Google_ for Business_ How Google's Social Network Changes Everything - Chris Brogan [4]
• Chapter 9, “Growing an Audience”: Marketing, at least, is often about the numbers. It’s not so easy to discern the way that social networks can drive business. It’s definitely not the same as direct marketing pieces in the mail (under 1% response), but there’s a nuance to it. How do you grow an audience, and what is your best bet for building value before you sell?
• Chapter 10, “Sharing”: If creating good content and posting in the stream is the coin of the realm, sharing is part of the marketplace. Sharing other people’s good information builds a following for you, establishes you as someone who finds interesting and helpful information, and makes that balance discussed in previous chapters possible.
• Chapter 11, “Power Plays in Google+”: You’ve figured out the basics already. This chapter includes some experiments, tips, and tactics that might work well for you in your quest to build business value with Google+.
• Chapter 12, “Setting Up Your Business Page”: You’ve mastered the personal profile, and now it’s time to move to the business page. There aren’t many differences, and yet, the way you use both is varied and different. This chapter includes your first steps.
• Chapter 13, “Feeling Lucky?”: Google+ is a clear signal that Google, a company that dominates search, thinks that social platforms send important information that validates and verifies the importance of specific links. Said another way: You’re likely to get better search rankings and results if you appropriately use Google+.
• Chapter 14, “Next Steps”: You’ve gone through everything. But what can you do with this. This final chapter includes some thoughts on actions to take, if you’ve not yet taken the plunge, plus an invitation to connect and talk even more about what you read in this book.
With all that said, let’s begin.
1. How Did I Get Here?
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You should be a bit skeptical about starting with yet another social network. And it’s not like I know every person picking up this book, but some of you just started figuring out Facebook not too long ago and maybe still don’t understand what all the fuss is about Twitter. And here comes another living-in-his-own-world marketer/business guy telling you that Google+ is where it’s at, right?
I’ve decided to make the first chapter of this book a bit of an answer to the question “why?” because I think it’s important. Whenever you hear the buzz about something new, that’s probably the first big question that rushes into your head. Why should I have to know about this? Why must I spend even more time typing into yet another box? What can all this mean for my business?
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Another reason I wanted to start this book with some answers to your potential skepticism is because I’ve felt that, too. I started blogging in 1998, when it was called journaling, which might be reasonably early for blogging, but isn’t that early for someone having a web presence, meaning, I wasn’t much of an early adopter.
In 2006, I was reasonably early (but not bleeding-edge early) to Twitter, which I came to believe, with all my heart, was going to change business communications and marketing. Because I started so early, I was right about that. It made a great difference to my business, and I helped lots of other companies (and some individuals) figure out how Twitter could add business value.
But for the last few years, I’ve been asked at every keynote presentation and corporate meeting I’ve spoken at: What’s the next big thing? I haven’t been able to answer that question. In every single case, I’ve answered in a kind of mumble that “I don’t actually know what’s next, but I’m quite convinced that mobile platforms are big, and uh, I would never bet that either Twitter or Facebook