Heideldesign: Movable Type Consultants

Owners of blogs and other websites that thrive on social interaction have faced a dilemma since the beginning of the format: How can I best receive feedback from readers? The historical answer has been an embedded comments form, powered by the underlying content management system (like Movable Type or Wordpress) or a similar 3rd party solution (like Disqus or Intense Debate). 

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I had the chance to talk to online men's magazine Man of the House about the benefits of LinkedIn, the social network for professionals.

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This guest-post was written by Mary Walker. Mary is a junior at the University of Georgia. She is studying public relations and consumer-journalism, with the intention of attending graduate school for corporate communications. Mary was recently an intern at Heideldesign. Contact her at mkwalker22@gmail.com.

You've heard about Google+, and if you're already one of the millions of people using Facebook, you may be asking, "Another social network? But why?"

It's true that Google+ and Facebook have many things in common, but there are also distinct differences. We'll outline some of them for you here.

When Facebook was created, it used exclusivity as its promotional technique. However, Google+ is using discretion. Google+ allows you to share different information with different people to simulate the variety of relationships you have in real life. For example, you wouldn't tell your best friend the same things you'd tell your boss. Why should your online profile be any different?

Now, let's break down some of the unique features of Google+, like Circles, Hangouts, Sparks and Huddle.

Circles
Circles may be the most significant feature of Google+. Circles allow users to put their friends into as many different groups as they want. By separating your contacts into groups, you can control what your friends see. For example you can have separate circles for a Ski Trip group, high school friends, co-workers and family.

The creators of Google+ are betting on the fact that not all users want to share everything with everyone. As multiple generations become heavy users of social networking, it is becoming more important to give users greater control over who can access their information.

Google+ also allows users to specify what kind of information they want to see from their other contacts. Unlike Facebook, updates are not all pooled into one location such as "Most Recent." Updates are confined to that person's circle, making it less overwhelming for users as they accumulate friends.

Friends
Google+ seems to have taken its inspiration from Twitter when it comes to "friending" people. On Google+, information sharing between contacts does not have to be mutual. Unlike Facebook, a user can follow anyone who accepts them, and yet not allow them to see any of their personal information.

Hangouts
Google wanted to bring unplanned meet-ups to the web, and thus "Hangouts" were created. Hangouts are the online equivalent of walking into a coffee shop and seeing different people you know.

Hangouts are a feature of Google+ that allows people to see who is online a have a quick face-to-face chat. Before Facebook released its video chat, this was a unique feature to Google+. But it is still very different in that Hangouts allow multiple people to be in the same room at the same time. Users can create a group chat of up to 10 people.

Sparks
Google+ Sparks is a feature that has no Facebook equivalent. Sparks allows users to tell the website the types of things they are interested in such as "sports" or "cooking" and it will bring up cool new videos or information about the topic.

Google+ combines social networking with the search engine tools already in place. Facebook allows users to share information for which they've already searched, but Sparks allows the search engine to find interesting stuff for you to post to your friends.

Streams
Streams and Statuses are interchangeable. The creators of Google+ recognized peoples' desire to know what their friends are doing and thinking. The status feature is an integral part of Facebook that needed to be converted to Google+.

Huddle
Huddle is a feature that allows you to have a Google+ chat on your phone. This allows you to text your plans with a group on your phone. It allows up to 10 people to be in the chat at one time to make organizing group activities easier. The whole conversation will show up on your phone.


Google+ was released to select users at the end of June, and is currently an "invite-only" program for people over the age of 18. Google+ attracted 5 million users within two weeks of opening.

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Savannahnow.com's story on the Great Earthquake Shake of 2011 featured quotes from Heideldesign CEO Lee Heidel. The Virginia-based quake scored a 5.8 on the Richter Scale and we felt our fifth floor downtown-Savannah office sway as the vibrations made their way down the coastline. Relevant bits are excerpted below; but you can read the entire article here at Savannahnow: Earthquake Jiggles Savannah

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Google's love for microdata is expanding to recognizing and displaying author attribution for individual web pages. Here's their original announcement from June, stating their case for extrapolating the author of an individual blog post or article: Authorship Markup and Web Search.

By: John Smith

By: <a href="http://johnsmithsbio.com" rel="author">John Smith</a>

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When planning for a mobile website, there are two ways that you can approach your project. The first method would utilize your existing site design, but optimize it for viewing on mobile devices. The second method would provide a separate, completely custom mobile layout and interface for mobile devices. Each method has its benefits and drawbacks. Let's investigate!

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In episode five of Robots, Lasers and Solar Flares, Lee and Jason talk about mobile website options and the convenience of using services like Appmakr to make custom iPhone (iOS) and Android apps from your website content.

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This guest-post was written by Mary Walker. Mary is a junior at the University of Georgia. She is studying public relations and consumer-journalism, with the intention of attending graduate school for corporate communications. Mary is currently an intern at Heideldesign. Contact her at mkwalker22@gmail.com.

If your business isn't on Facebook yet, consider this: Facebook membership has swelled to more than 750 million active users, and many of them are likely potential clients. These users spend 700 billion minutes on Facebook per month, making this social network a game-changer for the company-consumer relationship.

Facebook isn't just for individuals anymore. Facebook gives businesses constant access to their target audiences, with opportunities for direct, open communication in a friendly, non-invasive environment.

So how does this work? The Facebook company/customer relationship can be mutually beneficial in several ways. On Facebook, your customers can "Like" your business page. When they do so, it's a public recommendation of your organization that everyone in their Facebook network can see. In return, you give your fans special offers, event updates and exclusive product or service information.

Your Facebook page is also an ideal environment for two-way communication, allowing customers to leave feedback, reviews or ask questions. Having this dialog in a public forum allows you, the company, to have a positive voice - a personality - and to showcase your customer responsiveness.

From large to small, businesses around the world are using Facebook in a variety of ways. Here are just a few case studies.

Nike's "Free Arena"
Nike utilized Facebook to help promote one of the company's most successful active-wear lines to date ­­- the Nike Frees.

Nike introduced a unique Facebook page called the "Free Arena." The page allows fans to upload home videos of themselves doing something active. The posted videos include a plethora of dunks, skateboarding tricks, high dives and other stunts users can view. Anyone can upload a video - they simply have to be active.

Nike used the "Free Arena" to promote the idea that there is no right way to be active, and to encourage customers to use the gear freely.



BMW TV
Other major corporations such as BMW are using video to increase their Facebook page views. BMW utilizes "BMW TV" to upload videos about their cars, and most videos have had at least 10,000 views.



Stella & Dot

Stella & Dot is a San Francisco-based social selling company that creates entrepreneurship opportunities for women around the country. With more than 110,000 fans, Stella & Dot uses Facebook as both a recruiting and promotional tool. The company's "Opportunity" page allows women to learn how they can start a Stella & Dot company from their home.

The company also reaches out to its customers through a "Style Guide" page that shows women how to accessorize like celebrities, clips about Stella & Dot in magazines and news about their upcoming collections.

Willy's Mexicana

Willy's Mexicana is an Atlanta-based Mexican food on-the-go restaurant using Facebook to promote the company's friendly environment.

Willy's Facebook page includes a "Wednesdays Willy-isms" page where the founder shares a random thought of the day. It connects the followers to the establishment by giving them a view into the personality behind the food.



Affordabike

Affordabike, a Charleston-based custom cruiser bike shop, uses Facebook as an extension of its website. The company allows viewers to create a custom bike on the page. Once the bike is created, the user is forwarded to Affordabike's website to purchase the creation - a perfect example of interaction between Facebook and a company website.






Cool Mom Picks

Cool Mom Picks, a Heideldesign client, is a website run by moms who find intriguing new products that are mom-friendly, yet trendy.

Cool Mom Picks' unique Facebook page, "Cool Mom Tech," allows followers to become email newsletter subscribers so they can receive exclusive features, techie-trends and special offers. They also stream their latest Cool Mom Tech post direct to Facebook automatically using Movable Type.

Facebook has changed the way consumers interact with the companies and corporations they support. In response, companies ranging from large to small are finding unique ways to utilize Facebook to increase their client-base. Are you ready to do the same? Contact us to see how we can help you capitalize on the added exposure of a successful Facebook campaign.

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The new episode of tech-talk podcast Robots, Lasers & Solar Flares is now online. In the podcast, Heideldesign CEO Lee Heidel talks with Morley Studios exec Jason Ruby about Google+.

You can stream the podcast here. If you like the show, you should consider becoming a subscriber to the Delta Park Project to get a bevy of great podcasts every month.

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In March, the mighty Google added an innocuous little icon next to search results listings. A simple "+1" button. In June, they made that button available to embed directly on web pages. And now, thanks to the launch of Google+, it's everywhere.



So, what does this Plus One button mean for you, the website owner?

1. Plus Ones show up in search results.
This is huge. Google is now allowing humans to prioritize and recommend web pages, giving preference to people that you actually know. In a long list of search results, pages with +1s will stand out. From the FAQs:
 

If a user +1's a URL on your site, the Google search result snippet for that URL may be annotated in search results and search ads.

2. Plus Ones will begin affecting search result priority.
While their algorithm is still in control, there is no doubt that these human recommendations will influence how your site will be ranked going forward. As Google moves deeper into personalizing the web, preferences of those in your social circles will tailor your results on a person-by-person basis. Again, from the FAQ:

Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. [...] This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page's relevance and ranking, and we're constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality.

3. Plus Ones are already a big part of Google's new social networking website, Google+
Similar to "liking" pages on Facebook, +1s display on Google+ profiles. In fact, there is a whole section of the user profile dedicated to +1s. This social sharing aspect has been a large part of Facebook's success in driving traffic and Google is looking to leverage that as well.

So, how do you add +1 buttons to your site? You can get an embed code directly from Google. You can also use combined sharing widgets like AddThis and ShareThis to add Google +1s, Facebook Likes and Shares and Retweet buttons with only a few lines of code.
 
If you'd like to add Plus One buttons to your site and need some assistance, we'll be glad to help. Let's Talk.

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