Lisa tells the story of BlogHer, the fifth largest blog network.  She also shares insights and tips for successful blogs and current trends for women bloggers.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• How blogging changes the voice of women
• Why blogging is the perfect tool for women
• Why you should find a community when you start blogging
• How to build your blog community
• What the popular topics are for women bloggers
• How to manage an online community
• How to set up your blog to drive revenue
• Examples of blog-to-book stories

Connect with Lisa on Twitter @LisaStone and Google+. And be sure to check out the BlogHer community.

Do you belong to a blogging community? What tips do you have to share for women bloggers? Please leave them below.

Chris shares how Google+ can help small businesses and reveals the strategies he uses to get business leads. You’ll also learn how to adapt your content strategy on Google+ to select the people you want to work with.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• Why Google+ changes everything
• How to get your content indexed quickly
• Discover Chris Brogan’s Google+ strategy
• How Human Business Works uses Google+ to get business leads
• Why you should share personal stories on Google+
• How to show potential clients who you are
• What content strategy to use on Google+
• How businesses can use Google+ Circles for both outbound marketing and lead generation
• When to choose Google+ privacy settings
• How Chris uses Twitter differently than Google+

Connect with Chris on Google+ and learn more about Google+ here.

Do you use Google+? If so, what’s your Google+ strategy? Please share your Google+ tips below.

Anita shares how social media impacts small businesses. You’ll discover which small businesses are slow to adopt social media and where social media brings the best results.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• Find out what type of small businesses might not get much business from social media
• Tips for small businesses to use social media successfully
• Why you need to avoid sending the message “click my junk”
• Why you need to stick with social media to see impressive returns over time
• The common mistakes small businesses make
• What your online place of business says about your business
• The big trends for small businesses
• How small businesses are adopting mobile marketing
• How some small businesses excel at using social media
• How tablets have impacted mobile marketing
• What BizSugar is and how to get visibility for your business content

Connect with Anita on Twitter @smallbiztrends, check out Small Business Trends and learn more about Visual Marketing here.

Are you part of a small business? Do you use social media to market your business? What has been your experience with using social media? Please leave your comments below.

The winner of the Twitter contest is Ali Goldfield. Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. We look forward to seeing you all at the Summit.**

Want to win a free ticket to the largest online social media marketing event for small businesses?

Social Media Examiner has secured some of the top names in the industry to bring you Small Biz Success Summit.

And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.

First, what is this event?

Small Biz Success Summit 2012 is a large online conference dedicated to helping small businesses master social media marketing.

More than 800 small businesses have already signed up—people just like you.

Twenty-eight of the world’s most respected small business social media marketing experts will share their strategies with you.

Hear from John Jantsch (author, Duct Tape Marketing), Anita Campbell (founder, Small Business Trends), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner and author, Launch), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Jesse Stay (author, Google+ for Dummies), Hollis Thomases (author, Twitter Marketing), David Siteman Garland (founder, “The Rise to the Top” and author, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper), Joe Pulizzi (founder, Content Marketing Institute and co-author, Get Content, Get Customers), Brian Clark (founder, Copyblogger Media), Lee Odden (founder, TopRank Online Marketing), Ramon Ray (founder, Small Biz Technology and author, Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses) and Lewis Howes (co-author, LinkedWorking)—just to mention a few.

Presentation topics include developing a social media strategy, finding and engaging your target audience, selling with social media, measuring success, Facebook marketing, Google+ marketing, blogging techniques, LinkedIn marketing, Twitter marketing and video marketing (just to mention a few!). Check out all the sessions.

At last summer’s summit, 99% of attendees said they’d recommend the event to a friend and attend again.

How can you win tickets?

We have three free tickets to the summit, valued at $597 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 125,000 of your peers! And remember, this is an online conference—so no travel is required to participate.

Two ways to win:

There are three tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

#1: Twitter entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

You can tweet up to two times per day. Each tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winSBSS12 hashtag included.

#2: Written entry

This winner gets two tickets PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner Newsletter (125,000+ subscribers)!

Simply write why we should award you the free tickets in the comments box below (scroll down).

The judges (Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing) will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.

What you need to know:

1. You can enter to win either or both prizes.
2. Tweets must contain #winSBSS12.
3. The deadline is Friday, January 20, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
4. If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
5. No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!

Joe shares the story behind the Content Marketing Institute and explains why content marketing is not a fad and is here to stay.

You’ll also learn how a multi-author blog can help your business and what you need to know to develop one.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• Why there will always be stories to be told
• How a multi-author blog helps to create community
• How to recruit authors for a multi-author blog
• Why it’s important to connect with experts
• Why it’s best to think about giving without thinking of what you want to get back
• What makes for great content
• Understand the connection between content and social media
• Why you need to figure out your content mission
• Why you need to focus on building great content and then adding a social sharing strategy
• Why there’s value in physical events

Connect with Joe on Twitter @junta42 and check out the Content Marketing Institute.

How does your business use content marketing? Do you have any content marketing tips to share? Please leave your comments below.

What if that place was free?

Well, I have good news! Social Media Examiner is proud to introduce Social Media Examiner’s Networking Clubs.

Keep reading to learn more about the Networking Clubs and how you can get in.

Why Networking Clubs?

The social media marketplace has matured to the point where it needs a gathering place, a water hole, a virtual hangout where people can share ideas and connect.

More than 450,000 people visit Social Media Examiner each month.  But there isn’t really a place for folks like you to engage.

Yes, we have our Facebook wall with 71,000 fans.  However, we don’t really have a way for those fans to interact.  Plus, after a few days, whatever activity occurred on the wall is pretty much buried forever.

Our industry needed something different.

So I got a crazy idea…  Why not hire some of the best developers I could find and build something powerful and new?

After months of hard work, I’m happy to reveal Social Media Examiner’s Networking Clubs.

Here is a screen shot of the interest page for Social Media Examiner’s Networking Clubs

What Are the Networking Clubs?

I think the best way to explain the Networking Clubs is for me to simply show you.

Watch this video for a sneak peak into the clubs!

Social Media Examiner’s Networking Clubs are a place where marketers and business owners can help others, network with peers and get their questions answered about social media.

And here’s the cool part. It’s free now and FREE FOREVER.

How Can You Get In?

We’re currently accepting folks into our private beta site. We’re looking for people who want to test out our new baby.  We expect to go live to the public in early 2012.

The first 500 people to get on our interest list will gain access to the Networking Clubs within 24 hours. The remaining will be let in over time.

CLICK HERE if you want to get on the interest list for Social Media Examiner’s Networking Clubs.

Remember this will always be free and it’s gonna be a fun ride!!

What do you think? Share your thoughts and comments in the box below.

Cliff explains why businesses need to consider getting into podcasting and the opportunities podcasting offers.  He tells you how to share your expertise on podcasts to bring in more business.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• What podcasting is and how businesses use podcasts
• Where people listen to podcasts
• How podcasting can open new business opportunities
• How podcasting has changed and what this means for your audience
• How to start audio podcasting
• What businesses should expect to spend to start podcasting
• The basic outline and format for your podcast
• Tips to get people to listen to your podcast

Connect with Cliff on Twitter @gspn and check out his two websites: LearnHowToPodcast.com and PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Do you have a podcast? What tips do you have to share about podcasting? Please leave them below.

He has a unique experience with both Facebook and Google.

Jesse shares insights behind Google+ and how it compares to Facebook. You’ll discover what Google is doing, how Google+ is different and why Google+ is a social media powerhouse.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• How Google’s focus on Google+ impacts social media
• What Google is getting right and what their biggest challenge is
• How Facebook’s approach is different
• Tips to get your Google+ strategy right
• Discover the opportunity today for businesses on Google+
• Why you need to group your audience into different Circles on Google+
• How mobile impacts Google+

Connect with Jesse on Twitter @Jesse and check out Jesse’s Google+ For Dummies Facebook Page and blog.

Are you on Google+? What tips do you have to share on using Google+ for business? Please leave them below.

Do you own a small business?

Would you like to win free private coaching from the world’s foremost small business expert?

A creative photo can get you there.

Social Media Examiner is hosting the “Small Biz Dream Contest.”

The grand prize includes private coaching from John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing) along with free tickets to Small Biz Success Summit 2012.

What is the contest?

It’s fun and simple. You simply take a photo and post it on our special Facebook page. We used Strutta to create a contest that complies with Facebook’s standards.

This is Mike Stelzner's dream in 2012 (and yes he drew the sign).

Social Media Examiner readers vote to determine the finalists. John Jantsch and Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner) will select the winners.

What are the prizes?

Here are the available prizes:

Grand prize: This winner will receive 3 hours of private coaching from small business marketing expert John Jantsch, two tickets to Small Biz Success Summit 2012, John’s The Small Business Marketing System and an entire library of valuable marketing books, including John’s Duct Tape Marketing and Michael Stelzner’s Launch.

Second place: This prize includes two free tickets to Small Biz Success Summit 2012, John’s The Small Business Marketing System and an entire library of valuable marketing books, including John’s Duct Tape Marketing and Michael Stelzner’s Launch.

The top two winners will also be profiled in Social Media Examiner’s 120,000-reader newsletter.

Finalists: The eight remaining finalists will receive free tickets to Small Biz Success Summit 2012.

How to enter…

Simply take a creative photograph with the words “My Dream in 2012″ then post it on our Facebook contest page here.

NOTE: We strongly encourage you to get creative using photography rather than computer-rendered images.

The ten photos with the most votes will enter the finals round. Our judges will determine the grand prize and second place winners.

Key dates: The contest will be open for entries through December 29, 2011. Votes will be counted through midnight Pacific on December 31, 2011.

The judges: Our judges are John Jantsch (author, Duct Tape Marketing) and Michael Stelzner (author, Launch).

Winners will be selected from among the finalists and at the sole discretion of our judges. All decisions are subjective and final. No purchase is necessary to participate.

Ready to Win?

Go to our Facebook contest page and enter now. If you know of a small business that should enter this contest, make sure to tell them about it.

Best wishes this holiday season and for 2012!

What are your thoughts? Share your comments in the box below.

In this interview we talked about Google+, why it’s different and what it means to businesses. We also talked about the mobile side of Google+, where Google might be headed and much more.

Mike: Jesse, let’s start with why Google+? What makes it unique? Why should people consider it when they’ve already got Facebook accounts and Twitter accounts and LinkedIn and beyond?

Jesse: A lot of people are probably wondering, “My friends and family are all on Facebook, so why should I be joining Google+?”

The answer is really Google itself. There’s a good chance that you use at least one Google product, at least their search, if not Gmail or Google Reader. I use Blogger.com, Android and Google Maps. There is a whole slew of Google products that you’ve probably touched in some way or another.

Google+ is intended to be the amalgamation of all of those products into one product that ties people together across all of Google.

Right now, at a minimum, if you sign up for Google+ and you visit Gmail, for instance, you’ll have a little bar at the top of the screen that lists your email address. Right next to it, it will show you your Google+ notifications, and then there’s a little Share button next to it. If you click the Share button, you can update Google+ right from within Gmail without ever having to leave Gmail.

Mike: Let me clarify what I hear you saying. Everybody probably uses some Google product in some capacity, whether it’s Google Search, Google Calendar, Google News—or who knows what else Google has that people don’t even think twice about.

Because they’re already using all these things, the fact is that Google+ is integrated into it, so they don’t really need (like Facebook needs) pull mechanisms that get you back in. At least in its early days, you had Facebook constantly emailing you every time something happened.

Google owns all of these platforms, so it makes a lot of sense, I guess, to work where you work anyway. Is that the mentality behind this?

Jesse: Yes, that’s exactly it. One example is right now if I do a search on Google, it’s probably launching for different people at different times. On many of the articles that get returned on Google, I see little icons of my friends and faces of my friends that have also +1-ed those articles before. So they’re already bringing that social experience into their existing products. Even into their flagship product, search. They’re already starting to find ways to bring Google+ into that.

Mike: Do you have any recent stats on the adoption rate of Google+?

Jesse: Google+ hasn’t really officially announced any numbers per se, at least not recently. But the numbers I’m seeing from at least some of the data mining that some of my friends are doing, they’re counting probably in the range of about 50 million users right now. This is pretty high, considering they just launched, I think, about two months ago.

Mike: That’s phenomenal! The reason I think Google+ is here to stay has to do with that little red box with the number in it. I know it seems like such a subtle little thing, but the fact that Google was smart enough to animate this little box so that every time you happen across a Google property, that little number flies across the screen like a slot machine almost and lets you know there have been updates. I think that is almost impossible to ignore, don’t you agree?

Jesse: In fact, it takes some practice to learn to ignore it. That’s what I’ve had to do because I get so many. For those people who don’t get as many as I do, it lures you in. It pulls you in and you don’t even have to be on Google+ to see that. You can be on Gmail, you can be on Google Calendar, you can be on any number of Google sites and that little red box is still there and it follows you wherever you go on any of Google’s products.

Mike: And I think that’s the brilliance that’s going to keep people coming back into the system because they may not normally have remembered to ever go back, but that will bring them in. In Chapter 7 of Google+ for Dummies, you talk about social etiquette. How does the etiquette on Google+ vary, if at all, from the other networks? What’s been your experience?

Jesse: It’s a slightly different network with slightly different technology, so it is going to have a slightly different etiquette.

There are a few things that I’ve seen.

For instance, right now on Google+, you can tag other people, which you can kind of do on Facebook. But when you tag people on Google+, it is a little more in your face in many ways because of that notification bar that follows you around. You have to be a little more careful when you tag someone on Google+ versus elsewhere because there’s a good chance they’re going to see that tag, and tags can end up getting annoying if you’re doing it too much.

Mike: Because Google+ has a lot of different granular privacy controls, I’ve found, for me, that a lot of people do not get email notifications, except if they’ve been @tagged. And I’ve found that when you’re having a discussion, it seems to me as though @tagging the person in particular in a thread seems to be the going etiquette. You @tag the person you’re referring to and not just type in their first name. Have you found that to be the case?

Jesse: That seems to be the culture right now. It does give them a little extra layer of notification, but I haven’t seen too many people complain about that.

Mike: This is really good stuff, Jesse. Given that Google+ owns the world’s biggest search engine, what kind of impact do you think Google+ and +1 are likely to have on search results?

Jesse: Right now, when you do a search and you’ve enabled Google+, you’ll see different search results. If you have more people you’ve Circled, you’re more likely to see content from them than if you haven’t Circled many people.

That’s very powerful because it means that if you get your content into Google+, your content is more likely to be visible and noticeable to people. Even if your content isn’t the first result on Google, I predict that if your content has a lot of people +1-ing it who are in a person’s Circles, there’s a good chance that your content will still be noticed. So it has a huge effect, I think.

Mike: Facebook has a social graph and maybe Google has something similar. The reason I’m asking is because I notice that when I’m logged into Google, I see different search results than when I’m logged out of Google.

I’m wondering whether you think that with Google+, somehow it’s going to look at my network of friends and the kinds of content they’re looking at? If so, and you and I Google the same thing, like “Facebook marketing,” would that change the results for both of us?

Jesse: Google has tracked some of that already. Right now, if you’re logged into Google via Gmail or any other Google product, it by default keeps you logged in when you’re searching.

When you search, it does factor in little things it has detected—things that you searched for in the past and things that you have shown interest in. Google tracks some factors of that. They don’t expose exactly what that is, but there are elements that they are tracking with that.

That will increase in the future the more your friends are brought into the process. Already, I’ve seen even Twitter friend lists brought into this. Facebook friend lists I think also are included in this.

Google’s value is giving you the most relevant search results, so they’re very interested—no matter what site you visit, no matter where you go and no matter what you search for—in figuring out who you are and what you’re interested in. I think even more in the future, what your friends are interested in will affect your search results.

I think all of that factors into search and you’ll see even more of it in the future.

Mike: Jesse, there are hundreds of millions of people walking around with iPhones, Androids, iPads and other kinds of devices. How does Google+ measure up on the mobile front?

Jesse: I think right now they’re doing fairly well. It doesn’t come by default with Android yet, but it’s pretty easy to download at the moment, and it integrates really well with the Android experience. Android, as an operating system, is the most widely used operating system of smartphones right now. As a result, it has the potential to be huge on mobile.

Mike: The iPad is a different story, though.

Jesse: The iPad is a different story—they need to update their tablet experience and I don’t think they’ve put much focus on that yet.

When you look at it, mobile is a very social experience—taking pictures and archiving the things that are happening around you, your location, and stuff like that. That’s all very interesting to your friends. As a result, I think mobile is potentially the future of Google+. I think that’s where most people will end up using it in the future if they’re not already.

Mike: Let’s talk about apps a little bit; which I know is something near and dear to your heart. Are there apps for Google+? Is there going to come a day where there might be something like iFrame going on with Google+? What’s your take on the whole apps frontier with Google+?

Jesse: Google+ just launched an API—a platform for building those apps. It’s very limited at the moment in what you can and can’t do. It has rate limits (the amount of times you can query the Google APIs to access) applied to it that are very strict, so you’re not going to see many apps right out of the gate.

The focus right now is on integrating into third-party websites, integrating into browser plugins, and stuff like that, so you’re not going to see apps that integrate right on top of Google+ like you’ve seen with FarmVille on Facebook and other things that happen on Facebook.com.

Mike: When it comes to scheduling, and HootSuite and all of these other things that are out there, is the API that’s been released recently going to be working with these kinds of third-party management apps, likely?

Jesse: Are you talking about TweetDeck and others?

Mike: Yes, and HootSuite and SocialOomph and all those other things.

Jesse: In terms of those, the potential is there. Again, the problem right now is API rate limits. That may inhibit some of those types of apps from working with Google+.

I anticipate in the future that those types of apps will be available and you will see them integrate with Google+. I think the Google+ API has to evolve a little bit before that happens, though.

Mike: Let’s talk about Google Analytics and Google+. Do you see a connection there? Is there any kind of future? Do you see somehow Google Analytics and Google+ having some sort of marriage down the road that might be useful for the consumer or the business or the marketer?

Jesse: Oh, definitely. I think there’s a huge future for Google Analytics and Google+. Google Analytics has already started integrating social components into the Analytics software.

I don’t doubt that they probably will include Google+ with those stats in some form in the future.

Google hasn’t hinted at any of this, so it’s hard to say one way or the other, but there’s a very good chance, I think, you’ll see Google+ in Google Analytics.

If you have a +1 button on your website or you’ve incorporated that into different websites, it will include that data in there already. That is part of Google+, so you’re right, they actually are including that already in some of the Google Analytics. I anticipate that to be expanded even further in the future.

Mike: Looking down the road, let’s say two years from now, how do you think Google+ is going to change the landscape of social media?

Jesse: It’s tough to see at this point. I think it has incredibly strong potential—the fact that Google is behind it and that it’s going to cross every product that Google owns.

Google is even talking about removing features from products and removing other products entirely as a result of moving focus towards Google+. They’re releasing new features of Google+ every single week. It’s a very focused team that’s working very hard beyond their 40 hours a week to make a powerful product.

Mike: My last question for you, Jesse, is about your book. Where can people find out more about you and your book? Where do you want to send them?

Jesse: If they just go to Amazon and search for “Google+” or “Google+ for Dummies,” it’s one of the only books out right now for Google+. There are few personal books, and I think Chris Brogan is also writing a book targeting businesses as well. But beyond that, this is the first book that’s published by a major publisher out there, so just search for “Google+” or “Google+ for Dummies,” on Amazon and you should be able to find it there.

The short URL, www.stay.am/gplusdummies, will also take you right to the Amazon page.

Mike: And if people want to learn more about you?

Jesse: We have a Facebook page as well. The target audience of this is really Facebook users who are trying to learn what this new thing is, so we actually created a Facebook page for it: www.Facebook.com/googleplusportable.

I’ll give you my profile ID. It’s http://profiles.google.com/jessestay. You can find me on Google+ that way too.

Mike: I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of Google+ for Dummies, Portable Edition. I was fortunate enough to see a very early draft of this book and it’s really very well-written and very enlightening.

Google+ is definitely different than anything we’ve seen. It’s got similarities to Facebook, of course, but it’s got its own unique things that make a book like this very valuable, and I strongly recommend it.

Jesse, thank you so much for taking your time to talk with me today.

Jesse: Thank you so much for the opportunity, Mike. I really appreciate it.

Listen to our complete extended interview below to hear more about Jesse’s view of Google+ and why it’s different and unique.

Click here to download MP3.

What do you think of Jesse’s view of Google+ and what it means to business? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.