Google+ (popularly referred as Google Plus or G+) is having a birthday! Launched on June 28th, 2011, the social networking platform owned and operated by the search engine giant Google will soon be one year old. While still relatively new, it has already acquired more than 170 million users (as of April, 2012). Here we take a look at some of the existing ways to use, advertise on, and grow your business with Google+.
Business Uses for Google+
The launch of Google+ was an effort by Google to tap into the immense potential social networking for business. Therefore, Google kept business advertising in mind when developing features. Some of the most popular ways to put Google+ to work for your professional needs:
Use the Google +1 button – This feature is similar to the Facebook like button. The +1 button can be placed just about everywhere. Some important places for you to incorporate the +1 button are on website pages, blogs, and Adwords ads. Using the +1 button, visitors to pages can +1 the content to show that they like it. A +1 on your business website pages directly impacts search engine rankings. The number of Google+ interactions on a page holds significance in search results algorithms and can help your website gain additional visibility.
Participate in Hangouts – Google+ hangouts is easily one of the most business friendly features offered by any of the social networking platforms. People can conference with up to ten Google+ users at a time using voice and video. Hangout participants can also share their screens, watch YouTube videos together, or use the chat functionality to exchange information. This is a one of a kind feature that has the potential to become a valuable business communication tool for many. The fast setup, ease of use, and wide range of support makes Google+ hangouts ideal for long distance business meetings, multi-site collaborations, and remote sales presentations.
Make Use of Circles – Using Google+ circles, people can quickly organize their contacts into groups and is similar to the lists feature of Facebook. The added benefit of Google+ Circles over Facebook lists is ease of use and management. You only need to drag a person to add them to a relevant circle. This feature allows you to easily control the way you share information on Google+. You may have one circle for co-workers, for example, where you share company specific information. You can then use an entirely different circle for clients, and group them into different interests, sharing product information with one group of contacts while excluding others who may not be as interested.
Edit Posts – One of the most useful advantages Google+ has over Facebook is the ability to edit a post after publishing. In Facebook, you can delete a post that has errors but you cannot delete it. In Google+, you can edit the text of a post after it has been made live and you can also disable commenting on individual status updates. This makes it easier for you to correct spelling mistakes or add updated information to popular posts after the fact.
Get Local – For local businesses and service providers, it is very easy to make your company visible to customers living nearby. To help promote your business locally, Google+ provides Google Local, a merge of Google Places and Google+ pages. Create a Google+ page for your local business, enter in your correct address, and your Google+ business page will show up whenever people nearby search for you on Google or in Google Maps. You can also create a Google+ badge for your website and use Google+ direct connect to create quick and direct engagements with people.
Enhance Performance in Search Results – Recommendations are perhaps the most powerful Google+ feature for business, combining the +1 button for pages and Google local pages. Whenever someone searches for a particular keyword and one of their contacts has recommended any particular link matching with the search term, the linked page is more likely to appear high in the results. As a result, business recommendations via Google+ have become an effective way to generate word of mouth testimonials online. Since Google+ recommendations affect the search algorithm, using Google+ is an excellent way for you to drive more traffic to your website and gain visibility.
Too many businesses make the mistake of thinking, “All I need to do is build a fabulous website that looks amazing and throngs of people will flock to it.” Not true. The question is: How are people going to find it? Investing in creating the best website on the Internet will not make it be seen if you don’t also invest the same or greater amount in creating visibility for the website.
Visibility and design work hand in hand. Great design without targeted visibility is wasted because qualified visitors won’t find it to see it, and high levels of traffic with poor site design is wasted because no one will stay on the site long enough to take the action you want. Before you can design an effective website, you must determine:
How to drive targeted traffic to your website to get the most visibility, and
How to design an attractive website that appeals to the target audience and does the job it is intended to do.
Who Is “They” and How Will “They” Find You?
“They” is your target audience, the people who are looking for what you offer. To design a website that attracts and appeals to your target audience, you need to develop a target audience profile with information such as:
Is your target audience consumers (B2C) or other businesses (B2B)?
What would a person visiting your website be looking for?
Are the people in your target audience computer savvy or are they computer novices?
Once you know who your target audience is, you can design a website and start marketing online and offline to drive people to your site. The fastest way to get people to your site is with pay-per-click advertising. You can also:
Improve your search ranking by using SEO to optimize your website and providing relevant content.
Build your social networking presence.
Submit your site to all the major search engines.
Put your web address on everything – business cards, letterhead, brochures, signs, fliers.
Tell everyone you know about your website and ask them to visit.
Issue press releases and announcements.
Build It So They Will Come and Take the Action You Desire
The average first-time visitor to a website spends just 40 seconds on the website. The longer a visitor stays on your site, the more likely they will take the action you desire. Usability is the key. To keep your visitors longer, consider the visual appeal (layout, graphics, colors, balance, fonts), functionality (navigation, call to action, email subscription, social media links), and relevant content (high quality writing, interesting, informative, no errors). In 2007, the Nielsen Norman Group found that designing a website for usability averaged an 83% ROI, a substantial return for online marketing efforts.
Without a design that incorporates these ideas, your website will confuse the visitors and fail to produce results. In the book, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, author Susan Weinschenk suggests that, “The shorter the distance to the goal, the more motivated people are to reach it. People are even more motivated when the end is in sight.” Make it easy for the visitor to find you and to know what you want them to do, and you’ll see your business grow.
A good internet marketing firm can do all this and more. The team of experts at seenBest Web Design in Phoenix, AZ, knows the latest trends in the Internet industry and has a solid background in user-centered design, programming, SEO, search engine marketing, social media marketing, testing, web analytics, content writing, and all of the tools necessary to design a website that will generate sales leads. Give us a call today at (602) 456-0150 to schedule your strategic internet marketing review and let us demonstrate ways we can help your business succeed in the digital age.
The Social Network Princess with seenBEST Web Design helps you get a new account on Google+, the hot new social networking platform. Google+ is free for anyone to join. This video explains step-by-step how to get a Google account and then use that to create your new Google+ account.
Visit Social Network Arizona for elite social networking seminars in Phoenix. We teach you powerful strategies to grow your business in social media. Google+ is one of the accounts that we cover as part of our seminars. We also discuss Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. http://www.socialnetworkarizona.com
If you think social media marketing is not worth doing, your competitors on Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Twitter, and Linked In will thank you for all the new business you let them get because you’re not there.
Today’s small business (SMB) owners recognize the need for an online presence: over 90% have a website. But with thousands of businesses online, the companies getting the most exposure are those that have websites AND social media sites. This powerhouse combination gives SMB owners a chance to reach hundreds or thousands of new prospects every day!
“But isn’t word-of-mouth the best source of business growth?” It certainly is – and social media marketing (SMM) is the 21st century word-of-mouth. Instead of face-to-face or telephone contact, many people now talk online. Give your company a voice in the the online conversation by having a social media presence professionally created and branded. Then leverage the power of social media to begin forging a relationship with past, current, and future clients. Every person you connect with pushes your visibility out to their connections, which increases your exposure exponentially!
What are the advantages for small businesses of having an SMM strategy?
•Increased sales
•Positive brand recognition
•Broader business base
•Increased traffic to website
•Much lower costs than traditional advertising
•Higher search engine rankings
•Continuous lead generation
For a small business on a tight advertising budget, there is no better way to reach thousands of prospects at no cost. It does, however require strategy. Here are some tips for maximizing your SMM plan:
1.Set up profiles on the top-ranked sites. The most popular social media sites are Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. For a small business looking to remain competitive in a rapidly changing age of digital marketing, it is important to be familiar with and utilize all of these tools as part of your overall marketing plan.
2.Keep content current. Create valuable content, provide frequent new offerings, and target your content to the audience on each site.
3.Monitor your ROI. Consumers are talking about your company in online conversations, and you need to know what they’re saying to protect your brand reputation. There are a number of tools to help you track where your customers are coming from, which sites are giving you the highest conversion rates, and many other useful metrics.
4.Cross market your sites. List all of your social media links on all of your social media profiles. The more ways consumers have to find your company, the faster your social media reputation will grow. Additionally, adding the power of SEO to your social properties will allow each social media account to achieve higher visibility in search.
5.Maximize your SMM time. Invest time by visiting, commenting and interacting on other social media accounts to increase your visibility.
“But how do I find time to learn and do all this?” You don’t have to struggle alone. Locate social media experts who can cost effectively launch and maintain your SMM outreach.
It doesn’t cost a dime to call or email us at seenBest Web Design in Phoenix, Arizona. Find out how we can save you time by creating your social media presence and helping you maximize your online exposure. Our cutting edge internet marketing strategies and talented social media team are already energizing other SMBs, so let’s talk about how they can work for your business today.
The economy may not be getting better, so your marketing tools have to be. Contact us at seenBest Web Design – and yes, we have a social media marketing presence, too!
Are you an Arizona business owner or manager? Have you been looking for a way to expand your social network, while at the same time get visibility for your Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIN profiles?
Social Network Arizona has created a new Social Network and Social Media link directory for Arizona businesses. In conjunction with local social networking seminars, the directory is currently free for all Arizona business. At the seminars you will learn strategies for utilizing social networking for business and can connect with other businesses in attendance.
plus.google.com (Google+) is the fastest growing website in history, according to analytics firm comScore. As of July 24, less than one month after the Google plus test site was launched, 25 million invitation-only users are organizing, sharing, and communicating with people through Google’s Circle technology.
Social networks are only as interesting as the content they provide to the user, that content coming in the way of status updates and posts from users in your network. Google+ has quickly become a major social network, and users are looking for more ways to search for and connect with other Google Plus users. Would you like to find more users to interact with on Google+, increase the usefulness of your network, and fill your stream with news and information that closely matches your own interests? Check out the following Google+ Directories. At the end of this post you’ll have the ability to post your own Google+ profile, where others can find your profile and circle you!
1. Find People On Plus. This Google Plus directory was introduced by Google to make searching on specific Google Plus profiles much easier. You can search not only on names but on all specific profile fields provided on Google Plus. As of August 4, nearly 10 million Google Plus users have been indexed on this site.
You’ll find an indexed list of the most popular Google Plus users on the FindPeopleOnPlus.com home page. On the left sidebar, choose filter parameters in categories such as Relationship, Looking for, Gender, Occupation, and City from the category shortcuts. Click on the People Directory link to surf profiles and track people.
Twitter users can also find out which of their followers and friends are on Google Plus. Go to www.findpeopleonplus.com/twitter2plus/ and type in your Twitter name.
2. GPEEP. GPEEP is a Google Plus search engine where you can search for people on Google Plus. Just type the person’s profile name or other search term in the Find People on G Plus box at the top of the home page. You can circle the profiles you’re interested in, and read, comment on, and share their posts. Or just for fun, click on Google’s famous I Feel Lucky button in the left sidebar and see who you meet!
Make it easy for people to find you, too. Click Add Yourself Now in the upper left hand corner of the page and provide the simple information requested. Be sure to tag yourself with as many search criteria as you can think of. Your profile can be found immediately on GPEEP. You can even let people know what type of product or service or job qualifications you offer by clicking on Add a Pitch or a Deal near the top right of the home page.
3. Google. An easy way to find Google+ users is just to use Google itself. Enter this search term – site:plus.google.com – and any parameter, such as a profession, town, type of business, or even a name. Users who have created public profiles are searchable, as are their updates and posts. Privacy options may protect some user profile information from search results, but most of the data provided on the Google Plus About page and in the profile fields is currently public.
An additional way to use Google+ to connect with other similar minded potential friends is the “Find People” link, located within the Circles tab of Google+. To use this feature, click the “Circles” tab at the top of your Google+ profile. From there, click on the “Find People” link. You will be presented with a list of suggested users, allowing you to drag and drop them into any of your circles, or create a new circle out of recommended users only. Google closely matches the suggested users with interests you’ve listed in your profile, and Sparks, so be sure to fill out your profile and select topics of interests from the Sparks tab in order to benefit the most from this feature.
4. Women of G Plus. The WoG Plus site started as a way for Google Plus women users to connect and share their ideas. Although the designer insists “this is not a women vs. men thing,” it is primarily a networking resource for Google Plus women, who currently comprise 33 percent of Google Plus users. The site provides articles and blogs from Featured Women of Google Plus, and offers tips to “Optimize Your Google Plus Profile” and other Google Plus tutorials and how-tos. If you want to contribute, click on the Want to Be Featured? tab at the top of the page.
Want to read more? Connect with these Google+ profiles for more interesting information in your stream:
Share your own comments and suggestions for Google Plus users in the comments box below. Know of any other useful Google+ Directories, be sure to also list them in the comments box.
Post a link to your own Google Plus profile in the comments area below so that other visitors to this page can find and circle you!
Web design and online marketing company seenBEST Web Design offers new job to Phoenix, Arizona
seenBEST Web Design is a rapidly growing website design, web development, and online marketing company in Phoenix, Arizona looking to expand its team of experts. We are looking for a fresh and energetic internet guru who loves to code PHP, has a good understanding of web design methods, and is familiar with SEO, SEM, and social marketing concepts. You should be well rounded, with a good understanding of the following:
PHP, JQuery, HTML, JavaScript, AJAX, and CSS
Zen Cart, Magento
mySQL and Cpanel
Drupal, WordPress, Joomla
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Google Adwords
Dreamweaver, Photoshop
Knowledge of additional languages and architectures A+
We are located in beautiful Ahwatukee at 46th St. and Chandler, conveniently located just west of the I-10. This is a temporary contract to hire position with flexible working hours.
Why seenBEST Web Design?
Unlimited potential to grow your career
We value your creative and innovative solutions
Flexible working hours
Family owned, family friendly company
You WILL learn a lot! We are at the cutting edge of internet development and have many projects and ideas for new projects that will challenge your abilities
Do not send over project portfolios, there will be time to discuss your past projects and designs during our interview. To ensure the integrity of our work and the security of our clients’ data, a full background check will be performed prior to the hiring of any candidate. If you don’t feel that you can pass a criminal background check please DO NOT apply. This is a temporary contract to hire position and will be based out of our office. Interested? Send a detailed resume in Word or PDF to jobs@seenbest-web-design.com
***SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY! THIS IS AN IN-HOUSE POSITION, NO OUT OF STATE OR OVERSEAS CANDIDATES WILL BE CONSIDERED***
seenBEST Web Design, the Best Web Design and Internet Marketing Strategies For Your Phoenix or Scottsdale Area Business.
Specializing in website design and internet marketing services for these Arizona cities: Apache Junction, Ahwatukee, Carefree, Cave Creek, Chandler, Chandler Heights, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Glendale, Higley, Laveen, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe
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