Testing Social Signals

What makes for good SEO?

With Google maturing and adapting its algorithm on a regular basis it can be difficult to be sure what really does have an impact when it comes to search engine optimisation.

There are some factors we know for certain. Content is a critical component of effective SEO, and not just any content; it must be original, regularly updated and well written.

Some of this is for Google’s direct benefit and some, like well written content, because it attracts links which Google then uses as an indicator of importance in its algorithm.

A good headline title containing key phrases are almost certainly a factor and formatting text with the correct html heading, bold and italics tags can assist.

Keywords A Thing Of The Past

We also know that meta-keywords, hangovers from SEO in the early years, play no discernible role in modern search engine optimisation. The meta-description may be used to display in the search results, and in fact Google is using good meta-descriptions more now than it has in the past. Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, confirms these facts in the short video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU

There is also lots of discussion around the impact of Social Media on search engine rankings. With Google+ developing rapidly it would only make sense that activity on this platform, related to your website, would have an effect on your rankings. In a bid to determine whether Social Media was impacting rankings TastyPlacement Inc. conducted the following experiment.

Social Media, The Future Of SEO

Setting up 6 similar websites based in 6 US cities they left them to settle in for 10 months then began their experiment. Promoting 5 of the websites with a different social platform, using the 6th as a control site, they measured the results.

Probably no surprise, but the website promoted using Google+ saw the biggest increase in organic search rankings.

Does your SEO strategy embrace Social Media and Google+ in particular?

The full results are shown in the infographic below:

Infographic authored by TastyPlacement, a web design and SEO company, To view the original post, see the original Social Media Infographic.

Look Right

The right image can have a massive impact on getting your content read and shared.

Even choosing the right profile photo for Twitter or Facebook can impact the number of followers you have.

A study by Curata, a content curation agency, shows content that included images saw more frequent clicks from website visitors.

In its research, Curata measured a 47% increase in engagement for those articles with photos on their pages against those without.

This may go some way to explain why Facebook recently paid $1 billion from Instagram. Also the fact that Pinterest is the fastest growing social platform ever.

Images are that important!

Even more and more data is being visualised for easier consumption, which has lead to the meteoric rise in popularity of infographics as shown in the Google Trends graph below.

Google Trends for Infographic

Clearley you can see the importance of imagery, but where do you find the images and what type of images should you use?

Sourcing Images

Firstly you want images that reflect your content. Ideal is an image that is eye catching and supports your headline. Even if someone doesn’t read your content they may well share it via the image on a site like Pinterest.

Next you need to ensure you have the right to use the images you put on you’re website. Accessing the majority of information online maybe free but that doesn’t mean you can just use it without permission.

Your Own Photos

Using your own images is always preferrable if you have the resource to take them or already have them available. If you intend using your own images just ensure they are of a good quality, framed well and in focus. Your holiday snaps might not cut the mustard!

holiday snap

Searching on Google images is best avoided for commercial use, it is often difficult to determine the rights owner, and image quality can vary.

Free Images

Flickr is a great free resource for images, though finding exactly what you want can take some time. Please also remember that not all images on Flickr are available for use.

When searching for images to use on your own website, on Flickr use the advanced search, put in your search term, then scroll to the bottom of the page and tick the box that states: “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content “.

If it’s for commercial use then tick that box aswell.

Creative Commons licensed content

Ensure you abide by the lisence conditions which are usually to attribute the image owner. You can do this by including a link at the foot of your article or linking the image itself to their Flickr account.

Paid Images

The alternative to free images are stock photos. These can be found on many sites across the web and are often professionally shot photos made available for commercial use, at a fee. Costs will vary dependant on what you want to use the image for.

From as little as £0.80 ($1.30) per image BigStockPhoto is my preferred stock photo option. An enourmous database of over 10 million images, perfect for commercial use.

Finding That Right Image

A word of caution. Hunting for images can take a huge amount of time. Balance the necessity to illustrate your article with the time spent finding that “perfect image”. It’s very easy to spend more time on Flickr than you did writing your article in the first place.

Sometimes time is best spent elsewhere and paying for a stock photo can be more cost effective.

Do you have any other image resources you use?

But before StumbleUpon can start paying off for you in spades when it comes to content marketing, you need to learn a few tips and tricks to get started. Why bother? That’s simple: StumbleUpon will increase your web traffic (and that’s content marketing) and it will also boost the life cycle of your content.

StumbleUpon is a fun social networking site, but it’s also a powerful social bookmarking tool.  Rule #1 is to be professional and make it easy for you to be found. Be sure you complete your profile with a complete bio and an avatar, and be sure and use a name that coordinates with your presence on social networks so people can find you. Using your real name for all your profiles creates a consistent presence for you and that’s just about always what we recommend.

A Secret to StumbleUpon Success: Be Social

Once your profile is complete, find a few friends. Don’t immediately add all your Facebook or Twitter friends, which is a common SU newbie mistake. You can only follow a certain number of people on Stumble and if you’re going to leverage the power that StumbleUpon brings, you need to have some savvy friends in this group to help propel your content. How to find them? Look for some Stumblers with lots of likes and views on their Stumbles. Also, as with any social networking site, don’t be afraid to ask for advice on Stumbling from these more experienced folks. Do a lot of paying it forward and earning your chops by sharing their content and liking their Stumbles. That strategy will pay off for you over time. As always, being an active part of any community is the key to success!

Pick Your Interests Wisely

StumbleUpon is a discovery engine. It helps you find things that you might be interested in, based on things you routinely “like” and share. This is kind of neat, so pick a topic you’re interested in and give it a Stumble. This can be a great way to research for blog posts or other content you might be interested in creating. You can Stumble all your interests or just pick one from the handy drop down menu.

To make Stumbling easy, add the free StumbleUpon toolbar for Chrome. Using the toolbar, you can:

• Stumble one or more of your topics.
• Give a page the thumbs up.
• Look for “more” pages like the one you are currently on.
• Share via Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter.
• Share via email or to other Stumbles using a drop-down menu. When you share to other Stumblers, this creates a notification for your friend that you have shared something and would like a thumbs up on it.

• You can change the toolbar to explore all your interests or narrow it down to one interest.
• The text bubble lets you know if others have commented on this post.
• It lists how many favorites you have.
• Clicking the house icon up in the right corner will take you to the StumbleUpon homepage.
• The “X” next to it in the corner will close the toolbar.

Cool. Now, What Can You Do With StumbleUpon?

While it’s fun to just browse, StumbleUpon can also be very helpful for finding relevant content to share across your other social media platforms and/or, as mentioned before, a great place to do research for blog post topics and/or relevant links to include in something you’re writing. This is where picking your interests helps you to find what you want to share with your followers. StumbleUpon is a HUGE resource that you can tap into for better content, more focused sharing and a place you can also just have fun!

How Do I Post a Link From My Blog on StumbleUpon?

The easiest way to Stumble a post you’ve written or something you’ve read is to use the StumbleUpon Chrome toolbar and from there, *like* any page with the thumbs up icon. If you like something that has already been added to StumbleUpon, the thumb will change from blue to green. If you are adding a new item to StumbleUpon (like a newly published blog post), you’ll see this:

On this pop up, you will want to add the link, complete all the information, tag it (SEO always matters) and write a comment. It says optional; however, this is a review for the page and adds more weight to your Stumble. Always add a review — it doesn’t have to be long, but be sure and make it interesting and fun. Lastly, don’t be egocentric. Don’t just exclusively Stumble your own blog content or the content from a client’s site. StumbleUpon likes variety, so take some time and share a variety of interesting content–that will help you reap the most benefit. The same could really be true of just about any social network and considered a best practice for sharing content, so keep that in mind.

Why You Should Get Serious About StumbleUpon

According to StatCounter, in the past 3 months 46.98% of all referral traffic was generated by StumbleUpon, with Facebook at 37.56%. Those are some serious numbers and they continue to increase. In a 12-month period, Facebook was in the lead from a traffic generation standpoint, with 46.97% — StumbleUpon was nipping at Facebook’s heels with a solid 40.10%, as shown in StatCounter’s graph (below).

Bottom line — you want your content to be seen by people? Of course you do — get it on StumbleUpon!

Another Advantage? StumbleUpon Increases Your Content’s Shelf Life

How long does your content stay fresh when you share it? Not long!

Per a recent infographic from the StumbleUpon blog, “after 24 hours a popular shared link will typically get:”

• 0% more retweets on Twitter
• 5% more likes on Facebook
• 83% more Stumbles!

Clearly, StumbleUpon is proving that it isn’t just a lightweight, random diversion in a sea of online tools. Serious bloggers are here sharing their content and you should be, too!

A Few Notes

Take it from me and don’t Stumble crap! People will give it a thumbs down and there goes your StumbleUpon street cred.

One glitch with StumbleUpon is that sometimes the views will be pretty high and the next time you go back they are down to one again. They are aware of this problem and hopefully will get it fixed soon.

To ensure that you are getting Stumbles on your blog, make sure that you have StumbleUpon on your blog or site’s share bar and list your StumbleUpon link wherever possible.

Now that you’ve received a crash course in StumbleUpon,  you have no excuses–get out there and start Stumbling! And if you’re already a fan of StumbleUpon, I’d love to hear how–and why–you use it!

Originally posted as a guest post for the fabulous Shelly Kramer at V3 Integrated Marketing.

Featured image courtesy of topgold via Creative Commons.

Read more: http://www.v3im.com/2012/01/maximizing-stumbleupon-for-your-content-sharing-strategy/#ixzz1pI20AdhH

Here Comes Everybody

How does your business view the web?

As a cheap route to market? An easy way to increase revenue? Or as a serious business tool that can catapult you ahead of the competition.

In the 90′s the web was seen as an opportunity for smaller companies to ”level the playing field”. There were many opportunities to leapfrog large brands, too slow and cumbersome to keep up with the change in technology.

Here Come The Brands

Then big business started to catch up. It realised the massive opportunities it was missing out on and ploughed in the money. Building ever more complex web sites with functionality to match. Using technology to automate many processes, they reduced costs, closed the open door on markets and used their brand to once again dominate.

Small business was back to where they started. Save for the exceptional few with wonderfully wild ideas and the uncanny ability to disrupt a marketplace. For the rest it was business as usual, picking on the scraps left behind by the big corporates.

At least until the advent of Social Media.

Social Media Enters Stage Right

Now the social effect has been around for longer than we initially think. It’s based on the fact that like minded people congregate together, that exceptional customer services trumps price and it involves one to one communication.

It’s this last fact, one to one communication, where the opportunity lies. Big business by design is typically bad at being personal. Much money is spent by brands trying to be less corporate. Whereas smaller businesses are far better matched to Social Media.

It’s very difficult to scale personal experience, ask your local baker, butcher or newsagent. They’re still in business due to the personal local service they offer. They are not particularly cheap but they don’t need to be, people don’t buy from them on price.

It’s All About Social Business

By applying these principals you can leapfrog the largest of the competition. The other advantage is that technology now offers a way for you to scale that personal communication. It enables you to reach, help and interact with people you may never have otherwise come into contact with. It puts the personal back in your business.

The key to an effective social business is monitoring, followed by engagement. If your social strategy includes these two elements you can keep pace with the marketplace very efficiently. And whilst your larger competitors are still deciding which department is going to deal with Twitter, and who gets Facebook you are already picking up new customers.

Will The Corporates Catch Up?

Maybe, but whilst they concentrate on trying to create the next viral sensation or beautiful Facebook Timeline you can already be talking to their customers. Because, it’s engagement that really matters, and not the number of followers or fans.

Get your social strategy in place and start engaging today.

Hubspot

I am a big Hubspot fan. For those of you that have not heard of them, Hubspot were named 8th fastest growing software company in the US by Deloitte in October 2011. Providing online marketing applications for their clients, their own business marketing is a prime example of what makes social media work.

Create great content, consistently, in multiple formats and give it away for free.

This attracts visits to their platform again and again, giving them many opportunities to convert visitors into customers.

They produce a weekly video podcast every Friday, filmed live at their head office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hosted by Karen Rubin and Mike Volpe, it is around 20 minutes of entertaining news and tips on social media, all with useful “marketing takeaways”.

One of the other things they are prolific at is producing Ebooks. Now these aren’t low quality, unplanned, collections of blog posts. Rather they are well thought out and beautifully presented useful reference documents for you to download for free. These are a great way to educate yourself of the benefits of social media and find out what you really need to know about the platforms that matter.

Below I have chosen 3 of their most recent books you may find of interest:

How to Use Pinterest for Business

How to Use Pinterest for Business

The fastest growing social platform of all time according to Comscore, is really making an impact in the social world. Easy and fun to use there are some hidden gems in the way you can use the platform to add real value to your business. An increasing number of companies are leveraging the platform to reach a new audience, increase visits to their websites, and generate leads or retail sales.

This book provides an overview of how the platform works and some real-life examples of Pinterest for business use in action.

How to Use Google+ for Business

How to Use Google+ for Business

When Google steps into a market place the competition better watch out. Whilst not every venture has been successful for them, Google are very good at disrupting the market place. Their Google+ platform has certainly done that. Where it is not as popular as Facebook it has grown fast and we are starting to see a significant impact especially in natural search from it’s presence.

This guide will help you set-up a Google+ presence and help you become more aware of the importance the platform will play in the future of social media.

Learning LinkedIn From the Experts

Learning LinkedIn From the Experts

Whereas Pinterest and Google+ are the new guy’s in town, LinkedIn launched in 2003 and is the place for business networking online. In this book 5 LinkedIn specialists provide key insight into how you can use LinkedIn to successfully grow your network and business. Learn how to build your LinkedIn foundation, grow your network, market your business, market yourself and measure your return on investment.

You can find out more about Hubspot’s services in the video below or by signing up for their 30 day free trial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evL5jaZx8vk

Broadcasting can work when done in the right way, but engagement is better. Automation has benefits, but personal engagement is best. There are as many ways to use Social Media as there are Social Platforms. Here are 10 for you to try:

1. Collaboration

Not found a way to justify Google+? Then try collaboration with colleagues or clients. Hidden away in Google+ Hangouts, the video conferencing application built into the platform, is Hangouts with Extras. This section of the application allows you to combine video conferencing with Google documents, Screensharing or a Sketchpad. You can even record your sessions to share at a later date.

Collaboration

2. Customer Care

Phone support is time consuming and costly, you customer service team can only deal with one call at a time. Outsourcing leads to a reduced quality of care. Social Media, specifically Twitter, can offer a great additional channel to support your clients. BT took this a stage further with a dedicated Twitter account @BTCare. Note the names of those supporting clients is given in the profile to make it even more personal.

Customer Service

3. Product Research

Not sure if a new product idea is right for your market? Or do you need feedback to make improvements to an existing product? Why not ask your customers what they think. In the blog post below regional brewer Adnams asked customers whether they would drink a reduced alcohol beer. The question was prompted due to a reduction in duty on lower alcohol products in the UK. Feedback was positive enough to lead to the production of a new product 4 months later, which went on to sell successfully.

Product Research

4. Monitoring the Market

You don’t need to actively take part in Social Media to make use of it. There are many tools available that let you track conversations within the social space. Whether you want to do competitor research, monitor brand mentions or track sentiment. Applications such as socialmention can help you stay in-touch with your market-place.

Monitoring The Market

5. Build Authority

This is especially important if you are relatively unknown or just starting out in business. How do you establish yourself in the market? A great way is to be vocal, engage and share information pertaining to your market sector readily. Gary Vaynerchuck is probably the best example of someone who has built authority through the social space, initially for his wine business, which then lead to him forming his own media company and writing two books. Gary’s persistent and engaging attitude has earn him over 900k followers on Twitter and worldwide acclaim for what he has achieved from a humble base.

Build Authority

6. Events

Promoting events in the social space is one of the most under-utilised uses of Social Media. Facebook for example allows you to easily create an event, inform all your fans about it and see who is going to attend or not.

Events

7. Product Demos

YouTube is much more than roller-skating babies and surfing dogs, it’s a free resource that can easily be leveraged to promote your products or services. When done in an interesting way even the most standard of products can become a viral sensation. Blendtec were prepared to demonstrate how their blender with blend virtual any object. The result was phenomenal, with the video of an iPhone being blended now having been viewed over 10 million times.

Product Demos

8. Lead Generation

Oh yes, social media does work for business generation, it’s not all about viral videos and market research. A recent study by Hubspot of over 5,000 of it’s customers showed that on average just under 3% of visits to a business website originating from LinkedIn converted to leads.

Lead Generation

9. Target Marketing

One of the great byproducts of social media is the availability of user data. Much of this is freely available allowing you accurately target groups of people, even individuals with your marketing messages. From Facebook Ads through to free tools like followerwonk you can ensure that your marketing efforts and spend are never wasted.

Target Marketing

10. Sell Products

Who said you can’t sell products via Twitter? With the right approach it can be a very effective channel to promote certain types of product and service. Dell use Twitter very effectively to sell through their refurbished equipment, notice however that they still engage readily with followers, it’s not all just broadcasting.

Sell Products

Bonus – Social Search

If you still can’t find a use for Social Media within your business then it is well worth having in mind the “Social Search” effect. Google has been using social activity from as early as 2009 to effect the results you see when you perform a search. Now with the advent of Google+ it is even more relevant. If you have a presence on Google+, with solid, engaging content, that is readily shared, you can leapfrog the natural and paid results.

Social Search

Have you got any other uses for Social Media?

Pinterest

Like many new social platforms it sometimes takes a while to see their value.

Everyone has been shouting about Pinterest for some time and for many it’s been hard to make a use case.

There’s no disputing it’s popularity, the growth figures alone vouch for that.

But for me it’s where does a service like Pinterest fit in amongst the other networks a business has to manage?

You don’t want to be left behind, but that isn’t reason enough to sign up for every new shiny toy.

So Where Is The Value?

Quite simply, it’s Bookmarking!

Some Pinteresting Facts

Pinterest was born in 2009 launching in closed-beta in March 2010, but now you can request an invite or secure one from a friend. Time Magazine listed Pinterest as one of the*“50 Best Websites of 2011″ and according to Hitwise data by December 2011 it became one of the top ten social networks with 11 million visits per week.

By January 2012 Pinterest had 11.7 million users according to comScore making it the fastest site in history to gain 10 million unique users. Now it is touted as driving more referral traffic than, Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.

With stats like these you can see why I was eager to find a way for it to work.

One Way To Use It

At first Pinterest can seem like any other photo sharing application, Flickr or Instagram for example. Whilst it can be used in a similar way by taking photos and uploading to the web, one of the great properties of Pinterest is the ability to link to sources directly from the image.

I was a heavy Delicious user back in the day, curating and tagging all of my bookmarks making the available wherever I was online. Like many others I got spooked and moved on when Yahoo were looking to close the service down. Until now I have transferred all my bookmarks to Evernote, keeping them openly available to me across the web.

These bookmarks exist in a closed environment, which is great for privacy but not so good if I want to share stuff. Whilst this is possible it’s not the easiest process and not what Evernote was built for.

Pinterest to the Rescue

This is where Pinterest comes in.

I can use it in a similar way to Delicious, “Pinning” my bookmarks to “Boards” in place of links to categories and adding detailed descriptions. It also makes the bookmarking experience more visually attractive. Tagging is missing, and would be a welcome future addition allowing more granular filtering, but the added benefits outweigh this minor detail.

Added Value

So I now have a valid business case for Pinterest, it becomes my bookmarking tool of choice. With browser extensions, web site plugins and mobile Apps it is really easy to use anytime.

The added benefit is that I am curating content that others may find of interest, they may then follow me or re-share my bookmarks, raising my profile. According to RJMetrics 80% of pins are re-pins, highlighting the viral effect of the platform. I can also curate my own content driving traffic to my networks, and I get to take part in one of the fastest growing social environments with no additional cost in time. I was bookmarking in any case.

Allowing me to keep up with the trend, learning how to leverage the platform and take advantage of any future innovation. So now the process begins of transferring my relevant bookmarks and adding new ones to Pinterest.

Have you found an interesting use for Pinterest?

Create Your Own PR

The aim of any modern business is to grow a community. An army of loyal followers that will not only buy it’s products but will also help spread “the word”. These advocates help to effectively multiply the reach of the companies marketing message.

Apple are probably the prime example of this type of company with disciple like customers willing to promote and share the Apple way of life without question.

What creates this type of loyal following?

One explanation can be found in Simon Sinek’s book, Start with Why. The basic premise being that companies like Apple sell on the reason of “Why” they do what they do, not the “What” of what they do.

“1000 songs in your pocket”, the tag line for the iPod, as opposed to a “5GB MP3 player”.

This didn’t then tie Apple down to producing MP3 players, in fact as long as it worked towards the goal of putting “1000 songs in your pocket” they could make anything, a phone for example!

How do you spread the word?

For companies like Apple big PR announcements are still the order of the day, and all news flows from there. Even the anticipation of such an event drives enough discussion that the impetus keeps even the most ordinary of announcements in the headlines for days.

For the rest of us the PR machine is a much harder fought battle. The advent of channels such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ allow for easier magnification of our message, but the effectiveness is limited by the following we are able to obtain on each platform.

The vital component being the ability to multiply your messages as they are released.

Message Multipliers

Some business models have been created to fill this space. They are a middle ground between your own network building efforts and full fledge PR offering.

Here are some examples of current message multipliers. They all vary in how they work and what they cost

1. Ebuzzing

A platform that works similar to an Affiliate Network allowing you to publish your campaign into their system. They will then find relevant publishers to write about and promote your product or service on their blogs and web sites. You pay for each article published typically around £50 per post or £0.04 per play for video. As you would expect you receive full analytics and tracking for your campaigns.

2. GaggleAMP

Once signed up you recruit your own team of influencers, whether they be from within your company, existing customers or brand advocates. Your influencers are able to selectively choose which messages they wish to promote and on which networks, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. You can create rewards based around networks activity. Plans start from $25 per month.

3. Triberr

Triberr takes a slightly different approach based around area of interest rather than brand advocates. The idea is to create or join a “Tribe” that are interested in a related topic, you then agree to share each others posts. There is no cost for the basic account, but if you wish to spread messages, leveraging members outside your tribe you can pay to have your message shared without reciprocating.

None of these solutions is perfect. They are all relatively new and continuing to develop features, but you can be sure to see more of these network multipliers enter the market. As the demand grows from companies wishing to increase conversations around their product, service or brand without the effort of doing it themselves.

These are no substitute for building your own network, but they can be a good way to magnify your reach for little cost.

Do you use any of these services, or know of any others?

Timekiwi Timeline

It seems there is a new social media platform launching every week. Staying focused becomes more difficult as you want to ensure you don’t miss the next “big thing”.

Even when you do maintain focus you often find you have content spread all over the web on multiple platforms.

Sure you have your blog as the hub of your activity but it doesn’t account for your photos on Instagram, Polls on Facebook, numerous interactions on Twitter and videos on YouTube.

Services like Klout and Peer Index track your activity across the web gauging your influence, but they don’t display your actual activity. Then there are other services like About.me that present a social style calling card, but these just have links to your social profiles.

Your Public Timeline

Timekiwi is a service that pools your online activity to one central location, presenting it in the same manner as Facebook’s Timeline. Though the Timekiwi Timeline is a log of your complete public social activity, rather than just your Facebook activity.

You connect up and authorise your social accounts then Timekiwi pulls in the content presenting in date order fashion.Currently you can connect Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, Foursquare and an Overblog feed if you have one. With more services to follow.

You can see my Timekiwi Timeline here.

A Social Portfolio

Whilst influence measurement by a 3rd party site gives some guide, seeing someones activity gives you true insight into who they are and what they do. In this way Timekiwi becomes your Social Portfolio, curating everything you’ve created and shared across the web.

The service was created in 2010 by entrepreneurs based in Palo Alto and recently acquired by leading European blogging platform OverBlog. Timekiwi is evolving and as well as being able to integrate other social platforms, you’ll have the ability to customise your timeline. Allowing you to centralise your social activity into one beautiful timeline.

Create Your Timekiwi Timeline

No need to wait, you can create your Timekiwi Timeline for free now. Just click this link and sign in using your Twitter or Facebook account to create you’re own Social Portfolio.

Timekiwi

Steve Jobs

A lot of the ideas I have through the year are inspired by what I read. My reading is not restricted to Twitter, Facebook RRS feeds, blogs, web sites and white papers.

I have always loved books, and since the advent of the Kindle I horde books, although electronically, more than I ever have. The ability to acquire a book instantly can be an addiction and my Kindle is full of unread books bought on a whim. I also have numerous sample books where I’ve managed to reign at least little control, leaving my wish list for those books not available electronically yet.

In addition I have an Audible subscription, allowing me an audio book a month to accompany me on my daily commute.

These books are my core inspiration, study and sometimes entertainment. I read widely everything from Gary Vaynerchuck to Voltaire, each book adds it’s own unique attributes to my daily learning. This year has been the one in which I have been inspired most, more news on this after Christmas, for now I thought I would share my picks of 2011.

Poke the Box by Seth Godin

I first came across Seth Godin in the late ’90s following the release of the Idea Virus, which is still available free online. A prolific writer he has now turned publisher, helping others achieve their dreams of publishing their first book. Poke the Box was his first book as part of the Domino Project. The book is all about “shipping”, following through on ideas and completing the work we started out on. Seth has the ability to take the obvious and see it from a different angle, nothing he highlights is new or unique, it’s just a change of perspective he brings to the world around us. This book began my theme for 2011, an idea I try to live up to every day, following through on everything I start. Seth has many books I could recommend, but if you just read one, make it this one.

On Writing by Stephen King

Stephen King is my all time favourite author and The Stand a fantastic book that still has pride of place on my bookshelf. As a teenager I grew up on King’s horror and twisted stories; much of which inspired me to try writing my own book. When I saw this 10th anniversary addition of On Writing I wondered how I had missed it the first time around. An insight into the writer and his techniques; what it reveals is the hardwork and passion that King put into his writing. His addiction to drugs and alcohol, his return from the depths of Hell’s cauldron to his own near death experience. What ever you want to write, fact, fiction, blog posts or ebooks there is inspiration for all in this gritty guide into the mind of one of the best modern writers alive.

The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuck

Although I had used Social Media prior to finding out about Gary and Winelibrary.tv it really was his book Crush It! that inspired me to to probe deeper into this fascinating world, uncovering all sorts of opportunities. Where was almost an autobiography filled with passion and reason, The Thank You Economy presents Social Media on a firm business footing. With plenty of samples of success Gary reasons that by just by building relationships with your customers, you can exalt your business way beyond the competition. If you ever needed a reason for Social Media being part of your business you’ll find it in this book.

The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice by Todd Henry

We often think that creativity is for designers, artists, performers, but if you’re in business you need to be creative. Finding time for that creativity to evolve into something useful is a struggle in todays world of hyper-connectivity. We are expected to produce brilliant ideas in an instant, yet expected to also spend time on our Board Reports and Spreadsheets; activities that are at odds with each other. Todd describes a way you can align your tasks to maximise your chances of being “ever creative”. More than just thought provoking, we are provided with a framework to deliver creatively more often, improving the way we feel about what we do to the benefit of everyone.

Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance by Jonathan Fields

Have you ever wanted to do something in life but been afraid to follow through? Jonathan Fields helps you identify the cause of that fear and how you can use it to push you forward into a better future, rather than let it hold you back. The book does drift into a discussion of meditation and it’s benefits, which can feel uncomfortable when you expect more business reasoning. It did lead me to research the subject more fully only to find many of the great business people of our time used meditation in some form to create quiet and force focus into their lives. Overall this book was just extra encouragement for me in the direction I was looking to take anyway.

The Flinch by Julien Smith

Available for free on Amazon Kindle at the time of writing, The Flinch is a short study of why we shy away from things we should embrace. The natural fight or flight instinct that protected us in a evolutionary past can now do more harm than good as we get too comfortable with our lives. Julien invites us to take a cold shower, talk to a stranger and give away the largest monetary note in our pocket on a whim. Having tried all of his suggestions I can honestly say I was at least, entertained, if not enlightened. My talk with a stranger was one of the weirdest conversations I have had in my life. If you read only one of these books, make it this one, and let me know what you think.

Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson

A true business rebel Richard Branson inspired many entrepreneurs to fight the system, stand up for themselves and build companies their way. I grew up alongside the Virgin brand name, but never really knew much about it other than exploits reported in the press. It was great to get the inside story from the man himself, growing up in an age of discovery, fighting against the machine, his autobiography brings to life what is really possible if you’re prepared to front it out. Buying his own island for under a tenth of it’s asking price is just one example in this book of how you make your own luck in life.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

No book list of 2011 could be complete without this revealing biography of a man who just should not have succeeded or achieved much in life if it wasn’t for his single vision and the awesome “Reality Distortion Field” he applied many times. A big book that reveals a man that was insecure, yet determined, selfish, yet grateful; Steve Jobs devoted his life, to ensuring ours was a pleasure, when using Apple products of course! I’m not sure you will learn much that can be applied in life or business, only because, could anyone other than Steve get away with the things he did? There is one sentence in this book that resonates, the full quote is below, but for now just have in mind, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” Must be read.

This is just a selection of the 20 or so books that I read in 2011, a year of coming of age for me. A realisation that if I want something in life, I have to go get it before it’s too late. This won’t be my last post of 2011, but will be my most poignant, I publish it now, rather than hold it back until year end as I want to “Ship”, “Deliver”, “Inspire”, “Create”. Above all I want to say “Thank You”; if you’ve ever read a word I have written, shared a Tweet or commented on my blog you have made a contribution to my future. With that said, I leave the last word to a great man who left his mark on the world and will be missed; admired by some, despised by others, but was at his best when he was “creating enjoyment” for others…

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address, 2005.