|
Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others. With a smile, a laugh, a whisper or a cheer, we connect with others every single day.
Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it. We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project: 
While we’re certainly jumping into Google+ Pages for Business and building our base of knowledge on this social network, here are five indirectly related but completely separate B2B SEO initiatives to remain in focus with, as 2012 rolls along. 
Now adding the normal Google+ share button or the +1 button to websites is as easy as copy-pasting a small block of code from Google. But what about PDFs? If you are distributing content as PDF documents, here is a simple trick to embed a Google+ share button which makes it easy for your readers to distribute it. 
Google has today opened its Google+ social networking site up to users aged 13 years and over, dropping the signup age from 18 years an over. Google+ is now available to anyone that is old enough to have a Google Account, which is 13+ in most countries. Google last week showed their hand in terms of social and search integration, and the relationship between Google+ engagement and search rankings. Thought search, and particularly SEO, were dead? Think again! Whilst demand for traditional web search has been in decline, slowly being replaced by the global preference to seek out answers via social channels – Google has been plotting a viable way to bring the two together, in a way that should immediately appeal to the wider market. 
Read about how Google is forcing Google+ on the world, and why marketers can't turn their back on the search and social giant. Google+ is changing the web, whether you like it or not. And the more users Google+ attracts, the more social data Google can collect. Not a believer? Consider the powerful changes we've already seen Google make since the dawn of Google+. 
Based on trends observed in the past few years, I make two predictions about how Google+ will affect brands in the near future. Prediction 1: Search will become more specific, more contextual and more social Prediction 2: Brands that are early adopters of Google+ will overtake competitors in search results and therefore in online share of voice 
Google, Plus Your World is here and publications are recommending Google+ for SEO alone! The problem is, if you focus on your Google+ brand page, you will not get the search benefits of Google+. Can a brand page help? Yes, it certainly can. Some of the search benefits of Google+ Brand Pages were documented well before Google, Plus Your World was released. However, if your objective is to capitalize on SEO improvements using Google, Plus Your World, you need to get into Your Audience’s Trusted World through employees and independent sharing. 
This comprehensive Google+ SEO guide covers every aspect and angle of Google+ and how it impacts search. My normal TL;DR has been replaced with a Google+ SEO Best Practices section located at the bottom of this post. The White House has its own Google+ page that opened to the masses earlier this morning, and it has seen a rapid expansion of its circles to over 1,300 within a few hours. Apart from using this page to issue statements from the nation’s administrative branch, there will also be behind-the-scenes photos and videos uploaded from time to time, in addition to Google Hangouts with staff. 
If you try to create a Google account from Google's homepage, you'll notice that Google redesigned the page, but that's not all. You'll now have to create a Gmail account, a Google Profile and you'll automatically join Google+. Until now, creating a Google account was quite simple. You could either use an existing email address or create a Gmail account. 
Brands and businesses that have been reluctant to join Google+ might want to reconsider. It appears that Google has started to integrate Google+ Page information in search results. 
Buffer the app lets you to schedule tweets or Facebook posts so as to spread them across the day ensuring a wider reach and an increase in your CTR and rate of engagement. As the next step, Buffer has planned the expansion to other Social Networks. You will be able to Buffer to Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest real soon too. This should make the product even more complete. |
While the power of sharing works on any social network, many of us using Google+ to market our businesses have noticed that network’s ability to boost the effect through the roof. Why? My experience points to at least four contributing factors- A surprise star is emerging on Google+ -- its "Hangouts" videoconferencing feature. 
* Learn how to create a Google+ Page * Learn how Google+ helps with search engine ranking * Learn how to engage current and potential customers * Strengthen your brand and attract new customers! 
A fascinating circumstance happened during the hangout that I hadn’t envisioned; very few people were writing comments in my stream. What I was seeing were dozens and dozens of people posting hangouts of their own to share in Obama’s hangout. People wanted to talk with each other about what was going on in the conversation between the five individuals selected and President Obama. People were using the same technology that Google was offering the President. 
Never one to ignore new social networks, U.S. President Barack Obama will participate Jan. 30 in his first Google+ Hangout in which he’ll respond to questions from YouTube users. Obama — who in 2011 took part in town halls for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter audiences — will speak live at 5:30 p.m. ET on the White House’s Google+ page. 
Google's new personalised search feature, which it has called "Search plus Your World", means account holders – anyone signed in to Google via features such as GoogleMail or GoogleDocs – will see people and organisations they are connected to on Google+ prominently in their search results – just beneath the search box. And that, say some experts, could prove the tipping point for Google+ becoming just as significant for brands, including charities, as Twitter and Facebook. 
If you are a business that relies on Google for organic search traffic and sales, personalised search results will become the norm when users are logged into their Google account. The only solution? Join Google+. Create a brand page and become an active member. Get your brand page into as many influential people’s circles as possible, post keyword-rich status updates often in order to increase your relevance in important searches and do it in a natural non-spammy way. 
Google+ is a social network that is being built backwards. Hundreds of millions of people rely on Google, but not its social network. That makes things awkward in a lot of ways, and certainly Google’s efforts to find a foothold in the social space have seemed, until recently, feeble or forced. I think Larry Page’s statement that 60% of Google+ users engage with Google products once a day is in fact quite meaningful for the health of the search giant’s social efforts. 
Some Google users are now seeing a feature in Google search results that let them ask their Google+ friends questions about the query they just searched for. Specifically, at the bottom of the search results page, it says: “Want to ask your friends about query? Ask on Google+. 
I’ve spent about a week trying to track down the rumors that Google had expressed interest in a Pinterest acquisition and here’s what I know thus far (here’s where to email if you know more): So Google never gave an official offer to grid bookmarking service Pinterest, but the desire to do was expressed (somehow?) indirectly, with a price in the “hundreds of millions” according to multiple sources. 
A big possibility is that Facebook will continue to be a tool for users to get in touch with old college friends, to share a music video to people they like or to show their photos of last month’s ski trip. Google+, on the other hand, is a way to find out more about your favorite brand of clothing’s new collection or how others feel about that Italian restaurant across the street from work, as it is much more brand oriented with Circles. 
Should Google be more forthright and honest about its data? Certainly. Everything coming from the company officially and unofficially suggests its doing well. 
Some people have rocketed their way to high visibility, added to hundreds of thousands of circles, by virtue of their actions on Google+. So while I can’t promise you the big numbers, here are ten ways you can get found on Google+, and examples to boot |
| Previous |
|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |  |
68 |
|
Next |
