Yesterday, I had yet another amazing experience at PodCamp Philly. I met a woman there that has re-ignited my passion for Google+. If you really want to stay up to date on Google+ , I suggest you follow this amazing lady who just a delivered a spectacular presentation. Her name is Lynette Young and she is the owner of PurpleStripe Productions. In the meantime, please enjoy the next installment which outlines some really neat features.
SEO Effects: Being able to SHARE or HIT +1 is also a newer feature which allows you to share content, somewhat like Facebook’s “like button”. The major difference is, as Google is the Search Engine King, it has a nice impact on your content ranking in search. You may also now add the +1 button to your blog, to get the word out about your blog posts as well as those that you feel are quality content. An interesting point is that when a connection +1s content, your connections have validated that sites reputation for being a credible site, therefore raising that sites search engine results positioning.
This is the gateway for Google to really begin to become the “social” search king. As you build connections and they begin to +1 and add content, your search results may become skewed to more of what your peers recommend based on those keywords. This can be beneficial if you find people following you from Google plus, you could plus your own results, and then when they search on your keywords in the future your results will list higher, levying it in your favor.
Google+ Hangouts: Okay, so this is where things start to get really interesting!
This unique video feature allows you to video chat with a group of up to 10 colleagues or clients at once ( picture skype on steroids), for free! One thing that makes it particularly neat is the layout. When an individual is speaking the loudest, the real time picture of them will enlarge to give them the “floor”.
People can watch video from You Tube online together at the same time in these sessions and discuss right then and there. For your business, you can use it for collaboration and meetings, online trainings, and webinars. This tool really helps to break down barriers in terms of communication and location. Google has also mentioned in the future, businesses could use it as a customer service tool or a forum for group chats about products.
Future Plans: The business profile pages will soon be here! Once they launch, here are some rumors of good things to come!
Listings: Members of the company as well as just fans. There may be some cross functionality between Google Places and offers so that businesses can direct , offers and promotions directly to fans in that geographical area. Pretty cool, huh?
Google Meeting: Google is planning on expanding the hangouts to be more business friendly. they are planning on integrating scheduling tools through goggle calender, google mail, chat etc. The are also planning on offering a screenshot, video and audio archiving feature to make it a truly feature. seamless productivity tool. You will be able to share all of this information later as well as use a google whiteboard which will allow you to display your googledocs within the course of a meeting. The meeting attendants, will also be able to edit and share the documents as well. Freaking amazing!