It's Friday! Mick Sharpe rounds up some Google+ good gems on #FridayFavourites .

It's Friday!  Mick Sharpe rounds up some Google+  good gems on #FridayFavourites .

#googleplus   #fridayfavourites  

Originally shared by Mick Sharpe

A force for good

The second short post from me and another apology. It was inevitable that I would miss something last week and I was kicking myself when I discovered that Gina Fiedel had published another gem that slipped through my stream. Why Do You Do What You Do? What’s The Purpose? Your Purpose? (http://goo.gl/OEiVE8) will get you looking deeply into your raison d'être (I know - should be in Thinkers Corner). Always the most important question for me to ask any client and always the most important answer for you to know. I don’t think that you will have missed this but if you have head on over now. You’ll enjoy it.

And so onwards in the hope that I haven’t missed too many this week!

Exploring the data

A must see for data addicts SMTPowerTalk | NOD3x Recap Show | Ep. 2 - Nick Strong (http://goo.gl/Ws8u2U) as David Amerland, Alexandra Riecke-Gonzales, John Dietrich and Lee Smallwood analyse the data from Episode 2, The Walking Dead Hangout, TEDx Baltimore and the @Midnight TV broadcast. Some fascinating revelations and a great introduction to the power of NOD3x, one of the must have social discovery tools for your arsenal. Plaudits to John Ellis for his excellent use of the technology and oiling the wheels so well.

Doing more with less

Another excellent #RayLunchBunch focusing on David Amerland’s recently launched book. In Using SSO (Semantic Search Optimization) to Grow Your Business (http://goo.gl/T8z32L) the lunch bunch crew Ray Hiltz, Jessica Dewell, B.L. Ochman, Scott Scowcroft and Vivekananda L Baindoor Rao draw out some very practical advice for making some progress in the brave new world. Make sure you don’t create content that sucks! Consistently high value discussion from the team.

A stick and a bandana

The Theory Of Connection was the topic of this week’s Social Theory HOA (http://goo.gl/Iy4CK8) with Thomas E. Hanna | BlogPhoto.tv and Mia Voss about making strong connections through social media. Hard to think of anyone better at developing online relationships than Mia and hard to think of anyone more entertaining. As ever the this or that section will bring a smile to your face and you’ll learn the Italian for bulging eyes! Some very useful information on connecting with brands in the second half particularly with the role of brand ambassador becoming more valuable for businesses.

Being tight on time this past few weeks I have become even more appreciative of James Dearsley’s The Mid Week Marketing Mix (http://goo.gl/tDXsO3). Nazim Beltran kicks off with a look at Facebook’s Legacy feature where you can nominate a digital executor to take care of your account on the event of your death. Following with thoughts on the closure of Google Helpouts and the Pope’s Hangout! Ryan Hanley introduces his book Content Warfare and talks about the production process, true fans and the importance of audience. Do take note of the six step process. Greg Cooper brings his LinkedIn expertise to Section 3 looking at some of the latest developments there including the expansion into China. The ever helpful #timestamp post here (http://goo.gl/TPHJ6i)

An unmissable PYB Show this week (http://goo.gl/2ICo3g) as martin shervington invited Gideon Rosenblatt to discuss business models and the changes that are taking place as a result of technological advances. It is an ever changing world out there and changing at an ever increasing pace and there will inevitably be a lot more discussion around these changes as we move forward. An interesting segment on the agent learning Breakout and ruthlessly exploiting the weaknesses of the system that it’s found! I do like the tight 30 minute time frame - gives you plenty of value without that guilty feeling you sometimes get indulging in an hour long show. A big hat tip to Travis Taylor for his usual expertise handling the technical side of the HOA.

Beyond the eye-rolling

For a small business taking those tentative first steps into social media is sometimes the most daunting part of the process. Marilyn Moore shares some sound advice in Small Business and the Social Media Conundrum (http://goo.gl/Pp3LdP). Distilled from a recent HOA with Mark Traphagen this post outlines some simple steps you can take to get started and notes what you should and shouldn’t expect to achieve through your social activities. It’s great to have this material in the written form to complement the original HOA - that’s another valuable lesson for the small business owner, leading by example Marilyn.

Thinkers corner

I’m including this piece from Padraig Ó Raghaill (http://goo.gl/Lm3oCH) because it shows a few of the things that can happen here. The post itself is about the value of social sharing buttons but is less important than the comment stream. You will notice that Padraig use the sharp, pointy stick technique in the post that immediately tends to polarise the responses. Sometimes that can be effective in stimulating a good, positive debate - other times less so. The problem being that the polarisation can often lead to the ensuing conversation being misinterpreted and there was a little of that here. Certainly something to be aware of if you use the technique in your own postings. And the important thing to come from the statement in the post? Look at your own use of sharing buttons, why do you use them? Are they achieving your goals or do they annoy too many of your potential customers?

And finally…

Top marks to Nick Rink for being on the ball this week and feeding back his findings in Google Chat button - what we've seen so far (http://goo.gl/v33zoc). It looks like this could be a really useful addition to the knowledge panel results and another reason to get on board with Google+ and Hangouts. That is, of course, if the feature is rolled out en masse and not returned to the broom cupboard. Thanks Nick.


Have a great weekend wherever you are

#WeeklyRoundUp  #WeekInReview  #Google+

#BitingedgeFridayFavourites  #MicksPicks

Created by Mick Sharpe of Bitingedge