Archives For google plus

Google+ Business Pages are now live; here’s how to get started

November 9, 2011 — Leave a comment

Google has finally launched their business pages feature, and it’s open for everyone to sign up.  You can read more about it on the Google Blog, or watch the video below for a quick overview of how it works.

Business pages work very similarly to personal profiles, with a few notes:

  • You cannot create an account for a business page; you create it via your personal profile (similar to Facebook).
  • You can create multiple pages from a single profile.
  • Each business page can only be managed by the profile that created it, so choose carefully the right person in your organization to create the page.  Support for multiple admins is “coming soon”.
  • Pages cannot add users to a circle unless the user adds them first.  This is an awesome anti-spam move by Google.
  • There aren’t any vanity URLs yet (like plus.google.com/pepsi), but those are presumably coming in the future.

Direct Connect

Tied to this release is a new feature called “Direct Connect”.  If you begin your Google search with a +, it’ll show brand pages that match the query in the auto-complete results, as shown here:

Over time, it’s possible that this could become a trendy thing to promote.  I can image someone like Pepsi having something like “Google +Pepsi” for more at the end of a TV ad.  If it does take off, it’ll be important to get your page listed there.  But how?

Badges

Today, Google released “badges” for business pages.  These allow you to add nifty widgets to your page, and people can add your brand to their circles directly from your website!  It’s pretty slick.

Even more important is the snippet of code that they have you put in the <head> section of your site.  This is there to prove that the page in question is really yours and will qualify you to show up as a Direct Connect option.  No word on how soon those will start appearing, but it’d be wise to get yours connected so you can show up in Direct Connect as soon as possible.  You can learn more about badges from this Google blog post.

Have you built a page yet?

Have you built a page for your company yet?  Leave a  link to it in the comments and show us your work!

In Companies, Google+, Marketing, Social Media , , ,
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A week of Google+

July 11, 2011 — 5 Comments

It’s been a little over a week since I joined Google+, so I thought I’d share some of my thoughts about it.

Addictive – for now

Thus far, I’ve found it quite addictive.  The fact that 90% of the people I follow on Twitter are already over there means that my Twitter usage has dropped quite a lot.  However, only about 15% of my Facebook friends are on it, so it’s got some work to do in that regard.

That being said, I won’t be giving up Facebook or Twitter anytime soon…

Privacy is top notch

Google has had issues with privacy in the past, but they’ve certainly learned from their mistakes. The privacy settings in Google+ are easy to use, quite powerful, and default to “don’t share much”.  Kind of the opposite of Facebook.

“Hangouts” are amazing

Hangouts are the group video chat feature, for up to 10 people at once.  They work amazingly well, and I’ve met some really cool people through them.  In the future, I think they will be a great venue for business meetings, Bible studies, small groups, book clubs, etc.  Really, anything that typically has 5-10 people meeting in person could be done quite well via a Hangout.

“Circles” are simple, but potentially confusing

The idea of putting your friends into Circles is quite simple, and works very well.  Drag Steve in “friends”, drag Heather into “family”, etc.  The problem is that the content from circles come from people, not topics.  For example, I might add 20 Google Earth geeks to a “Google Earth” circle, but then I’ll see virtually all of their posts; relatively few of which are likely to be about Google Earth.

“Sparks” are weak

The idea behind Sparks is pretty cool — a quick way to follow a topic you love and share relevant news with your friends.  However, the items shown are kind of random and can be somewhat dated and spammy.  I expect to see some good updates from Google in here soon.

Google Chrome Plugins

If you use Google Chrome as your browser, there are a lot of great plug-ins to help make Google+ even better.  Here is a full list of them, but two of my favorites are:

  • Replies and more: lots of great tweaks, including a quick “reply” button while you’re in comments.
  • Comment Toggle: Hides all comments in the stream, but you can toggle them open/closed with one click.

Businesses

Right now, there is very little business use for it.  As a freelancer I can make some use of it, but no “non-human entities” are allowed on there yet.  No websites, no car dealers, nothing.  It’s kind of nice, but it’ll be changing soon.  Google has promised some great stuff when those features finally come out, so I hope they’re right.

It’ll be hard to avoid

Google has said that many of the Google+ features (Circles, etc) will be making their way into virtually every Google product.  This will make use of those sites more enjoyable for g+ users (quickly share a YouTube video to a specific circle), and it’ll make it harder to avoid the service for everyone else.

Plus, that silly notification icon already has me jumping to click it every time it lights up, and it’s on the top of almost every Google product.  I feel like Dug from “Up” every time it I see a number in that red box.

I hope for some customization to that in the near future (I don’t need a notification for every “+1″ on a post of mine), but it’s still quite handy.  Better yet, it creates a drop-down menu from wherever you are, so you can deal with it right there (answer the comment, etc) without ever having to visit the Google+ site.  That’s gold.

So…how’s it gonna do?

This is the big question, and I really don’t know.  I love it so far, but it’s early.  I think it’ll be a player in the social game, but it won’t be replacing Twitter or Facebook for at least a few years.  Given Google’s huge audience, vast integration with other Google products, and their willingness to spend money to make it right, Google+ isn’t going anywhere.

If you own a business, or otherwise need social media to help succeed, dive in now.  At some point, you’ll likely want to get your business involved with Google+, so get started today and start learning the ropes. Contact me if you need an invite, then connect with me on g+.

If you’re a social media butterfly, but have no real need for it, give it a shot.  It’s likely to keep growing, so now’s a good time to jump in, start making connections, organize your Circles, etc.

If you’re just a casual social media user, it’s up to you.  If you already use Google products like Gmail and Android, you’ll be amazed at how well it blends into your lifestyle.  If not, then just keep enjoying life on Facebook and keep your ears out for more on Google+.

What do you think?

Have you tried Google+ yet?  Think it has a chance to succeed?

In Google+, Social Media, Technology , ,
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Google’s not-too-secret social network finally launches: Google+

June 28, 2011 — 2 Comments

It’s been rumored for more than a year, and now it’s here — sort of.  You probably can’t get into it yet, but it’s out there for the world to see and they’ll be adding users to it very quickly.

So what is it?

It’s a lot of things all in one.  Google+ is named because it’s not intended to be a new social network; just lots of small social tools built on top of the Google infrastructure.  It has features that remind me of FriendFeed, and some that remind me of Google Wave, so they’ve got some cool stuff in there. Here is an overview video of how it works:

Circles

Think of Facebook Groups, and you’re off to a good start.  You can drag and drop your contacts (from Gmail or Google Contacts) into Circles in a very intuitive fashion, and it’s very easy to share content with the Circle thanks to the new (black) Google toolbar.

Here’s a quick video showing our Circles work:

Sparks

They’re calling Sparks their “sharing engine”, and it looks quite cool.  You tell it an interest that you have, and Google will find elements on the web related to that.  Find something you like, and you can quickly add it to your interest list (kind of like a bookmark).

Here’s a quick video that shows how Sparks works:

Huddle

This is a group messaging app that works across Android, iPhone and SMS to keep groups in touch with each other.  It’s similar to Beluga and other recent group messaging apps, but could become quite popular as part of the Google+ ecosystem.

Here’s a quick video showing how the mobile apps will work:

Hangouts

This is the part that reminds me of FriendFeed.  You can put up to 10 people in a “hangout” and do stuff together in real-time.  It looks like a really cool way to chat (video or text), and you can even share a piece of content (like a YouTube video) and everyone in the hangout can watch it together.  Perhaps it’ll be cheesy, but it has the potential to be pretty cool.

Here’s a video showing how Hangouts work:

Too much?

Of course, this is a lot to take in all at once.  Google’s plan is to unify it all with the new Google toolbar at the top of the screen, which apparently works quite well.  The level of tie-in to Android/iPhone will be quite important, too, so we’ll see how that works out.

When?

It’s rolling out today in very limited numbers.  As of right now, even people that have invitations to it can’t get in, so the rest of us could be waiting.  Google is intentionally rolling it out very slowly, so it could be a while.  In the meantime, head over the Google+ site and put your name on the list, and let me know if you get access to it.

In Social Media , , , , ,
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