Google: if you want to save #googlepluscommunities...

Google: if you want to save #googlepluscommunities  you will need to make them something that gets people talking:  

1. Let us use communities to see whom, of the members, is online and available - as we can with those we have added to gtalk.  Show this in a right-side column,[communityname] members available now.  Naturally, community members could opt-out of letting other members see their online status.

2. "Events" within communities - what were you thinking...?  The only thing we can do is create an event from the community page.  What I want to do, and others say they would too, is post the link to an event within communities where it would be relevant.

#googleplusimprovements   #ux  

Dave Nordella on building a relevant community with RiteTag

I do love seeing the social media tool that I founded on such a prominent site.  Dave wrote Relevant – introducing RiteTag, just published today on the Empower Network, and it is a very detailed article, indeed.  

"Aspiring writers need to berelevant do so that they can build a community.  You can make your blogrelevant to the audience that you choose to attract by using RiteTag."

See it here: http://www.empowernetwork.com/makingmoney4doctors/blog/relevant-introducing-ritetag/

Thanks , glad you like what RiteTag does for you so far.  Please note that it may take ordering a couple reports before you get results that help. This is because for some terms, there simply is little to know hashtagging done with those terms.

What's more, I welcome you and your readers to connect with me in Google+ http://iplus.im/saul and let me show you how to get things done - for your specific needs - with RiteTag.  Reach beyond your followers - it's there at the top of #RiteTag.  Let me prove that our new social media tool and smart-tagging can do that like nothing else.

#RiteTag for #indie #webshows

 I would like to extend to everyone who is up for  - of web shows, original anime series, web series, musical content, and other creative stuff that you need to get seen.

I would like to help by showing you how you can always be reaching beyond your followers.

I want to do two  with you all, in one, I’ll show you what can be done with a brand new,  tool, RiteTag, for getting tags that will reach more than the ones you know – but still, not be .

In the first hangout, the quickie RiteTag stuff I want to show you all would take like fifteen minutes to show you all:
1. Save your usually-used social networks in the account page.  Takes seconds, save you time forever, can be changed anytime.
2. Back on the Reports page, use that query box to give a word (or a couple) to search, and toggle on/off the social networks for which you want  information.  Order your report.  Rinse and repeat a couple times.
3. Let’s peruse the Public Library at the bottom of the Reports page.  Yes, it’s still good and ugly, unorganized.  I’m starting to think that  should really, really do something about that.  From a public report that strikes your fancy, or the one that I ordered for , for     (get with that yet?),  and  entitled #webseries or the one I got started for  that’s digging away at *Stockholm* (but we’ll need to do better at pointing RiteTag towards tags right for your show, Goldie), we’ll do what you can do anytime, to optimize reach of your own stuff, with tags that go the distance.
4. Got a blog or something like it?  Let me show you how you can also curate and aggregate content – from your own accounts, partners’, and your competitors (got none, right? same here.) – and save it to your Collections.  That stuff makes for easy curated Blog posts, with proper and easy attribution to original content creators (of course!), as I show in http://osakabentures.com/2012/11/ritetag-collections-for-blogging/and http://osakabentures.com/2012/11/user-experience-ritetag-collection/

We’ll get you ordering reports, and then, a day… a week (whatever) later, we can look at what you can do with your reports, such as:
1. Study the context in very recent updates, tweets, etc. that contain tags you don’t know – to understand if they are likely to be right for your content.
2. Look at who, what and when tags are shared, and how many times.  After all, if a tag is actually *in play* (well-used), its likely people are watching.  And we want you in front of those watching – especially if they are not following you yet.
3. Once you know which you will be using again and again, get your tags, tap, tap, tap-style, and save ‘em for later – in #tagsets.
4. That same tap-tap-tap (tick-boxes next to tags in any report) to save tags to your clipboard and use them anywhere immediately.
5. You can use reports that are gathering data once they have some data (percentages will show), but get reports out of your queue when they reach 100%.  A button opens under reports at 100%: move them to the Public Library so all  can have at them, or, for those that you are keeping miscellaneous *black ops* marketing purposes, send those to your Private Library.  They’ll show on your Reports page – but only to you.

*All this explained above can be done in this early iteration of RiteTag.  We’re totally free while in beta, and there will always be plenty you can do with RiteTag – for free.  Ordering reports seem like a thing to do?  I’d do plenty now – while that is free.

  powered by 

About Saul Fleischman

Working with social web apps developers on getting things made: my role tends to be functionality ideation, user experience, and also, marketing communications and community development.

RiteTag grows up: social sharing, open-access reports, curation, and a dashboard

A busy two weeks it has been, and we are pleased to announce… 

Pavel Houžva is now a partner!

He is paying it forward by revving up the backend development progress, allowing us to roll out features faster than ever.  Here’s what’s new in what we intend to build into the most powerful, multi-networkhashtags discovery and optimization social media tool, RiteTag:

Order Reports, use them when they have some percentage of completion, and when they reach 100%, save them to either “Private” (no one sees them but you) or “Public library.  The process looks like this:

In your Report Queue, after ordering reports, you will see them picking up data over time.  When they reach 100%, the “Move to a library” button will appear on the cover page of the Report.  I like to first, click on the report, see what it tells me, and decide which library to save it to (or even delete it, if the tags associated with my query term are actually not of use).

 Choose which library to save the report to based on whether you are willing to have it seen and shared outside RiteTag – since Public Reports are shareable.  Even those not signed in – or even registered – for RiteTag can view and use Public Reports:

To be able to share my Angellist hashtags report, I will click on “Public Library” so I can share it, and also, it will appear in searches of Reports in RiteTag.

Where do I find my Reports, and also the Public Reports created by other RiteTaggers?

On your Reports page, you see your Queue, with Reports taking on data over time.  Below that, your Private Library.  Just below that, all Public Reports that you have created.  At the bottom, our favorite reports appear in the Featured section: 

RiteTaggers can now share content from any network to Twitter, Google+, or Facebook.

“Save” has been working for weeks, allowing us to curate and aggregate content in RiteTag Collections – that you define and refine, with content from multiple networks and from multiple Reports, Public or Private.  The Share button allow me to share a fully-editable update discovered in the content tab from any tag, any network in a Report.  For starters, we can share to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+:

 

Finally, a trick question: If we can provide  way to let you share any RiteTag-discovered content to Facebook, why don’t we make Facebook one of the networks to search for tags related to a query, when ordering a report?

Also, what else do you want RiteTag to do for you?  We do live for feedback.

About Saul Fleischman

Working with social web apps developers on getting things made: my role tends to be functionality ideation, user experience, and also, marketing communications and community development.

For everyone who is up for #crossplatform #crosspromotions

I would like to extend to everyone who is up for #crossplatform   #crosspromotions - of web shows, original anime series, web serie like +Generic Girl comedy series musical content, and other creative stuff that you need to get seen.

I would like to help by showing you how you can always be reaching beyond your followers.

I want to do two  #hangouts  with you all, in one, I'll show you what can be done with a brand new, #privatebeta  tool, RiteTag, for getting tags that will reach more than the ones you know - but still, not be #tagspam .  

In the first hangout, the quickie RiteTag stuff I want to show you all would take like fifteen minutes to show you all:
1. Save your usually-used social networks in the account page.  Takes seconds, save you time forever, can be changed anytime.
2. Back on the Reports page, use that query box to give a word (or a couple) to search, and toggle on/off the social networks for which you want #hashtags information.  Order your report.  Rinse and repeat a couple times.
3. Let's peruse the Public Library at the bottom of the Reports page.  Yes, it's still good and ugly, unorganized.  I'm starting to think that +Michal Hudeček should really, really do something about that.  From a public report that strikes your fancy, or the one that I ordered for +Victor Solis, for #twitter   #googleplus   #instagram   #vimeo (get with that yet?), #deviantart  and #flickr  entitled #webseries or the one I got started for +Goldie Chan that's digging away at Stockholm (but we'll need to do better at pointing RiteTag towards tags right for your show, Goldie), we'll do what you can do anytime, to optimize reach of your own stuff, with tags that go the distance.  
4. Got a blog or something like it?  Let me show you how you can also curate and aggregate content - from your own accounts, partners', and your competitors (got none, right? same here.) - and save it to your Collections.  That stuff makes for easy curated Blog posts, with proper and easy attribution to original content creators (of course!), as I show in http://osakabentures.com/2012/11/ritetag-collections-for-blogging/ and http://osakabentures.com/2012/11/user-experience-ritetag-collection/

We'll get you ordering reports, and then, a day... a week (whatever) later, we can look at what you can do with your reports, such as:
1. Study the context in very recent updates, tweets, etc. that contain tags you don't know - to understand if they are likely to be right for your content.
2. Look at who, what and when tags are shared, and how many times.  After all, if a tag is actually in play (well-used), its likely people are watching.  And we want you in front of those watching - especially if they are not following you yet.
3. Once you know which you will be using again and again, get your tags, tap, tap, tap-style, and save 'em for later - in #tagsets.
4. That same tap-tap-tap (tick-boxes next to tags in any report) to save tags to your clipboard and use them anywhere immediately.
5. You can use reports that are gathering data once they have some data (percentages will show), but get reports out of your queue when they reach 100%.  A button opens under reports at 100%: move them to the Public Library so all#ritetaggers  can have at them, or, for those that you are keeping miscellaneousblack ops marketing purposes, send those to your Private Library.  They'll show on your Reports page - but only to you.

*All this explained above can be done in this early iteration of RiteTag.  We're totally free while in beta, and there will always be plenty you can do with RT for free.  Ordering reports seem like a thing to do?  I'd do plenty now - while that is free.  

Captcha vs "Match those tits"

This would be for people who want to ensure they are not followed/following "bots," but real people.  As such, it would be a competitor to truetwit.com  Beyond truetwit, our site would be for people whose Twitter persona is light-hearted (i.e. they do not mind subjecting their new followers to seeing breasts when they are followed), and would be far less of a boring nuisance than truetwit.com.

Read the comments and learn more in #ideaswatch http://www.ideaswatch.com/startup-idea/truetitcom

Looking to partner with people with the following abilities:  #responsivedesign  #responsivewebdesign   #php5   #php   #zendframework   #dotnet   #uxdesign   #ux  #twitterapi   #virtualcurrency  

Tips and Tricks for Hangouts on Air

This is an advanced guide, from  Fraser Cain and assumes you're comfortable with Hangouts on Air. If you want a general guide to HoA, follow this link

https://plus.google.com/u/0/110701307803962595019/posts/PaeeynDx34L

You're running a Hangout on Air because you want to broadcast to a live audience. Ideally, you want the largest possible audience you can get. During our coverage of the Curiosity Landing, we had approximately 30,000 people watching our hangout. More = better. :-)

Properly marketing your Hangout requires an extreme attention to detail, to get the widest possible boost when you're live. You'll have to do a zillion different things, but follow these steps and you should get a much larger audience.

So here's my handy guide to help you out, and get the widest audience you can.

But first...

Choose the MOST Important Event You Can

What you're hanging out about will define the total audience you can reach. If you're hanging out about something interesting and dynamic - like the launch of a new iPhone or the landing of a rover on Mars, you'll be able to get a much larger audience than an impromptu hangout without a topic. This acts like a multiplier.

Choose your events carefully, and respect your audience's "hangout fatigue".

The Event is Your Anchor

As soon as you know when you're going to be broadcasting your Hangout on Air, you need to create a Google+ Event. 

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/events/

The event acts like an anchor to your Hangout. Fans can put the Event into their Google calendar, so they'll get an alert when you're about to start broadcasting. You can also embed the live video back into the Event page so people can watch it from this page too.

You'll want to create a Hangout on Air by going to:

Event Options -> Advanced -> Make this an event on air

Take the time and care to make the most interesting Event page you possibly can. 

A good event page should contain the following:

- a custom theme graphic that gives you a recognizable brand. People should be able to spot your event from a big list

- embed the video for previous events into the current Event so people can get an example of what it's about. You access that from Event Options -> Advanced -> Show Additional Fields

- a nagging reminder that people should click "Yes" to attend the Event. That will put it into their calendar.

Invite the public, and invite the attendees of the event itself.

Now, Market the Event which Markets the Hangout

Since the Event page acts like an anchor to the future Hangout, you have a permanent location you can use to market the Hangout. Point people at the Event page, and that'll encourage them to sign up and get it into their calendar.

Things you can do ahead of time.

Once you've got that Event in place, you can start promoting your future Hangout. Here's a laundry list of ideas, places you can promote your future Hangout:

- write a press release
- write an article on your blog, convince your blogging friends to promote it
- post a writeup on Google+
- mention the Hangout on Twitter, multiple times leading up to the Event
- create a promo video on YouTube and encourage people to embed the video
- use the Hype My Hangout service
- mention it in any podcasts you're associated with
- create a parallel Event on Facebook and then link to the official Google+ Event (specifically invite people who you think would love to attend).

… and lots of things I haven't even thought of. You'll come up with lots of ideas, but the point is to direct them at the Event.

Invite people to your Event

Google+ allows you to invite an unlimited number of people to an event, and this will probably be your secret weapon; the difference between a mediocre event and a blockbuster.

You'll want to invite your friends and super fans of the show.

But, here's your secret weapon

Ideally you've created a Brand Page specifically for your show. All of the people who have this show in their circles are obviously fans of the show and should be invited.

For example, here's a link to the Virtual Star Party brand page: 
https://plus.google.com/b/100902337165997768522/

At the time of this writing, 3400 people have the VSP page in their circle. This means that I can invite 3400 people to future editions of the Virtual Star Party broadcasts. As you can probably imagine, this is a massive multiplier to the attendance of the event.

I create a special circle called "VSP fans" and circle everyone back who circles the Brand Page.

You're limited to a total of 5000 people who you can circle from a Brand Page.

Navigate to the Event, and then invite everyone in your circle.

If you have multiple Brand pages related to your Hangout, you can invite from each one of those Brand Pages. Powerful but dangerous, use caution.

Once you're about to start your hangout

Assuming you've been marketing like crazy, there's a key checklist of activities you need to do to once you create the Hangout, but before you start broadcasting.

- Start up your Hangout on Air and invite your participants
- Grab the YouTube embed code from the menu bar and embed this back into the Event. Nobody will be able to see the participants until you actually click "Start Broadcasting".
- Embed the YouTube video into every location you want. From your blog, Facebook, etc.
- Run Hangout Comment Tracker in a standalone tab and put in the links to the Event, YouTube page and a Twitter hashtag you want to use. -http://www.allmyplus.com/hangout-comment-tracker/app.html
- Get all the participants to run Hangout Lower Third to identify themselves

Ready?

Start the broadcast

Once you start your broadcast, you'll get access to the Google+ link containing the live video. You can either promote this page, or continue promoting the Event page, since the live video will be embedded into both.

- Start the broadcast. Put up a starting screen for the first 5 minutes to give you a few minutes to get organized - you've got a LOT of work to do still
- Add the Google+ Hangout page to the Hangout Comment Tracker
- Now you'll have a link to the actual Google+ page containing the Hangout. Get all the participants to reshare the Hangout from their pages.
- Promote the live Hangout on Facebook, Twitter, etc. "We've started our broadcast, join us live."
- Within the first minute, encourage all your viewers to reshare the Hangout page to get the biggest possible exposure. If you're lucky, you'll go to the What's Hot page and get even more publicity

During your show

During your show, you should do regular station identification. Encourage viewers to circle the participants, and especially your brand page on Google+. This will let you invite them in the future.

If you have a few spare moments, you can remind people on Twitter, etc that you're currently broadcasting a cool live event.

After your show

Once you've completed your live show, you'll still want to get as many people to watch the final video on YouTube. This will help build interest for the next episode.

- create your next Event as quickly as possible, to start the whole process again
- embed a link in the comments of the previous Event to the next Event. Everyone who commented on the previous event will get a notification and ideally put the next event in their calendar
- promote the final YouTube event in all your regular places, to the biggest viewership after the fact.

Know how to listen to #Facebook Pages without "liking?"

How to Follow A Facebook Page Without “Liking” It

By David Murray

Listening is the most important thing you can do when it comes to your Social Media implementation. In fact, I would argue that listening should be the first thing you do before launching your company’s Facebook Page.

But, how do you go about listening to Facebook Pages that may be relevant to your business? Well, not too long ago Facebook had an RSS feed option that they hid at the very bottom of the page. This was before Facebook introduced Timeline. After which they moved the RSS feed as an option in the small drop down menu next to the “Like” button. Then quietly and mysteriously, it disappeared.

Now the most obvious listening solution is to start liking a bunch of pages in hopes that 1) the content is helpful to you, and 2) it somehow falls into your news stream. However, what happens if you find that the page you liked isn’t helpful? Ever tryunfollowing a Facebook Page? It is not the easiest process.

Here’s how you can begin following Facebook Pages without hitting that darn “Like” button:

1. After logging into your personal Facebook account find a Page you might be interested in following. For this example let’s use our amazing Facebook Page 

2. Click on the options button that is sitting right next to the “Message” button

3. At the top of the drop down menu click on the “Add to Interest Lists” option

4. You’ll be prompted to add the Page to an existing Interest List you have created, or you can create a new list.

5. At the bottom of this drop down menu go ahead and click on “New List”

6. You’ll be taken to a new page where you will see your selected page highlighted in a blue box with a check mark in the lower right hand corner. Hit “Next”.

7. Now you can give your List a name – competitors, brands, sports, etc., whatever will help you organize your content streams

8. Now choose if you want your List to be public, shared with other people, or private. Hint: If I am snooping on my competition, I might want to keep my lists set to “Only Me”

9. Hit “Done” and you’ll be taken to your new list where you will see a stream of content from only the Pages you chose to add.

10. You can click on the “Manage Lists” button on the top right to edit and change your lists.

11. You can also, access and manage your lists individually under the “Interests” menu that will begin to appear in the lower left hand side of your profile. If you don’t see this, try clicking on the “More” option.

Bonus Extra Super Ninja Tip!!

Do you have a team of people who are responsible for listening? Should they all be listening to the same Facebook Page? Do they all need to create their own separate Interest Lists?

How can your team be sure they are covering everything they should be paying attention to on Facebook?

Well, remember those Public/Share/Private list options?

• Go ahead and choose a list you want to share with your team
• At the top of the list news stream you should see the title of your list, and your name below it
• Right next to your name you should see a tiny icon representing your privacy option. Go ahead and click on this.
• If you want to share a list with only certain people then click on “Custom”
• In the new window you’ll be asked who you want your list to be viewed by. Go ahead and select “Specific People or Lists”
• Begin adding names of people you want to be able to view your List. Note: For now it appears that you only share your lists with people you are friends with on Facebook

Facebook Interest Lists are a great way to add targeted data to your listening dashboards.

Using Lists will enable you to weed out the Facebook noise, and organize your news feeds in a way that is productive for you and your clients. Continue to build your Interest Lists using the above steps, and soon you will have a library of helpful news feeds at your disposal.

So, try it out, and let me know if this was helpful for you.

#Google+ #Hashtags #ChromeExtension Update

G+Hashtags Chrome Extension, which was no longer working, because of all the GPlus updates recently (Google Events and so on).

Here is the link to the extension:
- the G+extension 0.44 http://goo.gl/OWouH

Or goto your extensions page in Chrome and click update extensionsonly in developer mode. Otherwise you can deinstall and install the newer version by hand. But it should be updated automatically.

What is new
- Muted Hashtags are now red and show muted in the button
- Clicking on only button, just shows the posts with this hashtag, but this does not prevent Google+ from updating your stream
- Muted hashtags are now saved into the localStorage and are kept
- By clicking the View all button, als muted hashtags are cleared
if you are scrolling down, I have managed to clue the hashtags beneath the top bar, so you can see it even if the streams scrolls up.

If you have feedback, please let me know, so I can enhance the extension or fix bugs

If you like the extension +1 and/or share.

One last question: some people are telling, that they hate hashtags in text. Would you like to have an option to make the hashtags no so highlighted (grey instead of blue and # removed?)

Collapse this post

Custom URLs now also at CircleCount

Custom URLs now also at CircleCount

We have waited a few days and now it’s sure, the Custom URLs will stay at Google+ ;)

Seriously, +Grobler du Preez has shown us that our extension is generating a link like http://www.circlecount.com/p/+GroblerduPreez which wasn’t working before.
Now it’s working as you can see in the image below.

We are also forwarding the profile pages on CircleCount of profiles with a Custom URL to their corresponding URL on CircleCount automatically.
For example http://www.circlecount.com/p/111487545374003509241 is redirected to http://www.circlecount.com/p/+CircleCount

Thank you everyone for helping us to find this out and to enable the Custom URLs also on CircleCount!