By now (I hope!) most businesses realize that Google Plus is not only here to stay but offers a number of distinct benefits from a marketing standpoint. Many will mention the effect of Google+ on SEO (Google Search). Or they’ll bring up Hangouts and Hangouts On Air as useful, free communication and broadcasting tools. And more and more brands are finding creative uses for Google+ Communities. But for anyone who regularly produces content for the web, it’s likely that one of their first attractions to Google+ will be to Google Authorship and its fabled, much-speculated-about cousin Author Rank. As one of …
read moreMark Traphagen
This monthly Google Plus column is contributed by Mark Traphagen. Mark is Director of Social Media Marketing for Virante. A former teacher, Mark has worked directly in Internet marketing since 2005, but has been involved in social media and online community formation since the mid 1990s. When not helping Virante clients improve their online presence, Mark participates in competitive storytelling, plays with a Dixieland street band, and (surprise) spends more time on the web. Mark on Google+
Mark Traphagen's Posts
Not too long ago I was looking at at thread in a popular LinkedIn group. Someone had asked whether Google+ has any relevancy for business. Many people tried to answer, but the following two were pretty typical of the positive answers given: Do you notice a commonality in these answers? It’s what I see time and again when such a question is asked: “Google+ is good for SEO.” But I’ve also noticed that when it comes to Google+ and SEO, in the words of the Harry Nilsson hit song, “Everybody’s Talkin’” but very few are explaining. Some seem to imply …
read more
I don’t think anything I’ve ever written online has received as much attention as last month’s “Your Google Plus Network Is More Powerful Than You Know” on this blog. So many people have told me that the post opened their eyes for the first time to why Google+ is not “just another social network.” In that post I gave you some basic starter strategies for building a Google+ network that can expand your reach and build your influence, not only within Google+ itself, but perhaps even more importantly in Google Search. This month I want to build on that and …
read more
A couple of weeks ago fellow Windmill Networking blogger Courtney Ramirez shared the following with me on Google+: Here is why I love G+ – I’m researching Quora for an article, and since I’m connected to Mark Traphagen, I see a terrific post, and a board he and AJ Kohn created, that was posted in October. Not only was it informative, but now I am following him on Quora and learning more about Google Authorship there. Where was Courtney researching? On Google+? No, she was searching in Google search. And because she and I have a connection there (we’re in each other’s …
read more
In its relatively brief history, Google+ has rolled out more new features faster than any other social network. Many are small changes; some are game changing (one word: Hangouts). But few have had the potential impact for businesses that the latest update promises. Google+ now has a groups feature called Communities. And here’s some really great news: Communities are wide open to brand pages. If you closely follow Google+, that last sentence has some shock value. Brand pages have been the stepchild of Google+. Typically new features are rolled out first to personal profiles, and pages only get them weeks, …
read more
As excited as I have been about the rise of Google Plus, I’ve been even more pumped about a Google feature intimately tied in to Google’s social network: Google Authorship. Authorship was rolled out about the same time as Google+ last year. It allows content creators to connect their blog posts, articles, videos, and other content to their Google+ profiles. In return Google may feature their content with a “rich snippet” result that displays their profile photo next to search results for their content (see the example for Windmill Networking head Neal Schaefer at right). But the greatest promise of …
read more
Hangouts are almost without a doubt the most touted feature of Google Plus, especially when it comes to business use of the platform. So if you follow my Google+ for Business column here, you might be wondering why it’s taken me so long to write about them. I’ve had two reasons for holding off until now: I wanted to bring you vital tips and information that you won’t find everywhere and anywhere, and I was convinced that many improvements and new features that I’d want to include were yet to come for Hangouts. Well, “yet to come” is now here: …
read more
Among the many beautiful gifts that modern day marketing via the Internet gives us is the ability to segment and micro-target. Back in the Mad Men days of mass TV ads and junk mail campaigns, you threw your promotions up against a huge wall and hoped they stuck to some of the bricks. Now thanks to personal profiles and all kinds of tracking and data-collection mechanisms, we can pretty much find and direct our messages toward people who are most likely to want or need what we’re providing. The cost saving because of this efficiency is enormous, and it has …
read more
We’ve all heard the old aphorism “give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for life.” I like to go it one better: “give a man a fish pond and you can forget about the fishing.” With G+ brand pages, Google is practically giving you the search engine fish pond. Why do I say this? Unlike some of Google’s previous toe-dippings into social media (Buzz, Wave), G+ is not a bolt-on. It is designed to be fully-integrated into all thing Google. Since Google is known primarily as a search engine, it’s …
read more
People ask me all the time why I’m so excited about Google+ as a marketing tool. After all, it doesn’t (yet) have anywhere near the user numbers of social media juggernauts like Facebook or Twitter. Doesn’t it just make sense to go where the numbers are? When I hear that I stop and wonder if it’s really 2012. Broadcasting to the big numbers was the way to go for the Mad Men of the 60s, but savvy marketers like Seth Godin realize that these days it’s all about the tribes we lead. In other words, if you can connect with …
read more
Content marketing is all the rage these days. The ” content” in content marketing might be blog posts, videos, slide shows, white papers, podcasts, ebooks–anything that can be read, viewed, or listened to by others. But why do it, and how is it “marketing”? Good content can do all of the following: Build your image as a trusted authority in topics related to your business concerns. Develop loyal followers who will come back for more of what you have to offer. Enhance the likelihood that you and your business will be easily found in search engines. Create new relationships with …
read more
Relationships used to be the way business was done. A handshake and a person’s reputation were all that was needed to seal a deal. Social media has brought about the return of these values. A recent post by Jason Falls even declared that we can learn about social business from America’s small towns. In small towns everybody knows everybody’s business, everyone looks out for one another, trust is essential, and the way to grow is by helping others. The most effective social media marketing embraces these values. And just like in a small town, a reputation for trustworthiness and helpfulness …
read more
Our moms and our kindergarten teachers told us again and again: “It’s nice to share!” But why? How does sharing make things better? Before long the smartest kids figured out that sharing increased the fun. When you shared, more kids wanted to play with you. They’d stay in the sandbox longer, and they’d share their cool stuff with you. Those kindergarten lessons are no less true in the world of social media. In social media, sharing means reposting the content of others (always with a clear link back to them!) or recommending others to your followers. It’s no secret that …
read more
So you’ve followed the sage advice of savvy social media experts like Neal Schaffer, telling you why you need to have your business on Google+, and you’ve created a business page for your brand. Now what? Obviously (I hope it’s obvious!) the worst thing you could do is just let your page sit idle. So let’s set some priorities and get to work making your page effective. The recent announcement by Google that G+ is now heavily integrated into Google search makes it all the more important that you optimize your page and start your involvement on Google+. G+ is …
read more
