It is Advertising Week and KISS Rock Star/Marketing Guru Gene Simmons dropped by for an hour presentation on Tuesday at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Canada; part of the Institute of Communication Agencies’ annual forum. When it comes to getting business advice Simmons is a marketing genius. Simmons has flexed his marketing muscle by aligning the band with big brands like Nike, Visa, Nestle, the Holiday Inn and the Indy race series. Not to mention the merchandising empire he has built by licensing everything from coffee to coffins.

In the video Marketing Magazine Canada asks Simmons “What is your take on the state of advertising in North America.”

If you are at all concerned with the future of publishing, or think that books are a thing of the past, then you need to watch this video. If you enjoy great copywriting or clever viral videos, then this video is definitely for you.

I was looking forward to Google Buzz, it appeared to have the makings of the perfect social networking tool. A cross between Friendfeed, Facebook and Twitter. However, after only a few hours I was pulling my hair out, and wondering how this monster could be unleashed on my already tormented email box? In the midst of writing a blog listing all that was wrong with Buzz, Google swiftly came out on Saturday, February 13th with an apology for their Buzz attack and announced immediate changes to Buzz that resolved, for the most part, and addressed the concerns that were raised.

Google has made the following updates as a result of the feedback they received:

1 – Auto-following will become auto-suggest. While I can understand that Google was compensating for and learning from the complaints we had with no one to network with when we tried the Google Wave, but auto-following only led to complaints and a host of privacy issues. “Don’t decide for me who I should want in my network.” With auto-suggest we can pick and choose our social network.

2 – Remove auto-connect to Picasa and Google Reader. Google thought because we had “public” accounts that we would appreciate automated connecting the content. It is true my Google Reader is public, that is not a concern, but I am a heavy user of Google reader and flag numerous articles in a day. With auto-connect, suddenly your inbox and mine is filling up with my research, last time I checked unwanted email is called Spam. So I am relieved to learn Google has chosen to remove auto-connect. And I apologize to all my contacts for my day of Buzzing your inbox.

3 – Update Buzz public and privacy settings. You can now have better control over your Buzz settings. Whether you want to share your network publicly or display Buzz in your Gmail. While this is helpful, I notice there is no setting to not have a “buzz” sent to your Gmail. Personally I don’t want any of my social networks sending me email notifications, I have enough email in a day with my consulting business that I don’t want extra work thank you.

I do appreciate the quick response to fixing Buzz that Google has had, and impressed with their apology, “We quickly realized that we didn’t get everything quite right. We’re very sorry for the concern we’ve caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback. We’ll continue to do so.” There is definitely many lessons in the right and wrong way for product launches that other companies could learn from here. Actually, that would make a great future blog post.

Many of you have asked me what I have thought of Google Buzz. It is not that I don’t like Google Buzz and these changes certainly make it more palatable. The way I see it Buzz fails on two factors that I believe are critical in any competitive market and that would influence my decision to use it. The product should fill a need and/or, be better then the competition.

My Google Buzz is turned off until further notice.

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• Google Backlash: Buzz Already Too Public. (pamil-visions.net)
• After outcry, Google revamps Buzz networking application (macworld.com)
• Anger Leads to Apology From Google About Buzz (nytimes.com)

Google moves into social networking with their new social media application called Google Buzz. Buzz is a new way to start conversations right in your Gmail which means no need to seek out a new set of friends from scratch. Buzz utilizes your existing network by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. Buzz is expected to be an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don’t have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates with your existing Gmail inbox, so you’re sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time. There is no applications to download and install. Google is rolling out Buzz to all Gmail user so you can expect to see it in your account very soon.

7 Things You Need to Know About Google Buzz

1. Easy update and sharing of your photos & videos
2. Built right into Gmail, so you will automatically be following your existing network of friends, family and co-workers.
3. You can share your account publicly or privately
4. Connect with more then just your status updates, Buzz will automatically pull images from links, play videos inline and you can even flip through photo seamlessly
5. Buzz let you connect with other sites you use like Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader and Twitter
6. Communicate with friends using the commenting field and respond directly in your inbox
7. Buzz even works on your phone

You are likely asking yourself by now, “What is new about this?” and you would be correct. None of these features are groundbreaking or innovative, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr all serve these features effectively enough.

Will Google Buzz give us sizzle or sadly fizzle?

To learn more visit buzz.google.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google Officially Announces Google Buzz – A Google Approach To Sharing (thenextweb.com)
• Google to make Gmail a little more social (news.cnet.com)

It is true Twitter can be time consuming and it is compelling to use or try any of the thousands of Twitter applications available to save yourself time, add followers quickly or automate your tweets.

Before you do, you may want to learn about Twitter’s best practices that help prevent your account from being removed from searches, or in some cases suspended. Twitter may automatically remove accounts engaging in what they consider aggressive behaviors in order to ensure the best experience for everyone.

Twitter cautions against aggressive behaviors and suggests that you stay away from:

1) Repeatedly posting duplicate or near-duplicate content (links or tweets) – Be kind to your followers, no one wants to see the same tweets repeatedly. If for example your trying to get traffic back to a new blog post change the content of your tweets so that they are fresh, and interesting. If you do try to tweet duplicate tweets, Twitter will actually prevent the tweet from posting. Therefore, you are automatically compelled to change the content.

2) Abusing trending topics or hashtags (topic words with a # sign) – This is not the way to promote your business or cause. Abusing hashtags or hijacking hashtags is not only annoying to followers, but it is a red flag to Twitter that you are not practicing good Twitter etiquette.

3) Sending automated tweets or replies – This seems like the easiest way to “set your Twitter account and forget it.” Many Twitter applications provide automated tweets and replies but you can guarantee that all your tweets will be removed from searches. Getting found is the point of social media and Twitter, without it you might as well be invisible. And consider this, if everyone is on automated tweeting, then who are you to “engage” with, and “build relationships” with?

4) Using bots or applications to post similar messages based on keywords – This is similar to automating your tweets, and if you are to be that disingenuous about your tweets, then your are not following the rules of social media.

5) Posting similar messages over multiple accounts – I see this in my Twitter stream all the time. How authentic are you if you are Tweeting from multiple accounts? I also noticed that these type of twitters most often are using an application to automate those tweets. This type of activity means you have no engagement, no trust, and followers will likely un-follow you quickly, like I do.

6) Aggressively following and un-following people – There are hundreds of applications offering mass following and un-following, not to mention the “How to get Follower’s Fast” spam tweets. No one needs that many followers overnight, in fact there is a movement to have 1000 or less followers. That is considered the magic number of loyal followers anyone needs to have a strong social media program. So do not worry about how many followers you can “get” overnight.

I hope that by learning these best practices I have saved you from being removed from searches, and potentially suspended from Twitter. You can learn more about Twitter best practices, and Twitter rules at the Twitter Help section.

I recently had the great pleasure of being interviewed and featured as a Wild Web Woman at Web Marketing Therapy.

The Wild Web Women at Web Marketing Therapy are always thrilled to connect with like-minded and brilliant women in business and introduce them to you! We had the pleasure of chatting with Gail Helmer, who seeks to simplify the Wild Web’s social media secrets and helps companies integrate social media into their business. With almost 20 years as a marketing professional, she lives and breathes the internet! We had a blast finding out what inspires Gail, as well as what brand of shoes make her feel at her best and that she shares the WMT Wild Web Women’s obsession with Lululemon yoga pants!

You can read the full interview at the Web Marketing Therapy Blog. Thank you to Lorrie Thomas, Sarah Caminker, Kelly Kohen, and all the great women at Web Marketing Therapy.

I discovered this small gem of an e book called “What Matters Now”.

Presented by Seth Godin, this tiny book is chock-full of inspiring words of more than 60 people with big ideas and something to say.

It is designed to inspire you to make some changes in 2010, and to keep doing work that matters. Every page is encapsulated by a single word and in a micro-essay each contributor expresses their big idea around what they are working on.

One of my favorite micro-essay’s is from contributor Marti Barletta and she writes about:

Strengths
Forget about working on your weaknesses. Focus on supporting your strengths.

I worked on my weaknesses for 40 years to little avail. Still “needs improvement,” as they say. Why? Easy. We hate doing things we’re not good at, so we avoid them. No practice makes perfect hard to attain. But my strengths – ah, I love my strengths. I’ll work on them till the purple cows come home. When we love what we do, we do more and more, and pretty soon we’re pretty good at it.

The beautiful thing about being on a team is that, believe it or not, lots of people love doing the things you hate. And hate doing the things you love. So quit diligently developing your weaknesses. Instead, partner with someone very UNlike you, share the work and share the wealth and everyone’s happy.

Relatedly, women are rather UNlike men and often approach problems and opportunities with a different outlook. Yet books and coaches often encourage us to adopt male strengths and, lacking understanding, to relinquish our own. The irony is, studies show that more women in leadership translates unequivocally into better business results. Wouldn’t it make more sense for both men and women to appreciate each other’s strengths so we all work on what comes naturally?

Marti Barletta, speaker, consultant and author of Marketing to Women and PrimeTime Women; is currently working on her next book, Attracting Women: Marketing Your Company to the 21st Century’s Best Candidates

Inspiring quotes from:

Generosity,

“In a digital world, the gift I give you almost always benefits me more than it costs.” – Seth Godin

Fear,

“His name is Fear. Fear plays the role of antagonist in the story of your life. You must rid yourself of him using all necessary means.” – Anne Jackson

Momentum,

“Not many people in our A.D.D. culture can stay FOCUSED, but those who can are on their way to winning.” – Dave Ramsey

Toughmindedness,

“We live in the age of distraction, of Twitter and multi-tasking and short attention spans. The antidote to these scattering influences is tough-mindedness” – Steven Pressfield

Contributors to this little book include: tom peters, saul griffith, seth godin, tony hsieh, todd sattersten, tim o’reilly, steve pressfield, sally hogshead, robyn waters, ramit sethi, rajesh setty, piers fawkes, phoebe espiritu, penelope trunk, paco underhill, mitch joel, michael schrage

You can view the entire book by clicking on the image below.

Inspired to make some changes in 2010? I am, and I would love to hear your big thoughts!

According to  Mashable, there are over 56 million women using Facebook in the United States.  “For marketers this means one very important thing,” Brette Borow, the president and founder of Girls Guide To, the “ladies only” guide to life, wrote for Mashable. “If you have a brand, product or company that targets women, Facebook is the place to be. Unfortunately, unless you’re a brand that every woman knows or loves, then just being on Facebook is not enough.”

Brette offers these 10 tips for marketing to women on Facebook:

1- Quality counts
2- Create an emotional connection
3- Provide Utility
4- Give fans a voice
5- Listen
6- Complement her life, don’t complicate it.
7- Don’t be redundant
8- Keep the shopping seamless
9- Remember: she’s a social shopper
10- Keep your fans in the loop

Women’s clothing designer and online retailer Hayden Harnett have done an impressive job of building and maintaining a loyal fan base for their gorgeous products. For more then two years this team honed these tips Brette recommends and then some with their transparent, customer engaging, social networking, with no sales pitches.  My favorite is the stories and photos that customers share of their purchases. The entire product line is given proper names making it easy to personalize and have fun while creating a connection between the company and your wardrobe. If you want to find out more visit the Hayden-Harnett website, Twitter and Facebook.

Have tips or experiences for marketing to women online let us know, we would all love to hear them.

Saving valuable time with your social media program has become essential. That is why I think this is one of the most exciting announcements that I have heard in a long time and it comes from the recent winner of Mashable’s 2009 Open Web Award for Best Twitter App.

Hootsuite has announced the integration of WordPress. Now you can cross post content between Hootsuite and your WordPress blog. As with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you can schedule and cross-post content to multiple WordPress accounts.

WordPress.com is the first blog platform officially supported by HootSuite, with support for self-hosted WordPress blogs coming soon. My blog is self-hosted so I am unable to test this new feature out which makes me sad and very anxious for the chance to use it.

As you will see in the video set up is simple and hassle-free. I have set up my Twitter, Facebook and Linked-in accounts using the same interface and it is remarkably quick and simple procedure.

If you are not a current user of Hootsuite then consider these other impressive features:

- Multiple Twitter Accounts
- Schedule Tweets
- RSS/Atom Feeds
- Add your LinkedIn accounts
- Add your Facebook and Fan Page accounts
- Add your Ping.fm account
- Preview links, video and photos in your Twitter stream
- Hootsuite iphone App

Hootsuite is a free, web-based platform with no need to download and install the application. You can get started at www.hootsuite.com

If you do try out the WordPress feature let me know I would love to here your thoughts.

Don’t take my word for it. Guy Kawasaki shares his top three Twitter tips.

Top 3 Twitter Tips for Business:

1) Always be informing instead of meforming. Ensure your tweets are providing links that are informational, resourceful, and provide tips on other things.

2) Always reply to mentions, retweets, and direct messages from others. Guy considers it a moral obligation to respond to others.

3) The real goal to Twitter is to get retweeted. Guys says that, “Retweeting is the sincerest form of flattery. People are risking their reputation when the retweet you.”

Has “meforming” made its way into Websters dictionary yet? My definiton of meforming: The process of broadcasting every excruciating detail of your personal life on Twitter.

Looking for a Great Business Book

If you are not familiar with Guy Kawasaki, then I recommend you follow him on Twitter @guykawasaki. I also highly recommend his new book “Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.” I find it an absolute must resource for entrepreneurs, small business owners and solopreneurs. After reading this book my business partner and I have nicknamed him “God” Kawasaki for his down-to-earth, informative and guiding-hand business style.