Those of you who have been following us on Twitter know that the last couple of days we’ve been talking about whether people like Blogger or Tumblr more as a quick and effective blogging platform.  Because of the response that we got, I wanted to feature some of the responses we received on our blog!  Please note, that we are in no way trying to say that one system is better or worse than the other- we just want to help our readers make informed decisions when they choose whether to use Blogger or Tumblr (or both!).

So, Blogger or Tumblr?

Last week we asked our Twitter followers which platform they preferred to use, Blogger or Tumblr?  Here are some of their responses and a little more about each tweet:

One of our followers, Gazalle, was the first to respond and told us that she liked Tumblr’s services.  I sent her an email and asked her to expand on this a little bit and this is what she had to say, “I think Tumblr is very simple to use and straightforward. I also think that its purpose is a little different than Blogger…I consider Tumblr a photo and video based blog more than a written type. I didn’t actually continue with my Blogger account because it was time consuming and confusing.”  She even provided us with an example of what her Tumblr looks like- check it out!  You provided some great insight Gazalle, thanks for your help.

In my opinion, Thomas did an extremely good job of summing it up- Tumblr is a fun way to blog!  He also makes a great point when he brings up WordPress, saying that it is a more professional way to blog.  I agree with this for a number of reasons: First- there are a ton of themes to choose from and you can customize your WordPress site to look almost anyway you want just by downloading a new theme and Secondly- if you are “web-savvy” you can completely customize your own theme to make it look exactly the way you want (that is, if you install WordPress onto your personal site instead of hosting it on WordPress.com).  Thanks for your input Tom, and readers- let’s help Tom out by voting for him as the new face of about.me!

Our friend Jake Kaskey brought up the extremely good point that Blogger and Tumblr are too different to compare.  He’s right, how can you say that blogger or tumblr is better if it’s like comparing apples and oranges?!  In response, we mentioned that we were just comparing the two on a level of “quick, simple, and effective ways to start blogging”.  Thanks for bringing this up Jake, we weren’t thinking this way but you brought some great insight to the conversations.

Last but not least we have our friend DoralyP who was more in favor of Blogger. She said that people actually BLOG on Blogger, where as Tumblr is more like a collection of “Random moving images and quotes of people’s emotions.” She brought up a good about Tumblr’s functionality as well saying that “You can’t even search for people who are blogging.” From her perspective, Tumblr is more of a running journal of thoughts and emotions that people are sharing where those who use Blogger are actually creating something of substance. Thanks so much for your thoughts DoralyP!

I can’t thank all of our followers enough for providing their thoughts on Blogger or Tumblr, I couldn’t have created this article without you!  Now that you’ve seen what some of our friends have to say about these platforms, what are your thoughts?  Please let us know how you feel in the comment section below.

1. Ryan Stephens

Stephens is a huge advocate for relationship marketing, and he loves to incorporate sports and sports theory into a lot of his marketing advice. His blog is fun, interesting, and always ahead of the curve.

See: Creating Higher Quality Stimuli

2. David Spinks

Spinks, is the founder of none other than BlogDashDavid Spinks’ blog is full of his views and opinions on the current social media trends, as well as other business-related musings.

See: Does Your Startup’s Name Matter?

3. Bradley Will

An accomplished entrepreneur, Bradley translates his experience into this great blog. He outlines everything from his personal experiences to how to to make the mistakes he made while starting out.

See: 21 Inspirational Movies for Young Entrepreneurs

4. Shane Mac

Shane Mac has an extensive list of accomplishments, from entrepreneur to musician to philanthropist. He has a unique grip on business in the 21st century and his posts have great messages for other young professionals.

See: How to Quit Your Job and Not Ruin Your Future

5. Matt Cheuvront

After co-founding a branding service in Nashville, Matt started this new media blog. It takes you along on his journey as a rebel against rules, norms, and the status quo. Take a look at Life Without Pants and see how much you can learn from Matt’s experiences!

See: Defining Success: What is Your Greatest Accomplishment?

6. Jackie Adkins

For everything marketing, social media, and professionalism related, The Curbside Marketer is one of the best resources a young person can have. Jackie’s posts are refreshing and helpful.

See: The Limits of Intellect

7. Matt Wilson: Under30CEO

One of the co-founders of Under30CEO, Matt Wilson is a huge player in the blogosphere. He loves to help people understand how to not only jump at opportunity, but to create it for themselves.

See: Top 6 Reasons Beginning Entrepreneurs Fail

8. Jenny Blake

For everything career-related, Jenny Blake’s blog can help. For those who are about to or have just graduated college and don’t know what to do, this blog may very well become your new best friend.

See: You Can’t Make Everyone Happy. So Stop Trying and Start LIVING.

9. Sydney Owen

Sydney’s blog includes articles on sticking with your life goals, skydiving, networking and more. She can teach you how to get your dream job from nothing and how to build a living from what you’re passionate about.

See: Fear and Dreams and Getting Back up After Falling Down

10. Carlos Miceli

Owl Sparks, Carlos’ blog, puts a philosophical spin on marketing, branding, social media, love, and friendship. His short, thoughtful “sparks” inspire discussion and his followers are some of the most loyal in the blog world.

See: A More Positive Outlook on Flaws

11. Elisa Doucette

Ophelia’s Webb is a fantastic source of inspiration for young (especially female) professionals. Her posts are informative and empowering, relevant and actionable.

See: Harry Potter is the Boy Who Lived. Hermione Granger is the Girl Who Studied and Saved Everyone

12. Grace Boyle

Grace’s blog has a common thread of relationships and technology woven throughout. Her personality comes out in her posts: many of them relate back to her hobbies and interests, and yet they are still widely useful.

See: How to be Liked When You’re the New Kid on the Job

13. David Stehle

Among all the technology, business and branding information on this site, David shares a lot of personal posts about love, relationships, and his dog. After reading only a few articles you will see why his readership is so huge!

See: Branding Yourself as a Narcissistic A**hole

14. Samantha Karol

Samantha’s blog has a focus on journalism and thoughtfulness. Through her blog, Samantha teaches us how to live without fear, be thankful, and live a joyful life. Her posts are poignant and unfiltered.

See: If I Am Not For Myself, Who Will Be For Me?

These are our favorite Gen-Y blogs but if you think we might have left any out, please let us know in the comment section below!  Have a great weekend.

In the past couple of weeks or so, it seems like Google did something right in terms of social media. It almost seems ironic that Google, the Internet’s biggest search provider, has failed to release a solid social-networking platform. Either it was too complicated, or just not popular enough, Google hasn’t really found their special sauce. But now they have with Google +, and it’s not only blossoming into a sizable force to be reckoned with, but really changing the game for content owners.

Google+ Makes ‘Friends’ More Realistic

See, with sites like Myspace and Facebook, you’re either friends with someone, or not. Being “friends” allows you to send messages to one another and share content (photos, video and links). Those who aren’t you’re friends are limited to the the content you choose to be public (usually profile pictures, and some profile information). In the real world however, things don’t really work that way and that’s what our friends at Google realized when developing their new service.

Google+ organizes all of the people you are connected to into what they call “circles”. You can have your close friends in one circle, your co-workers in another, and your business associates in another circle. This allows you to separate the content you share into your circles, so your boss won’t see the crazy night you had.

Google+ Makes Content More Valuable

And how exactly does this make content more valuable? Well, think of it as an issue of trust. Would you rather trust a close friend, or a friend of a friend of a friend? If your close friend posts a link to your circle, you’re probably going to be more inclined to click it than if it was a stranger on a constantly updating news-feed. This allows for a very easy distribution of content, across a very versatile medium.

This is precisely the reason that Google + has been so successful, despite not even being public. It ensures that the content that you share gets into the hands of the people that you want seeing it most. It’s going to be very interesting to see how Google + will adapt to it’s user base during it’s beta phase. I think it’s safe to say that Google finally found the winning formula.  To view some other reasons why Google+ is going to be a success, check out 10 Reasons to Jump on the Google+ Bandwagon!

What other features do you like about Google+?  Let us know in the comment section below!

For any questions regarding Google +, or another other social-media platform, don’t hesitate to contact us at WebConnection!

Stay tuned for our article about Lorenzo Von Matterhorn coming soon!

I Love Blogging!

The world of blogging has exceptionally grown and is now drawing more attention to people of all ages. Blogging is no longer just for freelance writers, but ordinary people. From food blogs to political blogs, everyone is stepping in to share their voices in the topics that they truly believe or admire.

As a personal blogger myself, the thrill of blogging increases when you have more readers. You grow a fan base as if you were a celebrity. Readers are excited to see what’s coming up next!

When I first started blogging, I focused on my daily life as a student living in Boston. Blog posts had included pictures from my college routine to my adventures on the streets of Boston. Readers were engaged in the stories and pictures I was sharing, and I was able to slowly gain a list of followers on my personal blog on Blogspot.

Lisa Lillien, who now has her own television show on the Cooking Channel, started a healthy food blog called Hungry Girl. Launched in 2004, Hungry Girl’s reader list grew to one million, making it’s blog popularity tremendously well. The food blog gained some press on WeightWatchers.com, Seventeen magazine, People Style Watch, the New York Daily News, and Good Morning America.

Whether it’s for personal interest or promoting your business, the power of social media is effective and a huge change for today’s generation.

Many bloggers like Lisa Lillien have drawn a numerous amount of attention from so many readers around the world, and it’s astonishing to imagine that it’s just through a blog post a day. Share the power of social media now through your own personal blog.

To view the best top blogs of 2011, check out TIME Magazine’s list of best blogs of 2011.

How to Start Your Own Blog

Starting your own blog is just as simple as it sounds. First, you need to decide what kind of blogging network you would like to use to create your personal blog. Blogspot and WordPress are usually two of the most popular choices for bloggers. Other blogging networks include livejournal, tumblr, and typepad.

Deciding What to Write About

Many blogs have certain topics that they focus on, such as food, fashion, politics, etc. When starting your blog, make sure you have an aim at what you want to focus on. Not all bloggers go in the direction of one topic, many choose to discuss on types of topics on their personal blog and there is nothing wrong with going into that direction. It’s your blog. Feel free to exhibit all of the self expression you need.

How to Gain Readers

The hardest part about blogging is to find readers that would be interested in your blog. Every blogger wants to get their blog out in the open and to gain as much publicity they can. Try to find other blogs that you may find interesting or similar to you blog. Leave comments on those blogs, and don’t forget to add your blog website link! Other suggestions in gaining more readers would be to advertise your blog. Many blogs and websites are always looking out for anyone to advertise or sponsor their site. Keep a look out for those blogs, and send them an email for advertising and sponsor information.

Lastly, it’s very common for people to get what’s commonly known as writer’s block while trying to write a blog post- don’t worry!  If you’re looking for ways to get over your blogging mental block feel free to click the link for some help.

On Monday night, I was fortunate enough to interview Michael Stelzner, Founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com and author of the new book “Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition.” In this interview, I speak with Mike about the meteoric growth and success of Social Media Examiner.

Just two weeks after launch in October, 2009, Technorati rated Mike’s blog among the world’s Top 100 Small Business Blogs. Within 12 months, Social Media Examiner acquired more than 40,000 email subscribers and earned over $1 million. In just 20 months since launch, Social Media Examiner has been named a top-25 business blog by both Technorati and Ad Age and a top 5 small business blog by Technorati. 

Mike had no previous experience in social media.

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Below is our conversation:

Jim: What was the genesis behind the idea of Social Media Examiner?

Mike: I noticed that there were very few blogs that were dedicated to the deep content that people were seeking. There were lots of “social media experts’” that were sharing their opinions and there were lots of marketing publications that were talking about social media but there was no “magazine” that was dedicated to bringing together experts and really diving deep into the how-to details.

I didn’t get the sense that there were too many really savvy businesspeople that were behind some of the social media publications, so I decided to reach out to my friends in the world of writing and marketing. I asked, “What do you think about starting something that we’re going to call a magazine and that will hopefully take the marketplace by storm?” That was kind of how it all started.

We were very strategic about launching it right before BlogWorld in Los Angeles in October of 2009. We launched it two days before that event. I was walking around carrying a microphone in my hand with my little Social Media Examiner flag on a microphone.

I was walking around at the event, flagging down everyone I could…I walked up to Technorati’s booth and said I would like to interview their CEO and they asked, “Who are you with?” I told them I was with Social Media Examiner and the gal at the table took out her iPhone and typed in Social Media Examiner and said “Oh you’re with Social Media Examiner, of course, we’ll be happy to let you interview our CEO.” And we were only a couple of days old.

Why do you call Social Media Examiner an online magazine?

I knew that the people I would be targeting were small business owners and marketers. I knew marketers would be very familiar with what a blog is but knew that small business owners would not necessarily be familiar with blogs. I chose a term that would be universal because everyone knows what a magazine is. Typically a magazine, unlike a newspaper, has the deeper content that comes out less frequently.

I did it to try to differentiate myself from Mashable, which essentially and still is the leading newspaper in the world of social media. I didn’t want people to misconstrue that we were trying to compete with Mashable.

I knew that everybody knew what a magazine was so I tapped the vernacular that made sense to the reader and that’s why I called it an online magazine. Ever since I did that I noticed that everyone in their mother started calling their sites online magazines…I think it clicked and stuck. People know what it means and it conjures an image in their head.

When did you find your calling in life?

That’s a great question…when I was in my late 20’s I was working in corporate America. I got wrongfully terminated from my job because the boss thought I saw him doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing, the CEO of the company.

That forced me to essentially figure out what I was going to do…the first thing I did was go out and buy a video game system and figure out what I wanted to do.

I was a product marketing guy so I went to some of the manufacturers of the products and asked if they wanted to hire me. And they did and things were good, I didn’t have to market myself much, it was all word of mouth. My mentality was “as long as people are willing to hire me, I’m willing to do whatever they want me to do.”

Eventually what happened was the tech market crashed in 2002 and I had been servicing high tech. I lost a lot of business and I had to come to the realization that my spaceship had always been floating kind of aimlessly without a vision.

At that point I realized that I really needed to figure out what I need to do and go after it hard-core. I chose to be a specialist in whitepapers. I focused on establishing myself as a thought leader in the world of whitepapers, which are crosses between articles and brochures used by big businesses to help them sell their products and services.

That was the beginning of the first ah-ha moment because I had a baby girl, I had to get food on the table…necessity forced me to figure out what I was going to do. Then I just started going for it and it worked beautifully. I graduated Magna Cum Laude from the School of Hard Knocks; I didn’t know what I was doing. I tried and failed and tried and failed and tried and failed, and refined and refined and refined until I was able to figure it all out.

My goal when I started making whitepapers was to build an audience first and then have a book and this is exactly what I did with Social Media Examiner. I built an audience and then came out with a book. I learned along the way that the best way to sell something is to have the audience to yourself and that’s what’s great about being a publisher. When we own the audience and we are the publisher then we’re setting ourselves up for success and we’re not reliant on outsiders, we’re middlemen.

How did you transition from whitepapers to social media in mere months?

I was very successful with whitepapers, I got to the point where I was making $30,000 a month writing for big corporations like FedEx, Dow Jones, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft and I didn’t need to do anything, literally I was set for life. I could have written whitepapers for the rest of my life but it got a little monotonous and a little old.

I saw a lot of my friends singing the praises of Twitter and Facebook. I said to myself, “I gotta figure this out; I think we’re on the cusp of something humungous here.” I reached out to my friends who knew social media and asked,”do you want to be a part of something? You know my track record.” I had already been coined the king of whitepapers by many of my peers. Marketing Sherpa called me the Grandfather of Whitepapers, even though I’m only 43. I had already proven that track record in bringing high-profile individuals together to make stuff happen.

I decided I was going to go for it. It happened over a dinner at a fish restaurant in San Diego in May and in October the whole thing was born.

What has been your bread & butter for your blog…your “evergreen content?”

It’s a combination of everything. The stuff that has a really long tail, meaning its content that seems to bring people back again and again and again are the forms of nuclear content that we produced like The Social Media Marketing Industry Report that we come out with every year.

We surveyed thousands of marketers and asked them what’s the biggest question about social media marketing that you want answered? How many hours have you invested in it? What tools are you using? What are you planning on using in the future? We started with that in 2009 under my prior business Whitepaper Source Publishing. That was a test run to see whether we could produce a piece of nuclear content that could help us in leading up to the launch of Social Media Examiner.

It’s an enormous amount of work to create these kinds of things that we just give away for free. This incredible evergreen content has had the biggest long-term effect and is content that to this day people are still tweeting about.

Tell me more about your Social Media Success Summits. How have these helped grow your business?

The way we monetize Social Media Monitor is through these events. The mentality is you get all this good free content from us every single day, the hope is that the reader will ask, “well how much more will I gain by buying a ticket to this event that is online?” We do one on blogging, one on social media and one on Facebook each year.

We typically get 20 to 30 high profile presenters…usually these are people who have written books or that are practitioners at big brands. For example, we are working right now on the Facebook Success Summit. We have Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment, as the keynote and we have a ton of people who have written books on Facebook such as Mari Smith, Amy Porterfield, Dave Kerpen and Jesse Stay.

We create these incredible opportunities to bring top names in the world in a niche together in a virtual setting. We typically have thousands of people from around the world come to these events to hear from these experts. We had about 3,000 people come to our last event, a Social Media Success Summit, in May.

I noticed that you include an ad on your emails to subscribers? Is this another channel through which you make money?

It depends. Sometimes the ad is just a favor for a buddy. That is the only vehicle through which we do advertising. We also do advertising for our summits as a vehicle. 

The article is the reason why they open it. They have to click through to read the whole thing. Through that “daily feeding” of content to our audience, we give them the opportunity to come to our free events, like our webinars and Facebook Fridays, where we bring experts to the table and occasionally we’ll advertise our own events in there…that’s what I call the back-channel or secondary channel where commercials live. On our website we never have commercials, we try to keep it completely advertising free. If we do advertise anything, it’s always something free.

Right now we are advertising a free chapter of my book. The idea is to keep the primary channel commercial free, so when people go there they receive it as a great piece of valuable content that is perceived as a gift, not as some sort of a bait piece to get them to do something. We hope that they’ll want more and sign up for our newsletter.

What’s your top piece of advice to small businesses looking to blog?

My number one piece of advice is to figure out who you want to reach and precisely what they’re interested in…sometimes thatmeans you have to talk to people, reach out and survey them, get on the phone with them and find out what they’re interested in.

When you give people exactly what they want then they’re going to love you and want to come back for more. At the core everyone wants great insights, access to great people and they want recognition, if you can figure out how to meet these three needs, then you’re going to be off and running very quickly.

The core of it all is focusing on the needs of people and not on what your personal desires and interests are…don’t focus on trying to pitch and sell, instead focus on what people are truly interested in and focus on developing these relationships with these people.

Those are the people who will share your content on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Those are the people that will evangelize you to the hills. They may not buy from you but they will do something better, they will market the heck out of your content for you and they’ll bring people back time and time again to you. They will be extremely loyal. And that’s where everybody seems to gets it wrong. People are so focused on trying to do the sale and convert people, instead of focusing on what peoples’ true desires and interests are. If you can re-focus your efforts on “how I can help you,” than “how I can sell you”…then you will find success.

What’s next for Social Media Examiner?

In the long-run I’m going to continue to do what we’ve been doing and we’re going to continue to grow…we’ll be well over 100,000 subscribers in the next couple of months. As long as social media continues to change, there will be a need for Social Media Examiner.

My real desire is to write children’s stories. Someday I want to stop all this and write stories for kids. That’s my true passion and figure it may be in 10 years that I’ll be able to do that. For now, I’m going to keep doing what we’re doing, which is helping people figure out this crazy world of social media.

Check out Mike’s latest book: Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition.

Quotes, Pics and Vids

Tumblr offers a range of posting options to make sure your blog is diverse. You can still choose to post text post after text post, but pictures, videos, audio, “chats”, quotes and more can be uploaded to your blog. With a wide variety of themes to choose from, you’ll feel like an individual in a community. Your Tumblr can be both professional and personal by adding different pages to your one main blog, as well–whether you want the more personal or professional side on display for all to see immediately is up to you. Regardless of how personal you allow your blog to be, it is still important to be concious of what you are posting–especially when you reblog from another user. If your Tumblr functions as both a slightly personal and professional outlet, language used, types of images posted and bits from your personal life you do share online.

The Ask Option

Perfect for a professional or business seeking input on a product or their quality of work, with just a click of a button after visiting your blog, the online universe can easily converse with you in a convenient inbox. As a user, you also have the option of allowing followers and other Tumblr users to “reply” to your post–meaning they can write a limited character response to what you have written, which will show up under notes and on your post feed. Just as others can easily communicate with you directly, you too can reach out to others and make some deep connections on the blogging site.

Feeling Uninspired?

There are millions of Tumblr users. If you’re at a loss of what to post on your blog, there are literally millions of posts going up on different blogs. Reblogging is always a fun and easy way to find people who have similar interests, to feel more like part of the community and to add some diversity to your own personal site. With people posting at all hours of the day from all parts of the world, you may find yourself getting sucked into the Tumblrverse and spending hours upon hours blogging every day. Do not be alarmed if this happens. Tumblr is your friend, only an enemy when you have lots of other work to do.

Blogging shouldn’t be boring or hardly interactive. You should have fun online, even when you’re looking to take your career and online presence to online levels. Though Tumblr can often seem like it’s more fun and personal than professional, it is an excellent outlet to make new connections and spread the word rapidly about your work and business. So, keep calm and tumble on!

So here are 12 blogs to start off your list: from making your first Twitter handle to developing a killer Facebook strategy, these 12 blogs will be invaluable resources.

1. Almost Savvy

If you truly have no idea where to begin with social media, reading this blog should be your first step. Irene Koehler will guide you through the world of social media with helpful tips and thorough advice pieces.

See: 8 Tips: How to Choose the Right Profile Photo

2. Brian Solis

Brian’s blog is part of the marketing niche, but he has strong social media ties and writes insightful articles on everything from musing pieces on generational issues to the best ways to win a customer for life.

See: @ is the Universal Sign of Engagement

3. Social Media Influence

Aside from consulting and conferences, this blog offers the most up-to-date changes in the world of social media, and how you can use them to your advantage. When new versions of Twitter or Facebook are released, you can count on Social Media Influence for all the info!

See: The Most Tricky of Conversions: Turning Facebook Fans into Customers

4. Danny Brown

Danny Brown is an experienced marketing expert, and his blog is all about the social side of marketing and PR. His articles are short but succinct, and his insights on the various social media outlets really get you thinking.

See: 9 Points on Why I’m Not a Social Media Expert

5. Windmill Networking

Neal Schaffer’s blog consists of mostly advice and opinion pieces, which are often tied into current events or other news developments in the social media world. His take on topics is truly eye-opening.

See: Why I Blog, and You (and Your Business) Should too!

6. Michael Durwin

Another seasoned social media expert, Michael Durwin provides interesting content on the newest and most innovative social marketing strategies. He can change your mind about things you thought you were concrete on in one short article!

See: If You’re Not on Page #1, You’re Nowhere: Google Users Don’t Click Next

7. Chris Brogan

Chris is a contributing columnist for Entrepreneur magazine and best-selling co-author. His acclaimed blog is anything and everything social media.

See: The Biggest Secret of Social Media

8. OneForty

Twitter is OneForty’s area of expertise- but their blog covers every aspect of social media in how-to’s reviews, advice, and new pieces. This blog is a must-see for anyone with an internet connection.

See: The New Social Media Revolution

9. Social Media Informer

The Social Media Informer is a blog that does all the hard work for you: they compile all the best social media content on the web into a neat, information-packed daily newsletter. If you’re looking for a compact round-up of all the social media news, SMI is your blog!

10.  Media Badger

Media Badger’s digital media consulting clients include government entities, NGO’s, and nonprofits. Their social media blog is resourceful, intriguing, and current.

See: The Painful Truths of Social Media

11. Social Media Today

One of the cool things about Social Media Today is that they allow you to contribute your own blog posts, and integrate yourself in their community. In addition to the usual articles concerning social media, SMT often posts about issues concerning social media users.

See: Facebook for People Who Hate Facebook

12. We Are Social

Based in the UK,  We Are Social’s blog takes the fundamentals of what makes us human and reflects it on all aspects of social media today. Their articles are original and often include helpful infographics.

See: Google’s Social Play: The Google+ Project

We hope you get as much enjoyment/information from these blogs as we have, don’t forget to let us know about any that we might have missed in the comment section below!

Social Media is Not An Entity

Social Media is not an entity. Social Media is public relations, marketing, advertising, publishing, broadcasting, reporting and graphic design, all rolled up into one. Social Media is a tactic….it can be a part of a public relations communications plan or a branding plan. It’s a relationship-building tool…a photo-sharing tool, a news aggregation tool….I could go on and on. If you’re an expert, I would like to know how.

As with any field, accounting, education, government policy…there are principles and systems you must understand for you to be deemed an expert in that particular field. The problem is, social media is not a concrete field, it’s a tactic…and a tactic that changes depending on the user. Users engage with social media for various reasons, none of which qualify a user to be a “social media expert.” A person tweeting about how they can get small businesses hundreds of new followers on Twitter in less than 24 hours is not an expert (Internet Hustle agrees). This individual and their services do not resonate with those individuals looking to build quality relationships on Twitter. This is someone looking to make a quick buck off of people’s desire to accrue more friends and build their network. This person is not an expert just merely a capitalist.

Bottom-line: A self-proclaimed “expert” status is not impressive and more often than not, isn’t applicable to most individuals engaged in social media.

Social Media is Too Broad

What exactly is social media? Have you ever heard someone deliver a succinct, crisp definition that resonated with you? I’m still waiting for a good one. Within social media there are so many disciplines, strategies, and tactics. Claiming to be a “social media expert” is akin to being a “news expert.” Ok, so you’re a “news expert,” what sort of news do you specialize in…government policy, sports, international relations, environmental issues…you get my drift.

Social Media Experts Calling Out Their Own

Last month, Gary Vaynerchuk, serial entrepreneur, author, investor and social media guru (he’s one of the few experts who’s legit) provided his two cents on TechCrunch TV about this topic, “99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns.” He claims we’re living through a social media bubble. I claim that people are full of it and love any opportunity for self-promotion and self-aggrandizement.

Fast Company recently conducted a survey posing a simple question to 500 executives registered for Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored event in April, “What’s the most overrated trend in business today?” Their number one answer: social media. The second question was,“What’s the most underrated trend in business?” The number one answer: social media. These responses may appear to be conflicting but in reality they help to underscore the state of social media today. Everyone recognizes the power of social media and the influence and reach that these platforms have…problem is how do you measure it? What’s the value of a Facebook like? A Twitter re-tweet? A Google +1? Startups like Klout and Wildfire have sprouted up in an effort to help quantify and make sense of the social media landscape.

Simply put, if 3-year old startups in Silicon Valley are still trying to wrap their brains around quantifying the impact of social media, chances are you don’t have the answers. And chances are you’re no expert either. Quit embellishing and start learning…social media is going to continue to evolve, so should you.

The rising usage of smartphones among U.S. consumers is the cause for the discovery of QR code benefits.  According to eMarketer estimates, there are 73.3 million U.S. smartphone users in 2011, and 44% of them use their phone to research products.   In fact mobile search has become the fastest growing search segment.  Google introduced image search, voice search, and instant search to specifically make search on a mobile or tablet more convenient.

QR codes are meant to provide an enhancement to the main material on which they appear. QR codes work when the user reads it with a free scanner, usually downloaded to a smartphone. You select what the code returns – a web address or a rich media like a video or PDF brochure.  You can see other examples in this Brand Yourself post “QR Codes and Sharing Contact Information Easily”

How Are QR Codes Effective?

So how do you measure effectiveness for your brand?  One straight forward way is incorporating a tag to the URL inserted into a QR code.  If you are used to pay per click campaigns, the procedure is a similar arrangement.   Tags are made with a URL builder.  Google provides a single URL builder for its analytics solution.

So a URL that typically looks like this:

www.yourwebsite.com

…would look like the following string after adding Pamphlet, QRCode, and Neighborhood Promo, for example (with no space for Neighborhood and Promo – adding a space places a “%” sign between the words)

http://www.yourwebsite.com/?utm_source=Pamphlet&utm_medium=QRCode&utm_campaign=NeighborhoodPromo

The URL tag contains the follow parameters.

Campaign Source:   This parameter names the referral source. In this case, you would indicate what material contains the code, such as a flier or a billboard sign.

Campaign Medium:  This identifies the type of media used for campaign — email or banner.  This is where you would indicate a QR code is used.

Campaign Name:  This is the name of your marketing campaign – Father’s Day sale, Year-End promotion, etc.

If you have multiple campaigns, the URL builder can suddenly become a labor bottleneck, because it processes one URL at a time.  Many search engine marketers use a spreadsheet for multiple URL build and concatenate the final URL in the cells.   A concatenate function joins character strings from cells within a spreadsheet into one result.

You are not limited to the URL builder as a way of tagging your campaign.  Ultimately you want to use a little common sense. Ask yourself can you link the property that contains the QR code to your analytics code on the site you want to measure.  Once you walk through how your QR code viewer sees the campaign, you’ll identify the value your business will ultimately see, through pageviews, average time on site, conversion rate, or another metric.

The ultimate point of a QR code is to increase the convenience for your customers to accomplish a task or to view auxiliary information. Be imaginative and see how branding your services can also become convenient with QR codes.

Other QR Code Resources:

QR Code Generator: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

How to use QR codes in social media: QR Codes in Social Media

QR Code Wiki: QR Code Wiki

QR Code Art: QR Code Art

Dieter Rams is a designer who spent many years at Braun, creating products that range from toothbrushes to alarm clocks. His work is considered some of best in industrial design, and was an enormous influence to Jonathan Ive, the head of Industrial design at Apple.

Good design, according to Rams:
1. is innovative
2. makes a product useful
3. is aesthetic
4. makes a product understandable
5. is unobtrusive
6. is honest
7. is long-lasting
8. is thorough down to the last detail
9. is environmentally friendly
10. is as little design as possible

Read about each of the principles further here.