At the BlogWorld Expo in L.A., Alltops, Guy Kawasaki and Human Business Works President Chris Brogan had a very interesting discussion about all things Google+.

During the session, a question was raised “Is there now connections between google plus and search rankings?” Brogan stated that:

“Google doesn’t index all of Facebook right now. It’s a lost cause for SEO, they’re also no longer indexing Twitter. Google does index anything publicly for Google+”

It should be noted that Facebook doesn’t allow it. Kawasaki chimed in that this is probably a direct result of the relationship between Facebook and Bing.

If you Google Chris Brogan’s name, you’ll see his Google+ stuff shooting up the rankings. The same holds true for anyone. When you post something publicly it’ll begin working for you, he states “It’s a Google thing”.

Brogan would go on to say:

“Google has such advantages, I don’t see how they can’t be a success with Google+ … I’m amazed that people are so skeptical, especially those in the tech press”.

It’ll be interesting to follow this and see if Google+ does reach the level that both Brogan and Kawasaki think it can.

For 5 years, WebProNews has partnered with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

Some people’s first impulse was to compare Google+ to Facebook and ask whether or not the burgeoning social network could compete with the big guy on the block.

But should Twitter worry about the impact of Google+ more than Facebook should?

At the BlogWorld Expo in L.A., Alltop’s Guy Kawasaki and Human Business Works President Chris Brogan sat down to talk about Google+’s future impact on business, and how the new social network could change everything.

During that session, Kawasaki said that he would “be more worried about [Google+]” as the CEO of Twitter as opposed to Facebook.

“Twitter is much more threatened by Google+ than Facebook.”

“I think Google+ is to Facebook what Mac is to Windows. Think about that for a second.”

What can we take from that? Google+ and Facebook = different strokes for different folks? Can the two peacefully coexist and each serve their purpose?

Kawasaki went on to describe the difference between Google+ and Facebook:

All my friends and family are on facebook, and Google+ is a ghost town for a lot of people. For me, Facebook is for friends/family, and Google+ is for people who share your passions, who you don’t know yet.

It’s true that many detractors of Google+ have mentioned that nobody they know has made the jump, therefore it doesn’t serve them a purpose. If everyone you know is already on Facebook, why bother with another social network?

According to Kawasaki, it’s for the “common passions” that Google+ allows you to connect with others.

As far as the connections with strangers aspect, that is where Google+ steps onto Twitter’s turf. Google+, with it’s system of circles, allows users to follow people in a way similar to Twitter. If Facebook is for family and friends and Google+/Twitter is more the rest – you see how the battle then shifts to Google+ vs. Twitter.

For Kawasaki, Google+ has replaced Twitter when it comes to “manual engagement.”

“As soon as I discovered Google+, I have so much less manual engagement with Twitter. I have almost no human engagement on Twitter – every single post on Google+ is manual and “only me” – no ghost writing on Google+.”

When asked why, he said:

“System notifications are so much better [on Google+]. On Twitter, if I do an @ mention, I doubt they’re going to see it. When someone @ mentions me on Twitter, I most likely won’t see it. On Google+, I’m notified every time anyone mentions me and shares with me. I get hundreds of emails a day, and I follow through on all of those.”

Just systematically, [Google+] leads towards much greater engagement. If I’m making the effort to do something, I want to know someone is getting it.”

Do you think that Google+ challenges Facebook or Twitter? Let us know in the comments.

For 5 years, WebProNews has partnered with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

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I’ll give you an example. A couple of weeks ago at SES Chicago, our own Abby Johnson had a chat with Liana Evans about the concept of ‘ghost tweeting’. Ghost Tweeting is the practice of having multiple people twittering on the same account. Earlier in the year, Guy Kawasaki kind of got the search marketers buzzing about this a little bit at SES New York when he admitted he employs people to post updates on his Twitter account.

So you have Twitter, growing like crazy, immensely popular… then you have marketers like Kawasaki doing something a little differently with it. What happens? Well, it doesn’t take long before people start to point and say things like; ‘he’s doing it wrong’ or ‘that isn’t how you’re supposed to use it’ and when folks really want to climb up and stick a flag in that moral high ground, they question the ethics. They’ll call it unethical. They’ll call it amoral. Why, I have no doubt that a few of them will even say it’s contributing to global warming. The nerve of this guy… um, Guy. Twittering in such a way. It’s unnatural.

Do you think ghost tweeting is a problem or a bad thing?  Let us know in the comments.

Now on the one hand, I can’t argue the rationale used when critics will say: it has his name on the account. It has his picture on the account. Therefore people assume that he is actually doing the talking. True, true and true… but so what? If you follow Guy, do you follow Guy because, gosh, he’s just so awesome and having a look at what he’s thinking every hour or so is just the high point of your day? Or, do you follow Guy because you like the articles, ideas and links he posts? I suppose if your Guy following is a product of the former, then, yes, you might reasonably be expected to feel somewhat disillusioned to learn that his hand may not be directly on the wheel of some of those updates. Then again, if this is the case, I would submit that you might need to talk to someone about adjusting your meds. Here’s a little revelation for you: the people you follow on Twitter are not your real ‘friends’. They are people who feel like they have something interesting (or not) to say and that somewhere someone might find what they have to say interesting enough to read it. That’s it.

Twitter ethics? Please. Morally responsible Tweets? I mean really people. I follow Kawasaki myself and have no problem suggesting you do too because he frequently has updates I find interesting for some reason or another. Does it matter that he isn’t personally typing or finding the updates? Not to me. Not even a little. He is employing people to Twitter things on his behalf and I assume, if nothing else, if they were Twittering things he didn’t agree with, like, or find interesting himself… well, he’d go get somebody else to do it. If the updates weren’t interesting, I would just stop reading them… or unfollow him altogether. Being upset because you find out Guy isn’t personally typing updates into his Twitter account is akin to seeing Michael Jordan out somewhere and being upset because he’s wearing something other than Hanes and drinking something other than Gatorade.

Was Twitter originally designed for marketers? No probably not. Again, so what? The Internet was created as a communications tool for the military. Was it designed for people to be able to order stuff from Amazon and play farm town? Was email designed for newsletters? Was video designed for porn? Ok, I’ll give you the porn thing maybe, but the rest of it? No, I don’t think so. The best internet tools are the tools with the broadest range of applications. If you have a good tool, invariably someone will use it in a way that was previously not considered or maybe even intended. Does that make the new application somehow wrong or evil?

As for ghost tweeting, I suppose it comes down to basically what Liana is saying in the video. It’s about the expectations of your followers. If they are following you because you are ‘you’ and ‘you’ are Tweeting about you (which is just creepy)… you may need to do your own updates. Otherwise, if the people following your account seem to be engaged and interested in what you are putting up there, then what in the world difference does it make as to who pushed the update button?

So where do you stand on this whole ‘ghost tweeting’ thing?  Sound off in the comments.

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> Twitter Gets Hacked By "Iranian Cyber Army"

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1. Twitter Lists

Twitter Lists are changing the game. We recently looked at several reasons why, but also consider that with the Lists gadget, your tweets may appear all over the web if you can get onto lists. They will appear on sites and blogs, which are more than likely going to be related to the niche you are in anyway if you have the right audience on Twitter.

2. The Openness of Twitter

The openness of Twitter, social media and the web in general, pretty much means that your messages on Twitter won’t be limited to your Twitter audience. Facebook and other social networks will bring tweets in. People will share them, screenshot them, link to them on blogs, etc. Twitter is a means of getting your message out to more people, but it’s not necessarily only the people on Twitter that will see those messages.

3. Building Valuable Relationships

Laura Fitton, the author of Twitter for Dummies, chalks up success on Twitter to four basic concepts: listen, learn, care, and serve. Basically, if you listen to the community, you will learn, and if you show that you care, you are more likely to get more out of your efforts. Serving means providing something of use to the community. If you what you’re not doing that, you may be setting yourself up to fail, as Fitton talked about in this interview with WebProNews.

4. Traffic That Cares

Twitter can bring you not only random traffic, but traffic from people who are actually passionate about the niche that you are a part of. Retweets are huge in this regard. Guy Kawasaki calls retweeting the sincerest form of flattery. He has a point. He notes that people are willing to risk their reputations by retweeting your content.

5. Staying Current

Being found in Twitter searches (not to mention real time search in general, which is starting to become a main area of focus for all of the big search engines, not to mention all of the standalone real-time search sites) provides a lot of opportunity for exposure. We discussed this here and gave tips for getting found in real-time searches.

6. Connecting with Local Customers

There are a variety of ways you can connect with local consumers and customers using Twitter and Twitter-related tools. There are tools like our own TwellowHood, which let you find Twitterers in your area, for example. Another thing to keep an eye on is Google’s new Social Search. It’s currently just a lab experiment, but could become more. It certainly has potential.

A recent Search Engine Land article made some good points about the potential of local marketing with this tool, which delivers Google search results based on the communities you are a part of. It draws from Google profiles, which include the networks that people are connected to (based on what any person includes in that profile). If you’re not familiar with this feature, watch the following clip, and you’ll understand.

7. Going International and Multi-lingual

Twitter is expanding into more languages. If you thought Twitter was important to marketing already, consider that for most of its existence, it has only been available in a couple of languages. Now it’s in Spanish, and many more languages will follow. That’s not only going to be huge for international and multi-lingual marketing efforts, it’s going to be huge for Twitter’s growth, and the more Twitter grows, the more potential customers are out there.

8. It’s Still Young

Consider that Twitter is just getting started in the grand scheme of things. It’s still young. There are no doubt going to be a lot more features added in the future. And don’t forget about the thousands of Twitter apps that are already out there that can make Twitter useful in different ways to different people and businesses. Take some time and explore them. Fitton’s site OneForty.com, which is like Yelp for Twitter apps, is pretty good for that. It has reviews, and people tell why certain helps have helped their businesses.

Did we leave some reasons out? Please share with the rest of us.

Related Articles:

> 6 Ways Twitter Lists Are Changing the Game

> By Tweeting, You Could Appear All Over the Web

> Twitter Expands the "Lists" Feature

> Microsoft and Google Score Deals with Twitter

Pollak talked about his online chat show at KevinPollakChatShow.com. He also proceeded to do impersonations of Christopher Walken and William Shatner, and talked about making fun of Larry King. Pollak acknowledged that his site isn’t a very good one. It’s not incredibly well-designed. It is, however, successful. He noted that he has Jason Calacanis as a partner.

After Pollak, they brought out the guys from Chad Vader, the people responsible for this:

They talked about how they got started and how unbelievable their success was. Then they brought out Jenny the Bloggess, who blogs for serveral publications. She admitted that she was a bit nervous and had to have alcohol before she came out. At that point, Kawasaki pulled a bottle of wine from the desk and they all drank out of the bottle, and handed it to the audience. It was then passed around the room.

Some people weren’t particularly thrilled with this part of the show from the sound of it. Blogger David Risley, who was in attendance, wrote this about the keynote on his blog:

The closing keynote was a bit of a train wreck. Kevin Pollack is absolutely hilarious. The Chad Vader guys and the Bloggess were a stretch. The keynote was dirty. I heard words come out of Guy Kawasaki’s mouth that I would have never expected (dude, you’ve got a brand to uphold – don’t blow it!). All in all, this was gutter-level humor I would have expected from a late night comedy special from crappy comedians on HBO. This is Blogworld and it is worthy of respect. Let’s act like it. I’m not opposed to a little foul language. I use it myself sometimes on this blog to get the point across. But, there are limits.

I get the impression, however,  that most people had a lot of fun with the keynote. It wasn’t just about fun though. There was also a point to be made.

The main takeaway was this: The web has allowed each of these people to be stars in their own way, and in ways that traditional media would never have allowed. Pollak said that he was approached by a major studio who wanted him to take his show to them, but they wouldn’t let him do 2-hour interviews, so he declined. He can do it however he wants online.

WebProNews reporter Abby Johnson contributed to this report from BlogWorld.

Danny Sullivan

Earlier this week, big media (New York Times, Disney, BusinessWeek, Hearst) lodged a bit of a tantrum because they felt Google wasn’t treating them special enough and was giving too much credit to scrapers and aggregators. Sullivan strides to the other, more populist side, saying Google seems to dote on Web-celebs like Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, and Jason Calacanis.

Sullivan’s main target was Kawasaki’s new Alltop venture, which is essentially a categorized news aggregator. (Kawasaki calls it an “online magazine rack.”) Users can select categories of interest that lead to lists of subdomains where articles on those topics are brought together. It’s not exactly a new idea, but it does have Kawasaki’s former Apple evangelist weight behind it.

We were unable to duplicate what Sullivan was seeing in his Google search results for keywords like “economic news,” “food news,” etc., but Sullivan’s good reputation precedes him, and we have no reason to doubt what he saw. Google may have corrected, or it could be a regional result variance—from here, older Topix.com, with subfolders instead of subdomains, appears high up the list. (Subfolders, unless I’m mistaken, have been traditionally more SEO friendly.)

We know that in its effort to produce fresher results, a slight tweak to the algorithm was allowing cybercrooks to follow Google Trends, parasite host on trusted sites, and gain high rankings redirecting to scareware (bogus alerts warning a user’s computer is infected to scare them into buying fake anti-virus phishing programs). That glitch appears to have been addressed, and it may have affected Alltop. 

But it still leaves the question about whether in Google’s pursuit of fast, relevant, recent, and trustworthy search results they company has unduly weighted new ventures of star players. Sullivan presents the classic class struggle flipside:

“If Joe Schmoe SEO dude came along and rolled out hundreds of domains like this, worked it on Twitter, who wants to say Google wouldn’t be down on them like a ton of bricks?”

Chris Pirillo

He then brings up Chris Pirillo’s ill-fated Gada.be, whose subdomains got the site banned in Google. The site was eventually unbanned. Meanwhile, Sullivan suggests Godin’s Squidoo received a spam-pass from Google until Calacanis torpedoed it. To top it off, Calacanis’ Mahalo, despite Google’s decree it would drop search engine results from other search engines in its index, still gets quite a bit of Google love.

“You kind of feel sorry for Joe Schmoe,” writes Sullivan. “Build a name by once having worked for Apple or by having written a few marketing books, and you seem to get much better treatment than Joe would get if he pulled the same SEO play stunts.

”Alltop, Mahalo, Squidoo — none of them dominate Google. But seriously, Squidoo has a PR8 home page? Alltop has a PR7? Search Engine Land, which actually produces original content, sits with a PR6 — but these guys that simply compile content from others get a big fat PR kiss on the lips?”

It seems likely those who’ve been used as examples already know the online marketing game very well and also carry with them loyal armies willing to link to any new venture they launch, which gives them an automatic advantage over Joe Schmoe. But it could also be that Google’s constant struggle to balance trust and relevance could also be a player.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Rubel and Kawasaki, Rubel is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman – the world’s largest independent PR firm. Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, and the author of eight books. Both are well known for their blogs "Micro Persuasion" and "How to Change the World", respectively.

The two talked a bit about Kawasaki’s company Alltop through muffled audio, and then shifted the focus to Yahoo!, who Kawasaki says "has its own share of problems." He said that if Microsoft offered him that much money, he would take it. He then went on to talk about all the PR pitches he gets.

The two of them spoke a bit about Twitter next. "Alltop would not be what it is without Twitter. Twitter has changed my life. It’s a weapon." Rubel on the other hand has trouble managing Twitter apparently.

Rubel asked Kawasaki if he would consider returning to Apple (he was once an "Apple Fellow"), to which he replied, "Apple doesn’t need me if it has Steve [Jobs]." He did say that Apple should be more open with the iPhone, and "let it all hang out."

The topic was shifted again, this time to Jason Calacanis. Guy asked the audience how many people used Mahalo. Only three people indicated that they did. The crowd erupted in laughter.

Finally, they talked about SEO, and Kawasaki gave his best piece of advice: "I don’t know much about SEO, so my philosophy is “Write good s***!"

WebProNews anchor Abby Prince-Johnson contributed to this article.

It is his own trademark reversal of a well known saying, where he likes to note that "everything that turns to gold is what Guy touches." 

One site that is definitely gold right now is Twitter, riding a wave since it’s popularity at SXSW last year, the site steadily seems to be getting more and more users.  Whereas the early reports on Twitter were that it was solely for uber-connected geeks and social media types who had nothing better to do all day than broadcast their latest feelings … Twitter is getting unexpected enthusiasts.  Guy is one of them, using microblogging to help promote his new site, Truemors … and it is just one example of how he manages to use his personal brand to promote the brands and products that he supports (or invests in).

Truemors has an interesting mission – to allow people to share rumours that are true (as opposed to gossip) and accepts user contributed headlines similar to digg or any other content sharing site.  The site’s aim is to help sift through the cascade of content we all deal with everyday.  The juiciest headlines from the site make it into the Truemors Twitter stream and are often irresistible stories to click on, such as "Hugo Chavez Offers to Pose Topless for Naomi Campbell."  Guy also uses his personal Twitter stream to ask questions designed to build buzz about Truemors or to help make it better. 

Most bloggers look at Adwords or Amazon affiliate links as their sole option to make money or get an ROI with their blog.  Others limit their idea of "ROI" from blogging to their own personal brand and nothing else.  Guy’s example shows that these are not the only ways to see a benefit from your efforts in blogging.  He builds trust and respect by continually offering content that is worthwhile and thought provoking, and along the way he integrates the experiences of the brands and companies he supports.  In the end, he avoids coming off as underhanded or selling out and actually makes his blog a promotional platform that justifies the time he spends on it. The ongoing value is clear, whether it was talking about judging a contest for Slideshare, or including a rating widget from JS-Kit.  It’s not about the ad units that he sells through Federated Media.  Guy’s blog demonstrates the power of his endorsement.  And it works too.  Because of him, I have started using SlideShare, iStockPhoto, and now Truemors.

The point is, why have a world renowned blog that thousands of people read if you are unwilling to use it to promote the companies you support?  Especially if you are a VC.  Guy’s golden touch may mean that he associates himself with the right projects, but the irony is that in the process he may just be building his own model to turn startups into gold once he endorses or invests in them.

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Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great keynote, but I hope Brett didn’t pay too much for the same presentation.

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Apparently Guy really wants links as he sandwiched his very thoughtful and humorous presentation with requests for links so he can bosst his Technorati ranking. Apparently he’s been hovering at around 46 and wants to hit the top ten.

He started off describing his backround working with Apple and Steve Jobs and very enthusiastic slant towards all things Mac. HIs recent book, Art of the Start is a best seller and serves as an interesting lead-in to his presentation, “The art of innovation”.

Started was late to the blogging game starting in January 2006 but now spends 3-4 hours per day on his blog. “If I spent as much time on venture capital as blogging, I’d be filthy rich.”

Top 10 things Guy Kawasaki has learned about innovation:

1. People who innovate have a pure motivation. “Make meaning”. If you focus on starting a company to make money rather than creating meaning, you’ll attract the wrong kinds of VCs.

He gives and example of Nike shoes – It’s not cotton, leather and rubber, it’s something that has meaning

2. Make a mantra – why do you exist?
This is commonly done at a company via a mission statement. Gives a humorous example of a 2 day executive retreat (kumbaya).

Example mantras:
Wendy’s: “Healthy, fast food”
Nike: “Authentic althletic performance”
Fedex: “Peace of mind”
eBay: “Democratizes commerce”

Why should your innovation exist? That’s what your mission statement should be, In fact, forget mission statement, it’s all about a mantra.

3. Jump to the next curve or the next level of innovation.
Example: The next innovation for a daisy wheel printer should be a laser printer, not an ugraded daisy wheel.

4. Roll the DICE which is an acronym for:

Deep: Fanning sandals that have a beer bottle opener in the sole
Intelligent: BF 104 Flashlight – takes 3 different sizes of batteries
Completeness: Lexus GS Hybrid. All the ancillary services and community around the product are make up completeness, not the product by itself.
Elegancs – Design
Emotive – Harley Davidson
What Guy really seems to be talking about is brand, although he does not ever use that word in the presentation.

5. Don’t worry be crappy
Joke: We ship and then we test. Welcome to Vista!

Ship revolutionary product, which might be crappy because it’s new, it’s revolutionary. This should cause some interesting reaction.

6. Polarize people: Examples:
Macintosh
Harley Davidson
Tivo He has 3 Tivos.
Toyota Scion

Create products that appeal greatly to some people and ignore the rest.

7. Let a hundred flowers blossom – Chairman Mao
“People we did not anticipate are buying our product in large numbers”
Take your best shot at who your best customer is. Then “plant fields of flowers” to see what takes root. You never know what will take root or what groups will respond.

Gives iTunes example – It’s keeping Apple alive.

Ask your customers why they like your product and give them more reasons. Don’t bother with people who will likely never be one of your customers.

8. Churn baby churn
Issue versions with continual updates/improvements – version 1, 2, 3, etc. Listen to users’ feedback and make updates.

9. Niche thyself
Shows a two by two matrix with ability to provide a unique product or service as the vertical axis and value to the customer the horizontal axis. Your goal? High and to the right! (I know I should have taken a photo, but I was too far away.)

High volume low margin (Lower Right)
No value, but you have a monopoly (Upper Left)
Dotcom mentality – Dogfood pets.com (Lower Left)
Fandango – buy movie tickets online bypass lines at theatre (Upper Right)
Breitling Emergency Watch – Innovative life saving watch
Smart Car – Can park perpendicularly

10. Follow the 10, 20, 30 rule for PPT presentations (pitching)

The optimal number of slides is 10
You should be able to get through 10 slides in 20 minutes
The ideal font is 30 points

11. Don’t let the bozos grind you down
2 kinds of bozos:
- The slovenly bozo with no credibility
- The successful bozo, which is the most dangerous since people tend to believe them.

Examples of “dangerous bozosity”:
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”
Western Union dismissed the telephone in 1876
“It’s too far to drive and I don’t see how it can be a business” Guy’s reply to an offer to be CEO of Yahoo. He says it cost him $2bn.

Says he made the right decision for his family – but the problem with the retro active rationalization, is that it only explains the first billion – it’s the second billion that still pisses him off.

Don’t let the bozos grind you down, especially the successful ones.

Guy makes another impassioned plea for links and wraps it up.

Overall, this was an entertaining keynote as it should have been. It seems to me the more entertaining a presentation is, the less the audience is concerned with “takeaways”. That plus the 10,20, 30 rule are things I’ll be sure to consider for my presentation on Thursday.

Update: I had to run to an interview and forgot to link to Guy’s blog, “How to change the world“. Hey, Guy did a good job, he deserves a link.

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