Getting Started with Google Plus for Beginners [Webinar Video Replay]

Ever wondered what on earth this Google Plus thing is? What is Google Plus? Why is everyone talking about it? How can it impact your business?

In this Webinar video, I’ll show you:

• How a Google Plus Marketing Plan can help your business get out of a rut to generate consistent leads and sales
• The essential elements to setting up your Google Plus Marketing Plan and setting it into autopilot, so you can get back to running your business
• Simple strategies for using Google Plus in your business without spending too much money.
• Real world case studies of what campaigns and tactics are working right now that you can implement in your business

Watch the Google Plus For Beginners video replay below and leave a comment below! 🙂

Video Transcript:

As I mentioned my name is Sara Nguyen and I am owner of SocialMediaRocketeer.com and I’m really excited to have you here for this hangout. Now for those of you who haven’t been on one of my hangouts before, let me just quickly go through some housekeeping so you know how it works. So, for the majority of the hangout or presentation, you’ll be looking at some slides. You’re just seeing my face now but we will have a combination between my face and some slides on the screen. You’ll be hearing my voice this entire time. So, sorry you have to put up with that and I’m just going to go through this topic in the next hopefully about half an hour or 45 minutes and I do ask that you leave questions until the end because I find it really distracting and I really want to get through this content so that you guys can go and absorb as much as you can and enjoy the rest of your night.

So, without further ado, I’m going to get started because it looks like the feed is coming through. We got some audio and visual and let’s go and get started. So, I’m just going to now switch over to, here we go some slides. So, we’ll just give it a second because there’s always a little bit of a delay with this. But welcome to the presentation on Getting Started with Google Plus and this hangout really is a beginner’s guide to how do we start using this thing called Google Plus, what is it, what can it offer us and how can we use it to differentiate ourselves as businesses but more importantly how can we use it to start generating leads and making money for our business? This presentation will talk through just real top level of what’s working now in the marketplace.

We’ll have a look at some case studies to show you exactly some of the strategies that are working now so that you can implement them in your business and I’m going to try and keep it really simple. Because a lot of the times, people get caught up in the technology, the social media network people get caught up in things that don’t matter as much as having a strategy, having all the things in place to make it work. People get caught up in the nuts and bolts in it. And I’m here to help you learn about overall what you need so that you can go ahead and then start implementing it for your business. So, what we will cover tonight? So, in tonight’s hangout I’m really going to cover the beginnings of what Google Plus is and really what opportunity this is for your business and how Google Plus can help you generate more leads and sales so you can start making more money for your business because let’s face it, why are we in business if we’re not here to make money? That’s the whole point of it so that we can make money and sustain a lifestyle that we want.

We can just talk about really the Google Plus fundamentals. Google Plus is still a really new network. I’m going to talk a lot more about it in this presentation. But it’s only been around for a couple of years. It only was launched in 2011. From the grand scheme of social media networks, it’s still one of the baby ones and there is quite a bit that makes it different to the other social media networks and I’m going to cover them and cover exactly what you need to know so you can start getting the best results for your marketing campaigns. We’re going to talk about the mistakes to avoid.

I’ve been working with Google Plus since it came out in 2011. I was one of the first I guess with relation to people to do the test Google Plus and it’s gone through a lot of changes. It’s gone through a lot of developments and where it is right now, I think it’s in a great place. But I’ve seen a lot of mistakes that people make with Google Plus and I’ve seen why people give up on Google Plus because they don’t understand how it’s different to Facebook, how it’s different to the other social media networks. I’m going to talk to those so that you don’t make those mistakes as well. And I’m also going to share some tools and resources to help you really get started with Google Plus for your business.

I’m really excited about this topic because I think Google Plus is a really underutilized social network and it’s extremely powerful. I’m broadcasting to you right now using Google Plus. I’m also using plug-in to help make this possible but this application is free. This application is extremely powerful and it’s a mode of communication that can really accelerate your business growth. So, let’s get into it. So who is this person talking into the microphone, who was in front of my screen a couple of moments ago? My name is Sara Nguyen. That’s a picture of me to the left and my husband David to the right.

I own socialmediarocketeer.com which is a social media, how do I describe it? I always have problems describing it with my family, a social media consulting business particularly for small business. So, I focus, I help you deliver lead and sales through social media campaigns and I’ve been doing this since 2011 since the year that, 2010, 2011 since Google Plus has come out. I have a background in marketing. I’ve been in marketing for over 10 years but my love is social media and a long story short, I love working with small businesses, I love marketing and I love bringing it all together. That’s what it really is about for me. Now, what do I offer? And this is not going to be a complete come all about me thing, this really is about just how I can help you and I’m going to talk to this just so the people are aware of the services that I do.

So, a lot of the time people come to me and they just want someone to set it up. So, I do a lot of the implementation side of things. So, we can go in and we can set up your social media profiles, do all the design, do all the technical side and the heavy lifting so that you can get on with the content side of things and just work on the strategy side of things. So, we do a lot of the heavy lifting on one side. I also do social media coaching. To me, it’s kind of I think a hybrid approach where some businesses don’t want, they want to be half involved so they want somebody to come and tell them what to do and we handhold them through that and I also do a lot of online training such as this and also paid training programs as well. So, I do a range of services tailoring to small businesses to help them promote social media strategically so that they can start building their sales funnels, building those leads and really making money and having profitable campaigns for their business.

So, that’s enough about me. I promise I keep it short and I keep all about the content. So, let’s get started on Google Plus for your business. So. Let’s talk about Google Plus in context of the social media networks. Now Google Plus has about 1.15 billion users and you know it’s a little behind Facebook and it commonly gets compared to Facebook understandably because it looks a lot like Facebook, smells a lot like Facebook but it’s not Facebook. It’s quite different to Facebook. The audience on Google Plus in my opinion are quite different. On Facebook we have a very diverse audience whereas on Google Plus at the beginning at the very least, it was a lot of the early doctors, it was lot of the developers, a lot of the tech reporters, a lot of the — the crowd was a lot different to the crowd that you get on Facebook.

It’s changed a lot now given Googles forced people to have Google Plus accounts in order to use YouTube in order to do a lot of things. But I think it’s a social media network that has a lot of users. It’s a social media network that has a lot of active users. A lot of the time and particularly the social media news, I see people slag out Google Plus. It doesn’t have as many active users as Facebook and that’s okay but it’s still quite significant the active users that it has. The thing that makes Google Plus significant and different in my opinion and in the experience that I’ve had with clients that I’ve worked with is the power of Google Hangouts.

I’ve seen Google Hangouts used in many different ways and I’ve seen the ability of Google Hangouts, this free offering that Google Plus provides us. I’ve seen how it can really help us as businesses put our offering in front of customers and make sales. Of course this comes with strategy, you can’t just stand there and hopefully not anyway, stand there and start screaming at people and expecting them to buy off you. If you use it strategically, if you use it with a marketing mind at the forefront, it really is a really, really powerful marketing tool. Now we compare that to the likes of Twitter or Pinterest. It’s a different social media network in a sense it’s quite really engaging.

With Twitter, it’s more about link sharing and the tweets. With Google Plus, it’s all about the hangouts. There’s lots of strength in other components of Google Plus but I think the point that I want to narrow home tonight is the power of Google Hangouts to really create this opportunity for us as businesses, to get more customers. So, let’s talk about this. Google Plus launched in 2011 and you know the take-up was pretty quick, probably not as big as Google would have wanted it. But they’ve gotten to the point now, three, four years later where they’re at 1.15 billion about that. Not too far behind Facebook and they’re growing and I think they’ll get, will get to the point where they get pretty close to what Facebook is at, if not match them.

The users are 35% of their user-base are active on a daily basis which is a lot less than Facebook. So, Facebook has about 50% of their users who are active daily, but once again, it’s a different crowd. It’s a slightly different crowd in my opinion. You know the opportunity for us as businesses is to use Google Plus as a complimentary marketing tool. A lot of the times when I talk about Google Plus, people kind of go, “Well, why would I use Google Plus? I use Facebook and I need to learn any more social media network. I hate social media. There are so many and where do I start?” And I think that way we need to look at Google Plus is not as “Oh, my God, another social media network that I need to manage but more like hey, this is another tool that can help me that I can use strategic points when I’m doing specific campaigns.

Think of it as “Hey, yes I have access to this really powerful tool that’s for free.” That’s how I want you to start thinking about Google Plus. Now, let’s talk a lot more about in-depth about Google Plus. What makes it similar and what makes it different and what are its main features? So, with Google Plus and for the purpose of giving people a point of reference I will compare it to Facebook because that’s something most people are familiar with. So, with Google Plus, we have Google Circles which is the same I guess offering as Facebook has with their Facebook list that they offer. You can have a thousand friends and segment them into your friends, family, workers, but in terms of a business perspective, I believe the way that Google wanted us to use it was to segment these people into customers, leads, prospects and then move people, move the messaging through the different circles.

I don’t know if that really is the best way to use these circles but it’s the way that they want us to use it. So, it’s a something to keep it mind that if you have a Google Plus page or if you are going to create a Google Plus page, you can target your messaging to just specific groups of people. You can put people that you’re networking with to get a set of messages and stop them from seeing other messages and those types of privacy controls. And Googles way of trying to create a marketing funnel for us but to be honest I don’t think that’s the best way to use it. Google Plus like Facebook have a personal offering as well as a business offering. So, they’re very, very similar. With Facebook, you’ve got your personal profiles and your Facebook fan pages and fan pages gives you the ability to advertise same thing with Google Pages. Google Pages also lets you advertise by other Google network but we’re not going to go into that because that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

But just know that that’s an offering that you can have through Google Plus. Google Plus like Facebook has Google Communities like Facebook Communities and Facebook Groups where it is community run. People create their own communities and like-minded people join it and conversations are depending on the group that it is happen in there too. There are groups of people there too that you can market too and you can interact with. Very similar to Facebook, you know you can +1 thing just as you can like things on Facebook. This is the part of Google Plus which is very similar to Facebook. But I’m going to talk next about the component that makes it different.

So, what makes Google Plus so awesome? Google Hangouts is the offering that makes Google Plus very strong and very powerful. Right now, you’re listening to me broadcast to you using Google Plus. It gives me the ability to broadcast if I so choose video of my face and audio as well or what you’re seeing right now which is content via some slides. For those of you who aren’t aware who don’t use a lot of these online tools, prior to Google Plus the tools that were available in the market for us to do this were extremely expensive. I used to use an alternative to Google Hangout called go to webinar where we’re paying $600 a year to get half of the features that we get now for free with Google Hangouts so, the ability to broadcast, the ability to communicate and to use it as a broadcast tool is fantastic, the ability to use it into business tool.

I do a lot of business with clients overseas and we use Google Plus to have meetings face to face, video chat meetings. So, it has really changed the way that businesses communicate both to their clients, to their market with their marketing and within their businesses as well and the best part of it is that it’s free. The only thing that you need to have to have Google Plus Hangouts is a Google Plus account and then from there you have the ability to start running presentations such as this and start broadcasting. Now, I talked a bit about broadcasting and this offering is free. Now let me talk a little bit more about video. So, you’re watching this video now and you can hear my voice and with video it’s easier for you to grasp or it’s easier for you to make a judgment of how competent I am, how likable I am and how trustworthy I am.

Now I’m hoping that I ticked the box as well in those categories right now but that’s for you to decide. But it’s easier for you to, easier for me to build rapport with you when you can hear me, when you can see me or I choose not to be seen at this point but you can interact with me at a different dimensional level this page or just reading text that I produced. So, video is really the fastest way to get people to know they can trust you and once they know like and trust you as a customer, they’re more likely to buy off you and that’s what we want to do and that’s what Google Plus gives us the ability to do. It gives us the ability to showcase our expertise and individualities. So, it really gives us this opportunity to build our brand and this is a big buzz word that marketing people throw around all the time. Build your brand. Be seen. But what gives you, how can you do that anymore than broadcasting yourself, showing people what you know and how you know it and just being that truthful you on camera.

I really believe that it’s only one part of it to broadcast and it’s only one part of it to say this is what I know. I really believe the power of Google Plus comes in using it strategically as part of a funnel. So, how do you move people from looking for a solution where they find you on Google Hangouts to then buying off you? How does that process actually happen? With Google Plus, I’m going to talk top level about how we make this work and I guess the system process that we need to engage to make sure that we shuffle people along the funnel using this tool. So, this is a little bit of a, hopefully you can see it quite well, a little bit of infographic that I had someone in my team do and it’s kind of my interpretation of the four parts to Google Hangouts success.

I’m just going to grab some water. Now, I’ve broken it down into five parts, I can’t count, five parts to Google Hangouts success and I’m going to go through these five parts in this hangout so that you understand what it takes to make Google Hangout to work and also for you to understand that it’s not as hard as people make it out to be and it’s not as hard as potentially that you think it is. So, there are five parts.

Part one is really understanding Google Plus which I congratulate you on doing the first part by being here right now or listening to the live replay. Part two is really about getting all the gear. Part three is about setting up your profile, I guess with those two around but it really doesn’t matter.

Part four is about broadcasting and the intent behind your broadcasting and what you do with it. And part five is about what to do with your broadcast afterwards, how do we maximize this content we just produced through the Google Hangout and how do we make it really work for us. So, let’s start going through these sections. What is Google Plus? So, understanding this first part — this first part really is about understanding that Google Plus or G+ as we call it in industry is different to Facebook. It does similar things but it’s different in the way that we need to focus on it.

Facebook is very different and I think the strength of Facebook is in Facebook ads although people hate them and Facebook groups and the Facebook networking. That’s the strength of Facebook. The strength of Google Plus is in Google Hangouts and I’ve talked a lot about it being a really strong marketing tool. The other thing that Google Plus has over Facebook just marginally is that when you post on Google Plus, it’s the same way that you post on Facebook. The difference with posting on Google Plus is that if you have content that you post in Google Plus, that content will rank in Google. So, for example, if I am, I never come up with case studies like off the top of my heard, I really should. If for example sake, if I am a cupcake baker and I post a recipe on Facebook and I post a recipe on my Google Plus page, that post in Google Plus has a high chance of ranking and most likely will rank whereas the post on Facebook will end at Facebook.

It has less chances of ranking in Google because Google favors itself. A bit of nepotism going on there and you know that’s a strength of Google Plus. So, it helps inject that extra little bit of I guess, what’s the word, it helps inject that little bit of reach that you need that can give you that little bit of extra exposure as small businesses we really need to take advantage of. And as I said, a lot of people when they start learning about Google Plus go, “Ah, Google Plus is so much better than Facebook. I’m not going to use Facebook anymore.” I really recommend that you don’t do that.

I really recommend that you keep all of your options open to the social media networks and use the best of each one that works for you and your business and not just completely shut off one or the other because there’s strengths in all of them. They may or may not suit your business but really think of it as a complimentary marketing tool to everything else that you’re doing. So, let’s talk a bit about, I did switch around, setting up your Google Plus Profile. Now, I’m not going to go step by step and do the technical training to show you how to do this. I’m just going to talk about top level because there’s still a lot of stuff I still need to cover. But a lot of people want to start using Google Plus and so they asked me how do I start using it.

And I said, well first thing you need is to set up your Google Plus Profile and that’s about getting up your Google Plus cover photo, that’s about filling in the About Me section, it’s about beginning to post. There’s nothing sadder to me than seeing a Google Plus profile that has no post that has no activity on it. It shows to me that this person isn’t very active on that social media network and they have nothing to say. So, it’s important to start posting. There’s a lot of different Google Plus Communities. We’re talking the breadth of topics in these communities is phenomenal.

I’ve seen everything from dog walking to juicing for fat loss to kettle bells to social media groups, so, everything you can possibly think of. There’s a group for it. Just like there’s an app for everything. There’s a group for everything. And the beauty of the group is it’s an opportunity for you A to listen in on what it is that people within your niche are interested, what they’re saying that they want what their frustrations are. But also to start building your network, finding potential partners, finding potential clients and not stalk them but develop a proper relationship with them to grow the business.

So, let’s talk about the gear. One of my favorite things to do is buy a lot of equipment. With Google Plus Hangouts, if you’re going to broadcast I do recommend that you get some basics sort it out. First of all, I do highly recommend you get an external web camera. Google Hangouts is the biggest internet bandwidth hub in the world. It hogs all the internet. It hogs all of the capacity of your computer. It’s a hog. It wants to take up everything just like Google wants to take over everything.

And so having an external webcam particularly if you’re broadcasting and actually using video, will take the strain firstly off your computer and also it gives you better quality. Now Google does this weeping where they adjust the quality of your video and so it’s in your best interest to get a HD webcam so that you can get good quality because people judge you on the quality. I mean also so that you can run more efficiently when you do these hangouts. One that I use that you saw me through is a Logitech c920. It’s not too expensive and it’s quite easy to get. I think I got mine from office works and I’ve seen it everywhere and it’s just a little USB webcam that plugs and plays and it does the trick. You can get cheaper ones if that works your budget as well. The one that I use, the one that my clients use is the c920.

It does beautiful HD and we use it for quite a lot of things, actually not just Google Hangouts. We use it for a lot of video recording that we do, with campaigns as well. Another thing that I recommend that you do get is an external microphone. I use an external microphone and at the beginning, I wasn’t so convinced until I got one and I notice the sound difference. One of the things that you want to do when you start producing content using Google Hangouts is to have good video and good audio and it’s quite important because the medium that this is coming out of is visual and audio based. So, you want to have the best sound that you can possible get.

I have a Blue Yeti. So, that’s the one that I have. Once again, it’s an USB microphone. It’s a bit on the higher end. I must have spent a little bit more money than I probably should have but I admittedly do like buying gadgets and equipments. So, it was right up my alley and I decided to splurge a bit. I also find that when I spend a little bit more money on these things. They don’t get outdated as quickly as they usually do. So, I bought the Blue Yeti Pro which was 200 and something dollars.

Once again, it’s on the higher end. You can go cheaper. But the point is to get an external microphone as well so that the sound when you’re broadcasting is of good quality. Of course, you need a computer with internet in order to broadcast using Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts as I said is a hog. It takes up a lot of capacity on your computer. A lot of the clients that I’ve used Google Hangouts with have had to upgrade computers, have had to really just my point being here is that if your computer is old and if your computer is in bad shape, it won’t run Google Hangouts really well. Google Hangouts hogs all your capacity so, keep in mind that if you want to run Google Hangouts often that you do need up-to-date reliable computer, software and hardware.

Everything is up on making sure everything is up-to-date because Google Hangouts has this tendency to crash. As I said it’s a hog. It hogs the internet, hogs your computer and so, what you want to do is have a reliable computer so that when you are due to broadcast, things don’t go too wrong all at once. Now when you saw me at the beginning, I had a white backdrop at the back. That’s optional. I like to have the white backdrop because behind me, my office is a window and. I find A that it’s not very attractive and B. I also find that it’s distracting. So, I like to have a white backdrop so that people can just focus on the content that I’m delivering and they don’t get distracted by what’s in the back. That’s optional.

I find that some people broadcast and they showcase their office or they showcase a room that they’re working in and that’s fine as well. But this is just a consideration of if you’re going to start using Google Hangouts and broadcast, you think about where you’re going to actually do it and what image that kind of projects when you’re actually doing it. And lighting is another issue. Now, you can’t see it, well, I hope you can’t see it anyway but I’ve got a massive lights from the top and I’ve got two soft boxes as well. The lighting helps. The lighting helps in adding to I guess the visual quality of your video and you will see what I mean when you start using Google videos and Google Hangouts more that lighting matters.

Lighting makes the quality of the video look better and it makes you look better as well. So, look into that. There are lots of cheap options out there particularly on eBay for lighting options and I’m not going to get you stuck into it because I could probably talk about lighting for an hour but that’s not we are here for. This is just to give you a top level of what you need which is a webcam, an external microphone, a reliable computer with internet. I do recommend that you get broadband internet or have access to broadband internet when you use Google Plus Hangouts and don’t rely on the wi-fi network. It is such a bandwidth hog. When you use weak internet or have weak internet, it will lag so the experience that uses have when you broadcast won’t be a very good one.

So, let’s talk about the broadcasting side of things which is one of my favorite parts. So, we talked about what Google Plus is and the mindset we need to have. We talked about setting up your Google Plus profile and we talked about getting all of the equipment. Now it comes to show time and there are a couple of things that we need to keep in mind about Google Plus, when it comes to show time and when it comes to broadcasting. The first one that I remind a lot of my clients about is that we need to find a way to get people to attend. So, it’s all well and fine that we have lights and we have cameras and we have a microphone but if no one is watching, what’s the saying about that tree falling in the forest and if no one hears it, it doesn’t exist.

If no one sees our messages, then they’re not effective, we’re not getting our message across then people aren’t hearing it and people aren’t acting on it. So, it’s really important to think about how are we getting to get people into these hangouts? If you’re live with me right now, thank you. You saw this hangout promoted via Sydney Library. So, what mechanisms are you’re going to use to get people to come into your hangouts? And I’m going to show you a couple of methods that I’ve been doing with some clients that work and it’s really about leveraging Facebook advertising.

It’s about leveraging the networks that you have and going out there and expanding your reach. Now, when people broadcast, I highly recommend that they have a plan. I’m not the type of person who can sit in front of a camera and just talk. I struggle with that notion a lot with my clients say no I don’t need a script, I don’t need points I get very nervous because when people go in front of a camera without a plan, they ramble and the audience knows they ramble and they lose them. So, when you’re going to broadcast, it’s important to have a framework of the content that you’re going to provide whether it’s pre-prepared slides like the ones that you’re seeing here or whether it’s a script.

I’m not very good at memorizing scripts but I do recommend having at the very least having an outline of what you’re going to talk about. More importantly to that outline is having a pattern board to what you’re going to do with this hangout and how you’re going to get people to follow up with you. And of course, we talked about getting all of your equipment and then it’s about bringing it all together “Lights, camera, action” and making it all work. So, one of the things I think is the most important part of the Google Hangout is what happens after the show. So, after the show it’s not all over. It’s really about how you’re going to take this piece of content that you’ve just created, with all of this value that you just created to start making it start work for you and the answer to that is really to have as I mentioned before Google Plus Hangouts as part of your marketing funnel.

So, when you produce this content, you understand that this is something that you’re delivering on value whether it’s for free or whether it’s for a cost. But then how are you going to move people onto the next part of the funnel? How are you going to move them on from this is free content I’m producing to come buy off me now or if that’s going to be your next step or if your next step is to educate them on another piece before you then make an offer to them. What’s in the back of your mind when you’re creating this content that you constantly think how am I going to make money from this at the end. And yes, that is the point of Google Hangouts. The point is to deliver value, great value, genuine value, honest value and then make an offer and I don’t think, a lot of the time when I tell clients that this is the point, they get a bit, “Oh, don’t you think that’s too salesie?”

I think no. The point of us being in business is to offer our products and services for people to buy and we offer them at the end of a pitch, we offer them at the end of a broadcast or at the end of a blog post or at the end of an article. So, don’t think it’s salesie at all. I think if you’re constantly saying, “Buy off me for an hour” that’s a little bit salesie. But if you really present good value content, if you’re really helping people, give them the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to buy off you. Okay, I’m just going to check, yup! I am just double check that the audio is still going because sometimes Google Plus likes to stop audio for no reason. So, Google Plus really is this way to get your products and services in front of as many eyeballs as possible and we want to get our products and services in front of as many people as possible because that increases the number of people who may buy off us that we can convert.

Now your Google Plus strategy, I’m going talk really top level about this but it’s really about you using the reach of Google to build your brand by creating content, to get more customers. But the main strategy with Google Plus is to get people into your list. Now what’s this list that people keep talking about? Regardless if it’s Google Plus, regardless if it’s Facebook or regardless if it’s Twitter, I just apologize for the plane going over me right now. That’s another thing that always happens when we broadcast, noise. Where was I? So, one of the things that you really need to focus on when you’re doing social media marketing is the funnel. So, it’s all about using the social media networks to get people into your email list, to get their name and to get their email at the very least so that you got them captured.

Once you have people’s name and email list that is the asset. So, people get caught up in the how many fans do I have on Facebook, how many followers do I have on Twitter and Google Plus? But that’s not what’s going to make you money. What’s going to make you money is capturing people’s name in emails which you can then strategically develop a relationship with them via email so that they’ll buy off you. The likelihood of someone buying off you straight off Facebook, straight off Google Plus is quite small and particularly this day and age where the consumers are so bombarded with messages everywhere. They’ve got all these appetite advertisements on TV, on their radio, Facebooks flooded with ads as much as I admit. Everywhere they see all these commercial messages.

So, it’s getting harder to get people’s attention. But, but if we have their email address, we control that. People check emails. People pretend that they don’t check emails but emails is still a lifeblood as a way that we as humans communicate, all of the research and all of the studies that come out show that email is the first thing people check in the morning, they check their Facebook, they check their email, email over Facebook. And this is important to know because people focus on building this massive following on Twitter but they haven’t gotten anyone in their email list that they can broadcast to. So, keep in mind that everything is about getting people back into your email list.

Now, if you’re live now, you registered for this hangout which and what did I capture your name and email list and down the track I will continue to deliver valuable trainings such as this hangout and I will pitch offers to you as well. So, that’s how it works. So, let’s go into some Google Plus case studies and let’s talk about some real world ways that this works because I understand that this is really high level and particularly for people who are very new to Google Plus, who have never used it before. It’s pretty full on when you first get started with it. But I find that when you see some case studies, it starts to make a little more sense. So, the way that we make Google Hangouts work, this is a very top level but I’m going to break it down in the next example that I’ll show you.

It’s really about promoting a Google Plus Hangout and driving people to a place where you can capture the name and email and once you’ve done that, nurturing this lead or this email that you’ve got with great content, genuine content with purpose for sales so to speak. So, let’s look at a live world example of this because this I understand is very marketing salesie talk. So, this is a client of mine Robyn Law love her to bits. Now Robyn is a raw food chef and raw food is quite trendy right now but she’s been a food blogger for a long time. I want to say four years but I believe she’s told me it’s seven and for some reason I think it’s eight. So, I’m going to say she’s been a food blogger for a long time and her earthing is raw food.

So, it’s about raw food, you know eating raw food and eating a healthy balanced raw food diet and that’s her passion. But what’s she’s done recently now is she’s teaching other food bloggers how to make money online and she’s switching from that just has a bit of a trial. So, this is an example of how Google Hangouts helps to make that work in the funnel. I keep hammering this funnel because Google Hangout is only a piece of the entire thing. It’s a part of the tool. It’s part of the whole process that you need to think about. Now, what you see on your screen now is a Facebook ad.

I know Facebook ads and something about Googles, you see integration. So, this is ad where she is promoting her webinar. I use the terms webinar, hangouts quite interchangeably but they’re pretty much the same thing most of the time. So, she’s got this free training for food bloggers and then she provides a link to register for it. So, she’s got a picture there of her and her partner, not her partner, the business partner who is going into do this program with her, Adele who was another fantastic vegetarian food chef blogger. There’s a whole world of these food bloggers which is just fantastic. So, there’s a picture of the two of them there.

There’s some copy about what this webinar is about and it’s free and once you click on that little button, it takes you to not a very clear picture but this is a landing page where it gives you the details of the webinar that they’re holding and it gives you the benefits of it and then it gives you a place where she captures your name and email where you can register below. Once you’ve registered for the hangout, you get so you go into her email system which then you also get details of the webinar or hangout wherever it will run plus she’s captured your name and email which you also strategically under my care, no I’m joking, which you also nurture the relationship with constant content so she releases a lot of recipes, a lot of blogs and a lot of high value content relating to the topic that she’s passionate about which is raw food.

So, this is just a screen shot of a hangout that was the best one that I could do, so you can see me like hidden. This is like a behind the scene. I was behind the scenes producing this hangout for her while her, Robyn and Adele presented I was the tech support at the back making sure that everything ran well and answering questions on the back end as well. So, you saw how it went from an ad to a landing page where she captured the name and email and then she broadcasted. She’s there broadcasting with her pajamas. This is how fantastic Google Plus is. It gives you the ability to show you, to showcase you, the content that you know as you are and I think that’s a real fantastic feature of Google Hangouts.

This is another case study that I really love these guys. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Arltemis, what a name and his wife, Krystalle and their business is Juicing 4 Fat Loss.tv and this is the Google Plus page, their beautiful branding. They’ve been in the juicing and holistic health industry for a very long time as well and then they took their offering online. It’s a fantastic program. I’ve seen their smoothies, fantastic recipes. They execute it really, really well. What I really loved about what they did was, what they do, what they do is that they have these weekly segments where they teach you how to make different smoothie recipes.

So, this is an upcoming one of their secrets to making delicious creamy smoothies. They’ve had other ones where it’s some are weight loss tips and they’ve had just lots of different smoothie recipes to help solve different health issues that people have and they literally get on camera, the husband and wife team, they have their blenders going, they have the ingredients going and they’re making and teach you and it’s just a way of promoting themselves and promoting their knowledge and they’ve been doing this consistently. How long I’ve known them for? For at least the last 12 months and I’ve seen how just doing it consistently has grown their business just phenomenally and I love these guys to death. They’re just so down to earth and so genuine and I love how consistent they’ve been with this. So, this is another example of how it works. So, they take their knowledge, they provide it for free then at the end, they’ve got a whole online offering that they have.

They have a membership site where people can purchase membership to access their program. They’ve got a new, I can’t remember if it’s a fasting, but it’s some juicing diet that they have that they release several times a year that you can once again get access to where you’ve got access to them, you got access to the community, the program, all of the videos and handholding and it’s great. It’s a fantastic way of promoting themselves. Last time when I spoke to them they were like, “We hate Facebook.” And I was just like, “Okay, that’s okay.” That completely made the switch over to Google Plus but you know what? There’s a strong, very strong smoothie community on Facebook as well. Google Plus I’ve seen this community and I’m part of their community as well. It is another way of reaching people and then they’ve combined that with these weekly broadcast that they do using Google Hangouts and they make money off it and they’re converting people and they’ve got a lot better.

As always when you first start doing anything, it takes time to get sharp. It gets time to get really polished. These guys now after doing it week in, week out for 12 months, they’re so sharp. I love watching it. They’re on the ball. You know they’re not perfect but that adds to the charm of it in my opinion. I love watching them. So, now this is another client of mine but this was a case study and I have to share it because this just comes to show how innovative you can be with Google Hangouts. Now, this is Patrick Drake. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him or not but he has the company called Hello Fresh and it’s based in the UK. Now, what Hello Fresh does is they provide you with recipes. They go out and they get all of the ingredients for you and then they deliver it to you.

So, they are only UK-based I don’t believe that. They probably have versions of it over here but I’m not sure if Hello Fresh are over here in Australia yet. Either way, the idea of it is fantastic. He’s a chef, he gives you recipes. They get the ingredients and they deliver it to your door. So, how did they use Google Plus Hangouts to really deliver a unique experience and really showcase their offering? So, what they did was they did a Google Hangout, Google on. So, one thing that they could have done which they do is that they have food demos which show people how to cook the recipes that they deliver but they took this a step further and they’re a genius with it.

So, what they did was they invited 10 people because you can have 10 people at a time on a hangout and so they had 10 people with the same recipe box and they cooked along with him. So, they made prawn and prosciutto linguine on this hang out together with a glass of wine and 10 people were making the same dish at the same time. How brilliant is that? I really love that because I thought, wow, that really just talk about involving your customer, talk about creating this fantastic experience. They do other recipes as well but I just thought how informative, what a great way of showcasing a. your product, b. your recipes, c. people engaging with your product. It was like just ticking all these boxes. I couldn’t tick them fast enough. So, how fantastic. Now, keep this in mind when you’re thinking about how am I going to use Google Hangouts?

You have to think outside the box. You have to think about interesting ways that you can deliver this and to some point the sky is the limit. Okay. It’s just I have a couple of more examples just to showcase the diversity of how Google Plus Hangouts is being used at the moment. So, this is Tyra Banks, love her or hate her, she did a Google Hangout segment where she was doing fashion and beauty tips, love her or hate her she’s qualified. As a top model, To talk about fashion and beauty and makeup and she got a bunch of I guess vague her team, got a bunch of fans on who asked these questions and she interacted with them. That’s pretty cool. That’s pretty cool for those few people that got involved but it’s also really cool for the fans to see this kind of interaction at a different level than just a plain interview.

It’s really different way of engaging with your audience. So, this is — I love this one. This was a broadcast by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu and it was the funniest, most charming hangout I’ve ever watched. They were just laughing all the time. That’s a screenshot of the Dalai Lama wherever he was at that time, they were just fantastic. What a great way of broadcasting a message. Now obviously they’re a little bit different to a chef trying to sell their products and services. But this is what I’m talking about. We have this extremely powerful tool to connect with people and the sky is the limit on how we actually use it.

Now, love him or hate him, Tiger Woods also did a segment on Google Plus. He did a hangout with different people and he talked a lot about him, the tournament that he was in at the moment at that time and they talked about golf. What else are they going to talk about? It’s a great way to engage his fans. If you think about it strategically, if you’re talking about products, you know you can direct people to certain products obviously there are laws against, not laws against but there are considerations, legal considerations with products that you affiliate with and how you present that. But it’s still an opportunity for you to offer products and services, offer affiliate programs that you have in a smart way. For Tiger, I think this was at the time just a, we never know someone else is doing it. I’m going to do it too.

But another consideration that we got the Dalai Lama, we got Tiger Woods, we got Tyra Banks and we can have you on Google Hangouts as well. It’s such a diverse one where there is no barrier to broadcasting anymore. You don’t need to go to channel 7 or channel 9 to be on, to broadcast yourself anymore. Google Plus gives you that opportunity through Google Hangouts. So, that pretty much takes us to the hour and wraps us up. If you do have any questions, let me see. Type it in the chat box to the side. I’ve enabled the chat box and I’m just going to grab another glass of water. So, if you have any questions please do ask them now and I will step back and answer them for you. Okay, and while the questions are coming through, I’m going to just quickly talk about an offer that I have.

So, let’s see if this will work on me and all, okay, hello. Okay, so just send your questions through if you have any questions on Google Hangouts, anything that you’ve seen throughout our presentation, please definitely send them through on the chat box, on the right hand side. They are private so only I will see them. So, don’t be shy if you think it’s a silly question. There are not often too many silly questions that I find in relation to this topic. So, before we wrap up, just let you know that if you enjoyed this content, if you are thinking about using social media, consider the services that I have. I do as I said complete implementation if you need someone to go in and just do it for you, we can do that. If you want a consultant to come in and say, “Hey, okay, this is what I recommend and help you come up with the strategy.”

I do that too. And not for Google Plus yet but I have online Facebook training programs as well. If you’re interested in learning more about them, please email me at clientcare@socialmediarocketeer.com. Now, I’ve got a question that says: Does Google Plus allow you to capture email addresses automatically? And the answer to that is no. So, it gives you the opportunity to broadcast but in order for you to capture someone’s name and email, you need to implement a funnel. So, in this case, in this hangout that you’ve attended or that you’re watching now, you’ve come through this hangout by registering for it. So, there was a landing page which you got to which captured your name and email and that’s how I got you.

So, that’s how you would capture it typically for a Google Hangout. Do I need to have a Google account to use Google Hangout? Yes, you do. There’s no way around this. It’s another way of Google strong arming us into using their products and services and getting everyone on the social network. You do need to sign up for a Google account and they pretty much force you to create a Google Plus account, once you have the Google Plus email anyway. So, yes, the answer is yes to that. What happens to your Google Hangout videos after you broadcast it? Okay. So, we didn’t talk about this but after you’ve broadcasted your Hangouts, it goes into your YouTube channel. Pretty cool, huh? So, once you’ve created the video, automatically it goes into your YouTube account.

You can choose to make it private or you can choose to keep it public on your channel and then you can share it. You can share it to your email list. You can share it to your social media network. You can put it on your blog. What I would recommend that you do after you have a Google Plus Hangout broadcast is that you get it transcribed. So, there are lots of different services that do that. But the reason that you want to have it transcribed so that you have text and you can embed the video into your blog post as well as a text and that helps you rank because you got these keywords coming through about the topic that you’re talking about and then Google can detect it from the transcript that you have.

You also can upload the transcript into YouTube as well to help your YouTube video rank. What is the background behind you? Okay. So, behind me before, let me stop this. Okay, so you’re going to have to see my face for a little bit. Okay, so behind me here, I’m touching right now is a vinyl backdrop. So, it’s held up by a backdrop stand and then the vinyl backdrop just sits along a pole at the back. So, you can either get like a white cloth, like muslin or whatever but I find that vinyl works better because you don’t have to iron it. I’m not good at ironing or any domestics. But I find that if you have a vinyl backdrop, it just saves a lot of time in having to iron it and I don’t like having creases although you can see creases over there but that doesn’t matter.

So, that’s pretty much the backdrop behind me. Okay. So, we’re pretty much on the time now. I’ve got about two more questions that I will address before we go. So, please enter your questions and I’ll answer them. What is the microphone that you have. Okay, so this is the power of Google Plus. So, this is a Blue Yeti Pro. Now, this top thing here is called a pot filter and apparently what its meant to do is it takes out the “-pp” or lessens the “-pp” when you talk so that that harsh speaking popping sounds hence the pop filter doesn’t come through the microphone as much. The pop filter is just an attachment that attaches through the microphone. The Blue Yeti microphone is a condenser microphone. Without going into too much details, it’s just one of the top line microphones that gives you some really good audio. I just adjust the audio from the microphone on my computer versus having a mic and hands down every time.

I’m having an external mic and so, I absolute recommend that you look at different options. Actually, I do have another microphone that I have just to show you how much I love gadgets. The Blue Yeti Pro is a bit expensive. It’s $200 plus and I don’t even remember where I got it. I think it was from Amazon or something like that a while ago. I’ve got is this little one. It’s a condenser microphone as well and it’s called a Samson go mic and it’s a condenser microphone almost as good as this one and it’s about $50 and I use it for when I travel. I just clip it on to the side of my MacBook and I plug in my little webcam and then that works as well. So, they are the microphones that I have.

Actually, I have four more but I’m not going to really go into that because it really reveals that I have a problem.

So, in respect for everyone’s time, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who attended and stayed as well. Thank you for the time. I know that a lot of you signed up last minute. So, thank you for showing up as well. It really helps the likes of me continue to create this content and do these presentations. You’ve got my contact now clientcare@socialmediarocketeer.com. You know reach out to me if you need some help. Let’s discuss further and I look forward to catching up with you in the next hangout. I have one more left for this year with the city of Sydney so; see what that comes up with. But you’re on my list now. So, I will definitely send you an email and let you know when it comes about and thank you once again and I will talk to you soon. Bye.

It's only fair to share...

Facebook

Twitter

Tumblr

Pinterest