Google+ has been up for a few weeks now and it’s all the rage. Will it fly or will it flop? Honestly, I don’t know. But, I’m doing this imaginary Q&A to show that I’m relevant and on top of the new stuff.

Q: What is Google+?

A: Google+ is the Big G’s latest attempt at creating a social media platform. After the abysmal failure of Wave & the less abysmal failure of Buzz, they’re giving it another shot. To oversimplify it; this is Google’s version of Facebook.

Q: What makes it different?

A: The big big difference between Facebook & Google+ is the concept of grouping people you follow into circles. You can choose which circles you share a post with and in doing so, not annoy your business friends with a constant stream of lol catz videos. Think of it as being able to target your posts. (altho, at this point, most people are sharing everything with everybody which is kind of a fail if you ask me).

Q: Can I promote my business there?

A: For right now, they only have personal accounts, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t promote yourself. Business profiles are coming at some point in the near future.

Q: Should I even waste my time with this?

A: Only you can really answer that. There are currently no tools like Hootsuite to cross post to Google+, so you’ll have to post manually. Those things will arrive soon, but for now you’ve got to do it the old fashioned way unless you want to resort to some hacks that aren’t for the entry level geek, if you know what I mean.

Q: How do I sign up?

A: As of right now, you need a invite. Which means that you need to beg.  If you want one and I know you, send me your email address and if I’ve got any, I’ll shoot one your way.

If you want to take the jump, Mashable has a nice cheat sheet to get you started. And, you know, add me to a circle. You can find my profile here: https://plus.google.com/117859567275558223886/about

Spotted at Sahara’s down the road from McDonald’s.

The real secret is to be awesome.

Don’t bribe your customers to brag about you online. Be so amazing that they can’t help but do it.

What would be awesomely cool is if they could include a way for locally owned businesses to get in the mix, instead of just the 70 national retailers that they include in the search.

It’s not a matter of Google leaving out the little guy out o spite. There’s logistics to consider. Haw do you get the info to them and keep it updated with a reasonable amount of fuss?

Ah, well. Maybe someone will come up with an idea on how to do it without breaking the bank.

Update: The always on top-of-things @WilliamLang points to this:  Google Merchant Center

I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to miss seeing these things all over the place. Altho, I did enjoy where Pantano’s swapped his name for “America” and “Service” on some of his signs.

Check out CoolWilmington.com for the deets: http://www.coolwilmington.com/

I saw a Re-Tweet of this tweet (profanity warning) Sunday night and it got me to thinking that with all the new location based services like FourSquare, Gowalla & TriOut, we really face the possibility of check-in overload. It’s not a new thing. When Brightkite came out and one could push their updates to Twitter, there was a similar outcry of, “Hey, go easy on the updates!”.

I mean, really, who cares if I’m checking in to the KFC for the 5th time this week?

But, on the flip side, if someone might see something out of the ordinary and post a picture of it (like the monster pancakes from @CosmicKitchen) then I’m more likely to look at it and go, “hey, that’s pretty cool.” and file it away mentally for future reference.

So, maybe the strategy shouldn’t be to get all your customers to broadcast every single time they check in, but offer something different & unique that’ll be tweet-worthy. Good marketing tells a story so give them something that they *must* tell their friends about.

Congrats to all the guys at StarNewsOnline.com! The MyReporter.com website recently won the Citizen Media Award in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.

And what can you take away from this? A little quote from their announcement says it all…

“Executive Editor Robyn Tomlin had noticed editors and reporters were connecting with readers on Twitter and other social networking sites, and she saw that readers appreciated the personal connection to people who reported the news.”**

Using social media isn’t about just blatantly promoting yourself. Tootin’ your own horn a bit is ok, but if you’re not making personal connections then you’re probably not going to get a whole lot out of it. In fact, if all you do is toot away, you’re probably going to come off doing a good bit of damage.

link: MyReporter.com wins national media award

** BTW, local TV stations should take note. Simply tweeting teases like you’re tossing to break isn’t going to cut it.

We take clean drinking water for granted. We go to the sink, fill up a cup and off we go, but 1.1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water.

This Thursday night, the social media types in Wilmington will be gathering for the Wilmington Twestival to raise money for charity:water. Charity:Water is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing clean water to developing nations where unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease.

One of my favorite clients, Indo Jax Surf School, has generously donated a week long group surf lesson to be raffled off. There will be other prizes, drinks, food and the chance to meet a lot of local people that you may only know by their screen names & avatars. Plus, you’ll literally be saving lives.

Tickets are $15 online & you can get them at http://www.amiando.com/twestivalwilmington.html.

Credit goes to Ty Downing of Perspective Internet Marketing for kicking this event off locally at well as the Star News and a whole slew of volunteers & local businesses that are donating their time and resources.

What: Wilmington Twestival
Where: Port City Pub – Wilmington, NC
When: February 12, 2009 – 6:00 PM
Why: Charity:Water

My wife and son discovered the Arboretum here in Wilmington this week. So, we spent parts of Saturday & Sunday afternoon there taking pictures and trying to keep the offspring from falling into the water features.

Ah, good times.

The Arboretum is free, open to the public and a beautiful place to relax for a little. We especially like the Japanese Garden area, but we are biased that way.

Link: The Arboretum @ New Hanover County
More Photos: My Puny Flickr Set