He endorses everything. Does his endorsement really mean anything?

Endorsements and testimonials make social media.

Every like, every share — they’re an endorsement of something. “Hey friend,” we say. “I like this and I think you might, too.” Valid endorsements like that, from people who have used/read/tried to friends who might want to make the social networks go ’round.

“I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down, mainly because I never picked it up.” — John Doe, Social Media Evil Genius

Then there are the official endorsements, the ones for a book or a website or a person.

Continue reading…

“…the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled…enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.” — Senator Ted Stevens, 2006

You wake up and find yourself in a dark place.

Open Your Eyes

You wake up and find yourself trapped in a dark social media tube. There are glimmers of light here and there, but you’re not sure which direction to go. You feel your way along, and realize you are part of a giant system of tubes. This must be the Internet, you think. You know the Internet has Facebook, and Twitter, but what else awaits? Do you:

Turn on your pocket flashlight  or  Check in on Facebook

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Let There Be Light

All around you is light, and you realize the truth in the saying that “ignorance is bliss.” All around your feet, nipping at your heels, are trolls. You turn the light off and immediately the trolls fall silent. They like dark places better, it seems, where no one can see them. Suddenly, your phone rings. You pull your phone out of your pocket. It’s your boss. Do you:

Accept the call  or  Decline the call

You answer your phone.

 Not At Work

“I see by your check-in that you’re not a work!” you hear your boss scream at you as you answer your ringing phone, and you once again consider the benefit of not having a phone. You think you might be willing to give up always being connected and accessing your apps and social media in the face of something so ugly. Your boss continues to yell, but you stumble over something soft and fall to your knees, your phone falling from your hands. As you fumble around to find it, you realize the tube has diverged, and you now face a choice. First, you hang up on your bos. Then, do you:

Continue forward  or  Take the tube off to the right  or  Ask your friends on Twitter first

There's light at the end of the tunnel.

Going Forward

You are glad to just be continuing on, even though your smartphone’s compass and location app is of little use. The tube seemed to be messing with the signal and you feel completely lost. You feel as if you are at the mercy of wherever the tube takes you. You walk for what seems like an endless time, but realize that the tube is growing a bit lighter. Up ahead, you see what looks like a street sign for four tubes that split from the main tube. You jog up to the sign, glad to see a bit of civilization. Which sign do you follow?

All the things you want.

Sharp Objects And Massive Crowds

You find yourself in a room that seems to be growing and expanding exponentially. You have never seen such a room. Nicks and cuts began appearing on your hands and you realize that there are red pins all over the walls. Pins, holding images with messages of people expressing want or envy or desire or a desire to make. Pictures of food and wedding dresses and shoes and designs were everywhere. Your eyes began to water, and you begin to feel light-headed as you are overcome with a desire to collect images of things you liked. Do you:

Grab pins and start adding to the collection  or  Stagger from the room, confused but safe

It's hip to be square.

Nothing But Squares

You enter a tube that is no longer round, but square. Up ahead, you see four squares fastened to the wall. You approach, and realize they are small machines with screens. The screens are flooded with information whizzing by, telling you of people going to gas stations, burger joints, grocery stores, and restaurants. You are amazed with the political system at work, since mayors are announced and then relieved of duty repeatedly. There is a blue button with a sign next to it that says “push to check in.” Do you:

Press the button once  or Press the button twice  or  Smash the machines and wish people would shop privately

Peaceful meadow, or dangerous cliff?

Being Free

All around you, the tubes melt away. You find yourself in a beautiful meadow, and are relieved. Your eyes had been growing tired, and you were getting thirsty. Up ahead, on a secluded path, was a small cottage. You walk towards it. As you draw closer, you realize you are not in a meadow, but on a gently sloping mountain top, and that the cottage was perched at the edge of a steep drop-off. The cottage, upon closer inspection, seems to have fallen into disrepair. No one has lived there for a long time, that much is clear. You are very thirsty, but are not sure if you should go inside to find water. Do you:

Go inside the cottage  or  Walk to the edge of the path and look over the cliff

Like Tom Petty, you're free falling.

Off The Edge Of The World

The ground beneath you begins to shake, and you realize you are about to fall off some kind of edge, about to tumble far down to the empty and silent space below, away from people and noise. You close your eyes as everything around you disappears and you embrace the silence as the last vestiges of ground give way. The tubes are a far memory, the screens a dim light. You float gently to the bottom, away from smartphones, apps, the Internet — you wonder where you are. Do you:

Open your eyes  or  Keep them closed

Does your thirst betray you?

Don’t Be Evil

Before you sits an old woman. You wait in silence, since it looks like she is about to speak. While you wait for her to strike up a conversation, you decide you’d like to do some exploring around her house. It is filled with dusty notebooks, old bookmarks, a little-used knowledge-filled encyclopedia, and other interesting but dusty knick-knacks. An apple with a bite out of it sits on a small table. You see a slip of paper tucked onto the shelf, and look to see if the old woman is watching. You see that she still seems not to notice you, and so you nervously put the paper in your pocket.

A whirring sound behind you makes you turn around. You are still on edge from your recent escape from the tubes. A small green robot shuffles in, holding a cup of Kool-Aid.

“Would you like a drink?” it asks you. Before you can answer, the old woman speaks. “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid, and don’t eat the apple.” Reaching for a broom, she stands up slowly and draws a circle in the dirt floor of the cottage. “Step inside this circle,” she says. Do you:

Step inside the circle  or  Drink the Kool-Aid  or  Leave the cottage, open up the old note outside, and read it

Wise words.

Words of Wisdom

“Be real. Be sincere. Solve other’s problems. Don’t overwhelm others or yourself. Be a human talking with a human. You’ll be fine.”

You think about the advice, and wonder how to apply it to the confusing world of tubes. Have the tubes become too full already, you wonder. You consider what you’ve seen and experienced, and realize that the Internet is used by many, but not necessarily used well. Do you:

Resolve to work with the tubes and use the advice  or  Ignore the advice and stumble onward

Finished?

Whew! With a sigh of relief, you realize you’ve made it through, and survived social media. You are proud of your accomplishment, and want to tell the world. Do you share on:

Twitter or Facebook

Think you have big shoes to fill? Be the Ringmaster instead of the clown.

Crowds gather for different reasons. Bad accidents. Public humiliation. Amazing spectacles. Runaway elephants. Weird clowns. Anything that fascinates people attracts them. Our social media definitely should not resemble a bad accident or be out of control like a runaway circus animal. It shouldn’t be populated by clowns. It should be something amazing, without tiring us out.

The Three-Ring Circus

For the sake of the illustration, let’s say our social media is a three-ring circus (but in reality, let’s hope not). What would the three rings be?

Be Personal With Personality

Personality is a reflection of who we are. Writing personally is a reflection of who the reader is.

Our personality should come through our content. People connect to personality, not to robots. We each have something to bring, especially in a team setting. Of course, having personality doesn’t mean we have to be an obnoxious clown or scream about ShamWows and Flex Seal. Personality isn’t an excuse to be loud.

Responding to conversation in a personal way is important. Use team member initials to make it even more personal.

Our content should be written as though we were communicating specifically with someone. Having one or two actual people in mind as we write is helpful. We tend to write personally when we envision talking to a person. The conversation that surrounds personal content tends to be personal in return.

Keep the personality, and respond in a personal way.

Be Timely and Relevant

Now is not the time to report on the Hindenberg disaster. It’s a little late. When sharing content in social media, it should be relevant to right now. Using tools like TodayLaunch, can help us find relevant content for right now and make it easy to share immediately. What we write on our blog should also be relevant in the same way.

Our response to the conversations that arise from our content should be timely, too. If someone responds on Twitter, waiting two weeks is too late. TodayLaunch helps us stay on top of our many social media accounts and the different ways conversation happens across them, all within a fast time frame.

Remember, be relevant in our topics, timely in our response.

Time is a circus, always packing up and moving away. – Ben Hecht

Be Conversational For Conversation

Talking like we normally talk shouldn’t be so difficult. With a brand, though, we freeze up. Maybe it’s out of a concern that we might say the wrong thing if we speak in our own voice, or that our customers won’t take us seriously.

That’s definitely not the case. Our customers and fans want to talk to us, and not our marketing department. So, we just talk to them. No slick or practiced responses. Just imagine that they are real people (they are!) and speak to them as we would a friend we ran into at the store. Being conversational happens both in publishing content, and in our response to comments by fans. After all, how do we start a conversation if we aren’t conversational?

Every post is an opportunity for conversation. Being conversational is what makes this work.

Be A Ringmaster, Not A Clown

Clowns are fun for a little while (for me, it’s a very little while). Crowds gather around clowns to see what ridiculous thing they’ll do next.  With all the time and effort we put into our social media, we probably don’t want to gather a crowd based on the fact that they think we’re a bunch of clowns.

Remember, the three rings aren’t based on crazy performances. They are based on best practices that apply all the time, no matter what the performance of the moment happens to be. Be the Ringmaster instead of a clown, and be in control of those three rings.

Exhausted Performers

It’s easy to think that success requires constant extravagant performances. We must astonish with uniqueness. Hold contests that astound. Create pithy tweets that amaze. This will exhaust us eventually because we’re always trying to keep the show going based on flashiness instead of foundation.

And that’s when, because we’re tired, we fail to ship. We can’t always maintain the extremes every day and so we stop shipping because not everything is a huge motorcycle flaming cage of death. Sometimes a dog on a pony just doesn’t seem good enough.

There are room for the small acts, as well as the big, in the three rings of the circus. Just do the acts well, using each ring.

Your fans want to know where the party is. Can you answer them?

Had enough of social media conversation, and just wanna have a party?

Reward your fans and customers by creating a world-class event. Let them know how awesome they are. Or, have a wine-tasting. Host an invite-only gallery viewing. Have an exclusive sale. Have a everyone-welcome bash and let the world know. Whatever you do, do something.

Social media is the perfect place to plan, manage, and promote the events that make fans love you and customers come back for more.

Use Twitter

On Twitter, set up a hashtag for your event, and start promoting it ahead of time.

Set up a specific hashtag and encourage attendees to use it. Make sure they know about it when they arrive so they can tweet during the event and use the hashtag. Start using the hashtag in tweets ahead of time as you talk about the event to build up a little pre-event excitement. Repetition and frequency are important, since very few people will ever see everything you post. Twitter feeds move quickly.

Using a social media tool like TodayLaunch will make publishing and scheduling event updates easy. You’ll also want to monitor the usage of the event hashtag on Twitter, and get in on those conversations to build the hype.

Why Use Twitter: It works best alongside other social media event efforts as a way to spread the message, get people curious, and build community around your event via the hashtag.

Use Facebook Events

Add an event on Facebook. Make it public or private, and invite your most loyal fans personally!

Facebook Events are almost the old standard at this point. They are simple to create, using the ‘Events’ tab in the upper left corner of your Facebook homepage (news feed). Facebook will walk you through the process. You can find out more about creating events here.

Facebook events allow you to connect to your fans easily, and they have the advantage of being on a social network with an very large and active user base. Facebook gives you the ability to control whether the event is public (anyone can see and join/attend) or private. In either case, you can invite specific fans as a way to give them a heads-up on the event. It is a good idea to regularly promote the event on your Facebook page in so that it stays in the news feed of your fans.

Facebook Events are easy to create right from your homepage.

Facebook events can be synced to other calendars, including the very popular Google Calendar, but it is done through a multiple-step process of exporting and importing. This could be seen as a downside to those using other calendars and non-Facebook apps on mobile phones, particularly Android users. Unless the user has synced it to their calendar, you’ll have to rely on their use of the Facebook app and settings for reminders to give them a heads-up.

Why Use Facebook: Facebook is still the most heavily populated and used social media network. More people will hear about your event on Facebook, since they’re already there.

Use Google+ Events

Google+ Events gives you a super-simple interface with some fun thrown in.

Google+ Events are brand new, freshly announced at the end of June 2012. It’s unique as an events-planning solution in that it encourages activity before, during, and after an event.

You can easily set up an event in the left sidebar of your Google+ homepage. The extremely intuitive interface helps you choose the look of the event, and the level of information (ticket seller URL, YouTube URL, etc.) you want to provide guests. Google+ Events can also be online events only, either as a Hangouts, or as an “on-air” (public) event. Event attendees can upload photos and videos during the event if they have the Google+ mobile app and have it set to ‘Party’ mode. Attendees can also upload photos after the event and attach them to the event. For attendees who accept invitations or decide to go, the event is automatically added to their Google Calendar.

You can find out more about Google+ Events here.

Add and track your Google+ Events from the left sidebar of your homepage.

The downside to all of this, of course, is that Google+ has a smaller user-base. You may still find that most of your fans exist over on Facebook. Additionally, just like with Facebook, you’ll want to promote your event on Google+ to keep in your fan’s feeds.

 Why Use Google+ Events: As a business owner, your Google Place page is already in Google+. While the user-base on Google+ is smaller than on Facebook, the number of people using Google maps and making Google searches online and on cell phones will land them on your Google+ page at some point. Plus, the interface is super-smooth and easy, and integrates seamlessly with other Google products. It’s just a matter of getting users on Google+.

The Best Solution For Events

Which is the best solution for your event? Use all three.

Use Twitter to build the interest and excitement. Put your event on both Facebook and Google+ and hook all of your customers on the social network they prefer. That’s the best way.

And don’t forget to invite the dogs in the party hats.

Impulse buying has changed in method and location, but it's still alive and well.

Amazon.com has me right where they want me.

Most of my Kindle books have been purchased because of Amazon’s posts on Facebook that show up in my News Feed. It’s a perfect combination of “new story!” and “low price!” and “delivered instantly!” that makes me click through every time. What drives me to do this when I am an otherwise slow and careful shopper?

What We Buy And Why

Impulse purchases are unplanned, and are made based on an emotionally-driven reason. Impulse purchases can be categorized in three ways:

1. Cheap and fun. Gadgets and gizmos that cost just a little and provide a laugh, a gag gift, or just seem too creative to pass up are prime targets for impulse buying. These items have a low-guilt factor, since they didn’t cost much.
2. Symbolic and status. Products with brand-name recognition that provide status, or have nostalgic value, directly meet an emotional need. These might be high-ticket items. Price is irrelevant because we’re more concerned about an emotional issue.
3. Instant gratification. Wanting something and getting it immediately is very satisfying to impulse shoppers. Most online purchases struggle with this since products are shipped, and we have to wait until they arrive. The exception? Digital content, like music, movies, and those Amazon Kindle books I scoop up regularly.

Social Media Has/Has Not Killed Impulse Buying

According to Yahoo, social media killed impulse buying.

Consumers today are less impulsive in their shopping and take the time to do research before making a decision.

The theory is that with the ability to read and write reviews quickly, social media took the power away from traditional ad and marketing sources. Consumers pay less attention to advertising from companies, preferring to listen to friends and other users online. If time is a factor in impulse buying (buy right now, quickly, don’t think!), then social media has made some negative inroads. Reviews mean research, and research takes time.

However, those same readily available reviews make it easy for us to buy without much thought. We trust our friends and assume that they either did the thinking before us or that they would let us know if it was a bad product. Or, we want to stay a part of our circle of friends, and we consider buying the same kinds of products and services as a way to hold onto the group identity. In this way, social media has increased impulse buying through peer pressure and trust.

Social media has lessened some of the quick impulse buying on certain items, and increased it for others.

Where And How Impulse Buying Happens

Perhaps the most accurate way to look at the matter is not whether impulse buying has been affected, but instead note that the place it happens has changed.

Let’s look at that Yahoo study again.

The buying arena has changed locations, but it still exists.

Consumers still impulse buy, but in a different location and timeframe. They’re moving online, and that’s where social media is.

Let’s say for example that, on an impulse, a consumer decides to get a new TV. He goes online and starts to research and read reviews. He reads, he clicks, he buys. Or, he reads, he goes to the store, and buys. Why did he think he needed a new TV? It might be that old-school TV or magazine ad that put the idea in his head, convincing him that there were better TVs to be had. He didn’t choose the specific model of TV on impulse, but he made the decision to buy one on impulse.

79% of respondents said they complete extensive research for high-ticket items or services. — Milo.com

According to Milo.com, social media has changed the way people impulse buy, but has not changed the reality that they still do.

Increase Or Decrease Your Impulse Buying

Savvy businesses will need to rethink how to attract the new impulse consumer.

This will require understanding which kind of product or service they are selling — low cost, symbolic, instant — and how the new social media consumer goes about buying that type of product or service. Think about the Amazon Kindle books I buy. They fulfill #1 and #3: they don’t cost much, and I don’t have to wait to get them. They have created a way for their product to meet two of the three key reasons we impulse buy, and they are using social media to bring it to my attention. It might not be the same as a consumer buying on a whim while waiting in the checkout line, but tapping into the unplanned emotionally-driven purchase is still very doable in a social media age.

As a business, we want to encourage our customer to buy. As a private consumer, we might want to curb our impulse buying. In an interesting turn of events, Charles Schwab is actually using social media to combat all impulse buying in favor of saving and investing.

Business wants consumers to buy, financial planners want them to save. All happening in the same place: social media.

(Part Two of our Social Media Strategies Series.)

Ignoring negative feedback makes it worse, with one exception.

Now that we’re monitoring our brand online, what do we do when we discover negative feedback from our customers?

When it comes to using social media, brands seem to fear negative feedback the most. There is no reason to fear social media, however. Negative feedback, handled correctly, can be made into a positive result, and even create more loyal customers.

Determine The Kind Of Feedback

Angry feedback is often based in a real problem. It might reveal an issue you weren't aware of.

Not all negative feedback is created equally. People respond negatively for different reasons, and this determines how we will respond as well.

1. Support Issue. This is the easiest kind of negative feedback to address, because it is seeking a tangible solution. If a customer has a specific problem with a product or service, they aren’t necessarily angry. They just want specific help.
2. Valid Anger. When a support issue was ignored or handled poorly, it quickly turns to anger. Letting a support issue get to this point means resolving the problem will require even more work.
3. Constructive Criticism. This is probably the most painful but useful feedback. We get a clear picture on a problem that we can’t see with the help of someone on the outside. It might be wrapped in other kinds of feedback or have a tone of anger, or it might be polite and direct on its own. It might be from repeated experiences or something the customer has come to realize.
4. The Giant Troll. This is a person who might not even be a customer, or isn’t one you’d consider a loyal customer. They just want to cause problems, create bad publicity, get revenge, offend or insult anyone who might be reading, or wield word-of-mouth power and try to coerce you into giving them free stuff or else.

Determine Your Response

Use whatever tools necessary to help you see and respond to negative feedback.

Once we’ve figured out what kind of feedback we’re dealing with, we’ll understand the motivation.

1. Immediate Response. Support issues require a response right away. This is what the customer expects. If we delay, the customer becomes angry, in which case we stil have a support issue to deal with, but also an emotional issue. At this point, it might feel more personal.
2. Consider And Respond. Constructive criticism should also be acknowledged, even if it hurts. It might just be a simple “thank you for letting us know” or, depending upon the topic or the customer, we might even ask them to further elaborate. This will appeal not only to that customer, but also to those who are reading the conversation. It tells others that we’re listening, and that we value our customer’s opinions.
3. Do Not Respond. Remember to never feed the trolls. Some feedback has no valid basis, and in this case no response is the best response. Responding in anger or sarcasm is very bad idea. The removal of this kind of feedback might be warranted, particularly if the person is saying something offensive. Blocking them where possible, if this is consistent behavior, is also acceptable.

The General Rules Of Response

Use a tool that makes responding as easy as possible. TodayLaunch helps simplify complex monitoring with inbox-like ease.

Using a social media tool like TodayLaunch, which mimics that ever-familiar email inbox, makes responding to customers across multiple social networks easy. We know how to have a conversation in email, and it helps to use a tool that simplifies and standardizes responding across all of our different accounts and platforms.

Getting our WordPress blog content onto Facebook required work, extra time, and outside tools, but it had to be done. We could paste in code and use other plugins to add “Like” and “Share” buttons back on our blog, but it was far from a seamless experience.

The new Facebook Plugin integrates with WordPress in both directions.

Now we have a WordPress plugin from Facebook that makes putting Facebook on our blog fairly easy, and in return, sends our content to Facebook. It takes our content and fan interaction and helps it go in both directions, and we can publish to both our Profile and our Fan Page.

Install The Plugin And Set Up Your App

Setup on the WordPress side of things is fairly simple. Just install the app into your WordPress blog like any other plugin, and activate it. You’ll need to configure some settings on the plugin before continuing. The plugin guides you in the setup steps within WordPress, and prompts you if you’re missing something. If you haven’t verified your Facebook account with a mobile phone number or credit card, you’ll be asked to do that at some point. This verification can be done in your Facebook Account settings.

After the plugin has been installed, you’ll be asked to set up an app for your WordPress blog.

The plugin has guides for setting up your Facebook App.

You’ll need both a logo and icon for your app, so have those ready to upload. Be sure to follow the directions provided within the plugin completely, since there are specific things that must be in place in order to publish to your Timeline. Facebook provides instructions here, though there are some hiccups in setting up the app, which we’ll discuss later.

Once your App is setup and in place, you can set it to make your blog posts public on your Facebook Profile. Go to your Facebook Account Settings > Apps > (Your App) Edit. Select “Everyone” for who can see the posts the app makes on your Timeline.

 Customize The Plugin

Once you’ve followed the setup directions, you’ll be able to customize how you want to use the Plugin.

You can choose how you want Facebook used on your blog.

You’ll have easy click setup for many of Facebook’s Social Plugins.

If you select “Subscribe”, be sure to adjust your Facebook Profile settings to allow for subscriptions to your public posts, otherwise a small error message will be visible on your blog posts and pages when readers interact with the buttons. You can also adjust the settings to allow for where you want these items to appear — location, color, size — in your post. Each option comes with explanations and links to explain and guide you through the setup.

The Social Publisher is where you’ll be able to automatically publish new posts to your Facebook Timeline and Page.

Each option includes settings as well as guides and help. Some require additional steps in the Facebook App.

It’s important to note that if you choose to use Facebook comments, it will turn your WordPress blog comments off.

New Facebook Widgets And Publishing Options

With the plugin comes some useful Facebook widgets that does away with some of the previous methods that required copying and pasting code.

New widgets make it even easier to integrate with Facebook.

When writing a new page or post, the plugin will give you several options on how you want it to appear on Facebook.

Customize how you want the item to appear on your timeline and page.

Tagging While In WordPress

The plugin allows you to mention Facebook friends and pages within your post. This means your blog post will show up on the timeline or page of those mentioned. These mentions are also featured at the top of the post itself on your blog, with links to the page/profile. Think of it as tagging, right from WordPress, with the ability to customize the message you want to accompany your blog post or page.

Tagged friends and pages will be mentioned at the top of your post.

Adding these mentions is simple; the WordPress publishing area will have been populated with a number of plugin-added options, including a place to add friends and pages mentioned.

Tagging pages and friends is easy, and sends your content to their timelines and pages, too.

You may want to wait until you’re ready to publish before adding these in the sidebar of the post publishing area, since they don’t seem to be reliably saved each time you click “Save Draft.” The plugin stumbles a bit in locating Pages in this publishing interface; it found “big” brand name pages, but wasn’t able to find the smaller business pages (as of yet). The plugin had no difficulty finding friends as they were typed in.

The Plugin Has Downsides

Facebook has stumbled a bit with this plugin. While  tagging a friend and publishing to their wall worked right away once the plugin was installed, activated, and connected to my Facebook account, the automatic publishing feature for my own Timeline and Page had a few roadblocks.

Right now, getting this plugin to work is going to require the creation of the Facebook App, which isn’t intuitive and doesn’t make it user-friendly for bloggers who aren’t comfortable with the developer side of things. There is some hit-and-miss-trial-and-error that happens while trying to set the plugin’s Social Publisher to work as needed, and it isn’t exactly spelled out in Facebook’s instructions found here.

The process goes smoothly except for one roadblock: the app creation.

Also, the Facebook App has a wait time for approval. I’ve been waiting over a day now, and haven’t seen successful blog publishing to the Timeline yet, though it oddly seems to work for a Facebook page. Some users are having no difficulty, others are struggling.

In this plugin, what works — Facebook integration on your blog — works well and happens easily. That’s impressive. What doesn’t work smoothly — creating an app and setting up automatic publishing back to Facebook — is frustrating. Hopefully, Facebook will address this issue.

 Your Blog Is Evermore Important

We’ve always said blogs are important, but with this kind of integration possible, it’s apparent more than ever. Your fans can interact and share content to a greater level than before, right on your blog. Simple clicks, and your content is shared.

Sharing and sending your blog content has become extremely easy for your readers and fans.

If it wasn’t clear before, it should be now: everything about your blog is social.

Checking in to different locations isn’t bad — you can win prizes, get great deals, and start your political career as the mayor of your local taco joint — but sometimes it gets out of hand. Ever sat down at a restaurant and struggled to make an initial decision not on what food you wanted off of the menu, but what photo you would take to check-in to all the different networks you frequented?

That’s the No-Win Check-In. So many social networks to check into, so little time for anything else.

Sometimes you gotta put down the phone and eat.

Google recently announced the creation of Google Local to replace Google Places. It’s clear that continued changes are in store for businesses in the Google pasture, but what does this latest change mean for users of Google Places? There are several significant differences to the new system, but the overall take is simple: It means that businesses must get on Google+, because Google is going to send them there, anyway.

Google+ Local is the latest changed offering from Google

Social Search For Everyone

Right now, Google+ Local pages are mere replacements for the Google Places page, and so they lack the social aspects of a full-blown Google+ page (following, circles, etc.). However, Google has said that that kind of integration will happen, and so what used to be a search result is now a social page with a following and a reputation and interaction.

That’s big, for businesses.

This isn’t a search buried in the Facebook walled garden — this is the result that shows up in a Google search, accessible by all users with or without Google+ accounts, just like with Google Places. Facebook has millions of users, that’s true, but how many more Google searches happen every day?

Google+ is no longer a search result, but is turning into a place to make the initial search.

Local Search Made Social

For customers without Google+ profiles, access to the Google+ Local content (including now-free Zagat review content) is still available. They cannot, however, participate in reviews or other social activity.

The Google+ Profile is becoming the home for local search.

Customers with Google+ profiles can fully use all features with the new Google+ Local icon in the sidebar of their profile. That icon shows them businesses nearby, and provides the ability to edit their reviews by clicking through to the business and selecting the blue “Edit Your Review” button. Google+ profiles users can also get filtered searches based on the reviews, check-ins, and activity of people in their circles.

Google+ becomes, in effect, the better search destination for finding local businesses, much better than Google.com or Google Maps.

What Businesses Can Expect

These changes raise important questions in the minds of business owners, both in how it will affect their business and how they are to manage the new system.

The All-Important Reviews

Customers can no longer leave anonymous reviews. This is good in that people tend to be more controlled when their name is attached and it can be seen by friends, but it also might cause some customers to prefer not to leave any reviews — good or bad — of a business. Additionally, all of the old reviews a business had are now attributed to “A Google User.” Businesses are either going to have to get those reviewers to re-claim them (provided they’re on Google+), or have a large collection of unattributed reviews. Names, even nicknames, always carry more weight than anonymity.

Gone are the anonymous reviews. From here on out, there must be names.

Google purchased Zagat in September 2011. Reviews are now based on the Zagat score of 30, which might seem problematic for businesses that Zagat traditionally didn’t review. Google is adapting this system across the board for all businesses. It might seem like a negative, but the benefit for businesses is that it allows customers to rate on different aspects, which are then tallied all together. A restaurant with great food but outdated decor, for example, might have received a poor score overall in the past. Now reviewers can say “the decor wasn’t so good, but the food and service was great!”

For restaurants, Google+ Local is integrating the OpenTable reservation system. You can find out more about that here.

What To Do Right Now

There are a few key things for businesses to keep in mind:

1. Get a Google+ Page now, if you don’t have one. We tell you how to do that here.
2. Make sure you choose the “Local” category for your Google+ page so that the future merge goes smoothly.
3. You can still manage your Google Place as you always have, but expect it to change in the future. You can easily access your old Google Places dashboard by clicking “Manage This Page” on your new Google+ Local listing.
4. If you have a Google+ Page, it is still separate from the Google+ Local (formerly Places) page that now exists. Google has said it is their plan to integrate this, so do keep your Google+ Page alive and well. The integration is rolling out slowly.
5. Visit this website, fill in your email, and Google will let you know when integration is ready.
6. Google Places weren’t indexed. Google+ Local is, but as of now, it shows up as both a stand-alone page as well as a pinned search result. Google+ Local pages show competitors at the bottom, making it still a Google-controlled search result in some regards.

As always, with Google, things will be changing quickly.

What Customers Can Expect

Customers and individual users can still benefit from the Google+ Local features whether they have a Google+ profile page or not. Just as Google Places provided information to any user, so does Google+ Local.

Current Google+ users will see that Google Local is integrated into their Google+ Profile with a new icon on the left sidebar. Android users will also see some changes in the latest Google Maps and Google+ app updates. The Google+ app sends users to Google+ Local services on the map. Google has submitted changes to Apple, so it shouldn’t be long before this is available on iOS devices.

Changes Users Will See Right Now

There are key changes that users will experience with Google+ Local.

1. To leave a review, users will need to have a Google+ account. (Read more here.)
2. Anonymous reviews will no longer be allowed, nor can nicknames be chosen as was previously allowed in Google Places.
3. Google will try to get you to republish your old reviews when you go to leave a new review. You have the option of selecting which, if any, of those old reviews you will put your name to or leave as “A Google User.”
4. When searching for a business, you’ll use two search boxes: the kind of business, and the place.
5. Free and full access to full Zagat reviews. Which is a great thing.
6. You can filter your results based on previous reviews (“Just For You”) or the reviews of those in your circles (“Your Circles”). More filter options are rolling out, but all are based on preferences. The more reviews you write, for example, the better Google knows what to suggest for the “Just For You” filter.

 Google+ Is A Must

Whatever else businesses take from this latest integration of Google+ into Google’s overall product offering, it’s this: you MUST be on Google+. Everything continues to point to the fact that Google is wrapping its social media product around its search. The larger social media base may be on Facebook, but Google search is the industry leader. As a business, you can’t ignore either.

First it was rolled out in New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland, but at last the Facebook Pages Manager app has landed in the United States.

The Facebook Pages Manager app is now available for iPhones.

Facebook Pages Manager joins the main Facebook app, and the Facebook Messenger app, as a complete set of tools to manage your Facebook presence with your iPhone or iPod. iPhone/iPod only, though, since the new app isn’t available for the iPad or Android devices yet.

Filtering options are available in the new app.

The Facebook Pages Manager app does exactly as it sounds: it helps you manage up to 50 Facebook Pages you’re the admin on. You can filter what you see to keep things simple.

Track your Facebook Page Insights easily on the go.

The new app has a matching look and feel of the standard Facebook app, and so using it shouldn’t be a challenge for regular Facebook users. It features navigation on the sidebar, and the app will let you perform a number of tasks via your phone. You can post updates and photos, of course, but you are also able to receive notifications of any new activity on your page. The app makes responding to comments and fan activity simple. The app also gives you access to page Insights. Currently, there is no ability to manage messages in the app.

The Facebook Pages Manager app make page management possible on the go.

If you’re an iPhone or iPod owner and you’ve been looking for a way to manage your Facebook Page(s), this latest offering from Facebook makes it possible. Expect updates in the future, including (hopefully) access to messages.