(Want to skip all this and get the courses right now? Go to http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/TwitterOffer and sign up now!)

As I mentioned earlier on Google+ (where you'll always hear tech news first from me!), I recently just finished a course on Pluralsight all about how you or your friends can embrace Google+ better for your business or clients (you can see what this course covers at http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/Courses/TableOfContents?courseName=googleplus-business). In a new series for businesses provided by the video training site, Pluralsight, we're doing a new deal that will expire this week where you can get 30 days to watch my videos for free. This is an excellent way to get your friends and family to understand the value of Google+!

In my new, 2 hour, Google+ course, I show why Google+ is about so much more than plus.google.com, and step-by-step demos on how you can link your website or blog to Google+ and instantly improve your site's presence on the web. You'll learn tips and tricks and techniques to get engagement flowing, and how to build your audience on the entire Google platform.

This new training course complements my already existing Facebook Applications course targeted at marketers and businesses to learn how they can do some very simple things to fully integrate Facebook into their existing apps and websites (see the overview for this course at http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/Courses/TableOfContents?courseName=intro-fb-dev). The 30 day free course is a super deal, and gets you 4 full hours of training from me on the subjects I know most about. I've put a ton of time into these!

To get the 30 days free, just go to http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/TwitterOffer, follow me on Twitter (@Jesse), then follow @Pluralsight, and they'll DM you a trial code to get the free access. Go do it now, and get your friends to take advantage as well so they can learn why I think Google+ is such a powerful tool!


This was originally posted on Google+.

Back in October I had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong for business. While I was there I decided to get a custom suit made. I'm a sucker for a good suit! While Hong Kong is certainly not as cheap as Thailand when it comes to custom-made suits, it is generally much cheaper than the typical run-of-the-mill tailor in the United States. In the United States it's typically "go cheap (as in poorly designed) or go broke (as in way too expensive for the 99% to afford)". In Hong Kong for about $300 I can get a pretty nice suit that is completely custom-tailored for my body type and size, something that would typically cost near $1,000 in the United States. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

That's why I was a bit curious when +Chase Murdock from Dress Code heard about my trip to Hong Kong, and approached me to consider having them doing a suit for me. He and his partner offered to make a suit for me for free to show off what they're able to do that other tailors aren't able - create a custom suit is typically affordable to the average consumer. A free suit? Why not? I'll bite.

The arrangement through their site is simple. Dress Code has no physical stores. They're a pure e-commerce model. So I just visit http://DressCodeCustom.com, schedule an appointment by filling out some simple information on their site, and soon they're knocking on the door at my home or business to measure and consult with me on what I want them to make for me.

My visit with them was very pleasant. Chase and his partner came to my house dressed in very stylish clothes, and I could tell they knew what they were talking about. We went through some fabric books of theirs, and they gave me all kinds of suggestions and recommendations of things I would have never thought about. My tailor in Hong Kong just asked me the basics and went with it. These guys were much more thorough, and wanted to ensure every step of the way that every little detail was thought of. We went through number of buttons, tapering of the pants, and vents in the back of the suit coat. But they also recommended various linings for the inside of the suit, and even the color of the seam that ties the lining to the rest of the suit. By the end I was relying on them to be my experts, and I trusted their expertise to do so.

By the end of the appointment I asked them what a suit like this would normally cost. When they said "cheaper", I thought they would say in the range of $500-$700. I almost gasped when they told me $250-$300. That's not much more expensive than a typical, non-tailored suit!

I'm very excited to see what comes of this appointment. If the suit turns out as well as the service and simplicity of ordering that I experienced with Chase and his partner, I anticipate I'll be very pleased. The good news is if all goes well I won't have to travel overseas to get my suits any more. I'll just call my "suit guy" and he'll make me whatever clothing choice I want, all at a lower cost, and I barely have to make any effort to make it happen.

My suit is currently being made by their company at the moment. I should receive notice in the next couple weeks that it is done. When finished I'll provide a final review of their service and product for everyone to see.

If you're looking for custom clothing of any kind, these guys are worth taking a look at. They currently service Utah and Nevada/Las Vegas. However, they do take trips to Colorado, as well as the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas on occasion. Contact them and have your company get them to come set up a pop-up location to get your employees all styled up for cheap.

Stay tuned - I'll share more when I get my suit! Oh, and be sure to follow their style blog at http://www.dresscodecustom.com/blog - if you're into understanding the latest styles, this blog really shows they get it!

I got a free suit in exchange for doing an honest review of their services - while certainly biased, I am always truthful and objective in these types of reviews.

I'm starting a new experiment. From now on every post I make to StayNAlive.com will originate on Google+. This goes in line with my earlier post where I suggested that the Blogging landscape is significantly changing, and the blogs that want to survive will need to embrace social means of publishing and discovery. You'll recognize this trend immediately as you visit my blog and see the ability to automatically share the articles you read on StayNAlive.com to Facebook, and today I'm going to continue that trend with the strengths that Google+ provides.

The Power of Google+ Circles

One of the coolest features of Google+ is the ability to not only target posts by Circles and groups of people, but also the ability to send updates to specific email addresses and people. This opens up the ability for some really cool hacks. For instance, want to archive a post? Send it to your Evernote email address (Evernote allows you to send content to an email address and it archives right inside Evernote).

For all future posts on StayNAlive.com I'm going to use this same hack. One of the advantages to hosting StayNAlive.com on Blogger.com is that I can post to an email address, and it will post automatically to the blog. I'm going to set it to save my posts as a draft so I can go in afterwards, add links and pictures, etc. But you'll immediately receive updates on Google+ the minute I hit share. All other social networks will have to wait for the blog post to go live because I'll need a link to share those with.

The Best of Both Worlds

Now you can get the immediacy of Google+, while at the same time getting the RSS Feeds, and customized interface of the blog. If you want to subscribe via Google+, you can subscribe via Google+ (Go to http://profiles.google.com/jessestay to subscribe). If you want to subscribe via RSS, or receive updates to posts via Facebook or Twitter, you can go to StayNAlive.com. I still have a home base, and you have the option of getting real-time updates via Google+.

So come follow me on Google+ if you want real-time updates from the blog, or subscribe right on the blog - it's your choice.

Facebook application development isn't just a skill, and it's not just for developers either - it's a mindset and a culture that you have to understand to truly understand and implement its value. It's something both marketers, business owners, as well as developers should understand to fully have a grasp against the competition in this increasingly social world. That's why I jumped at the chance to work with the popular online learning site, Pluralsight, to do a new series on Facebook application development. My first video went live yesterday, and I hope will be the first in a line of videos you can use to hone your skills both as a marketer and developer to take advantage of the most of Facebook Platform.

In my first course, you'll learn why Facebook is such a valuable tool to integrate with your business or marketing strategy. I'll show you example apps that have seen success on the Platform, and then take you through, step-by-step, on how you can set up a custom Facebook Page tab on Facebook without any HTML knowledge necessary to get started. You'll end understanding the different integration points you can use to build an app, or just integrate Facebook into your existing website or app design. I teach you social design philosophy and the different touch points you should understand no matter what your skill set.

Whether you're a marketer, a developer, or business owner I think you'll enjoy this course. I think you'll be surprised with what you're able to accomplish by the end, and what your understanding will become when you're finished. If you've ever wanted to get your hands dirty with what you can fully do on Facebook, this is a course you can't neglect, regardless of your skill set.

The course is part of Pluralsight's learning platform, and I hope will be one of many future courses you can learn from on these topics. It also joins Facebook's own Yasser Shohoud's Facebook Platform Overview that serves as a great primer for where my course will take you.

When I considered this I thought about just doing my own video series and charging monthly for access to those. I would have likely charged around $100-200 for access to that for it to be worth it to me. I realized though, that by partnering with Pluralsight, you could get my content, as well as hundreds of other courses from other experts that are top at their game. Instead of $200 for one-time access to my videos, you can pay as little as $29 per month (you cancel whenever you like) or $299 per year and get unlimited access to mine and anyone else's  courses on their platform. To me I think it's a great deal.

With this course you'll get:

• Material for all types to understand - marketers, business owners, and developers
• Step-by-step videos taking you through the entire process, which you can step away from at any time.
• Assessment to test your knowledge at the end of the course and grade you on your understanding of the topics covered
• Knowledge of why you should understand Facebook Platform
• Step-by-step tutorials on how to build custom Facebook tabs
• Hands-on videos giving you the basics of Facebook's developer platform, allowing all to understand all they need to get started
• Access to all future courses on Facebook by me and others.

As a Google+ user (Author of Google+ For Dummies), and also avid Facebook user (Author of Facebook Application Development For Dummies), I often find myself getting my keys mixed up going back and forth from Google+ to Facebook. This is particularly frustrating for tagging friends. When Google+ launched, I found myself constantly putting in the "+" button to tag friends on Facebook, only to realize Facebook's form of tagging was the "@" symbol. It appears some time in the recent past Facebook has now adopted the "+" (plus) sign to allow tagging in status updates.

From the start, Google+ supported both formats. This is no surprise, as Google+ had the most to gain from trying to adopt users that were used to Facebook's tagging format. At the same time, the "+" sign added a level of branding to the Google+ experience making it unique to Google+.

It would seem that some Facebook employees are also enjoying Google+ perhaps a little too much, because someone likely got annoyed enough (or maybe their user testing showed they had a problem) to where they felt the need to support the "+" symbol as well when tagging your friends on Facebook. Now, to tag your friends on Facebook, you can either tag them by starting to type with the "@" symbol followed by their name, or starting with the "+" sign followed by their name.

I think it was awfully nice of Facebook to think of us Google+ users as they integrated this. I wonder how long this has been happening. I only realized it after doing it a few times and not even realizing I was doing it. I always argue Facebook and Google aren't competitors - that would be nice if Facebook's just being nice for this reason. However, I have a feeling Facebook is seeing some pressure from the other Google+ users using Facebook and running into the same issue.

Either way, I'm happy to not have to think twice now whenever I use that "+" sign to tag my friends.

Today I mailed in the contract for my new book, Google+ Marketing For Dummies. This will be my 5th book and 3rd in the "For Dummies" series by my publisher Wiley. It also marks my second book for Google+, among 3 other books for Facebook.

You may have seen articles recently, fueled by Wall Street Journal, suggesting Google+ traffic is dwindling. As a result you may be asking yourself, "Why is he writing another book for Google+ if it has no traffic?" The truth is, I wouldn't be writing this book if I didn't see such potential for Google+. After articles like Wall Street Journal's, I realized there is clearly a lack of education out there on the value Google+ provides for both consumers and marketers. I'm writing this because of articles like that, and I hope I can convince you of the best secret on the internet right now.

In preliminary tests, engagement is already proving to be a higher-weighted factor now in Google search results. Articles outside, and posts on Google+ are showing to weigh very heavily above even recency of articles in search results on Google. We also see this with Google now integrating Google+ results into Google search results. This is just the tip of the Iceberg. For that reason alone, marketers need to be giving Google+ another look. Google+ is not just about traffic to plus.google.com, but even more about how you rank and appear in other Google products. As I have always said, the future of Google+ is just Google.

Google+ Marketing For Dummies will make a very nice companion to my first Google+ book, Google+ For Dummies, Portable Edition. The first targets consumers and shows them how to get used to the social network, see results and value, and how to make the most of the service as a user. Google+ Marketing For Dummies will then take you, as a Marketer, Brand Manager, or Business Owner, to learn what matters most: how to use Google+ to generate more awareness for your brand, generate new leads, and in turn convert those new users into customers. In fact, you may want to offer the first book to your customers, and use the second book to learn how to market to those customers.

I'll begin writing in the next week, and should have the final manuscript submitted by middle of this year. If all goes well you should see this in print by late summer or Fall. This book will be a welcome addition to your arsenal of books to further your edge against the competition. I'm very excited to get this book out the door as quick as possible so you can learn what Wall Street Journal doesn't.

As a Teaser, here are the currently planned Chapter names (these, of course, are subject to change) - see anything I'm missing?:

• Chapter 1: Getting Started With Google+
• Chapter 2: Understanding Google+: The "Plus"
• Chapter 3: Understanding Google+: The "Google"
• Chapter 4: Integrating Google+ Into Your Existing Social Media Strategy
• Chapter 5: Learning Your Audience on Google+
• Chapter 6: Building a Google+ Presence
• Chapter 7: Building a Search Strategy Using Google+
• Chapter 8: Focusing on Real People and Relationships
• Chapter 9: Utilizing Hangouts to Share Your Brand
• Chapter 10: Advertising on Google With Social Ads
• Chapter 11: Building Relationships Through Google CRM
• Chapter 12: Building Website Authority Through Google+
• Chapter 13: Measuring Google+ Activity
• Chapter 14: Building Apps on Google+
• Chapter 15: 10 Ways You Can Add Value to Your Website Using Google+
• Chapter 16: 10 Examples of Good Google+ Business Practice
• Chapter 17: 10 Tips For Small Businesses Using Google+

As I seek to make this blog more and more a part of the social networks you participate in (I call this "From Fishers to Farmers" - something I speak about in my talks), I'll be documenting my progress along the way. I just showed how I'm doing this with Facebook's Frictionless Sharing on this blog (just click through to the blog, and click the link over on the right to start adding these posts to your timeline). There's one more piece though which I think is dwindling. Some call this the "RSS is Dead" argument. I actually talked about the RSS Subscription problem here. What's happening is the subscribers to RSS feeds such as the one on this site, through analytics sites such as Feedburner, are either slowing or diminishing.

This process is natural as more and more people receive their news on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, and away from sites such as Google Reader or traditional RSS Readers. Those tools simply aren't social, and much less interesting than a typical social network. Therefore I argue content owners need to be looking towards more social ways of distributing their content. I'm doing this specifically on Facebook with an app called RSS Graffiti.

Enter RSS Graffiti and Facebook Open Graph


RSS Graffiti is a Facebook app (it also integrates with Twitter) that will apply any RSS Feed to a Facebook Page you specify (see why I say RSS isn't dead?). The cool thing about it is on Facebook I can make any website a Facebook Page.

On this blog, if you view the source, do a search for "og:url". This, and a series of other meta tags (og:site_name, og:description, and og:image, as well as fb:admins are all useful for this) tell Facebook that this URL is also a Facebook Page. To register it with Facebook, just make sure the "fb:admins" tag is in place and lists the id of your Facebook Profile as the value, and go to Facebook.com/Insights to register your URL.

Once you do this, your Blog is now a Facebook Page as far as Facebook is concerned. Now all you have to do is add a Like Button Social Plugin to your website as you see at the top of this site above, and people can "like" your website! Seriously - click through to this blog and go click "like" at the top!

Here's where it gets cool though - now that I'm listed as an admin of that URL, I can send posts to the fans of that URL. Every person that clicks "like" above I can send my articles to. It's the same as subscribing, but much more social!

How to Create Your Own Social Distribution Channel Using Facebook and Open Graph

Here's what you need to do to make this happen:

1. Add the following HTML within the <head/> tags on your website or blog - fill in the "content" sections with the appropriate values for your site or blog:
   
   <meta content='Main URL of your site (http://www.staynalive.com)' property='og:url'/>
   <meta content='Description of your site' property='og:description'/>
   <meta content='Absolute URL to a logo for your site' property='og:image'/>
   <meta content='Name of your site' property='og:site_name'/>
   <meta content='Your Facebook ID' property='fb:admins'/>
2. Go to Facebook.com/Insights and click "Insights for Your Website" (the green button in the upper-right) - enter the domain you specified from the "og:url" meta tag above, and click on the "Get Insights" button. Your site is now registered (and you can go back here to see stats around your domain!).
3. Now go to apps.facebook.com/rssgraffiti/ and find your website on the left (it will be under the name you specified in "site_name" above). Go there, and add your site's RSS Feed. Save it, and it will automatically start posting content to your Facebook Page for every post you make! 
4. Now you just need some subscribers. You'll do this with a Facebook Like button, just like you see at the top of this blog. Go to developers.facebook.com/plugins - click the "Like Button" link. Now, just fill out the form - be sure to add the URL you specified in the "og:url" tag above! Click the "get code" button, and now copy and paste that code where you want your like button to go!