Thank You Economy Revolution

Social Curation is a way to listen to what is relevant and filter out the noise.

There are 5 main Social Curation elements:

Engagement,  Interests,  Team,  Leads,  Geo-Targets.

This is all very new, and it’s emerging with a bang.

***** Love the concept of "social curation" and this post has several good tips including the team time (the most overlooked one if you ask moi). Marty

"Last spring Sam Fiorella was recruited for a VP position at a large Toronto marketing agency. With 15 years of experience consulting for major brands like AOL, Ford, and Kraft, Fiorella felt confident in his qualifications. But midway through the interview, he was caught off guard when his interviewer asked him for his Klout score. Fiorella hesitated awkwardly before confessing that he had no idea what a Klout score was.

The interviewer pulled up the web page for Klout.com—a service that purports to measure users’ online influence on a scale from 1 to 100—and angled the monitor so that Fiorella could see the humbling result for himself: His score was 34. “He cut the interview short pretty soon after that,” Fiorella says. Later he learned that he’d been eliminated as a candidate specifically because his Klout score was too low. “They hired a guy whose score was 67.”"

***** If I ever lose a job over my Klout score, which isn't 67 btw 45 last time I checked, then to heck with them. On the other hand, I sure wouldn't be surprised if someone asked for my score either. Still an absurd way to make a hiring decision. Marty

We consider the ability to manage a team so important that, in a recent book, we made it one of the "3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader:" Manage Your Team — the first imperative — is about creating a real team and managing through it.

"Manage your team" might seem clear and straightforward. Yet when we talk about it, we often find it's not an intuitive concept for many managers and for some it even cuts against the grain of what they think they should do as bosses.
Marty

This is a usefull post written by Vlad Barshai (@vbarshai) that gives you tips on how and why you should treat your customers or users like your girlfriend. This is an example I always use during the training sessions I take about social media marketing for small businesses. 

Whether you're a start-up or a small business facing some problems with your customers on social media, you'll find it usefull!

"You always have to remember that until you have users, you're just another cool lemonade stand (website) in the middle of the dessert (web). One of the most important questions to ask yourself is: how do I get her (people) to love me? How do I get her (them) to care about my (its) existence?

Let's take a step back and look at our "users" as our girlfriend. Here are some scenarios:

#1 Don't assume she (they) will say 'yes': Of course she (they) won't! Especially if you move too quickly (ask for too much information). They want to get to know you without giving away too many details. The best thing to do is assume that they will most likely say "no" and do everything you can like work-out, smell nice, dress good (layout, pitch, call-to-action) to higher your chances and make you impossible to resist. At the end of the day, they can always turn away (press the back button or x) to eventually find themselves a boyfriend (competitor) who can make their life better.

#2 She (they) won't know what to do unless it's right in front of her (them): It's true, every girl (user) likes to have everything taken care of. They want you to take the initiative and iron out a path... ask them on that first date (an initial e-mail submit) and clearly show them why you're worth their time (pitching the value proposition). Then they want You to have everything planned out beautifully (your layout) and ready so that they won't have to think of much (single path and call-to-action). They want to enjoy a great end-to-end experience (every move is simple, clear, precise) from the moment they leave the house (come to your site) to the moment they return home (press the back button or x). The girlfriends (users) really don't care how hard it was for you to do it, they just want it done so that they can brag to their friends (other influencers) about how good you are.

#3 Be nice! Overly nice if you have to: Everyone loves to feel loved. Everyone loves to feel that they matter. She (users) is no different. They want to know that if there are issues, you're a quick reach away from and can solve them immediately. They hate waiting! The way to make her (them) know you're great is to make sure that you're always there when there is a problem. Remember, the bad will stick with her (users) for years ... and the good will only be reminisced when there is nothing better ... but there will usually be something better.

#4 Stop worrying that someone (a competitor) will come in (to your market) and take her (your user) away: Instead, focus on why she (your users) stays with you and continue improving on your secret sauce. This is usually your thing (MVP - minimum value proposition) that she (users) won't find anywhere else. I know that anyone can take her out (feature #1), dine her (feature #2), and buy her material possessions (feature #3). But do they care for her (users) like I do? The first question I think about when I talk to her (users), is "what can I do that will make me stand out amongst everyone else? How can I help in a way that will shine past what everyone else is willing to do?" Finding my focus, which in my case is compliments (emotion exchange) to her (them) helps me when another guy (competitor) gets a better car (cooler feature) or just has more to offer (larger feature set).

#5 Once you stop contacting (e-mail) her (them), she'll (they'll) forget you: You're basically letting her (them) know one thing - I don't care about you enough and I know I can't offer you anything good enough for us to stay in touch... we should probably part ways. The name of the game is to constantly offer some value. So if you loose touch, then you are hoping for the best (that your users will one day remember you and come themselves). This is the reason you need to call (e-mail) her (your users) at least once every 2 days if not once every day. If this seems excessive then maybe you're just not close enough to her (your users). You might even want to say that you miss her (them) when you don't hear from her (them).

Treating her (each user) like the love of your life, might just get you to understand exactly what she (they) wants. In which case, you get married (premium sign up) .... and that's when you really have to be there ... through thick and thin ... because if she (they) leaves at this point, then she (they) is gone forever ..."

Read the entire article here: http://not99.posterous.com/treat-your-users-like-your-girlfriend

Coach Note is more than “Just Tacticboard or Clipboard” in real world.
Very fast and simple, and most powerful tool.

You can make video of your tactics to share with people.

Explain your tactics through TV or Internet.

"Humanity has entered a time of profound change. We are pushed by necessity and pulled by opportunity. The push is a growing systems crisis, evident in the breakdown of financial institutions, climate disruption, resource depletion, unsustainable populations, and more. These powerful Trends are presented here. The pull is the opportunity to rise to a new level of human maturity, partnership, and freedom. The combined push and pull at a global scale make this truly a time of profound turning and transformation for humanity. Many of the other names used to describe this time of Great Transition are explored here".

Whether you are just starting blogging or have been a blogger for a while, you have probably noticed how tough the competition for the top spots truly is. With hundreds of thousands of new articles published daily on a platform like WordPress alone, trying to stand out from the crowd can feel quite challenging. I was in your shoes not so long ago, so I understand.

With that being said, experience has taught me that sometimes, all you need is a little push to turn challenges into possibilities. As a matter of fact, how would you feel if I told you that:

Standing out from the crowd is really not that hard?
Successful blogging does not require super skills?
Major traffic is completely within your reach?
You do not need to spend a fortune to get the results you want?

You really can achieve the results you want. All you need is to know the tricks of the trade and be willing to apply them. Because, let me tell you one thing, those tricks are simple, attainable and WORK!

If you are ready for a steady stream of quality traffic on your blog, The Little Big eBook on Blogging: 40 Traffic Generation Tips is just what you need!

***** Tucking this away to think about later. Marty

Matt Cutts clarifies the error that has caused major fluctuations in Google rankings this week.

...
***** Marty's $10,000 Secret - Never Point Parked Domains At Active Ones

Spending a week in Mill Valley, CA listening to SEO Guru Bruce Clay was instructive and helped make me the Internet marketer I am (for good or ill LOL). That week cost upwards of $10k (tuition, long flight, hotel, food and time out of office). One lesson that stuck was NEVER point parked domains to active ones especially not active domains you CARE about. I thought, wrongly, the potential keyword juice from a parked domain could help the core.

Nope, not only is there NO benefit because of how Google classifies domains, but you place the crown jewels, your active domain, at risk when doing so. Clay recommended creating a closed loop ring and pointing domains at the least important URL being held. That way if the domain receiving the pointed to links is banned as spam nothing bad happens to active domains or other domains you will get to someday.

Thre real learning here is don't buy parked domains if you are an active ecommerce company. All the good ones are gone anyway (said by someone who bought a domain today), so consider holding or buying fewer junk domains and if, like in my old job as Director of Ecommerce, you own thousands of domains mostly to prevent others from owning them NEVER point any of them to something you care about.

Marty

There’s a lot to be said for how a kick-ass content strategy can support your social media strategy. But if done right, it can also support your rankings.

Not only does producing content on a regular basis mean updating your site (which search engines like), but good content naturally attracts back links and social signals (such as Tweets and Likes) that tell search engines that your content is popular with actual human beings.

But how do you produce content that’s popular with social media users and helps you rank for on targeted keywords related to your products and services?

In other words, how do you produce content that doesn’t just rank in and of itself but helps your product pages rank?

Learn how to optimize your social content strategy for SEO: http://www.acquisio.com/social/how-your-social-content-strategy-can-support-seo/