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Initially the great idea about Google+ Circles is that it made it easier to communicate to the many people in our circles, we were excited about that we could choose who our message went to, and we could select who we wanted to listen to. Awesome!

However, as our circles grow (and generally we want our circles to grow) we now want our circles to plant themselves. We complain about the noise, we complain about the limits that Google+ places on followers.

In order for Google+ to grow we need a way for people to directly join our specific circles. As we seen on Twitter and Facebook circles/followers/Fans/etc. can grow easily into the thousands. It’s too much to expect the individual to cultivate  so many people. Without this feature, I really think Google+ will stall.

Frankly, I’m surprised that Google didn’t foresee this. A set of public vs private circles seems to be the answer.

So it’s another Infographic about social media. I can’t deny it. As hard as I try to to ignore them I do keep coming back for more! I hope you find this as interesting as I do!

Check it out here!

So here is the thing. I’m a terrible Blogger. Sure, I love blogs, I read blogs all the time and I often feel like I’m really good at helping other people with their blogs because I read so many other peoples blogs. Yes I really do think it’s true. Because I’m so sure that Blogs work for people I’m always reading other people’s blogs and I read stuff about how good it is to blog about your business (and it’s true) and sometimes I put it on Twitter, and sometimes I put it on Facebook, and I’ve just gotten into Google +… Well that’s all good but I should really just add it here so I can keep a better eye on it and know where to find it later (yes there are tools for that but I prefer to do it this way.

Anyway, I just read this blog post here. It’s called Blogging Is Good Business – 8 Tips To Get It Right by Michael Brenner and I thought it was well done and worth a read. Enjoy!

Image via CrunchBase

I just read a nice blog post from Buffer. It’s titled:

I won’t reveal all five reasons (it’s only fair that you read it yourself at Bluffer) but I will share a good one.

1. What happens now is what counts – An excerpt from the post says “What I love about Twitter is that it emphasizes what is happening right now.”

   It’s so true. Your last blog post doesn’t really matter very much. It’s all about you have done right now. Love it!
   Read the rest on the link below!

5 Simple Reasons Twitter Is An Amazing Place To Be

Image via Wikipedia

Talk to your sales people. What is the question that all your customers ask the most? What is it that they do they not understand?

You can argue with me but the days of the yellow pages reining supreme are over. (Sure there will always be someone who uses it but I think it will be less and less.

With some exceptions your clients don’t want to come to your webiste to be entertained. They want to learn about you. They want to see if you are professional, if you have the right qualifications, etc. They also want to know about your products, services, busisness hours, locations etc.

Don’t make them guess. Give them the details in an easy to find straight forward manner. Not everyone thinks how you think. Understand that while most people have similar reasoning skills they are not identical. When you provide more then one avenue for sucessly finding your information the happier your clients will be.

The trick is to answer their question. Be nimble, be quick, answer your clients questions before they can ask them. If you can’t do that, give them a place to ask questions and offer answers. Well written blog posts, forum, even a good contact page can make all the difference in the world!

Be Helpful!

Image by itinerary via Flickr

So when I say Content Marketing what do you think about? Please don’t tell me Twitter. Please don’t tell me Facebook! Please don’t start throwing out the names of all the Social Media outlets you can think of. Its just a waste.  Here’s a good way to really “start doing” Content Marketing.

1. Figure out how who your customers are. (Come on you know who they are)
2. Figure out how to help your customers
3. Write about it, or make a video, or an animation or something
4. Then figure out where to share this information
5. Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

Yup.

Yup I still Love Infographics. Combine infographics and WordPress and we have a winner! Here is the thing. In my world of Content Strategy and Content Marketing I see a lot of Infographics. I like them. In fact I kind of love them but yet I think we can do better. Much better. We need to create a better generation of infographic. Better, faster, stronger. Come on! We can do it!

WordPress just keeps rolling along. It gets bigger, more popular and the good times just keep rolling. The big dogs use it, the little ones as well. You should use it as well. I can help you.

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Great article over at ADBUZZ. It’s an article written by Mat Zucker from OgilvyInteractive. The article written is called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me”

Myfavorite piece of advice?

Know your content better than anyone else.

I love it when he says…

But don’t be lazy and stay at surface level and rely on everyone else. Clients notice and remember who truly knows their business down to the widgets they produce and the number of factories they have in which countries. Your judgment as a creative and future creative director gets stronger and we trust you more if you do. And when you get in really deep, I’ve found it’s easier to swing very, very big.

This is how we operate at Smack Smog. We don’t like to make fluff content. We learn as much as we can about your venture so we can help you in the deepest and most sincere manner. When we learn about your business we can better learn how to create amazing content. When we create amazing content we establish creative pathways that utilize social media. These amazing pathways develop positive relationships with your customers, create leads and improves your business. When we establish relationships with our clients we work for the long term relationship. Not the the quick sale.

Smack Smog will never be an Ogilvy Interactive. As much as I completely respect them its not who we want to be. Smack Smog strives to be a small company that has big ideas and does great work for our clients. We are more then pleased with our amazing clients and creating amazing content for them. There’s room in the sea for everyone who does great work.

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So I’ve ran across this blog entry called “Don’t Call Yourself a Social Media Strategist if you are a Recent College Grad: Do What Bryan Crist did to Land a Job” I think the title says it all but here are some of the things I like from this article.

If you call yourself a “Strategist” I am assuming you have launched digital campaigns from the ground-up and have demonstrated good results.

I see recent college grads with absolutely no work experience call themselves ‘social media strategists.’ Come on now, you got to work for that title.

I think this article just really struck a cord with me because I see every Tom Dick and Harry “Doing Social Media” without the depth of experience and chops to back it up. So I’d just like to say GREAT JOB Priya Ramesh! I enjoyed reading your article on Buzz Bin!