social media marketing – Page 2 – Small Business Odyssey

January 1, 2012

Grow Your Google Plus Circles to Build Your Profile Online

Circles are a core element of Google Plus. They enable you to place people in different groupings depending on your level of association with them, e.g. friends, acquaintances, family. Circles enable the unique privacy approach of Google Plus to operate. You can specify which circles will have access to what information. As I explained in my previous post, one simple example of this is the ability to specify who has access to the links that you include in your Google Plus profile. [Image Credit: mrnilspeters]

You can access your circles by clicking on the ‘circles’ button at the top of your Google Plus page as illustrated below:

Adding “friends” into your Google Plus Circles

The first thing to be aware of is that you can add as many circles as you want and specify their names, e.g. work colleagues, Squidoo contacts, customers. If you add too many circles, your circles and privacy settings will become unmanageable. However, the circle facility enables you to effectively categorise your contacts and manage your communications with them – you don’t have to lump them all into one large group of ‘friends’.

You can add people to your circles by using the drag-and-drop facility provided when you click on the Circles button. The avatars of people will be displayed depending on the choices you make from the menu provided (illustrated below):

For example , if you click on “people who have added you”, you will see the avatars of all the people who have added you to a circle on their Google Plus account. However, you will not be able to see what specific circle you have been placed in by these people. If you hover over the avatars you will see whether they are already in one of your circles or how many people you have in common in your respective circles. The following image shows an example of the avatars as they will be displayed. The ones with the symbol in the top right hand corner are those who you have also added to your circles. You can work your way through the others and add people to your different circles as desired.

As I mentioned in my introductory post about Google Plus, you will also receive notifications of people who have added you to their circles. If you click on the notifications button on the Google Plus toolbar (right-hand side), you will see thumbnail images of people who have added you to a Google Plus circle and you will have the facility to easily add any of these to one of your circles (click the ‘arrow’ beside the thumbnails and you will have access to a drop-down menu).

Google Plus makes it very easy to add people to your circles. As indicated in one of the above images, when you click on the circles button, one of the options displayed is “Find People’. Google Plus explains how the resultant list of avatars is generated for you:

Find People – Our best guess for people who you may want to add to a circle. Get more suggestions by importing your contacts from your email account.

As indicated, you can actually import contacts from your email accounts – Yahoo, Hotmail or by uploading your email address book (see image below):

So Google gives you multiple options for adding people to your Google Plus circles, encourages you to expand your social network and to effectively manage your communications with your circles. You can even tailor your perosnal profile information for different circles (e.g. making personal information only available to your “family” circle). On top of this, you can specify which of your circles you want to hear from. The following YouTube video from Google Plus gives you more information on how to create and use circles:

Google Plus circles gives you a very effective way to manage your contacts, increase your online exposure and develop new sets of relationships, including those with existing and potential customers.

December 29, 2011December 29, 2011

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

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:

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:

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:

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:

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).

December 26, 2011

7 Major Changes in Small Business Marketing in 2011

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.

December 22, 2011

Leverage Your Blogging: Create a Small Business Ezine

One of the easiest ways to leverage your blogging, is to create your own small business ezine. An ezine is basically an email newsletter where you share articles, news and blog posts with members of your mailing list (customer list). This approach to small business marketing serves multiple purposes and achieves leverage on a number of levels.

Your regular small business ezine enables you to maintain contact with your customers, educate them about your products and services and offer free information and advice. Most email service providers offer ways to further leverage your ezine via RSS feeds and automatic posts to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

If you are blogging regularly, you are creating the content for your ezine. If you blog daily, you will be able to provide a small business ezine of considerable substance.

How to use your blogging in your small business ezine

If you blog regularly, you can easily create an ezine from your blog posts. Since I blog daily, I send a weekly ezine to my mailing list covering a number of posts around a theme, e.g. Squidoo or LinkedIn. You need to decide the frequency of your small business ezine based on the regularity of your blog posts, the nature of your business and the kind of information you are offering.

Most autoresponders will replace the blog links in your email with their own generated links (if you specify that you want open rates and click-through-rates measured).

Another option is to use the URL shortener bitly.com to shorten your blog links. The advantages of this approach are that you can share each individual shortened link automatically with your Facebook and/or Twitter account and you can also get statistics on click-through-rates on the Bitly link. It is a good idea to add a comment (like a status update) before you share your link on Bitly.

Blogging has lots of benefits, not the least of these is that it provides you with content to share with your mailing list via your small business ezine.

December 21, 2011

Squidoo Has a Special Relationship with Google

Let’s talk about Squidoo and its relationship with Google. Google and Squidoo have some goals in common. For example, they both want original content on websites (lenses) that are frequently updated. They both want quality and not spam. They each want to see the searcher satisfied when they use their respective platforms. One of the goals of the founders of Squidoo, for example, was to create a quality search engine.

Squidoo and Google also have some differences. While both want to generate a profit, one of Seth Godin’s goals in creating Squidoo was to generate $100 Million for charity – hence, the option for Lensmasters to donate their advertising revenue to approved Squidoo charities.

The Professional relationship between Squidoo and Google

Some time past, Seth Godin provided strategic advice on a consultancy basis to Google. As one of the world’s leading Internet marketers, Seth was well placed to do this. He has a million readers a day for his blog, Seth Godin’s Blog. He has also written 10 New York Bestsellers on the topic of Internet Marketing.

However, the relationship is on a professional basis. When Squidoo was attacked by a lot of spammers, Google had no hesitation in downgrading Squidoo to protect their own revenue base derived from quality search results. You can read about this ‘Google Slap’ story on my Squidoo Marketing Strategies lens and see way Squidoo responded to improve its overall quality.

The relationship is back on a sound footing with Google re-establishing Squidoo’s high ranking and value in search results.

How can you help the relationship between Google and Squidoo?

Fundamentally, you contribute positively to this relationship when you create quality lenses that have original content and are updated on a regular basis. When you join Squidoo you effectively sign up to the Originality Pact which I discussed in an earlier post.

The challenge is to maintain the quality and currency of your Squidoo lenses in the face of many other time consuming tasks. This is a tall order if you have a lot of Squidoo lenses. Developing techniques to improve your online productivity can help here. You might like to visit my lens on improving personal productivity for some ideas.

The reward of Squidoo’s relationship with Google

The core benefit from this relationship is that Google values quality Squidoo lenses highly. So once you create a quality lens and update it on a regular basis, you will be rewarded with an improved page rank, higher positioning in search engine results and improved web traffic. I have found that it is much easier to achieve a high page rank from Google with a Squidoo lens than it is with a blog or a website.

It has also been my anecdotal experience too that, since I became a Giant Squid, I have been indexed more quickly by Google.

One of the interesting things is that Google accords each Squidoo lens a page rank different from that of the Squidoo platform itself. Here’s some examples of my lenses:

A. Keyword: squidoo marketing strategies

Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

Google Results: Position 1

Google Page Rank: 4

B. Keyword: improve personal productivity

Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/improve-personal-productivity

Google Results: Position 2

Google Page Rank: 2

C. Keyword: tropical rainforest walk

Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/tropicalrainforest

Google Results: Position 7

Google Page Rank: 3

These results come from screenshots taken of Google search results with the added information provided by SEO Quake – a free plugin & toolbar for use with Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

The quality of the relationship between Squidoo and Google is dependent on the quality and originality of Squidoo lenses – if you create excellent Squidoo lenses you can expect good page rank and high positions in Google’s search results for targeted keywords.