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Market Your Business with Google

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Google ToolsMany business owners and online marketers have a love/hate relationship with search engine mega-giant Google. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, any entrepreneur who’s been in business longer than five minutes knows Google’s search engine results are key to attracting new website visitors and converting those visitors into buying customers. But Google has other free tools that are beneficial to business as well.

Here’s a quick recap:

Google My Business: Google My Business is like free advertising for your business in the form of a business listing. Google My Business connects your business directly with customers, whether they’re looking for you on Search, Maps or Google+.

Google Ad Grants: Google Ad Grants empowers nonprofit organizations through $10,000 per month in-kind AdWords™ advertising, to promote their missions and initiatives on Google search result pages. Eligible parties can learn more here: http://www.google.com/grants/

Google Alerts: When it comes to your online reputation, keeping tabs on who-is-saying-when-what-and-where is critically important. By utilizing Google Alerts, business owners can ask Google to send them an email alert every time their business name or a special keyword is mentioned, allowing them to stay on top of the information most important to their brand and online reputation.

First Things First: Google Primer

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If looking for quick refresher courses on businessocial_google_boxs basics (or learning new ways to grow your new business) has been on your radar for a while, you may want to check into Google Primer. Those who have been in online marketing for a while, and have developed the skills and know-how the newcomer may lack, know first-hand the learning curve can be steep. Enter Google Primer.

In just 5 minutes per lesson, savvy entrepreneurs can learn the tactics to make their business skills more effective. Created with the hectic schedule of the entrepreneur in mind, Google Primer is helping to bridge the gap for new businesses by offering a new iOS app that teaches business basics in a succinct and easy-to-digest way.

This “learn-on-the-go” option shares quick lessons that cover topics like content marketing, public relations and media as well as search advertising. Using understandable language, Google Primer is geared toward the average person, and users will learn via interactive quizzes, case studies and insider tips. What’s really cool is the content is available offline so you can access the content no matter where you are!

There’s one more thing to love about this app. It’s totally free and has an android version coming soon.

Growing Your Google+ Connections …

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social_google_boxIf you are a Gmail user, growing your connections on Google+ is as easy as opening an email. Users can add connections to their Circles easily by looking for the “Add to circles” icon on the right rail of the Gmail platform every time they visit their inbox. If one of your email connections is active on Google+, most times their photo will appear next to this button as well.

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Wondering why you should invest your already stretched thin time on Google+? Google+ is a Google product and Google loves itself. Any content you post on Google+ can rank higher in search results than your website or blog in some instances. As you grow your connection on Google+ it is wise to take a few minutes every day to visit the site to read, comment and “plus one” things to spread your brand and interact with your Circles. Accessing Google+ from Gmail is a simple as clicking your name with the “+” next to it in the top area of your Gmail inbox.

This Meeting is Called to Order!

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Meeting called to orderThe use of the Internet has helped to erase boundaries of community and state and has allowed business professionals to connect with service providers and clients across the globe. One-on-ones with clients and team members in other parts of the country and all over the world is now as simple as creating a Google Hangout or Skype account. But what if you need to conduct an event that is more detailed and longer than your average meeting? Luckily, there are a bevy of great webinar tools available to help entrepreneurs conduct business like a pro. [Read more…]

Posting Pictures that POP on Google+

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It’s no secret that big, vibrant images are key in social media for drawing users in and encouraging engagement. Pinterest has been the reigning image champ for a while now, but other social media platforms are scrambling to step up their image games, including Google+.

When using Google+ to promote your blog, website or services, an effective key to great images is to NOT use the little picture that pops up when you insert the URL link of the information you are looking to share. Like Facebook, when a link is inserted in an update, a little picture of your post will automatically pop up below the link. These smaller pictures suffice, but are less likely to get noticed by users as they scroll past. A larger picture affiliated with your post will not only look better, but is more likely to “hook” readers and get their attention. [Read more…]

Top Social Media Changes of the year

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The Top Social Media Changes so far in 2013 (And why they are important)!

The Google+ ‘Local’ Tab: Google took new steps in eliminating the old Google Place pages to transition into the new Google+ Local. The new ‘Local’ tab, now located on the left-hand sidebar of Google+, allows users to search for specific places or browse through various categories of listings such as restaurants, museums, clothing stores, etc. [Read more…]

Social Media Platform Changes and Updates

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We already know social media changes constantly. There have been so many changes and upgrades to social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ lately, that I thought it would be easier just to give you a summary as a virtual heads up.

Twitter Vine: Vine is a new mobile app that allows you to capture life from your mobile device in short, six-second looping videos. You can share these short videos with your Twitter followers and Facebook friends. Just think of it as Instagram, except with videos instead of pictures. [Read more…]

To Google+ or not to Google+ … that is the question!

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While on a team meeting last week, we were discussing video streaming options for one of our clients, and someone mentioned Google+. I must say that I have been very, very resistant to Google+ … considering it just another Facebook, but without all the cool kids. So, as a way of trying to entice me over to the dark side, my dear friend, colleague, and team member, Carla Wilson – sent me a link to a recent episode she and her co-host, Mary Motz, did on their weekly podcast.

Here are just a few of the highlights they covered: [Read more…]

BizEase Toolbox – Now where’s my Duct Tape?

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The Internet is filled to the brim with amazing apps and tools these days, and many of them are at no cost. Yes some may be silly and non-essential, but some are pretty awesome too. Here’s my list of current “top picks” of free helper tools for busy business owners:

1.   TwitCleaner: www.twitcleaner.com Silly name, but pretty effective tool. What’s cool about TwitCleaner, is that it weeds out the “junk” from your Twitter Followers. The idea is quality vs. quantity. This handy little tool identifies your followers who: [Read more…]

Optimize Your Website For Google in 5 Easy Steps!

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The battle to stay on top of search engine result pages requires a website owner to constantly improve page content. Although Bing and Yahoo use HTML tag structures, Google optimization is trickier. The search engine giant separates the affiliate pages and ad sites from domains that provide distinctive, relevant content. Because of Google’s stricter guidelines and requirements, website owners need to optimize pages to improve Google index rank.
[Read more…]