BlogSocial Media

Subscribe via RSS

Why Google+ Means the World to Your Business

“We’re extremely happy with our progress so far, and one of our main goals is to transform the overall Google experience and make all of the services people already love faster, more relevant, and more reliable” - Google

It’s safe to say that Google owns the internet. Google accounts for 90% of online traffic and the second largest search engine is YouTube which, we all know, is owned by Google! With many layers to its empire including Google Docs, Google Alerts, gMail, Picasa and Google Shopping to name a select few, Google was always missing that one key element, a social layer.

With bad reviews, an archaic platform and many complaining users, Google’s social layer; Google+ didn’t have the best of starts. What was supposed to be the next best thing since Facebook (in Google’s eyes) clearly wasn’t performing and something had to change.

Do you remember Google Buzz or Google Wave? Probably not. Google+ was Google’s third time lucky when attempting to harness the power of Social. As it stands, Google+ is an extremely important platform for those who want to market their business online and here are a few reasons why;

  • SEO Benefits – With Google owning 90% of online traffic, you should reap the benefits Google+ can offer your business when it comes to search engine optimisation. Make sure your Google+ Business Page includes all of your keywords and is constantly updated with fresh and relevant content.

  • Google Hangouts – Google offers something unique in their social layer where you can actually hold a face to face meeting with a group of people, inside Google+ completely free of charge.

  • Google Circles – The ability to categorise those you are connected with via Circles is a great way to share the right information with the right people. Google Circles is a great way to target your sharing.

Google+ is more active than you are probably aware of. With over 260M active users, 60% of which log in everyday, Google+ is one of the fastest growing social networks ever boasting over 500M Google+ “enabled” users. Google+ also acts as an influencer, especially when it comes to shares of +1’s. Google sees this as a social recommendation and will rank you in search according to this.

Google+ is the same as Facebook and Twitter in the sense that it acts in real time but with an extra edge. Any status update on Google+ is immediately indexed and pushed into Google Search. When posting in Google+, make sure you use keywords and use “” to make sure they are being picked up by Google as being key search terms for your business.

Google+ isn’t going anywhere and I have a feeling it will become an influential networks inside of the social media space. From being able to create a community and using keyword rich content, linking straight back to your site, Google+ is not only a social advantage to a business selling online, its a Search advantage too.

Social Commerce – The Future of Connecting with your Online Consumer

In an ideal world for most people, the way we buy and sell as a business or consumer, would never change. I, however am not most people and believe that change is a great opportunity to learn more about the technology world and improve the way our businesses function. Two words that have been floating around the web for some time now have a purpose and meaning. Social Commerce is here, and it won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

Mark Zuckerberg was right when he said “If I had to guess, Social Commerce is next to blow up” back in 2011. Social Commerce is the combination of social media and digital technology to sell both products and services online.

Social Commerce will be a driving force for online sales because of the art of storytelling. What better way to connect with an online customer than giving them a reason to connect with YOUR business? Every business has a story and a personality trait which is social media worthy.  If you can connect with your customers on a personal level through story telling on social media, you will build your clientele which in essence will translate into a social commerce transaction.

There are 1 billion people on Facebook with around 75% of those users “liking” a brand’s Facebook page. The Facebook users that like a fan page are ultimately saying they will buy from that business IF that company engages with them in the right way. Did you know that a Facebook share (when someone see’s a post on your Facebook fan page, “shares” it with their community who then follows the link back to your page, visits your website and purchases from you) is worth £2.60? Even more surprisingly, Twitter can generate a massive £21.04 in sales through a share. Think Social Media is a waste of time? Think again.

When I hold a keynote seminar, I always ask the same question. When you are inside Facebook and see one of their advertisements down the side of the page, do YOU firstly click on it, and THEN purchase that product? 99% of the time, no more than three hands are raised out of around 50-60 people. Why? Because we no longer trust advertising more than we do peer to peer recommendations. Andrew Mason, Groupon founder said the following; “Middle-class people sit around, trying to think of how to spend money.  One of the most powerful ways to figure that out is looking at what your friends are buying – these are the people you trust”. This, I definitely agree with.

It has been estimated that by 2015, Social Commerce sales will reach around $30 billion a year with 50% of online revenue coming from social media. We are seeing well known brands like Mercedes selling 666 cars in the space of 8 hours with their “Three Point Twitter” campaign and Adidas selling around £2,500 worth of products via in-stream Facebook and Twitter. Brands are making magic and it’s not just a myth anymore, there is a lot of money to be made if you utilise the tools available to combine social media and digital commerce.

The best way to sell on social media is to in fact, not sell at all. For your followers to really trust your business, you need to take a step back and realise why you are even a part of a social network. The intent is not always a purchase, it is to share great content and to engage with a community. Once you have built this foundation, you won’t need to force your products or services onto those who are connected to you, they will naturally, become brand advocates.

Social Commerce is here to stay and it’s time for you to look at the future of connecting with your online consumer.

Using LinkedIn 5 Minutes a Day

Running a B2B business can be challenging at times, especially when you are trying to contact the right person in a company regarding potential partnerships or joint venture. We all go through the same problem when we call a company, asking to speak to the relevant person and being caught up by a gatekeeper.

A gatekeeper is someone who directs calls to the right person within a business. The problem with this is that this person does not understand how important it is for you to share your business with them. On most occasions, you will end up either taking an email address that is already on the site like info@, enquiries@ or giving your details in the hope that there is a chance they will call you back (which we all know, is very slim indeed).

It has taken me a long time to overcome this problem and find a solution to solve this ongoing issue which I did in 2008.. I am happy to say that I have and want to share it all with you, and now is part of my Customer Acquisition Journey. Thanks to social media, we can now find the right person to talk to and for B2B companies, it all comes down to LinkedIn.

When I was exhibiting at a trade show last year with my eCommerce Platform Gloople, we were approached by a well known global company in the hopes of striking up a partnership which I was very interested in doing. After weeks of chasing this contact, they were not moving forward with what had been initially discussed at the trade show. I then decided to go over this person’s head and use LinkedIn search to find the right person to speak to. After various back and forward emails, I then had a face to face meeting with this company which went very well indeed.

Back in 2008 I remember a similar situation where I was caught up by a gatekeeper and was going around in circles. I then went to LinkedIn, found the right person to contact and had a successful meeting with that person 72 hours later.

I have spent a long time growing my LinkedIn account to over 2,500 connections, allowing me to find the right people to connect with. If I am trying to contact someone who is not a connection of mine, I use the search functionality to find the right person in that said company. On various occasions, I find that the person I am trying to contact is a secondary connection meaning we have a person in common. I will then email them and ask for a warm introduction so that I am not coming from an unknown place.

If you don’t know how to get started with LinkedIn, here are my 5 top tips for using Linkedin 5 minutes a day;

1.Treat LinkedIn differently to Facebook and Twitter – LinkedIn is a B2B network and because of this, it should not be treated the same as other social networks. Only add those you have done business with or want to in the future.

2. Make sure your Profile is 100% Complete – If it isn’t LinkedIn will know and keep pestering you because they want you to experience all that LinkedIn has to offer.

3. Participate in Groups – There are so many great groups on LinkedIn with industry experts that you will be able to learn something off and vice versa. Utilise this part of LinkedIn and make some strong business connections.

4. Use LinkedIn as a News Outlet – LinkedIn now has a News tab once you have logged in. The news in this section is created based on your interests, which you can customise. Use the information in this section to share with your community who also share your interests.

5. Endorsing your Contacts – This is a relatively new feature LinkedIn have brought into play and has already proved its effectiveness. Make sure you endorse your contacts for the work they deserve recognition for and you will receive the same in return.

I hope you will start to use LinkedIn to help you grow your business and make those all important connections.

How to Protect Your Brand Reputation

It’s no secret that social media can break a brand’s reputation in one single tweet or facebook post. How can YOU make sure you either avoid this or take control of the situation straight away? You need to use a tool which allows you to monitor your businesses mentions on Social Media.

Most people would suggest using Google Alerts for this but there is one huge problem with this. The alerts are not in real time. By this I mean I receive google alerts on my mentions a week later than when I was mentioned. This means it takes me one whole week to react to a mention which isn’t good enough. A tool I have been using for a long time which allows me to see how I, or my business Gloople has been mentioned in real-time is Mention.

Mention was recently nominated as “Startup of the Year” at the TNW French Startup Awards proving it’s worth in the social tool market. This application can be accessed via the web, desktop and even iPhone. You can create alerts for key terms based on your business so you can monitor your industry, brand mentions and competitors.

After setting up my alerts, I found it much easier to track and mute all of the social noise on the world wide web.

As I am a contributor for various sites, I find Mention great to see what has been published and in real time. Without the use of Mention, I would never have found an article written about me by ZoneTwo from when I was at Pure London earlier this year. I also found an article written by the Telegraph on Gloople and the SEIS.

One of the reasons why I stand by Mention is the fact that I can use their platform on my mobile. A lot of companies have managed to make the transition from desktop to mobile but not quite made it as user friendly as most consumers would hope but this isn’t the case for Mention. As you can see in the image below, their iPhone and Android app is very easy to use and still works in real time.

Are you using Mention?

Niche Marketing is the New Mass Marketing

Some may say I’m crazy to suggest Niche Marketing and Mass Marketing are so similar that one may become the other but if you think about it, small businesses are broadly targeting narrow markets.

Niche Marketing is selling to a certain target group or sector whereas Mass Marketing is selling various products to a broad range of people in different sectors. The latter used to be the most effective but with the way marketing has changed over the past three years, we are seeing Niche Marketing provide better results.

With Social Media as influential as it is; it has made Niche Marketing the all-important marketing concept for 2013. People are turning to social networks and blogging sites to share passions and interests and are searching for content related to these passions.

What are the advantages of Niche Marketing?

  • Less Competition and tailored promotions meaning you spend less on advertising.
  • Helps develop a strong brand and customer loyality
  • Your strategy is targeted meaning your products will only target those who would be interested in purchasing them.

The secret to exploiting a niche market is to find a fast growing target that has customers who are accessible but are trying to find that service which is yet to be offered.

When Gloople was first formed in 2011, we found a niche in the market. We are the World’s first Social Sharing eCommerce Platform. We offer something that isn’t offered anywhere in the world so our customers will be loyal, mainly because there is no business offering what they want.

Niche Marketing Tips

  • Not everyone is going to love you – Take the TV show Arrow for instance. Not every single person who watches TV are going to enjoy Arrow. You can’t let this phase you as you can’t pleasing everyone. Focus on pleasing those who are loyal to your business as those are the customers you should value.
  • Niche Marketing to Multiple Niches – You may have two different products, say a face cream targeted for those with acne and an anti-aging cream. Those who suffer from acne will not want the anti-aging cream and vice versa. This is your chance to show versatility however, you will need two different marketing strategies.

In a recent blog I wrote, I shared some great statistics around Small Businesses and how they are the root of our economy and it is likely that a large amount of those businesses use Niche Marketing to sell their products. Something which was so popular like Mass Marketing has now been replaced and improved by Niche Marketing.

Are you a Niche Marketer or a Mass Marketer?