BlueGlass LA, on July 19th & 20th, will be kicking off the new premier BlueGlass conference series by the teams of Search Engine Journal, Search & Social and 10e20.

Moderated by Chris Winflield, Dave Snyder, Jordan Kasteler, Brent Csutoras & myself … the speaker line up will be amazing, as well as the amazing location in West LA!

• Ben Huh from ICanHasCheezburger
• Vanessa Fox from NinebyBlue
• Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz
• Neil Patel of Kissmetrics and QuickSprout
• Tony Adam from MySpace
• Marshall Simmonds from The New York Times
• Greg Boser of 3Dog Media
• Dave McClure from FF Angel
• … and many more!

With the talent lineup, the location, the food, the entertainment and the interactive audience participation, the Early Bird ticket rate of $495 a pop will be a steal!

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I’m a big fan of Facebook and as a matter of fact, I spend more time on Facebook than LinkedIn, Twitter or even GMail. One reason is that fundamentally, Facebook Apps make the social network the dashboard for my life on the web. And with Open Graph, Facebook will follow me everywhere I go, especially in the business world.

For example, I love utilizing more business oriented social networks like LinkedIn, it seems to be much more efficient to bring LinkedIn to me on FB, or bring the business into my dashboard (ie. Profile) as I’m connected with many more individuals on Facebook than LinkedIn. If anything, integrating my business tools as apps in Facebook also help me get better acquainted with my business colleagues.

Last week I was on a business trip and had dinner with clients. We talked about our families, sports and more general topics than just business primarily because we are all connected on Facebook. They know I’m a stand up guy with a baby, an NFL fan and enjoy running my great business. Likewise, I know more about them, so the end result was a new level of trust than can be built by pure business connections alone.

So, if you consider Facebook not just a social networking site but something that can help you promote your business, network with customers, communicate with business contacts and collaborate with coworkers, well then you are right. As proof, here are six business networking tools and apps that I suggest you utilize to integrate business into Facebook, and vice versa.

1. Professional Profile – This app lets you leverage your Facebook friends into business connections by consolidating professional information into one place. It allows you to create a tab on your profile for all of your professional contacts, information, and activities. This app is useful for separating your business and personal contacts.

2. Networked Blogs app – This business app allows you to promote your blog on Facebook as well as to discover new blogs. It shows up on your profile or in your boxes tab displaying your blog and any of the blogs that you like to read, including business-related blogs. The app also lets you import your blog feed to your profile or fan page, read news and vote articles you like.

3. My LinkedIn Profile – Although not officially affiliated with LinkedIn, this app connects your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, allowing you to display your LinkedIn User profile or company profile on Facebook.

4. Tag Biz Business Network – This is useful for business networking purposes in the sense that it does the networking for you, hence saving you time while expanding your business network. Tag Biz automates the relationship networking and referral process by putting a custom business keyword tag cloud on your Facebook profile and on the Facebook profiles of your friends in your business network. TagBiz also adds your business to the Tag Biz business directory which has over 7000 listed businesses. You’d also get a Tag Biz customizable business card and signature line for all your Facebook messages and wall  postings when you install this app.

5. Working It – At first you might think that this Facebook app is good only for thanking friends or for giving props to people in your business network. But it can also be useful app for job search by letting you share your education, work experience and skills, and search over 5 million jobs and internships. The app also lets you build relationships with coworkers and network with professional contacts.

Do you use Facebook as a business connector? And if so, please recommend apps in the comments below.

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10e20 announced today the acquisition of Brent Csutoras, Inc. (BCI), the social media arm of Brent Csutoras, which means that Csutoras will now join Chris Winfield at 10e20 in the role of SVP of Viral Marketing.

“At the end of the day, we just took a really good viral marketing department and made it great.” – Chris Winfield, President of 10e20

By adding Csutoras, 10e20 is now double the social media powerhouse that it once was, and their new suite of social networking and viral marketing services will be a force to be reckoned with in the SEO & social media marketing industry.

Csutoras has this to say about the merger :

“Joining 10e20 was the natural evolution to providing our clients the absolute best chance at success within social media. Separately we have both helped countless companies succeed with social media and now together, I truly feel we can offer even better solutions and programs for our clients.”

The deal will help 10e20 in its efforts to develop more effective campaigns for its clients and generate more visibility, traffic, links and ultimately revenue through:

• BCI’s understanding of the social media ecosystems
• BCI’s ability to create content that is engaging and ’share-worthy’
• BCI’s unique intellectual property that will help client’s better understand how their campaigns are performing

Big congrats to Brent Csutoras and the 10e20 Team!

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Having a Facebook page can be an enormous business asset. By simply applying 4 key strategies to your Facebook page, you can set yourself apart from the “Me too!” marketers.

Big companies have started turning towards Facebook pages as a marketing medium. In fact, some companies have done away with their conventional websites in favor of their Facebook pages. The potential is huge, given the percentage of the population engaging on social networks, and if applied properly, can be immensely profitable.

The 4 key strategies for your Facebook page:

1. Have a clear and personable voice to your brand. Business is about being known, and being known for a reason. What sets you apart from the competition? How do you want to come across to your potential clients? Decide on an “image” for your company – and stick to it. Keep in mind that consistency is a key factor in branding – the impression of stability inspires trust. Be clearly different, be human (after all, people connect with people), and be consistent.

2. Update your page often. It could be brand related messages, or it could be personal (not too personal though, or you may appear unprofessional). If potential fans arrive at your Facebook page, and see it has not been updated in a while, it creates the impression of neglect – and no-one wants to be neglected, especially not your customers.

Remember to keep it positive – people enjoy coming to places that help them feel good. Also, refrain from any negative comments on competitors’ doings – even if they did wrong. It creates a bad impression if you have to stoop as low as bashing the opposition in order to make yourself look better.

3. Add some fun to your page. Hold contests or giveaways, and add oddities that will engage the visitor, and make him or her come back again. Get your fans involved, and encourage them to engage in conversation. The moment your page comes alive with interaction, it creates a whole new impression to the new visitor.

4. Make it worthwhile for people to be your fans. Offer them something special in return. It could be special discounts or special offers, or additional bonuses. Once you add an incentive for becoming your fan, it will add leverage to your efforts, and add to the numbers of new fans signing up.

By continuously applying these 4 key strategies to your Facebook page, you will be able to escalate the number of fans while you establish a lasting brand, and build credibility.

Looking for more ways to build out your Facebook fanpage? Here are some resources :

How to Promote Your Fanpage

How To Create the Perfect Facebook Fan Page

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On Tuesday March 9, SearchFest is going to take place in Portland. If you own a business, here are the top 5 reasons you should attend and if you don’t own one… well there are still some good reasons for you to attend it.

And if you still aren’t sure, here is an example of the content you’ll see at SearchFest.

So go register for SearchFest now. And if you use THIS DISCOUNT CODE, you’ll save $30.

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One of the major features of the Wordpress blogging platform that makes it as a widely used and very popular CMS is its simplicity and functionality. Even sweeter is the fact that Wordpress has a very distinct feature that extends what it can do – plugins.

For the past several years Wordpress has amassed a large database of plugins which covers many things, from a simple traffic analytics to the creation of periodic newsletters and more. Well, plugins aren’t just for blogs anymore.

If you’re running a business website or even just a simple blog and you want to avoid the the pitfalls of losing valuable leads from the information you added to your CRM system, Salesforce’s has created a plugin that you can use for your business contact forms.

Wordpress-to-Lead : Lead Generation

Wordpress-to-lead plugin, unlike the usual procedure that contact forms does, is to get data from the contact forms. But to do this, you must have Salesforce CRM running too. Once you’ve activated and installed the plugin and had Salesforce CRM running, you can start tracking all your transactions, sync it with Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook and other webmail client and manage all your contacts and lead information better. The plugin takes away the the dauting task of tracking leads by checking in your email inbox and putting information to CRM.

If your company uses Salesforce as its CRM system of choice, there is no reason to use any other Wordpress contact form plugin on your company blogs.

Via AllthingsCRM :

As a small business owner, every lead counts. You want to make sure that your website monetizes. You want to make sure people can contact you through your website. You have a two choices – a contact form that sends messages to your email inbox, or a contact for that sends messages and captures lead information directly into your CRM system.

If you want to learn more about the Wordpress-to-lead plugin, check out the video below:

If you want to take a shot at using this plugin on your website, sign up for the Salesforce free trial.

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It’s been a while since I posted and updated you about my life. For the past year or so I have been living in Seattle and most recently, I just bought a place at Olive 8 by Hyatt. I know the name of the building name sounds weird, but it’s that way because it is a hotel.

Here are some pictures of what it looks like:

The building

Lobby

Restaurant

Game room

Indoor pool

Living room

Bedroom

Bathroom

Kitchen

The view

In addition to the pictures above, the hotel offers me (as a condo owner) a lot of cool amenities, such as valet parking (I am bad at parking), room service (I hate cooking), maid service (I don’t know how to clean), and use of their state of the art gym.

I know you are probably wondering how I could afford such a nice place… well there are 2 main reasons:

• Olive 8 has some great deals. So if you want to live there with me, Andy and a few other awesome .com guys, you should hit them up.
• I have some great sponsors. Without them, I would have never been able to pimp out my place. They paid for everything from my bedroom furniture to my bathroom TV.

And for those of you who are wondering who sponsored my place, well it was these 14 great companies: Online Poker, Nerdy Shirts, Shoemoney Capital, Revenue Enhancement Group, Train Signal, Chitika, Get Ads, Globalizer Network, Device Doctor, Driver Library, Buddy TV, John Chow, Five Q Enterprises, Big Door Media.

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My friend Rob, just luanched the The Micropreneur Academy. Here is a bit more information on it.

The Micropreneur Academy, an online learning environment for solo software entrepreneurs, is opening its doors to new enrollments soon. Launched in April by noted software blogger and entrepreneur Rob Walling of Software by Rob, the Academy takes developers and entrepreneurs through the process of building and launching a software product (including web applications) with a focus on online marketing topics such as blogging, buzz marketing, social media marketing, and search engine marketing.

Academy members support one another through the private forums and a members-only LinkedIn group and they follow a proven blueprint for finding a profitable niche, building a product, launching, marketing, and supporting it as a one-person software company. Many current members have launched or are launching their own product/web app in the first few months.

Look for a review of the Academy in Bob Walsh’s upcoming book, The Web Startup Success Guide.

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Almost everyone on this planet wants to become successful, there is no doubt about it. You can’t blame people for wanting this. Success in wealth can take you places you’ve always dreamed of going and buy you things you always wished for. Success in contribution allows you to feel the joy and happiness in others feeling fulfilled. Success in spirituality allows one to explore areas of their mind that bring them closer to enlightenment. Since there are several different areas of success that people want to indulge in, it’s no surprise they’re willing to do whatever it takes to get it.

Do you want to know what the secret to my success is? I talk to people every single day and persuade them to do business with me. Yes, to be successful you have to talk people! No you can’t just sit on your computer all day confined in your room. I’m almost always have interaction with other people every single day. Whether I’m meeting potential business partners for lunch to pitching my new idea to a VC, I’m always selling myself. I truly believe that your communication is the key to your success. A friend of mine, AJ Kumar who blogs on Persuasive.net, a personal development blog, writes amazing articles a few times a week on how you can powerfully change the way you communicate. When I met AJ, we both almost instantly realized that way shared the same philosophy. AJ has finally released his highly anticipated book: 7 Day Persuasive Communication which he sent over to me a few days ago. It’s a short read, very informative, and teaches you the core skills necessary to become a powerful communicator. The top 10 reasons you should learn persuasive communication are:

1. A person can double their income from $35,000 a year to $75,000
2. Obtain undivided attention with people you communicate with
3. Convince investors to give you $$$$Money$$$$ for your start-up company
4. Go from being laid off to successfully employed within a few interviews
5. Sell your product or service to someone right now to put cash in your pocket
6. Create a powerful network of millionaires and billionaires
7. Acquire that self confidence you have been searching for
8. Bring more readers to your website or blog
9. Sway your website visitors to stay longer on your site to allow the maximum conversion rate
10. Become an expert negotiator to find the best deals possible

For any entrepreneur, this book is definitely a must read and should be implemented right away. I like the way AJ incorporates assignments that easily integrate in your everyday life so you don’t have to go out of your way to learn. For a person who can barley find time to breathe sometimes, this is perfect.

The cost of the eBook is less than $20 bucks so it nothing that will dent your wallet. If you, like me, considering your communication skills to be your “ammo”, then this is something you should get right away. With the technology, information, and accessibility available to everyone on this planet, it’s difficult to become successful. It seems as if everyone can do what you do and many times at a lower rate. The one thing that can separate you from everyone else is your unique ability to communicate. Instead of placing all your focus on small things like making your websites look pretty, invest in your communication skills and network your way to a successful future.

Click here to download AJ’s book right now!

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Over the past few weeks I have been reading a book called Twitter Power by Joel Comm. As many of you know I am not a big fan of books, but I have to say it is one of my favorite books. Even though I already know a lot about social media it made me think about Twitter in a new way. Here are a few things I learned:

Get Started the Right Way

When I started using Twitter, I went about it the wrong way. My user name wasn’t my name and I tried to create a profile that wasn’t tied to my company or me. Because of this no one really paid attention to my Twitter profile and cared about what I tweeted. So if you are new to Twitter, make sure your profile represents you.

On top of that you need to make your profile is inviting. For example you want to use a picture of yourself and design your profile instead of just using the generic designs Twitter gives you. And when doing so make sure you take into account colors, because you don’t want it to be too distracting and causes people to ignore your tweets.

Building a Following

When you first sign up for Twitter there are two ways you can get followers. The first is the quantity route and the second is the quality route. If you go for the quantity route you can do a few things:

• Look for people you already know.
• Tweet your blog, so every time you write a blog posts it goes to Twitter. You also want to make sure your twitter profile is linked to from your blog.
• Offer your followers freebies and gifts. The more you offer to them, the more people will follow you. A good way to do this is through contests.
• Every time someone tweets you, make sure you respond to them.
• Put your Twitter name in your email signature.

If you are looking to get quality users, you can:

• Identify and follow the experts in your industry.
• Gain people’s friendship by doing things such as replying to their tweets.
• Always give more than you take by doing things such as giving other people advice and when they ask for it.

The Art of Tweeting

As you probably already know, I don’t tweet too often. I have only made a few hundred tweets in a year to 2 years. After reading Twitter Power, I finally understood how I should be tweeting.

• Follow Twitter etiquette. For example you never want to spam (which I have done), you want to give credits when retweeting, and most importantly you want to stick with 140 characters (don’t create multiple tweets to get across a message).
• You want to join the conversation. I always just tweeted what I wanted, but my profile never grew. The main reason for this is because I never joined the conversation and contributed to it.
• Make sure you are interesting on Twitter. If you want to tweet crap, that’s fine, but you will probably gain a lot more followers if you are interesting.

Conclusion

There is a lot more great information that you can learn by reading Twitter Power. I personally loved it so much that I recommend you get out there right now and buy a copy. If you don’t you will regret it!

By the way, you should also Twitter about Twitter Power.

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