Google+ has been written off for dead by many observers and social media experts. Indeed, there is no denying that most brands and all but a handful of marketers have abandoned it, if they ever gave it a try in the first place.And yet....Google hasn't abandoned it. In fact, far from abandoning it, they are in the process of totally … [Read more...]
Why do Some People Get More Engagement on Google Plus? – Here’s Why with Mark & Eric
As we look forward to a new era on Google+, we can now focus on what we need to do to maximize what we get out of it as a social network, and on what we need to do to maximize our engagement there. In order to measure engagement on Google+, we took a look at 33,282 posts on Google+, and sliced and diced them based on the nature of … [Read more...]
Maximizing Engagement on Google Plus
On July 27th, Google made another major move related to Google Plus. In the coming months you will no longer be required to have a Google+ account to use Google's other services, such as YouTube. Their reasoning is covered in detail in a post by Google VP of Social, Photos & Streams, Bradley Horowitz, called Everything in its … [Read more...]
Google Author Authority in Search Gets Personal
With the recent announcement by Google that they were bringing their three-year Google Authorship program to an end, many have been proclaiming two assumptions on social media and in blogs and blog comments: that this means both the death of author authority in search for Google and is another coffin nail in the Google+ … [Read more...]
Google Plus Search Power: Personalized Punch for Your Target Market
What if you could almost guarantee a first page search results to a highly targeted audience? With Google+, you can! I've collected hundreds of examples over the past two years of how Google+ content can show up in search, but the most powerful examples are always in personalized search. Since early 2012 Google has had as its … [Read more...]
Can Google Plus Posts Create Duplicate Content Problems?
Few things human are more fascinating than identical twins. Think about how many creative works, from classical literature to pop culture, are about twins: The Prince & the Pauper, the myth of Castor & Pollux, the 1960s Patty Duke TV Show, The Parent Trap--the list goes on and on. When it comes to content on the web, … [Read more...]
How Many Social Network Users Follow Each Network’s Own Account?
Carter Elkin-Paris, our Content Marketing Manager, got to pondering one night recently. He wondered if it was typical for social media network users to follow the official account of the network they had joined. It certainly seemed like it might be a common behavior. If you had enough interest to join a network, wouldn't it follow … [Read more...]
Will Google Plus +Post ads be Effective for Average Brands?
Testing Google+ +Post ads in the Wild Two weeks ago Google+ finally moved its +Post ads product out of beta and made it available to any Google+ brand page with at least 1000 followers. Stone Temple Consulting immediately launched a series of test ads to see how +Post ads would perform for us. This article will present our initial … [Read more...]
Google+ Hangouts for Business by David Amerland: A Review
Google+ Hangouts is a disruptive technology. As David Amerland says in his new book, Google+ Hangouts for Business: How to use Google+ Hangouts to Improve Brand Impact, Build Business and Communicate in Real-Time, only Google could have done it. We are hardwired to connect with those we trust, and and this hardwiring has led to a … [Read more...]
New Google Plus Views Count: Important Metric or Vanity of Vanities?
UPDATE November 25, 2015: In mid November 2015 Google+ started rolling out a beta of a completely revamped Google+ interface. There are many changes. Among them is the disappearance of view counts from profiles and pages. (View counts still show in the "classic" desktop interface.) Google has told us that some things that dropped out … [Read more...]