With the announcement that branded business pages had been launched, business can now create a Google+ account specifically for their brand.

A number of pages were already available at the time of the announcement (Google allowed some brands to beta test them earlier). I’ve listed a few branded pages below and you can also get a sample list of business pages from Google’s blog post.

Here’s a quick video from Google. I specially like this line, “I don’t expect anything monetarily — that will come.” because it helps focused the message around using business pages for connecting and being social with customers as opposed to “marketing” to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ccf5GxM7vg

Google+ Business Page Samples

Pepsi, Toyota, and Angry Birds make good use of photos by posting a series of images that creates the feel of a single landscape photo. This is something many businesses try to do on their Facebook pages — but with one big difference. On Facebook, the images change position each time a page is visited or refreshed. Even if you upload images in the order you want them to display — they don’t. So I’m really happy Google noticed that flaw and keeps images in order. This will allow businesses to be more creative and dress up their pages.

Pepsi

Pepsi Business Page on Google Plus

Toyota

Toyota Business Page on Google Plus

Angry Birds

Who doesn’t love Angry Birds? I specially love how they kept the brand fun with adding a most compelling business description: “Ca-caw!”.

Angry Birds Business Page on Google Plus

Android

Android Business Page on Google Plus

Macy’s

Macy’s wasted no time jumping into the holiday spirit by adding some festive photos to their gallery. A nice, non-salesy, way to start their page but I can see how they can use the photo gallery to present sales and coupons to customers circling them.

Macy's Business Page on Google Plus

WWE

This WWE page (and like a few others here) added photos of some colorful wrestling characters. Unfortunately, they didn’t know that the images aren’t limited to the 150x 150 pixel thumbnail size. The images can be larger and will display perfectly as long as the images are proportional. I recommend using images no larger than 720 x 720 pixels.

WWE Business Page on Google Plus

Coldplay

For musicians and bands, Google Plus business pages could be a great marketing tool. Coldplay uses the photo gallery to display album covers. As a band, this is a nice use but it could be such more if Google could drop in a couple more features.

I’d love it if Google would allow users to choose which photos to display (no matter what album they’re in) on the home page as opposed to displaying five photos from the most recent uploads. In this way, Bands could create separate photo albums for each their music albums — Album cover art, band member photos, concert images, etc. Then the user could choose one image from each photo album t feature on the home page.

As long as I’m shooting for the stars, imagine how useful it could be for businesses to upload audio files. Bands could drop preview tracks of their songs and even offer special songs for free download.

Coldplay Business Page on Google Plus

Dallas Cowboys

Seeing videos in their stream reminds to to request Google to upgrade the image gallery to also include videos. Perhaps with an option to let the business choose between showing five photos or 2-3 video boxes. This would be a great tool for businesses to promote their products and promotional videos.

Dallas Cowboys Business Page on Google Plus

Google Plus and Search Results

As Google launched business pages yesterday, they’ve wasted no time in displaying posts from Google Plus business pages into their search results pages. A quick search for “WWE” came back with the displaying posts from WWE’s Google Business Page directly under their main website site links.

Considering Google can no longer display real-time results from Twitter, this is a big plus.

Post from Google Plus Business Pages Already Added to Search Results

Additional Google Plus Articles

• Google Plus Pages: 5 things you should know before you register
• The Power Potential Of Google+ Pages For Businesses
• Google+ Brand Pages vs. Facebook Fan Pages
• Google+ Brand Pages Are the “Wild West” — for Now
• How to Set Up a Google+ Brand Page
• 5 Cool Tips You Should Know About Google+ Pages

What do you think of the new business pages? Have you create your own business page yet? If you have, please drop a link to your page in the comments.

But before going any further, I know some will disagree and will want to use this new feature. So, for all of you, here’s a quick video on how you can connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

How To Send Twitter Updates to Facebook

If you don’t feel like watching the video, You can connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts buy logging into your Twitter account, clicking on the Profile tab, and then clicking on the “Post your Tweets to Facebook” button.

Click the Post your Tweets to Facebook button to connect accounts

Duplicating Twitter Updates to Facebook is a Bad Idea

Twitter is not Facebook

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that Twitter is not Facebook (and visa-versa). They’re different networks with different feature sets. One is not better than the other, they just serve their social communities differently.

Which is why I believe cross-posting all Twitter updates to Facebook is self-defeating and creates a disconnect with the people you’re trying to share with.

From my experience, Twitter is more business focused whereas Facebook is more personal. And people who predominantly use Facebook as their main social network don’t like Twitter. I can understand the rationale.

Twitter’s 140 character limit means words have to be shortened in order to save space. Words like “about” become “abt”, “with” becomes “w/”, “have” becomes “hv” etc. And hashtags like #socialmedia — used on Twitter to make it easier for people to follow specific topics — don’t serve a function on Facebook.

So when Tweets are replicated on Facebook, it’s clearly apparent the message came from Twitter. So message comes across as sharing, but not caring enough to fully write it out or expand on what’s being said.

It’s Always ON

Another problem with the feature is that you can’t selectively choose which updates get posted to your Facebook account. It’s either ON or it’s OFF — nothing in between.

As an example, shortly after I made the above video, I was engaged in #blogchat (a Twitter chat about blogging). Unfortunately, I forgot to turn off the automatic Facebook update setting so every single one of my #blogchat tweets (and there were a lot) were sent to my Facebook account. All of my Facebook friends timeline were then filled with half conversations and replies to other Twitter users without any context of what I was talking about. Ouch!

Know Thy Networks

In this article, “Twitter adds a ‘Post Tweets to Facebook’ button in user profiles” Alain-Marie makes a good point.

Alain-Marie Carron thoughts about Twitter's new Facebook update feature

It’s important to understand the nuances of each social network you use and, more importantly, how people are using them. If you can identify why people are using them and why they’re following and/or friending you, you’ll have a greater opportunity to have more meaningful engagement and growing your networks.

I’m sure this is a nice feature some people may like. I’m just not one of them.

What do you think about posting Twitter updates to Facebook?

Drop a comment with your best Haiku about why you want to use Google+ and the top five will get invites.

What’s a Haiku you ask?

A traditional haiku consists of 17 syllables (total), written in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 syllables, and last word of the first and third line generally rhythm – but don’t have to.

Something like;

I crave an invite.
It’s so overwhelmingly sheik.
To circle up friends.

Okay, so that was kinda lame but you get the idea.

Rules:
Comment has to be a Haiku. Contest ends 11:59pm, Tuesday, July 19. I’ll personally read and choose the winners from all submitted comments. Pretty simple, really.

So if you want a Google Plus invite, add your Haiku into the comments.

Word-of-Mouth is Growing Online

Customers are spreading comments about the brands and services they use — both positive and negative reviews — at a stagger pace.

80% of Americans regularly use the Internet.¹

60% of web users have a social network account–double the number in 2008.²

92% of Web users share content with friends via social networks.³

Nearly 150 million US web users will use social networks via any device at least monthly this year, bringing the reach of such sites to 63.7% of the online population.⁴

Brand Mentions on Twitter:
Brand Recommendations:
source: TweetReports.com

US Social Network Users and Penetration. 2009-2013 (millions and % of Internet users

Social Media Marketing
More Important Than Search?

Small businesses recognize word-of-mouth as the top way their customers find them, followed by the Internet and search engines.

Sources new customers use to find businesses and services. March 2011

Traffic Driven to Content Publisher's Sites by Social Media, by Content Category

New Marketing Tactics Used by U.S. SMBs in the Past Year, April 2011

The question is, does your business have a social media strategy in place to monitor your brand, capture leads, engage users and perhaps even “steal” customers away from your competition?

If you don’t, your customers could suddenly become your competitor’s customers.

trygveoTrygve Olsen

@Borders Hey Matt, can I ask you a question? My wife is a teacher. Do you give educator discounts?

Apr 23 10FavoriteRetweetReply

BordersBorders

@trygveo We do indeed >http://ow.ly/1CmRC Plus, look for our Educator Appreciation events twice a year. Thanks!

Apr 23 10FavoriteRetweetReply

trygveoTrygve Olsen

@Borders Thanks Matt. What are the parameters of the discount? I assume an APA style manual is considered educational by u? (others do not)

Apr 23 10FavoriteRetweetReply

in reply to @trygveo↑

@Borders
Borders@trygveo Sorry I don’t have a response on that title yet, but you could use this coupon to save 33% this weekend >http://ow.ly/1Cpze
Apr 23 10 via HootSuiteFavoriteRetweetReply

Social Media Can Help Your Business

Using social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can increase profits for your company. Even small businesses can benefit from social media marketing by closing new business deals and finding partnerships.

Companies in select countries that experienced increased revenue in the past year, by social network usage. Feb. 2011

Benefits from Using Social Media

source: 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report [PDF]

• Generating more business exposure
• Increased traffic and subscribers
• Improved search rankings
• Help find new business partnerships
• Generate qualified leads
• Reduced marketing expenses
• Increase brand awareness
• Improved sales

How To Get Started

Getting started in marketing your business through social media is deceptively easy; register for a free account, add some information about your company, and start posting messages.

But that deception can quickly turn into a Cairo To Promote Spring Collection">social media nightmare if you don’t have guidelines in place to help prevent misguided postings or a plan to respond to a crisis should something awry.

Develop a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Define Networks

Will your business use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Google+, or Quora? All of them play a big factor in how your website ranks within search engine results.

Not all social networks are the same nor do they provide access to the same demographics or targeted audience. Your company may only need to use one social network to start or perhaps a combination.

Our social media consultants will help you define what social media channels your business should be involved.

Create Social Media Guidelines

Before you think about posting your first tweet, Facebook update or upload a marketing video to YouTube, your business needs to create comprehensive, social media guidelines.

Guidelines should include;

• What information to include (and not include) in your messages
• How to engage your audience
• How to increase followers
• How to create and activate brand advocates
• When (and where) to engage your audience and customers
• When you should take conversations offline
• Critical points for when your business needs to avoid engagement
• How to manage a social media crisis

Invest In Social Media Training

The best way to protect you online reputation is to fully understand the social media channels you’re engaging in. We offer on-site social media training seminars that will teach your organization social media best practices and, more importantly, the most common mistakes businesses makes in the social media space.

Monitor Your Brand On Social Media Channels

One of the most important aspects to social media marketing is listening. Monitoring mentions about your business, your brand, your products and even social mentions about your competitors.

We use the most sophisticated monitoring tools available and provide comprehensive reporting so you know who is saying what, to whom, and how often.

Social Media Optimization

Search engine optimization is an important part to driving organic traffic to any online property. But as social media networks have become more widely accepted and used by billions of people, search engines have evolved to incorporate social media into how they rank and list web sites within their search listings.

Read: “Social Sharing: How To Optimize Page Titles To Generate More Links To Your Website”

Call us on (615) 656-5516 or click here to schedule an appointment with a Nashville social media marketing consultant.

With our experience in social media, marketing, and optimizing websites, you will receive a customized social media optimization strategy to drive more leads to your business.

1 and 2 “Social networking sites and our lives” Pew Internet
3 “What Marketers Can Learn from Consumers’ Sharing Habits” emarketer.com
4 “Days of Double-Digit Growth in Social Network Users Are Over” emarketer.com

I’ve been participating in a social media advertising program called SponsoredTweets. This is a system where advertisers pay Twitter users a specified amount (generally based on the number of followers you have) to post an advertising message for their product or service. Being that my professional background is in advertising, I was curious to see how the system would work and play out over time. So I decided to give SponsoredTweets a test run.

As my @kristofcreative account currently has a little over 2300 followers, I receive a whopping $5 each time I accept and tweet a message for an advertiser through the SponsoredTweets service.

My guidelines for accepting and tweeting such messages are as follows;

1. The product or service needs to fit in line with the content I already talk about.
2. The product or service needs be something I would actually use myself.

To-date, I’ve accepted and tweeted a total of 6 messages for total earnings of $30 which are earmarked for a local food bank.

My Sponsored Tweets Earnings: $30

Up until today, I thought the service was pretty straightforward and had a clearly defined (and successful) business model; post a message (once) and get paid by the system.

Apparently, SponsoredTweets decided to change their business model from a simple post/pay system into some sort of high-bred Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model called ClickWatch. So it’s no longer a simple post one Twitter message and get paid. It’s now a system that follows a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) model. That’s to say that if the link posted in your message does not receive a certain amount of clicks, it costs the advertiser more. On the flip-side, the more clicks a link receives, the less it costs the advertiser.

This CPC business model for selling advertising isn’t bad in and of itself — it’s the same model Google uses. The problem is that SponsoredTweets isn’t Google. SponsoredTweets is a program in which advertisers pay Twitter user’s to post an advertising message on their behalf. This is no different than a company paying to place an advertisement or link on your website or blog, But SponsoredTweets ClickWatch business model changes that.

With ClickWatch, if a link in a posted message does not receive enough click-through to achieve a $1.50 CPC, SponsoredTweets requires the user to repost the message up to two more times (a total of three times). This does nothing more than boost the benefits to the advertiser (they pay less per posted message) while reducing the income for the person posting the message.

In my specific circumstance, my potential earnings of $5 per tweeted message is reduced to $1.66 per message. But the earnings reduction is, by far, not the biggest problem.

The biggest problem is that the people following you on Twitter aren’t doing so to read advertising messages. So the more advertising messages you post the more likely they are to stop following you (no one like’s to follow a spammy Twitter account).

The outcome is that you can quickly find yourself with a social media channel that’s anti-social. Plus, if you’re even remotely considered using advertising in your Twitter messages as a monetization method you’ll find that the less followers you have is directly proportional to the amount of money you can earn.

Less followers = less money.

From an initial viewpoint I can perhaps understand SponsoredTweets thinking — they’re trying to create a more viable and cost efficient program for advertisers. It doesn’t take a lot of thought to come to the conclusion that the cheaper they can offer advertising the more clients they can bring into their service. That’s all well and good until you consider that in doing so, you’re slowly destroying the only advertising vehicle you have — Twitter users. Because without them, you have nothing.

So my question to SponsoredTweets is, “Why are you integrating an advertising model that is systematically executing the people you need to succeed?” Seriously, what are you thinking?

The simple fact is that every person who has decided to follow me on Twitter has entrusted to me to not fill their stream with spam. And I value that trust — a whole lot more than helping you make more money.

So go ahead shoot yourself in the foot one more time SponsoredTweets by revoking your user’s ClickWatch status for 60-days for choosing not to Retweet a message that the advertiser approved and the Twitter user already tweeted. Because punishing people for bad choices made by the company doing the advertising is always a smart move.

And quite frankly, if your advertiser’s don’t like the CPC results they’re receiving by using your system they should either A) do more research into the people they’re making an offer to or B) Move to a PPC campaign.

I’d like to hear your thoughts about social media advertising. Do you like or hate it? Does it have a place in the Twitterverse? And if you’re using SponsoredTweets, I’d love to hear about your experience.

There’s no doubt about it, the Internet has adopted social media and social networking in a very big way. From MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, everyone is communicating in new and exciting ways.

And in the midst of new search engine launches such as Wolfram Alpha, Microsoft’s Bing, and Google’s newly extended search options of Google Squared, Rich Snippets, Google SkyMap, and Wonder Wheel (someone really needs to help them with product naming), and TweetReports.com, Google has also announced Google Wave. Here’s a video guide.

What is Google Wave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1qzIEJAFww

How to get started with Google Wave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKUAqNGVwX0

Mashable has also posted two great articles about Google Wave; A “first look” review “Testing Google Wave” and a follow article “Top 6 Game-Changing Features of Google Wave“. If you want to learn SEO or get more in-depth information about this service, these are both “must reads”.

The “New” Social Media?

From reading the article and watching the video, I can see why Google was interested in buying Twitter—it’s a natural fit into the bigger picture of this new communication platform. The wave is also a natural progression of how people can and should interact.

Not that I’m advocating that Google Wave is going to be the end-all, be-all social media platform, only that with so many different (and separated) Internet based applications currently available, Google has created one way that brings them all together under one roof; integrated chat, video, audio, pictures and, not to mention, incorporating all current Google applications such as Google Docs, etc.

Pretty amazing stuff.

So, what could make this just that more appealing? Open source and access to Google Wave API. Now that was smart thinking.

This means that not only can developers created new “extensions” (small applications that can be integrated into the Wave) but almost anyone with a website can embedded a Wave into their site. The possibilities are already running rampant through my head.

How this effects you.

For one, bringing multiple social media type services under one roof makes it faster, if not easier, to communicate and a lot more easier to manage with needing only one username and password.

Services like Google Wave makes web development faster for web designers such as myself because we don’t have to recreate the wheel every time we need to incorporate a specific site feature.

With the ease of embedding a Wave, it brings accessibility down a notch to non-programmers. This follows the same path as YouTube allowing users to embed video’s into a website simply by placing a small snippet of code.

And, of course, the three items listed below accumulates into a cost savings for business owners. But even with the money you’ll save, I still highly recommend hiring an experienced designer, programmer, and social media consultant. Good one’s are worth their weight in gold for the long-term benefits they will provide your business.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts on Google Wave and how it plays into social networking?

Do you think it will reign supreme and dwarf other networking sites such as Twitter? Or do you think Google has a greater master plan in place to dominate the Internet? If you know what it is, please do share.

NFCA coaches looking for new ways to recruit fastpitch softball players.

Challenged by the limiting guidelines proposed by the NCAA for using social media, fastpitch softball coaches and teams look for new ways to build their sports program with today’s technology.

How Facebook, Twitter and Other Social Networks Can Help Your Softball Sports Program Attract Star Players

A larger idea is for colleges and sports programs to use social media to build long-term global brands in order to attract athletes before they become recruits.

Using Social Media to Build A Long-Term Brand

Additional Reading

• Essential Social Media Marketing Articles
• Essential Twitter Marketing Articles
• Essential Facebook Marketing Articles
• Essential Reputation Management Articles

Social Media Monitoring Tools

• TweetReports.com
• Google Alerts

Download Facebook Tips [PDF]

Apparently Motrin hasn’t.

Motrin Babywearing Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmykFKjNpdY

As a new TV commercial for Motrin has hit the airwaves, their target market of baby-wearing moms hit the social networking scene, specifically @twittermoms.

If your not familiar with twitter, it’s a social networking platform allowing people and groups to interact with each other–constrained to 140 characters are less.

Why is this important?

Because the strategy behind Motrin’s “baby wearing” TV commercial looks to capture a slim audience of moms who are more focused on the importance of fashion than the importance of childcare.

This can be more apparent than in the following two lines in the commercial; “Supposedly, it’s a real bonding experience.” and “It’s for my kid.”

And this is where the voices and opinions of Motrin’s real target audience spread across social networking sites yesterday.

From Twitter, Facebook, blog articles and YouTube video’s, the topic of Motrin’s TV commercial and “@twittermoms” could be heard throughout the Internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhR-y1N6R8Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFcKhv5O4zM

This is important for two reasons.

First and foremost, it demonstrates the importance of not only locking down your strategy but making sure– really sure –you know who your target audience is. More-so that you understand them.

Do you understand their wants, there needs, their desires, and exactly how they can use your product based on specific scenarios?

Obviously the ad agency who handles the Motrin account missed the boat.

In concept, they took an interesting premise of targeting baby wearing mom’s and then presented the TV idea to Motion for approval.

Motrin, being in the pain relief business shouldn’t be expected to understand every nuance of baby wearing moms. And the same goes for any company.

The question then becomes, didn’t anyone think to actually talk to the target audience? Maybe even run the commercial past a focus group for feedback from real baby wearing moms?

Maybe they did, I don’t know.

What I do know is that there’s a very large and vocal group of baby-wearing moms who have been voicing their dissenting opinion of Motrin’s new TV commercial.

Which brings me to my second point

The power of social networks. In this specific case, Twitter.

To those who have heard of twitter.com but who haven’t actually taken time to join in the conversation generally tend to see it is either another fad chat room or an easy way to market their business and products for a quick buck.

The latter, generally ends up as lame twitter marketing. Using spam tactics and worst practices and techniques for pimping their wares. These are the same twitters who quickly get blocked because no one wants to listen to their lame pitches.

If Motrin hasn’t heard about this already, they will today.

Social networking is a powerful force. And when combined with a vocal and dominating group such as baby-wearing wearing moms ( #twittermoms ) it’s a force that can easily make or break a company.

And to borrow a quote from a Spiderman movie, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Not to those who are wielding the power, but to the companies who should be listening to them.

Like with any other large or small company, Motrin had, and still has, the opportunity to listen to their target audience.

They are not afraid to voice their opinions. And from my perspective, you can learn the most from negative opinions. Because it’s the negative feedback that will tell you exactly what is wrong with your product. And if you know what’s wrong with your product, you can take steps to fix it.

It looks like Motrin has some fixing to do.

That is, if they’re listening.

I remember watching the Lone Ranger on TV. In addition to the “Hi-Ho Silver, away!”, I also remember Tonto and his loyalty to the Lone Ranger.

In many ways, Tonto could be compared to a PR agency,

Tonto was always by his side and watching his back. He kept his eyes and ears open, and advised the Lone Ranger of opportunities and potential problems.

You see, Tonto also had the ability to put his ear to railroad tracks and hear the train coming from miles away.

Motrin could learn a lot from Tonto.

Motrin, there’s a train coming. Can you hear it?

If you’re interested in joining the conversation on twitter, you can follow me @kristofcreative.

I look forward to tweeting with you.

Update

A Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman responds with statement sent to Forbes.com.

I am the Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Consumer Healthcare. I have responsibility for the Motrin Brand, and am responding to concerns about recent advertising on our website. I am, myself, a mom of 3 daughters.

We certainly did not mean to offend moms through our advertising. Instead, we had intended to demonstrate genuine sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their babies. We believe deeply that moms know best and we sincerely apologize for disappointing you. Please know that we take your feedback seriously and will take swift action with regard to this ad. We are in process of removing it from our website. It will take longer, unfortunately, for it to be removed from magazine print as it is currently on newsstands and in distribution.