Google Plus @en

5 tips on quickly enhancing Google+ Branded Company Pages.

November 8, 2011 by Raul Colon

Since Google + was launched a few months ago, the presence of any business was initially left out of the equation. Yesterday Google opened up its Business Pages to the Public and our staff and myself have been creating pages of some of our clients and our own CIMA IT Solutions Google+ Profile.

We wanted to share with you 5 initial tips on quickly enhancing your Google+ Branded Company pages.

Take a look at the video we included below with simple instructions on creating a page. Below are some more details on how we set up our page.

Create a Short link for your page

As soon as we set up our page we went ahead and created a shortcut on http://gplus.to for CIMA IT Solutions Corp. We ended up getting a shorter link that is http://gplus.to/cimapr. Google + is known for having long urls to reach the profile.

Another option towards creating your own short link is if you use the Genesis Framework like we do on wordpress. By creating a Redirect url (a trick I learned from my friend @ChrisBrogan) like this one http://cimapr.net/gplus . This link will move people towards your Google+ branded page.

Complete your Business Profile

To give your profile and page some credibility, I highly recommend including as much information as possible but keep it brief. Feel free to include enough information to spark the interest of those that landed on your Google+ Branded Page. We made sure to give it the human touch and added links to the profiles of our teams and leadership.

Share Your Content

If you already have content created on a blog feel free to add a few of your best past posts. We will be sharing past posts and new ones as they become available. This is yet another way to get new people interested in the previous content you have created.

Add Some Photos

What a better way than to add life to your Business Page Profile in Google+ than adding photos of the company or organization’s events. Make sure to share the story behind the pictures. This might spark a few conversations and keep Google+ users interested in what you are currently doing or generate questions about past experiences.

We will be writing and sharing a series of posts on this new channel for business. If you need help in enhancing your Google + Branded Pages feel free to contact us or in the comments area.

Also feel free to subscribe to our newsletter to get future posts on the subject.

Additional Resources we found online

A post on Google+ from Susan Beebe

Pages are extremely similar to profiles, but they have some key differences:

– Pages can’t add people to circles until the page is added first or mentioned. Learn more.

– Pages can be made for a variety of different entities whereas profiles can only be made for people.

– The default privacy setting for elements on your page profile is public.

– Pages have the +1 button.

– Pages can’t +1 other pages, nor can they +1 stuff on the Web.

– Pages can’t play games.

– Pages don’t have the option to share to ‘Extended circles’.

– Pages don’t receive notifications via email, text, or in the Google bar.

– Pages can’t hangout on a mobile device.

– Local pages have special fields that help people find the business’ physical location.

– Learn more about local pages.

Video to Set Up Your Google+ Branded Page from John S. Haydon

Adding Circles to Your Gmail Chat (Gtalk)?

July 15, 2011 by Raul Colon

Update: It seems that Google did remove the functions we mentioned in this post.

Updated from Google:

We wanted to offer you more control over who you can chat with in Google Plus. So we’ve made a change that requires you to explicitly invite people in order for them to appear in your chat list. For Gmail, Orkut and iGoogle users, we’ll continue to include the people who you can already chat with in those properties.

Original Post

The other day using Google + I started using gmail chat which I got the option to include everyone in my circles into my GTalk contacts. A few hours later I got a message from Steven (a member of Kitchen Table Companies → Affiliate Link) asking me how did I on how I adding myself to his Gtalk contacts.

I quickly ran him through the steps and he gave me a few reasons why this could really help him use even more GPlus. (many of them where on the business side).

Adding Your Google+ Circles to Gtalk

If you go to the chat area on your left side of your Google+ screen you will see an arrow giving you the option to see your Circles, Setting, or to Log Out of Gtalk.

If you click on Circles you will get the options to choose the circles you want to chat with. This automatically enables the people in your circle to see that you are online.

Something you have to take into consideration when enabling your circles in Gtalk is the fact that people might be able to discover your email address. So make sure you only enable people you trust.

If you need to adjust setting of your Gtalk you can also do that by hitting the chat settings button.

This integration on Google+ will help me keep in touch with many of my contacts that I had lost touch for a while since I hardly use Gtalk.

What other benefits and/or disadvantages do you see in having Gtalk integrated with your circles?

Should I use Google + for my business?

July 5, 2011 by Raul Colon

Every time that a new Platform emerges, many of us are thinking about the benefits our businesses can get from them. Google + is currently available for some users. At the moment Google has temporarily stopped new from joining.

This is a good testing ground when trying to figuring out what Google + can leverage over other platforms like Facebook or Twitter when you are one of the first to use it.

I guess no matter what platform you decide to use you have to look at it from the perspective of being able to enhance the process of meeting your business goals and always keep that in mind.

So many people jump into every platform with only one thing in their mind and that is selling and marketing.

Thankfully the early implementers have created a good ambience in the Google + eco system that leaves a lot of opportunity for exploration with very few people pushing their products on to you for the moment. It is time for every business owner to strengthen relationships and get to know other people on this platform.

So my business advice for Google + : Get to know the people with access and see how you can help your customers with this new tool.

If you are new to Google + this video created by our friend @chrisbrogan can give you a quick idea on how to start using it.

@chrisbrogan also wrote this awesome list on 50 ideas and opportunities where he thinks Google+ can benefit all of us. I would recommend you to take a look at his unique ideas.

THE GOOGLE PLUS 50

Feel free to add me on Google + (http://bit.ly/RcolonPlus)