Gain More Google+ Followers By Adding A Badge To Your Site

I originally just had a simple Google+ icon in my sidebar until I realized how easy it was to embed a fancy “badge”. You can see what it looks like and how it works in my sidebar. I added two, one for my personal profile and one for my business page.

It’s easy to see why this is a step up over having a simple icon. People can follow you or your site right from the sidebar of your website, without ever having to leave! Now that’s brilliant!

You can grab the code for the badge over here at the Google Developers site. While you’re there, grab the code for Google+ share buttons, “+1″ buttons and more!

Poll: What’s Your Social Network Of Choice?

Lifehacker is running a poll asking visitors what their favorite social network is. This may come as a surprise to a few people, but Google+ is blowing away the competition. Sure, readers of Lifehacker tend to be fairly tech savvy, which is why Google+ is probably winning the poll, but it still goes to show how far Google+ has come!

Vote for your favorite here!

11 Tools to Find Niche Twitter Influencers

If you’re looking to reach influencers on Twitter (AKA those with a huge, loyal following), you’re in luck! Ann Smarty has 11 great tools to help you in your search!

Here are 3 of my favorites:

Listorious

More than two million Twitter users are currently listed on Listorious. They are all helpfully tagged by niche most commonly attributed, such as charity, activism, children, writers, travel, sports and more. You can check out the tags, or do your own search for a more specific niche. You will also see people, topics, links and lists trending on Twitter right now.

Twellow

A basic list of users based on popularity, there are a number of categories with users listed within. You have niches such as News and Media, Sports, Government, Education and more. You can find results based on smaller niches, location or other factors.

FollowerWonk

This one comes with SEOmoz PRO. You can search Twitter bios, analyze, track and sort followers and compare users. All based on current and constantly updated data. Here’s Rand’s video explaining how it works…” [Continue Reading]

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Why You Should Merge Your Google Places And Google+ Page

This can be a very confusing issue for small business owners, and it doesn’t help the fact that Google has been taking it’s sweet time with the Google Places/Google+ Local merger.

As of right now, you shouldn’t have any issues merging your Google Places page with your Google+ Local page if..

1. You’re a local business with an actual storefront. Service area businesses that don’t have a physical storefront are out of luck still.

2. You only have a single location. Multi-location support hasn’t rolled out quite yet for Google+ Local.

3. You select “Local Business or Place” when creating a Google+ Page. If you select any of the other options, your Google Places page won’t merge with your Google+ Page.

So why should a small business merge the two?

When it comes to Local SEO, Google+ is the way forward. Google Places probably won’t even exist within a year or two. Also, you get to start engaging with potential customers on Google+ and start benefiting from all the social features Google+ has to offer.

In short, Google+ is going to be a game changer for SEO, so it’s best to get a head start right now!

Here’s how to do it:

1. Create a Google+ page for your business. Remember make sure to select “Local Business or Place” when creating your page. If you already have a Google Places page, Google will recognize this from the phone number you used. It will then ask you if this is your business. Simply select your business and finish filling out the rest of the information.

If you don’t have a Google Places page, then don’t worry about it. You won’t need one since you’re creating a Google+ Local page.

2. Verify your Google+ page. After you’ve created your page, you’ll be asked to verify the business address. They’ll do this by sending you a postcard containing a special pin code. It can take 2-3 weeks for you to receive the postcard in the mail, but usually it arrives within a week.

3. Optimize your Google+ page. Adding pictures and video is a huge part of optimizing your page, but so is user engagement and review collection, which are both ongoing tasks.

You’ll want to put in place a system for collecting Google+ reviews for your business. This will ensure you have a fresh supply of positive reviews coming in. Google+ pages that have a lot of good reviews generally rank higher than other Google+ pages. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that 72% of consumers surveyed said that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. 52% said that positive online reviews make them more likely to use a local business.

Engaging with users on Google+ is pretty straight-forward. Simply start adding fellow Google+ users to your “circle” and a percentage of them will follow back. The better you target your “following campaign” the better your results will be. For example, if you’re a software company selling software to small business owners, you’re better off “following” small business owners than you are “following” a teenage kid that listens to ICP.

Once you start to build up a following, the next step is to reach out to your following. Ask them questions, share useful informational with them, reply to them if they message you. That’s about it! Pretty simple right?

Update: What if my Google Places and Google+ Local page don’t merge?

In some cases, the two will have trouble merging, leaving valuable reviews on your Google Places page, which sucks because we want those reviews on our new Google+ Local page. If your pages aren’t merging, all you have to do is visit your Google Places page and click “report a problem”. Let Google know that it’s a duplicate listing and needs to be merged with your new Google+ Local page.

This happened with a client of mine, and it only took a few days to merge after I reported the issue.

Am I leaving something out? Leave a comment and let me know!

5 Loud and Clear Messages About Search, Social and Content Marketing

Iris Creative has been kind enough to give us a little SMX West wrap-up. I’m going to have to try and make it next year!

Via IrisCreative

“1. G+
Google is serious about Google Plus. They have made significant changes over the last few months – rolling Places into G+, requiring a G+ account to write a review, and most significantly, displaying search results based on who you are connected to on G+.
Presenter Mark Traphagen said “Unlike any other network, G+ extends your reach far beyond the network itself”. And in another session, Panelist Brent Csutoras said (strongly) that the one place he won’t automate social is on G+. In all other social networks, what you do is fairly self contained, with Google Integrating G+ into search, the impact of your footprint extends to your entire online presence.

2. Sharing
Last week I attended the District 2 CASE Conference where it was discussed that sharing could be considered the key measurement of success in social. I have seen this brought up on the AMA Nonprofit Marketing forum as well as other places lately and wrote about it in What Makes a Post Sharable?

It was a central topic at SMX West as well. Its not just social media, its not just a sharable web. We are moving to a connected economy where who you are, who you know and what you do are transparent and integrated into online functionality…” [Continue Reading]