, 2 ears etc – and for that I’m extremely grateful. There are so many people out in the world suffering from issues at birth, from war or sickness. My hear goes out to these people and I wish them the best of luck in living their lives to the fullest.

4. Food/Shelter

Read the not in the best shape above? That’s because my fat white ass has plenty of food and a safe place of shelter to hammer out blog posts and business development deals. If I am going hungry it’s because I am a cheap ass or lazy, that’s something that is easy to take for granted; the ability to eat whatever I want, whenever I want within reason.

5. Being American

This country has a whole hot mess of issues, but being American is something unique and I love it. While I fear for future generations whenever I go to an amusement park, we have some bright and talented people living in the United States and that is much more than just an ok crowd to be associated with. There are true innovators, artists and free thinkers. That is the America I champion, and without question I have benefited greatly by being American.

6. Capitalism

I love capitalism in it’s truest sense of the term, the ability for markets to self-correct and continually innovate to provide new and ever increasing value to the marketplace and world. Yes, this isn’t perfect but neither is any other organism and that is exactly how I perceive capitalism; as a living breathing thing that comes and goes in strength but will never die.

7. Entrepreneurship

Having the ability to collect a skill set, generate free willed ideas and create something of value the core of my DNA. Being an entrepreneur I have always sought out ways to create new value, not only for profit but for sport. This is a way of life that some people can’t opt-out of and it drives us to create some of the most innovative and creative things in the world (I’m just not world changing yet).

8. Mentors

If someone looks like Yoda, you should probably listen to what they have to say. Oftentimes, regardless of how smart the younger population THINKS they are, there is just no substitute for experience and true wisdom. Mentors in my life have always encouraged me to find the right answer on my own but gently nudged me in the right directions.

9. Technology

Have you ever met me? My iPhone is on deck at all times – I’m constantly on Twitter, Facebook, Texting etc to the point of a fever pitch. I have known to forget my social etiquette sometimes and need to be slapped around to put away my phone and engage with those right in front me. This blessing and a curse has transformed our way of life and I am in 100%.

10. Google

Seriously? What the hell did we do before Google? Whatever the world looks like without Google I want nothing to do with.

So that wraps up my quick list of 10, what are you grateful for?

In business, as in love, there are simply no prisoners. Many of you who read this blog know that I have a passion project called MyBigGive. Recently we have been lucky enough to take part in a little thing called Startup Madness, which is being hosted by an investment firm called TechStars.

This way this is working is a play on March Madness, but instead of basketball teams competing for the crown it is a bunch of startup companies competing for votes from the audience in order to get precious resources like hosting credits, email and potentially even an investment round from TechStars themselves.

The Interesting Part

Since we have been really lucky to have a passionate audience, we absolutely crushed the first round. Coming in at a humbling 71% vote ratio and beating out an interesting visual product search company called Glancely. When we were moved along into Round 2, the success initially continued with our vote count floating between 63% and 70%.

Tonight however, for the past few hours – our new competitor which is called “homing Cloud”, and aims to be a new type of mortgage broker suddenly – and I mean in a matter of minutes was somehow able to plunge our count down a staggering 16% and steadily stream in votes in a way to feels less than organic.

What to do

Now, perhaps homing Cloud really just has a huge audience that responded to an effective mailing. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, however what I’d really like to do is bounce back on this with your support to show them how effective a passionate audience can really be. Voting is simple and easy but the positive effect it will give us in accomplishing our goals for some of the worlds best charities. Simply follow the instructions below on how to help:

1. Go to http://thisorthat.com/t/big-give-media-llc-vs-homingcloud

2. Click on “Big Give Media LLC”

3. Register if you don’t already have an “This or That” account

4. Make sure that the box saying “Big Give Media LLC” is checked to insure your vote was counted!

If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear what you think.

Do you approach your venture like a product or a service? Regardless of what it actually is, you will want consider approaching it as a service every time for the best user experience.. and I am going to tell you why.

Product vs. Service

When developing a venture like a product, you often approach it from a feature list perspective which causes bloat and takes away from your core goals of the venture. For instance, if you want people to shop on your website you want to make sure that any feature added to the site is something that helps your visitors shop and share. This is how a service works, where as a product often times is seen as a “this feature would be cool” instead of “how will this feature help us achieve our primary goals?”

Completing a loop

Another problem with products is that they are typically one way transaction. The customer purchases/consumes the product and that is where the story ends without many opportunities for your customers to spread the visibility. With service based philosophy you think more about a rolling relationship between you and the customer that gives your venture an opportunity to continue the story beyond the initial point of contact. With present day social graphs (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Namesake etc) there are so many opportunities for ventures story to wander into new circles of influence.

How is your venture being treated like a service? Where are your pain points?

This weekend, the movie called The Social Network debuted to a warm response. Bringing in roughly $25 Million which is no Avatar launch, but respectable enough to earn the #1 spot for this particular weekend. I was fortunate enough to see the film and very much enjoyed the watching the sorted (and slightly fictionalized) portrayal of the early days within the Facebook story.

I also couldn’t help but realize how much of a sign of the times a movie like this is. This encapsulates how technology has fundamentally shifted our society and how we interact with each other. As Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) said in the movie:

I didn’t create Napster to get rich, I did it to change things. I did it so the girl I liked, who was dating a jock in High School would like me because I completely changed everything and it pissed a lot of people off. The music industry will never be the same as a direct result of what I did.

Based on the attitude of Mark Zuckerberg in news and television appearances I have a hard time believing that he is really as arrogant as the version of him in the movie. However, that being said it wouldn’t surprise me if he thinks in an equally calculated manner in order to accomplish as much as he has at such a young age. I hope that Mark doesn’t feel like this movie is going to skew his personal brand in a negative way because I had quite the opposite impression as I left the theater.

Mark is a thinker, a creator and challenges the status quo. These traits also happen to be the very things we should be celebrating in fellow entrepreneurs because these traits encapsulate true innovation, create jobs and shift our lives towards bigger and better things. If you haven’t had the opportunity to see the movie I urge you to go see it because it does a better job than any other movie I have seen in telling the story of modern culture co-existing with technology breakthroughs.

If you have seen the movie, what were your thoughts? What did you like/dislike and why?

Do you still think that there isn’t a tipping point for business to have a user growth chart that is up and to the right? Check out this video for a perfect example how after a crazy person (read: entrepreneur) decides to put something on the line, it takes a certain number of people (read: users) before the crowd rushes in to see what this “fun” is all about (read: mass market appeal).

Enjoy!

Today on TWiT Live, Digg founder and overall Angel investor Kevin Rose talked about a number of interesting things. One of those key things however was a sneak preview of long awaited and anticipated fourth version of Digg.com; which frankly is quite cool but the real question is how will the audience react? Only a few short years ago, this type of revision would have blown the doors off of the competition, but now it feels like more of a catch up release rather than a serious innovation cycle. Don’t get me wrong, the updated Digg is incredibly clean and just feels polished. The love for Apple, and admiration for their design ability by Kevin Rose  is far from hidden in this release; but much like the release of iOS4 this release of Digg feels stunning yet underwhelming at the same time.

The Vision(ary)

If you own an Android based phone, or have been using the Internet since before 2007, then there is a high likelihood that you have heard about Kevin Rose somewhere. Kevin received much of his press attention after bolstering Digg out of the gate with democratizing news for a tech and web based audience. The idea was simple, elegant for the time and solved an inevitable pain in the marketplace of reading the really good off-beat news that just wouldn’t be on the home page of CNN or similar news sources. Kevin quickly became entrenched with other successful ventures such as Revision3 (which just celebrated its 5th birthday a few days ago) through popular shows such as Diggnation and others. He also played his cards with Angel Investing to help get new and exciting start-ups into a (hopefully) stable development cycle and keep pushing innovation forward for the tech industry as a whole. Now, however, Kevin has picked up the reins once again as the CEO of Digg to really focus on the value proposition, positioning and ways to keep his once game changing service relevant for the world of Facebook and Twitter.

The Positioning Statement

How do people share things today? That is probably one of the first questions that Kevin asked himself as he took a look at why users chose to come to Digg and share stories, view new content and explore categories that interested them. He recognized why there is an addicting quality to the Facebook Newsfeed, realized the entrenchment that Facebook has and that there are areas of improvement as to how people consume content, not just statuses. Facebook uses an algorithim to decide how many people ultimately see your posted content based on projected engagement levels, as opposed to allowing all content to be pushed to people who essentially “opt-in” to see what you have to say.

Twitter on the other hand is able to avoid this lack of visibility seen inside of the Facebook ecosystem because users who you follow have all of their content pushed into your feed. However, the issue with this model, according to Rose is that “You may be interested in the articles of Tony Hawk.. but not that he just dropped his kids off at school”. The idea of authority figures within interest categories is being sought out, but Digg v4 hopes to solve the clutter of Twitter yet still have more promised visibility to your follows than Facebook.

Taming the Social Graph

In 2007 at the Facebook F8 conference, Mark Zuckerberg would not stop talking about the “Social Graph” which is now unfortunately one of the most overused buzz words today. However, the idea of a network effect through the people you know and who follow you may never have the same value proposition as what Kevin is proposing with the new Digg v4. The idea that quality content has the opportunity to surface within interest categories gives it a much needed enhancement for the ability to spread. This means you are going to see not only higher targeted content, but more of it; and both of these factors lead to a better internet experience.

So while Digg is going to have to work in order to please their current audience as well as be inviting to new “average” users (read: not hordes of geeky males), I think that the upcoming version of Digg fills a very real need within the marketplace. Additionally I think they are doing it in a way that truly comes with differentiators that matter to users when comparing the service to Twitter and Facebook (as well as Buzz or Wave if you actually use those services). The fact that services now have to clearly state their mission and work extremely efficiently to deliver value, is a strong indicator of the competitive times. Gone are the days of the “do everything” start-up approach that had worked so well for many, including Kevin Rose. Instead we are seeing a shift to niche level services and aggregation tools that allow each component of the web to be the best it can possibly be, and in the end, the consumer wins.

For years now, the internet has been buzzing about “social media” (which by the way can’t even really be called ‘media’) and how it is supposed to keep us magically more involved in each others lives. This giant shift has pumped up the pageview numbers for many content producers as the baton of usefulness passed from Digg to Facebook and Twitter, which has consequently shown an uptick in advertising revenue for those relying on ad revenue as well as net conversions for products and e-mail lists.

But what happened to the good old fashioned phone call? Has ‘social’ media made us so accustomed to interacting through contextual conversation instead of verbal that we have lost touch with what it means to be genuine and upfront? Recently I have had several people either text or e-mail me in order to give me the less than stellar news. The fact that something didn’t work out had hardly any bearing on my level of being upset at all, it was the impersonal way of telling me that really drove me up a wall. Think about when you schedule an activity with a business and they never both never show up, or call to let you know that there has been a change of plans.

I believe that we are slowly becoming separated by things such as social media, and that being hyper connected contextually makes people feel like it is okay to never have meaningful relationships with the people that they supposedly love to be around. Is it too much to ask for a little common courtesy, real communication and confronting situations these days?