Apple wasn’t the only company who held my attention last week. I was reading Ken Auletta’s book, Googled: The  End of the World as We Know It, and was intrigued by the  innumerable ways Google has been (and continues to be) a “wave maker.”  As Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, says, “The Internet makes information available. Google makes information accessible.”

Auletta provides a great overview of how the company has evolved over the years. You probably know yourself that somewhere along the way Google slipped into your lexicon. Ultimately it became such a frequently used verb that it was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in June 2006 and to the Merrian-Webster Collegiate Dictionary one month later.

Google is creating new ways for us to access information every day. One of the best ways I’ve found to keep up with the myriad of changes is to read their official blog and checking the posts on the many other blogs they publish regularly. In fact, if you haven’t checked out Google’s options lately to see what else they’ve been up to it’s a good page to visit from time to time so you don’t miss all that they’re up to.

Here are a few recent activities of Google’s I learned about by reading their blogs:

1. In the past few weeks, Google’s Geo Team has done some great work helping with the relief efforts in Haiti using their mapping tools and publishing updated satellite imagery in Google Earth and Google Maps.

2. Google worked with PicApp to add 10 million high quality stock images from stock imagery repositories such as Getty Images. The service and use of the images is free.

3. Google added  click to call phone numbers in mobile ads.

You may also enjoy the video below which provides a great history of the company.

How has Google caught your attention over the years or more recently?

J.J. McCorvey writes in “How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business,” Inc. Magazine January 25, 2010 issue, “Marketing through social networks isn’t as much about selling your product, as it is about engaging your followers.”

How do you know if you’re engaging your social network fans and followers? The facts. Nothing but the facts!

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Last week I listened to a National Public Radio On Point segment called Where the Web Went Wrong, about the impact of social media on relationships, individuality and communication skills and a new book by Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto.

The show covered many issues, but the one I can most resonate with is the deterioration of manners, interpersonal communication and good judgment.  A 28-year old man who called in to the radio program complained that in person meetings were always interrupted by friends distracted by their devices, checking what’s going on elsewhere.  Complaints abound about the lack of manners in public places, of the lack of live personal attention. The endorphins we get from hearing a new text message come in are beating out our real, in person conversations.

This fall I watched a prominent panel of business experts talk and noticed that all but one were in wrinkled street clothes, despite the role they had at a major business conference. The moderator wore a baseball cap which concealed his face, and the presentation started with the showing of a video was predominately expletives. I was interested in what this panel had to say, but I was also offended. Maybe I am old school, but I still think that manners are important, and, it’s not just what you say, but how you say it,  that counts.

With all of the useless content one must wade through to get to the valuable insight, don’t complicate the already muddy waters with time-wasting drivel, or worse yet, offensive and glib presentations. If we take our roles as ambassadors of our brand (personal or corporate) seriously, we should respect our audience and be useful and polite.

That means, don’t clutter the email boxes of others with chain letters, don’t post mundane irrelevant updates on Twitter. Remember that you are communicating with people, not computers. The quality of your communicate (or the lack there of) is equal to your image, your personal brand.

These tools are not going away. While the way we communicate evolves, we should always bring along the basic manners we were taught before they came along.

If you’ve thought that having a working knowledge of YouTube covered your video bases, you’ll be in for a wonderful treat by reading Steve Garfield’s new book, Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business—which lets you in on some of the best kept secrets out there.

I was completely engrossed in Steve’s book which I read in one day, only stopping to try out many of the things he references. Within a short period of time,  I found myself streaming video from my iPhone on qik, creating blog posts on posterous, developing unique videos on animoto, researching mics for iPhones, checking-out vimeo, blip.tv, how to create a playlist of our videos on youtube, making a screencast on jing.

By half-way through the book I was convinced how no social media marketing campaign will be complete without video.

While high-end video cameras and experienced videographers are certainly one way to go, Steve demonstrates how by having an interest in shooting video and a wide range of tools to choose from, video is within every business’ reach regardless of your budget. Above all, Steve demonstrates how interest and passion will be your ticket.

Steve is right here to tell you about his book himself (in his video, of course!) And after viewing, keep reading our exclusive interview.

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If you spent 2009 making a business case for using social media marketing here are some tips to help you create your social networking profiles.

Before you begin it’s always a good idea to plan your pages in advance and gather the company information, usernames, profile images and other assets you will need.

For one thing the number of characters in usernames differ from network to network, the size of profile images are different dimensions, and some pages are more forgiving in terms of editing than others. Below are some guidelines for pages as well as a list of helpful resources.

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New Year’s Eve is always a time to reflect back on the past year, and this year we have the added bonus of being able to look back on the past decade.

The years 2000-2009 have been amass with great changes in our technological landscape. Today I went searching for timelines and found an excellent one on PoynterOnline where David Shedden has been keeping track of the history of new media and online journalism from 1969 to 2009. If you have the time to read through the entire timeline you’ll be amazed by where we’ve come in 40 years. It’s striking to see what changes have evolved in this past decade, and even within the past 3-4 years. The growth and changes are truly remarkable.

Timeline: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

I don’t think anyone could have accurately predicted in December of 1999 where this past decade would have taken us technologically. I won’t even venture to guess what changes we’ll see in the years ahead, and I have no doubt that they will be awe-inspiring and continue to change the way we communicate.

Best Wishes for a Happy & Healthy New Year, and here’s to looking ahead for a new decade filled with new and exciting technological advances!

MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Social Marketing Benchmark Report due out in January will no doubt be a valuable resource in shedding light on the future of of social marketing. I’m looking forward to reading it in its entirety.

From the chart published on their website and the downloadable executive summary, I was intrigued to read how even though blogging is described as a more effective social marketing tactic, it’s used by fewer organizations than other less effective tactics because of the “effort required.” This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this argument, and while some will defend the decision to using “fast and easy” 140 character tweets in place of taking the time to write a more substantial 350-500 word blog post, I think it’s time to demystify that blogging is too time consuming and effortful.

With proper planning blogging as part of your business’ social media strategy will become second nature and require less effort. What steps and processes will make for a successful blog strategy?

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If women are an important demographic for your business than it will be more important than ever in 2010 to create and maintain presences on blogs and social networking sites. The challenge of course, will not only to be discoverable in places where women search for information to support purchases, but to truly stand out.

In Helen Leggatt’s recent post, she wrote about the 2nd Annual Social Media Study from SheSpeaks which reports that women have truly embraced social networks.

Aliza Freud, Founder and CEO of SheSpeaks, states “…members were looking to social media to help them research, guide and facilitate every kind of transaction, from social exchanges to purchases.”

Over half (53%) of women say they have purchased a product because of a blog post and 43% as a result of information found via a social network. Both those figures are up from 27% last year.

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It’s that time of year again—holiday music on the radio, piped into stores. Decorations lining the shelves, and gift items flashed before you almost everywhere you look.

One of the things I love about this time of the year is the Best Lists–best books of 2009, best music, gift ideas, places to travel, places to eat, etc.

I’ve read a long list of wonderful books about social media, marketing, and all the advances in technology in 2009–and written a number of posts about them. As the year is rolling towards 2010 and into a new decade the pile of books waiting to be read has grown exponentially.

This week I’ve had the pleasure to read Eric Groves new book The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing. Eric is the Senior Vice President, Global Market Development at Constant Contact and writes with great knowledge and authority on the topic.

I was interested in the book for two main reasons:

1) With all the hubbub about Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc., Email Marketing has been losing the ranking it deserves. At times its become the forgotten stepchild of business marketing.

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In his book, The Next Evolution of Marketing, Connect Your Customers by Marketing with Meaning*, Bob Gilbreath discusses the importance of ensuring customer satisfaction. He writes, “In order to communicate meaning through your marketing, you need to look at customer support postpurchase not just as cost center but as the key to ensuring long-term satisfaction and loyalty.”

What’s good customer support? And how can even the largest companies make you feel heard and taken care of?

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