Google+ for Business: How Google's Social Network Changes Everything [Paperback]

Chris Brogan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 2011

The Complete Business Guide to Google+, Today’s Hottest New Social Network!

Every week, millions more people sign up for Google+: Suddenly, it’s today’s hottest new social network. Google+ for Business reveals why Google+ offers business opportunities available nowhere else--and helps you grab those opportunities now, before your competitors do. Top social media professional speaker and business advisor Chris Brogan shows how to get great results fast, without wasting time--and without wasting a dime. Brogan guides you through using Google+ for promotion, customer service, community building, referrals, collaboration, and a whole lot more. You won’t just master innovative new tools like Circles and Hangouts: You’ll use them to generate more customers and more cash!

• Make the right first moves after you’ve signed up for Google+
• Take advantage of links between Google+ and Google search
• Define the best Google+ strategy and tactics for your business
• Create a business page that attracts new paying customers
• Integrate Google+ into your current online/digital strategies
• Learn how your customers are using Google+--and give them what they’re looking for
• Use Circles to organize your contacts and interactions more effectively
• Create Google+ posts that draw attention and spark conversations
• Master warm selling on Google+
• Build a simple, low-cost content strategy around Google+
• Grow your audience and share others’ valuable content
• Discover new ways to derive even more value from Google+

 

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Google+ is an important social network to consider for your business (be that a small business or a large one) because it's run by the same company that controls the largest search engine in the world, and because that same search engine is looking anxiously at social networks and social signals to better understand how humans share information like links, so that they can even better predict what people want to see when asking about this or that. Said another way: this social network might possibly be much more important for your business interactions than Facebook or Twitter, and definitely more so than LinkedIn, if for that reason alone. 

In Trust Agents, I wrote (with Julien Smith) about the importance of using these social tools to build relationships. In Social Media 101, I gave some background into how you might go about doing all that kind of stuff. In Google+ For Business, I'm taking a very pointed look at how Google+ will benefit business users.

People get antsy because the service is very new and not yet fully baked. At the time of this writing, Google hasn't even built official Business profile pages yet. But to me, that's the least of your worries. 

To really get a lot out of Google+ as a business user, you'll do a lot of work with how you organize your profile, how you share and create interesting posts, and how you organize the people you find interesting into appropriate circles. 

There's a big opportunity here for you to get into the game early. Take a chance. See what Google+ can do for your business. 

About the Author

Chris Brogan is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Trust Agents, a professional speaker, and president of Human Business Works.  Brogan consults with Fortune® 100 companies such as PepsiCo, GM, and Microsoft on the future of business communications and social technologies, and is featured monthly columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. He has been involved with social networks since the BBSes of the 1980s, and began blogging in 1998, when it was still called journaling. He co-founded the international unconference experience, PodCamp, which teaches media making to individuals worldwide, and has keynoted many major corporate, technology, and web culture events.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Que Publishing; 1 edition (December 29, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789749149
• ISBN-13: 978-0789749147
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.5 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #573,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chris Brogan is CEO & President of Human Business Works, a business design company using publishing and media to provide tools and smarts to help professionals work better, do the work they want, and to be brave. He is the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Impact Equation, and a sought-after professional keynote speaker. He also plays in the band, D3one3, with Jacqueline Carly.

Chris is a New York Times Bestselling author of books like The Impact Equation and Trust Agents (cowritten with Julien Smith), Social Media 101, and Google Plus for Business.

Chris has appeared in several magazine and news articles from Forbes, The Boston Globe, Success, USA Today, and has appeared on TV shows like The Dr Phil Show. (Oddly, in conversations with people who aren't into the online world, people are always more impressed with the Dr. Phil appearance than the New York Times bestseller thing.)

Chris is also the cofounder of the PodCamp new media conference series, exploring the use of new media community tools to extend and build value.

He has 12 years of experience in online networks, social communities, and other elements of digital business.

He has 16 years of enterprise telecommunications and wireless experience prior to all this.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's more than just circles: this book tells you how to reach people December 25, 2011

By Chris Guillebeau

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I downloaded Google+ for Business on Christmas Day and read it on a long flight from Miami to Los Angeles. My initial motivation for picking it up wasn't so much to learn about Google+... I just enjoy reading Chris's blog and would happily pay for much of his free content. When I saw he had a new book out, I didn't have to think much about making a small purchase to support him.

Nevertheless, my motivations weren't entirely altruistic: I've been using Google+ every day, and figured if I could learn even one thing from the book, it would be well worth the minor investment of time and money.

Chris widely acknowledges the challenge of writing a traditionally published book about a rapidly changing software platform. With that in mind, he spends at least as much time explaining the "why" behind sharing content and cultivating a community. I especially liked a section on curation ("You are a magazine publisher") and the general theme of curiosity and gratitude that runs through the book. Want to be a rockstar on Google+? Be friendly and be helpful. Chris tells you how to do it.

I don't think you should buy this book to learn how to put people in circles, although Chris certainly covers the basics for those who are truly new to Google+. Instead, you should buy this book to learn more about how people can connect and collaborate using new media. If you like Chris Brogan, if you enjoyed Trust Agents, or if you want to learn about a fun new platform, get the book. It's a short read that can make a big difference in your work.

73 of 86 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Misses The Point: Authorship and Google+ January 16, 2012

By Jason L. Mcdonald

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of the best books there is on Google+, which doesn't say much because Google+ is so new, and especially so new to marketing. As I read the book, I liked it. I thought it was pretty good. But then - as someone who teaches Social Media Marketing online (Google 'Jason McDonald' to find me), I started to take it apart, started to think through my own ideas about what is really unique about Google+ vs. Facebook. Then it hit me: Chris misses the point. He really misses the point in this book.

GOOGLE+ IS MORE THAN A BETTER, GOOGLE VERSION OF FACEBOOK

One of the themes of Chris's book is that Google+ is an improvement on Facebook, but one backed by the world's largest search engine. That's true, but if Google+ is going to be just like Facebook, with just a few tweaks and changes, it won't work, in my humble opinion. Microsoft, after all, was much, much bigger than Google yet Google took over search, even though Microsoft easily killed Netscape. Kodak was once a huge company, and isn't exactly a formidable force in photography, is it? So there are no guarantees, even if you have powerful backing.

This matters because the approach that Chris takes is, largely, to recommend that you use Google+ for marketing similarly to how you might use Facebook. Create a business page, engage with customers in conversation, use a soft sell. All very well and true. But how is Google+ different? Where are the unique opportunities? The digital photography to Facebook's print photography that might be the game changer?

GOOGLE+'S BIG INNOVATION: AUTHORSHIP

Google+ is sponsored by Google, says Chris. And that's incredibly important. Yes, all very well and true. But it's not - I would argue - what will make Google+ succeed. What will make Google+ succeed is the integration of Google+ with search: a.k.a., social search. Through AUTHORSHIP and the RICH SNIPPETS (schema.org) profiles, all a bunch of mumbo jumbo, a witches' brew of geek speak (so far). What does this mean to you and your business? Google+ + Search = Social Search, and social search causes pictures of 'gurus' to appear next to the snippets returned in a Google search, or pictures of your close friends as you search through personal results.

Try some searches that are common, and matter to you. Be logged into Google+. Look for pictures. Watch, wonder, and learn. That's authorship at work. How do you influence authorship on Google+? That question isn't even asked in this book, let alone answered. That's a huge problem.

Authorship is THE huge opportunity today in Google+, with huge implications for marketers. First, it puts the center of gravity on the person (not the company) in Google+. That's different from Facebook. Second, it provides opportunities for rich snippets (pictures and profiles) on search results IF you reach a threshold of enough Google+ followers. And, third, it shares your pictures and +1's with your friends through the social network of Google+.

What's really cool and possibly game-changing about Google+ is social search. This book - admittedly rushed to press by Chris Brogan - misses the game-changing aspect about Google+. Hopefully my review points this out. Buy this book! It's a good one... BUT search Google for 'rich snippets' and 'authorship' or even better 'Google+ Marketing for Small Business' and make sure you understand authorship, as that is where the first fruits of Google+ are actually coming.

A NOTE TO OTHER REVIEWERS

This book (prior to my review) had ONLY five star reviews. OK, I get it. Friends, families, followers. I like Chris Brogan! I follow him on Google+. He's super smart! But, I write enough reviews on Amazon, that I fully expect to get some "hate mail" and "flames" as soon as this review goes public. Please - take a moment, and let's think together about reviews on Amazon. If every review is five stars, if every reviewer says it's the best book ever, is that really and truly a good book lover ecosystem?

I love books. I loved this book. Not because it was the end-all on Google+ but because it was a beginning. A book that I really disagree with, when you come down to it, but a book that helped me figure out what I think about Google+. For that, I thank Chris.

I also love discussion. And arguments, and disagreements. I love Amazon book reviews because we can have something other than a cheering squad for authors. We can have an actual discussion, debate about a book, its subject, and its author's perspective.

So my request to other Amazon reviewers is to respect Amazon as an ecosystem of book discussion, rather than a place for cheer leading and character assassination of those who disagree. Get it?

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a book about social media that tells you HOW to do it January 1, 2012

By D. Jonathan Morrow

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you've picked up a book in the past about social media, hoping to learn how to use it in your business, you were probably disappointed. Most of them are fine books, but they are more about WHY than HOW, and so you finish them excited about the possibilities but with only vague ideas about what to do. It's frustrating.

Google+ for Business is the opposite of that.

I read it from cover to cover over the course of two days, and what impressed me about it is how actionable it is. Chris doesn't just give you general principles and strategies. He tells you exactly what to do.

For instance, he breaks down different "Work Days" for different types of people, such as restaurant owners, authors, real estate agents, salespeople, and so on, and then he gives a breakdown of exactly what they should be doing every day and why. If you're struggling to visualize exactly how Google+ fits into your marketing strategy, this gives you a concrete picture.

Also, the book is loaded with examples. Instead of just talking about how to set up your profile, Chris gives you examples of profiles he considers well done. Instead of just telling you how to set up your Circles, Chris tells you how he set up his circles. Instead of just handing you a general marketing strategy, he outlines how several real-life businesses, including a car dealer, are using it to make sales.

In a world where everything is virtual, it's refreshingly real. No, you're probably not going to learn a lot if you're already an expert on social media, but if you're a beginner looking for a guide to help you get started, this is a good book to pick up.