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These three things almost drove me crazy when I started using
Facebook:

–The incredibly elaborate user interface which seems to have no
rhyme or reason. Sure, anybody can figure it out, but only if
they have several hours to kill so they can make a bunch of
mistakes and then learn from them.

–Two of the most powerful things you can do on Facebook–create
pages to promote your business and create a special interest
group–are hidden behind teeny, tiny Applications icons in the
lower left corner of the screen. You can find them here.

–Everybody keeps referring to the Wall. So where the heck is my
Wall? I found it accidentally–it’s the first tab buried under the
“Profile” page.

–And speaking of the Profile page, what’s the difference between
Profile, Home and the “Joan Stewart” page? The Home page houses
your entire feed—all incoming information from all your Facebook
Friends. Your homepage and the “(Your Name)” at the top are
identical. They include all information you’ve put into your feed
and it also shows of your Friends’ replies as well as their
status updates.

You probably have your own complaints. I listed many more of them
in the blog post I wrote titled Don’t let Facebook confuse or
intimidate you, or you’ll miss out. It includes the link where
you can watch Julian Smith’s popular YouTube video on “25 Things
I Hate About Facebook.”

Google, the granddaddy of search engines, is measuring your
influence.

Let’s say you sell dog toys and somebody types “dog toys” into
the Google search box. Google will rank your site on the left
side of the screen according to several factors. One of the
biggest is whether your site includes those keywords in the title
bar, description, meta tags and copy on your website.

Another factor is how many other influential websites link to
yours.

It gives high ranking to videos, too. When Google bought YouTube
for $1.65 billion in October 2006, that was the company’s way of
screaming “We think videos are important.”

Same with Twitter.

If Google buys Twitter, chances are good that one of the factors
it will use to measure your influence is your Twitter presence,
how often you tweet and how often you join the conversation.

If your competitors are on Twitter but you’re not, what kind of
message do you think that will send to Google?

At Stompernet’s Internet marketing seminar in Atlanta earlier
this year,several speakers predicted that the search engines will
place a greater emphasis on your influence in the social networking
world.

Already, you can measure your influence on Twitter with a variety
of tools and applications. One of them is Twitalyzer at
http://twitalyzer.com/twitalyzer/index.asp

Type in your Twitter name, and it will grade your impact and
success in social media according to several factors: relative
influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity and clout.

Compare your score to the scores of your competitors.

Singing sensation Susan Boyle has been waking people up all over the world to the fact that looks do not matter when it comes to pure talent.

She has also been raising the question: Just What is Beauty?

By describing Susan as “frumpy,” and “the hairy angel,” the media is still looking at Susan’s appearance rather than her talent. But it seems she is building a new phenomenon quickly in the complete redefinition of not only beauty, but also success.

So can we now see past her looks alone as a society and start looking within?

While Susan recently said on Larry King Live that she would not change her looks, she recently got a “makeover,” which mainly consisted of a new outfit and hair style, including a new color.

“Talent and intelligence and heart are all internal; they don’t rely on plastic surgery to sustain them,” says Tamar Abrams of The Huffington Post. While a new hairdo and stylish attire aren’t exactly plastic surgery, Susan did change her looks.

Should she have?

Personally I wish she had not done anything to change herself and at the same time, (I knew it was inevitable) I have nothing but respect for Susan!

It’s clear that from over 40 million YouTube views, Susan’s fan base certainly don’t care about her old-fashioned housedress and cloud of unconventional hair.

Was it the pressure of stardom that caused it? The drive to win?

Or was it just the simple yearning to change it up a little?

What it all comes down to is that every woman should be able to do what she wishes to feel her best, and if a mini-makeover is what Susan wanted—and what woman doesn’t get a new ‘do or new digs once in a while?—then that’s what she should be able to have, without controversy.

Susan Boyle has won over the hearts of Britain’s Got Talent, Simon Cowell, and millions of people worldwide—and she did it without traditional pop star style, and with an extraordinary talent that surpasses most hip-gyrators and bare-assed divas that make it big, proving that you don’t have to look like a hooker to hook your audience.

I want to hear your opinion about Susan… please take a moment to speak your mind.

Love to you,
Laura

Pinky Power!

One of the biggest misconceptions of social networking is that
you must produce mountains of content–and still keep your day
job.

Yes, you need content galore for your blog, articles, Facebook
page, press releases, Squidoo lenses, HubPages and video-sharing
sites.

But here’s a little secret.

You don’t have to produce all of it yourself, or even most of it.
Outsource, outsource, outsource.

Thousands of competent people, many of them unemployed, would
love to work with you right now, at prices you can afford.
And smart Publicity Hounds who realize that a bad economy is the
very best time to outsource are casting their nets for the best
writers, photographers and video producers.  Those include a glut
of newspaper journalists who have joined the already crowded
market for freelance writers.

Here are three tips to get started:

–Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can help you
find freelancers fairly quickly.  Just let people know what
you’re looking for and they’ll spread the word.

–Hire fast, and fire faster.  Never let freelancers learn on
your nickel.

–Reward outstanding work.

You can find more tips in Joan’s article on how to outsource
freelance jobs.

When you’re creating video for the video-sharing sites like
YouTube, be sure your video includes six critical elements:

1. The title. This is normally located above the video and it’s
searchable. The first words of your title should be the most
important keywords of your video. Instead of “6 Powerful Tips for
TV Publicity,” my video would say “TV Publicity–6 Powerful
Tips.”

2. The description. This tells viewers what the video is about and
it should include keywords. Write two descriptions–one of less
than 200 characters and one of more than 200 characters because
some video sites take only short descriptions.

3. Tags, or keywords. When you upload a video, they ask you for
the title, the description and the tags. Don’t go overboard
repeating the same keywords you put in the title and description.
Think about other keywords that might apply. Also, you can put
common misspellings in these tags.

4. When you shoot your video, refer to your keywords in the video
and make them part of your script. Also mention your website by
name. There’s a website called EveryZing.com. It has the
capability of listening to your words in a video and turning them
into text and making the text searchable. It will probably be
awhile before everybody starts using EveryZing, but your videos
will be ready if you mention your keywords and website in them.

5. An open and closing slide, both of which should include your
website URL to make it easy for viewers to find you.

6. A watermark. This usually appears at the bottom of the video.
It can include your URL, or the name of your company or your
brand. Viewers can see it the entire time they are watching your
video.