Small Business Odyssey – Page 6 – Real world advice and tips for small business marketing

January 16, 2012January 17, 2012

Google is Integrating Google+ With Search Engine Results

Google is changing the whole landscape of Internet search through integration of Google+ with organic and paid search results.

A number of prominent Internet marketers have reported recently that they are seeing this integration of Google+ in the search results and have screenshots to prove it. Mike Brooks, for example, shows a screenshot where a number of paid search results are shown above the organic search results, but on the right hand side are the results from Google+:

Game Changer: Google Plus Changes Search and Social Media

He points out that Mari Smith, because of her Google+ activity, holds the number one spot in the right hand column for the search term, ‘Internet marketing’ – a spot usually held by people who pay $100 per click via Google Adwords. It is likely this positioning of Google+ results will change. However, it shows that Google is experimenting with the integration of Google+ with its paid and organic search results.

It also means that Google is seeking to give prominence to its own social network as a source of quality information. This understandably is upsetting both Facebook and Twitter. It is interesting that my own observation, and that of a number of my connections, is that the information shared on Google+ to date is more focused and of a higher quality than that shared on Facebook or Twitter – it tends to be enlightening, educational or practical. From what I have experienced from the circles I have created, Google+ posts tend to challenge my assumptions and expand my thinking. This may be a function of the fact, that because it is early days, I have been able to include people in my circles who are prominent elsewhere but excluded from access because of their number of followers.

[Image source: Pixabay.com]

The Implications for Small Business Marketing of the Google+ Integration with Search Engine Results

As many commentators have pointed out already, the implications of this Google+ integration move by Google are not entirely clear for a number of reasons. We do not know what the final configuration will look like – only some people have access to the new format which is in a testing mode at the moment. We do not know how Facebook and Twitter will respond, but respond they will! We are uncertain whether the Google+ results shown will be just those from your own circles or those from Google+ generally. What we do know so far is that a lot of old assumptions and processes about search engine optimisation (SEO) will need to change.

We can also assume that some of the implications for small business marketing will be:

if you are not on Google+, you will be at a considerable disadvantage when it comes to search engine results in the future – you may actually disappear from the search results that you are currently achieving
when you share on Google+ via your stream, you need to ensure that your content matches the primary niche(s) or keywords that you want to be visible for in search engine results
it will no longer be enough to be on Facebook only – it is interesting that Mari Smith, known widely as a Facebook guru, is prominent in the new Google+ search results (she has around 50,000 people in her Google+ circles)
Google+ is effectively integrating list building with search engine optimization (SEO) – through Google+ you will not only build your list, you will also increase your chances of appearing in Google’s integrated search engine results
Google’s shift from page rank to people rank is happening in earnest – another level of integration will be when Google integrates Google+ results with organic search results based on people rank
small business owners will no longer be able to ignore social media if they want to appear in Google’s search engine results
your Google+ business page will assume greater importance in terms of how often your business will appear in search results and what keywords/search terms will influence the search results for your small business
your images on Google+ (photos, graphics, illustrations) will feed Google’s integrated search results and feature in its increased focus on multimedia
the Google+1 button will assume even greater importance because of its indication of how your content is valued by your connections
your personal profiles on social networks will become even more important (you need to integrate them into your Google+ profile to strengthen their capacity to demonstrate your social connection)
social connections along with quality content will assume even greater importance – it will not be enough just to create quality original content, you will also need to be connected to people who “value” that content.

As Mike Brooks commented, a core meaning of the integration of Google+ with search engine results is that we are facing the era where “content and connection is king”.

We have moved over time from thinking of Internet marketing as a linear process to a circular process (with web rings, blog rings, lens rings, etc). I think we now have to visualize Internet marketing like concentric circles formed when a drop of water lands in a pool of water (as the image above shows).

Internet marketing can now be visualized as concentric circles formed when content is dropped into (shared with) our pool of connections.

The integration of Google+ into Google’s search engine results has profound implications for small business marketing that cannot be ignored by small business owners.

Postscript: Since I wrote this blog post, top Internet marketer, Bill Guthrie, has come out with his Google+ Manifesto, where he asserts that, “We’re witnessing the quick death of SEO as we know it” and that “Google+ is now mandatory”. He released his PDF Manifesto as a Warrior Special Offer (WSO) which explains the principles behind Google+, their implications and offers heaps of tips and ideas to take advantage of this massive change which will change small business marketing and affiliate marketing. You can grab your copy at the WSO discounted price here:

http://www.warriorplus.com/linkwso/4kbjzp/7888

Grab your copy now so that you can get in on the ground with the game-changing Google+ which will influence the course of small business marketing into the future and have a serious effect on your search engine results.

January 15, 2012

Google+ Photos – Share Your Photos to Promote Your Personal Profile and Small Business Brand

Google+ photos adds another dimension to the Google Plus social network and provides additional opportunities for small business marketing and branding.

The Google + photos option is accessible via your Google Plus home page by clicking on the photo icon as illustrated below:

When you click on the photos icon, you will see a menu on the left hand side which gives you some options for what to display:

As the default option is ‘Photos from your circles’, these will be shown as a collage with the number of comments in the top right hand corner of each photo. If you click on the photo, you will see the image displayed in a Lightbox with the comments listed on the right hand side. You can also add your own comment at the bottom. Here’s an excerpt from a display of photos from my circles:

Uploading your own photos to Google+ to create albums

On the right of the Google+ photos page, you will see the large icon – Upload New Photos. Once you click this, you will be able to add photos to an existing album or create a new one and then share the album with your circles, the public or individuals. They will be able to view your album as a slideshow. In the process, you can tag the photos with your own name or that of someone you are connected to.

It is important to check out the “Your albums’ option when you are on your Google+ photos page. Even if you have not personally uploaded any photos to Google+, you will probably find some albums created by Google from its own index (as I have mentioned before, Google is watching you!). I checked out the ‘Your albums’ page on my Google+ account and discovered I had 11 albums, some of which I did not want and others which needed a name change. You can delete albums and change their names from the “Your albums’ page. You can also change the “sharing” settings via the dropdown menu (it looks like the photo albums created automatically by Google are set as ‘private’).

Uploading photos to Google+ from Picasa

In December 2011, Google integrated Google+ with Picasa so that you can now upload photos directly from Picasa to your Google+ account. However, you will need to upgrade to Version 3.9 of Picasa to do this. This recently released version of Picasa also provides expanded ways of editing photos (e.g. cropping and effects) and allows for uploading different sizes of your photos. You can choose the smallest size (800 pixels) but retain the quality of the original photo from Picasa.

To download the latest version of Picasa, click on the following link:

Picasa Version 3.9

To upload photos from Picasa to Google+:

Log into your Google+ account
Highlight the photos or albums you want to share from Picasa
Click the “Share on Google+” button (at end of the page)
Choose a name for the album
Choose image size
Select the circles you want to share the photos/album with
Click ‘Upload’

Picasa 3.9 makes it even easier to share your photos with your circles through Google+ photos and thus build your personal profile and your small business brand.

January 11, 2012

Google+ Business Page for Your Small Business Marketing

Since November 2011, Google has offered small businesses the opportunity to create their own Google+ Business Page. This is a direct challenge to the supremacy of Facebook Fan/Business Pages. It is a wise addition for anyone engaged in small business marketing. The Business Page is really valuable if you actively build your circles on Google+ and update your stream regularly.

When you join Google Plus, you will see an image in the right hand column of your Home page which enables you to create a Google+ Business Page (or Brand Page):

When you click on this button, you will see a range of options for categorising your business page as illustrated in the image below:

The category you choose determines the initial information your provide to develop your Google+ business page.

Google gives examples of the types of businesses that fall within the various categories (pass your mouse over the relevant button to see these). Here are the examples given for the first three categories:

Local business or place – hotels, restaurants, places, shops, services … basically places that you go to (if you select this option, Google can automatically pick up your Google Places and Google map details via the business phone number that you enter)
Product or brand – clothing, cars, electronics, financial services…(where recognition is via an established brand or where you are developing a brand)
Company, institution or organisation – includes not-for profits … (might also apply where you are offering a range of brands in different niches).

Once you have completed the basic set-up of your Google+ business page, you can then add photos and videos and begin to add content to your stream. When you enter a URL as part of your stream content, Google+ picks up the relevant thumbnail and image and some intro information.

Sharing your Google+ business page

Google provides a special URL for your business page which enables you to guide other people to your page and/or to share with your business page circles. With your Google+ business page, you can create circles that you name, while the default circles for business pages are:

Customers
VIPs
Team members
Following

Google offers you the option of sharing your new page with your circles. However, I would set up some content in your stream before sharing, so people have a reason to use the Google+1 button to recommend your Google+ business page (and/or share your content with their own circles). Their +1’s will show up as recommendations on Google’s search results and in Google ads.

When you post to your stream on your Google+ business page, it also updates your Google Plus stream on your personal home page. This means that the content from your Google+ business page is shared with your circles.

How do you delete a Google+ business page?

Many people enquire about this issue but there is a lack of information around, and what is available is often out of date (as this advice will be if Google+ changes again).

To begin the process to delete a Google+ business page, click on the arrow below your name on your Google+ home page (see image below):

Then follow these three steps:

Choose “Manage your pages’ from the drop-down menu
Select the Google+ business page you want to delete
Click on “Delete’ at the bottom of the relevant business page (see image below):

A Google+ business page gives a boost to your small business marketing by enabling you to get closer to your customers (current and potental) through sharing your business message with the right people.

January 7, 2012

New Year Resolutions or a Single Whole Hearted Commitment?

It’s the time of the year that we look down from our holiday unit or survey the ocean before us and do a brainstorm of New Year resolutions. Well that is what I have often done and sometimes it works out for me and other times I still have a long list of New Year resolutions at the end of the year that have not been actioned. Does this happen for you in your personal life or in your small business?

I recently came across two people who questioned this practice and effectively asked independently, ‘Do you need New Years resolutions or a single whole hearted ommitment?’

Seth Godin in discussing intentions to improve productivity for the year, concluded sagely:

You don’t need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment.

He suggests that once you make a real commitment, then all the tips and hints in the world will not be needed – the commitment will drive the improved productivity.

In an earlier post, I mentioned a conversation I had on Google + that started with Chris Brogan recommending a video by Tom Terwilliger. Tom’s video, Get Audacious in 2012, recommends:

…invoking some real passion by setting an empowering, challenging and audacious goal for the new year.

As Tom illustrates in his video, setting an audacious goal will drive other sub-goals and activities in line with the goal. So instead of setting a dozen New Year resolutions around health, fitness and diet, you might set a single goal – ‘To get fit so that I can play actively with my energetic children. This goal, if fully committed to, will drive changes in your behavior such as more exercise and a better diet.

I have found personally that a single overarching, challenging goal has led me to change lots of things that were getting in the road of achieving that goal – e.g. my goal to create a blog post daily has led to changes in the way I spend my time on the Internet (a lot less aimless browsing), reduced the time I spend reading email, limited the time I spend watching TV or movies and increased my commitment to walk daily. The daily blogging schedule is driven by my desire to develop an online business in small business marketing, in addition to my offline business.

So as the New Year gets underway, are you going to persist with your New Year resolutions or commit to a single overarching goal that is audacious and captures your passion and creativity?

January 6, 2012January 6, 2012

Google +1 Button: Your Road to Increased Visibility

The Google +1 button acts in a similar way to the Facebook ‘Like” button. However, the Google +1 button has more far reaching effects and is likely, in the long run, to impact heavily on the effectiveness of your small business marketing.

The Google +1 button is not just a ploy to challenge Facebook’s ascendancy in social media, it represents a fundamental paradigm shift for Google – from content to people, from page rank to people rank. Google has for a long time ‘branded’ you (given you a ‘value’ ) based on your online content and your connections.

Google +1 Button represents a shift from page rank to people rank

In the days of Google’s Wonder Wheel, Google provided a visual representation of how you were viewed by Google itself and the relationships between you and particular keywords. I have written about this earlier in a guest blog post, Google is Watching You. Unfortunatley Google has dropped the Wonder Wheel but you can see the representation below that Google developed of my friend and colleague, Chef Keem:

Google has recognised that Chef Keem is a leading Squidoo Lensmaster (Giant Squid), that he lives in Austin, Texas and that he shares numerous recipes on his website and on Squidoo as well as via his videos, articles and blog posts. Google even recognized that at the time this Wonder Wheel was created, Chef Keem was establishing a new Bavarian Bistro (see the bottom link on the right of the image). If you ever want to see how to create an effective personal branding campaign, then visit Chef Keem’s Kitchen.

The reality is that Google is moving more and more to giving you and your business a “value” based on how your content is viewed by others and the extent of your associations on the Web. Google has even built up a knowledge bank about you based on your online social connections, e.g. people you are connected to on Google+, Google Reader or Google Talk.

Google +1 in search results

The net effect of all this is that Google will show your +1’s in the search results for people you are connected with. The corollary of this is that when you search on Google, you will see below the individual search results if anyone from your social connections has +1’d the particular search result. The following image gives you an idea of what this looks like:

If I use your cursor to hover over the individual names you will see how each of the people who +1’d the site are connected to you (in this case each is connected to me via my Google Plus Circles).

So the more people you connect with via Google Plus and the more you +1 Web content, then the more visibility you will gain in relation to what you value of the Web. Also if other people reciprocate and +1 your content, you will appear in more and more search results for people you are connected with on the Web. So the +1 button has a spiralling effect if you continue to build your social connections through Google Plus and if you +1 the content of others.

Your Google +1’s on Google Plus

Your Google +1’s are available to you as a stream on your Google Plus profile. The default setting for this is that this list of your +1’s is private. However, you can make it public on your Google Plus profile by changing the settings.

There are a small number of simple steps involved when you are on your Google Plus site:

Click your profile icon
Click ‘Edit Profile” icon
Click on the displayed +1 icon (see image below)
Tick – ‘Show this tab on your profile”
Click “Saved”.

Adding the Google +1 button to your website or blog

There are a number of ways that you can add the +1 button to your website or blog so that people can use the +1 button to recommend your content/site to others:

Use Google’s code for adding the +1 button to your website or blog
Use a WordPress Plugin specifically designed for this purpose

If you are reasonably advanced technically, go for option 1 above. However, using a WordPress plugin gives you greater flexibilty and it may be easier for you to install a WordPress plugin.

To find a WordPress plugin for the Google +1 button, just do a search on Google. When I did this, I came across the following Google result:

Now you can see once again, Google is using my online social connections to show who recommended this plugin. In this case it was Mari Smith, Facebook expert, who is in my Google Plus Circles. Because Mari recommends this plugin and because it is used on reputable sites like Mashable, I chose the +1 button plugin she recommends. You can access the plugin here:

Google +1 Button – WordPress Plugin

You can see this Google+1 button plugin operating on this blog, Small Business Odyssey. The plugin offers different ways to customise the Google +1 button, including adding the button before or after posts or in both positions. You can also add a count of how often the +1 button is used for your website, page or post.

In the final analysis, the Google +1 button gives you the opprotunity to increase your visibilty and to enhance your small business marketing online.