Google+: Why Small Business Must Get Involved with Google Plus

Google Plus Functions

Google Plus Functions

Google Plus is Google’s new social network launched in June 2011.  Google+ will be an integral element in small business marketing into the future.  It will not only enable you to build your personal profile but also build your business brand online.   Google Plus membership has already reached 62 Million and is growing at the rate of 625, 000 new users per day.

Why bother with Google Plus?

Google views Google Plus as extending its capability (and value) beyond its traditional search engine focus to social networking.  However, these two major arenas of Google’s activity should not be seen as separate.  Google has already made it clear by its own words and actions that the Google + social network will feed search engine results.  It has also shown the intention to rapidly integrate other Google applications into Google Plus, its new social network.

Google has already integrated Google+ into its toolbar as shown in the images below:

Google+ in toolbar

 

This icon. ‘+Ron’ , provides a direct link to my Google+ account.  In the following toolbar image, you can see how Google integrates ‘notifications’, ‘sharing’,  ‘profile” (thumbnail photo) and ‘settings/help’  icons for ease of access:

Google Plus in toolbar

As we progress through my blog posts about Google Plus, you will see that Google is deadly serious about this new social network – it is not just a new ‘plaything’.  Wherever you go on Google, including the search results, you will see increasing integration of Google+.   Google played around with its early social network, Google Buzz, but has since canned it to build Google Plus – all the time using Buzz as a learning laboratory.   If you have any doubts about Google’s long-term commitment to Google Plus, just check out Google’s own announcements re its ongoing Google + updates.

Integrating Google Plus into your small business marketing will no longer be a nice option (initially, Google+ was invitation-only), it will be an essential element.  Otherwise, you will see your online marketing progressively vanish into the background as Google takes over the foreground with its Google Plus social network.

As mentioned in my earlier post on the major changes for small business marketing in 2011, Google+ is one of Google’s strategies designed to wrest back the Number One web traffic position from Facebook.  The similarities between Facebook and Google Plus will hit you immediately, so this new social network represents head-on competition with Facebook.   As a small business owner, you can stand on the sidelines and watch the battle or you can engage with both these giant networks and ensure that you have a sound footing online – this is where the action is and where the people (your customers) are.

What is significant about Google Plus?

Google Plus has already been lauded for its ease of use and flexible privacy settings (addressing one of the key problem areas of Facebook).  As Google+ is in its early stages, it is also possible to get access to people you would not normally be able to link to.

So here is a list of key things you can do (explained in detail in later posts):

  • create a comprehensive personal profile
  • build ‘circles’ (add people to different circles/groupings and control the access and distribution of your information via your circles)
  • share photos and videos
  • develop your ‘stream’ (similar to Facebook’s ‘News Feed’ – integrating ‘status updates’ and content such as photos or videos)
  • private message other people in your circles
  • create a hangout (an evolving facility to engage others in live conversation via video and text chat – considered by many to be the real technological breakthrough for Google Plus)
  • create ‘sparks’ – recommendations
  • build business pages (sound familiar?).

Some commentators are suggesting that with these features and the growing integration with Google’s own applications, Google Plus represents a combination of Facebook, Twitter and Flickr rolled up into one state-of-the art social network.

How to Join Google Plus

You can join Google+ via a link on the blog/website of a Google+ member.  You will see the image displayed at the top of this post and the sign-up box as shown in the following screenshot:

how to create a Google Plus account

 

Alternatively, you can go directly to Google Plus and click on the following image and this will take you to the signup page indicated in the above image:

Google Plus sign up box

 

Note: You will need a Google account to join Google Plus (with either sign-up option).

With each advancing day as we move into 2012, Google Plus will become more critical to small business marketing and this will be progressively explained in succeeding blog posts (which symbolically will take us into the New Year).

7 Major Changes in Small Business Marketing in 2011

reflection - sunset over Mooloolaba

 reflection - sunset over Mooloolaba

As 2011 comes to a close, it is instructive to reflect on the massive changes to small business marketing that occurred during the year and to look at their implications.   These changes were driven by a number of landmark events that spawned innovations.

One of the key drivers of the changes that small business marketing confronts today, and into 2012, is the direct competition between Google and Facebook for Number One position on the Internet (and all the revenue that goes with this position).   The impact of this competition is being felt throughout the Internet marketing world and in social media.  There are many people becoming disengaged by the endless changes created by the two Giants of the Internet as they try to outpace each other.   One possible prognosis is that this could open up the arena for another player who undermines the customer base of the both the big players, as Facebook did to MySpace.

I want to focus on seven (7) key changes as a way to highlight the impacts from a small business marketing perspective.  This approach is in line with my suggestion to write blog posts in sets and sevens.  So here are the seven key changes  in 2011 affecting small business marketing:

1. Google Places upgrade and resurgence

Google introduced improvements to Google Places, the platform for local businesses to highlight their location, hours of business and their products/services.  Along with these changes, Google gave new prominence to Google Places in local search results, changing the display and increasing the value of a Google Places web presence.  Sadly, very few small businesses understand the value of this change and have failed to take up their allotted Google Places website.  In 2012, Google Places will be an absolutely essential part of your small business marketing.  Without it, you may find yourself dropping deeper and deeper in the list of local search engine results as your competitors make full use of this facility (one which Google itself hosts!).

2. Changes to Facebook Pages

The big news of 2011, was that Facebook had more web traffic (visitors) in March than Google and took over the Number One position in terms of search engine volume.  The race is now on and Google and Facebook are involved in a head-on tussle to capture (or retain) the number one position.  This competition has generated many changes on both sites.  Facebook has made major changes to its Facebook Pages to make further inroads into the business market.  These changes have complicated the scene for small business marketing.  It has meant that many small business owners have had to ignore Facebook or engage small business marketing consultants (who are struggling themselves to keep up with the changes).  But how can you ignore the Number One source of web traffic that is also a social media site with over 700 Million members?

3. Introduction of Google Plus and Google +1

Google quickly responded to Facebook’s resurgence with the introduction of its own social network, Google Plus.  It also introduced an equivalent to the Facebook “Like” in the form of the Google +1 button.   There are other major changes in Google’s search algorithm and results display that accompanied these changes.  The challenge for small business owners is, “How can you keep abreast of these changes and their implications for small business marketing?”.  Again, you cannot afford to ignore the Google changes or your competition will be appearing in a much more prominent way than you as Google attempts to “reward’ those who get on board with its new social network and related changes.

4. The resurgence of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s largest online network focused on business and in 2011 grew to over 130 Million members.  LinkedIn is a new and growing force in small business marketing.  Depending on the nature of your business, it can be a critical component of your small business marketing, particularly in the light of the overall growth of social networking which looks like continuing unabated in 2012.  The introduction of status updates by LinkedIn is an attempt to utilise its growing power to move into the Big League occupied by Facebook and Google. 

5. The growth of local marketing

During 2011, there was a massive switch of focus by Internet marketers from affiliate marketing to local marketing.  This was driven in part by two influences, (1) the decline of affiliate income owing to the depressed economy in the US and (2) and the recognition that around 80% of business for offline businesses comes from within a 5 kilometre radius.   The changes to Google Places and the emergence of social networking ‘review” sites, intensified this new focus.   What it means for your small business marketing is that you have to make the most of online local marketing tools because your competitors are being courted daily by Internet marketers who see this area of consulting as a the new “goldmine”.  The new superstars of Internet marketing generate their income from monthly retainers paid by businesses, small and large, for local marketing services.

6. The massive growth of mobile marketing

With the advent of the Smart Phone and the associated growth of mobile usage, mobile marketing has taken off as the new frontier for Internet marketing.  This growth is being aided by the focus on local marketing and has spawned the development of thousands of apps for mobile phones.   Two new areas of online riches are emerging, (1) the creation and sale of mobile phone apps and (2) the development of mobile marketing strategies and tools (software).  As a small business marketer, you are going to need mobile compatible websites and mobile marketing tools.  One advantage of Google Places discussed above is that  it is already mobile-compatible – which is another reason why it is so critical for small business marketing.

7. 2011 – The Year of the PlugIn

With so many changes on so many fronts, WordPress developers have had a field day.  There has been a massive growth in WordPress Plugin development in 2011.  I receive an invite every day to purchase two or three new plugins.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep abreast of these software innovations.   However, the WordPress plugins are designed to make it easier for you to accommodate your small business marketing to the changes that are occurring in Internet marketing.  Many of the plugins help you to automate your small business marketing process.

In succeeding posts, I will further explain these 2011 changes and highlight their implications for small business marketing moving into 2012.