This is a guest post by Kevin Lau.

It’s still the early days for Google+ and plenty of people are getting to grips with the various tools this social platform has. This is even truer for business users, who have only recently been able to set up business pages to help promote their work.

One of the main features Google+ has to offer is Google+ Hangouts. Google+ Hangouts enable you to initiate video chats with other Google+ users who are in your Circles who also have access to a video camera.

So how can you use Google+ Hangouts to benefit your business?

Let’s face it most business users with Google+ business pages are looking to drive more traffic to these pages. Hangouts can certainly help you do this, and there are a number of methods you can use.

Create Specific “Get Togethers” for Specific Reasons

A lot of Google+ users will hook up with friends and family members on Hangouts, just so they can chat with them and catch up. That’s all well and good but it doesn’t really help when it comes to using it for business purposes.

Clearly you have to have a specific purpose for starting a Hangout if you’re using the social media site for business purposes. For example some business users are setting up Hangouts to provide information on specific topics. Someone who offers SEO services might set up a Hangout to teach the basics in SEO to a select few people over the course of a half hour. This might lead to new business in the future, and if they like what they see they’ll certainly share your generosity with others by recommending you. Suddenly you’ll see your popularity on Google+ rising.

Add Up to Date Information to Your Google+ Page & Mention It During Your Hangouts

Now this has to be done carefully. If you initiate a Hangout and then use the whole time to mention your business and how great it is, it obviously isn’t going to work. Hangouts should be used very carefully and not simply for promotion.

But if you are holding a Hangout on a particular topic – let’s follow the SEO example given above – you could direct people wanting more information back to your Google+ business page. Of course for this to work you have to populate that page with good advice and information – some of which might lead off to your actual website – on a regular basis. Don’t do it for the sake of the Hangouts alone.

Launch Into Video Conferencing to Make Stronger Business Connections in Your Circles

Think of this as the ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ technique. You’ll probably be beefing up your Circles by adding all the business contacts you already know that have also joined Google+.

Hangouts are a great way to get to know some of these contacts even better. Just make sure you have a good reason to request a Hangout with someone. The truth is that if you use Hangouts in this way, you’ll strengthen your relationships with the people you already have in your business Circles. This in turn lets them get to know more about you, and you’ll both find you recommend each other to your wider Circles – all as a result of using Hangouts. This should lead to more people discovering your business page.

Start Creating a Series of Podcasts & Promote Them on Your Google+ Page

It didn’t take long for the business users among us to start thinking of more creative ways to use Hangouts to further our traffic generation efforts. Some are already using Hangouts to create short podcasts, interacting with a small audience for each one as a result.

Just be sure that if you go down this route, you create a strong and focused idea for each podcast. You can record them as you go along and save them to share later on. If you become known for engaging and interesting podcasts you’ll soon see a splurge of traffic hitting your business page. What’s more, even though you are limited to ten people engaging in a Hangout, more can watch as it takes place if you set it to public viewing.

So you can see there is plenty to do on Google+ when it comes to driving traffic to your business page. You just have to be a little bit creative with your Hangouts to get the most out of them.

Have you used Google+ Hangouts to get more exposure for your Google+ profile or page? Please share your experiences in the comments!

You're reading Using Google+ Hangouts to Get More Exposure for Your Google+ Business Page by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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This is a guest post by Kevin Lau.

Google+ may have had a shaky start but lots of people are using it to help build up a new traffic stream to their website. If you are among them, you might be wondering how you can start getting the results you want. In truth you have to focus on a few different areas to start seeing some good results. A few small actions put together can create a much bigger end result – and a bigger stream of traffic – than one big promotion in one direction.

Let’s check out five ways to increase your flow of traffic from Google+ to your website, starting today.

Update Your Stream on a Regular Basis

The most obvious thing to do here is to provide a link to every new blog post you write on your personal profile. But there are other things you can do too. Simply updating your stream regularly will tell people you are serious about using Google+. If you make yourself worth following you will build a bigger audience and that audience is then more likely to follow you off site to your own website.

Create New Circles and Populate Them with People You Know

Google+ sure looks lonely without anyone in your Circles. So start populating them. You get a few Circles set up ready for use but you can create other more relevant ones as well. For example you can set up ones for clients or customers, depending on your needs. Just make sure you choose your Circles wisely, otherwise they could end up becoming unwieldy.

The main thing to remember here is that you should share appropriate messages with the right group of people. For example clients might benefit from a very different message to the one you’d send to fellow workers in your line of work. This is one of the benefits of using Circles – once you know how.

Stick to Your Area of Expertise

Don’t share everything on Google+. Remember you are using it to enhance the traffic flow to your website, so everything you share should be related to your expertise.

Let’s say you own a cupcake business. Stick to news, views and information about cupcakes. You will find plenty to talk about and share, but stick to cupcakes because that is your area of expertise. As soon as you stray off topic you run the risk of losing the interest of your audience. The more relevant you are the more chance there is of people heading off to look at your website as well.

Become an Expert in Your Niche by Initiating Hangouts

We talked about expertise above but you can go further than this. Your target should be to become known as an expert. You could be just anyone making cupcakes. But if you share your knowledge and provide information and advice people can rely on, you’ll see just how important it is to become an expert.

You see, if someone on Google+ wants to find a cupcake expert, they should be able to look for one and find you. Alternatively if they are already in your Circles (and you are in theirs) and they want to find out more information on cupcakes, they’ll almost certainly visit your site because they know you’ve got the knowledge they need.

Fill Out Your Profile Completely

This might sound like the most basic thing to say, and it is. But it is surprising how many people miss this out. Your profile on your Google+ business page is the most important thing – it is the cornerstone of your efforts on there. Sure you can get good results by doing all manner of things on Google+, but if you don’t have a profile you won’t have any information people can look at. If someone lands on your profile they’re not doing so to get a message telling them you haven’t filled it out yet. They’re doing so to find out more about you, so make sure they get the information they need – including your website address.

You can see that it is highly important to make sure you can employ more than one way of getting a new stream of traffic to your website through Google+. If you’re still new to the social media site don’t worry if you find it difficult to get to grips with at first. You’ll probably find you get used to it over time – and your website will benefit from a trickle of extra traffic that could turn into a flood too.

What do you do to drive traffic from Google+ to your website or blog, and what other tips would you suggest for those looking to increase their Google+ traffic?

You're reading 5 Ways To Drive Quality Traffic To Your Website From Google+ by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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This year, along with my Fetching Friday weekly roundups, I compiled several major resource collections for a variety of topics. As 2011 comes to an end, I thought I would share my 10 favorite list posts for anyone ready to learn more about analytics, conversions, email marketing, engagement, link building, keyword research, social media, starting their own business, usability testing, and WordPress. I hope you enjoy them!

• 50 Google Analytics Resources – 50 resources to help you get to know Google Analytics inside and out, from the new version, latest updates, social engagement tracking, advanced hacks, and much more!
• 50 Awesome Posts on Conversions – Are you ready to learn more about conversions, but not sure where to begin? Catch up on the latest and greatest information in this list. There’s something for everyone, from blogging to social media, landing pages to squeeze pages, increasing conversions vs. conversion killers, design, and more!
• 50 Awesome Posts on Email Marketing – Learn the ins and outs of email marketing, including building your email list, crafting the best email content, email newsletter design, and more in this list of 50 awesome posts on email marketing.
• 50 Posts on Engagement for Bloggers, Businesses, and Social Media Enthusiasts – Ready to start increasing your engagement in 2012? Find out the best strategies for blogging, business, and social media engagement from these awesome posts!
• 79 Link Building Resources – The latest, most up to date resources when it comes to link building including general information, tools, and where to look for links.
• 40 Top Keyword Research Posts of 2011 – This list will guide you to even more keyword research tools, strategies, and keyword optimization. Mix and match strategies for the best keyword discovery and analysis for your business and clients.
• Top 25 Social Media Blogs For Businesses – Want to learn more about social media for marketing your business? Then you’ve come to the right place – the following are the top authorities in social media and online marketing.
• 101 Resources for First Time Entrepreneurs – 101 resources that will help you learn more about entrepreneurship, startups, small business, and much more.
• 45 Awesome Posts on A/B, Multivariate, and Usability Testing – These 45 posts will teach you all you need to know about A/B testing, multivariate testing, and usability testing for copy, design, landing pages, PPC, and much more.
• 70+ Resources on How to Start a WordPress Blog – The following are resources for starting your own blog on WordPress including choosing a domain name, purchasing your domain, hosting, WordPress installation, themes, plugins, settings, essential pages, backups, updates, and more!

What were your favorite list posts in 2011? Please share them in the comments! Also, I wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year!

Photo Credit: KTVee

You're reading 560 Resources for Blogging, Online Marketing, and Starting a Business by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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One of the things many people struggle with in social media are identity issues, and I am no different. Up until yesterday, my main Facebook entities included my personal profile and my fan page for Kikolani. While I love both of these, I found some problems with sharing links to posts I’ve done elsewhere. Specifically…

• Links I’ve posted to my personal profile lately haven’t gotten that much attention compared to plain status updates or photos.
• The fan page for this blog is focused on posts from this blog only. Fans didn’t sign up for posts from elsewhere.

So the solution was creating a new Facebook page. This page is specifically focused on my freelance writing and blogging as a whole so it can be a platform where I can share links to anything I have written anywhere.

It took under two hours to set up, and since it’s been a while since I’ve set up a Facebook fan page, I thought I’d share some things I learned along the way.

Research Pages in Your Industry

I started by looking up fan pages by other freelance writers to see how they had theirs set up. I was looking specifically for what category they chose for their page and how they titled it for personal and professional branding.

The first page that jumped out was my friend Harleena Singh. I found some great pages for my own page to like in her page’s likes.

After some browsing of some awesome freelance writers’ fan pages, I decided to name mine with the title Freelance Writer & Blogger.

Fill in Your Basic Information (with Links)

Think you can just get a link in your About information and the designated website area?

Be sure to fill out your Personal Interests section carefully. I found out the first time I shared my page’s link on Google+ and Facebook that field was used as the description for your fan page.

Take Advantage of the Get Started Options

When you first create your fan page, you have some sharing options that will be lost once your fan page is more established.

The most important one is the Suggest to Friends option that allows you to recommend your new page to your friends.

This is a great way to get new fans for your page, but be warned it disappears pretty quickly, so suggest your new page to the people you think will be most likely to be interested, then continue through your friends list.

There is another option to Tell Your Fans about your page using your Skype and email contacts, but this options is also available through your Resources section when you click the Edit Page button.

Featured Likes & Admin

The Featured settings is not to be missed. After you create your page, click on the Use Facebook as Your Page link in the right hand sidebar.

Now go and like all of your own pages as well as other pages that fit your new page’s niche / industry. Then click the Edit Page button, and under Featured, select five featured likes (be sure to include your other pages) and a page owner.

This way, even if people leave your fan page, they will hopefully be on the move to your other Facebook pages or profile.

Custom Content

One of the best things about Facebook pages over Google+ pages for the moment is the ability to add custom content including welcome, opt-in, and contact form tabs. When I started thinking about doing at least one custom content tab, I remembered the great tutorial by Francisco Rosales on building a Facebook landing page with iFrames. It is really all the tutorial you need if you want to custom code and design your own landing page.

Unfortunately, I’m not much of a designer and to top it off, it was nearing midnight and I just wanted something quick and easy. While perusing other freelancer’s pages, I found one by James Cardigan that had a customized Welcome tab. At the bottom of it was a badge saying it was created with the free version of Pagemodo (aff link).

About half an hour later, I ended up with this sweet contact form on my new fan page.

The free version of Pagemodo allows you to have one custom tab on one fan page. I went with the basic ($6.25 per month) plan as I want to add more than just one custom tab, and I might upgrade to the pro ($13.25 per month) plan to do the same for my other fan pages.

Did the contact form pay off? Absolutely. I received two inquiries within an hour of announcing my page!

Announcing Your New Page

Once your page is ready to go, be sure to announce it everywhere. This includes using the Get Started tab mentioned earlier to suggest it to friends and then sharing it with your Facebook friends, Google+ followers, Twitter Followers, and any other social networks you have a nice size audience on.

Also think of anywhere you can link to it. I updated my WiseStamp (aff link) email signature, a few forum profiles, and my freelance portfolio.

Taking Advantage of the Like Button

Don’t forget to make liking your page easy by implementing the Like Button…

or the Like Box for your new page on your website.

Educational Resources

If you’re just getting started with Facebook fan pages for yourself or your business, or you want to learn more ways to get your fan page more community, fans, and engagement, be sure to check out these resources. Both are affiliate links to great products!

• Facebook Marketing All in One for Dummies – Dummies books are not just for dummies. They can be the most comprehensive and easy to follow books out on the market. This one is the most recent, published in August 2011, and is authored by Facebook experts Amy Porterfield, Andrea Vahl, and Phillis Khare. It covers everything about Facebook pages from setup to engagement and even advertising.
• FB Influence – If you would rather watch than read, then the FB Influence course is the way to go. Led by Amy Porterfield and recommended by Michael Stelzner and Mari Smith, this course has four modules with 20 videos covering everything from the core rules of Facebook marketing to building an online store for your Facebook fan page. There are over 50 links to informative articles, measurement tools, and custom content applications as well as some sweet bonuses.

Your Facebook Fan Page Tips & Resources

Now it’s your turn.

• Who still finds Facebook fan pages more powerful than Google+?
• What tips would you have to offer someone just starting out or looking to get more out of their Facebook fan page.
• What are some of the best fan pages you have seen in the writing and blogging industry?
• What is your fan page’s best feature? Please include a link!

Please share your thoughts on these questions in the comments and be sure to scroll up and use the Like Button or Box to become a fan of my new Facebook Page.

You're reading Tips for Starting a New Facebook Fan Page by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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As I recently mentioned in my BlogWorld recap, I met Leo Widrich, one of the guys behind the Buffer App for Twitter sharing.

Now as many of you might know, I’m a huge fan of HootSuite for my Twitter management needs. For the longest time, I have heard people raving about Buffer, but I figured I didn’t need another app to schedule tweets since I could already schedule tweets in HootSuite.

What I didn’t realize is how much simpler Buffer really is. Let me demonstrate.

Before I begin, as a disclaimer, I didn’t get any freebies, payment, sponsorship, etc. from Buffer for writing this post. If you choose to use my referral URL to sign up for Buffer, I don’t get paid – I simply get extra Buffer scheduling space.

Tweet Scheduling in HootSuite

The simplest way to schedule tweets in HootSuite is by using the bookmarklet which you can find in your HootSuite dashboard when you hover over the Tools menu.

Once you drag the Hootlet to your bookmarks bar on any browser, you can click on it while viewing a page you want to share. Then you’ll see a popup allowing you to choose the social profile to share it with along with the option to send the tweet now or schedule it for later using the calendar.

If you need to remember what scheduled tweets you have in the system, you can go to your Publisher menu to see your scheduled tweets.

Now as you can see, I made an oops and scheduled two tweets to go out at the same time. To change that, edit the text, or reorganize the tweets, you have to edit them individually using the same scheduling calendar.

Faster Tweet Scheduling in Buffer

Now, let’s take a look at the Buffer difference. When you setup your account, you start by entering your preferred tweeting schedule. I like to send my posts at five minutes after the hour. This means that my tweet will come across someone’s feed after all of the automated Twitterfeeds that usually happen right at the top of the hour.

For easy Buffer sharing, you can grab the Buffer bookmarklet for any browser’s bookmarks bar or install the browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Then, when you’re reading an article you want to share, you click on the Buffer bookmarklet or button installed by the extension (I use the one for Chrome) and get the following scheduling popup.

Here you can select your preferred profiles to share the tweet with and edit it as you so choose. Then you can post now or add to Buffer. To see your pending tweets, you just go to your Buffer dashboard.

Since you set your preferred tweeting schedule, you can’t accidentally set two at the same time. To edit the text, simply click on the pencil to edit. If you do notice you want to rearrange, you can simply use the Drag to Reorder to move them around.

Additional Buffer Sharing Options

If the bookmarklet isn’t enough, you can also use Buffer directly in Twitter using the Chrome extension. This will put a Buffer call right in your Twitter stream when you’re looking at your home feed, someone’s profile, Twitter lists, or any other tweets.

When you click on it, you get your usual Buffer popup with the RT @username text with the option to edit the tweet, post now, or add to Buffer.

You can also follow these directions for adding Buffer to your Google Reader. Then you can share posts you are reading in Google Reader to your Buffer.

Considering the way I use Google Reader, this is a definite plus.

For mobile users, there is a Buffer Android app and a way to email to your Buffer using a customized email address from mobile apps on tablets and other smartphones.

The New Buffer Button

Last but not least, you might have noticed a new button in my social sharing strip at the top of the post.

The Buffer button allows users to easily add your post to Buffer. No more copying & pasting long URLs from the Twitter button to your Twitter management tool of choice (although it is still an option for those who directly tweet)!

Analytics in HootSuite vs. Buffer

For statistics junkies, here are your analytics options.

In HootSuite, you can create reports or see quick stats about any ow.ly shortened URLs.

Or you can see individual stats of your ow.ly shortened tweets.

In Buffer, you can see an overview of your sent tweets and their retweets, clicks, and overall estimated reach based on your audience plus the audience that retweeted the Buffered tweet.

Pricing for HootSuite vs. Buffer

Both HootSuite and Buffer are freemium applications meaning that there is a free structure vs. a paid structure. In HootSuite, if you have no more than five accounts to manage and don’t really care about enhanced analytics, you can use the free version. Otherwise, it is $5.99 per month, which is the plan I use because I have a ridiculous amount of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other accounts.

In Buffer, if you have only one persona to manage (one Twitter and one Facebook) and only need to store 10 scheduled posts at a time, you can use the free version. Otherwise, there are two plans – the pro plan for $10.00 per month (which is the plan I use) for up to 5 social media accounts and 50 posts in your Buffer. There’s also a super premium plan for $99.00 per month for unlimited social accounts and posts in buffer.

My Twitter Strategy

My Twitter strategy involves using HootSuite for monitoring all of my Twitter accounts’ mentions, direct messages, Twitter lists, and keyword searches in easy to follow streams. Then I use Buffer App for tweet scheduling. I also use Formulists for creating awesome, automatically updated Twitter lists (more on that in an upcoming post). Together, I can efficiently interact with my followers and find new followers while sharing great posts with everyone. So if you don’t use them already, try them out – even just using the free accounts with your priority social profiles could make a huge difference!

Your Favorite Time Saving Twitter Tools

Now it’s your turn. What are your favorite Twitter management applications and time saving tools? Do you use HootSuite and Buffer? Please share your thoughts, tips, and experiences in the comments, and happy tweeting!

You're reading Buffer Review – My Favorite Time Saving Twitter Tool by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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This is a guest post by Leo Widrich.

It was less than 6 months ago that I decided to fully start out on Twitter. I soon got sucked in to a fantastic environment of helpful and knowledgeable tweeps.

I was blogging for a while before. Vividly I applied some key lessons I learnt and my experience was that it worked extremely well on Twitter too.

The most important part was that it came naturally because I was already used to these techniques.

1.) Don’t Rant – Copy Counts

Fortunately the time when Twitter was a ranting tool you would use to put your thoughts out to no one and anyone is gone.

I like to see Twitter as a microblogging tool in the literal sense. Creating compelling copy that is both attractive to click through and carrying an honest and sincere message is key. Make your Tweets great.

One thing I did right from the start is always write my own tweets. After all my Twitter stream is like my stream of blogposts. Giving them a personal voice is key to create a genuine appearance. What I means I that whenever I am reading a great article I would change the headline so it would suit my voice.

2.) Every Single Comment – Every Single @Mention & RT

When you start out Dino Dogan, a blogger I truly appreciate for his honesty in blogging, taught me that no matter what, replying to each and every comment is key. After all it means people have taken the time to go beyond reading and taken out extra time to expand on your discussion.

In a similar way I try going about any mentions or retweets I receive. Showing gratitude for each and every time someone interacts with you is the least thing I can do if someone is interested.

This leads to an incredible amount of more interactions and helped me immensely to reach my own goals.

3.) It’s Not About the “Me, Me, Me”

What blogging taught me right from the start was that I had to lose the self-centered attitude. Listening to others, learning from others and contributing to other’s sites in forms of comments and guestposts is absolute key to reach any measure of success.

In a similar manner the only way to move forward on Twitter centers around Zig Ziglars

“You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

Promoting others as often as possible is crucial I found. Retweet others sincerely, give credit to the author for tweeting posts or simply write tweets of appreciation.

And yes, like magic this leads to you achieving your own goals all by yourself.

4.) Leave Your Home Turf

Building a community and enlarging your readership doesn’t come by staying in your own home all day. Yes, it can be a tricky process to keep up the care for existing people you interact with, whilst you are out making new connections. Yet, it is the only way to move forward.

In a similar manner you have to move out of the safety of your own community on Twitter and make an effort in finding new friends. On Twitter there thankfully exist a ton of valuable directories, such as Twellow and Wefollow, helping me to do that.

Balancing out on these two activities has helped me greatly to continually drive new conversations, especially by making use of mentioned directories.

5.) Consistency is Key

Consistency in blogging is the lifeline to success I believe. If it wasn’t for the advice I read to create editorial calendars, schedule blogposts and learn to find my own zone to create the way would have been a lot harder.

Twitter is one ongoing conversation and I found largely a similar pattern applies. Providing an ongoing stream of high quality content is absolutely key. Making use of scheduling tweets, which are of course still your genuine own ones is one part that helps me greatly. Another point that helped me greatly to start out is to assign writing times to tweets in the same way I did to posts.

Now some of these things might change over time. As you continue to grow, you might not need to leave your home turf that aggressively any more.

Or you just can’t find the time to reply to all tweets anymore. Yet, in order to get things going and to focus on the interaction, these 5 lessons helped me a great deal.

I am sure you too have come across many things in life where you could apply lessons learnt in one area to a new one.

How about blogging and Twitter? Do you think there is something we can apply in both areas?

I would love to hear your views below.

Photo Credit

You're reading 5 Things Blogging Taught Me About Tweeting by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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By now, you’ve probably read your fair share of “What I Hate About the New Facebook Updates” to the point that you’re pretty comfortable with the fact that you hate the changes. So, as a change of pace, here are some gems that have come about from the latest updates that are actually pretty cool from the news feed to the new Facebook Timeline Profile.

The Best Facebook News Feed Setting

By far, of all things they have done to the news feed, I love this!

Hide Updates by Third Party Applications

Don’t want to see what music people are listening to? Tired of people who feed their tweets in as Facebook updates? If you are viewing your newsfeed and see that an update is from an app (this includes HootSuite, Spotify, Tweetdeck, NetworkedBlogs, or anything with an icon), you can click on the dropdown arrow next to the update and select the Hide All by ____. Talk about almost instantly decluttering some of the noise!

As a side note, this is why I love Google+. No updates from other apps or feeding updates from other networks. Almost every update happens within Google+ itself meaning if you comment on something, the person might actually be there to answer you vs. someone who just auto updates to update and not to engage. This is why I’m happy to remove 3rd party updates from my News Feed and just interact with people actually on Facebook. It’s all a matter of personal preference.

If you change your mind and want to see those app updates, scroll to the bottom of your News Feed (all the way down after the feed stops adding new updates) and click on Edit Options. You can see any updates you have hid from the feed, including those from app, games, pages, and people so you can add them back in again.

UPDATE #1 Change Subscription or Friendship

Ever seen an update from someone, think “I really don’t care about your ___” and wish you would never see those types of updates again from that person in your News Feed. Now you can control it, right from the News Feed.

So if you only want to see their photos and status updates, just leave those checked. If you decide you’ve had enough of them altogether, you can unsubscribe completely or just unfriend them immediately!

The above example is my hubby’s Facebook, so I won’t be doing either of those things to him! Especially since I love seeing his photography.

UPDATE #2 This is only if you hover over the friend’s name. If you hover over the dropdown arrow by the update, you can change your subscription options for the person first, then it confirms the change and asks if you want to unfriend as well. All on the News Feed!

Honorable Mention – The Chrome’s Facebook News Ticker Remover

Ok, this isn’t by Facebook, but you probably will want it. If you’re a Google Chrome user like me and not a fan of the scrolling ticker updates on your News Feed, no problem. Add this extension to your browser and say goodbye to the crazy scroller!

Getting Use Out of the Facebook Friends and Smart Lists

Even though you don’t see them initially, don’t freak out like I did and assume your friend’s lists (now called Custom Lists) have disappeared. Here’s how to find them and really get some good out of them.

Add Custom Lists to Favorites for Easy Access

If you just want to see updates by people you have put into your Custom Lists and the smart lists, you can click on the More link next to Lists, then click on the Friends Lists you want. When you see it popup under Lists, hover over it, click on the pencil, and Add to Favorites.

Now you can have your lists easily accessible for your News Feed.

Choose Update Types for Custom Lists

This really should be available for the News Feed, but for now it seems to only work within lists. When you’re viewing updates within one of your Custom Lists or Smart Lists (those auto created by Facebook based on location, employers, schools, etc.), there is a Manage List dropdown in the top right of the page. Click on this and then click on Choose Update Types. Then click on Manage List again to check different types of updates you want to see by people in this list.

It’s definitely one to play with because of its odd behavoir. For example, I unchecked Games on one of my lists, and the updates of “So and So is now friends with Them and Them plus 3 million other people” vanished from the feed. Good stuff!

A Longed For New Privacy Settings

Facebook must have heard me (and probably thousands of others) as well on this one – even MySpace had this option from the very start!

Review All Tags

If you haven’t checked this out already, you should. Head over to your Privacy Settings, and Edit Settings for How Tags Work. Turn on Profile Review and Tag Review.

To review your tags, visit your main profile page and, under Wall, you will see an option for Needs Review. Click on this to see any posts, photos, and other requests that need your approval.

Now you can say goodbye to those applications that tag you in photos you don’t want to be in and to people who tag you in photos, updates, and other things you don’t want visible on your profile without having to turn off tags altogether.

Once the new Timeline Profile is available to everyone, the review area will follow under Activity.

You’ll see how that falls into place in just a moment. Also, when you do see it, don’t freak out – it’s private. (For now at least.)

Introducing the New Facebook Timeline Profile

And now we come down to the big one. The brand new Facebook profile design featuring the timeline layout. The following is how mine looked when I converted it.

And this is the complete version shown on Facebook’s official timeline page that includes more apps than I usually get into using while on Facebook.

You can learn more about it here and even sign up to be first on board for the changes! Or, if you can’t wait like I couldn’t, you can follow the steps on how to enable the Facebook Timeline Profile now. (Huge thanks to Francisco Rosales for pointing this out to me on Twitter.) If you do this, you’ll get the following message at the top of your profile that says:

Welcome to Your Timeline – Developer Release

Your timeline currently features your top photos and posts. Right now, only you can see what’s here. Take a tour and star, hide or add whatever you want. Then click Publish Now or wait until your timeline goes live on Friday, September 30, 2011.

So your options are to avoid it until the very last moment, or to embrace it and start tweaking it while you can keep it private before publishing.

Some things of note that I found during the first little while of playing with the profiles include:

The Cover

You can hover over that large image at the top of your timeline and change it to any image you choose. For photographers, you can showcase your best piece of photography.

For personal branding, you can showcase your best “cover” shot. There are a ton of different ways you can use this for branding, and they’re probably a lot easier than cutting one image into five for the previous photo strip.

Apps Making a Resurgence

Beneath your cover, you have your basic info pulled from your latest employer, location, school, and relationship status. You also have little boxes for your friends, page likes, notes, subscriptions, and other items that were previously in the left sidebar under your photo.

I like the option to switch the main four boxes as the Notes start out in the first four. If you don’t have notes, it looks pretty bleak. And if you click on the plus sign above the blank boxes, you can add your apps here. I don’t have many at all, but if you do, you might have a good one to feature in the main four.

Life Events

If you had a major life events you can highlight it on your timeline.

Other examples include:

• Add a Job
• Graduated
• Military Service
• Moved
• Bought a Home
• Add a Roommate
• Add a Vehicle
• Broke a Bone
• Had Surgery
• Overcame an Illness
• Learned a Language
• Got a License
• Traveled
• Achievement or Award

And if none of those fit, there’s always the Other Life Event selection to choose.

This part strikes me as a bit interesting. Like it’s Facebook’s way of tracking things you say and do a little more closely in their database. Imagine the potential if any automobile parts company know what kind of vehicle everyone has – they could make a lot of custom little Facebook ads for you that said “Get a new stereo for your Kia Soul.” Pharmaceutical companies could have a field day with publicly available health information in a timeline format. The possibilities for advertising and other creepy activities based on this information – priceless! That said, I’m going to see if I can up the ads I see for pet products by adding my cats in.

Featured Updates on the Timeline

Have an update that you want to draw attention to? Just click on the star and make it a Feature on Your Timeline. This will make it expand across the wall instead of being side by side with something else.

Actually, if you’re not a fan of the side by side updates in general, you could just click the star and expand them all. This only works on wall posts (ones you’ve made, ones friends have made on your wall, and tagged items. The expanding across the page doesn’t work on the apps or summary boxes at the end of each month which in of themselves are neat, but you can remove them by hovering over, clicking on the pencil, and hiding them from the timeline.

And That’s About That…

For now at least. I’m sure there will be much more to discover as everything rolls out and everyone has had their profiles switched to the new layout. What are your thoughts? Love it, hate it, or other? What other interesting finds have you seen so far?

You're reading What I Like About the New Facebook Timeline Profile, Privacy Settings, and News Feed by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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Over the last few months, I have been trying out the Triberr service as a way to expand my content’s exposure to new audiences and to give my followers more content from other blogs as well. Now I know some of you will remember my post awhile back about why I turned off Twitterfeed, and you may wonder if I have gone back to automating.

The answer is I haven’t. I was wary of Triberr for the longest time, until I found out that they had created a manual option where you can review posts before you tweet them. That was all I needed to hear to give it a try.

The following is my Triberr strategy. Hopefully this will give those who are not fans of the service a little insight into some ways it could work for you.

1. I chose tribes based on knowing the people involved in them.

I’ve received a lot of Triberr invites since the service got started, and for awhile turned them all down due to the automated tweeting thing. After I found out they went manual, I accepted my first invite based on the fact that I knew all of the members of the tribe and already subscribed to their blogs in my RSS feeder. I was already tweeting out their content on a regular basis, so I saw no harm in having them do the same for mine.

2. I have everyone set on manual.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you blog about. No matter how devoted your fans are, there are always going to be those occasional posts that you write that will not resonate with everyone. I know that not every one of my posts work for everyone else’s Twitter audience, and I know that not every post from my other tribesmen and women will fit my Twitter audience either. Hence, I have all of my tribe members set to manual mode.

If you haven’t logged into your Triberr in awhile, you should go check it out. They recently changed the system to where you can have manual / automatic settings for each member. Just login to your account and go to Tribes > Your Tribe > Tribe Members and adjust the settings for each member using the settings dropdown.

Now even if I didn’t have to check everyone’s post for audience-fit assurance, I would still have Triberr set to manual simply because I have a certain schedule for my tweets. I share blog posts every hour, generally from 7 AM to 9 PM Arizona time. And I just share one blog post per hour. If you belong to multiple tribes, what you might run into being on auto is several tweets being sent through your stream all at once, or tweets getting sent during hours where people are least likely to see your tweets. By choosing manual review, you can just copy and paste the Triberr tweet into your favorite scheduling app like HootSuite, Buffer, or your other favorite Twitter management tool.

Lastly, even if I didn’t do the QA check or care when the tweets get sent out, I do also like to update the tweets to show the authors of the posts since some blogs in my tribes have multiple contributors, guest authors, etc. So while I’m checking out a post (because yes, I do read all of your posts to make sure they are about blogging, social media, or related topics and not how to do a phone number lookup or something else off topic which should comfort you and my Twitter audience alike), I can pick up the post author’s Twitter handle and add it to the tweet so they know their post is being shared as well.

3. I use a custom RSS feed.

Triberr was actually my motivation to create a customized RSS feed for my writing, which has come in quite handy on other sites that allow you to have RSS feed sharing, including my LinkedIn profile‘s WordPress app and Dooid profile to name just a few.

Since I write more for other sites than I usually do on my own, and I typically don’t want every post on my site shared with my tribes, the only solution was a customized RSS feed where I could just choose which posts I wanted to share on Triberr and other networks. This has so far worked out quite well.

If you’re not as spread out as I am, but you don’t want to share every post on your site with your tribe, you can always try creating a category like Featured for your blog and grabbing the RSS feed for that category only and submitting it on Triberr. For WordPress, it is generally going to be yourblog.com/category/feed/ or similar depending on your permalink structure. Or you can go to your category archive page in Firefox and use the RSS button in the browser’s address bar to grab that category’s feed.

4. I give karma to posts I tweet.

Ok, I get lazy sometimes and forget, but for the most part since I’m doing the manual review of posts, I give karma (the thumb’s up) to posts I choose to tweet. See how karma works here.

5. I created a Triberr Twitter list.

In order to connect more with my tribes, I decided to create a Twitter list of all of the people in my tribes. It’s up to 54 now since I’m in multiple tribes, but it’s nice to interact more with others and see what their interests are outside of the Triberr posts. I’ve found a lot of new blogs just by watching that stream as my tribes have introduced me to new bloggers as well.

Your Triberr Strategy

Are you on Triberr? What’s your strategy when it comes to getting the most out of Triberr? Share your thoughts in the comments!

You're reading How I Use Triberr by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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This is a guest post by Ajay Chavda.

Social media is capable of changing you, your business or your perspective overnight. It is important that we understand the social media before jumping on the social bandwagon. Tweeting, Facebook sharing and video making is only a miniature subset of the entire social ecosystem.

History can teach us a lot about social media. In fact, history has known to be the very supporting pillar of social interaction. Various events spread across the timeline in history can teach us how to successfully derive, build strategy and effectively tackle a business solution.

Image Credit

Every now and then, we see people using history and strategies to tackle various sporting competitions. We can take ancient events to understand and implement a strategy in social media.

Let me give you a few examples which provide useful insights to leverage your output from social media.

Barbarization of the Roman Infantry

The Roman army was successful in most major battles because of its ability to adapt. Romans were quick enough to seize the forts and copy (or adapt) to the type of arms their opponents were using. This provided them an ample advantage in carrying out further ambition.

However the later “Barbarization” of the Roman infantry did weaken the force. It should have been amply clear that the barbarian tribes had to adapt to the Roman ways and organization, and not the other way around. Adapting and blending with the barbaric tribes led to a tragic decline in rigor and severe roman disciplinary methods. This eventually declined the overall strength of the Roman army.

The Social Context

Always know who your real competitors are. Adapt and keep a close eye on your competitors. Make sure that the change to your company or its services is governed by your consumers and not your competitors. If you follow the Roman analogy of “Barbarization,” chances are you will in effect decline your own services. The social pattern might indicate change, but the social action is should be governed by consumers.

The Trojan Horse

The Trojan Horse is indeed the biggest and the most insightful lesson for social media. The Greeks built the horse in three days and a single soldier was strategically placed outside the horse to convince the Trojans that the Greeks had left.

When the Trojans took the horse inside their fort and danced around it with joy, the horse filled with Greek soldiers brought the Trojan to their demise.

Virgil’s Aeneid details of the incident include the most striking lines: “Somewhat is sure design’ d, by fraud or force: Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse.”

The Social Context

Most businesses and service providers have jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon sending out tweets for their brand. While a lot of them are small businesses capable of change, large organizations and multinationals require a lot of momentum before making a simple change.

Twitter is for consumer-provider interaction. Interaction may lead to a consumer providing valuable feedback and product improvements suggestions leading to a change that the company requires in order to win some more consumer loyalty. While some feedback could be constructive, but a company may not always like what it hears. A multinational may not have resources or be in a position to bring about a change in its product line based on feedback.

Twitter or Facebook may indeed turn out to be a Trojan Horse, best left unopened for larger multinationals. If a company does really want to tackle the Trojan Horse, it does need to have a solid social strategy and response plan.

Alexander Meets Porus

Alexander had already conquered half the world. The meeting of the two great warriors has been widely debated. The most common and persistent belief is that Porus severely disabled Alexander by killing a lot of his infantry. Alexander’s horse Bucephalus also died during this battle, and Alexander himself was injured through darts.

Would Alexander have done better by applying a better strategy than courage? Did Alexander’s own presence bring about his demise? Was it in Alexander’s own interest to not underestimate his opponent?

The Social Context

We have all read and seen how Microsoft called Zoho the “fake office.” Although it is a good idea to believe in your capabilities, belittling or underestimating your competitors can be social suicide (unless you’re as big as Microsoft and can recover from it).

Engaging or providing your competitors a chance to speak or act is indeed a bad strategy. The modern publicist believe that “there is no bad publicity.” Talking badly about the capabilities of your competitors may actually provide them with the momentum they need to turn the attack back onto you.

The Moral of the Story

Social media can dramatically bring you results. However striving simply towards a goal of millions of followers is just not good implementation of a social media strategy. Social media may aid your buzz, but without a story to tell you are just another social failure waiting to happen.

You Social Media History Lessons

Can you think of other ways you could learn social media lessons from historical times? Share your ideas in the comments!

You're reading 3 Great Social Media Lessons From Ancient History by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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After using Google+ for a few weeks, I decided to share some of the reasons I like it so much, and hope that it will be an attempt at social networking by Google that will stick around for the long haul.

1. No automated updates.

Thus far, you can’t feed your Twitter, Facebook, or other updates into your Google+ stream. This means that if you see an update by someone on Google+, they actually made it on the network itself. Less noise, less spam.

2. Forced organization from the start.

I love the circles! You could just create one generic circle to throw everyone into, but I’d bet that since you have a few different default circles to start with, it gave you the idea to create better circles for friend categorization. There’s nothing like selecting my blogging circle for just my blogging friends’ updates or my photography circle for theirs.

And even better? I can send updates to one circle or the other, multiple circles, or just make them public. It’s genius!

3. Block tagging by specific people without unfriending them.

Unfortunately, photo tagging has already begun. In the same way that people tag photos on Facebook just to get your attention even if you’re not in the photo, so people do on Google+.

But here’s the cool part. If you go to that photo, you can remove yourself from the tag (just like Facebook). But after you do so, at the top, it will ask you if you want to block the person who tagged you in this photo from being able to tag you again. So if you have a tag-crazy friend who you like, but don’t want to be tagged by anymore, now you have the solution!

4. You’re always reminded of notifications.

If you’re logged into your Google account, anytime you’re checking your Gmail or using Google search, you’ll see your notifications on people adding you to their circles, commenting or +1ing your posts, resharing, and so forth. So you don’t have to actually go to Google+ to see if anything new is going on.

5. You can find more people to follow and see their stats.

Google+ Statistics has a huge list of people sorted based on their following or followers. It also includes a tidbit of information about them based on the info they added for their employer. (Hint: If you haven’t listed your employer, or don’t have one to list, add yourself as blogger or founder of your blog. This will show up under your name on this list which will make it easier for people to identify you.

6. The Android App.

If you have an Android, then definitely get the Google+ app. It’s better (in my opinion) than the one for Facebook, especially when it comes to sharing your mobile photos with your network.

Do you like Google+?

Now it’s your turn – how do you like the Google+ network?

Also, be sure to follow me on Google+! And if you’re just getting started, don’t miss my how to get started with Google+ guide on Social Media Examiner!

You're reading 6 Reasons Why I Like Google+ by Kristi Hines, originally posted on Kikolani. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Kristi on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!

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