Good Day Google+ - Beautifying Your Home and Social Media Strategy

Hey there, I'm Chef Dennis Littley and we're here with Good Day Google Plus. And like I like to say, it's always a good day when you're on Google Plus. I have a great lineup of friends here today with me and guests, and we're gonna go down and introduce everyone and then we'll get started with the show. But like always, if you're here and you have a question, put it in the comment bar below and we will get to it as soon as we can. So I'd like to start introduce my guests today. We have Carolyn Capernaum, is it, or Capernaum?

Confirm, you got it right.

Great.

And Carolyn is right here in Orlando with me. And Greg Trulio, right, Greg? That's close enough, yes.

Close enough?

All right.

And he's in Orlando as well. Lori Lezour.

Hey.

The infamous Shannon Hernandez.

Hi everyone, how you doing?

And Susan Sarah.

Hello, happy to be here.

Oh, we're so happy to have you all. We have a G+ party going on. It's a great way to end your work week or end end the week anyway, even if you have to work this weekend. Relax, get to know our guests a little more on an intimate basis, or at least on a basis of as a real person rather than just who they may be, the persona they may be on Google+. And just enjoy the Friday, have a good day. So we're going to start off, and I'm going to go down the list, everyone, and they're going to get to tell you a little bit about themselves and what they do on Google+. If you have any questions for them just please feel free to ask them, put them in the comment bar, and we'll do our best to answer them. So I'm going to turn this over right away to Carolyn.

Carolyn, alright. Hi everybody, it's great to be here. Really good to be with you, Chef. Finally get to hang out with you online instead of in person. It's funny, we get to— we skip right to the in-person first, right?

That's different than usual.

It is, but no, it's good to be here. My name is Carolyn Caperna. I'm a digital marketing coach, a digital storyteller as I prefer to call myself. I'm a writer at heart. I love to dig into storytelling through blogs. I love to dig into storytelling in books. I will probably be digging into about 3 or 4 new books here this weekend. That's one big thing I'm looking forward to. I've just been plugging away on lots of different cool projects here on Plus. It's been a crazy week. All these different HOAs and new blogs to put out and all kinds of fun stuff.

You also have Google Glass. I thought you'd be wearing them today. I'm almost surprised you weren't. You want to tell us a little bit about Google Glass and your experience with them?

Oh yeah, yeah. Greg and I both have Google Glass and I think we decided to take the day off. Greg was wearing his pretty much all day yesterday and I'll let him talk about that. But yeah, we've been Google Glass Explorers since about November, and it's been an interesting ride. We had one incredibly negative run-in at a Panera here locally that led to a little bit of recognition and discussion around the privacy sphere. And Then we also, of course, just enjoy showing it around to people and talking to them about different applications. And Greg's and my particular thing is patient welfare and what Glass might be able to do in order to improve patient safety and improve patient engagement. So we're deep in the research and design part for the projects that we want to we want to do, they're near and dear. I spent a lot of time in college in and around the ePatient community, and in several years since then, just trying to figure out how patients are telling their stories these days and what stories really need to be heard. You know, when people have good experiences, they don't say anything, but Sometimes the people who are having negative experiences have a lot to teach us about the real nature of the system. So it's—

when you're saying patient, are you talking about medical patient or—

yep, yep, medical patients, people who are hospitalized for anything, or, you know, not even hospitalized. It can, it can be at any level. People who dig in dig into the system and try to get involved in their own care from day one. People who want to be partners with their doctors and, and want to have an active role in their own care.

Sounds like a good idea. Yes, it does.

It does. There's nothing more— there's nothing more personal than your health, is there? But, you know, people— there's a lot of people, especially in the past, who have been willing to take their doctor's word gospel. And, and, you know, even if they believe that what they're feeling is, is different, is wrong from what their doctor's saying, they won't speak up. So a big interest and passion that I have is in encouraging patients to speak up, to, you know, have a full understanding of what they, what they are and who, how they feel and how it affects everything about them and just to speak up and communicate better with their doctors and with their healthcare providers.

That's cool. Now, is this something that you do separate from what you do professionally, or do they tie in?

I'm hoping that they're going to tie in more and more as we go forward. It's been pretty separate spheres in the past. It's, you know, it was something I got into when one of my professors in college got got cancer and he was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. And he died 3 months later after a horrendous, horrendous series of mishaps. Everything ranging from he was dropped in transport from one hospital bed to another, he broke his hip. He was given the wrong medication and left without medication for hours on end because the doctors didn't have his records. And they tried to charge his wife 73 cents a page for his medical record.

Oh my God!

73 cents a page, can you imagine?

Yeah, that's crazy. This seems like this would be a good tool for insurance companies to get on board with, to get real feedback, you know, so—

Yeah, I think so. Real-time feedback and, you know, insurance companies, I don't know quite what the deal is, whether they are blocking care or trying to be partners in it. I know there are some that are trying to, you know, be a little bit more open to the realities of what patients are facing, but it's a harsh system. There's a lot of people who wind up stuck with bills they didn't expect.

Absolutely. Wow. Well, good. Thanks for sharing that with us. We're going to move on to Gregg now. And my other guests today, if you have questions for the person speaking, please just dive right in. Okay.

Well, as Carolyn mentioned, I'm her partner at CT Social, and primarily what we use Google+ for is building relationships, getting to know people, and really just learning about social media and everything digital marketing as we can from some awesome professionals that we find here on Google+. Honestly, When I first joined, I didn't know as much about SEO as I do now. And we were actually very adamant about not being an SEO company. And it just kind of ended up that our values and our practices were more steered towards SEO as Google starts changing the game. And we learned that through Google+. So it's really an amazing tool that has helped our business grow. And it's really nice to see other people getting on here. Interacting as themselves and not as their businesses and trying to get to know new people, which is really what I really enjoy about it. As far as Google Glass, yeah, I'm giving myself a little bit break. I was wearing it all day yesterday from the morning until late at night, nonstop. I actually got a press pass to go see the rocket launch at the Kennedy Space Center yesterday. So they did a full tour of different facilities that they had. We got to see a lot of the really neat toys and electronics, get pretty close up to the rocket as well. And then at night, when the launch actually went off, we were about maybe 3 miles away from the rocket when it launched, which was absolutely amazing. The entire ground shook and it looked like another sun. In the sky, even though it was about 9:30 at night when it went up.

Wow.

That's amazing. I guess, did that make you feel like a little kid again when you saw the rocket go up? Did you transform?

Oh yeah, the whole experience, honestly, just going around and seeing all of this stuff. We actually were able to hear some astronauts tell their stories about what they had gone through when they did the astronaut training, which interestingly enough, an astronaut in training or an astronaut candidate, they abbreviate as ASCAN. But yeah, a lot of what they told us, how the satellite that they sent up is actually going to work and how they were talking about in the In the past, they had about 10 minutes of silence in space. There's 10 minutes when the ground couldn't communicate with space. But now with the current satellites that they have up there and the one that they just put up yesterday to replace some of the older ones, there is no 10-minute blackout anymore. There's 100% connection time. They're always able to talk with the International Space Station. And they were talking also about a project that they should be launching 2016 to return American manned space flights to NASA. So we should see some of those again with a whole new shuttle design and everything.

Yay!

That's great. I did hear something about going back to the Moon.

Yeah, they've been having a couple of probes that they sent out to the Moon, and they had planned on doing several more as well.

That's awesome.

I actually work— I live next to a neighbor, sort of, was a NASA engineer in, in Alts, New Hampshire, believe it or not, but he was a NASA engineer and retired, and he used to actually come to the school and do a rocketry program for the school. So, and then I later met him at the lake and stuff. It was just so interesting to hear him talk about it and talk about— and he was I was probably 10, 11, and he was already kind of an older guy, and he just had been through all of that. It was so cool. I can't imagine going and seeing that again. Blas.

Sounds like fun. The videos he got and the photos he got were pretty impressive.

Yeah?

Did you post any of those? Did you post any of those yet, Greg? I'm sorry, I haven't been on Google much today.

He looks frozen right now.

Yeah, he looks frozen.

He's so excited about the launch yesterday that he can't contain himself and he's got to stay frozen.

Well, I did notice a cat in the background that looked like it crawled into his head. Hopefully that's not what happened. Well, let's move on to Lori then. Lori, why don't you pick it up from here for us?

I own Customized Walls, which is a custom printed mural and wallpaper business, and I've been really active in social media because it's all e-commerce. And so I've had to learn it from sort of the beginning. And I started out with Facebook and Twitter. And I got into G+ initially. And I'm not going to lie, it was a little bit nerdy for me. I liked everyone here, but I was nervous with some of it. Sometimes I would get those auto— like the messages from people you don't know. And they were pinging me, and it was people, these guys, they're like, hey, what's up? And so I didn't know if it would be the kind of place I really wanted to hang out in. But when communities happened, I really loved that idea, like finding a group of people who were into the same things I was. And so the first day communities started, I started a community for interior design people, so people who were marketing to home decor clients. And it could be brands, it could be interior designers, builders, you know, we're all kind of working with the same group of folks and we really wanted to share information. You know, if I found a great article about how, you know, what you should be doing online, I wanted to be able to send it there so we can all kind of work from that same base of knowledge. And it took off. We have like 12,000 members, right Susan?

Yeah.

Yeah, and growing every day.

Yeah, so in the industry, it's kind of made us stand out because everyone knows they kind of need to get into Google+ and about SEO. So it's given us speaking opportunities and just great offline opportunities. My customized walls was on the COVID of Atlanta Home Improvement Magazine because of a G+ connection. So lots of really cool stuff is sort of coming from it.

Do you find that other people are willing to work together in this community? Because I know a lot of times people butt heads and they're afraid to give secrets away, you know.

We do, you know, interior design is probably more competitive than most industries and we are having great success with it. We have 10 moderators in the community and we try to do things in the community that will help, like we have a Brag About Your Blog Tuesday and we have They hang out every Friday.

And a PR specialist.

Oh yeah, PR specialist telling us tips and tricks. We have, you know, and she's like, she does PR for big companies and she's telling, you know, the designers what they need to do to get into magazines.

Wow.

Nice.

And everybody we had come in, just, it's a level in the industry, they're all very well known, they're very well respected, they've been in Shelter magazines like Home Decor, House Beautiful, things like that. The group is just at such a high level and the things we're sharing is at such a high level. It's a really neat avenue. I really think it could work for almost any industry. I'd love to see it happen because of communities to lots of industries. I could see it happening in automotive or photography. Just working together makes us stronger. That's really the, the plan we've come up with and what we're doing together.

Well, that's the right plan. I mean, too many people see competition in the wrong way, and the competitors can be your best friends. We've been saying that for a while now and really offer you great insight, and you can get so much from them. Doesn't mean you still don't compete against each other, but you can certainly learn from each other. That's great.

Absolutely. We have even custom printed wallpaper and wall mural companies in the community, and I liking their stuff and following them. There's enough business for all of us, so it's more about— we're actually, if you think about it, we're a small group who is choosing to market online. And if we don't band together and share, there's newer people coming in every day, and we're always going to be that much further by sharing this information. So I just don't see any way around it that it doesn't work. We have to put the social back into social media, I think.

Very true. I love the idea of the Brag About Your Blog Day in the community. It's great because everybody wants to have that place where they can put links and talk about what they do, but a lot of communities are cracking down on that. That's a good thing because a lot of people were really taking advantage of it and still are. If you have this dedicated day, it's great.

We have really good luck with it, and we are bringing it further with having a Hangout later on today at 4:00 with Dino Dogan from Triberr. And so we're trying to take the—

I love Dino.

Yeah.

Dino's awesome.

So brag about your blog model and move it over to Triberr too so that everyone can share each other's blogs and comment and save time. I mean, I'm all about saving time.

And you're also— I have to say this about Lori. All about sharing, sharing everything she knows with anyone. There is enough business for everyone. It's a pretty big country last time I checked.

Yes, a world, right?

An even bigger world.

They say in France, with a country this size, you can't find a decent restaurant in it, right? I think we're starting to change that a bit. Sounds good. I'm going to jump over to Susan now because we're talking about the same thing before I get to Shan. And then we'll let Shannon wind us up here. But Susan, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you're doing?

Sure. Well, I am a kitchen and bath designer. I prefer kitchens. I feel that it's sort of the soul, the real soul of the home. And, you know, so it's something I've been doing for many, many years. I've had my own firm doing kitchen and bath design, and I have had a blog called The Kitchen Designer. I've had my blog since 2007. And right now I'm doing a lot of consulting. I'm doing private consulting on kitchen design. I'm also on Google Helpouts, and, you know, helping anyone really on kitchen design on Google Helpouts. And just kind of an observer of behavioral trends in the kitchen. And, you know, I've been in it so long, so, you know, I have perspective for how people, you know, did use the kitchen and did functional and aesthetics-wise and what's happening now. And I go to lots of events, lots of design shows, and read everything that comes in my inbox and just kind of, you know, really, really enjoy the kitchen. I think it's just, you know, it should be about comfort, and it's really all about comfort, you know.

Do you see a trend where people are going in kitchen design for this year, for the next few years?

Oh yeah, definitely. You know, what I'd like to say is that you really— I don't see people putting Pandora back into the box, and by that I mean we— a lot of the country is all about open spaces, the open plan, the transition, a seamless transition between the kitchen and the surrounding rooms, but also where there's a lot of activities that are taking place in the kitchen and more, you know, bigger screens, more media, or conversely, you know, beautiful artwork, things like that. So that it's, again, it's about designing in comfort because also there's a trend towards smaller homes. So the kitchen has to be multifunctional in that way. We have now, you know, different generations sometimes that are working together. So we need to accommodate that. We need to think about universal design, the aging in place. There's a whole lot of, you know, more personal needs and expressions in the kitchen that is, you know, just making the kitchen, you know, very personal. So I think it's a very exciting time right now.

There's a question.

Susan, by the way, Susan is a real expert. I mean, she is— brands come to her to talk to her about kitchen design, and she's been in pretty much every shelter magazine out there. She is the go-to for the industry for kitchen design, and it really is sort of different. You know you are, right, Shannon? It's really—

I don't know if I be.

You are. And she, and she, she speaks about it at all these national conferences. I mean, she's, she's a real, real, real pro. And what's interesting is when you do meet like kitchen designer versus interior designer, they're sort of different. They're not exactly— people who gravitate toward kitchen design and people who gravitate towards interiors, although they both mix and match in those areas, they're very— the kitchen design people, they have to like measure everything down to like the littlest, teeniest space. So they're detail-oriented. And then you have like the interior design who have to pick fabrics and move things architecturally too, and they are more artsy and more, you know, that kind of thing. It's sort of like they're just kind of different people that gravitate into those two fields.

Yeah, I mean, it's— you know what, I like to describe it as a medical practice. You have kitchen designers, you have interior designers. I'm not an interior designer. You have architects, you have contractors, you have tradespeople, and Everyone has their specialty and sometimes they overlap, and you know, any one of these trades and these professionals can have good ideas, but you know, it's best if you kind of understand your own boundaries. You know, can I put an interior together? Probably. Will it be anything— do I have the knowledge that a real professional interior designer does? Not on your life. So, but kitchens, you know, back, front, and sideways. I just love it.

That's great.

We did have a question Carolyn put up about— I'm looking for it.

Did you still got it?

Marble or granite for countertops?

Yes.

Right.

Yes. From— here we go. From Alina, do you use marble and granite?

Oh, well, sure. Definitely. Yes. And engineered stone. Engineered stone has really been the hot product for the past several years, and the reason is people have gone a little bit away from the heavily patterned stone. You know, marble, certainly Carrara marble, other marbles have had a very big resurgence. You know, we see all those wonderful white and marble kitchens, but, you know, they can etch with lemon and they can stain and this and that. Engineered stone has been a wonderful, wonderful product. It's also understated visually, so it's a team player in the whole global design of the kitchen. It doesn't— so, you know, some granite, some people think granite is trendy and whatever, it depends on how you use it. But so sure, yeah, if the client likes it, it's all about the client. It's all about the client. You know, I try to walk the balance. I don't want to yes a client, and I don't want to push a client. So there's kind of a little dance that you have to do. You know, you have to guide, and, you know, and ultimately, if that's what they want, then I— if they want marble, then I make them sign 10 disclaimers about marble.

So, no, you don't really want marble.

Well, the last time I did my kitchen, to talk about that story, for the guy that redid it came in and he said, these are your choices of cabinets. You have white. He goes, nobody wants white because it stains. He goes, you have dark. Nobody's using dark anymore. He goes, you have this one. I went, well, I guess we want that one. He goes, good choice.

And you know, white is like the number one. It's only getting stronger. It's been for so long and it's only getting white and off-white. I mean, everyone wants a white kitchen. It's funny.

Well, good. I'm glad I have a new designer then. Let's turn it over to the Shan man himself. Let him rock the house here.

How you guys doing? My name is Shannon, of course. And Chef, I don't know, what do you want me to talk about? I'm just kidding.

Well, I don't want to talk about yesterday's show. Let's leave that for now.

No, no, no, no, no.

We won't prime the pump. Go ahead.

No, I'm pretty much like everyone else that is on Google+ or on any other social network. I am a digital marketing, whatever you want to call it at that point, strategist, whatever. I mean, I just help. That's really what my big passion is, and I like to help people get online and optimize and maximize Google+. Currently, my case study that I help out is my own sister with her family law firm. It's, uh, it's Hernandez Family Law, and I help Wendy really get online and expand her reach as far as, you know, what her company can do and her small business can do in helping people get through a redefinition in their lives. And that's what Wendy's big goal is. So I really try to help her as my case study to expand her reach, and she does that through podcasting. As you, Chef, know, you know that I'm a big, big advocate of podcasting, and especially integrating it with Google Hangouts and how to pull your Hangouts and turn them into a podcast. So I currently do that with Wendy, and it proves to show that she has another audience that prefers to listen versus watching. And so, you know, it becomes a whole new ball of wax for her. It may be a little more work for both of us, but, it proves to be another medium, and we see that come through the office, and we see people say, "We love your podcast. We love the blogs that you post." Of course, I don't do any of that stuff. Wendy is the one that does all that, but I just coach her through that. And so, she's seeing the return on investment, so I think there's a pot— you know, there's definitely some data there that people, you know, need to get a hold of and grasp onto and say, "How does this work?" Well, you know, it's the consistency, and I write about this on my own blog. You know, I blog about, you know, Google+ stuff, but I also blog about, you know, how to get motivated, how to be inspirational, and, you know, like last week I blogged about how frequency is important and how showing up and being consistent can prove to be beneficial down the line. And so I used my own examples of when I was a big hard partier back in the days, you know, in my— Back? I know. I stopped the drinking, I promise. I stopped the drinking. I stopped all that. But yeah, I mean, it was a frequency thing. I went to the bar every night, and so they all knew me. It was like Norm from Cheers. Like, I was like, "Oh, Shan Man, you're here!" And I went out last week, and the same people still remembered me, and then they were like wanting to connect and create these new opportunities for themselves as well as help me out. It's kind of the same concept that happens online, is that you just show up, you're frequent. I send out a weekly newsletter every week, and that's every week. I mean, there's a lot of people that are doing this, but I think the hardest thing for small business owners and entrepreneurs that are jumping into the game, especially in the online digital space, is the frequency and the consistency behind your message. And that's what Wendy has done. That's why she's my case study. And like I said, it shows. In the office and the walkthroughs and that foot traffic that comes through the office.

Well, she has a message for you too. I just wanted to put it up. Thanks for the message, baby brother, aka Poopy Face.

Yeah, yes, she'll never let me live that down.

I'm not sure I want to go there, so we'll let it go.

But that's what siblings are for.

It goes to show you that like you don't really know people until you have this real conversation. Because I thought you guys were married.

Oh yeah, we went to NMX in Vegas a few weeks back, and people thought— are you— you know, a couple people asked me, is that your wife? And I go, no, that's my sister. I don't think my sister would like a long-haired hippie.

She's got Les Dossie on her show this afternoon, doesn't she?

Yeah, she has Les. That's gonna be a real fun, a fun one, because I think what it is, Carolyn, is what you're talking about. It was what I mentioned earlier, it's about finding the happy in your life and how to redefine life's moments. So I think people generally want to be happy. I mean, I think a lot of us have a lot of stress in our lives, and, and when you compound that with, you know, maybe a wife or a soon-to-be ex-wife, or maybe it's just a spouse that you need to redefine, you need to work the issues out. I think Les and Wendy are going to explore that concept and how you can— you know, bring the happy back into your life, whether it's with a spouse, a girlfriend, boyfriend, anyone, just how to pull the happiness back out. And Chef, I think you were in the Wendy's Hangout yesterday with Dr. Jenn, and they were talking about the same thing.

Same thing, yeah.

How it's about sometimes just getting in and into a counseling session and just working out the issue.

They were talking a little bit about Mr. Happy too.

And Mr. Happy, yeah, there was a very— It was more like a R kind of PG-13.

R?

It wasn't like that bad.

I told Shannon later, I said, I felt like a 13-year-old boy there for a while though. I kept giggling at some of the words they were using. I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to have to stop this before they start quoting me. But you know, this is a real good point, Shannon, because Wendy's a lawyer, evidently. I guess they have something in common, but they don't. By talking, just by the presence on Google+, she's extending her reach and she's becoming better known as an attorney just for doing something in another area. I was talking to Tina about that and I said, you know, you're going to show up more in search. Tina Willis is an attorney in the area that we are friends with. You'll extend your reach no matter what you do because you're getting more hits on Google+. It's like a catch-22, one perpetuates the other.

Right, and I just, I feel, you know, Tina is great too, I mean I see her becoming very active on Google+ and I know, you know, it's funny how you see this in Google+ how when someone starts to really engage they start popping up everywhere, it's just like, it's just, it's viral in that sense where, you know, I didn't know about Tina Willis and Wendy and I were still doing our case study on Google+ and then all of a sudden Tina Willis starts showing up and we're like, Tina Willis is here, Tina Wills is there, and it's like, wow, this is crazy. But the same thing can be said for Wendy and anyone else who engages on Google+. I mean, that was how Christine DeGraaff showed up to me. She was just popping up everywhere. She was doing the My Music Hangouts, and I was like, no way. So it's interesting how what you and I were talking about in a private Hangout yesterday, Sheff, about how when people start resharing over and over about anything that really that you find interesting, You start popping up and cropping up everywhere else. So whether it's about interior design, whether it's about the Google Glass, anything you're showing that interest, you start popping up. I've seen Carolyn and Greg so many times, yet I've never circled them until today, you know. And so it's like one of those things where you meet them and that's— you meet them face to face. I love the face-to-face interaction because you can avoid— voice on text is so different than actually sitting here and almost seeing them like in person. You actually learn that behavior and you learn that personality behind that person. I love that aspect of Google+.

Absolutely.

It feels like one of the most— it feels like an incredibly personal social network even though a lot of people do wind up sticking to business kind of in what they post. The longer posts, they often for a lot of people wind up being business-oriented, although some people mix in the personal too.

Right.

But, you know, it's through the comments mostly and then through Hangouts and things like that. That's when you really start to connect on a more personal level and it starts to feel more real.

I think that was the thing when I saw Carolyn, I saw Carolyn and Greg on a Hangout and at first, you know, every time, I don't know what it is in my mind and where it came into my mind but I felt like the majority of people that I saw on Google+ were all spammers. For some reason. And so when you actually see these people on Hangouts, like I saw you and Greg, I was like, wow, these people exist. You know, like they're real. So, you know, it just blows my mind because I think that there was a big misconception that it was just a network of spammers, but these are actually real people that are in here participating.

Yeah.

That's the big difference with Google Plus, there's a lot of real people here participating.

And you get the whole package. It's dynamic. You get the, you know, the visual, you get the body language, you get the tone of voice, and then you have the interaction of the comments. So you have a whole cohesive package, which is— it's just exciting. It's immediate, but it's more emotional. It's more of a connection. Yes, big time.

And the fact that you can connect with anyone around the world too. I mean, just like talking to Jason Weiser, and, you know, we were all wishing him the best and hope everything in the Ukraine is going well too with all the unrest there. But you can jump on with him, or I jumped on with Nazim Beltran in Milan. It's just amazing that you can make these connections.

Yeah, I think so too. We had, you know, we've been very respectful of that in our community because we definitely know we're very international. And, you know, sometimes someone will post something and it doesn't really quite meet our guidelines, and we try to say to them, this doesn't really meet the community rules. And quite often we'll hear them come back, what did I do wrong? But you know they can't speak English. They don't understand necessarily the rules. So you have to guide them to what you want in your community. Or you have to guide them to what you want to see in your posts sometimes. But there's almost always a person who answers back. And you think it's sometimes— because I'll wake up in the morning and there's like 10 posts from all over the world. And they don't look like our posts.

They kind of look spammy.

So you just want to check, you know, are you real? Are you a real person? You know, why don't you have a profile picture? That kind of stuff. Go ahead.

I want to share with Leah Segedy here. She posted, yeah, Google+ looked like a spammer city to me before I joined Hangouts too, Shannon. So that was kind of the thing. And then one more, just to kind of go back to the poopy face thing. I'll cut it off at the head before anything else. My sister, no big story behind poopy face. He is the baby of the family, 6 years younger than I am. He's always the most loving free spirit of us 3 kids, and he has the best heart in the family. And that, and he, that he was 8 before he was potty trained.

There it is. She also said you're an incredibly multi-talented guitar player and that we got to get you doing music on here sometime.

I am going to, I am going to stop helping her on her website.

I had this thing on Mia's show and we can't get Shannon to play, I'm sorry.

I want to see it. And somebody here asked what your nickname for her is.

Poopy Face. It goes hand in hand.

It goes back and forth.

Actually, she's more— still to this day, I'm a 37-year-old man and I still call her Sissy. Aww.

Yeah. My two siblings are 4. I'm kind of relieved that my sister's not found her way here yet.

I've heard some of her nicknames, so yeah.

Yeah.

She definitely doesn't want her sister on here.

Don't sell me out, buddy.

My mom's nickname for her baby brother is Bubba. She still calls him Bubba.

Aww.

Yeah.

That could just be South, though. That's acceptable. Bubba.

Yeah, it totally is.

Yeah.

That could be a jail name, too.

Yeah, we won't go there.

It's interesting though, what you were saying, Lori, about the challenges of running an international community because it's so different from, and yet so similar to, the challenges that Greg and I have experienced in trying to revitalize our local community. We've actually been helping to kind of moderate the Orlando community, which fell pretty heavily into spammer central for a long time. And then the two of us said, you know what? Screw it. We're here locally. We know other people are here on Plus and that they want to get involved. So let's go in and try and set up some guidelines and boundaries and establish what really constitutes good content in this community. Right. It's been a real challenge, especially because It's, you know, a lot of businesses want to come in and just drop their links and leave.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You have to train people how to treat you. I mean, that's like real life too. You know, you're teaching people how to treat you. And there are probably plenty of communities that are not moderated. I watch some other communities that are just like their moderators have left the building, you know? So, you know, probably it's fine to do that there. But in yours, you can kind of set the guidelines. And say, this is cool, this isn't cool. And once you offer something back, like we try to offer back. So we don't just have like post whatever you want in the community. We have rules, but we also, you know, we try to do things that the community members will want to see. I mean, we think of them as a person, like they're in this world of marketing into home decor. So, you know, we have a group Pinterest board. We have to give back to them, and if you do those things that make it feel like a community, then people won't want to spam it. They'll know, like, this is not— this is uncomfortable. These people all know each other. They're all talking to each other. They're not going to feel comfortable just throwing it in there.

I've also found that a lot of people, especially when moving to Google+, because a lot of people are really confused by the platform and how it actually works, and the level of engagement and the building of authority here is a lot different than it is on any other social platform, and I think people really just don't understand that they are spamming. I've actually gone and written a post about how to identify spam, and if you identify yourself as a spammer, what steps you need to take in order to, you know, to engage properly on social networks. Because even though I love Twitter, I think Twitter really destroys social marketing because when you get to a platform like Google+ or Facebook, if you're so used to Twitter, you're just going to do your about 140 characters and drop your link, and that's really what you're doing. I see Twitter more of a— I mean, I know you can build connections, and I have used it in that way as well, but I see it more as a broadcast tool. And I see Facebook and Google+ more of a relationship building and connection tool.

What I have been doing in the interior design— which I neglected to say, I'm the kitchen and bath moderator I'm a moderator of Lori's Interior Design Community. What I've been doing is if there's a dropped link, I will say, "Oh, that's very nice. It's a nice topic. It's a nice whatever. It's just a link to a blog post. Please note rule number whatever." I will also say, "Can you tell us more about it? Why do you find this interesting?" I try to engage a little bit, giving them first the benefit of the doubt because we don't You don't want to have too hard a hammer on it if they don't fully get it. So there are a couple of ways you can get people out, bring them out a little bit. And there's a really good question that I'd like to bring up. Can I do that?

Sure.

Okay. This is— do you see it?

Yep.

Okay.

Do I put it on the screen? Should I put it on the screen?

I have it on the screen.

Oh, it's on the screen. Okay, just joining. Question: as Shannon says, the people that engage on Hangouts tend to love meeting and expanding on their skills and knowledge. In the end, it might seem difficult for corporate business to approach this platform. Thoughts from the panel? I think this kind of ties into what we were just talking about before.

You know, I— go ahead, Greg.

I'll let you chime in.

Oh no.

Well, I was actually gonna say, just even I was at a— with NASA yesterday, and I was talking to their social media accounts manager that manages really the entire social for NASA. And they use Google+ as well. They don't use it as heavily as they do other platforms. And it's because even though they can do Hangouts, and they have, they say they find more success on Ustream because their audience is kind of everywhere. And Ustream's a place where you can just click the play button and it plays. You don't have to have an account, you don't have to sign in. If you have to do a Hangout with each other, or a Ustream video with each other, you don't have to— everybody has Google+ and install the Hangout app, so it's a lot easier to use. So there's some hurdles when it comes to getting corporations onto Google+, and especially with using Hangouts. But as an internal tool for being able to do meetings between each other, especially if they have offices in other countries or states. Hangouts is actually becoming, from what I've seen, quickly becoming one of the tools of choice for business meetings.

You know, that's funny you say that, Greg, because you're lighting a fire in me. Chef knows exactly what I'm talking about. Yesterday I was— this past week and a half I've been really playing with YouTube Live. And the ability to embed your YouTube videos on your own website so that people don't necessarily have to be on Google+. They can embed those videos on their website and they can also at that point either A, drive traffic to that landing page or B, say, you know, we are also commenting on Google+. So it's not like— it's just like when Facebook came around and MySpace was around, it wasn't like people went from MySpace directly to Facebook. It was a slow migration over, and as things started to suck more on MySpace, things started to get better on Facebook. And then I feel that's what's happening now, is that things are starting to go downhill on Facebook and people are slowly making this migration. But they— but like you said, there's a link drop problem here. It's, it's a plague of Google+. And that's why I think all of us on this panel are adamant about educating people on saying, hey, you have engagement. Like, do you walk into a room and just start saying, you hold up a sign and say, hey, come buy my socks? Who cares? I have a drawer full of socks at home. I'm not going to buy your socks. So that's just kind of the idea. I mean, that's hyperbolized massively. But that tool of YouTube Live, you know, I mean, today I think we're going to use that, we're going to attempt to use that on with Les Dossey, so that's how we're going to engage with Les Dossey through YouTube Live link. I know there's a Ronnie Bincer link that you can use, but we, I'm still trying to transition the firm over into doing stuff with the YouTube Live so that eventually I can put it on a website landing page.

Now one quick question before someone else asks it. Are they your dirty socks you're selling?

Don't worry about it.

There might be a market for them other than— Alright, here's a question.

I've got a question here from Tina Willis. Does the panel have any suggestions on how to improve or increase local connections? And that is, it's a huge challenge, isn't it? I mean, I can I only personally know maybe a dozen or so people here locally who use Plus actively. But I know there's more than that. And some of them the Orlando community has been good for. But I also am certain that there's people who haven't found their way into that community yet. And there's people who wouldn't necessarily think to look for one locally. So—

Lori, you know the recipe.

Well, we do definitely, we search the hashtag of the local communities, like you want to search the hashtag. We do, you know, we teach people how to get over their G+ page, you know, the G+ local page that goes unnoticed to most businesses. I think getting them to go and claim that G+ page is the first thing you need to do on G+. If you're not going to do anything else on G+, you at least need to claim your local and try to get a few reviews and throw up a few pictures. So I think showing them that if like we show— we have a video where we show interior designers if they go to Google search, they type interior designer, the list— the Google, you know, list of interior designers comes up and under each one is a G+ page, Google+ page. If they haven't claimed that, if they haven't added pictures or gotten reviews, then it just says G+ page and it's completely undeveloped.

Yeah, I completely agree, Lori.

Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely.

If they have, then there's pictures. I mean, you can have like a designer like Susan, and Susan has claimed her page, but say she hasn't, she's got all this experience, and then you can have this young, like really tech-savvy 22-year-old designer, no experience, never designed a kitchen before, but she threw on a bunch of pictures she found on Pinterest or she got all of her sorority friends to give her reviews, and all of a sudden she's getting an appointment that Susan really should get.. And we try to tell people these are things that you absolutely have to pay attention to. You absolutely have to pay attention to authorship. You all have blogs. In our industry, these are things that they don't know. And Google+ is just different enough that it's challenging for them. So it's been a year of bringing people in with treats like candy. Come, come on.

I got a question. I've got a question for either Greg or Carolyn, and how do you guys go about and find, I mean, how are you explaining this process to people who ask about Google+ and like what Lori is talking about, you know, you have to put all these little pieces, these little puzzle pieces together in order to make them work. How do you guys go about that without them having their mind explode?

The brain exploding problem is a big one.

Sometimes we think of it as a mercy killing in some cases.

Oh yeah. I think I've definitely seen a couple people have an aneurysm after we finish explaining Google+ to them.

Oh yeah, our meetings go so crazy because we sit there with people and we get into the Google+ first and we get into social media and websites with them. By the time we're done talking, they're just like half comatose, staring at us, saying, "I don't know where to start," which in some cases was the goal because we— in some cases we just want to expand their mind and let them see the possibilities that exist for people who didn't know it. But in terms of guiding people through it, it can be tricky, but we usually— I mean, I usually advise at least that they start with something, some kind of ground that they're comfortable with. Like, if they are more comfortable blogging, then I try to get them on a track where they blog, are blogging at least once a week.

Yeah, just that.

And if they don't want to write, then you can talk. You can talk on a podcast, you can talk on a video, one or the other. And then we'll try to guide them, then we usually try to guide them towards the best fit social network, which isn't the same for everybody, although we'd love it to be Google+ for everybody. Um, but, uh, you know, some people don't, don't prefer it here, and that's fine. So it's— I think the best way to get people into social media is to get them in, in a way that they can understand and relate to.

I think there'll be a major shift this year. That's what I fully believe. I think there's gonna be a shift from Facebook. Yeah, um, people are getting sick of—

seeing—

I mean, the algorithm over there changes just like it does here. I'm not going to really bag on it for that matter, but I feel like there's a lot of disdain, and it's such a cacophony of noise over there that everyone's trying to raise their hand and say, "Look at me." And now there's this— I have to pay for my page to get more interaction, if that's the case.— now text updates are going to get more views versus things that are media. It's just so weird. I think people, they just don't care. It's more of a chance for them to empty out their mental diarrhea. For me, I'm just like, I don't need this. I want something that I can look at and consume and know that it's great. It's going to help me down the way. Bloggers, I just love stuff here.

But you know what bugs me? What bugs me, I also have this general dislike of Facebook, but you know, I have family members so I can't get out of it. But the thing is they don't interact with their customers. You have so many, you have Google Blogs, you have Google employees. They're talking to people, they're talking to their customers, their members, whatever you want to call them here on Google+. They're interacting with people and you have no one interacting. So that's my observation, that there's no interest in talking to their people.

You want to talk about a company that knows how to do it that is outside of the Google sphere are the people at Dutch Dutch Bros. I don't know if you guys have a Dutch Bros. in your city, a Dutch Bros. Coffee, but every time you go to a Dutch Bros. Coffee, you pull up to the drive-through window and there's always a person waiting for you, and the person always has this— I'm not even lying, it's far better customer service than what you would get at Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts. They come up and they're like, "Hey man, what's going on?" And you go, "Oh." You're expecting to give your order right away, and then you go, "Oh, I want to get a chai latte today." And they go, "So what do you got going on today? Anything big?" They learn about their customer right there. And so then you tell them, oh, I've got a meeting or something like that. Last night I went— last night right after I got off work, and he was like, what are you doing tonight? And I'm like, I came out of my way to come get Dutch Brothers. And then he's like, oh yeah, you know, so what do you do? And I told him what I did, and then we had a conversation for like 5 minutes about his education and where he's going to school and what he's doing. And he goes, okay, cool, man. He goes, hey, here's a— here's a punch tab. He learned about his customer before he was even giving me the sale, even though I was there for the sale. No matter what, he was still learning about me.

The sale was already made, but they decided to prioritize the relationship.

Right.

I feel more of that with Google+ in various forms. Like I said, whether it's the blogs or employees interacting. I do a lot of photography, and I think it's I think his name is Brian— I don't know, I can't remember. He's like the director of Google Photography. And he's—

Bittash.

There you go. And he just talks to everyone and everyone comments. And you know, you have a lot of that in different capacities in Google. And it's just a little connection that I think is Really important.

His wife's an excellent photographer too.

Yes, I know Nicole.

Nicole Young.

I buy all her stuff.

Here's a— before we lose it, let me find it. I have to put this up because it's how I was feeling yesterday. He said mental diarrhea, huh?

I know, I'm sorry about my adjectives sometimes.

Oh, it's good, it's vivid.

We got the picture really well, by the way.

I work in radio and I work at a rock station, sometimes I have zero filter, my sister knows this.

Oh, that's wonderful.

And here, Sunny had almost the same thing. I agree, there will be a shift. Oh, I thought it said— I'm sorry, I thought the F was on it. I put it up. Anyway, hi Sonny, how you doing?

Good to see you.

Shows how my eyesight is these days.

Maybe just seeing a little of what you want to see.

Yeah, probably. Well, I see Facebook and that's the word that comes to mind, so that's probably what it is.

I use all of them my own, like I have different reasons I use Facebook, I have different— every social media tool is is okay, you know, has its own platform and can work. Right now I'm like super into G+ and Pinterest, but, you know, 2 years ago it was definitely Twitter, you know, and I think that they all kind of have their place and Google+ is new, so you actually have a chance to like get in on the ground floor and build engagement before everybody is here and you'll just be that much further ahead.

The one that I heard last night on a podcast was everyone is excited for Instagram. And I understand the hype behind it, but the hype behind it is about ads. And for me, then, then it's again, it's another wasteland for ads. And I don't want to see ads of pictures. Now, a great pic— now that gives a company or a large business, or maybe even a small business owner, an opportunity to be really creative. But those are going to be the people who— those are going to be the people who stand out. But I don't see the excitement behind Instagram. The way I do.

Local business can totally use Instagram. Like if you were a local coffee shop, posting pictures of coffee when people are looking through and wanting a coffee is smart. But if there's no call to action with it, with Instagram, so you're not going to get people to your website. Like we post all the time and we have like 3,300 followers or something, but it's not, it doesn't get me any hits on my website.— you know, it's like a billboard. You put it out there, you hope somebody pays attention and notices you, but it's not. One thing I love about Instagram is that you can actually search hashtags of trade shows. So if you're into something really cool, like searching those hashtags, you can find everybody else who's at the trade show, or everybody else— and you can find all these new people that you wouldn't— you didn't see there, you know? And it's a great search tool, I think.

That's how I built a following over there. Yeah, that's how I built a following with hashtags.

For conferences and specific events and things like that, man, Twitter and Instagram are actually really where it's at. I love going to events and live tweeting them and live Instagramming them because the hashtag feature just makes it valuable. Of course Google+ has the hashtag feature too, and so technically does Facebook.

But in an instant you can see all these pictures from an event and you feel like you were there.

Oh yeah, it's fun.

Yeah, I like it. We're going to KBIS, so it's going to be #KBIS #IWCE in February.

Very nice. Oh goodness.

Here's a nice comment from Lynn.

I love Lynn. I love Lynn.

Did I lose it?

Here we go. Here it is. Lynn Abey Johnson, what, uh, Luke Jawah? Said, "It's business, the way of the world. Adapt or be extinct. Social media hashtag, Google Plus hashtag provides some great tools. If you know and understand your business well enough, then you know where your audience is and can make a difference." Lori Lazor is making a great point. Way to go, lady. Big picture thinking.

Pat myself on the back.

I've got one, Chef, real quick because I know you've got to run here but I want to— I'm going to share it here and it's from my sister. I'm totally pumping my sister out today. It's a question for Susan actually. How do you balance getting sucked in by multiple Google+ convos and staying in them all day versus getting work done?

I think everyone has that problem and I'm a member of like a million communities because I have different interests whether it's cooking or photography. So, you know, I have to— do I have discipline? No.

Life curves to the left.

Yeah, it is.

How do I balance it? You know, it depends on my level of guilt or my, or my time or what. I don't have a method. No, I'm sorry, I wish I did.

Well, Tina Willis started a community that I just found last night, and I joined it, and I got— I saw it and I think I said, "Wait a minute, I really can't join this. It said Addicts on it." That's what I saw but I did not see the Google+ in front of it. I went, "Oh yeah, definitely." It's a big problem. We're going to need a 12-step program for Google+. Step away from the computer.

You know you have a problem if you're on vacation and at the beach or something and you're checking your G+. Ooh, you know, talk.

I have to shut myself off on the weekends of Google+.

You do? Oh, I'm impressed.

I personally shut myself off and like people get to me and then I'll come back on Sunday night and they're like, where are you? And I go, I personally make it a point to shut off Google+ because if I don't, I'll be like, I want to enjoy the weekend, you know. Yeah.

Well, Google+ comes to me everywhere, like on my phone, on my computer. So I mean, when I get a Hangout call, it's like red alert. Everything's ringing at once.

Well, I got one last night when I was in Epcot, so I figured, oh, let me go on. What the heck? My wife was in Canada in the building, so I went, oh, I can't really come to it right now.

That's awesome.

Oh yeah, when I'm sitting around and a Hangout call comes in, it goes off on my tablet, on my computer. On my cell phone and on Google Glass. So it is all around me. It's overwhelming. I actually once had the experience where they were all in kind of different places, one kind of at my back, one to my right, one to my left, one in front of me, and it was like a surround sound experience.

It's like the big red phone, right? Like, ah!

If you've ever seen The Office, when Ryan was creating his company, company WOOF and is basically, yeah, you send a message, it goes to all your social networks, your email, your phone, and that's what it's like. I mean, too many devices plugged in, but honestly, I'm too much of a tech nerd to give that up. If I were ever stranded on a deserted island, I would build a computer out of rocks and wood and sand. I wouldn't be able to handle it.

Well, you know, if you ever— well, you're too young You're too young to remember it, but Gilligan's Island, the professor, he could build an nuclear reactor out of coconuts, but he couldn't fix a 2-foot hole in a boat. So anyway, on that note, guys, thank you so much. It's been a great hangout today, and I love— the best part of my day is bringing my friends together, and if you hadn't known each other, now you do, and now you're good friends. So that's a good day here. So thank you so much. Any parting words for us, Carolyn? Anything you'd like to say?

I'd like to actually mention, because I completely forgot earlier, that on Tuesday we're doing something really cool with James Fierce and Krithika Rangajarren, their show Get Busy. We're actually going to be, Greg and I, going live to a Mazda dealership near here to talk to a car salesman who sells cars using Hangouts.

Awesome! Great! That's so cool.

Yes, it's going to be a great time. It's going to be awesome. He's really cool, he actually toured with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Oh, neat! Was he one of the Chili Peppers or did he just tour with them?

I think he just toured with them.

Yeah, he was in a band that toured with them.

So that's going to be a cool, really cool show.

Sounds good. Alright, great, we'll look forward to that. Greg?

Have a great weekend everybody and you know if you If you need any help on Google+ or really just social media in general, reach out. I'm more than willing to help you understand what's going on in the platform and the evolution that is constantly before us.

Sounds good, thank you.

Lori?

All I have to say, because I always say this at the end of our videos, is make sure you subscribe to Jeff's channel if you can because it really keeps you informed about all these hangouts and I think tips, all of our community members should subscribe to the different hangouts that are offered here on Google+.

Thank you. And that brings up a point too, that you know, every now and then I've gotten a couple people giving it a thumbs down and not enough people are giving it a thumbs up. There's a couple haters out there, so if you guys can give us a thumbs up, I'd appreciate it. We'd get rid of the haters. Shan Man, how you doing buddy? Any last thoughts?

You know what man, I just just thank you for inviting me last minute. I really appreciate it. I was like, hey man, if you don't need me to come in, that's cool. I can step out, but you were very gracious enough to let me stay in. Before I say any more words, I just got to say hi to Craig Fifield, Mick Sharp, Tina Willis, Linda Bate, Johnson, and Leah Segedy, and of course my sister Wendy Hernandez.

Jim Whiteley is in the house too. Say hi to him.

Yeah, Jim.

So many of our friends are here.

Leah, we talked to her.

Yeah, please, anybody else you want to shout out? You know, we got a lot of great people here.

Yeah, thanks guys so much for just coming in and having a good time.

Very good.

Susan?

Yeah, it was a great show. Great to meet everyone. And, you know, those I didn't know, so that was great.

And everyone enjoy their kitchens this weekend and cook something terrific and just like feel the love in your kids' When you cook something in your kitchen, Susan, can you take a picture please and send it personally to me to make me jealous?

I'll do that. I'll do that.

And then I'll send you a picture of my little pork chop. That'll be it.

No, no, your little pork chop— this is a family show. And before your sister can reply to that one, okay, your little pork chop, we're gonna go and Thank you all for being here today. It was a great day on Google+ and I always love seeing you and having my friends stop by. So have a great weekend everyone.

Thanks Jeff.

Thank you, Jeff. Bye everybody.

Bye everyone.