I was speaking with a client yesterday and of course things turned to business. He offered that things were actually starting to “loosen up” for him and that his customers were actually starting to invest again. How that investment is going was of interest. His customers aren’t hiring full time employees. They are investing in productivity and cost reduction projects.

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Could Google Plus (G+ or Google+ for short) be your one stop shop for Social Media?

Personally, I’m thinking the answer is yes, even at this early stage of development. Well, okay, perhaps with the exception of LinkedIn. First, this is truly a beta release and is also being released in viral fashion. Presently, one can only join G+ (shorthand for Google Plus or Google+) by invitation. For awhile, the invitations were shut off due to the flood of people wanting to join. Having said all that, here are some more thoughts on why this might be the next big thing for a useful Social Network site.

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From time-to-time it seems we do well to get back to some fundamentals when it comes to our businesses. Many in my network seem to be doing that these days, forced to do so by the economy. The question, popularized by many of the “management gurus” is, “If I were starting this business today, (a) would I? and if so (b) what would it look like?” This is not an easy question to answer, as so many of you know!

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Companies are gathering as much data as they can on the individual consumer. Companies that have that information are selling it or making it available often times in ways contrary to their promises. The consumer is figuring out how to fight back. Where is advertising going?

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I’ve been looking at what’s going on with internet commerce these days and how folks are dealing with the explosion of websites, blogs and users. I’ve come to realize that for many practical reasons the cost of SEO (search engine optimization) has put it out of reach for many small businesses. It’s an overstatement to say that SEO is dead, but it is definitely dead as far as most small businesses are concerned. The good news is, we don’t need to do more than the basics SEO work to thrive because internet marketing has changed.

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Toyota apparently felt they had done well by convincing the NTSA to limit the recall investigation. Oops. It’s backfired. Now the money they saved is going to be lost and more. The banking industry seems oblivious to the disdain of the consuming customers and is already finding “sneaky” ways to charge higher interest. They are also fighting Credit Union requests to allow the Credit Unions to lend a higher portion of their assets to small businesses. They never learn.

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In part 1 of this series on Social Media Marketing I gave a brief overview of what seems to be going on in this young medium. In part 2 of this series, I walked through some of the tools that I’ve found to help me with managing the task of getting involved in Social Networking sites. Next, I’d like to share with you some of the additional tools I’ve found to help me manage the time involved. As I mentioned, I’m doing all this from the experience of a Novice. It won’t take you long to zoom past me once you get started.

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I’m sure it’s obvious from my last post on this topic, that I am definitely NOT and expert in Social Media Marketing. I am only interested in passing along what I’ve found so far. Also in that post, I mentioned I’d share some tools to help with Social Media. There are “tons” of them and they are growing everyday. So this post is not comprehensive by any stretch of the imagination. I’m sure that some of you will already find other tools as or more useful. My intention is to share with you what I’ve found so far and leave any “improvements” for future posts. After all, that’s what this is all about, right? Sharing useful information.

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I’ve found myself right at the event horizon of the black hole known as Social Media. I’m holding in a stable orbit at a safe distance, but I know it wouldn’t take much for me to drop in and you’ll never hear from me again. [Okay. Stop cheering.] I’ve noticed a few friends zooming by me and I don’t think they’ll escape. Other friends are so far away that they have no hope of keeping up with the rest of what’s going on. It occurs to me that either situation, too far away from Social Media or too deep in the black hole, you loose.

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“Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door.” Or something close to that, right? Well, sometimes, but definitely not always. What will win the day in the new economy we’re facing? What products or services will you innovate to offer? What nifty new thing will you offer at that next industry show?

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