The better way would be to add a “Pin It” button to your site (similar to Like or Tweet buttons). Pinterest has a tool you can use to generate the appropriate buttons for your website. Just provide the tool with your URL and image location. The rest is taken care of by Pinterest. You can always replace the URL in the code with your permalinks function (if you use WordPress) to make the button more dynamic.

Pinterest works great for those of you who share great photos and videos on your website. It is not as huge of a traffic driver as Twitter or Facebook. But you do not want to ignore this social network at this point.

Before using this plugin, you want to make sure you only feed your own Twitter account (or the ones you have the rights to) to this plugin. Tweet Import can import tweets under a specific author. You also control which categories they get imported under. Tags are supported too. What’s nice about this plugin is the fact that it can identify Twitter names and make them “clickable.” It turns hashtags to tags which is nice.

You have to be very careful when using plugins such as this one. Going overboard with them could damage your blog severely. But the plugin does its job pretty well.

Hangout Canopy shows the public hangouts you can join in the extension window of your browser. It watches your friends’ activities and keeps you up-to-date with their hangout activities. This tool also shows hangouts from your circles that are not necessarily public. You should add the people that interest you to get a more useful list of hangouts.

Hangout Canopy is pretty simple to use and does what it promises well. If you are badly looking for a public Hangout to join, Hangout Canopy for Chrome is well worth checking out.

Use Post To Quora Bookmarklet: use this tool to post images and other types of content to your Quora boards. It is very similar to the “Pin It” button by Pinterest.

Add Quora Button to your website: so you are planning to be very active on Quora? There is no reason you should not add a Quora Follow button to your blog. Quora already has the code you need to get this done. What’s nice about this button is the fact that you can use it to promote a topic instead of a certain user.

Connect your blog to Quora: whether you are on Tumblr or WordPress, you have the option to connect your website to Quora to start creating blog posts using questions and answers from Quora. This can potentially take your website to a whole new level.

My main focus will continue to be on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon at this point. But Quora is a great community to be a part of. It keeps getting better and better too. By integrating Quora into your website and daily routine, you will have a better chance to get more out of it.

LinkedIn is still quite underrated among all the social networks available for us all to play around with. Google+, Facebook, and Twitter get all the attention. I personally get a lot from LinkedIn though. It is the ultimate social network for professional bloggers. You can find so many new ideas and approaches to adopt for your own blog by going through the content available on LinkedIn. Here are 5 ways you can use LinkedIn to improve your blog:

1. Use LinkedIn Today: before the rise of Google+, I was starting to get most of my news from LinkedIn Today. I use the service less often now. But it is still quite useful when you are stuck and need some inspiration for your next post. 
2. Participate in groups: if you are on LinkedIn but are not taking time to get involved in groups, you are missing a big opportunity. By joining groups, you get to make new connections, solidify your existing ones, and get more involved in the community. You will also learn a lot by interacting with group members.
3. Take advantage of LinkedIn Q/A: the best way to get ideas for your future posts is by going through questions and answers shared on Q/A sites. LinkedIn just happens to have one of the best ones around.
4. Pay attention to updates from your connections: many folks share stories with their connections on LinkedIn. Keeping an eye on those updates is not a bad idea to get a better sense about the current trends in your niche market.
5. Spy on other users: you may not feel comfortable about spying on other users on LinkedIn. But make no mistake about it. People do spy on you. You should do the same to avoid losing your edge. LinkedIn provides you with that opportunity.

LinkedIn is a beautiful community to be a part of. If you are ever stuck and need ideas for your future posts, you should give LinkedIn a shot.

Just like any other blogger, I test new social networks from time to time. Pinterest is the latest social network I am in love with. The community is quite vibrant and offers a goldmine of ideas for anyone willing to dig for information. Pinterest is an online pin-board that lets you organize and keep track of things that you like. It is not only a great service to organize your ideas or inspirational materials with, it can also help you grow your business. Here are 5 reasons I use Pinterest to enhance what I offer on my blogs:

• it has interesting material: before I joined Pinterest, my Google Reader feeds were my main source of inspiration. Pinterest is a huge goldmine if you know how to search through what it offers. People are sharing all kinds of interesting material on that site on a daily basis.
• helps me find blogging ideas: this does not work for all blogs. Nevertheless, analyzing the sharing trends on Pinterest could give you an idea what people dig in that community. Pinterest is a visual social network. So you have to be a bit creative here.
• ease of use: Pinterest is one of the easiest social networks to get started with. It has a super user friendly interface. As long as you have an invitation (something you need at the time of this writing), you can get started with Pinterest in minutes.
• it is growing: Pinterest does not have as many members as Twitter or Google+. But it is a growing community. It is a different kind of social network in comparison to Twitter and Facebook. A great network for early adopters.
• website traffic: I have not received an explosive amount of traffic from Pinterest. But it has made a difference for my blogs. If you have a blog with lots of cool images, you could gain a decent amount of traffic from Pinterest.

Have you gotten started with Pinterest yet? How are you using it to grow your business?

P.S. please share your profile URL below.

YouTube is a great place to catch all kinds of videos. One could spend a lifetime or two trying to catch up with all the interesting videos available in that community. YouTube can serve as a great traffic driver for your business too. Quality videos that receive a lot of visits can bring a significant number of new visitors to your blog.

People have been contributing content to YouTube for years. But it is never too late to start. Here are 5 ways you can get started with YouTube quickly:

1. unbox new gadgets: this is so simple, anyone can do it. You just have to be willing to spend some money to get your hands on a brand new gadget (e.g. iPhone 5 or Kindle 5). If you can work with the PR departments in some of these companies, you may be able to get your hands on test units ahead of time.
2. cover hacks: we are not talking about black hat hacking. Creating videos showing people how to get around the restrictions in their gadgets is one way to go viral on YouTube.
3. create new video reviews: when I buy a new product, I always check YouTube to see if there are any reviews available for it. Unfortunately, not all products have video reviews on YouTube. That’s where you come in. By reviewing those types of products, you can build a strong YouTube presence faster.
4. cover the latest news, first: regardless of which niche market you are involved in, you can enhance your YouTube channel by breaking the latest news first. If you can get it done in a professional manner, you are golden.
5. compare products: this too applies to most niche markets. People love watching product comparison videos. The more thorough your coverage in your videos, the better chance you have of gaining new subscribers and visitors from your work.

Building a killer YouTube channel does require you to be innovative and agile. Offering unique, valuable videos is one way to set your channel apart from others in your niche market.

Google Currents is certainly exciting. I am personally more excited about its self-publishing service. It is an awesome service that lets publishers gain more control over how their websites look in Google Currents. You are going to have to use Google Chrome to get started with this service. It lets you customize many aspects of your edition including its icon, splash image, sections, and articles.

Google Currents producer lets you add feeds, articles, photos, videos, and social updates to your edition. You can use “Table of Contents” to get your content more organized. Re-ordering sections are super easy. Your social updates can come from Google+ or RSS feeds of your social profiles. What’s nice about Google Currents producer is the fact that it lets users manage individual articles and remove the ones they do want included in their edition.

Google Currents lets you define who can access what when it comes to your editions. You are going to have to verify ownership for your content before being able to distribute your edition. Once you are ready to publish your edition, Google provides you with a link you can share with your visitors.

Google Currents is not perfect by any means. But it has a lot of potential. Thanks to Google Currents producer, you will have even more control on what your fans will see in their e-magazine.

I have been using Google Reader to keep up with my favorite RSS feeds for years. Unfortunately, I have never been able to fully keep up with all the feeds that I subscribe to. That’s why I went on a quest to find a solution that could help me keep up with the news in my favorite markets more conveniently. Fever is such a solution. This tool was designed to help its users keep up with their favorite feeds more conveniently.

Fever is a smart feed reader. It reads your feeds and keeps you informed on the most talked about items in them. The more feeds you follow, the better chance you have of finding top stories that you should be keeping up with. What’s nice about Fever is that you can differentiate between your must-read and supplemental feeds.

Fever is quite graphical. It grabs favicons from your feeds, which makes going through them more convenient. Importing/exporting feeds is supported too. Best of all, you can use keyboard shortcuts and Fever’s search feature to get more out of the feeds you are following. Keep in mind, Fever runs on servers with PHP and MySQL. It sits on your own server and acts as your personal feed organizer. Fever works with most modern browsers, which is nice. It does not cost a whole lot either ($30 at the time of this writing).

Google+ gives people the chance to share all kinds of content with the world. But what you share online can come back to haunt you. Just because you are part of a community that lets you share almost anything with the world, it does not mean you should. You should always use your judgment before pushing crazy content onto your stream. Here are 5 types of content you want to think twice about before sharing on Google+:

• too graphic: Google+ does have some restrictions on the type of content you can share in that community. There is no reason for any professional to share graphic, violent, and other similar types of content.
• content damaging to your brand: this should go without saying. If you are on Google+ to promote your brand, you want to stay away from posting the types of content that will reflect poorly on it.
• irrelevant articles: the key to building a strong presence on Google+ is sharing relevant articles with the right people. That’s why you should use the power of circles to send your friends only the type of content they are interested in consuming.
• marketing scams: these times are tough and some people do crazy things to make quick cash online. That includes sharing affiliate and make money scams with their friends. That is the easiest way to kill your credibility on Google+.
• negative personal stories: Google+ does not replace therapy. It is one thing to tell stories about your hardships once in a while. But if you overshare, it could turn people off.
• anything you have not checked out: this has always been my rule: I never share content that I have not checked out personally on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. That is a good approach to avoid sharing embarrassing or terrible works with others.

Google+ is a very open community. But don’t assume you can get away with sharing crazy type of content with your friends. People do have a limit. Besides, what you share can come back to bite you where it hurts the most.