Well, much to my chagrin, I just saw that PRNews is offering  Google+ training for $329. The first thing you want to do is create a Google profile, if you don’t already have one. Go to  Google Profiles , sign into your Gmail account, and click on the edit profile button. Google+ is set up with what they call Circles. Once you get into Google+, you’ll see how easy it is to add people to your circles. The stream is a lot like the Facebook stream. The first thing you want to do is shorten your link with the  Google shortener (not bit.ly MORE >>

Recent events involving Facebook, Google+, and other social media channels suggest businesses are now facing important decisions with respect to the allocation of their social media networking and marketing resources. Accidents are more likely to happen at intersections, and in many respects businesses are facing an intersection that involves Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and other social media channels. Facebook is For Friends and Google+ is For Business. Facebook is for friends and Google+ is for business.”. There is no filtering at all. MORE >>

Last summer, when Google+ launched in beta to the uber-geeky technology crowd, the industry was all a flutter. Was this an answer to Facebook? Was Google to be more kind with our private information? And, because it’s a Google product, the search engine giant ranks content higher if it’s promoted through the platform than that on any other social network. And, at least according to a recent survey from ACSI , users are more satisfied with it than with Facebook…mostly due to the fact that its mobile app reigns supreme. Are you using Google+? MORE >>

So we spend plenty of time on Facebook nowadays: talking, exchanging photos and just browsing. Here’s a simple example: say, I want to buy a computer and I want Facebook to help. What can I say, I am using Google most of the time and I am that straightforward. Obviously, this simple approach won’t work with Facebook: the first tab I see there is pretty much useless. People do talk about buying a computer on Facebook, do they? …Unlike with good old Google results: So is Facebook search useless? Share this on Facebook. MORE >>

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+. Google+ is a social network with huge potential for businesses, but it’s best value is as an individual user, not a business page. MORE >>