Fast Start 5 Series

I've been seeing business owners totally mystified with what to do with all this crazy social media stuff exploding around us. For all the people in love with Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc. there's twice as many who know nothing about it. Same goes for the basics around effective websites, and Search, and getting found or not. As a fan of the 80/20 rule and all its variations, I'd say 80% of the websites on the internet are totally dysfunctional.

So here's the beginning of my Wave series to help people get a handle on what's going on out there on the internet, and most importantly, translate that knowledge into actionable steps to help drive their business forward.

Google is such an integral part of everything internet I think you need to get yourself going in the world of Google first.

So I'll start with what I call my 'Google Fast Start' -

(One premise of this plan I am working from is this; just go 'Google' the app I am talking about, find it, follow the instructions & get it working. A second premise is that's there's only 5 steps to take - making it a bite size mission that you can accomplish with a minimum of time)

It's pretty simple really - Try it / you'll like it!

1st - Get yourself a Gmail account.

2) Next, set up an iGoogle page for yourself so you have a place to call home and manage all the cool Google stuff you can use. Download a Google toolbar while you're at it - at the very least I'd want you to be familiar with the google PageRank meter on the toolbar. (more on the importance of that later)

3) Go over & find Google alerts. (BTW - have you Googled yourself lately? ;-)

Set up only 2 or 3 alerts for now. Put your name in, your company, your main product or keyword phrase. You'll have to fine tune this to get a good stream of info - too broad a term will get you a lot of unneeded info -work it a little to get it right.

4) Now go get Google Reader set up. This is an amazing tool for sending yourself a targeted stream of information that's focused on the subjects YOU care about. the second part of this step is now go to google blog search - plug in a topic you are interested in and look for some info feeds. Find one or 2 you like and add them to your reader. You can put your Reader right into your iGoogle page for easy access.

5) Finally, go over & find Google Blogger. Your Gmail account gets you in and you can set up your first blog literally in minutes. Think of this first blog as a journal - what are you thinking about? What are some key topics running around in your head about your business that you need to get into a written form?

Got any pictures on your laptop or phone? Try a first upload. How does it look?

Try it - You'll like it!

...and have some FUN with it - when it's fun, it's easy and automatic to keep at it.