Google+ Rolls Out Personal URLs for Everyone

October 30, 2013 by

Author Jeff Korhan on Google+

Sometime last year Google+ began rolling out personal URLs for notable people and organizations.

Just yesterday I received my invitation to do the same, and I gladly accepted. Why?

The Social Web and Search are Getting Personal

The implications of this are more than just shortening your Google+ URL to something that is memorable. This speaks to Google’s mission to deliver the most relevant results for every search query as quickly as possible.

Relevancy used to be associated recency, and it still does. However, moving forward relevancy will also consider the authority of the information being shared, and that makes it personal.

Authority and Influence are Personal

Before digital, media authority was consolidated within organizations and media outlets.

Now, social has democratized media to effectively make every individual their own personal brand. Google understands that authority and influence is now everywhere. This is why they are interested in what you and I have to say.

Regardless of extent of your circle of influence, Google wants to know about it. The reason for this is that influence is now specific, and that means they want to get to know you – and what you know.

Are you ready for this?

Business is Now Personal

It is a fact that most consumers do not trust businesses until they get to know the people within them, especially their leaders.

If you are a business owner of one of its leading managers you can positively affect the authority of your business via your personal brand. You are probably not a celebrity, and neither am I, but we nevertheless have specific influence within the communities that we serve.

And Google wants to know more about that.

The truth is that even remarkable companies can fade away if they are not engaged with the communities they serve. This is now an expectation of your current and future customers.

Therefore, embrace this and commit to being a more personal business.

Obviously, Google is now prepared to help you with this endeavor.

Note:  This is not something you can do on your own. Google will send you an email with a pre-approved URL. You have the option to suggest another, but my decision and that of others has been to accept Google’s suggestion. 

Also, it appears Google’s convention with these URLs is to capitalize the first and last name. Again, probably a good idea to fall in line with Google and stick with that format.

 

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, helps mainstream small businesses create exceptional customer experiences that accelerate business growth. Get more from Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.

Jeff is also the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley 2013)

Elevate Your Business Growth Practices to The Web

July 16, 2013 by

Web Quality

Business consultants, coaches, and authors are fond of admonishing that what got you here won’t get you there.

Their reasons often stem from their desire to teach you their methods, thereby helping you to break free from your past.

The flaw in this reasoning is your past is precisely what got you here. Why would you want to abandon that?

It should be obvious that digital technologies, the Internet, and especially the social web, are responsible for much of the upheaval in our current business environment. Therefore, the true challenge is simply adapting to all of it.

What got you here will indeed get you there, provided you learn how to move your proven business growth practices to the social web. 

Learning  to translate your business growth to the web is vital, for the simple reason  that the web is now central to ever business – and its customers.

Therefore, start with understanding the core components of your current business model. That good old foundation is still solid. Now let’s find out how to make it more relevant.

The Marketing Driven Business

If you were a successful marketer before the Internet, you can be successful today, regardless of your affinity for technology. The distinction is recognizing that the marketing that works these days is much more than pure advertising or promotion.

The one thing every marketing driven business needs to learn is that today they are teachers first.

Your marketing must have a content marketing component that educates your communities, thereby teaching them how to be better buyers. That is what you promote – the value that precedes or is associated with your products and services.

If smart marketing brought you business to its current level, that should be your focus for moving it to the next one.

Nearly every person and business is using social media in some way. The trick is understanding that it is essential to bring great content to if. Without solid educational content marketing to back up your social media, your business is pretty much dead in the water.

The Sales Driven Business

Are you someone that passionately cares about helping people? If so, then this business environment is perfect for you.

Legendary sales trainer Zig Ziglar was known to say there are no “born salespeople.” What he meant was selling is a skill, and that means it can be learned by anyone that cares enough to help their customers.

One thing sales professionals need to learn today is that social marketing is a new way of selling.

The process of freely giving of your time to help your customers by answering their questions can now be accomplished with online media. Your sales team has been doing this for years; they only need to bring those skills and experience to this digital platform.

Selling ultimately comes down to one-on-one conversations, and bringing those stories online serves to give them greater reach for connecting the dots to new buyers.

The Production Driven Business

For some mainstream businesses their work is their marketing. It speaks for itself. This describes the company that I sold my landscape business to, and is one of the reasons I sold to them. Their production efficiencies married nicely with our sales and marketing strengths.

Can you amplify the quality of your work online? Absolutely. Using Pinterest and Facebook to not only capture the beauty of the finished product, but also the methods and practices for creating it is powerful.

One thing every business should be doing is creating shareable, visual, digital objects that instantly capture the nature of their work. Those visual media objects speak for themselves, just as your work does.

There are more social media channels, tools, and methods than any business (large or small) could possibly use, so don’t even attempt to keep up. Instead, seriously consider the strengths that you already know are responsible for bringing your business this far.

Now consider how to best adapt them to how the trending, social web. For example, Twitter moves fast and is probably not the best channel for buyers to soak up all of the finer details of photos that profile your best projects.

Match the digital medium with the message and the messenger – your business.

How about leaving a comment about how this transition is working for you?

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, helps mainstream small businesses create exceptional customer experiences that accelerate business growth. Get more from Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.

Jeff is also the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley 2013)

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