Why your business should care about Google Plus Communities

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Nevin

How to create a Google Plus Communities Page

Google Plus has rolled out a Communities feature that may benefit businesses with the ability to connect directly with customers via social media. The 50K-foot view: Google Plus Communities allows users to join private and public groups based on specific topics and interests such as video games, football teams and local neighborhoods. Isn’t Google Plus a dead zone? For many people, Google Plus, the Facebook clone that Google rolled out a year or so ago, has been something of a failure – compared to Facebook or Twitter, it seems that few people *you* know use Google Plus. For businesses, though, Google Plus is useful: creating a Google Plus page is an easy way for businesses to manage their online presence, and Google Plus business pages also link with reviews on Google Places. Google also views links shared on Google Plus as a “social signal” – sharing a link to your website may be rewarded by Google with a higher search ranking. Get “first mover” status for your business With Google Plus Communities debuting now, there could be a “first mover” opportunity for businesses with authoritative voices on their niches to convert some of these new participants to visitors and maybe even buyers. How are G+ Communities different than existing offerings? Facebook and LinkedIn have a similar service, except neither offer a public option that can be viewable in Google search results. Plus, G+ Communities allows chat and free “video huddles” for community members. It’s a great way for businesses to connect with their customers and deliver everything from product demostrations to Q&A sessions. For free! Connect your business to 235 million active users on Google Plus And, according to Google itself, G+ is home to 235 million active users. That’s a quarter of the userbase of Facebook. That’s massive, in just about any terms. Google Plus seems to have filled a pretty nice niche, where many folks use it as a blogging and link-sharing service — like Twitter, but without the character limit (or Tumblr, but without the mask of anonymity. How to create a Google Plus Communities Page Creating a Community is a fast and easy process. Visit https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities and click the “Create a Community” button at the top right. Then follow instructions. Any member of Google Plus can create public or private groups centered around specific hobbies, interests, topics, or organizations. They can easily add discussion categories and edit the group’s information, start hangouts and plan events with other members, as well as share content from any +1 button across the web. Got more questions about Google + and how it can help your business? Contact us!

Kony 2012: lessons for video marketing and other links

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Nevin

Kony 2012: lessons for video marketers Im just one week, KONY 2012 had been shared more than 7.6 million times on Facebook, embedded in more than 6,200 blogs, and according to Google News, 4,950 news sources have written stories about the video campaign aimed at bringing a rogue African warlord to justice. The Kony 2012 campaign provides lessons for video marketers. Read more here. Winning the Content Marketing race This great article provides plenty of links, plus suggestions on how to prioritize content creation and content marketing in order to efficiently deliver customers to your website. Read more here. 10 tips for driving more mobile traffic from Facebook 50% of Facebook’s traffic is driven by mobile devices – that’s about 5x more than the average website - which can mean great benefits for your business if you can get visitors to your Facebook page to travel to your site. Here are a few tips to optimize your Facebook to drive more likes, friends, reach, and engagement with mobile users Read more here. 9 excellent examples of brands using Facebook’s new page design If your business has a Facebook page, you should know that you have until March 30th to play with the design before your page is forced live. Take a look at how these brands are making use of the new Facebook page design, and use it as inspiration to get your own page up to date. Read more here. Understand “personas” to sell more Personas have been used in marketing and advertising for years and are the foundation of any user-centered marketing plan. PPC advertisers have a lot to gain by completing the persona exercise and leveraging that information when managing and creating new search marketing campaigns. Learn more here. Nevin Thompson writes for JumpStartWeb, leaders in video marketing in Victoria BC.

Monday Marketing Madness | Victoria online marketing | Jan 3, 2012

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Nevin

Happy New Year from JumpStartWeb! 2012 is the Year of the Dragon – a year featuring vitality, leadership and action - and we like to think there are many, many Victoria online marketing opportunities to be found in the coming year. So, as always, here are a collection of useful online marketing links that can help local businesses improve their online marketing efforts and, hopefully, their bottom line. So… Predictions for local Search in 2012 – Year of the Dragon Thanks to the growth of smart phone adoption, and aggressive efforts by online companies such as Google, local Search is becoming an essential marketing channel for business hoping to connect with potential customers in their own communities. Google, thanks to its overwhelming “Search” market share on both smart phones and traditional “desktop” devices, has received a lot of attention by on this blog, but in 2012 other credible competitors to Google may be emerging. Read here to learn more. 2012 – the year of Mobile Search In related news, traffic measurement firm comScore released its latest mobile subscriber market share report for November. What it shows is that more people are now using Mobile platforms to access the web than than traditional “desktop”-based browsers. What does this mean for local businesses? Make sure you’re optimized for local search, so your customers can find you. Read more about mobile search trends here. 30 social media Predictions for 2012 It’s the beginning of the year, so many people are gazing into a crystal ball to see what the next 12 months bring. One big question: how will social media impact businesses in 2012? Read more to find out. Understanding “conversions” Facilitating conversions – persuading visitors to your website to perform a desired activity, such as clicking a link – are one of the trickiest aspects of designing a web page for local businesses. Google, as always, has some advice: Part 1 and Part 2 of How to Improve Your Conversion Rate JumpStartWeb is an Victoria online marketing agency

Monday Marketing Madness | Social media marketing Victoria

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Nevin

JumpStartWeb offers social media marketing for Victoria small businesses 5 ways to generate excitement using social media Many local businesses create blog posts, videos, and other bits of enticing content to engage community and actually provide customers with useful information, and then use social media to get the word out. But Tweets and Facebook posts can often be a one-time thing that can get lost amidst the cacophony. So, here are 5 ways to generate excitement using social media and generate more clicks on your links! Bonus link: Google wants fresh content. Why? 5 tips for responding to negative customer reviews online If you have a business, people are going to talk about you online, and sometimes what they say may not always be positive. There’s a right way and a wrong way to address customer complaints on the web, so here are 5 tips for responding to negative customer reviews online. How to create a customer-friendly mobile website As more and more consumers go mobile to search for products and services (especially local services), local businesses can enjoy more opportunities to connect with customers – and more competition from other businesses. So, in order to not lose out on any opportunities, here are some tips on how to create a customer-friendly mobile website. Google Presents The Evolution Of Search In Six Minutes Do you remember the first time you used Google to find something? Can you remember all of the changes that have happened to Google Search since then? Well, to help you out, Google presents the evolution of Search in six minutes. It’s a great primer to businesses what matters to Google, and help them experience better results. For advanced web monkeys: how to get the new Google bar As part of Google’s ongoing efforts to clean up its interface (revamped Gmail and GReader are previous examples), Google has redesigned the “black bar” that used to appear at the top of the page. Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo. However, the redesign hasn’t been made available to everyone yet, so here’s how to get the new Google bar. It involves copying and pasting some code in your web browser, so this hack is not for the casual user!

Monday Marketing Madness | Business blogs

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Nevin

Do you have a Google+ page for your business? Well, you may have been using business blogs to promote your organization, but the big news over the past week is that Google now allows business to create their own Google+ pages to connect with customers. As you may recall, Google+ is Google’s answer to Facebook and Twitter, and it’s a great way to connect with potential customers, and is also a great way to help your business enjoy better Google Search results. More here. How to measure your online influence “Social media marketing” is all the rage these days, but how do you measure success (and make sure your making use of your limited time and money)? If you’re using social media tools such as Twitter, there are ways to measure your online reach and your online influence. Read more here. 26 useful social media stats 800 million active Facebook users. 40% of social media users access their accounts through mobile devices. There are 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, etc…). Want to impress your friends and customers with some cool (and useful) stats about social media usage? Look no further than this excellent blog post: 26 useful social media stats. Why blending SEO and usability really matter for your business Traditionally the term, “usability and SEO” represent two distinct countries, each with their own culture and belief systems. However, “users” (i.e., people) actually use search engines in specific ways to gather data, so it makes sense to approach SEO and usability together when designing or revising your website to help generate more traffic and ideally facilitate more conversions. Read more here. Nevin Thompson works as a content strategist with JumpStart Web, a Victoria online marketing firm that does a lot of things, including providing help starting a business blog.

Monday Marketing Madness | Victoria web marketing

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Nevin

12 tips for using press releases in local online marketing Is your small business taking advantage of one of the most basic marketing tools – the press release? While there are online services that specialize in broadcasting your press release far and wide, and even help get your business on the front page of Google’s search results, press releases are also effective tools for briefly and powerfully explaining what your business does, the problems you help solve, and the customers you’re trying to connect with. So, here are 12 tips for using press releases in local online marketing Bonus link: Using press releases for improving PageRank 9 tips for optimizing your website for Mobile users Thanks to ever-increasing smartphone adoption, more and more people are accessing the web using a mobile device, such as an iPhone, Blackberry or Android device. What’s more, these “mobile” users are searching for local businesses and services – it pays to make sure your website is optimized for local search. But how? Here are 9 tips for optimizing your website for Mobile users Bonus link: Android Has More Market Share, But Apple’s iOS Sends More Traffic Is your new website optimized for search? Creating a new website for your business can be a long, hard slog, and often it’s tempting to finally say “enough is enough!”, flick the switch, and make the thing go live. But not so fast! Web design ain’t over until the SEO sings. 5 tips for choosing a content management solution While originally intended for “enterprises” (large businesses that typically run complex websites that are frequently updated, often automatically, or by dozens of people), this checklist of 5 tips for choosing a content management solution (CMS) is also useful for helping small businesses keep track of SEO (search engine optimization). More bonus links

- Nevin Thompson writes a weekly blog column for Victoria web marketing company JumpStartWeb.

Marketing Madness Link Roundup (September 7, 2011)

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Nevin

Summer is over, school has started, and it’s a time for new beginnings. So, we’re launching a new regular series of blog posts featuring useful online marketing links that can help you get ahead of the competition by bringing more traffic to your website and your business.

Is your business mobile ready?

According to Pew Research, nearly 60% of smartphone users use “geosocial” and location-based services to help make purchasing decisions. This could be using Google Maps on a smartphone (typically an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android device) to find a nearby business location, or checking out online reviews of a business before making a purchasing decision. Google’s own research suggests a far higher number: Google previously found, via survey data, that 90 percent of smartphone owners conduct local searches or local business lookups and an astounding 87 percent thereafter took action. So, as smartphone adoption increases, it’s becoming more and more important for businesses to be “mobile ready.” Bonus link: Retailers, are you reaching one of your biggest opportunities – mobile users? Yet another bonus link: Google: 44 Percent Of Searches For Last-Minute Holiday Gifts Will Be Mobile

Use Twitter strategically to promote your business

Whenever its name comes up, micro-blogging service Twitter tends to provoke strong (and more often than not, negative) reactions. While the jargon (tweeting?) can seem cute, and all the hashtags and RT’s somewhat impenetrable, when used effectively and strategically, Twitter can be a great way funnel “traffic” and customers to your site. Research suggests that nearly 90% Of Twitter users follow brands, and just a small minority (10.9%) of these folks find “promoted Tweets” to be annoying. In layman’s terms, more and more businesses are using Twitter to connect with potential clients, customers and consumers. However, like anything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Bonus link (for the more technically minded): Yes, You Really Can Build Links With Twitter

LinkedIn is good for connecting with customers, too

LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals, can also be a great way for businesses to connect with potential customers. Have you filled out a LinkedIn profile of your company? It’s a guaranteed way to show up on the front page of Google results (and in front of customers). Are you answering questions on LinkedIn? It’s a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your market. You can also post slideshow presentations showcasing your business or your product, or post discounts and package deals. Here are 33 ways to use LinkedIn for business. Bonus link: How to use LinkedIn to improve organic visibility - Nevin Thompson helps develop and implement Jumpstart Web content strategy for clients.