I haven’t been as attentive to Google+ as I have to Twitter and Facebook and today my business, Marketing Resources & Results, may start paying for it.

Over the past few years we have enjoyed great search engine results for keyword phrases like “marketing consultants Akron” and “marketing consulting in Cleveland”, but the algorithms are changing again.

The change reflects the move toward mobile devices searching for businesses on the go.

The change to Google Local pages.  If you aren’t familiar with Google Places – (sometimes known as Google Local), it’s a website page that you probably have claimed for your business and use it to help your business come up in the results with search engines. It is usually the page that comes up when a business name is searched.  Click on the screen shot to the right to see a screenshot of my company’s page.  You add location, services, photos, videos, products, special offers, and so on to your page.  Because it is Google, it’s always been important to have this profile up to date.

But today Google announced an update to the Google+ with a Local section that is the Google Place page.  That can have a big impact on search engine results. They’ve added Zagat (restaurant reviews) as well.

While up to now, Google+ had felt like “just one more” social networking site to learn and populate, now I am sitting up and taking notice because the pages will be indexed.  This will definitely effect the search engine results.

So, how is your Google Local Listing looking?  I think I’m going to start taking Google+ seriously and update my Google+Local page as well.  How about you?

You may be interested in these articles/videos about it:

Google Plus Local – It’s what’s new today! Sage Lewis
Goodbye Google Places. Hello More Google Plus (CNN)
Google+ Local Does More Than Google Places

Looking for help with Google+? Here’s a great place to start: Google+ Support

It seems as though social media marketing has been “around forever” but many marketers are just now starting to see the value of building their brand on social media.

Here are three helpful best practices for using social media to brand and market your business:

1) Build trust and reputation with respect: This Best Practices page for Twitter is a good resource for someone who is thinking about starting a social media marketing program for their business but feeling overwhelmed on where to start. I like how this list of Twitter rules includes listening and being respectful.

2) Look to the big brands for inspiration and ideas: For those starting a Facebook Fan page for their business, I would suggest checking out the different pages that you already follow on Facebook. Here’s a quick link that will work for a vertical directory of your pages if you are already be logged into Facebook for it. If you’re not logged in to Facebook, you’ll be able to see the top Fan Pages. Great examples.

3) Be sure to focus your efforts on sites that match your target market: If your target market is female and your product has something to do with either decorating, recipes or crafts, consider a Pinterest social media program. Brafton has some best Pinterest marketing practices for your brand for starting your boards and pins. On the other hand, if your target market is content hungry 20-30 something young professionals, then Reddit might make more sense for your brand.   Reading the  rules of Reddit would be a good thing to review before attempting to post content.  LinkedIn has less than 1% of all the social media traffic but is the number one site for business professionals.

Each media has their own function, best type of audience and best practices.

Feel free to link other social media sites best practices pages in the comments below.

I was pleased to see that this blog was included in  “TOP 10 BRANDING BLOGS”  by the WireWalkers Blog.

While I wasn’t aware of WireWalkers until they linked to my blog, I recognized 90% of the other blogs their list.  Check out their business list too.  It’s full of top marketing bloggers also.

For those of you who are new to blogging and trying to get your blog noticed. One of the best ways is to reach out to other bloggers via top 10 or best of lists.

In an advertising discussion the other day, the question of click-thru  or pay-per-click advertising came up:

“Facebook Ads  or Google Ads?”

Each has their strengths and weaknesses

Facebook ads are postage stamp size, but unlike adwords, at least there is a photo. Google display ads offer better visuals for larger content. Facebook allows you to present impressions to very targeted group.  (You can narrow down by zip code and age for example.)  Google ads work better for business-to-business advertising than Facebook ads. Many businesses block Facebook from work computers.  Facebook ads don’t show up on my smartphone, but I’m not seeing Google ads when I search on the phone either..  Maybe that will change after the IPO and Facebook is looking at quarterly profit reporting to shareholders…

With Facebook’s IPO set to launch tomorrow, I though this might be a timely topic. I even f found this infographic that presented some of the pros and cons of Facebook vs Google advertising from a graphic perspective:

So tell me.  Which do you choose and why?  What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Are you trying to build a strong potential client or prospect list? One way to do it is with a landing page that persuades your target audience to provide contact information. To do that, you have to keep it focused and offer something of value for free.

You can see an example at www.getdonors.com, a landing page targeting fund-raising professionals.

This landing page has a simple headline the focuses on the offer, a subhead that focuses on the benefits and a video that introduces the teacher and ends with a call to action:

Get Donors Intro from CauseVox on Vimeo used on www.getdonors.com.

The reward for providing your contact info is information for improving your fundraising efforts with 6 video lessons. The landing page uses screen shots from the six short videos to illustrate the reward.

Notice use of color to help direct the call to action?

• The red burst with the word FREE.
• The bright blue button that says “Get the free lessons” under the form and under the photos of the lessons.
• The yellow highlight under the 6 lessons headlines?
• Light blue arrows “meet your teacher” and “click me”
• Bright yellow type at the end of the video with the call to action “sign up…”

The page is very clean and uncluttered.  What else do you think would improve this landing page? Leave a comment below. 

 Thanks Kami for the link.