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nophin
07-25-2011, 09:00 PM
Has anyone come up with unique ways to use Google +1? The so call "gurus" are already releasing courses on how to use it.

vangogh
07-25-2011, 10:11 PM
How about genuinely interacting with people. You know…how a social network is meant to be used. Considering Google hasn't even allowed people to create business pages yet, I suspect jumping in and trying to market yourself is not going to go over well. It's a novel approach I know, but instead of looking for tricks to use Google+ why not be a genuine human being and interact socially with your fellow human beings.

seolman
07-26-2011, 01:39 PM
I plan to use Google+ to ignore people...just for fun :D

vangogh
07-26-2011, 03:42 PM
Another good strategy :)

I actually got an invite and have an account now. Similar to Facebook in many ways as you'd expect with a little bit of Twitter thrown in. I'd be lying if I said I was using it a lot, but I've already checked out my plus account more in the last week than I have my Facebook account in the last 6 months. I'm finding plus nicer in design and a little easier to use.

It'll be interesting to see how it grows and how many people are signed up in say 6 months or a year. I do think unlike Google's past attempts at social networking they've done a lot more right than wrong this time out. I expect Google+ to become a viable social network.

seolman
07-26-2011, 10:29 PM
Personally I was surprised how quickly Google+ took off. Google was kind of getting a "big brother' label with all their scandals related to mapping home wifi networks etc.. I kind of figured this may not take off so quickly. Now they are scrambling to allow corporate users. Interesting developments.

Google is always looking for ways to gauge the true value of web pages. I have wondered whether they will give more weight to "buzz" (pardon the pun) generated within their social network vs. others - or at least allow the market to believe they are.

vangogh
07-26-2011, 11:03 PM
Google can easily be seen as big brotherish, but keep in mind here they're mainly competing with Facebook which might be even more big brotherish than Google. Some people are moving to Google+ as a lesser of 2 evils choice. At the moment most of the people on Google+ are the usual marketers, web developers, and other tech savvy types.

The corporate thing is the tech savvy wanted to promote their businesses and some people set up accounts that way. Google wants us there as individuals now so they're working fast to get business pages set up to make everyone happy. I think they were planning the business pages anyway, but they're rushing to get them done since the demand is higher than expected.

Both Google and Bing have acknowledged they look at social signals as part of their algorithms. Facebook has been blocking access to Google though. Google+ will give them back that data. More though Facebook and Google are becoming direct competitors more and more for advertising dollars. Facebook knows a lot about us and can serve more targeted ads. They also want to be your first stop online. I think Google was feeling the pressure and has been wanting to get in the social game for awhile.

Unlike past attempts it looks like they've started off well. Granted they're mainly copying the best of Facebook and Twitter, but they didn't make the same missteps like they did with Buzz and they have something people can understand unlike Wave. We'll need to wait a few months to a year to really see whether or not + will last, but it looks good at the outset. I have an account on Facebook that I never visit. I do find myself visiting Google+ more. It could just be the newness or that I'm not following too many people.

nophin
07-26-2011, 11:07 PM
I received an invite too I accepted it, but have yet toyed around with it. It will be interesting to see where Google will go with this. You know how Google is they are always changing something like

Google wonder wheel (does not exist anymore)

Google boost ads for local business (changed to Adwords express or something like that)

3rd party citations listings on Google Places (no longer listed on pages)

seolman
07-26-2011, 11:38 PM
Both Google and Bing have acknowledged they look at social signals as part of their algorithms.

Yes - This is the part that intrigues me the most (no doubt due to my SEO roots).

vangogh
07-27-2011, 12:30 AM
nophin it was pretty easy to get started. The person who invited me had placed me in his circle and so had 2 other people I know. First thing I did was make my Google profile page public. I didn't do much with it other than add a few small bits of info and my usual avatar. Then I added the 3 people to circles and checked out who they had placed in circles and started adding the people I knew. After I searched out a couple of popular names in my industry which led me to a bunch more. I've also started using the +1 buttons on sites. The pages I +1 show up on my profile.

I haven't done much yet other than follow the conversation to get a feel for the communities I've created. At some point I'll jump in and start chatting and see if I like the discussions.

Dave it intrigues me too. If Google has been using Twitter and Facebook data then it's a certainty they'll be using their own social data and probably do more with it. Right now if your signed in and a friend has +1d a web page you'll see their avatar in the results. Probably something that would increase click through on the link.

Almost immediately I started noticing Google+ sending me traffic. This is before I was in and before I added a +1 button on my site. I guess one of my posts was shared by some people. Since adding the button it does get clicked. Not a lot, but that's probably more to do with my audience and how many of them have a Google profile. + though is already one of my top 10 sources of referral traffic, mostly due to the one post, but I do get some visits from it daily.

I've causally noticed that any post of mine that either gets tweeted or liked in decent numbers also ends up getting more search traffic, at least in the short term. I'm thinking something similar will happen with Google+ The reality is we won't know one way or the other how successful it will be for at least a few months. 20 million people in 3 weeks is a good start though.

greenoak
07-27-2011, 07:59 AM
i just read where someone started a business selling 100 authentic +'s.....

vangogh
07-27-2011, 10:35 AM
Yep. People also sell links and they sell Facebook likes and they sell stumbles and they sell forum posts. Basically they sell anything people might want and things that some think lead to better search ranking is no exception.

seolman
07-27-2011, 11:22 AM
I have no invite to Google+ and even if I did there is a note on the home page "Have an invite? Sorry - we're temporarily over capacity". Not sure if that's a message only for users outside the USA or applies to all... :/

vangogh
07-27-2011, 11:51 AM
Google's been opening and closing plus to new members since the beginning. They seem to be trying to keep the network from growing too fast and causing problems. I think they also want to find and fix most of the bugs before they open it up for good.

I can send you an invite if you want. You might have to wait a few days or a week to be able to use it.

seolman
07-27-2011, 12:20 PM
I'll take that invite and raise you a beer...

tylerhutchinson
07-27-2011, 01:43 PM
I started using google + to a point. Haven't done much with it, and it seems a bit limiting on how to really find new people and expand. Probably just haven't played around too much with it yet.

vangogh
07-27-2011, 03:16 PM
I haven't found it hard to find new people. Naturally the people need to be in the community and since new signups are being limited you may not find specific people yet. The search worked well. I started typing in names and a list of results was right there. Usually I search for a few people I know likely to be popular and then visit their profile to see who they're connected to. From their list it's usually pretty easy to find a bunch of people I want to connect with.

nophin
07-28-2011, 11:56 PM
I came across this interesting article on Google + which state that some big companies like Ford have Google + branding

How Being “Friends” On Google+ Leads To Better Rankings (http://searchengineland.com/how-being-friends-on-google-leads-to-better-rankings-87376?fb_ref=sel-story-stbox)

mcurrall
08-20-2011, 04:14 AM
Do you think Google places any importance on the +1 in terms of serach engine ranking? i.e. if you have it on your site you will be given preferential treatment on the rankings. I havent done anything with the +1 with our site yet.

vangogh
08-22-2011, 12:54 AM
Google has stated more than once that they consider social data in their algorithms. How much weight social signals carry is something they aren't going to say naturally, but they have said they look at those signals. It stands to reason they'll look at the social signal from Google+ and use it in their algorithms, especially when you consider they can get more and cleaner data from their own social network than they can get from any other social network.

Even if they don't use it in their algorithms they already show an avatar of any of your Google+ friends who have +1d a web page that comes up in results when you search, assuming you're logged into your Google account. That will likely lead to more clicks on your link by people networked with someone who +1d your page.

alphadore
08-27-2011, 12:13 PM
Haha. I got a similar spam e-mail, someone selling 100 Google + invitations for 10 dollars...

vangogh
08-28-2011, 12:11 AM
So stupid. People will try to make a buck on anything I guess. Invites aren't that hard to find and more than likely in a few months it'll be open to anyone. If I remember correctly people were selling invites to Gmail when it originally came out and was in beta.

johnysumner
08-31-2011, 09:26 PM
I guess everyone would just like to get ahead of the competition that's why they would buy such invites without thinking twice.
I would not waste my money on invites. I would rather just wait for someone to invite me or until it'll be open like vangogh said. :)

Karry
09-18-2013, 03:06 AM
Read this latest news about How Google Plus effect on Website ranking: Google +1's Amazing Correlation with Higher Search Rankings - Moz (http://moz.com/blog/google-plus-correlations)

But Matt Cutt(Head of Google Webspam Team) denies: Google's Matt Cutts: Once Again, +1s Have No Direct Impact On Rankings (http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-once-again-1s-have-no-direct-impact-on-rankings-170200)

Only Google knows the mystery behind the wall !!