VerticalResponse for AppExchange Blog

What the Heck is Google+ and What Does it Mean For My Business?

Now that Google+ is beginning to open to the public we thought we'd tap our Social Media Manager, Ellery, to give a rundown of what it's all about and why it's relevant to your business.

Another social network?!

Yes, another social network, but one that you should definitely pay attention to. Although dominant in the search market, Google has tried for years to break into social with little luck and some large failures. Google+ seems to be a product of the lessons they've learned along the way. After a week of exploring Google+ and it's features, it's impressing how well thought out the network appears to be. Sure, there are a few off things here and there, and your homepage may feel like a ghost town since only a handful of folks are on it so far, but we see a ton of potential, particularly for businesses.

 

So, how's it different than Facebook?

At first glance, Google+ actually looks a lot like Facebook, probably a good thing when it comes to user adoption. The home page doesn't drift far from the look and feel of the Facebook wall and status updates and the commenting function works essentially the same way as well. Hey, Facebook has honed its user experience for years...no need to reinvent the wheel, right? The key benefits to Google+, though, lie in the features that aren't available (or weren't until just last week) on Facebook in any form. There are five in particular we think really stand out:

• Circles: Circles give you the ability to sort all of your contacts into separate groups based on the nature of your relationship. You can then select which circles you want to be included whenever you share something on Google+. For example, you could have a circle for your family members where you share pictures of your kids and other family news, while keeping a different circle for your friends and even another circle for just acquaintances. By sorting your contacts in this fashion, the information you share can be much more targeted, and in turn, more relevant to the people you're sharing with.
• Hangouts: Hangouts are group video chats. By making yourself available to "hangout" you can start a video chat with up to ten of your contacts who are also online at that time. You can also share things during a hangout (say an article or a youtube video) which everyone can view together. Now that's cool!
• Sparks: Sparks is a feature that recommends content for you based on your interests, online activity, and preferences...sort of like your very own custom content curator. Given Google's expertise in data mining, we expect this feature to become really robust over time. Another nice thing about Sparks is the ability to share things you find to the circles of your choice without ever leaving Google+.
• Huddle: Huddle is a group chat function that can be used online or across Android, iPhone, or SMS. Yes, Facebook just announced the rollout of group chat too, but the integration of mobile and a more professional environment (see next bullet) give Google+ the edge here.
• Aura of professionalism: Okay, so not technically a feature, but we think the professional vibe put forward on Google+ so far (or at the very least, the ability to easily separate friends from professional contacts using circles) is a huge benefit for the network. Google+ seems to take the powerful functionality of Facebook and marry it with the professional environment and discussion topic types of LinkedIn. On top of all that, Google+ functions a bit like Twitter too, in that you can follow someones updates regardless of whether they are following you or not...a huge plus when it comes to finding good content. For these reasons, Google+ has a lot of implications when it comes to business applications.

Okay, then what does Google+ mean for my business?

For the time being, Google has asked that businesses refrain from creating a profile on Google+. The company says that they have plans for businesses to be able to get the most out of the network, but that it's just not ready for that functionality yet. If you're interested in being one of the first businesses on Google+ permitted to create a profile, you can sign up with Google to be notified as soon as profiles are available.

That said, there are several ways right out of the gate that Google+ is good for business:

• Productivity: Between Hangouts, group chats, and the ability to create work specific circles, Google+ is poised to be a powerful internal communication tool at your company. Imagine being able to push certain information or topics towards one or a few departments without bogging down peripheral employees news feeds. With circles, this will be a snap. Have offices spread across several locations but need to arrange a quick face-to-face meeting without springing for a pricey web conference solution? Hangouts has you covered. And for those companies already using Google apps at some level, the inevitable integration with Google+ will be a serious game changer.
• Professional Networking: While Google+ probably won't replace LinkedIn when it comes to things like showcasing your experience and professional recommendations, it will be a threat to areas like industry specific content sharing and discussion groups. Additionally, Google+ enables users to allow other people to contact them via email, regardless of whether they are in each other's circles or not. While not everyone will leave this feature on, for those that do it will open a great avenue for new business contacts.
• Competitive Research: For the same reasons that Google+ is a powerful professional networking tool, it can also be useful when it comes to keeping an eye on and interacting with your competition. Google+ allows you to follow anyone with a Google+ profile regardless of whether the connection is reciprocated. Of course, users can specify whether or not specific content is shared with public circles, but for content that is public, Google+ can be a great way to stay up-to-date on news and announcements in your competitive space.
• Personal Branding: Because Google+ profiles are publicly searchable and viewable - don't worry, you control what is and isn't shared - the network represents a great opportunity for users to brand themselves by maintaining a complete profile and sharing content that speaks to their areas of expertise. By specifying which circles see what, you can tailor this messaging even further. Remember, though, personal profiles are a reflection of the company as a whole, so be sure that employees who share their affiliations with you are representing the company in an appropriate way.

Is Google+ here to stay?

While still in its infancy and admittedly kind of limited to tech geeks and social media experts at this point, we see a ton of potential for Google+ moving forward. By making the effort to truly field test the technology before rolling it out to the masses, we think Google will avoid many of the problems they've had with social in the past. At the end of the day, Google is building a powerful social network on top of an infrastructure (search, email, documents, advertising, etc.) that already has mass adoption. Leveraging this fact is going to be the difference here and what makes Google+ the first legitimate contender to Facebook's social dominance.

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RELEVANT Content is King

Expand the Reach of Your Email Beyond the Inbox

Social media is the talk of the town, but after many conversations we've found that people often leave with more questions about how to make effective use of social media for their business than when they came. To address this conundrum, VerticalResponse has put a lot of thought into how we can help small businesses use social networks to spread their email marketing messages most effectively. We think the social sharing features we're about to release are the perfect combination of quick and effective, and as we put the finishing touches on them prior to release, we'd like to highlight some of the more unique aspects our new social sharing features will have.

Clicks vs. Social Reach

VerticalResponse has always been proud of our reporting features - they let you quickly see performance data in a nifty high-level dashboard with charts and graphs, and also allow you to drill into the details if you are so inclined. Continuing in that tradition, we've designed the social reporting to behave similarly: a combined dashboard view (so you can see your social data right next to your email data), along with downloadable details about who shared your email to their networks. 

 

What's particularly cool about our new social reporting is that in addition to showing the clicks from the emails, we also include a measure called Total Social Reach that will help you understand what happens after your message hits the social networks. These numbers have the potential to be wildly different, and in fact we're hoping they are. Here's why: let's say you have 10 clicks on the "Like" button from your email. Once those 10 Likes hit Facebook, they can be re-liked/shared on Facebook, commented upon, etc., which has the potential to make your content viral. That means with 10 clicks, you might see something like 50 total Likes across Facebook (or more!). Wouldn't it be great to know who on your list contributed to that? 

With this approach, you not only see the intent of the person you sent your email to, but you'll also see how people engage with your content. Armed with this information, you can take things one step further to determine who on your list has the most social influence (with a service like Klout), and then continue to focus on building a good relationship with them by giving them what you promised.

The Facebook Graph API

VR's current social sharing features use an older integration with Facebook that, while functional, is somewhat limited in what it can do (the people at Facebook are in the process of fixing it as I type). Our new social sharing features use Facebook's latest and greatest Graph API which is at the core let's us automatically add Like, Tweet, and LinkedIn Share buttons to the hosted version of your email! 

The two main benefits to this upgrade are that it allows a connection to all the Pages you control within Facebook at once (that means your profile and all the other Pages you own for your business) so that you can share your message more efficiently. And secondly, your recipients can share the content they receive from you. We're obviously very excited about the upgrade and the additional functionality we'll soon offer you, but since this is a completely new integration - even if you've been using our current social sharing features - we'll ask you to re-link your VR and Facebook accounts just the first time you use the new sharing tools. It'll only take a second, and you'll be on your way to much more powerful social marketing!

So stay tuned, because expanding the reach of your email beyond the inbox is only a few weeks away!

Want More Clicks? Tease Your Readers!

If you’re using social media for your business, good for you! Hopefully you're paying attention to which messages you publish to social networks like Facebook and Twitter get the best response. But it’s important to understand what messages you publish are most interesting to your fans.

No matter which social network you use, it’s crucial to grab your reader’s attention with a compelling hook. And your introductory message can be the difference between your content being shared or completely ignored so you need to get their attention with a "teaser."

We took a look at a recent activity report for the VerticalResponse email marketing Twitter account, @vr4smallbiz, to see what takeaways we might be able to give you about our own teasers. Looking at the top five most clicked links over a two-week period in March, we saw some interesting themes emerge that can be applied to how you might use social media. Check them out:

1. How-To

Using the words "how to" clearly communicates to the reader that they will be getting information that's useful to them and actionable.

2. Numbers/Lists

People love numbered lists. By including a list in your teaser, your reader knows exactly what to expect when clicking through.

3. Rewards/Offers/Exclusives

Using "Top Lists Of..." will always be successful whether it's informational or a list of "Top Products Purchased" this week. This tweet promoting VerticalResponse's free downloadable guides has continued to be one of our most clicked through teasers nearly a month after posting.

4. News/Announcements

Have some exciting news about your company or industry? Make sure to use it in your teaser. You might be surprised how many people follow you on social networks for access to the latest information about your brand or business.

5. Charlie Sheen (or any topical reference)

Well okay, not just Charlie Sheen, but you can go ahead and call it the "Sheen Rule of Social Teasers". Using humor, drama, and timely topical references do a great job of commanding attention. Just be careful with this one and make sure that it does somehow tie back to the content you're sharing...you don't want to make your fans feel like they've been conned. The Sheen Rule of Teasers reminds us that it's perfectly okay, even encouraged, to have a little fun with your social teasers. Social media is the perfect place to get your personality out there.

Bonus!

You may have noticed that social teasers have a lot in common with the subject lines you craft for your email marketing campaigns. In fact, many of the practices that we recommend for writing email subject lines can be applied here as well. Check out our 29 Great B2B Subject Lines for some ideas. Also, if you're not using the VR for AppEx Social Sharing feature to post your newsletters to Facebook and Twitter, you might want to revisit our recent blog post about how to make the most of social media for your business. 

Want More?

Check out our Spring Webinar Series to sign up for helpful live demonstrations on what you can do with email and social media.

Make the Most of Social Media for Your Business

We recently hosted a live Partner webinar. Ellery Long, VerticalResponse's Social Media Manager, discussed how to leverage social media marketing for your business. Below are a few highlights from the webinar:

1. Social Media Adds Business Value
   It allows you to gain insights on genuine customer perception, converse with your customers on a platform that's already part of their daily routine, engage online influencers, and can be measured to get ROI.
2. Social Media is Simpler Than You Think
   Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? Digg? Don't get overwhelmed by the multitude of social platforms out there. Concentrate on 2-3 social platforms best suited to your business objectives. Choose platforms where your customers already gather, and tend to them well.
3. Remember a Few Universal Social Media Strategies
   Be Consistent: Users constantly consume so content gets stale quickly.
   Listen, respond, and converse: Don't be afraid to take it offline.
   People like to share - make it easy: Create share buttons for your website, blogs & emails (use VR's Social Sharing Feature). 
4. Promote Your Social Presence Across ALL Your Marketing Channels
   Use email, traditional, and cross-platform marketing to allow your customers to easily find you.

These are only a small sampling of the many key points covered in the hour-long webinar. Ellery discussed specific actions you can take to maximize your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and blogging potential. Download the webinar slides or view the recorded presentation to get more in-depth information and learn actionable steps you can take to increase your social media presence.

Attend our weekly VR for AppExchange demo or check out our other live webinars here!

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