• Google+ posts sent to “public” rank fairly well in Google search results. Merging Google properties into Google+ and integrating it with the search engines has a tremendous impact on where your company appears in search engine results pages (SERPs).
• You can manage circles—distribute clients into specific categories and share different posts, news or deals with different circles accordingly. This is a great way to connect with fans and share information with clients.
• “Hangouts” is another great way to engage your customers and colleagues. It’s a high quality video chat that allows you to interact with your fans face to face. This interaction will allow you to get to know them, answer questions as well as get live product/service feedback. Businesses can also use “Hangouts” for video conferencing, to push live events and seminars to customers.
• Use the Google+ badge to promote your site and your Google+ page. Google+ badge links your website with your Google+ page and lets others know you’re here. When a visitor likes your site and clicks the icon they will be taken directly to your Google+ page and will be able to share and follow your posts.
• Google+ Direct allows people to simply enter a ‘+’ before your company name when searching on Google and get directly to your Google+ page.
• The +1 button on Google+ is an ideal way to have customers spread the word about your business and its presence on Google+.  You can also connect your +1’s from your website to your +1’s on your Google+ page. People tend to trust recommendations from people they already know.
• “Ripples” is a Google+ tool that allows you to watch your posts and information as they travel across social networks.  You can easily determine who is sharing your content and who is paying attention to it.
• With “analytics”, you can get information about your page’s followers, visitors, and the general traffic and social activity around your business.

Google+ for business is unique in that it has blurred the lines between personal social networks such as Facebook, and business networks like LinkedIn. Contact WSI to help you invigorate you web presence with the social media game changer—Google+.

• One key element of Google+ is a focus on targeted sharing within subsets of a social group (or what Google calls ‘Circles’).
• Also within Google+ is a section specifically for viewing, managing and editing multimedia. Google+ includes an image editor, privacy options and sharing features.
• ‘Hangouts’ is Google’s new group chat feature. Instead of directly asking a friend to join a group chat, users instead click ‘start a hangout’ and they’re instantly in a video chat-room alone. At the same time, a message goes out to their social circles, letting them know that their friend is ‘hanging out’ and that they are invited to join.

Get ready to integrate Google+ into your Internet marketing strategy.

• Learn how location-based services work. First things first; your company must understand how location-based services work –not the nittygritty technology aspect, but generally how people use location-based apps on their phones to “check in” whenever they go places. Essentially, global positioning satellites (GPS) locate the users and determine where they may be, thus providing options to select a location or create a new listing. Once a person “checks in”, their friends will know where they are at that moment or where they regularly visit. Through these apps, businesses can share promotions or special discounts so that people who “check in” will receive notifications of deals that are physically nearby. Location-based technology work on networks called “social location platforms” or “social location services”.
• Learn about the platforms. There are many different platforms out there. Now that your company is looking at the opportunity of location-based marketing, it’s your job to become familiar with these platforms, learn which ones your target audience is on and decide how best to leverage them for your business. Before launching any sort of campaign, sign up for the networks, download the apps to your phone and learn how a person would use each platform.
• Determine your goals. Playing with the app on your own mobile phone may entice you to get started with location-based services right away. But take a step back and think about the goals you want to achieve.
  • Are you looking to increase foot traffic?
  • Do you have an offer you want to promote?
  • Are you trying to increase sales?
  • Do you want to attract new customers?
• Create a presence on the social location networks. Once you select your networks (by evaluating which ones your customers are actually on), it’s time to create your presence. Ensure your business is listed on all relevant social location networks and remember to validate the address, phone number and other contact details to ensure they are correct and up-to-date. Depending on the platform, you may be able to update your contact details yourself. For some, you may have to contact the network for help if you don’t have access to edit your listing.

According to eMarketer, location-based ad revenues worldwide will reach $6.2 billion by 2015, consuming 35% of total mobile ad revenues. This is a considerable increase over 5 years (from the $588 million spent in 2010) as you can see from the chart above. With this in mind, perhaps now is a good time for your company to take a look at location-based marketing and see how it can fit with your overall strategy.

The term “so-lo-mo” is popping up in our vocabulary, but what does it mean?

It’s the convergence of social media, local search and mobile marketing as a method of creating personal engagement with customers. When done correctly, so-lo-mo can help your company reach the right person, in the right place, at the right time. The idea of “checking in” has become the next big thing in social media. People are now sharing their whereabouts with the world. But why? What are some things that would motivate people (specifically your customers) to check in to your business? Here are some reasons:

• Fun and games –Many “check in” programs are actually games that allow participants to earn virtual points, and people take part in them just for the fun of it.
• Connecting with friends –A lot of “check in” applications allow your friends and connections to see your activity; often times the idea is to facilitate face-to-face encounters with your friends.
• Recommending places they like –People also like to recommend and promote the places they like. Endorsing a good place and sharing opinions is another reason people “check in”.
• Freebies and discounts –If not for the games or the ability to connect with friends and share feedback, people will “check in” to receive free offers and special discounts. This is a sure-fire way to encourage your customers to tell the world where they are.

Mobile local search is a technology that allows people to access the Internet on a mobile device to search for local businesses and services. According to eMarketer, an estimated 91 million US consumers will use the Internet on a mobile device at least monthly by the end of 2011, and research shows that much of the searches will be for local content (Mobile Users Expand Their Search Habits, eMarketer, August 1, 2011). This means businesses have an opportunity to reach local customers, who are potentially searching for their products or services on their mobile devices.

Having a mobile-friendly website is an important step in the right direction when it comes to launching an effective mobile marketing strategy. But what’s the next step?

Like any standard website you launch, to ensure success you must follow it with a well-designed search engine marketing strategy. What good is a website if you’re not driving any traffic to it? The same is true in the mobile world. A good mobile local search strategy will bring traffic to your business.

Mobile Search Marketing Tips

There are several services online that allow you to easily create and track your QR code usage. We are currently using delivr.com and finds that is meets most of our basic reporting needs. As the use of QR codes grows, then I’m sure more robust reporting tools will be developed. Until then, find one that you like and start using it to measure the effectiveness of your QR code campaigns.

Answer the following questions:

• Does your company do advertising using print media, such as direct mail, newspapers, magazines? If yes, then you could use QR codes to integrate your offline marketing into your online strategy. Advertisers are limited with how much information you can provide in a print piece. A QR code solves that problem and allows you to engage users into your digital media (website, blog, videos, Facebook, etc.)
• Are you engaged in email marketing ? If so, you could use QR codes as a way to build your email subscriber lists.
• Are you looking for ways to grow your Facebook page LIKES? Why not create a QR code that drives people to your Facebook page where they can LIKE your company and get a special deal?
• Do you have videos describing your service or how a product works? If so, you could create a QR code that links directly to the video thereby providing useful information to the user.

Don’t skip on the planning part. I’ve seen many poorly utilized QR codes that offer no value and actually leave a negative impression of the company. The most common mistake is that businesses fail to deliver value with their QR code campaigns. If your objective is to simply send people to the Home page of your regular, non-mobile site, then you would be best served to avoid using them at all at this time.

Get to work or your strategy or hire a digital marketing professional to help you with it.

In upcoming posts, I will be discussing implementation best practices and measurement / analytics…stay tuned.

• Assess Your Online Reputation – Start with simple searches on popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and MSN for your name, company, brand(s), product(s) etc. Tally the results. If you have more negative results, you need to fix the problem fast! Even if you have mostly indifferent results, you need to do something about it. Users need to find something relevant and positive about you to win them over.
• Monitor Your Online Reputation – Monitor what’s being said online. Track negative publicity before it can seriously affect search rankings. Use Internet monitoring systems like Google and Yahoo Alerts to track the news, Feedster and Technorati to monitor blogs and other free online tools to inform you of information about your brand.
• Analyze What’s Being Said About You - Positive and negative feedback are both important! Where did your communication fail? Did you respond positively to consumer feedback? Are you pro-active about the positive steps you took? Are you taking criticism silently or are you making an attempt to improve? You can’t please everyone, but you need to satisfy a whole lot of people who matter.
• Influencing Online Reputation – Influence your online reputation with a combination of marketing, Public Relations and Search Engine Optimization. Enhance your online reputation by building a positive reputation. Prevent any potential reputation problems by responding constructively to negative feedback.

ORM maintains high SEO rankings, gives effective and positive exposure to your brand, drives negative information down the search engine rankings, increases transparency and communication between the consumer and you; and helps you improve on your customer service levels.

ORM looks simple, but requires expertise to implement and stay up-to-date. Contact WSI for more information and to seek support in implementing your own Online Reputation Management system.