Tag Archives: Google

How to Best Use Google Plus

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What do you think about this new communication platform? It is a hit or miss?

In social media circles Google’s new social networking platform Google Plus is the most talked about new shiny toy. With Google Plus, people with gmail email accounts can organize their circle of friends in logical groupings and easily video chat with 10 people or less at the same time.

Many of its functions are similar to Facebook, so early adopters can understand its practical functionality.  For instance, you have status streams of recent posts from your friends on Google + and it easily allows for sharing of photos and video too.

If you haven’t received your invite yet to to Google +, don’t worry you will soon. I’m sure its Google intention to have everyone in the world on their social platform. Just wait, your invitation is forthcoming.

I’ve been experimenting with it over the last few days and I still am not sure of all its bells and whistles. So, with that, I’ve interviewed two social media strategists, Stacey Soleil and Darin McClure, about their views regarding Google Plus and that interview is below.  Enjoy and let me know what you think.

 

Add Cindy to your Circles

 

About the Author: Cindy Ronzoni frequently interviews colleagues about the latest new advancements in social media. Today, she tackled Google + with two experts who attend her social media club, Social Media Mastermind of Orange County (SMMOC). If you have a question about a social media tool, just let Cindy know. She’ll try and get an answer for you.

 

A Sleek and Exciting 2011

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I love the look and feel of these new Vizio products.

Isn’t the New Year exciting?

Yeah, I know it was tough getting back to work today, but man, with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and the Television Critics Association in Pasadena both starting Wednesday, the world will not be short on news and innovations. Talk about starting out the year with a bang!

During this morning’s read, the papers were full of digital and electronic announcements. I mean have you been noticing how Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung, Verizon and AT&T are in the news every day. These companies are now being covered like the rest of the Fortune 100 businesses. Pretty fast movement, I’ll say…it just took Facebook a little over six years to become one of the hottest companies around.

As a voyeur of news trends, I also couldn’t help noticing over the holiday break how much mobile and ebooks were being discussed. Those topics and computer tablets pretty much controlled the space – that, and the rise and fall of consumer shopping. Oh and the weather too.

VIZIO’S VISION

But, the best news that I believe that will be coming this year deals in the advancement of tablets and phones and their integration with flat screens. Today, Vizio gave us a sneak peek into their efforts with the announcement of its own Via tablet computer and Via Phone. What I like about what Vizio’s strategy is that each one of their devices will have the same look and feel. And better yet, they will be less expensive than the competition. Vizio so gets what consumers want. They want the latest electronic gadgets, but at affordable prices. They also want them to be user-friendly.

I mean my Apple computer has a different operating system than my DirecTV DVR and my Blackberry phone. Sure, I could buy Apple TV and an iPhone for integration, but there are reasons why I don’t. I am holding out for the day when Verizon offers an iPhone and then my Blackberry will be DOA.

I also like what Google is up to with its Android system. They too are making that system user-friendly and are working with numerous manufacturers to create universal operating devices. I like this approach a lot and am keeping eye on what Google is up to, especially when it comes to self-publishing.

FOLLOW CES AND TCA TWITTER STREAMS

I love that our electronic world is getting easier to use and understand.  That just helps out everyone. Remember the days of programming your VCR and how impossible that feat was?

As a news junkie, this week is like the Super Bowl with these two conferences in session.  If you want to be up to speed on what’s being developed for the next year and observe breaking trends and news makers, then here’s my advice to you. Be sure to follow the twitter streams for #CES and #TCA.  By doing so, you’ll know what to expect this year.

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. The energy is invigorating and full of hope and promise. I  hope you can feel it too.

Cindy

Bing vs Google 9/11 Standoff – Bing Wins

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Google is known for its special logo designs representing major events and holidays. These logo transformations are humorous, thoughtful, unique, eye catching, interesting, entertaining and enjoyable. They are also surprising for you never know when they will feature one on their main search page.

Bing on the other hand features a unique, eye-grabbing photo each day on its main search page. I am sure great thought goes into the selection of these amazing photos. I love these photos.  They’re beautiful.

So, with today being the ninth anniversary of September 11 – I was surprised to notice how Google remembered this tragedy.  They only added the 9/11 remembrance ribbon. This low-key design was classy and did say that they recognized the event of the day.  But, I really felt that they could have done more.

Google went for an understated approach for 9/11

On the other hand, Bing’s image certainly pays a greater homage to the day and its photo revokes great emotion.

Bing choose an appropriate emotional image to honor those fallen on this day.

Bing wins in my vote. Which approach do you like best?

My prayers continue to go out to survivors and families and friends who lost loved ones due to this horrific, evil catastrophe.

I will always remember.

Cindy

Fake But Fun PR

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Fake but fun twitter accounts - A PR Nightmare

In the past about the only fun a publicist could have in her messaging would be writing a creative lead paragraph in a press release.  Yes, all press releases are creative…but sometimes you get to work on a product or content that lends itself to a more informal tone in your missives.  For instance, if I was publicizing “The Last Comic Standing,” I’d probably start the release with a joke from one of the comedians.  But, I’m seeing a whole new arena now open up for us PR folks thanks to twitter with fake PR accounts.

Case in point – the @BPGLOBALPR twitter account-I first found out about it through an article in Wall St. Journal. It’s a great read and I highly recommend it — But, if you can’t take a look at it here’s the opening paragraph  for you –”A Twitter user with an account dubbed BPGlobalPR is posting satirical entries about the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — and already has more than twice as many followers as BP America’s actual account.”

Oh, the real BP PR team is not happy about this counterfeit account. However, at the same time, BP acknowledges that people are using this vehicle to express their views about this catastrophe and they are not shutting it down. The other surprising antidote about this fake PR account is that several people thought it was the real deal!  This is an interesting idea for citizen protests and something PR pros need to think about and figure out how they would handle it if it happened to a client.

To give you an idea about what they’re writing — here’s some example tweets from BPGLOBALPR :

  1. We respect your outrage, we just don’t believe it’s sustainable. #exxonvaldez #bpcares 9:52 PM Jun 13th
  2. Investing a lot of time & money into cleaning up our image, but the beaches are next on the to-do list for sure. #bpcares 8:19 PM Jun 13th v
  3. On behalf of England, I declare war on the United States. Now, does anyone need fuel for their tanks and jets? ^Tony
  4. Opening more wells in the Gulf! We’re drilling for ALL the oil down there to ensure this never happens again. #4yoursafety
  5. Millions of people live in the gulf. If each one donated just a few thousand dollars, we’d have enough $ to fix this mess. #bpcares 2:11 PM Jun 11th
  6. We are not killing animals in the gulf, we are creating fossils in the gulf. Have a little perspective. #bpcares

These fake accounts are all over the web.

In the film industry, there’s @FakeParamount. Some recent entries include:

  1. Congrats 2 Weinsteins on acquiring Michelle Yeoh film Reign Of Assassins. It’ll look good on the shelf with the other films U never release. 4:19 PM Jun 11th
  2. Wanted: Brilliant foreign directors to direct bland & boring action movies. Just like John Woo, you too can direct movies like Paycheck! 12:15 PM Jun 11th
  3. You weren’t suppose to know that selling toys comes before the script. Doh! (via @arlenecharris) you mean this one? http://ow.ly/1XmtR 12:05 PM Jun 11th v
  4. Ever wonder what would happen if the Titanic was a Transformer? Wonder no longer! James Cameron & Michael Bay unite for TitanicFormers 3-D! 10:38 AM Jun 11th

Or my personal favorite…@facebookPR. Take a look.

  1. Moving all of our servers to Sweden next week so we can really go rogue with our privacy policy 7:06 AM Jun 14th v
  2. Working hard on our new Bing-like backgrounds 6:56 AM Jun 14th
  3. Instead of location, age, relationship status, we’ll be showing advertisers your pics so they can tailor ads to you further 4:20 AM Jun 13th
  4. Great morning. Just found a way to give more of your personal info to advertisers. 4:19 AM Jun 13th
  5. Typical girl on Facebook: Hey, friend me so I can see if that girl I didn’t like in High School got fat. 7:57 AM Jun 12th
  6. Typical guy on Facebook: Hey, friend me so I can see pics of your hot friends. 7:56 AM Jun 12th

And individuals are getting there’s as well….poor Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo!…there’s a fake account for her too….I guess it’s the ultimate form of online flattery right? That’s one way to spin it….Anyway, @fakecarolbaratz….you’ll see activity like this:

  1. RT @ivan_d Yahoo is serious about social: cafeteria sandwiches named Status, Update, Connect :) http://twitpic.com/1wta2x All in a yrs work 12:25 PM Jun 14th
  2. Announcing 2 company wide bans effective immidiately: Google as default homepage setting and combovers. 11:52 AM Jun 11th
  3. About the $0.00 check @LeanBlog We’ve recently started letting users know exactly how much we value them. You got your answer, now scram. 9:17 AM Jun 11th
  4. The hype for that new Apple thingamajig is deflating faster than my futon. 1:18 PM Jun 8th
  5. <3′s Bourbon Watermelon Fridays! 4:25 PM Jun 4th
  6. I consider much of what Google does to be on par with plastic cutlery. Cheap, poor usability and disposable.

There’s a lot of people who have extra time on their hands don’t you think?  But, here’s my PR tip for you…go ahead and register a fake twitter account for your company and top CEO-but never use it.  That way, you’ll own the account names and others can’t use FAKEcompanyname for your business.  That won’t stop them, it will just make it a bit harder for them to gain some followers using a name that isn’t as recognizable.

I’m off to read some more fake news….

The real not fake

Cindy

Tips to Recovering Your Email Account When Hacked

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A Worm in Your Computer is Like the BP Oil Spill

For a couple days last month, I knew what BP Oil must be experiencing when I had an oil link of my own to contend with that kept gushing. My spill wasn’t oil, but it was a virus inside my computer that kept spreading and spreading and spreading.  For a few hours there, I was wondering if I was ever going to be able to cap the thing.  But, thankfully I did – but it wasn’t easy.  I hope and pray you never get your email accounts hijacked. It’s no fun.  And this post today is intended to be of some help in case it does happen to you.  Also, I will offer preventive tips to ensure that you won’t have the same awful experience that I had on Memorial Day.

WHAT HAPPENED

One night when I logged into my Facebook book account an unusual page was displayed.  The page was alerting me to the fact that someone or something had access to my Facebook account from Nigeria and Facebook wanted to verify that I was indeed the owner.  I did verify that I was the owner, but it didn’t matter.  The damage had already been done.

The hacking scheme was due to my Facebook account being hacked and from that, the hackers in Nigeria or wherever got a hold of my email address attached to Facebook from there figured out my password.

PREVENTION TIP #1 –

Do not have the same password on more than one account.

I made the mistake of using one password for all my email accounts and a few others.  So every account that had that same password was affected by the hacking.  The hacker then got control of my email addresses on gmail, Verizon/Yahoo and Go Daddy and subsequently froze me out of each. Thank goodness I changed my online banking password just a week prior otherwise, the hacker would have had access to that.

Hacking is not Just a Crime; it's Evil.

The evil person/company sent the following email to all my contacts, whether they were HR Recruiters, past bosses, old boyfriends, pastors, family, clothing stores or people I’m interviewing with. Everyone got this message and it was embarrassing and of course, the worst part the message was grammatically incorrect.  I would never do that or play on the kindness/emotions of others.
Subject: “Sad New’s”
Hello,
This message may be coming to you as a surprise but I need your help.Few days back I made an unannounced vacation trip to London,UK .Everything was going fine until last night when I got mugged on my way back to the hotel.They Stole all my cash,credit cards and cellphone but thank God I still have my life and passport.Another shocking is that the hotel manager has been unhelpful to me for reasons I don’t know. I’m writing you from a local library cybercafe..I reported to the police and after writing down some statements that’s the last I had from them

I contacted the consulate and all I keep hearing is they will get back to me. I need your help ..I need you to help me out with a loan to settle my bills here so I can get back home tomorrow. I’ll refund the money as soon as I get back. All I need is $2400..Let me know if you can get me the money then I tell you how to get it to me.

Thanks

Cindy
So as this criminal was blasting out that email message, I was powerless. I was unable to get into my email accounts and stop the thing.  And since the hacker changed my email settings to forward all messages to his email account, I wasn’t able to see the email messages I was receiving.  Despite being frozen out of my computer, my phone was working and as such, I started to get numerous calls from frantic people seeing if I was okay.  Several many people sent notes, texts and calls to check on me to see if I needed money.   It was uplifting to hear from so many, but, at the same time, it did make me mad that this person caused my family and friends to worry about me needlessly, especially on a holiday.

WHEN YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT IS FROZEN

Continue reading “Tips to Recovering Your Email Account When Hacked” »

Google Super Bowl Ad – Simplistic Brilliance

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Did you happen to catch Google’s 60-second “Parisian Love” commercial during last Sunday’s  Super Bowl?

Google Scores A TouchDown during the Super Bowl

My guess is that you did for the annual football contest broke all television ratings records, delivering nearly 107 million viewers. This was an incredible feat in today’s day and age, because we have so much choice now for means of engagement.  But people tuned in and watched a heart-warming, closely-contested brilliantly played football game.  It was a pleasure to watch with terrific game plays and few penalties.

But today’s post isn’t about the game and its record ratings, but about the Google masterpiece.

At first blush, I tweeted that I thought this was a blah commercial…a no brainer for us that use it regularly.  But, after much thought, I was in awe of its simplicity and how well it described its true function. The commercial was on point and perfectly described what it did and then some.

For if you really think about it, how else would you describe Google other than its an amazing search engine.  It’s made to search and search everything.  Thus, this commercial was spot on.  Perfect.  It was true to its product and use.

It also is a great reminder to all of us who create messages whether its a press release, a promo, a viral video or a Yelp page.  Is the message clear?  Does the message depict the product?

A great example of a failure in this area is the Go Daddy commercials.  For those unfamiliar with its web products, you would have no idea what the product is.  It sells shock and awe and Google sells class.

So keep to the message. Stay on point. Be true to who you are and you will see it will pay off in droves.

Hats off to Google.

Also, did you get a whiff of what they are up to regarding social networking with Google Buzz.  You can learn more by watching this demo below.  I can hardly wait to start using it. I love gmail.

What did you think of the Google ad? Do you believe in a simple approach or a one that leaves you with a shocking message? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Best,
Cindy