Google continues to ramp things with their social initiative for business Google +. Along with some of the new features released yesterday, the most useful by far is the ability to designate managers for business pages on Google Plus. This is an effort to bring functionality that already exists with Facebook Pages. They are also toying with a new “on air” Hangout live streaming feature, but that’s a post for another day.  For now, I’ll cover these new features briefly, why I like them, and how to use them.

Google Plus Business Pages Seek Parity with Facebook

More than that, Google is aggressively playing catch up, and responding to user input with meaningful changes that are intended to help the adoption rate of the 50+ Million social network.

A list of the latest features added as documented here include:

Improved Photos on Google+

This one deals with the frustration of photo tagging on Facebook. Especially when it comes to images with a lot of people in it (at 0:50). I also noticed that when selecting an album you uploaded it has a tagging wizard that seems to be a huge time saver over the old way of tagging. Watch the new feature in the video below. Can’t see it? Go here.

Google has an uphill climb to begin to make a dent in Facebook, but with their constant stream of updates like this, coupled with their global commitment to improving the service, things may look very different this time next year.

What feature do you like most of this latest set of updates?

Deficient as the current business page might be, today there are other reasons why businesses should create pages on Google Plus.

Google Plus is Preparing for Business are You?

Creating a Google Plus business page is easy, more on that in a moment. The question most online marketers are asking is With all the other social media properties out there why should I create a business page? Very fair question.

There are several reasons:

The Biggest Reason of All to Create Your Google Plus Business Page

Most importantly, this should be important to you and your business, because it is important to Google. I’ve remarked, if you want to succeed driving traffic with Google you need to know what is important to Google, what they are trying to accomplish, and then work to help them fulfill that. Google knows they must succeed with social to remain a viable force in coming years.

In keeping with that, new enhancements to Google plus pages happens now, and in the very near future.

Google will continue to make the changes necessary for the product to work for online commerce. Business pages is a piece of that. They are most certainly working on other things preparing for business. Are you preparing for business on Google Plus?

Haven’t created one yet? Takes a few minutes. Here’s how to create a Google Plus business page on Google plus. Chime in with your thoughts and feedback below.

Create My Google Plus Business Page with Me (Video)

Google keeps moving things forward with it’s social initiative at breakneck speed. After revamping Google Reader, and hinting that Google Plus users will soon be able to add people to their circles on search results pages, Google pages are available for brands and businesses.

How to Create a Google Plus Business Page, and the Number One thing to Focus On When Doing So

If you can’t see it find it here on YouTube: How to Create a Google Plus Page for Brands and Business (video player used below EVP.)

Useful? Chime in below with your thoughts, create your page, and be sure to include your Google Plus Business page link with your comment.

Resources/Links:

Google has made a lot of changes of late. Part of their initiative to focus on social, integrating their ecosystem of sites and services into Google Plus. This week they updated their RSS reader, Google Reader. I’ve been a fan of Google Reader for some time (here and here). It now supports Google Plus (screenshot below). However, while the user interface offers consistency with other popular list based Google products, namely Gmail, I find it a bit bulky.

Getting Use to the New Google Reader

UPDATE: November 14, 2011 Since this post went live, Google has made additional enhancements to Google Reader, one being the an update to the share bar to include Google Plus share. Here’s a screenshot:

Different than the screenshot shared below from the original post. End Update.

More than the bulk, there is no way to compact the view as there is with the new Gmail. In fact, there was a bit of a revolt as users clamored for an option to return to the old interface.

Google Reader with Google Plus

What was interesting to me was how obscure the +1 button was in the Google reader interface. I thought it would be found under the “Send to” button. However it is at the bottom of an expanded post on the left hand side is where you’ll find it, next to the star. Shortly after hitting +1 (slow), you’ll have an option to share on Google plus (assuming your logged into your account).

The +1 button can be lost in all the other options on the page.

The problem is, many users may not realize there is a secondary option to share on Google plus here after you have clicked it. Similar to search engine or Adwords Ads +1 buttons in size, but as to the delay experienced as it loads the option to share on Google plus, many will have scrolled away from the button, or moved to a different page altogether.

Some have written extensively about what needs fixing with the Google Reader redesign, from this angle the Google Plus experience outside of Google Plus needs to be more prominent and attractive to users if it’s going to be used.

What do you think?

Google+ Open to Everyone – Should You Join?

Google has brought some of the greatest technologies to the web. Yet, has struggled to bring a social app to the web that sticks. Google+ has been their shining social star thus far, and with all the announcements and changes of late, it seems Facebook is taking notice.

Reasons Not to Join Google Plus

Marketers: If you are someone who doesn’t sell anything online, or your market doesn’t use the web to find products or services you probably aren’t in a place to leverage Google plus. Others: If you have benefited from social networks, but have no intention to start a business, and all your social networking takes place on Facebook or Twitter, you too may find Google plus of little value.

Reasons to Join Google Plus

If you are reading this far, hopefully you have a business with an online presence, or are planning on launching one. Google plus is a great platform for those interested in leveraging the Internet to establish or grow your brand, get leads, and make sales.

In the words of Vic Gundotra, Senior VP at Google, “the web is about more than pages, its about people”.

A couple months ago it was to early to tell just how useful Google plus would be for marketers.

SEO: Since using the service, I think online marketers would do well to consider Vic’s statement. Those who are continuing to ignore social and only playing the backlink game, hoping for better SEO rankings… your days are numbered. With Google integrating social sharing into search results, every Google users search results pages can be unique, personalized.

Email Delivery: It’s not all about search. There are many reasons to get started with Google plus, not the least of which is email delivery. Open and click thru rates have been in decline and a source of hearburn for many marketers over the past 18 months. Email systems like Gmail and others can recognize messaging patterns, those who have added you in their circles in Google+ will more likely have your messages arrive in their inbox than those who do not.

Email marketers can leverage this by inviting subscribers to connect with them on Google plus.

Google Plus Resources

There are many other things to consider when it comes to leveraging Google Plus. If you’ve decided to join we’d like to help you. Here are a few resources:

• Signup for Google Plus here.
• 40 Tips for getting started with Google plus.
• Video training on Google plus: currently free, I walk you through the main features of the product and how to get more traffic. There is also an option to upgrade to Premium, where I share traffic strategies, how to create a power network, and more.
• Let’s connect on Google plus, see the link below for my Google plus profile.

Google Plus – How I’m Handling Spam

Look what I received via email. It’s an example of the type of things that can land in your email inbox as a result of spammers on Google’s new social network.

Thwart Spammers by Taking Control of Your Google Plus Account

The Soft Approach. Maybe you don’t want to risk it, perhaps the spammer is a really nice person, and you want to be there should they say something more meaningful… Ehem..you can mute the post entirely, so you don’t receive any more notices about it. There is a “Mute” option in the bottom of the notification email.

The Global Approach. Change your email notification settings so you don’t get an email whenever you are mentioned. You’ll still see notifications in the upper dark gray bar next to your name when logged into Plus or your Google account. Notification settings are found in Google+ settings under the gear icon in the dark gray bar, or just follow the link near the mute option, in the notification email.

How I’m Handling Spam in Google Plus

This message I received is from someone I don’t know, someone who I did not add to a circle, I consider that spam. So I took a more dramatic approach, by blocking the user.

Example screenshot: I don't know Matthew, and did I block him.

The block option also allows you to report the profile to Google. Reporting can be useful for those wanting to fight spam. Once blocked:

Exploring Google Plus

Google Plus Secrets is designed to help businesses get their bearings with Google’s new social network, for more targeted traffic, better email delivery, and more. Before I get to that, let me ask you a question.

Have you ever had a wake up call? You know, something that causes you to realize something else much more important?

I don’t have those very often, but it’s fair to say that’s what happened… It was about 1 week after using Google plus, I looked at my Google Analytics and saw that traffic from Google Plus was the number one referral source of traffic for this site. In today’s post I’ll share what happened next, what Google Plus Secrets is, why it was created, who it’s for, and how (for a short time) you can get in at no cost.

Announcing Google Plus Secrets – Maximizing Google Plus for Business

What Happened Next?

After learning that Google Plus was this sites number one referral source, I began researching, and building a collection of tips and strategies to apply to my sites, and advise clients. After spending countless hours using the service and testing these ideas, it was suggested that I create something to help others get up to speed fast. Something more than another Google Plus tips post, video training.

My initial reaction: hesitation. Here were some initial thoughts included:

Then I was gently corrected…

After speaking with people I respect, I was confronted with the following rebuttals.

Google Profile in Search Results

What is Google Plus Secrets?

Simply, a video training series designed to help businesses understand how they can use Google’s new social network for more exposure, traffic, and ultimately sales.

I don’t like monthly fees, and avoid them in my business unless I can truly justify it, therefore, early on, it was decided that that membership would be a one-time fee.

There are two levels of membership at this time, standard and premium. Standard is about 90 minutes of video training on the essentials of Google Plus for business.

Premium is an additional set of videos with more advanced training such as:

As new information becomes available the training will be updated.

Why You Created Google Plus Secrets?

After seeing those pesky Google Analytics, and talking with trusted advisors, I felt it was doable. With the following criteria:

If you can handle that criteria… Claim a spot, and sign up here.

Who is Google Plus Secrets For?

Anyone who has a Google Plus account (or wants one), and wants to save time figuring it out enough of it on their own to determine how to use it in their business. Oh, and if you want to learn some valuable tips along the way, Google Plus Secrets was created with you in mind.

How to Get Google Plus Secrets for Free?

I’ve dealt with “free” customers before; they can be a drain on any business. So, since I’m basically a one man shop, I hesitated to invite this as a possible drain on the site. Realizing it could take me away from improving the site with updated training videos as Google continues to improve the service.

However, as with any new venture, there is more value in feedback from customers than any sales numbers. Therefore, as long as the site is in “launch mode,” standard membership is available at no cost. There is a one-time fee for Premium membership. When signing up at Google Plus Secrets you will be presented with a one-time-offer for Premium. You can always upgrade to premium later on, but it won’t be at the special price presented in the one-time-offer ($27).

So go ahead, and check out Google Plus Secrets, and let me know what you think. Look forward to seeing you there!

She’s been using Facebook for 2 years, and got her feet wet with Google plus in recent days. The discussion was recorded, if you don’t see it below find it here.

What Impressed My Sister About Google Plus

• She does not typically goto gmail on the web, it is delivered to her mail program on her computer.
• Not a lot of notifications yet, as she doesn’t have a lot of people in her circles yet.
• Facebook vs. Google Plus: Enjoys the circles, as it allows her to control what connections see.
• Enjoyed the Hangout feature thus far. Would allow her to do more with her business associates. How it brings the person speaking to the front of the video carousel, and that it is free.
• Interested to see how the system works once she has more connections in the system.

• Will take time for it to get traction. Until she has a lot of her connections out there, she doesn’t envision it having a lot of value in the short term.
• Would have loved to have a tool like Huddle when she was a young adult.

Want to jumpstart your experience with Google Plus? Review our Google Plus Tips.
Photo Credit: Cambodia4Kidsorg

Saw this video and find it resonates well with many I’ve been speaking with about Google Plus. If you can’t see it, go here.

Ok, so at this point, we are all newbies at Google Plus, right? At least if you got in recently via a Google Plus invite. At this point I’ve spent a decent amount of time with it and have concluded that Google has finally made a positive mark in social networking. It’s still early, but there is a lot of excitement around Google+ by those who have jumped on early, and for good reason. Google has launched a social network with several features designed to leapfrog its competition. What’s evident, as more and more people start using Google’s social network, is the need for help for newer users. In this post you’ll learn how to quickly add friends to your network, what circles are, how I’m using circles to be more productive, how photos are displayed, what your profile page is and why it’s important, security, some advanced tips, browser plugins, and more. May it serve as a good first step to help you and others make the most of the social network.

40 Google Plus Tips for Newbies

Last Updated August 18th, 2011: Replaced tip #22 (old) with a fresh resource on changes on Google plus. We’d also like to invite our faithful readers and subscribers to our Google Plus Secrets video course, designed to help businesses get up to speed fast with Google plus. Free to Charter Members during the launch period. See announcement here.

July 20, 2011: Added a video in the advanced tips section informing readers how to share a link on Google Plus as their currently isn’t an easy way for website owners to offer that option for readers.

*A word about updates to this post. From time to time this post will be updated to reflect current information either on the Google+ features and as the user interface evolves. If you find something out dated or missing, feel free to give a nudge on Twitter or Facebook. Now for those tips…

Friends

First thing you’ll likely want to do is add some friends right? There are several ways to do that.

Creating new circle when mousing over contacts.

Tip #1: Adding Friends from Suggestions. On the right hand side, there’s a Suggestions area highlighting friends you can easily add

Tip #2: Adding Friends from Yahoo Mail. This option is available when clicking the circles icon on the toolbar. If you are a Yahoo! Mail user, go for it.

Tip #3: Adding Friends from Hotmail. In the same “Circles” view, next to the Yahoo! option. Bring all those Hotmail users in to your designated circles, more on that in a moment.

Tip #4: Blocking Friends. The folks at Google could be more creative in naming this. If they are friends, why block them, right? Maybe Enemies, Not a Friend? Block People? Picky I know.

Circles

When adding friend you’ll be able to specify a circle to put them in. When doing so there is also an option to create a new circle when adding a friend. Circles are used to organize friends. Many ways to think of these circles. Based on affinity, like work, church, family, and extended family. Or you could go a little more military as De Niro and Stiller’s in “Meet the Parents”. Either way, circles make it pretty easy to put friends in order fast in Google Plus.

Tip #5: When you add someone to your circle, you are saying, “I wanna see your stream updates.”

Tip #6: When someone adds you (more on notifications later), they are saying, “I want to see your extended circle and public updates.”

Tip #7: Creating circles allows you to quantify who see’s what you publish in your stream updates.

Tip #8: Creating Circles. You can see how to create a new circle above, when responding to suggestions, or mousing over a plus user.

Drag and Drop Convenience of Circles

Tip #9: Managing Circles. The drag and drop interface makes it really simple to populate circles. Click the circles icon, start dragging and dropping into your newly created circles. Don’t have a circle created yet for a contact? Drop your new friend on the “Drop here to create a new circle” circle. Name it, you are done.

Tip #10: How I’m managing circles. A the moment I have about 12 circles. The circles fall in the following classifications.

Considering relevancy. I’m particular about these circles, goes back to my Sage ACT! certified consultant days. I chose to organize contacts in circles with two things in mind.

Tip #11: How can I easily share my stream updates with those I think have the most interest in what it is I’m saying? If I post a question about recent email marketing delivery rates, I want to select a circle of those who are most interested in that stuff, professional contacts. If I have a personal update about something one of my children did, I want to share it with the appropriate personal contacts.

Tip #12: How can I get up to speed with what is going on with specific people? With circles setup, I can quickly click a given circle under the “Stream” on the left hand side of the home page, to get up to speed on members of that circle.

Photos in Google Plus

Tip #13: See photos of those in your circles. Click on a picture and you are brought to a screen that looks like this one.

Viewing Photos of those in your Google Plus Circle

Tip #14: A useful feature is the ability to see the photo while commenting or reviewing comments. At this time, there is no circle-based filter available like the main comment stream. I can see the need to see photos from members of a specific circle.

Tip #15: Have a friend in the photo? Tag them by using the Actions option just below the photo.

Mobile photos: Not a whole lot to say here. My Android phone, while cleaner than ever and germ free, has not yet recovered from going through the washer, nor has it been replaced (soon).

Tip #16:  Once you have Google+ installed on it, uploading to your Google+ Photos account is instant. My understanding from Android users, uploaded photos can optionally include Geo data of the photo (disabled by default). More on that in the a word about photo security section of this post.

Your Google Plus Profile Page

Tip #17: This is important. Fill it out as completely as possible. Not only is it your brochure to the masses about who you are, it is also something that shows up in the SERPs, specifically:

Tip #18: Find out more details from Dana Lookadoo’s excellent post on Google Profiles in the SERPs.

Security in Google Plus

Securing Sections of Your Google Plus Profile

Tip #19: Many sections of your Google profile can be secured quickly and precisely.

To get there, view your profile, and then choose to Edit Profile. This takes you to the about page of your profile with the ability to select and edit security settings per section. The sections you specify can be visible in any way you like, public to the web, specific circles, extended circles, or not at all.

A Word About Photo Security in Google Plus

Tip #20: Photo security in Google plus is handled differently. As per the screenshot below, at this time, users can specify whether to include photos on your profile, photo tag approval settings (when you are tagged in a photo), and whether to display geo settings (where the photo was taken, if available) for newly uploaded photos and albums.

Tip #21: Geotagging is powerful allowing you to share your journey’s with friends, however for the security conscious, having the ability to disable these functions is a must. For more about Geotagging in photos go here.

Tip #22 (old): This functionality disappeared shortly after the service launched. Google chat security settings. Below the stream section on the left hand side, there is a Google chat area. Click the small arrow next to “Chat” (credit to friend Linda Lawrey for sharing this nearly hidden option). Selecting Circles takes you to a box to select the circles you wish and enabling chat for Google+. The notice there states:

People in these circles who also enable chat will be able to see when you’re online and chat with you.

Tip #22 (NEW!): Resource to learn of the latest changes to Google Plus. To stay legit and keep this at 40 tips (since the previous #22 isn’t there any more…) here is where to go if you want the latest on Google plus from the makers of Google plus.

Tip #23: Hardware settings in Google chat. Selecting settings allows you to configure and verify your microphone and webcam are working to your liking.

Security Concerns? Test Your Profile by Viewing as Another Google Plus User

Tip #24: Test your profile from another users perspective.

Using the Google+ Notifications Window

Tip #25: This jumped out at me as one of the early winning features of Google Plus. The notifications window works similar to the ones found in other social networks. It’s different as it let’s you comment on status updates right within the notifications dropdown. Small detail, but when you are in a hurry this means you don’t have to click, load another page, and then comment. You can read the whole comment stream, and inject a reply if you wish.

Tip #26: The notifications window allows you to scroll through notifications newer or older than the one you are viewing.
< Newer | Older >

Tip #27: Getting too noisy? You can select to  mute a given post, from the notifications window as well. Handy for those chattier posts you may have commented on, but don’t care to be updated with every new comment.

Advanced Tips

Google Plus Settings

Tip #28: Be sure to checkout these settings (screenshot below), they primarily deal with your notification preferences. Receive a notice when someone mentions you in a post, or adds you to a circle, tags you in a photo, etc. There are currently 11 notification options available. Which brings us to SMS notification.

Setting Up SMS Notifications In Google Plus

Tip #29: Sometimes sending notifications to your phone via text is a good thing. I do this on Twitter for certain people I follow, and it’s handy to get these notices when you are remote. Google+ offers this functionality too. Just plugin a phone number, respond to the verification, and you are in.

How to Format Text in Google Plus Stream Updates and Comments

Tip #30: Bold. Italics. strikethrough, or any combination thereof. Doable in Google Plus. Simply use an astericks (*) on either side of a word or sentence you’d like bolded. Use an underscore (_) on either side for italics. Lastly use a dash (-) on either side to strikethrough. Any combination of the three can be used as well.

Controlling Updates and Comments in Google Plus

Tip #31: Edit/Deleting comments on others posts. Mistakes happen. So do misspellings. When this happens, all those who have commented before you are notified of your comment… potentially embarrassing. Fortunately, you can do something about it. Once a post is published, you can edit or delete the comment.

Modifying stream comments in Google+

Tip #32: Controlling your stream updates. More than just correcting post mistakes or deleting them altogether, you can also disable comments on a post, as well as disable your post from being reshared in Google plus. Click the arrow for those options.

Modifying stream updates is pretty easy.

Using Shortcuts in the Google bar for Quick Google+ Status Updates

One of the changes Google has made for the user experience is the addition of the Google bar. Here’s a screenshot of mine.

It is available while logged into your Google account, and using nearly any Google services. Play around with yours to get familiar, but there are two handy features worth pointing out. See Chrome extensions later in this post for a toolbar based notifications.

Tip #33: Google bar share button: Click this and the status Google plus stream update box pops up. Handy and useful to have such functionality without being “in” Google plus.

Tip #34: Your Name on the Google bar: Gives a dropdown with links to take you directly to your profile page, circles page, account settings and privacy.

Utility Circles

Tip #35: Using circles to save stuff. This is the one problem I had early on, with many great Google+ Tips coming through my stream I wasn’t sure what to do with them. One of the sharp people in my circle, Linda Lawrey had another great suggestion I’d like to pass on to you.

Adding Google Plus Functionality with Chrome Extensions

Haven’t had a ton of time with extensions, but have worked with a few. May do a more detailed post on Chrome extensions for Google+ at some point. Here are a few Chrome browser extensions that stood out to me.

Tip #36: Facebook Stream in Browser. Useful tool from the folks at Crossrider, get it here. First alerted to this from Mari Smith.

What Facebook looks like in Google+ with "Google+ Facebook"

Tip #37: Extended Share for Google Plus. Simple way to share Google+ content on Facebook or Twitter. It’s here.

Tip #38: Helper for Google Plus. Can share/send posts to Twitter, offers post translation as well. Find it here.

Tip #39: Surplus. It’s the notification bar from the browser toolbar, so you can leverage the notification bar regardless of what site you are on. Also has desktop notifications. Get it here.

Tip # 40: +Photo Zoom. Magnifies photos to full size when hovering. Get it here.

What’s Next with Google Plus?

Nobody knows. What is for certain, is that Google will continue to enhance the service as they strive to have Google plus become a dominant player in the social networking. We will be keeping our eye on Google plus, and providing updates to this post, while adding new posts as the needs present. Chime in with your thoughts on this post below, share it if you think it will help others and connect with me on Google+.

Also, we recently launched video training on Google plus for businesses which is free to charter members during the launch phase. Check out the site here (or the ads in this post).