Webinar - Google Plus Pages for brands and businesses, marketers, and social media geeks. Discussing creation, optimization, engagement, connections, and more.
presented by Kevin Mullett for Cirrus ABS
4. there is a lot of misinformation, speculation,
opinion and hype being spread. worse is the
expectation that social media should be free,
effortless, and easy, yet produce greater ROI.
// verifyingclaims? expectingtoomuch?
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
5. // whowinstheintenttoactionwar?
• tv
• dm (direct mail)
• radio
• newspaper
• print (brochures/ads)
• email marketing
• social
• SEO
• search marketing
• tradeshows
• sponsorships (nascar etc.)
• yellow pages (not shown)
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
6. no marketing media channel has 100% eyeballs
or is 100% effective. prioritize based on goals,
resources, and business objectives.
// prioritizeyour marketingefforts
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
8. // whatisgoogle+1
google +1
• will be used as“A”signal for google search to fight web spam
• visible in search results, ads, images
• on sites ala“like”button
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
9. // whatisgoogle+ & google+ pages?
google+ is a social network (June 28th, 2011)
• opened to public (September 20th, 2011)
• google+ pages (for brands and businesses) released (Nov 7th, 2011)
• public google+ posts, profiles & pages show in search results
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
10. // i will sayitagain, social isinSERPsnow
how will it change social participation? how will it
change where we click on a SERP page?
(flickr, friendfeed, gmail, facebook, buzz, reader, google social connections)
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
12. no, it’s not facebook and while your friends may
not be here potential connections are.
// no, it’snotfacebook
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
13. // buildingonpropertyyouown?
• Ars Technica (suggested copyright infringement?)
• Jonathan Rivera’s page with 47’000 fans (vanity url)
• are you relying on free services?
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
14. // jobs will change, your namewon’t
job changes?
you are likely to change
jobs many times in your
lifetime, however save
for a few reasons,
your name will not.
free services come
and go!
own a domain!
$10/ year (do it)
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
15. // social activityoptimization
optimize your efforts
• schedule activity during peak times
• third party tools to consolidate (announced Nov 15th)
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
19. methods for making banners
// actionsteps: getfancymethods
1. perspectivus.com/GooglePlusPanoramaBanner (+Johnathan
Chung) *upload from computer
2. gpluspic.com/banner (+ Hélio Martins) *upload from
computer
3. bannerspl.us (+Holger Reischke) *upload or link to and option
to display on the server with author info. (Adds bannerplus watermark)
4. gplusbanner.com *upload and option to display on site
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
20. what is google+ direct connect?
// google+ directconnect
“+pepsi”google search
goes directly to Pepsi’s
google+ page.
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
21. choose how you want g+ to display
// actionstep: linkingg+ pagetoyour site
ask your geek to
take care of this.
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
23. nuances of pages
• a person must circle your brand before you can circle
them, but brands can circle other brands
• pages cannot +1 other pages
// howcircleswork for pages
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
24. even more nuances of pages
• againstTOS to run contests! — policy
• pages have the same limitation of 5000
people/brands in a circle that personal accounts have
(Dell isn’t happy about it)
• no notifications via email, text, or in google bar
• local pages, defined in setup, have special fields for
address
• two pages can have identical names
// nuancesof circlesfor pages
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
25. even more nuances of pages
• the default page privacy is public on all items
• pages cannot share to‘extended circles’
• pages cannot play games
• pages cannot create custom pages or tabs
• no vanity URLs (BOOOOO google!)
// circles
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
26. check every time before posting
// whichaccountareyoupostingfrom?
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
27. do you want shares and comments?
// postingoptions
lock this post prevents it from being shared
use this option wisely
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
28. share to other networks
// actionstep: grabextendedshareplug-in
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
29. download a mobile browser
like dolphin and set it to
desktop mode.
your mileage may vary!
// canyoupostfrommobile? maybe.
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
31. • 10 person limit
• share your screen
• do not have to circle
• pages can’t do apps:
notes, sketchpad, docs
• name your hangout
// hangout… withor w/oextras
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
32. you can see
who you
hung out
with after.
// hangouts… withextras
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
38. // qualitycontent& engagement= +1’s
cumulative +1’s for this google+ page
• must be logged out of your page to see +1
• note that they call out the +1 button!
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
41. if talking to me about defining ROI of social
media you best be prepared with examples
from your other marketing efforts.
// it’sasmeasurableor moreso…
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
43. // actionstep: screengrabyour ripples
take screen grabs of your popular ripples
and make sure to interact with people
who are engaging and amplifying you!
remember, sharing is caring.
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
44. // what’snext?
Tae E. Kim gives us answers from crushIQ.
Carter Gibson had a great recap post.
• future cross product integration
• multi admins, but not till Q1!
• adwords is coming, but low priority
• don’t like G+ on iPhone, buy an Android
• it won’t stop there…
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
45. keep these resources handy
1. create a page
2. google+ your business info (g+)
3. google+ support (web)
4. google+ pages discussion forum (google group)
5. g+ brand pages webinar Wed. 16th 10am MT
6. help desk hangout Thurs. 17th 10 – noon MT
7. google+ vector icon set (free)
// official resources
@kmullett // #GPlusForBiz
Google Plus Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // Presented by Kevin Mullett, Director of Product Development for Cirrus ABS.
Google Plus Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // Presented by Kevin Mullett, Director of Product Development for Cirrus ABS. You can find Kevin: http://www.kevinmullett.com (blog), http://twitter.com/kmullett (twitter), http://www.facebook.com/kevinmullett (facebook), and on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmullett
The “Social Three” // You are here to find out how to add social media into your event marketing mix, but let’s start by actually talking about what I call the “social three”. Why? Because people use these terms interchangeably, when they are not in fact interchangeable. If you think about it we could just remove the “social” moniker off all of these and we would have good old fashion traditional media, networking, and marketing methods. Today we will discuss various aspects of the social sphere and social media optimization. Now the information I present today, much like search engine optimization information, will have a limited shelf life. A scant 7 years ago Facebook was created in a dorm room and now has more users than the population of the United States. A year ago many of you had no idea what Twitter was, now it has gone mainstream and is in countless TV commercials. I could waste the entirety of this seminar just talking about the rise and fall of various social services, percentage of market share, types of people who use each, etc. Instead I am going to breeze by some of those items at a high level, so I can spend more time giving you social marketing tips that will help your business.» social media which represents the tools we use for building followers, friendships, & contacts. Tools like twitter, facebook, linkedin, youtube, friendfeed, Buzz, foursquare, ning, to name only a fraction of the available services. Each have strengths and weaknesses and each need to be evaluated so we can put our time into the ones that will reap the largest ROI. I have both online and offline media tools represented because they are all just visibility tools.» social networking is the day to day interaction we have with contacts built using the various social media tools/services, in other words the “social” part. It is no different then when you attend a party, that you might otherwise pass on, in order to touch base with clients or potential clients. Now some might also toss in social networks, but let’s not make things confusing. Each tool has the potential to reach a percentage of your ideal market segment, group, individuals, or demographic. This is also to extend and optimize your circle of influence.» social marketing is the subtle, or not so subtle, use of one or more online tool to promote your business to the network you have established. Again no different than reminding those people you meet at parties, “hey I build killer websites, you should have me do one for you”. Over simplified? Maybe, but the real reason we’re here is to learn how to put this all into motion. We want to avoid the Me Monster. (me monster by Brian Regan)
Google Plus Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // There is a lot of misinformation, speculation, opinion and hype being spread. worse is the expectation that social media should be free, effortless, and easy, yet produce greater ROI.
Google Plus Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // Right now, you need to be going where the traffic is or more pointently, where you can be visible. And while being visible is great, if efforts are put into areas where there is no intent for action it will be wasted time, money, and effort. Keep in mind too, that this is not a singular action. Social media campaigns are just another part of a NetCentered marketing approach. We will talk more about that later.Just who or what do we want to be visible too? The obvious answer is people who would like to use our product or service. The not so obvious answer is search engines. We want to make sure we are out where they are actively crawling.
Google Plus Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // Do you know a business that everyone seems to like? Do they treat their business as a 9-5 job or do they seem to be involved with the community?
Google Plus Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // google placesgetlisted.orgkeep name, address, phone consistent!
Social media works best when…: Social media generally works best when you are a willing participant and treat it more like a lifestyle, instead of a task.are you willing?do you see value?add to your lifestyle
Google Plus Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // Google +1 hits the scene.Will be used as “A” signal for google search to fight web spamvisible in search results, ads, and imageson sites ala “like” buttonAnnouncement:http://www.google.com/+1/button/http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/08/google-studying-re-ranking-search-results-using-1-button-data-but-its-touchy/ info about use as signal
Google Plus Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // What is Google +1?google+ is a social network (June 28th, 2011)opened to public (September 20th, 2011)google+ pages (for brands and businesses) released (Nov 7th, 2011)public google+ posts, profiles & pages show in search resultsAnnouncement:http://www.google.com/+1/button/Video how to trick it: http://www.youtube.com/cirrusabs#p/a/u/0/ztYjWXwr6ik
It is time for brands who have been waffling to pull their heads out of the sand and participate in social. People struggling to comprehend keep harping about ROI without considering other value social media brings to the table. All else being equal, who do you think people will click on if they see a friends “recommendation”?How might this change who we select on a SERP page?Google enhanced social search on 02/17/2010. Connected via sources include, flickr, friendfeed, gmail, facebook, buzz, reader, google, more? Sometimes it is unclear why it picks the service because I will be connected to the person in more than one place.Google let the deal with Twitter expire and shut down real-search, but Twitter posts and profiles still may show in SERPs.More on Google Social connections: http://www.google.com/s2/u/0/search/social
Google Plus Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // Expand your IRL contacts google.com/plus
No, it’s not facebook and while your friends may not be here potential connections are.
What if one morning your shop was chained closed, sealed off, and you had no idea who to call to resolve the problem? ArsTechnica is just one of the latest stories where Facebook has shut down their page with no obvious way to reinstate it. http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/04/facebook-shoots-first-ignores-questions-later-account-lock-out-attack-works.ars?comments=1#comments-barhttp://techsavvyagent.com/video/facebook-shuts-down-page-with-47000-fans/
Jobs will change, your name won’t: you are likely to changejobs many times in your lifetime, however save for a few reasons, your name will not. Free services come and go so own a domain! $10/ year (do it)
This is where people normally suffer paralysis by analysis. I can hear the questions forming in your heads right now. How can we make this work for our organization? Won’t this take a huge chunk out of our day? The answer is not unlike any large project. We need to make plans, prioritize our goals, delegate responsibility to those who can do the job, optimize our efforts by using the right tools, and get organized. Although it can be very different for specific markets, by and large, we see internet activity run a normal cycle. People slowly ramp up in the morning, are very active during the lunch hour, then wind down till after supper. We can minimize our time commitment by first prioritizing when we post and interact. We can further maximize our time by using tools like tweetdeck or post once services to spread the news one time and have it appear on many services. Thought should be given to the message going out and the target service. This is at the root of social media activity and participation optimization. Buddy Media, Context Optional, Hearsay Social, HootSuite, Involver, and Vitrue.
HELP = Humanize message, Encourage conversation, Listen first, Promote Less.
Just a logo or something more?Will you just go with the official brand or put a call out like Ferrari did. Maybe you would like to make the company seem more personal like we did on ours.
show off and be creative with your profile
methods for making bannersperspectivus.com/GooglePlusPanoramaBanner (+Johnathan Chung) *upload from computergpluspic.com/banner (+Hélio Martins) *upload from computerbannerspl.us (+HolgerReischke) *upload or link to and option to display on the server with author info. (Adds bannerplus watermark)gplusbanner.com*upload and option to display on site
nuances to circles for pagesa person must circle your brand before you can circle them, but brands can circle other brands
even more nuances of pagesagainst TOS to run contests! —policypages have the same limitation of 5000 people/brands in a circle that personal accounts have (Dell isn’t happy about it)no notifications via email, text, or in google barlocal pages, defined in setup, have special fields for addresstwo pages can have identical names
even more nuances of pagesthe default page privacy is public on all itemspages cannot share to ‘extended circles’pages cannot play gamesno vanity URLs (BOOOOO google!)
action step: grab extended share plug-in
Can you post from a mobile device? Maybe.Download a mobile browser like dolphin and set it to desktop mode.On Android it will allow you to monitor account, share posts (no comments though). Anything that uses the status field will fail. Pictures fail to upload from phone.your mileage may vary!
Action. Let’s make this a bit easier to track engagement.
Action: try some useful plugins for Google Chrome.
We need to look to other criteria to judge the success or failure of our efforts. Things like reach, engagement, attention capture, connectivity, interactions and more. We can use tools like I could go on for a solid half hour or more on the various tools and methods for measurement. The point I want to drive home is to make sure we are measuring the right things.What are good metrics for social media success? To name just a few: influence, traffic, reputation and brand management, visibility, engagement, competitive intelligence garnered, and of course revenue. Let’s not forget revenue!
If talking to me about defining ROI of social media you best be prepared with examples from your other marketing efforts.
influencers, statistics and languages oh my.
action stepTake screen grabs of your popular ripples and make sure to interact with people who are engaging and amplifying you! Remember, sharing is caring.https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ckibcdccnfeookdmbahgiakhnjcddpki
What’s next?Tae E. Kim gives us answers from crushIQ. Carter Gibson had a great recap post. future cross product integrationmulti admins, but not till Q1!adwords is coming, but low prioritydon’t like G+ on iPhone, buy an Android
keep these resources handycreate a pagegoogle+ your business info(g+)google+ support(web)google+ pages discussion forum(google group)g+ brand pages webinar Wed. 16th 10am MThelp desk hangout Thurs. 17th 10 – noon MTgoogle+ vector icon set (free)
Google+ Pages for Brands and Businesses: What Now? What Next? // Presented by Kevin Mullett, Director of Product Development for Cirrus ABS. You can find Kevin: http://www.kevinmullett.com (blog), http://twitter.com/kmullett (twitter), http://www.facebook.com/kevinmullett (facebook), and on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmulletthttp://www.cirrusabs.com, http://www.twitter.com/cirrusabs, http://www.facebook.com/cirrusabs, http://www.youtube.com/user/cirrusabs, http://www.linkedin.com/compaines/cirrus-abs, http://bit.ly/CirrusABSgplusby email: info@cirrusabs.com or by phone: 1.877.817.4442.
Who’s in control of your online reputation and visibility? What will potential employers find?What do you think I could find right now? Stopping use isn’t the same as removing nor isdisabling an account.
What about online reputation monitoring? Caught being reactive instead of proactive! Not a good position to be in because it can take time to correct depending on when you catch it. Own your brand spots and push competitors off or down. setting up alerts is crucial to being aware of what is happening with your brand even if that brand is you.socialmention (sentiment, rss,csv), google alerts (email & rss),topsy (email & rss), samepoint (sentiment & rss), tweetdeck (twitter search), tweetalarm (email), tweetbeep (email), kurrently (rss), etc Other paid solutions: Lithium (ScoutLabs), radian6, sysomos, netbase, trackur, AuthorityLabs, etc
One of the common objections to participating in social networks for business use is privacy and mixing business with pleasure. In reality our information has been publically available for decades, albeit in a different format. It used to be on almost every street corner dangling at the ready for any stranger who took the time to peruse it.We used to do business with people we knew. They knew our kids, what we drove, our views, and sometimes when we where on vacation. A percentage of the market desires a move back to relationships with who we do business with.
We need to know what winning looks like. This would be a great time to input keywords you have selected based on validation efforts earlier into a tool like Rank Checker, a Firefox add-on, to establish a baseline for both your site, and that of your competitors. It is FAR from perfect but you can watch trends!When checking rankings use: IE = “InPrivate Browsing”, Firefox =“start private browsing “ , Chrome =“incognito”, Opera = “new private tab”, to avoid personalized results.You will also want to express the need for everyone in the company to be committed to monitoring contacts, calls, and lead sources for clues on what is working so you can do it again.http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker
// bonus idea: videodifferentiate from your competitioneasy and inexpensiveincreased visibility
Separating you & your business: Set up your Google Profile, tie in your various websites, social services, and create anchor text links in the about me section. You will also want to go through the process of verifying your name, which needs to be done through Google Knol. After you have your profile filled out and your name verified we optionally want to associate your Google profile with Google Buzz. Be aware though that as of right now, if you choose to cancel buzz it will close your Google Profile. Directly tying Twitter to Buzz is frowned upon because of the way Google pulls in tweets.While Google Buzz is still extremely new, it started life with a huge boost since it tied directly into to Gmail. Something that not everyone was crazy about. Either way it is already approaching the size of twitter in far less time. As with all the social services it really boils down to where you ideal client is spending time and what other perks come along for the ride.Simply “liking” a Google Buzz post can show your name or company name in the SERPs.
We need visibility: Here is an idea. Go where the bots are. Now lets shoot for some social visibility. This concepts takes content you post via your website, twitter, facebook, linkedin, delicious and posts it on other services where others are spending time and where the search engines are crawling. Each unique URL on each service is a page that Google could choose to serve up in a SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
While I really wouldn’t call this controlling the SERPs, you are setting yourself up to have something to work with should something happen. More things indexed that can be pushed.
Social Media // Increased adoption or proliferation does not mean new. The tools and nomenclature are new but "social media“, websites, and blogging is not.