by Carlos Lorenzo on July 15, 2010
It’s funny how Google conditions our blogs, our articles, our thoughts. We are used to indulging in auto censorship with one eye in what we want to convey and the other on how to rephrase it so it pleases the spiders and we get some visibility. We knew how to do it cause we learn fast…but wait, just when we think we are playing the politically correct writer big brother comes and says now we go on real time search and a better index called Caffeine. Having that in mind, I have decided to change the title of my blog and the introductory words to describe what it is about. Let’s be serious, I am neither Chris Brogan nor Robert Scoble so the possibilities someone searches for Carlos Lorenzo and lands on my site are as probable as me being hit by a meteorite, so Carlos Lorenzo’s Blog on Social Media sounds more realistic and allows me to compare probabilities with more reliable objects offering less margin of error like a Frisian cow hauled by a tornado or a rain of frogs. As if with words like “blog” and “social media” were not enough (I am sure I managed to go up a couple of pages in search engines from the last place in those 181,000,000 results), I decided to enhanced the description as I said, by stealthily dropping the word Photography and squeezing in the term “social web”. These minor but essential changes will bring me out of anonymousness but hey!, remind me to publish at least three times a day, to tweet my posts and to create a page on Facebook to duplicate my work. It is time to forget about playing the lonesome rider of blogging anymore. In other words, someone pushed the button at Mountain View to go full throttle and here we are with our faces stuck on the passengers cabin walls traveling at the speed of light with no seat belts on.
by Carlos Lorenzo on February 7, 2010
Google is slowly changing the rules of the game. It is happening slowly but it is here to stay. Real time search is permeating our daily habits, the way we approach information. Although the average user is still reluctant to click on the search options and keep an eye on the latest results for more than five minutes, it is true that we are getting more demanding. This morning news are old. The classic media, even Google news, are outdated. There is a certain lag and sometimes getting the scoop that happened seconds ago makes the difference. Of course there is the broadcaster and the consumer. The vast majority of mortals cannot afford to stay 24/7 in front of a screen classifying the right stuff to give their social network the most relevant news. This implies that some people will accept being passive users and rely on the service of the broadcaster in their social circle. And this need is getting stronger than ever cause sources increase in number and speed, and trust is becoming an asset. Some time ago CNN was perhaps the most reliable source to stay up-to-date on recent events. They are still good at that but twitterers have proven to be efficient reporters, so efficient that traditional newspapers have had to accept the inevitable and implement real time widgets on their sites. And if the hot news are no more in the hands of newspaper tycoons but in the mouths of social broadcasters then you might as well be one of them.
Information is not controlled by a few anymore. Now we fully depend on the power of the cloud, the number of synapses in a neuronal system. It is time to build our social network and that my friend cannot be achieved in the isolated cell of your blog. Those times when SERPs were determined by a few keywords and a high PR are becoming rather obsolete.
1. Create and/or improve your Google Profile: Apparently Google is giving more relevance to your profile. At first it was just a pretty silly page but this year its importance has grown exponentially, up to the point that all your social circle is going to swirl around that list of innocent links you personally suggest at least for Google. They position of your links in that list seems to count so try to place your faves way up. Social search now in open beta can give you an idea of how the profile influences your circle and the results given by Google.
2. Use Google Reader as your headquarters: It takes some time to get how Reader works. It may be boring to many but it is so far the most powerful tool to control the enormous flow of items incessantly coming your way. You have to be familiar with feeds and keep it clean, nicely classified in folders. Don’t hesitate collecting as many feeds as you can but always sifting the right stuff from the useless source. I personally have thousands of feeds although I specially visit my tech and socia media folders. Keep those faves more visible. If you are using Firefox there is a nice plug-in to add PostRank to Google Reader so you always find the most popular stuff and save some time. Sharing is absolutely important. As you can see you’ve got a sharing section on your sidebar. Work on your shared items page and promote that with a link somewhere else, for example, your own Google profile! Find friends from your contacts inside reader and connect with them. This way of interaction is proving to be more relevant for Google.
3. Subscribe in as many social networks as you can and link to your Google profile if you can. Your profile is now your headquarters so it makes more sense to send your interaction over there for it to distribute the stream to your blog or web.
4. Examine real time search results and watch behavior of the latest results as they appear. What do you see? Mostly Twitter and Friendfeed. That is where you want to be then. Try to send relevant tweets that call people’s attention or share attractive stuff in Friendfeed, preferably commenting others’ shares or simply liking some. Be honest though.
5. Build up your social circle, expand it, nourish it at least once a day. Every member counts. Don’t just go for the big shots. That’s a mistake. Cohesion in the cloud is a must. Remember chess, you can beat a king with just the pawns.
6. Think more in terms of followers and the influence of your networks than in Google PR. Basically because Google is already doing so!
photo credit: TheJCB
It’s funny how Google conditions our blogs, our articles, our thoughts. We are used to indulging in auto censorship with one eye in what we want to convey and the other on how to rephrase it so it pleases the spiders and we get some visibility. We knew how to do it cause we learn fast…but wait, just when we think we are playing the politically correct writer big brother comes and says now we go on real time search and a better index called Caffeine. Having that in mind, I have decided to change the title of my blog and the introductory words to describe what it is about. Let’s be serious, I am neither Chris Brogan nor Robert Scoble so the possibilities someone searches for Carlos Lorenzo and lands on my site are as probable as me being hit by a meteorite, so Carlos Lorenzo’s Blog on Social Media sounds more realistic and allows me to compare probabilities with more reliable objects offering less margin of error like a Frisian cow hauled by a tornado or a rain of frogs. As if with words like “blog” and “social media” were not enough (I am sure I managed to go up a couple of pages in search engines from the last place in those 181,000,000 results), I decided to enhanced the description as I said, by stealthily dropping the word Photography and squeezing in the term “social web”. These minor but essential changes will bring me out of anonymousness but hey!, remind me to publish at least three times a day, to tweet my posts and to create a page on Facebook to duplicate my work. It is time to forget about playing the lonesome rider of blogging anymore. In other words, someone pushed the button at Mountain View to go full throttle and here we are with our faces stuck on the passengers cabin walls traveling at the speed of light with no seat belts on.
