Here’s an easy way to break the ice with influencers on Google+ or any social network, using Google alerts
We all know that getting influencers to take the time to get to know you is key, right? In fact my first social marketing book, Wickedly Evil Social Marketing Tactics was about just that back in 2008.
We all know how to use Google alerts to monitor our personal reputation, Domains, product names and get boat loads of info on any keyword term right? It’s easy, just put your name, domain URLs, and product names in at the link above. Plus, Google will send you an email each day with links that match up. Done for you rep management :]
The only difference between you and the big boys and girls (sometimes called gurus) is that they simply have not gotten to know you yet. So, by commenting with care, +1 ing posts without overdoing it, you can begin that process. Then sharing their posts when they fit your Google Plus marketing niche, your name will come up again and again in their Notifications red bubble on the black bar Google bar.
The key here is not to be a jackass and be so blatant about this that it turns the person you are trying to make a friend into an enemy. Bottom line: Don’t be too evil…
So, identify 3 top marketers in your niche, that you want to get to know. That you want to do JVs with, that you not just want to use for your own selfish reasons, but that you actually respect, and want to be part of your list of go to Google+ experts (there’s mine).
Enter their names in Google Alerts and Google will return their latest posts and comments each day, in a single email. If you are getting too much back and want to zero in on Facebook, or Twitter or just Google+ like me? Then add the term Google+ and that will lean it out.
In fact if you put Chris Lang in a Google alert, you would get most of my comments and posts. Just one of the ways to follow a power user to create relationships with influencers direct from my new book, “Google+ Marketing: An Hour A Day” due out this summer :]
Just what does Google’s new Search Plus One Social Search mean to you?
Google results do not include Twitter results since Twitter closed their deal with Google and uses nofollow on their links (Twitter is screaming…)
Google social results 90% of the time do not include Facebook results since Facebook closes most of the site to Google’s spiders (Facebook is screaming but not as much as Twitter)
It does open a whole new world for SEO, doubling you traffic and building massive followings on Google+ that convert into clients, buyers and email subscribers… (I am loving it :)
Put simply, most people are not even seeing these results yet, so join my Google+ marketing webinar alert list here and be sure you get the lowdown on what Google is doing and how it affects you…
Click the video below for a 60 second preview of the new Google
We will be starting promptly at 8 PM tomorrow and moving very fast so have a paper and pen ready. Of course there will be a replay, but to get that link you will need to join my newsletter list.
It’s free to join, and you can leave at any time… See ya on the show, and of course we will be taking your questions as well to be sure you get what you need for you Google+ marketing. – Chris Lang
Here’s 10 new Google+ tips that you have never heard of before, and you get to write the 10th tip, and even be featured in my Ultimate Google+ Marketing Guide
Sounds pretty good don’t it? Below is my Top 10 Google+ Tips, but it’s missing one, there’s only 9 plus tips. So…. The best G+ tip submitted by commenters here on the blog post wins inclusion in my new Guide To Google Plus Marketing that will be downloaded by a few hundred thousand in the next year.
Here we go now…
#10 – Set the post to public before you type your first word
Since every other social network to date has posted publicly by default, most Google+ users expect the same to be true. But it’s not. And truly, you want most of your posts to be public. If you only post to circles, anyone looking at your profile will see an empty page, unless they are IN one of your circles that you posted to.
, as soon as you click in the “Share what’s new” box to create a post, set your post to public everytime first thing. We can’t share your post to our public stream or link to it if it is not set to public.
#9 – Create a Headline, not a paragraph
Your next step is to create a headline, not a paragraph. That means enclosing your headline in asterisks, one at the beginning, one at the end, no leading or trailing spaces and your headline will appear in bold text.
Most headlines either push fear or shout benefits, or a combination of both. If you don’t know how to write a headline, here’s a great How To Write Hot Headlines article.
#8 – Use an image, in every post
Ever notice that every major blog uses an image in their posts? Well they pay for stock images, so they have immediate access. You probably don’t have the budget for that so here’s how to get royalty free images online.
Go to Flickr.com >>> Click search >>> click advanced search. You don’t even need to enter keywords yet, here’s the Flickr page this will get you to….
Scroll down the page and check all three of these checkboxes.
Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content
Find content to use commercially
Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon
Now search with your keywords and you will return a list of images that you can use, along with a list of copyright limits. In fact the image on this blog post was found there itself. Just search “top 10″ using the settings above if you want to use it for your own top 10 list blog posts.
To get more traction on both Facebook and Google+ be sure you include a relevant image at the top of your post. That goes double for posts only on Google+. Setting your post apart from the others is key with an image and a headline that tells us there is something better and more benefit laden than the rest of our very busy stream.
#7 – Call to action
While saying “Please reshare, +1 and comment” in an effort to get to the Google+/hot What’s Hot section is a great way to get flagged for gaming the system, you should be including some kind of call to action in a G+ post…
What do you want the reader to do? Click thru to the content, comment there, or comment on the G+ post? Do you want them to answer a specific question? Or do you want then to ask you one?
Then keep that above the fold…. Google+ gives you 9 carriage returns before it cuts off your text and enters the Expand…. link (usually). You have to get your message across in that time or it will never be seen by most. So, if you want the entire post read then return your call to action and post some benefit copy as to why the reader should click “Expand…” and read on.
#6 – Time of day makes or breaks Google+ traffic
Posting in the middle of the night, late evening, too early in the morning or on Holidays is a great way to think Google+ is dead. Two ways you can determine when your market is awake:
1 – Your email list (mine is on AWeber) will have a list geo demographics showing where you are getting subscribers from.
2 – Also your Google Analytics will show where your blogs are getting traffic from. YouTube analytics / insight will show you where your videos are getting engagement and views.
Adjust these time zones to your time and remember, that early morning, mid morning, lunch time and just after, and just after 5 PM are huge engagement times. You can adjust your time to another time zone here…
#5 – Keywords, Hashtags and Hangout search
Use keywords that you want your post to be found under on both Google+ search and Google search. G+ posts are ranking well in both.
Use hashtags just like you learned to do on Twitter beginning with the # pound sign for advanced users that search for content hash tagged linked. There are tons of articles on this and here’s Vic Gundotra’s own hash tag post and video.
#4 – Google Analytics, know where you have been, before you move forward
One reason many say Google+ is dead is because they have no way to know what is going on on Google+. Be sure you have Google Analytics set up on your blog so you can really see how Google+ is converting for you.
While I only got 15 comments and 20 +1′s on a post last week, hundreds more clicked thru to the linked content. If you are judging Google+ by public interaction you are probably selling G+ short. So be sure to be measuring your click thru rate for real insight. I will bet you are pleasantly surprised at what you see…
A great way to make notes as to when social media campaigns succeeded or failed is to add annotations to specific days. Here’s a video from Google explaining how to do so…
#3 – Convert your hangouts to YouTube videos
While Google+ Hangouts On Air are still limited to about 200 top users and still in testing, you can still get much of the benefits by screen capturing your hangouts and posting them to YouTube.
Mac users have the software they need already on their machines for free and for Windows users Camtasia is the most popular software and an industry standard.
So while the rest of us wait for On Air streamed hangouts to become public you can return much of the benefits of this to your followers thru screen capture and replays on YouTube.
NOTE: Be sure to say when you post a public hangout that it is being recorded for public replay. It is against YouTube’s TOS to post video with people in it that are unknowing recorded. I have seen videos in the millions of views get taken down due to this violation.
#2 – One G+ Hand Washes The Other
We have all heard about how sharing, comments and +1s make our Google+ posts more visible to others on Google+ and in Google search. But how do you actually get them is a mystery to most. Well it’s easy actually :]
To get shared by power users, you have to make the first move and share theirs.
Want lots of comments? Then engage others on posts where conversations are going on. That means you have to read the comments that are previously posted and then join the conversation, not just Twitter style post a one sentece blurb and forget about everyone else. Remember that social media is not about you.
Guess who I am most apt to +1? People that have +1′d my posts. +1 ing a post on Google+ lets the poster know you were there. Plus one ing comments does the same. Use this time saving tool and let your peeps know you were there, expecially if you are time challenged and they will do the same on yours…
This is not Twitter or Facebook, we are not going to follow you back just because you follow us. Sharing, commenting, +1 ing… That will get you followed by power users that will re-share your content and do you way more good than any amount of followers will 99% of the time.
#1 – You Tell Me….
This is your chance to shine. Tell me in the comments below what your number one Google+ tip is. You could be featured in the full version of this post in my new Ultimate Guide to Google+ Marketing in PDF. This PDF will be read by 100s of 1000s in 2012 as I am interviewed by top Internet Marketers while I write my new book, “Google+ Marketing: An Hour A Day” published by Sybex this summer, on Barnes and Noble bookshelves and Amazon.com in print and digital delivery.
Be sure to use your Google+ profile link in the URL box so others can follow you as well below.
In the mean time, help your friends out and share this blog post using the social media buttons at the top of this post. Happy New Year to all! – Chris
Since there is such a huge multivariate of experts on Google+, can I make a suggestion? Pick One. Yeah One. Just one Google+ expert, just one Google+ Authority. Here’s Why!
All the time I see pleas from new peeps on Google+, asking who to follow for G+ business marketing advice. We usually have no idea what kind of business he or she has, what goals the person has, or what they want to achieve on Google+ marketing their business.
The poor person usually gets back No less than 30 people to follow on Google+. They all usually say the same thing, mostly sharing Google Blogs and most advice on Google Plus comes down to “Click here” and “Go there…” Nothing wrong with that either, but there are other things you should be doing in your Google+ Marketing plan too.
In IM (internet marketing) we call this Guru Hopping or Niche Hopping: Go follow every one, try everything, fail at everything. Then go cry. In fact it was Chris Brogan that ispired this article with his We Are No Experts blog post today.
Here’s a little different plan than most Google+ click experts will tell you to use and one that will return way more than ANY number of followers on Google+, Facebook or Twitter ever could
Can I ask you something? Do you have the #1 expert in any subject, that you can ask for the decisive answer, on any question that you have?
No you probably don’t. Because you spend most of your time worrying about how many friends you have on Twitter, Facebook and G+ rather than who and how many you have been a friend to….
So here is a list of in my eyes, The most accessible and top experts in their particular niches. These are the people you want to get to know. Because when you need help, and you have used social sharing, commenting and voting to let these people get to know you, they will help you.
Here’s the most accessabile top expert niche authority peeps on Google+
Bottom line, when it comes to Google+ Marketing, help your followers, that is your job, true leaders help, not just lead. Get to know the Google+ influencers, that will return more value for your time than any amount of followers, sales or traffic.
Got someone you would like to add to the list? Let me know in the comments below and Happy Holidays every one…
The very charming, highly skilled Lynette Young , also the creator of The Women Of Google+ drug some of my best Google+ Marketing Secrets out in a hangout session on her Monday night show.
Here is some of the Google+ Marketing secrets you will learn:
How Lynette built a 191,000 following on Google+ in the first 5 months…
How to create strong relationships at warp speed
Where time is best spent on any social site to do the same
Why you should or should not be creating Google+ business pages
Learn about the new Google+ Hangouts On Air Platform, and how it records directly to YouTube and presents your webinar replay minutes later…
Click To Play now!
IMPORTANT: Notice at the beginning we get off to a slow start. This is Google’s new On Air Google+ Hangouts feature. It records the hangout, and minutes after you are done, it has the replay ready on YouTube.
But be ready when you get started, our slow start at the beginning can cause cold leads to the video to bounce very quickly. This is a 3 day old new Google+ marketing feature and Lynette did very well with it, just be aware that it starts recording right away when you begin the Google+ Hangout.
Google’s new menu UI has brought mixed feelings, so I thought I would explain how I see Google’s thinking, UI best practices and why what is where on the new Google navigation…
My fellow G+ user, Thomas Morffew, posted that – No Google Music, Wallet, Offers or Blogger was a glaring ommision. NOTE: Thomas is UK based and this is the screen shot of the UK version of the new Google menu… So I respond…
Currently, there is no Music, Offers, Wallet, Mobile or Blogger and it was not in the prior menu either. Actually Thomas Morffew, this menu is in keeping with prior Google UIs so I am not surprised things like Music is missing.
Typically Google menu UIs contain 9 items vertically, as does G+ notification over lays. 9 items seems to be what G finds best use. The first row is search based. Search an item, then click an item on the left menu, that search is filtered to that search filtered place, be it Google Images or say YouTube. Been that way for over two years now with the old overlay.
I would show you this in action here, but currently, I still do not have the new Google UI out of my datacenter in Arizona. However I have had it for last week and a half on my Google TV, go figue.
Also why would they have Mobile in a browser menu? And Wallet and Offers is set it and forget it, you get offer alerts to Gmail, neither belongs on this menu, but I can understand Blogger and Music complaints. In my mind, Google simply ran out of room.
Hope you have the new Google Menu UI in your browser, let me know what you think in the comments below, or share this on Google+ and PM +ChrisLang to let me know your opinions. – Chris
Google Friend Connect, I want to say goodbye my old friend. You will be sorely missed, Google Friend Connect made the web better, for me, for you, and especially for Facebook!
So, before every blogger with a keyboard says Google Friend Connect was doomed from the start, or worse, let’s set the record straight, and give Google+ Friend Connect a proper farewell, shall we?
Let me take you back in time, to a time Chris Lang was not a Google Social Marketing fanboy. A time when MyBlogLog and Digg ruled the world of social media traffic, and Chris Lang was a fanboy with out a cause, shall we?
Google Friend Connect Timeline
This story starts in 2007, when Digg, Delicious and MyBlogLog were king, and Twitter and Facebook were just sites that we did not have time for… I was the new kid on the block, and Jack Humphrey was the social marketing king, with 13,000 friends on MyBlogLog alone… (jealous i was too)
Sep 16, 2008 – I make my first video, after seeing Google Friend Connect being tested in the Blogger Follower widgets on blogger. Most cry “Purple Elephants he sees”…
NOTE: See the big guy next to me? John McGowan is one of the smartest guys I have ever had the pleasure to know. I miss my friend dearly and always will… RIP BTW, give me some slack, it was my first video, OK?
December, 2008, Google Friend Connect is released, everyone cares
Christmas, 2008, Facebook imitates GFC and Facebook is blocked as a phishing site for almost 12 hours, no one cares, but it’s interesting news, we all laugh
And The Rest Is Google Social Networking History
This is about where most of you come in, Rocque, Whitney Pannell, and Boomhauer, you were there, and I was somewhat full of myself, yes I was….
So, what replaces Google Friend Connect You Ask?
Well, I am glad to announce that Google+ pages and Google+ Pages badges carry on the next evolution of Google Friend Connect, bringing a clean new look to Google+ Pages.
Before you ask yourself if you should create a Google+ Page, read this Google+ Brand / Pages article…
Let me take a moment to say, Google Friend Connect and the developer team that worked so hard and got little thanks, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART! You have inspired me and brought out the best that I did not know I had. You have helped me become a better person, a recognized thinker, and soon, made Chris Lang a published author.
All I can say is…. “What A Long Strange Wave It Has Been…” – Chris Lang
You might notice, if you have followed me, Chris Lang, for long at all, that I am rarely short on words. Especially when it comes to Google+… But for some reason I just can’t find a way to say this….. So here goes….
Margie and I are very proud to announce that I am to be the author of Google+ Marketing: An Hour a Day, coming this summer from Sybex, an Imprint of John Wiley & Sons.
Howie Schwartz once told me that it takes 2 to 3 years to become the authority in your niche. I did not believe him, 2 to 3 years? Really? Well it has been a long journey, and let me tell you, a humbling one.
So rather than beating my chest, shouting it from the roof tops, or doing the Snoopy happy dance, I want to take the time to thank those that have helped me navigate the long and winding road where we are today.
Thanksgiving seems to have come early here, so let me give thanks to….
No one deserves more credit than Margie, who has seen me thru the last almost 3 years, with love, never ending support and unwavering belief that I was good enough.
Paul Myers, who taught me to tell a story with my writing, back when my posts sounded, as Paul put it “Like the instructions on the side of a box…” in 2008.
Jack Humphrey who was my first mentor, that taught me to stop wasting my time with those that don’t believe you and to spend your time with the ones that do. Great advice Jack, one of the best things I will ever learn.
Howie Schwartz who taught me more in the last two years about how real busineses work and has taken my view and understanding of the online business world to the next level.
And finally Mari Smith, who when she first met me, witnessed one of the all time disasters ever to befall anyone the first time I spoke in front of a live audience in December, 2008. I never expected anyone at that first show to ever speak to me again.
Without Mari’s advice every step of the way as I closed in on the end of my 3 year journey to become an, in print, published author, I would have been lost. Mari will also be writing the Foreword to my first book, how cool is that?
I also want to thank the team at Wiley / Sybex and my Google+ MasterMind group that has helped me to better understand the Google+ landscape in ways that I never could with out your help, (you know who you are)….
Margie, Jack, Howie, Paul, Mari…. You have helped me change my life for the best, I hope my book, Google+ Marketing: An Hour A Day, will help others do what you have helped me to do, in so many ways that I can’t begin to count.
After seeing one of my fellow Google+ peeps, saying “I wish our +1 streams were more interesting to look at. They are pretty dull right now.” – +1 is just not about you, it about all of us
First off there are many different versions of a +1 button and they do a lot of things, but what we are talking about today is not sharing, but simple voting, clicking a +1 button, but not fully sharing the link to your Google+ stream.
+1 streams are not really about sharing, they are about voting for content, the stream is simply a place you can see those votes. It’s also up to you if you show your +1 stream on your Google profile.
The idea for +1 ing something is two fold, one to vote for great content that deserves it, like a Digg or a Stumble. It’s social bookmarking voting in a way. Google rankings depend on this to some small degree, big or small only Google knows.
Secondly, when you +1 something you are helping the creator of the content, you are also letting them know what we like, so they can better serve their readers. +1′s are not about you, they are about the author, and the other readers.
“I am way more apt to read something that has lots of +1′s, Tweets and Facebook Likes, more fully, than I am something that has little Social Proof“
But this also helps Google display good content for you and display relevant custom search results for you. I closed mine off because others were using what I +1′d for their own reasons. I have decided to only share that with Google.
So please, for the good of the authors that give us so much free content and bring the Internet to life for all of us….. If you see something that is of value, give the author a +1! ( they have earned it)
You are helping Google, authors and us normal people that use a free and open Internet everyday to improve their own lives :]
After a Google Plus thread by tech writer Mike Elgan, saying that Google+ spammers using fake profile and robots are rising, here’s my feedback on how Google handles spammers, and will soon
It is simple, Don’t even worry about G+ spammers, Here’s why….
Google has a history of allowing something to go on for a long time, then make a sweeping mega ban of all sites OR social profiles with a like footprint.
Those of us in SEO usually expect this to begin the end of October, and we call it the yearly Google Slapdown.
These have been occurring every pre-Chrismas season since 2003. That first year it was for buying links. That year I profited highly because no one saw this coming, it was the first one and everyone back then thought it was SEO business as usual.
This is not a major algo change like Panda that you all may have heard about. The Google slap down in October and or early November is usually for a single type of SEO spam.
In 2009 it was for using social bookmarking robots. If you have followed me for long, you know I predicted the Google social bookmarking slapdown for most of the year in 2008.
This year I believe it will be directly related to G+ fake names and fake profiles and have a lot to do with coming G+ business profiles. Watch for an article from Jack Humphrey and I detailing what we expect to come soon.
So don’t get all up in arms about G+ robots, Google will take care of it soon just as they always have. I deal with it by not following back anyone on a Google+ notification first alert. I follow people back by the strength of their comments. as I hope you all do when you see Chris Lang’s….
, day one required reading.
is due to ship from Amazon on January 1st, again, required reading.
