Learn Social Media with Google Webinars

Google has these great Webinars on Social Media.  A Webinar is a seminar on the web. Each one will help you learn one of the many aspects of doing social media for personal or business use.

Google Webinar Site


Give them a try to learn more about what Google products can do for you.

Designing Your Social Media Presence.

Two of my favorite Social Media Influencer's  Martin Shervington and Dustin Stout have this excellent video on Design Plus.  This is what you should be thinking about before and during the design phase of your website, blog or your social media posts.

This video will teach you more in 35 min. than spending 3 months on social media sites.

Do You Hangout ? How To Use Google's Hangouts.

I like Google Plus.  There, I said it.  I like Google Plus better than Facebook, better than Twitter and better than all the also ran's.  I use it everyday, it has become the connectivity for all the different interactions I have on social media networks.  One of the best things Google has endowed Google+ with is the Hangout (Hangout is the evolution of Google Talk).  Google Hangouts allows you to video conference up to 10 people in a single call with each party able to see and hear the others.  How cool is that.  Family get together can include folks not able to attend, businesses can have joint meetings without the travel and time costs and worker/colleagues can collaborate on projects.

When you are in a Hangout, one person acts as a moderator and drives the event.  This person can do a variety of different functions while the event takes place.  There is a large main video of the person speaking and what looks like a filmstrip across the bottom of the others participating in the event.  The moderator can let the main video change automatically with whomever is speaking, or select the person to be in the main screen.  Additionally, there are some great tools that can add to the experience.  The moderator can share his/her computer screen; great for new program roll-outs and presentations, and there is an ability to do remote control of a persons computer.  This feature might be used in a new software installation or tech support call (the receiving remote control user must permit this action for security reasons).

All in all, I love this product from Google.  The future is now, and people will be video calling instead of just audio calling.  There is a newer version of this product called Hangouts On Air that allows for 10 video callers and over 200 chat connects, were each person can see the chats sent by others and the event is a Live broadcast over YouTube.  Then afterwards, YouTube saves the event so you or others can view it later or send the video to others.  Great for question and answer sessions for businesses or schools.  Oh, did I say this product was FREE!  All you need is a Google Account (get a Gmail account, even if you have another email service).  Here are some links to get you started.  The first is for you computer or laptop, the second is for your Android phone.  Let me know what you think.

For your computer or laptop:

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Google%2B-Hangouts


For your Android phone:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-use-google-hangouts-on-your-android/

Hometown Blog taking off!

I didn't know at the time I started the "Hillsboro Today" Blog that it would do as well as it's doing.

We had over 100 hits on the blog in the last three days, and the word is getting out. In a town of only 2600+ people that's very good.  Word of mouth is the best form of advertising and with 100 hits in a couple of days we're doing something right.  We will continue to put up interesting content and information the people of Hillsboro would like to know on a daily basis. Thanks to everyone that helped Hillsboro Today grow so fast, so quickly.

New Blog for Hillsboro, MO. called Hillsboro Today

Blue Marlin Computer Services started a new Blog today called Hillsboro Today.

Hillsboro Today Blog

This blog will be dedicated to all things Hillsboro, MO.  We'll be posting articles about Hillsboro, it's businesses and prominent citizens.  The blog will keep followers updated on local construction projects, events and all the other things going on in our town.  Check it out!

Good Ideas - Snowball

I was checking my Google Plus stream this morning when one of the people I follow Christine DeGraff had a post regarding Following Google-Plussers on Twitter.  Well, needless to say everyone jumped in and all of a sudden everyone's Twitter Followings jumped this morning.  This is an example of a smart person realizing she wasn't using her Twitter feed enough and coming up with a great way to not only increase her Followers, but get back to using Twitter again.  The effect of everyone else jumping in was tremendous, within minutes my other Twitter feeds were drowned out by all the new feed from Google-Plussers.  Thank You Christine DeGraff (Follow her @ChrisDegraff) for a wonderful idea to increase everyone's exposure on social media.  You really should be on Google+; there are many more like Chris on this network with great ideas.

Social Media Cover Photos

One of the things we all struggle with is the Cover Photo on our social media page.  I have found many great tools out there in social-medialand to help with the creation and editing of the Cover Photo.  Here is one I like from a company called Raidious.

http://www.raidious.com/uncategorized/support-your-owned-media-strategy-by-creating-graphics/

Try it out next time you change the Cover Photo and let me know what you think.

Raidious Social Media Cover Photo Tool