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Write Better Content Using Less Words, More Meaning

Bob Angus — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:10:26 +0000

The growth of the web and social media has led to two segments of content that your readers like to consume. You have to master at least one, if not both, forms to write better content today.

First, the traditional big content covers big subjects thoroughly. This content comes in longer formats like white papers, ebooks, and in-depth articles. The opposite, yet also highly desired, is easily consumed, bite-sized content… which still packs more meaning, just in less words.

This post emphasizes how you can stand out as a writer by publishing better, shorter content. Here are 3 exercises that help you to deliver more value in fewer words.

More action

Get right to the action. Use verbs and adverbs, not adjectives. Throw away the thesaurus.

Make it count

Can you boil down your next article to half its size without losing any meaning? Force yourself to write an article about a complete idea in just 200 words. Keep only the high impact elements. Punch it up by cutting complex sentences into two shorter ones. Every single word counts.

Break it down

I guarantee that your more complex content contains multiple points that can stand on their own. Break that big article into small logical thoughts. The meaning won’t be lost because each smaller article is self-contained. Then cross-promote them as a series or related articles.

Your writing improves as you boil complex ideas into just the truly meaningful points.

Comment below… How do you write complex information using less words?

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Post tags: content, education, how-to guide, productivity, writing

Angus Prime Filets – Recap of SMX San Jose

Bob Angus — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:29:02 +0000

Search Marketing Expo San Jose (aka SMX) was the mecca for search marketing and SEO this week. Alas, I had to watch from the sidelines. I was paying attention to the Twitter streams and recaps though. This edition of Angus Prime Filets delivers links to these recaps and slides from my favorite SMX sessions:

Mega Recaps on Search Engine Land

Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick and Keri Morgret of Strike Models live blogged most of the sessions. They also compiled coverage from other blogs like Search Engine Roundtable, Bruce Clay, and Outspoken Media (see below). Here are the links to their daily recaps:

Day One – Tuesday, February 28

Sessions include: How Google & Bing Personalize with Search History and Geography and Hardcore Local SEO Tactics

Day Two – Wednesday, February 29

Sessions include: Beyond the Google AdWords Tool: Advanced Keyword Research Tactics and Schema.org, Rel=Author & Meta Tagging Best Practices

Day Three – Thursday, March 1

Sessions include: Driving Ecommerce & Retail Sales Through Search Marketing and YouTube Success Stories for Marketers

Outspoken Media Speaks Out

Links to all of the coverage from Lisa Barone and Outspoken Media can be found found here. These session notes are full of high impact tips and actions you should start executing right away. To save you a little time, here are a few of my favorites:

SEO for Google+ and Google Search

Creating Conversion-Friendly Mobile Landing Pages

And Lisa Barone defied Death in Differentiate or Die

Don’t Miss These Presentation Slides

Here are several presentations that I recommend you see from the good folks at ThunderSEO. Note: Both presentations are located in the same post:

The “New” Killer Content by Gary Magnone (@garyjmag)

Justifying the Investment: Analytics for Social Media by Monique Pouget (@MoniqueTheGeek)

I hope to make it to SMX West 2013. After all, it is held just down the street from my office and the search marketing lessons are second to none.

Picture of the Week

Flying Cow by Ed Bacchus

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Post tags: best practices, events, Links of the Week, presentations, recap, search engine marketing, SEO

5 Situations You Need a Creative Brief But Often Don’t Use One

Bob Angus — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:35:03 +0000

We are busy marketing professionals. We need to save time whenever possible. One of the most common shortcuts that marketers take is skipping the creative brief at the beginning of some projects. Unfortunately, we think we are saving time, but we are likely paying for it later with more time spent during production. Or worse, we are hurting quality or results. Here are five common scenarios where a creative brief is needed, but is often not used. And how to fix it fast.

1. “It’s just a quick project”

Big projects usually get thorough process. Small projects usually get short-changed by eliminating the upfront planning. Resist the temptation to go straight to design or execution just because it’s not a big campaign. There is still a target audience and key messages that need full attention. Take the hour to write a thoughtful creative brief.

2. “We already know what we want”

Outsourcing creative work is a great way to launch your campaign or project faster. However, that work is more than just production. Fight the urge to tell your creative team what to do in the design brief. Your creative resources are there because they are skilled and want to produce great work. Let them do it. Set the creative teams free to develop exceptional campaigns.

3. “The agency already knows”

Over time you will probably work with the same agency or freelancer on more than one project. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the agency already knows everything. Refresh their thinking by reviewing the creative brief with every project. The creative team will stay engaged and will avoid designing ho-hum “work”. If you feel the creative brief is not worth the effort to update, you should not be surprised by equally mediocre results from the project.

4. “Articles and blog posts are short”

Writing projects like newsletter articles or blogs should be very quick, right? Okay. Maybe a full-blown creative brief is overkill for each article or post. But you are still need to write something that interests your readers. At a minimum, think about a headline that brings readers in, write out critical messages and proof points that are meaningful, and always define a clear call to action. Reference the complete creative brief frequently to make sure that you are in sync with it.

5. “Just reuse the old creative brief”

Avoid diminishing or mediocre results when designing new campaigns for the same product or service. Don’t simply reuse the same design brief again and again. Approach the same problem from a different angle. Invest 30 minutes by refreshing the content of your creative brief with each project – especially the call to action.

If you do reuse any sections, it would be where you cover your boilerplate brand guidelines and legal requirements.

The REAL timesaver

These situations are exactly why I keep a creative brief template handy. I can focus on adding high impact content into the briefing document and not spend any time on formatting and re-engineering the questions to answer. That’s the real timesaver, without sacrificing quality or end results of the project.

Feel free to download the creative brief template that I use. Now you can use it to save time on your next project.

Image by English106

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Post tags: best practices, content, creative, design, download, education, how-to guide, productivity, template

Innovate or Die: Writing Content That Solves Problems

Bob Angus — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:58:19 +0000

One common long-term thread of any successful venture is innovation. Not just any willy nilly idea will do though. Great results are most frequently achieved when the innovation is worthwhile. It’s useful. It solves problems. It solves problems in a way that currently is not being done elsewhere.

The same thing applies to writing great content. You can stand out, be trusted and ultimately help your audience if you innovate by solving problems. If you’re not innovating, you’re probably just offering the same old ho-hum material everyone else is. And that’s just not sustainable if you want to be successful.

In this post, I describe a simple exercise you can use to create innovative content by problem solving. It takes three straightforward steps.

Start with Problems

A useful starting point for innovation is to list down all the problems your target audience faces. If it helps, pull out some problems, tendencies, or notable characteristics from a master creative brief for your subject or niche. Now, identify which issues are under-served or can be explored in a new way.

Alternatively, review competitive content, blogs, or campaigns and then list their shortcomings. Those are potential opportunities to solve problems in a different way – an opportunity to innovate.

To illustrate how you might look at your niche I’ll complete this innovation exercise using my experience in ecommerce security as an example. Here are some of the key content weaknesses of that industry:

Most content and key benefits highlights ROI, increased conversions and the financial benefit of trust. Those issues are all solid (who doesn’t want to make more money?). However, SSL certificates and other ecommerce security products are something that everyone has to have. Nothing fancy.

In fact, the purchase decision is often done by technical admins who are solely cost or budget focused when it comes to financial benefits. They are not a profit center and are not easily swayed with the promise of increased conversions.

Problems Drive Innovation

Here are solutions to the above problems. This is where the innovation starts to happen:

The technical buyers want easy administration, never fail, and great technical support. Those are the problems they face. The security solution has to install and be maintained without a lot of time and headaches. It cannot fail because all it takes is one breach to destroy the business. And there better be instant access to support when needed.

If we want to highlight financial benefits, we have to go for the tried-and-tested “costs less” comparative message.

That is exactly what we did with the GeoTrust brand of SSL certificates. We started highlighting the “unlimited licensing” policies and affordable pricing.

It makes total sense. We changed the messaging on the GeoTrust website and created several videos to drive the point home. Well, the video of me dancing may have been too much and likely killed any hope of being an actor, but it hammered home the key message effectively.

Other area for innovation could be method of communication (video, flash demo, blog) or frequency of connection (slow it down or heat it up) or content tone/style.

Maybe it’s okay for a security company to be less formal in tone without risking that sense of “we take security seriously”. GoDaddy sells a ton of SSL certificates. Maybe they deliver what the customer wants and are more in tune to their audience than just the memorable racy Super Bowl ads.

Test Your Innovation

The third step is to take your innovative content for a test drive. Just like all campaigns, test your messaging. Give it a try. Think of yourself as the next great inventor and go for it.

Then occasionally go back into the lab and do this exercise over again. Reinvent yourself to stay ahead. Create content and marketing messaging that everyone aspires to be. Or more importantly, the content and messaging that is solving your audience’s problems in new ways.

I suggest you keep asking: What are their main problems? What kind of solutions could you provide?

Comment below with content examples that you feel are truly innovative.

Image: Jess Dixon in His Flying Automobile

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Post tags: best practices, content, creative, education, innovation, tips, writing

Angus Prime Filets – 3 Actionable Social Media Infographs

Bob Angus — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:59:24 +0000

Social media infographs are everywhere today. Most charts distill the broad market trends and high-level statistics on today’s social media landscape. That’s nice, but professional marketers need more actionable insights that we can use to get better results from our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social network activities. This week’s edition of Angus Prime Filets delivers 3 fantastic social media infographs that give you instant impact tips and tactics.

Bonus: Get more Twitter tactics that will lead to more followers, more clicks and more ReTweets from my recent post 3 Infographs Hold the Secret to Twitter Success.

Marketers are from Mars, Consumers are from Venus

Heidi Cohen (@heidicohen) references 4 different studies that highlight the disconnect between consumers and marketers when it comes to social media. Then she provides several very useful tips on how to use that disconnect to your advantage… while other social media marketing folks stumble along. Nothing demonstrates the behavioral gap between what consumers actually want from social media and what marketers think they want than the following chart. Clearly consumers are willing to use social media to help them transact, while marketers think they use social media early in the sales funnel to learn and engage.

Social Commerce Purchase Behaviors

Social commerce is growing rapidly with more options to buy directly through Facebook and other platforms. Digitas commissioned a study that tapped into buyer behaviors on social networks. The key considerations when using Facebook as a digital point of sale are:

“Likes,” “Follows” and virtual currencies like Facebook Credits have little influence on purchase
55% of social media users are not comfortable using a credit card due to security concerns

Social Mobile Local Shopper Opportunity

John Lawson (aka @ColderIce) serves up a mashup that demonstrates the huge opportunity available to merchants and marketers who embrace Social Local Mobile shopping. The tactical takeaway for me was that merchants can leverage new to bring more traffic using location-based deals and contests and then keeping customers interactive displays and sales enablement tools. The payoff is 63% larger transactions, 33% more repeats visits and 3.5 times greater annual spend.

Picture of the Week

Image: Cows by findingtheobvious

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Post tags: best practices, ecommerce, graphics, Links of the Week, results, social networks, tips, Twitter

Angus Prime Filets – How to Guest Blog Links

Bob Angus — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:12:38 +0000

Writing guest posts on popular blogs is a proven best practice for bloggers or anyone who wants their work published online. This week’s edition of Angus Prime Filets serves up links to guest blogging articles that will help you learn how to successful publish your guest posts on the top blogs. The basic steps to guest blogging are

Why guest blogging? Your benefits
Finding a blog to connect with
Getting your proposal accepted
How to write an exceptional guest post

Why guest blogging?

Ann Smarty is authority on guest blogging and runs the successful MyBlogGuest community. She offer up how you can benefit from publishing a guest post and how not to think of it as a shortcut. Hint: You develop positive brand awareness, reputation and engaged fans… not SEO backlinks and instant traffic.

20+ Reasons Why You Need to Start Guest Blogging

What Guest Blogging is NOT: Getting It Right

Finding a blog to connect with

You need to find blogs who you’d like to work with and make a connection. Here are several excellent articles to help you find blogs that are relevant to the value you offer and are open to guest posts.

My 3-Step System for Finding Guest Post Opportunities – Problogger.net article by Jocelyn Ann

Want Guest Post Links? Find Them Via Twitter – Ethan Lyon created a great tool which he explains on SEOmoz

5 Reasons Why MyBlogGuest Is My Best Find After 5 Years As Webmaster - Daily SEO Tip explains why the aforementioned MyBlogGuest community is the place to make connections.

Getting your proposal accepted

Next you need submit your guest post proposal. Here are some helpful tips on what to do and what not to do. Hint: Put yourself in the blog owner’s shoes. Always remember guest blogging is not a numbers game. If you spam and send half-baked mass proposals, you won’t get the benefit.

12 Ways to Guest Post on the Greatest Group Marketing Blog – MarketingProfs

4 Tips for Pitching Guest Posts Like a Pro – Problogger.net post by Aman Basanti of ageofmarketing.com

The 2 Biggest Guest Blogging Mistakes You Can Make – DailyBlogTips

Write an exceptional guest post

Now it is time to write and publish an excellent post. Here are the fundamental elements to include in your guest post that will help you successfully develop your brand and reputation.

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Your First Guest Post – Neil Patel offers the ultimate guide to writing a guest post on Problogger.net

Creating a Funnel with Your Guest Posts – DailyBlogTips

What additional resources do you recommend to help learn how to guest blog?

Picture of the Week

Image: Two Cows in Pt. Reyes National Seashore in California by AnnaOne

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Post tags: angus, blogging, content, how-to guide, Links of the Week, tips, traffic

31 Royalty-Free Stock Photo and Image Sites

Bob Angus — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:27:43 +0000

The internet is full of incredible, inspiring photos and images. Beyond the fun of browsing these pictures, you should be using them to enhance your designs, blog posts, social media and presentations. Almost anything you create can benefit from a picture. Here is a huge list of 31 royalty free stock photo services that you can use to add professional quality images in your next project.

Warning: Royalty free in many cases does not me free to use. Almost all images you find on the internet are likely copyrighted. You don’t want someone copying your creative work. Please don’t infringe on the copyrights of these easily accessible stock photos.

Please verify the terms or use for images from these stock photo services before using them. Even if a photo or graphic is not copyrighted, it is always good karma to mention or link to the creator.

Free stock photos, but don’t steal

Here are the three best websites to find absolutely free photos. For these you will see the term “Creative Commons”. Check out this excellent description of creative commons terminology.

1. Flickr – The best place to find unique photos from professionals and amateurs alike. Most of these images are copyrighted. For free images, go to the creative commons section. It is full of images that are free to use. Make sure to see very cool public domain photos from the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library.

2. Historical Stock Photos- A large collection of historical images that are now available to the public domain for free.

3. Google Images - Google image search makes it incredibly easy to find images of almost anything. Again, the use of many of these images is restricted. Just be prudent when using them.

4. Creative Commons Search - Use Creative Commons Search for more than just photos. You can also search for music, videos, writing and even code.

Top stock photo sites

Stock photo sites are royalty free, but not entirely free. These sites allow you to purchase a professional image once and use it for multiple times without having to pay a royalty each time. When using or joining these sites, make sure to review the terms of service for exact rules and regulations.

5. Stock.Xchng - This community where creative people can share their photos has approximately 400,000 images available. Most of the images are free, but you will want to contact the creator to make sure it is okay. Stock.Xchng is also now part of Getty Images (see below).

6. Fotolia - Fotlia has around 15 million images, vector art and videos in its archives. Images start from only $0.75 on a pay as you go model. If you use a lot of images, then it is worth a monthly subscription starting at just $75 for use of up to 5000 images.

7. iStockphoto - Millions of high quality images are available here. Each image has a different credit value. You can purchase “credit packs” or a subscription.

8. BigStock - Millions of low cost stock images are here too. BigStock also uses the credit approach for payment toward individual pictures. Their credit packs net out to a $0.99 starting price.

9. Alamy – Alamy says it is the largest stock image website with over 27 million images. Purchase images individually so that you don’t have to worry about wasting unused credits. They also have a cool iPad app.

10. ShutterStock - Shutterstock is the largest subscription-based stock photo agency. Thousands of photographs, illustrations, and vectors are added to their exceptionally high quality collection every day. Shutterstock is best for hi-res images for advertisements and print. It is a little more expensive with 1 hi-res image starting at $19, but well worth it for incredible images.

11. Corbis Images - Purchase image CDs that can be used for unlimited commercial use royalty free.

12. Getty Images - Most professional marketers know the Getty name. They are the leading provider of digital media worldwide with a range of assets – from royalty-free stock photography and editorial images to video, music and multimedia.

Specialized Stock Photos

13. Arabian Eye – Some of the most incredible imagery comes from the Middle East. Arabian Eye is a specialized resource for Middle Eastern pictures run by Corbis Images.

14. VectorStock - A lot of stock photo sites now include vector images. However, Vector Stock specializes in only royalty-free vector backgrounds, textures, icons and images. So they have access to some truly unique vector art.

15. Vecteezy – Vecteezy is another vector-only resource. Very cool, leading edge graphics can be found here.

16. Sweet And Talented – Do you want to include a picture of Angelina Jolie on your site? Or pictures from Harry Potter? Sweet and Talented is a great resource for photos of movie stars, musicians and celebrities.

17. PhotoEverywhere – Choose from over 3500 free travel stock images on this website. PhotoEverywhere focuses on well-known tourist destinations from cities like San Francisco to Caribbean beaches to the Scottish Highlands. I especially like that they offer panoramic images.

18. bigfoto.com - bigfoto.com offers completely free images from around the world. Just make sure to include a link back to the creator or their website.

19.Trip Album – This site is in French, but is very easy to navigate. Trip Album has incredible photographs of exotic places in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

More stock photos for great prices

20. Dreamstime – Dreamstime is quickly becoming the most popular source of photographs for advertising agencies, magazines and media companies. The reason is that they have a very focused selection of memorable images that start at just 20 cents.

21. everystockphoto.com – Everystockphoto.com is a combination image search engine and blog that lists millions of photos from many sources.

22. freerange – As a free-to-join membership site, freerange makes it very easy to find exceptional photos. The cool thing is that photographers are rewarded for giving away their images for free by getting a share of freerange’s ad revenue. So you get free images and the photographer still gets paid. Win-win!

23. Depositphotos – Images start at just $0.50, but their monthly subscription programs bring your costs way down.

24. Thinkstock – Very high-quality professional images that come in packs starting at $99 or through subscription programs starting at $199 per month.

25. Photl.com - The unique feature of this website is that these photo images are not widely circulated and are contained only in photl.com base. Download up to 40mb worth of images daily.

26. 123RF – 123RF is a fantastic image search engine. Many of the images are free for the low-res pictures, which is perfect for most blogs or websites.

27. morgueFile – morgueFile is a haven for creative professionals. Very cool imagery can be used free as long as you aren’t using it commercially (like re-selling it or claiming that it’s yours).

28. Epictura – Epictura is a bank of 11 millions stock images perfect for corporate communication. They edited and compile stock pictures from Corbis, Pixtal, Fancy, Denkou & PhotoAlto and thousands of agencies and photographers.

28. RGBStock – RGBStock is a smaller site, but completely free for use on your blog or website.

29. Pixmac - Pixmac has millions of stock images. Prices start from $0.92 per image using a credit purchase model.

30. Jupiterimages – Jupiterimages has compiled over 2.5 million royalty-free stock photos and illustrations from Getty Images and other premium-quality collections.

31. StockLib – Last but not least, StockLib is a subsidiary of Epictura. They have over 11 million royalty-free stock images from as low as $1 for use on your blog.

There are hundreds of other royalty free stock photo websites around. These 31 recommendations should be plenty for your project though. These sites offer unimaginably huge selection, but I bet you can find other very focused niche stock image sites if you need to dig deep. What sites do you use or recommend?

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this list are affiliate links. However, my recommendation of these stock photography websites is not based on my financial gain. These are the sites that I use and fell they are worth sharing.

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Post tags: best practices, content, free resources, graphics, list, photography, web design

7 Creative Brief Secrets Every Marketer Should Know

Bob Angus — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:25:57 +0000

We’ve all written a creative brief. But there is a big difference between a good brief and a great one. Here are seven secrets that every marketer should leverage, but few actually use. Use these simple tips to improve your design brief and agency interactions. The results will be better creative results done faster and ultimately greater ROI.

1. Don’t tell your agency what to do creatively

Probably one of the biggest traps to fall into is telling your agency or freelancer exactly what to do. Resist the urge no matter how creative you are. You’ve hired them for their creative skills and to produce great work. Let them do it. Unleash creative teams to bring in their experiences and unique insights to develop an exceptional campaign. And frankly, the project won’t be as fun for them if you dictate the creative details you want in your creative brief.

2. Provide high impact proof points

One of the key difference makers in a creative brief is to include some key data points – meaningful facts, research results, milestones, 3rd party confirmed rankings, customer testimonials, anything that your creative team can leverage. These proof points give creative teams something to build on to develop influential messages and avoid blah, blah, blah marketing. From an audience standpoint, these proof points validate any marketing claims and help them affirm their decision to act.

3. Tell stories

Sometimes the “a-ha” moment coming from a creative brief isn’t in the bullet points. Good creative teams can tease out something meaningful or emotionally evocative from anecdotes and real world experiences with your company, product or service. You probably won’t be able to write out the whole story in your creative brief. Just add some reminders in the document and then be the storyteller when reviewing the brief with the team or agency.

4. Don’t use the same creative brief again and again

It is likely that you will work with the same agency or team more than once. Or you are promoting the same product, but just creating a different campaign. To avoid getting diminishing or mediocre results, I highly recommend that you don’t reuse the same design brief over and over again. Refresh the content of your creative brief with each project… even if the target audience and proof points are the same. It signals the creative team to stay engaged and thinking of the next exceptional campaign, because you are engaged too. If you feel the brief isn’t that important to update or don’t put in the effort, you should expect equivalent lackluster results from the project.

5. Define measurable objectives

We all know to make our goals measurable, right? Make sure to include objectives with more than just a generic statement like “increase ROI” or “drive more leads”. Give an actual target number. Better yet, substantiate that measurable objective with any baseline results or analytics you have. For example, let them know that your last three campaigns had an average conversion rate of 7%. That objective is much more actionable.

6. Better targeting through buyer personas

Describing the target audience and what motivates them can be considered the most important element of a design brief. Paint a picture of the types of people who will buy to get the most out that section of the brief. You want your creative team to be able to mentally step in that buyer’s shoes. What is their job? What do they do day-to-day? High-level industry or broad customer segmentation information is useful, but providing your creative team with personal details is where you get great ideas.

7. What drives action?

Building on the buyer persona tip, the next secret is to tap into what will drive the buyer act. Take the persona information a few steps further by 1) describing what motivates the target buyer and 2) identifying what emotion can induce action. What do they do to get a raise or make their life easier? Answer questions like that to uncover motivations and to show examples of what a person actually does, based on that motivation. Then figure out an underlying emotion associated with that action. For example, do they feel something positive like association or comparative advantage or something negative like scarcity or loss aversion?

There is a lot of great information you can provide in a creative brief. Use these secrets to maximize results of your campaigns and projects. Check out the creative brief template that I use. It includes reminders for each these tips. Feel free to download it and use it for your next project.

What’s your secret ingredient to a great creative brief?

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Post tags: best practices, content, creative, design, download, education, how-to guide, productivity, template

Angus PieFest 2011 – Holiday Pie Fundraiser

Bob Angus — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:31:47 +0000

My big personal endeavor is to help find a cure for cancers. I am a big supporter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and have just kicked off training for my 2nd season with LLS’s Team in Training. Angus PieFest 2011 is my family’s big fundraising event this holiday in conjunction with my next marathon – the Oakland Marathon on March 25, 2012.

The Angus family is baking fresh, homemade pies for our Bay Area friends. Each pie costs just a minimum $20 tax-deductible donation. You get a delicious treat and the great feeling of supporting a wonderful cause.

Visit the Angus PieFest page for all the details on how to order, delivery, and how to donate.

Click here to download the order form

Please order today. The deadline to place an order is Wednesday, December 21st.

Visit my fundraising page and training blog for more info about the race and how Team in Training is making a difference by raising money to fund blood cancer research and patient care.

Happy Holidays!

Go Team!

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Post tags: angus, Bob Angus, fundraising, marathon, running goal, Team in Training

Angus Prime Filets – Links of the Week 11-11-11 Edition

Bob Angus — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:35:23 +0000

Happy 11-11-11! A wild way to end a wild week of amazing tradeshows – Ad:Tech, Pubcon and Blog World Expo. Alas, I had to watch from the sidelines. I was paying attention to the recaps though. This edition of Angus Prime Cuts delivers links to my favorite sessions from Blog World Expo LA.

Why Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan are Betting Big on Google+

This week Google launched Google+ Pages. To create the Google+ Page for your business simply click the “Create Page” link found in your profile. Check out the BobAngus.com page.

Now may be the right time to put more focus on Google+. Why? Because mega trendsetters Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan say so! SmartBrief’s SmartBlog highlights 4 key takeaways from Guy and Chris’ Google+ session at Blog World Expo:

It’s where passionate people hang out.
Better sharing than Facebook.
It’s great for SEO.
They were right about Twitter.

10 Steps to Engaging Online Influencers

How do you contact and engage a valuable influencer? More importantly, how do you cultivate and nurture your contacts in a way that they will actually recommend your brand or product? Just broadcasting your message and praying it gets picked up is not going to be successful. Arik Hanson and Greg Swan delivered 10 great solution tips in their Blog World Expo session, Blogs, Bribes, and Blasphemy: Engaging Influencers in a Changing World (view the presentation slides).Vertical Response provides an excellent recap of the session.

Giving Substance to Online Influence

Matt Ridings also spoke on the subject of how to improve your online influence at Blog World Expo. Matt brings up a great twist to the common advice that I think really speaks to getting results – focus on the “infuenced” not the infuencer. Makes sense. Listen to people you have already engaged, then find more like them and have them be amplifying advocates. That is much easier and more directly impactful than trying to convince a lot of busy influencers. Here are the presentation slides on Slideshare.

What’s the Most Valuable Thing You Learned at Blog World

Amy (@SavvySexySocial) from TweetFindBlog posted this cool video. She interviewed bloggers at the show and asked them what was the most valuable thing they learned at Blog World Expo. I especially liked Scott’s (@thatguyduece) insights on “always think about your customer.”

Have a fantastic weekend!

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Post tags: Bob Angus, events, Google, Links of the Week, social networks, tips