From the official Google blog:

In life we connect with all kinds of people, places and things. There’s friends and family, of course, but there’s also the sports teams we root for, the coffee shops we’re loyal to, and the TV shows we can’t stop watching (to name a few).

So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people. But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands—so today we’re rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide.

In addition to launching Pages, Google introduced Direct Connect, a tweak to its search algorithm that will let users go straight to their favorite pages on Google Plus. Just go to Google and search for [+], followed by the page you’re interested in (e.g. +Angry Birds), and you’ll go directly to the page, bypassing the normal search results. Ca-caw!

Learn more

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Late update: Why Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan are betting big on Google+
Late late update: D’oh! Google forgets to include multiple admin capability for Pages
Late late late update: Slate’s Farhad Manjoo says Google+ blew its chance to beat Facebook
Late late late late update: Not so fast, says Nick Bilton. Google isn’t going anywhere.

Google+ will be a success.
The conventional wisdom says that Google doesn’t have social media in its corporate DNA. Maybe there’s a kernel of truth to this idea, but it obscures another fact: Google already has a handful of high-performing social properties in its portfolio. YouTube, Blogger, and Gmail, to name a few. [1]

None of these is a social network in the strict Facebook or Twitter sense, but they’re all examples of social media to the extent that they’re for connecting with people, sharing, and creating an online identity. Hitwise classifies YouTube as a social network and lists it second only to Facebook in visitor share — and far ahead of Twitter and LinkedIn. (If you look at online video alone, there’s no contest: YouTube accounts for 43.1 percent of online videos viewed, according to comScore. Facebook accounts for 0.7 percent of videos viewed.)

Blogger has lost some of its influence, but the domain is still home to a quarter of a million blogs. (Tumblr, in comparison, has 64,193 sites.) A relative latecomer to the free-email scene, Gmail now has close to 200 million users and is steadily siphoning people from Yahoo Mail and Hotmail/Windows Live Mail, which tenuously hold the top spots. People might quibble with the notion that Gmail is an example of social media, but I’d argue that email is the original — and still indomitable — social app.

If Google doesn’t get the credit it deserves in the social media space, perhaps it’s because each of the company’s social platforms stands alone and has distinct branding. People don’t necessarily think of YouTube or Picasa as Google nameplates, which means Google’s reach is sometimes underestimated. For example, Hitwise’s list of the top 10 visited websites includes: Facebook (1), Google (2), YouTube (3), and Gmail (10).

If you aggregate each brand’s performance, you’ll see that Google is already competing quite well with Facebook in the social realm, with or without a successful Google+. A couple weeks ago, Google announced it had reached a billion users — a first for any Internet company.

How Google+ can succeed
Google+ will be successful if it can pull together the disparate social features that currently exist under the Google umbrella. The challenge is to create a cohesive user experience, where the shifts between sharing a picture, watching a video, and connecting with friends are as subtle and smooth as they are on Facebook. The demo looks promising.

It won’t be easy or happen overnight, but all of the puzzle pieces — including users — are already there, and Google has made great strides in the past few years in assembling all of their services into a unified whole. The rollout of personalized Google homepages (with a standard menu linking you to your other Google products) was the first and most critical step. You can see the continuation of this strategy in the recent Google Profiles redesign, which looks exactly like a profile in Google+. Once Google+ is available to all, I suspect people will have the option to simply merge the two.

If Google+ bombs, it’ll be tossed on the pile of failed Google projects — along with Buzz, Wave, and many others. Tech writers will once again trot out the idea that Google doesn’t have social in its DNA. Eventually, though, I see different story playing out. Over time Google will slowly organize its cacophony of social instruments into a single orchestra, and it will suddenly appear that they had a pretty good social strategy after all.

Or … I’ll look stupid.

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[1] Sure, three of these aren’t Google creations — they were acquisitions. But if you apply the same scrutiny to Facebook, the company doesn’t look particularly innovative either. It came after Friendster, Myspace, and others had popularized social networking, and then there’s the question of whether Mark Zuckerberg created or, um, ‘acquired’ the company. Does Facebook have social in its DNA? I suppose it does if you look at its success as the proof. But you could make an argument that Facebook’s rise was as much about opportunism and luck than some kind of inherent genetic advantage.

But you don’t have to stop there. Creating a coupon in Google Places is an easy (and free!) way to leverage your listing. You’ll stand out from other businesses and potentially draw more clicks — especially if it’s a good deal.

Did I mention that creating a coupon in Google Places is easy and free? Once you log into the Google places, just click on the ‘Offers’ tab and follow the simple instructions.

Give it a shot!

1. How large of an area are you targeting?
All other things being equal, a website targeting a more populated area is typically going to have more traffic than a less populated area. (In highly competitive markets, however, the opposite can be true.)

2. How long has your site been live?
Longevity, in Google’s mind, is an indication of quality. So the length of time your URL has been in existence and the continuous ranking of your site impacts your traffic results.

3. What keywords are you targeting?
In many cases, a high ranking for a particular keyword/search term will generate a healthy flow of traffic to your website — unless you have a high ranking for a term that very few people actually use…

(To find out how many monthly searches there are for certain keywords in your area, use Google’s handy Keyword Tool.)

4. How well is your site optimized?
How your keywords are structured within your site can significantly impact your results. Are they in your title tags? Page headings? Body content? Anchor text? Metadata?

5. How frequently is your site updated?
Google’s spiders looove fresh content. Websites that are updated frequently get crawled frequently, and are thus more likely to climb the rankings than static sites. Ignored/uncrawled sites don’t rank well in Google … which means they don’t get any traffic.

6. How many websites link to your site?
Referral traffic is wonderful — you get more visitors AND you can win points with Google. When a quality website links to your website, Google interprets that as a vote for your site. Note: The ‘quality’ part is key. You won’t impress Google if set up 16 empty WordPress blogs and link them to your site. Also, reciprocal linking doesn’t work either.

7. How well do you rank for your business’ name?
This impacts how much direct traffic you receive. When someone googles your business name, do you show in the top spot? For businesses with generic names (e.g., Technology Consultants LLC), this can be a challenge.

Putting the numbers in perspective

When reviewing your analytics data, it’s important to be realistic about the results you want to achieve. How many people do you think should be visiting your site? What kind of traffic are you aiming for? Again, be realistic. If only hundreds users are searching for services in your area, don’t expect huge boosts.

Traffic isn’t the only number that matters

It’s worth pointing out that traffic volume is just one metric among many. Bounce rate, average time on site, pages per visit, and conversions are probably more accurate measures of your site’s performance. If your managed services website had only 23 visitors last week, but most of them did some exploring and two of them contacted you, you’re actually doing quite well! In other words, quality trumps quantity.

To be sure, more traffic means more conversion opportunities, so it’s a worthy goal to drive more visitors to your site (provided they’re in your target market). But keep in mind that increased traffic does not happen overnight. It takes time. The best results come from consistent effort!

On a side note, Google offers certification programs in order to become an analytics expert. The online course is free to everyone, but offers an option to pay $50 to take the Google Analytics IQ Test.

Not only will these folks be waiting a while, they will be missing a great opportunity, because social media marketing is an excellent way to build your brand and attract new interest in your business. Just ask the country’s top marketers: In a recent MarketingSherpa poll of 750 CMOs, a clear majority (62 percent) said social media marketing was a promising tactic and should be an investment focus going forward. Which is not surprising when you consider…

Usage is on the rise

According to comScore, social networking accounts for one in every six minutes we spend online. (In 2007, the ratio was one minute for every 12.) Facebook alone reaches 73 percent of the total U.S. Internet population every month. This helps explain why you see large brands driving consumers to their Facebook pages instead of their websites.

The giants of the web agree

It’s should tell you something that the most influential properties on the web are bullish about the future of social media. In the past year, Google has incorporated social media into its algorithm and has placed a greater emphasis on original social content. (The folks in Mountain View are also hard at work on creating a Facebook competitor.) Microsoft has been similarly aggressive in adopting social media, displaying Facebook ‘likes’ in their search results.

But what exactly can social media do for your business? Here are seven things:

1. Stay in touch (and top of mind)
Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn give you more opportunities to stay visible in the marketplace, and visibility begets interest. (Or, phased negatively, less visibility equals less interest.)

2. Build trust and brand loyalty
You can provide interesting and relevant information to your fans and followers. If you help them with a small problem, many will look to you for their bigger problems.

3. Generate referrals and testimonials
According to a recent study by Syncapse, 68 percent of fans on Facebook say they are very likely to recommend the product. What’s more, the value of an endorsement from one happy customer — a ‘like’ for example — is magnified because it’s visible to that customer’s friends and followers.

4. Increase website traffic
Social media posts, profiles, pages, tweets, images, and status updates can act as conduits to your primary online residence: your website. These are generally high quality traffic sources, since that the audience reached through social media has chosen to view your content (unlike traditional marketing such as radio ads, which play to everyone listening to the radio).

5. Improve your search engine visibility
As we mentioned earlier, search giants Google and Bing have started to pay attention to social media, adding social data to their website-ranking algorithms. Thus, popularity on social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) is now more likely to translate into a better ranking in Google and Bing.

6. Demonstrate your popularity
Do you have more ‘likes’ then your closest competitor? This can act as a powerful social proof point.

7. Stay current
Social networking is as much about listening as it is talking. Tuning into the conversation will help you stay on top of changes in your industry and better understand your prospects, clients, and competitors.

Parting thoughts

The future of the Internet is social. In fact, the force behind social media is same force behind the Internet (also a social network): our desire to connect and share with our fellow humans. Not exactly passing fads!

So hop on board and use social media to grow your business!

Uh huh…and the Internet is a passing fad, too.

There are two realities that managed service providers – and just about every other business owner – needs to come to grips with:

1. People and businesses do research on the Internet before they decide who to work with.
2. Social media is playing an increasingly important role in determining what will be found when researching on the Internet.

Clues about the importance of social media in search have started to be more visible as Google has experimented with including social media posts in their search results and attempting to steal the Facebook “Like” button’s thunder with its +1 button.

But if there was any doubt left about the direction of this trend, the recent developments by Bing, covered in this article, leave little to doubt.

“Bing is no Google,” you may say.  “Who cares?”

Don’t bury your head in the sand.  If you and your business are not embracing social media, you will fall further behind in the search engines over time and miss out on opportunities.

I’ve pasted the article in its entirety below.

Mike

Bing laces search results with Facebook connections

Starting today, folks who use Bing search will receive personalized results based on what their trusted Facebook friends like.

Microsoft research found that 90% of people surveyed seek advice from friends and family before making a decision. And 80% will delay such a decision until their pals give their stamp of approval. So Microsoft, via a partnership with Facebook, is hoping to leverage such relationships through its Bing search engine.

If you’re signed into Facebook at the time you conduct a search — for example, locating wineries in Napa, choosing a digital camera or merely looking for interesting articles on a given topic — you’ll see the names (and in some cases) faces of Facebook friends who happened to click on the “Like” button next to an item inside Facebook. You’ll received personalized search results based on who your friends are and what they like. Microsoft says “sponsored” search results will also show up where they’ve always been.

“All this data coming from Likes is potentially very valuable,” says analyst Greg Sterling, a principal at Sterling Market Intelligence, who points out that there may be incentives offered by companies — a $2 coupon off latte, for example — for Facebook members who click on Like.

Of course, friends may not always provide the expertise you need about a subject, so Bing also taps into the collective Likes of members of the Facebook community to help clue you in on top trends and articles.

Bing has slowly but surely been gaining market share, but it still trails Google by a wide margin. According to April ComScore rankings, Bing has a 14.1% market share in the U.S., compared with 65.4% for Google and 15.9% for Yahoo. While no one expects Bing to overtake Google overnight, Sterling says, “Over the long term there might be some shift.”

Analyst Charlene Li of Altimeter Group agrees. And she believes Google, which has made its own attempts at social search, has to be concerned. “How much sleep are they losing over this?” she asks. “A lot.”

For Bing director Lisa Gurry, the way to compete with Google is to change the game. “This is an example of how we think we can change that game. We think we’re kind of scratching the surface of what we can offer in this realm.”

If you’re looking to travel to a city, you can see which of your Facebook friends live in the vicinity. You can do expanded Facebook profile searches through Bing. And the search engine will display deals posted on Facebook for various companies and brands — when you’re renting a car, say. You can also share shopping lists through Bing and Facebook.

Microsoft points out that vast amounts of content are shared on Facebook each month. Microsoft says privacy won’t be an issue and people who click Like inside Facebook are effectively willing to share. But Li says there’s a “delicate line” between something that’s creepy and something that’s genuinely useful. “Likes have social currency. Think twice about Liking something.”

Kutenda Has Your Back
Part of the value that Kutenda brings to our partners is to act as a source of ongoing education about Internet marketing trends that you and your clients should be aware of. In that spirit, I’d like to let you know how we believe the Yahoo and Microsoft partnership will impact you, our Kutenda partners, and your customers.

Google: No Longer the Only Act in Town
As you know, Google has completely dominated the search engine marketplace—accumulating nearly 70 percent market share. While the company has done a great job of making it easy to find information and market products and services online, the result of their domination is a lack of competition. When it comes to online marketing, Google is the 800-pound gorilla, and you have no choice but to play by their rules and pay their prices.

Enter the Microsoft-Yahoo partnership.

An Industry Shake Up
This deal will have major repercussions for the online advertising industry. Currently, Yahoo and Microsoft rank second and third to Google, respectively. But combined they carry a lot of industry weight. Their roles will be divided. Yahoo will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will eventually be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process. This won’t be happening for at least a year after the deal closes, so don’t worry about it now.

The Impact on Small Business
Advertisers, publishers and, I believe, small businesses with limited budgets in particular stand to benefit significantly from a unified search and advertising platform, combined sales and marketing resources, and the promise of more competitive prices that increased competition brings. Bottom line: These companies are putting a lot of cash and manpower into taking market share away from Google.

But while this new partnership will result in more competitive Pay-Per-Click advertising prices (a big win for businesses), it will also require online marketing service providers to learn how to use Microsoft and Yahoo effectively—something most haven’t had to consider because Google was the one place to go.

Kutenda Can Help You Navigate the Confusion
The net result is that you’re going to have more to manage … unless you use Kutenda. (You’re so smart you should pat yourself on the back for partnering with us!) With Kutenda, you have one tool that allows you to:

• Optimize every web site you manage for strong organic results in all three search engines.
• Create, manage and track pay-per-click campaigns for all three search engines in Kutenda.
• Submit your clients’ business info to all three search engines’ local directories from inside Kutenda.

So, while the search world just got more complicated for everyone else, your world just got better. As the partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft is fully realized over the next couple of years, you’ll be in the perfect position to take advantage of the new opportunities created for you and your clients by partnering with Kutenda.

Is it easy to get quality backlinks? It can be if you create link bait. This goes back to the content on your site and giving people a reason to link to it. In other words, you need to provide something interesting and useful.

Here are easy, and free, ways to create link bait:

• Blogs: Write posts on interesting articles, tips on fixing common challenges,
• Interview industry professionals and well-known names
• Title: Most important part of an article or page as it’s what people will use to determine whether or not to visit your site
• Resource: Include a whitepaper or url as resource for readers to access
• Humor: People are faced with depressing news … give them some info with humor and word will spread

You can always participate in blog conversations and include links back to your site. If that’s what you do with every blog post, blog owners will soon put a stop to it. Be useful and the traffic will come.