An Exaggeration of How Much I Love This Book. But Not Far From the Truth

Human beings may have been creating organizations for thousands of years but that does not necessarily make these organizations particularly human.

Remember we’ve also been creating machines for thousands of years …. machines have been integral to our growth as a species as well in fact may have maybe they have been a little too integral.

From Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World, by Jamie Notter & Maddie Grant

In the science fiction television series, Battlestar Galatica, the Cylons are a race of humanoid machines, initially created by humans as intelligent machines built to serve humanity. A running theme throughout the show was that these new Cylons were so close to human that some sleepers lived as humans, and didn’t even know their true nature themselves.

We’re, of course, nowhere close to suffering this particular danger. Even in new media, it’s apparent which people are interacting with you in real time, which accounts are being run by an entity functioning as a team, and which ones are a mix of people and software updates spread out over time.

Though people don’t seem to mind whether a Twitter account is run by a company, a person, or a person assisted by software, we all like to know who we’re dealing with in this age of transparency.

One thing is clear though: people don’t mind getting their news headlines from a bot, but they want to interact with people. Seems simple enough, right?

But if it were, social media ROI (return on investment) wouldn’t be such a hot topic – the return on investment would be obvious, despite the fact that some of it isn’t measurable.

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Me telling the Uber driver: "We're writing a blog post"

Quick warning – this isn’t like my regular reviews. Though the service incorporates an app and mobile experience, the service is provided completely offline.

What’s Über?

It’s luxury car service for the rest of us.

If you’ve never used a car service before, it’s  like calling a taxi, with a much better car and overall experience, usually for about four times the price.

However, the added luxury, the caliber of the vehicle, your comfort during the ride, the standards they maintain, and for some, the prestige of a private luxury car, often makes it worth it.

Until recently, I’ve been physically unable to drive since 2007. Now that I’m only technically unable to drive, it’s not quite worth it yet to get a Zip car membership – so I order car service or take a combination of cabs & subway trains.

One thing that’s never made sense to me when ordering car service is that hiring a car to take you one way – that is, pick you up, and drop you off- is still up to twice as much as taxi service.

Yes, they’re prompt and the ride is overall much nicer. But it seems stupid to pay that much when you’re just going to the mall and back.

Uber solves this problem for me – the trip we took was about 12% higher than a taxi before my first time rider discount I got from having a friend’s code (I’ll provide mine if asked, in the comments later).

BUT – that included a tip, and I usually tip generously when I can. So yes, it was noticeably more, but it was much better. It was also better than most of the car services I’ve used, and less than half the price of a one way trip!

I first learned about Uber from my friend Lisa Byrne  in her review “Uber Hits DC: How Does it Compare to Taxi Magic?“- you should really read hers if you’d like a comparison to Taxi Magic, or how it rates in comparison to taxicabs.

The one you’re reading is from more a comparison to car service. I have to admit though, Uber is also closing a gap in service for people who frequently need to take cabs in and around DC.

As I explained, Uber really isn’t the sort of service I’d normally review here as it’s one you use mostly offline.

But the reason I chose to do it here is that the more events I attend, the more I feel part of the Washington DC tech community. Being there in person solidifies the acquaintances you start online into friendships offline.

Part of effective social media for business is extending relationships into real life, and that’s what Uber helps me to do. If they offer Uber going in the opposite direction from my house to DC, I see myself participating in events much more often. And for the little extra I pay, I’ll get to do it in comfort and style.

Positive highlights

• Car was incredibly prompt.

• The option to text my address rather than use the app on my Android

• The app texted back confirmation of my address so quickly. In fact, the entire time period from texting for the car to its arrival was about 3 and a half minutes. Service promised was 5 – 10 minutes.

• The driver was prompt and courteous and opened the door for me

• The driver spoke perfect English, and kept a nice car

• The Town car itself was a late model. It was such a relief to know I wouldn’t be figuring out how to juggle my bags in a small cab or the subway.

Things that may need work

I’d normally call these “cons” but it’s hard to call these items negatives.

All of them are issues that can be worked on or are simply expected variables in service. I try to be objective and find things each product or service I review can improve but I have to be honest and say it was a struggle to find Anything to say here.

• When I loaded the app in the Grand Hyatt, even though I had 3G, which I’d been using, and WiFi, the app kept saying I’d have to go online. Luckily I was with the quick thinking Jill Foster, who found on the website that I could just text them.

• The driver was chattier than I like. I wanted to play with the iPad 2 I’d just gotten on the way home. It was distracting but he was super polite and we ended up finding a common bond. He answered his phone once too but it was very short, like a one word call. The way it rang, I had a feeling it was the office.

• After riding back, I got a text asking me to rate the driver. I texted back a 4.7 but it misunderstood me and thought I was ordering service again – since the driver’s rating is included as x.x I assumed I could send a similar assessment back. There was then no way to go back and figure out how to rate him, even when I went back to the site later.

• The service area is unclear. As with any cab or car service, you expect that if they pick you up within the clear service area, they’ll take you back, but there isn’t a service area map for DC like there is for Chicago, Boston or San Francisco.

I know dozens of people in my suburban area who would love the service – I know they service Montgomery county but I’m not sure if they come to Prince George’s – guess I’ll find out the next time I need car service from here. But knowing this for certain could have helped me plan in advance.

However, those are all nitpicky little things that I’m sure will be resolved in the near future. Overall, I loved the service.

And there’s no way I’m going back to trying to get my short self seen over top of cars and taking 20 minutes to get a cab to stop in the cold winter, when I can have an Uber car pull up in minutes while I wait somewhere warm for them to call or text that my car has arrived.

To paraphrase Lisa, “if luxury is an extra 12%, count me in.”

There’s only three types of pages in this site.

It’s not going to win a usability award, ever, as a whole site. But there’s only three types of pages, that only want three types of action.

At any given point, you’ll either see a sales page, a blog post or sign-up page, and most people here will end up doing one of three things when they land here:

• Buy something
• Read or react to a blog post
• Sign up for the newsletter

Most of the time it’s one of the last two items.

How does this relate to you? What’s all this about thinking and sinking?

In offering a bit of assistance to various clients and colleagues with minor campaigns, I’ve noticed in them one tendency I used to have – making things too complicated.

My site may be a sprawling fixer-upper as a whole, but each page has three or less types of options you can choose from. So the conversion rate for new visitors is higher than normal.

By conversion rate, I mean the % of people who take one of my most desired actions. Which actions?

First, I want to deepen the trust between me and you. It’s always harder to work together if we don’t trust each other. That can entail anything from reading another blog post (to determine whether you trust my information) or interacting with me in the comments (that could help you decide if you want to do business with me).

Second, I’d like permission to follow up with you at some point, mostly with tips that are too juicy or involved to share in public, but also to offer you special discounts on my services and products.

Third, I wouldn’t hate it if you bought something on a whim. I’d rather we get to know each other first, but I get how sometimes, you just don’t have time for the courtship and just want to get on with it. Maybe we can get to know each other later. Maybe you’ll just drive by. Either is cool.

What I don’t want, is for you to have to think about how to go about the process.

See, that’s the problem I was talking about in the title. It’s not that I don’t want thinking people at my site — I prefer to work with intelligent people.

What I mean is, you shouldn’t have to figure out how to do the things I’d like you to do.

Because what happens when you open Firefox, Chrome (or IE for the 8 people using it, still love you) and come to a page that you can’t figure out?

You leave.

If you walk into a store to buy groceries and see petals falling from the ceiling, hear harps playing, and see waltzing couples, if you stay it will be out of curiosity, not to buy groceries. Confused prospects leave. So there’s no longer a customer.

And that conversion rate sinks to Zero.

This goes for EVERYTHING if you’re trying to get one particular action, such as a sale or subscription, a click, a vote, a response to a blog post, or a retweet.

Yes, it’s different on a blog, where you want many options, and you want them to take a leisurely stroll around, deciding if they can trust your information or want to do business with you.

But if you want a person to do one thing – don’t make them think. Give them less than three options – only one if you can swing it.

You want someone to click a link?

Link directly to the link they should click.

You want someone to buy something?

Link to the product, directly, with clear instructions on how to buy, and no distractions.

You want someone to sign up for your newsletter?

Send them to a page where there’s no other option but sign up or leave.

Building a relationship first? It’s okay to have more than one option on a page during the courtship – but when you’re ready to close the deal, eliminate distractions that interfere with the buying process.

Try reducing the options on your site for a week. You may find that sales increase so much, you don’t even need more traffic.

But I’ll still be right here if you do.

Back when I started this site, it was to say something that I thought everyone already knew: with incredible content as a basis, any level of traffic is possible.

You don’t need more money.

You just need to be GREAT, and be seen.

And word will spread.

Think of the last time you sent someone a link to something you thought they just HAD to see. Something about it was so great that something inside compelled you to share it. We don’t just arbitrarily share crappy stuff, because we feel that our taste in things reflects on us.

At least, not consciously, we don’t. But that’s another blog post.

There’s a point of view, however, that believes that being great is in and of itself, enough to make your idea spread. That if you’re really that wonderful, eventually someone will notice. In this world view, there’s no need for silly things like marketing.

Why put your Twitter share button on the page – if you’re that cool, people will put your link on Twitter anyway.

And perhaps that’s valid for people who have the luxury of time.

I disagree with that point of view, and I’ll tell you why in a minute.

First let’s look at the polar opposite to that point of view, that even a mediocre product can make you a millionaire if you play the odds and enough people see it.

You see this sometimes with people who have mediocre blogs and are trying to turn them into viable businesses. They’d rather have a hundred lame blogs with spun content making fifty cents a day, than do (or invest in) the bit of work it takes to get one solid resource to make twice that.

Or you might see this with a large, well-know brand that has an average product.

They want a bigger audience but there’s a perceived lack of resources to make the actual product experience better. So these groups invest heavily in advertising and hope for the best. Walmart comes to mind. I don’t hate them but I remember the shops in my area before Walmart, and they were better in so many ways.

It’s the success of the average, that feeds the idea that helping the mediocre rise to new levels of visibility is why advertising and marketing exist.

That’s a side effect, at best.

Usually, it’s the middle ground.

Because some of us can’t wait for the world to discover us.

Some of us don’t want to hope people will tell their friends about us.

We don’t want to be dismissive, but we know that people who say “build it and they will come” have the resources to build where people will find them.

Or that while our idea is legendary, our site is just… okay.

Or that since we have to wear all the hats, we can’t just sit around creating incredible content all day. And we still make it, just not at the pace of the people who are getting all the attention.

This site, is for those people who have the incredible something, but not the luxury of time to wait to be discovered. Yes, it happens to also work for people who have something crappy that they want to choke the web with carbon copies of – if your definition of “works” is a click instead of a subscriber, or a visit instead of a sale.

The reason I disagree with the notion that if you build it, they will come, is that I have built, many things, many times, a few of them great. And building it and telling no one, doesn’t work.

If you tell even one person, that’s marketing. If you place even one ad, that’s marketing. If you submit to one search engine, build one site map, ask for one link, hand out one business card, go to one meet up, call one person on the phone, that is marketing.

And there’s nothing wrong with marketing, or promoting yourself – if you don’t tell people you exist, no one will know. It’s only a danger when it’s all you talk about, or if it’s done in detriment to others (as in the case of saying things you know are not true, or making promises you doubt you can keep).

But none of it works without wonderful, insightful, passionate, content, products, services, customer service or whatever the “magnificent why” is, that makes customers flock to you.

Some will call it content marketing. Some will say your content IS 50%, 70% or some other percent of your marketing.

Po-tay-toe, Poh-TAT-toe. Point is, make it and make it great. Then, make sure it gets seen.

Just heard about this in a developers email about Android Market and Google TV:

With the upcoming OS update to Honeycomb, Google TV devices will be Android compatible. That means you can build great new Android apps for TV, optimize existing mobile or tablet apps for TV, and distribute those apps through Android Market.

Folks keep saying that Google TV is down for the count but I think it’s early yet. To the point that my title may be misleading – does Google TV need to be “saved” or has it just not caught on yet? Big screen, HD, 3D, none of these things were overnight successes. So who knows?

And even if they screw it up if it brings TV and the web closer, it’s a step in a potentially interesting and profitable direction. At least the IDEA could go mainstream even if that particular technology does not.

(Did you know that if you already have an HDTV that you can get a gizmo from Logitech that gives you GoogleTV for $100? I just saw it for the first time today so don’t quote me. But it sure looks neat – and mainstream – to me.)

What does this mean for your business? Well, if you’re creating applications as part of your business, or even for marketing purposes, it could mean more exposure. Not being even laughingly mistaken for a programmer, I have the unique benefit of not letting what’s actually possible limit my dreams of the kind of application I want built, on mobile or elsewhere.

I’m imagining interactive video apps for my company… on television….

There was a blog post to the Google TV blog about the preview about a week ago, but it didn’t make mention oof the fact that the update would be available later this summer.

Which basically means September, unless there have been upgrades to the Gregorian calendar that I’m not aware of yet. In the meantime… get your app together folks.

(You see what I did there?)

In less than a minute, you can find out how a small donation can help the Somalian refugee crisis. Just watch the quick video below, or follow the links after.

This is a part of the Non-Profit Sundays series, here to make you aware of easy, low-cost ways to help people. If you can, I hope you’ll join with me in a small donation.

If you can’t, remember that you can use your own platform to spread awareness to others. Thank you for whatever you can do.

Resource Links:

• Get Your Blue Key for $5 and Raise Awareness.
• The article that provides the statistic in the video.
• An alternate place to donate (the Red Cross).

A strange thing happened today.

Besides spending most of the day thinking I was insane due to a fever and a pre-migraine, I mean. Fun times.

The other really strange thing that happened today was that I got a note from a seller on Amazon. Oh wait, I forgot the back story.

You see, I am an Amazon whore.

A few years back when I had to spend 23 hours a day in bed recovering from a back injury, I got everything delivered. It was then that I fell madly, deeply and permanently in love with Amazon. And since some people sell their items through Amazon, I fell vicariously in love with them too.

This odd revelation is relevant because I have ordered a LOT of things from Amazon, and from Amazon sellers, many, many, many times. For several months in 2007, I got deliveries almost daily.

(Boyfriend’s money. You understand.)

So when I say that it was strange that I got an order from an Amazon seller, this is from the perspective of someone who

1- has ordered from people through Amazon a LOT, and
2- had a special folder, pop-up notification, and sound associated with any email that even had the word Amazon in it.

In all the emails I’ve gotten from them in all those years, I don’t remember getting a note from a seller unless something was wrong. Especially not a follow-up on an order.

Now, despite the fact that I am an Amazon trollop, I rarely create a review on Amazon, and when I do, it’s for one of two reasons. I’m promoting doing it in relation to an activity to promote myself, or I have had an extreme reaction to something. If something is great or awful, I’ll do a review. Not a lukewarm kind of gal – if things are just okay, I tend to keep my mouth shut.

And what do you think one of the suggestions in this follow up email asked me to do?

That’s right, write a review. Which makes me realize that I just lied. I’ll write a review if something thrills me UNLESS it’s something that I don’t want the whole world to know about me. In this case, since it’s just you and me here, I’ll tell you — it’s about a wig I bought.

The wig is fabulous. In it I can go from bad hair day to vixen in 41 seconds. It took some adjusting but when I finally got in on straight, well. In the words of my good friend Jill Foster, I look “Hawt.”

And since it’s not that different from my normal hair style, even my niece mistook it for my actual hair this weekend.

So. Am I going to review it? Darn right I am. Because the people who made the wig that makes me so happy, asked me to do it.

And the moral of the story is?

Ask people to do things that even seem obvious. Obviously, if I liked the experience I had with the product I bought, I’d review it, right? You would think. But as I just explained with a personal example, people are crazy, and so are the reasons we do or don’t do things.

Yet you can sometimes overcome our crazy just by asking us to do something. Want more people to comment on your blog posts?

Ask them.

Not just at the end of the post. Pick five peers and say, I need a comment on this blog post if you have time today. Don’t forget to give before you receive, regardless of whether you think reciprocation will occur. And the thing you do needs to be genuine support, with no grudges allowed. My test is that it’s something I’d feel I’m doing the world a service by doing, whether or not it’s ever recognized.

I’ll share a post in Facebook whether or not the other person will do the same for me in my estimation, because I think it’s a great post that people who have friended me will enjoy.

Now if someone does the same for me? I take a page out of Lisa Byrne‘s book and spend hours paying attention to what they do as ell.

To get back to the point, ask people to take action. You probably are on the big things, but break that down more and think of where you expect an action but can’t take it for granted. Are you asking people to subscribe to your newsletter? Are you asking newsletter subscribers to be on the lookout for the next offer? Are you asking new customers to buy one more thing?

Really think about it….

What do you want your customers and clients to do? And have you asked them to do it?

As you may have read on my Web Visibility Blog. I’m participating in the efforts of USA for UNHCR in a drive to get 6000 Americans to help us provide aid for refugees internationally by June 20, World Refugee Day. If you haven’t, there’s still time to find out how you, $5 and a small blue key will save the world.

The donation is a tiny $5, and you’ll be helping refugees gain access to protection, food, shelter and clean water.

Tomorrow, we’re having a Tweetathon to raise awareness. I would appreciate it if you’d do one of the following to help us:

1. Get Your Own Blue Key, then tweet about it, using the hashtag #bluekey.
2. Retweet our posts to Twitter during the Tweetathon tomorrow.
3. Ask your friends to get a Blue Key or get one in their name. It’s only $5 – and it goes an incredibly long way. You also get a blue key pin to wear that people will ask about, helping you to spread awareness too.
4. Share this post on Facebook.

To read more about the event, you can see the #Blue Key Announcement on Plancast.

What’s A Popularity Matrix?

It's Okay if the Matrix Falls Apart

A popularity matrix, which we briefly discussed yesterday, is a huge, often behemouth network of contacts in social media or in real life in which the majority of your contacts are… let’s call them flaky connections.

You know when you plug something into the wall and you can tell it’s getting electricity but it won’t turn all the way on? Flaky connection.

You’re connected, but you’re not connected.

The people in your network are THERE but they never DO anything.

You wonder if they read your newsletter, care what you say, would react if halfway through you decided to  elephant nose job decoder ring.

Just checking.

Why Do We Need to Deconstruct it?

Yeah, I admit it, social media is like high school in a way. The popular kids are running the playground, going to the prom, having all the sex (did I say that out loud?) So now that you have popularity, you don’t want to let go of it.

Well let me let you in on something. I wasn’t very popular in high school – I was, and still am, a conditional hermit. But I did have a perfect hourglass figure and I wore shades all the time. For whatever reason, that put me in that secondary tier.

And I’ll tell you – being popular is a lot of hard work for very little gain.

Just the schedule of being seen is exhausting. Pretending to care about dumb things, setting meaningless trends. At the end of it, it’s not like there was a prize, it’s not like you got some trophy or money or work skills.

Just this empty feeling of being well-liked. A fleeting smidge of power – over a kingdom of people dumb enough to think worshiping/hating you was an end unto itself.

And the people who bought into it? Where’s your precious high school quarterback now? The head cheerleader? The prom queen?

If they bought into the popularity thing, they’re flipping burgers or on welfare. In my circle we used to joke that it was too hard to have a reunion because so many people would have to get out of jail, get babysitters for their 9 kids by 5 daddies or come back from the dead.

We were only half kidding.

Popularity might feel good at first. But then you realize it’s a fraudulent glory.

Because, actually? Darling, it’s hurting you.

Impeding your progress.

Hindering your true greatness.

While I do give some credence to the catch-22 that most people don’t want to go to a party no one is already attending, I believe that once you gain momentum, any of the followers you were grateful for when you were small time…

…EVEN WHEN THEY WERE BORED AS USUALLY …

…. need to be cut off. Now.

Oh, you think they aren’t hurting anything?

How the Popularity Matrix Clutters Your Mental Social Desk

Okay. Go to your Twitter stream, and pull up your incoming stream. Or if you don’t have Twitter (or don’t follow more than 50% of people who follow you), then Amplify, Delicious, or Facebook, or StumbleUpon or even your work email.

If most of it is junk that you wouldn’t bother clicking on or opening, you have too many flaky connections.

And this firehose of incoming information is keeping you from being able to see your highest-quality news, updates, followers, peers, friends and fans.

And if you can’t spot your ideal client, business partner, or prospect, you’re only getting perhaps 10% of the possible ideal connections you need to succeed. Because the people who come to you, via retweet, Facebook share, joining the same forums and signing up to your newsletter?

They’re the minority.

And yes, it’s ideal that they come to you – inbound marketing rules. However, let’s not confuse inbound marketing with lack of follow up.

When they opted in to whatever conversation you want to have, where ever you’re having it without you initiating the first contact, yes, that worked.  But when they take that step towards you by joining your newsletter, or subscribing to your blog, or buying an entry-level product, inbound marketing is over and it’s time for follow up to take over.

You have to take that follow-up step towards them now, as soon as you can.

So I ask you – how will you follow up with people you don’t see?

You can’t. You feel me now?

So you need to take it apart. If you smash it to bits though, you’ll lose the good people with the bad fits. Deconstruct, not destroy. The reverse of construction - how we build it is how we will take it down.

Even if you passed that test – it’s worth a look at the deconstruction process, because it applies to many aspects of life, particularly business life, and the things we put value on.

So How Do You Deconstruct A Popularity Matrix?

Besides very carefully? The opposite of the way you built it. But we’ll chat about that next.

Google’s always coming out with new fangled gizmos. I’m amazed at how many I find during routine research.

There are probably a few on this list that you  know,  and a couple you’ve heard of but may not know much about.

Today, I’m gonna do a brief summary, then I’ll do some videos on the more complex ones in coming days.

1- Google News Timeline (help page)
http://newstimeline.googlelabs.com/

Google News Timeline can help you examine the growth of a story, track mentions of your company in the press over time, or see what’s hot in different times of publications. it can even give you a link if you want to follow the progress of say, the Kenneth Cole tweet disaster. (Did you know it made USA Today?)

2- Google Follow Finder
http://followfinder.googlelabs.com/

Not yet a Google Labs graduate. Plug in your name and see who Google thinks you should follow after digging into your social graph. I like to use it to find more people who are like my favorite Twitter friends.

3- Google Reader Sharing
http://www.google.com/reader

If you have Google Buzz turned on, you’ll notice when you next log in to Google Reader that there’s a section for “People You Follow”. You can share links – or random thoughts, with all the people who are following you, or a select group, and they can share with you.

Those links also show up on your Google Buzz page. I enjoy getting suggestions from people who know and understand me, and what kind of news I like or need. I also like being able to split my audience into targeted groups of people so I can send them updates just on things they would want to know, instead of the whole firehose.

Accessing Google profiles from within Google Reader has helped me get to know a lot of people better as well.

4- Google Calendar Labs
https://www.google.com/calendar/

Go to your Google Calendar, then go to settings, then click on Labs. You’ll get a bunch of neat beta features you can use to enhance your Google calendar. Some help you interact with other people’s shared calendars to figure out things like when you’re both free, or  when to reschedule a meeting. Others just make your calendar prettier or more useful.

5- Gmail Labs
http://mail.google.com/mail/

There are a lot of great extras in GMail, my favorite being canned responses, which are editable pre-filled emails you can save for later repeated use. If you constantly get the same question and it has a similar response that is too long for an FAQ page, this feature can save you hours of time.

There are tons of time saving additions here that reduce common actions to a few mouse strokes. Another one I love brings Google Docs into GMail. Ever cut and paste a message into Google Docs for safe keeping? Now you can do it with one click.

6- Your Google Social Circle and Social Content
http://www.google.com/s2/search/social#socialcircle

Lots of people are dismissive of Google’s Social Search. This was  understandabe when since the searches that turned up social results were still at the bottom of the screen, and not featured in the sidebar. This is no longer the case, as stated in a recent update to Google Social Search.

But as I predicted last year, Google has integrated Social Search results into the main results, and is likely making Tweets and other social signal data part of their algorithm, starting with Real Time Search.

But there’s a lot you can learn just from the Social Circle Google has discovered for you from how you fill out your Google Profile.

For example, if you’re connected to someone on Twitter, and you can’t figure out which LinkedIn profile belongs to them due to a common name, Google Social Circle can help with that.

Each person/entity is grouped with the social links that they’ve decided to make public on their Google Profile. True, you can also find this by searching the Google Profile directory, but if you’re looking for several people at a time, this is a heaven sent time saver.

You can also spot trends of what sites you’re not on that are becoming hot, or figure out which service your friend is using that has the least noise, and thus, the highest chance of contact. The secondary connections section will also help you find new people to connect to in your favorite social media site.

7- Google Map Maker
http://maps.google.com/maps/mapmaker/

Getting Started Guide
http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/support.html

I stumbled across this when I found out that my favorite nearby local park was not identified on Google Maps. From the “help page“,

Google Map Maker allows you to create a map by adding or editing features such as roads, businesses, parks, schools and more.

8- Add Google Maps to Your Site
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/getmaps/

You can add directions to your site, maps to points of interest nearby, or even plot many locations on a map.

9 – Google Insights for Search
http://www.google.com/insights/search/

Is your business seasonal? Does your favorite search term reflect this? Has the term  you targeted peaked? Are there other related terms you could attain rising in popularity? You can use Google Insights for Search to research all these things.

10 –  Google Trends for Websites
http://trends.google.com/websites
(Defaults to a Wikipedia search.)

This is useful to help find sites in the same family. It’s different from getting similar sites – one of the charts you’ll see is a list of sites that people who visit the site in question also visit.

You can also compare the popularity of two sites.

I’ll start putting up videos soon to help you get a better idea of how you can use these sites to help your business.

In my heart, I see a lot of the history we’re making on the web in before and after terms. The clearest example of this type of thinking is how people refer to a time before and after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, representing the effective end of the Cold War. Especially in terms of technology, I think not so much about what is leading and bleeding edge as I do what consumers are going to adopt, and how that will affect business.

Then I attempt to build a cottage industry around that eventuality.

I saw it with Google toppling Yahoo, then the onset of RSS as an syndication-enabling technology, then with blogging, now with social media, in particular Facebook & Twitter, though I was reluctant to be as bold as I’d previously been. I see it now as I realize that I’ve outgrown what this blog was supposed to stand for and pioneer. I stay because I see how much it’s still needed and to pass on a successful, consistently revenue-generating machine to my business partners.

But as I grow into this new role that life is shaping around me, many things are becoming clear to me.

The first thing is that making prediction for the year to come is way too shortsighted if I’m serious about becoming a prominent thought leader. There are dozens of people with spot-on suggestions and vision about what’s going to be relevant this year – and if you look at previous years, they have excellent records for being correct. So I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with predicting trends in the short term and getting help mapping a path to get to realistic goals within that framework.

No, I’m just saying that to move economies, we need to be thinking 3 years ahead, 5 years, 10.

Granted, we have no idea what innovations will come along between now and even the next 2 years. But we DO know what we have now, and a handful of us can not only plot timelines for possible mass adoption/abandonment of some of these technologies, but inform possible uses for them that would otherwise not be predicted.

So this year, my focus is going to be on how the world will look – and what we’ll be looking back on – about ten years from now, and how that affects what we ought to be doing today.  Of course that conversation won’t always be relevant here, so I’ll be publishing some of that in a book, and on a new blog related to that book. Follow me on Twitter, or join the newsletter to hear more about that.

My first prediction: the walls that separate work life and home life are already falling, and will be gone by 2021, but in a joycentric way.

Do you have any far-reaching predictions?