Friday, January 27, 2012

Are Google+ Business Pages Replacing Facebook Pages?

by fouts

Google+I speak a lot about Google+ as a tool for business. In fact I’ve just written a book called “Google+ for Business Tweet” and I’m presenting a second  Focus.com Roundtable  in February. So you might think my position would be that Google+ is the be-all end-all social media network for business and people should be pitching their blogs and Facebook pages out the window in favor of Google+.  And there you’d be mistaken.

Here’s the thing. Google+ is a social network with huge potential for businesses, but it’s best value is as an individual user, not a business page. If it had any of the following features it might be a contender, but as it is today? No way.

  • A “vanity URL so you can direct customers to your page in print material or verbally. “Find me on Google+ at Google.com/SocialMediaCoach” would be one thing. But wh’s going to remember “https://plus.google.com/b/113284144259635347526/“???
  • User interface editing abilities. If you’re good with using only the wall on your Facebook page, this might still work for you, but one of the ways Facebook has Google+ totally beat is the many ways you can interact with your followers. Custom landing pages, polling, events, insights into traffic and performance, now that would make a difference.
  • Notifications. Managing a Google+ page is a bit easier now that you can add multiple admins, but getting an email or text alert that someone has reacted to a post , followed the page, or tried to contact you would be great.
  • Integrated profiles. Currently there’s no way to know who is managing a Google+ page,  and precious little on the “About” page. Give us a place for a call to action, a link to our Google Voice number please.

Now there’s more, but after all Google+ is still in beta, I’m cutting it some slack. They’re working on it and it keeps getting better and better. For now though, here’s how you CAN use it for your business.

Research and outreach
Needless to say, Google profiles are a huge resource for business. Who’s interested in your industry? Where are the influencers and groundbreaking technologists? Follow the best of the best and learn about what interests them. Take a look at the Ripples of some conversations to find even more influential Google+ users.

Building the brand of your company through the intelligence of your staff
YOu hire the best and the brightest right? Let them shine on Google+ and help build the brand identity of your company through your fabulous employees and their ideas. This includes the CEO, the marketing team and your engineers. Nothing proprietary of course, but perhaps there is a collaborative opportunity out there waiting to be discovered.

Customer support
YOu don’t have to have a business page to support your customers. Search Google+ for people talking about your business and reach out to them as a human person who wants to help. Now that’s something they will remember. Be genuine about it though, no Trojan horses allowed.

Hangouts
Schedule some hangouts with your staff to talk to real live customers and potential customers. .Show them who you are and what you’re thinking about.  A relaxed environment like this can bring out the best questions and show you’re truly interested in the needs of your customers. Hanging out in somebody else’s hangout is also great. Don’t steal the show but be pleasant and useful. Add to the conversation and support the owner of the hangout.

Micro-blog
Really Google+ might be a good replacement for your micro-blog. Post URLs here with a short comment or two. Got a quick thought but not the time to write an entire blog post? No problem, on Google+ you can shout out and ask others for their input.

Collaborative meetings
Another way to use Chat and Hangouts is to share docs and screens within a Hangout with your team. If you work with a team spread out all over  the world, this is a great way to inspire unity.

SEO
Last, but certainly not least, is the HUGE SEO value of a Google+ profile for individuals. If your CXOs set up profiles with links to your business with the right keywords it may really be one of the best traffic drivers you have. We’re still testing this theory, but it only makes sense that these profiles will be SEO gold.

So, what do you you think? Are you ditching your Facebook page for a Google+ business page yet? Will you? Why or why not?

 

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Am I participating in the SOPA strike? You betcha!

by fouts

stop sopaOn January 18 websites all over the net will go dark from 8AM to 8 PM, and this will be one of them. Why? Well for one, because I still can. One of the most powerful things about the internet is that it is largely not controlled by government. Sure, I’m against piracy, but not if it means DNS filtering that could actually penalize lawful businesses. Not if it means messing with the Domain Name System and push users towards unreliable, less secure DNS servers just to avoid frivolous lawsuits, block “suspicions Foreign websites”, and squash the entrepreneurial spirit of the internet. Especially not if it gives companies who get your site taken down because of supposed IP violations without due process and even if you can later get it re-instated you have no recourse.

Want to know more about SOPA and PIPA?

I’m giving you two perspectives. Now go decide on your own, because that’s the best thing about the internet, you get to gather your own data and make your own choices. Isn’t it grand?

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How are you going to change the world in 2012?

by fouts

the butterfly effectMaddie Grant threw down a glove challenging a number of people to participate in a meme answering the question “How are you going to change the world in 2012?” It’s a great question.

I love the chaos theory metaphor called the butterfly effect. The idea is that a small, relatively insignificant act can created marked and sometimes unexpected change. The flap of a butterfly’s wing can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world.

Small business that we are at Tatu Digital Media, we have been fortunate to impact corporations and individuals and show them how to be more effective and efficient in how they do business online. Hopefully the effect of our small efforts can help to change the world in ways we can’t begin to predict.

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Need a little Social Discipline?

by fouts

Social media disciplinatrixI follow almost 4,000 people on Twitter, over 1500 on Linkedin, and more on Facebook, Google+, blogs, forums, a zillion social networks, wikis and more. I get around 800 emails a day (half of them are alerts, newsletters and feed reports for my clients). I’m not bragging, there are plenty of people with more, it’s just a fact of my life. How do I manage to do all that every day and still run a full time business? Great question. I don’t. Nobody else does either, at least not by themselves and definitely not every day.

Here’s the big deep dark secret about using social media for business; you’ve got to have discipline. If you get derailed by Farmville for an hour every time you go into Facebook your business may have a problem. If it’s open all day in your browser while you “work” then you may need an intervention.

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15 Amazing Women Bloggers You Should Get to Know

December 27, 2011

One of the fantastic things about the growth of social media is how it has widened our window on the world. We live in amazing times where we can create deep friendships with people we may never meet face to face, or meet people whom we’ve known through social media networks for the first time [...]

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How can using social media as an employee help my company?

December 14, 2011

Let’s say you’re not looking for a job. You’re happy in your company, so why build a personal brand through social media? Why expand your Linkedin profile beyond an out-dated online resume? Here are just a few reasons building your personal brand can support the goals of your company in any industry. Professional development and [...]

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Should you start a Google+ page for your business?

December 2, 2011

All my clients are asking and it’s a tough question for many. For most small businesses I’m saying no, wait a bit. Why? There are so many things business page can’t do yet. For example: A page can’t follow you until you follow it first or mention it in a post. A page doesn’t get notifications [...]

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How to get your content shared on Google+

November 17, 2011

Sure Google+ can be a powerful tool to share your message with, but this network is in it’s infancy, and  with millions of users your message can be left largely unheard unless you have created circles who care about what you have to say and will share it with their own circles and help you [...]

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Wanna learn about Google+? I’m your girl

November 10, 2011

You might have seen my post last week when Google+ launched business pages or attended my webinar to help people get started with Google+. Since then I’ve had a lot of questions from readers and clients about Google’s newest network, so two things are in the works I thought you’d like to know about. I’ve [...]

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Creating Google Plus Business Pages

November 8, 2011

Everybody’s been arguing over the value of Google Plus lately. Some say it’s only for geeks and others say it’s a waste of time. Well, Google just changed the conversation in a big way and just in time. The announcement of Google pages for business came just in time to turn the whole argument on [...]

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