Tag Archives: Google+

Last week Google finally released company branded Google+ pages to the public (see the previous post on Google+ for building online community)! As soon as Google+ business pages launched, many companies and organizations  jumped at the opportunity to create a Google+ business page, and Aday Interactive was definitely on that bandwagon. This tutorial will show you how to create a Google+ business profile page, based on our experience setting up our own. So what is a Google+ (Plus) business page you ask? A Google+ business page is similar to a Facebook fan page, as it is a profile set up for a company, organization or brand. Your profile will be available to users on the Google+ social networking site, where they can add you to their "Circles" to receive updates you post, similar to the Facebook wall post and Twitter tweet stream. Google+ business profiles include information about the company, photos, videos and the standard stream for message posts.

Until the launch of the Google+ business page, it was still questionable as to whether you should jump into the Google+ circle, but with this final piece of the Google+ puzzle in place. Before the launch only individuals were allowed to create a Google+ page. For a long time before that you could only create an individual page with your Gmail account, until Google finally opened the social network up to Google Apps for Business users (see the post on enabling Google+ for Google Apps for Business) a few weeks ago.  Most would agree at this point that you set up your new page, and use it as a part of your overall social media marketing strategy along with LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook!

Steps to Create Your Google+ Business Page

You will have several choices of how to set up your page. You should consider the type of page, since you won't be able to change it later. Note that if you already have a Google Places account set up, you can actually find your account using your telephone number and connect it to your Google+ business page. It will extract your information and give you the ability to customize who can see the information and what category you page should be placed under.

If you do not have a Google Places page, you can choose one of the other options, which include Product or Brand; Company, Institution or Organization; Arts, Entertainment or Sports; or Other. Note that the options  you have for your Google Local Business or Place are different compared to the other 4 listing types. The key difference between the Places based version and the others is that they include a map of the business location, feature the address, phone number and hours behavior. Below is an example of setting it up as a Company, Institution or Organization, in case you don't yet have a Google Places account set up.

Next, you will be logged into Google+ as your organization, similar to Facebook. Notice that the user name will be changed to the name of your page (i.e. Aday Interactive, Inc. in my case) and anything you post, or add to your Circles will be attributed to your Google+ page. When first logged in you will be prompted to edit your Tagline and add a profile photo.

After this very basic set up, you are able to promote your new page to your Circles. However, I don't recommend doing this until after you have done some more tweaking to the page.

Now you should be all set with your new Google+ business profile page. The final step will be to view your page and share it with the world! Below is the Aday Interactive page, which you can add to your "Circles" by clicking here. If you add me to your circle, I will be sure to add our company page to yours!

Still not sure about what to do with your new Google+ Business page? Check out some of these resources for more information: Google+ Pages: connect with all the things you care about (from the Official Google Blog),  Google+ Help and 10 Tips and Tricks for Better Google+ Brand Pages from our friends at Mashable.com. Here are several books you can pick up as well: Google+ for Business: How Google's Social Network Changes Everything, Google+ For Dummies, or Sams Teach Yourself Google+ in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself -- Minutes). Need additional help setting up your Google+ business page, or developing your overall social media marketing strategy? Feel free to contact us with questions or call 305-918-2329 to schedule your free 30 minute Social Media Marketing consultation!

 

For those of you who use Google Apps for Business, you may have wondered when you could  use your Google Apps email account with Google+ (see previous post on  Google+ to build your online community). Well today is the day you have been waiting for! You can now connect your Google Apps account to Google+ so you do not have to have two seperate accounts (or to different browsers open) to connect with your circles! According to this blog posted earlier today from the Google Enterprise team, you can now enable your Google Apps account to join Google+! I admit that I was very excited when I first joined Google+, but a big issue for me was that I am never signed into my Gmail account. I always used my Google Apps for Business (the professional version of Gmail), which until today did not have access to Google+, so it is an exciting day for many who use Google Apps!

How to Enable Google+ for Google Apps
Even though you can enable Google+  it is not as simple as just going over to plus.google.com with your Apps account and joining, since you need to have it enabled for your domain. This post will show you how to enable Google+ on your Google Apps domain. Keep in mind that you will need to have adminstrative access to do this, or request that you can enable this to your adminstrator. So let''s get started! Assuming you are the domain administrator, log into your Google Apps account and click on Manage Domain. Once you you are logged in, click on Organization & users -->  Services.

Next scroll down to review your services. Between Google Webmaster Tools and iGoogle, you will find the option to turn on Google+ for your Google Apps domain.

After you turn on Google+ on your Google Apps domain, you will receive a prompt that provides all of the legal ramifications of doing so. You definitely want to read these, as enabling Google+ for your domain may have some unwanted ramifications. You can read the legal considerations of enabling Google+ for Google Apps here: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=1689647

How to Migrate Gmail Google+ to Google Apps Google+ Account
For those of you who were early adoptors of Google+, you may be wondering, "How do I migrate my personal Google+ account to my new Google Apps Google+ account???" Well as of today, there does not seem to be a solution to this problem.  According to the good people at Mashable, Google is working on a way to migrate your personal Google+ Circles and information, but it may just be a one-way street. This means you may not be able to transfer the data back to your Gmail based Google+ account, but that is still to be seen.

So what do you do if you leave your job, and no longer have access to your Google Apps Google+ account? If this happens, you should be able to export your data  including their profile, circles, streams, contacts, and photos, using  Google Takeout. You can access this function by signing into Google+, going to Account Settings -->Data Liberation -->Download Your Data. Employers may want to keep this in mind, since your users can do this even if you disable their account! For this reason, you also have the ability to choose which users have access to Google+, instead of giving access to EVERYONE in your organization.

 

In this third post in a series on using social media for your online community building, we are going to look at the most recent entrant into the world of social networks: Google+. For all of the social media addicts out there, Google+ has been the latest craze, with people commenting and lining up trying to get an invite to the largest "invite only" social network I have ever seen. With the network projected to have hit 20 million people by the end of this weekend (today is July 20th, 2011) and all of the buzz generated around the network, it is hard to believe that most "normal" people I have spoken to have no idea what it is. However, from this soft launch of the site, it is clear that the network is here to stay. For those of you who haven't explored Google+ yet, or couldn't get your invite to work, I am going to give a brief overview of the network and then discuss how it plays into the overall community development strategy.

So after a week or so of playing in the network, it seems to me that Google+ lays somewhere between Facebook and Twitter, with an interface that seems familiar enough to get around, but with some very interesting and streamlined ways of managing your onliine profile. The user interface is similar to Facebook, with a much cleaner look to it than most Google properties. On the top of your page, you will find the black Google+ navigation bar, which is now displayed on all Google properties. On the left side you have your profile photo, your Stream , Sparks  and a Chat box with option for video chatting. On the right side you have photos of friends in your various Circles, the ability to create a Hangout, as well as to invite new friends to join the site (though that doesn't always seem to work).

Your Stream is displayed right in the center of your profile, and is similar to the Facebook Newsfeed. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, you post content, and mention users using the “+” or “@” symbols, and the person will be notified that you mentioned them. You have the ability to share with specific circles, though the privacy is not as locked up as Facebook, since someone in your Circle can share your post, and it will be visible to people in their circle (so no real privacy there). A nice feature related to the stream, is the ability to "Mute" a post, so you don't receive notifications when other people comment on it.

You can filter your stream based on your Circles, so you can look at only Family or Friend streams. Of course you have the ability to create posts, and share content with people in your various Circles as well. Each Circle represents a group of people that are segmented based on their role in your life. for example, you can have a different Circle for friends, family, business contacts, etc., whom you can share specific postings and information with. This offers an easier way of privatizing certain information you don't want to share with everyone. Of course you can do this with other networks, but the interface is considered to be the easiest of all major social networks to date by many social media pundits.

The Sparks feature is very interesting, as it allows you to save searches based on specific keywords. This allows you to search and filter out content throughout the web and serve it up by date, similar to an RSS/syndicated feed. Each day you can look at your "Sparks" feed and there will be updated information based on your interests, which is a great tool for finding the latest news on your industry. You can use this feed of data for sharing content in other networks like Twitter, or share posts with your Google+ Circles. The "Chat" function will be familiar with people who have used Gmail, and also offers video chat. A cool feature that builds on this is the "Hangout" feature, which allows for group video chats, or as Google puts it “the unplanned meet-ups”.

Another aspect of Google+ is the +1 button! You may have noticed it on some blogs (see and click it below) and websites,  next to other social buttons. This is similar to the Facebook "Like", with the exception that it can actually help with your search engine ranking! In fact, if you log into your Google Webmaster Tools account (or ask your web developer to do so) you will find a tool dedicated to the +1 button, showing the amount of times people have +1'd your website pages (if you don't have a web developer, you can contact us and we can assist you in implementing this button).

Of course no social media site is complete without it's own mobile application. Google+ App can be found in the Android Market, and is available for in a mobile web version as well. A nice feature of the app (that is installed seperately) is the “Huddle” feature, which allows for group chatting via your mobile phone. Another nice feature is the automatic photo upload. Every photo you take is automatically uploaded to a private folder, which you can share with people online. This skips the need to upload a photo, and also gives you fast access to all of the photos you take on your desktop (not just the ones you upload to Facebook or Flickr).

So how does Google+ fit into your overall social media strategy or online community development? Well, first, it is important to know that the network is still not fully launched, and most of the people using it are early adopters who like to be in the cutting edge of technology. So it does not represent the various groups of people you find on Facebook. There is also no ability to create a business page, similar to a Facebook FanPage, and creating a commercial page out of a personal one is grounds for being kicked out (with the exception of Mashable). So until the site is fully launched with all features, you may not be able to promote your business the same way as you do in Facebook. However, the tool is a great way to promote your personal brand, similar to how you would use Twitter.

If you are able to get an invite that works, and want to join the site, I would recommend you first complete your Google profile (Gmail accounts only, no support for Google Apps users yet). Second, create your Circles to differentiate your contacts (i.e. seperate friends, family and co-workers). Next, explore some of the features, such as Sparks, so you can access some of the latest news on your specific industry. You can use these topics for sharing with specific circles and start building your reputation or expertise. Finally, after you connect with people you know (if they are on the site) try sending a Huddle message to a group of your Google+ friends, and ask them to join a group video conference using the Hangout feature, for an online demonstration or webinar!

It is still too soon to see what kind of impact Google+ will have on on-line community building. There is no doubt that Google+ will become one of the top 2 or 3 social networking sites. Considering the number of people who use Google everyday, as well as their resources, they can easily gain enough users to be a serious contender. That said, their main competition, Facebook, will not sit down and let their 750 million users migrate so easily. Facebook is still the 800 pound gorilla of social networks. For that reason it is still better for building deep relationships with your customer base.  That said, in the next posting we will discuss how you can use Facebook to reach their 750 million users.