Pinterest: Pinlet Magic for Small Business Marketing

Pinterest - Pinlet Magic

Pinterest - Ron PassfieldPinterest is a social networking site where people share images and photos by adding them to “pinboards”.  It has achieved phenomenal growth – growing faster than Twitter and Facebook during the same early stages of its growth.  Pinterest is now the 3rd ranked social networking site behind Facebook and Twitter and is ranked 39th in the world in terms of website traffic.

Some interesting facts for small business owners:

  • Pinterest is generating more traffic to blogs than Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn combined (www.mashable.com)
  • Pinterest users are 10% more likely to buy than users who arrive from other social media sites*
  • Pinterest’s percentage of all social media driven purchases is growing and is expected to reach 40% (while Facebook will drop from 82% to 60% and Twitter drop out of the purchase picture)*
  • Facebook bought Instagram for $1billion to ward off competition from Pinterest.

* Source: http://mashable.com/2012/04/29/pinterest-interest/

[Image source: Screen capture taken from my Pinterest site: http://pinterest.com/ronpassfield/]

Adding images and photos to Pinterest

Pinterest enables you to create pinboards on any topic and to add pins via upload from your computer or via a pinmarklet tool which is added to your browser toolbar.  So you can pin images from any website of your choice but what you have to watch here is the copyright restrictions of the source site.  Some websites owners are particularly aggressive about protecting their copyright.

 The pinning tool (pinmarklet)  is shown below together with the image it creates:

Pinterest

Pinterest - pinning example

You can see from this illustration that you have a thumbnail image taken from the website, the option to post to one of your established pinboards (using the drop-down menu) and the ability to add comments before you post.  Pinterest will automatically pick up the website address of the image source.  However, you can also add your website address to the comment section and it will be automatically hyperlinked (made clickable).

Some websites have the Pin Symbol to enable you to easily pin from their site.  Popular sites that people pin images from are:

Pins are shared by “likes” (as with Facebook) or by being repinned by another Pinterest member.  To build up your following on Pinterest, you should like pins and repin images that you are interested in and follow people you admire or who share the same interests/geographic area.

Pinterest, Pinlet Magic and small business marketing

Two types of Pinterest pinboards that are attracting heaps of traffic are quotes and inspiration.   What Pinlet Magic brings to Pinterest is the ability to create your own quotes, inspirations and affirmations by using a special purpose Pinmarklet which is also added to your browser toolbox:

Pinlet magic pinmarklet

When you click on the pinmarklet for Pinlet Magic you see the following image:

Pinlet Magic

Here are some of the features of Pinlet Magic:

  • you create your own quote or affirmation (in the left box)
  • you can decide the font, font size and font color
  • you can add an author name or your website address to the bottom of the quote/affirmation
  • you can preview the quote as you create and customize it.

Additionally, you can decide the color of your background, the border, add one of the preset colors/templates or upload an image to serve as the background.  This part of the Pinlet Magic tool is very flexible:

Pinlet Magic backgrounds

As you can see from the extract from my Pinterest site in the header image for this post, I have two pinboards covering Inspirational Quotes and Affirmations – and I create quotes/affirmations that are consistent with the nature of my offline human resource development business.

Here’s an example of an affirmation I developed using Pinlet Magic and my own photo (the emphasis is on active listening):

Pinterest: Listening affirmation

Here’s another example.  This time I have developed an Inspirational Quote using Pinlet Magic and my own photo of a Stradbroke Island view at sunset:

Pinterest: Inspirational Quote

Each of these images on Pinterest has a link back to my small business website, Merit Solutions Australia.

When you purchase Pinlet Magic you also receive other resources such as sources for quotes, updates, hints and ideas and free access to a closed Facebook discussion group where a growing community shares their quotes and willingly gives “likes”, repins” and “follows” for quotes they admire.

Pinterest has opened up a new arena for small business marketing and Pinlet Magic provides a great boost to building your personal branding, business brand and website traffic.

Google is Integrating Google+ With Search Engine Results

google+ concentric circles

google+ concentric circles

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.

Google+ Business Page for Your Small Business Marketing

Merit Solutions HR consultants

Merit Solutions HR consultants

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):

 create a Google+ 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:

google+ business page categoriesThe 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): 

google+ drop-down menu 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then follow these three steps:

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

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.

Google +1 Button: Your Road to Increased Visibility

Google +1 Icon

Google +1 Icon

 

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:

Chef Keem on Google - Wonder Wheel

 

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:

google +1 in search results

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:

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

Google +1 on your Google Plus profile

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:

  1. Use Google’s code for adding the +1 button to your website or blog
  2. 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:

google plus social recommendation

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.

Share Content with your Circles Via the Google Plus Stream

Google Plus stream

 

Google Plus stream

The Google Plus Stream is the lifeblood of Google+.  It enables sharing of information to Circles and has a lot of the characteristics of Facebook’s status updates.   You can share ideas, status updates, photos, videos, links and your location (if you really want to!).

The Share box is accessible via the Google Plus homepage.   You have a few icons you can click on to share specific types of information or you can just enter text in the Share box:

Google Plus share box

In line with Google+ Privacy Policy, you can specify who you share each post with.  You can identify specific Circles or all Circles (public).   Icons for suggested circles are shown (e.g. Acquaintances and Friends in the image above) and you can add more Circles by clicking on ‘+add more people’.  You can delete a suggested Circle from your distribution by clicking on the delete button (X) in the respective Circle icon.

You can see that yet again Google Plus is deadly serious about giving you control over your privacy by allowing you to determine the desired distribution for each post.

What should you share in your Google Plus Stream?

I have discussed what types of content you can share in your Google Plus Stream, but what exactly should you share?  The fundamental rule to remember is that your Stream on your personal Google Plus page should be about CONVERSATION NOT CONVERSION!   If you indulge in a constant sales pitch, you will be very quickly dumped from multiple circles (…and defeat the whole purpose of using the Google+ network, which is to expand your contacts).

So think about the things that you find engaging and share something similar.  Here’s a list of the kinds of posts that catch my attention and tend to encourage me to share with others:

  • informative
  • visually appealing
  • peaceful
  • intriguing
  • humorous
  • enlightening
  • challenging
  • insightful
  • reflective 

So your purpose in posting to the Google Plus Stream is to share something of yourself, enhance your personal branding and provide content that others find useful or appealing and are inspired to share in their own Circles.   In this way, your posts will have a viral effect.

The central Stream on your Google Plus Homepage is the accumulation of all the posts from people in your Circles (who included you in their distribution when sharing). 

What to do with posts in your Google Plus Stream that you don’t want

You have a range of options in relation to each post that arrives in your Google Plus Stream if you don’t want to retain them or make them visible to others:

  1. Report abuse
  2. Mute this post (no longer visible)
  3. Block this person

The options button is somewhat faint but you will see it beside each post as illustrated below and highlighted by the red arrow I’ve included in the screenshot:

Google Plus post options

How to ‘like’ posts in your Google Plus Stream

If you want to ‘like’ a post there are a number of ways to do this.  Included in the options mentioned in the previous section of this post is an option “Link to this post” which enables you to copy the link for the post and share it with others (it is mystifying why this option is inlcuded with the other “dislike” options).

However, there are a number of other options which are more clearly displayed immediately below each post as indicated in this screenshot:

how to like Google Plus posts

These options are explained briefly below:

  1. +1 –  indicates you really  like the post and want to save it to your ‘favorites’ (this is an expansive topic and will be the subject of a separate post).
  2. Comment – see below for further elaboration.
  3. Share – with Circles that you specify when you click on this option.
  4. Hang Out  – Chat with the originator and others you choose to include (more on this in another post).

How to comment effectively on Posts in your Google Plus Stream

I have previously discussed at length how to comment on social media content in such a way as to build a positive online profile and brand image.  The same principles apply when commenting on posts in your Google Plus stream.

You can see from the following example how a simple comment can generate a reciprocal response.  Chris Brogan shared a video and a personal comment about the originator of the video, Tom Terwilliger.  I watched the video and left a comment on Chris Brogan’s post.  Tom responded and so we have the beginnings of a conversation:

Google Plus conversation

So to reiterate, the primary principle behind your sharing through the Google Plus stream must be to focus on conversation not conversion.