Here’s how!

1. Log in to the Google Apps administrator control panel.
   The URL is https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/primary-domain-name.com, where primary-domain-name is the domain name you used to sign up for Google Apps.
2. Click the Organization & users tab.
3. In the organizational tree on the left, select the organizational unit for which you want to set the available services.
4. Click the Services tab.

Scroll down to Google+ (Right after Google Voice) and turn it ON.

add google + for apps

Verify that you want to turn the service on…

And voila! You’re done and can start using Google+ with @yourdomain.com email accounts!

For Google’s help, click here: http://bit.ly/uCDL9O

These updates allow you to:

• mention another user in your status update by simply typing their first name- no longer needing to begin with “@”
• mention another user by first name rather than whole name by typing their first name, selecting the friend from the list and hitting the backspace
• direct a comment/response directly to another user within a comment thread

Previously, when tagging friends in a Facebook status, users had to precede the name with “@” in order to signify they wanted to tag someone and you could not use the tagging feature within a comment thread. You would often find that users were directing comments to others in a thread by typing “@friend’s name”. Surely, Facebook became aware of the desire to direct comments to certain individuals and incorporated the feature site-wide.

Here are some examples of how status tagging can be used:

See how only the person’s first name is used?

A friend commented on my status, so I tagged her in my response. She’ll receive a notification that I’ve responded to her. Very cool feature!

Issues (to be updated as found):

I, personally, have been having issues when updating on my profile page rather than the homepage/ newsfeed page. It still requires me to use “@friend’s name” in order to tag.

Have you used this feature? Are you liking its functionality so far? If you’ve  found any other issues with these new features, please share so I can include them in this post!

Unfortunately, many businesses lack the knowledge to use social networks. That’s where I come in. I’ve always been a social person; way back when AOL emerged as a social space, I was on every forum and chat room, trying to figure out WHY others were there, and who they were. This transpired into a full-blown career as a consultant for social media marketing strategies and online brand management (I’d like to thank all my grade school teachers for consistently flooding my report cards with comments like “Is too social” or “talks too much with peers”). I digress. Getting back to the topic…

This post is less about my social prowess and more about how you can improve your social media marketing strategies- or to get you to hire me! But in all seriousness, social media marketing is easy- once you have the foundation of knowledge to build upon.

Here are a few tips for social media marketing:

Know your brand.

We all have a “brand.” Who are you? Who is your company? What is your blog? If someone were asked to describe it, would they have a solid idea of who you are? Take some time to solidify your “mission statement,” if you will, and standardize that in the bio of every social network you’re a part of.

Know your audience.

I challenge you to rethink your target market. If something isn’t working now, chances are you’re not reaching the right people. After looking at your Google Analytics keywords, (You ARE using Analytics, aren’t you?!) spend some time on search.twitter.com typing in those keywords that bring people to your website.

Get a little personal.

While social networks can, and often are, abused by those who feel the need to share their by-the-minute activities, you can get personal without being “that person.” Knowing your audience is the first step to really interacting with them. Are you “following” them? Are you interacting with them? Do they see you as a real person or as some unnamed user profile?

Create great content.

There is nothing worse for your online reputation than doing all the right things followed by content that has either been re-purposed from another blog or that  is simply not engaging.  Fortunately, if you know your audience well enough, you’ll know what they will want to read/learn/find useful.

Dedicate the time.

We see fruitless attempts at social media management on a regular basis, and believe it or not, success can be as simple as dedicating time to “existing” on these mediums. If you don’t have the time, hire someone who does- and who knows what they’re doing! In many cases, dedicating your own valuable time to new media marketing can be more costly than paying someone who has become efficient at what they do.

Like I mentioned earlier, social media marketing can be painless. It takes patience, dedication and the willingness to learn.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them here for me!

Ok, I’m ready now.

I guess it’s a good thing, but I have been so busy with new clients that posting has fallen to the wayside. Now, it’s all engines a-go!

I’m working on a lot of really interesting projects right now; everything from Social Media Account Management for an eco-friendly clothing line to web development and re-branding for a construction company, to building a website for a Judge in San Diego, to training a company to more effectively represent themselves in the social space.

Not to mention managing -or trying to manage- my own blog, as well as a side blog called We Travel and Eat. Jordan and I are currently rebuilding the site to focus more on providing others with useful travel and food tips in all the places we visit.  So while it’s a work-in-progress, it’s coming along quite nicely if I do say so myself. Check out our Facebook page!

We’re also establishing an Llc; a creative studio for all things web development. It’s a pretty exciting process and I can’t wait to be a partner in something that already has projects in progress, checks post-dated for its first legal appearance, and doesn’t even have a Tax ID number yet. Soon enough though. By the first week of February, we’ll be able to charge credit cards, bill through Paypal, and invoice straight through our project management tool.

So, while it looks like (from the frequency of blogs posted) I’ve fallen off the face of the Earth, I’ve actually hand my hands in a little bit of everything. Secretly, I think I adore being overwhelmed.

What are you working on these days? Would love for you to keep me updated!

In any case, I decided that I had to take a quick break from the madness that has been my life to post an entry. Things have been really great lately, business is keeping me busy (hence the title) and the close of the semester has been harvesting quite a bit of stress. Regardless, my spirits are high and while my energy is low, I’m managing to stay sane!

I’m in the process now of changing career lanes. I’m still on the same road, with more or less the same emphasis, but I’m leaning more in the direction of Social Media representation as the means by which I pay the bills.

I’ve been reading a lot of white papers and case studies lately by companies like Burson-Marsteller, Cohn and Wolfe and InkFoundry. I’ve also been looking in to internships at the aforementioned as well.

So, such has been my life. Late nights researching social media, putting off laundry day until it can wait no longer, and balancing financial independence with my last year at Pepperdine. Life is great.

Journalism isn’t dying, it is merely taking on a new shape; adapting to the ever-changing environment that we have created.

The Internet.

The first of two major issues in the industry is that with the emergence of limitless internet connection, blossoming social networks and an affinity for instant gratification among nearly every demographic, micro-blogging sites like Twitter, photo hosting sites like Flickr and Twitpic and hosts like WordPress are giving everyday citizens the ability to become citizen journalists.

Citizen Journalism is creating a new temperature for the industry; information is unbiased and honest, but the quality cannot be controlled. Because information is more readily available, and consumers are finding it to be convenient and unbiased, our traditional news sources are losing the following they once had.

The second major issue is we see today is that more and more people are finding their news on the Internet, but most of the papers are making money from their print advertisements. This, being completely ineffective, means the print newspapers will have to adapt to online endeavors and subsequently charge a fee for their offerings as well as make money from direct-targeted online advertisements. In order for it to be effective and efficient, however, each of the newspapers would have to implement this business model simultaneously and without wavering from the newly-set standard.

Just as technology gains momentum and adapts to our needs,

professions and skills must also adapt.

While picking up a bulky 4-section newspaper may not be completely convenient in our fast-paced lifestyles, it is the duty of learned Journalists to make moves to adapt to the needs of their readers.

Patrick Thornton, blog writer of The Future of Journalism, states very wisely that If you’re not willing to work on the Web, do more than write, get your hands dirty with code, blog, be a social media pro, etc, than journalism isn’t for you. Those currently working for publications should be hyper focused on making the same content available online as it happens in order to adapt to the changes in modern Journalism.

So, while most think Journalism is “dying,” I challenge you to explore the idea that yes, there are significant differences in the way we dole out news, but the change is both necessary and exciting. We need to take the future of journalism into consideration and initiate a renaissance of sorts. A rebirth of Journalism.

All my bags are packed and I’m on the go
I’m Tweeting here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye.
But new topics are trending, it’s early morn’
The taxi is waiting, he’s tweeting porn
Already I’m so lonesome, I could cry

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4hsC0nRvZM&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6]

So tweet me and cybersmile at me
Tell me that you’ll link to me,
“List” me like you’ll never un-folloowww

I’m leaving on a jetplane, Can’t tweet til we take off again
Oh Twitt, I hate to go000,
There is so many times that I’ve left town
So many times I’ve @replied around
I tell you now those twits don’t mean a thing.

Every place I go I’ll tweet with you
Every song I sing, I blip it to you.
When I come back I’ll wear your wedding-ring

So tweet me and smile for me
Tell me that you’ll tweet @ me,
Tweet me like you’ll never un-folloowww

Cuz I’m tweeting, on a Jetplane.
Can’t tweet til we take off again.
Oh Twitt-love I hate to go,

Now the time has come to leave you
We must take off, let me tweet you.

Close your phone, I’ll be on my way
Dream about the days to come, I wont have to shut my phone
and I won’t have to say…

So tweet me and cybersmile at me
Tell me that you’ll link to me,
“List” me like you’ll never un-folloowww

Tweet it. Here’s a shorter link for all you twits. http://nzod.com/tweeting

One group member wrote in and said something profound… or maybe it’s just common sense. “If you care so much about your intellectual properties, STOP UPLOADING THEM TO PUBLIC WEBSITES”.

I have to say, I couldn’t agree more. The same people kicking and screaming are the same ones uploading picture after indecent picture and posting status updates that are debatably legal.

Facebook member Peggy said “This stinks…..many of my photos are of my creations. My jewelry is my living….I dont want to share my photos or ideas”.  My advice is to get a website, host it somewhere other than Facebook and I think you’ll actually make a better living. Copyright your photos. If you don’t want to share your creations, you might want to refrain from posting them on facebook- a network that shares every aspect of your being if you let it.

The media are invoking fear in Facebook users by creating titles such as: “We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.” The real issue here is not that they’re claiming our information, but that we are uploading information onto this thing… no big deal…it’s called the World Wide Web and that, my friends, means it’s available to everyone.  So, if this is a problem for you, head into your Privacy Preferences and uncheck the box that declines the publication of your information on the web.

Company legal representative Susan White clarified in a statement today. “We used to have several different documents that outlined what people could and could not do on Facebook, but now we’re consolidating all this information to one central place,” she said.

For those worried about their writing, photography, illustrations or any other kind of creative innovation, this might be of note to you.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt read a public statement  on Monday- “We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload. And indeed, Facebook’s terms of service do say that ‘User Content and Applications/Connect Sites’ are exempt from its claims on content ownership.” He continued, “The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site. That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc…), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend).”

Be careful what you post, you are your responsibility.

Spring (photo) cleaning anyone?

Ask not what Facebook can do for you, Ask what you can do for your Facebook. What do you think about all this commotion??

I like that I don’t have to be uber professional and bland. There are some pretty good writers reviewing on yelp too, which makes it an educational site too! Okay, but seriously, I really am learning a lot about my writing and other peoples’ writing as well.  Which Yelpers are getting their reviews read?

I’ve only been on Yelp a couple weeks now but have already started noticing some key elements. Yelp is its own world; they have a language, a community and a personal side. Some people really get into posting threads on forums about their personal lives (and some of them I’d rather not read). Some Yelpers are really dedicated to the site and spend countless hours posting in forums, rating restaurants, creating Unofficial Yelp Events (UYEs) and giving out “compliments” to Yelpers who have written good reviews. These countless hours are essentially what make you an Elite Yelper. Elite members go to Elite Yelp Events and spend time posting, threading, rating, reviewing, complimenting and marking reviews as “Useful, Funny and Cool.”

Overall I think Yelp is a pretty great site for writers and restaurant connoisseurs alike. To see some of my reviews check out my Yelp site.

I guess this unintentionally turned out to be a review of Yelp.com itself… maybe I should stop reviewing for a few days

If you’re on yelp too, let me know!