5 Best Uses of Google Hangouts!

Now this is next level engagement!!
           
    No matter what business your in or whether your just trying to reinforce yourself as a brand or go to source for information the best way to stand out is to STAND OUT! Utilizing Google+ Hangouts is perfect for engaging your followers or your prospecting clients. With Hangouts your able to conduct live conversations with yourself and up to 9 people which you could use to show off your expertise and/or demo your product all the while getting real-time input from the rest of your group, the video can be broadcasted live or posted later to be shared to the masses! Using Meta Tags you can make the content searchable and in turn engage a new audience with fresh information, giving them the opportunity ask questions about the video in the comments and if they love what they see they will share it too!

Google+ Hangout Features!

1. Video Chat with up to 9 People!

       *Establish yourself and others in your business as the go to source for information by scheduling public conversations about different aspects of your expertise. Appoint a moderator and make sure you begin with an arranged agenda and then provide the added value of the Hangout by allowing the audience to chime in with questions and let the audience steer the conversation with the information they are looking for and they will come back for more!
       *You can schedule your Hangout with a Q & A session for example and engage directly with your core audience or conduct a conversation with other experts to convey your message with in depth analysis.
       *Brainstorm publicly or privately about potential new services or products and get an immediate market response to what the public would like to see in such a product or service and even how they would like it marketed!


HINT:      ITS NOT A VIDEO- IT'S A CONVERSATION! Engage the audience for input on the topic. The end goal is to get engagement by making it fun, informative and appealing!

2. Demo your Product and/or Share documents, media or other files with members of the group!

         *We all know that some products are simply better demonstrated than explained.  Schedule a

"workshop" or demonstration of your product/expertise or both to add value to yourself and the brand or product! Show the many uses of the product beyond the typical ones that most would not think of to add even more value to the broadcast, your product, your brand and yourself.
          *Use Give-A-Ways to promote your Hangouts! I'm sure you can think of something! If your in business you surely have some overstock, if your an expert in a field you can generate some useful memes or info-graphics, etc.

HINT: Run a graphic to announce the Hangout instead of simply just announcing it on your blog or other social media. Its ok to to be personable and make small mistakes during the broadcast, your viewers will appreciate an honest representation.

3. Watch Videos on YouTube or other mediums together and chat about it!

        *It's a great idea to engage your clients with a tour your YouTube videos and other media with the client to add another level of engagement to videos and media you have already created.


4. Share your Screen with the others in the group!
   
          *Demonstrate your technical expertise by showing off! Allow the viewer to see your screen as you navigate menus, create files and graphics, or answer technical questions through demonstration. Add value by showing your audience everything that you can and will do for them!

HINT:  Build trust by pulling back the curtain! When can you really show off your skills to the client? its a lot easier to appreciate the final product when they can see all of the hard work they usually couldn't see!

5. Broadcast your chat live or record it for later! 


       *If your going to do a LIVE Q & A, post the topic nice and early this way the viewers can post questions regarding the topic and you can be more prepared to give a well thought out and detailed response.
       *Those watching your broadcast live can post comments and feedback, use this opportunity to engage the audience by replying as they come in.

HINT: After the conclusion of the broadcast be sure to post a summary of the conversation on your thread in case someone misses it. They can see in your thread if you touched on the topic they are interested in and add value to the missed broadcast by engaging someone new to be sure to catch the next one!

   

5 New Media Blogs to NOT MISS!

smartonlinesuccess.com/blog/

SMART ONLINE SUCCESS

I get Garin's updates every single morning and I always look forward to reading every one! He always has new content posted and its always interesting! From posts for beginner bloggers, motivating tips for success to LinkedIn professionals promoting themselves or trying to optimize themselves for the job search! One of the greatest hings about Garin Kilpatric's blog is that he always takes the time to answer questions from his followers whether it's tweeted to him or in a comment on the blog itself! The look of the blog is blah, very flat and kinda boring to look at so it isn't the most aesthetically appealing but focus on the wisdom and the advice and you won't be sorry! 

mediabistro.com/10000words/

10,000 WORDS

AWESOME BLOG! Features real news and great tips on New Media; tips on integrating new networks into your business, tips for aspiring journalists and great new applications and their projected impact on the online community. 

mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/

MASTERS OF MEDIA

Prob my Favorite Blog of the Day! Written and compiled by several New Media Graduate students at the University at Amsterdam currently being trained on the newest media, sharing, networks and marketing techniques to give the articles a contemporary and up to date take on everything New Media. The blog articles are obviously submitted as an assignment with a general context or question to be answered (kinda like mine!) but are all listed together so you can get a variety of takes on the same issue from very different writers! 

www.pbs.org/mediashift/

MEDIASHIFT

So, they are a little liberal...This Blog has everything!!  Produced by PBS and written by hundreds of "citizen journalists" this blog puts out EVERYTHING new media; podcasts, transmedia, social media, marketing, digital education, info on new careers in new fields and how to get in, and their "Daily Must read" suggestions will get you lost for hours! They touch on everything, including the especially critical questions that everyone is afraid to ask like "who owns all of the photos and data I upload on my social networks?" But perhaps most importantly they provide an very up to the minute take on new media in and their effect on current events which is the most critical responsibility of New Media; 

mashable.com/

MASHABLE

If you don't know MASHABLE by now, your welcome! Mashable is everything and anything all in one place! News on current events, business, sports, news, entertainment, politics and yes...NEW MEDIA! Explore Mashable and use this blog to steer you to the questions you didn't know you had. Stay up to date on the newest sites, apps, social network news and subscribe to their HOW TO's! Understand the impact of events and releases in real time written by real journalists. 

The New Digg is the king of Social Bookmarking!

       What is the key to finding the best Social Bookmarking sites? BEING SOCIAL! So I went and asked on my social networks which ones people recommended I try out and which ones were a waste of time. So many of my comments came from strangers that said to me that it really depends on what you want your results to be. Didn't really understand those replies at first so I did some snooping around all of the major social bookmarking sites to see how different the content could be. In the end they all offered the same content but what I found was that only Digg had real informative content that interested me ranked very high and very easily to find instead of pop culture content that you find blanketing news sites like scandals or useless celeb news. Of all of the social bookmarking sites that offer user generated content, allow you to recommend and share media and rate that material for other users, what makes the content that find on Digg that much better than Stumbleupon, Buzzfeed, reddit or any of the other sites?

     
        I found that some sites, like Buzzfeed for example, may have a voting system like all of the others but what really drives the traffic to the content you find is the optimizers they employ that scour the web for content most likely to go viral. Sorry guys that not how social networks are supposed to work! Other sites like Reddit, my second favorite for a few reasons, is far more democratic but the content most high ranked is generally a little geeky even for me but the site remains completely unbiased to the content and that is what socially promoted content is all about.

     
         The new Digg takes it to a level that Reddit once mastered, making the content comment system more like a forum than just people dropping their two cents as they swing by keeping the user involved. They allow likes and links and comments on comments users can link to comments to further discussion or to rebuke the garbledeegook that people post that have no idea what they are talking about. The overall usability to far more attractive than Reddit though I really don't see Reddit staying far behind for too much longer.The jury is still out on Stumbleupon, my favorite think about Stumbleupon is that you literally tell it what kind of content you like and it finds stuff it thinks will interest you! Sounds awesome but the system needs a little tuning. I found two or three articles that interested me very quickly and then I was gone. It wont be too long until they realize they can use the articles I choose to further narrow the search and constantly provide the user with newer content.When they figure that out, they will be my new number one!

The Digital/Human Connection

           Isn't it nice when a stranger smiles to you on a crowded street and for no discernible reason it just brightens you on the inside, you can't help but smile right back. And isn't it awesome how that same smile is so contagious that all the passersby that see that smile on your face get the same butterflies, sending infectious bliss rippling through the crowd. That's the human connection that you just can not define or explain. There is no compromise, there is no replacement or supplement for that human connection. Give me unlimited posts with unlimited characters and let me spill my heart to you a million different ways in text, but there is no emoticon for heartfelt emotion, not one for friendly sarcasm or to demonstrate real and true jest. Everyone says we should connect more, that we "need" to connect more. It makes us more efficient, it enables communication, it bridges gaps, allows us to network, evolve, etc. etc. etc... Honestly those sound more like the desperate cries of an addict pleading for another hit of connectivity from a digitally dependant population, rather than "real" people actually wanting to connect for altruistic reasons.
           To further yourself and your communities is what the true objective is when you connect in the "real world." School, church, extracurriculars, book clubs, beer pong tournaments all have one real thing in common, real people sharing real connections. Not one person has ever heard anyone ever say that all of this added connectivity makes us more human, if anything you hear the exact opposite but there is just too much money in the new mediums to ever go back. We have to be able to progress with the digital age without losing that human connection in the real world. You can build all of the online communities you want, create all the new and innovative applications and portals to keep in touch you want but you can never create a real community; a civilization with true human feeling, care, compassion and even forgiveness for your fellow man . The fact is in the digital medium- it just does not compute. You can have your one hundred million apps with 3 billion users and all the friends you can possibly fit into that handheld device of yours, I'd rather have a hug.
            Take the 2012 Summer Olympic Athletes Michel Morganella and Voula Papachristou as a perfect example of human emotion not transferring to the digital medium, these and all of the other Olympic athletes are performing on a such a global stage that they are icons, they are almost god like, so does that mean we hold them to a different standard? Absolutely we do, they are idols to us all but they are human like all of us and we all make mistakes. Both athletes were dishonorably dismissed from their respected teams for what was interpreted as racist messages posted on Twitter by each of them. You can't feel a persons true intent without reading their body language, your can't sense a friends displeasure without hearing the disappointment in their voice and you can't judge a persons core values in 180 characters. While I personally believe Morganella's comments to be at least slightly racist, I don't believe Papachristou's to be more than a bad joke, but regardless they both were judged and sentenced in the public eye. As a red blooded American it should sicken all of us, we all have our day to defend our actions, where was theirs? At this level of competition everyone of the athletes that are even considered have a level of heart that most can't even fathom. In the heat of competition sometimes you say things you will immediately regret, you can never take it back and it may not be forgotten but in the real world and on the field this level of excitement is understood, expected and even occasionally forgiven. Online there is no such empathy, it's typed into plastic keys but etched in stone. Those 180 characters now define them, their life long dreams-irrelevant, their dedication to their country- forgotten, themselves permanently branded as less than human because for one second their emotions got the better of them. What is this medium that it has such dominion over how the real global community judges one another?
         Often there are some things posted in one forum or another that does have the potential to add a next level of alliance between two or more users, a level that was impossible to generate in the digital world not too long ago. These events, whether they are posted videos, status updates blogs or tweets allow users to think that creating that real digital community is not only possible but inevitable, the thought is noble in its purest intent but frankly its just not feasible. There is just too many X factors in the human experience that can not be digitally replicated.  Recently, another Olympic reference, there was a video posted to youtube of the entire women's swim team singing and dancing to a popular song that gave a the viewer a more tenderhearted look into an Olympic team, adding a personal look at a group which are usually portrayed to be all work and no play. Because they were able to show that they can share a common interest in a popular song, and dance around like a couple of goofs (the way we all do when no one is looking), the result of the video gave the viewer a feeling of a next level of connectivity and made them feel involved and connected which added an even greater level of excitement and anticipation to the tournament. As nice as that is, it's incredibly rare to truly duplicate. It was dynamic and expressive as well as stimulating and full of emotion but so were the Tweets of Morganella and Papachrisou.  I'm not saying that the Olympic committee were right or wrong in their judgements, only saying that letting your emotions run free online will generally have the same result as drunk dialing, the next day most likely your gonna wish you could take back everything you said! My advice to everyone; including future athletes and anyone in the public spotlight that wants to stay there; as much as you want to share your success with those who have supported you, don't. Always be on your "A" game and be professional. As much as you want to share your emotions with your fans, friends and family, don't. People who don't know probably don't understand you and won't even if they met you, why give them an opportunity to judge you? Just a thought...