Thanks to Marketing Pilgrim for pointing this out. Google is marketing its new social network Google+ on TV. The Muppets have a hangout, which is one of Google+’s best and most popular features, and hold a concert performing the cover “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie.
Awesome!
This makes me wonder whether Google+ Hangouts can be used for marketing purposes. I don’t see why they can’t. In fact, I know they can.
Brands can set up a Google+ page, but to do so they first need to have a Google+ account. That account has to be a personal account.
So let’s say your CEO gets a Google+ account then sets up a Google+ page for the business. As a page, he could start a hangout and invite anyone he wishes. What he invites all of the page’s circles into a hangout and while inside the hangout he entertains a little while providing a bit of an uplifting marketing message?
The hangout could just last for a minute, but during that minute the CEO could field questions from the people in his circles providing for an interactive marketing moment.
Welcome to the new world of marketing and advertising. Social media is getting better all the time.
In the old days of SEO, all a marketer had to care about was whether or not he was building good content and building good links. If you wrote great content for your website using the right keyword mix with content that helped your audience, built links from good domains and with the right anchor text, and didn’t do anything the search engines didn’t like, then there was a good chance you’d rank well for the keywords you targeted. Those days are going away – fast.
SEOMoz has a great post on how Google looks at sentiment and how that affects SEO at the local level. You’ll be amazed at the technology the search engines now have.
Using something called stylometry, Google can determine whether your link from a third-party website is a positive endorsement, a negative endorsement, or neutral. And I find that amazing. It could affect your rankings.
Get enough bloggers to link to your website using negative references and you could see your search engine rankings plummet. On the other hand, get enough rave reviews and you could rise to the top. It’s pretty easy to imagine what you need to do to improve your rankings then, huh?
No, I don’t mean buy positive endorsements. I mean provide great customer service. Your reputation is more than just a few paid-for links. It’s how you do business.
Leave it to Aaron Wall to come up with the link building is dead infographic. But the veteran SEO has been chiding Google for its policies for several years now. Still, I think he has a good point. This infographic illustrates how traditional link building is dying. (I’d embed it, but the smallest option – 640px – is too wide for this blog.)
What I think this infographic is saying is that Google is favoring big corporations at the expense of small businesses. Do you see that? Do you agree?
Something else that Aaron Wall does not mention in this infographic is Google+. I believe it is Google’s hope that everyone will start using Google+, then they will know what your interests are intrinsically. Link building won’t be necessary if Google can rely entirely on social cues to deliver you the content you’d be most interested in. And companies that spend their time building links for SEO purposes will just be wasting their time.
This makes me wonder what kind of Web we’ll have 2-5 years from now. Will link building be completely dead? Will the Web be entirely social and will the Web’s biggest search engine deliver all its results based on how you interact with Google+?
Veteran journalist and Web entrepreneur John Battelle is writing a book about what the Web might look like a generation from now. He has some very interesting ideas and he will often give a little glimpse into what he is thinking along those lines on his blog. His latest post is about the Internet’s “Big Five” – the key players in the Web to come.
It’s easy to see where he is coming from in choosing these companies to represent what the world may look like 25 years from now. But that’s a long time in Internet time. Remember, it only took a decade for any of these companies to make an impact on the world as it is now.
But his blog post does make me question some things about the direction that the Web is moving in. Here are a few that come to mind.
Will Apple primarily become a mobile app company?
Why hasn’t Microsoft leveraged its core products by hosting them in the cloud? It seems that this could be a key area of competitive advantage given the popularity of services like Google Docs, Zoho, and Salesforce.
Can Google succeed in becoming the core reputation management platform online? Has it already?
Is Amazon the Wal-Mart of the Web? Can it put Wal-Mart “out of business?”
Can Amazon position itself as the premier cloud service for the Web in the next 20 years?
Would a public IPO push Facebook higher in the rankings, perhaps past Amazon, or Google?
Who will emerge as the Internet’s most prominent icon for the next generation? Will it be Google, Facebook, Amazon, or some company we haven’t heard of yet?
Can Google win as long as it maintains confidence in the Open Source Web given that none of the other four companies do?
The interesting thing about this list is that Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon all have core online businesses. Apple is integrated heavily into mobile apps. Google, of course, is the leading search engine. Facebook is the leading social network. Amazon is the leading e-commerce website. Only Microsoft has a core business that is not an online business – its Office suite of products. How will that affect the Internet for the next generation. If Microsoft doesn’t take its core product online, will it become obsolete?
Aaron Wall is punching at Google again. This time he’s accusing the search giant of favoring big companies like Wal-Mart. At the expense of small companies. Here’s what he says specifically:
In the meantime, I expect Google to keep increasing search complexity such that it’s prohibitively expensive to make & market a small independent commercial website. That will force many smaller companies to live inside the Google ecosystem, with Google ranking the Google-hosted pages/products/locations for those companies, so that they can serve ads against them and get a bigger slice of the revenues.
In other words, small business owners will be forced to use Google-powered site hosting products because they won’t be able to afford to pay professional SEOs to do their optimization work. Meanwhile, big companies like Wal-Mart will be favored in the search engines unless small businesses use the Google-hosted sites, which will serve up ads and increase Google’s revenue at the small business owner’s expense.
Somehow, I don’t think that business model would work well for Google. What would happen when small business owners discover the game is rigged against them?
SEO is already plenty difficult for most small business owners. They either have to take the time to learn how to do it themselves, and most of them don’t have that kind of time, or they have to pay a professional anyway. Forcing small business owners into a corner doesn’t seem like a plan that would benefit Google.
We’re continuing to deliver the latest news on Google+ developments and here’s another reason you should join the service. If you are a PPC advertiser on Google’s AdWords platform, then you can see social annotations if you turn them on.
I believe social annotations are going to become a key metric for a lot of online marketers. They could very well be a major part of your PPC campaigns going forward, and it’s real easy to see why.
Dan Friedman of Google’s Inside AdWords Crew says that 71% of shoppers online make decisions based on the recommendations of their friends and family. If that’s true, then you give your fans every opportunity to +1 your content, PPC ads included. When a searcher calls up a search results page and sees that their friends have +1ed your ads, they’ll either +1 it themselves or click on the link. It could increase the effectiveness of your advertising.
At the very least, you’ll have a key metric to judge the effectiveness of your advertising. Getting tons of +1s? Then you’re making an impact. Getting +1s but no click-throughs? You can evaluate the reasons why. Getting +1s and click-throughs but no conversions? Check your landing page.
The latest development in the Google+ saga is that the search engine is telling searchers how many +1s a particular search result has in their local area. That’s pretty awesome.
The question is, How can this benefit your business?
I look at it as like a metric. It’s nice to know how many +1s your content is getting around the world. For instance, let’s say you write a blog post and within 30 days you discover that it has 200 +1s. But what if you found out that 125 of those +1s were local to you? That would be a useful metric, right?
I think it would certainly be a useful metric if your business is a local business. It can tell you how effective you are at reaching your audience and that’s always good knowledge.
Another thing Google is telling searchers is who shared a particular page of content through Blogger. This could potentially make Blogger a much more valuable piece of real estate for SEO purposes, and for social media marketing purposes.
If Google keeps making these kinds of changes to its SERPs, then Google+ could become a much more valuable social media outlet than people are currently giving it credit for. This is worth keeping an eye on.
It’s not that people don’t have legitimate beefs. They do. Google+ can certainly improve. In fact, many users agree on the top 10 things they’d like to see on Google+.
But let’s get real. Google+ will improve.
I don’t remember a time in its history when Google didn’t make an attempt to continuously improve a product or service it introduced to the public. They may not have succeeded, but they tried. The company has a long list of failures, particularly in the social media realm. But they always try to improve what they’ve made available to users. That’s the way Google operates.
I for one believe that Google+ will improve. Business page for Google+ will improve. There’s no reason to go crying that we haven’t arrived just yet. Perfection is a nebulous goal.
The big question that every business should be asking right now is, Do I need a Google+ account or a Google+ business page right now? I think it’s safe to say that you will likely want one at some time. When you jump on the Google+ bandwagon is up to you and your staff. But now is the time you should start discussing it.
If you’re wondering just what a Google+ business page is, think of it as a Facebook page for Google. There are, of course, some subtle differences between Google+ pages and Facebook pages. One such difference is that you must have a Google+ personal account before you can add a page. But that’s a minor hurdle. I recommend that you get a personal account as well.
So what can you do with a Google+ business page?
For one thing, you can post to Google+. If you’re not sure if that’s a benefit or not, consider these points and then make up your mind.
Google+ is owned by Google, the largest search engine online. While SEO benefits are currently unproven, you can bet that Google will eventually provide greater weight to personal profiles and business pages for brands.
You can schedule hangouts with your clients and partners and communicate for free with them via video right inside Google+
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Google+ is only going to get better. If you haven’t joined yet, I highly recommend that you do and set up your business pages now.
Social media sites have risen from nowhere to be the most popular sites online. Facebook is currently the most trafficked website online. It used to be Yahoo! Then Google.
YouTube is the second biggest search engine online. But it’s more of a social media website due to its viral video nature.
Twitter and Google+ are both in the top ten most trafficked sites online as well. And LinkedIn isn’t too far behind.
But the race isn’t over yet. All of the social media sites are working hard every day to improve themselves. The latest, Google+, is constantly improving and growing fast. It could become the second most trafficked website online in a matter of months. And Google is already suggesting that it will be the face of Google in the future. How that will affect its traffic numbers is anybody’s guess.
Who will ultimately win this war between social media websites is indeterminable. What is important for business owners is that you have menu options. You are not stuck using one social media site for your marketing and branding.
In fact, if you aren’t using multiple sites to establish a social media presence, then you aren’t getting the full benefit of social media marketing. The best approach to social media is to analyze the sites for their strengths and determine which ones make most sense for your business, niche, and situation.
If you haven’t started using Google+ yet, I have one more reason why you might consider it. YouTube video marketing has just got easier. In fact, it’s easier than Facebook and Twitter.
It happened in just the last couple of days. Google added a YouTube search feature. In the top right corner of your screen (if you’re using Google+) you’ll see the YouTube icon. Click it and a search bar extends left a couple of inches.
All you have to do is enter a search term. When you do, a popup box the size of a YouTube video appears with a video playing related to your search term and a playlist below it. You can watch videos right through the playlist or go to the video you want to watch. Then, when you want to share on Google+, you click the green Share button.
The share button allows you to pick your circles, write a message, and send, just like on Google+.
So how do you make the most of this? If you’re a video marketer, upload your video to YouTube. When you’re ready to share it on Google+, just use the YouTube search feature. It’s the easiest video marketing I’ve seen to date.
Google is not just a search engine. In fact, for many businesses it’s a life source. There are many ways that Google as a company helps small businesses, or can. Here are some of the best services that Google offers for small businesses looking to establish a presence on the Internet.
Sites – Need a website? Google Sites allows small business owners to establish a basic website without having to pay for hosting.
Gmail – Gmail provides e-mail addresses for millions of online marketers and business owners.
Blogger – Google’s Blogger service allows anyone to establish a blog online – even for business.
Images – If you use images on your blog or website, you can get unlimited hosting with Picasa.
Documents – Create and share your business documents with Google Docs.
I’m certain these are not the only Google services you can use for your business. You can find more through Google’s service listing page.
I’m also not saying that I recommend all of these services. In some cases there is a better alternative. For instance, PayPal is a much better payment service than Google Checkout, but if you were so inclined you could feasibly run your business using Google Checkout and take credit card payments through your website (you can do the same thing with PayPal).
In this century, Google provides small business owners with many services that allows you to run your business entirely on Google.
Social networking has become a big part of a lot of people’s day-to-day activities. The latest social network to hit the scene is Google+ and they’ve just added a couple of new features that make social networking even better. One of those features is called Ripples.
Ripples allows you to see what the share trail of a particular item is. You can see who all has shared the post. If you shared a blog post from your own blog and several of your circle friends shared it, then a few of their circle friends shared it, Ripples allows you to see which Google+ users have shared the post.
So why would you want to do that?
First, you can see at a glance, with a graphical representation, just how many shares your post has. But you can also find those Google+ profiles and find new connections. Sharers who are not in your circles can become a part of your circles. I think that’s pretty nifty.
Social networking is not all about linear connections. I think Google understands that more than any other company – even Facebook.
So which social network do you think is stretching the limits on social sharing? Is it Facebook, Twitter, or Google+?
Since the inception of Google+, Google has been saying that it plans to integrate all of the Google services with the new social networking service Google+. That’s a lot of services.
Google+ started out with Picasa integration. YouTube integration was minimal, but the service has had video support. Slowly, Google is integrating its other services. Recently, they’ve announced that Blogger integration is happening right now.
This is good news for bloggers who use Google’s own blogging platform.
While we’re big components of WordPress uploaded to your own domain name, there’s a pretty good chance that if you’re stuck on Blogger, then this integration will only boost your small business blog’s presence online. Historically, Blogger has not ranked well despite being owned by Google. But this integration could change that.
If it doesn’t, then there are still other reasons to continue using Blogger.
One reason is because it will be easy to share your blog posts through Google+. I also believe that using Blogger will increase your Google profile’s presence in the search engines making Blogger a great reputation management tool. Already, Google+ is causing that to happen. By using your Google+ profile for your Blogger account, that will make your reputation management efforts even better.
If you are an author, artist, performer, or other creative business person who uses pseudonyms in your business for legitimate purposes, then you might be interested to know that you can now use Google+ as your alter ego.
This is a new development for Google+, however, Vic Gundotra, head of Google+, makes it sound like they’ve planned this all along. Maybe they have.
Google+ users have been asking for the ability to use fake names for some time. Now they’ve got their wish. But how does this benefit you?
Anyone who uses a pseudonym for normal business (for instance, Samuel Clemens used the name of Mark Twain), then you can have a Google+. Before now, if your public persona was wrapped up in a pseudonym, then you couldn’t use Google+. You had to use your real name.
This brings up the question, how will Google be able to tell the difference between a legitimate pseudonym and a fake name used for spam? That’s a good question. I suspect that Google has it figured out. If not, we can all expect an onslaught of fake spam accounts to hit our Google+ streams soon.
Business accounts haven’t been rolled out yet on Google+, but Google says they’re coming. When they do, that should boost your social networking abilities.
If you’ve had one eye on Gogole+ and the other trying to figure out why you’d try it, let me give you 11 reasons why you should try it. You don’t have to leave Facebook and Twitter behind, and you don’t have to spend all your time on Google+ checking out your friends. But if you run a business, Google+ can be your friend.
11 reasons to try Google+ now:
Every time you use Google+ your Google profile rises in search. Give yourself more search prominence.
Because Google+ is owned by the largest search engine online you can bet there will be search benefits in some fashion.
There is a built in local component with the tie-in between Google Maps and Google Places and Google+
You can use your Circles for better targeting of your prospects.
Google+ business accounts are soon on the way.
Sharing YouTube videos is much easier through Google+
Google Picasa allows you to share photos easier through Google+ and you have unlimited photo storage.
Google Hangouts.
Google+ allows you to add hundreds of new people to network with one click through Circle sharing.
You can set the privacy for each component of your Google+ profile.
It’s easy to use.
So how many more reasons do you need? Google+ offers you the best in search and social. Try it.
In the world of search engine optimization, the robot can be good to you or it can diss you something fierce. The human reviewer, however, is more likely to kick you square in the big one. And it could hurt.
As Jennifer Ledbetter explains, you’ll only be reviewed by human eyeballs when you hit a respectable ranking on Google.
What that really means is you did a spectacular job with your SEO. Now you have to convince the human reviewer you deserve the spot you’ve worked so hard for. How do you do that?
The first thing you should keep in mind is that searchers are doing the same thing. The difference is that the searcher can’t ruin your day by knocking you down to page 10. But you know they’d like to. If only they could.
If you don’t want that big drop to happen, then you need to learn what those human reviewers are looking for. One thing that could make you fall in the rankings is obvious spam. Just don’t do it. You’ll pay for it.
What they are really looking for, however, is something positive. Is your page relevant for a search query? If so, you likely have nothing to fear.
Video marketing is very effective if you produce the video right the first time. The following video is a good example of a video marketing effort that succeeds.
The video is professionally done.
It parodies a popular song, albeit one from the 1980s.
It highlights the most important features of the product it is promoting.
It’s short enough to hold your interest while being long enough to showcase the service.
And it makes you want to know more about the service as well as the actress showcasing her talent.
The service, Google+, is the latest craze in social media. Why not have your own professional video made? Promote another product or service or your own. Draw attention to yourself – in a good way.
If Google+ had a blog comments system as a part of its service, would you use it? There are plenty of reasons why you should think about it.
First, such a blog comment system would offer your blog an additional layer of SEO. Comments made on your blog through the Google+ service would most likely receive preferential treatment in the search engines. And that would benefit you as well as your commentators.
Another reason why Google+ blog commenting would be a decent service is because every time you used it your reputation within the Google brand of services would get a boost.
Those two reasons alone are good enough to say that it would be worth it. But should you also drop your Facebook comments?
When it comes to Google+ or Facebook, I’d say don’t pit them against each other. There’s no reason you can’t use both. Some of your Facebook friends won’t use Google+ and some of your Google+ friends won’t use Facebook. If you had both comment systems on your blog you would end up with a wider reach.
What’s really important in today’s online marketing climate is that you make the most of all the tools at your disposal. Are you doing that?
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a full on war going on between Google+ and Facebook, which is interesting because they may not really be competing.
Google+ is really all about integrating all of Google’s services into one service that ties them all together socially. Facebook is just about connection. Period. Always has been.
Later this month Facebook will introduce its Timeline across the board to every user. How will that change things?
First, you’ll be able to add a huge header at the top of your Timeline to define who you are and what you’re about. That’s a very important branding element for small business owners who are using Facebook for marketing.
The Timeline is being billed as the story of your life. If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, it could just as well be the story of your business’s life. And that’s huge. But is it really a whole lot different than what you have now?
It will be easier to search for past events in your Timeline – for you and for your subscribers.
Oh, and speaking of subscribers, that’s something else Facebook has added. Instead of friending everyone who asks, just get them to subscribe to your public updates. You could build a business on subscribers alone. What do you think of that?
