You can see the posts in their entirety on GigCoin.

You can read the full post on GigCoin’s blog.

I put a query out on Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and through the query we heard from a number of businesses around the United States. We selected four to profile in the post: Ling and Louie’s Asian Bar and Grill, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, The Bistro Group, and Mia’s Pizza and Eats.

I was very impressed with the creativity of each of these contests and it really drove home the point that businesses need to be strategic with their social media approaches.

You can read the post on GigCoin’s blog.

The 26 tips post is an A-Z guide providing assorted tips for writing great blog posts. The second post is an article about Dr. Patsi Krakoff and her experiences with content marketing. I enjoyed working on these posts immensely!

You can read the posts on their respective sites.

Tools & Applications

Photo Pin
PhotoPin helps bloggers find photos for their blog and makes adding them to their post fast and easy created by Markus Urban. This is a great tool. Makes finding photos easy and Markus even provides the code for attribution!

Pinterest
I discovered Pinterest more than a week ago but have started building more of my boards this week. I’ve been researching Pinterest for an upcoming article. In particular, I’ve loved having a place where I can pin all the wonderful infographics I come across.

Paper.li
I’ve been into the topic of content curation this week and discovered Paper.li. I set up a paper of stories and topics that I enjoy to track.
 Read Dhemley Curation ▸ today’s top stories

Scoop.it

As part of my content curation interest I discovered Scoop.it and came across this wonderful publication being curated by @janigordon, Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond. Great stuff being captured here.

Books

The Night Circus
I attended an author reading at Newtonville books last weekend and heard Erin Morgenstern read from her novel, The Night Circus.The book is pure magic and a delight. Really fun to be transported to another time, place and reality.

Content Strategy for the Web
I had the pleasure to interview author, Kristina Halvorson (@halvorson) this week for an upcoming article. I bought the first edition of Content Strategy for the Web in 2010 when it first came out and am looking forward to the release of the second edition by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach due out February.

Follows

The first section I go to in the Boston Sunday Globe each week is the Ideas section. And this week I started following them on Twitter, @Globeideas. They also have a great list of people and news organizations they follow which gave me some other great ideas for follows.

What have you discovered this week? Share your fun finds in the comments below.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks via photopin cc

One about the real estate profession, how to use games-based marketing, and tips for local marketing.

You can see the posts here:

A Closer Look at Real Estate and Social Media Marketing

Gamification & Marketing: How to Get Your Head in the Game

Local Marketing: 10 Tips for Getting Found Locally

photo credit: cosmonautirussi via photopin cc

I’m thrilled to be part of the writing community at Social Media Examiner and to have my social media prediction profiled there today as part of the “30 Social Media Predictions for 2012 from the Pros” post.

If you’ve found your way over to my blog as a result of that post, welcome, and I hope you will continue to follow my writing here and via social networking: Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

If you would like to contact me about my writing services, please use the contact form. I’d be happy to discuss your writing needs with you.

Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!

This past month, I published four new posts on GigCoin’s blog about privacy, social media trends for 2012, content strategy and how to track your social media results.

I had a post on WebDesigner Depot, with web design predictions for 2012 from well-known designers in the field.

I also had two posts on The Content Marketeer, interviews with content marketers, Bill Heggie and Andrew Boer.

It’s been another great year of writing and I look forward to emerging trends and topics in the new year ahead and sharing resources here, on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.

Google+ business pages have been a hot topic these past few weeks since their launch on November 7, 2011.
In the days and weeks ahead we’ll be hearing more about how brands and small businesses are doing as they become acclimated to Google+. In the meantime, we think you’ll find some helpful hints here about what is essential for getting a good start on Google+ business pages and how to best engage with your community.

In this post, we offer: a number of how-to resources, helpful Google+ tips, important reminders about promoting your Google+ page, advice for small businesses regarding Google+, and best practices for marketing on Google+.

How-to Resources

In the past couple of weeks there’s been a plethora of how-to posts for getting started on Google+ for businesses. Below are links to six resources which should be helpful to get you up and running in no time:

• How to set up a google page for your business
• How to set up and use a google page for business
• How to set up google for your business or brand
• How to google plus brand page
• How to create a google business page in 5 simple steps

And, one of the best resources I’ve come across yet is HubSpot’s free eBook, How to Use Google+ for Business  which goes into a lot of detail including: marketing best practices with your Google+ page, the benefits of Google+ in search, the value of segmentation with Google+ Circles and how to incorporate the +1 button on your blog.

If you’re looking for one resource, the eBook will be a highly comprehensive choice.

Helpful Google+ Business Tips

John Haydon has some helpful tips in his recent post, where he suggests amongst other things:

• create an awesome “about” tab
• use an attractive main image
• turn your avatar into a gallery
• seek to help your clients/customers/donors instead of only promoting your organization
• search for conversations around your cause
• hangout with fans, volunteers and donors in a video conference (up to 10 people at a time) to collaborate on shared documents or just have a casual chat.

If You Build It, Will They Come?


Lance Whitney’s post based on BrightEdge’s study is an eye-opener and one that reminds of us the importance to promote your presence on Google+. The study found that a startling 61 of the world’s top 100 brands (from BrandZ’s 100 Most Valuable Brands ) had not displayed a link from their website to their new Google+ page which BrightEdge sees a a key way to round up followers. BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu stated, “Brands have been quick to embrace a presence on Google+ but clearly there is a long way to go in establishing social networks that really have scale and deep user engagement.”

Whitney suggests that brands need to do more than just set up their Google+ pages. “They also have to promote them from their own Web sites and other electronic media. They also need to tap into features such as Google Badges, which let them link their Web sites with their Google+ pages to cross-promote them.”

Note: To get Google badges, users need to sign up at the Google+ Platform Preview and then create and customize your badge at the Google+ configuration tool page. The page will generate a script that you’ll code into your Web site to enable and display the badge.

Small Business and Google+ Pages



Stephanie Christensen offers advice for small-business owners. She says, “Small business owners can use two other Google+ features to gain visibility. First, add the +1 button to your company’s website, which allows visitors to recommend it with a single click…add a Google+ badge to your website, which will lead users to your Google+ business page and allow them to follow your business’ updates, media, and other content you share.”

Stephanie says there are three reasons why you should create a Google+ business page:

• search visibility
• targeted messaging
• online brand control

Interesting to note: HubSpot reported websites that use Google’s +1 button generated 3.5 times more traffic from Google+ that websites that don’t have the button installed.

Marketing Best Practices


HubSpot recommends that to get the most from your Google+ business page in terms of traffic and leads that businesses should follow these practices:

• share lots of photos
• add recommended links in the “about” tab of your Google+ page, add links to important blog articles and lead generation offers to drive more traffic and leads for your business
• promote your Google+ page on your blog and website
• encourage people to share your posts e.g. ask your subscribers to share your content with the people in their circles
• analyze traffic and leads from Google+–look at referral traffic from plus.Google.com to your website
• use circles to segment your messages

Does your business have a Google+ business page? What lessons have you learned? Share your comments in the space below.

** This post was first published under my name on GigCoin  on 11/29/11.

Other posts published in November:

Social Media Community: How to Generate Feedback and Elicit Conversation
Local Business Marketing: 3 Strategies to Leverage Engagement

In particular, I loved discovering the tool Übersuggest.

You can read the full post on GigCoin.