Tag: google+

Google+: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

google happy sadNews this past week caused a bit of an uproar in the social media world. Vic Gundotra, the only leader of Google+ since its inception announced that he is leaving Google. This set off an avalanche of rumors that Google+ is going away.

A little closer to home, a flurry of “Have we been wasting our time?” comments started flying in the Indies Unlimited circles. As many of you know, I’m a fan of Google+ and have written several posts on how to get involved over the past several months. It would really suck if the time we’ve spent building our platform over there was for nothing.

Should we be worried about Google+ going away? Should we want Google+ to go away?

Let me see if I can help you formulate an opinion, one way or the other. Continue reading “Google+: Should I Stay or Should I Go?”

#twitter #hashtags for novices

hashtag hashOnce upon a time, I believed Twitter to be a site filled with dull people reporting about their dreary days or people bombarding me with tweets asking me to buy stuff. Yes, those exist on Twitter but it is a useful social platform and as I have gradually become more au fait with it, I have discovered a good way to use it to reach a target audience and gain interest in your tweets—use a hashtag.

What is a hashtag? It’s almost anything that begins with the hashtag symbol “#”. You will find silly hashtags #eatingsweets and sensible ones #newrelease. They are a way of organising information on Twitter. So, if you want to find out about new releases, you’d type #newrelease in the search box on Twitter. This will direct you to a Twitter page with all tweets using this hashtag. Continue reading “#twitter #hashtags for novices”

Search Engine Ranking- The Value of Social and Search

The role of search and socialWe’ve talked a lot about Google+ the past few weeks. So much so, you’re probably wondering if I’m getting a kickback! No, that’s not the case. It’s really simple, actually. Combining social and search is a powerful combination.

The days of static websites dictating Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking is over. You might even think that setting up a Pinterest or Facebook Page gets you in the game, but it doesn’t. Activity plays a huge role in the business of discoverability. Continue reading “Search Engine Ranking- The Value of Social and Search”

Google+ Circles: Making them Work for You

circle google colorThe role of Circles on Google+ is probably one of the most underutilized tools in social media. Last week we touched on Google+ and tips on how to utilize the giant social media platform. Based on the comments and interactions from that post, I thought this was a good time to delve deeper into Google+ Circles.

Google+ Circles are a way of organizing the people you follow on Google+. You can set up as many different Circles as you would like. One big advantage of Circles is that you can control how each Circle appears to the viewer. In other words, if you create a “Work” Circle, you can choose what information viewers see. If you want your co-workers to have access to your phone number or email, you can make that visible for just them. Continue reading “Google+ Circles: Making them Work for You”