Real relationships still rule.

An email is nice – A FaceBook message is cool – Conference calls are cost effective – Getting a direct message on Twitter is awesome – Shouting out on FourSquare is chic – A new connection on LinkedIn might even be profitable someday…in a nutshell…social media is really cool, very effective, and highly productive.  Heck – we make our living with it.

Having said that…

Real relationships still rule. Yep.  Even for the geeks of the world – it’s nice to sit down in front of someone eyeball to eyeball rather than fire off a message from the iPhone.  It’s much more fun to attend a birthday party in real life rather than send a cute little message on Twitter.  You can banter back and forth on FaceBook about a business deal or a strategic alliance – but it can’t hold a candle to shaking hands and really getting to know one another.  Real relationships still rule.

So – does social media detract from this or does it enhance it?

I would submit that based on my personal situation and many, many other people that I personally know – it enhances relationships more than anything in history.  Social media can be the foundation and stepping stone to fantastic business partnerships, romances, lifelong friendships, and relationships with extended family members that would have never blossomed were it not for the ability to connect via social media.

Don’t limit yourself.  Accept those friend requests.  Go to those networking events.  Have a couple of lunches each month with someone on your FaceBook Fan Page.  This technology allows us to develop relationships – whether they are serious and long term or superficial and short term – at the speed of an Intel chip.  There is no excuse for not having a huge network of people you can call friends or a massive network business associates – it’s just too easy to do these days.

Wanna go to lunch?

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Google Buzz Ups Plymouth

Another day, another announcement from Google. Seriously, does a week go by when the search giant doesn’t unleash something new on the world?

This time it’s Google Buzz that’s grabbed the limelight. This is a social networking tool that works from withinGoogle Mail, the company’s free email service. Think of it as a kind ofFacebook / Twitter combination that you access from within your email.

How Google Buzz works

Google Buzz lets you post updates containing text, images, videos and links – basically, anything you like. These can be seen by your friends. Similarly, you’ll start to see updates from your friends appearing right in your inbox.

There’s a video up on YouTube which does an excellent job of explaining how it all works, so take a look there for more details.

Buzz promises a lot of flexibility and can automatically pull in updates from other networks, like Twitter and Flickr (though not yet Facebook), so you don’t have to check them all separately. With versions available for several types of mobile phone, Buzz seems to put more of an emphasis on location than other services.

Because Buzz is built into Google Mail, there’s nothing to set up. It uses your existing contacts to create a network of your friends – unlike, say, Facebook, where you have to manually add your mates.

If you use Google Mail, watch for a Buzz option appearing on the left. Or if you’re the impatient sort, do what we did and go to http://buzz.google.com to get access to the service straight away.

Will Buzz succeed?

There’s no guarantee that Buzz will be a success. Any new service going up against Facebook is going to have its work cut out – even if it has been developed by a true internet giant. Then there are all the other social networks vying for attention. (No, we haven’t heard of half of them either.)

However, regardless of whether it succeeds or not, it certainly serves to underline the importance of the “social web”. People are spending more and more of their time online using services like Buzz, Twitter and Facebook – and that means if you run your own website, you really ought to be thinking about how you can make use of them to build an audience for your own stuff.

If you don’t, it’s a missed opportunity. People use social networks to share links and ask for product or service recommendations all the time. And it makes sense – which would you trust more: a link found through searching on Google, or a link sent to you by someone in a trusted network of contacts? Exactly.

There are a few basic ways you can start to attract visitors from social networks:

• Create great, unique, exciting content. This is what people come to see on your website, so without interesting stuff there, you won’t be able to build a buzz about your site online. To get started, see our list of link bait for inspiration and read this information about what makes great content.
• Get on social networks yourself. The best way to understand how these things work is to use them. Your website should have a Twitter feed and Facebook page. Plus, presumably, a presence on Google Buzz. Get more help by reading these social media guides – although aimed at businesses, the advice is good for any website.
• Make it easy for people to spread the word. You might have spotted theShare and Enjoy links at the bottom of posts on this blog. They let social network users post links to our stuff by clicking a button. If your site runs WordPress (like this blog) you can do this with an extension like Sociable.

What do you think of Google Buzz? Have you had big successes using social networks to get people to visit your website? Leave a comment and let us know.

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You Tube Tips

Ab Fab Internet Marketing and Web Design (01752) 784262 or (07538) 199694

You Tube – owned by Google – is coming along in leaps and bounds.

You Tube is a fabulous way to market your business and to add videos to your Google Profile which in turn could help you do better in Google searches

• We recommend You Tube Shows – which we suspect may be the new, on the way Google TV
• We also really like You Tube Disco which collects a mix of your favourite bands videos

If you own a business, no matter the size, you need to be on You Tube!

Google Local Plymouth

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Google Checkout or Paypal

Ab Fab Internet Marketing and Web Design of Plymouth recommend Google Checkout – we use it often.  We also use PayPal but only for eBay.

Having choices in great! When there’s competition between companies, consumers will always benefit by getting better and cheaper products.

This post however is not about consumer products and cheap cell phone plans, don’t worry. It is about taking payments online. If you have a personal website or a blog, you’ve probably heard about PayPal. If not, PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service allows members to send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or promotional financing. Up until a year or so ago PayPal was pretty much the only choice for someone who wanted to accept payments online in a matter of minutes, without dealing with merchant banks, payment gateways etc.

Today, PayPal has a competition from Google with their Google Checkout service. It is just as easy to setup, and even faster (based on my experience) to pay for a product or a service. In fact, one of Google’s requirements is to let your visitors buy something on your site or pay for a service with one click of a button! We all know Google makes great, solid products and services, and you can rest assured Google Checkout is just as good as any other Google product. Again it’s all about choices, so if you’re already accepting PayPal on your site, why not add Google Checkout and present your visitors with a choice? Who knows, maybe you’ll increase your sales by gaining a share of Google Checkout fans.

Another benefit of Google Checkout is the ability to link it to your AdWords account, and any time you run your AdWords it will display Google Checkout logo making your Ad stand out from other sites that don’t accept Google payments on their website or a blog. It also adds trust and recognition to your site, which is a must for any e-commerce site.

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Google Tags

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PC Mag and Google Me

Google has managed to dominate just about every field it has entered, online or otherwise. The company has a seemingly magical combination of brilliant employees, funds, and public goodwill. For some reason, however, the search giant has failed, time and time again, to get a good foothold in the world of social networking.

Back in 2004, the company launched Orkut. The site gained a good deal of popularity in India and Brazil (where it is now located), but failed to offer much competition to sites like Facebook and MySpace in other countries, including the U.S. More recently, Google launched Buzz, a Twitter-like site integrated directly into Gmail. That property has generated a good deal of negative press since its inception.

Rumor has it that the company is gearing up for another big push in the space, less than five months after the public launch of Buzz. According to Inside Facebook, three days ago, Digg founder Kevin Rose tweeted, “Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon ‘Google Me,’ very credible source.” That tweet has since disappeared.

All heating up and all I can add is watch this space – I like Orkut, Google Buzz, Picasa and Google Apps, Places +++

If you need help feel free to call or join our Google Group for Plymouth Google Buzz Ups at the fabulous Treasury on Catherine Street, Plymouth

E Mail David

Google Me Plymouth

Twitter is way cool and a brilliant idea – BUT the “fail whale” is getting very tiresome.

Ab Fab Internet Marketing have been using Google Buzz since the beginning and it really is much more simple and has yet to fail. We like the way it integrates with our Google Apps account, G Mail and how simple it is to Buzz a Blogger post.

Twitter has had to issue sixteen official status updates in the past sixteen days to document the continual errors and outages that have suddenly plagued the service this month for reasons that are not apparent to users. And if Twitter still isn’t prepared to explain to its users the big-picture reason why its reliability has gone down to the toilet, its honchos are at least finally willing to make users laugh at the misery.

David (01752) 784262 or Android ‘Phone (07538) 199694
Web Designers Plymouth

Serving Plymouth, Exeter, Torquay, Truro, Saltash, Penzance and Points Nearby -
NO VAT!! NO LONG TERM CONTRACTS!! NO TECH SPEAK!! NO LIES!!

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Ab Fab Offering Unbeatable Pricing

CUT COSTS!  With the forthcoming public sector cutbacks and expected dive in high cost web design, blog, seo and Google adWords services Ab Fab Internet Marketing and Web Design have slashed our costs (to new and old customers) quite simply by not being greedy or needy.

• We are a small E Marketing and Web Design service based in Plymouth and can afford to weather the storm
• David Saunders knowledge of all things Google is outstanding and there is NO reason you should NOT rank well for less
• Be it  Google adWords campaign, website design, social media marketing  or organic seo WE CAN HELP!
• We do not hide away from you and are always available – our customer service is outstanding!

CUT YOUR COSTS! Let Ab Fab Internet Marketing and Web Design quote you for your marketing, advertising and Google adWords campaigns!

First we need to meet and usually do so at the Treasury in Plymouth

Thanks for stopping by and SAVE MONEY to MAKE MORE NOW!!!

Ab Fab Internet Marketing and Website Design Plymouth

86 Echo Crescent | Manadon Park | Plymouth PL5 3UQ
(01752) 784262 or (07583) 199694
E Mail david@abfabmedia.com

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Real Time Statistics

Ab Fab Web Design and E Marketing Devon (01752) 784262

Blogger (from Google) is now offering built in real time statistics on the, getting way cool, Blogger platform

We use Blogger often and it really is evolving.

• Absolutely no excuse for not having a web site now
• Very small business? Get a Blogger account and use it
• You can buy a domain name too and it’s inexpensive
• Photos from Picasa or your computer can be easily added
• Large business? You could use Blogger too – it’s easy!

Ab Fab Internet Marketing and Web Design

Plymouth – Exeter – Torquay – Truro

(01752) 784262 or (07538) 199694

E Mail Ab Fab

Google Buzz Up Plymouth

We are Positively Plymouth!

Google Buzz Ups will be starting in late July at the swish Treasury on Plymouth’s Catherine Street.

As mentioned meet ups will be one on one and geared toward businesses that know nothing about seo, google buzz, free local listings and how to rank them.

At first I will concentrate on the Association of Barbican Businesses – we’re a member – then onto other businesses.
We will be helping, with some tips and advice, Destination Plymouth members with one – two hour free consults too.

We are Positively Plymouth!

More details as they come available