Underground Party: Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Connect Tools for Being Social:

You may have noticed I just added Google Friend Connect to my blog. I have heard about Google Friend Connect for months and joined many of them on other people’s web sites and blogs. I even mentioned it on my Squidoo Lens "Who Is Rebecca Happy?" that I wrote a few moths back. I am thrilled to finally try it out myself from the installer’s perspective.

First things first. What is Google Friend Connect?
With the take off of social media sites like Myspace, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter The web has been transformed. How people communicate online is changing our lives daily.
Social media has allowed people to tell website owners what they think, want and need. They can easily share info with their friends across the platform. This left traditional website owners lacking.

The Google developers saw the need to develop social capacities for web developers so website owners could compete with the big social media sites named above. They came up with the widget Google Friend Connect. It can be installed very easily with a few cut and pastes and clicks of the button. Even for the non-techie it is pretty easy to figure out. In fact there are 3,000,000 of these widgets across the web today.

Google Friend Connect adds the social features to traditional web 1.0 sites. This way people can join your site/blog and engage more deeply with the content and the other visitors.
They can add comments and generate discussions. They can rate and review and give feedback to the site/blog owner. When they find a site/blog they like they can tell all their friends across other social networks about it very easily as it is set up with an openeID.

This is great for site/blog owners. They can respond directly and adapt to the needs of their community and keep viewers coming back. It is kind of like the office water cooler. When visitors join others sites your site is carried along with them inside their head adding to the viral effect of spreading info. This can also generate more traffic to your site.

Simon U Ford describes it as Google’s Internet subway.

Click on this Video to get a better idea of where Google is going with this.

There are indications that there will be a big influence on search engine rankings not far into the future. Social may just have something to do with it.

Please join my Google Friend Connect community and say hello.

Getting Established In Social Media Networking

I got started on social media networking seriously several months ago. Up until then I had a facebook page to hook up with friends and workmates. It took a push from a business acquaintance to really get my business going. You have to start somehwere and I am going to help you get started on the right path.

If you are new to social media and social networking and are already a hotshot in business or not you must move in the right direction by following these steps: 1. Find out who hte leaders in your niche are that are using social media marketing to build their business. 2. Find out what they are actually doing with the social media tools to do it. 3. Start hanging out on their blogs and other social media networking platforms and watch what they are doing. Start being social by adding helpful comments and asking questions.

I was reading an article by Neil Ashworth the other day about leading your tribe by watching kindergarten kids. I wondered what this had to do with social media networking and got me thinking about my first blog and who my teachers have been.

One of them was certainly Catherine who was a middle-aged woman with downs syndrome. She had the body shape that reminds me of the potato heads, round with stick legs. She was one of those people who are often dismissed because of her disability.

Catherine was the youngest of a large family and had also passed through the human warehouses we called institutions. Most people would be demolished in these institutions but one of the gifts that people with disabilities have is perseverance.

You see Catherine had a unique gift, which she used to amuse, entertain and intrigue anyone who she perceived as the leader. She had the gift of celebration and made everything a party. In order to make it happen she had to get the leaders to buy in. Catherine always knew who held the seat of power and how to position herself to be next to it.

Her tag line has always been "my birthday’s commin’ up" even if she just celebrated her birthday 2 days prior. What is more social than that? I mean who is going to pass up a birthday wish especially to a middle-aged woman with downs syndrome who has singled you out. Catherine was one of the greatest social networkers ever as well as a party in a box.

But Catherine wasn’t naturally gifted to be a star, in fact I’d say she wasn’t very good at a lot of things our society values. But what made her special was her dedication to having fun and seeking the center of attention by celebrating the leader. She did this shamelessly and without fault. Even if people shut her down, she never let them get her down.

She would find common ground with anyone. She always knew the value of herself and was unabashed at sharing it. She knew how to recognize greatness and would align herself with it, letting the others feel privileged that they were blessed by her light by acknowledging and celebrating their efforts. Catherine was authentic and worked from her strengths. Catherine stood out from the crowd. Catherine was social.

When starting online with social media networking, rather than making yourself sound like something you are not, find the leaders using social media, show up and be yourself. Be social. Help them celebrate what they are doing by being interested in them and those at the party.

Pretty soon you will be hosting one daily at your own blog. You will be the person people will look for.