Do they get comments and do people share their content through social media? Lots of people will tell you  ”Social Media Influencers” are the  key to social media marketing  but what does that really mean? Is influence based on number of connections? Klout , Peer Index or Kred score? combination of all of the above? How do you identify them and what do you do with that information once you think you know who they are? The short answer is all and none of the above. Visit a search site like  SocialMention.com  and enter your key topics, one at a time. Retweet a few things? MORE >>

If a lot of your friends have shared, commented or liked a story, or if you are particularly close to theperson, then it’s a top story for you. Facebook is showing off a brand new look and as usual everybody’s in a snit about it. Honestly, it amazes me that they seem to do their re-designs in a total vacuum. Any web developer knows the first rule of web design is to listen to what the client wants, collect their feedback and do a needs assessment. Personally I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot again and it’s a mistake for Facebook to chase Google Plus. MORE >>

There’s a saying in social media that goes something like this “You know you’ve “arrived&# when you’ve got trolls commenting on your work&#. But when you think about it if you are so boring that you don’t have a big following or comments you’re not good troll bait right? It’s true, the more connections you have on social media networks the more likely someone will disagree with you. Now, just disagreeing doesn’t make somebody a troll though. Trolls are a special breed. They play off anything you say in response. You decide. MORE >>

Guy Kawasaki, Britney Spears, the Dalai Lama are some of the most re-shared and commented people on Google +. Sure Google+ can be a powerful tool to share your message with, but this network is in it’s infancy, and  with millions of users your message can be left largely unheard unless you have created circles who care about what you have to say and will share it with their own circles and help you get the word out. What you need to do is dig for people who are sharing a lot, get re-shared often and maintain a level of interest in what you want to talk about. Ripples. CircleCount. MORE >>

Post URLs here with a short comment or two. I speak a lot about Google+ as a tool for business. In fact I’ve just written a book called “ Google+ for Business Tweet ” and I’m presenting a second  Focus.com Roundtable  in February. So you might think my position would be that Google+ is the be-all end-all social media network for business and people should be pitching their blogs and Facebook pages out the window in favor of Google+. And there you’d be mistaken. Here’s the thing. No way. User interface editing abilities. Notifications. Customer support. MORE >>