Google+ for Social Selling<br />By
Social Selling University<br />

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Google+ is a Social Network<br
/>Relationships on Google+ are asymmetric, which means you can follow people who don’t have to follow you back. Users get a profile, a news stream, the ability to follow topics they are interested in (Sparks), create groups of friends (Circles), interact with them through video chat (Hangouts). <br />What is Google+?<br />

Released on July 7, 2011<br
/>Already, more than 1 billion items are shared and received per day <br />Over 10 million active (took FourSquare 2 years to reach)<br />The Skinny on Google+<br />The Rising Tide of Social Media: 1 out of every 6 minutes spent online is spent on social networks<br />

Praise<br />“Decided to forward kevinrose.com
to Google+. G+ gives me more (real time) feedback and engagement than my blog ever did.” –Kevin Rose; Founder of Digg<br />“There’s a reason why Google calls this a “project” rather than a “product” – they don’t want people to think of this as the final product, but as a constantly-evolving entity that permeates every corner of the Google empire.” –Mashable<br />Worries<br />"You introduce Google+, where am I going to spend that next minute or hour of my discretionary time? I have no more time.” –Jeff Weiner; CEO of LinkedIn<br />When it comes to social networking, Google finds itself in an unusual position, one that its competitors in Web search know all too well: playing catch-up with a service that dominates the market.” – New York Times<br />The Skinny on Google+<br />

Google+ can be accessed through
http://m.google.com/plus<br />Step 1: Setup a Google Profile<br />If you haven’t been invited, you won’t be able to use it yet<br />If you have, use your Gmail address to create a profile<br />Input all of the necessary information<br />Getting Started<br />

Step 2: Upload Photos<br />You
will then be asked to integrate your Picasa photo albums into your Google+ profile <br />The same security settings will apply where only your friends will have access to view it (might want to still go through it)<br />Getting Started<br />

Step 3: Add Friends and
Circles<br />Add everyone you know and potential sales leads as well.<br />Google+ only allows you to import Hotmail<br /> or Yahoo! contacts. Your Gmail contacts will<br /> already be listed<br />Consolidate friends, sales leads, targeted audiences into the Circles tab<br />Getting Started<br />

Step 4: PROMOTE!<br />You can
do this several ways<br />Make posts on Google+ to get people familiar with your business<br />Add Google+ button to your website - Google has actually added Google Plus stats in your Webmaster Tools account so you can see the the analytics to your button<br />Engage in conversations with other Google+ members and drop your business name and what it’s all about<br />Getting Started<br />

What can your business profile
look like?<br />Example Pages<br />Google+ Asks Businesses to Wait…<br />“The business experience we are creating should far exceed the consumer profile in terms of its usefulness to business. We just ask for your patience while we build it.” Christian Oestlien, Google+ Product Manager<br />

The Pros and Cons of
Google+for Social Selling<br />

Pros: Easy to Consolidate Followers<br
/>One of the biggest headaches of Facebook is arranging followers into specific groups to reach out to <br />Google+’sCircles is a the easiest system on the market to share posts with specific targeted groups<br />Great way to keep in touch with clients and share relevant information with them instantly and privately through Circles<br />

Pros: Video Chat <br />Best
rated feature of Google+<br />Hangouts lets up to 10 users simultaneously video chat with each other<br />Video chat options provide a great opportunity for businesses to connect directly with customers<br />Group video chats offer great opportunities to conduct exclusive workshops or to roll out exclusive promotions to VIP customers<br />

Pros: Sparks<br />Perhaps the most
useful of all Google+’sfeatures is Sparks<br />Allows users to suggest news stories, videos, photos, and more to specific users or Circles rather than automatically posting it to everyone <br />This allows for targeted marketing opportunities by focusing on those users who would find your content most useful<br />

Cons: Too Many Social Network
Streams<br />Already a huge amount of people on other social media networks and it could be a potential waste of effort if Google+ does not catch on<br />You would need to completely rebuild your social network from scratch – not all of potential sales may be on Google+<br />

If you’re trying to get
maximum exposure for your product, Google+ may not be the right way to go due to:<br />Too much noise - Top of the stream gets jammed with too much information<br />Posts are pushed to the top whenever there’s a new comment<br />Collapsing posts with long comment threads– your post may disappear quickly<br />Cons: Too much Noise<br />

Unlike Facebook, Google+ does not
have a feature that allows you to “blast messages”<br />Cons: Tough Reaching Your Targeted Audience<br />It is also still early in the developments and unclear on how easy it is to find people you don’t know<br />Would cause an exceptional amount of effort to find people and reach out to them one at a time<br />

D<br />Mention people in your
posts by adding + or @in front of their name. <br />Clicking the +1 button on a post is the same as “like” on Facebook.<br />Send Private messages to people by only sharing your post with them, disable reshare. <br />You can add photos, videos, or links to your posts by dragging links directly to the share box. <br />a<br />Add Some Flare Google+ Tips and Tricks<br />*Word* = Word<br />_Word_ = Word<br />-Word- = Word<br />Hotkeys:<br />Space = Scroll down Stream<br />Shift Space= Scroll up Stream<br />J = Single post down scroll<br />K = Single post up scroll<br />Q = jump to chat<br />Return = Start Comment<br />Tab, Return = End Comment<br />

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