Designed to turn all of Google and its many applications into one huge social site, Google+ will offer new options for accessing your profile, getting notifications and sharing content. You’ll find many similarities to Facebook, including the notifications process and the ‘Stream’ – which serves like the Facebook ‘News Feed’ feature, giving users the ability to share photos, videos, links or their location with friends.

Google+ never loses sight of its core application – social networking, and it does offer a unique slant on targeted sharing with social groups – Google uses a system for this called ‘Circles.’ The difference from Facebook’s mass groups of friends? Google attempts to integrate Circles at every level, using a drag-and-drop function to bring friends into different social circles for friends, family, classmates, co-workers and other custom groups. Users can drag groups of friends in and out of these circles.

Google+ developers also have a sense of humor – a puff of smoke and a -1 animation appears when you remove a friend, and when you remove a social circle, it rolls away off the screen.

Additionally, Google has designed a section just for viewing, managing and editing multimedia. The photo tab takes a user to all of the photos he or she has shared, as well as the ones he or she is tagged in. It’s not just photo tagging, though: Google+ includes an image editor (complete with instant photo effects), privacy options and sharing.

‘Hangouts,’ is Google’s new group chat feature. Users click “start a hangout” and they’re instantly in a video chat room alone. Then a message goes out to all of the user’s social circles, letting friends know that their friend is “hanging out.” Maximum users in any video Hangout is 10, but it offers a waiting list as others come and go.

Google+ takes on content with ‘Sparks,’ a collection of articles, videos, photos and other content sorted by interest – like movies or books. The system integrates with other Google products like Search and Google+ sharing buttons.

While the Google team avoids direct comparisons to Facebook, the two media giants will directly compete for users, content and advertisers. So far, the ability to sign up for Google+ is limited to invitation only – first by Google directly, and now by the users themselves, which should widen the social ‘circle’ quickly. Google+ has been criticized for privacy concerns – but really, all savvy Web users understand that information on the Internet in any forum should be considered public knowledge.

Stay tuned for more developments – even after flops like Google Buzz, it looks like Google has finally got it right. Additional features and applications should start growing exponentially, as should the fan base.

Like so many things Facebook, the rumors precede the products by months, and the latest rumor has to do with a Facebook music service – apparently due to become a reality this month with an announcement coming at the company’s F8 Developer Conference on September 22.

Is it real? We think so – after all, FB has been toying with a music platform in its video chat code. Instead of taking the responsibility (and cost) of directly hosting and streaming music and media, we understand that Facebook will work with partners to provide music content.

This approach aligns with Facebook’s game plan to provide a platform for media content as it does for applications and games.

The launch partners are said to be Spotify, Rdio and MOG. Much like Pandora, these services act like virtual radio – letting you listen to nearly unlimited music selections and playlists with limited commercial interruption. After the initial launch, we expect that Facebook will open this platform to other 3^rd-party developers, as it has one with other media.

Also in the rumor mill – that FB will extend the music service to include streaming video. Our guess is that many platforms will wait on movies and television until the Netflix shakeout with both pricing and its STARZ relationship settles down. As we’ve seen with Netflix and others, providing content has a lot to do with negotiating deals with studios and record companies – even when working through partners.

Facebook now has nearly 750 million users – are they all hungry to listen to their favorite tunes courtesy of their favorite social media provider? We’ve all seen that a Facebook release does not guarantee overwhelming success – take note of Facebook ‘Places’ and ‘Deals.’

Whether Facebook Music takes off or becomes another fizzle, we have to hand it to them for continuing to bring content and ideas to the social media table. Time will tell.

This year’s (second annual) event takes place Thursday, June 30^th and is proclaimed to be a “celebration of the technological advancements that enable everyone to connect with real-time information, communicate from miles apart and have their voices be heard.”

If you love social media – and come on, who doesn’t? This can be a fun way of connecting with local social media enthusiasts in your community. It’s a great way to socialize with your online community – at a real life location near you.

Mashable asks you to host a Social Media Day Meetup in your area. A Meetup Group is nothing more than a local community of like-minded people. A Meetup Group hosts the actual Meetups, which are face to face meetings between members and Organizers.

A Mashable Meetup can take place where and when it works best for your group. Need some ideas? For planning tips, check out Mashable’s how-to guide.  To get the latest updates between now and Thursday, you can check out Mashable announcements on Social Media Day by following its @mashsmday Twitter account and its Social Media Day Facebook Page.

From Mashable, here are some tips for how you can join the fun:

• Sign up to attend or organize your own event on the Mashable Meetup Everywhere page.
• Share what you’re doing for your Mashable Meetup or leave suggestions for others in the comments below.
• Use the #smday hashtag on Twitter.
• Find your Mashable Meetup community:

Last year’s event created more than 600 Meetups in 93 countries with nearly 12,000 attendees. Go ahead – mash it up and get involved in your local Social Media Day Meetup!

Create a Niche

 Is there a certain part of your business that you are REALLY good at?  Highlight it with status updates and connect with individuals and businesses that are in that niche area.  For example, a business coach that specializes in small business and entrepreneurs wouldn’t connect with large business and corporate conglomerates that would be ineffective and waste of time. By focusing on the areas and individuals that are your target audience, you will be able to network and expand your contacts.

 Plan Out What Your Going to Say

Most social networking platforms let you do what’s called “scheduling” of your profile updates.  For example, you may create your updates for the week on Monday and then you can add them into a scheduler like Ping.Fm or Hootsuite . These schedulers will post them on the day that you indicate, that way if you get too busy, you will know that your profiles are still getting updated.

 Check Out Your Competition and then Create Partnerships with Them 

Sounds crazy, huh?  But it’s not.  Clearly we all can’t be everything for every client or customer.  Let’s say that you are a transcriptionist and you are too busy to help a customer with a project that they need ASAP, why not reach out to one of your competitors to see if they can help?  I know it sounds like the opposite of something that you would do but you may be surprised at how well these partnerships work. Referrals as well as knowing how your competitors operate can be beneficial in the long run.

 Learn What’s New

 Social media is one of those ever changing things that you need to stay on top of.  Make sure when you are working on your networking you also spend time on study about what’s new. New platforms pop up everyday and if you stay ahead of the game you will have the upper hand on the latest technology and your clients will appreciate that you are up to date.

 The most important step you can do though is every day take 20 minutes to work on your social networking.  Schedule it if you have to.  Put it on your calendar and set a timer.  Making time for it every day consistently will ensure that you are making the connections and fostering them.

• Blogging – Have you virtual assistant write up blogs to post on your site. A VA can not only write a post and post it to your blog but can publicize your posts in several ways.
• Article Submission – Do you have articles that you’ve written but haven’t had time to submit?  Have your virtual assistant do it.
• Twitter-Your virtual assistant can write up your tweets and schedule them for a week at a time so you don’t have to worry about it.
• Facebook – Have your VA send your friends and fans birthday greetings as well as posting upcoming events and specials.
• SlideShare – This is a fairly new application that brings PowerPoint and Social Media together. 
• YouTube – YouTube is a phenomenon that is also new to the business world.  Have your virtual assistant demo products, tape interviews, etc.
• Pod Casting – Consider yourself a radio host?  Why not, have your assistant set up the show, book guests, write content.

Whatever platform you choose one or all of them you don’t have to go it alone. Social Media is more than just a fad or a phase, it is a proven way to network and build your business and the best part is that it is free!

Visit their site page to change to your new URL http://www.facebook.com/username/.  You can either use one of the suggestions that Facebook gives you or even enter a desired name.  This is just like a website however so if what you want is already taken you are out of luck and have to choose another name. 

Whatever your reason for using Facebook now you get a chance to extend the reach of your profile even more but if you’re doing it for business you can either use your business name or use something to reflect your business personality. Come see us at our new URL  http://www.facebook.com/OffsiteBusinessSolutions