Many Hangouts these days. Once again Mick Sharpe sorts through and mentions good ones.

Many Hangouts these days. Once again Mick Sharpe sorts through and mentions good ones.
#hoashows  

Originally shared by Mick Sharpe

Midsummer Madness

Well we’ve had the solstice this week and things show no signs of slowing down on the Plus. Lots of great posts, great conversations and great Hangouts on Air so let’s dive straight in.

Driving faster than the Internet

HOAs are an extremely flexible tool allowing innovation and creativity in bucket loads. This week in the The Mia Connect Power Chat - Cars, Cookies & More (http://goo.gl/FpZU1i) Mia Voss and Debi Davis take a Tesla Motors Model S out for a live test drive while DENNIS N. DUCE handled the tech duties admirably. Mia and Debi had a great deal of fun in the car (who wouldn’t?) and managed to break the connection by driving too fast! Add the great commentary from Alissa Barry and a walk around the Tesla showroom and you have a great overview. Then a switchover to cookies with Tami Mowen Steggell to wrap up an innovative show. Great fun as usual from Mia. The #BatCrapCrazy #timestamp post here (http://goo.gl/5QwUjW)

The Why  of it

I think it’s important for every business owner to know the reason behind any business activity so I was particularly pleased to see that message coming over strongly in a few business oriented HOAs this week.

Get some sage advice from The Secrets of Effective Website Design (http://goo.gl/6YWSAk). Part of the #ContentWarfareTV series from Ryan Hanley - you should take note of this series it really does provide a lot of value on a wide variety of marketing topics. In this episode Chris Langille shares his expertise in web development (particularly based on WordPress). It’s good to see the user-first approach advocated - this is so important particularly if your business is largely web based. Keep it simple and easy to use!

The #ISOOSIChat team tackled a very broad topic in How Words Shape Brands (http://goo.gl/4xEGEs). Carlos Fernandes, Erik Stafford, Bill Slawski and Ammon Johns held an in-depth discussion with Carolyn Capern and Michelle Lowery about copywriting and all the intricacies involved in setting the right tone, getting the right message out there and resonating with the audience. Almost everyone agreed that there was merit in taking the conversation further in a future show. If you’re involved in marketing to any degree then put the #ISOOSIChat on your radar!

Ammon was back again in The Great British Hangout’s I'm On Google+, Help Me Reach Out From Here! (http://goo.gl/lpjIrm). It’s great to see fellow Brits pushing the merits of Google+. Peter Lunn and Kath Dawson are doing a fine job raising the profile in Blighty and the complement of Phil Aston makes for a fine range of accents to entertain the World! I have to admit, as happens too often these days, I turned up late and was rightly called out. Replay mode is a wonderful thing and even though I missed out on the live comment stream the video is wonderfully informative and entertaining. Come on you Brits reach out!

It would be remiss of me not to mention Ammon’s third outing on the #DMAShow The History of SEO - What a Long Strange Trip it's Been! (http://goo.gl/z5c6G7). Always worth watching for the pearls of wisdom from Eric Enge, Mark Traphagen and Ammon but particularly so for the wonderful intro sequence Can you dig it, maaan? And for those of you who can remember AltaVista and thought it didn’t matter - think again ;-)

And here is Number 2!

You may remember Gina Fiedel’s inspirational first foray into video. Well get your #GinaFix now with Video Number 2 in the Talking Out Loud series How-To Articles: Why We Need To Proceed With Caution Even When All You Want Is To Be Told What To Do (http://goo.gl/IBHrZk). How To How To with a #GinaTwist. Go read it and watch the video embedded in the linked page - you’ll be glad you did.

Still circling

The recent relaunch of Circloscope is still big news and if you missed it (where have you been?) there have been a couple of HOAs this week that will give you a decent grounding in the circle management tool. Christine DeGraff and Craig Fifield deserved a well-earned rest! In The Secret to Building an Engaged Audience on Google Plus (http://goo.gl/2gQ2r8) Ryan Hanley talks with Craig and Christine about engagement or rather engagement with a goal. As ever with the #ContentWarfare series there is a great deal of value here for anyone involved in marketing (and who isn’t to some degree?).

Next up the pair appeared on Social Media Hangout #14 (http://goo.gl/x2BcCR) along with Andrij Harasewych, Dustin W. Stout, Ben Fisher and Eric Enge. Another fine collection of tips from the panel peppered with real life examples of how effective tool usage can help you build engaged circles for your brand pages. Dustin also gives a detailed overview of how he uses the saved filters feature to save time in his circle management. You can also pick up a little bit of the Christine DeGraff back story at the beginning of the show too.

Finally (well the last of which I am aware) we have Google Plus Circle Management Success Tools And Tips (http://goo.gl/wgWymE) from Krishna De. I really enjoyed the pace of this show and there was a lot of depth to the discussion particularly in the way Christine and Craig manage their own circles.

Do take a look at Circloscope - it really does take some of the strain out of managing circles. Obviously I’m a big fan but not without good reason. Take a breather Christine and Craig - job well done.

Just time to mention two HOAs from last night (for me anyway). Almost ran out of time this week with so many great shows airing!

The Manly Show - Reusing, Recycling, and Repurposing (http://goo.gl/fmAApa) saw special guest Jason T. Wiser joining Jeff Sieh, Mike Allton, Stephan Hovnanian and Wade Harman to talk about making the most of your content, whatever that may be. If you’re taking the time to produce good content (and it does take time) then you owe it to yourself to maximise the impact of that content by making it useful to a different audience, perhaps in a different format. Some good advice that deserves a regular airing. And remember he’s Jeff Sieh and we’re not! Thanks Jeff. #ManlyFanly

Later we had Wade Harman’s It's All Semantic-The Relationship Between Our Site & The Searcher (http://goo.gl/bcda63) featuring Pepper Oldziey and David Amerland. Relationship first is the only way to go in marketing and Wade is a tremendous advocate. Not surprisingly there is some discussion about the recent changes from Google when showing authorship details in the search results. The latter half of the show looked at the importance of relationships to our marketing. Inbound all the way!

Thinkers corner

Good to see Bruce Marko is back on form with another piece of #MarkoKoolAid. In The Greatest Stage There Ever Was (http://goo.gl/kfkqpn) Bruce shares his perceptions of where we’re at now, more connected than ever before, and all that promises and permits. Just read and enjoy!

todd l lebeauc stimulates some deep thinking about the future in Still Stuck At Zero (http://goo.gl/9Gd8nX). Todd looks at the opportunities and potential roadblocks on the journey to brave new world. I applaud his ability to question what is  and, by degrees, I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing with the points raised. This one has me wandering down different byways still - have a read and see what you think.

And finally…

All this time you thought cats were big on the Plus. Time to think again and Join the Cloudwars (http://goo.gl/GTu4rc). Yes, clouds now have their own appreciation society and Google+ community. Watch out for the noxious #NH3 clouds that seem to be coming from Mark Vang’s direction! In all seriousness take a look there are some cracking images in the community - desperately need to find some time to get out with the camera.


Have a great weekend wherever you are

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