Google Small Business: August 2012

SMB Newbie Hangouts on Air: Using the Google Display Network to generate brand awareness

Friday, August 31, 2012

The Google Display Network is vast. If I’m a local business, how can I ensure my ads only show to users in my area?There are so many targeting methods on the GDN. How do I know which is best for me?Help CenterAdWords Community forumPosted by Courtney Pannell, Adam Ziegler and Bethany Powers, SMB Adwords Support Team

How Visit Greece used Google+ to make #greekphotos more popular than #greekcrisis

Monday, August 27, 2012

Visit GreeceGoogle+PhotosGoogle+ photosCircles and ripplesCircles+1ripplesSocial extensionssocial extensionsAdWordsGoogle+ badgeherePosted by Natalia Cano, Google+ B2B EMEA

Help Desk Hangouts: GoMo

Friday, August 24, 2012

Editor’s note: Each week on the Google+ Your Business page, we’re putting you in touch with Googlers and users who can help you as a business owner get the most out of our products and features.
In our latest Help Desk Hangout On Air, we chatted with Nabil Haschemie, who showed off Google’s GoMo initiative at howtogomo.com. We learned how important and useful a mobile-friendly website is for businesses both large and small. Nabil walked us through an eye-opening demo during which we created a mobile friendly site from a desktop site in minutes. We answered your questions throughout, covering pricing, some details about supporting different types of phones, and reasons to Go Mo.
Miss the event? You can watch the whole thing on the Google and Your Business YouTube channel.

Check out the video description on the YouTube page for a minute-by-minute breakdown.

Some of the questions we answered during the Hangout:
How can I be sure my new mobile-friendly website works on Android, iPhone, and Blackberry?
Sites created on DudaMobile are optimized for most platforms including Android, iOS and BB. Once you’ve created your site in the editor you check how the sites will appear on different devices by checking the ‘Preview’ mode. You can find the ‘Preview’ link on the top right of the editor page.

How does the pricing work?
Within the scope of our Go Mobile campaign our partner DudaMobile offers its service completely free for a year. There are no obligations at all. After the free year you can either upgrade and pay $9/month or the your mobile site will show ad banner in the footer area.

How can I edit my mobile-friendly website after creating it?
Once signed up you can always login to DudaMobile and view your dashboard. From there you can easily select your mobile site and make any edits and save again. You will receive an email with your site URL and additional information on how to access the dashboard.

Help Desk Hangouts are hosted on the Google+ Your Business page every other Wednesday. Don’t miss our next Hangout at 11a.m. PDT on Wednesday, September 7. Look for the topic announcement on the Google+ Your Business page.

Posted by Jade Wang, Google+ Local Community Manager

PrideBites learns which dog toy features matter most to owners

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Google Consumer Surveys helps you make informed business decisions by asking internet users survey questions. Users complete questions in exchange for access to content around the web, and content publishers get paid per answer. Google automatically analyzes responses, providing the data through a simple online interface. Below we share the experiences of one of our customers, PrideBites, a manufacturer and distributor of high quality, durable dog toys with unique designs.
PrideBites

Google Consumer Surveyspeople don’t play with their dogs in the watermachine-washability isn’t important to consumersdog lovers value contributions to pet charities

So You Weren't An Early Adopter: How to Kick Start Social with Google+

Monday, August 20, 2012

Join social media power influencer +Lynette Young for a look at ways your business can kick start its presence on Google+ in a Learn with Google Hangout on August 23rd at 1pm EDT/10am PDT. RSVP for the Hangout on our Google+ Event page.

Companies big and small are using social media to interact with customers and build digital brands. Even if your business wasn’t an early adopter of social, Lynette will guide you through ways to kick start this channel with Google+. In this hangout, she’ll talk through examples of businesses using hangouts, pages and unique content to grow their audience. As a Learn with Google program, you’ll also hear lots of tips and strategies you can use to build a community from scratch on Google+.

Lynette Young is a digital media specialist helping entrepreneurs and businesses put social ideas into action. She is the founder of Women of Google+ and CEO of Purple Stripe Productions. Kari Clark of the Google+ Marketing team will moderate the conversation with Lynette and other social media specialists including:

+Esteban Contreras from +Samsung

+Kip Wetzel from +Comcast

+Ricky Cadden from +RadioShack

We hope you can join us to begin using Google+ for your business. If you have a question for the panel, leave your questions as a comment on our Google+ Event.

To get yourself geared up for the hangout, check out the two newest Google+ business case studies. Toyota Global has been engaging its Google+ community with content of the latest car models and a hangout with a Toyota engineer. By incorporating Google+ badges on its website and YouTube channel, the car manufacturer has grown to over one million followers. In the education space, ES Corporation is teaching English lessons in hangouts. Using social extensions, the business also saw a 46% increase in click-through rate on search ads.

Posted by Lindsay Rumer, Google+ for Business

SMB Newbie Hangouts on Air: How to structure your account to optimize for website lead generation

Friday, August 17, 2012

Editor's note: This is our first post in a series on SMB Newbie Hangouts on Air, where experts on the AdWords support team are hosting short Hangouts on Air to walk SMBs through AdWords-related topics. Here on the Google and Your Business Blog, we'll be providing a wrap-up of the Hangouts. This particular post is cross-published from the AdWords Google+ page. To learn more and see the schedule for upcoming Hangouts, check out the AdWords blog.
watch the full 30-minute HangoutGoogle Business YouTube channel Can you match conversion data to a specific customer?What’s a good conversion rate?How do you import Google Analytics goals into AdWords? What if I only have the option to import a few goals and not all of them?HereIn thinking about account structure, would you set negative keywords on the campaign or ad group level?more info hereDo you have any ideas for increasing the volume of impressions received?Help CenterAdWords Community forumPosted by Courtney Pannell and Will Lindemann, SMB AdWords support team

Five Tips to Become a DataViz Wiz

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Editor's note: We're starting a series where we share general tips for business owners. This post is written by Cole Nussbaumer from Google's People Analytics team, who has a passion for storytelling with data.tell a story1. Keep your audience top of mind.2. Choose a visual format that makes sense.3. Resist the temptation to dress up your data.

4. Draw attention to the important parts of your visual.5. Tell a story.tell a storycreating charts and graphs using Google Spreadsheetscustomizewww.storytellingwithdata.comPosted by Cole Nussbaumer, People Analytics Team

Help Desk Hangouts: Google Consumer Surveys

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Editor’s note: Each week on the Google+ Your Business page, we’re putting you in touch with Googlers and users who can help you as a business owner get the most out of our products and features.

In our latest Help Desk Hangout On Air, we talked about Google Consumer Surveys with Product Manager Paul McDonald. We learned about how businesses of all size can have access to market research using Consumer Surveys. Paul answered questions throughout, and we went through a sample survey to demonstrate the data acrobatics available.

Miss the event? You can watch the whole thing on the Google and Your Business YouTube channel.

Check out the video description on the YouTube page for a minute-by-minute breakdown.

Some of the questions we answered during the Hangout:

How long until I start seeing responses, and how much do Consumer Surveys cost?
You can expect to begin seeing responses immediately, with full completion within 24-48 hours. It costs $0.10 per response for a representative sample of the U.S. population and $0.50 per response for demographic targeting.

How does the demographic targeting work?
Like many ads on the web, Google Consumer Surveys reports on the inferred age and gender of anonymous respondents based on the websites users visit and location based on IP addresses. Income, and urban density are then approximated using census data for particular geographic regions. To see what inferences are associated with your browser, visit google.com/ads/preferences.

All responses are anonymous and collected in aggregate. Read more information about Google’s privacy policy here.
Help Desk Hangouts are hosted on the Google+ Your Business page every other Wednesday. Don’t miss our next Hangout at 11a.m. PDT on Wednesday, August 22. Look for the topic announcement on the Google+ Your Business page.Posted by Dori Storbeck, Hangouts Community Manager, and Jade Wang, Google+ Local Community Manager

New Learn with Google Webinars Help Make the Web Work for You

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

(Cross-posted from the AdWords blog.)Learn with Google webinars

Aug 9 at 9am PDT Multi-Channel Funnels: Attribution Across Channels

Aug 23 at 10am PDT How to Kick Start Social with Google+ (Hangout on Air)

Aug 28 at 10am PDT Optimizing your Video Ad Campaigns

Aug 29 at 10am PDT Google+: Enhancing Marketing and Making Social Accountable

Sept 5 at 10am PDT Go Bigger, Faster with AdWords Editor

Sept 6 at 10am PDT Making the Most of Recent AdWords Updates

Sept 12 at 10am PDT Driving Cost-Effective App Downloads with AdWords

Sept 13 at 10am PDT Go Bigger, Faster with AdWords Scripts

Sept 18 at 10am PDT Better Together: Combining Targeting Strategies in Display

Sept 19 at 10am PDT The Importance of Search Advertising

Sept 20 at 10am PDT Measuring the Impact of Online Advertising on Offline Sales

Sept 26 at 10am PDT GoMo: Mobilize your Site and Maximize your Advertising

Sept 27 at 10am PDT Optimizing Display Campaigns: Tips, Tricks, & Tools

webinar pageLearn with Google Webinar calendarPosted by Erin Green, Marketing Coordinator

Wrapping up your intern’s summer experience

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Let your interns share their workHelp craft an intern’s portfolioProvide a formal evaluationBe a resource for the future Posted by Jacinth Sohi, Google and Your Business Blog Team

Small Business

SMB Newbie Hangouts on Air: Using the Google Display Network to generate brand awareness

How Visit Greece used Google+ to make #greekphotos more popular than #greekcrisis

Help Desk Hangouts: GoMo

PrideBites learns which dog toy features matter most to owners

So You Weren't An Early Adopter: How to Kick Start Social with Google+

SMB Newbie Hangouts on Air: How to structure your account to optimize for website lead generation

Five Tips to Become a DataViz Wiz

Help Desk Hangouts: Google Consumer Surveys

New Learn with Google Webinars Help Make the Web Work for You

Wrapping up your intern’s summer experience

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