By Carl Weiss
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| English: Google plus one (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
It has been called everything from an online ghost town to
one of the best
social networks ever invented for small businesses. But there is one thing that neither pundits
nor detractors can deny. That is,
Google+ is the only social network in the world directly operated by the
world’s most popular search engine.
An Extension of the
Google Brand
Sure, G+ was invented strictly because
Facebook’s popularity was a threat to the 800 lb.
gorilla in the room named
Google. But far from being its downfall,
the me-too look and feel of Google+ did not come about by accident. When designing the company owned social
network, the nerds at Google took a look at what worked and what didn’t work on
other search engines. Then they used the
best and discarded the rest. This is one
of the reasons that starting a G+ account is so easy to do. There isn’t a lot of time spent on learning
how to use the thing.
Got a gmail account?
Simply log into Google and hit the (name
)+ button and away you go. After filling out profile information and
uploading a photo, you’re ready to start
friending. Since G+ is a search engine, anyone already registered with Google can be brought up and added just by typing in
their name and hitting enter. After
adding them to your circles Google will inform your friends that you are now
linked to them.
(More on how to
capitalize on this later.)
So far it seems a lot like Facebook, right?
Well it is and it isn’t. It is in that using G+ and Facebook are
similar. But Google+ has a lot more to
offer a business owner. Remember Google
Local? This is the local listing engine
that used to be a
standalone facility on Google. It was folded into G+ several months
ago. In fact, there is a button on the
left side of the G+ homepage that accesses this area. But that’s not all that you are able to
access
there. You can also access and
update your Google Calendar there. You
can view and upload photos and videos there.
More importantly, you can also start a
Hangout there.
|
|
| Hangouts (Photo credit: AJC1) |
What is a Hangout?
It’s a free video chat facility that you and eight of your closest
friends can inhabit at the push of a button.
No software to download. No
cumbersome codes to email. To spawn a
hangout all you have to do is hit the Hangout tab on the G+
homepage and hit
“Start a Hangout.” You can’t miss this
button since it’s at the top of the page in red. Once you hit it, all you need to do to
populate it is to enter the names of the people you want to hang out with in
the dialog box at the top of the page and hit invite. Within seconds they will receive your
invitation and with one click of the mouse can join you via video.
(You can also screen share with Hangout as
well.) When you consider that using other video conferencing systems online can cost upwards of fifty bucks per
month, this is a real bargain. At our
office we routinely use Hangout to interface with clients and prospects. Who needs to drive across town when you can spawn
a virtual meeting?
Other G+ Features
There are a lot of other features that make Google+ a breeze
to use. Everything is fully
editable. It is also fully
searchable. You can drag and drop videos
from your computer or from
Youtube in seconds.
Best of all, using G+ will enhance your SEO worthiness since it is owned
and operated by Google. It isn’t at all
unusual for a properly optimized Google+ post to wind up on page one of Google.
And don’t believe all the propaganda about G+ being a ghost
town. Sure, it doesn’t have a billion
users like Facebook, but it does have more than 100 million active monthly
users. This is hardly an insignificant
figure by anyone’s calculation. When it
comes to employing a social network that is easy to use and offers so many free
features that business people would otherwise be required to pay and it isn’t
hard to see why so many people are gaga for Google+
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Since 1995, Carl Weiss has been helping clients succeed
online. He owns and operates several online marketing businesses, including Working the Web to Win and Jacksonville Video Production.
He also co-hosts the weekly radio show, "Working the Web to Win,"
every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern on BlogTalkRadio.com.
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