Business pages on Google+ a just received a big upgrade to their reach. Now pages can interact with those who haven't circled them on Google+. Previously a user must have added a page to its circles in order for the page to interact -- not anymore. TheNextWeb reported on this initial update and it was confirmed shortly after as well. Google gave this official statement to TheNextWeb: “We’re always experimenting with new ways to make the social experience more organic. As such, Pages are now able to comment freely on posts of interest to them. We think this provides a better sharing [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Google+

Google now offers small businesses using its AdWords Express service a way to promote their Google+ pages seemingly everywhere but on Google+ itself, which Google reasserts should be an ad-free zone. That omission may make these ads less effective for those seeking new customers or followers to their Google+ pages. Meanwhile, the push gets those same small businesses spending their advertising dollars to promote Google+ itself for Google. AdWords Express & Google+ Pages In case you're not familiar with AdWords Express, it's Google's version of automated paid search. With AdWords Expre [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Google | Google: Google+ | Top News

Earlier this year Google acquired Meebo, a company known for their javascript based framed social bars and chat applications. The Meebo Bar quickly became the most promising product as websites could leverage the lower portion of user's screen to help push shares, gain more ad space, and entice users to consume more content. TheNextWeb spotted a revamped Meebo bar that surfaced on TVguide.com program pages. The new bar is framed from the Meebo.com domain and has a much more Google+ infused look. From left to right the new bar features: An ad (BestBuy in this case) A large Google + [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Google +1 | Google: Google+

Google is updating both the Android and iOS versions of its Google+ app with a host of new -- but mostly minor, frankly -- features. The biggest addition to me, an iOS user, is the addition of support for Google+ Communities -- the feature that rolled out about a week ago for desktop Google+ users. The lack of community support on mobile stood out over the past week as I've been poking around and trying out some communities (and creating a few, too). It's smart for Google to get this into the mobile experience as quickly as it has. Both apps also support profile editing, as well as a ne [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Google+ | Google: Mobile | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Our SMX Social Media Marketing conference is winding down today and the final event on the agenda is a keynote conversation involving Vic Gundotra, the Senior VP of Engineering for Google+, and our own Editor-in-Chief, Danny Sullivan. No doubt the discussion today will cover today's Google+ adoption/activity statistics, along with plenty of other topics related to Google's "social spine." The keynote should begin in a few minutes, and we'll be live blogging here. You'll also be able to watch live via a Google+ Hangout, so stay tuned for more! [youtube]http://youtu.be/SvIZ2jKXKdI?t=5m1s[/ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google+ | Interviews | Top News

An answer to LikedIn or Facebook Groups, Google today launched Google+ Communities. It also released some new "momentum" numbers. Communities has yet to roll out to most people. It will be an additional icon on the left column of Google+, presumably leading to a directory of existing Communities to join. Users will also be able to start new Communities and regulate membership. Google+ Communities are intended to be a way for like-minded people to organize or interact around topics of common interest or need. Here are the rules and contours of Google+ Communities: Public or private [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google+

According to new Google figures, Google+ now has 135 million active users, with 235 million active users when counting Google properties with Google+ features, and 500 million with Google+ enabled accounts. Below, a chart of the growth and more about each type of figure. Google's Growing "Network Thingy" If three sets of figures for a social network seems odd, that's because Google+ is positioned by Google as more than a social network. Google has often spoken of it as a social "layer" across various Google properties. More recently, it has been described as a social "spine." Google's pos [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+ | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News | Uncategorized

Google's Bradley Horowitz did a pretty good Rocky Balboa impression on Wednesday, calling Facebook -- the reigning social champ -- a "social network of the past" and accusing the network of getting advertising all wrong. Horowitz, Google VP of social products, made his comments during a 15-minute conversation at the Business Insider IGNITION conference. (See the full video below.) His biggest verbal jabs at Facebook were on the subject of advertising. Horowitz said Facebook is "jamming" ads into users' streams and frustrating both users and brands in the process. He said Google may somed [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Google | Google: Google+ | Top News

Don't expect the buzz around Google+ and authorship to be fading anytime soon. Geekbeat.tv found an interesting option that some Google+ users (who've enabled authorship on articles) have found, Authorship Analytics. It shows traffic to pages where you are identified as the author. This appears to be rolling out for select users and appears in the lower right side of any Google+ profile page: When clicked on, users are delivered to an analytics page located directly within Google+ that show search traffic for user content. The report displays the overall impressions derived from a u [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Social Media | Google: Google+ | Top News

In April, Google+ launched the popular feature "Hot On Google+" that allowed users to see popular content from around the community. Late last month, the "hot" articles began to display as "Hot And Recommended." "What's Hot and Recommended" could be a valuable tool if leveraged properly. A user' +1's, +'s and share footprint should provide a solid base for not only Hot and Recommended posts, but also on other Google properties like Google News and YouTube. However, we simply haven't seen a noticeable change in the overall quality & targeting of the content.  It still appe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing | Top News

In case you missed the news, Barack Obama was reelected as President of the United States last night. If you follow him on Facebook, you'd know that. On Twitter, you'd know that. But on Google+, Obama remains stuck in campaign mode. On his Twitter account (with 22.7 million followers), Obama declared victory with what's now the most tweeted item in Twitter's history, the message "Four more years" with a picture of him hugging his wife Michelle Obama: On his Facebook page (with 32.7 million fans), the same thing, which also apparently has broken Facebook's record for Likes: Over on h [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Google: Google+ | Top News | Twitter

There appears to be a bug with Google+ that's sometimes causing the wrong URLs to appear when sharing pages. At first, I thought this was something happening just with me as an odd glitch. I was on Google+ today, entered a URL I wanted to share, and the wrong page title and description came up. I started over, and the problem went away. Then Matt McGee, our executive news editor, found a similar issue happening: See how the headline of the story is different than what he's sharing. Not only is the headline not correct, but sharing from that article actually caused Google+ to try and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google +1 | Google: Google+

For once in my life, I hope I am wrong. But I don't think I am. Over the last three years, check-in and local search start-up Foursquare has become the face of location-based services. And while the app has gained a lot of traction among those that run in the social crowds, it has only grown to 25 million members. It sounds absurd for me to be using the words "only" and "25 million" in the same sentence, but, given the growth of image sharing/location-based app, Instagram -- zero to 80 million in a little under two years -- it feels like Foursquare may not gain the traction is needs to b [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Check-In Services | Foursquare | Google: Google+ | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column

Now Google+ page administrators can keep track of their pages while on the move. Page managers can now post, comment & interact with followers -- directly from their mobile app.  The new update (version 3.2) is available for both Android and iOS. In order to access the Google+ app as a page, users need to sign-out of the application, then sign back in. Upon logging in again, users can choose which pages they'd like to administer. Once selected, all posts & comments will appear as the page, rather than your personal account. The process of signing out in order to just log [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Google+

Last year the Minnesota Lynx won the WNBA championship and won the hearts of an avid social media user base. A social media user base that the Minnesota Lynx cultivated on Google+ thanks to early adoption and a strong focus on the new social network. On Sunday the Lynx advanced to yet another WNBA finals appearance, but their verified Google+ page with more than 30,000 fans disappeared. It turns out that even though the Minnesota Lynx had multiple page managers, the Google+ user that set up the account left the organization. The email of the user was out of the Lynx's system (Google+ was [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Not as good as what was already out there. A downgrade. Lacks essential features. Rubbish. Why would they release this to the public? Those are some of the reactions that we've seen this week to the launch of Apple Maps. Or are they the reactions we saw last year when Google launched Google+? They could be either. Comparing The Launches Of Apple Maps & Google+ Apple Maps' launch this week is a lot like the Google+ launch in June 2011 -- negative initial reactions, bugs and problems with the service, and so forth. Consider: Apple MapsGoogle+ Not as good as [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+ | Top News

Yesterday, Google announced that it had 400 million people who had "upgraded" to Google+, a statistic we've had updated over time. But many have wanted to know how many people actually use Google+ itself, not just have accounts enabled for it. That's finally been revealed: 100 million. Below, a guide to how this figure fits in with past ones Google has given. Google+ Accounts Both figures were in a Google+ post from Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President, Engineering at Google: This week we also hit an important milestone--over 400,000,000 people have upgraded to Google+. It was only a year [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Google | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Social Media

Today Google' Senior Vice President, Engineering, Vic Gundotra, released a post welcoming Nik Software and updating current Google+ stats. According to Gundotra, 400 million users have "upgraded" to Google+ since public signup opened to all. Of the 400 million users, 100 million users are monthly active users of either plus.google.com or the Google+ mobile app. Gundotra stated that the active users today are derived from both mobile app users and those who visit plus.google.com: "While Google+ is all about creating a better experience across Google, it’s also a destination. And he [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Google+

Today Google has acquired Nik Software, the makers of popular mobile and desktop app Snapseed. Snapseed is a hybrid app that meshes Photoshop-like editing capabilities with Instagram like filtering. In addition to Snapseed, Nik Software has a handful of other photo editing tools. The purchase price was not disclosed. The iOS Snapseed mobile app had been retailing for $4.99 and had won app the iPad App of the year in 2011. With the acquisition, Google+ may be able to further compete with Facebook/Instagram in the social photo space. Snapseed already gathered 9 million users during its f [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing | Top News

A new survey shows that when it comes to generating leads and sales, Facebook gets top marks among business-to-consumer marketers while LinkedIn does well for the business-to-business marketer. Twitter comes in as a strong second place winner for B2C leads. The data comes from the 2012 State Of Digital Marketing report from WebMarketing123, a California-based digital marketing agency. It's the second year for the report, which surveys over 500 US marketers, including companies like Sony, GE, Bose and FedEx. Sales & Leads From Social Media Sites Part of the survey asked which social [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Facebook | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+ | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Social Media | Top News | Twitter: Statistics