123-reg.co.uk

After a redesign in April 2012, Google+ is gradually increasing its presence in the vast array of social media. One feature of the social network that stands out from other platforms are ‘Circles’.

What are the purpose of Circles?

Ultimately to organise people and share information with the relevant target audience. Google state that Circles help you organise your connections “according to your real-life social connections”, therefore enforcing the social aspect that some social media sometimes forget.

Creating Circles

Google embrace simplicity, reflected in their latest redesign of G+. It is simple to search for people or brands then drag and drop them into the relevant Circles to group them as you wish. ‘Google is working hard to introduce new algorithms to match users based on friend connections and interests, ensuring that it can continue to boost engagement on its network.’ reported The Next Web.

Targeting

Circles can allow businesses to specifically target content to the appropriate users. Therefore, in theory, people only see the information that is relevant to them and they aren’t exposed to irrelevant posts which could cause annoyance. This could be likely to increase the chances of sharing and interaction.

Sharing

As well as sharing content with people in your Circles, the Circles themselves can also be shared. So, if you were to create a specific Circle containing news sources for a particular field, then this could be shared with another Circle of people who would be interested and find it of value.

Transparency

Circles can also be used for businesses to display their employees publicly and to communicate with them. The employees Circle implies transparency online and can make the experience more personal for users.

Building Circles and being connected to a large number of other people’s Circles is one way to try and get your business profile ‘verified’. The advantage of this is that as usernames cannot currently be secured on Google+, duplicate pages can be created by anyone. If a page is verified then it demonstrates authority given from Google.

Join in

Targeting Circles effectively with interesting and engaging content can give people a reason to want to share and involve themselves, therefore boosting your profile. Integration with your website, blog, or other platforms can increase awareness and encourage users to add you to their Circles.

The introduction of the Facebook style cover image provides more of an opportunity to personalise your Google+ profile and make it more attractive so it catches the attention of passers by, possibly provoking interaction.

Search

Earlier this year, Google launched “Search, Plus Your World”. When Google+ users are logged into their account then their Google search results will be enriched with relevant information shared  on Google+ by their connections.

Influencers

Each post on Google+ has the option to view its ‘ripples’, in other words how the post spread through the platform from user sharing and re-sharing. This assists in the identification of key influencers that you might wish to add to your circles and interact with.

Google+ Circles are an integral asset to the platform for building relationships, sharing information and improving transparency. For brands, building their Circles is one way to try and get their page verified, therefore increasing authenticity and making it easier for the page to be discovered.

Each time Google+ updates or redesigns, the usability and functionality improves. So what is next for the platform?

Share and Enjoy

Comments

In the first of a four part series (every Thursday) through a series of expert guest bloggers we hope to unravel and help you understand Google+. Here’s part 1:

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve no doubt heard of Google Plus. You may have even already created a page for your business on this ever-expanding social network. Well, whether you created your business page out of curiosity, to protect your brand, or just out of fear of not being on it, one thing is for certain, you need to do more than just create a business page to get any benefit from Google Plus.

Whilst this sounds really obvious, the kind of content that you share on your Google Plus business page, and the way you share it, can really determine whether your brand is successful on this social network.

Why should you care if your content is sharable? Isn’t enough that you’re just putting content on there? Well, the answer is simple. Like the basis of all social networks, sharing and engaging is fundamental for building up a strong touch-point with potential consumers on Google+. This will encourage users to ad you to their circles. Not only this, but the more authority Google see in your Google Plus page, through the amount of users that have your page in their circles, the more likely Google are to use your page as suggested content for users.

In this post, you will discover how to make your updates and the content you post as ‘sharable’ as possible.

Is your content relevant?

Making sure your content is relevant is basically about giving a good level of consideration to what’s going on in the world, your audience, and your brand.

Keeping your content and updates in-tune with your brand is beneficial to building a strong brand, whilst ensuring your content is relevant to current events and also relevant to your audience, it is going to have a greater appeal to your audience and therefore be more ‘shareable’.

Newlook clothing retailers put a nice spin on the topical event of London 2012 Olympics and the Queens Jubilee, and relate it to a trend they are pushing for the season. The result is a topical update which they have made relevant to their brand and target audience:

Viral Content

If you can create content that is likely to go viral, then this is an obvious way to increase the likelihood of your content being shared. It’s easier said than done as often viral content happens by accident. You couldn’t have dreamed up the way that Fenton (or Benton if you prefer) the dog went viral. If you’ve got the time and the resources to create content that’s likely to go viral, this is a sure-fire way to get your content shared. Alternatively, if you’ve got your finger on the pulse, you can be one of the first pages to share content that others have created which looks to be increasing in popularity; keeping your eye on trending topics within social media is a great way of achieving this. Users are still likely to re-share your share because the content is still relatively new. However, steer clear of content which has been viral in the past, but is no longer popular, no one likes old news.

Share your audience’s content

If you share content that was created originally by your audience (and give them credit), the audience member is more likely to share your page’s content in return. Other users will also see this and make more effort to engage with you, in the hope you share their content too. Everyone loves five minutes of fame. The Pinterest Google Plus page does this well:

Original Content

As with most social platforms and the web in general, original content is the best content! If you can’t think of anything completely original to write about and are planning to write about something that is being covered by a lot of other brands online, try to at least make sure you take an original angle on it if you can. Try to offer something unique (even if it’s a unique thought about a well-covered subject); this way, your audience are more likely to share your content. I tried to do this with a blog post I wrote about a recent AdWords update which was being perceived as a negative update for AdWords specialists. The angle I took was to explore the positive aspects of the update, rather than being negative like much of the coverage at the time. I then shared this content on Google Plus:

Whatever you do, do not copy and paste someone else’s content.

How you share is as important as what you share

Formatting

Things are more appealing when they look nice. Now, we’ve always been told to never judge a book by its cover, but most of us still do. At the very best, we might just about take into account the blurb on the back of the book. The online equivalent is judging content by its thumbnail, and possibly reading the description that goes along with it. So, choose a half-interesting thumbnail-image for the content you’re sharing. This will get your audience’s attention and increase the likelihood of your content being shared.

When you share a link on Google Plus, it usually pulls in that page’s Meta description as standard, so if you have control of that Meta description (e.g. if the content is from your own blog where you can write your Meta) make sure it’s engaging and prompts an action. SEOmoz did this here:

Don’t Just Paste a Link

There is nothing worse than seeing a page which has posted a link to some content, without a description of it. Your audience will be left thinking, ‘so what and ‘why is this relevant to me?’. With any link that you post, make sure you include at least a couple of sentences to introduce the content and inform your audience why they should be interested. You might also want to include a call-to-action at the end of this, to encourage the users click. For example, ‘Make sure your website is prepared by reading our guide to this latest algorithm update’.

Be ‘Human’

Show a ‘human’ side to your brand. Social networks are exactly that, social. They were fundamentally designed for people, not brands, and so users tend to engage more with brand pages that have an element of ‘being human’ within their updates. Don’t be scared to talk to your users as a person, or group of people, not just a brand. Use ‘we’ and don’t be afraid of signing off content with a name if you have a team of different people who manage your page.

Ask Questions

Include questions in your updates. This is a classic way to increase engagement and make users more likely to re-share your post with others by linking to it. ASOS have mastered this on Google Plus with short and direct updates on subjects that their audience are likely to have an opinion on:

Mention Other People

Mentioning people directly in your posts is a great way of getting the mentioned person’s attention and possibly getting them to re-share your content. You can do this by typing a + symbol before their name when you write your post.

Respond to Users

If a user comments on a post or piece of content, respond to their comment as soon as you can. Even if it’s a negative comment you should address it. John Lewis are good at responding to users on Google Plus:

Analyse your efforts

If you’ve been working really hard to make your content as ‘shareable’ as possible on Google Plus, how do you know if you’re on the right track?

You can get an idea of whether your efforts are working using the ‘Ripples’ part of Google Plus. Click on the little arrow on the top right hand side of a post where you will be displayed a drop down menu. If the post was shared publicly, there will be an option to ‘view ripples’:

You can then see how a post has been ‘spread’ by clicking the play button. You can then see the initial sharers of the post and how the shares increased. You might want to take a note of your initial sharers, and possibly mention them in your next piece of content, as they’re influential in sharing your content with wider audiences. You could also add them to your circles as they are evidently interested in your content and happy to share it

Google Analytics has a great section under its Social tab. Within this click Sources, then click ‘Google+’ in the table of sources displayed. Then click ‘Social Network and Action’ just above the table of URLs that appears. You can then see the kinds of social actions that are taking place on content from your website.. For example, you can see the amount of +1’s, comments, or re-shares. This can give you an indication of the kind of actions you need to increase. For example, if you are getting a lot of +1’s but not many re-shares, maybe you need to be more direct in the call-to-action on your posts and say something along the lines of ‘Re-share this to see what your circles think about the latest Google algorithm update’.

This post has showcased some tips on how to make your content as ‘shareable’ as possible on Google Plus. Give it a go on your Google Plus page today, and don’t forget to evaluate the kind of response you receive.

Remember it takes times for companies to build a presence when they are new to a social network, so don’t be disheartened if your content doesn’t perform well initially. Keep on posting and tweaking your efforts where you think they could be improved. Once you start getting positive responses, you will begin to get an instinct for the kind of content that works well. Before you know it, you’ll soon be on your way to social media success!

Tara West is a Digital Marketing Executive at Koozai, specialising in SEO & PPC

Share and Enjoy

Comments

Trying to collate user information for Facebook and Twitter can be slightly tricky at best. If for arguments sake we accept that Facebook has in excess of 750 million users and Twitter has just recently passed the 100 million mark, we can say with a large amount of confidence that these sites command a great deal amount of respect as online communities.
Furthermore, according to research from Basekit, 36 per cent of UK businesses are using Facebook to attract new customers, making it a more popular tool for advertising than the Yellow Pages and Thomson Local.

So we have established that social media is big and that in itself is a rather obvious statement. So, where is this going you ask? There has been considerable research into how people log onto social media sites in recent years. US digital world measurer’s comscore report titled “2012 Mobile Future in Focus”, gives strong insight into the changes in behaviour we have towards social media and our hand held devices. The report highlighted that in the US there were more than 400 smartphone devices on the market. Furthermore, 2011 saw the smartphone market overtake normal handsets in Germany, France and the US joining the UK and Spain which achieved this feat in 2010.

Given the fact that smartphone penetration grew at least 8 percentage points in the US and the five strongest European economies in 2011, I would suggest that it is the development of smart phones that have allowed social media sites to gain the edge I online marketing rather than anything ground breaking from Facebook or Twitter.

Hardcore fans of such social media sites would scoff at this. I suggest that they would point to the fact that smart phones have developed new technologies so that users can have easier access to social media. I accept that in recent year’s large phone manufacturers have been judged by consumers on how well they connect to social media but it is still my belief that the smartphone market is driving social media interactions. Would people be as engaged with Facebook if they were no longer able to access it on the move? I will allow you to forge your own opinions on that but I would argue interactions would decrease at some rate.

Although most analysts would refute that the desktop/laptop PC market was dying out, new methods of interacting are constantly evolving. As this evolutionary process continues, social media will grow.

As tablets develop and become more affordable, it is likely that in the coming years these devices will provide a challenge for the PC and laptop manufacturers giving grounds for the growing argument those users want to access social media on the move.

People want to interact with social media on the move in 2012, which is obvious. As a greater number of small businesses place an importance on social media in relation to marketing campaigns, this can only seriously take off if smart phones and tablets become more affordable.

So as smartphone brands are now tasked with rebranding and becoming life necessities, there is serious room for a budget smartphone to dominate the space. Nokia, once the world’s leading mobile phone provider, last month announced it would unveil its new budget smartphone, the Lumia 610. In China, a country that boats the largest percentage of smartphone users, the country’s largest search giant, Baidu, launched its first budget smartphone.

Whether we accept that smartphones have driven social interactions or not, what is clear is that people want to use social media on the go. It is the wrong strategy for companies to only sell from 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday. If the cost of smartphones does begin to decrease, the potential customer numbers online and engaged with social media is potentially astronomical. Social media sites have of course benefited from this but the real winners have and will continue to be small/medium sized businesses.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below and follow us on Twitter here 

Share and Enjoy

Comments

The biggest barrier facing social media advocates trying to convince CEOs and senior managers of the benefits to be had from social media is that too many they are preaching too think they ‘get it’, but don’t even know the half of it.

Social media isn’t one person’s role, it isn’t a separate department, it is the way modern people do modern business. That means it needs to be part of each and every role in the business and each and every department in the business too. Just the sheer possibilities and options makes it impossible for even a global company to be covering all bases, that’s how large social media is.

This great infographic from BuddyMedia shows just why covering it all is impossible and why business chiefs should be better educated as to the possibilities social media offers. It’s not just networks; it’s apps, it’s data sorting, targeted advertising, analytics, curation and more.

So this Friday afternoon, bookmark this post. Then next time somebody jokes about the simplicity of social media, or the lack of ‘reality’ you can print this off and show them that social media is more than just some retweets and likes.

Share and Enjoy

Comments

We’ve written before about the best time to post on social media for the biggest engagement but URL shortener experts Bit.ly recently revealed their own findings which are also well worth studying.

The report is based on Eastern Standard Time, so skews any UK data but the premise of what time in day works best, looks a familiar pattern however, that certainly those just starting out would do well to follow. It seems the lunchtime, post lunchtime slot is the best time to catch the Twitter traffic with the highest click count occurring between 1 and 3pm Monday through to Thursday).  So not the full week. Friday it appears is a bit of a lacuna. In fact the weekend starts early as according to bit.ly if you are looking to use Twitter as a way to drive traffic to your content you are wasting your time posting after 3pm Friday until Monday morning.  Facebook is similar but with a bigger window of 1pm to 4pm in the afternoon Monday to Thursday. If you want peak action then Wednesday 3pm for a Facebook post is the ultimate for traffic click through – who’d have thought it?

It’s pretty scientific from Bit.ly – did you know your post has a half-life - but not so it is difficult to understand.

The most interesting revelation from the report is the impact of Tumblr on the world of social networking. Many are looking at it as an option to perhaps bridge the differences between Twitter and Facebook, but as a business tool it is certainly still in its infancy, yet it does appear to interact much differently from it’s two bigger siblings. According to bit.ly. Tumblr traffic hits its peaks between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday. There are similar traffic spikes on Sunday when other click through rates are tiny. Amazingly, against almost every result shown by Twitter and Facebook, Friday evening appears to be the optimal time to post on Tumblr, perhaps reflecting the younger demographic and types of posts (ie social events) make good posts on Tumblr.

Of course, as we have said before, each and every sector and each and every business is unique. What you actually want to be doing is tweeting and posting when your own followers are most likely to be watching, or better still when your would-be followers are most likely to be watching as you also want to be increasing your follow too.

When have you found works best for your business?

Share and Enjoy

Comments

There are a growing number of bloggers across the globe earning a proper and respectable wage from their online writing projects and understandably more and more bloggers or would be bloggers or content creators are keen to collect their slice too.

Until now that has been a bit difficult. Positive comments are nice but don’t pay the bills and pushing a link towards a paypal donation is never looked upon as the most professional approach to ask for some reward. A number of microdonation services have sprung up in recent years, claiming to hold the answer, some have been and gone, others appear to have more longevity.

One that appears to be getting a foothold is Flattr. A service aimed at all those positive comment leavers to leave a monetary tip for the content creators too. This week they have announced a deal that could at least put there service under the noses of more and more potential users, and they hope, lead to a groundswell and movement towards tipping for online content your have enjoyed. The deal is with Dailymotion, the biggest video portal behind the giant that is YouTube. Those uploading to Dailymotion now have the option to include a Flattr button onto their channels and on the credits of each video, so you can appeal for donations or tips to earn money from your shared content without the need for a pre-roll ad that so often frustrates.

The concept behind Flattr aims to avoid the barrier of constantly re-entering card details or the like, and takes on the strength of the like button of Facebook by tipping from a pre-paid ‘pot’ with a minimum of just 2 Euro investment per month of which Flattr takes a 10% service fee.  A relatively small investment but in the world of social media, becoming known as the person doing good deeds and genuinely rewarding others could have almost unquantifiable long-term benefits.

Whether this latest move by Dailymotion will kickstart the concept remains to be seen, but in a world where the debate over paid-for-content still rages, this may be the next ‘acceptable’ step for many, especially if the correct ‘well-meaning’ spin is put on the regime.

Are you using Flattr or any other micropayment service? Are there enough ‘good-hearted’ people about for the scheme to ever take off?

Share and Enjoy

Comments

The battle of sexes continues in the virtual world and it’s the fairer sex that leads the way according to the latest report from Nielsen.

STATE OF THE MEDIA SPRING 2012 – ADVERTISING & AUDIENCES PART 2: BY DEMOGRAPHIC released today is a US-centric study on who is engaging and where and it throws up some interesting stats, suggesting a big shift in the online audience in recent years. The report shows that women are now significantly more likely to engage with social media than men.

Women are also 8% more likely than the average online adult to build or update a personal blog and 6% more likely to have created at least one social networking profile

If advertisers needed more proof that their target engagers are female not male the report also suggests a lady is 12% more likely than the average adult to purchase a product featured on TV.

A pretty clear definition and pattern that advertisers will no doubt no longer ignore. So don’t be surprised to see more fluffier, pinkier or simply more feminine websites and networks springing up in months to come as the strive for social media returns enters a new chapter.

Share and Enjoy

Comments

They say practice makes perfect and the same is very true in the Twittersphere. The reason Stephen Fry and Richard Bacon still have such strong Twitter followings is in much part due to the fact that they have been doing it so long they understand the medium better than anyone else. For the Twitterati it is usually clear from how and what they tweet that Twitter is now an essential part of the their daily routine.

With that in mind here’s our six top tips on how to become more tweetable:

Learn the ropes

Before you plunge headlong into launching a Twitter profile for your business make sure you really know what it entails. Monitoring Twitter is free and doesn’t need you to be tweeting, just watching and absoring information.

Get personal before you encourage company

It’s probably wise to protect your brand first and make your first Twitter steps under a personal account. It needn’t even be in your name, create an alias if you like but certainly get to understand how Twitter works under the bonnet. The intricacies of how it works can only be understood by using it.

Practice keeping it short

It is amazing how difficult tweeting can be. The say size doesn’t matter, but on Twitter it does. 140 characters is next to nothing. Especially if you are replying to another twitter user with a 10 character twitter name – that’s 12 characters (10 for the name, one for the @ sign and one for the space before it). Being concise is one thing but ensuring it makes sense too takes time.

Be creative in your language

In primary schools they call them WOW words in the Twittersphere they work. Descriptive, short, sharp and to the point – the language you use should be as creative as the concepts you are tweeting about. A clever choice of words will also help you stand out from the crowd – but don’t try to be too clever.

Editing is an art, a skill and a science

Twitter and most Twitter clients will tell you when you are over your character limit and help you pare it down, but being able to do it first time without the prompts will save you time and hassle. Remember you want peope to respond to and possibly comment when they re-tweet, that’s when it gets very skillful. If you want to encourage comment with a retweet, you need to leave enough space for your tweet, your username and their comment. A real case of less is more.

Make it regular

Not a chore, but apps like Buffer and IFTTT and various Twitter clients allow you to schedule your tweets so you can build up a stock and have them released over time. If you choose to do that make sure you are monitoring any responses though. Twitter is all about immediacy, and engagement wont come from a five hour delay in responding.

Share and Enjoy

Comments

It’s a question still asked in board rooms, on conference calls and in face-to-face meetings probably a thousand times a day. What is the ROI of Social Media?

Google as ever love to listen and offer solutions and it’s aim is to answer that question with the latest update to Google Analytics.

The nature of social media makes it difficult to really quantify where or when sales funnels begin and what exactly social media is responsible for, but with the new set of social reports within the much trusted Google Analytics system Google claims to “bridge the gap between social media and the business metrics you care about”.

The ‘Social Report’ as Google label it, should help you identify the full value of traffic from social sites and measure direct conversions and also their impact on future conversions. The official Google Analytics blog has a good introduction to the new features. What is particularly helpful is the analysis of shares, via Twitter, Google +, etc which is often a strong indicator of how well your content is being pushed out and your reach is being extended beyond just your own following.

It is far from perfect, but for free this latest tweak by Google Analytics goes a long way towards catching up the with Web 2.0 world it has never really been able to serve. The ability to track downloads of MP3 fileslike podcasts is still awaited, but at least now you are able to track more readily in a single place, who is ‘sharing’ your content and promotions.

Share and Enjoy

Comments

We all know the power of Google and while it has dipped toes into the social media sphere before and failed, this time, with Google + most of the experts are taking notice and suggesting they’ve got it right. But why?

1. It’s indexed by Google

This clearly means that anything you put there, any mention of your business, any discussions you are involved in are definitely throwing your name out there. The more mentions of your name, the more appearances on Google search and hopefully the more business will come your way.

 2. It’s busy

People signed up in their thousands last year to Google + and while that is slowing down, it is not something those already signed up are ignoring. Latest research suggests that 60% of Google + users are logging in every day and that 80% of them are engaging with their circles every week.

3. It’s big

The total number of Google + members is said to have passed the 90 million mark, so that’s a pretty wide potential audience. Not as large as other more established networks of course, but remember thise signing up to Google + have probably done so as they are more committed to engaging and want to take more of a part in the network. Those go-getters are perfect for your business.

 4. It’s more customisable

Maybe not in look, but in function, which is perfect for you when you are trying to run a business too. Gooogle’s search background is clearly evident in what you can do with Google +. Rank other people’s posts and shares and personalise how you order people within circles (effectively groups) you have created. You can define how, what, where and when you see and engage with what is going on on Google +.

 5. Creating a business page is easy

OK, it’s not branding friendly, but people are still searching for text, so that is perfect. Creating a page is literally a few clicks with the minimum of fuss and you then have a hub to work from on the network and increase your brand or at least ‘name’ visibility.

 6. Your competitors may not be there… yet

Stealing a march on the opposition is always good and when the tool is as potentially powerful as Google + that could be massive. More and more businesses are wising up, so you may have to be quick, but becoming an expert on Google + may just be the perfect way of staying ahead of your competition and at least showing to potential customers you are not stuck in the dark ages.

If you are serious about using social media as part of your business – and if you are serious about your business you should be – then Google + is where it is about to all happen. If you learn nothing else and appear on only one social media network, Google + is most likely where you need to be.

Share and Enjoy

Comments