How are they doing this? Search plus Your World introduces three new features that integrate your Google+ social life with what you’re interested in searching:

1. Personal Results- Your Google search will return not only information on the public web, but will also include matching results from your Google+ posts and photos, and those that have been shared with you.

2. Profiles in Search- Using a new autocomplete feature, searching a person on Google will first return to you results for people you know, or may be interested in following, before it shows you people you do not know. The results for people you know come accompanied with information from their Google+ profile and web pages that may be relevant to them.

3. People and Pages- Along with information on your search query, Google will return Google+ profiles that are related to your search, and enable you to immediately add them to your circles.

Of course, you must be logged into your Google+ profile to gain access to your personal results, and Google has added other security and control measures to ensure that Search plus Your World is truly a personal and private experience. Google search results and Google+ content are protected by SSL encryption for signed in users, which is the same method of security used for messages in Gmail. To allow for transparency and control, Search plus Your World personal results are marked as Public, Limited or Only You, and Google+ profile results are distinguished by their circle or connection to your search query. Google has also added a toggle button to give you control over whether you want Google to return your personal results, or not.

Without a doubt, this merger between Google search and Google+ is unprecedented, and will remain the only one of its kind for some time. But, what’s next? This certainly will not be the last social media innovation Google unveils. Indeed, according to their blog, “Search is simply better with your world in it, and we’re just getting started.”

For more information on Search plus Your World and Google+, read:
Google’s blog, “Google Merges Search and Google+ Into Social Media Juggernaut,” and “Google+: The Complete Guide.”

1. First, you need a Google+ personal account to build your brand page off of. If you do not have a personal account, you can create one here.

2. Once you have a personal account, sign in here to begin building your page

3. Pick a category your business falls under. Your options are:
a. Local Business or Place (Hotels, restaurants, places, stores, services…)
b. Product or Brand (Apparel, cars, electronics, financial services…)
c. Company, Institution or Organization (Companies, organizations, institutions, non-profits…)
d. Arts, Entertainment or Sports (Movies, TV, music, books, sports, shows…)
e. Other

4. Add your business’ information.

5. Add only 10 words that best describe your business. You may add your companies tagline, a quick summary of your product or services, or any other 10 words or less you would like to use.

6. Upload a photo to use as your brand page’s profile picture.

7. Announce the creation of your new brand page to your personal circles!

That’s it! In 7 simple steps you have created a Google+ brand page for your small business, and increased your social media presence and SEO. Once you have your brand page, you can post, share, upload photos and videos, add to your circles, and host hangouts. You can even get creative and jazz up your profile with the scrapbook feature. For more information on all of the features and how to use them, check out Mashable’s “10 Tips and Tricks for Better Google+ Brand Pages.”

Take a look at DivergingSoul’s brand new Google+ page, and be sure to add us to your circle!

Just as plants need air, water and sunlight to grow, Aaron Sperling suggests small business websites need fresh content, social media integration, easy ecommerce and maximized SEO. Read his article “4 Ways Small Business Websites Can Drive More Sales” for tips on how to drive more traffic and sales to your small business’ website using these four steps.

For further information on creating and implementing a plan for your small business website, please contact us at DivergingSoul. We have all the tools and knowledge you need to make your website a success!

Social video allows for a company to create unique content that goes beyond traditional advertising to further engage with an audience across multiple platforms. As they are “social,” these videos can be shared amongst viewers to create a viral campaign.

Hundreds of companies have started up their own social video projects, and we can definitely expect to see many more join the trend in 2012. With increasing competition, brings increasing innovations. In “What’s in Store for Social Video in 2012?” Chris Schreiber names five of these innovations that he predicts will be trending in the upcoming year. They are:

1. Integration of original branded content into broader marketing campaigns

2. More organic video experiences on sites

3. Improved earned media science

4. Widespread adoption of cost-per-view pricing

5. Dedicated social video budgets

Will 2012 be the right time for your company to take the leap into social video marketing?

Read Schreiber’s full article for more information on social video in 2012 at Mashable.com.

Thinking about marketing your product or service on social media? Well, that’s probably a good idea. A recent infographic titled “Social Media Marketing by the Numbers,” featured on Mashable.com, lays out the numbers associated with the top social networks and social media marketing campaigns. These numbers are immense, and show just how influential a social media campaign can be. Here are some of the biggest and most surprising:

• 22 million views in one week for Old Spice’s “Mano a Mano en el Bano” on YouTube
• 86.5 million impressions for Coca-Cola’s Promoted Trend on Twitter in June 2010
• 4 billion things shared of Facebook each day
• 381,576,305 Foursquare checkins in 2010

The results show that interactions such as sharing or “liking” a product are much more common and influential with products they call “low involvement”.  Low involvement products in the study are low cost, easily bought items like music or baby products.  With “high involvement” products (expensive purchases with high consumer research, like cars or high end electronics), more traditional social interactions such as reading reviews or visiting the product’s website have greater influence.

In the study, 20% of consumers are classified as “high sharers”.  This important demographic is more likely to be influenced by social media when looking at low involvement products and in turn will have a high spread of influence when they share their buying habits.

Perhaps most importantly in the research was the fact that although social media is continuing to move forward in the area of marketing and advertising, search results remain king in the land of e-commerce, consistently topping the list of “influential channels”.

For more ideas on how to know your customer and shift your social media accordingly, view the infographic below or read the full article here.

1. It begins with the online retailers website or social network page.
2. Someone comes across something they like on the site, and shares it on their own social network page.
3. Friends see the recommendation, and visit the retailers site for themselves.
4. These simple clicks result in increased sales and traffic to the retailers site.

Check out the infographic “The State of Social Commerce” at hitekconsulting.com for more amazing statistics, and see how having a presence on social networks have helped increase sales for many businesses.

Rhea Drysdale, CEO, Outspoken Media
First step: Create a plan. Do your research on different social media channels to see what people are already saying about your company. This will help you pick the best social media channels for you to be active on, and to see what other businesses in you industry are doing with their social media. If you find in your research that not a lot of your customers are involved in social media, you may want to consider other options, such as a blog. Also, before you begin your social media endeavor, get a baseline of what is currently out there on your company. This way you will be able to monitor the progress of your social media activity.

Lee Odden, CEO, Top Rank Marketing
First step: Have a goal. Ask yourself, why do you want to do this? What will it do for your business? After you’ve answered the question and come up with a goal, you can start a plan on how to accomplish that goal. Keep in mind that social web changes quickly, so make sure your plan is adaptive.

Wendy King, President, 23 Kazoos
First step: Understand the kind of media that is best suited to your target market. To do that, you need to know who your target market is, and where they are. Then, pick a media where your consumers are most concentrated, and focus in on that.

Read the full article on “How To Launch Your First Social Media Campaign” at openforum.com.

– Take a look at this handy infographic, “Who Likes What?: Social Media by Demographic,” to help you determine where your audience lives in the social media world.

In his article “How Social Media Lets Small Businesses Poke Big Competitors in the Eye,” Shel Israel tells the story of a small Houston coffee shop that was able to “poke the eye” of their big competitor, Starbucks. What could this small coffee shop do that Starbucks couldn’t? The owner, JR Cohen, could personally interact with its customers through Twitter, a move that Starbucks just couldn’t counter. Read this social media success story from American Express Open Forum, and see how one tweet led to a major win for this small business.

If you are interested in pursuing social media for your small business drop us a line!  DivergingSoul Media can help you get started  by constructing your social media plan, developing your social network platforms and implementing analytical tools to monitor your results.  By getting all of that “stuff” out of the way, you’ll be able to focus on the most important aspect of social media, your customers!